Warspace Extension Discussion

[BlackAlpha]

Good to hear! :)

[Rastien]

Quick question once the mod is applied can i continue running it online? i just like to have the steam overlay so i can see when friends come online and i can chat to them :)

[BlackAlpha]

Quick question once the mod is applied can i continue running it online? i just like to have the steam overlay so i can see when friends come online and i can chat to them :)

 

Yes and no.

 

See number 1 and 2 of the tech support FAQ:

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/834174-warspace-technical-support-v150/

[cayne]

Two questions BlackAlpha

 

1) If i'm shooting down a UFO and have to abort because my Ravens stink (i.e. haven't researched any weapon upgrades yet) is there any point in launching one raven after another to try and bring down a UFO does the damage stack, or does the UFO need to be taken down in one go?

 

2)Is it possible to still play multiplayer matches with the mod installed? I'm currently running the mod after modifying my hosts file so i can play with Steam online.

[BlackAlpha]

Yes, it stacks.

 

Never tried it. Probably won't work.

[cayne]

Damn i sent 4 ravens after a "large" ship (probably a terror ship) and they couldn't bring it down with dodge and aim assists

[justas57]

BlackAlpha,

 

I've been a fan of your mod for a while now, and played through most of the previous versions. The last batch of changes - version 1.70 to be exact - was pretty major, so I thought I'd give my opinion, seeing how supposedly you had almost no positive feedback.

 

A few notes regarding my playstyle: I always played the Hardcore version of your mod on Impossible setting with minimal amount of save scumming because I actually enjoy the possibility of being defeated, and not having my victory as a certainty. A little bit of suffering is enjoyable to me :)

 

When I first installed version 1.70, I got my arse handed to me completely on Hardcore Impossible. I spent the first month without being able to complete any abduction missions, and things didn't get better later. There were just too many enemies; my squad would simply get entirely swamped. You couldn't manouvre at all, because in every nook and cranny you'd run into another swarm of aliens. It feels like the maps were simply too cramped sometimes.

 

Then, I modded the Normal version (here I'd like to emphasize: the only reason I like Hardcore is because of the higher HP that enemies have; the crit increase etc pisses me off, but in my opinion higher enemy hitpoints is vital to the game being more enjoyable and not a cakewalk) and started a Classic game. And that, I have to say, felt like the most balanced version of the game I've every played, almost perfect really. I still think the number of enemies in the old Impossible setting was the best -- 5 for easy, 8 for moderate, 10 for difficult and 12 for very difficult, right? -- but I found Classic with Normal + HP transfered from Hardcore to be a fantastically balanced game in terms of combat.

 

The strategical game is also great. Personally, I don't find any problems with Interceptor repair times. There's more alien ships out there, and it's sort of natural you cannot get them all but have to prioritize. In my opinion, that doesn't need changing.

 

But there are two areas that I think still need fine-tuning: Foundry project costs and alloy gains. Most of the Foundry projects are impossibly expensive. The Pistol upgrades, for example? Seems like a pretty minor upgrade, but the cost is extravagant; I've never ever researched that in all the games I've played. The amount of engineers you need for some basic upgrades is also too high. I would say Foundry projects need to become more viable, especially the initial ones. And it would be nice to receive maybe 30% more alloys from alien ships, because again, the demand is huge for both combat items and projects, and the income is far too limited.

 

Finally, I usually play with two additional alternations to you mod: the XP required for the first promotion to Squaddie I usually reduce to 100 while leaving the rest as is. This is because you cannot choose your soldier's specialization, and it often feels like wasted effort when you bring your Rookie on multiple missions, only to receive another damned sniper. Therefore, I think it makes sense to allow the initial promotion to happen much quicker.

 

And I always reduce injury time by atleast double. It may be realistic to have somebody hurt for 100 days, but it's simply not fun. Part of the charm of the game, for me, is having a squad of soldiers that you care about, and getting hit while in full cover and losing your soldier for three months just seems unnecesary. My grave injuries usually last for a month, and I feel that's a good balance - it takes your soldier out for one chapter of the game, maybe five missions or so, but not for one third of it.

 

So, to summarise:

 

-- Impossible on Hardcore really does seem to be impossible;

-- Classic on Normal with enemy HP from Hardcore is almost perfect in balance;

-- Strategic game works great, but Foundry project costs need to be reduced, along with slightly increasing alloy gains.

-- I still think the old enemy numbers from previous Impossible difficulty were somewhat better;

-- (I didn't talk about this, but Terror missions now feel very easy. In my opinion they could use a few more enemies, because usually I just breeze through them with my eyes closed, and they should be a do or die thing, no?)

-- The balance of the mod is, in my opinion, almost perfect now. Repair times are absolutely fine.

 

As for increasing the accuracy of soldiers, well, I've no clue how that would affect the game.

 

Going to start a Normal game on Impossible (with higher enemy HP modded) to see how that will go.

[ArchAngelis42]

Black Alpha,

first of all great mod! I know everyone loves it, but you really can't get enough credit for this.

Secondly, I have been experiencing (IMO) obscene values for soldier recovery after combat injury. I am playing on your modded classic mode.

Usually the values for my critically wounded soldiers are 90-120 days, while the values for damaged soldiers is about 3 weeks per missing health point, so 1 dmg = 20-40 days, 2 dmg = 40-60 days, etc.

Is this as intended? I have been trying to crawl through the many posts on this topic, but was unsuccessful. I realize that you increased the recovery day values for injured soldiers, but this just seemed a little over the top.

After investigating this on my own and crawling through your script, I found:

; Soldier Values
BASE_DAYS_INJURED = 14
RAND_DAYS_INJURED = 25

Could you enlighten me as to how the math is calculated? Obviously there is base day of injury, and then some random amount additionally. Is the random amount added multiple times per injury point?

I am asking mainly to ensure that the values are acting as intended, and if this was the case, so I could mod the code myself so that the values could be a little closer to what I believe is reasonable.

Thanks again for being responsive in the forums, and for creating such a great mod!!!

Update:
I have tried altering the values on the lines I listed above, and then re-compiling the mod. The compilation is successful, as is the installation, however XCOM crashes on startup before the window even opens. I think that I am missing some necessary change in the XComGame.UPK files in the Common folder, but I cannot know for sure. Could anyone point me to a tutorial on how to edit the code to my liking? I am a programmer, so it doesn't need to be in layman's terms, I am just out of my depth with these script files.

Edited February 14, 2013 by ArchAngelis42

[justas57]

Quote: Could you enlighten me as to how the math is calculated? Obviously there is base day of injury, and then some random amount additionally. Is the random amount added multiple times per injury point?

 

While I'm not the person behind the mod, I've been lurking in these forums for a while, and the question regarding injury times does come up frequently; to the best of my knowledge, "obscene" injury times are intended. You're best off moding the number to your liking. I normally go with this:

 

BASE_DAYS_INJURED = 5

RAND_DAYS_INJURED = 7

My grave injuries are around a month, which I find fair.

Quote: Could anyone point me to a tutorial on how to edit the code to my liking? I am a programmer, so it doesn't need to be in layman's terms, I am just out of my depth with these script files.

I've always used the simplest process with no problem: downloading the Warspace Extension Source, editing the appropriate .ini file, recompiling the mod using Inno, un-installing the previous mod, and then slapping the newly minted one on. Never had any problems or crashes.

Edited February 14, 2013 by justas57

[justas57]

Having had another go at Impossible difficulty, this time with Normal version of the mod but with higher enemy HP, I have to say that beyond the first month the game feels unplayable. Again, you take one step on abduction missions and you're swamped immediately with enemies. It doesn't feel like there's a map there -- you just get stuck pretty much in your starting position, with aliens coming in droves from all sides. In my opinion, the amount of enemies used in Classic is about as much as this game can sustain, and anything beyond that kills the gameplay.