Hidden modifiers in Impossible mode

[FirebrandXL]

I need some information here please.

 

I read about hidden modifiers that apply in impossible mode like:

- higher alien accuracy

- lower soldier hp

- lower general crit chance

 

things like that.

 

Is that true?

I cant find any information about that in the core game file but the hp nerf definitely applies for example.

 

Are there any other differences between these two modes?

Are there really more aliens (in numbers on the battlefield) in impossible?

Or more UFO contacts?

 

Has anyone found a way to mod the modifiers or even add some? (upk files etc...)

 

Thanks in advance.

[shiwan8]

True, though the crit chance is higher for some aliens, not lower overal.

 

There is a "balance mod" for this.

Edited October 24, 2012 by shiwan8

[defKAB]

There's a whole lot of difficulty modifiers in the DefaultGameCore.ini file.

Unfortunately, that's not all of them.

Leveling the playing field in DefaultGameCore only waives most of the Alien's magic numbers. Some are still cooked in.

Since they are 'magic numbers' I can't find, or prove that they exist, but when leveling the numbers in DefaultGameCore still produce wildly unrealistic results in Impossible, I'm willing to believe there's more that we haven't found.

[grenademagnet]

I need some information here please.

 

I read about hidden modifiers that apply in impossible mode like:

- higher alien accuracy

- lower soldier hp

- lower general crit chance

 

things like that.

 

Is that true?

I cant find any information about that in the core game file but the hp nerf definitely applies for example.

 

Are there any other differences between these two modes?

Are there really more aliens (in numbers on the battlefield) in impossible?

Or more UFO contacts?

 

Has anyone found a way to mod the modifiers or even add some? (upk files etc...)

 

Thanks in advance.

I can answer some of your questions.

 

1) Modifiers

Higher Alien Accuracy: look for the line item "BalanceMods_Classic=(eType=eChar_Sectoid", for example. _Classic is the attribute settings for the units on Impossible settings.

 

BalanceMods_Classic=(eType=eChar_Sectoid,iDamage=0,iCritHit=10,iAim=10,iDefense=0,iHP=1, iMobility=0,iWill=0)

 

As you can see here Sectoids get +10 CritHit and +10 Aim on Impossible. They also get one extra hitpoint

 

Lower Soldier Hitpoints

 

There is a bug in the soldier hitpoints, not setting them correctly for some difficulty levels. To correct this you have do to two things:

1) Adjust the base hit points for soldiers, found on this line:

 

Characters=(iType=eChar_Soldier,HP=4,

(note, default HP is 5, but I adjusted here to 4 for the example)

 

2) Change all the hitpoint adjustments based on difficulty level to zero:

 

BalanceMods_Easy=(eType=eChar_Soldier, iDamage=0, iCritHit=0,iAim=0,iDefense=0,iHP=0

BalanceMods_Normal=(eType=eChar_Soldier, iDamage=0, iCritHit=0,iAim=0,iDefense=0,iHP=0,

BalanceMods_Hard=(eType=eChar_Soldier, iDamage=0,iCritHit=0, iAim=0, iDefense=0,iHP=0,

BalanceMods_Classic=(eType=eChar_Soldier,iDamage=0,iCritHit=0, iAim=0, iDefense=0,iHP=0,

 

So you set the hitpoints you want in step 1, then those base hitpoints should be set for whatever difficulty level you pick, provided you zero out the adjustments per difficulty level.

 

Are there really more aliens (in numbers on the battlefield) in impossible?

Or more UFO contacts?

 

Yes, there are more aliens in numbers on the battlefield in Impossible. I'm not sure about more UFO contacts, yet.

On impossible you do get some missions sooner, like I got my first terror mission during Month 2.

 

Also, I may as well plug my Implassic mod: This is a simple mod that sets the DefaultGameCore.ini Impossible settings to Classic, so you can play in Classic with more enemies per map and other features set in the EXE or UPK files. Give it a try!

 

http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/17