Launching soldiers (and giving soldiers other alien abilities)

[PepprmintButler]

I was finally able to give a soldier an alien ability, specifically Launch (the Floater "teleport"). I believe the same method should work with many others, at least those which do not involve the use of alien-only weapons.

Until now I (and others) have been trying by just modifying eAbilities in the ini, which makes the ability icon appear but it's unusable. But combined with a Perk (as "something in the classes ability tree")... :wink:

 

2 things need to be done :

1. Give soldier the eAbility_Launch in the ini (needs a fresh soldier to be effective, new game or new recruit)

2. Give one of your soldier the Launch perk by replacing one of the existing perks in the ability tree.

 

For testing I used banjo_oz's beta support perk tree modifier (see here) and replaced the first perk Smoke Grenade with Launch (which amounts to finding 2C 2C 06 and replacing it by 2C 51 06) in the GetPerkInTreeSupport.Function.mod.

 

The animations are kind of wonky, but else it works perfectly.

Interestingly the Launching soldier does use his or her "toggle flight" voice snippet when using it, it's fun !

 

I will try to use the same method to add other abilties ASAP and will report back.

[PepprmintButler]

I also managed to get Mind Merge to work.

The process is the same, replace a perk with Mind Merge with a hex edit in a cooked upk, give soldiers eAbility_MindMerge in the ini, ???, profit !

There is no animation for the merging itself but the "link" is displayed correctly and it is completely functional.

 

Pics or didn't happen :

 

http://i.imgur.com/6uOwU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/JCNAi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/y8KEK.jpg

[PepprmintButler]

As suspected, abilities tied to an alien weapon (eg: eItem_Plague for the Thinman poison spit ability, eItem_ElderWeapon for the Ethereal Psi Lance ability) cannot be made to work with soldiers even with the correct Perk and Ability. The weapon is probably needed too.

Similarly, Chitin Plating and Mind Shield can be added as perks but will not have effect without the relevant object.

Edited October 27, 2012 by PepprmintButler

[BanjoOz]

Wow, that is majorly cool! Just the fact I helped even 1% makes me thrilled, too!

 

I can't wait to try it, either with a test version file you can share or just attempting it as you described myself! :)

 

Awesome work!

Edited October 27, 2012 by banjo_oz

[PepprmintButler]

I also had limited success trying to use Bull Rush. I can activate the ability, but right now...

-soldiers don't go through cover... bCanUse_eTraversal_BreakWall=True does not help

-doesn't actually attack the enemy : can activate on a empty square, but not an enemy. I tried putting eWP_Melee on weapons, does not help.

 

Greater Mind Merge and Blood Call could also be working if not for the "same race" limitation. As tested until now it cannot be cast for "no targets in range".

Edited October 28, 2012 by PepprmintButler

[zerothenumber]

Blood Call works even if added to soldier abilities in gamecore. It gives the bonuses, no animation tho.

[FlyingHigh10000000]

Mind Merge is actually a pretty cool idea for a human ability. Useful if you want to have a psionic support character. The idea of having say, the medic, sit in cover and provide psi-support to the sniper, is awesome. :D

[PepprmintButler]

Blood Call works even if added to soldier abilities in gamecore. It gives the bonuses, no animation tho.

I stand corrected. I actually only tested greater mind merge and falsely extrapolated. Thanks for the info.

 

Mind Merge is actually a pretty cool idea for a human ability. Useful if you want to have a psionic support character. The idea of having say, the medic, sit in cover and provide psi-support to the sniper, is awesome. :D

Yeah, I thought it would be nice to have in the psi ability tree at rank 2, where I would be more useful than Psi inspiration. Problem is, the bonus is actually tiny for a late game soldier (it's designed for sectoids after all...), maybe that can be edited somehow.

 

In other news, I found that the unused Active perk BuildPerk(96, 1, "HeatWave"); can be added to a soldier. The perk in the tree shows just a "?" with no title or description and does not show in the ability bar unless you add eAbility_HeatWave to the soldier in the ini.

Ingame, you then get a new active ability icon, with no title, which randomly changes icon from one turn to the other (sic ; can be any of the "usual" ability icons, grenade, smoke, etc). I was unable to get it to target anything, iunfortunately.

If I could find the scripts related to actual ability effects, maybe I could discover more... Anybody get anywhere with that ?

 

Here's what the half-implemented ability looks like

http://i.imgur.com/vMn4Y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3ASxA.jpg

[Kaerar]

Would be nice in reverse to give squadsight to the enemy Ethereal's and Sectoid Commanders...

[PepprmintButler]

Would be nice in reverse to give squadsight to the enemy Ethereal's and Sectoid Commanders...

 

The big question is, does eAbility_Squadsight work without the relevant perk ? (quite easy to answer, will try it when I get home). If it does, then it's as simple as any ini mod.

I can see problems arising with squadsight aliens though, like alien groups in the fog of war becoming revealed as soon as you bump into another unrelated group. I think I read about something just like that in a related thread actually.