iDefenseBonus

[coanda]

Was just making a rather large set of changes to my game to rebalance it a bit. After gritting my teeth and getting set to dig in to the .exe, do hex editing, and generally drive myself nuts... I wandered by here and saw Dreadylein's extraordinarily useful modpatcher tool, so that's what I used.

 

A lot of the changes I can confirm did patch in just fine. I adjusted starting will to 45 instead of 40, offsetting that by lower will-per-rank gains, and that's working. I did some significant changes to facility maintenance and income to decrease late-month income and that's working too.

 

On the other hand, at least some of the changes don't seem to be showing up. Two examples:

 

I nerfed Ghost Armor to just a 10% defense boost, but that's not showing up in-game (my soldiers still seem to have 20 base defense wearing Ghost Armor. I even got one of them Mind Controlled just so I could see what the odds of hitting him were to confirm that).

 

Specific line:

Armors=(ABILITIES[0]=eAbility_Ghost,ABILITIES[1]=eAbility_NONE,ABILITIES[2]=eAbility_NONE,ABILITIES[3]=eAbility_NONE,Properties[0]=eAP_Grapple,Properties[1]=eAP_None,Properties[2]=eAP_None,Properties[3]=eAP_None,iType=eItem_ArmorGhost,iHPBonus=6,iDefenseBonus=10,iFlightFuel=0,iWillBonus=0,iLargeItems=1,iSmallItems=1,iMobilityBonus=3)

(change emphasized here for ease of reading).

 

I gave Ethereals 50 defense instead of 40, but they still seem to have 40 in-game.

Specific line:

Characters=(iType=eChar_Ethereal,HP=20,Offense=100,Defense=50,Mobility=12,SightRadius=27,Will=120,Psionics=80,CritHitChance=0,CritWoundChance=0,FlightFuel=0,Reaction=0,ABILITIES[0]=eAbility_NONE,ABILITIES[1]=eAbility_Rift,ABILITIES[2]=eAbility_PsiControl,ABILITIES[3]=eAbility_PsiDrain,ABILITIES[4]=eAbility_MindFray,ABILITIES[5]=eAbility_None,ABILITIES[6]=eAbility_None,ABILITIES[7]=eAbility_None,Properties[0]=eCP_Hardened,Properties[1]=eCP_None,Properties[2]=eCP_DeathExplosion,Properties[3]=eCP_None,Properties[4]=eCP_None,Properties[5]=eCP_None,bCanUse_eTraversal_Normal=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_ClimbOver=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_ClimbOnto=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_ClimbLadder=False,bCanUse_eTraversal_DropDown=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_Grapple=False,bCanUse_eTraversal_Landing=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_BreakWindow=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_KickDoor=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_JumpUp=True,bCanUse_eTraversal_WallClimb=False,bCanUse_eTraversal_BreakWall=False,eClass=eSC_None,bHasPsiGift=False)

(change emphasized).

 

Is there a known problem with this sort of change? Has anyone had success tweaking the defense stats of aliens or armors so I could look at their work?

 

Very sorry if this is duplicating a previous thread. I did my best to search the forum first and didn't find anything, but I'm new here so I could have missed something.

 

Edit: On reflection, this might have been better suited in the Troubleshooting sub-forum; it's not really a problem with getting one mod to work as it is with a specific type of modification within a mod. If this is the wrong spot, could a moderator move it? Thanks.

Edited November 10, 2012 by coanda

[FMod]

I can say for certain that existing characters (including tanks) don't change their defense, XP or anything else if you edit it in the file.

Not sure if it applies to manufactured armors etc, shouldn't really.

 

None (or almost none) of the changes you make show up in missions in progress.

Did you end a mission, make sure to re-equip your soldiers, start a new mission? I suspect you have to re-equip armor for bonuses to apply.

[BlackAlpha]

1. Make sure the mod is loaded correctly. You can run Steam in offline mode to ensure that.

 

2. The changes you listed only apply after you re-equip the armor/equipment and start a new mission.

[Drake1Storm]

I am far from an expert (or good) modder, but most of my changes to the ini only took effect with an entirely new game. Try that?

[coanda]

So I went ahead and started an entirely new game on easy just to check. Blitzed through the first mission, skipped first abduction mission, renamed a soldier to Otto Zander to get Ghost Armor, and went after the first downed UFO. Ghost armor still gave 20 defense (not 10), outsider had 3 HP (not 5, as I'd changed it to). Satellite uplink maintenance was changed to $150 though; starting Will was changed to 45... so at least some of the changes were applied.

 

Any other thoughts?

[BlackAlpha]

So I went ahead and started an entirely new game on easy just to check. Blitzed through the first mission, skipped first abduction mission, renamed a soldier to Otto Zander to get Ghost Armor, and went after the first downed UFO. Ghost armor still gave 20 defense (not 10), outsider had 3 HP (not 5, as I'd changed it to). Satellite uplink maintenance was changed to $150 though; starting Will was changed to 45... so at least some of the changes were applied.

 

Any other thoughts?

 

Did you start Steam in offline mode?

[Wulf2k]

Try unplugging your network cable before starting up XCOM. Not on a permanent basis, but just to be 100% sure it's not grabbing new values off the network. Steam offline 'should' work as well, but you can rarely be more sure than a physical break in the connection =]

[coanda]

Thank you everyone, issue resolved.

 

Changes don't apply to missions in progress, which threw me the first time. Second time I forgot to go offline mode again, hence why starting on easy didn't show up any differences.

[FlyingHigh10000000]

Just to clarify, you do /not/ have to start Steam in offline mode for anything. You can block X-Com from calling the Firaxis servers with a hosts file edit.