XCOM EU Dynamic Difficulty

[TrollofReason]

Difficulty settings in games are often, well, not good. People either don't explain what's so different in each of the modes, or they try to be clever or funny instead of helpful. Which makes the general lack of control doubly annoying.

 

I hope that what I'm proposing won't be too difficult because I'd REALLY like it to see it modded into the game. I want there to be a difficulty control panel that actually can affect how difficult or easy certain aspects of the game will become. For example! A few people (old XCOM vets among them) hate the so-called Classic difficulty setting. Not because it makes the game more challenging, but how it makes the game more challenging by giving the aliens attack and defenses bonuses from thin air. They like how the alien health is increased, and how the economy is less forgiving. In fact, they really like that, but they also really hate the out-of-their-butt bonuses the enemies get.

So...

Why not be able to turn it off? Why not be able to increase or decrease Council funding you get each month by a certain percentage, while increasing or decreasing the number of Council Requests you get to (hopefully) offset the altered funding rates? Why can't I select that the aliens get more health. (A Chyrsalid with 8hp doesn't scare me much, but 16?! Oh frag, I had better be prepared to handle this, or expect a lot of pain in a short amount of time. Sorry, nearby civilians, but it's Shredder Rocket time.) Why can't I get two or three, or even FOUR Terror Missions in a month? The potential for increased resources and reduced global panic is there, but I also get an increased potential to lose my elites to injury and death. Imagine having to fight through the streets of Paris, staring down a Sectopod with nothing but rookies in Carapace armor and Assault Rifles because I had invested so much into my crack team of 6 Colonels lost in the last assault to another Sectopod. That would be incredible! That would force me to actually consider backing down and losing a member nation because I dun' messed up, and now I don't want to lose what little I have left. Sorry, France, but the Earth is bigger than you and it's counting on me!

 

That is what I would love to be possible, do you see now? I want to be able to tell a story like: of real hard choices, not the artificial ones the current game is shoving down our throats.

 

We should be allowed to modify the following:

Alien health

Alien defense bonus

alien attack bonus

UFO frequency

UFO severity - How quickly will we see a Battleship without story progression, and how often both before and after the story trigger will we see them?

Council funding

Council Request frequency

Council Request rewards

Abduction frequency

Abduction severity - How many places are abductions taking place in? This could limit rewards, but offset itself with reduced panic in potential trouble spots continent-wise.

Abduction rewards - ONLY 2 SCIENTISTS?! Yes, only 2 Scientists, and increased panic in Africa. Enjoy!

Terror frequency - I'll miss you, France. Well, okay, not really.

Research/Foundry speed

Base Facility construction time - HIRE MOAR 'DOZERS!

Satellite construction time - 21 days is an artificial hindrance. Rocketry and what is needed to launch a satellite is too well understood for a clandestine organization with access to RESOURCES OF THE PLANET AND IT'S OWN IN-HOUSE TEAM OF ENGINEERS AND HEAVY INDUSTRY not to put a light rocket and satellite together in a week or less.

Item cost - A Nano Fiber Vest costs 30 monies now? Since when?

Engineer impact - A Laser Rifle costs 30 monies at 12 Engineers. And you're telling me that they cost 28 monies at 30?!

 

I could go on, but this is a good place to maybe start in actually customizing the difficulty of the game. Again, I hope it won't be too involved, just a few modifications to some background calculations in how the game manages quantifiable values. Which the game does on its own anyway with the existing difficulty selections.

Edited November 12, 2012 by TrollofReason

[Trucidation]

Agreed with you.

 

I want to be able to tell a story like: of real hard choices, not the artificial ones the current game is shoving down our throats.

My biggest beef with the game is the crap "HOMG 3 MISSIONS, PICK 1?!?!?!?!" because you're basically forced to let panic sodomize the remaining 2 countries you couldn't send a team out to (let's not even get into why a global organization can't field multiple 6-man squads).

 

I'd rather have 3 missions back to back in a week, it'd be more realistic than a whole week of nothing happening and then blam, all 3 on Sunday. It won't necessarily be easier either, since it's highly likely you'd have lost or injured soldiers after the first mission, so it's still possible you have to let the remaining missions go, or attempt them with a team of weaker and less experienced soldiers. You could easily end up losing more soldiers too so I'd say it wouldn't be easier by any stretch of the imagination.

 

And it'd be fairer than arbitrarily forcing panic on you. At least you'd know you had the choice of not being able to help them due to not enough manpower, or trying and failing and losing a whole squad. It would have been YOUR CHOICE, rather than a random lottery ticket.

[FMod]

I hope that what I'm proposing won't be too difficult because I'd REALLY like it to see it modded into the game.

It's not too difficult. Doable yourself, via gamecore.ini editing.

 

You can do:

Alien health

Alien defense bonus

alien attack bonus

UFO frequency (works poorly)

UFO severity - How quickly will we see a Battleship without story progression, and how often both before and after the story trigger will we see them?

Council funding

Council Request rewards (maybe)

Abduction severity - How many places are abductions taking place in?

Abduction rewards

Terror frequency (maybe)

Research/Foundry speed

Base Facility construction time

Satellite construction time - 21 days is an artificial hindrance.

Item cost - A Nano Fiber Vest costs 30 monies now? Since when?

Engineer impact - A Laser Rifle costs 30 monies at 12 Engineers. And you're telling me that they cost 28 monies at 30?!

Know the tools? Just a text editor or reshacker or meddler and modpatcher.

[FlyingHigh10000000]

Good news, this is quite easy to accomplish now, thanks to the efforts of Drakous79.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/849122-storms-over-former-xcom-members-controlling-abductions/

 

Look through his posts in that thread and you'll see how to change how abductions are handled. I'm working on a complete overhaul of everything I can reach in the game, atm, and it /should/ be ready for release sometime this week. Still need to test a little bit, and make sure I haven't royally screwed over XCOM or the aliens with my tweaking.