Long War mod discussion

[johnnylump]

UPDATE:

 

AS OF LONG WAR EW, THIS IS NO LONGER THE BEST PLACE FOR PLAYERS TO POST ABOUT THE MOD. GO TO THE MOD PAGE USE THE MOD FORUMS TAB TO REACH THE DEVS AND TALK TO OTHER PLAYERS. DEVS WILL USUALLY IGNORE POSTS IN THIS THREAD UNLESS THEY RELATE TO TECHNICAL MATTERS OF MODDING XCOM.

 

 

...

 

Hey folks, I have launched the first version of my "Long War" mod, and I thought I'd describe it here and seek comments.

It's uploaded at http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/?.

Long War

v1.08

By JohnnyLump

Chief Contributing Modders: Amineri, Drakous79

Additional Contributing Modders: Bokuak (Toolboks Mod), BlackAlpha (Warspace Mod)

A modification for the 2012 Game X-Com: Enemy Unknown.

This is for games with the March 15, 2013, patch. Version 356266.

For the latest version of this mod, go to XCOM Nexus: http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/88

This mod changes a number of X-Com features and settings to create a far longer and more intense conflict with the aliens, and provide as much of a "sandbox" experience as possible. It creates a more interesting and rewarding strategic game, and battles will be challenging while still rewarding smart tactical play. You will see many more UFOs in the sky, and your squaddies will fight in a dozen or more combat missions per month. You will need to develop more than six troopers to succeed, and you will also have to carefully balance investments in research, construction, and interception capability.

Major Features:

* Up to a dozen missions per month. Abductions will take place one at a time.

* Revamped perks to force difficult choices at each level while creating powerful complementary abilities

* Aliens conduct research and their soldiers and UFOs will grow tougher over time, although X-Com can slow their advance

* Interceptors gain experience and grow more accurate

* SHIVs now have the potential to be a major component of your tactical game

* Strategy game rebalanced; everything takes time to build and satellite spam is no longer the dominant path to victory

The Long War mod can be played on any difficulty. It is tested on impossible.

Feedback is welcome! Please post on the Mod page on the Nexus, or in the Long War entry on the "Mod Talk" forum, on the Long War mod entry on the 2kGames X-Com forum, or feel free to PM me through the Nexus.

Brief self-promotion:

Check out my science fiction novel, Through Struggle, the Stars, available as an e-book and paperback on Amazon and elsewhere. Visit www.thehumanreach.net for details. In its May 2012 edition, the venerable Analog Science Fiction magazine called it "all good, great fun." A sequel, The Desert of Stars, was published in March 2013.

Some of the changes in this mod include:

Game

- Startup splash screens skipped

- Minimum and maximum zoom levels in tactical game increased

- Left-right rotation in tactical game now 45 degrees (instead of 90)

- Hunker down and overwatch delays removed

Soldiers

- Have base 3 hp.

- Take much longer to recover from injuries

- You start with 15 soldiers.

- XP needed for promotion significantly increased, particularly at higher ranks.

- The Psi Lab now takes twice as long to study a subject.

- Officer Training School abilities costs and requirements changed. They generally cost more, and require minimum ranks more commensurate with their power -- with the exception of Squad Size II, which is now available at lieutenant instead of captain.

- Support gains 1 mobility at squaddie, sergeant and captain, collectively emulating the Sprint perk.

- Snipers gain less hp than in vanilla on level ups. Assault and Support gain an extra HP than in vanilla to compensate for certain lost defensive perks.

- SHIVs are available at the start and are now equippable in the barracks. They are generally tougher but more expensive. A new SHIV weapon, the Sentry Gun, is available as an early Foundry project. It is an upgrade from the basic minigun but not as powerful as the laser or plasma SHIV weapons. SHIVs have some resistance to alien weaponry; in addition, their weapons do extra damage to robotic aliens.

- Perks have been revamped to do away with most of the easy decisions and balance the classes a little better.

- Using Squadsight to target aliens beyond a sniper's visual range now causes a to-hit penalty that can be mitigated by having multiple X-Com troopers able to see the target. Also, squadsight is not in effect when the sniper is on overwatch.

Support

Squaddie: Smoke Grenade

Corporal: Field Medic or Opportunist

Sergeant: Revive or Covering Fire

Lieutenant: Smoke and Mirrors or Battle Scanner

Captain: Dense Smoke or Rifle Suppression

Major: Tactical Sense

Colonel: Savior or Sentinel

Assault

Squaddie: Run and Gun

Corporal: Gunslinger or Bring 'Em On

Sergeant: Killer Instinct or Grenadier

Lieutenant: Rapid Fire or Lightning Reflexes

Captain: Close and Personal or Close Combat Specialist

Major: Extra Conditioning

Colonel: Resilience or Sprint

Sniper

Squaddie: Squadsight

Corporal: Executioner or Damn Good Ground

Sergeant: Gunslinger or Rapid Reaction

Lieutenant: Flush or Disabling Shot

Captain: Snap Shot or Low Profile

Major: Head Shot

Colonel: In the Zone or Double Tap

Heavy

Squaddie: Fire Rocket

Corporal: Suppression or Aggression

Sergeant: Bullet Swarm or Shredder Rocket

Lieutenant: Flush or Holo-Targeting

Captain: HEAT Ammo or Danger Zone

Major: Will to Survive

Colonel: Rocketeer or Mayhem

Kit

- Kevlar, Carapace and Titan Armors can carry two items.

- All armors have +1 hp compared to vanilla, so a rookie in Kevlar has 5 hp.

- Shotgun-type weapons should not take a reaction shot until an enemy is eight or fewer tiles away.

- Pistols expend ammo and must be reloaded periodically. Pistols maximum range is 20 tiles -- a lower range than rifles but greater range than shotguns.

- Explosives damage (grenades and rockets) is now randomized, just like that from guns.

- Arc Throwers are significatly less effective. Best case, you'll have about a 50 percent chance to stun a wounded alien. The to-hit percentage no longer appears when are you targeting an alien.

- The equipment of soldiers left behind (alive or dead) on tactical mission failures or retreats will be lost.

Aliens

- Aliens initially fight at base abilities, but with more hit points. There are some exceptions: Thin Men maintain their accuracy bonuses, and Floaters and Heavy Floaters are very fast. Outsiders and the Uber Ethereal are much tougher.

- Late in the game you will see outsiders, sectoid commanders and ethereals appear on missions outside of their normal role in ship command crews. They will appear regardless of your advancement in the plot.

- Aliens will conduct research on X-Com and get more difficult to kill over time, gaining hit points and accuracy. Some may gain resistance to damage, and others may regenerate wounds. The X-Com player can slow this research by shooting down UFOs and orbiting satellites.

- Aliens provide fewer weapons fragments.

- The appearance of new alien species is slowed after the first few months.

Research

- You start with 10 scientists.

- Almost all research times significantly increased. Plot-oriented advances beyond arc thrower take particularly longer. A number of research item requirements (elerium, fragments, captured weapons) increased.

Construction and Engineering

- Most base construction times, power requirements, facility costs and maintenance costs increased. Late-game facilities require significant funds to maintain.

- Satellite Uplinks support one satellite, instead of two. Satellite Nexuses support two satellites, instead of four. The adjacency bonus of one additional satellite still applies.

- Thermal and Elerium Power facilities provide 5 more power each.

- Labs and Workshops are available from the start of the game.

- The player starts with 10 engineers, but engineer effectiveness has been decreased.

- Powerful foundry projects cost more and require more items.

Missions

- Abductions now usually occur in only one country at a time. (This is the closest I can come to having the same impact as multiple Skyrangers.) You may see up to five abductions in a month. They will have more aliens than in base game abductions of the same difficulty.

- Terror missions will be more frequent, and they will get more difficult as the game goes on.

- Council missions will be more frequent.

- Abduction rewards reduced to compensate for so many missions. Soldier rewards capped at sergeant-rank troopers, and you may get corporals sometimes.

- There should be more variation in the makeup and combat power of enemy forces, particularly later in the game.

- You will lose equipment of any soldiers, dead or alive, that you leave behind when aborting a mission, or your squad is wiped out.

UFOs and interceptions

- UFOs and XCom and UFO weapons overhauled to make aerial combat far more dramatic and less deterministic. Alien Scouts are much faster. Firestorms are still awesome, but not nearly as invincible. All weapons are less accurate; several XCom weapons have increased rate of fire to compenstate. UFO weapons significantly less accurate but do more damage. UFOs will escape more often, and sometimes you will destroy UFOs entirely with powerful weapons. Damage is randomized around baseline damage, so it won't always take the same number of hits to shoot down a UFO.

- Your interceptors gain experience! The more kills credited to an interceptor or Firestorm, the more accurate that craft is. Some X-Com weapon systems work far better on experienced craft, while others are best suited for rookie craft.

- Alien UFOs will upgrade over time.

- You can prevent terror missions and abductions by intercepting UFOs on those missions.

- Aliens will conduct some of their multi-UFO missions a little differently. The net effect is that abductions are harder to stop with interceptions and you'll see fewer battleships, particularly early in the game.

- Alien may now send hunter UFOs after your satellites if they are not shot down (in the past, they had to be ingored entirely). The chances and capabilities of hunters are reduced, and the aliens are not as effective at shooting down satellites.

- You start with three interceptors at X-Com HQ, instead of two.

- You may have six interceptors per continent.

- You will see far more UFOs in a given month.

- Interceptors cost $200, and monthly maintenance is $50. Interceptor Repair time increased significantly. You can always dump a badly damaged one and pay to to replace it.

- Players have three days to investigate a crashed UFO (instead of two).

- Most UFOs will have larger command crews; abductors will have larger crews overall. Crashed small scouts will have random survivor crews (instead of five aliens every time).

- Landed UFOs are less common.

- The boost interceptor consumable requires sectoid autopsy and 10 engineers, instead of cyberdisk.

- The targeting interceptor consumable requires floater autopsy and 15 engineers, instead of sectoid.

- The dodge interceptor consumable requires cyberdisk autopsy and 20 engineers, instead of floater.

- If an interceptor is shot down, its weapon no longer returns to the armory for placing on other aircraft.

- "Small Scouts" are now called "Scouts." "Large Scouts" are now "Destroyers." "Supply Barges" are now "Supply Cruisers."

The World and Funding

- All council countries now provide marginal monthly income (in lieu of base income that was tied to nowhere), while countries with satellites provide the full amount. Losing any country will now hurt your income.

- Gray market sale values modified in accordance with increased mission tempo; things you'll have a lot of (like sectoid bodies) are worth less.

- Various countries' funding changed to reflect country's real-world economy and size, as well as increasing strategic choices in placing satellites.

- Cash Rewards from council "quests" (when some country asks for some of your stockpile of items) reduced or removed in many cases. You'll be offered staff members more often instead.

- The North America bonus is reduced to 25 percent of interceptor and interceptor weapon costs, instead of 50.

- Africa games now start in Egypt

- Several countries airspace made larger to make interceptions a little more consistent. This may mean more downed UFOs over oceanic and arctic areas (with forest maps).

Panic

- Panic is much stickier than in vanilla. The aliens don't have as many ways to increase it, but you have limited ways to reduce it: winning terror and special missions, assaulting UFOs, orbiting satellites, and defeating the alien base.

- You can now enter the Situation Room from the start.

- Un-defeated abductions raise panic by 2 in the country and 1 on the rest of the continent.

- Orbiting a satellite lowers country panic by 1. Satellites will sometimes lower panic in countries with five panic blocks, but they will not impact panic in countries with four or less blocks.

- Defeating the alien base lowers panic by 1 worldwide.

- Escaped UFOs do not raise panic.

- Shooting down a UFO does not lower panic.

- Ignored (un-intercepted) UFOs raise panic by 1.

- Successfully assaulting a UFO lowers panic by 1.

Combat

- During battles, dead alien bodies remain visible.

- Soldiers will usually seek cover and hunker down when panicked.

- Alien freezing bug fixed.

Second Wave and DLC

- All Second Wave options should work with this mod and most should provide additional challenge, although some (like diminishing returns) might have particularly brutal outcomes.

- Marathon is NOT recommended or supported. It works, but it impacts a lot of the same variables this mod already changes, and it makes the mod easier, from what I'm told.

- Slingshot final mission rewards and Zhang hit points reduced. Zhang becomes an sergeant assault, not a lieutenant heavy, when he joins X-Com. Time between first and final two Slingshot missions increased.

Known issues:

* After one of your early missions, you receive an alert that labs and workshops are now available, when they already were.

* The Sentry Gun (the new SHIV weapon in v1.08) does not appear on the SHIV graphic in the barracks when it's mounted on the gun, and its graphic in tactical mission HUD is inconsistent. It still looks fine during the battle and shoots stuff real good.

* Text changes not implemented for non-English versions. This is mostly a problem with the Sentry Gun project and SHIV equipping.

Installation:

Unfortunately, X-Com in its current iteration isn't terribly mod-friendly, so you have to take some careful steps to get it working.

1) Get a clean game installation, either through a fresh install or by using the "verify integrity of game cache" option in Steam to fix all your files. Make sure you are patched up to date and X-Com is able to "phone home" by putting Steam in online mode and removing any hosts block you have previously implemented. Fully exit out of Steam, and then restart it. Then start X-Com to the main menu (un-modded), close it, and start it again, and close it, so the game can install any run-time updates. This will ensure you have a clean game that's fully installed.

2) Exit Steam again. Now you have to ensure X-Com is *unable* to phone home to acquire certain updates (intended to prevent cheating on multiplayer) that will overwrite part of the mod. There are two ways to do this:

a) Offline Mode. Easier to accomplish. This prevents Steam from connecting to the Internet, but you won't be able to chat or update other games.

1). Start Steam.

2). Steam Menu (top left) > Go Offline > Restart in offline mode.

b) Modifying hosts file -- prevents XCom from calling out. More complicated, but lets you use Steam's online functions.

1) Start Menu > Right click on Notepad, select "Run as Administrator"

2) File > Open > %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts -- The hosts file has no . suffix, make sure you don't add .txt or anything else. Also, %systemroot% on my system is C:\Windows, but it may vary.

3) Add these three lines to the file:

# Prevent XCOM Phone Home

127.0.0.1 prod.xcom.firaxis.com

127.0.0.1 65.118.245.165

4) Save the file.

If X-Com phones home, you'll need to uninstall the mod and start this process over.

3) Make sure you have the latest .net framework (4.0 or later, obtain via Windows update) and Java (1.7). The installer may not fully install the mod without these.

4) Run "Long War Mod Setup.exe" and follow the instructions.Make sure you point the installer to your root game directory; it should alert you that the directory already exists. On my machine, it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown.

If you have difficulty installing or running the mod, try some of the solutions discussed here: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/834174-warspace-technical-support-v150/. The game uses the same installation process as the Warspace mod, so the advice there should apply.

5) Once you start X-Com, you'll need to start a new campaign for all the changes to take effect. As long as you are patched up to date, the mod should work regardless of whether you have the Slingshot DLC or not.

Changed files:

Binaries\Win32\XComGame.Exe

XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComGame.upk

XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComStrategyGame.upk

XComGame\CookedPCConsole\Command1.upk

XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomGame.upk.uncompressed_size (deleted)

XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomStrategyGame.upk.uncompressed_size (deleted)

XComGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini

For Slingshot owners:

XComGame\DLC\PCConsole\DLC_Day060\CookedPCConsole\DLC_Day060_SF.upk

For those who selected an English installation:

XComGame\Localization\INT\XComGame.int

My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Localization\INT\XComStrategyGame.int

Additionally for Slingshot users who selected an English installation:

My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Localization\INT\XComGame.int

This mod isn't compatible with others that replace the upk or int files.

To verify the game has installed correctly, check the following

1) Go to \Xcom-Enemy-Unknown\Binaries\Win32\ directory.

a) Verify Log.txt and XComGame.exe have stamps that they say were modified at the time and date you installed the mod.

b) Open Log.txt and verify the last two lines say the following:

(TIME OF INSTALL) getmodfile: DefaultGameCore_t.mod

(TIME OF INSTALL) done

2) Go to Xcom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\CookedPCConsole

a) Verify XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomGame.upk.uncompressed_size and Game\CookedPCConsole\XcomStrategyGame.upk.uncompressed_size are NOT present.

b) Look for the file XComGame.upk. It should have the following "date modified" stamp: 5/10/2013

Within the game, you can check the following:

a) On Impossible start, troopers should have 5 hp and Sectoids 4 hp. (This confirms modpatcher successfully changed DefaultGameCore.ini.)

b) Sectoid bodies should remain visible for the duration of your first mission. (This confirms XComGame.upk successfully installed.)

c) Immediately after the first mission, you should be able to enter the Situation Room. (This confirms XComStrategyGame.upk successfully installed.)

Uninstalling should restore your original files, or you can go to Steam and use the "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" option (under the Xcom game menu / Properties / Local Files tab) to restore your game to its original settings.

Included software:

ModPatcher v0.12, by Dreadylein

XShape v0.13b, by Daemonjax

Acknowledgements:

twinj for discovering how to rescript functions

rf900 for Visual Perk Editor

Eliot van Uytfanghe for UE Explorer

Gildor for Unreal Package Decompessor

Inno Setup 5, by JRSoftware.org

Forum commenters Demiansky, Nontalo, Haerzog, Xaxyx, drake8888, Yustarius, FlyingHigh10000000, WorthlessBums, Wintermist, Sibiryak, AnUser, Yzaxtol

Permissions:

Please contact me (JohnnyLump) via private message on X-Com Nexus before redistributing any files with this mod. If you're a modder, check out the discussion "Long War upk changes" in the Mod Talk forum for how to implement specific changes in this mod in your own.

Tips:

- Satellite spam is no longer an effective strategy; you'll fall too far behind on research. Labs are now important.

- Keep a spare satellite on the launch pad. You can't get every UFO, and the survivors will send hunters after your birds.

- Winning or losing is much more a function of your performance on the battlefield. Be prepared to retreat from missions you can't win to preserve your best squaddies.

- Plan ahead! Everything takes time to build now. Minimum Engineer requirements may also be more of a factor.

- You'll find you'll usually want more than you can afford; be prepared for shortages in cash and alloys, in particular, in the early and mid-games, and weapons fragments and Elerium late game. Landed UFOs are a terrific resource.

- With the long injury recovery times you should maintain at least 20 troops in your barracks.

- Interceptor buffs are much more useful than in vanilla.

- You'll need more than two interceptors if you want to shoot down enough UFOs to gather vital items. Even then, don't expect to bag every one. But you can keep panic at bay by at least making an attempt.

- With Assault troopers able to use pistols effectively with the gunslinger perk, shotguns become a more viable weapon, as the assaults can use pistols at range and still do meaningful damage to targets. Non-medic Supports should be deadly as overwatchers.

Changelog

1.08

Major Changes:

- Aliens now conduct research! Both alien soldiers and UFOs will grow tougher over time, gaining hit points, accuracy and other abilities. Some aliens will begin to regenerate damage. The X-Com player can slow the alien advance by orbiting satellites and shooting down UFOs. Some aliens and UFOs will be a little easier at first but quickly grow tougher. Adjusted encounter tables to create a wider variety of alien forces in the middle and late game, now that upgraded aliens are more viable against advanced X-Com troopers.

- Robotic aliens and SHIVS now have a perk that reduces the damage they take from each hit. Robotic aliens will be a little easier to hit but harder to damage.

- Major overhaul to SHIVs to make them a much more important component of X-Com's efforts. Basic SHIVs are now buildable at start. Advanced SHIV weapons and decks are built separately and put together in the equip items screen in the barracks. Adjusted SHIV and SHIV weapon capabilities. SHIVs are significantly more powerful and resistant to alien damage, but they are more expensive as well. Activated the SHIV Sentry Gun technology and made SHIV repair times more linearly related to the damage they have taken. Alloy SHIVs require Titan Armor technology; Hover SHIVs require Archangel. All SHIV weapons have an "armor piercing" capability in which they do extra damage to alien robotic creatures.

- All council countries now provide marginal monthly income (in lieu of base income that was tied to nowhere), while countries with satellites provide the full amount. Losing any country will now hurt your income.

- You may now have up to six interceptors per continent.

- Game Startup now skips splash screens and videos.

- Tactical game minimum and maximum camera zoom expanded. In addition, rotation increment changed to 45 degrees instead of 90.

- Embiggened the space covered by satellites over several countries to make interceptions a little more consistent. You'll see interceptors range further over Europe, Africa and the Pacific in particular. This may mean more downed UFOs over oceanic and arctic areas, but your chance of shooting one down will be much less limited by small countries.

- If an interceptor is shot down, its weapon is lost to X-Com.

- The equipment of soldiers left behind (alive or dead) on tactical mission failures or retreats will be lost.

- AI edits in attempt to halt "freezing alien" bug. Flanked / overwatched / suppressed aliens should no longer skip their turns, but instead try something.

Additional Changes:

- Using Squad Sight to target aliens beyond a sniper's visual range now causes a to-hit penalty that can be mitigated by having multiple X-Com troopers able to see the target. Squadsight no longer functions when the sniper is on overwatch.

- Improved Phoenix Cannon range.

- "Small Scouts" are now called "Scouts." "Large Scouts" are now "Destroyers." "Supply Barges" are now "Supply Cruisers."

- Altered satellite hunter UFO chances to down one of your birds.

- Sectoid Commanders now have Outsiders as escorts.

- Foundry no longer buildable at start.

- 10 scientists at start; research times increased to compensate

- Starting and monthly cash adjustments. Cash should be a little easier to earn now.

- Soldiers back to original $15

- Funding council missions will now usually take place every month.

- Added support for Slingshot missions (by reducing rewards and extending time before Mission #2 is available.)

- Less variance in soldier heal time

- Africa games now start in Egypt.

- Interceptor experience now provides greater to-hit bonus per kill, but is capped at a slightly lower maximum bonus.

- Some restructuring to monthly mission setup and frequency. There will be fewer missions per month early on. Late game you may see two terror missions in a month.

1.07

- Explosives damage randomized like other weapon damage. This should also function with damage roulette.

- Abduction missions should no longer overlap on dates.

- Arc Thrower success chance seriously nerfed. It's a little more than half of vanilla. Returned Arc Thrower to 2 charges.

- You can now build the Foundry at game start. However, only the basic SHIV tech is available for development

- Increased SHIV hit points to 12 (from 10), reduced mobility to 12 (from 14), reduced minigun damage to 4 (from 6), increased cost of all SHIVs and made build times two weeks.

- Gave in and made soldiers $20 each to keep you from throwing cheap rookies into the slaughterhouse.

- Boost interceptor consumable requires sectoid autopsy and 10 engineers, instead of cyberdisk.

- Auto-hit interceptor consumable requires floater autopsy and 15 engineers, instead of sectoid.

- Dodge interceptor consumable requires cyberdisk autopsy and 20 engineers, instead of floater.

- Reduced time in which a hunter will appear after a UFO is not shot down to 7 days (from 10, vanilla is 5).

v1.06

- Defeating Abductions no longer reduces panic; you are simply holding the line against things getting worse. The only ways to reduce panic are successful UFO assaults, orbiting satellites, success on terror and council missions, and defeating the alien base.

- Having a satellite will no longer have a chance to lower panic each month if panic is less than 5 blocks. At 5 blocks, it remains a 50/50 chance it will go down. Satellites can bring you back from the brink, but they won't steadily lower panic.

- Engaging but not shooting down certain UFOs will no longer prevent a hunter UFO from spawning. Abductors, Supply Barges and the Overseer will not spawn hunters, but other craft sometimes (but no longer always) will. You'll have a better chance at a fair fight with a hunter. Aliens' chances of shooting down your satellites altered.

- Experience bonus to interceptor to-hit based on kills increased.

- Interceptor weapon to-hit and in a few cases damage re-vamped. A number of powerful weapons will now only reach their full effectiveness in the hands of experienced interceptor pilots, while other weapons are better suited for rookies trying to reach veteran status.

- Interceptor repair time marginally reduced.

- Perks reordered for all classes.

- Late in the game sectoid commanders and ethereals will appear on missions outside of ship command crews.

- Late in the game chrysallids should show up a little more often.

- Base monthly funding significantly reduced; starting cash increased moderately. More income from satellites should be necessary.

- Raised XP requirements for lieutenants and above.

- Crashed Small Scout alien survivors randomized. There will probably be a few more survivors on average.

- Increased costs of Alien Grenades and Stealth Satellites foundry projects.

- Made a number of late-game weapons and armors more expensive, particularly Plasma Sniper Rifles.

- Increased Heavy Laser project requirements slightly.

- Snipers now gain hit points only at Lieutenant and Colonel, instead of at Corporal, Lieutenant and Major.

- Completed terror mission panic reduction bonus lowered.

- Lowered autopsy time for Sectoid, Thin Man and Floater.

- Increased some OTS project costs.

- Reduced alloy rewards from larger UFOs.

- Reduced lab bonus to vanilla.

- Floaters increased to 5 hp.

- Sectoids increased to 4 hp; Mutons increased to 12 hp. (Impossible Only)

- Reduced sale prices of UFO Power Sources, Navs, and many alien corpses.

- Cash rewards for item "quests" eliminated; you should now receive personnel instead.

- Increased autopsy requirements to multiple bodies for most aliens.

- Buffed sectoid commanders a bit.

- Assigned X-Com HQ a third interceptor from the start.

- Certain UFOs will get tougher as the game progresses.

- Reduced starting cash.

- Increased Alloy requirements for several items and facilities

- Increased base cost, power and/or maintenance costs for many facilities. Late-game special facilities have significantly increased requirements.

- Increased requirements for Arc Thrower, Base Shard, Hyperwave and PsiLink research.

- Increased requirements for Skeleton Key construction.

- Made Alien Base defenders tougher.

- Alloy reward from base mission reduced.

- Increased variance for elerium rewards from destroyed UFO power cells.

- Elerium and UFO Power Source price reduced.

- Support gains a mobility point at squaddie, sergeant and captain. (replacing sprint).

- Support gains 5 defense at major (enhancing tactical sense bonus).

- Assault gains 5 defense at corporal, 5 defense at captain (making up for tactical sense).

- All shotguns will not fire a reaction shot until an enemy is within 8 tiles.

- Pistols now have ammo and require reloading when emptied.

- Reduce armor penetration of UFO Plasma Cannon II, making it less effective against Firestorms.

v1.05

- Your interceptors and Firestorms now gain experience! Each kill improves that interceptor's chance to hit by two percent.

- Interceptor combat damage randomized in a range around each weapon's baseline damage. You can't be entirely sure how many hits your planes and UFOs can take now.

- Interceptor cost increased to $200; however, their monthly maintenance is only $50 (it is normally half the cost of a new one).

- Increased starting panic significantly

- Hard-capped cash rewards for item quests. You may get some pretty bad offers relative to the cost of producing or capturing an item, but this was necessary to prevent offers of cash that would solve your money problems for the rest of the game.

- Increased research times and item requirements for Plasma Weapons, and elerium and fragments cost for several techs.

- Increased item requirements for several foundry projects.

- Made Arc Thrower more expensive and reduced it to one use per thrower per mission

- Made aircraft weapons starting with laser cannon more expensive.

- North America bonus reduced to 25 percent of interceptor and weapon costs

- Increased injury recovery time slightly

- Increased various facility maintenance costs slightly; made elerium generator maintenance cheaper.

- Increased some OTS costs

- Decreased some corpse sale values

- Decreased chance of intact power supplies and nav units surviving a shoot down

- Decreased UFONav and PowerSource sale values slightly

- Increased XP for Major and Colonel slightly

- Increased monthly funding from USA, Germany, Japan, China, Egypt, India, Australia; Decreased Mexico, South Africa

- Decreased lab adjacency bonus to default

- Made large scout, abductor and battleship crews tougher.

- Made Abductors somewhat tougher and faster.

- Made Supply ships slightly faster.

- Made Plasma II Cannons (on Abductors, Supply Ships and Overseer) a little more accurate.

- Made Muton Elites tougher.

- Terror Missions will get more difficult after several months.

- Late-game council missions slightly harder on impossible.

v1.04

- You may now enter the Situation Room at the start of the game.

- Interceptors repair somewhat more quickly

- Interceptor cost increased from $100 to $120

- Satellites cost lowered from $200 to $120 and now take 28 days (instead of 30) to build.

- Adjustments to late-game technologies and items

- Increased panic at beginning of the game

- Reduced effectiveness of research credit for all aliens except Sectoids and Floaters

- Larger Ships will have larger command crews.

- Corrected bug in which engineer effectiveness bonus/penalty wasn't calculated if you had exactly the minimum number of engineers to build an item.

- Engineers marginally more effective in reducing item costs (but still less than vanilla).

v1.03

- Air combat overhauled. Most weapons are less accurate; UFO weapons significantly less accurate but do more damage. Combat will be much less deterministic now; sometimes you'll bag a UFO with minimal or no damage; other times a tough one will rip through your interceptors. The large scout is slightly slower than in 1.02. Abductors are tougher; supply barges a little weaker. Firestorms are still awesome, but they are no longer invincible. You will occasionally destroy UFOs entirely when using advanced weapons.

- Change to abduction ship missions, terror ship missions, and satellite hunt missions. You'll no longer be able to shoot down large scouts to prevent an abduction mission; you'll have to beat the abductor itself. Supply ships will precede battleships on terror missions (instead of more battleships). Large scouts serve as satellite hunters through the first four months, then battleships fill that role.

- Chitin Plating now requires 10 Chryssalid carcasses.

- Reduces unbalancingly-large payments by countries for certain quest items.

- Overwatch and Hunker Down don't cause a delay for the player.

- Increased Elerium and Weapon Fragments requirements for several technologies.

- Gave 2 alien alloys requirement to research alien materials.

- Returned chance of Psi soldiers to default; players can select the Second Wave option making them less common if they so chose.

- Returned Battle Scanner throw range to default out concern it may have been causing lockups with new patch.

- Returned Future Combat Bonus to default.

v1.02

- Updated to work with Jan. 7, 2013 Patch

- Adjusted Assault Perks to force more difficult Rapid Fire / Lightning Reflexes decision.

- Removed code that slowed down impossible supply ships and battleships, so they return to default.

- Added hit points to Large Scout and Abductor.

- Made terror missions more frequent; reduced monthly abductions by one to compensate.

- Reduced effectiveness of satellites and successful anti-abduction missions in reducing panic; it was simply too easy to control without multiple-abduction mechanic.

v1.01

- Fixed cost to recruit troopers at lower difficulty levels.

- Updated installer to handle certain errors.

v1.0

- First release.

Possible Future Changes

* More ways for aliens to conduct research, and more ways for X-Com to deal it setbacks

* Additional Late game alien blitzes

* Multiple alien base assaults

* Increased emphasis on funding council quests, making them a major way to gain personnel and cash

* Accessorizing SHIVs

* Further balancing to cash flow, UFO combat, alien stats and level ups.

* Reperking: Implement different perk tree structures; Get Aggression back to Assault, possibly sending grenadier back to heavy.

* Implement camera pitch control.

* New and existing items available for all units: Smoke Grenades (and change Support perks), Ceramic Plating (+1 hp, probably in conjunction with lowering all armors by 1 hp), Improved Comms (+10 Will), Laser sight (+5 Aim).

* Consumable alien grenades that must be individually constructed to use

* Show interceptors' kills or bonus to-hit on the launch screen, where it would be most useful. The information is only available in the hangar.

* Fix bugged sentry gun appearance

Edited July 6, 2014 by johnnylump

[johnnylump]

Questions:

 

The mod includes changes defaultgamecore.ini, XComStrategyGame.upk, and XComGame.upk. I don't have the slingshot expansion yet. To make this mod compatible with both Slingshot and non-Slingshot games, do I need to buy Slingshot and re-modify those files?

 

And are mods typically distributed with the modified game files, xshape, and modpatcher, and instructions on how to use them, or is there a simpler way for users to install them?

 

I'll be happy to forward the modified game files to anyone who wants to give this a playtest. Thanks for any advice and help you all can provide.

 

Cheers

jl

Edited January 3, 2013 by johnnylump

[BlackAlpha]

Slingshot doesn't modify those files.

 

Early on, I saw a few mods being taken down that distributed the EXE. So I always assumed the moderators here frown upon distributed the EXE, which means you need to distribute the modding tools and run them on the user's machine. You can either create instructions and expect the user to do it, but then there's a high chance of user error. You can also automate it with scripts or a setup, which is what I prefer.

[Drakous79]

:thumbsup: Johnny

 

I would use XCMM, which can handle upks, DefaultGameCore and patching the executable.

[johnnylump]

Thanks fellas; I edited BlackAlpha's installer to get it up and running (thanks for making that available!)

 

It's now up at http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/88 if anyone wants to give it a go.

[drake8888]

I will certainly have to give this a try. I modded my own version of the game because I thought the research time was way too quick. Looking forward to MORE UFO's each month and a longer game (timeframe)...defeating the aliens in 6 months is kind of silly in my book.

[johnnylump]

Version 1.02, fixed to work with latest (Jan 7 2013) patch, is up.

 

Other changes:

 

- Adjusted Assault Perks to force more difficult Rapid Fire / Lightning Reflexes decision.

- Removed code that slowed down impossible supply ships and battleships, so they return to default.

- Added armor to Large Scout and Abductor.

- Made terror missions more frequent; reduced monthly abductions by one to compensate.

- Reduced effectiveness of satellites and successful anti-abduction missions in reducing panic; it was simply too easy to control without multiple-abduction mechanic.

Edited January 8, 2013 by johnnylump

[drake8888]

Hey JohnnyLump

 

In regards to the increase in UFO interceptions / alien abductions each month, in your mod do you make changes other than to the DefaultGameCore.mod file?

 

I have tried to install the long war mod several times and I keep on having issues (In the help file for the Warspace mod I have done #2, 3 and 4 several times but I still have no luck) and I would like to increase the number of attacks each month.

 

By increasing the below values, does this increase the frequency of the attacks? Or do you have to make changes to a .upk file as well?

 

LATE_UFO_CHANCE = 90

EARLY_UFO_CHANCE = 75

UFO_LIMIT = 15

UFO_INTERCEPTION_PCT=75

 

Thanks for any input and your efforts on these forums.

[johnnylump]

Hey JohnnyLump

 

In regards to the increase in UFO interceptions / alien abductions each month, in your mod do you make changes other than to the DefaultGameCore.mod file?

 

I have tried to install the long war mod several times and I keep on having issues (In the help file for the Warspace mod I have done #2, 3 and 4 several times but I still have no luck) and I would like to increase the number of attacks each month.

 

By increasing the below values, does this increase the frequency of the attacks? Or do you have to make changes to a .upk file as well?

 

LATE_UFO_CHANCE = 90

EARLY_UFO_CHANCE = 75

UFO_LIMIT = 15

UFO_INTERCEPTION_PCT=75

 

Thanks for any input and your efforts on these forums.

 

Sorry to hear the install is giving you trouble. You might try updating your .net (via windows update) and java; that seems to have solved install problems for some folks.

 

To get a significant increase in UFOs, you really need to do upk surgery. Just modding the DGC.ini, put LATE_UFO_CHANCE and EARLY_UFO_CHANCE at 100 -- that guarantees 2 UFOs a month. UFO_LIMIT is only relevant if the game generates more than that number of UFO, so it won't affect much.

UFO_INTERCEPTION_PCT is the chance you'll encounter a random UFO in the air, rather than on the ground.

[drake8888]

Thanks for the reply. I will give the updates to .net and java a try. I know I can get my mod to work in offline mode, so I don't mind blowing away my files to try and get your MOD to work. I have not gotten to the point of .upk surgery yet (I have open up the files and looked at the code but have not tried to change anything).

 

Have you seen any issues with your LongWar mod and the Marathon setting in 2nd Wave?