More Notes on Custom Soldier Skill/Perk Trees

[graaa]

Quick reply - more later. Was just stuck at work for 3 days due to snow *barf

 

The others only allow one shot per target. But Covering Fire allows
reaction 'per attack or movement' so potentially you can get more than
two reactions per turn. (Not tested or confirmed.)

I've already done extensive testing on this and you cannot have more than 2 reaction shots per turn (not sure if close combat specialist is the only loophole) but no - 2 MAX no matter what even if you have all of these reaction perks on a single unit. Essentially, the other perks shut down after 2 shots were had. I don't know if there is a hex you can change in the UPK to alter this.

[AleddJones]

 

 

 

Cheese addendum - you can get 2 abilities per level if your soldier already 'earns' the ability and then said ability is placed lower in the tree opposite something you already chose. I'm not sure if this is practically applicable since you'd have to micromanage sections of the upk between promotions, but it seems potentially viable for some interesting/insane builds.

That is an interesting point, and obviously a lesson learned from experience. I expect it causes problems in the soldier ability display, at a minimum. I am surprised that a crash didn't result, unless at some previous point they had made provision for more than one skill gain per rank. Purely speculating, perhaps the second skill was occupying the slot intended for a Psi skill? At any rate, I would strongly suspect an unusable game at some point thereafter. Hopefully some brave soul attempting that will report back.

 

Given the current state and limitations of modding, starting a new game is always the recommended 'safe' way to implement a mod.

 

-Dubious-

 

It cropped up when I was using my old save file to test ability tree changes, purely since I had a top ranked soldier in every class. I lost the screenshots I took, but it seemed perfectly functional. I never tried it while actively promoting, only at the endgame, but I don't see that being much of a factor to be honest. The only strange thing about the displays is having two highlighted skills on one level and then none on the next level, but that's obviously coincidental and can be changed in the upk.

 

As far as I'm aware there was nothing there to do with Psi skills. I had multiple soldiers with more abilities than they'd technically be allowed simply because the save recorded them as having the ability, it was simply placed somewhere else in the tree, sometimes adjacent to another already-learned ability, thus providing two abilities per level. Didn't try anything with Psi abilities but as far as I'm concerned, mixing abilities like that is a minefield. Couldn't hurt to try though, I guess.

[dubiousintent]

Updated Comparison Tables in post #18 (again). I've expanded the coding to hopefully make it easier to understand the 'bias' choices you make. Included some additional caveats that have been passed along and expanded some background material.

 

-Dubious-

[graaa]

I would definetly support a toolboks mod that allowed anyone to change the ability trees around easily.

[dubiousintent]

I would definetly support a toolboks mod that allowed anyone to change the ability trees around easily.

Well, I tried my first Custom Mod with the latest ToolBoks, and it couldn't FIND the byte-code pattern of the 'GetPerkInTreeSupport.Function' I copied from the 'Probably found a way to edit ability trees' thread. I presume it changed in one of the subsequent patches. It appears we will need to FIND and REPLACE the entire function, so the current patterns are crucial. Since you have already been manually editing them, think you might be able to post the 'patch 3' default configuration versions of all four class functions? (I am assuming they are each long enough to be unique in the XComGame.UPK file.) That would save me a lot of time as it's something I haven't researched as yet (and don't particularly want to, I'll freely admit), I believe that is all I need to get this functional.

 

-Dubious-

Edited February 14, 2013 by dubiousintent

[graaa]

Certainly. I will get back to you before the end of the night with them. Its important to use the 5-hex pattern that the website (http://personales.ya.com/anyone/xcom/perks.htm) provides you, because the 3 hex-pattern is very common in other parts of the code. The 5-hex pattern is entirely unique to the perks, and you still only need to change the middle hex.

[graaa]

The original ability trees and their 5-hex codes listed in order according to the UPK

 

SNIPER

Headshot 04 2C 02 06 4A
Snapshot 04 2C 10 06 4A OR Squadsight 04 2C 03 06 4C
Gunslinger 04 2C 5F 06 4A OR Damn Good Ground 04 2C 0F 06 86
Disabling Shot 04 2C 09 06 4A OR Battlescanner 04 2C 08 06 C0
Executioner 04 2C 0B 06 4A OR Opportunist 04 2C 0A 06 FA
Low Profile 04 2C 05 06 4A
In the Zone 04 2C 0E 04 25 OR DoubleTap 04 2C 0D 06 4A

HEAVY

Fire Rocket 04 2C 12 06 4A
Bulletswarm 04 2C 1A 06 4A OR Holotargetting 04 2C 13 06 4C
Shredder Rocket 04 2C 16 06 4A OR Suppression 04 2C 15 06 86
HEAT Ammo 04 2C 5B 06 4A OR Rapid Reaction 04 2C 17 06 C0
Grenadier 04 2C 18 06 4A OR Danger Zone 04 2C 19 06 FA
Will to Survive 04 2C 11 06 4A
Rocketeer 04 2C 5D 04 25 OR Mayhem 04 2C 5E 06 4A

ASSAULT

Run & Gun 04 2C 06 06 4A
Tactical Sense 04 2C 21 06 4A OR Aggression 04 2C 20 06 4C
Lightning Reflexes 04 2C 23 06 4A OR Close & Personal 04 2C 22 06 86
Flush 04 2C 25 06 4A OR Rapid Fire 04 2C 24 06 C0
Close Combat Specialist 04 2C 28 06 4A OR Bring em On 04 2C 27 06 FA
Extra Conditioning 04 2C 1B 06 4A
Resilience 04 2C 2B 04 25 OR Killer Instinct 04 2C 29 06 4A

SUPPORT

Smoke Grenade 04 2C 2C 06 4A
Sprinter 04 2C 1F 06 4A OR Covering Fire 04 2C 2F 06 4C
Field Medic 04 2C 30 06 4A OR Smoke and Mirrors 04 2C 5C 06 86
Revive 04 2C 38 06 4A OR Rifle Suppression 04 2C 31 06 C0
Dense Smoke 04 2C 34 06 4A OR Combat Drugs 04 2C 33 06 FA
Deep Pockets 04 2C 35 06 4A
Savior 04 2C 37 04 25 OR Sentinel 04 2C 36 06 4A

Edited February 15, 2013 by graaa

[dubiousintent]

Certainly. I will get back to you before the end of the night with them. Its important to use the 5-hex pattern that the website (http://personales.ya.com/anyone/xcom/perks.htm) provides you, because the 3 hex-pattern is very common in other parts of the code. The 5-hex pattern is entirely unique to the perks, and you still only need to change the middle hex.

Thanks for the point about needing the 5-hex pattern. The way I have been putting the mod together was by putting the 3-hex ability code on it's own line. I've added { comments } to the line in the FIND section identifying which 'choice' it is, and instructions that they need to be removed manually at least until ToolBoks can parse them out (one or two releases away yet). I will re-think about maybe putting just the ability byte-code on a line by itself. The others should only be needed by myself in breaking the pattern up correctly. I'll probably just include the 5-hex pattern in the documentation for clarity.

 

Just to be clear: ToolBoks can only use one FIND and an equivalent REPLACE pattern. Line breaks are ignored, which makes it easier to read. So in order to keep all the skill changes for a given class (like 'Support') in one mod, it will be necessary to REPLACE ALL the skills for that class, changed or not. I have so far been assuming the pattern of each class is sufficiently unique, but there may be a need to expand the pattern to include preceding byte-code since we can't use offsets.

 

-Dubious-

[bokauk]

I've added { comments } to the line in the FIND section identifying which 'choice' it is, and instructions that they need to be removed manually at least until ToolBoks can parse them out (one or two releases away yet). I will re-think about maybe putting just the ability byte-code on a line by itself.

 

Just to let you know I've updated ToolBoks, which now has the comment feature you requested :smile:

 

See the included examples in the Custom Mods folder and the brief notes in the ReadMe, but it works in the way we previously discussed :smile:

[graaa]

I've created and tested a convenient template for people to mod the soldier ability trees using ToolBoks. The essential hex for each ability is isolated on a single line and labeled for maximum ease. All it requires is that you open it in notepad and make the changes you want yourself in the REPLACE section of the file.

 

LINK DELETED FILE MOVED TO NEXUS

 

Feel free to do whatever you want with it!

 

NOTE: This file will only work with UPKs that don't already have any edits to the ability trees. So Mods like Warspace or Long War won't be able to use this until I make one specifically for them.

Edited February 17, 2013 by graaa