Increased Pod Size

[Krazyguy75]

No, it wouldn't be legal, and it would probably get taken down. I don't know anything about how you would do it, but I've heard of other mods getting taken down for that.

[johnnylump]

Distributing a modified exe is definitely considered a no-go around here.

 

The warspace mod has a decompiled installation rig that includes modpatcher and xshape, so it can patch ini and upk changes into the player's exe during install; you have to get inno setup compiler (free) so you can modify it to your particular setup.

 

I've also recently uploaded http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/401//? which makes x-com "mod-ready" without using xshape or modpatcher; after running this once, the player can simply replace the vanilla defaultgamecore.ini and upks with modded ones to play mods.

[Amineri]

Hi.

 

I always wanted a separate mod for bigger pods without any other major changes. Recently I've got time to finally make it. I used this topic and Long War files to make pods grow in size as the time passes. It was my experience that mid-to-late game is to easy with those 6-on-3 fights (even on Impossible). So I increased the pod size up to 4 since 3rd month and up to 5 since 5th. Plus some other changes to make number of aliens per mission more random. I want to share this mod for anyone to try (and test), but I'm no expert on the installers. Will it be legal if I just share modded upks and exe?

 

PS Here is a screenshot from a Classic game I'm playing now for testing purposes: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192120133

 

Glad to see you working on a general mod with the bigger pods :)

 

Currently the vanilla strategy game mostly gauges mission difficulty based on number of aliens -- alien-to-pod ratio is pretty fixed at 2 or 3:1. With larger pod sizes the chances of getting easier/harder missions goes up -- the difference between 5 sectoids and 5 Mutons elites is pretty significant. I originally had some thoughts of a fairly full-fledged point-system for the strategy AI, but it turned out to be pretty difficult to implement.

 

After EW comes out I'm thinking of trying to work a mod that would define points per alien but would only adjust the number of aliens per pod based on points. With this change each pod would tend to be more consistent in difficulty. For example, a pod of Sectoids might have 6 members with leader upgrades, but a pod of Muton Elites would only have 2 or 3 members. When new aliens first appear they would tend to appear in smaller pods, while older aliens would get larger pod sizes to ramp up difficulty.

 

This would mean that the mission difficulty would primarily scale based on (1) number of pods (2) points allowed per pod.

[wghost81]

Amineri, thanks. :smile: I'm trying to familiarize myself with XCOM modding, because I have a feeling EW will need a lots of changes to make it "a good old XCOM" again. I started with this change, because it is something I always wanted.

 

In my experience game gets a lot easier after lasers and squad size I/II. And it usually happens by the third month. If you grab a scientists on at least one mission and rush the alien containment/arc thrower, you'll have full lasers by the end of second month, assault the alien base for all those valuable resources and the rest of the game will be a smooth sailing even on Impossible. Increasing the pod size from that point should keep the difficulty high enough.

 

Right now I see no problems with different species: sectoids probability decreases fast enough, so by the third month you mostly see floaters, thinmen and mutons. As for Elites, by the month they begin to show up, I'm able to kill all 3 of them in one turn. A pod of 4-5 Elites will at least get a chance to shoot back. :smile: So I really think smaller pods will pose no threat to trained xcom squad, no matter how many of those will be on the map.

 

Right now I tied number of aliens in mission to number of pods:

NumAliens = NumPods * (MaxNumAliensInPod - 1) + Rand(NumPods + 1).

For some missions NumPods depends on difficulty, for the others it gets randomized a little (UFOs). So even for easy missions with 2 pods you will get pod size increased and late easy abductions or downed small scouts will still be a challenge.

 

I think vanilla game has a good balance, especially on higher difficulties. It's almost perfect. It offers a short, but intense conflict with less battles than the 1994 original, but each battle tends to be unique and challenging. And all I want is to keep that challenge until the game end.

 

johnnylump, from what I've read, forcing the game to read data from DGC.ini slows down the process. My PC is a bit outdated, so I never tried this method. But thanks anyway, I'll look into this and try to come up with some kind of installer.

Edited November 5, 2013 by wghost81

[johnnylump]

 

johnnylump, from what I've read, forcing the game to read data from DGC.ini slows down the process. My PC is a bit outdated, so I never tried this method. But thanks anyway, I'll look into this and try to come up with some kind of installer.

 

What's your source there?

 

I believe we suspected that for a bit, but it turns out we were incorrect -- we were getting slowdowns because of a bug in Slingshot that was causing file bloat.

[wghost81]

What's your source there?

I can't remember exactly, I was reading to many forum posts and wiki articles, so, may be, I've got some things mixed up. May be it was this message

Yes, I was not happy at losing diffuclty options as well, but the main problem in forcing game to load the DefaultGameCore.ini lies in increased mission load times (which would suck), so I redesigned my mod in a way that such radical changes wasn't needed at all.

but it seems it was in the early wiki article about DGC.ini too. Anyway, info about slowdowns discouraged me, so I've forgotten about this subject. Turns out I was wrong. :smile:

 

So I can't include executables, but can I at least include full ini and upk files? Because with XComFreeModder it's all that's needed.

Edited November 5, 2013 by wghost81

[Amineri]

The issue with the long strategy-game loading times was noticed around the time that I figured out how to force-load the DGC.ini (and the other two also), but the two issues did turn out to be unrelated.

 

The loading time issue was related to a bug in a different config file merge that happens when the game+DLC is first started.

 

Distributing ini files should be okay, but I would hazard that upk files are only "conditionally" okay. Some upk files contain only art assets, which I wouldn't distribute. This includes things such as armor overlays (kits) and maps, so distributing these could potentially allow someone to get access to DLC content without purchasing, which would clearly be problematic.

 

Right now all of the major code changes fall into three upks : xcomgame.upk, xcomstrategygame.upk, and command1.upk. None of these three are useful without already owning the game, and none can allow access to any DLC without purchase.

[wghost81]

Thanks. To avoid potential problems: would it be sufficient to export DGC.ini with toolbox and replace the same one, located in xcomgame\config folder? As far as I can see, they are identical (for unmodded game).

[wghost81]

OK, I've uploaded the mod files: http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/404

 

Please, feel free to correct any grammar mistakes. :)

[Amineri]

Looks good!

 

I'll very likely be revising the hex code a bit when the EU patch comes out (probably minor stuff).

 

There will likely be somewhat more significant changes for the full EW expansion. This mod is definitely one of my higher priorities to get working again, never fear ^_^. In particular will have to figure out how EXALT forces are going to impact this.