Lowering difficulty level

Just if somebody have clues - are there any ways (by tweaking game files) to lower the intesnsity of alien war effort approximately to the level of XCOM Enemy Unknown game. Just to prevent ending the game for the sake of being overwhelmed with UFO contacts that can't be effectively responded?

Thanks in advance for your attention.

I'm not that experienced in modding the game yet, but I guess you could mod this entry in the gameconfig file:

<!-- GEOSCAPE AI VARIABLES --> <minMissionCount value="3"     comment="This is the mininum number of mission for a wave." /> <maxMissionCount value="7"    comment="This is the maxinum number of mission for a wave. The number of human bases will be added to this one." />

Change 7 to a lower number > less UFOs per wave late game.

It is not expected to handle every single UFO. You are supposed to be overwhelmed.

If you lower the number of UFOs, you will be less likely to encounter one. Play on Easy if the game's too difficult for you.

Ilunak, you have a rather....unique, gung-ho, play it my way or don't play it at all, sort of way with dealing with people on the forums. Why? Is it really necessary?

This is the same type of scenario back when I casually mentioned that I use all the base slots and have squads at each base. Everyone jumped on me about "that's not how you're supposed to play it!" Some of us like playing the game a certain way, and it may not be how everyone else does. He wants to not get overwhelmed with UFOs. OK, cool. And a solution has already been posted. There is of course more he could do, but this will work in the interim.

This game is moddable for a reason. Let us have our fun our way. You would probably have a heart attack if you saw what I've done to my game lol. Not everyone is looking for a hard challenge :-P

You are an amazing modder, and I absolutely respect you for that. But go easy on us, ok?

Yes Ufo Tubby is correct. However, you need to really pay attention to what you are changing. I would recommend changing the min mission count first. You may also need to read about the commands you will need to use in the file for the Modular system, to make sure your changes are always read. It seems it is getting more difficult to implement changes, rather than easier. I wish it was just as simple as changing the mod order, but alas it is not.

@ Endersblade : I fully support and endorse you play the game you want. In fact it brings up a very old memory. I showed a friend that you could mod Xcom with a hex editor. Once I had him up and running, he called me a couple of days later and said that was sure fun! he told me he had a run in with an inferior race of aliens...I just laughed at the things he changed, and made things so overpowered as to reduce alien ships to rubble even before entering.

Here is the one thing that has pissed me off about the way people have programmed the files, they have made the humans with so many penalties..of course it is hard. Artificially hard. The aiming bonuses are so skewed it is ridiculous, along with overpowered weapons, and useless armor. The reaction fire is atrocious in penalties against humans, they made heavy weapons useless in my opinion. Personally, I wish they would concentrate on improving the wimpy AI. There is no squad tactics for the aliens, they individually run around ad haphazardly attack civilians instead of the real threats, my guys. That is one reason many will defend how they have made the files so skewed. To give the appearance of a hard game. Of course the game is too hard..because they have stacked the deck completely against you...just like Vegas.

Here is the one thing that has pissed me off about the way people have programmed the files, they have made the humans with so many penalties..of course it is hard. Artificially hard. The aiming bonuses are so skewed it is ridiculous, along with overpowered weapons, and useless armor. The reaction fire is atrocious in penalties against humans, they made heavy weapons useless in my opinion. Personally, I wish they would concentrate on improving the wimpy AI. There is no squad tactics for the aliens, they individually run around ad haphazardly attack civilians instead of the real threats, my guys. That is one reason many will defend how they have made the files so skewed. To give the appearance of a hard game. Of course the game is too hard..because they have stacked the deck completely against you...just like Vegas.

I can certainly agree to that! Even the Firaxis XCOM felt like the game was woefully against you. One step away from the alien, burst mode, 95% chance to hit? NOPE! Alien on the other side of the map, over 6+ walls, through two doors and a window? BOOM, headshot, your squaddie's dead! That isn't true difficulty, that's just really skewed numbers against your guys.

I've modded my game to be far, far easier and laid back than vanilla, but it's still a challenge to me. That being said, I completed XCOM EU/EW on Imp/Iron man within the first month of release, I used to do Iron Man runs in UFO/TFTD. I know what challenge is. I've done it. But now, I just want a game that I can play where I can kick alien butt at leisure, and not have to worry about my guys being made of paper, my bases costing me more than the US National Debt each month, and actually standing a chance without having to rush to the end of the game.

Also, if the OP is just changing the current Vanilla/X:CE files, he doesn't need to know about the MODMERGE stuff...man, it took me forever to get my head around that. Again, brilliant work by Ilunak for posting how to do it, but there's something to be said about having to do it yourself to understand!

I PROMISE I'm not trying to be rude to Ilunak. I really value the inputs he's given me when I've come here for help. Well, most of the time :-P He's just a bit abrasive at times. I know, "Grow a thicker skin!" but that's not what people come to these forums to deal with. They'd like help with their frustrations without having to get even more frustrated in the process. I'm going to do my best, after the knowledge I've gained, to help people out as much as I can. Xeno is the first time a lot of people have dealt with this type of game, especially when they start delving into modding. They want a helping hand, not someone telling them they don't need to do that because it ruins the challenge.

Anyway. I'm off to dive back into figuring out this whole mod thing. GL and HF guys :-)

If you lower the number of UFOs, you will be less likely to encounter one.

That's exactly what the OP asked for.

Ilunak, you have a rather....unique, gung-ho, play it my way or don't play it at all, sort of way with dealing with people on the forums. Why? Is it really necessary?

The game was designed so that the player is unlikely to deal with every single UFO (unless playing really well). And given that this was the OP's first post it's more likely that he has incorrect expectations about this because of having played the OG, and thinks the game's too hard, whereas it's presumably going as intended.

The fact that the OP asked about the change doesn't change anything about the fact that it's a wrong change that'll make the game in fact harder. If somebody asks to do something for wrong reasons, helping them with that is not really helping.

The game was designed so that the player is unlikely to deal with every single UFO (unless playing really well). And given that this was the OP's first post it's more likely that he has incorrect expectations about this because of having played the OG, and thinks the game's too hard, whereas it's presumably going as intended.

The fact that the OP asked about the change doesn't change anything about the fact that it's a wrong change that'll make the game in fact harder. If somebody asks to do something for wrong reasons, helping them with that is not really helping.

It's not your business to tell people what kind of changes they're supposed to make or not to make or what would be "right" changes or "wrong" reasons. Stop to tell people what approach they should take to play or mod a game.

The game was designed so that the player is unlikely to deal with every single UFO (unless playing really well). And given that this was the OP's first post it's more likely that he has incorrect expectations about this because of having played the OG, and thinks the game's too hard, whereas it's presumably going as intended.

The fact that the OP asked about the change doesn't change anything about the fact that it's a wrong change that'll make the game in fact harder. If somebody asks to do something for wrong reasons, helping them with that is not really helping.

You see, that's the thing though. Vanilla game too hard for you? Mod it! I don't see Chris condemning all these posts of people trying to change the game, so why are you? What is it to you if this guy wants to change the game his way?

In my games, I shoot down every UFO that pops up, unless it escapes. I go to every crash site. Some of the bigger ships I'll let land for a needed change of pace. I've modded my game to support this style of play. I still lose planes, I still lose troops, I've even lost a base or three. Like I said, thanks to modding, we can all enjoy this game the way we want to.

Thanks for your attention and a means to get the job done. Right now I am playing with rebalancing the difficulty levels so that they better match their descriptions (with more drastical stepping up of difficulty between difficulty levels and with "easy" and "normal" somewhat less challenging then the vanilla game).

I don't see Chris condemning all these posts of people trying to change the game

Devs wouldn't be likely seen complaining since they (as it seemed) intentionally made the game easy to modify.

Thanks for your attention and a means to get the job done. Right now I am playing with rebalancing the difficulty levels so that they better match their descriptions (with more drastical stepping up of difficulty between difficulty levels and with "easy" and "normal" somewhat less challenging then the vanilla game).

Devs wouldn't be likely seen complaining since they (as it seemed) intentionally made the game easy to modify.

I've just finished reading the thread (skimmed over a few posts), and no one seemed to mention something pretty important imho: if you reduce the number of missions per wave, also tweak the alien invasion ticker, or you'll probably won't be able to keep up with tech.

Anybody here has thought about making a "Humanity! F-Yeah!" mod, lowering the difficulty to ultra-easy? Or keeping the same difficulty, but improving the Alien AI and yet making humans and human hardware suck less (and/or make research faster), maybe reduce alien waves so your ticker doesn't feels like the Firaxis game after a while which (at least with my luck) seemed to be loaded with nothing but Terror raids?

Of course, understandably people will foam at the mouth, but some of us are 1) ultra-casual gamers that got the game out of an induced sense of nostalgia and suck at strategy so would want to win the game at least once and 2) gamers that like to shove mods into games that make things sillier or cooler (like having access to the Wingsuit from the start in "Far Cry 3").

The modding community on this game is astonishing, but was just thinking of a "silly" mod idea. Heck, could even change the title screen to a photoshopped picture of Team America, show how silly it's supposed to be.

Anybody here has thought about making a "Humanity! F-Yeah!" mod, lowering the difficulty to ultra-easy? Or keeping the same difficulty, but improving the Alien AI and yet making humans and human hardware suck less (and/or make research faster), maybe reduce alien waves so your ticker doesn't feels like the Firaxis game after a while which (at least with my luck) seemed to be loaded with nothing but Terror raids?

Of course, understandably people will foam at the mouth, but some of us are 1) ultra-casual gamers that got the game out of an induced sense of nostalgia and suck at strategy so would want to win the game at least once and 2) gamers that like to shove mods into games that make things sillier or cooler (like having access to the Wingsuit from the start in "Far Cry 3").

The modding community on this game is astonishing, but was just thinking of a "silly" mod idea. Heck, could even change the title screen to a photoshopped picture of Team America, show how silly it's supposed to be.

The time between special missions (terror, terror bombing, base construction, base attack) can be modified independently, so if one of those is what bothers you, you can modify it without affecting the rest of them.