More Range! More Bursts! A Tactical Mission Mod

This is a little mod which plays around with a few ground combat variables.

(Updates for v22.1 Experimental)

Download it from:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4l81cdjsqmvgwja/More%20Range%21%20%20More%20Bullets%21%20%20A%20Tactical%20Mission%20Mod.zip

To install, extract the file into your 'Xenonauts' folder, maintaining the file structure. This mod will overwrite:

aiprops.xml

armours_gc.xml

config.xml

weapons.xml

weapons_gc.xml

There's no method included to uninstall the mod. I recommend either daving a copy of all the above-mentioned files so you can overwrite the modded files then your done, or simply using the 'verify integrity of game cache' function in Steam (if you're not a Steam user, I don't know if you can do this. Sorry.)

The mod makes the following changes:

- Increased sight range for alien and player units. Default sight range is now 30 tiles, with range adjusted for some aliens/tanks in proportion with variance in the vanilla game. AI engagement range and effective weapon ranges have been adjusted accordingly.

- Increased bullet speed. Projectile speed has been doubled.

- Some weapon TU/Accuracy tweaks. Most of these are relatively small, to facilitate some other changes. Basically, using a higher accuracy shot is almost always more likely to score a hit than multiple low-accuracy shots.

- Reduced rifle burst fire costs. Burst fire on rifle-type weapons now uses 45% TUs. Accuracy has been reduced on burst fire accordingly. Overall, burst fire is very slightly less likely to score a hit than a 'normal' shot (which is also 45% TUs), but suppresses more and benefits more from close-range bonuses. Taking a single aimed shot is still better in terms of hit-chance than two bursts.

- Reduced LMG fire cost. Like rifles, the LMG now uses 45% TUs to fire, shooting 10 rounds per burst and with two or three times more ammunition (depending on weapon tier) than vanilla. On the other hand, the LMG recoil has been increased to 75, it receives no close-range bonuses, and moving before shooting applies a -75% to-hit reduction. In principle, then, a stationary LMG-gunner will be able to cause a large amount of suppression and damage, but on the move is only really useful for suppression. Either way, they're not effective for getting kills in close-quarters combat. (LMG-weapons might be broken late-game. Haven't been able to test this!)

- Precision Rifle Changes. Costs for firing the precision-type weapons have been broadly increased. Accuracy has gone down for lower TU shots and up for higher TU shots. However, short-range bonus has been added back in. In other words, a precision rifle is now very accurate from a stationary position but not better than a standard rifle on the move.

- Predator armour no longer reduces weapon fire costs. This was unnecessary as a result of LMG TU cost changes.

Alien weapons have also been changed in accordance with these alterations and they match player weapons in terms of their accuracy/TU usage. I made an exception for the Alien Plasma Sniper, however, as at the moment the AI can only use snap and burst fire and therefore would be unable to take advantage of the high 'aimed' accuracy on the weapon.

If you have any comments, suggestions or feedback, they're more than welcome. Be aware that I've not tested this mod as-is: it's based on some changes I've made for another mod as well as things I've played with in the past and while all of these things have worked within the context that I've used them in, they might not in the context of the vanilla game.

Seems very interesting, the game needs more little preference and balance tweaks like this, I'll try it out once I complete my current game, and I suggest anyone with enough time on their hands to test this for him.

Also, what 'other mod' are you talking about? Because I was about to download this since it didn't seem like a major change but if it's not made with vanilla in mind iunno.

Also, what 'other mod' are you talking about? Because I was about to download this since it didn't seem like a major change but if it's not made with vanilla in mind iunno.

For clarity: the changes in this mod have not been designed with another mod in mind per se. It's just that I've not really tested these changes outside of the context of other modifications*. While I'm not convinced there's anything about the changes which should be problematic in the context of an otherwise vanilla game, I just can't support that with any solid evidence and - in particular - I offer no guarantees that LMG-type weapons don't end up OP in the mid-late game.

(Also, to be clear, there should be no incompatibility issues. I started with a clean install for producing this mod.)

the game needs more little preference and balance tweaks like this,

This was my thinking, too!

I'll bite... Will try this out now.

Nice job, I think that Devs hear more suggestions of modders. Your mod looks very similar to mine in some way, some of their changes take the same way. If you want to put your hands on the project take a look.

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9280-XNATS-Into-Darkness-V1?p=104210#post104210

It take lot lot changes, I'll try yours and look interesting changes in range that you suggest, test Xnats - Into Darkness and tell me what you think.

In case there's interest, I've updated the mod above so it should - I hope - work with v22.1 Exp. (It didn't look like anything changes in aiprops.xml, so I think the only relevant change was the regeneration variable in config.xml. Fingers crossed!)

More bullets is right! Pack a lot more ammo...

Still early days, but I'm liking this so far; the suppression and movement options the mod creates are dynamic and intuitive.

In case there's interest, I've updated the mod above so it should - I hope - work with v22.1 Exp. (It didn't look like anything changes in aiprops.xml, so I think the only relevant change was the regeneration variable in config.xml. Fingers crossed!)

There are a lot of changes, keep an eye of all xml files to avoid crashes, order it in Modification Date.

My mod updated too.

I have a build only for your mod kabill thanks for upgrading.