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XML File Balance Mods


Assoonasitis

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I have made some modifications to the weapons.xml, weapons_gc.xml, items.xml and manufactures.xml, which can be downloaded in a .rar archive here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwz2kp94iyjfdyt/assets%20mod.rar Download and extract to the assets folder. Back up your original files first, obviously.

A probably incomplete list of modifications made:

 items.xml:   -Increased sale price of laser cells to make them profitable   -Increased sale price of plasma cells to make them break even manufactures.xml:   -Decreased costs of manufacturing ammunition   -Decreased build time of laser cells to make them more profitable   -Decreased build times of all aircraft (to align with the very small sizes of manufacturing teams)   -Decreased build times for plasma and MAG (see above)   -Decreased build times for Scimitar and Hyperion (see above)   -Decreased materials costs for pretty much everything with a materials cost   -Added materials costs for things which had them missing  weapons.xml/ weapons_gc.xml   -Increased clip sizes for manufactured weapons     -Pistols now progress as 12 (ballistic), 15 (laser), 18 (plasma), 24 (MAG) rounds to increase usefulness     -Manufactured rifles and carbines now have 18 (laser), 15 (plasma) and 12 (MAG)     -Precision rifles decrease by 2 per tier     -Rapid-fire weapons now have 25 (laser, plasma) and 24 (MAG)   -Reactions modifications!:     -Increased pistol and laser pistol reactions to 2     -Increased plasma pistol reactions to 2.2     -Increased MAG pistol reactions to 2.5 (all in an attempt to make pistols useful without shields)     -Increased plasma carbine reactions to 1.5 and plasma rifle to 1.1     -Increased MAG carbine to 1.75 and rifle to 1.25     -Decreased all rapid-fire weapons except MAGStorm to 0.5     -Decreased rocket-launcher type weapons to 0.1   -Increased power of C4 to 145, changed radius to 1.5

There are probably more modifications that I have made. If you have any suggestions for balance I'd love to hear them. And please, back up your original files before replacing them.

Alternately, download THIS and install with the Mod Tools in the launcher without having to back up or unpack anything!

Edited by Assoonasitis
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And please, back up your original files before replacing them.

Why not distributing this mod with the mod manager inlcuded in the new launcher?

Not talking just about you, but a few people are releasing mods just giving the xml files to be subsititued.. So users will have to manually open the assets folder, backup the files and substitute them..

The mod tools bundled allows having both the original and modded files, and switch easily between them just using the dropdown menu placed in the "modding tools" section in the launcher.

You'll just need to provide the modded files archived in .zip format, and users will be able to install it just clicking the "install new mod" button on the "modding tools" submenu.

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Is this a mod to replace the vanilla game balance or a test to balance the vanilla game?

Also is the C4 now properly set to incendiary because if it is then the damage increase seems a little high.

With the double damage incendiary does to terrain it would be set to the equivalent of 290 damage in your files.

Edited by Gauddlike
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Is this a mod to replace the vanilla game balance or a test to balance the vanilla game?

Also is the C4 now properly set to incendiary because if it is then the damage increase seems a little high.

With the double damage incendiary does to terrain it would be set to the equivalent of 290 damage in your files.

Question 1: can't it be both?

Question 2: no, it's not set to incendiary. Should I do that and repost?

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Well I asked mainly because Chris is balancing the game so that manufacturing for profit is not possible so I was curious about the laser cell changes.

I was unsure if it was changed to profit temporarily to balance out a bug (like the old vanishing equipment one) or if you were working to a different set of guidelines.

Chris seems to think that grenades are the only explosive that is not incendiary damage.

The C4 is not really a grenade after all and the incendiary bonus of double damage to terrain feels right to me for a demo charge..

I wasn't sure if you had already changed it and the damage boost was on top of that change.

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I know that Chris has his ideals about not manufacturing for profit, but I can almost guarantee that it won't work out in the end, at least not with the way he prices things out, and especially not if he doesn't change the manufacturing times for things. It is simply not possible to make, say, a Corsair right now without having something that you can manufacture to make profit, because the Corsair takes so long to build. The only way to decrease the obnoxious build-time is to increase both your number of workshops (which only hold space for 15 techs to work) and your number of living quarters (because living quarters hold hardly any people), and even that doesn't work because the greatest manufacturing force you can possibly have is (unless my maths are wrong) 140 (space in base to build up to 16 modules of 1x2 or 2x1; subtract general stores, garage and one hangar leaves space for 14; one LQ houses 35 workers, one workshop holds 15; end result is 5 LQs, 9 workshops and 10 wasted workshop space). Working with that, it would take just over 4 days to construct a Corsair at such a base, and would take a month to construct a fury. So people are either going to not play vanilla or play a vanilla where they can make a little money on the side, which is entirely realistic, even.

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Or play a game that has the construction times properly balanced which is not yet the case.

The easiest way to adjust the obnoxious build time is to change the xml file until it is about right.

That would be the point at which it was balanced to my mind, not the point where you need to change a core game feature to make it fit.

It may not work out that building without profit is viable but if you are intending this to be a suggestion for official balance then you need to follow the official design as far as you can.

If it is a mod following your personal ideas for how the game should work then that is obviously not the case.

That was the reason I asked which it was going to be.

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Ok, gives me an idea on what kind of suggestions to make ;)

In that case I would consider deciding early what sort of profit margin you should have.

A set amount across the board with a bit of variation according to whatever rule you want to use might give a solid base.

For example maybe you want to give smaller goods a higher profit margin to make the most of short periods of down time while the really big stuff is an investment in time and money to help your war effort.

Maybe anything using Alenium will have a bigger profit margin to make the player decide if keeping the Alenium for their own use or turning it into cash is the best option.

Are you planning on mainly balancing the weapons or going deeper into the financial side as well?

If you are planning to go your own way with the weapons as well have you considered keeping the damage variance between the tiers smaller and balancing them using different shot costs (i.e. ballistic fire lots of shots for low damage, lasers fire powerful shots for high AP) and balancing the tiers using enemy armour resists?

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I'm sort of working with the things I feel need the most work right now. I agree with the profit margins thing (right now the laser cells have a 100% margin and only take 6 hours to build) which seems high, but I was considering things that cost Alenium having a margin of about 100% + the value of Alenium used and items that use Alien Alloys having the same, but with maybe 7x value of Alien Alloys (which are still only worth $1000.00).

I haven't really touched damage or TU cost for weapons. The changes I made were to justify the outrageous cost of manufacturing ammunition for the weapons and a big attempt to make pistols not entirely useless. For balancing the damage and costs I'd have to take a really long look at the current stats and figure out how best to do that. Thanks for the input, Gauddlike!

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