Little Mod V5

[Sathra]

New day, and a new version! This mod is for the Stable version of the game (so not the experimental version 19X), and while it might work with it, it won't be designed for it.

Changes are as follows:

-All the stuff from V4.1.3

-New Xenopedia reports for Nervegas and particle weapons.

-Changed the various explosives entries to account for manufacturing.

-Added Power Cores. These are use for aircraft and advanced vehicles in varying amounts (more advanced craft, more Cores).

-Changed the entries for the aircraft to account for Cores.

-Higher alien ranks are less resistant to suppression (depends on race)

-Machineguns suppress more.

Power Cores can be made from scratch, or by converting an alien power core into one (or two or three). They can also be sold for a reasonable profit if you are so inclined.

EDIT: My bad, here's the link for V5: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5i9kmylhrabj61/Sathra%27s%20Mod%20V5.zip

Version 5X for the Experimental branch: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bj1uhpdd6...0Mod%20V5X.zip

Changes:

-All the stuffs from V5

-All weapons cost the same amount of alloys to manufacture, but now have increased alenium costs. Laser weaponry got a slight increase to alloy cost to the same as the rest.

-Power cores cost less Alenium to make now, and should now actually be somewhat profitable. Only a small profit though (~10k)

-AK-47 added. Its basically a Carbine for the ballistic era.

-Shield 'ammo' increased. They can block more shots (roughly a full plasma rifle burst for the Combat).

-Some damage rebalancing (MG's do rifle damage but sniper penetration mostly)

-Grenade base range increased to 6.

-Damage text lasts longer before fading.

-Teleport cost increased to 30, so Wraiths don't jump around so damn much.

Further changelogs for the various updates are later in the thread.

Now includes both Lightgemini's Projectile Images mod, and Max_Caine and a333's Alien Analysis mod.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Sathra

[Sathra]

Ack, forgot to change a bunch of stuff to account for power cores. Mostly manufacture time reductions and cost descriptions.

Updated.

[steelwarrior]

Hi Sathra, save game compatible? You mean the steam version, right?

[Sathra]

Yeah, the stable steam version. It should be savegame compatible as long as you haven't researched Corsairs (as otherwise you can't get Power Cores).

[Naresh]

Erm... Am I blind, but where is the download link?

[Sathra]

Haha, whoops.

[Naresh]

Just had a quick go for the first week of gameplay, it was brutal, I don't know if it was the mod or if the random generators hate me.

First day, within 2 seconds of taking it off slow speed, UFO appears right above my base, raid it to find 5 aliens camping around my chinook. Brutal fight...

scout shot down a plane of mine, raided it, again, 3 aliens around my chinook, another few off else where, a grim and desperate battle with only cacti as cover.

Third mission... I'd argue as almost impossible to win without losing a man, large open areas with no cover, too far to shoot efficiently, had to resort to a smoke grenade line and about 12 grenades being pot shotted and listening for screams.

Loving it (All on normal difficulty)

[Sathra]

Bit of column A, bit of column B. The mod does make early game comparatively harder than vanilla, but ballistic weapons are also quite cheap to use, so its a good learning phase. I was worse in earlier builds since you had less troops to work with (which is why I increased troop numbers). Tanks are also excellent (fast and really quite tough. The Scimitar can take a huge volume of fire) and less of a sacrifice to use, but expensive in price and build time.

It does get worse, since alien armour scales faster than weapon upgrades, but there are more low ranking aliens in the higher grades of ship for slaughtering.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Sathra

[Sathra]

And due to the random numbers possible for mission + crash damage alien numbers can vary pretty wildly. I've had between 1 and 18 aliens in a Corvette (high numbers due to Reapers). Generally its higher by 2-3 aliens than vanilla though.

[Naresh]

Don't know what it is, but I can't assign new research, or researchers to projects in my second base (yes, I have a lab and scientists)

Mod related?

[Sathra]

I'm not sure. Could you provide a savegame?

[Sathra]

Used a V18/mod V5 savegame to check, and I'm having no problems with assigning research. So savegame would be lovely.

[Sathra]

Updated V5 download. Nothing major, just making sure the entries for some techs actually show in the pop-up, and giving a damage bonus for robots when their autopsies are done.

[Naresh]

Grenades are now great early game, I found I was using them 3-4 times per mission, until about mission 5 where I moved over to focusing on guns more. I'm finding rocket launchers are fairly "meh" specifically the stun rockets. I have yet to stun anyone on the first shot with the rocket launcher, while stun grenades seem to work better (can require 2-3 of them still). Never used stun batons.

Have shotguns been improved with this mod? I remember never using them due to short range and it not being worth getting close enough to use them.

[Sathra]

They do quite a bit of damage, and their range has been increased. They're okay early game against non-coms and Guards. They'll be more useful in V5X (when the smoke bug is fixed) due to aliens actually staying inside the UFO more.

[Sathra]

Heh, just got a Corvette with Heavy Fighter escorts on the 27th of December. I wonder why...

[Sathra]

Version 5X for the Experimental branch: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bj1uhpdd6kdvjf/Sathra%27s%20Mod%20V5X.zip

Changes:

-All the stuffs from V5

-All weapons cost the same amount of alloys to manufacture, but now have increased alenium costs. Laser weaponry got a slight increase to alloy cost to the same as the rest.

-Power cores cost less Alenium to make now, and should now actually be somewhat profitable. Only a small profit though (~10k)

-AK-47 added. Its basically a Carbine for the ballistic era.

-Shield 'ammo' increased. They can block more shots (roughly a full plasma rifle burst for the Combat).

-Some damage rebalancing (MG's do rifle damage but sniper penetration mostly)

-Grenade base range increased to 6.

-Damage text lasts longer before fading.

-Teleport cost increased to 30, so Wraiths don't jump around so damn much.

I think that's all of it. Find any bugs or have balance suggestions? Post them in this thread and I'll see about it.

[steelwarrior]

Hey Sathra, the Scout car has only 60 HP now but a better armor, right? Just trying to understand it for my recording ;-)

[Sathra]

The 150 HP was a mistake on my part. It made it insanely hard to kill. It can take quite a bit of fire still (plasma rifles can wreck it a few shots though) and it really depends on which side the shot hits from.

[Sathra]

V5 has been updated with the new changes, for those playing the Stable version.

Also Combat shields should be available in V5X now (screwup on my part).

[Sathra]

And another. Forgot to remove Power Cores from the MiG (testing holdover). Both versions, savegame compatible.

[steelwarrior]

Cool - thanks

[Wolverik]

I play the experimental build with Sathra's mod 5x and xtended soldiers mod from Pinetree.

Fixed hiddenmovement screen by remaming map to old.

This version is for me very playable, especialy night missions are not a problem as before.

Good work!! and hope the mods will be integrated into the game.

[Sathra]

I'm testing a few minor changes for another minor version. Mostly increasing accuracy at close range. Its pretty risky so you should be rewarded in my thinking.

[globalizer]

Thank you very much for your work. I am excited!