What have you modded and how has it turned out?

[Hovis]

Hey folks, just interested to see what people have done to the game by tinkering with configs, or using mods, or generally just mucking around with it, and how it's panned out.

Personally I'm playing the game with a -massive- amount of money, think I gave myself about fifty million at the start or something, plus I changed the capacities of the aircraft to carry the most people possible (which I think is eighteen). In addition I am running the realistic aircraft mod (which is why I wanted all that money, wanted to try all the planes out).

The effect of all this modding has been pretty cool I think in that it has changed the nature of the game and moved the goal posts. Unlike playing the game with regular resources, a fat pile of money means that I was able to place bases on every continent straight away, with a specialised research and construction facility as well. Coupled to this I've got regional Xenonaut squads, as well as special teams for live capture and heavy assault.

All this extra firepower moves the objectives for me however, because obviously having all this gear I am able, indeed pretty much compelled to not allow any incursion to go unanswered, so when the aliens show up things get a bit hectic, with fighter groups being scrambled all over the world.

Having lots of troops means that experience is harder to come by for any given soldier, and equipping the whole cadre of troops is just not happening, so I've had to face more than one terror mission with large numbers of badly equipped and inexperienced soldiers, because they were the only guys in reach. Such missions can be a bit of a bloodbath, but I like the style of arriving in force, fairly confident of victory, but having to focus more on keeping casualties down than worrying about whether I'll win the fight or not. Alien base missions are proving a particular swine, because my troops tend to be pretty green round the gills, which means casualties can be heavy, and of course this means that experience remains low. My elite heavy assault team for example, on my first ever base assault, suffered about 80% casualties and had to be rebuilt out of softboys in a hurry.

It's still a challenge, because I've set the target of engaging the enemy in a much more aggressive and broad way than would be possible with a normal start up. I don't know if it will pan out to be particularly balanced with the endgame, however I like this style of play- it kind of presents the game situation as more of a no-holds-barred fight against the aliens, rather than a low key resistance fight.

So, what have you folks managed to do? Any recommendations?

[TrashMan]

I just added some stuff (research, weapons) and did minor re-balances.

No major changes in Ground Combat really, but Air comabt is easier (since I added better aircraft)

[a333]

You can always take a look here: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/3824-Mod-List

to get an impression of what people are modding and what was already done.

[Tobbzn]

I'm not an actual modder, but I "modded" away some bugs like Assault Shields not appearing after being researched, and the game hanging after certain research completes. Those should both be fixed in the hotfix version, though.

I'm compelled to try what you did, albeit in a slightly different way. I'd increase starting money enough for 2 fitted interceptor bases off the bat, but with 50% more alien stuff per wave, and reducing Chinook fuel supply. That way, instead of having one super-squad covering the entire globe, I'd have to balance production for two bases. It'd also reduce the randomness of research progression, as I'd have a better chance of the first of any given ship not spawning on the other side of the globe.

On the other hand, progression could be very slow if you wanted to clear every site for squad experience, so I think I'll wait for the next patch to test it.

[Hovis]

I'm not sure how to use multiple mods at once, which is a bit of a problem. How do you increase things like number of alien ships per wave and such like?

[Tobbzn]

Merging mods can be problematic unless you want to go through all the files that the mods affect and look at variables on a case-by-case basis.

In this case, if you want to mod alien ships per wave, go into the assets folder and use whatever OS search function you prefer to find the files you're interested in. In this case you're interested in:

gameconfig.xml

aircrafts.xml

Specifically, in gameconfig.xml, there's the following:

Money:

<!-- STARTING MONEY -->

<startingMoney value="1000000" comment="The Xenonaut funds on new game start (before buying first base)" />

Alien mission count:

<!-- GEOSCAPE AI VARIABLES -->

<minMissionCount value="4" comment="This is the mininum number of mission for a wave." />

<maxMissionCount value="8" comment="This is the maxinum number of mission for a wave. The number of human bases will be added to this one." />

<highBandTicker value="600" comment="This is the ticker value from where the maxMissionCount missions are going to be spawned." />

<parabolicPower value="0.6" comment="Hard to explain here." />

RADAR range:

<!-- GEOSCAPE RADAR RANGES -->

<longWaveRadarRange value="1000" comment="This is the detection range in KM of the base radar building." />

<trackingRange value="1.5" comment="The radar tracking range multiplier. Radars will continue to track acquired UFOs within this range but will not detect additional UFOs." />

The simplest thing to mod is just to increase startingMoney, minMissionCount and maxMissionCount to satisfactory levels.

With increased mission number and enough starting cash for two bases, you could also reduce RADAR ranges slightly without gimping yourself, and, by opening aircrafts.xml in a spreadsheet program, you can change the Chinook dropship's fuel capacity. If you really want to run a macro game with a lot of bases, that's how you do it.

The "Ticker" that's being referred to is a measure of how advanced the aliens are. The higher it is, the larger ships spawn, with more elite crew. If you want, you can make alien missions generate ticker points. If you do, the alien tech will advance if not shot down, so there's more of a snowballing effect if you fall behind.

You'll have to find your own balance, though.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Tobbzn
Added info

[WalrusJones]

I did a medium size weapon adding project, never got as big as the little mod, and I am having difficulties with just motivating myself to update it (I seriously burnt myself out in the first week, and haven't looked at it since.)