Hi, trying out ERnT, version 41.1a. Got a few questions.
On Light 'em up, if I had fired as first action, I can't reload, steady, over watch, etc. Is this how it is supposed to work? It was xcom scamper.
Also noticed (only one free action maybe taken per turn) stated in many places. On clean sweep, ...is a free action, but aim and crit decrease by 8 for each successive kill. Is clean sweep an exception to the only one free action rule?
Okay clean sweep just happened last session. I was sort of expecting needing to activate it like ITZ.
Yes Clean Sweep is kinda an exception, since it is based on In the Zone, only trading decreased damage for decreased aim. Also I had to change the icon because I repurposed the original icon for Quickscope
Unfortunately not, in the same way that LW 1.1 and LW Rebalance aren't compatible. Still, LW 1.1 has many included mods, such as Virtual Reality Training, that is compatible with ERaT if you installed that individually.
Hi. I'm playing on impossible patch 40.3b, I left you feedback for 33.1 on impossible before so I'll just talk about the changes. I'm currently at the end of March of the 2nd year. I've just finished the hyperwave relay. I have one firestorm stationed in each continent and they have just equipped plasma cannons. Waiting to play overseer roulette. In my previous playthrough it was more or less a standard campaign - getting lasers first then gauss (HEAT was too important) then pulse then plasma. I didn't prioritise MECs as I figured the tier1 suits were just too fragile, and the tier 2/3 mecs were only unlockable way later when the campaign was nearly over. But I saw in the patch notes mec1s received a DR buff so I decided to do a MEC rush campaign this time. After MECs I got gauss and skipped lasers. I gotta say I didn't enjoy the experience as much as LW.
What I like: - I'm really glad that you reverted the exalt relay hacks back to disable, disorient was just frustrating to play against due to the rockets. The mod's exalt explosives fix was not working for me though as the first exalt heavy I met fired a rocket even while being hacked, killing my soldier and destroying the encoder in the process. I had to apply a separate copy of the fix. - Ignoring the strategic layer, on the tactical layer I think you've made some fantastic changes to the early mecs as they are much more viable now. The DR buff on the tier1 mecs really makes a difference but the star of the show is the extra plating ability which adds 5 more armour hp. I can now be a lot more aggressive sending my marauder right up to the enemy and I'm generally not as worried anymore about them getting wounded/killed. Mind you, I was still running around in paper armor and ballistics in July/August when my mecs were coming online, but I had no problems dealing with the midgame mutons/cyberdiscs/mectoids since I heavily abused the alloy jacketed rounds/shredder ammo and I brought 2 hit and run snipers to nearly every mission. - I like that you reduced the build times of tier2/3 mecs - Overall the mecs got buffed. Everyone can get rapid fire with an item so everyone can deal damage. It looks like you've also narrowed down the range of aim progressions across the mec classes? I remember last time the marauder had abysmal aim progression but now it's pretty good. I can get on average 100 base aim on my mecs with the japan bonus + so others may live. Adding on band of warriors + the rapid fire item, I get an average 115 aim, pretty strong. Mecs are the most fun aspect of the game for me so this is huge. - Buff to alloy carbide plating, it's useful now. Some mecs can tank quite a bit when paired with armour bolstering, it allows me to play much more aggressively. - Now that heat ammo doesn't have +1 damage, it's no longer a must have on every soldier for me. My gunners and snipers have done away with heat, but I still bring it on all my mecs. I skipped lasers after all, so I didn't have the arc rifle.
What I dislike: - I say it every time and I'll say it again! Training roulette! Key abilities can be locked behind very late ranks and it's always frustrating to level these soldiers up. On top of that these abilities can even be missing because the pool of possible abilities is larger than the available slots. I was unlucky with shock and awe this campaign and I only got it first unlocked in August. I was rerolling corporals constantly to try to get the right perks on soldiers and getting key perks early enough. Perhaps could you consider guaranteeing key abilities to be unlocked before a certain rank (like sergeant/ tech sergeant)?
- I'm not sure I like the latest class system... In LW the classes are pretty distinct but a few are quite blurred in this mod. For example, the LW engineer class specialises in grenades but in this mod the medic, support, and scout can be an engineer because they all have engineer perks. My scout ended up being my engineer in my case, which is strange as the name implies that it should be a scout, but I found it much better as an engineer since it has all the grenade perks that I want - grenadier, engineer, free throw, bombard. The support class now I don't need anymore and I've played without them this campaign. Lightemup is not that great since many times you want to grenade first then shoot but they don't have free throw. Medics on the other hand , are less useless than before! Ideally they are an even better engineer than scouts since they have both grenade perks + healing perks. But that's the ideal, because practically speaking training roulette makes it very difficult to get the perfect combination of perks. I tried rolling 2 medics but gave up and decided that someone else in my team will carry the medkits. So I played without medics as well the whole campaign.
Speaking of medkits, they were on my ranger. I didn't build a ranger last campaign but I gotta say I'm warming up to them. Their ITZ is useful for finishing up enemies, then they can throw a dense smoke to cover the team. And if someone gets hit they carry multiple medkits as they have pack master/bonus treatment. They are the combat medic, so much more useful than the LW medics. I bring them on large landeds/longer missions
As for actual scouts, my assaults have become the scouts. In LW I've always used hit n run shotgun scout officers and the assaults in this mod have the two key perks (hit n run, lightning reflexes) that I want that could be unlocked relatively early. They're really strong, even in late game, as they can fire 4 shots in one turn.
Finally, I think snipers are a bit too strong with hit n run, they can potentially fire 3 times in 1 turn with RFA. They're already pretty accurate and deal a lot of damage with the 3 damage perks. I brought 2 snipers to nearly every mission. I cheesed the base assaults as well with squadsight abuse, and the 2 snipers did most of the damage.
So as you can see, I don't think I'm using the classes the intended way.
- I mentioned before on the tactical layer mecs are in a great place, but on the strategic layer they were not so great. The key strategy to mec rush in LW is that you can get aim/dodge modules to compensate for still having stingray interceptors in the midgame. But in this mod it's just too expensive. The first hurdle is the fission generator which costs 40k. I had a steam vent at the bottom layer so I couldn't get 2 cheaper steam generators early. The second hurdle is the foundry which also costs 40k. Then finally you get aircraft boosters with another 17k. Adding on the cost of the mec suit, that's nearly 135k worth of investment, at that point in the campaign it is just way too much. You can forgo satellites/uplinks so you don't need the fission gen but I think that's sacrificing too much at that point. I had 3-4 of my satellites shot down before I could get some interceptor upgrades because I was too broke to keep up with the air game. This wouldn't be a problem if you could get a reasonable amount of money selling loot in the gray market. Everything is priced down so much, especially elerium, selling 85 of them gets you the same amount of money as selling one power source which is a bit ridiculous imo. LW was too generous, but I think it's been nerfed too much in this mod. I'm sure the money progression is not an issue if you do a standard campaign, but for a mec rush it's not that great.
- Heavy floaters are the bane of my existence, they are so unpredictable. One heavy floater ran my suppression to flank my assault and killed him. Perhaps it's because of AFC? Now they are robotic, there's no good way of controlling them anymore other than to kill them with heat and rockets.
Observations: - Exalt hq was really dicey. I usually bring two rocketeers in LW and just rocket everything (8 rockets?), but I made the mistake of only bringing 2 rocketeers and only one of them had shock and awe. They didn't even have inferno rockets/recoilless rifle yet as I was too poor. The exalt snipers absolutely wrecked my mecs and it's a miracle that no-one died. - I've learnt to not underestimate sectopod barrage. I thought the damage would be like LW but it one-shotted my commander with titan armor and nearly my tier3 mec. Sectopods can barrage without LoS as well and it killed one of my soldiers this way which was a bit unfair. - Rushing certain items require obscene meld, for example rushing a mec1 suit requires 937 meld. Is this intended?
Bugs: - My first terror mission occurred as my skyranger was literally flying to a bomb disposal mission. There was nothing I could do, I would have still missed it if I flew back. I lost 3 countries in the first 4 months. That was rough. Perhaps the reason you are given 24hours in LW is to make sure you won't miss it. Possibly increase the timer a little bit? - If a soldier has grenadier and is wearing caravan armor, placing grenades in the 4th slot will not get carried to the mission. - On the observatory map, there was one time when my soldiers without squadsight (saw, shotgun, pistol) could shoot beyond 18 tiles. - Valkyrie and Shogun names are mixed up - The tooltip still says that mecs can be healed with medkits. I like the new tooltips that you've put in. - If you get hit by return fire, your shots will miss. Is this intended?
MECs: As I said before I think MECs are in a better place than the last time I played. As always, I prioritise damage output potential: Jaeger - Solid with double tap, decent damage. Very high aim, mine had 117 base aim with the japan bonus + so others may live Valkyrie - Same feedback as last time, my mecs don't generally stand there and shoot so I haven't had a use for it Archer - even stronger now with hit n run, even without the grenades/proxy mines. Given it's quite easy to get a flanking shot, it can shoot 3 times quite frequently, unlike the valkyrie, which is funny considering it's not a shooty mec. Shogun - same as last time, didn't build one as it seems like a defensive mec Marauder - Very strong, quite durable with extra plating + armor bolstering + alloy carbide plating. Good aim. You can just run up to the enemy's face and not have to worry about getting wounded. I generally bring 2 mecs to every mission and always 1 marauder. They just run n gun up to a high priority target, kill them, then draw enemy fire. Excellent at finishing off ethereals if my 2 snipers still can't manage to kill it, so I had no problems with ethereals even though they're harder to kill now. Centurion - don't really like this mec, it's too situational. Generally Marauders are more useful since you can't always get into CE range after enemy activation (unless in urban close quarter maps), but you can pretty much always run n gun to get a flank on someone. Guardian - still not useful for me Dragoon - this one is hilariously strong. Mine had a 6:1 kill to mission ratio, no other soldier even came close. I think the trick to exploiting this mec is to aim stack, mine had 100 base aim with japan bonus + so others may live, then you add on band of warriors + the rapid fire item, then play it like a marauder and run right into the middle of enemies. I had a double ethereal, double mectoid, double muton elite pod. I opened with a rocket, then my dragoon waltzed right into the middle of the pack, ITZ'd the mectoids and muton elites, burninated the ethereals which killed one and my scout captured the other one. The high aim and close range bonus made sure that all shots were 100%s even with rapid fire, which you can still proc ITZ with. But it doesn't seem to work on mectoids for some reason, you have to single fire for ITZ to proc. Also, killer instinct is a bad perk on a dragoon because of the bug that the 3rd shot will go off even if you have already killed the enemy, then that will count as a "miss" and the ITZ chain breaks.
All in all, the Mecs were pretty fun, but I don't think rushing them was worth the trade-off in the strategic layer. On the other hand, they unlock too late if you're playing the standard way. I was broke pretty much for the first 9-10 months trying to mec rush then getting the air game to stabalise. I think I'm 1 month behind in research as I was too poor to build labs which cost 40k each. Usually at this time end of march I should be building the gollop chamber and researching mind and machine to finish the game, but instead I'm still just about to start overseer roulette. I don't think I'm going to finish the campaign, I already control all the countries and closing the game is just a formality. The enemies have become trivial with heat mecs, with the exception of mass heavy floaters. But the late game is getting a bit tedious.
Hey, thanks for the great feedback! I'll just address things in order.
The training roulette is meant to create unique soldiers, so you'll have a few favourite soldiers, and some perhaps lackluster ones. But even if a rocketeer doesn't get access to Shock and Awe early on, or at all, doesn't mean it can't be effective in other ways, such as squadsight suppression. Part of the challenge is making do with what you have, and coming up with strategies as a result. So I don't recommend players reroll to get the perfect soldier; it's more fun and memorable if that happens naturally in the course of a campaign.
As with default LW, some class overlap is evitable, and I don't think it's a bad thing. If you feel you can replace Medics with Rangers, then all the more power to you. I'm glad that the classes are flexible enough to allow players to customize their squad to their liking, rather than being forced to take certain classes each mission. You're not using them the wrong way just because you use them differently than how I intended! As for class identities, don't compare the ERaT to their old incarnations. Here, Scout is so named because its Low Profile allows it to get to frontline positions that would be suicidal for other soldiers, which also makes it an effective grenade class.
You make a good point about snipers. I think they're strong enough even without Lightning Aim.
Yeah, MEC rush isn't a good idea if it means giving up air upgrades. You're meant to cut other areas, like soldier equipment, or gene mods. Definitely make sure your interceptors are strong enough before buying anything else.
I've heard other players having trouble with heavy floaters. I thought that between suppression and arc rifle disabling, they wouldn't be too bad. I'll try making them a bit slower.
I also had trouble on the Exalt HQ. I'll wait for more feedback before deciding if they need a nerf. I haven't fought Sectopods in a while, but doesn't barrage give you a turn to avoid it? Rushing a MEC-1 costs 127 meld for me (normally 60 meld). I really don't know why yours is that high :/
Bugs You're the first person I've heard of that had that happen lol. I'll increase it by 2 or 3 hours and hopefully that'll fix it. The game can't support too many different kinds of grenades. I don't know the maximum number, but you can avoid the bug by taking more grenades of the same type. Valkyrie and Shogun names are switched because their starting perks are also changed. I think it would be more confusing to returning players if Valkyries had Damage Control and Shoguns had Light 'Em Up. I didn't know that about return fire. It's not something that ERaT introduced, if that's the case.
I didn't know that about Killer Instinct and ITZ. Funny how ITZ is always either OP or bugged. Rapid Fire as a MEC item was a mistake, since it makes them way too deadly. I will make some aliens more durable in the next version, so hopefully players won't walk all over them with MECs.
Okay, I'm just chiming in to add an opinion here. I recently wanted to do another XCOM1 Long War play-through, and decided to run this mod and I'm rather regretting it. I don't think its for me. It feels like it has all the usual XCOM frustrations (percent to hit shenanigans, bad reinforcement mechanics, etc), along with the increased difficulty of Long War - but dialed even higher, in a way that isn't fun.
My biggest frustration right now is that everything just has SO much armor. It makes the other problems less of a random frustration and more... kind of game breaking. Enemies are consistently showing up with 3+ points of damage resistance, even without factoring in cover. Early game, Mutons often completely shrug off shots from primary weapons. Even with upgraded beam weapons, I am plinking away for 1-2 damage per hit against 15 HP enemies. I just had a berzerker charge my Assault who pegged him with a point blank Scatter Beam Shotgun hit...for zero damage. There are two Mechtoids on this level who are just walking through my guys because they each have around 30 hit points, and at 1-2 damage per shot I just can't kill the damn things. The last mission was a random downed small UFO and had FOUR cyberdiscs. Because of the pod-calling mechanics it is extremely easy to get overwhelmed with mobs that you just can't kill fast enough.
This problem is compounded by everything seemingly having dialed up accuracy and damage. On multiple occasions I've had soldiers one shot killed while sitting in cover and dense smoke, or hit by suppressed targets. Even early game, non-crits are hitting for 10+ and a random lucky shot can be instant death even in heavy armor and an HP vest. Given how long it takes to kill things, there just isn't any way to avoid a few rounds of exchanging fire which makes every encounter a roll of the dice on someone dying.
The current mission I am on is a Terror mission, and at like turn 2 I see a Cyberdisc, two 30 HP Mechtoids, several Mutons, and several Sectoids that are all converging on my spawn location. I'm restarting the mission again but I'm quickly hitting the point of "f*#@ this".
Okay, those are valid concerns. Yes, armored enemies do take a while to get through, but that's only because non-armored enemies have much less HP (personally, I'd rather not fight against 6 HP Sectoids). So overall, I think missions take less time in ERaT compared with LW1.
Shotguns are naturally bad against high DR, unless you have the Heavy Capacitor item. Since you're going with beam weapons, it wouldn't hurt to try bringing one or two Arc-Beam Rifles, since they both disable mechtoids and deal 6 dmg with 4 DR pen to all mechanical enemies. If you went ballistic, there's always HEAT Ammo. As for Mutons, acid works wonders on them, because it makes them suppress and waste their turn. With high level snipers, you can even one-shot them with crits.
I'm not sure what you mean by everything having higher aim and damage. You can see from the Google sheet that lots of enemies have lowered aim and damage. Mechtoids get higher damage but worse aim, and with Drones it's the other way around.
Anyway, ERaT isn't actually harder than LW1, it just requires different strategies, and maybe some knowledge of how to use the new items and perks introduced. The chain activation mechanic can produce difficulty spikes at times, so that's something to keep in mind. As for soldiers dying, there's really no way to prevent an unlucky crit from killing a guy, and that's no different in LW1. The challenge lies in whether you can win a campaign despite a few deaths. And of course, you can always lower the difficulty. Which is why I advise new players not to play on Impossible.
Oh, I wasn't expecting a reply this late in the mods lifecycle. I appreciate that. I actually came back to post a follow up clarification. I can see what the mod is going for and I like a lot of what is here. I think the heart of the problem for me is that some of the items that are supposed to offer balance and counters aren't working. I had posted in the bug reports that trying to equip the Ammo items outright crashes my game. I have no idea why. I built the HEAT ammo, Acid ammo, etc, but any time I try to equip them on a soldier I get a crash to desktop.
I had a similar problem with the heavy capacitor. It seemed like a direct counter to the DR mechanics, and it definitely is - when it works. However, on about 75% of the missions it just vanishes and doesn't do anything. I thought at first maybe I had just forgot to equip it, so I started making absolutely sure I had it. I even did some save / load testing to confirm that I had definitely equipped it, but when the mission loaded my beam shotgun was still completely blocked by DR.
Something is wonky somewhere and I'm not sure what or why. It doesn't seem consistent and I haven't been able to pin it down. I almost hard-quit the game yesterday because I hit an impossible exalt mission. It was a tiny corridor map and any blue move I took pulled around 8 of them. For whatever reason, they had obnoxious accuracy, consistently in the 90% to hit, despite cover. They literally leveled my entire four person squad in like two turns. I restarted the mission a few times, and it seemed to go back to normal, with around 40% hit rates and I rolled the mission.
Granted, I'm not saying all those problems are entirely specific to this mod. XCOM in general is famous for its "realistic" probabilities, and LW has always had issues with large numbers and small maps. It just sort of compounds. Because the items don't work, I can't counter effectively, which makes each encounter take much longer, which increases the risk of extra pod calls, which further raises the odds of a lucky shot killing one of my guys. My primary strategy has been taking around ten flashbangs to lock things down while I chip away.
I will try to play around with cloud saves, maybe test on another PC when I get a chance. I appreciate the follow up!
Can you remind me what your discord username is? I don't think anyone else has reported that bug before, and I'd like to get to the bottom it, since that's a pretty major issue if you're encountering it regularly. I also haven't heard of the exalt bug. Send me a save file next time it happens and I'll try to replicate it.
I try to avoid multiple pods with the CMPAS plus Motion Trackers for good measure. Flashbangs are effective, but sometimes a rocket is the surefire way of dealing of overwhelming odds.
Hi, really love the mod! Been enjoying it a lot so far. Just wanted to let you know I'm experiencing a weird bug where the perk 'Unlimited Power' keeps removing itself from one of my soldiers, so I have to click on it to level him up again, but each time his aim goes up by 4. He currently has 104 aim... I'm not sure if this is caused by this mod, but I thought it might be related so I'd let you know.
Hi, looks like a great mod! I really like the realistic HP part of your creation, it didn't make any sense for such a vast gap between 8HP normal muton vs 20HP elite muton, it's those nuances one can hardly tolerate sometimes. Also, I learn there was something I always dreamt about and didn't even know about it - "equippable" perks that make sense and come built-in with a weapon and more pocket slots, the only thing stopping you from making an absolute gem of a mod is more sophisticated modding skills.
But I have a question. It is really refreshing to finally see hobbits have a natural amount of HP, but how well does it address Long War's mid-lategame challenge? With an example of a sectoid on highest difficulty, it's 15HP in Long War 1.1 or LWR vs 5HP in ERaT even on top alien research level. I really like this realism, but I wonder how fun and challenging can mid-late game become as a result? There are other ways to combat this difference, such as off-the-bat psi attacks that I saw on YouTube, but I'm not sure if it's not going to become too easy at some point. LWR have a graph with difficulty curves, and I'd love to see something similar in your mod, especially comparing to LW 1.0 which you adhere to.
Hi, that's a great question. From what I've seen, late game ERaT is about the same as LW 1.0, if not slightly more difficult. Sectoids are easier to kill, but they are also more capable of psionic attacks, leaving your troops weakened against other enemy types. I also think it's gratifying that early game enemies will eventually pose less of a threat to your troops. It makes you feel like your combat strength has actually improved. There are lots of other challenging late-game enemies, with a mix of increased DR, damage, mobility, or accuracy, depending on the species. Of course, I do always welcome feedback, and make balance changes as needed.
Hi there! Is UI Mod Manager also incorporated into this like it is with standalone Minimods? I can't see the option for it in the main menu, so I'm wondering if it's not included or if something is weird. Thanks!
To be entirely honest, I wasn't sure yet, but I like having settings menus to play with.
However, I do also want to ask--how does one remove the included mods with PatcherGUI/LW Mod Manager?
Finally, and most pressingly, I can't seem to get the mod to work. I've followed the instructions in the Readme, first copy/pasting the mod files into xcomgame then installing it using LW Mod Manager. However, when I start it up, it's already in the final shell menu without me having to click anything, the rookies in the first mission don't have suppression or run and gun, items appear to be as in the baseline LW (with the exception that everyone has an HE rather than AP grenade), and when I try to promote soldiers, they can't access abilities beyond their basic class abilities--anything after Specialist is just a blank box (I do have Training Roulette enabled).
I originally had Better Blueshirts, Patrick Carlock+Customize Unique Soldiers, Virtual Reality Training (Second Wave version), and DR Chipping for Long War. However, I tried uninstalling all of those and returning the game to base Long War using the LWMM, then installing only ERAT and the ERAT Mod Pack in LWMM.
This did work, but now I'm wondering which one of these could be causing compatibility issues. Do you have any idea? Could one of those other mods be incorporated in this one without my having realized?
Also, the difficulty options listed in the main menu are 01_NRM, 02_CLS, etc. or something to that effect. Is that normal or is it a sign of a bugged installation?
If you open up the Mod Pack, you can locate and delete any mods you don't want. Individual mods begin with the line UPK_FILE=... or OBJECT=... and they end with 53. Just delete that whole chunk of code. Lines that begin with // are descriptions and aren't read by the game
I installed all four of those mods, and I was still able to complete a mission and see the soldiers' skill "trees" after leveling up. Maybe try again on your end with some or all extra mods enabled, and see if there's a difference.
The difficulty options are supposed to look like that. I initially only numbered them 1 through 4, then I added hints so people can compare them to LW e.g. NRM for Normal, CLS for Classic. But since people always bring this up, I think I'll just go back to the original titles lol
To get this working with VR training: Download Long War Mod Manager version of this mod along with Long War mod manager and VR training mod. Apply Long war mod manager steps. Then e.g. apply squadron unleashed. Some other combinations seems to not work.
Yup, VR training is compatible. I didn't include it because I didn't think players needed as large of a roster of soldiers as in LW 1.0. If enough people want it to be included, then it could be part of a future update
Thank you for this mod its awesome. I like this much more than LW. 11/ 10 my favorite X-COM experience.
I was "kind" or "daring" enough to include a list of changes I made to make it more balanced and realistic. Its based on my playthrough with VR training and Squadron Unleashed. Please consider reading this and consider thinking about incorporating this into mod.
Spoiler:
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STRATMAP
; UFO hunting UFO_INTERCEPTION_PCT=12from 4 This variable modifies chance of interception without satelitte coverage. Doubled with foundry project. Reason balance: was too low. Reason realism: Air Combat Patrol. ; Satellite hunting UFO_FIND_STEALTH_SAT=0.15 from 0.30 UFO_FIND_SAT=0.60 UFO_SECOND_PASS_FIND_STEALTH_SAT=0.20 from 0.50 UFO_SECOND_PASS_FIND_SAT=0.90 Reason balance: What was the point of Stealth satelitte tech? Reason realism: in my recent game UFO came to destroy my satelitte before it was deployed. srsly?
ALIENS Note that increase of alien damage coresponds to minor increase of DR and boost on some XCOM stuff. iType=eItem_CyberdiscGrenade Damage increased by 1. iType=eItem_CyberdiscWeapon Damage increased by 1. -- Cyberdisc main weapon. Reason balance: I found Cyberdiscs always weaker than Mechtoids or massed Mutons and almost never a problem. Raised Environmental damage for iType=eItem_HeavyPlasma_Muton , iType=eItem_HeavyPlasma_Floater iType=eItem_PlasmaLightRifle_Muton, iType=eItem_SectoidPlasmaPistol, iType=eItem_PlasmaLightRifle_ThinMan by +50% on average. Reason balance: Massed thin mans can destroy cover faster. Can screw overwatch creep and is fun when cover is blown. Reason realism: Plasma is bad. Note that iType=eItem_HeavyPlasma_Muton environmental damage was NOT increased. Increase also corresponds to respective Damage values. iType=eItem_SectoidPlasmaPistol Damage increased by 1. iType=eItem_PlasmaLightRifle_ThinMan iCritical=20 raised to 20 from 5. Reason balance: Massing DR on regular soldiers and a good game where XCOM is not behind can cause Sectoids and Thin Mans to be seriously IGNORABLE in most encounters. Their damage was lackluster once Carapace, Aegis armor kick in. This also makes early game harder that is desirable. iType=eItem_ZombieFist Damage reduced by 2. Zombie base HP was increased by 5. Reason realism: self explanatory.
ITEMS Walker Servos Move +4 From +2 Price: Cash: 1400 from 80 Reason balance: was a waste of item slot. Now it competes with Combat Stim. Reason realism: Now is an expensive leg addon to power armor. Flashbang Radius of effect was reduced by 40%. To 216 from 360. Reason balance: Flashbang was too good staying too good even in late game. Reason realism: Seeing berserkers being useless from a single flashbang in late game is kinda funny. Couldnt they become equiped with some special protective sunglasses? Needle Grenade Damage increased to 6 from 5. Reason balance: Does not destroy cover. +1 damage and small radius increase compared to HE was very poor reason to take this item over HE,Chem,Flashbang or Plating, ... On top of that, Grenades deal very little damage to DR based enemies such as mutons, cyberdiscs, mechtoids. Later in campaign when player faces DR based enemies he usually does not use HE or Needle grenades anymore and prefers Rocketeers, Archers, Chems. Also damage is reduced with radius from center. And most enemies have some DR later in game so practical result damage is still 0-2. Alloy Carbide Plating Weight 2 from 1 Adds DR 0.5. Cash Cost increased to 1800. Reason balance: Soldiers can attain same DR as MECS while having cover and some have tanking perks.
SHIVs Their cash cost is doubled. Rebuild SHIV project Cash cost were doubled. Cost Cash 3000 from 1500 Reason balance: SHIVS were too cheap and too good. Try basic SHIVs as damage sponge when needed or use them as disposable scouts or flankers. Also This price is reduced from workshops. Alloy Hover SHIVs Cash Prices +50% Rebuild Cash Prices + 50%. Alloy SHIV 6000 from 4000 .... Hover SHIV 14250 from 9500
MECS Light MECS Movement + 3. (MEC 3, MEC 6) Medium MECS Movement + 2. (MEC 2, MEC 7) Heavy Superheavy MECS DR + 0.5 (MEC 4, MEC 5) Reason balance: soldiers can have same DR as MECS and can be faster. Whas was the point of MECS relative to their costs and investments? I guess that Free flamethrower , free grenade - proximity mine with Archer and thats it. Regular soldiers can take cover. Also MECS primary weapons have usually less ammo than SHIVS or soldiers. Reason realism: Larger legs are usually faster than smaller legs.
GENE MODS Generally a little cheaper while eye geneMods are more costly. BoneMarrow reduces wound recovery time by 70%. Reduced post mission fatigue for most Gene Mods. Cash x10. Costs rebalanced. Posted entire table below. GENEMOD_BONEMARROW_RECOVERY_BONUS=0.30ffrom 0.66f; Modifier to time spent recovering from wounds with Bone Marrow Genemod SET TO 30% from 66% Reason balance: I found that i use eye gene mods for free aim and sometimes bioelectric skin while I think that many other GeneMods were a waste of Meld. +2 regen perk was mostly useless since most late soldiers in Erat got 6-8 hp at max. ; Gene Mod Configuration ;Perk-DNC$CostRequiredTechMeldDaysinTank +Fatigue ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=4,iCash=300,iElerium=53,iAlloys=14,iTime=10,iEng=8) ; ePerk_GeneMod_SecondHeart53=Muton Elite Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=20,iCash=200,iElerium=47,iAlloys=16,iTime=6,iEng=8) ; ePerk_GeneMod_Adrenal47=Muton Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=28,iCash=200,iElerium=57,iAlloys=14,iTime=10,iEng=0) ; ePerk_GeneMod_BrainDamping57=Mechtoid Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=155,iCash=150,iElerium=51,iAlloys=8,iTime=4,iEng=6) ; ePerk_Medal_DefenderB (Smart Macrophages) 51=Berserker Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=30,iCash=100,iElerium=44,iAlloys=11,iTime=5,iEng=5) ; ePerk_GeneMod_Pupils44=Sectoid Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=38,iCash=100,iElerium=45,iAlloys=11,iTime=5,iEng=6) ; ePerk_GeneMod_DepthPerception45=Floater Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=42,iCash=250,iElerium=58,iAlloys=20,iTime=6,iEng=7) ; ePerk_GeneMod_BioelectricSkin58=Seeker Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=148,iCash=200,iElerium=52,iAlloys=8,iTime=5,iEng=2) ; ePerk_GeneMod_IronSkin52=Heavy Floater Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=50,iCash=200,iElerium=46,iAlloys=15,iTime=7,iEng=7) ; ePerk_GeneMod_MuscleFiber46=Thin Man Autopsy ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=45,iCash=300,iElerium=48,iAlloys=24,iTime=7,iEng=6) ; ePerk_GeneMod_BoneMarrow48=Chryssalid Autopsy Cash Cost of Gene Lab reduced. iCash=45000 from 60000 reduced by 15000
Also: I Suggest reducing number of Mechtoids on base Defense mission. And replacing it with other aliens. I respect that base defense is intended to be brutal but Im playing on CLC - 2 difficulty and I almost lost that mission - note: i think that was not behind and was not my first base defence in xcom. And was lucky. But I got something like 7 + mechtoids? or more? On beam laser + carapace level.
Regarding LWR compat: i never played LWR but read that there are Airstrikes and emergency Evac. That might be a worthy addition.
VR training could be always included in mods as a second wave option. If it is possible. I wrote my comment because It took me some time to get it work. It did not worked with NOT Long War Mod Manager version of Erat.
Thanks for the feedback! Most of your points are valid. I will implement some of them on the next patch. As for Mechtoid spawns, 7 seems a bit higher than normal. I'm also not aware how one would go about changing spawn rates on certain missions. Likewise, LWR features like airstrikes are beyond the scope of this mod, even if I thought they were a good idea.
I have some little more - ADDITIONAL changes: The last ones. Im sorry that Im messing with your mod but I really believe that I was 90%+ Correct on my points written here.
Please note that these - ADDITIONAL changes - are included separately as Im playing with Squadron Unleashed and total loss, wear and tear and this may offset balance.
Spoiler:
Show
Additional Changes
MEC grenade launcher damage +1 5 from 4 MEC kinetic arm / strike damage +1 Additional Changes 2 - note its with Squadron Unleashed, Total Loss , Wear and Tear, VR training
MEC flamethrower damage +1 MEC 1 Prototype Cash Cost - 70% (35000 -> 10500) MEC 2/3 Cash Cost -45% MEC 4/5/6/7 Cash Cost - 20% Note: they still cost same amount of Meld, Ufo Flight Computers. // MEC Battle Equipment Cash Cost - 50% 36000 -> 18000 this is for foundry project // MEC Warfare Systems Cash Cost - 50% 45000 -> 22500 this is for foundry project
And The last thing: I highly recommend to increase cash cost of Aegis to 2.5 - times the original price, Titan to 4- times and Seraph Archangel accordingly (maybe improve seraph Archangel def, I leave this to you.). Keep Tengu as is, without changes.
Im not going TLDR how i come to this but it Im playing with Squadron Unleashed, so my point MAY be WRONG. And this is based on both testing and theorycrafting and just playing. Insted of TLDR - simply: investing in airgame instead of MECS is huge boon for XCOM and their cash costs were comparable. Soldiers in erat can be very strong and with high DR since perks and items and training roulette. With this balance of mod should be perfect IMO.
Edit: Didnt notice Alloy Carbide plating has armor bolstering so DR is not needed. Ethereals should be stronger just like in LW. So far just insta killing them. Muton Elites should probably just get back 36 range. (if changelog .xlsx file is correct)
Stuff from LWR is not needed. I do not recommend programming a mod this much as implementing airstrikes as this should be then in a scope of new game. Probably a better time investment.
Again thank you for your great mod. I really enjoyed playing this as I was always a fan of more realism stuff.
Thanks again for the suggestions! I will be implementing changes in increments, so I can push out patches more quickly, rather than doing a lot all at once.
You should consider leaving comments on our discord too, so other players can input their opinions as well.
so torn between this and lWR any chance you will be putting in a compatibility patch or anything? i prefer the most of this mod but there is a few things here and there i wouldn't mind adding from lwr.awsome mod for a oldy though
Hey there. Unfortunately, they are too different to really be compatible with each other. You could try suggesting some of the features you like from LWR in the ERaT discord, and maybe they could be implemented if it's in keeping with the design of the mod
329 comments
On Light 'em up, if I had fired as first action, I can't reload, steady, over watch, etc. Is this how it is supposed to work?
It was xcom scamper.Also noticed (only one free action maybe taken per turn) stated in many places.
On clean sweep, ...is a free action, but aim and crit decrease by 8 for each successive kill.
Is clean sweep an exception to the only one free action rule?
Okay clean sweep just happened last session. I was sort of expecting needing to activate it like ITZ.
What I like:
- I'm really glad that you reverted the exalt relay hacks back to disable, disorient was just frustrating to play against due to the rockets. The mod's exalt explosives fix was not working for me though as the first exalt heavy I met fired a rocket even while being hacked, killing my soldier and destroying the encoder in the process. I had to apply a separate copy of the fix.
- Ignoring the strategic layer, on the tactical layer I think you've made some fantastic changes to the early mecs as they are much more viable now. The DR buff on the tier1 mecs really makes a difference but the star of the show is the extra plating ability which adds 5 more armour hp. I can now be a lot more aggressive sending my marauder right up to the enemy and I'm generally not as worried anymore about them getting wounded/killed. Mind you, I was still running around in paper armor and ballistics in July/August when my mecs were coming online, but I had no problems dealing with the midgame mutons/cyberdiscs/mectoids since I heavily abused the alloy jacketed rounds/shredder ammo and I brought 2 hit and run snipers to nearly every mission.
- I like that you reduced the build times of tier2/3 mecs
- Overall the mecs got buffed. Everyone can get rapid fire with an item so everyone can deal damage. It looks like you've also narrowed down the range of aim progressions across the mec classes? I remember last time the marauder had abysmal aim progression but now it's pretty good. I can get on average 100 base aim on my mecs with the japan bonus + so others may live. Adding on band of warriors + the rapid fire item, I get an average 115 aim, pretty strong. Mecs are the most fun aspect of the game for me so this is huge.
- Buff to alloy carbide plating, it's useful now. Some mecs can tank quite a bit when paired with armour bolstering, it allows me to play much more aggressively.
- Now that heat ammo doesn't have +1 damage, it's no longer a must have on every soldier for me. My gunners and snipers have done away with heat, but I still bring it on all my mecs. I skipped lasers after all, so I didn't have the arc rifle.
What I dislike:
- I say it every time and I'll say it again! Training roulette! Key abilities can be locked behind very late ranks and it's always frustrating to level these soldiers up. On top of that these abilities can even be missing because the pool of possible abilities is larger than the available slots. I was unlucky with shock and awe this campaign and I only got it first unlocked in August. I was rerolling corporals constantly to try to get the right perks on soldiers and getting key perks early enough. Perhaps could you consider guaranteeing key abilities to be unlocked before a certain rank (like sergeant/ tech sergeant)?
- I'm not sure I like the latest class system... In LW the classes are pretty distinct but a few are quite blurred in this mod. For example, the LW engineer class specialises in grenades but in this mod the medic, support, and scout can be an engineer because they all have engineer perks. My scout ended up being my engineer in my case, which is strange as the name implies that it should be a scout, but I found it much better as an engineer since it has all the grenade perks that I want - grenadier, engineer, free throw, bombard. The support class now I don't need anymore and I've played without them this campaign. Lightemup is not that great since many times you want to grenade first then shoot but they don't have free throw. Medics on the other hand , are less useless than before! Ideally they are an even better engineer than scouts since they have both grenade perks + healing perks. But that's the ideal, because practically speaking training roulette makes it very difficult to get the perfect combination of perks. I tried rolling 2 medics but gave up and decided that someone else in my team will carry the medkits. So I played without medics as well the whole campaign.
Speaking of medkits, they were on my ranger. I didn't build a ranger last campaign but I gotta say I'm warming up to them. Their ITZ is useful for finishing up enemies, then they can throw a dense smoke to cover the team. And if someone gets hit they carry multiple medkits as they have pack master/bonus treatment. They are the combat medic, so much more useful than the LW medics. I bring them on large landeds/longer missions
As for actual scouts, my assaults have become the scouts. In LW I've always used hit n run shotgun scout officers and the assaults in this mod have the two key perks (hit n run, lightning reflexes) that I want that could be unlocked relatively early. They're really strong, even in late game, as they can fire 4 shots in one turn.
Finally, I think snipers are a bit too strong with hit n run, they can potentially fire 3 times in 1 turn with RFA. They're already pretty accurate and deal a lot of damage with the 3 damage perks. I brought 2 snipers to nearly every mission. I cheesed the base assaults as well with squadsight abuse, and the 2 snipers did most of the damage.
So as you can see, I don't think I'm using the classes the intended way.
- I mentioned before on the tactical layer mecs are in a great place, but on the strategic layer they were not so great. The key strategy to mec rush in LW is that you can get aim/dodge modules to compensate for still having stingray interceptors in the midgame. But in this mod it's just too expensive. The first hurdle is the fission generator which costs 40k. I had a steam vent at the bottom layer so I couldn't get 2 cheaper steam generators early. The second hurdle is the foundry which also costs 40k. Then finally you get aircraft boosters with another 17k. Adding on the cost of the mec suit, that's nearly 135k worth of investment, at that point in the campaign it is just way too much. You can forgo satellites/uplinks so you don't need the fission gen but I think that's sacrificing too much at that point. I had 3-4 of my satellites shot down before I could get some interceptor upgrades because I was too broke to keep up with the air game. This wouldn't be a problem if you could get a reasonable amount of money selling loot in the gray market. Everything is priced down so much, especially elerium, selling 85 of them gets you the same amount of money as selling one power source which is a bit ridiculous imo. LW was too generous, but I think it's been nerfed too much in this mod. I'm sure the money progression is not an issue if you do a standard campaign, but for a mec rush it's not that great.
- Heavy floaters are the bane of my existence, they are so unpredictable. One heavy floater ran my suppression to flank my assault and killed him. Perhaps it's because of AFC? Now they are robotic, there's no good way of controlling them anymore other than to kill them with heat and rockets.
Observations:
- Exalt hq was really dicey. I usually bring two rocketeers in LW and just rocket everything (8 rockets?), but I made the mistake of only bringing 2 rocketeers and only one of them had shock and awe. They didn't even have inferno rockets/recoilless rifle yet as I was too poor. The exalt snipers absolutely wrecked my mecs and it's a miracle that no-one died.
- I've learnt to not underestimate sectopod barrage. I thought the damage would be like LW but it one-shotted my commander with titan armor and nearly my tier3 mec. Sectopods can barrage without LoS as well and it killed one of my soldiers this way which was a bit unfair.
- Rushing certain items require obscene meld, for example rushing a mec1 suit requires 937 meld. Is this intended?
Bugs:
- My first terror mission occurred as my skyranger was literally flying to a bomb disposal mission. There was nothing I could do, I would have still missed it if I flew back. I lost 3 countries in the first 4 months. That was rough. Perhaps the reason you are given 24hours in LW is to make sure you won't miss it. Possibly increase the timer a little bit?
- If a soldier has grenadier and is wearing caravan armor, placing grenades in the 4th slot will not get carried to the mission.
- On the observatory map, there was one time when my soldiers without squadsight (saw, shotgun, pistol) could shoot beyond 18 tiles.
- Valkyrie and Shogun names are mixed up
- The tooltip still says that mecs can be healed with medkits. I like the new tooltips that you've put in.
- If you get hit by return fire, your shots will miss. Is this intended?
MECs:
As I said before I think MECs are in a better place than the last time I played. As always, I prioritise damage output potential:
Jaeger - Solid with double tap, decent damage. Very high aim, mine had 117 base aim with the japan bonus + so others may live
Valkyrie - Same feedback as last time, my mecs don't generally stand there and shoot so I haven't had a use for it
Archer - even stronger now with hit n run, even without the grenades/proxy mines. Given it's quite easy to get a flanking shot, it can shoot 3 times quite frequently, unlike the valkyrie, which is funny considering it's not a shooty mec.
Shogun - same as last time, didn't build one as it seems like a defensive mec
Marauder - Very strong, quite durable with extra plating + armor bolstering + alloy carbide plating. Good aim. You can just run up to the enemy's face and not have to worry about getting wounded. I generally bring 2 mecs to every mission and always 1 marauder. They just run n gun up to a high priority target, kill them, then draw enemy fire. Excellent at finishing off ethereals if my 2 snipers still can't manage to kill it, so I had no problems with ethereals even though they're harder to kill now.
Centurion - don't really like this mec, it's too situational. Generally Marauders are more useful since you can't always get into CE range after enemy activation (unless in urban close quarter maps), but you can pretty much always run n gun to get a flank on someone.
Guardian - still not useful for me
Dragoon - this one is hilariously strong. Mine had a 6:1 kill to mission ratio, no other soldier even came close. I think the trick to exploiting this mec is to aim stack, mine had 100 base aim with japan bonus + so others may live, then you add on band of warriors + the rapid fire item, then play it like a marauder and run right into the middle of enemies. I had a double ethereal, double mectoid, double muton elite pod. I opened with a rocket, then my dragoon waltzed right into the middle of the pack, ITZ'd the mectoids and muton elites, burninated the ethereals which killed one and my scout captured the other one. The high aim and close range bonus made sure that all shots were 100%s even with rapid fire, which you can still proc ITZ with. But it doesn't seem to work on mectoids for some reason, you have to single fire for ITZ to proc. Also, killer instinct is a bad perk on a dragoon because of the bug that the 3rd shot will go off even if you have already killed the enemy, then that will count as a "miss" and the ITZ chain breaks.
All in all, the Mecs were pretty fun, but I don't think rushing them was worth the trade-off in the strategic layer. On the other hand, they unlock too late if you're playing the standard way. I was broke pretty much for the first 9-10 months trying to mec rush then getting the air game to stabalise. I think I'm 1 month behind in research as I was too poor to build labs which cost 40k each. Usually at this time end of march I should be building the gollop chamber and researching mind and machine to finish the game, but instead I'm still just about to start overseer roulette. I don't think I'm going to finish the campaign, I already control all the countries and closing the game is just a formality. The enemies have become trivial with heat mecs, with the exception of mass heavy floaters. But the late game is getting a bit tedious.
The training roulette is meant to create unique soldiers, so you'll have a few favourite soldiers, and some perhaps lackluster ones. But even if a rocketeer doesn't get access to Shock and Awe early on, or at all, doesn't mean it can't be effective in other ways, such as squadsight suppression. Part of the challenge is making do with what you have, and coming up with strategies as a result. So I don't recommend players reroll to get the perfect soldier; it's more fun and memorable if that happens naturally in the course of a campaign.
As with default LW, some class overlap is evitable, and I don't think it's a bad thing. If you feel you can replace Medics with Rangers, then all the more power to you. I'm glad that the classes are flexible enough to allow players to customize their squad to their liking, rather than being forced to take certain classes each mission. You're not using them the wrong way just because you use them differently than how I intended! As for class identities, don't compare the ERaT to their old incarnations. Here, Scout is so named because its Low Profile allows it to get to frontline positions that would be suicidal for other soldiers, which also makes it an effective grenade class.
You make a good point about snipers. I think they're strong enough even without Lightning Aim.
Yeah, MEC rush isn't a good idea if it means giving up air upgrades. You're meant to cut other areas, like soldier equipment, or gene mods. Definitely make sure your interceptors are strong enough before buying anything else.
I've heard other players having trouble with heavy floaters. I thought that between suppression and arc rifle disabling, they wouldn't be too bad. I'll try making them a bit slower.
I also had trouble on the Exalt HQ. I'll wait for more feedback before deciding if they need a nerf.
I haven't fought Sectopods in a while, but doesn't barrage give you a turn to avoid it?
Rushing a MEC-1 costs 127 meld for me (normally 60 meld). I really don't know why yours is that high :/
Bugs
You're the first person I've heard of that had that happen lol. I'll increase it by 2 or 3 hours and hopefully that'll fix it.
The game can't support too many different kinds of grenades. I don't know the maximum number, but you can avoid the bug by taking more grenades of the same type.
Valkyrie and Shogun names are switched because their starting perks are also changed. I think it would be more confusing to returning players if Valkyries had Damage Control and Shoguns had Light 'Em Up.
I didn't know that about return fire. It's not something that ERaT introduced, if that's the case.
I didn't know that about Killer Instinct and ITZ. Funny how ITZ is always either OP or bugged. Rapid Fire as a MEC item was a mistake, since it makes them way too deadly. I will make some aliens more durable in the next version, so hopefully players won't walk all over them with MECs.
Hopefully that cleared up some things :)
My biggest frustration right now is that everything just has SO much armor. It makes the other problems less of a random frustration and more... kind of game breaking. Enemies are consistently showing up with 3+ points of damage resistance, even without factoring in cover. Early game, Mutons often completely shrug off shots from primary weapons. Even with upgraded beam weapons, I am plinking away for 1-2 damage per hit against 15 HP enemies. I just had a berzerker charge my Assault who pegged him with a point blank Scatter Beam Shotgun hit...for zero damage. There are two Mechtoids on this level who are just walking through my guys because they each have around 30 hit points, and at 1-2 damage per shot I just can't kill the damn things. The last mission was a random downed small UFO and had FOUR cyberdiscs. Because of the pod-calling mechanics it is extremely easy to get overwhelmed with mobs that you just can't kill fast enough.
This problem is compounded by everything seemingly having dialed up accuracy and damage. On multiple occasions I've had soldiers one shot killed while sitting in cover and dense smoke, or hit by suppressed targets. Even early game, non-crits are hitting for 10+ and a random lucky shot can be instant death even in heavy armor and an HP vest. Given how long it takes to kill things, there just isn't any way to avoid a few rounds of exchanging fire which makes every encounter a roll of the dice on someone dying.
The current mission I am on is a Terror mission, and at like turn 2 I see a Cyberdisc, two 30 HP Mechtoids, several Mutons, and several Sectoids that are all converging on my spawn location. I'm restarting the mission again but I'm quickly hitting the point of "f*#@ this".
Shotguns are naturally bad against high DR, unless you have the Heavy Capacitor item. Since you're going with beam weapons, it wouldn't hurt to try bringing one or two Arc-Beam Rifles, since they both disable mechtoids and deal 6 dmg with 4 DR pen to all mechanical enemies. If you went ballistic, there's always HEAT Ammo. As for Mutons, acid works wonders on them, because it makes them suppress and waste their turn. With high level snipers, you can even one-shot them with crits.
I'm not sure what you mean by everything having higher aim and damage. You can see from the Google sheet that lots of enemies have lowered aim and damage. Mechtoids get higher damage but worse aim, and with Drones it's the other way around.
Anyway, ERaT isn't actually harder than LW1, it just requires different strategies, and maybe some knowledge of how to use the new items and perks introduced. The chain activation mechanic can produce difficulty spikes at times, so that's something to keep in mind. As for soldiers dying, there's really no way to prevent an unlucky crit from killing a guy, and that's no different in LW1. The challenge lies in whether you can win a campaign despite a few deaths. And of course, you can always lower the difficulty. Which is why I advise new players not to play on Impossible.
I had a similar problem with the heavy capacitor. It seemed like a direct counter to the DR mechanics, and it definitely is - when it works. However, on about 75% of the missions it just vanishes and doesn't do anything. I thought at first maybe I had just forgot to equip it, so I started making absolutely sure I had it. I even did some save / load testing to confirm that I had definitely equipped it, but when the mission loaded my beam shotgun was still completely blocked by DR.
Something is wonky somewhere and I'm not sure what or why. It doesn't seem consistent and I haven't been able to pin it down. I almost hard-quit the game yesterday because I hit an impossible exalt mission. It was a tiny corridor map and any blue move I took pulled around 8 of them. For whatever reason, they had obnoxious accuracy, consistently in the 90% to hit, despite cover. They literally leveled my entire four person squad in like two turns. I restarted the mission a few times, and it seemed to go back to normal, with around 40% hit rates and I rolled the mission.
Granted, I'm not saying all those problems are entirely specific to this mod. XCOM in general is famous for its "realistic" probabilities, and LW has always had issues with large numbers and small maps. It just sort of compounds. Because the items don't work, I can't counter effectively, which makes each encounter take much longer, which increases the risk of extra pod calls, which further raises the odds of a lucky shot killing one of my guys. My primary strategy has been taking around ten flashbangs to lock things down while I chip away.
I will try to play around with cloud saves, maybe test on another PC when I get a chance. I appreciate the follow up!
I try to avoid multiple pods with the CMPAS plus Motion Trackers for good measure. Flashbangs are effective, but sometimes a rocket is the surefire way of dealing of overwhelming odds.
But I have a question. It is really refreshing to finally see hobbits have a natural amount of HP, but how well does it address Long War's mid-lategame challenge? With an example of a sectoid on highest difficulty, it's 15HP in Long War 1.1 or LWR vs 5HP in ERaT even on top alien research level. I really like this realism, but I wonder how fun and challenging can mid-late game become as a result? There are other ways to combat this difference, such as off-the-bat psi attacks that I saw on YouTube, but I'm not sure if it's not going to become too easy at some point. LWR have a graph with difficulty curves, and I'd love to see something similar in your mod, especially comparing to LW 1.0 which you adhere to.
However, I do also want to ask--how does one remove the included mods with PatcherGUI/LW Mod Manager?
Finally, and most pressingly, I can't seem to get the mod to work. I've followed the instructions in the Readme, first copy/pasting the mod files into xcomgame then installing it using LW Mod Manager. However, when I start it up, it's already in the final shell menu without me having to click anything, the rookies in the first mission don't have suppression or run and gun, items appear to be as in the baseline LW (with the exception that everyone has an HE rather than AP grenade), and when I try to promote soldiers, they can't access abilities beyond their basic class abilities--anything after Specialist is just a blank box (I do have Training Roulette enabled).
I originally had Better Blueshirts, Patrick Carlock+Customize Unique Soldiers, Virtual Reality Training (Second Wave version), and DR Chipping for Long War. However, I tried uninstalling all of those and returning the game to base Long War using the LWMM, then installing only ERAT and the ERAT Mod Pack in LWMM.
This did work, but now I'm wondering which one of these could be causing compatibility issues. Do you have any idea? Could one of those other mods be incorporated in this one without my having realized?
Also, the difficulty options listed in the main menu are 01_NRM, 02_CLS, etc. or something to that effect. Is that normal or is it a sign of a bugged installation?
I installed all four of those mods, and I was still able to complete a mission and see the soldiers' skill "trees" after leveling up. Maybe try again on your end with some or all extra mods enabled, and see if there's a difference.
The difficulty options are supposed to look like that. I initially only numbered them 1 through 4, then I added hints so people can compare them to LW e.g. NRM for Normal, CLS for Classic. But since people always bring this up, I think I'll just go back to the original titles lol
I was "kind" or "daring" enough to include a list of changes I made to make it more balanced and realistic. Its based on my playthrough with VR training and Squadron Unleashed.
Please consider reading this and consider thinking about incorporating this into mod.
STRATMAP
; UFO hunting
UFO_INTERCEPTION_PCT=12from 4
This variable modifies chance of interception without satelitte coverage. Doubled with foundry project.
Reason balance: was too low.
Reason realism: Air Combat Patrol.
; Satellite hunting
UFO_FIND_STEALTH_SAT=0.15 from 0.30
UFO_FIND_SAT=0.60
UFO_SECOND_PASS_FIND_STEALTH_SAT=0.20 from 0.50
UFO_SECOND_PASS_FIND_SAT=0.90
Reason balance: What was the point of Stealth satelitte tech?
Reason realism: in my recent game UFO came to destroy my satelitte before it was deployed. srsly?
ALIENS
Note that increase of alien damage coresponds to minor increase of DR and boost on some XCOM stuff.
iType=eItem_CyberdiscGrenade Damage increased by 1.
iType=eItem_CyberdiscWeapon Damage increased by 1. -- Cyberdisc main weapon.
Reason balance: I found Cyberdiscs always weaker than Mechtoids or massed Mutons and almost never a problem.
Raised Environmental damage for
iType=eItem_HeavyPlasma_Muton , iType=eItem_HeavyPlasma_Floater
iType=eItem_PlasmaLightRifle_Muton, iType=eItem_SectoidPlasmaPistol, iType=eItem_PlasmaLightRifle_ThinMan
by +50% on average.
Reason balance: Massed thin mans can destroy cover faster. Can screw overwatch creep and is fun when cover is blown.
Reason realism: Plasma is bad.
Note that iType=eItem_HeavyPlasma_Muton environmental damage was NOT increased. Increase also corresponds to respective
Damage values.
iType=eItem_SectoidPlasmaPistol Damage increased by 1.
iType=eItem_PlasmaLightRifle_ThinMan iCritical=20 raised to 20 from 5.
Reason balance: Massing DR on regular soldiers and a good game where XCOM is not behind can cause Sectoids and Thin Mans
to be seriously IGNORABLE in most encounters. Their damage was lackluster once Carapace, Aegis armor kick in.
This also makes early game harder that is desirable.
iType=eItem_ZombieFist Damage reduced by 2.
Zombie base HP was increased by 5.
Reason realism: self explanatory.
ITEMS
Walker Servos Move +4 From +2 Price: Cash: 1400 from 80
Reason balance: was a waste of item slot. Now it competes with Combat Stim.
Reason realism: Now is an expensive leg addon to power armor.
Flashbang
Radius of effect was reduced by 40%. To 216 from 360.
Reason balance: Flashbang was too good staying too good even in late game.
Reason realism: Seeing berserkers being useless from a single flashbang in late game is kinda funny.
Couldnt they become equiped with some special protective sunglasses?
Needle Grenade
Damage increased to 6 from 5.
Reason balance: Does not destroy cover. +1 damage and small radius increase compared to HE was very poor
reason to take this item over HE,Chem,Flashbang or Plating, ... On top of that, Grenades deal very little damage to DR
based enemies such as mutons, cyberdiscs, mechtoids. Later in campaign when player faces DR based enemies
he usually does not use HE or Needle grenades anymore and prefers Rocketeers, Archers, Chems. Also damage is reduced
with radius from center. And most enemies have some DR later in game so practical result damage is still 0-2.
Alloy Carbide Plating
Weight 2 from 1
Adds DR 0.5.
Cash Cost increased to 1800.
Reason balance: Soldiers can attain same DR as MECS while having cover and some have tanking perks.
SHIVs
Their cash cost is doubled. Rebuild SHIV project Cash cost were doubled.
Cost Cash 3000 from 1500
Reason balance: SHIVS were too cheap and too good. Try basic SHIVs as damage sponge when needed or use them
as disposable scouts or flankers. Also This price is reduced from workshops.
Alloy Hover SHIVs Cash Prices +50% Rebuild Cash Prices + 50%.
Alloy SHIV 6000 from 4000 ....
Hover SHIV 14250 from 9500
MECS
Light MECS Movement + 3. (MEC 3, MEC 6)
Medium MECS Movement + 2. (MEC 2, MEC 7)
Heavy Superheavy MECS DR + 0.5 (MEC 4, MEC 5)
Reason balance: soldiers can have same DR as MECS and can be faster. Whas was the point of MECS relative to
their costs and investments?
I guess that Free flamethrower , free grenade - proximity mine with Archer and thats it. Regular soldiers can take cover. Also MECS primary weapons have usually less ammo than SHIVS or soldiers.
Reason realism: Larger legs are usually faster than smaller legs.
GENE MODS
Generally a little cheaper while eye geneMods are more costly. BoneMarrow reduces wound recovery time by 70%.
Reduced post mission fatigue for most Gene Mods. Cash x10. Costs rebalanced.
Posted entire table below.
GENEMOD_BONEMARROW_RECOVERY_BONUS=0.30ffrom 0.66f; Modifier to time spent recovering from wounds with Bone Marrow Genemod SET TO 30% from 66%
Reason balance: I found that i use eye gene mods for free aim and sometimes bioelectric skin while
I think that many other GeneMods were a waste of Meld.
+2 regen perk was mostly useless since most late soldiers in Erat got 6-8 hp at max.
; Gene Mod Configuration
;Perk-DNC$CostRequiredTechMeldDaysinTank +Fatigue
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=4,iCash=300,iElerium=53,iAlloys=14,iTime=10,iEng=8) ; ePerk_GeneMod_SecondHeart53=Muton Elite Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=20,iCash=200,iElerium=47,iAlloys=16,iTime=6,iEng=8) ; ePerk_GeneMod_Adrenal47=Muton Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=28,iCash=200,iElerium=57,iAlloys=14,iTime=10,iEng=0) ; ePerk_GeneMod_BrainDamping57=Mechtoid Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=155,iCash=150,iElerium=51,iAlloys=8,iTime=4,iEng=6) ; ePerk_Medal_DefenderB (Smart Macrophages) 51=Berserker Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=30,iCash=100,iElerium=44,iAlloys=11,iTime=5,iEng=5) ; ePerk_GeneMod_Pupils44=Sectoid Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=38,iCash=100,iElerium=45,iAlloys=11,iTime=5,iEng=6) ; ePerk_GeneMod_DepthPerception45=Floater Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=42,iCash=250,iElerium=58,iAlloys=20,iTime=6,iEng=7) ; ePerk_GeneMod_BioelectricSkin58=Seeker Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=148,iCash=200,iElerium=52,iAlloys=8,iTime=5,iEng=2) ; ePerk_GeneMod_IronSkin52=Heavy Floater Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=50,iCash=200,iElerium=46,iAlloys=15,iTime=7,iEng=7) ; ePerk_GeneMod_MuscleFiber46=Thin Man Autopsy
ItemBalance_Easy=(eItem=45,iCash=300,iElerium=48,iAlloys=24,iTime=7,iEng=6) ; ePerk_GeneMod_BoneMarrow48=Chryssalid Autopsy
Cash Cost of Gene Lab reduced. iCash=45000 from 60000 reduced by 15000
Regarding LWR compat: i never played LWR but read that there are Airstrikes and emergency Evac. That might be a worthy addition.
Im sorry that Im messing with your mod but I really believe that I was 90%+ Correct on my points written here.
Please note that these - ADDITIONAL changes - are included separately as Im playing with Squadron Unleashed and total loss, wear and tear and this may offset balance.
Additional Changes
MEC grenade launcher damage +1 5 from 4
MEC kinetic arm / strike damage +1
Additional Changes 2 - note its with Squadron Unleashed, Total Loss , Wear and Tear, VR training
MEC flamethrower damage +1
MEC 1 Prototype Cash Cost - 70% (35000 -> 10500)
MEC 2/3 Cash Cost -45%
MEC 4/5/6/7 Cash Cost - 20%
Note: they still cost same amount of Meld, Ufo Flight Computers.
// MEC Battle Equipment Cash Cost - 50% 36000 -> 18000 this is for foundry project
// MEC Warfare Systems Cash Cost - 50% 45000 -> 22500 this is for foundry project
And The last thing: I highly recommend to increase cash cost of Aegis to 2.5 - times the original price, Titan to 4- times
and Seraph Archangel accordingly (maybe improve seraph Archangel def, I leave this to you.). Keep Tengu as is, without changes.
Im not going TLDR how i come to this but it Im playing with Squadron Unleashed, so my point MAY be WRONG.
And this is based on both testing and theorycrafting and just playing.
Insted of TLDR - simply: investing in airgame instead of MECS is huge boon for XCOM and their cash costs were comparable.
Soldiers in erat can be very strong and with high DR since perks and items and training roulette.
With this balance of mod should be perfect IMO.
Edit: Didnt notice Alloy Carbide plating has armor bolstering so DR is not needed.
Ethereals should be stronger just like in LW. So far just insta killing them.
Muton Elites should probably just get back 36 range. (if changelog .xlsx file is correct)
Stuff from LWR is not needed.
I do not recommend programming a mod this much as implementing airstrikes as this should be then in a scope of new game. Probably a better time investment.
Again thank you for your great mod. I really enjoyed playing this as I was always a fan of more realism stuff.
You should consider leaving comments on our discord too, so other players can input their opinions as well.