Very interesting. Started with the mod by multiplying all alien counts by 3, e.g.
- type: STR_ABDUCTOR
data:
- alienRank: 5
lowQty: 9
highQty: 15
This makes for a target rich environment and feels more of a battle than a special operations mission. I'd recommend classical accuracy in order to get things done with long range autoshots. I'll have to study alien morale; too much panic early on even if they have a decent army left.
I did something like this once. Just for fun I made a mission with a huge map and 100 Chryssalids, but I did eventually run into the issue of them panicking when you killed too many consecutively. I'd just raise their bravery really high. If you want to make it harder anyway, do your best to prevent any panic by the aliens.
(If I make a mod and use other mods as part of the experience, can I just steal it (with credits) or should I refer to it (use X)?)
The game as I am currently testing:
3x the number of aliens in all kinds of ships, therefore
- really hard battles,
- "target rich environment" with lots of shooting (leave vanilla accuracy on), less SWAT team, more army vs. army
- underused equipment like grenades become more important, less worry about blowing up loot since you get plenty
- lots of loot, so Geoscape play is fun and easy -> all bases, equipment, research affordable early on
- tactics are now "worth it" more since everyone on the map (including e.g. flanking units) are always spotting or shooting something
- no boring missions
no PSI, no blasters, therefore
- hardcore conventional battles
- no tragic decimation of your top crew when the Ethereals show up
- no PSI'ing the aliens, thats BS
- No carpet blastering the map
just a few mods, like
- grenades 3 stories high
- possibly things like extra ufos
- I did "starting defensive improved base" (nah because "not vanilla" or yea because "hassle-free geoscape"?)
- I did "pre-save primed grenades" (not Vanilla, and something that streamlines things, but makes it a little easier, so mabye nah)
- maybe heavy laser, but THAT'S ABOUT IT -> I'd recommend doing either the final mod pack/hardmode expansion/other mod OR this plain vanilla one!
So as an experienced player you find the game as you know it; you breeze through the purchase, research and manufacturing screens, you know how aliens react and you know your odds shooting laser pistol across the map and the vision mechanics with smoke and light. Things that felt unbalanced are now all right - you need every advantage you can get. Battlescape/money management was boring and half-broken anyway if you can manufacture+sell lasers and live of selling mind probes :P
If you want to enjoy the trip to Cydonia more, try the other mods that add content in Geoscape (research, diffculty). This one is about the battles. Just take one by one as a challenge in itself.
In Vanilla the few alien survivers in a small scout were often vastly inferior to a strong human team. The only thing they could do was kill one of the better soldiers which didn't change the battle but kind of annoyed the player and maybe set him back long-term in Battlescape. Annoying. Now every alien ship can win.
In Vanilla even tougher battles didn't really *need* all 14-26 soldiers; you want to train them all but there wasn't enough to shoot at, there was the risk to get shot at if you didn't move everyone right, and many just stood around or just "trained" time units or energy. Boring. In this mod you want to deploy them all, everyone is useful.
With the point system it was often beneficial to, say, land on a terror site and leave immediately to reduce negative score. Let's forget score - let's play to win a ground battle. You get the idea by now :)
Oh and I would allow restarting any battle from the beginning if you don't like whats happening.
- no more worrying about losing your super star!
- you get another chance, that's how training works. Try the same thing again and see if you can do better
- in the beginning ths mode needs some adjusting and you really need to develop your "best practices", smoke things up, look half-diagonal through windows or around corners to be safer from alien reaction, flank, ... so don't sweat it.
- don't worry about difficulty: it's difficult enough and there are enough aliens around to never give you an easy mission. It seems like the mission layout/landscape is fixed for each alien ufo now
I like it, this is XCOM for me now! Would anyone want to play that? :-) Let me know what you think! Suggestions (practically or philosophically) welcome
I feel like some of these changes are actually making the game easier rather than harder. For example, rather than take away PSI and blaster launchers all together, why not make PSI and blaster launchers unusable for XCOM, but let the aliens keep them? Just a suggestion.