[Idea/WIP] X-Com Expansion/Rebalancing - new craft/weapons/tanks

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I posted some of this before, in another post I made in the tools forum asking for advice on constructing this monster mod. Here I'd like to showcase my ideas and get feedback about what you like or don't like about it, any changes you might make, or anything you'd like to add to it. Please consider that it is designed to appeal to veterans of the franchise; while it should remain user-friendly, the wide array of choices is expected to be daunting to a newer player and I'm okay with that. Still, any tips on improving presentation without reducing complexity are appreciated!

I don't expect to get very far in modding this project due to my lack of coding experience, but Open X-Com has renewed my dream that it may someday come to be. I'm not going to give up on it, but I also wouldn't mind if any of you tried to make some of this or used some of my ideas in your own mods. And if you know how to do any of this, please share! A lot of it I don't really know how to do.

DETAILS:
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Lots of new craft will be added, expanding the existing five to a grand total of sixteen, including four basic starter craft, four special-use craft, four basic X-Com craft, and four mind-shielded craft. Furthermore, after researching Alien Alloys, your conventional craft can be boosted in performance and hit points due to using these alloys in their construction. To do this, you expend the craft in a construction project which yields the alloy version.

Starter craft (you start with one of each, in your four hangars):
Interceptor - 2100 knots, 1100 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 40 HP, 0 soldiers
 * range: 9167 NM (73%)
 * a bit more fuel than the original, but much weaker. I feel the original is too powerful compared to real technology from that time. This can still reliably take out a small or medium scout, but may have difficulty with large scout. Two can easily take on a large scout.
Punisher - 1400 knots, 800 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 100 HP, 1 soldier
 * range: 6667 NM (53%)
 * same combat capability as the original interceptor but slower and shorter range. I'm basically splitting up the original interceptor's capabilities into two more specialized craft. This one is a two-seater plane and you can fit one soldier in the copilot seat with minimal flight training if you're desperate enough.
Skyranger - 1140 knots, 1400 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 125 HP, 10 soldiers, 2 HWPs
 * range: 12,090 NM (97%)
 * Smaller cargo, but faster. This craft will get your soldiers from A to B in a reasonable amount of time. Important for fast response in the early game.
Custodian - 570 knots, 1600 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 150 HP, 18 soldiers, 3 HWPs
 * range: 15,200 NM (122%)
 * Slow but carries a large crew complement. Nice for alien base assaults. It has a weapon to defend its valuable cargo. Aliens can intercept your craft in my project, but they won't do this very often. But it's best to be on the safe side.

Special craft (you can buy these immediately-there is room in your aircraft storage facility):
Sparrow - 1575 knots, 1750 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 30 HP, 0 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 15,313 NM (123%)
 * patrol time: 41.5 hours (maximum) https:// 24.5 hours (halfway around) https:// 7.5 hours (far side)
 * This is a patrol craft which has a lot of on-board fuel. In addition, it has 50% greater on-board radar range. This is a long-range patrol craft which can get to the far side of the geoscape and still have enough fuel to patrol for a few hours. It spends a considerable amount of time refueling, however.
Albatross - 780 knots, 1200 fuel, 1 weapon slots, 60 HP, 1 soldier, 0 HWPs
 * range: 11,143 NM (89%)
 * patrol time: 66.5 hours (maximum) https:// 29.17 hours (halfway around)
 * This is a medium-range patrol craft which, due to the way fuel mechanics work in X-Com, expends fuel much slower than a normal craft. It can't fly across the geoscape without running low on fuel, but it can patrol near your base for days before stopping to briefly refuel--also sporting quick refuel (explained as it actually not spending its fuel very fast as opposed to carrying a lot). It has double the radar detect chance compared to other on-board radar.
Stormstrike - 1710 knots, 1000 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 50 HP, 4 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 9220 NM (74%)
 * This is the fastest troop transport available with human technology. It carries only four soldiers with minimum equipment, but can arrive on-site quickly.
Vanquisher - 880 knots, 700 fuel, 4 weapon slots, 150 HP, 2 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 6417 NM (51%)
 * This modern fighter craft isn't really built for catching UFOs, but if it ever managed to, it would certainly know what to do with it. These can be good for disrupting a large amount of alien activity near your base and helping you to stay hidden, or for defending your base from an alien craft on a retaliatory mission.

Starter craft alien-alloy versions:
Interceptor - 2400 knots, 1200 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 80 HP, 0 soldiers
 * range: 10,000 NM (80%)
 * now fast enough to pursue some retreating UFOs
Punisher - 1600 knots, 875 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 200 HP, 1 soldier
 * range: 7292 NM (58%)
Skyranger - 1300 knots, 1550 fuel, 1 weapon slots, 200 HP, 10 soldiers, 2 HWPs
 * range: 12,917 NM (103%)
 * now carries a weapon, but gained less armor
Custodian - 650 knots, 1750 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 300 HP, 18 soldiers, 3 HWPs
 * range: 15,799 NM (126%)

Special craft alien-alloy versions:
Sparrow - 1575 knots, 2100 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 60 HP, 0 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 18,272 NM (146%)
 * patrol time: 50 hours (maximum) https:// 32.83 hours (halfway around) https:// 15.67 hours (far side)
 * no speed increase, more fuel capacity increase
Albatross - 780 knots, 1450 fuel, 1 weapon slots, 120 HP, 1 soldier, 0 HWPs
 * range: 13,443 NM (108%)
 * patrol time: 80.5 hours (maximum) https:// 43 hours (halfway around) https:// 5.5 hours (far side)
 * no speed increase, lighter weight allows craft to use even less fuel during patrol
Stormstrike - 2200 knots, 1200 fuel, 0 weapon slots, 60 HP, 4 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 10,000 NM (80%)
 * very little increase to armor, mostly greatly improved speed
Vanquisher - 990 knots, 775 fuel, 4 weapon slots, 300 HP, 2 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 7104 NM (57%)

Basic X-Com Craft (you can research these after researching alien craft tech):
Firestorm - 4200 knots, 25 fuel, 3 weapon slots, 500 HP, 4 soldiers, 1 HWPs
 * range: 8750 NM (70%)
 * Super fast interception craft able to outrun almost all alien craft, also highly durable. Doubles as a troop transport, though only barely. I increased its fuel so it can actually make it more than halfway across the globe.
 * dependency: UFO Construction
Lightning - 3100 knots, 40 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 800 HP, 16 soldiers, 4 HWPs
 * range: 10,333 NM (83%)
 * Super fast troop transport which can deploy a large combat force extremely quickly. Can be used for interception, though several alien craft can outrun it. New setup has four ramps leading outward from the center, and four 2x2 slots that can fit a tank or four soldiers. You can't fit a large tank into it, but at least you can fit small tanks. I upped the fuel of this one as well.
 * dependency: UFO Construction
Avenger - 5400 knots, 60 fuel, 4 weapon slots, 1200 HP, 12 soldiers, 2 HWPs
 * range: 27,000 NM (216%)
 * Ultimate fighter - can outrun all alien craft easily and has the power to take down the larger ones with ease. Makes a good troop transport but it doesn't have the greatest troop complement. This has the interception capacity of the original Avenger plus a third weapon slot.
 * dependency: New Fighter-craft
Vigilante - 4000 knots, 80 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 1500 HP, 26 soldiers, 4 HWPs
 * range: 26,667 NM (213%)
 * Ultimate troop transport - carries a tremendous fighting force and can deploy worldwide in under 4 hours. Also makes a good interceptor, though the fastest alien craft can still outrun it. This has the troop layout of the original Avenger.
 * dependency: New Transport-craft

When you research UFO Construction, you will unlock two options: New Fighter-craft and New Transport-craft. Whichever one you research first will yield you a craft excellent at its job and capable of performing the other. You can then continue and research the ultimate craft for that job, or the new one for the other job. You really only need one ultimate craft, as either one is quite competent at both interceptions and transporting troops. Having both available just gives you more flexibility to choose what suits your style more.


Mind-shielded X-Com Craft (these require deeper research):
Stalker - 3600 knots, 150 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 400 HP, 4 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 45,000 NM (360%)
 * Patrol craft which flies at only 10% speed during patrol. It can move into an area quickly and patrol for a long time without alerting aliens to its presence. It has a 50% increased radar detect range.
 * dependency: UFO Construction, Medium Scout, Abductor, Mind Shield
Hercules - 2800 knots, 100 fuel, 1 weapon slot, 1800 HP, 32 soldiers, 8 HWPs
 * range: 23,333 NM (187%)
 * This is the largest troop transport, capable of carrying as much as 4 large tanks. You can take this one to Cydonia if you wish.
 * dependency: New Transport-craft, Battleship, Supply Ship, Mind Shield
Starstreak - 7200 knots, 30 fuel, 2 weapon slots, 600 HP, 1 soldiers, 0 HWPs
 * range: 18,000 NM (144%)
 * This is the fastest interception craft, and also mind-shielded so they won't know you're coming. You can take this ship to Cydonia if you really want to. Might make for an interesting (and difficult) challenge.
 * dependency: New Fighter-craft, Small Scout, Terror Ship, Mind Shield
Assassin - 4800 knots, 70 fuel, 3 weapon slots, 1000 HP, 14 soldiers, 3 HWPs
 * range: 28,000 (224%)
 * This craft is a capable interceptor and transport wrapped into one, in case you can't decide what you want. It also offers a chance to have a mind-shielded craft with more normal specifications. Finally, it has the iconic 2x7 internal space of the old Skyranger, in case anyone wants that for nostalgia. And yes, you can take it to Cydonia.
 * dependency: New Fighter-craft, New Transport-craft, Large Scout, Harvester, Mind Shield

Mind-shielded craft become available once you have finished researching the Mind Shield technology and have also researched enough requisite alien craft designs.

Yankes' MoreCraftWeapons mod: https://github.com/Yankes/OpenXcom/tree/MoreCraftWeapons
Yankes' thread: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2425.0

Tanks:

I'm also planning on adding large (2x4) tanks, costing much more money but with much higher health and armor, and more powerful weapons. Tanks will come in three flavors:
1.) guardian tanks - high HP and armor, pretty even armor on all sides; low TUs, reactions and accuracy
 - small guardian tank: small turret mount
 - large guardian tank: medium turret mount
2.) battle tanks - small has the same attributes as the old tanks
 - small battle tank: medium turret mount
 - large battle tank: large turret mount
3.) assault tanks - low HP and armor, highest armor in front; high TUs, reactions and accuracy
 - small assault tank: large turret mount
 - large assault tank: X-large turret mount

You buy or manufacture tanks separately from their turrets. Small turrets have power between a rifle and a handheld cannon; medium turrets are a bit more powerful than handheld cannons; large turrets are a lot more powerful than any handheld weapon; X-large turrets are so powerful they can be used to overwhelm a target that is normally impervious to your current technology. X-large are great against sectopods.

Tanks cannot be destroyed in a single hit other than from an explosive or a large turret-mounted weapon:
Max damage a small tank can take from one shot from a given weapon:
* handheld/small turret - 60%
* medium turret - 80%
* large/X-large - 100% (can destroy it in 1 hit)
Max damage a large tank can take from one shot from a given weapon:
* handheld/small turret - 40%
* medium turret - 60%
* large - 80%
* X-large - 100% (can destroy it in 1 hit)
Cyberdisc weapon: large turret
Sectopod weapon: medium turret
this is just to keep a huge block of steel from splatting in one shot from a tiny gun, and mostly shouldn't affect the overall game

New Handheld Weapons:
Each basic weapon has a high-power version and a fully-automatic version. The high power version usually has a good auto-fire capability: auto-pistols/submachineguns can unload a lot of rounds in a turn, machineguns have a fairly accurate auto shot, autocannons can only fire one auto shot per turn but if you hit all three shots, you can deal a LOT of damage. Semi-auto pistols have rapid snap and aimed shots, rifles still have burst fire but their auto-shots are usually inaccurate--they instead do excellent snap and aimed shots with high accuracy. Heavy cannons are slow and unwieldy with poor accuracy, but deal tremendous damage.

The aliens will carry the three non-automatic plasma variants and once any one of these has been researched, X-Com can devise its automatic counterpart. Heavy Plasma is getting hugely nerfed, being made far less wieldy and having its accuracy reduced but time unit costs greatly increased. On the flip side, its power is being increased a bit.

Craft Weapons:
Craft weapons have been expanded a bit--I have split the laser and plasma weapons into two variants and added a new, smaller fusion weapon:
Pulse cannons: 21 range, 20 damage, 2s reload time, 200 shots - this is the short-range laser weapon and it can not only replace your cannons for shooting down a craft intact but can also replace your stingray missiles in that it out-ranges the medium scout and hits pretty hard.
Laser Beam: 44 range, 140 damage, 24s reload time, 20 shots - this is the long-range laser weapon and it easily replaces stingrays for taking alien craft down, but also has a tendency to destroy them or deal so much damage that the wreck isn't very valuable.
Plasma Cannon: 26 range, 70 damage, 3s reload time, 100 shots - this weapon has a tremendous capacity for dealing a lot of damage quickly. It has a pretty short range, but a very fast craft can get into range much more quickly, making this weapon more useful.
Plasma Beam: 52 range, 140 damage, 18s reload time, 25 shots - I made the weapon fire slower and reduced the number of shots it has. It is still an excellent weapon, but this nerf will give other weapons a chance to compete.
Small Fusion Missile: 56 range, 180 damage, 24/36/48s reload time, 8 shots - can outrange almost all alien craft and is also particularly accurate, making it easy to shoot down small scouts.

In addition to this, I'm increasing the damage of fusion ball and also increasing the HP on the Battleship. Multiple craft with fusion balls can make short work of it, but with the ability to have your damaged craft take off, it's more possible to fight these with other weapons now.

Small scouts will have a -60% hit modifier, making them difficult to hit. Stingrays will be your best bet, having a 125% base hit chance, not reduced by range. Avalanches aren't terrible either, with 100% chance to hit, but they will usually miss a small scout. It only takes one hit with either one to take the thing down, though. Medium scout has -40% and large scout has -25%. A stingray will always hit a large scout. The small fusion missile has 150% accuracy and therefore has a 90% chance to hit a small scout.

[Dioxine]

Very interesting. Especially the aircraft balance, as it's (mostly) readily implementable. The 1/4 patrol speed is afaik impossible, but you don't need this - you could achieve same balance by slowing these craft down and adding more fuel capacity. I'd also add varied fuel usage for elerium-powered craft: big and heavy craft should logically burn more fuel per mile (perhaps the shielded ships doubly so?).

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Very interesting. Especially the aircraft balance, as it's (mostly) readily implementable. The 1/4 patrol speed is afaik impossible, but you don't need this - you could achieve same balance by slowing these craft down and adding more fuel capacity. I'd also add varied fuel usage for elerium-powered craft: big and heavy craft should logically burn more fuel per mile (perhaps the shielded ships doubly so?).

If I just make the ships longer range, that will extend into their normal flight capability. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I was hoping my patrol craft could spare a lot of fuel by staying in one place. I can partially do that just by adjusting their top speed underneath increments of 200 knots. It'll work better for a slow craft like the Albatross, but it'll still be using 3 fuel per ten minutes while patrolling at 390 knots. But then again, it doesn't necessarily need to be a short range patrol craft. Maybe just having it be slow makes enough difference.


I'd like to make certain ships burn Elerium at different rates. If I could manually adjust that value, I'd just set the Stalker and Starstreak rather low, while putting the Vigilante and Hercules up particularly high. I don't think the mind-shielded craft should cost more Elerium to fly, they are already less capable overall than the standard ultimate craft. I guess they had to make some sacrifices in order to properly use their jamming equipment, but it can probably run on conventional power systems.

====================================================
putting some things down here because I'm running out of space above

Base Facilities:
Living Quarters are being reduced to holding just 25 personnel, and Laboratories and Workshops now only fit 25 workers. This is not a nerf; all projects complete in half the worker hours, and scientists and engineers now cost twice as much to hire. I just felt it was silly to have lots of scientists and engineers working in this tiny space, with relatively few soldiers.

Stores have their space increased to 100, this is a buff. Storage space runs out too quickly.

I'm adding large (2x2) General Stores, Living Quarters, Laboratory, and Workshop. These have 5x the capacity of the smaller variants - 1.25x as much for the same amount of space due to improved workflow and space efficiency. You can build the 2x2 either in open dirt or on top of its smaller versions, or any combination thereof. Building on top of smaller facilities of the same type will reduce the cost of building as well as the construction time, but the savings is a lot smaller than the initial cost of the small facility.

New facilities:
Corridor: this facility is just a cross-shaped hallway and builds in only 3 days, allowing you to access more distant parts of the base foundation more quickly. You can build on top of it to reduce build cost, and also reduce build time by 2 days.

Empty Room: this facility is just excavating the space and preparing it for use. It takes 6 days to build, and reduces build time by any facility placed atop it by 4 days.

Aircraft Storage: this 2x2 facility has 20 units of storage space for aircraft. They can be de-fueled, unarmed, have the wings folded up, and be slid against the wall to conserve space, allowing 3-5 aircraft to fit in a facility the size of a hangar while still having room to move them around. It takes several hours to move a craft out of storage and have it ready for flight. Aircraft storage is an essential facility for base commanders who like to have a bit of everything available.

Sizes of each aircraft
Interceptor: 4
Punisher: 5
Skyranger: 5
Custodian: 6

Sparrow: 4
Albatross: 5
Stormstrike: 4
Vanquisher: 5

Firestorm: 3
Lightning: 5
Avenger: 5
Vigilante: 6

Stalker: 3
Hercules: 8
Starstreak: 2
Assassin: 5

Building 2x2 facilities atop existing facilities:
The cost and time savings increase with diminishing returns with each facility you build over. The first 2 corridors save 2 days each, the second two only save one day each. The first empty room saves 4 days, the second and third save 3 each, and the fourth only 2. A Hangar (25 days production) can be built in just 13 days if built over 4 empty rooms. If you have existing facilities connected to all 4 dirt spaces, you can build 4 empty rooms (6 days) and then build a hangar over them (13 days) for a total time expenditure of just 19 days instead of 25 for building a fresh new Hangar, however the net monetary cost will be higher.

Greater Stores build time: 30 days (12 days minimum)
General Stores savings: 6 days, 5 days, 4 days, 3 days (18 days max)

Greater Quarters build time: 40 days (16 days minimum)
Living Quarters savings: 8 days, 7 days, 5 days, 4 days (24 days max)

Large Laboratory build time: 80 days (32 days minimum)
Laboratory savings: 15 days, 13 days, 11 days, 9 days (48 days max)

Large Workshop build time: 90 days (36 days minimum)
Workshop savings: 17 days, 15 days, 12 days, 10 days (54 days max)



Selling complex products:
I'm boosting the sell value of some manufactured items and generally rebalancing the sell value system. Laser cannons are going to take much longer to build--it didn't make sense that they built as fast as a laser pistol, and the cannon-sized profit margin on such a small interval made their monthly profit multiple times as high as any other product. But I might increase overall profit margins somewhat to compensate. It will be possible to actually make money with engineers beyond merely covering their paychecks.

The profit per engineer hour for any given good is determined starting with the maintenance cost per engineer hour ($50,000 paycheck divided by hours in a month, either 720 or 744), averaging to ~$68.44627 if you factor in leap-year. The minimum profit per engineer hour is perhaps $40, and is increased by several factors:
1.) build time
2.) start-up cost
3.) workshop space required
4.) how advanced the tech is
5.) if it has alien technology in it -- X-Com-developed technology based on alien tech has the best profit margin
6.) if it requires special components -- more value for anything requiring Elerium-115 because you can't build that
7.) build time of the components
8.) sell value of the components
In the end, you'll get the smallest profit from Medikits and Motion Scanners, and the largest profit from advanced craft. The greatest profit probably will come from building the Hercules, especially if you are already finding more Navigation, Power Sources, Elerium, and Alloys than you have a use for otherwise. It also depends a lot on space, as the Hercules will require more than 2 small workshops just to fit. You'll need at minimum a large workshop just to get past the space inefficiency and begin to reap the benefits of the higher profit margin; with 2 large workshops (250 space) you can be raking in large amounts of profit selling those Hercules. This is because its sell value includes the value of the parts put in plus the cost of building the craft, which is further increased by the base profit margin which itself is increased by having extra components in construction, using alien technology, using Elerium, using components with alien technology, using components made with components, and using components made with Elerium. This sort of multi-level production serves to increase the profit margin. As a rule of thumb, bigger and more difficult projects make bigger profit margins.

Oh yeah, and craft you produce have a sell value but you probably realized that at this point if you read the previous section. Rentals will also have a sell value, but only half of the monthly rent. It's basically just an incentive to not lose the craft. The Council spends a lot of money so you can have access to cheap aircraft; they can save a lot by recovering the aircraft intact.


Soldiers - Classes
Soldiers will have a class system, though it only affects the range of already possible values you can get. It's basically paying more to sort and avoid getting types you don't want. Soldiers will have randomized maximum attribute values--the attributes they have to begin with are not necessarily telling of their maximum potential but the starting range changes based on what the maximum is, so a soldier with a high starting stat probably has a high potential and definitely does not have a very low potential.

Attribute ranges
Starting time units: (45-55) - (55-65) https:// Maximum time units: 75-85
Starting energy: (40-60) - (50-70) https:// Maximum energy: 90-110
Starting health: (20-30) - (35-45) https:// Maximum health: 45-75
Starting bravery: 10-60 https:// Maximum bravery: 60
Starting reactions: (25-45) - (45-65) https:// Maximum reactions: 90-110
Starting firing accuracy: (30-60) - (50-80) https:// Maximum firing accuracy: 100-140
Starting throwing accuracy: (20-50) - (40-70) https:// Maximum throwing accuracy: 90-130
Starting strength: (10-30) - (30-50) https:// Maximum strength: 40-80
for instance, if the soldier has a maximum firing accuracy of 100, their starting firing accuracy will be anywhere from 30 to 60

Soldier classes:
Sniper starting attributes
 * 70-80 firing accuracy
 * 15-50 strength
Cost: $60,000 (initially), $30,000 (per month)
Snipers have excellent accuracy but other attributes are random. These soldiers can reliably score hits with aimed shots at long range. If their other attributes are lousy, just keep them away from the fighting.

Assault (formerly Breacher) starting attributes
 * 55-65 time units
 * 30-45 health
 * 45-65 reactions
Cost: $60,000 (initially), $30,000 (per month)
Assault have above average health and high reactions, making them the best choice for the first soldier to enter the alien craft, or to go around a corner. It's not a safe thing to do but somebody has to do it. Use these soldiers as your frontline attack force, engaging the aliens up close.

Ranger starting attributes
 * 55-65 time units
 * 50-70 energy
 * 35-65 reactions
 * 55-80 firing accuracy
Cost: $60,000 (initially), $30,000 (per month)
Rangers have good field mobility as well as great firing accuracy. These soldiers are great for fighting at medium range, hunting aliens outdoors esp. in forests, farmland, and terror sites.

Heavy Weapons starting attributes
 * 30-45 health
 * 40-80 firing accuracy
 * 40-70 throwing accuracy
 * 35-50 strength
Cost: $60,000 (initially), $30,000 (per month)
Heavy Weapons are strong enough to carry the handheld cannons from the outset and will usually be able to grow strong enough to freely carry any armament you can load them up with. They have improved throwing accuracy for the use of grenades and tend to have higher health due to their experience carrying heavy loads.

Elite Soldier starting attributes
 * 55-65 time units
 * 55-70 energy
 * 32-45 health
 * 40-60 bravery
 * 45-65 reactions
 * 55-80 firing accuracy
 * 45-70 throwing accuracy
 * 30-50 strength
Cost: $100,000 (initially), $50,000 (per month)
Elite soldiers have all attributes in the top half of starting values.

Veteran soldiers:
 * 30-60 bravery
Cost: $120,000 (initially), $60,000 (per month)
Veteran soldiers have seen lots of combat already but are willing to return for more if you're willing to pay. Their "starting" and maximum attributes are mostly random, though low reactions and health are less common (due to the increased chance of those stats being low leading to death). However, they have a randomized amount of experience applied to their stats. Sometimes they can start with a stat higher than a normal soldier can start with. Overall they tend to have the better stats when you get them than elite soldiers, but elite soldiers tend to have more room to grow.

You can save a lot of money in the short term by purchasing soldiers by class rather than just buying lots of cheap recruits and sending the bad ones packing, but if you buy them cheap they stay cheap indefinitely so in the long term you might save money on the cheap ones.

--- posts merged ---

I've just added a new section about soldiers, and there are plenty of other updates I have made since this was posted. Time for a bump.

[HelmetHair]

Reaver of Darkness,

I like what you are trying to accomplish, but your attribute ranges are too wide in some instances and too narrow in others with caps set too low or too high in several cases. Especially, if we are weighing against the increased per month cost of a soldier class like Veteran or Elite soldiers. Based upon what you have defined, the best starting soldier weighed against their cost is the Sniper by a long shot.(Godamn PUNS  )
Let me give you an example of two soldiers a Sniper and an Elite in the exact 50th percentiles you defined for their attributes, rounding up for the Elite.

Name: Fiddy MacLongenshooter
Class: Sniper
Rank: Rookie
Time Units: 50
Energy: 50
Health: 25
Bravery: 30
Reactions:35
Firing Accuracy: 75
Throwing accuracy: 45
Strength:40

vs.

Name: Big Derk McGerk
Class: Elite
Rank: Rookie
Time units: 60
Energy 62
Health 38
Bravery 50
Reactions 55
Firing accuracy 68
Throwing accuracy 58
Strength 40

Percent differential of Elite with cost weighted over two months.
Time units: 84% of Elite
Energy: 80% of Elite
Health: 65% of Elite
Bravery: 0%
Reactions: 63% Of Elite
Firing Accuracy: +10% better than Elite
Throwing Accuracy: 77% of Elite
Strength: 0
Cost: 150k vs 90k Sniper is 60% of the cost of Elite

Automatically obtaining such a high firing accuracy and high strength range would outweigh any other potential shortfalls, because a sniper in the 50th percentile in all of his attributes is easily more efficient than a 50th percentile Elite. So it is way better to hire more snipers because they are 60% the price of an elite. So let's say we hired 5 snipers vs hiring 3 elites. We stand a statistically high likelihood of gaining very effective troops for way less money; especially if that is considered over the long term. The Sunk cost and Opportunity cost of Snipers is WAY lower than Elites based on how you structured it, because both types die like bitches when hit with Heavy Plasma. So If you lost an Elite first mission out... ouch you just ate 100k. A same situation with a Sniper? Well still hurts you for 60k, and not 100K. So what if you had hired both a Sniper and an Elite at the same time on Jan. 2 and they both bought it on the same mission on June 2. You would be out 400K for the Elite and 240K for the Sniper in Sunk Cost. Meaning you would be more likely to protect your Elites which is in conflict with what they are supposed to be as Bad Asses, and your more expendable sniper troops mature into what Elites were meant to be.

In game terms; the most significant stats are TUs for movement and Firing Accuracy to land hits. The difference in TUs works out to be 2 squares less movement for the sniper, but retains the same number of shots because shooting weapons are TU% and not a fixed cost and those shots will have the same accuracy or better because of defined accuracy stats for snipers. How do you fix this?

1. Leave snipers alone except maybe increase their reactions, because DAMN the ranges defined are fucking pathetic.
2. Variable monthly pay costs for different types of troops need to be eliminated. So and so might of been in the SEALS, that's why he is getting a hiring bonus, he doesn't make more monthly.
3. Instead of having class types of soldiers for hire you should have different hiring classes. Get me? I guess I should explain better.


-Good
Standard dude with all flaws and merits intact. The guys they found behind 7-11...
50K

-Better
Standard dude with all merits. Guys who might actually be fit and have military XP. ie Was a truck driver in the Army during the Gulf War and Bosnia
75K

-Superior
a significant bonus over a standard dude and most certainly has seen the sharp end before. ie Army Ranger and Marine Raider veterans
125K

-Elite
Dudes from SOF backgrounds with LOTS of triggers time, training and very physically fit. SEALS, PJs etc
200K

-Legendary
Guys who are spoken of with reverence because they are an undisputed master of their craft with the fitness of an Olympian. ANV, DEVGRU etc 
350K

Now, what we are basically doing is paying a premium for good troops, but if you analyze the numbers you can see it follows a very simple multiplicative pattern.  Now these would be what you would pay for hiring them, and would not include their Salary which should be as competitive or better than what a private contractor would of offered at the time. So something like 45K a month for each dude so your least experienced troops can develop under the tutelage of your most experienced and it doesn't punish you for keeping your elite soldiers around. The Cost on troops is high enough that you don't want to willy nilly buy at the highest level because 4 Elites is literally over a fucking million dollars.

Anyways...

-HH

[Arthanor]

Very nice analysis! I agree with most of it. I do like the idea of being able to hire soldiers for specific tasks though. If one of my breachers just got killed and I need a replacement, I don't want any elite soldier. I need someone with high reactions.

In fact, I have now shifted my focus from firing accuracy to reactions. Accuracy is SO much easier to train, just hit something (which is ironically harder to do the worse you are at it.. but that's why there are shotguns). Reactions require you to see an alien on its turn and we all know how that usually goes. However, it is a required stat for a good breacher, who will likely see aliens on their turns and hopefully can shoot them before he gets shot. Also because it makes it more difficult for aliens to take reaction fire, saving his life when entering a room.

If you just do "quality" classes, then what's the difference between that and hiring many soldiers to keep 1-2? You pay more at first, keep the good one(s) and fire the bad ones. In both cases, you have a large initial investment but your monthly cost is small (the salary of one soldier). In fact, you might get lucky doing the screening and get more than one good soldier.

So I'd say recruitment classes should be for different roles, but the stats and costs, especially monthly, should be different.

Back to the main proposition:
I don't understand why a sniper should be particularly strong. You give him a rifle and a few ammo packs. He doesn't need to be able to toss high explosives (and in fact, shouldn't! That should be for some other classes!). Similarly, keep them with low reactions. Those guys should be comfortable far from the fight, taking his time aiming and doing the killshots. Reactions is for those who are best in the middle of the fight.

And ranger vs assault. It looks to me like the ranger is outright better. Guaranteed decent firing accuracy (55 is not too bad, and can be much higher), at the cost of ~5 reactions? (minimum goes down by 10, mean goes down by 5) I know I just said I am starting to value reactions more, but ~5 reactions (and not even a loss on the maximum side, so you could actually lose nothing) is not worth the guarantee of at least 55, probably better, firing accuracy compared to a minimum of 30 for the base stats.

I would suggest you stick to few classes: Sniper, Assault, Heavy. Then their roles are defined better so they are easier to balance. The "normal" can be your support/"ok at everything" class. Then you've got pretty much everything covered and those happen to be all the classes from XCom 2012. Not much of a surprise, those guys knew what they were doing.

[HelmetHair]

Arthanor,

I'm glad you asked, and there would be some margins of differences even between two soldiers purchased at the same quality, because we are all a little different even at the highest levels of performance.

First, by going with a tiered system of generally "better" soldiers vs a class based approach you actually gain more tactical flexibility instead of tactical specialty. Because role is defined by how the commander equips and uses the soldier and not his statistics.   

Second, the difference between hiring 1 Legendary vs 7 standard soldiers is the simulation of previous combat experience of the soldier and evaluations done at recruiting. So you could look at it as the Legendary level soldier would be equivalent to having survived 7-8 months of equivalent combat experience to what an XCom soldier goes through and thus has the stats to reflect that.

Third, what you are doing when buying better troops is buying their maturity of experience as opposed to developing them on your own through combat. You are not setting maximums that are unobtainable by even the rawest recruit, just how far along in achieving those maximums they are.

Fourth, When you have variable monthly costs for different types of soldiers combined with differences in initial cost you have a smaller incentive to keep those guys around who cost you the most but are of marginal utility over their cheaper contemporaries. **See above** While if you unify the monthly cost it makes it more worthwhile to keep around your most experienced troops because your sunk costs and opportunity costs remain constant across all soldiers.

Five, The role of the soldier is defined by equipment and not attributes!

For the EXACT reasons that it is hard to train some statistics of a soldier is the exact reason why you should support a quality tier system instead of a role based one. A weak soldier with bad accuracy and good reactions is a waste... especially if you yourself have to screen them out. No, just spend the money and get reliable product.

Was I clear? or did I muddy the waters?

-HH

[Arthanor]

That's making quite some sense. I did not realize you meant the higher tier soldiers would have better stats because of XP, not because of starting/max stats.

I think your idea is more in keeping with the original XCom, where every soldier could do every thing. But a "class" system is attractive too and there's no reason why two different mods can't do each, so that we can pick the one we prefer.

On the weak, inaccurate soldier with good reactions. I'd keep him, give him some alright armour and a shotgun and send him to the front line. The one sectoid he'll blast before getting shot is worth it. And if he's lucky enough to survive, as soon as you've got a decent amount of TUs (those increase quickly) he can be a good scout that won't get reaction fired at too fast. Overtime, being in the frontline, he might hit enough to become reliable enough to be a breacher, especially since that's a role where turnaround is pretty high.

What I don't care for in a newbie is strength (really not a fan of grenades, takes too long to grab, prime and throw) and TUs. Accuracy is nice, but anything above 50 is fine, I even keep 40s if they have great reactions. But hey, to each their own, right? That's the beauty of XCom, and especially OpenXCom with the mods!

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I increased some of the attribute ranges, but you must also understand that the middle values are more common than the top and bottom values. In cases where I left the range the same, it will actually seem smaller and more restrictive.

10 strength is viable, but they are probably best with a pistol. I am planning to nerf the use of two-hand rifles with only one free hand, making pistols much more attractive when you want to hold something else with the weapon. I also want to change reactions so that low time unit expenditures (like pistol snap shots) are less likely to incur reactions. The sniper isn't really a high strength unit, only has the minimum raised to 15. This is because snipers tend to use two-hand weapons and they need at least enough strength for that.

The ranger gains accuracy over the assault/breacher at the cost of health. Rangers are less likely to be hit, but need accuracy to fight at long range. Breachers don't really need accuracy as much especially after I fix the system to make misses at point blank range more realistically uncommon. You may still experience lousy accuracy with handheld cannons, especially with autofire--but that is a drawback to counter their very high damage. Also, while a heavy plasma may reliably kill a breacher, they are likely to survive a plasma rifle shot especially with early armor on. The heavy plasma in my mod is having its damage increased a bit but it's becoming much heavier and more cumbersome, with slower fire rate, no autofire, smaller clip, and less accuracy. The aliens will use these at short range to demolish tough targets or pierce your strongest armor.

--- posts merged ---

As far as the costs are concerned, I am still working out the prices but it is a bit more complicated than assessing the cost of using one versus the other for any given purpose. If you wish to get soldiers of a specific calibre aligned with an existing class, you can definitely save a lot by buying that class as opposed to buying random soldiers and getting rid of the rubbish. Mathematically speaking, all classes are unlikely rolls and elite soldiers are extremely unlikely, but that doesn't take into account all the options you could have got which may have been acceptable but which are turned down from being options due to your class selection. A resourceful commander can find uses for cheap soldiers and save money. You can also buy cheap soldiers and keep whoever doesn't die. Or you can spend extra to make the sorting process easier.

Ultimately I want class choices to not be a savings but instead to be a way to decrease your workload as a commander. That's why the veterans are the most expensive. They aren't a good choice for long term but they can help you get over a catastrophic loss in a short period of time while you train up newbies to replace them. Then you can retire your veterans if you don't want to pay their paychecks.