Almost everything in OXCE is optional as in "If you don't use it in a mod, it's not going to affect the game". Take psi-amps, they can deal direct damage, but unless you mod a psi-amp into the game to deal damage, it won't.
There are a few gameplay things that are there no matter what though. Like shooting at tiles with an unconscious soldier being able to kill them (and conversely, explosions needing to kill a soldier to destroy them, instead of just outright destroying the corpse). Yankes should have a list somewhere of what the "hardwired" changes are.
Thanks, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear. Being able to shoot unconscious aliens/soldiers sounds like an awesome added feature, but I wasn't keen on the psi-amp dealing damage since I was trying to make it less powerful.
Here's the list of all hardwired changes in OXCE, which I think all are improvements.
Explosions don't remove unconscious unit if they can't kill them first.
Craft weapon equip screen is a bit rearranged.
Psi-Amp use 3d range, not 2d.
Fixed ammo are added after weapons in armor and unit (armor items are before unit items).
Corpses, items and Chryssalids are not spawned when unit is killed by weapons with overkill.
Stunned units can be hited by bullets and fire.
Big groups of aliens (20+) get less morale losses from casualties.
While loading and unloading weapons you must pay the cost of moving the item to hand.
You can unprime granade for half of prime TUs cost.
Throwing now requires a healthy arm to do it (if the item is two-handed, then it requires both).
Rewriten handling of alien psi attacks to handle new features of Psi-Amp.
Throwing and hitting using two-handed weapons have the same penalty as with shooting.
Thank you for making that list, I agree what I understand there sounds pretty great. I have a few questions though.
1) Psi-Amp use 3d range, not 2d.
-I assume this means before the psi attack/defense formula didn't take into account if you were on different floors/levels, only horizontal distance. Any idea how many "tiles" this adds to the distance in the formula? If you are directly below someone does that count as "1" tile?
2) Fixed ammo are added after weapons in armor and unit (armor items are before unit items).
-I have absolutely no idea what this means. Not even an educated guess, haha.
3) Corpses, items and Chryssalids are not spawned when unit is killed by weapons with overkill.
-I assume this means big explosions will blow up bodies/items/Chryssalids rather than leave a corpse or zombie. Makes sense. What vanilla weapons would have overkill? I assume blaster bombs, alien grenades, heavy explosives and tank rockets/fusion bombs?
4) While loading and unloading weapons you must pay the cost of moving the item to hand
-Is this just the 4 TUs it costs to switch hands?
5) Rewriten handling of alien psi attacks to handle new features of Psi-Amp.
-What does this mean? How are alien psi attacks different? If you don't use the damage dealing feature of the Psi-Amp, what changes?
Sorry for all the questions. I appreciate the help.