Cultist MANOR spawning rate and evolution speed

[Juku121]

I understand the sentiment, but that'd mean you'd be very unlikely to see a tier 3 manor at all. Maybe a mix of low- and high-tier manors instead of a binary switch?

[Magat0r]

While I generally agree that (especially tier 3) manors are too much, I do have to point out that:

• Manors already have a 6-month grace period when they don't upgrade.
  
• Lower-tier manors don't have reinforcements, and only the same kind of equipment as regular cultists. Not sure how one could reasonably nerf their 'tech'.
  
• Manors don't self-propagate, so killing off existing manors does nothing to stop more manors from showing up.
  
• You're supposed to be able to start engaging UFOs in 1999, so being able to fight regular jet fighters 4-5 months earlier is not a big stretch. And actually makes your own MiGs useful for once.
  

Update from my brother's SH/I campaign, his kitsune got shot down by a 2800 human ufo in dec 1998.
The manors appear too early, spawn too often and upgrade too fast. You simply do not have the arsenal to effectively deal with such air presence.
Imo while an interesting mechanic to keep the cults relevant, they are way overtuned and make the game not fun.

Can someone give me a step-by-step guide on how to change the starting month for Manor spam from month 10?
If not possible, I will have to unfortunately shelf the mod.

[Juku121]

...his kitsune got shot down by a 2800 human ufo in dec 1998.

There is no speed 2800 Earth craft. The fastest jet the cultists have maxes out at 2350.

However, there is a speed 2800 craft... A tiny flying sub from T'leth. I have a hard time seeing how that one could kill a Kitsune unless the latter was unarmed. In which case it was a self-inflicted wound.


Early manors are bearable and take like 8-9 moths to upgrade, possibly even more. Any longer and the upgrades would stop mattering. Even tier 2 with helicopters can be evaded or fought with Little Birds. It's the instant tier 3 manors with fighter jets, insane reinforcements and beefed-up security that kill your campaign.

Can someone give me a step-by-step guide on how to change the starting month for Manor spam from month 10?

Open missionScripts_XCOMFILES.rul with a non-enriching text editor (Notepad++ is popular), find the line saying

Code: [Select]

  - type: CultManorBlackLotus, change firstMonth and lastMonth to your liking. Copy this seven more times for Black Lotus, 3x8 times for the other three cults, and then start over with

Code: [Select]

- type: CultGreaterManorBlackLotus And again for

Code: [Select]

  - type: CultGreatestManorBlackLotus and its 31 friends.

[Magat0r]

There is no speed 2800 Earth craft. The fastest jet the cultists have maxes out at 2350.

However, there is a speed 2800 craft... A tiny flying sub from T'leth. I have a hard time seeing how that one could kill a Kitsune unless the latter was unarmed. In which case it was a self-inflicted wound.

This is good info, I'll let him know. And thank you for the instructions, I'll give them a go!

[BDoubleDs]

i feel like something similar happened to me in my recent campaign and i was just on veteran.  i got to nov/dec 1998 and i was completing every mission just fine but every score at end of the month was -1700 and i couldn't for the life of me figure out how this was happening after several reloads and replays of the 2 months.  Now based on this thread it seems i had manors spawned all over the map and didnt know.  (only 3 were showing but migs would attack from all over heading to missions)

I definitely feel this should be tweaked, or at least have the player notified. 

And getting into the conversation about who the game is balanced for.   the research tree pretty much requires game knowledge already.   I mean yeah i get it.  it has a search feature.. but as a new player, if i dont even know what to search for (which i dont) a search feature doesnt really do me much good.   it needs branching system so you can break down into the tech tiers and see whats there.  its broken down in other areas (like the filters on the available tech to research screen)  the tech tree should have something similar.  not just an empty screen with a search bar.

[Juku121]

...or at least have the player notified. 

Well, you were notified, via MiG Express.

I don't even know how a modder could detect you're being overrun with manors.

the research tree

X-Com is a strategy game. I know that CiV popularised the idea of playing strategy games as RPGs where the strategic entity or its handler is your 'character', and you blindly plod along and LARP strategic choices, but IMO that's a pretty stupid way to play a strategy game. How many times have you tried optimising your walk on the tech tree in a 4X game? Same thing here.

[Vakrug]

I remembered my 1-st playthrough. It was ruined partially because of too many mansions. But is was not due to I couldn't defeat a mansion, but because I didn't know I must search for them! After all I was notified about the first mansion (just like I was notified about pretty much every mission appearance earlier). I realized there are hidden bases only when I notices that enemy crafts are despawning in the same spots over and over again.

I have a proposal: when player gets notification about appearance of the first mansion, instead of showing just a text "Alien base detected" it should be something like "Council agents detected an alien base. By pure coincidence and sheer luck. Don't expect to be notified about further alien bases next time. Start using your crafts to patrol areas where graphics shows UFO activities. (Pro tip: countries are smaller than continents.)"

BTW, other strange things happened during my first playthrough that was very misleading:

• "The Root of All Evil" spawned next to my main base in the range of AIRBORNE MUDRANGER and kept spawning in the same spot over and over again. I was certain it was not a coincidence.
• First cult mansion spawned almost on top of one of my secondary bases. (MUDRANGER time!) Again I thought it was not a coincidence.
• When I encountered my first Migs I was able to return a vehicle back to base before before Migs were able to catch it. Another "to good for coincidence" situation.

And also, I was paying attention to graphics in the start of the game like I did it while playing in vanilla XCOM. But I soon realized that there is no UFOs (and there shouldn't be until 1999-01-01, how game told me later) I stopped doing that.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks for all the feedback, I'll keep thinking about this.

EDIT: I moved the whole off-topic into a new thread: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,10789.0.html

Next time I'll just nuke it. Honestly...

[Dadimus_Maximus]

I managed to get Promotion III due to a lucky Deep Ones mission in August 1998. So I decided to immediately tech into Mortars, and oh boy they are WORTH that price tag. On a totally unrelated note, I learned that soldiers can get the "betrayer" commendation after blowing themselves up.

I do agree that these missions feel tougher than some of the HQ missions, but the only thing I'd really change would be disallowing reinforcements from appearing on your own spawn point, or perhaps even on the same side of the map. Otherwise, smoke to conceal the spawn and enough mortars to flatten the place is the doctor's prescription. Even with that, it's a tough fight! Before mortars though, they are quite the nightmare. I tried using grenade launchers back in Promo2 for the same effect, but it wasn't killy enough even with those chokepoints.

[Solarius Scorch]

I do agree that these missions feel tougher than some of the HQ missions, but the only thing I'd really change would be disallowing reinforcements from appearing on your own spawn point, or perhaps even on the same side of the map.

This sounds reasonable. OK, I'll do that.

[Magat0r]

Open missionScripts_XCOMFILES.rul with a non-enriching text editor (Notepad++ is popular), find the line saying

Code: [Select]

  - type: CultManorBlackLotus, change firstMonth and lastMonth to your liking. Copy this seven more times for Black Lotus, 3x8 times for the other three cults, and then start over with

Code: [Select]

- type: CultGreaterManorBlackLotus And again for

Code: [Select]

  - type: CultGreatestManorBlackLotus and its 31 friends.

Sorry to report that this did NOT work -- I changed T1 Manors for all cults firstMonth: 15 and lastMonth: 19 and started a new SH/I campaign and as clockwork, there is a manor spawned in Oct, 1997 right next to my base.

[Magat0r]

can someone, please, for the love of god tell me how to tweak this? I love this mod but hate the Manor spam with a passion

[Magat0r]

checked my save game and have 2 manors already spawned on the map, month 10 xd

[Juku121]

Sorry to report that this did NOT work -- I changed T1 Manors for all cults firstMonth: 15 and lastMonth: 19 and started a new SH/I campaign and as clockwork, there is a manor spawned in Oct, 1997 right next to my base.

I just tested and it did work for me. So I suspect you missed something. Post your changed missionScripts_XCOMFILES.rul, and make sure the changed file isn't put somewhere it can't work, or that you don't have a duplicate somewhere.

[Magat0r]

you are right, I found couple of other versions of this file, going to replace them and see if it helps. fingers crossed. sorry for being so pissed of but I spent a lot of time on this mod already. Don't want another campaign screwed due to this. Cheers man