Modest Rebalance
https://www.openxcom.com/mod/modest-rebalanceModest Rebalance' includes five ruleset changes to rebalance weapons, radar, weights, and funding to make a more interesting and challenging game play. Some or all of the options can be chosen. May conflict with other mods.
INSTALLATION: Copy all .rul files to your OpenXcom/Data/Ruleset folder. Start OpenXCom, choose 'Options', select 'Mods', and enable the rulesets you wish to use.
CHANGES
CRAFT WEAPON REBALANCE
In vanilla XCOM, regular ship cannons were almost useless due to low firepower, inaccuracy, the need to get very close to the target, and the strangely long time to order new rounds (96 hours). This attempts to fix the firepower, reload, and order time. Still is a close-combat weapon for small craft, or suicide runs on larger ones.
Cannon damage: Increased to 20 (default 10)
Cannon accuracy: Increased to 50% (default 25%)
Reload Rate: Increased to 200/hour (default 100/hour)
Starting Base: Increased to 4x50 rounds in storage (default 1x50)
Rounds order time: Decreased to 24 hours (from 96 hours!)
Vanilla XCOM commanders usually ignore the Stingray missile due to lower hitting power, lower range, and lower accuracy compared to the Avalanche missile. The only real advantage in Stingray missiles are the larger carry amount per craft, and smaller storage on base.
In order to find a use for Stingray missiles for small and medium sized UFO interceptions, and to give more use for cannon rounds, the cost of Stingray and Avalanche missiles has been greatly increased. Additionally, the accuracy of Avalanche missiles is decreased, Stingray missile accuracy is increased, reload rate for Stingray missiles is increased, and range for Stingray missiles is slightly increased.
Stingray range: Increased to 35 (from 30)
Stingray accuracy: Increased to 90% (from 70%)
Stingray reload rate: Increased to 2/hr (from 1/hr)
Stingray missile cost: Increased to $27,000 (from $3000)
Starting base Stingray missiles: Decreased to 18 (from 25)
Avalanche accuracy: Decreased to 70% (from 80%)
Avalanche missile cost: Increased to $89,000 (from $9000)
Starting base Avalanche missiles: Decreased to 9 (from 10)
Laser cannons in vanilla XCOM were typically used infrequently due to the same reasons as regular cannons: Short range and poor accuracy. This attempts to make laser cannons into much upgraded regular cannons with better range.
Laser cannon range: Increased to 24 (from 21)
Laser cannon damage: Increased to 90 (from 70)
Laser cannon accuracy: Increased to 55% (from 35%)
Laser cannon rearm rate: Increased to 100/hr (from 50/hr)
Plasma beams are the best overall craft weapons in regular XCOM due to the superior range, firepower, firing speed, and damage. We adjust range down and firepower down in order to make this less of a 'perfect' weapon. The reload rate is fixed to bring it inline with the laser cannon (as an energy weapon 'reload' is a strange concept).
Plasma beam range: Decreased to 42 (from 52)
Plasma beam damage: Decreased to 120 (from 140)
Plasma beam rearm rate: Increased to 100/hr (from 50/hr)
Finally, the Fusion Ball launcher remains the super-powered, long range option for shooting down large/very large UFOs, with highly expensive ammo. The only change we make is to increase clip size.
Fusion ball launcher: Increase clip size to 3 (from 2)
FUNDING REBALANCE
In vanilla XCOM, base location was usually obvious, to cover the best number of funding countries. Some countries had much larger average funding (USA) and many had pitiful funding in relation to their size (Russia) or their population (India). Base funding is adjusted to make selection of bases slightly more compicated and make some countries more attractive. Also, the funding for each country is capped at $2 million. The overall starting funds are unchanged.
USA base funding: Decreased to $400,000 (from $600,000)
Russia base funding: Increased to $280,000 (from $230,000)
Brazil base funding: Increased to $350,000 (from $300,000)
India base funding: Increased to $200,000 (from $150,000)
Nigeria base funding: Increased to $230,000 (from $180,000)
NOTE: In game play, each country can start with anywhere from base funding to 2x base funding; for example, India would start from $200,000 to $400,000.
RADAR REBALANCE
In vanilla XCOM, no one uses Small Radar - or at least, not seriously. Having significantly smaller range and only a modest increase in detection strength, it is built as an after-thought if at all. In order to fix this, we make Small Radar more attractive by increasing the detection strength and mildly decreasing build time. We also rebalance Large Radar by decreasing it's detection strength - but offsetting that by increasing range slightly. Finally, we nerf the Hyperwave Decoder slightly by decreasing range, and making it less than 100% accurate. The monthly cost for Large Radar and HW Decoders is also increased.
Small Radar detection chance (each 30 min): Increased to 30% (from 10%)
Small Radar build time: Decreased to 8 days (from 12 days)
Large Radar detection chance (each 30 min): Decreased to 5% (from 20%)
Large Radar range: Increased to 2500 miles (from 2250 miles)
Large Radar monthly cost: Increased to $35,000 (from $15,000)
Hyper-wave Decoder detection chance (each 30 min): Decreased to 85% (from 100%)
Hyper-wave Decoder range: Decreased to 2250 miles (from 2400 miles)
Hyper-wave Decoder monthly cost: Increased to $80,000 (from $30,000)
WEAPON WEIGHT REBALANCE
Vanilla XCOM has a Plasma Rifle weighing as much as a generic pistol, and a Heavy Plasma as much as a regular rifle. What the hell? Weights for these and a few other weapons are modified to make strength more relevant, and some weapons more useful than before.
Heavy Plasma weight: Increased to 16 (from 8 )
Plasma Rifle weight: Increased to 10 (from 5)
Plasma Pistol clip weight: Decreased to 1 (from 3)
Laser Pistol weight: Decreased to 6 (from 7)
Blaster Launcher weight: Increased to 20 (from 16)
Heavy Laser weight: Decreased to 14 (from 18)
INFANTRY WEAPON REBALANCE
Separate from the weight changes, these changes rebalance the use of infantry weapons. In vanilla XCOM the Heavy Plasma is the only end-game weapon to use due to the superior firepower and excellent accuracy. We rebalance the Heavy Plasma to be a burst weapon and provide a role for the Plasma Rifle as a sniper weapon with superior accuracy. We also modify the starting rifle to be more useful and to be more powerful than the starting pistol, as the pistol was nearly as damaging and could be fired in aimed mode very rapidly.
Rifle clip size: Increased to 30 (from 20)
Rifle damage: Increased to 32 (from 30)
Rifle TUs for aimed shot: Decreased to 60% (from 80%)
Pistol damage: Decreased to 24 (from 26)
Pistol TUs for aimed shot: Increased to 50% (from 30%)
Heavy Plasma TUs for auto fire: Decreased to 32% (from 35%)
Heavy Plasma TUs for snap shot: Decreased to 28% (from 30%)
Heavy Plasma TUs for aimed shot: Increased to 75% (from 60%)
Heavy Plasma aimed shot accuracy: Decreased to 90% (from 110%)
Plasma Rifle aimed shot accuracy: Increased to 120% (from 100%)
