I'd recommend doing it, and this is coming from the author of the only other megamod in the community to dedicate to OXC. Even in Faithful, I added a few OXCE features just because there were things I felt the mod needed that couldn't be done otherwise. Faithful still maintains balance centered on OXC as much as possible but runs about the same if not better in OXCE just because OXCE really is generally superior.
Well there is definitely a lot of Quality of Live stuff in OXCE. The craft and soldier equipment templates for example, i do not even wanna play without those any more
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What it still lacks is a better financial overview, but I have not checked the newest version. Lot of shit going on.
When I finally upgraded to OXCE, I rebranded my mod as Harmony and left Faithful where it was. The inspiration I got from reading the ruleset reference and seeing all the new options available to me led to Harmony's additions on top of Faithful being two or three times as extensive as Faithful itself. You could do likewise perhaps, make a Hardmode 2 or something, leave Hardmode to function in OXC and move on into OXCE. I promise you that you will not ever look back.
To some degree I am actually thankful to Hobbes, forcing me to remove those globe terrains (I still have those archived on my disc for personal use, I wish he could just accept them.. sign...). I basically have a clean mod now on which I can work on the core stuff.
I think i did a job at changing the economy and the research, these two components will smack the player in its face on a regular basis, you will face financial problems and the question of what to research next.
The Economy eases up a little bit when the player starts producing Laser Canons and is gaining some independence from the funding countries.
Also you must keep the number of alien bases in check, they tend to multiplicate, I guess technically I could add Hunter Outposts, once a alien base exists for a specific time, it will start hunting X-Com crafts, flying near by or so?
I also saw that it is now possible to spawn VIP's, which can be recovered. Rescue these two Egg Heads or so.
I was also thinking back on our chat about the difficulty of the mod. I think you said your mod wasn't difficult enough because of how it stacks up against some of the other mods in the community, and I said those mods are also really difficult, I said Hardmode is definitely a really difficult mod. But I remembered that you once said the mod is only designed to be played on Superhuman difficulty, so I was thinking perhaps you could flesh out the difficulty ranges and design the mod to be played on all five difficulties, ranging from hard (Beginner) to crushingly difficult (Veteran) to absolutely nightmarish (Superhuman). People could still enjoy the mod, but nobody would ever say it was too easy. I've had a fair bit of experience with difficulty settings and tweaks, so I can offer you some help on that either here or on Discord if you're interested.
But fair warning: modding in OXCE quickly gets addictive! If you're limited on available time, you might think twice about it, or at least pace yourself.
Well the thing is, for example i would never be playing Piratez. Personal choice. I found the Final Mod Pack a bit slapped together, with things that really did not make sense, especially some research stuff.
Also I never liked the weapon designs. Designing weapons and their use cases and usage limitations is something very important. I am not a fan of weapons, were you can only shoot or move in one turn. Or being forced to have only single shot weapons, because some people played too much with UFO Extender Accuracy and think weapons with autoshots are a disgrace.
I think Hardmode can also be played on lower difficulty settings, without issues. Even thou maybe it is then harder for the player to balance the economy (reduced loot income), would require test (testing takes along time...)
You can add 100.000 useable Items/Weapons to a mod and call it a day, or you go and add specific Items/Weapons, which each has a unique use case.
What is the big difference you may ask?
Look at the Final Mod Pack or Piratez for example. There is so many "clutter" weapons in the bank of those mods. Not all of them have a unique use case.
So what happens? If it does not have a unique use case, or a easily to determine advantage for the player, it will never be used and stays "clutter".
To be honest I so far in all those years, I never finished playing my own mod, ey i gotten to November and now i being pummeled by Muton Elites. I did go a little bit overboard with having 6 strike teams and the entire shit of moving equipment around keeping track of ammo, restocking items base management got a little bit crazy.
I mean there are certain people, who really seem to like my mod and I am wondering why (the main purpose was to build a player torture machine... so many masochists out there
)
