MFive’s Mods

[MFive]

There are a few different mods here, mostly just some things that I have been working on. The core concept of the mods is that they reverse the research order for laser and plasma weapons; i.e. Cannon > Heavy Weapon > Rifle > Pistol. The reason behind the change; when we develop new technologies, we start with fairly large versions, and progressively work to smaller versions.

Realistic Research Order – Laser:
The Lasers mod also includes Elerium-115 powered laser clips (modified Yrizoud’s sprites) which include E115 powered Aircraft cannons and base defense arrays. The new clips have an additional 10 pts of damage, and the elerium laser cannon has no additional damage, but features significantly improved range, and accuracy.

Laser Heavy Rifle:

Spoiler:

    NO AUTO SHOT
    accuracySnap: 55
    accuracyAimed: 100
    tuSnap: 25
    tuAimed: 50
    weight: 10
    compatibleAmmo:
      - HEAVY LASER CLIP
      - HEAVY ELERIUM LASER CLIP

    Normal Clip
    weight: 3
    power: 85
    damageType: 4
    clipSize: 10

    Elerium-115 Clip
    weight: 3
    power: 95
    damageType: 4
    clipSize: 15

Laser Rifle:

Spoiler:

    weight: 5
    compatibleAmmo:
      - STR LASER RIFLE CLIP
      - STR ELERIUM LASER RIFLE CLIP

    Normal Clip
    weight: 3
    power: 60
    damageType: 4
    clipSize: 15

    Elerium-115 Clip
    weight: 3
    power: 70
    damageType: 4
    clipSize: 20

Laser Pistol:

Spoiler:

    weight: 5
    compatibleAmmo:
      - STR LASER PISTOL CLIP
      - STR ELERIUM LASER PISTOL CLIP

    Normal Clip
    weight: 2
    power: 46
    damageType: 4
    clipSize: 20

    Elerium-115 Clip
    weight: 2
    hitAnimation: 36
    power: 56
    damageType: 4
    clipSize: 25

Elerium Laser Cannon:

Spoiler:

    damage: 70
    range: 40
    accuracy: 45
    reloadCautious: 30
    reloadStandard: 25
    reloadAggressive: 20
    ammoMax: 100
    rearmRate: 50

Elerium Base Defense:

Spoiler:

    buildCost: 500000
    buildTime: 29
    monthlyCost: 11000
    defense: 750
    hitRatio: 65

Realistic Research Order – Plasma:
The plasma weapons mod now requires interrogations from any soldier and to have researched Elerium-115, while possessing the item in question. Once researched, a human equivalent must then be researched, and then manufactured.

Realistic Trained Soldiers:
There are several takes on having trained soldiers, most recently (that I am aware of) by Reaver. While those mods are excellent, there are only a few improvements that I would personally want in my soldiers. So I calculated the cost/minStat and adjusted the cost from there. (can post calculations if anyone wants) The Veteran Soldiers mod changes the base soldier.

I also decided to include my debug mod. I don’t know if anyone will use it, I know there are actual debug features, but I don’t know how to use them, and I do know how to make rulesets which would do similar.

This mod uses the following:
Tarren Plasma Weapons (Shadow)
Laser Clips (Yrizoud, modified by me)
I recolored the laser clips to fit with trollworkout’s Matching Weapon Colors; I think they look amazing, and really add to the game.

[hellrazor]

I never saw any reason to select a soldier mod. decent rookies train up fast enough anyway if you play them right.
Once they reach maximum stats everyone is exchangeable anyways.

[Kjotleik]

So I calculated the cost/minStat and adjusted the cost from there. (can post calculations if anyone wants)

Would be interesting to hear your thoughts about the calculations. Did you put equal weight on each attribute? Did you put more weight on important early game attributes (such as Time Units, Stamina and Firing Accuracy) or late game attributes (basically Psi-Skill and -Strength)?

Also...minimum Bravery recruitment stat equals 35? Why do you deviate from the standard divisible-by-ten values that Bravery has always had?
Does this mean Bravery goes 35-45-55-65-75-85-95-105 in your games now? Or is it only the worst (Bravery) recruit that gets 35, while the rest ends up with 40-50-60-70-80, except from the best (which gets 85)? Just being curious here, as I've never tried to deviate from the standard 10-point jumps myself.


Sincerely
Kjotleik

[MFive]

I never saw any reason to select a soldier mod. decent rookies train up fast enough anyway if you play them right.
Once they reach maximum stats everyone is exchangeable anyways.

Yea, I just wanted to eliminate some of that training time, so when my veteran squads suffer a casualty, the replacement is not that bad.

Would be interesting to hear your thoughts about the calculations. Did you put equal weight on each attribute? Did you put more weight on important early game attributes (such as Time Units, Stamina and Firing Accuracy) or late game attributes (basically Psi-Skill and -Strength)?

Also...minimum Bravery recruitment stat equals 35? Why do you deviate from the standard divisible-by-ten values that Bravery has always had?
Does this mean Bravery goes 35-45-55-65-75-85-95-105 in your games now? Or is it only the worst (Bravery) recruit that gets 35, while the rest ends up with 40-50-60-70-80, except from the best (which gets 85)? Just being curious here, as I've never tried to deviate from the standard 10-point jumps myself.


Sincerely
Kjotleik

I am not sure; I did not realize that bravery always has a value divisible by 10; and I found an error in my calculations, and I will update the OP, along with some further explanation about what the mods do (numbers included!). I assume all stats have the same value, but different costs based on weather they are minimum stats, maximum stats, or the stat cap. I derive the cost per point for each category by summing the points and dividing by 40,000 (see excel sheet for more information or usage)

[Kjotleik]

I assume all stats have the same value, but different costs based on weather they are minimum stats, maximum stats, or the stat cap. I derive the cost per point for each category by summing the points and dividing by 40,000 (see excel sheet for more information or usage)

Warning: This is my opinion. Which means it is not to be considered law, or unquestionable truth. Just one man's opinion. Got it?

I think you will get a better approximation of what the hiring cost should be if you just use the averages of the recruitment stats, instead of mixing in the caps as well. If you do that, your spreadsheet will tell you that the cost should be 47k for hiring a soldier in your mod (48k if you disregard Psi). Even better would be weighted averages. Then you could experiment with different weights, and make it so that increasing important attributes leads to significantly higher costs, while boosting less important ones nearly doesn't change the cost at all.

The reason for letting go of the caps in the calculations is just that they don't really have any meaning when we talk about recruits. It is going to take a lot of missions before a soldier reaches the stat-caps.

A different question is that you should ask yourself WHY the recruitment cost for a soldier is 40k in the first place. Why don't you just change it to an amount you see fit without doing all these calculations? If you want a really hard game, let a recruit cost you 100k. Why not? Or if you want to go with an easier time, make them cost 5k to buy...

It's really personal preference that should dictate the cost of a soldier when we talk about modding the game. After all, in vanilla UFO Enemy Unknown the soldiers do cost 40k to buy. Period. In mods... well, we have freedom to choose whatever...

[MFive]

Warning: This is my opinion. Which means it is not to be considered law, or unquestionable truth. Just one man's opinion. Got it?

Is is my personal opinion that everything that is not proven as fact is an opinion. 

I think you will get a better approximation of what the hiring cost should be if you just use the averages of the recruitment stats, instead of mixing in the caps as well. If you do that, your spreadsheet will tell you that the cost should be 47k for hiring a soldier in your mod (48k if you disregard Psi). Even better would be weighted averages. Then you could experiment with different weights, and make it so that increasing important attributes leads to significantly higher costs, while boosting less important ones nearly doesn't change the cost at all.

When I averaged the stat increases, the result seemed too low (i got approximately 49K), though weighted average would be interesting ... a poll might provide some interesting results when used for this purpose.

The reason that I included the stat caps, is that they do have some value. For example, if we one soldier has all stat caps of, let's say, 200, that soldier would clearly have more value than a soldier who has all stat caps set at 100 (in my opinion). The cost derivation of $36/statCap was my attempt to estimate that that value might be.

A different question is that you should ask yourself WHY the recruitment cost for a soldier is 40k in the first place. Why don't you just change it to an amount you see fit without doing all these calculations? If you want a really hard game, let a recruit cost you 100k. Why not? Or if you want to go with an easier time, make them cost 5k to buy...

This is a question that I feel I am unqualified to answer; I had nothing to do with the game creation. In an attempt to emulate the developers intent, I use 40K as a reference, and work with that.

It's really personal preference that should dictate the cost of a soldier when we talk about modding the game. After all, in vanilla UFO Enemy Unknown the soldiers do cost 40k to buy. Period. In mods... well, we have freedom to choose whatever...

I absolutely agree that what I have calculated is personal preference, the reason that I used a calculation is because I have never comfortable assigning costs arbitrary values due to my inherent bias toward a lower cost (I use them, therefor I want them cheaper), and use calculations to compensate.

Thanks for the great comment!