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Mod: Warspace Extension 1.33
This mod tweaks XCOM to make better use of the game's features and give more control to the player. I wanted the player's decisions to become more meaningful, rather than being punished randomly by the game all the time. 
Expand Full Description & Credits
Expand Full Description & Credits- File Instructions:
- This mod tweaks XCOM to make better use of the game's features and give more control to the player. I wanted the player's decisions to become more meaningful, rather than being punished randomly by the game all the time. So now, if you play it right, you will be rewarded. But if you play it wrong, you will be punished.
Note that this mod was designed to be played on the Classic difficulty (with full AI) but Impossible might work just fine too. Don't worry about it being too hard, the difficulty is the same as Normal, just with full AI and a few more enemies.
Also keep in mind that this mod was not designed for save scumming. If you save scum a lot, you might find this mod too easy. This mod is more "fair" than vanilla and is best played by letting the bad decisions simply happen, don't reload. You can recover from mistakes.
ATTENTION: It is required to start a new campaign since version 1.3!
If you are new to this mod or are coming from a version older than 1.3, then you need to start a new campaign. If you've already started a campaign since 1.3, then you do not need to restart.
ATTENTION2: Please read the ReadMe, it has been updated. It contains new instructions on how to get mods to run. Firaxis has made this process harder. So, you need to read the install/startup instructions in the ReadMe!
Things that have changed:
Weapons rebalanced:
- Conventional weapons are now average. Nothing special about them. They are good allround. You could theoretically play the entire game using them.
- Lasers do a bit more damage, are more accurate and don't need to reload. But sometimes they do low damage. Their damage output can be unreliable.
- Plasma weapons do a lot of damage and have very high critical damage. But they are less accurate, which makes them hard to use, especially by rookies.
- The environment can take on a few more plasma hits before being destroyed. This allows the player to make better use of cover and play more tactically.
- Arc Thrower now goes in the pistol slot. Apart from that, it works the same as in vanilla.
- Different weapon types have different accuracy settings. Least to most accurate: Shotgun, LMG, Rifle, Sniper.
- On top of that, different weapon tiers have different accuracy levels.
- Pistols need to be reloaded (except the Laser pistol).
- Shotguns do more damage but have a bit less accuracy compared to rifles. Shotguns should be more useful now.
- The sniper rifle's close range accuracy penalty has been removed. It still needs two moves to be able to fire, I think that's harsh enough.
Enemies rebalanced:
- Enemies have been changed in such a way that combat becomes more logical, resulting in more fluid battles.
- Enemies won't cheat as much. If something bad happens, you'll know it's probably because you screwed up or because the enemy AI made a good decision.
- Smaller enemies are a bit harder to hit and large enemies a bit easier. This is balanced by accuracy and/or movement speed advantages/disadvantages.
- When a Chryssalid kills a civilian offscreen, the civilian will now always turn into a zombie.
- The AI will now always use more than 5 NPCs in combat, instead of hiding when the NPC limit is reached.
Strategical map rebalanced:
- The missions the player ignores won't increase the panic level of entire continents anymore, but only of specific countries, and panic penalties are larger now.
- This allows the player to somewhat direct the spread of panic and have more control over the strategic map. But there's still some luck involved.
- Countries have a small chance to leave the council at the end of the month when their panic level reaches level 4.
- Having a satellite in the continent or country drastically reduces the chances of leaving at panic level 4.
- Satellites are much more likely to decrease panic levels inside the country they are positioned in at the end of the month.
- Normal satellites have a very tiny chance not to be destroyed by UFOs when undefended.
- Stealth satellites have a high chance not to be destroyed by UFOs when undefended.
- European countries give slightly more money to give the player an incentive to put your satellites there.
- There's slightly a higher chance that UFOs will show up.
- UFOs doing missions (Terror, Abduction, etc) can be intercepted sometimes before they start their mission.
- The Research Lab's effectiveness has been increased. It's very effective at decreasing research times.
- Research time has been slightly increased to give the Research Lab a useful purpose.
- Increased research time of plasma weapons to make it harder to unlock them and make lasers a bit more attractive.
- Facility maintainance costs have been increased, so that you won't be swimming in cash later in the game.
- Transfering Interceptors to a new base takes much less time now, allowing you to more quickly redeploy your air forces where they are needed.
- Workshops are enabled from the start, allowing the player to begin the strategic game with a different starting move, if so desired.
Characters rebalanced:
- Rookies start with a bit less Will, but now you get more tools to combat panic.
- Human soldiers gain a bit more Will with each level.
- Armor plays a large role in how fast soldiers will panic. The higher the HP bonus you give your soldiers, the smaller the chances of panic.
- Just like armors, higher tier weapons provide a Will bonus, but a very small one. See it as a confidence boost.
- Human soldiers who panic won't try to kill your own soldiers anymore.
- Game balance doesn't resolve around your soldiers getting killed, but instead around your soldiers recovering for a much longer time.
- Soldiers who take damage during missions will be recovering for a MUCH longer time, especially if they are "gravely injured".
- You can avoid this by giving your soldiers better armor. Your soldiers will only become wounded if they lose all their hitpoints provided by the armor.
- Armors are now more likely to protect your soldiers from getting wounded.
- Soldiers who got shot can be kept in the rear to make sure they don't get shot again and then need to recover for a long time.
- Needlessly leading your soldiers to their deaths is not cost effective in the long run.
- SHIV tanks take a few more days to be repaired when heavily damaged.
Armors rebalanced:
- Armors are divided into Heavy Armors and Light Armors.
- Heavy armors consist of the Carapace, Titan and Archangel. Light armors consist of the Skeleton, Ghost and Psi armor.
- Heavy armors provide more armor than the light armors.
- Heavy armors provide two item slots. Light armors only one.
- Carapace reduces mobility by 1 square, Titan and Archangel by 2. Light armors increase mobility by 3 squares.
- Heavy armors increase Will a lot. Light armors increase Will a bit less. Secondary armors (the ones that go in the item slot) also provide a Will boost.
- Light armors increase the chances of evading incoming fire.
- Light armors have special mobility abilities (except Psi armor) that allow them to move around the battlefield with more ease.
- Secondary armors provide a bit more HP now, making them great for use with the heavy armors that have increased inventory space.
General Tweaks:
- Normal, Classic and Impossible difficulty levels should be the same now, apart from hard-coded differences, like more enemies and unlocking the full AI.
- Basically, if you want full AI, play on Classic or Impossible.
- Keep in mind, this mod was made for the Classic difficulty level, but Impossible should work too. AI is shackled on Normal, so don't play that!
- Second Wave is enabled. You'll need to finish the game first to unlock it, or download a profile which has it unlocked already (See Second Wave mod).
- Second Wave Marathon mode is fixed. You can build the Hyperwave Relay with just one Hyperwave Beacon.
Changelog:
Version 1.33
- Hotfix for plasma research. Fixed short research time of plasma weapons.
Version 1.32
- Slightly increased research time and also increased research lab effectiveness to make the lab more useful.
- Increased research time of plasma weapons by about 25% to make it harder to get them and make lasers a bit more attractive.
- Balanced out the starting stats for the Second Wave option Not Created Equally.
- Slightly rebalanced the sniper class' accuracy at the highest levels.
Version 1.31
- Hotfix for Titan and Archangel armors. They should give you item slots now.
Version 1.3
- Armors rebalanced a bit.
- Armors have a Will bonus now. Think confidence boost based on how well protected the soldier is. The higher the HP bonus, the higher the Will bonus.
- Carapace, Archangel and Ghost armors have an average Will boost. Titan has a very large Will boost. Skeleton has very little.
- Increased Will bonus on the PSI armor to balance out the new Will bonuses on the other armors.
- Most armors provide a bit less HP to promote the use of secondary armors (the ones that go in your item slot).
- Reduced defense on Ghost armor. It simply had too much defense to be considered balanced with these new enemy stats.
- Secondary armors (that go in the item slot) provide more HP.
- Slightly decreased HP on heavy armors to balance out the improved secondary armors and promote the use of them.
- Heavy armors (with two item slots) reduce mobility slightly. All light armors increase mobility and defense.
- Minor accuracy tweaks on some high level enemies. Most enemies received a small accuracy increase.
- Rebalanced enemy defense bonuses. The bigger the enemy, the less defense they have. Smaller enemies have the most defense, which makes them a bit harder to hit.
- Slightly increased HP of all enemies to compensate for the increased weapon damage of conventional weapons (since a few versions ago).
- Rebalanced soldier's Will gain per level due to the armor overhaul.
- Rebalanced accuracy gain per level.
- Reduced soldier's starting HP and moved those hitpoints to the armors to reduce the chances of becoming wounded and needing to recover.
- Lasers now do damage through criticals. They have a low chance to fail a critical and do little damage.
- Lasers don't need to reload.
- Frag grenades do 1 extra damage to compensate for the increased HP on the enemies.
- Panic level 5 countries with a satellite will have a slightly bigger chance to leave the council.
- Panic level 4 countries with no satellite in the continent will have a bit smaller chance to leave the council.
- Lowered the chance of satellites reducing panic in countries with a low panic level.
- The Research Lab's effectiveness has been increased. It's very effective at decreasing research times.
- Research time has been slightly increased to give the Research Lab a useful purpose.
- Facility maintainance costs have been increased, so that you won't be swimming in cash in the late game.
- Workshops are enabled from the start, allowing the player to begin the strategic game with a new starting move.
- Slightly reduced chance of UFOs showing up. Too many UFOs showed up in the late game and it got pretty repetitive.
- Slightly increased chance of UFOs finding stealth satellites.
Version 1.26
- Fixed Second Wave Marathon mode. It's now possible to build the Hyperwave Relay with just one Hyperwave Beacon.
Version 1.25
- Changed the way the Arc Thrower is used during battles. You no longer need to select it before using the ability. This way a few bugs are fixed.
Version 1.2
- Carapace, Titan and Archangel armors allow for two small item slots, enabling new playstyles. Other armors already are pretty damn good.
- Reduced HP bonus of Archangel armor to 6, to balance out the extra item slot.
Version 1.1
- Low level enemies got an accuracy boost to make the first half of the game a bit harder.
- Plasma weapons got a tiny environment damage boost.
- Changed settings of the Not Created Equally SW option. Rookies won't start with insanely high stats.
Version 1.0
- First release.
Credits: BlackAlpha
 File Name: Warspace Extension-1-33.rar |
Author: Admin |
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| File Size: 21 KB |
Files Added: 9,663 |
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| Downloads: 203 (1 last week) |
Author Downloads: 16,449,430 (74,167 last week) |
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| Posted: 26.10.2012 |
Supporters: n/a |
