Wall of TEXT (nexus słabo się ładuje, więc wklejam info o modzie)
Some of the changes in this mod include:
Game
- Startup splash screens skipped
Soldiers
- With OTS upgrades, XCom may now bring a maximum of eight soldiers on missions. They may bring six at the beginning of the game.
- Rookies have a base 4 hp.
- Soldiers (not SHIVs) now must rest after missions or suffer severe penalties. After a mission, soldiers are designated as "tired" for roughly five days. This is downtime while they recover from exposure to the aliens and the stress of combat. If you send a tired soldier on a mission before they are finished resting (by using dangerous stimulants), they become "exhausted," which is the equivalent of suffering a moderate wound, rendering them unavailable for a significant amount of time. Experienced troopers recover from being exhausted faster than rookies.
- Soldiers take much longer to recover from injuries; recovery time increases are much more closely tied to the degree of the soldier's injury
- You start with 25 soldiers.
- XP needed for promotion significantly increased, particularly at higher ranks.
- Soldiers gain relatively more XP for going on missions, and less for individual kills. Teamwork, not individual achievement, is paramount.
- SHIVs are available at the start and are now equippable in the barracks. They are generally tougher but more expensive.
- Rookies start with lower will than in vanilla, but they will earn it back by the time they are promoted to corporal.
- The Psi Lab now takes twice as long to study a subject.
- Character Card now displays mobility, mobility bonuses, XP, and XP to level up. Note: The displayed mobility is in line with ini settings; 3 mobility points translates into 2 tactical game squares in a straight line
Classes
- Eight classes are now available to soldiers. When a rookie is promoted to squaddie, you are able to select one of two perks that determines the soldier's class and perk tree available to them.
- The classes are: Sniper, Scout, Assault, Infantry, Gunner, Rocketeer, Medic and Engineer. The full perk trees are available on the mod's page on the Nexus.
-- Sniper: Squaddie Perk is Squadsight. May use sniper rifle-class weapons.
-- Scout: Squaddie Perk is Lightning Reflexes. May use the Plasma Rifle.
-- Assault: Squaddie Perk is Run N' Gun. May use shotgun-class weapons and the Plasma Rifle.
-- Infantry: Squaddie Perk is Bullet Swarm. May use shotgun-class weapons and the Plasma Rifle.
-- Gunner: Squaddie Perk is Suppression. May use LMG-class weapons.
-- Rocketeer: Squaddie Perk is Fire Rocket.
-- Medic: Squaddie Perk is Field Medic. May use the Plasma Rifle.
-- Engineer: Squaddie Perk is Grenadier. May use shotgun-class weapons and the Plasma Rifle.
Rookies may not use the Plasma Rifle, sniper rifles, LMG-class weapons, or shotgun-class weapons.
New Perks
- Repair: +3 Arc Thrower Charges.
- Bombardier: You can throw grenades much further now.
- HEAT Warheads: Your rockets and grenades now do extra damage to robotic units.
- Javelin Rockets: Your rockets now have significantly increased range.
- Lock N' Load: +2 Shots/Bursts for your weapons before reload is required. (The bonus is only +1 if this perk is granted by an item.)
- Vengeance: Take a free reaction shot at anyone who inflicts a wound on you. Note this may include allies who accidently damage you. (This perk is available to an alien leader and on a SHIV item only.)
- Ranger: Your large weapons (Rifle, LMG, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Blaster Launcher) do +1 damage.
- Sapper: Frag grenades do +1 damage, and Alien Grenades do +2 damage. All your environmental damage is tripled.
Adjusted Perks
- Shredder Rocket: Enemy units hit by shredder rockets now take more damage from additional hits (+50% instead of +33% in vanilla).
- Revive: Revived soldiers receive 1 action to get to cover. Also, a revived soldier suffers only a -5 permanent will penalty, instead of -15, and can also be critically hit in future missions (rather than just being killed).
- Squadsight: Targeting aliens via squadsight incurs a -20 penalty to offense, with +4 offense restored for each X-Com soldier or battlescanner who can see the target.
- Smoke Grenade: The perk not only allows carrying a smoke grenade without taking up an item slot, but also allows you to take an additional action if you deploy a smoke grenade to begin your turn.
- Bring 'Em On: Bonus damage is applied to base damage, instead of critical (meaning it will multipled by 1.5), but it is limited to up to four enemies that the soldier (and not the squad) can see.
- Snap Shot: Rocket Launchers will be more accurate and have longer range when fired after moving. Blaster Launchers also have longer range after the soldiers move.
- Extra Conditioning: Gives +2 HP to Kevlar, Skeleton and Psi armors and basic and Hover SHIVs; +4 hp to Carapace, Titan, Archangel, Ghost armors and Alloy SHIVs
- Covering Fire: Reaction shots with Covering Fire now take place before enemy unit returns to cover
- Mayhem: Your large weapons (Rifle, LMG, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher classes) do +2 damage.
Kit
- All armors except Ghost can carry two items.
- Weapon Ammo overhauled. LMG-class weapons have more ammo, assault rifles and plasma weapons generally have less. A new perk and items are available to increase your ammo.
- Pistols expend ammo and must be reloaded frequently. They also have a shorter overwatch range than rifles.
- Armors have a significant impact on mobility.
- All classes may use assault rifles, laser rifles and plasma carbines. Note that not all perks (such as Head Shot) will work with these weapons.
- Rocket Launchers now hit or miss targets based on the soldier's aim and the distance from the shooter to the target. You can now fire rockets after moving, but they will be pretty inaccurate without the Snap Shot perk. The "scatter" number reported by the aiming interface is how many tiles you can expect to miss your target by, so if it's greater than two, you have a good chance of missing. But scatter is just an estimate -- you can still hit, or miss by even more.
- Blaster Launcher range is now set by soldier's aim. Squaddies without any aim items may not be able to shoot very far at all.
- Shotgun-type weapons do more damage and will not take a reaction shot until an enemy is close.
- The Plasma Sniper Rifle does 8 base damage, instead of 9. The Heavy Laser does 7 base damage, instead of 6. All LMG-class weapons have an increased critical chance.
- Explosives damage (grenades and rockets) is now randomized, just like that from guns.
- Environmental damage has been adjusted for many weapons, making cover more durable overall. Frag Grenades aren't as effective at destroying alien materials, unless the soldier has the Sapper perk.
- Arc Throwers are significatly less effective. Best case, you'll have about a 60 percent chance to stun a wounded alien. They only have one charge without the Repair perk.
- You must research Xeno-biology before being able to build the medikit.
- The equipment of soldiers left behind (alive or dead) on tactical mission failures or aborts has a 50-50 chance of being lost. Some alien items may be left behind and recovered on aborts.
- The Light Plasma Rifle is now the Plasma Carbine. Nano-Fiber Vests are now Alloy Plating.
- Many new backpack items are available for X-Com's troopers. These include:
-- Ceramic plates, confers +1 hp, only one per soldier
-- Laser sights, confers +5 aim, only one per soldier, can stack with SCOPE
-- Alien trophies, confers +15 will
-- High Cap Mags, provides +1 shot/burst before reload, only one per soldier
-- First Aid Kits, Heals 2 hp or stabilize, no poison immunity, receives savior bonus but not Medikit foundry project bonus. Cannot be carried at the same time with a Medikit; you must unequip one to equip the other.
-- Shredder Rocket, available only to rocketeers, only one per soldier
-- Smoke Grenades
-- Battlescanners
-- Antimateriel Kit, requires Alien Materials research, available only to snipers. It converts the sniper's weapons into antitank variants, with HEAT ammo but only one shot between reloads. Its mass also confers -40 aim for the soldier for all weapons. Only 1 per soldier.
-- Alloy Jacketed Rounds, requires Enhanced Ballistic Weaponry Foundry Project, +1 damage for ballistic weapons and the rocket launcher, only 1 per soldier
-- Enhanced Beam Optics, requires Enhanced Laser Weaponry Foundry project, +1 damage for laser weapons, only 1 per soldier
-- Plasma Stellerator, requires Enhanced Plasma Weaponry Foundry project, +1 damage for plasma weapons and the blaster launcher, only 1 per soldier
- SHIVs can also now equip two or three small items that provide them with certain perks. Most items will become available as you develop new technologies. New S.H.I.V. Items:
-- Sentry Gun (Primary Weapon): A more powerful version of the minigun. Available with Enhanced Ballistic Weaponry Foundry Project.
-- HEAT Ammo Mags (HEAT Ammo), requires Alien Materials research
-- Smartshell Pods (Flush), requires Experimental Warfare research
-- AutoSentry Turret (Sentinel), requires Cyberdisc Autopsy
-- Core Armoring (Resilience), requires SHIV Defenses foundry project
-- Weapon Supercoolers (Double Tap), requires Sectopod Autopsy
-- Elerium Turbos (Sprinter), requires Elerium research
-- Ammo Drums (Lock N' Load), available at start
-- Holo-Targeters (Holo-Targeting), requires Drone Autopsy
-- Proximity Sensors (Close Combat Specialist), requires Experimental Warfare research
-- Targeting Computer (Ranger), requires Alien Nav Computer research
-- Counterfire Pods (Vengeance), requires SHIV Suppression foundry project
-- Boron-Alloy Armor (Extra Conditioning), also provides +1 Damage Reduction, requires SHIV Defenses foundry project
Aliens
- Most of the vanilla accuracy and crit bonuses for aliens have been eliminated early in the game, with a few exceptions. Outsiders are much tougher than before.
- Aliens will field pods of up to eight units. You'll see more heterogeneous pods at times. Larger pods will become more common as the game goes on.
- Aliens now sometimes field leader characters (one per pod max), who have more hit points and sometimes new special abilities compared to normal versions of the same alien. Leaders will grow more powerful and more frequent as the game goes on.
- After a few months, the aliens will also randomly field "navigators" with different bonuses than leaders. Leader-Navigators are possible.
- Encounter tables overhauled. The appearance of new alien species is slowed after the first few months. Species from earlier in the game will show up more often later in the game. Late in the game you will see outsiders, sectoid commanders and ethereals appear on missions outside of their vanilla role in ship command crews. They will appear regardless of your advancement in the plot.
- Aliens will conduct research on X-Com and get more difficult to kill over time, gaining hit points and accuracy. Some may gain resistance to damage, and others may regenerate wounds. The X-Com player can slow this research by defeating alien bases, shooting down UFOs and putting satellites into orbit. Aliens will also gain a research bonus when they win missions and have X-Com personnel to study or interrogate.
- Aliens provide fewer weapons fragments than in vanilla.
- Using explosives to kill an alien renders the corpse unusable for research or gray market sales.
- Aliens have several AI fixes that prevent certain player exploits from vanilla.
Research and Development
- You start with 10 scientists.
- Almost all research times significantly increased. Plot-oriented advances beyond arc thrower take particularly longer. A number of research item requirements (elerium, fragments, captured weapons) increased.
- Alien captive research bonuses reduced in several cases (providing a 25 percent reduction rather than 50 percent.)
- Various Officer Training School abilities costs and requirements changed. Squad Size I and II now increase your maximum squad size on missions to 7 and 8 soldiers, respectively.
- Powerful foundry projects cost more and require more items.
- Significant overhaul to tech and foundry tree. See the tech tree jpg included in this mod for full details. Some major changes:
-- The Advanced Ballistic Weapons foundry project replaces SHIV. It requires Experimental Warfare technology. It unlocks the SHIV Sentry Gun and Alloy Jacketed Rounds item.
-- The Advanced Laser Weapons foundry project replaces Automated Lasers. It requires Heavy Laser technology. It unlocks the SHIV Superheavy Laser and Enhanced Beam Optics item.
-- The Advanced Plasma Weapons foundry project replaces Automated Plasma. It requires Plasma Sniper technology. It unlocks the SHIV Superheavy Plasma and Plasma Stellerator item.
-- The Armored Fighters foundry project replaces Advanced Construction. It requires a floater interrogation to unlock. It adds a significant number of hit points to your interceptors and Firestorms.
-- The SHIV Defenses foundry project replaces Advanced Pistol II. It requires carapace armor to unlock. It unlocks Boron-Alloy Armor and Core Armoring, two SHIV items.
-- All interrogations require an autopsy of that species (to get at their brains) be completed first.
Construction and Engineering
- You start with 10 engineers.
- Most base construction times, power requirements, facility costs and maintenance costs increased. Late-game facilities require significant funds to maintain, requiring a large satellite network.
- Satellite Uplinks support one satellite, instead of two. Satellite Nexuses support two satellites, instead of four. The adjacency bonus of one additional satellite still applies.
- Thermal and Elerium Power facilities provide 5 more power each.
- Labs and Workshops are available from the start of the game. The Officer Training School is available when you promote a rookie to squaddie (so, almost certainly immediately.)
- The Foundry becomes available with Weapon Fragments research.
Missions
- Aliens now build bases in countries they have taken over. They will take over one country shortly after the game starts to guarantee a base mission. To gain access to the base to assault it, you must launch a satellite over the country and have a skeleton key. A successful assault will return the country to X-Com. Later in the game, the aliens may launch additional infiltration missions to take over countries, generating more bases, although these can be intercepted.
- Abductions now usually occur in only one country at a time. You may see up to five abductions in a month. They will typically have more aliens than in base game abductions of the same difficulty. Abductions will always provide a $100 reward.
- Terror missions will be more frequent, and they will get more difficult as the game goes on.
- Council missions will be more frequent.
- Abductions and UFO missions will see moderate variations in the number of aliens.
- Landed UFO missions and alien base assaults will typically include a much more difficult enemy squad.
UFOs and interceptions
- UFOs and XCom and UFO weapons overhauled to make aerial combat far more dramatic and less deterministic. Alien Scouts are much faster. Firestorms are still awesome, but not nearly as invincible. All weapons are less accurate; several XCom weapons have increased rate of fire to compenstate. UFO weapons significantly less accurate but do more damage. UFOs will escape more often, and sometimes you will destroy UFOs entirely with powerful weapons. Damage is randomized around baseline damage, so it won't always take the same number of hits to shoot down a UFO.
- Your interceptors gain experience. The more kills credited to an interceptor or Firestorm, the more accurate that craft is: The bonus is +4 percent to hit per kill, up to a bonus of 40 percent. Some X-Com weapon systems work far better on experienced craft, while others are best suited for rookie craft.
- Alien UFOs will upgrade over time.
- You can prevent terror missions, infiltration missions, and abductions by intercepting UFOs on those missions.
- Aliens will conduct some of their multi-UFO missions a little differently. The net effect is that abductions are harder to stop with interceptions and you'll see fewer battleships, particularly early in the game.
- Aliens may now send hunter UFOs after your satellites if other UFOs are not shot down (in the past, UFOs had to be ignored entirely). The chances and capabilities of hunters are reduced, and the aliens are not as effective at shooting down satellites.
- You start with four interceptors at X-Com HQ, instead of two, and you may have up to six interceptors per continent, instead of four.
- You will see far more UFOs in a given month.
- Interceptors cost $200, and monthly maintenance on interceptors and Firestorms is $40. Interceptor Repair time increased significantly, up to 25 days for a badly damaged bird.
- Players have three days to investigate a crashed UFO (instead of two).
- Most UFOs will have larger crews. Alien crew counts will be somewhat randomized.
- The boost interceptor consumable requires sectoid autopsy and 10 engineers, instead of cyberdisc.
- The targeting interceptor consumable requires floater autopsy and 15 engineers, instead of sectoid.
- The dodge interceptor consumable requires cyberdisc autopsy and 20 engineers, instead of floater.
- If an interceptor is shot down, its weapon no longer returns to the armory for placing on other aircraft.
- "Small Scouts" are now called "Scouts." "Large Scouts" are now "Destroyers." "Supply Barges" are now "Supply Cruisers."
The World and Funding
- All council countries now provide marginal monthly income (in lieu of base income that was tied to nowhere), while countries with satellites provide the full amount. Losing any country will now hurt your income.
- You can now sell numerous manufactured and captured items on the Gray Market. Note: Items must be unequipped to be sold.
- Gray market sale values modified in accordance with increased mission tempo; things you'll have a lot of (like sectoid bodies) are worth less.
- You should see more frequent council requests for items. You shouldn't see massive cash offers, though; many more offers will be for personnel. Plan on these requests as your primary means to gain scientists. Countries will now rarely request manufactured items but instead sometimes ask for captive aliens to be transferred to their custody.
- Various countries' funding changed to reflect country's real-world economy and size, as well as to increase strategic choices in placing satellites.
- The North America bonus is reduced to a 30 percent reduction in interceptor and interceptor weapon costs, instead of 50.
- The South America continent bonus now reduces build and maintenance costs of base power generation facilities by 40 percent, instead of 50.
- The Europe bonus now reduces build and maintenance costs of labs and workshops by 40 percent, instead of 50.
- Africa games now start in Egypt.
- Several countries have enlarged airspace to make interceptions a little more consistent. This may mean more downed UFOs over oceanic and arctic areas (which still give you forest maps).
Strategy Game Panic
- Panic is much stickier than in vanilla. The aliens don't have as many ways to increase it, but you have limited ways to reduce it: winning terror and special missions, assaulting UFOs, orbiting satellites, and defeating the alien base.
- You can now enter the Situation Room from the start.
- Un-defeated abductions raise panic by 2 in the country and 1 on the rest of the continent.
- Orbiting a satellite lowers country panic by 1. Satellites will sometimes lower panic in countries with five panic blocks, but they will not impact panic in countries with four or less blocks.
- Defeating an alien base does not lower panic worldwide; instead it returns a country to the X-Com council (at four panic).
- Escaped UFOs do not raise panic.
- Shooting down a UFO does not lower panic.
- Ignored (un-intercepted) UFOs raise panic by 1.
- Successfully assaulting a UFO lowers panic by 1.
Combat
- Weapons damage is calculated via a different mechanism than in vanilla. The average outcome is roughly the same, but damage will be assessed on more of a curve.
- During battles, dead alien bodies remain visible.
- Soldiers will usually seek cover and hunker down when panicked.
- Aliens will hunker down more frequently.
- Alien vanilla freezing-when-flanked bug fixed.
- Minimum and maximum zoom levels in tactical game increased
- Left-right rotation in tactical game now 45 degrees (instead of 90)
- Hunker down and overwatch delays removed
- Moving a soldier to the extraction area and firing your weapon will cause that soldier to be left behind on mission abort. Don't take any "parting shots" or you won't get on the Skyranger!
Difficulty
- Only cinematic difficulty provides hardcoded bonuses and alien nerfs NOT listed here. For normal through impossible, all bonuses and other adjustments are all listed here.
Difficulty breakdown:
-- Cinematic: More money, no starting panic, X-Com soldiers get 10 defense, no continental panic from failed abductions
-- Normal: Eight countries roll a d4 for starting panic, X-Com soldiers get 10 defense
-- Classic: Less money, 12 countries roll for starting panic, X-Com soldiers get 5 defense, Floaters, Mutons, Drones, Cyberdiscs and Zombies have more hit points, and Thin Men are more acccurate. Thin Men and Mutons will use plague and grenades more often.
-- Impossible: Like Classic, but still less money, 16 countries roll for starting panic, X-Com soldiers get 0 bonus defense. Sectoids get more hit points. Thin Men and Mutons will use plague and grenades even more often than classic.
It is recommended you skip the tutorial when playing Long War. Users have reported it has weird and game-breaking effects. Users have also reported that Easter Egg characters no longer have full capabilities.
Second Wave and DLC
- Slingshot final mission rewards and Zhang hit points reduced. Zhang becomes an sergeant assault/infantry, not a lieutenant heavy, when he joins X-Com. You can customize Zhang, but changing his head, race or voice is irreversable.
- Time between first and final two Slingshot missions increased to give you a chance at the challenging second mission.
- All Second Wave options unlocked for all players, regardless of previous wins.
- The following Second Wave options are changed/work differently with Long War. If it's not listed here, it's entirely unchanged.
-- Damage Roulette: Normally in Long War, weapons deal 75% to 125% of base damage, or 125% to 175% of base damage on a critical. With Damage Roulette weapons will deal 50% to 150% of base damage, or 150% to 250% of base damage on a critical. Weapons with 4 base damage or higher cannot hit for 1 damage. Applies to explosives.
-- Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats. Randomization is reduced compared to vanilla, and granularity of aim and will stats is increased. Range of aim is 60-70, Mobility 9-11, Will 25-35. Corresponds to regular rookies (average mobility is now 10, with +2 from kevlar).
-- Red Fog: Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldier's OR non-robotic alien's stats for that mission. Using Medikits or First Aid Kits to heal soldiers to full health will remove Red Fog effects.
-- Marathon: Works like vanilla, but strongly discouraged, as Long War extends many time-sensitive variables already.
-- Results Driven: A country will offer less funding as its panic increases. Unchanged from vanilla, except that countries without satellites also have their funding amount reduced by panic.
-- Total Loss: Lose all gear from soldiers who die in combat. In Long War, there is a 50% chance to recover gear from MIA soldiers and 100% from dead soldiers when mission is won. Total Loss reduces both of these to 0%.
-- E-115: Elerium stores will degrade over time. You will lose 5 percent of your elerium every 24 days.
-- High Stakes: The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized. Randomization is in line with reduced abduction rewards in Long War
-- Diminishing Returns: The cost of satellites increases with every one that is built. Satellite cost increase reduced slightly compared to vanilla. It now is +45% cost per satellite.
-- Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, their stats will increase randomly. Similar to vanilla. Stat randomization adjusted for to match regular soldier progression.
-- War Weariness: The monthly decrease in funding is decreased to 6 percent per month to account for longer Long War campaigns.
Installation:
Unfortunately, X-Com in its current iteration isn't terribly mod-friendly, so you have to take some careful steps to get it working.
1) Get a clean game installation, either through a fresh install or by using the "verify integrity of game cache" option in Steam to fix all your files. Make sure you are patched up to date and X-Com is able to "phone home" by putting Steam in online mode and removing any hosts block you have previously implemented. Fully exit out of Steam, and then restart it. Then start X-Com to the main menu (un-modded), close it, and start it again, and close it, so the game can install any run-time updates. This will ensure you have a clean game that's fully installed.
2) Exit Steam again. Now you have to ensure X-Com is *unable* to phone home to acquire certain updates (intended to prevent cheating on multiplayer) that will overwrite part of the mod. There are two ways to do this:
a) Offline Mode. Easier to accomplish. This prevents Steam from connecting to the Internet, but you won't be able to chat or update other games.
1) Start Steam.
2) Steam Menu (top left) > Go Offline > Restart in offline mode.
b) Modifying hosts file -- prevents XCom from calling out. More complicated, but lets you use Steam's online functions.
1) Start Menu > Right click on Notepad, select "Run as Administrator"
2) Find the file %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts -- It has no .suffix. If it doesn't exist, you may create it. Also, %systemroot% on my system is C:\Windows, but it may vary.
3) Open the file's properties. Uncheck "read-only" if it is checked.
4) Add these three lines to the file:
# Prevent XCOM Phone Home
127.0.0.1 prod.xcom.firaxis.com
127.0.0.1 65.118.245.165
5) Save the file. Make sure you don't add a ".txt" or other suffix to the file.
If X-Com phones home, you'll need to uninstall the mod and start this process over. One common example of X-Com phoning home is if after you start the mod, all your weapons have one ammo. This means you haven't fixed the problem.
3) Make sure you have the latest .net framework (4.0 or later, obtain via Windows update) and Java (1.7). The installer may not fully install the mod without these.
4) Run "Long War Mod Setup.exe" and follow the instructions. Make sure you point the installer to your root game directory; it should alert you that the directory already exists. On my machine, it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown. If it doesn't alert you, you have the wrong directory and the install won't work.
5) Once you start X-Com, you'll need to start a new campaign for all the changes to take effect. As long as you are patched up to date, the mod should work regardless of whether you have the Slingshot DLC or not.
6) If you are going to run texmod to inject new textures into the game, you'll need to do the texmod installation procedure AFTER installing Long War over a clean vanilla install. Installing Long War over a tex-modded game will lead to crashes.
Note: Upgrading by installing over a prior Long War version is usually fine; see the patch notes if a campaign restart is required. However, this *may* make uninstallation require verifying your file and deleting XComGame.INT and XComStrategyGame.INT in a subfolder of your My Games/XCom subfolder.
NOTE: If you have multiple Steam libraries, the installer may not work if X-Com isn't in your original Steam library. You'll need to install manually by downloading the mod's files from the Nexus page (zipped under miscellanous).
In addition, you may need to mod the file XComEUModHelper.bat, specifically this line:
XCOMEUModHelper.exe -c Config.xml
to
XCOMEUModHelper.exe -x *YOUR XCOM-ENEMY-UNKNOWN PATH* -c Config.xml
For example, if your XCom game was installed at F:\Games\Steam Library\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\ then you would change the .bat line to:
XComEUModHelper.exe -x "F:\Games\Steam Library\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\" -c Config.xml
(You need quote marks around paths that contain spaces.)
Changed files:
Binaries\Win32\XComGame.Exe
XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComGame.upk
XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComStrategyGame.upk
XComGame\CookedPCConsole\Command1.upk
XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomGame.upk.uncompressed_size (deleted)
XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomStrategyGame.upk.uncompressed_size (deleted)
XComGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini
For Slingshot owners:
XComGame\DLC\PCConsole\DLC_Day060\CookedPCConsole\DLC_Day060_SF.upk
XComGame\DLC\PCConsole\DLC_Day060\Config\XComEngine.ini
XComGame\DLC\PCConsole\DLC_Day060\Config\XComGame.ini
For those who selected an English installation:
XComGame\Localization\INT\XComGame.int
My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Localization\INT\XComStrategyGame.int
Additionally for Slingshot users who selected an English installation:
My Games\XCOM - Enemy Unknown\XComGame\Localization\INT\XComGame.int
This mod isn't compatible with others that replace the upk, ini or int files.
To verify the game has installed correctly:
Go to .. Steam\SteamApps\common\Xcom-Enemy-Unknown\
Verify XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomGame.upk.uncompressed_size and XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XcomStrategyGame.upk.uncompressed_size are NOT present.
Verify XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComStrategyGame.upk is 4,750 kb.
Verify XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComGame.upk is 11,985 kb.
Verify Binaries\Win32\XComGame.exe is 27,762 kb (give or take a few kb).
Within the game, you can check the following:
a) In the first mission, Troopers should have 5 hp and Sectoids 3 hp (or 4 hp on impossible). Assault Rifles should be able to fire three bursts before requiring a reload.
b) Sectoid bodies should remain visible for the duration of your first mission. This confirms XComGame.upk successfully installed.
c) Immediately after the first mission, you should be able to enter the Situation Room. This confirms XComStrategyGame.upk successfully installed.
Uninstalling should restore your original files, or you can go to Steam and use the "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" option (under the Xcom game menu / Properties / Local Files tab) to restore your game to its original settings.
Note: If Firaxis / 2k issues any patches to X-Com, it will overwrite and disable Long War, and almost certainly make the mod unplayable until the modders are able to update it. If you want to avoid that happening, you can turn off automatic updates to the game in Steam, via the game menu / Properties / Updates tab. This will prevent any patches from loading.
Included software:
XCOMEUModHelper by UberJumper
CleanUpXComEngineini.vbs by Bertilsson -- If you have the Slingshot DLC and your game is loading slowly when you go to the Geoscape after many plays, run this program to clean up a file that is growing extremely large thanks to a vanilla bug. It should return your strategy game load times to orignal speeds.
Acknowledgements:
Eliot van Uytfanghe for UE Explorer
twinj for discovering how to rescript functions
rf900 for Visual Perk Editor
Gildor for Unreal Package Decompessor
Inno Setup 5, by JRSoftware.org
Thanks for advice, ideas and feedback from many people, including but not limited to:
AnUser, DubiousIntent, Phwop, Deducter, Kara42, Cal0004, Thunder_GR, Houmie, Demiansky, Commander Gorda, Firestorm10, Amanasleep, Fishbo, Zybertrix, Sibiryak, Valakov, FilthyRobot, Nontalo, Haerzog, Xaxyx, drake8888, Yustarius, FlyingHigh10000000, WorthlessBums, Wintermist, Yzaxtol, bobloblawx15
Also thanks to Neonin for the Long War logo on the Nexus mod page! Check out Neonin's UI Texture Replacement mod for livelier in-game icons and other graphics:
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/382//?
Take a look at some playthroughs here:
http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/88/?tab= ... 9348&pUp=1Permissions:
Please contact me (JohnnyLump) via private message on X-Com Nexus before redistributing any files with this mod. If you're a modder, check out the discussion "Long War upk changes" in the Mod Talk forum for how to implement specific changes in this mod in your own.
Tips:
- Many players have reported this mod to be more difficult than vanilla X-Com. A number of strategic game elements are more random, and no longer are the parts of the strategy game that drive the narrative forward so simple to accomplish: They take meaningful amounts of time and resources, even as the aliens gain additional tools to beat you. Be prepared to abort missions and lose satellites and countries. Improvements in soldiers and technology will often be incremental rather than transformational. There isn't some dominant strategy deliberately embedded in the settings for you to root out; instead, you'll have to mix both long-term preparation with short-term flexibility to deal with crises.
- Satellite spam is no longer an effective strategy; you'll fall too far behind on research. Labs are now vital.
- Keep a spare satellite on the launch pad. You can't get every UFO, and the survivors will sometimes send hunters after your birds.
- Plan ahead! Everything takes time to build now. Minimum Engineer requirements may also be more of a factor.
- You'll find you'll usually want more than you can afford; be prepared for shortages in cash and alloys, in particular, in the early and mid-games, and weapons fragments and Elerium late game. Selling alloys and elerium may come back to haunt you later. Landed UFOs are a terrific resource.
- With the long injury recovery times you should maintain at least 30 troops in your barracks.
- Interceptor buffs are much more useful than in vanilla, but don't expect to bag every enemy UFO. But you can keep panic at bay by at least making an attempt.
- SHIVs are no longer a sideshow, but a crucial part of your team.
- The enhanced weaponry projects in the foundry provide intermediate steps between ballistic and laser weapons, and lasers and plasma. If you want to delay the lengthly research required into the next generation of weapons, consider these items as a stopgap.
- In the late summer months, casualties of experienced soldiers may mount. Wet Work and Rapid Recovery are vital projects in maintaining the ability to field a powerful combat team.
- You absolutely must have HEAT weapons (either via perks or the SHIV item) to take on Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. They will be very difficult otherwise.
- If you have lost seven countries, make preparations to assault a base immediately! Late in the game the aliens may be able to infiltrate a council country and cost you the game.
Known issues:
- The teleport bug fix and AI fixes have seem to have exposed some other (fortunately rare) issues, such as aliens sprinting into the open and pods activating before you encounter them. Let us know if you see a consistent trigger for this behavior.
- Text changes not implemented for non-English versions. This a problem for new items, classes and perks.
- Changing game difficulty in the middle of a tactical mission will reset all alien "leaders" to base hit points for that species and should be considered more of a cheat than it normally is.
- Some new item cards display a blank or inaccurate left-hand picture. We know how to fix this; it's just a ton of coding scut work, and we'd rather spend our time on more substantive matters.
- Sometimes the number of soldiers lost on mission abort is reported incorrectly. This may have to do with soldiers who are left behind and bleeding out being counted twice. Check your roster on your return to base. Also, don't fire your weapon if you are retreating! You will be left behind.
- After each mission, your soldiers revert to the first armor deco for whatever armor they are wearing, despite customization settings.
- After a SHIV is destroyed, some SHIV parts show up as items in your inventory in the engineering and loadout screens. This has no gameplay effect that we can determine.
- There have been reports of alien grenades not having the correct charges. Please post bug reports with details on your loadout on the Nexus if you encounter this.
- Sometimes uninstalling this mod won't erase all the localization (text change) files. You'll need to manually delete instances of XComGame.int and XComStrategyGame.int in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\Localization\INT AND C:\Users\John\Documents\My Games\xcom - enemy unknown\xcomgame\Localization\INT. This is more likely if you have installed a new version of Long War over previous versions without uninstalling.
Some known vanilla bugs we haven't been able to fix yet and are worth mentioning:
- Using explosives on a suppressing alien may not do any damage.
- The "extraction zone" -- the glowing area that lets you escape to the Skyranger -- sometimes disappears. Saving and reloading often helps. If not, zoom out using the "g" key and look for the Skyranger along the map's edge. The extraction zone may be at that location instead: Your squad appeared further away from the EZ than is normal.
- Sometimes suppressors and other soldiers lose the ability to take cover and interact with the environment. Saving and reloading often helps.
- If a corpse is preventing movement through a doorway, saving and reloading often helps.
- The Close Combat Specialist perk is somewhat flaky about triggering.
- The perks Double Tap and Snap Shot work poorly together; the second double tap shot with a snap shot sniper will suffer a -20 aim penalty as if the sniper had moved.
- All soldiers check panic on loading a savegame in the middle of a tactical mission.
Modding Long War:
As of v2.12, any changes you make to DefaultGameCore.ini, XComGame.upk and XComStrategyGame.upk will be automatically implemented into your game, so you no longer need modpatcher, xshape, or resourcehacker. See the "Modding Long War" subforum on the Long War nexus page for how to accomplish some common mods.
Changelog
v2.12
Should not break savegames of v2.0 or later.
Features
- New mod install method to allow for easier modding by users and possibly expanded capabilities down the road.
Bugfixes
- Pawns should now appear in correct slot when adding and removing soldiers to squad in the dropship equip screen.
- Corrected Tech Tree to note that interrogation of any species required before Base Shard research can be undertaken
- Changed a couple of item images for easier sorting
- For Slingshot users, installs XComEngine.ini that fixes vanilla bug causing file bloat and extremely slow transitions to the strategic game. After install, run CleanUpXComEngineini.vbs from your XCom-Enemy-Unknown directory to overwrite previously bloated file.
- Fixed bugged code that prevented Sectoid Commander from gaining regeneration late in game
- Fixed text bug that may have led to missing instructions to launch satellite to find an alien base
- Worked on uninstaller to get vanilla game better restored
Balancing
- Increased price and Elerium required for EMP Cannon
- EMP Cannon provides 75 percent of loot from downed UFO, instead of 100%
- Toned down War Weariness Second Wave option to accomodate length of Long War
- Increased accuracy of Plasma Cannon and Fusion Cannon by 5 percent
- Rest period for soldiers is now 4 to 6 days (randomized over 48 hours), instead of a fixed 5 after every mission. Should cause greater mixing of squads. The post-mission screen will almost always report 5 to 6 days because it rounds up remainders (i.e. 25 hours reports as two days.)
- Having four countries in Asia grants 3 engineers and 1 scientist per month, instead of 4/0
- Having four countries in Europe grants 3 scientists and 1 engineer per month, instead of 4/0
- Reduced Heavy Floater base weapon damage by 1, halfway between Plasma Rifle and Heavy Plasma. Heavy Floater gains one additional damage at second upgrade.
- Reduced base Ethereal to 20 hp (from 25) and Defense to 30 (from 40); Ethereals now gain 10 Defense on second upgrade.
- Outsider damage bonus reduced to 1 from 2 on second upgrade
- After you defeat an Overseer UFO, commander pods in bases and on ships will sometimes still be led by Sectoid Commanders instead of Ethereals.
- Gave Titan Armor +1 hp because Deducter is a heckuva guy
- Funding Council requests for elerium can now randomly generate engineer rewards (and will less often generate scientist rewards)
- Funding Council requests for Sectoid Commander captives can now randomly generate soldier rewards (and will less often generate scientist rewards)
- Funding Council scientist and engineer rewards will be 2 to 3 instead of 2 to 4 personnel.
- Funding Council will now request Sectoid Commander corpses from time to time after Sectoid Commander autopsy is completed. Council will no longer request Plasma Pistols.
- Funding Council will now request Ethereal corpses from time to time after Ethereal autopsy is completed. Council will no longer request Heavy Plasmas.
- Gave Zhang +1 hp to bring him in line with other Infantry/Assault Sergeants
- Alloy SHIV costs 20 more alloys because it's made of alloys
- Added powerful endgame small item for soldiers that's crazy expensive
- Floaters gain 1 hp in Classic and Impossible.
- Sectoids gain 1 hp in Impossible.
- First Chryssalid upgrade happens a month sooner; second upgrade adds additional hp
- Thin Men get more hp on both upgrades; they'll be a lot tougher after second upgrade
- Alloy and Chitin Plating slightly more expensive
- Moderate increase in XP requirements for Captain, Major and Colonel, still less than 2.0 levels
- All UFOs and the alien base will have a few more aliens on average
- Firestorms now consume 2 UFO Power Sources and 4 UFO Navigation computers when constructed; adjusted other requirements
- The Plasma Cannon and EMP Cannon consume 1 UFO Power Source when constructed
- Mind Shields now consume 1 Sectoid Commander corpse when constructed
- Hover SHIVs now consume 1 UFO Nav Computer when constructed
- SHIV Targeting Computer now consumes 1 UFO Nav Computer when constructed
- Slight increase in alloys from shot down UFOs
- UFOs slightly more likely to appear "landed" instead of in the air
- Increased alien patrol step to 12
- Combat Stims moderately more expensive
- Counterfire Pod more expensive and requires more engineers
- Increased armor on Abductors and Supply Cruisers, and increased armor piercing on abductors
- Satellite hunts will now spawn two UFOs
- Destroyers no longer fly missions as part of an abduction
- A battleship flies a mission before an infiltration
v2.11
Bugfixes
- The 2.1 bugfix intended "to improve alien patrol pathing, which hopefully prevents zerg rushes in many missions" is now actually implemented in the code.
- Removed the code for this 2.1 bugfix: "Attempt to fix reported bug in which countries retaken after a base assault didn't always provide continental bonus" after users reported game locking up after base missions. Warning: This may mean the return of the reported bug in which continental bonuses are not re-awarded after a country is liberated.
- Plasma Sniper technology requires Heavy Plasma tech, not Plasma Rifle (bringing the code in line with tech tree)
v2.1
Should not break savegames of 2.0 Beta 3 or later. For 2.1 Beta 1 and earlier, the mobility changes may leave your soldiers slightly slower than before if you are still equipping Kevlar. In addition, changes to the Mayhem perk will remove the perk from existing Colonel Gunners and Rocketeers who chose it, leaving them with no-colonel level perk.
Features
- Character Card now displays mobility, mobility bonuses, XP, and XP to level up. Note: The displayed mobility is in line with ini settings; 3 mobility points translates into 2 tactical game squares in a straight line
- Updated interface for equipping your squad in the dropship screen. When you scroll left and right, you will now see the pawns of the soldiers displayed above the equip box. Known issue: New pawns sometimes overlay old ones; shifting right or left corrects this.
- Mayhem perk now provides +2 damage for soldier's primary weapon and rocket launcher-class weapons. This stacks with the Ranger bonus. Mayhem does not do any suppression-related damage.
- Covering Fire once again takes effect before firing alien returns to cover
- You can now customize the appearance of Zhang, the special soldier from the Slingshot DLC. However, if you change his head, race or voice, you won't be able to put them back.
- Red Fog Second Wave option now applies penalties to wounded aliens, too. Using a Medikit on a wounded soldier should now alleviate the soldier's Red Fog effects.
Balancing
- XP to level up reduced for sergeant and later; up to almost 30 percent for highest ranks
- Rookie soldiers now start with 4 hp instead of 3. Armors reduced in protection to compensate. You can now only equip one ceramic plate item at a time.
- Knocked a few days off carapace armor research
- Chitin Plating provides 3 hp bonus instead of 4
- Alloy Plating, Chitin Plating, SCOPE, Alloy Jacketed Rounds, Arc Thrower, Enhanced Beam Optics cost reduced
- Thin Man 2nd upgrade to +1 damage sted +2; second Sectoid upgrade delayed by a few weeks
- Difficulty level adjustments: Increased the cash slope between difficulty levels, so normal and classic should see a bit more money each month; turned down the cinematic cash bonus to be less OP, but it's still a lot
- Muton Navigator and Muton Leader perks shuffled, so Navigators won't be so brutal with Will to Survive
- Lowered build times for some items
- Revamped alien regeneration abilities to ramp up more slowly over time, with certain new aliens and leaders getting regeneration late in the game.
- Certain alien pod escorts (Muton, Floater, Muton Elite) are more likely to be a weaker alien, particularly early in the game.
- Decreased overall impact of armor on mobility; upped initial soldier mobility to compensate.
- Improved North America bonus to 30% discount instead of 25%
- Dropped all SHIV prices, increased advanced SHIV materials costs
- Delayed some late-game alien upgrades
- Muton Elite pods will be a little less frequent late game
- Gunners and rocketeers now receive +3 will at all levels, instead of a mix of +2 and +3.
- Soldiers are somewhat more likely to panic when they receive a wound. Soldiers are half as likely to panic because another squad member is panicking.
- Using a medikit or first aid kit no longer provides a small amount of XP
- Reduced alien research from x-com bodies and prisoners
- Alien Trophies now confer +15 will
- Reduced environmental damage from laser and plasma weapons
v2.0
Major New Features:
- X-Com can now field a maximum of eight soldiers on missions. Slots 7 and 8 are granted by the Squad Size OTS upgrades.
- Aliens now build bases in countries they have taken over. They will take over one country shortly after the game starts to guarantee a base mission. To gain access to the base to assault it, you must launch a satellite over the country and have a skeleton key. A successful assault will return the country to the X-Com council with four panic. Later in the game, the aliens may launch additional infiltration missions to take over countries, generating more bases, although these can be intercepted.
- Soldiers (not SHIVs) now must rest after missions or suffer severe penalties. After a mission, soldiers are designated as "tired" for roughly five days. This is downtime while they recover from exposure to the aliens and the stress of combat. If you send a tired soldier on a mission before they are finished resting (by using dangerous stimulants), they become "exhausted," which is the equivalent of suffering a moderate wound, rendering them unavailable for a significant amount of time. Experienced troopers recover from being exhausted faster than rookies. Also, reduced max injury time by five days (as injured soldiers also get "tired" timeout added to their injury.)
- Moderate tech tree overhaul (see tech tree graphic). Major new features are that all interrogations require autopsies of a given species. The SHIV Defenses foundry project replaces Improved Pistol II (which did nothing).
- Alien Base Missions and Landed UFO missions will have more advanced defenders than on other missions, and you may more often see new aliens unveiled on these particular missions.
- Revamped XP rewards to provide more emphasis on finishing missions through teamwork, rather than individual kills. Killing Cyberdiscs and Outsiders will provide "tough enemy" XP bonus, while killing Chryssalids no longer provides that bonus. Soldiers winning landed UFO missions now receive the "hard mission" bonus that is also applied to terror missions, council missions, and base assaults.
- Abduction rewards are now only cash ($100), not scientists, engineers or soldiers. Funding Council item requests will now sometimes include soldiers (sergeants) as rewards. Maximum engineer and scientist reward increased to 4 for most requests.
Additional changes:
- Not Created Equally second wave option adjusted for greater granularity in stats
- UFOs will deploy smaller alien pods at the start of the game, and then have pods of up to eight aliens in the late game.
- Aliens now deploy new species based on their research, not precisely on time passed.
- Number of starting soldiers in barracks increased to 25
- Some attemped teleport bug fixes
v1.9
(Numbering change to comply with new Nexus standard)
Major New Features:
- A new class system allows X-Com soldiers to promote within eight classes, instead of four. Classes are Sniper, Scout, Assault, Infantry, Gunner, Rocketeer, Medic and Engineer, each with unique perk tree. Ability gains on level-ups adjusted.
- Several new items are available for X-Com use or construction at the game's start, including smoke grenades, battlescanners, shredder rockets, ceramic plating (+1 hp), laser sights (+5 aim), first aid kits (small heal and stabilize) and alien trophies (+10 will). Perks granting smoke grenades and battlescanners still work, but they do not require a small item space. Damage-boosting items become available later in the game.
- SHIVs now can equip a number of specialized small items that give them the equivalent of soldier perks. Most of these are unlocked through the Foundry.
- As the game goes on, the aliens will become able to field larger and more varied pods with up to six aliens at a time. Aliens will also field leaders and navigator classes with more hit points and special abilities than normal version of the same alien.
- Weapon ammunition overhauled. Ballistic shotguns and sniper rifles have more ammo; assault rifles, pistols and plasma weapons will have less. LMG-class weapons will tend to have more ammo. Ammo Conservation foundry project no longer doubles ammo, but it does provide a significant increase.
- Numerous perks added and changed. New perks available to X-Com soldiers are: Ranger, Repair, Lock N' Load, Bombardier, Sapper, HEAT Warheads, and Javelin Rockets. Revive, Covering Fire, Smoke Grenade, Squadsight, and Shredder Rocket adjusted. A certain leader alien will get the Vengeance perk.
- Normal difficulty no longer cheats in favor the player, making it a more legitimate choice to play. Normal, Classic and Impossible difficulties differ in only three areas: monthly income, starting panic levels, and (in a few cases), alien capabilities.
- General attempt to ease overall difficulty in a number of areas in response to player feedback. Some alien upgrades will not occur so quickly.
- Rocket weapons now hit or miss targets based on the soldier's aim and the distance from the shooter to the target. You can now fire rockets after moving, but they will be pretty inaccurate without the Snap Shot perk. Items that increase aim are very helpful. Overall, rockets will miss a bit more often, particularly for low-ranking troopers, but you can carry more rockets to compensate.
- Damage code overhauled. The net effect will be roughly the same, although weapons will generally do damage on more of a 'curve' relative to the weapon's base damage. Explosives damage is randomized across a larger range (rarely +2 or -2 from base damage), and aliens within the target area of an explosive weapon may now take different amounts of damage.
- You should see more frequent council requests for items. Cash rewards generally reduced in favor of scientists and (less often) engineers. Countries will now rarely request manufactured items but instead sometimes ask for captive aliens to be transferred to their custody.
- You can now sell most items on the gray market.
- You will sometimes recover X-Com and alien items even when you abort missions.
- Rewritten alien encounter table.
Additional Changes:
- Injury recovery code rewritten, should now scale more closely with degree of wound. Maximum time a soldier will recover also starts lower but grows as game goes on.
- Officer Training School available from the start, and several Officer Training School minimum rank requirements relaxed. You can get to six-trooper squads sooner.
- Adjusted environmental damage for many weapons. Frag Grenades won't be as effective against alien structures (except in the hands of an engineer).
- Using explosives to kill aliens renders the corpse unusable for research or gray market sales.
- Sniper Rifles now have the "Steady Weapon" ability. Using the ability ends your turn, but gives you a +20 aim bonus for the next turn.
- Soldiers may carry multiple medikits or first aid kits, but cannot carry both at the same time.
- Increased impact of armor choice on mobility. Titan armor, for example, will slow you down, particularly before promotion to lieutenant.
- Rookies and Squaddies suffer a greater will penalty than in vanilla, but they earn it back by promotion to corporal. They can also counteract this with the new alien trophies item.
- Eased up XP requirements for level-up from corporal onward. This will mostly make middle ranks easier to achieve and hopefully make it easier to recover from a mission going south.
- Impossible difficulty abductions should be a little easier at first, but difficulty will ramp up for all difficulty levels as alien research increases.
- Alien forces for most missions will be somewhat randomized, and there will be less variation in alien counts across difficulty settings. Certain aliens will sometimes show up with different (often weaker) escorts.
- You start with four interceptors, instead of three.
- Soldiers down to $10 because I can't make up my mind.
- Various funding, facility and item cost and research time balancing.
- Tactical map alien patrol step distance reduced -- their movement around the map before encountering the player is in smaller chunks.
- Your interceptors' kills are now reported on the interception screen, allowing you to gauge experience bonuses for your craft.
- Toned down alien robot damage reduction until later in the game.
- Arc Throwers back to 1 charge; the new Repair perk (for engineers) grants a total of four charges.
- Foundry projects that granted upgraded SHIV weapons renamed and given additional benefits. Each project grants a new S.H.I.V. weapon and an equippable (human) small item that gives all weapons in that class (ballistic, laser, plasma) +1 damage.
- Light Plasma Rifles renamed "Plasma Carbines." Nano-Fiber Vests renamed "Alloy Plating."
- Added an "Anti-Materiel Kit" backpack item that only the sniper can use. It converts the sniper's weapons into an anti-tank variants, grants them the HEAT ammo perk. They have an extremely low rate of fire and significantly reduce your soldier's aim while carried. It unlocks with alien materials tech.
- Unlocked all Second Wave options regardless of whether you've won the game
- The South America continent bonus now reduces build and maintenance costs of base power generation facilities. This will only take effect in new games.
- Put in a special once-per-campaign terror mission. Be prepared: It may take a little while to finish.
- You now have access to the "rush build" option which halves build time but doubles many costs for items and facilities from the start of the game.
- The Armored Fighters foundry project replaces Advanced Construction. It requires a floater interrogation to unlock. It adds a significant number of hit points to your interceptors and Firestorms.
- Aliens should be more devious when they are alone, and smarter when facing overwatches.
- Changes to the tech tree for plasma weapons and alloy cannon.
v1.08
Major Changes:
- Aliens now conduct research! Both alien soldiers and UFOs will grow tougher over time, gaining hit points, accuracy and other abilities. Some aliens will begin to regenerate damage. The X-Com player can slow the alien advance by orbiting satellites and shooting down UFOs. Some aliens and UFOs will be a little easier at first but quickly grow tougher. Adjusted encounter tables to create a wider variety of alien forces in the middle and late game, now that upgraded aliens are more viable against advanced X-Com troopers.
- Robotic aliens and SHIVS now have a perk that reduces the damage they take from each hit. Robotic aliens will be a little easier to hit but harder to damage.
- Major overhaul to SHIVs to make them a much more important component of X-Com's efforts. Basic SHIVs are now buildable at start. Advanced SHIV weapons and decks are built separately and put together in the equip items screen in the barracks. Adjusted SHIV and SHIV weapon capabilities. SHIVs are significantly more powerful and resistant to alien damage, but they are more expensive as well. Activated the SHIV Sentry Gun technology and made SHIV repair times more linearly related to the damage they have taken. Alloy SHIVs require Titan Armor technology; Hover SHIVs require Archangel. All SHIV weapons have an "armor piercing" capability in which they do extra damage to alien robotic creatures.
- All council countries now provide marginal monthly income (in lieu of base income that was tied to nowhere), while countries with satellites provide the full amount. Losing any country will now hurt your income.
- You may now have up to six interceptors per continent.
- Game Startup now skips splash screens and videos.
- Tactical game minimum and maximum camera zoom expanded. In addition, rotation increment changed to 45 degrees instead of 90.