XCOM 2
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[WOTC]Never Again!
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5 Apr, 2023 @ 11:18pm
29 Dec, 2023 @ 3:58am
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[WOTC]Never Again!

In 2 collections by lordabizi
LordAbizi's War Of The Glass
34 items
War Of The Glass Collection
450 items
Description
Never Again!

Abstract
This mod introduces a new mechanic, where soldiers who participated in``important" missions, can never go on other ``important" missions for the rest of the campaign. This is inspired by the well known mechanic of the same name in the celebrated Darkest Dungeon game, by Red Hook.


Overview
In the many the games that the author has either played, or watched others play on YouTube, the following situation often arised: the player would have a well nurtured group of ``A-Team" that would be sent on all important missions, and would go kill all the Chosens. The author has started to find this boring. Inspired by the Darkest Dungeon game, the author has started to implement a house rule in his own games where the squads to the Chosen Strongholds have to be mutually exclusive, and must be disjoint from the Leviathan squad. The work presented here is an automation of this house rule.

The way it works is the following: the ``important" (a configurable list, see below) missions get the ``Never Again" sitrep added to them, informing the player of the outcome. Soldiers that go on this mission, and win, will have the ``Never Again" ability added to them. A mission with the ``Never Again" sitrep can't be launched if the squad has members with the ``Never Again" ability. Technically, the ability does nothing, its only job is to inform the player. The actual thing being checked is a special Unit Value assigned to units winning such a mission.

However, there's a good side: if the squad has a soldier with the ``Never Again" ability, then the rest of the soldiers in the squad will get 25% more exp from kills.

Lore Justification
When the Sarcophagus explodes, some psionic ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ energy is released, and the soldiers get weird as a result. The Alien Fortress has the same energy, so the soldiers are afraid/can't go there. The reason MOCX HQ is included is because in this mission the soldiers massacre bunch of other normal human beings, and this obviously takes its toll on them.



Configuration
The mod is highly configurable. In XComPTSD.ini you can control the following:
  • The list of missions that will have the sitrep. The default configuration includes the three Chosen strongholds, as well as the MOCX HQ mission (from RealityMachina's celebrated The MOCX Initiative mod). If you do not use this mod, then nothing bad will happen, except that some text will show weirdly since it won't find the mission.
  • The kill exp bonus from having a soldier with ``Never Again" in the squad is configurable.
  • For the player's convinience, the config file has another ``preset" of missions for quick enabling - the story missions (Blacksite, Forge, Psigate, and Network Tower). Also Facility missions are included there, commented out. In principle, even repeatable mission types can be included here, but this is not recommended. In general, having more then 4-5 missions like that in the entire game will make it very hard to find people for Leviathan. In the author's own games, one Chosen stronghold was often skipped to preserve the manpower for Leviathan.
  • For each mission the reader would like to add to this mod's configuration, it is necessary to add both its MissionName and sType (as they appear in the MissionDefs config).
  • If the reader wishes to include multi-part missions (for example, Shen's Last Gift, Doom Guy's recruitment mission), then the player only needs to insert the name of the first part of the mission. The names of the other parts of the mission should not be used.
  • Exclusions - it is possible to set exclusions for this mechanic by listing character templates, soldier classes, or abilities, that grant immunity to the Never Again mechanic. So for example, the player may exclude Sparks from being affected by this mechanic. No such exclusion is defined by default.
  • By default, Never Again will only applied if the mission is won. This is configurable. The reader may set it so that also failed attempts at the missions will give the soldiers the Never Again ability. As explained above, this is not recommended.



Compatibility
It was tested in Covert Infiltration, but not tested with actual infiltrations (none of the mission types that have this mechanic are infiltrations by default).
Was tested to be compatible with LWOTC by Dukeblue512. Configs for LWOTC story missions are provided with this mod, commented by default. All complains on this topic should be addressed to Dukeblue512.


Required Mods
Just the Highlander.


Known Issues
  • When removing a soldier with Never Again from squad select, the "LAUNCH MISSION" button won't turn green until after the player goes to another screen and back to squad select. Probably not much the author can do about it. Usually it's not a problem if you anyway only launch a mission with a full squad...
  • For your convenience, there are two console commands added to this mod that will help in the event that this mod didn't work correctly: when viewing a soldier in the armory, ForcePTSDOnSoldier, RemovePTSDOnSoldier will add or remove the Never Again ability from this soldier. If you think this mod does something wrong, then you can turn logging on and describe the problem to me.
  • Some potential future plans: here may also a once-per-game Covert Op to remove this status from some soldiers, or perhaps a Chosen Sabotage event that will mark a random soldier with Never Again. These plans are not yet concrete.




Acknowledgements
The author is extremely grateful to RustyDios for the GORGEOUS mod preview image, and the Never Again ability icon, as well as his general encouragement and useful comments when developing this mod.
It is also my pleasure to thank Xymanek and h4ilst0rm for enlightening and useful discussions.
Naturally, the author acknowledges the inspiration taken from the Darkest Dungeon game for the idea of this mod.
As usual, the author would like to thank the members of the MEME Discord server for their continued emotional support.
This mod is not an official Red Hook Studios product or product modification, and Red Hook Studios Inc. or the author are not responsible in any way for changes or damages that may result from using the mod. Furthermore, “Darkest Dungeon” and the Darkest Dungeon logo are trademarks of Red Hook Studios Inc. All content in the game is Copyright Red Hook Studios Inc. All rights reserved.
44 Comments
[DG] Z Type Knight 30 Jan @ 9:10pm 
I also want to say this: The ability to configure this mod to one's tastes (what missions apply to Never Again, and how much PTSD is needed to trigger it) also allows me to facilitate this kind of challenge playthrough: Basically, soldiers join for a tour of duty, and once they've gone on enough missions, their tour of duty expires and they retire (You can keep them around, as you will still be able to use them on Avenger Defenses.) - This limits how often you can use your Covops-boosted soldiers. Of course, the use of faction heroes will have to be carefully rationed.
lordabizi  [author] 14 Sep, 2024 @ 11:29am 
the marking is done at the end of the showdown. The restriction applies to the stronghold (before which you can select soldiers...)
mtfrance 7 Sep, 2024 @ 1:43pm 
And the value given to the soldier is from the Stronghold, the Showdown, or both?
lordabizi  [author] 7 Sep, 2024 @ 1:32pm 
Chosen Showdown is the sracophagus room - technically a different mission. Due to various reasons I need both parts, although I can probably make do with only one, but it works as is.

Yes, currently one list determines everything. I currently have no plans to add features to the mod, unless they're really one line adjustments. Good luck!
mtfrance 7 Sep, 2024 @ 1:16pm 
Oh, and I take it it's not currently possible to have a mission count for trauma but not be eligible for exclusion? It would make sense to me if the defense missions worked like that. Or if you could, tie the "may take wounded soldiers on this mission" flag to "ignore PTSD for this mission", as I think they're basically the same mission set that I'd want to exclude.
mtfrance 7 Sep, 2024 @ 1:12pm 
Then the ChosenShowdown_X missions are something different? Are those their sabotage attempts?
Thanks for the rapid response. I think I'm going to try this with the main list set to .9, story missions set to .3 and facilities down to .1 (and the final turned off). It feels like even with the additional mission sets it should work out a little more generously than the defaults overall.

Of course it will probably be a month before I have results, but I can always just ignore it or turn it off if it's too punishing.
lordabizi  [author] 7 Sep, 2024 @ 11:18am 
Chosen Stronghold are the Chosen stronghold missions. There are two layouts, and these count as two separate mission types.
Rooftops Assault is the MOCX HQ mission. If you don't use the MOCX mod then it harmlessly does nothing.
mtfrance 7 Sep, 2024 @ 9:34am 
What are:
ChosenStrongholdShort
ChosenStrongholdLong
Dark_RooftopsAssault

I assume CentralNetworkBroadcast is the penultimate mission?
cowardlykings 30 Dec, 2023 @ 12:04pm 
Oh sick, gonna try this out real soon then.
lordabizi  [author] 30 Dec, 2023 @ 10:47am 
If you're feeling comfortable editing ini files, then making the final mission not count for this is just one character you need to add to the ini file away!...