Don't use multiple mods that increase pod size.

Also want to know about diverse aliens by force level

It's just gonna crash the game or the mod will just not work?
I have Diverse Aliens By Force Level WOTC

It does not.

Do this work with others mods pod size?

No amount of game balance could stand up to 12 soldiers at the same time, that's a ludicrous amount of firepower.

To play with 12 soldiers, whats your recommandation in pod size?

To be hard but not impossible.


And for a basic squad of 6?

It's only work in campaign story mission?

thanks legend king

Yes, you can remove it midcampaign, but any missions that you already spawned will stay at the PLUS level.

Is this able to be removed mid-campaign; accidentally realised this was the difficulty bump we had been experiencing LMAO

That is correct. Use one or the other.

Just to confirm, "PLUS" does everything "A Better Campaign" does right but also increases pod sizes? I don't need both mods right?

That's super weird, but i suppose it is what it is. No idea what could cause it.

UPDATE: nope, .ini purge + verify files and a fresh mod install plus changes didn't work either. as soon as i put the spawn tweaks in, it stopped working. seems like editing this mod in any way causes it to stop functioning entirely, for me at least, so unless that changes, I'll just switch to regular ABC and find another mod for more challenge.

I already tried that. I spent some time chatting on DIscord with RustyDios and he doesn't know why this would be happening either. I'm using notepad++ for my edits to avoid whitespace issues, I did an .ini purge, spent about an hour redo-ing all the .inis for my other mods again, then tested with ABA+ with no changes to it and the special enemies appear, but when i did the spawn tweaks it stopped working and i just saw troopers and the captain on gatecrasher. i have no idea why. my last idea is to do another .ini purge and also verify game files on steam, so I'll have to redo all my custom game file edits too in addition to the mod .ini edits. if that doesn't work, then I'll just switch to regular ABC and find something else to increase the difficulty a bit to compensate.

Since the mod is purely ini based with no additional scripting, you should just be able to change numbers to your liking. Note that changes to pod size require a bit to show through in your game, as they will only apply to missions that haven't been generated yet.

Spawning only vanilla enemies afterwards is completely curious and not really explainable. My suggestion would be to "turn it off and on again", following the instructions here: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/1126623381/1474222595301114193/

Doing that has a history of fixing all sorts of weird XCOM ini stuff.

(part 2) also i didn't even touch the pod sizes of the golden path missions, since what i thought this mod did was only increase the pod sizes on those missions, not every mission. so idk why my edits the random mission spawn numbers would stop the gatecrasher special enemies from appearing. i still have the notepad files of the base config and the config after my tweaks if you need to see it, but like i said before, all i did was tweak the non golden path spawn numbers from 1/3/5/6 to 1/3/4/5.

@DerBK I'm having an issue with changing the MaxSpawnCount in the config files. i changed the max spawns from 1/3/5/6 to 1/3/4/5, since i'm only running with the base 4-6 squad size. however, after i make those changes, the special enemies, like the medi-drone, gunslinger, and heavy trooper, no longer appear on the gatecrasher mission. I followed your instructions from the discussion on increasing pod size, only edited the + sections, never the - ones, and copied the whole config into notepad so there wouldn't be any spacing issues when i copied the changes back over. and the unchanged mod works fine, so it's not a mod conflict, but when i change the MaxSpawnCount numbers like i said, i only get troopers and the captain. any idea why this would be?

when you say increased all podsizes by 1-2, does that mean all podsizes on all missions, or only on the required/scripted/golden path missions?

No idea, never used that command.

Oh, I see. Thank you. Is it possible to force regeneration of the next mission after replacing ABC PLUS with ABC?

Would using the ‘RestartLevel’ console command do that? That command restarts the mission with a *different* seed, so in theory that’d work if I replaced ABC PLUS with ABC but that mission was already generated, right?

Yes, switching between the versions of ABC is safe. Do note that any missions that are already generated do already have their pods determinded though, so it might take an ingame mission or two for the changes to take effect.

I’m on a new playthrough, and it’s kicking my ass. My previous mostly-vanilla WotC run was easy as hell, but now with ABA: WotC and AB Campaign PLUS, I’m struggling like crazy (guess I got what I wished for). I’ve got a mix of other mods that both make the game harder and easier, but I need to rethink my approach.

Is it safe to switch from A Better Campaign PLUS to the regular A Better Campaign during a campaign (not mid-tactical)? Would that fuck things up, or is it safe? I’m considering just using the regular ABC until I reach a 7-squad size, then switching back to ABC PLUS. Is it safe to switch from ABC PLUS to ABC, then back to ABC PLUS later?

I'm not sure what to tell you, everything this mod does is detailed, with numbers, in the description. Read it, read what other mods do, decide. I don't know what you want or what is right for you.

*appear in pods

I see. However, I wouldn’t get the benefits of ABA enemies in some missions that this mod adds. I suppose I’d have to choose.

Would you say A Better Campaign PLUS has a stronger effect on enemy pod sizes later in the game (mid-game/late-game)? I’m not exactly sure how pod spawning really works, but I was hoping that this mod, especially with my editing the config to increment all spawn counts by 1 except those already at 1, would increase enemy counts to 4–7 in most missions, but it appears I was mistaken. Still a wonderful mod – I’m just a bit lost, but I suppose this is the intended behaviour of the game and this mod? I’m not sure.

Not in addition, but it sounds to me like those other mods would be more suitable for you to use instead of ABC+.

Okay, thank you.

I changed all the MaxSpawnCounts values in the + sections to +1, though (except the ones that were 1), and yet the pod sizes feel way too small. I’m just finding early-game WotC too easy and don’t understand how to force more enemies to appear.

Am I doing something wrong, or is there a conflict, or is this just intended behaviour and more enemies will appear in mods later in the game (I’m about eleven or twelve missions in)?

Also, is it possible to, perhaps, use Larger Enemy Pods or Overwhelming Enemy Pods in addition to this mod, or won’t that work?

That's just how Ambush missions work...

Also if you check the description of this mod, you can see that podsize 3 means that it would've been 2 in vanilla.

I don’t know if this mod is even working for me, unfortunately.

During a covert ambush mission (my first one), I noticed that the ADVENT patrols are each just one 3-health ADVENT trooper. Each ADVENT patrol in this mission is just one of those troopers and no one else. Is this intentional?

I tested with default ABC Plus and with my edited .ini, but it’s the same either way. Only two enemies spawn from the first purple portal, and each time you encounter an ADVENT patrol in this mission, it’s just one trooper. Wondering if something’s wrong?

I also notice that most pods in all missions are just three enemies. Tested without this mod – still three enemies. What’s up with that? Any help would be much appreciated!

Thank you. I changed all the MaxSpawnCounts under ‘+’ sections to one higher :)

Yes, the MaxSpawnCount is what you are looking for. Changing it midcampaign is fine, but won't apply to missions that are already in progress or on the map.

Again, I’m sorry for the confusion.

Should I change, in 1143032623\Config\XComEncounters.ini, all instances (whose section starts with +, not -) of MaxSpawnCount=2 to MaxSpawnCount=3, MaxSpawnCount=3 to 4, MaxSpawnCount=4 to 5, etc.? Is this safe to do mid-campaign (War of the Chosen), and will it work?

Thanks for the help! Love your mods.

Hi, I’m sorry. I didn’t see your comment on the ABA2 page. I’m playing War of the Chosen.

I realized earlier that the config folders are in the workshop folder. I thought they were in the Documents folder or the game folder, so I was confused. Apologies!

Is there a chance you could tell me what to change in order to increase pod sizes by 1 except pods that are already 1? So, up all pod sizes except 1-size pods by 1?

Apologies for the confusion!

If you don't want to mess things up (and considering that this is the third mod you are commenting on about not even finding the config files even after getting a detailed response on where they are), you probably shouldn't mess with them in the first place.

I noticed you said earlier that it’s not easy to change the number. I don’t want to mess anything up by editing the config files. Is there a chance you could provide me with an XComEncounters.ini file to change in order to change pod sizes to one tier higher (3 to 4, 5 to 6, 6 to 7)?

And I should change the file in Documents\my games\XCOM 2 War of the Chosen\Config\, right (XcomEncounters.ini)? Since I can’t find any ABC+ folder.

Aight, thank you DerBK. Thanks for the mod.

That doesn't sound like anything from one of my mods.

You probably mean "Advent General Revamp" by MrShadowCX.

IDK if was from ur mod (probably), the golden ''captain'' advent one only spawn when u suffer ambush? Like, I saw only 2 times when I suffering ambush .. I played like almost 30h and only see them 2 times

It's not as easy as just changing a single number, the game has max podsizes for each different pod you can encounter. You can find those numbers in XComEncounters.ini.

Yeah my bad, is there an ini so the pod size is +3 from the beginning?

Yes, please disable one. Switching mods mid-campaign is possible, but you should only ever have one installed.

Note that missions already generated will still have the "old" enemy count, so after the switch it may take a bit until the changed pod sizes apply.

If I have this mod I can disable the normal one right? without the plus

Indeed. And vanilla is podsize 2.
I lay out in the description how it works, the pod size increase ramps up over time.

I feel the pod sizes remain the same, I just began a new campaign but it seems the pod size is of 3 advent units.

Might be best to use Diverse Aliens by Forcelevel WOTC over this. It's newer, works with ABA, and doesn't do hard encounter edits. ABC normal, nonplus, is still good though.

You can switch between the two, yes. Note that missions that are already on your hologlobe will still use the settings of the old mod, so it might take an ingame week or so for the switch to be complete.

The ini purge isn't strictly necessary for this, it's more of a catch-all solution afterwards in case something doesn't work.

If I already have ABC installed, is it safe to install ABC Plus after mid-game? Assuming I uninstall regular ABC first of course

If yes, do I need to do an INI Purge?

Nice, get it ! Thanks :)

Ugh, that is horribly outdated on the website, that particular page is only relevant for the old "A Better Advent 2" mod from before War of the Chosen. Looking at it now, you aren't actually supposed to see anything that's not reachable from the top menu. I must've forgotten to purge the side menu with the old stuff. I did so now, so now https://derbk.com/abetteradvent/ should only show current stuff.

To be clear, the current version of ABA does not change pod size or count.

Removing ABC+ mid-campaign is fine (even during tactical). However, any missions already spawned with ABC+ parameters will use them even afterwards.

Hi :) 2 questions.

First, I've read on your own website that ABA increases squad size : https://derbk.com/abetteradvent/better-missions/
Because i've also subscribed to ABC+, I know that this one also "may" act on pod size.
Are they both cumulative ? Is ABA adding few aliens to pods, then ABC+ doing it also, bringing pod size to 6/7 ?
I mean, there many -many- aliens in my battles, and I think I only reached force lvl 13 or 14 (just got my first berzerker prime). Haven retaliation are already getting nearly impossible to win (because of dead civilians).

Second question related : is it safe to remove ABC+ in an actual playthough ? (but not during tactical operation, ofc).

Thanks !