XCOM: Chimera Squad

XCOM: Chimera Squad

A Better Start (LITE)
42 Comments
Tal'Raziid 14 Jan @ 4:49pm 
> Starting Inventory - A few surplus items were acquired for the battle saving you some credits for more significant purchases later.
what items were added and how do i check that mods are actually active in game?
Cahos Rahne Veloza 19 Jun, 2022 @ 11:06pm 
For anyone needing a Replacement mod for the Updated Black Market mod that plays nice with A Better Start. Use this one...

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2167660737
Cahos Rahne Veloza 25 Feb, 2021 @ 6:42pm 
@Online Addict and Scuba Steve:

It seems the changes you guys made with the Scavengers' Market partially conflicts with the "Updated Black Market" mod ---> https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2079220938
Thumper 12 Feb, 2021 @ 1:48am 
Can you make a stand alone mod so that the covert ops is done in 1 day without the other stuff change.
Online Addict  [author] 30 May, 2020 @ 4:57pm 
Ain't that the truth! Go XCOM!
BlueFénix 30 May, 2020 @ 1:47pm 
Yeah... but if there is one thing XCOM doesn´t skim on it´s sweet rides... The avenger, the jet planes... They might need to struggle to have a couple hundred for equipment but XCOM rolls in style
Online Addict  [author] 30 May, 2020 @ 12:01pm 
Yeah, that APC has to be expensive. Don't forget they need to gas it up and gas ain't cheap! Lol.
Scuba Steve  [author] 30 May, 2020 @ 9:14am 
LOL, no doubt. Probably sunk all their cash into that sweet APC. Rims alone probably set them back a couple of months.
BlueFénix 30 May, 2020 @ 12:23am 
Thank you very much.... I think I´ll go for the console option. I don´t think there is a lot of pressure through the game to get resources but at the start you can´t afford anything and gettint your agents basic equipment takes far too long.

I don´t know why Xcom can´t afford to send you literally 4 grenades 4 ammunition and 4 weapon upgrades... they must have milions the tightfisted bastards
Scuba Steve  [author] 29 May, 2020 @ 5:37pm 
Hi Alejandro, Addict's option is the easiest. The other way is to unsub my mod and then go into the config directory of the core game and edit the XComGameData.ini or the XComStrategyTuning.ini file. search for those items and you should see how they are set.
Online Addict  [author] 24 May, 2020 @ 1:10pm 
if that's all you want, maybe use the console? Or does that feel too much like cheating? Lol.
BlueFénix 24 May, 2020 @ 7:53am 
Is it posible to have a version where you simply start with some more money, intel and elerium?

The game is not that dificult but it feels so frustrating to spend several misions with empty inventory slots because you can't afford cheap ass stuff.
Scuba Steve  [author] 1 May, 2020 @ 10:01pm 
A Better Arsenal is now out! Click the image above to visit and subscribe.
Scuba Steve  [author] 1 May, 2020 @ 9:58pm 
A Better Arsenal is now out! Click the image above to visit and subscribe.
Xitsu 1 May, 2020 @ 12:48pm 
thanks!
Scuba Steve  [author] 1 May, 2020 @ 12:45pm 
Easiest way to limit to just that is to disable my mod and then open up the config ini files in the Chimera Squad application directory. Look for the file XcomStrategyTuning.ini and search for the word "starting". you will see all the variables and their amounts. comment out the original value with a ";" and write in your own. Save it and run the game. Note that it will only work on a new game as saved game has already been past the starting setup.
Xitsu 1 May, 2020 @ 12:15pm 
how i can get only Starting Resources
Temüjin 1 May, 2020 @ 5:34am 
Thanks for quick response! Much appreciated :)
Scuba Steve  [author] 1 May, 2020 @ 12:44am 
skip all that. I decided that I should scale that back for the lite version. I am pushing an update out. I also tweaked something to see if that will fix the market not refreshing too.
Scuba Steve  [author] 1 May, 2020 @ 12:41am 
So i went and checked it out.. the file you are looking at is the XComStrategyTuning.ini file
this is the block of code to change
; Scavenger Market params
MinTurnsUntilScavengerMarket=3 ;4 ; ~ middle of the first operation
ScavengerMarketUnlockMissionInterval=3 ;4
ScavengerMarketDuration=2 ;1
MinScavengerMarketCooldown=2 ;3
MaxScavengerMarketCooldown=2 ;4
so the way this is set up is that the market shows up for two days and has a cool down of two days. I think the cool down starts once it shows up. so that means it will always show.
Take out all of my values and let the origninal values get set.
MinTurnsUntilScavengerMarket=4 ; ~ middle of the first operation
ScavengerMarketUnlockMissionInterval=4
ScavengerMarketDuration=1
MinScavengerMarketCooldown=3
MaxScavengerMarketCooldown=4
Scuba Steve  [author] 1 May, 2020 @ 12:30am 
Hi Temüjin, thanks for the feedback. So the ";" show you what the original value was in the default game. If you delete the "2 ;" so that it is just =1 then you have reset it to its default duration. The other piece to look at is the interval when it shows. I think the default was that it showed up every 4 days. That property is near this one.
Now the refresh issue, I'll take a look at that. what you can do in the mean time is to comment out everything that refers to the scavenger market. You comment out a line by placing a ";" at the front. Anything that follows a ";" is considered a comment.
Temüjin 1 May, 2020 @ 12:24am 
Hey, Love the mod, just a quick question about the scavenger market. The market turns up too often and the stock doesn't seem to refresh properly?

I found the parameters to change but unsure what the number after the ";" means.

Eg.
ScavengerMarketDuration=2 ;1


What parameters changes it back to a longer wait time and unsure of what to change to get it to refresh every time it appears? Thanks for your help!
Scuba Steve  [author] 1 May, 2020 @ 12:11am 
So I took a look julien Shen mod and compared two files we both touch. To add Shen's equipment he has to define his loadout. In A Better Start (full) I modified the standard loadouts for all of the core agents. In the LITE version i simply took out my added loadout and put back in the original. I think by putting the orignal values back I clobber Shen's gear. So I've made an update. Give it a try Invertin and let me know if it fixes your issue. Also let me know if you are running any other mods that could conflict.
Scuba Steve  [author] 30 Apr, 2020 @ 11:47pm 
A Better Agent (LITE) is now out! click the image tile above.
Scuba Steve  [author] 30 Apr, 2020 @ 10:11pm 
A Better Agent is Out Now! (click the new image above) LITE version to follow.
Scuba Steve  [author] 30 Apr, 2020 @ 10:10pm 
yes, poor me.. I have to play more video games and try other cool mods. Yeah, it sucks being me.
*isn't sarcasm fun?*:steamhappy:
Online Addict  [author] 30 Apr, 2020 @ 9:07pm 
Poor Scuba. We're giving you more to do. :D
Scuba Steve  [author] 30 Apr, 2020 @ 8:57pm 
hmmm, I can't imagine where I could impact such a thing. As I override the default values my mods won't typically interfere with a unique character or weapons added by another mod. What is likely happening is that due to the load order I am overriding something the Julien Shen mod overrode in the defaults.

I would need to load the mod and see what it is doing. I'll add that to my todo's. The Shen mod is pretty popular.
Invertin 30 Apr, 2020 @ 7:39pm 
just discovered an unintended mod interaction, if you use this mod with the Julian Shen agent mod, then Julian will spawn with no armor and no gun, and doesn't have any spares to equip.
Scuba Steve  [author] 30 Apr, 2020 @ 11:49am 
That would get pretty granular but I could see the benefit of it... but think of the overhead in creating all those nifty mod image thumbnails... yeesh. ;-)

I may consider that. Are you thinking like A Better Spec Ops, A Better Assembly, A Better City Management, etc.? I've kept it pretty much to game, character, and weapons. Going granular would be breaking out A Better Start into these kinds of submods. I guess I could also do a mod per agent class... A Better Breaker, A Better Gunslinger, etc.

Once I have the full 6 of my regular ones I will look at breaking a few things out. It's easy enough to replicate the mods and comment out everything but the specific focus for the mod.
dada11dada22 30 Apr, 2020 @ 7:57am 
It would be great if you could make each buff an individual mod and put them in a collection. Or make the buffs toggleable
Dusky 30 Apr, 2020 @ 7:39am 
Aha! I thought I was going mad xD
Thanks for the heads up :)
Scuba Steve  [author] 30 Apr, 2020 @ 6:40am 
Hi Dusky, the reason you are not finding that is because I decided to put those changes in A Better Agent, which I am working on now. My thinking was that all the training adds boosts to the character stats. Unlike X2 where training could re-class a soldier or give abilities (OTS), Chimera Squad takes more of a "conditioning" approach.

I definitely debated on whether to put the training changes in the ABStart or ABAgent. I am finding the lines are not as clear between my 3 different mod focuses. I should have ABAgent out today but until then look at the game's XcomStrategyTuning.ini. You will find those times in there, search for "TrainingProgram". A teaser is that in my bump the agent will get a little more than just a single trait bump.
Dusky 30 Apr, 2020 @ 4:03am 
I'm only interested in speeding up agent training time, but the only variable I can find in the .inis is the base slots for the training room.
Can you point me in the right direction?
Online Addict  [author] 29 Apr, 2020 @ 8:35pm 
I took a second, thinking about downloading the dev tools, but stopped when I saw that it takes up 90 freakin' gigs. Lol. So, no thanks. Yeah, I bet it's MUCH easier!
Scuba Steve  [author] 29 Apr, 2020 @ 6:19pm 
Thanks Addict. The reviews have been pretty good so far. I am feverishly working on A Better Agent and hope to have it out soon. They have actually made a few things easier with config files...or I am just comparing it to the tedious hours of building the LWOTC mods..

Good news about going back to work but, yeah, bummer on the cutting into game time.
Online Addict  [author] 29 Apr, 2020 @ 3:47pm 
As usual, Scuba, you're amazing. I'll start trying to break the mod for ya and see if I can find anything you missed or broke. I've been told to go back to work on Friday, so I guess playtime is over. Blah.
Scuba Steve  [author] 29 Apr, 2020 @ 3:15pm 
I would say that in general it is about a 20% bump up, where the full version 100%+ bump.

Valvatorez - that squad size number seems pretty much fixed or it cannot be easily changed in the configs that I spotted. Apparently they can't add seats to the APC and there is no option to bring your bike to work on Chimera Squad. I upped the numbers to allow more agents to train at the same time and although the UI showed it (albeit in a corrupted way) there was no way to assign the training to more than one so I pulled out the change.
I'm working on A Better Agent right now and will keep a look out for something that would allow us to have more in the band.
elderiii 29 Apr, 2020 @ 1:58pm 
How much "harder" is this than the first mod? 50% towards vanilla Xcom, more or less?
Thanks!
Valvatorez(Cox Cable = awful ISP 29 Apr, 2020 @ 1:39pm 
Speaking of ini's, how safe it is to increase breaching offsets in DefaultGameCore to get larger squads?
Scuba Steve  [author] 29 Apr, 2020 @ 1:25pm 
I dug so you don't have to. :steamhappy: Thanks for the feedback.
Pallax 29 Apr, 2020 @ 1:07pm 
This is nice, rather than digging through all the ini's looking for stuff!