or am i umb and i just found what this mop changed in the highlander options?

afaik in community highlander there is an option for this in the ini files
go to 1134256495\Config
or use the mod launcher to jump to "show in explorer"
then then XComGameCore.ini

you should find

Issue 743
; Set to false/commented out if you want damage to hit shields/ablative, then armor, then health (vanilla behaviour)
; Set to true/uncomment it if you want damage to hit armor, then shield/ablative, then health
;ARMOR_BEFORE_SHIELD=true

@HiertotheStar I think HP from bubble weave and ablative platings are both shields so they can't be separated from each other

Anyway to separate shield hp from ablative hp ? I have Bubble Weave from Additional Vest Mod installed and would like to have damage done to shield then armor then ablative.

Thank you.

do you know if this works alongside irridars armor overhaul 2.0? where armor hp is converted to ablative instead of hp?

Could this cause poison damage to be reduced by armor? I have been seeing that a lot in my campaign, and trying to track down the source.

Will this conflict with EW aim mod?

Just finished a campaign with about 685 mods, this one included, and had no major issues! Thanks for putting this up.

Is there anything out there (or a possibility for this mod) to get the damage preview (aka the blinking health bars on enemies) to take into account these damage calc changes?

It's a non-issue really for relatively "vanilla" games, until you meet a shieldbearer, then the dmg previews are all off

One of the best mod ever. Fully compatible with LWOTC. Gives very useful opportunity if you modify stats of armor as well as shields, both for XCOM and Advent.

Compatibility with LWOTC?

Great mod overall. Only thing is that vipers are obsolete now since they can't bypass armor. Is there a way to make their attack ignore armor?

Oh man, I didn't even know this was a thing in the game. Nice!

Is there any way I could tweak this mod or the highlander itself to make all damage ignore armor?

Updated the mod requirements and description to the Stable highlander, the Beta highlander is no longer required.

@Burnout Thanks for the update about highlander.

@Burnout Thanks for the tip!

The stable Community Highlander was updated on 22nd October to v1.21.1, so now this mod works with that version and no longer needs the beta.

Also, GraceCB, the Highlander allows that too, and I think it has for a while. Open the Highlander's XComGameCore.ini, set "POISONED_IGNORES_SHIELDS" to true and make sure the line is not commented (";" at the start).

I second GraceCB's suggestion. It would make more sense. Also, do status effects abide by the new rule of dmg < armor = 0? Would a unit on fire with 4 armor take 0 damage from the fire?

Would you be able to change poison damage to bypassing ablative points somehow?

Works when added mid-campaign. I can't speak to specifics but I'm seeing the proper damage affects and pop ups and haven't noticed that it's broken any other mods. Running it with ESO, Iridar's DIO, Mitzruti's Additional Vests, and CDR. Nice work @NSLW, this is going to change up the tactical game in interesting ways.

@NotSoLoneWolf I've narrowed it down to Avatar Project-based diffilcuty, Trooper custom soldier class, and Grim's Headhunter and Bruiser custom soldier classes.

@miku567
Not to be dismissive but if another mod in your modlist doesn't like something added in the Beta Highlander, I can't really do anything about that. Try to narrow down which mod doesn't play nice, then contact either that mod's developer or the highlander people.

The missing dependencies thing is on the beta AML right? It registers missing dependencies based on mod ID, you could replace the ID in XComMod file from that of beta highlander to that of standard one and it'll stop reporting them.

Crashing is a separate issue though, hard to tell what sort of conflict could be causing this without more info.

Replacing normal highlander with beta one gives me 45 missing dependencies and crashes the game at load.

For anyone that's watching the comments here, Beta Highlander just got an update that's supposed to fix the invisible grenade bug.

I dreamed of*

I decided to give this a try, and it's everything u dreamed of. Especially when combined with Scarier Faceless. They are finally the early-mid game nightmare they are meant to be.

@CptnHappyTime Pie thanks you for your research in the ini. I'll just wait for the next update of Lwotc using the Highlander 1.21.

The answer lies in the text you quoted:

"Note: works only when playing with Community Highlander v1.21 or higher."

Iridar simply put in a compatibility feature for those who switched to Beta version, this ini option won't do anything if you turn it on while remaining on stable one.

Iridar's Defensive Item Overhaul has this line in it:
"[XComGame.X2Effect_ApplyWeaponDamage]
; In base game War of the Chosen, attacks that get fully absorbed by Ablative HP cannot Shred Armor.
; Config below aims to change that.

; If this is set to "true", it will be possible for Armor Points to be shredded while dealing damage to Ablative HP.
; Affects both XCOM and enemies.
; Note: works only when playing with Community Highlander v1.21 or higher.
ARMOR_BEFORE_SHIELD = true"

Your mod requires the beta highlander, his requires the standard highlander. They both seem to be trying to accomplish the same thing. Is there a difference to what is happening, here? Do I need to be careful with my load order to make sure something doesn't clash?

Dang it. I only started my own campaign like a day or two ago so I didn't have a reason to fiddle with grenade pocket, but after checking this does happen on my install as well with the Beta and I don't run LWotC either. That's a shame :/

@Malek Deneith I'm not using Lwotc nor have I ever. I only remembered to mention that in my final comment so the issue is present in a campaign without lwotc installed :/

Considering starlancer mentioned the issue in context of LWotC I'm not sure if this should even be trying this with LWotC. I mean it explicitly comes with it's own install of Highlander because LWotC devs had to add stuff to Highlander to make it work, it's possible that Beta Highlander still doesn't have some LWotC related changes merged and that's what causing the grenade issue.

And your changes here make so much more sense, hence why I always set these to true too.

[XComGame.X2Effect_Burning]
BURNED_IGNORES_SHIELDS=true ; Make burn and acid DOT ignore shields

[XComGame.X2StatusEffects]
POISONED_IGNORES_SHIELDS=true ; Make poison DOT ignore shields

Only thing different @starlancer is I'm not using LWoTC, just WoTC :/

@NotSoLoneWolf I'm sorry for the mass messaging and hijacking your comments. I just saw someone else with the same problem, got excited and figured you'd be experienced with the Highlander and it's code and might be able to offer insight :/

Would editing the Beta Highlanders XComGameCore.ini and toggling the changes you've implemented here to 'True' do the same thing as having this mod installed?

Like this;

[XComGame.X2Effect_ApplyWeaponDamage]
; Issue 321
; Set to false/commented out if you want to still damage the target by 1 even if armor is more than incoming damage (vanilla behaviour)
; Set to true/uncomment it if you want damage that is less than target armor to be completely neutralized
NO_MINIMUM_DAMAGE=true

; Issue 743
; Set to false/commented out if you want damage to hit shields/ablative, then armor, then health (vanilla behaviour)
; Set to true/uncomment it if you want damage to hit armor, then shield/ablative, then health
ARMOR_BEFORE_SHIELD=true

@starlancer With the stable release I can select and choose which grenade, ammo or vest to equip. With the Beta it just defaults to a random one for each slot, and selecting them to change just brings up the blank black screen :/

I've yet to go back and try troubleshoot it though any insight anyone would have is appreciated. I did see the following in the Highlander and guess (noob know nothing honestly) these lines might do something....maybe...oh my...

In Highlanders XComGame.ini

[XComGame.CHHelpers]
;GrenadeRespectUniqueRule=false ; Set to true to make grenade slot respect unique items rule.
;AmmoSlotBypassUniqueRule=false ; Set to true to make ammo slot ignore unique items rule.

@starlancer I have the exact same problem with the latest Beta and it's killing me becauseI reallywish I could use this mod's changes :(

I've it set up so that all soldiers have a grenade, ammo and vest slot. Vest slot is from https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1293714688&searchtext=vest and the ammo & grenade slots are through class abilities unlocking them using the Highlander.

In an XCom.GameData.ini file I put the following to provide the Ammo & Grenade slots:

[XComGame.X2AbilityTemplateManager]

; Example Grenadier
+AbilityUnlocksAmmoPocket="LaunchGrenade"
+AbilityUnlocksGrenadePocket="LaunchGrenade"
+AbilityUnlocksExtraUtilitySlot="LaunchGrenade"

; Example Templar
+AbilityUnlocksAmmoPocket="Rend"
+AbilityUnlocksGrenadePocket="Rend"
;+AbilityUnlocksExtraUtilitySlot="Rend"

Speaking too fast .. I've trouble with the last Highlander release. When I would equipped a Grenadier with some others grenades , I've just a choice of a black window without choice of grenades. :)
Not your fault absolutly. So I'm back to the the highlander 1.20 and waiting to my guys in predator armor having a new mission to see if your mod is still working. I guess not, i suppose it's a new adding to the last release of Highlander. But well it's working with recommended , I can wait for the future. Still, i'll still thanks you for this mod.

@NotSoLoneWolf That was the only concern I had about this mod. Gonna put it on favourite so I can find it once its ready for the stable version of the highlander, grats on making armour so much more useful for both XCOM and ADVENT alike

@Ulfur
Shredding will still occur even if your attack is completely deflected by armour.

@Cody Bayliss
I simply edited the trooper and captain configs in XComGameData_CharacterStats.ini to give them a few points of the ShieldHP stat.

So how would this work when it comes to say the shredder perk. Would it still shred armour even if the attack does 0 damage or would it need to be able to deal at minimum one point of damage for the shred to occur?

How did you give advent ablative armor?

Seems to work fine so far in my current Lwotc campaign with the last Highlander (1.21 Rc). Thanks you very much.

@MrCloista
The Covert Infiltration Beta 2.5 highlander isn’t updated with the latest stuff. When we get the Beta 3 highlander together we’ll include all the things that were just added to the official beta highlander.

Ooooh. I'll probably wait for stable Highlander release (esp. considering that on github there's already one fix to something in the current beta), but this looks like exactly something I could use, given that I run with armor HP turned to ablative.

Would I be right in assuming this would work.with the CI highlander?

Nice, looking forward to try it out in the future once the changes are passed into the stable branch of Highlander.

I like the change but not ready to use the beta version of highlander on my large mod list.