IMO a good alternative to balance changes is to combine this with Dynamic Deployment and have normal 6/4+2 squad of units and extra 2 (or more) "on standby" with Dynamic Deployment marked.

This way you play entire game as 6 squad by default, and reserves are only for rare tricky situations such as Chosen + modded boss enemy/mocx.

;Changing Squad Size to 8 in Covert Infiltration
[CovertInfiltration.X2StrategyElement_InfiltrationActions]
-InfiltrationMaxSquadSize=6
+InfiltrationMaxSquadSize=16

[XComGame.X2StrategyGameRulesetDataStructures]
-m_iMaxSoldiersOnMission=6
+m_iMaxSoldiersOnMission=16

(The code that I altered)

Additional Context: Am making an easy, gimmicky fun playthrough. Balance isn't super high on priority but I don't want simple god moding, so there are several difficulty mods added, including cloned rulers, EVERY enemy mod attached to univeral enemy patcher, raider factions galore with Raider Relations, and other mods that add extra difficulty but even then I know having a 12 or more man squad breaks that balance drastically.

Fun Context: The solo in question is John Wick, and the high amount of squad size is for a Chimera Squad dedicated team (13 agents, plus Whisper and Jane Kelly), and other larger squads such as a Team Fortress 2 squad (9 + Miss Pauling). Lara Croft is also another solo using akimbo, and the Armor of Two are duos/Bishops, which is why I'm trying to figure out how to make the second through 16th slots options to allow tiny squads.

So, I've seen where in the code to alter squad size, and changed it to 16, which worked overall fine but then I had a major issue using the Knight/Solo class, a unit that is designed to only play by himself, and the squad select was FORCING a selection of 16 soldiers during an infiltration mission, specifically 14 required and 2 optional

Fully aware of other balance requirements needing editted such as enemy spawning and CI squad size penalities abd living space, but I've figured out how to edit those. (Or at least I think I can, that's not the issue now)

Relevant Mod context: Allow Larger Squads, RoboJumper's Squad Select, and RPGO and various specializtion mods linked to it

I have the game crashing on the Avenger down mission everytime. I Thought that it was the custom soldier fix mod, But it still crashes. Do you think that it might be the large number of soldiers that causes the mission to crash?

Hello, thank you for your mod. Did I get it right that if I want only squad size 8 and I have only Covert Infiltration and Living Space mods from your list - then by installing your mod without other mods from your list I will get only 8 size, proportional infiltration penalties, bigger starting roster and bigger living space but nothing else? Because I'm interested only in squad size and this accompanying changes.

Hey @Rather Incoherent , Question regarding DABFL, sorry new to adjusting mods and reading code overall, but learnin

If I make config changes on DABFL regarding the coin flip to be less of a coin flip but more of a dice roll, would I need to account for your own DABFL modifications? If I'm reading your mod description and config files right, all that you're doing is guaranteeing +1 enemy to pod size from the get go, with the opportunity to do a coin flip to get up to at max 3 additional enemies per pod right? So If I reduce that coin flip aspect to be more like a dice roll (anywhere from between 0 - 50% chance at rolling for an additional enemy) on DABFL, but don't touch anything on your mod, that means there's still your 50% coinflip tacked onto the 0-50% chance that I have set for DABFL?

I saw your comment below stating that yours works in ADDITION the changes i make on DABFL, so I just wanted to be sure i'm reading and understanding the code correctly

Thanks! As to what I’m going for, I use a six man squad, not 8, and I have the FL extender. DABFL works fine for me w/o adjustments ( i.e I like the normal scaling fine) but I like the idea of scaling more difficulty above FL 20. My campaigns tend to be long.

@jahsinha Config/DABFL/XComDABFL.ini

You'll need to edit the +AlienPodSizeRules. I'm not entirely sure what you're going for, but you'll need to change the minimum force levels at the least. If you just want ALL of it to kick in at FL20, then you can replace that section with:

+AlienPodSizeRules=(iMinForceLevel=20, iMaxForceLevel=99, iChance=100, iNumToAdd=1)
.AlienPodSizeRules=(iMinForceLevel=20, iMaxForceLevel=99, iChance=50, iNumToAdd=1)
.AlienPodSizeRules=(iMinForceLevel=20, iMaxForceLevel=99, iChance=50, iNumToAdd=1)
.AlienPodSizeRules=(iMinForceLevel=20, iMaxForceLevel=99, iChance=50, iNumToAdd=1)
.AlienPodSizeRules=(iMinForceLevel=20, iMaxForceLevel=99, iChance=50, iNumToAdd=1)

The reason for periods instead of +s is because those rules become duplicates of each other if they all start at the same force level, and for duplicate rules you use . instead of +. Hope that helps!

I want your DABFL changes to only apply @ FL 20 and above. What do I edit from your config? Please

Nice one, thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

@jonboy Fixing all the erroneous information. Thanks for the heads up. As for the Warlock: The basegame config has no entry for WarlockM2_Diff_0. It's very weird, and it's why I haven't touched it.

The M3-0 value is missing, and I've added an appropriate one, but it turns out that the m3-2 value was a nerf and not a buff. Everything else looks right at a glance, but I'll need to go through and double check later this week. Anyway, both values will be appropriate shortly when I push the update live.

@Rather Incoherent Great to see the RaIn mods getting a round of updates! For a notmodder like myself these are awesome to use and reference.

Since you're cycling through updates at the moment, I have a couple of minor quibbles:
1) Would be it be possible to remove the requirements for the Space Egg and Angry Sectopod since this is actually covered in the Miscellaneous Tweaks?
2) In /BossHpBuffs/XComGameData.ini the [ChosenWarlockM2_Diff_0 X2CharacterTemplate] entry seems to be missing and the [ChosenWarlockM3_Diff_0 X2CharacterTemplate] has no HP value
3) Lastly would be good to update the Steam description where points 4 and 11 contain old mod information (starting soldier count and COTK inclusion) and points 9 and 10 are again for Miscellanoues Tweaks

But once again, thanks for all the work put into these mods, very much appreciated!

That's kind of what I expected. Thanks for clarifying, and sorry to ask you questions so early lmao

@Flashstriker My bad, I responded when I just woke up and misread which mod I was on lol. My mod's changes would happen in addition to your own. This is probably bad, and you'll likely want to edit out the changes from my mod.

Thank you for the response, but I believe we're confusing each other. You make edits to DABFL in this mod, and I was wondering how that works if I also edited DABFL with Mod Config Menu

@Flashstriker DABFL will work perfectly fine alongside my mod and I use them together myself.

Hey, this is probably a stupid question, but I'd like to ask anyway just in case:

If I used MCM to adjust DABFL, would those rules be in addition to yours, overule yours, or some other option?

@Rather Incoherent really enjoying your other meta mods, top flight for sure However, I'm experiencing an issue with this mod. And I don't think it's this mod, but maybe you might have an insight. Currently, my troops to rank up from squaddie require 6 xp, instead of the 8 that this mod uses. I don't know if another meta mod is affecting rank ups, but would the order of installation affect how they work?

Honestly, most of this seems unnecessary as a stand alone, but I know you have a whole metamod collection. What I do appreciate is you clearly laying out what all your edits are doing so it is easy to determine what to comment out if I just want to let my initial edits in most of these mods stand without a lot of cross reference. It's clear we have a different idea just in core gameplay desires, but you made it super easy to adjust and tweak and intuitive enough for someone that is only versed in ini edits on what is being touched. Always appreciate intelligent use of comments. Best mod to mess with squad size that I have found. For those that don't know what all it might affect, you have covered all of the bases really well. For those that know what they want, you've made it easy to only take the parts they want. Good stuff. Appreciate the hard work that went into this.

My bad that makes sense, was configuring mods to late into the night when I posted that.

@mike_calhoun420 Yes, but the base setting is for a much higher squad size. 8 with allowSS=true should be 10 squad size for waterworld.

I was looking to confirm that this is listed correctly to increase the size on the final mission? Maybe my inexperience with configuring files but aren't you taking away the larger squad size with the (-) for a smaller one with the (+)?

-PatchedMissions = (MissionType = "GP_FortressLeadup", iSize = 15, bAllowSS = true)
+PatchedMissions = (MissionType = "GP_FortressLeadup", iSize = 8, bAllowSS = true)

Sadly, this mod doesn't increase living space mid campaign :(

хороший мод. давно искал как легко увеличить размер казармы. но мне все еще было мало ,поэтому поменял значения на 60\20\20 . теперь я доволен :).
Кстати из-за изменений в DABFL на первои-же миссий по защите убежиша около 50+ врагов. Был анигилирован за 3 хода. XD
Спасибо.

Thank you very much for creating this mod (& double thanks for the soft requirements). Looks like a labour of love, and very useful to me who wants "something else" after playing XCOM for years.

Gotcha! Thanks that I'll have a check, great work overall though :).

My DABFL are being added directly on top of yours. If you're running DABFL already you probably either want to comment out my changes or your own.

Question about your DABFL tweaks. I already have my own tweaks setup in that mod so, is your tweaks going to override the specific changes I've made in the actual DABFL mod or are they worse gonna merge together and combine? Reason I ask is because I still feel frost legion is turning up too early and pods seems to be spawning anywhere between 3 and 7 units when I'm sure It wasn't this high potentially. I even reduced the front load from 2 to 1 in this mod but not sure if that's made much difference.

Excellent, thanks for the reply. Not a fan of Yellow Alert in any form, nor the Claus-pods and Claus-Balls, but I really wanted an 8 man squad in CI (the amount of classes I run kind of requires it). You sir, are a hero

I just wanna say thanks for making this, I always wanted to play covert infiltration with larger squads.

Done! I knew I was bound to mess something up somewhere along the way.

you missed laser sparks under my credits :P

None of these mods are hard requirements, however, they all do something.

Covert Infiltration is where 8 man squads are enabled. If you don't run that, then use RoboJumper's squad select to do it.

DABFL is where enemy counts are increased to challenge you. If you don't use that, you'll need something else to accomplish that point. DEZ goes hand in hand there to keep these huge pods a bit more spread out.

PCP & its plugins are optional. They are nerfs to KillAssist values that I would suggest mirroring in any classes you do use.

If you run Space Egg or Angry Sectopods, this mod nerfs their hp. If you don't, this mod buffs the HP of Gatekeepers and Sectopods.

To reiterate though: I'm pretty sure any mod you don't have just results in my changes doing nothing, and you should be fine, but missing whatever the change was that I accomplished through that mod.

I get the feeling this is going to be a frequently asked question, but are all the mods hard requirements?