XCOM 2
A Better Shell
95 Comments
Kinsect 8 Oct, 2023 @ 4:42pm 
Say does this also work with Aero's Shells?
Not only that but also the Bio Division 2.0, A better ADVENT (War of the Chosen), and possibly other enemy mods like the Frozen Legion, Advent drones, Purge units, and also A Requiem For Man: Praetorians Standalone
Kevin from HP Customer Service 7 Nov, 2021 @ 7:21pm 
@pepoluan
from my very limited testing I have found that it breaks SOME (if not most of) the shells in "More Shells", since it starts rolling characters that it's not supposed to, sadly.

These 2 mods working in conjuction would be great, ngl
pepoluan 30 Apr, 2021 @ 7:12am 
Does this work with "More Shells" mod by Fallen King?
Star¤Dagger 15 Jan, 2020 @ 11:09am 
Rolling Aliens is what the entire game is all about, when you start a new campaign, you are re-rolling them!

yes_commander 20 Nov, 2018 @ 7:43am 
The 'Reroll Aliens' button on the starting screen is a nice touch. :)
Dragon32 8 Oct, 2017 @ 7:44am 
@MEMESTEALER:
I tried this with Vortex Pixalation's "ADVENT Flashlights" (when that had been updated to WoTC). The ADVENT units spawned in the shell menu background didn't have the flashlight attachments. So I don't think this mod is working right with WoTC.
NZS BXN 8 Oct, 2017 @ 5:49am 
is it WOTC compatible?
Dragon32 24 Jul, 2017 @ 11:41am 
@Garr Incorporated:
IIRC, that's launching the game without the -review switch
Garr Incorporated 24 Jul, 2017 @ 11:34am 
What are the mods that have edited the menu in 3rd screenshot so heavily?
Lux Manifestus 24 Jul, 2017 @ 11:32am 
@dragon32: thanks. i looked for the .ini last night, somehow couldn't find it. Thank you
Dragon32 24 Jul, 2017 @ 11:10am 
@Lux Manifestus:
RerollButtonEnabled=false
Lux Manifestus 23 Jul, 2017 @ 5:07pm 
Mod works great but I find that the Reroll Aliens button is obtrusive and distracts from the art of the lobby screen. Any way you could make the button optional in config settings? Thank you.
TamTroll 5 Jun, 2017 @ 1:05pm 
@Robojumper damn. Well if you ever figure it out let me know. been loving the basic Shell screens, just find it boring when it's only the same five guys or so every time.
robojumper  [author] 5 Jun, 2017 @ 1:03pm 
@Your Mother
Not really, I'd have to modify the maps which is out of scope for this mod.
Additionally, an update to the base game broke aspects of the shell maps, so they can't be modified without causing crashes.
TamTroll 5 Jun, 2017 @ 12:59pm 
Hey @Robojumper is it possible at all to increase the number of soldiers who appear on Shell Screens? I don't mean have multiple at once, but just make the pool of soldiers who pose stalking the ADVENT is larger, or cycles through all availible soldiers you have on your game.

As it is i'm only seeing the same five or so guys over and over again, when i have over twenty soldiers i'd also like to see. Anything you can do about that?
Garr Incorporated 1 Apr, 2017 @ 1:45am 
'Kay. Well, we can live without it. At least it works with all other cool mods!
robojumper  [author] 1 Apr, 2017 @ 12:50am 
@Garr Incorporated
The LWAP/LW2 ADVENT are just Heads, the Body Parts are attached at runtime. That only works in-game, not on the shell.
Garr Incorporated 31 Mar, 2017 @ 3:58pm 
I'm just curious: what is causing this issue? Why the highlander mod disallows that?
robojumper  [author] 31 Mar, 2017 @ 3:54pm 
@Garr Incorporated
That's impossible unfortunately.
Garr Incorporated 31 Mar, 2017 @ 3:49pm 
Can this be updated to work with Long War 2? Because this would be really grand.
Dragon32 2 Feb, 2017 @ 10:50am 
@Oberfuhrer-Razgriz:
You using Title Menu Continue Button?
3dahs 2 Feb, 2017 @ 8:17am 
Pressing J hides the menu for me... Might have other mod conflics. Althought press re-roll aliens for me did nothing.
BE02-Raziel 1 Feb, 2017 @ 3:46pm 
So, pressing J doesn't hide the main menu HUD. I'll try again tomorrow but I'll leave this here to let you know. Granted, I bulk installed a collection of mods I put together. If we can't figure this out, it's no biggy. It just bothers me that something that's included in the package doesn't work.
robojumper  [author] 1 Feb, 2017 @ 1:39am 
@3dahs
It rerolls the Aliens, duh.
Seriously though, my mod randomly chooses aliens to replace and you can always reroll.
3dahs 31 Jan, 2017 @ 4:45pm 
What that reroll aliens button top right of screen? Is that from your mod or something else? Lol anyone know what it does?
Mountain Man 28 Jan, 2017 @ 12:40pm 
What a fun idea!
Vaultwulf 26 Jan, 2017 @ 11:55am 
@Dragon32 I just figured that out and returned to delete my post! A Better Shell was the last Mod I loaded and I just noticed the option. I can't believe I could not put SavCam and Savage Cam Cream together! Thanks for the feedback.

@robojumper Awesome mod! Thank you for creating it!
Dragon32 26 Jan, 2017 @ 11:36am 
@Vaultwulf:
Weird you thought it was this mod. No, that's "Savage Cam Cream"
Nickburger 14 Oct, 2016 @ 3:54am 
Wow! Lightening response time! So detailed too! So I guess XCOM is having trouble reading my save. I wonder if it is because I disabled a few mods mid play-through? I'll have to investigate if that Disable Missing Content mod fixes things up. Thanks for such a quick and enlightening post!!
robojumper  [author] 14 Oct, 2016 @ 3:45am 
@Nickburger
SeqAct_GetPawnFromSaveData.uc:
0. Get the latest save.
1. Does this save contain an XComHQ? Can happen to not contain one in tactical quick launch.
2.1. If it has one, get all soldiers from the barracks
2.2. If not, get all your soldiers in the battle
3. choose the unit with the highest amount of kills
4. If there aren't any units in the latest save, create a new random unit
5. Create a Pawn from this unit and place it in the position
Nickburger 14 Oct, 2016 @ 3:31am 
Thanks for this mod robojumper – I really love the extra flavor this mod add to the start of every new XCOM session.

From all your time working in the shell code would you happen to know the mechanics for how the game picks which XCOM soldier to show? I am midway through a campaign and my soldiers are starting to look like BAMFs but all the soldiers selected for the title screen seem to be random rookies not from my campaign. Any idea what might be going on? Thanks!
MrShadow 8 Sep, 2016 @ 8:50am 
Ok thanks
robojumper  [author] 8 Sep, 2016 @ 8:48am 
@shadow79
Should work.
MrShadow 7 Sep, 2016 @ 4:50pm 
could you test this with the Bio Troops mod of mine?
robojumper  [author] 26 Aug, 2016 @ 10:51am 
@Dragon32
If I think about it - in the meantime you could go to ini and add a CharacterGroupOverride for the Elite Viper and assign it to a trash group. I used it to make my mod treat shieldbearers and lancers as troopers.
Dragon32 25 Aug, 2016 @ 11:12am 
@robojumper:
Well I think the Elite Viper mod is also the reason why I have only see one Andromedon in this whole campaign. So... want to test that out and report that issue too. If I'm right.
Guess the CharacterGroupName should be "Viper"
robojumper  [author] 25 Aug, 2016 @ 12:29am 
@Dragon32
You could either file that as a bug in Elite Viper, or wait for me to add a list of known "Bad Templates" that will get ignored (which will take a week until I can do that.)
Dragon32 24 Aug, 2016 @ 4:11pm 
@robojumper:
Oooooh. It's in the .u / .uc files, no wonder Windows' own search didn't find it. Had to use a Grep tool. Anyway, yup:
"CharTemplate.CharacterGroupName = 'AdventCaptain';"
robojumper  [author] 24 Aug, 2016 @ 2:46pm 
@Dragon32
Hmm, I have no explanation for that, other than that the Elite Vipers may have CharacterGroupname = 'AdventOfficer' or something (if you could check that...?).
Dragon32 24 Aug, 2016 @ 11:57am 
So disabling Title Menu Continue Button got the button and "J" working as they should. Probably worth flagging that as a conflict.

Aaand vipers .
Dragon32 23 Aug, 2016 @ 3:52pm 
They're from this mod: Elite Viper by Kobazco. Pretty sure I never saw a Viper on a shell map before adding A Better Shell. I'll double check next time I see one to make sure it is one of those and not one of my other mod-added units like Farkyrie's ADVENT Snipers which has gone really deformed and weird.

No worries on the compatibilities, I'll just disable the button in the INI.
robojumper  [author] 23 Aug, 2016 @ 3:13pm 
@Dragon32
What did you say about vipers? This mod should really not do anything with vipers. Do the shell maps even have vipers?
It's unfortunate that the button and hotkey don't work for you, as my mod should handle overrides transparently.
Dragon32 23 Aug, 2016 @ 2:45pm 
Cool stuff. Elite Vipers look weird with this though...

I'm also finding the "J" key and the Reroll Units button aren't working for me. I'm using Title Menu Continue Button (UIFinalShell and XComShellPresentationLayer overrides) and Total Advent Weaponry (UIFinalShell screen listener). Well, not just those two... hundreds of others too :)
ProvokingPerch 21 Aug, 2016 @ 6:30am 
Neat.
Lago 19 Aug, 2016 @ 2:40am 
I got a Stun Lancer!

Although he didn't have his lance, which I suppose means he isn't a Lancer. He also can't stun without his lance, which takes away the Stun too. So... what is he?

Thank you deeply for this mod. Nothing brought me more joy than giving the most hated enemy in XCOM an existential crisis.
Lago 18 Aug, 2016 @ 3:17pm 
Might just be minor glows on the helmet. If it turns up I'll let you know if it looks different.
robojumper  [author] 18 Aug, 2016 @ 3:15pm 
@Lago
I saw them in the editor and I know my code will ignore them (no, there's not a one-fits-all solution for that).
Lago 18 Aug, 2016 @ 3:14pm 
It has particles around its head? I suppose I only ever saw it once.
robojumper  [author] 18 Aug, 2016 @ 3:13pm 
@Lago
But I could do that manually if I wanted to.
robojumper  [author] 18 Aug, 2016 @ 3:12pm 
@Lago
Unfortunately without the particle system around its head.