This mod should only be played on the Commander and Legend difficulty levels. There used to be a lighter version of this mod where it would make those levels more challenging, but it seems Scuba Steve removed it for some reason. As it stands, don't bother with power relays because you'll have a crap load of power to begin with. Don't bother with gift boxes offering supplies on the global display because you'll already start with a crap load of supplies. Don't bother with intel because, you guessed! You'll start with a crap load of intel! Don't bother with Elirium or Alien Alloys because...well, you get the picture.

Within the first month of researching topics you'll blow right past Predator and EXO armor and go straight to Warden and WAR suits. You'll do the same for plasma weaponry, although both Warden/WAR suits and plasma weaponry require three engineers to build, and I haven't gotten that far to see whether or not this a Long War mod in which you have to provide materials and engineers to build each armor suit and specific weapon individually.Don't get me wrong. This is not a bad mod. It is a little, well a lot, overpowered.

The author is under the impression that Dr. Raymond Shen (An-Yi “Lily” Shen's father) would have had a lot of time and resources to build, retrofit, and clear away all the debris within the Avenger. What the author fails to realize is that in a world controlled by the Aliens, who control every means of surveillance from satellites in orbit, UFO's patrolling the skies, and the monitoring of electronic media, it would be extremely difficult and time consuming to build such a ship. In addition, Advent is always on the lookout for insurgents and rebels. So, in that vein, building such a ship is highly time consuming and ultimately it would be up to Lily to finish her fathers work.

Clearing of the debris might take less than a day, but the moment they bring the Elirium reactor online, it would only be a matter of time before the Aliens detected and zeroed in on the source and destroy the Avenger on the ground. Even if the reactor was not online, it would've taken the Aliens longer to find an almost finished ship and destroy it. That's why I believe the Avenger had to lift off in the preview videos so that they wouldn't get caught in the ground. So then, it would be up to the player to clear the debris which would've given him precious supplies, Elirium, and Alloys to build facilities. And the player would have to do it within a tight time table.

What happened to A Better Start Lite for XCOM 2 vanilla?

any chance for mod config menu integration?

easy game.

Anyway to use any of these mods for the mobile version of xcom 2. I have it on pc but been in the hospital for many days so phones all I got to go o to entertain myself

Hello! Looks like any squad member increases are bugged out after the first six - just an empty box and it takes a random soldier with you. Any recommended fix?

Great mod btw, I just wanted to blow things up and blast some aliens, and this really works for me.

Thanks!

Does this work w/ WoTC after the most recent patch?

Actually the change works out from a scalar of 1 to only taking 10% of the normal time. So 90% less the time.
I wished there were some global values for things like AIM and others. There isn't however there is a mod out there (search for global) I can't remember the full name but the modder created a single file for updating global values like AIM in one place. I have only seen it for [WOTC] or [LWOTC]. My mods don't have it. To change AIM you have to go to each character template to modify it. There are not many of these but its deffinitely more than one.

am i right in thinking:

;Bob The Builder works for XCOM
-BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[0]=1.0 ;Easy
-BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[1]=1.0 ;Normal
-BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[2]=1.0 ;Classic
-BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[3]=1.0 ;Impossible
+BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[0]=0.1 ;Easy
+BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[1]=0.1 ;Easy
+BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[2]=0.1 ;Easy
+BuildItemProject_TimeScalar[3]=0.1 ;Easy

[1] normal difficulty, =0.1 - 10% of original time?

thus, =0.6 is 40% off the normal build time?

is there a global aiming modifier :P

I deleted all Xcom2 thing so ima just test it out see if it wants to load it all back or not i just wanted a new load not a better start since it wont stop the Avatar project i hate it when they put that kinda thing in but its nice of them to allow mods to take it out so you can enjoy the game

ok thank you ima test that now and see if i get a clean load so ican enjoy the game

Hi Dan, I have had this problem at times in the past. Of course you need to unsubscribe from the mod that you want to get rid of. If you have done that the other thing to try is to dump your cached configs.. not the game configs but the configs that get generated at the time of play. When you delete these then your first run afterwards will rebuild them all. It also can dump your game/graphics/etc. settings. Not sure of your setup but if you didn't do anything special then the config cache I'm talking about can be found at:
C:\Users\<your pc user name>\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\XCOM Chimera Squad\XComGame\Config
Not sure why they go to the default OneDrive but there it is.
Just to really get a clean start I unsubscribe to all of my mods (not just disable them) so that when the cache gets recreated its pure vanilla. Then run the game, set your settings, and exit back out. The next time you run the game it will be ready to go and you can resubscribe to the mods you want.

how do i uninstall it from ym game im stuck in were i can play Vanilla so i can have the Avatar mod were it takes it away and now im stuck in a better start so i'm stuck starting new games just to find out if i get the avatar project is there even a Mod to that works with LW 2 better start or better start itself any avatar deleter mod i just can't find out how to disable it so i can play without it...i need help

For those who are interested I have put out "A Better Start" for Chimera Squad.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2077831303

If you have XCS then give this a try. I'll be coming out with a Lite version and then A Better Agent and A Better Arsenal all with Lite versions here soon.

Hey, I can't change any soldiers on missions beyond the first six. Others are empty boxes that somehow contain a soldier that I don't want on that mission and cannot change. Is there a way to solve this?

Hi Dorgelo, reference the matrix table above and install a Better Start Lite. It is still a nice buff but it is toned down.

Hello. I have a few questions about "easy start". How can I change the time to cleaned construction sites, and building buildings, so research in the lab? It's nice, but I would like it to be more or less normal and not rocket :) it is ceases to be interesting :) Thank you, and have a nice day.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1134711074

I just started using this mod and it is showing up with a warning flag in WOTC. is there a different version of this for WOTC??

taking the "Lite" version may be your speed. Still its a buffing mod so things come quicker for sure.

Just put it on and it makes early game a total cheese. Fastest plasma weapons and armor I've ever gotten.

thank you im using the WOTC and I still get the issue but when i disable it it plays fine it strange

Try and use the WOTC or LW2 versions. Both work with the vanilla game. There really isn't anything in the ini files that I could see would crash the game. Do give the others a try and see.

Your Mod Crashes my game at desktop. Why is that ? is there a solution? I want to use this so badly.

I hadn't heard about the issue with Guerilla Tactics facility. I'll check that out. and yes, it's very OP definitely try the LITE version for some buffing without OP.

Sadly I had to remove the change that gave you more recruits in the SkyRanger from the onset. It caused issues later in game when you unlocked the extra soldiers in the officer training school. LW2 handled this really nice so it wasn't a loss until WOTC came along. I still keep the line in the story for the mod though.

HOLY CRAP, ok, this mod is a bit too OP! Still good though, however the screen where you select your soldiers is broken if you have the Guerilla Tactics facility built.

"And who the hell lost the mystic knowledge that allowed the Skyranger to carry more than 4 grunts into battle?!"

that- thats actually a very good point. I never really thought about that. I mean, there are extra visible seats in the SkyRanger with 4 recruits, it shouldn't be too difficult.

WOTC Compatible versions of my A Better' MODS have been released!!!

A lot of additions were made by WOTC that made upgrading a few of these a bit more tedius.. I'm looking at You, A Better Arsenal!

Thank you all for your patience. In the interest of getting these out ASAP I didn't get to do the full amount of play testing that I would like. Please send me your feedback. (please refrain from commenting that these mods are too OP as that is their intent. That said, if I didn't dile back the LITE versions enough then pass those notes along.)

--- A special thanks to reCLUsive7 for sponsoring this work.

Links to new mods:

+ A Better Start for WOTC | A Better Start for WOTC(LITE)

+ A Better Rookie for WOTC | A Better Rookie for WOTC(LITE)

+ A Better Arsenal for WOTC | A Better Arsenal for WOTC(LITE)

I haven't released them yet. I should have them out soon and will post a comment here when they are out there.

Thanks for the support.

Sorry if I'm missing them and they're out there, but have you posted the finished better starts for WotC? I've been changing the base inis myself but much prefer to use your mod if able so looking forward to them getting posted if they haven't been. :) Thanks for doing the work.

Quick update, had a bit of a snag with the new WOTC SDK and then play testing A Better Rookie uncovered a game locking bug (which I blame more on the debugger shell than my simple ini changes). I have finished WOTC versions of A Better Start, A Better Start (LITE), A Better Rookie, and A Better Rookie (LITE). The big one is A Better Arsenal and LITE and 50% done with those. (The Weapons.ini alone is over 1300 lines of config).

Once complete I'll release all of them in one big bang which I'm working to have out in the next day or two.

Will we hear any updates on the new version for WOTC?

Awesome to hear the good news, absolutely love this mod, can't wait!

Just had awesome subscriber gift me the DLC so that I can get these mods updated. You can thank, reCLUsive7 for his sponsorship of the update of these mods. What a crazy cool XCOM gamers community we have!

An additional shout out goes to Spartan A291 and Force2reckon for their generous offers to pick up the DLC for the cause as well.

I expect to get WOTC compatible version of this mod within the next 2 weeks.

Ty for the responce.

Sorry for the slow response guys to the comments. I haven't gotten the DLC yet and so I don't have an update out for it.

You really need to use this one at the beginning of a new save. You can have it after the fact but since your base's stats are burned into the save it's likely my mod will over written on the save load.

@Caliell, DefaultGameCore.ini, DefaultGameData.ini for the better start, DefaultGameData_WeaponData.ini for arsenal, DefaultGameData_CharacterStats.ini for better rookie

does anybody know the name and location of ini file for personal modification of this mod?

Does this mod work with current saves or already started campaigns?

Got a Crash on WOTC during story mission with Reapers and other faction meet up.

Can confirm, works with WOTC, no bugs, glitches, or otherwise "unfortunate" side effects as of yet. Also, to ruin my own respectability. Dolla Dolla bills, Ya'll.

Seems to work with WOTC

But I like going in with more than 6 people. :(
Oh well. If it can't be helped then I guess I will have to suffer with long war, which supports more than 6 per team.
Thanks for the Mod though. Starting is so much less tedious with this.

need better Start for WOTC

Use A Better Start for LW2... it works with vanila and it doesn't mess with the squad size for this reason.

I was wondering if you knew a way to fix the UI in the mission prep screen when I have more than 6 soldiers going on a mission. Currently I can't actually select or even see who the seventh person in the squad is.