XCOM 2
Multiple Covert Actions
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
-bg-  [developer] 12 Oct, 2017 @ 12:22am
Share your balance config for Vanilla here!
Since vanilla configs are balanced around having only 1 covert action at a time, this mod is totally not balanced for it. But since there's no other overhauls that make use and balance around multiple covert actions yet, we can discuss and share your config here for others to play with.

My own input:

Since the default config lets you still only have 1 action early game but more action late game. A place to start is to reduce the effectiveness of engineer speeding up the covert actions, as with 3 actions its effect is essentially tripled, lowering from 33% to 15%.

In addition, there are some covert actions that is clearly better than other covert actions in different parts of the game, by tweaking the duration we can make those covert actions as attractive as the essential ones. So stuff like increase region income which is very underwhelming throughout the game (just about as much as an average retaliation mission?) can preserve its duration, while things like reducing avatar progress or finding facility lead which is almost an auto pick every time should have its duration increased between 200% to 250%.

Recruit faction soldier/engineer/scientist/new resistance contact also have enough impact that it warrants an increase between 150% to 200% in duration.

Then there's gather supplies which is also already a pretty big time investment for the low amount of supplies it generates, it should at most increase between 50% to 100% in duration. However gather intel do provide a decent amount of intel, so it should increase in 100% to 150% in duration instead.

Rescue soldier should only need an increase between 50% to 100% in duration as it can happen early game and you need to deploy a real mission for it anyways.

Stuff like improve soldier bonds, improve combat intelligence, recover alien loot, and manufacture weapon upgrade is kind of good but you wouldn't choose them until you are stacking late game soldiers so they can have a smaller duration increase of 50% to 100%.

While new resistance orders, and research breakthrough do quickly become auto-picks when it rolls a good choice, so an increase of 150% to 200% is needed to make them a tougher choice.

Fabricate PCS should have a 100% to 150% increase due to how rare superior PCS are although they are not very crucial before the very late game.

Gain ability points should also see a 100% to 150% increase with the amount of AP it gives, which is enough for 2 normal abilities or 1 high ranking ability.

For story related covert actions, find faction should have the same amount of time taken as you need them to upgrade your max covert actions, with the following actions duration increased between 100% to 200%.

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Showing 1-5 of 5 comments
Ethan 24 Feb, 2018 @ 4:30pm 
Hi, are all these already implemented? I tried this mod and it's fast becoming my promotion grinder machine for my almost promoted soldiers. It's really effective when paired with 'Show me the XP' mod.

I agree with the engineer nerf on the duration time.
-bg-  [developer] 24 Feb, 2018 @ 7:27pm 
nope, it's just suggestions which you can change yourself in XComGameBoard.ini
d09smeehan <MHN> 2 Mar, 2018 @ 12:42pm 
I'd personally be happy for this all being implemented in by default. Though to be fair that's partly because I'm incredibly lazy...
Jeryl 28 Aug, 2018 @ 9:33am 
I like all of the above.
Another approach could be to limit through costs.

Something like having to pay 20 Intel or 50 supply for the second Covert (first one free), or perhaps additional Coverts have incrementally increasing risks (with Capture becoming more likely, more people required on the additional Coverts, or even the whole mission having X% to fail completely)
Dorante 9 Nov, 2018 @ 4:35pm 
Mmmh i have to say i don't really value the covert ops as you do. For example, yes i think reduce avatar progress is good and all, but i don't value facility lead as much. As long as i have a few of them in my inventory for emergency sake it's all fine and dandy. Increase region income, however, is a different story. It's extreme priority for me in the early game, so that i don't end up with a negative income since i can't completely counter the chosen crackdowns, while providing a small boost to money which, piling up one after the other, will bring me a ton more over time. Think of it like an investment. For example, right now in my campaign (legendary, ironman, no blacksite yet, 2/3 chosen killed, plasma weps, lots of max rank soldiers and 100 elerium short for last tier armor) i have over 1k month income. That's a bit too much, yeah i admit it, but that's cause i kept spamming the increase income while contacting regions and setting up relays xD
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