XCOM 2
Wygg's Chaos Arcade
Wygg  [developer] 27 Nov, 2022 @ 5:15pm
General Chatter - Suggestions, Corrections, Questions go here
Find some tasty mods to add to this set? Notice a mod in the set that's likely to cause problems? Maybe you had a crash and want to tell us about it so we can track it down and fix it. Or perhaps something insane happened in your playthrough and you want to tell us about it. That's what this discussion is for.
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Showing 1-15 of 20 comments
Wygg  [developer] 27 Nov, 2022 @ 5:26pm 
So, a few nitpicks that I can't fit in the main description.

1. Templar pistol animations are a bit screwey. Not fixed yet.

2. There's some lurking duplicate of the Tempest Gauntlets that needs removing.

3. Frost Droid Pistols and Fanatic Pistols have bad descriptions though they still work.

4. A mission will crash about 1 out of 200 times on start. It happens so rarely I can't nail it down because I can't collect enough testing data to zero in on what those crashes have in common. If you run into that mission, just take the loss and skip it - or load a save from before that mission spawned, odds are it'll work fine the second time. Make a special campaign checkpoint save at the end of every month and you'll be fine. I suspect it's due to some enemy spawing issue. I'm sure it's not sitrep or mission-type causing it. I'd love your launch.log file if you run into it, toss it up on pastebin along with the mission type, force level, sitreps, and baddies present if you have the shadow chamber.

Finally nailed it down, this one was a surprise. I'd bet this is the reason for most map pack failures we put up with. It's due to a bad array in fx_billboards provided by the Maps & Parcels fix. Instructions on fixing this once and for all are now in the config ini thread.

5. There are a tiny number of animation issues - flame vipers T-Pose when binding enemies, that sort of thing. Nothing that should affect a playthrough. Not much I can do about those problems other than wait for mod authors or patches.

6. As maps fill up with enemies and bodies, performance goes down. I've got spawn limiters to keep that under control, so eventually reinforcements and lost swarms will stop spawning until the active enemy count drops. There are combinations of sitreps (such as Lost plus Chryssalid) that don't honor those limits, so best evac before it gets too crashy if that happens - though it's great for farming Chryssalid corpses.

7. At times, the game won't quite display the location of enemies correctly. This leads to things like Lost swatting at enemies that appear to be five tiles away. They really aren't, the Lost are right next to them, which you can see for yourself by saving and then loading that mission which will correct the positioning problems and put everything where it actually is. I'm not sure why this happens, it's just an annoyance and it's fairly rare anyway.

8. I've just about given up on getting perfect cosmetics on newly spawned soldiers in this game regardless of the mods being used. It's as stable as I know how to make it, and Unrestricted Customization Redux is not included in this set because it makes a gargantuan mess out of the cosmetics. It's a problem I'm simply done dealing with - I don't like my soldiers looking like a Muton dragged them through a flea market, part of the reason I have only the most basic cosmetics in the collection. If you know how to truly tame XCOM's cosmetics I'd love to hear how to do it. If you want to use UCR yourself, it is compatible with this collection so you can add it without issues.

9. Dynamic Enemy Creation is NOT compatible with this set, something about the perks and abilities it adds randomly to enemies as force levels rise causes hard crashes on mission launches around FL5-7 and it will result in an unfinishable campaign. Pity too, that mod is excellent and I'd like to have it in here. Not saying it's an unstable mod, just that it's got some bad mojo with something else I'm using and I'm not sure what that is yet...

10. I'd love to add Coil and Laser to this set for a full six tier system (as well as EU Aim Rolls which also breaks things at present). Making that work with Weapon and Item Overhaul (critical to rebalance resource costs for all the buildable items) is no simple thing. A patch to make Weapon and Item Overhaul merge with Iridar's Five Tier Weapon Overhaul is probably the best way to go, but that's a bit above my modding pay grade. FTWO makes a right mess out of the weapons and their default values are much too weak for the modded enemies, it's balanced for vanilla. I love it, but it's just not compatible right now. Fixed by A Better Weaponry.

11. Speaking of balance, Weapon & Item Overhaul sets the prices on standard game stuff much lower to compensate for the single build system. Other mod-added items that aren't covered by WIO do not have this cost reduction - they remain comparably expensive. Since most of them are more powerful than the base game items it seems a reasonable enough tradeoff to me. Later in the game when more resources are more easily attainable it's easy enough to build them anyway, so it's not a problem I feel a pressing need to fix.

12. Something is up with the Squad Select screen. Once in a while, one and only one of the soldiers just plain won't have the proper panel display. Back out of Squad Select and then go back into Squad Select and it's always just fine again. No idea what is causing it, but it's easy enough to work around.

13. At some point I need to make a gluestick mod that irons out some kinks in which classes here get to use which items and weapons. As it is now things are functional, but not optimal. I will probably add Tactical Gadget Slots, Grapple Guns, and some other toys when I get around to it. I expect I'll put all of my custom configs for the loaded mods into it as well just to get the config for the whole collection in one single place and make it less prone to resets when authors update their mods. That will make subbing to all of this much easier. A problem for after the collection is finalized. Mostly solved by True Utility Slot Sidearms, need another custom ini to fix secondary weapon slot and sidearm slot item availability for some of the classes - until then, just put the items you want into the utility slots. The custom config for open slot weapon restrictions in the ini thread solves the rest of the problems.

14. Quick Soldier Info is not included here on purpose - that mod is a pure performance killer which causes occasional camera issues and crashes. I don't need that handy soldier display that badly, sorry. I am not afraid to use the Tab key. :P Fixed by Select Soldier Icons.

15. I have not tested this collection *at all* with joysticks. I think it'll work, all the mods for drop down lists are here, but I don't game with a controller so I've not been able to test it myself. If you use a controller, let me know - how well does it work, are there mods I can toss in or remove that would make it better?

I think that's it. Everything else works great. Have fun storming the strongholds. :)
Last edited by Wygg; 9 Dec, 2022 @ 7:21am
I've been keeping an eye on this collection since it hits a lot of notes I like for mod packs. Considering using it after I finish some of my own projects.

Regarding 14.

Consider using Select Soldier Icon instead. ( https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=630391471 )

I've not noticed any performance issues with it myself and it works just fine in WOTC.
the_stooge56 28 Nov, 2022 @ 6:28am 
Question; is Assault Infantry not being able to equip any melee weapons on secondary a bug or is that intended?

All of the weapons are listed as "Ranger Only".
Wygg  [developer] 28 Nov, 2022 @ 10:38am 
@Tzarnal Thanks for the suggestion, that looks like a fine and simpler replacement for Quick Soldier Info and I will include it in the set straight away. <3

@the_stooge56 The equipping issues are more a lack of proper integration between the item mods and a couple of the new classes than an actual bug. It's *really* bad for dark classes such as the dark templar. It will require a patch to add the mod added weapons to the available weapons for the soldier classes that aren't picking things up properly. I do remember some mods out there that solve the problem by letting everything be equipped by everyone, that might be a better way to go since it'll solve the problem going forward for any other classes people want to add to the collection for their own campaigns. I'll hunt around and see if I can find them again. I remember using them back when this set was based on Chimera classes last year before I published it. I want all of the melee weapons to be open to the secondary weapon slot for every class, that should make for some interesting equipment choices.
Last edited by Wygg; 28 Nov, 2022 @ 11:20am
Wygg  [developer] 28 Nov, 2022 @ 11:05am 
@the_stooge56 Iridar to the rescue yet again. It looks like True Utility Slot Sidearms will suffice as a workaround for now. It should allow Pistols, Swords, and some of the other weapons to equip to utility slots on any soldiers regardless of what mod added that soldier. It also does it without duplicating the items in the background, which is a very bad thing for collection stability. I know this mod works as I've used it before, and Iridar is an ace modder so this is probably the best solution. It specifically supports Covert Infiltration and Prototype Armory, too. I'll add it to the set. A custom ini for it or its dependencies should be able to glue everything together even better, I'll look into that sometime.

I do expect some wonky animation issues will appear if/when classes use weapons they haven't been given animations for yet, but those visual blips should not actually break anything. It's safe to add mid-campaign according to the description, and I already had all of the dependencies present. I think I'll toss in Iridar's Sawed Off Shotgun Overhaul as well. The original shotties were a bit OP, that should balance them better and allow new classes to use them too.
Last edited by Wygg; 28 Nov, 2022 @ 1:10pm
Wygg  [developer] 28 Nov, 2022 @ 11:14am 
Also, I must be an idiot regarding #10. I completely forgot DerBK's A Better Weaponry exists. It's a full weapon rebalance adding Laser, Pulse, Prototype Plasma, and Coil weapons that is built to work with Weapon & Item Overhaul and Proving Ground Overhaul. That's more weapon tiers and a slight buff in damage across the board which will help with all the modded enemies and armor/cover. I'm not adding it to the collection until my next playthrough, I need to doublecheck that it meshes well with all the other weapon mods first. It will probably be fine.

Don't add this if you are already playing through the mod set without doing the cleanup shuffle and starting a new campaign. It will absolutely require a cleanup to integrate properly because of the changes to research and base items. Best to always assume the cleanup shuffle is necessary unless the mod author specifically tells us that it's safe to add in the middle of a playthrough.
Last edited by Wygg; 28 Nov, 2022 @ 11:31am
Wygg  [developer] 28 Nov, 2022 @ 1:49pm 
Tossing in a batch of new mods to the collection that should add some more interesting gameplay options. I'm starting a new campaign to put A Better Weaponry to the test, we'll see how it goes.
Wygg  [developer] 28 Nov, 2022 @ 4:17pm 
So far it's running well and A Better Weaponry seems to be working just fine.

Select Soldier Icons needs a bit of ini tweaking to get it into the right position on the screen, though. The defaults put it over top of the soldier names, and since other mods in this set lead to a more dynamic set of UI elements that aren't always the same size, moving it over to the center right side of the screen works best for me. Here's the .ini I'm using to do that.

[SoldierSelectIcons.UISoldierSelectIcons]
;Align icons to the top of screen or bottom
AnchorTop=true
;Align icons to the left of screen or right
AnchorLeft=false
;Stack icons vertically or horizontally
Vertically=true
;Horizontal indent
IndentX=5
;Vertical indent
IndentY=350
;Distance between icons
IconsDelta=50
;Size of icons
IconSize=36
;Max icons to display
MaxIcons=16
;Show tooltips with soldier names
ShowTooltip=true

Select Soldier Icons could do with a little update. Looks like it's so old it actually predates the mod config menu, it'd be a lot easier to edit the config that way rather than through the ini file. It's a fantastic mod, though - no performance impact at all and I find it easier to select based on the class icons than the portraits in QSI.
Last edited by Wygg; 30 Nov, 2022 @ 1:28pm
Wygg  [developer] 28 Nov, 2022 @ 5:51pm 
I'm satisfied, I forgot how excellent ABW is, haven't used it in over a year. It's just perfect for this collection and I'm adding it in. Consider #10 solved and then some... technically we have 8 tiers now which is borderline overkill. Start - Mag - Laser - Pulse - Prototype Plasma - Coil - Blue Plasma and some uniques that are even above that.

The duplicate Templar gauntlets seem to be history now as well, guessing that was one of Iridar's mods cleaning up a mess in the background.
Last edited by Wygg; 28 Nov, 2022 @ 5:52pm
Tzarnal - MoonWolf 28 Nov, 2022 @ 11:52pm 
I'm glad to hear it.

Select Soldier Icons is indeed ancient and honestly the fact that it still works is a miracle. But it does, I guess its the benefit of just being very simple.
the_stooge56 29 Nov, 2022 @ 1:05am 
Awesome, gonna load in the new additions and see how it goes. Thanks for the quick update!
Wygg  [developer] 29 Nov, 2022 @ 9:44am 
My pleasure, and thanks for taking the time to check out the collection.
Wygg  [developer] 30 Nov, 2022 @ 1:32am 
The Chaos Arcade TODO List

Or, basically everything that would get put into a massive gluestick mod to make all of this work better together. These are the mods that you'll want to look at configuring to change how the collection plays. Sometime I may actually make a mod to implement all of this so the collection can become a 1-click subscribe affair, and a one-ini config affair. That's not happening soon, but since I was vetting the mod list I figured I'd make note of the soft points and the things that could do with some modification so that anyone using this collection doesn't have to figure out all of this for themselves.

1. EU Aim Rolls

Not compatible at present, integrate it if at all possible, and if so, remember to remove High Ground Gives Defense

compatible now, quick config change added to ini discussion

2. Alternate Utility Covert Action Loot for Covert Infiltration

Default loot is weak sauce for this mod collection, needs more variety and some rares

custom ini added to fix this

3. Restrict Weapon Upgrades

Because I'm sure there's a truckload of upgrades capable of being applied to items they shouldn't be - including the Gremlins?

4. ADVENT Unit Promotions AND Random Loadout Manager

Because we want to give Advent soldiers more weapons / ammo types

5. Build-A-Dark-Event WOTC

Just in case we want more dark events tailored to newly added enemies

6. Random Ability Deck Patcher

Adjust the various Proficiency Class Decks' XCOM row if it's necessary for some reason

7. EU Style Strategy Pacing

Required removal of some of the config to make compatible with CI's spawning system (crash risk if not removed) and ALSO Delete the Force Level Changes to stay compatible with Variable Force Level Increase... or maybe we just ditch this mod, review

Quoth the author: "MissionDecks in XComGameState_MissionCalendar, which in a vanilla game the game does a variety of missions averaged out for about 8 days of free time between missions. (Though obviously there's periods where it seems like everything happens over three days and then you got times where it actually takes a bit before something pops up on the Geoscape) The extended length the mod provides ups that to about 11 and a half days of free time. However, if you're using a mod like Covert Infiltration or LWOTC, you need to delete these changes in the mod's XComGameData.ini - it'll mess up how those mods overhaul how missions are spawned."

dropped the mod as it turned out to be redundant anyway

8. Visibility Condition Bandaid For Rapid Fire And Friends

WTFEver ability it is that's causing melee attacks to lag sometimes might be fixable with this

the issue is as fixed as it can get without a base game patch

9. Item Hider by Iridar

Find a way to hide that bloody awful TLP weapons clutter without forcibly checking everything

config lines added to the ini thread to remove TLP clutter and Droid/Fanatic pistols

10. Repurpose Abilities

The Ambush ability needs to be added to ALL classes that are Stealthy so they can ambush effectively from concealment, hi Marksman

11. Soldier Select Icons

Include a config to get the icon bar properly set up on the right side with more icons

config ini added to the other thread

12. Lily's Facilities: Starting Base

If desired can set up facilities at game start, defaults to just GTS

13. Soldier Conditioning

Custom config with more reasonable will/aim rewards and stat caps

config ini added to the other thread

14. Tygan's Tech: Starting Research

Can be used to start with any completed research desired, perhaps mod-added tech as well, defaults to just 2

15. Combined Workshop and Laboratory

Tweak costs, boost supplies per engineer, move some projects from the Proving Ground over to the queue in this room so the proving ground can do other things, perhaps ammo or grenade

16. Dual Wield Melee

May be necessary to add some Proficiency classes here so they animate properly when dual wielding swords

17. Proficiency Plugin: Full Class Decks

Should be possible to adjust class decks with this if necessary

18. Open Class Weapon Restrictions

Use this to fix availability of mod-added weapons to various proficiency classes, should be able to get them all - particularly the secondary weapon slots for most mod added classes. Utility slots aren't an issue thanks to other mods solving it already.

custom config added to the ini thread for the OCWR Config mod

19. Factions' Favor: Starting Faction Heroes

Change default config to include one of each Hero, add Sparks, set to work with Proficiency Class Heroes instead of base game classes

new config is up in the ini thread

20. Infinite Starting Items

Investigate using this to get infinite Ultrasonic Lures and Battle Scanners once unlocked and perhaps some other appropriate mod-added items once they are researched.

nope - this mod exposes nothing to config, so it can't be changed

21. UI - Colored Ammo Bar

Include custom config to get ALL the ammo added, people are off to a great start in the comments: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/1949300408/2632849816276158742/

added custom ini to the other thread

22. Enemy Level Ratings

Either get the modded enemies added or perhaps ditch this mod as it's just cosmetic
not worth the extra work and it's mildly immersion-breaking, so the mod has been dropped

23. ADVENT Armor: Reverse-Engineering

Tweak stats to make them more viable towards late game when compared to all the mod-added armors in this collection, make buildable for 3-5 corpses of the various types, tweak detection radius to 1-3 tiles max, give a much more massive bonus to infiltration times (8 hours at least), possibly add other abilities to the armors.

This one is not going to be easy. It'll require using other mods to copy the armors with changed stats applies and custom proving ground projects to upgrade them into those new versions. However, since all of the various armor mods do expose all of the settings of those armors to configuration, it seems to be possible.

24. The Hive More

Delete the mission that conflicts with CI, and perhaps disable those damn helmets

instructions for disabling the mission are now in the ini thread, and helmets are now disabled appearing on soldiers by No More Invisible Heads On Randoms, the mod author added the helmets to the mod's own default blacklist so no custom config is necessary to disable them

25. Militia Overhaul Plus Plus 2022

Un-gimp the militia so they are worth having on a hard fight, possibly by allowing Random Loadout Manager to apply to Militia units. It does seem like it would work, but it'll require building loadouts to apply to those units. The mod ADVENT Unit Promotions is a good example of how to do this, however the config is rather obtuse.

custom ini added to buff them a bit and improve survivability

26. More Faction Heroes Per Faction

Might get into trouble upping this past the default 3/3/3 but it does control how many one can recruit in total

27. Rustys Recruits Redux

Reduce recruit availability to encourage rookie POI scanning and CI missions to breakout soldiers

28. ADVENT Reinforcements

Set default trigger for an Officer to call a dropship to 5 or less units on map including him

29. AP Farming

Generate custom config and boost the incoming AP rate slightly, much bigger bonuses for killing Chosen. Need to add some new enemies with big AP rewards, particularly mod-added lage-game stuff, start with the expanded one posted in the comments that's up on pastebin

custom ini added to the ini thread

30. Poisonous Lost

Bump base poison chance from 25% to 33%

31. No Invisible Heads On Randoms

Track down remaining invis parts and other offending bits from various mods and ban them forever from soldier generation

32. Force Level Control

Vet which missions can drop the force level and by how much, might add new mission types

33. Armor Chance for Unarmored Units

Maybe bump the default 15% up to 20% or 25%, or scale with force level

34. Starting Spark

Three instead of one - we want one from each of the three proficiency classes

turns out this is a redundant mod, removed now - sparks added by Faction's Favor instead

35. Remote Start Purifiers

Expand this to be triggered by other similar class abilities and to include modded enemies as targets, because it's fun to explode bad guys carrying a big bag of bombs

36. Core Room Slots

Bump power to +7, or perhaps do four slots (2 sci 2 eng) at +5 each instead
Make sure max time to form any bond is 1 day tops, or Possibly add 4 bond slots at 2 days instead of 2 slots.

editing instructions now in the ini thread, rest of settings can't be changed without a recompile

37. Rebuild Soldier

Set the slot to appear in GTS not Training so we start with it

instructions in the ini thread

38. Expanded Enemies Plus

Check if Rain's Rebalance Enemies makes this mod redundant and if so, remove it

it seems rain's mods already incorporate this and much more, so it's redundant, removed

39. Facilities+

Look into making most rooms use both scientists and engineers instead of one or the other, possibly increase slots to six for any rooms still at 4

default config for this mod is just fine, no changes needed - and most of the good stuff can't be changed by config in this mod anyway, as it seems for most Avenger mods

40. Overflow Ability Points

Buff the inflow of AP just a bit

41. Melee Lost Headshots AND Ability Lost Headshots

Need to add a boatload of mod-added abilities to these configs so that any way you kill a lost, it's a headshot (minus explosives) because zombies are there just to deplete ammo and harass advent in this collection

42. Tactical Gadget Slot

Surely there are some mod added items that go well with light armors

43. Cooldowns Instead of Charges

Drop the default times on some of the cooldowns

actually, the longer times work out rather well, default config is just fine

44. Free Carry Drop Subdue

Tweak ini so that out-of-action soldiers can't use this

Well that was fun. If you are still reading this, you play far too much XCOM. :P

REPLACEMENTS to get vetted

Unique Stats for All Units (might replace several other mods to get reliable randomness with less crash risks)

TODO

-adjust the times certain operations in the Avenger take (Psi Grading to 1 day, Soldier conditioning max 2 days, All bonding for all Bond levels 1 day max, slight reduction in GTS training times and reclassing)
-find a way tp weight Avenger-themed breakthroughs to spawn more heavily in early game, sucks to research them after avenger rooms are already built
-fix research breakthroughs so they aren't always queue-jamming and taking 5 days regardless of your team of ten world class scientists
-find a way to abbreviate the class names so the class count doesn't go completely off the screen and then add more classes so it still goes off the screen. perhaps two rows?
-add the dark classes and perhaps prof. class irregulars to the list of classes that can be rewarded by various CI missions config for Rescue Missions added to inis
-check the Nexus for CI-based mods that aren't on Steam yet, because more missions is always a good thing

WISHLIST

Mods I wish I had in this set but have never seen...

1. GREATcrasher - prison/supply depot, option to rescue configurable number of soldier, scientist, engineer (up to max number of prison cells on the map) and have some standard Resources available to steal, perhaps even a SPARK or two, would be far more immersive than skipping Gatecrasher completely and starting with 1/1/1 heroes and 3 sparks
2. Just plain rebuild 'hacking' from the ground up with all new everything, it's far too boring - just look at what IronLordByron's Resistance Order Overhaul does for the otherwise dull resistance orders and imagine that for hacking/rewards. May as well toss in Gremlin upgrades since we already have the slots for them.
3. A 'Mighty Avenger' mod to normalize and include all possible rooms and get one config for the entire ship. It's a bit too slapdash as is even though it does work. :P
4. Anything to make Defense Matrix serve a purpose, and possibly apply tiered weapon research to the Turrets and throw a little party for advent... and where are our grenade lobbing and missile firing turrets, anyway? Might spice up those trains a bit.

Once I get started on all the configs I'll create and pin a new thread just for all of the .ini file changes. Sometime this week I think.
Last edited by Wygg; 2 Dec, 2022 @ 10:00pm
Some thoughts to add on to that.

7.

EU Style's strategy pacing's alert rating component is already covered by how CI spawns missions. That leaves its changes to force level development ( and the variability of them ) as the big thing its accomplishing and you are already covering that with Variable Force Level increase. If you still find that too fast making its force level increases slower is a trivial ini edit.

8.

The melee attack pause bug is long standing and known and frustrating us all. Its also not fixable. I've talked to people including highlander developers about this. Some have decent of ideas of what is probably causing it but we can't fix it. Mods just make it worse because we're pretty sure more units on the map with more complex states in general make it worse.

22.

Its a neat idea but i'd disable it anyway when i have time to play this pack.

24.

Definitly disable the helmets.

25.

At the very least bump up those aim scores so their tiny damage values actually get to apply.

30.

There is a slight bug with this and world war L that sometimes causes things that die from poison to come back to life as invisible zombies. Might want to at least write that down as a known issue.

32.

I agree that campaigns should be long, if only to give people access to the corpses they need to get all the fancy toys. But at the same time it should not be possible to keep the force level low forever. So keep that in mind when adding missions here.

40.

Also covering AP stuff in general. I agree that getting AP from killing valuable enemies or accomplishing certain objectives is more fun than just getting some. But I'd add you'd probably be better off improving the AP gains from Soldier Development for excellent and flawless missions scores is a more engaging way to "farm" AP. Just getting AP because you took max level units to missions is the least engaging way to get rewarded.

Regarding Unique Stats for All Units and also just unit variability in general. [WOTC] Advent Not Created Equal: Community Edition does not cover every enemy mod ever made but it sure does cover a lot of them. that might be an option if a hodgepodge if unique stats and random armor do not work as desired. Combined with ( possibly toned down ) Tesla Loot Mod - for Advent that should be a pretty comprehensive randomization of most enemies.
Wygg  [developer] 30 Nov, 2022 @ 1:26pm 
Wish I'd known that melee hang was a long standing base game issue, I've been thinking it was a mod conflict for a long time and never been able to pin it down - just that it gets worse with more mods as you said. Oh well, at least now I know why I couldn't resolve the issue. :P

Thanks again for the feedback, it'll keep it in mind when building the tweaks, it's good advice.
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