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XCOM 2 >  Workshop > Pavonis Interactive's Workshop > Long War Alien Pack > Discussions
Long War Alien Pack
Description Discussions33 Comments950 Change Notes
Pavonis Interactive  [developer] 6 Aug, 2016 @ 6:35pm
AlienPack DIY Modding HowTo
If you want to change alien stats, change whent they appear, or eliminate them entirely from the mod, it's not too hard. Use a text editor like Notepad++ and find the mod's config files. For Workshop downloads, drill down to

... Steam\SteamApps\workshop\content\268500\

which is where XCOM workshop mods are located. Search for the AlienPack mod. Go to the config directory, and open up XComGamedata_CharacterStats.ini

(If it's all one blob of text, you are probably using Windows notepad. Download Notepad++ or a similar, better text editor.)

Each enemy's stats are present there, along with mods for each difficulty level.

Under each enemy's entry, you'll find three lines that look like this

+LeaderLevelSpawnWeights=(MinForceLevel=8, MaxForceLevel=14, SpawnWeight=19, MaxAlertSpawnWeight=24)
+FollowerLevelSpawnWeights=(MinForceLevel=12, MaxForceLevel=20, SpawnWeight=19, MaxAlertSpawnWeight=24)
+UntetheredLeaderLevelSpawnWeights=(MinForceLevel=12, MaxForceLevel=20, SpawnWeight=19, MaxAlertSpawnWeight=24)

ForceLevels in XCOM2 range from 1 to 20 and they slowly increase during the campaign. The entries above determine at what point in the campaign an enemy shows up. Raising these numbers will make it show up later. Raising it to 99 will make it not show up at all.

SpawnWeights involve the likelihood of the enemy showing up relative to other enemies.

So, for example, one could put the AdvGunnerM1 (the first of the three gunner variants) to first spawn as a leader at force level 4 and a follower at 8.) Or get rid of the Greater Archon (ArchonM2_LW) by setting its force levels all to 99.

Alien/ADVENT colors for many units can be set in the file XComLW_AlienVariations.

IMPORTANT: After making changes, you should make backups copies of the files you have edited. Any changes you make will be overwritten by default settings if we update the mod. (Although updates may change the same files you have edited, so you may have to diff our changes against yours anyway.)
Last edited by Pavonis Interactive; 7 Aug, 2016 @ 7:46am
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Showing 1-15 of 55 comments
MrShadow 6 Aug, 2016 @ 7:47pm 
Thank you for this!
#1
Lago 7 Aug, 2016 @ 2:29am 
Default force levels for the existing units (figured they'd be helpful):

ADVENT Trooper (M1): Leader 1 - 6, Follower 1 - 6
Advanced Trooper (M2): Follower 7 - 12
Elite Trooper (M3): Follower 13 - 20

ADVENT Captain (M1): Leader 1 - 7
Advanced Captain (M2): Leader 8 - 13
Elite Captain (M3): Leader 14 - 20

ADVENT Shieldbearer (M2) - Follower 8 - 13
Advanced Shieldbearer (M3) - Follower 14 - 20

Stun Lancer (M1): Follower 3 - 9
Heavy Lancer (M2): Follower 10 - 15
Elite Lancer (M3) - Follower 16 - 20

Sectoid: Leader 1 - 8, Follower 7 - 20
Viper: Leader 4 - 10, Follower 8 - 20
Muton: Leader 6 - 12, Follower 10 - 20
Berserker: Leader 7 - 20, Follower 17 - 20
Codex: Leader 7 - 12, Follower 10 - 20
Archon: Leader 11 - 20, Follower 17 - 20
Chrysallid: Leader 12 - 20, Follower 12 - 20
Andromedon: Leader 14 - 20
Gatekeeper: Leader 18 - 20

MEC M1: Leader 5 - 10, Follower 5 - 17
MEC M2: Leader: 12 -20, Follower 12 - 20
Sectopod: Leader 16 - 20


#2
Lago 7 Aug, 2016 @ 2:50am 
This means that by default:

- ADVENT Sentries appear from the start. upgrade at the same rate as ADVENT Troopers.
- ADVENT Gunners come in between Sectoids and Stun Lancers. Both Advanced and Elite Gunners come in at Force Level 6, just before ADVENT Troopers upgrade. (bug? That's what should be about Force Level 15 at Force Level 6.)
- ADVENT Grenadiers upgrade roughly alongside Lancers.
- ADVENT Rocketeers upgrade roughly alongside Lancers.

- Muton Centurions come in with Shieldbearers as they did before.
- Muton Elites and Sectoid Commanders come in with Chrysallids
- Najas and Sidewinders come in with Mark I MECs then all the snakes upgrade roughly with the ADVENT Captains
- Greater Archons come in just before Sectopods. Funnily enough they can be followers before regular Archons can.

- Drones are there from the start, then go to Mark II when Heavy Lancers arrive.
- Mark III MECs arrive with Sectopods.
- MEC Archers arrive with Berserkers, then Mark IIs arrive at with Andromedons.

- Chrysallid Soldiers arrive with Chrysallids.
- Hive Queens arrive with Gatekeepers.
#3
DAOWAce 7 Aug, 2016 @ 3:49am 
Thanks for the run down.

I've balanced the units out for their arrival time (increased many of them) and reduced their spawn frequency.

I've also disabled all the color variations of the ADVENT and MEC units.

Now to playtest and see which enemies are unbalanced and fit for removal. I really don't want to fight EXALT again, worst part of EW.
#4
Lago 7 Aug, 2016 @ 4:06am 
How did you go about disabling the colours? Because of the way it constructs units if you just delete it outright you get floating hybrid heads with guns. I've set the Gunners to grey and disabled the other ADVENT (apart from the black MEC M3 which is a nice fit) currently.
#5
DAOWAce 7 Aug, 2016 @ 7:03am 
I commented the color part out, but have yet to actually test it in ingame. Maybe I'll try a debug spawn just to be sure it's working before I actually play. Edit: Just getting regular troops in debug.. in fact most of my mods aren't working. Does it not support workshop mods? Maybe my config screwed up.

Up for sharing your edits mentioned on the mod page? Probably a lot better off than mine.
Last edited by DAOWAce; 7 Aug, 2016 @ 9:35am
#6
Lago 7 Aug, 2016 @ 1:24pm 
Short of putting the entire ini in a post I'm not sure how to upload it.
#7
DAOWAce 8 Aug, 2016 @ 5:27am 
http://pastebin.com

Register an account so you can edit what you paste, save yourself some hassle in future.
Last edited by DAOWAce; 8 Aug, 2016 @ 5:31am
#8
Dragon32 8 Aug, 2016 @ 11:59am 
@DAOWAce:
IIRC, pastebin pastes expire after a certain amount of time. Although I've never registered

@Lago:
You could just post it in a new Discussion thread here. Maybe one unique to your edits or a more general "user created INI edits" one.

@Long War Studios:
I'd like to edit the colours of the ADVENT units (preserve the black, red, white scheme)
These seem to be what I need to edit:
(ParameterName="TintColor", ColorValue=(R=0.05, G=0.06, B=0.01, A=1.0) )
(ParameterName="EmissiveColor", ColorValue=(R=0.00, G=0.80, B=0.2, A=1.0)

I get RGB and alpha. I assume that an R of 1 would be equivalent of 255 in a standard image editor.
I also assume that "TintColor" is the model's colour and "EmissiveColor" is that of any blinkenlights.

Am I right?
#9
Crazyduck 9 Aug, 2016 @ 11:32am 
@Long War Studios:
Can you enable different weapons for different enemy scales? AS of now you cant properly tweak the weapons, because you either gimp m3 enemies late damage or make early enemies way OP.
#10
DAOWAce 9 Aug, 2016 @ 12:17pm 
Originally posted by Dragon32:
@DAOWAce:
IIRC, pastebin pastes expire after a certain amount of time. Although I've never registered
I registered when I first found the site years ago and all my pastes are still there.

You can set an expiration for them if you want, and have them unlisted. I guess non-registered pastes expire, even though you can set it to never?

But sure, a new thread called "balance tweaks" or something would be fine too, I guess.
Last edited by DAOWAce; 9 Aug, 2016 @ 12:18pm
#11
Lady Steelheart 10 Aug, 2016 @ 1:18am 
Okay, so if I wanted to only let the Muton Centurion or Muton elite lead lesser Mutons, what would I edit?
#12
Lago 12 Aug, 2016 @ 3:40am 
Each unit has a list of eligible followers: you'd have to delete the Muton from all of them except the Centurion and the Bluton, including the base game. You won't see many Mutons that way though, so you might want to do the opposite for the Centurion and Bluton so they only have lesser Mutons with them. Remember to increase the Force Level for the Centurion to 10 (vanilla minimum force level for follower Mutons) if you do that, otherwise it'll turn up on its own at 8 and 9.
#13
NKS 13 Aug, 2016 @ 7:22am 
Looking at the stats im not quite sure which one effects damage, I can see there is an offense stat but I have no idea what that level is in proportion to actual damage in the game is. If the offense stat is completely unrelated to damage, is the damage of a unit only tied to its weapon? If so how do I change the weapon a unit spawns with (if it is possible ). Anyone know anything that could help me?
#14
Lady Steelheart 13 Aug, 2016 @ 11:28am 
Originally posted by Lago:
Each unit has a list of eligible followers: you'd have to delete the Muton from all of them except the Centurion and the Bluton, including the base game. You won't see many Mutons that way though, so you might want to do the opposite for the Centurion and Bluton so they only have lesser Mutons with them. Remember to increase the Force Level for the Centurion to 10 (vanilla minimum force level for follower Mutons) if you do that, otherwise it'll turn up on its own at 8 and 9.
Technically, That was what I meant. I only wanted for the Elite and Centurion to lead regular mutons instead of other enemy types. Thanks for telling me. I didn't want to try that and end up breaking the game.
#15
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