I'm not sure about the early chryssalids, if you have a flashbang they can't do anything but if you don't have one their huge mobility and defence can reck low aim soldiers.

Early game balance seems quite off, especially with larger pod size. 4 25 defense+dodge lids or those damn shield lancers and heavies just screw you so bad, there's way too much bullet sponginess in a lot of the things. /rant
I've modded the game way too much beside your mod to actually make a useful statement about the balance. I really love the variety, though it is often frustrating.

Yes, the different mods clicking together is a major problem the player community faces at the moment. Makes balancing a mod hell - i can't just balance around everyone using IESS+, i have to use vanilla as a baseline.

This may very well lead to me having to modify the pod sizes and spawns myself, but that's a rabbit hole i am not willing to go down quite yet.

The frequency of shotgun wielding troopers is concerning. Most situations that involve them seem to result in troopers getting one shot by a suicidal advent trooper from behind cover. Other than having to deal with the AI's shottie bumrushing I'm very satisfied with the variation of enemies presented. The mod has caused many a failed campaign.

There is now a Settings.ini in the mod folder that you can use to tweak damage and range of shotguns. Maybe try finding values there that work better for you.

A problem I'm having and I think it is this mod, is it seems for me that the pods are not spread apart enough.

I had a mission where I was suppose to hack the terminal and with looking at the shadow room there were 13 enemies and when I reached the area to hack the terminal all 13 enemies were surrounding the area, along with two roof turrets.

Heres a picture of it:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=712432841

Even though this only sows 7, when I went loud there was another pod behind the building.

This isn't the first mission where this occured... I'm almost thinking of maybe ditching this playthough since it is getting rediculous how much enemies are congested together.

Mod List:

After Action - Days Wounded
Cost Based Ability Colors
Numeric Health Display
Advent Armour
Additional Dark Events
Additional Mission Types
Blackmarket Usage
Configurable Protect Device
DeadPool VoicePack
Evac All
Full Character Cuztomization
Gotcha (Flank Preview)
Lifetime Stats
Mission Time Remaining
More Maps Pack
More Squad Size Upgrades
More Squad Size Upgrades
Muton Centurion Alien Pack
New Countries
Overwatch All/Others
Perfect Information
Rogue Class Mod
SMG Pack
Show Enemeis on Mission Plan
Soldier Fatigue
Stop Wasting my Time
Tech Tree
Trooper - Custom Class Mod
True Concealment
XCOM International Voices Pack
Sword Rebalance
A Better Advent
Grimy's Loot Mod
Mod Everything
Lucubrations Infantry Class
Mission Award Variety
Expanded Mission Names
Grimy's Loot Mod - Alien Rulers
Japance Voice Pack
Skyranger Olive Drab
AWC Squadsight Fix
Ravenmores Digital Camo Pack
Restrict Rulers
Field Medic Class

I don't see how ABA should cause that. Even with the Better Pods plugin, which you don't even run, i am not editing anything about pod spacing in any of my mods.

Originally posted by DerBK:

I don't see how ABA should cause that. Even with the Better Pods plugin, which you don't even run, i am not editing anything about pod spacing in any of my mods.

Well, I'm not sure what it could be then?

A thing I noticed where it seems to occur the most would be the missions in the Additional MIssion Types... I get the reinforcements okay, but it just for me seems to have all the pods in the same exact area.

How does your better pods work anyways, does that make the pods better, or just be like increased enemy size where the pods are bigger?

The primary function of Better Pods is just making them bigger. But instead of a flat +1 or +2 like IESS does, it's a scaling bonus to pod size, starting low and ramping up over time.

It also does some other things, like preventing rulers from spawning in Council missions, providing additional civvies during Terror missions and adding ABA enemies to scripted encounters.