Let me spark some discussion by giving you a peek into my notebook with To-Do stuff:

- Cobra: Viper that poisons when it releases soldiers from Bind.
- Wyvern: Viper that has Firespit instead of Poisonspit
- Wrecker: Trooper that uses Demolition to destroy cover
- Executioner: Melee Trooper with Sword and Bladestorm
- Support: Trooper with Smoke Grenade
- Tech Commando: Shieldbearer with Gremlin drone, uses Aid and Heal Protocol
- Deathsphere: Gatekeeper without Zombie ability, but lots of lasers and maybe Micro-Missiles
- Snitch: Civilian that turns out to be an enemy, uses Trooper stats
- Snitch (2): Regular Civilian, but moves every turn

There's more in there, but let's keep some surprises ;)

Also... I'm not going to write as much as DerBK, I'm not good at making things sound nice, but I'd really like your input on the visual stuff that's added so far, or ideas about the future.

What did you people like? What didn't you? What would you change? Any ideas for units that are not changed (visually) yet, but are changed by the mod?

I can't promise I'll do (or even that I'm able to do) everything. I'm still learning how textures are used in the game. I still can't do any actual modelling work without loosing all animations for the unit, but I plan on fixing that soon (I hope).

Alright thanks for the forum so i can bombard you with ideas 24/7 without filling up the workshop page.
Now that i've been limited to simple ideas i've got some good ones

Sphere Doomer ( Gatekeeper ) Has only 20 health, but has Solace and 8 armor. If possible make it immune to all psionic damage and effects. Has 1 charge of micro missiles, but has lower mobility, aim, and a defense penalty. Focuses on high immunity to burst damage and immunity to armor peircing, forcing players to deal with its armor through shredding and it could make A.P rounds more viable. Appears rarely when compared to other Better ADVENT units.

ADVENT Shock-shot ( Stun Lancer ) Uses a pistol and a mag rifle, quickdrawing to damage your units and shock them. Does not carry a grenade. Pistol is a stun pistol, which has lower aim, but can inflict stunned and disoriented, This pistol has 1 less damage on shots.

Finally a slightly more insane idea:

ADVENT Recruiter ( Officer ) This unit can convert a citizen into a basic, advanced, or elite trooper depending on the recruiter's rank. This ability cannot be used if this unit is mind controlled. This unit only spawns in missions with civilians. It is similar to the idea of Snitches, except it creates snitches. It has no different stats, and carries a grenade. Convert has a 3 turn cooldown.

So are there any plans to use new models for Advent's advanced weaponry? I know that on Reddit for example people expressed displeasure at the reuse of XCOMs weapons by the enemy.

I know that there is a sizable portion of people who would appreciate a new model or two, even if it doesn't stop them from playing the mod in its current form.

The Cannon and Sniper Rifle Advent Captains are probably the most awkward looking.

It gives the mod a kind of "ghetto placeholder" feel which is out of place with the overall high quality IMO.

I don't have any modling experience so I can't really say what the easiest way to go about this would be, but the two paths I see that would be obvious are:

-Get permission from another modder to use their weapons

-Modify the models of existing weapons, Long War style

That's something that I'm really interested in doing, Makko. But I have to find out how to actually make skeletal meshes and attach them to units properly as well as modify existing units animations (they all use default animations so far that's why the cannon guy holds the cannon like it's a friggin' rifle).

I can make new models or modify existing ones from scratch. That's what I do in general I'm a 3d modeler. But I haven't got the slightest idea about animations and that's why I haven't messes with any models so far. I tried but I end up breaking the animations every time. Once I find a way to bypass or actually do these changes, then yes, new weapon models is on my list. But it'll take a long time, if it happens (not saying I'm not going to do it but maybe the interest for this mod dies before I'm able to).

To be clear. I CAN create new stuff or edit existing ones and I'd really love to do so. What I CAN'T do is add them to the game after I create/change them without breaking the enemies animations.

I was recommended to bring this to your attention after I released my mod “ADVENT Mag Pistol”. Following on from Makko's comment, I haven't used your mod yet but if you want or haven't used the ADVENT style pistol for your gunslingers, there is one in the default assets, archetype "WP_Pistol_MG.WP_Pistol_MG_Advent".
It's the one the Council Spokesman uses in his final cutscene.
If you want a quick look feel free to check out my mod =) https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=644722630

@KjcKiesh I've seen that one while looking through the editor. I don't know if DerBK uses that one or the normal one tho'.

I should start playing again I guess, instead of just modding to check out stuff like this

@Klesh:
Oh right, there's an Advent pistol in the files. Atheran mentioned that, but i forgot about it. I will probably use that thing, thanks for reminding me.

@Makko:
We'll get there. Personally, i am very much someone who values function over form, so i am giving priority to everything having to work mechanically. I also want to keep an eye on filesize for as long as i update weekly. I don't want to force 1.5GB downloads on you every Sunday.
Of course, that doesn't mean that i want to keep the mod in a "ghetto placeholder" state, i want it to be pretty :D Now that the mod nears a state where there's a good number of "meat" in it, i guess we can start including more models and textures. We'll see how much Atheran can do (he's already pouring a lot of time into this) and i'll think about if i want to ask other modders if we can use their resources.

@Flareon:
The sphere has too much going on for my taste. I am planning to do a Gatekeeper that doesn't raise dead, but just acts as an artillery platform already. Gatekeepers are kinda rare in the game anyways - i don't think i need to include many variations there.
The Stunlancer with a tazer instead of a baton is a cool idea. I could see that one appearing like that in the mod. I was going to figure out how to do a stun weapon for the Muton you proposed anyways, so this Lancer variation could piggyback on that.
The Recruiter is really interesting as well, but getting that ability to work correctly sounds like it's a huge pile of work... It's a great idea, but i don't think i want to put that much time into making and troubleshooting one ability.

Any way to shrink the sphere down to drone size and add in smaller 3 HP sphere drones that shoot like the old EU drones? Could even be a good complement unit to a new Advent Mec type.

And as I said before, a viper that has a light plasma rifle, spits and explodes into a poison cloud like the thin men used to. You can even use my idea and call it a Mamba.

Also any way to make a larger leader class viper (maybe all white and called a queen cobra) give her crazy HP and hard to kill but only ever encounter 1 on any mission. More of a outright boss character.

Would like to see a Archon commander too. Maybe black and gold and give it an ability to call in more Archons as reinforcements. Could use the idea like in the Asvent Captain reinforcement mod.

@Atheren... One suggestion I'd like to make as far as coloring on new classes is... As an example, the Elite Viper... Can you do reskins where the armor actually is colored like armor and not blends with the actual viper? Like the vanilla viper has the armor but it's not the same color as the viper itself. Can you still do this with the new classes or are you limited in whatever program you are using?

@Shadow79 I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. I can change the colours of the armour like I did with the firebreather last patch. And I'm pretty sure DerBK uses the actual viper model that's in the game. Or are you talking about the mod Elite Viper? If you're talking about the actual mod, then it has to be the actual author that asks me and considering he went through the trouble to change the colours himself I'm pretty sure he wants them this way.

As for your other ideas, if DerBK implements them I'll use your colour scheme. Seems good, with the exception of the black for the archon. I'll do a deep dark colour quite close to black but I'm not going to use the actual values for black (that should be R=0 G=0 B=0). Complete black does not exist in nature or anywhere for that matter so I'd like to avoid that.

Oh ok. Yeah and maybe I worded it wrong. But yes, if he did use any of my ideas, I meant could you change colors so like with the elite viper mod, the armor was not the same color or pattern as the actual alien. And you answered that question for me. Thank you! Yeah I've been trying to do some of my own modding but can not get them to work for some reason. Not sure I'm doing it all quite right yet. That's what I asked DerBK if he wouldn't mind doing some mods for me and you do the coloring for me. It's just not working out for me.

Hi, I wondered if you can add (take from the xcom characters perhaps) armor patterns? Then add suitable armor patterns to appropriate Advent classes? I havent got any concrete suggestions, but with the clear and brightly contrasted color schemes on the advent troopers, I think armor patterns would look nice on them. Not on all of them, on some of the classes.

Also, I think maybe the Avatars should come in a huge variety (aesthetic variety primarily), being avatars of actual aliens, contrary to codexes - which I don't have any problem with being uniform in projection, being more of a computer program than a real being.

Hi, I wondered if you can add (take from the xcom characters perhaps) armor patterns? Then add suitable armor patterns to appropriate Advent classes? I havent got any concrete suggestions, but with the clear and brightly contrasted color schemes on the advent troopers, I think armor patterns would look nice on them. Not on all of them, on some of the classes.

Also, I think maybe the Avatars should come in a huge variety (aesthetic variety primarily), being avatars of actual aliens, contrary to codexes. I never missed Codex variety (after all, they are basically apps for the aliens, security protocols in the shadowrun matrix, etc.), however the Avatars could display near individual features - being.. avatars.

I am not sure if taking the patterns and applying them to the Advents is possible to do that easily. But such patterns (even if they need to be handcrafted) are certainly something that Atheran and I can look at once we start discussing what we want to do with our troopers.
Because we obviously need to do something about them.

I don't really see ourselves spending much time on the Avatars, tbh. They appear only in one or two missions are are pretty gimmicky as they are. I feel like our limited time is spent more productively by working on aliens that are actually encountered in regular missions.
Maybe when we start seeing a finish line and feel like wanting to make an extra lap. :)