2016//11/05

Release A Better Advent 2
- Complete rebalance of ABA, way too many changes to list

2016/11/26

v2.01

Localizations:
- Updated russian translation by Klavi
- Korean translation by thunderbeast
- Chinese translation by MantLemon

Balance fixes:
- All Troopers with a cannon now have -10 aim and -2 movement compared to vanilla Troopers. This affects the Gatling Trooper (all tiers) and the Wrecker (Tier 3).
- Reduced the shredding on tier 3 Wreckers by one.
- Increased the spawnweight of Andromedons and Prometheus Suits. Lowered the chance for Sectoid and Muton variants slightly to compensate. Chance for any kind of Andromedon as leader for non-Advent, non-Boss pods is now ~10% in endgame (up from ~8%)
- Gave Alien Rulers from the DLC the possibility to spawn with modded followers instead of their regular ones.

Bug fixes:
- The Advent Sniper was using tier 3 damage values on all tiers. This has been fixed, the tier 1 and 2 versions now do level appropriate damage.
- Muton Champions and Muton Captains didn't know how to fire their gun. This has been fixed.
- Fixed weapon descriptions for Muton Prime Shred Cannon and Firestarter Breath Weapon.

Small stuff:
- Various enemy abilities (Mindspin, Panic Lance, Taser shot, Light Em Up, ...) now have flyover texts to make it more obvious what is happening.
- ABA gamplay hints that are displayed during the Skyranger ride have been shortened to be easier to read.

Better Pods implementation:
- in the folder with the alternate setups for the Better Pods mission.ini, you can now find an alternate file with vanilla podsizes

Files for robojumpers Mod Achievement System:
- The files for the achievements have been updated to ABA2. They have also all been changed to no longer be hidden, so you can use the achievement list as a bestiary.

2016/12

v2.02

Bugfixing
- Chinese text characters were not showing up correctly when using chinese localisation. This has been fixed.
- Muton Captains and Champions no longer use Warcry when they don't need to.
- ABA2 is now compatible with the Avatar Ruler. Like with many other enemy mods, you need to delete some lines from the mission.ini from the Ruler mod. See the "ABA and other enemy mods" thread, last post.

Balancing
- Chryssalids that are on fire or disoriented (or unable to attack for other reasons) will try to flee instead of derping around.
- Changed minimum targets for Faceoff use from Advent Gunslingers and Kommissars to 3 (was 2).
- Changed minimum targets for Firebreath use from Firestarters to 2 (was 1).
- Advent Demolitionists and Mutons now use their grenades on single targets more often. They will use them if they don't find targets to shoot at with at least 50% CTH (was 25%).
- Lowered health of Psi Puppets in higher difficulties. They were a bit too much of a brick, considering that Revenants spawn from forcelevel 2 on. They now have 5/6/7/8 health, depending on difficulty (was 4/6/8/10).
- Lowered enemy counts on the Broadcast mission, as people were reporting being crushed by double activations with 12 enemies on the field against their 3 soldiers. Pods will still be slightly bigger than in vanilla, but not quite as much as before. Expect 4 enemies in the typical pod, you should be able to handle those with 3 Colonels/Brigadiers if you did your homework. Alternate inis scaled down from this guideline, with vanilla being back to 2-3 enemies per pod and the "one less enemy" ini being at 3 enemies.
- Beefed up the enemies on Leviathan. People reported "having fun", which is just code for "not being challenged enough". Aside from fixing some bugs that prevented certain pods to spawn in full, i made three changes:
1) Added another Archon Sentinel to the followers of the first Avatar.
2) Significantly buffed the Chryssalid encounter, depending on the difficulty you can run into the King or Queen here. On Legendary, you will run into both. That's in addition to the Abomination that's always there.
3) On Legend and Commander, the following of the Prime Sectopod now includes a regular Sectopod.

New features
- The AI routine for the Overwatch Override has been expanded to give units a chance to use Hunker Down. If a unit decides it should go into Overwatch due to the random chance (CTH based), it will do another random roll (again CTH based) to see if it would rather Hunker instead of Overwatch. Of course, not all units can Hunker, those will always Overwatch in that situation.
- At tier 1, only Captains can Hunker Down. At tier 2, all Stunlancers except Shieldlancers get Hunker Down. At tier 3, Troopers also gain the ability.
(You can also use a mod like this one to give Hunker Down to aliens that don't have them yet to maximize this new AI feature.)
The probabilities for Hunkering can be changed in the config section of the AI.ini.
- Advent units get an additional 75% chance to use hunker down instead of shooting when they are disoriented. This chance can also be modified in the AI.ini config section.

Enemy Changes
- Advent Sniper Captains no longer carry regular grenades. Instead they have Smoke Screens, which are smoke grenades with a small radius (think of Batman's smoke pellets). Snipers will use these on themselves when they are in sufficient cover and are unable to fire their rifle.
- Tier 2 Advent Recon Drones now have a chameleon circuit that allows them to cloak on reveal. They can only be revealed by putting a soldier right next to them or by using a scanning ability/item. They also reveal themselves when attacking. They have been renamed to "ADVENT Seeker Drone".

Visuals
- The Sectopod Prime no longer uses vanilla Sectopod visuals, but has his own texture. He is also scaled up a good bit. Preview: http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/111858251430283581/AC037A3285EC02B5D8CBC423D1D47CB5FFECE136/ (Chryssalid Abomination for scale)

2017/01

v2.03

Bugfixes:
- Cloaked drones didn't reveal correctly when you stand right next to them. This has been fixed.
- Early game Firestarters spawned without followers. This has been fixed.
- There was an edge case where Sectoid Captains could spawn alone without their Sectoid Soldier goons. This has been fixed.
- Made another attempt at fixing faulty enemy behavior on Protect the Device missions (Berserkers attacking friendlies, Drones derping around). Please tell me if it worked or not...

Balancing:
- Trauma Lancers are now less likely to inflict status effects with their taser pistols.
- Once again raised Spawnweights for Andromedons and Prometheus Suits, as they were still too rare.

AI:
--- Better reactions to being suppressed.
- Using skills, running suppression, Hunker Down and taking the shot are options
- Skill use is preferred
- Having Full HP or good dodge makes running suppression more likely
- Flankshot, Killshot and Sure Shot make taking the shot more likely
--- Better reactions to being flanked.
- Evaluates how dangerous it would be to move dependant on Overwatchers around and Suppressors
- May take the shot instead of moving out of the flank, especially when its a two-way flank
- Tries to counterflank when moving
--- Better Hunker Down use
- No hunkering when last unit
- Less hunkering around VIP and Evac
- Own HP, HitChance and Disorientation modify Hunker chances
--- Shieldbearers no longer feel slavishly attached to their Shield ability, if they can hit less than 3 targets with it. Chances to use the ability are now 75% at 2 targets and 40% at only one target. Shieldbearers that are already shielded themselves will not use their ability.
--- The Overwatch Override logic will no longer apply on the player's turn. This should remove an AI weakness that could be exploited to keep Prime units from doing anything but repeatedly enter Overwatch.

Missions:
- There is now a chance for VIP extractions to take place in a city that has recently been purged by the aliens. That town is now inhabited by nothing but Zombies, Puppeteers and Gatekeepers ... and XCOM is tasked to get the VIP out of there!
- In the late endgame (forcelevel 19+), Supply Raids on Advent facilities can turn out to be raids on the local MEC Bay. These missions have many, many robotic enemies, from Captains that have only MEC followers to Sectopods. There is always a Sectopod Prime on these as well.
- There's a chance for retaliation missions in the midgame to turn into a situation with few pods and ... many ... Faceless.
- "Secure The UFO" missions no longer spawn Advent enemies, all pods are completely filled with actual aliens instead. Only exception is the very early game when no aliens are yet available as followers.


Enemies:
- The Archon Valkyrie replaces the Archon Executioner. She comes with a custom skin and model done by Kexx, the same guy you already know from his amazing work on the "Squadmate" series of mods. Kexx also made a custom ability with animations for her called Ragnarok. This AoE blast will make every soldier in a decent radius around the Valkyrie suffer from panic and disorientation, making them easy prey for the powerful melee attacks that are sure to follow. Like the Executioner, the Valkyrie is a melee unit that drains life from enemies she hits. She is tougher that normal Archons and can only appear as a pod leader. You can consider her a Tier 3 Archon.
- ADVENT Codices can no longer teleport. Instead, they gain Codex Reflexes, a variant on the Lightning Reflexes ability. Every turn, they get a 100% chance to evade the first Overwatch shot against them. The chance goes down by 25% for each following overwatch shot. This of course has implications for Reinforcement drops lead by a Codex and how well you can trap them with overwatches.
- Three variations of the Psi Zombie now exist. These were primarily made for the Zombie Town missions, but can also appear as followers to Puppeteers. These variants all have one less hp than the regular Puppet, but in exchange gain +1 armor, the Revenant ability or +3 movement. They are called Armored Zombie, Zombie Revenant and Zombie Runner.
- Chryssalid Bleeders now have Acid Blood retaliation. It damages any melee attacker that strikes them and applies Acid Burn.
- Chryssalids can now attack civilians on Terror missions.
- Enemy weapons in vanilla don't have range boni and mali. This has been changed. All non-melee enemies with vanilla weapons have been assigned new ideal ranges, now ranging between 8-12 tiles, depending on the unit. They don't get any modifiers to aim in that range. If they get closer, their aim slightly improves (+2 per tile, starting at range 8). If they get further away, their aim gets worse (-2 per tile, starting at range 13).
This modifier is intentionally kept somewhat small because it applies to so many enemies at once. I may tweak it at a later point. If you want to mess with them yourself, you can do that in the GameData_WeaponData.ini

Visuals:
- Valkyrie model and animations by Kexx: Click
- The combat staff wielded by the Valkyrie and Boa enemies now looks different from regular Archon staffs. They glow red/orange instead of green and there's a noticable pulse that ripples from the tip of the spear over the shaft. You'll notice it when you see it.

2017/03

[This patch isn't released yet. I use this space for myself to keep reminders on what i already did for that patch and what i am still planning on doing.]

DONE:

- Drone Weapon was missing an image to display when hacked. This has been fixed.

- Added robojumper's Drone reveal animations to the mod.

- Reworked the Advent Captains
-- All Advent pods have a vanilla Captain as leader now
-- Captains now carry a smoke grenade and are able to use suppression
-- Kommissar, Riot Control, Sniper and Adept are now Trooper variants, but more powerful and rare than other Trooper variants. They are "Sergeants".
-- Beastmaster and General no longer spawn in the wild.

- Two turret variants: Sniper Turret, Sensor Turret

- Made a website.


TO DO:

- Better AI for suppression use