Hey, I was wondering if the opening of the boxes could be tied to something else than research as an alternative choice in an ini or something. Suggestions:

Cracking them in the Proving grounds

Engineering bay repair slots for SPARKs can crack boxes but take a MUCH longer time to do it

Labs can crack them, reducing the research speed but not halting it (once again taking a long time to balance it out. On the other hand you need to have a lab for this :D)

I just feel like research is an even more important part of lw2 than vanilla, and shifting the burden to another place or more importantly giving the player multiple option as to which part of his resistance economy he wants to put the strain on adds even more decision making to this mod.

Just some thoughts, I am not even sure some of these ideas like labs or the repair slots are actually possible :D

One design/balance thing I'd like to see is more of the internal values being exposed to ini editing. I realize that's a fairly significant change to implement at this stage, but it may help with future balance tweaks; you can just adjust the default ini values instead of having to recompile the mod all the time.

Most of my concern/interest in this is because I feel the Sidearm Holster mods are a little too punishing on the mobility front. +1 AP is very powerful for the right class, but the -6 mobility for the Mk1 version makes it much harder to use given the additional -mobility effects on items in LW2. You may never see a Mk2 or Mk3 Sidearm Holster either.

On a related note, it might be nice to have a sub-type of lockbox or an option where you get 2-3 random mods instead of a full upgraded armour/weapon each time.

Yeah, I'd say both of your suggestions are likely future items. Configuration would have great utility (although, it's not going to speed up the dev cycle much, I can build in less than a minute, it's going to take me longer than that to start the game, load my save, and test the change, game modding has a TERRIBLY SLOW dev feedback loop).

Początkowo opublikowane przez Arcalane:

One design/balance thing I'd like to see is more of the internal values being exposed to ini editing. I realize that's a fairly significant change to implement at this stage, but it may help with future balance tweaks; you can just adjust the default ini values instead of having to recompile the mod all the time.

Most of my concern/interest in this is because I feel the Sidearm Holster mods are a little too punishing on the mobility front. +1 AP is very powerful for the right class, but the -6 mobility for the Mk1 version makes it much harder to use given the additional -mobility effects on items in LW2. You may never see a Mk2 or Mk3 Sidearm Holster either.

On a related note, it might be nice to have a sub-type of lockbox or an option where you get 2-3 random mods instead of a full upgraded armour/weapon each time.

I would argue that the Holster is incredibly op on mainly snipers, rangers and maybe classes with a lot of 1 action point abilities like specialists and officers. That makes me think that having it at all early on is a bit much. Maybe remove the mk1 holster alltogether because in my experiences it gave way too much power to my soldiers for a single equipmentslot. maybe even remove the mk2 version and just have one very rare version in higher tier stuff.

@Dudeguy
You point out what I think is the most interesting aspect of this mod: what one player thinks needs to be tweaked to be more powerful (just to be useful) another has seen the power in and used. It adds content that makes the game bigger with more frontiers to explore.

@marr75

exactly, this mod promotes experimentation a lot. I am very curious where you are going to take it :) it needs really careful balancing because some of the mods just make certain playstyles super powerful.
usually you have to pick between marksman and long range sniper in LW2, but if you have a holster every sniper can just move and shoot. It shifts a lot of power from the marksmen build to the sniper build, which is unhealthy in my opinion.
Since you started modding, what do you think about it?
Did you have prior knowledge, is it hard or easy to get into?
I might just look into this stuff myself, maybe help you or make something on my own

@Dudeguy
It's interesting. I enjoy sharing creations with the community AND changing my own gaming experience at the same time. I'm a professional software engineer so I'm pretty good at the coding aspect but I always prefer really fast, easy to test languages and platforms (python, javascript). Modding is the opposite. It can take several minutes to compile, start the game, load a save, and test the logic you just altered. A less experienced modder might have to do this 100 times on a moderately complex new feature or update. That's over 8 hours of waiting for compile, startup, and loading. You learn to design for simpler changes and to predict the behavior of code you haven't tested so that you won't have to go through that loop as often.

wow you actually really know what you are doing then!
You just highly increased my hopes of these more complex ideas (fitting equipment items into personnel slots for example) actually being made possible!

Either way i want to thank you for putting work into this!
If I come up with anything else i will let you know (if you are interested of course)

I have a lot of suggestions to add for the design and balance of the mod:

1) Will you consider to tweak the Lightweight Frame upgrades to have constant 15% damage penalty instead of it scaling with the each tier? I personally think these Lightweight Frames are unviable because of the increasing damage penalty outweighs the benefit of increasing mobility. Comparing to the Heavy Frame upgrades,the mobility penalty remain constant while the damage bonus increases for each tier.

2) The Grimy Suppressor upgrades will need a new name to avoid any confusion with LW2 Suppressors. Maybe call them Flash Suppressors, Muzzle Brakes or something else.

3) In order to make the SPARK Armor upgrades being limited to the SPARKs, maybe you should rename their item IDs that ends with "Chassis" as one of the ways to make them separate from the human armor upgrades, e.g., (SparkArmorUpgrade)_(Quality)Chassis.

4) I think many of the upgrades should have shorter item ID if possible for example:

• GrimyLongshotPropellant_AdvGL instead of GrimyLongshotPropellant_AdvGrenadeLauncher
  
• GrimyRealitySink_SupPA instead of GrimyRealitySink_SupPsiAmp
  
• (Sawed-OffShotgunUpgrade)_(Quality)SSG for the future Sawed-Off Shotgun Upgrades

5) As for the High Cycle Chambers, I think the crit. chance penalty should be reduced to a reasonable amount like -50% or lower because of how the to-hit mechanics work in LW2. Many of shots will either be grazed shot or missed shot with the High Cycle Chamber on.

I still have more suggestions to type including upgrades for the new secondary weapons but I'll type them in the next post later.

Could've sworn I posted earlier but I guess something ate it. General gist was that I agree the sidearm holster is powerful, but that -6 feels a tiny bit too harsh given all the other -mobility things in LW2, and I'd like to see how it is with -5/etc. instead.

I'm also toying with some mod ideas for the holotarget and arcthrower;

AT:
* Increase stun effect
* Adds/increases damage to mech units (similar to Arc Pulser effect, weaker, but stacks with it)
* Adds light armour-ignoring damage vs ALL units
* Add 1+ free-action uses, short cooldown

HT:
* Increase [aim/crit chance/reaction aim/etc.] for shots on targeted unit
* Increase mark duration
* Increase crit chance and damage
* "Eye hack": gain LoS from targeted unit (doesn't activate pods/etc.) whilst mark lasts

I'm back with suggestions on the upgrades for the secondary weapons:

1) Arc Thrower

• Lightning Jolt:
  Firing your Arc Thrower does not cost an action point, unlimited charges, skill cooldown is determined by level of the upgrade. 3-4 turn cooldown for basic version, 2-3 turns for advanced and 1-2 turns for the elite/superior version.
  
  
• Firestarter:
  Arc Thrower has the ability to ignite target in flames, burn chance is determined by the level of the upgrade.
  
  
• Arc Thrower has to ability reduce target's mobility by 3-4, effect lasts for 2 turns for Basic, 3 turns for Advanced and 4 turns for Elite/Superior version of the upgrade.
  
  
• Lightweight Frame:
  Increase mobility by 1 for Basic, 2 for Advanced and 3 for Elite.

2) Gauntlet

• Reduce rocket scatter by 1 tile for Basic, 2 tiles for Advanced and 3 tiles for Elite version of the upgrade.
  
  
• Flamethrower has the ability to shred targets armor, 1 point for Basic, 2 points for Advanced and 3 points for the Elite version.
  
  
• Increase range and radius of the flamethrower by X% depending on the quality of the upgrade.
  
  
• Soot/ Smog Emitter:
  Flamethrower has the ability to impose -X% penalty to the target's aim.

3) Sawed-Off Shotgun

• Shotgun Shell Holder:
  Increase shotgun ammo, 1-2 charges for Basic, 2-3 charges for Advanced and 3-4 charges for Elite.
  
  
• Ammo Synthesizer:
  X% chance to create 1 shotgun ammo depending on the quality of upgrade.
  
  
• Extended Barrels:
  Extend weapon range by 4 tiles, increases aim by 20% for Basic, 30% for Advanced and 40% for Elite.

4) Holotargeter

• Personal Scanner: Increase sight range and visibility by 2 tiles for Basic, 3 tiles for Advanced and 4 tiles for Elite.
  
  
• Lightweight Frame:
  Increase mobility by 1 for Basic, 2 for Advanced and 3 for Elite.
  
  
• Holotracer:
  Grant soldiers Holo Tracing skill to mark a target and turning them into a sort of battle scanner for a number of turns depending on the quality of the Holotracer upgrade. Feel to make the Holo Tracing skill having unlimited charges with cooldowns, limited number of charges depending on the upgrade tier.

Increase range and radius of the flamethrower by X% depending on the quality of the upgrade.

This could be expanded to be applicable to other secondary weapons (specifically the shredder) as well.

On a related note, the Gauntlet could probably share some of the basic upgrades (like liquid explosives and the like) with the Grenade Launcher.

Okay i love the mod and all but i just had a sword with that superior death "something" mod and it kinda made the game irrelevant in the hands of a MSG swordsman. He killed 34 guys in a supply raid in one move before a muton elite stopped him. By the 20th death he was killing people by grazing them for 34 damage :) Loved it but........

It would be nice if aliens used the weapons/armour we loot off them. It's like getting into a knife fight and finding the other guy had a RPG. Nice not-so-subtle way to hint who's packing, too.

Right cause it would be nice for someone to roll of from yellow alert and murder everyone in 1 turn :)