XCOM: Long War EWA modification for the 2012 Game X-Com: Enemy Unknown with the 2013 expansion, X-Com: Enemy Within.v3.0 Beta 15d2 * Release Date: April 23, 2015"Takes XCOM to a new level." -- XCOM lead developer Jake Solomon, via Twitter, April 23, 2014https://twitter.com/SolomonJake/statuses/469913573578530816"This mod is the absolute best way to play XCOM" -- Wired, Nov. 17, 2014http://www.wired.com/2014/11/mod-absolute-best-way-play-xcom/"This is a collection of profound and surprisingly careful changes ... It's like a free expansion pack ..." - Rock, Paper, Shotgunhttp://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/05/16/xcom-hardcore-mod/"Terrific ..." -- Kokatu, Aug. 6, 2014http://kotaku.com/5878852/the-12-best-games-on-pcNamed by PCGamer one of "the 15 most brutal mods of all time" and in November 2014 was the site's Mod of the Week.http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/10/05/the-15-most-brutal-mods-of-all-time/3/http://www.pcgamer.com/mod-of-the-week-the-long-war-for-xcom/**** Chief Designer and Programmer: JohnnyLump **** Chief Programmer and Designer: Amineri**** Chief UI Programmer and Artist: XMarksTheSpot**** Programmer and Chief Quality Assurance Specialist: Ellatan**** Senior Contributing Programmer: WGhost81**** Senior Contributing Sound Editor: TrackTwo**** Senior Contributing Artist: JCLewis**** Contributing Artists: Ebolii, Obstbanane, Zyxpsilon, lfish, Kordolius, IvanDogovich,Neonin, AlexGlitch**** Contributing Programmers: TrackTwo, Liquid911, SpazmoJones/Eclipse666, Orost, Part Time Commie, Uberjumper, Drakous79, Peasly Wellbott, Bertilsson, Bokauk, BlackAlpha, Guicomir, MuckBeth, Oddball_E8**** MapMaster: Liquid911**** Contributing Sound Engineer: Matt Lees**** Translators: Noganeto1 (Spanish), Aldo32 (Spanish), Kordolius (French)**** Cultural Researcher: Uzifeline**** Linux Port: Shivoc, Falex007, WGhost81**** Mac OS/X Port: Thither, Anderkent**** Thanks to: Kevin Schultz, Dan Price, Roland Rizzo at Firaxis Games for some expert assistance**** Additonal thanks to: DubiousIntent (X-Com's modding archivist), Hobbes (for hosting the Long War XCOM wiki), Gugacuardo, Tapkomet, Ogel, and Thunder_GR (soldier name lists), Heramael (copyediting)**** And even more thanks to longtime feedbackers, wiki organizers and beta testers, including: 8wayz, Amanasleep, Anderkent, Beaglerush, Bilfdoffle, Deducter, Devon_v, Ucross, Xwynns**** Voice ActorsGerrit Aalbers (South African Male 1)Jezdamayel Caster (English Female 1): https://www.youtube.com/user/GamingWithJezdamayelIan Chisholm (English Male 2): http://www.clearskiesthemovie.comIan Dransfield (English Male 1): https://www.youtube.com/user/iandransfieldLouise Dume (South African Female 1)Jakub "Faleg" Janicki (Polish Male 1)Sean Lally (English Male 3): http://steamcommunity.com/id/fiindilJustin Loke (SE Asian Male 1)Russell Meyer (Australian Male 3): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=292007783Bec Pelvay (Australian Female 1)Michael Richardson (Australian Male 2)Graydon Schlichter (Irish Male 1): http://voice123.com/graydonschlichterJamie Williamson (Australian Male 1)You must have a legitimate version of Enemy Within to play this mod. This mod is for games with the March 10, 2014, patch, what we're calling EW Patch 3. The game version is still listed as 401776.An Enemy Unknown version of this mod is available on the Nexus.For the latest version of this mod, go to XCOM Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/ Endorsements on the Nexus are welcome! They help promote this mod so other players can find it.The Long War wiki is here: http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Long_WarWe want your feedback! Please post on the Mod page on the Nexus. Please read the "known issues" entries below before reporting a bug, but if it's not there, let us know!THANK YOU TO ALL OUR DONORS!BLATANT SELF-PROMOTIONCheck out mod designer John Lumpkin's science fiction novels, Through Struggle, the Stars, and its sequel, The Desert of Stars, available as an e-book and paperback on Amazon and elsewhere. Visit www.thehumanreach.net for details. In its May 2012 edition, the venerable Analog Science Fiction magazine called it "all good, great fun." A sequel, The Desert of Stars, was published in March 2013.And take a look at Long War artist lfish's portraits and illustrations here: http://www.danaillustration.com/PLEASE READ THIS README, ESPECIALLY THE ENTIRE FAQ, OR SOME GAME EVENTS WON'T MAKE SENSE. This mod makes hundreds of changes, large and small, to the vanilla versions of the game. It is harder and longer than the vanilla version but gives you many more tools to combat the alien threat.Some of the changes in this mod include:* An extended campaign requiring far more missions to complete* Tactical missions that allow up to twelve XCom soldiers per mission with the right upgrades* Eight soldier classes: Infantry, Assault, Sniper, Scout, Gunner, Rocketeer, Medic and Engineer, and eight MEC classes: Valkyrie, Marauder, Jaeger, Pathfinder, Goliath, Archer, Guardian and Shogun* New and modified perks, including Ranger, Sapper, HEAT Warheads, Lock N' Load and Javelin Rockets* New and modified technologies, including Xenopsionics, Alien Biocybernetics, Pulse Lasers, Gauss Weapons and Advanced Aerospace Concepts, and many new foundry projects* Five tiers of XCOM weaponry, many new weapons, like SMGs, marksman's rifles, and the sawed-off shotgun, armors and small items, and SHIVs that can be equipped with perk-granting small items!* Much earlier access to psionics and vastly expanded psionics tree, with new psi powers unlocked by alien autopsies and interrogations* A system of commissioning and promoting XCOM officers who provide bonuses to your entire squad during missions (replaces the EW medals system)* Overhauled interception game, with five new UFO classes, such as the fighter, raider and harvester, as well as six interceptors per continent, foundry projects to upgrade your aircraft, individualized pilot names and pilot experience, and the Stingray Missile weapon system* Overhauled strategy game, in which the aliens gather resources and conduct research -- efforts XCOM must interdict if it hopes to save humanity. XCOM can now retake countries by finding and conquering alien bases in those countries. Help council countries defend themselves by fulfilling their requests for alien technology!* Aliens and EXALT forces now grow tougher over time, gaining stats and perks. Enemy units will have leaders who are particularly challenging, and will sometimes be real monsters! You will also see greater variety in alien pods.* Requirement that soldiers rest after each mission and repair damaged items, requiring the player to build a much deeper roster of soldiers and larger stockpile of gear* A variety of starting country options, each granting XCOM a special ability from the campaign start* Modified second wave options to support longer campaign* New English voicepacks in a variety of international accentsMost of the specific changes will be detailed in in-game text ... many game mechanics have changed, so read perk, tech and item descriptions closely! They may not do what you expect from vanilla.Perk trees for all classes and the tech tree are in files in your XEW directory.THANK YOU FOR TESTING A BETA. PLEASE NOTE IT MAY HAVE STABILITY PROBLEMS AND OTHER BUGS, SO PLAYING IRONMAN OR WITH AUTOSAVE OFF IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. IT MAY ALSO HAVE BALANCE ISSUES. If you want a cleaner version of this mod, you should play the EU version or wait until this version is final.Please check the Known Issues first, and if your issue isn't listed, we want detailed feedback on all of those things on the Long War EW Beta feedback forum. Make sure you post your difficulty level, any Second Wave options you are using, and whether you started a campaign under this version, or a prior one.Also note that Future Betas/Final versions may invalidate existing campaigns.To install:1. If you have ever played with any other mods on your EW install, or have changed some files yourself, verify back to a vanilla installation of EW before installing Long War. If you have any trouble with installation, do this as well.2. Disable any antivirus software. We have specific reports that Comodo security software can prevent a proper install; some have reported installation problems with it *on* while others with it installed but *off*. We have separate reports that BitDefender Free will crash XCOM with this mod.3. Make sure you have the latest .net framework installed.4. Run the installer.5. When you select your path to install the mod, you should receive a warning that the directory already exists, although we have had reports that it doesn't if you run in the installer in admin mode. If you aren't in admin mode and don't get this warning, you may have selected the wrong path. Atypical Steam installations may require a different path.6. Start the game once. You may receive a CTD error; this appears to be some aspect of the mod completing installation and making nice with Steam. Start it again, and it should run.7. If you have been playing vanilla XCOM in a language other than the one you installed it in, switch XCOM to the installed Long War's language via its properties in Steam.If you get multiple CTDs upon starting the first mission, and/or see only four soldiers in the Skyranger during the first mission, or see graphical glitches with some of the new weapons, this may be evidence of a bad install. You may try the following steps:1. Go to C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\Config2. Delete all files in that directory.3. Start the game and see if it works.4. Make sure three files are NOT present. They will cause CTDs on launch. If they are, delete them and start the game:{app}\XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComGame.upk.uncompressed_size{app}\XComGame\CookedPCConsole\XComStrategyGame.upk.uncompressed_size{app}\XComGame\CookedPCConsole\Engine.upk.uncompressed_size5. If that still doesn't work, Go to C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS UDERNAME\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\SaveData6. Delete or rename the file profile.bin. You should to check your graphics and other settings ingame after this.7. If that doesn't work, we've had reports that installing Long War again, over the existing copy, may fix the issue. Note this will probably prevent the included uninstaller from working correctly, and you'll likely need to verify back to via Steam to uninstall.8. If none of these work, see the full troubleshooting guide included in your download.Installation notes:1. This mod will overwrite several game files and likely render multiplayer unplayable until you uninstall.2. The mod will not work properly on vanilla EW campaigns, so you'll need to start a new one. Campaigns are saved even if you uninstall, so you should be able to return to vanilla campaigns. Long War campaigns probably won't work well in vanilla.3. If Firaxis / 2k issues any patches to vanilla XCOM, they will overwrite and disable Long War, and almost certainly make the mod unplayable until the modders are able to update it. Unfortunately, turning off automatic updates to the game in Steam, via the game menu / Properties / Updates tab, does not prevent patches from loading. Your savegames should be preserved, though.4. If you want to use alternate game textures via Texmod, install them AFTER you fully install Long War and any other mods.To uninstall:Uninstall via the usual Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs feature, or verify back to vanilla.TroubleshootingIf you hit something that seems to be a bug, try the following steps and see if any of them clear up the problem:1. Save your game and reload.2. Save your game, shut down XCOM and Steam, and restart.3. Save your game, shut down XCOM, and restart your computer.4. Save your game, shut down XCOM, delete all files in C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\Config, and restart XCOM.5. Consider verifying your XCOM install back to vanilla and reinstalling the mod per the instructions above. This will not remove your savegames.6. If you are getting periodic slowdowns or lockups on the Loading User Settings popup, try: 1) deleting most of your old savegames (in C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\SaveData) 2) turning of Cloud synch in Steam, or 3) Playing in offline mode.7. Find the file Long_War_EW_Detailed_Install_Troubleshooting.txt in your XEW folder and follow the instructions there. 8. Report the bug on the Nexus. Please include the difficulty and any second wave options.IF YOU GET A CTD:Please help us by posting crash output on the LW EW Beta Nexus subforum.1. Describe the circumstances of the crash.2. On most installations, go to this directory: C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\Logs3. Open the file Launch.log in a text editor.4. Scroll to the bottom of the file and look for the line that says "Log: === Critical error: ==="5. If it is present, copy that line to the end of the list of functions that were called and post on the subforum. It should look like this:[0019.24] Log: === Critical error: ===Unknown code token 04XGExaltSimulation Command1.TheWorld:PersistentLevel.XGExaltSimulation_0Function XComStrategyGame.XGExaltSimulation:GetPanicMod:00F5Script call stack:Function XComStrategyGame.XGGeoscape:TickFunction XComStrategyGame.XGGeoscape:GameTickFunction XComStrategyGame.XGGeoscape:UpdateShipsFunction XComStrategyGame.XGShip_UFO:OnArrivalFunction XComStrategyGame.XGAlienObjective:NotifyOfSuccessFunction XComStrategyGame.XGStrategyAI:LogUFORecordFunction XComStrategyGame.XGCountry:AddPanicFunction XComStrategyGame.XGExaltSimulation:GetPanicMod6. WE CAN ONLY USE SCRIPT CALL STACK DUMPS. Unfortunately, this stack dump doesn't occur very often in the log, and if a function list isn't present, it is unlikely we can do much with your post. 7. If you can repeatedly reproduce this error after reloading your save game and taking the same steps, we may want your savegame. Please post on the Nexus bug forum with details, and johnnylump will get you an email address for you to send the save.8. In any event, accept our grateful thanks for helping us debug the mod.Included software:XCOMEUModHelper by UberJumperAcknowledgements:Amineri and XMarksTheSpot for UPKModderEliot van Uytfanghe for UE Explorertwinj for discovering how to rescript functionsGildor for Unreal Package DecompessorInno Setup 5, by JRSoftware.orgAlso special thanks to Neonin for the Long War logo on the Nexus mod page! Check out Neonin's UI Texture Replacement mod for livelier in-game icons and other graphics: http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/382//?FAQ - GeneralQ: I'm fairly new to XCom. What difficulty should I start with?A: Normal.Q: I'm an XCom vet. What difficulty should I start with?A: Normal.Q: But I'm really awesome at --A: Sorry to interrupt, but just start with Normal. We don't have easy difficulties in this mod that hold your hand while you learn the ropes, and we've removed every bit of code we can find that cheats for the player on the lower difficulties. It's going to be hard. The other difficulties are just harder versions of normal; feel free to move up when you get a handle on all the new mechanics.Q: Say what? Ten HP outsiders with regeneration in the first downed UFO mission? I love all the new X-Com options but don't like the difficulty. Why did you make a mod that is so hard?A: This mod was made by people who loved the vanilla game but saw lots of opportunities within the engine for much deeper strategic and tactical play, and for a greater variety of problems to throw at the player. When someone tells us it is too hard, there might be any of three things going on:1) The player hasn't adapted to the changes in the mod and expects their suboptimal strategies to succeed (We believe this is the case with outsiders). We have a Long War strategy subforum on the Nexus page you can go to for advice.2) The player's definition of fun is different from ours; they expect the game to provide them easier situations, make solutions more readily available, or be geared to provide the illusion of challenge but actually make it pretty easy to win. In this case, the player should play an easier difficulty setting and/or use the cinematic mode second wave option, which gives accuracy bonuses to both XCOM troops and aircraft. The player can also mod LW to their personal preferences or play another mod. Long War isn't for everyone.3) The mod really is unreasonably hard (or bugged in a way that makes it too hard) and should be changed. Specific feedback about the situation and how you attempted to address helps us; general complaints about difficulty really won't induce us to make any changes.Q: Okay, I get it; it's hard. But I'm a casual player without a ton of time or Grognard levels of strategery. What starting settings would you recommend?A: Play normal difficulty with only the Not-So-Long-War and Cinematic Mode Second Wave options activated. This is probably somewhere close to vanilla classic difficulty and Marathon duration.Q: I'm supertough and insist on playing Ironman.A: That's not actually a question, but understand there could be campaign-ending bugs or corrupted savegame issues that we can't do anything about. Periodically back up your savegames or face the prospect of losing all your work. The Bronzeman SW option lets you restart tactical missions. You've been warned.Q: I want to mod feature X myself. How do I do that?A: Many, many game settings are contained in the file XEW\Config\DefaultGameCore.ini, which can be edited with a text editor, and your changes will take effect the next time you load the mod (no other changes are necessary!). Some more are in DefaultGameData.ini. Ingame text is in INT files in the localilzation folder. If it's not in either of those files, you'll probably have to make hex changes to the upk files, which is considerably more complicated. See the "Modding Long War" subforum or the general XCom Mod Talk forum on the Nexus for details.Q: Can you make a shorter version of Long War?A: Try the "Dynamic War" Second Wave option.Q: Can you make a longer version of Long War?A: Try the "Liberators" Second Wave option, and/or try "Dynamic War" and adjust the mission density value (SW_Marathon) above 1 in DefaultGameCore.ini.Q: I love this! Can I give you something?A: For those who want to directly support the modders, we have placed a Paypal donation link on our Nexus page, but we are not allowed to request, reward or publicly acknowledge any specific gifts (sorry, but we really are deeply grateful), in accordance with Nexus' policies that prohibit any kind of appearance of "selling" the mod. In addition, you're always welcome to buy JohnnyLump's sci-fi novels through www.thehumanreach.net.Q: May I redistribute this mod on the Nexus or another web site?A: No, not without specific permission from JohnnyLump. See the permissions list above for what you may modify and distribute.Q: I want to make some changes to the mod and redistribute that. May I?A: It's complicated. * You have unrestricted permission to distribute alternate ini files for players to install* You have unrestricted permission to distribute alternate int / localization files for players to install* You have unrestricted permission to distribute UPKUtils mods that change core Long War upk files -- really, it isn't even our place to expect to give permission for these.* If you are a modder who contributed to the mod, of course you have permission to redistribute your own work in other mods.* However, you do NOT have permission to alter and separately release our upk files, specifically XComGame.upk, XComStrategyGame.upk, and LongWar.upk.If you want to make small mods to those files, we strongly encourage you to use UPKUtils: It is more user-friendly; players can install and uninstall individual mods at will; it won't overwrite other small mods players have made, and your mod is very likely future-proofed and will not need further updating when we update Long War.If you are working on a huge overhaul based on Long War and still think redistributing our core files is the way to go, contact johnnylump via PM on the Nexus. Again, permission isn't granted unless we say so.Q: Do I still have to disable phone home like in Long War EU?A: No longer! The mod fixes the exe so that is no longer required.Q: Can I use other mods like Toolboks with Long War?A: It depends, but often you may not. Other large-scale overhaul mods (if anyone every makes any others) will not be compatible, nor will mods that change ini settings or ingame text by overwriting ini and int files. Mods that make individual changes *may* be compatible if they search and replace hex. If they search by absolute offset within the upk (like Toolboks), they will not be compatible unless they are made specifically for Long War, but those that search and replace hex regardless of location in the file have a good chance of working. Keep an eye on the Long War modding subforum; we'll post possible changes you can make yourself if they are easy to implement and frequently requested.Q: I keep getting the same maps every other mission! Is there a fix?A: Press ALT-F10 once during the game. The only feedback you will see is the XCOM shield spinning briefly in the lower-right corner, but this resets the file that tracks which maps you've already played. What is happening is some of Long War's repurposed maps are being treated as "new" and repeatedly pushed to the top of the queue; by resetting your log the game will treat all maps equally.Q: I installed the mod, but got error 0xc0000142 when I try to run the game.A: This error is known to occur when people install mods on pirated copies of XCOM. The mod only works with legitimate Steam versions of the mod. This includes the boxed DVD version, which requires Steam to install. While this occurs because of something the pirates did (and not us), we don't support pirated versions and will not troubleshoot these problems; the solution is to buy a legit copy of the game. FAQ - Specific Gameplay QuestionsQ: How do I win?A: Win the Temple Ship mission, same as vanilla.Q: How do I lose?A: All 16 council countries have to defect from XCOM. That's it. A succesful alien assault on XCOM HQ no longer ends the game.Q: Hey, I lost a country with little panic in the first month! Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. And if the aliens grow strong enough, they'll do this again, although you can stop those missions once launched. (It's just really hard.) Find and defeat the alien base in lost countries and you can get them back.Q: A really big UFO just landed in my home country in March! How am I supposed to beat that?A: Basically, you're not. (It's possible, though.) The aliens have an active strategy now, gathering resources and conducting research and going on other missions not directly related to XCOM's operations. They're going to do their thing, and sometimes you'll cross paths with them when they are doing something they feel is rather important and have brought along a massive force to defend it. The penalties for XCOM aborting that mission early on are usually small, so don't feel obligated to sacrifice your force to win that one. Try to avoid the temptation to repeatedly save scum through these missions; you are denying yourself the full Long War experience by hamstringing the alien AI so much. Q: I just ran into a mission with tons of powerful aliens. How am I supposed to beat that?A: Again, you're not. Part of the tactical challenge of the mod is to recognize a bad situation and retreat.Q: What's that little shield by each country in the Situation Room?A: That represents the country's ability to defend itself from the alien incursions. Fulfilling council requests from that country fills the shield and increases that country's ability to resist panic increases caused by alien activity and helps protect any satellites overhead from detection by alien scouts.Q: Why do some of my starting soldiers have genemod armor?A: That's a new armor, the tac vest, which anyone can wear. Long War EW introduces 7 new armors (for a total of 14) generally built as lighter armors allowing more mobility at some cost of protection; we used the genemod armor bases to represent these armors. If you don't like the look, try some of the alternate decos, which will minimize the sleeveless effect.Q: Why do my starting soldiers have Exalt weapons?A: Exalt weapons have been repurposed in Long War and now serve as the default ballistic weapon set (along with the traditional shotgun). Exalt lasers are now the beam-laser class of weapons; vanilla XCOM ballistic weapons are now the Gauss class of weapons, and XCOM lasers are now the pulse laser class of weapons.Q: One my weapons did zero damage after a hit! Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. When this happens, you'll usually see a blue icon with a shield and a number. That's a measure of "Damage Reduction" -- how much damage bounced off the enemy after a hit.Q: I just bagged a sectoid that had mind-merged to another sectoid, but it didn't die; it only took some damage. Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. XCOM Psi troopers can get mind-merge, too, and we suspect you wouldn't want the effect to kill two XCOM troopers at once, would you?Q: My soldier's status shows "fatigued." What does that mean?A: After missions, soldiers need to rest for several days to recover from the intensity of combat and exposure to strange alien chemistry. During this time, they will not be auto-loaded into mission rosters. You can still send them on a mission (with no loss in capability), but after the mission they will suffer a light wound, representing exhaustion, and will be unavailable until they recover.Q: Why are my arc thrower stun chances so low?A: Arc Throwers are no longer nearly automatic; your best case is a 55 to 60 percent chance to stun an alien. This is to make capturing aliens a meaningful and dangerous challenge. With Long War's increased mission count, you'll have far more opportunities to stun aliens and get their stuff, and you wouldn't want Alien Containment to overflow, would you?Q: I only got a few Meld from a canister on the first mission? Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. The amount of meld you get will vary, based on something we'll let you figure out.Q: I saved some of the civilians on a terror mission but panic still went up! Is that supposed to happen?A: Yes. Your job on terror missions is to minimize damage by saving lives; every civilian killed raises panic in both the country and on the continent.Q: I captured an alien but can't interrogate it. What's up with that?A: Review the tech tree and you'll see that you need to perform an autopsy on a species before being able to interrogate it.Q: How do I set default colors / armor deco / headgear for my soldiers?A: Look for the file DefaultGameCore.ini, which is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config in a standard Steam installation. Open it in a text editor like notepad. About 40 percent of the way down you'll see a comment "Initial soldier appearance." The next several lines set various default appearance numbers for various classes. EDIT THIS FILE AT YOUR OWN RISK. The range of allowed colors and styles are in a separate text file, Long_War_EW_Armor_Kit_Codes.txt.New CommandsTactical Game:ALT-1 through ALT-8 Select individual soldiers (doesn't work with soldiers 9+)ALT-O Overwatch all soldiers with moves remaining (Note there is no confirm dialogue when you hit this; it doesn't work if the currently selected soldier is in motion)ALT-F1 Toggle HUD (for screenshots)F2-F9, ALT-F2 through ALT-F6New camera angles, F2 is overhead; ALT-F5 and ALT-F6 are closeupsALT-F7 Sets slomo to 1.0 (normal animation speed)ALT-F8 Sets slomo to 1.15 (accelerated animation speed, still looks pretty realistic)ALT-F9 Sets slomo to 1.5 (extremely accelerated animation speed, looks unrealistic). NOTE: THIS MAY CAUSE BUGGY BEHAVIOR.ALT-F10Reset map cycler (Do this once if you are repeating a few maps over and over, but this should no longer be necessary with campaigns started under 3.0 Beta 10 and later)MAX ZOOM This option, in your interface menu, lets you set the closest zoom level the camera can normally goCAMERA PANNING This option, in your interface menu, lets the center mouse button activate full control over camera pitch and yaw.RESTART MISSION This option, in your pause menu, lets you restart a tactical mission. The map and enemies will not change. This is not available in Ironman.Mission Control, Strategy Game:F1-F7 Rotate Hologlobe to XCOM base on each continent, plus North and South Poles (we've also fixed the vanilla bug that disabled mouse control of hologlobe positions)Any Time:ALT-F12 Hard Quit to DesktopDev Console onlyGiveperk -X Using GivePerk and a negative number will permanently remove perk #X from a soldier. Works in tactical game, unsure about barracks.Tips:- Many players have reported this mod to be more difficult than vanilla X-Com. A number of strategic game elements are more random, and no longer are the parts of the strategy game that drive the narrative forward so simple to accomplish: They take meaningful amounts of time and resources, even as the aliens gain additional tools to beat you. Be prepared to abort missions and lose satellites and countries. Improvements in soldiers and technology will often be incremental rather than transformational. There isn't some dominant strategy deliberately embedded in the settings for you to root out; instead, you'll have to mix both long-term preparation with short-term flexibility to deal with crises. - Expect to lose some battles. A key part of tactical play is knowing when to retreat to preserve your force. Save-scumming to win extremely difficult missions can have a dramatic impact on the rest of the game and deny you the full Long War experience.- You may attempt to retake alien countries by defeating the alien base there. You'll need to orbit a satellite over that country to find it, and the aliens will do everything they can to shoot it down! You'll also need a new skeleton key for every additional attempt.- Your interceptors now have a chance to detect UFOs on their continent in countries where no satellite is present. If the aliens seem to be concentrating on a country where you don't have a satellite, stationing interceptors nearby will give you a chance!- Council nations will now hit you with many more requests for items than you can possibly fulfill, so be selective. Every request you fulfill gives that a country a better chance to resist panic (as indicated by the filling in of the small shield in the Situation Room).- Any soldier can attempt psi training, even if they have failed in previous attempts. A greater will score makes you more likely to succeed. Note that Psis cannot become officers, however.- Armor-piercing aircraft weapons are necessary to down certain UFOs, even early in the game.- Satellite spam is no longer an effective strategy; you'll fall too far behind on research. Labs are now vital.- Keep a spare satellite on the launch pad. You can't get every UFO, and the survivors will sometimes send hunters after your birds.- Plan ahead! Everything takes time to build now. Minimum Engineer requirements may also be more of a factor.- You'll find you'll usually want more than you can afford; be prepared for shortages in cash, meld and alloys, in particular, in the early and mid-games, and weapons fragments and Elerium late game. Selling alloys and elerium may come back to haunt you later. Landed UFOs are a terrific resource.- With the long injury recovery times and soldier rest requirements you should maintain at least 40 troops in your barracks.- Interceptor buffs are much more useful than in vanilla, but don't expect to bag every enemy UFO. You can still keep panic at bay by at least making an attempt.- UFOs will blow up entirely more often if you use high-damage weapons for the final hit.- SHIVs are no longer a sideshow, but a crucial part of your team from the start. MECs are something you won't be able to field until midgame.- In the late summer months, casualties of experienced soldiers may mount. Look for projects that help you maintain the ability to field a powerful combat team.- You absolutely must have HEAT weapons or chem grenades to take on Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. They will be very difficult otherwise.- Enemies with area-of-effect weapons can be hindered with suppression, poison, mindfrays and flashbangs, all of which reduce their range.- In emergencies, you can take fatigued soldiers on missions, but they will suffer the equivalent of a light combat wound (from all the drugs you had to juice them with plus overexposure to alien chemistry.)- Both low and high cover provide more protection than in the past, and offer a measure of damage reduction from most weapons. Low cover is now 2/3 the value of high cover in many respects (instead of half).- Don't neglect psionics early on! You need a highly developed psi soldier to win the game.Permanent known issues, don't think we can fix: - CTD on first attempt to play after install. We think this is Steam adjusting to the larger LW files. Solution: Try again.- Changing game difficulty in the middle of a tactical mission will reset all alien leaders and navigators to base hit points for that species and should be considered more of a cheat than it normally is.- Loading savegames in tactical missions can cause problems, including cancelling hunker down status and resetting certain flags intended to prevent you from doing things like using Run and Gun and Close Encounters on the same turn. These can be exploits and you should feel really, really bad for using it.- Sometimes critically wounded soldiers have a bad z and can't be revived. Save and reload often fixes.- Certain map errors. These are probably hard to tell from other errors, but if the problem is related to something in the map itself, we may not be able to fix it.- Close Combat Specialist is rather particular about triggering. We didn't change it; it's unlikely we can fix it.- Rapid double-clicking (such as with a dying mouse that inadvertently does this) can screw up your interactions with the engineering UI and charge you tons of cash for a single transaction.- Periodically, the map script for the XCOM HQ assault mission will be interrupted. Reload an earlier save or (with ironman) use the dev console to restart the mission.- Female weapon models not aligning with pawn correctly- Flying creatures will sometimes stack on the same tile during movementA current list of known issues will be kept on the bug report thread.ChangelogBETA 15 to BETA 15b, 15c, 15d Issues* If you are well into a campaign and have researched advanced Medikits, all of your soldiers will suddenly have the Deadeye Perk. If you want to remove it, use the Dev Console and the command GivePerk -116 on that soldier in a tactical mission.* Meld costs have doubled (as have meld incomes), so you'll be behind. If you are well into a campaign, workaround is to download dev console and give yourself 2x your current meld using giveresource 7 xxx, where xxx is the amount of meld to give yourself.BETA 15a to BETA 15b, 15c, 15d issues* Because of a 15a bug, some new campaigns will lose their starting country bonus. The workaround is to go into DGC.ini, lines 1420 to 1453, and increase the iCash value on each line by 1, and change the iCash value on line 1419 (Cadre) to 6.Any BETA 15, 15a, 15b campaign to 15c or 15d issues* To add the new Drum Mag item to an existing campaign, try the developer console command GiveItem END_SHIP_WEAPONS 99 OR GiveItem Drum Mags 99 for a nearly infinite amount. Any counterfire pods from previous versions will also convert to drum mags.* Reworked trees will require re-selection of perks. You can remove excess perks with GivePerk -(PerkEnum) command in the tactical game, where (PerkEnum) is the number of the perk. See the ArmorKitCodes file for a list of perks.Any BETA 15 to 15d/15d2 issues* Some D2 fixes may cause issues in tactical saves from Beta 15d or earlier. To avoid CTDs, we recommend finishing tactical missions in your current Beta and upgrading to D2 from a geoscape save. An alternative is to restart the tactical mission from the menu, although we aren't 100% sure that will cure all CTDs.Beta 15d2 April 23, 2015Balancing:* Drop-down aliens will drop down in cover. Reduced number of drop-down aliens on some early council missions. Settings in DefaultRandomSpawns.ini can be used to turn this off.* Bomb nods should spawn a bit closer to playersFixes:* CTD when visibility of unactivated alien pod changes (Some experimental code slipped through into release version)* Ammo numbers on shotgun-series weapons descriptions* Soldier initial position gone wonky (x2)* CTD on exiting smoke and possibly other volumes* 2 new map patches* Lockup when aliens drop down on special missions* Hit-and-Run CTD* World rebuild when bomb positions randomizedBeta 15d April 20, 2015Features* New British/English Female accent from Jezdamayel Caster* Bomb Disposal missions will have randomized (but regulated) locations for power nodes.* Incorporated SpazmoJones/Eclipse666's display weapon fragments, display soldier formation and show class breakdown UI mods into release versionBalancing* Shotgun-series ammo changed from 5/3/4/3/3 to 4/4/5/4/4. Reflex Cannon now requires Advanced Plasma Weaponry instead of Sectopod Autopsy.* Knocked down some alloy costs here and there (larger mec suits, pulse weapons, a few other places). Upped some elerium costs.* Altered harvest UFO AI's relationship to alien aggro slightly* Made it a little more likely for DW AI to reduce aggrofixes* Attempted fixes: CTDs during targeting with psi perks, possibly others* Bad offset in UISightlineHUD_SightlineContainer.OnMouseEvent that may have been associated with CTDs* CTD when using explosives near gas pumps on Crashed Small Scout - Roadhouse map* CTD when police car blows up on terror Office Paper Terror map* New Map Patches: 2* Drum Mags should no longer appear in gray market (DGC line 2589, change iCash to -1)* Level 6 Seeker leader should get Damage Control as intended (instead of Intimidate) (DGC.ini line 726, change iMobility=134)* Fixed MEC-6 Vanguard cost (DGC.ini 2506, ItemBalance_Nor1mal should be ItemBalance_Normal)* Hit and Run will now process on squadsight distance flank in at least one case where it wasn't* Drum Mags will actually provide extra ammo now. I swear I tested it before release and I am now doubting the nature of reality* Adjusted volume levels on South African Female 1* Corrected map patch id on covert ops street overpass ewi map, which was causing some random cover to appear on that map (DefaultMaps.ini, line 204, change string "patch_streetoverpass" to "patch_streetoverpassewi" )* XCOM with Adaptive Bone Marrow will correctly provide +2 hp regeneration per turn* Failing a council mission will correctly remove it from Geoscape mission options* Dense Smoke will no longer provide an extra 20 defense for flanked targets above the intended +40. This was not reflected in UI reports.* Fix to untextured box in Quagmire map* Soldier names with spaces in them (Van Doorn) should now appear in full in the soldier list. Fixed up some Dutch surnames.* Attempted fix: Widened conditions for ability icon rebuild after taking an action in attempt to further address free action issues* Breaching ammo will now be properly restricted to shotgun-wielding assaults in equip UIBETA 15c April 12, 2015NOTE: YOU WILL NEED TO DOWNLOAD A NEW VERSION OF THE DEV CONSOLE TO WORK WITH BETA 15c. OTHERWISE YOU MAY HAVE SEVERE BUGS WITH THE NEW MAPS.Fixes:- CTD when fighting Uber ethereal- CTD in harvest location selection logic during periods of high threat and near-total satellite coverage- CTD in research archives, seems more likely in late game- Cleaned up some possibly bad code supporting what perks can appear in Training Roulette (XGStrategySoldier.IsRandomPerkValidToAdd)- Pistols should be equipped properly upon class assignment in Commander's Choice games- Attempted Fix: It appears that Aurora and Vortex Armors and Mind Shield were having their will bonus counted twice in some circumstances (including in the UI to-hit display). This may have impacted balance in favor of the player and we'll want feedback on how effective psi powers are after this. (This involves changing the parameters in a call to native code, so it's hard to be sure exactly what's happening).- Fixed bad jump in Absorbdamage that may have been causing acid debuff to cause extra damage (rather than just remove DR) when a soldier suffers additional damage- Truly amazing amount of map fixes- Alloy SHIV available to build alert should process correctly now on tech acquisition- Corrected Laser Lance and Rail Gun strategy game descriptions- Advanced Suppression Module now actually grants Danger Zone perk as intended- HEAT and Flak Ammo damage bonus to barrage should be working now. Reworked logic in HEAT ammo and warheads application a bit.- Fortiores Una should provide DR bonus now- Blank items should no longer show up in what-got-broke debrief UI- Minimum repair time for items corrected to intended 3 days instead of 3 hours.- Interrogations should no longer remove two captives (if you have more than one), only one.- Resolved remaining issues with conditional aim modifiers that we've modded in- Mindfraying soldiers and aliens should return to cover now- Incinerator module will no longer supply +1 ammo to primary weapon- Temple Ship Heavy Floaters will no longer get excessive aim bonus- Correct subclass icon will show in postmission debrief UI- Attempted Fix: Free actions sometimes granted when soldiers returning to cover after a shot- Blaster Launcher range should scale properly with aim and perks now. Possibly some other fixes to range of free-aim weapon.- UFO Scanners should work properly for raiders and some other UFO classes now- Council Corpse requests should scale better with DW games- Level 7 Outsiders will properly get Damage Control instead of Intimidate- Fixed Triggers to give a couple of aliens special names- Regular soldiers should be able to equip flak ammo now- Quenchguns will now benefit from weapons credit; coilguns will not- Aerospace tech credit will no longer give bonus to all foundry projects, just aerospace ones- Air base attack missions should no longer make alien resource count go haywire- Gave up on attempts to remove bombard perk from Muton Elite, Cyberdiscs and Heavy Floaters and to give it back in certain circumstances, changed triggers for special unit names for leaders in each class. (This doesn't represent any gameplay change; it's basically a failed nerf attempt on aliens being cleaned up.)- Navigators will a 99 value will have perk 100% of time instead of 99%- ITZ will now drop damage correctly with each successive kill- Flashbangs will no longer trigger any VO (It was erroneously triggering an unused hunker down VO)- Rookie icon (double circle) will show up in right places; Genemodded rookies should have proper icon now- Attempted Fix: You should no longer be able to select a specialist covert operative until they have picked a subclass. This is to prevent commander's choice players from picking a covert operative, CC-ing them to a heavy, and then sending them on a mission, which caused crashy behavior because the heavy didn't have a pistol equipped.- Heater reaction range fixed to 30.- Map patches now number 64 distinct files with various fixes to flanking bugs, sightlines, terrain not providing cover and other issues.- Removed one each research outpost, commercial alley and truckstop abduction map entries, now redundant with the multiple start spawn code (may have been causing these maps to appear too often)- Attempted Fix: Attempted to address reports that weapon fragment artifacts may have been retained across mission restartsc2 fixes- Fixed Quenchguns frags cost- Fixed Core Armoring textBalancing and other changes- New VO Packs: Polish-accented English Male from Commander Faleg, Irish Male from Adam Miller, South African female from Louise Dume- Neural Feedback no longer requires Floater Interrogation to unlock; it is available at Xenopsionics with MindFray- Crashed destroyer missions will now take place on Overseer maps (with overseer mission-related stuff stripped). Destroyers now carry 4 UFO Power Sources that can be salvaged. They will have a few more aliens than in the past.- Added PierA map to terror roster- More AI work- Reduced req engineers for Adv Suppression Module and Ammo Conservation. Reduced cost of Ammo Cons slightly; increased cost of Tactical Rigging.- Deadeye now provides +15 aim and no crit bonus against fliers- Put a hard cap on alien aggro in DW campaigns so they still run some non-anti-XCOM missions. This is an attempt to address the 5x terror missions per month apparently happening in DW games.- Battle Rifle / Heavy Rifle series of weapons reworked. Compared to the assault rifle of the same tech, they offer +1 damage, -1 mobility and a -10 aim penalty after taking any non-turn-ending costly actions. Crit, base aim, and ammo are equivalent to assault rifle of the same class. They can be equipped by infantry, scouts, assaults, medics and engineers. (These values are subject to change). Some rifle costs lowered to be roughly on par with assault rifles of same tech level.- Terror mission offscreen deaths are now calibrated against activated aliens, not seen ones.- Added Drum Mags small item. They are infinite and available from campaign start. They grant +2 ammo to assault rifle, carbine, and battle rifle series weapons and may not be equipped by snipers, gunners or rocketeers. They cost 2 mobility and 4 aim to equip. They cannot be stacked with Hi Cap Mags item. To add them to an existing campaign, you should use the console command GiveItem END_SHIP_WEAPONS 99 for a nearly infinite amount. Counterfire Pods removed from game.- Modified version of Nuked City map set up as terror map. The UFO is removed and replaced with some debris. Thanks to Liquid911 for making this possible.- Floaters on Normal lose 1 mobility and 5 defense, floaters on classic lose 5 defense. - Heavy Floaters on normal lose 5 defense.- Drones on normal lose 5 defense- Exalt Elites lose 1 hp on Normal- Heavy Floaters on impossible gain 1 mobility- Increased alloy income from UFOs on Normal by 25%, Classic by 10%- Increased frags on classic slightly- Reduced elerium from power sources by 5 on brutal and impossible, increased by 5 on normal- Increased overall monthly cash from sats by 10% on normal- Reduced meld costs of MEC primary weapons by roughly 33% to 50%- Reduced meld costs of MEC secondaries by 15% to 25%. Increased elerium costs on several secondaries.- Reduced meld costs of advanced MEC techs- Changed meld costs for several genemods- Fishing village will no longer spawn chryssys from map objects during terror missions on that map- Made UFO crashes instead of complete destruction for scouts, fighters, raiders and destroyers marginally more likely- For the first 75 days, alien satellite hunts will be conducted by fighters and raiders only. After that, it will be fighters, destroyers and battleships per normal alien supply tests.- Increased "free" minimum alien supply from 7 * Months passed to 9 * Months passed- Hover SHIVs lose 4 defense, 2 flight fuel, 1 mobility, 2 hit points- MEC-6 Vanguard gains +1 mobility- Dormant alien pods will now activate if you fire at them and miss- Dormant alien pods will now activate if you use a flashbang on one of its members- Dormant alien pods will now activate if you use a chem grenade on one of its members- Dormant alien pods will now activate if you drop a prox mine in range of them- Reduced engineer requirements for Enhanced Lasers and Enhanced Beam Optics- Exalt cell panic enhancers will now cause the lesser of 10 or the base panic from the panic event, instead of 15 regardless.- Soldiers may equip only one battlescanner item each (although it still gains bonus charges from various perks, and BS perk is unchanged)- Scout tree reworked- XCOM base on normal gets +2 "free" power- Reduced power requirement for hangar by 1 (essentially +1 free power on all difficulties)- Meld cans will last a little longer before closing- On Dynamic War games < 1, timeouts from fatigue and wounds reduced to balance out mission rates from exalt and council missions (which aren't subject to DW rates).- On Dynamic War games < 1, slowed Exalt activity in accordance with DW setting. This does mean it takes longer for them to build cells as well as run operations, so it will probably take you longer in campaign time to wipe Exalt out, but they should make up a reduced proportion of your missions in any given month.- Removed mobility penalty for taking Shock-Absorbent Armor perk.- All UFOs shot down in first month with generate crash missions and not blow up. I'm selling out because there's zero narrative justification for this being possible.- Thin Men pods will be slightly more common- Floaters lose 1 base mobility, get it back on day 90- Heavy Floaters lose 1 hp during level ups (day 360), gain 2 mobility (360 and 500)- Shifted the extra damage curve on impossible. Earlier aliens don't get bonus damage, later aliens get more.- Titan Armor now costs 8 meld.- Quenchguns anti-DR bouns now 2x base gauss DR, not 3x (so .67 default instead of 1). Reduced price of QG foundry project.- Gave aliens a slight bonus in their saving throws against mimic beacons- Various minor price adjustments- Adjustments to Guardian (starts with Opportunist; Sentinel goes to old Opportunist slot), Archer, Goliath trees- SHIV Defenses foundry tech renamed "Mechanized Unit Defenses" and moved to Carapace. It now unlocks Core Armoring and Alloy-Carbide Plating. Core Armoring now available to MECs. Damage Control Pods unlocked by Heavy Floater Autopsy.- It will be harder to get Terror Ships on research missions.Beta 15b March 11, 2015"Feature"- Added cheat code functionality with dev console to permanently remove a perk from a soldier in tactical missions (not sure if it works in barracks). Use Giveperk -X where x is the perk number. So giveperk 3 grants Squadsight. Giveperk -3 removes it. To remove Deadeye from a soldier, use Giveperk -116.Fixes:- CTD on terror mission initialization when DW > 1- Fixed bug when covert extraction on military base map. Workaround, fine StreamingMaps[1]=( MapName="patch_militaryammo", Loc=( X=0, Y=0, Z=0 ), Rot=( Pitch=0, Yaw=0, Roll=0 ) ) from end of line 190 in DefaultMaps.ini, and change the[1] to [2]- Medikit II bonus may not be applying correctly in upgraded campaigns in which you already had it- Some more map patches- Council requests for meld will scale correctly with meld income now- Fixed bug in which upgraded saves were getting wrong country bonus. THIS WILL MESS UP SAVES FROM NEW CAMPAIGNS IN BETA 15a. Workaround is above.- Fixed bug in which DW < 1 dead alien loot drops were way too large and way too small in DW > 1Balance:- Outsiders now have Muscle Fiber Density- A few more Weapon Fragments on normal- Swapped Lance and Corporal perk choices on Scout treeBeta 15a (March 10, 2015)Features- You will receive a popup after missions displaying which items have been destroyed and damaged.- Perk trees will be revealed on soldier class selection in non-Training Roulette Games. In TR games, it will be hidden by default, but you can change that by setting BLUESHIRT_WILL_MOD to 1 in the file DefaultGameData.ini. (NOTE FILENAME) Unlocked psi powers on psi tree will be revealed as well.- Gave Canada a second starter bonus, "Cadre," which grants 4 corporals at campaign start. (They need to survive the first mission as rookies, more for technical reasons than anything). Old "Cadre" UK country sat bonus remained "Sandhurst."- Activated Deadeye perk, which grants +10 aim and +10 crit against airborne targets. Will be available to Infantry, Scout, Shogun and Pathfinder. Scout tree gets a little rework to accommodate perk.- Added 3rd Australian Male voicepack.Fixes- CTD when 16+ items finish repair at once. CTD caused by trying to add too many text notices at once, so the geoscape text scroller will not list every item that is fixed if you repair 16+ items at once.- Illuminator Gunsight will no longer show "requires research" and be unequippable if you take ancient artifact- Cinematic Mode ini value restored. Self-fix: Add line ABDUCTION_REWARD_SCI=15 to DGC.ini after ENABLE_SECOND_WAVE=1 line (around 1753). Soldiers previously created in a campaign will not get the better bonus, but new soldiers and aircraft will.- English Male 3 VO pack now in installer. Sorry, Sean.- Numerous map patches fixing bad cover. Removed bugged UFO door on farm map, which should solve a CTD when overwatch fire goes through the door.- Fixed bad ini setting on one of the furies (landed abductor) maps, not sure what effect would have been- Fixed: Incorrect Squadsight perk text (crit hit penalty is -20%)- Improved Combat Exoskeletons will now appear in research UI when requirements are met. Workaround: Dev Console command GiveTech Placeholder_13 may give you the tech- Lots of other text fixes- Adjusted Gauss eng reqs and LMG series costs- Code change that will fix CTD with Training Roulette in Mac/Linux versions- Fixed: Incorrect ini setting with Resourceful start not giving Alloys foundry project. DGC.ini fix: line 1444, change iEng=19 to iEng=25. This will only help new campaigns.- Flak Ammo will display correct inventory image now- Annette and the Furies should receive psi perks appropriate to their levels- Fixed assault-psi icon- Removed Armor-Piercing Ammo unintended crit bonus against hardened targets- Fixed goof in which I intended to decrease big ship speed on the hologlobe (allowing more interceptions) but instead decreased combat speed- Adv Suppression Module will show up in correct build tab in Engineering now- Removed ability to see facility construction UI detail when you can't afford building it. We put this in to let you see time to build and rush costs but it apparently enabled the ability to build themo generators everywhere as well. XGBuildUI_OnChooseFacility- Enhanced Beam Optics and Alloy Jacketed Rounds should equip properly with Laser Lance / Rail Gun now- Fixed up Blaster Launcher range code- Found second place required to change Dense Smoke & Combat Drugs AOE and fixed so Dense is same as SG and CD is much wider.- Many bugfixes to repair and R&R chances that were damaging items far more than intended and creating problems with covert operatives. Individual item damage chances exposed to ini in iWill variable. We're also testing to see if this fixes bug reports that items are simply vanishing after missions.- Any item or facility that requires exactly one of an item to build will not have that item requirement scaled with DW- You can no longer augment specialists per design- Jungle Scouts will now give bonus small slot to Phalanx per design- Cans will supply a minimum of 1 meld (for extreme DW games)- Attempted fix: Attempting to trigger neural feedback will call the code that ends suppression first. Attempt to correct reported CTD. No savegame to test on, so unsure if it will work or not.- Reworked terror mission offscreen kill code that wasn't doing what it should- Fixed a bunch of display bugs related to Reaper Rounds- Removed sound when repairs finished- UFO Scanners should provide damage readout on researched UFOs now- Worked on Mechtoid and overwatch AI- Enhanced Plasma Foundry project provides +1 all purpose plasma damage now.- Old Path country bonus should correctly impact psi training time now- Rapid Fire no longer works with Sawed-off shotgun (it was granting a free shot despite SoS 1 ammo)- DW: Alien loot drops will now scale with DW setting- Heavy Laser Rifle now correctly unlocks at Advanced Beam LasersBalance changes- Alien strategic AI will try harder to avoid countries with satellites for harvest missions when they have high aggro- Adjusted down a few meld costs (don't get excited, it's 10-20% on a few items)- Adjusted down a few fragment costs for weapon techs (ditto)- Made Wingtip Sparrowhawks a bit cheaper- Gauss Long Rifle now halves enemy hardened bonus against critical hits (so a hardened target only gets 30% crit protection instead of 60%)- Damn Good Ground now only a mid-level leader perk for Heavy Floaters, DGG on reg floaters will also come only on more advanced leaders. A few other adjustments to alien perk trees.- Swapped back TSGT and GSGT on Gunner tree- Will to Survive consistently provides +3 will on perk trees- Removed most of elerium cost from UFO scanners- Reduced a cooldown variable concerning country requests for same item to b14 levels- Roughly doubled all meld income and meld costs, with a few adjustments here and there. This provides more granularity for repairs and for meld gains from dead aliens. Cans will grant 5 to 30. NOTE: THIS WILL UNBALANCE ONGOING 15 GAMES (unless you've spent all your meld). Fix is to download dev console and use giveresource meld command to double your stockpile.- Total Loss SW option now has an DGD.ini-adjustable chance to lose soldier gear on death. This same variable also governs soldier gear loss on death AND mission failure that is present in regular game.- Inserted code in case of DW > 1 that delays appearance of some hardcoded (difficult) terror mission rosters that were triggered based on how many terror missions you had been on- Slight bump in fragment income on NormalBeta 15Beta 15 requires a new campaign.Features/New Functionality* Functionality for new soldier voice packs is in game. Voicepacks will be assigned to soldiers of the appropriate nationality and may manually be assigned to any soldier of the designated gender. More voicepacks are in production and this list will be updated when they are complete. Many props to Long War Sound Editor TrackTwo for his tireless efforts getting this working, and special thanks to Firaxis, who helped us with some processing settings to get the voicepacks sounding similar to the vanilla ones. * A new bonuses system is in place: 1) Players may choose from a number of starting bonuses tied to which of the 16 council countries you put your first satellite. You have multiple options for some countries. The bonuses aren't balanced against each other, so to some degree this is a way to play a somewhat customized campaign. 2) When launching a satellite, a player gains a specific country bonus. These are less powerful than the starter bonuses, and some of the countries that offer less monthly $$ have stronger bonuses to make them attractive. Some costs were rebalanced in light of bonuses now available. 3) Continent bonuses are now gained with ONLY full satellite coverage over all countries on the continent. Some have been rebalanced and the OTS discount is no longer tied to any continent. The strength of each bonus, and the country assignment, can be modified in DGC.ini.* XCOM will draw soldiers from roughly 90 new countries (with unique flags) in addition to the existing group, with dozens of new namelists by Uzifeline. Countries include all of Europe (save microstates) and South America, with almost all of Central America and Asia, and lots of African countries. And New Zealand. Players can still control frequency of all countries providing soldiers with ini edits. Van Doorn gets UN flag, because he really represents all of us. SHIVs get XCOM flag in strategy game lists.* Major overhaul to Not-So-Long-War, which has been renamed Dyanmic War. Instead of planning missions monthly, with this option the aliens will check supply and threat to launch most missions constantly. This allows mission frequency in NSLW to be tunable with the ini setting -- even setting it to 1.0 will provide a different feel than regular LW, as missions per month isn't set, but probabilistic (although the variables are set to *on average* generate the same mission count if set to 1.0). You can set it to .3 for a much shorter campaign, or above 1 for even greater mission density.* You can now build seven MEC suits. MEC-1 is tier one, MEC-2 and MEC-3 are tier 2, and MEC-4 through MEC-7 are tier 3. They split along survivability/mobility lines and some grant body shield or jet boot module perks. MEC suit bonus will has gone down somewhat, and some MEC perk trees significantly reworked.* Critical wound bleed out timer now randomized between 2 and 5 turns. The timer is concealed to the player. * Respirator implant item now does the following: (in addition to strangle and partial acid immunity) 1) Causes first death of mission to instead automatically be a critical wound; 2) Adds 2 turns to bleed out timer; 3) Transmits bleed-out timer data to central. It does not prevent will loss. Raised price for item.* Long War classes have distinct icons now* You can always enter build facility detail screen for readout on requirements, even if you have insufficient resources for build* Commander's Choice (pick each soldier class) now available as a Second Wave option. Removed "Alternate Sources" SW option. Thanks to Peasly Wellbott for letting us pick this up.* Missions that can expire now have a countdown timer on the Geoscape UI. Geoscape will also pause when a mission is about to expire.* Activated Tandem Warheads perk, which causes explosives to do full regular and environmental damage to the extent of their area of effect. This will be a high-level perk appearing on the Rocketeer, Engineer and Archer trees.* Added UFO Scanners foundry project. This is an upgrade for your interceptors that will show precise damage taken by UFOs in air combat (using XMarksTheSpot's new interception UI mod) If you have already completed the analysis of the UFO class you are facing.* Small items that grant non-perk bonuses (like Ceramic Plating or Armor Piercing Ammo) will now be described in your F1 HUD in tactical and have an icon with all your perks on the main tactical screen. You'll see a bit of doubling up of icons, 'cause we're out.* Individual aliens and Exalts with certain perks will show different names in F1 detail if you have autopsied the species, giving a clue to their capabilities (and providing some flavor). eg Mutons with "Covering Fire" will be called "Muton Sentry" unless they have a stronger perk that takes precedence.- Spruced up the MEC conversion UI.- Reinstituted MEC repair and added repair of regular soldier items. Many items can now be damaged during (technically, after) combat and will have an increasing chance of needing repair following combat based on how many 'true' (non-armor) hp a soldier has lost. (Items will always function for the duration of a battle.) Armor, weapons, and small items that aren't infinite or fundamentally consumable (like grenades and ammo) are in the mix, although the chances they'll need repair is capped even if a soldier is killed varying on how likely something is to get damaged (armor=higher chances; pistol=lower chances, etc). Cybernetics Lab is now called "Repair Bay," is much cheaper, and may be built from campaign start. Cost to repair an item is initially set of 20% cash, meld, alloy and elerium cost, and a formula for time to repair is also in place that starts with a baseline of 60% of build time but goes down as you develop Advanced Repair and add engineers to your staff (minimum is 72 hours). The following items are ini-adjustable: repair time% of baseline build time, resource cost as% of baseline resource cost, and you can turn off repair requirements entirely with one variable. Removed Second Wave option "More than Human" and replaced with Wear and Tear, which gives a chance that items will be damaged on missions and require repairs even when a soldier isn't hurt. The chance is initially set at 20% per item, and this value is ini-moddable. Many item costs are being adjusted downward to make up for reduced utility when they are in the shop.Fixes:* Code that was rolling up leaders at somewhat too high of a level and occasionally letting Temple Ship aliens out on regular missions* Restored code allowing 50/50 chance for recovery of gear on soldier MIA/death + mission failure. Also MEC suits from dead soldiers can be recovered again.* Adjusted some spawn code to reduce incidence of aliens spawning in range of soldiers at mission start (without pressing them all against the back wall of the map as was happening previously)* Some overloud stacking sounds (overwatch all and research new-item alert) won't be so loud* You will no longer get meld from failed alien and Exalt base assaults (vanilla bug)* Mayhem will apply +4 damage bonus precision shot for snipers with sniper rifles (instead of +2)* Rounding error that was causing Ethereal Psi Drain to not gain any HP when Ethereal was down only 1 hp* Repair perk will provide correct bonus arc thrower charges now* Flush will not cause flying units to attempt to move* Mimic Beacon throw range correctly limited* Various fixes to Critical Hit chances and interactions. Targeting Module (which isn't broken, contrary to reports) fix to displayed crit chance in some circumstances.* Mayhem will now provide SAW/LMG damage bonus when using Rapid Fire and Flush* Reward soldiers should now adopt your class coloration and headgear settings when class is selected* Building/Tearing Down GeneLab/PsiLab should provide immediate impact on lab bonuses* Having the Snap Shot perk and 1) carrying any primary weapon without the movelimited property (ie strike rifles) or 2) using the second shot of double tap confers a corrective to the snap shot aim penalty, canceling it out in those cases, as long as the calculated to-hit before the corrective is greater than 1%. This mostly corrects a vanilla bug.* Smoke and Dense Smoke will now provide defense to flanked targets on the condition that the attacker's chance to hit is otherwise less than 100. If the chance to hit is 100, smoke/dense smoke provides a flat -10/-20 defense, because we are unable to access how much greater than 100 the pre-smoke to-hit is.* Interceptor aim module now turns two misses into hits, instead of just making sure the next two shots hit regardless of roll. This fixes a bug in which Sparrowhawks were counting as an aim module hit if it was going to hit anyway.* Fixed, at long last: Bug in which flanking bonuses for to-crit and ITZ purposes were not being applied to Squadsight shots.* Fixed bug in which Fortiores Una wasn't conferring enough Damage Reduction. Changed its mechanics so it doubles base cover bonus, (so low is about 1.3, and high is 2.0).* Fixed bug in which Mind Control wasn't supplying PsiXP.* Bring 'Em On now counts enemies at Squadsight ranges in crit bonus calculation* Alien Salvage actually provides salvage now* Council Reward probability shift when you have a bunch of engineers should work properly now* Adrenaline Surge perk actually provides crit bonus now* Chameleon Suit actually provides bonus defense when using Lightning Reflexes (ouch)* Aliens will now run harvest missions as intended at supply 1, threat 4 on mission matrix. Also a couple of other adjustments on the matrix.* A soldier with both Concealment (old Psi Shadow) and Low Profile will no longer conceal, move to low cover, and immediately reveal; instead they won't conceal at all. This should allow a soldier with Lightning Reflexes, Low Profile and Concealment to trigger OW shots and retain high cover bonus by moving to a low cover spot.* Attempted fix: Shouldn't face any fresh panic checks when reloading a game with a critically wounded soldier* Triggering the HQ Defense mission will no longer crash game while Skyranger is in flight* Fixed some map bugs on police station and small scout nuked cityBalancing and other minor adjustments:* Alien roster for XCOM HQ Assault will scale up in difficulty a little more slowly* Not So Long War SW option now applies modifier to soldier timeout and interceptor repair time -- meaning they will both be out longer* UFO upgrades to accuracy, damage and hit points now stop at 32 months (alien research 960) so interception game doesn't become truly impossible for persistent-game players* Significant nerf to the power of large lab blocks to reduce research time* Packmaster provides +1 Proximity Mine charge instead of +2* Dramatic increase in Weapon Fragments required for various technologies* Increased Neuroregulator psi bonus; wearing it 3 times will reduce missions to level up by 1. Adjusted PsiXP to normalize missions per level at 5 for all levels and 3 on current (.6) NSLW setting. NR grants +10 will.* Armor Piercing Ammo item now nullifies 2 points of enemy DR. Armor Piercing Ammo item now available to MECs, SHIVs and Engineers, but won't help with shotguns or sidearms.* HEAT Ammo and HEAT Warheads damage reduced to +50% from 75%. HEAT Ammo perk made available to engineer class at Gunnery Sergeant rank (in place of RFA). HEAT Ammo will not work if carrying a shotgun. Both HEAT Ammo and HEAT Warheads will provide a minimum of 2 bonus damage. Both HEAT Ammo and HEAT Warheads bonus exposed in separate ini variables, using up our last two spare floats for ini settings.* Weapon-tech damage-bonus items (alloy jacketed rounds, enhanced beam optics, plasma stellerator) now usable by humans, SHIVs and MECs. Depleted Elerium Rounds, Laser Pumper, Zevatron Booster removed from game. * Laser Sight and Hi Cap Mags now usable by humans, SHIVs and MECs. Weapon Gyros and Autoloader removed from game.* Targeting Module now provides +8% crit and +1 base damage when critical hits occur (so 1.5 critical damage).* Abductions will be spaced out over an entire month regardless of how many the aliens plan. Previously they were stacked in the early month. Reduced allowed Abduction response time.* Reduced meld from dead aliens to make you go after cans more. Exposed a couple of alien meld variables to the ini.* Ghost Grenades renamed "Shadow Device" and no longer gain additional charges from Packmaster or Smoke and Mirrors.* Engineers may now use shredder ammo small item. Added engineer-specific item property for additional modding.* Recovering from being strangled reduces your grenade throw range.* Increased damage and reduced AOE of Proximity Mines. AOE and trigger range should now match.* Increased AOE of grenade launcher grenades.* Reaction Fire against Mecs, Mectoids, SHIVs and Sectopods (what we're calling large mechanized units) is more accurate unless the targeted unit has Lightning Reflexes, or attacker has Opportunist / Advanced Fire Control (which already provide this accuracy bonus). Specifically, added a variable to cancel the REACTION_PENALTY (which is 0.7) when firing at these units. Dashing bonus still in effect. This can be removed with an ini edit. Purpose is to reduce effectiveness of big tanky units as super-dodgy Reaction Fire busters (although their DR will still help), and enhance utility of Lightning Reflexes perk on scouts.* Equipping multiple Kinetic Strike Modules now confers +3 damage for each extra module equipped. Stacks with Thumper and MEC Close Combat advances.* Firing a rocket/shredder rocket now grants +1 mobility for the remainder of the mission (for each rocket fired)* Major Rework of rocketeer tree, some changes all other trees* Sightline HUD (red alien heads) will now display up to 20 aliens in view instead of 10* Phoenix Cannon is back (replacing Phoenix Coilgun). It is available at Alien Materials and is probably a middling upgrade to the missiles -- it has base laser cannon armor piercing (enough to do full damage to Raiders) and slightly higher damage per second than Avalanche, and all the shots should mean it should provide more consistent results than the missiles.* Added foundry project "Quenchguns" that triples the anti-DR capability of Gauss weapons (to 1) and is available after researching Advanced Gauss Weapons.* Added foundry project "Phoenix Coilguns" that improves all existing Phoenix Cannon to Phoenix Coilgun stats and is available after researching Gauss Weapons.* Foundry projects will be more moddable in the ini now.* Strategy Game alien resource numbers moddable in the ini now.* Improved impact of Snap Shot for rocketeers.* Mimic Beacon item provides 1 base charge, not 2* Increased "Reasonable Attack Range" for drones and flying units in hopes of reducing derpy behavior* Aliens with Lightning Reflexes will now care much less about overwatchers when deciding what to do* Offscreen kills on terror missions will be proportionally reduced with the number of aliens you can see. To compensate, aliens can rarely kill 3 civilians a turn if you have revealed few or no aliens.* Master Sergeants will roll for a +1 bonus to a random stat (offense, defense, will, hit points) every 4th mission. 10% chance of hit point, 30% chance of one of the other three.* Transports (UFOs) will tend to have more troops than previously.* You will see more alien 'monsters' (level 9 leaders) by the by on alien base assaults, larger UFOs and late-game council missions.* Resources reworked a bit. Reduced base alloys from each UFO class by about 30%. Increased average alloys and elerium recovered on UFO crash missions. Foundry alloy and elerium projects now provide 20% bonus to ALL alloys and elerium recovered from missions. UFO Analysis techs provide 20% bonus to alloys and elerium recovered from that specific class of UFO after mission win (crashed or landed). Slight increase in chances of UFO Power and Nav Computer surviving mission. Altered how EMP Cannon works (bonus to artifact survival instead of flat chance). Slight decrease in alloys recovered from certain alien species. The goal here is to steady out your resource income and force some investment to improve it, particularly in the early game (making bagging a big landed UFO a little less swingey in overall campaign progression), make an early alien materials tech path more enticing, and make crashes somewhat more rewarding.* Reduced base flamethrower damage by 2. Jellied Elerium foundry project now provides only bonus panic chance on its own, but it also unlocks a small item, the Incinerator Module, that provides +3 flamethrower damage.* Reduced Chryssalid will by 10 or 15 or so.* MEC Railgun will now use Minigun model and effects. Laser/Pulse Lance will use Railgun model and effects.* Arc Rifle now available to all squishy classes but gunner and rocketeer. You may now move and fire it without penalty. It still suffers close-range penalties like sniper rifles (This a technical limitation -- disabling shot can't be divorced from short-range penalty), but otherwise operates like a rifle. It no longer operates at beyond visual range. It confers +10 aim.* Alloy Belt item removed from game. Alloy Carbide Plating provides Extra Conditioning bonus (2-4 HP) but no DR.* All MEC units gain +4 hp upon conversion instead of +2. MEC Armors lowered by 2 hp.* Reworked DR calculation formula so additive modifiers are calculated before multiplicative ones, with the exception of cover DR. This reduces the effect of Absorption Fields and Shock Absorbent Armor.* MECs have slightly higher average timeout between missions* New Item: Flak Ammo. Unlocked by Floater Autospy and MEC Warfare Systems. Can be equipped by anybody. Works like HEAT Ammo, granting greater of +2 or +20% base weapon damage against airborne units with primary weapon and rockets, and allows MECs with Collateral Damage to target airborne units with its AOE weapon attack (and gain the damage bonus).* Reduced damage for MEC Minigun, Laser Lance, Railgun by 1, so it scales up by 1 at each tech level like every other weapon.* Combined Arms perk now nullifies 1 point of all DR, not just cover-based DR. (Note all MECs have this perk innately). * Attempted to make EXALT less suicidal in rushing transmitter volume with AI change to GetMaxDangerLevelForMovement* Vital Point Targeting no longer applies to Collateral Damage ability (was never intended to). Ranger, and Shredded effects still do. * HEAT now applies a flat +2 damage bonus when used with collateral damage against robotic enemies.* Increased harder aliens' damage by 2 on Impossible, and easier aliens by 1. Increased alien research rate on Brutal from 105% to 110%, and 120 to 130% on Impossible.* Mid-level Cyberdisc and Sectopod leaders will get HEAT ammo. A few alien leaders/navigators will get Combined Arms.* Increased meld cost to convert a soldier to a MEC. Decreased meld cost of all suits.* Converting to a MEC confers a loss of one level (rank) and a proportionate reduction in XP; that is, a Sergeant 50% of the way to TSGT converts and becomes a Corporal 50% of the way to Sergeant with XP. MSGTs reset to minimum XP to become GSGT.* Gave SHIVs a little armor HP that won't need time in the shop if lost. Regular SHIV now has 15 defense (vice 10); Alloy SHIV has 10 defense (vice 15).* Rework of equip UI so it alerts you when you are equipping an ammo type or other small item that isn't compatible with one of your primary weapons, and unequips the small item if you swap to an incompatible primary weapon. Damage enhancer ammos will no longer apply bonuses to sidearms. If I get another spare item, I"ll think about a pistol damage enhancer item as an option.* Three special ammo items -- Flak, Shredder and AP -- cannot stack. * Moderate rework of some aim and defense: Items will gain aim/crit/defense on a 4/6/8/12 scale rather than a 5/7/10/15. Perk gains unchanged. Soldier aim gains on level ups will range from 18 to 28, with 18 or 21 for most classes (Scout is 25, Sniper is 28 ). Soldier recruit aim range changed from 55 to 75 to 58 to 72. Wider range for MECs, with a peak at 28 again for the Jaeger. (Note MECs can use Scope now.) Adjusted rocketeer scatter so a point of aim is worth slightly more, as they have fewer perk-based options to increase aim. Aliens lose some defense on level-ups. This is intended to do several things: 1) increase value of aim and defense-related perks on the trees, most of which are conditionally activated, challenging you to employ them effectively. 2) Increase value of cover and flanking mid-to-late game by reducing impact of general purpose defense. 3) Make it harder to reach 100 to hit 4) Flatten aim differences between classes somewhat and help supports be somewhat useful riflemen. * Three aim gainers -- Scope, Neural Gunlink and Illuminator Gunsight -- can no longer stack. Neural Gunlink and Illuminator Gunsight now provide +12 aim/crit. Scope provides +8.* Platform Stability now available on Sniper, Gunner and Rocketeer trees. Platform Stability now helps reduce rocket scatter. * Alloy Bipod is now a flat aim/crit gainer equippable only by snipers, providing +6 aim at zero weight. * Slight bump in XP to reach high ranks. (Master Sergeant is 4200 instead of 4000).* Squadsight shots now suffer only a -20% crit penalty* LMG series no longer provides a 5% crit bonus* In the Zone hits do one less damage with each ITZ kill in a round. ITZ crit per kill penalty reduced to -10% per kill from -25%. (And note Squadsight ITZ-related bugfix above).* Titan armor is now .5 DR, 12 HP, and carries the Damage Control perk.* Rework to simplify and bugfix explosives and perk interactions. Sapper now provides +1 damage to HE, AP, Alien, and Grenade Launcher grenades and Prox Mines. Mayhem applies +2 damage to all those weapons and +2 to rockets. Completing the alien grenade foundry project applies +2 damage to Needle and Grenade Launcher grenades and a 60% AOE bonus to HE grenades. So a maxed out Needle Grenade can get 9 damage, alien grenade 8 damage, HE Grenade 6 damage + large AOE, Grenade Launcher grenade 9 damage (with Ranger) and Proximity Mine (again with Ranger) 13 damage. Rockets go from 7, 9 and 12 to top out at 11, 13 and 17 with Mayhem, Ranger, and damage enhancers.* Trying to train drones and Mechtoids not to double move when enemies are around. * Trained drones to use their overload ability in certain special conditions (Without giving up the triggers, I'm showing some restraint here.) Debating whether to up the damage a bit.* Trying to train aliens to set up overwatch walls when they are defending landed ships and their own bases.* Removed Smartgun Kit item (Advanced Fire Control is now on Gunner tree). Replaced with Advanced Suppression Module for SHIVs, which grants Danger Zone perk.* Memorial now displays soldier class of deceased soldiers* Savior now also provides 2 item-free medikit charges and +4 healing bonus.* The first soldier on your roster will always be from XCOM's home country.* Taking Battlescanner perk now lets you throw scanners a distance equivalent to having Grenadier and Bombardier perks. Those perks will also increase BS throw distance, but it won't stack with perk bonus.* Regen Biofield now has a 50/50 chance (in separate rolls) of curing poison and reducing panic duration of nearby soldiers, in addition to healing bonus. Adjusted psi perk tree so Regen Biofield is level 1, Psi Inspiration and Distortion Field are level 2, and Psi Panic and Mind Merge are level 3. (Changed requirements a bit too). Psi fatigue increased to 24 hours for first level, and then to 6 hours for 2nd and 3rd level to increase cost of spamming low-level psis just to get at the gear.* Combat Stims grants adrenaline surge perk (+10 aim, +10 crit if you get wounded) for duration of mission, in addition to current use. * Slowed down pace of country item requests slightly.* Chameleon Suit now provides immunity to Opportunist crits* Psi Shadow perk renamed "Concealment" and removed from Psi Tree. Now a MSGT perk on Scout tree. Hacking an Exalt array and capturing meld now reveals hidden soldiers.* Slight reduction in flight fuel for flying armors and hover shiv* Larger UFOs have more hit points and go slower on the strategic map, allowing for more interceptions while they are on missions.* Dense Smoke perk no longer provides AOE bonus for smoke grenades.* UFO initial base will not be on your starting continent.* Doubled alien alloys and elerium income from UFOs, missions and aliens. Doubled alloys and elerium costs for techs and items. Reduced $$ cost for alloys and elerium. Increased usual amount for council item requests of alloys and elerium. This makes the repair system a little more granular -- the amount of alloys/elerium needed to repair early game items (0/1/2, etc) was making too big a difference in the utility of the item. Otherwise the overall economy should be the same.* Scores of minor adjustmentsHotfix 14i (Dec. 4, 2014) -- special toddler banged at my keyboard editionFixes:- Possible CTD when using Heal charge with Field Medic perk and carrying no medikits- Missing Chaingun icon (with ammo count) in tactical- Neural Feedback not doing correct damageHotfix 14h (Dec. 3, 2014)Feature* Arc Thrower modifier exposed as an ini variable for moddingFixes:* CTD when sectopod AI hunting for cluster bomb targets* All-Exalt HQ assault shouldn't occur anymore* Bad XCOM spawns for soldiers 7+ in Linux version and cleaner 7+ spawns overall* Some ghost grenade-related adjustments listed in g that weren't fully implemented* Rebates when buying multiple items should work correctly now* Third shot on Rapid Reaction should fire nowHotfix 14g (Nov. 29, 2014)Features:* You may now select and equip your soldiers for the HQ defense, with some important limits: You will be required to equip 12 soldiers (this number is moddable in DefaultGameData.ini and LW default may change based on feedback), but only a random five will be available immediately, with three more as reinforcements (one automatic, the other two dependent on losses). The remainder were pinned down somewhere else and will not show up on the mission at all (and receive no fatigue or XP). Blueshirts will be largely unchanged from B14, although reinforcements will almost always arrive based on keep you at 6 XCOM soldiers and 2 blueshirts, so no more gamey sacrifices of those guys. Aliens will also sometimes bring leaders on the HQ Assault, which the leader level and frequency increasing with alien research. They will also work to protect their assault carrier better.* Hangar ship list will contain an icon indicating whether aircraft is a standard interceptor or Firestorm* Critical Wound will penalty now exposed as an ini variable for modding* Added scroller to soldier equip UI allowing more 6 items (armor+weapons+items) to be equipped. Note for modders: Small items in slot 4+ may not supply charges in tactical game; we may try to address this in the future.Fixes:* CTDs and some other weird behavior at interception initiation (with short-range weapons and maybe Sparrowhawks)* CTD when an ethereal psi-reflects twice in a turn (we think vanilla bug)* Lockup when SHIV tries to reinforce a HQ assault and gets stuck in the door. Shivs will no longer go on these missions.* Lockup when you have covering fire, sentinel and Neural Dampening all on the same soldier, you overwatch, and a mind control is used against you. (Fix: Being dazed cancels any overwatch shots)* Bug in which randomized alien drop downs were not taking place* Added explicit check for panicking in whether Close Combat Specialist triggers* Incidents of zero damage will still do zero damage if targeted is shredded. This is to fix cases of shredded ethereals taking 1 damage when a psi reflect event occurs.* Reworked how item discounts/rush costs are calculated so rounding issues don't make it advantageous to build a single item rather than several.* Ready For Anything will now trigger when Adrenal Neurosympathy fires after a kill* Combat Stims provide immunity to crits when not flanked or exposed* Psi Abilities will no longer apply shredding debuff with Shredder Ammo* Cyrillic font should look nicer now* Officer bonus perks properly removed from MECs now* Removed hyperwave beacon from list of salable items (due to bug in gray market); increased sale price of alien entertainment to compensate* You shouldn't be able to co-equip Psi Grenades and Flashbangs now* XCOM reinforcements in HQ Defense should spawn in order of barracks sorting now* Sectopod AI won't try to clusterbomb airborne units* Medikit preview blinkies will correctly take Smart Macrophages into account in all cases* EMP Cannon should work properly in providing loot chances now; exposed its effectiveness to the ini* You can change hairstyles on special soldiers now (Zhang, etc)* Finishing a lab should correctly update time to completion of current research project in UI* Added IsLocationOccupied check to prevent aliens from dropping on tiles already occupied by soldiers.* Reverted Commander spawn points to default for Supply and Battleship UFOs, because of UFO volume not being determined properly for those ships.* You should be able to train Rift before activating Gollop Chamber again if other requirements are fulfilled* Some crit bonuses will no longer be displayed twice in shot detail when attempting precision shot* Field commander rank should show up correctly in barracks now* Drone self-destruct will actually entail them self-destructing and not just taking damage* Panicking units will automatically unstealth, and cannot be stealthed with ghost grenades. This was to fix some buggy behavior but we're fine with the nerf to stealth, too.* Some scrolling improvements* Fixed bug in which abductor research missions were providing no alien research bonus* Attempted Fix (again): Tried to remove Steady Weapon ability from EXALT AI possibilities in a second location in the AI code* Attempted Fix: Found and eliminated case in which you could generate XCOM HQ assaults two months in a row, contrary to design intent for that not to happen* Attempted Fix: Rare cases of units blocking tiles after death.* Attempted Fix: Tile blocking after a suppression-caused reaction fire shotBalancing:- Lowered sectoid commander aim significantly so their AI decides to use psi powers more often.- Removed brutal and boring Van Doorn map from terror mission roster. Added new gas station map in its place.- Steadfast perk (and Alien Trophies and Mind Shield) now provides immunity to Muton Intimidate ability. Mutons will no longer intimidate XCOM soldiers that they can't see (so at squadsight ranges or hidden).- Mind Merge provides greater DR (1 per 45 will)- Adjusted spawn settings again to better spread out alien pods, but again raising the still-slight risk of a spawn appearing in visual range of XCOM LZ.- Mayhem provides +4 damage (sted +2) for sniper and strike rifles- Thin Men should show up more often in general encounters- Reduced meld provided by mectoids (3 to 2) floaters (.5 to .4), Heavy Floaters (1 to .8 ) and Exalt Elite (1 to .8 )- Slightly changed Commander Pod location randomization algorithm to produce more diverse results.- Rapid Reaction now allows a third overwatch shot if the prior two hit- Buffed will of Temple Ship Muton Elites- Some aliens will have access to Neural Damping perk- MEC-3 armor now has two small item slots instead of one. Removed tactical sense perk from MEC-3 armor. Increased engineer requirements for MEC-2 and MEC-3 armors slightly.- Mimic Beacons now work on a caster will versus alien will mechanism, so aliens have to fail a will-based saving throw to be affected by it. Raised cash price and will penalty of MBs slightly.- Scientist and Engineer Loss on defeat during HQ Assault will cap at 1/3 of current staffing- Increased meld cost of some items and foundry projects- Amped up alien base forces a bit. Aliens will have a higher chance of rol