L A S T H O P E

by Daz


Overview:
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This mod is an attempt to make XCom experience more realistic as seen by the author. It encompases Realistic Base Layout mod.

Heavy armors impede movement speed now. All weapons do more damage now. Laser weapons don't need reloading anymore. Plasma weapons do even more damage. Soldiers don't gain HP by leveling up anymore. Use of cover is now even more vital. Deadlier enemies.

All items now need time to build. All small items prices reduced drastically. Satellite coverage yields less income. Player should rely more on mission rewards and selling weapons and other items to Council members. Facility and interceptor costs are even higher. Etc, etc...

For all the details see List of Changes.

WARNING: This mod is not compatible with basic game tutorial! It should be disabled.


Installation guide:
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Linux:

1. Place XComGameCore.ini and XComGameData.ini into your .local/share/feral-interactive/XCOM/XEW/WritableFiles folder. YOu have to disable Phoning home to prevent game from restoring original files.

2. Use UPKUtils to decompress and patch with LastHope.txt your xcomgame.upk and xcomstrategygame.upk files located in .local/share/Steam/SteamApps/common/XCom-Enemy-Unknown/xew/xcomgame/cookedocconsole folder. Also delete corresponding uncompressed_size files.

Windows:

Rename files appropriately and place them into appropriate folders. The rest should be the same.


List of changes:
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ARMOR:

All heavy armors (Titan, Archangel...) decrease user's mobility by 2.

Skeleton -1 Mobility (Bonus of +3 was too much imo.)
Carapace +1 HP
Archangel +2 HP (Now offers the same protection as Titan armor.)
Ghost -1 Mobility
Psi +2 HP -2 Mobility -10 defense +10 will (Armor is more firm but rigid in comparison to Ghost armor. Now raises will as stated in tactical info.)
Covert Ops -1 HP (Covert operatives don't wear armor.)

MEC Armors Warden, Sentinel and Paladin now confer +10, +15 and +20 HP bonus respectively.


UNITS:

Civilians +2 HP and civvies don't break windows and kick down doors anymore.
Soldiers +5 Offense, Heavies get -1 Mobility penalty.
Tanks +10 Offense

Psi gift is even rarer but more soldiers can be tested at once. Wounded soldiers recover much longer but new ones are cheaper to recruit.

Hover SHIVs get -2 HP bonus.

Sectoid -5 Offense, +2 Mobility
Sectoid Commander -1 HP, -5 Offense, -5 Defense, +2 Mobility
Thinman +5 Offense, +1 Mobility
Floater +2 HP
Heavy Floater +5 Offense
Muton +2 HP, -2 Mobility
Muton Elite +2 HP, -2 Mobility
Cyberdisk -1 HP, +10 Offense, +10 Defense, -4 Mobility
Ethereal -8 HP, +20 Defense (This made ethereals them physically weaker as the lore suggests but also increased defense to compensate.)
Uber Ethereal -7 HP, +30 Defense
Chryssalid +4 Mobility (Regular soldiers can't outrun chryssalids anymore. :P)
Zombie -2 HP, -2 Mobility
Muton Berserker +20 Offense, +1 Mobility
Sectopod +10 Offense, -10 Defense
Drone +2 Mobility
Outsider +2 HP and immunity to poison
Mechtoid +4 Shield HP
Seeker +5 Offense

All exalt soldiers get +10 Defense


WEAPONS

All conventional weapons do +1 Dmg (except pistol) and -5 enviromental Dmg.
All automatic rifles have +5 chance of supression and all heavy guns have +15 chance of supression.
All shotguns and MGs get +1 Dmg.
All sniper rifles get -1 Dmg but +10 critical.

Standard pistol has lowered range (-10) and needs reloading now.
Chaingun gets additional +2 Dmg and can supress now (+20).

All laser weapons are more powerful than their conventional counterparts and get +2 Dmg except pistol which gets + 1 Dmg.
All laser weapons have unlimited ammo since they run on built-in batteries that can last for days before getting fully discharged.
All laser weapons have reduced environmental Dmg (2x Dmg of their conventional counterparts).
All laser weapons are extremely precise and allow for easy targeting (+10 offense) but have lower chance of doing a critical hit (-5 critical).

Scatter laser has -15 shorter range.
Railgun gets +3 Dmg.

All plasma weapons are more powerful than their conventional counterparts and get +4 Dmg except pistol and light plasma rifle which gets + 2 Dmg.
All plasma weapons do high criticals (+10 criticals) and more environmental damage (conventional +100) due to volatile nature of plasma.
Humans have problems aiming with bulkier plasma weapons compared to more conventional weapons (-10 offense).

Light plasma rifle gets +5 offense bonus.
Heavy plasma rifle gets +10 environmental Dmg.
Alloy cannon has -10 shorter range.
Particle beam get +2 Dmg, +75 environmental Dmg and +20 critical chance.

All grenades and rockets/blasters are deadlier x2 Dmg.
Needle grenade +50 environmental Dmg.
Rocket environmental Dmg is halved.
Mech Flame Thrower +1 Dmg.
Mech Kinetic Strike -1 Dmg.
Mech Electro Pulse -1 Dmg.

Sectoid plasma pistol additional +1 Dmg and +5 environmental Dmg.
ThinMan light plasma rifle gets -10 supression.
Floater & Muton light/heavy plasma rifle get +5 critical.
Floater & Muton heavy plasma gets -5 supression.
Elder Weapon +1 Dmg.
Outsider Plasma Weapon -10 critical.

ThinMan plague -2 Dmg.
Chryssalid Claw +2 Dmg and +15 critical.
Zombie Fist -2 Dmg.
Muton Blade +1 Dmg and -8 critical.

Drone Beam +8 environmental Dmg.
Cyberdisc weapon +2 Dmg and +7 supression.
Sectopod Cannon Chest Cannon +5 Dmg.
Sectopod Cannon +2 Dmg and +10 offense.
Sectopod Cluster Bomb +2 Dmg and +15 critical.
Sectopod Heat Ray +5 Dmg and -10 critical.
Mechtoid Plasma Cannon +5 Dmg.
Seeker Plasma Pistol +1 Dmg.

All Exalt weapons get +1 Dmg and +10 environmental Dmg compared to their conventional counterparts since Exalt operatives use high-explosive incendiary rounds.
All Exalt laser weapons get +1 Dmg and +20 environmental Dmg due to higher energy output. However since Exalt has inferior power source for their weapons they require frequent replacement (reloading).


BALANCE & TACTICAL

Difficulty balance tweaked! Stat progression revamped - no HP gain when leveling, will gain per level doubled! Funding amounts and continent balance refurbished.

Cover bonus increased. No cover defense halved. Soldiers more likely to hunker down than shoot when panicked.

Ethereal reflection Dmg raised to 50%. Increased chance for offscreen chryssalid kill producing a zombie (100% on hard and impossible).
Death blossom slider increased for normal and hard. Alien grenade slider increased for normal and decreased for impossible.

Increased maximum number of attacking aliens on easy and normal. Close range reduced to 12 tiles. Sniper aim penalty in close range doubled.

Max critical wounding chance reduced by 10%. Soldiers will die more often.


MISSIONS

Abduction mission rewards halved. UFO limit raised to 3 per month and chance for UFO interception raised to 75%.

Respond timer for abduction and terror missions lowered to 24 hours. Respond timer for landed UFO mission raised to 36 hours.

Raised max money reward for completing Council member's request by 25$ on easy, normal and impossible and by 50$ on hard. Raised min money reward by 50$ on easy.

Covert Ops duration prolonged by 2 day. Covert Ops "all points safe" reward halved.


BASE

Facility removal now takes 1 day to complete.

Regular power generator output raised by 1/3. Lab research and adjacency bonuses raised by 5%.

Number of starting scientists and engineers doubled.

Now starting with 20 soldiers. Barracks capacity set at 60 soldier (10 full squads).

Wider starting aim range if using not created equally option. Rookie aim lowered by 5%.


GLOBAL

Lowered effect of satellite events on panic. Halved panic effect when ignoring UFOs. Conquering alien base has stronger effect on panic decrease on hard and impossible. Lowered continental panic rise after abductions on easy and normal. Lowered country panic decrease after thwarted abduction.

Starting panic on easy and normal set on 4.

Countries with level 4 panic will leave the Council if not helped on hard and impossible. One more country per month can leave the Council on hard now.

Lowered chance of UFOs discovering satellites by 10%. Reduced max Elerium loss for crashed UFO by 5%.

Initial Exalt cell sweep lowered by 10$ on easy and normal and raised by 30$ on hard and impossible. Subsequent sweep cost halved on hard.


ECONOMY

The idea is to earn money and fund the project by selling weapons and equipment to Council country members. Importance of satellite control for funding diminished.

Base funding on easy and normal raised by 25$ and doubled on hard and impossible.

Country funding Amounts lowered 4x.

Council demand mission probability raised by 50%.

Demand amounts raised 5x. Request cooldowns halved.


ITEMS

All prices of soldier weapons and equipment 5x lower to support new economy idea.

Elerium cost for most plasma weapons on hard and impossible lowered by 1/3. Plasma pistol elerium cost remains the same while heavy plasma rifle and alloy cannon elerium price is lowered by 1/4.

Interceptor cost raised by 35$. Firestorm cost raised by 50$. Firestorm elerium cost raised 10x and alloy cost raised 7.5x.

All items take time to produce now. Time calculation key for items that were once built is: 0-7 take 1 day, 8-14 take 2 days etc.

Production time for satellites increased by 1 day. You can no longer start production after getting deploy satellite CM and succeed what means you'll have to start building satellite early every month.


FACILITIES

Lift power consumption and maintenance cost halved. Science labs construction and maintainance cost are now the same as those for workshops.

Power generator is 15$ more expensive, takes 2 more days to construct and 10% less cash to maintain. Thermal cost 2$ and Elerium generators 1$ more to maintain.

OTS maintenance cost lowered by 5$ and power consumption lowered by 1. Uplink nexus costs 25$ less to construct but 4$ more to maintain.

Alien containment is now 5$ less expensive to contruction and 3$ less to maintain. Construction takes 3 more days.

Cybernetics and genetics lab construction cost doubled! Psi labs costs 25$ less to contruct but takes 2 more days to finish.

Hyperwave relay costs 25$ less to construct. Gollop chamber costs 50% less to maintain. Energy consumption for both facilities doubled!

All facility production cost additionaly doubled (with exception of elevators) to make them the most expensive assets in game!


TECH

Tactical rigging no longer needs Experimental weaponry tech to be reasearched. The idea is to enable earlier use of combined protective items i.e. nano-fiber vest and one other regular item thus increasing the usefulness of armors on lower levels in general.

Alien Nav computer, UFO powersource and New fighter craft project research times doubled! Hyperwave & Ethereal device project researh times increased by 50%.

Interrogation times for mutons doubled. Autopsy times for mechanical units and chryssalids doubled. Autopsy times for floaters increased 50%.

Weapon Fragments, Alien Materials and Experimental Warfare research records available from the start but have to be retrieved from in Research Labs.