Playing with the LW 1.1 mod by Loriendal, which includes SU 2.0.
Everything seems to have installed fine, but I can't figure out how to send more than one Interceptor out at a time. I press A button to assign one, but when I do the same on a second it removes the previous.
Yes, in LW 1.1 the Leaders start with Squadron Size at 1. But you can easily set "global Min Squadron Size" in Mods Menu to e.g. 2. It will ignore pilot restrictions regarding minimum, so you will be able to always send at least 2 jets (or more - depending on what you set).
I was going to wait with squadron unleashed until my next playthrough (I'm several hundred hours into a LW game) but it somehow added itself, despite me never enabling it in the mod manager, while I was in a tactical game messing with other mods, and because I'm on ironman and don't know how to turn that off, I'm stuck with the mod now. I encountered one raider which a single pilot could easily have shot down before I had squadron unleashed, but now suddenly 3 of my pilots together managed to increase the health of the raider from 6k to 30k. it looks like weapons deal negative damage. I'm so lost.
edit: also for some reason lvl 1 training school upgrades cost like 5k credits, or 2k monthly cost. I couldn't find how to change that and I know it's not supposed to cost absurd amounts. It's supposed to have one less 0
I suspect you might have experimented with some overhaul which included Squadron Unleashed. Anyway - you can easily turn the mod off by simply deleting or commentig out the line for it in DefaultMutatorLoader. Just don't delete any files (or your saves with the mod will stop loading). You should have your fleet back as it was before the mod. Warning: if you have "manufacturable" weapons mounted in secondary slots - remove them (replace with the Vulcan) before disabling the mod.
Regarding the HP - the latest update of the mod includes serious change to HP scaling over time. The HP of UFOs will quickly increase - the higher the difficulty, the faster. This if for UFOs to catch up with rapid increase of Xcom firepower. You can alter the modifiers manually in DefaultSquadronUnleashed.ini (the easiest way is just comment out or delete BalanceShips lines).
The reason for change to the "HP scaling" resulted from trivialisation of dogfights where as soon as you started fitting Phoenix Cannons the battles lasted 3-4 seconds.
Regarding the costs - it seems like you are using the config for LW ERaT overhaul. Bring back the standard config.
You don't. My mods are not installed with Patcher GUI or LW Mod Manager. I write mutators and LW is enough to handle mutators without any patches. You must be putting the files in wrong location. Show me a screenshot of windows explorer showing where you have put the files. Or navigate to the SquadronsUnleashed folder where you put it in and copy the exact path to it so I can verify.
Oh, and paste the contents of your DefaultMutatorLoader.ini
Read the installation instructions again. This mod is not a mod installed with txt-patch. Instructions tell you nothing about patching anything, just copy files to the game directory, add lines to DefaultMutatorLoader.ini and that's it.
(this mod does not modify any other game file - therefore no need for LW Mod Manager and no risk of overwriting the mod with LW Mod Manager patches)
Config for ERaT is downloaded separately and the description of the file in the Downloads section explains that this file is for the users of Enhanced Realism and Tactics overhaul mod (hence "ERaT" abbreviation). If you don't play the overhaul you shouldn't use this config because, in short, it multiplies costs and prices of the pilots and training center by c.a. 100. ERaT overhaul
After starting the UFO capture, the game immediately freezes on the hologram of the earth. Time passes and then it indicates that the interceptors have returned, but nothing happens. After a short while it exits the holoview, but if I go back, I can't do anything.
I am not sure what you mean by "capture". It would be better if you described what you do, not only what you see. I click this, this happens, I click that, that happens etc.
I'm at the first UFO sighting in the game. After starting the fighters, the game switches to the hologram, but the little fighter icon doesn't move. Time passes but there's no reaction. A little time passes and the game indicates that the fighters can be deployed again, but nothing changes, the little fighter is still above the base on the hologram. It exits the hologram after about a day. If I go back, the UFO is still visible, but when I click on it, it doesn't respond. The fighters are not in the hangar. If I haven't sent fighters to it, the game continues, but the UFO remains frozen. If I try to send fighters to it later, the same thing happens.
Ok, I understand the issue. Now we need to determine if it is the mod that is causing it. What happens when you disable Squadron Unleashed and reload the save and try this situation without the mod?
I disabled the mod and started a completely new game and the problem still occurs. So the mod is not the problem. thanks for trying to help. I hope I can figure out what is causing it and fix it.
I would suspect sth wrong with your installation but it might be the mod as well. Can you upload the save file and Launch.log file after the crash to desktop? Crash the game, exit, go to \Documents\MyGames\Xcom...\Logs and take Launch.log from there. In \SaveData is your save file as well, probably the newest one (by date). You can also try reaching me through Discord and just drop the files through Discord (you can run Discord through the browser if you don't use the app.
Ship and weapon stat modifiers are in DefualtSquadronUnleashed.ini in the lines starting with ShipWeapons= and BalanceShips= (the latter rather for UFOs but if you provide iShipType=1 for Raven or iShipType=3 for the Firestorem it should work). Mind that these modifiers go on top of DefaultGameCore.ini values - don't replace them.
You cannot modify the Skyranger's speed with this mod.
Regarding the broken interception - are you sure you are using the mod with LW?
Hello, I have the Long War 1.1 mod installed, and this mod is integrated into it. I would like to remove the pilot career and the secondary weapon with range (I think version 1.1 should work), but I don't understand how to remove this version without breaking the game. There's a mod nearby that does this, but the file description shows exactly the same settings. I really need help.
this ini does nothing (( https://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/823 i checked files they are same ((
"the file description shows exactly the same settings" No, the file DOES NOT show the same settings. Maybe you judge from the first few lines. This is wrong. The .ini file from "Just Squadrons" has all that I would tell you to do. It has just 1 career (with Kill requirements from LW), no XP requirement (hence no training), Vulcan Cannon is commented out (the weapon is still there but has 0 aim and 0 damage). You cannot turn off the secondary slot - this is explicitly written on my mod page. But the .ini from Just Squadrons makes no weapon fit into the secondary slot.
What is the point of Aces? With their progression being Defence, you would think they could be sort of "tanks" that take aggro and dodge all shots. But then their career trait only activates on DEF stance, which provides the least aggro. The fact that their career and firestorm traits are mutually exclusive is also kind of painful.
I tend to use 1 Leader + 5 Gunners per continent, with the Leader staying in the back and only using missiles, while the Gunners using Balanced close-range lasers/phoenix cannons.
I don't play the game to prove my theory but I believe that when you get to UFO squadrons and face 3 destroyers of escort plus whatever the main UFO your gunners in front will be shot at by 4 UFOs. If you survive this, no need for Aces indeed. But I believe that in such circumstances Aces are the only ones capable of surviving in the front row.
Generally tanking is through putting sole Ace at the front row while letting gunners shoot from the long distance with missiles or (later) Plasma.
If you don't intend to face anything larger than Raider (so you plan to play the game like in pure LW) the mod is not really for you. I created the mod because it had always sucked to me that I cannot reliably shoot down large and very large UFOs.
EDIT: you can fairly easy tune the careers and traits, and weapons. You can make Aces pure Aim while gunners pure DMG, make their traits activate on AGG. Then you can even upload your config as separate mod :)
But if Gunners are supposed to long distance shoot, then why is their trait specifically about close distance? "Special career trait: SLASH - at close distance gains +25% damage"
> You can fairly easy tune the careers and traits, and weapons.
Gunner traits are to compensate the risk. I believe that 'balance' means high risk and high DPS, or low risk low DPS. So the careers are designed around this philosophy.
I encourage you to experiment with different config and share your experience. Play testing is what I have no time for and my dream is that players do it :))
I too feel like Ace class (at least from lack of its skill synergy) is underwhelming (it really triggers my min-maxer brain). Basically it's like giving it one less skill (coz the other classes can use both skills at the same time) First of all - how engagement time is determined in this mod? Coz in vanilla\LW you some fights I could only win on AGG coz it expanded engagement timer - is it viable to have a bunch of dude sitting in def here and win? (I will assume it is for now) I guess if defense stat in this mod is OP to a point where you can only win with a bunch of tanks I get the decision of nerfing ace class by basically giving it one less skill (still maybe you could give it something to make it feel like reaching max level progresses you - I mean you could argue that it gives you +10 aim by switching to BAL, but it's doesn't feel much like progress since it's supposedly a tank and gunner already has like double-damage for comparison in progression)
My goal was to not make any class perfect because then other classes would be useless. So gunner has high damage potential but this potential only shines on AGG and at close range what makes the gunner a glass cannon at close range. Still he can shine with plasma on AGG in the backrow but then he needs someone else in the front row - and that is the Ace. Ace on the other hand, thanks to his unique Dodge skills (in Firestorm only the Ace keeps Dodge on BAL) can survive in the front row while still keeping nice DPS (max 75 aim for DEF and 85 for BAL are the limits here). I believe that when your pilots start getting to Major ranks and it's mid-game and UFOs start hitting hard your gunner-squadrons will be mainly sitting in the base being repaired. Mind that the penalty for being damaged kicks-in immediately, during the battle. So your gunner suffers 25% penalty in DPS (due to -25 penalty to Aim) as soon as he gets hit and he usually does soon enough when put in the front row. Whereas an Ace can keep his DPS potential at max for a longer time thanks to high Dodge stat.
Oh - the notion of not making any class too good makes a lot of sense. But it doesn't answer why did he need BAL stance skill. Correct me if I'm wrong - but def stance grants +20 def to everybody, +40 to ace, so switching to BAL to halve your defense for +10 aim seems weird to me (maybe it compensated by extra engagement time? I still don't know how it's calculated in this mod)
I'll elaborate my thinking process for how this balance impacts playing strategy (at least for me) I feel like having specialized classes encourages to have clear role distribution (having a class being really good at one thing). So I'd think like - ok, I'll employ ace and stack def on him like crazy, trying somehow to make all AI have him as a priority target - with that in mind having BAL skill isn't doing anything for me to a point where it feels unnecessary to level him past first skill, maybe even have a bunch of them, tweaking their auto-disengage to disengage at 1% hp (or whatever optimal value would be) using their one plane to soak as much dmg as humanly possible so that other planes remain intact. I almost said "using them as expandable cannon fodder" - sacrifice him if need be but then I realized that having planes crash is too expensive, but if comes a time when you can afford replacing interceptors (using cash to minimize interceptor down time at expense of 1 plane and pilot) - having ace dodge with +40% even even if he has 1% hp and switching someone else as makeshift meat shield when\if ace dies (since they reach max usefulness at skill 1 it's much faster to train them) I may have exaggerate here and there and examples I gave are not 100% making sense within the actual situations (like maybe it's never worthwhile to loose interceptors to have your ships available quicker), but what I meant is that (ideally) there should be a sense that pilots are equally valuable at high level so that there's an incentive to keep them alive (aside from moral considerations😅)
I think you are misunderstanding what defense and dodge is because you use them in the same context as if these were 2 words for the same thing. However, these are 2 different things. Defense is the penalty to the aim of UFO. Dodge on the other hand is a chance to turn UFO's hit into a miss. In early game where UFOs suck at aim, defense is not that important; hits are rare and dodge helps to avoid these rare hits. Later on, when UFOs have aim >50 on average, Defense becomes important. If you manage to cut UFO aim from 70 to 40 (thanks to 30 Defense) you cut the number of hits by 42%. It's same as you had no Defense but 40 Dodge (that much only achievable by Ace on DEF).
Now - about the DEF, BAL tactics (not skills) and Ace's bonuses. Cpt Ace - with DEF tactic, +40 Dodge, -15 Aim, Max Aim 75. Cmdr Ace (in Firestrom only) - with DEF tactic as above, whereas with BAL tactic +20 Defense, +10 Dodge, normal Aim, Max Aim 85.
Let's do some calculations for the Cmdr Ace, to compare DEF vs BAL (BAL requires Firestorm), late game (when Firestorms are available and common): UFO with 66 Aim DEF tactic. 20 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 46%, of which 40 dodge makes effective 27,6% chance to hit for the UFO. BAL tactic. 40 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 26%, of which further 10 dodge makes effective 24,4 (!) chance to hit. So on top of +3% less risk of being hit the Ace gains 85 aim instead of 75 (I assume normally 80-90 Aim on Cmdr Ace). That is +13% of DPS.
UFO with 80 Aim DEF tactic. 20 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 60%, of which 40 dodge makes effective 36% chance to hit for the UFO. BAL tactic. 40 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 40%, of which further 10 dodge makes effective 36% chance to hit. So for with no higher risk the Ace gains higher Aim cap accounting for +13% of DPS.
Regarding the contact time it's calculated like in the base game that is: xcom speed / ufo speed x 30 s. For a squadron it's the speed of the slowest jet in the squadron. With default settings AGG UFO halves it's speed - means double the contact time. DEF UFO increases the speed by 50% - means -33% of the contact time. This is the formula for main UFO. If there are escorts their speed is not relevant. Each escorting UFO adds a flat number of seconds, based on the size of the escort. It's exactly 2 s per the size class: scout size +2s destroyer size +4s abductor size +6s (not available with default settings) terror ship size +8s (not available with default settings) battleship size +10 s (not available with default settings)
I tried to install the latest version SU2 1.13 of the mod on Long War 1.1 revision 44.8. As a result, the game starts, but before that it displays the following https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOhxO97X7Owc2pmaCbFjvbResxvAOfUj_4g0D8H.
What does this mean and can I continue playing? Thanks for the help and great mod!
The link does not show up for me (error 404) but I am guessing that it is about "Ambiguos" name or file. Read this message carefully :) It tells very precisely what is wrong :) You must delete the old file.
Hey, I have question: I want to install the Config Just Squadrons but I have already a save file with the config wiki version. So If I use the Config Just Squadrons can I use the save normally or do I need to begin a new campaign for that?
208 comments
Everything seems to have installed fine, but I can't figure out how to send more than one Interceptor out at a time. I press A button to assign one, but when I do the same on a second it removes the previous.
Is there something else I should be doing?
edit: also for some reason lvl 1 training school upgrades cost like 5k credits, or 2k monthly cost. I couldn't find how to change that and I know it's not supposed to cost absurd amounts. It's supposed to have one less 0
Regarding the HP - the latest update of the mod includes serious change to HP scaling over time. The HP of UFOs will quickly increase - the higher the difficulty, the faster. This if for UFOs to catch up with rapid increase of Xcom firepower. You can alter the modifiers manually in DefaultSquadronUnleashed.ini (the easiest way is just comment out or delete BalanceShips lines).
The reason for change to the "HP scaling" resulted from trivialisation of dogfights where as soon as you started fitting Phoenix Cannons the battles lasted 3-4 seconds.
Regarding the costs - it seems like you are using the config for LW ERaT overhaul. Bring back the standard config.
Oh, and paste the contents of your DefaultMutatorLoader.ini
I assume i've missed something. Does thie installation guide change with LWmodmanager. I've not used one before.
(this mod does not modify any other game file - therefore no need for LW Mod Manager and no risk of overwriting the mod with LW Mod Manager patches)
yes?
and what does ERaT mean, if you don't mind me asking?
ERaT overhaul
If I haven't sent fighters to it, the game continues, but the UFO remains frozen. If I try to send fighters to it later, the same thing happens.
thanks for trying to help. I hope I can figure out what is causing it and fix it.
You can also try reaching me through Discord and just drop the files through Discord (you can run Discord through the browser if you don't use the app.
Like speed of the skyranger and raven and firestor and UFOs and weapon damages??
Okay now for some reason interception is broken idk why and how.
Mind that these modifiers go on top of DefaultGameCore.ini values - don't replace them.
You cannot modify the Skyranger's speed with this mod.
Regarding the broken interception - are you sure you are using the mod with LW?
I am gonna reinstall and try it again.
Also It might be because editing DGC data? Both soldier and Firestorm raven and ufo data maybe?
this ini does nothing (( https://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/823 i checked files they are same ((
No, the file DOES NOT show the same settings. Maybe you judge from the first few lines. This is wrong. The .ini file from "Just Squadrons" has all that I would tell you to do. It has just 1 career (with Kill requirements from LW), no XP requirement (hence no training), Vulcan Cannon is commented out (the weapon is still there but has 0 aim and 0 damage). You cannot turn off the secondary slot - this is explicitly written on my mod page. But the .ini from Just Squadrons makes no weapon fit into the secondary slot.
Find that Pilots still in but they are free to add, vulcan still there but 0 dmg
I tend to use 1 Leader + 5 Gunners per continent, with the Leader staying in the back and only using missiles, while the Gunners using Balanced close-range lasers/phoenix cannons.
Generally tanking is through putting sole Ace at the front row while letting gunners shoot from the long distance with missiles or (later) Plasma.
If you don't intend to face anything larger than Raider (so you plan to play the game like in pure LW) the mod is not really for you. I created the mod because it had always sucked to me that I cannot reliably shoot down large and very large UFOs.
EDIT: you can fairly easy tune the careers and traits, and weapons. You can make Aces pure Aim while gunners pure DMG, make their traits activate on AGG. Then you can even upload your config as separate mod :)
"Special career trait: SLASH - at close distance gains +25% damage"
> You can fairly easy tune the careers and traits, and weapons.
Maybe I will do that. :)
I encourage you to experiment with different config and share your experience. Play testing is what I have no time for and my dream is that players do it :))
First of all - how engagement time is determined in this mod?
Coz in vanilla\LW you some fights I could only win on AGG coz it expanded engagement timer - is it viable to have a bunch of dude sitting in def here and win? (I will assume it is for now)
I guess if defense stat in this mod is OP to a point where you can only win with a bunch of tanks I get the decision of nerfing ace class by basically giving it one less skill (still maybe you could give it something to make it feel like reaching max level progresses you - I mean you could argue that it gives you +10 aim by switching to BAL, but it's doesn't feel much like progress since it's supposedly a tank and gunner already has like double-damage for comparison in progression)
Ace on the other hand, thanks to his unique Dodge skills (in Firestorm only the Ace keeps Dodge on BAL) can survive in the front row while still keeping nice DPS (max 75 aim for DEF and 85 for BAL are the limits here). I believe that when your pilots start getting to Major ranks and it's mid-game and UFOs start hitting hard your gunner-squadrons will be mainly sitting in the base being repaired.
Mind that the penalty for being damaged kicks-in immediately, during the battle. So your gunner suffers 25% penalty in DPS (due to -25 penalty to Aim) as soon as he gets hit and he usually does soon enough when put in the front row. Whereas an Ace can keep his DPS potential at max for a longer time thanks to high Dodge stat.
I'll elaborate my thinking process for how this balance impacts playing strategy (at least for me)
I feel like having specialized classes encourages to have clear role distribution (having a class being really good at one thing). So I'd think like - ok, I'll employ ace and stack def on him like crazy, trying somehow to make all AI have him as a priority target - with that in mind having BAL skill isn't doing anything for me to a point where it feels unnecessary to level him past first skill, maybe even have a bunch of them, tweaking their auto-disengage to disengage at 1% hp (or whatever optimal value would be) using their one plane to soak as much dmg as humanly possible so that other planes remain intact.
I almost said "using them as expandable cannon fodder" - sacrifice him if need be but then I realized that having planes crash is too expensive, but if comes a time when you can afford replacing interceptors (using cash to minimize interceptor down time at expense of 1 plane and pilot) - having ace dodge with +40% even even if he has 1% hp and switching someone else as makeshift meat shield when\if ace dies (since they reach max usefulness at skill 1 it's much faster to train them)
I may have exaggerate here and there and examples I gave are not 100% making sense within the actual situations (like maybe it's never worthwhile to loose interceptors to have your ships available quicker), but what I meant is that (ideally) there should be a sense that pilots are equally valuable at high level so that there's an incentive to keep them alive (aside from moral considerations😅)
Now - about the DEF, BAL tactics (not skills) and Ace's bonuses.
Cpt Ace - with DEF tactic, +40 Dodge, -15 Aim, Max Aim 75.
Cmdr Ace (in Firestrom only) - with DEF tactic as above, whereas with BAL tactic +20 Defense, +10 Dodge, normal Aim, Max Aim 85.
Let's do some calculations for the Cmdr Ace, to compare DEF vs BAL (BAL requires Firestorm), late game (when Firestorms are available and common):
UFO with 66 Aim
DEF tactic. 20 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 46%, of which 40 dodge makes effective 27,6% chance to hit for the UFO.
BAL tactic. 40 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 26%, of which further 10 dodge makes effective 24,4 (!) chance to hit.
So on top of +3% less risk of being hit the Ace gains 85 aim instead of 75 (I assume normally 80-90 Aim on Cmdr Ace). That is +13% of DPS.
UFO with 80 Aim
DEF tactic. 20 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 60%, of which 40 dodge makes effective 36% chance to hit for the UFO.
BAL tactic. 40 Defense cuts UFO chance to hit to 40%, of which further 10 dodge makes effective 36% chance to hit.
So for with no higher risk the Ace gains higher Aim cap accounting for +13% of DPS.
Does that change your view?
scout size +2s
destroyer size +4s
abductor size +6s (not available with default settings)
terror ship size +8s (not available with default settings)
battleship size +10 s (not available with default settings)
As a result, the game starts, but before that it displays the following
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOhxO97X7Owc2pmaCbFjvbResxvAOfUj_4g0D8H.
What does this mean and can I continue playing?
Thanks for the help and great mod!
I want to install the Config Just Squadrons but I have already a save file with the config wiki version. So If I use the Config Just Squadrons can I use the save normally or do I need to begin a new campaign for that?