Beagle's Legendary+ Changes and Modifications 0.1 - 2/17/2016

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These changes and modifications are aimed at taking the vanilla experience and simply increasing its difficulty.

Enemies are smarter, more numerous and gain accuracy bonuses as they get closer to you.

XCOM's three main crutches for flawless missions - Grenades, Shotguns and Mimic Beacons - were all tweaked down to prevent them from trivializing the game.

Explosive damage falls off the further away an enemy is from the center of the blast ala Long War, Shotguns have a more punishing aim penalty at range (again, like Long War), and Mimic Beacons are incredibly fragile and easy to hit.

The above aims to fix three big imbalances of vanilla - Grenadiers beat everything, Shotguns are insane, and Mimic Beacons are a get out of jail free card.

I considered the old "Impossible" EU style of balancing - +10 Aim and Crit buffs for most enemies - but I think ADVENT and Aliens have so many powerful abilities in XCOM2 that they don't even need it with the +1 enemy counts and weakened Grenadiers. Maybe in the future if this isn't hard enough, we can add that.

I wanted this to be only difficulty increasers but I also like having fun, so there are a few improvements for the player that bothered me too much to play without:

Deadeye not being worthless. Seriously, rolling this as your AWC perk in vanilla is a slap in the face. With the vanilla aim penalty, I don't even use this perk when they give it to me for free.

Retroactive AWC to stop missing the free perk on soldiers who level too fast. I hate getting to Colonel and realising I missed my AWC perk at Corporal. It's like realising your son will never amount to anything.

Non-tile-snapping AoE abilities. With explosive damage falloff, tile snapping is no longer a balance concern and is now just an inconvenience, so it can go away.

Beatdown Skill. The rifle butt ability I've wanted since EU that is way too awesome to not have enabled. 100% mandatory and I'll pistol whip anyone who tries to take it away from me.

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XCOM 2 CONFIG CHANGES

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DefaultMissions.ini

+1 enemy added to all pods.

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DefaultAI.ini

AI is smarter, more patient, and have more interest in their own survival, though they will still aggressively charge and flank to score good shots. Details below:

FallbackChance increased to 0.75, from 0.5 - Enemies more likely to withdraw to allies when their podmates are wiped out

CURR_TILE_LINGER_PENALTY to 1.0, from 0.75 - Enemies won't move for the sake of moving, camping when necessary

CALC_FULL_COVER_FACTOR to 2.5, from 1.1 - Enemies will value Heavy Cover as a significant priority when available.

DEFAULT_AI_SPREAD_WEIGHT_MULTIPLIER to 0.7, from 0.2 - Enemies understand clustering together is bad, but will accept it's worth it to score good shots or share good cover.

MAX_SURPRISED_SCAMPER_PATH_LENGTH to 8 from 6 - Enemies are allowed to move further when activated.

AoEProfiles edited - Enemies are allowed to use grenades and explosives to attack single targets instead of requiring XCOM to cluster.

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DefaultGameData_WeaponData.ini

Alien preferred engagement ranges altered throughout. Most enemies should stay at a distance that reflects their best strengths and personality (ADVENT soldiers at mid range, support aliens skirting at max range, melee and tank charging into close range)

Enemy granted equal range bonuses to player troops. By default, vanilla enemies do *not* gain range bonuses for being closer.

Shotgun aim penalty at range significantly increased.

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DefaultGameData_SoldierSkills.ini

Mimic Beacons nerfed - now have 1 HP and -20 defense

Deadeye's aim penalty removed. (I know, it's an XCOM buff, but I have not wanted to use this skill once in vanilla, even when I roll it through the AWC. 25% less aim for a few points more damage is so awful. Let me have this.)

GAMEPLAY ALTERING MODS IN USE:

LWS Centurion Muton, XCOM Officers and XCOM SMGs

True Retroactive AWC (Because Colonels who leveled too fast to get their free perk are a tragedy I can live without)

Bleedoutmod (With halved chances - A soldier with 50 will has a 25% chance to bleed out rather than die instantly)

Grenades Damage Falloff

Non-tile-Snapping Grenades

Non-tile-Snapping Psi Abilities

Hazmat vest fix (Fixes the bug where Hazmat vests do not protect you from Acid properly)