A Better AI: WotC

— A Better AI : War of the Chosen —
— Mod by DerBK —
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Requires XCOM2 version: War of the Chosen
Requires DLC: none
Requires other mods: none
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FAQ, General Info and Troubleshooting for my mods can be found here:

A Better FAQ
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A Better AI is the standalone version of the AI improvements that went into the enemy overhaul "A Better ADVENT".
Use this if you do want all the AI changes, but none of the enemy variants.

Attention: If you are already using Better ADVENT, do NOT install Better AI as well. Everything in this mod is already part of Better ADVENT.

List of Changes:

– The number of required engaged enemies for Downthrottling has been increased from 4 to 20.
Downthrottling is a mechanic where, if a player is engaged with at least X enemies, any additional pods are steered away so they don’t walk in on the fight. This has been effectively removed.

– Removal of the maximum of engaged enemies.
Vanilla put limits on the number of engaged enemies. This limit was only removed in Legendary difficulty. ABAI removes this AI shackle for all difficulties.

– Odds that a single unit flees instead of fighting are increased. So is the area in which the unit searches for a pod to join when fleeing.

– Panicked, Berserk, Obsessed and Shattered are removed from the Last Resort list.
In vanilla, enemies would only shoot at panicked soldiers if they have no other option at all. Even when they are flanking the panicked soldier and only have 0% chance to hit on the alternative. This has been removed, so panic on your soldier is no longer a thing you might hope for.

– Changes to how often the Panic AI would go for its various options.
In vanilla, the chances were 62.5% to shoot random enemy, 12.5% to throw grenade, 25% to hunker. Chances are now 20% to shoot, 10% to grenade, 70% to hunker. This was done to provide a bit of consistency and to offer a compensation for enemies now shooting at panicked soldiers.

– More realistic Mimic Beacon behavior
The enemies will still focus the Beacon and use their standard shot or melee on it. However, they will not abandon all their sense and go suicidal because of it. They will keep staying in cover, basically shooting at the Beacon like they would at any other enemy.

– Slightly increased default engagement range (from 10 to 12)

– Decreased the desire for aliens to change their position.
When evaluating where to move, aliens were encouraged by the vanilla game to view their current tile as undesirable. This was done to promote unit movement, but usually just lead to a lot of overwatches being run and the aliens being easily trapped. This effect has been greatly reduced.

– Increased the desire for aliens to seek out cover.
With ABAI, aliens put much more value into cover and will almost always try to sick to high cover, just as a player would.

– Lowered the chance to overwatch on visible VIP.
Was 75% for first overwatch, 15% for any further overwatches. Now is 30% for the first and all following ones.

– Lowered the chance to overwatch on visible Evac zone.
Was 100% for first overwatch, 75% for any further overwatches. Is now 75% for the first and 50% for all following ones.

– "Overwatch Override", a system of random rolls that makes enemies consider Overwatch (or Hunker, if able).
Chances to enter Overwatch depend on their best Chance to Hit and on the number of Overwatchers already active. Enemies that are activated, but don’t see any enemy at all have a 75% chance to enter overwatch – unless they are on an Ambush mission.

– Priority Shot #1: Shoot when Flanking
An alien that has a target flanked and a Chance to hit of at least 40% is very likely to take this shot.

– Priority Shot #2: Shoot when Killshot
An alien that has a target that it can kill and at least a 40% CTH is very likely to take this shot.

– Priority Shot #3: Shoot when Sure Shot
Any shot with at least 80% chance to hit counts as a sure shot and is given priority over lesser shots (unless those are Flank or Killshots)

– Priority Shot #4 and #5: Shoot at Overwatchers and Suppressors
Enemies that are on Overwatch or are applying Suppression are priority targets.

– Restructuring of the standard shoot/reload/overwatch logic
Most units go through a very central decision branch that governs shooting, reloading, overwatching. The Overwatch Override and the Priority shots have been integrated into this logic, so they apply to almost any related decision an enemy does.
This logic goes throught the following steps, in this order: Flankshot -> Overwatch Override -> Killshot -> Shoot Suppressor -> Shoot Overwatcher -> Sure Shot -> vanilla S/R/O logic

– Hunker and suppression logic
Vanilla enemies don’t have Hunker Down, and A Better AI doesn’t change that itself. It does already provide the AI for it, though. So if you use a mod that adds Hunker to aliens, then it will immediately work. A similar thing has been done for suppression use.

– Reaction to being suppressed
Vanilla enemies would usually run Suppression every time. That’s because it practically didn’t consider Suppression at all. This has been changed.
Suppressed Enemies will consider their options in dealing with their situation (Skill use, Run, Hunker, Shoot) and decide based on percentages. These percentages change depending on how much health the enemy has left, if it has dodge and if it has priority shots available.

– Reaction to being flanked
Vanilla units always run back into cover if they are being flanked. This allows trapping them with overwatch and moving aggressively. ABAI introduces some options for the alien, including counterflanking or shooting back without moving.
To that end, the alien first determines how safe it is to move (are there overwatchers? suppressors?) and if there are good counter flanks available. If the flank was a two-way flank (due to a melee attack, for example) then this increases the chance to just fire back on the spot.

– Reworked unit specific AI trees
Many changes were done to the AI decision trees that are specific to the units. Some only had the mentioned changes integrated, but others got extra improvements to their ability priorities and similar things.
The following list of unit specific changes is not exhaustive, these are examples:
ADVENT Captains will no longer use Mark Target on their second action. They will also consider priority shots before marking targets.
Stunlancer AI has been completely revamped to the point where they are almost a new unit. They are much more willing to use their gun now and act less suicidal. This change is only applied to tier 2 and 3 Stunlancers, so tier 1 stay as suicidal as they are in vanilla. (EDIT: This change has been reverted due to popular request, but can be reactivated from the AI.ini)
Shieldbearers no longer use their shield when they are already shielded. If they would only hit one or two units with their shield, they no longer use it automatically, but with a random chance attached.
Turrets no longer sometimes waste their second action. They will usually shoot, then overwatch. Having priority shots available may make them shoot twice immediately instead.
Mutons use grenades aggressively, may even use them on single targets.
Sectoids act more intelligent with their psi powers.
Priests will only use Mind Merge (Holy Warrior) when on at least 70% of their health.
Priests and Warlock will not use Stasis on the Lost.