[WOTC] Meld Plugin: MEC Suits

Introduces craftable MEC Suits for MEC Troopers, using the Meld resource.

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The port of MEC Troopers into XCom 2 WOTC is a very popular mod, that has been enjoying recent interest due to the renewed Redux version, as well as Amalgamation, LAZOR, and various other plugins.
However, in our opinion, there is still quite an important missing link – the MEC Suits. Crafting a MEC Suit in XCOM1 has been a very engaging experience. XCOM2 Mec Troopers simply use Spark Armor. This is boring.
This mod introduces a designated "Meld" technology to be researched, which unlocks other Meld-related activities, such as MEC Trooper augmentation and Gene modding. Once the Meld technology is researched, the user can start crafting MEC Suits for their MEC Troopers.
Without a designated MEC Suit, the MEC Trooper will have to fight in an "unfit Spark Armor" which will harm its combat abilities greatly. The basic MEC Suit allows them to break even. Further upgrades get them bonuses.
In each tier there are 3 MEC Suits – normal/mobile/tanky. A mobile one grants extra mobility and flanking crit bonus, the tanky gives more HP and armor, and a utility slot. A normal MEC Suit can be sidegraded to one of the specialized ones, and each MEC Suit can be upgraded (with the relevant armor tech) to a corresponding MEC suit of a higher tier. For full details – see Appendix A.

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As per the standard for our brand, the player may customize various things in the configs.
XComStrategyTuning: information about the technologies introduced in this mod: the meld research itself, techs to smelt Lost corpses into meld, and of couse the MEC crafting technologies.
XComGameCore: Properties of the various MEC Suits introduced in the mod. Here we also change the cost of MEC augmentation process itself – the price of crafting a MEC suit is very high, so chopping a soldier should be cheaper.
XComMeld: Controls the ratio in which having Meld contributes to the research speed of Meld. Allows to lock certain techs or facility upgrades behind researching Meld. Stats of MEC Suits and config values for the abilities of the MEC Suits.

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Standalone Meld mod – adds the meld resource to the game.
MEC Trooper Redux – adds mec troopers to the game.

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• One can use PEXM instead of Standalone Meld mod. In this case, the tech to smelt Lost into meld is disabled (PEXM has its own tech for this).
• One can use the older MEC Troopers mod instead of the redux. The configs for making chopping easier should work for both.
• If the Combined Workshop and Laboratory Facility mod is active, then the Lost smelting techs will be done there.
• Gene modding facility upgrade for the infirmary is gated behind Meld research, if that mod is used.
• Might accidentally work with LWOTC, but the economy will probably be completely wrong.
• This mod doesn’t change Gene mod costs. Consider using this mod or other equivalents to change Gene mod’s costs.

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• The Meld tech gets a research boost dependent on the Meld you currently have in store. However, it does not update immediately. You could fly back and forth somewhere on the map for it to update.
• The costs for the MEC Suits are kind of golfballed into existence, there was no dedicated thought behind them. It costs more than 100 meld for a max tier suit. If these costs turn out to be ridiculously high then let me know.
• No attempt was made to make this mod safe to use in an ongoing campaign.
• In general the mod did not undergo a very scrutinizing beta and testing.

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The author is grateful to RustyDios, FearTheBunnies, and RealityMachina for the mods this mod relies on.
The author would like to thank h4ilst0rm, TePa, Zelfana and RustyDios for useful discussions.
As usual, the author is grateful to the members of the MEME Discord server for useful discussions and continued emotional support.
Hamas is ISIS.