Venator Enemy

The Huntress is on the prowl! A powerful, more aggressives variation of the Codex that preys on psi users.

The Venator is a new powerful psionic opponent, that begins to spawn in the early lategame, right before sectopods appear. It has the same spawn restriction as the Codex; that means: it can only spawn after an Advent Captain has been skulljacked. It is intended to make the later stages of the game more challenging. By default it also appears in the final mission.

– has Clone and Teleport like the Codex
– Has the same immunities as the Codex, additionally is immune to mental effects (so no Domination!)
– Shots deal relative low damage, don’t crit, but pierce up to 2 armor (depending on difficulty)
– doesn’t take cover and therefore can not be flanked
– may perform offensive actions on reveal (shoot or overwatch), also likes to teleport out of sight

The Venator releases a powerful psionic blast, stunning enemies in a large area around it (removes 1 AP like other stun effects). A Mind Shield makes soldiers immune against this ability.

A dying Venator releases it’s psionic energy in form of a shockwave, damaging units in a large AoE for 3-4 damage. Damage ignores armor as it is a psionic blast.

The Venator turns the psionic potential of it’s target against it. Deals damage to the main target and in a large area around the main target. Damage ignores armor as it is a psionic blast.

-The Damage dealt depends on the main target’s PsiOffense stat
-If the main target wears a mindshield, the damage gets halved
-The Feedback pulse destroys fragile cover and explosives. Avoid cars!
-The Venator can use Feedback on fellow aliens. The damage however is reduced in this case.
-Enemies with natural mental immunity can not be targeted. By default these are Avatars and the Venator itself.

Too avoid complaints:
This enemy will probably destroy you if you stroll in unprepared with a high level PsiOp right in the middle of your soldiers. You have been warned!
I suggest you to reconsider taking PsiOps on missions where Venators appear (use the shadow chamber!) or give them a mindshield at the very least! It is relentlessly aggressive and is almost garantueed to deal damage. However since it cant crit, it’s damage doesnt oneshot your troops (except when you mess up and have your whole team next to a car and inside feedback radius).

-Position yourself well, avoid clustering your soldiers, especially around psi users!
-Dont overvalue cover, the Venator will usually flank you anyway, it only gains a small aim bonus from flanks
-bring mindshields!
-bring healing, since multiple soldiers that take about 4-6 damage are common
-EMP Grenades can work great against multiples of them
-you can use psionic detonation against the Venators clones and create chain reactions
-Paralyze can be used once per turn, Feedback only once every two turns.
-If I didnt mess up the balancing, it should appear in about 33% of all missions, so its not like you will never get to use your psi ops again 😉

Ini-editing is possible! You can change the Venators basic character stats, the damage and AoE of it’s abilities and whether it should appear in the last mission. The maximum number of Venators per pod can now be changed aswell.

This is an initial release. I tested the balance, but ofcourse I am only one person. Your feedback is valuable! I may also add an MK II version in the future, if this one is too easy in the lategame (I personally dont think so, since they can appear as followers, and three of them can destroy even a high level squad!). I may also consider adding an autopsy and a new item if I get a good idea that is not OP. Suggestions are welcome ;).

Bugs:
-Sometimes multiple death explosions may bring the game to a halt for some seconds because it needs to "catch up". But this bug doesnt seem to happen all that often.

-Not a bug but: When multiple units get stunned, the game shows each effect. This takes some time. Sadly i couldnt convince the game to play these effects simultanously.

-I use a "handbuilt" system to restrict the numbers of Venators that can spawn in a pod (since the basegame doesnt support it properly for non-advent units). In rare cases this may lead to slightly incorrect shadowchamber mission info. However i dont think any of my users should be too mad, if instead of 4 venators, 2 of them are mutons.

If you notice additional bugs, just tell me

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