ABA: Better DLC

— ABA: Better DLC —
— Mod by DerBK —

Requires XCOM2 version: War of the Chosen
Requires DLC: Alien Hunters, Shens Last Gift
Requires other mods: A Better ADVENT: WotC
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FAQ, General Info and Troubleshooting for my mods can be found here:

A Better FAQ
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This mod contains new enemies that you can add to the A Better ADVENT roster.
The enemies in this mod are based on mechanics from the Alien Hunters and Shens Last Gift DLCs, so they went into this seperate download. The ABA main mod is always going to require nothing else but WotC.

Currently ABA: Better DLC (or ABD for short) contains three new enemies:

ADVENT Titan
The Titan is a heavy melee unit that is armed with the Hunter’s Axe. Titans have lots of armor, health and even shields, making them extraordinarily tanky for a single ADVENT unit. They are however also melee only and while they do carry a shotgun, they only use it very rarely (like a vanilla Stunlancer). Despite their sluggishness, they will try to flank one of the XCOM soldiers. Should they achieve this, they will throw their axe into that poor saps’ face, then go into melee mode.
Make sure to outmaneuver these guys, otherwise you’ll see a sudden burst of damage coming your way.
Titans come in three tiers like most ADVENT units. They are followers only and can be part of any ADVENT group, no matter if it’s lead by an alien or an ADVENT leader.
Titans use the exact same Hunter’s Axes that players use, with tier 2 and tier 3 having the appropriate upgrades as well. This means that they can also cause the secondary effects that XCOMs axes can cause (Burn, Stun).

ADVENT Spark
The Spark is a prototype version of the technology that led to XCOMs own SPARKs.
They appear in three tiers, with the first working different from the other two.
Tier 1: This is basically the same thing as the Feral MECs encountered in the DLC mission, meaning they will try to kamikaze into your soldiers. Like the Feral MECs, they need a turn to prime and another turn to blow up.
Tier 2 and 3: The Advanced and Elite Sparks do not start out with a deathwish right away. Instead they will try to shoot at XCOM with their large autocannons. Note that these Sparks all have the Shredder perk and can easily strip your soldiers’ armor off in one or two shots. Whenever hit, if that hit puts them below 4 health, that will prime them for destruction right there and then, enabling them to blow up with no further preperations if they get a turn.
A primed Spark that is killed will explode as well.
Sparks are followers only and will only appear in pods lead by an ADVENT leader.

ADVENT Cryo Priest
The Cryo Priest mirrors the Purifier in many ways. Instead of an incendiary grenade they carry a Frostbomb. Instead of a flamethrower, they carry the Cryolator, which is basically an Icethrower. Their job is disabling your soldiers to level the playing field for ADVENT once your guys become clearly superior. For that reason, there is no tier 1 Cryo Priest, they will only start spawning in the midgame.
In addition to the Frostbomb and the Cryolator, Cryo Priests also carry a pistol sidearm that they can use to deal at least some damage, although that is far from their main objective in battle.
Cryo Priests do no wear the same sealed armor that Purifiers have, so they do not share their immunities. They are also not rigged to blow up in any kind.
Cryo Priests are followers only and can appear in any pod that has ADVENT in it, no matter if it’s lead by an alien or an ADVENT leader.

FAQ:

Q: Does this require both DLC or is there a way to use it with only one of them.
A: Both DLC are required.

Q: Does it really require ABA? Can i in theory use it without that?
A: You can’t, i re-use assets from ABA like the Gunslinger pistol and parts of the AI.

Q: Can i use this in my ongoing campaign?
A: Sure, this can be activated at any point. Note that this is not true the other way around. Like any enemy mod, you will not be able to unsub mid campaign without risking to introduce crashes into your campaign.

Q: Will we be able to get the Cryolator weapon for our own guys?
A: I currently have no plans to offer the Cryogun as a player weapon; it would be horribly overpowered.

KNOWN ISSUES

There are currently two issues that i am aware of. They are purely visual and i didn’t want to delay the release of the mod for them:

1: The ADVENT Titan’s throwing axe is not visually present. This looks a bit weird when they throw and the axe suddenly appears once it becomes a projectile…

2: The Cryolator’s freeze beam still leaves some fire particles on the ground, a leftover from the Purifier weapon’s animations. I am working on getting those out of there.

DISCLAIMER

While i was able to make sure that everything works as far as i am able to tell from the Dev environment, i didn’t have an opportunity or time to test these new enemies in an actual campaign setting. So it might be that some spawnweight numbers are too high or too low or whatever. If anything seems fishy, just tell me and i will take a look.

PERMISSIONS

Any modder is allowed to pilfer, re-use or re-upload any of ABDs assets, scripts, doodads and thingamajigs in any way or form that he wants to. I don’t care.