Starting Soldiers Plus
This mod was created to serve as an upgrade to John’s Starting Soldiers mod which itself was the WOTC version of the previously made Starting Soldiers mod by Grimy.
Cast your mind back to late 2022. I had recently discovered Playable Aliens for LWOTC and was saddened to see the Starting Soldiers mod I had used previous to start the game with my favorite custom characters did not work for non-vanilla templates. I thought at the time "if only there was some way I could fix it," and here we are today.
The major difference between this version and John’s is the inclusion of the ‘SoldierTemplate’ variable, which as you would expect, can be used to specify the soldier’s template. More information about this variable and how to use it can be found in the StartingSoldiers.ini config file.
Additionally, Templates for mods will be placed in a Discussion post to avoid the need to access the mod’s files. However, if a mod is on currently included in the Discussion page, please either check the ‘X2Character’ files in the ‘Src’ folder of the mod, or inform me so I may update it.
This updated version of the mod has been tested with Allies Unknown and Playable Aliens, and should work with other mods that add new character templates to the game. This mod can also be used to add non-playable templates (namely enemy templates) to Gatecrasher, but these units cannot appear in the barracks.
New Feature:
bAddSquaddieFactionHero – allows for a randomly generated faction soldier (matching the starting HQ) to be added to the soldier list and as a squad member on Gatecrasher. This has tested with Covert Infiltration and LWOTC, both of which work favorably.
Issues:
Every update I will post will wipe the current config file specified. I wish I could fix this, but I cannot. With this fact in mind, I will try to update minimally.
Compatibility:
Not compatible with former versions of this mod. Neither John’s nor Grimy’s will work with this version as all three mods are trying to do the same thing. This one just happens to have more functionality. Additionally, avoid using this mod with mods that solely add soldiers to the starting barracks (I.e Starting Spark), as the functionality of that mod should be able to be replaced by this mod (please comment if this is not the case for you).
If you use mods like Jane Kelly starting soldier, the Torque starting squadmate mods, or the Starting SHIV these will remove soldiers from Gatecrasher, but will keep them in the barracks. So the overall barracks will be correct, but the Gatecrasher squad may be slightly adjusted.
Any mod that allows special template units to have their own classes may work with this mod immediately depending on the mechanics. If not, you will have to promote the unit normally after Gatecrasher.
Due to the new updates, I am not sure of current compatibility with other mod. Previous issues have arisen with Project Laser/Lazor due to the method of setting the soldier class within that mod but I’m not sure if that’s still the case.
Credits:
Grimy for the original mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=683306035
John for the WOTC version
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1147925885
Additionally, I’d like to thank the members of the XCOM 2 modding discord and the LWOTC discord, notably folks like Tedster and Iridar for answering questions. Additionally, I’d like to thank Ironmonk for the extensive testing, who has been working to inform me of potential compatibility issues in the comments below.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
