[WOTC] Protect the Device – AI Fix
This small mod fixes a couple of long-standing issue with ‘Protect The Device’ missions in XCOM2:
1. Many of the enemies on the map can end up charging directly towards & clustering around the objective before the XCOM squad is revealed.
2. Once revealed, multiple aliens can be allowed to take shots at the objective
In the base game, this is little more than an annoyance, but with mods adding more enemies to pods, more pods and wider enemy varieties with high output damage, it can cause these missions to become unwinnable and/or unfun to play.
The issue happens due to the mission type being set up to trigger yellow alert from the beginning (similar to terror missions) and (I believe) a misconfiguration of one of the pod jobs.
This mod changes a few different behaviours so that units which are not revealed will patrol normally (and walk around, instead of running). Once XCOM is revealed, some pods (maximum of 2) may start running towards the objective, as before, if they don’t have any LOS & depending how many pods are on the map.
Additionally, guard-rails have been added to the AI target evaluation to cap the number of attacks that can be made on the objective per-turn (default 1) once aliens are in red-alert. This can be adjusted in the XComAI.ini config file if desired (look for Param[2]="1" on line 5 and change "1" to the maximum total number of attacks you want to allow on the objective per-turn).
Compatible with A Better Advent, A Better AI and A Stronger Advent.
Any mods which forcefully over-ride mission definitions may over-ride the alertness changes made here as well so be aware of that. If any significant incompatibilities arise, I can look at more forceful approaches to adjusting the mission definitions through script.
I’m also hoping to fix the dreaded ‘large units stomping the objective’ bug here but that looks to be a bigger challenge at the moment!
The alertness and pod job changes will have no effect on LWOTC, though the AI adjustments for revealed pods may work
This mod has not yet been extensively tested – if you decide to use it, I welcome any feedback as to whether it improved your experience on these missions & to provide any suggestions for improvements 🙂
The mod will have no effect on missions that have already been generated on the geoscape but is completely safe to add and remove from ongoing campaigns as needed (it’s config only).
