[WOTC] Squad Based Roster

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Author: General Disarray

Last revision: 18 Sep, 2021 at 01:17 UTC

File size: 8.92 MB

On Steam Workshop

Description:
Overview:

This mod attempts to impart more focus on maintaining cohesive squads of soldiers who go on missions together, in terms of adding various stat bonuses as their camaraderie increases, as well granting them powerful perks later on (in case we run in classless mode). It relies on the squad manager functionality introduced in my earlier mod (please make sure the two mods are not turned on at the same time) and builds a squad level and affinity framework to keep track of which soldier goes on which mission to hopefully reward squads that attend many missions together.

Requirements:

WOTC expansion obviously
X2WOTCCommunityHighlander (any version)

Important notes/Compatibility:
  • I have tested this with vanilla and CI, so should be compatible. Due to how everything is set up, a new game is highly recommended. I have no idea what might happen if you load it in a save game; maybe your PC explodes.
  • Also, make sure you unsubscribe to my Squad Manager mod, since this integrates its functionality anyway.
  • Now to address the most important question of all: LWOTC version, when? Wait, what….

Key Features:
  • The barracks is organized into squads, rather than a flat list of soldiers. (The squad management framework from Squad Manager mod is used to achieve this).
  • Units can only be in one squad at a time, but can easily be moved between them. Currently the only restriction in place is that only a single faction soldier can be assigned to a squad (this is needed because of the classless mode explained below). Note that you can get around this restriction by selecting the soldier in squad select manually anyway.
  • Squads level up by going on missions. Mission count rather than kills is the important number. Successful missions count more than failures, but failures still count more than doing nothing.
  • Squad Level passively increases over time, and the initial SL of new squads increases as the campaign progresses. But both are slower than actively going on missions. This helps ensure creating new squads mid/late campaign is still viable, and also ensures that a squad created early but infrequently used won’t be outclassed by a newly created squad.
  • Units have squad affinity (SA) for each squad. Going on missions for a squad increases that unit’s SA. Passively being a squad member also increases SA over time, but slowly.
  • Moving a unit to a new squad does not remove the old SA from the old squad, but it does decay over time/missions for units no longer in a particular squad.
  • The mission squad as a whole has an average affinity (AA) value, which is just an average of all the participating unit SA values.
  • Each unit on the mission gets an effective unit level (EL). This is influenced by the SL and modified by their SA and AA. Exact formula is detailed in the SquadBasedRoster.ini alongside other helpful description.
  • Examples/intent:
    – A fresh squad from campaign beginning has low SL, and all units have low SA. This means low AA. They’re all basically rookies – they all have low EL.
    – A mid-game squad that has taken few losses and has lots of soldiers that have been around for a while has a medium SL, SA and AA values: the soldiers all have a medium EL.
    – If that squad loses a soldier and is replaced by a fresh recruit, this recruit has low SA, but the other vets still have high SA. The AA is dragged down a little by the newbie, so vets have their EL reduced a little bit each. But the AA is much higher than the newbie’s SA, so this unit’s EL is pulled up and they perform better than how they would without a squad.
    – If a midgame squad is wiped and has a completely new roster, the SL stays high but the units all have low SA, so the AA is also low. They will all have much lower EL, but this should still be offset by the higher SL.
    – Creating a brand new squad mid/late game is similar to a squadwipe in that there is low SA and AA, but because the baseline SL increases over time, the EL is still pulled up a bit.
  • A unit’s EL defines the bonuses it gets for the mission. EL imparts passive bonuses to stats, but since the EL is mission-specific, this will vary as squad composition and level changes. You will be able to see the average EL for the squad being deployed on the squad select screen and other relevant information in the squad management screen.

Classless Mode (WIP/Not yet fully implemented):
  • A classless mode is supported (which is callback to the old XCOMs) where you basically have "rookies" as the only main soldier class. Instead of relying on fancy perks, you mainly have to rely on equipment (as well as squad based stat buffs and some minor passive perks later on) to carry you through. The idea is that the soldiers themselves are expendable and you are expected to regularly loose soldiers, but this can be partially be made up by having squads, squad leaders and specialists (not the class) to carry the missions.
  • Squads may have a leader – squad leaders are always faction heroes and heroes can _only_ be squad leaders, not squad members. To me, that makes thematic sense as well, given as they are called "hero" classes. If an when Iridar releases the officer mod, I may rethink this.
  • Squad leader sets the affiliation of the squad with a faction. New squads can always be created for new heroes, or initially unaffiliated squads with no leader.
  • Squads may deploy with no leader if no appropriate faction unit is available, but they lose out on some of the benefits from squad cohesion in this way. Put another way, squad leader gives a flat boost to the overall effective level for the entire squad.
  • GTS can allow training of specialists (not the class) which are ordinary soldiers affiliated with a certain faction (Reaper, Skirmisher or Templar). This training gives them certain abilities that only work if they are deployed as part of a squad with the same affiliation. This incentivizes deploying the same squad together even more.

A general disclaimer:

I have not played a campaign with the classless mode, so I have no idea if it is even doable. Certainly, some values may need tweaking and even then, the abundance of OP enemies on the workshop means that they make short work of your glorified rookies. I just came across this concept reading up on TrackTwo’s initial idea and figured I’d incorporate it within this mod. If you are crazy enough to play with this option, you may need to do some tinkering to enable the SBR_Soldier class and likely make several other changes as well. If there is interest, I may work on this option a bit more and flesh it out a bit.

Credits:
  • Pavonis Interactive for creating LW2 in the first place and extending the longevity of this wonderful game
  • TrackTwo, who was the originator of this idea in the first place and who provided me with valuable advice throughout. See more here: https://github.com/tracktwo/SquadBasedRoster
  • The usual suspects over at the modder’s discord (Iridar, robojumper, Xymanek, RustyDios, Σ3245, TeslaRage and countless others) for indulging, inspiring and assisting me through this and countless other small mods that will probably never see the light of day
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These DLC should be installed in order to use this item.


XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
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