SUPCOM 2 BALANCE MOD 1.51
AKA ESCHmod
Update 21\07\2010

Special thanks to:
- mirko03, who believed in my mod even when it was totally crap;
- okorop for intense testing;
- michaelone for his constant presence;
- eaglepryde for full support;
- RCIX for his help and project sharing;
- and at last, but not least, machater for general script help and hints to reduce the mod dimension (that's just AWESOME)
- all those I don't remember but are enjoying playing this mod.

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ABOUT THE MOD
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This mod aims to correct all the game balance issues and problems found by the community. In this mod you will find:

- Tough MOBILE Experimentals: End game is a reality
If you remember old FA days, Mobile Experimentals were the ultimate war machines. Maybe too much, so the goal is to enhance all the mobile experimentals while keeping the original taste and feeling, without privileging anyone.

- Better Nukes: Tired of Cheap nukes?
Everytime I go inside the lobby I see No Nuke games. Or rather, almost all of them are actually no nuke games. Since nukes are a funny part of the game, my objective is to make them end game weapons, hard to build, but still counterable.

- Land, Air, Naval Balance: no unit will be better than others;
Many players are keeping wailing and complaining about brackmans, artillery, gunships, transports, et cetera. It's the hardest part of the mod, since it is the main balance part. All units are working like a charm and no one is better than other. Useless units (like Kraken, Wilfindja, Bots) are now useful, so there's a reason to unlock them again.

- ACU utility: Useful in battle, more resistant, less uber;
ACU got huge upgrades, but main values (like health and damage) are insignificant. They have been beefed up without any chance of ACU rushing anymore. Notice that after patch 1.13 upgrades damage has been removed from the mod.

- Economy Overhaul: you won't run out of mass anymore;
There's always too much energy and lack of mass, so many unit\structure costs have been tweaked for a better mass\energy ratio. Notice that you won't have a huge boost in resources though, just a balance between them.

- Better Research: you have to decide where to spend your points.
Research is the big afford to change the game mechanics, but it was too quick for many players. The new value (75% of vanilla) is a viable choice: Slower at the start, quicker at the end.

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FAQ
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Q Is it compatible with 1.xx version of the game?
A Yes, it is compatible with EVERY version of the game. It just "overwrites" gamedata files but it won't ruin any game file at all.

Q This mod sucks.
A Maybe you're right, but let me know why it actually sucks. That's a good way to get the mod better and better

Q Is your project finished?
A It is not finished but it is stable, polished and generally speaking it is well balanced.

Q Is GPG going to ban me for cheating with this mod installed?
A If you're trying to play this mod with anyone without it, the game simply desynchs\crashes. So no, there's no way to cheat with this mod.

Q Is it bugged?
A Although I'm always checking if I did a mistake, I'm human so it may happen that you'll find a bug or something that is not working as intended.

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NEWS FROM VERSION 1.51
====================
- A better mass\energy ratio;
- Fixed the UEF ACU error which prevents him to be modified by this mod;
- Fixed Illuminate ACU Superiority and Instant Healing OPness.

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MOD VERSION 1.51
==============
ECONOMY
- Metal Extractor cost has been changed. Now it's 120\300;
- Metal Extractor Mass from +1.2 to +1.5\tick.
- Energy Generator cost increased to 220\475; production decreased to 4.5\tick;
- Research Station Research Point rate -25%;
- Research Station cost increased to 320\800.

LAND
- Bots +10% damage, Radius from 17 to 18, speed +1, AA damage set to 40 for both bots;
- Brackman nerf: damage from 250 to 200, Radius from 32 to 36, Splash Radius 6->5;
- Demolisher nerf: damage\radius slightly decreased (like Brackman);
- Yenzoo weapon range increased from 20 to 24;
- Loyalist buff: increased damage 38\18\18 and range 18;
- Rockhead hp increased to 1650, damage decreased to 55;
- P-Shield buff: 760 HP, 1050 Shield, Regen 2 hp/s, health increased, health regen 2 hp/s, cost 42/205;
- Adaptor balance: 560 HP, 850 Shield, Regen 2hp/s, Shield Regen 2hp/s, Cost 65/185;
- MML damage halved; HP from 950 to 850; Shields from 95 to 195;
- UEF and Illuminate AA damage boost +50% (from 44 to 66).

AIR
- Bombers\Fighters health DOUBLED, damage +20%;
- Gunship HP reduced from 1350 to 1150; Max Radius from 13 to 18.

EXPERIMENTALS:
- All experimentals health has been multiplied by 4 times; damage x2, buildtime x2, with exceptions:
- Transport experimentals received a health boost considering they don't have any attack (health x5 instead of x4);
- Bomb Bouncer has a huge Shield boost instead of just Health Boost (x8);
- Kraken and Darkenoid receive a x3 bonus for beam weapons;
- Buffed Wilfindja Pods Health x4 too;
- Experimentals structures have not been touched apart from x4 health.

ACU
- ACU life doubled;
- ACU Main weapon damage increased from 400 to 600;
- Illuminate ACU fixed: Shield Regen Rate -15%, Rogue Nanites Damage and Instant Healing from 5000 to 3000.

STRUCTURE
- Nuke Revamp:
- NUKE 1000 mass \ 5000 energy, buildtime 540, max 1
- ANTINUKE 500 mass \ 3000 energy, buildtime 540, max 2
- Research Station cost reduced to 320\750;
- Point Defense general Buff: +50% Health, +10% damage, +10% cost, +25% buildtime.

SEA
- Tigershark Buff: torpedo damage +10%, turret damage 165, turret max radius from 16 to 36, cost changed to 100\325;
- Poseidon Debuff: HP 9750, Overall Damage -20%, Speed decreased to 3\3, Radius decreased from 112 to 60;
- Executioner General Buff: HP 9250, Overall Damage +10%, Speed decreased to 3\3, Radius decreased from 112 to 60;
- Salem Class and Mastadon equal in DPS, radius from 60 to 40;
- Command Class Buff: 12000 HP, 50 Max Radius;
- General buildtime has changed as follows: submarine 0:45, medium vessel 0:55, battleship 1:35;
- General Output Damage of Medium\BS +20%.

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DOWNLOAD LINKS
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ESCHmod 1.51
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mbhdqbjv7br3khm

HOW TO INSTALL ESCHmod

Put the .scd file in \gamedata folder, and delete all previous versions of the mod.

People doing this kind of thing is why I'm really glad I'm checking this forum.

Keep up the good work guys; if you make them, people like me will play them

Nice mod but.. a new patch is coming out today, and will alter many things, will this mod be compatibel?

ROFL

Good try man, but the balance changes were horribly done IMO.

And apparently in DeadMG's O.

You should be smarter than this. If you don't like it, learn how you can say it with offending me. The first time I ignored your stupid comment, but this time I won't. And play it before criticizing.

EDIT: Why horrible? Can you explain please?

Without playing it you seem to 4x the mass income nearly by cutting mex costs and doubling their income which in turn will affect the mass production upgrade a good bit.

But then I saw the huge nerf to energy generators and that looks kind of cool. It sort of balances the two resources more.

I would love to have a plain mod that just reduced RP stations by 50%. This would push for slightly slower games as far as tech is concerned but will encourage combat as it will be a major RP source.

ACU changes don't look too bad.

Overall it doesn't look too bad.

Ok I adjusted the values as follows:
- Energy Generator: +3.7 (the game start was slower with 3.2);
- Mass Generator: +1.5 (2.0 was way too good, after a few tests it seems to be a good value);
- Research Station cost: 300 \ 950, it was 300 \ 750. When you'll have a good energy income, you will be able to research.

I did many tests with Hard AI and with different values (ranging from 1.5 to 2.0 for mass and 3.2 to 4.2 for energy), it seemed the best, considering further improvement with researches. I changed the building order a bit: now you cannot ACU rush anymore because Research Stations are expensive, research points are halved and ACU damage capacity reduced. With the better production an ACU rush is absolutely counterable (you can spam PD under factories shields easily). And Mass Fabs are not useful anymore before 20-30 minutes of gameplay.

The mod will be full working with any patch I think, because it overrides normal game values (if they have been changed after the patch, the mod will change them anyway).

how do you get your mod to work? I try to make a simple UI mod and SC2 just stops working whenever any of my files are involved.

I made many attempts and finally I realized that you need all animation and effects files inside the same folder of the modded content.
For example, if you want to mod the ACU, you will need the folder UIL001 from uncompiled.lua and from units.lua. The first contains unit scripts and values, the second lua file contains unit animation, data, and so on. Put them inside.
After this, create a units folder and put UIL001 inside it, then zip and change the file format to .scd.
In the end you shall see a file as follows:
supcom2\gamedata\your_mod.scd
Open .scd with Winzip\WinRar\7Zip and you'll see:
units\UIL001

You can either open my .scd file to understand how I did it. Hope it will help.

EDIT:
Research Only Mod:
http://rapidshare.com/files/367719453/R ... d.zip.html

Thanks, but I'm just trying to get some simple UI changes to work (starting with keymaps) - however, I have found two keymaps so far - on in uncompiled_lua.scd, and one in lua.scd

if I re-zip "uncompiled_lua.scd" after modifying it, the game crashes when I click on host.

if I re-zip "lua.scd", the game won't even launch... what do you use to pack you SCDs?

Might I suggest increasing Mass Extractor costs to at least 120m/400m. Because expansion and units should be a decision early on.

there is a thread in mod developer support "getting mods to work in retail sc2" or something, the last couple pages have info on how to pack the .scd and whatnot. basically you need to add the files to the existing archives rather than try to pack up a new one. Don't mix compiled and uncompiled files in the same folder(mixing within archive is okay, just not same folder)

I used win 7 built in zip program to pack the .scd file, and you have to build a .scd from scratch, and not to modify an existing one in order to work.

Relating to Mass Extractor cost, I've already tried with that value but the game start is really slower compared to the one with the mod. My primary objective is to give the player a fast paced start, and this change is not compatible with it. Maybe I need a bit more practice with that change, or maybe I'm wrong. Let me test it for a while before judging ^^

UPDATE: tried suggested values in a few games, I've found a good compromise: now Mex cost is 120\250, really near to yours, and still quick to build.

Yeah that's pretty much what I've discovered, as I've had a lot of fun modding the UEF lately, and then going up against crazy amounts of AI's trying to take me down.

Essentially, I extracted everything in gamedata\uncompiled_lua.scd to a remote location, and then started making changes to some of the unit files. For example, UEF\UUX0101\UUX0101_unit.bp is for modifying the Fatboy II. So I buff it's hitpoints, throw on a shield, make the weapons do more damage, give it a radar, that kinda thing.

Then take bp.scd in \gamedata, back it up first, then replace the compiled .bp file in the folder with the uncompressed .bp and .lua files. Something like winrar makes it really easy to replace the originals with your modded versions, as you can just drag and drop into the bp.scd.

Ventura, did it work for you? Because when I tried it, it crashed. At the moment my method is quite complicated, because you need to upload many files which are much bigger than simple .lua text file. I'm really interested in your project relating experimentals, considering that I was starting to think about buffing all experimentals. If you are interested in, we can work together.

It certainly does work for me mate. I had problems with my first few attempts, until I understood how it worked. Basically, if you take bp.scd and replace it's compiled bp's with the uncompiled bp and lua files that you get from the uncompiled_lua.scd, it works just fine. Just, as has been said, make sure individual folders have either uncompiled or compiled files, you can't mix and match the different types in the same folder.

That said, yeah, I'm definitely up for buffing the experimentals. They drop like flies right now. I didn't necessarily mean to throw a shield on the Fatboy II, like as was in the original, but I was browsing another unit's files and was wondering if a copy and paste of the shield code would work... and it did.

I'm loving this, I'm going to mod so much more (when I get home).

Ok installed the new patch, working on it. Removed ACU and Gunship improvements, working from scratch again.

have you tried making a mod_units.bp file, and putting only the changes in there? that would require simply re-adding the one file each patch.

I will follow your advice, anyway, this is the first time I see .bp format.

EDIT: Tried with .bp, it doesn't work. If I don't put .dds and .sca files inside the modded content folder, changes will apply but when I click on the building icon the game crashes. At the moment it is the best way I think.

This might be slightly off-topic, but I've just upped a gameplay video to Youtube featuring the buffed Fatboy II that I referenced earlier in this thread, and I thought I'd link it here so people can see where I'm going with my modding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JbDvpbFcEs

Since that, I've toned it back a bit, not so much the damage it's doing, but I was using projectiles that seemed a bit too extreme. It was a fun unit to use though

Edit: Youtube is still processing the video, so at the moment, it's not going to look too crash hot.

Nice video indeed, and yes, projectiles are oversized but finally it seems to be spitting hellfire!

some suggestions on the fatty, i personally think the smoke effects look horrible, just way too much imo, but i like the impact effects for the large gun, just do something about all that smoke and it would be pretty neat imo.

I have to agree with Hawk here, the thing looks like it's using ancient black gunpowder and firing rockets instead of shells. Otherwise the heavier blasting away looks massive.

Thanks for the comments on that Fatboy. I had it using the artillery effects for it's projectiles insted of the cannon ones. I had no idea how it was going to turn out (or even that it would work atall), and while it was obviously excessive, it did make for a good video