XCOM 2 made its digital debut on Feb. 5, but that hasn’t stopped an ambitious modding community from cobbling together a handful of XCOM 2 add-ons before the weekend was over. As is typically the case with community content, they’re not all winners. But we’ve rounded up more than a few XCOM 2 mods you might consider downloading before getting started on your next run through the XCOM 2 campaign.
Disable Mission Timers
Disable Mission Timers does exactly what it advertises…and what a surprisingly large cross-section of the XCOM 2 community has been begging for since the game debuted on Feb. 5. Unfortunately, the mod isn’t perfect yet. Disable Mission Timers doesn’t work on missions where players defend the Avenger from invasion or during Retaliation events. But it does work during Guerilla Ops and other timed events.
It’s important to note the mod’s creators consider this a very early build of their XCOM 2 add-on and recommend that anyone planning to install Disable Mission Timers either back-up their existing saves or begin a new campaign before using the mod. No one wants to have to start over from scratch this soon.
Disable Mission Timers - Steam Workshop
Configure Mission Timers – Nexus Mods
Extend or Disable the Avatar Meter
There are two ways to go about adjusting the Avatar Meter in XCOM 2. The easy way is by downloading the Disable Avatar Meter add-on from Nexus Mods. The slightly more challenging way is to edit one of the .ini files to adjust the Avatar Meter. The upside to taking the tough approach is that players just looking to adjust the challenge, rather than remove it, can choose to increase or decrease the size of the Avatar Meter. And it doesn’t even take that long. Here’s how:
1. Find the parent directory for Steam. It’s usually C:Program Files (x86)Steam
2. Find the DefaultGameData.ini file in SteamAppscommonXCOM 2XComGameConfig
3. Open the file in Notepad
4. Search (Ctrl+F) for “AlienHeadquarters_DoomMaxValue” (no quotation marks)
5. Change the digits (represented by X and Y) in “AlienHeadquarters_DoomMaxValue[X]=Y” so that X matches your current difficulty level (0 is easy, 1 is normal, 2 is hard, 3 is impossible) and Y is the number of squares you want the Avatar meter to have.
Configure Avatar Meter - h/t to Steam user Ez-
Disable Avatar Meter – Nexus Mods
True Concealment
True Concealment makes one of the most interesting mechanical additions to XCOM 2 work in the way that many of us assumed it would during our first few hours with the game. With the mod installed, mission timers won’t begin to countdown until ADVENT forces have spotted your squad. The good news is that the mod’s creators believe it will play nicely with some other mods that alter the mission timers in XCOM 2. The bad news is the “some” in that line suggests the mod won’t play well with some XCOM 2 add-ons, too. But at least those who thought timers shouldn’t begin to tick until Concealment is broken didn’t have to wait long to have their wish granted.
Hidden Potential
Hidden Potential bills itself as “a spiritual successor to the original Second Wave” add-on for XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Second Wave was a bit of free DLC, released in January 2013, that gave fans the ability to tweak some settings in ways that made Enemy Unknown campaign significantly more difficult. Now, the team behind Hidden Potential hopes to create a similar add-on for XCOM 2.
Right now, Hidden Potential randomizes stat growth and removes the game’s existing stat caps. Changes have also been made to the dice rolls that determine starting sharpshooter and psi operative statistics, in an effort to make them a bit more effective at lower levels. Right now, the team is referring to this as Hidden Potential v0.1 but it’ll be interesting to see how the mod continues to grow.
The Long War Studios Mods
It probably won’t come as a shock that the three XCOM 2 add-ons from Long War Studios have already proven to be the most popular of the first wave. The studio’s Leader pack introduces a new soldier class to XCOM 2, with tech trees that focus on bolstering the combat effectiveness of the leader’s squad. As you probably deduced, the SMG pack adds new submachine guns that can be equipped in place of assault rifles. Finally, the Muton Centurion pack adds a new kind of Muton to the game, more powerful variants of the brutish ADVENT soldiers with a new War Cry ability that grants bonuses to nearby allies.
- Leader Packer – Steam Workshop
- Muton Centurion Alien Pack – Steam Workshop
- SMG Pack – Steam Workshop
New Countries
In our interview with Jake Solomon, the XCOM 2 director specifically mentioned the ease with which players could create representations for the many countries whose flags, soldiers and names didn’t make the launch build of XCOM 2. So New Countries is exactly what we expected on Week One.
The XCOM 2 mod adds 22 new nationalities to the game, along with flags and male/female soldier names for each, and the creator of New Countries even tried to account for cultural differences in naming conventions. The examples cited on the Steam Workshop are differing potential last names for Icelandic men and women. And, considering Sgt. Nutcracker has already updated New Countries once since launch, it seems safe to assume New Countries will only continue to grow throughout 2016.
New Countries - Steam Workshop
Add Somalia – Nexus Mods
Evac All Button
Ever wished you extract all of your soldiers at once, instead of evacuating them to the Skyranger one by one? Now you can!
Occasionally, the mod will create some weird sound effect overlaps. But there shouldn’t be any negative impact on your saves or game performance. That said, it probably couldn’t hurt to back-up your primary save if you aren’t planning to start a new campaign.
Character Customization Mods
While many of the early mods for XCOM 2 address perceived mechanical shortcomings, there are plenty of folks already hard at work on new content designed specifically for soldiers. These creations range from new weapons to new props and costume pieces. And there are already some ridiculous items being added to the XCOM 2 catalog.
There’s a mod that swaps which side your soldiers wear an eye patch on, making it that much easier to recreate a certain world-renowned spy from the Metal Gear franchise. One mod adds handful of new hats to customize your soldiers. There’s even a gun that shoots pigeons, yes, pigeons, created to fulfill a public request from XCOM 2 art director Greg Foertsch during the Firaxis Megapanel at PAX South 2016.
- ACORG 47 (New Gun) – Steam Workshop
- COL-16 Pigeon Gun (New Gun) – Steam Workshop
- Eyepatch Right (Props) – Steam Workshop
- Im Too Fancy For Thouse Ayys (Props) – Steam Workshop
Character Pool Sets
Last, but certainly not least, XCOM 2 players are already exporting and sharing custom creations from the Character Pools. As you’d expect, there are no shortage of attempts to recreate familiar faces from pop culture, many of which we’ve rounded up below for your convenience. Obviously, there will be dozens of additional Character Pool downloads coming in the next few weeks. But these seemed like good starting points for longtime gamers, sci-fi fans and even Game of Thrones junkies.
- Alien films - Nexus Mods
- Diamond Dogs – Nexus Mods
- Final Fantasy 6 – Nexus Mods
- Final Fantasy 7 – Nexus Mods
- Firefly – Nexus Mods
- Game of Thrones – Nexus Mods
- G.I. Joe – Nexus Mods
- Star Wars – Nexus Mods
- The Witcher – Nexus Mods
- X-Men Character Pool – Nexus Mods
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Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more XCOM 2 coverage throughout 2016 and for however long Firaxis continues to support XCOM 2 in the months ahead.
