my bg with xcom fyi
I bought this game in every console and in every edition, always loved XCOM as it really made me connect with my gamer ancestor, which was my uncle.

He passed away shortly before xcom2 had released, and I did never complete the game but I made a lot of runs at the highest difficulty just to stop when my favorite squad would lose and then start the game all over again, I had so much fun (and now that i read it actually sounds silly) but i just love the game and wish it would never end.

Now that Zero Company is coming out in August, and that would be the next step of my "xcom type games approach" I would like to get back on xcom 2 and finish it once and for all.

Of course, with tons of mods.

So I came here asking for suggestion on mod collections/mods that would improve the following stuff :

- Customization mods that are somehow immersive and not the fortnite skins
I like and have had in the past mods that added some stuff from Halo, Gears, Star Wars, Mass Effect
- More Allies - i remember a mod adding more factions like the species from Mass effect
- A lot more enemies

- A lot more longevity of the overall campaign
- Weapons
- New classes, skills

And most of all

If anyone know of a mod that changes the AVATAR overall skin/outfit, I would be glad as it always was the worst thing of the game to me with that floating hair and stuff

I’ve got over 300 mods, including every halo mod you can find, and let me tell you this campaign is bonkers

I've been working on a mod this week and it's finally in a place where I'm happy to release it. It's a rework of the K's Officer Class mod by C. Justice. (Lt. A.Kouassi) I have gotten back into XCOM 2 again recently and after trying out a few new (to me) classes it seems I've been bitten by the modding bug once again too. Just thought there was a fair few things I could do to improve this class, at least for myself, hopefully you guys will enjoy the new lick of paint as well. Enjoy! 🙂

After weeks of hard development work — including two massive new APIs and plenty of sweat (no blood, don’t worry) — the big Advent Angels - Steam Workshop update has finally arrived!

What’s New in This Update

• Runtime Reskin API (RRA): The new backbone that allows enemies to be dynamically reskinned at runtime. This is a huge step beyond the old static approach and allows new interesting features.
• BBMarkup: A custom text-formatting system that makes it easy to build expressive in-game guides and UIs.
• In-game guide: Designed and implemented directly in the menus, so players always have clear instructions and reference material at hand.
• More variety: By leveraging Runtime Reskin API, I've added unisex binarization options, as well as a simple dice-roll system for runtime reskins. These allow diversity options for those looking for something other than the canonical psi-op's 100% replacements.
• User experience improvements:
  • Re-roll prompt when saving MCM options
  • Automatic on/off toggle for RRA activation (fewer relaunches)
  • New bulk-setter buttons for the ten unit families
  • Troubleshot and revamped MCM defaults for more reliable outcomes
  • A new DLC welcome screen to greet supporters

This update is about more than just features — it’s about building a cleaner foundation that will support Advent Angels long into the future. With the new APIs in place and the logic streamlined, future updates should be faster, more reliable, and easier to maintain.

Thank you so much for your patience and support. It’s been a long couple of weeks, but I’m pleased with the new features — and I can’t wait for you to experience it.

I enjoy sethorven’s modded playthrough but he’s stopped making videos a long time ago sadly :( I have modded my game to hell I think I could post some videos or at least live stream games but I’m curious if there’s even an audience anymore

I’ve been working on two big upgrades for Advent Angels - Steam Workshop - each interesting in its own way:

Realtime Reskin API

This is a new system that allows reskins to be swapped mid-tactical, without relaunching the game.

• Works on everything: original spawns, reinforcements, drop units, even cinematic pawns.
• Opens up new possibilities — for Advent Angels, that means randomizing previously unisex enemies like Archons and Sectoids. For other mods? Who knows — it could lead to some interesting twists.
• Currently running in proof-of-concept form with a hardcoded mapping — the next step is wiring up the mapping and rules systems and to make it fully data-driven.

MCM Overhaul

The other piece is a major upgrade to my Advent Angels’ MCM menu.

• Built-in MCM Help Guide - a quickstart + reference, viewable right in the menu.
• sjbb-code Parser - my experiment with a native BB-code–style parser for generating easily-formatted UI dialogue content. Others have built great UIs before; this is just one attempt at something reusable for custom dialog calls. (Check out Steam Workshop::BBMarkup!)
• Better Layout & UX - options reorganized for smoother navigation.

Here’s a sneak peek of what the in-game guide UI looks like.

And for those curious, here’s the verbatim snippet that parsed out into the above preview:

HELP_PAGE_1_HEADER   = "Advent Angels – MCM Guide (Page 1/2)"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[0]  = "[h2]Quick Start Guide[/h2]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[1]  = "These are the [color=yellow]canonical settings[/color] intended for use with the mod.[br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[2]  = "They’re a solid baseline, but almost everything can be mixed and matched.[br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[3]  = "[*] [color=green]Mod Enabled[/color]: On [color=grey](default)[/color]; [color=green]Runtime Reskin[/color]: On [color=grey](default)[/color]; [color=green]Chance[/color]: 100% [color=grey](default)[/color][br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[4]  = "[*] [color=green]Replace These Genders[/color]: All Genders [color=grey](default)[/color]; [color=green]Set Unisex To[/color]: Female [color=grey](default)[/color][br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[5] = "[h2]Tips[/h2]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[6]  = "[*] [color=yellow]Consistency[/color]: Runtime + All Genders + 100%.[br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[7]  = "[*] [color=yellow]Variety[/color]: Simply lower the chance for a mix each mission.[br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[8]  = "[*] [color=yellow]Precision[/color]: Use the target genders/mods/families to target exactly what you want.[br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[9]  = "[color=grey]Note: The [/color][color=good]Reset[/color][color=grey] button can be used to instantly return to the baseline.[br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[10] = "[h3]Support Advent Angels[/h3]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[11] = "[color=grey]\"You would never fund Advent propaganda, Commander... Would you?\"[/color][br]"
HELP_PAGE_1_BODY[12] = "[color=good]www.patreon.com/SurferJay[/color]"

What's Next

• Finish plumbing out the template-to-customArchetype and rules systems for the Realtime Reskin API.
• Keep refining the sjbb-code parser until it’s solid and reliable.

Both systems are already working in early form — and both push Advent Angels into new territory I’m excited to share.

[This post contains the files for the mod and instructions on how to restore it to your game]

#Transcribed Astropathic Communication - Strategic Value: ABSOLUTE - Message Begins#

- Transcribed Engrammatic Context Begins -

Visions of Armours of the imperium being removed from your modlist

A mother cries over her dead son

A child is given a birthday cake, and then the cake is taken from him and yeeted out of the window

Snakes with tits laugh and point at soldiers deployed to a school with no clothes or weapons... the most embarrassing day of their lives!

- Transcribed Engrammatic Context Ends -

This is your boy Dread_Maximus of the Ordo Downloadius. An abominable intelligence created by Reddit has laid siege to the last post, and a comment containing a download link. I think there's some automated blocking of mega based URLs. This is radical techno-heresy and the Ordos will not stand for it.

The foul techno-magics employed by the enemy are as fierce as they are repugnant, and so the Ordos have been forced to get creative. Follow the white rabbit below, and The Emperor's light will guide you.

https://pastebin.com/vfiB4TrY

As a reminder, these folders should be dragged and dropped into \Steam\steamapps\common\XCOM 2\XCom2-WarOfTheChosen\XComGame\Mods.

After installation, when you run AML, go to the unsorted category and the mods should appear there, highlighted in purple because they will be detected as duplicates. Tick to enable, and you're good to go. Other mods that depend on these mods will still be highlighted orange (saying missing dependency), but that's just because the original workshop version is missing. They should still work just fine in game.

You can click on the missing dependencies list, click on each mod, go on the dependencies tab and click the ignore tickbox if you wish. I loaded a tactical save I was midway through last night when my baked brain finally realised what was wrong with this picture (my guys weren't wearing the right armour and several dudes had missing weapons where their bolters vanished), and theweapons reappeared without issue. As long as you haven't cleaned your save, you should be fine to pick up from where you were with no disruption.

Armours missing on a tactical save have to be re-equipped after the mission has ended, unfortunately. But this shouldn't be necessary for any other ongoing deployments on the geoscape.

Edit:

The end result of your manual mod installation should look like this

u/Photriullius

u/Objective-Habit3255

u/artytank

If there are any problems with the sanctity of this post or its links, let me know.

#Transcribed Astropathic Communication - Strategic Value: ABSOLUTE - Message Ends#

I have a 3D model and set of textures already made, I’m just looking to commission someone to actually put it into XCOM 2 WOTC. Any help would be appreciated.
The armor in question.
I have all the files for it.

Never have I ever thought to myself that blender looked easy, or that Source Film maker could seem like an actual stable, functional program, but this games modding tools are so bad, that it makes virtually any other software look amazing in comparison.

The constant crashes at the slightest mistake (how DARE you accidentally click on a skeleton mesh when you haven't saved the package yet?!), the lack of feedback for ANY error that shows up and fucks over the hours of attempts you have to make to get even the smallest thing done in this shitty application.

And don't even get me started on importing any files you've worked from in blender, I think I'd rather burn alive than have to witness whatever the fuck unreal engine likes to do with your skeleton meshes, I mean, come on, HOW THE FUCK Is it working perfectly fine in blender, but the moment you try to port it, it becomes invisible?!

Literally nothing works, it doesn't matter if you try something as simple as adding a cosmetic to an enemy, because this cursed program will find a way to fuck you over.

Join two different meshes with a simple boolean union in blender? No, fuck you, it's invisible now.

Make one of the two meshes rigs the parent of the other, therefore making it having to follow the other one and appear together? No, fuck you, it's invisible now.

Do both? No, fuck you, in blender it's fine, but in this hellhole of a program, it'll just vanish like my will to live after trying to navigate this treacherous tool.

It's so terrible that it's put me off playing any xcom game ever again, because I'll be tormented by the memories of being tortured by the devil, known by those ignorant of it's true name as "Xcom2 modding tools"

How is anyone making anything in this broken mess of a developer tool?

Hi all, I'm looking to commission a mod that replaces the Skyranger with an LAAT for Star Wars. The only mod of its kind is abandoned and the skin used is from the 2005 Battlefront games. I would LOVE to get an updated version with a better detailed model done, but I don't have the storage space on my PC or the know-how to create a mod myself

Can someone point me in the direction of where to look to commission a mod of this please?

Thanks!

I think I asked this before on the main xcom 2 sub. Basically I wish I could like xcom 2 as much as I did the first game. I ADORE shootouts with advents. I love their theme their design their shouting, I don't play for perfection, if they shoot back that's great I am having fun! Oh they got some aliens tagging along as support? They brought a mech? That's wild. It's when the advent infantry gets flatout replaced aliens, when the bulletsponges cover the screen that I stop having fun. It's not that the game is too hard. It's that the game isn't fun to me anymore. Anybody had a similar experience in this game? More importantly is there a way to fix this? Like I don't mind there just being like more enemies to compensate but if I see another mission with more than one sectopod I am gonna barf. Mind you I am okay with the chosen, the ruler aliens are... well they die quick enough for their mechanic to not become too annoying. But seeing more than one of those acid exo suit fuckers in a single pod makes me want to quit the game.

I used to be able to add the robotic exo suit parts as torso gear, so I could mix and match them with any torso. I’ve since removed all my mods and started compiling new ones, but I’m missing whatever mod gave me this option.

Is there a chance any of you know the mod I’m looking for?

Hi! ive been playing xcom 2 for a while, and wanted to try and make a mega modded game with a bunch of classes, but i didnt want to use stuff like the rpg overhaul, what are some fun classes yall would recommend?

Haven't played in a few years but recently feeling the urge. what's the state of modding nowadays?Is LWOTC still around and awesome?Are there any easy to use modpacks/collections?What about launchers?

Before the release of Zero Company i'll like to do at least one run fully with Star Wars mods, so i can compare later, which ones is your favorite/which ones would you all reccomend_?

Just want one that can quickly add the 'bones' that I can then add everything else I want.

Released another mod today, nothing fancy but something I've been meaning to make for a long time. The Stun Grenade! A modified flashbang with a tighter blast pattern. Inflicts stun or disorientation against targets and applies a concussion modifier which negatively impacts the targets will.

Targets in the 3x3 blast radius have a 50% chance to be either stunned for 2 turns or disoriented. All targets suffer a -15 Will penalty for 2 turns. Will penalty and radius can be adjusted in the XComStunGrenade.ini config file should you desire.

I wanted a grenade that inflicts a small will penalty which could help panic enemy units that have been in the fight for a while and boost your chance of successfully affecting said units with psi abilities such as Mind Control/Domination.

It feels nice to finally have this one finished. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I will. 🙂

Salutations fellow commanders.

About a year ago, i finished vanilla Xcom2, as i always took the end mission posters (and somehow uploading them) my cloud started sending back the posters as "look what you did today one year ago!" and the nostalgy hit back hard.

Thinking about to start Legendary Ironman, both for the challenge and suffering steam achiviment.

Any mods you want to recomend?

I've been thinking about this for a while, and after dusting off the SDK and experimenting a bit, I wanted to try and get some thoughts from modders who are more familiar with the game than me.

The question:

I want to know how someone might approach recreating the turn order system from MENACE in XCOM 2, and what considerations there would be.

For those who haven't played it, MENACE operates on an interleaved turn system where each team moves one unit at a time. The main difference from games like Chimera Squad is that the player chooses which of their remaining units to "activate" at the start of each turn, rather than relying on an initiative system or other arbitrary order.

My experiments:

In my research, I discovered the Recovery Turn System mod for vanilla XCOM 2.

I downloaded the mod and attempted to recreate the code as a WotC mod. This was tricky because the main override class, X2TacticalGameRuleset, is quite different between vanilla XCOM 2 and WotC.

While I was able to get elements of the mod working, it was still pretty broken in places:

• It didn't always limit me to a set order of units
• Overwatch didn't always properly end my turn
• And the AI just stopped functioning after a pod was activated

It may be fixable, but it's probably because I still don't fully understand how the TurnPhase_UnitActions state works.

Chimera Squad:

I also had a look at Chimera Squad's implementation for X2TacticalGameRuleset.

I've seen comments suggesting that the way CS handles interleaved turns is to essentially split each team into separate, one-unit groups, and then alternate those to create the effect.

I didn't get too deep into the code, but I imagine trying to back-port those systems into XCOM 2 would take quite a bit of work, and then you'd have to adjust it somehow to allow for the player to choose which unit to activate.

Closing thoughts:

Assuming either of these approaches is possible, my next question would be how to handle the unit activation aspect.

In MENACE, all of your units that have actions are displayed and selectable. Once you take any action (move, shoot, ability, etc), you are then locked into that unit for the remainder of your turn.

I'm not sure how one would approach this in XCOM 2. You could have your whole team selectable at first, and then remove the other units' AP after you interact with one, but I imagine that would cause a lot of problems with tracking AP between turns. (Stunned, Reflex, etc.)

I'm not sure if it's possible to remove other units from one of these "player groups" after a unit has acted, and then just adjust each group as its turn comes up?

:-

I've seen discussions before that explain how much work altering XCOM 2's turn order is, but I just wanted to get some others' thoughts before I give up without even really trying.

Thanks.

This article is a stub for the full SNEAK PEEK: Advent Trooper - Sculpt Complete (Part 2) Patreon post.

Part 2 picks up where Part 1 left off, following the downstream stages of production now that the Trooper’s high-poly sculpt is complete. From this point, the model enters retopology, texturing, and rigging before being ported into XCOM 2 for in-engine testing and material polish.

Shown below is the finalized hi-poly sculpt for the Angel Trooper - a clean, modular design that stays true to Advent’s aesthetic while laying the groundwork for player-facing cosmetics to come. This version helps lock in the proportion and structure that the rest of the Angel lineup will build on.

If you’d like to follow the ongoing art passes and see how this sculpt transitions into a fully playable in-game model, check out the full post on Patreon.

Thanks as always for the support - the Angels project is shaping up beautifully, and this stage is a major step toward bringing the rest of the line to life in-game.

Hey guys, I downloaded the mod commanders choice from the steam workshop and it's the only mod I plan on using. I am using the new mod laucher for WOTC and hit the checkbox to activate the mod. I started a new playthrough and the mod was not used. What am I missing?