Long War EW Beta 6 Readme

XCOM: Long War EW
A modification for the 2012 Game X-Com: Enemy Unknown with the 2013 expansion, X-Com: Enemy Within.

By JohnnyLump and Amineri
v3.0 Beta 6 * Release Date: March 29, 2014

**** Chief Designer and Deputy Programmer: JohnnyLump
**** Chief Programmer and Deputy Designer: Amineri
**** Senior Contributing UI Programmer: XMarksTheSpot
Thanks to other modders who have made various discoveries used in this mod, including: Uberjumper, Drakous79, Bertilsson, Bokuak, BlackAlpha, WGhost81, Guicomir, MuckBeth, Peasly Wellbott
And Special Thanks To: DubiousIntent (X-Com's modding archivist), Hobbes (for his excellent vanilla XCOM wiki, http://www.ufopaedia.org/)

The EU version of this mod was named by PCGamer one of "the 15 most brutal mods of all time!"
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/10/05/the-15-most-brutal-mods-of-all-time/3/

You must have a legitimate version of Enemy Within to play this mod. This mod is for games with the March 10, 2014, patch, what we're calling EW Patch 3. The game version is still listed as 401776.
An Enemy Unknown version of this mod is available on the Nexus.

For the latest version of this mod, go to XCOM Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/88/
Endorsements on the Nexus are welcome! They help promote this mod so other players can find it.

We want your feedback! Please post on the Mod page on the Nexus, or in the Long War entry on the "Mod Talk" forum, on the Long War mod entry on the 2kGames X-Com forum, or feel free to PM me through the Nexus. Please read the "known issues" and "vanilla bugs" entries below before reporting a bug, but if it's not there, let us know!

AN IMPORTANT NOTE
Check out mod designer John Lumpkin's science fiction novel, Through Struggle, the Stars, available as an e-book and paperback on Amazon and elsewhere. Visit www.thehumanreach.net for details. In its May 2012 edition, the venerable Analog Science Fiction magazine called it "all good, great fun." A sequel, The Desert of Stars, was published in March 2013.

This mod makes more than 600 changes, large and small, to the vanilla versions of the game. It is harder and longer than the vanilla version but gives you many more tools to combat the alien threat.

Some of the changes in this mod include:

* An extended campaign requiring far more missions to complete
* Tactical missions that allow up to eight XCom soldiers per mission with the right upgrades
* Eight soldier classes: Infantry, Assault, Sniper, Scout, Gunner, Rocketeer, Medic and Engineer, and eight MEC classes: Valkyrie, Marauder, Jaeger, Pathfinder, Goliath, Archer, Guardian and Saburai
* New and modified perks, including Ranger, Sapper, HEAT Warheads, Lock N' Load and Javelin Rockets
* New and modified technologies, including Xenopsionics, Alien Biocybernetics, Pulse Lasers, Gauss Weapons and Advanced Aerospace Concepts, and many new foundry projects
* Five tiers of XCOM weaponry, many new armors and small items, and SHIVs that can be equipped with perk-granting small items!
* Much earlier access to psionics and vastly expanded psionics tree, with new psi powers unlocked by alien autopsies and interrogations
* A system of commissioning and promoting XCOM officers who provide bonuses to your entire squad during missions (replaces the EW medals system)
* Overhauled interception game, with five new UFO classes, such as the fighter, raider and harvester, as well as six interceptors per continent, foundry projects to upgrade your aircraft, individualized pilot names and pilot experience, and the Stingray Missile weapon system
* Overhauled strategy game, in which the aliens gather resources and conduct research -- efforts XCOM must interdict if it hopes to save humanity. XCOM can now retake countries my finding and conquering alien bases in those countries. Help council countries defend themselves by fulfilling their requests for alien technology!
* Aliens and EXALT forces now grow tougher over time, gaining stats and perks. Enemy units will have leaders who are particularly challenging, and will sometimes be real monsters! You will also see greater variety in alien pods.
* Overhauled system of weapon damage
* Requirement that soldiers rest after each mission, requiring the player to build a much deeper roster of soldiers
* Modified second wave options to support longer campaign

Most of the specific changes will be detailed in in-game text ... many game mechanics have changed, so read perk, tech and item descriptions closely! They may not do what you expect from vanilla.

Perk trees for all classes are in the file LW3pt.jpg in your XEW directory, or here:
http://home.comcast.net/~johnnylump/LW3pt.jpg
Tech tree is in the file LW3tt.jpg in your XEW directory, or here:
http://home.comcast.net/~johnnylump/LW3tt.jpg

THANK YOU FOR TESTING A BETA. PLEASE NOTE IT MAY HAVE STABILITY PROBLEMS AND OTHER BUGS, SO PLAYING IRONMAN OR WITH AUTOSAVE OFF IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. IT MAY ALSO HAVE BALANCE ISSUES. If you want a cleaner version of this mod, you should play the EU version or wait until this version is final.
Please check the Known Issues first, and if your issue isn't listed, we want detailed feedback on all of those things on the Long War EW Beta feedback forum.
Make sure you post your difficulty level, any Second Wave options you are using, and whether you started a campaign under this version, or a prior one.
Also note that Future Betas/Final versions may invalidate existing campaigns.

IF YOU GET A CTD:
Please help us by posting crash output on the LW EW Beta Nexus subforum.
1. Describe the circumstances of the crash.
1. On most installations, go to this directory: C:\Users\YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME\Documents\My Games\XCOM - Enemy Within\XComGame\Logs
2. Open the file Launch.log in a text editor.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the file and look for the line that says "Log: === Critical error: ==="
4. If it is present, copy that line to the end of the list of functions that were called and post on the subforum. It should look like this:

[0019.24] Log: === Critical error: ===
	Unknown code token 04
	XGExaltSimulation Command1.TheWorld:PersistentLevel.XGExaltSimulation_0
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGExaltSimulation:GetPanicMod:00F5
	Script call stack:
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGGeoscape:Tick
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGGeoscape:GameTick
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGGeoscape:UpdateShips
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGShip_UFO:OnArrival
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGAlienObjective:NotifyOfSuccess
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGStrategyAI:LogUFORecord
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGCountry:AddPanic
	Function XComStrategyGame.XGExaltSimulation:GetPanicMod

5. Unfortunately, this stack dump doesn't occur very often in the log, and if a function list isn't present, it is unlikely we can do much with your post.
6. In any event, accept our grateful thanks for helping us debug the mod.

To install:
If you are upgrading from Beta 3 or earlier, you should verify back to an up-to-date vanilla install.
1. Make sure you have the latest .net framework and Java installed.
2. Run the installer.
3. When you select your path to install the mod, you should receive a warning that the directory already exists. If you didn't, have you may have missed a step.
4. Start the game once. You may receive a CTD error; this appears to be some aspect of the mod completing installation. Start it again, and it should run.

Installation notes:
1. This mod will overwrite several game files and likely render multiplayer unplayable until you uninstall.
2. We don't think it will work on Macs, although you are welcome to try and give us feedback.
3. The mod will not work properly on vanilla EW campaigns, so you'll need to start a new one. Campaigns are saved even if you uninstall, so you should be able to return to vanilla campaigns. Long War campaigns probably won't work well in vanilla.
4. If Firaxis / 2k issues any patches to vanilla XCOM, it will overwrite and disable Long War, and almost certainly make the mod unplayable until the modders are able to update it. Unfortunately, turning off automatic updates to the game in Steam, via the game menu / Properties / Updates tab, does not prevent patches from loading. Your savegames should be preserved, though.
5. If you want to use alternate game textures via Texmod, install them AFTER you fully install Long War.
6. If you install this mod over an existing version of Long War EW, you won't be able to uninstall back to vanilla; to do so, you'll have to go to Steam and use the "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" option (under the Xcom game menu / Properties / Local Files tab) to restore your game to its original settings. You should also do this if something goes wrong with the uninstall.
7. If this is your first time playing Long War, you should hit ALT-F10 once at the beginning of the game (once the first mission is underway) to reset your map cycler.

Included software:
XCOMEUModHelper by UberJumper

Acknowledgements:
Amineri and XMarksTheSpot for UPKModder
Eliot van Uytfanghe for UE Explorer
twinj for discovering how to rescript functions
Gildor for Unreal Package Decompessor
Inno Setup 5, by JRSoftware.org
Thanks for advice, ideas, support and feedback from many people, including but not limited to:
Amanasleep, Anaxibois, Antioche, AnUser, Armarnis, BeagleRush, BuffaloBurger, Cal0004, Casnimot, Commander Gorda, Deducter, Demiansky, drake8888, Felerys, Firestorm10, FilthyRobot, Fishbo, FlyingHigh10000000, Haerzog, Hambil, Haruspice, Hazapuza, Houmie, Insufferable Smartypants, Kara42, Minoitos, Nontalo, Phwop, Sibiryak, SirDrD, Squee913, Talhydras, Teemredd31, Thunder_GR, Valakov, WalterJ, Wintermist, WorthlessBums, Xaxyx, Yustarius, Yzaxtol, Zybertrix
Also special thanks to Neonin for the Long War logo on the Nexus mod page! Check out Neonin's UI Texture Replacement mod for livelier in-game icons and other graphics: http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/382//?

Take a look at some playthroughs here:
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?showtopic=1049348

Permissions:
Please contact me (JohnnyLump) via private message on X-Com Nexus before redistributing any files with this mod. If you're a modder, check out the discussion "Long War upk changes" in the Mod Talk forum for how to implement specific changes in this mod in your own.

FAQ - General

Q: I'm fairly new to XCom. What difficulty should I start with?
A: Normal.

Q: I'm an XCom vet. What difficulty should I start with?
A: Normal.

Q: But I'm really awesome at --
A: Sorry to interrupt, but just start with Normal. We don't have easy difficulties in this mod that hold your hand while you learn the ropes, and we've removed every bit of code we can find that cheats for the player on the lower difficulties. It's going to be hard. The other difficulties are just harder versions of normal; feel free to move up when you get a handle on all the new mechanics.

Q: Say what? Ten HP outsiders with regeneration in the first downed UFO mission? I love all the new X-Com options but don't like the difficulty. Why did you make a mod that is so hard?
A: This mod was made by people who loved the vanilla game but found it a bit simplistic and saw lots of opportunities within the engine for much deeper strategic and tactical play and a greater variety of problems to throw at the player. When someone tells us it is too hard, there might be any of three things going on:
	1) The player hasn't adapted to the changes in the mod and expects their suboptimal strategies to succeed (We believe this is the case with outsiders). We have a Long War strategy subforum on the Nexus page you can go to for advice.
	2) The player's definition of fun is different from ours; they expect the game to provide them easier situations, make solutions more readily available, or be geared to provide the illusion of challenge but actually make it pretty easy to win. In this case, the player should play an easier difficulty setting, mod LW to their personal preferences, or play another mod. Long War isn't for everyone.
	3) The mod really is unreasonably hard (or bugged in a way that makes it too hard) and should be changed. Specific feedback about the situation and how you attempted to address helps us; general complaints about difficulty really won't induce us to make any changes.

Q: I want you guys to add feature X. How do I tell you?
A: Post in the Long War Feature Requests and Suggestions subforum on the mod homepage on the Nexus.

Q: I want to mod feature X myself. How do I do that?
A: Many, many game settings are contained in the file XEW\Config\DefaultGameCore.ini, which can be edited with a text editor, and your changes will take effect the next time you load the mod (no other changes are necessary!). Ingame text is in INT files in the localilzation folder. If it's not in either of those files, you'll probably have to make hex changes to the upk files, which is considerably more complicated. See the "Modding Long War" subforum or the general XCom Mod Talk forum on the Nexus for details.

Q: I love this! Can I give you something?
A: Nexus policies prohibit us from soliciting money or doing anything that would be perceived as "selling" the mod to players. For those who want to directly support the modders, we have placed a Paypal donation link on our Nexus page, but we are not allowed to request, reward or acknowledge any specific gifts (sorry, but we really are deeply grateful). In addition, you're always welcome to buy JohnnyLump's sci-fi novels through www.thehumanreach.net.

Q: I want to make some changes and redistribute my version of your mod. May I?
A: Contact johnnylump via the Nexus messaging system. Permission isn't granted unless he says it's OK, and we won't agree to allowing you to accept donations or posting it anywhere other than the Nexus.

Q: Can you make a shorter version of Long War?
A: Try the "Not-So-Long-War" Second Wave option.

Q: Can you make a longer version of Long War?
A: Try the "Liberators" Second Wave option.

Q: Do I still have to disable phone home like in Long War EU?
A: No longer! The mod fixes the exe so that is no longer required.

Q: Can I use other mods like Toolboks with Long War?
A: It depends, but probably not. Other large-scale overhaul mods (if anyone every makes any others) will not be compatible, nor will mods that change ini settings or ingame text by overwriting ini and int files. Mods that make individual changes *may* be compatible if they search and replace hex. If they search by absolute offset within the upk (like Toolboks), they will not be compatible unless they are made specifically for Long War. Keep an eye on the Long War modding subforum; we'll post possible changes you can make yourself if they are easy to implement and frequently requested.

Q: I keep getting the same maps every other mission! Is there a fix?
A: Press ALT-F10 once during the game. You won't get any feedback when you do, but this resets the file that tracks which maps you've already played. What is happening is some of Long War's repurposed maps are being treated as "new" and repeatedly pushed to the top of the queue; by resetting your log the game will treat all maps equally.

Q: I installed the mod, but got error 0xc0000142 when I try to run the game.
A: This error is known to occur when people install mods on pirated copies of XCOM. The mod only works with legitimate Steam versions of the mod. This includes the boxed DVD version, which requires Steam to install. While this occurs because of something the pirates did (and not us), we don't support pirated versions and will not troubleshoot these problems; the solution is to buy a legit copy of the game.

FAQ - Specific Gameplay Questions

Q: Hey, I lost a country with little panic in the first month! Is that supposed to happen?
A: Yes. And if the aliens grow strong enough, they'll do this again, although you can stop those missions once launched. (It's just really hard.) Find and defeat the alien base in lost countries and you can get them back.

Q: Why do all my starting soldiers have genemod armor?
A: That's a new armor, the tac vest, which anyone can wear. Long War EW introduces 7 new armors (for a total of 14) generally built as lighter armors allowing more mobility at some cost of protection. If you don't like the look, try some of the alternate decos, which will minimize the sleeveless effect.

Q: One my weapons did zero damage after a hit! Is that supposed to happen?
A: Yes.

Q: I just bagged a sectoid that had mind-merged to another sectoid, but it didn't die; it only took some damage. Is that supposed to happen?
A: Yes.

Q: Why are my arc thrower stun chances so low?
A: Arc Throwers are no longer nearly automatic; your best case is a 55 to 60 percent chance to stun an alien. This is to make capturing aliens a meaningful and dangerous challenge. With Long War's increased mission count, you'll have far more opportunities to stun aliens and get their stuff, and you wouldn't want Alien Containment to overflow, would you?

Q: I only got 2 Meld from a canister on the first mission? Is that supposed to happen?
A: Yes. The amount of meld you get will vary, based on something we'll let you figure out.

Q: How do I retake a country?
A: You need a skeleton key (obtained by the same mechanism in vanilla, although you may need more than one) and you need to orbit a satellite over the occupied country to find the base. A successful base assault will return the country to XCOM at high panic.

Q: How do I set default colors for my soldiers?
A: Look for the file DefaultGameCore.ini, which is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XEW\XComGame\Config in a standard Steam installation. Open it in a text editor like notepad. About 40 percent of the way down you'll see a comment "Initial soldier appearance." The next several lines set various default appearance numbers for various classes. EDIT THIS FILE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Tips:
- Many players have reported this mod to be more difficult than vanilla X-Com. A number of strategic game elements are more random, and no longer are the parts of the strategy game that drive the narrative forward so simple to accomplish: They take meaningful amounts of time and resources, even as the aliens gain additional tools to beat you. Be prepared to abort missions and lose satellites and countries. Improvements in soldiers and technology will often be incremental rather than transformational. There isn't some dominant strategy deliberately embedded in the settings for you to root out; instead, you'll have to mix both long-term preparation with short-term flexibility to deal with crises.
- Expect to lose some battles. A key part of tactical play is knowing when to retreat to preserve your force.
- You may attempt to retake alien countries by defeating the alien base there. You'll need to orbit a satellite over that country to find it, and the aliens will do everything they can to shoot it down! You'll also need a new skeleton key for every additional attempt.
- Your interceptors now have a chance to detect UFOs on their continent in countries where no satellite is present. If the aliens seem to be concentrating on a country where you don't have a satellite, stationing interceptors nearby will give you a chance!
- Council nations will now hit you with many more requests for items than you can possibly fulfill, so be selective. Every request you fulfill gives that a country a better chance to resist panic (as indicated by the small shield in the Situation Room).
- Any soldier can attempt psi training, even if they have failed in previous attempts. A greater will score makes you more likely to succeed. Note that Psis cannot become officers, however.
- Armor-piercing weapons are necessary to down certain UFOs, even early in the game.
- Satellite spam is no longer an effective strategy; you'll fall too far behind on research. Labs are now vital.
- Keep a spare satellite on the launch pad. You can't get every UFO, and the survivors will sometimes send hunters after your birds.
- Plan ahead! Everything takes time to build now. Minimum Engineer requirements may also be more of a factor.
- You'll find you'll usually want more than you can afford; be prepared for shortages in cash and alloys, in particular, in the early and mid-games, and weapons fragments and Elerium late game. Selling alloys and elerium may come back to haunt you later. Landed UFOs are a terrific resource.
- With the long injury recovery times and soldier rest requirements you should maintain at least 30 troops in your barracks.
- Interceptor buffs are much more useful than in vanilla, but don't expect to bag every enemy UFO. But you can keep panic at bay by at least making an attempt.
- UFOs will blow up entirely more often if you use high-damage weapons for the final hit.
- SHIVs are no longer a sideshow, but a crucial part of your team from the start. MECs are something you won't be able to field until midgame.
- In the late summer months, casualties of experienced soldiers may mount. Look for projects that help you maintain the ability to field a powerful combat team.
- You absolutely must have HEAT weapons (either via perks or the SHIV item) to take on Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. They will be very difficult otherwise.
- In combat, you may now use the F2 through F9 keys set the camera pitch. Alt-F2 through Alt-F9 provide some additional camera views. ALT-F1 toggles the HUD so you can take pictures. (Hard quit is now Alt-F12.)
- In emergencies, you can take fatigued soldiers on missions, but they will suffer the equivalent of a light combat wound (from all the drugs you had to juice them with plus overexposure to alien chemistry.)
- Both low and high cover provide more protection than in the past, and a measure of damage reduction from most weapons. Low cover is now 2/3 the value of high cover in many respects (instead of half).
- Terror missions are now about holding the line. Every dead civilian increases panic in the country, so the best you can do is to try to limit the damage.
- Save-scumming to win extremely difficult missions can have a dramatic impact on the rest of the game and deny you the full Long War experience.

Known issues:
- CTD on first attempt to play after install. Solution: Try again.
- CTD on exiting game. This doesn't seem to have any other effect. Solution: Ignore it.
- The HP bars are capped at 30 HP. Some powerful aliens will have more than that. If you hit them, their HP are still being decremented, but you won't see the effects on the HP bar until you knock them to 30 or fewer.
- Text changes not implemented for non-English versions. This a problem for new items, classes and perks. Please contact the mod designers if you are interesting in translating Long War into another language. (It will take some work.)
- Changing game difficulty in the middle of a tactical mission will reset all alien leaders and navigators to base hit points for that species and should be considered more of a cheat than it normally is.
- We're not entirely sure what happens if you don't have Slingshot and the soldier deco DLCs, but you may see some glitchiness if you don't.

Future Plans under consideration:
- The aliens will conduct retaliation missions against your interceptor bases. Ships for these missions will be visible.
- One-off council missions against "boss" or monster versions of certain aliens. Temporarily increased Squad Sizes for these missions.
- Revamp Temple Ship mission so it's a challenge at more than two points. Increase Squad Size to 12 for this mission.
- Implement WGhost81's pod start point randomization code (with her consent, of course).
- A timer on some landed UFO missions; if you don't win by when it expires, the UFO launches and you get nothing from it.

Changelog

v3.0 Beta 6 (March 29, 2014)

Bugfixes:
- Kinetic Strike Module, Electropulse will correctly have multiple uses (instead of 1)
- Aliens can now shoot down your satellites again
- Rookies are properly made ineligible for MEC conversion (and other fixes to MEC conversion candidacy)
- Fixed: Incorrect prompts for level 4 psi to finish game by entering gallop chamber.
- Fixed: Possibility for negative meld collection from containers. Also adjusted meld reward amounts to be more granular.
- Added missing text for Sectoid Commander prisoner transfer
- Fixed potential CTDs on most UFO missions after alien research gets particularly high (Thanks Minoitos and Teemredd31 for the savegames! )
- Removed Combined Arms from showing up in Valkyrie perk tree and corrected with Packmaster
- Fixed: Aliens should use grenades again
- Fixed problem with Advanced Servomotors with workaround by creating new MEC small item that grants sprinter perk. Still applies general mobility bonus to all SHIVs.
- Reduced northernmost parts of UK and Germany slightly to see if that will reduce North Pole bug
- Fixed bug causing newly freed countries to be at max panic, should now be freed around 80 panic
- Fixed: You should no longer be able to access the vanilla MEC construction interface
- Attempted Fix: Using disabling shot on an alien in overwatch should no longer give the alien unlimited overwatch shots.
- Attempted Fix to CTD -- Suppressed sectoids will no longer try mind-merge
- Attempted Fix: Sending an interceptor after a landing UFO should abort interception after the UFO goes to ground
- Fixed: Prereqs for Alien Propulsion
- Fixed: Damage Control Pods should function now
- Fixed: Accidentally swapped SHIV Heal and Drone Capture requirements and tech tree position.
- Fixed: Alloy-Carbide Applique should show up as SHIV inventory item
- Fixed: Phoenix Cannon shows up under Gauss Weapons in line with posted tech tree (instead of Advanced Gauss Weapons)
- Fixed: Full list of unlocked foundry projects should appear when you complete a tech
- Fixed: Removed Suppression from candidate Training Roulette perks to avoid conflicts with class skills
- Fixed: Heavy Plasma tech now correctly requires Heavy Plasma items
- Reworked Rush build, adjusted some costs and bonuses (it should generally be better). Still one display bug, noted in Confirmed issues.
- Restorative Mist should show charges in equip UI now
- Set range of alien supply to keep things from getting out of hand (in either direction) and avoid weirdness of negative numbers
- Reduced size of largest big aliens to avoid graphical glitches
- Rewrote code that determines Exalt HQ assault forces
- Attempted to fix issues with multiple UFOs spawning simultaneously by randomizing their appearance time
- Psi icon will glow purple at level 1 sted 4
- Fixed: Psi Training time should show correctly in barracks listing
- Fixed: Hyperwave should show correct alien counts
- Fixed: Bug in BuildPod preventing second main alien from being added
- Fixed: MEC suits will be available for use again if their driver is killed
- Fixed: Code to send best pilots to Firestorms should work now
- Rewrote tech credit code from scratch to better apply techs to credits
- Returned MEC weapon env damage to default
- Attempted fix: Reinforcements during base mission should show up properly now
- Fixed: Equipping multiple units of MEC large items now grant bonus charges
- Fixed: Each dead civilian on terror missions should be +3 panic in country, +1 on continent, instead of +4/+1
- Fixed: You should properly get high mission XP from tough missions (such as terror missions) now, instead of zero
- Fixed: UFOs on certain types of missions will appear further away from their targets, giving you time to intercept them.
- Fatigued Soldiers defending against a base assault should no longer suffer exhaustion wounds, just more fatigue
- SHIVs may get called up for base assault defense

Features / Gameplay changes:
- Aliens now employ a UFO to assault XCOM's base. Losing the base mission does not mean the end of the game, but instead inflicts heavy damage on your resources. The aliens can now assault XCOM's base multiple times.
-Added ability that lets you set soldiers' initial armor deco and color via repurposed DefaultGameCore.ini entries, and one-time class-dependent color and headgear change upon promotion to specialist
- Added Alien Metallurgy Foundry project, which increases the alloys you recover from UFOs you shoot down
- Added small items: Alloy Belt for SHIVs (Alien Materials) and Alloy Hauberk for MECs (MEC Warfare) (provide bonus HP); Psi Grenade (enhanced Flashbang for Psi Troopers)
- Added some armor deco choices. Genemods will no longer be restricted to eight genemod-specific decos.
- You may now transfer damaged interceptors to other continents for repair.
- You may now rearm damaged interceptors, freeing up their weapon for other aircraft. Rearming an aircraft now takes 7 days for all weapons derived from alien techs; 12 hours for basic missile weapons.
- Interceptors and UFOs may now score (and suffer) from critical hits, in which a hit does double damage. Armor Piercing weapons increase the chance of critical hits, while armor (not hit points) reduces it. This may lead to interceptors being shot down more often.
- Using Steady Weapon ability now plays overwatch sound effect
- You may now sell captives directly on the gray market. The amount of money offered is low; the primary purpose for you to check your inventory of captives at any give time. (Thanks for the suggestion!
- Added a few of the larger abduction maps to the terror mission rotation

Balancing:
- Testing increased throw and scan range of battlescanner
- Mec-1 and Mec-2 get 1 extra small item slot
- Basic SHIV gets +1 hp and 1 extra small item slot
- Increased Meld recovered from canisters; when playing with Not-So-Long-War second wave option you should get A LOT more
- Reduced cost of some genemods
- Reduced timeout per genemod to 8 hours per
- Reduced cost of Alloy SHIV to $250 and Hover Shiv to $350, Increased Alloy SHIV engineer requirements and moved to Improved Body Armor as prereq
- Added Alien Materials as prereq for Alien Biocybernetics
- Significantly reduced chance to lose countries with max panic each month if you have a satellite there
- Reduced cyber's preference for death blossom
- Increased MEC trooper conversion time to 10 days
- It will take longer for aliens to begin accumulating significant "bonus" research; Also lowered somewhat multiplier determining when aliens level up on lower difficulties
- Tanks now get same defense bonus as XCom on lower difficulties
- Lowered build times but increased cost of mid-tier interceptor weapons
- Improvements and stronger upgrades for sectoid, thin man, outsider, Muton
- Rocketeer gets a more aim on level-ups, less hit points
- Spread out level-up will bonuses quite a bit more
- You now should generally have more time to engage UFOs on missions
- Cyberdisc Death Blossom should be more hurty now
- Increased panic chance when nearby soldiers panicking
- Aurora Armor now limited to Psis only
- Rework of HEAT and explosives damage code to provide more even bonuses
- Reduced base crit chance provided by gauss sniper rifle
- Reworked seeker AI
- Reduced some alien damage upgrades
- All MEC armors have +2 hit points
- Little more damage from EMP Cannon, little less expensive
- Significant reworks to Goliath (Damage-absorbing monster) and Guardian (not forced into medic path, best overwatch perks), with adjustments to most of the other MEC classes
- Mimic Beacon now psionic-only item and much cheaper
- Increased mectoid accuracy

v3.0 Beta 5 (March 15, 2014)

Bugfixes
- Fixed: SHIV unloading Tread Deck after mission and equipping kevlar armor instead
- Fixed: Extra Conditioning should work with all armors now
- Fixed: Psis should no longer be locked out from all items
- Fixed: Tech report for Advanced Beam Lasers should display properly now
- Fixed: HEAT Ammo and Shredder Rocket text on damage bonuses
- Attempted Fix: CTD after alien grenades foundry project completed
- Fixed: CTD when Berserker uses Bullrush ability
- Attempted Fix: Hang when defeating second alien base
- Removed poorly performing terror maps (dam and fishing village) from terror mission rotation
- Attempted fixes to unimpressive enemy forces on Exalt missions

Features:
- Pilots (if you rename them) will now carry ranks commensurate with the number of kills they have achieved

Balance:
- Some adjustments to alien encounter table, net effect will be slight easing of difficulty
- Adjusted when council missions may occur

v3.0 Beta 4 (March 13, 2014)
- Rebuilt to work with EW Patch 3 (March 10, 2014 patch)

Bugfixes:
- Terror Missions should properly scale up now
- Game no longer freezes when you finish Iron Skin or Smart Macrophages projects (there will be no cinematic for these)
- Removed nonfunctioning Squadsight from Jaeger tree and reworked tree a bit
- Fixed: Medikits (and possibly other items) provide charges in Slot 2 regardless of loadout
- Rewrote malfunctioning supra-class selection code to just randomly pick after the one of each of the first four classes have been awarded
- Code to prevent alien grenades from being sell-able in the gray market once they are infinite

Gameplay/Features:
- Close and Personal renamed Close Encounters, because Hicks

Balancing Adjustments:
- Alien unit upgrades significantly slowed on lower difficulties.
- Alien Computers council request now for 2 instead of 5 units
- Alien Power Source council request now for 2 instead of 3 units
- Increased Sectoid Will gain over time
- Slight reduction in Pulse Laser, Xenopsionics, Xenogenetics and Alien Biocybernetics research time and resources required
- Slight increase in Advanced Aerospace Concepts research time
- Significant reduction in cost and maintenance requirements for psilabs
- Relative increase in drone pods after first few months
- Aliens will launch terror missions in a few more strategic situations
- HEAT Ammo, HEAT Warheads and Shredder Rockets made somewhat more effective
- Alien Grenades foundry project upgrades needle grenades by +2 damage

v3.0 Beta 3 (March 9, 2014)
Fixed issues for Beta 3
- Soldier deploys on cover on pier council mission.
- Bug in Assault perk tree (Close and Personal)
- Bug in Rocketeer perk-based stat upgrades (mobility)
- Training Roulette fixed
- A bunch of text fixes for items (including Phalanx and Aegis armors, also council item thank yous shouldn't overflow into reward line anymore)
- Certain MEC "items" that shouldn't appear in engineering won't appear in engineering
- Attempted fix: Installation fails when XCom isn't in primary Steam folder. Hex edit solution appended downforum.
- Probably fixed: Some users reporting rotating through a very small set of maps
- Fixed MEC Warfare Systems foundry project not initializing
- Fixed War Weariness.
- Fixed Results Driven.
- Fixed MEC equipping problems.
- Fixed bugged XP check for Psi level-ups.
- Fixed some problematic base assault code
- Fixed Xenopsionics not showing up in research archives
- Fixed SHIV Suppression and MEC Close Combat not appearing in Foundry list when tech tree says it should
- Fixed Sectoid corpse council item request (was requesting alloys for cash, should now request corpses for scientists).
- Fixed live Berserker and Muton requests
- Requests should now properly alert you that they include panic reduction as a reward
- CTD in genemod selection (occurs sporadically after several clicks on double-click of brain damping and maybe another mod)
- CTD when Exalt Heavy fires rocket; also issues with ranging
- Attempted fix to seeker staying stealthed indefinitely
- Attempted fix soldier not always leveling up when selecting Steadfast
- Attempted fix: Certain gear changes not being properly saved; Loadouts after missions should be saved; any changes made in barracks will overwrite saved loadout and generate new saved loadout
- Fixed: CTD in psi selection, and some other bad code
- Item cards should now display correct charge information (including perk info in equipping screen)
- Some inventory image fixes
- Fixed: Completing Armored Fighters project leaves fighters "injured" but not repairing
- Fixed: Game freezing when applying flush and panic-move effects on hunkered soldiers and aliens; hunker now provides immunity to any forced-moves
- Fixed: - Mind merge animation doesn't always disappear when sectoids get zapped
- Fixed some discrepancies in rush build code, not sure if was causing problems or not
- Attempted fix for mindmerge-Mectoid shield misbehavior
- Fixed bug that was providing wrong cash payouts for blowing up UFOs
- Attempted fix to Arc Thrower stun fails
- Fixed bug in which using keyboard to select soldiers allowed you to violate squad size limits

Added Features / Gameplay changes:
- Alt-F1 toggles HUD in tactical game
- Alt-F2 through Alt-F9 offers some new camera angles
- Grenadier now applies +1 greande to direct-damage grenades only
- Smoke and Mirrors now applies +1 grenade for all support grenades
- Lightning Reflexes now applies a severe aim penalty to all reaction/overwatch fire directed at the unit, rather than affording perfect defense against the first shot. This mean units activating LR can always be hit, but it should be pretty rare.
- When a unit is suppressed and breaks cover to run, the reaction shot now takes effect *after* the unit has left cover, making doing so more dangerous
- Fixed: Scatter Laser now properly becomes available with Advanced Pulse Lasers tech
- Attempted Fix: Covert Operative not fatiguing properly

Balancing adjustments:
- Made Phalanx Armor a little more expensive and removed defense bonus.
- Reduced initial Cyberdisc DR by 1.
- Reduced flashbang effect duration by 1/2 turn.
- Reduced Psi Training time
- Swapped Dense Smoke and Smoke and Mirrors on Engineer tree
- Reworked psi XP to avoid gamey opportunities to get more
- Rush-building any item costs a minimum of 1 meld
- Rush-building facilities costs 10 meld
- AP Grenade now ignores cover-based DR (and will do more damage)
- Blowing up UFOs entirely provides some alloy salvage
- Floaters now offer a little alloy salvage; Seekers now offer alloy and elerium salvage
- Aliens will be grow more annoyed at XCOM when they lose a big ship relative to losing a little ship
- Fighters and Destroyers a little better at initiating hunts
- NSLW: Officers have reduced requirement for missions in grade before being eligible for promotion to next officer level
- Gauss Sniper Rifle starts with one-round magazine
- Adjusted several level-up perks with bonus status to make them more enticing
- Slight increase in rocket accuracy

v3.0 Beta 2 (March 2, 2014)
- Fixed bug in which soldiers never hit on normal difficulty.
- Fixed bug in World Diversity Code granting thousands of hit points.
- Fixed bug that was displaying AI debug code in objectives window.

v3.0 Beta 1 (March 2, 2014)
First Beta release.

Versions 2.12 and earlier are Long War for EU.