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SPARKs Rebalanced

Overview:

This mod is a much lighter version (aka a ripoff) of Mr. Nice's Trainable Sparks mod. Like him, I feel War of the Chosen left SPARKs even farther behind other soldiers. The slightly boosted Aim and inability to be tired are certainly nice, but they really don't make up for the major boosts in performance that other soldiers got. Here, I aimed for a small, self-contained boost which wouldn't interfere with all the other SPARK buff mods I'm using.

Specific changes:

This mod is a straight-up upgrade for SPARKs. It does the following things:

• Blast Padding is now inherent for all SPARKs. More armour and resistance to explosives makes sense for a giant robot.
  
• SPARKs now have innate hacking stats on part with Specialists, which is to say 80 by Colonel rank. They're hyper-intelligent machines, they should be good at this.
  
• SPARK BIT hacking bonus is now equal to that of a Specialist's Gremlin, which is to say 0/20/40 for Conventional/Magnetic/Beam. Again, for the sake of parity.
  
• SPARKs are now able to equip a PCS. If humans can install supplementary hardware into their skills, it makes sense that robots should be able to, as well.

Bugfixes:

While Vanilla XCOM BITs do boost SPARKs' Hack stat (by 0/10/20), Firaxis forgot to include a UI display for this. I've added said UI display, so you can now see how much bonus Hack your BITs provide.

Tinkering with the mod:

The mod's Workshop folder is:


The changes to SPARK Hack, the addition of Blast Padding and the addition of a PCS slot are in XComClassData.ini. The SPARK BIT Hack bonuses are in XComGameData_WeaponData.ini. If you wish to tinker with the mod, that's where you can do it.

Compatibility:

This mod is compatible with the War of the Chosen Expansion Pack but is not compatible with vanilla XCOM 2.

This mod does not override any classes. The minor bugfix I did is applied after templates have been created, so it should be compatible with all other UnrealScript mods. This mod overwrites all of the SPARKs' SoldierRanks, so other mods which tinker with those will likely be incompatible and produce unexpected behaviour.

You can enable this mod in an ongoing campaign without much issue, although it won't affect existing SPARKs almost at all. All SPARK BITs will gain the Hach bonus, but the SPARK native Hack bons, the PCS slot and the addition of Blast Padding will only affect newly-created SPARKs.

What this mod doesn't do (but other mods do):

• Add GTS perks for SPARKs. Use GTS Perks for SPARKs or Trainable Sparks instead.
  
• Breakthroughs for SPARK items. Use More Breakthroughs or Trainable Sparks, instead.
  
• Access to the Training Centre for SPARKs. Use SPARKs with AWC Abilities or Trainable Sparks, instead.
  
• Ammunition or Vest pockets for SPARKs. Use SPARK Ammo Slot, Ammo and Vest Slots or Trainable Sparks, istead.
  
• The ability to form bonds with SPARKs. Use SPARKs Can Bond, instead.

Please note that I didn't make any of the mods mentined above, nor do I use all of them personally.

Credits:

Primary credit goes to Mr. Nice, whose mod I based mine on, primarily. While the precise nature of my tweaks may be different, mine is effectively two features cut out of his mod and repackaged. Thank you kind for the mod and the permission to plagiarise it.