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Skulljack and EMP Tweaks

This mod makes changes to the Skulljack and the EMP weaponry. Now you might actually take EMP grenades, and Bluescreen rounds are better for more than just damage.

Changes:

- Skulljacker provides a hacking bonus of 50, instead of 25. I felt this was appropriate as in the late game this equates to mere 10-12% increase in hacking chance for most targets.

- EMP grenades/bombs used to provide -5 and -10 hacking defense respectively, and this was changed to -15 and -30. In addition, each tier had their radius increased by 1. EMP grenades were just not a viable option compared to other grenades. Now they have way more synergy with other abilites. EMP-ing a Sectopod and THEN hacking is now a viable strategy.

- Bluescreen rounds now knock off -15 hacking defense, compared to their original -5. Bluescreen rounds were great for damage, but there were better rounds for that explicit purpose. This provides the same synergy as the grenade changes.



This could be considered making these items overpowered, but I don't really feel that way. The Skulljacker still has a 70% chance to hit (I was unable to find a way to change this) and it felt odd to have another layer of RNG on top of it (IE, the weakest reward option for skulljacking for me still had only a 66% chance for success on my best hackers). Also, regarding the hacking bonus, keep in mind you still not only have to build one, you have to pay for the upgrade to enable the bonus, and it still takes up an inventory slot where grenades, ammo, or another utility item. Between the RNG, start-up cost, and item slot usage I didn't feel it was a stretch. Also, in my testing I found that against high hacking defense enemies this increase only correlates to a 10-12% increase in hacking success. This could snowball into superhacking if you find a terminal with the coveted +25 hacking ability reward, but that is one more layer of RNG. Also keep in mind that +50 hacking is nowhere near the same as +50 accuracy, or a similar stat. Very different scales. Now I go for the risky hacks more often.


The EMP changes were more cut and dry. The original hacking mitigation values were incredibly weak, to the point there was rarely a reason to take these grenades over Acid, Incendiary, Gas, and even Plasma. Now their synergy with hacking makes them a much better option. Consider grenading a Sectopod, and then see how much easier it is to hack. Of course, the sectopod will have a bunch of health removed, but that's the trade off. A more reliable hack on a weaker machine. As for the ammunition, their damage was nice, but straight damage is a fairly boring option. Plus other ammo types filled the damage niche better.

I hope you guys like it. If you have suggestions I'd like to hear them. If someone can find the location in game files to change the 70% skulljack hit chance I'd appreciate it. If you think these changes are OP, well, I guess don't download it.