Alien Hate is so annoying

[Hebrux]

Love this game but the alien hate meter needs tweaking IMO. Wish there was a way to mod the hate meter so the cooldown is faster and the increase is less frequent. I build a single fusion reactor on the moon and my alien hate factor went up.

[gimmethegepgun]

The things you build on your habs don't affect alien Hate, except for those that cost MC.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

The Fusion Reactor did exactly 0 to the hate meter, however anything increasing MC usage will increase the hate as will actions against Servants and Protectorate but not as much as against the aliens themselves.

[Hebrux]

does anyone know of any way through the code (moddable json files) to set the alien hate to 0?
I tried edditing a save to do this but then the very next day, the alien hate went right back to where it was. I probably didn't do it right.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Hebrux:

I tried edditing a save to do this but then the very next day, the alien hate went right back to where it was. I probably didn't do it right.

That's because the alien Hate floor is determined by your MC usage.
The difficulty determines how much Hate floor is created per point of MC usage. The lowest difficulty has an enormous modifier that makes MC almost irrelevant for that, though with some searching I don't see a .json where that value is defined. You could try searching for that yourself, or try editing the save file difficulty to the lowest.

[Hebrux]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by Hebrux:

I tried edditing a save to do this but then the very next day, the alien hate went right back to where it was. I probably didn't do it right.

That's because the alien Hate floor is determined by your MC usage.
The difficulty determines how much Hate floor is created per point of MC usage. The lowest difficulty has an enormous modifier that makes MC almost irrelevant for that, though with some searching I don't see a .json where that value is defined. You could try searching for that yourself, or try editing the save file difficulty to the lowest.

okay editing the save file difficulty might be a winner, thanks

[noobermenschen]

Originally posted by Hebrux:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

That's because the alien Hate floor is determined by your MC usage.
The difficulty determines how much Hate floor is created per point of MC usage. The lowest difficulty has an enormous modifier that makes MC almost irrelevant for that, though with some searching I don't see a .json where that value is defined. You could try searching for that yourself, or try editing the save file difficulty to the lowest.

okay editing the save file difficulty might be a winner, thanks

Or just play on cinematic?

[Hebrux]

Originally posted by noobermenschen:

Originally posted by Hebrux:

okay editing the save file difficulty might be a winner, thanks

Or just play on cinematic?

you mean starting a new game? I'd rather just lower the save difficulty on this one.

But I did find another solution. I created a mod that lowers alien hate. So far It's taken me from total war to hate level 1. Still fine tuning it but maybe I'll upload it to the workshop later

[Pawleus]

It's also possible to learn how to successfully fight the Aliens early and just ignore the Alien Hate entirely.

[LorDC]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

That's because the alien Hate floor is determined by your MC usage.
The difficulty determines how much Hate floor is created per point of MC usage. The lowest difficulty has an enormous modifier that makes MC almost irrelevant for that, though with some searching I don't see a .json where that value is defined. You could try searching for that yourself, or try editing the save file difficulty to the lowest.

MC-to-hate-cap multipliers arent in json files, they are hardcoded in game .dll.

[Hebrux]

Originally posted by LorDC:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

That's because the alien Hate floor is determined by your MC usage.
The difficulty determines how much Hate floor is created per point of MC usage. The lowest difficulty has an enormous modifier that makes MC almost irrelevant for that, though with some searching I don't see a .json where that value is defined. You could try searching for that yourself, or try editing the save file difficulty to the lowest.

MC-to-hate-cap multipliers arent in json files, they are hardcoded in game .dll.

wel

Originally posted by Pawleus:

It's also possible to learn how to successfully fight the Aliens early and just ignore the Alien Hate entirely.

This is my 9th run and I still don't know how to deal with them early without staying undercover. It feels like as soon as I research the technologies I need to finally make a difference, the aliens notice and start attacking me

[corisai]

Originally posted by Hebrux:

This is my 9th run and I still don't know how to deal with them early without staying undercover. It feels like as soon as I research the technologies I need to finally make a difference, the aliens notice and start attacking me

Advanced Pulsar, Adamantane, Neutron Spiker + either Lanceheads or Coilguns and aliens could go in hell with their hate :)

Main trick is to NOT build bigger ship until you really know why you really need them being big.

[noobermenschen]

Originally posted by Pawleus:

It's also possible to learn how to successfully fight the Aliens early and just ignore the Alien Hate entirely.

Equipped with what? I noticed railguns are available pretty early and have heard of players getting rowdy with IR laser destroyers. What's a good way to put a cork on their pherocyte emitters?

[Hebrux]

Originally posted by noobermenschen:

Originally posted by Pawleus:

It's also possible to learn how to successfully fight the Aliens early and just ignore the Alien Hate entirely.

Equipped with what? I noticed railguns are available pretty early and have heard of players getting rowdy with IR laser destroyers. What's a good way to put a cork on their pherocyte emitters?

+1

[Dauntless Duelist]

Originally posted by noobermenschen:

Originally posted by Pawleus:

It's also possible to learn how to successfully fight the Aliens early and just ignore the Alien Hate entirely.

Equipped with what? I noticed railguns are available pretty early and have heard of players getting rowdy with IR laser destroyers. What's a good way to put a cork on their pherocyte emitters?

I've fought early with railguns and kept my MC use fairly low- lemme look at my logs.

I generally built very few space bases- something like a moon mining base, a Mars mining base, and a three to five? asteroid mines, prioritizing having good Fissiles, Noble Metals and Metals incomes. Later on I found I was low on Volatiles, and Water to some extent. I often bought Volatiles or other space resources from other factions when I needed them.

I used a very large amount of turreted size 2 MKIII Railguns on Monitors, along with some heavier/better armored ships for screening. Not incredibly effective but did work- I was able to build a fairly significant fleet and kill the first army landing fleet, which also so happened to net me something like 300 Exotics once I finished the research for Exotics. I had more than 20 size 2 MKIII Railguns, which was fairly lethal within 300km or similar. I lost most of that fleet, which is probably part of why the alien retaliation was not that significant I only suffered some very minor retaliation from this- they killed one or two of my mining bases? I think one which defected from another faction. Avoiding killing any aliens or interfering much with servants/protectorate on Earth at this point helped keep my Hate low, though I had conducted multiple assassination missions and I think a capture mission as well before this point. Aliens not being able to kick me out of Earth orbits probably also helped.

Later on, I had very few orbital bases outside of my Earth orbit stations- I've noticed that 'ground to space laser defenses' are a *lot* stronger than your orbital Layered Defense Arrays and Battlestations. Layered Defense Arrays use Size 2 weapons, and Battlestations use Size 3, while 'ground to space' defenses use 'Surface-to-orbital laser cannons', which do things involving bombardment instead of regular combats? Aliens seem to have trouble attacking into even Arc Laser Surface-to-orbit lasers, though phasers are a huge upgrade there. Even just Layered Defense Arrays with Medium Surface-to-Orbit Green Arc Laser Cannons seemed to be able to hold most of my space installations.

I suspect the issues people having trouble managing Hate are running into is Aliens generate Hate when you attack Servants or Protectorate. This includes Detain Missions and Assassinations. The amount of Hate generated is less than if you kill their Hydra agents, but it's still significant I believe. Attacking Protectorate/Servants in space likely also generates Hate.

[Dauntless Duelist]

As for Pherocytes... I didn't really experience the aliens attacking my nations and agents on Earth, practically at all? I did research some anti-phreocyte measures fairly early on, and I'm playing Resistance so I get access to Men In Black X-COM the Special Activities Section, which allowed me to kill or capture aliens without too much difficulty.