Should I use Combat Extended?

[Hyper]

As the title suggests I want to see whether or not CE is any good. I find the combat in this game to be a bit bland and I'm interested in some of the features like having ammo and bullet projectiles but I want to hold off until I heard from others who have actually played the mod before I decide. The reason I'm holding off on getting it is because I've heard mixed reviews on the mod for some reason. Why is the community divided on this mod? Is it it's difficulty? Is it that it's not really as good as it sounds and I'm wasting my time?

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

CE makes any raid other than mechanoids and probably the empire if you annoy them incredibly easy to simply negate damage wise. It is also one of the most incompatible mods out there.

[Security Cam #7]

Nah, use Yayo's combat instead. It's a thousand times more compatible with other mods

[Elementium]

My best advice woul be to try it, and see if you like it

be warned, not all mod are compatible with it, plus rw was not thought around this, you may have gameplay balance issues

[AlTurGo]

For my taste CE is overloaded with mechanics. And it's uncompatible with mortar's accuracy mod that i like. Yayo's combat is anough for me.

[Hykal]

Try to understand vanilla combat before you even touch CE.

The reason why many don't like CE is because :

1. It drastically alters the game balance. Every gun has longer range which means melee isn't as viable.
2. Lots of mod conflicts. The CE Team does actually patch popular mods quickly but boy is it a pain.
3. Ammo management is busted. A bit of steel and you get hundreds of rounds of ammo.
4. Triviliases fights against manhunter packs and tribals, even if the latter has new grenades.
5. Mechanoids are stronger and reworked with even the pikeman shooting a grenade instead of bullets.
6. Adds new materials such as a chemical that needs to be grown to use on explosives.

If youre insisting on using it, wipe your modlisf, JUST install CE and spawn some raids. It's not as good or as fun as its defenders claim.

[Bouncer]

CE always seemed to me like vanilla combat but with less options, less balance, and more micromanagement.

I don't think it'll solve your issue with the combat being bland.

[mikeandanneva]

I love CE! The other comments are right though, it will limit the mods you can use.

So, why do I love it..

I play long sessions and don't mind the mechanics and micromanagement because CE adds realism. Infestation? Reload with hollow points, no prob. I do spend a lot of time leaning on the space bar as raids develop.

Bottom line, it's really about your play style.

[Robo]

While other users on this forum had given their takes on whether you should try it or not, I will provide a different take. I must warn you that if you do happen to like it, there's no going back. Combat Extended is like a cigarette, or luciferium in this context, where just one huff is enough to get you hooked and it becomes tremendously difficult to use Yayo's Combat, other combat mods or revert back to vanilla combat.

Do you want to use real world tactics to conquer your enemies? Or do you want balance and are OK with Tynan's random dice roll mechanic in combat that's akin to Jagged Alliance or XCOM? Pick your poison.

[Urinietszche]

All combat mods are for people who have phobia of turning game difficulty down, thinking it may make them irrelevant in real life because Rimworld forum and being bullied in school is their only way of socializing.

So they play high difficulty game, but with mods to make it easy :)

[Caz]

Originally posted by Conehead:

All combat mods are for people who have phobia of turning game difficulty down, thinking it may make them irrelevant in real life because Rimworld forum and being bullied in school is their only way of socializing.

So they play high difficulty game, but with mods to make it easy :)

Or you've never played with any of them and don't realize that they can easily increase difficulty.

[Veylox]

No. It's a rebalance for no reason, arguably worse than the base game, but the main issue is if you use CE, you lock yourself out of most mods, which is just terrible. A single mod will never outweigh all the others.

Also embrasures don't exist in vanilla, and anything that has them is basically a cheat code

[AlTurGo]

Originally posted by Robo7988143:

I must warn you that if you do happen to like it, there's no going back. Combat Extended is like a cigarette, or luciferium in this context, where just one huff is enough to get you hooked and it becomes tremendously difficult to use Yayo's Combat, other combat mods or revert back to vanilla combat.

No, it isn't. At least for me ))

Originally posted by YariMurai:

More like fake excuses by lazy vanilla players who refuse to play CE because they can't play the game without killbox.

Can't or not want? If i able to make nice fortification to save my pawns why i shouldn't? And does it matter what combat mod i'm using or not using?

[Veylox]

Dude there's no embrasure in vanilla just don't overcommit to something blatantly wrong

[White Rider]

Originally posted by Hyper:

As the title suggests I want to see whether or not CE is any good. I find the combat in this game to be a bit bland and I'm interested in some of the features like having ammo and bullet projectiles but I want to hold off until I heard from others who have actually played the mod before I decide. The reason I'm holding off on getting it is because I've heard mixed reviews on the mod for some reason. Why is the community divided on this mod? Is it it's difficulty? Is it that it's not really as good as it sounds and I'm wasting my time?

I've not used CE but I do have Yayo's Combat 3. It has an ammo system as well as a bunch of other features including armour tweaks so late game factions pose more of a threat (and your faction too once you start teching up to better armour). Pretty much all of it's options are toggleable.

I don't actually use any of those options though. I only use it for the animations that it adds to guns.

Walls are solid (makes breaching tougher for you and enemies),
Run and gun (enemies can run and gun too),
Yayo's combat 3 (just for the gun animations. everything else is turned off),
Melee animation (looks amazing. extra features turned off),
Search and destroy (this and defensive positions just help a lot so you don't have to micromanage combat extensively unless you really want to capture people instead of kill them),
Defensive positions,
Simple side arms (give your guys with guns a backup melee weapon or shorter range gun for close quarters, or give your melee guys pistols so they can fight at range if they really have to).

That's all I use for mods that change combat mechanics. Between these and a variety of faction mods, it's all I need.

[Stormtrooper]

Well, CE is an awesome mod, but only provided you're at least slightly into tactical simulations and firearms. If you don't check these boxes and prefer a generic action movie approach to firefights there's nothing for you to enjoy in this mod and all the ammo types and extra calculations and options to use during battles will look like unnecessary bloat.

But if you do like this kind of stuff... Well, it's an awesome mod that'll make battles much more realistic, deep and diverse. And much harder in general, too, for example:

1) mechanoids, direct energy weapons and explosives will be much deadlier (for example the latter will scatter frags around so just because you're outside explosion radius doesn't mean you're safe)
2) your people can get suppressed from all the bullets flying at them and will flee or hunker down in panic
3) a single shot through a heart or a liver and your colonist is instantly gone
4) gunshots cause realistic bleeding so that 90% of time people won't die upon being shot but will bleed out rapidly if you don't stabilize them (just like IRL)
5) power armor feels like a power armor should and will deflect arrows and even small caliber rounds, also no more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like experienced and well equipped soldiers dying to turtles and hares
6) accuracy isn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ anymore - most shots will miss which is definitely realistic, but your skilled shooters will actually have some consistency of hitting enemies, meahwile no more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ like missing a shotgun shot from point blank. Oh and by the way, shotguns now do have spread. Unless you load them with slugs...

However, there are also some problems:
1) compatibility: the above posts in this thread mostly exaggerate it since you can easily configure a modlist for hundreds of mods without running into a single CE-related issue, also unlike a few years back most of the time you don't even need to install a patch because it's internalized either by CE mod or the mod you're subscribing to and the number of patches made on the CE side grows with each update. BUT you WILL stumble upon incompatible mods from time to time and cry you can't use them, so be prepared. On top of that, when Tynan breaks everything modders worked for the past year updates the game CE will most likely be the last mod you use to update because of how complex it is
2) while many aspects about combat are harder, some are much easier, for example manhunters and tribals - of course if you're after realism it all makes sense and you'll appreciate it since historically even the fiercest warriors've been losing against much worse guns than you can use in Rimworld, but if you just expect every battle to be tough and challenging, well, CE won't cooperate
3) RNG can be frustrating since CE amplifies bad luck scenarios. Before you get some nice armor, be prepared for lots of shot-off necks
4) modern armor is too op, even a simple vest will make huge differences against even sci-fi weapons, probably least realistic aspect of CE combat
5) CE has its equivalent of manhunting turtles killing a guy in power armor when it comes to crafting: instead of combining gasoline and plastic to make napalm or something, you grow it as crops. And it even isn't called napalm.
6) as seen in the thread above, some people will insult you for daring to enjoy it or recommending it to someone. Not something you have to or should care about, but in case it happens you won't be sure if a mod is CE compatible and will need to ask... brace yourself, I guess, sometimes you might be unfortunate. But most people actually won't attack you and most modders post this info in their FAQ, so you should be fine.