Enhancer question

[hgraad]

I always liked fiddling around with my games, making them easier or more challenging or just changing stuff for fun.
I have been trying to find some numbers and stuff using Cheat Engine, and have had some progress.
But so far I have not been able to make heads or tails of pretty much anything....sigh!

Money and items in storage seems to be very tricky to find.
Time Units is found as floating numbers, but only once in a blue (alien) moon have I been able to actually change them, giving a soldier lots of moves....but only for a little while, then the TUs seem to reset or change position in the memory.

I know, I know - Some of you will say it is cheating, and sure, if you say so.
But I am not changing anybody else's experience or gameplay, so I will enhance my gaming as I see fit.

Does anybody else have ideas or tricks and tips for this marvellous game?
CE?
Save game altering?
Secret console commands?
Microsofts bank account?

[Gamerzilla]

I have been using CE to extensively test combat mechanics because I have had trouble getting feedback on the exact effects of suppression and other things. Unfortunately the load times compared to X1 are SUUUPER long in a tactical game where you really should just have saved game states instead of reloading THE WHOLE FREAKING LEVEL AGAIN... sorry /endrant. This means I had to give soldiers infinite time units, of varying amounts, to test enemy reaction fire.

I have heared that the devs used dynamic memory addresses, which in this case causes the game to change addresses quite often. This makes it so you can't pin down an address for long, and have to re-search it. From testing, the problem *seems* to come from the soldiers career kill counter. Each time a soldier kills an enemy, the address seems to change. Not always, but 90% of the time. Also, switching soldiers sometimes saves the address, but usually it changes.

AFAIK, save games can no longer be edited, and CE is unreliable but does work. I do not understand why Devs would actively work to make cheats unavailable on a single player game, but there it is.
1. You can edit cash at the start of the game to such a high number as to basically have infinite with a float search with extreme rounding.
2. You can have infinite time units in tactical combat with a similar float search with extreme rounding. Just search current TU, turn the soldier 1-2 TU, repeat until you get mostly the same value with one being 1 digit higher. That is your value to freeze. To refill TU, simple turn the soldier.
3. I was not able to edit inventory but honestly with no cash limit you can just manufacture anything you might need.

[Owl->208]

Good Questions. I agree that you should have the right to play the game however you want since you paid for it. Nobody else should be forcing you to play a game their way. Games that do this will likely fail. This kind of thinking is really dated, especially in a modern world where diversity and flexibility (hence some could argue the definition of freedom) should be the normal. Practically, some game players do not have a lot of time to grind or find it tedious, so using codes, cheats or enhancements allows them to save time and enjoy their gaming experience. To each their own. I do not know of any codes or programs other than CE, which as @Gamerzilla said works here and there. I'm sure the community will come up with something - they always seem to do so. I greatly enjoyed the workshop in Xenonauts 1, so I hope the devs haven't adopted a screw modders mentality.

As for making the game easier, that really comes down to understanding the game and taking advantage of what the game gives you tactically and strategically. One thing I have noticed is that this is NOT Xenonauts 1. There is a much bigger emphasis on micromanagement or perhaps a better word is resource management because there will be hard decisions and trade offs made from those decisions.

Base layout is a fine example of trade-offs. Everything has a power or energy cost on top the $ cost and time to build que. There are also adjacency bonuses when buildings are built next to each other which really changes how your future base will look down the road and what you can and can't fit in. You really need to give thought to what you absolutely need and when you need it. Same with Personnel. It does you no good to have a new Laboratory, but no power to run it or scientists to man it because you don't have enough living space or general storage, etc. Where do I place that hanger I so need?

There is even more of that when it comes now to Engineering. What you used to have given to you or that you could buy, like extra aircraft, now has to be built, which takes engineers, money and time as well as space and storage. Everything is now more interconnected and dependent than before. There are also new buildings like the Training Center that we will need to evaluate to determine if they are worth the cost and if so when/where to place them in the build ques and find space for them on the base layout. Lots of questions.

Getting this right is half the fun - especially when it leads to a dead alien with a bullet hole between its beady eyes or a successful mission complete. Very Satisfying.

[hgraad]

Thank you for your input, Gamerzilla and Owl.

I found the "play with cheats" bat-file, and that does give some cool options.
I assume other beta-players already knew this, of course.

Running the game from that bat manually gives the ability to use T, U, Y, R in the tactical battles - Refill TU, heal, teleport, reload.
Seems like you have to use "tab" once first to go to next player to make it work.
....But, as I said, I guess most everyone except me knew that already...