I nearly finished my ABA campaign (I'm left with Forge and skulljacking the Codex). I have some thoughts on the AI + ideas some for ABC. This is a wall of text so I decided to post it as a separate topic.


ABA feedback:
Generally very positive! I played the original version and I subscribed to ABA once again after completing vanilla WOTC run. I like the variety of enemies and the improved AI over vanilla. The primes are definately more challenging than their regualr counterpart although they could attack more and move less with their reflex actions.

That said, there are some changes in AI that would give us players a harder time.

Overwatch:
I believe the game would be more challenging if Advent put less emphasis on overwatch (especially after the first one), if they can take at least 15-20% shots. Advent taking pot shots at you will hurt you more in the long run as they get lucky once every five or six times. You will have more wounded and will have to use even more lower ranked soldiers. I know that the purpose of overwatches is to slow you down and fail the mission but usually you remove the overwatches during your turn and they don't do that much.

Primes:
As mentioned before if attacked the primes usually change the spot and look for another cover, which is good if I blow their cover or flank them. However, you might consider randomizing their behaviour so that if they are attacked through cover (and not flanked) they don't move but fire back even if it means taking 15-20% shot. Or use ability or a grenade. This changing cover behaviour usually concerns Muton Primes. Sectoids when attacked through cover replied with mind control but when I hit them again they started running which didn't help them that much. I'm not saying they should always fire back but some randomization would be good and they should not be afraid to take low percantage shots. The same is with Archons – they fly too much instead of just shooting back.

I have never seen Sectopod Prime and I'm in October right now. Am I unlucky or they have not been implemented yet?


Priests and Specters:
I think they need their AI changed just like Sectoids, i.e. if they can flank and shoot you they should do that. Almost all the Priests do right now is stasis and sometimes mind control. While these can mess your plan killing or heavily wounding your guy is usually better. Specters are the same – they always rush to shadowbind one of your troops even if they could take a flanking shot. For this reason they are not that dangerous. If I engage only one pod I leave the Specters be and concentrate on units that can actually wound or kill me. I let the Specter do its thing and then kill it next round.

Purifiers:
:) For now I'm using Advent Avenger mod.

The Lost:
From my experience 50/50 targeting is not fair for Advent at all. After playing for a while with this rule I understand why the Lost were designed the way they were in vanilla. When you are fighting advent and new the swarm spawns they start at the other side of the battlefield, usually closer to Advent troops. They attack Advent first, player second. The player usually has one turn before the Lost will close in on them. The Advent is often immediately surrounded. This is the first disadvantage for Advent. But the main one is Advent AI that cannot deal with the Lost as effectively as the player. I don't know if this can be done but I would forbid the AI to use some special abilities against the Lost as this is the cause of the most glaring problems. The best examples are: Snakes that instead of shooting bind one Lost while being surrounded by a swarm, then loosing the bind because they get hit repeatedly, Mutons that bayonet the Lost. On top of that the player can use ultarsonic lure to direct all the Lost to attack the Advent. I think 70/30 bias against the player is fair.


Some ABC ideas:

Pod diversity:
I saw this on reddit somewhere and I agree with OP that mentioned having large pods of low tier troopers. I would introduce them mid game. Sometimes difficulty comes not from few powerful enemies but from inability to kill/control all the lesser units in one turn.

Also, starting from mid game there could be some larger pods with additional low-tier units. So, for example, you would have Mk2 officer, Mk2 Trooper and Mk2 Purifier PLUS Mk1 Trooper in a pod that is guarding a relay.

Late-game Pods of Doom:
Muton Infectors led by Muton Prime, 3 Sectopods or 2 Sectopods led by a Gatekeeper etc. Not joking - I would love to have a fight with three sectopods charging at my position. These pods could be introduced by a dark event or as a sitrep (high concentration of advent armor for sectopods or sth like that).


Permanent tactical dark events:
Additional events that grant various units new abilities (implacable, ever vigilant, covering fire etc.) during the campaign. It is up to debate wether the player should be able to counter them or not. The event pool can be large enough so you won't see all the advent upgrades in one game. Also there could be dark events that grant all or some of the units +1HP or +1 damage to mag or beam weapons. These could be countered by covert ops - upon completion there would be a mission to sabotage a facility to destroy the improvements.


All in all great mod! Hopefully some of the things will be useful and help improving it. Definitely looking forward to playing new content and trying ABC!

EDIT: spelling/typos