2016/03/01
v1.06
Short version: Boas, Kommissars and Generals, also some bugfixing and balancing

Bugfixing:

This patch adresses a few issues with missing texts for any weapons and abilities created by this mod. This should not only fix some display bugs (mostly visible when mindcontrolling, but also on the memorial wall, for example). It should also add some additional fly over text to the new abilities, making it easier to grok what is going on.

I tuned down the number of special captains you see out there. Every other captain you encounter is a standard captain now. This has been done for multiple reasons, the most important of them being that my Captains are no longer skulljackable ever since they got their new AI. To change that i would need to dive into the scripting of the Skulljack ability itself, something that i am not comfortable doing and would require me to overwrite at least two main quest related scripts.
This change will also make A Better ADVENT play nicer with other mods. Standard captains can have enemies introduced by other mods as followers, something that my variations can't.

Balancing:

Lowered health of Puppets across all difficulties to make them more manageable in the early game.

New Enemies introduced with this patch:

The Boa is back! It no longer cloaks, instead it relies just on speed and dodge to reach your guys and Bind them. I removed its weapon to differentiate it visually from standard Vipers - that makes it look stupid at times, but i can live with that for now. The new Boa doesn't derp around anymore as well. Oh, and her Bind has a range of three tiles. Enjoy.

The Advent Kommissar is a variant of the Captain that carries a pistol and uses the Return Fire ability. Don't ♥♥♥♥ off the Kommissar or he will shoot you in the head :)

The Advent General appears in the mid and late game. His followers are captains of lower tiers. Tier 2 Generals come with Tier 1 Captains, Tier 3 Generals come with Tier 2 Captains. The following Captains can appear as followers to a General: Battle Commander, Sniper, Riot Control, Adept, Heavy Tactics, Warden, Kommissar.

2016/03/05
v2.00
Short version: Textures! Negator fix! Less Boas! Skulljack? Sentinel! Pistoleer!

This patch marks the beginning of my cooperation with Atheran, who reskinned the weapons i gave to Advent and also started to work on some visuals for the enemies introduced by this mod. We are conscious about the filesize of the download, so we will try to keep it as small as possible.
All 3 tiers of the ADVENT versions of the Cannon, Sniper Rifle and Shotgun got a new paintjob so they are no longer olivegreen. He also added some glowy textures to some of the Advent forces, making them more recognizable during cutscenes. Note that all these are a work in progress, we pretty much just started discussing what we want to do.


Bugfixing/Optimization:

The Negator's Solace aura hogs the camara a lot. The effect of the aura (cleanse mindcontrol/panic) would be applied everytime a unit moves and the camera tries to show us this.
To counteract this absolutely annoying behavior, i set the aura to only trigger at the end of a turn. That makes the Negator a lot more sufferable. However, due to ...something..., this change also made the auras graphics (the blue ring) disappear.
I am not finished with the Negator just yet, but at least it's better than having your camera jerk around after each move, i guess.

I made a number of changes that could maybe re-enable the Skulljack and Skullmine ability for my units, especially the Advent Captains? Sadly, i wasn't able to test them yet - i don't have a campaign at the point where i need to jack a Captain and the debugger can't easily be used to test quest related stuff. If someone is able to test this, i'd be thankful for some feedback.


Balancing:

Boas appear less often now, they were a bit overwhelming. I put a limit of 1 per pod, so those fun pods of 1 Sectoid and 3 Boas (with Bigger Enemy Squad Size mod) on the second mission can't happen anymore. They also no longer drop loot. They were pulling from the regular Viper's droptables and handing out Elerium Cores left and right.

Demolitionists no longer carry multiple grenades. Instead they get a grenade that's one tier better than usual. Tier 1 Demolitionists carry a tier 2 grenade, tier 2 carries a tier 3. The tier 3 Demolitionists carries the same grenade that Mutons have.

Firestarters are now immune to fire.


New Enemies introduced with this patch:

Advent Sentinel: This Trooper has both Ever Vigilant and Guardian. He moves more defensively and is more likely to use Overwatch than other Troopers.

Advent Gunslinger: Another Trooper, this one comes with a (very) light pistol that he uses with Lightning Hands and Faceoff.

2016/03/13
v2.01
Short version: Russian translation! Boa nerf! Bugfixes! Muton Pyro and Infector! Guardian Shieldbearer! Firestarter Textures! Smoother early game!

A note on the the XCOM patch we got thís week:
Better Advent seems to be largely unaffected by the update. If you notice anything strange, please report it and i'll look into it. I got a report that the Mimic Beacon needs a second look, but i couldn't verify that yet.
I do have no reason to believe that anything critical broke with the patch.


Bugfixing/Optimization:

- Worked on the Psi Captain's animation sequence. It now fires smoothly without any hiccups. It also no longer displays the "Mind Control" info text which was just plain wrong. I learned some stuff here that i can hopefully apply to other areas.
- Sectoid variants should now shoot at civvies during Terror missions before they are revealed. Rejoice!
- Fixed missing description text from the Boa "stick" weapon. FYI, the stick doesn't do anything.
- Firestarters seem to attack their allies even without being damaged. As a try to bandaid-fix that behaviour, i have disabled its Berserker Rage ability for now and disabled it outside of Terror missions. I will go over its AI next week, i have a rework of its abilities planned anyways.

- Not a change from this version, but also of note: i got confirmation that the Skulljack-Fix for Advent Captains from the last patch did indeed work. Yay. \o/


Balancing:

- So, apparently Boas are here to stay. The parameter in the ini files that should restrict them to a maximum of one per pod straight up doesn't work due to what i have to assume is a vanilla issue. To reflect this, i nerfed them to take the sting out of the by now infamous pods of a Sectoid and 2-3 Sneks. I lowered their health by 2 across all difficulties. Additionally, i lowered their dodge a bit.

- To provide new campaigns with a less overwhelming early game, I rebalanced when certain variations start to appear. I did this only for the Tier 1 versions... so once you hit Tier 2, the kid gloves come off and all variations are able to appear.
Here's the new early game progression by forcelevel(FL):
FL1: Sentinel, Striker, Demolitionist, Riot Control, Warden, Kommissar, (only vanilla Setoids)
FL2: Gunslinger, Soldier, Sniper, Heavy Tactics, Sectoid Soldier
FL3: Heavy, Breaker, Battle Commander, Adept, Sectoid Captain
FL4: Beastmaster, Sectoid Negator
FL5: Puppeteer
FL7: Sectoid Commander
Note that this change means that you will encounter more vanilla Sectoids, Captains and Troopers in the first missions than in previous version of the mod.
For next weeks patch, i will probably look at the spawnweights for all units to get the spawnrates of my units vs the vanilla ones to a point that i like.

- In addition to that, Boas will stop spawning once regular Vipers do (FL4 sees first Viper spawns, FL5 is when the Boa stops appearing).


Graphics:

- Atheran adjusted the brightness on some of the glowy textures he added to Captains. The magenta is much less christmas-y now, for example.
- He also made a custom texture for the Berserker Firestarter that should act as a huge warning sign for your troops. It's amazing :)


New Enemies introduced with this patch:

Two simple Muton variants:
- The Muton Pyro is equipped with incendiary Dragon Rounds. To make up for it, they have no grenade and do not have the melee counterattack ability.
- The Muton Infector uses poisonous Viper rounds. Like the Pyro, they have no grenades or melee counterattacks.
Pyros and Infectors appear one forcelevel later than regular Mutons and in moderate numbers.
One new Shielbearer:
- The ADVENT Guardian is a Shieldbearer with a Sniper Rifle. He uses tactics similar to the Sniper Captain, moving defensively and sticking to cover. They are a bit more mobile than regular Shieldbearers, but they have slightly lower health and most importantly, no armor at all.
Guardians start appearing when regular Shieldbearer do, but are somewhat rare.

Other:

- The mod has been translated to Russian! Credit goes to Klavickus, wo put together the translated localization file. I should probably note here that i can only read cyrillic, but i don't speak any russian that's more complicated than telling my name and asking for a beer. So i have no idea how correct it is, but i did make out words like ADVENT, Sectoid, Muton and Adept... so it's probably quite good!

2016/03/20
v2.02
Short version: Sectoid Primes! Advent Prime Captains! Rebalanced Spawn Weights. Re-enabled Firestarters. Sectoid warpaint!


Bugfixing/Optimization:
- Redistributed spawn weights for Troopers, Captains and Sectoids, finetuning the odds of meeting those enemies on the field. While doing that, i also increased the number of vanilla enemies that are encountered (ca. 20% of all Troopers, 20% of all Sectoids, 45% of all Captains). I did this both for balance reasons and to make Better Advent play nicer with other mods.
- Good news/bad news on the issue with Berserker Firestarters killing their allies outside of Terror missions. Good news is i found out that regular Berserkers do that as well, why they do it and what needs to be done to fix it. Bad news is i didn't get around to actually do that yet. Until i do, Firestarters will have to stay restricted to Terror missions like their vanilla brothers.


Graphics:
- The different Sectoids now use warpaint on their bodies. Red and Blue tones note a combat oriented Sectoid, while the psi focused ones go for a lighter orange and dark purple. Negators prefer a matte green tone. In addition to that, the Prime versions cover a part of their skull in some sort of black oily stuff. We probably don't want to know where that came from!
- The Gunslinger and the Kommissar now carry a genuine ADVENT Pistol instead of XCOM weaponry. The model for this pistol was already in the game files, so i might as well use it!


New Enemies introduced with this patch:
During the endgame, enemies tend to be steamrolled by XCOM. Improving the alien forces that are encountered at that point was a common request. To that end, i'll be introducing Tier 4 ("Prime") versions of my leader units. Here is the first batch, the Sectoids and the Captains:
- Prime Sectoids: Once you hit forcelevel 16, you will start encountering more powerful versions of the Sectoid variants (Negator, Captain, Commander, Puppeteer, Soldier) that have more life, armor, defense and an improved weapon. They also got Advent Troopers of all sorts removed from their follower lists, so they will have more impressive other units in tow.
- Prime Captains: Beginning with forcelevel 18, you will see Captains from Advent Prime, the toughest soldiers the aliens have. There's an Advent Prime version of every Captain variant in this mod (9 in total). They carry the same weaponry as their Tier 3 counterparts, but have slightly higher offense and health. They are only a small step above the Tier3 version. That is intentional, i want to do something else with them in an upcoming patch than just raise their stats.


Other:
- I want to take a moment thanking all of you for not mentioning Boas to me for a whole week. I'll drink to that. :)

2016/03/28
v2.03
Short version: Abilities for Advent Prime Captains! Trauma Lancers! Codex ICE, Bomber and Splitter! Chryssalids Crawlers, Drones, Hunters and Hunterkillers!

Balancing:
- This patch turns the Advent Prime Captains into forces of nature. Unlike Prime Sectoids they only got a moderate increase of hp and offense over their M3 counterparts. However, they now also get unit specific upgrades. Some get higher stats, others get additional abilities:
- Prime Battle Commander: He got a significant extra boost in armor and defense, making him both harder to hit and harder to damage.
- Prime Sniper: Now has a heavy revolver sidearm. He will use Lightning Hands to try and sneak a few points of free damage in.
- Prime Beastmaster: He is followed by a group of Chryssalid Hunterkillers.
- Prime Riot Control: Uses an upgraded rifle and has greatly increased mobility.
- Prime Adept: He teleports. Offensively. There will be a lot of flanking shots as long as he is around.
- Prime Heavy Tactics: Has an upgraded grenade. Also does huge amounts of environmental damage both with his grenade and with his cannon, destroying most cover (including cars) immediately and with one shot.
- Prime Warden: Instead of a Stunlance, the Prime Warden carries a Tazer Pistol. It's like a stun baton that can be used from range! And from cover!
- Prime Kommissar: Instead of only using his pistol for Return Fire, he also uses Faceoff. He has a fully upgraded revolver, not the tiny peashooter that Gunslinger use, so this can deal quite a lot of damage.
- Prime General: Uses an upgraded rifle and is of course followed by Tier 3 captains.
Don't underestimate these guys. At least some of them are really, really dangerous...


New Enemies introduced with this patch:

Stunlancers:
Something fun that was suggested to me in the discussion thread on the Workshop :)
- Advent Trauma Lancers: These Stunlancer variants use a Tazer Pistol instead of the regular Stun Baton. This enables them to apply their disabling effects with range and from cover. There is no Tier 1 version of this guy, only Tier 2 and 3.

Codices:
I feel like Codices aren't impactful enough once you leave the early midgame. Here are three new ones that should shake up things a bit. The Bomber and the Splitter both do something special on scampering, which is an interesting designspace that i am going to explore further next week.
- Codex ICE: The Intrusion Countermeasure (or "ICE") is a unit designed to hunt down and kill their target. They will use Teleport ruthlessly to almost guarantee flanking shots every turn until they are finally taken down.
- Codex Bomber: The Bomber has the standard suite of Codex abilities, but it has a very specific quirk: On scampering, when the unit is first revealed, it will try to use the Psi Bomb immediately and as as best as it can. Think carefully about how to approach activating a pod that has a Bomber!
- Codex Splitter: Splitters don't have pods, they roam on their own. They don't have the Psi Bomb, but while they are engaged, they rapidly chain-split into multiples. On top of that, each copy regenerates 2hp every turn, so they will be able to keep going on splitting if you let them.

Chryssalids:
My plan is adding a whole hierarchy of 'Lids. This update introduces the four standard Chryssalids that will make out the bulk of the bugs that you encounter outside of Terror missions. None of them has Burrow. Next weeks update will hopefully include a few leader units for them :)
- Chryssalid Crawler: The tier 1 version isn't poisonous, has little life, puny damage and no armor. Has a lot of mobility, though. Squish them. Forcelevel 1-5.
- Chryssalid Drone: Tier 2. Still a bit weaker than the vanilla Chryssalid. Poisonous. One point of armor and moderate health and damage. Forcelevel 6-10.
- Chryssalid Hunter: Tier 3. Slightly stronger that the vanilla Chryssalid. Poisonous. Two points of armor and a good amount of health and damage. Forcelevel 11-15.
- Chryssalid Hunterkiller: Tier 4, the endgame variant. Has 3 points of armor. Poisonous. Health and damage are improved even further. Forcelevel 16-20.


Other changes:
- Boas are disabled again. They are not worth two or three people every week complaining about derpy behaviour around hacked bots etc etc. Their role of being an early melee enemy is going to be filled by Chryssalid Crawlers instead.

2016/04/03
v2.04
Short version: A bunch of AI improvements, some of them more subtle than others. Chryssalid Spitter, Bleeder, King and Queen. Rebalanced progression for Chryssalids. Preparations for the upcoming focus on the AI. "Overwatch Override".

Balancing:
- Reworked the progression of Chryssalid pods. For those people who like looking at spreadsheets, here's something that shows during what forcelevels which Chryssalids turn up:
http://www.derbk.com/Downloads/ABA/ChryssalidProgression.jpg
As you can see from the chart, there are usually 3 or 4 different leaders available and one kind of generic follower. Also, the Beastmaster Captain now also uses those Chryssalids instead of the Pets he had before.

AI:
- Overhauled the structure and some of the nomenclature inside of the XComAI.ini file. Result is a file that is easier to read for anyone that's interested and even less vulnerability for conflicts with other mods than before.
- Made something i called an "Overwatch Override". It's a little piece of AI tree that decides if a unit is better of using Overwatch than just shooting. It works by making a random roll against a probability that is determined by hit chance brackets.
The exact values are:
Highest Hitchance < 10% --> 90% chance for Overwatch
Highest Hitchance < 25% --> 75% chance for Overwatch
Highest Hitchance < 50% --> 30% chance for Overwatch
Highest Hitchance < 75% --> 15% chance for Overwatch


Visuals:
- New uniforms for the Trooper variants. There are 6 different textures in total, 3 for Troopers oriented on defense/utility(grey) and 3 for those that have an offense role (red).
The more you see of that color on them, the more they are associated with that role. For example, Gunslingers and Strikers are both offense oriented, but the amount of red on a Striker is much higher than on the Gunslinger.

- Chryssalid now come in 4 sizes visually. No new textures for them yet, but they are planned - at least for the leaders.


New Enemies introduced with this patch:

Chryssalids:
It's an ugly planet. A bug planet! Last version had the generic Chryssalids, this one adds the leaders. All Chryssalids have been kept relatively simple. That is intentional, i don't want to mess with the basic formula of the melee bug too much.
- Chryssalid Spitter: Spits a single target poison projectile at an enemy. Has only one charge, but encountering a Spitter will almost always mean a poisoned soldier.
- Chryssalid Bleeder: Leaves acid pools whereever he goes just like the Andromedan Shell does. Unlike the Andromedan, the Chryssalid has the mobility to potentially make this a much bigger problem.
- Chryssalid King: The King is the toughest Chryssalid in the game now. For reference: His life and armor are comparable to a Sectopod, but without the shortcut of Bluescreen Rounds being available.
- Chryssalid Queen: She does what you'd expect: Swarm the map with new Chryssalids. She can spawn all 4 tiers of generic 'lids, at a rate of 2 per turn. Which ones whe spawns, is RNG based.
To-Do: All Chryssalid Cocoons still spawn vanilla Chryssalids, with Burrowing and everything. It's not a huge problem, but for consistencies sake i am going to make custom cocoons with one of the next versions as well.

Other changes:
I wrote a manual, detailing the changes that this mod makes and giving an overview on what's to come. You can always find the latest version of that manual here:
http://www.derbk.com/Downloads/ABA/ABetterManual.pdf
To-Do: It's still missing a more detailed list of the AI changes done by the mod. That missing info is coming soon.

2016/04/10
v2.05
Short version: Chryssalid textures, working Flamebreath animations for Firestarters, AI improvements focusing on Overwatch decisions and Targeting, adjustments to alien pod composition, a handful of bugfixes and balance fixes


Long version:

Bugfixing:
- Chryssalid Bleeders were killing their followers because Chryssalids aren't immune to acid. This has been changed, the 4 generic Chryssalids are now acidproof.
- The Psi Puppet's reveal animation was causing the screen to shake until another mini-cinematic was triggered. They now no longer have a reveal animation.
- Muton Firestarters are now able to spawn outside of Terror missions without starting to murder teammates whenever they see a mission objective. If there are no reports about problems with my fix to the Berserker AI that enabled this, then i will also put regular Berserkers into normal missions in one of the next versions.
- Advent Psi Captains can no longer Mindspin robots.
- Pods consisting of only a single Chryssalid Crawler or Spitter should no longer be possible.

Balancing:
- With exception of a few controlled instances, all Alien variants no longer spawn as followers. Due to the limitations of XCOM2 pod generation that will not generate different alien followers into one pod, i think i need to make this change because many of the aliens are just too dangerous when they come in multiples. This has been done for all Codex, Muton and Sectoid variants (with one specific exception) and will be done for all further non-Advent enemies unless i consciously want to see them in groups of up to 4 in a pod.
- In addition, Alien pod leaders won't have followers of the same species anymore. So no more pure Sectoid or Muton pods. This change extends to vanilla Sectoids, Vipers, Codices and Mutons as well.
- Sectoid Captains are no longer supposed to have the Holotargeting which i never really got to work properly. Instead they now come with a squad of Sectoid Troopers, making for a nasty pod full of plasma fire. Their minimum forcelevel has been bumped up accordingly.
- Sectoid Puppeteers got a buff. Puppeteering, their unique reanimation ability, no longer ends the turn. That means they can potentially raise two Puppets per turn.
- Legendary Gatecrasher still has a chance for a complete Crawler pod, but other then that, you shouldn't encounter any Chryssalids before Forcelevel 4 now.

AI:
- Going hand in hand with the Puppeteer buff, their AI has been changed so they make use of it. Generally, it is now much more defensive. Puppeteers will usually raise as many guys as they can without putting themselves in harm. If they can't, they will act similar to a sniper, falling back into cover and taking potshots at XCOM.
- Enemies that are in Red Alert but don't have visual contact are now fairly likely to Overwatch (75%). They know that they are not the ones on a clock and that you will eventually have to come to them ;)
- Enemies are more cutthroat when picking their targets to shoot, giving high priority to flanked targets, to killable targets and to targets they do have an exceptionally high hitchance for. Whenever an enemy decides on who to shoot, it will now go through the following steps until one of the steps makes it do something:
1) Taking the flank shot: Do i have someone flanked? If yes, I'll nail him. (Evaluates all flanked enemies with a chance to hit > 40%)
2) Overwatch Override: I wonder if i should Overwatch instead of looking for further targets. What's my highest hitchance anyways? (Random chance for Overwatch based on highest hitchance available)
3) Taking the Kill Shot: Can i kill someone? If yes, let's go for that! (Evaluates all enemies with a chance to hit > 40% that could die to this shot)
4) Taking the Sure Shot: Can i hit someone easily? If yes, let's do that! (Evaluates all enemies with a chance to hit > 80%)
5) Consider taking Overwatch: About that Overwatch again... (Vanilla Overwatch check)
6) Shoot someone: Eh, let's just shoot ... something! (Vanilla targeting)
7) Reload Weapon: Oh come on, this thing isn't even loaded?

Visuals:
- Atheran made textures for the special Chryssalids: Bleeder, Spitter, King and Queen.
- sernik(swinka6666 on the Nexus forums) made the necessary animation fixes to the Berserker Firestarter. It looks fantastic. I'll let this little clip speak for itself: https://youtu.be/Qd75XbyMoX0

New Enemies introduced with this patch:
None. This week was focused on getting AI work done and fixing bugs/balance issues.

Other:
- The downloadable PDF manual has been updated with information on the AI changes and with some details on the Roadmap.

2016/04/17
v2.06
Short version: Custom AIs for almost all enemies (including Vanilla), Stunlancer AI rework, lowered VIP/Evac Overwatch chances, balance fixes for Chryssalids

Long version:

Bugfixing:
- As a side effect of the changes to the Puppeteer, roaming packs of Zombies without a leader should no longer be possible.
- This mod's Sectoid Commander no longer conflicts with Farkyrie's standalone Sectoid Commander mod. This change required a change of the template name. To make sure this doesn't negatively affect you, please make sure to read the "important notice #2" in the mod description.

Balancing:
- Applied nerfs to a few Chryssalids:
-- Crawlers (Tier 1) now have 5 hp instead of 6 on Legendary to make sure that they fall to two shots from pretty much anything while still surviving a grenade. They also are no longer able to appear on Gatecrasher.
-- Drones (Tier 2) are no longer poisonous.
-- Kings lose some armor and health. They are still plenty tough, sitting at 4 armor and 28-32 hp (was 5 armor and 30-36 health).

- Sectoid Puppeteers no longer spawn with Puppets. They have ADVENT Troopers as followers instead. They will of course raise those Troopers into Puppets if they get the opportunity.

AI:
- Custom AI behavior trees for almost all enemies. All AIs have been reviewed and updated. Some details:
-- Gatekeeper AI is left unchanged because it seems good enough.
-- Faceless, PsiZombie and AndromedanShell AI are left unchanged because they are dirt simple melee units that work well enough.
-- Vanilla Chryssalids are also left unchanged, their Burrow + Melee AI seems to do its thing well enough. The Better Advent Chryssalids got their own AI tree, though.
-- All other AI trees were at least updated with the updated Targeting and Overwatch logic. Many also had some priorities for actions switched around.
-- All AI trees were reviewed in regard to the movement profile they use. This has a significant impact on how defensive or offensive a unit operates.
-- Not counting the unit specific trees, A Better ADVENT changes the AI trees for 15 basic units: Trooper, Captain, Lancer, Shieldbearer, MEC, Avatar, Turret, Andromedon, Archon, Berserker, Codex, Muton, Sectoid, Viper, Sectopod
-- These changed behavior trees also apply to the vanilla enemies.

- Reduced chance of Overwatching because of visible VIP by a lot. Enemies should shoot at VIPs, when they see them.
- Reduced chance of Overwatching because of visible Evac zone. Was 100% for the first overwatcher before. Chances shouldn't be 100%, so i lowered it to 75%.

- Stunlancers are no longer pure melee units. As a priority, they try to flank and shoot enemies from cover. The Stun Baton only comes out when no flanking or sure shots are possible. They also have a random chance (20%) to use their gun when they would otherwise stunlance.
- Advent Wardens (Captains with stun batons) got a similar AI, but their chance to use the gun instead of the baton is much higher than for the Stunlancer (60% instead of 20%).

- Vanilla targeting ignores all mindcontrolled, panicked and bound targets unless there are no other targets available. Panic no longer gets this "Last Resort" status, enemies will shoot at panicked targets just as they would at everyone else.

Visuals:
- ADVENT no longer uses projectile based Shotguns, Cannons and Sniper Rifles. Instead their weapons start as magnetic weapons and get upgraded to beam weapons for Tier 3 and 4. This change is only a visual one, but it was requested often.

New Enemies introduced with this patch:
None. This week was again focused on AI work. Next week will have new units again.

Other:
- The Stunlancer variant "Taskmaster" no longer spawns. Applying the Better AI to all enemies made him obsolete.

2016/04/24
v2.07
Short version: Refined Overwatch chances, Panic tweak, New enemies: Muton Prime, Archon Torcher, Gatecaller, ADVENT Wrecker, Doomsphere, Wyvern.

Long version:

AI:
- The Overwatch Override now is not only based on hitchance, but also on how many Overwatchers are already present. This makes whole enemy groups going on Overwatch less likely. The new values are:
-- Chance to hit < 10% --> 90% / 75% / 50% Chance to Overwatch
-- Chance to hit < 25% --> 75% / 60% / 40% Chance to Overwatch
-- Chance to hit < 50% --> 30% / 20% / 10% Chance to Overwatch
-- Chance to hit < 75% --> 10% / 5% / 1% Chance to Overwatch
(The first value is for no other overwatching teammates, the second for one other overwatcher, the third for every one after that)

- When presented with only bad shots (<25%CTH), some enemies will now give some of their abilities priority. Sectoids will be checking if they can Mindspin something. Demolitionist Troopers and Mutons will chuck a grenade, even when it would hit only a single target. Mutons may also decide to supress someone instead.

- Panicked enemies and soldiers will now hunker if they can to be less of an easy target now that enemies shoot at panicked soldiers.


New Enemies introduced with this patch:
- Muton Primes start spawning at forcelevel 16. Like standard Mutons, they are fairly normal combat units. They can take a harder beating, having more armor and hp than regular Mutons. They also carry a Beam Cannon instead of the regular Plasma Rifle. Muton Primes always come with a firing squad of regular Mutons.
- The Archon Torcher wastes no time in an engagement and directly uses Blazing Pinions on reveal. This will cause explosions to rain down immediately on the alien turn, even if the Archon is disabled or dead by then. You better have a plan when engaging this pod, it will punish you for running into it with one of your last soldiers like no other unit can. To compensate for this powerful ability, Torchers are neither able to crit nor can they dodge.
- The Gatecaller is a variation of the Gatekeeper that has the ability to use his Mass Reanimation on scampering. This requires him to fly around with an open shell however. Because it spends its time with an open shell most of the time, Gatecallers are much more likely than generic Gatekeepers to raise the dead or engage with its tentacles in melee.
- The Doomsphere is the opposite of the Gatecaller, lacking all psionic capabilities and being a pure weapons platform. He will keep his shell closed at all times. Making use of its massive armor and life, it will try to flank targets in order to take them out with its laser beam.
- ADVENT Wreckers are a new Trooper variant. They pierce armor and put out heavy damage on environmental objects, often destroying cover on misses. So don't take cover behind cars or propane tanks when Wreckers are around or you'll be having a bad time.
- Wyverns are Viper variants. They act as an artillery of sorts, spitting napalm all over the battlefield. They can use this ability every other turn. The napalm explodes on impact, which does no damage, but it will set everyone in the area on fire.

Other:
- There is now a Config Area in the XComAI.ini where you can change some things to your own tastes. It has the lines for the percentages that get used by the Overwatch Override and the lines that apply the Better AI trees to the vanilla units. So if you want to tweak the overwatch chances or if you want to turn vanilla units back to their vanilla AI, you can do it there. Note that this config area isn't at the top of the file, scroll down a bit to find it.

- NOTES FOR CURRENT PATCH -

2016/05/01
v2.08
Short version: Shieldbearer AI fix, tweaking of spawn parameters, new enemies: Archon Executioner, Tech Commande, AutoDoc.

Long version:

Bugfixing:
- Chryssalid Spitters now work better. There is still the possibility for them to freeze in their animation, but it should a) be less common and b) not last longer than a turn.

Balancing:
- A review pass was made concerning the parameters for pod creation in the Characterstats.ini. Among those changes:
-- Each individual Trooper, Shieldbearer and Lancer variant is now limited to one per pod to increase variance in the pods. Note that this doesn't apply to vanilla units, who can take as many spots in a pod as they want/need. That is to make sure there are always enough enemies to fill a pod, no matter the size.
-- The Advent Warden is now always followed by Stunlancers and their variants.
-- The Codex and his variants no longer spawn as followers. They got an increased spawnrate for the position as pod leader, however. You should now start seeing more of them.

AI:
- Shieldbearers no longer use their Energyshield ability if they are already shielded.
- Targets that are suppressing or on Overwatch are now priority targets. Their priority is higher than "Sure Shots", but lower than "Kill Shots" and "Flank Shots".

New Enemies introduced with this patch:
- The Archon Executioner is a melee version of the Archon that can neither shoot nor use Blazing Pinions. He will however cast Frenzy on reveal. Although they have no extra life or armor when compared to vanilla Archons, Executioners are very tanky: Their dodge is increased (to 30/40/45/50%, depending on difficulty), they regenerate 2 life per turn and in addition to that regain whole chunks of life when they hit something in melee (life recovered = 2x damage dealt).
- The ADVENT Tech Commando is a Shield Bearer that commands a Gremlin Drone. He uses the Gremlin to provide Aid Protocol to his allies or to use "Detonate Explosive" on a XCOM soldier. "Detonate Explosive" makes one of the soldiers grenades or rockets explode, similar to the vanilla Psi ability "Fuse".
- The AutoDoc is a MEC variant with Gremlin Drone. It uses Medical Protocol on wounded allies. (It's also supposed to create a large radius smoke patch around him, but that ability didn't make it into todays version. Will probably be in the next one.)

Other changes:
- In the XComAI.ini, i moved the change to panic behaviour to always hunker down into the Config Area for easier access if you want to revert that change.
- I also added more comments to that file, noting what you can edit and how.

-- A Better ADVENT --
-- Mod by DerBK --
-- Art by Atheran --

-- Full Release 1.0 --

A Better ADVENT is an ambitious enemy and AI overhaul, focusing on making encounters with some of the more bland and common enemy types more exciting. It does this by introducing variety through dozens of enemy variants and by completely overhauling the AI.
This mod's goal is not just to add more enemies to the game... it strives to be the centerpiece of a modlist, providing not only more enemies, but - as the name of the mod says - "better" enemies that open up new lines of gameplay. To that end, a high priority has been put on making AI changes and improvements, both global (Mimic beacon behaviour, engagement ranges, ...) and local (Snipers stay back, Shotgunners flank, ...). Better Advent is not only adding some random stuff, it directly improves the core gameplay.

For more information on issues like compatibility and for details on changes done by this mod please check these two resources:

A Better Manual, the official documentation: http://www.derbk.com/Downloads/ABA/ABetterManual.pdf
Steam Workshop Discussions: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/discussions/628891110

- REGARDING THE NEW DLC "ALIEN HUNTERS" -

On compatibility:
As far as i can tell so far, A Better ADVENT is fully compatible with Alien Hunters. Of course, small bugs could creep up during the next week when more is known about what changed but there seems nothing major at least.
On me adding stuff from that DLC to my mod:
For the near future, I will hold off on adding things to this mod that would require Alien Hunters, so you can continue using this mod even if you decided not to buy the DLC. I am undecided on what, if anything, i want to take from Alien Hunters, but i will make sure that it's either optional or that it also works for people who only have the base game.

- CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -

Atheran, for his continuing work on the visuals for this mod. You are doing amazing work, man. Thanks you so much.
CMDBob, for creating the ADVENT weapons from his "Total Advent Armory" mod.
Swinka666, for fixing the Firestarter.
Klavickus, for the russian translation.
Cornelian, for the french translation.

- NOTES FOR CURRENT PATCH -

2016/05/15
Full Release 1.0

Short version: Bugfixes and Balancing. Weapon models for ADVENT guns and rifles. Textures for Wyvern, Gatecaller and Doomsphere.

Long version:

Bugfixing:
- The Chryssalids added by this mod no longer trigger the Infestation Dark Event. This has been done by changing their character group from "Chryssalid" to "ABAChryssalid". This has sideeffects like them not showing up in the "Chryssalids killed" section of the report you get on finishing a campaign. Or in the new trophy room. These side effects are preferable to the conflicts or overlap with other mods that i would invite by changing the Dark Event itself. I'll try to figure out a better solution.
- ADVENT Beastmaster Captains no longer drop from dropships. They were missing their Chryssalid followers when they did.
- Due to a report of ADVENT Wardens spawning without followers, i reverted last version's change that made them spawn only with Stunlancer variants.
- This one is almost too emberassing to admit here... AutoDocs were spawning way too often due to a test value i forgot to remove before uploading the last version. For the last two weeks, AutoDocs had a spawnvalue of 99999910 instead of 10... *ahem* At least they were limited to one per pod :)

Balancing:
- Sectoid Soldiers no longer have a point of armor. Reduced Prime version's armor from 4 to 2.
- Sectoid Captains now have a point of armor. Increased Prime version's armor from 3 to 4.
- ADVENT Sentinels now work differently. They no longer have Ever Vigilant, which made them visible through the fog of war. Instead they now have Covering Fire, granting reaction shots to more than just movement. Because this ability is quite powerful, i also removed the Guardian ability from the Tier 1 Sentinels. Tier 2 and 3 Sentinels have both Covering Fire and Guardian, making for a very dangerous combination.
- ADVENT Tech Commandos no longer have armor. This has been done to provide some balance for their nasty Detonation skill. If that makes them too squishy, i may raise their hp by one or two points in the future.

Visuals:
- Fellow modder CMDBob made a mod called "Total Advent Armory" that unlocks some sweet ADVENT weapon models for the XCOM weapons. A Better ADVENT now uses these models for the Cannons, Shotguns and Sniper Rifles used by enemy variants. If you want to use these models for your own soldiers, check out his mod on the Workshop!
- Atheran did a custom texture for the Wyvern, clearly communicating in advance that you are likely to die a fiery death soon.
- Atheran also made new textures for the Gatecaller and the Doom Sphere.

Other additions:
- My thanks go to Cornelian, who translated this mod's unit names to French. His localization file is now included in this mod.
- I also added a german translation for the unit names. So Better ADVENT now has at least partial translations for Russian, French and German. If anyone has a localization file for his language that he wants to share, please let me know :)

Other notes:
A Better ADVENT is currently looking for contributors to the art department. If you know your way around an editor and have some model, animation or texture that you'd like to see in this mod, please message me.
Please find more details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/xcom2mods/comments/4iodwl/call_to_arts_a_better_advent_is_looking_for/
Thanks :)

-- A Better ADVENT --
-- Mod by DerBK --
-- Art by Atheran --

-- Full Release 1.01 --

A Better ADVENT is an ambitious enemy and AI overhaul, focusing on making encounters with some of the more bland and common enemy types more exciting. It does this by introducing variety through dozens of enemy variants and by completely overhauling the AI.
This mod's goal is not just to add more enemies to the game... it strives to be the centerpiece of a modlist, providing not only more enemies, but - as the name of the mod says - "better" enemies that open up new lines of gameplay. To that end, a high priority has been put on making AI changes and improvements, both global (Mimic beacon behaviour, engagement ranges, ...) and local (Snipers stay back, Shotgunners flank, ...). Better Advent is not only adding some random stuff, it directly improves the core gameplay.

For more information on issues like compatibility and for details on changes done by this mod please check these two resources:

A Better Manual, the official documentation: http://www.derbk.com/Downloads/ABA/ABetterManual.pdf
Steam Workshop Discussions: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/discussions/628891110

- CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -

Atheran, for his continuing work on the visuals for this mod. You are doing amazing work, man. Thanks you so much.
CMDBob, for creating the ADVENT weapons from his "Total Advent Armory" mod.
Swinka666, for fixing the Firestarter.
Klavickus, for the russian translation.
Cornelian, for the french translation.

- NOTES FOR CURRENT PATCH -

2016/05/29
Full Release 1.01

Short version:

Long version:

Bugfixing:
The latest XCOM patch made a change to vanilla spawning behaviour that i hope is unintentional. Wether it is a bug or not, what it does is significant and especially so for A Better ADVENT. Basically, the game now forces Advent Captains as pod leaders for all Advent pods. This has two effects on the game:
#1: MECs don't spawn anymore before they are available as followers. This makes me think the change is a bug and not intentional, as it diables the Gremlin Mk2 upgrade until Forcelevel 11.
#2: My Captain variants can't spawn.
To work my way around this new behaviour, i made two changes to Better ADVENT:
- Made MECs and MEC variants(both Mk1 and Mk2) able to be follower to a pod a lot earlier. To compensate, i limited them to 1 per pod.
- I disabled the vanilla Captain. This lead to the game using a variant Captain as the pod leader, but always the same one...
- ...so i also disabled all captain variants, then reenabled only one Captain variant for each forcelevel (1-20). Now we get some variance back, but the order that you will encounter them in will always be the same.
That seems to be the best i can do at the moment. I hope that this whole behavior is a bug and that it gets fixed by Firaxis so i can revert this significant blow to enemy variance.

More bugfixing:
- Several small fixes related to the patch and/or DLC changing some of the code. Nothing you should really notice, if i did everything right ;)
- Due to reports that suggest that the dropship sequence has problems with enemies that use Gremlin drones, the AutoDoc and Tech Commando are no longer available for reinforcement spawns.
- Speaking of Gremlins, apparently they bug out when you mindcontrol an enemy with drone and then try to use protocols? I made the buttons for those abilities invisible to the player until i got to the bottom of this.

Balancing:
- Increased minimum forcelevel for ADVENT Strikers from 1 to 3. For reference, FL3 is the same as Stunlancers.
- Reduced minimum forcelevel for Wrecker (3->1) and Heavy (3->2) to compensate for the Striker nerf.
- Reduced the accuracy of ADVENT shotguns. Used to be equal to XCOM shotguns, is now equal to what an XCOM shotgun would have from 2 tiles back. These values can be adjusted in the new ini (see below for more on that).
- Fallback movement AI now has increased desire to move out of enemy sight range. This also affects panic movements from XCOM soldiers.

Visuals:
- Atheran came up with new textures. Enjoy:
-- Archon Torcher
-- Archon Sentinel
-- Muton Prime
- He also finetuned the metallic look of the Gatecaller a bit to have a darker shade.
- ADVENT pods with an Adept that drop in as reinforcements will now use a Psigate instead of a dropship.

New enemies:
- The ADVENT Codex is a Codex that can replace a Captain in an ADVENT pod. They mark targets for the ADVENT soldiers with Holotargeting, but can't use Psi Bomb. ADVENT pods with a Codex can drop in via reinforcements, when they do, they will use a Psigate instead of a dropship.
- The Archon Sentinel doesn't have Blazing Pinions and Frenzy. Instead he has the same Overwatch abilities the Sentinel Trooper has: Guardian and Covering Fire. In addition, Archon Sentinels will use overwatch on reveal.

New plugins:
Some additions to A Better ADVENT will be put into seperate plugins instead of being integrated into the main mod. This serves to keep the main mod compatible with everything and to provide some options that not everyone would want. These plugins can be found in DerBK's Workshop on Steam.
Link to DerBK's Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197986016566/myworkshopfiles/
- Better Pods: Improves pod composition and gives a bonus to enemy squad size that scales with forcelevel. Other main features are the introduction of ABA specific enemies into predefined encounters, replacement of vanilla Chryssalids, increased civilian count on Retaliations and a restriction of rulers from the Alien Hunters DLC so they can’t appear on Council missions or Avenger Defense.
- Better Pods PLUS: Like Better Pods, but with an additional +1 to enemy squad size.
- All The Enemies!: Improves compatibility with several enemy mods by other authors by adjusting spawnweights to a common base and by adding units to each others followerlists, enabling them to appear together in a pod.

Other:
- Added a ini file "XComABA_Settings.ini" that you can use to tune some of the weapon values used for new weapons. I reuse a lot of vanilla values, so there is less there than you'd expect. I will uncouple my values from vanilla in the future to give more options for customization, most likely with the next mod update. If you make changes, remember that they will be overwritten with my updates. I suggest keeping backups.

2016/05/12
Full Release 1.02

Short version: ADVENT Revenant, Codex Nullifier, Prometheus Suit, Hazard MEC, tweaks to spawnweights

Long version:

Balancing:
- Lowered the spawnweight of Shieldbearers and their variants. They were pushing Troopers out of pods almost completely during forcelevels around ~8.
- Codex variants that don't already use a skill on reveal now may use Teleport when scampering. This won't trigger overwatches. The affected Codex variants are The ADVENT Codex, the Codex ICE and the new Codex Nullifier.
- Lowered spawnweights on all Codices and increased spawnweights of all Sectoid variants to slightly push the balance towards more diverse alien pods. There were a lot of Codices around during the last version.

Visuals:
- Changed name of the 'Sectoid Commander' to 'Sectoid Mindbender'. This has been done to better reflect what it does (mindcontrolling your guys) and to avoid any confusion with Farkyrie's Sectoid Commander (who is much more worthy of that name thanks to his Mindmeld ability).

New enemies:
- Some of the basic ADVENT Troopers are more than they seem. Being made with the help of genes belonging to psionically latent humans, these "Revenants" have been enhanced by powerful Puppeteer Sectoids. After death, they will revive on the beginning of the following turn as a Puppet. Before that happens, they look no different from a vanilla soldier.
- The Codex Nullifier uses Stasis to take your highest ranked soldier out of the battle for a turn. If multiple soldiers are tied for highest rank, he will stasis the one with the most HP. Like the other Codex variants, he will also do this on reveal. Codex Nullifiers can't teleport.
- A firebased Andromedon variant, the Prometheus Suit, can throw globs of highly flammable material onto the battlefield, splashing this napalmlike substance in a very wide area. This causes huge parts of the battlefield to burst into fire. The projectile causes almost no damage (0-2), but it sets soldiers in the area on fire. Prometheus Suits can throw their firebomb every turn, so you should take care of them quickly before they seal off whole areas from you. The Prometheus Suit has a weaker armor than the standard Andromedon and his weapon does slightly less damage.
- The Hazard MEC uses his shoulder launcher to coat an area in acid, making it dangerous terrain. This "Acid Rain" doesn't deal impact damage and won't destroy cover or rooftops either. It will however lead to one or more soldiers suffering from severe acid burns. There is not tier 1 version of this unit, they will only start appearing once Mk2 MECs are available.

2016/05/26
Full Release 1.03

Short version: Spawnweight rebalancing, "Call Reinforcements" option, Chryssalid Queen rework, New enemies: Firestarter Prime, Berserker Prime, Sectoid Spotter, Viper Spotter, Muton Spotter, Boa, Anti Riot MEC

Long version:

Balancing:
- More spawnweight tweaks, this time no longer based on guesswork and estimations, but on Excel magic ;) This affects pretty much all units, but most importantly:
-- Increased chance for vanilla Muton pod leaders
-- Decreased chance for vanilla Codex pod leaders
-- Greatly decreased chance for vanilla Andromedon and vanilla Archon pod leaders
-- Greatly increased chance for ABA Mutons to spawn as pod leaders
-- Greatly increased chance for ABA Sectoids to spawn as pod leaders

New enemies:
- Berserkers now have a Prime version. They have the same stats as the regular version, but have the "Berserker Rush" ability, which grants a bonus action whenever they are damaged. Berserker Primes can have only Mutons or regular Berserkers as followers. They are not limited to Terror missions.
- Firestarters also have a Prime version, with the exact same benefits as the Berserker Prime.
- Revamped the Chryssalid Queen to the point where she's pretty much a new enemy and worth of being the hive mother. She now has the "Will of the Swarm" ability, that will make her spawn an additional Chryssalid whenever she gets hurt. Her AI has been changed to spawn a bug, then try to use a melee attacks. Finally, she got immunity to all mind altering effects like mind control, panic or disorientation.
- The Sectoid Spotter, Viper Spotter and Muton Spotter are three new enemy variants that each roam on their own. On reveal, they call in backup from the alien base. There are several possible reinforcement pods, all handpicked. Most of these pods will arrive on the next alien turn, but some of them may arrive instantly or only two or or even three turns in. The longer it takes, the more powerful that incoming pod is going to be. Spotters have stats slightly above vanilla, slightly higher sight and detection radii and also some defense/dodge to make up for not running into cover.
-- Sectoid Spotters appear between forcelevels 6 and 10. Their pods from the base are the weakest. Example pods: A Puppeteer with 2 Puppets. 4 Chryssalid Crawlers. A single Berserker.
-- Viper Spotters are the next step up, appearing between FL 11 and 16. Example pods: 2 Wyverns and a Viper. A Sectoid Negator, Mindbender and Soldier. A Muton Pyro with a Berserker and vanilla Muton.
-- Muton Spotters are the final tier of spotters and call down the scariest pods. Example pods: 8 Chryssalid Crawlers. 2 Firestarters and a Berserker. An Archon Sentinel, Exectioner and Torcher.
- After months of absence, the Boa returns to A Better ADVENT. Once a puny early game unit with derpy AI and questionable relevance, this melee oriented snek is now an endgame unit with 20 life and 3 armor (on legendary) that is an actual threat. Boas specialize in keeping XCOM soldiers in their grip. They have their own variation of the Tongue Lash ability that never misses and isn't subject to a global cooldown like the regular Tongue Lash. Boas use their Tongue+Bind ability on reveal, snatching up on of the soldiers in sight if they can. A Boa that has someone in his grip won't release that grip only once they are dealt at least 15 damage. Boas deal increased damage (5) on the first bind and slightly more damage (3) per turn than a standard Viper. However, they don't dodge and will usually not be in cover, so at least they are easy to hit. Boas will only start appearing at forcelevels 15 and up.
- Anti Riot MECs are equipped with Smoke Grenades that they will use to protect allies while they themselves pursue the enemy aggressively. The Mark 2 version of the Anti Riot MEC also comes with two charges of a Cluster Flashbang that can disorient enemies in a wide area.

Visuals:
- Berserker Primes and Firestarter Primes use their standard model, but at +20% size. These things are massive!
- The last update introduced Revenant Troopers, which self-revive as Puppets after death. Their revive now has a fly-over text "Revenant rises!" because a surprising amount of people reported those Puppet revives as a bug...

New options:
- A Better ADVENT now has the "Call Reinforcements" ability from Rayman!'s mod of the same name integrated. To enable this, open the ABA_Settings.ini and find the settings for the Reinforcements ability. It has seperate entries for non-Prime and Prime captains. Set them to "true" if you want to give that ability to those Captains. They are set to "false" as a default. Subscribing to the Call Reinforcement mod is not necessary for these options to work, i put versions of his files into my mod. If you want that ability on vanilla captains, you are going to need to subscribe to his mod as well, though. I designed my version of the files so they don't overlap/conflict with his mod, so you can just run both if you want to.

Other:
- The manual has been updated with the new enemies from the last two updates.

2016/07/10
Full Release 1.04

Short version: New Visuals for Sectoid, Viper, Muton, Codex and MECs

Long version:

Balancing:
- The reaction abilities of Berserker Primes and Chryssalid Queens are no longer deactivated by the Burning, Disoriented and Confused status effects.

New enemies:
None.

Visuals:
- Sectoids: The warpaint is gone. Instead, Sectoids now have different skintones and psi emissions. Sectoids with a more combat oriented role have darker skin than psi focused ones. The glow of psi focused sectoids is brighter and more colorful on psi users than on combat sectoids.
-- Negator: white Glow, vanilla skin tone
-- Puppeteer: Bright green glow, pale skin
-- Mindbender: Pink glow, pale skin with dark veins
-- Soldier: No glow, dark skin
-- Captain: Deep red glow, dark skin

- Sectoid Primes: They use the same skins as regular Sectoids, but are scaled by 30%. You will know it when you face a Prime, they are huge.

- Boa: The Boa now has an altered color and is also 20% bigger than regular Vipers.

- Mutons: Pyro and Infector also got new textures.
-- Muton Pyro: Reddish tint to his skin and more vibrant colors on his armor.
-- Muton Infector: Sickly greenish skin and dampened armor colors.

- Muton Prime: Has been scaled by 15% to bring him in line with the other Prime aliens.

- Codices: All 5 Codex variants got distinct appearances
-- Splitter: Looks unstable, like it's about to explode. Very bright yellow/orange, exaggerated jittering.
-- ADVENT Codex: Vanilla body, but with orange flames instead of black smoke as its "hair"
-- ICE: Green reflections on a silvery body, ghostly green swirly "hair"
-- Bomber: Black body with red reflection and mask, vanilla "hair"
-- Nullifier: Dark purple reflections on silvery body, subtle purple swirls as "hair"

- MECs: Now colorcoded for your convenience. These are pretty much just placeholder textures for now, i am not really satisfied with them. But i guess they are better than nothing.
-- AutoDoc: Light blue for Mk1, bright blue for Mk2
-- Hazard MEC: Bright green.
-- Anti-Riot MEC: Blueish grey. Different shades for Mk1 and Mk2.

Other:
- French localization updated with current unit names and flyover text. Thanks, Cornelian!