TLDR: mod makes CE more friendly to different playstyles.
Main features:
1. Consistent TTK for most weapons, armors and target types.
2. No auto wins for higher techlevels in fights vs lower.
3. Removed ammo type bloat.
4. Weapon and armor preference system.
5. Primitive attachment system (tribals buff).
6. Option to go prone.
7. Weapon range limiter.
8. Optional slow scar healing.
9. Rebalanced costs of ammo, explosives, armor and weapons.
10. Decent compatibility with weapon mods, more basic form of compatibility with armor mods.
More details below and in the patch notes section.
Mod nerfs armor and brings ~ all different weapon types to kind of the same TTK, like in modern shooters. 7.62 will deal noticeably more damage and will have more AP, but average 5.56 weapon has higher fire rate so the end result will be roughly the same.
Instead of relying on armor (that actually can cause problems because it reduces movement speed a lot) it's now better to use the magic of suppressive fire (MG3 during tests performed fairly well lol), fortifications, positioning and smoke. Value of grenades, GLs and artillery is also increased. Same with sniping - taking out enemy MG can win you a firefight.
SMGs are viable, pistols are ok if pawn has pistol preference.
Tribals are buffed because bows now have much more damage and AP. This and the armor nerfs makes 4-5 greatbow hits enough to degrade marine power armor to the state when any more hits will hurt not only your feelings, like in normal CE, but your internal organs as well. Tribals will still die quickly because they don't use armor and bows provide no suppression, but fighting them will require a much more tactical approach because of their large numbers and high ranged damage. Basically, use fortifications and suppress or kill them quickly or they will just swarm half your forces and snipe the other.
Power armor has mostly same armor value as three normal tiers of industrial armor. Power armor however has more coverage, but most importantly - no movement speed debuff and carried weight buff allowing you to move faster and carry more weapons. It means that power armor does not allow you to go AFK, but allows you to maneuver more aggressively and use versatile arsenal. It's way more engaging while still being balanced, because even concentrated pistol caliber fire can down power armor user.
Armor is nerfed but not useless btw, it definitely can turn incapacitating shot into a smaller bleeding wound that can be dealt with later or even a bruise. Heavy armor also can turn alive colonist into dead one because the cover was a bit too far and colonist - a bit too slow.
Armor selection should be based on both it's protection and movement debuffs. There are three tiers of industrial vests and helmets, they are not upgrades though, your sniper won't need modern tier armor if you plan to ever move that sniper. A breacher, however, will benefit from that same modern set of armor that will allow to survive a couple more shots.
Compatibility
Armor requires manual patching to fit mod's balance properly, but the auto patcher kind of handles that.
Weapons need no tweaks BUT ammo does. If gun has non-CE ammo type and it's not patched by me, it won't be compatible. All ammo from Local's mods is now compatible.
Not finished
Apparel auto patcher and a couple of other gear related patches are WIP.
Not save compatible because of armor HP changes. Actually, it is compatible, just armor HP numbers will be loaded from save and break balance. To fix - get shot.
Performance impact was minimal during testing. Might increase game loading time because of several systems handling recipes, ammo and apparel defs. During gameplay mod does some rare gear checks for primitive attachment, gear preference and weather debuff systems.
Requirements and Recommended Mods
Combat Extended Armors and CE: Armors - Extended Cut are needed because without it you won't have the proper tiers of industrial armor.
Gear repair mod required for armor. I use [LTS]Maintenance, but any will do. Armor durability is heavily reduced across the board. Even a few hits can significantly lower its effectiveness, making armor maintenance essential. So if you won't have a way to repair armor, it will be single use item. Realistic actually.
More injuries recommended to get even more chaos. It has some bad stuff (looks at Lung Collapse), but will make firefights more dynamic because any wound will need urgent attention.
I also use Grievous Wounds and Combat Extended Fragmentation buff (actually outdated and maybe not working at all).
Combat Readiness Check recommended to make firefights more even and natural depending on strength your forces.
Smarter Raider AI works nicely and is very recommended.
Also nice to have Enemy Self Preservation to make smart target prioritization more rewarding and No One Left Behind to make encounters more realistic and dramatic.
AI was used to write C# and some XML. I'm a cat, just can't do that myself.
