Shared XP mod

[toadfather]

NOTE: THIS MOD IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH MY OTHER CAMPAIGNS. It will work with the base game campaigns however, and potentially others, but the Sandbox AI and Hotseat mods have their own level up code and will conflict with this mod.

From the README:
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Summary:
During a battle, this mod will split XP and give each unit participating a proportional amount to how much damage it does.

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QUICK INSTALL

Drop the unzipped contents directly into your My games/SANCTUS/MODS folder. It should look like this: My Games/SANCTUS/MODS/shared_xp_1.0".

After installing, the mod will need to be selected from the MODS dropdown on the main menu (top right corner) to enable it. Only 1 mod can be active at a time.

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TOUBLESHOOTING

After installing, when your units do damage to the enemy, you should see cyan colored text floating above the unit that indicates how much XP it gained for the damage it delt.

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DETAILS

In the vanilla game, the amount of XP given to a single unit is the cost value of the unit that was destroyed. This mod will instead portion out that same XP to each unit that does damage during the fight. The enemy unit does not need to be destroyed for XP to be earned, only damaging it will be necessary.

shared_xp.jpg (97.54 KiB) Viewed 945 times

If you want to give yourself an XP boost, you can set the "Custom1" config option in My games/SANCTUS/OPTIONS.TXT to whatever value you prefer. This value will be an additional percentage of how much XP each unit will gain. So a value of 25 would boost each amount by 25%. Below is an example for a 1000% boost:

shared_xp_with_boost.jpg (77.89 KiB) Viewed 945 times

If you do change custom1, be sure to EXIT the game before making the change otherwise your new value will be overwritten by the game when it exits.

Links below, but also you can find these in gitlab under toadfather/sanctus_reach.

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Shared XP: shared_xp_release_1.0.zip

Main project: project home page

[toadfather]

Updated to version 1.1

- Fix rounding error in percentage calculations
- Allow all units to heal in skirmish mode even if they can't level
- Don't level up units that are max level (but allow them to heal)

Shared XP: shared_xp_release_1.1

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I wanted to clarify a gameplay impact if you're interested in using this mod. During a fight, when units level, any XP above the needed amount to level up is thrown away, and units only level up once per battle. With the mod enabled, none of that changes, but your units will gain XP in a more granular fashion which potentially means less XP is wasted if your unit is about to level up and eliminates an enemy. In vanilla, when destroyed, the full XP for that enemy will be given to the unit that finished it off, potentially causing a fairly large chunk of XP to be lost in the ether. With this mod enabled, that same chunk of enemy XP may already have been doled out to other units that helped bring it down so it isn't lost (or not as much anyway).

On the other hand, if an enemy damages its own units, it lowers the XP value for that unit because there is less damage left that your units can do to it. It's probably more fair this way anyway given you did less to bring down that enemy, but it happens often enough that it's something to note. Also, if an enemy unit is healed, you'll get more XP for it as now you can damage it more.

Personally I'm finding that I like this approach to XP better because micromanaging unit leveling isn't something to consider and you can focus on the larger strategy which, for me, makes the entire experience more fun. You could also mess with boosting the XP a bit if you're interested in faster leveling, but it may ruin the campaigns if all of your units level too quickly. Of course you can toggle a boost on and off throughout a campaign if you wanted to.

I also forgot to mention there is a small fix in the mod to camera positioning when the AI attacks. Sometimes your units might get attacked off screen where you can't see what happened. The fix will keep the camera focused on the action.

[toadfather]

Updated to version 1.2

- Fix broken bonus abilities for certain units (Stein, Gorkanaut, Morkanaut, Knight Warden)

Shared XP: shared_xp_release_1.2

[toadfather]

Updated to version 1.3

- Now supports Sanctus Reach 1.5.1
- Added a config file that allow options for:
-- XP boost
-- Configurable floating XP color
-- Refined morale loss from nearby destroyed units
-- Make fast attack units move at normal speeds when repositioning

Shared XP: shared_xp_release_1.3

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Updated for Sanctus Reach 1.5.1. This version also adds a config file along with a couple more options mixed into the mod. The README contains more details, but one option I wanted to explain is the "Refined morale loss from nearby destroyed units".

This is just an optional change to how units lose morale when other units nearby are destroyed. Morale plays a large role in this game, and I mostly like it, but it bothers me to see my heavy armor lose hope because it happens to be close to infantry that's getting torched. This option changes things so unit morale loss is based more on a perceived direct threat rather than less significant losses. In my opinion, a heavily armed and protected Knight or armored unit really shouldn't give two whits about most of the battlefield carnage vs. exposed and vulnerable infantry.

It's more than just infantry and tanks, all units are considered - essentially the mod will apply morale loss based on unit types and battlefield significance to each other.

To be clear, it doesn't change how much morale is lost when it does occur, nor does it alter any of the other ways a unit can lose or gain morale, it just attempts to be a gatekeeper in a (hopefully) reasonable way when nearby units are destroyed.

[toadfather]

Updated to version 1.4

- Includes a bug fix for duplicated bonus abilities offered when leveling up units
- Added configuration options for:
-- Disabling shared XP
-- CanPinOnlyWhenFacingEnemy
-- InfantryCanOnlyPinLightUnits

Shared XP: shared_xp_release_1.4

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With this patch the goal was to make the new pinning rules created for the Sandbox and Hotseat campaigns available to the vanilla base campaigns as well. I also included a fix for the duplicated bonus abilities issue that's currently in the base game.

With this patch, 3 new options are available:

SharedXP

Enable or disable shared xp between units. Setting this option to 0 will give you vanilla behavior. (Meaning I'll likely rename this mod at some point)

CanPinOnlyWhenFacingEnemy

With this enabled, units will only pin enemies directly in front of them. If they pin a unit and turn to engage another enemy, the first unit will no longer be pinned. This opens up new tactics when you surround an enemy with multiple units or want to rescue one of your own units that's demoralized and yet can't run away.

InfantryCanOnlyPinLightUnits

Enabling this will prevent normal infantry from pinning heavy vehicles or dreadnought class units. This means tanks will no longer be pinned by most melee units and can move away freely. However, if their morale is broken, they still can't move towards the enemy and effectively can still be trapped if they are surrounded by enemies, even if those enemies are not nearby and directly pinning them.

This option does not change the behavior of heroes and leaders that are infantry units. These can still pin heavy vehicles as normal.

[toadfather]

Updated to version 1.4.1

Shared XP: shared_xp_release_1.4.1

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Quick turnaround to patch an important bug I found while doing further testing.