This section is all about the new version of IO. If you're looking to play the legacy version, scroll down to section titled "Imperial Onslaught v1".

Vanilla VC has quite a few balance issues, such as broken combinations of classes and orders, extremely understatted enemies with objectively worse weaponry, high dependency of rewards on ranks and some others.

Since playing Gallian Crossfire, discovering the possibility to introduce ammo system and making IOv1 out of that and now arrival of brand new VC4, I've expanded the list of things I wanted to accomplish. The first few will mirror what you might have read in v1 description, but here goes:

• Lessen the feeling of "being forced to rush" - it's a somewhat popular complaint about the game, and I can certainly feel the pressure too sometimes. Not punishing slow-and-steady playstyles for arbitrary reasons is a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
  
• Make a better use of game's 20 turn limit, present the player with more strategic choice and some room for errors (i.e. one misstep, a random evade or a bad decision doesn't mean you can't get that A-rank anymore).
  
• Make AI's actions more impacful and force the player to deal with them - basically, the game feels a lot more like a static puzzle than it could be.
  
• Try to diversify how units feel within a class, make the choice of "who do I bring and why" more impactful in general. Hooray, more strategy! (hopefully)
  
• Experiment with some changes to how certain weapons operate. This means a lot of maths. Not for you, for me. Only a little math for you.

v1.5 update is live, with a complete Imperial tank stat rework, tutorial fixes, story map changes and more. Merging patch notes is a huge pain in the rear though, so there is a separate section titled UPDATE v1.5 changelist.

Download link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KxOHzjzu1WVKsEwzL_UUsU34DNNRE38S/view?usp=sharing


How to install:
1) If you have any other gameplay mods (Gallian Crossfire/Imperial Onslaught v1/your own changes/future versions of this), revert everything to vanilla by deleting ..\steamapps\common\Valkyria Chronicles\data\mx and re-validating your game.

2) Copy contents of "Mod files" into VC installation directory, overwrite everything


4) This is not entirely compatible with fan translation patches. I have made a lot of custom descriptions and due to the nature of how they are stored, my English descriptions will overwrite any translation patches in gameplay segment. That is, you will be able to keep subtitles, but not potential, order, weapon names and/or descriptions, as well as base camp subtitles, R&D descriptions and levelup order unlock text prompts.

How to uninstall:
Perform actions in point (1) of installation procedure.


Vanilla backup
This time there are a lot of files changed, so I'm not providing a full vanilla backup for every file. If you think you need one, make it before installing (see point below for what to backup).

Visual mods
If you don't want to lose any visual/texture mods mods: manually back up data\mx, data\resources and all DLC_XXXX folders in ..\steamapps\common\Valkyria Chronicles before installing and restore them instead of revalidating the game.


Extra DLC Reset:
Copy \Extra DLC Reset\sysdata.dat to your \savedata directory to make it as if you've never played Behind Her Blue Flame and Enter the Edy Detachment. This will remove Ruhm from your campaign and delete recorded ranks. You can use it as many times as you like with any version (Vanilla, Crossfire or Onslaught).


Old v1.0 release version (in case you need one for compatibility, testing or whatever):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qSOflwrsexvGeDhTipTTVCDV7WErBsVg
This does not include any changes listed as part of Update v1.5

Old v1.5 (this has everything from v1.5 except v1.5.1 Edy accuracy nerf):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WAvVp3VRYgmJH_vVYx-8R0PcL5QWu5eu

This is the detailed change list for the game.

There are lots of changes, some of which are rooted deep in game systems that are not entirely transparent (read: you either know how they work under the hood or don't, the game will never tell you outright), so it's a good idea to at least skim through them.

The following section contains a list of absolute essentials necessary to able to complete certain missions or the game.

Fix/beta patch note history is available further down below for those interested.

This is the absolute bare minimum you should be familiar with in order to successfully complete the game.

1) You must keep Alicia alive to complete chapter 8a. She is subject to permadeath like every regular character now, and she is required to reach the point in 8a - Reunion in the Forest. If she dies permanently before that (by enemy stepping over her when KO'd or bleeding out) - you will not be able to complete the game.

2) In some Challenge of Edy Detachment maps you are not allowed to call in reinforcements from base camp (which is mentioned in briefing). You should receive a "Reinforcement request cancelled" message instead of the unit arriving at the start of the turn, however it may also lead to a crash instead. In short - do not call in reinforcements at the base camp in those missions.

You also require a special set of characters to be present in your roster to successfully play these maps. More info is available under Map Changes - Challenges Of Edy Detachment.

3) All infantry weapons run on a limited ammo system. Please do read the appropriate section that describes it in detail.

Check this out if you are having difficulties during the first few chapters. This was compiled mostly by watching what few people streamed/recorded some playthroughs and addresses some common issues/questions.



Lancers do a lot of damage. Make sure to use the menu to check their stats/unit card on the field. Tanks are geared very differently even within the same class - a "Light Tank Mk.III" is not at all the same as "Light Tank Mk.VIII".

Generally, you should not expect to take more than 2-3 shots with your tank. Send infantry in first to do some recon, pay attention to every AT threat and hide your tank if you feel it's too dangerous to poke out.
The tank was intentionally weakened in defensive department to make infantry pave the way should AT threats be present. Conversely, once you take those out, your tank can have a field day against regular infantry.

There are lots of possible reasons why, so let's go over the ones I see the most:
• check the range at which you're shooting. There is an arrow on top of your target's head which changes color - red if you are close enough to do full damage, tan if you are in dropoff zone.
  
• Make sure to use right people for the job. A Shocktrooper might have a hard time against high Defense targets such as Lancers. Scouts will have trouble with high HP targets such as Shocktroopers.
  
• Potentials and stats matter. A lot. Kevin might have a ton of raw HP, but Wendy gets an early Damage Boost with class leveling. They are good for different tasks.
  
• Pay attention to enemies being in camps, behind sandbags or significantly higher than you. All these conditions lower the damage you deal and can significantly impact your To Kill counter.
  
• By the way, camp defense bonus applies to tanks. This works against you when enemy tank is in a camp, but can help survive incoming fire when you do it yourself.
  
• Also, aforementioned bonuses stack. Crouching inside a camp = very hard to kill, don't expect to be able to do it in one shot from full HP all the time.

• Make sure to check enemy ranges and vision on the field. For reference, one large grid square is 250 units. Enemy weapon's interception range will vary over the course of the game.
  
• Map geometry is your friend. You may not be able to cross wide open space, but wall to wall might just be possible.
  
• "Defense Down" debuff reduces your total Defense rating by 50%. It's a lot. It also sticks for 2 phases, so a debuffed unit will take more damage during the next opposing side's move. Try to take enemy Scouts and Engineers out before sending in units that you expect to come under fire.
  
• Many characters have potentials that reduce or increase Defense. Sending, say, Edy charging in is a surefire way to get dropped due to Panicky, whereas someone like Yoko with naturally high Lancer-class Defense, boosted by Born Leader and City Kid could get some nice defense going.
  
• Consider distracting enemies so that they face where you want them, so you can move through their initial LOS. This is especially effective against Shocktroopers and Engineers. This can be accomplished by shooting them from afar or using another unit to force turning via interception.
  
• Remember - peeking around corners (F1/F2 or triggers) is a thing! You don't have to go out into the open to see what's there.
  
• Many tanks have scary anti-infantry capability regardless of what you do. "Shoot it until it dies" is a viable course of action in that case.

Probably because you've lost track of your defender's ammo. If they run out, they cannot intercept. Commonly, you've likely forgotten to factor in Counterattacks after enemy shot you at this stage in the game. Those consume ammo.



Only specific weapons are capable of that on player's side. You won't miss them, but they come later in the game.



Try to use XP from tutorials and first skirmish to unlock as many classes' 1st potentials as you can. Bruhl skirmish is a good place to try some units out and see how potentials change their capabilities.
For starters, try to make sure you have some characters with basic damage boosts (Troopers/Lancers especially rely on those a lot to be effective) and add some people with decent HP and/or defense-related potentials so that you don't end up facechecking corners with debuffed defense.

Because there's no way around some inconviniences inherent to VC1's design, you can find some helpful stuff here.

1) Rank requirements:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1H94ynjXXfWsCraRCBQRPyv_cVMRJQYpE

These do not currently include any of the content I haven't looked at at all yet (Ex Skirmishes, Edy challenges, standalone DLCs).

Rank requirements have been added to the "Objectives" screen, so you don't really need this anymore.

2) Potentials per character
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kUUuoDFNahzmzcxC0IzyJiMYHcDzmV_i

A list of who has what potentials in a spoiler-free format. There is a page for every tier and joint pages for T1+T2, T1+T2+T3 and all tiers, so that you can avoid "cheating" if you want to uncover new potentials while playing the game but would also like some reference material to facilitate faster team-building. This does not list potential effects and proc chances, just the names.

3) Character/Potential list with effects in filter format
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YDSoBuFrVgN3WIDPNPCMP6Y2gayXW4jU

Use this if you want to quickly look up "who on my squad has X". There are a couple columns for you to fill based on how you see those characters' roles in your teambuilding, and of course you can always add your own. This is more spoilery than the above version, but it has actual effects listed so you can plan out of the map.
I might not keep this up with every slightest change to potentials, so beware. Last change date: 09-03-2019.

For those who are new or have forgotten, a very short overview of previous changes, which should give you an idea of the baseline expectations.

• all enemy stats reworked to match S7 (this version will override those)
  
• many weapon changes, including AT and intercepting sniper rifles, unique rifles capable of destroying cover etc.
  
• enemy sniper and AT cannon interception is now a thing
  
• plot characters are no longer Leaders, opening up deployment options
  
• much more consistent potential activation, many potentials are now guaranteed to activate.
  
• removed/nerfed/reworked a lot of game-breaking elements that facilitate rushing (Resist Crossfire, Caution order, Defense Boost, Penetrate order, Double Movement potential)
  
• XP/DCT rewards moved from battle rank into base and unit kill (rank only gives 25% of the map reward)

• infantry weapons now operate on finite ammo system (a slightly clunky one due to ui limitations, but functional nonetheless)
  
• turns have a drastically lowered CP count for player side (mostly 5-6 CP), turn limitations have been moved significantly higher (most maps allow 10+ turns for A rank)

Now, onto
High-level overview:

• Complete character rework. This includes fully done from scratch stats and a lot of potential changes. Characters are now significatly more varied within each class.
  
• Significant changes to the damage model. Machine guns generally are not capable of critical damage anymore. Some rifle lines (Gallian 1-4, S, X, R, Imperial ZM Kar B) now operate on a two-shot basis, rather than 5. Infantry defense stat has been changed, along with some accompanying changes. Tanks now take less critical damage. Sniper interception angles widened. Basically - all weapon stats have been reworked.
  
• Updated names for weapons to include ammo and shot counts. You still have to do the ammo-related math, but all the info is finally in one place.
  
• All potential names and descriptions now include exact gameplay effect information (activation rates and numerical benefits), so you can make more informed decisions without memorizing half a dozen spreadsheets, guides or patch notes.
  
• A variety of maps have been slightly tweaked. Some terrible deployment positions have been improved, enemies are more varied now.
  
• Many post-game and DLC maps have been changed more significantly.

And, as usual, because you can't go wrong with putting this every time:
Alicia, Rosie and Largo are subject to permadeath now. Chapter 8-a has one of its winning conditions formulated as "Alicia reaches point X", so if she is killed before that, you will get stuck.
Additionally, if Alicia, Rosie, Largo are dead or removed from Squad 7 through Command Room, they will not appear in any battles with fixed deployment slots (like their respective reports).

For those who are familiar, you can skip this explanation except the very bottom, there be new stuffs. For those who are new - read this slowly and carefully. This is vital to being able to understand what's going on. Maybe even keep this on some kind of cheat sheet for the first time. I have a good reason to hope that this will all be unnecessary for VC4.

This includes Rifles, Machine Guns and Flamethrowers.
There are A LOT of new rules associated with this change, so read this section carefully.

For multi-shot weapons (MG's and Rifles) the representation is slightly convoluted, due to how game engine works (or rather, me using it in an unintended way). I will explain the process here, so bear with me, as you will have to track the amount of attacks now.

In your trooper UI, instead of the usual "infinity" sign,you will see a number. I've dubbed it "attack counter":

If Attack_Counter >= NUMBER_OF_SHOTS_DURING_ATTACK, trooper will be able to perform attacks and interception.
Attack_Counter is reduced by 1 every time trooper attacks, team-attacks or counterattacks. Interception fire does not reduce attack counter.

If Attack_Counter < NUMBER_OF_SHOTS_DURING_ATTACK, trooper cannot intercept or attack, but can still counterattack and team-attack. Each counter- and team-attack will further reduce Attack_Counter by 1 until you reach 0. This means successive counters or assists may put your trooper out of ammo for good, so resupplying (or waiting multiple turns to recover) will be the only option.

Every Turn (after the opponent's phase) Attack_Counter recovers by 1; staying in Camps, using Engineers or Resupply Order refills it to maximum. Of course, you will not see "out of ammo" icon unless you actually hit 0, which is nigh impossible for small arms (remember when you last did 20 counterattacks in a round?), so you have to manually track available attacks at all times.

How many attacks a trooper can make:
The result has to be positive to yield any attacks. Trying to attack when it is impossible will result in "action impossible" bleep sound playing when you hit attack confirmation.

All single-shot weapons, such as Snipers, Lancers and Grenades stil function as in vanilla VC, so their ammo counter reflects the actual amount of shots you can take.

Math examples:

• if you have a rifle with 5 shots in attack (e.g. Gallian-A1) and you see number "6" in the ammo stat, this means you can perform up to 6-5+1 = 2 attacks (6,5 would be attack counter values that allow you to attack on your turn).
  
• if you have MG with 15 shots in attack (e.g. ZM MP 1) and see number "17" for ammo, this means you can perform up to 17-15+1 = 3 attacks (values 17,16,15 allow you to attack on your turn).

You can figure out how many attacks you have by looking at the naming for your multi-shot weapon. For example, Your "Mags M1" will now be named "Mags M1 [20|2]", where 20 stands for shots and 2 stands for maximum ammo the weapon can hold. So if you see 19 on the in-game ammo counter, this means you can't shoot and need to resupply.

Here's a hopefully helpful visual aide:

The question that has bugged me ever since I've looked at the actual under-the-hood numbers is: "Why do they all have virtually the same stats? What a waste."
What really happens in VC is that, say, every unit's accuracy for a class is within, like, 5 points from each other. The actual progess of your aiming circle getting smaller is much more dependant on weapon quality, so in practice you're gated by your level and character choice less than by story progress. Granted, Crossifre increased the value of picking troops via potentials, and I've decided to take that further.

Characters within 3 multishot classes (Scouts, Shocktroopers, Engineers) are now separated into three "roles" (I don't have good names for them): Assault, Core and Marksmen. Assault troops are tougher but poor shots, Marksmen are more agile (accurate and evade-y), but can't take nearly as much damage, and Core troops are average between the two at everything. These stat differences are not absolute and getting the right potentials for the occasion is also a factor. Stat progressions are also different, even within each role. You may find, for example, a Marksman who needs a few levels under the belt or an Assault unit that has a lot of base HP but doesn't improve by much compared to his peers.

Single-shot classes (Lancers, Snipers) are more conservative in terms of Accuracy changes, because a sniper that misses is a sniper nobody uses, and I'm sure nobody needs vanilla VC1 early Lancer accuracy flashbacks. They are mostly on HP-Evasion variation, with some of it based on potentials.

Cross class, you may find, for example, some Assault Scouts infringing on Shocktrooper HP territory, or Marksman Engineers being better shots than half of the cast.

All enemy stats have been redone as well. Now, Generic Troops (the ones you get if you lose enough people of a given class) get the short end of the stick in form of old Crossfire stats. That is, they are more or less on the Core troops level in terms of HP and closer to Assault in accuracy.

Here's a current cumulative stat table. Sorry, steam tables are a pain so this will be a picture.

Slow classes (Shocktroopers, Snipers, Lancers) now receive +50 base and -50 elite AP.

Of course, the entire split by roles is absolutely arbitrary, based on a combination of my biased interpretations of VC cast, gameplay needs and some dice rolls. I will not accept any "what have you done to mai waifu"'s as a legitimate critique. There are no ideal troopers anymore, everyone has strong and weak sides and situations s(he) is and isn't appropriate for.

Potentials have also been significantly altered.

But first, some explanatory trivia. Internally there are a lot of duplicates of the same thing in the game - typically, one per class for Class Potentials. For example, there are 3 copies of Undodgeable Shot (for Scouts, Shocktroopers and Engineers), 2 copies of Ammo Refill (Lancers and Snipers) and so on. I've opted to remove those copies and use them for my own ends as free slots to create new stuff (that requires the name/description update procedure, because those copies often reference the exact same string in the original file). As an unfortunate side effect, I had to remove almost all face close-up activations, because those don't play nice with this tinkering, randomly resulting in anything from T-poses to missing voice lines (there are probably accomplanying changes required elsewhere that I just haven't figured out). Also, some voice lines might make even less sense now. I tried to slot things in a way that they at least somewhat make sense (thankfully, many lines aren't terribly specific), but there's only so much that can be done about that.

I won't list all individual changes to each potential here for now, only the general stuff. Partially because I don't want to spoil the first playthrough, partially because I'd like to see how useful the change to descriptions is.

Now, onto the biggest changes...:

Generally, I've switched some potentials between tiers 1-2 and 3-4, with very few hopping across eliting (e.g. 2<->3). This means you're getting less of "woo, three Extra Shots and three First Aid Boosts", and more actually different things, so you can adapt to the needs of the map. Granted, when you hit tier 2 and tier 4 there will be overlaps regardless of who you have in your squad, but the time after your first and third unlocks, which is a significant chunk of the game, is sure to be more exciting.

To put it bluntly - evasion boost on your turn sucks. It only works if you fail an attack, and even then it's a boost to a chance to survive. Scouts still get bonuses to evasion as part of new potentials (because voice lines kinda happen to mention evading stuff, y'know), but that's not their entire point. One thing of note is that those are not "tiered" anymore in the Boost/Super/Ultimate sense. Their effects are not in a strictly "better" order, so people get them at various tiers.

Ever dreamed of an Engineer with Attack Boost, a Shocktrooper with Defense Boost or a Scout with Explosives Boost? That now exists (well, maybe not exactly that, but you get the point). They are few and far between, which means you have more reasons to look through everyone to find new playstyles and capabilities.

There is a collection of slightly better versions of particular skills and rare skills that some characters receive.

Level/order unlocks follow GCF/IO without changes, so you can use those tables for reference if you're the planning type.

If you A-rank everything in NG exactly once, you should hit about 3 lv.20's

I'm not going to bore you with theory and maths too much, but the fact that armor applies after critical multiplier introduces a fundamental disparity between machine guns and rifles (or rather, high and low shot counts). If your MG's do enough damage to kill with body shots, then headshots turn that up to eleven straight into riduculous territory (see - multikills on regular troops). Conversely, if your MG's can't pierce armor, then their only value is headshots on player's turn. Thus, this time I've decided to try a change that simply removes aforementioned disparity - the vast majority of MG's are now incapable of inflicting critical damage.

Removal of crit means that MG damage output is actually something you need to think about. Which weapon/upgrade are you carrying? What kind of enemy are you going against? How much HP/armor do they have? Do they get any bonuses? What potentials do you have available? Can your current trooper even hit enough shots at the distance?

MGs with some exceptions are unable to meaningfully damage AT/Gatling turrets now, because those are technically tanks with operator's body being a "radiator".



Gallian 1-4, S, X and R rifles have been moved to 2 shots per attack that hurt more. This lets them put meaningful damage on high armor targets (especially in cases where AI instantly stops upon taking fire), while operating differently from A, and ZM Kar series, which are focused on crit-to-kill capability. As a drawback, it's harder to hit both shots (and especially both headshots), so you have to be mindful of who uses what rifle and what distance you expect to fight at.
Gallian A dropoff adjusted to 0-500 units. As a guideline, you do about 50% of listed damage at 250 range, or one big square on the map, and 75% of the damage at 125 range, or one small square on the map.

Rifles and MGs now don't improve accuracy by much. A lot more is dependant on character choice and activating potentials in that regard.

- Gallian S - 2 shots, accurate
- Gallian X - 2 shots, debuff
- Gallian A - 5-7 shots, no interception/counterattacks/teamattacks
- Gallian SR/ER - S/X alternatives for Scouts/Engineers respectively (Royal weapons)
- ZM Kar - 5-7 shots, short range, essentially Gallian A with predictable damage and some defense capability

- Mags is the standard
- MAJ-X is accurate, low damage, attack debuff
- T-Mag is very long range, high shot count, low ammo, extremely inaccurate
- Royals are long range, low shot count, low ammo and either high damage (MR series) or low damage but can crit (AR series)
- ZM MP are short range and either high damage (m series) or low damage but can crit (a series)

Class Defense bonuses have been changed across the board.
Shocktrooper - 20 to 45
Scout - 10 to 35
Lancer - 20 to 55
Sniper - 5 to 30
Engineer - 10 to 35

Uniform Defense is 3/tier for Lancers, 2/tier for others.
Two uniforms (ch. 10, 12 and Imperial equivalent tiers) provide additional +2 and +3, to compensate for dysfunctional Elite Armor bonus (it's just broken and doesn't apply).

Here's another helpful picture:

To match new defense values, base camp defense is now 10% damage reduction (same as vanilla, 10% less than in Crossfire), regular camp is 20% DR (unchanged from Crossfire), crouching is 20% DR (unchanged from Crossfire), prone is 20% DR (unchanged from Crossfire), evasion is 50% DR (unchanged from Crossfire)

- regular tanks now only take x1.5 critical damage (down from 2), including Edelweiss and Shamrock
- other tank-like objects (turrets, bunkers etc) take critical damage by Crossfire standards, bosses and boss objects (Dromedariuses, APC, Valkof etc) live in a world of their own
- lances have less ammo (2 from 3) and range (~300-600)
- Royal lances now hurt a lot more, but only at point blank range (100 units)
- FoG flamethrowers do more damage
- Edelweiss and Shamrock are now limited to 1 AT shell
- Shamrock now costs 1 CP and has extra 50 Body Def. Edelweiss is still 2 because reasons (I tested 1 and found it too effective and attractive for that cost)
- Tanks stats are in general inherited from Crossfire. Recap for vanilla players - all Body/Thread parts give both Body and Thread stats, purple parts give AP instead of Ammo

- Gallian sniper interception angle is now 60 degrees (same as Imperial angle in Crossfire/IOv1), Imperial is 90
- Brondel now has 2 ammo (from 3), like Crossfire's GSR
- ZM SG rifles now trade ability to crit for knockback effect and extra ammo
- 3rd sniper branch, known as Brondel MX for vanilla players and Intercept X for Crossfire players, has been renamed to compromise between lore, function and character limits. Enter "BM 1XX-I". Later tiers add more letters to the marking for other functions.
- BM series now penetrate targets after the 2nd upgrade (marking letters IP). This also carries over critical bonus multiplier from the first target to every following.
- Some Imperial sniper rifles will be able to damage tanks more.

Original sniper interception was way too laser-focused on the player side, making it too hard to make it useful and easy to screw up. Enemy angle is increased, so it's not that easy to just pick your toughest trooper and force their attention away or cross some more open spaces without dealing with them first.

- Scout Grenade Launchers now fire at a low arc. Bouncy bounce.
- Edelweiss's MG interception range lowered to 125

All MGs and rifles are now formatted as '<name> [Shots|Ammo]', e.g. 'Mags M1 [20|2]'. Combining that with ammo count (e.g. '21'), you now have full information for the ammo system on one screen (see the ammo system explanation).

Sniper Rifles and Lances are formatted as '<name> [Ammo]' for convinience.

Single-ammo weaponry (Flamethrowers, Grenade Launchers, Grenades, tank weapons) are unchanged.

I've considered using a consistent format for every weapon, but it's both redundant and looks silly.

R&D infantry weapon descriptions are a tad bit now more useful. No more "Added Effect 3". It will actually state your upgrade, such as 'Range Up', 'vsPers Up', 'Ammo Up', 'Accuracy Up' etc. Sometimes the weapon will have an associated upgrade that isn't listed - e.g. I don't mention incremental accuracy upgrades for Lances because they simply happen every tier or inconsequental +1 accuracy for MGs. What you really want from those most of the time is damage, so that's what is listed. This should help you see at a glance whether you get something unique, like range/ammo/special effect, or just a standard damage increment.

Tank R&D descriptions are the same as Crossfire. Their effects are mostly displayed in the UI and names at least have some aesthetic differences.

Potentials now include activation chance in their name (e.g. 'Country Bred [50%]').
Potential descriptions now include gameplay effect descriptions after most flavor texts (e.g. 'When crouching, their attack power is boosted. [+25% vsPers]'). A few have flavor text only, but those do not have numerical values associated and describe effects well enough in my view.

Accuracy letters now mark absolute accuracy ranges for all weapons as follows (bigger number = less accurace weapon):
E | >75
D | 61-75
C | 46-60
B | 31-45
A | <30


Since resulting accuracy is now heavily dependant on a multitude of factors (character, level, potentials, [de]buffs), rather than weapon choice by itself, I decided in favour of a uniform ranking over per-type ranking. While this removes some immediate usefulness (e.g. most sniper rifles will have 'A' rank aim, which doesn't tell much), this should be more helpful to players who dig deeper into the game mechanics when making their plans. For those who don't care as much about the minutae, a decent basic guideline would be: if you have <25% accuracy bonus from potentials, two letter tiers (e.g. B vs D) is definitely significant difference, one tier (e.g. C vs D) can go either way, within a tier it's probably insignificant.

Gallian troops are crouching by default if deployed near sandbags and the game isn't magically saying 'nope'.
Some spawn point coordinates adjusted to make deployment safer (e.g. some unit spawns may be hidden behind Edelweiss from immediate interception).
Alicia, Rosie, Largo are no longer predeployed in such missions as Chapter 4, 14 and Welkin's report. They are still deployed in their respective reports and must be present in the squad when you play those.

Most enemy units deployed on the map now have additional levels, so make sure you use the "examine" functionality. You can expect Leaders to consistently be of higher level than other troops, while reinforcements are always of the 'standard' level for the map. Some unit classes and tank tiers have been changed.

Easy ones are unchanged to be, well, easy in case you need a quick levelup or an upgrade. You can expect every unit to be of "standard" level in these with enemy positions fully following the original design (player starting position improvements are carried over from campaign). Normal ones feature changes similar to campaign - more levels, tougher tanks, altered deployments etc.
Notable exceptions for Normals are Bruhl and Fouzen. Bruhl is a "tutorial" skirmish so I've kept it nice to give players some room to get used to new mechanics. Fouzen comes right after the actual Fouzen campaign mission, so potentially playing the same map three times in a row is a terrible slog (for a challenge run or something, for instance). As such Fouzen battles only have standard enemies so you can get your levelups for Marberry if you need them.

Some are reworked completely, some have unit and/or camp placements changed and so on. I've stuck to developers' original vision for most of the campaign to be sure nothing breaks too hard, leaving bonus content as my playground to learn new stuff and try my hand at making heavier customizations.

Challenges were reworked and now require actual Edy Detachment members to be present in active squad. They are used as preset units on most maps, starting mission without them will render most missions unplayable.

Challenge briefings have been updated to indicate individual characters required in that particular mission. The complete deployment list:

• Susie's Challenge: Susie
  
• Jann's Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Edy, Homer, Jann, Marina + 2 free slots
  
• Marina's Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Marina
  
• Homer's Challenge: Susie, Edy, Homer, Jann
  
• Edy's Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Edy, Homer, Jann, Marina, Rosie
  
• Tank Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Edy, Homer, Jann, Marina + 2 free slots

Rank requirements are exactly the same as vanilla, so there should be no disrepancy between rank and character dialogue present in Gallian Crossfire and IOv1.

Also reflected in briefing as appropriate, there is an additional special condition - reinforcements requested from Gallian Base camp will not arrive. CP can still be spent to call in someone, but at the beginning of next player phase instead of new troops the message "Reinforcement request cancelled" will appear. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to make it so player can't waste CP in the first place, but oh well.

Tutorial maps are deadlier (ZM 0's are closer to ZM 1's in damage). This has been soft-reverted in v1.5. Tutorial damage is now noticeably less deadly than main game to allow players to get used to ammo management concept.

Chapter 1 (In Defense of Bruhl) A-rank turn limit does not imply full wipe-ability. Map reworked into a sort of interception angle tutorial with different enemy classes.

Tutorial characters are stronger than their S7 counterparts for less frustration in opening parts of the game where your tactics are very limited.

In chapter 8-b (Reunion In The Forest), the immobile Edelweiss is slightly tougher (+100 HP, +100 Body Def) than normal. You still need to figure out a way to defend, but there is slightly more leeway and possible defense variations. This bonus goes away when Welkin takes the wheel.

In chapter 10b (Liberation Of Fouzen), Makeshift Bridges are no longer Makeshift and are not made out of wet paper tissues (10 HP, 120 Armor -> 7000 HP, 500 Armor). Ranking adjusted to 15-17-19-20.

In chapter 14 (Showdown At Naggiar (2)). Dromedarius A and B do not have the exact same stats. What is effective against one may not be quite as effective against another.

Alicia's Report's enemies are leveled and geared appropriately for the chapter when you unlock the report (ch. 15), rather than for the chapter when the event takes place in-universe (ch. 7).

In Welkin's Report, Imperial Engineer has been dishonourably discharged for refusal to do his job (yes, they actually can fix tanks). You will now have one more deployment slot to work with (for a total of 5 infantry slots + Edelweiss), in addition to not being forced to use Rosie and Largo.

In Selvaria's Last Stand (Ch. 15-b) all but the two outermost deployment slots (the ones near sandbags) are safe from Selvaria's interception fire and attacks on her turn. Selvaria has about x2.5 HP from Crossfire, so you should probably give up on sniper cheese (I won't increase HP further if it can still be done).

I am very aware that the final battle will probably feel sad compared to all the experiences before it. It's basically impossible to make it interesting on the gameplay side, and I do find strangely appropriate the range of emotions this outcome invokes story-wise, so consider it "by design". Battle against Jaeger is the true finale.

Post-game Skirmish 9 NORMAL has been reworked into a brand new mission - assault on heavily fortified Imperial Headquarters.

- Available slot counter in Command Room might go bonkers and show numbers that have no connection to reality whatsoever or each other (apparently it thinks that 74-1=19). You still get 21 slot. Leaving Command Room and returning usually fixes the counter.

- Flamethrowers may randomly decide to count enemy hitpoints instead of actual shots to kill in the "To kill" interface (you will see ?? if the enemy has over 100 HP or his exact HP number if it is in 1-99 range). The damage is still applied correctly.

- Flamethrowers may fizzle out and neither play animation, nor deal damage if fired too quickly after entering the aiming mode.

- Shamrock's Flamethrower is weird about doing damage at the farther end of its range. Better get nice and close or save.

- Shamrock's Gatling Turret is similarly weird about interception fire. I have a suspicion that tank weapons do not play nice with ammo system and their interception capabilities break after shooting two bullets, so I may have to revert Shamrock to 2 CP and infinite Gatling Turret, but I'd like some confirmation that it isn't just on my system. Reverted to disallow interception with Gatling turret but still keep 1 CP Shamrock.

- Castlefront Street might load slower than normal for the 1st time during a play session.

- Enemy levels will only show up to 20. Beyond that, you will see level as 20 but HP will be higher, and that's the stat you really care about anyway.

- Troopers that have additional levels that push them over level 10 do not display as Elite if "base level" for the map is below 11. This is correct and their stats reflect not having Elite bonuses (AP/HP)

- Selvaria will use Heal All order in ch. 15-b regardless of whether you brought her HP down to trigger the event where she is supposed to start using it. This is also a vanilla bug, so NOTABUG.

- All Units Damage order is called Demolition Boost when you unlock it in the training field, the description is also wrong. It is correct in Welkin's Order listings. Fixed

- R&D UI still lists Ammo for purple parts and Thread HP/Def even though both Body and Thread stats are granted. Fixed

- Town Watchmen will display as Scout Elites in post-game even though they aren't (this is also in vanilla and all mods)

- in Enter The Edy Detachment Extra DLC mission everyone will carry Tier 1 explosives, exceptions being Homer's grenades and Susie's Grenade Launcher at Tier 5. This is attributed to the way equipment for this mission is assigned and cannot be avoided.

- In some missions there are Gatling nests and/or AT cannons situated on top of towers. If you destroy the tower first, the game will CTD. Please try to destroy the cannon/gatling itself and make sure to save if you are about to take a risky low-accuracy shot in these conditions.

- Ghirlandaio's inner ladders should not cause your troops to fall through terrain anymore. You will notice a small visible fall down after climbing them, because I've moved spawn points up a few units to make sure the entire model is above ground.

To get it, just redownload from the link in "installation" section.

• Fixed missing Heavy Tank turret in Ch.6
  
• Fixed Mags MR-20 being able to deal critical hits

Fixed Elysse's Slow Starter losing 50% accuracy instead of gaining it (potential + description)

• ZM MB B's damage reduced
  
• ZM Kar B's damage increased
  
• VB FW's and VB FW B's limited to one ammo
  
• AT Cannon/Heavy AT (RvK gpK) vsPers increased
  
• Chapter 1 added 1 base CP (total 4 in NG, 3 in NG+)

Fixed "All Units Damage" order unlock name and description (previously showed up as "Demolition Boost")

• Lowered ZM SG 1,2,3 vsArmor
  
• Homer's Undodgeable Attack+ changed to actually work
  
• Post-game Skirmish 9 EASY is playable
  
• Post-game Skirmish 9 NORMAL has been completely reworked into a brand new mission

A video of me playing the new map, if you want to see the scope of changes:
https://youtu.be/uwXle-iIeOM

• Changed uniform tier distribution across the board. The original game used only several uniform tiers out of existing 10.
  
• Veggie-Maniac description fixed
  
• Fearless Will - Defense +25% -> Defense +15%
  
• Post-game Skirmish 1 HARD is playable (reworked moderately)

• Fixed Cover Expert description and Sk.9 Normal briefing text
  
• Gatling Medium Tank will now intecept with its gatling turret, not its rear turret
  
• Post-game Skirmishes 2,3,4,5 HARD are playable (up to and including Fouzen)

• Veggie Maniac description fixed for the umpteenth time
  
• Cover Expert/Fortification description changed to reflect that only interception damage gets reduced
  
• Undodgeable Atk+ and Undodgeable Shot description edited for consistency (both list the [No Enemy Evasion] effect)
  
• Perfect Evasion order description fixed
  
• Post-game Skirmishes 6, 7 HARD are playable (light changes)

• GSR-3 incorrect vsArmor fixed (60 -> 90)
  
• Lone Wolf effect changed (-50% Evd -> -10% All Stats)
  
• Post-game Skirmish 8 HARD is playable

• Gatling Shamrock now intercepts with Erma T1 as in vanilla
  
• Post-game Skirmish 9 HARD is playable

With this release, the entire base game is playable. EX skirmishes are up next.

Tutorial mission 2 reworked:

• Fixed Alicia getting killed by tank if Watchman died in the 1st phase. The game now spawns a "tutorial" tank with weakened weaponry (mission 3 still spawns standard weaponry version)
  
• Changed phase 1 scout that could make Light Tank park wrongly if killed and his corpse left in tank's way
  
• Enemy spawns in phase 2 changed

• Edelweiss and Shamrock critical defense parts values changed to not be hopelessly broken (new values below)
  
• EX Skirmish 1 is playable (full rework)
  
• EX Skirmish 2 is playable (minimal tweaks)

1) Edelweiss parts:
- 3 parts sized 1x1 give 0.03 each;
- 3 parts sized 2x1 give 0.07 each;
- ultimate defense upgrade gives 0.2;
Total parts reduction: 0.3
Total possible reduction: 0.5 (x1.0 multiplier)

2) Shamrock:
- 2 parts sized 2x1 give 0.25 each
Total possible reduction: 0.5 (x1.0 multiplier)

Old values allowed to stack reduction to x0 multiplier, so radiator always took 1 damage.

• EX Skirmishes 3, 4 are playable (standard changes)

• Expert Skirmish 5 is playable
  
• Expert Skirmish 6 is playable
  
• "Class name" field (under the name on character sheet) now displays Class Defense and Interception Angle stats in format [__ Def,___I] for all troops.
  
• Aces have their own personal Defense bonus added after their name.
  
• Tanks are now named according to their tier (e.g. Light Tank Mk.III).

A quick bugfix and tweaking release.

• T-MAG 2 damage 43->45 (had exactly the same stats as T-MAG 1)
  
• Shamrock Gatling removed explosive properties (should not blow away smoke anymore)
  
• 15b Selvaria HP 25k->15k, Def 32->20. A bit more sane numbers that should still keep pure cheese away.
  
• Selvaria's Ruhm vsPers 90->70 should make her more approacheable
  
• Reverted interception angle display for player characters because hq recruitment space for class doesn't even fit 18 characters. Still displays Class Defense. Enemies still display both Defense and Interception Angle.

• Expert Skirmishes 7, 8 are playable

From this release on the thing should be a bit larger, because it includes some edited textures.

• Lancaar-SH M10 and above give 3 ammo as intended
  
• Selvaria's second Ruhm: vsArmor 600->400, Range 1000->650
  
• Welkin's report: Toyold The Bull (tank Ace) moved to the road so it's not immediately stuck climbing uphill due to PC port tank movement bugs
  
• Fixed textures for Skirmish 9 Hard/EX briefing to more closely match level geometry and object placement
  
• Fixed R&D interface textures to display BHP|THP, BDef|TDef and AP for all relevant parts in Research and Outfit Tanks menus. AP parts still show 0->0 in part equip menu
  
• EX Skirmish weapons changed for certain maps and Aces
  
• EX Skirmish 9 is playable

• Challenge Lover: vsPers +50% -> +25%
  
• Added rank requirements to Objectives display (both briefing and in-battle).

Rank requirements are mostly displayed under the "20 turns pass" line, such as "20 turns pass [A/B/C 1/2/3]". Missions that have no such line, like Diverting the Marmota and Flower of the Battlefield, just display a line with rank list, e.g. "[A/B/C 1/2/3]". D-rank 's upper limit is naturally all of the turns, so it's not listed.

• Ghirlandaio bunkers (Ch.15-a): flamethrower damage ratio x45->x2
  
• Trooper Hater - fixed description

• EX skirmish weapons accuracy letters fixed
  
• Tank Destroyer potential description adjusted
  
• All 6 Challenges of Edy Detachment are now playable (intended for post 4th-potential troops and high R&D level)

Challenges were reworked and now require actual Edy Detachment members to be present in active squad. They are used as preset units on most maps, starting mission without them will render most missions unplayable.

Challenge briefings have been updated to indicate individual characters required in that particular mission. The complete deployment list:

• Susie's Challenge: Susie
  
• Jann's Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Edy, Homer, Jann, Marina + 2 free slots
  
• Marina's Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Marina
  
• Homer's Challenge: Susie, Edy, Homer, Jann
  
• Edy's Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Edy, Homer, Jann, Marina, Rosie
  
• Tank Challenge: Susie, Lynn, Edy, Homer, Jann, Marina + 2 free slots

Rank requirements are exactly the same as vanilla, so there should be no disrepancy between rank and character dialogue present in Gallian Crossfire and IOv1.

Also reflected in briefing as appropriate, there is an additional special condition - reinforcements requested from Gallian Base camp will not arrive. CP can still be spent to call in someone, but at the beginning of next player phase instead of new troops the message "Reinforcement request cancelled" will appear. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to make it so player can't waste CP in the first place, but oh well.

Because of course I'd run out of guide section character limit.

• Imperial Trooper class label corrected (interception angle 120->135).
  
• Ragnaid specifies base healing amount for Gallian troops.
  
• Losing camps will now show "Allied camp occupied by the enemy" text rather than "Gallian camp... ", because this line carries over to Behind Her Blue Flame and looks nonsensical for obvious reasons.
  
• Behind Her Blue Flame DLC is now playable. It is following Gallian Crossfire design of Imperials being the overwhelmingly stronger side and classic CP allotments/turn counts.
  
• Enter The Edy Detachment DLC is now playable. It also remains in the realm of more classic VC in terms of CP allotment and turn count. This mission was refitted to be a high level mission.

Known not-a-bug: in Enter The Edy Detachment everyone will carry Tier 1 explosives, exceptions being Homer's grenades and Susie's Grenade Launcher at Tier 5. This is attributed to the way equipment for this mission is assigned and cannot be avoided.

These changes are relative to v2.0


Tank stat rework:

• All enemy tank stats redone.
  
• Tanks are no longer linearly tiered, expect to encounter most kinds and tiers and various parts of the game.
  
• Tanks can have specializations such as long range interception, heavy AT weaponry etc.
  
• More varied combinations of HP and Armor have been introduced (no more "just +100 HP" like it was with light tanks).
  
• Consequently, to increase a variety of tanks throughout the game, many tanks deal lategame tiers of damage from the get-go. I've set aside a few light tank models for early chapters specifically, but after Ch.7 all bets on what you encounter are off.
  
• Heavier tank models are generally progressively more susceptible to Flamethrower damage and less susceptible to radiator damage.

Oscar: now receives Attack Boost as T2 Battle Potential, Nest Master as T4 potential. No longer receives Eagle Eye.

A variety of Ace and Boss stats have been revisited.

Engineer XP curve for late levels (16-20): 170805 total XP -> 269805 total XP



Story maps have been retrofitted with extra map changes:

• Unit type, reinforcement type, equipment, placement, initiative changes.
  
• Some maps feature reduced player side deployment and more enemies. This is mostly maps like Kloden and Fouzen, where deploying many slots at the start is relatively useless to begin with.
  
• Some maps feature camp-detached reinforcement arrival. Camps will radio for reinforcements as normal, but units will arrive at a different place, not necessarily near the flag (you will see the exact locations when reinforcement request is being made).
  
• Some maps have camp area extended beyond vanilla boundary (red outline in strategy mode during campaign missions). Players will have to hunt for and eliminate units outside of the immediate flag area. These units will receive full benefits of being in a camp (damage reduction, increased regeneration). Maps for which this change has been applied to base camp had their win condition on Objective screen changed from "Capture enemy base camp" to "Secure [X] area", such as for example "Secure [Hilltop camp] area".
  
• Base Camp damage reduction: 15% -> 10%

Gallian/player:

Smoke:
Now does not reach ground and explodes mid-air. Hiding effect diameter 100->70.
Visible smoke graphic still has the same diameter of 200. However, the hidden status and interception prevention will be granted in smaller area (you can use sight lines to determine whether you are visible or not).
Smoke will no longer cover ground when exploded at peak heights. Players will now have to be more creative about making use of smoke, rather than being able to use it as hide-in-plain-sight-lol-what-is-dodge-what-is-interception whereever and whenever. Simply put - Smoke rounds solve (read: break) a lot of defensive setups with far too much ease, so now they no longer do so. Story parts that were previously meant to be solved with smoke have been adjusted, most notably:
- Invulnerable Guns in Ch.12, Selvaria in Ch.15b and Marmota in Ch.16 no longer make mincemeat out of Edelweiss.
- Ghirlandaio bunkers make VERY INSTANT mincemeat out of Edelweiss.

The former were a sensible challenge for Crossfire-style A-rank puzzles, but I don't feel like they add anything exciting to my version of the game.
The latter change was made because I needed a tool to deny Edelweiss and Shamrock ability to get to some places. I know these bunkers do EXTREMELY UNFAIR vsArmor damage (near-instakill), so much that you should not expect to be able to enter aiming mode anymore without dying should you happen to park in front of one. Drive around them at your own peril.


As part of tank stat rework:
- Brondel sniper rifles: +150 vsArmor all models
- FoG flamethrowers: vsArmor 1300-2200 -> 1300-1650


GSR sniper rifles: vsArmor 80-130 -> 80-100

T-MAG machine gun: base accuracy lowered 100-120 -> 110-135

Mortar Lances: All models down to 2 Ammo, Range 300-400 -> 300-350

Anti-infantry mines: damage changed 300-600 -> yes



Imperial/AI:
A lot of tank weaponry revisited

ZM MP 4, ZM MP 4B: range 240 -> 400/450
ZM Kar 4, ZM Kar 5: shots 6->5


Reworked:
Valkyria: reworked -> +10% All Stats, Debuff immunity; activation HP<10 -> at the start of move
Sniper Killer: reworked -> +10% Acc, +25% Def; activation near imperial Snipers -> at the start of move

Buffs:
Big Sister: +15% Def -> +20% Def; activation 25% -> 50%
Bad Back: -50% Def -> -25% Def
Pessimist: -50% Def -> -25% Def
Frail Body: -50% Def -> -25% Def
Starting Dash: activation 75% -> 100%
Chameleon: activation 25%->75%

Melee Skills+: +50% Evd -> +10% Def
Ranger's Stride: +30% Evd, +15% Def -> +30% Evd, +15% Def, +15% vsPers

Undodgeable Atk: activation On attack -> at the start of move
Undodgeable Atk+: activation On attack -> at the start of move
Critical Shot: activation 50% -> 25%, On attack -> at the start of move
Sharpshooter: activation 25% -> 35%, On attack -> at the start of move
Ambush Spotter: activation On entering grass -> at the start of move
Concentration: activation On attack -> at the start of move
Neutralize: activation On attack -> at the start of move

Nerfs:
Loyal Teammate: +25% All stats -> +25% Acc, Evd, vsPers, vsArmor
Never Say Die: +50% Acc, +25% vsPers, +25% vsArmor -> +50% Acc, +25% vsArmor, +10% Def
Masochist: +50% Def -> +25% Def
Rosie Lover: +50% vsPers -> +25% vsPers
Largo Lover: +50% vsArmor -> +25% vsArmor
Panicky: -50% Acc -> -80% Acc
Country Bred: +50% Acc -> +25% Acc
Imp Hater: +50% Acc -> +25% Acc
Scout/Trooper/Lancer/Engineer Killer: +50% Acc -> +25% Acc

Sadist: +50% vsPers -> +35% vsPers
Camp Guard: +25% Def -> +15% Def
Stand Ready: +25% def-> +15% Def
City Kid: +25% def-> +15% Def
Sighting: +50% Acc -> +25% Acc
Melee Skills: +50% Acc -> +25% Acc
Mid-Rng Skills: +50% Acc -> +10% Acc

Awaken Potential: 2 CP -> 1 CP
Awaken All: 4 CP -> 2 CP
Inspiration: 3 CP -> 2 CP
Neutralize: 2 CP -> 1 CP
Healing Request: 100 HP -> 150 HP
Heal All: 100 HP -> 150 HP
Healing Boost: +100 HP -> +150 HP
Attack Weak Spot: reworked -> All Units Neutralize, 2 CP

ZM Kar 0: vsPers 30 -> 23
ZM MP 0: vsPers 25 -> 20
All player characters' accuracy increased to 45 (Private Welkin, Bruhl Watch Alicia, Town Watchmen)

The tutorial "About using cover" in "Encounter at Bruhl" (the very first map) now explains about Alicia having grenades in all tutorial maps.

The tutorial "About leaders" in Vasel Riverside (mission 4) now lists Welkin as the only leader for Squad 7.

First Aid Boost (Lancer version): Healing +100 -> Healing +85
Ace Fujmolt The Edge (War Without Weapons/Rosie's Report): Def 38 -> 57
Tutorial Welkin: now properly receives 10 Defense (was 0)
Cemetery: order acquisition text fixed

Oscar was easily the most useless sniper, Nest Master is too situational. Now he has the weakest but unconditional vsPers buff and same as everyone (and unconditional) vsArmor buff.

Engineer XP curve was raised to delay T4 potential access or at least make it at the cost of other stuff.

Extended camps allow to force player to clear a wider area, effectively lowering value of rush strats.

The explanation for smoke has been included in general notes, as I feel that is important for everyone.

Valkyria potential as invulnerability is gone, because all the maps it was originally used as a crutch for in Gallian Crossfire (cough Expert Fouzen cough) have been changed, so now it would only break stuff with no legitimate uses.

"activation On attack -> at the start of move" is a set of QOL changes that lesseng RNG elements. Tank Destroyer and Penetrator have not been changed, because they open too many target opportunities and would have to come with very low chance.

% changes are mostly normalizing stuff at 25%, chopping away some really unnecessary 50% buffs (hello Largo Lover) and trimming some unintended power based on who has those potentials (e.g. Mid-Range Skills is actually present only on people who aren't meant to be crack shots, so it should not get +50% accuracy). Also some general Defense trims for stacking issues.

Orders are mostly buffed, except removal of Attack Weak Spot, because that pretty much exclusively breaks MG damage and nothing else.

v1.5.1 (2020-03-18)

Edy:
Accuracy progression 20-75 -> 5-40

Laserbeam Edy is more of a lategame fantasy and involves Country Bred. Previously she'd hit 54 innate accuracy after lv.11, which can happen pretty early if you focus on getting there. Now she is more "look, I got buffs" marksman rather than a pure statball, which should give more space to other offence options.

v1.5.2 (2020-09-02)
Fixed incorrectly incuded version of East Bank of Vasel Easy skirmish map.

Still with me? Great.
I'll be looking at post-game stuff next, probably starting with Hard/Ex Skirmishes, but maybe Edy Challenges. Standalones will come last.
This is all finished. Just some polish and waiting for feedback before calling it done.
Calling it done.

This is most likely what I will base my attempts at VC4 modding on number-wise, so I'd love some feedback on how this all plays out. The more detailed, the better. No, really, there are A LOT of elements that need to come together for these systems to work, I've probably screwed up something somewhere.

If you find a bug or have a question - poke me.

If you're one of the modding guys and are interested in how I did the description stuff - look where I inserted my records and diff the very beginning of game_info_game_param.mxe against Crossfire/IOv1. If you need a more detailed explanation, poke me.

Further below you will find the first legacy version of the mod, which was more or less just Gallian Crossfire + limited ammo system experiment.


Thanks to everyone who played this, thanks for all the feedback and bug reports.

And above all - Enjoy!
28-07-2019, DoomyDoom

This part contains all of the the old version of Imperial Onslaught, descriptions and such as they were present for its release.
It was mostly me finding a couple interesting things and quickly putting them to a test, so I probably won't be supporting/developing this version further. Feel free to leave feedback regardless.



An extension of Gallian Crossfire mod, adding ammo system to infantry weapons (rifles, machine guns) and reworking battle setup (CP and ranking system) to create combat environment which allows to focus less on perfect pre-planned play and more on spontaneously dealing with actual enemy.

Vanilla VC has quite a few balance issues, such as broken combinations of classes and orders, extremely understatted enemies with objectively worse weaponry, high dependency of rewards on ranks. There also are a few more subtle things, but they are worth a whole separate discussion, so I'll stop at that.

Gallian Crossfire has improved the experience a lot (at least from the perspective of someone who enjoys a fair challenge). While I had definitely enjoyed the mod, I felt like there was another aspect of the game that could use improvement - game pacing.

• Lessen the feeling of "being forced to rush" - it's a somewhat popular complaint about the game, and I can certainly feel the pressure too sometimes. Not punishing slow-and-steady playstyles for arbitrary reasons is a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
  
• Make a better use of game's 20 turn limit, present the player with more strategic choice and some room for errors (i.e. one misstep, a random evade or a bad decision doesn't mean you can't get that A-rank anymore).
  
• Make AI's actions more impacful and force the player to deal with them - basically, the game feels a lot more like a static puzzle than it could be.

• Lowered the amount of actions players can perform in a turn, as well as significantly relaxed ranking restrictions.
  
• Added ammo system to small arms, so that all troops in the game now face ammo considerations.

There are also a few "follow-up" changes, much smaller in scope, which are either related to balancing with the new pacing in mind, or take advantage of new systems.
Detailed context on those changes can be found in the appropriate sections below.

Now, admittedly, you could just follow certain popular advice: ignore the ranking system and make up your own measure of success, as well as your own rules for how the game is to be played. Which is fair, but, since I have an opportunity to solidify a ruleset through game settings, I don't see why not. After all, it's the game's job to enforce rules and remember what consitutes A-rank or how many CP I'm allowed to use.

This is still a "hard" mod. If you come from vanilla, be ready for high lethality and actually dangerous enemies. If you come from Crossfire, you'll probably feel more or less at home after a few battles.

Download link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8vZNDy8wOopalZhU1B1VUdPYU0

A couple checksums just in case.
If you have no idea what this means, don't think about it too much, it's mostly for myself.
MD5: 07c512e037a2672a3f8ba4282f281eff
SHA256: 7593fb47c7625b97bc244a077a93e82514a4a825f236a4ef3abe5fc525a51028

Archive contents:

1. \Vanilla files\ - backups of the original files.
   
2. \Imperial Onslaught\ - modded files.
   
3. \Extra DLC Reset\ - Extra DLCs reset.
   
4. \notes.txt - short patch notes for this version, relative to Crossfire.
   
5. \installation.txt - this installation guide.
   
6. \game_info_field___Battle_Info.xls - a reference table with new CP and ranks for all battles, as well as their addresses in files so you don't have to search them from scratch if you want to change stuff.

For vanilla VC version:
Copy everything everything under "\Imperial Onslaught\" into VC installation directory.

For Gallian Crossfire version:
You don't need to replace everything if you have GCF installed:

• data\mx\game_info_game_param.mxe - replace to get my balance changes (weapons, orders, limited ammo etc).
  
• data\mx\game_info_field.mxe - replace to get my CP/rank/reward changes.
  
• DLC_1011 directory contents - replace to get ammo limitation for Ruhm that you obtain by beating Behind Her Blue Flame DLC.
  
• DLC_1001 directory contents - replace to get adjusted Expert DLC Skirmishes
  
• DLC_1021 directory contents - replace to get adjusted Challenge of the Edy Detachment DLC Skirmishes

You can add things separately into the mix as you see fit (i.e. use only my rank changes, but not the ammo system and vice versa).

Extra DLC Reset:
Copy Extra DLC Reset\sysdata.dat to your Valkyria Chronicles\savedata directory to make it as if you've never played Behind Her Blue Flame and Enter the Edy Detachment. This will remove Ruhm from your campaign and delete recorded ranks. You can use it as many times as you like with any version (Vanilla, Crossfire or Onslaught).

Clean uninstall:

• The automatic way - make Steam redownload vanilla files in place of modded ones by verifying game cache.
  
• The manual way - copy everything under "\Vanilla files\" into VC installation directory.

This section is devoted to actual changes to the game. I will keep context (the "why?") to the changes spoilered, because it will either discuss tactics, or might not be of interest to everyone. Also, to keep facts clear from opinions.

Entry standard is:
Stuff_being changed --> brief description
Extended description (if any).
Context:why I changed it the way I did.

Gallian Crossfire Book Mode saves are generally compatible with any of my changes. You can roll those versions back and forth pretty much as you like, because I didn't touch class equipment or individual weapon restrictions.

Vanilla saves will end you up with incorrectly equipped weapons and such (see Known Bugs/Glitches), so better not try that and start a new game.

Since my modifications inherited the majority of GCF changes and were, in fact, driven mostly by the "how can I make this great stuff even better?" question, most of my reasoning is relative to that version of VC, rather than vanilla. However, the scope of those changes is pretty damn huge, so I will briefly recap the most significant stuff here for first-timers as well as those, who happened to forget what it was all about.

If you're looking for an in-depth read, here are links to the author's original notes and my guide with details on lots and lots of game mechanics and changes, introduced by GCF.
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=498442298
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=566059667

• All infantry stats reworked. Enemies now have stats as good as Squad 7.
  
• Accuracy progression reworked (less ridiculous early game misses).
  
• Mobility (AP) increased on slow classes (Shocktroopers, Snipers).
  
• Potentials reworked. Consistent occurence (less random), various potential effects reworked.
  
• All weapons reworked (damage curve, range, etc). Introduced AT sniper rifles, intercepting sniper rifles. Interception now actually kills things. Tanks don't die to rifles anymore.
  
• Tank parts and upgrades reworked. More HP and Def, Ammo replaced with AP.
  
• Orders reworked. More powerful basic effects, removed critical game-breakers (Penetrate, Caution).
  
• Rewards restructured - 50% base, 25% rank, 25% Leaders, Tanks and Aces.
  
• Edy Detachment Challenges - reworked to fix XP farming exploits and broken DLC weapons.
  
• Alicia, Largo, Rosie no longer leaders.

I will mirror an important point from GCF notes though, as it still applies in full: ALICIA MUST BE KEPT ALIVE IN ORDER TO CLEAR CHAPTER 8-a.
Alicia, Rosie and Largo are subject to permadeath now. Chapter 8-a has one of its winning conditions formulated as "Alicia reaches point X", so if she is killed before that, you will get stuck.
Additionally, if Alicia, Rosie, Largo are dead or removed from Squad 7 through Command Room, they will not appear in any battles with fixed deployment slots (like Chapter 3, or their respective reports).

CP --> down on most battles (~5-6)
Battle Ranks --> moved up (mostly 9-10+)

Ranks are intended to be somewhat lax and allow room for misplays. What I tried to do is to encourage player to deal with mispositioning, unit KO's, evasion and other mistakes, random occurences etc. directly without feeling punished for thousands of XP/DCT by a single mishap. High ranks should now be achievable with wider variety of setups and playstyles. Whether you want to get through the fight faster or methodically open a path through enemy lines with no risks involved - it's all up to you.

Most story mode missions follow 10-12-14-20 turns rank format. Skirmishes are 9-10-11-20 (Easy) or 10-12-14-20 (Normal). Easy Skirmishes gain extra CP (compared to Normal ones), so you can experiment with new units/weapons and unlock potentials. Pre-Marberry Skirmishes (1-4) gain 1 extra CP with Shamrock and effectively become much easier at this point. Those ranks no longer represent "minimal amount of actions to win" - if you enjoy racing against the clock, you'll have to set the first record yourself.

Several maps are unchanged from Gallian Crossfire (both Ranks and CP), because I do not feel their balance needs any additional tweaks and/or a stronger sense of urgency better preserves the story. Those are Chapters 0,1,2,8-a,16,18-b, Largo's Report, Varrot's Report. Rosie's Report has been made easier rank-wise, so you don't need to optimize each move hard to get a high rank, but you do get less CP. Welkin's Report rank went up and CP went down; it is still plenty hard to A-rank and now has a bit more of that "defensive position" feel.

Skirmish rewards were lowered to accomodate easier A-rank level XP/DCT accumulation. Specifically: Easy Skirmishes lose base rewards (50% of the total), Normal Skirmishes retain rewards. Overall, DCT should rarely be a problem, except the very last tier of unlocks, but the XP curve is adjusted down. If you A-rank every NG battle once, you should be able to reach lv.20 on 3-4 classes out of 5, depending on how you spend your XP, with the rest being around 18-19.

These missions are more varied in approach to ranking. Generally, the ones with extremely passive AI have harsher rank requirements as there is barely any other way to create a challenge. Certain missions, where you find yourself in a difficult starting position, have minimalistic rank turns as well. "Assault" type missions are generally more in line with Story Mode.

Expert Fouzen Skirmish is one big exception, where I've just upped A-rank by one (4 from 3). This particular mission is a horrible luck festa, so I've added extra safety net for when things don't quite go as planned. Alternative to that is nerfing certain enemies into irrelevance, which would affect other missions as well. 3 turns is still the "optimal" full wipe benchmark for those who care.

Edy Detachment Challenges:

These are supposed to be difficult missions, so I did not rework rank/CP for most of these.
Scout and Shocktrooper challenges had Ranks and CP updated to accomodate new ammo system. These challenges should now be less about optimizing AP/troop movement and more about managing your ammo reserves and loadouts.
Other Challenges (Engineer, Sniper, Lancer, Tank) are unchanged.

Context:
Low CP count reduces the ability to wipe entire zones in one go and then sit in absolute safety while AI does more or less nothing. Effectively, AI gets more turns (~2x), which makes battles feel less like a static puzzle and more like there is an actual enemy.
Advancing in one area will limit the ability to advance in others, so there should be less of the "oh I can just flank with my Lancer, blow up 2 tanks' radiators and then go clean up all infantry, no problem". Saving CP to pull this kind of tactic off is still possible, but the AI will get more available moves, reinforcements etc. That doesn't mean it will always use those resources wisely, but, well, that depends on each map's scripting and what exactly players do.
On the other hand, you will get a lot more movement resets and ammo influx. Feel free to experiment where that gets you.

DLC's in VC generally take weapon settings from the main game configuration, so Behind Her Blue Flame DLC missions will feature Gallians (AI) with finite ammo and Imperials (Player) with infinite ammo. Reworking this would require a separate version of the all files just for that DLC, so I'm not making that. Ruhm that you obtain in the main game, however, WILL have finite ammo.
I recommend playing BHBF with Gallian Crossfire files instead, as it's already plenty balanced (data\mx\game_info_game_param.mxe and DLC_1011\DLC_1011_game_info.mxe).

This includes Rifles, Machine Guns and Flamethrowers.
There are A LOT of new rules associated with this change, so read this section carefully.

For multi-shot weapons (MG's and Rifles) the representation is slightly convoluted, due to how game engine works (or rather, me using it in an unintended way, see "context" for explanation). I will explain the process here, so bear with me, as you will have to track the amount of attacks now.

In your trooper UI, instead of the usual "infinity" sign,you will see a number. I've dubbed it "attack counter":

If Attack_Counter >= NUMBER_OF_SHOTS_DURING_ATTACK, trooper will be able to perform attacks and interception.
Attack_Counter is reduced by 1 every time trooper attacks, team-attacks or counterattacks. Interception fire does not reduce attack counter.

If Attack_Counter < NUMBER_OF_SHOTS_DURING_ATTACK, trooper cannot intercept or attack, but can still counterattack and team-attack. Each counter- and team-attack will further reduce Attack_Counter by 1 until you reach 0. This means successive counters or assists may put your trooper out of ammo for good, so resupplying (or waiting multiple turns to recover) will be the only option.

Every Turn (after the opponent's phase) Attack_Counter recovers by 1; staying in Camps, using Engineers or Resupply Order refills it to maximum. Of course, you will not see "out of ammo" icon unless you actually hit 0, which is nigh impossible for small arms (remember when you last did 20 counterattacks in a round?), so you have to manually track available attacks at all times.

How many attacks a trooper can make:
The result has to be positive to yield any attacks. Trying to attack when it is impossible will result in "action impossible" bleep sound playing when you hit attack confirmation.

Math examples:

• if you have a rifle with 5 shots in attack (e.g. Gallian-1) and you see number "6" in the ammo stat, this means you can perform up to 6-5+1 = 2 attacks (6,5 would be attack counter values that allow you to attack on your turn).
  
• if you have MG with 15 shots in attack (e.g. ZM MP 1) and see number "17" for ammo, this means you can perform up to 17-15+1 = 3 attacks (values 17,16,15 allow you to attack on your turn).

If you keep forgetting the amount of shots on the current weapon - you can take aim and see it on top of the screen. Out of combat - R&D has no UI for Ammo but has Shots, and Squad Barracks show only Ammo (but not Shots), so using those two together can be used to count attacks. You can also obtain Shot count from Ammo count in Barracks, as no weapon has more than 4 ammo: round ammo down to the nearest multiple of 5 for all MG's and all rifles except Gallian-A3+ and Gallian-ER/E30R. I will provide a reference table, which lists the amount of attacks for most weapon models below.


Flamethrower ammo works exactly like any other single-shot ammo (Grenades, Sniper Rifles, Lances, etc.). "Out of ammo" icon will appear normally for Flamethrowers.

Intercept-capable Sniper Rifles (Intercept X, ZM SG), as well as some Ace weapons from Challenges of Edy Detachment retain infinite ammo. They already have enough tradeoffs as-is.

Lastly, Imperials still retain infinite ammo on MG's and Rifles, so you cannot make an enemy harmless by forcing multiple counterattacks (the reverse is very much possible). It's a small country that needs to count every bullet, not an Empire that spans half the continent.

Context:
Why so complicated? Well, the culprit is this condition being required to fire: "Attack_Counter >= NUMBER_OF_SHOTS_DURING_ATTACK". Whether it was an artifact of early development stages or a weird substitute for "Ammo > 0" check, this is what made it to the game's final code, so I had no choice but to base ammo off of weapon shot counter to function. However, presence of ammo adds another balance lever, allowing to make more interesting and diverse weapons while keeping their power in line, which I believe to be worth a little bit of UI weirdness.

Humanitarian --> now does not instantly end turn after attack failure (description slightly adjusted to reflect new functionality).
Context:
Humanitarian has always bugged me because while it's description says "can't move after attacking", the actual effect was NEITHER moving NOR attacking, all in one package. Digging deeper into it, I've found out that the part which prevents firing is always checked during the actual attack and I have no idea why as of yet (most likely hard coded). At least the part where it stops movement works in an expected and controllable way, so I'm using that to bring consistency. Susie should be able to move regardless of whether her attack fails now. I know it's not a perfect thematic fit but still in line with "doesn't want to harm people".

Chameleon --> 25% activation rate (up from 10%)
Context:
Closer to other similar personal potentials. +100% accuracy is a lot, but not really game-breaking, considering that base accuracy that you'd get without buffs is already plenty high.

Strengthen(Shocktroopers) --> replaced with "Cover Expert": gain +10% all stats and damage reduction when crouching. Description adjusted.
Strengthen(Engineers) --> now receive Poison Tolerance effect.
Context:
More easily appreciatable effects that are neither a gamble (this replaces Phoenix for vanilla players), nor consume primary action (for GCF players). Certain Shocktroopers can now use cover for a multitude of purposes; certain Engineers can perform better against debuffs.
On-demand damage resistance that can be used to turn enemies around didn't look like a good fit for my goal of making player actively deal with enemy, so that got removed.

Melee Skills --> 100% activation (up from 50%).
Context:
Parity with Tank Killer. Both potentials do the same thing (gain accuracy through clever positioning), both can be used to attack distant targets with improved stat.

Double Attack --> replaced with "Hidden Supply": gain 1 ammo if an enemy counterattacks. Descrption adjusted.
Context:
Double Attack subtracts twice from the ammo counter without any control from the player, which is more likely to ruin your plans, rather than be of any help. Class potentials are supposed to be strictly positive, and it's the 4th potential to boot, so some guys/gals get a way to lessen the impact of a failed attack. It is also at least somewhat consistent with VO lines (japanese ones, anyway).
Lynn's Hard Worker and Engineers' Double Action are unchanged, because they give player a choice to not consume ammo.

These are mostly my experiments at diversifying some weaponry with the help of limited ammo, as well as a stab at Ace flamethrowers being strictly better than regular ones.

Royal Mags --> 10 shots (down from 15-25), vsPers up across all models to compensate, vsArmor unchanged (nerf to all models except M1R), Accuracy down (60-40 from 50-30).
Context:
Is more efficient against high defense (less shots = less times defense is applied = more damage goes through), but each missed bullet has a bigger cost and it comes with low ammo count.

T-MAG --> Accuracy down (100-90 from 55-50), Range up (400-525)
Context:
Retains low per-shot damage x high shot count, gains high range, but loses a lot of accuracy and gets low ammo count.
I've always found weird the existance of the void between sub-400 range MG's and 700 range high accuracy Ruhm. So I've chosen T-MAG to fill this design space - Gallian take on a long-range MG. I mean, come on. It looks and sounds like one.

VB FW 1(g), VB FW 2(g) --> Range down (50 from 90)
Context:
VB FW is now worse at multikills, but still unmatched if you need to kill hard targets like Aces or crouching Lancers inside a camp. More incentive to pick FF even if you've obtained VB FW.

These are mostly fixes related to the new CP/turn incomes to prevent turtling from being an easy cop-out strategy.

Resupply --> cost up (2 from 1)
Context:
With ammo added to Rifles and MG's and increased ammo income due to shorter player turns, Resupply needs to be more of an investment and a critical choice, rather than a cheap Engineer substitute.

Sniper Support --> damage down (150 from 200), cost unchanged (1)
Context:
An unconditional Sniper kill once every 9 CP is one thing, but once every 5 CP is a bit too cost-efficient. It's still a viable tool, e.g. for finishing off damaged enemies without burning through troopers' AP or ammo reserves, but not a problem solver by itself.

Mortar Support --> damage down (150 from 200), cost unchanged (3)
Context:
This change is aimed to lessen the amount of damage that sticks after the healing, so you can't just skip turns bombarding a group of enemies until they're all easy kills AND maintain a hefty CP count to boot. Still enough damage to be used for cleanup or to soften enemies and then finish them off with some sort of follow-up.

Artillery Support --> damage and cost unchanged (200 damage, 6 CP), radius down (400 from whole map)
Important: targeting circle is a static asset (I can't change it without breaking Mortar Support's targeting circle), so it has a radius of 100 units. Actual radius is 4 times bigger, so you'll have to estimate by hand.
Context:
Prevents trivializing certain battles (skip turn->Art Support->repeat) while still packing enough punch to be situationally useful. If 400 turns out to be too much, I might consider lowering it more.

• Tank parts do not show some stats when buying upgrades, because game's UI was not intended to do that. You can properly view all stats in "Outfit Tanks" menu when they get added to tanks' total stats. Yes, this means calculating them.
  
  
• Edy Detachment Challenges will show post-game dialog based on vanilla rank, not the actual rank.
  
  
• When starting New Game+, you might receive double copies of some Ace/Royal weapons, which were equipped on troopers before you started the final mission (18-b). Sometimes certain weapons will be swapped for Expert Skirmish Ace weapons, even though you haven't beaten those yet. Try restarting NG+ to get your stuff back to where it's supposed to be.
  
  
• When starting NG+, Alicia in Bruhl watch outfit will be replaced by Alicia in Squad 7 outfit during Chapters 0,1,2. This means you will lose 1 CP on those battles, since Squad 7 version is not a leader (those are technically 2 different Alicias, not just an outfit change).
  
  
• Using Vanilla saves might end you up with Engineer-only grenades on Scouts (upgrades 3 and 5), or Scout/Engineer-only rifles equipped on the opposite class. Order unlocking order has also been changed, so you might glitch out and lose some orders. In short - better not use vanilla saves at all.
  
  
• As a side effect of Alicia, Rosie and Largo not being leaders, their 4th potentials can be unlocked via Ellet points, like any regular trooper. Which means WAY before appropriate plot events happen. In case of Alicia, this sort of means she can become a real mess very early on. I can't really prevent this from happening, but I balanced and tested all battles WITHOUT Valkyria potential+interception fire abuse in mind. It's borderline necessary in a couple Expert skirmishes, but other than that all battles are beatable without it.
  
  
• I do realise I've made orders VERY situational, as their relative cost is extremely high and potential impact is much lower due to short turns. Blame whoever decided it was a good idea to not make a separate resource for them (other than CP). You'll have to trade those few precious moves you have for orders, so make sure to carefully consider all the factors.

If you find that something isn't working as expected, try asking here. If possible, keep a save that can be used to quickly reproduce the issue, so I don't have to jump through long hoops.

I'm always open to discussion, suggestions and feedback, but you'll have to give me compelling reasons as to what and why is worth changing.

If you'd like to try and make some edits by yourself, here are some starting points:

1. You'll need some basic understanding of hex editing, and, well, a decent editor. My advice would be HexEdit: http://www.hexedit.com/download.htm - it's free and has nice things like built-in calculator that auto hexjumps, bookmarks, color schemes, nice search options etc. Really easy to pick up if you don't know your left from right. A bit unwieldy for reading some parts of data, which are in Japanese, but you will probably not need it much.
   
   
2. This gamefaqs thread - http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/942165-valkyria-chronicles/72017723 - has info on what's what in the game files, although you'll still have plenty of figuring out to do.
   
   
3. ValkyrieEdit - a program by Loviepoo that can read/write mxe files. CSV's are a lot easier to read and think about, as well as search and find patterns, so I highly recommend using that for reference: https://github.com/dhavard/ValkyrieEdit
   
   
4. If you are feeling lost - try asking. I'm subscribed to Steam VC forums, so I'll probably see it and eventually try to answer as best as I can. Better not post in guide thread though, because character limit is annoying to deal with :)

Thanks to all of the original modders for figuring out as much as they did. Retracing their steps is a lot, and I mean A LOT easier than working from scratch.

Obviously, credits to busards (Crossfire author) for all the work on balancing out weapon damage, trooper stats and whatnot, so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel and was able to mess with the gearbox instead. Also, for all the helpful discussion on how stuff works under the hood.

I hope that I've hit at least some of my original goals, so you can enjoy a more spontaneous Valkyria Chronicles experience. No, I never said it was going to be EASY...