Xcom 2 Mods and Tools for Soldier Editing: A Review and Comparison
Xcom 2 Soldier Editor: How to Customize Your Squad
Xcom 2 is a turn-based strategy game that puts you in charge of a resistance movement against an alien invasion. You have to recruit, train, and lead a squad of elite soldiers who will fight for the fate of humanity. But how do you make your squad stand out from the rest? How do you make them fit your playstyle and preferences? How do you make them more than just numbers on a screen?
Xcom 2 Soldier Editor
That's where the soldier editor comes in. The soldier editor is a feature that allows you to customize various aspects of your soldiers, from their appearance and attitude to their loadout and abilities. You can make your soldiers look like yourself, your friends, or your favorite characters. You can give them unique personalities, voices, and backgrounds. You can equip them with different weapons, items, and skills that suit their roles and missions. You can even modify their stats and traits to make them stronger or weaker.
In this article, we will show you how to use the soldier editor to create your own personalized squad. We will also introduce some mods and tools that can enhance your soldier editing experience. Finally, we will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of soldier editing, and how it can affect your gameplay and immersion. Whether you are a beginner or a veteran, a casual or a hardcore player, a purist or a modder, this article will help you get the most out of your soldier editor.
The Basics of Soldier Editing
The soldier editor is accessible from various menus in the game, such as the barracks, the armory, or the mission preparation screen. You can edit any soldier that is not wounded, dead, or on a covert action. You can also edit any rookie that you have recruited or hired. The soldier editor has four main tabs: appearance, loadout, abilities, and stats.
Appearance and Attitude
The appearance tab lets you change the look of your soldier. You can choose from various options for their head, hair, face paint, scars, tattoos, props, armor pattern, armor color, weapon color, voice, nationality, biography, first name, last name, nickname, and call sign. You can also choose their gender and race.
The attitude tab lets you change the personality of your soldier. You can choose from six attitudes: normal, twitchy, happy-go-lucky, hard luck, by-the-book, or laid back. Each attitude affects how your soldier behaves in combat and in cutscenes. For example, a twitchy soldier will be more nervous and jittery, while a laid back soldier will will be more relaxed and casual. You can also change the attitude of your soldier at any time during the game.
Loadout and Abilities
The loadout tab lets you change the equipment of your soldier. You can choose from various weapons, items, and armor that you have researched, built, or looted. Each weapon, item, and armor has different stats, effects, and upgrades that can affect your soldier's performance in combat. For example, a shotgun has high damage and critical chance, but low range and accuracy, while a medikit can heal or stabilize a wounded soldier.
The abilities tab lets you change the skills of your soldier. You can choose from various abilities that your soldier has learned or unlocked as they level up or gain experience. Each ability has different costs, cooldowns, and effects that can give your soldier an edge in combat. For example, a grenade can damage and destroy cover, while a sword can slash enemies at close range.
Stats and Traits
The stats tab lets you change the attributes of your soldier. You can choose from various stats that affect your soldier's health, mobility, aim, will, dodge, hack, psi offense, and psi defense. Each stat has a base value and a bonus value that can be modified by various factors, such as equipment, abilities, perks, or conditions. For example, a scope can increase your aim bonus, while a wound can decrease your will base.
The traits tab lets you change the perks of your soldier. You can choose from various traits that give your soldier special bonuses or penalties in certain situations. Some traits are positive, such as gifted (increased experience gain), while some are negative, such as shaken (reduced will). Some traits are permanent, such as genius (increased hack), while some are temporary, such as tired (reduced mobility). You can also remove negative traits by sending your soldier to the infirmary or the training center.
The Advanced Soldier Editing
The soldier editor in the base game is already quite extensive and flexible, but if you want to take your soldier editing to the next level, you can use some mods and tools that can enhance your experience. Mods are modifications that add new features or change existing ones in the game. Tools are applications that allow you to edit the game files or data outside the game. Here are some of the most popular and useful mods and tools for soldier editing:
[WOTC] Ability Editor
[WOTC] Ability Editor is a mod that lets you edit the abilities of your soldiers in-game. You can add, remove, or replace any ability from any class or faction to any soldier. You can also change the cost, cooldown, effect, or requirement of any ability. This mod gives you unlimited possibilities to create your own custom classes or soldiers with unique skill sets. For example, you can create a sniper with sword abilities, or a ranger with psi abilities.
You can download this mod from Steam Workshop here: [text]
Xcom 2 Soldier Stats Editor
Xcom 2 Soldier Stats Editor is a tool that lets you edit the stats of your soldiers outside the game. You can modify any stat of any soldier in your roster or pool with ease. You can also save and load presets for quick editing. This tool gives you complete control over the attributes of your soldiers without affecting the game balance or integrity. For example, you can create a super soldier with maxed out stats, or a weakling with minimal stats.
You can download this tool from Nexus Mods here: [text]
Xcom 2 EDI
Xcom 2 EDI is a tool that lets you import your soldiers from Xcom 1 to Xcom 2. You can transfer any soldier from your Xcom 1 save file to your Xcom 2 character pool with their appearance and biography intact. You can also customize their class and rank in Xcom 2. This tool gives you the opportunity to continue the legacy of your veterans from Xcom 1 in Xcom 2. For example, you can import your favorite sniper from Xcom 1 and make him or her a sharpshooter in Xcom 2.
You can download this tool from Nexus Mods here: [text] The Benefits of Soldier Editing
Soldier editing is not only fun and creative, but also beneficial for your gameplay and immersion. Soldier editing can help you overcome the challenges and optimize your strategy in the game, as well as make you more attached to your soldiers and their stories. Here are some of the benefits of soldier editing:
Gameplay Benefits
Soldier editing can improve your gameplay in various ways, such as:
It can give you more options and flexibility in combat. You can customize your soldiers to fit different roles and situations, such as stealth, assault, support, or psionics. You can also experiment with different combinations of abilities, items, and weapons to find the best synergy and effectiveness.
It can help you overcome the difficulty and randomness of the game. You can adjust your soldiers' stats and traits to make them more resilient or powerful, or to compensate for their weaknesses or flaws. You can also use mods and tools to tweak the game settings or mechanics to suit your preference and skill level.
It can reward you for your progress and achievements. You can unlock new options and features for your soldier editing as you research, build, or loot new equipment, abilities, or perks. You can also see your soldiers grow and evolve as they level up or gain experience.
Immersion Benefits
Soldier editing can enhance your immersion in various ways, such as:
It can make you more invested in your soldiers and their fate. You can create your own personalized squad with unique looks, personalities, and backgrounds. You can also give them names, nicknames, or call signs that reflect their identity or history. You can then watch them interact with each other and the world in combat and cutscenes.
It can make you more immersed in the story and the lore of the game. You can create your own custom classes or factions that fit the theme or setting of the game. You can also import your soldiers from Xcom 1 to Xcom 2 to continue their legacy or see how they changed over time.
It can make you more immersed in the modding community and the fan culture of the game. You can share your creations with other players online or download their creations to enrich your game. You can also get inspired by other players' ideas or suggestions to improve your soldier editing.
The Drawbacks of Soldier Editing
Soldier editing is not without its drawbacks, however. Soldier editing can also affect the balance and integrity of the game, as well as cause some technical issues or glitches. Here are some of the drawbacks of soldier editing:
Balance Drawbacks
Soldier editing can affect the balance of the game in various ways, such as:
It can make the game too easy or too hard. You can customize your soldiers to be too powerful or too weak, which can ruin the challenge or the fun of the game. You can also use mods or tools to cheat or exploit the game mechanics or systems, which can make the game boring or frustrating.
It can break the intended design or vision of the game. You can customize your soldiers to be incompatible or inconsistent with the original classes or factions of the game. You can also use mods or tools to change the core features or aspects of the game, which can alter the gameplay or the story of the game.
It can cause compatibility or balance issues with other mods or tools. You can customize your soldiers to conflict or clash with other mods or tools that you have installed or enabled. This can cause errors, bugs, crashes, or performance issues that can affect your game.
Integrity Drawbacks
Soldier editing can affect the integrity of the game in various ways, such as:
It can break the immersion or realism of the game. You can customize your soldiers to be unrealistic or inappropriate for the theme or setting of the game. You can also use mods or tools to add elements that are out of place or out of character for the game.
It can break the lore or continuity of the game. You can customize your soldiers to contradict or ignore the established lore or canon of the game. You can also use mods or tools to alter the events or outcomes of the game.
It can break the ethics or morality of the game. You can customize your soldiers to be offensive or insensitive to certain groups or issues. You can also use mods or tools to add content that is illegal, harmful, or unethical.
Conclusion
Soldier editing is a feature that allows you to customize various aspects of your soldiers, from their appearance and attitude to their loadout and abilities. It can improve your gameplay and immersion by giving you more options, flexibility, and investment in your squad. It can also enhance your experience by using mods and tools that add new features or change existing ones in the game. However, soldier editing can also affect the balance and integrity of the game by making it too easy or too hard, breaking the intended design or vision of the game, or causing compatibility or balance issues with other mods or tools. It can also affect the immersion or realism of the game by breaking the lore or continuity of the game, or adding elements that are out of place or out of character for the game. Therefore, soldier editing is a feature that should be used with caution and moderation, and with respect to the original game and its creators.
If you are interested in soldier editing, you can try it out for yourself by downloading Xcom 2 from Steam or other platforms. You can also check out some of the mods and tools that we mentioned in this article, or browse other ones that are available online. You can also share your creations with other players or download theirs to enrich your game. Soldier editing is a feature that can make your Xcom 2 experience more fun and creative, as long as you use it wisely and responsibly.
Thank you for reading this article. We hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please feel free to leave them below. We would love to hear from you and answer your queries. Happy soldier editing!
FAQs
Here are some of the frequently asked questions about soldier editing:
Q: How do I backup my save file before editing my soldiers?
A: You can backup your save file by copying it from the Xcom 2 folder in your Documents/My Games folder to another location. You can also use a tool like Xcom 2 Save Manager to manage your save files.
Q: How do I install mods or tools for soldier editing?
A: You can install mods or tools by downloading them from Steam Workshop, Nexus Mods, or other sources, and following their instructions. You can also use a tool like Xcom 2 Mod Launcher to manage your mods.
Q: How do I uninstall mods or tools for soldier editing?
A: You can uninstall mods or tools by deleting them from your Xcom 2 folder in your Steam/steamapps/common folder, or by disabling them in your mod launcher. You can also use a tool like Xcom 2 Mod Cleaner to remove leftover files.
Q: How do I fix errors, bugs, crashes, or performance issues caused by soldier editing?
A: You can fix errors, bugs, crashes, or performance issues by verifying the integrity of your game files in Steam, updating your drivers, lowering your graphics settings, disabling conflicting mods or tools, or reinstalling the game.
Q: How do I share my soldiers with other players?
A: You can share your soldiers with other players by exporting them to your character pool in the game menu, and uploading them to Steam Workshop, Nexus Mods, or other platforms. You can also use a tool like Xcom 2 Character Pool Importer/Exporter to manage your character pool.
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