Increased Enemy Difficulty

DLC 5-compatible. :)

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*Major update (Jul. 21st, 2023)!!

The mod has, once again, been restructured, in addition to having its accuracy curves reconfigured.

The mod now has pilot distribution with the full spectrum of pilots (like vanilla) for all difficulty levels. Lancemate A. I. accuracy has also been improved both at close range, as well as long range to improve their overall performance, in addition to helping compensate with the increased difficulty levels. Accuracy modifier values (those negatively affecting both movement accuracy and lateral movement accuracy) have now been expanded to include all enemy pilot skill levels (unlike vanilla).

Lastly, a greater emphasis has been placed on an enemy’s ability to aim at close range (with their base accuracy having been increased) like in an earlier version of the mod, but with balances made to make avoidance still viable given the right conditions/player movement.

Please enjoy! (This involved an ample amount of testing!)*

Enemy difficulty was originally structured in order for players to play through the game while learning as they go; resulting in an easy difficulty at the start, and progressing to a harder (the hardest) difficulty at the end. This happened to coincide with getting heavier ‘mechs; resulting in the hardest missions being the ones with the heaviest tonnage being deployed. Unfortunately, this makes replays of the game trivial at the start for experienced pilots, and only makes the game more fun in a challenging way for high-tonnage missions.

To remedy this, I created this mod in order to create something this game lacks: difficulty levels.

The available difficulty levels are as follows – from easiest to hardest: Increased (easiest), Challenging (less easy), Hard (moderate), Very Hard (hard), and Extreme (very hard).

Each difficulty level has its own accuracy curves for the A. I., as well as adjusted values for the chance for an enemy to overheat; levels of focus-fire on exposed components; enemy damage mitigation; and lance coordination in targeting a player or A. I. companion that has generated the most aggro at a given point in time. For those afraid of or irritated by the level of focus-fire on display in the vanilla game, know this: I have adjusted the values in order to minimize such unusual behaviour, while still making the A. I. a significant challenge – especially at higher difficulties.

Difficulty levels have been scaled (as best as possible) to have the lowest difficulty (“Increased”) serve best as a challenge for those with intermediate skill while using power-enhancing mods (such as YAML or m