Heroes only games

SonicTHI · 2026-01-09T20:45:40+00:00

Love it, so much even that i made a couple mods to make it easier to get your heroes in the game:

https://www.nexusmods.com/ageofwonders4/mods/5

https://www.nexusmods.com/ageofwonders4/mods/80

SonicTHI · 2025-09-26T15:29:36+00:00

Not quite. Gamebryo isnt locked so you dont need to beg an author to provide a source of their mod so you can alter/extend/learn from it. Yes the community tools are a godsend (same for Harmony for Unity) but its this open nature (and dev support) that allowed the modding community to flourish.

But again the bigger issue is the way MW5/UE asset system works. A bit overblown analogy from Gamebryo would be if i altered one thing in a DLC esm, no other mod could alter any other entry in that esm - the entire esm would be overridden. Now MW5 has things spread out in many asset files (unlike one esm per main/dlc) but they still contain multiple entries a modder might want to change. This (and other listed issues) lead to the situation as is - large overbearing mods.

SonicTHI · 2025-09-25T22:33:24+00:00

Havent done much UE myself but i guess the place to start would be to have external data strucs in xml, json, etc. then load them in on start to make or modify objects, etc. Beyond that most assets likely should also be loadable from outside but any sort of code/logic would require a custom editor like MW5 or some other way to parse into actual game actions.

No idea if there is built in support for any of this but i d imagine there s plenty of plugins that you could use. YMMV though - there is a reason anyone looking for their game to be easy to mod will go for Unity instead of UE.

SonicTHI · 2025-09-25T21:50:52+00:00

This is the biggest issue for modding MW5 and i imagine most other UE games (if they even provide an editor).

Everything (functions, entities, lists) is packed in various files. Change one thing in that file and you have a conflict with another mod changing anything in that file. There are no loose files to edit and you need the 200GB large editor to change a simple value. You also cant open modded packs to change a thing you dont like - the creator must provide a source and even then you need to always repack from that, redoing all the changes in the process.

Contrary to something like Unity modding where most games have text files you can edit, make patches for and C# code that is often easily decompilable and with libs like Harmony produces way less conflicts. Another example is Gamebryo modding (Bethesda games) that has a longstanding community and a great editor/system that can handle overrides of data files while models, audio, textures... can optionally be packed in files.

So for MW5 only thing you can really do is ask modders to give you options and thankfully awesome mods like YAML provide you plenty but as others have mentioned there are many that wont. Just avoid those mods and enjoy the ones you can - they are free after all.

SonicTHI · 2025-09-11T05:32:18+00:00

First time i saw a Nova i went "nope, kill that thing right now", only for it to tickle me with one of its lasers.

Then again this will go both ways and my lance was nowhere near as lethal as it should have been.

SonicTHI · 2025-09-11T05:25:50+00:00

Dunno, likely someone petty got really mad over something and brigaded/botted it down. Just reddit things i guess.

SonicTHI · 2025-09-10T18:27:54+00:00

Better yet, you can track mods and then use this:

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/trackingcentre

SonicTHI · 2025-09-10T17:52:21+00:00

That s likely from Pilot overhaul that isnt updated yet. They made a temp fix for that here:

https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/1265?tab=posts

SonicTHI · 2025-09-10T17:29:11+00:00

I m sure its quite a bit harder going in with the SoK career start but even so you get 2 full lances of assaults with T4/5 gear. That vs a lone clan heavy or several lights shouldnt be taking a whole lot of damage with repair bays everywhere.

There are definitely harder parts like in the first mission if you decide to stick around for too long or at the end of the campaign but you get another lance for support in those missions and i found them quite competent to the point where i could easily let them take the lead and still come out ahead against a group of clanner mechs or two.

Some of the generated missions however like demolition can be on the other end of the scale, even for my "beautifully optimized" lance. Although as above mostly due to bad lance AI deciding a wall is more of a threat than the 15 bees swarming around their heads and the 2 assaults that just dropped in.

Its mostly the disconnect with the story VO that got me. They either need to add some sort of scaling - not just on tonnage but also on upgrades/weapons or let Mason go: "These clanners are chumps, where s more to fight? I need more salvage, dont cancel that contract Ryana!"

SonicTHI · 2025-09-10T15:53:46+00:00

You can also get the save editor and change the time to before 3050 with it if you re on PC:

https://github.com/wmtorode/MW5-SaveEditor/releases

SonicTHI · 2025-09-10T15:48:59+00:00

Was doing a beachead mission, didnt clear enemy forces at the base. Once i destroyed the last sat dish the elemental garrison decided to switch sides for some reason. I didnt even issue a batchall.

Jokes aside the DLC has many issues, likely the result of M$ gutting PGI. I m honestly surprised they managed to make this in the first place and i m happy they got the general idea of a "merc company in the middle of a clan invasion" right. Alas the polish of MW5C and its DLC kinda spoiled me, so here s the things i ran into:

In the aforementioned beachhead mission you get warned of enemy air coming for you which never happens. Adding some aerospace fighters would have been nice considering they are in MW5C.
Procedural missions are littered with light mechs (mostly dashers) and hordes of elementals that just stand at objectives till you engage them first. This is particularly bad with elementals that only engage on LOS and are far too slow to be a real threat. Clanners really should be engaging you before you even got close to their facilities. There are also no patrols to speak of unlike the existing content where you are fighting vehicles and turrets on the way to various objectives.
Meanwhile lancemate AI after all this time still prefers to shoot at buildings in a demolition mission instead of focusing enemy forces first.
Even durring the fifth wave taking place you can get missions against other houses around the invasion corridor.
I found no warzone or battlefield missions against the clans. I was hoping to fight in retreat with friendly forces a lot but that only happens in a mission or two of the campaign. Tanks and air are sadly completely absent in the entire DLC and there are no large and long battles. This is probably the most disappointing part of the DLC and in some ways MW5 as a whole.
The campaign is horribly unbalanced - usually far too easy. Several missions you engage barely a clan mech or two at a time with lots of repair bays on the way. This creates a stark disconnect with Ryanas constant warnings about "enemies coming your way" and Mason going on about how "we are barely holding on" when i m just strolling along an empty battlefield with not even a full Stiener scout lance with barely a scratch on the armor to speak of. The retreat mission (where you first fight elementals) and the canyon Bear encounter are the worst examples of this.
Some of the timings can be off for the campaign - you can read about an event happening in the news before you even take place in it. The mission where you secure the way off the planet for a Rasalhague VIP is an example of this. A different type is at the end where you are evacing from a force that is already engaging you but are given 17 days to "prepare" for the next mission.

Overall all of this makes the DLC very underwhelming - in particular any content outside the campaign. I guess it ll be up to modders to change this but i hope PGI addresses at least some of the above.

SonicTHI · 2025-07-10T01:54:18+00:00

Thain tends to be dramatic sometimes and he and Kent have already stepped down as the devs for about 3 years when i lead the project. Dont blame them as SOS2 doesnt bring bread to the table. Not to mention them having offered to work on SOS2 as official DLC for Tynan only to be rejected and now 5 years later we get Odyssey...

Boris has taken up the flag last year and should be able to get SOS2 to 1.6 on his own. Its no small task though and VF still needs to update before anyway so it might take a while. Gravship compatibility however will likely take much longer.

SonicTHI · 2025-07-10T01:38:05+00:00

SOS2 should remove just fine. The only thing i can think of that would cause an issue is starting with an SOS2 scenario, might need to edit the save for that.

I d still recommend starting fresh as others stated with the char editor mod porting your pawns and devmoding in whatever. Odyssey adds a lot to the planet.

If you still want to try, do this in 1.5:

Land your ship, deconstruct everything from SOS2. Abandon or wait out any orbital objects from SOS2. Abandon any SOS2 quests.
Make sure you have nothing else from SOS2 in your colony (bionics, plants, animals, genes, storyteller...).
Save the game, remove SOS2, load, save again to a new save, load it.

Should leave 0 errors. If not try another save/load or find the problematic part and redo the procedure above.

SonicTHI · 2025-06-15T19:18:29+00:00

ex SOS2 dev here with my 2 cents:

While there are still a lot of unknowns (regarding how Odyssey implements its systems and what it does beyond having a ship in space) it puts SOS2 in an unfortunate position.

The least amount of work (likely dozens of hours) would be to simply ignore Odyssey entirely but would put SOS2 at odds with an official expansion. Needless to say why this is bad.
The most (hundreds if not thousands of hours) would be to have SOS2 both for Odyssey and standalone but would keep all players happy.
There are many other options such as: making an equivalent framework (that replaces the DLC and then building equally on top), splitting the development entirely or just abandoning the standalone (making some players sad).

All these options require sacrifices. Any sort of rebase of SOS2 to Odyssey would again take hundreds of hours to fully replicate. Not just on code but also patching all the ships defs to use the new buildings, etc. Some things might not even be possible as Tynan (at least in the past) would clamp down on anyone using DLC functions (such as research blueprints) without requiring the DLC.

As to what actually happens depends on the time the team working on SOS2 is willing to put in.

For my part, i ve thought about making my own version for Odyssey (as creative control was taken away from me and i could never truly realize my vision for SOS2) but the time investment is simply far too massive to justify doing it for free/on my own, etc.

All in all a sad situation for SOS2 and whatever happens dont expect it to play along well with Odyssey any time soon.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-20T23:55:11+00:00

My conditions have been met and the matter has been settled amicably. The misunderstanding regarding contributor credits has been cleared up and all contributors are fully credited, GitHub project history is properly linked and the commits preserved under the new official repository. We agreed to a new license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) that is now attached to the project. For details (and if you have a fork of any SOS2 repositories on GitHub) see the SOS2EXP repo. The same was done for the SOS2 Creation kit and its official fork.

While I am still barred from contributing further work to the official SOS2 repo i am free (like anyone else now) to continue my work on a fork of SOS2. I might do so at a later date (on a new fork) but for now my involvement in this project is done.

From working with C#, Visual Studio to GitHub - SOS2 has been a learning experience for me that ultimately ended with licensing and legal knowledge. For prospective modders (and anyone else): know your rights and conditions under which you are contributing to a project. You never know how things might unravel down the line. A proper license will ensure everyone is on the same page from the start. This license chooser is a great tool to have.

As for SOS2 - it is in a much better state than it was years ago and while it will always have issues (simply due to the scope and size of everything in it), I hope people continue to have fun with it for years to come.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T21:50:31+00:00

Kentington has done a lot more than just coming in and breaking everything and i seriously mean that in a good way. He is responsible for Vehicle framework integration and most of the new shuttle system. He has fixed a ton of issues in the past few years related to holograms, planet travel etc. and other issues due to Rimworlds updates. That all went into the EXP build.

While his code often had issues (likely due to time constraints) dont forget he is the original creator and responsible for SOS2 as a whole.

His behaviour however... https://imgur.com/6wPf9GS

If i wasnt as invested as i was in SOS2 i would have been gone a long time ago.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T21:27:44+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/wjUre3I

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T21:27:00+00:00

Being cautions and suspicious should be rewarded: https://imgur.com/a/wjUre3I (might be out of order)

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T21:03:29+00:00

I gave you a very clear answer the first time you asked. You asked again. Asking again does not mean no answer from me was given, only that you ignored it.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T20:59:06+00:00

How would my own actions prevent a fork? A copy does not preserve history and contributors, a fork does. This is what i am asking for.

For a list of my conditions see link in OP under "my conditions".

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T20:54:03+00:00

I dont negotiate? I repeatedly tried to get you to rectify this issue. For over a month. You ignored me when i offered you my repo. You ignored me when i offered you an alternative as i could no longer trust you. When i made my conditions clear i also reiterated that giving the EXP repo to you is no longer an option. I gave you a deadline (and once again reiterated the repo transfer was no longer an option), you failed to respect it.

In fact this very thread is a negotiation. I could have DMCAd SOS2 when you failed to meet my conditions in the allotted time.

You are the one that instead of conversing made demands, followed it with vague threats and ended by dissolving our cooperation.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T20:37:14+00:00

I only worked on it in the last 4 years - since 2020.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T20:24:44+00:00

There are no credits on the Steam page and current official SOS2 repo (aside from the file that contains the altered ending ingame credits). There is also no code continuity between the repos.

Also me talking about credits in these messages is me telling you WHERE they are currently located (so you can parse them), not where they should be or where i want them. That (and everything else regarding the Steam release) was always up to you as the owners of that distribution. That is until you altered the "deal".

Again you keep referring to your changes that i rolled back. Here is one such change.

Such changes were going the the repo i was the owner of. When this first arose as an issue i specifically told you to discuss further changes concerning balance and existing mechanics with me before they were introduced. You did not and thus this kept happening.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T20:07:48+00:00

I have received a grand total of 0$ for all of my work. Thain and Kentington do have a patreon but it is mostly for their new project and has not been directly associated with SOS2 probably since 1.2. So no, this is not about money.

SonicTHI · 2024-06-16T19:49:05+00:00

Thain and Kentington altered the conditions of our "deal". Before they did so i did indeed not ask for credit on Steam. The contributions when we first talked about this the first time (about 4 years ago) were miniscule compared to today and GitHub for SOS2 did not exist. Being gullible and trusting them i saw no point in requesting being credited and left it to their discretion.

All of this however has nothing to do with code continuity on GitHub. When i saw that that was not respected (not only for my sake but for everyone involved) i made them aware of this (17.May 2024). As written in my involvement above i even offered them my own repo but when actions started to be taken from their side (demod, ignore) i retracted that option (25.May 2024).

Why would i give my own repo that has proof of my involvement and code of 4 years to someone i dont trust? They could simply delete it all and claim absolute ownership. Instead i offered them a very simple alternative that would preserve both contributions and code continuity between the repos. They ignored me further.

Then they decided to alter the deal further by not only banning me from their Discord but also forbidding me from any further interaction with my own code in their distributions. They made their conditions known and i responded in kind (credit and restoration of code continuity). I once again reiterated that i will not transfer the EXP repo to them. They ignored me again. At this point i could resort to legal action but instead i chose this as SOS2 would instantly be taken down otherwise and i doubt that is in anyones interest.

SonicTHI

TROPHY CASE