Full change log feature - Hybrid Combat mod for Mass Effect 2

Before we get to technical stuff,

Ever since I started playing, I wanted to do something like this, but never quite found the time
or knowledge how. Now, one of my Life's side-quests (petty dreams) are made true and
I hope you have as much fun kicking Reaper ass, as I did creating this modification.

Good hunting!

Installation instructions are below the changelog.
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What was my goal:
Heed the suggestions and feedback by both the rest of the Mass Effect community and my own.

How did I do it:
By changing a whole lot of variables and rules through out the Coalesced.ini master file and
subsequent BIOWeapon.ini files for DLC weaponry.

Why did I do it?
Ever since I read the explanation of the new ME2 ammo system, I wasn't convinced.
First of all, I wasn't clear on the reason for change of the system that worked too well in ME1.
Second, explanation given does not stand. It is explained in the codex, that battlefields were largely
won by sides who could, quote, "put the most rounds down-range the fastest. But combatants were
forced to deliberately shoot slower to manage waste heat, or pause as their weapons vented."

Explanation is unlogical because you not only pause for weapon to cool down, you pause to duck down
behind cover to dodge a hail of enemy fire. When was the last time you emptied entire Avenger's clip
of 30 rounds into an enemy without pause? Never, that's when. Nevermind the whole capacity of
440 shots - time you spend ducking down was even greater than time spend waiting to cool down
the gun back in ME1. This half-assed explanation assumes have to fire several hundred rounds downrange
without ever pausing for more than 1.5 seconds needed to chance a clip.

Ironically, you actually did fire several hundred rounds downrange back in ME1 on harder difficulties,
whereas in ME2 they introduced a combat system where shield and armor are essentially time-based
resources you need to spend in order to fire and use powers, completely contradicting their own explanation
for introducing thermal clip system.

Well, this is what I aim to change.

My vision of weapon system differs a lot from standard game. I aim to bring back the fighting mechanics
from ME1 into ME2 as much as possible, at least regarding gunfights.

Ergo, weapons have tribled, or even quadrubled clip capacities (from now on, refered to as
"Shots before overheat", but spare clips are largely reduced, having one, to maximum two spare clips.
Example, Avenger now has 120 SBO, and 1 spare clip, equaling 240 rounds of continuous fire.

I like to envision the clips not as heatsinks, but rather the critical firing component of the weapon.
Under fire, it goes thermal stress, and if care is not taken and too many rounds are shot, the clip
will overheat and take a lot of time to will cool down on it's own via gun's cooling tech.
Hence, when spare clips are available, logical choice is to simply eject spent one and insert fresh one,
but when no spares are available, you are forced to wait for the clip to cool down.

Since burst fire weaponry has no use in futuristic universe where personal shields are more common
than good booze, I have made almost all burst fire weapons fully automatic (with exeption of Incisor,
explained below). In real life, burst fire is used to lay down a lot of supression fire without
wasting too much ammunition. Supression fire is a techique used to press the enemy down behind
cover while your team manouvers into position to neutralize the enemy, either via capture or elimination.

Supression fire works only because people do not work well after being hit with a stray round. Only one single (un)lucky shot and it's over for the guy on the other side.

It becomes plainly obvious why this is completely useless in Mass Effect universe. With everybody having personal shields, catching a stray round is only slightly less dangerous than accidentally catching a Justin Bieber song on your car radio.

With all that,
Here is a full and complete (I hope) list of changes made to vanilla Mass Effect 2 game that will
take place upon installation of this mod:
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1. Major changes (overview)

-- 1.1 Enabled the code for ammo regeneration, simulating the weapons cooling down.
Interestingly, this piece of code was already existing within the configuration files, but was disabled, leading me
to believe that BioWare did infact plan on limitless ammo like in ME1, but idea was scrapped at
some point in the development. Tweaking of additional settings was required to achieve balance in gameplay.
-- 1.2 Player classes weapon loadouts changed greatly.
Inability to use Assault rifles in a battle instantly contradicts 90% of cutscenes. Not to mention that it
implies severe mental retardation of the in-universe characters. How difficult can it possibly be to
use a weapon type that at no point in your life was never more than 10 meters from you?
You can instantly figure out M-920 experimental weapon but not a standard issue rifle?
Anyway:
Heavy weapons carried by everybody.

Infiltrators, Soldiers and Engineers carry everything, since these classes appear to be very skilled in firearms usage.
Vanguards and adepts do not carry sniper rifles, since one would assume that all the biotic training doesn't leave
hundreds of hours of free time to practise with sniper rifles
Sentinels do not carry shotguns, since they're more range and support/defense oriented rather than CQB.

You can also select "none" under weapon category, if you don't wish to carry a particular weapon with you.
I tell you guys, in Hub words, don't carry heavy weapons, it actually looks great rather than packing experimental
weaponry where normal people can't carry 15 centimeter serrated blades.

-- 1.3 Armor, shields and barriers no longer protect against effects of powers.
Powers will not do any damage they weren't doing before, simply the physics effects will be present
(enemies will get knocked down, pulled up, shockwaved around)
This removes the somewhat "static" nature of gunfights where each protection layer of an enemy is
presented like a minigame where you have to apply specific power to neutralize it.
Now, you have more freedom in a fight.
-- 1.4 Squadmates all do exact same damage with same weapons as player.
All squadmate weapon damage modifiers changed into x1.0 ; In unmodified game, all weapons did ~50%
less damage if fired by squadmates (sometimes as low as 40%) Now, your squad actually provides some firepower support.

2. Tweaked weaponry (only changes are documented, if statistics left out, they are default):
-- 2.1 M-8 Avenger rifle
Damage = 14.8 (default was 10.8) (note, this is *not* DPS, but damage per one shot)
120 Shots before overheat (SBO)+ 1 spare clip
-- 2.2 M-15 Vindicator battle rifle
Fire mode changed into full-auto (default was 3 round burst)
Fire rate = 500 RPM (was 900)
60 SBO + 2 clips
Recoil elevated slightly
AI and squaddies will use weapon efficiently (like proper auto rifle)
::Essentially, made into heavier version of Avenger = more punch but less ammo and more recoil
-- 2.3 Geth Pulse Rifle
Rate of fire = 1000 RPM
200 SBO + 1 clip
-- 2.4 M-76 Revenant
Damage = 28.3
300 SBO + 1 clip
Recoil reduced only slightly
-- 2.5 Collector Assault Rifle
Damage = 12
Rate of Fire = 1200 RPM (really fast)
350 SBO, no spare ammo
::Absolutely no reason for Collector/Reaper weaponry of ORGANIC make would accept
Geth thermal clip design. Given large ammo pool and fast rate of fire. Spiritual predecessor
to ME3's Particle Rifle.
-- 2.6 M-96 Mattock Heavy Rifle
Fully automatic fire mode
Damage = 55
Rate of Fire = 400 RPM
50 SBO + 1 clip
AI and squadmates taught to use changed weapon effectively (will fire full auto,
with apropriately long sustained fire)
::Essentially, heavier version of Vindicator, completing the trio of fully auto assault rifles.

-- 2.7 M-4 Shuriken
Fire mode changed into standard full auto (like Vindicator, can fire 1 round or 60), now it's actually fun to use
60 SBO + 1 clip
Crosshair parameters changed to reflect the inaccuracy of the weapon more accurately :p
AI and squaddies taught to use weapon more efficiently (longer salvos, less pauses between salvos)
-- 2.8 M-9 Tempest
100 SBO + 2 clip
Reduced recoil only slightly because original one is ridiculous
::Note, retained minimum-5shots fire mode.
-- 2.9 M-12 Locust
Rate of fire = 600 RPM (default = 550)
80 SBO + 2 clips

-- 2.10 M-3 Predator pistol
Damage = 40.2 (default = 37)
60 SBO + 1 clip
-- 2.11 M-6 Carnifex
Damage = 95.4 (default 85.4)
30 SBO + 1 clip
-- 2.12 M-5 Phalanx
Made crosshairs visible along with the laser
Laser boot up time almost instant. Can now properly use the gun.
Damage= 65.8 (default 109.8)
Rate of fire = 300 RPM max (was 100), can fire a lot faster
40 SBO + 2 clips
Squadmates use weapon properly (rapid fire, not heavy hitting)
::Essentially, made more like ME3 version, something between Predator and Carnifex

-- Mantis left untouched, Widow only had damage buff to 400 (default 368)
--2.13 M-97 Viper
Damage = 150 (was 81)
Rate of fire reduced to 100, now acts like ME3 counterpart
25 SBO + 2 clips
--2.14 M-29 Incisor
Made true to it's in game description, still fires 3-round bursts but at 3000RPM speed
(default 600 RPM)
Damage= 70.6 (default = 53)
30 SBO (10 bursts) + 1 clip
Reduced burst re-fire speed
::Is now actually worth using

--Claymore only buffed to 60 damage (was 50)
--M-23 Katana
20 SBO + 1 clip
Lowered possible rate of fire to 40 (from 58)
Increased recoil to 7 (from 5)
Increased damage to 32.5 (from 27.5) per pellet
-- M-27 Scimitar
Damage = 25 (default 20.38 -> WTF, seriously do those 0.08 damage per pellet make a difference
in gameplay mechanics?!)
40 SBO + 1 clip

--Heavy weapons
M-920 Cain, damage is now 15.000 (default 10.000)
Blackstorm Singularity 1500 damage, (was 500)
Rocket Launcher 600 damage (was 300), compared to grenade launcher which is 500, appeared too weak.

--M-44 Hammerhead cannon damage 10x more, now is 4250, was 425.
What, 9001 rockets to take down one turret? By the time you get vanilla M-98 Widow, it does more damage than that.

-Shepard's stamina increased. Now you can "storm" for much longer both in and out of combat.
-Normandy's Fuel efficiency increased. Now ship consumes 1.0 units of fuel for unit of distance
(default was 1.5)

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Installation instructions:

Simple.

Just copy everything and paste over the files in your Mass Effect 2 installation.
Then, go to Binaries, and run giveme2entitlements_v2.exe - this program computes hashes needed
to re-check the integrity of DLC files. Forgetting to run that will give you an error in Main Menu
screen saying that the game "Could not authorize following DLC". If that happens, no biggie,
just exit game, run the exe, run the game again.
Don't worry if you don't have some of the DLCs affected by this mod, the game will simply ignore that.
No, you won't get free DLC weaponry :p

Special credit to whoever wrote the entitlements exe! You're a guddamm hero!
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Known issues, bugs, annoyances:
-Mattock muzzle flash appears only on first round fired, all other rounds fired lack the VFX. Strangely
this bug goes away when applying any ammo power to the rifle, which results in every round having
corresponding visual effect. I have no idea what causes this.
-Sometimes in a tactical pause, in weapons bar, there is "Texture missing" box in place of a weapon you
didn't bring with you (for example, you didn't pick SMGs, and have a Texture missing box instead of a weapon
icon). Not sure what causes this, and as far as I can tell, it's completely random. More often than not,
weapon bar is completely normal, displaying only the weapons you're carrying and not bitching about
the ones you're not.
-Getting past the first level. Since you have to reload your Predator before Miranda lets you through the first door,
you need to empty the entire ammo pool generated since you picked up the pistol. Not game-breaking,
just looks a bit silly. My advice, prevent Shepard from auto-reloading the gun by sprinting right after picking it
up.
-sometimes a single round of ammunition will regenerate before the 1.5 second long animation of reload is completed.
This makes for 1 round leftover in spare ammo pool, or generally number of spare ammo that's not a multiple
of the clip size. Example, Vindicator having 60 SBO (freshly reloaded) and 61 spare ammo. Yeah, looks retarded.

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That's about it folks, let me know how the mod is working out for you, make sure to give me some feedback and
report any bugs or issues at:
eudaimonium at gmail dot com,
Also feel free to add me on Windows Live Messenger (eudaimonium at windowslive dot com) or my Skype name Eudaimonium,
if you wanna chat about anything really, or give me some throughts about the modification, or whatever else.

Keelah se'lai.