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Metal Over Flesh: Upgradeable SPARKs

Adds in Proving Ground projects that upgrade your SPARKs, to help them keep them up with all the various mod-added enemies you've probably installed. (Or maybe you just like the idea of SPARKs having a Close Combat Specialist equivalent). Also adds a utility slot to base SPARKs.

Additional SPARK repair slots will now be added to in-progress campaigns.


Due to how the game handles slots, SPARKs gain one utility slot with this mod on. If I can figure out a way to actually add to that through a project, this will change.

Most .ini changes will be located in My Games\XCOM2\XComGame\Config\XComSPARKUpgradesSettings.ini or in-game with MCM, but a few select settings are editable at (wherever XCOM 2 is installed)\steamapps\workshop\content\268500\720053228\Config\XComSPARKUpgrades.ini

In addition, the template changes required for this mod to work are not retroactive: already built SPARKs will not benefit.

The rest of the SPARK Projects are:

SPARK Suppression
A time-only research project, researching this will enable SPARKs to suppress enemies.

Note: due to XCOM 2 requiring these sort of abilities to be attached onto a weapon, these by defualt only work on the vanilla SPARK weapons, but you can add in mod weapons to SPARKUpgrades.ini.

Thanks Grimy for letting me borrow this perk code from one of his mods!

ADVENT Chip Adaptation
Requiring the Officer autopsy and Officer corpses and supplies, researching this will give +10 Aim to SPARKs.

Nanomuscle Fibres
Requiring the Muton autopsy and Muton corpses and supplies, researching this will give +3 mobility to SPARKs.

SPARK Shields
Requiring the Shieldbearer autopsy and Shieldbearer corpses and supplies, researching this will give +5 shield points to SPARKs.

Mayhem Protocol
Requiring the MEC autopsy and MEC corpses and supplies, researching this will enable SPARKs to do +2 damage when they use suppression.

Thanks Grimy for letting me borrow this perk code from one of his mods!

Close Combat Protocol
Requiring the Andromedon autopsy, Andromedon corpses and supplies, researching this will enable SPARKs to take a shot at any enemy that moves within 4 tiles to them.

Thanks Grimy for letting me borrow this perk code from one of his mods!

Heavy Weapon Storage
Requiring the Sectopod autopsy, a Sectopod corpse and supplies, researching this will enable SPARKs to carry an extra charge for their heavy/powered weapon.

Automated Threat Assessment
Requiring the Gatekeeper autopsy, a Gatekeeper corpse, and supplies, researching this will enable SPARKs to have +15 defense as long as they didn't attack on the player's turn.

Thanks xylthixlm for helping me finally come up with a properly working version

Berserker-based Gauntlets
Requiring the Berserker autopsy, a Berserker corpse and supplies, researching this will give SPARKs with Strike +4 more damage. It will also give all SPARKs a adjacent-only melee ability called Punch: this has weaker damage than strikes, but only costs 1 AP to use.

Self-repairing Nanomachines
Requiring the Archon autopsy, Archon corpses and supplies, researching this will give SPARKs reduced repair time, or if the damage they took was 2 HP or less, no repair time at all.

Thanks Long War Studios for making the perk this tech uses!

Rebuild SPARK
Requiring the damaged body of a SPARK that has fallen in combat and 125 supplies, this repeatable tech lets you rebuild either a SPARK listed as fallen back to prime condition, or use a damaged chassis to construct a whole new one.

Note: SPARK Chassis follow the same rule as normal corpses do on missions: if a SPARK dies on a mission you evac from, you're not getting its chassis back.

Self-Correcting Rounds
"These rounds are derived from the implants we found in the ADVENT Officers and the later adaptations we made to SPARKs, they have the ability to assist a weapon's targeting on a user's initial miss of a target."
Provide +10 aim after a miss with a weapon. Requires ADVENT Chip Adaptation to be done.

Thanks Long War studios for making Hyper-reactive Pupils from their perk pack!

Note: it's possible some mod abilities won't activate this effect, to fix this add the ability name to XComSPARKUpgrades.ini and comment on this so I know to fix it.

Shield Hardener
"The Shield Hardener is derived from our SPARK-based shield tech, while it barely provides any protection on its own, it does make any shield it's attached to protect against even massive hits, even if it will take down the shield. "

Shields block overflow damage by hits that take them down, along with providing an additional shield point. Requires SPARK Shields to be done.

Explanation: by default if a 5 HP shield gets hit by a 10 damage attack, 5 damage will pass over to a unit's health and armour. With this item installed, any damage that overflows a shield will get blocked entirely. Credit to Grimy for making the original shield gate effect from his loot mod.

Nanoweave Plate
"Nanoweave Plate is an impact-hardening armour insert for our units, on their own they don't do anything, but once a unit has taken a hit, the plates will harden and provide additional protection."

Provides +2 armour once a unit has taken damage. Requires Nanofibre Muscles to be done.

Credit to LWS for their Damage Control perk.

Codex Module
"Codex Modules are derived from the brains of Codexes defeated in the field, they provide units with the ability to more easily dodge enemy fire, and are able to do more calculation the more enemies the unit is in range of."
Provides +5 dodge for every enemy in sight, up to a max of +50. Requires the Codex Brain shadow project to be done.

Credit to LWS for their Hard Target perk.


Can I get some SPARK rifle weapon slots? - Got you covered with a seperate mod for that.

The mod updated with a new tech, how do I get it?

Type in SPARKUpgradeHelp in the console, then type "GiveSPARKUpgradeResearch 'nameoftech' ", with whatever new tech you don't have in the game. (Currently the only one you need to worry about if you didn't have the save game issue is SPARKGauntlet).

MantLemon for making the Chinese localization.