Pavonis Interactive Forums

Quick question on a recent observation. I went back to Rookie difficulty after a few campaigns on Commander, to mess around with squad comps and perks, and I began to notice NCE acting seemingly off. Every Rookie campaign had their Defense more 'unflawed'. I found troops with lows and highs in aim, health, and mobility, but nobody every dipped below -3 Defense, with most cases having at least some positive defense and a few going as high as +10.

Moved back to Commander, and I started constantly noticing up to 60% of my roster having between -5 and -10 defense, with enormous consistency. This pattern managed to continue for eight separate restarts, with the ninth and final go being an exception.

Is this actually a 'thing' or just queer random chance on my side?

I started more than 150 new campaigns.
If you roll negative defense you rolled negative defense.
Only Will and Psi roll is somehow normal. Everything else usually roll similar.
I have 2/3 of barracks 3 HP - best roll possible
Why ?

I have two 18 mobility and two 75 aim in low HP roll .
Average Aim is 65 ( never rolled that high)

Restart campaign 100 times for better results.

BTW Stats for Rookie difficulty is boosted
+5 Aim (I think) and will is boosted etc etc

Rookie gives +10 Aim, not sure about the Will though. I know Rookie difficulty cheats in your favour as it is, but I'm curious if it has some limit on certain rolls going into 'negative', as well.

No. They have more stats to swap

From toolbox for example

;stat swaps are used to configure offsets for initial stats. Note that all swaps can be "reversed" with the StatDown value increasing and the StatUp decreasing
+STAT_SWAPS=(StatUp=eStat_Offense, StatUp_Amount=1, StatDown=eStat_Defense, StatDown_Amount=2, Weight=1.5f)

Max number of swaps is 16 . Weigh is chance for that swap. If there is more Aim defense can go up (1.5f =150%) there is "more chance" for that swap.

;These are the max allowed deltas for each stat type
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_Offense, Min=-10, Max=10)
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_Defense, Min=-10, Max=10)
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_Dodge, Min=-15, Max=15)
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_Will, Min=-15, Max=15)
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_Hacking, Min=-4, Max=15)
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_HP, Min=-1, Max=3)
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_Mobility, Min=-2, Max=3)
+STAT_CAPS=(Stat=eStat_PsiOffense, Min=-15, Max=15)

You can fill more defense when Aim is high.

playing on rookie difficulty for a few times and i can tell you that I am used to come across rookies as high aim as 83 and as low defense as -10 (with about -7 dodge, never saw -15 dodge solider)

It is not -15 dodge. Default dodge is 5 .
5 - 15 = -10 - min dodge
5 + 15= 20 -mad max dodge

Default aim is 65 +10 or -10
HP is 4 (-1 / +3 )( 7 HP rookie is worst rookie that you can get)
Defense is 0 (-10 / +10)
Will is 25 (-15 / +15)
Hacking 5 (-4 / +15)
Mobility 15 (-2 / +3)
PsiOffense 25 (-15 / +15)

thanks for clarification.
but i also wanna know, if I set the difficulity to non-rookie mid-campaign, will all solider get -10 aim immediately after the change?

Yes.

Really.?
I had plans to start on Rookie and have great time (rookies).
Bad. I will instead save scum scientists