The Black ICE Skulljack will kill an appropriate target of its Skullmine and Skulljack Abilities. These 2 Abilities are the exact same Templates used by the base game Skulljack. I tested this in my own environment, and it worked as expected.

If successful attacks using Skullmine and/or Skulljack are not killing their targets, you may have a mod that is altering the behavior of these two Abilities.

The third Ability available to the Black ICE Skulljack is Black ICE Quarantine. This Ability removes 1 Action Point from the target and increases AIM and CRIT against it. Black ICE Quarantine does not kill instantly like Skullmine and Skulljack.

Is the Black ICE Skulljack supposed to do damage? Casual an Skulljack kills opponents after use, but this one only stuns

My men know the risks thats why we xcom babyyy!
But yeah the golden path reason back then would be a good one,stuff was still iffy on what would work or not lmao.

XCOM not being able to Skulljack a Black ICE Codex was definitely an intentional decision. I remember thinking through it all those years ago.

There were 2 reasons I decided against it:

The first being, when I started creating Alien mods, I purposely stayed as far away as possible from anything that might tinker with the 'Golden Path' (the main story quest line) or any modifications to base code. That was a personal design choice I made with the goal of creating Aliens that were as safe as possible to install. I wanted all of my code to exist in XCOM's extensible vacuum where it wouldn't conflict with the base code or any other mod that a player might be using.

Knowing what I know now, changing Icy's character group name to 'Cyberus' would probably be fine.

HOWEVER................

That leads to the second reason........ Icy blows up when she dies.

hmm.. okay, I looked into this and it seems that is because they are a different character group name "BlackIceCodex" instead of "Cyberus"

would need a confirmation on the design aspect here from the Mod Author on if it is intentional that these gals cannot be skulljacked (to advance the story)

Oh hey (sorry double post) I already have core collection,but couldn't skulljack it,weird.
Tho I could skulljack base codex and the Frost codex that was around too from frost mod.

Aight thx for the infos,appreciate it,gonna do that

You could also use Skulljack Mind-Controlled units OR Core Collection MetaMod

(Personally I'd go with the last option here)

Yes, you need another mod to fix that interaction...
Codex Skulljack Fix should do it

Is it normal I can't skulljack this one? Kinda sad I saved it for last on the mission.

Ashlynne_Lee, I am indeed using a bunch of mods of that sort. Those would be:

- Encounter List Replacer WOTC
- [WOTC] Universal Enemy Compatibility Patch (BETA)
- [WOTC] Covert Infiltration (As mentioned previously)
- Lalup's Covert Infiltration Collection Tweaks

Your help is very much appreciated!

@Mungojerrie: Are you playing with a mod that modifies Spawn Rates and Encounter Lists? You shouldn't encounter any of my aliens during a Covert Ambush Mission (Black ICE Codex, ADVENT Warlock, Muton Destroyer, Flame Viper). None of them are included in any of the Covert Escape Encounter lists per my design for the very reason you're citing: it would be a miserable game experience because they all have some form of hard crowd control (binds, stuns, invoke panic, loss of action points, etc.)! I can't recall ever running into one during an Ambush.

There are mods out there, however, that scramble up the Encounter Lists to increases pod sizes and alien variety during missions. If you have a mod like that, it could cause my aliens to spawn in any type of mission, including Covert Ambushes... which... wouldn't be very fun.

If you have such a mod and can let me know what it is, I might be able to look at it and make a recommendation.

This is a very cool enemy! Strong but not unfair. I have a question though - is there a way to edit how often these guys appear in covert action Ambush missions? I am running Covert Infiltration and normally ambushes aren't too hard but with how ubiquitous these guys (and Muton Destroyers as well but those are more manageable for a small team) are in Ambush missions, those have become pretty annoying.

So, a question arises - how can I tone down spawn rates for Black ICE codices in ambush missions? A lot of those are two-person affairs and a Black Ice Codex draining one out of four action points is a massive debuff. Two codices and it's basically mission over.

yes that is what i meant.

? This is playable ?

OH! you meant.. can someone turn this awesome enemy unit unit in a Playable Aliens // Allies Unknown unit ?

can someone make this playable

@Neko Fergie: Oh no! Sorry to hear that!

you are both welcome! hehehe by sheer coincidence guess what happened? i couldn't do any more testing cuz a lightening strike apparently destroyed my nvidia graphics card just after my last comment was made.... like literally seconds after. so i am now convinced the Stun Ammo mod is cursed rather than bugged...lolol RIP brand new gaming laptop. so I'm glad Ashlynne did some official testing cuz my baby is dead now.

@Skarsatai 2.0: I just wanted to add to the discussion. I downloaded the Stun Ammo mod into a clean environment and did some testing. It worked properly. The Black ICE Codex suffered the stun effect in each test, as expected, with no crash issues.

When I read the comments, my suspicion was that there may have been an odd interaction between Stun Ammo and Catastrophic Failure, but that functionality also worked properly. She was stunned and then exploded all over the place!

In the end, I couldn't reproduce the issue. Thanks, Neko Fergie for doing some testing!

@nek fergie. many thanks for your test. good to know its not black ice.

and so I report back! I put the Stun Ammo on my Infantry class soldier, regular tier 3 assault rifle and hit a black ice codex: first test I froze it place first with a frost bomb then fired. It applied the stun ammo just fine, although it was frozen too so I did another test....

Second test I did NOT freeze or apply any other effect on the codex first I just opened fire on it after it took cover. also applied the Stun Ammo just fine no crash other issues. who know why you crash and I dont? hmmm only thing different is you used a sniper rifle...maybe some odd interaction with that or squadsight? guess that can be my third test is putting the stun ammo on my other soldier types but why that would matter who knows?

oh i see! dont have that one. i'll install it and see if i get a crash too. just earlier i stunned a black ice codex with Riot Rounds with no issues. No crashes either, yet, with Hunter Rounds and Elriuem Rounds from my other fav mods. But I am curious to try if I get a crash too with this one.

Hi Neko Fergie its this one. I use it since years and never seen a fire-hit-crash scenario. It works on all types of enemies. even with the normal codex or avatars. https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1139228388&searchtext=stun+ammo

when you say 'stun ammo' exactly which one? like is the riot rounds from cut content ammo mod or another mod? i ask cause i love me some ammo types and i've been using all of them in my current playthrough BUT perhaps i have no yet used it on a black ice codex. i'm not the mod author obviously but i i'll try i see if i get a crash too. i think on the occasions I have stunned a black ice codex it has been with stun grenades, bolt caster or swords from the axe and katana mod...I'll give ammo stuns a try and see if i too get a crash

interesting: black Ice codex does not like stun ammo. It is a direct Crash to desktop. tested it several times. scenario :sharpshooter tier 1 rifle stun ammo
[0993.72] ScriptLog: Reduce Range Penalties: Arnav Nityasundara is attacking Black ICE Codex
[0993.72] ScriptLog: Reduce Range Penalties: Distance between Attacker and Target: 23 Normal visibility range for Attacker is: 20
[0993.72] ScriptLog: Reduce Range Penalties: Attack is 3 outside normal visibilty range (Squadsight)
[0993.72] ScriptLog: Reduce Range Penalties: Penalty from squadsight is -6.0000
[0993.72] ScriptLog: Reduce Range Penalties: Total aim penalty due to range is: -6.0000
[0993.72] ScriptLog: Reduce Range Penalties: Penalty negated multiplier is: 0.5000


one stun ammo shot leads to a direct crash. all other ammo types I tested are working.

Tough battlefield enemy 😖

Super cool mod！ but please, I am using LWOTC, how can I increase the probability of it appearing?

Cool mod

Got it! Thank you!

@Ashlynee_Lee - Error in EncountersLists. AudomatedDefenses duplicates the Leader list, needs name updating for Follower list to stop import redscreens.

Update complete!

Just a heads up...

The Black ICE Codex Mod will receive an update soon (hopefully this weekend). There should be no issues with existing campaigns but if you've edited the config, you'll want to save your changes somewhere outside of the mod folder.

Change summary is posted in the discussions.

Enjoy!

@Krakenous: XCom's Black ICE Quarantine does not need to reduce enemy hacking stats. It's a hold over from when the ability was called Black ICE Protocol and was shared between XCom and the Aliens. Currently, there are 2 versions of Quarantine; 1 for the Aliens and 1 for XCom because they function slightly differently behind the scenes yet produce the same effect in game. The Alien version no longer reduces XCom's Hacking Defense since that doesn't do much in the game. I never removed the Hacking reduction from the XCom version for no real reason, but it doesn't really have any effect. I'm working on slight updates for all my mods right now (mainly the Warlock), so I can clean that little piece up.

Forgive my ignorance. But for XCOMs use, why would I need the black ice skulljack to lower the enemy advents "hacking stat"? Isn't this just the same as "hacking defense"? Unless I am being dumb or missed something, aliens/advent can't hack xcom or xcom units so why would you ever need to reduce the hacking stat of advent soldier when you skull mine? Defense stat I get, makes you have higher chance for better rewards, but in terms of their actual "stat", that's lost me. Unless it's just a localisation thing. EITHER WAY, surprised I missed this, another extremely awesome welcome addition :D.

@Ashlynne_Lee Is it possible to make the Network Firewall just like SPAKR concealed blue electromagnetic special effects?
Thank you.

No problem!

@4rrakis normally i look at pictures and don't read any of the notes. This time I did the opposite and look what that did.. lol.. thx man

@TROCH22
Take a look at the third screenshot.

what does the "Black ICE Skulljack" do? how is it different from the vanilla one?

Yeah, it's just the icon that shows up.. I'm getting that .. was just missing localisation :)

Also nice to have a heads up on the other two mods.. looking forward to any changes :)

@RustyDios: Whoops... missed this comment. Sorry for the late reply.

I'm working on some updates to the Warlock and a very tiny update to the Flame Viper. I can add some text to the Black ICE Codex and test it all at the same time, no problem. I'm hoping to publish it all in the next week or two.

That's odd you don't have an icon. I can see one (there's just no name or help text like you said).
It's currently using:

Templates.AddItem(PurePassive('Ability_AshReboot', "img:///UILibrary_PerkIcons.UIPerk_regeneration"));

It looks like a Plus Sign encircled by an Arrow. I assume that's a base game icon, but maybe not?

The Ability_AshReboot is missing localisation, so it just shows in YAF1 as the regen-icon with no descriptive text .. can we get some text added for it please ? Something like;

[Ability_AshReboot X2AbilityTemplate]
locFriendlyName="Network Update"
locLongDescription="The Black ICE Codex is capable of repairing itself for a small amount each round"
locHelpText="The Black ICE Codex is capable of repairing itself for a small amount each round"
locFlyOverText="Network Update"

Does it work with RPGO?

Hey Neko Fergie,

My internal naming conventions have evolved slightly over the years, so they're a little different from the LW2 days. Here are the template names for all of the utility items in the WotC Mods:

UtilityItem_AshDestroyerVest
UtilityItem_AshViperRounds
UtilityItem_AshInfernoRounds
UtilityItem_AshFlameScaleVest
UtilityItem_AshBlackIceRounds
UtilityItem_AshBlackIceSkulljack
UtilityItem_AshPhantomSlayerRounds

Hope that helps.

can you add patch for PGO?

And Yes I did remember to use the "AddItem" command in front of it.

Hey there! If Ash (or anyone else who knows) could tell me what are the console commands to manually add in the utility items? I am actually looking for the commands for the utility items from Black Ice as well as Advent Warlock, Flame Viper & Muton Destroyer.

Many moons ago when I used this mod on LW2 Ash told me the console commands were "UtilityItem_AshBlackIceCodex_BlackIceSkulljack" & "UtilityItem_AshBlackIceCodex_BlackIceRounds " except those commands don't seem to work for this WOTC version. Neither does the old commands for Flame Viper.

Through trial and error and looking through the config files I managed to guess the commands for the grenade items from AdvWarlock & Muton Destroyer but I can't figure out the commands for the Vests, Ammo and Black Ice Skulljack. If anyone knows I would appreciate it! Thanks!

@Ashlynne_Lee Great, can't wait to try to stay alive against all your enemy mods!

@Gwynbleiid: Ya, you can add the internal template name of any custom units to the exclusion array and it should work as expected. You'd probably want to do the whole 'delete your config folder' thing after doing the edit just to be sure the game picks up the change properly.

The absence of the Spark isn't intentional. I'll call it an oversight.

Thanks for that call out.

@Ashlynne_Lee can i add entries to the malfunction exclusion array? cause i'm using a mod that replaces the base PsiOp. Also, the Spark should be there or is absent on purpose? thx