How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

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faket15
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Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 6:41 pm

How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by faket15 »

In my last campaign I was very intrigued by the fact that my starting region, with Vigilance in the high 20s stopped being Reinforced after a while. I searched on the Internet to see an explanation of how ADVENT moves Strength but didn't find any good one and decided to check the code and then write an explanation for other people.

The first thing to understand is when a region asks for reinforcements. The answer to this question is simple. After the first month any region that isn't already being reinforced, doesn't already have 15 Strength and has Desired Strength higher than Current Strength will ask for reinforcements every day. DS is Vigilance + modifiers capped at 15. The modifiers that affect DS are:
  • +1 if the region has a Radio Tower. Does not apply to the starting region
  • +1 if the region has a Facility or if a Facility is being built there
  • +1 if the Protect Region activity is present. Always true after completing Liberation 2
  • +1 if the region is the source of an Invasion
  • +2 if the region has a Golden Path mission site (Blacksite, Forge, Psi Gate)
  • +1 if an adjacent region as a GP site.
  • +2 for each adjacent region that is liberated
  • +1 for each adjacent region with Vigilance more than 5 points higher than Strength
The next thing to understand is when a region actually answers the request. To explain this I will first define Future Strength as Current Strength minus the number of Reinforce activities originating in the region. If we think of points of Strength as legions then this Future Strength is the number of legions that will be in the region after all of those that are leaving leave but none of the legions that are entering actually get there.

By default a region will answer the request and send a legion if FS is higher than DS. If more than one region answers only one of them will actually send a legion and it will always be the region with the greatest difference between FS and DS. RNG is only involved to break ties.

A common exception happens when none of the adjacent regions can spare the legion (FS isn't higher than DS), but the region asking for it really needs the extra legion (DS at least 3 points higher than FS). In this case adjacent regions that have very high Strength (9 or more) or those that can't spare the legion but still don't need it that much (DS isn't more than 3 points higher than FS) will answer the request. If multiple regions answer in this step the choice is random.

Other exceptions that force a region to not send reinforcements are:
  • A region can't send a legion if doing this reduces FS to zero
  • A pair of regions can't send reinforcements to each other at the same time
  • A region that is already the origin of an Invasion can't send reinforcements
  • Regions with GP sites will only send reinforcements if current Strength is 6 or higher. This always applies to the Psi Gate but only applies to the Blacksite and Forge if the region is already contacted
The Reinforce activity has no global limit on how many can be active at a given time and no cooldown. They have a 6-12 days duration and, if you are lucky enough to detect one, it will generate a Supply Raid. Beating the Supply Raid destroys the legion removing one point of Strength from the origin (note that the activity spawns in the destination; beating the Supply Raid doesn't kill a point of Strength from the region where the mission spawns). When the activity expires or the player loses the mission a point of Strength will move from the origin to the destination.

The other way ADVENT reinforces regions is by using UFOs to create legions instead of moving those that are already there. UFO landing sites are based on RNG, but each region has a weight based on factors that are very similar to those that affect Desired Strength. The initial weight is based on the difference between Vigilance and Strength. The values are:
  • 0 if Vigilance is lesser or equal to Strength - 2
  • 1 if Vigilance is equal to Strength or Strength - 1
  • 2 if Vigilance is equal to Strength + 1
  • 3 if Vigilance is equal to Strength +2 or Strength + 3
  • 4 if Vigilance is greater or equal to Strength + 4
Factors that increase the weight are:
  • +1 if the Protect Region activity is present (Liberation 2 complete)
  • +2 if the region is the origin of an Invasion
  • +2 if the region has a Facility
  • +1 if a facility is being built
  • +2 if the region has the Blacksite, +3 if it has the Forge, +4 if it has the Psi Gate
  • +1 if the region is adjacent to a region with a GP site
Phaseless
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by Phaseless »

So some conclusions I would draw from your numbers

Advent tries to reinforce regions neighboring to liberated regions and regions with golden path missions or facilities + surrounding missions.
Also UFO landings are more likely in regions with GP+facilities and surrounding regions, and they are also more likely the further you are on the golden path.
Psieye
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by Psieye »

Requesting clarification on "source of invasion". As I recall, an invasion requires a Str 8+ region next to a region that has been liberated for >21d. Provided those conditions are met, is "source of invasion" always true from there onwards or is it only when the "destroy relay to deny invasion before it happens" mission spawns in the liberated region?

On the note of invasions, if successful is half the legions transferred to the newly conquered region? Are any legions lost if the invasion fails?
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
faket15
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Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 6:41 pm

Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by faket15 »

Psieye wrote:Requesting clarification on "source of invasion". As I recall, an invasion requires a Str 8+ region next to a region that has been liberated for >21d. Provided those conditions are met, is "source of invasion" always true from there onwards or is it only when the "destroy relay to deny invasion before it happens" mission spawns in the liberated region?
Only when the activity spawns.
Psieye wrote:On the note of invasions, if successful is half the legions transferred to the newly conquered region? Are any legions lost if the invasion fails?
Yes, half of the legions (rounded down if the number is odd) are transfered. If the Invasion fails the origin loses 2 legions.
Psieye
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by Psieye »

The DS modifiers explains a lot. I needed a low Str expansion after liberating my 2nd region in my current campaign. I chose somewhere with +3 to DS. It was already Str 6 on contact and it's going to grow higher. In that sense, I'm lucky I contacted West Asia before I liberated East Europe: West Asia now has +4 to DS due to 2 liberated neighbours. Until now, everything it received had gone straight to East Europe but now that it's liberated... I must do all I can to stop these legions moving in...
faket15 wrote:If more than one region answers only one of them will actually send a legion and it will always be the region with the greatest difference between FS and DS. RNG is only involved to break ties.

The Reinforce activity has no global limit on how many can be active at a given time and no cooldown.
Hmm, suppose there's a hot region with extreme DS. It's connected to 2 regions which have high Str but low DS. Does that mean one neighbour will initiate a Reinforce activity and the second neighbour will wait a day before initiating its own Reinforce?

Conversely, if a region (with lots of surplus legions) is next to two hot regions, can it create two Reinforce activities at once?
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
1st
2nd
3rd
faket15
Posts: 111
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2017 6:41 pm

Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by faket15 »

Psieye wrote: Hmm, suppose there's a hot region with extreme DS. It's connected to 2 regions which have high Str but low DS. Does that mean one neighbour will initiate a Reinforce activity and the second neighbour will wait a day before initiating its own Reinforce?

Conversely, if a region (with lots of surplus legions) is next to two hot regions, can it create two Reinforce activities at once?
The activity actually spawns on the region that is asking for the reinforcements, not on the region that sends them. A region can only be on the receiving end of one Reinforce Activity at any given time, but there is no limit to how many reinforcements can come from one.

The answer to your first question is a no. It will actually wait the entire 6-12 days until the activity expires, not only one day. The answer to the second question is a yes.
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

This should move to strategy
The Preacher
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Can I quote you in my stupid guide ?
The Preacher
faket15
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by faket15 »

SonnyWiFiHr wrote:Can I quote you in my stupid guide ?
Yes, you can.
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

Then I will. When I rewrite guide. Right now Im confusing even myself.
Just to find if Jailbreak can spawn at Vigilance 7 .
Thanks
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SonnyWiFiHr
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Re: How ADVENT moves Strength: the Reinforce Activity explained

Post by SonnyWiFiHr »

[PoliticalPrisoners X2LWAlienActivityTemplate]
iPriority=55
RequiredRebelMissionIncome=40.0
DiscoveryPctChancePerDayPerHundredMissionIncome=28
MaxAlert=12
MaxVigilance=7

Can't spawn them after 7. I was save scumming 4 regions I could swear that I got one at 7 but they stop at 6
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