The following is a repost of a thread that I created in "Endless Space 2 > General Discussions" on Steam (link to initial discussion). The general gist of this topic is that I am looking for a way to change the amount of troops seen in ground battles.   

Initial Posting

• "The ground battles visual pacing has also been heavily tweaked; no more will you see two blobs of units against each other, now each ground battle tactic has its dedicated visual formation, unit types attack independently, and impacts are focused on units," (1.3.3, Supremacy Update).
  Obviously we have moved well beyond this update, but I have long been left wondering if there is any method or mod capable of revamping the scale of the units shown. I loved the aesthetic of huge and potentially diverse forces clashing with one another, rather than the half a dozen units represented in the newer, halting-stylized combat. In short: is there anyway to increase the amount of troops shown in ground battles? Does anyone know of any assured ways to humbly reach out to someone in development? I think the incorporation of a toggle or slider for the number of troops would be a grand, yet minimalist standard of improvement. Has anyone else felt the same way?

1st Response/Lead 

Credit: The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales

• "I haven't had time to check through the files, but if you check the folder "steamapps/common/Endless Space 2/Public/GroundBattle" you may be able to find some values that alter the number of troops displayed per manpower spent and get the desired effect with a small mod."

Present State/What I Have Attempted  

• "I was looking through the recommended folder, but was unable/incapable of finding any specific values that clearly defined a correlation between manpower and the number of troops visually displayed. I ended up pouring over a few different files, including some in other locations such as the Schemas, Simulations, and Settings folders.
  
  Ultimately, I played around with editing and testing values such as:
  
  "SocleSize=_" -in- GroundBattleUnitConfigs + [Updates8&9]+[DLC1,2,&3] ; this appeared to change the size/circumference of circles on the ground surrounding troops.
  
  "VisualYPositionOffset='_" -in- GroundBattleUnitConfigs ; this does what it says it does, changing the location of the units as viewed on the grid.
  
  "CollisionX/ZRadius" -in- GroundBattleUnitConfigs ; uncertain as to the exact function, probably has to do with explosions and similar graphics.
  
  Searched for "Prefabs/Game/GroundBattle..." as included in the AnimatorOverrideControllerPath -in- GroundBattleUnitConfigs ; non conclusive
  
  "ManpowerGivenPerLair" -in- SimulationDescriptors ; this is a direct/literal value of the number of troops fielded by the pirates. I hoped I would find similar data elsewhere, but so far I have been unable to. Regardless, this does not apply to what I am attempting to remedy.
  
  "<Column Name='Manpower" -in- GuiElements[Tables] ; seems promising, needs further testing and confirmation. "Width='56" Is this what I have been looking for? Would increasing this change the number of displayed units?
  
  "<ExtendedGuiElement Name='PerformanceManpower" -in- GuiElements[EmpirePerformances] ; looked like this would be the source. Seems to hold RGB values/icon size, unfortunately not much else?
  
  I'm rather new to this, but I think I've made progress. At the least, I've eliminated a couple of locales that are non-relevant, while closing in on those that appear more pertinent. Any further help, directions, or contact would be much appreciated as I am afforded limited free time and my prior searches on this have produced lacking results. If anyone has any ideas or expertise, I'm open to all suggestions and advice. For the future, I can provide the directories referenced... I only did it this way because I was using a copy of the files... Anyhow,
  Cheers!"

Special thanks to Groo the one, for recommending both the Amplitude Community Discord and these Dedicated Forums, The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales for a direction to strike out on, and Bozobub for the encouragement. I will be crossposting this submission across the general, game design, and modding forums; if you're interested in the fruits of my attempts, feel free to look at these, or simply view the original post on Steam for updates. Again, any and all help is appreciated.

-Thanks in advance 

Hello GenghisPlato,

welcome to the Games2gether forums. Since your original inquiry in the Steam forum, one of our gameplay programmers chipped in. Unfortunately, the values you are looking for are defined on the prefabs and not in the xml files, so you can't easily change them. The only possible workaround I could suggest would be to increase the amounts of manpower on systems and fleets.

P.S. If you link your Games2Gether and Steam profiles, you'll receive some etxra content for ES2.

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales wrote:

P.S. If you link your Games2Gether and Steam profiles, you'll receive some etxra content for ES2.

@GenghisPlato aka Ghenghis Kannor

This link can be useful, in case you have trouble to activate free additional content -> Community Challenge Pack not activating

For Endless Day content you can change your system date between 21st to 25th of january when starting new game as described here -> Endless Day