On Chryssalids:

This mod allows Chryssalids and Berserkers on non-Terror missions because they are fun and because they fill a combat role that other enemies don't have. You can of course make up any sort of lore excuse, but i am personally very much a "gameplay first, lore is bonus" person and "man, Chryssalids are friggin cool" is all the reason i need.

If that is something you don't like, you can put Chryssalids into the list of Terror-only units, which is located in the missions.ini in the ABA2 folder. These lists look like this:
+InclusionExclusionLists=(ListID="NoTerror", bIncludeNames=false, TemplateName[0]="AdvPsiWitchM3", TemplateName[1]="Faceless", TemplateName[2]="Chryssalid", TemplateName[3]="Shoggoth")

+InclusionExclusionLists=(ListID="NoTerrorOrBosses", bIncludeNames=false, TemplateName[0]="Sectopod", TemplateName[1]="Gatekeeper", TemplateName[2]="AdvPsiWitchM3", TemplateName[3]="Faceless", TemplateName[4]="Chryssalid", TemplateName[5]="Shoggoth", TemplateName[6]="StealthSectopod", TemplateName[7]="Gatecaller", TemplateName[8]="Deathstar", TemplateName[9]="Riftkeeper", TemplateName[10]="RiftkeeperMk2", TemplateName[11]="CorruptAvatar")

You'd have to add all 9 Chryssalid variants into those lists with their own number.
The Chryssalid names are:
ABAChryssalidM1
ABAChryssalidM2
ABAChryssalidM3
ABAChryssalidM4
ChryssalidDaddy
ChryssalidMommy
ChryssalidAbomination
ChryssalidBleeder
ChryssalidSpitter

As always, when editing modded inis, make sure you edit only the lines that start with a "+" and never the ones that start with a "-"

On extra corpses:

Yes, you get extra corpses which can directly be translated into a fat stack of money every couple months. You also get a whole lot of XP for all those enemies.

Personally, i don't think that is an issue. The XP increase can be mitigated by using something like Squad Notoriety, Soldier Fatigue or both.
You could also adjust the rate at which your soldiers gain XP, which can be done in the GameData_XpData.ini of the classmod you use. But personally, i don't think it's worth it.

The money... well, you kinda earned it, didn't you? After pushing you through Terror missions with 30 enemies, the least i can do is giving you a couple space dollars for it.
I am not sure if the prices for corpses can be edited just with ini editing, might be that you need the SDK for that.

Finally, the number of corpses needed for the instant unlock of research can be found in the StrategyTuning.ini.


I don't edit any of these because of compatibility. I stick to purely editing aliens on the tactical layer without doing anything to the strategy layer.

Duely noted on the corpses. I may play with those a bit and see if I can put together a decent plugin for ABA2.

By early game I had hellweave armour beacuse of instant research and it made a lot of the midgame melee encounters trivial.