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[1.65/X.CE V0.35.0] X-Division 1.00 Beta (1.00.11c)


Charon

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Hey there!

First, great job on the mod; definitely made the game more interesting. So, some comments and questions to follow:
Ā 

  1. Flamethrowers aren't worth taking right now. Too heavy, with too little ammo, doing too little damage at too close range, in addition to destroying loot. There is no situation I've experienced thus far where I'd wished I brought a flamethrower. For those downsides, it drastically needs some stat buffs.
    Ā 
  2. Rocket launchersĀ have their niche, but there isn't enough incentive to use them over other options; specifically, explosive charges. A rocket launcher has a 90% TU cost for good accuracy, and is too dangerous to snap shot with due to its AOE possibly causing friendly fire. In comparison, charges have comparable AOE and damage, can be used without a rocket launcher, are safer to use (a miss still gives time to move any affected soldiers away from the radius) and its primary downside of needing a turn to activate can be entirely mitigated by detonating it early with a shock grenade (is this intended behavior?).
    Ā 
  3. Smoke grenades are God's gift to men. The AI seems to avoid taking shots with too low a hit % and that can be abused with smoke grenades. Drop three on the ground and huddle inside while moving forward, and often the aliens won't even shoot (they do still grenade though, which has led to some unfortunate results). My general strategy for taking an alien base's command room is to smoke everything until hit percentages drop to single digits, then move in to kill everything with melee weapons. Though, can the visual effects of higher tier smoke grenades be made less opaque? Right now I literally can not see my soldiers after I drop some smoke, which is pretty inconvenient.
    Ā 
  4. Stun grenades are way too effective on troopers, and way too ineffective on aliens. An extreme stun grenade in phase 4 can maybe knock out some aliens when I throw one into a group, and it's oftentimes a squad wipe hazard when an alien throw one into my team. Higher tier armors don't seem to make much change in preventing stun grenades from knocking out my team, and the low dissipation rate means I've had to draw out firefights with less than half my team for multiple turns before I could move in and revive the unconscious soldiers. Which is really exciting, if it didn't happen so often due to its prevalence on Caesans.
    Ā 
  5. Even worse than stun grenades though, are the alien blood weapons. I have found only one reliable method of dealing with them; I walk my tank/mech in and kill everything with a blood weapon before even daring to peek out with my soldiers. Kill them before they kill me. Nothing else works. Reducing their hit chances doesn't matter because the AOE is horrifying. Suppression is limited because they have enough TUs to walk in from out of sight and then throw a blood grenade, or fire at me. Even with my squad in Ripper and Guardian armors, the blood cloud effect can stillĀ one shotĀ me frequently. It's beyond ridiculous. With Caesan stun grenades, as long as I keep one soldier out of the fight with a medkit, I can counter it with some planning and effort. Blood weapons have no counter that I know of.
    Ā 
  6. X-Division weapon ranks are not well balanced. In the first half of the game, Antimatter MK-1 weapons made up my bread and butter. Incendiary damage, great mitigation and fantastic TU costs for their accuracy make them reliable weapons that are great for training soldiers with. Before getting to build a Quantum Cryptology Center, alien crews are a mystery. Bringing kinetic weapons against Androns, or energy weapons against Caesans makes ground combat much harder. Antimatter weapons aren't as powerful as using the right weapons types strong against particular aliens, but they're consistently reliable. A squad outfitted with mostly Antimatter weapons, a few energy weapons, and a kinetic vehicle weapon has an answer for any alien type. At least until...
    Ā 
  7. Pulse weapons. I don't know how else to put it, so I'll say it plainly: Pulse weapons are overpowered. Good range, decent damage & mitigation, amazing ammo capacities and those ridiculousĀ TU costs for their range & accuracy. A trained soldier with a Precision Pulse MK-3 can fire three 95%Ā snap shotsĀ across the mapĀ as long as he/she has an unobstructed line of sight to the target. A trained soldier with a Pulse Rifle MK-3 can fire threeĀ burstsĀ of 95% shots at a range comparable to precision riflesĀ of other types. They are by far the most reliable ranged weapons in X-Division's arsenal. You've unlocked Plasma tech? Good, now keep using Pulse tech because a weapon that consistently hits almost every fired shot deals more damage than one with higher damage but can't hit anything. You've unlocked Sonic tech? Great, now use Sonic weapons as close range shotguns while still sniping anything across the map with Pulse tech. Find a tall rooftop with a good view, park some Pulse users on it, send a shield soldier out to draw the attention of aliens (load him up with smoke grenades to survive), and proceed to have accurate, free shots at aliens from beyond their sight range. Alien energy resistance doesn't matter when you can whittle them down with barely no drawbacks. Unless the aliens are in close range, Pulse weapons dominateĀ everything.
    Ā 
  8. So let's say the aliens do close in, and Pulse weapons don't do enough damage in an equal firefight. Thankfully, Pulse tech happens to be very light. So give everyone a katana. Melee weapons are almost as good as Pulse tech, but in a different way. They're effectively Antimatter weapons due to their mitigation, and I've already commented on why those are good. High damage, low TU costs, manageable weight, and they can allĀ fit into the belt. Every single soldier should have a melee weapon as a Plan B. I tend to run two soldiers who primarily use katanas, and use them as scouts and flanking units. ThreeĀ slashes with a Katana MK-2 can kill most aliens I've encountered in phase 4. They're especially effective against Caesans, because melee weaponsĀ bypass Caesan shields. Most Caesans die to only two slashes, using only half my soldier's TUs. Move in, slice & dice, move out to cover. In combination with Pulse weapons, this becomes devastating. Is the alien highly resistant to energy damage? If yes, slash them. If no, shoot them. You now have a working strategy for all the alien units that don't explode on death. That's what your vehicle/mech is for.
    Ā 
  9. Now that I'm done ranting about the strong weapons, I should do the opposite. Though it's mostly limited to just one type, which is weak to the point of being barely usable. Shock weapons. I've read that they used to be overpowered in previous versions, but as they are now, they're outclassed by... everything. I have no reason to use them, be it to deal with Androns or to capture aliens. Too weak, too heavy, too limited. Right, that's all the comments done with. Some questions next.
    Ā 
  10. Is there any other way to unlock things? I'm in phase 4, with Operation Endgame researched, and still missing quite a few things, it seems like. I've captured aliens whenever possible, but no new researches have been unlocked for months now. I'd like to have the ultimate mech, and I'm still stuck on Antimatter MK-1 for example.
    Ā 
  11. Is anything locked behind the mothership? It's the only UFO I've yet to bring down, and the only one I can't seem to find a way to bring down, so it's the only thing I can think of to unlock more stuff.
    Ā 
  12. Also, I'd like some advice on how to take down a mothership. Any particular aircraft or weapons are more effective against it?

Ā 

Whew, that was long. Thanks again for the great work, and thanks in advance should you reply!

Edited by Kyzer
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1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

1 Flamethrowers aren't worth taking right now. Too heavy, with too little ammo, doing too little damage at too close range, in addition to destroying loot. There is no situation I've experienced thus far where I'd wished I brought a flamethrower. For those downsides, it drastically needs some stat buffs.

Has already been revised for the next version, lighter than the hmg and double the original damage. Eh, @Phoenix1x+52Ā ?

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

2. Rocket launchersĀ have their niche, but there isn't enough incentive to use them over other options; specifically, explosive charges. A rocket launcher has a 90% TU cost for good accuracy, and is too dangerous to snap shot with due to its AOE possibly causing friendly fire. In comparison, charges have comparable AOE and damage, can be used without a rocket launcher, are safer to use (a miss still gives time to move any affected soldiers away from the radius) and its primary downside of needing a turn to activate can be entirely mitigated by detonating it early with a shock grenade (is this intended behavior?).

This has been deliberately made this way. Rockets still have a good range, and can be shot beyond vision. But i think you are right, having obstacles in the way with even a 10% block chance which would hit your own men ... is risky.

I havent actually considered the tactical option to trigger a charge with another explosion. Too unreliable because ofĀ the game/engine calculations ... but using shock grenades mayĀ be a new invention. So you say you reliably get the damage of the charge ?

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

4. Smoke grenades are God's gift to men. The AI seems to avoid taking shots with too low a hit % and that can be abused with smoke grenades. Drop three on the ground and huddle inside while moving forward, and often the aliens won't even shoot (they do still grenade though, which has led to some unfortunate results). My general strategy for taking an alien base's command room is to smoke everything until hit percentages drop to single digits, then move in to kill everything with melee weapons. Though, can the visual effects of higher tier smoke grenades be made less opaque? Right now I literally can not see my soldiers after I drop some smoke, which is pretty inconvenient.

Yes, we made them smoke grenades right, and that the AI doesnt shoot if the % fall under a certain number is definitely something which can be exploited ... @dragesĀ ?

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

4. Stun grenades are way too effective on troopers, and way too ineffective on aliens. An extreme stun grenade in phase 4 can maybe knock out some aliens when I throw one into a group, and it's oftentimes a squad wipe hazard when an alien throw one into my team. Higher tier armors don't seem to make much change in preventing stun grenades from knocking out my team, and the low dissipation rate means I've had to draw out firefights with less than half my team for multiple turns before I could move in and revive the unconscious soldiers. Which is really exciting, if it didn't happen so often due to its prevalence on Caesans.

I think we are on the same page with this, a change is overdue.

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

5. Even worse than stun grenades though, are the alien blood weapons. I have found only one reliable method of dealing with them; I walk my tank/mech in and kill everything with a blood weapon before even daring to peek out with my soldiers. Kill them before they kill me. Nothing else works. Reducing their hit chances doesn't matter because the AOE is horrifying. Suppression is limited because they have enough TUs to walk in from out of sight and then throw a blood grenade, or fire at me. Even with my squad in Ripper and Guardian armors, the blood cloud effect can stillĀ one shotĀ me frequently. It's beyond ridiculous. With Caesan stun grenades, as long as I keep one soldier out of the fight with a medkit, I can counter it with some planning and effort. Blood weapons have no counter that I know of.

Yes, i know your feeling, a change would do good.Ā Unfortunately i dont have the permission to change anything there.

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

7. Pulse weapons. I don't know how else to put it, so I'll say it plainly: Pulse weapons are overpowered. Good range, decent damage & mitigation, amazing ammo capacities and those ridiculousĀ TU costs for their range & accuracy. A trained soldier with a Precision Pulse MK-3 can fire three 95%Ā snap shotsĀ across the mapĀ as long as he/she has an unobstructed line of sight to the target. A trained soldier with a Pulse Rifle MK-3 can fire threeĀ burstsĀ of 95% shots at a range comparable to precision riflesĀ of other types. They are by far the most reliable ranged weapons in X-Division's arsenal. You've unlocked Plasma tech? Good, now keep using Pulse tech because a weapon that consistently hits almost every fired shot deals more damage than one with higher damage but can't hit anything. You've unlocked Sonic tech? Great, now use Sonic weapons as close range shotguns while still sniping anything across the map with Pulse tech. Find a tall rooftop with a good view, park some Pulse users on it, send a shield soldier out to draw the attention of aliens (load him up with smoke grenades to survive), and proceed to have accurate, free shots at aliens from beyond their sight range. Alien energy resistance doesn't matter when you can whittle them down with barely no drawbacks. Unless the aliens are in close range, Pulse weapons dominateĀ everything.

Good feedback.

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

8. So let's say the aliens do close in, and Pulse weapons don't do enough damage in an equal firefight. Thankfully, Pulse tech happens to be very light. So give everyone a katana. Melee weapons are almost as good as Pulse tech, but in a different way. They're effectively Antimatter weapons due to their mitigation, and I've already commented on why those are good. High damage, low TU costs, manageable weight, and they can allĀ fit into the belt. Every single soldier should have a melee weapon as a Plan B. I tend to run two soldiers who primarily use katanas, and use them as scouts and flanking units. ThreeĀ slashes with a Katana MK-2 can kill most aliens I've encountered in phase 4. They're especially effective against Caesans, because melee weaponsĀ bypass Caesan shields. Most Caesans die to only two slashes, using only half my soldier's TUs. Move in, slice & dice, move out to cover. In combination with Pulse weapons, this becomes devastating. Is the alien highly resistant to energy damage? If yes, slash them. If no, shoot them. You now have a working strategy for all the alien units that don't explode on death. That's what your vehicle/mech is for.

Arent Katanas cool ? :D

Ofcourse, we cant balance everything perfectly at the first shoot, thats totally a community effort and achievement if we get a reasonable balance right ( props to you guys :)Ā )Ā .

As far as i can see i made the manufacture requirements pretty high ? So capturing praetorians must be a piece of cake ?

I also believe that this might be a slight save/loading issue. There are a lot of powerful tools available because casualities are inevitable. If you get hit by a blood grenade and then reload its another story ofcourse. Equipt your scout with a katana ? The next sebillian grenades blasts your whole valuable equipment to smitherens. Althought all of this is no reason to not balance them .

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

Is there any other way to unlock things? I'm in phase 4, with Operation Endgame researched, and still missing quite a few things, it seems like. I've captured aliens whenever possible, but no new researches have been unlocked for months now. I'd like to have the ultimate mech, and I'm still stuck on Antimatter MK-1 for example.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, that doesnt seem right. I carefully balanced everything that in Phase 4 you have everything available to research everything of importance.

Yes, i would need to revise the antimatter tech tree, its quite unresearchable at the moment. It needs very precise conditions, which once you have passed them are even harder to still get, and at one point impossible. Its a story tech line, so quite hard to figure out interdependencies to still make a straight line.

The Enforcerer seems to be hard to get, here are the requirements:Ā Researches.AlienAlloyHardening(AND)Researches.AlienElectronics(AND)Researches.AlienFusionReactor(AND)Researches.AlienSingularityCore(AND)Researches.AndroncontrollerDisassembly(AND)Researches.AdvRailTechnology(AND)Researches.AdvSonicTechnology(AND)Researches.PraetorInterrogation(AND)Researches.AlienAncientTechnology(AND)Researches.AdvAlienAncientTechnology(AND)Researches.AndronEliteDisassembly(AND)Researches.AndroncontrollerDisassembly(AND)Researches.Andronintel(AND)Researches.SebillianDataHack10(AND)Researches.SebillianDataHack11(AND)Researches.SebillianDataHack12(AND)Researches.CaesanDataHack10(AND)Researches.CaesanDataHack11(AND)Researches.CaesanDataHack12(AND)Researches.SebillianheadengineerInterrogation(AND)Researches.CaesanheadengineerInterrogation
Maybe its bugged.

I can unlock any tech for you if you want to see all the content, just send in your researches.xml and your desired techs.

I would appreciate more exact examples, so i can make more exact fixes.

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

Is anything locked behind the mothership? It's the only UFO I've yet to bring down, and the only one I can't seem to find a way to bring down, so it's the only thing I can think of to unlock more stuff.

As of right now the mothership should just have the same content as the battleship.

1 hour ago, Kyzer said:

Also, I'd like some advice on how to take down a mothership. Any particular aircraft or weapons are more effective against it?

Dunno, you must ask the community for that. I designed the loadout so that it is notĀ able to get taken down, because it didnt have a Crashsite, but now it does, but it hasnt been tweaked for that, i think.

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20 minutes ago, Charon said:

I havent actually considered the tactical option to trigger a charge with another explosion. Too unreliable because ofĀ the game/engine calculations ... but using shock grenades mayĀ be a new invention. So you say you reliably get the damage of the charge ?

Yes. As long as the charge is within the explosion radius, using shock or EMP grenades to detonate it works every time. Any kind of incendiary grenade destroys the charge completely, and others have no effect, from my own testing. Also, if one shock charge is in range of another shock charge, detonating one will chain detonate the other. Being in range of multiple shock charges at once will cause the target to take damage from all of them. This doesn't apply for incendiary charges because, as said above, it'll destroy the other charges, so only one charge will actually detonate.

Ā 

42 minutes ago, Charon said:

As far as i can see i made the manufacture requirements pretty high ? So capturing praetorians must be a piece of cake ?

Well, yes. Queens are difficult because of their ranged spit, but kings are pretty easy unless it's a complete surprise. Once I scout one, I run my scout back to a choke point, throw a bunch of shock charges with timer 9 on it, and I have 9 turns to wait for the king to walk into the choke point, at which time I detonate it with a shock grenade. The stun damage of multiple shock charges at once will either KO it outright, or I then follow up with melee weapons and shotguns/carbines for an easy capture. Shock charges only cost alloys and alenium, which are in plentiful supply at the moment, so I use them very liberally.

Ā 

47 minutes ago, Charon said:

I also believe that this might be a slight save/loading issue. There are a lot of powerful tools available because casualities are inevitable. If you get hit by a blood grenade and then reload its another story ofcourse. Equipt your scout with a katana ? The next sebillian grenades blasts your whole valuable equipment to smitherens. Althought all of this is no reason to not balance them .

As a general rule of thumb, I savescum when a surprise blood grenade/shot hits me from out of visual range. That's the only thing I find too ridiculous.

Ā 

51 minutes ago, Charon said:

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, that doesnt seem right. I carefully balanced everything that in Phase 4 you have everything available to research everything of importance.

I have all MK-1s, but for some types I don't have MK-2s, let alone MK-3s.

Ā 

52 minutes ago, Charon said:

I can unlock any tech for you if you want to see all the content, just send in your researches.xml and your desired techs.

Oh, so the requirements are there. By unlock, I assume you mean to remove the requirements for that particular research? If so, I'll give it a shot. I was looking in the item files and not the research, silly me.

Thanks for the quick response,Ā @Charon!

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5 minutes ago, Kyzer said:

Yes. As long as the charge is within the explosion radius, using shock or EMP grenades to detonate it works every time. Any kind of incendiary grenade destroys the charge completely, and others have no effect, from my own testing. Also, if one shock charge is in range of another shock charge, detonating one will chain detonate the other. Being in range of multiple shock charges at once will cause the target to take damage from all of them. This doesn't apply for incendiary charges because, as said above, it'll destroy the other charges, so only one charge will actually detonate.

Yes, thats what i meant, most explosions destroy charges. Looks like the EMP damage is not to trigger the explosives but not to destroy the item ?

We can always nerf the shock charge exploit by adding more limited manufacture requirements, like energy cores. What areĀ your suggestion ?

24 minutes ago, Kyzer said:

Well, yes. Queens are difficult because of their ranged spit, but kings are pretty easy unless it's a complete surprise. Once I scout one, I run my scout back to a choke point, throw a bunch of shock charges with timer 9 on it, and I have 9 turns to wait for the king to walk into the choke point, at which time I detonate it with a shock grenade. The stun damage of multiple shock charges at once will either KO it outright, or I then follow up with melee weapons and shotguns/carbines for an easy capture. Shock charges only cost alloys and alenium, which are in plentiful supply at the moment, so I use them very liberally.

Congrats, you found an exploit :). Now i have to think how i prevent that :D.

This is why i love the community, nothings impossible for you guys :).

26 minutes ago, Kyzer said:

As a general rule of thumb, I savescum when a surprise blood grenade/shot hits me from out of visual range. That's the only thing I find too ridiculous.

Otherwise you are playing ironman ? Feel free to suggest changes than.

Ā 

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36 minutes ago, Charon said:

We can always nerf the shock charge exploit by adding more limited manufacture requirements, like energy cores. What areĀ your suggestion ?

In my opinion, cores alone won't solve the issue. Early on, cores are too limited and will prevent us from building shock charges at all, while later on cores are too plentiful for a slight cost to matter. I suggest the following:

  1. Change the roles of shock tech and EMP tech. EMP's only use is to damage mechanical units, and by the time it's unlocked, they're no longer necessary; AndronsĀ are much harder to fight in early game when X-Division has limited options for energy damage, and aren't much of an issue later on. I barely ever use EMP tech for that reason. Perhaps if shock tech is nerfed, but EMP tech changed to be a direct upgrade with higher stun damage but higher costs to compensate?
    Ā 
  2. To elaborate on the above, shock charge's current costs can be kept, but the initial stun damage decreased and the gas effect improved to be much more reliable. This makes them still useful for destroying mech and capturing aliens, but not as overpowering when detonated en masse. Then change the EMP grenades and charges to be an upgrade with stronger initial stun damage, but at much higher cost. This will require some change in the lore though.
    Ā 
  3. Rather than energy cores, perhaps use Andron corpses as materiel? Currently, Andron DSB isn't very efficient with either light nor dense fibre, so it shouldn't affect players' supply of them much.Ā 
    Ā 
  4. If those changes are too much, then a simpler method is to increase its size & weight so people like me can't carry a veritable stockpile of them into each battle
    Ā 
58 minutes ago, Charon said:

Otherwise you are playing ironman ? Feel free to suggest changes than.

  1. Katana need to be heavier. Comparing a katana to an axe, the katana as a two-handed weapon can be considered a primaryĀ weapon and should be significantly heavier for how good it is at killing anything in melee range. Meanwhile, knives and axes need to be better. They'reĀ one-handed, 'secondary' weapons, meant to be use in combination with either a shield or a one-handed gun. Using one means giving up safer options like a rifle or a pistol & shield combo, and should be rewarded as such. The knives aren't strong enough, and the axes aren't light enough.
    Ā 
  2. I actually like the blood effect as a concept, but it needs to do significantly lower damage. Getting surprised by a blood weapon should be punishing, but not immediately mission ending. If the blood effect does, for example, around 10-20% hp damage/turn in a large AOE, it'll be manageable and makes positioning and terrain more important in any mission against Sebillians, forcing players to re-positionĀ or risk dying to the blood effect's poison damage in a drawn out fight.
    Ā 
  3. Chemical weapons need a niche. Right now there's no good reason to use them over other options.
    Ā 
  4. Praetors are too weak. Dread is a pain to fight against, but the actual units themselves aren't frightening. They're the alien leaders, and should be more dangerous than their subordinates. Right now I'm on guard against Caesan stun grenades, terrified of Sebillian blood weapons, ever watchful of Harridan sniping, and paranoid of Wraiths teleporting behind me. Androns have their niche in just being plain hard to kill and immunity to control effects. Praetors don't have something about them to punish carelessness and make them priority targets. Even just increasing their TUs and hp would be nice, and go a long way to making them feel like boss units.
    Ā 
  5. Late game Xenomorphs need higher mitigation to be a threat. One of the reasons why capturing Xeno kings is easy is because with top tier armor, it's possible to take no damage from their first attacks, and drones becomes jokes I routinely treat as last priority targets. Reapers areĀ alwaysĀ scary because of their one hit kill mechanic, and the Xenos need to match that level of threat somehow.
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2 hours ago, Kyzer said:

In my opinion, cores alone won't solve the issue. Early on, cores are too limited and will prevent us from building shock charges at all, while later on cores are too plentiful for a slight cost to matter. I suggest the following:

  1. Change the roles of shock tech and EMP tech. EMP's only use is to damage mechanical units, and by the time it's unlocked, they're no longer necessary; AndronsĀ are much harder to fight in early game when X-Division has limited options for energy damage, and aren't much of an issue later on. I barely ever use EMP tech for that reason. Perhaps if shock tech is nerfed, but EMP tech changed to be a direct upgrade with higher stun damage but higher costs to compensate?
    Ā 
  2. To elaborate on the above, shock charge's current costs can be kept, but the initial stun damage decreased and the gas effect improved to be much more reliable. This makes them still useful for destroying mech and capturing aliens, but not as overpowering when detonated en masse. Then change the EMP grenades and charges to be an upgrade with stronger initial stun damage, but at much higher cost. This will require some change in the lore though.
    Ā 
  3. Rather than energy cores, perhaps use Andron corpses as materiel? Currently, Andron DSB isn't very efficient with either light nor dense fibre, so it shouldn't affect players' supply of them much.Ā 
    Ā 
  4. If those changes are too much, then a simpler method is to increase its size & weight so people like me can't carry a veritable stockpile of them into each battle

I think the proper solution would be to replace the intital stun damage with stun gas, which makes 10 charges not do more stun damage than 1 per turn. Add a high dissipation chance and the exploitis fixed while everything else stays the same. We would need to change up some lore for that but thats ok.

2 hours ago, Kyzer said:
  • Katana need to be heavier. Comparing a katana to an axe, the katana as a two-handed weapon can be considered a primaryĀ weapon and should be significantly heavier for how good it is at killing anything in melee range. Meanwhile, knives and axes need to be better. They'reĀ one-handed, 'secondary' weapons, meant to be use in combination with either a shield or a one-handed gun. Using one means giving up safer options like a rifle or a pistol & shield combo, and should be rewarded as such. The knives aren't strong enough, and the axes aren't light enough.
    Ā 
  • I actually like the blood effect as a concept, but it needs to do significantly lower damage. Getting surprised by a blood weapon should be punishing, but not immediately mission ending. If the blood effect does, for example, around 10-20% hp damage/turn in a large AOE, it'll be manageable and makes positioning and terrain more important in any mission against Sebillians, forcing players to re-positionĀ or risk dying to the blood effect's poison damage in a drawn out fight.
    Ā 
  • Chemical weapons need a niche. Right now there's no good reason to use them over other options.
    Ā 
  • Praetors are too weak. Dread is a pain to fight against, but the actual units themselves aren't frightening. They're the alien leaders, and should be more dangerous than their subordinates. Right now I'm on guard against Caesan stun grenades, terrified of Sebillian blood weapons, ever watchful of Harridan sniping, and paranoid of Wraiths teleporting behind me. Androns have their niche in just being plain hard to kill and immunity to control effects. Praetors don't have something about them to punish carelessness and make them priority targets. Even just increasing their TUs and hp would be nice, and go a long way to making them feel like boss units.
    Ā 
  • Late game Xenomorphs need higher mitigation to be a threat. One of the reasons why capturing Xeno kings is easy is because with top tier armor, it's possible to take no damage from their first attacks, and drones becomes jokes I routinely treat as last priority targets. Reapers areĀ alwaysĀ scary because of their one hit kill mechanic, and the Xenos need to match that level of threat somehow.

Ill put it on the list to get revised when we come to that. Thank you for the feedback. Ill immediately revise the melee ones, but the others will have to wait until we have more manpower or are at the point of revising those.

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1 hour ago, Charon said:

I think the proper solution would be to replace the intital stun damage with stun gas, which makes 10 charges not do more stun damage than 1 per turn. Add a high dissipation chance and the exploitis fixed while everything else stays the same. We would need to change up some lore for that but thats ok.

Yes, that does solve the mass detonation exploit, while still allowing the tactical option of a controlled detonation. What are your thoughts on EMP tech though? As it is, there's really limited incentive to use them.

Ā 

2 hours ago, Charon said:

Ill put it on the list to get revised when we come to that. Thank you for the feedback. Ill immediately revise the melee ones, but the others will have to wait until we have more manpower or are at the point of revising those.

Thanks for the quick response! Any way I can help?

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5 hours ago, Kyzer said:

Yes, that does solve the mass detonation exploit, while still allowing the tactical option of a controlled detonation. What are your thoughts on EMP tech though? As it is, there's really limited incentive to use them.

I have none, i don have the time to revise them or even look at them, we are in a different development circle right now. @dragesĀ could look at all of them whe he has time and wants to do that. If it makes him happy :).

5 hours ago, Kyzer said:

Thanks for the quick response! Any way I can help?

Sure, just whatever you like. If you can write like an angel you could write some lore. If you dont want to torture your brain we always have some strings to do. IfĀ you want to map you can join our mapping team. If you want to test we got the latest version inofficial ready.

The thing we need most are writers right now.

Edited by Charon
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I can help with lore and testing. I've some programming knowledge, but no experience with game modding as such and will need some reading material to chip in there.

Ā 

Edit: Regarding the researches.xml file, I've managed to remove the requirements, which works on a new game but not on existing campaigns. I've no unfinishedĀ researchĀ to tie them into, so how do I trigger the changes on a save file?

Edited by Kyzer
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I'd like to know if it would be possible to not have the sebillian interrogation replace the original medpack, as it increases the weight by 50%, meaning fresher soldiers have no chance carrying one. I'd love for it to be possible to have all three, as the bandages are far too lackluster to do anything at all (And also seem to not remove bleeding) except waking up soldiers who decided to fall asleep on their job (Lightning has that effect on them, it seems).

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8 hours ago, Kyzer said:

I can help with lore and testing. I've some programming knowledge, but no experience with game modding as such and will need some reading material to chip in there.

Sure, just ask ahead.

8 hours ago, Kyzer said:

Edit: Regarding the researches.xml file, I've managed to remove the requirements, which works on a new game but not on existing campaigns. I've no unfinishedĀ researchĀ to tie them into, so how do I trigger the changes on a save file?

Thats why i told you to send me the file.

36 minutes ago, Dub said:

I'd like to know if it would be possible to not have the sebillian interrogation replace the original medpack, as it increases the weight by 50%, meaning fresher soldiers have no chance carrying one. I'd love for it to be possible to have all three, as the bandages are far too lackluster to do anything at all (And also seem to not remove bleeding) except waking up soldiers who decided to fall asleep on their job (Lightning has that effect on them, it seems).

There is a proper medication system for the next version. Medikits wont increase in weight that drastically anymore, for starters, and patches got a good niche.

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On 2/26/2017 at 6:22 AM, Charon said:

The thing we need most are writers right now.

Hi, I actually just joined to forums to ask about this. I've been following and playing the mod for quite a while and figured I would see about donating some of my time to helping out but I had questions.

First off, when you say you need writers, does that also include helping fix inconsistencies in already written entries or just helping produce new content? I'm willing to do both mind you but I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be stepping on toes happening so to speak.

Second, do you have some baseline lore in mind for unfinished items that you want new content to adhere to? By that I mean, take for example the Division Rifle Mk-2, aside from the text in the research screen, is there a direction already in mind that should be followed?

Third, how set in stone is the sprite work for items? For example, would small edits to images be okay to better support the lore?Ā Believe me, I 100% understand that time and manpower is a limiting factor but I'm fairly capable with gimp/photoshop so I'm asking not requesting.

I was also wondering, has the research tree ever been broken out into a map of any sort, helping to give a better idea behind dependencies? This is something that would be incredibly helpful in writing lore as far consistency is concerned. Again, asking not requesting, figure if my writing isn't up to snuff I could at least help out in other ways.

When I get the chance, I will type up some example lore entries to see if I meet the standard. Should I just post them here to the forums, PM you or email?Ā I'll be forthright in saying that I don't exactly have free-time flowing out of every orifice (Married, two kids, full-time job, etc) but what I do have I tend to spend playing video games and figured using some of it in a productive manner, giving back to those that enhance my experience would be worthwhile.

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16 hours ago, PvtHopscotch said:

First off, when you say you need writers, does that also include helping fix inconsistencies in already written entries or just helping produce new content? I'm willing to do both mind you but I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be stepping on toes happening so to speak.

The lore is an open field with no travelers whatsoever. The first to come can set the rules, with a few exceptions.

16 hours ago, PvtHopscotch said:

Second, do you have some baseline lore in mind for unfinished items that you want new content to adhere to? By that I mean, take for example the Division Rifle Mk-2, aside from the text in the research screen, is there a direction already in mind that should be followed?

I once set everything in stone with a lot of creative leeway, but it didnt work out that well. Most writers come to X-Division to realise THEIR ideas, not to write something for a setting they didnt choose and as i found out those things dont go together quite well.

This is why i am letting more room in all of this.

If you want to know about the story i would like to tell you can read it here:

Other than that there is not much.

16 hours ago, PvtHopscotch said:

Third, how set in stone is the sprite work for items? For example, would small edits to images be okay to better support the lore?Ā Believe me, I 100% understand that time and manpower is a limiting factor but I'm fairly capable with gimp/photoshop so I'm asking not requesting.

Well, first of all, i dont think drages would let you touch anything graphical in the game. He is the visual designer and he alone.

Additionally you are thinking the wrong way. You dont intertwine things, especially not visual content with text. X-Division is a very big collaboration. If you manage such a big project you will realise the more you split up the different parts, the more manageable it becomes. Divide and Conquer. Free after Sun Tzu, leading a single man into battleĀ or leading a thousand man into battle is not different fundamentally, it is mainly a question about organisation.
Pictures can change anytime, the text can change anytime, researches can be scrapped anytime. This is the reason why its advantageous to refrain from interdependencies to much but still make it look like one piece.

16 hours ago, PvtHopscotch said:

I was also wondering, has the research tree ever been broken out into a map of any sort, helping to give a better idea behind dependencies? This is something that would be incredibly helpful in writing lore as far consistency is concerned. Again, asking not requesting, figure if my writing isn't up to snuff I could at least help out in other ways.

What you are thinking about has already been done, its the research description. It gives youĀ accurate, but hidden information (1) what lead to the research, (2) what this research is about and (3) what it might lead to.

The research map has never been broken into a map. If someone would have made one for .11 it would have become obsolete with .33 . The structure how the research functions is quite ... organised, so once you understood what leads to what you will have a plan in your head.

17 hours ago, PvtHopscotch said:

When I get the chance, I will type up some example lore entries to see if I meet the standard. Should I just post them here to the forums, PM you or email?Ā I'll be forthright in saying that I don't exactly have free-time flowing out of every orifice (Married, two kids, full-time job, etc) but what I do have I tend to spend playing video games and figured using some of it in a productive manner, giving back to those that enhance my experience would be worthwhile.

Just as you like.

Ā 

X-Division is mainly about passion.

Ā 

Heres an example of a well written entry, without any game mechanic references, lore, or otherwise connected intersections:

Hunter

Good evening commander. When you tasked my team with creating a vehicle that could withstand the outrageous stresses of the ET's small arms fire, I thought you to be insane. Creating any vessel that would disperse the immense heat created by an energy bolt of that degree was a very far fetched proposition, but that's why you hired us... to achieve marvelous Ā feats of science fiction. Unfortunately... my R&D team was unable to be very original and stole some British schematics for a light, anti-personnel vehicle (a Daimler Ferret armored car) and altered a few various components. While most of the new modifications are superficial accommodations for the vehicle's crew (cup holders, A/C etc.), there is one new radical idea that my team has applied to the vehicle's hull: Tungsten.

The vehicle's outer layers, initially, were very flimsy and weak only providing about 1 cm of steel as buffer, which was made to withstand our primitive ballistic weaponry. Since the vehicle's original armor would never resist a single shot from the heat projected by an ET's pistol, the team decided an upgrade was extremely necessary. We eventually came to the conclusion that a composite layering of tungsten would be the best option for preventing penetration of the armor because of it's outrageous melting point.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the vehicle, it is unable to carry much more than 2 30mm cannons (with very limited ammo) for weight reasons, respectively. On the upside, we could always be a bit more... pragmatic, and engineer some less conventional armaments for more precarious situations (this invasion will be full of them, obviously). In reality I'm thinking about propositions such as scaling down our aircraft torpedoes and mounting several pods on the car, adapting a flamethrower, or even testing the results of engineering (or adapting) chemical weapons for use against the ET forces.

Also, as a final thought commander, I would try to steer clear of using this vehicle once we inevitably get a new, more suitable, combat based replacement (likely using technology discovered through alien tech). Also, as I am currently pending the success of a motorized division in defense of earth, I am drawing up some, although basic, schematics that could serve as future vehicles. Although, at this rate a composite tungsten layering will not be enough.

Ā 

But here i go again and fill up other people with my ideas and the teams ideas, its up to you to feel if this is right for you.

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(Steam version)

Problems:

1.Ā First terror site. Destroyed ALLĀ aliens.Ā I captured one terror operator. The mission does not end there!Ā If I abort the mission, it made a nuclear attack.Ā 

Is this normal?

2. Duplicated medikits and some clips in inventory.

Edited by Sandro
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36 minutes ago, Sandro said:

(Steam version)

Problems:

1.Ā First terror site. Destroyed ALLĀ aliens.Ā I captured one terror operator. The mission does not end there!Ā If I abort the mission, it made a nuclear attack.Ā 

Is this normal?

2. Duplicated medikits and some clips in inventory.

1. The mission ends when all aliens are killed/captured. Check the Known Bugs section to see how the xenonauts_gc_editor.exe works if you cant find all, Ctrl + Q reveals the map.

2.

Ā 

Quote

Ā 

4. Known Bugs ( at least until the next patch )

You can dublicate medikits - This means you should never put aĀ medikit in the secondary inventory slot, weapons in the first slot will vanish.

Xenomorph corpsesprops Crash -Ā https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B27Z44zoal_VNVFGQWpBdzZBU2cĀ - merge and overwrite

MAG Minigun -Ā https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B27Z44zoal_VZGFNSjBCMl9GZ0E

Units can spawn outside map tiles in base attacks -Ā If that happens make sure you did in that mission what you wanted to do, then save and exit. Start the game with the Xenonauts_gc_editor.exe in mods/xce/... and load up your save. Press "V" to kill every non xenonaut unit. Save and exit and continue to play like normal.

Ā 

Ā 

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I've found some mildly annoying things/bugs that happen with your mod that while probably being part of the original game are inflated because of the way you guys use limited grenades and such.

1) I just had a situation where I picked up 3 alien stun grenades from a Caesan mission, finished it without using any of these, then went on to do another crash-site without returning home first. Upon this happening, the alien stun grenades disappeared out of thin air. I do not know just yet if the latter is required for this to happen, but it got me really annoyed.

2) I've had multiple cases where for example grenades simply disappear after a mission, even when not having been used. This is not at all unique to this mod - I remember similar things happening when I used the Xenonauts More Choices mod with their limited ammunition.

Either way, keep at it! I have yet to even come close to phase 2 yet (I was getting there, but for some stupid reason in my furthest game I never managed to shoot down an alien fighter over land [I know the trick now - Just send out your fighters to a land area close to your base and the fighter will come and get you]Ā and thus was unable to at any point obtain the Aeserius, which I noticed is required to be able to beat the UFOs of that phase), but I'll keep working on it.

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6 minutes ago, Dub said:

1) I just had a situation where I picked up 3 alien stun grenades from a Caesan mission, finished it without using any of these, then went on to do another crash-site without returning home first. Upon this happening, the alien stun grenades disappeared out of thin air. I do not know just yet if the latter is required for this to happen, but it got me really annoyed.

2) I've had multiple cases where for example grenades simply disappear after a mission, even when not having been used. This is not at all unique to this mod - I remember similar things happening when I used the Xenonauts More Choices mod with their limited ammunition.

Give me more details.

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6 minutes ago, Charon said:

Give me more details.

Okay, as for 1), I picked up 3 alien stun grenades from an assortment of Caesan corpses. Upon finishing the mission, I had still not used any of them. Once the mission was finished, I directly sent the Chinook over to another crash site (Without letting it return to the base). Once I finished that mission, all the stun grenades I had picked up on the first mission had not gotten home, as I still had no alien stun grenades in storage with which to craft my own. I do not know if I did not pick up the alien weapons from that mission or if it was just the grenades, but those were the ones I did notice were missing.

As for 2), I'll have to come back to you on that one, but I do believe it happens once a squad member dies with, for example, an incendiary grenade on them, and then once the mission finishes you don't get it back. I need to do further testing to see if that really is the case, though.

Edited by Dub
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4 minutes ago, Dub said:

Okay, as for 1), I picked up 3 alien stun grenades from an assortment of Caesan corpses. Upon finishing the mission, I had still not used any of them. Once the mission was finished, I directly sent the Chinook over to another crash site (Without letting it return to the base). Once I finished that mission, all the stun grenades I had picked up on the first mission had not gotten home, as I still had no alien stun grenades in storage with which to craft my own. I do not know if I did not pick up the alien weapons from that mission or if it was just the grenades, but those were the ones I did notice were missing.

Thats in the expected perimeter of bug collection the vanilla game has. Anything concerning looting grenades and ammunition is a sadder story than Titanic, and we cant do nothing about it. Also flying from crashsite to crashsite wasnt really part of the game, i guess.

It would be interesting to know if the other items got back to base safe and sound, especially the corpses. Your case might just be that the game wasnt really programmed to acount for the possibility that a player could take items from crashsite to crashsite which werent equipped at the start.

7 minutes ago, Dub said:

As for 2), I'll have to come back to you on that one, but I do believe it happens once a squad member dies with, for example, an incendiary grenade on them, and then once the mission finishes you don't get it back. I need to do further testing to see if that really is the case, though.

No, you are right, i know this bug. Like i said ammunition and grenades are more prone to not get looted than other items. For instance if you drop a shockbaton and didnt pick it up at the end of the mission you lose it. Same for any knifes you might have lieing around which are "grenade" coded. A knife is basically a melee ranged grenade which you cant throw and has multiple charges, code wise.

Thanks for your report, i appreciate it.

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