Skitso

Yeah, I've gotten the same terror map and alien base too. There's no randomization - at least between different playthroughs.

Map randomization is bugged as it seems I get the same Cleaner HQ mission every time. Shouldn't it alter the 2 maps available so I should never get the same map two times in a row?

Unfortunately this is not reproable and loading a save fixes the missing reticle. If it helps, the Sentry gun opened the door on AI turn and burst fired to the unit in front of it. Then the door closed, my turn started. I opened the door and aimed it.

This is per design I think. If you've completed a research that leads to a new engineering project, it's preferred to start a new research project in that situation.

The alien turn indicator text isn't shown. Friendly turn is shown as seen below. Just load the save and end turn. Notice how only friendly activity text is shown. user_turn_indicator_bug-4.json

I had the same desert map for the first abduction and the first cleaner mission (soldier rescue) only few game days apart. Firstly, shouldn't the game make sure that these kinds of spawned maps weren't in the same biome back to back? (as they could easily be anywhere on the globe) Secondly, shouldn't the game make sure that the same map wasn't used until all the other available maps were used first? user_same_map_bug_1-2.json user_same_map_bug_2-1.json

In general, Cleaners with their deadly double burst fire feel a lot scarier than aliens at the beginning of the game. normal armed civilians (not soldiers or cops) are too good and shouldn't have rifles. Sebillian melee is good for nothing (low reflexes so it doesn't hit anything?) Most important balance issue: There's way too much OP's available at the very beginning. This effects everything (number of supporters, amount of resources, being able to do extra crash sites etc.) and makes the phase 1 doomsday completely trivial: At day 88, doomsday is averted and I have 325OP in bank with a passive gain of 15.5OP per day. I never needed to even think about using the 'reduce panic' operation. And this is me skipping 2 cleaner missions and one abduction mission resulting in - what, 90 extra doomsday damage? Doomsday feels trivial after the latest balance changes. It stayed below 50 with almost no effort, and there was always enough OP's to drop it to 0 if I ever I felt like it. (I didn't) And this was even though I skipped the intel gather mission and all those juicy OP rewards!) And I don't mean it should be super punishing, but currently, you don't even need to think about it. Accelerated weapons still feel like a trap and I'm not sure how to make them more of a choice. Making them a few days quicker to research? (not enough by itself) Manufacturing time/cost could also be lower? (not enough by itself) Only one project that upgrades all ballistics to accelerated? (not a fan) Push Lasers / alenium power research a bit later? (could work, combined with the 2 above) Add lasers' Alenium requirements a bit more? (This might be the best solution) On my current playthrough I tried to research and build accelerated weapons as soon as I could but I still got lasers available and enough Alenium for them before I had a chance to use the accelerated weapons even once. Also, laser upgrades come so fast, it further encourages going for the lasers. There're quite a few missions back to back at the beginning of the game. Making Cleaner VIP assassination and data raid missions persistent would give more flexibility and I could prepare for them better. Cleaner HQ difficulty seems now pretty much spot on! First Terror mission difficulty was pretty much spot on! First Alien base mission difficulty was a tad on easier side, but not much. Maybe add some cannon fodder units with lesser gear to fill the space. I would suggest introducing sentry guns a bit earlier (Put one in the Cleaner VIP assassination command room maybe?) First 4 months there's too much alien materials available. I shouldn't be able to build everything available unless I complete delegation crash sites or spend OP for additional materials. Increasing laser weapon cost would fix this too. Aircraft are too long in transit and are repaired too quickly. UUO and ENDGAME missions should also be played with night rules, same as alien base missions Regarding performance, things that aren't mentioned in the OP, are deployment phases and base defence missions. For some reason they feel quite sluggish at least on my system. Apart from that, the biggest performance related thing for me is the severe stuttering in geoscape that reveal the upcoming UFO waves. Loading times for me are already good enough.

Cleaner submachine guns are marked as junk. Is this correct?

This is a minor one. When the Skyhawk returns from the first ATLAS mission where I've killed and captured a cleaner, the first popup that I get immediately as the Skyhawk returns to the base is the one that states that there are new research options available. Then if I click the 'assign a new research' button and go directly to the research screen, I can see the yellow dot in the Xenopedia button at the top of the screen indicating that there are new reports (cleaner interrogation and autopsy) available. If I read these reports from the Xenopedia then and there before I return to Geoscape, I will get to read them again as soon as I leave the Xenopedia and return to Geoscape. So, there's two workarounds: If the Xenopedia articles are manually read before returning to Geoscape, don't display the article again. When the Skyhawk returns to base, display new xenopedia articles first, and new research after them. (better IMO)

Can we still get new sounds? Hopefully MS7 is the moment you'll start to add some of these and more. EDIT: psyon/secton/mantid death sound is the loudest SFX in the game by far. Maybe tone it's volume down a bit.

Healing speed multiplier: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 Accuracy penalty when wounded: off, low, default, high

You clearly have a point there, but I just unfortunately fail to get it. I hope Chris and the team are able to decipher your posts better than I am. XD

I'm pretty sure symbiotes are not counted as they are 'infinite'. But yeah, it still doesn't quite add up. EDIT: I'm also still waiting for panic/doomsday changes and the list of lost gear to be displayed in the post mission summary screen.

Smoke trails for bullets/grenades: ON/OFF Projectile speed: slow/default/fast

Yeah, and double report is a bug too. First you get nothing, but after you go to xenopedia ja open it there, you get a new pop up as soon as you return to geoscspe.