Rallige

I've just used a smoke grenade inside a UFO and like every device in its radius blew up and killed multiple xenos easily (luckily, no casualties on my side). I remember the similar bug in the previous versions, any plans on fixing it? Is it even possible to fix?

Hey Charon, I'm really enjoying your mod. But are you sure that you didn't increase alien numbers in bases too much in latest patch? I was playing on easy\ironman, with a team that I believe was fully decked out for a 2 months progress (I have a Defender tank with division MG, everyone is a Major or Colonel, everyone has laser weapons mk3, everyone is in jackal armor, with improved alenium explosives\grenades\rockets. My air superiority over all continents is almost uncontested - apart from that terror airship that assaulted one of my interceptor bases and made it into an alien base). Thing is - upon entering the alien base, I was literally swarmed by all types of ETs - a few caesans, a couple of new aliens I didn't see before, and a LOT of xenomorphs. As much as I like cosplaying Alien movies, I was shocked to have my previously unbeatable team wiped out - I barely made it into next room. The only mistake on my part was splitting my forces for first 2 turns (I decided to check 2 different corridors that I started adjacent to, but I quickly withdrew one team to aid another. Despite exploiting main Xenomorph weakness to fire (I even had a dedicated dude with flamethrower, and literally everyone had an incendiary nade) I was still roflstomped - Defender tank alone killed 5 xenos and injured\suppressed a few other aliens. But the killing blow was delivered during 2 consecutive turns by 2 rockets that came outside my field of view and completely pwned my somewhat grouped, bound in combat with xenomorphs team. In result we have 2 completely destroyed alien base rooms (one room literally had almost all its equipment destroyed in all the explosions) and a teamwipe of elite troops. While expected in Veteran\Impossible, I believe that this amount of ass-whooping is a bit excessive in Easy (coming from smb who plays X-COM: Long War 1 and 2 on Classic difficulty) Did I something very wrong? While I understand that having everything at Laser mk3 is not in line of mod's idea of diversifying damage types against different ET resistances, my other main line of equipment was Division mk1 - didn't bother with mk2 (spent most alien alloys on airplanes) and finished researching mk3 just a few hours before ET's took over my base, thus had no time manufacturing those. My team composition : Defender Tank + Division MG 2 Snipers (Precision lasers mk3) 2 Assault (Laser carbine mk3) 1 Rifleman (Laser rifle mk3) 1 Specialist (Basic flamethrower in hands + rocket launcher and 2 AP alenium rockets in inv.) 1 Heavy weapons guy (Laser minigun mk3) 1 Shield + pistol dude (antimatter pistol mk1) As mentioned above, everybody was in Jackal armor (considering that most aliens in my playthrough used ballistic\energy weapons, didn't see much point in Fox armor). Everyone is carrying a Medkit, a Stun baton, an Alenium explosive charge (improved one is waaay too big), a spare AP alenium rocket for Specialist, and pretty much every single grenade type apart from Gas (never bothered to try this one out - is it any good?) with extra smoke nades here and there. I won't describe my tactics to spare your time - but I do understand how cover, suppression, smoke and other stuff works, so that's unlikely the main problem. So please either consider lowering ET in alien bases amount a bit (at least on Easy and, probably, normal), or tell me what could cause that shocking downfall of mine... P.S - forgot to mention that I captured and interrogated pretty much everything - often using stun batons over stun nades just for masochistic reasons. Besides, can you capture Androns and robodogs? Wasn't possible in vanilla, and doesn't seem possible in this mod either - I surrounded a robodog against some stone in the desert and beat it with stun batons for 3 turns for no result, lol. But how are you supposed to get EMP grenades then? I fought these robots before (even had a terror mission with them) and researched everything the game gave me - but still no EMP nades...

Unfortunately, I can't enjoy this mod coz of crappy site you uploaded it to. Despite me registering there it never sent me an activation e-mail, so I can't download the file. Even if I choose "download with browser", it tells smth like "you have exceeded the downloadable amount of info, to download more, plz register kthxbye". Sorry, but I can't have that. Can you upload it anywhere else?

One more thing - good old Rank1 Charlie transports just as much troops (12 ppl) as Rank 2 dropship, making update itself kinda pointless

My solution might seem unpopular, but kinda logic and, ummm... realistic? The idea is : 1) Buff both playermade laser and plasma weapons, so that their alenium "competitors" are always weaker, but helping players to survive "tech" gaps 2) Make aliens tougher from the beginning : this will compensate for buffing player's energy weapons, while also keeping players on their toes in the early game

Another severe balance issue I somehow forgot to mention - alenium weapons completely destroy the purpose of laser weaponry. If you are smart with your research, you WILL research both laser and alenium weapons more or less simultaneously, instantly making laser weapons obsolete, simply because : 1) Alenium weapons are "free" 2) Alenium weapons' stats are BETTER than their laser counterparts have 3) Alenium weapons are significantly lighter, than laser ones. 4) Alenium weapons have "alternative" variants While I understand the idea behind alenium weapons, and I really like the lore behind them, the ability to research them simultaneously with or slightly later than laser weapons makes latter COMPLETELY useless. In short - right now there is zero reason to spend money on laser weapons, when soon enough ( if not already) you have much better version FOR FREE. I'm afraid that this problem is much deeper and will require much systemic solution than simply changing stats on these weapons, because : 1) Making alenium weapons weaker will make THEM useless instead of laser weapons 2) Buffing Laser weapons will make killing aliens a complete cakewalk ( it kinda is already with so much powerful weapons around)

So, my report after like 4-5 hours spent playtesting : 1) Electromines are indeed much, much more balanced and work pretty much as intended ( though mostly usable against reapers, that charge you in straight line). Well done ! 2) Both toxin grenades ( HE- like and smoke-like) are really powerful, usually oneshotting opponents if landed near them ( not sure if too powerful, though). But what is much more problematic - they cos RIDICULOUSLY low TU amount to throw ( 24 TU on my 79 TU guy, while vanilla grenades cost 48 TU to throw - everything thrown "from the belt", not messing with inventory). Consider raising their TU throw cost to much vanilla grenades - there is zero reason lore-wise for them to cost so low. 3) Flamethrower is pretty badly OP : - Range is unexpectedly high ( IMO though, just from the look of that rather compact weapon I intuitively expected less range. I'm well aware, that portable 70's flamethrowers had some significant reach. - AOE is pretty wide. Again, only an IMO - Killing power spectacular - I used it to assault 3 downed corvettes, never seen a survivor of single burst - Burst TU cost is way, way too low, allowing you to do multiple bursts ( not that you need that, lol). It was smth like 22 TU on my 73+ TU soldier. - Flames spawn in like every single AOE tile and stay up very long. My suggestions: 1) consider nerfing range slightly (not critical) 2) consider nerfing AOE (not critical) 3) consider nerfing damage - IMO it should NOT be an insta-kill weapon (significant) 4) consider setting TU cost of burst much higher (around 60% TU, so that multiple bursts are not possible). It's a heavy weapon after all, it shouldn't be fired more than once per turn 5) do something with fires longevity and spawning chance. I don't know the code behind spawning flames on tiles, but it would be REALLY nice if you could code in the following : Every tile, that doesn't contain anything inflammable within it ( wooden structures, trees, wheat field, cars, gas tanks, etc ) has really small chance of spawning fire upon being hit by a flamethrower burst. This way, you will mostly see flames OUTSIDE UFOs, which is logical, considering the properties of alien alloys they are made of. Not sure if there is a way to make tiles consider corpses inflammable - this way, fires will begin inside UFOs only if flamethrower hits one of many tiles with corpses of the ground, which is logical, as organics tend to burn very well. 4) Playtested Rank2 SAW with altered stats ( 65% TU burst cost, 45% ACC, shot count 6) and it feels kinda right. It's much more mobile, does less damage, but there is pretty much no negative tradeoff suppression-wise - additional accuracy makes those 6 shot pass closer to aliens, just enough to suppress them more or less reliably. So the main tradeoff is less killing power = more mobility + less STR required, which is exactly what I was looking for. IMO it makes much more sense than previous tradeoff of less killing power = less STR required. Mobility can mean SO MUCH in this game.

All right everyone, I'm back from my mini-vacation, so finally I will be able to playtest modified SAW and flamethrower. Regarding Xenopedia - I'm about halfway through Choices1 xenopedia entries. Surprisingly, it takes quite a lot of time to edit those. Mostly because I'm a perfectionist and tend to spend up to 10 minutes, figuring out the best wording for some of sentences. I'll probably take a break from it for one day and commit to playtesting. EDIT While editing weapons_gc.xml I found even more confusing stats : while in-game it states to spend 80%TU on burst of 6 shots with 35 ACC, the .xml file says that those stats are actually 70%AP, 8 shots at 35ACC. And that's even before me editing that stuff! Please fix this confusing stuff over time - there is no point in tweaking weapons if player doesn't see the "true" stats, and thus can't make a proper decision on whether he wants to take this weapon out in the field.

I wonder if I am allowed to add a little bit of meat to some of your xenopedia entries. Sometimes it is required to solve some kind of logical error. In these cases I don't add much more than necessary to solve it. But in some other cases those pages literally beg for more content. In example, that page about dermal regenerator. You can't call it a revolution in medicine and only write a couple of lines about it So I went ahead and added a little bit of lore for it, inspired by my medical education. While it might be awkwardly close to hijacking your xenopedia, I am in love with your mod, and my feelings are so strong that I couldn't resist I only wish your creation the best, I hope you'll understand. I promise that my corrections and additions won't derail the lore line you have created. I even try to preserve your original wording as much as I can, but sometimes it's just impossible. P.S still waiting for text under "hypervelocity projectiles". Can't fix what is not there)

Began working on typos in Excel. Sadly, I don't know how to change SAW's stats, so you either gonna have to tell me how it is done, or change them yourself and upload the min-fix. ( I'd like to test burst costing 65% TU and having 45% ACC. It would be better, if you could also supply me with file, containing stat set of 70% TU and 50% ACC as well, or any other combination you consider right, so that I could test them against each other. EDIT Hypervelocity projectiles has busted description - it only contains "The MiG-32 is a", so I can't fix it, not knowing what it is supposed to be. And I didn't make it to that project in my previous playthrough, so I don't have any idea what that research should be about. P.S I'll be off my PC for a couple of days, so there won't be any word form me during this period.

Just started my new playthrough, and, as promised, I'm paying as much attention to typos as I can. But you could really make my life easier by directing me to original texts in mod folders, as in some cases I have to rewrite the whole sentences, and it takes quite a lot of time - I'd be much happier if I could just copy the originals and edit them. EDIT Just researched Heavy weapons rank 2, got access to SAW (mg-like m-16 thingy) and took a good look at it. I was about to take it on a mission, when I saw that it requires 80% of TU, just like LMG burst does, which, IMO, makes it much, much less attractive. While clearly not designed as assault weapons (you have 40rnd carbines for that), it definitely has to be more maneuverable than clearly much heavier LMG. In game, following game mechanic's logic, if we have 2 soldiers with identical stats (lets say 60 STR), they will BOTH be able to travel exactly the SAME amount of tiles and fire, while IRL LMGs are clearly much more cumbersome, and during same "test" soldier with SAW would show better mobility. The only advantage SAW has over LMG is that it only requires 55 STR to compensate recoil. But it fires much less bullets per burst ( 6 vs 10 of an LMG ) which obviously is much worse in terms of suppressing your enemies and dealing them damage ( especially since SAW and LMG accuracy is identical, if STR condition is met) My suggestion would be making SAW bursts cheaper in terms of TU and slightly more accurate ( about 65 - 70% TU and 45% ACC against 80% TU and 35% ACC of LMG). This would clearly make SAW much more tactics - oriented weapon, while keeping LMG in its "strategic deployment weapon" niche. If you ever consider this, you might also slightly buff LMG's suppression and HP damage - they usually use higher caliber rounds, after all ( in game it's 7.92 mm for MG42 and 5.56mm for SAW). This would separate these weapons a little bit more, and instead of slightly different clones we'll have 2 similar weapon systems, sharing idea if firing a long burst once per turn, but achieving different goals on the battlefield. I believe that these changes won't make SAW so good that it replaces rifles\carbines on riflemen : 1) STR requirement is still there (btw, rank 2 SAW's description contradicts itself - text says, that recoil is 55, while stat menu shows recoil of 60. Not a big deal really, but you might wanna fix that.) 2) It will only be able to fire once per turn, while with rifles\carbines you could spend leftover TUs on extra shots, adding greatly to their much valued versatility.

Just got beaten on Veteran in 6 months long war of attrition. Mainly because I started lagging behind on air tech - my ground troops we killing aliens all right, with the combination of Plasma and Elite ballistics techs. Moreover, surprisingly enough, having 2 workshops at first base is NOT ENOUGH to carry your construction needs. I struggled to produce both enough interceptors and equipment, which made me realize that I NEED additional engineering sites in my secondary bases - something that never happened in Vanilla game, where having 2 of each facility at your HQ was more than enough. (Spoiler -was too late for me though, lol). What I want to say - very well done! I really enjoyed that atmosphere of desperation, where I continued on fighting, despite practically being defeated already. A couple of suggestions and a question: 1) Please notify new players about the possibility of selling alien weapons somewhere in the xenopedia\ popup menu. It helps SO MUCH to fund all your simultaneous endeavors on different fronts, while still being quite balanced ( despite earning 1.0 - 3.5 millions like every month that way, I never found myself taking a bath in cash - at all times I could definitely use more. Oh, and I tested both 2.5mill and 3mill starting funds - didnt really feel the difference, they are both at sweetspot of balance) 2) Upon researching second dropship, I realized that having 2 workshops\labs and 2 2x1 living quarters is marginally enough ( exactly 14 soldiers and 30 + 30 engineers and scientists). So, upon researching next dropships, I will have to increase living space somehow to house additional soldiers. So, my question is - is there a way to painlessly switch from two 2x1 living quarters to one large living quarters? If I understand correctly, I'd have to build living quarters in different bases and transfer my team there, then destroy both 2x1 barracks to build a larger one. But what about engineers and scientists? Do I lose\fire them? Are there any tips to avoid that? Right now I'm thinking of building two 2x1 barracks next to engineering and labs, then research large living quarters ASAP, replace the initial barracks with that, and then replace those temporary barracks I built with second lab and workshop. Looks like it's the only way to do that right. But new players will definitely be completely unaware of needing to plan ahead their living space. EDIT Forgot to thank you once more for this mod, and than everyone else who's helping you. This little gem, while still somewhat rough around the edges, is damn close to being "the way Xenonauts were meant to be played". Gonna start my new playthrough soon, this time I will concentrate on xenopedia and will report any typos I will find. How would you like those to be reported? Do I mark those myself and then post all of them in single feedback post, or do I post them as soon as I notice some?

Wolf armor (combat) + plasma pistol + basic tall shield = shield sprites do not show. I'm using updated packs.

Ok, I tested the electromine launcher more closely, and here's what I came up with - It's basically a 1 shot-kill weapon. It doesn't even matter how much HP alien has - it will outright kill them, despite showing only tiny numbers as damage ( like 10 red and 26 blue damage ). Mines are pretty strong too - though I had to test those on my own troops, lol.

I just hope that this fix will be savegame-compatible. Too far in my playthrough to sacrifice it to fix some missing sprites P.S A little bit of extra feedback: I believe that electromine launcher is very OP. I'm yet to try it out against robotic enemies, but against organic ones it's just beyond powerful : I'm yet to see a single mine trigger, just because that volley of mines devastate caesans and sebilians on impact. The range is pretty damn good, I seem to hit even the lowest accuracy shots every time (shooting 12% shots all day), it doesn't matter if aliens are behind cover - I killed one despite him standing in 100% cover from that angle - I tried to trap him in mines, but ended up killing him right through the wall. Sometimes I don't even need my eyes on an alien - I just shoot in general direction of incoming fire and slay them, both behind cover and in the open. The amount of mines layed is huge as well (it's way more than 5 mines it takes to fires that weapon), though I can't tell how effective they are (because of aforementioned issues - killing them in 1 volley) I'm pretty sure this weapon was not designed to be shot directly at your opponents, like conventional ones. But it's so damn powerful. My suggestions: - Remove (or lower significantly) the impact damage of mine volley (smth like 5-10 kinetic) - Lower the amount of rounds fired and tie it to the "ammunition" count - right now it takes 5 ammo to fire a volley, and lays down like 10 tiles of mines - Lower accuracy significantly (should me more of an AoE weapon, instead of accurate, MG-like contraption)