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Balance suggestion - Start the game with fewer experienced soldiers


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Okay, I've just had the best ground combat mission to date, which involved my first and only loss. It was with the crew from my second base, and they'd had to respond to a crash site before I could transfer any experienced troops across from my initial HQ. There were only four of them, to investigate a crashed Sebillian scout ship.

The smaller squad size, combined with their slightly lower stats led to the most tension I've felt in the game since I started playing. As much as I've enjoyed the game so far (and that's a lot) THIS was the first mission that really had me on the edge of my seat and which made me feel the same way I used to when I played UFO:EU.

I've probably gone off on one a bit there, but it's left me buzzing and the reason was; because I had fewer troops, each one was that much more valuable. I think in the early game, landing with a crew of 8 semi-experienced guys right off the bat, to tackle a light scout seems like a walk in the park. Who cares if one or two take a hit? This time around though, I knew that if I lost even 1 or 2 troopers, my chances of completing the mission were greatly reduced.

So, long story short (sorry!) Could we maybe only start with 4 or 5 experienced troopers. Then, for the first few missions it gives the choice of going in with a small but decent squad, or padding it out with rookies so you have the numerical advantage but they may be prone to panic, and generally not that effective to start with.

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I personally think training for soldiers to go from private to cpl should be taken out of the game permanently. I mean what is the point of the private rank if you can just bypass it by training them as extras to transfer to new bases. I would prefer to watch my privates struggle for survival and level up to be the elite trooper he will become after 20 missions. The Training makes Privates Obsolete.

And i agree with the original poster. I think the main base should start with 1 Sergeant and 2 Cpls and 5 Privates and Training to be taken out of the game.

Make gear and armor weigh less so that privates can gear up better and be more effective in the beginning and not useless and obsolete.

Edited by Dragonx
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No one is forcing you to use the starting units. Fire all but the sarge and two corporals and hire five privates. Don't send them through training and there you have it.

Well why have a option in the game if your not going to use it. Also why give a player any reason to use training option and lose that sense of watching your baby grow in your sweet caring loving arms? I want my private to return back to my base from a tough and almost deadly mission so i can give him lots of hugs...sweet huggies...( Got this idea from watching American Dad Season 3 episode 9 too much. Its mad funny everyone should watch this episode lol "

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Maybe if training was longer, say 20 days and cost more than the current $1,000 - say $10,000 you would think twice about putting 8 of them through training after the construction of a new base.

Another way of doing it (not very realistically) would be to make each additional guy in training costs an increasing amount more. So 2 or 3 guys is economic but 4,5,6 guys costs a small fortune. That way you would probably train up one or two guys will leaving the rest as privates.

I do agree though at present its silly not to use training for your troops and doesn't really offer any negatives (although to be honest it doesn't impact massively on stats compared to what a couple of longish missions offer).

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We're not going to take training out. If you want to level guys up through combat instead then do so. It should actually cost $10,000 to train a soldier though so I guess we made a typo somewhere...

Smaller team sizes aren't really possible because the chinook tiles are already done, I'm afraid.

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The sweet loving arms of a mother who gently whispers ' Now get out that door and face those aliens first you filthy Rookie!'

moments to be cherished...

Im a loving Dad :D thank you very much. Hey at least i kicked him out the door screaming and crying with a rocket launcher and some grenades, more than most dads would give their kids if ever.

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We're not going to take training out. If you want to level guys up through combat instead then do so. It should actually cost $10,000 to train a soldier though so I guess we made a typo somewhere...

Smaller team sizes aren't really possible because the chinook tiles are already done, I'm afraid.

That makes alot of sense then Chris. If training was only $1k i wouldn't think twice to train a private but being 10k i wouldnt even bother to waste the cash or the 10 days and have that private working for me on day one to kill aliens and make some cash.

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We're not going to take training out. If you want to level guys up through combat instead then do so. It should actually cost $10,000 to train a soldier though so I guess we made a typo somewhere...

Smaller team sizes aren't really possible because the chinook tiles are already done, I'm afraid.

I just checked this and it is in fact set to 10,000. Weird, I was so sure I saw it drop by only $1,000 when I was watching it yesterday. Maybe 10,000 isn't even enough then as you can see most of us hadn't even noticed how much it was costing! $15k might make a bit of a difference.

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I just checked this and it is in fact set to 10,000. Weird, I was so sure I saw it drop by only $1,000 when I was watching it yesterday. Maybe 10,000 isn't even enough then as you can see most of us hadn't even noticed how much it was costing! $15k might make a bit of a difference.

make it 20k at least then.

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I expect that as the AI project progresses, missions should become a lot harder. Yes, at the moment they are a cakewalk (for me at least) but that's primarily because the current basic AI is too dense to put up a fight. I just flush them out and kill them with sniper fire.

In short, I think that it's way to early to make difficulty balance suggestions of this nature because boosting difficulty now will probably make things near impossible later when all the content (specifically AI) is in the game. When aliens start fighting as a group instead of individuals players will be glad to have a large team of trained soldiers for a mission.

Making the game more difficult by increasing the incompetence of Xenonaut soldiers doesn't sound like a very good idea anyhow. It's far better to make sure the aliens are not incompetent.

Edited by Akavit
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The Chinook only has 8 seatbelt so even if you removed the tank you can't put any more people in there, health and safety you know.
What? but... wait what? what about the times ive brought 12 people to ground combats?

Are you being sarcastic? I don't see any smiley! help me captain smiley!

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strapping people to the roof of the chinook is wrong Gorlom. and don,t make them stand up when the rotors are going :-)

Who says I'm strapping them to the roof? I'm obviously doing it very safely by strapping them into a harness connected to a lifeline and haveing them dangle out the side doors.

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