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Geoscape Balance Discussion v19 Experimental Build 5


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Hi,

I just started a new game on Normal difficulty (I start a new one every few months just to see how things are going). I've gotten up to laser tech (and I'd be farther along, but I lost my base because the base defense mission wouldn't end. And I defended it against Androns using only ballistic weapons!!! Oh well).

Anyways, I think the air combat game so far is fine. Condors were too powerful in v18. Using three condors, I could take down a three-fighter wave without a problem (often flawlessly), and taking down a heavy fighter with two fighter- escorts was not an impossible task either. The smaller alien craft are a lot faster now, and they don't seem to change targets as much. I usually end up getting in a lot more head-to-head situations, although these are still winnable if you time the evasive roll correctly. Conversely, the MiGs are far more usable in dogfights versus fighters.

Secondly, I don't see what all the fuss is about losing a Condor. On Normal mode, they are so cheap that you can lose half a dozen; so long as you keep a bit of cash in reserve, one successful UFO recovery will recuperate the loss. Even losing a MiG or two is not a huge deal. I think a lot of people underestimate how forgiving this game can be.

Finally, is there anything you can do to make the Air combat a little more interesting? I know that Chris has said that it's just supposed to be a simple minigame, and I agree that there shouldn't be pilot stats or anything like that, but I still think it could be spiced up a little bit while retaining its minimalist element. The biggest bore factor is the repetitive nature of every dog fight. If you're up against a certain combination of enemy craft, you can pull the exact same maneuver every time. Perhaps the maps could have cloud cover, which provides a cloaking effect and screws up missile targeting. Or, interceptors could have double their current ammo capacity, but the missiles only hit half of the time. Any sort of simple mechanic that makes you adjust your tactics on the fly would make air combat just a little more varied.

Edited by lemm
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@lemm - Unfortunately we are going to struggle to make any significant changes to the air combat, really the auto-resolve function is intended to be used once you are bored with it. The recent rebalance of the Geoscape UFOs should at least mean there is a bit more variety.

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I wish I could set an alert in the geoscape for when a particular plane's finished refuelling.

Yes' date=' that would be extremely helpful. I think displaying an appropriate message on the map, event-style, would do the trick.

I wish lightscouts were more like the original game where you'd get one, maybe two, and then that was it. They're basically tutorial missions and I don't like having to do those every time I start a new game. I got 8 lightscouts in the first month and then another 7 in October, and those are just the ones that I was able to down.

But small scouts in the original game were tiny, had only one crew member and were overall just a small variation. In Xenonauts they are more like medium scouts of old. I don't really think they're so "tutorial level" - they're smaller, but still pose the same challenges as any other UFO.

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If the aliens stay inside the ship, it's not that much different than an X-Com '94 light scout. A lot of the time in 19.5 lightscouts I fought one alien outside and one inside the UFO, and the alien inside's a free lunch. I'll admit that I could be wrong here - my memory sucks on the whole - but I remember X-Com scouts having more like six outside, with two or three inside?

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  • 2 weeks later...
If the aliens stay inside the ship' date=' it's not that much different than an X-Com '94 light scout. A lot of the time in 19.5 lightscouts I fought one alien outside and one inside the UFO, and the alien inside's a free lunch. I'll admit that I could be wrong here - my memory sucks on the whole - but I remember X-Com scouts having more like six outside, with two or three inside?[/quote']

I'm not sure about the numbers - never cared to count - but I'm pretty sure you meant medium scout, since light scouts only had one alien total.

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I'm not sure about the numbers - never cared to count - but I'm pretty sure you meant medium scout, since light scouts only had one alien total.
Yeah, there was only one. Poor guy, I almost felt sorry for him when my entire team opened up on him standing the middle of his tiny ship.
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