V19 Stable Candidate 2 available!

So I checked out the combat shields. They weight 20 kg, I think that's the same as before the patch.

EDIT: I'm probably deeply confused about something. weapons.xml I think says 20, weapons_gc says 3.

Yep here the same, was really looking forward to have effective early on shield units but still i got 20 Kg on them.

Hotfix please?

Its an easy fix to implement in the mean time, at least. I just opened up the weapons.xml (its correct in weapons_gc.xml) and searched for shield. There is a value that is "20", just change that, save and go. I'm not really a modder so I have no idea what weapons.xml and weapons_gc.xml are exactly for, but I'm guessing that one is for the equipment selection screen and one is for the actual combat. So in actual gameplay the shields would be useful even without changing this.

Stun grenades have received a bit of a nerf in this update. This is because you're not able to spam grenades at the target to bring them down with the initial stun damage, as was previously happening. The idea isn't that you throw 6 at the target in the same turn and bring them down, instead you use a number of grenades over several turns to keep the gas level (all tiles of stun gas do equal damage) up and then you capture them that way.

Not sure if the bolded part was meant to reply to what I said or not. What I'm talking about is the patchy smoke coverage. Of course, even in the first turn the stun gas doesn't cover 100% of the displayed area (this is particularly obvious with the rockets, which I assume are functionally identical). What I find annoying is even if I place the grenade perfectly, the next turn the center of the smoke might be all clear--and aliens seem to be really good at navigating a smoke cloud without touching any of the gas. I would much rather the smoke blanket the entire area, but simply become weaker.

If you want to encourage stun baton use, though, it's working. Right now I think it's actually safer to throw a smoke grenade and then walk in the next turn than it is to to try to throw in a stun grenade every turn. Seems like the stun grenades should at least be effective, if you're willing to wait and risk reaction fire every turn.

Could you ad in a feature to disable and enable the vertical take off of Soldiers because they fly into the air for the slightest distance resulting in them getting shot. In EU you could tell them to go into air at will and the system for them was smart without getting your guys killed.

Could you ad in a feature to disable and enable the vertical take off of Soldiers because they fly into the air for the slightest distance resulting in them getting shot. In EU you could tell them to go into air at will and the system for them was smart without getting your guys killed.

I suggest adding a "Grounded" toggle that forces you to not use the jump jets.

Additionally I notice you cant order units to move into the airspace anywhere, they only fly when its to get over something. Also sometimes they will WANT to land ontop of another unit and are stuck in air so I think the mechanics are a bit wonky. Also perhaps fix the shadow to remain on the ground in correct location to help indicate where the unit is per tilespace. (shadows that follow into the air are confusing).

They can't stop in mid air, as they are not true flying suits. They are jump jet suits, meaning you are in essence jumping in style. You have to land on something solid.

Except sometimes they dont land and will remain until next turn Like when they glitch out and won't autoland for whatever bizarre reason.

Anyone else getting game control lock or turn pause or whatever you called it on Large Seb Base after placing the units down? I exit game and reload the save game and it works however there presents another bug (which I have seen on some carrier ufos) where the soldiers have text that pops up saying "soldier is in distress or whatever" each turn (sometimes it seems). It slows the game down. Anyone?

Also notice Alloy Shield does not show anymore in combat and some grenade tosses resort your character back to stock uniform. If someone can confirm that so I know it isn't some crazy corruption at my end. Cheers

I like that they're becoming less powerful. I prefer the baton to be the most effective.

Nothing beats... beating. I also like the stun baton risk/reward over the relative ease of stun grenades. Now that stun grenades require a greater time investment my impatient nature will definitely lead me to unleash Xenonaut Brutality in nearly 100% of cases with recalcitrant aliens. I reserve summary execution as punishment for recalcitrant soldiers.

So I checked out the combat shields. They weight 20 kg, I think that's the same as before the patch.

EDIT: I'm probably deeply confused about something. weapons.xml I think says 20, weapons_gc says 3.

Weapons.xml is just the geoscape info for the weapons. If in doubt, always trust weapons_gc.xml over weapons.xml (the "gc" stands for "ground combat").

Last time I checked, the only time weapons.xml really matters is the ammo count, which for some reason seems to overrule weapons_gc.xml. Weapons.xml's probably not been updated because it's for tooltips most of the time, and there's no point updating those what with the rapid pace of updates.

For people who want to stun at range, try out electroshock grenades. They do 80 stun damage if you score a direct hit.

It seems like the weight for items is also pulled from weapons.xml - I've fixed the weight of the combat shields, and a couple of other mis-set weapons (no major changes) and pushed it as a hotfix.

3KG is a little too light to be honest. 20kg for the standard shield (if metal) is ok and maybe 5-10kg for the new alien based shield? I think it said somewhere how much lighter Alien Alloys are compared to steel.

I already thought that the gas grenades were too weak in the previous version and had already loaded up a few troopers... rookies... with the batons and just used them to suicide themselves 4 snipers... 4 rookies... chaarrrge!

People still use gas grenades? Just stun and charge with a baton, only about a million times more effective

20kg, are you serious? The shield isn't meant to replace armor, it's designed to replace half of a two handed weapon, trading range and damage for a bit more protection. At 20 kilos it was way to heavy to be used with anything but the strongest soldiers (starting out), and even then they could only carry a pistol (nothing else, maybe one pistol mag) if they wanted to have any decent TUs left.

3 kg large metal shield is unrealistic...

It seems like the weight for items is also pulled from weapons.xml - I've fixed the weight of the combat shields, and a couple of other mis-set weapons (no major changes) and pushed it as a hotfix.

Oh. Well, live and learn! Or in my case, just live. Anyway, thanks for the quick hotfix.

3 kg large metal shield is unrealistic...

That's not a good reason to change it back. An unrealistic but useful shield is far better than a realistic shield that's never taken out of the base's stores. Now it's possible for a non-super strong shieldbearer to wear armour/carry a decent amount of grenades.

I know it was only recently brought to the devs attention, but should we expect the implementation of EMP damage as a hotfix coming any day now, or is the problem with it so grave that we likely won't see it for at least another candidate release?

Modern riot shields weigh just under 3kg while the big Roman scuta shields weighed up to 10kg. 20kg was way too heavy, I am glad it has been reduced, 3kg maybe a little light though.

The weight does not seem unreasonable to me. It really depends on what it's made out of and how thick it is. If XCom can shield a jet from plasma shots and it can actually get off the ground then a soldier should be able to carry a very effective light weight shield too.

Okay, I've been looking at getting this game for a while now. Last week I saw there was a big update that would break saved games. Is this V19-2 it, or is there another update coming? I just don't want to have to restart several times.

Thank you all.

Okay, I've been looking at getting this game for a while now. Last week I saw there was a big update that would break saved games. Is this V19-2 it, or is there another update coming? I just don't want to have to restart several times.

Thank you all.

Ive looked up the specs of actual ballistic shields, and the ones rated to stop rifle rounds are actually pretty heavy but often are also wheeled. For reference the lightest high armour 'tower' shield I saw was ~85, but most others were atleast 100lbs- though wheels and the requisite frames are included in that. The less armoured ones vary from about 8 to 15lbs and are arm carried.

So realistically 3lbs is way to low, but Id prefer its weight determined by balance and not realism.