My Thoughts on Xenonaut

I'd double the grenade explosion radius, make splash damage lower and fall off faster and make throwing them less accurate.

This would be my preference too. Damage should be anything up to 5-6 tiles away from the grenade tile with damage falling off exponentially. I.e the tile next to the target tile is like 50% damage, the tile next to that 15%. So unless you get the grenade on the exact tile good luck killing that Alien.

Bear in mind this would likely increase equipment yield as not all grenades are going to be doing over-damage.

You could also make the grenade have a low initiative score to increase chance of alien reaction fire when throwing?

That would make grenades suitably powerful, but also risky to use (also costly in terms of lost equipment) and therefore quite situational.

I like this solution very much. Especially the expanding of grenade AoE, while reducing splash damage. The very small radius of the explosive grenades feels very awkward to me, so I've stopped carrying them mostly. If they were more for AoE damaging (and killing on direct hit) I think I'd use them more often.

This and the addition of grenades destroying other grenades inside explosion range, to prevent spamming on the same alien, would be nice balance.

I also have the strange feeling that there is some misbalance in cover destruction as well: like walls are destroyed too fast by grenades, whereas other cover like fences or props are not.

Many builds ago in days of yore (circa late 2012, early 2013) this was tried. People complained that grenades "didn't have any effect" and "it only worked when it landed right on target", and the damage has been built up steadily since then.

You could also make the grenade have a low initiative score to increase chance of alien reaction fire when throwing?

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9161-Ground-Combat-Balance-V21-Experimental-6?p=102277&viewfull=1#post102277

No, because the modifier is applied to get the Initiative score. So if you're able to throw a grenade, you've already got more Initiative than the target (else they already would have fired at you until they no longer do).

Once you've thrown it, Initiative is calculated again to see if you've still got the initiative. The grenade is no longer in your hand at that point, though...or never was, if you've used the quickslot. So it'd just use the equipped weapon's score, or 1x modifier if you're unarmed after having thrown it from your hand slot.

Yes I realise it has some value of initiative score, but I was just suggesting it could be lowered further so that you have a higher chance of triggering reaction fire. Perhaps the test could be based on the range your trying to throw it, so if your throwing it at maximum range you always trigger reaction fire, if the enemy has TU. "i.e shoot the bloody guy with the grenade" whereas when your right next to them its more a case of diving for cover and forget the guy throwing it.

You misunderstand, its initiative value is rarely used as most grenades are thrown from the quick slot, not the main hand. Changing it would have a negligible effect.

I agree with Safe Keeper... shotguns are highly effective. My most decorated veterans were shotgun-wielding assaulters. Lethal at close range, e.g. when clearing UFOs.

Personally, I find the main "problem" with sniper rifles is that the maps simply aren't big enough for me to need them; machine guns and other medium-range weapons can hit aliens just fine, and

I find shotguns tremendously useful at close range, and I try not to spam grenades because they destroy bodies and equipment I need for money and research. That, and nadespam just doesn't work as a strategy for me because, as you've discovered, it makes everything way too easy.

Shields, never used them. Mostly because I think of them more as a police/riot control asset and it always felt silly to me to bring them to an alien invasion battlefield.

Agree with you that you could be offered slightly more info at the beginning of UFO recovery missions, but then again I like the suspense of moving into "total darkness", not knowing what lies around the next corner. I do miss an in-game "mega map" like in the original games, though, or at the very least the ability to zoom out quite a bit more than I can right now.

As for grenades, the obvious problem with doing too much to nerf them is that you risk that all of a sudden they're not "fun" to use anymore. Don't know quite how to balance them myself, to be honest I think it's up to the players, whether they want to succeed through "nadespam" or force themselves to use more diverse tactics and weapons.

You misunderstand, its initiative value is rarely used as most grenades are thrown from the quick slot, not the main hand. Changing it would have a negligible effect.

Is that not the problem then?

Even if the grenade had an initiative value it wouldn't have the desired effect though.

Once you throw the grenade your initiative would be exactly the same no matter if the grenade had 2x initiative or 0.5x as once it is thrown you no longer get that bonus.