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V22 Experimental 6 Released!


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This is an experimental build - to access it, please read the instructions / warnings in this thread.

This is quite a major update for the game. There's three main changes: the ability to shoot round corners, a rework of the line-of-sight system and significant change to the early-game UFO mix.

ADDITIONS / CHANGES:

- Shoot path calculation has been changed so that it uses the "best" part of the target tile to aim at, rather than the central section. Previously there were circumstances where you were unable to shoot at a target even if you could see part / most of it, but many of these are now fixed.

- PersistentLOS mode has been activated for further user feedback. This makes LOS update in real time; as soon as you turn a soldier (or they die etc) you immediately lose vision on the area you are no longer looking at. This applies to both humans and aliens. (this has now been disabled due to a bug)

- The "Reveal All" feature has been partially implemented and will give full sight next update. The whole map is revealed after 12 turns on Terror / Xenonaut Base missions, or when the Command Room is cleared on alien base missions. Basically it should solve those "can't find the last bloody alien" moments.

- Aaron has added some new vehicle graphics with moving treads / tracks etc

- Many props that blocked LOS no longer do so

- Various AI updates, including a fix to them being able to see through walls. However they're still acting weird in a few situations and we'll look into that in more detail for the next build.

- Electroshock grenade now has its own explosion

FIXES:

- Fusion rocket no longer incorrectly displays Plasma rocket image

- Tile atlases updated to fix a number of display issues from the last build

- Xenopedia updates to reflect changed game balance

- Final mission tiles have been updated to fix black triangle and misalignment issues

- Final mission should no longer incorrectly show victory screen / crash on quitting mid-mission

- Multi-tile objects should reveal the tiles beneath correctly now

- Corrected some misaligned impact sprites

- Medal images on mission debrief screen have been replaced with hi-res versions

- Paris has been moved back into France

BALANCE:

- The early strategic game has been made more exciting; Fighters, Light Scouts, Scouts and Corvettes all appear right from the very start

- Light Scouts are now "Small" UFOs instead of "Very Small", making Fighters easier to distinguish

- Air combat Autoresolve stats have been heavily reworked

- Alien Leaders / Officers have been moved one UFO earlier in the progression to make the research tree less compressed in the late game (this means Caesan psions now appear in Light Scouts).

- Vehicle weapons are now free and unlimited upgrades when researched

- Bleeding now does 5HP damage per turn, per wound (remember soldiers can use medikits on themselves now)

- Damage numbers are now shown by default on Veteran difficulty too

- Aircraft no longer retreat veeeeeerry sloooowwwly

- Assault Shield is now the same size as the Combat Shield

- Alien Plasma Rifle has gained 10 damage but lost 10 mitigation (a relative Jackal buff)

TRANSLATION:

- Gameconfig.xml now has an option called "AutoScale" fonts, which will shrink the font size automatically if it is too big for the text field.

Please note that we are aware of the issues / lack of enjoyment arising from alien psionics at the moment. They are not addressed in this patch, but will be addressed in an upcoming update. I'll post something on it later today.

Balance discussion should be done in the following threads:

Geoscape: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9857-Geoscape-Balance-V21-Experimental-6?p=108582#post108582

Ground Combat: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9856-Ground-Combat-Balance-V21-Experimental-6?p=108579#post108579

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Now thats an update! Nice job Chris & co.

Not sure about day 1 corvettes or psions on light scouts though, kinda kills the sense of progress? Have caesan psions been in scouts before? I could swear they started showing up from corvette..

Also, I feel sight ranges could use a small boost with the new persistent LOS system.

Edited by Skitso
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I'm not sure how you implemented the new 'real time' LOS, but my soldiers won't move more than 1 square without stopping since the update. They're not stopping due to spotting new enemies because they're not uncovering anything new as they move. I give them orders to move a distance and they just stop every step and I have to keep ordering them to move till they get to their destination.

There are enemies visible on the map, and the first soldier off the dropship didn't act this way, but now that there are enemies uncovered they won't move more than 1 square at a time. Very annoying :(

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I'm not sure how you implemented the new 'real time' LOS, but my soldiers won't move more than 1 square without stopping since the update. They're not stopping due to spotting new enemies because they're not uncovering anything new as they move. I give them orders to move a distance and they just stop every step and I have to keep ordering them to move till they get to their destination.

There are enemies visible on the map, and the first soldier off the dropship didn't act this way, but now that there are enemies uncovered they won't move more than 1 square at a time. Very annoying :(

Yes same for me, for that reason I disable PersistentLOS mode

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Lorebot - is this starting a new game, or loading an old save? If you're loading an old ground combat save I'm not sure that'll work, but I don't have any saves to test either.

The Steam game seems to work fine for me with a clean new game though.

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Lorebot - is this starting a new game, or loading an old save? If you're loading an old ground combat save I'm not sure that'll work, but I don't have any saves to test either.

The Steam game seems to work fine for me with a clean new game though.

It's a save from a game I was playing before I went to lunch. Came back from lunch to find Steam had updated the game and now I'm getting the described behavior. I've also noticed that the enemy icons aren't showing up on the right side of the screen as well so I'm not noticing when my soldiers are actually spotting things since I need to keep clicking for them to move regardless.

I just started this whole campaign last night and I'm on month 3 with 3 bases built and just about to get plasma weapons...I'd rather not have to start a new game right now :(

Also, I've noticed that the values displayed on the Grenade quick select window don't seem to be the values the game is actually using to throw grenades. It consistently costs more for my soldiers to throw grenades than what's listed in that window which has led to more than a few disasters for my men as the window tells me it costs a certain value, I move my guy close enough that he'll still have enough TU to make the throw (usually out into the line of fire), and when he gets there he can't actually throw the grenade. I can click on it and I get the AoE display for the grenade, but there's no target icon under my cursor and there's no display on the screen showing how much the throw will cost...so I can't even tell how much it's actually requiring to make the throw. But this has been happening since before the update so I'm not sure if it's a known issue or not.

Edited by Lorebot
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Lorebot - is this starting a new game, or loading an old save? If you're loading an old ground combat save I'm not sure that'll work, but I don't have any saves to test either.

The Steam game seems to work fine for me with a clean new game though.

Just started a new game and I'm getting the same issue. Mission played fine until I came close to an alien, then every single action (even turning) would stop after one move. Interestingly, it was a night mission and it started happening before I could see the alien that seemed to be causing it. So I'm unsure whether it's because I was within the sight range that I would normally be able to see the alien, or because I was in the alien's sight range.

EDIT: Issue seems to go away when sight mode is returned to what it was before this build (i.e. PersistantLoS and OriginalLoS set to '0').

Edited by kabill
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Just started a new game and I'm getting the same issue. Mission played fine until I came close to an alien, then every single action (even turning) would stop after one move. Interestingly, it was a night mission and it started happening before I could see the alien that seemed to be causing it. So I'm unsure whether it's because I was within the sight range that I would normally be able to see the alien, or because I was in the alien's sight range.

For the record, the mission I'm trying to get through is also a night mission. So I'm also unsure whether it's my soldiers doing the spotting or the enemies doing the spotting that's causing the behavior.

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Fair enough. We'll disable the PersistentLOS system temporarily. Aaron said the patch will be up in the next couple of hours, alternatively you can just go into config.xml and change the 1 to a 0 manually if you can't wait that long.

I'll update the posts and delete this posts when I do that to prevent confusion.

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Fair enough. We'll disable the PersistentLOS system temporarily. Aaron said the patch will be up in the next couple of hours, alternatively you can just go into config.xml and change the 1 to a 0 manually if you can't wait that long.

I'll update the posts and delete this posts when I do that to prevent confusion.

Is possible to active Reveal all in 12 turns for all maps chris?

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- The "Reveal All" feature has been partially implemented and will give full sight next update. The whole map is revealed after 12 turns on Terror / Xenonaut Base missions, or when the Command Room is cleared on alien base missions. Basically it should solve those "can't find the last bloody alien" moments.

Great feature - I especially like the implementation in alien base missions, where

1) the feature makes sense from a lore perspective (base surveillance systems) and

2) is also tied to a player achievement (clearing the control room).

Would be great if this could be the case on all types op maps. Especially the one about player achievement. It is nice to be handed a "free" reveal all - but I would much prefer to earn it through some effort of mine.

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Yeah, I like it in alien base missions - not so much in terror missions. Is this feature moddable? (Turn amount, on/off) In base defence it could be on from turn 1 (surveillance)

I think in base defense missions it would make sense for Reveal All to work as long as you have at least 1 soldier in the control room for a turn (basically allowing that 1 soldier to monitor the surveillance systems and relaying the info via radio). If your soldier is killed or leaves the room you lose Reveal All till you get someone back in there.

It should probably work similarly in an alien base mission, you don't get Reveal All till you have control of the surveillance systems.

In Terror missions (or any ground mission) is makes a certain amount of sense to get Reveal All after a certain number of turns. I'd imagine that your soldiers are getting the best logistics and intelligence support available and that would probably include satellite and spy plane surveillance of the combat zone.

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I like that idea for base defense. You could even bump up the number of aliens or something to counteract the advantage of having no fog of war - it'd also make it feel a bit more unique. An alternative would be to be able to check x rooms a turn (time to check cameras) outside of soldier LoS, but that'd be more coding.

Clearing the command center sounds perfect.

What if for terror missions it was based on remaining aliens? e.g. when it's down to the last one? and/or a higher turn number?

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Pity you can't have the map revealed only when you have a soldier in a certain area.

Move a soldier into the base control room and it represents using base cameras until you leave again.

In a UFO you can be using their sensors against them, again only until you leave the bridge.

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TRANSLATION:

- Gameconfig.xml now has an option called "AutoScale" fonts, which will shrink the font size automatically if it is too big for the text field.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

It seems to be working great so far!

Gam

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