Aaron

They randomly pick a base, but it is biased towards bases that have existed for longer e.g. a base that has existed for 2 months is twice as likely to be attacked as one that has existed for 1 month.

Aliens attacking an undefended Xenonaut base instantly destroy it - that might also prove somewhat arresting to this strategy, unless you can stop them every time.

I have said landed UFOs are broken at the moment - they will provide you a funding bonus equal to what you get from shooting down a UFO once we get around to fixing them. So, here's how it should work now: When you shoot down a UFO you get funding boost with the nearest nation, for most normal UFOs this is 40 "points". For reference 1 point is worth roughly $1000 (it varies per nation). By default you do not get any funding penalty from doing a mission, I've no idea where this idea came from, but it is flatly wrong. There are only two things that can cause you to get negative funding points from a mission, and that is civilians/friendly AI soldiers dying, or aliens escaping. In both cases each instance of these happening will give you -2 relation points. The penalty for civilian deaths doubles if the Xenonauts themselves kill them. I think the most any UFO map has is a total of 6 friendly AI units, more often 4, and many have none at all. Terror sites are obviously a different matter. That means the total you could lose is probably an average of around 8 points IF the aliens kill every civilian on the map - which is a pretty far cry from the 40 points you gained for shooting down the UFO. Even if you took the map with 6 AI units and killed them all yourself, the maximum penalty would be 24 points, so you still came out on top even though you just showed up and murdered everyone! I might actually increase that penalty. Aliens escaping is pretty rare, and only happens if you capture the UFO while there are still aliens outside.

There was another bug with it aside from the the damage - basically if it blew something up, that would immediately stop the blast, so a chain link fence between a soldier and some C4 would save them from death. We have a fix for this now too.

This is a neat experiment - I'd be particularly curious to see if alien bases and terror sites eventually ruin your relations with nations.

...and fixed.

I just pushed a hotfix to fix the issue, hopefully you can continue on now!

Firstly, if you do not know how to access the experimental branch on Steam, please read the instructions (and warnings!) in this thread. This hotfix just addresses a couple of issues. Fixes: - Fixed issue where units walking through any type of gas would take "damage" from it and stop, despite it dealing no damage - Base rooms that are under construction will now be correctly added to the map for base attack missions

The teleporters unfortunately only work within one submap, so we cannot arbitrarily connect parts of the base together, however that does give me an idea for a new base room type.

Thanks, it was some bad prop settings - I've fixed these, and will be double check the rest of the town when I start new terror maps tomorrow.

Firstly, if you do not know how to access the experimental branch on Steam, please read the instructions (and warnings!) in this thread. This hotfix addresses a few issues, and also includes a small number of improvements. The changes here are minor enough that saved games from build 8 should not be affected. Fixes: - Auto-saves created at the start of Ground Combat now include aliens - UFOs shot down over water now correctly grant a relations boost to the nearest funding nation - Camera delay after an AI unit moved/fired reduced slightly - Fixed C4 damage being set to 20 instead of 200 (oops) Additions: - Injured soldiers are now indicated on the soldier equip screen Balance: - Funding from each nation is now capped at 2 times the starting funding level of that block (previously could be pumped to infinity) - Victory in a Terror Mission now grants you a significant relations bonus with the nation that was attacked - Extended the length of time both Terror Mission types persist for to be between 12 and 24 hours (was previously between 3 and 12) - Set Xenonaut/Alien accuracy bonus to 1.5x (this was already stealth-fixed in, listing here for completeness) - Increased the speed and turn rate of higher tiered UFO weapons (they were trivially easy to avoid with any aircraft due to their long travel time) - Turn rate of faster UFOs now increase with their speed; previously their turning circles were just too large

You are supposed to get a refund, but it broke at some point - it is on the list of things to fix.

If that's how your game is behaving then it is a bug. You always get a funding bonus for shooting down UFOs, regardless of if you then attack them via ground combat or just air strike them - doing a ground combat mission does not deny you anything! Do people understand this? It seems like a common misconception which is making this discussion harder.

This is a bug, we are looking into it as a priority as it is quite annoying.

@mrxny: Are you using the normal steam build or have you opted into the experimental branch?

Thanks for the feedback guys - we have a fix for the autosave which I will push as a hotfix later today along with fixing the C4. Alien bases are due for an overhaul when I add more maps: the small bases right now are very linear and that is somewhat intentional as it is the players introduction to them, but the later bases have multiple paths through them - some only accessible by blowing locked doors or using vents. I am also pretty convinced I am going to have multiple paths into the Command Room to reduce grenade spam horror.

Yeah, I hadn't realised those accuracy buffs were set to something other than 1 - I've done a quick patch to reduce them down to 1.5 each (the cover variable isn't hooked up yet, but when it is it will need to be a value less than 1, otherwise it will make cover stronger!).

But GJ you thought they were Ok though when aliens had infinite of them and could throw them through walls so I'm pretty sure you just like killing our players soldiers.

Right; because at Goldhawk Interactive we never do things by half measures, we have new set of hard-swing Geoscape balance changes for you to try out! The main things are: Air combat should be tactically easier, though later UFO speeds will still quickly outclass Condors. Auto-resolve should also produce slightly more "fair" results now. Additionally, I have heavily reduced the cost of hangars, as it turns out you need a lot of them and they were expensive when added to the cost of aircraft too. I've reduced the costs of the few other structures - though the specific ones escape me at the moment. Biggest change is a huge boost to national funding levels, but also an increase in the damage UFOs can do to that level - and the rewards you get for stopping them. This should hopefully lead to more dramatic game, but time will tell (actually you guys will, here, in this thread; that's why I made it). Here the change list for Geoscape balance for reference: - Geoscape funding increase, to re-emphasise national support -- Increased the player starting funds from $750000 to $1000000 -- Increased the funding provided by each nation by roughly 70%(!) -- Initially all countries will provide the same funding level (may be tweaked later) -- Tweaked relations values to compensate for geographic area (UFOs spend more time over larger countries) - Base building changes to make them much faster to come online, though a larger initial outlay -- Increased the cost of building a base to $500000 -- Halved Command Center upkeep from $250000 to $125000 -- Reduced Command Center build time from 20 to 10 -- Reduced Radar build time from 20 to 10 -- Reduced Hangar build time from 10 to 5 -- Reduced the building and maintenances costs of various base structures, very significantly reduced in the case of the Hangar - UFO balance changes to make both victories and failures more pronounced -- Approximately doubled the relations penalty caused by UFO activity over a country (including terror attacks) -- Increased UFO attack rate during their flight, to make sure attacks actually happen -- Very large increase in the relations benefit provided by shooting down a UFO, e.g. from 6 to 40 in some cases -- Reduced the health of UFOs to approximately 70% of their previous values -- Reduced auto-resolve strengths of UFOs accordingly - Disabled the "system damage" for interceptors in air combat - Reduced speed of "heavy" UFO projectiles to make dodging easier - Halved turn speed of UFOs to encourage more manoeuvring around them - Light Scouts have, after a bloody battle, been reduced down to slightly slower than Condors - Scouts have had their speed increased significantly, but health reduced; they will require Foxtrots to catch reliably - Balanced other UFO speeds so that there is a gradually increasing curve, rather than two tiers - Also changed some UFO speeds to avoid matching human aircraft speeds; now you can either catch them, or they obviously outrun you - Slightly increased damage of Avalanche Torpedoes, as they did not conform to the rule of slightly out-damaging light fighter weapons

New build - not a huge number of ground combat changes, but lots of incremental improvements to the AI and the Terror Mission AI being altered, so I think it's worth a new thread. Also grenades - are they a bit less effective now? Answers on a post card.

Firstly, if you do not know how to access the experimental branch on Steam, please read the instructions (and warnings!) in this thread. All saved games from earlier versions (including experimental versions) are incompatible, attempting to load them will cause problems. This new build contains a large set of fixes and improvements across the board, there hasn't really been a particular focus to it. Probably the most important fixes are for a crash related to Reapers and another related to Bombers. The biggest changes are further work going into the balance for the Geoscape - Air combat has been softened again, and national funding has been increased to make up a bigger portion of your income. Terror missions have also been re-worked with different spawn locations and behaviours for aliens, which might prove quite a change so feedback on that appreciated. I'm afraid there is a KNOWN ISSUE with this build which we have not had time to fix, but is quite easy to ignore if you know about it: The "autosave" created at the start of a ground combat mission is for some reason not saving the locations of alien units; this means if you load an autosave from ground combat it you will immediately be able to win the mission (ripe for abuse!). Normal saved games work fine. Please just work around this for the time being by making a save at the start of ground combat missions yourself - we will hotfix as soon as possible, but wantd to get this build out in the time for the weekend for everyone to play. Fixes - Fixed a load of incorrectly set tiles in the arctic and industrial sets - Changed nation rating on mission end to say "placeholder" so it is less confusing until we get the new screen in - Removed "Wraith Leader" enemy type, as there are no unique graphics for it - Updates to Czech names to make them more correct - Fixed: On 16:10 resolutions (and therefore also on 4:3 ones), the base screen buildings did not align correctly - Fixed a variety of tile bugs in the Xenonaut base and Town tilesets - Fixed instances where units killed in fire appeared to remain alllliveee - Fixed a freeze caused by bombing run missions - Fixed: double icon for aerial terror sites shown when reloading a game - Pumped Reaper chance to hit to extreme levels (they were missing, which shouldn't happen) - Sped up crouching / uncrouching /shooting animations for humans by 40% - Removed final frame of all uncrouch animations to correct (one of several) animation glitch - More window restyling in geoscape - Increased Reaper movement speed and animations to match (graphical change only) Additions - GJ has been doing buckets of work generally improving AI behaviour; everything should benefit, but Reapers are particularly improved - Captured alien Analysis images added to Xenopedia - New animated tiles for Aliens props: Fusin Reactor, Comm Array and Hyperdrive (these are cool!) - New UFO icons for geoscape reflecting their actual size - Added explanatory tooltip to the Ground Combat (should only show the first time you play) - Added some new custom soldier portraits - Reaction fire popup has been disabled (will probably return for shots that do not come from the FOW) - General Psionic power messages now last 2 sec instead of 3 sec - Dread messages now only last 1 sec instead of 3 sec - The Dropship Equip screen now shows you the role and weapon of a soldier if you mouseover their portrait, and will highlight the icon of the soldier in question on mouseover too. Balance - Geoscape funding increase, to re-emphasise national support -- Increased the player starting funds from $750000 to $1000000 -- Increased the funding provided by each nation by roughly 70%(!) -- Initially all countries will provide the same funding level (may be tweaked later) -- Tweaked relations values to compensate for geographic area (UFOs spend more time over larger countries) - Base building changes to make them much faster to come online, though a larger initial outlay -- Increased the cost of building a base to $500000 -- Halved Command Center upkeep from $250000 to $125000 -- Reduced Command Center build time from 20 to 10 -- Reduced Radar build time from 20 to 10 -- Reduced Hangar build time from 10 to 5 -- Reduced the building and maintenances costs of various base structures, very significantly reduced in the case of the Hangar - UFO balance changes to make both victories and failures more pronounced -- Approximately doubled the relations penalty caused by UFO activity over a country (including terror attacks) -- Increased UFO attack rate during their flight, to make sure attacks actually happen -- Very large increase in the relations benefit provided by shooting down a UFO, e.g. from 6 to 40 in some cases -- Reduced the health of UFOs to approximately 70% of their previous values -- Reduced auto-resolve strengths of UFOs accordingly - Returned alien weapons back to normal ammo values, as aliens now get unlimited ammo when using them (grenades remain limited) - Tweaked explosive behaviour of all grenades so they cannot pass through walls - Reduced the range of alien grenades by 4 tiles - Changed the damage type of alien grenades back to kinetic (they were too good at blasting through tiles) - Terror Missions now have a different layout of units spawns, and different alien behaviours to make them less "defend the chinook" - Disabled the "system damage" for interceptors in air combat - Reduced speed of "heavy" UFO projectiles to make dodging easier - Halved turn speed of UFOs to encourage more manoeuvring around them - Light Scouts have, after a bloody battle, been reduced down to slightly slower than Condors - Scouts have had their speed increased significantly, but health reduced; they will require Foxtrots to catch reliably - Balanced other UFO speeds so that there is a gradually increasing curve, rather than two tiers - Also changed some UFO speeds to avoid matching human aircraft speeds; now you can either catch them, or they obviously outrun you - Slightly increased damage of Avalanche Torpedoes, as they did not conform to the rule of slightly out-damaging light fighter weapons - Dread now reduces APs by 30% instead of 50% - Reduced alien strength to 60 (for throwing) removed alien grenade range penalty EDIT: BONUS BALANCE FEATURE - I didn't realise this change made it in, but it did at the last minute: we have implemented a global accuracy buff to both Xenonauts and Aliens of 50% This is controlled by a new set of variables in weapons_gc at the top, and is intended to let us quickly test the feel of major accuracy changes. You will shortly also be able to tweak cover values globally, but that is not working right now. Please post your comments on the build here. If you encounter any bugs please post them in the experimental build sub-forum of the bugs forum. I will post new threads in the beta forum shortly for in-depth discussion of the current Geoscape and Ground Combat balance, but feel free to post brief opinions here too.

Very cool! We are planning on putting the Particle Cannon in remixed into a Singularity Cannon, as a sort of Uber end game weapon which requires Singularity Cores to build the ammo. I would like to get the DHVRL back in too, but we will have to see.

We will of course do our best to limit the number on screen, and make them as readable as possible - we haven't started work on them yet so are open to other suggestions, with the caveat that they must be clear on-screen indicators of a unit status (we can't hid them in a tooltip or something like that).

I find it hard to believe this is as important as people say, given aliens have had infinite ammo for the entirety of development and I recall very few complaints about it before now. I honestly can't even recall if OG had infinite ammo for aliens, I'm curious how many of you can tell me without consulting UFOpaedia. Really? You wouldn't prefer we get Reapers to behave more dangerously? You wouldn't prefer we get Harridans to use jetpacks? Aliens to behave in a more interesting way in Terror Sites? Anyway, the way we have implemented infinite ammo for aliens means you can just mod weapons_gc to remove it, so play around with that in the next build if you like - don't expect the AI to deal with it gracefully though.

I am hoping to put a build up tomorrow, and depending on how much new content we get I may do another next week. After that Goldhawk is going into winter hibernation until after Cthulumas.