Gauddlike

Doubt it, it is a tutorial for people who are unfamiliar with the game. It will probably be a set of commands that they are to follow that shows them roughly how to command a squad and do the other stuff in the geoscape to get them into a fight. I can't see much reason to start the tutorial when you already have a game on the go. If you decided to play the tutorial you could always just start it and quit when it finished, no one will force you to continue playing once the tutorial is over.

My system uses an analogue slider rather than set positions. You can move the slider until the required aim type icon shows up then just go a little further to save a few extra points for turning, kneeling etc.

But that's the point, you aren't FORCED to hunt them down once there are other win conditions. If you CHOOSE to hunt them down then that is your call. Why should the game be designed to make that easier on you? The score reduction for capturing the ufo instead of hunting down all enemies will be unlikely to reduce the mission score below zero. That means you have still gotten a bonus and are free to go do another mission or two to boost your score further in those 20 minutes you have saved. That might not be the case just yet but it is still early days.

Yeah both sides have their drawbacks. That's the main reason I was saying if you want to hunt down every last one then you should have to go looking for them. If you want to just take the UFO then that's where you head. If the AI has the option of running away or attacking and they make the decision individually then I suppose it would certainly add to the replayability.

If you only get it once you are less likely to forget who got it than if he is just one of the 20 or 30 who have it. If medals are used in this way then they would also need to be easily identifiable, probably on the soldier equip and inventory screens. Giving everyone who kills an alien a reward and a bonus erodes the "special" feeling of the reward for me.

Yeah but it is only a vague idea atm, doubt it will remain that way.

I wasn't assuming one entrance. I doubt it would matter how many entrances there are, as long as you have 2 or 3 troops to cover each you can sit with a full AP bar and hope to reaction shot them as they come in.

The only real bonus would be that the starting troops would have completed a single mission more than without the tutorial. If someone needs to do the tutorial then that is a nice little bonus, if they decide to bypass it they will gain the bonus after their first "real" mission anyway. If someone is min-maxing enough to feel they really have to do the tutorial to get that single mission advantage then let them, won't affect my game in the slightest.

That would definitely be for balancing, it depends really on what sort of level the troopers stats will normally go to as well as how easy it is to get medals. If the bonus does pass out to others in the morale aura then it should be lower, if it is purely personal then it can be slightly higher. Maybe 1 for bronze, 2 for silver and 3 for gold? That makes more sense for ranged bonus. Higher versions of the medal bonus would also not stack with lower ones.

The starting troops at the moment (which are basically slightly overpowered rookies) have around 50 - 60 bravery. I don't see a bonus to bravery of maybe 3 or 4 points being "too powerful" if it is going to be limited to a specific enemy type as well as being unattainable to most troopers. It would probably apply as long as that alien type is present in the mission, simply because it is easier to program that way. I would even be tempted to add it to the morale bonus aura of an officer if he had the award. Once the trooper is dead no one else will be able to get that medal again either so looking back at your record of the fallen will probably remind you of who that trooper was.

I didn't say it was a damage bonus. It could be a morale bonus, you have managed to take one down before, why should you be afraid of it now?

I like the idea of a kill number tracker type ribbon that will be upgraded as the numbers climb. I think proficiencies for weapon kills makes sense. For example 15 confirmed kills with a precision rifle may give you the "Sniper Proficiency Ribbon 3rd Class", 50 confirmed pistol kills for the "Pistol Proficiency Ribbon 1st Class" etc. I feel actual medals need to be quite rare though. For example a medal for successfully capturing a new alien type/rank. Any rank of Andron captured will get the first (and only the first) person a "Bronze Andron Cross", while capturing one of a higher rank could be the Silver Andron Cross and the highest rank would bag you a Gold Andron Cross. These could give a small bonus, specifically against that alien type, as there will only ever be a maximum of 3 people with them. There could also be a second version for first kill of this alien type, Bronze Andron Medal etc. The Purple Heart is a recognised and respected medal but the game version shouldn't be given to everyone who gets hurt. I would rename it to the Heart of Terra and only give it to someone wounded severely who also managed to perform well in a mission. For example someone badly wounded while holding the UFO control room or getting a certain number of kills. Medals like the Terran Cross can be given for achieving mission objectives as the highest rank left standing after your squad has taken fatalities (only if you weren't the highest rank at the start). Highest exp amount if equal rank. This could also be given for any situation where morale may have been an issue, it should probably not be given if the trooper panicked during the mission. Citations could also be recorded in the soldiers personnel jacket and be represented by a "Citation Ribbon" These could be for leading (highest rank in the mission) the team that recovers the first specific piece of alien tech. No need to give these ribbons special names but you could if it makes them feel more special. Again these would only be for the first person to recover the item so would not be widespread.

That is the beauty of using a grenade from the quick slots on the new GUI. You click on it and the soldier picks it from wherever it is stored and throws it. You can ignore whatever weapon is in his hands and just say he held the rifle in one hand long enough to throw, slung it from a strap, leaned it against the wall etc without having to worry. The only time it would be an issue is if you wanted to run around with a grenade permanently in hand. If that was the case it would make sense to only use a one handed weapon in the other hand.

Open up the assets/sound folder and try playing the geomusic files from there, see if it has the same distortion.

Yeah you can get introduced to your new assignment by the previous commander. He tells you there is a training mission coming up in a few days and it flashes up on the geoscape when it is ready. He goes on to show you how to equip your men for this mission and assign them to a transport. Air combat with a simulated enemy UFO (another Mig) which generates a simulated crash site. He may also explain that sometimes the training missions don't go as planned so maybe you should complete that new medical bay that has been requisitioned. An introduction to your heads of research and manufacturing and you are pretty much done.

If you don't want any to escape you hunt them down. If you want the mission to be over quicker you hold the control room. You may even get bonus points for holding the control room that more than make up for any losses from fleeing enemies. It would definitely make holding the room more interesting if the aliens came to recapture of course but it could turn into a duck shoot if they just stream back in one at a time while you have your whole team set up waiting for them.

If you have already hacked your way through lots of the enemy it could be that the last alien is stuck in the middle of nowhere having a panic attack and is unable to attack or escape. I like the take and hold objectives as a way of finishing the missions. Think of it as securing the main threat so the aliens can't self destruct the ship, overload the base power core etc then sending in the support team to mop up any survivors so your elite team can go off somewhere else. You don't need them to locate the final alien when you can leave it to the national guard. Primaries could be: Landed ship: Take and hold the Ufo engine room and bridge for 5 turns to prevent self destruction, 3 if ship commander is dead. Base: Secure the control room for 5 turns, or 3 turns if the base command team is dead. Terror: Kill 75% of the enemy, civilians could also be saved as part of this if their AI allows it.

I'm for a tutorial that is optional. A checkbox on a new game to play tutorial would probably be useful. The background story of the Iceland Incident would fit nicely, except that you can't actually win that mission and it might put off new players if you throw them into an unwinnable situation. Maybe a simple training mission where you have your starting squad and are up against national guard opponents in a skirmish. No one will be killed off and it will give some bonus exp to the troops of players who do the tutorial. This is on top of pointing out all of the useful buttons etc.

Both good ideas. If you are tailing a craft that looks like it is about to escape or attack civilians you should definitely have the option to attack immediately.

If you can target the fence at melee range and attack you can damage or destroy it. If you want to justify it by saying you kicked the fence down or used wire cutters it doesn't matter. The important thing is that fences should be taken down fairly easily at melee range. The down side is that you then need to ensure that aliens also know this and can take it into account when planning their movement.

Chris has said that at some point you will be able to ignore the smaller alien ships that are of no threat or benefit to you any more. He rationalised it as some research that would allow the human nations to shoot them down and deal with the sites themselves. It may just be the distribution of laser weapon plans etc. I figured that would be good enough. Having the little ones vanish from your radar as they are picked off by friendly nations feels like a better option than an auto resolved ground battle. I don't know if that plan has changed though.

The extra non coms in apoc added nothing to the game for me. It was a boring task with no up side. If you did it badly you lost your scientists, if you did it well you gained nothing.

The only way I can see it having as much functionality as an AP reserve system is if you could set at what point the path changed colour. If you were to do that it would basically be the same as the current ideas but without the automatic stop when you hit reserve. That isn't always a bad thing, it is nice to be able to easily run past your reserve in an emergency. Basically your idea so far sounds like the current system but with a single shot auto reserved and the auto stop removed. Rather than changing the current system maybe you would be happier if those were selectable as global options? Adding an auto stop checkbox and a default reserve in the options would cover it nicely. You have the option of using either method then.

Nothing like the flash of a well turned ankle to make a shadow seem a little risqué.

I was actually just assuming the AP reserve would use whichever mode the weapon was currently set to. If you are running around with an assault rifle set to burst and saw something move you would probably not take time to set the weapon back to single shot before reacting. That would only really be a problem for me if I would have had enough AP for single shot but wasted it because the weapon was set to burst. In that case maybe it should switch automatically if a shot can only be taken by doing so. Crouch could be fitted in by removing one grenade button and replacing it with a small inventory button, crouch could then go down by my AP slider. If you can right click the grenade button to quickly choose which type of grenade is used then you don't really need two. I Will try and mock up my idea for the portrait replacement icons tomorrow if I get a chance as well, I would like to see how they would look. I agree the bank of motionless and potentially identical pictures doesn't really jump out at me either.