Belmakor

I wouldn't mind if it they gave you the option of recycling base stores instead of selling for cash. Maybe you get back about 25% of the resources expended to make in the first place. So like an Alien Magentic weapons could be recycled for 2 Alloys for example instead of cash. Then you have two choices to make with most of your stores (small amount of resource, or larger amount of cash). Laser rifle recycled would give you 1 alenium and 1 alloy (cost 4/4 to build) Then you could theoretically reduce the amount of resources from UFOs. One way to make "Lab Spam" less viable would be 30 days after your first sale to have an in-game event pop-up like; "Your laser weaponry advances have seen widespread adoption by world armed forces and therefore you will now receive less money per unit sale for laser weaponry".

Your assumption is that people already know how to play the game and optimise for various things. Lab spam? Do you mean making things and selling them? Why would any normal/casual player ever think to do that? If you want to do that and it makes the game easier then that's fine but you shouldn't have to do that to make ends meet.

It varies by run then. I'm on day 110 and I don't have any alenium (plenty of alloys). I think I have at most gained 100 alenium so far. I can't even buy a second Mark II Interceptor or upgrade any aircraft weapons. The only thing I missed was one medium UFO and an observer (nothing I had could shoot the observer down).

I have a solution to this; instead of just having the tactical vest I would re-introduce the Belt similar to X1 but smaller - Belt has 4 slots. You can only put grenades or ammo in them. So you have to choose if your going 1 ammo and 3 grenades or 2 and 2. Belt can't hold heavy ammo. - Reloads from the belt, grenade throws from the belt use less TU's than the tac vest. - The tactical vest is reduced to 3x4. All modules become 3x2 meaning that you can at most fill your tac vest with two modules but no additional ammo/grenades. - I'd also replace "Primary" "Secondary" with "Main" "Sidearm". Sidearm would only be able to hold pistols/stun weapons or a single-use first aid kit (spoiler: later replaced with single-use auto med). - I'd create a Medical Module which has unlimited uses like the current one but it has to go on the tactical vest and therefore replace whatever else is there; it can't be held in the hand. Suddenly you have; - Decision if you want your guys to have sidearms or a single-use first aid kit (they can't have both). - Your dedicated medic won't be able to also carry a demo charge and tac unit so it's suddenly more of a dedicated class - Your heavy weapons guys won't be able to have a tac unit, gas mask and ammo. They'll have 1 unit and 3 ammo more likely. Anyway, you get the point.

Firstly Chris, well done on X2. It's such an improvement over X1 that I will definitely finish it (I got bored with map repetition on X1 before completion). To Improve - base defence, you should be able to set up your troops in any spot, not just the elevator shaft... its like the aliens had full control of my base and it was me assaulting, not them! - better yet. give the player the first turn (but without any aliens on the map) so that the player can make some traps or kill zones (with C4). For flavour, you could use the reverse of the Abduction tubes on T1 so that the player can see the Aliens teleporting in. - grenades should shred armour. They feel pretty pointless currently (and considering they destroy equipment). Shouldn't that be their main purpose? - The demo charge should be the number 1 way to clear turrets but currently does things like 5 damage. If your worried about the balance of that make its range less so that it becomes more of a tool for Assault and less like a grenade. - could we have 100% accuracy overflow into increased damage? High-accurate soldiers, which are more experienced but still can't make more shots than the rookie.., should be making things like head-shots and so more lethal. Having a cleaner survive a 100% accuracy sniper shot half the time just feels wrong. This would also give you some more stats to give things like Sebilians (which have multiple organs, and so could negate any overdamage). - increase laser rifle to 6 bullets not 5 so it can make two burst shots with a clip. increase laser pistol to 6 too. - increase C4 damage to 3 tiles up from 2. Feels weaker than grenades just now. Balance (Soldier Difficulty) - It's incredibly unfair on the standard difficulty to have a base invasion before day 100. This is only about 20 days after you first start seeing medium UFOs. I hadn't even launched interceptors in the previous 10 days as I only had 1 (and 1 can't tackle a medium). So I don't know how they found my base. - With 16 soldiers and the handicap of starting in the elevator shaft, I got absolutely destroyed by the medium alien force (no missile battery by this point). - The white sphere alien (not sure what its called) is pretty much unkillable because you can't shred its armour. They are so tough that it's going to take multiple turns of multiple soldiers shooting at them and every turn they get they pretty much kill one of your guys. I had one shrug off 2 grenades, 2 grenade launchers, 2 laser shotgun blasts and 2 rifle shots without even going to half-health!? - The scout probe combo defeats two interceptors on auto-result. Seems wrong. Sidewinders feel super weak. 4 of them don't even do half damage to a scout? Shouldn't that be the match-up which we win but with just survivable damage? - the cleaner sub-machine gun has the same range as a rifle? Often I'm being hit by cleaners using a sub machine gun at yellow range whereas even my veteran soldiers can't hit them reliably with rifles. Make the sub-machine gun a tad lighter (10 instead of 12) but shorter range (15 as opposed to 20 tiles) Make it more accurate at burst fire and a 5 bullet spread. Also becomes useful as a secondary weapon for soldiers. - mesmerised units should not be mesmerised once you kill the alien that did the deed. Also how come a single unit can mesmerise like 3 of my team in one turn? If there are like 5 of those (like on a recent base invasion mission) aliens then your squad becomes useless. - I'm really short on cash by day 100. Can't afford to build any Angel (I'm only just now able to afford to build my third interceptor). I have 8 soldiers armed with lasers and that's it at this point. I'm struggling to shoot down medium UFOs and my base just got invaded. Quality of Life Improvements - Could the storeroom menu tell us what items are no longer needed? Like once we have done an autopsy the corpses are no longer required? Could we have an auto-sell button in the menu that just allows any future items that fit that category to be auto-sold (like cleaner weapons and so on) - On abduction missions if you kill all enemies with 3 turns spare the mission should just end with full success (you can bound across the map no problem so its just a bit of a boring to have to do it). Obviously within 3 turns it might not be possible to rescue all and so there should be a limit here. - there is no turn indicator that I could see on the tactical map? - some sort of indicator on the soldier profile that they have breathing apparatus would be useful so you don't need to remember or check inventory. - estimated arrival time on the geoscape for both interceptors and dropship (so you know if its going to be a night mission) - There is so much research that I'm having to make real choices about what to focus on next. Almost too many actually. Are autopsies still required if you have captured that alien and interrogated? If not can they just be autocompleted? - could we have some sort of damage estimate or indicator when we hover over Aliens? "The Last Spell" has the best implementation of this i've seen for a turn-based game. It feels like guesswork right now and not in a good way. I want to know if it should be my sniper making the kill or my pistol guy. Bugs: - hevy smoke didn't create smoke when it hit either the reactor or the general in main cleaner base mission (not sure exactly who it hit but it disappeared) - living quarters have a wall halfway down them which means you can't traverse them. It would be possible to have a base that you can't get across if you build them vertically.

Quite a brave and bold move to deviate away from the previous mechanics but most of them sound pretty interesting! I think two things I am not sold on (based on the premise) is a) local government missions - will you have the resources to make these varied enough that they don't become tedious? b) one alien per mission - the only thing is that fighting humans is boring, that can be done in any dozen other games. Maybe consider human/alien hybrids? I know XCOM touched on this theme already. However if they had a few different stages of development you could have some fairly interesting model design and characteristics (i.e. tanks, glass cannons, fear inducing, snipers). This is especially true if you are going to be up against humans in the government missions. There would need to be enough to differentiate between a fully human based mission and one with a single alien other than presumably the setting? Hybrids would still achieve your goal of making the alien fights mean something without making it m16 on m16 as it were. p.s It would be awesome to have a colour overlay on the geoscape which shows influence. One of my favourite moments harking back to the olden days was in the early missions of C&C Red Alert when you had the illusion of choice in selecting missions to stem the tide of the enemy and part of that was the visual map showing red vs blue which ebbed and flowed between missions and the satisfaction of a big blob turning blue after winning a mission.

I think this builds on the OP's post and is a great idea. Another approach is to make new technology you have just discovered inherently dangerous. Consider a rookie soldier with a certain stat (accuracy for example) below some threshold. Every time they fire a T2 or T3 tech weapon there is a reasonably probability of the weapon misfiring or blowing up in their hands. Thus the use of advanced tech has to be 'earned' by individual soldiers forcing a player to continue the use of lower tech's for longer or accept the risk of injury or death to their soldiers. Technologies could be used to lower this threshold - meaning that a player is not frustrated by an inability to field an experienced team in order to safely use T3 weapons provided they research a few other areas. But it would encourage the continued use of lower tiers to manage risk for a longer period of the game other than the X1 system of monetary expense and manufacturing time being the sole restrictions. If you balanced the amount of time taken to make the weapons safe you could give players some interesting tech choices; In tactical gameplay 1. Field lower tiers and limit the new researched tiers to their vets to avoid or lower the risk. 2. Field high tier weapons on the whole squad but accept the higher risk. In geo-scape research 1. Spend an amount of time making the tier safe for universal use (say 30% of the time it would normally take to get to a new weapons tech). 2. Speed through to the next tech avoiding the 'make safe' tech tree and continuing with strategy 1 or 2 in gameplay.

I think this is a great idea and I would go a step further and have it literally completely negate the HM. i.e. it immediately becomes your next turn. Really useful when you are bounding your guys across open expanses where you know there is going to be literally no action because its already scouted/cleared.

I agree with the following; - C4 should take up a larger slot in inventory. - C4 being placeable in the current player spot OR on adjacent tiles - including on structures/props (as opposed to grenades which should bounce off props) but not thrown. - C4 having a high damage/destructibility such that it destroys equipment the closer the alien/object is to the blast centre. However, if you really consider why C4 is so good its because its mouldable. Its versatility comes from the fact that you can make a small or big explosion by breaking off parts of it to make smaller explosives. I was going to suggest making it more of a directional explosion but perhaps that's not niche enough. So... Might it be a nice idea if you could control the size of the explosion (perhaps even at the expense of the timer). A player could set a single tile charge which essentially just knocks a man sized hole in a wall, a 1-tile outward explosion up to some limit, say 6-tile outward explosion. This gives the utility to a player that A) they can control exactly how many tiles are effected, meaning it still has some versatility in tight spaces (such as a breaching a corridor door) with men standing only 2-3 tiles away. B) you can control just how much damage a tile is going to receive. I could imagine the mechanic being 100% damage on the tile the C4 is placed (regardless of size) with 25% less damage per tile moving away. Visually the damage would be for: single tile charge 100 a one tile outward charge 75 75 75 75 100 75 75 75 75 a two tile outward charge 56 56 56 56 56 56 75 75 75 56 56 75 100 75 56 56 75 75 75 56 56 56 56 56 56 and so on In this manner you could do sufficient damage to kill an alien but not destroy its equipment if that alien was X tiles away from the explosion centre, you could breach the UFO next the reactor without setting it off, or conversely you could blow the sweet daylight out of everything. I would couple this mechanic with a C4 charge value. Lets say it has an ammo value of 5. Meaning you could make 5 man sized holes or a single 5 tile outward explosion with one block of it. Intuitive and niche.

Might have just been me but you might want to verify the file you have on download. (either that or my download corrupted) The weapons.xml file was empty apart from the two items you have added in... So yeah no weapons on the soldiers and CTD.. Thanks Mike

I'd like to see the edge of vision tapered off much more gradually so that Aliens at the edge of your sight are only just noticeable. Like in the original Xcom sometimes you could only really make out a shape or shadow and you would be straining to work out if it was a Sectoid or Chrysalid. Would it be possible to play around with a filter and make the battlescapes appear overcast (instead of sunny like present)?

Would love an oppressive Battlescape mod. Its just not tense enough (unless at night) because everything is so bright

Ah ha, as I suspected! I am on 1.04 just now so that explains it. Darn, all those deaths for nothing

Ok firstly, I understand that Caesan are supposed to be weaker, but more accurate than Seb's but I can't help but feel cheated every time I play against them. Normally I would pass off single shots from a Cas at around 15 tiles range that hit the mark as fair. However, I am repeatedly being hit by Caesan burst fire at this range with every single shot hitting. I don't mean its happening every time, but by golly it feels like it. At anything more than about 3 tiles range and without any obstacles in the way my Commander/Majors accuracy is in the 30% region. Put in any form of object, be it a broken window or partial cover and these percentages even at three tiles can be like 12% for an experienced soldier and as low as 4% for a Rookie. I keep seeing a Caesan burst fire me from well outside my vision (I know they have extra vision on me so that's fine). What isn't fine is when they almost always get me with every single shot from that burst, even when its through cover. I am losing soldiers like flies, even when they are in cover and wearing Wolf armour simply because the Cas are able to take 4 shots per turn with the vast majority of them hitting whereas I have to gang up about 4 or 5 to 1 just to get enough shots on target that hit. Maybe this is coming across as a moan but I am just concerned that this isn't supposed to be the correct behaviour and that there is something up with the way Alien AI calculate burst accuracy. Has anyone else found this to be the case? Or perhaps it is a case that the Aliens have a full map of all the spaces and their chances to hit (on a burst) so that they are able to always select the space that maximizes this (and hence why it happens so often)? A few points before the inevitable "here are some tips" 1) I am well versed in how to exploit cover 2) I am well versed in using smoke cover, though I admit I don't expect to have to use it on a solider who is in partial cover and not in LOS of an alien. 3) I always try to move to avoid shooting through or over cover to maximize chances to hit.

OOh, like an option in the menu to have random starting funding?

Would love (and pay) to see Forest Maps. Would love to have the time to get into mapping and help out but business doesn't run itself unfortunately

I think what he's trying to say is; The aircraft is only lost once you reach 0% fuel in combat AND your plane has not left the combat area. HOWEVER The aircraft does not always take the quickest route to the edge of the battle area and has made its calculation based on that in-optimum trajectory. If you say "no" and then (fire a missile say) then go to the nearest exit as determined by you. Providing you reach the end of the combat zone before hitting 0% you shouldn't lose the aircraft.

Anecdotal evidence but; On my play-through of 1.02 I am experiencing plenty of aggressive AI inside the UFO. Examples; 1. Casean is hemmed into pilots room (in corvette). He has two guys to his front, both with shields though they are behind cover. On my turn I open up door behind him and spray him with rifle (miss and don't kill). Close the door and run back a few steps. On the AI turn, instead of shooting at shield guys (and risking reaction fire), he turns round. Opens up door, walks through and kills my rifleman. 2. Lining up behind the three doors in the corvette. Sebillian officer opens up door, launches a grenade right into them and kills two out-right. On the same turn, Sebillian opens up side door and shoots at another and kills him. Interestingly though the Seb from the side ignored a guy in the same room and shot at someone through the side door (but in the corridor).

I'd say that's the main issue at present. I definitely think that events/missions should take at-least a token amount of time (say 1 hour) and that the UFO AI needs to make a decision either to try and outrun an interception, or carry out a mission and risk almost certain interception. I don't know if that is possible within the confines of the game however. I'd be happy if the funding increase from performing missions and shoot-downs was increased to compensate for the nations leaving. As it is I have played a near perfect game so far and my expenditure is pretty much the same as my income by November with missions only really covering the cost of replacing lost equipment and just keeping up with the Aliens tech. I certainly can't afford a third base!

That's not true. You lose Laser weapons when your soldiers die. At-least that happens to me anyway! (It might be a bug). I can also attest that even without losing a single air battle I simply don't have enough alloys to make any armour by mid November.

Based on the only areas where I have zero points (and where the group average is 0) I think it must be "Points for Reputation".

Ok, its really hard to get to this page (I even struggled to navigate back to it) so here's the link instead: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/xperience.php?go=ranking

I lost 3 soldiers in one mission and two of them came back from the dead. Ok, Ok, let me put this out there. It my experience you lose laser weapons when your guys die... When you guy comes back to life, does he get that laser weapon back? Or is he suddenly weaponless and how does the equipment screen manage that?

The real trick would be to come up with the final command structure for the forums!

You should be ready to play it one year from now. Today is definitely not the release date, so please don't check back again until then!