Ok first of all - I have sunk 40 hours into 0.98 and it is amazing - great job!
There is a lot of balancing and bugs to be sorted but not a single one is actually game breaking so once again well done.
Bugs: (I have only downloaded the file from Nexus)
- alien grenades not showing - you already mentioned to be fixed for 0.99
- new tanks and turrets do not work, no icon showing for the gun so basically you can use it as a mobile shield - BIG issue imho
-few research screens show black - when you research like a few things at once I saw that you click next and it skips to another one, then next and you end up on black screen - you then have to click next one more time to finish research update. Not sure if it is missing info for some techs. Don't have an example but will keep an eye on it if it happens again.
- No salvaging option for Landing ship? It is one of the main ships so dunno if it was intended or not.
- enchanted shields do not show up with AP smg (two handed weapon graphics present)
- I found one soldier model that is bugged and once equipped with armor disappears (in the menu) and shows as half transparent on the mission map. Unfortunately he died on me but if I see it again I will save game and forward to see if it is something related to your mod.
Balancing:
- grenades are SHIT, no other way of putting that and to make them usable I believe they have to be buffed to the level of old XCOMs - dmg can be discussed but radius should be increased on early ones. have them as large radius low dmg (with upgrades through research later on)
- can alien base fortification be slowed down to put it in line with longer/slower paced campaign - they jumped to fortress in no time as it is.
- manufacturing time (work hours not cost) of ammo and rockets/grenades should be lowered. Keeping them expensive and use resources makes a lot of sense but making them as time consuming to make as lets say an assault rifle does not.
Finally besides missing lore you have a lot of spelling/grammar errors. I am not one for writing lore but I for checking the flavor text before release to correct stuff if you need that kind of help.