Wyldefyre_CP

This may have been in previous builds as well ... if my Workshops and Labs are going +4 base and then +2 adjacency for each one connecting with another, so that 2 connected gets me +4,+2 and +4,+2 for a total of 12 .... then my Living Quarters with +15 base and +4 adjacency, when 4 are connected in a square should be getting me +15,+4,+4 for each, for a total of 92, as each is adjacent to 2 others. Instead, I'm getting a very underwhelming 56 Living Capacity ... which doesn't even count the +15 base for all four quarters (basically, it's just giving me +14 for each living quarter and no adjacency bonuses at all ... or something ...) Anyway, that adds up quickly when you're trying to get 6 labs and workshops done and still have a solid rotation of soldiers, meaning probably at least 2 more rooms wasted on Living Quarters that I could be doing better things with, esp. with space at such a premium.

To add 4 gripes/suggestions on the new build in this post. 1) I see now that the sniper's laser rifle only havs 3 shots per clip instead of 5. There are a lot of changes I don't mind trying out, but please don't limit my soldier's ammo anymore than they already were (yeah, I know the original sniper rifle had more than the 5 shots it has now, but I was willing to overlook that bit). 2) I just tried out a Mars Rover for the first time in ages. It lasted through 2 missions and a base defense. Then on the 3rd mission, 3 Sebillians picked it apart on the same turn, one at short range and 2 at mid range. Ouch. Double ouch after seeing how much it costs to repair it. I'm right near the end of month 2 and North America is at 80 panic level (with a couple others in the 70s) so that's not going to be getting repaired any time in the near future. 3) Also regarding Vehicles, I noticed there's a $200K option to convert vehicle weapons to laser weapons, but I don't even see a laser available to be built for my aircraft yet ... do I really have to build an accelerated cannon before I get an option to build a laser cannon? Could we get an option to convert standard cannons to accelerated/laser/plasma for a set cost instead of having to build individual ones for each aircraft? I dunno, I'm still refusing to sell anything at all based on the diminishing returns aspect, but at the start of Month 3 that's going to have to change. Feel like there's an overwhelming amount of expenses in addition to maintaining a decent research and engineering line (currently at 19 soldiers, 19 scientists, 19 engineers) with 4 Living Quarters, 3 Labs and 3 Workshops). 4) Please consider reducing the month operating costs of the Access Lifts. Most everything else seems manageable as far as the building upkeep goes, but at $125K per Access Lift, it is almost as much to maintain as everything else in your base, combined. Don't think I'm not enjoying some of the changes ... this extra difficulty with multiple attacks in areas I can't get to with only 2 planes and one base on Month 2 is definitely challenging here on Veteran Difficulty, but I think I might still be able to swing those back to my favor when I scrag the Cleaners and get some rudimentary air bases going in those spots .... provided my horde of alien mag weapons and alien dead bodies is vast enough when I flood the market ...

Also, yeah, the cost of installing radars feels a bit high, the maintenance cost of the access lifts also seems too much. 500K for most engineering upgrades also feels rather demanding, particularly if, like the aircraft armor, you have to buy a new set of it for each new aircraft you build. I imagine these are mostly just default values waiting on feedback, though.

I'd suggest not taking the Mars rover on that particular mission, as it's like putting a bull in a china shop. I've also learned from past experience that it's not the greatest place to be bringing grenadiers to, or even machine gunners, but I'm not leaving those at home. As soon as I can, I get two snipers up on the roof on that left side and have them lay in wait and bushwhack a fair number of cleaners spilling out of the top and right side of the map ... I might scoot one sniper out a bit more towards center at some point, but then they are susceptible to more accurate return fire.

@Skitso Solid overall review, my favorite line was "Maybe head scientist could give some hints what to do, instead of just being an ass all the time?" That had me in stitches!

@VitaminK if you're crouching, with cover, that shouldn't be happening quite so much ... granted, you can't always get good cover with every soldier every turn, but even crouching out in the open is better than nothing. Also, be sure to leave enough TUs available on at least some of your soldiers to provide some Overwatch on the aliens' turn - though they've gotten a bit deadlier with shooting before doing all their moving, there are still generally some good opportunities to 'get them before they get you'. Giving your Machine Gunners and your Snipers those opportunities on Overwatch whenever you can are often the best bet - the snipers for the longshot kills before the enemy can get close enough to do real harm, the MGs, if for no other reason than their ability to suppress aliens on their own turn, allowing your close up units to swoop in and blast them to ribbons on your own turn. Also, grenades can come in very handy, especially if you lob them over obstacles and give the alien no enemy to try shooting back at, if it survives the frag. You could try employing smoke grenades, but I've found they seem to hamper my own ability to hit targets as much as they do the enemy's ... perhaps use them in a pinch when you have a soldier badly exposed and no one else is close enough to do much else. Hope that helps a bit!

The plane ID is interesting, though I'll admit I'm likely to get frustrated with my aircraft providing diminishing returns - however .... if they came back, half shot up, and had to go back into service looking that way ... i.e., you put some cosmetic laser scorch marks, patchwork repair jobs up and down the winds and that looked worse as the plane degraded further, I'd be happy to send my shot to hell units back into the sky in a desperate bid to win one more battle .... having a plane shot down would hopefully lead to a complete overhaul at any rate, but this is stuff that could definitely make it worth the extra hair pulled! As for the special abilities ... I'm having darn Psyons try mesmerizing my soldier even after they are shot dead some times ... particularly when shooting at them with multiple shots like from a machine gun. I guess the game is trying to clock each and every shot so there is a lot of repetitive mesmerizing messaging going on there. I don't mind them panicking or berserking my troops but I think it's a little early and powerful in the game yet to be taking troops under control .... local populace, sure, ok ... lol ... The servitors are a bit much ... I like the idea, just think the amount of healing they do on other aliens and themselves is too high, especially since sometimes I barely wing one with a long shot and then watch the lil' @#$!er heal the thing for more than I damaged it for! But it's definitely something new and interesting to have to plan around a bit, especially when they lurk out of sight and lend heals ... P.S. Just discovered that the Steel Plate module had changed color from Grey to Purple and now does not provide any Armor Bonus to the troops anymore ... I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact that I just got done having the Engineers do the $500K aircraft plating markup from Ablative to Alloy or not.

Also, regarding the radar stations, it looks like we're definitely back to needing 3 radars to increase range out to the max again, but the description on the Detection Range part of the Base Info screen refers to the setup as if one radar is still all you need to max out your range.

Just a couple mentions on the new modules - liking the look, not having as big an issue with them taking up 4 spaces in inventory as I thought I might - kinda think the Tactical Module should weigh a bit less than the Steel Plate one. Steel plate module is not currently listing its +3 Armor Bonus on the Effects info line. Tactical Module needs its own definition info, it's currently using the same info as the Steel Plate Module.

Alloy Plating, $500K ?! A x5 markup from the Ablative? Wha .... wait, whazzat? 'This will upgrade the armor plating on our vehicles and aircraft to be Alloy plating, increasing their survivability.' Ok, it's a one shot deal .... whew .... exhales .... puts down the paper bag ....

@Chris Thanks for the speedy reply on the feedback! Yeah, I keep my 'idiot' accusations very close to the vest! Glad to hear the 'end of the game' thing isn't etched in stone just yet, and that the sell prices might be adjusted to a happy medium. I would tentatively suggest that instead of penalizing people for doing more than 2 of the same crash site - I try to do every one that I have enough healthy soldiers to get to, and I still find myself with not enough cash to do everything I'd like to do in the game - there are other steps you could take. For instance, aliens that were already dead upon crash could also have their items already destroyed, making for a few less items to sell. You could also reduce the amount of alenium, alloys and other ship components harvested in a crash - to be honest, I don't sell alenium or alloys unless I absolutely need to, and then, quite sparingly, because I always feel I will need every bit of it! Reducing the overall value of items a bit, instead of a drastic trade redux is another option to consider, or upping the auto-harvest value to be in closer contention to what actually doing the missions rewards, leaving the main reason to go on more missions, other than enjoyment, being the improvement of skills, promotions, and awards. I'll hold out on selling stuff a bit longer .... one month has passed and the big hit I expected to find on the funding page was not as bad as I thought it would be ... will start selling some items after the next alien or cleaner encounter, most likely, and hold off on the price redux assessment for a few game months before I weigh back in again. On a totally unrelated note, any chance we might get some wreckage/destruction trails implemented into the maps at some point going forward? Not looking for something that's going to be hugely time consuming or art intensive, like gaps in the ufo hull, but some untraverseable ditches or burning patches of grass, felled or sheered trees, etc. might add some zing. P.S. Darn it, forgot to add, in regards to the 4 square charges - maybe consider a 2 square brick? Aside from the machine gun belts and the heavy ammo rounds, I don't know of much else that's employing the 2 square option atm, seems like that could be a useful offset vs 1 or 4?

So I'm only 22 game days into this new build, playing on Veteran Difficulty, but I did want to comment on a few things that I like, a few things I don't like, and a few things I think I could appreciate if they were tweaked a bit. 1) Loving the Usability improvements! Especially like the fade-out on weapons you can't use anymore that turn and keeping color on the ones you still can. It may not seem like much, but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy after moving or shooting to see the pistol still looking all ready to go. Not having a belt anymore is taking a little getting used to, as it's been a staple of every Xenonaut 2 game I've played up to this point, but there are at least two advantages to the 'beltless' system, and those are reloading and grenade-tossing. Before, if you ran out of ammo/grenades in your belt, you had to spend 10 TU to grab another clip/grenade from your inventory and place it into your belt loop. No more! Shoot and grenade to your heart's content! So that's a huge plus. On the downside, I don't care for the 'demolition charge' being increased to 4 squares - MUCH preferred the 'demolition grenade' that occupied one space - in previous builds, I was still mixing a combo of demolition grenades with alenium grenades in several of my soldier builds because they did indeed come in handy. It wasn't until the plasma grenade upgrade that they more or less became obsolete. Eating up 4 spaces now, though, makes it a lot more difficult to justify carrying more than maybe 1 of them in a mission. This feels a bit needlessly restrictive, but that's just my opinion. 2) Balance Changes. Like the idea of the End Game being pushed back to a full year as opposed to 320 days .... I actually had a game going a few builds ago where it chirped at me that the 'end of the world' was coming in another month ... we had 3 solid bases up and 2 good aircraft in each base, soldier squads finally getting a decent work out, research and engineering going full bore at the main base, and poof! I called the game's bluff - hadn't seen a single city getting destroyed by the killer laser - figured maybe this was the start of that happening, but no, it was Poof! The whole game is over instead. To be honest, I don't care for that concept at all. Makes the game way too linear and plot-dependent at a point where I feel most people are finally starting to enjoy the actual game. Call me crazy, I prefer a longer haul with this game. What would have been understandable would have been the aliens trotting out the City Eraser after those 320-365 days and then start scrubbing cities off the globe. Panic levels could have been adjusted to make that a much tougher pill to swallow, but the whole game over? Show me! At least put a Total Annihilation image in there - though preferably a cut-scene when the game is completely finished - to show that the payer's game is finished ... maybe I need more coffee and to shut up? Yes, most likely so .... 3) Balance Changes, continued. Structures quicker to build - YES! A resounding YES!!! Now a few of them just need to be a bit cheaper, especially since monthly funding is getting reduced and sell-back has gotten horribly nerfed ... speaking of nerfed selling - I get the concept, but reducing stuff all the way down to 25% of what they were initially worth is ... well .... it's a very tough pill to swallow. I noticed you did start some things (like corpses) at twice the initial value they had previously been going for, which is nice until you get hit by that redux, which doesn't take long at all to trigger. Case in point, I currently have 15 Alien Mag Weapons, 10 Cleaner Corpses, 15 Secton Corpses and 3 Psyon Corpses sitting in storage after 22 days .... Ordinarily, I'd be out the gate selling these things to further my base construction, purchase weapons for my aircraft, or hiring some more scientists or engineers, since my new workshop, lab and living quarters are already good to go, but I don't feel like I can sell them, because of the huge hit to value I will take .... especially the mag weapons .... doing a save scum, I sold 14 of my 15 and the value drops from 10K each all the way down to 3K, just for selling 14 of the things. Mag weapons are something you collect a decent number of during the first few months of the game, and to think that quickly they'll be down to be worth so little, well .... that would throw a huge hole in my plans for expansion. But sitting on stockpiles and not getting rolling out the gate is also a detriment I'm not happy with taking. I feel like those of us who actually like the ground combat are being unfairly pigeon-holed into playing the game a different way. I could see dropping the overall value of items down somewhat, but more like from 100% down to 75%, and only after a fair amount of volume has been sold, not right out the gate like this. It's that, or don't charge 200K for each missile or torpedo mount on every aircraft coming off the line, and make those 1 time engineer upgrades like grenades and medkits. I actually don't mind paying individual aircraft mount costs, but those will need to be reduced a good deal if we're going to get hampered in raising cash this badly ... which, again, is just my opinion after playing this iteration for 22 days. Pretty sure I have some other thoughts on the game but I need a break from typing so this is it for the moment! Please don't take the criticisms too harshly.

Loving most of these changes ... I had grown attached to my recent game, but I think I will scrap it anyway in favor of starting over with these improvements. I did have a question - did the advanced med kits change include supplying you with them in more than just the base the engineers are in? Previously, my 2nd and 3rd bases had to keep using the older, less useful versions of med kits, while the main base got to use the new ones ... everyone was able to take advantage of grenade upgrades but not the med kits for some reason.

Ouch .... if the price of selling crash site items is going to get chopped that badly over time, I hope you aren't planning to make individual missile, torpedo, gun and craft armor costs permanent, or individual weapon costs permanent, either. Already was feeling a bit nickel-and-dimed on that aspect of the experimental builds, but i actually like crash-site harvesting, so I was managing to make it work.

@Chris Thanks for giving it a look-over, it's nothing huge, and as I mentioned, they are all newbies - except the shotgun guy - he's plant fertilizer now. I likely could have save-scummed and gotten a better outcome, but I save that for the most frustrating moments, like soldiers throwing their grenades right onto themselves or their fellows. P.S. Loving what you're all doing with the game. Having just gotten done trying Legacy for a bit, and now going back to Experimental, I certainly have found some things I prefer from both builds and some things I like a lot less ... but that's for another thread once I've put it all together in my head!

I'm back on the newest experimental build, but this likely applies to the other builds I've been on. Shooting at point blank range, with pistols and shotguns particularly, can lead to some devastatingly bad results for your troops, especially when the best hit chance I tend to see with a pistol at point blank range is a few ticks over 50%, and with a shotgun around 70%. Just today I'm on my first mission out with some newbs and we've blasted through all but two pockets of the map, where we figure the last alien(s) are lurking. So my assault troop with the shotgun is the first to discover the last alien ... bonus, it has its back turned to him, and he's got enough AP left to get right behind it and pull the trigger for the better of the two shot options .... well, two out of three of those shots somehow miss, and all he's done is piss off the alien and let it know he's there. No one else is even within grenade distance so I tell him, "well, you dumb bastich, you're dead now, it's not going to miss you, standing there in hand-shaking distance." Sure enough, the alien fires point blank at my stupefied nitwit ... takes two shots, but it's on point with both, and there goes my first casualty of the mission. A full turn goes by before I have the rest lined up ... sniper is next closest ... she misses and earns a ticket for a month eating hospital jello as a result. Rifleman then trots right up alongside the alien and instead of high-fiving it, fires a pistol right at it, which also misses .... About this time, I just say "@#$! it" and have the next closest person lob a grenade in from the other side, which finally seals the deal. If my chances to hit were in the 90% range at point blank and I still missed, I'd at least know to blame RNGeebus for my rotten luck, but at the moment I'm left to puzzle why my chances of hitting were so low .... especially the dummy with the shotgun hitting from behind at point blank range. There shouldn't have been anything left of that alien but enough giblets to fill the gravy boat. Yeah, they're newbs, but still ...

@Chris Thanks for looking into that - I may have to go back and give it a try when that happens, as I had put in a good number of hours - in the meantime, I've started a new game on the newer experimental build ... some interesting new changes there

Day 245 at 022230 - no matter which of several save games I have tried, at this point of this day the game crashes .... I've tried both the 'clean reinstall' options but reinstalling Xenonauts 2 always leads me back to this issue. I was returning from a successful combat mission of a downed ufo at the time and the CTD happens midflight on the way back to base .... I've tried readjusting the flight pattern, dismissing two soldiers that were close to coming out of medical at two different bases that day, telling the engineers to stop their project, refighting the whole downed ufo battle, trailing the ufo and fighting it later somewhere else, harvesting the ufo instead of engaging in a ground battle, etc ... always come back to this exact time and crash to desktop. I'm still playing by way of Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, DirectX 11 if that helps. user__give_it_a_shot_2-100.json

Starting today, the game is hanging for me at 57% loaded ... this is before I ever get any choice in whether to continue or load a different save. I've tried playing both the Experimental version of X2 and the standard version and it hangs up at exactly the same % and place on both. I tried rebooting the computer and verifying the game cache integrity on the Experimental ... it said one thing needed to be reacquired, then still failed to go past 57%. I'll try doing the same integrity cache check on the original version and see if maybe that will help ... Ok, so scratch part of that, I managed to get the Development Build version to download and work again ... will now try going back to Experimental and see if that filled in the missing piece of the puzzle.

Nah, but thanks - I had a thing or two I wanted to do differently with the initial base construction, anyway, so I will just go with this new game. Please let me know if that save helps you figure out what I'm talking about, though!

Well, I'll attach my last save file that had the issue, though I can't play it now since the update that just came down (bummer). I started a new game and just for grins cranked out a suit of defender armor on Day 8 and tried the same thing, but despite giving it to assault units and sniper units and then attempting to replicate it steadfastly did what it should have done and ignored duplicating my one suit of defender armor. So I will research a few more things like Warden Armor and the Laser Weapons and see when / if it duplicates on the newest version of the game you just sent down. Meantime .... I'm playing on Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with an AMD Fx 9370 Eight Core Processor and 16,384 MB RAM using Direct X 11 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, if any of that helps user_new_chris_1-55.json

Yep, just tried it again and it's still duplicating. Step 1 Go to your Armory Screen Step 2 Go to your Skyhawk Assigned Soldiers Step 3 Select Soldier you want to give a new role to and click that Soldier Role button Step 4 On the Select Loadout List, Select Create New Loadout, name it whatever you wish Step 5 Put the limited new gear you have on that soldier and then click Update Role Equipment so it will be assigned to that new loadout Step 6 Go to some other undeserving shlub on the same list of Skyhawk Assigned Soldiers and then change his role to the new loadout You should see that even though you didn't have anymore of that gear available, it clads him in the exact same gear as your other character. I took a Grenadier and changed him just now into a Warden Laser Sniper. I had 9 out of 10 spots filled on the Skyhawk at this point, and everyone else had Warden Armor except the Grenadier in his Tactical Birthday suit. Now he has a brand new set of Warden Armor and a new Laser Sniper rifle, w/o depleting the stock of 2 laser sniper rifles I still had. If I then reassign him back to Grenadier status, the Laser Sniper rifle count goes from 2 to 3 in storage and I have a new set of Warden Armor. Also checked and none of my other 8 soldiers lost their Warden Armor to give him a suit, so it's definitely duplicating

This is something I noticed over a year ago that is sadly still in the game. I like to be able to update my soldier loadouts and give them new names as we get better gear, making it much more simple to replace, say, one injured Warden Armored Laser Sniper with another. In the old Xenonauts game, this was no problem. The game would happily let you assign such things and save them, and then you could assign each new soldier you wanted that new status, or any other you wished, and the only thing that would hold you back was if your inventory no longer had, say, an extra suit of Warden Armor left, or was now short one laser rifle .... This game has a pesky bug / exploit situation in that it never recognizes that you have any such limit on new armor or weapons. You could have 1 Warden Armor and 1 Laser Sniper Rifle, assign that equipped soldier the new moniker, update that loadout status, and then rubber stamp the other 9 soldiers in your attack squad with the same gear, unfortunately. It'll even let you take that gear off the other people and it will count it all in the storeroom supplies, too ... Please work on fixing that one - having to drag gear you really DO have over to each new soldier every time you come back from one mission with shot up troops gets a touch annoying after awhile.

The 15 shot Laser LMG clip is a bit odd, since the only fire mode given to it is a 10-shot burst fire. This leaves you with a worthless 5 shot clip you can't do anything with, except eject for a new 15 shot clip. I'd hazard a guess that there was going to be a secondary, short-burst option like the standard LMG had, that it was going to cost 5 shots, and that it either got omitted or ruled out? If ruled out, no problem, but could we have a 20 shot clip, then, and get 2 uses out of our Laser LMG before needing a reload, or ... gives us 15 shots in the burst fire?

Understood .... I've played all the old XCom's, the new XCom's, Phoenix Point, UFO: Aftermath, and the original Xenonauts, so I have some decent understanding on the whole base management thing. What Chris commented on up above about deliberately limited options early on satisfies my gripe to some degree and gives me a better idea of how to go about dealing with that. Thanks for the extra input, though.