Lightzy

I think removing the 'auto-finish-mission' thing would fix this. Also I'd like it removed because it takes like half a minute and it feels like the game is stuck. This also happens if the alien dies in any way other than u shooting it. like say from a fire, etc

To me it happens every time I choose to 'select next research' after ending one research, going to the research screen to select another, then pressing ESC, I think

I don't recall.. I was doing everything quickly.. making some soldiers snipers, others rocketeers, others riflemen... I think I was in the process of giving out grenades when it happened.

sathra, there are no further details... you go to the screen, press ESC, the game quits

? pressing ESC (the keyboard button) when in the research screen quits the game try it

arg

Of course the shots all hit the wall, but my soldiers (and probably aliens and civs) get a 75% hit chance calculated. Maybe this is why they shoot at walls for the entire mission? Got a save file of course

This time it ended well --- insta killed an alien. But .... even the slightest miss.... ooooh, teamkill mayhem

just crashed.. haven't even started my first mission

"secured" is considered if you finish the mission without ever loading a save during the mission. it's a bug

I got that problem too, but on a desktop. the weapon descriptions hover is wayyyyyy tiny and only works for weapons you have in stock too

'tis an issue of sight range if every time you advance, you get 1shot or wounded because the enemy has more sight, is waiting to fire at you, and there is no way to advance in most places unless you leave yourself exposed. equaling out the sight range would remove this, and make room for the 'reflex' score of soldiers/aliens (or whatever it's called) to decide who gets to do what and when. as for balancing the ground combat, i would suggest to play a lot of jagged alliance 2 for a couple of days, then return to the ground combat system in the right frame of mind :>

that's the link to desura but not the standalone page, no?

where is the standalone link again?

looks wow

virosa sadly that's how I play too. all snipers/rocketeers, with one going scouting for the nuke-squad until he is injured, then replaced. I think your observation that aliens just forget about you if you're not in their line of sight is very accurate and problematic, i didn't even think about it... aliens should definitely converge on the last known position...

I think maybe allow the wraith it 4-5 teleports max in combat. teleporting must cost some energy or something

I had m16 clips missing

this?

Hahahah! I've seen this very often. many times when you see #### a crash soon follows.

Waldil, I did read your comment, and I did think it a good idea to consider, which is why I didn't want to respond to it or start a discussion around it, so to not give anyone argumentative a chance to argue, and so that people could go on to freely post their opinions on what needs to be changed WITHOUT anyone arguing with them. Because I think there are many other good ideas to consider. So that everyone says what they think without immediately being showered with criticism. I think all in all, it would be good to start a new thread and have rules in it, like, nobody argues, only adds. You would note that almost all posts since my posts have to deal with my post, rather than people having suggestions of their own, cleanly and simply, according to what's in the game currently and not according to the opinions of another

ran away from my forces right INTO a mountain thing (that big 'clutter' feature), where it apparently found a cave or tunneled in. In any case it became stuck there. Luckily I could aim at the mountain with rockets and kill it

1) the fact that its your fault a soldier is out in the open and you should be punished is not quite right, because most of the time you have no other way to advance on the enemy other than being exposed. the question is really HOW much punished you/aliens should be. My opinion is that currently it is TOO MUCH punished and should be reduced by a lot. That is not to say that cover will not offer significant advantage. I have no problem with that the tactical game should require tactics such as flanking (currently it does not. currently it requires only concentrated fire from far far away because you always have a chance of hitting even from across the map, or at the very least you'll destroy the cover, therefor max range should be max range). It's also very very simple to implement and has no bug potential. And meh, if the concept is so awful, then don't call it 'the bullet stops traveling after max sight'. just call it automatic 0% chance to hit. same difference. this is purely a gameplay consideration. and in truth guns do have a max range after which the bullet stops traveling and falls to the ground, or is completely without spotting power, so I don't understand the 'conceptual problem'. Also it cures the game of ailments such as the perpetual threat of a 'bolt from the blue', which are simply not good design and add nothing to tactical gameplay. Regarding the mix of alien craft, this is a gameplay consideration as well. at some point you may lose an aircraft in air combat and what then? you''ll be unable to take any more missions. no, there must always be light and medium ships coming so that the player always has a chance to do a mission. Anyway, I appreciate you guys' feedback but I'd rather if you propose your own changes rather than take the opportunity to be 'change resistant' and argue with my proposed changes. Offer your own opinion of your own on what needs to be balanced and that will eventually be for the best

Balancing a game like this is an interesting process because it's a holistic, integral system where every single thing affects another. It's going to take a lot of work and more so, a 'director's artistic approach'... as in, what type of feeling do you want the player to have at each stage and section of the game. Also, I think that prior to approaching balancing really, the team needs to sit and play a couple of rounds of the original x-com. and always play ironman. The designer needs to sit and ask questions like "do we want it to be a strategic option, or a strategic necessity for the player to do X, Y, etc (for example, building another base, or choosing a certain line of research first before another), and will these choices lead to a different type of game, or just to an easier win? when should the player feel hopeless and when hopefull? how can we turn it into a real story through gameplay (for example, getting wolf armor for your team is a great turning point in how you feel.. almost the change from being hunted to becoming the hunter).. what's the story? But on the most basic level, here's some balance changes I'd right now even before the questions: Ground combat balancing (first): 1) hit chance against units out in the open should be reduced significantly so that it is possible to advance, both for you and the aliens. I would suggest that the max % to hit on a target in the open would be the soldiers accuracy rating. So a rookie soldier with 58 accuracy will have MAX 58% to hit a target in the open, if at optimal gun range, and after full aim. Or even less.. 58% is a bit too high fur a fun game. This lends itself to a much more tactical game, with engagements requiring a bit more strategy because you can now actually move around and advance without getting 1-shot. 2) hit chance against units in cover need to be raised significantly so that you do not need a team of 4 snipers all shooting at the same target with all their APs before in hopes for a kill. Cover should be important. but not THAT important 3) grenade throw ranges should be reduced to about pistol effective range 4) rocket launchers should have serious costs associated with them or you simply do not need any other weapon. they do everything for you. From putting aliens to sleep (smoke), to completely destroying and ignoring the most important part of the ground combat game (cover), hitting multiple enemies, being able to fire as artillery, at a place which isn't even revealed to you yet but which you suspect has an alien in it, and with infinite range.... it's simply the best weapon to have, and it's free. You could: make ALL starting weapons items that require purchase (like the condor. not manufacture, but purchase), and then make rocket launchers and rockets expensive. make rockets so heavy that you can only have 3 per soldier per mission or so (but even then I'd take a whole team of rocket ppl), make the rockets blast radius 1 or even 2 tiles smaller, or make them much more inaccurate unless in the hands of a true expert. 5) make all sight ranges equal regardless of armor or anything. It does not lend itself to a fun game where you just walk around getting shot at and killed because of a design decision that gives you no defense or means of coping against it.... perhaps this will not be such an issue though when the AI units begin moving a bit and not only sit behind cover and wait for you to come with their 2-3 reaction shots per round. and most important: 6) lower the ranges of all guns so that their max range is as far as the bullet goes. no dropoff and no nothing. max range. the way the 'green' range is now, that's how I'd keep max range. there's no point at all in damage/etc dropoff and all it's causing is annoying bugs where aliens all shoot from all across the map the moment you're sighted, because they can. And also, almost all of my kills are with soldierse waaaaay way out of danger shooting from far far away. And pretty much all my deaths too are from a blue bolt that comes from somewhere from the other side of the map. To fix all this and make the game more fun and tactical in one go, make the end of the 'green' gun range the max range and that's it. beyond that there is not even the option of targeting a unit. This is the most important change in my opinion. It will also lead to much more tactical play, since it will force you to close in on the enemy and actually engage them in combat rather than having one spotter spot them, run away, and then bombard them from far away with sniper fire and rockets (which is the WIN playstyle right now both for u and the aliens) Now for geoscape: Invasion Length: 1 year at the current rate of time passage speed would be great. A nice long game. Missions: 1.2 missions per week seems a bit low. how many did you have in x-com? I suppose this would work if you make the proposed changes to air combat which force you to really select your engagements (as you will now need 2 condors to down a light scout which can roll) Soldier Stats: there is already a marked difference between rookies and veterans.. enormous gap in action points which in of itself is WIN.. but.. yeah.. the only thing I think should change is that rookies should feel more like rookies in and of themselves, and not only when compared to high level veterans. They should have poor poor accuracy (x-com!!!) and be operating mostly on luck until they reach the level where they operate on skill. Air-combat: should be the least important part of the game. currently it is the most important part, because it is the most risky. losing a cheap plane is a big blow, and losing an expensive plane is close to game-over. It shouldn't be like that. Winning air combat should be easy. it should be like in x-com where the only problem is that your interceptor might get damaged and then require time for repair if you take on a hard foe. Also, remove alien fighter squadrons from the game. Escorts I understand, but harassment squadrons that serve only to annoy and are no fun at all should be removed. It's too dangerous to accidentally lose the chinook to one of those because it just appeared out of nowhere somewhere and you're on the way back from a mission or whatever. Those alien fighter squads simply break the game in an non-fun and completely unnecessary way. remove them, they have no point Alien invasion progression: landships/large ships/enormous etc ships and other specialized ships should not be too common even in LATE GAME. Pace it like x-com, where throughout the entire game you got light/medium ships, and later on a few large too and very rare enormous ones. But never just switch from all light to all medium to all large. Because, what if the player lost an airplane and cannot handle large craft at the moment? out of luck because he can do no missions at all? not good. manufacturing balance: 3 days for a foxtrot is sensible but 30 days for a corsair? and 400k credits?!? it is much more cost effective to purchase multiple hangars and multiple condors. much more flexible, much more powerful too, and a lot less frightening to lose.

Should be completely random it's enough that the maps are the same over and over again