[Milestone 4 - Experimental Balance Thread]

@Chris I have 4 so far:

1. I swear the chance-to-hit with any of the stun weapons is WAY lower than it claims in-game. 
2. I'm convinced the training facility isn't working
3. The rescue mission reward of three crap soldiers isn't worth it. 
4. The ambush mission is a turkey-shoot. 

[V4.3.0 Aircraft screen - armour option has disappeared]

I've just built this phantom but the alloy armour (all armour in fact) has disappeared from the options.

user_armour_disappeared_in_aircraft_menu-10.json output.log

[Armour penetration vs destruction]

OK so let's consider a worked example: 

Say a sectoid has HP 60 and Armour 30.  

A hit with a laser rifle has HP kinetic damage 40, armour penetration 0, destruction 8.

A hit with accelerated rifle has HP thermal damage 40, penetration 5, destruction 2.

To work out the final damage (assuming the shot is taken from the same spot and has an equal chance to hit):

1. what difference does kinetic vs thermal damage do (are there different stats per alien?)
2. in which order are the destruction and penetration calculations done?  i.e. the penetration damage is done first, then the remaining damage accounting for the armour, then the destruction.  In which case the accelerated rifle does more damage on the first hit, but lasers do less on the first hit, but then deal increasing damage on subsequent hits. 
3. Is there any other modifier that affects damage like where you hit them?

[Idea for tech tree & armour module]

For protection against alien energy weapons, can there be some sort of "Room temperature-stable, mouldable superconductor material" of some description that can create an armour module for troops, vehicles and planes that specifically reduces the effect of hits from energy weapons?  

 

[Armour penetration vs destruction]

Can someone explain to me like I am five the mechanics behind armour penetration and destruction, and the difference between thermal and kinetic damage please?  I've been playing this game seemingly forever and yet I still don't really know what the difference really is between these two weapon systems and it isn't explained anywhere in game (so far as I can tell).  It might be worth having an entry or two in the UFOpedia on what these terms are, how they affect the gameplay, and on which enemies different features work best if there is a difference. At the moment, I think lasers are better than accelerated other mag size, but I can't explain why.  

[Combat mission UI suggestion]

Hey @Chris or @Gijs-Jan I'm not sure how hard this would be, but could the solder tabs at the top of the screen be split to those inside and outside the transport?  It's a pain, particularly on the missions where they have to get back for extraction, to keep going through all the soldiers who have full TP but are in the ship to find the ones outside the ship, if you see what I mean?

[V4.2.0 - Combat mission; can't fire through OPEN doors]

Here's the logs but I carried on playing so it will be a bit buried...

output.log

[V4.2.0 - Combat mission; can't fire through OPEN doors]

27 minutes ago, Chris said:

Yeah, looks like the visual bug on the doors is back. Problem is this is really hard to reproduce at our end because it’s fine after loading a save, so do you happen to know what occurred previously?

The mentarch I am aiming at had fired at me in the previous turn but missed (I think)

[V4.2.0 - Combat mission; can't fire through OPEN doors]

So, the open/closed states are the wrong way round for that door...

[V4.2.0 - Combat mission; can't fire through OPEN doors]

auto_groundcombat_turn_5_start-168.json

Same as the other similar issue I reported yesterday.  See pic

[V4.2.0 - Combat mission; can't fire through glass doors]

This is one I reported ages ago that seems to have crept back in - I can't fire through glass doors  as shown below, but the enemies can shoot me through them.

auto_groundcombat_turn_1_start-146.json

[V4.2.0 - Can't make missiles after completing Ariel Warfare]

Ohhhhhhh I see!

 

[V4.2.0 - Can't make missiles after completing Ariel Warfare]

25 minutes ago, Kouki said:

Just talked to Chris about this, seems like the missile and torpedo that's unlocked by doing the Aerial Warfare research doesn't need to be built anymore. We're planning to add a pop-up that tells you what weapons/buildable stuff you've unlocked so that this confusion doesn't happen in the future. Very much appreciate the bug report though!

Oh, so are you saying we don't get missiles any more?

[V4.2.0 - Can't make missiles after completing Ariel Warfare]

Just now, Emily_F said:

Can I add an extra bit - I have been able to make accelerated cannons for a while but now they've disappeared from the Aircraft Weapons option in Engineering. 

output.log 7.87 MB · 0 downloads user_no_accelerated_canons-3.json 399.85 kB · 0 downloads

Oh, just realised you only have to make them once now...

[V4.2.0 - Can't make missiles after completing Ariel Warfare]

12 minutes ago, Kouki said:

Thanks as always for the bug reports, we'll get this fixed!

Can I add an extra bit - I have been able to make accelerated cannons for a while but now they've disappeared from the Aircraft Weapons option in Engineering. 

output.log user_no_accelerated_canons-3.json

[V4.2.0 - Can't make missiles after completing Ariel Warfare]

output - Copy.log

[V4.2.0 - Can't make missiles after completing Ariel Warfare]

I've completed the res earch for ariel warfare but can't make any missiles for my planes. 

auto_strategy_after_combat-12.json

[[v4.0.0 ground combat] Stun Baton hit chance seems very low]

30 minutes ago, Chris said:

That's interesting. I'd actually noticed something similar when testing a day or two back but I'd chalked it up to chance.

The hit chance SHOULD be what's printed on the cursor, so maybe I'll give it a more thorough test and check what the numbers being rolled are.

I also noticed this.  Out of 8 attempts only one hit (on the first mission).

[V4.0 - CTD switching between solider loadout and position mapper]

output.logHere is the output log from the logs folder. 

[V4.0 - CTD switching between solider loadout and position mapper]

They're the new files in the zip file. I originally uploaded the whole zip file but realised the player.txt file contains personal data which you might want to strip out in future. 

[V4.0 - CTD switching between solider loadout and position mapper]

The attached logs should be self-explanatory; there's no save directly before it happened, but I was about to head to the soldier extraction mission and went to the positioning screen to move them round after load-out and got a CTD.

 

auto_strategy_after_combat-6.json bugReportProgress.txt logs_Error_0-incorrect_ammo__stacktrace.txt logs_Error_0-incorrect_ammo__world_capture.txt logs_Error_2-invalid_path_gi_stacktrace.txt logs_Error_2-invalid_path_gi_world_capture.txt logs_Error_3-default_ammo_un_stacktrace.txt logs_Error_3-default_ammo_un_world_capture.txt logs_Exception_1-nullreferenceex_stacktrace.txt logs_Exception_1-nullreferenceex_world_capture.txt logs_Exception_4-nullreferenceex_stacktrace.txt logs_Exception_4-nullreferenceex_world_capture.txt userBugReport.txt player.log

[Lets be realistic - most of the game is about soldiers]

Some of the OP's points are good, especially the one about pilots. But many of this have been alpha/beta testing for years now and still play it. Is it perfect? No, but it's not finished yet. But it's still fun to play even after clocking up thousands of hours. 

[V3.3.0 - Alien base door issue]

3 hours ago, Chris said:

In any case, to fix it we're going to need to find a save where we can reproduce the bug occurring (it's one of those awkward ones where a save after it happens isn't that useful to us). We'll keep an eye out at this end too, but if you come across one in your playtesting then please let us know!

So, I'm not sure if you needed my saves but here are all the saves for that combat mission, plus all the logs if they help?

auto_groundcombat_turn_6_start-410.json auto_groundcombat_turn_5_end-409.json auto_groundcombat_turn_5_start-408.json auto_groundcombat_turn_4_end-407.json auto_groundcombat_turn_5_start-406.json auto_groundcombat_turn_4_end-405.json auto_groundcombat_turn_4_start-404.json auto_groundcombat_turn_3_end-403.json auto_groundcombat_turn_3_start-402.json auto_groundcombat_turn_2_end-401.json auto_strategy_before_combat-215.json output.log output.log.1 output.log.2 output.log.3 output.log.4 output.log.5

[V3.3.0 - Alien base door issue]

Another door issue.  I can't even open the door in this pic unless I walk through it, nor shoot the alien I can see.

user_day_266_alien_base_door_issue-15.json

[V3.3.0 -Combat Missions - Stun grenades not stunning mentarchs]

I'm not sure if this is a bug or deliberate, but stun grenades don't work on mentarchs any more, which makes assaulting a room they're in a bit of a bloodbath.