Dren608

Here is saved game from "before combat" go in and make sure everyone has weapons, etc. click on Begin Base defense and it CTD auto_strategy_before_combat-95.json

It would have sufficed to just say it is part of basic design and not add the "your problem" part. As far as the design decision, I understand wanting to force some sort of progression, it just bothers me that we are using the same old same old - other games have the obvious timer like the UOO-1. I was hoping that the original story line - about Xenonauts trying to hold the Cold war tensions down while stopping a subversive invasion from the aliens, hat escalates as we are successful. I was sorry to see that go. It IS what made me back the Game via Kickstart, A new more unique way of invoking the "timer" mechanic. X-2 has wonderful graphics and if we can get past the current round of issues, should do OK. Early Access release will tell us how well it will be received (with the UOO-1). I do think we need to balance it a bit as research and build rates are far out stripped by the Panic gains. In games I've tried so far I can survive the Panic gains for about 5-6 months using the in game economics. I see many Screen shots of January of first year with 20+ million, and 6 bases built. No one can do that with the actual Game economic mechanics. I am lucky if I get 2 bases up. In 17 that is a little easier as they don't take the 1,000,00 for the first base placement, so building a second base can happen earlier but no way you can have 6 with radars built in the first month. I am trying to looks at this from an Early release P.O.V. what will make people want to try it and then "Buy it". I am using that as my measuring stick. Right now I am afraid we would loose more than we gain I don't want that, I want this game to succeed. IF there were anything I could do to help make that so I would. Since I am not privy to the Code, and Methods, all I can do is offer possible suggestions. They mostly go ignored so maybe they aren't very good, but at least I am trying to look at this as someone trying it for the first time, and not from the Beta Tester (reporting all the "glitches"). The glitches are code issues and as a 40+ year programmer I know they can be dealt with. The overall feel of the game presenting to the public, that worries me some. As for the Steam comments - this will be released on Steam - that makes their comments relevant, if all we have are negative comments it bodes ill for early access release. It is something Goldhawk needs to think about and address in some form for Early Access release. Enough of me on my soapbox. I'll go back to Beta testing, within the current economic systems.

That's just rude - It's your problem now? How about if it triggers backers and early access folks to trash talk the game because of it? If the game doesn't sell well we lose Goldhawk so be a bit more civil in your replies please.

I don't know if anyone reads other Lists on this game, I just reviewed a few threads on Steam and there seems to be a general backlash to the idea of the orbital station/"doom timer" concept. Is there a real reason to have that be the driving factor?? As one poster put it They view this as a clandestine war vs the aliens. So we would expect it to be building up to something. If you are blowing up cities from orbit no government is going to back "clandestine" efforts. It's a shooting war and based on the Lore you have in Game we can't win it with our best technology. So they would be spending all their resources on finding solutions, not funding some Clandestine organization. The story just doesn't mesh together, massive global destruction from an untouchable weapon in Orbit and we are sniping at the odd alien ship flying around? Why would the aliens even bother, Wait until you have the world in a state of total anarchy and then come down and grab whatever you want, as there will be no organized resistance. I much preferred the original premise of Aliens interfering in the Cold war and we are the "men in black" trying to keep the world from self destructing as we deal with the Aliens. That had great story possibilities. With the orbital bombardment/panic mechanic we have now it is just a "race" that short of playing perfectly and down a prescribed path we just loose. That is not a game that allows repeatability and not much enjoyment of discovery, as as soon as the "path" is discovered no one will do anything else, if you don't discover it right away you won't bother playing anymore as it just won't be fun. I'm a backer, high enough so that I'm supposed to have a "character" in the soldier pool. With the current path the overview story is taking I'm not sure I would bother playing it. Being tied to a specific story line with a strict time limit is not the kind of game that sounds fun. Story line - yes - but let the player have the time and flexibility to solve it in numerous ways. Right now it feels like there will be one way to "win" and the rest is just wasted time. Maybe as a timer you just ramp up the alien activity in response to your success - The Original X-Com did this so that at some point you had to "finish the game" as you were being overwhelmed by the number of alien UFO's/Missons/Terror sites etc. Thus if you fumble around early the aliens aren't automatically escalating, as long as they "score more" than you they are "winning". Since the story seems to be not one of conquest (if it were we would have already lost based on the lore in game already) you need to find out what they are after and then force them to not get it. For that you need to allow the players to explore the game and that means giving them adequate time. Sorry for the "Rant" but it seems tied into the Balance of Panic/Economics. It seems that there are a lot of Games in this Genre that have this timer mechanic. Why does Goldhawk have to follow the crowd? From what I'm reading elsewhere there is a sizable audience that won't bother knowing that mechanic is in the game. Hope someone Reads this and explains why we abandoned the whole "Cold War" story line, and/or why this Timer mechanic has to be a part of the game in such a prominent way.

Some observations that I think would effect an Early access impression of the game. I am playing within the current 16.2b panic and economic system so no Cheats to get unlimited funds, etc. Panic The panic level goes up 20 per month starting with the 2nd month in every region. If you don't do anything about it you loose after that happens 4 times. Because you can't cover the Globe from one base there are random UFO "incident reports" that look to raise panic 1 point for each so you might not get "4 times" above in every region. So what can you do? The command sites you can develop (for $250,000 each) reduce the panic 1 time by 10 (and gives you some extra income and recruit-able scientists/engineers). You have to do this as it looks like when panic get over 50 your funding from that region goes down by 1/3, over 75 down by half. There are only 5 sites per region so you get another 2 months from this. There was at least one Research topic that gave you a 10 panic reduction across all regions so maybe + 3 months delay all totaled. Then there are Agents each one reduces panic by 10 in one region where they are deployed. These Agents "appear" (recruited) by some under the hood mechanic, so never know when you will have them available. There are no other ways of mitigating Panic that I can see. Deploy a Base in a region, panic untouched. Shoot down UFO's in a region Panic untouched. Stop a raid, terror mission, destroy an alien base in a region and panic is untouched. Under the current system you will "panic out" in about 12 months at best from what I can tell. and lose 1-2 regions well before that. This leads into the next part which is the economics. Economics So in typical X-com/Xenonauts style we are an after thought when being funded. OK, to an extent, that is what these games are about. There are the funding regions that if you don't manage their Panic levels will dry up quickly. However to mange their Panic requires you to spend $250,000 close to 25% of your monthly funding on a command center, after expenses at start, to just take down one region 10 Panic. You will need to do roughly 2 regions a month in cycle to keep the regions under 50 panic as much as possible, otherwise their funding goes down. To get more coverage you need to build more bases which cost $1,000,000 to just get the Access space built. You will need to build about another approx. $500,000 in structures, for just an air base with two hangers, Radar, Generator, 2 more Aircraft at 250,000 each(starting interceptors cost). So to get to being truly functional maybe about $2,000,000. You can generate some of this from taking the cash from shot down UFO's, but then you will be resource short for all the Weapons, Aircraft, Armor, Defenses, Detection upgrades you need to get done. (Side note the Access shaft has a $250,000 maintenance cost while it looks like all other structures run at 10% of original cost so maybe that should be reduced to be consistent - it would help the economics a bit too). Additionally it costs you time to build those extra interceptors etc. so another drain on resources, i.e. things not being built so you can take down UFOs and containing Raid/Terror/Alien Base missions, oh and the odd UFO mission. Sources of income are Funding Regions (panic management required), and shot down UFOs you delegate out. Selling the odd collection of Alien corpses. There is no "economic engine" you can get going (Original X-Com you could sell Laser cannons for a decent profit once you got the bases set-up and going). We have nothing like that here. So you end up spending Cash to mitigate Panic, to generate Cash that let's you mitigate Panic, and you never can invest properly in upgrades to weapons etc. to the extent that you can control the Alien invasion. If this is the way it will be in Early Access - I think you will get a negative response. The narrative after the first orbital bombardment talks about success vs Aliens mitigating the Panic, but none of your successes do that, only you spending money to activate Command centers and deploying randomly gained "agents". I think that while the Panic mechanic is a good "goad" it seems way to much of a "win now" (4 months) or die. And you don't have the resources or research speed to win in 4 months. The idea that your successes in shooting down UFOs, ending Raids, Terror sites and destroying Alien Bases does not reduce the panic in a region/globally makes the game seem unwinnable. We want Early access folks to feel that can win the end product, Right now if I was not a veteran of Strategic games (I go back to Avalon Hill board games) I would try this out and quit and never play again after 4 months of the Game. To many constraints and now way to relieve them. Something to think about, we want lots of people to want to play this right? My initial thought would be tweak economics (reduce the access shaft maintenance), maybe have some way to get "one time cash" for research projects (we published!)?. Panic: Maybe build in a scaling of the Panic mechanic, Lower at first (governments saying "working on it") and if you don't get a handle on it it starts to go up faster every few months. Here's a basis for Panic for discussion: Instead of 20 globally (all regions) go 15 for the region where city is and 5 in the other 4. Make the choice of region truly random so we can't pattern a response (i.e. well that one is lowest/highest so it will be hit next or some other pattern) Being purely random (well as random as a computer can be) in the bombardment means we need to react and maybe even then it won't matter (3 months of just your cities going down will make a region rather cranky, and despite our best efforts may have them give up). Also give us a reduction of Panic something like this (half or maybe less) of what the panic would go up, if we failed, for successful Raid and Terror missions. For Shot down UFOs, 1 point reduction for each $100,000 (round down) of what the delegation value is and we delegate. (if we get greedy and want all the tech for ourselves the public won't see their "government at work" - I call it the "Men in Black effect"). I would think a one time reduction of say 5 or 10 when you build a base in a region (they cost enough so you should get a minor boost from the area). Just some thoughts on trying to look at this from the perspective of the first time user or the gamer that wants to see a possibility of winning. Currently it seems impossible just doing the mathematics, we don't want that perception.

Begin of turn 2 first thing I did was fire MARs missile at Alien, it "hits" freezes at explosion then CTD after a fair amount of wait time auto_groundcombat_turn_2_start-138.json

The issue is I don't ever get the SMG or rangefinder as choices for secondary weapon. Smoke launcher is handled mostly by my own soldiers so would rather hit better or have optional burst fire (to suppress) Also as soon as I research alineium(sp?) IT upgrades the missle turret on MARS though there is a project to do that?

This is the soldier screen (little barracks button in base screen at top) Looks to be right shifted I wounder if this is because I have older windows system (Still on 8.1)

When I build the MARS I only have Smoke launcher available as secondary choice. Built Rocket turrets before building a MARS, Do not have saved game of this from before build. The Save file is right before going into Ground Battle Also MARS seems to have 80 HP and 25 armor (I thought it was going to be 75 HP and 25 armor). auto_strategy_before_combat-10.json

I am getting the hiccup on even regular LMG misses - Just as soon as I started LAser Weapons Research. NExt mission it happened and contiues on any mission.

My opinion (all 2 cents worth or less to most of you) on the stress mechanic is that you are now forcing me to play "your way". It's hard enough with wounded and killed soldiers to keep a viable force at the ready. Have any who are implementing this Stress system ever actually fought in combat? The friends I had that did, would tell of how they relieved it with a few intense "days off" (various ways) but it was days not weeks/months of down time. This game is supposed to be using the best of the world (based on stats of some of these soldiers I wonder about that), I envision these folks being Special Forces (SAS, Rangers, Seal Team, Commandos, etc.). Those individuals have very High tolerances to Stress, they have to. To make them have to stand down 3 out of every 4 missions doesn't seem like something that would happen especially when the missions are roughly a week or so apart. I would suggest to adjust the stress recover rates to be a rate based on stress level. Example: Full HP: 50 and below stress goes down 5/day, for stress from 51 - 75 it goes down at 3/day, 76-99, 2/day, they may partake in base defense if at 60 - 99 Stress (doctors won't pass you on your routine Physical for in field combat ops), if you hit 100+ its one per day and soldier is available for anything (and note Stress can now go over 100, so on a very bad mission you may be out a long while). Wounded soldiers have their Stress reduce at the same rate as their wounds or 1 per day (whichever is lower) until they are at full health (full HP), then apply the above rates wherever their Stress level is when at full HP. if you are 100+ stress you can't even defend the base (you are considered to unstable to give a weapon). By adjusting the recovery rate you still have to decide when to go out, rotate soldiers to keep the best "fit" for the "big ones". You shouldn't penalize the commander that wants to preserve his forces in a tactical situation with NO idea of the terrain, the enemy strength, and definitely NO support - in this game you only have what you carry into battle. The current idea of stress does that. You have to get it done "NOW" every time, which means more wounded and dead soldiers. I would think that the cautious commander would inflict less stress on the soldiers because they know he isn't out for "glory", but has their welfare vs accomplishing the mission, and won't "Waste you" for a quick victory. The Lectures will now begin

Well I'll keep at it until I cause the CTD, had two Ceason missions and last one was Sebalians(sp.?).

FYI I have palyed 2 probe and one Scout ground combat no CTD yet. I am still on Windows 8.1, could it be a newer OS? Rveryone in my family got new computers recently and had to turn off some oprimizing feature that tries to give you "better" graphics resolution or some such. IT crashed most of their games until turned off.

Played two probe and one scout ground combat so far no CTD -using Windows 8.1still, FYI if you are using win 10 or similar latest OS they have an automatic setting where the OS tries to optimize your graphics, turn it off it crashes most games. Myevery one else got new computers in the last few month but me and they all had to go disable this "helpful feature".