Komandos

Yesterday I watched Xenonauts 2 version 24.7 broadcast on YouTube. I got the impression that the enemy has more chances to die from a single shot than the player's soldiers. I see the problem in the fact that on some tasks it is very easy for the player to lose 4-5 soldiers, and the remaining 4-5 soldiers of the player are very insufficient not to put the remaining soldiers of the "second line" (snipers) at risk. Or it is necessary to take more soldiers on a mission so that the player has the ability to calmly survive a much larger number of "sad situations". Or make it so that the aliens could not cause serious damage to the player's soldiers.

In reality (in real reality): grenades are used indoors without any problems.

I was trying to create a modification for the final mission. The mission modification was supposed to provide the player with a high level of drama and adrenaline from the large number of casualties among the warring parties. To do this, I needed four autonomous tactical groups of 6 soldiers each. The first group of 6 soldiers was to attack right down the corridor. The second group of 6 soldiers had to protect the rear from constantly attacking opponents. The third group of 6 soldiers had to perform a combat mission on the left side of the corridor. (Destroy alien equipment). The fourth group of 6 soldiers had to perform a combat mission on the right side of the corridor. (Destroy the alien equipment). The number of aliens and the power of their guns were planned so that only 6 of the player's 24 soldiers could reach the final goal. As a result, I was unable to create a large-scale and intense battle due to software limitations.

If the complexity of the battle increases, and the number and quality of aliens increases, then naturally, you have to spend more effort and attention on the game in order to save the lives of your soldiers, and the dynamics of the game are lost.

If the player is given the opportunity to sort soldiers into separate tactical groups (as is done in X-COM 3 Apocalypsys), then: 1- we will be able to appoint squad commanders and calculate the effects from their leadership; 2 - we will not need a very long tape of soldiers on the control screen.

With the game balance that Xenonates 1 had, the number of 12-16 soldiers was really enough. When rebalancing the game in the direction of increasing the number of aliens and the lethality of weapons, losses among the player's soldiers will increase. This is not critical on small missions to capture small UFOs. But this made it impossible to create too large-scale battles. For example: the final battle, or the battle to protect the Xenonauts Base from an alien invasion. I tried to add more soldiers to the game by creating an additional interface for them on the control screen. However, this interface did not work. The task of finding a place on the control screen and placing the control button for additional soldiers there was the easiest task for me. The most difficult task was that: I couldn't get around the software limitation. I'm not asking you to increase the number of soldiers for the main game. (This will require changing the balance of the game). No. I ask you to leave such an opportunity for future modifications of the game that players will create for themselves and their friends.

If you look at the modifications that players create, you will see that all the modifications are trying to increase the variety of the game: modifications add new weapons, new equipment, new missions, increase the number of characters, personnel, and the scale of battles. If the game does not allow the use of modifications to increase diversity, then players find games with more diverse features. The only obstacle that was in Xenonauts 1 and did not allow the game to get closer to UFO: 1-2 (from the point of view of combat tactics) was the inability to increase the number of the team to the number that was in UFO: 1-2. (modification of this was not possible) I hope there is room for modifications in Xenonates 2. In 2022, a lot of tactical games with a team size of 4-8 are going on sale. There are a lot of role-playing RPG games with a team size of 1-8 characters. Yes. It's very popular, but I want something new.

And how many people didn't mention anything because the available team size seems normal (adequate) to them? When a player chooses the difficulty of the game, I suggest giving the player the opportunity to choose a team size that is convenient for him. Someone likes an easier fight. Someone likes a harder fight. Someone likes the fight on the recommendation of the developers.

I think it would be correct to add a parameter such as "evasion". The faster the unit moves, the harder it is to hit it. This means that it is easier to get into a combat unit that did not move in the last round (turn) than into a combat unit that spent all its AP (movement points) on moving around the terrain (it will be difficult to get into such a unit). The difficulty of aiming at a unit (shooting accuracy) should depend on how much AP the unit has spent on movement before. This also applies to the "overwatch" feature. The more AP a unit has spent on movement, the harder it will be for it to get into it.

By forcing the player to play more aggressively, you force the player to take more risks. More risk means more casualties among the soldiers. It's easy to take risks when the player has a lot of soldiers in battle. When there are few soldiers and the loss of even one: this is the loss of 15-20% of all personnel. (And 15-20% of all combat experience earned by the tactical group on combat missions). If you force the player to: risk a lot of combat experience (which is expensive), in exchange for a small part of the resources, then such a game will not seem friendly to beginners. (For players who do not have enough gaming experience to correctly assess tactical risks).

You can put a valuable artifact in the alien room. If the player does not dare to storm a room with a valuable artifact for a long time (the player is afraid of losing his soldiers), then the aliens blow up (destroy) both themselves and the valuable artifact. If a player takes a risk, he should be rewarded. If the player refuses the risk, the player loses the reward.

On combat missions (where a UFO landed on the ground on its own), a timer would be appropriate if the aliens tried to return to their UFO, get into a UFO, spend several rounds (turn) to prepare for takeoff and take off. If the player gives the aliens the opportunity to evacuate, then the combat mission will end in nothing. (the UFO capture mission was not successfully completed).

If the aliens are placed on the battlefield in groups, and these groups of aliens will attack the player. (Not alone, namely simultaneously in a group) then this will increase the difficulty of the battle for the player.

You can add a "map of scientific knowledge" to the game. X-COM scientists are moving along the "research map" - just like in RPG games, a "group of travelers" travels around the map of the country, (from one location to another) exploring the game world and making various useful discoveries in game locations, and also encountering various difficulties and "random encounters" along the way. Time required for movement: this is the time needed for research. Each new location is each new technology, which (in turn) opens up a map of smaller studies (discoveries). (Just like in an RPG game, a player visiting a city discovers a map of the city, with many places to visit.) Difficulties and "random encounters" "on the way" are missions that your soldiers are forced to fly out on. In other words: each study should generate (create for the player) a new type of combat mission that must be successfully solved in order to move forward. (moving forward in research) Thus: scientific research in the game can be made no less exciting than traveling through an unknown country in RPG games. However, this will require creating many unique locations (alien bases, human bases, etc.) with many different quests. (As in RPG games, many unique cities, settlements and other locations have been created.) I hope I was able to express the idea clearly in English. Create a "research map" where "research time" is like "travel time" from one location to another; where "random encounters" and "quest tasks" are combat sorties of your soldiers. Where each scientific research creates new (additional) combat tasks for the player. (Just like playing the game "Fallout" - the player explored the world around him, discovered new cities and engaged in combat clashes to gain access to new locations and advance through the plot).

If the effect of "the less the better for the player" really worked, then it would work on weapons. But the game provides a lot of new weapons. And even more weapons will be added to the game by the players themselves with the help of mods. I saw in the screenshots of the Xenonauts 2 game about 3-4 vehicles of the initial (starting) level. This transport has already been drawn by artists and tested in the game. It only needs to be added to the final version of the game.

Do you think that if the player gets the opportunity to make a choice on which transport to send soldiers on a mission, it can make the game less interesting and diverse?

If this happens at the maximum complexity of the game, then to someone such a "maximum complexity" of the game may seem insufficient.

Unloading soldiers from the transport, at the beginning of the mission, is a rather risky and stressful stage. But due to the fact that the variety of transport in the game is not large, there is a small number of tactics (tactical diversity) associated with the deployment of soldiers on the ground.

If all the aliens are armed with grenade launchers, then the aliens will have a real chance to defeat the player's soldiers.

I propose to make sure that soldiers with stripes (medals) for injuries can provide medical care to others faster and better. I believe that the awards (medals) in the game should give the soldiers more bonuses of all kinds. For example: Service Medal ( "Awarded for active participation in ten combat missions."): +1 to the soldier's visibility radius; Long Service Medal ("Awarded for active participation in twenty combat missions."): +2 to the soldier's visibility radius; Distinguished Service Medal ("Awarded for active participation in thirty combat missions."): + 3 to the soldier's visibility radius; Military Cross ("Awarded for eliminating five alien combatants in a single operation." [Kill at least 5 aliens in a single ground combat mission.] ) +5% chance of critical damage The number of awards must be increased

I agree that the lethality of alien weapons should not be 100%, so that the player has the opportunity to get a situation (game experience) with wounded soldiers and providing medical care to these soldiers. As for the losses among soldiers: I would suggest introducing three (3) types of units into the game (on the player's side): 1 - robots. Cheap units that a player can lose on the battlefield in very large quantities. 2 - Soldiers. The units that the player tries to save, but to win the battle, he can sacrifice them. 3. Commanders. Units with a lot of different properties and characteristics that the player will try to develop in the same way as characters are developed in RPG games. Commanders have additional (compared to soldiers) functions and abilities. The loss of a commander is a very serious loss, and for the sake of saving the lives of commanders, it is better for the player to lose the battle (evacuate). For one battle, I would suggest 2-3-4 commanders. The rest are robots and soldiers. The player's task is to educate a whole team of commanders (officers) for the final.

Death by one shot was the main source of adrenaline and excitement in the original UFO: 1-2. With the invention of thick armor, and after the discovery of "heavy plasma", combat missions became less dangerous and emotional.

Healing too quickly and easily reduces the adrenaline level in combat missions. If the player does not have any serious problems in battle and the player cannot face unusual situations in battle, then how can the player get adrenaline in such battles?

There are practically no gambling elements in the game. Even tactical battles do not cause the excitement of battle, everything is so predictable there. There should be a lot more uncertain situations in the game. For example: a player needs more chances to die from a single shot. Etc.

In X2, aliens can specially carry a bunch of various junk on their UFOs to confuse Earth scientists and load them with unnecessary work.