Grobobobo

Very good changes across the board, looking forward to testing them.

I 100% agree with the rest of the post, but i do think there is potential for more tactical depth, not just strategic.

Technically it's not nerfed, it's exactly as high as it was in x1, at 45%. The reason it feels weaker is because of the change in shooting mechanics. I don't think the game fundamentals are in flux. The fundamentals are more or less done and there aren't any major game mechanic changes planned, it's just value tweaking and adding content now.

Kind of been my experience as well. The game is so easy even on commander that it just doesn't pressure you enough to have critical stuff. Plus unused scientists and engies actually generate money when unused, so oversupplying on them isn't wasteful.

I'm not using the rockets, I'm using the cannon, which is an extremely damaging sniper rifle that can shoot twice per turn. it does get slowish at some point but it still keeps up in terms of tankiness and damage output. Plus as you yourself mentioned, it's disposable. If it dies, it can get repaired for much cheaper.

Heavy specifically does not. The damage is too low to risk killing anything, so you're just gonna destroy the armor/cover and then unload on the poor alien with other units. I've yet to lose loot by using HEVY, the MARS cannon did it more often due to the overkill damage. There's a plenty. For example you can decrease its accuracy, lower its range, or increase the throw TU cost. Although I'd still prefer removal tbh. They really do not. HEVY would 100% be worth using without demo charges, c4 still wouldn't but that's less because of the item and more because walls are made of paper. I don't know what difficulty do you have to play on or what playstyle do you have to have to not be wood by MARS. that thing is easily worth 3 soldiers in tactical, and the fact that you can have 2 of them with T2 dropship is insane. 250K is almost nothing compared to what it offers.

HEVY is still very good in the vacuum, and overall better than X1 rocket launcher was, the problem is that it's overshadowed by something that is completely broken. It's fine if you can't just stick it on one of your shmucks. Heavy weapons should take effort to use. Lasers are a problem too, but only a part of it. I would risk the statement that the thermal damage is silly, but It could also be that the cover HP in general is too low. There is a big wiggle room between effortlessly and reliably destroying battlefield terrain and being useless at it. though I'll admit that I'm not a fan of the item conceptually, I think cover destruction should be delegated to HEVY and wall destruction to C4. Demo charge currently makes both obsolete. Even MARS being able to destroy walls just by running over them is super, super strong.

Is it? aliens can totally use walls as cover. Reliable wall destruction is good, but not if it's this effortless. C4 at least required some setup.

I have not played tftd, and I don't really intend to. I fail to see how that game is relevant to my comment, I don't think xeno 2 is particularly inspired by it.

I strongly disagree, I think the demo charges are kind of like FIRA-XCOM frag grenades - being able to cheaply destroy practically any kind of cover with 0 setup and from decent range makes the game less interesting, as you almost don't have to interact with cover at all. Seriously, the cover is made out of paper in this game, in xeno1 you needed to get plasma rockets to destroy walls in 1 explosion, it's no longer satisfying anymore. I think this is mostly a problem of everyone having too many stats in general.

They can't go off on their own, he's talking about the grenade "missing" at very close range and getting stuck just under the soldeirs foot because a very close wall blocked it.

You could include armor mitigation, some cleaners have 15 armor.

I don't see how this causes making suggestions looking outside of nerfing strength stat progression, Currently even that 4 battle rookie is gonna have like +10/20 bonus strength depending on the captures. I maybe see some weight increases there and there, perhaps a flat decrease of inventory slots, but for the most part carry capacity being trivialized is a symptom of a different issue.

Carry capacity is very related to stat growth, rookies can't carry all that much with heavy armor, but Every soldier gains a lot of strength so carry capacity is trivialized.

I'm playing on commander too, and captures are very very trivial. Usually it's enough to just suppress an alien with an LMG, shoot it once or twice to soften them up, and then charge it with a ballistic shield + stun baton. Or shotgun + stun baton. Aliens can't burst so charging even unsuppressed aliens with shields is relatively safe.