[Milestone 1 Balance Thread]

9 hours ago, bonerstorm said:

As of the last time I played, there was a hard limit on the number of bases you could have... which means that eventually you'll need to have 3 radars in each one if you want to have maximum coverage that still won't cover all of Earth's landmass.

 

You are correct you can't cover the entirity of the worlds land surface, but I don't think that's really important. IIRC I could cover all of Europe, Africa and most of Soviet/Asia with 2 bases, a level 3 radar near Chad, and a level 2 near Bejing. A level 1 in south america is enough and then a level 2 in North America. A base in Australia with level 1 and I think the land not covered does not have any material impact on the game. Although there could be areas UFOs could still do something, you'll almost certainly pick them up before they drive up panic materially. 

[Reaper]

The civilian or soldier turned into a zombie has died (it is possible to be wounded by a Reaper, and not be infected). Maybe having something that could stop a zombie turning into a Reaper? TBH they are so weak right now I wouldn't want them nerfed. 

[3x3 vehicles]

@Raffik Depending on what I'm up against I generally prefer a mix of demolition & frag. Demolition are better at clearing terrain and frags more useful at stripping cloaking from Wraiths, and softening up the enemy. Both are quite useful IMO. I tend to naturally tend towards demolition charges for terrain clearance rather than shooting with lasers, but that could sub-optimal play on my part! 

[Dropship Mission Storage]

9 hours ago, Komandos said:

many players will use cheats and mods

Which the base game should not really account for. 

I'm not even sure that overloading and dropping equipment isn't that unrealistic. There are plenty of historical instances where overloaded troops were sent into battle, just to discard excess equipment immediately prior to engagement. 

[3x3 vehicles]

52 minutes ago, Raffik said:

Not necessarilly. I understand it would be fair from the balance standpoint, but as the alien technology is more advanced, very powerful weapons can be used in a smaller unit. The Cyberdrone is an example of that. It already feels like being a multi tile enemy and with its powerfull weaponry and overwatch ability, it would balance out.

Currently, to beat the cyberdrone, you need (better said my tactic used is) a couple of guys to flank it from multiple sides and use its superb senses against it to get shots to the back or sides. MARS is no match for it, so bringing a unit, that could withstand multiple shots from it would be cool.

When you face plasma weaponry in early game, then bringing in heavier armor units is a logical step.

Demolition charges are quite good against it, as they are very effective at stripping armour, and if you target the tile behind it then it will rotate to face. 

One thing that is quite helpful is to work out what order you want to shoot, move the 1st shooter first, but don't move. Then move the 2nd shooter into position. The Cyberdrone ought to be facing the 2nd shooter, so the first can now hit the rear, it turns around, and then the 2nd shooter gets a rear shot too. 

[Stalker armour]

I noticed the same thing, and now just go straight to exo-suits. I think its because the insane accuracy of the aliens means it doesn't make enough of a difference. 

[Dropship Mission Storage]

As things stand today everyone can choose take more equipment to every battle than they need, they just have to spend a couple of minutes at the start of each tactical battle unloading it. My view of the storage locker was that it was intended so that this behaviour wasn't needed and a more natural method was available to provide spares. I can't say I've seen any suggestions that are any better than that relatively simple change.

Thinking a bit more about it now, I'm actually coming to a view that I may keep on overloading anyway as most battles I'm going to have to tweak soldier backpacks, and the only real difference is that I do it in tactical rather then picking the soldiers for the dropship. On some missions I may want different grenade mix (e.g. more frag when fighting wraiths, less smoke if its reapers) and I'll generally know this on the first turn. Sooo... my ask of the devs would be to make it so that if I drop something on the ground it just automatically places it for me, rather than me having to specifically find a slot it can fit into. i.e. no 'computer says no' when I drop a grenade on top of something else. 

[Base defense missions and how to make them better]

Is that just sentry guns with AI? Given how poor the AI is right now, I don't want to delegate anything to the AI I can do myself! 

For me, watching the AI play out something like Age of Wonders 4 is sometimes quite interesting. AoW4 is a 'symmetrical' game, in that the AI for a player and for the computer opponents would be identical, and has to be good enough too. So it needs to know how to use the units, spells etc in an effective way. However X2 isn't a symmetrical game. The player tactics are different to alien tactics so the team here would need to spend a bit of time developing AI just for 'player' tactics, weapons and equipment. Right now the AI does not need to worry about med kits or ammunition, smoke & flashbangs and has pretty limited use of grenades or varied troop types (e.g. using shields to scout, and then using snipers to kill).  I think there are lots of things they ought to have higher up their list. 

[Civilians seem to love jumping through windows]

'I just want to hug an alien and tell them we don't have to fight....'

[Some feedback and ideas to take the game to the very next level]

4 hours ago, ooey said:

I noticed that the chance of survival at the highest difficulty level is 0%. I'm assuming that this means the chance of dead soldiers surviving a mission. If it is, could you give us some respite and make it 5% at least. The game is hard enough at that level  :-). If it doesn't mean this can anyone enlighten me as I haven't had time to play much of xen 2 yet. I would have thought 0% is just  a little harsh; there's ALWAYS a chance of survival!

Why not play on the 2nd hardest difficulty? Or just modify it. As things stand I think Commander is a bit too easy as once you've built your medical centre (which for me is a first day build) you do get some chance of survival. 

[Game play Panic and Economics]

I think on the lower difficulty levels winning first time around is achievable. I think the biggest problem for newbies would be not researching and investing in air defence / bases / radar, and I think this could be better managed through, for example the Chief Scientist and Engineer making helpful suggestions - e.g. in month 2 saying 'we should really research Alenium Power, it will be vital to engaging UFOs' or the Chief Engineer saying 'we should upgrade to Laser Lances / build Phantoms', it will make a big difference to our ability to shoot down UFOs. Even then I suspect the lower difficulties are such you can recover from that. 

[Dropship Mission Storage]

14 hours ago, cman1983 said:

Am not a fan of the overtaking as I think by going with the tanks there must be a weight difference  and never have tryd this again my playsytle must differ but a do think there should be a weight allowance to make players have to strategyse there squad equipment also if they could put a weapons locker in craft then it should just be equipment like ammo grenades stun batons or knifes n maybe stunnguns n shields not over compensating on weapons maybe even have 1 or 2 extra seats for a couple of reserve troups in plane who only can be used if squad is defeated as player option of continue fight or retreat the injured soldiers 

As things stand there is no TU cost for dropping items (or other penalty). Unless you deliberately put something into to stop that, then there is nothing to stop people overloading troops. Any limitations on the storage locker would then be pointless as if anyone found it limiting they'd just use the existing work around. 

[Dropship Mission Storage]

14 hours ago, Raffik said:

I do not and I routinely run out of H.E.V.Y. rounds only. If I loose the shield or run out of ammo, then so be it and I need to adjust my tactics to reflect that fact. I rather elaborate on how to flank that mf-er who just destroyed my shield than to run for a new one. But that is my play style preference only. Overstocking works fine as well I assume

I don't use the grenadier.... but I can see how running out of rounds with them would be painful. As things stand I think you'd be better off just taking a pistol and grenades and get a better equipped soldier. 

[Dropship Mission Storage]

I routinely overstock. I don't need to adjust every soldier's backpack every mission, as they always launch with a full backback and then I drop items that put them over their weight limit. It makes swapping in/out soldiers much simpler to manage.

In practice I'd run back to replace shields and, especially with lasers, magazines. It would be a rare mission I'd go back for more grenades. 

[Endgame theory crafting]

Maybe having research open up optional missions that just make it a bit easier in the final mission? Just off the top of my head a mission that lets you have a 'storage locker' available in the alien base so you can replenish ammunition / grenades etc. 

[Some feedback and ideas to take the game to the very next level]

7 hours ago, GIraaa said:

Same thing I mentioned for number 2, would be amazing to be able to utilize in ground tactical battles, gear up your team, send them into combat, select their initial strategy via your general (AI), grab some popcorn, and watch them go through the tactical map eliminating the aliens, in other words, as a commander you send them in, but tactical decisions in the field are to be made by AI, or your field general who could have some skills of his own.

Something like Age of Wonders 4 auto-resolve and 'watch the reply' option? 

[The backpack/vest]

11 hours ago, cman1983 said:

Can u rotate the items that u wana put in like u do with the base building 

Not that I'm aware of. 

[Mag Weapons Don't Actually Seem That Bad]

Like @Dren608 said, in terms of combat effectiveness accelerated weapons are, in general, marginally better than lasers, because the do more damage to pretty much anyone with armour. Accelerated weighs more, but you don't need to carry as many magazines, and avoiding reloads matters tactically. 

On a strategic level Accelerated Weapons are cheaper to manufacture ($$$ and alenium) but require a research slot (Magnetic Weapons) you won't actually need otherwise until you want Gauss Blasters for your interceptors (as you have to complete the Accelerator Cannon project). You can't really delay laser research as you need Heavy Lasers for air defence. 

 

[Maybe a controversial view? Armor and weapon interactions are needlessly complex - and a proposal for a new scheme for weapons]

Using the Mentarch example, IIRC 25 armour, 50 HPs? 

Accelerated rifle is doing 40 damage, with 5 penetration and 2 destruction. 5 penetration effectively reduces the armour by 5, meaning that on average its doing 20 points of damage on the first hit, 22 on the 2nd and 24 on the 3rd. 

A laser rifle is also doing 40 damage, with no penetration and 8 destruction. On the first hit it will do 15 damage, on the 2nd 23 points and on the 3rd 31 points. 

Its important to note that means on the first two hits the accelerated rifle is doing 46 points of damage - on average - and the laser 38. That's a big difference in the probability of a 2 shot kill. Especially if you then think about other weapons being used. 

In practice accelerated rifle / laser do even damage at 44 armour, and everything below that the accelerated rifle is better or equal. I'm not sure how much frontal armour a Cyberdrone has, but I think that's the level you are looking at. 

The difference overall is small, so I'd tend to look at the manufacturing costs (much lower for accelerated) vs the research costs (you can skip magnetic weapons research until you want Gauss Blasters for your interceptor).   

IMO the differences between accelerated weapons and laser weapons are too small, but the jump to advanced lasers too big, so personally I'd like to spread it out a bit more. Accelerated doing a bit less damage, lasers doing a bit more and advanced lasers staying the same. Laser research would need to be pushed back a little to make it 

[[1.28B Tactical] If all soldiers die in Cleaner HQ mission, some of them are revived.]

So I guess the logic ought to be something about body recovery? e.g. if you 'own' the battlefield at the end, all bodies are recovered and you have a chance of reviving some of them. If you don't 'own' the battlefield at the end 'corpses' taken back to the dropship (either still carried by survivors or placed in the dropship) are eligible for recovery. I think this would be the same as for loot. 

[Medkit idea]

I'll generally have about 1/3 of the squad equipped with medikits, so I try and ensure that each sub-team has a medikit in it in. IMO avoiding getting hit is crucial. Medikits are contingency against getting hit, but if everyone has them then that means fewer flashbangs or smoke grenades which could stop the person being wounded in the first place.  

I'd be uncertain about having a dedicated medic role so there were fewer medikits around. Having 1/3 of my squad medics would presumably unbalance the firepower etc, and having fewer medics around would potentially lead more deaths as it would be harder to ensure I can get to someone in time. 

18 hours ago, SoulFilcher said:

Medkits should not heal, only stop bleeding. Considering how slow soldier heal back in base with the proper structure for that it feels very unrealistic to heal a lot of HP from a single medkit use. 

I believe that healed HP in tactical does not affect the recovery time back at base. I could be wrong though. You can only heal back around half of the damage too. 

[Mapp additions]

If there are crash sites that are more clearly in wild areas it would make sense, maybe having wildlife as an alternative to civilians? I'm do not think it ought to be a high priority though. 

[Keeping alien weapons]

I don't know, just having EA access, but I'd be amazed if human plasma weapons weren't the next level tech available after Gauss weapons.

I think an accuracy penalty for weapons the soldier isn't trained in would be fair, and/or higher TU cost to fire and reload. So at a pinch you can pick up the alien weapon you've never used before, but you won't be as good with it as your own weapon.  

[Can demolish most base faciliteis]

Its a bug, due to be fixed in the next patch. 

[Suggestion: Rearrange dropship positions from Launch Dropship screen]

Its one of the 'not at all obvious' features today. If you select the dropship in the hanger you can place them as you wish, and you can even rotate the soldiers in 90 deg. arcs (Q/E for the selected soldier). You can do this even whilst in flight. Generally I keep the positions fixed in the dropship and re-order the soldiers on mission so the right soldier is in the right place.