gG-Unknown

Current 6th milestone Colossus is overpowered already. On top, it is possible to build up a squad full of Colossus to get maximum firepower AND survivability. Such squad steam roll everything. Light armour are not used because of low survivability and no firepower/assault/something benefits. Light armour is far worst problem now, than Colossus. Well, Challenge is, add Colossus something which do not scale linearly with volumes of Colosuses in the team. ability to carry stuf for others, include shield bigger bagpack (add line or two - so it has same wide but it is taller) light ( look at Iron-man torch-light in the middle of the chest, that is meme ) allow automedkit AND disable healing by regular medkit (that is needed for Lore reasons, Soldier is sealed in, it iis not possible that a field medic could touch him thru thee armour on battlefieeld. Full Set of tools in the workshop is required to peel off armour from the soldier.) I would like to see my original idea of active Shield on back of Colosuss (this idea need knee), but if you dont go this way you may use an insidious idea how to limit Colosus numbers, >> disable knee<<. It looks harmless but it is truly insidious and fits narrative of barely moving suit. Firepower of a Xeno squad comes from a dual line setup, when back line shoot OVER the front. : - ] you see. Full squad of Colosuss can not shoot over each other so it is not rising power linearly.

Yes, that's a nice idea. // Yes it is. Thank you It's probably quite a complex new mechanic though (because right now the game works on the assumption a unit can see everything in their vision range) but maybe it's something we could consider post-release. // spot range should be variable. It offers several interesting tricks, like small units (Simbiont, Servitor) have spot range reduced (so they can sneak on oponents), OR Sniper_rifle add spot range, and so on. Whole new world how to make opponents different. : - ] Wright with variable spot range could finally be spooky, when he actually pop-in or out of visibility. Part of the issue with Stalker armour is that aliens won't take a shot unless they have a 30%+ chance of hitting. Which means if they're shooting at that soldier then they already have a good chance of hitting it. There's probably plenty of times the Stalker has prevented an alien actually firing a shot in the first place - but there's no indication that that has happened, so people don't notice. Does make we wonder if we can put the stalker check outside the normal AI calculation so it's more obvious what it's doing. // any doable improvement that add "my_armor_works" feeling is good.Perhaps you could add to the loop : IF (Alien have a less than 30% chance of hitting) THEN // check Camo status IF (cammo is ON ) THEN Remove_solidier_from_further _AI thinking_for_this_turn // basicaly, AI do not see the player.

1. I have recommend use briefing window on the loading screen into tactical, so it masks loading time. It worked ! Player has something to read and think about. Now, lets do the same with after-mission briefing, ( the Promotions, skulls, list of loot) Show this table immediately after the mission, and keep it on while loading is processed in background. This way you make "time mask" again, player will chew thru the Winning screen so he will not feel loading as wasted time. 2. Ethernals should also use Cleaner soldiers as Praetorian guard. Althou humans are not fully conquered yet, it would be refreshing see them once more. Models were used just in the game beginning, so it looks like they are underused. The final mission need more opponents, and - or bigger location. The highest Ethernal need a unique weapon, which instagib anyone with range and precision of sniper rifle. Those 16 soldiers are ready to pay by own life to save humanity, so ... it should happen. I watched 2 gameplays on 6th milestone the final battle was a joke. Soldier diff = No soldiers died. Veteran diff = two soldiers died. There should be an achievement = final combat 1 round then another Final combat final. Difficulty should be high enough that those 2 achievements should not receive the same percentage.

I did not get idea to remove them, so I automatically thought that this possible issue was covered. Perhaps you could add this logic >> when soldier has a status "on mission" cant be removed from dropship. Just to be sure...

. A real life ratio of effective combat ranges would be more like this. Pistol 9mm: Shotgun 00 Buck : Rifle 5.56 : Rifle .308 is 50 : 40 : 400 : 800 or if you'd rather, 5 : 4 : 40 : 80 // there is big difference in meaning of "effective" . For 9 mm you are using theoretical range, when bullet could theoretically do some dmg in a lab environment. Then your lovely kinetic energy equation gives you self assurance. Well, would you explain why range of competition shooting pistols and shotguns differs to your "effective" range ? Perhaps you could also add an article, why average foot soldiers of both side in current biggest conflict Ukraine, do not use regular assault rifles in aimed fire, when range is over 100 - 120m ? Thank you in advance for your valuable insight. Also, there's no such thing as a "sniper rifle", buddy, those are just rifles too with larger calibres and long range optics. // 1. as you could noticed, in my post I have used term sharpshooter for reality check which defines ranges for a game "sniper rifle". , ( For your level of expert-ship I should rather use "marksman", but I am not a native English, nor a member of US army so forgive me a minor term misuse. As expert you know, that these terms are different in different parts of world.) I agree with you that game term sniper is a bit misleading, but term marksman rifle is not so popular among gamers so I can live with a term Sniper rifle. Can you ? When we come to an agreement that the game, in fact has no real sniper rifles, they are rather marksman rifles, then my usage of range for "designated marksman" is correct. It is effective range 300m, right ? ( designated marksman is a correct term used by US military, right ?) 2. off course that sniper rifles do exist. Just for your education, dude : https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-e&q=sniper+rifle Wiki gives you even a definition : A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel, anti-materiel and surveillance uses by military.

it says: You need enough empty slots in your drop-ship to recover ... In fact you dont need any empty slots, because soldiers was elevated into "on mission" status. and is not possible to left soldiers behind bscouse of missing slots.

5th milestone allowed by balancing on the panic edge to prolong the last phase of the game almost endlessly. I thought it was an unintentional side effect of balancing process, but I loved it. I would like to say Thank you for spending effort to make endless war official. Dont forget to advertisie endless war as built-in feature on Steam, it is a sale moment for certain audience.

Active Camo should reduce spot range by 10 tiles. Once you shoot or throw, spot range bufff is removed until next round AND your movement.

Again, and for the last. I am comparing range R A T I O . Real life effcicinet ranges : Pistol 10m, Shotgun or SMG 30m, Military rifle 100m, Military Sharpshooter 300m. Lets write it down in shortened form > Pistol : Shotgun : Rifle : Snipe is 10 : 30 : 100 : 300 now slash it by /10 to get to the base. Therefore, base realistic range ratios are Pistol : Shotgun : Rifle : Snipe is 1 : 3 : 10 : 30 lets normalise base on Rifle=20, and transform other number accordingly, so we get realistic range ratios and comparable to the game range ratios : realistic ratios Pistol : Shotgun : Rifle : Snipe is 2 : 6 : 20 : 60 game ratios Pistol : Shotgun : Rifle : Snipe is 9 : 8 : 20 : 25 If you don see the problem, I can not help you any-more. I propose ratios Pistol : Shotgun : Rifle : Snipe is 9 : 13 : 20 : 25 <<< do you see, why I approve recent sniper / rifle balance ? It also fixes ratios ! Sniper should use longer effective range than rifle, and ... we get that.

the Xenonauts 2 shotgun doesn't fire a swarm of pellets (neither did the Xenonauts 1 shotgun, or the OG Xcom shotgun). / one shot several hits = swarm. You probably think that there should be more pellets, yes I agree. I sugested 5. And a servitor isn't "fast and small". // of course it is. You even get a special penalty for ''small target" Why are you trying to crowbar shotgun/drone realism from 2025 into this game, set in alternate history 2009 with aliens (and based on previous games which all used shotguns and other weapons the same way)? // shotgun wworks same since it was invented hundred years ago. Physics is still the same, your juggling with years has no meaning. Any why only shotgun realism, when 'realistically' nobody uses riot shields on a battlefield either? // I comented all weapons. I have sparked changes of pistol (current result is very good, solid punch at short range ), and participated on crowd squeeking for ballistic curve on HEVY, and participated in recent Sniper/Rifle balance. So, yes shotgun is the last very wrong weapon in the set. Regarding riot shield, they are used. Yes in reality fast response units use them. In current biggest conflict, the Ukraine trench war are not used by assault units, because of weight. Those are actually heavy and useful only in short actions. We didnt grow soldier who could carry it, long enough, yet.

Addvantage of shotgun is swarm of pelets. That is the reason why it hits, you dont need precise aim. Laser or Sniper rifle are useles becouse you have one direct beam of destruction. Aiming that beam at fast and small drone is the problem. Try to hunt flying duck by a 0.5cal BMG sniper rifle you will see yourself. You are probably fallower of Hollywood shotgun imagination. Shotgun effective range is higher than pistol, that is a thing which is wrong. Considering servitor as a drone is perfect chance to fix things up.

What if : I land on crash site, grab as much as possible and escape, it means, misson is not victory, so dont loose command points, but get the loot. Another issue is, Collect bounty value is not linked to Mission Command point price. Personaly, I hate enforced mechanic for reducing number of missions.

another reality check. Shotguns are the best weapons on the modern battle field against drones. (servitors) https://en.topwar.ru/274213-koncern-kalashnikov-zakryl-kontrakt-na-postavku-v-zonu-svo-antidronovyh-ruzhej.html Insisting on current "Holywood Shotgun" setting is lame.

Setting eviroment variables is the balance. Night missions are harder. Probably I didnt understand your idea. I thought, that you want apply day / night changes on UOO / Endgame missions, based on time arrival, therfore I said, no more variables. But it looks like, you reccomend set UOO / Endgame / Alien Bases to the same (fixed) environment type ? it makes sense ! At leas for UOO it should be. Not sure about the alien planet, becouse there is an open sky. About darkness in alien bases mission type, I think it is an opportunity for an objective : add generators which can be activated for 3 turns. It will make light in adjacent area. What you think ?

Alien grenades are usable ( which is a good thing ), it is the one of very few reasons why player would check bodies and use inventory interface in combat. Could you set alien grenades the same way as Cleaner SMG ? e.i. junk but visible in armoury - - >> possible to equip on next mission. Thanks

I gave you a like sign to your post few days ago, becouse I fully agreed on each line. Back then. However, you continue editing first post, then inevitable happens - Disagreement. 1. UUO and Engame should be normalised as much as possible, it is nightmare already to set difficulty right. At the end of game, people could own very different options. Therefore, lowering late missions variables is a must. No night rules there. 2. UUO and Endgame are in spaceship OR other planet, so night rules gives no sense at all.

OUU the mainfraim mission is better now. However, the new waves of enemies should come in the shortening intervals. 1st wave then 3 rounds to next 2nd wave then 2 rounds to next 3rd wave then 1 round to next 4th wave then 1 round to next The reason is, in the final wave, just before you teleport out, you should be surrounded by alien hordes. It is called escalation. Best would be, do not announce total number of turns in advance, keep something unknown. Rather make a call each wave from Operative director : "Hold on, dude, we are working on downloading data." Then after another wave Operative director : " We are almost there" and so on. Build up tension by story telling !

Turn indicator TextBar should be ALWAYS visible with some text. Even a placeholder/funny text like " Planing " or " Teleporting cheeseburgers" will do. Situation, when the game thinking and no text indicator and no UI is visible feels like it just hang up. Best would be, add a classic Windows hourglass animated icon next to the text, so player actually see it is still working. You made a progress on turn speed, but connection-communication player-computer should be maintained. On top, on computer turn, hide mouse pointer, so user better understands there is no interaction available at the moment.

Orthogonal movement is in my list for years. I didnt post it yet, because so many other issues waiting. If you could squeeze the work-time somewhere it would help gameplay. Make it an alternative movement style, "press Alt key AND confirm move order", then soldier can only move orthogonal way, e.i. no turning, just walking. Even placeholder animation would do, to introduce this feature ASAP. No special animation needed, just move the model to another tile, keep standard idle animation going and just slide the model. To make it even easier to code, allow compute path just one tile ahead, so you dont need to develop an orthogonal pathing system. Player need to mouse click for each tile he wants to slide sideways(or backpedal), it is ok. This feature is for critical situations, so intense clicking is intentional.

Quite impressive list. Most lines are good , some even great. There are few questionable lines like : shield cover efficiency or remove UOO mission objective destruction. Then there are some exceptionally plain stupid, which i Want to talk more. I hope it will get is fixed : The AI will no longer mind control civilians. // Aliens should use mind controlled civilians to attack player ! It is so obvious ! I brings morale dilemma : " Quickly Kill a civilian to progress mission OR take a risk and spend TU to make him sleep by a baton ? " On global scale, aliens send West against East. On local scale aliens send civilians against Xeno_Soldiers. Perfectly mirroring macro on micro. Alien who control a human also burns his own TU, that way one alien could control one human, at max. It also makes sure that civilians are not used for overwhelming wave of bodyes, but rather constant threat. Servitors have been nerfed a bit: They can no longer reaction fire. // plain stupid, non systemic setting Their weapon now has 20 range than 15 // almost all aliens use 20 range so lets make them even more all the same. Again, stupidity at the best. Make opponents DIFFERENT so they work as paper-scissor-rock game. Servitor should be the short range killer / healer / protector ! Like Personal Jesus who cares. Flying drone which is best taken down by a shotgun. This archetype is based on current warfare revolution : the drone-war in Ukraine. Listen the pro-drone pilot : Chriss, make yourself a favour, re-think the role of Servitor and Shotgun. A pro tip : Servitor range should be shorter than shotgun range. Servitor range should be equal to pistol = 9. Shotgun range should be about same as SMG = 14. Shotgun is dedicated anti-drone, anti-simbiont, and soft-target killer (low armour) It is a weapon of specialist. Servitor should do Reaction fire and HEAL, this is the role "serve and heal'' it should work as flying autonomous auto-med. Previously I recommanded add a feature : Servitor shot down incoming grenades (any throwables), include reaction fire, that is still valid. So the moto for servitor would be "Heal and Protect" Bring back Servitor weapon and number of attacks, you could set them make first attack Stun (a medical beam of green colour), second HP dmg (anti-grenade laser of red colour), then alternate these two types as he use 8 attacks in one go. It is nicely colourful. Robot use both defensive devices offensively. Soldier will often fall unconscious after a close meeting servitor. Again, there is no other enemy who stun Soldiers on purpose, so wee need one. It makes sense, that a healing robot is switched into "turbo anaesthetic mode" --------------------------------------------------------- Based on community feedback, we've split the Ambient sound volume slider into two separate sliders for Ambient Sounds (background ambience like wind, bird calls, etc) and Environmental Sounds (sound emitted from objects in the game world, like fire tiles or vehicle engines, etc). // clearly the best news. I got a headache from annoying sounds. Thanks a lot !

1. in case that symbionts are not considered as kill intentionally, then it would be wise say it at least in Xenopeadia in the research text, or (even better) mark proper kills in the "Recovered Items" list by a skull symbol. like: 4 Corpse Sebilians "icon_skull" 3 Corpse Symbionts << you see, no skull here. So it is not considered as kill 1 Captured Sebilian "icon_skull" << here, I assume, that capture should be considered as kill, so skull is here In the "Recovered Items" list, use the same "icon_skull" you already using for soldiers to highlight their performance. 2. Yes please, captured enemy should consider as "kill" or better, use the new word "elimination". Also make sure that proper skill gain is applied. I think that for shooting an enemy you get lift up on accuracy. For an melee elimination (knife, stick, power_fist) you should get bonus on reaction. Result is an RPG system > "you improve based on what you do"

Nodrak, sometimes you have a point, but it is incresingly difficult to get your point. You tend to mix too many things together and asume that other people somehow know in advance what you would want to say. 1. use proper forum. Suggestion no Bugs 2. focus at one point for one topic 3. prepare your topic, in MS Word editor, then let it be for two days. Then read again, And polish. only after that post. Do not spam other people by tons of half baked ideas. Thanks

The 6th milestone is still too raw to my own gameplay, but I have noticed this issue on a youtube gameplay. Picture says it all: Also a possible other bugs : when game do not recognise proper elimination, how about XP for elimination ? Is it possible that soldiers get less XP than they should ?

Superb post. I can not spent enough time to understand all the details, but I can recognise it shows scientific way that my screaming for balance certain things is correct. I wrote several articles about this topics, not going to repeat self : Shotgun is wrong. Clip size, Efficient Range, Number of pellets - all is wrong Light armour are useless. Offensive buff is needed - plus 2 grenade range is most obvious. Colossus is all wrong. Power fist is opposing lore - barely moving suit gets artificial bonuses just to be able fit into melee rules, while ignoring most obvious colossus advantage is the strength and carrying capacity. Also usage of regular healing kit is nonsense, as long as soldier is literaly sealed inside of Colosus suit, out of reach of medick hands, contrary AutoMed module is obvious module to attach is not allowed. Reminding again my proposal of carrying spare shield on the back like NinjaTurtle. Adv. lasers need rise noob acc buff 5% to make this weapon class viable for late game recruits. smoke grenade range have to be reduced and smoke density / thickness have to be reduced visually. (smoke prevents player see the game actually, it is wrong design ! Visually smoke cloud should be just information for player, not actual visual hindrance) Nodrak, if you could do a dedicated tables for grenade launcher compared to sniper and rifle. It is one of the most interesting AND most broken weapons .... If you dont know, one of the issue is - it uses direct aim method as default so player MUST press control_key to enforce proper aim method. Crazy.

Good. Now, Could you : 1. add a "smoke trace" (same as bullets) to the grenade moving in the air ? I know it is not realistic, but it improves visibility. Currently, Flying grenade is almost invisible. Bad for user experience. For example, TotalWar series uses smoke trace on arrows for the same reason, better visibility = better user experience. 2. Grenade louncher need to set arcs even flatter as it moves faster. If you finally used proper physics formula, then for short range arcs should looks like almost flat. 3. Use ballistic curve / arcs for MARS rockets, apply even more flat arcs than on grenade louncher. Result is>> player will get straight line firing weapons and 3 different ballistic arcs based on speed of projectile. THX