Xeferah

I also think the old system of cloak activated on the start of the turn, till hit, is the best solution. It encourages different types of play, instead of shoot them all: you might need snipers specifically because of the higher hit chance, or throw grenades to get them to decloak. And it's not like the aliens die in a single grenade blast or so, so you still have all the chances you need to identify the ranks. But why would I need to identify the ranks really? I guess I must have forgotten that certain ranks are for missions? At the end of the map, I always try to capture as many aliens as possible, as they sell for more, so it was never an issue for me.

This text mentions a terror site? This is the first UFO that I do, which happened to be a landed UFO. I'm guessing the wrong mission briefing is triggered here: auto_strategy_before_combat-20.jsonauto_groundcombat_turn_1_start-101.json

The duration of wounded is not visible anymore in the after combat report, see screenshot: Save files added: auto_groundcombat_turn_4_start-35.jsonauto_strategy_after_combat-10.json

I too like the option of creating different pre-set teams. That way I can send in rookies for easy missions, and the veterans for harder missions, like terror or infiltration. While we're on this topic of rookies anyway, is there a way to see the current medals a soldier has while in combat, and the current amount of kills in the on-going mission? I quite often have 3 or more soldiers with 3 kills, and none of them have the 4+kill on a single mission medal. I would like to know which soldier has what, so that I can decide who to give the last kills of the mission to.

Depends on the aliens I guess? Greenskins miss quite often, while mantid and sectoids (in groups) rarely miss. But then again, those die a lot easier, so it balances out. Just kill them before they can fire ;-) For that single reason I ALWAYS go for maximum armor on ALL troops. Camo for snipers might sound nice, but if due to random back luck a sniper does get hit, it will die in a single shot. I prefer my soldiers to survive at least a single shot, and max armor almost always has that effect. I nowadays rarely lose a soldier in 1 shot. Also, for that single reason, I never pick soldiers with less than 50 starting hp and I prefer 60+ starting hp even. Yeah, I did not know that either, but it's in the patch notes. It's intended: starts without cloak, toggles on hit and after their turn it's back off again, to be turned on after a hit again. No idea if it's intended, I think not, but that's the way it is at the moment. - Agree, however they need to balance the bounty reward vs raid reward. At the moment the raiding reward is way too high compared to a measly 100K-300K cash reward. Not a bad suggestion. It already does. Early game you don't notice it much, but after you shoot down 6 UFO's per 'spawn' you really start to notice the effect. Shoot them down fast and early and you can get all panic down to 0 eventually.

My starter setup used to be (Commander): two snipers two assaults heavy three soldiers shield But perhaps I would change one rifleman to a grenadier nowadays. Grenadiers are getting good enough to bring one with me. With the upgrade to the dropship, I add a second heavy, a second shield I'll always bring a grenadier. I don't bother with the MARS, it costs 250K and dies early and often due to the low reflexes. I know it's supposed to draw out fire, but it simply costs too much to keep replacing that thing. 250K is half a workshop, I can't afford that early on! Assaults carry the stunbatons and riflemen with medkits. For the rest I try to bring flashbangs and smoke grenades. Some get a demo pack, some get a grenade. Just a healthy mix really.

I think I gotta agree here, or perhaps he's just better than me, but I thought those missions were not easy! (Commander difficulty) Maybe they need to adjust the reinforcements. I had 4 cyberdrones on that mission, but once they were dead I think I could have killed the reinforcements for quite some time if they were only wraiths. Bring in cyberdrones as reinforcements and it's a whole different playing field.

Surprisingly well written! I'm playing on Commander, and I have the exact same issues. It's really hard to disagree on anything in this post. Well done!

They are good, early game. On the flip side, I never had any alien ever throw a regular grenade anymore. Luck, or a bug? Later game, Vanguard armor is fully gas right, so the gas grenades are moot. We need something new the aliens can do that would make them dangerous again in late game. Also, I would love to be able to make my own gas grenades!

From a balance perspective: I think the balance for the continent bonus is imbalanced for the following: North America: +10 starting XP Europe: +5 training points per hour North America: Maybe I misunderstand what +10 XP means, but if it means only 2 hours worth of training, then it's kinda pointless? If it means it is in fact 10 times x 100 training points = 1000 points. Assuming you have 5 training points per hour = 1000/5 = 200 hours worth of training, then it's totally balanced! Europe: I am playing around day 300+ or so, and from all my research on aliens I managed to get +3.5 training points per hour. If a simple continental bonus adds +5 to that, which is 5/3.5 x 100% = 142% of my alien research combined, I think that either the training from researching aliens is way too low, or the bonus is way too high. I think it's a bit of both. Double the training bonus from researching aliens, and halve the continental bonus. Also, the continental bonusses are not at all intuitive to see. I only read in the patch notes "regional bonusses" and was like "What, are there regional bonusses? Where?" And only after that I was bright enough to click on the name of the continents to figure it out. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I truly did not know from the game itself. From a balancing point of view, the UOO-1 missions are kinda pointless. I mean, I get +20 panic to a single continent every 14 days. I am truly not worried about that, at all! Sure, from a roleplaying perspective you'd want to save those millions of people, but +20 panic every 14 days to a single continent.... it will take, 2.5 months (if you are extremely unlucky) to lose a single region from 0 to 100 panic, while panic reduces each month, so let's say 3 months to lose a region. If you assume ultimate luck and every time it hits a different region, it would take 6 x 2.5 = 15 months (again, it reduces each month), so let's say 18 months to lose all regions. Come on, that's not threatening at all! Make it +20 panic GLOBALLY! Also, by the time this happens money is not an issue with my 10.000 cash per hour from engineers. I can easily add another 80 engineers for more cash per hour at this point, so I have no real interest in keeping panic low (from a cash point of view). Air combat: maybe the best alien vessels still need to come, but the end-game is kinda easy so far. I have two Gemini per base. I equip a torpedo, a rocket and a fusion cannon. The ships are dead before the first alien torpedo gets close ... But the air combat still gets an overhaul, right? So this could be solved later on anyway. So far my update from a purely balanced point of view. Maybe later more.

Dude, that's insane! What difficulty are you playing on? Perhaps there should be a turn limit on those missions? Perhaps twice the amount of turns you get allocated for the mission before reinforcements? So if there are reinforcements in 7 turns, you get 7 x 2 = 14 turns in total till the dropship is forced to leave?

See screenshot: Error message in the loading screen description:

I let my first timer for orbital bombardment expire, due to all my soldiers being wounded. However, the games says another bombardment comes in 14 days (I set the game on fast, a new bombardment does come after 14 days), but there is no timer on screen anymore. So I have no way of knowing when the next one comes, see screenshot. Save file added: auto_strategy_before_combat-193.json

I think it's best if you see that for yourself. If you throw a smoke in front of a soldier, you can aim with that soldier through the smoke. You will see, in that targeting line, a red minus number, like -10%. That is the smoke debuff. You can experiment for yourself, but the opposite is also true: every tile you don't hit smoke does not get the debuff. In the first round that you throw the smoke, all tiles are covered in smoke, but the next round some of the smoke is cleared. It's totally possible that there is an angle through the smoke that gives a better shooting line than if your soldier would move a single tile. In short: don't rely on smoke, except for the very first turn you throw it.

Fair point, you CAN bring bodies. But they spawn with 7 a wave and they don't die in one hit. So it's practically suicide to stick around for too many rounds. Also, because you carry the bodies, you can move less tiles, making everything even more dangerous as you can't shoot, grab body, and get away in the same turn. And waiting another turn is not that smart ....

The red messages on screen, see screenshot. Save file added. user_day_256_soldier_loadout_bug-47.json

I see the errors of my ways. I loaded a game from 5.6 where the wraiths were still cloaked by default. This resulted in this unexpected event. I must admit, I did not read the patch notes this time, my mistake.

Same game, same map. Three unexplored tiles, while looking at them:

Again, same turn. The wraith cloaks again AFTER getting hit! I think the cloaking is reversed.

Same mission, one turn later. Wraith decloaks itself for no aparent reason? Repeatable, save game added. Just press end turn. Also, the wraith has a weird shooting animation, also repeatable. auto_groundcombat_turn_1_end-469.json

The wraith cloaking field is not removed when it is hit by a grenade from the grenadiers grenade launcher. I don't think this is intended?

Oh, I totally get you. In the later game, Cyberdisks are almost laughable easy, as long as you can get to them: send in two assaults, at opposite sides of the disk. Once in place, shoot it from the back. Then it turns, and you shoot it in the back again. At early game, you need to make it turn around from a distance. So get everyone in position, throw a grenade behind it so it turns, and then get a salvo from a heavy in it. If needed, repeat, but usually that does the trick. What also works is to get someone with massive movement (usually an assault for me) run behind it, so it turns. Then you shoot with anything that can do big damage, like snipers or assaults. Then it turns, and you let your assault take a single step again. Shoot again. Let the assault take a single step again, etc. Anyway, getting off topic, but yes I think it should be tuned. Personally I hate the ones with psyons and insectiods. If they get too close they have insane aim!

Oh, same! But as I can't bring the bodies with me, I always stick around for the full 20 computers. Perhaps I pick up a few weapons, but after the 20 computers I'm out of there :-) I play on commander, and the first wave of 3 is easy. But after that the reinforcements come in full force, and they are touch enough not to die in one shot, so then I really gotta run. The money from the computers is really worth it though in the early game.

I think it totally depends on the type of terror mission. The Cyberdisk missions are not easy, at all! But those greenskins are not hard, their accuracy is pretty terrible. I think we should selectively nerf/buff the terror missions, depending on the aliens that are present.

I agree here. To make the angle as difficult as possible, you want the smoke to be as close to your own units as possible. Each smoke tile has a -20% accuracy debuff, so if you can get the full 5 tiles of smoke in front of you, you're pretty safe.