csebal

Just to throw my 2 cents into this conversation. There is a catch with changing things around retroactively: People who previously did not see a value in opting for the premium package, might suddenly feel that they are missing out on something they would want, that simply wasn't offered to them before. This would result in those players feeling let down, betrayed even, which would only be worse if anything game changing (map tiles, soldier art, etc) would be offered, as it would inherently devalue their previous "purchase". I really do not envy the goldhawk guys on this one, as this is most certainly a tough nut to crack. My advice would be this: whatever you offer, make sure it has nothing to do with the actual game. No tilesets, no faces, no flags, no fancy loading screen.. etc. Doing this would just - even if done with the best of intentions - would simply just backfire. Additionally, you might want to offer people who previously opted for the standard preorder, the possibility to upgrade to premium, giving them the chance to change their choice in light of what the premium will contain. Again a double edged sword as you would have to make sure its not too tempting, as then people would be screaming about how they are "coerced" into upgrading. If there is one constant about players, it is that we can never be completely satisfied, no matter what you do, we will always find the small dirty spot on the shining white suit to complain about . So be very careful with retroactive changes as those have the potential to severely mess things up on the PR front. Oh and YAAY for steam, and YAAY for beta. I'm just waiting for the beta fog to clear up a little before I make my final approach.

Prox grenades are king, especially if you forget about the one you dropped at turn 2 and end up stepping on it during turn 15 Other than that, they are great for area control / early warning system against aliens. If a grenade goes off, you can be sure someone is / was around there. Rolling the nades i would absolutely adore, and it should not be "that hard" to do, assuming they can give the nades different firing modes.

Okay, so you obviously are trying to avoid the hire/fire cycle that dominated some games of X-COM, where people were hiring massive amounts of soldiers only keeping those who fit certain requirements while getting rid of everyone else, or just using them as cannon fodder. Providing a pool of soldiers is one way of avoid this behavior, but it is far from perfect. There is however a better solution. Allow the player to specify target attribute scores for recruitment. And vary time/cost of recruitment based on how broad or specific the target is. The player will end up with the soldiers he deems worthy of combat sooner or later anyway, so you might as well allow him to be more specific about it, thus giving him more control over what he gets for his money. You can compensate this by increasing the time and cost of finding premium soldier material. As said above, recruitment time and cost as such should vary depending on how specific / high the target attribute range is. If you want everyone who can hold a gun, that ain't gonna cost a lot and it can be done substantially faster than looking for the few people out there who can blow up an alien's ship with two hair pins and a spent battery, while still able to hit the fly sitting on the head of the alien in question from a mile away. Just an idea.