Skitso

A reflex booster module might be a nice addition for melee units.

@Kouki, did you spot the difference there?

Every stat point gained awards a rank point. Enough rank points and the unit gets promoted.

I feel the biggest issue the game currently has regarding the BGM is that it plays way too much. My ears get tired when there's constant non-stop music. No matter what is going on, there's music. Please let us hear a bit of silence here and there. Loading screens for example could be good pallette cleansers. Goldhawk shouldn't be afraid of using silence in general as a device in creating mood and ambiance. Chris and Aleksi promised we'd get more music before the game is done. Hopefully we'll get more silence and moody ambience tracks that don't get so repetitive so quickly.

Are any other alien races going to have grenades? Smoke, flash, gas, incendiary and other grenade types would certainly spice up the game.

Not true. Getting up stats is caused by doing things related to the stat in question: TU's - move around STR - carrying stuff ACC - shooting with weapon RFL - triggering reaction fire BRV - suffering panic HP's - gaining all of the above

Yeah, cleaner styled missions with varied objectives are really what the mid-late game needs. Maybe 1 or 2 tiles less range would differentiate them more? Yeah, alien spawning needs some balance tweaking. I feel alien bases are easier as the maps are more linear and you can more often proceed one room at at time. Well it's part of the terror mission problem you mentioned above too. Aliens are spawned close to my drop off point and others push forward aggressively towards it. This makes especially crash site missions very front loaded and rest of the map is often quite empty and boring to run through. It's just too easy to collect lots of intel on certain map(s) to fast forward through the cleaner plot. @Conductiv

I agree: More ufos Shotgun nerf First terror missions too difficult Stun guns too weak Wraiths need some tweaking to be less frustrating AI being too aggressive (missions too front loaded) I disagree: intel gather difficulty. (They seem too easy)

After second playthrough of MS4, my number one issue is that alien forces feel too homogenous. No matter what race the mission is against, things play out about the same way and I don't need to change the way I play that much from mission to mission. There are three reasons I can think of: AI isn't unique enough for each race Stats are too similar on each race Race special abilities are too weak to really make a difference How to improve this? Not everything needs to be in perfect balance in a single player game. Underline racial differences boldly with broader brush strokes: If you want sebillian to have poor eye sight, decrease their accuracy but have them heal a lot more per turn. If you want wraith to be sneaky snipers, double their cloaking field effect, but cut the armor in half. If you want mantid to be skittish, halve their HP but add their numbers If you want andron to be unstoppable terminator, add more armor but reduce TU If you want cleaners to be normal humans, make them not shoot civilians and try to preserve their own life more actively If you want cyberdrone to stand out as a fearsome tank, change it's weapon to AOE or burst. Make it throw 5 grenades randomly around it per turn. Something different than just a different color, singular plasma bolt. These are just quick ideas to drive my idea home.

The new melee changes make repapers a lot less terrifying. I'd consider reducing their attack cost and/or increase reflexes.

It does look quite funny when the HEVY grenade scatters three buildings to the left. It might make more sense if the scatter distance was mostly length (too short/long) and not so much left/right?

The shadow of the scout is dark and has sharp edges. Shadow should be transparent and with soft edges like here:

Nope. Hearing is not part of this game's mechanics.

I just had 6 cleaners around the starting point of VIP extract mission. And it's not just this mission type. Terrible, put those spawn points away from the starting area. Especially when I need to escort / keep someone alive It seems VIP extract is somewhat more difficult than other cleaner missions. One or two enemies too much IMO. Reinforcement time is ok. Cleaner MP5 is too effective at long ranges. I should have upper hand with assault rifles. Sniper rifles need a buff. Map desing rarely supports proper sniping tactics. (open spaces, more than 1 floor of verticality) Guardian armor definitely needs a buff. Plasma weapons cut right through it There should be a small chance for each UFO to contain extra enemy/enemies that doesn't belong in the current enemy pool at hand. It'd give a nice aspect of uncertainty and provide frightening surprises as you'd never know if there's a rogue andron or a reaper lurking in the shadows. Or if there are more than one mentarch patroling around the UFO. Base defense missile batteries feel too niché and used only few times per playthrough at most, which isn't that satisfying to put lots of money into. Would it make sense to change the batteries to have their own radar range around the base in the geoscape view and have them actively shoot UFO's flying within the range?

I was meant to join the team and do the magic officially, but I just couldn't manage it on top of my day job, family etc. in the end unfortunately. EDIT: thanks for the nice thought though.

It'd be nice to have a quick dialog cutscene when the player gets the first visual contact to a UFO crash site to make it feel a more special moment. Currently the game doesn't even register it in any way and it makes it feel totally mundane. Add some fear of unknown and awe of humanity seeing something so unbelievable the very first time. You could add similar dialogs every time a new UFO type is found to describe it a bit.. add a bit of mystery and flair to raiding them. There needs to be a dialog when an alien you need to capture is found. Generally speaking, the dialog cutscenes pretty much just stop coming after the Cleaner arc is finished, making the rest of the game lose a lot of flair. I'd love to see them at the beginning of every new mission type: terror, alien base etc.

Just had an idea to add variation to crash site maps. It should be quite easy to switch UFO crash location and Xenonaut drop zone location endwise so each map could be played with the original layout or in a reverse layout. I just played with the idea rotating the map and imagined playing it the other way and I couldn't even recognize the map and it felt nice and fresh.

I agree with @gG-Unknown: stun gun seems a bit underwhelming and boosting it's accuracy seems like the right way to fix it.

I wanted to check when one of my soldiers died from the casualty list, but it has only the date of death, while the geoscape only tells the sequential day number. A small thing, but could you maybe add the date to the geoscape view too? You could easily fit it under the day counter.

Sure, no need to get upset. Just a frienly advice to not stop using them as they are great.

Just stopping by to say that assault and shield units are super useful and I'd even say, in places almost OP.

First terror mission is a huge difficulty spike. (maybe intentional?)

I absolutely agree 100%. I hope Chris and the team finds the time to improve atmosphere still. (better crash sites, snow, rain, fog...) Edit: I love those two xenopedia images. Imagine if all the base background images were made by that artist in that style and quality. *drool*

Hey, those are my screenshots. I agree it does look a bit dated. However, I can appreciate the gameplay benefits and readability aspects of the current solution. I'm sure Goldhawk could find a more visually pleasing solution without compromising current system's advantages if they wanted (had time and resources)