Skitso

Uuo sabotage mission has too much time before reinforcements or too few aliens.

Yeah, I really can't see the issue there.

AI fixes are coming. Shilelds were too good so they needed a nerf. Light armour needs some buff to be a viable choice. (accuracy, TU, throw range...) This is a wrong thread for a balance debate.

I'm not necessarily after more challenge, but more unpredictable, varied, logical and - most importantly - fun gameplay. Improving AI isn't just making things tougher. It's about finding a balance which gives the maximum entertainment. And that is something Xenonauts 2 could still do a lot better.

I happened to read one negative steam review and it was so on point that I think I need to copy-paste ot here: I can't argue with that. It's 100% true and this does hamper the game quite a bit.

Yes

Looks nicer and blocks my view less

Not sure if this is intended, but MARS smoke launcher uses different smoke animation than normal smoke grenades. I much prefer the MARS launcher smoke and hope normal smoke grenades could use the same smoke.

The long standing problem with the cover system is that no matter where the prop is in relation to the unit, it always provides the same amount of cover. i've made numerous posts about the issue over the years (like this: I'm pretty sure it's too late to fix something this fundamental, but adjusting prop cover values to better represent their visuals would still go a long ways. For example that two stack barrel pallet should definitely offer at least 80% cover. A rickety Picket fence should not provide 40%, but more like 20%. Stuff like that.

There's another bug in the same video, just a minute later. While using the Reduce panic Operation, the value marked in the attached image doesn't match the correct value (which increases over time)

Check at 4:06 forward

Sorry, this came up in a youtube playthrough. Does a link and a time stamp help?

If a continent's panic reaches 100 by the UUO orbital bombardment, the game displays the panic warning dialog first, and the orbital bombardment dialog (which causes the said warning) only after that. They should be displayed the other way around for it to make sense and not cause confusion.

Yes, I agree. All damage should cause some stun dmg. Otherwise, player units wouldn't suffer any of this after phase 1.

IMO it would be a cool little detail if all physical damage also caused few points of additional stun damage. Like 5 stun dmg per bullet connected. This would cause people to drop uncoscious, even when armour blocked the damage, which would be both realistic and intresting game mechanic to add some depth. This could be further expanded to grenades too. And it would be a cool way to differentiate projectile weapons and energy weapons (which wouldn't cause stun dmg) Yes or no, what people think?

Sorry, but can you elaborate what you mean with reveal regions? Is it intended behaviour that large props are revealed in whole as soon as I see even a small corner of it? If it's technically possible and art, engine and LOS logic all already support revealing larger props tile by tile, why wouldn't you? It looks so much cleaner when only the tiles I really see are displayed. (This is a wide reaching issue with shipping containers, railway carriages and bunch of other larger props)

Is there are reason why some large props like the tanks here are completely revealed even though I can only see a small part of it, while some large props, like the truck, are properly revealed one tile at a time so only the tiles that are in my FOV are revealed?

Reinforcement team size: off, low, normal, high, excessive Teleportation TU cost: 0, 2, 5, 10, 25 Telefrag: on/off Reaction fire on door open: disabled/enabled Anomaly spawn rate multiplier: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3

Yes. Cover values in general could use some additional thought to better represent each props' visual dimensions.

Touching on the same topic: how is it possible to see through items that provide 100% block value? All shelves etc props with 100% block rate should also block FOV. Not all props are treated the same way though: It's counter intuitive that a tractor in farm biome for example is a 100% blocking prop and it DOES block FOV.

It's problematic that the grenades explode instantly where it's trajectory gets blocked. If the grenade hits the ceiling or a window frame, it should scatter randomly from there. Sure, it might not be in any way feasible to implement, but any ways...

Psyon/Secton Triangulation doesn't currently feel like much to be honest. It might need more visual effects to feel more threatening. Add a purple, pulsating energy stream between the aliens to emphasise the link. Maybe buff the triangulation effect to add something more than just accuracy: Buff TU's for additional shots and bravery/reflexes for better defense. AI needs to support triangulation a lot more, Eternals and the High Eternal should give the triangulation buff to all enemies around it.

Aliens with psionic powers need to be s lot smarter when using mind control. Mind control range also needs to be longer or have squad sight. Currently I can always kill the mind controlling alien within the next turn my unit falls under control. Important enemy units like Cleaner VIP, high level aliens like eternals and the high eternal need to preserve their lives better and avoid getting shot. Keep their distsnce and try to even flee. Currently they act too aggressive. Wraiths and high eternal need to use their cloak better to be safe. Cloaking effect needs to be better. (On human armor too!)

Chris has mentioned that they are going to improve enemy AI in Milestone 7. Let's give them some ideas: (And @Gijs-Jan, this is not me bitching about poor AI, but more of a testament of how much I love the game and hope it to be the best it can possible become) Cleaner agents are regular men. They should try to preserve their life better and not make kamikaze strikes of certain death just to score a hit. They should crouch to be harder targets. Agents shouldn't have LOS edge in night missions (no sure if fixed already) Cleaner soldiers are fine as they are. Mantids are skittish. They should camp more and use their TU to shoot symbiots around them (even if there's no visible xenonauts to shoot) to create a swarm. Wraith is a sniper. Should prefer higher ground and try to keep distance. Always move to a new spot when hit. Should move next to a servitor when low of health. Psyon should stay indoors, move better to support triangulation, preserve life (retreat) actively and move in tight packs with sectons and psyons Secton should stay indoors, move better to support triangulation, preserve life (retreat) actively and move in tight packs with sectons and psyons Servitor should move to heal wounded units more actively. Andron should never take a step back. To support this tactic, they should have tougher armor. Reapers are not menacing enough. Maybe move in packs and try to keep out of players sight more actively so they could use the element of surprise more. Sebillian should avoid indoors and higher ground. Doesn't prioritize cover. Always uses all TU shooting if there are any enemies in effective fire range, even if the % to hit is low. If low on health tries to move out of players LOS to get healed but never retreats any further. In general, the game needs a lot more back and forth gameplay where every player turn doesn't end in a situation where all visible aliens are killed. They should move more (other than towards the player), heal, flank, try to find better positions, take cover, find allies, run back in the UFO, stay in good firing positions etc... Player tends to have more units in any given single firefight which leads to a somewhat "one note" combat experience. What I'm maybe also trying to say is that there needs to be more unpredictable behavior where I can't really know how the mission is going to play out. Currently I can pretty much see how the mission goes in advance: missions tend to be quite front-loaded where getting out of the dropship is the toughest fight. Then you spread out, kill the few remaining, scattered lonely aliens, find the UFO, where there always seems to be too few aliens to put up a proper fight. Especially mid to large UFOs are a little boring and predictable to raid as there are simply too few aliens and the AI doesn't understand how to camp and be defensive/stand ground properly. Alien races also feel too samey. Differentiate their abilities and stats to make them really stand out from each other. It's a single player game, so fun should always trump perfect balance. What else can you guys come up with?

Agree. This madness needs to go. Also, checking that old Milestone 5 balance thread, it's full of great proposals that would improve the game. I hope Chris checks it through once more with a thought.