Skitso

Please try to keep it as clean as possible. Just the symbols is fine.

I hope GH would tone down the colors too. The screen looks way too busy. Also, some work could be done in impositioning. I also hope we'll get more freedom to mod the now hard coded text colors before the game launches.. (not just debtrefing but all over the game)

Paddock windows in middle east tileset/desertabode/paddock are not see through but you can shoot through them. Also, just in: "stairs_ne" in middleeast/desertabode/ are bugged too. Units walk them up in wrong direction.

This is mostly only a visual bug, and has been forever and I don't know if it has been reported before: Light scout black silhouette (the one that should be seen only when a player has LOS inside the ufo) is always visible under the ufo graphics.

A xenonaut that is killed in GC but survives with 1HP is counted as a casualty in the debriefing.

Nice idea, mr_pa! I also proposed earlier that different medals could grant more diverse bonuses to make veteran units more important. Medal that is awarded for 5 kills in a single mission could give -2% shoot cost for example...

I agree in a way that human base submaps could be a tad more intresting in layout wise. Also, the huge amount of work and money put in the tileset, I kinda hope those were in better and more frequent use. Chris said some time ago that he would maybe introduce new military base missions or similar to use them in? Are we still getting them? (or some other additional mission types?)

Read Aaron's post above..

Yeah, as I wrote in the post myself, I realised it's flaws in the process of writing it... Maybe each shot could decrease a flat number of MU's? so veteran units with more MU's could be more potent?

Yeah, I don't like the new explosion system either.

As I have understand, in the OG, the %-TU was added in the very late phase of the development for balancing purposes only. They didn't however have the time to think the system all over again and just went with the easiest, fastest and most efficient solution they had that solved the game balance problems they had, thus changing the firing cost system to %-TU. Gold Hawk has the possibility to think this over and use a tought over system instead. I really hope you end up using a system that feels done instead of a rushed one like in the OG. I prefer the flat cost, but if GH want's to restrict shooting actions per turn/weapon, here's my solution: TU's could be renamed to speed and just seperate shooting actions to it's own hud element. They don't need to be TU dependant at all anymore. They could be for example small red bar with suitable amount of steps in the weapon screen that vanish when a shot has been taken. The number of steps available in the bar would change depending on which weapon/aim mode is in use. This change would make the new TU system make any sense because as of now, there's no point in using TU's in shooting actions. Why would we use TU's in shooting actions when they clearly are not suitable to represent those anymore? (variable values) EDIT: A quick visualization of my idea: Here a snap shot would be selected and hud showing three shots. All the 56 "MU's (Movement Units) the unit has, could be used in moving and performing other actions regardless of shooting actions executed. If an aimed shot or burst was selected instead, or he had an MG equiped, it could show 1 bar. Pistol would have maybe four bars and so on. This is what I think would make sense if we want to restrict shooting actions per turn. Not by using TU's as they are not suitable for it (for the need of changing the shooting values depending how much a soldier can move, which is stupid) While it would make system simpler, more logical and easier to understand, we could also get rid of TU costs on the target reticle which would reduce clutter on screen. EDiT: Ugh, I just realised this would simplify moving/shooting maybe a bit too much. I need to think this system a bit more.... Off topic: You can also see my new Skitso's Color Grading mod in use in the picture. Also notable is the graphical bug behind the light scout which is still not fixed.

Haha, yes, yes it would! That's why there needs to be some additional coding involved in this..

Yeah, but we are talking about improving the game and that's exactly the effect i want to get rid of. Think out of the box of existing systems. All the missed bullets that doesn't scatter enough (that would land on target tile's floor) should fly through the tile and continue it's trajectory until hit something solid. So some new code is needed for the bullet to avoid all other targets after the original target tile is reached but hitting probability is not met. This would do wonders for terrain destruction too, which is quite rare at the moment..

Why would the bullet land at the second guy's feet? Why wouldn't the bullet fly till it hits a wall or goes out of the map? Nobody aims so low a bullet hits the floor. My point is that bullets fly a (relatively) straight line until they hit something. They shouldn't drop to the floor like rocks when reached their target, no?

I'm not sure I got your point, Max, but... umm... no? When CSI are investigating a shoot out scene, most of the bullets are pried out of walls, not floor. Bullets flying past the target look much more natural than hitting the floor. Why would anybody even aim so low that the bullet hits the floor just between targets feet?

Yeah, it seems to slow the game down. I can see I'm already starting to adapt and playing more carefully and slower. I'm siding more and more to the original system.

Ah, yes please! That one little visual imperfection is the one I want gone the most I think! Getting rid of it will make missing feel that much better, I'm sure.

StellarRat has summarized my toughts perfectly. As a non native speaker I often don't find right words to express myself, but those are just the things I've been thinking in my head in finnish. The balance problems are easy to fix and you don't need to use these unintuitive and complex gameplay mechanics to fix them. Just make gaining TU's progressively slower and decrease high ranking alien TU's. Also, comparing an absolute elite soldier (all 100's) to a total rookie (all 40's) is a bit deceptive. First of all there's a TU cap atm at 80, second, its very rare to get any stat even near a 100 or even 90. Third, all rookies have some stats that can be as high as 60(?). So a battle hardened, best of the best badass veteran in real world comparison has maybe only 20 TU and/or ACC advance compared to a total newb. I don't feel thats enough. I really want to shout "Nooooooooooo" like Darth Vader in the Return if the Sith when my best soldier hits the dirt. Now, even a total nobody can wear his boots like nothing. The real difference is much less than is said here.

This guy/guyette has a point.

There's a new, official AI improvements sticky thread. Your ideas are good, just post them >here<.

As a former game designer myself, I tried to use as organic, natural feeling and easy to understand rules as possible. Somehow it goes back to my hobby beign a board game enthusiast. In board games you can't have over complicated calculations and everything needs to be relative simple, even when the game is complex. This drives game designers to polish their rules to as simple as possible. In the very best board games' rules, you can see really elaborate systems to make complex things relatively simple - and that's what I appreciate in games: natural, organic rules you don't need to check in the manual every time you start playing. They just feel... don't know the word... obvious? (And this doesn't mean I like simple games, quite the contrary) In Xenonauts, I feel that it's less abstact to see a guy with X TU's and instantly know he can shoot Y times with weapon Z. I can, of course, see the benefits in the %-TU system in general, but I'm not that fond of the game then needing additional aids (like snap, normal and aimed shot markings in the movement squares) for the player to be able to make gameplay decisions. It just screams that this system we use is over complicated and we needed to add this and that system for you to able to play. That said, I'm completely fine with both systems. I just prefer the one that is easier to use without the game needing to help me play it.

I thought this was fixed a few builds ago?

If people feel the new system cheapens leveling up experience, could medal bonuses be made more important to make veteran soldiers stand out more? Like Purple heart: 20% less likely to panic, some other medal: -5% shooting tu cost. Or even random bonuses from medals to even further differentiate veteran units.

Have you thought about some general debris tiles that would fit in all tilesets? Also, I demand smoke and fire around crashed ufos once again!