Andeerz

Perhaps realism isn't the word I should have used. Regardless of whether or not realism is an option in a work of science fiction, verisimilitude sure as heck is. If what happens in the game does not make sense (not necessarily being realistic) within the universe of the game setting, then it breaks immersion and makes the effort put into making the setting compelling, at least in the way this game does, a waste. And with regard to alien ships crash landing; those ships aren't going back up. Also, they are made of ridiculous alien magic materials, so them not being completely obliterated upon crashing makes sense within the setting of the game. An F-16 (or 17) made of human derived materials surviving a crash in such a way as to be serviceable afterwards does not; it makes the threat of the aliens seem way less pressing and dangerous. Regardless, what I have a big problem with is that I feel there are much better ways to balance this without sacrificing verisimilitude and making it seem like the game is blatantly holding your hand. Oh, and at least this person who argues from the point of view of realism sure as heck is not just worked up about this. I am most certainly worked up about limited sight range etc., and not necessarily because it is unrealistic, but because I think it is a crappy feature of the original xcom as well as this game and its ilk (though these games are fun IN SPITE OF such a thing). But that is beyond the scope of this discussion... And the mystery behind why the aliens don't just blow us up from space, I think, is not comparable to what is going on here. In fact, I like it. With the way things are written and the game universe is set up, it does not seem like some absurd hole in the plot, but an interesting thing to ponder, even if it is never ever answered in the game and is simply there to give the game a reason to exist. Also, Stellar Rat's idea is an example of how this should be done if done at all.

I find the idea of aircraft recovery to be ridiculous from a game setting and game-feel standpoint. It would make sense for a few parts from more advanced craft made of stronger materials to have a chance to be salvageable following a crash, but having the whole thing recoverable is just plain absurd and really draws attention to the fact that this is a bandaid that only treats a symptom and not the causes of imbalanced gameplay. It's not an abstraction that makes sense; it's a poor game design choice that really makes the setting and the things the game tries to represent all the less believable and immersive. I hope I am making sense here... And if the air combat cannot be salvaged without making poor game design choices (and I'm NOT saying it's to that point... yet...), then I suggest that that entire aspect of the game be entirely redone from scratch. Is it truly impossible for the current problems to be addressed with changing funding from member nations, the costs of individual aircraft, and altering the pacing of the invasion?

Interceptor recovery? Really?

Yeah. If things were totally realistic, I could see shotties being useful as a breaching tool. It would be neat to have to negotiate locked doors!

Hmmm... do players really have no idea they would need to? I feel like the risk of sending an unescorted dropship is pretty darned obvious, at least to me. And I didn't know that non-fighter UFOs were made not to intercept anymore as I always send my vulnerable stuff with escorts or intercept threats beforehand and figured they didn't intercept me because of this. I do not feel that interception per se is too punishing and I think it really should be something that remains as a crucial part of the geoscape game. Stuff like repair times, ship costs, intercept-chaining bugs and stuff like that I think are what are unreasonably punishing. I feel it would really break the game-feel and dumb down the geoscape game to neuter alien air capabilities by making interceptions not happen. Maybe easier difficulties could have no interceptions, but, seriously, I do not think that interception is what is making things unbalanced.

You ain't the only one that doesn't like it. Personally, I feel like the minigame is pretty much impossible as it is with its current level of complexity (or lack thereof) to make into something that requires meaningful mental input to win, and is therefore quite meaningless to have, in my opinion. I don't think it's overly complex or even difficult. If you know how to play it well, you will pretty much always know whether or not you will win or lose and can decide whether or not and how to intercept accordingly, so to me the minigame is pointless.

These ideas are beyond excellent. I hope Xenonauts ends up being hella-moddable and able to incorporate at least some of this!

And I think that the radar ought to be handled differently anyway (though I wouldn't be too sad if it stood as it does now). It would be nice if nations could detect craft for you, but your radars have a much higher detection chance than those of the national militaries (especially if there is some tech to improve your own radars with alien tech). I assume that enemy craft are rather stealthy and have special technology/can fly super low even at ridiculously fast speeds to avoid radar.

I like to think that the base is underground with the hangars being elevators to some underground runway under a mountain. Following take off, the planes would be very low to avoid detection and would fly low enough for long enough in a random enough way to obscure their point of origin. That is what I like to think happens until the aliens discover your base location anyway.

True... but if the rest of the game is relatively unforgiving, they should expect that getting into firing range is a potential death sentence. Regardless, it shouldn't be a game breaker to lose a single squadron, and with the costs of condors and migs as low as they are now, I think it's getting there.

The accuracy dropoff with range definitely needs fixed... and should be as moddable as possible in the config files. And I think I agree with the idea of smoke grenades blocking vision.

This suggestion needs to be implemented, maybe not in the final release of this iteration of the game, but at least as DLC. If not, then someone should mod this in, and I hope that the game's structure is easily amenable to its addition. Something simple like what is in XCOM:EU would be pretty cool (which would cover a good part of the OP's points #1 and #2), but it would be nice to go a step further and try to nail points #3 and #4! Something like what is done in D&D with spot checking or whatever might work as a basis for #3. As an example, an entity that comes into sight of a soldier but is obscured by smoke and/or cover would trigger a roll of the dice. The result of that roll plus some modifier based on stats of the soldier minus some modifiers based on distance and perhaps other factors (like low morale, injuries, cover, etc.) would determine if the identity of the alien is made out. If the sum total is above a certain threshold, then the entity is identified. Otherwise the entity is represented by a generic humanoid shadowy figure. This wouldn't be hard to code at all, but how easily it would mesh with the existing code and game mechanics of the game might be a different story. This would also require making a new set of sprites for the generic humanoid shadowy figure... Also, I really like the idea of some aliens being particularly stealthy, especially the reapers. P.S. How does atmospheric plasma smell like?

Yeah! I like that idea. That with a FOV penalty as well (or at least make it easily changed in the config file).

Yeah. Suppression should make firing hideously inaccurate or outright impossible.

I think if a player swings and strikes out against a lone, unescorted landing ship, they might deserve to lose... A landing ship would be able to be taken out fairly easily without losing anything if one just uses common sense and retreats after firing missiles and, if necessary, using multiple sorties. The amount of damage the landing ship takes should be enough to indicate to the player that they need to up their game as better ships come along.