chiroho

Every once in a while I have run into an issue with some of the V7 betas where I simply wouldn't have firing or movement sounds. It usually seemed to be related to leaving the game running for an extended period of time while I stepped away and did something else. When I came back to the game there was no sound. Restarting the game always seemed to solve the problem. So there could be something weird there.

For your weapons? For alien weapons? I haven't been experiencing this with 8.1 which is why I ask.

First, let me say how well 8.1 has been running. Everything I reported in the original V8 I used has not appeared in my play though. Soldiers are getting promoted, stats are increasing, scientists and engineers are showing up on bases. It's all great. And this is the first issue I've found so far and it's very minor. When you go into Mission Planning for an Alien Raid Mission, the graphic displayed is that of a UFO as though you were intercepting that and not simply sending the Skyhawk to a raid mission. See image: Another minor note is that, if you have multiple bases and your main base is not the closest to the crash site, the Skyhawk may well be somewhere down the list and it's not obvious that you may need to scroll.

Weird. My V8 saves show that they're V8 as you can see here: It's possible the dev team pulled down the accidentally released internal build so that the current version out there is still V7.4 Regardless, there is a bug I'd previously reported against 7.4 which was that you cannot load an automatically generated save from combat. You can if it's at the strategy level, and you can if you manually create the save in Combat, but automatic saves from Combat don't work. That's likely what you're encountering here. Chris said that it would be fixed for V8 as you can see here in my original report, but it was still an issue in the early V8 release that I was able to download.

This is a normal behaviour when a new version is released. So if you've just updated to the current V8 that's available on Steam, which actually is an internal release that was accidentally made available early, you won't be able to load any save games from any V7 versions - you can see that the version of the save game being loaded is "CLOSED BETA V7.4" which I'm guessing is not the version you're currently running. You will be able to load save games created from the new version. The reason for it is that saves from earlier versions sometimes cause more problems to be created. So when any new version comes out you need to start from scratch again.

Sorry for jumping the gun a little. Was so excited to potentially see V8 that I downloaded and started using it right away. I'll wait for the official V8 before I do any more banging on it.

After completing my research on Combat Armour, I designated for 10 of them to be created in Engineering - one for each of the soldiers that typically deploys. However, although the first one seemed to be created okay, and I think I somehow got a second one after it dropped from 10 required to 9, no more were being created. I had to manually remove them and have them created one by one. It should be possible to see this behaviour in the save game I attached for the recruitment missions issue. Could be that this is somehow related to the issue with research projects not clearing after completion.

As you can see from the attached screenshot, once I completed the Combat Armour research it did not disappear from the research list - it remained at 0 hours. I wasn't worried about this at first, but after playing for a bit I discovered the net result was that unless you manually removed it the next research project wouldn't start. You can see this in the save game that I attached for the issue for recruitment missions. Weirdly this doesn't seem to be consistent. I had to manually remove the Combat Armour and HEVY Launcher projects once complete, but the Stun Weapons one disappeared by itself as expected.

In my first V8 game the first thing I did was assign the two soldiers in the barracks who were unassigned to a recruitment mission. Everything went fine with me being prompted to select whether to recruit scientists, engineers, or money. I selected Scientists, but the number of scientists in the base did not increase. The next time I selected engineers. Choosing to receive funds does work correctly. The attached save file is around 40 minutes from having a recruitment mission complete. It should be possible to reproduce this issue using the file. user-6.json

They're definitely back in V8. Seeing them as purple "army men" was a bit disconcerting though. My first thought was that they were a new type of alien.

See the picture below. You can still click essentially where it says REQUISITION spelled out over 4 lines and once the plane appears everything is okay. But it shouldn't look like it does.

Here is another example. If you load this quick save, any shot taken towards the open spot in the UFO results in the soldier shooting at their feet and injuring all the soldiers near them. Even moving the aiming point a couple of squares further back so the chance to hit is 27% results in the same result - the soldier shooting the ground at their feet. As you can see there are no obstacles to the shot. I think it's merely distance that makes it such a low chance to hit. But even if they miss the intended target, it should be somewhere in that general direction. Not at their feet. Original aiming point: Adjusted aiming point to get a higher %chance to hit: quick-23.json

Attached is a save game where I used the HEVY launcher and the first time I fired after doing the Quick Save instead of going near the Andron, the shot hit the hose the three soldiers to the left of the line of fire were clustered. However, each time I loaded the quick save and took the shot it ended up somewhere different - and I wasn't using the option to reset the random seed when I loaded the save. So hopefully this helps. I'll obviously keep trying to come up with a scenario when the shot goes really weird. In general though I've found that the more there is an obstacle somewhere in the line of fire, the more likely something weird is to happen - especially if it is closer to the firer. quick-12.json

In the attached automatic save from immediately before an Alien base mission, you should be able to reproduce the problem. When the mission loads the entire screen seems to be black for the most part. Two Psyon engineers are in the room. When you kill them the mission completes. I imagine that this is for similar reasons to the terror missions with spawn points etc. not being correctly placed. Not sure what's going on with the tile set though. It just looks plain weird. strategy-74.json

The auto save for immediately before that mission is attached. This is the first time I'd run into the problem. But also the first mission I'd had against Wraith. Previously I'd only fought Psyons and Sebillians. Could that be related? strategy-48.json

In looking at the definition file, a snapshot is supposed to take 28% of time units, a normal shot 40%, an aimed shot 56%, and a burst shot 60%, which is slightly higher than the comparable costs for a ballistic rifle. However, in comparing two of my soldiers carrying laser rifles it seems like whatever percentage is being picked up they're almost the same for normal and aimed: So for a soldier with a higher number of time units there is a visible difference, but it seems to be higher than it should be for a normal shot, and even off from the 28/40/56/60 that seem to be delineated in the definition file. Either way, I agree it doesn't seem correct.

I believe that Chris has already replied to this in another thread. The largest alien craft that they updated the graphics for the new dropship for is Destroyer sized. Anything bigger than that and the old drop ship remains because they weren't certain which they were going to move forward with.

Hopefully that resolves the problem, though the weird thing is that it seems like every single terror mission, that can be reached due to the other issues, seems to have this problem. Certainly both of the terror missions that I've been able to reach in version 7.4 have had this effect. If it was just one map, would that map be coming up every time? The impression I get from those who have been posting on this and other threads is that either the terror mission goes away before you reach it, or it completes immediately. It doesn't seem like a normal spawn is happening for anyone.

Actually I don't believe that this is a feature. What I think happened to @Ruggerman and just happened to me, is that the gun unloads and all the extra ammo being carried by the soldier disappears as the Ground Combat mission starts. I have three soldiers on my squad carrying a converted plasma rifle. When I equip them in the loadout screen each has a loaded rifle and is carrying two extra clips. I had no problem with this setup on several previous missions, but when starting this particular mission the gun is unloaded and my soldiers are no longer carrying the additional clips. All the ammunition is gone completely and the soldier is useless. The situation can be seen in the attached save. All the soldiers carrying a converted plasma rifle are useless in this scenario. If I kill an enemy carrying a plasma rifle during the mission and pick up their ammo and reload, the gun works fine and doesn't seem to lose any shots apart from those I take. It's just when the mission loads that all the ammo disappears. user-26.json

My thinking would be to show the players previous manual saves. And perhaps the quicksaves as well. Basically anything done manually by the player as they're the most likely objects to be overwritten. As you said, I'm not likely to want to overwrite an automatic save, but if I run a set of three different manual saves for Ground Combat missions say (One when I land, one at the end of each turn before I press End Turn, and one after alien movement), it would be good to be able to overwrite those. I realize that the new auto saves obviate the need for some of that, but there are definitely times when you want to save mid turn to see if something will work and then go back, and that's why I think just showing manually created saves would be best.

If you load the attached save game, which I've tested 4 times so far, by the end of the alien movement turn the game is in a flashing "hidden movement" loop. Load the attached save Select End Turn There is a Psyon that appears during the alien movement phase. In some instances the alien has been killed, and in others not a single shot has hit, but every time it seems to get into the loop where hidden movement just keeps flashing on and off. user-22.json

They were there in the version 6 betas, but have not appeared since the version 7 major release. I think I saw somewhere that there is another major release planned soon, maybe next week, so maybe they will come back then.

I've encountered this as well. I know that Chris was talking about potentially speeding up the Skyranger, or potentially making it so that the mission won't go away if the Skyranger is already en route - unless it's a landed ship. In this play through I had two terror missions pop up in North America in the same month and since I couldn't reach either, I lost North America as a funding nation. So it really has an impact the way the game is playing right now.

When using the 7.4 beta, if you try and load an automatically generated save game generated during Ground Combat, you are not able to do so. The "Load Game" button becomes active once the save you want to load is selected, but the game itself does not load. The same problem does not occur with automatically generated saves at the Geoscape level, nor with manually created saves in Ground Combat. It is only automatically generated ground combat saves that seem to be unable to be loaded.

I saw this once in a 7.3 game where the intercept plotted for the fighter was directly towards it, but instead the interceptors flew a course that was almost a mirror image of where they should have been flying. I was able to select them and choose a new target and when I selected the Alien fighter again they flew towards it and intercepted as expected.