flanker84

this topic is very interesting, posts are either, but let me suggest: xenonauts IMHO is not the sort of game to play its tactical missions for time, play cs, etc:) a variaty of ideas for missions posted before are very interesting(http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/1940-Mission-Types-and-Secondary-Objectives). note, that these are not the scout maps we are tired of, but the over again scenario of doing the same, so add "some colors" without remaiking the main game structure, using the mechanics already in it. i`d personally preffer (if these missions meant to be mini terror site) something like helping locals to protect mil base/object/vip (alians may spawn in waves via a teleport, more local killed - worth), save pilot/vip (who becomes player controlled once reached), and assalting alian object (abducted people/destoying alian object) reward maybe money as the main resource of the game, soldier (but what if your barracks are full?), slowing the escalation.

true, but you still SHOULD be able to load the first round manually on your base, then it is saved for that soldier, if want to change, just put launcher away and take it back in hand/backpack and let it be empty again

maybe better to make launcher empty be default, as you`d like to load it with stun or piercing ammo first

ya-ba-da-ba-doo-!-!-!-!

call it sparrow, together with corsair they can be a good couple, and please and rum to medikit

I just read in other thread that stunned soldiers should be un-stunned by medikit (no mention about medikit tire), so reported this as a bug if devs missed that. But was very nice to read your posts mentioning "smelling salt", but I think in order to be qualified doctors, your scientists have to watch all series of Dr. House, though, may be they would even start to put adrenalin and morphine in basic medikits

It would nice feature if implemented. I vote “yes”.

I understand that, what I meant, is my xenonuats (who previously suffered from smoke and became blue=stunned) couldn`t be un-stunned by the other guy with standard medikit.

To your consideration: Back to close combat weapons again. Think that accuracy penalty for using MG, RPG and Sniper rifle should applied when trying to shoot close range (aka heavy weapons are difficult to manage to trace target), so will need to switch to secondary shotgun/pistol, and so they would be used more often, no heavy plasma syndrome.

Thanks for approval, actually I`ve just finished looking through Jiis-Jan`s comments. A lot of people asked "AI team behavior". May be should move this discussion there? Oh, and my hunter they don`t usually destroy because it runs away after spotting, but sometimes happens...maybe too far for AI to pursue when civs are close. And I totally agree to make A.I. and not a cheating computer. It doesn`t have to be a genius (but highly expected), but should behave in different patterns and by this become unpredictable (read interesting to play)

I agree that these are pure speculations right now, but who knows, maybe Chris would take some into account... Isn`t what`s it all about? As for retreating outnumbered aliens, I`m not sure if it was due to my superiority in numbers, as I described my "tactical approach" before, I scout with a hunter (mostly) or a single soldier just to spot enemy units, the backup team of couple snipers is very far away, even 4 time zoom gives only ~60-70% in the open field, so don't think it is the issue. Besides my scout after spotting tries to make his way back, in order not to stay in enemy line of sight. I see enemy ambushing in the following "hiden movement phase". And running from "tank" isn`t also obvious, as it can be destroyed with few plasma pistol shots. AI just tends to ambush, that`s all I can say for now (only refers to noncombatants and guards, maybe soldiers, but not 100% sure). Would be nicer if it would be: 1) more mobile (flanking, patrolling, etc.); 2) had ability to combine forces and act aggressive an assault concentrated in one direction, but after being softened would retreat, regroup with additional forces and attack again from other flank may be. Behave more the way the player would. Battle would become more dynamic with a lot of back and forth maneuvers. And now imagine that freaky teleporting alien materialized behind your lines - such things would ruin your previous plan completely.

I`d like to add the following: [battle map] - corvette entrance door is still transparent, can see through it for a tile or two; - if soldiers standing in front of this door, and another one, who is standing aside, opens it, the view, of that who was in front of it, doesn`t update, so making step inside is needed to renew his view; - corvette second door opens automatically when soldier steps before it (must stay one tile before it, if don`t want it to open), but it can be closed again from that position; - damaged corvette - engine room (where power source should be) can be also uncovered, if watch from side, the flood texture is missing, you can see ground (may be it is meant to be so but doesn`t look nice).

When discussing the balance we should always see the game as a whole, and how changes suit the game in general, not just "inefficient shotgun here & now" discussed for a few pages. So follows my understanding in pictures. The other point is how it would be distributed though tires/new alien types & ranks. I just see this progress slow and smooth, allowing not fans to get used to, while still leaving it a challenge for experienced ones. I`m just against super weapons and super armor (at least for xenos), you should face loses, but one turn reaction fire (sorry for that again), wiping out half of team and a tank is a little too much. Maybe it would be possible to connect difficulty progress to the players` performance (who evolves long, get corvettes in 2 month, for example), again this could work for early game mainly.

Didn`t manage to recover my stuned soldiers with the basic medikit, maybe was doing something wrong?

Inside of damaged (read full of smoke) corvette an Adron lost consciousness and died. I saw it because you can still see through the hull of damaged corvette if watch from a side. It is impossible to see the aliens inside, just the room itself, but in their turn the camera takes you to the highlighted area and then you can see aliens walking inside during the hidden movement phase. So the adron was walking the deck for a few turns and then just felt dead from the smoke. I checked him with soldier later. But the stun grenades seem to work just fine against them - they don`t stun:).

Not sure if it is what you are discussing, but I think I have something with a similar logic: terror site appears, popup notification either, sent Charlie - too far to be in time, terror site disappeared (no notification popups), Charlie started to fly in circles, then headed to the base (obviously out of fuel) - no notifications. Pressing ESC button doesn`t popup menu screen (damn, I was disappointed the first time this happened). By accident found the opening xenopedia screen and then closing it brings all the popup notifications back instantly (missed terror site, out of fuel it was all there, even research and production notifications popuped, but nothing new was explored or produced). The ESC button didn`t popup menu screen and no notifications if terror site was secured, but could also be cured with opening and closing xenopedia window.

Not really, last night had a chance to try this on completely new rookies, who just passed their training and were relocated to the new base (tell this if matters), so they all had their role icon default, like the game decided, didn`t touch that. I equipped them manually. completely from scratch. And later on a mission one of them had that issue, but this happened to the second same grenade he tried to throw. Frankly speaking and cannot catch the logic in this. It just happens sometimes with some troops, trying to throw second grenade the same turn. But it appears re-equipping them before next mission helps at least for the first grenade to throw, but I`m not 100% sure. If it`s so uncommon I`ll try to give you more accurate info next time.

Some of my latest observations: [shotguns] – close combat and deadly – I would only suggest to improve its accuracy via a spread of shells for maybe 6 tiles, but then drop instantly for greater distances. Usage: over watch ufo entrance and stuff like that. Also make lighter to be a second weapon for rifleman. Combat observations: xenos with shotgun managed to kill sebilans trying to run out ufos with a single shot in back – I liked these moments. But some missions later casean trying to do the same took me 2 shots – logic? [pistols] – second weapon for snipers and rocketeers – due to low damage are almost useless, should make them faster to shoot: 5 TU not aimed and 7TU for aimed (and increase +1 for each tire). Have you seen how in RL trained guy shoot pistols? – they unload magazine with blink of an eye. Usage: kind of a last stand weapon for snipers or support for grenadiers Combat observations: took out cesean with three shots another mission, but think he was injured already, because later unloaded total five shots and he was still alive (guard guy), so making pistols weak but fast will create their own niche and not making them useless like in original EU and current reincarnation. [riffles] – not much to say, as they serve as middle point for the rest of weapons, though as mentioned before make the burst fire arc narrow, as now it looks silly and causes friendly fire often (maybe, I repeat maybe should make them more usable by making burst fire more accurate and couple TUs less). [precise rifles] – seem to be ok with 50% accuracy penalty, though 95% possibility shots miss pretty often , also missed shots should land closer to target, otherwise looks silly too. [hunter`s 0,50 browning gun] – the same issue with arc of fire. Also looks too unrealistic when three shots hit the sebilian and he`s still alive, while for hand MG which is maybe at least twice weaker in RL three shots is enough to kill him. Suggestion – assign it armor negating feature or increase damage if not possible. (sorry for of topic, but where the hell is hunter`s rocket launcher? I don`t have it – may be a bug) [xeno`s rank/stats progress] – currently it’s too fast, 30 missions and you have maxed up team of commanders and colonels. As for me I like this game for long play and progress, and I like the way Chris took away some toys in the beginning, like armor and tank. But currently in 2+ months you can gain xenos with ~90 for TU, strength, health. Please slow this process, and if possible add some new ranks, limit stats progression per mission (or decrease this limit). Think bravery should increase with rank or something, because didn`t get it grow for a single xeno, and if you want to say it should be trained via panicking on terror missions – I`d say if this happened then only third of your team is still alive and you probably lost this mission. Could be also trained via combat experience, seeing dead bodies of civilians and not just their own team. [reaction fire/line of sight] – once again my favorite issue which IMHO make this game boring (I went to bed at 2 AM though). Give the aliens super health, armor and weapons, fine. But making them shot few times before you come close enough just to spott`em – its ubbercheat. Combat experience: xeno in jackal went on scouting, one tile step – reaction fire from two disc drones, missed; another one tile step, again both fire and one hits, another step – one miss one hit, but cesean joined them with plasma riffle, lucky that he missed, another step – discs fire again, but finally spotted. It took another couple of steps to spot that cesean with riffle, while still getting reaction shots from discs. Of course this can be explained by bad luck etc. But it just ruins the feel of the game. Also noticed that aliens can reaction fire multiple times in the same xeno target every time he performs action, while xenos reaction fire few time if only new target arrives to their line of sight. Think should make it just one time to reaction fire in a single target but with maybe all TUs at least for xenos (if every next shot is considered to have accuracy penalty aka shooting moving target, seem not injuring balance, but will make you reload more often and thus use this feature, take more ammo…) And it also seems alien reaction fire tank far less than xeno soldiers. [AI] – noticed aliens always run in the direction, opposite from xenos and ambush then. Only once witnessed something that can be called an assault and aliens moving into my positions, but by this time only 3 xenos were alive. Think they should be more aggressive against my troops. If combined with my reaction fire/line of sight notes, could become more interesting and bring more action to the battles. (If alien detects my positions and thinks he`s out gunned, he then retreats, ambushes and waits for backup, then they assault together – can something like this be done?) Also noticed adrons becoming idle, after they shoot all targets in their range, just sitting between walls and fences, shouldn`t they go on patrol or something? The same for local forces, maybe they should gather and protect civs, taking them to cover? (and no xeno-megaphone needed, as suggested in other thread) [air combat] – corvette with escort was shot down with torpedo interceptors, which retreated promptly after that, escort was still alive though. Dropship was sent to crash site, but the crash site itself began to move to intercept my dropship and did it. When dropship was sent in a wing with fighters and reached crash site – window popuped with standard buttons like patrol etc. So I suggest the escort to become the new ufo target or escape to space when main vessel in down and make dropship possible to start mission when in wing, or make it impossible dropships to be a part of wing. [game scale] – IMO having the original EU scale was ok: 50 scientists/engineers is more adequate. Just compare how many F22 raptors Boing produces per month with 15 guys assembling Mig in 3 days. But this should still leave player before choice to explore or to construct faster especially in early game. Would be also nice to have general financing increase via ground or air missions, when part of points goes to ALL counties, as it is difficult, for example, to shot down ufo in central America and get bonus, but easy to lose support when ufo performs its mission above the sea. This should help to withstand ONLY occasional loss of support. [battlemap general] when too many stuff on the ground, it is impossible to thow anything more on that tile, adding a scroll bar or something is needed. I understand that its far too long for a post and difficult to read, especially with my English, but it describes pretty much I`ve noticed so far.

Would be also nice to have a specific close combat or even melee alien (reaper maybe) who is partly blind but has a lot of TUs and is running in front of xenos dodging their pistol shots (because they give reaction fire bonus) finally detecting one of xenos and tears `im apart - like an alien dog or something.

Implementing "reaction dodge" feature would make the sides` (xeno or alien) turn actions more important, rather than players` attempts to out cheat reaction fire of computer, as for now maybe 9 of 10 kills of my soldiers come from enemy reaction fire. This would make reaction fire less important, but still leaving this great feature as an important part of battle. Besides looking through assets dir noticed that you have kneeled animations for aliens - is that what you thought about? (adrons for example could move like terminators T600 without dodging feature by default...looking forward to see something like this)

I`ve noticed, that the only efficient tactics so far, which is to position 2-3 of my xenos and have the hunter scout near (it seems to see further and can catch a shot, or two if lucky, so can look around the corner), if secured then move troops forward, if alien spotted - shoot with troops. Only this way you can efficiently avoid reaction fire, as the aliens can see too far away. Its annoying to catch plasma bolts from the middle of nowhere. I also tried to throw smoke grenade and then advanced covered, chances are like 50/50 to come close enough to see the alien. If in jackal armor - can see even worth. So my suggestion is to make the first guards and noncombatants closer or equal to the first xenos in accuracy, reaction and line of sight, so player could develop his team a bit. When some techs grabbed, armors discovered, start lunching stronger aliens. Donno if it is implemented or meant to be, but could you make reaction stat of xeno/alien to be a countermeasure to reaction fire (the more reaction the shooter has, the more chances that his target wouldn`t start reaction fire). Could be also nice to have reaction trained a bit by spotting the aliens and maybe shooting them without making them to reaction fire or something like this. This will force you to scout with troops and get reaction trained, as it is the most difficult stat to train.

On the battle map noticed a bug: when threw a grenade it disappeared from the inventory but wasn`t actually thrown. Maybe this is associated with 'custom soldiers` roles' because before next mission I took all the granedes from that soldier and adjusted his inventory manually and he could actually throw `em in the following mission. remark: time units were not used for "throwing" of these "ghosty" grenades

Whe took an injured xeno on a mission all his previous permanent injury was then concidered as a temporary and could be healed fully with medikit (don`t think it supose to be so)

I`ve just got game freeze somewhere in the middle of civ`s turn on this map (previous time was ok, could shoot through these black areas; these areas are inpassible, but hunter could drive and "step" on corners of these areas while driving in diagonal)