Zathras

Thx I will try both...in retrospect I think that I have used part two by accident already

By all means, slow down the ranks, but NOT the stat gains as I have some ludicrous majors who cannot hit a barn door at 100ms with accuracy of 65 while the accuracy of the aliens is incredible. The range factor will be very useful. In most UFO games more bases are necessary, but the cost of those here makes a choice necessary: bases or upgraded weapons .The poor cash flow (and you ARE saving the world) from supporting nations makes it almost impossible.21 missions and 11 weeks and I have a US base but cannot afford any laser weapons. So I will be doing without weapon upgrades until after my 3rd base (SE Asia). The inability to make a profit on selling new gear destroys the economy capabilities of the game(cost 50k sell 1k????) especially as the nation support is so poor. It is almost as though most do NOT want you to win while those without support behave like children and reduce the chances of support by reducing the cash flow( I know that this is in the old game but the economy there was more flexible}. Financially this is the most difficult UFO game of all and if success is a function of base numbers I am doomed and in normal and I play top level in all others. Whinge over. The missing gear bug is still alive and well....makes them handy as forward flare scouts

Thanks for that URL I read Oktober's post and while I am not US I agree with it. My son is a Combat Engineer captain and I was worried sick about IED disposal. He assured me that once you reach captain, some one else does that. Then he tells me that when one guy was stuck, he defused it..no wonder I have no finger nails. if he goes back there they wont have to kill him as I will. So, yes leaders do lead but sometimes they have to get their hands dirty also and it does set a good example however stupid I said it was at the time. One of my family was a battalion MO in WW2 and they were overrun and wiped out. His body wasn't in the medical tent as they had killed all the wounded. It was draped over a Bren with a dozen empty ammo mags. He and a W/O and 2 wounded privates held the last stand.

Okay thank you. I should say "sorry" but I have long given up wading through weeks of forum posts on many games and I am happy to live with it. Umm have you ever had a personal field medical kit? I have and I used it regularly. From purifying water to first aid.We even cut strips of Band-Aids to make steristrips to use as suture(wound cleansed with ...water) and when I fractured my fibula I walked out on my own strapping and using methadone tablets..two hours pain free and enough to get me going) Sometimes. often, there is no one else and I have seen others use tourniquets on themselves and not only for snakebite(pressure bandaging now). Everyone has a personal medical kit in the game or can have one but I cannot use it on myself which is frankly, dumb although not just confined to Xenonauts(UFOET and XCOM EU..UFO Aftermath was good that way as you could treat yrself. I appreciate the complexity of base modding and rank discussions(?) have been around since 1994 but since everyone has whinged about them since 1994 I just hoped for better. Nothing wrong with having 25 + attainable ranks with the last one taking 6 months to obtain with near godlike powers (ie impossible in reality). Part of the real "fun" is getting your best or "A" team to have as high skills as possible for that big bad Boss final push. In UFO Aftermath I am trying to get seven to level 18 for the moon base attack and in XCOM EU I tried to have an all Psi squad for the hell of it. Took a while but was worth it. Pity about India and china though While I waited for a stable Xenonauts I never really looked at the forums as there was no reason to so do. Okay back kill this &^^%$ sniper who has wounded two of my team.

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Ahh Now I actually HAVE stun grenades I see the point of Flashbangs however trivial. I don't quite understand the range limit on weapons: the concept yes, but the actual range limit for accuracy gain. Perhaps that is why my snipers have the most kills, but then in every UFO type game, they usually do. What are the ranges? Anyone know? The LMG spread is incredible and almost like someone has sawn off half the barrel. I am usually amazed if I actually hit someone. I also would think that combat experience and hits should be separated into two groups: exp >>>rank (although I would like less pips/crowns on their shoulders/collars) and hits>>>>marksmanship or grenadier or gunner awards as in badges with ranks but unrelated to their actual army rank. I have a captain with 8 missions and no kills" ? born paymaster : ) Again : not sneers but positive comments on ways to improve the game. Is the first base structure rigidly fixed or can it be modded to improve it?

I used three flashbangs on one alien in his ship and I still had to shotgun him. If you have ever experienced one, three would not just stun but render very unconscious and disorientated upon awakening for hours afterwards on humans. Some idiot used one on a neighbour's dog and it vanished for a week after it howled away at top speed upon awakening. Anyone with 60+ accuracy now gets the sniper rifle. The ones with <55 the shotgun and the 55-60 the M16. Maybe I should give the latter group the sniper rifle also? Now I have a squad of captains within 3 weeks. At this rate my squad will be archangels within 3 months and gods by six : )

Stimpacks are a little illusory even in the 22nd century IMHO but I meant simple pressure bandages and local anaesthetic spray/morphine styrettes(at worst) which will slow the major problem and can be used by SELF and which will also keep minor flesh wounds unable to cripple the unit. Obviously with a major wound the MediPack is required but every soldier has his own minor kit or should have. Flares are not that useful but are better than nothing and there is NO earthly reason why there should not be more available. With regards to the "flashbangs": other than suppression they do not stun and are mostly useless and a grenade is much better(yes I know ...damage). Not happy with the accuracy of the M16 in the hands of anyone but the sniper rifle and the LMG have proven useful. I am only into my third week (XN time) and find the base design to be very UFO/XCOm annoying as you can only add one living quarters and one lab unless you remove other facilities. In all of my XCOm games the top Hangar was replaced immediately then removed and there was a mod which set up a far more useful and user friendly base. Please do not take my comments as sneers as I am quite impressed so far and remember I am playing UFOET. UFO Enemy Unknown, AfterMath and the originnal XCOM at the same time so I can compare almost automatically. The one thing that always annoyed everyone was the "last alien" who often hid(the cowardly little s**t) and in UFO ET you can find by midgame an alien location device which really helps although not game changing as so much time is spent searching shadows. Now life force indicators are in real life, not far off(yes..true) so although in the `1980s at least a an IR heat signature device should be possible. So far the scenarios are a little overstatic but not complaining, the combat is good and the AI is not that stupid. My aim in all of these games is to never lose a man even if I have to do the odd reload(2 so far) so it was money well spent and show(me at least) what Firaxis could have done with their wonderful graphics and bugger all else. So far()and it is very early) 7/10 Ohh BTW I sorted out the grenade problem : it was me being stupid..again..: (

Grenades How do you use them? Sometimes I can & sometimes I cannot. Also what does it mean if your target has an ammo clip on the sight helix(besides the fact that you cannot fire? There are two sorts of combat First Aid: what you carry yourself like everyone else: usually compressed pressure bandages etc and what carried by the Medics. Surely Xenonauts can give everyone a small healing agent a la that in UFO ET? MGun users should have a choice as most are capable of selective fire ie single, cluster of three or burst and so far mine has done nothing as he cannot move any distance or he loses burst fire and so is never there. Also a sniper can fire his rifle (especially if an autoloader) from the hip and it CAN be used in close combat and again especially if it has even a limited burst capacity. Flares are totally useless as they extend your visual range by so little they are a waste of effort. Any Heat detectors or movement detectors in the works? Yes I know that some are reptilian but not ALL reptiles were cold blooded and if these guys are then I will be surprised otherwise they will have lie in the sun for a hours to recharge. Last comment: most of my squad are at lieutenant level and still have the SAME accuracy that they did as rookies so what is the POINT of experience as this was a MUST in all other such games.(eg in UFO ET, Aftermath and the old UFO XCOM anyone who couldn't shoot was stacked with grenades and used as decoys(ie sacrificed) as accuracy is the primary skill followed by movement allowance. BTW I hate a squad full of officers and would rather a non UFO different ranking as in the WarCom mod for UFO enemy Unknown. Rookie, Priv 2, Priv 1, Corp 2, corp 1, Sergeant 2 then 1, then 0 (RSM) or lieutenant 2, then the usual officer rank ascent. I remember in TFTD when my whole winning team were Colonels which I thought was a bit of a joke but they were my best so...(yes I had lost a lot of men in that game and finished with near 140 troops IIRC although it could have been just 100 with dismissals if I did do that.

Thank you. I usually set 50 in all stats as a minimum unless there were none then I dropped throwing to 45. I have never understood why, in every UFO/XCOM game, a supposedly elite unit has troops who cannot shoot with any accuracy. I Do realise that it is part of game play balancing etc., but it is scarcely realistic. In the engineers, all had to be able to shoot and half had the marksmanship award. Perhaps it is to mimic the green effect upon performance of new troops and the subsequent decrease in efficiency but this is not valid for a supposedly "elite" unit. In other words , I guess that I understand why, but I disagree with it and especially as the enemy troops always seem to be able to shoot with higher accuracy at the beginning in most such games. Is Xenonauts any different here?

Okay: believe it or not I am playing UFOET, UFO AfterMath(very underrated IMHO) and The latest and trendy XCOM (which I feel that other than graphics and tactical gameplay is far inferior to the other two) all at the same time for comparison purposes and yes, I still have the originals (even Interceptor and that horrible First person shooter) and am trying to get the first and original one running on Win 7. In UFOET you can select recruits from about 300 possibles each month and I place my criteria so high that I am lucky to get between 3 and 5/month and sometimes even none. This is done simply by that game and I was wondering if Xenonauts (at which I am still trying to look, so as to have some idea before playing) has any similar setup? Rookies who cannot shoot are a liability in infantry and hardly deserve a place in an elite unit.