zolobolo

This is regarding the cheat to have soldiers packed with ammo and weapons to the teeth and then dropping these in the first round Could a counter (Overload) implemented to soldier equip screen which would increase each time a soldier is packaging more then it can handle and deny overload of soldiers if reaches a limit? All soldiers would always be able to fill up their capacity and most of the soldiers could be overloaded slightly even allowing one to be overloaded extensively thus allowing some stash pile on the transport but if player is resulting to this sensible cheat/feature it would be only worth loading one soldier and the result is the same as in the original with the exception of some little micro management at the beginning of each turn

I remember this topic being brought up around a year ago but not what the result was. My question is whether it will be possible to have the ammo state of weapons carry over from mission to mission if the transport does not return to base between missions. This is somewhat an immersion feature which I think was there in the original but is also something that would put additional penalty on conducting missions right after another which would be nice. It would also make some more sense to have several clips for soldiers since at the current stance I never needed to have more then one extra clip for each weapon even for lower ammo level weapons. If the feature can only be implemented by removing the current ammo clip for the soldier equipment it would be even better - lore wise they would rearm their weapons between missions if they shot at least once during the last mission thus conducting three missions in a row would become quite difficult even if player is pro

I can think of at least another way which Xenonauts incidentally also seems to be an example of: community funding. It is of course only one of many new business models but one that is showing potential: Make a contract with your community on the deliverables and have them finance the development. I know I joined Xenonauts because of its premise and the possibility to fund a game I wished to play. Also joined Star Citizen for the same reason and there are already numerous other promising games steering towards this direction. If the games developed now can show off good quality and customer satisfaction we have got a much more efficient and dynamic model than those of large DEV companies since they are unable to deliver that closely to customer requirements due to their corp water head and other limitations due to size. The only real advantage was larger budgets but if that advantage is nullified...

Agreed, this would be the pragmatic source of the problem the question being who makes the money? In case of "intellectual" property which software can also be considered the physical production price is not high as mentioned above, but the intellectual effort of devs similar to that of a musician composing song does have effort put into it. Naturally the existing system is built on the old model of product and value but it would be a mistake to not take into consideration: All intellectual effort is a social effort. Everything a person outputs by its mind is pulling data, knowledge, ideas and know-how from the wider range of society (education in school, friends, other artists, devs..etc) cumulative mind. Does it still take effort to filter, merge, slice and dice then dish up the product? Sure it does and it deserves recognition both monetary and other wise but it could lead to a seriously corrupted system if this "right" is taken too far. See big IT firm lawsuits as negative example. Limitation of intellectual property can lead us to serious problems so it needs to be made with the greatest of care and not like: "Well shoot just burn the heretics already in the name of the emperor :)"

The biggest enemy of a product is obscurity and yes piracy does decrease this aspect. As for negative reviews it is a common marketing axiom that there is no such thing as negative marketing exactly due to the previous. If the product has quality that is confirmed by relevant sources the potential costumers who gives a c..p will find those and listen to them because they want to find and hear those opinions and all others are only searching for excuse not to buy something and most of them wouldn't even if there was no free way to get the product. Even though common marketing sciences still try to work with a model containing "rational" customers it is very very veeery outdated model. Humans create opinions mostly on instincts and feelings and then "rationalize" them afterwards. Accordingly one cannot deem piracy bad simply due to the largely unknown effects of it and since they are most probably positive in a sales perspective neither convincing "pirates" from it being unwise. If customers would be rational buyers the gaming market would most probably be a desert with a few cactus like lifeforms roaming the endless post-apocalyptic wastelands of emptiness. As a customer of this and many other products, a pirate of others and an indie "seller" myself i can only urge not to fight piracy by making products more easily available and better supported. DRM and censure is a great way to increase piracy though and if there were a way to "fight" this phenomenon it would come at the cost of much of our humanity. Of course the later is not a high price for some but just take a look at a certain console release not too long ago

Hi bonds0097 Just set up CE 0.25 and noticed your mod, looks great, thanks for implementing. It adds a lot of atmosphere to the game Hope you are also planning on expanding the records with soldier portrait and maybe role or the way it bit the dust "Bravely blown to smithereens", but even as it stands it is a great value-ad and much appreciated

The original had this covered by limiting storage space - cost of ammunition was only one aspect which indeed go away as soon as one could sell alien stuff but there was also the need to balance out limited storage space and cover the missions with enough ammo clips (calculating the delivery time into storage management) and that gave every single ammo clip value - good ol times

Play throughs so far with v1.02-1.07 Normal/save scumming: 1 terror site 1 alien base No base assaults Normal/Iron man: 2 terror sites 3 alien bases No base assaults Base assaults seem to be effectively out if the player knows how to achieve air-superiourity or at least very rare in play-throughs, but alien bases and terror sites can occur several times if played on iron man mode which is highly recommended (didn't use the option though simply didn't load games back) Edit: There is no need to be upset on these numbers, there are two higher levels of difficulty that probably stack up the numbers nicely - I will certainly try Veteran/Iron man mode next and actually expect at least one base invasion unless I get really lucky. Terror sites and alien bases should also be min 5 I suppose.

Versions 1.0-1.07 have invisible props in the final mission: - in the praetor room, the whole room seems empty but something is blocking shots and passage in the middle - side rooms before the reactors seem empty but a lot of tiles are blocking shots and passage

Belay that bug - The power source it seems has also 3 stances like other props. If it is shown damaged the thing does not glow, but the game does not consider it destroyed, it needs to reach the third stage and explode for it to recognise as destroyed item and then the base is also gone after mission abort - I guess this makes sense

In case someone wishes to verify this here is the save: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k316ygdb9qpclxr/Base_save.sav Simply hit abort to witness the hinted survival of the Hunter and in surprisingly good health nonetheless (although its looks seem a bit deceiving during mission I have also seen soldiers living after alleged death with 1 HP - I have nothing against a bit of random survival if it can be deducted in which circumstances this occurs (maybe only with veterans, or if not get blow to smithereens and so

1. During alien base mission, hunter destroys itself in suspicious self splash hit (should not have been destroyed since it took minimal damage before?) 2. After clicking mission abort button all dead soldiers are shown correctly outside the "landing" zone but Hunter is shown with 71/100 HP although it is shown destroyed (Hunter is not actually destroyed or shown incorrectly in mission abort screen)

Alien base is not destroyed if the core has been destroyed and soldiers withdrawn The base core is shown in another stance (damaged/destroyed?) after a direct plasma missile hit, then soldiers escape but mission is not won contrary to xenopedia description of alien base intelligence and the base remains on the geoscape

More specifically: Why can't predator armors use rocket launchers? The xenopedia states the armor can only use heavy weapons but the tool-tip of the rocket launcher tells the player it is also a heavy weapon (would be strange if it wasn't). So why can't an armor limited to using heavy weapons use this specific heavy weapon? Is this a bug? Since weapons have the Heavy attribute (or not) I would think it is not hard-coded but calculated if a soldier can use the weapon but if so then this is a bug Is this an intended change conducted in later changes for balance sake? It seems more logical to have 2 weapons available for the armor (not counting the end-game weapon which probably won't get built anyway ) since every other soldier is pretty much multifunctional with grenades, medikits, primary and secondary weapons. I was also thinking that the armor looks pretty stupid carrying 25 or 26 plasma clips (since most of these will never be used but not utilizing the capacity without back-draws would be foolish) but if it could carry both weapons, the place at last would be a limiting factor instead of strength and the player could customize these soldiers in how much ammo for each weapon is carried on the cost of the other. I really hope this is a bug, but fear it might be a balance consideration in which case the tooltip would need to be corrected Edit: I just had a blink in the unit sprites and fear this might be the later

Hi Kel, Nice mod you got there - I really enjoy the laser weapon art wish these were more concepts like these Yeah I also haven't seen any description in Xenopedia regarding colors of alien uniforms but Lore+ has this covered as good as humanly possible

It wasn't the idea to have a list of things that are hard-coded since I do not know what is and what isn't coded If there cannot be any flat file filled with data such as these then I guess it is not possible without editing the engine - even if it would be cool I guess this would fall into the same category as having combat, UFO activity and other stats, but what about the total civs killed counter? Can't this be modified, replicated edited to collect KIA stats?

I was writing together some thoughts what made the game short of perfect in my opinion when I realized that given the current status of the DEV project all feature related points are only have a chance to get eventually addressed if a modder with golden hands takes a turn on them. So hear go some ideas in hope one or two will be taken a fancy on by people better then me in a nifty mod : - Operation endgame button more visible/striking (it is a high priority apocalypse button) Green colors could dominate here and highlight the button background and outlines with different shades of green - Tanks shown in garage when viewing the base layout since we use this view to get an overview on number and type of planes as well (it is also the best designed management view so information should be tied in where possible) - Sorting of soldiers within base/personal menu does not show sorting direction set (asc/desc) - Strip all equipment function for soldiers in the base equipment screen - Geoscape does not contain much information and the range of planes specifically. Would be nice to have each type of planes and their range on the bottom of the map so to have more useful info there and also help planning air coverage. Icons of air combat could be used and a simple distance meter like in maps showing the range with larger numbers displayed to help orientation and increase immersion: 1000km? 2000km...etc... - One of the most important function of geoscape is showing relation and funding levels + changes for continents but the information is only displayed for each continent when cursor is above making for a lot of useless hovering. Information should be shown directly over the continents themselves and even color code them - maybe via buttons so they can be blended out so not to disturb in interception orders. - Statistics from UFO activity are missing that were present in the original - Mag ammo is very thin and without character (noticeable style) - Bring back original rifle as standard rifle (it is such an iconic and function defined form ) - Color coded squads (red and blue team). Painting the sprites seems too much effort, but how about a triangle above sprites, colored gloom or backround colour of quick key button? - All heavy weapon ammo should take up 2 slots just like in case of heavy machine gun. When predator is used the armor can take a crazy amount of ammo with him which may make sense but is not fun - If heavy ammo would take 2 slots the predator could only take 13 magazines which is still more then enough but looks and feels much better - Final mission optional objective is lackluster - Maybe its just me but I do not care about the survival of my virtual troops in the final mission since there is no strategic/tactical payoff nor emotional - no image of dead soldiers or other just same victory image - Final missing is too easy - the map is straight forward and thus much space meaning one can mow down enemies with rockets - 10 soldiers with fusion rockets - no issues that the equipment is destroyed and no small rooms and corridors to limit shooting angle. Elevation is also not utilized which make flying armor under utilized in the final push - this mission still feels much better then that of EU in my eyes due to the unique tile set and plot buildup - Hall of fame in game for won games and their statistics (mission count, lost civilians, soldiers, date and which ending is achieved) - Soldier equipment slots strongly reduced since they are never utilized (except in case below) - Resolve cheat to have all slots filled with ammo, medikit, backup weapons and drop them in the first round of tactical mission. The problem with the workaround is that it is giving a large advantage but is sheer micromanagement. The original had a perfect solution for that: max weight for transport and a slot to fill in unused equipment to (this might not be possible with the engine though) - Difference when using belt or backpack. Currently I don't see any difference and since we have so much space, the belt is simply meaningless with its size limitation

Confirm on the fix regarding CTD at first door of final mission.

It is nice to hear that the second base will also be targeted since I went a game without a single base invasion - shot down the one UFO trying to pull it off. Maybe if they can target more bases chances are higher they will actually attack. I must admit though I thought all bases are subject of direct attack - I hope they will be - else it is kinda like a cheat to know that the aliens are "only" interested in the first one or two - this way everyone who knows this mechanic simply ignores defenses for all other bases and makes the tension suffer - until know I was always playing under the fear that all of my bases are in danger if detected which makes it more fun. If a base has reached a certain size I always built defenses for it. I hope this will be so eventually even if smaller bases get much lower priority - if they are attacked once per every dozen games that is enough to keep the player on its toes

The CTD with final mission first door is still present (though not mentioned on the change list so it figures ) I have also noticed - that almost all ground attack battleships swoop by on the map without landing. If I understand correctly, we cannot shoot down these birds else we loose that juicy singularity core inside its belly, but the things simply refuse to land I was also wondering is it obvious what the relation bonus for air strike and successful ground combat is? It might me mentioned somewhere but I didn't notice - I can see that GC is almost always better due to spoils of alenium and alloy as well as experience and tech for research so though: the relationship bonus is only in case of air strike or much larger but this is not clear. The funding changes seem to be tied to the relationship and are only affected directly by shooting down the UFOs

Following save with v1.03 contains 2 bugs for reproduction: 1. CTD when opening first door of final mission 2. GUI glitch when placing tank (pod is above tank) https://www.dropbox.com/s/e71t7e30be5wyb9/Test_save.sav To reproduce the above issues, the final operation should be initiated with Valkyre and then the door opened by any soldier in the first player turn

Dear DEVs I played the game on v1 till the end and like mentioned before: Great game though not without a few findings. Please note that I have played v1 though read the change logs of the 3 minor experimental builds. Here are all the findings I have with the exception of those mentioned as being fixed in the change logs (went to 365 UFOs till game end without singularity gun): Ground combat - Tank deployment bracket is above the tank sprite when placing tank with Valkyre (reproducible) - Cannot target and shoot wall to make hidden passages free. Have to target behind the wall segment which is a odd - Grenade not always visible where it has fallen (make it fly slower?) - CTD when shooting door in final mission with tank mag cannon - CTD when opening door in final mission (not reproducible reliably) - 4 sebillians where on the other side - No props in final room but a door on the other side (invisible?) - Props invisible in the side rooms of the final mission. They were preventing shots that is how I noticed them - There is no difference in TU usage of belt and backpack items. This may be due to the quick grenade slot which would be need to calculate different TU usage for items located in one or the other - but without difference the is no sense having to different locations especially if the size of the backpack enables everything a soldier can carry with 100 strength (the belt has two one unit slots but is never needed due to the large backpack). It also makes sense from a logical point of view to have items in belt used with less TU, and makes for more interesting equipment decisions. - Backpack needs limitation of 5X3 in order to give the belt slots existence - else the backpack is always enough for items a soldier can carry with its limited strength - would also impose a good limitation on heavy weapon ammo if that is increased to two tiles even on later tiers - The cheat to have all slots stuffed with items and then dropped in turn 1 is still viable and gives large advantages (e.g.: in case of rocket troops) Geoscape - Strength is shows as being 100 for soldiers in the base personal screen when they wear the predator armor which is not useful when comparing soldier stats. - Tank weapon choice stats are not shown in vehicle equipment screen though a lot of place is available for such info - Relation: "bad" is shown when a continent is lost. Could be worse like hostile - Increase canvas of plane selection menu in base plane equipment menu so show 5-6 planes without scrolling (the place is there) - Increase canvas of weapon selection menu in base equipment screen so all items of ballistics, mad and other categories are shown without scrolling (there is space for it) - Storeroom list of items needs to be shifted down a few pixels when transferring due to the additional menu options on the top appearing - Aircraft and vehicle equipment menu is largely unnecessary with auto equip, but tanks are still not auto equipped with new weapons - Financial balance was optimal for me in v1 - leaving room for errors and allowing to build new bases but not enough to do everything. Lost one continent in the game - if it is strongly changed I would imagine that the balance is off - need to leave room for errors else save scum is furthered - Music plays even if music volume is set to zero (maybe using relative adjustment and the 0 marc is no torn-off switch - Noticed that the alloys and alenium are not refunded when canceling an aircraft manufacture even if it has just been issued (the resources are lost instantly) Features - Operation endgame button more visible/striking (it is a high priority apocalypse button) Green colors could dominate here and highlight the button background and outlines with different shades of green - Tanks should be shown in garage when viewing the base layout since we use this view to get an overview on number and type of planes as well (it is also the best designed management view so information should be tied in where possible) - Sorting of soldiers within base/personal menu does not show sorting direction set (asc/desc) - Strip all equipment function for soldiers in the base - Geoscape does not contain much information and the range of planes specifically. Would be nice to have each type of planes and their range on the bottom of the map so to have more useful info there and also help planning air coverage. Icons of air combat could be used and a simple distance meter like in maps showing the range with larger numbers displayed to help orientation and increase immersion: 1000km? 2000km...etc... - One of the most important function of geoscape is showing relation and funding levels + changes for continents but the information is only displayed for each continent when cursor is above making for a lot of useless hovering. Information should be shown directly over the continents themselves and even color code them - maybe via buttons so they can be blended out so not to disturb in interception orders. - Statistics from UFO activity are missing that were present in the original - Mag ammo is very thin and without character - All heavy weapon ammo should take up 2 slots just like in case of heavy machine gun. When predator is used the armor can take a crazy amount of ammo with him which may make sense but is not fun - If heavy ammo would take 2 slots the predator could only take 13 magazines which is still more then enough but looks and feels much better - Final mission optional objective is lackluster - Maybe its just me but I do not care about the survival of my virtual troops in the final mission since there is no strategic/tactical payoff nor emotional - no image of dead soldiers or other just same victory image - Hall of fame in game for won games and their statistics (mission count, lost civilians, soldiers, date and which ending is achieved) Please note that these are all the gripes I could think of (taking on my nitpick glasses). Sorry for writing so long I just hope that the above can help you make this truly good game even better.

Great news, and congratulations on the big event I have been playing the game a bit now with v1 and looks very stable (1 crash on equipment screen after a day), and polished. Overall I am really satisfied how the game turned out. Some things I found that could be improved or rather may not be intentional: - Music plays even if music volume is set to zero (maybe using relative adjustment and the 0 marc is no torn-off switch - Noticed that the alloys and alenium are not refunded when canceling an aircraft manufacture even if it has just been issued (the resources are lost instantly) - Minor GUI glitches where soldiers are behind UFO front image

Enjoyed reading through the alternative endings - would be interesting and add to the game experience. I always thought the story line was one of the weakest point of the classical formula XCOM games (even the EU version). The story of the global invasion can be an interesting one but gets neglected - that is partially I am looking forward to the Lore+ project results What I liked the most is the idea of sending all aircraft as escort - naturally they would be blown away so no return is possible at this point (except if a strong enough air force was assembled? ) Tie ins into the strategic map are sorely missing - It is also interesting to see a mod which offers manufacturing as a source of income and even explains why - so what I think is then: ok, If I sell 100 laser rifles, will there be more soldiers with laser weapons in the tactical maps due to this, or even flat out more soldiers? Can't I tell which region I would like to sell the weapons to strengthen the forces there and increase the relationship a bit? Maybe I am just trying to relive the Mass Affect 3 that never came, but tie ins of the lore into strategic decisions always increases immersion for me

Reached the point where game cannot continue due to psi powers - my elite troops get wasted in 3 turns via mind-control and get dreaded spam. Mind control needs to be toned down considerable and all above suggestions seem fine. Dread spam needs to be reduced so it does not become annoying so fast. Most annoying part is the lack of knowledge what the conditions and effects of these events are. It seems to me that all my soldiers get controlled without LOS with the newest build. So what I would like the most would be better overview and control over this layer like mentioned before: 1. Training of soldiers against these effects or building them an item against it. 2. Status portrait of soldier to show what effect is applied on him so the player can understand and learn the dynamics without reading the forum Mind control is the single largest risk to game play since it seems to effect all my troops independent from rank, capabilities or location. EU also used this move bot only via LOS of the commander alien which seems reasonable and one of the better improvements over the original game.