Solver

Any new design decisions on this front? It still does not sit right with me how nation relations are almost exclusively based on the air combat minigame and not the game's main element, ground combat.

Of course you build multiple bases, but the very first choice you make in the game is where to put your initial base, and that isn't really much of a choice now. It should be, though. Your first base is important as anyway the second base takes time to become operational. 15 days for a base with radar + hangars, 3 more days for Condors. It's really simple in the end. There are 10 regions in the game. An Egypt base can put 6 regions within your radar range, which other locations can't. If you place your second base in Mexico, that's coverage of 9 out of 10 regions with two bases.

Of course you build multiple bases, but the very first choice you make in the game is where to put your initial base, and that isn't really much of a choice now. It should be, though. Your first base is important as anyway the second base takes time to become operational. 15 days for a base with radar + hangars, 3 more days for Condors. It's really simple in the end. There are 10 regions in the game. An Egypt base can put 6 regions within your radar range, which other locations can't. If you place your second base in Mexico, that's coverage of 9 out of 10 regions with two bases.

Well, there are more places that give a lot of land area. It's not a perfect solution, but it would make bases in places like Kazakhstan, Western Brazil or Central Africa very viable. I would ideally like to see such a change combined with tweaks to nations so that they provide different funding levels.

A Xeno soldier's backpack isn't really like a large backpack for marches, though. Those huge backpacks can fit everything. Clothes, medical supplies, meal rations, hydration, a load of stuff. Xeno backpacks are more like a combination of assault packs and load bearing vests. Soldiers on an actual mission carry much less stuff than on a march or in a non-combat situation, but they still have much more equipment on them than just what fits in their hands.

I do not think realism in those aspects should be a concern. Even with the current numbers, soldiers can pretty much carry less weight than the average healthy but untrained man. I know any real soldier can carry a gun, spare ammo, a backpack full of stuff, all while wearing body armour. But that doesn't make for good gameplay necessarily. Just like real soldiers with basic training - let alone elite soldiers - would never miss half the shots at a gorilla-sized target from 50m distance. But realistic accuracy would kill gameplay.

It breaks saves from the experimental balance patch, which makes sense. Different exe, and I am guessing this one doesn't use the new reaction fire.

Steam won't overwrite the files until there's an actual update pushed by the devs, so it's safe to leave auto-update enabled.

Any luck with stability? I'm consistently getting a freeze per mission more or less.

At some point the carrying capacity was too small. A few builds ago it was so that strength was worthless, taking whole 5 points to add 1kg or something like that.

But don't unarmored soldiers have a bit too much flexibility now? It's fine for them to be all-round good, with a weapon, extra ammo and a choice of grenades. But as it is, they can carry pretty much everything. Full belt of grenades, a weapon, a medkit, another weapon in the backpack and a C4 charge. You can give your snipers a shotgun in the backpack to let them switch to close combat when needed. I would say that is too much. Also how about differentiating between Jackal and Wolf weight? It would be interesting to see a situation where Wolf gets assigned to the vulnerable frontline troops, but where Jackal is an option to give some protection to snipers or others. Currently I tend to skip Jackal altogether, instead researching Wolf right off the bat.

But don't unarmored soldiers have a bit too much flexibility now? It's fine for them to be all-round good, with a weapon, extra ammo and a choice of grenades. But as it is, they can carry pretty much everything. Full belt of grenades, a weapon, a medkit, another weapon in the backpack and a C4 charge. You can give your snipers a shotgun in the backpack to let them switch to close combat when needed. I would say that is too much. Also how about differentiating between Jackal and Wolf weight? It would be interesting to see a situation where Wolf gets assigned to the vulnerable frontline troops, but where Jackal is an option to give some protection to snipers or others. Currently I tend to skip Jackal altogether, instead researching Wolf right off the bat.

Chris, sounds okay to me, my proposal would be to keep the situation with armored soldiers as it is now, but also make things tougher for unarmored soldiers carrying capacity wise. One goal should be to make strength matter. There should be a very visible difference between a str-65 and a str-45 soldier. Another goal should be to make equipment choice matter. You can work it backwards. The average grunt is str-50. Let's say we want him to be able to carry a rifle, a medkit and 5 small items (mags / grenades). Adjust the numbers accordingly, then make it so that a str-60 soldier can have armor with a rifle, medkit and 2 small items, for instance. I think part of the problem now is that there is not a clear picture of how much equipment we want soldiers to be able to lug around.

I think a different solution is called for. Instead of making soldiers weak wimps, decrease armor weight and increase weight of ammo, grenades and the like. That way most armored troops would run into limitations exactly as now, but unarmored troops would also have to choose loadout more carefully.

The balance is fun, but it's close to unplayable because of common crashing. I have to assume it's something with the new reaction fire mechanic, always happens in the middle of a unit move, so it could be alien reaction fire that crashes while triggering.

This feels much better after a couple of missions. Aliens no longer hit with every shot, but it's still quite punishing. The original's reaction fire system is definitely good, I like how it gives low-TU weapons an extra benefit in that they're better for reaction fire. Yay pistols!

Speaking of chopped off tiles. You know that map where you exit the dropship next to a barn with a red tractor, where the part with the UFO is behind hedges? The light scout UFO appears chopped off on that map. It's in the corner and only half the UFO is there, the other half is missing.

Smoke is definitely king now, too much so. With alien sight range also being greater, advancing is only really possible with shield guys, anyone else gets wasted (and even the shield guys are in danger). This means you have to smoke pretty much every open area to advance, which is maybe a bit too much. Regarding the maps, I like them. Variety is good always, and this new small map with lots of cover type feels like a nice change. It's good for the decreased alien numbers.

Smoke is definitely king now, too much so. With alien sight range also being greater, advancing is only really possible with shield guys, anyone else gets wasted (and even the shield guys are in danger). This means you have to smoke pretty much every open area to advance, which is maybe a bit too much. Regarding the maps, I like them. Variety is good always, and this new small map with lots of cover type feels like a nice change. It's good for the decreased alien numbers.

Ah. That could explain things. I usually flash in the middle of two aliens hoping to catch them both, but see only 1-3 points of suppression being done.

Still present.

Flashbangs could also use more powerful effects in their radius. Throwing a flash in the middle of a light scout does not suppress even non-combatants.

Okay, now really final impressions for today. Reaction fire from aliens is nearly always an instant kill, while reaction firing at aliens only wounds them. Does not feel balanced. Laser weapons could be bugged, or I'm just unlucky, but they seem to be hitting much less than their indicated accuracy. Open UFO doors on some maps are great. If it's a bug, keep it.

I don't think of non-coms as soldiers with desk jobs. I think of them more as of engineers and scientists that have weapons as a last-ditch precaution in a hostile environment, so they're not really effective with them. Old non-coms were too little of a threat, current non-coms are too close to proper soldiers. Also, the Hunter car now dies like it was made out of paper.

Playing more, my impression from the too-high-accuracy is that there are no longer any real firefights between me and the aliens. I either prevent the aliens from firing through suppression and maneuvering outside their fire arc, or I get slaughtered. The chances of a soldier surviving if fired upon are so slim that I have to become too risk-averse. I do not think this is intended to such an extent.