Solver

I'm currently finding that the 1.5X damage multiplier which appeared recently is a bit too much. My troops become excellent sharpshooters by the time they reach Lt rank, accuracy is near-perfect in close quarters. Feels to me like 1.25X there might be the sweet spot.

Sounds pretty awesome. An early game phase where stealth is the most important thing, as you're easily killed if discovered, followed by a ramp-up phase, and finally a phase where you can openly attack because you have gained enough resources and replicated your own technology. Could be a great game.

This honestly sounds great. I think alien bases as a whole are a bit too heavy on explosive use (entrenched aliens behind cover are far easier to beat with explosives than without), but command rooms suck. They are pretty dangerous to assault, which is as it should be, but also boring. I end up using smoke to conceal myself and then basically throw all remaining grenades before storming in. It's not optimal gameplay.

I'm in agreement with Buzzles. Yes, it would make sense to bring some extra items on the Chinook. Yes, the original did it. But it removes the element of being concerned about bringing the right equipment, and enough of it. It would mean I can kill aliens outside a UFO, then switch to a full shotgun loadout and storm the UFO. Or that I can equip 4 guys with rocket launchers and in addition to their backpacks also have another 20 rockets in the chopper. Not having extra cargo is one of the things that makes resource management important.

The new animation speeds are subtle but better, the game feels more consistently responsive. Good job there.

I still find it strange that you're not supposed to play many ground missions now. That's the core of the game, yet you're encouraged to just airstrike many of them.

I am deeply honoured, but should remark that Voight-Kampff is the test I should really be taking

Power supply on the server has been replaced, that was the likely cause for instability over the past couple of days.

Server will go down for another brief period shortly as hardware diagnostics are run.

Do you happen to get more LOS while flying?

Thanks, this is excellent apart from the fact that I have a lot of things to do over the weekend Preliminarily, the one thing I am not sure about from the changelist is the negative modifier to hitting other units with scatter choice. I find it very Xcomish that firing a burst has the chance to hit everyone, not just the target. I hope that remains in place to some degree. I also wonder what the intended use of jetpacks is. If soldiers can not fire while mid-air, it appears that they serve no function whatsoever?

Base defense missions are beautiful when they come together. Which is a crapshoot in the current version admittedly. Had this beauty happen to me. One small squad got stuck in one of my hangars, but I had one alien squad attacking through workshops/labs while another was attacking through a radar array and adjoined living quarters. It was amazingly fun.

For base assaults: explosives. Lots of. And some more. Alien bases will have most aliens in one big room with several entrances. So I fill it with explosives. Soldiers firing rockets into the room, then eventually I throw in several smoke grenades and go in, by which time most aliens inside should be dead.

Seems to depend on alien spawns. Sometimes they're unlucky and some alien squads (or even all) can end up stuck in their starting areas. At other times the spawns are good and then the aliens attack like they're supposed to.

Their aggression is okay in my experience. Except in terror missions it leads to the entire fight being around your dropship, and sometimes aliens get stuck in pods in base defense missions. Otherwise aggression is okay.

Aliens in the current build basically ignore vehicles. They will shoot your soldiers though! Low-ranking aliens do prefer to flee most of the time, but you should experience coming under fire if you come within range with your soldiers.

Yes, sure they couldn't then, but it would seem to be an organic addition now.

Chris, I think both alien problems could be solved. Give them actual finite ammo and reloads, but large clips. Just like in the original, where ammo was almost never an issue for you or the aliens. And then maybe further increase penalty for humans using alien weapons so that their large clips would not become too helpful to human soldiers. Also let them pick up any weapon from the battlefield, just falling back onto their default armed sprite (plasma rifle, pistol, whatever) with any weapon that there is not a separate sprite for. I'd say as long as it's any existing sprite except the unarmed one, it's fine.

Whether aliens actually use ammo or not is less important than whether they reload. Forcing them to spend most of their TUs on reloading once in a while would be important. As for the sprites, I don't really see a problem. You can always use some default sprite as a placeholder for everything that the alien/soldier doesn't have a proper sprite for.

There comes a point where these things get old because you've seen it so many times before, but later, there comes a point where that old stuff becomes fun again. Anyway, on the subject, I believe both Linux and Mac OS ports are currently somewhat outdated, and hopefully more up to date ones are made for the next version. Unless Goldhawk can find a way to make it work on Steam, which would be even better.

Sadly, despite a high degree of computer proficiency, I lack the ability to participate in a Mac OS bashing-fest.

Format your HD, install a copy of Linux (Debian or Mint) and run games on a real operating system.

And that's a good point, certainly swarms of scouts on scouting missions would be able to detect bases much of the time. Sounds like a better mechanic than what's currently in place.

I think the interceptor CAP case is distinct. The RNG should be a part of the game, and a somewhat significant one, but the consequences of a RNG roll need to be within some sane range. Losing your dropship with your best troops is as dramatic a consequence as can be, that's the most punishing thing that can happen to you, and I'd argue that particular case needs a fix at least in terms of better escort capabilities. Losing a new-ish base is nowhere near that critical though. If the RNG attacks your base in its first week when it still has no defenders, that's a setback, but it's not the murderous event that losing your team is. The point about scouts being shot down is an important one. I do not immediately have a solution that has the best of all worlds.

Base attack mission UFOs do not pop up that often in my experience. Further, this concern could be addressed even better by (again) requiring a scouting mission to find the base first. The probability of the aliens detecting and attacking your base within that week-long window would not be especially high. This may also be tangentially related to the issue of whether perhaps it should be possible to get the initial buildings up faster in a new base. Right now, there isn't any real feeling that my subsequent bases are in danger. The base most likely to be attacked is my first one, and it has the best protection - a strong air wing that may shoot down the attacking UFO, and the base also houses my primary ground team. Peripheral radar/research bases are safe.