Cwell

I was looking at the weapons_gc.xml to see if there was some updated weapons data (is armor pen was back in ? -> no) and found that : <Weapon name="weapon.sniper" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1" [color=#ff0000]reactionModifier="0.8"[/color]> <props range="30" hands="2" recoil="0" weight="7" isHeavy="1" clipSize="10" reloadAPCost="30" reloadSound="Weapon Precision Rifle Reload" [color=#0000ff]reactionModifier="1"[/color] hpLimit="80"/> Most likely the red part is a forgotten "to delete text", since other weapons data is in accordance to the blue one (both values & definition location). I haven't looked at all of them yet, feel free to add other observations of mistakes/errors (not "balance data / what you think it should be", errors )

I hope those crash style trails will come back at some point, looks really nice

Works like a charm, thanks

Awesome

Me too, because after it did it, i was like : a soldier with a rifle takes ~35 TUs for 1, he did twice, moved, and reaction fire, thus a minimum of Snap Shot (around 15), that is a total of ~95 TUs if he moved for about 10 TUs (2 tiles & turns) ......... I went in the files to check : Caesan Guard have 60 TUs, AlienPlasmaRifle has Burst cost of 36 TUs and Snap Shot of 18 TUs. Something is fishy there (he was the last alien on the map)

This is because, in my opinion, the choice of having each project based only on a "worker days" number is not ok. Also some values simply don't make sense : Jackal Armor = 20 days MIG-32 / Hunter Scout = 30 days A single armor upgrade (since it does not use any alien tech or material, just adaptation after alien weapon study/discovery) would take almost as long as modifying/building an aircraft ? There is a scale problem here imo. That is why i like the Project approach, with each projects having a set minimum number of workers to start. We can define those by theme or scale : Soldier Items : Armors, Weapons, Equipment Vehicle Items : Weapons, other Vehicles : Ground, Air Of course, a "full-body-mechanized armor" requires more than the basic Jackal armor both in personnel, time and resources, but it should not come close to a "tech equivalent" aircraft. Overall, it really does not take that many people to work on an armor upgrade or a single weapon, when it does on an aircraft. The build time of a single weapon and an aircraft should not be on the same scale (on a worker's day basis). For early game figures, we could have something like : Soldier items : minimum requirement of 1 Worker, base time 2 days, Vehicle items : minimum requirement of 2 Workers, base time 3 days, Vehicles : minimum requirement of 5 Workers, base time 6 days. You can accelerate the construction by adding more workers, but to a maximum (double for half time ?). Overcrowding becomes a hindrance, and you cannot "insta build" things, you still have to actually do some work The "workers" do have a hidden cost : building Workshops (or Labs as it could be used there too) and hiring Engineers do cost cash and Time. Maybe that is where you need to scale better (require more when you go up the tech tree) and then lower the flat cash value. The overall build time does not need to increase drastically. It would help in overcoming a bad loss later in the game : - A MIG-32 requires 5 Engineers for a 6 days build time, doubling the team (10) will make it in 3 days (current game value for those set conditions). - A late-game Aircraft could have a build time of 10 days and require a team size of 45 Engineers minimum (random numbers, i haven't see the tech tree depth yet). You could bring it down to half that time with a team of 60. It does add a parameter and modify the structure on your side, but i think it would benefit game-play. It also serve as a direct indicator for the player that he has to build Labs/Workshops and hire non-fighting personnel on a regular basis where there are none atm. Maybe i should have started a new thread to discuss this suggestion in the adequate forum

I'll agree. I had a Ceasan Guard shoot 2 Rifle Bursts on his turn on me today, then Reaction Fire when i move afterwards. They already have loads of TUs (this would be about 90 TUs for a soldier with an assault rifle), make them spend for ammo management please It was not even past half of the 1st month too. I was a bit surprised (a single Jackal armor made, the rest in the queue) Balance patch soon please, i'd like to see how it goes then.

If it is adjusted, it is not working Today again, i got shot at 19 tiles by a Caesan (Guard type, ouside a Scout) repeatedly : he was not moving, i had him cornered and played a bit with him to see what was happening. My 1st assumption was that a AI creature could shoot at any target (with a firing path) if he sees at least one target. He chooses the one with the highest chances to hit, i'd guess. Which of course should not be (no squad sight for him since he was the last one). But if there is some diagonal adjustments, well, another possibility (my Caesan 19 tiles was almost straight line, +3 tiles side deviation)

Right clicking in the upper left area (not only on the Role square if i remember well) will always remove the main hand weapon. Use Left click to select/create a Role, equip standard load-out, save a load-out, etc.

After a day or so and some reflexion mixed with ideas from this thread, i changed my mind. I'd rather see the same system used for the UFO crashes (to determine how much they are damaged) adapted for our side. F17 & MIG-32 would have a high change of being very damaged & possibly destroyed if shot down, with extended repair times, but alien-upgraded next-gen ones should tolerate gradually more in crash-landing. That would serve a double purpose, they can still be destroyed, but not straight up in the skies. There is still a monetary cost issue, if you loose one and can't really move on, there's a system flaw somewhere. I still like the idea of having projects requiring a set minimum of Engineers and not simply a total cost of "Engineer's day", it would help in this topic's matter. You'd be able to play with both money & Engineers to determine a cost, thus being able to reduce monetary costs. I'd address other issues too but that is not the subject here.

The background should help you : http://www.xenonauts.com/background/ I was pleased when i checked out the website (before buying) with this material at that stage. Even if it looks "small", it is enough and does its job in setting a scene and a mood. Follow the links and read about Iceland, etc.

Answered in the FAQs

That idea seems quite ok (option 3). If you reach "destruction" level, you end up fleeing with high repair times (75% of build time ?). Otherwise, normal as it is. I've already posted something about "build times" in relation to other project types (and engineer number requirements), but the monetary costs would still be the same, loosing one still is crippling.

That would require balance obviously An advanced aircraft could have a base of 20+ Engineers needed (thus one Workshop is not enough) and halving build time is quite hard since you'd need 40 Engineers. I had in mind for requirements something like : Hunter Scout = 5 Engineers, MIG-32 = 10. Those are Engineers required to build one. You can queue them up and build time adds. If you put 10 engineers for a one Hunter Scout, you divide the build time by 2 (double the number requirement). If you put 10 engineers for 2 Hunter Scouts, you'd get 2 after normal build time as they are made at the same time by 2 separate teams (UI wise to simplify : create 2 lines for 2 separate builds, put 5 on each) The balancing process becomes : what is the number of engineers i want the player to have at that time ? The minimum team size is somewhat correlated but should be used to differentiate simple items like Armor, Weapons, etc, and "Big Stuff" like vehicles : - 1 Engineer is enough to build a soldier weapon, a soldier armor, 2 for vehicle mounted weapons, 3 for aircraft mounted weapons etc., - 5 Engineers for a Ground Vehicle, - 10 Engineers for an Aircraft. Then add some more from those figures for "Tier" purposes. Example "Build Time Projects" : - simple Items : 1 or 2 days, more for advanced Tiers if you want to keep "Engineers per item" low - ground vehicle : 5 days - Air-crafts : 10 days So all Aircrafts would only take 10 days per unit, but the Team size required would go up with time (Tiers). If you're in trouble in an advanced game, you could go "low-tech" to fast build something. I just noticed it's inspired from Firaxis' satellite up-links stuff (needing more engineers the more satellites capacity you have)

Yep, but that is a detail compared to the other thing i'd rather see (end of message a few posts above)

I forgot to add : - no need to "double-dip" the personnel limitations with Living Quarters and Lab/Workshop. Use Living Quarters for Soldiers only (and reduce the capacity to account for loss of engineers/scientists), Labs for Researchers, Workshops for Engineers. Straight up easier

From my very limited experience, i'll agree on a few of things : Shotgun / Pistols are close to useless, better carry Sniper Rifles (my 2 Assaults always carry a Sniper rifle now), i do use 2 Riflemen just to have Burst fire, but i'm always tempted to grab Sniper Rifles instead. Grenades need Range limitation (Pistol / Shotgun efficiency range would be fine) Don't have "Guards" type enemy on the 3rd mission of the game (1st month still) : our troops don't even have access to Jackal yet, they are way tougher (better weapon, better armors). Mix up the troops maybe, like 1 "Guards" to represent the Leader in a 5 enemy crew. Playing smart and well won't cut it to that point. Winning is irrelevant if you loose 50% of your forces when you play well (and not save/load every couple turns). I did not push too much into the game to wait for that Balance patch that was mentioned by Chris, right now i'd probably dislike getting my 1st Terror mission Without experience of it, i'd still agree on a few other points: - building an Air Fighter should not require a Hangar space : use a "storage" system with the Workshops and allow attribution / transfer from it. Having an empty Hangar for more than a week is not ok. Stuff is built and assembled in the Workshop and it should have some stock capacity, limited in some way of course, like 1 Vehicle at a time per Workshop for basic vehicles, 1 per 2 or more depending on the new vehicle ? That would avoid the "30 days build time" for one if you are required to build-up the Workshops just to be able to start building one (not really needed if you consider the last idea of this message). - Making 8, or 12, (Jackal) Armors should take less time than building a MIG-32, always. Same for next tiers of equipment. 1 Engineer could make one armor in 2 days, but 10 would not need 20 days to make 10 armors: 2 days for the lot, each making one individually. On the other hand, 1 Engineer could not build a MIG alone, it would require a minimum number and the time is based on that minimum involved. Double that minimum could divide build time by 2. I'd really like to see that approach of "X needs a minimum of Y Engineer(s) to be build" with a time based on that. It cuts out some non-sense (armors vs air-craft). Then extra help will accelerate proportionally to the minimum requirement : 2 Engineers for one armor would divide the time by 2, 1 extra Engineer for a "needs 5 to be build" item, would give a 20% bonus. High tier armors would require more than 1 Engineer too, but never close to what an aircraft would need.

i'd like the "don't take reaction fire" button too my point was more about the fact that all weapon should have Reaction Fire, even Burst ones

I disagree : when you wait for something to happen so you can (re)act, you simply can do it sometimes : saving TUs for an enemy action is what this is about. The chances of it happening depend on your natural talent for it (soldier Reflex stat). Then, weapons have different behavior depending of the type. It is the purpose of the reaction fire modifier. Pistols are easy to "Reaction Fire" with (+80%), Sniper Rifles are not (-20%), Rocket launcher are the worst (-50%). Machine-guns should be able to be used that way also, it just need an adequate modifier for it (between Sniper Rifles & Rocket Launcher would be fine). There's no reason you could not fire a Burst as reaction fire if you prepared for it.

All weapons have different behavior with Reaction fire : some give a bonus, some a penalty. You can find the parameter in the weapons_gc.xml for each weapon : reactionModifier Pistols gets +80% to Reaction chances, Shotguns gets +40%, Assault Rifles gets 0%, Sniper Rifles gets -20%, Rocket launchers gets -50% It seems the Machine-gun gets 0%, but it is the only definition with "1" instead of "1.0", in case it does something funky (rather that the "heavy" type not allowing Reaction fire) In case it is not something linked to Burst fire (not being used for Reaction), you could set it to "1.0" and test it out

Well, i'm pleased to exeprience a "normal" forum experience, it was getting a bit annoying and worry-some, since Steam opening will, most likely, bring sh**-storms Good jobs guys

They should, but not always (data from aiprops.xml file). basic Caesans have 45 HPs and 10 Armor, so a minimum random roll on rocket damage could result in a 54 damage reduced to 44 after Armor, 1 HP left, "w da f" some say The next rank (Guards) have 50 HPs & 20 Armor and cannot be killed with a basic frag rocket in da face !

You cannot one shot kill a Sebillian with a basic rocket in the face atm : Rocket does 60 damage with no armor penetration, Sebillians have 60 HPs, 15 in all armors, which leads to a maximum (random -10/+10%) of 66 damage reduced by 15 from the armor to 51 max damage. You would need an AP Rocket (120 Damage, 60 Armor pen) but it is not an AE effect (single tile target) i did made an earlier post about that but it got eaten by evil forum

performance / database issues for sure, i'm pretty sure i replied (between 11am and 1pm i'd estimate) to Ravenx and Sathra about Sebillians versus Rockets. It seems it got lost in the ether db roll-back ?

Whatever path you set, the game will use <systemdrive>:\Users\<user>\Documents\Xenonauts to store saved games and user's key-mapping. It probably needs to be set/saved in the base gameconfig.xml, not the user's light version with key-mapping, so you could actually find it on start-up If you're planning on doing it instead of removing the launcher button, force the addition of a "\SavedGames\" or something, so that we don't end up with those files straight in the Xenonauts directory.