[Your Starting base?]

Crete. IT lets you Cover Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and a chunk of the Soviet Union right off the bat. Then I put another base in Cuba and the Philippines and I've got the whole world covered with those three. Sometimes I put a research base in Iceland as well, because it amuses me.

Yep I go there too. The random European Island chains give you good coverage. The second base goes to the US

[crash site don't feel like crash sites]

Xcom-EU did a fairly good job of crash sites. Having some impact markings around the sites would be quite cool.

Some easy ways to add a crash feel could be:

Setting a nearby building on fire

Cratering around the ship (it didn't feather touch, the reason it's in one piece is because the ship is so structurally advanced)

Damaged objects in the internal (roughed up canisters ect)

Setting the ship partially below ground to simulate heavy impact

busting up the ships outer armour (scratching and some crumbled metal would be cool)

Pieces of the ship lying around the map

Some of them are a lot of work and generally the alien ship has managed to land soundly according to the descriptions. I don't know if the devs would want to commit the resources.

[A modest proposal why the Corsair loadout needs to change.]

Interesting discussion. I agree the Corsair probably needs a buff, though...and I think the fundamental idea of it having two cannons is more interesting than it having four missiles.

I like the way the Condor has equal range on the missiles and the cannons, so in the dev version I've buffed cannons to have the same range as the equivalent light missile right the way through the game as Benscachar suggests.

Given that change, how much of a relative damage nerf to light missiles and buff to cannons is needed to make the Corsair a viable improvement over the Condor in most situations (without increasing the overall damage of the Condor)? I'm open to either flat-out increasing damage or just adding more ammo capacity.

I'm inclined to agree that what makes a fighter a fighter is it's cannon. Can I throw in a suggestion for the Corsair?

The two ideas that leap to mind (for me) that would have the corsair valuable but not over the top.

1. Have two types of fighter cannons eg;

Gatling Cannon

Twin Gatling Cannon (The Torpedo equivalent of a cannon)

Dedicated fighters would be more useful as their cannons are stronger vs interceptors.

2. Give the Corsair a single light missile

Change the hard-points to the following;

2x Cannon on the left/right fuselage

1x Light Missile on the undercarriage.

I think the second option is the most simple and effective to implement. 2 Corsairs would be able to get an easy kill on a fighter then turn on the remaining escort and finish it very quickly.

[Impossible Terror Mission!]

I'm surprised to see people not bringing shotguns on Terror missions. My usual Shrike Loadout is:

2x Shields (Grenadiers)

2x Carbine (+ Stun Weapons)

2x Heavy (with a rocket launcher)

4x AR (W/ Medics & Grenades)

2x Snipers

I'm only playing on Vet but I usually lose 1 Xeno on a terror mission average. I pair up a Carbine with a Shield and use them to clear buildings and for just about anything that would put a normal xeno in danger. The shields defence combined with the shotguns CC I usually have no problems indoors.

As for getting whacked on terror missions. It's most likely your play style that's running you into trouble. Against sheer numbers suppression is the only way to go. My heavy weapons get about 0 kills on terror missions, as they are there are fired inefficiently into groups in order to suppress. Sometimes my Carbine troops don't ever get to equip their rifles as they are moving and throwing a stun grenade every turn.

The only other thing I do that's successful on terror missions is right at the start. The first and second turns are usually passive for me.

High TU soldiers get into good spots and drop smoke for the others to set up. If you think your going to get rushed, throw gas grenades in the general direction of the alien attack so they can't get close to you.

So the three keys for people who don't like walls of text;

1. Throw smoke and gas, then get set up behind heavy cover.
   
2. Suppressing a group is more important then picking off one alien
   
3. Be patient!
   

Good luck - Remember its a good thing that Terror missions are difficult!!

[Modding Aircraft cost and build time?]

The ones you can purchase through the air tab in your HQ are also found in Aircraft.xml

[Combat.shield]

Looks like they both have 120hp.

It's a pretty simple matter to double the assault shields. zero idea if the Assault shield blocks more often, I haven't come across those variables yet

[Combat.shield]

OOOOOH, you can't jump fences with a shield. I'm curious how this will work with Sentinel armor. If Sentinel armor ever works.

Oh good, I simply thought I was retarded and couldn't figure out how to jump with sentinel armour.

Does the shield have HP? Also what does the upgraded shield do?

Also,

Can I effectively equip two of them at once and run in to draw fire?

I'm totally trying this!

[feature request:refit of vecals and intercepters]

I think you might be able to create a manufacture item that 'uses up' an aircraft to make a different aircraft. That might work.

Or it might crash the game and/or cause some bizzare bugs.

Challenge accepted!

[feature request:refit of vecals and intercepters]

Hmm... interesting. That could work. Personally, just to simplify things, I'd make the next aircraft (corsair, etc) easier to get [/Quote]

%100 on this.

The main problem is the gap between F-17 and the Corsair. I'm actually making a mod that addresses exactly that currently! More component parts would be good too, the system is in place where you can refit missiles, I see no reason that couldn't be expanded to include more components (powerplant, Radar ect)

[Ground Combat Autoresolve]

For anyone that is interested.

I whipped a sample table of autoresolving, it's very basic but it gives you an idea of what I was thinking

[Feature Request: Alien Infiltration]

I do like dynamic missions.

I think these would be much better as bonus objectives that yield increased rewards.

[Little Mod V4]

Is there any chance of boosting the flashbangs?

they are so underpowered currently. It's a shame too!

[Newbie Modding Questions]

I've been tinkering with the files (using excell and notepad++) and I've got the hang of how most the files work.

There is still a few items I'm unsure of and wether certain things are hard coded into the game:

Buildings

Where can I define functionality? eg if I wanted to make a new building, how can I give it the heal troops, living quarter or hangar properties

Aircraft

Can I make a new type of missile. I wanted another type of Chain Gun, but I'm unsure of how to get the game to recognize that there is a new slot type

By type of chain gun, I mean I wanted 5 categories of weapons:

Light Missile, Heavy Missile, Super Missile, Chain Gun, Hvy Chain Gun.

Research

I was tinkering with the idea of 'upgrading' a weapon type. The example is:

Laser & Plasma weapons have more ammunition.

The way I wanted to go about this:

Create a new Laser Weapon (identical to the old one with more ammo) and have it over-write the old Laser Weapon. Does anyone know how to go about doing this?

[Realistic Aircrafts mod v1.0]

I am sorry but having read the whole 12 pages I now think it is just boys with (virtual) toys .. Lego time .. enjoying the sentiment.

But for this game to have and keep it's authentic X-com sause even do it's a mod .. you need to leave every single plane out post 1979 otherwise make the game a 21st century periode game.

Even the prototype idea for some planes is just to oppertunistic. F14, F15 ?! Come on

It's more a less comfort food for thought .. Not sure how to explain but it's like with the original C&C where you could use an editor to edit the tanks and troops etc. making it more fun or at least giving you that sensational "that's more like it" feeling when you gave a mammoth extra rockets or let it do more damage ..

F-14:

First flight 21 December 1970

Introduction 22 September 1974

F-15:

First flight 27 July 1972

Introduction 9 January 1976

I'm not sure how these are unrealistic???

[The maps get repetitive and boring.]

I think Xeno is in a good place. It seems very accessible to create maps, which means in a few more months the number of maps will be extremely varied.

The sub-map system is pretty interesting at the moment and with a bit more work you'll always feel your on a different battlefield.

A couple of improvements I wouldn't mind seeing:

Devastation - Chance for alien wreckage (% based on how damaged the UFO is) to destroy parts of the map and be it's own 'cover'. In addition to walls, cars, street clutter there could also be craters, wreckage (sometimes on fire) and escape pods.

More building types - Urban combat is pretty thrilling. I wouldn't mind seeing more variations of buildings. This could be done in two ways:

• More buildings with same dimensions - buildings could essentially be swapped out at random for completely different types (it could be very flexible if the external carparks or streets could be included. As you could have varying sizes occupying the same building type)
  
• Building subsets - A few more internal layout changes.
  

Before buildings get love we'll wait and see on all these fancy UI/AI improvements

[How to Better Integrate Combat Roles in the Geo/Battlescape]

Oh goody, I'll just have to skip out on destroying my cash flow then. Not that I spose it's much of an issue at this point. I REALLLLY want more marauders though.

I totally here you >_<

[Ground Combat Autoresolve]

The idea for the 3 officers was to basically have some risk/reward/punishment for auto-resolving.

Essentially the expanded idea:

Leader:

Low risk position as it's more of a coordinator. Essentially the leader takes over "your" position in ground combat by directing troops.

Pros:

Has a much bigger factor in the missions success

Very low or no chance of being injured in combat

Cons:

You will need to donate one of your strongest soldiers, meaning they might not be available for a harder manual ground fight

Advisers (really need a better name, maybe Marshal?)

These are the higher risk positions. They won't have a huge impact on success (they will still have some impact though) but are more soldiers then commanders. Essentially the advisers aid the local forces in combat.

Pros:

Good experience gain

Weapons & Armour count towards the strength of the soldier in the auto-resolve

Cons:

Can be injured in the auto-resolve

Will be unavailable for ground battles done manually

If Chris is remotely interested I could take a crack at writing the function for an auto-resolve roll. It would only really need to be a 1-100 roll with a bunch of plus/minus mini rolls for the variables.

[How to Better Integrate Combat Roles in the Geo/Battlescape]

I've pretty much stopped using roles after the beginning of the game anyway. Mostly I'm adjusting what people carry by their strength, which is changing constantly. Would be fine with anything that didn't clutter the screen much though.

Try to use class roles as a 'base' loadout and you'll find them more useful.

Rather then going by your strongest soldier, you go by your baseline.

ie my top rifleman carry 4-5 clips and up to 6 grenades. My base rifleman loadout is only a medpack, 3 clips and 3 grenades.

When you get into the later months its a ton easier to have a base role to quickly put all the 'must-haves' on your soldier. I couldn't imagine doing it manually in the 5th month as you usually have stay at home soldiers and about 18-20 deployable soldiers. Through in the injury rotations and doing it manually is a nightmare!

[Ground Combat Autoresolve]

Why do we need an auto-resolve type option for Xenonauts?

I'm currently on my 4th game that has entered the 3-4 month period. One thing I've noticed is that you tend to stop 'feeling like' doing the more mundane ground combat missions.

Essentially you do need the money, but you really can't be bothered spending 30 or so minutes slaughtering aliens because you've got a bunch of elite troops.

The game, past the 3 month period also goes through a very large slow down. If you have 2+ bases you start to intercept 3-4 UFOs a turn and the number of missions jumps up drastically. Some other kind of mechanic needs to take over the manual ground combat, at least on the easy missions.

My proposed Auto-Reslove mechanic for ground missions

Local forces can attempt to secure UFO crashes with the assistance of Xenonauts. Each time this happens, 0-3 (1 lead and 2 advisors) Xenonauts can be sent to assist & advise local forces, gaining experience.

The option would only be availiable for the 'reletively' smaller UFOs. As the ticker increases more UFO's fall under this juristriction.

The criteria for local forces wanting jurisdiction over an alien zone:

Each UFO is assigned a second ticker value, after the ticker reaches this second value, that type of UFO is able to be auto-resolved via this mechanic

The variables for the auto-resolve

This non-playable mission would have several outcomes, determined by a few things.

-Crew Strength of the downed UFO

-Invasion progress inversely effecting the crew strength (eg low crew count in later invasion stages = easier mission)

-Rank of the lead Xenonaut

-Combined rank of the other 0-2 Xenonaut advisers

-Relation with Country

- Perhaps a new Variable for countries, relating to their ability to respond to the Alien invasion

Essentially this would be an auto-resolve feature, but it would have a lot of perceived depth and wouldn't be a one button wonder. It would get the player to consider risk when auto-resolving and would encourage manual attacks on stronger crashed UFOs.

Balancing:

There is a few balance issues to consider;

• How much of the materials do the Xenonauts get
  
• What is the risk to Xenonaut advisers (officer should be next to none, but the lower tiers would be involved in fire teams)
  
• Do the Xenonauts get additional funding?
  
• Will auto-resolving have an impact on country relations?
  

*important*

Can fighters be auto-resolved? I'm for this, but I'd like to hear what other players think

I think, for what is essentially a one line equation with some artwork, that this kind of auto-resolving feature is a low development solution that would significantly enhance the game.

Feedback appreciated!

[Disabling Nightmissions?]

One of the issues with night missions is that Aliens are seemingly uninhibited and there's a few bugs with actually seeing aliens.

Currently night is different and harder than day, in which case most players would feel disadvantaged for playing at night when they could as easily play in day.

Night missions need to be more different to day, without a significant increase in difficulty.

[V18 Stable - Reaper causing Hang]

This has happened twice with roughly the same circumstance.

#1

Veteran (Iron Man)

Farm setting

Reaper was inside a building, after moving into fog of war the game was caused to hang.

#2 Veteran Normal

Terror Mission @ Night

Reaper was inside one of the shopping centers. The reaper attempted to retreat through a door into fog of war, which resulted in a hang

[Idea Weapon modification]

Ammunition types can be added that replace the existing ones.

The only stats that are affected are damage and armour mitigation at the moment although Chris was open to the idea of setting ammo count as well (plus you could make the projectile look different).

So you could currently make rounds with better armour penetration and/or higher damage that would replace the existing ammo when researched.

If the change is made you could also make an extended mag/high capacity cell.

Note that they would always replace the current version so you could not have them as options to be selected before a mission.

You could have a progressive upgrade system though.

Say for example:

Normal rounds > alien alloy rounds for better armour penetration > Alenium infused propellant for higher damage > extended mags due to lighter rounds

Normal laser cell > higher voltage cell provides better armour pen > higher current cell for better damage > high capacity cell from miniaturisation

Each tier should also retain the bonus of the tiers before otherwise there may be no reason to upgrade as you would not be able to downgrade again easily.

I am sure there are other better options, those are just off the top of my head.

Was essentially my idea

Basically I was thinking Depleted Alienium rounds inbetween Plasma & Laser to upgrade the basic rifles.

Will defs look into it tonight

Cheers for the help!

[Ridiculously unoptimized movements]

Edrin is correct. The alternative, of course, is to manually do the "best move".

I find it kind of strange that altering facing consumes so much TU. I mean 4 TU to squat/stand, 1 to look 45 degrees to the left or right?

No wonder I get so tired at work. Strange I'm not more fit, though.

Jeez I wish, I have a swivel chair at work, talk about massive movement for no effort!

I have noticed that the pathing AI is a little woeful and that turning is a massive drain on your TU, honestly I feel it should be free.

[Grenades needs improvement]

I know, but in the game you don't clear rooms very often. Also, I'd be willing to bet well over half the aliens are killed by direct fire. The only room clearing do is the inside of the ship usually and I use stun grenades for that because I don't want to break anything. I guess I should have specified urban combat vs. open field.

This is true.

I wouldn't mind grenades being much more rewarding.

My thoughts on the matter:

Grenades in general

No fumbling or dropping!

A max range

Much greater accuracy with a much greater decline in accuracy

Larger HE effect and more destruction to the environment (shattering windows, splintering pallets ect)

Flash-bang

Chance to completely suppresses opponents for a single turn

Always cause accuracy & sight penalty for 2 turns to anything that's caught in the blast. Penalty diminishes over length (not as big a penalty the next turn) and in distance from explosions (aliens in the outer reaches suffer less of a penalty)

EDIT: I forgot to mention for flash bangs that it would be great to have a small smoke effect where grenades detonate for 1-2 turns. It looks nice and is a great reference for players.

[Base needs guards]

I hereby move that all Xenonaut training programs have a refresher course in neighborhood safety.

Always check that the chinook is locked!