quiescat

so i have to ask do you find the troopers and battery worth it could you not just keep 2 extra condors or foxtrots for taking down that same landing ship for the same price if not cheaper?( this is what i do but i play on normal ) my bases of 2 radar 4 hangers only run 600k with 4 foxtrots ( if i remember right ) you say you do not use shotguns but then you have a list of all the reasons i use shotguns. i end up clearing out side ufos with leap froging cover or smoke for the outer areas of the crash. the breach it self is a cake walk with 4 shot gunners who can run from the door and blast faces off any thing every room. some of the bigger ships the lmg and sniper still pull work in the command room. for bases you talk about blocking doors so they don't get opened yet i sit my guys at the corners just so they walk into the reaction fire. i don't use the shield so i end up with lot of smoke as most of the other grenades i dont find useful after my captures are done.( my team is 1 sniper 1 lmg 2 shotguns per each Squad of 4 ) i am also on the experimental branch which might change perspective some what, i still find it great that your running with out a weapon i would find almost unbearable to play with out.

just a small one if you right click the grenade quick slot when it has nothing in it like that it lets you change whats shown as if it had another picture showing instead of a blank. not really sure if i would call it a bug so much as a design choice. i would rather see a blank or a zero for out like the ammo quick slot.

### disclaimer i suck at air combat so i want hacker auto resolve ### the fuel is i am thinking either a bug or overlook in the code either way i think that will change. they might do something like give a set amount of combat time instead of using the fuel that is leftover if it cant be fixed. that is the kinda thing i hope to see as a buff to cannons while being a change of pacing for retreats. no more just running off the sides that just end up being a lot of waiting. auto resolve it self i have had some odd ball issues with like yours, also i have had 1 on 1 foxtrot vs scout( maybe corvette with later tech) that i know i can win auto gives me at 100% but i end taking damage or even losing the craft, on a air combat that all i would have to do is un-pause to win. still gives me a crash site but the plane has to be recovered. so i kinda viewed auto resolve as more of a numbers dice roll 99%. as is i think it works because it lets you tech out of a part of the game that is either easy because your good, or crippling because your bad, that was the whole reason auto-resolve was put in if i remember the heated debate about it right maybe its just because i don't feel cannons are useful but until tier 3 fighter foxtrots can just after burner away from missiles. then out run the fighter till torp range its all golden from there. so what i end up doing to things that have escorts is send out 3 foxtrots use 2 for bait and drop the craft while doing circle. some times i can get off all 3 sets more off then not i only get 2 but most craft only need 2 full loads from a foxtrot if your keeping up in tech,worst case i have to make a second run, but with out missiles the fighters cant kill my craft even if i just unpause and after burn once torpedoes are away. if i get really unlucky with a fighter squad i end up sending out a squad of fox trots with sidewinders to clean up, this is very rare.

so on the lines of legits grenades not provoking reaction fire would it be possible to just give grenades reaction mods like pistols and shot guns have( i dont even know if this is already the case ). this would do pretty much exactly what he wants kinda, by kinda i mean they will provoke reactions less often but still run the risk of your guy not being fast enough, so he can still get shot if hes slow or unlucky if you will, but it would still make grenades a breaching weapon. big thing here is i dont know what the aliens react off of say i have a guy with a shield and a pistol does the system count the pistol or not, for example does it think the solder dropped his shield to throw the grenade or does it think he put his gun away thus losing the weapon mod, same question kinda applies to if it counts your shotgun or not. this does leave you open to running around with a grenade to not get reaction fired on maybe make it only applied on the throw it self if you even can so any one throwing a grenade reduces there risk of reaction but unless it stops the alien your back to your normal weapon mod. ( god programming must suck trying to figure all this crap out)

if the little pop up is not whats making your plane leave the combat. you can order any plane you have auto retreating to target one of the alien craft, then your open to adjust its flight path like normal again. not sure if its a bug or just the way the auto retreat works. if its the message you cant do any thing if you ignore that your plane auto crashes after combat because it runs out of fuel as to the mid-air refueling i think that is the "trigger" that is being used to force you to build more then one air craft. other wise 90% of the game could be played with 2 or 3 hangers tops, as you could keep doing combat runs with a single plane . i think goal is to force you to have 10 or so craft across your bases to keep up with the aliens so it feels more like a war.

so i understand the fun is there for the lmg with 10 round bursts, i feel god like! that being said the damage they do is all to much basically i over kill every thing( only on scouts so grain of salt ). realism can eat a D@#K, i want to be able to fire off bullets like a mad man without my machine guns being so brokenly over powered (feels that way to me). if you end up nerfing there damage per shot down, and upping accuracy so killing power stays the same, there useless, in so much that i can get so much more flexible damage out of every thing else* an alien that's died from the first 2 shots of 10 is still as dead as one that takes all 10*. i remember it being posted that they have basically the same damage as an AR( per TU ) but more armor pen. with all that being said i dont know how to change or if it really needs a change. but i trust you guys after all you have done. i will say this in hopes that it helps. in earlier builds the LMG got used for long range suppression. the 10 rounds make it so powerful that i cant suppress any thing its already dead. i think maybe the aim penalty for moving is still needed. in my dreams i would love to be able to fire two 5 round bursts so i can use them to move more then now and use one five round burst to suppress, or stand still and 10 rounds faces off. you might have to lower damage per shot either way, other wise its kinda a rocket launcher that carries 2 rounds instead of 1 with the change to pistol range. not sure if that applies to aliens as well, but the ones inside the craft seem even more defenseless then before as i can take pot shots from way out side there effective range on most UFOs. dont use pistols my self so just as ignored as before. i never used C4 to kill stuff with and i am guessing its effectiveness on cover is basically the same.its ability to open doors has been over shadowed with he 10 round LMG however whats not to love next to no risk along with sometimes suppressed or dead aliens on the other side if i get lucky. the stats change did hit me a little hard as i got a guy who is amazing with other stats but has 32 TU this poor SOB may never get see a ufo. pretty sure this is not the Psionic change. but i have noticed an up tic it panic over all with this update might just be my bad luck with the bravery stat. other wise i am loving the hell out of your game and hope my ramblings are useful or at least amusing( i suck at writing my thoughts well )

so this is a small note if give it reaction fire you don't have to change things to fix the kinda bug that lets aliens reaction 100% of the time on soldiers using the lmg. ( another vote for yes even if it does not matter )

so my first glance of the change i would say i would have to agree. after playing it awhile i have to disagree 1200% about it crippling TU as a stat, for me at least before this change rookies where just bait until 60 TU. before 60 there was no real choice about shoot or move because you did not have the time to do either(at least vs high end aliens). despite being called rookies, they are at least in the lore former navy seals, spetsnaz etc... with this change my rookies dont feel like there getting out preformed by farmer bob who killed 2 aliens in one of my first missions( build 19 i think). now TU feels in line with the others mostly. for me the go to stat when hiring new guys is reflex because its risky to level. also my vets are still much loved with there ability to carry tons of stuff with out crying, throw grenades and C-4 any distance, and lastly but not least the ability to hit the broad side of a barn. the heavy weapon penalty i think there is some fine tuning to be done here still but with the fire costs the way they are you cant really move and shoot. my personal thought on it is that a LMG standing still should be able to get off 2 bursts but not move at all, then spend most of a turn reloading with a 80% or so reload costs. this sounds over powered but i think the downtime makes it so you cant spam them. rights now i have not gotten to any thing really beefy where shot guns and ARs are not melting face just fine. so i dont find the LMG really filling a roll as they are, but when Androns start rolling down the block the extra damage might make it shine. this is a bit of a open question to any one who wants to answer. are LMG bugged with reaction fire or is it intentional that any time one of my LMG guys gets reacted on hes going to get shot at all 5 times that alien can fire? side note if intentional i am fine with it.

i understood it there are cases where your soldiers can gain more then 1 point at a time. it is as i understand capped at 2 points in a stat *disclaimer you might be talking about gaining more then just +2 or my info is out of date if so feel free to ignore me* "Your soldiers can only increase either +1 or +2 in any stat per mission, so the difference is only ever going to be marginal tbh." that is copy pasted from Chris page 2 from that thread http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/8649-New-Mission-End-Screen-%28feedback-opinions-welcome%29%21/page2?highlight=stats

if you have your guys in front kneel down they can be shot over even with reaction fire but they have to be standing on top of one another. just like shooting over cover, other then that crouch works good for spam burning turn units. as to the ballistic shotgun i love it. the big issue is any thing less then about 60 TU or so and your going to have a very hard time getting into effective range before the aliens kill your guys who likely dont have any armor threw most of the time you would use ballistics. however if you can get into range where a burst fire for 40 TU can reliably kill an alien you take 2 snap shots with a shot gun and hit him for twice as many hits as it shoots 3 shells at a time. shotguns have very little armor penetration so its less effective on later types, but the sectoid stand ins melt in my experience. the other added bonus is guys with shotguns standing at choke,so say the door to a ufo. but your not ready to bust in just yet your shot guns give you a pretty good chance to safely kill any thing that trys to pop out. i use at least 2-4( this applies more to lazer and plasma then ballistic ) out of 12 guys for bases where you end up having reapers or the wraths jumping around all the time works wonders as long as your not sitting in open fields.

so my first glance was much akin to yours i take it. in so much that i thought this would be a topic about how rookies are nearly useless at shooting or moving. gasp in terror if you wish to try to get them to do both. thought thinking about it more your quotes may in fact be referencing walking threw fire and use as bait more so then their general lack of skill

so i guess i will start this off by saying i am playing 19 stable on easy and don't use vehicles so some of the stuff i say may have changed or not be true for other settings ( i did read most of the old balance posts but that stuff drags on),if so feel free to ignore the hell out of me. also i am save scumming like a scaredy cat, some of this is for when the game hangs( its beta not a complaint ) but most of it is just me cheating. i like how the AI kinda seems to save scum with you which is kinda cool IE they attack threw doors they did not the turn before so the game has this massive flip for me based on if i have wolf armor or not. some weapons look like they should still be effective seeing how aliens bring so many but they not. main culprit here the plasma cannon* a 5x5 or so area explosion blows up cover like no tomorrow, but i have guys sitting there no joke taking 30 shots to the face from this thing with little to no damage or suppression ( a funny side story had a andron kill him self from me being in close range when it shot my guy doing no damage to my unit while killing itself). pistols and the first type of rifle the stuff that still shows up on scouts still have a chance to do some damage even if it takes a few shots this comparison just feels very off. all this may be because i am playing on easy settings which is fine but an internal logic would be nice. then there is the heavy plasma* the autofire sniper shotgun this thing has killed more guys then the rest of the plasma arsenal combined, that and my favorite of when i forget to make the guy up front kneel so i auto fire into the back of his head. not sure what to say about them other then holy crap its scary if you make cannons lethal at all then this thing might need to get toned down. if i see one all 8 guys turn and try to kill him a 4% chance to drop them is always better then a 95 chance to hit an alien with something else(other then reapers) ok so that is a bit exaggerated there not so bad if there sitting on the edge or just over line of sight but any closer and holy crap. this one is a bit more of a open question are the disk things broken AI wise, as they don't seem to every really shoot at any thing other then civilians(this mostly applies two big types i never saw many of the small ones really) and i just so far view them as great ways to blow up cover so my snipers have a clear shots. chances are its not be said as often as it needs to be great game so far i am loving the hell out of it almost as much as it makes me rage a good sign i think when coming from the original *i may be mistaken on the name of the weapons in question i tried say how shot to better define them the heavy plasma i am talking about shoots little needle like things with a 3 way spread like the shotgun and the plasma cannon is just one big blob.