ventuswings

You guys are under-estimating how powerful the Chryssalids were back then. At original, if you killed zombie with reaction fire, Chryssalid that subsequently hatches could move right away. They were also resistant enough to take a heavy rocket hit to the face and frequently survive (though I do play Superhuman only). I really like how Xenonauts kept the lethality of Chryssalids that gave its signature infamy, unlike new XCOM which butchered them to such extent that the sight of one - instead of feeling you with utter horror - could actually make player happy as valuable source of Chitin Plating. Of course, the effect of turn movement cost from 4 -> 3 is something to take into account, but it is my opinion that balance regarding the Wraith needs more attention at the moment... Just wanted to get the counter-argument out here. If truly necessary, I'd relegate their frequency back to rare terror missions instead.

I myself am impartial to both versions, but I quite do not see the necessity to fix what isn't really broken. Either way I appreciate you offering the option to choose whatever stat info that'll be displayed!

Agree with Stinky. No matter what the dissipation value is, as long as it disappears at start of Xenonaut turn it won't benefit - and maybe even harm - the aliens.

Also OP, you're probably thinking of pre-V19 smoke.

I have to agree at current inplementation there is little to no counter to smoke. It's not just AI problem, I myself would be able to do much less should alien start using smokes. There are recent discussion about other tactics, such as shields, being ineffective compared to smoke, and while some of these concerns are valid, smoking is just OP tactic with little risk high reward that is effective at all situations.

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/8727-Ground-Combat-Balance-Discussion-Build-V21-Experimental-1!?p=97428#post97428 Looks like an error. Apparently soldier costs are free also, which is probably another 'developer test aid' that managed to sneak in accidentally.

Ya I remember the good old days when Australia was alien hot-zone. Actually made building base over there worth it.

Hello, With the development advancing so nicely with most critical improvements out of the way, I thought it would be good time to reintroduce the pet peeve of mine: the case of ground-dwelling aliens. Before the balance patches, around when Chris was replaying the XCOM UFO Defense to see what inspirations it has to offer for Xenonauts, I also tried to think of the differences between the two - and alien placement was obvious difference that stood out. Having alien utilize higher ground not only expand their strategic option, but also contribute to old XCOM's "plasma out of nowhere" moment as well. Whenever I disembarked from Skyranger to find my squad in the farm, I knew there was at least one alien lurking around the roof and second floor windows, willing to take potshots on hopeless soldier passing by. In other words, aliens could be everywhere in contrast to Xenonauts where no aliens are certain to be above the sea level. Also it makes me sad about all the wasted potential whenever I come across well-constructed multistory structure. Note that my argument is not only restricted to having aliens successfully use stairs, though that by itself would be amazing. Harridan should be willing to use his jump pack if doing so would benefit him. And - harping back to good ol' UFO Defense again - some Drones should be able to float. Best analogy I could give would be Cyberdisc. Encounter with Cyberdisc floating in the air frequently gave me the nice sensation of dread. With the AI being advanced even at this stage of the game, I am sure aliens can abuse their floating capabilities quite well as well! Regardless, my previous paragraph was just personal opinion of mine. More than that I wrote this thread to see if you guys were still working on the aliens stair usage. I know the development team was working on this several months ago but then the news regarding the situation seem to have fallen flat.

How about having it only available if the explanatory tool tip section is checked? I also remember discussion about adding 'Alien Class Analysis Mod' option on the game itself at earlier stage of the mod, in which case there also would be enough information to have the message be needless.

To be honest, some of the complaints about smoke is symptom of smoke grenade itself, not an higher accuracy. It's an really effective tool, and the fact that AI have no idea how to deal with it means that liberal use of smoke grenade is very effective strategy.

What sloppy coding!

Thank you!

At the moment, you can only check whatever funding changes on the Geoscape (top right corner). Mission end screen is still being worked on. You can check the currently proposed version right here, though I don't think national funding bonus is planned to be added even for missions that grant them. http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/8649-New-Mission-End-Screen-%28feedback-opinions-welcome%29!

Funding increases when you shoot down UFO, complete base/terror missions, or - as added by this patch - if you complete landed UFO mission.

I also wanted to ask if the issue of alien weapon penalty being applied to aliens was fixed as well.

Yeah, I also fall into camp who prefer the information regarding state of armour handled with audio cue instead of numbers. Honestly I think that's the best compromise... Also can't wait for soon upcoming balance patch!

I agree. Psions are best of the psionic alien next to Praetors, but currently they are the least threatening alien after the dronnes. Regarding Psion buff, their scarcity and line of sight rule means that buffing the psion will not lead to extreme unfairness and can be countered. I think appropriate powers aee already in place, just that they prefer to use peashooter plasma pistol much more frequently instead.

So fix for the alien-alien-weapon-penalty bug isn't implemented on V20 Stable yet?

Since it's discussion about thematic problem of Airstrike, I feel justified on bringing up problems about this approach too. First, the very idea that local forces are capable of handling the ground mission diminishes the alien threat and importance of Xenonauts. That was one of the reason why I had problem with [LOCAL FORCES SHOT DOWN LIGHT SCOUT] message too, would have preferred it if that said [LOCAL FORCES REPORT LANDED LIGHT SCOUT AND REQUEST XENONAUT ASSISTANCE]. Besides the fact that the idea runs aground against theme of X-COM UFO Defense, idea about ground assault becomes ridiculous when it comes to larger UFO. If all countries are capable of handling every landed UFO, why is the assistance for Terror mission even needed? Whatever 'realism' benefit regarding national modifier provided by this change would not be worth it, I think. Current dissonance could easily be explained by the fact that bombed area usually only seem to contain less than 5 NPC (on the ground combat), which is why airstrike is available for shot-down UFO which consists of small, isolated area but not for terror missions where there are lot of civilains. Also it's 1979! I do believe Soviet Union and China will give no thought about bombing the alien-infested down to the dust; they are the necessary sacrifice for sake of the humanity

In truth, the very fact the player forgot about the Alenium and Alloys is not very promising. Ignoring the whole discussion about the national relationship points, I would recommend having early UFO - scout and light scout, possibly Corvette - give significantly less resources while later UFO - large and massive - give slightly more resources so player are encouraged to participate in bigger UFO more, rather than relying on easier, smaller UFO for Xenonaut training + resource collection. In order words, skew the distribution of resources toward late-game UFO so that people have reason to prefer bigger UFO mission over small ones. If this skewing cause problems manufacturing-wise, skew the resource cost toward late-game tools too. The number of missions player would have to take would be constant (<50), but percentage of the pre-Landing Ship missions the player will likely do will decrease.

@ StellarRat I think he can just choose to do one mission for each of the UFO then do the final mission, without incentive to repeat the mission twice if successful. Perhaps do easy light scout & scout missions if some material grinding is required. That would barely scratch the 40 mission per game threshold developers desire.

I thought something was weird

I think it would be nice if aliens had bunch of flanking opportunities too, not just Xenonauts. I still remember the horror of old XCOM bases (which is similar to base design of Xenonauts except doors) where alien could pop up from anywhere instead of being localized and immobile

I hope the icon indicator don't become overused and end up creating a clutter. For example, icon for 'Crouching Accuracy Bonus' and 'Crouching Dodge Bonus' seem quite redundant (perhaps even 'overloaded inventory/insufficient strength') while current 'Is Bleeding' icon on the portrait seems quite sufficient. I guess I can't judge the rest as I don't know where these indicators will be displayed.

Will the player be able to turn off unlimited ammo using XML like other adjustable values? If so, it's probably not that big of a problem. Well, I don't mind if you decide to prioritize work on other things, like having AI utilize multiple floors instead of being stuck at ground level. I haven't heard news about this for a while - is this problem still being looked over?