Alturys

Yes, i agree. I really appreciate the speed boost on loading screen also. It was painful to wait so long with a game installed on a SSD...

Hi guys, I'm playing with v21.5 and the % of TU fire cost. I like it but i don't like playing with the keeping TU slidder. I've always finded that this slidder isn't very intuitive, and using it make me lost a lot of time and fun. Really i think it's the worst part of ground combat interface. I suggest to improve the system by introducing a color code, reproducing the TU slidder without any click and reclick next turn required. The color are always here, as the player try to reach farther tiles. No click required anywhere... This is just an improvement of the color code already in place with the slidder. Better to explain with an image : The idea here is to offer an instant information to the player, without using "click-feist" interface action. The color are placeholder, you can choose any color code you want. Probably three differents greens for shot zones, orange for sprinting zone and red after. I think this feature shouldn't be hard to code, because the code already exist in the slidder. It's just a different way to present information. Idem for bursting weapon: I also suggest that this feature should be a toggeable option. Players who don't like this help could remove it easily.

I think that the dev are trying to neutralize veteran supernatural speed only. Veteran are far superior too rookies regarding Precision, Reflexes... all stats. Precision for exemple. If a rookie has 40 precision and a veteran have 80, the vet damage is 100% more. In fact the vet is so much stronger than 2 time because he will miss 20% of time only, the rookie will miss 60%. Three time more miss for the rookie. If you add another 100% more hit point on top of that you have already a killing machine... You have to understand that all these factors are multiplicative. 2 time more precise and 2 time more survivabilty leads to 4 times effectiveness in combat. With old TU system the same vet would also shoot something like 4/5 time, with high precision snap shoot. This is ridiculous for Xenonaut AND aliens elites...

Hi guys I love the new system and i think you haven't any other way to reduce TU scaling endgame. I have a suggestion regarding keeping TU for shooting. Use the same coloration algo that is used for weapon range : - Green light line when all shot are allowed if the soldier move to that tile. - Darker green when moving to this tile will cause the soldier not having enough TU for avanced shot (aimed or burst) - Yellow when moving to this tile will cause the soldier not having enough TU for standerd shoot also - Red when to this tile will cause the soldier not having enough TU for snap shoot When preparing a move, the player will see all the color changing as he is trying to reach further tile. Exactly like when your are trying to shot to far with a pistol. the first part of line is green, the last yellow. Do the same thing with TU mouvement cost. This would lead to an elegent and convenient way to represent the cost of firing without playing with the keeping enough TU slidder. I think you will probabbly be able to use some code from the range weapon algo and the actual slidder. So the "dev cost" of this system shouldn't be too big. Ps: The new tile inside UFO are superb. Love it, congralutation to the graphist who did that

I have another suggestion: To present the +1 or +2 information, i think you could use a color code. I've made a quick edit on your image: You can see on the first soldier that some stat are in orange/yellow, other in flashing green. So the orange/yellow can be +1 and the green +2. You will have both information without any change to your layout... Of course you could use any color, but i think a tutorial popup at the first time the screen appears could be a good way to present this color code and other function of this screen.

Yes. I agree that the two screens with a nice background were better...

Well... I simply suggest that you show the stat increase and final stat value. To allow that i see two solutions: 1/ reduce the medal size on each soldier line to free space on the stat line increase. The stat increase line should be free on his right part. So you will probably have space two display both information 2/ Reduce the left part of the screen. I think you take to much space to indicate the recovered item, lost soldier...

My feedback after 3 light scout mission: - TU change: Great change, more tactical options, faster game. I like it - Weapon Accuracy change: Not very good. Snap shot is king now wich is not logical. - Cover 75%. Good change, avoid endless fights with 10/15% precision. - Soldier stat: I love it. Each soldier feel unique now. It add a lot of tactical change: preserving good soldiers, give a shield and scout with bad one ^^ - Light scout map: Good change also. I love the way aliens are much precise now. However, as stated by other poster, i also think that reaction shot is too deadly. My suggestion for the next builds: - Lower snap shot precision. Higher normal and aimed. - Lower reaction shoot precision a little bit. - Each alien species should have his personality. Seb and Ceasan are in a good shape, they have very distinct caracteristic, they do not seem to be the same generic AI. I would like to see this kind of stuff for other species.

Great I'm impatient to test the new experimental build. I think the changes are good as you are trying to have a more dynamic gameplay. I'm a little bit worried by the cover change, i think the 50% reduction is a little bit too much...

Hi, As these change will go in next experimental build, i will not comment them before some testing. However, Chris, i think you are playing a very dangerous game by changing so much the game balance, with the two BIG bugs currently in game, regarding ground combat: The -50% to alien accuracy bug and the "ThrowingRangeLimit" bug (ie the bug responsible for AI passivity). Correcting these two errors will have a massive impact on the ground combat, probably more than all the v20 changes. I really think you should try to make a pure bug fix patch to see how the game is without all these bug, even just during two or three days. I think you are trying to balance a bugged game, wich is not a good way to procede because when bugs will be corrected, all your balance will be destroyed again. My two cent's...

Yeah One cockroach eliminated It was exactly the type of bug i suspected. However, all credits are for Jeon who discovered the variable impact on alien weapon range.

Ok, i've made another one, as i overwrited the original save, ooops http://www.2shared.com/file/Yd2HsOZd/2013-12-28_141304.html It's super easy to replicate, all you have to do is to spot an alien from long range... I've made the following test: 1/ With BaseThrowingRangeLimit at 4: Press end of turn, the alien in cover will move, and do nothing more. In other situation i've seen alien going out of cover in front of my soldiers, but this one seems to be a little bit clever 2/ With BaseThrowingRangeLimit at 24: Press end of turn, the alien in cover will shot on the soldiers in front of him. I really think that there is a bug somewhere because the throwing range of grenade should not modify the behavior of an alien without grenade... Maybe he is trying to throw me a clip of ammo ^^ Ps: i've played to december month with BaseThrowingRangeLimit at 24. Alien behavior is more logical, they actually try to shot my guys and civilians. I haven't modified anything else, not even the MinimumAccuracy at 0.35 in aiprops.xml. I've kept the weapon.xml and weapon_gc.xml unmodified, even if it created huge grenade range. I've made that to be sure that the BaseThrowingRangeLimit is involved and i assure you that changing this variable value completly change the alien behavior on my game.

Hi, I open a thread here to be sure that you will not miss the conclusion of another thread: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/8345-Ground-Combat-Balance-Discussion-V20-Stable-Candidate-1/page9 After some testing, it seem that the variable BaseThrowingRangeLimit in config.xml is influencing the alien behavior a lot more that his name suggested. I think you should take a moment to double check the impact of this variable, there something illogical here. Everything is in the original thread, page 7,8 and 9. Thanks

I confirm that changing the BaseThrowingRangeLimit to 24 change the alien behavior. I've made the following test: 1/ Saving before an alien turn with an alien (caesan civilian) hidden behind a cover. My soldier are not in cover and are in long range. 2/ With BaseThrowingRangeLimit at 4: The alien stand up and run like a piggeon. He leaved his cover and was killed by reaction fire. Not very smart... 3/ With BaseThrowingRangeLimit at 24 like Jeon said. The alien took two shoots at my soldiers AND kept his cover. 4/ With BaseThrowingRangeLimit at 4: The alien shooted during his turn if i put my soldier in short range. However i havn't to go in 4 tile range to have a shoot. Something like 14/15 tiles and the alien took his chance and shot. I even managed to find the trigger range. One more tile and i was shoot. One tile farther and the alien begin to act like an idiot. I've modified nothing more, not even the weapon_gc.xml and weapon.xml 5/ I can throw my grenade much far away. As Jeon said, we have to mod the weapon and weapon_gc to restore coherent value. However, only the BaseThrowingRangeLimit seems to act on alien behavior. I suspect that the variable BaseThrowingRangeLimit is poorly named/implemented. It seems to act as a sort of base range for grenade not a limit range. And it act as a range limit for alien weapon and/or behavior even for standard weapon. Maybe that somewhere in your code a grenade range is checked before the standard weapon range check ?

Well, i think that further testing could be required to know if it came from resolution or image ratio. 1600/900=1.778 1680/1050=1.6 Maybe you can try with other resolution to see if the problem come from ratio or just 1680*1050 For my part i have no CTD on load with a 1680*1050 resolution... weird

I have the same Not game breaking but strange...

Ok If it can help, i've tried to run the game on a 32bit system, 1680*1050. I have the same behavior, CTD when clicking on inventory.

Hello CTD when trying to open soldier inventory during my first ground combat. I've tried to reload game. It crash immediatly as soon as i click on inventory. I will try to create another game and see if it CTD. 7 64bits, 1680*1050, new game with v20SC2 EDIT: I tried to create another game. CTD again as soon as i try to click on the backpack of any soldier during ground combat...

I agree with the end month report. Regarding pop up, you are probably right. I would like to see message in the geoscape "console" in the bottom of screen. I suggest to have red message when relation decrease and green when relation increase. Not very hard to code i think and probably enough to give nescessary information to player. I have always find that this "console" wasn't very useful, and it could be a way to use it...

Good point But i think that if the actual system is kept for release, the relation boost should be mentioned somewhere. Now there no information about it. No pop up, no message in console... nothing. You have to check funding in the right corner of the screen, or pass the mouse over the country. Not sure that new player will make the relationship between shooting down UFO and the funding boost.

I have to agree with that The actual system is ok for the game balance (as soon as you will have fix the bug: assault on grounded ufo don't give relation boost ^^). But it's strange... I think that relation boost should come from removing the alien threat completly. Shooting down ufo only completly remove alien threat in one case: When the ufo crash into seas. Otherwise, grounded assault or airstrike are required for UFO, ground defense for terror, ground assault for alien base. As i have suggested previously i think the relation boost should come from ground combat OR Airstrike and should be roughly the same with the two options (maybe you can link the mission score to relation boost, but for balance goal you should stay in a 90%/110% range between Airstrike and mission). Other ground mission should also provide relation boost. Exept in case of UFO shot over the seas, in that very specific case, the actual system is perfect. The actual system isn't that bad, it is far superior to the previous grindfeist ground combat. I love the fact that you can choose between ground combat (high risk, high reward, time consuming) and airstrike (no risk, less reward, fast). It is a very good change. The relation boost on UFO interception... It's just... weird and maybe a little bit hard to understand for new players.

For my part, i understand that we loose nothing in term of funding, but i think the actual system is not very clear and somewhat illogical. I think the best way to handle this would be to change the event triggering the relation boost. Now: - relation boost is on UFO interception. - Air strike provide something like 70% of mission cash and no tech. - Mission provide full cash, tech reward, alloys/alenium... and death for our beloved soldiers. - Illogical behavior when you assault a grounded UFO. This action should provide a good relation boost... - Negative only combat repport wich is.. meh.. too negative I suggest: - Interception provide nothing. - Air strike provide 70% of cash AND 80% to 90% of a "standard" ground mission relation boost/funding boost. - Ground mission provide full cash, tech reward, alloys/alenium AND relation boost. This relation boost should be slightly better than air strike IF the mission is a "perfect" and slightly worse if the mission involve a lot of causalties. - Mission on grounded UFO will provide the logical relation boost (ie the same than shooting down the UFO and assault after) - Other terrestrial mission provide funding boost, with a fix part and a variable part linked to player score in mission. - The positive score is back and doing mission CAN provide a slightly better result than air strike in term of funding boost. But it will be linked to player performance during the mission. Exemple using completly random numbers. Light scout mission. Now: - 20k$ funding boost on interception - 20k$ cash if player choose air strike - Something like 30k cash, tech, xp on ground mission I suggest: - Nothing on interception - Air strike: 20k cash AND 20k funding boost. - Mission: 20k cash + cash for the recovered weapon (something like 10k) + tech/materials/xp AND a 18 to 22k funding boost, linked to player performance (min 90% of air strike funding boost, max 110% ) By doing such change, i think you will: - Recover some link between ground combat performance and funding - Clarify the presence of funding boost in player's mind. Not very clear actually... - Have a positive and coherent score on ground mission. Thanks for your implication on forum Aaron and keep up the good work on Xenonauts

Hi, I love the new build (20.8). Animation speed are smoother, the new UI is nice, ground combat seems to be faster and deadlier with new accuracy, new map are nice... I have only two suggestion on this build: 1/ After shooting down an UFO, the relation boost should be on the Airstrike action, not on the ufo shutdown. It should be around 80% of the "perfect mission score" or maybe more if you really don't want to penalize Airstrike vs Mission. Of course, doing the mission will provide a relation boost, slightly better if the mission is a good succes (few causalities). The idea here is to reintroduce positive relation boost when the player attack a grounded UFO, or do pure terrestrial mission but don't penalyse too much the "Airstrike" option in term of relation. By doing this, you will also revert this "negative only" scoreboard to something nicer 2/ The IA seems to be very passive, at least the two first month. Aliens keep a lot of TU for reaction shoot, or somtimes have very stupid behavior, like running toward my soldiers without cover (Maybe for throwing a grenade next turn, but they never live enough ). But i find their shoot more precise and deadlier than before and that's a good thing. Anyway, i find the game very interesting and fun, i really appreciate the lasts builds evolution Cheers

I agree with Gromitek. In V20 experimental 1, doing every mission is always the right choice...

Hi, I think the best solution is to add a roll dice after an UFO have been shot during air engagement. Something like : 1- 60 UFO is destroyed -> No mission 70 -> 80 Only some garbage, can be collected by Xenonaut but without soldiers being engaged -> Here is your "Auto resolve". As there is no alien alive, you don't need to find a reason for the xenonaut passivity, or a local military force intervention. 80 -> 100 Survivors ! Xenonauts required ! -> Full mission with xp, tech recovery... Some modificators should be applicated on roll dice: + X% Big UFO, no missile used for interception (this one will lead to an intersting interaction with air combat as player can choose to keep his missile for preserving the UFO...), not a lot of UFO recovery mission done recently, slidder in option game -X% Small UFO, powerfull weapon torpedo used during combat, lot of ground mission recently done, slidder in option game Should be an easy implementation, nothing is really added to the game except a screen with some illustration for the result... And this solution could lead to interresting gameplay modification: - Aerial combat with preservation goal - A slidder in starting option game. Something like: +10%/+20%... to have an intact ufo but -10%-20% chance for an auto resolve. This way, farming players should have their full operation game. Idem for the opposite side, for players who prefers more straightforward gameplay. - A time element should be added to the crashing dice roll. The more time have passed without any intervention, the more likely a UFO will land intact. Something like +10/20% per week of inactivity. This modificator should also be added to soldier xp (in form of a chance to have a second point of stat boost. This way, players who don't like doing all missions will have some correct soldier. But, players who do all mission will always have better soldier...) - A "UFO type" modificator should also be added for the first or two first crash of new UFO, to insure player have opportunity to gather all they need for campaign. I think something like this crash roll dice would add some gameplay diversity, player custumisation option and is an elegant (and easy for coding !) way to resolve this problem.