Muskrat

Even looking at the Corsair, which takes 120 Man-day's (vs 40 for Foxtrot/Laser Rifle), you can produce 1 whole aircraft, from scratch (not based on existing air frame), in the time it takes to make..3 laser rifles? As it currently sits, unless you have an excess of engineering, you can make 1 thing at a time, and have to commit all your resources to it for the build time to be remotely useful. How are you managing that?

I'm in an interesting predicament in my current game, which has highlighted some concerns with build times. Due to a bug (I think) I've lost a lot of the equipment I've built when a soldier dies (his gear doesn't return to inventory). I'm now stressing my resources to build new equipment in time for the next wave of UFO's. Can we discuss the balance of build times, and why they are where they are? Why does it take the same amount of time to build 1 laser rifle, and an entire Foxtrot? Why do precision laser's take even MORE time? I like that you have to manage resources to build advanced technology, but what is the balance reason for such high build times for soldier weapons and armor? Is it really that unbalancing to be able to produce those things quicker?

Yes, but that only works if they land close enough to get my dropship there. Otherwise I'm left circling, waiting, wasting fuel. Once they come back up, I may not have enough left to engage. It should be a choice. It makes no sense the way it is. 1) Why would they suddenly land when being chased by my fighters? Wouldn't that make them vulnerable? Bad tactical choice. 2) If they do land, why can't my fighters engage them if I want them to? It creates a benefit vs cost situation also. I can risk my dropship pursuing a landed ship, or I can send my fighter's to disable it - giving me a safer approach. My concern here is this: It's basically a cheap way for the computer to avoid being shot down (not that the AI thinks like that). If I don't have enough fuel to engage, then it damages my reputation, is frustrating for no reason, and to me not FUN (which is the point of the game, right?).

Had this just happen: chasing a UFO with 2 condor's. The UFO lands and my condor's just circle, wasting fuel. Not sure if this is a bug, persay, but there should be some action you can take. Either: 1) UFO's being chased (maybe with-in a certain radius?) should not land and/or 2) Fighters approaching a landed UFO should be able to disable it (auto win), turning it into a lightly damaged crash site.

I believe you can also fully heal Frank at the start of the 2nd mission with a med pack.

"Right-click a target to spend more TU and improve shot accuracy" OR "Right-click a target to improve shot accuracy, at the expense of more TU's"

Why would you carry a shield and NOT have it out? But either way, it's only for a specific instance, and it's back up again. I disagree, but if it that's the case, why can't the game do that for me? It' obnoxious to have to do manually, and doesn't add anything to the game. In fact, it makes it less FUN, IMO. And that is the point of the game, right? That why I suggested a TU penalty. Simulate un-equipping and re-equipping, if that's what you want. Micromanaging my movement to that degree doesn't add anything to the game play, except to slow it down.

WHY can't a shield equipped guy leap a half-wall? It makes no sense from a realism standpoint, or a game balance stand point. Realism: I can still use my other arm to pivot on, or even use my hip, and just lift the shield over the wall. Game Balance: All I have to do is un-equip the shield and wala! I can go over. Maybe add a TU penalty due to the extra bulk?

It was probably blocked the the tree he was in front of. And I've had blood spatter even when my guys aren't bleeding. But I don't think I should have to rely on seeing the space he was shot in to tell he's bleeding. I should be able to tell from looking at the person, right? Also, it could create an interesting dynamic during the game - encountering wounded civilians and gaining reputation for healing them. Maybe during terror missions?

Would it be possible to add a bleeding indication above a character's head, or maybe just NPC head's? Reason I'm asking: I just spent a lot of effort saving a civilian, he took a hit, but I thought he was fine. 2 turns later he up and died on me when I could have saved him with a med kit, had I known. Considering the mission score penalizes you for civilian kills, it'd be nice to know if one really needs medical attention.

Foxtrot is listed as costing $200,000, but is costing me twice that. I've also had errors where building items take WAY more than it should and bankrupts me, usual all my alloy, but haven't been able to reliably recreate it. Also I had an issue where my monthly income get's spent immediately...on nothing. Possible to due with halted foxtrot build (I cancel the build before the month is out, and it's fine). Unfortunately the save was an autosave and got overwritten

right now I've been taking: 2 "Scouts" - Riot Shield + Pistol, with Rocket Launcher + 1 rocket and 2x Smoke and Flash grenades. When I got heavier armor I had to lose the RL. I need to evaluate strength stat of these guys. 2 Riflemen - added 2 of each grenade to belt. 2 Snipers 2 Machine gunners. - added 2 frag grenades to belt. The scouts lead the way, and act as moving cover for the riflemen, using the rocket launcher as needed. The MG and Snipers are support on the flanks. If needed they can be split up into 2 groups of 4, for flanking missions/etc.

The whole "I don't know where the UFO is" bother's me a lot. What military strike team goes in blind on an op? They should know the layout of the land, where their objective is, etc. I'd rather the "fog" be a "fog". You can see the whole map, but it's grayed out until it's in sight. At which point any changes are revealed (doors open/closed, cover blown up, aliens hiding, etc). It lets you make better tactical choices, and reflects reality a bit better. I know some people like the whole "map is a mystery" thing, but I hate GUESSING which way to make my advance. I'm a professional military organization but with my jets flying over head, shooting these things down, and my soldier's arriving by chopper I still don't have the intel of where the crash site is? I can't see that building that's 5ft beyond my "sight range"? It makes no sense.

Armor: I agree, and even the in-game explanation is lame: "We don't know, therefore we wont", but it's not really a deal breaker. And to add desert camo, forest camo, snow camo, etc..is a lot of extra work for no real gameplay benefit. From a friendly fire perspective I think a better solution is to program an AI that avoids shooting your friend in the back if it's possible. Weapons: This actually reflects reality. No organization is going to stock 5 different weapons of the same types. Each chooses the weapon of preference and stocks that. Otherwise it's a waste of resources, and inventory space. I need to stock 5 different rifles INCASE someone wants to use it, plus ammo for all those different weapons, etc. Any experienced soldier can learn to operate any other type of weapon. Heck, from the special forces divisions I'm pretty sure they specifically train in field stripping and firing many different weapons.

I'm fairly new to this, but I read the first few pages, and the last few pages, and direction doesn't seem to have changed. It sounds like V20 has an "airstrike" option that doesn't work out, and still has the RP type concerns everyone has been talking about since the start of this thread. It seems to be that the problem is to many crash sites get generated. Why don't you address this problem, instead of trying to work in a work around mechanic, that isn't easily explained/justified/balanced? Wouldn't it be easily explained if there's a chance a alien ship breaks up upon crash landing? Aka, no surviving aliens? Maybe there's some recoverable salvage (alenium/alloy) but nothing a team of soldier's needs to be dispatched for. You make the chance of this based on how damaged the ship is, and type of ship. (So more advanced weapons against smaller ships "kills" them more often). You also guarantee the first of any ship type always causes a crash landing, so you don't miss research opportunity. This gives a believable mechanic to limit crash sites, and later in the game gives players a bit of choice if they want more crash sites (use lower power weapons -> more risk to the flight crews). The percentage of crash vs kill can be balanced by the development team.