dakta

So in veteran terror missions have something between 25-32 aliens if memory serves me correct, also more often than not the alien tech will be slightly above yours. Once you hit mags things are back to easy. But when you have lasers and maybe 1-2 plasma, killing 2 big ass drones, 10 warrior androns a couple of officer level androns and a touch of office level harridans or caesan and a few small drones. You cant just pistol everyhing to death. -Since you havent made it very far, Androns are robots that eat bullets for lunch and the higher the rank the worst it gets. -Big ass drones are cadillac sized cdplayers that shoot fireballs in burst that send your troops to a magical place in the sky -Harridans are supposed to be alien snipers but they are relatively passive and only sometimes the decide to throw a nade at you and instantly erase a soldier because you had too many soldiers for the mission -And if you are in the lategame you also get the preators and well those take half of your TU pool from a bunch of your soldiers every turn and one shot anything regardless of what armor they have. Also you cant kill them, they just give up from boredom of your bullets doing nothing to them. With improved dropships things become easier because you have some of the extra soldiers be 100% mules. But when you are still in midgame tech and you are raiding a base or fighting a terror mission with 8. Ammo will run out. TL/DR: finish the game in veteran then maybe you will sympathize with the pledge

If you want to get the terror mission done, I have plently of experience beating them in veteran, sadly you have to restart from arrival. There seems to be a flag that sets everything to agressive and they just charge at you and overwhelm you. If you want to be able to beat them, quickly setup a firing range, start using gas to prevent them from advancing and they will be force into less agressive movments. Then things will calm back down.

However it only happens once, the armor weight restiction only ramps on the first armor upgrade. The second armor stays equal and the heaviest armor gives you infinite strenght. I do think there should be more weight variations, its only a penalty once in the game.

I see this as a game design issue, its not working around the system since I can overload the troops. There is no cheating or modding involved. The system just tells you that for every extra item you have to pay the TU cost, so the weight limitation is there not to prevent you from bringing as much stuff as you want, is there to prevent you from using them in the field at the same time. When you are playing in the highest difficulty in ironman, you take any advantage that you can take to prevent losing the game. I would even argue that if you dont bring extra gear just in case, you are playing the game wrong. ALAS that is a personal opinion with little relevance here. What is relevant is that your argument of the weight limitation has no bearing on the amount of things you can carry, it only applies to the amount of things you can use at the same time. The only limitation to what you can carry is the inventory space in soldiers. So no we are not bypassing the system, we are playing within reason and it feels frustrating. Remember that not every gamer will play like you, good game design should prevent frustration from playing the game within reason. I really don't believe that being careful and taking extra gear is being unreasonable.

I find it odd that you've never experience this but well this would be the line of thinking that I am familiar with. I will use 4 soldiers to ilustrate. Soldier 1 sniper Solider 2 rifleman Soldier 3 heavy gun Soldier 4 rifleman They are all equipped with their gun and some ammo, now... I would like grenades and maybe a medkit on 2 of them. Soldier 1 maxed weight Soldier 2 80% Soldier 3 maxed weight Soldier 4 80% Mmm I would like a rocket launcher but its too heavy and too situational, well I can put it on them, drop it at the beginning and if I need it run back to the ship. Soldier 1 maxed Inventory Soldier 2 maxed Inventory Soldier 3 maxed Inventory Soldier 4 80% Mmm just in case I will carry a riot shield and a shotgun for when the time to breach an UFO comes since shotguns are stupid for any engagement outside the ufo. And then I have 4 soldiers inventories maxed, and I have to inventory micromanage every time I start a mission, spending a turn just dropping stuff to the ground. This is somewhat similar to what the actual reasoning in my ingame mission was, I had 3 mules and overloading was something I was considering necessary, extra nades, extra ammo, extra riot shield, etc. So this is something that is already in the game... Its something that people will do, some to a lesser extent some to a higher extent. Considering the amount of missions I have to do per campaign, it feels FRUSTRATING. That for me is the keyword for taking it seriously, the fact that I and others will see overloading as a necessity and that the payment for doing it is a bunch of my time doing frustrating tasks. Anyway I hope I illustrated the point a bit more clearly, Its not just something people ask because they feel like it, I believe people ask for this because the alternative sucks.

Since it seems that there is little chance of a lot of changes for the release, I would like to suggest one last important thing for balance. Explosives are not useful right now Rocket Launchers: Heaviest ammo in the game by far Bulkiest ammo Most expensive reload and fire(TU) Radius seems to be 3x3 with full damage in the center(not sure about damage distribution) Low environmental destruction with every rocket type High strength requirement Gas grenade > Gas rocket hands down since you mostly only have to gas in grenade range inside the UFO. There is no logical reason to take the rocket launcher over any other gun My suggestion is to make the enviromental destruction the core of the rockets. HE Grenades Short throw range Explodes until turn end(doesnt allow me to know if enemy will die or not, leaving me open to flank or to die in the open). 3x3 area Low enviromental destruction Cant throw in ARC, if the enemy is behind something and I dont have direct LOS, doesnt matter if I am next to him. The low AOE and medium damage is not enough to justify being that close to use it, the lack of cover destruction and the fact that it blows up at the end of the turn makes it a sub par tool. I need to reliably know the results of using them, If I want to blow up the cover, I don't want to wait until next turn to just have it move to another cover. If I risk exposing myself and grenade someone I want to confirm a kill, otherwise I just keep dumping bullets on him pointlessly. My suggestion, make it blow up on landing, increase cover damage, make it the range longer or the damage higher. Gas Granades Overpowered They make the AI unable to cross some zones its perfect for base raids. Spam and forget. My suggestion: They should work only on aliens low on hp, or sufficiently stunned, instantly. Smoke Grenades Overpowered Cancels reaction shots competently, makes advancing a cakewalk. My suggestion: Should still have a chance of triggering reaction shot with heavy aim penalties Electric Grenades Short range 3x3 Never saw an andron stunned or dead by one of them. My suggestion: none, never felt compelled to used them after a few tests. Satchel Charges: Not enough environmental destruction 2 rounds minimum to explode making Low throw range My suggestion: make the environmental destruction key. Let them have big AOE that just cleans everything away leaving no cover and a bunch of smoke. Dont let me detonate them inside the ufo as easily since the AOE might hit me. Make aliens run away from them. Make throwing range shorter, make me run from them. TL/DR: Explosives need to have a clear role. Make explosives destroy cover consistently, they are high risk no reward right now.

I would like to point out that adding extra storage space is just giving the game a way to not break the immersion. It does really nothing for the difficulty since you can have mule soldiers. At the moment I can load up my 8 troops with whatever I will ever need and more, however when I start the game I have to manually drop every thing thing to the ground. This is something that I can see a lot of people doing because a lot of us are OCD shits that like to name our soldiers and control every tiny aspect of them. Other than immersion the storage is just convenience. To reiterate, storage space is for thematic consistency and convenience. The alternative is to let your users get annoyed by having to manually achieve the same with soldiers completely overloaded.

The game right now has enough enemy variety and technology tiers to add to the strategy only by tweaking values. I agree that guns should be differentiated by their class shotgun vs sniper etc. But adding Tech Tier flavor is not mutually exclusive. I consider that although new tiers should add more damage, the old guns should not turn instantly into obsolete garbage. There can be a niche use for each technology, moreover I should have the possibility of define a strategy where at combination of gun type and technology complement each other. I am sure that people around here could give much better suggestions than I can come up with. Off the top of my mind I see certain jobs that are not damage that are a need in the game and one tool should not solve them all. DAMAGE AMMO AND GUN CARRY WEIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION SPECIAL EFFECTS LIKE SUPPRESSION/BLINDING/STUNNING ARMOR DEGRADING ARMOR PIERCING COVER PIERCING ELECTRONIC DAMAGE AMMO CAPACITY TU COST For explosives EXPLOSIVE UNIT DAMAGE EXPLOSIVE RADIUS EXPLOSIVE COVER DAMAGE Right now all is mostly the same except damage (or it feels the same). Weight, TU cost, Accuracy, bullet cap etc etc. Not everything needs to be a nightmare for balancing, but just details have a big impact. I can safely say that any extra options you give the players for strategizing, will be received with open arms, the core principle of better technology = better damage could remain intact and the players that just want a linear progression will still have it. PS. I am guessing the mechanic of unloading/reloading ammo that isn't fully spent is out of the question. PPS. Great work so far, I am very glad to be a supporter.

Yeah some feedback would be great, in veteran you dont get to see the numbers so you never know if you actually hit the alien or if its the ground.

Why cant the other weapons have different ammo. Was there any reasoning behind what chris said? After playing the campaing a few times I dont really get excited about the upgrades, they add nothing to my strategy except more damage.

Automatic upgrades make me really sad, once you finish research half of your stuff gets automatically replaced by new things. Choosing the older ones is not possible because they are obviously inferior(missiles). Please consider making guns and explosives feel different, technologies should not completely overlap each other. A clear example of the OG was laser weaponry not needing ammo. There were some missions I would have to take my laser weaponry because I just didn't have enough plasma ammo. A laser pistol was also great because you didnt need to carry ammo for it. Weapons: Technology upgrades should have a clear damage increase but it should also affect weapons in different ways to add to the tactical layer of the game. Some suggestions: Laser rifles doing 2x damage vs unarmored but .5 vs armored. Plasma shotguns eat cover for breakfast and dinner, but the spread is 2x wider so you have to be closer to be accurate. Mag Sniper has a chance of ignoring cover but not destroying it. This will also help to de-homogenize the guns, as they are now, they all fight for the same role. Ammo: Please make different ammo a thing, it added so much flavor. Right now its really boring. For ammo capacity there are 2 options; normal gun capacity and alien technology capacity: 15 round heavy(all tech) vs 50 round heavy(no tech). Same weight, same inv space, might as well be same icon. This has so much potential to be more interesting but as its stands its just plain boring. Make ammo weight differently depending on technology. So new soldiers cant be wielding the latest and greatest and you actually have to take penalties. Better weapon? cool but you get less ammo in chamber and less ammo to carry. This is perfect with the latest ideas of deadlier aliens, I wont be using my best ammo for the easy to kill aliens. Add ammo types, for the love of god where are the ammo types. Incendiary ammo to flush them out of cover or make them sit taking damage, explosive ammo to blow up cover, armor penetrating, anti personnel. Micromanaging my magazines was so much fun in every XCOM game. I understand that some new effects might be out of the question, but you have such a wide array of enemies. Telling me who is really armored and who isn't and letting me pick my targets with my AP rounds or electric rounds for robots would be really compelling. TL/DR: Gun technologies only upgrade damage, this feels like a wasted opportunity considering the amount of tech upgrades we get.

Cant you make an invisible pack soldier that automatically drops everything the moment you arrive in the mission? leaving all his equipment in the ground so as if it was a storage locker? As if it was an alien that just died when you arrived on the "locker" space. I agree that it doesnt add a lot to the gameplay but it does add to the immersion, having to manually manage my pack mules every time a mission start just sucks.

Please consider cover as a big element, Not being able to root out aliens of good cover is great forcing people to flank. Please consider reworking the explosive or the ammo types to something specifically built to get rid of cover. As it is explosives are garbage, they don't get rid of map elements very well and they are very expensive, inventory space/TU/Reload Using a rocket launcher is a complete joke considering a heavy gun can do exactly the same with much less TU/ammo/inv space/accuracy/range I think guns should have ammo types, some that are able to penetrate cover but not destroy it, some that are good at getting rid of cover (explosive ammo), but dont do good damage, ammo that flushes enemy from cover by making it unusable (incendiary), ammo that is good at hitting exposed enemies (anti personnel). This will synergize nicely with the inventory space and soldier usage. Give us meaningful tools And if you consider this ammo thing, please let me unload partially used ammo. I want to save the environment and not waste.

Is there any other way to approach customization? adding perhaps a floating icon that can be toggled? Just like when you mouse over the soldier number in the UI in tactical, you can see their "role" icon, something like that but that can be shown on top of the actual soldier. I think its a big improvement to have some flavor when moving and watching your troops. I think considering ammo space around how the game is right now, is a moot point. The game is way unbalanced right now, ammo is not a real concern since you dont actually need to carry anything else. Aliens never shoot unless they are really close or in reaction mode, so once they are in view, turkey shoot until dead and repeat. Explosives are pretty useless until you set them to actually destroy everything they hit. Explosives would be something to use if they actually destroyed cover. As it is right now, there is no reason to use a rocket over a heavy, the heavy gun will most likely get rid of the cover and might even kill the alien with ammo that is much lighter. Granades have a such a short range and do so little damage they are not even useful when aliens are next to each other. Rockets take so much ap, you can only fire every other turn, they are probably the worst gun. Satchel charges take 1 turn to explode and well at most they open 1 single space in the wall. If you are playing smart, explosives are just garbage. The only 2 granades that are worth their salt is smoke and gas, gas is really overpowered since they effectively set an area where they die if they stay and blocks their movements. Ufos are really easy to storm since you only need to open a door toss in a granade, close the door. Wait. So in summary, throwing stuff and having space in the drop ship would make sense if the game was a challenge, as it is, yeah it doesn't. PS. I will make a post about the explosive situation. In my opinion there is a lot of potential to have the different materials have different effects instead of everything replacing each other. That way storage space and ammo types can start to make a difference. If the new explosives would have less power but more area, more power but less AOE, more demolishion power. More penetration/less penetration. The idea that all of my options are more damage or less damage makes me a bit sad.

Just finished a veteran full campaing and these are some relatively small changes that the game would benefit a lot. Toggle reaction fire Its too annoying to consume TUs of your heavy or your rocketeer because of fear of friendly fire, a button to disable this behavior would solve this problem. Floors Cycle Tab should be to cycle soldiers, the mouse wheel should be for floors to rapidly them back and forth. As it is right now you have to manually click them or go from floor 2->3->4->1. If im moving my troops between floors 3 and 4 I don't want to be having to cycle all the way to 1 every time. Soldier Cycle tab should cycle soldiers with enough TUs, if a soldier has no more TU it should be ignored. Throw I think the tactical combat benefits a lot from this feature, throwing weapons, clips, non active nades, etc. Its too time consuming and TU consuming to drop something and have another player move into the now vacant spot to take it. Dropship Storage It breaks the immersion to have a mule soldier stacked to the head with stuff just to make sure I don't run out of bullets mid tactical deployment, Give me a limited storage at least in the ship and that way I don't have to spend a round tossing things to the floor just for insurance. Better troop highlight A green glow and a red glow would help find some of those units inside of map elements, some things just don't alpha and you just cant see the units under. Color customization This one might be tricky, but let me customize to some degree the appearance of my soldiers. Using the role mechanics could be the easy fix for this, I don't need a full color kit but at least let me differentiate them with something besides the armor level and weapon they carry.