HammerHead

So, we can expect the full release really soon? Time to start writing the review.

Chris, I sure hope you know that there were at least two times that devs said "multiplayer is impossible in this game", and modders pulled that off. But then again... what would it look like?

So, a few words from me: If you want some really complicated game based on TUs, try Jagged Alliance 2 with 1.13 mod. Sometimes, the another extreme can be more appealing than the middle ground. As for the hidden movement, you can't teleport the enemy units around. Why? If the enemies are teleported, chances of your units reaction firing are next to zero. And as you know, reaction fire is a very important thing in this kind of games. The 1TU cost of turning your head around? I think it's because you do need a minimal amount of time to turn your head around to check your surroundings. If every unit could see everything around them, flanking and moving out of sight to avoid enemy fire would be impossible. The two actions per turn mechanic was also very confusing for me, since you were very limited in your options by that. It was also quite illogical. You can move and shoot, but you can't shoot and move? I know it's for balance and to make the mechanics very strict and less RNG based, but it takes away some fluidity from the game. I also respect your opinion, since I really liked the 2012 remake, but I also liked the old games as well. To me, they only bear the similar name and turn based combat. Everything else is totally different.

So, what will happen after the release? Are you planning on adding more things to the game, or will you focus on another project?

I have a greatest idea ever, but I'm probably a few years late. An AWACS aircraft, for the areas that you don't (or don't want to) cover with ground radars. It shouldn't be too hard to implement, except for the art part. A good radar range, low speed and long loiter time. What do you guys think?

I guess it's the "gameplay vs realism", but if you're not knowledgeable enough, take the Chinook's service ceiling and max speed, and calculate true airspeed from this data, and it won't be that far from 500km/h, if we take winds into account. However, if you are knowledgeable enough, you'll know that it's impossible for many reasons. I'm all for keeping the 500km/h value on the Chinook with no changes. EDIT - as for the range... aerial refuelling?

I only managed to get pretty early in the game on normal difficulty, but I very rarely reloaded the ballistic weapons (I still managed to take a small alien base with half the team using ballistic weapons). I do think the ballistic weapons should be introductory tools to the game - ammo management shouldn't be that big of a deal there, both due to authentic and gameplay reasons. Lasers and up should be much more demanding in usage. Ballistic MG could be a good suppression tool with the 50 round magazine, but the laser one with 20 round battery should be a much more specialized weapon that's designed to actually kill, not scare away the enemies. That way, both weapons are still viable (at least in "laser era") and authentic. It would also make the upgrade to laser tech more visible, with reloading playing a much bigger role than before. Also, keep in mind that I don't know much about game design, I'm just a reviewer. EDIT - *If* the art guys have some spare time, then why not? There's no need to phase out the M16, you can always add a battle rifle as an alternative. Unless the art works are outsourced and paid on per-image basis. Besides, you already have a G3 model, just with scope and marksman scope - making a normal G3 out of it wouldn't be a problem. PSG-1 is also based G3. Soldier sprites however...

There's no good way to make reloading relevant - you'll just end up forcing people to take more magazines. It would be nice however, to switch the precision rifle to something different (the hybrid depicted looks a bit like G3, which should already have 20 round magazines). Since it's 1979, it could be replaced by a PSG-1, which only has 5 round magazine and is pretty new in the game time. Moreover, wouldn't it be a good idea for the troops to use battle rifles? The intermediate cartridge was devised specifically for lightly armoured targets, and aliens with their neat alloys aren't exactly soft.

The topmost sebillian - he moves into the view range, and just stops. When you get your turn, he can make four shots, and he shouldn't be able to (since he moved). While reaction fire can be simply fixed (alien TUs probably get reset on the start of player turn), the AI is kinda troubling. EDIT - the unit that does something (running, firing, etc.) gets the reaction fire - as it should work. This can also be easily used against the passive-aggressive enemy. Have one unit behind some nice cover draw reaction fire, the rest of your rookies can fire away freely that way.

But it has nothing to do with the suppression - you can provoke the four shots by just walking around. I'm talking here about the inconsistency in alien TUs. They shouldn't be able to move and shoot four times. And they shouldn't be that stupid as to walk in the field of view and end their turn, hoping that they won't get mowed down before they can use all that reaction fire. EDIT - oh yes, I read that thread - same thing, I meant. But there's still that AI thing... EDIT2 - no harm done, and you're completely right on that - I just haven't read the link completely before posing my reply.

No, that's not the case - the sebillian moves a few tiles and stops - when he gets the chance for reaction fire, he fires four shots. That shouldn't be possible, since he moved and the cheapest shot from the plasma rifle costs 25% TUs. There's also a very nasty bug in AI, making it very easy to exploit - the aliens very rarely shoot on their turns, it's super-visible on the save I linked. Those guys move into the firing range of my guys and just end their turn with loads of TUs left - and that's something that can be easily used against them.

Somebody told me yesterday, that plasma rifle has a 25% TU cost, but then there's this guy who moves a bit in his turn and shoots four times on my turn. Now that I have a save to prove it, there shouldn't be any doubts about that. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28368896/DMP/Reaction%20test.sav

I've got yet another question - does the number of surviving locals mean anything in the game? While I do try to save them as much as I can, I don't think it actually impacts the standings anyhow. Can somebody correct me here?

It happens to me, too - and have no mods at all.

I'm afraid I've already overwritten this save, but I've been able to reproduce it - it's a caesan guard, with a plasma rifle. He moved into the sight on the enemy turn and crouched. A sniper shot him, but he was able to shoot four times. Unless it was a plasma pistol (doubtful). I'll try to re-create this problem on a specific save I can share, then. Feel free to try it yourself. Oh, it was the latest experimental version, of course.

So, is it possible for an alien to move roughly 10 tiles and still have a chance for 4 reaction fire shots from a plasma rifle (no burst)? Because it's getting really ridiculous on the experimental build, you tackle an alien, and he shoots you dead, pretty much every time.

Can we please not nerf the gas grenades? I don't bring anything but frags and gas grenades now, since smoke is pretty useless for anything but going out of the dropship and flashbangs never worked for me.

Can anyone tell me what's the point of very limited fuel in manual dogfight mode? It makes the fights pretty uninteresting, since you have very little time to fight.

A couple more screens, then. First one is what lays on the floor when the enemy was killed. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28368896/DMP/223830_2014-03-06_00002.png Second is how it looks like when he was shooting. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28368896/DMP/223830_2014-03-06_00005.png Detailed version is V21 Experimental Build 5 25/02/2014.

I'm not sure if I should dump all three into one thread, but here we go: 1. A pair of Foxbats intercepted some small UFO, they only carried Avalanche missiles (or their upgraded variants), but haven't fired any of them. Maneuver kill? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28368896/DMP/223830_2014-03-05_00006.png 2. UFO (Corvette I think) is providing a bit too much cover than it's logically supposed to. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28368896/DMP/223830_2014-03-05_00008.png 3. A Sebillian soldier appeared unarmed (and haven't attacked from a distance), so I assumed he's unarmed and pretty harmless. Apparently, he had a shotgun (alien assault plasma?), and almost killed my soldier. No screenshots here, but I do have a savegame. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28368896/DMP/COMBAT_1.sav

Is there some mechanic that disables reaction shots on some folks? Most of the time, they shoot the back of their fellow soldiers instead of the enemy (what can be attributed to poor unit placement on my side), so I just keep spinning them until they're out of TUs. Also, is it just me or is the ballistic shotgun pretty much useless most of the time? I'd expect it to kill unarmored enemies in one shot from close range, but no such luck - burst fire from M16 does the job much better and usually more reliably.