Mikhail Ragulin

It's a cool idea, but I struggle to see where they'd fit in - black powder weapons are much less powerful than smokeless cartridges.

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Yeah, at the moment the carbines are a bit unrefined. They fill the role of mini assault rifle quite well, but I was never particularly happy with how I worked the shot-costs. I tried to make them mirror AR's too much, by giving them five shots (the only way the AR can achieve 5 is by burst fire anyway, which the carbines don't have). So, I found myself not using them much at all. Now, I'm using them a lot more. Shotguns are also now strength limited, which makes the carbines the go-to weapon of the breachers, as it has no penalties. Although the strength thing on shotguns is more of a token gesture, as not much accuracy is required when firing from point blank range.

That's a good way of modeling semi-auto's. PDW's are a bit modern, but there are a few examples of them pre-1980. They would stray into smg territory though, which is why I did semi-auto carbines instead of burst/full auto carbines/pdw's. Speaking of the carbines, they've had a looking at too, as the jungle carbine has had to go - currently, it's the top damaging carbine, firing the .303. But with the new bolts, the first one is also an enfield, firing the .303, so it would look at a bit off if the same cartridge was being used as the top performer in one category and the worst in another (the damage variance was too extreme...one has to do ~30, and the other ~60). In fact we're getting two new carbines (as the ruger is going too): the Jap type 44, and the Mosin-Nagant Model 44. In general, the carbines are getting a bit of love - although they're getting less shots (3 down from 5), they're going to be able to use them shots better, firing two aimed shots per turn (all the other weapons can only fire one aimed per turn). It suits their mobility more, plus they are a little too weak at the moment. Their new TU/accuracy is: 28/40, 35/60, and 45/85. Comparing it to AR's, the snapshot is the same, but the normal shot is 5TU% less, and the aimed is 10TU% less. I've developed a bit of a strategy to make the reapers less scary. When I know I'm facing them early-game (i.e. if during the first alien turn, there aren't any psi attacks), I do a tactical camp. Form a defensive perimeter, and use their aggression against them. Got to be tight though, as the Sebs soon follow them in - at which point I try and push out (but leaving the majority stationary for reaction fire) and close the gap.

That's come back in vanilla (maybe it never went away?). I'm not using the Community Edition, but I'm getting it too.

Yeah, I think most weapon types are now covered. There is one exception that I can see - semi auto pistols. I didn't want to use them previously, as they would take away from the revolvers. However, I will probably add them in the future, and have the revolvers as more powerful but strength limited - more of a specialist weapon, and the semi auto as the standard sidearm (with the MP's being slightly more specialist due to their recoil). I did have another play around with grenade launchers recently (over-ruling the throwing animation so it looked like they were being shot in an arc), but there are too many factors working against it (biggest one is the GC ui, which treats anything grenade-like as single-shot). It's random with the Sebs/Caesans. They both show up from the start, it's just a matter of luck really. The Sebs bring reapers along, which make them a bit tougher than the Caesans - I like it in GC, where during the first alien turn I get hit with a psi attack, I breathe a sigh of relief that I'm facing the Caesans.

Yeah, I didn't realise quite how much M'nauts was missing an outstandingly accurate weapon. They're a lot of fun to play with. I forgot to mention before, but when you were trying to make a new sniper, and it's damage wasn't holding at range, "disableDamageScaling="1"" is what was missing - this makes a weapon hold its damage at range (otherwise it drops off). Thanks about the guide - that's why I wrote. Everyone has ideas, but not everyone knows how to implement them. Hopefully the guide can help with that - the more people that know how to make weapons, the higher the chances of cool new weapons appearing. Monkeys and typewriters.

Possibly - but I'd have to drop one of the S&W magnums though to make way for it.

I find it to be risky, but in a different way - the approach to the UFO can be hazardous, as the aliens can see (and therefore shoot). Which is far more risky than aliens not being able to see or shoot the 'nauts.

Roger that. I hadn't tagged on what you said to what was earlier discussed, hence my confusion. Does the cursor still appear though in this workaround? I haven't tried it yet.

But they'd still be shut-able, would they not? Just not auto-closing.

Thanks for taking a look - not to worry though, as I've come up with a good way to implement them. They'll actually be in the next version, the images haven't taken too long. Here's what I did... The new bolt-actions have taken on the stats (or M'nauts slightly less accurate version) of the vanilla snipers (max two shots per turn), and the BR's are now more like the AR's. The bolts are the most accurate weapons, slightly more damaging than the BR's and with better mitigation, but nowhere near as punchy as the AT's. This could get confusing. Here's the stats: The stat sheet is getting a bit big now - that image is cut and pasted from 3 different screenshots. The bolts are third group down. They get the heavy move penalty, no short range bonus, and no damage scaling. The BR's are now an option for troops who can't handle the recoil of an AR - they do more damage per shot (and have mitigation), but can't get as many shots off per turn, and now have the same accuracy as AR's. The bits in bold are the changes from the last version. There's a new BR, the AG M/42, and a slight re-jigging of the progression order (I revisited cartridge damage output, so it mirrors this better). The AR's have got a slight increase in burst accuracy, and the AT's are now strength limited (the accuracy used is the lower of either strength or accuracy). The bolts are the Lee Enfield No. 4 (.303), Steyr SSG 69 (7.62mm NATO), Remington Model 700 (.375 H&H Magnum), and Winchester Model 70 (.458 Winchester Magnum).

Issue: same as the OP.... Suggestion to completely solve: make alien doors (ufo and alien base doors) open-able only once (i.e. they can't be closed)...just like the OP. How to implement it: don't know...yet. I disagree about removing the doors. I think it achieves a similar end product in that doors can't be closed, but it's a bit hacky - as there would be no doors in the first place. It's not a smooth fix, hopefully someone with better knowledge of sprites/map tiles can provide some insight. Removing the UFO bay doors makes a marked change in GC, I'd recommend giving it a go.

That doesn't really achieve much though. Door spammer just doesn't have to spend TU's closing it, as the game does it for him.

I did something similar in M'nauts - the early UFO's have no (external) doors, which makes GC far more fluid and dangerous. That's by blanking out the door spectre and the image - otherwise the door cursor still appears. I had a play with various different methods (like the one above), and settled on this one, but it feels a bit too workaroundy.

I've seen it too in 1.07. Mostly (if not exclusively) under burst fire, and the Seb sometimes re-gens even before the burst is finished.

Light drones are able to move while performing their burst fire. It's hardly noticeable if they're moving along the same path as the projectiles (i.e. towards what they are firing at), but if they change direction, the shots do to. Which means that they can start a burst facing for example north-east, and finish the burst facing south. I don't have a save showing it, but I'm trying to get one (or record it). Also, I'm still getting the plasma battery bug which has been previously reported. The last three Sebillian corvettes have yielded 118, 149, and 280 plasma batteries respectively. This is somewhat nullified by changing the value of the batteries to 100, but a pain none the less.

Yep. Or close enough to suppress, anyhow.

That's part of it chief. They start moving before the burst finishes, and the shots change direction - I assume as the drone moves/changes which direction it's facing, the shots then do the same. I've got a bugger cornered now, trying to catch it on cam.

In my current playthrough, I keep seeing light drones being naughty. When firing, they shoot the majority of projectiles of a burst in one direction, and then one or two shots at 90 degrees (or more) to the previous direction. For example, I just saw one fire 9 shots at a target to the north-west, and then one shot at some guys to the south. I don't think this is just bad accuracy, something seems fishy. It's all part of the same burst sequence (they can do one burst of ten shots per turn, and no single shots), and the drone seems to be able to fire at everything in its sight. Only noticed this on 1.07. Anyone else seen it?

Airstrikes sound like fun. How've you implemented it - is it direct/LOS only?

Are they light-sabres?

It not so much the nades that bother me (even though they do!), but rather the amount of primary weapons. This, for me, kills diversity. For example, a vanilla soldier can carry: - sniper rifle - shotgun - rocket launcher - 11 nades - 1 sniper ammo - 1 shotgun ammo I'd rather not have all those options, and have each role more specialised.

Here's another one... Is it possible to give researches a cost? Like how manufactures work. For example, a certain tech would consume technology or would require money to research it - researching this tech will consume 10x "item x" and cost "$x".

There are researches available called Combat Performance Analysis. These replace the vanilla weapon progression techs - Laser Weapons is replace by Combat Performance: 1st Analysis, Plasma by 2nd Analysis, etc. The tech involves the scientists (who, quite conveniently, double up as military analysts) analysing recent ground combat missions and making recommendations for different/stronger weapons. They then take their findings to our global partners who supply them with weapons that are more powerful than the previous bunch. However, in these paranoid times, the suppliers are only willing to provide a slight increase in power each time, as they aren't convinced by the effectiveness of the 'nauts, or the competence of our analysts. Believable, no? Ha. Anyhow, there's also a slight change in when these progression techs become available. I've linked them into certain autopsies - to get the techs, all the relevant vanilla techs need researching (ie plasma pistol, rifle, plasma technology for the laser tech) and a new alien, which makes our scientists realise we need mo' power. For laser, one needs androns - which means the androns have to be fought for a while (until the tech gets researched) with the first tier weapons. Secondly, it's harridans (was gonna be medium drones, but they don't reliably show up - I could change this at some point though), and lastly a wraith is needed for the final analysis/weapons grab.