Tulx

I think I've read somewhere on the forums that Sebs are now as accurate as other dudes and don't have the penalty for shooting from far away anymore. In the earlier versions it was true though. I might be wrong however.

Okay so it might be some other condition. Although KevinHann it depends on what version it happened. In the earlier versions the rules for throwing grenades were different I think and it was changed some time.

If I understood it correctly than GH's AI developer stated that aliens only throw grenades in one very specific situation. I guess this is it (more than one soldier in grenade's hit area; I don't think I have seen them to throw them at a lone soldier).

I had three bases on veteran difficulty when the plasma era started and two strike teams. (2 laboratories with maxed scientists in my main base.) I personally haven't used interceptors to scout popping up events. (To any measurable success at least I think) It was v21 or v22 I believe. Money was quite tight but I always tried to do the ground combat manually unless I really couldn't be bothered and I didn't think it was necessary. Funding didn't cover all of my expenses but ground combat helped out. I used mainly rookies (everybody who had even some kind of rank tended to die very fast) and spammed grenades, I brought even extra with some people and then dropped them at the start. I also suffered from the bug where my wolf armor disappeared after soldiers had died. Thankfully laser and plasma weaponry didn't. I realize here aren't a whole lot of tips but maybe it helps out some

So Chris do you think that weapons tiers currently are at an objectively good level or are you unhappy with certain aspects of it and didn't have enough time/money/etc. to implement other stuff? Personally I like them or rather I'm "meh whatever" about it and don't think that the current system is broken or bad.

Okay : D

Have you actually played the Friaxis version on ironman impossible? Granted, only the beginning game is hard because XCOM:EU suffers from serious inverted difficulty curve, but with one soldier only to get through the early game.... well I doubt that You can't keep losing every mission in early game or you lose the whole game pretty fast.

I don't really know what the mind control does exactly. Is it like berserk that requires TUs or can aliens use the soldier with full TUs even if I depleted his TUs? If so, goodbye humanity my rookies will die then.

Selgald not really... I don't think so. The RNG will kill you eventually. You are welcome to prove me otherwise however .

The psionics are not a threat really at the moment... it is extremely easy to negate their effects by rotating every single one of your soldiers on the ground until they lose their TUs so that they cannot take reaction shots. If they have no TUs for reaction shots they cannot also do anything serious when mind controlled or berserk, they just sit in one place like fools. With care it is possible to sometimes reserve just enough TUs for snap shot, but when the soldier turns to shoot it's buddies he depletes TUs so he can't do anything anymore. But psionics have negative effects for players right now: 1) Can't use reaction fire. Not a problem in my opinion, on higher difficulties it gets you killed anyways. One or two shots that hit the alien are hardly gonna do anything. And ceaseans who are the weakest aliens also get somekind of advantage then (no reaction fire from the enemy). 2) It's annoying - rotating everybody gets boring fast. Your proposed changes make the game just easier (smaller chance that when you don't take care of your soldiers they kill their friends). If anything I'd like to get UI improvements to "not allow" reaction fire. I haven't seen the endgame aliens yet so maybe my tactics are completely worthless there, I doubt it however. I also tend to play with mainly rookies (every high ranked soldier ends up dead somehow ).

EDIT: Sorry! Nevermind I thought that you wanted to stand on the stairs. That might be a bug yeah. I apologize for the incompetent and rushed answer! EDIT2: Maybe you can instead go somewhere else on the second floor and hit space when the soldier is moving to stop at the right place? This how the game works. There are no "true" stairs in this game. Think of them as teleporters which move your units from one level to another. If you actually manage to stand on them your unit is displayed as being inside of them. There are also no hills/uneven terrain because of this. It is because of engine limitations or something (it can't be changed easily).

An AI that is successful at actually winning might utilize full map vision. An AI that attempts to win at whatever costs given the same rules like human player might not be that good, sure, but it still tries it's best - and that's what I meant. I didn't mean by "whatever neccessary" the AI should teleport next to the human player soldiers at the first turn and insta kill them (very blatant example of "cheating" but goes to the same category as full map vision).

I don't think either that aliens behavior should be static and I think that making the AI somewhat unpredictable is a "win at all costs scenario". Because it is impossible to code an adapting/learning AI that plays against human players strategy depending on the situation. I think that adding random situations like charging through the door occasionally is the correct behavior. To conclude: I'd like to see an AI that given the limitations of it, is the best that it can be and isn't dumbed down to specifically make the game easier for the human player. It would be awesome even if some very limited team behavior could be implemented. Ie. one alien opens the outer UFO door and another one chucks a grenade or fires from behind a cover. That would atleast simulate intelligence somewhat. After all, human player can constantly use the game mechanics to it's advantage (opening and closing doors won't trigger reaction fire), why shouldn't the AI? (besides the obvious "can't be done because too long turn times/impossible/engine limitations"). Remember I'm not criticising anybody sorry if I appear too harsh. Edit: Actually when AI chooses "the best statistically optimal approach" it won't become predictable. It would become super good starting to shuffle it's strategies like mad to flank, backtrack behind players position etc. A statistically best decision isn't the statistically best decision anymore when repated enough times, if you get what I mean. Xenonauts AI system that is imperfect like it is cannot realise that and only does what it thinks is statistically the best decision when asked to do that.

Personally I would like to see an AI that is desinged around the concept of "always do it's best to win and throw any other consideration out of the window". Frozen Synapse's AI was brutal in that sense, it wasn't meant to give the player a good, casual time but rather focused on winning. Atleast that was my impression of it. I'm very much looking foward to any AI mod that you might be making.

This. Thank you and GH for this mod!