dave_the_nerd

Hi, Dear Goldhawk. I have been a very good boy this year. For Christmas, I would like: 1) Some control over how my soldiers develop (ability to direct their training in specific directions, maybe a pool of points I can assign, maybe some cybernetic upgrades.) 1a) Maybe the stats that increase after a mission should be related to what the soldier did (types of weapons used, steps taken, etc.) 1b) "Hero" soldiers with unique abilities or boosts. (Maybe with kickstarter names or something.) 2) Grenade throw distance should be effected by more than strength. Some formula based on strength/TU/agility feels more realistic. (Example: I'm reasonably strong but my throwing arm sucks because reasons. Ask my dog. It's pathetic.) 3) I was always disappointed that the tanks and vehicles in maps couldn't be used. (Either piloted or controlled remotely as a research tree option?) Running a truck full of C4 through a UFO front door should be worth a Steam achievement, and if I'm defending a military base, commandeering a tank would be the obvious first thing to do. 3a) Driving over an alien with a tank should also be a Steam achievement. **splat** 3b) Driving over a civilian with a tank should... also do something. 4) Some combat use for the dropship would also be cool. At the very least I'd expect it to be able to see around itself - there's a pilot in the cockpit, who presumably has eyes. 4a) Some kind of armament to keep the LZ clear-ish would be a sensible upgrade too. Balancing it against troop capacity would make sense. 4b) Multiple dropships - the second can orbit the battle area and provide a vision boost to my troops, maybe be able to call in CAS strike once or twice per mission. (Cluster howitzer rounds full of antipersonnel grenades exist...) 4c) Having the dropship take damage that either delays its return or requires a second dropship to come pick up the squad would be a fair tradeoff, IMO, and would give you a reason to have more than one dropship. 5) More upgrades or development potential for weapon range/accuracy. Snipers are kind of disappointing right now - their range dropoff doesn't seem much better than a rifleman's? 5a) Powered armor should include some kind of battle networking, akin to how C3 networks work in Battletech, or how shared targeting information works IRL. Would give an accuracy bonus to snipers outside of visual range, or allow indirect fire w/ grenade launchers. 6) Air to air tactics/research options that increase auto-resolve effectiveness for air combat, particularly against fighters. (Increased chance to run away w/o taking damage, increased chance to evade enemy fire when closing, etc.) 6a) Ability to carry multiple small missiles on a single hard-point. (1 torpedo => 2 sidewinders or something.) 7) Being able to recruit civilians who survive missions would be nice from a storytelling perspective. "Hey, you Mr. Farmer-with-a-shotgun. So, yeah, aliens are real and they killed your family and blew up your house. Want to get some back?" You could give them +/- to their various stats to be consistent with the idea that you're recruiting an older person; bonus to bravery, etc. 8) Med packs restore HP. Engineering packs should exist, and restore armor and blast shields. 9) Besides crouching, soldiers should get a "prone" option. This would allow them to conceal behind partial cover, or provide a small cover bonus when prone on grass without other cover. 10) Additional combat platforms and/or upgrades. Lemme strap a grenade launcher to a MARS, or more secondary guns, etc. 10a) Grenade-toting suicide quadcopters. 11) A publisher-provided and "blessed" save-game editor would be nice. Thank You, Goldhawk. Please hug your reindeer for me. Sincerely, dave_the_nerd

I don't think this is entirely accurate. Your tree says "Alien Alloy Hardening" is a prereq for the Hyperion tank. I have Hyperions, but I don't have anything in my UFO-pedia for Alien Alloy Hardening.

I've kind of given up on the whole modding thing. Maybe it's just me, but they always make my game crash-ey. (Regardless of the mod pack or game in question.) Even those seemingly safe hi-res texture packs or other graphics enhancements are usually underwhelming - they never look as good as the screenshots either.

I guess I'm the token weirdo, but I like the 2D graphics. They're retro-chic, but they're extraordinarily well done; at resolutions and details game designers/artists in the late '90s would have wept to see. The only thing I miss vs. XCOM:EU is camera rotation. If GHI makes another turn-based tactical game, I would encourage them to look at the horribly under-utilized backstory from the XCOM predecessor Laser Squad for inspiration.

This infuriated me about another game recently. When I press "Esc" it means I want out NOW.