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Here's a new thread to continue the balance discussion around Ground Combat. Please only post in this thread if you are using the experimental Steam branch (information here). These are the balance changes since the first Steam version (i.e. v18.51 Hotfix 3): - Implemented new alien count per UFO type (4 for Light Scouts up to 16 for Battleships) - Grenades, Rockets and Alien Plasma Cannon shots no longer lose damage over range - Strength based maximum grenade throwing range implemented (5 tiles + 10% soldier strength) - Xenonaut vehicles made significantly tougher (x2!) - Xenonaut vehicles have slightly more AP - Shotgun BUFF! - Fairly significant reductions in the effectiveness of Xenonaut weapon suppression power across the board - Damage of all Xenonaut precision rifles boosted a little - Precision rifles no longer have their 20AP aim level, so they are now in line with other weapons in having 3 aim levels - Alien Plasma Cannons deal slightly more damage - Reaction fire potential of MGs and precision rifle doubled (MGs probably still won't react due to burst fire bug though) - Sebillians have same visual range as Xenonauts It's not a hugely long list of changes as I've been spending lots of time on the Geoscape for the last couple of weeks, but also as a couple of the changes (removing range damage scaling and fixing low accuracy shots) could have a pretty big impact on balance and I didn't want to change to much until we see how they behave. Please let me know how you find them. The next thing I intend to implement is differentiation between the alien races. Also right now it sounds like some people are experiencing a very imba crash at the end of the first mission, fix will be available as quick as I can find it.

I'm suffering extended delay when I successfully end the mission (before the Mission End screen appears). In V18 Steam stable, it happened only occasionally and the delay lasted for about 10 seconds after my final move and the screen appearing. Now in Experimental, it happened to me each time, and the delay was between about 30 and 60 seconds. It's nothing major, but it's a real nuisance. Also, after I ended my move and after the NPCs have moved (the Hidden Movement screens are all gone and there's nothing going on movement- and sound-wise anymore), there's a delay of a couple of seconds before I'm able to move. The screen is already scrolled to center my activated soldier, but the AP are still visibly reduced in all the mini-stat-displays from the last move. After 1 to 3 seconds or so, the AP visibly fill up and then I'm able to act. This wasn't the case with the stable build, either. I can't say if the 2 delays are related, tho.

This build contains my first pass at rationalising and balancing the ground combat system; any comments you have would be gratefully received in this thread. Pretty much every important value for weapons, armour and most other things in the ground combat have been systematically re-set to follow our intended progression. A few notes - different alien species all currently have stat parity; that is, for the most part a Caesan Guard is identical to a Sebillian Guard. The main differences come from increasing stats between the "ranks" of alien types - non-combat, guard, soldier, warrior etc... and these are gradually phased in throughout the game to ramp up the challenge. Eventually, of course, the different alien species will have different characteristics, so the player needs to adapt their tactics to fight them. This will start with stat differences (such as increased armour for Sebillians), but will eventually extend to the AI system (Androns will be single minded, never take cover and relentlessly advance on the player). EDIT: Make sure you grab Hotfix 3, this fixes several AI issues that would have caused problems testing the balance. EDIT2: To be absolutely clear - this is Ground Combat only, no structured changes have been made to Geoscape thus far

Why do we need an auto-resolve type option for Xenonauts? I'm currently on my 4th game that has entered the 3-4 month period. One thing I've noticed is that you tend to stop 'feeling like' doing the more mundane ground combat missions. Essentially you do need the money, but you really can't be bothered spending 30 or so minutes slaughtering aliens because you've got a bunch of elite troops. The game, past the 3 month period also goes through a very large slow down. If you have 2+ bases you start to intercept 3-4 UFOs a turn and the number of missions jumps up drastically. Some other kind of mechanic needs to take over the manual ground combat, at least on the easy missions. My proposed Auto-Reslove mechanic for ground missions Local forces can attempt to secure UFO crashes with the assistance of Xenonauts. Each time this happens, 0-3 (1 lead and 2 advisors) Xenonauts can be sent to assist & advise local forces, gaining experience. The option would only be availiable for the 'reletively' smaller UFOs. As the ticker increases more UFO's fall under this juristriction. The criteria for local forces wanting jurisdiction over an alien zone: Each UFO is assigned a second ticker value, after the ticker reaches this second value, that type of UFO is able to be auto-resolved via this mechanic The variables for the auto-resolve This non-playable mission would have several outcomes, determined by a few things. -Crew Strength of the downed UFO -Invasion progress inversely effecting the crew strength (eg low crew count in later invasion stages = easier mission) -Rank of the lead Xenonaut -Combined rank of the other 0-2 Xenonaut advisers -Relation with Country - Perhaps a new Variable for countries, relating to their ability to respond to the Alien invasion Essentially this would be an auto-resolve feature, but it would have a lot of perceived depth and wouldn't be a one button wonder. It would get the player to consider risk when auto-resolving and would encourage manual attacks on stronger crashed UFOs. Balancing: There is a few balance issues to consider; How much of the materials do the Xenonauts get What is the risk to Xenonaut advisers (officer should be next to none, but the lower tiers would be involved in fire teams) Do the Xenonauts get additional funding? Will auto-resolving have an impact on country relations? *important* Can fighters be auto-resolved? I'm for this, but I'd like to hear what other players think I think, for what is essentially a one line equation with some artwork, that this kind of auto-resolving feature is a low development solution that would significantly enhance the game. Feedback appreciated!

I've had a lot of issues when engaging carriers in ground combat missions 1) Sometimes there are no aliens 2) Sometimes there are freezes during alien turns, especially on the second+ floor 3) Impossible alien spawn points: In this case I could kill the alien only because one of my soldiers had buzzard armor and could fly. See screenshot: 4) Return of the giganto soldier: Wolf armour + magstorm 5) Floor rendering issues 6) Soldier rendering issues: sometimes soldiers have double green circles 7) Black areas, possibly missing textures after an explosion in the alien ship 8) And a few other minor....

Could you remove the way the screen centers on aliens that have just been shot? I've ruined a lot of battles by clicking to move someone after shooting and had the screen move just as I'm clicking and find that I've used all my remaining movement points to run toward the alien I just shot.

1. Does smoke do anything yet? I was playing on the latest build today and my soldier was able to spot an alien at the edge of his sight range after TWO of his squad mates threw smoke grenades in front of him to conceal his advance. Perhaps it was lowering my hit percentage (I think it was), although I didn't see any little percentage indicators along the line of fire to indicate that this was the case. Regardless, I should not have been able to see an alien at that distance through that much smoke, at least by XCOM physics. 2. Can smoke clouds persist longer? Maybe the cloud could persist at maximum diameter for an extra turn before dispersal. 3. Can we have smoke rockets? 4. Are aliens ever going to use smoke grenades to conceal their positions? I get the feeling that the development team really doesn't appreciate the importance of smoke grenades. The very best players of UFO2000 (the one-on-one online XCOM remake that was faithful to the original game) would chuck 2 or 3, even 4 smoke grenades EACH TURN at the opening of the game so that their scouts could get flanking positions and spot for the snipers in the backfield. After two turns, half of the battlefield would be encompassed by smoke. The excessive use of smoke grenades in UFO2000 was partially based on the "scout and snipe" method that worked well in XCom, which may not be so effective in Xenonauts, but in both games it is useful to provide instant concealment in the open field. For example, aliens should automatically throw smoke grenades through the ship doors before they bust out. If they decide they need to retreat (which they seem to do a lot in this game), they should throw a smoke grenade in between their retreat path and the incoming fire paths. 5. A common rebuttal against increased sight ranges is that it would ruin the "tactical nature" of the game if soldiers could shoot all the way across the map, but I disagree. Rather, the use of smoke grenades, especially on the flat arctic maps, adds an extra degree of strategy, for players are required to generate their own concealment to advance through open fields, tundra, and deserts.

This is the thread for discussion of and balance suggestions for the ground combat layer for Build V18.3. Please ensure you have Hotfix 1 from this thread before taking part: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/f...-1-Released%21 Please repost any opinions from the V18 thread here if they are still valid.

Opinions on the balance of the ground combat in V18 go here.

you can force the autosave (in iron mode) so that if the game should crash I could start from the same point?

Go out a side door of the charlie, then forwards of the door a bit. Now decide to go to the other side of the charlie, and you can path straight through the crew cabin area.

Situation when UFO is crashed and all crew dies seems possible for me. But if game engine alredy knows there are no aliens at crashsite why load ground combat mode? No actual soldier activity, no training, no risk - just waiting for mode switch, soldier deployment on first turn and waiting for mode switch again. Why not to show message "found 6 alloys and no survivors" after Engage button pressed, without mode change?

I loaded an autosave to try and replicate my ferret explosion CTD, then on the first alien turn there was just a white screen, in place of the hidden movement screen (last time the hidden movement screen appeared). Then when I clicked end turn for the second time I got a CTD with an error message that I cannot recall, sorry.

When throwing a satchel charge somewhere, followed by a grenade, rocket, some explosion in the environment or a second charge, will cause the game to freeze. Throwing 2 charges at the same spot will cause the game to freeze up on the start of the next turn. I've been able to reproduce this in any battle. Other objects that explode in the map (barrels, power cores, etc) don't cause this problem.

Hello, let's have unofficial survey about Chris decision he made in http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/3105-UFOs-Being-Horrible. Maybe we will identify what is the most common opinion among community on this important topic and give Chris good feedback. I personally voted for splitting only large UFOs because I think it is smart compromise. edit : if You feel voting options are not clear, please let me know

I've just tried to play the new V17.5. I started a brand new game and after playing for a few minutes in the very first ground mission the game crashed when a sniper bullet crossed through a burning tile. I attempted to reload the game from the auto-save and it immediately crashed and any attempt to load the save causes an immediate CTD. I also had a manual save from later in the mission and this too causes a crash to desktop.

Is anyone else getting odd sounds during combat? A few times now, clicking on the VII tab for my jeep triggers a gun reload sound. And occasionally turning in place results in footsteps. Not all the time though.. not sure if this is known or not, or how best to supply bug reporting support...

Hiya Second ground mission vs light scout in a farm map. The game freezes up, then when I alt tab out I see the fatal exception message. After I quit out and started up xenonauts again and loaded the autosave it happened again. Then when I started writing this report, I loaded it again to get the pic, it worked. Then I started a second mission, and the same thing again.

Hello everybody, on different ground missions I ran into aliens, that I barely could see (hidden_a3_s.jpg) or that were really invisible and I only could look where the cursor changed into a cross and could fire (xenonauts_hiddenaliens_s.jpg and xenonauts_hiddenaliens1_s.jpg). In the last case the alien was in a cabinet and was only visible after being killed. I found on the forum different bug reports dealing with similar problems. If this is already known, feel free to delete my message.

This is a freak of a bug that will be near impossible to replicate: - Chinook arrives at a crash site, engage mission. - This occurs at the same time that interceptors auto-engage a UFO - The game tries to run both combats at the same time, rabidly eating computer resources - The air combat shows as the black background in the ground combat, and as the black background in the uppermost part of the geoscape - Even though you can see the air combat screen, and it is active, you cannot interact with it by mouse, only keyboard I got out of this jam by: - Finishing the ground combat - At this point, you cannot advance time, even at the base game speed - In the Geoscape, pressed [sPACE] and prayed that my F-17s didn't die - Game and computer resources returned to normal, and all Xenonauts lived to fight another day Sorry, but I didn't have the presence of mind to get a screen capture.

I lost all of my xenonauts in a mission (three sebilian ambush in scout fwd cabin) After the mission failure screen and soldier report with all KIA, I clicked OK and CTD. Well, actually freeze, then started task manager to find a "program not responding" window.

It shows up in the inventory/backpack screen, but not when a soldier actually has one in their hands ready to use. It's a leap of faith to click on that black and then get the little medic cursor. Shows up continuously. Somewhat related, mechanics of how they work would be helpful (can only one once? best to use all AP in one turn if you can? better chance of people not being dead after mission?).

The sebillian was facing NW and was hit with a shotgun shell from long range. It was only a 1% chance to hit, but the screen froze just as the shot was hitting him. I tried to take a screenshot, but it did not take it. I have killed plenty of sebillians, but have never particularly paid attention to what way they were facing. He was standing at the northern corner of his light scout, and had not taken any actions. I had wounded him with a single hit from a burst fire shot from an assault rifle in the previous turn, so it is likely he was going to do the die animation. When I say it CTD, it had frozen with the shot on the sebillian. I could not Alt-Tab to get to paint to paste my print screen, and when I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to get to task manager I found the "Xenonauts has stopped working" dialogue box was there.

I had a pistol and grenade toting dude. He threw his first grenade, no problems. Then I tried using the grenade quickslot to throw another. The grenade disappeared from the inventory, but there was no animation, no boom, no smoke, and no APs used up. He made three grenades disappear from his inventory, with no APs used at all, and no carnage caused at all. Also the sebillian died during his own turn, maybe from fire? Maybe from delayed blast mystery grenades? His corpse turned blue momentarily before it went to the success screen. This is the only sebillian I have killed. Sorry, I did not get a screenshot.

During my efforts to kill a sebillian I decided to throw a grenade, using the quick throw button. The throw animation played, but no boom, then the screen was frozen as shown: I also had a pointer, in addition to the target reticule on the sebillian. It made clicking sounds, but nothing would happen.