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IMHO the main considerations for armor should be cost and weight vs protection. Right now the game incentivizes small arms to use high vision range armor in detriment of their rational weight/protection preferences (they're only carrying small arms AND are the ones in the line of fire). It's weird that my rocket launcher guys are using wolf but my riflemen buzzard. How about the difference between armor vision ranges is nothing or 1 tile, but the cone of vision gets impacted greatly? That seems much more realistic to me (peripheral vision being limited) and adds some flavour without becoming the defining characteristic. Squadsight obviously negates the impact to a certain extent.

In the couple of mission I've used Buzzard armour, I didn't see how many APs I would have left after making the jump. So, it's a bit hit and miss at present. it would be nice to be able to know for sure. Possibly just my inexperience with it, but it seems there are things I can jump, and things of equal size I can''t will check more.

Following discussion on the beta threads about armour, I thought I'd uprate some of the later types of armour. Changes made Buzzard armour Buzzard armour now has the same protective capabilities as Jackal armour Buzzard armour visual range boosted (1 less than Caesans, 2 more than Sebillians) Tier 3 armour Energy armour rating boosted (heavy armour in particular can shrug off plasma rifles, absorb Heavy Plasma and even take a shot from Sathra's personal nemesis without dying) Scout armour type sight range boosted to equivalent of Caesan. Here's the (updated) file

Buzzard armour vanishes when using grenades or advanced medipack.

Base defence mission in December. Two soldiers equipped with Buzzard armour. As they move, a larger version of the animation also appears, duplicating the soldiers actions. An exception to this is when firing - in this case a scatter laser. Then the enlarged animation showed the Xenonaut jumping a wall/ fence.

The Buzzard scout armor has like engines or something attached to the shoulders. Does this have any actual effect in gameplay? Or is it just a lighter suit of armor? The xenopedia article for it wasn't done last time I checked. Anyone know if it does anything?

1. No linear weapon and gear upgrades. I like seeing my team's faces and heads, it makes them somehow seem a bit more human, although ofc no-one in their right mind would go into a set combat situation without a helmet (some high-speed raiding excepted, I know). Put a big heavy power suit on that's simply better in all respects as a clear across-the-board upgrade, and I just don't like the look of the game. With the only brake on that being cost of Elerium. Perhaps have the upgrades be useful but in a slightly different way so the previous stuff still has its uses? 2. Don't one-shot said dudes in said expensive power suits with blatantly overpowered weapons. Blaster bombs, sigh. Apparently I should have known about that. I'm cool with getting ambushed and losing if I don't play well. But the lower difficulty settings are fairly boring since there's very few aliens on each map, and you spend the time just walking interminably. Losing a few to a runaway Reaper or some Chryssalid - no problem, my own dang fault. I didn't put smoke down before exiting Skyranger - my own fault. Blaster bombs from nowhere - wtf, dude? Not fun. If I care more about the loss of a piece of armour than I care about the loss of the dude inside it, then something's wrong somewhere. I want an emotional connection. Not to a piece of metal. 3. Not too many dudes/chicas. I'm not much of a fan of controlling robotic tanks, so generally go with full human complements. Then again, controlling 14-20 people is just too much. XCOMEU the reboot did this mostly right, perhaps a tad under-numbered. 4. I don't mind being up against Psi enemies. I do mind if this just takes over the game, to the point that it completely changes how you play, because it makes it just so easy to just MC your way to victory without worrying about ...the actual combat. It's no longer a tactical sim, it's a game of who can MC first. Silly. 5. I really like weapons technology that I can kind of recognize. Rifles, shotguns, pistols, SMGs, machine guns etc. I can deal with Laser weapons being a straight upgrade if they're just scarce enough that it doesn't turn into the new regular weapon. I don't want massive huge upgrades to big huge plasma weapons and then just a power fantasy game from there. Then again, many people just want to be a space marine badass superguy unbeatable invincible superhero, so maybe I'm the minority. Edit: oh, and for gods' sake, make the "stop and pause before jumping over a wall" turn into the same exact thing without the "stop and pause" part in the animation sequence. Not that that is terribly game-breaking. Category filed: Slight Visual Annoyance. Other than that, thanks for continuing to try to pull this thing off, I expect to see a final-ish product mostly bug free and playing smoothly somewhere around Xmas 2013. Nothing wrong in that, cheers to all. /rant off

Now, I'm not one to sneak-peak at assets (I like surprises) but I was just wondering what the styling of the heavier armours types be? I kind of liked the original XCOM's approach of 'fecking huge scrap exoskeleton'. It really looked like the research team had just desperately put together a suit using alien tech then stapled a couple tons of armour onto it. The kind of 'is it a walking tank yet?' approach is what I'd expect for a ultra-heavy armour type. On the overhand however, The new Xcom:EU's heavy end-game armour just looks like bulkier 'sci-fi tacticool' version of the default armour. While I guess this is more realistic, Frankly, I thought that game would have gone for something like 40k terminator armour for its bullet-sponge armour tier. And considering how bulky and brute-forcey everything else was, It would have fit with the setting just as well. I've reached Xenonauts second (third if you count not wearing any armour) tier armour and I think, for what its supposed to be, it looks very fitting. The extra-vision helmet was a real plus and it made me feel like the Xenonaut research-team as really thinking about what the troops needed most in the field. At-least they didn't send them all out in freaking cloth jumpsuits to begin. I'm just hoping later on there is more of a split in armour types to match roles and it doesn't end up looking like 'TACICOOL-POWASUIT WIT XTRA AMROUZ'. Also, on a slightly related note: I REALLY hope the scout-cars get some new armour options too. Maybe a boosted armour version? I'm getting a little bored with its standard cardboard armour plating.

It has been a while since I have posted and I have become more skilled at modding since my old posts. I have made some changes and I have some suggestions for the Devs, but because this is their project, I respect their opinions on my ideas. Things I have done... 1) Gray placeholder for face in equip screens to save time when making faces (see files at http://www.moddb.com/mods/community-mods-page/addons/equip-screen-placeholders). 2) Lessened Move TP cost to 3 (I think it makes the game faster) 3) Gave the Riot Shield a melee attack (costs 4 ap, does little damage) Things I would like the devs to implement... 1) New armor (one that resembles modern soldier) 2) Real Tanks and APCs from USSR and USA, also the Leopard from Europe 3) Make UI cleaner and numbers larger. Also, a color bar graph for soldier stats would be appreciated. 4) Make new recruits available from the start of the game. 5) Put Pinetree's Xtended Soldiers Backgrounds mod in vanilla game

I looked around and didn't notice anyone mention it. How many armor types are there? Will there be power armor or are you stuck with the default blue armor they always have on in lets plays and pictures? Like for example UFO defense had Personnel armor and power armor and Flying suit. Same with the XCOM: EU, they had multiple types of different armor. Even ghost armor. Will there be different armor types that potentially cover your soldiers face like the power armor? Can you change the helmets like you could in the new XCOM game? Does the armor actually change the appearance of your soldier or does it just have the stats but with the default blue armor?

In the original X-Com when armour absorbed damage its rating degraded. Armour didn't degrade quickly, but if a squaddie survived a fusillade of shots the armour he was wearing certainly wasn't quite the same as it had been before. Armour degradation also occurred with alien armour but this was less noticeable as aliens tended to have less armour and a lot more HP. I presume that as armour could degrade this was supposed to insert a note of caution into players running around with their shiny new toys. But because (in my experience) the rate of degradation was so small and because power armour, an endgame armour, had perhaps a 50/50 chance of absorbing endgame weapons (heavy plasma/blaster launcher) damage in any case, armour degradation wasn't (in my research) a strong part of strategy. In Xenonauts, armour plays a much more prominent role than in X-Com for both humans and aliens. Humans get semi-decent armour straight off the bat and 5 more suits wait to be unlocked. On the alien side, armour values ramp up quite quickly and some alien types emphasise armour – the Andron and the terror drone are good examples. Furthermore, armour is reliable. Each set of armour stops X amount of damage (depending on armour penetration). A player can know from the get-go what the different suits are likely to stop and what they aren't as compared to X-Com armour which was a crapshoot, and unlike UFO: Extraterrestrials the level of weapon escalation doesn't hideously overshoot armour research and production - at least, not at the moment. Heavy plasma weapons (the foil to Wolf armour) are introduced at about the same time as Wolf armour is introduced, but plasma rifles and plasma pistols are still in effect and a squaddie wearing Wolf armour can survive a single shot from a heavy plasma gun, which is more than can be said when the aliens in UFO:EX swap weapon types completely! With this increased importance of armour could armour degradation be introduced? There are several good reasons why armour degradation could enhance play: It permits lesser powered weapons to wear down dangerous targets. Let's take an example here of the first robots you face: the Andron and the terror drone. The base-level robots have got some rockin' armour – ballistic small arms don't stand a chance, and even high-powered rifles and LMGs have difficulty getting through their thick skin. This is exactly how it should be. But as robots arrive in the transition phase between tier 1 and tier 2 weaponry, it can be difficult to get to grips with them. If lesser weapons could wear down armour by degrading it, then dangerous aliens remain dangerous, but not impossible to face. Likewise, aliens armed with light weaponry can still present a threat to squaddies in thick armour. It encourages teamwork and clever strategy. Tying in with the above point, a player whose weapons are having difficulty getting through an aliens' armour will have to think about what he's doing. If the player knows he can wear down an alien, he can use his team to harass and tire an alien before closing for the kill, instead of reaching for the biggest gun as the solution. It encourages variety within weapons loadouts. A weapon might be poor at penetrating armour or doing damage but have a bonus to chewing armour up. Such a weapon might be kept around by a squaddie to help harass and take down dangerous targets. As far as implementing armour degradation goes perhaps the simplest way is all weapons cause the same base level of degradation, plus or minus a bonus value. That way weapons can be tuned and balanced more rapidly than if each weapon had its own “degradation” value, reduces arguments on what the value for each weapon should be, and allows degradation to consist of very small values, as the aim of armour degradation is to provide new tools for the player and alien A.I. without overwriting previous tools.

I start having trouble with the game once regular Scouts start showing up. Not only do they carry aliens which can take a hail of bullets before falling, but they carry plasma rifles, which have this nasty tendency to kill my soldiers in one shot. It's not uncommon for me to have four soldiers unloading on an alien right in front of them, and then the alien doesn't die and kills two of my soldiers during its turn. Then the next turn, the two remaining still can't kill it, and they too get mowed down. So yes, I'm totally sucking at the game. (On Normal difficulty, no less.) Any way I can stop this?

Anyone any idea how to get modded armour to appear in the soldier equip screen? I have been through every file and made the appropriate additions as far as I can tell. I have just copied across the Jackal images so that's not an issue. Currently I have the armour as a researchable item that pops up correctly with the info screen after completion. I have linked in all the ground-scape images and items but simply can't find any way of adding it to the drop down menu in the soldier equip screen. Any ideas?

Hardcore Mode? -Receive more experience/promotions. -Not allowed to save during battlescape (Fallout Tactics). -Fragile soldiers. -Aggressive AI. What about Power Armor? Are we gonna have some sort of research breakthrough which allows us to investigate power sources of sufficient energy density to sustain a full-body powered exoskeleton for more than a few hours? Don't give me that 80's "realistic" theme when we're facing a fictional extraterrestrial life form.

I searched the forum (probably poorly) because I assume this has to have already been brought up but found nothing, so I apologize if I am just retarded and/or rehashing something. My first go with ground combat, my Hunter found a Sebellian(sp?) and since I didn't want to remodel the entire block, I brought up the precision rifleman that was in tow. As far as the tiles went, it appeared that I had clear LOS to the target, but the Hunter was fairly close. Anyway, I fired... drilled the Hunter... nice shot.... glad we gave you a rifle with a scope Mr. Afghanistan Veteran. Next round, I say you know what there Pavlov... go ahead and take a knee. Sight alignment, sight picture, aim and squeeze. This time he not only tags the Hunter again, his second shot turns it into a scrap heap. Those must be SLAP rounds, or one hell of a critical hit. Third shot, I say damn the torpedos, Hunter-00 is already in the dustbin, fire away Pavlov. Smacks the Hunter a third time, this time vaporizing the scrap heap. At least we have no further LOS problems ahead of us, Yuri!! So, the Alien proves to be as resilient as the Hunter, taking two shots to go down... which is scary as well as impressive. So, obviously (I hope...) this is simply an early design consideration that has simply not had time to be fully fleshed out - or at the very least, a bug allowing precision rifles to golden-BB AFVs into oblivion. Assuming the former, an AFV should be impervious to small arms fire as well as fragmentation from high explosives... my questions are: 1. How are AFVs modeled/to be modeled in comparison with standard issue grunts (In basic or light armor... i.e., not mech suits or whatever heavy armor may be down the road)? Is this always to be a strictly hitpoint based model where beating it with a crowbar will eventually slag it? Or will there be another model? 2. Assuming a separate model is using for damage in relation to AFVs, would it be a % chance penetration model or a True/False method with Can Damage = True applying a multiplier and then simply reverting to a hitpoint based model? (I.e., 5.56 = False, no damage. 20mm HE = True x.05 Damage. Alien Plasma = True x 1 Damage. AP Rocket = True x 2 Damage.) Or perhaps something my tiny ferret brain has yet to dream of? Regardless of the answer, if any, to the above... Hunter-02 has been renamed "HONEYBADGER", which of course means that "it" is now "on", and that whatever deity these extraterrestrial turds pray to must be absolutely deluged with requests for deliverance. "Where is your abnormally large craniumed god NOW, extremely illegal aliens?" Honey Badger inquires....