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Firstly, if you do not know how to access the experimental branch on Steam, please read the instructions (and warnings!) in this thread. All saved games from earlier versions (including experimental versions) are incompatible, attempting to load them will cause problems. We have decided a put out a new experimental build today, mostly because we've fixed a few key issues that cropped up in the last one (also as a powerful counter-blow to EA's release today of Battlefield 4). Not a great deal in the way of new features or assets, but I did finish doing the maps for the Middle Eastern tileset, which are a big improvement over the old ones. Also we finally said goodbye to the awful, awful old role icons and replaced them with shiny new ones! The main gameplay oriented change is probably the morale system - we discovered that this previously had hardly been working at all, due to a bug where all soldiers were treated as privates; that bug is now fixed, and additionally I have done some balancing work to try and reduce the number of incidents where your whole team freaks out at once. Here's the change list: Fixes - Soldier ranks were not being passed from the Geoscape to the Ground Combat -- This meant all soldiers were conmsidered to be "privates" by the game (even though names were displayed correctly) -- This fix has had a significant effects on the morale system! - Fixed hang during alien turn when aliens tried to move through a blocked doorway - Fixed research button being disabled if you had the maximum number of scientists - Fixed number of sicentists/engineers not being limited by lab/workshop space - Jetpack troops now display their shadow on the ground tile beneath them - Updated Xenopedia font size to scale better at small sizes - Fixed Reaper transformation animation to not be gigantic - Fixed LOS not being updated when opening a door - Reapers now make a more Reaper-y attack sound (previously was stun baton) - Fixed the map randomisation system so it didn't break if a tile set had only one map (affected later terror missions) - Fixed pistol sometimes being loaded with incoreect number of shots Additions - All the maps for the Middle East tileset have been overhauled, with multiple new maps added to each -- There are now 3 maps each for small (light scout, scout and corvette) medium (corvette, landing ship and cruiser) and large (cruiser, carrier and battleship) map types -- Each map has more variety in randomised UFO and dropship placement -- A number of new building submaps have also been added for additional level variety -- Please give feedback on how you find them! - New soldier role icons (at last!) - The new Arctic props (snowy barrels, crates) have been painted over - Aerial terror sites now have a popup explaining the consequences for mission failure - Added shrubbery blocks and wrecked tank props for the Middle East Balance - The morale system has been rebalanced, units should be more likely to panic individually than in large groups -- The top ranked Officer on a mission grants a bonus to the starting/maximum morale of each soldier, which is then subtracted if that officer dies -- When a Xenonaut dies, it will apply a morale penalty to all other Xenonaut soldiers within 20 tiles, based on the dead soldiers rank -- When a soldier experiences a "morale event" (panic, fleeing etc...) they will now get a small boost to their morale in order to "stabilise" them -- If a Xenonaut is within 8 tiles of another Xenonaut they will get a morale boost based on the rank of the other soldier (stacks for up to 2 nearby soldiers) -- Soldiers who are wounded now take much more morale damage than previously - Some initial AI changes (expect more and better to come soon too) -- Reduced minimum accuracy for considering a shot by the AI from 35% to 10% accuracy (helps encourage aliens to shoot at you) -- Slightly reduced the priority of non-Xenonaut soldiers for alien targetting -- Removed the large penalty that was placed on any plan that involved an AI alien staying in the enemies LOS (probably a contributor to timid alien behaviour) - Aerial terror sites are now spawned by bomber missions instead of ground attacks, making them much less common Please post your comments on the build here. If you encounter any bugs please post them in the experimental build sub-forum of the bugs forum. I will post new threads in the beta forum shortly for in-depth discussion of the current Geoscape and Ground Combat balance, but feel free to post brief opinions here too. NOTE: We were delayed releasing this by a day due to a compilation bug, a delay which has ruined my BF4 joke. HOTFIX: Just hotfixed the bug where it cost 0AP to move jetpacks diagonally. This was just a tweak to a config file, so the version number is unchanged and saves are unaffected. HOTFIX 2: Just hotfixed the Valkyrie, which was crashing when you tried to use it. This was just a missing submap, so the version number is unchanged and saves are unaffected.