(Mod Update) XNT Into Darkness V5.3 - "The Firebat" (DISCUSSION THREAD)

[Tenet]

Hello Sentelin! I have an idea - it should be possible to parse the weapon stats into an easy to read table - if we automate the process, you'll just have to share the generated results.

This way everyone can have a list to read and make educated choices - perhaps we can even spoiler tag different tiers to allow people to make the choice on what to reveal.

Thank you again for all your work!

[Basck]

Thanks for the saves guys, looks like we need to solver to detect the error. All appear to be the same problem.

Please be patient and excuse me for this kind of problems.

Looks like CE 0.25HF2 solve "stuck planes" problem for me. I have copied Xenonauts.exe from CE 0.25HF2 archive to installed XNT5.3 directory, started game and loaded my "stack plane" saves - vu'a la, all planes sucsessfully returned to base and never stuck again.

But there is another issue - invisible aliens sprites become arise every battle.

PS Sorry for my Enhglish, hope you'll understand me.

[Mr. Rotch]

I recently had a glitch in my game. I was breaching a UFO, and when I opened the door, my troops could see 2 aliens, but I could not. All I could see were shadows underneath the invisible aliens, and they kept throwing some kind of squid thing at my troops, killing them instantly. Not sure if this is a XNT glitch, or an actual Xenonauts glitch.

I also had another glitch. My two jets returned to my base, but they stopped right above it and would absolutely not return to the base (and could not use them to go get other UFO's). I even fast forward days, or even a week but they were stuck in place. I don't know how to fix this either. (also please forgive me if there's a fix for this. I didn't bother looking until now, so I will edit this off once I find a fix. That's real strange that I come here asking for help and the post above mine has the exact same problems lol)

What do you mean by CE 0.25HF2, Basck?

Edited July 16, 2014 by Mr. Rotch

[greatergood45]

I tried to use flame thrower on hay stacks. Guess who wins? Hay stacks stand firm.

Can we add destructive power to FT? Not only it's more realistic, but also adds tactical value to FT.

Edited July 16, 2014 by greatergood45

[Slayerjerman]

In Xenophobia - I actually had to nerf the flamer a little. It had far too much range, holds way too much ammo...etc. I was using it to burn the world and laughing like a madman....

[TacticalDragon]

FOR ALL PLAYERS

Players that found invisible animations,

Download again the pack and reapply, in the first minutes mediafire fail to upload son animations.

I tried to use flame thrower on hay stacks. Guess who wins? Hay stacks stand firm.

Can we add destructive power to FT? Not only it's more realistic, but also adds tactical value to FT.

Kirill

Thank for your report! Some of the features that you point are from vanilla other one are in progress.

Tenet

Thats wonderfull idea!!! actually!

I put my hand on build a worksheet that have current weapon stats.

Alewalek

Hahahha thats sounds fun!

Actually I set up some kind of AI scripts fro melee units that makes their behavior a bit less predictable.

We are working on fixes!

GreaterGood45 and p13567

Thank you for your support and all your suggestions, we put lot of work on this version, we want to carefully put all the mod into pieces, we are looking to build a "great" quality mod. This mod is not about add a lot of content without testing, is careful and time taking process.

I promise that we make our best effort to polish and balance the game.

We have planned a very interesting "Branch System" for researches that increase re playability of the game.

Thank you again!

[Kirill Selivanov]

some strange freeze

1.07 xenonauts+1.08 XNT 5.3 + Skitso mmap pack, kabill map pack, fire in the hole maps& tiles, skitso insinguls and femonauts

1st light scout

caesians vs 6 my soldiers.

got 3 guards... all with vortex, 3 red noncombatants( 2 in the field too)

and 2 eggs + 3 minor reapers inside.

tried to use vortex to xtun them... but no idea what happened.

i put 2 soldiers with in line 2 tiles avay from the door with vortex.

2 with MG in 1 tile from the door.

opened it from back by other soldier.

they saw firstly one egg and one reaper in one room(but 4 enemy by redheads in right). (egg was insode the room and in the closed to door tile and reaper in the next diagonal line - so i choosed to mess it up with MG at reaper. 1st burst okey...second freezed the game . it alt-tub ok, but do nothing

[TacticalDragon]

I tried to use flame thrower on hay stacks. Guess who wins? Hay stacks stand firm.

Can we add destructive power to FT? Not only it's more realistic, but also adds tactical value to FT.

Flamethrower is a weapon intended to deal early melee units, gargols and vipers are vulnerable to his attacks. Is ong of the ranged weapons with lowers range but area of effect. Difficult to use but very necesary in early missions and even at mid game.

What are you exactly appreciation of this weapon.

Thanks

[TacticalDragon]

some strange freeze

It alt-tub ok, but do nothing

Sounds like a vanill or memory overflow crash. Try to update Tiles and update your version to 1.08.

Did you have a saved game?

[aZmoDen]

My chinook is hovering over my base and wont land.

latest non beta build + core 5.3 + hotfix

Do you want me to link a save game?

*edit* i fixed it by applying the hotfix executable from post #14

Edited July 16, 2014 by aZmoDen

[Kirill Selivanov]

Kirill

Thank for your report! Some of the features that you point are from vanilla other one are in progress.

mmm... gues what in where and do i need to post them in vanila bug thread or there plenty of them there?

[Kirill Selivanov]

Sounds like a vanill or memory overflow crash. Try to update Tiles and update your version to 1.08.

Did you have a saved game?

here it is

https://mega.co.nz/#!NpFnzaKL!QI62vIuW-jyJzwJaYJxdE-5dZwpbdSntU6qeby83eKU

ps. when loaded after, texture of all aliens gone too))) but the bug with freeze is repetable - just fire mith upper MG to the down viper - second burst will freeze the game

can't update

desura only has 1.07 ver

http://www.desura.com/games/xenonauts/download

i'll better wait for 5.31 or somelike with clearing... wait for best, and eat the rest)

Edited July 16, 2014 by Kirill Selivanov

[albertloo25]

yes 5.3 released! I wanna ask. is all the alien type can be capture and research? I dont wan risk my army into capturing one but turns out it cant be capture..

[p13567]

@Sentelin

I had the feeling that it's due the frequent changes.. Although it was answered already many times, you still explained it in a very detailed and polite manner, and i thank you for that.

@TacticalDragon

we put lot of work on this version, we want to carefully put all the mod into pieces, we are looking to build a "great" quality mod. This mod is not about add a lot of content without testing, is careful and time taking process.

That work of yours can be seen and felt very well!

I must add that playing vanilla felt a bit empty, with your mod its... incomparable..

Thank you guys!

Cannt wait for your upcoming updates ))

[Piakio]

Hi, i have a strange thing, when a soldier wear a heavy armor (coyote or wolf), his health down a few, not with a jackal o basic armor,

????,

anybody can help me??

greetings

Edited July 16, 2014 by Piakio

[Alewalek]

Alewalek

Hahahha thats sounds fun!

Actually I set up some kind of AI scripts fro melee units that makes their behavior a bit less predictable.

We are working on fixes!

Thank you again!

Yea idea is nice -and sick - and trap briliant if they actualy start ataking not wait for slaughter. Looking foward for fixess.

Sounds like a vanill or memory overflow crash. Try to update Tiles and update your version to 1.08.

Did you have a saved game?

In my previous post i described similar freze and I had newest version of the game and XNT. So upgrade to 1.08 will not help him. Blackwolf said he didnt had any freze trying my save so dont know whats the story i can replay freze over and over in my saves.

[dck]

After a bit more testing I have to say this is one hell of a mod alright.

The sheer amount of content and the aim of that content introduced is very competently put together; plenty of it is indistinguishable from vanilla, which is think is very good. I also like that I was forced to retreat

Being a mod in progress, it isn't without its flaws of course, but those flaws I am not very concerned about because they mostly seem to be related to numbers and balance overall (and you guys have already shown you care about that to begin with!), I'm sure things like early game super smg laser sniper NC caesans that wound the target three times if he happens to survive will be looked at in due time .

Regardless, I would wish to join in showing concern over the concept of the new teleporting alien. I think it's quite cool but since there already are teleporting enemies that serve as a milestone for the player for when things are getting serious I think having these new early, highly resistant enemies that attack only in melee (like vipers) and are mostly meant to be destroyed by fire (like vipers) teleport around makes them overlap with the late-game wraiths and vipers themselves.

Besides there's a bit of an issue with clarity regarding what's going on with those enemies, as the player is learning that alien firearms hurt a ton and is dealing with eggs and vipers sneaking behind their backs, just adding a bunch of guys that teleport around and also take a fair amount of heat to kill feels off to me.

All things considered though, vipers (particularly early ones that make you wish you got a couple of flamethrowers with you) remain my favorite feature and new enemies by far, although I do loathe their eggs with the stunning missiles since they're in literally every mission and you have to guess at their attack range while approaching to toss a grenade. I understand the concept but I think it translates in very same-y gameplay and gets pretty boring since there are so many.

e: I haven't tried the hotfix yet since I wanted to get some more experience with the mod yet. I'll probably check it out soon and see how it compares to 5.3, pretty excited to see such devoted development, too!

[Xydonus]

Xydonus,

I understand you is an experiment, we want to see the reaction of gives teleport to this kind of units. The solution, give us the feedback and thats it. We know that difficulty is partial double edge sword, but is not all. Balancing this game is a huge thing, even a single change of one value can shake the entire balance.

We are planning a Balance update, just take away any angry or dissapointment about dealing with hardcore race of aliens. Forget about it.

What are your suggestions?

I've not had much chance to further test it since I've been sick, but to me it seems odd to be dealing with teleporting aliens so early on. I'm only in my 2nd month and I feel that it's just not balanced right.

I think a few things could be suggested:

1. Put them into the late game instead or mid-game. Balance them somewhat better, their melee attack is quite strong coupled with their ability.

2. Remove that 'ability' that they have. As I said before, I personally think the wraiths should only have this ability. I can understand that this might not be doable if you've done the Xenopedia for them already, but it just feels tacked on and doesn't feel right for the alien to be able to do this.

3. Nerf the amount. Getting attacked by four of these in a single turn was devastating. Simply overpowered is an understatement. Two at most is manageable. Please take into account that this is in my second month, so you can probably imagine that four of these on my jackal wearing soldiers was quite painful...

4.Nerf the damage. The melee damage that they do is quite high. This coupled with their ability creates a fearsome foe to encounter that is hard to counter especially when there's more than two and also when its early on.

So either one of them or a combination of those that I suggested. I'm surprised nobody else has brought it up, or maybe I just got unlucky with that mission...

Edited July 16, 2014 by Xydonus

[Theon Greyjoy]

Teleportation for Vipers will be turned off when the next hotfix comes around.

[Sentelin]

2. Remove that 'ability' that they have. As I said before, I personally think the wraiths should only have this ability. I can understand that this might not be doable if you've done the Xenopedia for them already, but it just feels tacked on and doesn't feel right for the alien to be able to do this.

Already done.

1. Put them into the late game instead or mid-game. Balance them somewhat better, their melee attack is quite strong coupled with their ability.

No,this is not an option.They are suppose to make player itchy.To make him carefully cover every angle in order to prevent Alphas flanking his/her soldiers.They are not that powerful now,because we also reduce global damage that aliens were doing.So they are now only threat to soldiers that are acting solo without company,small group of 2-3 soldiers can repeal them off.Beside later when you get to late game there are even more powerful vipers ..

4.Nerf the damage. The melee damage that they do is quite high. This coupled with their ability creates a fearsome foe to encounter that is hard to counter especially when there's more than two and also when its early on.

As stated above we already done for all aliens plus we did nerf slightly damage of Alpha and increased mitigation they are dealing.

. 3.Nerf the amount. Getting attacked by four of these in a single turn was devastating. Simply overpowered is an understatement. Two at most is manageable. Please take into account that this is in my second month, so you can probably imagine that four of these on my jackal wearing soldiers was quite painful...

They are suppose to be part of pack and attack as pack.Your experience was ruined because of OP damage they were dealing and teleportation ability which was added but turned out completely disaster.However I think you will find them now much more enjoyable and this time it won't be "WTF? This early!" but "O, I'm no match for these! Abort abort!"

@dck

Regardless, I would wish to join in showing concern over the concept of the new teleporting alien.

It isn't new alien,we just tried that mechanic ... which didn't work out well at all.It's removed in upcoming balance patch.

@Piakio

Hi, i have a strange thing, when a soldier wear a heavy armor (coyote or wolf), his health down a few, not with a jackal o basic armor,

????,

anybody can help me??

greetings

This isn't right.Coyote shouldn't affect HP at all and Wolf should boost HP for 15 points.Can you please upload save so I could check this out ?

Edited July 16, 2014 by Sentelin

[Xydonus]

-snip -

Ah, that's grand then. Good to know you guys are aware of the problem. And yeah I like idea of the pack mentality of them, wasn't aware that's what you were going for. I think that without the teleporting ability will be much more balanced and interesting.

I look forward to my soldiers fleeing instead of mercilessly dieing in a single turn at the hands of teleporting demons!

[Piakio]

@Piakio

This isn't right.Coyote shouldn't affect HP at all and Wolf should boost HP for 15 points.Can you please upload save so I could check this out ?

Sorry i can´t upload files, but i tell you what i play with v.1.06 hf + 5.22 fix version, perhaps is for??

[Sentelin]

Oh yeah that could be problem.Even though I checked last hotfix for v5.22 and that shouldn't happen.Try to delete everything and re -apply XNT:ID over fresh install copy.

[Xydonus]

All things considered though, vipers (particularly early ones that make you wish you got a couple of flamethrowers with you) remain my favorite feature and new enemies by far, although I do loathe their eggs with the stunning missiles since they're in literally every mission and you have to guess at their attack range while approaching to toss a grenade. I understand the concept but I think it translates in very same-y gameplay and gets pretty boring since there are so many.

I have to agree with that assessment about the eggs. Not something I had considered until now, but I feel they need a bit more to them than just planted eggs that chuck stuff at you..

I've not seen them do anything other than throw stuff at me; am I right in saying that they are suppose to hatch little vipers or facehuggers? If so I've not seen this yet.

I think the eggs would be more effective clumped together (makes more sense too) inside buildings and if possible, increase the spawning of vipers they produce, to make destroying them a priority? And possibly make them appear less often as DCK pointed out, it could become a bit 'samey'.

[ventuswings]

They're extremely easy to handle when you know their range is 10.