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

[Alewalek]

Anniliation Phazer: the battery capacity is not correct (500/500)

you can modify in the weapons file itself on 50/50

Hmm it is logic, I never met this bug before 5.3 and Anniliation Phazer was introduced, and evrybody was thinking its vanila bug. We shall see.

Can anyone tell me is reanimation of splatered with rocket feinted soldier is vanila thing?

Again I have hited with rocket one of my feited soldiers and there is red stain on the ground that can be reanimated to life.

....so unnatural hhm or maby he is no human anymore just alien-- we have to check it- imediately take him to inerririgation room.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Alewalek

[Sentelin]

- Vipers. In my opinion forming a defensive formation should be a valid defence instead of, say, blowing up every likely hiding place or running everyone away so that the viper has less TUs to attack with. However, with their massive Reflexes stat and 1.5x reaction modifier, hardly anybody would get a shot off until all the viper's TUs are depleted.

In one of my earlier UFO takedowns, against a Light Scout with 2 minor vipers inside, a viper ran out, across the field and into my half-ring of soldiers, attacking one. After which, everyone fired at that viper, resulting in huge, huge amounts of friendly fire.

I want to hear more thoughts about this before we reduce reaction modifier however we will take in consideration.

Plasma Cannon, Combat Vortex etc. IMO there are too many of these for some mission types. Alien Base Assault and Base Defence, in particular, seem to have 50% of AoE weapons, which is bad because 1. Half my troops are bleeding everywhere and suppressed while trapped in seas of fire, and 2. Aliens really love to damage their allies and/or themselves, especially those stupid sebillians. Yeah, they regenerate, but all their armour is gone.

This depends.You just got that kind of RNG.It isn't about mission types but aliens and what weapons they rolled.First part .. that's point of support alien weapons.Second part I don't get what is problem here ?First we can't do much about it because that's how AI is made,sometimes they behave like idiots because of hard coded rules.Second don't you want some kind of relief ?Where you still get to chance to even chances if your squad is pressed hard ?

2. Heavy Lasers research xenopedia entries. I get the message about workshop unlocks, but instead of popping up entries for aircraft weapons, tank, etc. the xenopedia opens at a blank page 3 times, and those entries are not added to the xenopedia.

Hmm I will take a look.Do you mean on Advanced Lasers ?

Anniliation Phazer: the battery capacity is not correct (500/500)

you can modify in the weapons file itself on 50/50

I will do quick test to see if this has to do anything with number of batteries but next time try to not sound so bossy.

Edit:

@Mandy 315

Next time don't claim false assumption without testing it first.

http://postimg.org/image/lakkl55hr/

As you can see here I received only 2 batteries and Phaser has capacity of 500.So this is vanilla bug.It's confirmed by Mikhail Ragulinl (he is not even using X:CE but pure vanilla for his mod) ,Solver and you can find it in Bug section ....

Edited July 22, 2014 by Sentelin

[Alewalek]

Another bug- as always I presume its vanila so let me know and i post it in proper section but becasue I use this mod prefer to check it first here.

When during air combat aircraft will be out of fuel and u retreat from fight but then change the order and continue to fight, your aircraft will safly return home not having enough fuel. I didnt test it though and my fight just last few more seconds but still normaly i should lose plain.

[Sentelin]

No not really.It doesn't run out of fuel because they have "reserve" tank of fuel for that (you can also continue fighting but if you your fight last way too long you will get warning that your plane will crash even if you win).It's not a bug.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Sentelin

[ventuswings]

I think you misunderstood the bug report. Once fuel reaches 0% and the message to retreat pops up (where you lose your planes if you press 'no' to keep fighting on), if you press 'yes' to "retreat" then cancel that retreat you can keep fighting and the planes will not be lost.

Edited July 22, 2014 by ventuswings

[Zelius]

> Sentelin

- Vipers: Yes, this is just my preference, and honestly it hardly comes into play except for my peace of mind during ground missions (so if I see a viper run into a room I can face that way and at least it will have to run through a hail of fire).

- AoE Weapons: OK, as long as there isn't some sort of bias for them during those close-quarters missions, just my bad luck. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Sebillians were hurting themselves trying to take down my Radar Arrays of Invulnerability, the best base defence around.

- Xenopedia: I dunno, it says 'Heavy Laser Weapons' with the description "Further evolution of our laser weapon designs... pulse lasers... base defence batteries." Unlocks Plasma Weaponry and Scimitar Tank researches, for me. After going further, Scimitar Tank research opens up the relevant entry, my mistake, but definitely upon completion it opens up the Xenopedia to nothing 3 times.

...

So, after going through researches.xml, found that it might as well have no entries as it unlocks nothing but the Scimitar without Combat Plasma research, so I'll need to steal one. On that note, I can build a Scimitar with it's built-in Pulse Laser, but I cannot build the Pulse Laser.... Better than 5.2, where I had a Hyperion without unlocking either Scimitar or Pulse Laser, haha.

- Great job with the air combat, had to look up the hotkeys for rolling left/right, alien heavy fighters decimating everything, though can autoresolve to win. Only issue is that sometimes when there are escorts, it can freeze / lag severely for quite a while at the start of battle, and at times during it, when the AI is trying to select between targets of very similar weight or something, which also causes the red line / direction indicator-thing to go haywire.

[Sentelin]

I don't think you are understanding the bug report. Once fuel reaches 0% and the message to retreat pops up (where you lose your planes if you press 'no' to keep fighting on), if you press 'yes' to "retreat" then cancel that retreat you can keep fighting and the planes will not be lost.

Hmm interesting but this is clearly vanilla bug.You may as well report this in bug section (Although it probably have been reported)

[Zelius]

Another bug- as always I presume its vanila so let me know and i post it in proper section but becasue I use this mod prefer to check it first here.

When during air combat aircraft will be out of fuel and u retreat from fight but then change the order and continue to fight, your aircraft will safly return home not having enough fuel. I didnt test it though and my fight just last few more seconds but still normaly i should lose plain.

Tested it out, you can indeed go into negative fuel and still make it home, provided your aircraft can take down the enemy by flying straight at them, since you cannot give orders, as far as I can tell.

I believe I saw it posted somewhere before as a vanilla bug, though.

[AmericanPride]

Just a few quick thoughts, as I've only played through a couple of months:

- The flamethrower is awesome. It's saved my skin a few times in close combat already.

- Thanks for reducing the area effect of whatever the early non-lethal weapon is called (with the purple gas)

- Also, I like the increased area effect of the C4. Now it's more like explosives rather than an extra large grenade.

[TacticalDragon]

Just a few quick thoughts, as I've only played through a couple of months:

- The flamethrower is awesome. It's saved my skin a few times in close combat already.

- Thanks for reducing the area effect of whatever the early non-lethal weapon is called (with the purple gas)

- Also, I like the increased area effect of the C4. Now it's more like explosives rather than an extra large grenade.

Your welcome my friend

Ok guys, I see lot of reports here I will try to elaborate the issues.

1. Plasma Alien Cells, That combat report was... a monstrosity. I dont know how this game reach that kind of mistakes.

@ Zelius, Can you test something for me? Download this tile set and apply to your game, I want to know if the error is in the properties of the SubMaps or in the item itself. Thank you!

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11234-New-tile-atlases-for-testing!

2. Yes vipers are fast, there is some tactics to deal with them, specially distance. We'll check the reaction modifier for his melee weapon. Thanks!

3. Your mistaken about the negative value of fuel in aircombat. When the Aircraft engage in combat he show the the available "Fuel for combat" the left of the reserve is for back home, when the aircraft show negatives is telling you "Hey commander I will be unable to back home". As Sentelin explain ^^ I try to say YES and continue combat and the fuel still be consumed. Anyway if there is a bug of fuel is related to a part of the game that is not touched by us.

Thanks for you comments! Try to keep distance against Vipers and train your soldiers reflex.

[domein]

Do we have an eta on new exe that both fixes soldier equip screen and doesn't crash on explosions in tactical combat?

[Sentelin]

No eta on new exe.This time we are going to wait until it is safe to update to CE 0.26 .There are two reasons:

1.It's release candidate

2.I don't see any significant change and urge to port XNT:ID right this moment to CE0.26

Download 1.09 if you want soldier equipment screen and if you experience ctd when something explode it's problem with your game and not our mod.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Sentelin

[Rover_27]

interesting, it's almost the end of December and I'm still wearing Jackal armor, no hints on laser or plasma weapons. I have all ballistics improved, almost everything researched, etc. what am I missing? also, are the vanilla planes out of the game? I only have cheburashka, condor and appollo available and also no hints about directional thrusters (although I met a couple of Harridans and even captured one alive)

is it going as intended?

[domein]

No eta on new exe.This time we are going to wait until it is safe to update to CE 0.26 .There are two reasons:

1.It's release candidate

2.I don't see any significant change and urge to port XNT:ID right this moment to CE0.26

Download 1.09 if you want soldier equipment screen and if you experience ctd when something explode it's problem with your game and not our mod.

Indeed it is a problem with vanilla 1.08 - soldier equip screen suddenly unavailable. CE0.25 also affected. CE0.26 is a fix for this bug.

But I play with your mod, i like it very much, but lack of update makes it unplayable.

[Ozi]

V1.08 is for steam users only. As a non steam game owner i seem to be locked out from this mod (playing in latest stable V1.07 and didnt Encounter Major Problems so far though).

So my question is: Is there a way to assure non-steam game owners can Play with this mod without Problems? Or may it be wiser to make XNT available for stable branch patches only (referring to latest Problems with XNT and 1.08)?

Secondly: Are there stats about the new/changed weapons? FOr example i dont have any clue about the difference between M16 and AK47, though i can imagine some but would like to have certainty.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Ozi

[albertloo25]

do i need to dl the hotfix v5.31 HF2? if I already downloaded the V5.31 Final (firebat) ? http://www.mediafire.com/download/wx3cm3xvox9qbga/XNT+V5.31+Final++%28Firebat%29.rar

I think no right? because it stated final

[silent_lord]

firstly this mod is awesome, loving all the changes and the overall feel, its an entirely different animal. really enjoying my play-through at the minute.

however i must bring into question the ground-combat balance of this mod, its awful. im sorry to say it but i find it true. been playing now for 10hrs, just barely winning the air-war (which is a change from base, thats so easy to win), but ground-combat is almost a joke.... i literally am stuck tech-wise, maxxed out with 50 scientists doing nothing for months.

the Aliens xenomorphs are a great touch but frikin annoying, damn near invincible and self-heal.. (make it easy why dont you.) however i don't mind the xenos (vipers) they add a good mechanic to the game, they are flankers and damned quick, solo killing is a no no, grenades, burst-fire and shotgun take em down eventually.

for me the balance-breaker is the little grey dude and reptiles weapons. they have close to 100% accuracy shooting and 1-2 shot kills from any distance. they got 100% reaction chance that always hits. but worst is this mega-loud and very common cannon. i have hunter-vehicles, or had i stopped building them, as these cannons which half the aliens have, 1 shot my tank and everyone else.

in 10hrs i have literally not once captured a crashsite and i only go for the small-ones... half my team is instantly taken out at the first sign of the enemy and rest are picked off by them. i love the challenge and game-mechanics... the aliens are sure smarter. but i can'r progress as i cant get crash sites for tech.

i gave up about an hour ago when i decided one last chance to get a crashsite... game loaded, hunter first unit out the chinnook, gets 1 length of the vehicle and a reaction shot 1-shots it... okay bad things happen. kinda bottlenecked as on farm map and only 2 ways forward, over open field or down a lane... tank gets blown up in the field so leave a man behind to spot while rest go other way and possibly flank. end turn. alien turn... xenomorph pops through the gap dances around my shield man and kill him. (damned xenos). spotter near chinnok is one shot-killed by a unseen cannon, the same guy who took out the tank. still not seen him. my turn consists of 4 guys finally taking out xeno, 1 sniper, 1 shotgun and 2 rifleman, no grenades as its already amongst us. aliens turn, a little grey man pops through the lane opening, throws a grenade and runs away. 2 guys dead, sniper and shotgun. my turn, little screwed here now... i send i man to spot the running alien... reaction shot instant death from a piston, he was full health.

okay last mans tanding send back to the chinnook.... a couple steps back to it which is at edge of field, reaction shot from alien-cannon dude... game-over.

thats pretty much how it always goes and im playing on normal.

[domein]

Try playing on easy, it is not so punishing.

[Sentelin]

V1.08 is for steam users only. As a non steam game owner i seem to be locked out from this mod (playing in latest stable V1.07 and didnt Encounter Major Problems so far though).

So my question is: Is there a way to assure non-steam game owners can Play with this mod without Problems? Or may it be wiser to make XNT available for stable branch patches only (referring to latest Problems with XNT and 1.08)?

How many times do I have to repeat that mod is playable with 1.07 HF and 1.09 ? (1.08 doesn't exist).It's playable for all platforms

Secondly: Are there stats about the new/changed weapons? FOr example i dont have any clue about the difference between M16 and AK47, though i can imagine some but would like to have certainty.

Again with this.Try looking for answer in this thread I am tired of repeating my self over and over again.

[Sentelin]

firstly this mod is awesome, loving all the changes and the overall feel, its an entirely different animal. really enjoying my play-through at the minute.

however i must bring into question the ground-combat balance of this mod, its awful. im sorry to say it but i find it true. been playing now for 10hrs, just barely winning the air-war (which is a change from base, thats so easy to win), but ground-combat is almost a joke.... i literally am stuck tech-wise, maxxed out with 50 scientists doing nothing for months.

the Aliens xenomorphs are a great touch but frikin annoying, damn near invincible and self-heal.. (make it easy why dont you.) however i don't mind the xenos (vipers) they add a good mechanic to the game, they are flankers and damned quick, solo killing is a no no, grenades, burst-fire and shotgun take em down eventually.

for me the balance-breaker is the little grey dude and reptiles weapons. they have close to 100% accuracy shooting and 1-2 shot kills from any distance. they got 100% reaction chance that always hits. but worst is this mega-loud and very common cannon. i have hunter-vehicles, or had i stopped building them, as these cannons which half the aliens have, 1 shot my tank and everyone else.

in 10hrs i have literally not once captured a crashsite and i only go for the small-ones... half my team is instantly taken out at the first sign of the enemy and rest are picked off by them. i love the challenge and game-mechanics... the aliens are sure smarter. but i can'r progress as i cant get crash sites for tech.

i gave up about an hour ago when i decided one last chance to get a crashsite... game loaded, hunter first unit out the chinnook, gets 1 length of the vehicle and a reaction shot 1-shots it... okay bad things happen. kinda bottlenecked as on farm map and only 2 ways forward, over open field or down a lane... tank gets blown up in the field so leave a man behind to spot while rest go other way and possibly flank. end turn. alien turn... xenomorph pops through the gap dances around my shield man and kill him. (damned xenos). spotter near chinnok is one shot-killed by a unseen cannon, the same guy who took out the tank. still not seen him. my turn consists of 4 guys finally taking out xeno, 1 sniper, 1 shotgun and 2 rifleman, no grenades as its already amongst us. aliens turn, a little grey man pops through the lane opening, throws a grenade and runs away. 2 guys dead, sniper and shotgun. my turn, little screwed here now... i send i man to spot the running alien... reaction shot instant death from a piston, he was full health.

okay last mans tanding send back to the chinnook.... a couple steps back to it which is at edge of field, reaction shot from alien-cannon dude... game-over.

thats pretty much how it always goes and im playing on normal.

This mod was original intended only for hardcore players.But giving popularity and audience GC is toned down to what we think it's acceptable.Reading your post I can see that you are purely casual player.You had to rise 50 scientist ?No you didn't have to do it but you couldn't figure how to play it.If we would tone down difficulty of mod even more we would might as well revert everything back to vanilla settings.I think you should either try what domein said and play this on easy or maybe it's not just mod for you ?

@albertloo25

If you have downloaded package after v5.31 HF2 then you don't have to.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Sentelin

[Zelius]

1. Plasma Alien Cells, That combat report was... a monstrosity. I dont know how this game reach that kind of mistakes.

@ Zelius, Can you test something for me? Download this tile set and apply to your game, I want to know if the error is in the properties of the SubMaps or in the item itself. Thank you!

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11234-New-tile-atlases-for-testing!

Applied the tileset, so far having been getting extra plasma cells, though I have only been through a few UFOs.

Oh, on a similar note, Cruisers have been giving me 1x Cruiser Datacore + 1x Landing Ship Datacore since 5.2, is that intentional? I have also sometimes gotten 2x datacore for some of the larger UFO classes.

[Alewalek]

thats pretty much how it always goes and im playing on normal.

Game isn't so hard on normal to not be able to finish 1 crash site. You must be doing something wrong.

[Ozi]

How many times do I have to repeat that mod is playable with 1.07 HF and 1.09 ? (1.08 doesn't exist).It's playable for all platforms

I am playing it with 1.07 HF and i got a reproducable 100% ctd at Alien move. Game useless as i am playing in iron man mode...

For savegame and perhaps further Investigation see here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cncvjnfpkvwqqkq/AutosaveIM2014-07-22_23.43.52.sav

Again with this.Try looking for answer in this thread I am tired of repeating my self over and over again.

I searched the whole 40 pages for "assault rifle" and "Ak47". Although i encountered the really funny ape with ak47 Video i didnt find anything about stats... and excuse if i dont read all 40 pages one by one.

[TacticalDragon]

Applied the tileset, so far having been getting extra plasma cells, though I have only been through a few UFOs.

Oh, on a similar note, Cruisers have been giving me 1x Cruiser Datacore + 1x Landing Ship Datacore since 5.2, is that intentional? I have also sometimes gotten 2x datacore for some of the larger UFO classes.

Is not intentional, is other mistake of vanilla

Try to play on 1.09 and reapply the las hotfix.

Thank you ^^

[TacticalDragon]

@Silent_Lord, the mechanic of this game is very different to vanilla.

I suggest you to play multiple times.

Some Hints:

- Rush to Jackal armor

- Try to capture at early game a caesan and sebillian non combatant.

- Read Xenopedia entries.

- Recover 2x Data Cores of each large size UFOs

- At early mid game try to stun a harridan or a viper.

- Use shields, they are your only stable defense on early game.

- Research Alenium

With practice you will defeat this mod.

Take courage

Remember apply the last hotfix.

Edited July 23, 2014 by TacticalDragon