XMC Part 1: (Ground Combat) Version 2.0 for X:CE 0.34.1 and Above

[aajs]

XMC Part 1: (Ground Combat) Version 2.0 for X:CE 0.34.1 and Above

NOTICE!

Now only supporting XCE 0.34 and above for my mods.

This change was to allow the creation of my Dropship/Fighter hybrid craft now called assault-ships

This is NOT an update to version 1.0 you will have to start a new game to play version 2.0

Introduction:

“Xenonaut More Choices” is designed for players that liked the look, feel and playability of the vanilla version but would just like more content in the game. This is pretty much a total overhaul mod but has been broken into parts to allow players to more easily pick and choose what add-ons they want in their game. If you do not like a certain part of this mod just swap it out with another mod of you choice.

PART 1 - Ground Combat:

This is the main part of my mod and this is pretty much required to make the other mods work. It all about soldier equipment and adds tons of items and weapons to the game.

The Mod is quite heavily weighted around ballistics and like such TV programs as Stargate etc. Ballistic weapons are still viable even when more (powerful) plasma weapons exist.

We have tried to create a slightly more RPG feel to the Mod and have given an impoverished start to the game. This reflects the fact that the Xenonaut operation was never really taken seriously until the Aliens invaded, this is why you start with even lower Tech weapons than the vanilla game. However, when the invasion started you were suddenly taken very seriously and nations began funding you. To that end you start the game cash rich but with very little equipment.

Features at a Glance:

• Unique Drag Textures
  
• Tons of Items/weapons
  
• Estimated Research Time for Projects in Man Days (Allows better planning)
  
• Impoverished Start – (Weapons start lower Tech than vanilla version)
  
• Easily identifiable weapon tiers (Weapons have been ranked)
  
• Weapons/Items Sorted for easy location
  
• Unique Particle effects, Sounds etc.
  
• New Weapon Classes (all upgradable)
  
• New Tech Trees
  
• Weapon Ranking System
  

Economy:

Originally my set of mods had lots of manufacture for profit options, however after extensive play testing it has been decided that it makes the game a little boring. So the list of equipment that requires manufacture has been greatly reduced. However there is still plenty of opportunities still left to make money through selling alien artefacts and manufacture. (Sorry if this disappoints anybody)

NOTE: Many items are now returned to the stores and are not automatically sold off at the end of ground missions. This decision is now yours to make; Do you sell them off for profit or keep the to create new technologies?

GUI Changes:

I have tried to keep them to the minimum however some of the menus needed to be widened to take longer weapon and manufacture descriptions. I have not tested any other GUI overhaul mods with this Mod, however as long as this Mod is number one in the list it should work fine.

Installation files:

Download the mod.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/hp2m59x7tjzgrq0/ChoicesPart1.rar

Unpack the file to your mods folder as usual.

(My files have bee .rar'd rather than .zip'd for better compression and faster download time)

This mod requires to be the highest priority number on in the list. (Number1). Then all other XMC mods need to follow in sequential order...(Of course you may not want to use all). Finally adjust all of your other mods to be prioritised after the XMC Mods.

Recommended Mods and Priory order for amazing play-through:

1. Choices Part 1 – Ground Combat

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/hp2m59x7tjzgrq0/ChoicesPart1.rar

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13248-XMC-Part-1-%28Ground-Combat%29-Version-1-0-for-XCE-0-33-HF1

**** Minor Update of Missing Strings 20/10/2015 ****

2. Choices Part 2 – All Things Alien

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/rr1zmlf3bhpck6a/ChoicesPart2.rar

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13249-XMC-Part-2-%28All-Things-Alien%29-Version-1-0-for-XCE-0-33-HF1

**** Fixed Bug that crashed game on launch 28/10/2015 ****

**** If you had a previous version the delete the whole Choices Part 2 mod before downloading new one ****

3. Choices Part 3 – Aircraft

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/297oc99mupat8c6/ChoicesPart3.rar

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13250-XMC-Part-3-%28Aircraft%29-Version-1-0-for-XCE-0-33-HF1

**** Couple of minor bug fixes for manufacturing aircraft 20/10/2015****

4. Choices Part 4 – Armour

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/98qfc7m2n7vr76t/ChoicesPart4.rar

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13251-XMC-Part-4-%28Armour%29-Version-1-0-for-XCE-0-33-HF1

**** Updated with Max's Improved Xenopedia Entries 06/10/2015 ****

5. Choices Part 5 – Buildings

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/1bhwt79ov0rbtbb/ChoicesPart5.rar

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13252-XMC-Part-5-%28Buildings%29-Version-1-0-for-XCE-0-33-HF1

**** Updated again as last upload appeared to have failed 01/11/2015 ****

6. Choices Part 6 – Vehicles

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/012wj05okbijasz/ChoicesPart6.rar

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13292-XMC-Part-6-%28Ground-Combat-Vehicles%29-Version-1-0-for-XCE-0-33-HF1

**** Updated Missing Shadows on Jeep 06/10/2015 ****

7. Armoured Assault!

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=12

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11692-v1-5-X-CE-Armoured-Assault%21-A-Vehicle-Rebalance-Mod

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

8. Fire in the Hole (My Favourite Mod)

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=18

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10909-v1-5-X-CE-Fire-in-the-Hole%21-Destructible-UFO-Hulls-%28v1-3-3%29

9. Kabill's Random Map Artic Collection Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=14

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11422-v1-5-X-CE-Kabill-s-%28Sort-of%29-Random-Maps%21

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

10. Kabill's Random Map Pack Dessert Style

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=13

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11422-v1-5-X-CE-Kabill-s-%28Sort-of%29-Random-Maps%21

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

11. Kabill's Random Map Pack Farm Edition

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=6

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11422-v1-5-X-CE-Kabill-s-%28Sort-of%29-Random-Maps%21

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

12. Khall's Tundra Set

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fb91wkio5t65fks/Khall's%20Tundra%20Tileset.rar

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10627-Khall-s-Tundra-Tileset?highlight=tundra

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

13. Khall's More Portraits

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=53

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/12212-V1-09-X-CE-0-30-Khall-s-More-Portraits-Pack-V1?highlight=khall%27s+portraits

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

14. Lore+

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=55

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9159-The-Lore-project

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

15. New Cars

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/12275-XCE-0-30-HF1-New-Car-Mod?highlight=cars

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/12275-XCE-0-30-HF1-New-Car-Mod?highlight=cars

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

16. Skitso's Sounds of Pain

Download: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=102

Details: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/12266-Skitso-s-Sounds-of-Pain?highlight=Skitso%27s+Sounds+Pain

17. Skitso's Ultimate Megamix Map Pack 2000

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

18. Furies, Terror and Dreadnoughts Oh My

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

19. Skitso's Alien Base Booster Pack

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

20. Skitso's Improved Tile Art Pack

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

21. Restored Community Map Pack

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

22. Ambience Forest

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

23. Extended Weapon Descriptions for Fighters

Note: Mod Already Included in XCE 0.34

Then of course any Mods you like followed by the usual X:CE mods

Mods known to be completely incompatible with the Choices Mods

Below is a list of Mods proven to completely mess up the choices mods.. If you use any mods in the below list then I am afraid I cannot provide any support.... However, this does not mean that any of these mods listed here are not excellent mods in their own right.

1) X-Division (Not compatible as its a complete overhaul mod, I still recommend playing it but not with my mods at the same time)

Starting Funds:

2,000,000 Original Vanilla Amount.

This has now had lots of testing, if you set it any higher you will be able to build too much at the beginning and it will really spoil your game.

NOTE: If you are providing us feedback on game balance etc., then please let us know if you have changed your starting funds from the default before posting as our game balance is not just based on stats but also on how expensive and difficult items are to produce.

LIMITATIONS:

In order to get the game to play as I intended I had to add an additional manufacturing category that was not intended to be available to the players. Unfortunately I cannot prevent it appearing in the manufacturing category list. If you stumble across it, then you will find an additional category with no name and all items within it are labelled none. Please ignore this as it is there to provide game functionality and none of the items labelled none are intended to be created. In fact the requirements to create them don't even exist. I am only mentioning this as some players stumble across it and think it is a bug.

TIPS:

This game deliberately has a lot of content, hence the name "More Choices", however it is not a requirement to research everything. You can complete the game using many strategies, however most vanilla research projects have reduced completion timescales. To help you plan estimated research times have been added to all project descriptions. Have fun.

• Use observation craft and balloons where you dont have bases so you dont lose monthly funding from those regions.
  
• Manufacture for Profit.
  
• Create a hazmat team and load them up with chemical weapons.
  
• Some Tech trees start of whith inferior items, but keep researching and you will be rewarded.
  
• Try carrying a stowable shield and pistol for when you are ready to breech the alien craft.
  

History:

This is part of an older Mod I put together a while ago, I then added a lot more content and split it into categories so players could pick and choose the parts they want and more easily incorporate other mods they like.

CREDITS:

Big Thanks to:

Drages (My Unofficial Mentor)

Specialist Skill: Knowing Everything

Reactocore (Playtesting and feedback)

Specialist Skill: PR Expert

Rallige (Playtesting / Balance & Bug Reporting)

Specialist Skill: Finding Bugs

Soul Filcher (Graphics Support)

Specialist Skill: Photoshop & Blender Expert

Content Updates:

We still have plenty of content to add and will release small updates to this Mod from time to time, however it should not effect the play through of you game if you decide to update as newer versions are released. (I will include update entries for all my mods under this post for easy reading)

Included in this Update Version:

Additional XMC Breifings

Finer Tuning of GC Weapons

Lots of Missing Sprite Fixes

Amazing Xenopedia Update (Big Thanks to MAX)

Longer Game

Garage with Starting Vehicle

Depleted Alienium Weapon rebalance

Counter measures on dropships (Partial)

Research / Manufacture re-balance

Armour Stats Available in Game

New Aliens Spy

More 3d Drag Textures

More Buildings

Feedback

We are very interesting in your ideas and will obviously try to take on board all of your points, however some requests are directly at odds with those of others, which will mean we can obviously only implement one of them.

Additionally when providing feedback of weapons balance, please remember weapons are not just balanced on the stats that you see in the tool tips. It includes weight, Inventory Size, the usual stats but additionally, how much, how long and how expensive it is to produce. Additionally we have hidden some slightly overpowered weapons down some weaker starting technology branches. This was intended and was meant to keep players on their toes and add a little extra angle to the game.

However, if you feel like you have found a weapon that is way out of balance we are keen to hear about it.

What People are Saying:

- The general design of the mod is astonishing, graphic design is clean, the line-up of the game is intuitive and very well done. I was really surprised with "Refit" feature of this game. Bravo! Well done AAJS.

- The general rules of targeting, distance and accuracy are awesome! I need to say that is the best part of the game, the difference of accurate shot at distance and burst shot in short range is incredible. Other Bravo for that!

-AAJS! My congratulations about your work, the art is amazing, the choices are incredible and the game is pretty near to vanilla game in concept and artwork.

Tactical Dragon

Forgot to thank you once more for this mod, and than everyone else who's helping you. This little gem, while still somewhat rough around the edges, is damn close to being "the way Xenonauts were meant to be played".

Rallige

What you have here, when released, is practically a new game experience entirely. That's a big deal, almost akin to a release of a new xenonauts game. People like xenonauts and would be thrilled with something that expands and changes it significantly.

Reactocore

...your mod(s) my favorite and I love how much effort you put into support. Just created an account so I could let you know about this stuff.

Hibblebeep

Edited January 11, 2016 by aajs

[aajs]

<BUMP> This should be at top

[asierus24]

i tihnk its a error but the type 64 howa rifle its called m16 on base equipment menu the description its ok.

[Blutkonzept]

The construction time bug occurs whenever i finish building the large garage. Only the base wich the large garage has been build in is affected the others are fine.

[aajs]

i tihnk its a error but the type 64 howa rifle its called m16 on base equipment menu the description its ok.

Nice Spot Asierus, thanks for that.

I completely missed this one. I have rectified this in my version with immediate effect so I don't forget, However I will pick up a few more changes before I upload anther one.

Thanks for spending the time to post feedback.

If you spot anymore let me know.

[aajs]

The construction time bug occurs whenever i finish building the large garage. Only the base wich the large garage has been build in is affected the others are fine.

Now I was pretty much sure I had fixed all the big bugs, and the ones being reported now seem to be minor graphical or string fixes.

All except this one that is. This is definitely a big issue as its a game breaker.

I need some detailed info if that is okay as I have never been able to produce this on my machines.

1) Did you upgrade from version 1 of my mod to this version 2 of my mod or did you delete all the mods and recreate these from scratch before playing?

2) Did you start the game again from the beginning or did you upload the new mods and continue a previous saved game?

2.5) Are you using any other mods that are not in my recommended list?

3) Where you by any chance constructing any vehicles at the same time you were researching the garage upgrade?

4) What sort of processor are you using? Intel or something else

5) What OS are you using

6) what version of XCE are you using?

7) did you clear out your scripts folder before starting the new game.

if using steam it would be here:

C:\Users\aajs\AppData\Roaming\Goldhawk Interactive\Xenonauts\internal\scripts

This seems to be a common issue I see when people have played previous mods, as these scripts do not always get updated as they should, and therefore its best to bin them all before starting a new game.

I cant think of anything else that will help me.

As I said I have never had this error, I also deleted xenonauts completely and all related files, and re-installed it and downloaded the same mods that I posted for everybody else. The issue still never occurs for me.

I think my only advice for now is if you see this issue, revert to a previous save and don't attempt to build the big garage.

It only gives you a couple of extra vehicle slots anyway.

[Blutkonzept]

1) deleted every mod and redownloaded them

2) started a new game

2.5) i use only and every mod in the list

3) no

4) Intel pentium dual core

5) win7

6) 0.34.1

7) did that

[aajs]

1) deleted every mod and redownloaded them

2) started a new game

2.5) i use only and every mod in the list

3) no

4) Intel pentium dual core

5) win7

6) 0.34.1

7) did that

Well that pretty much describes my setup.

I will restart again and see if I can get it to occur on my machine this time.

[EDIT] Ahhh haaa I think I may have cracked the issue.

Let me do some checks and I will post some new versions.

Edited January 13, 2016 by aajs

[Reactorcore]

Compared to version 1.0, has the balancing changed in 2.0?

I'm curious if weapon damage/range/cost/time-to-build/accuracy/TU cost/ammo count/research time/building time/ufo weaponstats/alien stats/vehicle stats and such are any different from the original version? (For all parts of XMC, not just part 1)

Edited January 15, 2016 by Reactorcore

[aajs]

Compared to version 1.0, has the balancing changed in 2.0?

I'm curious if weapon damage/range/cost/time-to-build/accuracy/TU cost/ammo count/research time/building time/ufo weaponstats/alien stats/vehicle stats and such are any different from the original version? (For all parts of XMC, not just part 1)

Hi Reactocore,

Nice to see you back posting here.

Hope you are well.

Let me see, things that have changed since you last played it are....

Manufacturing overhaul, Items that are produced to sell for profit now have the sell prices defined via a formula.

Cost of Materials + (daily cost of Engineer-Consultancy Price X ManDays) + % profit.

So the old produce loads of Sniper Rifles routine is still worth while but not crazily out of balance.

I may trim it back a little more but its mostly okay.

There is more content like new dropships

Alenium Ballisic weapon damage for tier 3 weapons has been adjusted to make them less powerful than lasers.

Rank 4 Elite Ballistic weapons adjusted to be on par with Plasmas.

Lots of graphics fixes.

A little more story line.

MAX revamp all my Xenonaut Entries so they are now much more exciting.

Randomly adjusted some weapons that were reported too powerful by users.

Upped the power of timed explosives so you can actually blow the alien hatch with at least the second explosive.

[Reactorcore]

Sweet.

Sounds good enough to me, I'll start a new playthrough.

By the way, I was browsing Steam and noticed that theres a news section for each game in the library.

Considering this is a major overhaul mod on the level of XCOM: Longwar in terms of content and variety, you can try sending Chris (The lead xenonauts dev) a message to publish a simple news post about releasing the 2.0 version of the XMC series mods + links to get them.

It'd be beneficial to Chris to promote you and that particular news section is not often updated as of late, but happens to be the very first thing any Steam xenonauts player will see, guaranteeing a lot of eyeballs for a long duration of time.

[RiflePoet]

Guys, how does the alien proximity scanner work? Do I activate it? Keep it in my belt? It does not seem to do anything...

[aajs]

Guys, how does the alien proximity scanner work? Do I activate it? Keep it in my belt? It does not seem to do anything...

You put pistol in one hand and carry that in over, you get big plus to reaction times.

We did a lot of testing with this in the early days and it proved to work.

You could consistently engage an alien and fire all your shots(TU) before the alien would return fire.

However there have been lots of changes since then and I no longer know how the reaction moifier is applied when u have a weapon in each hand.

[Reactorcore]

Playthrough LOG: 1

Started a playthrough, so far so good.

Looking through the initial stats of the weapons, I decided to give *everyone* a shield and pistol.

First mission bagged me a live sebilian with police batons. Only one wounded, but no one dead.

Decided to go risky and pop down a second base right away, with the intention of making it my primary research lab central. Barely any money left.

A couple more scout UFOs later, my entire squad is outfitted like this:

Everyone running with a Desert Eagle, shield and some random utilities. For the price of some range, I get rifle-tier damage and mad armor mitigation of 35 points. Only a 3 casualties after 6 missions, mostly by concentrated plasma fire after melting the shield.

Looking to find ways to make money, I got myself a dermal regenerator thats being manufactured 24/7. with 4k in profit each unit.

Looking to upgrade my transport to something hopefully faster, since the gunship takes forever to reach places. Also planning on using vehicles extensively this playthrough.

No bugs, exploits or glitches encountered so far.

[aajs]

Playthrough LOG: 1

Started a playthrough, so far so good.

Looking through the initial stats of the weapons, I decided to give *everyone* a shield and pistol.

First mission bagged me a live sebilian with police batons. Only one wounded, but no one dead.

Decided to go risky and pop down a second base right away, with the intention of making it my primary research lab central. Barely any money left.

A couple more scout UFOs later, my entire squad is outfitted like this:

Everyone running with a Desert Eagle, shield and some random utilities. For the price of some range, I get rifle-tier damage and mad armor mitigation of 35 points. Only a 3 casualties after 6 missions, mostly by concentrated plasma fire after melting the shield.

Looking to find ways to make money, I got myself a dermal regenerator thats being manufactured 24/7. with 4k in profit each unit.

Looking to upgrade my transport to something hopefully faster, since the gunship takes forever to reach places. Also planning on using vehicles extensively this playthrough.

No bugs, exploits or glitches encountered so far.

Thanks Reactocore, Glad no bugs found so far...

Do you think the 4K profit for each is acceptable or should it be reduced.... I don't want to take all the fun out of the game by nerfing everything too much.

[Reactorcore]

So far no, 4k profit at this early stage of the game is just the right amount. Its not too little and its not too much. I really have to pick and choose what to do, since I can't pursue everything, so its just right.

Playthrough LOG 2:

Continuing from last time, I started branching out a bit with my troops. Instead of everyone rocking Desert Eagle/Shield combo, I now introduced some semiauto submachine guns. One dude got himself a RNK 2 Sniper Rifle.

I was thinking about the fullauto uzis, but looking at the stats they were inferior and less flexible than the semiautos. If the uzis used significantly less TUs per burst, shot 4 shots, with slightly reduced accuracy, I'd have seriously considered taking them.

Meanwhile on geoscape, I decided to simplify my air game by removing migs and balloons altogether, making way for condor-only squads that I'll keep viable via gun/missile upgrades. Base space is very limited, making new ones is super expensive and ensuring free areas for all the facilities I want prompted me to take the most generic set up to deal with air game.

More UFOs show up, I throw enough condors at them and my troops on their way.

The shield squad is doing really good. The Deagle's lack of range, mediocre accuracy and two shots per turn make for some really precarious moments when trying to close in to kill, knowing full well that a single burst from a plasma rifle will rip through even a full shield, but my troops do well execute some really tricky hits.

I try out using grenades, but I am greatly dissapointed them each time. Excessive TU cost to arm, get in range and throw those things is best used for just sticking to regular gun/melee tactics. More over, the limited carry amount, low damage, weight contribution, tiny blast radius and lasting effects of fire and smoke grenades being over in a single turn made them practically worthless. After a couple missions, I decided to remove all grenades and vow to not use them at all.

Dermal Regerators, despite having a growing stockpile, I noticed weren't that needed, thanks to bandages and health kits. I've only seen them good for selling for money, but using them... nah.

The new additions of semiauto pistols turned out to be really nice. Running up to Sebs and performing a burst fire in their faces was very effective and reliable. Some soldiers still hold on to Deagles, but semiautos are slowly taking them over in the squad.

I also got plenty of use from C4, since nearly everyone has a shield, causing some mobility issue on certain maps, meaning jumping over fences is a no-no. So I either need to walk around walls, shoot at them with my pistols for an eternity until they break or blow it up with C4. The latter option turned out very fun and effective. Now each troop carries 2 or more C4 charges. I'm so glad xenonauts does not have a collateral damages payment mechanic.

Police batons, I wanted to mention those too. I think they may be a little too powerful. While their description implies using them against aliens is practically a joke, they are quite effective at stunning and sometimes killing aliens. If I shoot an alien with a gun before I whack them with a cop stick, most likely that alien will get rekt, than stunned by the hit.

Research wise, I've done the following:

-Sebilian/Caesian autopsy and analysis

-rank 2 pistols and pistol alternatives

-better explosives (C4, frag grenades)

-apache gunship (never gonna use lol)

-alien alloys

-plasma pistol/rifle

-laser weapons

-heavy laser weapons

-large crew quarters

-alternative grenades (fire nades, smoke charges never using those either)

I'm aiming to get my air game as good as I can by upgrading my condors as far as possible. After looking at the travel speed of the charlie compared to the hind, I decided to put off using vehicles completely until I get something faster and larger. I want to reach crashsites as fast as possible and do so before they turn into night ops (hell no) or they expire and leave me no loot.

As a side effect of laser research, I got the prototypes for free. Normally, I'd completely avoid using ridiculously rare alien alloys to manufacture weapons or armor with them, since I'm really gonna need that for my marauder jets later on. Thanks to this mechanic of free prototypes, I gave them to the squad and that made overall gameplay more interesting.

I think alloys and alenium are perhaps much too rare. I also think crashsites would be better if they gave some alloys and alenium, albeit less than what I get after completing a ufo without harming the loot. Airstriking crash sites would also be better if they gave more money too. A single plasma rifle salvaged and sold is already twice the amount I get for airstriking it, so it'd be better airstriked crash sites atleast gave double or triple the money for doing so.

The next mission will be the first one feature the prototype laser weapons alongside smg/shield troopers, but thats all for now.

If you have more specific questions you'd like me to touch on in later logs, do mention them. The question about manufacturing cost balance for dermal regenerators helps me know what you'd want to hear about more.

[Reactorcore]

Playthrough LOG 3:

Geoscape gameplay is starting to come apart.

After the previous log, I was faced with a very feisty light scout with 6 caesans. The buggers managed to oneshot 3 of my soldiers through sheer luck with plasma pistols. Motherfuckers.

Following that, another scout ship with even more caesans managed to KIA 2 more soldiers, although luckily one of them was revived after the battle. They really know how to use those plasma rifles I must admit.

Thankfully the new laser weaponry came in very handy and I was able to terminate them with great accuracy and power. The laser shotgun (carbine) was instrumental in clearing out two tight situation. I also managed to use a knife to stab one non-combatant's dead.

After these two and few more missions, I was back on the geoscape and things started to get funny.

Research completed on jackal armors turn out that they sell only for half the cost it takes to create them, so can't manufacture those for profit.

Meanwhile, alenium unlocked for research, followed by alenium explosives, which allowed me to manufacture alenium rockets and grenades. Knowing full well from the previous version, I set out to manufacture both to see if the little exploit was still there. And yep, it sure was.

For the price for 3000$/1 day, I get 30000$ profit. Since grenades are hot garbage as a usable combat item and I cant make profit off armors, I was pleased to find a new way to eradicate any money problems for the rest of the campaign.

Vibranium knives became available too, but lucky for you, those were actually fixed, only resulting minimal profit.

Further more, research order seemed to be a bit wonky.

As I researched Alenium Explosives, I was given a rank 3 rocketlauncher too. I had not even researched rocketlauncher rank 1 at all.

Meanwhile, I suddenly get a popup from engineering, saying they have prepared a vehicle machinegun using alenium ammunition... where I did not even unlock alenium weaponry/ammunition, let alone research yet. Whoops.

On an unrelated note, I also found it strange how the vibranium crossbow had suppression value to it, considering its quite a silent weapon that would benefit from not having enemies crouch down to become harder to hit.

During this session I opened up two more bases, mostly for intercepting ufos, maybe adding labs or workshops much later. Given that I like being opportunistic, I'll be utilizing the alenium grenade business to its fullest potential, gradually eliminating all worries for cash. Mwhahaha. Alien Alloys and Alenium will still be an issue, so I'm not OP by any measure yet.

Aside from that, my options are really opening up as my second base with 6 labs came into operation, allowing me to get ever more diverse combat equipment via prototypes, so I'll be incorporating new weapons and loadouts as they become available. So far I'm having great fun, liking the Hind and how it appears in ground combat, xenopedia entries with sufficient stats shown and some mechanics mentioned, like saving alien equipment for manufacturing and not selling it off instantly.

Until next log.

[EchoZeroJ]

First off, @aajs, totally awesome mod!! Respect. Thanks alot. I'm starting again today with Xenonauts and i'm really happy to see someone put so much effort into making this.

@Reactorcore, great log Some usefull tips like the shield units i can use at start.

Edited January 24, 2016 by EchoZeroJ

[aajs]

First off, @aajs, totally awesome mod!! Respect. Thanks alot. I'm starting again today with Xenonauts and i'm really happy to see someone put so much effort into making this.

@Reactorcore, great log Some usefull tips like the shield units i can use at start.

Great glad you like it. I am working on version 3 now which tidies up all the graphics and adds a bunch more armours. Mainly for more RPG type fun than combat reasons.

However I will be implementing fixes for everything reactocore highlighted. I am also going to take a very bold step and reduce Time units on all grenades. I don't think this will upset the game balance excessively, with the exception of aoe grenades that don't destroy alien equipment... This means for game balance some grenades will have to take longer to throw than others...hard to explain logically but maybe the have additional priming routines to be performed before pulling the pin and chucking.

I think selling armour should maybe come with a small profit...

As for the research loop holes. I think I can sort them.

[aajs]

Okay that lot is all sorted subject to testing.

With the exception of the rocket launcher... I think its fine to give players that even if the did not research the others.

So leaving that till I get to it in my playtesting.

Everything else should be done, I can now see why you was getting so much money for the alenium grenades. Basically I was just adding 10% profit to the manufacturing cost, however I just realised each manufacturing run gives you 10 grenades resulting in 100% profit.

Nice work if you can get it.

I have now closed this out..

However, I don't want to leave just a boring 10% markup on everything. I was basing this on a formula elsewhere. however I wanted to leave a few items with a higher profit margin for those sort of players who like to take time analysis costs v profit etc.

[Reactorcore]

However, I don't want to leave just a boring 10% markup on everything. I was basing this on a formula elsewhere. however I wanted to leave a few items with a higher profit margin for those sort of players who like to take time analysis costs v profit etc.

Yeah this is important. The more complicated item (how much time it takes to manufacture, how advanced it is), the more sizable the item is (how big in actual size), the more expensive it is money wise, how valuable/useful/significant gameplay effect it has and so on... the more exponentially profitable it should be.

I'd also like to highlight this same dynamic for researching and manufacturing times too.

Things like knives/grenades/tools would obvious be fast to develop (as long as their material and technological makeup is simple), while things like armors, large weapons and vehicles that are both large in size, complicated in tech and costly money wise would be slower.

Currently there are some wierd anomalies, where alenium grenades can be done in 1 day, while stungas grenades need 5 days. Same for rockets. Same for many different weapon. Both in research times and manufacturing times.

======================================

Anyways, back to the regular Playthrough LOG 4:

A new troop transport finally!... which I'm not sure if its faster than the hind, since the usual aircraft speed stats were not listed in the xenopedia entry. Also same crew capacity and no vehicle space so I'm gonna have to wait a bit longer before I get to bring jeeps or tanks to the battlefield.

Since the last session, alenium grenade business yielded a beautiful 4 million dollars, which I use to increase the amount of total bases I have to 8. I could open a 9th too, but I thought that was too overkill. So far only two bases are fully built, two others are minimal fighter interceptor bases and the other 4 are under construction. Within a month I'll be having full global coverage with 6 condors in each base, ready to take out any ufo, anywhere.

A couple ground missions proved to be by-the-book, with no casualties unlike last time. Infact, this time the aliens decided to go the complete opposite way and did some hilariously dumb shit. One caesan got torn to ribbons by his team mate as I opened the door into the ufo. The caesan fire a burst with his plasma rifle and all 3 shots hit the other caesan, instantly killing him.

Meanwhile, a sebilian was spotted in the distance, so I brought a shotgunner into a heavily fortified cover position to keep him at bay. Despite this, the sebilian first ran towards me... than ran even closer... and just stood there, right infront of my trooper. My man gladly obliged with a healthy dose of laser shotgunning without moving an inch.

During the missions, I had brough along melee weapons, knives mainly and in the recent ones, vibranium knives. In Xenonauts as a game always felt like the aliens are these tough badasses and humans only a half a match against them and attempting to use melee was supposed to be a joke, so that idea was quickly shattered whenever I've used melee weapons in XMC. Most of the time, the police baton, the knife and the vibranium knife can oneshot most aliens no problems. I think they're OP damage wise. The power output of the vibranium knife might as well make it as powerful as a jedi lightsaber, dealing 100 damage on hit. Guaranteed.

If this is intended and knives are ok as primary weapons, then ignore what I said. If not, then reduce the damage significantly, so that basic melee weapons are indeed just desperate last-resort poking sticks that do not even come close to guns in terms of viability.

Until next log...

Edited January 24, 2016 by Reactorcore

[aajs]

Yeah this is important. The more complicated item (how much time it takes to manufacture, how advanced it is), the more sizable the item is (how big in actual size), the more expensive it is money wise, how valuable/useful/significant gameplay effect it has and so on... the more exponentially profitable it should be.

I'd also like to highlight this same dynamic for researching and manufacturing times too.

Things like knives/grenades/tools would obvious be fast to develop (as long as their material and technological makeup is simple), while things like armors, large weapons and vehicles that are both large in size, complicated in tech and costly money wise would be slower.

Currently there are some wierd anomalies, where alenium grenades can be done in 1 day, while stungas grenades need 5 days. Same for rockets. Same for many different weapon. Both in research times and manufacturing times.

======================================

Anyways, back to the regular Playthrough LOG 4:

A new troop transport finally!... which I'm not sure if its faster than the hind, since the usual aircraft speed stats were not listed in the xenopedia entry. Also same crew capacity and no vehicle space so I'm gonna have to wait a bit longer before I get to bring jeeps or tanks to the battlefield.

Since the last session, alenium grenade business yielded a beautiful 4 million dollars, which I use to increase the amount of total bases I have to 8. I could open a 9th too, but I thought that was too overkill. So far only two bases are fully built, two others are minimal fighter interceptor bases and the other 4 are under construction. Within a month I'll be having full global coverage with 6 condors in each base, ready to take out any ufo, anywhere.

A couple ground missions proved to be by-the-book, with no casualties unlike last time. Infact, this time the aliens decided to go the complete opposite way and did some hilariously dumb shit. One caesan got torn to ribbons by his team mate as I opened the door into the ufo. The caesan fire a burst with his plasma rifle and all 3 shots hit the other caesan, instantly killing him.

Meanwhile, a sebilian was spotted in the distance, so I brought a shotgunner into a heavily fortified cover position to keep him at bay. Despite this, the sebilian first ran towards me... than ran even closer... and just stood there, right infront of my trooper. My man gladly obliged with a healthy dose of laser shotgunning without moving an inch.

During the missions, I had brough along melee weapons, knives mainly and in the recent ones, vibranium knives. In Xenonauts as a game always felt like the aliens are these tough badasses and humans only a half a match against them and attempting to use melee was supposed to be a joke, so that idea was quickly shattered whenever I've used melee weapons in XMC. Most of the time, the police baton, the knife and the vibranium knife can oneshot most aliens no problems. I think they're OP damage wise. The power output of the vibranium knife might as well make it as powerful as a jedi lightsaber, dealing 100 damage on hit. Guaranteed.

If this is intended and knives are ok as primary weapons, then ignore what I said. If not, then reduce the damage significantly, so that basic melee weapons are indeed just desperate last-resort poking sticks that do not even come close to guns in terms of viability.

Until next log...

Well nobody seems to use knives or batons even though their so powerful, so looks like I am not going to temp to many people so may as well nerf them a little.

I think there should be some kind of reward for using them tho as you are likely to get toasted before you get near enough to melee with them.....

So can you help me out a bit here if I am way off track, otherwise:

The Vanilla stun baton later does: damage="5" stunDamage="60" empDamage="75"

but is a later melee weapon in the game.

Currently the police baton does damage="10" stunDamage="40" empDamage="0" mitigation="0">

So I will just reduce the normal damage to 5. much lower and it will not work.

Hopefully its then a fair balanced starting weapon.

following this logic then we can make the normal knife similar but its real damage.

so it will now go from: damage="50" stunDamage="5" empDamage="5" mitigation="20">

to: damage="40" stunDamage="5" not sure how a knife could do emp damage so binned that.

Ok regarding the vibranium knife its pretty much supposed to ignore armour but as its soooo powerful that its a game spoiler, lets half the damage and see how it plays out.

Edited January 24, 2016 by aajs

[EchoZeroJ]

Great idea. Lower damage but higher stun for the baton. Currently im planning to use a shield and to catch an alien alive. The baton will be a nice weapon to stun the enemy. Feels more rewarding so i shall definitly use it.

Lowering the damage of vibranium from 50 to 40 looks fine too.

I'm new to this game, but i'm planning to use a squad of 12 men. Seperated into a sniper team of 2 men to scout the area. Followed by two fire teams so i can flank the enemy if needed. Both my fire teams will use 2 guys at the front with a shield and baton/pistol.

The mod is really awesome.

Edited January 25, 2016 by EchoZeroJ

[Reactorcore]

Well nobody seems to use knives or batons even though their so powerful, so looks like I am not going to temp to many people so may as well nerf them a little.

I think there should be some kind of reward for using them tho as you are likely to get toasted before you get near enough to melee with them.....

So can you help me out a bit here if I am way off track, otherwise:

The Vanilla stun baton later does: damage="5" stunDamage="60" empDamage="75"

but is a later melee weapon in the game.

Currently the police baton does damage="10" stunDamage="40" empDamage="0" mitigation="0">

So I will just reduce the normal damage to 5. much lower and it will not work.

Hopefully its then a fair balanced starting weapon.

following this logic then we can make the normal knife similar but its real damage.

so it will now go from: damage="50" stunDamage="5" empDamage="5" mitigation="20">

to: damage="40" stunDamage="5" not sure how a knife could do emp damage so binned that.

Ok regarding the vibranium knife its pretty much supposed to ignore armour but as its soooo powerful that its a game spoiler, lets half the damage and see how it plays out.

Wait wait wait. Arbitrarily reducing/increasing damage or any other stat is not the way to go. Its important to be aware of what "feel/atmosphere" you're going for gameplay wise. There needs to be a purpose or logical reason behind a decision of each stat according to the type of gameplay you're trying to achieve.

If the purpose is "humans and aliens are roughly equal. Melee knives are a viable and powerful weapon that reward for getting up close and personal", then your stats will be gravitating towards more powerful numbers.

If the purpose is "humans are puny weaklings in the face of aliens. Aliens shrug of any attempts at being cut and at most leave nothing but a scratch", then the stats will gravitate towards lesser numbers.

As for the actual stats, its important to take inventory of what is the average health of an alien's max health and armor.

Lets say an aliens health/stunhealth is 100. From this average standard, we can decide which route to go. If its the former "human are equal to aliens" option, then about 1-2 or 3 hits from a melee weapon makes sense, hence the damage will be like 90-60 or 40, respectively.

Meanwhile if the option is to take the latter "humans are puny" route, then about 4-5 or 6 hits from a melee weapon to kill makes sense, hence 30-22-16 for the damage stats, also respectively.

Alien armor, alien types and weapon tech rank also need to be factored in, which allows to find out how much damage and armor mitigation to give the melee weapons.

Following this type of logic that first puts all the standards visibly on the table, along with what the gameplay intention is supposed to be, balancing will be easy and consistent.

[aajs]

Great idea. Lower damage but higher stun for the baton. Currently im planning to use a shield and to catch an alien alive. The baton will be a nice weapon to stun the enemy. Feels more rewarding so i shall definitly use it.

Lowering the damage of vibranium from 50 to 40 looks fine too.

I'm new to this game, but i'm planning to use a squad of 12 men. Seperated into a sniper team of 2 men to scout the area. Followed by two fire teams so i can flank the enemy if needed. Both my fire teams will use 2 guys at the front with a shield and baton/pistol.

The mod is really awesome.

Yes Team approaches is good.

I normally have a heavy tank team at the beginning and march my soldiers down behind it in exposed areas like WW2 Films.

Just step a soldier out from the line, take a shot and step him in again.

Other tactics for later.

Kit a team out in hazmat suits and give em a load of gas grenades and charges to throw in alien space craft, then just wade in after with small arms and clean up the left overs.

New tactic, I just got to implement a new armour will be a flamer team.

I will make a highly flame retardant armour and you can use the flamer tank / flamethrowers / napalm grenades to burn em out.

All while your team are roving around in the flames.

Lots of different tactics are available in my mods, and makes a second or third play through still entertaining as you don't have to repeat the same as you did previously.