[1.65/X.CE V0.35.0] X-Division 1.00 Beta (1.00.11c)

[PALU]

And some techno mumbo-jumbo that has very tenuous connections to real physics...

Sonic Technology

The aliens introduced the Alien Ion Technology, so we obviously studied it to see what we can learn from it. Then we went back to see what we can apply to our own weaponry. The result of that is the Sonic Technology, which has few surface similarities with the Alien Ion Technology, but nevertheless applies quite a few of the same technical solutions.

Sonic Technology, isn't that trying to burst the enemies eardrums with very loud sounds? Well, it could be, but our "normal" Kinetic weapons are far superiour to what Kinetic damage we could hope to achieve with sound, so we apply it in quite a different manner. The "Sonic" in the technology name doesn't refer to the damage dealing part, but to a part of the delivery system. An old problem with energy weapons in their various incarnations is that the energy both gets deflected by being buffeted by air molecules on its path, and loses energy by heating those air molecules. What we want is to fire through vacuum, and that is sort of what we achieve with the Sonic Technology: a finely tuned pattern of constructive and destructive interference causes the air molecules to move sideways out of the way of the Plasma bolt following the sound wave. The sound parts the crowd, if you will (and, incidentally, when the air returns back to fill the void there is indeed a distinctive sound not dissimilar to thunder).
You may have noted I mentioned a Plasma bolt, and yes, we are returning to the Plasma technology (with numerous refinements, of course), as we can cause it to move at the speed of sound, and thus stay in the bubble created by the sound wave, whereas light moves at, well, the speed of light (or, rather, the speed of light in air, but that doesn't make a difference here). Our improvements to the Plasma technology involves improved control of the bolt, including of the graviton's bolt cohesion effect, and removal of the interfering air has allowed us to pump more power into the plasma without it being destroyed by the changed properties of super heated air.
However, we have some touch challenges in that the plasma bolt will have to match speed with the sound wave, and the speed of sound varies depending on air pressure, temperature, and humidity. While we devised sensors for weapon fitting that would make any pre war meteorologist drool, we still have severe issues to keep the plasma inside the vacuum bubble, and it doesn't help that whatever residual air that's there produces friction that slows the bolt.

So, we have produced a technology that's barely working, and when it is, it has a very short range, so why would we ever try something like this? Well, it is a last ditch attempt to stop what at first was an annoying and somewhat dangerous enemy slowing us down, but which has grown to become an almost unstoppable rampaging menace. I'm talking about the Androns, of course. We need something that can blast them apart quickly, and if that means we have to send several soldiers to within touching distance to do so, we have to.

As indicated, the technology is subject to several technical issues, which means the Mk-1 line may well be more underwhelming than usual. The upside is that we're very good at solving technical problems, and that means we have very high hopes that studies allowing us to incorporate Energy Cores into the design will result in a markedly improved Mk-2 line.

This, of course, means it is vitally important to study first the more advanced alien Ion based weapons to get a better grasp of their functioning, and then immediatley on to applying that knowledge to our own weapons with Advanced Sonic Technology.

We think the technology is sufficiently mature to design a vehicle mounted weapon based on it, as some of our technical issues stem from issues with miniaturisation.

Despite the shortcomings of the Sonic Technology in its current state we think we may be able to combine it with studies in the corresponding Kinetic weapon field with studies of Alien Singularity Cores to produce an aircraft weapon.

[Charon]

Nice.

[PALU]

Hm. Strange bug. I was doing a Phase 2 andron light cruiser mission, and when I had removed everything visible (3 shield replacements later) I entered the control room to find the last enemy, an andron boss (pinkish, with a force field). The odd thing is that the mission was declared successful when I removed the shield, and thus hadn't touched the unit yet, and there wasn't any andron remains other than soldiers in the spoils. I have a vague feeling something similar has happened to me earlier, possibly when destroying a terror andron: rather than it morphing into a dog box, I think the mission was declared successful.

Thus, it seems "destruction" of the last unit which should cause it to morph just checks if the unit killed is the last one rather than perform that check after the destruction code has been run through (if so, it might also preserve civilians and spoils that would have been destroyed when a unit exploding on death is eliminated as the last one).

[Charon]

3 hours ago, PALU said:

Hm. Strange bug. I was doing a Phase 2 andron light cruiser mission, and when I had removed everything visible (3 shield replacements later) I entered the control room to find the last enemy, an andron boss (pinkish, with a force field). The odd thing is that the mission was declared successful when I removed the shield, and thus hadn't touched the unit yet, and there wasn't any andron remains other than soldiers in the spoils. I have a vague feeling something similar has happened to me earlier, possibly when destroying a terror andron: rather than it morphing into a dog box, I think the mission was declared successful.

Thus, it seems "destruction" of the last unit which should cause it to morph just checks if the unit killed is the last one rather than perform that check after the destruction code has been run through (if so, it might also preserve civilians and spoils that would have been destroyed when a unit exploding on death is eliminated as the last one).

The last unit teleports out if it has a shield, and the shield is removed.

What happens in that code is that during the animation of unit into another for a brief moment there is no alive alien anymore, and so the game declares the mission successfull.

[Charon]

I just found out that you can suppress eggs ><

 

[Charon]

@PALUThere is a moral code called Safety in Numbers. It is explained in one of the patchnotes. Would you mind explaining that to the player in a Xpedia entry ?

And the limitless moral too ?

Edited September 4, 2018 by Charon

[Svinedrengen]

@Charon I have a question about the division minigun mk3, is there a reason why you only have enough for 2 and half burst before reloading? Why does the ammoclipsize not increase to 400 or 800 like the laser minigun? 

And also really nice with all the new buttons/tabs, now I just have to get used to it. 

[Charon]

3 minutes ago, Svinedrengen said:

@Charon I have a question about the division minigun mk3, is there a reason why you only have enough for 2 and half burst before reloading? Why does the ammoclipsize not increase to 400 or 800 like the laser minigun? 

> that is @dragespart.

[Svinedrengen]

12 minutes ago, Charon said:

> that is @dragespart.

Okay, well since it seems like a mistake I will change it myself, I just wanted to make sure that there wasnt a good explanation for it before I change it. 

[Charon]

1 hour ago, Svinedrengen said:

Okay, well since it seems like a mistake I will change it myself, I just wanted to make sure that there wasnt a good explanation for it before I change it. 

It is not a mistake, this is how the game is meant to be played. If you ofcourse want to make it easier for you thats totally alright. If i would tell you that the laser minigun is the wrong one and you have to adjust it to the division level would you do it or rather say "Nah, its fine" ?

I fully trust in @dragess content.

[PALU]

7 hours ago, Charon said:

@PALUThere is a moral code called Safety in Numbers. It is explained in one of the patchnotes. Would you mind explaining that to the player in a Xpedia entry ?

And the limitless moral too ?

I don't *mind* but there are some issues:

- It doesn't seem to be something that fits with research, but rather as a timed (or whatever it is) entry, such as the spy and scouting mission ones. I don't know how you'd make any such entry appear, although it's probably not difficult when you know how. I would also guess the time it's set to appear at would influence how it's written. "Translating" game mechanics into something that has some similarity to in game content might not be trivial, but it can be attempted.
- My artistic ability stopped developing at around the stick figure stage, so any illustration would have to be made by someone who's competent.
- I've seen the note on the morale, but that's about it, and know nothing about the Safety in Numbers thing, so I'd have to understand that first, in order to explain it.

Edit: Read the Safety in Numbers patch note entry. What's "in range", i.e. how far, and is it geometric range or pathing range (and, if the latter, does a shield make things worse and flying ability better)? It doesn't say "visual" so I assume a buddy behind your back helps? Although it talks about "higher ranking officers" it doesn't seem to be related to a soldier's own rank, so I would guess a brigadier general would still be helped by a mere general nearby?

It seems this would be an entry on Morale (I'll leave Moral for for politicians and spiritual leaders), and I certainly don't have the full knowledge of how that works.

Edited September 4, 2018 by PALU
Added edit

[Charon]

3 minutes ago, PALU said:

- I've seen the note on the morale, but that's about it, and know nothing about the Safety in Numbers thing, so I'd have to understand that first, in order to explain it.

On 8/10/2016 at 7:24 PM, Charon said:

Brand new code: Safety in Numbers:
At the start of the turn, the game looks for the highest 2 (!!!!!!!!!) ranked soldiers in range of every soldier and adds a bonus threshold of both values together. If the highest ranked soldiers in range are a captain and a major the bonus pool will be 5 + 6 = 11.
This bonus will NOT (!!!!!!) get taken into considerations when calculating % reductions like fear. If a soldier has 50 moral points and gets a bonus of 11, then a reduction of 60% means -30 points and the total moral points will be 31.
The bonus pool cant get reduced. This means if you have a bonus of 11, then you will never be able to have less than 11 moral points, no matter the circumstances.
The Safety in Numbers code line is not so much as a bonus pool, but rather as a failsafe net, which lifts you higher up and prevents you from falling below a certain value. It is a quite THE prevention for your soldiers to fall below a certain value and panic. So ... dont go alone, take some comrades with you !
The bonus pool will get cleared and refilled at the start of every turn again. This happens BEFORE the chance of an moral event is calculated. This means you could lose moral points if you went away from your squad, and it could mean that you will gain moral points when the soldier gets into the range of higher ranked officiers again.

The range for Safety in numbers is the two highest ranked soldiers within a 10 tile radius. The bonus points are non-reduceable and thuse provide a failsafe rather than a deductable bonus. The point here is to stress that if you send your soldiers alone they will get the full attack of psionic events and moral events. Leave them alone and they will panic and run away.

10 minutes ago, PALU said:

- It doesn't seem to be something that fits with research, but rather as a timed (or whatever it is) entry, such as the spy and scouting mission ones. I don't know how you'd make any such entry appear, although it's probably not difficult when you know how. I would also guess the time it's set to appear at would influence how it's written. "Translating" game mechanics into something that has some similarity to in game content might not be trivial, but it can be attempted.

I was rather thinking to weave this into exisiting entries. Like in one xenomoprh entry you could describe the "terror" this creatures are causing and that your soldiers have a higher moral while being in a squad of at least 3 poeple. Higher ranked soldiers will bolster moral more than lower ranked ones.

While i do agree that a fully timed xpedia entry at the right time with the right picture and the right words would be better, i dont think we have the resources and dedication for that. So i think a stub entry among other entries would fit better. Take a look at the "Ground Combat" entry, it would fit in there as any kind of major ground combat change is listed there.

 

If somebody would write me mouth watering next level lore mechanic entries and present me the whole content beforehand I would be willing to go the extra mile and do what i can about it. But i dont think we are at that level, so i would be satisfied with a small entry here and there.

 

Just my idea though, you have to decide if its worth it and if you wanna spend the time on it.

[PALU]

An attempt to push it into Ground Combat, as I think that's the best place out of those I've looked at. I've cut out the chief scientist stuff to leave it neutral, as I don't think he's the right person to talk about battlefield condition. It could possibly be the guy who intercepted a report somewhere. Also note the unfinished ending.

Ground Combat

Well, we're back with our boots in the dirt again, Commander.
Our latest field reports say that half of the regular damage has the same impact on aliens' neural system as well, and on our soldiers too. Close range weapons like shotguns which have additional stun damage features should be able to almost fully stun a target. Although I would say it dies before that, so a stun weapon of choice will still be necessary for the last part.

Our melee weapons will be a special treat because a trained soldier will almost always be able to bypass or break through the armour, but against the hardest of targets. Just don't try to break an energy shield with it, that is pretty futile. If you have the time sneak around and attack the back.

Also, if your men think they can unconsciously sleep through a mission you should wake them up with some special adrenaline packs which you will find in the medipack.

And when we're on the subject of battlefield conditions, it's time to bring up the subject of morale. The regular stress of terror and confusion in combat is bad enough, but when you bring in psychic attacks things can go downhill quickly.

Our soldiers' base morale level can improve through various kinds of combat experience, and the higher it is when disembarking in the battlefield, the more stress the soldier can withstand before sinking to a dangerously low level, so every piece of hard won morale, also called bravery, is valuable.

A universal battlefield experience (at least for humans) is that having buddies at your back provides a morale safety net, so the two soldiers with the highest rank within 10 tiles of a soldier bolsters the morale of the soldier through the comfort of having support at hand, and the more experienced the support is, the more comfort is provided.

Various battlefield experiences whittle away at the effective morale, although there are a few that are positive, but generally stress will grind morale down during the battle, although the buddy safety net will not be lost (unless the buddies are lost or too far away to lend support), so buddy support provided at the beginning of one turn may change to the beginning of the next one, depending of how units move (or die), but moving back into support range will regain the buddy support lost.

Psionic attacks are particularly potent at reducing morale, but death of soldiers...<I don't know what the other positive/negative factors are beyond guesses>.

 

Edit: Is the stuff about the energy shield and rear attack correct? It works perfectly well to attack a unit carrying a normal shield from the front, and it seems energy shields have a 360 degree coverage anyway (all the energy shielded unit's I've encountered so far have been mechanical, so it would be silly to try to stun them, and whiffle sticks are the only melee weapons I've had so far).

Edited September 4, 2018 by PALU

[Svinedrengen]

1 hour ago, Charon said:

It is not a mistake, this is how the game is meant to be played. If you ofcourse want to make it easier for you thats totally alright. If i would tell you that the laser minigun is the wrong one and you have to adjust it to the division level would you do it or rather say "Nah, its fine" ?

I fully trust in @dragess content.

I probably would change it, but I know the laserminigun is not wrong, all miniguns increase in clipsize from mk1 to mk3 except the division one, which is a good reason for me to suspekt it being wrong I would say. 

If I wanted it easy, I would just play on easy or worse, use cheats/reloads, but why even bother to play then. No challenge = No fun.

[Charon]

6 minutes ago, PALU said:

An attempt to push it into Ground Combat, as I think that's the best place out of those I've looked at. I've cut out the chief scientist stuff to leave it neutral, as I don't think he's the right person to talk about battlefield condition. It could possibly be the guy who intercepted a report somewhere. Also note the unfinished ending.

Ground Combat

Well, we're back with our boots in the dirt again, Commander.
Our latest field reports say that half of the regular damage has the same impact on aliens' neural system as well, and on our soldiers too. Close range weapons like shotguns which have additional stun damage features should be able to almost fully stun a target. Although I would say it dies before that, so a stun weapon of choice will still be necessary for the last part.

Our melee weapons will be a special treat because a trained soldier will almost always be able to bypass or break through the armour, but against the hardest of targets. Just don't try to break an energy shield with it, that is pretty futile. If you have the time sneak around and attack the back.

Also, if your men think they can unconsciously sleep through a mission you should wake them up with some special adrenaline packs which you will find in the medipack.

And when we're on the subject of battlefield conditions, it's time to bring up the subject of morale. The regular stress of terror and confusion in combat is bad enough, but when you bring in psychic attacks things can go downhill quickly.

Our soldiers' base morale level can improve through various kinds of combat experience, and the higher it is when disembarking in the battlefield, the more stress the soldier can withstand before sinking to a dangerously low level, so every piece of hard won morale, also called bravery, is valuable.

A universal battlefield experience (at least for humans) is that having buddies at your back provides a morale safety net, so the two soldiers with the highest rank within 10 tiles of a soldier bolsters the morale of the soldier through the comfort of having support at hand, and the more experienced the support is, the more comfort is provided.

Various battlefield experiences whittle away at the effective morale, although there are a few that are positive, but generally stress will grind morale down during the battle, although the buddy safety net will not be lost (unless the buddies are lost or too far away to lend support), so buddy support provided at the beginning of one turn may change to the beginning of the next one, depending of how units move (or die), but moving back into support range will regain the buddy support lost.

Psionic attacks are particularly potent at reducing morale, but death of soldiers...<I don't know what the other positive/negative factors are beyond guesses>.

I like the entry. Here is the full code of the moral file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<MoraleConfig MODMERGE="update">
    <MoraleEventChance MODMERGE="update" percentPoints="3.0" everyMoralePointBelow="50" >
        
        <EventChances MODMERGE="update">
            <Panic value="59" stabilisation="40" comment="chance that a unit panics and loses all its AP for current turn"/>
            <Flee value="40" stabilisation="40" comment="chance that a unit drops its weapons and starts running randomly" />
            <Berserk value="01" stabilisation="40" comment="chance that a unit starts firing on first available target, not caring if friendly or enemy"/>
        </EventChances>
        
    </MoraleEventChance>
    
    <HumanMorale MODMERGE="update">
    
        <PerTurnRegeneration>0</PerTurnRegeneration>
        <Modifiers  MODMERGE="update">
        
            <OfficerLeadership  MODMERGE="update" comment="Bonus to starting morale provided based on the rank of the highest ranked soldier on the team. To entire team except the leader" >

                <RookieHandicap percentPoints="10" maxPercent="50" comment="Percent reduction in overall leadership bonus per Private brought on mission, with limit maxPercent"/>
                <Corporal>10</Corporal>
                <Sergeant>15</Sergeant>
                <Lieutenant>20</Lieutenant>
                <Captain>25</Captain>
                <Major>30</Major>
                <Commander>35</Commander>
                <Colonel>40</Colonel>
            </OfficerLeadership>
            
            <SafetyInNumbers  MODMERGE="update" range="10" comment="Each crew member recieves a morale bonus, depending on the 2 highest ranked soldier present in range. At the start of every turn the bonus will get set again, depending on the 2 highest ranked soldiers in the range. This should get added as a bonus before the even chance calculations are happening. The bonus pool cant get decreased and will propably not get calculated into reduction abilities like Fear" >
                <Private>1</Private>
                <Corporal>2</Corporal>
                <Sergeant>3</Sergeant>
                <Lieutenant>4</Lieutenant>
                <Captain>5</Captain>
                <Major>6</Major>
                <Commander>7</Commander>
                <Colonel>8</Colonel>
            </SafetyInNumbers>
            
            <XenonautDeath  MODMERGE="update" range="100" comment="to each member of the team, based on killed soldier rank">
                <Private>-10</Private>
                <Corporal>-11</Corporal>
                <Sergeant>-12</Sergeant>
                <Lieutenant>-15</Lieutenant>
                <Captain>-15</Captain>
                <Major>-15</Major>
                <Commander>-15</Commander>
                <Colonel>-15</Colonel>
            </XenonautDeath>
            
            <VehicleLoss  MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>-15</Team>
            </VehicleLoss>
            
            <AlienVehicleDestroyed  MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>8</Team>
                <Actor>24</Actor>
            </AlienVehicleDestroyed>            
            
            <XenoVehicleDestroyedByTeamMate MODMERGE="update" comment="in addition to the VehicleLoss penalty!">
                <Team>-5</Team>
                <Actor>-10</Actor>
            </XenoVehicleDestroyedByTeamMate>
            
            <CivilianKilledByAlien MODMERGE="update" comment="to each member of the team">
                <Points>-5</Points>
                <MaxPointsPerTurn>-15</MaxPointsPerTurn>
            </CivilianKilledByAlien>
            
            <AlienKilled MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>5</Team>
                <Actor>10</Actor>
            </AlienKilled>
            
            <CivilianKilledByXenonaut MODMERGE="update" comment="in addition to CivilianKilledByAlien!">
                <Team>-20</Team>
                <Actor>-30</Actor>
            </CivilianKilledByXenonaut>
            
            <XenonautKilledByTeamMate MODMERGE="update" comment="in addition to the XenonautDeath penalty!">
                <Team>-5</Team>
                <Actor>-10</Actor>
            </XenonautKilledByTeamMate>
            
            <Wounded value="-0.5" comment="expressed in morale points per damage point recieved, so -0.5 is 1 morale point deducted every 2 damage points taken" />
            <Suppressed value="-0.01" comment="same as Wounded" />
            
        </Modifiers>
    </HumanMorale>

    <AlienMorale MODMERGE="update">
        <Modifiers>
        
            <AlienKillsCivilian MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>8</Team>
                <Actor>24</Actor>
            </AlienKillsCivilian>
            
            <AlienKillsXenonaut MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>12</Team>
                <Actor>36</Actor>
            </AlienKillsXenonaut>
            
            <AlienDeath MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>-16</Team>
            </AlienDeath>
            
            <AlienKilledByTeamMate MODMERGE="update" comment="in addition to the AlienDeath penalty!">
                <Team>-4</Team>
                <Actor>-12</Actor>
            </AlienKilledByTeamMate>
            
            <VehicleLoss MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>-16</Team>
            </VehicleLoss>
            
            <XenonautVehicleDestroyed MODMERGE="update">
                <Team>16</Team>
                <Actor>48</Actor>
            </XenonautVehicleDestroyed>            
            
            <AlienVehicleDestroyedByTeamMate MODMERGE="update" comment="in addition to the VehicleLoss penalty!">
                <Team>-4</Team>
                <Actor>-12</Actor>
            </AlienVehicleDestroyedByTeamMate>
            
            <Wounded value="-0.5" comment="expressed in morale points per damage point recieved, so -0.5 is 1 morale point deducted every 2 damage points taken" />
            
        </Modifiers>
    </AlienMorale>

</MoraleConfig>

You could point out that X-Division also removes the psionic berserk ability, as well as that the chance to target a unit when morally berserking is pretty low.

The other things to point out would be that moral doesnt regenerate anymore, and as far as i know only killing alien stuff recovers moral, or after a moral event happened. Note that friendly firing civilians/locals has a steep penalty, X-Division soldiers are there to save people, not kill them.

[Charon]

17 minutes ago, PALU said:

Edit: Is the stuff about the energy shield and rear attack correct? It works perfectly well to attack a unit carrying a normal shield from the front, and it seems energy shields have a 360 degree coverage anyway (all the energy shielded unit's I've encountered so far have been mechanical, so it would be silly to try to stun them, and whiffle sticks are the only melee weapons I've had so far).

No it is not. It is still from the time when i believed shields would block Melee attacks. You can remove it.

[PALU]

Going through the file posted, I noted that ranks are listed only up to Colonel, but I believe Brigadier General and General are higher ranks than that. Shouldn't the complete set of ranks be listed?

[Charon]

9 minutes ago, PALU said:

Going through the file posted, I noted that ranks are listed only up to Colonel, but I believe Brigadier General and General are higher ranks than that. Shouldn't the complete set of ranks be listed?

   <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">rank.colonel</Data><NamedCell
      ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Brigade General</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
   </Row>
   <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">rank.colonel.short</Data><NamedCell
      ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">BRG. G.</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell>
   </Row>

There is no rank named General.

[PALU]

New attempt and a couple of questions:

- Does stunning an alien count as a kill, or do you miss out on the morale boos (as well as the kill count)?
- Does "killing" a multi layered alien count as a kill each time, or only the last one?

Ground Combat

Well, we're back with our boots in the dirt again, Commander.
Our latest field reports say that half of the regular damage has the same impact on aliens' neural system as well, and on our soldiers too. Close range weapons like shotguns which have additional stun damage features should be able to almost fully stun a target. Although I would say it dies before that, so a stun weapon of choice will still be necessary for the last part.

Our melee weapons will be a special treat because a trained soldier will almost always be able to bypass or break through the armour, but against the hardest of targets. Also note that melee attacks are able to work around shields, thus ignoring their effects, and this is valid regardless of whether the attacker is our soldier or an alien unit.

Also, if your men think they can unconsciously sleep through a mission you should wake them up with some special adrenaline packs which you will find in the medipack.

And when we're on the subject of battlefield conditions, it's time to bring up the subject of morale. The regular stress of terror and confusion in combat is bad enough, but when you bring in psychic attacks things can go downhill quickly.

Our soldiers' base morale level can improve through various kinds of combat experience, and the higher it is when disembarking in the battlefield, the more stress the soldier can withstand before sinking to a dangerously low level, so every piece of hard won morale, also called bravery, is valuable.

A universal battlefield experience (at least for humans) is that having buddies at your back provides a morale safety net, so the two soldiers with the highest rank within 10 tiles of a soldier bolsters the morale of the soldier through the comfort of having support at hand, and the more experienced the support is, the more comfort is provided.

Knowing that you're led by a capable leader provides comfort that results in an improved starting morale at the start of the battle, while the worry of having to baby sit privates will reduce the leader's ability to support, and thus provide a bonus.

Various battlefield experiences whittle away at the effective morale, although there are a few that are positive, but generally stress will grind morale down during the battle, although the buddy safety net will not be lost (unless the buddies are lost or too far away to lend support), so buddy support provided at the beginning of one turn may change to the beginning of the next one, depending of how units move (or die), but moving back into support range will regain the buddy support lost.

Psionic attacks are particularly potent at reducing morale, but death of soldiers affects everyone's morale, with loss of more experienced comrades in arms taking a higher toll, and losing a ground vehicle shakes the confidence as well. Failure to protect civilians by failing to protect them from aliens also takes a toll on the team, and accidentally killing a civilian even more so, in particular, of course, for the unlucky soldier doing it. Soldiers (or own vehicles) killed by fellow soldiers result in additional loss of morale to the team in general and the killer in particular. Wounding and suppressing fellow soldiers does not help up morale either, although suppression is not nearly as bad as injury, of course. On the positive side of things, aliens killed boosts the morale of the while team, and the one landing the killing blow even more so, and destroying alien vehicles is an even more potent morale booster than a unit, given how dangerous vehicles are.

A soldier with a low morale may freeze in fear or free outright, and, rarely when the morale is extremely low, berserk, firing at a random (live or inanimate, friend or foe) target. There have been rumours of the aliens being able to induce berserking into soldiers, but as far as we have been able to determine, those rumours are incorrect. Recovering from a morale failure results in recovery of some lost morale.

[Charon]

6 minutes ago, PALU said:

while the worry of having to baby sit privates will reduce the leader's ability to support, and thus provide a bonus.

provide a cut to the bonus. ( or the word you were looking for is malus, but the suggestion is better than that )

7 minutes ago, PALU said:

aliens killed boosts the morale of the while team

while

 

Very good entry. I see you tend to describe things very precisely, and i think you work quite well with. Although when you revise things you could think of basically not translating every line of code into a statement eg. describing every moral penalty is too much imho. Fundamentally stating that killing aliens stuff gain moral, while loosing soldiers/civilians/locals is bad, and friendly fire is especially bad FULL STOP.

You dont have to change the entry, just keep it in mind.

Well done.

[PALU]

"Provide" was intended to refer to "ability", so while I think it's technically correct, is easy to misunderstand. "while" is a mistyping of "whole".

[Charon]

1 minute ago, PALU said:

"Provide" was intended to refer to "ability", so while I think it's technically correct, is easy to misunderstand.

The point is that rookies reduces the bonus the leader gives, its not a bonus on top of the bonus.

[PALU]

Being literal at least partially comes from a lack of understanding of the overall perspective. If you don't have a sufficient grasp of it you're reduced to describe the parts, and if you don't know which parts are important, you don't know what you can leave out safely.

Quote: Yes, I understood that, and responded to it. However, it doesn't matter, as I've reworded it:

Ground Combat

Well, we're back with our boots in the dirt again, Commander.
Our latest field reports say that half of the regular damage has the same impact on aliens' neural system as well, and on our soldiers too. Close range weapons like shotguns which have additional stun damage features should be able to almost fully stun a target. Although I would say it dies before that, so a stun weapon of choice will still be necessary for the last part.

Our melee weapons will be a special treat because a trained soldier will almost always be able to bypass or break through the armour, but against the hardest of targets. Also note that melee attacks are able to work around shields, thus ignoring their effects, and this is valid regardless of whether the attacker is our soldier or an alien unit.

Also, if your men think they can unconsciously sleep through a mission you should wake them up with some special adrenaline packs which you will find in the medipack.

And when we're on the subject of battlefield conditions, it's time to bring up the subject of morale. The regular stress of terror and confusion in combat is bad enough, but when you bring in psychic attacks things can go downhill quickly.

Our soldiers' base morale level can improve through various kinds of combat experience, and the higher it is when disembarking in the battlefield, the more stress the soldier can withstand before sinking to a dangerously low level, so every piece of hard won morale, also called bravery, is valuable.

A universal battlefield experience (at least for humans) is that having buddies at your back provides a morale safety net, so the two soldiers with the highest rank within 10 tiles of a soldier bolsters the morale of the soldier through the comfort of having support at hand, and the more experienced the support is, the more comfort is provided.

Knowing that you're led by a capable leader provides comfort that results in an improved starting morale at the start of the battle, while the worry of having to baby sit privates will reduce the leader's ability to provide support, and thus reduces the ability provide a bonus.

Various battlefield experiences whittle away at the effective morale, although there are a few that are positive, but generally stress will grind morale down during the battle, although the buddy safety net will not be lost (unless the buddies are lost or too far away to lend support), so buddy support provided at the beginning of one turn may change to the beginning of the next one, depending of how units move (or die), but moving back into support range will regain the buddy support lost.

Psionic attacks are particularly potent at reducing morale, but death of humans, civilians in particular, shakes the morale. It's bad enough when deaths are caused by the aliens, but "friendly fire" deaths take an additional toll on the team in general and the soldier causing it in particular. Eliminating enemy units help up the morale, and it's even better if it's done by the team, with the highest boost going to the soldier eliminating the enemy.

A soldier with a low morale may freeze in fear or free outright, and, rarely when the morale is extremely low, berserk, firing at a random (live or inanimate, friend or foe) target. There have been rumours of the aliens being able to induce berserking into soldiers, but as far as we have been able to determine, those rumours are incorrect. Recovering from a morale failure results in recovery of some lost morale.

[Charon]

13 minutes ago, PALU said:

while the worry of having to baby sit privates will reduce the leader's ability to provide support, and thus reduces the ability provide a bonus.

decreases the ability to

or simply

deacreases the bonus.

 

The difference between reducing and decreasing is you are reducing something when you are taking 90% out of it, and you decrease something when you take 10% out of it.

[PALU]

I disagree with there being such a distinction, but I've rewritten it to use neither word...

Ground Combat

Well, we're back with our boots in the dirt again, Commander.
Our latest field reports say that half of the regular damage has the same impact on aliens' neural system as well, and on our soldiers too. Close range weapons like shotguns which have additional stun damage features should be able to almost fully stun a target. Although I would say it dies before that, so a stun weapon of choice will still be necessary for the last part.

Our melee weapons will be a special treat because a trained soldier will almost always be able to bypass or break through the armour, but against the hardest of targets. Also note that melee attacks are able to work around shields, thus ignoring their effects, and this is valid regardless of whether the attacker is our soldier or an alien unit.

Also, if your men think they can unconsciously sleep through a mission you should wake them up with some special adrenaline packs which you will find in the medipack.

And when we're on the subject of battlefield conditions, it's time to bring up the subject of morale. The regular stress of terror and confusion in combat is bad enough, but when you bring in psychic attacks things can go downhill quickly.

Our soldiers' base morale level can improve through various kinds of combat experience, and the higher it is when disembarking in the battlefield, the more stress the soldier can withstand before sinking to a dangerously low level, so every piece of hard won morale, also called bravery, is valuable.

A universal battlefield experience (at least for humans) is that having buddies at your back provides a morale safety net, so the two soldiers with the highest rank within 10 tiles of a soldier bolsters the morale of the soldier through the comfort of having support at hand, and the more experienced the support is, the more comfort is provided.

Knowing that you're led by a capable leader provides comfort that results in an improved starting morale at the start of the battle. The worry of having to baby sit privates will lessen the effectiveness of the leadership on the rest of the team, which means the bonus effect provided is smaller when this is the case.

Various battlefield experiences whittle away at the effective morale, although there are a few that are positive, but generally stress will grind morale down during the battle, although the buddy safety net will not be lost (unless the buddies are lost or too far away to lend support), so buddy support provided at the beginning of one turn may change to the beginning of the next one, depending of how units move (or die), but moving back into support range will regain the buddy support lost.

Psionic attacks are particularly potent at reducing morale, but death of humans, civilians in particular, shakes the morale. It's bad enough when deaths are caused by the aliens, but "friendly fire" deaths take an additional toll on the team in general and the soldier causing it in particular. Eliminating enemy units help up the morale, and it's even better if it's done by the team, with the highest boost going to the soldier eliminating the enemy.

A soldier with a low morale may freeze in fear or free outright, and, rarely when the morale is extremely low, berserk, firing at a random (live or inanimate, friend or foe) target. There have been rumours of the aliens being able to induce berserking into soldiers, but as far as we have been able to determine, those rumours are incorrect. Recovering from a morale failure results in recovery of some lost morale.

 

And a handful of new entries (as you may have seen, I've been a bit distracted...):

Advanced Sonic Technology

Our research progressed as expected, Commander. Using our Sonic Technology and adding the insights gained through study of the Advanced Alien Ion Technology we have now figured out how to harness the capabilities of Energy Cores to improve our Sonic range of weapons to the Mk-2 level. Of course, we have to design each individual weapon, but that's a time and effort matter more than an investigation effort. Based on our research, we expect the Mk-2 line to bring a respectable increase in damage to the table.

Assuming we have a sufficient explosives knowledge and, of course, a Mech, we should be able to design a Mech mounted weapon based in this technology. We also have some hope of being able to merge this technology with explosive and Advanced Rail Technologies to design a potent ground vehicle cannon.

Sonic Pistol Mk-1

This weapon really packs a punch! There is no other Pistol in our arsenal that is near to the raw damage dealt by this weapon. Are there drawbacks? Yes. All that punch has to punch through armour, the range, ammo clip capacity, and accuracy are nothing to write home about.

This weapon uses 12 Alien Alloys in its manufacture.

Sonic Rifle Mk-1

If you're looking for raw Energy damage in your Rifle, look no further. If range and armour mitigation are important you probably should look elsewhere.

You have to provide us with 12 Alien Alloys to get one of these weapons.

Sonic Precision Mk-1

While this IS a Precision weapon, the accuracy is weak for this type of weapon. You also have to get uncomfortably close to the target to get in range, but the power is unmatched by any other Precision type weapon in our arsenal.

12 Alien Alloys is what you have to provide to get this weapon.

Sonic Cannon Mk-1

The Sonic Cannon Mk-1 is good at one thing, and that is to deal damage, but it is very good at it. The single shot ammo clip is a weak point, though.

This weapon use 48 Alien Alloys in its manufacture.

Sonic Heavy Mk-1

This is your tool if you want to deal massive raw energy damage at (and probably around) a target, but you will have to get close to it, and the ammo clip capacity is good for only two bursts.

This weapon involves 12 Alien Alloys in its manufacturing process.

Edited September 4, 2018 by PALU