Quick feedback for 2.10 Experimental + 1 Suggestion

[bonerstorm]

I'm the guy who made some very pointed and bitchy commentary in the OG feedback thread for Milestone 1. The one with the "best base layout" which I used again and... I stand by it being optimal in this build, subject to taste.

Just wanted to drop by and say that all of my gripes have been addressed (tweak to Alenium Generators much appreciated! I still won't buy it myself tho...). Milestone 2 is worlds better in terms of balance than Milestone 1. The one whinge I have is that money is a little light, I'm guessing partly because of the effective removal of corpses as a source of income, since you need them for autopsies. I found myself swimming in alenium and alloys, but no money for project to use them on... I ended up selling a bunch, but it didn't quite close the gap. Earlier versions, while being much more difficult, had me swimming in cash if I fought often enough.

Suggestion: Please just convert any item that cannot be used for research/engineering directly into cash. Making the player go into a menu to manually sell everything - not knowing which may be important - is super annoying.

Some might say that this build's too easy - with respect, I cordially invite them to eat my entire anus. It's easy if you're running a mega-optimized strategy, but that's how Soldier difficulty should be --> hard for nomies, easy for experienced players. I'm playing on Solder, BTW, because I couldn't possibly be arsed to play a more difficult setting while bug-hunting. Way too much effort.

 

Speaking of bugs: there were a TON of them. A lot more than previous experimental versions. I pubbed half a dozen bug reports in the three days since its been released. I appreciate the regular progress you guys are making, but I hope you're not cooking up a bunch of spaghetti 

[Grobobobo]

On 11/17/2023 at 3:33 AM, bonerstorm said:

Some might say that this build's too easy - with respect, I cordially invite them to eat my entire anus. It's easy if you're running a mega-optimized strategy, but that's how Soldier difficulty should be

Currently the monetary difference between Soldier and Commander is like what, half a mil in starting + 10% funding reduction? The difference between lower and higher difficulties in that regard is pretty minimal, which i find strange.

Compare this to something like LWR scaling, where the difference in strategy between the easiest and hardest difficulty is like 50%.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Grobobobo

[Grobobobo]

I'd probably rescale the starting funds from 

3 000 000/2 500 000/2 000 000/2 000 000 to 3 500 000/ 3 000 000/2 500 000/2 000 000

and monthly funding from

120%/100%/100%/90% to 130%/ 115%/ 100%/ 85%

(On Recruit/Soldier/Veteran/Commander accordingly)

Edited November 21, 2023 by Grobobobo

[bonerstorm]

On 11/18/2023 at 7:30 AM, Grobobobo said:

I'd probably rescale the starting funds from 

3 000 000/2 500 000/2 000 000/2 000 000 to 3 500 000/ 3 000 000/2 500 000/2 000 000

and monthly funding from

120%/100%/100%/90% to 130%/ 115%/ 100%/ 85%

I'm not convinced that the money is that big a factor in the difficulty. Perhaps you've played on different settings more than me, but I found more difficulty in the added enemies and need to carefully manage TU for overwatch shots. Nerfing the money seems like it'd be more annoying than challenging and it threatens the playability of the game rather than a given mission.

YMMV, but I believe X should be balanced around Ironman play, not quickloading. An experienced player on a more difficult setting should be able to recover from a party-wipe or (more likely) multiple half-wipes, which could be made impossible with a harsh enough change to the budget.

Ideally, players should respond to a serious setback with "I'm going to play harder to fix this" rather than "I'm going to restart the game."

Edited November 20, 2023 by bonerstorm

[Grobobobo]

14 hours ago, bonerstorm said:

but I found more difficulty in the added enemies and need to carefully manage TU for overwatch shots

I find that weird, xenonauts 2 tactical is super easy compared to other games of the genre, especially xenonauts 1, here's why: 

Quote

Nerfing the money seems like it'd be more annoying than challenging and it threatens the playability of the game rather than a given mission.

You misunderstood, this would BUFF the money, especially on lower difficulties like soldier. It would only slightly decrease it on commander, which is the highest difficulty
 

Quote

Perhaps you've played on different settings more than me

I'm playing on commander/ironman (technically honestman because I don't want my save bricked due to bugs), and i find the funds to be pretty plentiful on that difficulty as is.
the game IS balanced around ironman, it's very ironman friendly. I suggested rescaling the funds because the funds being stingy is a pretty common complaint, you literally said it's stingy in your post. 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Grobobobo

[bonerstorm]

3 hours ago, Grobobobo said:

SNIP

I stand corrected! Thanks!