Milestone 4 Balance & Feedback thead!

[Chris]

Hello everyone - this is the balance and feedback thread for our full Milestone 4 release. I've created this so that people can post up any thoughts and feedback they have while playing through Milestone 4 so we can take it into consideration while we work on Milestone 5. Let us know what you think works well, and works badly.

Please do not use this thread to post up bugs, as we've got a dedicated subforum for those - we should reply to bug reports within one working day if you post in the correct channels, whereas we might not notice bug reports posted here!

[Dronxy]

I played version 4.7.0 exhaustively

They made a change to the game's difficulty. I thought it was very cool.
Change in building prices, I found the price of some buildings a little exaggerated, such as the training camp, 750,000 dollars. I believe that around 500,000 dollars is a fair compromise. Taking into account that you reduced the effectiveness of soldiers' training, mission experience gain and minimum recruitment status. In addition, the number of soldiers trained in the training camp decreases

In the middle to end of the game. There should be missions that give money. So we are in that dilemma, sell the alien materials to make money or leave the materials to make weapons, aircraft and improve the base. Or build new bases on the map. And this slows down the game.

It would be really cool to have sabotage missions. Where you invade an alien base, you steal money and resources from them.

Site bomb missions could give a cash reward. To compensate for slow progress in the middle of the game

A cool thing to introduce into the game. I could build a junkyard. Where you transport medium to large downed ships. And it takes a while to disassemble them. You could choose to either do a quick loot after finishing the mission or dismantle the alien ship to get more resources

I dropped a Harvester and it generated automatic resource collection. Well, it generated 20 Alloy and 15 Alenium. You could take into account the size of the alien aircraft to generate resources in automatic collection. A harvester should generate at least triple the amount I mentioned above

Since the aliens' damage and the game's difficulty have increased. It could create a Tier 3 shield. My soldier's Shield is almost being destroyed in one shot. Could make an energy shield. With the same amount of life as the Tier 2 shield. But with the difference, when taking damage and the next round it takes no damage. It regenerates durability

There must be an upgrade for electric baton, electric rifle and taser gun. There comes a point in the game when the aliens become very strong. And these weapons grow weak

It took about 30 days for the first harvesting ship to appear. And I couldn't release the research to produce better armor. I was using the Guardian Armor. But the aliens were so strong. That a soldier with 100 health and 25 armor. I took 150 damage and died instantly. A solution to solve this problem could be. Have an upgrade on guardian armor, like the laser rifle and colossal armor. To increase its useful life and avoid Hit kill from enemies. Bomb Site missions, where I faced 29 enemies with my soldiers, it was certain death. Because in addition to the high damage, the aliens have incredible precision

Smoke grenades could use some improvement. Same as the others. Like increasing its size when thrown and further reducing enemies' accuracy. By shooting through them. As I said before, how they increased the difficulty of the game with smoke and the aliens are shooting through them. In other words, they increased the difficulty of the game but the equipment did not keep up

Camouflage armor I only use on snipers. But 15 armor is very little. Seriously cool as you progress through the game. You release an improvement for her. Same as the laser rifle and Colossal armor

I don't know if it's a bug or a new game mechanic. But when getting shot. And going on another mission, my soldier would lose his life and regain it. Example a soldier has 100 health. He was shot, a shot that did 80 damage. I healed him and he recovered 40 and had 60 health. When going on another mission with the same team without returning to base. He starts the other mission with 20 life

An interesting thing to do. When you have the option to do several missions in sequence. It would be interesting to have an inventory on the transport ships. Because I did a mission in sequence. And the soldiers start the mission without reloading their inner mission weapons. And some soldiers without grenades and others with 6. It would be good to have a mechanic that can move you from one mission to another. Have the option to reload weapons and redistribute ammunition and grenades among the team

Heavy machine gun. A mechanic that you could introduce into the game. If the soldier stops at a box or a wall. He mounts the machine gun using a tripod. And give a small accuracy bonus

Alpha Hunter is missing description text

When the base is tataca and the air battery manages to successfully destroy the alien ship. Should generate some material

Some ship crash missions. It could have two mantoids. It takes a long time to collect the amount needed to perform a ballistic test.

The large alien ships. There could be people trapped inside it. When released it gives a small amount of panic reduction

There could be more variety of missions. Sabotage, capture of special aliens, etc...

Mission to capture alien captain

I have a lot of difficulty identifying the alien captain. Because I play in the mode that doesn't show the enemy's name or health. It would be really interesting if you made the alien captain have a different skin. For example, he is a little taller. It's a different uniform so it's easy to identify. For example an all black one. Or all red

That was all I remembered. What if the text is difficult to read. I apologize, I do not have command of the English language

[Dronxy]

I played this new update!. Before I speak my suggestions. I come to congratulate the developers for increasing the campaign time, as it was possible to enjoy the game more and test almost everything in the game.

Second, if there are any concordance errors in my text. Since I'm using google translate, I don't speak or write in English.

Well, let's go!. I'm going to put it in the order that I'm remembering. !.

Basic skill trees. Seriously interesting to have a skill tree. Where it interferes with the development of the base or several bases. For example, place up to three levels for each skill. For example: Base maintenance cost reduction lvl 1 - 10, lvl - 20%, lvl 3 - 30%

Reduction of the salary of the personnel of scientists, soldiers and engineers Lvl 1 - 5%, Lvl 2 - 10%, Lvl 3 - 15%

Aircraft repair speed Lvl 1 +10%, Lvl 2 + 20%, Lvl 3 + 30% (Many times my planes were badly damaged and I couldn't attack the alies and they roamed all over the map. Without me being able to interfere.)

Aircraft maintenance cost reduction Lvl 1 - 10%, Lvl 2- 20% Lvl 3 - 30%

Soldiers' rest speed Lvl 1 +10%, Lvl 2 + 20%, Lvl 3 + 30%(. , I believe I have to put a system where soldiers get tired during missions and this affects performance such as accuracy and time units)

And alien bases should appear sporadically on the map. It should be in infinite mode like the ships

That would be interesting in the middle to the end of the game. It has missions where you can find stock of aliens with money and some material from them. Well, I had a hard time at that point. There comes a time when the payment of the continents or the lack of alien material hinders the development of the game.

Missions at night, soldiers are affected, at night. But aliens don't have the same problem. A lot of times they see me, I don't. Especially that reptilian alien. He sees poorly from afar, and this should affect him more

Alien that hypnotizes. I was on a mission and put 5 soldiers on surveillance. The 5 soldiers missed the shots and he hypnotized all of them and then they killed each other, one shooting the other. Seriously interesting to limit this to, at most, hypnotizing two soldiers per alien

Mission to search for specific alies. Seriously interesting, in the polls. For example, the Mantoid, he only showed up on one mission and didn't show up again and I couldn't research the ballistic test on his body. Then you could limit this type of search to once a month in the game. And you can choose which alien you can look for

Alien champions. It would be nice to have heroes of all races except Hunter. Ai has a special mission to hunt them down. It would be nice to have three heroes per race. And that would have consequences, for example. By defeating the alien champion, the aliens decrease the amount of attacks or make them furious. So you could have a lottery system, 50% of them reduce attacks and 50% of them attack more for a week

If alien planes pass near the bases, it would be nice to have the option to activate the anti-aircraft batteries and shoot them down. As a result, it takes two to four days to recharge the batteries, leaving the base vulnerable to intrusions

When you destroy an alien base. It can have consequences, decrease the alien attacks or increase them for seven days

Armor!. You've greatly lowered their resistance. I, with the best armor available, am taking deathmatch hits. Better take a look at that. Increases at least 3 points of armor in each

When any continent is in the midst of 100 days of panic, the missions of kidnapping and terror. It no longer appears. You have to review that. Because sometimes planes are being repaired and we can't prevent them from losing a continent due to lack of mission

Kill counter. I like to play with as many aliens on the map as possible. But sometimes I lose count of how many I've killed on my mission. It would be nice to add in the bottom corner, the amount of enemies killed during the mission. To have a better control of how many enemies you have.

When the aliens attack the base and the defense battery, it destroys all the alien ships. I should leave materials. Even if it was a small amount

I believe that's all I remember. If you have any other suggestions, I'll come back here.

 

[Skitso]

First terror mission is a huge difficulty spike. (maybe intentional?)

[gG-Unknown]

Stun gun

- nerf to 15 combined with low acc makes this weapon useless. Keep 15 stun but add some acc (5-10%)

Knife

- reduction weight is positive step but  it is still too heavy. Knife weight shout be in range of < half_of_ pistol ; pistol_ammo_clip > therfore new knife weight should  be 2-5 units

- current knife has only one type off attack.  that needs to be improved. introduce slash attack (TU cheaper 10%, acc bonus about 15%, slight dmg nerf 10%, so slash has same damage as knife did in milestone 3). introduce stab attack (slight dmg +5%, it causes bleed 10dmg, so stab has +15% damage as compared to milestone 3). introduce throw  attack (range 5, dmg equal to slash attack, an  desperate option)

I think, knife should be reasonable secondary weapon, where slash is fast reliable attack suited for finishing opponent. dmg/TU ratio is lower(not efficient) but one usage is significantly cheaper than firearm. Therefore soldier can not afford second fire, but can afford slash.

-------------

I like soldiers are dying a lot. That gives proper desperate feeling of whole fight. The problem is, difference between veteran and new_hired soldier is too  much. Which means, people rather save scum than experience loss. Here is a better system : when trained soldier die, then a new soldier on recruit screen is added, the newly added soldier has half experience of dead  veteran. Therfore, later in game player can see quite capable recruits,  which means a snowball effect of dead veteran therfore low performance  recruit in next mission therfore more dead bodyes is lowered.

On  top, a new mechanic promoting saving bodies is introduced. Soldier who is KIA become "recycled" into better recruit (see above). Soldier MIA are not. Therfore player has gameplay reward/mechanic to bbring back dead soldiers from  raid mission to  home, to keep morale high, to appear experienced recruit. This mechanic  need to be introduced by help tootips or perhaps better Operation_center  lady.

Edited June 27, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

double post, delete me

Edited June 27, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[GIraaa]

Awesome, congratulations and great work!

Chris, a couple of asks / recommendations:

1 - aircraft pilots could have a skill tree / experience bar too, so that they improve as they shoot down more alien ships.

2 - add the option in tactical battles to use AI so that the squad gets controlled by computer, this would be a super cool concept, I think many players will enjoy it.

3 - change the forced night mode whenever fighting alien bases, it should depend on when the ship lands, and personally I do everything I can to not fight at night as I can't enjoy the game when I do have to fight at night.

Thank you.

[Skitso]

I agree with @gG-Unknown: stun gun seems a bit underwhelming and boosting it's accuracy seems like the right way to fix it.

[gG-Unknown]

Balance  of  shotgun spins  in my head.

range 9 shorter than pistol is wrong, also latest TU increase is  wrong. Shotgun is a weapon for reflexive shooting of high dmg where disadvantage is bloody slow reload. FYI  : In current war involving lots of flying drones, soldiers started to  use shotguns to shot  them down.

Surprise surprise, full-auto assault rifle is far less successful than shotgun in shooting down drones. Shotgun's Accuracy and speed of handling (time to aim to target) in short ranges 3-30m is unmatched. Soldiers are  getting new military full auto shotguns or even use their own civilian double  barrel shotguns.

My recommendation for shotgun fix:

 

revert latest TU  nerf AND change "clip"  size  to 6 AND set   range to 11 AND crank-up reload cost to maximum (from current 24 to 50?) 

Edited June 29, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

4.2.10 HEVY

shooting at short range (cca 7  tiles) is using upper ballistic angle about  45 degree, looks silly. Like a trebuchet.  Most probably you have copied code from grenades. HEAVY should use the flat ballistic curve. Initial Velocity of HEVY projectile should be  the same every shot, contrary hand-grenade  velocity is   variable. Therefore, HEAVY shooting at 7 tiles should use a (flat) ballistic curve which almost  looks  like a  direct fire.

 

I  am aware that some math researach need to be done, but you could use  result for other weapons too. Mars rockets for  example.

Edited June 30, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[silencer]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:24 AM, Skitso said:

First terror mission is a huge difficulty spike. (maybe intentional?)

Nah it's not, however when Harvesters come into play, I think someone overdid the numbers:

That is terror mission. (and Chris - you died on that mission)

We need way better protection against the plasma/fusion guns. A soldier in colossus armor can get 2 shotted, a soldier in Guardian will be one shotted, meanwhile the Elite Androns can take 4-5 shots to the face. It just feels as armor values should be doubled. Might as well make everyone a shield wth spare rifle in the backpack. Then surival chance will improve because shield can survive 2-3 shots.

 

The grenade launcher should get upgrade that will increase it's range and maybe lower the TU cost for Aimed shot or buff the accuracy of the snap shot

Colossus armor should also gain suppression immunity and possibly bonus ACC for those machinguns otherwise I'm not sure they are worth using, considering they can't even use the autoheal module.

 

Cyberdrone should not have free AP to turn during players turns. Player then can cheese it to always show it's backside.

Servitors should also use APs to auto heal aliens or disable auto heal durring player turn. It doesn't make sense for FREE action during turn based game.

 

On 6/27/2024 at 9:26 AM, gG-Unknown said:

I like soldiers are dying a lot. That gives proper desperate feeling of whole fight. The problem is, difference between veteran and new_hired soldier is too  much. Which means, people rather save scum than experience loss. Here is a better system : when trained soldier die, then a new soldier on recruit screen is added, the newly added soldier has half experience of dead  veteran. Therfore, later in game player can see quite capable recruits,  which means a snowball effect of dead veteran therfore low performance  recruit in next mission therfore more dead bodyes is lowered.

 

Or just increase survival chance for the veterans. Despite having 35% for the med bay, in my last mission 5 men casaulty none were resuced, which make me scream - broken. In fact in my entire v4.9+ campaign none of my dead soldiers were reanimated, and I've lost currently something between 10-15.

Maybe add 5% bonus per 10HP to survival chance? Or just like in XCOM higher ranked soldiers have better chance at being downed, or just give some kind of module for the tactical belt that improves survival rate. To balnce it out, don't make it available in unlimited quantities.

Edited June 29, 2024 by silencer

[gG-Unknown]

6 minutes ago, silencer said:

Or just increase survival chance for the veterans. .

No.  Freedom has to be paid by blood.

I dont  like another game "hire  up five soldier and save the earth".

No heroes here, just scared soldiers who fight nails and teeth to the  last moment.

Edited June 29, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[silencer]

And yet you propose paranormal. Might as well give a engineering project, that will improve new recruits.

Edited June 29, 2024 by silencer

[gG-Unknown]

18 minutes ago, silencer said:

And yet you propose paranormal. Might as well give a engineering project, that will improve new recruits.

No paranormal.

It is morale of nation and reputation of Xenonaut company  system.

When a xenonaut soldier  die, then it is probably  announced in local news. Power of propaganda kicks  in,  so experienced people want to sign up  contract.

 

Same in reverse, when soldier ends like MIA, then it is massive shame, so only  privats sign up.

Coincidently,  well for  game coding  simplicity, system is described as a simple division of experience.

Edited June 29, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[Conductiv]

relative to the previous stable build:

air combat changes up to abductor and up to laser lance/alenium explosives tech:
-general access to missiles and cannon systems feels much better, also doesn't drown out engineering anymore.
-still needs some sort of reward if the AA battery takes down an invading ship, rather then winning the tactical battle in base defense

base building changes:
so far, doesn't feel that much different, the costs of structures is higher and that delays building extra bases, but the early game is delayed relative to the previous build as well.

tactical up to abductor:
-melee changes, on the fence about this. melee is risky as you have to get into point blank range and many enemies have relatively high reflex scores to start with, so much so that even 100 reflex troops cannot reliably hit all enemies. on top of that, the enemies most vulnerable to getting hit in melee are explosive robots that cannot be suppressed. in the old system the risk was offset by its reliability, in the current system, I still find it hard to justify melee weapons against anything.
-close range accuracy changes on the AR, pistol, MG, overall seems to be a good change. makes the AR's automatic function slightly better up close. shotguns are still way better at the close range then the AR (as they should), but at least the automatic function has improved...slightly..
-HEVY changes, indirect fire is great on it, makes the weapon much more useful. however if it misses it seems like the soldier tripped or something...the round almost veers off to a completely new zipcode. missing targets with 15-20 tiles..a miss the size of a whole building, gives a new meaning to "can't hit the broad side of a barn"  
-still needs some indicator for weapons with a "no move" bonus, this is a big part of the sniper and a minor part of the MG gameplay. but unless you pay attention to the hit breakdown, you will never know its there.
-advanced stun weapons is unchanged, but may need a tune up. advanced stungun is harder to aim, and loses out against armor compered to the 25 armpen basic, and all of the EMP damage caused is low and barely competes just hitting the enemy with equal tier guns. now the strength of the weapon is that it can stun..but its EMP gimmick is a little weak. the exception to that is the flashbang upgrade, as that upgrade is extremely powerful...turning the 1-trick utility grenade into a swiss army knife that is useful against every target, and inflicts the most EMP damage of all grenade types

[gG-Unknown]

14 hours ago, Conductiv said:

-melee changes, on the fence about this. melee is risky as you have to get into point blank range and many enemies have relatively high reflex scores to start with, so much so that even 100 reflex troops cannot reliably hit all enemies. on top of that, the enemies most vulnerable to getting hit in melee are explosive robots that cannot be suppressed. in the old system the risk was offset by its reliability, in the current system, I still find it hard to justify melee weapons against anything.

Somwhat agree that reliability  should  be higher. Problem is, that is can easy turn  game  into a club war.

I like melee idea reflex difference and omitting accuracy stats, it very RPG style. You get shooters  and brawlers.

What about further improve melee accuracy based on HP  difference ?

- one  acc bonus   is reflex difference

- second  acc bonus is percentage HP difference >>  Soldier has 100% HP, oponent has 20%HP = difference is  80% than slash by 2 (just becouse :-] )>>> then final HP advantage  acc bonus is  40%

Result is : hit  melee  is easier when your opponent is more damaged than you.  It creates a Warhammer:40K situations of a  SpaceMarine with pistol in one hand and knife in  other to  finish Zenos.

Bang-bang-slash.

Edited July 1, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[Skitso]

The new melee changes make repapers a lot less terrifying. I'd consider reducing their attack cost and/or increase reflexes.

[kyu bey]

Still having the problem of less missions even at mid - late game. Mostly just ufo crash.

Got 2 different missions (1 is ufo crash, 1 is forgotten), but every single alien outside ufo is 100% stealth alien. The other mission? 100% stealth alien. 
Also some of them love to just toss a grenade. I spread my xenos around 3 - 4 tiles. so i think it's on purpose trying to kill 1, not because i'm being punished for being too close at each other.
Grenade tossing starts after 120 days.

As someone who doesn't want to build 'money printing base' money is still a problem.
1 normal base (fully built) + 1 base with mostly planes, radar & 3 batteries cost 3m+ in upkeep. Funding is only like 7m at best?

Would be nice to have at least cleaner ambush mission appeared min once per month (as long as cleaner HQ still exist).

Sometimes most of the enemies are spread very close to me. So the combat starts with super sweat, but after that the map feels empty-ish since there's only like 1 / 2 enemy left.
^usually at turn 2
Already better than milestone 3 though. I got literally spawn camped multiple times back then. Just need to go out from the ship a little & i spotted like 6 / 7 enemies.
^turn 1

[Komandos]

On 6/27/2024 at 10:26 AM, gG-Unknown said:

I like soldiers are dying a lot. That gives proper desperate feeling of whole fight. The problem is, difference between veteran and new_hired soldier is too  much. Which means, people rather save scum than experience loss. Here is a better system : when trained soldier die, then a new soldier on recruit screen is added, the newly added soldier has half experience of dead  veteran. Therfore, later in game player can see quite capable recruits,  which means a snowball effect of dead veteran therfore low performance  recruit in next mission therfore more dead bodyes is lowered.

The problem of the shortage of experienced soldiers is easily solved by building educational institutions where your soldiers are trained. However, this will mean additional costs: for the maintenance of such soldiers and for the construction and maintenance of training centers. The player can choose any strategy for training soldiers: either train soldiers in battle, or train soldiers in training centers.

It would also be wise for the list of available (for hire) soldiers to be fully updated once a month. Thus, the list of available soldiers for recruitment will not accumulate very weak soldiers who will have to be hired due to the lack of the best.

[Komandos]

On 6/29/2024 at 2:57 PM, gG-Unknown said:

It is morale of nation and reputation of Xenonaut company  system.

When a xenonaut soldier  die, then it is probably  announced in local news. Power of propaganda kicks  in,  so experienced people want to sign up  contract.

High morale can be evidenced by the willingness of soldiers to fight for much less reward or even for free. If soldiers are ready to defend the planet only for a lot of money (and even then: for 8,000,000,000 people, there are only a few dozen who want to protect the planet and these people will not be of the best quality), then the reputation of xenonauts can already be considered extremely low.

With the increasing reputation of the Xenonauts organization, people will come to the organization who will fight only for an idea and not for a monetary reward. And also people who need much less money will come to the organization.

[gG-Unknown]

some wording bumped to my nose and UI details:

Weapon description - Hit Bonus + xx% >> it is no bonus, actually  it is a "penalty  for long range shot" . Perhaps make  it shorter and two words as "Long range" then number make negative as  : -4,25%

Example:

Current

Hit bonus +4,25%

Proposed

Long range -4,25%

Loading screen  from battle to globe, says (in left down corner) : "Strategic  layer" it should rather be "Operation control"  same as lady is called Operation control manager - so we can guess  she sits in the same office. "Main base" would be also  good. Name "Strategic layer" sounds like an early design  document terminology, not suited for build up  atmosphere.

 

Also, you made good work in masking loading time when loading combat mission. Put the mission briefeing on the loading screen makes waiting feel shorter - player can read something. Now, do the same for loading screen after  the battle. Show the mission reesult screen (kiiled, captured, wounded, promoted. atc) on the loading background to "Strategic layer"

After-mission result screen have  to be resized to fit 9 soldiers without scrolling! that hurts, really. at least half of game, player has 9 soldiers but design is so stupid that player have to scroll to actually see results.

 

Inventory screen in battle.

Need to be moved down towards screen bottom, so the upper_bar with all soldier icons is visible. Inventory AND  the upper_bar__of_icons need to be in the same layer, all accessible. So  player can EASY click on any icon of other soldier  in thee upper_bar to change inventory screen. After this re-positioning UI components, the navigation arrows left/right (next/previous soldier) in the inventory screen   can be removed. These buttons are clunky and old_school (in bad meaning). To further improve   feeling inventory is the_something_else : When show inventory  screen, hide bottom panel (soldier face, hp, weapon, ... ) so screen is more clear, then player can better focus at the inventory sub-window.

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2024 by gG-Unknown

[Chris]

15 minutes ago, gG-Unknown said:

some wording bumped to my nose and UI details:

Weapon description - Hit Bonus + xx% >> it is no bonus, actually  it is a "penalty  for long range shot" . Perhaps make  it shorter and two words as "Long range" then number make negative as  : -4,25%

Example:

Current

Hit bonus +4,25%

Proposed

Long range -4,25%

Just to pick up on this because there seems to be confusion - no, this isn't how it works. You get +4.25% for each tile closer to the target than maximum range.

[gG-Unknown]

14 minutes ago, Chris said:

Just to pick up on this because there seems to be confusion - no, this isn't how it works. You get +4.25% for each tile closer to the target than maximum range.

ehm, now I look like stupid.

 

[Rakiii]

I am playing on Commander past day 120 ...

The balance and economy seems broken in one way or another.

First of all there are very little UFO activities / cleaner missions from early to mid game in general.

I would expect a few missions per week and not per month.

I would add 2-3 missions first month and 4-5 the second etc. ...

NO (only a few) missions mean I am low on resources all the time.

On top of that game is harder (sometimes way harder).

I guess A.I. has been improved and some missions have  been changed.

I had one of the very first mission data raid and it has been way harder than before (compared to previou iterations 1-3)

At first I had basic gear no MARS at the second attempt I had a few laser weapons (not upgraded), without MARS too.

There are many enemies you need to deal with (I am ok with that) but you have limited time before reinforcement will go.
The problem is it seems all enemies know your position and just run even through smoke and hunt you now.
Once reinforcement spawns it´s over . They are faster than you and hunts you ...

I would add +1 turn and lessen number of enemies on field by 2-3 (it´s one of the very first missions anyway... )

Weapons
Melee weapons are too weak now.
I would at least reduce TU spent from 25% to 15-20% TU

Stun guns feel weak too (or add one tier of an extra upgrade) Otherwise I would buff range, accu and damage by small amount (10% or amth) + 1 shell in clip would be cool

The buffed heavy launcher feels quite nice. I would still buff base damage (from 25 to 35) or reduce TU spent (from 48% to 44%)

The rest of the basic guns feel ok.
I would probably nerf range of shotgun to 8 though (to differ from other weapons more).

Laser guns are too good to remove cover (Especially UFO hull should be way tougher ). Cover is weak in general

Economy is too tight ....

I have no problem some things cost more now (hospital) and you need to make a decision what to afford first but ...

I have been successful with destroying UFOs, doing missions and everything (my monthly fundings were going up) but in fact my total income per month were going down bcos of brutal upkeep cost.
I would reduce upkeep for everything by 20%.

 

Later the economy and things are getting worse ...
 

The main problem is I have researched tech but I couldn´t afford it (not enough exotic materials and cash).

That´s bcos there are only a few missions / UFOs to explore in earlier phases (first months) and if you fail one or two missions you are in a big disadvantage.

The abduction mission with wraiths was fun ...
I don´t know but they can hit everything (even through 1-2 smokes ... )
They have no weaknesses ... They are accurate, with good camo, use grenades, ...

Not only they can hit everything with weapons but they use grenades with pinpoint accuracy that deal insane damage too (one or two shoting my troops hiding behind cover / smoke whatever ,.. always hit).

I know you have nerfed their life (I don´tmind) but I would reduce their accuracy by 20% for weapons and 50% for grenades (dno how its calculated) and reduce damage dealt by grenades by 20%.

I also think grenades could deal damage based on point of impact and if possible less damage if you stay behind a wall etc.

 

I had a terror mission day 12x with elite Psyons (plasma weapons) and four big drones very close to my transport ship...
It went really bad cos I needed to fight with basic laser weapons, without MARS and with just a few guardian armor (I couldn´t afford more ... no resources .. )
Alenium explosives helped a bit but I couldn´t win anyway ...
It seems A.I. knows my position even though I used smokes etc ...

To sum it up ... I would like to have more missions / UFO crashes in general with better economy.
I would reduce upkeep by 20% and add more UFO activities / missions in general.

Thx for reading:)

Edited July 4, 2024 by Rakiii

[Skitso]

13 minutes ago, Rakiii said:

I am playing on Commander past day 120 ...

The balance and economy seems broken in one way or another.

First of all there are very little UFO activities / cleaner missions from early to mid game in general.

I would expect a few missions per week and not per month.

I would add 2-3 missions first month and 4-5 the second etc. ...

NO (only a few) missions mean I am low on resources all the time.

On top of that game is harder (sometimes way harder).

I guess A.I. has been improved and some missions have  been changed.

I had one of the very first mission data raid and it has been way harder than before (compared to previou iterations 1-3)

At first I had basic gear no MARS at the second attempt I had a few laser weapons (not upgraded), without MARS too.

There are many enemies you need to deal with (I am ok with that) but you have limited time before reinforcement will go.
The problem is it seems all enemies know your position and just run even through smoke and hunt you now.
Once reinforcement spawns it´s over . They are faster than you and hunts you ...

I would add +1 turn and lessen number of enemies on field by 2-3 (it´s one of the very first missions anyway... )

Weapons
Melee weapons are too weak now.
I would at least reduce TU spent from 25% to 15-20% TU

Stun guns feel weak too (or add one tier of an extra upgrade) Otherwise I would buff range, accu and damage by small amount (10% or amth) + 1 shell in clip would be cool

The buffed heavy launcher feels quite nice. I would still buff base damage (from 25 to 35) or reduce TU spent (from 48% to 44%)

The rest of the basic guns feel ok.
I would probably nerf range of shotgun to 8 though (to differ from other weapons more).

Laser guns are too good to remove cover (Especially UFO hull should be way tougher ). Cover is weak in general

Economy is too tight ....

I have no problem some things cost more now (hospital) and you need to make a decision what to afford first but ...

I have been successful with destroying UFOs, doing missions and everything (my monthly fundings were going up) but in fact my total income per month were going down bcos of brutal upkeep cost.
I would reduce upkeep for everything by 20%.

 

Later the economy and things are getting worse ...
 

The main problem is I have researched tech but I couldn´t afford it (not enough exotic materials and cash).

That´s bcos there are only a few missions / UFOs to explore in earlier phases (first months) and if you fail one or two missions you are in a big disadvantage.

The abduction mission with wraiths was fun ...
I don´t know but they can hit everything (even through 1-2 smokes ... )
They have no weaknesses ... They are accurate, with good camo, use grenades, ...

Not only they can hit everything with weapons but they use grenades with pinpoint accuracy that deal insane damage too (one or two shoting my troops hiding behind cover / smoke whatever ,.. always hit).

I know you have nerfed their life (I don´tmind) but I would reduce their accuracy by 20% for weapons and 50% for grenades (dno how its calculated) and reduce damage dealt by grenades by 20%.

I also think grenades could deal damage based on point of impact and if possible less damage if you stay behind a wall etc.

 

I had a terror mission day 12x with elite Psyons (plasma weapons) and four big drones very close to my transport ship...
It went really bad cos I needed to fight with basic laser weapons, without MARS and with just a few guardian armor (I couldn´t afford more ... no resources .. )
Alenium explosives helped a bit but I couldn´t win anyway ...
It seems A.I. knows my position even though I used smokes etc ...

To sum it up ... I would like to have more missions / UFO crashes in general with better economy.
I would reduce upkeep by 20% and add more UFO activities / missions in general.

Thx for reading:)

I agree:

• More ufos
• Shotgun nerf
• First terror missions too difficult
• Stun guns too weak
• Wraiths need some tweaking to be less frustrating
• AI being too aggressive (missions too front loaded)

I disagree:

• intel gather difficulty.  (They seem too easy)