Milestone 5 - Official Feedback / Game Balance Thread

[Xeferah]

12 hours ago, Crowbar said:

1. The aliens accuracy is rather high, as in, they seldom miss. Even behind cover and smoke chances are apparently great for them to hit. What I miss is an option to duck behind cover effectively lowering the aliens to hit chance by like 50% in addition to the smoke and cover your hiding behind, while sacrificing your remaining TU's with a minimum of 25% of your total TU.
2. Wraiths cloaking seems to work on a toggle? If I hit an uncloaked one, it's cloaked after the hit.
3. I couldn't close big doors on my own turn to prevent being shot at at the start of the alien's turn. Is this intended?
4. I like the OP, but I would like to suggest a few things that hopefully improve gameplay:
   1. Paying 35 OP to play a UFO mission after only 2 times playing a UFO class feels too much to me. I'm one of those players who does love playing all of them, so this is very restrictive. Maybe lower the cost a bit and let us play like 4 times before paying OP.
   2. Putting OP in supporters and thus turn an support icon to green should have a single panic lowering effect. Maybe like 5% or so? Your supporter will stress the importance of the Xenonaut initiative which gives the region confidence we're equal to the task.
   3. If a UFO gets downed over a region it should have a small panic reducing effect. Maybe depending on the size of the craft a 1 to 5 percent?

1. Depends on the aliens I guess? Greenskins miss quite often, while mantid and sectoids (in groups) rarely miss. But then again, those die a lot easier, so it balances out. Just kill them before they can fire ;-) For that single reason I ALWAYS go for maximum armor on ALL troops. Camo for snipers might sound nice, but if due to random back luck a sniper does get hit, it will die in a single shot. I prefer my soldiers to survive at least a single shot, and max armor almost always has that effect. I nowadays rarely lose a soldier in 1 shot. Also, for that single reason, I never pick soldiers with less than 50 starting hp and I prefer 60+ starting hp even.
2. Yeah, I did not know that either, but it's in the patch notes. It's intended: starts without cloak, toggles on hit and after their turn it's back off again, to be turned on after a hit again.
3. No idea if it's intended, I think not, but that's the way it is at the moment.
4. -
   1. Agree, however they need to balance the bounty reward vs raid reward. At the moment the raiding reward is way too high compared to a measly 100K-300K cash reward.
   2. Not a bad suggestion.
   3. It already does. Early game you don't notice it much, but after you shoot down 6 UFO's per 'spawn' you really start to notice the effect. Shoot them down fast and early and you can get all panic down to 0 eventually.

Edited January 28 by Xeferah
Added lines to point 1

[Crowbar]

7 hours ago, Xeferah said:

1. Depends on the aliens I guess? Greenskins miss quite often, while mantid and sectoids (in groups) rarely miss. But then again, those die a lot easier, so it balances out. Just kill them before they can fire ;-) For that single reason I ALWAYS go for maximum armor on ALL troops. Camo for snipers might sound nice, but if due to random back luck a sniper does get hit, it will die in a single shot. I prefer my soldiers to survive at least a single shot, and max armor almost always has that effect. I nowadays rarely lose a soldier in 1 shot. Also, for that single reason, I never pick soldiers with less than 50 starting hp and I prefer 60+ starting hp even.
2. Yeah, I did not know that either, but it's in the patch notes. It's intended: starts without cloak, toggles on hit and after their turn it's back off again, to be turned on after a hit again.
3. No idea if it's intended, I think not, but that's the way it is at the moment.
4. -
   1. Agree, however they need to balance the bounty reward vs raid reward. At the moment the raiding reward is way too high compared to a measly 100K-300K cash reward.
   2. Not a bad suggestion.
   3. It already does. Early game you don't notice it much, but after you shoot down 6 UFO's per 'spawn' you really start to notice the effect. Shoot them down fast and early and you can get all panic down to 0 eventually.

Thanks for the explanations on the wraith and UFO panic reduction! And of course the other feedback as well. I also agree on the cash reward. But besides that, it's also a great way to train soldiers. So even if the cash reward is raised, I still would like to play a bit more UFO battles before being forced to make a choice between cashing or playing.

[Bobrob]

Hey Chris. So far great job on the changes made. I know you had mentioned that the Cleaner campaign has been shortened in milestone 5 which I noticed, several of the missions being cut based on the campaign. Since this phase 1 feature has such a cool story line , I  was hoping down the road that you can also have an option to select an extended cleaner campaign to include the original series of missions.  Just a thought for those of us that enjoy those unique missions and story plot. 

[FOARP]

On 1/21/2025 at 2:24 PM, Xeferah said:

They are good, early game. On the flip side, I never had any alien ever throw a regular grenade anymore. Luck, or a bug?

Later game, Vanguard armor is fully gas right, so the gas grenades are moot. We need something new the aliens can do that would make them dangerous again in late game. Also, I would love to be able to make my own gas grenades!

I've seen explosive grenades used by aliens in the present build, but no more than once-twice in an entire play-through (the time I remember in 5.7 was by a wraith in an alien base). Poison gas grenades get used way more by the AI, even when your guys all have masks - somewhat pointless.

On that topic, since masks are essentially cost-free except for the weight/space taken up by them, and later the armour has integral masks, this feels a little broken - the only time gas is a real issue is when you forget to bring masks and/or don't know that gas is a threat.

[gG-Unknown]

Issue : Armory uses a  pattern background for items (items in the right side column) this pattern probably repeats the "main art style" of UI elements, but it is VERY unfortunate. The pattern makes difficult to  see details of items, items literally blends into pattern.  Solution : replace the pattern by a single colour  - get inspiration in the inventory screen,  simple gray background for items is much more readable.  Best would be  simple black. Compare an item which is in the battle screen botom bar = the black background with readability item on the armoury screen. An art ambition should not overwhelm usability. Thank you !

 

Remove this toxic pattern from background.

Pattern is aso used here :

Remove it, it is ugly, detail of items blends into pattern.

Edited February 9 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

Issue : Inventory screen contains buttons which are obsolete. Use space better. Put there : Medals, number of kills in the mission, LoadOut icon (this icon should be used more, perhaps put it also on the top screen bar of soldiers in tactical mode)

Edited February 9 by gG-Unknown

[Pietje666]

Accelerated weapons could be easily fixed by replacing your weapons with them. 

I was playing an abduction mission, and was surprised to see those cleaner soldiers mixed up with sectoids. Was that intended? It spoils kinda the fun, previously you could see there are some connections, but you aren't sure.

[gG-Unknown]

version 5.12

 

 

Phase 1 initial screen : Chief scientist has same clothes on the main screen as he has on personal photo in left down corner. Contrary, the Operation lady not. For first screen of the game, personal photo should match the main screen to create personality link.

 

Crouch button is the most often used control element in whole battle UI, but has just keyboard shortcut.

Add to the default setting MOUSE3 : crouch (it is the side mouse button, the thumb)

Add to the default setting MOUSE4 : inventory (it is the side mouse button, the thumb) inventory should be also quick access. I think it  makes sense map those two features on thumb, they are next to each other in UI and also has some logical linkage.

The new grenade dmg falloff works nicely. Feels natural. Great improvement. The problem is, there is no indication in advance. Use several shades of green to inform player about several dmg steps. Darkest green in the centre tile, light green on edge of blast.

Game makes autosave after each turn, even it is switched Dissabled in the  options

Smoke blast radius is overdo, everything is covered by smoke. Player USUALY do not see the game, pretty crazy design. Make rather Smaller blast, but make smoke more effective, inhaling takes morer hp, just a bit. Plus one HP would be fine, dont overdo.

OR

Make smoke a bit transparent  for player, so the player get the information that smoke is there, without making all invisible. (but I dont like this solution, big smoke blast is bad from tactical point of view too.)

 

Geoscape : 6 buttons for supporters are visible even points are not available and supporter mechanic is not introduced. This part of control should appear when needed. Not sooner. It is confusing. It is much better to show controls gradually, not overwhelm players in first second.

 

 

Edited February 25 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

Supporter price standard is 150

Heavy guarded gives 1,3x

Strange thing is that 1,3 x 150 = 195 which is wierd. but game says 325

I tryed 150 + 195 = 345 dont know what math wizardry is used.

 

Even worst example is status Isolated  >>> it costs 0,7 x OP

well , when number lower than one is used in multiplication then it lowers the base

0,7 x 150 = 105 which means, agent should be cheaper, but the price in game is 175

Perhaps,  should you simply delete all the confusing multipliers, it would be better for player. Just tell us the protection type by a word and what it costs, end of story.

 

 

Edited February 25 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

Soldier who fell down unconscious then revived by medkit has all items on the ground.

Better behaviour:

- items of unconscious soldiers are available to pickup from the  ground - current status OK.

- NEW : revived soldier keep his items in pockets, e.i. after revival he has only main weapon (or las weapon ) dropped. ( Lets assume it was in his hands, so it fell down ) All other  items are considered in pockets/bags/on straps etc. therfore  are auto-pickuped in zero time.

[gG-Unknown]

Abduction tubes make a sound. it is nice  clue for a player, however it makes sound even after it is opened.

Better behaviour : Abduction tube stop making the humming sound on deactivation. (on civilian release)

Edited February 25 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

FUN IDEA

Make abduction tube a ''special grenade like weapon" for high level aliens. Ship captain for example. It throws a  grenade, then player's soldier is captured inside the tube. Could be released by someone else after two turns of cool down.

[gG-Unknown]

IMPROVMENT

Sucessfull end of mission = tadaaa. Positive jingle ! 3 - 5  seconds positive sound as  clear reward for good job. The sound which makes you smile and relax.

Current chain wiggle sound is inferior.

Also add a negative jingle, for unsuceffull mission like death bells.

Edited February 25 by gG-Unknown

[darkdill]

Something I would like to suggest with regards to the air game in its current format: What if certain UFOs had a resistance to armor destruction effects?

For example, say you are using a weapon that destroys 3 armor per shot, but the UFO you are targeting (I.E. a battleship) resists 2 armor destruction. This would cut your weapon down to 1 AD per hit, which would make that weapon pretty ineffective at the job. However, if you had a torpedo that destroys 22 armor normally, it would only get its effect reduced to 20.

This would help torpedoes since normally at the moment it’s just better to equip Gauss Cannons or Fusion Lances. This effect would have to be reserved for larger UFOs.

[Mungojerrie]

Hi. I have a few points to make regarding the Experimental branch Milestone 5.12.0. I am around 14 hours deep after 2 or 3 hours of a regular branch.

Overall feels good, just what I wanted - new and improved Xenonauts++ with a bunch of new stuff. I really liked the event missions and the story explanation of invasion phases.

A few balance suggestions though:

- Laser Rifle (pre-upgrades at least) only having a the magazine capacity of 5 must be a mistake. I assumed it would be 12 or so, with 5 it is just a straight downgrade from an Accelerated Rifle, especially considering the cost. I would say with anything less than 9 shots in the mag the Laser Rifle currently is not a viable option at all.

- Same goes for Laser Pistol. Does not make any sense with 5 shots in the mag and heavier weight compared to an Accelerated Pistol. Sure, the accuracy bonus for low Acc troops is nice but it should have had at least 8 shots

- Laser Machine Gun and Precision Laser are in a good spot, albeit only marginally better compared to their Accelerated counterparts. Higher environmental damage makes the Laser MG a very interesting choice

- Grenade Launcher feels a bit too weak and heavy to justify taking it as a main weapon. If it had higher Destruction and/or Suppression then it would be a more viable choice. I have not researched Alenium Explosives though so maybe they will make it dramatically better

- Some base facilities feel way too expensive, namely the Medical facility and maybe the Radar installation. I am still getting used to the impact of Operation Points actions to the economy so it is very possible that I'm just not utilizing it right to mitigate the revised costs

- Guardian: Protection upgrade increases its weight so much that I'm actively avoiding doing it. The weight increase penalty should either be removed altogether or toned down significantly

- Electroshock Rifle and Pistol are priced as if they were upgrades, not single items, especially in terms of Alien Alloys

 

Vehicle and aircraft customization options are fantastic! by far the best I've seen in X-Comalikes. Well done! A few more modules for variety's sake wouldn't hurt though in my opinion.

 

Now two relatively minor but important feature requests:

1) Please either make it an option or remove entirely the re-focusing of camera on a moving soldier. This makes moving several soldiers at the same time very annoying as long as they are not on the same screen

2) Camera panning speed adjustment option would be very welcome

 

Edited February 27 by Mungojerrie

[Skitso]

On 2/25/2025 at 1:11 PM, gG-Unknown said:

Phase 1 initial screen : Chief scientist has same clothes on the main screen as he has on personal photo in left down corner. Contrary, the Operation lady not. For first screen of the game, personal photo should match the main screen to create personality link.

I actually noticed the same thing and agree: the Operations director is not recognizable compared to her dialog portrait which is an issue, especially in the first screen of the game. And it's not just the clothes - her face looks unrecognizable and even her hair is of wrong color. 

Quote

The new grenade dmg falloff works nicely. Feels natural. Great improvement. The problem is, there is no indication in advance. Use several shades of green to inform player about several dmg steps. Darkest green in the centre tile, light green on edge of blast.

Agree!
 

Edited February 27 by Skitso

[Skitso]

On 2/26/2025 at 7:34 AM, Mungojerrie said:

1) Please either make it an option or remove entirely the re-focusing of camera on a moving soldier. This makes moving several soldiers at the same time very annoying as long as they are not on the same screen

yeah, this needs to go!

[gG-Unknown]

6 hours ago, Skitso said:

the Operations director is not recognizable compared to her dialog portrait which is an issue, especially in the first screen of the game. And it's not just the clothes - her face looks unrecognizable and even her hair is of wrong color. 

 

 

That is the exact moment which triggered me !

I checked the game credits, there is  a 4 programmers and about 10 artists. Half of them are Chinese (asians) perhaps  those artist have the same problem as I  do. I cant recognize  asian or afircan people from each other. Perhaps this picture was made an asian artist who tried to draw "a_white_woman"

This picture have to be fixed.

Edited February 27 by gG-Unknown

[Mungojerrie]

Feedback post #2, a bit over 30 hours in. Experimental 5.12.0

1) Really doesn't feel like a Cyberdrone *has* to have a burst fire-only AoE weapon that almost always kills a soldier in a single salvo with neither cover nor armor doing anything. So far the best armor I have is Colossus (40 armor) and both Cyberdrones and Fusion-armed Servitors delete Colossi-clad soldiers in a single attack roughly 90% of the time

2) Firing a grenade launcher or throwing a hrenade with the hit chance being altered by negative multipliers(cover, smoke) needs an overhaul - the soldier still has to fire/throw in the general direction of a target, even if the shot/throw ends up missing by a lot. Trying to grenade into smoke does not mean that the soldier should suddenly toss it at his or her feet (actually happened to me) or into a wall to his or her side (happened as well). Currently it feels like grenades missing means "the nade goes literally anywhere mate, most likely at your feet" while it should be "the nade will still go roughly towards a target"

Edited February 28 by Mungojerrie

[DrunkenGrandMaster]

Suggestions:

Infoboxes on aliens - add more information on aliens when right-clicking on them. Stunning aliens is a hassle
Race (Psion, ethernal, etc)
 - Consider unknown ("new race") before end of mission of first encounter??
Position (Soldier, officer, technician, etc)
 - This should only be possible after the interogation of an alien of that race
Stats (life, etc)
- Perhaps only after interrogation?

 

Interrogation:
I would also love more interrogation rewards after first alien of that race. Some should be alien position/rank based. This could be boost to research speed, engineering speed, trigger certain research of plot. But should not make it such that you want every alien alive.. e.g. interogation more then 2 soldiers should not be necessary.

Bonus for killing many aliens of same race
Add bonues after killing x aliens of specific race? This could be done on a global level or individual xenonaut level. Could also be used vs aliens ranks and stunning?
 

 

[Tomas]

I finished the playthrough on 5.11.0 version so here are my thoughts:
 

• I agree with what others say. Quite often the accelarated weapons are pointless to create as the laser weapons come very fast right after. Before I managed to have enough resources to build the weapons for my soldiers I had laser weapons researched already.
• Same goes with the armor. Early armor options come one after another pretty quickly and  the player can ignore the early upgrades as they seem to be quite pointless.
• I like the Cleaners idea before the Aliens arrive in force. I did like some of the suggestions from other players where the Phase 1 should be Cleaners with getting only clues about the real Alien threat. It happened to me that I got the final Cleaner mission generated 3 days before the next phase but no more other Cleaner missions were generated. It still feels like a missed opportunity where I believe more missions should be done with Cleaners before the actual Aliens arrive.
• I'd say the first half of the game has quite good pacing but later on, it kind of disappears and feels "empty". More plot related reaserch would be good and few plot related missions as well.
• I would love to see that capturing Alien engineers and scientists alive would trigger research options and maybe bonuses. It would be logical that with the captured Alien scientists the breakthroughs in the research would be more possible while a captued engineer can boost the engineering projects or better understanding of some of the Alien technologies. Like capturing the officer or a leader brings some milestones, capturing other classes should do the same for different areas.
• I did enjoy the UOO-1 missions. They were pretty tough and had the feel of urgency, especially the second mission when enemy reinforcements kept coming.
• Final Endgame mission needs a bit more work on. The phase 2 of the mission was just too shallow. The UOO-1 bridge mission was way tougher than the "throne" room of the endgame mission.
• To encourage the players having more soldiers at different bases, it might be worth to consider some delegated missions. The actual soldiers would be sent on such missions to extract VIPs, eliminate infiltrators etc. which can provide extra experience boost to them.
• The ending is not satifsying at the moment in all honesty. It would be good to learn more and find out more than just "You save the humanity".
• I know more will come as the game is still under the development but there is a lot of space to flash out the story more and make it even more intriguing.

Overall, I like where the game is heading and I did enjoy the entier playthrough. I just hope more content and story will come so that early excitement can keep going.

[gG-Unknown]

Simbiont louncher

1. should be indirect fire mode ( same as grenade launcher)

2. if parasite miss the target, then it unfolds anyway

Basically the weapon delivers parasites. If it hits, it makes more damage, but parasite is delivered anyway.

[Suroubureau]

Back in 5.8 the spawns around the transport were thinned out, because even aliens run away from a descending dropship. Well, cyberdrones don't really care...
Managed to finish the mission with one casualty and 3 scrapped robots but, boy was it nerve wracking... had 7 of them out of 29 aliens. Terror missions like these make my hair go gray, while sebillan/reaper/mantid ones are a picnic in the park (that is on fire and theres smoke and bodies everywhere, but the weather is nice!)

Wraiths and androns are somewhere in between. I like those too.

 

[gG-Unknown]

version 5.12

First terror mission, defficulty veteran with showing all HP details.

3 dead soldiers, one revived ( so I lost 2), one slightly wounded. (no save scum)

I admit , I was lucky that two robots were cut down my only one laser weapon - MG. Doable, some people says that first terror is unmanageable, I dont think so. Just be careful, dont run like headless chicken.

I attacked at night, Is it possible that night attacks has feeble opponents ?

Anyway, There is wrong mission description, promising Alenium for each bomb survives the raid. There were no bombs, so I didnt get any Alenium. Scamers.

 

[benedict1]

Can someone share a late game save?