Milestone 6.22.0 Released! (Experimental)

[Chris]

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

We were hoping 6.21.0 would be ready for public release, but player testing suggested it needed another round of fixes first. We'll leave this build on the Experimental branch over the weekend and then release onto the public branches on Monday if no further serious bugs are found.

Balance Changes:

• Fusion weapons now cause 5 Armour Destruction per shot (up from 3).
• Vehicle cannons now have double the damage / armour pen / armour destruction of the equivalent rifles, which works out a nerf for early-game cannons and a buff for late-game cannons:
  • All cannons now have 24 range. Previously they had 20 range, but were bugged and would actually increase their hit chance beyond this point.
  • Ballistic Cannon - damage now 68 (down from 70), armour destruction now 4 (down from 10)
  • Laser Cannon - damage now 80 (down from 95), armour destruction now 16 (up from 10)
  • Gauss Cannon - armour penetration now 20 (up from 0), armour destruction now 8 (down from 10)
  • Fusion cannon - damage now 144 (down from 150), armour penetration now 30 (up from 0)
• Added 1-4 extra enemies to the Cleaner Base mission, depending on difficulty setting.
• Updated the UOO Bridge Assault mission so that it has slightly fewer aliens in the main room, and a few more weaker enemies spread out through the edges of the map.

Gameplay Changes:

• We've improved the way grenades work in several ways:
  • We've fixed the bug where any missed grenade throw inside a building or in an alien / Xenonaut base map would always hit the ceiling directly above the thrower and explode.
  • Grenade arcs can now be a bit flatter, which means grenades are less likely to strike the ceiling in general.
  • If a grenade throw path has a 0% hit chance because of a blocking object, the throw path now renders red beyond that object / ceiling tile. This should make it easier to see what is actually blocking the throw,
  • We've also fixed an issue where the game would display a positive hit chance for a particular tile, but then incorrectly refuse to let you throw at that tile (as if you had a 0% chance).

Bugfixes:

• Fixed an issue where base defence missions would allow you to use soldiers to defend the base who were already in an airborne dropship, which would then cause the game to be in a broken state on the Geoscape.
• Fixed a bug where you could sometimes take sentry guns on normal missions when using advanced dropships.
• Fixed the UFO outer doors sometimes not rendering correctly if the UFO is sighted in the shroud before the soldier has direct line of sight on the door itself.
• Fixed Cyberdrones that are killed on impact in crash sites not appearing visually dead.
• Fixed the Doomsday Counter tooltip on the strategy layer not including the +Doomsday values generated by the difficulty setting (which is usually +1 or +2 per day).
• Fixed a bug on the UOO Sabotage mission where the aliens could use some of the "teleporter" tiles in the Xenonaut spawn zone as actual teleporters, and attack your soldiers from behind.
• Fixed the MARS having the incorrect movement sound when using its light armour variant.
• Fixed some wooden plank tall props not having a 100% blocking chance.
• Fixed a building on a Boreal map that didn't have an internal floor.

[gG-Unknown]

On 11/12/2025 at 3:56 PM, Chris said:

Gameplay Changes:

 

• We've improved the way grenades work in several ways:
  • Grenade arcs can now be a bit flatter, which means grenades are less likely to strike the ceiling in general.

Good.

Now, Could you :

1. add a "smoke trace" (same as bullets) to the grenade moving in the air ? I know it is not realistic,  but it improves visibility. Currently,  Flying grenade is almost invisible. Bad for user experience. For example, TotalWar series uses  smoke  trace on arrows for the same  reason, better visibility = better user experience.

2. Grenade louncher need to set arcs even flatter as it moves faster. If you finally used proper physics formula, then for short range arcs should looks like almost flat.

3. Use  ballistic curve / arcs for MARS rockets, apply even more flat arcs than on grenade louncher.

Result is>> player will get straight line firing weapons and 3 different ballistic arcs based on speed of projectile.

 

THX

Edited November 15, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[Chris]

On 11/15/2025 at 12:00 PM, gG-Unknown said:

Good.

Now, Could you :

1. add a "smoke trace" (same as bullets) to the grenade moving in the air ? I know it is not realistic,  but it improves visibility. Currently,  Flying grenade is almost invisible. Bad for user experience. For example, TotalWar series uses  smoke  trace on arrows for the same  reason, better visibility = better user experience.

2. Grenade louncher need to set arcs even flatter as it moves faster. If you finally used proper physics formula, then for short range arcs should looks like almost flat.

3. Use  ballistic curve / arcs for MARS rockets, apply even more flat arcs than on grenade louncher.

Result is>> player will get straight line firing weapons and 3 different ballistic arcs based on speed of projectile.

 

THX

We'll be looking at the HEVY arcs properly in M7, as we're aware it's still not working like it should. 

The suggestion for a subtle trail on grenades is a good idea. I'll note it down and we'll probably implement it if it's simple, but there's no guarantee we'll have time to get to it before release.