YAVP (Soldier and - almost - Ironman), including some thoughts about balance

[Berul]

Hey everyone,

Yet Another Victory Post, as title says.

Although I played on Ironman, there was 1 turn (and only that 1 turn) when I Alt-F4ed a few times. It was when breaching into the first UFO. I was still learning how to play the game, and it took me a few tries to figure out how deadly those reaction fires could be. Once I figured out I had to use flashbangs, I replayed the turn one last time, and in fact still had one soldier death. From this turn on, no more cheating. This was my first time playing the game, it took me 84 hours to beat it (I'm a slow player), and all in all it felt relatively easy, but still very enjoyable. I certainly made many mistakes/innacuracies, especially on the strategic level, but none of them were too serious to ruin the run. At one point, I almost lost a base, but that was because I played the defense very poorly. It's quite lucky that the base was saved, since otherwise this would probably have been a game over. I had a total of 13 soldier deaths, including 7 at the base defense. Most storyline missions were delayed until I had a better gear, which made them relatively easy. For instance, I waited a few months before raiding the Cleaner HQ, and until everyone had Guardian+Plasma for the UOO-1 sabotage and assault. Although it was my first run, I watched a few videos on youtube before every potentially "hard" mission, so this wasn't a blind run.

All in all, I enjoyed the game quite alot, the UI in particular is very well done. I enjoyed the fact that some missions are timed. Nonetheless, here are some of the inbalances that - in my opinion - should be corrected to make an even greater game.

1) Sniper rifles are OP.

It's true that the Shield, Shotgun, Machinegun, and possibly even the plain Rifle have their uses. That being said, a weapon with long range, very good damage, and 100% chance to hit most of the time is a bit too OP in my opinion. Considering the fact that most missions aren't timed, this makes setting overwatch traps a very good strategy. For most of the game, 2 snipers on overwatch will kill any alien that comes to you. And on most maps, this is what will eventually happen if you are patient enough. My 8-man team had 5 snipers in it, the 12-man team had 6, and the 16-man team had 9 (I never had a 10-man team). Maybe a way to alleviate this would be a) to make the survival of citizens on any map something of bigger importance, in order to give an incentive to play missions more aggressively or b) to give an aim penality for sniper rifles at close range, so that they would be less effective in close quarters.

2) Grenade launchers are meh.

Tried to use them, but they are very heavy, prohibit bringing another weapon, and help very little. There's not much they can do that a Shield with some Demolition Charges can't do. And the Shield is much better suited at exploration.

3) Excess stuff at the start of a mission.

On the topic of bringing excess stuff, this isn't a tactic I used, but it should be prohibited to carry more weight than a soldier's threshold at the start of a mission. Indeed, this enables some efficient but also boring tactics like bringing extra grenades, shields, or whatever.

4) Smoke greandes ?

I'm not sure about this one, but I found them quite underwhelming. Maybe this is because I played on Soldier. Flashbang and/or OW seems much preferable to me.

5) The OP economy.

In my game, once I had recruted all the guys that increase OP generation, I was generating 17.5 OP/day. This allowed me to raise $530,000 every 6 days. That's close to $3 Million per month. In my opinion, no other use of Operation Points comes close to being that efficient. On a few occasions, I used OPs to gain Alenium or Alloys, but specialists should probably be cheaper to recruit. Or maybe this is just because I played on one of the easier difficulties.

6) Mind Control.

In my run, none of my soldiers ever got mind controlled. Maybe that's not so surprising, since I only encountered 2 Eternals and 1 Greater Eternal, but it feels a bit strange to have a game mechanic that can (and should, if possible) be avoided for the entirerity of a run.

7) Knowledge of Enemy's Hit Points

This one isn't a balance issue, but although I'd like to try Veteran or Commander difficulty some day, I'd really appreciate if an enemy's HPs were visible, especially since this is something that can be deduced (unless I'm mistaken) from the looks of the enemy.

8) No Blaster Launcher ?

Oh please, please, add one. And give the aliens the possibility to use them

 

Et Voila. Although my comments mostly focus on what could be done better (in my opinion), don't get my wrong : This is already a great game, congratulations to the developpers for the job they have done. And keep on the good work, I'm pretty sure the final realse will be even better !

 

 

 

Edited February 26 by Berul