[6.30.1 - Ground Combat] - general campaign feedback.

[Vojevoda]

So I could not wait till full release and decided to give 6.30.1 a go.

Last time I played was in 2023. Below are general thoughts on campaign. In no particular order. As of right now, I`m preparing to board orbital platform. So might add some things as I finish the campaign. Huge thanks to the team for very fun game. Looking forward to full release. 

Early game vs Cleaners seems a bit too difficult. Hard to pinpoint as of exactly why. Time limited mission do play a role but that is not it. Perhaps, it is the maps. Or inexperienced soldiers. Or combination of all of the above. After cleaners, game began to feel way easier, and difficulty slowly but steadily went up. I personally enjoy a challenge, and it never felt unfair or unreasonable. Just made rethink my usual way of playing. But these time sensitive mission most likely will turn off a lot of newer players early on. If I recall correctly, outside of files heist and VIP escort, all the other time sensitive missions were basically optional. But those two are crucial to game progression.

Base attacks and UFO interior basic mechanics of throw a stun grande then vaporize everything with shotguns works too well. At least early to mid game. Much later in the game, on a second base attack I got my ass handed to me. A new layout. Basically a maze with lots of attack directions. Plenty of mechs of all kinds. Kudos to those who designed this map. It was a challenge and I had a lot of fun. Stun  grenades were almost useless there.  Outside, is where tactical game becomes much more challenging. Hard to cover every direction. More of that please. Perhaps, we need more stun immune aliens. Especially, inside UFOs. Maybe, assign at least one stun immune as personal guard to a mission commander. 

Transition from regular to accelerated weapons felt smooth this time. Researched and produced accelerated weapons before had a chance to even star Laser research. If regular infantry laser and accelerated weapons both have merits, jumping to laser on air combat felt like cheating. Difference is vast. Mostly due to the significant range increase. However, a little later UFOs became much stronger and numerous. So laser lance feels perfectly in place. 

Overall, operational points game feels new, unique and fun. However, I feel a little reduction in cost to operate on UFO crash site would make sense.

First base defense was not an easy task. In fact, I got overwhelmed several times over. Had to totally readjust my strategy and began to fall back slowly grinding aliens that stepped a bit too far. This made me seriously consider a couple defense batteries for the main base to reduce number of incoming aliens. AI seems to completely forget positioning of my units once line of sight is broken. Perhaps, here is a room for improvement in AI difficulty scaling in that regard. Make aliens more aggressive based on last known position. Not just LOS. 

Gaus weapons do not have immediate distinct recognition. While other weapons do. Feels like I'm looking at same picture randomly resized. I'd say, it is the only piece of art that your team dropped the ball on. 

Machine guns needs increased accuracy on short burst. It makes total sense with low acc on long burst both from balance and logic perspective. But not on short burst. Perhaps, make exo skeleton give a boost to short bursts as a bonus.

Fuel tanks on crafts feels useless. I had zero cases when 20% increase changed anything. 

Pressure from panic mid to late game feels low. Felt like something seriously stepping on my toes during first phase(nukes). After that it became super manageable. And later it pretty much stopped noticing it. Even when orbital bombardment started, for a second I thought oh boy, NOW I'm in trouble. But taking down UFOs and occasional OP reduction in selected region made me forget panic again.

Mind games by Psyons feel like they don't do anything. Making Mind Shield module among the most useles upgrades. 

 

Edited March 10 by Vojevoda

[Vojevoda]

Have completed the game on veteran. 

Here are some additional thoughts and questions. Again, in no particular order. 

Had my first landed UFO on day 300+ Is this intended? Or is it just random?

Arial combat had a weird curve. At first, going to X-55s felt good. Most encounters were relatively easy, unless you go for auto resolve. Any large solo alien ship was super easy, especially with torpedoes or missiles. However, if Cruisers and Harvesters had two escort UFOs - air combat becomes basically a coin toss. For a while, a had to really pick my battles if I`m not to abuse reload much. But, as soon as I constructed my first two X-120s - aerial combat became trivial. Auto resolve everything. Zero struggle or challenge. Not sure if it is a bad thing for a very short period of a very late game though. 

My first fight on the orbital platform had a little mishap. I figured, that side teleport points also counts as extraction since they look exactly the same. But it turned out to be enemy reinforcements points. Perhaps, it would be a good idea to point that out some how. May be a different color, or art? 

Grenadier feels odd. I have been using one for the entirety of the game. However, his role was basically a glorified construction worker. All he did was destroying cover. Most of the times, even most advanced explosives had low to no effect on enemies. Never used a smoke grande by him. Since reloading takes too much TUs. Perhaps consider adding some more advanced grenade launcher later in the game. With slightly longer range and ability to be loaded with two types of grenade at the same time. To give him more utility? Or maybe, I'm just not getting his role. 

I wonder if some late game events are pre tailored to make game more challenging or everything is pure random? I noticed that after day 380 plus, terror sites started with not only me surrounded on three side from the first turn, but also large number of aliens seemed much closer to drop ship as before. They just overrun you fast(smoke grenades are MVPs by the way).

Orbital Platform sabotage recovered end mission items. Are they random? I finished the mission, recovered a couple of corpses and a weapon or two, though none of them were in my inventory or on the platforms. Realized that I screwed up, and forgot to put captured Ethereal in to my inventory(in retrospect, could have waited a bit longer to capture one on a new UFO type). Reloaded. And this time I did recover Ethereal, bit all the other items where different. I did, replayed last turn. As I had to remove all the reinforced aliens again. But reward items seemed like a bug. 

Description of Ethereal gave me some noticeable WH40k Aeldari vibes. 

Every time i read some science text(superbly written by the way) when lead scientist making fun of engineers - I had one thought in my had. Please hire Jim Parsons to do a voice over with Sheldon's voice.  It would be hilarious experience.

Not sure if it a bug or a feature. End game mission one. I managed to take out two out of three reinforcements platforms before first reinforcements arrived. But why they arrived, it was revealed to me inside fog of war. I saw how many arrived, direction where they headed after, and initial tiles of teleporters remained visible. This looked like a bug. Can provide save if necessary.

Also, noticed that Shields used by my men restored all HP on end game mission two. As intended?

Also, I found this build to be super stable. Zero crushes or anything like that. Only once, aerial auto resolve took a long time. Lake a 30 seconds or so. 

 

Really looking forward to a full release. Very happy with most changes I have read in 7.5 experimental build.