VJs rant on 19.6

[ViniJones]

Sup, this thread is here to satisfy my urge to share my story with the world, not much more.

It is long, if you dont wanna read it, your loss.

If you get any ideas from here and use them, great!

If you dont like any ideas from here, go screw yourself.

If I make you smile even for a second, then it was worth it.

Here goes:

Geoscape - UFOs appear in waves, which is not necessarily bad, but more randomness couldnt hurt. (this translates into corvettes coming back after Jan 1st or something) Ive read, that the income from sponsors should be the majority of your income overall. This is not the case(at least not on Insane) 50%+ of my income is from crashsites. With only 2 countries out(north and south America) the income ALMOST covers my monthly expenses, while the crashsites make ANY progress possible.

I very much like the general idea of Air Combat in this game and would love to see it expanded into 5v5 or something. Ive no illusion about it though, seeing as already people whined enough for you to implement an auto-resolve.

F-17 - ok 2 is enough

Mig - All the way, even after only being able to carry only 2 torpedoes. With only 150k a piece you can dominate the skies.

Corsair - useless...

Marauder - a faster mig with a cannon? Hell yea!

As UFOs stand now, migs can easily hit a run medium and large targets and totally dominate very small and small ones.

Im not asking for another nerf, just wanna mention how cute and snugly they are... I just wanna hug them and rub them all over my body...

Theyve also removed the alien escorts, which I understand is temporary. (thank god)

Ground Combat - Many would say, this is what matters the most. Im balanced between the two and cant really lean toward either. There is much more bugs here though(obviously, theres much more potential for them). Lets get down to it.

I find accuracy in 19.6 better than the 19.5. Not worth a hooray shout, cause you just go aimed carbines instead of burst rifles(cause bursts still cant hit shit, unless its an alien using them. Give or take, machineguns have a place in my squad too, so Id say a job well done.

Soldier appearance is decent. I dont mind being blue and in need of a diet. The armors look great. The only ones I find repulsive are Buzzard and Sentinel. I dont build them and its fine. (I would adress the lack of jumping utility, or the lack of elevation at all, but I still hope thatll change)

Portraits are very good, theres a bunch ugly guys out there, but theyre well drawn. Laziness is no excuse for no lady sprites however. Calling realism to help you by saying that the armor is bulky doesnt work, youre already pissing on realism too much here for it to matter. Im positive, that if you dont pick up this cup some modder still might.

To combat itself(I cant believe youre still reading this.)

Aliens dont stick to no rules, they stick to anything, even shit thats not there.

I like the Idea of Caesians and Sebillians sticking around in stronger forms. Sebillians have like 100 TU? or 120? Theyre annoying as fuck, so dont ever change them! Might be cool to implement their regeneration.

Androns are a pain, not because of being tough, accurate and mercilessly reacting. Because of their wall and floor piercing shots, theyre the only foe I found so far, that can kill you through a wall, without even breaking it.

Harredan or whatever theyre called are nasty, they always react and always hit... or so it would seem. But they respect walls(to a certain degree, but ill mention the AI later).

Wraiths caused me to jawdrop, the only thing I dont like about them is when theyre running, they jump between 3 or 4 places and I have to station people all over the map before they eventually die to reaction fire. (Mind you this cost me a lot of time in b18 stable, in 19.6 I only found aggressive ones so far.¨

Reapers only appeared in sebillian bases and 2 per mission, but you dont need commander Shephard to deal with these. They die to reaction fire.

Thats all Ive encountered so far.(you might wanna go "OH HOW LITTLE YOU KNOW" right about now... dont)

Wallhax! Aliens see you, wherever you are. I have nothing against them seeing 2 tiles further than my people, but their eyes follow the closest target without regard for any obstacles. This is exploitable as hell.. and also moderately gay.(apologies to any gay people for insulting them)

Night missions and Alien base missions... again, i dont mind them seeing much further than i do, but do they have to see AND SHOOT, through walls? They dont do that during the day. (unless theyre Androns)

Soldier advancement is adorable, the stats that increase regardless of the rank.. the medals.. I love it all. Except the promotion system, seriously? 12 colonels on a Shrike? It just seems a little too far fetched. Make it dependent on mission numbers, or medals... or make the player make the decision who to promote. (1 per mission? Soldier with 2 green medals is eligible or something) This would not change the stat gains, just the absurd ranking system.

Vehicles are useless... its no joke, they do have more TUs than your average Pvt. but they die just as fast. Cost of an aimed shot is what? 60? You can move fast, but you cant shoot anything. I tried to utilize them by putting 6 tanks in a base for defense, theyre far too expensive and weak to ever measure to raw manpower. An Idea would be, putting your men into the vehicles and making repair kits in addition to medikits. This would make the vehicle level, because of the pilots.. and buff their ressilience for fucks sake, if a tank dies to a single heavy plasma burst, whats the point of the plating. (these brackets bothering you yet or what?)

Random thoughts

1st base - THATS NOT WHERE YOU PUT A RADAR, if you still dont get it, ask me for an illustration.

difficulty - Buff the enemy numbers, not their HP or TU. Dont make buildings more expensive to maintain and take eons to build, create a need to build more of them. (more UFOs... MORE bases, not less!, the challenge is in maintaining a much more macro operation, than in micro-ing 8 soldiers against 2 300hp sebillians. (thats fun too, but you can savewhore for only so long)

Love the sounds. Period.

Voiced soldier/pilot acknowledgements?

More maps! I understand this is gonna happen, I can hardly wait.

edit:

Im actually still playing with alien interceptors, wouldnt have it any other way.

Replace the Corsair with or add some ATS bomber? Perhaps to soften up the alien bases before assaulting them? Landing Shits keep sitting down and jumping back into the air once my migs run out of fuel. I actually puked a little, when they managed to found a base in between my 2 squadrons circling around. Id love some way to disable the scumbags while theyre on the ground.

Make alien bomber runs over Xenonaut bases destroying stuff, killing personnel, or just disabling stuff for a day or two?

Did soldiers get their stats limited to 101? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Human psionics? When?

All in all Im enjoying every minute of this game (100hrs+). Bugs are annoying, but theyre not here to stay.

Thank you for you goddamn time, I might add more, regardless of wether anyone actually reads this.

Edited August 10, 2013 by ViniJones

[Chris]

Thanks for your thoughts. The wallhax are an AI bug and we'll get it fixed before V19 Stable.

[GizmoGomez]

One question: What did you mean by you don't put a radar there? Do you mean the placement inside the player's base?

[ViniJones]

One question: What did you mean by you don't put a radar there? Do you mean the placement inside the player's base?

Thats exactly what I meant, the radar is placed on an opposite side of the CC than the storeroom, effectively blocking both sides. Theres two free corners on the lowest level. From(also oddly placed btw) workshop and lab

[StellarRat]

Thats exactly what I meant, the radar is placed on an opposite side of the CC than the storeroom, effectively blocking both sides. Theres two free corners on the lowest level. From(also oddly placed btw) workshop and lab

The radar room isn't the same the radar antenne. Even though it looks like a radar dish, I'm pretty sure that only represents radar capability and a room for the operators to look at the screens not the actual dish(es).

[ViniJones]

My issue is strictly game relevant, I want to put new living quarters or a hangar there, but the one tile is blocked by a 200k worth 20day builder. I can relocate the storeroom on the first day, but the radar hurts. I can imagine the dish being on the surface, while the room itself is just monitors with beeping and flashing lights n shit. That doesnt mean its not blocking the spot!

Edit: I really should illustrate.. lol

[StellarRat]

Oh, I get it now! You're saying it messes with your remodeling plans! That may well be true! LOL

[lightgemini]

I agree on vehicles being quite useless, or at least not good enough for the cost. It worked fine before to the point of being OP and the centre of the tactics wich is not good, so it got nerfed a bit too much. Getting the fine balance with this tanks seems complicated.

They need some more love too, as a wolf armour gives the same protection an Hyperion (top tier) tank has wich doesnt help this poor machines work great in battle. Im not sure if the armor gets degraded with damage as in the OG, but if it does then having tanks with lots of armor but not so many hp could work great.

[ViniJones]

I remember a similar armor system in warhammer40k chaos gate... this could make them slightly more useful, but still a lot inferior to the troopers.