Ground Combat Balance Discussion V20 Experimental 4

[lemm]

Yeah, guns should hit more but do less damage, in general.

EDIT: Actually, they should just hit more often.

Edited November 23, 2013 by lemm

[legit1337]

Agreed. As I'm playing more (veteran difficulty) I'm finding the guns in this game are too innacurate. I realize the ranges are condensed, but come on these troops are supposed to be the best soldiers the earth has to offer and sometimes they can't even hit the broad side of a barn. Long range combat (all the way to yellow tiles on an assault rifle) seems ok, but close range accuracy bonuses don't seem to be enough imo. Crouching should only reduce hit chances by 10%-15%.

Everyone's health is too high in general as well. I understand that non-humanoid aliens might have superhuman toughness, but in my most current game, a ceasian non-com took 3 consecutive grenade blasts, two assault rifle shots, and then finally a hit from an LMG to put down. Non-armored ceasian should go down to ballistic fire in 1-2 shots (3 max). Unarmored human troops shouldn't be able to take even a single plasma shot and survive (unless they are retardedly lucky) like in the OG. I've had men in the current version live through 2 successive plasma shots.

Grenade's damage should be buffed, I'm tired of having to use 3-4 to kill 1 non-armored alien. The range increase was nice though thanks for that.

My 2 cents on ground combat balance atm. Other then that it is pretty good, more maps are needed though. Many more.

Edited November 23, 2013 by legit1337

[Haba]

It really does get a bit absurd. Everyone eats plasma like it is candy. Not to even mention lasers or ballistics... Endgame where every alien is an elite isn't much fun because of that.

[lemm]

Is the alien explosive plasma launcher supposed to be threatening? I played on Veteran and most of the time it hardly made a dent in wolf Armour. It seems to be good at taking out Jackal armour, and that's about it.

[legit1337]

@everyone

Just realized that if the grenade is in the same square as an enemy it obliterates them nicely. Still think grenade splash damage should be upped, but the center square damage seems ok.

[Surrealistik]

Frag grenade splash is ridiculously underpowered, and grenades seem to have no real niche save as reliable finishers against badly injured stun immune aliens.

Increase the 'scatter' potential for a frag (i.e. the range of squares that it can ultimately end up in), but upgrade the splash damage.

I also generally agree with the comments/criticisms about ridiculously low accuracy and absurdly high durability.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Surrealistik

[Brochacho]

To be perfectly honest I liked it when the hit calculation was more in line with the original game, as that made it virtually impossible to miss at close range and, more importantly, much easier to hit improperly positioned troops. This may not be particularly "realistic" but from a pacing and gameplay perspective it works very well.

[StellarRat]

To be perfectly honest I liked it when the hit calculation was more in line with the original game, as that made it virtually impossible to miss at close range and, more importantly, much easier to hit improperly positioned troops. This may not be particularly "realistic" but from a pacing and gameplay perspective it works very well.

There were bugs with the close range shooting calcs in the last builds. It should be nearly impossible to miss at close range still (assuming they fixed the bugs.)