Aaron Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Firstly, if you do not know how to access the experimental branch on Steam, please read the instructions (and warnings!) in this thread. All saved games from earlier versions (including experimental versions) are incompatible, attempting to load them will cause problems. We are putting this build out ahead of our usual schedule because we have managed to fix one of the annoying crash bugs on the soldier equip screen; no guarantee that this will fix it for everyone, as I suspect there may be more still to fix, but the fix in this build resolved the only reproducible freeze in the equip screen that I have been able to find thus far. Additionally we have fixed the bug in the way the "crouching bonus" was being applied; now it is applied before the close range bonus in the accuracy calculation - this will greatly reduce the effectiveness of crouching in cover (the bonus itself has also been reduced). There's some other bits and pieces in there - the other notable balance change being the buff to the range of grenades (and other thrown weapons) that should give them a little more utility. Here are the changes: Fixes: - Fixed the soldier equip screen crash, which happened when certain strings on soldier role screen were too long - Fixed "crouch bonus" being applied after close-range bonus, thus making it more effective than intended - Fixed layout of aircraft equipment slots so they scale with resolution - Fixed ground vehicle screen image scaling - Fixed LOS blocking not being correctly cleared when a UFO spawn replaced a previous map prop - Fixed graphical clipping on Cruiser floor - Fixed Hunter being loaded with 50 instead of 100 rounds of MG ammo by the Geoscape - Fixed missing Precision Plasma Reload sound - Fixed drop-down menu on soldier management screen preventing assigning the soldiers at the bottom of the list to dropships - Fixed some of the damaged Carrier UFO tiles including parts of the layer above them (graphical only) - Fixed both the Buzzard and Sentinel armour using incorrect sprites/animations for a variety of weapon combinations - Fixed a couple of Town tileset civilians being missing death animations for NW directions - Fixed a rare hang that could occur on base defence missions when aliens could find nowhere to spawn - Fixed incorrect radar range being displayed when building a new base - Fixed alien grenade flight speed - Fixed missing AK47 GUI image Additions: - Added various new painted over tiles for the Xenonaut base walls - New final image for Plasma Charge - Added one new Ground Combat music track, updated others to final versions Balance: - Crouching now only grants a unit a 20% reduction in their chance to be hit, down from 40% - Re-organised starting base layout, removed one radar and added a spare hangar; centralised command centre (also applies to new bases) - Increased grenade throw range by 2 tiles - Increased chances of various types of explosive causing fires (AI now avoids them!) Please post your comments on the build here. If you encounter any bugs please post them in the experimental build sub-forum of the bugs forum. I will post new threads in the beta forum shortly for in-depth discussion of the current Geoscape and Ground Combat balance, but feel free to post brief opinions here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Great fixes! Any idea when the aliens shooting through floors and roofs will be fixed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Heh. The first post is always "what about this other bug you've not fixed yet?" The aliens shooting through floors is on the to-do list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustasJ Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 - Increased chances of various types of explosive causing fires (AI now avoids them!) So no more Buddhist Civilians then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketham Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 More musics! I like that. Thanks Goldhawk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaultdweller Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Heh. The first post is always "what about this other bug you've not fixed yet?" The aliens shooting through floors is on the to-do list. Well, most people waiting for any given build probably have a specific defect in mind that they were hoping to see fixed, so that's only fair. In this build, I suspect everyone was looking for fixes to the equipment screen CTD, and the death-from-the-ceilings bug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetaCliff Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 (edited) I've started a new game with Build 4, and I can immediately see the balancing changes. My soldiers are now capable of shooting crouched aliens! HUZZAH! An odd offshoot of this is that occasionally I see accuracy ratings of over 100%, whereas previously I believed it capped at 95%. Also, it seems that Build 4 has undone one of the better fixes from Build 3. The aliens are once again capable of seeing through the walls of UFOs. I have already lost two of my starter soldiers to Plasma Pistols clipping shots through UFO door frames. EDIT: A third was lost after aliens blasted out their own door. So far, I have only confirmed this with Small Scout UFOs. I will edit in more details as the campaign progresses. EDIT: It appears my suspicions are correct. While your update of the cover/obstacle accuracy calculations is quite welcome (making the game harder for both sides, as getting hit is nigh-unavoidable), it appears this build has re-introduced "through walls" alien combat. Sebillians and Caesans both have demonstrated an uncanny ability to shoot through their own UFO doors without breaking them, and a mission played just this morning included the unwelcome surprise of a Seb firing its plasma rifle through a wooden door without breaking it, killing one of my rookies. While this build has rebalanced combat so soldiers can aim like soldiers should, obstacles should not be immaterial to either side. I like the accuracy changes, but if I had a choice, I would prefer both sides attend the Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy over one side cheating outrageously. Edited November 14, 2013 by MetaCliff More Details Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tascruel Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 I got few questions if you can spare minute 1.) Will the v20 stable be coming out anytime soon? (Sorry to ask this! You prolly hate the question.) 2.) Will v19 stable save games work with v20? (I assume not) Not that it is so important, but I was wondering if I gotta end my LP serie short. I assume that stable versions don't work together. I can ofcource always play the new stable bit further and continue there, not a big problem anyway! Thank you and keep up the good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Heh. The first post is always "what about this other bug you've not fixed yet?" The aliens shooting through floors is on the to-do list. OK, I knew you were going to say that and I deserve it . LOL. In my defense, all I can say is the floor shooting bug is preventing me from progressing past the corvettes. It's very difficult to succeed in the landing ships without quite a few casualties. I'd be all up for a hot fix to address just this one problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmdcomp Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 It definitely seems to have fixed the inventory crash for me so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markon Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Is this why aliens started shooting through the doors of the UFO this afternoon? That surprised the heck out of me, really changed my normal "form up at the door, then open it and kick butt" strategy for entering ships. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinetree Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 - Crouching now only grants a unit a 20% reduction in their chance to be hit, down from 40% Not sure I agree with this, as I've always thought of crouching as being abstracted with going prone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mordobb Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 I wonder if we will ever have again, in the dropship page, the weapon each soldier carry. I wonder this feature has been removed, nobody ever complained about it. Truly, nobody care of the face of the soldier to organize them, but we care on what weapon is where. Now its just an useless memory game that add micromanagement where there should be none. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haba Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 Not sure I agree with this, as I've always thought of crouching as being abstracted with going prone. Then it'd have to cost 3-4 times the current AP cost... This was a direly needed fix, the "crouching tiger, hidden hit" -feature led into wonderful game-play where a crouching alien behind a trash can was shooting at a crouching civilian five tiles away for 10 turns... Though it'll probably mean that my poor Xenonauts will survive even fewer missions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyuki Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 Not sure I agree with this, as I've always thought of crouching as being abstracted with going prone. Since it applies to all units, it ought to be a decent balancing act, as previously I've had these long drawn shootouts between half a dozen aliens and all of my units in cover. Neither I, nor the aliens were able to effectively hit each other past cover, over a distance where I'd have to expose myself to get close enough safely. Even the snipers' accuracy capped out at 65% without an obstacle in between, which was rarely the case as the aliens were efficient in moving to cover. Now that they've fixed those issues with crouching bonuses and hit penalties, I'm actually able to hit with more than lucky sniper shots, while having to be more mindful about all around cover for my soldiers too. As was noted already about the multi-story UFOs, not only can the aliens shoot through the floors still, but I've been able to clear these UFOs by actually just shooting through the floors myself, mainly troop ships. The aliens tend to try and shoot targets that are in "direct line of sight" in relative safely behind a wall by an alien reactor, so I can just move a few soldiers right underneath them and take them down with a couple turns of potshots. @Mordobb I thought that now that we have proper role icons that they might've been used on the dropship loadout screen as well, but this seems to not be the case. After I realized that the soldiers' positions aren't saved per unit, I just loaded them in order from the soldier roster screen, without ever bothering with the dropship menu at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted November 14, 2013 Author Share Posted November 14, 2013 I wonder if we will ever have again, in the dropship page, the weapon each soldier carry.I wonder this feature has been removed, nobody ever complained about it. Truly, nobody care of the face of the soldier to organize them, but we care on what weapon is where. Now its just an useless memory game that add micromanagement where there should be none. Thank you. Don't worry, we are going to address this by showing more details of the soldiers on that screen, probably as popups over the soldiers on mouse-over - it was an oversight that we didn't include those details already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanZA Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 Is this why aliens started shooting through the doors of the UFO this afternoon? That surprised the heck out of me, really changed my normal "form up at the door, then open it and kick butt" strategy for entering ships. Not just UFO doors. On the desert maps they shoot through the plateaus too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victorix58 Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 (edited) I just tried the experimental build and I am very impressed. With V19, I previously thought the game was great and in a very advanced state. Apart from some missing images I would have thought it of release quality. However, with the experimental release I am even more impressed. This is turning out to be a truly well-polished game and excellently balanced - a classic perhaps. It is easily worth much more than your current asking price. Edit: I LOVE the new maps and the airstrike option. Awesome. Edited November 14, 2013 by victorix58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shark Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 y i almost finished the game ..... BUT.. there are some major bugs... Played ver. 18xx 19 20hfix 3 4 averytime i started from the begining. Here is my feedback 1. hope a discovered almost every item, bud the game "freeeze" on geoscape .After many many hour of play.... Its just over, cant do anything to fix it.... Same result for V20 hfix3 and 4. Even i load old save position - same result 2. Aliens are shooting through the walls (ufo)... sorry but this is very very stupid, becouse its hard to shoot them back if u dont have enought points or the chance to hit. When the aliens are using an area dmg weapons i can load the game a use aistrike becouse im not able finish the mission or i can do it but it cost a lot of health or im loosing my soldiers..... 3. When i´m in the dropship, and using the jetpack , soldier goes UP(maybe wrong pathfinding) anyway he fly throuh the dropship roof and now comes the BEST part. U have now UNLIMITED points !! so u in the first round kill all the enemies!! this is baaaad Older versions are ok i thing. 4. geoscape battles.really hard on easy The game will be excelent, as an Xcom fan this real treasure great work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhazor Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 Glad to see that grenades have been made more practical and the aliens are learning basic survival skills (FIRE BAHD!). I'm sure its been covered before but is there anyway for Kickstarter backers to get the recent experimental builds? Any estimate on when the next stable version will arrive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 ? Didn't you get your Steam key when the Kickstarter finished? I know I got mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selvhan Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 Talking about the base configuration, could it be possible to decide qhere the command center is ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterwolves Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 I'm not really finding this build to be playable. Aliens shooting through the walls of the UFO is pretty hard to beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldgrim Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 What is the targeted release date? I CAN'T WAIT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 Bhazor - the instructions on how to claim the Steam keys are in this thread: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/5245-Steam-Keys-How-To-Claim%21 Eldgrim - we're targeting the end of December. Winterwolves - yeah, we're looking into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.