Difficulty level is through the roof... seriously.

[ls35a]

I'm an X-Com vet, but this is ridiculous.

I go into a terror site with 6 troops and an armored car with 8 missiles.

THERE ARE OVER 20 ALIENS THERE. Including the ones that kill two of your guys in one turn, turn them into aliens, then when they get killed turn into ANOTHER alien.

Seriously, it's like 25 aliens to kill on this one map.

This is FREAKING RIDICULOUS.

This is three months (game time) into the game.

I certainly hope this is not what they're shooting for in the final game.

[Skitso]

Heh, well... welcome to the bootcamp. I had exactly those same thoughts a couple of months ago, but a few games later I've learned to manage quite good GH is planning to do heavy game balance modifications soon and nobody knows how they change things...

[jonny211]

Have you got laser weapons yet? The heavy MG type laser and the vehicle mounted pulse laser are good for squishing aliens. I've not tried a terror mission in the latest stable release but found that the enemy tend to group together near the magazine stand in the park, a couple of rockets or pulse laser blasts should remove their cover and reduce them to a fine paste.

[Myrmuzduur]

I think he's having problems with getting swamped by Chryssalids or whatever they're called in this. Reapers?

In v19, the Aliens would spawn all over the place in Terror missions, in v20 they concentrate on the opposite end of the map.

He probably get's charged by too many Chryssalids at once.

I haven't done a Sebillian Terror mission in v20 yet so I can't comment, but I can see how one might be having problems.....

[Msvknight]

Here's mine.

3rd week, 1st month

I had a giant wave of alien activity and went from +30,000 to -150,000

that is way to unfair

Edit: I had a giant wave of alien activity and funding went from +30,000 to -150,000

Edited January 3, 2014 by Msvknight

[Chris]

The terror missions and alien bases haven't been mapped and tested properly yet. That's why there's so few maps and they're not so well balanced.

[ls35a]

The terror missions and alien bases haven't been mapped and tested properly yet. That's why there's so few maps and they're not so well balanced.

That is good news.....

[StellarRat]

I think the terror missions are much easier now that the aliens start on the other side of the map. When they had your Chinook surrounded right at mission start that was tough. The key to winning terror missions is to change your loadout before you take off to all explosives and heavy weapons with lots of ammo. When you land you don't bother with finesse just blast everything that moves.

[thixotrop]

Yes the terror missions have changed. In v19 there were some really "terrorly" terror mission.

The one with the Androns seemed like judgement day with an unstoppable Terminator platoon coming at you just right from the beginning.

[Myrmuzduur]

Yes the terror missions have changed. In v19 there were some really "terrorly" terror mission.

The one with the Androns seemed like judgement day with an unstoppable Terminator platoon coming at you just right from the beginning.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2913[/ATTACH]

Lol.

They never used to charge me like that in v19 though. They'd always hunker down behind the fence of the park across the street (NNE of chinook).

The chinook was great cover back then. Like a Defend the Fort mission or something.

[Solver]

Terror missions haven't had that sweet spot feeling yet in any version, IMO. In v19 they were terrifying, but only a tiny section of the map was ever used, as the missions were all about holding back aliens assaulting your Chinook. In v20 they feel unbalanced because they're either too difficult (with a normal loadout), or completely straightforward with an explosive layout. Scout car with Pulse Laser or at least a Rocket Launcher, and multiple rocketeer soldiers.

I expect it may be difficult to balance things so that a super-explosive approach doesn't automatically make missions easy.

[StellarRat]

Bear in mind that ALL missions will be much tougher now that AI is about to be patched AND Chris has done some rebalancing. The AI wasn't really shooting at anyone past about 8 tiles in the last build. From now on it will not be so forgiving.

[Gauddlike]

Explosives will likely always make the missions easier unless they get nerfed into the ground.

The down side is that you will likely recover a lot less from your kills as you will destroy everything they are carrying.

Team America destroying Paris is a viable tactic in a game when you don't have to worry about the destruction counting towards your nation relations.

[jonny211]

Team America destroying Paris is a viable tactic in a game when you don't have to worry about the destruction counting towards your nation relations.

Hahaha I forgot all about Team Americas style until then but a very valid comparison. Is the mastermind behind the alien invasion weally Kim Jong Il? Can Hans Bwix save us with an angry letter? Tune in next week for another exciting episode of Xenonauts.

[mrsisk]

I've only done one and that was in v19. It was bad...but with judicious management (see below), I managaed to kill them all with no losses. Did have some terribly wounded troops, though.

(Judicious management = save and reload OFTEN he he)

[dakta]

If you want to get the terror mission done, I have plently of experience beating them in veteran, sadly you have to restart from arrival. There seems to be a flag that sets everything to agressive and they just charge at you and overwhelm you. If you want to be able to beat them, quickly setup a firing range, start using gas to prevent them from advancing and they will be force into less agressive movments. Then things will calm back down.

[Dead Dread]

I found keeping fairly close to the chinook, advancing by small amounts (5 squares) and waiting a turn means your much more likely to be facing a few at a time rather than a dozen... Waiting a turn after killing the last alien is very usefull otherwise you just get flooded. And there is a tradeoff to using lots of explosives... you blowup all the money making items like enemy weapons, but due to the relations (funding) penalty for failing a terror mission i liberally throw C4 everywhere >:-)

[jonny211]

I've reached a ragequit point with my current Veteran game, it's not the ground missions but the air war and funding that's killing me. Today the first cruisers arrived and I'm being punished for not building enough Foxtrots or having working Corsairs. A cruiser can outrun Condors but I think 3xV20 stable Alenium Missile/Gatling Laser Condors can maybe bring one down although it takes many game loads to get an intercept. If possible I'd like to mod:-

The cruisers speed.

Give planes guns more than 50 ammo - perhaps up to 75.

What is most annoying is the huge funding penalty caused by aliens flying over countries, I don't see many 'events' appearing but the funding seems to take a big hit when an alien ship appears. I'd like to lessen this penalty.

[DaReaperZ]

Sometimes the Aliens seem to go nuts with storms, abductions and all that, just outside your radar range. You start to lose many thousands. I'm sure it's going to get fixed.

Also, I agree with jonny, ammo carried in the gatling guns could be increased

Edited January 8, 2014 by DaReaperZ

[MrPyro]

Sometimes the Aliens seem to go nuts with storms, abductions and all that, just outside your radar range. You start to lose many thousands. I'm sure it's going to get fixed.

Also, I agree with jonny, ammo carried in the gatling guns could be increased

If you're seeing lots of events just outside your radar range to can send out planes to scout for the UFO, since they carry their own radar. I've had success with that a couple of times.

[jonny211]

Also, I agree with jonny, ammo carried in the gatling guns could be increased

I've changed the ammo level through the xml file in the assets folder. I think it was aircraftweapons.xml and the files are pretty self-explanatory. However in my quick browse I couldn't find anything related to the UFO generated events. In a new Normal difficulty game I saw 'tidal disruption' costs $10k and an 'abduction' costs $15k. In this new game the US zones get hammered to start with and it'll be 18 days until a base with 2xhangars is built and fitted out with Condors.

[Dranak]

I've reached a ragequit point with my current Veteran game, it's not the ground missions but the air war and funding that's killing me. Today the first cruisers arrived and I'm being punished for not building enough Foxtrots or having working Corsairs. A cruiser can outrun Condors but I think 3xV20 stable Alenium Missile/Gatling Laser Condors can maybe bring one down although it takes many game loads to get an intercept. If possible I'd like to mod:-

The cruisers speed.

Give planes guns more than 50 ammo - perhaps up to 75.

What is most annoying is the huge funding penalty caused by aliens flying over countries, I don't see many 'events' appearing but the funding seems to take a big hit when an alien ship appears. I'd like to lessen this penalty.

Events were recently changed to be more impactful (along with downing a UFO), because they were too minor in impact and too few. To make UFO events less punishing, you would either need to reduce the value of downing them or greatly increase the frequency of events, otherwise the financial end gets too easy.

If you're seeing cruisers and are on mostly Condors, that means you've gone 5 months without investing in aircraft upgrades. You should be struggling if you're that far behind.

[jonny211]

Aha the events have already been balanced then!

I think the Cruisers came much sooner than 5months (on Veteran) but I've started a new game on Normal so the save is gone.

Before restarting I had two bases with 15 scientists in each and was at Jackal/Laser & scatter laser on the ground with Alenium misiles (I had an Alien Reactor to research which unlocks the next tier of missiles.. or does it?) and I had researched Corsairs but only had one on the assembly line due to funding.

My mistake was to only build a single Foxtrot, in this game I'll try bases with 3xCondors and 2xFoxtrots.

Do Alien bases also affect the funding or just relations?

Edited January 9, 2014 by jonny211

[MrPyro]

Aha the events have already been balanced then!

I think the Cruisers came much sooner than 5months (on Veteran) but I've started a new game on Normal so the save is gone.

Before restarting I had two bases with 15 scientists in each and was at Jackal/Laser & scatter laser on the ground with Alenium misiles (I had an Alien Reactor to research which unlocks the next tier of missiles.. or does it?) and I had researched Corsairs but only had one on the assembly line due to funding.

My mistake was to only build a single Foxtrot, in this game I'll try bases with 3xCondors and 2xFoxtrots.

Do Alien bases also affect the funding or just relations?

Cruisers started turning up in January for me, so month 4. That's on Normal.

Alien Reactor unlocks the Plasma Explosives research project; researching that then upgrades missiles/torpedoes/hand grenades/ rockets etc.

3xCondor and 2xFoxtrot per base has been serving me well so far, and I'm running my Corsair upgrade project now (heavy fighter flight groups will eat Condors for breakfast, I have discovered; Corsairs at least stand a chance due to their increased speed).

[Dranak]

Aha the events have already been balanced then!

I think the Cruisers came much sooner than 5months (on Veteran) but I've started a new game on Normal so the save is gone.

Before restarting I had two bases with 15 scientists in each and was at Jackal/Laser & scatter laser on the ground with Alenium misiles (I had an Alien Reactor to research which unlocks the next tier of missiles.. or does it?) and I had researched Corsairs but only had one on the assembly line due to funding.

My mistake was to only build a single Foxtrot, in this game I'll try bases with 3xCondors and 2xFoxtrots.

Do Alien bases also affect the funding or just relations?

Events have been adjusted anyway, I was mostly pointing out why they're as powerful as they are now. Funding and relations are pretty much the same thing in this game, but bases do affect both.

I generally go two Fox, two Condor per base for the early months. Although I'm really considering just going pure Fox again for my next playthrough (keeping my initial two Condors).