Aaron Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Firstly, if you do not know how to access the experimental branch on Steam, please read the instructions (and warnings!) in this thread. This update is not compatible with saved games from all previous versions. This build contains quite a lot of changes, as it has been a couple of weeks since the last build so we have a bit of a backlog. There's no particular theme here, though big changes include new UFO interiors (please report if you see any bugs with them!) and weapon firing costs now being based on a percentage of the users max AP, rather than a flat value as previously. The new mission end screen is also rather cool - again it is new so please report any unexpected behaviour you experience when using it. Here's the changes: Fixes: - Units larger than 1x1 (e.g. drones) no longer have accuracy problems with "phantom" blocking tiles - Bullets should now appear near the barrel of the firing weapon, rather than at the units chest - Updated animated alien base wall screens so damaged variants are aligned correctly. - Fixed inventory bug allowing you to swap used items (mags etc...) for full ones for no AP - Fixed a crash when carrying an alien corpse in a units inventory between missions - Fixed inventory items disappearing when dragging items around with insufficient AP to move them - Fixed crash when dragging an item in the soldier equip screen and changing base - Fixed aircraft flight lines not displaying if any option had been changed - Added missing entry in items.xml for plasmabeam ammo - Fixed: dropping an item to the ground without the required APs duplicated the item - Fixed hiring soldiers being free - Fix: items list empty on 1920x1080 screens - Disabled the playing of footstep sounds for units that are moving under the fog of war. - Androns will now longer smash through walls in their own bases - "Dead" soldiers no longer have a chance to survive after an aborted/lost battle - Bugfix: SupplyRun missions sometimes causing a crash when alien base was destroyed - Fixed issue that could cause UFO ground tiles to appear as ugly black triangles Additions: - UFO interiors have all been reworked, with some new props added - Items within UFOs now grant the Alien Alloys/Alenium for that UFO, so don't destroy them (There seems to be some bugs with the displaying of larger UFO hulls, we are investigating) - New style mission debrief screen - Manufacturing now drains money gradually as the project progresses - Rocket launcher now shows currently equipped rocket in inventory / soldier equip screen - Showing reserved APs in orange in combat UI - Alien drones now have their own spawn points in maps, to prevent them spawning in buildings - Added Singularity Cannon weapon (not balanced yet, but should work) - Save files now use game name instead of save time - Added the ability for soldiers to heal themselves with a medical pack - Many alien props have now been painted over - If a bullet misses a unit but lands in the same tile as the unit the text "MISS" is printed - If a bullet hits a unit but does zero damage due to armour then the text "RESISTED" is printed - Fixed the damaged versions of animated sprites being incorrectly positioned Balance: - Weapons now cost a percentage value of units max AP to fire (rather than a flat value) - Due to the above the cost to fire weapons has been updated to keep them the same as before (for starting AP values) - Machine guns now do reduce damage per shot, but fire 10 rounds - MG upgrades now all have 20 clip size; enough for two bursts - Alien weapon suppression dialled back a bit - Removed stun damage from alien weapons - Alien accuracy reduced by approximately 15 points across the board - Rebalanced difficulty settings a bit to make Easy easier - Valkyrie and Shrike both moved forwards one stage in tech tree, arriving at the same time as the comparable interceptors - Max / min number of UFO squadrons reduced to 3 / 7 from 4 / 8 - Veteran difficulty alien invasion speed reduced from 1.0 to 0.9 - Aircraft cannons reduced to 3000 range, now the same as a Sidewinder - Removed Elites from Carriers; they now only spawn on Battleships and Large Bases (so with Praetors) - UFO minimum landing time is now 8 hours - Explosive damage no longer falls off with range - Blast radius for weapons turned down as the damage drop-off has been disabled - Toned down the AP scaling at higher alien ranks, reduced Sebillian AP in particular at high levels - Light drones now have a minimum shot threshold of 5%, rather than 35% - Reduced damage on upgraded human grenades by 10-20% - Increased Andron health to be in line with Caesans - Removed shooting ability from final Praetor If you encounter any bugs please post them in the experimental build sub-forum of the bugs forum. If you want to discuss any of the balance changes in depth, please use the following threads: Geoscape: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9082-Geoscape-Balance-V21-Experimental-5?p=100632#post100632 Ground Combat: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9083-Ground-Combat-Balance-V21-Experimental-5?p=100633#post100633 UPDATE: There was a bug where the Corvette was not correctly granting the Directional Thrusters research, I have issued a small update to the data file to correct this as it blocks you from getting the Shrike. Edited February 28, 2014 by Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyver Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 way to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Nice list of changes, looks great. Thanks! I'd rather not have "MISS" text and other clutter in my hud. Isn't misses obvious if damage number isn't displayed? (presuming that "MISS" and "RESISTED" aren't shown on veteran or higher either) Atleast I hope it's toggleable... A better and more organic way to show misses and resisted hits would be to give damaging hits a blood splurt particle effect and resisted ones some sparks or similar effect. Would give hits more punchy feeling too. Edited February 25, 2014 by Skitso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 You'll be getting them too. Anyway, I still remember the days where people thought the damage numbers would be unnecessary clutter - you might find that you like them once you've played with them a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Yeah, I need to play a bit before giving final judgement on that. I've always loved the damage numbers though, and as I play with them enabled (regardless of difficulty), I don't quite get the point that the game needs to tell me I missed. Should be rather self explanatory when no damage numbers are shown, no?... Out of curiosity, what's the reasoning of removing the explosion damage fall off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selvhan Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Great update. Let's restart a new game... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KateMicucci Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) - Fixed hiring soldiers being free I thought this was intentional. It kind of made sense. There's still no price listed though. $10,000 isn't much anyway, why not keep it free? Edited February 25, 2014 by KateMicucci Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silencer Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 I am a bit worried about the MG. 5 shots from Heavy Laser was mostly enough with 3 bursts per magazine but now 10 shots might be a little overkill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selvhan Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Suppression weapon are built to use lots of bullet. But their magazine are also built to support those weapon. I prefer with more bullets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmodean Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Haven't played too much yet but a couple bugs I noticed. I like the build! Just wanted to report these as soon as I saw them. 1) There are times that my cursor does not auto change to a cross hair now when held over an enemy. I never noticed this in the last stable build. 2) I think it was already reported in older builds that sometimes the aliens turned invisible. I have a red indication of line of sight but I can't see him. I used to be able to find him by moving the cursor around until it turned to a crosshair... but twice now he went invisible AND my cursor would not turn to a crosshair. I had to restart the program to fix it. 3) Not really a bug but... saving 0 of 0 civilians should not rate my performance as Terrible. EDIT: Oh and I personally like the little "miss" text. Especially when I feel I have no choice but to burst fire into the alien spaceship. This way its much easier to see any bullets that may have gone stray and hit something. BTW... does a bullet hitting the alien tech immediately degrade the end of mission loot? Or only if the graphic changes to a destroyed graphic? Edited February 25, 2014 by Asmodean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ls35a Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 'Alien accuracy reduced by approximately 15 points across the board' Yeah! You have made my day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orangehat44 Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) just saw first light scout... I dig the new interior props and art actual pilot command seat lookin thing is really cool game feels good so far but just in first mission still. Edit: I just finished the mission lol nice condensed debrief screen! But interestingly I engaged a landed ufo and after winning the mission the geoscape said UFO-2 (the one that was landed and I attacked and one) has escaped to space... Edited February 26, 2014 by Orangehat44 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmodean Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) I got the same message on a landed UFO "escaped to space" But I cleared it out and won so must be a bug. Also there is a bug with missile launcher. First thanks for making it possible to change to a gas rocket from the base menu! This was not possible in one of the earlier builds. BUT as soon as I enter battle it went back to the standard rocket Also quick reload seems to not work on the rocket launcher now... at least not on gas rockets. I am pretty sure it used to. Edit: On a 2nd time entering battle I DID start with the gas rocket... still the quick reload does not work. Edit 2: And again on entering the battle I am back to the basic rocket. Not sure why it is not consistent, but definitely a bug of some sort. Also since quick reload does not work I am loading from my pack. It says it will take 16 TUs but it uses all 55! Edited February 26, 2014 by Asmodean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulMage Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Quick question... the notes say: "This update will break save games from all previous version except from V21 Experimental 4" And I updated from Experimental 4... but my save games seem to be gone... I was going to keep Experimental 4 until I finished my game but updated because I saw that note... is there any way to restore my game now? The reason being it takes me longer than 2 weeks to get to the higher tech levels.. and I wanted to see how they changed the end game stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betuor Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Quick question... the notes say:"This update will break save games from all previous version except from V21 Experimental 4" And I updated from Experimental 4... but my save games seem to be gone... I was going to keep Experimental 4 until I finished my game but updated because I saw that note... is there any way to restore my game now? The reason being it takes me longer than 2 weeks to get to the higher tech levels.. and I wanted to see how they changed the end game stuff. Same thing here. Also, is there a way to make the Ex builds not update? I'm just asking because I selected the setting in Steam to not update, but it updated as soon as I started the game. Sometimes I hate Steam... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gusdavidson Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 The patch notes says that "This update will break save games from all previous version except from V21 Experimental 4...but the Geoscape rebalance may not fully take effect if you load a save rather than create a new game." From that I gather that my saves from V21 Exp 4 should still work but when I load the game the Load Game list is blank. So does anyone know how to manually roll back the game to an earlier version, all I can do is tell it to use the most recent stable or experimental versions. Or at least get my saves to load correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElMyamo Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) 1) There are times that my cursor does not auto change to a cross hair now when held over an enemy. I never noticed this in the last stable build.3) Not really a bug but... saving 0 of 0 civilians should not rate my performance as Terrible. I get the same bug where the cursor isn't changing, though so far only if the alien in question is standing inside a building. The position of my soldier (whether in the building as well, or outside it) doesn't influence it. And I agree on the rating, I really don't like reading I did terrible Other than that the build is running stable after 5 hours of playing, it looks great and the balance is VASTLY improved. The only thing I would wish for would be for you guys to take another look at the shields, right now they take 2 shots until they're destroyed, and due to the heavier weight it's not really practical to take more than one (and the otherwise necessary equipment, that is. I don't let any of my guys play shield monkey only). I think they should be a touch more durable. Edit: Interesting Bug: Shooting the machine gun costs no AP for the Hunter Scout Car. Emptied the full 100 rounds into one alien in one turn. The Alien survived, btw Edited February 26, 2014 by ElMyamo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmodean Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 I get the same bug where the cursor isn't changing, though so far only if the alien in question is standing inside a building. The position of my soldier (whether in the building as well, or outside it) doesn't influence it. . Ha... for me I was in a building and the alien was outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KateMicucci Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 - "Dead" soldiers no longer have a chance to survive after an aborted/lost battle It seems like "dead" soldiers no longer have a chance to survive, period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caaygun Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 It seems like "dead" soldiers no longer have a chance to survive, period. Shame, I really liked the concept; it added a bit of heroism, you know, heroes don't die just like we see in hollywood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted February 26, 2014 Author Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) Sorry guys, but we made enough changes that saved games from older versions are not compatible - I just accidentally copied that part of the text from a previous post; removed it now. Edited February 26, 2014 by Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dead Dread Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 - "Dead" soldiers no longer have a chance to survive after an aborted/lost battle What about if they are carried aboard the transport by a fellow soldier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amaror Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 - Weapons now cost a percentage value of units max AP to fire (rather than a flat value) Not sure i like it. I liked having veteran troops that are able to fire their weapon multiple times. Different Ap costs just seems weird. Will have to play around with it a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitso Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 (edited) I played few missions and while I certainly can live with the new "MISSED" texts, I'd prefer them gone. Or at least display it every time when a shot misses because such inconsistency is just misleading. New debriefing is nice, but could use a bit trimming. Heading should always be centered, also bottom left is a strange place for a confirmation button. It should also be centered. This way left and right info panels could be evenly aligned at top and bottom. This way the screen would look much more balanced. Also the confirmation button could read something more than OK, like "Leave mission area" or similar. Otherwise it's much nicer than old! I'll try to mod it a bit tonight and post results here.. Edited February 26, 2014 by Skitso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Same thing here. Also, is there a way to make the Ex builds not update? I'm just asking because I selected the setting in Steam to not update, but it updated as soon as I started the game. Sometimes I hate Steam... I used to keep a copy of each build so when it updated I could try the new one without losing my progress in the old one. Just copied the whole Xenonauts folder to a new location and ran from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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