V21 Stable Candidate Hotfix 1 Released!

[Chris]

NOTE THIS IS A STABLE CANDIDATE, IT IS STILL ONLY ON THE EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH FOR NOW!

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 a series of fixes for V21 Stable Candidate released last week. It should *hopefully* not break save games from V21 Stable Candidate, but it will not allow the player to load save games from any earlier versions of the game.

There's also been a few balance tweaks.

Fixes:

- Reapers no longer cause AI hangs

- Topbar buttons now no longer stop working after some ground combat missions

- Units can no longer path inside solid objects when opening a door

- Fixed "UFO escaped to space" message after completing a landed UFO mission

- Weapons can no longer be duplicated with right-click after battle

- Dropships can now be assigned troops after being transferred to a secondary base

- 1x1 buildings can no longer be rotated when placed, causing them to appear invisible

- Medals that replace other medals (eg: LongServiceMedal) are now shown on mission Debrief screen when awarded

- Fixed a number of missing Research description text strings: Stun Weapons, Alien Communications Array

- Fixed Xenopediea research pop-ups not appearing for some projects: Alenium Warheads, Alien Officer Interrogation, Alien Leader Interrogation, Praetor Interrogation

- Slight alignment tweak to structure construction list to make more room for Quantum Cryptology building when it appears

- Basic armour machinegun crouch and uncrouch animation "jumping" fixed

- Fixed some mis-set cover walls in alien bases that were preventing units from entering the entire tile

- Swedish surname "Bergamn" corrected to "Bergman"

Additions:

- Updated final victory and loss artwork

- Added Xenopedia image for Quantum Cryptology Center

- GJ has done some AI changes that should make the aliens more aggressive, and work better as a team when four or more wandering aliens are in the same map.

- Hidden movement screen times optimised a bit.

- All weapons are now reloaded after a GC

- Wraiths can no longer perform any actions after a teleport

Balance:

- Sebillians no longer receive an accuracy penalty from smoke

- Machinegun and derivatives reduced from 40 to 30 accuracy, but recoil also reduced from 75 to 70.

- Alien psionic strength reduced from 600 across the board (used for testing) to 100-200 depending on strength.

- Alien weapon accuracy modifier increased to 1.25x to match 1.25x human weapon modifier.

- Aliens now have 50% accuracy on Easy, 75% on Normal, 100% on Veteran and 125% on Insane.

- AI can now employ grenades against soldiers using shields, even if they are not "grouped".

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.

If you want in-depth discussion of game balance, please use the following threads:

Geoscape: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9286-Geoscape-Balance-V21-Stable-%28Hotfix%29

Ground Combat: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/9287-Ground-Combat-Balance-V21-Stable-%28Hotfix%29

[Beltorn]

Good job! And it didn't break my saves) Oh and link the threads please.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Beltorn

[Chris]

I've added the balance threads now. Assuming this build doesn't introduce any extra crashes, I'll promote it to the Stable branch either on Friday or Monday, then send it away to ported.

As such, the balance threads have been set up as if this build is V21 Stable. It's highly unlikely I'll make any further balance changes prior to V21 Stable even if bugfixes need to be made.

[qdlat]

Great, thanks!

It is not a bug, but just a feature that might be confusing: dropship loadout (soldiers, vehicles) can be only arranged given that fuel is 100%. Recently I tried to re-order my troops and could not. Thinking it is a bug I looked first whether it was reported and only then found out that what I am trying to do is impossible if tanks are not full. If I did not see it working before I would think such feature is not available.

[Ol' Stinky]

There should be something that tells newbies to actually read the autopsies. A loading screen tip's the most obvious idea. Otherwise the forum's going to have a lot of "smoke seems useless!" and "Androns are bugged, I can't suppress them!" threads when the game's properly released.

[Chris]

If they're not going to read the research reports, I'm not sure there's much hope for them. They probably wouldn't read the tips telling them to read the research reports either.

[engwar]

How can I update my game through steam?

[brian.tani]

I wouldn't be so sure. A one sentence like "Research reports contain valuable info on alien tactics" while the user is forced to stare at the loading screen should help a lot. It would give a "Oh, so that's why." moment. The research reports can be dismissed, maybe because you want to deal with other things first.... loading screens, on the other hand, cannot.

[Ol' Stinky]

If they're not going to read the research reports, I'm not sure there's much hope for them. They probably wouldn't read the tips telling them to read the research reports either.

You'll get some people like that, sure. Others will skip it because it's fluff after the first few reports, or they'll figure everything is obvious. Reapers who turn victims into zombies and Wraiths who teleport are examples of what I mean by "obvious". On the other hand Sebs seeing through smoke, Harridans with high reflexes, and probably others are harder to pick up on.

[StellarRat]

Sebillians no longer receive an accuracy penalty from smoke[/Quote] What! I don't get this. Are you saying they can now see through smoke? Making it pointless to use it on them? I never heard anything about a balance problem with the Sebilians in regards to smoke.

[Beltorn]

An idea - if harridans wear full body extravehicular activity suits - make them immune to stun gas, otherwise advanced rebreathers in description are kind of useless. If you want a live harridan for research, get electroshock grenades.

[kabill]

What! I don't get this. Are you saying they can now see through smoke? Making it pointless to use it on them? I never heard anything about a balance problem with the Sebilians in regards to smoke.

I'm not sure it was a balance issue, just a cool idea that got put it. (And it makes smoke slightly less good, which I'm inclined to say is a good thing given how much I rely on it.)

[Max_Caine]

@StellarRat, that's because it wasn't. This was a suggestion to make Sebillians more unique. I actually have part of the conversation sigged.

[StellarRat]

Oh, well, that makes more sense. I thought I missed some huge thread about "poor Sebillans getting slaughtered because of smoke" somewhere, LOL.

[VaeliusNoctu]

I remember i catched a living Andon (Robot >Race) some patches ago. Is that Possible? I mean in any other way? Per Electric Grenades maybe?

Because the AI upgrade that makes the AI ​​more aggressive. Do you have the terror mission feature revised or planning to do that? At the moment comes when the terrorist missions more the feeling of Mass Effect 3. The multiplayer part where you fight against hordes of enemy waves. But not the UFO emotion. It's just too much of a "good". What would make it better in my opinion would be:

1) Larger Map (less aliens would also be kind of a shame)

2) The aliens were to fight in groups. In one portion of the Map to them. Occupied and patrol this Section. This section should not overlap with other sections themselves. Thus there are many aliens on the map, but it would not attack all at once but group by group.

This would prevent a terrorist mission is one neverending great battle.

Normal, it should be like this: A battle and again have to search the next aliens, then again a battle, etc...

Atm i hate Terror Missions...

[Benscachar]

I don't know how balanced you can make psionics when there are no defenses in the game and what defenses are planned are not implemented.

[VaeliusNoctu]

The game crashes if i load a Game where a Xenonaut was under Alien Control.

Mid-Late Game 90% of the Missions the Race was Andron (Robots) or sometimes Sebillians. Thats realy Boooring.

Maybe ist random but realy much Aliens wear now the Weapon with AOE Damage. -.- Sometimes 3 in a Ro0m of 4 Aliens.

[silencer]

How about renaming the difficulties - very easy, easy, normal, veteran. It's the first game where on normal AI gets some negatives.

[Max_Caine]

EU2012 holds your hand way more than Xeno does on "normal" difficulty, and it wasn't that long ago people were bitching bitterly about how bullshit it was the aliens were one shotting soliders from "across the map".

[Demnevanni]

Are there any plans to mention the Sebillians' smoke immunity in their Xenopedia article? Like, maybe they have something similar to these that let them feel tiny vibrations in the air, or they can detect bioelectric fields or something.

[VaeliusNoctu]

I Test the new Alien Bases Maps. Lol i was in a Andron Base and found 9 Androns and 2 Haradrians. One Haradrian wear a Sniper rifle one Andron a Plasma Rifle and 8 Androns have this AOE Weapons (all was red Androns with muuuuch hp, only a full hit of a heavy Weapon can kill them, otherwise i Need 3 Xenos to wipe ONE out).

I dont know if all Bases was like this, but if yes, the game was unplayabel.^^

I have Luck and can Kill 2 of 3 AOE Androns, the one with the Plasma Rifle and the Haradrian with the AOE Weapon. One AOE left and i still hoped ist a hard room and bad Luck, but 2 more walks in the Alien Turn in the Room, deadly unbalanced cranc. -.- It seems the complete Base was 90% weared with AOE Weapons. -.-

Btw i have my Team eqiped with Plasma Weapons (Sniper x2, Shotgun x2, Heavy Weapon x2, Rifle x2).

Result is i cant kill all the Androns with my Crew so i get overkilled with AOE damage.

@Max Caine

True the Accuracy in the versions bevor was cranc.

[Troublechuter]

Haha, I'd literally just run into the "Reapers hang the game" bug in my current playthrough, which is funny because they've never given me problems before. This has to be like the third time I've noticed a bug only to have it fixed the next day. You guys rock!

[Max_Caine]

You live a charmed life, sir.

[Nemeczek]

I Test the new Alien Bases Maps. Lol i was in a Andron Base and found 9 Androns and 2 Haradrians. One Haradrian wear a Sniper rifle one Andron a Plasma Rifle and 8 Androns have this AOE Weapons (all was red Androns with muuuuch hp, only a full hit of a heavy Weapon can kill them, otherwise i Need 3 Xenos to wipe ONE out).

I dont know if all Bases was like this, but if yes, the game was unplayabel.^^

I have Luck and can Kill 2 of 3 AOE Androns, the one with the Plasma Rifle and the Haradrian with the AOE Weapon. One AOE left and i still hoped ist a hard room and bad Luck, but 2 more walks in the Alien Turn in the Room, deadly unbalanced cranc. -.- It seems the complete Base was 90% weared with AOE Weapons. -.-

Btw i have my Team eqiped with Plasma Weapons (Sniper x2, Shotgun x2, Heavy Weapon x2, Rifle x2).

Result is i cant kill all the Androns with my Crew so i get overkilled with AOE damage.

@Max Caine

True the Accuracy in the versions bevor was cranc.

I had similar problem. And I was thinking "I am playing normal so I suck that much? I do not want to know higher level " ;d

But destroying base generators is always a option...

[Ol' Stinky]

I need someone to send an ambulance to 28 Stink Drive, Stinkdon, Greater Stinksbury, ST1 NKY. The quick battle function seems to have gone and I am suffering a heart attack.