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V22 Experimental 7 Released!


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This is an experimental build - to access it, please read the instructions / warnings in this thread.

This build is essentially a second, somewhat larger fix / update for V22 Experimental 6 - but I've decided to bump up the version number to prevent any confusion.

CHANGELOG:

  • The first draft of the new month-end Funding screen is in. There's a couple of small details that need fixing, but overall it's much clearer than the previous one and also fits the updated UI style.
  • The "reveal map" feature is now working as intended. The map is revealed once you clear the command room of an Alien Base, and after 12 turns on Terror and Base Defence missions (it does not affect Crash Site missions). Have a play and let us know how it works, or if you encounter it at all.
  • AI has been tweaked on final mission and alien base missions. We've fixed the over-aggressiveness in both cases, and the Command Room aliens in the bases now stay in the command room as desired (occasionally checking outside for Xenonauts).
  • The 0% to hit inside UFO bug has been corrected
  • Aliens should also not be running into and then getting trapped inside solid objects any more

It'd also be interesting if you guys could let us know whether turn times have decreased significantly on the late-game maps thanks to the fixes we made in V22.6 HF.

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Few comments about the new funding screen:

  • Its really nice and sleek. Much better than the old one, good work!
  • I like the "situation: Stable - 0 continents lost" -information. (though I'm not sure if the alien winning conditions need to be displayed, feels a bit too gamey)
  • Bottom screen "Accept" sounds funny, as if you had any other choise than to accept this funding. "Close" would be ok I guess.
  • The event list is active under the funding screen so cursor highlights texts under it.
  • The funding screens window size is a bit troublesome as it overlaps the UI and it looks a bit clumsy. Not sure if there's anything that can be done about it though.
  • The funding granted and maintenance cost line could do without all the "+" and "-".
    Other comments:
  • The CTD when going up stairs is still there. Disabling the persistentLoS fixes the problem. (I've made a bug report on this.)
  • Persistent LoS still isn't updated in realtime at night.
  • Theres still something odd going on in shooting mechanics. Sometimes bullet drops right to the shooters feet (adjacent tile). This issue appeared after the new "shooting round the corners" -mechanics was introduced.
Edited by Skitso
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The 0% accuracy vs crouching targets is still in the game but at seemingly random situations. Here's a save.

I broke two concrete walls south east from the caesan just before. Wonder if that has anything to do with this? Also, looking at the aiming line, It seems like the game thinks the caesan is in the wrong tile (1 tile SW)? Could this also cause the shooting bug I mentioned above?

crouch bug.sav

crouch bug.sav

crouch bug.sav

Edited by Skitso
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Like Selgald (above) my v22.5 save games crash immediately when ground combat starts.

A given risk in playing experimentals, granted, but I was really looking forward to seeing if the pathfinding/LOS changes reduced the heavy slowdowns in late-game missions. It's going to take me quite some time to make it all the way to massive ships again :(

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This is a very minor suggestion, but to me the difference in lighting between the tiles your soldier can see and the ones they just lost LOS on is a little much. Almost night and day. When a soldier pivots quickly the screen blinks between darkened and lightened shades rapidly and dramatically. Could the tiles that are no longer directly in LOS be made a little brighter, so the contrast isn't quite as stark, if that's quickly and easily achieved?

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This is a very minor suggestion, but to me the difference in lighting between the tiles your soldier can see and the ones they just lost LOS on is a little much. Almost night and day. When a soldier pivots quickly the screen blinks between darkened and lightened shades rapidly and dramatically. Could the tiles that are no longer directly in LOS be made a little brighter, so the contrast isn't quite as stark, if that's quickly and easily achieved?

This, please! I love the new mechanic, but aesthetically it's a bit hard on my eyes.

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Odd little funding bug.

New game, usual Crete starting base, and I got absolutely terrible RNG rolls as, up until Sept 22, the only UFOs I even had a chance of downing were two fighters. Needless to say, I was sitting at a rather nice -215k for the month up until this point:

0FC1A053C1241D8702FDA4CEEA02EA49583DD366

Notice the +84k North America funding despite it being impossible for me to reach that area. The events pictured seem to be increasing funding rather than decreasing it. Prior to this series of events, North America had been in the low negatives.

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Is it possible you shot down those two fighters at the extreme W/NW point of your capabilities (over the Atlantic) and the game credited the kills to North America rather than Europe or the Middle East...?

EDIT: Sorry, I see now from other posts this appears to be a confirmed bug

Edited by dpelectric
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I'm not a fan of the new funding screen. It looks nicer, but the previous version was faster to read for me. Using the shapes of the nations was much quicker than having to read the names.

I agree with Skitso that the bit about the alien victory conditions seems overly gamey. It'd probably be better to change it to something like 'Xenonaut program will be cancelled if X more nations funding lost'. I disagree with the 'Accept' button needing to be changed though. You're accepting the funding changes and the money they're giving you so that makes sense to me even if you don't really have a choice about it.

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I'm getting the 0% hit chance bug after destroying the cover an alien was behind.

Same for me, very annoying - aliens move into space that was occupied by destroyed object and getting 0% to hit. I had to either blast them with grenades or charge in to bash them with fists.

Also sometimes you still hit a soldier that is crouching before you.

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And, I'm not trying to be a nitpicking pain in the caboose here (I'm really not!) but a 90-degree view cone seems really limited to me. Don't my soldiers have any peripheral vision at all? Wouldn't at least 120-130 degrees be more "realistic"?

I'm sitting in my living room right now staring at a spot on the wall, and even focused on a single point I can still see a lot more than 90 degrees. If this has already been discussed, or if it's deemed completely unimportant, my apologies....

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And, I'm not trying to be a nitpicking pain in the caboose here (I'm really not!) but a 90-degree view cone seems really limited to me. Don't my soldiers have any peripheral vision at all? Wouldn't at least 120-130 degrees be more "realistic"?

I'm sitting in my living room right now staring at a spot on the wall, and even focused on a single point I can still see a lot more than 90 degrees. If this has already been discussed, or if it's deemed completely unimportant, my apologies....

Unlikely to be changed before release, but for what it is worth I agree.

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It'd also be interesting if you guys could let us know whether turn times have decreased significantly on the late-game maps thanks to the fixes we made in V22.6 HF.

I'd be interested to know what, more precisely, was changed: "we've improved some of the AI turn processing to speed up turns a bit". If you don't have the time to answer, understandable, and if the answer is too complex, also understandable, but if you could provide a little bit of enlightenment on what you identified as the core issue, and what was done to address it, in layman's terms, that would be great. I might guess that a number of people on this forum who experienced the slowdowns would be curious about what was done?

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The 0% accuracy vs crouching targets is still in the game but at seemingly random situations. Here's a save.

I broke two concrete walls south east from the caesan just before. Wonder if that has anything to do with this? Also, looking at the aiming line, It seems like the game thinks the caesan is in the wrong tile (1 tile SW)? Could this also cause the shooting bug I mentioned above?

Yup, but it's not only when they're crouching. Any time an alien is standing next to a prop that's been destroyed you'll get 0% to hit on them. I just got done fighting a Sebillian in a wheat field...as soon as he walked and the wheat got 'destroyed' I couldn't hit him anymore even when he wasn't crouched.

Edit: It seems the same applies to your soldiers...I reloaded the save to try some things and I noticed that if I mouse over my other soldiers in the wheat field I'm getting a 0% to hit on them too...

Edited by Lorebot
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I'd be interested to know what, more precisely, was changed: "we've improved some of the AI turn processing to speed up turns a bit". If you don't have the time to answer, understandable, and if the answer is too complex, also understandable, but if you could provide a little bit of enlightenment on what you identified as the core issue, and what was done to address it, in layman's terms, that would be great. I might guess that a number of people on this forum who experienced the slowdowns would be curious about what was done?

Especially if it hasn't worked so we know to direct our attention to other things rather than those bits that have already been fixed.

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The AI turn times were improved by several fixed/enhancements:

- Tiles which are considered unreachable are no longer taken into account during the value calculation. This solved turn times for maps which have a lot of "black areas"; bases defense, final mission.

- During path calculation; the AI is now a lot more selective in which locations it may target for pathing.

- A small caching layer was written around the pathing algo to ensure that if the state of the game doesn't change, it just returns the same path for a given source & target.

- Some animations are skipped when we are sure the player cannot observe them.

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Thank you for the information, GJ. Quite interesting. If the AI was performing umpteen ultimately invalid calculations for unreachable tiles that would certainly help explain the slowdown on large maps. I've only gotten to light scout and scout missions so far on 22.7, but as Caaygun noted the turn times so far seem to be much faster. Here's hoping that holds up on much bigger maps :)

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