Geoscape Balance - V22 Experimental 9

[Chris]

CHANGELOG:

- Foxtrot chassis has had autoresolve value increased from 0 to 200

- MAG weapons now require the Alien Battle Rifle research, first encountered in Carriers

- Reduced Alien Alloys and Alenium gained from non-crash site UFOs (i.e Fighters etc) by 30%

- Foxtrots can now solo Scouts, so solo Foxtrots are more relevant early-game

- Airliner Shot Down events cause less damage to country relations

- Slowed down the game progression speed a bit more on Easy and Normal

- Condors no longer have any sell value

- Landing Ships now create Terror Sites; smoothing the progression between Corvettes and Cruisers

[Skitso]

I just realised how annoyed I am every time I send an interceptor to shoot down an ufo when the ufo lands and the interceptor just starts flying circles around it. If it's not too much to ask, I'd like the game to go to 5secs when interceptor reaches a landed ufo and maybe have a "target ufo has landed." dialog popup.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Skitso

[lemm]

Could the player be given the chance to equip his troops before a ground attack commences?

[kabill]

Inspired by another thread, here's a suggestion which (hopefully) wouldn't be difficult to implement: could starting funding level be varied by difficulty level?

The economy isn't really affected by difficulty level. The game is softer at lower difficulty levels, but that doesn't necessarily help new players who are still experimenting with what is/isn't useful to spend money on and when. Even a small buff on lower difficulties relative to higher ones might help (say +25%?). You'd maybe need to rebalance the losing conditions to take account of the higher country relations, but other than that it should integrate fairly well (or you could just apply it as a modifier on monthly funding?)

[domein]

Radar ranges seem to be wrong, Earth circumference is 40 000 km, base radar range is 1200km, so in order to cover whole planet along the equator we would have to line up about 12 bases, but my 4 bases almost do that.

So is the radar actual range is 4000km, or do we play 10 000km circumference Earth?

[StellarRat]

I just realised how annoyed I am every time I send an interceptor to shoot down an ufo when the ufo lands and the interceptor just starts flying circles around it. If it's not too much to ask, I'd like the game to go to 5secs when interceptor reaches a landed ufo and maybe have a "target ufo has landed." dialog popup.

A reasonable suggestion.

[Chris]

Literally none of the posts so far have been about the balance. Let's stay at least vaguely on topic, eh?

[legit1337]

Mentioned in another thread, someone accidentally reduced the condor BUY price to 0$ as well.

Edited May 22, 2014 by legit1337

[legit1337]

Radar ranges seem to be wrong, Earth circumference is 40 000 km, base radar range is 1200km, so in order to cover whole planet along the equator we would have to line up about 12 bases, but my 4 bases almost do that.

So is the radar actual range is 4000km, or do we play 10 000km circumference Earth?

Correction, it is 5 bases to cover the entire earth from equator to equator. 4 Bases with 2 radars each.

A base has a STATED 1,000 KM radar radius with 2 radars + command center. That means the total range is 2,000 KM. To make this accurate to scale each base with 2 radars would have to have to have a STATED radar radius of 5,000 KM instead, with a total range of 10,000 KM.

So the stated sums currently in game are off by a magnitude of about 5. Giving the earth a rough circumference of about 8,000 KM.

The radar bubbles themselves on the geoscape are fine.

Edited May 22, 2014 by legit1337

[Max_Caine]

Just a few things.

I think airSuperiorityCooldownTime needs to go from 6 to a much smaller number - say 1, or even a fraction of 1 as at the moment it's really easy to neuter the air superiority squadron in a wave by flying a single interceptor at it, then running away.

Additionally, there's a small problem with aircraftweapons.xml - the alien bullets are mostly listed as bullet rather than alienbullet. I fixed this, then promptly overwrote the fix with a modded file (smart), so I'm waiting for Xeno to re-install so I can put up the fixed file.

[KevinHann]

Additionally, there's a small problem with aircraftweapons.xml - the alien bullets are mostly listed as bullet rather than alienbullet. I fixed this, then promptly overwrote the fix with a modded file (smart), so I'm waiting for Xeno to re-install so I can put up the fixed file.

What is the difference though and how would the modded file change the game?

[Max_Caine]

Oh, it's a purely cosmetic thing. There's graphics and sounds for alien bullets, alien torpdoes and alien missiles. It's just most UFO weapons that use the bullet graphic are using the human bullet/sound, rather than the alien bullet/sound. (good example - the corvette uses the correct graphic/sound, the Landingship doesn't.)

[KevinHann]

Wow that's weird, was it intended that way originally?

[Max_Caine]

Well, the alien bullet graphic/sound wasn't introduced until fairly recently with the added FX to the AC,so it's not surprising this might have been left out by accident.

[KevinHann]

I must admit I was very likely to miss on this with the Autoresolve option, I loved the airfights in the demo but couldn't get myself to repetitively play them in the full version. That's something I should definitely revisit after release.

[Max_Caine]

That's what's depressing. All the fights are the same. Oh well. That's why there are modders like me to inject a little sparkle!

[lemm]

Do Cruisers stop appearing once the Battle Ships and Carriers show up? In my last playthrough I was unable to recover a cruiser because I didn't feel that I had sufficient firepower, so I had to do the final mission with a Shrike instead of a Valkyrie.

[kabill]

Do Cruisers stop appearing once the Battle Ships and Carriers show up? In my last playthrough I was unable to recover a cruiser because I didn't feel that I had sufficient firepower, so I had to do the final mission with a Shrike instead of a Valkyrie.

Looks like it, yes.

Later ships should probably give the same tech unlocks as earlier ones to ensure you don't end up being blocked out of research.

[Solver]

Is anyone managing to get enough money? I am now completely bankrupting myself in 3 months.

[lemm]

Is anyone managing to get enough money? I am now completely bankrupting myself in 3 months.

I have just enough money.

[StellarRat]

I'm OK with money in December. Two bases up. Killing lots of landing ships and corvettes.

[Max_Caine]

Haven't really seen that much of a difference with the rewards for shooting down bombers and fighters, tbh. Farming fighters is time-consuming but managable - you only have to wait 4-5 days for the next crop to spring up.

EDIT: Oh, and can I say how much I love Foxtrots can now solo Scouts? It means I've not sweating certain parts of my anatomy worrying about getting two Foxtrots out ASAP.

------------------

I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but I think that the Corsair could use dropping in price by $50,000. Not because I'm running out of cash, but for the following two reasons. Firstly, the Corsair is the mirror of the Foxtrot - incredibly short-ranged, fighter-focussed, as opposed to incredibly long-ranged, cap-ship focussed. Both compliment each other and both are on the same "level". Secondly, and more importantly, I feel there should be a larger cash gap between the Marauder and the Corsair. At the moment, for roughly the same amount of money you don't get much of a production edge for making more Corsairs than you do Maurauders, so it's economically advantageous to save up and build Mauraders. But by widening the cash gap from $150,000 to $200,000, you see a much stronger economic difference between Corsairs and Maurauders and a much stronger economic reason to build Corsairs over Marauders.

As a quick example, for $900,000 I can get 2 Marauders or 3 Corsairs atm. If the Corsair were to drop to $250,000, for $900,000 I get 2 Marauders, 3 Corsairs for $150,000 less or If I can find an extra $100,000, 4 Corsairs. A stronger economic imperative to build Corsairs makes them more relevant compared to the "do anything" Marauder.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Max_Caine

[Solver]

The air combat has a few quirks about it.

- Foxtrot vs. Scout autoresolve is weird. Foxtrot can actually get damaged. How? It fires two torpedos which are a guaranteed kill and they hit before the Scout is in gun range. Played out manually, Foxtrot vs. Scout is 100% win with no damage even if you don't click a thing.

- I am not feeling the need for Corsairs currently. Condors with Alenium explosives and Plasma guns are real good, two of them can even bring down a Landing ship, and they win vs. heavy fighters 1-on-1. Unless you're absolutely swimming in money, it feels like you'd better invest elsewhere.

- Local forces still do not have lasers after a few missions of me having plasma, and that is without me having rushed for plasma.

[KevinHann]

What's the best squadron combo before Marauders are researched then? No Corsairs at all?

[Solver]

I don't find them economically beneficial. With Foxtrots to nuke unescorted ships and Condors to take care of escorts or gang up on larger ships, it seems to be enough. Given the expense of Corsairs, seems like the remaining money is better used on improved equipment and larger map coverage.