Chris

No, the hit bonus still applies equally for each tile closer than max range. We just updated the tooltip for M7 so the Range Bonus line shows the total hit bonus you'll have if you're stood adjacent to the target (so people don't have to do the maths in their head), but the actual numbers haven't changed.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! As we're now one week out from release, we're going to slow down our rate of updates to Milestone 7 and we'll only be making further changes to fix major bugs or serious balance issues - every change we make runs the risk of introducing a new bug, and we want the launch build to be as stable as possible! All other changes are being rolled into the first post-launch patch, which we're working on in the background and will be releasing onto the Experimental branches shortly after release! As Milestone 7 seems noticably harder than Milestone 6 was, we've taken a few steps to dial back the difficulty - particularly in the middle of the game where the basic Guardian no longer offers adequate protection and the Exosuit has not yet arrived, where many the aliens can absorb a lot of damage while being able to 1-shot your troops in return. That stage of the game is meant to be challenging, but not quite as challenging as it was! Gameplay Changes: The Guardian Armour protection upgrade engineering project now unlocks earlier: off Alien Electronics (Observer UFOs) rather than Advanced Alloys (Abductor UFOs). The upgraded armour now provides 25/38 Armour (up from 24/36) and has 12 Hardness (up from 10). Stalker Armour now offers 25 Armour, but has no heavy variant. This means it offers good protection for 8 Weight (and no Accuracy penalty), although it is not as protective as the heavy variant of the upgraded Guardian Armour. Suppression values for all weapons have been unified into a consistent pattern. Previously most Fusion weapons and some Laser weapons were doing less suppression than expected, but the Gauss / Fusion Shotguns were doing far more Suppression than intended (almost 10x more). The AI now makes better decisions when the optimal course of action is to shoot from its starting position and then make a move. Previously it would always move first and then shoot. Updated the Xenopedia articles for the Stalker and Colossus armours to reflect their updated capabilities. The Colossus Power Fist is no longer shown in the Armory inventory, as it's an auto-equip weapon so there's no need to display it. Various tweaks to aliens: All non-melee aliens have had their Accuracy stat reduced by 10%, but on Commander the Accuracy multiplier has been returned to 1.3x (up from 1.1x). This means aliens are about 10% less accurate on all difficulties except Commander, where they are roughly 5% more accurate than earlier versions of Milestone 7. Sebillians and Androns now have 35% Energy and 35% Kinetic resistance respectively (down from 40%). There's now a visual difference between Andron Warriors (light blue) and Andron Elites (dark blue). Andron Elites reduced to 45 Armour (from 50), and Andron Praetorians reduced to 60 Armour and 150 HP (from 75 Armour and 160 HP). Mantid Warriors (Observers / Abductors) now use the basic 1-shot Bio-Rifle, and the 2-shot Bio-Cannon only starts appearing with Mantid Elites (generally Cruisers). Reduced the HP of Mantid Warriors from 95 to 80, and Elites from 150 to 120. Reaper Zombies now have +20 Accuracy on their melee attacks. Various updates to alien missions: Delayed the first spawn of Cruisers (and all subsequent missions) by 5 days. Removed a Heavy Servitor from the starting aliens on the UOO Bridge mission. Removed one enemy from the Abductor UFO crews. When Phase 5 begins, one Harvester always spawns before the Battleships start spawning - previously if you completed both UOO missions as soon as they became available, you could end up in a situation where you encountered Battleships before Harvesters. The transition to large-scale waves of Battleships during Phase 5 also arrives more quickly than before. Bugfixes: Fixed an AI hang that could occur if an alien mind controlled an armed civilain. Fixed another example of the grenade path showing a 100% hit chance (while rendering red) but the throw hitting an intervening object and blowing up the thrower. Fixed a visual issue with Sebillians when they fired their weapons. Fixed some instances of the crosshatch obstruction shader not correctly drawing over shrouded objects. Fixed projects remaining greyed out on the Engineering screen even if you cancelled projects in the queue to free up enough resources to complete them. Fixed the capacity bar text becoming misaligned on the Recruit Scientists / Engineers and Transfer Scientists / Engineers screens if you had over 100 scientists / engineers. Fixed more minor visual issues on maps / terrain tiles.

Thanks. Could you let us know what version of the game you're playing (Milestone 6 or Milestone 7?) and what difficulty you played the game on?

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Bugfixes: Fixed the mouse cursor being hidden on the load screen, which prevented players from starting tactical missions unless they had the "begin mission automatically" checkbox enabled.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Gameplay Changes: Added a settings option for locking the mouse cursor to the gameplay window (unless alt+tabbed). This setting is on by default. Commander difficulty no longer prevents the player from using Air Combat autoresolve, as the autoresolve rarely outperforms human players and this was making the Commander experience more repetitive rather than more difficult. Engineering upgrade projects now have more informative descriptions that provide specific numbers for what is being upgraded. Engineering weapon upgrade projects will now show the stats tooltip for both the upgraded and unupgraded weapon. Sniper Rifle cheapest fire mode reduced in cost from 52% TU to 48%, but Accuracy of that fire mode has been reduced from 100 to 80. This is is an overall buff to the Sniper Rifle, as it permits the weapon to be fired twice in a turn if a soldier has enough Accuracy to make effective use of the cheaper fire mode. Upgrading weapons now always add ~15% to their damage. Upgraded Gauss weapons now do slightly more damage, and a few of the upgraded Fusion weapons have had their damage numbers slightly tweaked upwards or downwards to better fit the rule. Tier 1 Psyon terror sites (about day 180) now have one fewer Cyberdrone in them on Veteran difficulty and above. Bugfixes: Fixed a crash that would occur after running the Laboratory / Workshop upgrade engineering project. Fixed an AI hang that could occur if the alien mind controlled an armed civilian. Fixed a crash that would happen if the game tried to load a particular VIP Extraction map in the Arid biome. Fixed visual errors on water tiles and other lowered ground tiles on night missions. Fixed the Servitor enemy not showing the crosshatch obstruction shader. Fixed various commercial kitchen props in the Western Town restaurant not having proper destruction states. Fixed the helmet for the upgraded Guardian armour always appearing, even when using the light variant. More map / terrain fixes.

Thanks for the bug report. I've given this a test at our end and it works fine in a new campaign, so I think the issue has arisen from the fact some of the labs were built before 7.13.0 - we made some fixes in that update that fixed the issue of the adjacency bonus being applied too early, but I don't think the fix worked on buildings that had already been constructed. So you may have some strangeness with lab capacity in your current playthrough but any future campaigns should be fine.

The 7.13.0 build recently released on the Experimental branch suffered from an issue that prevented the game loading, so we've temporarily rolled it back to 7.12.1 while we find and fix the issue. We've only been able to do this on Steam - we'll be doing the same thing on GOG in a few hours. 7.12.1 is a stripped down version of the 7.13.0 update that contains only the essential fixes, which includes a fix for the crash that was blocking Geoscape progress in 7.12.0. However, it's not a proper Experimental build and lacks the extra logging and automatic end of turn tactical saves - this shouldn't really affect gameplay, I'm just noting it here so regular testers aren't confused!

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Gameplay Changes: Geoscape max speed has been slowed down by 20%, as aircraft and UFOs already had their movement speed doubled in Milestone 7. Battleship UFO side cannons can now fire immediately at the start of the battle - previously there was a 4 sec delay after the start of the battle where they were still reloading, which made the battle easier than it should be. Cleaner VIP potential retreat movement radius from spawn zone reduced from 10 tiles to 8 tiles, as they could run a bit too far away when threatened. Gemini interceptor starting loadout now has two Armour items instead of the two Fuel Pods. Updated the initial welcome message so it no longer references Early Access. Added an icon to the Main Menu side buttons that open links in new browser windows. Bugfixes: Fixed two crashes that could occur when certain alien missions spawned onto the Geoscape. Fixed a bug with Geoscape speed setting 3 that could cause certain UFOs / ground missions to fail to spawn. Fixed a bug where buildings were incorrectly giving their adjacency bonus as soon as construction started on them. This now only applies to power generator buildings (as unlike other buildings, generators provide power while still under construction - so their adjacency needs to factor into this immediately). Fixed the UI getting into a broken state if you pressed the strategy navigation hotkey button for the screen you were already on. Fixed the game failing to load into the Main Menu on some Mac and Linux systems (although please note the game still does not actually support Mac or Linux). Some more visual fixes on various maps / tiles.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Gameplay Changes: If the default save location on a PC contains either OneDrive or Dropbox, we're now redirecting the save path to be "C:\Users\<user>\AppData\LocalLow\Goldhawk\" instead, as there are a lot of ways the game can crash if a cloud service starts locking files that the game is trying to use. Colossus Power Fist melee attack Damage increased from 50 to 60, added 40 Stun Damage, and Armour Penetration increased from 20 > 40. The way that stun damage works means this is actually quite a substantial buff to melee damage against biological enemies. Bugfixes: Fixed a crash that could occur after shooting down UFOs. Fixed some other crashes that had been picked out by our analytics service (thanks again to anyone who enabled that!) Fixed a minor bug where using Heavy Armour could cause a unit to have decimals in their Accuracy stat. Fixed some of the jungle shed walls being transparent. Fixed the Guardian armour helmet not correctly hiding hair on the paperdoll

Thanks for the thoughts. I'll boost the damage numbers on the Colossus melee weapon because it does indeed seem quite low compared to late-game weapons. I'll have a think about perhaps dropping the TU fire cost for the cheaper sniper shot to be 49%; if I lowered the Accuracy a bit it might increase the weapon's potential damage scaling in the hands of a high-Accuracy soldier without being overpowered in the hands of less experienced soldiers.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! This update breaks save games - if you have an existing Milestone 7 campaign you want to continue, you can switch to the Experimental Legacy branch to continue playing 7.10.0. Although we can't make firm promises, we're expecting this to be the final time we break campaign saves! Gameplay Changes: Smoke / poison gas has been darkened somewhat as it had become hard to see which specific tiles contained smoke after we recently lightened it. Terror Sites now contain an average of 50% more Alenium, as we've fixed an issue that was causing each Alien Bomb in the map to only have a 50% chance of spawning. The fire costs of the Mantid Bio-Rifle and Bio-Cannon (which spawn Symbiotes) has been increased to 51% / 60% (from 36% / 51%), preventing the weapon from being fired more than once per turn. Accuracy of the weapon has been raised a littlle to compensate. Symbiotes can no longer be Suppressed, but can also no longer vault or climb. Reaper melee damage increased by 10%. Basic Cyberdrones now make blue explosions that do 50 damage, Heavy Cyberdrones have green explosions that do 75 damage (previously both had 60 damage green explosions). Cleaner Soldiers in the second Abduction site now have Ballistic Rifles, rather than Magnetic Rifles. The Psyons in the Cleaner Base now have Plasma weapons, rather than Magnetic weapons. The Evasive Roll cooldown of the Gemini has been increased by 0.6 seconds to 2.2 sec, which means the Gemini can now roll as often as a Phantom. Added the new style of UI arrows to the Engineering project queue. Bugfixes: Fixed two crashes during the AI turn. Fixed a bug in the tactical AI that was causing aliens to incorrectly continue to know the positions of spotted Xenonaut soldiers even after they had moved to a new position that was no longer visible. Fixed a bug in the tactical AI that was causing aliens to sometimes face away from Xenonauts in combat. Fixed a bug where the Mantid Bio-Rifle would not spawn a Symbiote if the shot hit a tile corner rather than the center of a tile. Fixed a bug where attempting to change weapons when a soldier was moving would visually update their 3D model, but wouldn't change the equipped weapon in game terms - this could lead to players accidentally using the wrong weapon. Potentially fixed an issue where it was not possible to start engineering projects even if you had the required materials - we weren't able to reproduce this, but we fixed something that could have caused it. Fixed adjacency values for new Generator buildings not showing immediately, even though the base Power generation of the structure was added immediately. Fixed a bug where items / buildings that had been upgraded by an engineering project would always display their name in English, even if playing in another language. More minor visual fixes for tactical maps and tiles.

Yes, the previous milestone always goes on the Legacy branch.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Our next update will include several bugfixes that will break saves. Although we will keep 7.10.0 on the Experimental Legacy branches so people can continue their existing playthroughs, we suggest anyone planning to start a brand new campaign waits a few days! Gameplay Changes: The Doomsday progress bar on the Geoscape now has distinct sections (which each represent 5% progress) rather than being a continuous bar, which makes it look a bit cooler. Visually improved a number of additional dropdowns and arrow buttons on the strategy UI. I've also made the arrow buttons (e.g. when recruiting new scientists / engineers) a bit more responsive to repeated fast clicks. Added progress bars to the Base Stores: Sell and Base Stores: Transfer screens, which represent the Storage Capacity of the selected base(s). Updated the position of the UFO name / hp / armour text rows in the air combat, as in many cases they were drawing on top of the UFO sprite and were difficult to read. Bugfixes: The Exit Game button once again functions correctly. Fixed tactical saves from before 7.9.0 crashing on load. Fixed a crash on the AI turn. Fixed the Collect Bounty system for crash sites getting broken in the previous update. It now correctly shows the bounty value on the button and grants the money correctly, and collecting the bounty does not charge OP. Properly fixed the tiles on either side of the Battleship UFO door not being walkable. Cyberdrones now perform an additional visual-only explosion when destroyed. Normally this cannot be seen due to the actual death explosion, but it prevents things looking silly if the Cyberdrone is killed by burst fire (as the actual death explosion can only occur after the burst has finished). Fixed some more map layout / visual issues.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Gameplay Changes: We've finally implemented a more advanced model for the AI that now keeps track of "known" Xenonauts vs unseen Xenonauts, which means alien units will no longer have automatic knowledge about Xenonaut units that they have not yet encountered. Basically, this should reduce the amount of obvious AI "cheating", and make flanking aliens more effective. Research speeds have been returned to the values found in Milestone 6. We introduced a bug a few weeks ago where each Infiltrator created would permanently boost your research speed by 5% (a copy-paste error), which meant you'd frequently run out of available research even if you'd made no particular attempt to speed up your research. This has now been fixed. Batons and Knives now have a 1.25x Reflex modifier, which means carrying them in your off-hand no longer penalises shotgun soldiers. Symbiote melee attack now has a 30% chance to inflict a Bleeding Wound per 10 damage inflicted (down from 50%). Made some performance improvements for units with 360-degree vision, as the Sentinel Module was causing lag for some players. The voiceover on the intro / outro cinematic has been re-recorded with a new voice actor due to a contract issue. Added the co-ordinates back onto the Geoscape, as it turns out some players did use them. Panic levels are no longer shown in the topbar when hovering over a region in Phase 1. Added a few more crash site maps to the game that weren't previously spawning due to a setup issue. Bugfixes: Fixed the Identify Recruits strategic operation OP cost being able to go negative, and not resetting to the standard (35 OP) price after use. Fixed the Geoscape zoom speed being dependent on framerate. It's now a consistent value for everyone. Fixed the item totals on the Engineering screen incorrectly including items "equipped" on Unassigned soldiers, which could cause projects to show that you owned more copies of that item than you actually did. Fixed the soldier paperdoll disappearing if you changed the loadout of an unassigned soldier on the Armory screen. Fixed the Power Fist remaining equipped if the Colossus Armour was stripped off a soldier when they are assigned to a dropship due to there being insufficient Colossus Armours available for them to use. (Hopefully) fixed the Colossus not showing the crosshatch obstruction shader when hidden by walls etc. Fixed aliens that have suffered an overwatch attack when moving always attempting to attack back in response, rather than finishing their planned move. Fixed an issue where spawned Symbiotes could incorrectly be visible in the fog of war. Fixed the Strategic Operation info dynamic text values displaying white, rather than using the colour-coding it had in older versions of the game. Fixed a couple more wall types in the ATLAS Base maps that were not revealing properly at certain angles. Fixed the Western Town restaurant walls being invisible in the previous dew hotfixes. Fixed a number of map issues. Fixed a couple of tiles that have black z-fighting issues on Linux machines.

The portrait selection idea we've had down as a "maybe" for a while - we haven't managed to get to it yet, but I'm not completely sure whether I want to allow it or not. It's a bit immersion-breaking to be able to change your soldier's face. You can imagine a soldier being given a new callsign or nickname, but their face might be too much