Firstly, just wanted to say I'm in awe with what you have been doing here.
I've played 2.1. So many more features in 2.2, awesome.
Thought I would share some points of interest while playing the first few hours on trunk release 10890.
1) When building a hospital the hospital icon in the menu turns green but you are unable to select it. Maybe it should remain grey until built or a message saying under construction.
2) Base Summary sections facilities, construction and research values are messy to read. Maybe should be tabbed into columns like the other sections.
3) Base Summary personnel looks like its missing personnel available i.e 3/8 maybe its on the todo.
4) Possibly my configuration but the screen isn't centered correctly, sits to the left when desktop sits perfectly.
5) Game Settings, holding cursor over one popup menu acitivate another popup menu i.e when trying to select an option for HUD Design the Language options appear. Works ok though.
6) 3D Geoscape - base icon white not yellow. Hard to see with white countries names.
7) When beginning maybe a popup should remind you that are not researching for newbees. I do remember seeing a popup on earlier version during mid game.
After playing ver 2.1 these are my critical thoughts on game play. To easy. I was able to play on normal difficulty with no challenge, I didnt feel the fear that I got from XCOM: terror of the deep. I'm playing expert now and fear this will prove no better. I think the majority of people are likely to start the game on Normal difficulty and possibly not play another game (As they may spend 60+ hours on the first one). Most people once started wont want to start again to beef up the level in fear of starting over again. I think its very important to get this level balanced to provide the best atmosphere possible. A player that gets wiped out on normal difficulty can either load a save game or repeat the battle, everything is in his favour. When a difficulty level is to easy other strategy aspects of the game become nullified for example budgeting of personnel, cash and expansion. This is a strategy game.
In fairness I feel this way with most games not only ufoai.
Some ideas:
* I loved the excessive damage area of the alien grenades in XCOM terror in the deep. This created an awe for the alien technology and created that fear atmosphere.Please beefup the alien weapons.
* Create more of a disadvantage at the beginning for being so far behind in technology. Balance it so most first time players are losing more recruits than they gaining until armour or alien technology has been utilized.
* I like the repeat battle option but I I see a disadvantage that players might use it excessively at the beginning of the game not wanting to take any losses. This can unbalance the number of battles a player has fought vs the story unfolding. For example if a player has fought 20+ intercept battles using the repeat battle before he triggers an alien base attack. He may retire before the story unfolds. It also goads the player to complete the missions with absolute minimal casualties which not only means no pressure is applied to all the strategy elements cash, troop recruitment etc but also weakens the experience of the battles due to loss of fear & atmosphere.
* I would like to see a player getting through the level and be happy to have survied with 3 players and not wanting to repeat the battle incase of doing worse, and therefore triggering the management elements of the game as the player takes the casualties.
* Maybe offering repeat battle only 0 to 2 players have survived. I think u should be encouraging losses. AI is up against the save game anyway if it gets to tough for the player.
* I Didn't notice a flee option. This could be deployed as a strategic tool for the player with restricted resources. Also lets them take a crack at a mission that they may have been reluctant in trying.
Anyway, Im enjoying the good work. Let me know if this is helpful as I can continue to document what I find as I play through the trunk version.
Cheers
Garthos
