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Impressions of 2.5 11/1/12

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Triaxx2:
So, I downloaded, installed and played some of the latest build of 2.5. I can say that I am both impressed and depressed with an about it, in the two hours or so I've played.

Combat: I was worried about the 'combat rebalance' which usually means it's be skewed well and truly out of proportion, but you guys did well.  I love the fact that it's now possible to hit a target with sniper rifles from beyond arms reach. I tell them to shoot, the alien gets hit more often than not, instead of the bullet wandering off to try and murder some random part of the scenery. Reaction fire is also much more reliable, which is fantastic. The downside is that it works more often for the aliens. Haven't gotten past the basic weapons, but at the moment it's no issue. I find that rather comforting. Even the Machinegun is still useful though no-where near as dominant a weapon. The fact that it will now hit a target once in a while is also nice.

The downsides I've noticed are two fold. First, the Rocket Launcher is now too expensive to be more than a one shot wonder. It's been pushed way too high in TU cost for it's accuracy, plus the lack of mobility to fire it means that I fire one shot at the start of a mission then drop it and pull a pistol. Should be about 18TU to fire, instead of 24.

The other problem is the new 'damage' system. I don't mind bleeding damage, it makes sense, but the medi-kit heals way too little and costs way too much to be of any use. I had a soldier hit once by the aliens ending up at 58 health, and ended up dead, because even though there wasn't much distance between her and the nearest squad member, upon moving to be healed, she got shot again, dropped to 14 health, and didn't quite reach the healer, who couldn't reach her and have TU enough to use the kit. I killed the alien with a burst of assault rifle fire, but lost the soldier. That's flat out insane. 'Heal' should be renamed Staunch, heal no HP but stop the bleeding and cost only 5-8TU.

Research: Am I supposed to research more than just continuous wave laser to get to man-portable laser weapons? Or am I experiencing an issue with the research system? I like the rebalance of how fast it goes. It means I can get lasers sometime before the end of April, rather than sometime in May. Even with only ten scientists it no longer feels like such a chore to get any research done.

On the other hand it looks like it might be more efficient to kill a mission worth of aliens then go to the plasma weapon research instead.

Base: I like the redesign for the initial base. A more compact one, with more room to expand those 1x2 pieces, without having to destroy the alien containment to have room.

UI: Not a bad UI, though I prefer the Alternate, which needs one minor change. The Morale/TU's remaining meter in the lower left hand corner is hard to see in front of the portraits. If it could be moved up, that would be very useful.

H-Hour:

--- Quote from: Triaxx2 on November 02, 2012, 09:00:10 pm ---The downside is that it [reaction fire] works more often for the aliens.

--- End quote ---

At the beginning of the game you're only facing plasma pistols, which are low TU weapons. When the aliens pack weapons with higher TU costs, you'll see less reaction fire.


--- Quote from: Triaxx2 on November 02, 2012, 09:00:10 pm ---The downsides I've noticed are two fold. First, the Rocket Launcher is now too expensive to be more than a one shot wonder. It's been pushed way too high in TU cost for it's accuracy, plus the lack of mobility to fire it means that I fire one shot at the start of a mission then drop it and pull a pistol. Should be about 18TU to fire, instead of 24.
--- End quote ---

At the beginning of the game, when you don't need the extra firepower quite as badly, the rocket launcher is probably not as useful as a grenade launcher. But later on, especially when you get the Hybrid missile and alien counts increase enough that you're seeing them in groups, it should be more useful. I may bump the damage of the basic round a bit, though.


--- Quote from: Triaxx2 on November 02, 2012, 09:00:10 pm ---Research: Am I supposed to research more than just continuous wave laser to get to man-portable laser weapons? Or am I experiencing an issue with the research system? I like the rebalance of how fast it goes. It means I can get lasers sometime before the end of April, rather than sometime in May. Even with only ten scientists it no longer feels like such a chore to get any research done.
--- End quote ---

The role of man-portable lasers has been changed. You'll get to research them later, now, and they'll be quite a bit more powerful when you get them (though less accurate than 2.4). The general progression will be human->plasma->lasers rather than human->lasers->plasma.

Triaxx2:
That's good. I'm finding that pop and grenade is a useful tactic. It shouldn't be quite so useful. Up shot is that pistols seem to be the order of the day. Since the standard snap shot is 4TU, it means I can fire first and not get a reaction shot.

I'll try switching out the Rocket Launcher for a second Grenade Launcher, but I'm still thinking that 24 is a bit high. I don't know if it's going to be possible to shoot it without being reaction fired to death though.

Interesting. If that's so, why is CWL a new game technology? Or is it because there's no alternate step up the Aircraft ladder? And is there now some prerequisite for Electromagnetic Lasers?

Anarch Cassius:
Rocket Launcher rock. I didn't like how they were nearly sniper rifles in 2.4. Sure you get a shot off every two rounds, but it's an amazing weapon. The accuracy is better then a grenade and can ignore certain kinds of cover better. The Grenade Launcher is good in some cover types and has better range than in 2.4 but Rocket Launcher is good at it's cost I think.

I never saw Lasers in 2.4. The new order seems to make sense as trying to make anything when I have all these alien weapons lying around seems silly if that thing isn't better.

Overall 2.5 has a nice balance of weapon roles and usefulness it seems.

Healing is better than 2.4 but possibly too far the other way now. You heal 3 per turn meaning you can need two medics working just to counter blood loss and sometimes that's not even enough. If you get to them right off the bat you can give them back a couple hit points and prevent bleeding damage.

All in all it's a little much given that any serious damage seems to cause bleeding. It's not really unrealistic but with that kind of danger I want a dedicated medic on each team of 8. Some kind of stat or skill or perk to make the healing faster or better would go a long way and be well worth the space on the team. A bigger medical back, maybe 2x3 could take longer to use but actually do some noticable healing. Having most of the team be able to do emergency stuff is good but that seems like a back-up option, you'd rather have a dedicated combat medic around with so many troops taking serious but not necessarily fatal wounds.

Basically between 2.4 and 2.5 the game went from having a pretty lenient healing and wounding system to very harsh wounding and very limited healing. Some ways to mitigate this would be nice.

Triaxx2:
Don't get me wrong, I love the Rocket Launcher, but with only 6 move, it means if I have to try and reposition, I've got very very limited space to do it in.

I went to Lasers, because I tried the Bolter and found it lacking until I got nose hair close. It had a very bad accuracy. Lasers were weaker, but so accurate that they completely made up for it.

I haven't gotten far enough to see more than the basic weapons yet, but the rebalance seems to have worked out well, better than usual.

That's what I'm saying. It takes the same 20TU to heal less than a quarter of the amount. I think that a point could be taken from... UFO: Extraterrestrial here. They had 'Stimpaks' and Medikits. The former could heal small amounts of damage but not 'critical damage'. While Medikits healed more but were much bulkier. It make for a more tactical healing choice though, because the stimpaks healed less.

I agree, the healing needs a very close look.

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