Few things I want to tell

[Seerorin]

Few ideas based on what I see in game and what people on forums told me. Maybe It’s just me but these are mostly balance changes, and not meant to make the game any easier! They meant to make the game chalenging in another way.

1.: Make a global experience increase for soldiers(you are fighting a war more and more soldiers get involved with aliens. So you could get a lot of soldiers who had survived combat in what you wasn't involved/you can send away your best soldiers to train better soldeirs). Maybe get better soldiers based on nation happiness?

2.: Make missions fairly harder but more rewarding to complete. Also make soldiers death a lot less decrease in squad power. It would make it seem more like a war.

3.: Rise starting money or make more ways to provide lot of early ability to expand. Also make enemy able to destroy your radar bases and make a lot of onslaughts on your bases. When they start to bring armors(start to really take you seriusly) they should really start to hit bases/installations.

4.: Number of bloodspiders should be increased. There are only a few and they aren't pose any threat at all. Make them gang on you and go all out assault on you. Maybe even at the cost of smaller size and less health. But they should use different AI behavior if possible and close up on you. Maybe rise the number of hovernets too by a miniscule amount.

5.: Make advenced weapons worth the price. Snipers can one shot something for 20 TU-s wich is becoming good later. EM rifles on the other hand let me down a bit. Coilguns also have the same TU problems. Why rising TU with damage? They get out sniped by far lighter weapons… Throughwall capability should be explained a bit.

6.: Too much use of alien weaponry. Yeah this is a UFO game so you should be able to use their weapons against them, but I had to made my whole squad into using plasma rifles a sniper rifle(mostly for training for coilgun), and a single grenade launcher cause that one can't use anything else. I could imagine some weapons what they can use and we can't. Sheevars could some kind of really heavy ballistic weapon with so high recoil(railguns do still recoil) a human can't handle even with the integrated recoil dumpening what make a sheevar be able to use it. But this could lead us to improve our own weaponry into using much stronger orinary ballistic weapons wich use alien ideas but human technology in it. Laser rifles are good idea but these things would be stronger than that still weaker than particle beam weapons, or something like this.

7.: Very limited possibilities at start. Like missions. So you can't get two teams up in the air. I'm halfway through my first year. Third through the game it seems. So I could need to get that squad up or need really good new recruits. Else new squad simply will be useless and waste of money. Also more squads would make the game more warlike.

8.: It's an all out war. Your basic weapon selection not so bad but not so good either. I only got 4 items on the early item list wich is really can be used. Assault rifles, Sniper Rifles(very limited use at start), HMG(only for few missions full auto +little moving can do a lot of hurt still classed assault so will not set my team back with other skills. Still 14 TU-s for 5 bullets isn’t really good with that accuracy. It’s even worth than the full auto of an assault rifle… HMG really needs a boost.), grenade launcher(most realiable thing in the arsenal. Hit a lot, hit hardest, indirect fire option). I could say that grenade launcher should far more unreliable. Could also do hybrid damage(I asked it if the game support it, and If I got it correct it does) so it should do explosive damage in a small radius and normal with %chance on a larger area. So more chance to hurt yourself and also really became area of effect weapon. This could also work with rocket launchers.

9.: Sidearms should be made a little bit stronger TU vise(except plasma pistol and other alien stuff).

10.: Out of base buildings(radar,sam site,ufo silo). These aren't really useful as they numbers are far too low. Maybe rising their number by 1-2/base. Would help a lot with early radar coverage. Wich also would make unlucky early games less happening(sometimes I didn't got any missions in the first month).

11.: Also you meintion mumbai a lot. How a lot of troops wasn’t able to kill a few aliens. After that you meet aliens and you can kill them easily? Seems like this is not really in line with your fluff. Especially considering you get virtually useless soldiers.  It should be really hard to kill those Aliens. Even to the point where sniping them with assault rifles would be nearly pointless. You could need to rely on heavy weapons to kill them. Like sniper rifles/HMG-s for lighter aliens and rocket/grenade launchers for heavier aliens. They are said to be really outgunning and outfighting you in mumbai. After that you simply can fight them on nearly equal footing with just eight useless out of the basic training rookies who can’t even properly grip a gun? Hell know! They couldn’t even scratch an alien. Give those heavy weapons a proper purpose. Make some kind of change to aliens so they really pose a hardcore threat(armored tamans and sheevar also should get infra vision against smoke exploit).

12.: Also why you are the only single one who is doing anything? Especially with this 1 miniature base rookie soldiers minimal money gameplay…  I know original Xcom was something like this. But that was just cause technical limitations. I would like to see the game as a competent one. With a feeling of living world around you not just useless numbers and fluff. Right know nations don’t exist. I explain this: Virtually they give you minimal amount of money, good for nothing soldiers(especially as the game progresses), and do nothing just sit. You still will win a WAR! Against an alien race. It’s just really the kind of WTF stuff? Ok you are the phalanx, the SPECIAL force. Good you do type of asap reaction job. You are ont he front lines and try to get any kind of upper hand. But still there should be other groups who are fighting aliens. Not so well armed and trained. But still they could be there fighting. Sometimes needing your help. Triing to deal with missions you don’t take up(you have a chance of missions succeed without your direct involvement). Buti f they fight they win they don’t give you the craft. But you could by more stuff on market maybe from them. They could also help research this way. If a nation gets a ufo they could have an X% chance of researching that ufo at the speed of only one research facility. Also you could give technology to the nations. This way rising their effectiveness at everything. Maybe with separeta research for mass manufacturing. Like ok you built X number of laser rifles now you have the knowledge to make the crafting process fairly easier, faster and cheaper. It could effect you. But also it could make it so the nations start to pump out laser rifles on large scale. This will also increase their chances of succeeding without your direct actions. Also this could be maybe only an alternate to that phalanx is always ont the front.

I don’t say that this is the way to go. But maybe with a little bit of work(mostly balance). You can really feel like you are warring an enemy race. Cause now it feels like this: You are a hope of humanity. Your job? Stop the aliens! But we really don’t even care! Just use this aircraft these noob soldiers and single interceptor. Here you go! Go and save the whole world! But don’t really ask for a lot of money! The aliens aren’t so great a threat! They are just annoying so get rid of them already! Sorry for the long post and probably bad english, it’s not my mother tounge.

[TBeholder]

1.: Make a global experience increase for soldiers(you are fighting a war more and more soldiers get involved with aliens. So you could get a lot of soldiers who had survived combat in what you wasn't involved/you can send away your best soldiers to train better soldeirs). Maybe get better soldiers based on nation happiness?

If they think high of you, they should be less stingy with proposing good recruits, yes. As to the first part - it would be neat if missions with saving civilians had greater impact on general relations, but missions helping military would affect a chance to get extra recruits.

4.: Number of bloodspiders should be increased. There are only a few and they aren't pose any threat at all. Make them gang on you and go all out assault on you. Maybe even at the cost of smaller size and less health. But they should use different AI behavior if possible and close up on you. Maybe rise the number of hovernets too by a miniscule amount.

A melee-only unit? Single spiders serve to divert fire from armed aliens, being too nasty to ignore and too small to hit easily. If they'd come in swarms, it would only make them a better target for MG and explosives.

5.: Make advenced weapons worth the price. Snipers can one shot something for 20 TU-s wich is becoming good later. EM rifles on the other hand let me down a bit. Coilguns also have the same TU problems. Why rising TU with damage? They get out sniped by far lighter weapons… Throughwall capability should be explained a bit.

I got to agree: heavy/bulky weapons should have slower Snap shots, that's fine - but an Aimed shot takes time mostly for aiming, thus the difference should be less significant, not more.
Splitting TU costs between phases of a shot (which was asked somewhere here) would be also different.

Sheevars could some kind of really heavy ballistic weapon with so high recoil(railguns do still recoil) a human can't handle even with the integrated recoil dumpening what make a sheevar be able to use it. But this could lead us to improve our own weaponry into using much stronger orinary ballistic weapons wich use alien ideas but human technology in it. Laser rifles are good idea but these things would be stronger than that still weaker than particle beam weapons, or something like this.

Yeah, strength affecting how well a shooter handles recoil would be good. Not necessarily as a hard requirement like in Fallout. E.g. taking a little stun damage with decrease in accuracy for a while if using a weapon that's a little too strong for the actor. With TU split it could also be expressed in draining extra TUs for recovery (after [reaction] fire) phase (i.e. forget about multiple reaction snap shots).
Of course, powered armor should help with this.

Also more squads would make the game more warlike.

Apocalypse -like squad mechanics would help a lot, yeah. Given that usually it's something like "fire team 1" (4) + "fire team 2" (4) or "fire team 1" (3) + "fire team 2" (3) + "roof / long-range team" (2)

9.: Sidearms should be made a little bit stronger TU vise(except plasma pistol and other alien stuff).

Yup, needs better differentiation. Then again, do you use them? I did when trying 2.4 on easy. But as it is in 2.5 and on medium skill, a strong armored soldier can lug around: medikit, 3 grenades (different or all smokes) and maybe spare ammo - there's neither place nor weight allowance left for sidearms. Nor much need (except RL and maybe GL).

10.: Out of base buildings(radar,sam site,ufo silo). These aren't really useful as they numbers are far too low. Maybe rising their number by 1-2/base. Would help a lot with early radar coverage. Wich also would make unlucky early games less happening(sometimes I didn't got any missions in the first month).

And/or even better, make sponsor states give alerts about UFO - but it's an alert, not tracking (you cannot launch SAM at it, only see where an UFO goes for intercept purpose). Also, their hardware is not optimized for UFOs, thus best ones are equivalent to a basic radar tower - and it stands where they already put it, of course.

rising their effectiveness at everything. Maybe with separeta research for mass manufacturing. Like ok you built X number of laser rifles now you have the knowledge to make the crafting process fairly easier, faster and cheaper. It could effect you. But also it could make it so the nations start to pump out laser rifles on large scale. This will also increase their chances of succeeding without your direct actions. Also this could be maybe only an alternate to that phalanx is always ont the front.

They do produce some stuff, just not right away... And right now manufacturing is very sketchy.
Allso,  an experimental workshop and a factory are very different things indeed. Maybe, somewhere between (after you make N instances of an item) an experimental stage and "available on market" there should be an option to contract the outside parties (which may depend on their nations' relations, of course) to produce X items for price Y for you - cheaper than in workshop, but only large enough parties?..

[Seerorin]

With more squads I didn't meant more ppl for one squad. But the abilty to bring out more troops early game is a have to(you can't really rely on rookies later on.

I can easily had my soldiers equip so much human made items I didn't had enough space... XD I had an SMG, AR smoke, flash, normal grenades+medikit on all assault soldiers. Only heavier weapon carriing soldiers got less weapons. So it's not so absurd. Also it's needed in close combat. Cause dmg/tu is not really in for assault rifle. Later I changed for all plasma rifles so "problem solved". Still don't really like how it's done.

[Noordung]

more people means longer missions. and some missions now are already very long - maybe too long. for turn based its hard to have 100+ troops. mission could take 2 days.

for sidearms... if you have devoted medic he can use sidearm and medikit. in this case adding medic skill for better medikit use and special medic class would be good. also you can use granadeer. one hand granade (smoke ore any other) other hand hand gun. xenonauts got this shield for aditional protection. shield + sidearm. interesting tactics.

[Seerorin]

I meant more firebirds so you can go to more missions with more teams... My english isn't perfect so sorry for this...

For sidearms... They are relatively useless. Only one with decent range+damage is micro SMG. Wich will never ever hit anything from not point blanck range. Also not really TU effective. After that came the plasma pistol. Wich is quiet TU effective and least can hit target. But for me it's not working in reaction fire mode when I have other weapon in the other hand(maybe a bug?). Cause while you don't have enough plasma rifles you have to rely on plasma pistol as you go into a building(tried bringing multiple "types" of soldiers most of them ended up useless...). So there is a single class of weapons wich is good behind close range and is light. It is the AR. but especially early in the game it's not realiable so you have to spray it... So you will need most of your people carry an AR. But it's useless if you have to go into a building. Where you need an SMG or sidearm(weight limit is acceptable I was able to bring this many weapons...). But then you have take a weapon out of the packpack. Put the rifle in the backpack, so instead of a 4-5 TU of fast switch you end up with a whole round only to switch weapons. Wich maybe you won't even use. Would be better if you just have a reliable sidearm get SMG out of the picture or make it really strong in close combat so ppl can use it(probably rise the ammo to mentioned 50 rounds not 30 like now). So in mission transition for ranges is pretty much non existent. AR will never stop an alien. Nor will pistol. A small SMG neither do trick cause it will not even hit. Normal SMG do a 75 wound if all bullets hit. Still not enough but at least you have a chance of that maybe it's at least hurt that alien a little bit to shoot down your soldier...

[Internecivus]

I meant more firebirds so you can go to more missions with more teams... My english isn't perfect so sorry for this...

To have more firebirds you need to build more hangars.

For sidearms... They are relatively useless. Only one with decent range+damage is micro SMG. Wich will never ever hit anything from not point blanck range. Also not really TU effective. After that came the plasma pistol. Wich is quiet TU effective and least can hit target. But for me it's not working in reaction fire mode when I have other weapon in the other hand(maybe a bug?). Cause while you don't have enough plasma rifles you have to rely on plasma pistol as you go into a building(tried bringing multiple "types" of soldiers most of them ended up useless...). So there is a single class of weapons wich is good behind close range and is light. It is the AR. but especially early in the game it's not realiable so you have to spray it... So you will need most of your people carry an AR. But it's useless if you have to go into a building. Where you need an SMG or sidearm(weight limit is acceptable I was able to bring this many weapons...). But then you have take a weapon out of the packpack. Put the rifle in the backpack, so instead of a 4-5 TU of fast switch you end up with a whole round only to switch weapons. Wich maybe you won't even use. Would be better if you just have a reliable sidearm get SMG out of the picture or make it really strong in close combat so ppl can use it(probably rise the ammo to mentioned 50 rounds not 30 like now). So in mission transition for ranges is pretty much non existent. AR will never stop an alien. Nor will pistol. A small SMG neither do trick cause it will not even hit. Normal SMG do a 75 wound if all bullets hit. Still not enough but at least you have a chance of that maybe it's at least hurt that alien a little bit to shoot down your soldier...

Once I gave soldier laser pistol and medikit. In few month it turned out that he had the best accuracy of all my soldiers (4 TUs per shot, almost no spread, although less kills). Later I gave him plasma blaster (which is also close combat) and turned him into deadly killing machine.

And AR is capable of killing any alien if you researched /spoiler alert/ technology. Of course, it won't be as deadly as particle beam rifle, but consider 30 bullets and 90 damage per bullet against 12 and 110 respectively. In the meantime, machine gun is better in damage but lose in accuracy and weight. Anyway, it is up to you what to choose, personally I prefer plasma blasters inside buildings.

[Seerorin]

I would also prefer plasma blasters there. Also I know there is that ammo upgrade. Also with that you simply do a lot of damage. 90 damage make most aliens think twice before shooting. Also if I got it correct the amount of TU-s needed for a few actions decreases as your soldiers get better, or just penalty is applied if they are bad. But still HMG can shoot 5 bullets for nearly the same time units and worse accuracy than AR. That was a bit not convincing. Just 2 TU diference from AR full auto. MG full auto is like a shotgun. So I just realized the same soldiers with more reloads using assault rifle on full auto would be not so strong at close combat but would not be hardcore handicapped at medium to long range combat. I can't see the worth of a heavier weapon wich needs more stats to just simply carry if it's weaker than it's smaller easy to carry counterpart. It's entirely balanced against the heavy weaponry. The game is in reality just fully balanced towards the AR+alien equivalents+plasma blaster in midgame. Later on maybe coilgun. But that's again not so good. Only if you have good snipers. Wich you won't have cause laser rifles are so accurate you don't need snipers anymore. They are easily on par with sniper accuracy. Some overhaul to the accuracy system would be welcome I think.

[Internecivus]

Experienced assault soldier with MG and EP bullets is very often an instakill. Anyway, my squad's soldiers and(or) weaponry always depends on the type of mission. I usually spend some time to carefully pick the right soldiers and the right equipment to ensure I won't have any losses. Of course, it's hard to do that at the beginning or when you don't have enough good soldiers.

[Seerorin]

How can you accumlate "good" soldiers? Also weapon choises aren't really choises. There are a few wich is useful, and others wich is simply not. Like basic sidearms. All of them are useless maybe someone said he used micro shotgon(don't even know if that's a side arm.). I have used SMG-s a few times before I transitioned to plasma pistols cause they are one handed. Didn't used them except a few shots. After that gone for plasma rifles. So no highly close skilled soldier in my pool. Laser weapons just got into play but started with rifles. Cause in desperate need for more hitting power from afar. So probably will still to plasma pistols for close combat. Cause to have a soldier with some dedicated weapon like plasma thrower. It would be nice, but with no skilled soldiers. I don't think it's worth it. Maybe I will bring plasma rifles for close combat missions so I will simply use full auto. Not so powerful reaction fire. But cause the lack of early options I don't have a trooper who should be reliably hit with it. Also I would need at least two ppl. Also frag, smoke,and flash is always there. Maybe I will use more of the flash+frag combo. I have a skilled grenadier, she could carry a full inventory of grenades easily with nanocomposite armor.

If you can hit with the 14 TU shot of the MG pretty good you will hit even better with the 16 TU shot on AR it's more accurate. If you can hit the full auto on the HMG. Hmm that's other case. Maybe one more option for long range sniping, cause they say anti matter rounds for railgun can one shot kill anything. Even armored ortnoks. So why could you need a HMG if you can use a weapon wich can fire through walls? Doesn't really sounds logical to me. But maybe that makes it an ok weapon lategame. Still early in the game there are really no choises. So what you have stuck with early game you have stick to late game cause of skill increasing accuracy. If I got this wrong please correct me.

[MonkeyHead]

Regarding sidearms:

Early game, I use them a LOT. Rookie troops often are recruited with not enough strength to carry what I would call a typical loadout (IR goggles, armour, medkit, knife (which I have actually used on more than one occasion to get useful kills in when ammo runs dry or low on TU), flashbang, smoke grenade, 2 frags and 2 incendiary grenades, plus primary weapon and ammo) so will go into combat with the SMG (if decent accuracy skill, to pepper aliens from range), or Microshotgun if they lack accuracy as it is hard to miss with it from close in. Troops with high explosives skill get an automatic pistol and a grenade. I do notice that as a result, early game, I get to capture lots of stunned aliens - I can fill the 10 slots in a containment in 3 months or so. Snipers , Grenade Launchers and Rocket Launchers get the best sidearm they can carry as their weapons are not always practical - nobody else really needs one (so starting at the basic pistol, working up to the SMG). After the first month or two though and I have plasma pistols and their ammo in abundance, all sidearms get sold and swapped for the plasma pistol. By the time I get laser pistols, they replace the plasma pistols wholesale. Late game, PB pistols will replace the laser pistols for soldiers with decent accuracy, if I have enough ammo. Regardless, all sidearms are a great way of skilling up the close combat skill - these troops will be the ones who tend to die the most for me, so skilling them up to be strong enough to carry a plasma blaster (if decent accuracy) or flamethrower (if not so accurate) is always on my mind. The shotgun is a very useful defensive weapon with solid reaction fire , but lacks the range to be useful in anything other than mad suicidal rushes into rooms.

Regarding Snipers:

Despite skill increases, snipers are invaluable late game for a few reasons. Firstly, through wall kills. Secondly, late game, armour and a sniper weapon is beyond the strength of most new recruits. You simply have to skill up snipers and keep them alive from early game.

Regarding HMG:

Nothing is better than the EP HMG for mowing down groups of enemies. Nothing. Taking down 3 or maybe 4 enemies in a group for 20 TU is glorious. I have never managed multi-kills of that nature with anything else (not even anything explosive), and late game, with 12 or more enemies on the map, you will need that kind of stopping power. I see the standard HMG as a weapon for harassment saturation fire at range - use it to wound enemies, then finish them off with other soldiers who have been closing in. I have seen armoured Taman take a full burst of standard AR full auto fire and keep on coming - a full burst of standard HMG though will put them down. That, and sheer volume of fire makes it more likely that you will get one or two hits, even at range. Considering the effects of wounds on TU, this is still useful.

[Seerorin]

Dunno I'm playing 2.5 and never really used sidearms. Only a few SMG-s. But even that just when had time to change the AR-s for room clear. Close skill is ok with a blaster. Never had any trouble regarding the weight. Only my guy with GL can't carry a medikit yet, but he is my newest soldier and still carry a lot of stuff(GL AMMO, GL, Flashbangs, Smokes, Plasma pistol, spare pistol ammo). She carries a lot of this stuff. XD With strenght about 40 it's normal I think. For close skill there could be some early weapons wich could be really useful somehow. Cause right now you just handicap yourself with early close skill using weapons. But maybe just the random number god not on my side. But pistols(even micro SMG) not really hurt even when it hits. So my soldier will just die from reaction fire... TU vise they are weaker than an AR.

As for HMG-s I'm not speaking about the 20 rounds full auto. But the 14 TU short burst should be a bit more accurate. That's not some spray and pray, and that weapon is said to be electronically amplified to help its wielder aim and compensate for recoil. Or make a heavier variant wich really have hardcore electronics intagrated and say it only that HMG is really having these techs. Also By the time armored tamans appeared for me on normal I relied almost only on plasma rifles. Full auto plasma fire kill armored tamans pretty fast. Ok so HMG will only be useful when you have a so skilled soldier who can walk and hit full auto reliably. Also only with upgraded ammo. Good to know. At least on normal this is the case.

[Noordung]

HMG is great from start. but i noticed (2.6) that assult rifle does more demage with EP. maybe it was some sort of bug, but in my 2.6 (6-7 months ago) HMG EP was useless. and those carry HMG didnt advance as good as the rest. but today had great experience with it. in base defence HMG EP with reaction fire. killed 3 or 4 aliens. so maybe in previous 2.6 it was some sort of bug.

i never used sidearms. but maybe in 2.7 i will.

usually never used close combat weapons. i always try to keep aliens as far as possible. so i have more snipers. lasers and beams are also good.

would be nice if some weapons (AR mostly) could have some sort of plasma blade instead of bayonet