Messages

1

Discussion / Re: Balancing smoke grenades

« on: September 25, 2014, 11:06:38 am »

This game-breaking thing is only true for missions without civilians. You need to be outside of smoke (cannon fodder) or aliens turn them to shreds.

Well, I don't try to save any civilians at all in my games (normal difficulty). I just hide my whole team in smoke and let the civilians die. All the nations are still happy with me.
Anyway, I think the smoke thing indeed need some balance, or the whole game mechanic needs some tweaks. Right now even with smoke spamming I have to retry a mission most of the time to make sure none of my veterans dies. The alien shoots extremely accurate that it discourages players from leaving any soldiers in alien's sight. And since there's not many cover you can stay behind and shoot, players are forced to spam smoke grenades to preserve his team. Maybe a "limited vision" like the new XCOM game should be introduced, so the aliens (and you too) cant see your troops from the other side of the map and snipe your whole squad. Cover that you can stay behind and shoot would most likely enough to eliminate the need to spam smoke grenades though.

2

Discussion / Some thoughts about 2.5...

« on: August 26, 2014, 09:53:28 am »

Hi, there. Haven't played this game for a while (I played 2.4 about an year ago) and I decided to come back and try the new 2.5 game. I had lots of fun in 2.4, but somehow 2.5 seems to be a lot harder, that the fun parts are heavily outweighed by the hard parts. I didn't remember alien can one-shot my armored troopers (nano armor). Now I have to spam smoke grenades in every battle to keep my soldiers alive.
And this is something I don't understand at all. Yes, I know smoke is useful and I use a lot of smoke grenades in 2.4, but I don't remember that I had to spam 10 in a battle in 2.4. Is it intended that I have to spam smoke every game? It just feels so...unrealistic and no fun in it. Currently every battle is a hide-and-seek for me. Whenever I saw an alien, I pop smoke under my feet, move all soldiers inside and shoot the alien to make sure it doesn't shoot back and kill everyone. I have to play like this even when I have superior firepower and number. I think the problem is that many maps lack cover like walls that my soldiers can utilize to protect themselves while firing at the aliens. And even if there are such cover, it's simply easier to spam smoke grenades. Most of my soldiers carry at least two smoke grenades, some carry three, or even four. I feel like 2.5 is all about smoke and preventing alien from seeing any of my troops. Because if they do, they will kill most of the soldiers they can see in one single turn.
And right now, in many situations, especially inside buildings or UFOs, the best way to kill an alien is not to shoot at it (if I do this I will be reaction-shot to death even when I have more numbers), but throw a smoke grenade (again) to block the alien's LoS. Then wait for it to walk out of smoke, and then your troops can reaction-shot it to death. I don't know if I had to do this in 2.4, but it just feels unfun. Another hide-and-seek game.
Another thing I don't quite understand is, why do the aliens spawn near the LZ? Although this probably happens in 2.4 as well, but I didn't have problem with it back then. Anyway, from a gameplay perspective, having lots of alien near my initial location means that I have to spam smoke grenade first to prevent any reaction fire, and I'm tired of doing so. From a reality/story perspective, a helicopter/dropship/any aircraft will never land near a place full with hostile contacts unless it's some special situations. If they have to do so, usually they will try to clear any hostiles first before landing. I think it's better if the aliens never spawn near the LZ, or at least not in LoS.
I don't know...there are some more parts of the game that I feel can be improved, but currently the most upset part is the "spam smoke or die in one turn" experience. I play at normal difficulty but the game is very unforgiving. Once the aliens get any chance of shooting, they hit hard, most likely kill the soldiers they shoot at. I won't care some casualties if I'm leading a 20-man team, but for a 8-man squad, every single loss means a lot. It seems that I can't do much to prevent the aliens form massacring my veterans, other than spam smoke. If there are enough useful covers in game then the situation would be improved in my opinion. So it would not be "shoot and kill enemies in one turn," but some real fights which lasts several turns between the aliens and the PHALANX. Currently, however, I have a lot more unfun than fun.

3

Translating / Need some help here

« on: February 06, 2013, 02:03:34 pm »

I'm translating the game into Traditional Chinese recently and I have some question to ask:
How should I test my translation? I mean when I use my mo file (based on the po file on your website) some of the ingame text can't display correct, like the mails (it only shows something like alien_material_txt instead of the report). And somehow the large and small hangar is still in English (can't find them in the po file).

Also, in the language setting section both Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese are displayed as "中文" (Chinese). It is a little bit confusing IMO. Maybe you can change it to "中文 (简体)" (Simplified Chinese) and "中文 (繁體)" (Traditional Chinese)? Seems that I can't do that by editing the po file.