Messages

16

Discussion / Re: An Open Letter to the Developers

« on: June 15, 2013, 01:03:54 pm »

While I don't agree on every point - for example, you certainly have a right to complain about trooper positioning at the beginning of the round, but it's a thing devteam already stated they'd use feedback on and is more like a bug that should be reported instead of put in an open letter - I can well understand where are you coming from and can share some of your impressions.

 Some things you don't have to worry about, though - for example, there was recently quite a great surge in critique of 2.5dev difficulty level, humans having mediocre stats where aliens are seemingly bulletproof sprinter-snipers, costs of new generation crafts taking materials equal to what you retrieve from dismounting big alien ships and so on (in fact, some of those problems I've made this account to voice, as for years I was content of just being a lurker myself) - but there are already a few adjustments done in regards to those issues and it's very probable that by the time 2.5 will be stable, it'll all get balanced.

As for ShipIt's post.

Most of the stuff you mention can simply be solved by using a raw text editor, like notepad++

Just because people can make mods doesn't change the fact that there are voices requesting some things to be balanced. In some way it may be exactly what there was a complain about here - attitude of 'if you don't like it, change it yourself' which can be easily avoided.

I cannot see why it should be wrong if the people doing the work decide whether they want to spend their spare time on a feature or not.

That is not wrong, and no one claimed it is. Certainly though people would react better to something akin to 'right now we're quite busy with [some features] but it is possible we'll consider it afterwards' or 'we're not particularly fond of this or that idea, because..' (which I don't say was never written).

Your whole post does not even contain a single thought about how to do things better. To be honest, I think its a waste of time to write such a wall of complaints about something you got for FREE.

That I'd disagree it. It wasn't simply wall of complain, it did direct attention, in rather polite manner to a few issues - and not even very obscure issues but things that already were mentioned a few times in the past. SL also mentioned he is aware the game is free, but critique, as long as properly formed and, dare I say constructive (because in this regard, just because of pointing some issue, solutions are readily apparent) does benefit the project.

While certainly repetition in mentioning what's could use some adjustment may be tiring - it's still good that the worries are voiced in a decent fashion as it underlines and supports the notion that there are problems perceived by sizeable numbers of users and thus could use some additional attention.

17

Discussion / Re: Again on reaction fire

« on: June 13, 2013, 05:27:02 pm »

Noticed the same. Aliens steps out, walks two grids, fires PB-Rifle, soldiers fires back with Plasma Blaster. Alien dies, Soldier dies from wounds.

Maybe it's actually the act of alien shooting first that counted for TU spent that triggered RF? But I can understand how in such situation RF may seem a tad silly and achieving little (though it's always one less alien to be shot by someone else).

18

Discussion / Re: UFO rescue mission

« on: June 13, 2013, 05:25:07 pm »

I'd rather combine game-balancing aspect of missions not lasting too long with fluff explanation of nations being forced to deal with the threat on their own. I assume, as much as questionable from the tactical point of view, aliens having near limitless resource sin comparison with Earth, expendable troops of generally stable morale (because of their role as a part of a hivemind) - they can afford loss of a single ship here and there, unless it's a target of great strategic importance.

At the same time nation getting squad of them on their backyard would be probably reasonably disturbed, with military on ready and going in as quickly as it's confirmed Phalanx isn't going in anytime soon. They'd probably want to act quickly - risk of infiltrators, horrible PR if aliens will be allowed to start a carnage in some major population center and access to the technology for themselves would be quite an incentive.

It would need to be balanced, though as it's nearly surely would lead to situations where having several downed aien ships, unless going back and forth without rest, player has to ignore some of them. Getting noticeable happiness hit for each such vessel ignored could be a problem, but also a good reason to at last add not only damage to crashed aliens but a chance to take some of them outright (granted, I hope for such mostly because of fluff - I always wondered how come, if the ship itself got broken into pieces, there are absolutely no alien casualties, no corpses near the wreck etc).

19

Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: June 04, 2013, 10:08:51 pm »

Don't worry, we do appreciate your effort, H-Hour. But if guy doesn't like how the whole RF works, then even the best explanation, with the best intent in mind won't help. I do understand his disappointment somewhat - you basically freeze action of your trooper, on the off-chance he will perform it during enemy's turn, after said enemy will get into line of sight and spend some TUs and even then it may be that enemy will fire first making the whole setup more useless than rushing in possibly could be or RF won't kill the alien and phalanx boys will get a mouthful of hot, hot plasma anyway.

Funnily enough - I find some things needing adjusting when aliens travel great distances or shoot with uncanny accuracy and I do find them when there are issues with balance like this one.. but I cannot recall me being really annoyed by RF, despite informations of it being (at least uspposedly) overpowered for aliens/of little value for Phalanx.

20

Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: June 01, 2013, 12:09:05 pm »

It sounds like it was set to snap not burst. Easy mistake to make, even when you're sure you got it set up right.

Just for the sake of having it confirmed and sure - isn't it possible to have 'partial' RF if amount of ammo/energy required for shots is lower than what would be used with full magazine/battery (correct me if I am wrong)? If so, that may give impression of not fully activated RF while in reality it's logical effect of shortage of whatever weapon shoots with.

21

Tactics / Re: Lasers, a Trap?

« on: June 01, 2013, 03:44:31 am »

the thing is that heavy alien vessels about to attack your base often can't be taken down with your interceptors or at least you'd risk loss of aircraft, if you have lasers/missiles at the base it becomes a different fight

Though in practice I found that at the point when your interceptors take down heavy alien crafts, they can often do it on their own - and while you're right, turrets can help somewhat, I cannot say that 'help somewhat' is worth several fields of basebuilding space, when you could build one more hangar and some other facilities and then construct one more proper interceptor instead, acquiring both increased efficiency and utility (one more fighter you can actually also send to pursue ufos elsewhere and aforementioned facilities doing whatever they were meant to do) while maintaining defensive potential for the base.

22

Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: May 31, 2013, 11:50:52 am »

It seems that in the recent months, great many of people complained about RNG and aliens being marathon running snipers. I suspect that there was a change that makes the whole thing harder. I am not sure if there's connection but the funny thing is that if one plays on any but the easiest difficulty levels, phalanx troopers seem to have skills below average of what you can expect of professional soldier. Occasional 'average' here and there among the stats, and 'competent' in mind is often the best you can expect - but most of other stats indicate that the recruit is actually subpar to regular human being.

(Though I realize it's like that since ancient times - still, given the occasion and speaking about Phalanx troops being weak, maybe stat labels could be adjusted, if not stats themselves).

23

Tactics / Re: Lasers, a Trap?

« on: May 31, 2013, 11:39:49 am »

Actually, right now both lasers and AA launchers are rather crappy even in the dev version (unless their stats were adjusted in the last two or so weeks) - the only alien craft that goes through the middle of their range radius and gets shoot down is scout, occasionally a fighter. I had a base with a launcher and two lasers - couldn't take down anything beside those two types of vessels, unless it was flying back and forth, to, for example, bomb the nearby installation. But for actual base defence? Rather useless, even fighter can get through before being shot down, better build other facilities there.

24

Tactics / Re: Large Maps, what do?

« on: May 31, 2013, 11:35:17 am »

Usually, my problem with larger map is not civilians as much as having to play hide and seek for half an hour if not longer (if some alien will get stuck in some ridiculous place). Without goggles as they are right now I suspect I would be really not fond of playing on some maps. Hopefully, map-makers in the future will concentrate on more open, smaller maps (or bigger ones, but not requiring one to get through several floors of different buildings) for the sake of me being able to play quick, precise operations more often than painstaking campaign whenever I'll send some Phalanx troopers for a mission.

25

Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 28, 2013, 12:45:02 am »

Compared teams in skirmish mode (thanks for suggestion!), my theory was confirmed - it may not be accuracy skill on it's own, but it shows that starting alien groups have very high skills in general - while Phalanx recruit starts with around-average weapon proficiencies - at best - and possibly is barely competent in one or two categories (usually mind and/or strength):

- average taman is between very good and outstanding in mind, with proficient accuracy in case of the whole team and between very good and outstanding proficiency in every weapon class - quite 'upper ranges' unreachable by Phalanx H-Hour mentioned - on top of average strength and often - competent speed, thus outclassing even experienced, decent human trooper in most stats, often by several degrees.

- all other alien races are comparable to that, with some of them having all three - accuracy, speed and weapon proficiencies high enough to explain going thorough long distances, then still being able to shoot and/or RF with high accuracy. Even if enemies like hoverbots don't have weapons in-built during single player campaign, all alien units - including tamans - have also enough strength to be armored and carry decent assault weaponry without being over-encumbered, while also requiring less items in general (hoverbots or bloodspiders cannot bleed out or panic and thus wouldn't need first aid kits even if AI would care about preserving troops and not have unlimited numbers of them).

Optimistically assuming that alien stats don't get higher than that thorough the campaign as per raising tenacity of invading force, basic invader mooks are more capable - AI aside - than the best and most experienced human infantry, and that not counting weaponry/armor which is understandably and logically superior, at least a first and for which - if I am not mistaken (do tell if it was only fluff /rumour/changed feature) - aliens get additional bonuses in comparison with Phalanx.

There are no weak aliens. Even basic 15% higher chance of scoring a hit (and it does seem higher than that - was weapon proficiency taken into account?), when considering damage dealt with alien weaponry coupled with regular psychological mechanisms making failure more impressionable than success - especially when using limited resources - explains why many people in this and Mary Sue Aliens thread seem to indicate it's nearly only the shortcomings of AI and exploitation of a few tactical maneouvers that allow the player to win.

Edit: Adding a link, cleaning up the text.

26

Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 25, 2013, 08:07:00 am »

To be honest, I don't mind homing that much - and actually, in bigger maps there's still a lil glitch where aliens will stand guard in corners of it instead of closing in on Phalanx troopers.

I'd still claim that the problem lies in the stats of aliens that make all kinds of creatures annoying when they home - they seem as they get no weight penalties from stuff on top of great attributes and plain unfair amount of TU, forcing player to basically go through the whole game exploiting one or two tactics with little wiggling room and plenty of redundancy if one wants to avoid heavy losses - so, still beatable, just not fun.

27

Discussion / Re: No Saves in Battlescape Wastes 3 Days of my life!

« on: April 25, 2013, 07:57:59 am »

I am afraid that while it was already talked about in the past, general decision was to not implement any in-battle save feature - most people can finish most battles in up to one hour (yes, including mansion map) of really careful movement, taking time to think etc (in fact, I am surprised how one can continually play one battle longer than a couple of hours) and save right after - thus making the option kind of demanding in effort for little gain it provides.

28

Discussion / Re: Soldiers should be able to self-heal

« on: April 22, 2013, 03:28:42 pm »

I'd have to agree that now every kind of hit, including one with weaponry creating extensive burns causes bleeding, basically forcing every second soldier to have medikit. Hardly much of a horrible thing most often, but still - a pain in the butt as on top of being injured, losing mobility and combat effectiveness (increased AP costs, which I hope soon will be shown when choosing firing mode), one has now to tend to every hit soldier so they won't kick the bucket before end of the battle, even if he will just sit peacefully away from it.

But yeah, apparently devteam isn't too fond of the idea.

29

Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: April 14, 2013, 04:56:00 pm »

Hello. After years following losing my account and two random failed attempts on the way with making another, I show up to share a few thoughts about 2.5 dev and the thing I also find not overly good about it - a good excuse for making an account again, at last, even if probably I will use it somewhat rarely.

I see the whole discussion went to the topic of tactics, but the problem I see in the game, a thing that irritates me currently, is not just the fact that aliens have overpowered RF (though it should be balanced) but how generally stats are set for them. In the first months of the game (in-game time, of course) when I see a skinny taman clad in it's armor but still walking casually through half of the map, shooting (with deadly accuracy) one of my marines with his bulky plasma blaster and still having enough AP in reserve for RF I can only call bullshit, especially since by comparison soldiers of 'competent' level in stats get half as much mobility with the weight of just standard issue outfit - assault rifle, spare magazine, grenade and armor.

I can understand that aliens have to have a bit above-average stats to make up for AI shortcomings (together with alien powers to detect every living creature on the map etc). I can also understand that there are ambitious players, veterans of many X-com games who want a constant challenge and threat but making every little alien ultra-mobile sniper stopping rockets with it's face on Normal difficulty I find to be a plain mistake and a waste of opportunity of making different enemy types/species different (since, especially late-game every one of them is comparatively resistant, quick, strong and heavily armed).

I'd suggest leaving hardcore aliens for hardcore difficulty and offer normal enemies for normal difficulty which, as far as I know, is suggested for regular player hoping for balanced play. Balancing alien stats and their progression thorough the game, setting some stat cap on them and so on will take care of both matrix-RF-reflexes of aliens and general combat silyness where, while I still in the end can win, I am forced to experience situations where in case of aliens, max range = optimal range and my sharpshooters barely equal medium-range accuracy of random alien weaklings with sidearms. It's not a challenge at that point, it's breaking the immersion for me.

That being said, I have to disagree with statement that 2.5 sucks. Right now, again - despite it being a dev version - I have quite some fun with it (alien commando at every difficulty and few maps glitched recently excluded) and I thank the devteam for their work.

A few other things I am lacking currently:
Progression is nice, seeing aliens deploy new ships and armaments is nice but it's sad some stuff disappears for the sake of scaling difficulty - in the late-game I'd like to see, even in token amount, aliens still taking a kerrblade or two for harvesting mission, packing a plasma grenade in addition to their rifle or sending occasional scout ship in geoscape - things that would improve immersion a bit as they realistically would maintain their usefulness thorough invasion campaign.