[EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion -- General Feedback Thread

[SIMON BAILIE]

Having a lovely time in this mission so far-see picture.

Spoiler:

Damned armored cyberdiscs take a good bloomin thumping to go down, will hate to see what way armored sectopods are. Gazers are a nice challenge though. Into November now and the only race that hasn't appeared yet are Ethereals but I think that'll start this month or next. Was wondering regarding the data core, is it always in the same room on a battleship and can/do you need to research it more than once?

[niculinux]

I am aware of those already. And when i was writing the inital alpha ruleset, i actually used them, but replaced them by the ones from matching weapon colors from tollworkout.
And since my Weaponlist is fixed (only exception are the melee Plasmablades, but i haven't thought of how to put them in the alienDeployments). I am not gonna use them.

ok, peraphs since the mod is about being hard, may want to consider to use clips/batteris for laser weapons, at least?

Edit: also, 30 shots for laser clips (15 for heavy laser) and 20 shots for plasma ones (10 for heavy plasma) may be a fair enough balance, plus consider to remove auto shot from both heavy laser and plasma

[hellrazor]

Having a lovely time in this mission so far-see picture.

Spoiler:

Damned armored cyberdiscs take a good bloomin thumping to go down, will hate to see what way armored sectopods are. Gazers are a nice challenge though. Into November now and the only race that hasn't appeared yet are Ethereals but I think that'll start this month or next. Was wondering regarding the data core, is it always in the same room on a battleship and can/do you need to research it more than once?

No the Alien Data Core can only be researched once, and yes for the time being it is always in the same room on the Battleship. It will get his own special Mission were you will be able to collect it and only once. I guess you will find out about the Blue Sectopods sooner or later. (probably sooner) I hope you can handle Muton Elites somehow. Do you have access to Plasma Weapons?

[hellrazor]

ok, peraphs since the mod is about being hard, may want to consider to use clips/batteris for laser weapons, at least?

Edit: also, 30 shots for laser clips (15 for heavy laser) and 20 shots for plasma ones (10 for heavy plasma) may be a fair enough balance, plus consider to remove auto shot from both heavy laser and plasma

I will certainly not do so. Lasers are being obsolete once specific races appear, since they are nearly immune to them, no need to complicate things further.

[SIMON BAILIE]

Yes atm pistols, rifles and sniper rifles but the only effective tactics versus normal sectopods seems to be high explosives and heavy proximity mines even when targeting their rear armor. The heavy proximity mine is a mod by Civilian called naymore, won't kill them in 1 go but should soften them up a good bit, useful versus armored cyberdiscs as they soak up a lot of punishment too,

Spoiler:

even if you're using laser weapons.

[hellrazor]

Yes atm pistols, rifles and sniper rifles but the only effective tactics versus normal sectopods seems to be high explosives and heavy proximity mines even when targeting their rear armor. The heavy proximity mine is a mod by Civilian called naymore, won't kill them in 1 go but should soften them up a good bit, useful versus armored cyberdiscs as they soak up a lot of punishment too,

Spoiler:

even if you're using laser weapons.

I made the experience that Elerium Rockets have a decent chance of destroying normal Sectopods. The Heavy Laser / Auto does also a good job against both.
It's a shame that you didn't play the mod without extra addon Mods, believe me it would be much harder. You also attacked the initial base way to late i presume.
Timewise you should at least clear it end of February, so you have enough time to get access to Laser Weapons before a certain alien Race appears.
And one Tip of the bat, Ethereals will bring Armored Sectopods in big numbers. I am myself not looking forward to fight them.

I guess the Economy needs a rebalance, since getting money from alien loot compensates way to much, even more with the increased numbers and additional missions.
Maybe i drop the sell values of the Alien Weapons by a huge degree (50% at least or even more).

[Alex_D]

After a while not playing the game I decided to continue the fun with my game of Hardmode Expansion.

I pretty much dominate the globe, so much that I carefully shoot down the UFOs over water so I don't have to retrieve them. Nevertheless, after a process of selection, where a couple of soldiers that were never MCs and a lot of tanks raided the Ethereal base and captured its commander. Immediately upon return I researched it, after have done the Martial Solution, but I didn't get Cydonia or Bust. The attached save is just before that.  Thinking I messed up with the research path, I waited for another Ethereal base and send a bigger and better psionic resistant team and captured their commander again. Its research option doesn't show again, but still no Cydonia research.

Did I miss something on the sequence?

[hellrazor]

After a while not playing the game I decided to continue the fun with my game of Hardmode Expansion.

I pretty much dominate the globe, so much that I carefully shoot down the UFOs over water so I don't have to retrieve them. Nevertheless, after a process of selection, where a couple of soldiers that were never MCs and a lot of tanks raided the Ethereal base and captured its commander. Immediately upon return I researched it, after have done the Martial Solution, but I didn't get Cydonia or Bust. The attached save is just before that.  Thinking I messed up with the research path, I waited for another Ethereal base and send a bigger and better psionic resistant team and captured their commander again. Its research option doesn't show again, but still no Cydonia research.

Did I miss something on the sequence?

I hope you have enough Engineer and Navigators stored up, and at least 1 Medic. Since you are in for a hard ride to Cydonia. More or less.
In any case you didn't do anything wrong.
Somehow the research doesn't get unlocked.
To fix this go into the Hardmode_Expansion/Ruleset folder, and edit research.rul:
replace:

Code: [Select]

- delete: STR_CYDONIA_OR_BUST
 - name: STR_CYDONIA_OR_BUST
   cost: 3000
   points: 100
   unlockFinalMission: true
   requires:
     - STR_THE_MARTIAN_SOLUTION
   dependencies:
     - STR_ETHEREAL_COMMANDER

with

Code: [Select]

  - delete: STR_CYDONIA_OR_BUST
  - name: STR_CYDONIA_OR_BUST
    cost: 3000
    points: 100
    unlockFinalMission: true
    dependencies:
      - STR_CYDONIA_PLUS
  - name: STR_CYDONIA_PLUS
    unlocks:
      - STR_CYDONIA_OR_BUST
    requires:
      - STR_THE_MARTIAN_SOLUTION
    dependencies:
      - STR_ETHEREAL_COMMANDER

This fixes things. And you will see the Cydonia or Bust Mission unlock for Research.
I hope this was the last critical Bug...

And thanks for revealing to me that the Plasma Beam has a wrong Range set.

[Solarius Scorch]

I pretty much dominate the globe, so much that I carefully shoot down the UFOs over water so I don't have to retrieve them.

This doesn't actually make sense (even though everyone thinks so at first). A crash down only gives you half the points anyway, even if it falls into ocean, so you can just ignore a crashed UFO until it disappears to the same effect as sinking it. If you want full points, you must destroy it.

[hellrazor]

This doesn't actually make sense (even though everyone thinks so at first). A crash down only gives you half the points anyway, even if it falls into ocean, so you can just ignore a crashed UFO until it disappears to the same effect as sinking it. If you want full points, you must destroy it.

Well his globe domination is based upon a typo in Plasma Beam Weapon Range. It was set to 52 instead of 42.

[Alex_D]

This doesn't actually make sense (even though everyone thinks so at first). A crash down only gives you half the points anyway, even if it falls into ocean, so you can just ignore a crashed UFO until it disappears to the same effect as sinking it. If you want full points, you must destroy it.

Yes, I heard about it, but the OCD in me wants them off the map
Curious, when you say full points, you mean destroy it in flight or assault the wreckage as normal? And what happens with the shoot-down score if upon landing one takes off right away?

Well his globe domination is based upon a typo in Plasma Beam Weapon Range. It was set to 52 instead of 42.

Thanks for the code fix. Now Cydonia pops-up on the research screen. And for the captured aliens (navigators, engineers, medics), damn! too bad I just sold a bunch of them. I suppose I have to re-capture them as needed.

As per the plasma cannons, no wonder why they were shooting down everything but battleships with impunity!  Even the battleships were hit using wolf-pack tactics. I'd like for the Devs to implement a hot-key for the aircraft attack range and to select the aircraft for attack during the air combat screen. Or maybe there are such keys and forgot to re-read the options? 

[Solarius Scorch]

Yes, I heard about it, but the OCD in me wants them off the map

I can understand that

Curious, when you say full points, you mean destroy it in flight or assault the wreckage as normal? And what happens with the shoot-down score if upon landing one takes off right away?

Frankly I'm not sure. I know that you get full points for blowing a UFO to pieces, and half points if it crashes (either on land or in ocean). I do not know however if you get the missing half after you assault and recover a crashed UFO or not.

[hellrazor]

Thanks for the code fix. Now Cydonia pops-up on the research screen. And for the captured aliens (navigators, engineers, medics), damn! too bad I just sold a bunch of them. I suppose I have to re-capture them as needed.

Good to know that it works now. The original configuration also should have worked, but iguess the additional Code was needed. This Fix will also be aviable in the upcoming Version 0.94.

As per the plasma cannons, no wonder why they were shooting down everything but battleships with impunity!  Even the battleships were hit using wolf-pack tactics. I'd like for the Devs to implement a hot-key for the aircraft attack range and to select the aircraft for attack during the air combat screen. Or maybe there are such keys and forgot to re-read the options? 

Well you can adjust this value easily for yourself in the craftweapons.rul. If you do so your Interceptors will drop like flies. This Typo Fix will also go into 0.94.
Actually noone seems to be having problems with money, which i suspected. Since the aliens give way to much from the loot they drop. I think i will drop
the sell values of Alien Items by 2/3 (66%). Maybe this helps with the now flawed economy.

[Alex_D]

Good to know that it works now. The original configuration also should have worked, but iguess the additional Code was needed. This Fix will also be aviable in the upcoming Version 0.94.

Now I keep looking I realized the Psi-Amp doesn't shown in the research. I believe I have all the pre-reqs. See my attached game.

Actually noone seems to be having problems with money, which i suspected. Since the aliens give way to much from the loot they drop. I think i will drop the sell values of Alien Items by 2/3 (66%). Maybe this helps with the now flawed economy.

I remember at the beginning it was kind of easy to run out of cash and I was selling up to the last bolt and nut just to make ends meet. Maybe such option for the late end-game items not to be that good in resale value.

Also since, if I'm not mistaken, one can barely break even selling manufactured items (I use Motion Scanners, just to keep those expensive Engineers employed), then it's not use to keep manufacturing bases fully staffed. I remember realizing this at some point and stopped going into full production mode with the Motion Scanner. It was a rude awakening when I needed savings like $10M just to pay salaries at the end of the month. 

I wish the game had an option in Graphs or elsewhere where detailed finances like one base but for all bases is presented.

[hellrazor]

Now I keep looking I realized the Psi-Amp doesn't shown in the research. I believe I have all the pre-reqs. See my attached game.

You need to interrogate 1 more Alien Medic for it to Pop up

Code: [Select]

  - STR_PSI_AMP_UNLOCK
Is missing, so go and grab 1 more Alien Medic.

If you use Version 0.93 it should work without trouble.

I remember at the beginning it was kind of easy to run out of cash and I was selling up to the last bolt and nut just to make ends meet. Maybe such option for the late end-game items not to be that good in resale value.

Well unfortunatly this isn't possible, but with the additional Missions you should be able to compensate, which means you need to fight more to get more cash, with the dropped sales revenue on alien Items.

Also since, if I'm not mistaken, one can barely break even selling manufactured items (I use Motion Scanners, just to keep those expensive Engineers employed), then it's not use to keep manufacturing bases fully staffed. I remember realizing this at some point and stopped going into full production mode with the Motion Scanner. It was a rude awakening when I needed savings like $10M just to pay salaries at the end of the month. 

Well you skipped Laser Weapons completly. So you also skipped the opportunity to produce Laser Canons for Cash (they do not require Elerium-115 or Alien Alloys).

I wish the game had an option in Graphs or elsewhere where detailed finances like one base but for all bases is presented.

Well i also wished for that.
Also you should really use range: 42 on the Plasma Beams

I used 200 Scientists in my Testrun, but i guess 250 are better. I need to do a complete new testrun anyway, since the next release will add lots of changes (especially the economy).