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166

Open Feedback / Autosave only during transition from scape to scape?

« on: March 14, 2015, 10:23:28 pm »

Hello,

is it possible that the autosave feature can be set to only save the game when going from geoscape to battlescape and the other way around? I am not fond of that saving screen showing up after n days or n turns but I am enough of a dummy to forget saving after finishing a mission.

[Spoiler]

167

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION][RESEARCH] FMP Core/Tech Tree part

« on: March 14, 2015, 10:17:45 pm »

I have been enjoying the FMP thoroughly lately after I got an itch for my X-COM fix. I am not done yet but it's great fun. It makes for a nice expansion pack for the original UFO EU. And I thought I should give some Feedback. Perhaps you see something you deem worthwhile to change. Of course it is hard to read up in a mega thread on whether something was discussed already. So bear with me and my wall of text grouped in spoilers.

Also real spoilers ahead.

 Starting Equipment

Spoiler:

The starting equipment gives a good number of options from the get go. It makes the beginning of the game less grenade spammy which I like very well. But there are few odd bits I want to comment on.

Assault Rifle vs Rifle
The assault rifle is too similar to the normal rifle for my liking. Especially as the AS is superior to the rifle in (almost) all aspects. With lower TU requirements and a higher auto-accuracy the AS is better while the rifle doesn't have a niche of its own. Switching the TU costs for the aimed shot between the AS and the rifle might make the latter viable as a marksman rifle. So it is kind of a sniper rifle with the possibility to use auto mode.

Machine Guns vs Miniguns
In my book the LMG and HMG are better than both miniguns. Or at least I can't work the miniguns properly due to the high accuracy drop-off. The bigger minigun is interesting but it can't match the HMG's accuracy which is the same over the entire map. I prefer the higher firepower of 8 shot compared to the 20 rounds fired by the bigger minigun. The LMG is in a good place being more of an automatic rifle and its lack of an aimed shot enforces it being used as a LMG.

Now if there was just a suppression mechanic...

 Advanced Firearms

Spoiler:

Alloy Ammo
It greatly lengthens the lives of the ballistic weapons. Love that a lot. Considering that new weapon tech went far back, this is a great way to keep the standard equipment in the game. Especially the alloy ammo for the Heavy Cannon and the Auto Cannon is very strong. The Auto Cannon with AA ammo can replace the LMG for enemies with tougher armour and damage resistances.

Multilauncher, Flamethrower and Tactical Sniper Rifle
I don't really know when I should be using the Multilauncher. I am rather scared that the soldier is going to do more harm than good with the auto mode. And its too similar to the auto-cannon with HE ammo which I am also not using except for destroying foliage perhaps.

At least the flamethrower seems to be a good idea for cleaning out rooms in an UFO with a hazmat suit on. I haven't tried that yet but it seems to be an intelligent move.

The tactical sniper rifle is also an odd weapon I am not sure what to do with. It's way lighter than the HMG but the HMG is accurate enough, shoots 8 times destroying cover up to the target and it manages to kill the target as well. The HMG also has almost the damage and only takes a bit more TU. For a stationary shooter I'd prefer the HMG, assuming my soldier can carry it.

Comparing the TSR to the normal sniper rifle, the TSR's high TU costs and the lower aimed accuracy, despite the ufopaedia stating otherwise, it loses too much mobility for what I perceive as too little gain. As long the rocket launcher has better TU requirements with more fire power I don't really see the TSR's niche as another static weapon. Perhaps giving the TSR a viable snap shot costing 55% TU with an accuracy of 100% or something might allow it to be more interesting.

 Ballistic Vest

Spoiler:

The ballistic vest is way too expensive for a not so decent armour that has to be replaced each time a soldier dies. I suppose being able to repair armour is something you want to keep for the higher level armour pieces, as they require a specific manufacture process. But the vest should be made more viable IMHO. The only screw to turn seems to be its cost. The cost of the ballistic vest should be way lower than the cost to the hire a soldier serving as a human shield. Something along the price of the hazmat might do it. Perhaps $12 000 could be an okay price for helping the more important soldiers to survive. Then I might even consider buying it. But I can't imagine it to become a standard issued piece of equipment even then, especially when you are still struggling for money. The alloy vest on the other hand replaces what the personal armour is in stock as an easily replaced piece of equipment. Thinking about it, the personal armour should perhaps cost more money and production time than to manufacture an alloy vest. The personal armour is repairable so in the long run you will save money and resources either way.

 Improved Interceptor

Spoiler:

The Raven is pretty much broken in my mind. It is way better than a interceptor which is fine, but it uses standard fuel and it has no monthly fee! The lack of a monthly fee greatly eases the economic decisions in the game. I am running with 10+ Ravens which would cost me 6 million dollars a month if they were interceptors. At least give them some sort of rental fee for the fuel and maintenance. Part of the maintenance can be argued by replacing the engines and anything that is not necessarily made with the alien alloys. I still didn't bother to research the next interceptor.

Also I haven't lost a Raven yet when tackling battleships. Considering that I am using 4 Ravens for the battleship which are equipped with 1 Avalanche and 1 Stingray each, I would have lost plenty of interceptors by now. There have been a few close calls though. The Raven requires ages to be repaired but still perhaps toning down the max health from 350 to 250 might also bring the Raven in line and I would be scared of Battleships again.

 Research Tree

Spoiler:

I like that it takes longer to research useful technologies such as the personal armour and the laser weapons. What bothered me was that Gauss and laser weapons became available at the same time. It was a no brainer really to go for laser weapons. A different damage type and ammoless weapons while not sacrificing (too much) damage potential is too hard to pass up. To make Gauss more viable, E115 should be a research requisite for laser weapons. Especially as you need it for manufacture the laser weapons and it hardly makes sense that you can use a power source that you hardly know anything about. On the other hand it would be highly entertaining if the laser weapons could go haywire because the E115 is acting up. Either by jamming or blowing up in one's face.

Perhaps the MiB laser weapons could be its own tier before you get the actual laser weapons? ... I just realized that it takes Elerium for its clips while them doing less damage than the X-COM laser weapons. Removing the necessity of E115 for manufacturing the clips might make the MiB laser weapons a viable option. Unless they are supposed to be similar to the AK47 in such a way that they aren't intended to be used by X-COM but by the opposition instead.

 Maps

Spoiler:

It's great to play on more varied maps. The only issue I take with is that some maps don't contain the (shot down) UFO. The first time I met the hybrids in their vans I had thought that it was the clean-up crew recovering the aliens and their UFO. Therefore I had assumed that the map was replaced with these vans. But going at a landed or freshly shot-down non-van convoy UFO thing with the aliens being around but the UFO not, it starts to gnaw on my nerves :p. Especially if one plays with aliens weapons being destroyed on death, the economic impact is being increased. And if the UFO is supposed to have self-destructed, it would ease my mind by visiting a huge crater instead of a bunch of idyllic farm houses.

I don't know if "Fixed the bug with UFO not appearing on some terror maps." is related to this point. For reference I started with 0.9.8, updated to 0.9.9 and I am running on the OpenXCOM build compiled on Feb 15th. And the farm houses are one of the new terrain sets that have new houses. I can take a screenshot if you like.

 Aliens & UFOs

Spoiler:

I love the variation I have seen so far and some aliens also seem like they have found their niche. If only I wasn't facing mostly floaters for 6 months straight. Perhaps mixed crews would be a great thing, assuming it's not a feature for later yet.

Also like always in X-COM some UFOs hardly show up. For example that very large science vessel with that special Sectoid should show up more than once till August in Superhuman. And I only have seen the MiB once. Perhaps I have tough luck in that regard. So far I have been mainly fighting the small Y and + shaped UFOs, as well as terror and battle ships.

What's interesting is that the FMP seems to have added new alien missions such as "Alien Flyby". It would be amazing if less common UFOs would be picked by these missions. Perhaps special missions can be created for the less common vessels? "Aggressive Research" starting with an abductor instead of a large scout. Would that make sense?

Also these small fighter UFOs are a bitch to dogfight. They keep escaping very early and very often. Which is cool as it requires different tactics for them and even if it's only using the Avalanche in aggressive mode.

The only thing I wish is that the hybrids in the van missions were actually a threat. Except for the RPG they have a hard time doing anything to your troops once you have some armour. Same with the spitter terrorist.
As for the spitter terrorist, it frightened me a helluva lot when I saw it doing its thing after being shot at long enough. Same feelings during the first encounter with a Cerebreal. I guess you can tell now what I was exactly afraid of.

As for the hybrid van "UFOs". Could a different (new) UFO picture be shown instead of the abductor's picture? Since it only moves with 500 speed units, one can tell them apart easily enough. But it would be nice if one could do so during interception as well.

 Misc

Spoiler:

And now for some random questions:
 
Is there a reason for the ship rail cannon not requiring E115 during manufacture while the rail gun tank does? Otherwise it makes for a great money maker.

Is FMP supposed to be played with psionic line of fire? The Cerebreal kinda suggests it.

Would it be possible to add a line to each weapons' description about its weight and when the accuracy begins to drop off?
And in the same vein the autopsy reports could state the percents for damage reduction rates. It might be a bit gamey but then nobody would have to dive into the ruleset if one wants to know.

I hope that feedback is of some use. And good job for getting through all of this.