a few "easy" ones

[Xcommander]

1. Replay

Many games, e.g. Starcraft 2, have "Replay" functionality - the game saves deterministically all actions and can recalculate the whole thing in form of a movie. Any chance that this is possible in OXC?

By default the camera could follow the most successful surviviing soldier of that round.

2. Difficulty modifyer showing score / percentage.

Every mod or ruleset should have a factor by which it makes the game easier or harder. Bunch of shiny new weapons? Cost you -10% - oops. Let's see if we can compensate that - Yea I think I could live with a 1-weaponslot Avenger? So then you can challenge yourself to win the game the hardest way you can and enjoy nice extras without worrying about cheesing (since most mods make the game a little, or siginificantly easier, if we're honest).

3. One harder

Someone hinted in a comment that you can change the difficulty even harder than "Superhuman" by changing some byte in a savegame. Could that be made "official"? I'm feeling confident about my current Superhuman-autosave-only game (even though I just had another crew wiped out). Hit me!

4. PSI

The original implementation is kinda lame - has anyone tried to make that aspect challenging and balanced?

[Qpoter]

1. I would really like a replay function for the Battlescape. I was thinking along the lines of how UFO2000 does it: it just follows your camera around.

2. I'm not sure what you mean by this. Making the game "10% harder" is a very vague statement.

3. This could be implemented as a "Custom Difficulty" button on the difficulty selection screen, where you specify difficulty levels above Superhuman.

4. Well, changing the original implementation of almost anything in OpenXcom is strictly reserved for modding.

[Xcommander]

re. 2:

normal game is 100%. When in the mod selection screen, (de)selecting individual mods changes the total difficulty percentage. Modders should set this value initially; the community could discuss. So, enabling that Shotgun Mod could be "-5%"; with nothing else selected the game difficulty is now 95%, i.e. a bit easier in the beginning due to easy Sectoid kills + faster experience for the troops.

re. 4:

a mod for sure! I just haven't found too much discussion around it so I thought I'd bring it up in my little post.

[Warboy1982]

there is no bonus xp from shotguns anymore, just fyi.

[Qpoter]

So you're saying that mods should display how easier or harder they make the game? Not a bad idea, but I think this is best left to player judgment.

[Solarius Scorch]

Considering we have the mod portal now, technically we could have a voting system where players would rate mods' difficulty. However, I doubt this system would give sensible results...

[yrizoud]

The feedback on game balance is better before the mod is released, and this forum is good for it. I've always seen good response when somebody was commenting on balance, and it means this is a good community

[Qpoter]

To be honest, I feel that a lot of the mods for OpenXcom lack balance, but the community element is there.

[KiethSomataw99]

I do have an idea for the difficulty level names for this in a mod:
Beginner - Rookie - Easy
Experienced - Sergeant - Normal
Veteran - Captain - Moderate
Genius - Commander - Hard
Superhuman - Scourge of Aliens - Mad Hard!

I also have an idea of a dynamic difficulty setting:
1. When set, the game starts at veteran (middle) difficulty and stats of  aliens adjust by your performance.
2. Good performance in battles will increase the stats and difficulty, while bad performance and losing soldiers will decrease the stats and difficulty.
3. Completing a battle without save will contribute toward a decrease in difficulty, each use of save will increase it in future battles.
4. Ignoring certain alien activities and witnessing signing of pacts will decrease the difficulty.