X-Chronicles Release, v.1.5

[Mathel]

Man, do you even play your own game??? How am I suppose to be faster with such founding:
(Founding)
"Flight glyph"s were around 75% of my income! I am already playing as good as it is possible, because I know the research tree, I know priorities. I won almost every battle or fled (because I already know all enemies (except those pesky elves (RIP no reloading in champagne))), I shoot down almost every craft (that is why I was able to stay above 0 while sky was filled with red crosses). There just no room for mistakes! Right now I have 60 scientists, maybe I can afford additional 20.

I think we are his balance testers.

Too slow for 2023. Maybe i should reconsider geoscape difficulty...

But seriously, scientists are too expensive and research takes too long to be any faster. Especially for someone who doesn't know the tech tree.
My calculations for time expected required to get Atmospheric Sattelite, which is probably that baloon that Vakrug mentioned. Until you get that, you can't defeat more than 1 base per 5 months on average, since you can't find them any faster. And since you won't be able to defeat any adult or old nests, you really won't be doing even that.
Counting with 30 scientists, since that is how many I can barely afford.

Code: [Select]

USA police contract: 5/30=1 day
The police contract is signed: 0
first autopsy (Slug Corpse) 100/30=4 days
Shielded Prison 200/30=7 days
Basics of the invader spoken language (from Goblin Fighter): 100/30=4 days
Contact: Savages: 80/30=3 days
Invaders' spoken language: 210/30=7 days
Weak Artifact: 500/30=17 days
Magic Items (from Marauder boss) 3*130/30=13 days
Arriving spots of the Invaders (from marauder Boss, having Magic Items): 2*130/30=9 days
Shielded Lab: 500/30=17 days
Invader paths (from Outcast Mage, having Invader Transport, AsotI, and Magic Items) 5*150/30=25 days
!Sky under control!: 300/30=10 days
Advanced Radars: 400/30=14 days
Rifts: 250/30=9 days
Rift Stabilization: 450/30=15 days
Contract with the US army: 120/30=4 days
Contract with the army is signed: 0/30=0 days
Contact: Invaders: 100/30=4 days
USA special forces equipment: 100/30=4 days
The special forces equipment contract is signed: 0/30=0 days
Large-caliber weapon: 120/30=4 days
The unusual equipment is needed: 0/30=0 days
Internationalization: 350/30=12 days
!X-contract!: 200/30=7 days
Strong Artifact: 600/30=20 days
Psionic: 500/30=17 days
Mana Crystal: 800/30=27 days
Mana Capacitor: 450/30=15
Detection of Mana Sources: 300/30=10 daysThe sum is 279 days. Assuming average research rate, perfect missions, and always having what you need to research already in your stores, you can expect the player to have the Atmospheric satellite no sooner than 279days into the game, which is 6th of October 2020. If they beeline for it.

If, however, the player gets unlucky on interrogation roulette, they don't manage to catch enough Outcast Magi or Marauder Bosses, or even their stabilized rifts all either lead to hostile environment or don't contain a Strong Artifact, it can take a lot longer.

And since beelining for the Atmospheric Satellite means skipping defensive techs (Chitin&Runewood armors) and useful weapons (Bows and Wands), you can't expect players to beeline for it anyway.

[Vakrug]

Come on, it is not Scientists who are expensive, it is utterly broken founding problem! In <1.0 there were too much founding eventually, good that that was "fixed", but not in such a way.
Nests also spawn like crazy like I showed earlier. This can be beneficial, but realistically not.

Counting with 30 scientists...

Form the day one? This can happen only after "Shielded Lab" and not necessary you can afford all of them after that.

[Mathel]

Form the day one? This can happen only after "Shielded Lab" and not necessary you can afford all of them after that.

Of course not. That is merely a simplification. Realisticaly, you would buy to 20 within the first month and 10 more while building the Shielded Lab.

I also didn't account for the time to build buildings, items and people to arrive, looting to happen, missions to spawn, and possibly more logistical delays I might have forgotten about.
And looting is another roulette, because you need to kill and loot Invader Leaders and Magi for Weak Artifact and just Invader Magi for Mana Crystal

[murkhach@centrum.cz]

I think we are his balance testers.But seriously, scientists are too expensive and research takes too long to be any faster.

Well I am in 2022 (August and able to get detection)
I confirm that research is extra slow with many useless autopsies (however with hidden potential)
  i.e. were wolf  Autopsy + capture  can produce something with armor that can increase mobility
         spike-boar                  can unlock some  upgrade for chitin armor that have better i resistance vs kinetic

RIFTS
 - second stage should be free of civilians
 - in second stage there should be more interesting stuff (MAGIC BOOKS,  AMULETS, ... ]
 - with x-technology  quite easy
    (Later when you  gain strong artifact rifts are annoying and sometimes not worth exploring )
   So I suggest to make more tiers of rifts
     1 . rats ,  scorpions, glass spiders , fiery flies  (weak artifact,  amulets)
         - not spawning after researching camouflage  or  weak artifacts
     2. shooter beetles, floater,  slugs, giants . shai-hulud   (strong artifact or magic crystals ) + weak artifact
         - not spawning  after research strong artifact
     3. spike boar, werewolf (forced darkness)  [rune-wood , crystals ] + [weak,weak , strong artifact]
         - not spawning after  scriptorium is unlocked
     4. spirits
          -  psionic inspiration prerequisite 
          -  as a reward [magic books. library,   e t.c ]   

 - I'd prefer in all rifts some stronger variation  of creatures (similar to  prismatic spider and floating jelly)

INVADERS
 - seems quite OK
 - I'd prefer more guarantee loot [i.e amulets or runes ]

ALIENS (SWARM)
 - there should be some better loot when complete land UFO mission
 - stalkers
  -- should have a bit less shields and be less effective vs strong armor  (chitin or wooden)
 - pincer warm and larva
  -- quite deadly - please reduce range or damage just cause fire, or poison can be enough - player can mitigate  it by extinguishers or  poison cure ) or accuracy
 - brutes are quite OK
  - I like tusk and killing it only with  that special blades with armor nullification

SHIELDS overall
 - sometimes works in weird way  ( some shots drain  none, some 2, some 5, some even 15 points from shield)
 - I recommend to consider some shield as a number of shots  that can block (regeneration - regenerate some shots)
    that makes tactical using some low damage auto-shot weapons to kick down the shield

path to MAGIC
 - in my opinion too difficult  (looting books an translating proper one is too luck depending)

[murkhach@centrum.cz]

- I'd prefer in all rifts some stronger variation  of creatures (similar to  prismatic spider and floating jelly)

I was  nicely surprised when entered rift world after fire flies  and  encounter phoenixes.
It was great enjoyable tactical fight

[Nord]

Version 1.2 is up.
Changelog:
- minor bugfixing (text strings, unusable alvi bows);
- balancing: more money on start;

[murkhach@centrum.cz]

costEngineer: 35000 - > 30000
costScientist: 45000- > 40000

initialFunding: 1600 -> 1650

That is ridiculous !
With 3 bases all missions done and paying 50 *  35 k per scientist  I am at balanced budget  (Able to  buy 1 or 2  new facilities per month) and still stuck  in research ..

In order to be this mod even playable i Suggest :
  -  cut down all research time by 1/2  - 1/3
  -  increase probabilities when sorting corpses (you gain always something )
  -  set scientist salary to 35 k
  -  double bonus reward ( performanceBonusFactor: 175 -> 350 )
  -  cut down all shields to 1/2  (it is really annoying to have lucky 4-15 shots to take down one unit shield)
 
I am not sure what typical play-out should look like according to  your intentions
   but my   experience is :
   - first 3  months           - unskilled soldiers with low chance to hit  survive
   - till the end of  year    - hard terrors with tough orcs and deadly casters (get chitin armor and some better weapons)
  -  next year                   - Rifts , gaining internacionallization -with good x-weapons, starting psi research
  -  3rd year                     - gaining wooden armor and scavanger  - finally  some money from selling  flying glyphs
  -  now                           - slowly exploring magic - annoying missions (1/2 - 3/4) with aliens  (get almost nothing losing a lot)

 I am able to fight  effectively vs 1 st level aliens, but 2nd level aliens are deadly and hard to kill
  - i suppose with magic  it should be better , but path to magic and spells is long  (extensive research and  absurd dependencies on luck when looting low chance items )
 - in case  pf looting instead  picking just one item from many ,
   I suggest to create a roll sets
   I.E.: 
STR_OUTCAST
    - [30, {STR_ARTIFACT_WEAK: 1 }]
    - [35, {STR_DAMAGED_AMULET: 1, STR_MANA_CRYSTAL: 1 }]
    - [25, { STR_MAGIC_BOOK: 1 }]
    - [20, { STR_MAGIC_BOOK: 1,  STR_MANA_CRYSTAL: 1}]
 STR_BARON
      - [30, {STR_AMULET_WATERWALL: 1, STR_JEWELRY: 3 }]
      - [20, {STR_DAMAGED_ARMOR: 3}]
      - [20, {STR_DAMAGED_ARMOR: 2,  STR_JEWELRY: 3}]
      - [20, {STR_ARTIFACT_WEAK: 1,  STR_JEWELRY: 2}]
      - [10, {STR_GREEN_POTION: 1, STR_DAMAGED_ARMOR: 1  , STR_JEWELRY: 2}]
   

[Mathel]

Hints about shields:

White (wind) shields can be cut through with anything that deals cutting damage, such as knives or fiery arrows (They really only stop guns, explosions, and smoke, but blades are the most available other damage type).
Blue (water) shields are succeptible to explosions.

And any shield is weak to shotguns from close range. They go over armor, so there is no damage reduction for them, just resistances.

[psavola]

From what I recall from playing two years ago, almost all the shields and enemies that you came across in the first couple of years could be dealt rather easily with explosives (grenades or explosive guns). That kind of broke the immersion of the fantasy setting. But my recollections might be failing me or this could have changed.

[Nord]

costEngineer: 35000 - > 30000
costScientist: 45000- > 40000

initialFunding: 1600 -> 1650

That is ridiculous !
With 3 bases all missions done and paying 50 *  35 k per scientist  I am at balanced budget  (Able to  buy 1 or 2  new facilities per month) and still stuck  in research ..

initialFunding affects the calculation of any funding raises.
Also, some invader weapons sell costs was raised.

[murkhach@centrum.cz]

initialFunding affects the calculation of any funding raises.
Also, some invader weapons sell costs was raised.

I see but at first look on paper it seem like spit in the sea ..
Still I recommend to think about increasing 'performanceBonusFactor'  a bit  (~ 250 )
and add extra score for shooting-down /riding aliens UFO (if it is possible)
This month I cleaned three young nests and 3 medium aliens UFO and scored a 9000 pts (that is ~ 1 575 000 $) 
that allowed me just cover my expenses - in order to fight aliens you need strong psi  soldiers and train them in gyms (to have some  reasonable stats)

[Vakrug]

It is 2023-10-01 and I am totally burned out, so I decided to halt my current playthrough. (95% probability I will never continue.)
At this point I think that, at least in theory, I can beat this game. Most of my soldiers are specialized mages (level 1) with maxed mana. Human factions are no longer a threat. Most of the world is under radar coverage (that can reveal bases), the rest can be easily patrolled with the balloon. There are 8 old nests. New nests are popping up regularly, but I have no problems taking them out. Sky is filled with red crosses, but my 5 Ravens can prevent score loss. UFO counter is above 1000 now. Situation is under control, but the necessity to play more for at least 5 years before I will be able to take old nests down while constantly shooting off endless swarms makes me terrified. If I will ever continue this game I will probably edit the save file to reduce the number of old nest to 2.

I still think that founding currently is broken and something has to be done to fix that. Although founding is still better now then before 1.0, where player was eventually flooded with money making some parts of progression irrelevant. For example, in my previous game before 1.0 I have acquired impulse weaponry very late. There were no longer useful because I already had access to signs.

Slogan "Suffering awaits" is much more suited for X-Chronicle.

[Nord]

What shold be balanced, then? Less nests? Less nest-spawned broods?

[Vakrug]

What should be balanced, then?

(Facepalm) How many times I have to write, that number 1 problem is broken founding??? In order to fix that, first thing to do is to write down how exactly founding is done right now.

only those nations will increase funding, where you have missions completed.

No, this is not how it is right now, already reported about that! If you would play your own game you would notice it too! Right now founding is mostly tied to UFO-s activity and not missions.
And what if founding worked the way you described? Also bad. Most of the world is not part of founding members. Tiny France will never increase founding because it is... tiny and a likelihood of missions on their soil is also tiny.

Less nests? Less nest-spawned broods?

I don't know if it is even possible, but there should be limits of old, medium and young nests count. If you want to declare a player a looser for allowing too many nests to spawn, then do it with an event, and not by crushing players will to continue, like it is now. (I think this problem with nest will be solved automatically if founding was fixed.)

[Mathel]

Funding and/or research times.

When I got many points in my home country, I got a $1 000 000 bonus. That is nice, but not a good basis for funding, as it requires for the aliens to actually attack my home country a lot.

And with research, it still takes too long. Research costs are comparable with the research costs from UFO: Enemy Unkown, but you can afford only a fraction of the scientists.

Additionally, many necessary researches are gated beyond interrogation roulettes, which means that not only does research take way too long, but you also often can't research what you need because you either got unlucky and failed to capture the necessary enemy, or they just gave you intel on something utterly pointless.


The only way I am getting through months right now is repeated raiding of a Nest in Australia. I can not destroy it, but I can crush it's surface defences and sometimes even clear B1, getting around 300 points each time.