From the Ashes - initial release!

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

- In vanilla, those 12 armor means nothing against plasma. So I think it's comparable, as power of FtA's early game enemies are way lower, than vanilla. It's a design choice, many people treat it hostile. But I looked very closely to how it affects on the game for a long time, and did a lot of testing. Currently, I like how it works from a game design perspective. There are options to get armor, and I will add more for future, but it still would be rare and valuable. But what makeshift alternatives for weapons do you want?

Yeah, but very common one-hit kills against the player makes sense in vanilla where soldier replacement is just a small cash investment without any limits. Soldiers becoming fairly expensive and with limited numbers to hire kinda breaks this balance (just my opinion, though).

Not that I "want" makeshift stuff, but I dig the aesthetic and it makes sense for the first "tier 0" gear that X-COM can get their hands in steady supply. Like civilian bulletproof vests reinforced with scrap metal and simple zipguns, pipe-rifles and sub-machineguns like Luty, or Sten that could be used later as cash source by crafting them and then selling to ressistance which seems to make sense in the lore.

I don't want my opinions and "propositions" to be treated as "demands", its entirely a feedback  

[Finnik]

The manual installation worked without issue.
Is a covert op battle the result of a "failed" covert op?

Covert operation can have 2 outcomes - success and a failure (actually, there could be also a critical failure, but it just the worst case of a failure). Each outcome can have the own set of outcomes - items, research projects unlocking, events, missions, spawned on battlescape, or instant battlescape scenario. Each covert operation have own setup, and I often mix it together. For instance, the first operation - Chasing MIB ends with the battle in all cases, it only matter the difficulty. Some operations can have battlescape outcome as an option, for instance - they can lead you to MIB trap, if you are unlucky. So it depends, really.

What does the silent trait some weapons have mean? Are there missions that require silent weapons, or are enemies able to hear in this altered engine?

Yeah, I have stealth mechanic coded. Some missions are critical to it, as enemies can rise alarm on spotting you infiltrating the map. If anything - not only sound is taken into account 

Is it intentional that the Resistance will buy spare parts and chemicals at higher price than you can manufacture them at?

It was intended that you can have small business.

I don't want my opinions and "propositions" to be treated as "demands", its entirely a feedback  

Oh, please, guys, don't be shy! =) I knew what I was doing, launching a big project. Actually, managing IT project is something like what I'm doing as a main job, so I feel myself confident with users feedback. I think I quite prepared to any PR, from propositions to a bluster 

The only thing that makes me sad for now is stupid suggestion, I feel like some people don't even try to think for a bit before throwing stuff. That looks like disrespect to me.
No matter the form, clever ideas are taken into the account, not matter how they were expressed - like a "propositions",  or like a "demands" 
In any case, I know how to operate with backlog (tho, I tend to feature creep), and what product vision is.

Now, to makeshift. I call that early manufacturing "junkyard tinkering". This idea is not very developed currently, but I'm looking forward to accumulating more wild ideas about it. See, X-Com engineers are actually smart guys, so I'd rather add some "toys" like rocket glove, or electrical arrows. I am highlighting it with "inventing system" (not actually a new mechanic, but just set of event scripts), where you do not perform boring research project, but new blueprint just being randomly invented (if some conditions are met, OFC).
About firearms - maybe it's just me, but I really don't feel that even with the simple workshop we can build now you can create more or less fine firearms (even civilian tier), it is a very specific production. Throwing knife, sword manufacturing - sure, worth making. Probably only the most primitive, something like starting Piratez guns...
What about DIY gun, that can fire just a single time, without even ability to recharge (or taking nearly full turn to do so)? 
About armor - again, I do have a crafted armor set, it's just not a super early game thing. I have more armor ideas to be implemented. And we have shield, that will get improvement soon regarding! There was a cool idea suggested how to make its tanky sector more wide, so it will be a lot more handy.

[Scamps]

Greetings again!
Here is a bug report (save attached). Covert ops mission is stuck. At some point a scientist returned, but troops did not. I do not remember the moment exactly, time likely slowed down to 5 sec, but there were definitely no popups. Mission is listed as active, days are stuck at 17.

On other things:
- Found out that shields are profitable to manufacture, produce them non stop. Chemicals are actually not profitable, if worker salary is accounted for, but shields are. Still not much profit, though. 7 engineers can't pay base upkeep by themselves.

- Armadillos: definitely need some kind of counter. Maybe lower their front armor to represent unprotected belly? Like spitters in XCom. Or under armor for that matter.
Another option can be decreasing their movement speed. Currently they are crazy fast. And bipedal (walking on two legs)? Don't know their lore, but their current speed is unexpected unless explained.

- Fast zombies: if you know in advance you will fight zombies you sure can go all shotguns and have little problems. But in resistance camp mission you have to be prepared for anything, so you mix weapons, and zombies become much harder. A lot depends on initial positioning. If there is some distance, fight becomes much, mush easier. In one mission two resistance agents spawned in a small building together with two zombies inside and one right outside. Also said building was in the opposite corner of the map from the Dragonfly. There was no chance at all to save resistance members.
If there is no intention to nerf individual zombies, maybe consider decreasing number of zombies in a mission during first months? Or maybe leave them as is, they are not nearly as overpowered as armadillos )
Third option would be increasing reward for tougher missions, zombie corpses don't sell well )

- Researching multiple MiBs is fun, love the stories!

- I wasn't sure if the stealth mechanics is implemented, but then I saw it in logs and understood enough to rob military facility without raising alarm (with savescaumming, of course). But if posible there should be some indication the moment alarm is raised, not at the end of turn, nor couple of turns later. Also I suggest documenting mechanics in a pedia article.
Also could you please document exact mechanics for concealable weapons? As I believe, covert ops success chance drops the moment you add first non-concealable weapon? Does quantity of these weapons matter from there on? Are there other rules?

[Finnik]

Save is attached.
- Notice 5 scientists working, no free scientists.
- Skip time to mission.
- Abort mission.
- Notice 1 free scientist.

Not a bug, you had a scientist working on the covert operation. Operation is over, scientist is available again.

Greetings again!
Here is a bug report (save attached). Covert ops mission is stuck. At some point a scientist returned, but troops did not. I do not remember the moment exactly, time likely slowed down to 5 sec, but there were definitely no popups. Mission is listed as active, days are stuck at 17.

Weird thing. I've edited the engine to unstuck operation if it found one. But it would be better to find what causes the issue, I've looked the code, but have no idea yet. If you will get such case again, pls, give me more info about what happened before it. Once time was set to 5 sec, you should see battlescape, but something prevented it. Rare case, as we tested all operations many times. This is not a new system, I've developed more than a year ago... But I will keep in mind it, maybe I will fix it somehow later. For now, you can get a new nighty engine here to keep playing. https://lxnt.wtf/oxem/builds//FTA/FtA-0.7.2-ecd1d590b-2022-04-21-win64.7z

- Found out that shields are profitable to manufacture, produce them non stop. Chemicals are actually not profitable, if worker salary is accounted for, but shields are. Still not much profit, though. 7 engineers can't pay base upkeep by themselves.

Balanced, thanks! I remember there was some nice tool to balance manufacturing, can't find it =(

- Armadillos: definitely need some kind of counter. Maybe lower their front armor to represent unprotected belly? Like spitters in XCom. Or under armor for that matter.
Another option can be decreasing their movement speed. Currently they are crazy fast. And bipedal (walking on two legs)? Don't know their lore, but their current speed is unexpected unless explained.

They deserve some balance, that was discussed before, and their front armor is already lower. You can check their lore and tactical analysis.

- Fast zombies: if you know in advance you will fight zombies you sure can go all shotguns and have little problems. But in resistance camp mission you have to be prepared for anything, so you mix weapons, and zombies become much harder. A lot depends on initial positioning. If there is some distance, fight becomes much, mush easier. In one mission two resistance agents spawned in a small building together with two zombies inside and one right outside. Also said building was in the opposite corner of the map from the Dragonfly. There was no chance at all to save resistance members.
If there is no intention to nerf individual zombies, maybe consider decreasing number of zombies in a mission during first months? Or maybe leave them as is, they are not nearly as overpowered as armadillos )
Third option would be increasing reward for tougher missions, zombie corpses don't sell well )

I like them being actually dangerous, not like we see in another mods. Those missions are intended to be that unpredictable. I've seen some very interesting and efficient tactics and loadout patterns to counter it, that were invented by playtesters. I like that FtA missions force to adapt patterns. But I will look closer to those missions gameplay to see if it needs to be more balanced. And monster and zombie missions will get new reward content in the future.

- Researching multiple MiBs is fun, love the stories!

Thanks! It was not easy to develop it, but I also like the result. It's actually not that random, part of the story is that you feel you need to find some clues, but MIB agents keep dying on your hands =)
I have more ideas to improve mechanic, related to this.

Also I suggest documenting mechanics in a pedia article.

I choose not to document mechanics in pedia, just like vanilla did not had documentation about such unobvious mechanics, like psionic or reactions. As Ufopaedia is actually an in-game thing, I'm trying to avoid metagame data in it.
The most difficult decision about it is revealing stats of soldier specialization's perks.
I am documenting engine stuff with repo's wiki, you can look into it. But it's more for developers, not really player-friendly. Generally, documenting is super boring. I'm documenting IT development process IRL, so I'd choose not to do that here. I'd rather leave it for the community to share insights and tips like "hey, if I friendly fire Resistance to stun-secure it, it would not join xcom!", or to form guides, discuss META, etc.
I like vanilla had a lot of hidden mechanics, and you need to discover it for yourself. If you are not agree, I think, it's better to rise a different topic.

[Finnik]

Looks like I'm newbie when it comes to GitHub releases, as it looks like my hotfixes from the first day update were not included to live release. Anyway, a new version is uploaded, with some fixes.
While I'm working on a big engine feature, this release also includes minor fixes.

Content:

• Fixed fundnding change on failing Osprey recovery operation.
• Combat shield manufacturing profit reduced.
• Some English texts edited by Garr

[Blazen]

This is a cool mod, I'm really liking the new features in it.

I've found a bit where the game crashes, in the attached save if you run time forwards, ignoring the completed research and the ufo, a soldier will complete assault specialisation that's fine, then 4 new soldiers arrive, if you go to base, either by clicking the 'go to base' button on the pop-up or oking the pop-up and going to the base yourself, and then go to the soldiers tab the game freezes, this happens even if you return to the geoscape first and then go back into the base, it doesn't freeze if you click the any other tab.

A few other soldiers are also about to complete specialisation an hour or so later, if you wait for them to finish then going to the soldiers tab is fine.

Note the actual save game is called _autogeo_.asav not Bugsave, as its a geoscape autosave.

[Finnik]

This is a cool mod, I'm really liking the new features in it.

I've found a bit where the game crashes, in the attached save if you run time forwards, ignoring the completed research and the ufo, a soldier will complete assault specialisation that's fine, then 4 new soldiers arrive, if you go to base, either by clicking the 'go to base' button on the pop-up or oking the pop-up and going to the base yourself, and then go to the soldiers tab the game freezes, this happens even if you return to the geoscape first and then go back into the base, it doesn't freeze if you click the any other tab.

A few other soldiers are also about to complete specialisation an hour or so later, if you wait for them to finish then going to the soldiers tab is fine.

Note the actual save game is called _autogeo_.asav not Bugsave, as its a geoscape autosave.

Ok, thanks, I will investigate this!

[Bonakva]

Местами слегка машинный перевод
Но для ознакомления должно хватить

[Finnik]

Местами слегка машинный перевод
Но для ознакомления должно хватить

wow, thats huge! Have you tested if it fits UI space? Russian is often longer than English (i think by 20% or so), and many English stings barely fits UI.

I think I need to deploy transifex space, so it would be easier to maintain translating of the project!

[Bonakva]

wow, thats huge! Have you tested if it fits UI space? Russian is often longer than English (i think by 20% or so), and many English stings barely fits UI.

I think I need to deploy transifex space, so it would be easier to maintain translating of the project!

I did a quick translation for myself through the machine to familiarize myself with new mechanics, simplify and enjoy the game.
There are many lexical, syntactical errors in the translation (extra commas, no or unnecessary spaces, the meaning of some words does not fit the context, and so on). But this is more than enough to get acquainted with the mod.
Regarding the interface, I just started to get acquainted with the mod, but yes, there are places where the Russian text goes beyond the line of sight. Especially in large messages that appear from time to time on the geoscape.

[Finnik]

OK then, hope you enjoy the game. Sorry, that I dont pay enough attention to localization yet, as some articles could be changed, it's still WIP.

[Finnik]

New bugfix release, version 0.1.0.3

Content:
- Fixed a bug that caused alien missions from the original game to appear in the game.
- Cattle mutilation briefing screen image bug fixed.
- Minor fixes.

[_Brain322]

Congrats on opening sub forum

[Finnik]

TY)

[krautbernd]

Is this the right place for bug reports? Just trying out the mod right now, and something I noticed during the initial base defense :

I stunned the (former) commander, and whenever I am giving my soldiers/agents a move order (when the path is displayed but before actually comitting the move order) I get a "enemy spotted" notification which points to the unconcious commander:

https://abload.de/img/screen0008qk21.png
https://abload.de/img/screen001rmjmt.png

Is this intended?

On that account, it would be nice if "saving" the former commander would give some form of reward, maybe an unlock of some of the early research topics. Also, research progress is now checked on an hourly basis? Very helpful. Is this a user setting and/or available in vanilla OXCE or was this specifically added to FTA?

I am also unable to access the techtree viewer despite it not being disabled in the vars.Nevermind, researchTreeDisabled: was the culprit. But why are there multiple options to disable the tech tree viewer to begin with?