Copy/pasting this here because I posted it in the wrong thread.
"""""""DESCLAIMER""""""""
This constitutes my opinions and in no way it should be seen as looking down on the mod or rage or whatever. I compiled this with the hope it might give you some insights and make the mod better nothing more nothing less, so lets do this:
1) Issue the TFTD maps. While those are awesome and I like the design overall, I found certain of them to be huge and overtly complex. I had a terror mission in a resort and I felt I was replaying the old Cruise liner missions from TFTD trying to find every freaking alien in every freaking corner. And eventually I found a cyberdisc stuck in a room which had a single door (but thats another matter which is related to the originals unit placement). In other words those maps are beutifull and well designed but they are a strain to the player. Not because he will be unable to finish them or they are hard but because they suffer from hunt the alien syndrome.
I know that probably this is just me and that there is nothing to be done about it really, but I thought I will say it.
This is a matter of taste. I certainly don't think they're overly complex, actually TFTD was FAR worse, or at least that's what my memory says. Nevertheless, I'm keeping them, especially since some maps are pretty open.
As for the large units spawning ion wrong places, I agree it's a bug, but I think we should notify Hobbes - it would be much more productive to do it at the source. (Hobbes, I know you can see this.
)
2)On the same course I liked every new alien race in the mod so far, but again I was a bit thrown down when I saw the new alien races (and the gauss weapons) using the skins from TFTD. Again I know its not wrong but it throws me a bit off. Especially the gauss tech which is a tech developed in the second war. Would it be possible to rename Gauss into something else? Again I know this something that it is only me, but I have a knack for lore.
What can I say? I fully agree, but we need to make compromises. I would love to have custom sprites for these, but at this point I don't have the time, and when I do I'll be making a new enemy (actually started it already, it's the Chaser from UFO: Extraterrestrials - very fast, weak, but reasonably resistant to solid projectiles). But maybe some day either I or some nice person makes these sprites and I'll be more than happy to use them.
3)In one of my starts I litteraly received as a first mission the base defense. I had 1 UFO detected and shotdown and then by Jan 5 I was attacked. Surely one UFO shot down is not enough to warrant an alien retaliation mission right?
It's not related to the mod, it just happens. Base location is important; if you choose a particularly bad spot, you'll get visitors all the time.
4)Laser-Plasma-Gauss-Rails. This needs to be adressed a bit I fear.
Arrgh.
No escape from this!
There is litteraly no reason why you should try to research Lasers anymore. With the time you can spent on having all the nessesary components to fully unlock the laser reasearch, you are better off beelining to go directly to Gauss which is actually more effective and if you are Auto happy then jump directly to Rails and be done with it. Lazers require some tweeking. Either make them easier to research or a slight damage boost to make them a clear alternative to Gauss, because honestly the Auto shot tradeoff simply doesnt cut it.
I politely disagree - lasers are better in my opinion. But they're worse in your opinion. Which probably means they're balanced.
My reasoning is, autofire is crucial in close-quarter combat, since it often happens that you hit an alien with the Gauss, he survives due to a low damage roll and retaliates. With autofire, it's less likely. Besides many aliens are resistant to AP damage, which makes Gauss weapons not so great despite their higher damage output. So each type has its quirks; I personally prefer lasers for their reliability, but then again there are things they're not as good at as lasers.
5)Armors. So far I am using alloy armors I havent progressed further. However I feel that even the not so humble alloy vest is too strong for what it provides. It makes you almost immune to lazers (which is ok I guess after all its alloy) but the weird things start with plasma. Unless its a really lucky shot the notsohumble alloy vest might resist a full autoshot from a plasma rifle and ever since I upgraded to ally armor this got even worse. I am not a sadist, but I dread to think what powersuits will do 
I haven't done
anything to the Personal Armour, except giving it some weight. I haven't changed vanilla plasma weapons either, except for making them a bit less accurate over long distances. Therefore you're experiencing vanilla behaviour.
And Alloy Vests are worse than the Personal Armour in every aspect, though their frontal armour value is comparable (44 vs. 50).
6) Shotguns. IDK why the alloy ammo transforms the shotgun into a rifle but I wants me an alloy scatter round pl0x. Or I would settle with a high powered shotgun variant with scatter shot. I luv me shotguns on everything below 50ish accuracy.
You want alloy scatter? No problem! I just didn't think people would be much interested in this and never went around to do so. I'll add it soon.
7)Speaking of armors and their too stronkiness (yes thats a new word), I found it amusing that said alloy armor could resist and srug off a full auto from plasma rifle but a Hybrd Ak-47 was able to penetrate the armor like it was paper. Three times.
Russians and their engineering?
As i explained above, it's just randomization. (And headshots.)
8)The Sentinel requires a small edit in its description to say it is powered up by Elerium IMHO its not clear.
Yeah, it uses Elerium. Okay, added some info, thanks.
9)Its too easy to get Psilabs although the entertainment requirement might not be so obvious, to someone who knows it might allow for psionics from month 2 which might lead to full hard on psi squads that would make the etherials cry like babies in the end game.
Maybe, though it's still a bit better than vanilla. Once the FMP moves to OpenXCom Extended, it'll be possible to make it even better. For now, I suggest playing with the line-of-sight-only psionics option.
10)Speaking of which going into your second mission and getting attacked by psionics is a bit....I wet my pants ok? I thought somehow they were etherials because I had no eye contact. Might want to dissable the sectoid leader psi powers for a couple of months and combine it with a psilab research path overhaul to delay psi in general.
Well, it's kind of canon to let them have psionics, and I don't want to change this. What we could do it to make them useless for psi research, but that wouldn't make sense. Well, at least it's hard to catch them in the first months.
11) You might want to reconsider the fact that when you have researched an alien weapon, the ammo must became automatically available to research. After all those things are clips, even if you dont know how to build more, you can simply slide them in and fire yes? And since the damn alien gave you the specifics for the entire function of the weapon why wouldnt he tell you of the clip?
At least it allows you to pick up an alien rifle during battle and use it without knowing how its clip works, yet you can't take the clips (they need to be calibrated periodically to stay useable and you need to know how to do it). It's a bit controversial, I know, but that's how vanilla works too and I didn't really want to change it.
12)Research randomness. Now this is the big question of the mod. Why should it be random and why I have litteraly to captuare the alien invasions entire command stracture to get access to their tech? What are the egg heads in my labs doing then? Engineers will provide only so many research options the rest you need leaders+ for. And while I always felt the original had bonked it in that specific department that their only thing to give was the martial solution and the cydonia mission, this mod is a bit to leader happy. You need to capture them all and the results you get are random and you get things that might lead you nowhere at your current state. I still cant understand what optronics are supposed to do, but I believe that they have to do with craft desings. Or I hope so....
Actually you don't need Leaders for
anything more than in vanilla, all the rest is provided by Engineers, Medics and Navigators.
And optronics is for something else...
Okay, I'll tell you, because you wouldn't be able to recognize it once you know it: Power Suits. (More in the future.)
So what I propose is this: Limit the need for engineers and Leaders. I dont think you should need more than 6 (total) and the tech tree should be made a bit more linear and less random. Leader/engineer 01 gives you access to tech x, then 02 gives access to tech Y and all of them branch out on specific fields.
I think that would be a good way to make things less random and allow you to reach specific avenues (for example I might be a nut and not care for my soldiers but want to speed up avionics).
This can be done, but frankly I like it random, since every campaign is different. I'm not saying no to improvements, though - and preferably more alternatives.
13)We need a message after specific research is completed in regards to husks/corpses and their dissasembly from the Engineers and their uses thereoff.
OK, I'll think about it, though at this point I am unsure on how to do it, technically.
14) The X-com Cyberdisk without having research plasma and lasers can be made available. I understand that rewiring the weapons of the cyberdisk can be possible, but then we are running on the oximoron of been unable to fire a laser rifle because the egg head didnt write a manual on it and how to load the clips on it
Does it mean Cyberdisc/HMG? Sure, it's possible!
15)The skymarshall sometimes (due to extended size I guess) gets its ramp access completely blocked in the densly terrain new maps which only allows deployment by the rear exits.
Yeah, I don't like it either, but I don't think it's a bug/bad design. It just happens. (You can blow up any obstacles.)
I would also like to say that I find the boxes deployed in front of the ramp to be completely out of place as well as the fact it is on storie one and the weels are hanging from the wings . I dont believe that those are the answers to provide cover durring deployment, or to be precice that eart tech craft should provide such things. Or at least do it a bit more believable?
I did some work on the Skymarshall, but never liked the result. So consider the current one a temporary version, hopefully. (I'll accept help.)
16)And something that occured to me: I have researched the toxisuit but I was wondering: Does the powersuit allow you to use flamers? One would expect from a completely sealed off containment unit to do so.
Yeah, powered armours are immune to fire.
Thats it for now. Again those my thoughts on the subject and are not to be taken as mandatory things to be changed. Just what I believe I would tweek if I had the skill to mod the game. Awaiting your reply with interest. Again GJ and as myk002 said, from henceforth I cant play the original without this mod.
Many thanks for all the careful thoughts, it's more than helpful! I love reviews like this one, they're a major force in making the mod better.
So, to do immediately:
- alloy scatter,
- Cyberdisc/HMG (or something).
6) alloy ammo transforms the shotgun into a rifle
I've actually wondered the same thing. Of course I took advantage of it -- using AP ammo essentially gives you a very accurate rifle
It's not just the alloy ammo, it's the same with normal solid shots.
But... very accurate? Why? Sure, it's accurate up close, but quickly becomes useless over distance. I personally don't like shotguns much.
13)New manufacturing notification for disassembly jobs
That would be nice -- which mod do these come from?
No special mods, it was made for the FMP specifically. Same with the shotguns and AA ammo really, even though both ideas aren't mine.
I would like to comment on point 2
With a little bit of reskin work you could make guass tech into Pulse rifles
You know the one Ripley used against Xenomorphs in Aliens.
*cough*railguns*cough*
EDIT: BTW can someone tell me what I need to do to get the good ol' medkits back? (that is research them)
Sure, you need Alien Reproduction, Alien Surgery and a living Medic.
Speaking of the Medikit, I am thinking of yet another item: a 1x1 healing spray, available from the start, which stops bleeding but doesn't recover any HP. The reason is that the First Aid Kit is so heavy and cumbersome, only 2 or 3 people in the squad can carry it. Do you think it's necessary, or maybe it should stay like it is to emphasize the importance of a dedicated field medic?
