I looked for another possible mission with my crafts and saw another MIB mission. After i done it, i passed that month. So i continue to play now.
Just, as a very old X-Com player and Xenonauts Modder, i think i can share my thoughts about this awesome mod.
1. New aliens, alien weapons, alien ufos, just all about the enemies are totally great!
2. The new weapon arsenal is great too but at some point they fail to deliver their main purposes. I am a huge fan of heavy burst weapons like miniguns and heavy hitter snipers. I checked most of them at this mod. But as a result, i stuck with assault rifle types. Why?
- Heavy burst weapons are mostly useless because most of the enemies dies with normal rifle bullets mostly. If there is an enemy with resistance, you can't kill it even with tons of bullets anyway. Like big terror units are resisted against AP damage and most of them survive against Alloy rifle bullets of 8-10. So it means a good 3 burst of rifle burst from assault rifle. So if u got a big minigun or HMG, you will overkill an enemy or won't hurt him at all because of heavy resistance or much worst accuracy of this weapons compared to assault rifles. Assault rifle damage is just well balanced and that weapon gives you the time for any manuever too. If i want to clean a bunch of enemies standing at one room (only saw it at MIB missions) i would use explosives rather then an area-burst weapon because even i overkill them, i won't able to get items because the aliens will die anyway and the inventory will be lost. I used them much at Xenonauts modding, because that game got a suppression mechanic. But at this game, there is nothing like that. I would love to have them with much better acc at least, so i can be sure that the enemies will be killed at the huge TU i used to fire them.
- As tactical burst weapons, i used assault rifles unit auto-cannon and then laser rifle. They are just best against all other types.. better then shotguns even short range, better then heavy weapons because of more shoot per turn with better acc, better then snipers because of the move-free TU use, better then pistol because i don't see any reason to use pistols at all, better then cannon/launchers because of the maps with tons of obstacles already on the way. %90 of the maps i played are way crowded with obstacles. There is nearly no place to put your snipers, heavy shooters, cannon users to position. Every time, my rifle soldiers cleaned the target before those other guys take position and shoot. Even i position them, the aliens mostly go for out of LOS. Ufo maps are little with no long range fight needed and terror missions are full of building type objects. So all aliens are at rooms or very tight places. Even you can take position and fire with weapons which needs tons of TU, there is no time to run.
- Heavy weapons got a balancing problem about the damage output and shoot per turn. For example a heavy laser with 75 damage. I got laser rifles with 50 damage which can fire about 7 shots per turn. Heavy weapon's damage is very low with it's very bad acc. Heavy and snipers are one shot- one kill weapons. Heavies are low range, low acc but if hits, the enemy should feel it. Snipers are high range, high acc, slower, lower then heavy damage but still can kill a random enemy. A heavy laser with this TU and acc should have at least 125 damage maybe more.. if u make range lower it could go to 150.. and much lower ammo per clip btw..
- Snipers got a huge problem because of the map layouts as i said. Tactical sniper is totally useless. I respect the concept but still it should have lower TU for fire and much more damage to consider to use at least with alloy bullets.
- Shotguns are crazy slow.. I use always stun rather then shotgun when i am at shotgun range of an enemy.
3. Stun is very weak. I mean the dart weapons got huge penalties, every thing is ultra low. So rather then trying shooting a random alien with 2-3 dart rifle users from med range, i prefer to sneak slowly and go for melee stun. There is no stun explosives or AOE stun weapons like cannon bullets or grenade launcher grenades.
4. The crafts are very nice but weapons are limited. I would like to see much more variations of missile type long range craft weapons. Alloy cannons are useless and i prefer avanlanche to even laser cannons. Most of the big ufos are landing anyway so i only shoot down the little ones mostly. But some upgraded missiles for early to mid game is a must.. Raven is good for early game but it needs weapons.
5. Tanks are left alone too. I would like to see alloy versions of them.
6. Dogs need love too. Genetic or cybernetic dogs or weredogs needed for fast patrol/sudden attack unit types. I really like dogs and they have a good tactical point to use.
This could be a totally awesome mod for people who likes the default game soul but as i mentioned, it needs some touches at some points (Raven mods got many thinks to fill that places) and some balances for tactical approaches. Sry for bad english and i hope you don't get offended from my critics.
Thank you!
