[EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion -- General Feedback Thread

[Bobwolf]

21th January 1999,

We heard the alarm. We geared up as fast as we could and sat in the Skyranger. The commander told us we were heading in a port attacked by aliens. After a couple of hours, the Skyranger landed in the port. The door dropped on the floor and the tank got out. We heard multiple shots fired, 1 missile launched and then an explosion no more tank. Michal tried his luck outside. He fired a rocket at a big snake. Then the commander call of the mission as many strange alien were closing in very fast.

On our way back, the commander told us that all the civilian were killed. No one to save. Michal is the only one who saw those snakeman and then he mentioned  something about a thing with pincer...


---------------------------------------------

Hey guys !

I just called back my troops from a terror site. Snakeman and Chrysalid everywhere. There was 23 civilian on the map. After 2 turns, 20 were dead... most of them turned into Zombie. Got a terrible score -650 or more. And yes it was the 1st terror mission.

Hardmore ? Hell yes lol



 

[hellrazor]

21th January 1999,

We heard the alarm. We geared up as fast as we could and sat in the Skyranger. The commander told us we were heading in a port attacked by aliens. After a couple of hours, the Skyranger landed in the port. The door dropped on the floor and the tank got out. We heard multiple shots fired, 1 missile launched and then an explosion no more tank. Michal tried his luck outside. He fired a rocket at a big snake. Then the commander call of the mission as many strange alien were closing in very fast.

On our way back, the commander told us that all the civilian were killed. No one to save. Michal is the only one who saw those snakeman and then he mentioned  something about a thing with pincer...

So you got scared? Ok i would also have bailed out for sure, and also with my pants full, but believe me this missions can be done if your man have proper equipment and you recruit some good markmans, good reaction are also good.

There is a slight chance that this will happen:

Code: [Select]

    raceWeights:
      0:
        STR_SECTOID: 10
        STR_SNAKEMAN: 10
        STR_FLOATER: 80

Actually the mission should only be floaters, not those other two.

Hey guys !

I just called back my troops from a terror site. Snakeman and Chrysalid everywhere. There was 23 civilian on the map. After 2 turns, 20 were dead... most of them turned into Zombie. Got a terrible score -650 or more. And yes it was the 1st terror mission.

Hardmore ? Hell yes lol

Those mission come together with the bigger mapsize for Terrormissions which is 60x60 and field up to 24 Civilians and maxload of Aliens spawn of 28 Aliens.
But you can win them, obviously not in January with standard equipment. And not against Snakeman for sure, Floaters actually are good to play against.
Shotguns vs Reapers

Should i remove this?

The Screenshot is from Middle around end of mai to middle of june or so. Can't remember exactly.

[Bloax]

Chryssalids in January aren't really a fair move, since rifles can't even pierce their 34 armor.

Although on the other hand it teaches you the valuable lesson of ABORT THE FUCKING MISSION SON, which is pretty hardmode.

[Bobwolf]

Yeah keep it. It made my day to see all those lids and snakes.. I was going there to kill floaters but I changed my mind after 2 turns !

But I've been playing too much to try my luck against chrysalids with rookies...


By the way, one thing about the OG as been bothering me forever : 3 shots from a gun isn't called automatic, it's call a burst. Firing in automatic empty your magazine in a blink of an eye and it's very inaccurate but in very close range it's pretty good.

What I would suggest to do is to simply change automatic for Burst and maybe add a forth option to use automatic ? Reduce the accuracy so it's not worth it to use it beyond 5-6 tiles I'd say.


I'm willing to try it and see if it would break the game if you want to try it.

[hellrazor]

Yeah keep it. It made my day to see all those lids and snakes.. I was going there to kill floaters but I changed my mind after 2 turns !

But I've been playing too much to try my luck against chrysalids with rookies...


By the way, one thing about the OG as been bothering me forever : 3 shots from a gun isn't called automatic, it's call a burst. Firing in automatic empty your magazine in a blink of an eye and it's very inaccurate but in very close range it's pretty good.

What I would suggest to do is to simply change automatic for Burst and maybe add a forth option to use automatic ? Reduce the accuracy so it's not worth it to use it beyond 5-6 tiles I'd say.

I'm willing to try it and see if it would break the game if you want to try it.

There are only 3 Shotmodes avaible, Aimed Shot, Snap Shot and Auto Shot (which is basically a Burstmode, default 3 Shots).
I do not really want to add new weapons any more. There actually is a Heavy Laser / Auto. With autofire. It is quite good. Should fit your description somehow.

[Arthanor]

By the way, one thing about the OG as been bothering me forever : 3 shots from a gun isn't called automatic, it's call a burst. Firing in automatic empty your magazine in a blink of an eye and it's very inaccurate but in very close range it's pretty good.

What I would suggest to do is to simply change automatic for Burst and maybe add a forth option to use automatic ? Reduce the accuracy so it's not worth it to use it beyond 5-6 tiles I'd say.

You have to think of it in game terms: Autoshot represents firing many shots in a very small amount of time since it costs very few TUs. One could change the stats of autoshots to firing 18 shots and taking 6 times more TUs so that it would really empty your magazine, but that would make it a rather useless option.

If you play with UFOExtender Accuracy on, autoshots are indeed pretty useless unless you are really close to the target, like you describe.

[hellrazor]

I am just testing out how to balance the Laser Cannon in combination with Retaliators
against Terrorships.

This really bothering me, sometimes the Retaliators can in 3vs1 get nearly zero damage.
On other runs i loose at least one.

[Arthanor]

Hum.. if you want to reduce the variability, I guess the answer is: Increase the accuracy but reduce the damage to keep the same DPS.

Fewer runs with too many misses costing you a craft.
Runs with all hits deal less damage = take longer, so crafts are sure to be damaged.

Of course, that doesn't factor in the variability in the terror ship's hit/miss.

[hellrazor]

The problem is the repair time. as you can see.

[Arthanor]

Do you play with the option to scramble damaged/not refuelled crafts?

I do and long repair times incurred because you took on a big UFOs stop being a big issue. You can still scramble one of those Retaliators and take on a large scout or something if you need to. In theory, you don't need to down a terror ship more than once a month, the rest of the time you're dealing with easy stuff. Unless you added crafts like fighters which are small and deadly, but even those would die quickly and deal comparatively little damage.

The other option is to tweak the repair rate for the different crafts. This way a Retaliator can be repaired faster than the base rate. As HP increase, repair rate should increase too otherwise you get weird stuff. The vanilla values often make it faster to sell your avenger and build a new one than repair it, so I consider the rate open for tweaking.

[hellrazor]

Do you play with the option to scramble damaged/not refuelled crafts?

I do and long repair times incurred because you took on a big UFOs stop being a big issue. You can still scramble one of those Retaliators and take on a large scout or something if you need to. In theory, you don't need to down a terror ship more than once a month, the rest of the time you're dealing with easy stuff. Unless you added crafts like fighters which are small and deadly, but even those would die quickly and deal comparatively little damage.

The other option is to tweak the repair rate for the different crafts. This way a Retaliator can be repaired faster than the base rate. As HP increase, repair rate should increase too otherwise you get weird stuff. The vanilla values often make it faster to sell your avenger and build a new one than repair it, so I consider the rate open for tweaking.

I guess i found a relativly good compromise.
Laser Cannon get Range 36 and Accuracy 50%, (Plasma Beam has Accuracy 60%)
Retaliator gets tiny boost in Armor from 200 to 240
And a increased repairRate 3% per hour repaired instead of 1.

See Screenshots

There is still a good chance you loose at least 1 Retaliator in a 3vs1 against Terrorships.
You could also use Avalnche Missiles, but there Firerate is lower i believe, also there range is reduced to 42.

[hellrazor]

Started working on some of the new Maps and some smaller Bugfixes,
and a experiment

Version 0.75
 - Fix Mapscript for PORTTFTD Terrain since due to increased mapsize the Waterfront blocks were placed wrong
 - Integrated Matching Weapon Sprites for the Blaster Launcher from trollworkout
 - Flying Suit research added dependency: Alien Data Core
 - Fix wrong Price for Power suit Repair (840.000 instead of 84.000 )
 - Trying to make Combination Retaliator with Dual Laser Cannons able to shot down Terrorships (3vs1)
   Retaliator gets Armor boost: 240 instead of 200
   Laser Cannon gets Range 36 and Accuracy 50%
   repairRate increased from 1% per hour to 3
 - Fix for YetMore Ufo's Maps and SolarsNewUfo's maps
   Labship: LOS, LOF errors fixed, increased size of central section to fit lower and upper level.
   Fighter: Fix LOS, LOF near right door
   Excavator: Fix missing roof tiles, removed unneeded groundtiles
   Sentry: Fix LOS, LOF possibility

Modportal Link

Readme and new Version attached here

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks for the maps! I'll add them and credit you.

[hellrazor]

Thanks for the maps! I'll add them and credit you.

Well have fun with it.
When i find time i will make some variants. I have some nasty Ideas for the Labship ^^

[hellrazor]

Got reported some Bugs:

Version 0.76
 - Fix somehow lost UfoPaedia Entry for Sniper Rifle
 - Fix BulletSprites for Sniper Rifle and Taser Pistol
 - Readjusted Aimed accuracy for Sniper Rifle, Heavy Laser Sniper and Plasma Sniper Rifle.
 - Fix wrong Hitsound for Plasma Shotgun Elerium Shells

Modportal Link

Readme and new Version attached here