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Author Topic: [EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion -- General Feedback Thread  (Read 352588 times)

Offline Alex_D

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #120 on: May 24, 2015, 12:32:31 am »
It seems hardmode is really hard  :)  I just lost the campaign thanks to the negative score produced by some alien activity that no matter where I patrolled (as per Graphs), I couldn't detect entirely.

So the X-Com project was cancelled as per end of April 1999. And the final cut-scene was not the right one. I got instead the Brain level victory scene. See my attached last game. The nightly is git 2015-05-22 15:17.

EDIT: In general, the battlescape gameplay is good. The enemies are well balanced, I faced Sectoids and a large number of Cyberdisks in two separate terror missions. I'm glad the heavy rockets were in plenty supply.

EDIT2: The bad thing about the terror missions, is despite winning it with minimum casualties on my side, the large number of civilian deaths was enough to cause a negative score at the end of the battle.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2015, 12:39:56 am by Alex_D »

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #121 on: May 24, 2015, 09:13:20 am »
It seems hardmode is really hard  :)  I just lost the campaign thanks to the negative score produced by some alien activity that no matter where I patrolled (as per Graphs), I couldn't detect entirely.

So the X-Com project was cancelled as per end of April 1999. And the final cut-scene was not the right one. I got instead the Brain level victory scene. See my attached last game. The nightly is git 2015-05-22 15:17.

EDIT: In general, the battlescape gameplay is good. The enemies are well balanced, I faced Sectoids and a large number of Cyberdisks in two separate terror missions. I'm glad the heavy rockets were in plenty supply.

EDIT2: The bad thing about the terror missions, is despite winning it with minimum casualties on my side, the large number of civilian deaths was enough to cause a negative score at the end of the battle.

Uhm... Your first and only Base is somewere in South America... i will give you a Screenshot of my Bases Screen middle of May :D So you see the difference.
Build more Bases (for starters, a hangar a Large Radar and a storage is enough), so you see more ufos, get more missions, get more money etc....
« Last Edit: May 24, 2015, 10:41:36 pm by hellrazor »

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #122 on: May 24, 2015, 10:50:51 am »
Turned Version of the new Fighter Interior:

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #123 on: May 24, 2015, 10:56:59 am »
Minor Bugfix and the New fighter Map:

Version 0.82
 - Fix Alien Biology require (unneeded)
 - Readjusted Race occurance (better this way)
 - Added New Fighter Map (different Interior) and turned version of the same.

Modportal Link

Readme attached here

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #124 on: May 24, 2015, 10:39:50 pm »
It seems hardmode is really hard  :)  I just lost the campaign thanks to the negative score produced by some alien activity that no matter where I patrolled (as per Graphs), I couldn't detect entirely.

Judgeing from the amount of activity you had Alien Infiltration Mission in Europe, this is logically causing a lot of activity. I do not understand why you only have one Base?
At least 2 or 3 Radar Bases are a must so can keep an Eye on what the Aliens are doing. If you had a Infiltrationmission in Europe then maybe there is a base there which you could attacl to keep your game going.

So the X-Com project was cancelled as per end of April 1999. And the final cut-scene was not the right one. I got instead the Brain level victory scene. See my attached last game. The nightly is git 2015-05-22 15:17.

I just checked in a vanilla game, it's a openxcom issue. I guess one of the Bugs from the recent changes so to say.
i filed a issue regarding this Issues 913.

EDIT: In general, the battlescape gameplay is good. The enemies are well balanced, I faced Sectoids and a large number of Cyberdisks in two separate terror missions. I'm glad the heavy rockets were in plenty supply.

Well you should be outnumbered by Aliens at least nearly 2 to 1, at least for everything bigger then a large Scout, but even those have a crew up to 16 on Superhuman difficulty.

EDIT2: The bad thing about the terror missions, is despite winning it with minimum casualties on my side, the large number of civilian deaths was enough to cause a negative score at the end of the battle.

I had quite some successful Terrormissions and the civilians, they die at least most of them, but it is a Terrormission so them dieing is logical.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2015, 10:53:20 pm by hellrazor »

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #125 on: May 24, 2015, 10:53:26 pm »
Well you should be outnumbered by Aliens at least nearly 2 to 1, at least for everything bigger then a large Scout, but even those have a crew up to 16 on Superhuman difficulty.
Isn't the idea in XCom that at the beginning, you are the underperforming, underarmed primitive species battling genetically modified, more advanced aliens that are way better than you and your only hope is that you have more manpower than them (since it is our planet and you can draft from all armies in the world; whereas they have to ship their soldiers across the stars or grow them in vats locally)?

That changes after you catch up tech-wise, of course, but I think the beginning was intended to be like that, with the end more equal where you take on even stronger aliens but are much stronger yourself, and the numbers sort of even out.

If the aliens always outnumber you, outgun you because they are more advanced, and outstat you because you're a mere human to their gene-enhanced soldiers, what's left? I guess you have tactics, but that's a tricky thing to rely on in a game against an AI that doesn't really fight as a team. And hoping your soldiers stay alive so they become so much better after a while, but then that takes away the "gene-bred monster" feel.

Not saying it's not an interesting twist, but it seemed to me like a departure from the original philosophy.

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #126 on: May 24, 2015, 11:02:24 pm »
Isn't the idea in XCom that at the beginning, you are the underperforming, underarmed primitive species battling genetically modified, more advanced aliens that are way better than you and your only hope is that you have more manpower than them (since it is our planet and you can draft from all armies in the world; whereas they have to ship their soldiers across the stars or grow them in vats locally)?

That changes after you catch up tech-wise, of course, but I think the beginning was intended to be like that, with the end more equal where you take on even stronger aliens but are much stronger yourself, and the numbers sort of even out.

Well if your working with 14 People in a Skyranger usually the aliens have the some or slighty more numbers. You will get a Better Transport as your first Craft useing UFO Tech, so you can bring up to 18 Soldiers per Mission.

If the aliens always outnumber you, outgun you because they are more advanced, and outstat you because you're a mere human to their gene-enhanced soldiers, what's left? I guess you have tactics, but that's a tricky thing to rely on in a game against an AI that doesn't really fight as a team. And hoping your soldiers stay alive so they become so much better after a while, but then that takes away the "gene-bred monster" feel.

Not saying it's not an interesting twist, but it seemed to me like a departure from the original philosophy.

Well you can't win this mod if you run aimlessly around and do zergling tactics with your soldiers. You will quickly run into morale issues and other stuff.
The Alien do have more Bravery so they panic less quickly and fight longer.

Offline Alex_D

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #127 on: May 25, 2015, 05:09:20 am »
Judgeing from the amount of activity you had Alien Infiltration Mission in Europe, this is logically causing a lot of activity. I do not understand why you only have one Base?
At least 2 or 3 Radar Bases are a must so can keep an Eye on what the Aliens are doing. If you had a Infiltrationmission in Europe then maybe there is a base there which you could attacl to keep your game going.
Yes, I was trying for the 1-base challenge, having completed it on another mode (Redux) on superhuman as well. It seems radar bases are a must for this mod to work, because patrolling just simply doesn't work.

I'm starting a new campaign on a lower difficulty level, to see what I get. I'm patching the game now to version 0.82

I just checked in a vanilla game, it's a openxcom issue. I guess one of the Bugs from the recent changes so to say.
i filed a issue regarding this Issues 913.
Thanks, that's what I figured out.

Well you should be outnumbered by Aliens at least nearly 2 to 1, at least for everything bigger then a large Scout, but even those have a crew up to 16 on Superhuman difficulty.
I had quite some successful Terrormissions and the civilians, they die at least most of them, but it is a Terrormission so them dieing is logical.
I don't mind them dying :) but the negative score far outweighs any positive score one gets by killing every alien.

EDIT: When we can start making STR_ALIEN_ALLOYS? I find, at a times, the looted supply starts to become pretty thin in the early game.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2015, 07:20:31 am by Alex_D »

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #128 on: May 25, 2015, 09:43:36 am »
Yes, I was trying for the 1-base challenge, having completed it on another mode (Redux) on superhuman as well. It seems radar bases are a must for this mod to work, because patrolling just simply doesn't work.

I guess the negative points you receive from Alien Missions being successful, did work against you. I doubt that someone is able to do a successful 1 Base Challenge on this.
Radar bases are needed so it seems.

I'm starting a new campaign on a lower difficulty level, to see what I get. I'm patching the game now to version 0.82
Thanks, that's what I figured out.

The lower difficulty well reduce the numbers of the alien crew, but will not effect which missions aliens do, because this is entirely random. Except Terrormissions which come every month.

I don't mind them dying :) but the negative score far outweighs any positive score one gets by killing every alien.

Well depends maybe it was because of Sectoids... but i had slightly positive results on those Terrormissions, and enough points to do not get negative 2 Months in a row, which is gameover.

EDIT: When we can start making STR_ALIEN_ALLOYS? I find, at a times, the looted supply starts to become pretty thin in the early game.
You will never be able to manufacture Alien Alloys. They are the same now as Elerium-115. A precious ressource.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2015, 09:45:21 am by hellrazor »

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #129 on: May 25, 2015, 06:44:30 pm »
Since this cutscene stuff brought some new changes, we need fixes ;)

Version 0.83
 - Fix Final Missions again due to changes in openxcom_git_master_2015_05_25_0957
 - Added one more Alien Leader to Labship (there was only one instead of 2...)

Modportal Link

Readme attached here

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #130 on: May 29, 2015, 03:05:52 pm »
Hi guys,

i made some more Variants of the Excavator Ship. The differences are only how the interior is setup, and turned Versions.
See attached Pictures:

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #131 on: May 29, 2015, 03:09:19 pm »
Some more Excavator Variants:

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #132 on: May 29, 2015, 03:10:42 pm »
After i spend some time fixing some minor Bugs,
i decided to add some more content, which i hope you will appriciate:

Version 0.84
 - Alien will now Pickup Weapon after panic
 - Fix wrong asigned Damage Modifier for Muton Elites
 - Fix HandOb assignment for Elerium Rocket
 - Remove Blaster Launchers from LabShip Deployment
 - Adjust alienItemLevels for more endgame varienty
 - Slight redesign of UBASE_2c
 - Fix Map tile issue on New Fighter Map
 - Removed Double Power Sources on New Fighter Map
 - Added Expanded Terror from luke83, resized Maps and removed Cellars
 - Added 3 more variants of the Excavater and turned Versions (8 Maps now)

Modportal Link

Readme attached here

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #133 on: May 29, 2015, 03:33:49 pm »
Regarding the Excavator: exactly what I needed. :)

Can you please attach them in one package to the FMP thread?

Offline hellrazor

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Re: [Beta][EXPANSION]Hardmode Expansion - Testplayers needed
« Reply #134 on: May 29, 2015, 03:39:30 pm »
Regarding the Excavator: exactly what I needed. :)

Can you please attach them in one package to the FMP thread?

I hope you do not mind the added UFO Power Source. Since your original Version didn't had one and it is kinda unlogical to have a UFO without Power Source right?

I can attach them towards the FMP thread if you like, but i will also include my modified original Version, so you have consistency.