Well, it certainly makes game harder. Slowed research leads to one interesting problem.
I so don't want to sell it, but it filled all my stores already.
And also I noticed some enemies carry melee weapons now. Honestly, I think that's kinda stupid. I don't think Muton'd like to have plasma blade instead of heavy plasma, they just make (almost) easy targets of themselves. Although it's kinda funny when they sneak behind you and chop you.
Well i am well aware of the amounts of Elerium-115 you are able to gather. The issue is, as soon as you start interrogating Alien Engineers or Navigators, you will get additional Alienmissions next month (this is limited to a maximum of 2 additional Missions per Month). I am currently only pulling in vanilla missions, which leads to a increased amount of UFO's which is basically twice as high as in vanilla. This will change in the future, since i will replace those additional Vanilla Missions with Missions from Hobbes Redux and some of my own stuff. Even thou you actually do not have trouble to gather enough Elerium-115 or even Alien Alloys ingame, especially if you Raid a Alien Base Supply Ships.
For my next release i did reduce the amount of Elerium-115 per Power Source further from 35 to 25, i also managed to reduce the amount of Alien Alloys you recieve from UFO's by an average of 37%. Considering that the amount of UFO's you encounter will also be reduced in the future (changes in missionstructure). Things should get thight (or maybe need further adjustment).
Do not underestimate the Aliens equipt with Melee Weapons, they are incredible dangerous in close quarters, since 1 Hit even from a Sectoid (which has the lowest Str and Melee Accuracy of the aliens) can instantly kill your Soldiers, if they hit. Aliens like Mutons, which are physically strong do have a very high accuracy to hit with the Plasma Sword and Plasma Blade, they do additional Damage because their Str is added towards the weapons damage. Tanks are also at a high risk, since they can also be instantly killed by them. In open terrain they are still dangerous, since the only ranged attack they do have are Alien Grenades (basically they are TFTD Technicians, carring drills and grenades). I may need to optimiz the spawns for them, so they are more likely to spawn inside the UFO, instead in the open field.
Actually, Mutons seem well-suited for melee combat, since they're so hard to kill and therefore able to get close. But it only makes sense if 1) melee weapons have very reliable damage, 2) melee weapons are fast, 3) the battlescape has little open areas for long range combat. Otherwise, yeah, not much sense.
1.) They do have reliable damage
2.) They are kinda, Human Melee Weapons do have a precentage TU usage of 25%, Alien melee weapons do have a flatrate TU cost of 20 TU's, which lets enemies like Mutons and Gazers easily attack you twice each turn if they can close in on you (Muton Elites and Muton Elite Guards can attack maximum of 3 and 4 times respectivly).
3.) Well open terrain of course cuts down the usefullness of Melee weapons, but any Urban setting or the insides of caves, UFO's and buildings still pose a significant threat.
I will definitly change the percentage of them to have a higher likebility to spawn on the inside of the UFO's.
EDIT: I also reworked all of the 117 current UFO Maps in my Mod, to prevent stuff like
this. The effect is the same as with
Lukes Dark Ufos.
I hope you will like it, as soon as i release the next Version.