Area 51 - General Feedback thread

[CDRom]

Yep no more assertion failed CTD with 11_5.

Got another new bug for ya now though...

Facility defense special mission, Edwards, Phaser alien armed with a ships freezer tray cannon lol. See pics attached. HWP leaves cover, sees Phaser, Phaser shoots at my HWP, explosions leave behind what looks like those tray objects in the freezer area of the cargo ship terror mission ha lol. They are there, can't drive though them.

I seem to becoming one of your best play testers brother Hobbes lol.

Edit, oh I have explosion damage levels set at 3 I believe.

[Hobbes]

Yep no more assertion failed CTD with 11_5.

Got another new bug for ya now though...

Facility defense special mission, Edwards, Phaser alien armed with a ships freezer tray cannon lol. See pics attached. HWP leaves cover, sees Phaser, Phaser shoots at my HWP, explosions leave behind what looks like those tray objects in the freezer area of the cargo ship terror mission ha lol. They are there, can't drive though them.

I seem to becoming one of your best play testers brother Hobbes lol.

Edit, oh I have explosion damage levels set at 3 I believe.

Wrong terrain setting

I've attached a quick fix this post. Just unzip it to the /TERRAINS folder of the Redux folder in /mods, thanks for the heads up

[Hobbes]

Today I finished designing and implementing version 0.8. Here's the change list:

* Reduced Sectopd and Cyberdisc vulnerability to incendiary ammo from 100 to 50 to reduce exploit.
* Several bug fixes: Terrain Pack, Geoscape, missing images, etc.
* Removed changes to Hypewave Decoder and Laser/Plasma Cannons and Fusion Ball Launcher, restoring the vanilla stats.
* New terrains added: Desert Plane, Polar Plane, Tundra Plane, Tundra Forest, Tundra Forest Mountain, Tundra Polar, Taiga Polar, Grassland Polar, Savanna Polar, Steppe Polar, Siberia, Complex YY-18, Alien Hive, Alien Colony and Storm Mountain.
* Reworked alien missions: new terrains have been split between Alien Facility Attack and Alien Subversion Overseer UFO missions. Alien Facility Attacks now consist of recovering/defending allied facility, while on Alien Subversion player attacks hostile facilities. Capturing Thin Men, Human Agents or recovering Data Disk 4 are no longer required to activate missions. Previous unique missions like Facility Extraction can now appear regularly.
* Reworked alien missions: reduced several special mission map sizes and reduced alien numbers on all the new missions to terror site equivalents.
* Reworked alien missions: added Alien Colony Assault, Outpost Defense, Facility Recover and Airfield Attack deployments.
* Reworked alien races: added Human crews for some of the Alien Subversion missions. Reworked race distribution in alien missions for more diversity and balance. Set all alienRaces to 12 ranks, regardless of if the additional ranks are used or not.
* Reworked alien missions: Area 51 mission moved to April for balance. Capture mission moved to January and terrain set to Complex. 
* Reworked Overseer UFO: all Overseer missions are now stopped by interrogating an Ethereal Commander. The previous requirement for Data Disk 5 and 6 have been removed.
* Fixed bug where the new UFO interiors would be removed. As a side effect it is not possible anymore to 'hug' the UFO exteriors as OXC allows.
* More civilian units added

As you may see, my intention was to simplify things and prevent the game from becoming repetitive. I'm going to do a few test play runs of the new terrains/missions and I should release 0.8 in the next days. I'm hoping that afterwards there won't be any major changes so that this expansion can be finally finished

[davide]

+100 

Only two question,

I compared mod files between Redux and FMP, I infer that Ufo maps are aligned.

Do you plan to add the new Ufos maps and fix on them made by Hellrazor ?

Do you plan to add new Alien base maps and fix made by Hellrazor on previous Luke's mod ?

Thanks

[Hobbes]

I compared mod files between Redux and FMP, I infer that Ufo maps are aligned.

Do you plan to add the new Ufos maps and fix on them made by Hellrazor ?

Do you mean the Fighter, Lab Ship, etc UFOs? If so, then I'm not planning at the moment to add those.

Do you plan to add new Alien base maps and fix made by Hellrazor on previous Luke's mod ?

Thanks

You mean the Alien Base Cave or the Expanded Alien Base maps? If so, I'm not planning to add them.

[davide]

Yes I referred to them both

There are some conflict to MCD sets that I do not recognized? 

[Hobbes]

Yes I referred to them both

There are some conflict to MCD sets that I do not recognized? 

No, I'm simply not interested in adding everything available.

[davide]

Ok, as you prefer

If there are not conflict,
I could try to add locally on my PC, some other complementary content
without upset gameplay to respect your sapient vision.

On IRC someone called you GOD of terrains ... or somethig else
 indeed it is right 

Apart from Piratez-Ex that is a whole new great game ,
In my opinion, 
before Redux,
FMP was a great first choice with huge new contents but probably some balance issues and flat storyboard
(I risk to say it because Solarious announce FMP+ that should  work out that)

In my opinion, 
today Redux  is a "must have" for openxcom.

but I do not want renounce    all works done from other very talent people before.











 

[Hobbes]

Ok, as you prefer

If there are not conflict,
I could try to add locally on my PC, some other complementary content
without upset gameplay to respect your sapient vision.

On IRC someone called you GOD of terrains ... or somethig else
 indeed it is right 

Apart from Piratez-Ex that is a whole new great game ,
In my opinion, 
before Redux,
FMP was a great first choice with huge new contents but probably some balance issues and flat storyboard
(I risk to say it because Solarious announce FMP+ that should  work out that)

In my opinion, 
today Redux  is a "must have" for openxcom.

but I do not want renounce    all works done from other very talent people before.

Like you said, you can add the terrain yourself and I'm not adding stuff that I'm not fond of. To me the maps of Expanded Base arent' that interesting for several reasons, such as the purple ground squares being used everywhere (what's that supposed to represent), maps with a ton of UFO Power Sources (and a ton of Elerium to the player), etc.

Redux will never satisfy everyone - nor it is its intention.

[davide]

Redux will never satisfy everyone - nor it is its intention.

I apologize, I did not want expresses an unfavorable opinion on your excellent work.

I will take cure of your suggestions about too many Power Source on Ufo maps (unbalance issue)
and I will recheck Expanded Base for estetical aspect.... indeed I do not like purple floor too

[hellrazor]

I apologize, I did not want expresses an unfavorable opinion on your excellent work.

I will take cure of your suggestions about too many Power Source on Ufo maps (unbalance issue)
and I will recheck Expanded Base for estetical aspect.... indeed I do not like purple floor too

The amount of Elerium-115 can be adjusted via ruleset for each powersource, if you are concerned about that.
OR you can manually place a Elerium-115 Item on the map, which currently disables the autospawn routine from Elerium-115 for each Power Source.

The Expanded UBASE Maps orientate themselves on the original Maps, i will add some more of course without those purple floors :>

[Hobbes]

I apologize, I did not want expresses an unfavorable opinion on your excellent work.

I will take cure of your suggestions about too many Power Source on Ufo maps (unbalance issue)
and I will recheck Expanded Base for estetical aspect.... indeed I do not like purple floor too

Oh, I try to pay more attention to criticisms than to compliments, since those are a lot more useful (but also harder to accept). I wouldn't have chosen the words you did though, but I also tried not to pay too much attention to that detail since there's always cultural differences and 9 of 10 times you should assume that the other person is well intended despite his words

I already posted before about the issue at hand, which is my personal criteria for terrains, and I acknowledge that I'm very strict about them but this is because most mods you change one thing or two and I really want to go beyond that. One of the new terrains that is coming for 0.8 is Alien Hive, which was my first terrain ever developed but that I never included on the Terrain Pack/Redux because although it is a good idea it was poorly implemented 10 years ago. I'm very strict with all terrains but this comes from how I design my own terrains, and if I don't make concessions to myself on the latter, then I shouldn't on the former, unless there's a really good reason.

The amount of Elerium-115 can be adjusted via ruleset for each powersource, if you are concerned about that.

Yeah, but changes to the amount of Elerium will affect all UFO maps, so this solution isn't acceptable.

OR you can manually place a Elerium-115 Item on the map, which currently disables the autospawn routine from Elerium-115 for each Power Source.

I didn't knew about this mechanic and I'm suspecting it might be related to the UFO Power Sources spawning without Elerium. There was recently a post on the XCom subreddit about Elerium not appearing in the recovery, and the poster was using Luke's UFO mod, which Redux incorporates. The issue is that this mechanic isn't used on Luke's mod.

The Expanded UBASE Maps orientate themselves on the original Maps, i will add some more of course without those purple floors :>

The Expanded UBASE needs a complete overhaul. I like the general design of most map blocks but aesthetically and functionally they need to look and function better (purple floors, excess of UFO Power Sources, too many sliding doors, those unused Brain vats). Expanded UBASE is ok for a stand alone mod, but for Redux it needs to be better, and since I already got 2 new Alien Base terrains coming for 0.8, I don't really feel that it stands up to these two terrains. 

[hellrazor]

Yeah, but changes to the amount of Elerium will affect all UFO maps, so this solution isn't acceptable.

Well right if you wanna stick with the vanilla values, then of course not. I was only pointing it out.

I didn't knew about this mechanic and I'm suspecting it might be related to the UFO Power Sources spawning without Elerium. There was recently a post on the XCom subreddit about Elerium not appearing in the recovery, and the poster was using Luke's UFO mod, which Redux incorporates. The issue is that this mechanic isn't used on Luke's mod.

The Expanded UBASE needs a complete overhaul. I like the general design of most map blocks but aesthetically and functionally they need to look and function better (purple floors, excess of UFO Power Sources, too many sliding doors, those unused Brain vats). Expanded UBASE is ok for a stand alone mod, but for Redux it needs to be better, and since I already got 2 new Alien Base terrains coming for 0.8, I don't really feel that it stands up to these two terrains.

Again a overhaul? I already overworked all of the maps, fixing bugs etc.., and the general scheme orientates itself on the vanilla modules, even thou the amount of purple floors coould be reduced of course, even thou they are a lightsource (in the vanilla MCD file), so putting them in some modules increases visibility a little bit, but that isn't that much needed. There are some modules which do have many Power Sources indeed, for example the Small Scout map Modules which has 4, i guess this could be redesigned and reduced to 1 or maybe 2. Also the Mapscript i made makes sure that only 1 20x20 map module having power sources spawns ever, so you do not get flooded.
Well and the slidedoors make total sense for a base. I do no know were there could be to many of them, i tried to limit the usage of them while designing my version of the clone lab.

Hobbes, if you have any Ideas what to change make better, or do have suggestions, let me know here.

[GrossorMD]

Dumb question: is there any reason to use the LMG over the SMG? Or the handgun over the SMG?

It seems to me the increased damage of the LMG is trivial considering the SMG has (strangely) more ammo and is one handed.

Versus the handgun... it's basically a full auto handgun... and it's cheaper

Is there something I am missing?

[Hobbes]

Dumb question: is there any reason to use the LMG over the SMG? Or the handgun over the SMG?

It seems to me the increased damage of the LMG is trivial considering the SMG has (strangely) more ammo and is one handed.

Versus the handgun... it's basically a full auto handgun... and it's cheaper

Is there something I am missing?

The increased damage of the LMG is not so trivial if you start encountering Waspites at the start of the game since those things are tough to kill but you got a point with the SMG. I'm going to reduce its ammo clip to 24 and increase its TU cost.

Weight and rookie's overall low strength. LMG (12) & belt (5) are heavier than Machine Pistol (7) and clip (3), so a 25 strength rookie can only carry 1 LMG and 2 ammo Same applies to the pistol (5) ab