Suggestions on how to improve the mod

[Loengrinn]

I for one feel like the game is well-balanced.  The only problem I have is research being gated with semi-unclear requirements as to what unlocks the next set.  Obviously, working with an old game there are certain limitations to what hints you can give, or make apparent.  And this is not even a complaint, exactly, it's a minor frustration that is greatly overshadowed by the rest of the genius work this mod is.

Improving on this mod is probably going to be difficult.  I only play on difficulty 1 and savescum because I'm not terribly good at this game, and RNGesus seriously hates me SO much.  I would like to thank all of you guys that are involved in this project and that have contributed.  As something that originally just caught my interest and made think I'd spend a few hours messing around with it, this game has consumed almost all of my playtime for the last 2 weeks.

[Yglorba]

I recommend you play on at least difficulty 2.  The lowest difficulty, in X-Com, halves the armor of all enemies, which dramatically changes gameplay and defeats the purpose of many enemies, weapons, tactics, etc.

[Meridian]

*Mind-Blown*  I love this!  Meridian??? is this possible?? That would be terrific!

Done.
SELL button will be visible on the LOOT screen,
You'll get the standard SELL screen, but only with items from the LOOT screen.
Storage limits are not enforced at that point.
Once you do a deal, you can't go to SELL screen again. If you cancel, you can still return.
To select all items (resp. all items of a certain category), press X (or whatever hotkey you have for "clear inventory").
Screenshots attached.

[Arthanor]

Awesome! Now we can get rid of new stuff without having to try to find it amongst all the old stuff! That's great!

Looking forward to the update on gitHub to recompile with that and the bug fix for the advanced scanner..!

That's going to make life so much easier!

[Hazard]

This is more of general OpenXcom suggestion, and maybe it's been talked about before, but I'd really like to see shortcuts for aimed, snap and auto shots.

[AncientSion]

Yay, Key shortcuts would be a huge QoL improvment

[superschokokeks]

@Loengrinn Watch Meridian let's play and you'll learn some tricks (And he has his viewers as avatar-gals )

I suggest playing on 2, too and stop save scumming. Save scumming prevents you to learn and you make the same mistakes again and again.
The real fun lies in encounter new enemies and figure out how to beat them. Difficulty 1 and save scumming prevent this too

At the end a game should make fun, so play like you want and have the most fun out of it

[Loengrinn]

For the most part, the reason I play the way I do is to see how things work.  At this point it's mostly to learn about the tech tree and the requirements to get past certain points in it.  It's the only limiting factor I still have at this point.  Once I'm more familiar with what it takes to get certain technologies, I plan on going back and playing at a higher difficulty without cheesing, but right now it's simply to avoid frustration while learning key things.

[Meridian]

Yay, Key shortcuts would be a huge QoL improvment

Can you add more details on how should it work exactly?

- Is the shortcut for "Aim" always the same (e.g. "A")... or is it variable (e.g. "1", if it is the first item in the list)?
- Do you first need to open the weapon action menu ("Q" and "E" already)... or do you want separate direct hotkeys for "left hand weapon aimed shot" and "right hand weapon aimed shot"?
- Should it work also for other actions than aim, snap and auto? E.g. hit (melee), prime, throw, execute, launch, use (medikit/mind probe), panic and mind control? If yes, what should be the hotkeys?
- Do you want hotkeys configurable?
- Which hotkey defaults do you recommend?

- Are you people even using hotkeys in battlescape? Because I'm not...

[legionof1]

I rarely use the hotkeys that already exist but i can see the use of direct shortcuts to common actions.

I would prefer actions tied to fixed keys. A for aimed. S for snap. T for throw. or whatever keys seem most useful. Rebind would be a nice feature but shortcuts first.

[Arthanor]

I'm the opposite:

First open the action menu for the item using q or e.
Then press 1 2 3 etc. to select the 1st 2nd 3rd etc. item from the menu, counting from the top.

Things appear in a specific order already, and conviniently the number keys are all close to q and e.

[AncientSion]

Can you add more details on how should it work exactly?

- Is the shortcut for "Aim" always the same (e.g. "A")... or is it variable (e.g. "1", if it is the first item in the list)?
- Do you first need to open the weapon action menu ("Q" and "E" already)... or do you want separate direct hotkeys for "left hand weapon aimed shot" and "right hand weapon aimed shot"?
- Should it work also for other actions than aim, snap and auto? E.g. hit (melee), prime, throw, execute, launch, use (medikit/mind probe), panic and mind control? If yes, what should be the hotkeys?
- Do you want hotkeys configurable?
- Which hotkey defaults do you recommend?

- Are you people even using hotkeys in battlescape? Because I'm not...

I dont use hotkeys, but i definitly would if i could instantly get the aiming Icon to Show up upon hitting a key.
Something like 1/2/3 for aimed/snap/Auto would be interesting, maybe for left Hand and 9/8/7 for right Hand weapons.
Having them being customizeable via a menu would be even better.

Another example could be Q and E to select left or right Hand, and then 1/2/3 to immediatly Switch to targeting mode. I would definitly use it.

[Dioxine]

You'd rather need 1...5 for left hand, 6...0 for right hand (up to 5 action modes are possible at the same time, including throw). 1,2,3 could be fire modes/item uses, 4- melee attack, 5 - throw (repeated for 6...0). Two-step idea I don't like, although 1...10 should work even if the tab has been opened already. The most useful key so far is 'r' for reload IMO

And custom key bindings are IMO very important. At least that allows to check IF there is any hotkey for an action present; secret hotkeys are not fun at all.

[Dioxine]

Let's make a short table, actually. 4 will always be melee, 5-throw.

Item..........................1................2...............3
t.1 (gun).............Aimed...........Snap..........Auto
t.2 (ammo)...........Load...............???............???
t.3 (melee)..............???..............???............???
t.4/5 (nades)........Prime..............???.....Unprime
t.6 (med)......Quick Heal...Quick Stim.....Quick PK
t.7/8 (scan, probe)...Use..............???............???
t.9 (psi)................Panic..............MC............???
t.10 (flare)..............???..............???............???
t.11 (corpse)...........???..............???............???
empty hand.........punch.............kick.........bite:)

[Hazard]

Personally, I'd prefer shortcuts that instantly bring up the targeting cursor. I'm pretty sure shooting is the most common activity right after moving, so the faster it is, the smoother the gameplay. The keys should also absolutely be configurable. For example, I always change camera controls to WASD because the arrow keys are much further away from the other common shortcuts.

IMHO, Jagged Alliance 2 does targeting very well: moving the cursor on an enemy brings up the targeting reticle, and you can then spend more APs to aim longer/better. So in OpenXcom, a button to cycle through the fire modes. That's probably a lot more complicated to implement, though.