Hello Juku, thanks for the input!
Yes, I am mostly aware how, well,
alpha the mod is. I think I'm at least a year away from actually
beginning to smoothing things up. Therefore all feedback is critical.
Let me address each point separately.
all HWPs have two weapons, a cannon or rocket launcher and corresponding automatic weapon,
Yes, or possibly something else, like a motion scanner. I haven't tackled it much yet.
there's a line of alloy HWPs to go with Personal Armor,
Maybe. The problem is that it would effectively double the amount of HWPs in the game, making all lists even more exceedingly long. I don't really know what to do.
different armors and HWPs have different icons in the craft equip screen a la Piratez,
Will certainly happen at some point.
an overhaul of faction and alien equipment (everyone has somewhat standardized loadouts) + some YML "copy-paste" to avoid mind-numbing repetitions,
I'm not sure what you mean. I'm trying to assign (mostly) separate armories to various factions already.
several corrections and additions in the UFOPedia articles,
Yeah, well... I'm trying
a couple of changes to psionics: there's now a dedicated psionic armor, an upgraded X-Com "flame glove" and three tiers of Psi-Amps,
I'm not really crazy about psi armours at the moment, because how would they help? The theory is pretty vague. There
is a link between psionics and technology, as proven by the existence of the Psi-Amp, but I'd need a good theoretical base first.
Nevertheless, I'm certainly up for discussion.
somewhat more fleshed out weapon families, including a second tier of most explosives (Fusion land mine, extra-powerful smoke grenades etc), a full family of dart weapons, various types of grenade launchers (and a mortar) instead of the HC and AC, and so on,
Possibly. It's a matter of only adding weapons that are at least a little different, otherwise it's a endless gun porn hell (if there is something like a porn hell).
Some suggestions would be appreciated.
a biowarfare program piggybacked on the dart weapons, including a chemical warhead for most explosive-style weapons (rockets, grenade launchers, hand grenades),
Would be nice, but I'm postponing such ideas for now because 1) I'm doing other stuff, 2) I'm hoping for some engine improvements to better reflect such weapons.
several tiers of agents, starting with the usual types and going through SF specialists with higher minimum stats and two or three slightly raised maximums to Psi-soldiers (same, but focus on the two psi-stats),
But this is already happening, your agent starts as a nobody and advances to an almost godlike status.
I understand you would like tiers of agents to recruit, but I'm not sure why.
severely limited funding (you start with 1M and grow from there),
I'm hoping to balance it better.
more nations and cities (mostly from the Improved Nations mod),
It's already somewhat improved. Drawing borders is a bitch though, and such mods merge poorly.
a number of new facilities, mostly 2x2 (a global radar, 250-engineer workshop, etc) and stolen/modified from XOps,
Possibly, with time.
Alien Containment is delayed after Alien Biology and terrestrial enemies take up storage space instead of containment cells (there's a bug/feature that makes interrogations require 1 space in the Alien Containment, no matter whether the critter itself does, so it's not perfect),
If the code allows, sure. Ideally I'd like three types of "prison": for aliens, for humans and for animal-like creatures.
the Gym is restyled as a psionic training facility (and thus delayed to the later stages of the game), since daily stat growths are quite ... astronomical,
Maybe I'll make it a bit weaker. Not an easy decision.
fully recolored corpses for the recolored aliens (Snakemen in particular),
When I got to the smoothing phase I mentioned.
psionics (including higher-tier Psi-Amps, psi-armor, psionic 'gym' and the like) is tiered behind five prerequisites, unlocked by capturing and interrogating successive tiers of psionic aliens (Sectoid -> Cerebral -> Ethereal -> high-ranking Ethereals -> Ethereal Order),
There are also other psionic beings in the mod, so I wouldn't just go there yet. But yes, I plan to have several distinct branches of psionics, from different sources and with various effects. (More or less the
Piratez way.)
doubled research times,
Maybe for later techs.
the appearance of alien races is spread over a two-year period, with usually three months allocated to a new arrival, but that's far from ironclad, and works well enough due to the increased research times, all the new terrestrial tech to unlock and lowered council funding,
Possibly. It depends on how it's balanced against other elements of the game. For now, I just think it's too early, since most factions and arcs aren't in the game yet.
MiB and hybrids use the same 'terror' mission model as the cultists, instead of the fake UFOs they used to travel in,
Yes, it's planned. The current implementation is from a long ago when it wasn't possible.
a balance pass at aircraft, featuring an implementation of the embryonic non-weapon equipment in Solarius's files (so you can put an improved radar suite on the Skywarden or reinforce the airframe of the Raven even further with alloys) and more,
Yeah, I have a number of craft mods half-coded in already.
all Hybrid installations (not convoys), cult bases and HQ's and every EXALT mission is now an infiltration mission; you haven't experienced true pain unless you've gone through a dozen ninjas using only leather attire, handguns and SMGs;
I think it's going too far, most players wouldn't want that. But I promise there will be more infilration missions, mostly related to The Syndicate (an evil corporation to be introduced when I'm done with the Cyberweb).
a solution to the 'Major League Baseball pitchers' problem: everyone has severely limited strength (soldiers top out at 30+x, with x depending on the blessings of the RNG), but all armors grant you up to 50 'free' weight points, so grenade ranges are much more realistic now,
That's a bit hackish and would be confusing for many players. I'd rather tweak the grenades themselves.
a slight change to inventory: backpack is 3x4, and belt is 2x2 + 1 + 1x2, but you can no longer use shoulders or left leg for 2x1 items (right leg still works),
It will depend on armour worn.
and more, including quite probably a number of bugs I haven't caught, since I've only made it to July 1999 so far.
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Many thanks!
