Still, what would I do? Add 10 HP to all Red Dawn people across the board?
1) This would make them significantly harder, and they're already the most difficult cult from the starting 4 (at least in my view) due to their sniper/spotter specialization.
Hmm, I get the problem. Well, I myself did exactly that, gave RD 10-20 extra HP across the board. But I also nerfed sniping
a lot, for everyone. Because I really dislike it as a general-use concept, especially due to the "I spot whoever hits me!" thing.
Maybe remove sniping from the lowest-level RD dudes, at least Gangers and possibly also Lads? Or reduce their sniper values so they won't be sniping a lot.
I do get that it's kind of a lot of rebalancing for something that's not such a great deal in the grand scheme of things.
2) I would have to give the same buff to enhanced X-Com agents. Not a game breaker, but +25 HP is perhaps too much at once.
Yeah.
3) It would logically require adding the same buff to many other enemies from some later organizations like the MiB, the Syndicate, the UAC... All these have access to biotech at a level equal to or surpassing Red Dawn's, so it would also buff them. Not sure if it's okay, but maybe.
Who says they want to use said biotech in exactly the same way (+HP steroids instead of weapon grafts, mind-machine interfaces, combat drugs, etc)? The Syndicate Supersoldiers and Minotaurs, okay. These are already pretty tough, and another 10-15 HP wouldn't make them all that much tougher. The others are mercs/hired goons for the most part, no need to feed the temps the good juice.
MiB guys are actually pretty wimpy HP-wise. I wouldn't mind the more advanced versions getting some steroids.
The UAC Space Marines could get a boost, too. Memetic Doomguy toughness, you know.
Sorry if it came off as rude, that wasn't my intention. But if you point out an error after literally years of everything being a-okay, I think I'm justified in being a little sceptical.
Okay, fair enough.
What am I supposed to answer? It's like a geologist shown up one day and started berating me for rocks in the desert being the wrong colour. I am all for realism when possible, but I am not omniscient and this is a game.
Well, the difference is that the rocks are incidental and the game would be little different if all the rocks suddenly disappeared from the game. Or changed colour to iridescent pink across the board, and were renamed to 'ancient silicoids'.
Not so with the guns.
I get that 'realism' is virtually always trumped by gameplay, but in this case the differences are marginal (research gun names, appearances and (pop) history before you put them in the game).
On a personal level, during 42 years of my life and having lived in several countries across Europe, I've never met these types of people you mentioned and I won't pretend to be particularly concerned about their needs. To me they are an exotic internet phenomena like all the weird crap you see on the net.
So are people who play e-sports, people who like pixel graphics, people who play old-school X-Com, professional geologists...
If you don't care about any of them, why are you using RL guns as a basis? You could have just used generic names for most things, kind of like Piratez does for a lot of its weapons. Or even how you have a 'Colt .45' in the game that's a pretty blatant expy of an M1911.
Dude, I had no idea 'gun porn' was a thing. How was I supposed to expect something like this?
Squad-level tactical games are one of two genres that attract gun porn like honey.
Technical reasons. I tried changing this once or twice, and dropped due to being too involved.
What's so involved about that? I made some hostile female farmers with little trouble. Granted, you can't research them, but that's not all that much more work.
I'm not insisting, though. I just wanted some visual variety during the mission.
Since the author is unknown, I'll credit you as the sprite provider, OK?
I don't really care about credits. Do as you wish. I
might have recoloured this from some other fist weapon. Possibly from Piratez? It's been several years, at least.
Hmm, I guess I could give them their own motion scanner analogue.
Yay!
It's just a green finishing on their backpack. Not on the face level and more clearly visible from other angles.
The other angles are fine, it's a thin line there. But the back view is pretty much the same size as their visor from the front. I actually had trouble telling which way the guy was facing because of this and the weapon sprite looking very similar on both ends. The only real hint was the legs.
You know, I'm not against this!
I assume you can recolour the Piratez sprite on your own? I did notice that these guys need the 'Muton' drawingroutine, or pistols will look bad.
I kinda thought about them replacing the Coordinators, since those guys share their paperdoll with the maniacs, and look a bit too edgy overall. But I don't think a giant telnyashka-clad dude qualifies as top dog, either.
That reminds me, you never said anything about the red Salamandrons. I guess they didn't pan out?
Yeah, that's a bit more realistic.
I'm sure the red-headed bitch will have something against regular Reapers, too. :'(
Edit... uh, Edit2! Yeah! Definitely Edit2.
Psiclones seem to be excessibely rare these days before getting rid of EXALT, while there are several uses for those.
Also, the way a lot of (mainly melee) weapons scale with stats makes highly leveled agents
ridiculously effective. A baseball bat is a weapon of mass destruction far better than a high-caliber rifle now.
Edit3: As much as I liked the Hacienda, I hate the Syndicate HQ. A more dirty version of the BL base does not really do it for me. Also, it's full of Supersoldiers, Minotaurs and... dogs. Plain ole dogs. Not a Bloodhound in sight.
It's also nominally an inflitration mission, but you get to bring all your HMGs, rocket launchers, mortars and other 'pocket' devices of doom.
BTW, what happened to the original RD base map? Haven't seen it anywhere this time around.
Edit4: Upon reflection, I quite dislike how the Syndicate arc goes out with a whimper instead of a bang. To wit:
- The final mission has me fight the same old enemies on the same old map, it's just that these particular fellows haven't been paired with this map before. And the map looks... not as good as the BL version.
- The 'final message' is kinda insulting. X-Com has been doing exactly that the entire game so far. It's almost on the level of "Okay, I'll take my toys out of the sandbox and go home, then. Remember to kick your father in the balls when he comes to collect you or I'll be back with a dog tomorrow." Not quite, but close.
- While I believe not everything has to be explained, and the contortionist CEO dudes can be left as a mystery... It still leaves it entirely open why Syndicate the organisation suddenly stops doing all the illicit shit they've been doing. It's perfectly in-character for them to continue even when a secretive cabal is no longer pulling their strings. But they just suddenly drop off the map.
- I also dislike that the 'giant eye' dudes are something as mundane as bio-enchancement and not actual alien infiltrators, but that's more of a matter of personal taste than the other three.
Edit6: Are nooses supposed to kill people? The 0.2 health multiplier and the general x4 choke damage multiplier mean it's doing ~80% HP damage, comparable to baseball bats and other dangerous stun weapons.
Edit7: Not sure if it's intended, but Deep One villages/trading posts and Embassies of T'Leth still use the tiny sub when I've unlocked the Trident and raided the Underwater City, but haven't progressed beyond that yet.
Edit: Are these Dagon (skid?!) marks?
The fumes seem pretty strong...
Edit5: When you absolutely
need to hit that target.