[UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod

[Hadriex]

Played X-com for the first time recently and this is the first modpack I've tried. I streamed my experiences with it here if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSQLREUw9vwl0v77beBcxvn2lXK-3TqEn

btw, fantastic work everyone involved with this. I'll give a summery of my thoughts on it after I've seen everything and reached mars. But what I've seen so far it's great stuff, fixed most of my complaints about the base game. And added more.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I'm so excited to watch your let's play! I've gone through the first episode and it's a lot of fun watching you play! I had intended the Veteran difficulty setting to be about as hard as Veteran in vanilla, but you're not the only one who says it's a lot harder. Also, there are shortcuts for loading your troops faster or saving and loading entire equipment setups. There are lots of shortcuts for all sorts of things! You can ask on Discord to get some help finding them. And I'd recommend finding the setting to see your soldiers' strength in the equip screen. Your soldiers are way overloaded and can barely move!

I'm sorry for not doing this sooner, but I finally fixed the back doors on the Custodian. I didn't know how to do it until about last year, but I should have fixed this craft earlier I suppose. It looks a little funny but should work much better now!

[Salt Factory]

Wait, so you're telling me all the deaths I took because custodian doors are always open and my tactic of smoking the doors wasn't intended? Well gee! (just joking) keep up the great work.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Wait, so you're telling me all the deaths I took because custodian doors are always open and my tactic of smoking the doors wasn't intended?

There are other unintended "features", such as the aliens handing you mutons too fast or the sectoid leader deep inside the ship seemingly being able to see your troops through walls. They are in the mod because I had not been able to solve them in the past. My skills as a modder have improved over time, and so I'm gradually reviewing my mod. I plan to make a few updates to fix a few things that bug me. It might make it easier overall but hopefully not too much easier. For example, the door fix I just uploaded will prevent the aliens from shooting into your ship during their turn, but you'll still have them shooting into your ship during your turn, and it'll be your fault for opening the door to let them do it.

[Salt Factory]

I noticed that, but I assumed  the early Mutons were for the difficulty and I personally like the "oh crap" moment when you first encounter them with nothing but lasers and kevlar. Then you get psi amps and crush them. Although even with max psi skill time unit and strength psi ops most aliens were a tough nut to crack with psi, I only ever managed to mind control 2 chryssalids on cydonia some floaters and every muton that came my way in the late game. Sectoids and Ethereals were practically immune where as in vanilla no alien is safe.

In other news I decided to now come back into this after about a week and a half break and beat genius. Was definitely an extra kick but with the knowledge from veteran I was able to beat it on my 2nd try. More and more I love the air battles as constant terror ships bombard the skies trying to infiltrate countries and having strong long range defenses. I lost some marauders shooting them down in 3v1 engagements but it sure was worth it. Only lost 3 countries this time. And with 10 fusion rockets the Sectopods on Cydonia never got to use their added armor from genius. Looking at the alien stats on superhuman has me terrified, but that's the point. See you after my first superhuman run and thanks for the mod as always.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

See you after my first superhuman run and thanks for the mod as always.

I look forward to hearing about it! Good luck! (You're going to need it!)

I noticed that, but I assumed  the early Mutons were for the difficulty and I personally like the "oh crap" moment when you first encounter them with nothing but lasers and kevlar.

I like that, too. If I could balance it perfectly, I'd try to make the player fight Mutons for the first time with second-tier technology (such as lasers). But one of the problems is when players are stuck fighting them with first-tier (starter) technology. It's certainly possible to beat them with first-tier, but can be unreasonably difficult. So my ultimate goal is to balance the user into meeting them at second-tier as much as possible. It'll help me to hear reports like this from players, so thanks for that! I'm hearing players meeting them both at first and second tier, but so far usually second so that's pretty good. I might push Mutons back just one month, but I want to hear from as many people as possible to set it carefully.

[Hadriex]

Had a blast with this mod. Gave my thoughts at the end, mostly positive. Also, wow, doors for the custodian makes me super happy I'll be sure to mention it to everyone.

-Note. I never did see the heracles. Also it might be good to add alien entertainment to the supply ships.

[Salt Factory]

Oh ok those cyberdiscs on the first terror mission packed a bigger punch and more armor than I thought they would. HE directly on them and Heavy Cannon Incendiary rounds fired into them 5 times wasn't enough to take one out. Superhuman campaign #2 begins!

EDIT: 8 cyberdiscs on the first terror mission? They only take damage from tank cannon shells and heavy cannon incendiary rounds. How did I survive that? Almost like I'm waging war against a highly advanced alien species far ahead of human technology or something. Time for some of my troops to hold a spare heavy cannon clip for the snipers...

[The Reaver of Darkness]

EDIT: 8 cyberdiscs on the first terror mission? They only take damage from tank cannon shells and heavy cannon incendiary rounds. How did I survive that? Almost like I'm waging war against a highly advanced alien species far ahead of human technology or something. Time for some of my troops to hold a spare heavy cannon clip for the snipers...

Try rocket launchers!

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Version 1.3.1 is out! This version fixes several of the issues I discovered while watching Hadriex's stream, and also brings in a few changes from the upcoming mod. The largest changes are that you'll have more money, aliens won't do as much psionics, and you can now get alien entertainment from Abductors. I've also incorporated Luke's UFOs into the mod--this means you no longer need his mod running to get the full array of alien craft.

Overall, these changes should make the game easier, but it should also put it more in line with the way I originally intended it to be.

Important note: For version 1.3.1, soldiers' minimum psionic strength was increased to 30. Already existing soldiers recruited in prior versions will not have their psionic strength changed. You can use the psi lab to check their psionic strength. Any soldier with less than 20 psionic strength will be extremely prone to psionic attacks and should not be brought along on missions with psionic aliens.

[Salt Factory]

Oh I tried before, and they don't do any damage. The cyberdisc has an explosive resistance modifier, and the incendiary rocket does about as much damage as the heavy cannon shot. Only it takes more time units to use. I'm not complaining, I love this. These "alien armored vehicles" are like actual tanks. 

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Hmm, yes, it seems the cyberdisc takes less damage than I expected. It takes some, but not enough to be effective.

Big alien tanks then. Good luck. You're gonna need it! >: )

[Salt Factory]

Wait a minute, the floater doesn't die in 1 shot to a laser rifle? Oh no these reapers are actually scary when there's 10 of them right outside the custodian. Oh no my funding died...

Campaign #3 begins!

[Hadriex]

So, I've been playing Terror from the Deep (vanilla) and it just makes me appreciate your mod all the more. (especially the tanks, I bought a mobile weapon platform, thought it looked cool and it moved one tile before being blown up.) This happened more then once.

Seriously, game is savage. And I miss so many things like arcing autocannons and rapid-fire plasma. sigh.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Glad to hear it! I'm watching your new livestream. Perhaps some day in the distant future I'll make a TFTD mod.