[TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.62)

[Shiroi Bara]

Hello again. A few save files which represent strange behavior for me.
1. Stunned shrimp drone by abyssal. Is this normal?
2. Panic guy by some worm attack. Aquanaut has 100% resistance to MC and 50 brave. Is this ok?
3. Can't finish terror mission (bug save file) with shagoth if it slept. Only if I re-stun it in debug mode or kill it.
Some other words and thoughts:
Enhanced aquatoids still has big MC skills. But USOpeadia says "significant" MC skills loss. Should they nerfed more?
Player can build latest base protection defenses (PWTs) before he even research his  own sonic weapon manufacture and sonic defenses. Unlogical right? Easy early access to distruptor pulse launcher (and craft torpedoes) too as well as to thermal shock launcher.
Repair rate of alien based subs (hammerhead, manta) way too slow. Using hybrid subs almost useless because player can build manta instead. May be better change some research requirements for it? Plus some hybrid subs has low distance range on globe like barracuda which not great too. End-game medics has no bonus articles about shagoth corpse and life form. Getting life bio-drone and oct is pain in the ass. Can we have dependencies instead of life forms to just it's USOpeadia articles like it's done for hallucinoid corpse article which unlocks thermal tazers? This will require hunt and capture a lot of end game medics, but eventually player can unlock both requirements for advanced MC and sonic production instead of waiting random spawn terror land mission with shark or crab aliens or underwater shark guys with very large USOs for octs. On base defense missions player can't use abyssal weaponry which looks logical but can use other underwater x-com equipment (not tested 100% it I might be wrong here). Difficulty of SH tasoth guardians is insane and make almost impossible to play important ancient alien dungeons 2nd level mission in Iron Man mode. It's still beatable when reloading anyway.
Some ideas about adding underwater stun grenades to help capture life aliens and maybe same stun grenade with proximity effect like normal proxy grenades which already exists.
P.S.
I will try do some adjustments in new version of my QoL for TWoTS minimod, but need test it first before I decide to publish it again (currently old outdated version is hidden in mod portal) but will glad hear Nord's commentary and explanation about current 2.61 status before.

[Nord]

hat's a lot of things to think about. Thanks. I'll try to find some time for this, but not in this month.

[psavola]

I have some made similar observations in the past I think. I have also encountered and reported problems 1) and 2). I think Nord's response was that this is intended - at least for 2) i.e. MC shielding is not actually complete resistance to MC. You also need to prepare for the eventuality of MC-shielded aquanauts being MC'd (at least paniced - don't keep a destructive weapon like DPL on your hands) in T'Leth first stage with all the Freak commanders.

Just a couple of comments on a few observations:

- Enhanced Aquatoid MC skills. They are tough to the point that it that it is near impossible to even try to tackle underwater lab mission and capture the navigator without MC shielding. But this may be intentional. This just results in having to grind for example Naga temple/city multiple times to get enough implants before you can progress the game (unless you get otherwise lucky).
- Completely agree on Biodrone/Oct and medics. Getting bad RNG and not being to reliably get sonic of advanced MC occurs quite often. The tech tree should be restructured so that capturing medics is worth something i.e. ensuring you get these techs even with bad RNG.
- I haven't found SH/IM tasoth guardians all that difficult, if you proceed in a cautious manner. I just never go there without MC shields, zrbite armor and DPLs.

[Shiroi Bara]

QoL 3.0.0 beta is up. Feel free to test and read research.rul file there. As soon as Nord made new version and decide fix or change research tree I'll hide it again as probably outdated and no longer necessary.
P.S.
Some more thoughts - increasing drop rate or add MC readers to some medium ships might good be idea too. And calcinites sometimes very rare consider what end game now has shoggoth instead of them. Another chance to unlock vibro blade line is sacrifice your own aquanaut to jellyman infector weapon. But may be good idea replace calcinite autopsy to corpse to medic's bonus.
P.P.S.
Looks like Typhonn transporter craft textures are bugged. I had terror mission on port with tasoths, bio-drones and dinosaurs. Bio-drones shoot my troops inside ship, usually with some weird angles from 2nd floor and above.They penetrate walls include ships roof. I have no save file, but this behavior probably can be reproduced in single battle mode.

[psavola]

I'd suggest enabling the following vars that are somwhat useful QoL or QoL-like features:

enableNewResearchSorting: true
statisticalBulletConservation: true

As well as "bulletSaving: true" for non-missile kind of craft weapons (whose ammo is loaded as multiples), essentially craft gas cannon, gauss cannon, sonic oscillator and ion cannon. I suppose this is practically most relevant for the sonic oscillator, because the others are rarely used.

[coorta88]

Not sure if it was your original intention but - vibro knife is insanely powerful. When fully trained, aquanaut can kill basically any kind of enemy (including hellcrabs) with 1-3 well aimed hits with minimal ammount of action points.

[psavola]

Not sure if it was your original intention but - vibro knife is insanely powerful. When fully trained, aquanaut can kill basically any kind of enemy (including hellcrabs) with 1-3 well aimed hits with minimal ammount of action points.

Given that melee weapons (esp. knives) have been rebalanced multiple times in the last couple of years, I suspect this is pretty close to Nord's vision of how things are.

Even after the various nerfs, knives (even regular ones) are extremely effective in a good melee user's hands (of course it takes a while to train melee). They are also the easiest way to kill lobsters.

[Nord]

...They are also the easiest way to kill lobsters.

These armored jars must have natural weakness to can openers.

[Nord]

Version 2.62 is up.
Changelog:
- fixed Typhon map;
- fixed ion beam disruptors;
- updated for OXCE 7.14;
- minor fixes;
- minor balancing;