Here is some quick feedback from me on the current version. Since the next release is not too far away, I should say what I have to say now so any improvement that come from it might already be in the next release. I've only made it to april of the first year so far, so this is just early game feedback. I play on the highest difficulty and so far have not found it annoying.
Overall, the balance is quite satisfactory. I have so far not seen any "this is best in every situation on every gal" type item.
Airbus range:
I had my base in north america, and the first misson spawned in asia and was just out of my reach. By literally one pixel, my airbus could not reach the target. To preserve my nerves, I edited the save to give it just a tiny bit more fuel.
So... is it too much to ask to give the airbus global range? Otherwise you are pretty much limited to europe as your starting base if you don't want RNG misson generation to annoy you. Other solution: extra battery as a range extender, which costs you one crew slot. Extra fuel tanks have already been discussed for craft, not sure if crew capacity can be modified though. I have already suggested a pupup to notify you that the target is out of range, so you can equip the extra battery before you start flying to an unreachable destination.
I had the same situation later with the blowfish. Just give it a little more range plz, it's slow enough. It makes craft selection quite annoying. I want to keep the airbus because of Dr. X mission later. I need the blowfish for underwater missions. And then I also need a third craft for range? I got an airspeeder, the aircar has not enough range. Now I need a fourth hangar for an aircar to equip light craft weapons.
Weapon selection:
I try to capture everything if possible, that limits my weapon selection. I do extensive testing on my weapon choices, so I'm pretty sure they are the most effective ones. Here is what I have used so far.
Melee
- Handle: Best basic melee stun weapon. Does just enough health damage to stop stun recovery for most enemies.
- Stun baton: for skilled girls slightly better than the handle. Also, some enemies have resistance to stun but less to electroshock (zombies for example). Downside is, enemies might get back up.
- cattle prod: can take down anything (even mechtoids), doesn't need skill. Use on armoured targets and/or for unskilled gals.
- fistycuffs: most dps with skilled gal. Surpasses handle dps at roughly 100 melee skill. Restricted to beefy targets like Ninjas or Werewolfs as soft targets can get killed easily by this weapon.
- Leather whip: use on ratmen and dogs. Their dodge is too high for regular melee, but they have little hp. The whip cannot be dodged.
To fight Sky Ninjas, I though about using leathal melee as I was afraid their dodge is too much. Turned out my gals are skilled enough that fisticuffs do work. When I run my spreadsheet to calculate melee damage, I'm always surprised that the leathal weapons don't really do more dps. The sabre would have been the top choice for Ninjas, but not by much. If you need close range leathal damage, the sawed off shotgun is the best option most of the time.
I needed to use the anchor once on a academy outpost zombie mission to kill the chryssalids. It was on urban map and I could shoot down from a building.
Ranged:
- mini las-charger: can damage most things, but does little damage. Useful because of infinite ammo. Best uses: Shambler hunt. I had my gals at the edge of the map, near a cave entrance. I expected to need to dive for safety, but I could just wait and reaction fire down the shamblers. The damage of the mini las-charger is low enough that the shamblers don't die but fall unconscious. I also use the mini charger to kill academy drones. It can take alot of shots before one does damage, but it is possible. You train firing that way.
- Ramshackle rifle: for long range. Can damage most medium armored enemies (the bullets have 0.85 armor modifier). Useful to kill academy drones. Also can damage chrysallids. Replaced by RFC carbine once you find any.
- domestic shotgun with rubber bullets: Standard long range stun. Great that they deal also health damage now. Just enough to prevent stun regeneration. Once you find police shotguns, you get even better range.
- Sawed off shotgun: Safety weapon to keep on the belt, to get out of tight situations. Few things survive an auto shot from close range.
- Double barrel shotgun: A bit more range than the sawed off. Massive damage. The spread makes it uneffective beyond ~15 tiles.
Generally, shotguns rule the game. Why? Because they are dependable. RNG damage calculation cannot ruin your day (or far less likely). Things you hit almost always die and cannot shoot back.
Suggestion: To diversify ranged weapons, have some ammo with 50-150% damage range. Call it hallow point ammo maybe? I would need to playtest it, but it would certainly be interesting.
Bows used to be op, but the random health damage and no LoS penalty have nerfed them good. Now they are inferior to same tier firearms, which I think is ok. They still have a niche for their arcing shot and cheap ammo. If you hit a ratman and he is bleeding, he will still die eventually.
Armour:
I found the uber clothing mostly inferor to tribal, as the increased stamina regeneration is most useful for early melee capture play. When you have unlocked shotgun rubber bullets, the pirate clothing is best for the skill bonus. Also, the pirate outfit is better than barbarian for melee. The +15 melee on pirate is better than +10 melee and +10 strength on barbarian, or equal. I suggest giving the barbarian the +15 melee and the pirate +10. The barbarian suffers from the stamina penalty, which is required for melee fighting. Maybe drop that, the acc penalty is enough I think. The armor could also be 25 all around to actually choose the outfit for the armor (shotgun protection).
The shield version of barbarian gives close to 100 front dodge on maxed gals. This can be used to tank melee enemies (werewolves for example) at your craft doors.
I like the enviroment effects. They force you to switch armor and playstyle. I had a military transport in march and since then really enjoy the heavy armours I got. It doesn't make my gals invulnerable but reduces the time on easy missons. I would suggest adding a chance of heavy armor to warehouse wars or similar missions, like they have a chance of spacesuit right now. Over time you will get a few heavy armours that will speed up easy missions.
Edit: Or have armour as a bounty hunting reward item. Not buyable, but in exchange for tokens like you can get slaves when you have bank favors.
The latest cheese: door camping
I fought two werewolf missions by camping in my craft. I had two gals with barbarian and shield that could tank the doorway, but in those two missions just a single werewolf ever opened the doors. Can the AI be made to rush your craft more by putting additional waypoints inside the craft? I'm not familiar with how that works, but I would like to be pressured more in my craft. Door camping should not be that effective.
As always, thank you Dioxine for making this mod and still doing updates! And thanks to Meridian and ohartenstein23 for the coding effort!
Edit: spelling fixed
