A Review, some Requests and Questions *Spoilers*

[MFive]

Questions:
Are the minor lab buildings (HQ, BIO and INFORMATION) still required for all research types? can I just use the LAB?
Why does the large Living Quarters give extra storage and not extra living space?

Requests:
Large Manufacturing, so I don't have to build my eight small ones, I can just use two of these.
Access research materials from any base (with time delay for shipping)
Be able to higher soldiers after promotion 3 which have base stats the same that the GYM trains to but with a higher purchase and monthly cost.
    Because they are not agents, they cannot go under cover. When the game becomes deadlier, your highly trained veteran agents are more likely to die, this would help soften the blow somewhat.

Review:

Excellent mod, I love the X-Files feel combine with so many other elements, Cult of Dagon for example. The Tactical Scape feels very well balanced, working up to weapons which are actually useful takes quite a while, and it is great when you get Alloy clips. The Aliens themselves being well done, however, on my second UFO, I found Etherials and on almost every UFO after. Which leads me to the Geo Scape.

The I feel like base facility cost could be higher however, once I got Durathread i had very little problems with money due the the low cost of the bases. Only until I built 6 Raven Interceptors did I have issues, but these where eliminated by switching to Alien Alloys. this may be my personal opinion, but there is too many mission per month, I feel that fewer, harder missions would be better, and place more emphasis on the tactical scape, which is ware this mod really shines, and it would help exacerbating differences between weapons which have rather subtle differences.

Overall, I have very much enjoyed playing this mod, truly fantastic work.

[khade]

My understanding is that the lab is able to do most things, but the HQ is useful for having an effectively global radar range, if you have it, nothing is getting off your scope once you find them.  A negative to that is that you can't as easily tell how big a range your radar currently have, but that seems like a minor negative.  I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to set up circles to show radar range again, assuming they haven't fixed that yet.

[Solarius Scorch]

Hi and thanks! Also sorry for the brevity, it's a really busy day.

Labs are complex, but in short, no lab can do everything. So you need multiple types.
I can't remember the deal with Large Living Quarters, they've changed too many times I will review it.
Large manufacturing would be fine, but it's a big map to make.
Not sure what you mean about research materials, but it sounds challenging (as in, code). Just transfer
The idea about non-agent mercenaries is interesting, but it would be a big project and I have other priorities now.

I agree there is too much money. I guess I will try to increase maintenance for more advanced buildings (not the starting ones, or you'll go bankrupt). This would probably increase the importance of missions.

Thanks for the kind words!

[ohartenstein23]

For the large workshop, there's always the maps from XOps at least.

[HT]

I disagree with the buildings being too cheap: Labs cost a ton, workshop take too long to build and paying for scientists and engineers is bleeding money. Worse, until you can manufacture something good, you're very limited at funding.

Making buildings even more expensive without an equal chance of getting some money would be making the game too hard.

Also, oddly enough I find more zombies (around 30) in monster missions than their "dedicated" 'Zombie invasion' ones, where there are a few types but not as many enemies. Is that a bug?

[DoxaLogos (JG)]

I do agree about too much money   I'm in may, and I got $20 mil in the bank as of May 1999, and I'm about ready to build an improved lab.  Money isn't a problem.  I have a nice workshop base that isn't halfway full of workshops cranking out about $7mil a month in alien alloys.   Funding differential is about $2mil a month.  Only way to hit it more is to up the maintenance on certain buildings.  Yes, money is tough to come by early game, but by the start of the invasion was starting to turn the corner financially, and that's when I start building the separate manufacturing base.

BTW, large living quarters has a lower maintenance overall compared to 4 separate living quarters.  Even though it costs more than 4, you'll make it back in lower maintenance given enough time (2 years i think?) plus bonus storage.

[MFive]

The idea about non-agent mercenaries is interesting, but it would be a big project and I have other priorities now.

I had meant something like the file I attatched. I spent some time today to make a stat/cost calculator to make this guy, let me know what you think about the balance. At the start, he costs about the same as a captain per month.

I disagree with the buildings being too cheap: Labs cost a ton, workshop take too long to build and paying for scientists and engineers is bleeding money. Worse, until you can manufacture something good, you're very limited in funding.

Also, oddly enough I find more zombies (around 30) in monster missions than their "dedicated" 'Zombie invasion' ones, where there are a few types but not as many enemies. Is that a bug?

As soon as you find Durathread, and can manufacture it, you are basically set, just save up to make a factory base, and you are set for basically the entire game. About the Zombie missions, I would suppose this is because herder zombie missions spawn here. Otherwise, not sure.

My understanding is that the lab is able to do most things, but the HQ is useful for having an effectively global radar range, if you have it, nothing is getting off your scope once you find them.  A negative to that is that you can't as easily tell how big a range your radar currently have, but that seems like a minor negative.  I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to set up circles to show radar range again, assuming they haven't fixed that yet.

I had completely forgotten about the radar being included in the HQ.

I do agree about too much money   I'm in may, and I got $20 mil in the bank as of May 1999, and I'm about ready to build an improved lab.  Money isn't a problem.  I have a nice workshop base that isn't halfway full of workshops cranking out about $7mil a month in alien alloys.   Funding differential is about $2mil a month.  Only way to hit it more is to up the maintenance on certain buildings.  Yes, money is tough to come by early game, but by the start of the invasion was starting to turn the corner financially, and that's when I start building the separate manufacturing base.

BTW, large living quarters has a lower maintenance overall compared to 4 separate living quarters.  Even though it costs more than 4, you'll make it back in lower maintenance given enough time (2 years i think?) plus bonus storage.

I like the factory type base, I feel it is a staple for the XCom series. About the Large Living Quarters, I just wish  it had more living space rather than extra storage space.

[Solarius Scorch]

OK, what I meant was that adding a new soldier type is easy, but setting the game to disallow them from certain missions is a problem. It could only be done in a dirty hackish way at the moment. I think Dioxine already requested this feature, as he needs it more than I.
And actually, I have already planned something like this, but the new unit type would be Cyborgs.

[khade]

Just a note, in case it isn't clear from actually using it: the HQ chance of actually FINDING anything is extremely low, however anything found is not leaving your scope, regardless of how you found them.