Because no one uses the Other Games Forum: X-COM

[Tupac Shakur]

Speaking Truth

Seconded.

[Guynemer]

There's a new mod at the nexus http://xcom.nexusmods.com/mods/18/ which lets you carry the arc thrower in the pistol slot, which is ****ing genius. It includes a **** ton of other balance tweaks and the Second Wave stuff; I'm still a little wary since it requires altering the .exe file, but when the official mod support is released, this is probably one to watch.

[regexcellent]

I don't like many of those changes. The way weapons work seems good at first glance, and the arc thrower change definitely makes sense. However, with the weapons, the changes outlines remove a significant amount of the progression in the game. Bullets -> Lasers -> Plasma is one of the ways in which you have to keep up with the aliens as they eventually acquire higher HP and better weapons and so forth.

Changes I would make:
1. You select the class you get when a rookie gets promoted or you hire a new squaddie.
2. Anyone above rookie rank can use any weapon. Only the Heavy can fire the machine gun after moving. Non-snipers get an aim penalty when using sniper rifles. Everyone but assaults take a damage penalty when using shotguns.
3. New weapon class: Carbine. Damage reduction, aim bonus over equivalent rifle. Light plasma rifle is in this class. New weapons, carbine and light laser rifle, are added. Anyone can use it, even rookies. Especially rookies. I think damage would be equivalent to the class' pistol.
4. New weapon class: submachine gun. Damage reduction over rifles but you can carry an extra item instead of a pistol. Add weapons: submachine gun, rapid laser, rapid plasma. They have the damage of carbine/light laser/light plasma but without the aim bonus. They have a close-range aim bonus akin to the shotgun.
5. Aforementioned fix to the arc thrower (make it a pistol).

I don't agree with adding ammo to pistols; they suck pretty hard already. That doesn't need balance.

Changes to the the way fighter interceptions work:
1. Each fighter must be flown by a pilot, who has a name and nationality. You hire these pilots like soldiers, but they're somewhat more expensive.
2. Each pilot has experience that is gained with each intercept, and more experience is gained on successful intercepts
3. If your pilot is shot down you have a mission on one of the UFO shootdown maps where you have to rescue him from thin men, a la the council missions where you rescue VIPs. One minor difference is that the pilot is armed with a pistol.
4. There is a chance that you will detect UFOs on their way to alien abduction and terror missions before and and be able to shoot them down. If you don't successfully attack the crash site it delays the attack by 5-10 days (randomly chosen).

[Wiglaf]

The arc thrower change is dumb. Assault + run and gun would enable it to be super easy to stun an alien.

[regexcellent]

Is that such a bad thing? Stunning has a pretty low success rate if you don't do a ton of damage first. And in many ways it's tangential to the game. Making it easier to stun aliens wouldn't make the game unbalanced.

[Wiglaf]

Yes it would. Stunning is critical to a lot of things. Take the risk out of it, and you'll get tons of free research credits, guns, grenades, etc. A successful stun can get you plasma rifles 15 turns earlier.

[snoopy369]

Off to restart again... got a bit further in this time, but clearly didn't have advanced enough soldiers. Did have laser weapons, which was nice, but didn't get above Sergeant by the time Moutons came (and flying whatevers). Just too hard to keep everyone alive at that level (9 damage to someone with 9-11 hp...)

[Tupac Shakur]

Just lost a guy on a UFO landing mission because my sniper (moving last on my turn) triggered a mob of three Muton Elites even though he went to the exact same spot one of my heavies had just vacated. With two consecutive moves, the Elites were around the corner and had annihilated one of my assaults before I even had a chance to react. Seems like bull**** that my sniper was within sight of the enemy even when the heavy who had been standing there wasn't. Bug, or some sort of hidden die roll to determine if I've been sighted that my sniper failed?

[Hauldren Collider]

That really pisses me off most of all about combat I think. The fact that you can stumble into an encounter and truly **** yourself on pure luck.

[snoopy369]

Might be that he woke them during the transit from one spot to the other?

[Tupac Shakur]

Might be that he woke them during the transit from one spot to the other?

I guess that's what happened, but it doesn't make a lot of sense given that my sniper began his movement farther away from the enemy than any other member of my squad and ended his movement on a spot that another squad member had just vacated. It wasn't like he was on point or treading new ground.

[snoopy369]

Honestly I don't understand the 'new alien' mechanic. Why not just place them about the map and let them go to work? Is it just to reward people for playing super cautious and killing off each set as they come without exploring any to get noticed? Because I'd think the aliens would notice the sounds of gunfire...

[Hauldren Collider]

You could just sit still and overwatch and the game would become more defensive. But that might not be such a bad thing--most levels have objectives that keep you from turtling.

[snoopy369]

If you sit still and overwatch, you'll get flanked eventually...

[Guynemer]

The aliens do have a set patrol pattern; you can spy them early without triggering their reaction move via the sniper battle scanner or using ghost armor.