playable advent mod: details, feedback

[davidlallen]

I've been doing a playthrough with an ini-modded 0.6.1. Currently about to get to plasma.

 

Great! We need more detailed feedback like this.

 

Aliens that don't get access to soldier weapons or specific weapons upgrades are utterly useless. I gave my Vipers access to Shotguns and Rifles (essentially a variation on the Ranger theme), and Mutons and MECs weild cannons which seems to make sense scale-wise. MEC wrecks are surprisingly difficult to come by. I just got enough to build my first one, 2 weeks away from plasma tech. He's completely obsolete by this point.

 

For the initial mec weapon, what should we do to make the unit less obsolete when it starts?

We have proposed to give the mec a new weapon with the stats of the plasma rifle, as a free upgrade when you get plasma tech. Will that be enough? I'd like to be able to change the firing animation to plasma, but I don't know enough about the art side to promise anything. For mutons, their original weapon is already a plasma one so it seems OK. For vipers, they have access to soldier weapons so that seems OK too.

 

MEC : I would really like to see a "micro missile bombardment" thing as a major/colonel ability, that would still deal low/mid damage but have extreme radius and would be able to level like half a large building in one go.

 

I like the idea of leveling buildings with more micromissile bursts. Once I get the mec base weapon upgrade working I will try that as an upgrade. I have finished a couple of tank abilities for the mec which will be in the next version, so it can take a huge amount of damage during the mission and still keep going. I hope that will make it different enough.

 

Viper Poison is utterly useless, I keep the can in the slot for flavor but there are no situations where I would want to use it.

 

I definitely want to make it armor and shield piercing. I'd like to have an early level up which makes it stronger; we were thinking of acid andmaybe disorient. If we can make the enemy avoid it like they avoid fire, then the cloud could have tactical uses to block alleyways and similar, but that may be too hard to do.

 

- Muton : seems particularly weak by the time you get them.

 

Good ideas; once we get a little further on mec and viper abilities we can try implementing some of these.

 

I think a way to introduce the whole "playable aliens" thing would be to have a special VIP rescue mission in the style of the Zhang one in EU, to go grab a deflecting advent genetic scientist that deflected with cloning technology. It'd unlock an Avenger room where you can pop out some aliens spliced from cadavers (or possibly implanted with modified ADVENT control chips that give you zombie aliens which would be amusing lore wise).

 

I agree that is a good long term goal. I am a little nervous about requiring a new avenger room for it. I am not aware of anybody who has successfully added new mission types to the game; apart from the 3-4 golden path missions, there doesn't seem to be a good method for making "quest lines" or making certain missions depend on certain techs.

[Mekkor0101]

It could be fun to see the Andromedon to take a more ''supportive'' role.

I mean, they are operating high tech enviromental suits, which is also semi sentient, so why shoulden't they be super tech savy. Im not talking drones, or hacking other robots, but more like, boosting his/his teams weapons with some effect, like holotargeting. And perhaps have his different branches work like the mech ability in EW, where he project's a field around him, giving a defense bonus to allies within the field. Perhaps balancing it, with the team HAVING to be inside the field to get any bonus at all?. Have them be a support most effective close to his allies. Or alternativly have him being a kinda beefy guy with more ''selfish'' abilities, which would be stronger, but NOT affect his teammates?

[LautrecOfCarim]

If it's not possible to fix animations of the aliens when firing different weapons than they come with, do you think it can be possible to add higher stat weapons of the same kind in the proving grounds? I mean, personally, I love using the Muton beam rifle on my Viper... It's hilarious ( http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/547557414800037361/D1A213A44B6C8273D49D3ED2B82FEBB91C4DB316/ ), but animation still bugs out. But since I made my viper after I completed my magnetic weapon research, she never came with her basic weapon.

[davidlallen]

We're definitely going to add mec weapons with higher stats when you get plasma. The viper uses the standard soldier weapon; do you think that is good enough?

[hunterkiller33]

We're definitely going to add mec weapons with higher stats when you get plasma. The viper uses the standard soldier weapon; do you think that is good enough?

Personally, I like the Viper's rifle quite a bit. Now that I have the tools again, I am building an Advanced Viper Rifle that will be exclusive to the class at Plasma Tech, in addition to playing with how to apply acid to a utility slot item, as a perk...I plan to give it bonus aim and crit chance over standard Plasma rifles, reduced crit damage bonus, and I am debating giving it a pierce value of 2 to ignore some armor, while the muton keeps shred. As it stands, I considered them crowd control assassins, what with blinding spit and the ability to completely neutralize a target's abilities before killing them. However, they are only really effective against advent forces, and I have noticed that shield bearers and captains can still use abilities while being held in Bind. Granted, having an efficient and generally reliable way of neutralizing an enemy like the Stun Lancer and Shield bearer is a great thing, its also very niche.

 

If I put this weapon into the mod, should it have bonuses to aim at close, or long range? That was something the regular viper, mech and muton weapons don't have, which is really killing their effectiveness

Edited March 10, 2016 by hunterkiller33

[LargeSpider]

*Copy*

Edited March 10, 2016 by LargeSpider

[LargeSpider]

We're definitely going to add mec weapons with higher stats when you get plasma. The viper uses the standard soldier weapon; do you think that is good enough?

Good, id imagine your planning something along the lines of the particle canon from EW since it does provide the correct animations

[LargeSpider]

We're definitely going to add mec weapons with higher stats when you get plasma. The viper uses the standard soldier weapon; do you think that is good enough?

Maybe if you add some specialized weapons for the the viper such as a poison dart gun or a limited-use poison cloud spewer, the class would be more compelling to use, specializing the viper in slowly wearing down the enemies for the rest of the squad to finish off

[LargeSpider]

I'm having trouble seeing how the faceless would be used, their shape shifters so id imagine you could disguise them as aliens/advent without suffering from the concealment line-of-sight from the enemies them selves but the mechanical enemies and the scanning towers would still have their line-of-sight. So would they be used for more stealth purposes? I mean their claws would essentially be useless end game so some sort of progression needs to be put there for balancing.

[LargeSpider]

The Archons would be used as a "Shock and Awe" kinda unit, utilizing the freakish health and speed for cutting the enemies down while taking minimal damage but as well providing buffs for it's allies such as small aim or will buffs and at higher levels, inspiring troops to dodge. It could also gain a buff from how well the squad performs such as extra movement or increased critical chance if no-one in the squad misses for a turn. I would think that they would take longer to heal due to their bio-mechanical bodies. You should also do multiple pathways for how the archon can turn out in a similar way to the sharpshooter's gunslinger or sniper pathways, like a support leader or a predator skill trees where the predator would be a throwback to the old floaters.