Please post all Bug Reports, Feedback and comments about the V1.5 Beta here.
Screenshots are invaluable for bug reports to understand exactly what happens, please take some and then upload the images to this mod page, they are automatically accepted.
Update
Note: If you have the 1-shot ammo bug then your .ini file or your XComGame.exe file has been overwritten, by the Merciless Backup, Uninstaller or re-verifying the game. (also playing Steam Online without editing the Hosts file)
In future I will be granting Beta Updates that do not require the previous version of Merciless to be Uninstalled, only Uninstall when you want to go back to a vanilla playthrough.
omg. Okay. I do the base assault! I do the base assault! Just make them stop!
Another feedback:
I really love the fact that you can produce things like scanner, HEAT ammo, etc... that's much better than unlocking them as perks.
But: I would love it if my soldiers could have more slots to actually take these things with them. With most classes, I end up with heavy armor (Titan) plus Chitin plate to be able to survive punishing Heavy Plasma fire, and thus have hardly any chances to equip much of the cool special items. Don't know, likely I am putting too much focus on armor (Chitin in addition), but the light armor with +1 slot doesn't cut it any more when sectopods do 25 damage.
In general, I love your mod. It is awesome and it is the first one where I really found challenges. Kudos for that and tnx for developing it further!!!
The 3 Outlander aliens (the yellow ones that are made of "pure energy") that spawn in a battleship Ufo are much much much too hard.
Their hits always do 16 or 18 critical damage, even when in full cover and they hardly ever miss. Three of them can wipe out a full squad of mine and that at the very end of the huge level with already 24 enemies killed.
Tone them down a little, please. They are too hard and it is frustrating to get that far and then get your ass kicked all over the place by 3 shots killing 3 people.
They are designed to punish people, incredibly and absolutely for delaying the alien base assault they become more numerous and more deadly as the game progresses until you steal the hyperwave beacon disabling them all.
So I have the 1 ammo bug, how can I fix it? I have tryed completly uninstalling XCOM and then reinstalling it, and I still have the bug. Oh I also have the bug with both 1.4 and 1.5.
Ammo bugs are typically caused by the game updating the DGC.ini when launched.
To prevent this either start Steam in Offline mode or edit the hosts file to prevent XCOM 'phone home'.
It's unfortunate that Firaxis made XCOM so mod unfriendly by adding this functionality, which I believe was added in an attempt to prevent cheating in Multiplayer. Alas.
Heya! What's up with LMG-type weapons? It says that it needs the training to be able to shoot on same turn, but even my max level heavies still cannot do that? Is that supposed to come straight with the class, so heavies would prefer LMG or is it supposed to be an upgrade as you level? Or am I just missing something?
Thanks for the mod, had fun playing the game through. Played on second hardest difficulty and found couple things which are really unbalanced. First of all you could shoot down every single UFO with a Firestorm+plasma (except the one with Ethereal, I needed two for that but only one or two shots from the second craft), so after building couple of those and sending them around the planet pretty much killed the aerial combat cause they never stood a chance. Second thing was that plasma sniper felt really underpowered, considering how much you invest time and materials to research it, it really underperforms. For me laser sniper was considerably a better choice because of very, VERY high hit and critical hit chance _always_.
That's all what comes into my mind as off bat, but I'll try to give some constructive feedback later, thanks again.
currently working overtime this week so might take some time to get enough spare time to continue updating the mod.
My next plan is to sort out the perk trees properly, re-write some add some new ones ready to officially launch v1.6 with an easy and a hard mode aswell.
I'm seeing a balance issue, though I don't know if it's something that can be adjusted. In short, the added difficulty of Merciless makes Bomb Disposal in the first 2 months nigh impossible. Playing on Classic/Hard, even if you have rushed the OTS, a starting timer of 3 turns (effectively 2 since the last one doesn't count) is stupidly difficult. If the timer can be changed, I recommend starting it at 5 or 6 turns.
Luckily I've been implementing multiple difficult settings ... roughly 7 in total with a slow alien bonus slider in theory people should be able to find a difficulty they're comfortable with...
I may have to take back what I said - Merciless, hard difficulty is just insanely difficult. I got my first abduction mission about 24 hours after finally beating the first mission with no casualties. I had 4, 6-8 health operatives against, I think it was, 12 sectoids with 8 health each. I got the train station, so it's a really small map to begin with, and with 12 sectoids on it, there's no way you're not running into 2 or 3 packs at once. Just unbearably hard, especially without a single built item or upgrade. Yikes! Will try again, but I may be eating my words here soon! :p
I don't like the extra glam cam triggers, the one i really don't like is when I activate the ability for the assault to fire after dashing and the camera just spins around him/her. It would make more sense if it glam'ed him as he was running but in general I'd like to turn all the extra ones off.
you can run Toolboks to edit Merciless but after it's been installed, you can even re-apply that the arcthrower is in the pistol slot and no longer applies a -15 Will reduction.
Report page for me. (It will be updated as i progress) * Battle Scanner was available to manufacture from the beginning. First i supposed that it was intentional then i completed "experimental warfare" research and did read one specific option: "Battle Scanner available for manufacture" (besides from Phonenix and Sentry options) Also, Sentry (i think it is an aircraft weapon) has no description or stats. I'm suspecting that it might be no use even if i manufacture and install one. (didn't try yet)
Okay. Should we expect exploding UFO's like from Long War Mod? (It owned one or two impressive tricks such as this but overall i still prefer yours to my taste )
* Once, when searching for a suitable spot to throwing a grenade, its blast indicator just disappeared. Did throw at the spot immediately but there was no blast/explosion, nothing... but a fading beep sound.
* Experimental Warfare still heralding that Sentinel is available to manufacture. (Needles to say, it didn't appeared at the engineering list.)
* I made my first SHIV in 1.5 Beta 5. When i poke it around a little however, its chassis has unloaded and now i can't load it back. (The chassis description says "none class only) Naturally, the SHIV is just unusable now
What happened is that I uncovered a bug in the vanilla code. If there are no items in the locker then clicking on the item slot in the unit's inventory causes it to try and equip a zero item. Equipping armor first requires unequipping the old armor (reseting the number of large and small item slots to 0). However, there is no new armor to equip, so the SHIV ends up in a bad state.
If you are okay with some minor hex surgery, here is a change that makes SHIV armors equippable: Make SHIV armors equippable
Please note that this technically allows you to put an Alloy Chassis on a regular SHIV or something, but it leads to weird and unknown behavior (which is why I haven't included it in any 'regular' code).
These two changes will allow you to re-equip the armor back onto the SHIV.
The fix to the actual vanilla code bug is also quite simple: Alter XGSoldierUI.OnGearAccept to see if that is causing the SHIV armors to be unequipped.
This will prevent unequipping of items when their locker list size is 0.
I'll be sending this latter change to Yzaxtol directly for inclusion in later beta patches / final release. The earlier two changes are just to be able to re-equip the armor onto an existing SHIV so you don't have to abandon a beta campaign.
they have either 6 or 8 Hp, if it's 4 your .ini settings are back to the original I believe. Or your using an .exe that wasn't edited. If your XComGame.exe is not in the Binaries/Win32 folder and named XComGame.exe you want get any of the new items or new settings.
People who use Texmod with Steam will notice problems with the installer if they don't re-name their exe back to the original.
I uninstalled previous beta, reverified game cache, installed beta 5, then installed texmod. Not sure why my .ini wouldn't have gotten updated. Gonna try and uninstall texmod and start the game at least once before running it. Will report back.
I started the game in between each step (I had a feeling the ini wasn't actually initializing to be updated properly), now I'm getting the proper 8-health, extremely difficult, sectoids with massive amounts of numbers - whee! :p
V1.5 Beta Feedback (65 comments)
Screenshots are invaluable for bug reports to understand exactly what happens, please take some and then upload the images to this mod page, they are automatically accepted.
Update
Note: If you have the 1-shot ammo bug then your .ini file or your XComGame.exe file has been overwritten, by the Merciless Backup, Uninstaller or re-verifying the game. (also playing Steam Online without editing the Hosts file)
In future I will be granting Beta Updates that do not require the previous version of Merciless to be Uninstalled, only Uninstall when you want to go back to a vanilla playthrough.
Another feedback:
I really love the fact that you can produce things like scanner, HEAT ammo, etc... that's much better than unlocking them as perks.
But: I would love it if my soldiers could have more slots to actually take these things with them. With most classes, I end up with heavy armor (Titan) plus Chitin plate to be able to survive punishing Heavy Plasma fire, and thus have hardly any chances to equip much of the cool special items. Don't know, likely I am putting too much focus on armor (Chitin in addition), but the light armor with +1 slot doesn't cut it any more when sectopods do 25 damage.
In general, I love your mod. It is awesome and it is the first one where I really found challenges. Kudos for that and tnx for developing it further!!!
Just some random feedback that comes to my mind:
The 3 Outlander aliens (the yellow ones that are made of "pure energy") that spawn in a battleship Ufo are much much much too hard.
Their hits always do 16 or 18 critical damage, even when in full cover and they hardly ever miss. Three of them can wipe out a full squad of mine and that at the very end of the huge level with already 24 enemies killed.
Tone them down a little, please. They are too hard and it is frustrating to get that far and then get your ass kicked all over the place by 3 shots killing 3 people.
Oh I also have the bug with both 1.4 and 1.5.
To prevent this either start Steam in Offline mode or edit the hosts file to prevent XCOM 'phone home'.
It's unfortunate that Firaxis made XCOM so mod unfriendly by adding this functionality, which I believe was added in an attempt to prevent cheating in Multiplayer. Alas.
What's up with LMG-type weapons? It says that it needs the training to be able to shoot on same turn, but even my max level heavies still cannot do that? Is that supposed to come straight with the class, so heavies would prefer LMG or is it supposed to be an upgrade as you level? Or am I just missing something?
Thanks for the mod, had fun playing the game through. Played on second hardest difficulty and found couple things which are really unbalanced. First of all you could shoot down every single UFO with a Firestorm+plasma (except the one with Ethereal, I needed two for that but only one or two shots from the second craft), so after building couple of those and sending them around the planet pretty much killed the aerial combat cause they never stood a chance.
Second thing was that plasma sniper felt really underpowered, considering how much you invest time and materials to research it, it really underperforms. For me laser sniper was considerably a better choice because of very, VERY high hit and critical hit chance _always_.
That's all what comes into my mind as off bat, but I'll try to give some constructive feedback later, thanks again.
My next plan is to sort out the perk trees properly, re-write some add some new ones ready to officially launch v1.6 with an easy and a hard mode aswell.
* Battle Scanner was available to manufacture from the beginning. First i supposed that it was intentional then i completed "experimental warfare" research and did read one specific option: "Battle Scanner available for manufacture" (besides from Phonenix and Sentry options) Also, Sentry (i think it is an aircraft weapon) has no description or stats. I'm suspecting that it might be no use even if i manufacture and install one. (didn't try yet)
Sentry will be disabled in Beta 5 as it's an unwanted extra weapon for SHIVs.
Hopefully Explosive Ammo, a +1 damage for Ballistic weapons will make an appearance under Experimental Warfare.
* LMG's Rapid Fire ability works with a pistol too! (Weapons: LMG and pistol)
* Facility removal cost (money and time) appears as blank.
And just for confirmation: Carapace armor with 12 unwoundable health? I just made a huge jump from body armor
Also Carapace slows you down and doesn't have the extra item slot skeleton suit has, and loses the 5 defense that light armours have.
Essentially you trade everything for that 12 hp.
* LMG description still says "heavy weapons cannot be moved and fired in the same turn" ,however, i was able to shot even if i standing still.
* Once, when searching for a suitable spot to throwing a grenade, its blast indicator just disappeared. Did throw at the spot immediately but there was no blast/explosion, nothing... but a fading beep sound.
* Experimental Warfare still heralding that Sentinel is available to manufacture. (Needles to say, it didn't appeared at the engineering list.)
What happened is that I uncovered a bug in the vanilla code. If there are no items in the locker then clicking on the item slot in the unit's inventory causes it to try and equip a zero item. Equipping armor first requires unequipping the old armor (reseting the number of large and small item slots to 0). However, there is no new armor to equip, so the SHIV ends up in a bad state.
If you are okay with some minor hex surgery, here is a change that makes SHIV armors equippable:
Make SHIV armors equippable
change:
if(kSoldier.IsATank())
07 D5 01 19 00 FF 2C 00 00 0A 00 30 45 00 00 00 1B 1B 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 16 14 2D 35 A7 2C 00 00 AB 2C 00 00 00 01 00 FD 2C 00 00 27
kLockerItem.bClassLocked = true
to:
if(kSoldier.IsATank())
07 D5 01 19 00 FF 2C 00 00 0A 00 30 45 00 00 00 1B 1B 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 16 14 2D 35 A7 2C 00 00 AB 2C 00 00 00 01 00 FD 2C 00 00 28
kLockerItem.bClassLocked = false
The following change is needed to make SHIV armors show up in the locker list:
change:
if(!TACTICAL().ArmorHasProperty(iItem, 1))
07 4C 01 81 19 1B C8 27 00 00 00 00 00 00 16 15 00 54 FF FF FF 00 1B 36 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 2D 00 00 2C 01 16 16
to:
(!TACTICAL().ArmorHasProperty(iItem, 1))
0B 0B 0B 81 19 1B C8 27 00 00 00 00 00 00 16 15 00 54 FF FF FF 00 1B 36 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 06 2D 00 00 2C 01 16 16
------------------------
Please note that this technically allows you to put an Alloy Chassis on a regular SHIV or something, but it leads to weird and unknown behavior (which is why I haven't included it in any 'regular' code).
These two changes will allow you to re-equip the armor back onto the SHIV.
The fix to the actual vanilla code bug is also quite simple:
Alter XGSoldierUI.OnGearAccept to see if that is causing the SHIV armors to be unequipped.
change:
if(!m_kLocker.bIsSelected && m_kLocker.arrOptions.Length > 0)
07 73 00 82 81 2D 35 3B 3F 00 00 3F 3F 00 00 00 00 01 7A 3F 00 00 16 18 21 00 97 36 35 3A 3F 00 00 3F 3F 00 00 00 00 01 7A 3F 00 00 25 16 16
to:
if(!m_kLocker.bIsSelected && m_kLocker.arrOptions.Length >= 0)
07 73 00 82 81 2D 35 3B 3F 00 00 3F 3F 00 00 00 00 01 7A 3F 00 00 16 18 21 00 99 36 35 3A 3F 00 00 3F 3F 00 00 00 00 01 7A 3F 00 00 25 16 16
This will prevent unequipping of items when their locker list size is 0.
I'll be sending this latter change to Yzaxtol directly for inclusion in later beta patches / final release. The earlier two changes are just to be able to re-equip the armor onto an existing SHIV so you don't have to abandon a beta campaign.
People who use Texmod with Steam will notice problems with the installer if they don't re-name their exe back to the original.