Milestone 5.8.0 Released! (Experimental)

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

This update contains a number of changes that will break existing campaigns, so existing saves from 5.7.0 will not load in 5.8.0. However, if you'd like to continue your existing playthrough, version 5.7.0 is still available to play on the Experimental Legacy branch.

[h3]Key Changes:[/h3]

• Mind Control: several alien units (Psyon Officer, Psyon Leader, Eternal) are now capable of psionically Mind Controlling your troops. The chance of success is based on the Psi-Strength of the alien and the Bravery and Morale of the defending soldier, with the attack being more difficult with greater distance. The attack always occurs in the alien turn, and if successful then the aliens will immediately take control of your soldier - however, the soldier will only be able to attack during the next alien turn, after which they are immediately returned to Xenonaut control (so you only lose them for one turn).
  
• Strategic Operations Daily Increase: the value of strategic operations now increases with time if you do not use them (then resets to normal after use). For example, the Raise Funds operation normally grants +$500,000, but this now increases by +$10,000 for each day since it was last used.
  
• Supporter Protection Level: each Supporter now has a "protection level", which changes every 10 days. There's a 50% chance this is just a normal value, but there's a 25% chance for the Supporter to have High or Low protection level. High protection makes recruiting / eliminating that Supporter 30% more expensive, and Low protection makes recruiting / eliminating them 30% cheaper.
  
• Quickload and Continue Campaign now resets the game random seed like the Load Game menu does (if you were testing the randomness of shots using Quickload and were always getting the same result, this bug was why).
  

[h3]Gameplay Changes - Strategy:[/h3]

• The UFO Delegation system has been disabled until Milestone 6, as I think releasing it without the "Extended Mode" for people who really want to do lots of crash sites would be a mistake. However, we'll continue to balance the game assuming players will complete two crash sites of each UFO type (doing more will make the game quite a lot easier).
  
• Revised a significant number of plot-related research text and character conversations, which should hopefully explain the narrative better.
  
• Added three new research projects:
  
  • You begin the game with "The Cleaners" in progress, and this project explains a little about the Cleaners prior to the ATLAS Base mission.
    
  • "Autopsy: The General" is granted if you kill rather than capture the General in ATLAS Base. Both this and "Interrogation: The General" now grant some Operation Points on completion (the interrogation awards more).
    
  • "Quantum Waveform Analysis" is unlocked after ATLAS Base, and explains why the aliens are trying to be subtle at the start of the game but then move to outright invasion a few months later.
    
• Added more Construction / Terror UFO missions to the timeline (i.e. UFO missions that spawn alien bases or terror sites if not shot down).
  
• Interrogations and Corpse Analysis projects now both grant +10% damage bonus (for a total bonus of +20% damage), rather than +20% on Corpse Analysis and +15% on Interrogations (for a total of +35% damage).
  
• Early Game Rebalance:
  
  • Phase 1 now lasts three months instead of two, with the third month including Destroyer UFOs and the Cleaner Base.
    
  • Infiltrators now only spawn on day 5 (along with a pop-up explaining that Doomsday is rising as a result). The Supporters that become infiltrators are now randomised, although it is still always one per region.
    
  • Reduced the starting quantity and daily gain of Operation Points due to the campaign now being longer.
    
  • Various Cleaner missions now grant Operation Points as a reward for side objectives (e.g. capturing Cleaner Data) rather than Doomsday Reduction.
    
  • A few research projects have been delayed slightly, such as Aerial Warfare now only triggering once you've shot down a Probe UFO.
    
  • Lots of minor changes.
    
• Added new artwork for the Supporter Information UI panel, and new biome preview art for the UOO-1 missions, and Operation Endgame.
  
• Added unique sounds for each of the strategic operations.
  
• Africa now has an Elite Funding supporter.
  
• Fusion Autorifle engineering project no longer requires the Gauss Autorifle to start.
  

[h3]Gameplay Changes - Air Combat:[/h3]

• Xenonaut aircraft no longer consume fuel when fighting in the air combat - this mechanic rarely came into play, and when it did it mostly seemed to frustrate people (or cause confusion by making autoresolve to fail unexpectedly).
  
• Using Afterburners in the Air Combat now correctly blocks that aircraft from firing weapons. However, you now can use evasive roll while using afterburners (tooltips have been updated accordingly).
  

[h3]Gameplay Changes - Tactical:[/h3]

• All explosion damage now falls off linearly from 100% (explosion tile) to 50% (outer edge of explosion).
  
• Units no longer turn to face their attacker if damaged by a friendly unit (which stops overwatch friendly fire costing you TU by rotating your soldiers).
  
• We've thinned out the number of spawn points around the dropship on Terror maps.
  
• Capturing the command room in an alien base now reveals the entire map. This now correctly triggers automatically at the start of each turn, rather than needing the player to move / rotate a soldier before it updates.
  
• Balance Changes:
  
  • In addition to Mind Control, Eternals now also have the Mesmerise ability (3x per turn), Regeneration and Active Camo.
    
  • Increased the Accuracy penalty from wearing heavy armour from -3 to -5 for most armour types (and -2 to -3 for Warden)
    
  • Knife reduced from 8 weight to 6 weight, base accuracy increased from 60 to 65. 
    
  • Alien Symbiote Launcher now does 35 damage (increased from 20), but only causes 3 Armour Destruction (down from 15).
    
  • Alien poison grenades now do Chemical rather than Thermal damage, and do 15 damage (previously 25)
    
• Added brief character conversations to the start of both various tactical missions
  
• The Eternal Archon on Operation Endgame part 2 now has a unique model with a custom helmet.
  
• Fixed a number of spawning issues with the alien reinforcement gateways on the UOO-1 Sabotage mission.
  
• The underground military base tileset now has pillars on the rock wall corners, which means they now block vision. This should helpfully clear up some of the line-of-sight issues in the ATLAS Base and the Cleaner Base missions.
  
• The UFO Scout landed variant no longer has a low-res texture compared to other UFOs.
  

[h3]Bugfixes:[/h3]

• Fixed a crash that could occur if the HEVY caused enemy units to fall onto a ground tile that was also destroyed.
  
• Fixed an AI hang that could occur if a Biter spawned on top of another enemy unit.
  
• Fixed the bug where doors would visually get out of sync with their actual state, and look open when actually closed (or vice versa).
  
• Fixed soldiers being able to run inside solid UFO hulls if the movement started before the UFO hull was revealed from the shroud.
  
• Fixed the Orbital Bombardment timer not visually updating after the UOO-1 Sabotage mission delayed the bombardment.
  
• Fixed the typewriter sound sometimes not stopping after using Esc to exit the Phase screen early.
  
• Fixed enemy HP labels being revealed if you move any unit in the deployment phase of the Cleaner Base mission.
  
• Fixed an issue where destroyed roofs would sometimes appear not to be destroyed after loading a saved game.
  
• Fixed the empty spaces between platforms on the UOO-1 Sabotage mission becoming walkable if caught in a nearby explosion.
  
• Fixed drag-and-drop reloading being broken for the Colossus.
  
• Fixed the dynamic mission briefing text (e.g. text that displays turn limits) being broken when shown on the loading screen.
  
• Fixed Sebillian regeneration being visible in the fog of war.
  
• Fixed units being able to run off the map if certain cliff tiles were placed on the edge of the playable area.
  
• Fixed aircraft not showing the evasive roll animation in air combat.
  
• Fixed the star skybox not always displaying correctly on the UOO-1 Sabotage mission, and made it a little less contrasty.
  
• Fixed weapon shots and move paths etc rendering under the shroud in certain areas of the UOO-1 Sabotage mission (again, this was a skybox interaction).
  
• Fixed units being able to activate alien / cleaner consoles through solid walls.
  
• Fixed spacebar selecting the next soldier not working for several seconds after pressing C to crouch a soldier.
  
• Fixed the Alien Magnetic LMG not using the correct artwork.
  
• Fixed red text flashing up when right-clicking equipment on the Soldier Equip screen.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Large / Small body size hit chance modifiers were only causing a tiny effect.