Milestone 7.15.0 Released! (Experimental)
[p]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![/p][p]As we're now one week out from release, we're going to slow down our rate of updates to Milestone 7 and we'll only be making further changes to fix major bugs or serious balance issues - every change we make runs the risk of introducing a new bug, and we want the launch build to be as stable as possible! All other changes are being rolled into the first post-launch patch, which we're working on in the background and will be releasing onto the Experimental branches shortly after release![/p][p]As Milestone 7 seems noticably harder than Milestone 6 was, we've taken a few steps to dial back the difficulty - particularly in the middle of the game where the basic Guardian no longer offers adequate protection and the Exosuit has not yet arrived, where many the aliens can absorb a lot of damage while being able to 1-shot your troops in return. That stage of the game is meant to be challenging, but not quite as challenging as it was![/p][p]Gameplay Changes:[/p]
- [p]The Guardian Armour protection upgrade engineering project now unlocks earlier: off Alien Electronics (Observer UFOs) rather than Advanced Alloys (Abductor UFOs). The upgraded armour now provides 25/38 Armour (up from 24/36) and has 12 Hardness (up from 10).[/p]
- [p]Stalker Armour now offers 25 Armour, but has no heavy variant. This means it offers good protection for 8 Weight (and no Accuracy penalty), although it is not as protective as the heavy variant of the upgraded Guardian Armour.[/p]
- [p]Suppression values for all weapons have been unified into a consistent pattern. Previously most Fusion weapons and some Laser weapons were doing less suppression than expected, but the Gauss / Fusion Shotguns were doing far more Suppression than intended (almost 10x more).[/p]
- [p]The AI now makes better decisions when the optimal course of action is to shoot from its starting position and then make a move. Previously it would always move first and then shoot.[/p]
- [p]Updated the Xenopedia articles for the Stalker and Colossus armours to reflect their updated capabilities.[/p]
- [p]The Colossus Power Fist is no longer shown in the Armory inventory, as it's an auto-equip weapon so there's no need to display it.[/p]
- [p]Various tweaks to aliens:[/p]
- [p]All non-melee aliens have had their Accuracy stat reduced by 10%, but on Commander the Accuracy multiplier has been returned to 1.3x (up from 1.1x). This means aliens are about 10% less accurate on all difficulties except Commander, where they are roughly 5% more accurate than earlier versions of Milestone 7.[/p]
- [p]Sebillians and Androns now have 35% Energy and 35% Kinetic resistance respectively (down from 40%).[/p]
- [p]There's now a visual difference between Andron Warriors (light blue) and Andron Elites (dark blue).[/p]
- [p]Andron Elites reduced to 45 Armour (from 50), and Andron Praetorians reduced to 60 Armour and 150 HP (from 75 Armour and 160 HP).[/p]
- [p]Mantid Warriors (Observers / Abductors) now use the basic 1-shot Bio-Rifle, and the 2-shot Bio-Cannon only starts appearing with Mantid Elites (generally Cruisers).[/p]
- [p]Reduced the HP of Mantid Warriors from 95 to 80, and Elites from 150 to 120.[/p]
- [p]Reaper Zombies now have +20 Accuracy on their melee attacks.[/p]
- [p]Various updates to alien missions:[/p]
- [p]Delayed the first spawn of Cruisers (and all subsequent missions) by 5 days.[/p]
- [p]Removed a Heavy Servitor from the starting aliens on the UOO Bridge mission.[/p]
- [p]Removed one enemy from the Abductor UFO crews.[/p]
- [p]When Phase 5 begins, one Harvester always spawns before the Battleships start spawning - previously if you completed both UOO missions as soon as they became available, you could end up in a situation where you encountered Battleships before Harvesters.[/p]
- [p]The transition to large-scale waves of Battleships during Phase 5 also arrives more quickly than before.[/p]
- [p]Fixed an AI hang that could occur if an alien mind controlled an armed civilain.[/p]
- [p]Fixed another example of the grenade path showing a 100% hit chance (while rendering red) but the throw hitting an intervening object and blowing up the thrower.[/p]
- [p]Fixed a visual issue with Sebillians when they fired their weapons.[/p]
- [p]Fixed some instances of the crosshatch obstruction shader not correctly drawing over shrouded objects.[/p]
- [p]Fixed projects remaining greyed out on the Engineering screen even if you cancelled projects in the queue to free up enough resources to complete them.[/p]
- [p]Fixed the capacity bar text becoming misaligned on the Recruit Scientists / Engineers and Transfer Scientists / Engineers screens if you had over 100 scientists / engineers.[/p]
- [p]Fixed more minor visual issues on maps / terrain tiles.[/p]