alienshooter

Thanks for the new update, Okim. In my last game I've killed about 500 cultists but still failed to get any SCARs or PKP. Will it help if I play the game on a higher level of difficulty? (I was playing on the second level)

Awesome work for sure. Thank you as always. I like all the major changes, especially the weapons' renaming and salvaging. The new weapons are great too. My favorate ones are the saw-off shotgun and modified wargot weapons. But there is one thing bothers me that some advanced firearms are too hard to salvage. I've fought the cultists and local people for more than 30 battles after the wargots' arrival and salvaged like 50 P90s, 10 USASs, 5 L96s and 1 or 2 sets of most other advanced firearms, but still failed to get any SCARs, PKP, cyborg AGL, cultist accelerator cannon and modified wargot rocket launcher. Some other problems and suggestions: 1. The 7.62 NATO ammo is 7.62*51mm in the real world, not 7.62*54. 2. The introduction of R700 sniper rifle says it has a "2-shot burst", although it doesn't. 3. It seems to me that the 7.62mm chaingun completely overshines the 5.56mm one: more damage (350*15 vs 250*20), better range (34.9 vs 27.6) and shorter burst which means less affected by recoil power. 4. Since most other cyborg heavy weapons can be improved by accessories now, the gatling laser seems to be much underpowered. Plus, it's the only laser weapon that can't add on beam generators, which makes it even less powerful than a human laser cannon with focuser or extender. This is unfair IMHO. 5. The calico SMG can't be improved by any accessories, which makes it less useful than other rifles like M4 or AKM. I understand that due to it's unique structure, it would be unrealistic to add on scopes and under-barrel accessories. But how about muzzle accessories? Lastly, is there any good way to get enough ammo for VSS and G11? I've only 30 to 50 bullets of them left, not enough for even one more battle.

I feel that M60 is a bit underpowered too. Compared with M249, it has only slightly better range and accuracy, but much less damage and higher recoil. However, I don't think it's completely useless. At least it's still much more powerful than those "unadvanced" auto rifles (like M4 or HK33). So it seems to me that M60 already serves its purpose. Also, I agree with you that Browning M2 is a bit overpowered. It seems that M2 beats minigun in almost everything except for recoil in 1.3 version. BTW, I feel that SKS is a bit underpowered. Its bayonet does less damage than bullets, so that it's not very useful even in close combat. Plus, even in burst fire mode, M14 still has better range and accuracy than SKS. However, I don't think these are big issues. ACM already has better game balance than most others, and even those "underpowered" weapons are all very cool and fun to play with.

I think that maybe you will have different ideas after completing the game, because It seems to me that there is an advanced human MG that is even more powerful than SCARs (which I think is fair, because it needs heavy equipments training to operate while SCARs don't), and an advanced one-handed SMG that is maybe the best one-handed weapon in the game. I'm sorry if I've ruined the fun of exploring the game for you. Plus, I think that human heavy weapons can catch up with their cyborg counterparts in late game, because they can have more attachments. A PKP with combat scope, gyrostabilizer and flash supresser is no less powerful than a Browning M2 or minigun. A laser cannon with combat scope, UB laser sight and focuser is no less powerful than a gatling laser either. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me that human medium armor + medium helmet already gives slightly better protection than cyborg advanced body implant, not to mention power shield and heavy armor. Also please consider that cyborgs and psionics can only be trained in two classes while it is three for humans, which means that human soldiers have much more versatility than the other two races. Compared with a lv3 human technician in heavy armor (who is most close to a cyborg IMHO), a lv3 cyborg soilder has 2 more strength (or agility) which means a +1 bonus in about 5 different skills, can use wargot weapons, but has less protection and in lack of a few ablities (capacity bonus, deployable equipments training, drones repair). I don't think the cyborg soilder is necessarily more useful than the human technician.

My mistake, sorry. Since 5.56 flechette does hard damage, I would be happy to choose it for new recruits, because I think that accuracy is more important than damage for low level soldiers. PS: Do the under-barrell bio scanner and dopler scanner need scout equipments training to operate? If so then I need to train some soldiers in both scout and trooper to put them to good use.

I think it's because the soft ammos are not very useful in UFO:AS as a whole. Compared with hard ammos, they are only like 20% more effective against light-armored enemies, but at least 50% less effective against heavy-armored ones. In ACM, the heavy-armored enemies are much tougher than vanilla game, so that it makes soft ammos even more useless.

You can use the same old trick in vanilla game: arm your soldiers with shotguns, get to the nearest room and wait at the entrance. In this way you only need to face one or two enemies at one time.

Thanks for the updating, Okim. 1.3 is a great version. I like all the changes so far. I heard that there are some kinds of .50 cal explosive ammo in real life, like APEI-169.

Hi Okim. The new minigun model looks fantastic. Excellent work ! I'm sorry to say that I don't think it's a good idea to give lv3 cyborgs the knockback resistance ability. Please think about the gunman class. Every class in USO:AM has at least one unique ability. Knockback resistance is the unique and ultimate ability for gunmen, just like perseverance is for rangers, or target body parts is for snipers, etc. Giving it to another class just as an additional bonus is a bit unfair IMHO. I've another idea about this: There are some abilities that are mentioned both in the glossary and the game manual, but actually never given to any class in the game, like force of will and run encumbered. If it's possible to use them, how about give them to cyborgs and psionics as unique ablities? I don't think rocket weapon or heavy weapon training is much helpful for lv2 cyborgs. Because cyborg weapons are more powerful than human ones at that time and they don't need these trainings to use. Plus, cyborg soldiers can easily get these training by other means, because cyborg+technician and cyborg+trooper are very common combinations. One last thing, the M14 rifle has even better range and accuracy in burst fire mode than in single fire mode. I find it a bit strange.

I agree with Darkprayer. It seems that the head generation of recruits is level-bonded. The heads of lvl 1 recruits are chosen from only a dozen of different ones, not from all the heads, so that many old faces have disappeared in ACM 1.1. Plus, the starting stats of lvl 1 recruits are bonded with their heads, so that soldiers with same faces always have same stats. The only thing generated randomly is their names. Actually, after completing the game for many times, I've already remembered all the faces of lvl 1 recruits and their corresonding starting stats. I don't know if the heads of higher level recruits are generated randomly. It seems to me that theirs faces are like some mixtures of those lvl 1 ones.

IMHO, the cyborg weapons seem to be extremely powerful when you first get them, but because they don't have any add-on slots (except for M82A2), human weapons can catch up with or even surpass them in later game. About browning H2 and minigun: I would prefer browning H2 in early game too, but after your soilders get higher weapon skills, and enemies get better armors, damage becomes more important than range and accuracy for a weapon, so I feel that minigun is a better choice than browning H2 from then on. I think that Darkprayer's idea about more different lv1 soldiers to hire is very good. High level soilders have different faces and starting stats from newbies in vanilla. Although I do like the change in ACM 1.1 that you can only recruit newbies, it would be more fun to bring those old faces back IMHO. PS: Except for M82A2, all cyborg weapons use mechanic skill right now. How about some new cyborg weapons which use rifle, throwing (mortars?) and close range skill (like thunder hammer in WH40K?)? I know we have wargot plasma rifles and launchers for these roles, but it's too hard to get ammos for them.

I'm very glad and honored that my ideas can be helpful to you. Here are some other suggestions: 1. Please don't make the DMRs too much weaker than full sniper rifles. Or else they would be easily forgotten after very early game. Plus, compared with assault rifles which also don't require special trainings to use, it would be best that DMRs be as effective as them. Considering that SR25 has 70 range and 750 damage per second in burst fire mode, while most assault rifles (except for SCARs) have 20 to 40 range and 400 to 1000 DPS, I think that 50 to 60 range and 500 to 600 DPS would be most appropriate for DMRs. 2. Since you're planning to remove the heavy weapon training from RPK, please nerf it a bit. Because compared with AKM which also don't require special trainings, RPK would have 15% greater range, 65% more damage, 33% less recoil, 150% more ammo and only 10% less accuracy, which IMO is too much more powerful. Actually, I don't think RPK is weaker than M249 and M60 in the current version. Compared with M249, RPK has 15% greater range, 15% more damage and only 5% less accuracy. The only big drawback is that it carries 60% less ammo than M249, but 75 rounds is already enough for most battles in UFO:AS. 3. I think R700 is a bit underpowered. It takes 3 seconds to aim and 2.5 seconds to reload after every shot. So in total it's 5.5 seconds per shot and deals 1000 damage, which is easily overshined by SVD (3.5 seconds per shot, 900 damage). PS: I remember that you mentioned an one-handed shotgun and a revolver pistol before. May I ask that, are they still on your plan list of the future versions? Good luck for your next version, and please don't take offence if you don't like my ideas.

I've just finished my frist playthrough of ACM1.1. Here is something I've noticed: 1. It seems to me that the new P90 SMG is a bit overpowered. When comparing an Uzi or Mac10 with a MP5 or Colt 9mm, you will found that a one-handed SMG is not as good as a two-handed one, but it can be compensated by duel-wielding, which IMO is very well balanced. However, a P90 is already as good as an UMP and still can be duel-wielded, which breaks this balance. 2. It's said in the description that RPG has a longer range than LAW but does less damage. But actually it does even more damage (3100) than LAW (2400) in the game, which makes RPG better than LAW at everything. PS: Since we'll have DMRs as long range weapons that don't require special trainings, why not some no-special-training machanical weapons (HBARs, maybe) too? Or else "machanical" weapons will be the only group that all require special trainings to use. Well, I'm not serious . Never mind.

Thanks for the new version, Okim. You're an absolutely talented modder. One little thing: It seems that you forgot to mention the FAMAS in the changelog of ACM 1.1.