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[sambojin]

Gal: "Hi Doc. I'm not feeling so fresh lately... "
Doc: "OK. Have you been eating well? Going to the mess hall for meals?"
Gal: "We don't have one. We usually just eat anything that runs through the burrow."
Doc: "OK. And do you drink much, do any drugs?"
Gal: "Just the normal amount. A bottle or two of rum and maybe some happy pills on each mission. Sometimes the boss brings us some X-grog over to perk us up a bit too."
Doc: "OK. And do you get much R&R? Any downtime? How many missions do you go on?"
Gal: "No downtime really. There's just us and our powerarmour.  I sleep in mine, it'd be a waste of time to take it off. We usually go on about 2-3 missions a day on a good day."
Doc: "OK. So about 2-6 bottles of rum and some grog and a box of happy pills a day? And have you sought any other medical advice about this problem of yours?"
Gal: "Yeah. I talk to the still workers and the drug couriers all the time. I'm pretty sure they're qualified..."
Doc "OK. I think I'm starting to see what might be causing the problem here. I think you might need to use a band-aid from now on.... "

(it's literally the name of the update FFS. Or maybe Dioxine just had a really bad hangover one day and decided to punish us all for it, by spending hours updating and balancing his mod, because he hates us all! That seems to be the current theory held by some)

[Dostoevsky]

As a person who had backup troops in my main operations bases and felt x-grog was too much of a hassle compared to bandages and medkits, the new version honestly hasn't changed much at all for me. (Aside from condemnations giving overall buffs to a bunch of my troops.)

[Iduno]

Grog is a problem. That -2 freshness per use really adds up. But it looks to be more of a playstyle/item-use thing. Use grog for self-healing when you really need it, but you now mostly want someone else healing you with medikits. X-grog is still handy for the massive +25 energy/-12 stun, but it's no longer your cure-all for everything.

Is that true for all booze? Gaining a bit of energy used to make finishing the missions that much faster. Beer, Sake, and one other thing increased energy and removed stun. Good for running in the heat.

It might just be people refusing to change how they play a bit, rather than there being a massive problem here. Yes, it's a hassle if you've got to make these changes over 6 bases in a campaign you've been playing for months. Yes, medikit healing is harder to do than drinking rum. But Dioxine has just changed the tools you use and the advantages/disadvantages of them (rum/x-grog/etc was simply superior to actual healing items before),  and made stuff like mess halls a requirement for combat bases, he hasn't "totally destroyed/changed his own game" because of this new mechanic. Not relying on one team of uber ubers constantly, and having actual disadvantages to "otherwise supercedes an entire class of items" items, isn't really a bad thing.

That's the beauty of X-piratez. Its always changing slightly, you just have to change with it and find new ways of doing things.

My issue with it is that it's intended to force you to finish in fewer turns. But it punishes you for using anything that speeds you up, and also for taking damage. So the correct way to respond is to go slower and take fewer risks/don't waste energy running. It does the opposite of what it's intended to do.

To be fair, I have a bunch of spare gals so I can do a lot of missions, and try to finish quickly anyway (2-3 rounds if I don't need to hunt for enemies). So I know for sure that his anti-camping stuff has forced me to camp more.

Plus, medkits were better in that they train bravery. Now they're better 2 ways.

[Robsoie]

About that freshness unbalanced thingy, i noticed on the xpiratez board someone pointing a problem with an armor you may carry depending on playstyle :

The Admiral de Corazon drains freshness by 8 per round at 100 moral. That's 40 after 5 turns. That doesn't seem very balanced.

Edit: My guess is this is a typo in the ruleset and the value is supposed to be -0.008 and not -0.08. Would be nice if you can comment on that Dioxine, so that I can put the right intended value.

[sambojin]

Ouch. I was going to go for the gold codex too, just for the lash/flag shenanigans and bravery damage stacking (handles and XG Assaults become absurd with 200 bravery). Might just hold off if -8 freshness a turn was actually intended.

It'd be nice if Gold actually got a good bit of cash. 6 gold bars is only 240k. 10 would be nicer, for 400k, or 2 brainers worth. Or an entire replacement team of 8 gals. So if you're behind in some things, did silly research paths, or are freshness/injury lagged out to tiny team sizes,  you can catch up. If you're ahead, you get free toys/facilities to keep churning along. Does the lash and flag work properly now? Between the outfit being freshness borked, the money not being great, and the items possibly being broken, it's really just the craft, the magical girl outfit for late-game, and the space suits for now. I think they fixed the lash/flag though. Hope so.

I guess you could look at it as 1 free brainer and 1 almost free gal (or 4 free gals) as it is, which isn't too far off Green codex's 3 free lunatics, but more money would be nice.

Grog is a problem. That -2 freshness per use really adds up. But it looks to be more of a playstyle/item-use thing. Use grog for self-healing when you really need it, but you now mostly want someone else healing you with medikits. X-grog is still handy for the massive +25 energy/-12 stun, but it's no longer your cure-all for everything.

Is that true for all booze? Gaining a bit of energy used to make finishing the missions that much faster. Beer, Sake, and one other thing increased energy and removed stun. Good for running in the heat.

Pretty sure most booze is -2 freshness now. So if you're going to use it, a last minute stamina run isn't horrible (-2 won't do too much to your downtime requirements). It's more-so taking 3 swigs of rum to heal injuries, etc, that really stacks the amount of freshness loss up. It's probably better than being injured (injury time means no freshness gain while healing back at base as well as freshness loss for the wounds AFAIK), but use it sparingly. A 1-off, -2 freshness hit for a tonne more energy to run around and finish the mission earlier with is probably manageable though. I'll probably still be taking an X-grog barrel holder along, but she'll only be a medic-of-last-resort.
 

[Robsoie]

new version has been released, "K2"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

v.K2 2-Nov-2019 Ice Ice Cool
- OXCE upgrade to 6.1.1. 2-Nov-2019
- Fix: more tile fixes (thx to Meridian)
- Fix: bugged Space Station tile fixes from K1
- Fix: morale regen on Space Pod/Gal
- Fix: enemy radar circles were not being always drawn
- Fix: Trapmaster condemnation
- Fix: heat/cold resistances on items
- New Mission: Beach Sweep
- New Weapons: Heavy Rifle, Advanced Minigun, ATGM Launcher, Servo Mortar, Hand Mortar, Bootleg Plasma (x4), Singing Spear
- New Ammo: Bombard/WP, Minigun/ETAP, HMG/MAG (x3), Combat Bow Explosive Arrows
- New Music
- White Dragon has BH Tokens and offers prizes now
- Enemy fighters have lower weapon ranges
- Most enemy hunter-killers tries to flee when damaged instead of fighting to the death now
- Menace class ships got STC slots, weapons slightly reshuffled
- Shadowbat's armaments changed to 2xLT, 2xSTC
- Missiles buffed
- Admiral outfit buffed
- Throwing cost changed from 30 TU flat to 40% TU
- Grenade unpriming cost reduced, priming costs revised (baseline is now 30% TUs)
- Instant Explosives cost changed from flat to % (baseline assumed 70-75 Max TU), added unique strings
- Reduced extreme morale damage on most incendiaries (flamers excluded)
- Added unique rank images for Syns; fixed Lokk'Narr & Gnome ranks
- Adjusted ship attack bonuses for Mercs and Zombies
- Improved map light sources
- Additions, Fixes, Rebalances

[Aoi]

Well, there's a new update that just dropped.

Among the highlights:
- Admiral outfit buffed (fixed, I guess?)
- A lot of rebalancing for thrown explosives, now that we can't indefinitely pre-prime them.

Edit: Darn it, I beat the previous poster when I started the post... then had to take a phone call. =(

[sambojin]

I'll have to d/l it tonight. Hand mortar sounds interesting.

[Iduno]

I'll have to d/l it tonight. Hand mortar sounds interesting.

It's a one-handed mortar. That will be great until you blow yourselves up.

[sambojin]

Ourselves? No, just all the other gals. Not me. What could possibly go wrong?

Here's the ruleset data. 50% accurate snap fire (yes, snap fire. You will occasionally just lob a mortar shell into the midst of your gals on the enemy's turn if you're not careful with your TUs and have *good* reactions), on 50%firing+50%strength modifier. So, umm, 25-35% accurate. 50%TUs to fire it as well, so a light slap or two with an officer's lash and you can pump out two rounds a turn (20TU reload, so cheaper than I'd thought it would be, but may require quite a lot of lashing). 20 stun damage just to fire it though, so maybe not 2-rounds-fired-with-lashing a turn....  40 melee damage with low accuracy 33%++ stuff, 16TUs/24Energy, and +85% strength damage, so you can hit people surprisingly hard with it in melee. A couple of times, until you're exhausted and probably half stunned from firing it as well.

Uses proper full-sized mortar shells, so when problems occur, they really occur.

Anyway, here's the raws:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

- type: STR_HAND_MORTAR
    categories: [STR_BAT_CAT_GL, STR_BAT_CAT_SMOKE]
    requiresBuy:
      - STR_BOUNTY_HUNTING_PRIZE_HAND_MORTAR
    size: 0.5
    costBuy: 65000
    costSell: 20000
    weight: 36
    bigSprite: 3231
    floorSprite: 437
    handSprite: 1288
    bulletSprite: 4
    fireSound: 2
    reloadSound: 512
    compatibleAmmo:
      - STR_MORTAR_SHELL_HE
      - STR_MORTAR_SHELL_I
      - STR_MORTAR_SHELL_SMOKE
      - STR_MORTAR_SHELL_GAS
      - STR_MORTAR_SHELL_NUKE
      - STR_MORTAR_SHELL_FUSION
    accuracySnap: 50
    accuracyCloseQuarters: 80
    costSnap:
      time: 50
      stun: 20
    accuracyMultiplier:
      firing: 0.5
      strength: 0.5
    tuLoad: 20
    costThrow:
      energy: 20
      time: 40
    battleType: 1
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 60
    arcingShot: true
    dropoff: 1
#melee segment
    meleeHitSound: 62
    meleeAnimation: 10
    meleeType: 3
    meleePower: 40
    meleeBonus:
      strength: 0.85
    meleeAlter:
      RandomType: 2
      FixRadius: 0
      IgnoreDirection: false
      ArmorEffectiveness: 1.0
      ToStun: 1.5
      ToArmorPre: 0.1
    accuracyMelee: 100
    meleeMultiplier:
      flatHundred: 0.34
      melee: 0.33
      strength: 0.33
    costMelee:
      time: 16
      energy: 24
    flatMelee:
      time: true
#segment end
    experienceTrainingMode: 4
    attraction: 8
    listOrder: 13850

(I kind of love this as a weird, quirky weapon. Dangerously impractically practical. A REAL gal's grenade launcher . Or assault/mini-cannon. The definitive upgrade of high damage/low accuracy fire support is now. We have the technology!¡! And people say training reactions is a hoop you have to jump through....  Now it's a burning ring of fire!)

(accuracy smackuracy. 120HE damage makes for a pretty big "didn't miss" arcing explosive shot. It will hit the ground (or a tree or something), somewhere. On reaction fire or not. And if you need to get tactical, 90burn w/decent morale damage and a 5-tile radius does enough anyway. Lowered morale damage from fire-type weapons doesn't mean "no morale damage" when it's in decent lumps. "Can't make that arc, Captain"? Move and fire, and maybe have a few drinks for some laughs shortly. Fresh as a daisy in two days anyway)

[Iduno]

(accuracy smackuracy. 120HE damage makes for a pretty big "didn't miss" arcing explosive shot. It will hit the ground (or a tree or something), somewhere. On reaction fire or not. And if you need to get tactical, 90burn w/decent morale damage and a 5-tile radius does enough anyway. Lowered morale damage from fire-type weapons doesn't mean "no morale damage" when it's in decent lumps. "Can't make that arc, Captain"? Move and fire, and maybe have a few drinks for some laughs shortly. Fresh as a daisy in two days anyway)

Although burn damage has been seriously nerfed this release. I think the goal was mercenaries wouldn't have morale problems (even though that's their one weakness) unless you hit them with ~3 incendiary grenades. I assume capturing reapers with molotovs is likewise gone now, because they will absolutely die before morale does anything. Too bad, that was fun, and worked about half the time, so it appeared to be properly balanced. At least I don't have to bother with any grenades at all anymore.

[Rince Wind]

Mercy are weak to bio, charm and decently weak to laser. Cutting works pretty well as well.

[Iduno]

I'm starting to see how slaves and vassal farms are insanely powerful. Did you know vaults are for suckers, and you can solve your storage needs by having people just carry stuff around for you? I think half of my bases have a negative amount of stuff stored at them, plus I'm getting a few million dollars/month in passive income (although more than half of that money is a casino, followed by power and plantations).

I just realized that the nerfs to gambling (including the suspicious device that nukes a base to punish you for gambling) means the proper use of chips is to build a casino base to replace my plantation base (if I were to upgrade). I'll be able to afford that Conqueror-building base in no time.

I wish there were some changes to make playing the game less punishing. Leaving the ship first turn? Punished by getting reaction-shot to death. Not leaving it? Punished by being shot through windows. Running around taking out enemies? Any injuries now also prevent healing freshness (a new secondary HP) on top of the extra freshness loss from doing too much, both to punish you for doing too much. Not doing enough? Also punished by freshness, unless you can lower your morale. Trying different tactics? Those are too viable, so they've been nerfed into oblivion. It's all stick and no carrot, and any attempts to point that out are shot down. I doubt I'll ever pick the game back up after finishing this run, because it's just tiring.

Mercy are weak to bio, charm and decently weak to laser. Cutting works pretty well as well.

I think I made 2 seductress outfits to test them, but didn't like them because they can't run (Stupid heels) enough to prevent enemies from shooting at you, and also don't have armor.

It also takes freshness in the new version, so you can only use it a few times/month. I think with a maximized base, you can get it down to like 1-2 days of rest per use. It still compares well to using bugeyes in the new version, but most things do.

[Mathel]

My run is almost done (I am making annihilators and Hellerium fuel capsules. Annihilators will likely be done first, so once I have Conqueror I go to Mars). But two of my gals are lunatics. Yes, they survived since the start. One of them has been using a shield for about as long as shields were accesible, her current one is a Shotgun shield with Uranium Ammo.
Once I get the One-handed mortar, she will use it as her gun. This will be !!fun!!.

[Iduno]

I played for 1 mission (and it was only a watchtower). Then I got a notification about a maid mansion, and quit the game in pre-emptive frustration at the mission.