Yeah I've actually put things on hold until beta 10 rolls out. Beta 9 can't be finished, aside from the wildly overbalanced Exalt missions, there is a bug where the Overseer is automatically destroyed when you shoot it down. Beta 10 looks pretty fucking ambitious on top of what they've already done.
Beta 10 (unreleased) Patch notes
NEW FEATURES:
- Before most missions you will receive some general information on the type of map you'll be on. This won't apply on council missions.
- Many new types and classes of weapons will be available, including a line of Marksman rifles (for scouts and snipers), machine pistols, submachineguns, battle rifles and LMGs. Scatter Blaster and Reflex Cannon will no longer be foundry projects but distinct weapons. MECs will have access to laser weapons, and SHIVs a new laser weapon. The Arc Rifle (with Disabling Shot perk) and a sawed-off shotgun (equippable in pistol slot) will also be available. These will use existing models, but they will be sized differently than other weapons of the same "look." LMGs and Marksman's and Strike Rifles can shoot 5 tiles beyond visual range (M&S Rifles require Sniper's Squadsight and are only weapon that can react beyond visual range; LMGs grant squadsight to Gunner when equipped)
- A more involved encumbrance system will now be in use. The net effect is that some powerful and large small items will impose larger movement penalties on soldiers, and you can gain mobility by taking no small item at all. In general, you will be trading off mobility, offense and defense when you equip items. Some extant items balanced against new standards.
- Added Ready for Anything (overwatch after firing if you didn't move) and Paramedic (free action to use medikit once per turn) perks
- You now receive feedback on panic rolls and help from Steadfast perk
- You now can see who is on overwatch
- Added a bunch of soldier heads
- Exposed Red Fog penalties to DGC.ini for player modding
- New Items: Reinforced Armor, Chameleon Suit, MEC Battle Computer, Fuel Cell
- Keybinds Alt-1 through Alt-8 select individual soldiers
- Made some changes to weapon ranges. Shotguns, pistols and machine pistols now capped at 2/3 visual range. (Gunslinger now provides +1 pistol damage and pushes most sidearms to visual range). Jaeger and Pathfinder can have Squadsight at Master Sergeant, allowing shots for 5 tiles beyond visual range.
BALANCING:
- Spaced out early Drone DR upgrades
- Spaced out EXALT trooper upgrades
- Scaled back pace of difficulty increase of Exalt missions
- Sniper Rifles and Marksman Rifles will have much greater aim falloff at close ranges
- Adjusted several perk trees
- Ignored UFOs raise panic by 2 (just like damaged ones), so there's no reason to game the system by quick-intercepting/retreating UFOs
- Adjusted panic rolling so the chances of catastrophic panic outcomes are lower, but panic remains a problem for longer in the campaign. You will now get some onscreen feedback about your panic rolls.
- HEAT Ammo perk now only applies to your primary weapon.
- Using training roulette means you no longer get stat bonuses from specific perk selections
- Eliminated multi-country Exalt clues, meaning it's gonna take awhile to find their base
- Lock N' Load now grants +1 ammo in all cases, and if you take it as a perk ability, using reload as your first action does not end your turn
- Adjusted Diminishing Returns SW option to be compatible with LW
- Red Fog aim penalty capped at -40 instead of -50.
- NSLW: Increased threshold forXCOMHQ Assault to occur
- Captured plasma weapons may no longer be used directly byXCOM; instead they are necessary forXCOMto construct their own plasma weapons of any type
- Significant increases in many mid/late game research times and engineer requirements
- Foundry buildable at start
- New foundry project to unlock air consumables, available at alien materials. UFO Tracking (Boost) unlocked with project; Aim and Dodge unlocked with project and prior techs. Some changes to costs of all consumables.
BUGFIXES:
- Fixed: You can now shoot down the Overseer instead of just blowing it up
- Fixed: Ghost Grenade, Psi Shield, Neural Gunlink will now be equippable by psis
- Fixed: Laser and Pulse carbine strat game texts
- Fixed: Borked Phalanx/Carapace and other decos
- Attempted fix: Altitude strings being buggy; shortened to NOE (old Low), Low (old High) and High (old Very High/Suborbital)
- Attempted fix: Intact UFO Power Supplies blowing up after a turn
- Fixed: Acidized rocketeer fires shredder rocket and gets shredded effect
- Fixed: You can't sell "rebuild SHIV" projects in the Gray Market
- Fixed: Bugged settings for alien upgrades; they should scale properly with difficulty now
- Attempted Fix: Rapid Fire does not work on Carbine weapons
- Attempted Fix: Certain items applying Alien Grenade charges
- Attempted Fix: Ammo Conservation failing sporadically with soldiers
- Fixed: Seekers re-strangling targets when they should be running away.
- Fixed: Seeker AI also trying to cloak repeatedly when in range of battlescanner. Reported CTDs possibly related to this (or vanilla bug)
- Fixed: Suppression bugfixes leaving space formerly occupied by suppressor closed off and interfering with sightlines
- Fixed: Should be able to equip advanced MEC weapons now
- Fixed: Soldiers should properly load saved loadouts during alien base assault
- Attempted fix: Satellites being randomly shot down with no visible hunt mission at end of month
- Attempted fix: Implemented updated pod randomization code to eliminate bad spawns and mix up the altitude an alien will appear at on multi-level maps
- Fixed: SCOPE upgrade bonus not appearing for SCOPES in crit line items (but is appearing for laser sights)
- Fixed: Rush-building a Foundry project initially displays the wrong (unrushed) time in the upcoming events list.
- Fixed: Rush-building a facility is confusing. In the upcoming events list, it displays the full time required to build, which then decrements twice as fast. In the facilities UI, it is displayed correctly.
- Fixed: Proportional meld on rush build projects not working
- Fixed: "Click to remove" option in gene lab (after picking a gene mod, and then trying to remove it) doesn't remove the gene mod from your queue
- Fixed: Covert operative loadout doesn't report hp bonuses from covert ops armor/plating items
- Fixed: You sometimes have a "build the arc thrower" objective after building an arc thrower
- Fixed: Removed Neural Damping from aliens (was causing lockups)
- Fixed: Animations firing at odd times when using certain carbines
ISSUES:
Confirmed (Major):
Reported (Major):
- Escort missions Carlock, Thorne, presumably Van Dorn, Anna Sing and Zhang) escort missions bugged; -- they appear to get extra hp that can't be healed (doesn't have a box around it), and sometimes wounded/poisoned escortees prevent completion of the mission, even when it should be. Appears to be vanilla bug?
- Vanilla bug of all construction stopping when Skyranger is airborne, at least provide a warning?
- Cyberdisc death blossom sometimes seems to get confused by soldier altitude
- Hang during alien movement duringXCOMHQ assault
- CTD during MEC equipping
- Automatic success on 19 successive psi trainings
- Sporadic reports of council becoming stuck on a specific item request, making it over and over
- Psi soldiers can select neural damping
Display / Informational / interface only Issues
- Council nation left UI popup not showing lost countries 9+ in the lights
- With smoke grenade perk, smoke grenade counter doesn't decrement immediately after use, any refresh action will update
- Interceptor Rename button doesn't work with gamepad controllers
- Some controllers don't work with expanded perk tree interface
- Suppressing soldier vocalization is that they are being suppressed (connected to suppression/break cover change?). Occurs in female soldiers, in English and German (and possibly others)