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I'm not concerned about the aliens having a stun attack per se...but I think the four turn duration for the drone stun is too OP. Sure, the attack does no damage...so whats the problem? The four turn duration, in my opinion, seems out of scale with the game flow. Troopers getting stunned by a drone for four turns is far worse imo, than any sectoid attack. Maybe I wouldn't think this if an alien did this attack mid-late game...but the drones come out on day one-ish and beyond.

Raven496 wrote:I'm not concerned about the aliens having a stun attack per se...but I think the four turn duration for the drone stun is too OP. Sure, the attack does no damage...so whats the problem? The four turn duration, in my opinion, seems out of scale with the game flow. Troopers getting stunned by a drone for four turns is far worse imo, than any sectoid attack. Maybe I wouldn't think this if an alien did this attack mid-late game...but the drones come out on day one-ish and beyond.

It's 2 turn stun, not 4.

Oddly, I'm pretty sure I have seen it say Stunned 4 turns, thought it was terrible, and then been surprised when the stun ended sooner. Wrong tooltip? Maybe there's a chance to break it per turn? Maybe it counts Xcom and alien turns rather than the expected Xcom turns?

IIRC, it reports how many actions you lost, not how many turns.

Yes...sorry not to clarify turns vs actions. An action in this case is one side's phase and a turn is both...4 actions would be 2 full game turns. That seems still too OP imo...wouldn't it be more realistic and in line with other game mechanics (arc thrower)? What if the drone stun was 2 actions but with the ability to stun every turn, AKA 'hold'?

The long stun is basically the one thing that makes me consider priorizing the drone. Without it, you would just ignore it in favor of other targets. I like the drone design, really. It does one thing very good, in everything else its rather lacklustre. It doesnt deal significant damage, the blind is annoying but not mission ending usually. It is a bit tanky, but gets easily dismantled with armor pircing or combat protocol. Also: Hackers can reliably stun it.

Cries for balancing when one enemy does one thing well are what leads to hordes of samey "balanced" enemies. Yes sometimes you will lose a soldier due to 2 turns of stun. But its XCom, Xcom long war nonetheless. Losses will happen, and there are enough ways around it (those mentioned above + revival protocol).

I feel that drones are pretty underpowered tbh. Their aim and damage is very bad. The stun can be annoying but getting stunned is definitely better then getting killed. I already ignore drones most of the time in favor of other enemies. Remember seekers from LW 1?

The reason for the long stun is pretty much as described above. With stunning of 2 actions (1 turn), it definitely felt like it was preferable to have a drone stun instead of use the regular attack. Considering that the stun attack is effectively only at melee range, drones end up having to expose themselves to a lot of close-range aim bonuses in order to use it, so we felt we needed to make the stun feel like something players would want to avoid.

Amineri wrote:The reason for the long stun is pretty much as described above. With stunning of 2 actions (1 turn), it definitely felt like it was preferable to have a drone stun instead of use the regular attack. Considering that the stun attack is effectively only at melee range, drones end up having to expose themselves to a lot of close-range aim bonuses in order to use it, so we felt we needed to make the stun feel like something players would want to avoid.

Thx for the insight I was just thinking that a 'Hold' like attack would be cool. I forgot to mention I think you guy's work is awesome and thank you for sharing it.

Like Amineri pointed out, to apply the Stun the drone needs to get really next to you. Thus if it applies a 1 turn stun, chances are that it won't survive another turn to continue stunning the soldier.

The 2 turn stun is fine, you not only lose the soldier for that duration, but will also have to think how to defend him/her.

8wayz wrote:Like Amineri pointed out, to apply the Stun the drone needs to get really next to you. Thus if it applies a 1 turn stun, chances are that it won't survive another turn to continue stunning the soldier.

The 2 turn stun is fine, you not only lose the soldier for that duration, but will also have to think how to defend him/her.

I'm completely blanking on the ability name, but rank 3 medic side for Specialists clears all mental effects from target soldier. It's a really really good ability.

Also agree the stun is literally the only good move drones have.

Devon_v wrote:

8wayz wrote:Like Amineri pointed out, to apply the Stun the drone needs to get really next to you. Thus if it applies a 1 turn stun, chances are that it won't survive another turn to continue stunning the soldier.

The 2 turn stun is fine, you not only lose the soldier for that duration, but will also have to think how to defend him/her.

I'm completely blanking on the ability name, but rank 3 medic side for Specialists clears all mental effects from target soldier. It's a really really good ability.

Revival Protocol. It was invaluable in vanilla too, as Stun Lancers could inflict long Stuns with their prods just as readily as Drones can -- plus they could just straight up knock a trooper Unconcious. I don't think Drones can do that?