Hi Ed, here comes my feedback:

I played the campaign on the hard level until all 5 soldiers joined my squad. Then I switched to very hard. Just to let you know, so maybe some of my comments are caused by this switch. 

Strategic game:

1. The campaign mode works great, introducing new enemy classes and weapon during the campaign progress is in a very good pace now. 

2. Hostage rescue missions and supporting Ben Dabi missions are great and a very good alternative to the usual "kill everyone" missions. I usually try to find cover and camp there until all enemy soldiers are killed. Having to move to the prison quickly is a new challenge. Very good. You could implement more of those different mission types (for example escort missions or assassination missions).

3. I also like the new award system when completing quests. One suggestion: How about letting the player chose the award? I have plenty of silencers now but had to wait a long time to get scopes. And I was also in urgent need of nades.

4. In my opinion the campaign is over too fast. It took me a long time to get my soldiers in good shape and win the really cool weapons. And then only 4 or 5 maps are left to make use of all that. I think you could extend the campaign easily by some 10 maps or so.

5. Also in my campaign only the last 2 maps were really difficult. The enemy strength was about 7000 in each of these maps. In all the other maps enemy strength was about 2000 or 3000 which is not really a problem. I think that enemy strength should be slightly increasing towards the end of the game until reaching 7000 or 8000 at final map.

6. Scrap merchants funds could be increased. Nearing the end of the campaign I had loads of scrap weapons but all the merchants' funds were exhausted.  

7. I would also suggest to make different campaign modes available: the current one in which you start with only one player and only sidearms and maybe a more advanced campaign mode, in which you start with a full squad and better weapons. The current campaign feels like a tutorial until You make it to Ben Dabi. That can get boring when you have played the game several times.

Tactical game:

1. Enemy behavior is great. Tactical retreats (into buildings etc)  work good. Overall, at level "hard" and "very hard" AI is challenging but not too strong. I haven't found any random or silly enemy movement. That is a great improvement compared to earlier versions. Anyway I haven't encountered enemies who retreat to their fort. Maybe you could trigger that action more frequently.

2. In most matches the AI splits up enemy forces. So some enemies attack and when they are dead new enemies start approaching. I think that is ok when playing easy or normal. On hard or very hard I would prefer that enemies stick together. That makes it really hard to win. Also in most cases the AI attacks, which makes it easy to camp, wait for interrupts and kill approaching enemies. Why not let the enemies camp, wait for interrupts and make the player attack?

3. The time the AI needs for its turn can be very long, especially on the last maps. And the time needed for AI movement can tell you if the enemy is moving a lot or is preparing for interrupts. Especially when only few enemies are left, this can be important information for you where to move, especially if you decide to open a door or not. 

4. Random map design works great. The only issue I encountered are some doors that are blocked by furniture, so you can't really enter a room. 

5. I would appreciate more map variety, e.g. sometimes higher or lower building density. And maybe different vegetation. All the places look pretty much the same. How about more vegetation to build forests, jungle etc.?

6. The retreat option doesn't seem to work well with the new features of the game: When you retreat after having accepted a Ben Dabi support quest you lose reputation every time a new Ben Dabi group is sent to the city and ultimately killed - until you finally conquer the city. When you are on a hostage rescue mission, retreating seems to reset the hostage status. When I hear that the enemy is starting to kill hostages, I can simply retreat, then reenter the battle and all the hostages seem to be fine again.

7. Bodies of killed enemies can fall trough walls, when killed next to a building. 

8. When blowing up a door, parts can fly through walls or the roof (here you can see a part of the door inside the room).

Hi Petf,

Nice to see you back!

> I played the campaign on the hard level until all 5 soldiers joined my squad. Then I switched to very hard. Just to let you know, so maybe some of my comments are caused by this switch. 

Yeah, allowing change of difficulty in the middle of a campaign might be a bad idea. The problem is the militia that the player has already encountered will stay on the current level. For this reason, I am considering getting rid of the feature.

> Strategic game:

> 1. The campaign mode works great, introducing new enemy classes and weapon during the campaign progress is in a very good pace now. 

good to hear 

> 2. Hostage rescue missions and supporting Ben Dabi missions are great and a very good alternative to the usual "kill everyone" missions. I usually try to find cover and camp there until all enemy soldiers are killed. Having to move to the prison quickly is a new challenge. Very good. You could implement more of those different mission types (for example escort missions or assassination missions).

In the next version there will be a new type of enemy, which should add some variety to some of the missions 

> 3. I also like the new award system when completing quests. One suggestion: How about letting the player chose the award? I have plenty of silencers now but had to wait a long time to get scopes. And I was also in urgent need of nades.

The value of the award, is based on the strength of the enemy that you defeated. For instance, if you complete a defend village quest by defeating a weak enemy, then you only get a reward of lesser value (that could be a silencer, because scopes are more valuable). 

> 4. In my opinion the campaign is over too fast. It took me a long time to get my soldiers in good shape and win the really cool weapons. And then only 4 or 5 maps are left to make use of all that. I think you could extend the campaign easily by some 10 maps or so.

ok, seems like a good idea

>5. Also in my campaign only the last 2 maps were really difficult. The enemy strength was about 7000 in each of these maps. In all the other maps enemy strength was about 2000 or 3000 which is not really a problem. I think that enemy strength should be slightly increasing towards the end of the game until reaching 7000 or 8000 at final map.

yeah, I can do that, but only for the "very hard" level

> 6. Scrap merchants funds could be increased. Nearing the end of the campaign I had loads of scrap weapons but all the merchants' funds were exhausted.  

I'm not sure about that, because the player can also earn money by doing quests. If the player has a limitless money supply there is no need to do quests.

> 7. I would also suggest to make different campaign modes available: the current one in which you start with only one player and only sidearms and maybe a more advanced campaign mode, in which you start with a full squad and better weapons. The current campaign feels like a tutorial until You make it to Ben Dabi. That can get boring when you have played the game several times.

I'll think about it. Maybe only allow such a campaign after the player has already completed one full campaign.

> Tactical game:

> 1. Enemy behavior is great. Tactical retreats (into buildings etc)  work good. Overall, at level "hard" and "very hard" AI is challenging but not too strong. I haven't found any random or silly enemy movement. That is a great improvement compared to earlier versions. Anyway I haven't encountered enemies who retreat to their fort. Maybe you could trigger that action more frequently.

this behaviour only happens if there is a fortified place to retreat to. It could be that by bad luck the situation never happened to occur during your game.

> 2. In most matches the AI splits up enemy forces. So some enemies attack and when they are dead new enemies start approaching. I think that is ok when playing easy or normal. On hard or very hard I would prefer that enemies stick together. That makes it really hard to win. Also in most cases the AI attacks, which makes it easy to camp, wait for interrupts and kill approaching enemies. Why not let the enemies camp, wait for interrupts and make the player attack?

I have improved the AI in the next version. Firstly, they no longer do zerg attacks if it means they will be caught in the open. That means they either wait, or try flanking.  

> 3. The time the AI needs for its turn can be very long, especially on the last maps. And the time needed for AI movement can tell you if the enemy is moving a lot or is preparing for interrupts. Especially when only few enemies are left, this can be important information for you where to move, especially if you decide to open a door or not. 

that seems to be as it should be

> 4. Random map design works great. The only issue I encountered are some doors that are blocked by furniture, so you can't really enter a room. 

the furniture can block off passage through a room, but it doesn't really cause a problem, because you can get through the building from a different route

> 5. I would appreciate more map variety, e.g. sometimes higher or lower building density. And maybe different vegetation. All the places look pretty much the same. How about more vegetation to build forests, jungle etc.?

I already do that. Villages can be with just one building, or completely packed. I want to add new types of building in future versions (ruins and shanty buildings)

> 6. The retreat option doesn't seem to work well with the new features of the game: When you retreat after having accepted a Ben Dabi support quest you lose reputation every time a new Ben Dabi group is sent to the city and ultimately killed - until you finally conquer the city. When you are on a hostage rescue mission, retreating seems to reset the hostage status. When I hear that the enemy is starting to kill hostages, I can simply retreat, then reenter the battle and all the hostages seem to be fine again.

Good catch. Yeah, there is a loophole for the case of the hostage quest. I will fix that. However, in the case of a support quest,  if the Ben Dabi militia are killed  then the mission is a failure (you are actually told this when you accept the quest)

> 7. Bodies of killed enemies can fall trough walls, when killed next to a building. 

This happens because there was a wall on each side of the soldier and he did not have any place to fall

8. When blowing up a door, parts can fly through walls or the roof (here you can see a part of the door inside the room).

> That can happen because of the nature of the physics library, but it should only happen very rarely though

So good to see this project grow!

Yes, this year I hope to get it to a level where it can be released on Steam. 

Thanks very much for your feedback!