Bullpups/Vektor's maybe as a option for Supports. Gives a bit more flex while still keeping them different from normal rifles (Slight bias here as i don't like Primary Pistols that much but having a healer is important)

Alright, I can get behind that. This will be in the next update, just bear in mind:

1) The support will not have marauder, so bullpup shots will be turn ending.
2) Vektor and Bullpup will be locked behind the Factions, you must encounter them first before the game will allow you to select the weapon option.

Oh and the Crossbow mod counts as a Vector Rifle. We could have a crossbow medic.

Sounds good.

@Cato Heresy thank you for the mod. I liked Richards Classes alot and this one has a fun and interesting take on those. I have been playing a bit and am still in the early game, just researched magnetic weapons and am about to take the blacksite mission. Here are my 2 cents:

I am playing on a 4-6 squad with a lot of new enemies and some ai and difficutly mods installed, it is basically the one Christopher Odd is using for his season 5 playthrough. (https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1786820449)

In general the classes provide a lot of early game power, which is perfect for all those newly added modded enemies.

The ones i like:

The Assault and Commando to me feels like are getting too much action point economy. With the commando being able to fire thrice in a turn and unlimited overwatch shots and the Assault getting a lot of action points on common events like getting shot at or having revealed a pod.

The Hactivist has no cooldown on Aid Protocol and it costs one action. It feels a tad too strong being able to buff up 2 guys defenses + Threat Assesment every turn. I have been using it in combination with the sniper rifle on a Marksman + Longwatch and it makes prolonged firefights very manageable with the long range support and extra defense. Beside that I like the class as it is very unique in providing buffs instead of dealing damage by himself.

Demolitions is well balanced but getting marauder and saturation fire at later stages feels a bit out of place and doesnt fit the rock paper scissors approach. I think they should focus on providing more breaching utility instead of shooting which the assault or commando already provide.

The Gunner and Marksman classes are solid. There is a lot of decision making to do, whether to reload the sawed off shotgun, providing suppression fire or shredding a target as a Gunner or marking, reposition and keeping your distance for a rushed shot or killing a high value target with your sniper rifle as a Marksman. The marksman has a lot of build varierty and long range single target damage. The choices are meaningful and it makes engagements and building them and fun and interesting.

The Shinobi is a bit weak in the early game but the later skills look very promising. I have to test it more.

The Support is a cool take on a medic. One of my favourite classes ever.

The less interesting classes:

The Inferno feels a bit useless, because other classes can do things better and provide more utility. Especially if you are using the Rocket Launcher and/or the Chemthrower mod. And as the other classes provide a lot of early game power, the Inferno just cannot keep up with the power levels. I am considering disabling this class.

The Psionic feels weird to me :D I guess I have to play more with it.

All in all good work. I would like to see you doing a rework with the Hero classes and the spark.

Thank you very much for your detailed feedback. This will go towards balancing the classes in the next update.

Re: Inferno - Yeah, I feel you. I really disliked the LW Technical as it felt like an over-powered win-button class (which totally devalued the exo-suit). The Alpha version of the Inferno was way too powerful, so I had to really nerf it for balance. I then disabled it and re-enabled it about eight times before Beta.

I may yet disable the class if it yields better balance for users. May strawpoll it at some point.

Psionic feels weird because of the Blood Skills right? I wanted to try something different from Richard's Mage, but we can always fall back on vanilla skills if the Psionic continues to feel janky.

I can confirm that Chimera Heroes is on the way. My first pass of the Reaper and Skirmisher is complete, still working on the Templar.

I think you should keep the Inferno as an option.
maybe buff it to keep up with the demolitions dude, but I think it should stay for people playing with "no lost headshots" which a flamethrower is basically required for (at far as I can tell)

It's also a lot easier to approximate an Iron Man character with the gauntlet :)

people can still disable it manually if they want.

and maybe this isn't the right place for this question, but does anyone have word on how this works with LWotC?

Some people have got the Perk Pack running LWoTC, but it's difficult. Check in there for comments.

Beta 0.8.2 addresses most of the points raised here so far. Please see the change log.

Main points to take-away:

- Heavy action economy nerf to the Commando, who is no longer the King Class.
- Slowed down the action economy gain on the Assault.
- Demo is more focused on blowing sh*t up now rather then going HAM with her shotgun.
- Shinobi got a heavy boost in the early-game

Just tested out the new changes.

The new Shinobi feels much better now. A bladestorm class without the 100% hit chance like the templar felt much more balanced than I thought. With "Behind You!" you can actually use the Shinobi in a lot of missions early on without feeling getting behind the power curve, like a dedicated scout, a sectoid counter or a counter against early melee threats like stun lancers, zombies or mutons. With that much power early on you can safely translate the Shinobi to a pistolier or a dedicated melee counter in the mid game. I couldn´t have done it better. Thank you very much.

The nerf to Hactivist was well deserved and it feels much better now that it cannot provide Threat Assesment twice + Defense buffs. Now I actually have to play well :P

I didnt notice the other changes that much, but Commando and Assault doesn´t feel so unfair... to the enemies anymore :D In terms of balance it is definitely a step in the right direction.

I have been thinking about the Psionic and Inferno some more and honestly I cannot find any use for them. They just feel way too weak in the early game. I will try and see if high level recruits in the late game can provide some use. I fear that the Inferno will be outclassed by the others as he is being shoehorned being the heavy weapons user too much. In the mid / late game you are going to have much more tactical options at your disposals with items and armors and having a dedicated heavy weapons user doesn´t feel that powerful anymore. Guess I could turn them into Mec Troopers in the latter part of the game with the mod installed when I have no use of them anymore. :)
The psionic still feels awkward to me as it is being outclassed early on as they don´t have a specific role to fulfill. They just feel like a weaker early game psionic compared to the vanilla psi class. As a personal suggestion, maybe you could turn them into a very niche role, like being a dedicated counter against psionic or biotic units where they would stun or having a damage skill which does bonus damage to them, imagine a Hactivist but against psionics. Honestly I haven´t tested them much and this is just a random thought. I will try them out more and come back.

Thank you so far. I haven´t had that much fun for awhile now.

Psionics is good for a selection of things ~ being able to push thing out of cover is massive and depending on what choices you make having a useful kit of abilties to cover things as you proceed. I have found that the random nature of the Psi stat boost to be less useful for direct combat roles. Inferno is a great choice for the Extra action point alone, everything else is just icing.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm also much happier with the Shinobi now.

I left the Psionic out of this round of balancing but I am mulling over a few options for her. The current build of status/elemental damage is feeling janky to me - thankfully I roadmapped a few existing builds during Alpha.

1) Richard's Mage - Comes with Stasis as a default skill. It's really powerful having Stasis in the early game, which is why I cut it entirely.

2) Vanilla Psi Ops - Comes with Insanity as a default skill, Stasis at SGT.

The question is more of what to cut - either Vampire Shots or some of the AOE stuff like Misery & Cremation. ... Probably Vampire Shots and maybe ban assault rifles as a balance compromise.

As for Inferno... The Strawpoll[www.strawpoll.me] will decide it's fate. I am leaning towards disabling but with clear instructions on how to enable it again.

Fun fact, the Inferno was meant to be a flamethrower class with a pistol. It became useless after Tier 2 tech, just like ADVENT Purifiers.

Beta 0-8-3 will allow Field Medic perks back into the AWC pool. (Perks which grant multiple uses of medkits). Now we have a larger pool in CPP they should be uncommon.

Field Surgeon and Combat Medic will remain Support class exclusives.

After 30 hours of playtime with the class mod I personally think the Holotargeting perk fits the Support more (it’s really support-y perk after all), while the Hactivist could use Heat Ammo (more damage against mechanical) at Squaddie and possibly some kind of Repair ability (I kind of vision her as a “Combat Engineer”-type unit).
Also, the Psionic could get a perk to deal more damage against Psi-enemies as a balance counterpart to Heat Ammo Hactivists and maybe some “Blood Magic” from Mitzruti perk pack.
Just my two cents, you do you. Thanks for modding, can’t wait for the Chimera Heroes!