I'm about to finish my playthrough of the game with this version of 1.13. Like some people have mentioned, it's a mixed bag sometimes, which is why every time I install it I spend an hour modifying the INI settings, which has become less tedious with the new editor, until everything is to my liking. For example, this time I disabled the new permanent item damage and dirt systems and enabled the overheating system, making it slightly more severe than in the default settings.
Gotta say, that new disguise and infiltration system is a blast. A bit overpowered and silly in certain situations when the merc has the spy major trait, like being able to walk with the character in the middle of a group of enemies during a firefight to act as an advanced spotter, yet if an enemy dies too close to him every enemy will blame him and he'll lose the disguise. Other times it feels much better and makes for some great high-risk high-reward gameplay where you can infiltrate bases to disarm or blow up alarms/computers or try to pick off stragglers with silenced weapons, throwing knives or a garrote and hiding the bodies, that if it works it's great but one mistake like stumbling upon a disguise-ruining elite when turning a corner or failing an attack leads to your spy getting fucked almost every single time. With some tweaking and balancing this system can be truly great.
Also I liked the new option to trigger a Drassen-style massive counterattack for every city you conquer. You can also make it so those massive attacks happen every now and then, but more than once seems just tedious to me.
I had a great AI moment during the army counterattack to retake Cambria, which happened at the Mine sector where all my mercs in the region were bunched up with 32 elite militia ready to assault the SAM site just South of there. The army attacked at night from the South with a force comprised exclusively of well-equipped elites and from the East with a second force of mostly redshirts. The militia that were closer to the enemy were quickly picked off while the rest spread towards the South and East to set up a defensive line while I hid my mercs in a small wooden building because I was curious about how the AI would act in this kind of situation. My militiamen formed in a wide perimeter and used some break lights to try to find the enemy which in most cases failed, especially in the South where the elites were damn good at avoiding the illuminated areas and it was clear they were using decent NVG.
After a couple of turns it was clear my men were losing and getting encircled, so I ordered them to take cover and most of them ran to the center of the map and set up a decent defensive position using trees and rocks as cover. That's when the enemy used a mortar to send a well-aimed illumination shell right in the middle of the militia which made then light up light Christmas trees and had a wide enough area of effect to illuminate all of my men and none of the enemies stalking them. The next turn the militia received a hail of sniper and LMG fire and sometimes there weer glimpses of other enemies moving at the edge of the illuminated area. Then the next turn an enemy officed called a mortar strike (another new feature) from the nearby SAM site sector, where later I indeed found a mortar, and four shells fell on the militia's position killing half of them and knocking out the rest.
Since nobody could spot any enemies, the game switched to real time mode and for the next half minute I heard how the enemy finished off the knocked out militia with knives. Then complete silence.
I don't know if that strategy from the AI was just a fluke since other times they act as retarded as usual, but holy shit I love this game and this mod.
