Well, I dont have any Linux-related feedback, just some general feedback on the recent changes.
The new method of working out the difficulty levels with enemy health works out pretty darn well, actually. It's interesting how it ends up working out; enemies that could previously be defeated in one hit now take multiple, and many of them will now require some different tactics in order to defeat. This also makes the really heavy weaponry, like some of the Epic Sniper stuff, have alot more importance, while weapons like machineguns are good for finishing off weakened foes, saving the bigger ammo for later.
This also had an effect on sentries and regen. Previously sentries could often kill things themselves in one or two hits, which was starting to seem a bit overpowered. That's no longer the case; the only way to make that happen now is to use a whole pile of the things in one area. Often though, a better use is to have one or two near difficult spots, aiming at the same enemies you're firing at, essentially boosting your damage level per turn. Choosing where and when to use these isnt so easy anymore. As for regen, I've found that with these changes there's little chance of going through a whole mission without taking some hits. Depending on what you're fighting, and your surrounding, you're GOING to take some damage in many situations. Having a big tanky guy with 80 regen really helps with that, depending on what I'm fighting. My assault Exo is the one doing that right now, and it's great for dealing with things like TeslaBots; I can absorb their damage, and step away to heal before other bots get a chance to fire. Of course, this doesnt work whatsoever against heavy attacks. Basically though, the regen felt OP as well in earlier versions, but I'm not finding that to be the case here. It's now useful without being absurd. Also, lower-range bots like SilenceBots can now actually get close enough to attack, which wasnt happening before.
The only real balance issue I ran into was THIS:
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=12556 Which involves CommandBots. They're the only ones I've seen that have balance problems in their current state. Various other bots became alot tougher to kill, but not quite to the messed up state that those guys are at.
I dont think the overall difficulty of the mode has changed too much; it goes up a bit since you have to use a bit more strategy and cant just rapid-fire enemy waves to death, so it has a much better flow to it, but it's relatively close to where it was before. I'm not losing Exos much except for those times when I manage to explode them myself. Really must stop doing that....
Finally, Overload is very interesting, but at the moment it's much too weak. I got my science guy equipped with that since he has the highest trap level, but it only does about 90 damage to things, and only 14 to the Exo. For the moment, not really worth using. The concept is great though, I can see what that'd be used for.
EDIT: Oops, for some reason I thought Trap Level was affecting the Overload stat, I see it has it's own seperate stat. Still applies though; after noticing that I equipped stuff to boost it by a couple hundred, but yeah, meager damage, particularly for a sacrificial attack.
