Veneke

Agreed with everybody else here: massive improvement on the earlier builds and it plays pretty nicely in its current form. I experienced the same issue with the crosshairs disappearing sometimes. It doesn't seem to actually prevent the shot, you just can't see the percentages. A more curious bug I encountered was when the map would continuously scroll downwards. It eventually stopped and returned to normal operation (without me doing anything) but it was very odd. Shameless (well, slightly shameful but mostly shameless!) self-promotion of one of my playthroughs of the demo.

Not sure how I feel about the impending hidden movement screen - I actually thought that the full-screen cover was quite fine. The mid-late game research screen though... just wow. That's impressive stuff right there.

Spotted this as well, I half-presumed that it was a bug. The Foxtrot with 4 weapon slots was a decent aircraft, with 2 it's fairly mediocre. If it's a balance fix maybe instead of dropping straight to two maybe have two heavy weapon points (for Avalanches) and two normal weapon points (for sidewinders)?

Cheers mate!

Sweet update and no crashes here but I've noticed a few oddities: "Explored terrain in night missions will no longer be completely black" - I presume that this means that we should be able to see terrain previously explored after we lose LOS on it. I played two quick night missions and explored terrain that I no longer have LOS on is still completely black. "Xenopedia now fully populated with first draft" - If this doesn't apply to the pre-research blurb in the research screen then we're all good here. I just noticed that the Foxtrot pre-research description in the research screen is still hashed out. My Xenonauts now seem to be able to carry significantly more stuff without weight penalties. A rifleman seems able to carry his gun, three clips, 8-10 grenades, two medkits and some C4 with some variation as you would expect between strength. Fresh medkits now only have 1/50. I only spotted this when I went to heal a wounded Xenonaut on a particular mission so it could just have bugged out.

Ah, that explains it.

30ish is reasonable enough alright. When I read your post I got the impression that you were looking for them to be significantly reduced. As for flare spamming at the moment, that's a side-effect of the unlimited number of flares. If that was changed (so each Xenonaut had 2-3) then reducing the TU cost even further I imagine would work out quite well. Right now the only thing stopping excessive flare spam is the TU cost and how patient people are.

Perhaps I'm one of the few people bothered by it but the camera auto-focusing on soldiers is a fraction irritating. Following the track of the bullet is fine but sometimes it decides then to recentre itself on your chosen soldier, sometimes it doesn't - I still can't figure out why it does either. Following the track of the bullet is good, but once it's done maybe it should just be left there centred on the thing you hit.

Adjusting TU cost based on distance is probably a good idea, but I'd leave everything else alone. It might lead to situations where you could toss smoke and relocate but I don't have as much difficulty with that as I have with an across the board reduced TU cost for flares and smoke. Which would only encourage spamming, particularly of flares.

Don't think that's a good idea; there's nothing worse than inconsistency. I suppose it could be variable if you were told in advance whether the power was up or not. Personally though, I rather enjoy the very dark night missions as is - the music, the limited sight range, the 'I wish I took the scout car' feeling the second you realize you're not going to make it before nightfall... Adding in more lighting would take from that, I imagine.

Never noticed this but yes, you should be able to walk through destroyed terrain. The short answer is yes; aliens have longer sight ranges and better weapons. You should have a general idea of where the shooter is though based on the path of the shot. I have also noticed this and really hope something is done to remedy it. More maps are being added, though there is already a selection of ~50. In my experience you'll get a better selection of maps in Europe/Asia than you will in the Americas (esp. N. America) but I suspect that this will get better as the game progresses through to official release. Yeah, the clinic (isn't it called medbay or something? Maybe not) speeds up soldier recovery rate. There isn't anything to really show this though in action. Grats on the medal. Some times you have to take wounded soldiers, though I've come across a number of situations where I simply didn't have a full crew. Those were times I wished I had a Hunter scout car. Two soldiers may be better than it in the long run but if you're tight on manpower the vehicles are very handy.

To my mind you really have two options; buy it now at the reduced price (it's going up to 25 post-release) or wait until after release and it's on sale. If you're interested in the game then buying it now makes the most sense. If you're on the fence and/or considering not getting it at all then waiting for a sale might be a better move. I purchased it back in... October/September I think? It was worth 20 dollars then and it's been getting steadily better since.

Maps can get a bit repetitive at present but there are people working on map packs and more will be added as the game moves through beta. Short answer is yes. However, it may not seem like that at the start as you have to work for your research. Unlike in, say, Civilization, where you can see all research until the end of time in Xenonauts you have to shoot stuff down, loot it from the crashed UFO and then you can research it. It's certainly more realistic but it can give the impression that the research tree is smaller than it actually is. Names and loadouts yes. Images no. It's also worth mentioning that, depending on what you do with your soldiers, they can earn medals from combat. It's a really small thing but I personally adore it. In terms of in-game time? The stated goal is that a successful run-through should take a year unless you deliberately drag it out. So far I haven't been able to complete the game so how long it takes in real-time I have no idea. The goal is for ~50 missions but in my experience it's been substantially more than that and the community response to ~50 missions was that it was a little on the light side. Each mission takes anywhere from 10-60 minutes and then you'll have down-time, air combat, managing your base and so on. I reckon that, roughly, it'll come to ~15 hours for one playthrough but that's pulled completely out of the air. If it was longer than that I wouldn't be terribly surprised. Ever played Dwarf Fortress? It's like that. The game doesn't care whether you win or lose and, by god, the AI is out to win. It's handicapped in the tactical battles at present because it still needs to be fine-tuned but it's definitely getting there. Highly moddable plus substantial time and effort on Chris' part is a good indication of long-term future support. However, none of us here are clairvoyant. Good. It needs to be balanced in some areas and you kinda need to know a few things going in - Xenonauts is not a game where your first blind playthrough will go particularly well. For instance, one thing that caught me out my first couple of tries was that the base didn't come with a medlab so my wounded soldiers weren't healing. It's an easy fix once you spot it but it can, at times, require some forethought and past experience. Otherwise though I've found it particularly enjoyable and, like the original game, you can have multiple bases - which is awesome.

Completely agree, especially with regards to cover, but he does have a small point with regards to the black fog of war. I don't think it really needs to be adjusted but I always thought that it broke immersion a little when you had absolutely no idea what was where. As you approached the landing zone you'd at least have a general idea of where big buildings, points of elevation, the crash site and other obvious landmarks were. As it happens, if the crash site is smoking or on fire you do know where it is but this looks more like an error in coding rather than a deliberate design decision. Other than that minor point though his review is just flat-out wrong - there is cover, there is a reserve time units slider, air combat is significantly more than dodge/afterburner and it is by no means just a high-res version of the original. I don't even think he understands the concept of a high-res port.

Dedicated people to moderate the forum beyond what should already be being done is just not going to work. The steam forums are not that kind of place. In my experience there are really only two directions a steam forum will go: It becomes a hotbed of trolls, whingers and people who have no real interest in the game complaining about the game, usually with a limited understanding of what it is that they're talking about. People with considered responses to some of these are usually ignored and generally lost under a pile of less sensible, more emotionally suspect and typically curious posts. Alternatively, it does the same thing but instead becomes a fanboy club where all critique is judged as hostile and usually degenerates into an equally hostile place. Frankly, people who care and are interested will sign up here, those who don't will stay on the steam forums. Personally, I think that's a good way to have things.