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Version 17.9 of the Xenonauts Alpha has been released. The detailed status is below, which will be updated as it progresses through the various systems - I'm posting this now because there's about 6 hours of uploading to go and I'm going home:

  • Windows Desura client versions are available on Desura
  • Windows standalone versions are available on Desura
  • Mac / Linux versions will be ported across when it is confirmed that the build is stable

This build is NOT beta. It is a significant update but we're still missing a number of features before we can call it beta - I will list these features in another post so you know what we'll be working on.

The changes and improvements are listed below:

1) Updated Launcher: We have put the new launcher in the game. This looks much more professional than our old one, and has a number of new features:

  • Cross-Platform Compatible: All versions of the game will now have a launcher. Previously the poor Mac guys didn't get one (making it difficult to change resolutions).
  • RSS Feed: You no longer have to keep checking our forums to see if a new release is out, as the launcher has an in-built RSS feed for this forum.
  • Save Game Location: You can change the save game directory of the game using this button.
  • Disable Stat Tracking: Xenonauts collates anonymous stats on all players so we can use it for balancing purposes. If you don't want it to do this, you can now opt-out with the tickbox.
  • Crimson Dagger novella: Under the "Extras" tab, you can find Lee Stephen's prologue novella, Xenonauts: Crimson Dagger.
  • AA disabled: Anti-aliasing used to be on by default in the old launcher, and it is now disabled. This has no real positive effect, but on small (laptop) screens it made the Geoscape look horrendous. If this affected you, it is now much sharper.
  • Sweet Title Animation: The alien fleet orbiting menacingly above Earth is now animated. Feel the fear in real-time.

2) New UFOs: The game is still not fully balanced for you to play to late game, but we have final landed UFO graphics in place up to the sixth UFO type (although the hand-painted floor is not yet done for that one).

The final UFO will follow in the next build, along with the first damaged versions. The later ones are seriously, seriously big.

3) Wall Transparency: There's now a 2-tile transparency aura around all Xenonauts and visible aliens, which should make it much easier to see enemies. It's not infallible as it doesn't work for props at the moment, but it should be much better than before.

4) Updated Research: There have been updates to the research tree:

  • The Xenopedia is now a Geoscape pop-up rather than the full-screen thing it was before
  • Jackal armour and Hunter armoured car are now researchable (Hunter at the same time as the MiG, Jackal from the Alien Plasma Pistol)
  • A lot of the research descriptions have been updated. I think all the early-mid game projects have research descriptions now, the only ones that don't are those in danger of being merged.
  • There's a number of new or updated Xenopedia images, including the first three autopsy images. These are proper guts everywhere stuff, just like the original.
  • There's now a pop-up after each research project is completed, telling you about anything new unlocked and giving you a link to the research screen.
  • There's also a pop-up when new workshop projects become available as a result of a research project finishing.

5) Improved AI: There's been some boost to the AI, so aliens should be better at taking cover now. We're not far from a big improvement, but GJ can't turn on the planning layer yet because there's a crash bug in it that he can't find. Hopefully in the next build the code will all be done and it'll just be ongoing behaviour tweaks.

6) Rendering: We've ripped out and replaced the previous rendering algorithm, which was struggling with multi-tile objects and would cause incorrect draw order in some cases. The new one should fix this. Took a while to sort that, sadly it's a sort of invisible thing but believe me when I say it's a big improvement.

7) New sprites: I've done a lot of rendering recently. We've added new civilians to the Soviet Town tileset, and added female civilians to both types of terror site.

I've also re-rendered about 95% of all of the Caesans and put them in the game. Previously their sprites had inconsistent lighting from the different directions and had some setup issues; these should now be resolved.

8) Maps: Didn't make as much progress on this as I hoped, but I've added 2 new maps for the Light Scout to each tileset. There'll be many more in the next version / beta.

Also, we've harmonised the dropship maps across all of the different tilesets. As a result, all the dropship maps are currently in a parking lot whatever the tileset. This is a temporary thing until we get some code in place to let us overlay the dropship shadows on whatever ground is underneath it, which will be in place in the next build.

9) Usability Improvements: We've made a lot of improvements to the usability of the game. This is not an exhaustive list, just what I can think of off the top of my head. Also, there will be plenty more of these before beta.

Geoscape:

  • Alien Invasion research is already in progress when you start the game
  • Second tileset world mask in place, letting us have some randomisation of tileset even if UFOs are shot down in the same area each time
  • "Go to XXXX" pop-up windows on completion of vehicles or aircraft
  • Soldier Equip screen selects the dropship category rather than Unassigned by default
  • The F-17, MiG-31 and Chinook aircraft have been renamed to their Condor, Foxtrot and Charlie designations respectively. This is consistent keeping with later technology designations.
  • When an aircraft reaches a waypoint, the notification now also has a "Return To Base" button.

Ground Combat:

  • Reserved TUs can now be used to shoot with. This is an optional toggle in the options, but is set to allow shooting by default.
  • The Alien Spotted graphics have been updated to look slightly better. Also, the icon for an alien that has been spotted by the team but is out of the current soldier's LOS is now orange, rather than 60% transparency red. This should make it clearer.
  • Grenade Selector (right click on grenade quickslot) now closes correctly when you click on a grenade to select it, rather than having to right-click on the quickslot again to close it

10) Balance Changes: We've done quite a bit of balancing, though this is only limited to the first couple of months (there's been too many bugs or issues recently for me to get too far into it). More will follow next build.

Geoscape:

  • All difficulty settings are now identical. I don't want there to be any discrepancy in the game balance that could be caused by difficulty settings at this stage (we'll balance them later).
  • Aforementioned Hunter / Jackal made researchable, so are no longer starting items.
  • Starting cash reduced to $500,000
  • Starting soldier squad reduced to 10 men
  • Monthly maintenance and salary costs reduced
  • Starting monthly funding much reduced
  • Workshop build costs and build times much reduced
  • Workshops / Laboratories have 15 working space, Living Quarters now hold 35 people
  • Bases are now 6x6 tiles instead of 7x7

Invasion / Air Combat:

  • Longer between UFO waves
  • Missiles achieve lock much faster, so they are effectively able to fire from longer range
  • Cannons now correctly fire at anything that enters their fire arc, rather than having to achieve lock first
  • Scout UFOs are now Small, while Light Scout UFOs are Very Small. Thus you can tell immediately whether to deploy a Condor or a Foxtrot against them.
  • Foxtrot no longer made of glass.
  • Cooldown reduced on evasive roll for both alien and human side, making alien fighters more adept at dodging missiles
  • Scout UFOs slower than before, now the same speed as Condors (but a lone Condor will not defeat a Scout)

Ground Combat:

  • Accuracy penalty for moving and shooting with heavy weapons increased to 50% from 25%. This makes sniper rifles less overpowered as they are much less mobile than before.
  • Machinegun ammo a lot heavier than before, 3kg instead of 1kg.
  • Aliens have much better stats then before, with the Non-Combatants in particular getting a major boost.
  • Should be more frequent spawning of aliens outside the UFOs now.

11) Bugfixes: We've fixed a few bugs too. Not an exhaustive list:

  • Game no longer crashes if you're not connected to the internet.
  • Wages / maintenance no longer deducted before your new funding arrives at month-end.
  • Reaction fire should no longer interrupt actions / animations (so reaction fire should not stop burst fire after one shot etc)
  • Soldier Roles now remember armour correctly.
  • Base defence turrets upgrading correctly again
  • Clicking on the Xenopedia description text no longer makes it turn orange

I think that's it. We'll post up a list of what we're working on for the beta in a separate post. Enjoy!

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This is happy-inducing news. I especially like that we still get to manage scientists and techies. The reduced room is a good change, as far as LQ and labs/workshops go.

Anyway, when do you think, if everything goes well and the build is indeed stable, the mac and linux versions will be ported and posted? I'll probably just install the windows standalone in wineskin until it comes out, but an ETA would be great.

Oh, and thanks for making the Foxtrot stronger; it's nice to know that water pistols will no longer be able to defeat all my aircraft.

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Quick update - the branch version is uploaded and awaiting authorisation now, and the standalones are 7 hours from finishing uploading in Dropbox (obviously our office connection is being throttled, it's only doing 70kbs upload). Once the upload to dropbox is done the upload of the standalones to Desura will take less than an hour.

So this evening it'll all be uploaded and the ball will be in Desura's court to do the approvals.

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