Sadly the tech level of the humans at the end of Xenonauts is so powerful that narratively I don't think there's anywhere we can go that would not take the series into completely different territory
Who says we won? Maybe the war is at a standstill and the aliens regrouped, maybe we lost and now have to kick them out, starting out by retaking territory before they have full control. Remember the V-series (the original)? It would be AWESOME to start with a raggedy bunch of misfits and war veterans in a cellar somewhere and end up with a global "Xenonauts"-organization!
Some food for thought along those lines (from Wikipedia, Counter insurgency)
Galula proposes four "laws" for counterinsurgency:[9]
The aim of the war is to gain the support of the population rather than control of territory.
Most of the population will be neutral in the conflict; support of the masses can be obtained with the help of an active friendly minority.
Support of the population may be lost. The population must be efficiently protected to allow it to cooperate without fear of retribution by the opposite party.
Order enforcement should be done progressively by removing or driving away armed opponents, then gaining support of the population, and eventually strengthening positions by building infrastructure and setting long-term relationships with the population. This must be done area by area, using a pacified territory as a basis of operation to conquer a neighbouring area.
Except we are doing this the other way around as we are insurgents, not counterinsurgents...
-- Full 3D - We'd make the game in full 3D with a (90-degree) rotatable camera. I'd also want to replace soldier paperdolls and painted screen backgrounds etc on the strategy layer with 3D models.
3D - yes
Rotatable camera, maybe. Only around y-axis.
-- Aliens - I'd like to add some more aliens, rework some of the existing ones mechanically to be more interesting and also redesign them so they look more striking and "alien" in the ground combat.
Nice. Also make aliens individuals so that I can visually see that an alien that left my view and reappear two turns later in my flank ia actually the same freakin guy with that purple mohawk, long nose, red spiky shoulderpads and a tatto on his forearm. Or something like that.
Also make killing a very dangerous alien rewarding somehow, more loot, medals, "xp" to spend on any skill I want etc.
-- Research / Development - I want to add the concept of 'development' to the research tree, allowing you to continue researching "hub" technologies (like laser weapons etc) to increase their effectiveness if you choose. Choosing whether to improve existing tech or research new stuff should add more choice to the research tree.
Very nice idea!
--Destructible UFOs - the UFO outer hulls should be destructible, which means we'll have to redesign them visually too.
Yes I want to destroy EVERYTHING! In original X-com my soldiers would start at the roof of the UFO and blast their way downwards with explosives. Not that the AI understood the they should be shocked and awed by this but it looked cool! As long as I carry enough explosive with me please let me be able to blow up anything!
X-com apocalypse was awesome that way. If you fought for too long in a skyscraper and used too much incendiaries and explosives the whole building could fall down on you. That was awesome!
Vertical Terrain - we should have hills etc in the game, rather than purely flat maps with buildings offering the only verticality.
How about making levels generate procedurally, at least to some extent? Perhaps with a voxel engine with marching cubes algo?
--XCOM Cover System - I think the cover system in XCOM was very easy to understand and also integrated 'leaning' in an intuitive way, whereas our cover system was a bit of a mess. I think we'd probably switch to their cover system.
I prefer your system. Sure it takes longer to learn but you learn it as it's a game you play for many hours. I presonally prefer if it takes longer time to learn every little bit about a game (Dwarf Fortress anyone?) as once I understand everything then I am just playing the RNG. When I don't fully understand the whole system it's still something of an adventure. Maybe that's just me though...
--Soldier Colour Customisation - I want to redesign the armours so they are more recognisable from silhouette, allowing people to customise their colours of their troops (including having role-specific colour schemes).
I'd prefer the soldiers to be individuals, different height, weight, faces etc. Even on the battlefield.
Make me recognize their faces, learn to love them and then take them away! That will make me hate the aliens soo much more
Better yet, something like:
--UI - the existing UI is a bit of a mess, particularly with regards to the strategy layer, so we'd redo that.
Could use some improvement yes. I wouldn't call it a mess though.
--Air Combat - I'm not sure exactly how I'd redesign this yet, but I think it could do with further improvement.
Air-combat is really good and unique. If you like to expand o0n it sure, but keep it's soul.
--Modding Tools - we've been working on some pretty cool game editors and level editors, so the modding / translation / level creation tools will be much better than in Xenonauts 1 and will handle the "modular mod" stuff automatically.
Excellent. While I am not an avid modder myself, others are and they usually have more time on their hands than devs do so make it easy for them.
Two questions - one, would you buy an improved version of Xenonauts again if we made it? Secondly, what annoyed you about the first game and what do you think we should improve?
Yes I would buy!
One thing that bothers me about the first game is that it doesn't make a difference between physical attributes and skills. If a soldier has been a sniper for twenty missions, he should probably be better at using a sniper rifle than a rocket launcher. If a soldier has been assigned to be a medic, running through bulletstorms to get to wounded comrades then he should be better at patching up wounds. Maybe even save the life of a downed soldier if there is something left
Actually, I think the whole permadeath thing is awesome BUT there should be more I could do to save a downed soldier. When he goes to the ground at 0 hp he should be unconscious but bleeding out. If I can get to him before the enemy then I shouild be able to drag him to cover, patch him up and perhaps perform CPR. Not to get him back into the mission but to save his life! Also there should be a combat-medic badge like in many armies aroudn the world for saving someone under fire
EDIT: Ohh, and also, make the pilots be individuals who can improve by skill. Could be as simple as getting a damage and a speed bonus but make them individuals. It would improve the narrative enven more and there could be a "save the downed pilot"-mission. Or kill him if needed, can't let him tell the aliens where our base is...
Anyway regardless of what you do I'll still be excited to play when it get's out on early access
