Megajoel

There seems to be some similarities, like the concept of having a small squad raid a larger foe's territory. Poor Chris must have been like: "Not again!".

Reporting for duty.

Shields are probably better in my opinion. Late game, I give them to sentinel armour troops. 360 degree vision and the ability to pop up to see over obstacles make them the ultimate scouts. Very useful for spotting sneaky reapers hiding behind trees and such waiting for someone to come along. Your vision cone is 60 degrees with predator I think. In any case, the shield seems to be more durable than predator armour. I've had alien battle rifles 1 shot my predator guys. The shield bearer would have lost his shield at most and still live.

Do the aliens know when one of your units is within a certain radius but not know their actual position?

I regret to inform you that every alien you reduce to blueberry jam is roughly $10-30k you could have gotten from the sale of it's equipment.

Actually I think this is a good solution. My main gripe is that it's too random and sudden with no warning. The player cannot do anything to counter it (break LOS, bring equipment etc) barring having to have all their troops hidden from each other which is not really fun.

@Gijs: Thank you for your patience response. I was sure my units were not spotted the odinary way, but perhaps they were through psionics. I'll take your word for it. If i come across the above mentioned behaviour again I'll be happy to provide the savegame. Cheers!

@kevin: Well that tip is still in the loading screen hints. @Gijs: It's happened a few times in my current playthrough on the current version. To elaborate more what seems to happen very often is that aliens tend to wait behind LOS blockers and camp there. Only when someone approaches do they pop out to give my guys a burst to the face. Out of curiousity what was the solution applied?

First, congratulations to the team for making such an awesome game. I've been playing since Xenonauts came to steam and have watched the game grow to what it is today, in addition to lurking on the forums. I liked several of the changes streamlining various aspects of the game (no more hassle of building individual rockets / clips, not having to grind through too many ufo missions for alien materials, air combat autoresolve, wraiths shooting immediately after teleporting, torpedos running out of fuel before hitting ufo's). I've enjoyed the game immensely since the latest release and just captured a ***spoiler*** praetor. Having said that, I have some gripes. 1) The aliens seem to have omnipotent vision, always knowing where your guys are. While I understand that might be needed because the alternative would result in too dumb / too difficult to code AI, it does result in several rather unfair moments. Case 1: My guys are unspotted, with the aliens on the other side of a hedgerow / high wall / trees. A grenade flies over and lands perfectly on someone's lap. Case 2: Reapers wait behind LOS blockers and make a run for your guys only once they are in attack range. Other aliens camp and only come round the corner to open fire when close enough to deal good damage. Case 3: Aliens reposition according to the closest soldiers, even those behind LOS blockers. 2) Another related point is that there is nothing a player can do against psionics. It feels cheap to have a Xenonaut randomly panic and go berserk and gun down his buddies near to him. Doesn't help that the morale bonus needs a proximity of 10 tiles. 3) As mentioned elsewhere, weapons feel too similar in terms of functionality across tiers. Sentinel armour providing 360 vision and Predator armour making strength a non-issue are examples of nice functionality additions to late game stuff. 4) Grenade throwing is a crap shoot. Soldiers often chuck the grenade directly into the prop right in front of them, with it landing directly on their toes. This probably can't be helped due to the engine I guess. Other that the above I have no other major gripes. Hats off to Chris and the team. Congratulations on the apparent success the game has achieved. Thank you for your passion and dedication in creating this game, and all the best in your next project.

Speaking of budget i think the xenonaut base doesnt have a toilet bowl.

From what I understand you can buy in through Steam the moment it hits as well.

It's happening!

Time for grenadiers? Like those from the cnc games. Who needs the shotgun or pistol?

Thank you for the quick reply. And all the best in future development.