afriend.

The only thing relevant about a game is whether people enjoy it and continue to play it. A game developed on a small budget with great re playability or enjoyment is way better than a triple A title that has serious issues.

If you want to know what is dishonest behaviour by developers, go look up Mechwarrior Online. Read about how they actively prioritise monetization of their free-to-play over all the backers who stuck with them for years. Xenonauts only asked for $20. These guys at MWO were supported by at least a few hundred dollars for each dedicated supporter. Now the fundamental difference between them and Goldhawk is that you can see Goldhawk really rolling out updates and development and you can see majority of it has to deal with bug fixes and balancing. As it is, you have a working product that is reasonably balanced with the exception of a few items. At any rate, you're backing an indie developer and the thing about programming games or any software for the first time... there's a great deal of learning to do as you're not familiar with the design patterns and that can take up anywhere from 3x - 5x more time than an experienced developer with existing resources would. He has no code, no assets to re-use etc.

An easy interim fix is to turn psionic attack into a weapon that has 100% accuracy. Gives snipers/marksman an actual role

Just so you know... a lvl 3 rated throat protector do exist. http://www.velsyst.com/store/245/4/STOP-Vest-Throat-and-Collar-Protector,-NIJ-III-A.html You can always wear bomb disposal armour... and the Predator armour actually resembles one. Also, the thing about burn wounds are that they cauterise the wound... so yes, you get shock but you wouldn't bleed dry...

I would like to revive this thread because for the same reasons I found vehicles underwhelming. Their roles should mirror vehicle roles in real life. If we look at the Hunter Scout Car, you can think of it as a Stryker and the Scimitar as a Main Battle Tank. They should have greater differentiation in the regard that the former should be able to move significantly faster. There needs to be greater variety of weapons. As some has mentioned about having a secondary weapon (often a forward hull mounted anti-infantry machine gun), the primary weapon should also change according to the situation. Right now the main weapon is always assumed to be a cannon. The situation in Xenonaut is that sometimes we want to recover equipment for sales, or there are civilians or collateral damage that is bad. I actually look the scout car in later missions because I thought that the MG was a useful platform for laying down suppression fire as an infantry fighting vehicle to very limited success. I would like Tanks to mount things like Heavy Lasers or Plasma Casters as an alternative to simply big cannons. It could also mount Automatic Grenade Launchers (smaller explosions) or choose the type of rounds it want to fire. Not too sure how that would fit into the canon at Laser and Plasma technology point.

[ATTACH]3375[/ATTACH] Here's a save file of that perfect situation I am describing where a player chooses between using a grenade or a rifle. Given that situation, would you choose to move all you guys awkwardly in front and try to shoot that sembillan down? Or would you rather drown it in a flurry of grenades? (I used 2 grenades in that situation). Remember even if you opt to hide away, he can chase after you and still kill you... reaction fire may also not work for you etc. Perfect Situation.sav Perfect Situation.sav

First off I like to say I'm glad to be able to participate in a cordial forum online. It is a rare thing in the many games I've played. Played on V21 Stable. Normal mode initially. When I first played, I didn't use grenades much during my first few crash sites even though I armed my men with it. It was only after I got frustrated with having to reload constantly when basic tech weapons missed or failed to kill that I decided to load an alien with 3 grenades every time when ensuring a kill was important. I'm currently at operation end game. I just give the androns 2 plasma/fusion grenades. Ironman Mode with Grenades So I went on ironmade mode on insane difficulty. The only real difficulty I see in that mode was that... I built my base in North Africa and I get tons of UFO spammed in the American continent. Nothing I can do about it. That's something that should be changed because punishing a player for circumstances beyond his control isn't quite fair. Everything else that comes into the Europe - Middle East - Africa segment was shot down and decimated. I made sure I had 6 hangars and as much foxtrots as I could starting out (once researched). On Grenade Spamming Efficiency at Higher Difficulty I had 6 men with Shields and Stun Batons, 2 men with Sniper Rifles but all of them loaded up with grenades, smoke, stun and explosive on a chinook. Who cares about return fire? Shield protects me, Smoke reduces enemy accuracy and I don't worry about smoke affecting my accuracy because I'm throwing grenades. Eventually I realised that grenades started hurting my income (to the extent that air-striking was more profitable), so I brought stun batons. Blow aliens up in the open and when in the UFO, go police brutality on them. There isn't a need to worry about insufficient progression. I rotated 2 full core of 8 men (16 soldiers top), shot every UFO down over land and took everything that I could. That ran into a problem when I first met Androns because I didn't had any effective weapon apart from my grenades which just makes me think... okay load as much grenades as you can. The problem with grenade efficiency is not because of grenades but because your ranged weapons are not up to the task. The player is faced with a choice of shooting at say a Sebillian which has pop up around the corner within grenade throwing distance. Assault Rifle isn't going to kill him and even if it does, by the time you're done shooting, you're exposed in the open and if he survives, return fire and good luck to you. That's why throwing a grenade and running to cover is optimal. Note to Gauddlike: I read that on the forums and I did arm a soldier with a shotgun but I proceeded to throw grenades instead because I could ensure a kill.... the best solution in breaching is still to "smoke up" and proceed to use explosive/stun grenades or stun batons etc. Or let the Shield guy get all the aggro then the rest clean up. I like to stress that you should NOT nerf the grenade. It is the effective range of weapons and their respective uses that needs to be considered, not grenades. If engagement distances between Aliens and Operatives occurred at a greater distance, grenades will occupy a niched spot in providing high firepower with slight inaccuracy when aliens close in or in specific circumstances such as tossing grenades around corners, overhead etc. Thereby the player will get to evaluate between shooting from afar with rifles and sniper, risking exchange fire etc vs navigating terrain and coming close to grenade a position. The game has modelled grenade use correctly actually... when suppressed, a person should be able to toss a grenade, smoke or explosive depending on the situation and that is a real life tactic as well. The blast of a grenade is subject to many elements such as the terrain. It is mainly an issue if you don't hit the deck. More over, the grenades simulated here appears to be offensive grenades not fragmentation (or defensive grenades) as evidenced by their small blast radius. Stun Grenades They seem abit useless in high difficulty. I popped about 4 stun grenades on a single sembillan in one of my missions and I failed to knock him out. The gas was so thick, I can't even see anything in it. On Weapon Variety The main aim of any military unit is to be armed to deal with the greatest variety of scenarios possible. If I went with shotgun/carbine builds, I am gimped at range. If I went Rifle + Grenades, I have both long range, short range covered with the added bonus of burst fire. Dropship - I agree. I use it for carrying 16 troops and to reach crash sites faster. AI - That's a bad idea. Right now when the aliens outside the UFO are killed. I just get everyone to march up to the front door of the UFO, breach and clear... like it is a training mission and disregard fire and movement. Crash Site - At the insane difficulty... Airstrike actually gives me more money because I blew everything up with grenades... until I used the stun baton tactic. Then it is back to a matter of convenience again... To increase the danger of the mission as mentioned in my post... give aliens more intelligence by setting them to go on missions and be ruthless. Go suicide bomb, position themselves in multiple ambushes, get them to spring out all at once in one turn to mow down the player etc. The only danger I felt was the "Massive" UFOs that could mind control + cause soldiers to be filled with dread. I used air strike on them until I eventually realised that I cannot capture an alien leader unless I took on such a mission. Completed one with 2 soldiers dead = ( however I think that is a problem more so with balance than with actual... risk that the player can control. In closing... I like to say that throwing a grenade accurately is only difficult only when you're in a prone position...

So I finally bit the bullet and bought Xenonaut and played it for a while. I played the XCOM original and Terror from the deep but didn't like apocalypse and subsequent series. These are my thoughts about the game that I felt needed improvement. I played it once, haven't completed my first run through on normal mode yet. I'll try running on the highest difficulty with ironman mode and see if grenades can simply win the day. Battlescape Terrain There needs to be height differences in terrain and the UFO needs to reflect battle damage and have various openings. In the 2 OG, researching the jumpsuit featured a tremendous advantage in battles because not only you could do pop up attacks (float up shoot, float back down), you could navigate dangerous terrains easily and avoid AOE damage from rockets or grenades. By being able to enter the UFO from different heights gives more advantage to using the jumpsuit as entrances could be blockaded or risky. It also makes it extremely dangerous to approach the UFO as you have to account for multiple firing angles that the aliens could take. Weapons & Battlefield Tactics I used an organic line up and felt that other weapons are totally useless. I used only Rifles and Grenades eventually at basic tech. Sniper rifles don't give me the versatility I needed and their accuracy was pretty crap for rookies. I never used any machine guns at all as some aliens cannot be suppressed and being able to move out of cover and shoot and back to cover is more useful than any suppression effect. What's the point of suppressing say... an alien and you get killed by return fire??? Shotguns were useless. They are too risky to use and if you want to kill anything at that distance... you should just toss a grenade. I used to be in the military so I used battle drills. The simplest assault drill worked. Toss a smoke grenade to cover everyone, proceed to toss as many grenades as you can at the aliens. Rinse and repeat. Shooting is irrelevant because at low levels they are literally useless at hitting anything at a meaningful range. Shields are useless for mitigating damage and what you could do, is have a shield guy spot and have everyone else simply carry and throw grenades. I see little point in the weapon varieties offered because I have this problem. Ideally you would use "Carbines" and this is established in many military due to the capability it offers of both short and mid range versatility. However you cannot "aim" with the carbines in this game and they really function like shotguns. I want a real carbine which I can used aimed shots according to the situation, trading that off against a full length battle rifle which will do well at range and have more penetration. There should also be a "designated marksman" weapon as well for ranges slightly longer than the rifle. So the effective range of weapons should really work like: Shotgun - Carbine - Assault Rifle - Battle Rifle - Sniper Rifle Their real life equivalents (From the 80s for the USA) being: M4 Carbine, M16S1, M14, Any dedicated bolt action sniper rifle.This will encourage greater variety in tactics and adaptation to the various terrain you can pose as a game maker, giving more meaningful engagements for the player. There are issues with ammunition as well. With the normal rifle, I had 20 bullets and I never needed to carry spare clips. Perhaps it is because I only fired shots or Invest TUs into actions that had a reasonable pay off (at least 50% accuracy). As such, I had plenty of excess weight to use grenades which nullified aliens effectively. I have no incentive to built better weapons or variety of weapons as well due to the reasons listed above and the extremely long time it takes to manufacture them. Right now I'm fighting massive UFOs with blue coloured androns with Laser Weaponry but Plasma Grenades. Can't kill it with weapons? Blow it up. Incidentally, I should not upgrade my weapons either because when they get mind controlled, they can't massacre each other with laser weaponry thanks to Wolf Armour (what I'm using currently). Why should building weapons... significantly LESS complex platforms take up MORE time than building an interceptor? I prioritise building my MARAUDER ANY DAY over getting another plasma rifle. Let's see... A marauder shoots down UFOs for me. Shooting down UFOs keeps up my funding from the countries and I get to airstrike it if over land giving me more money. A Laser/Plasma Rifle??? Only if I get to the crash site... have a soldier with decent accuracy... actually shoot something... hit it and damage it... good luck if it resists it. If my marauder shoots it down over water, I don't even need the plasma rifle... so given that, isn't it obvious I rather build tons and tons of marauders??? Besides, I can just throw grenades to kill anything The useless high tech drop ship I get to choose where to drop my man... in a small square that is literally the same as my original deployment zone?! And without cover (as some forum posters have said in another thread). I actually want to drop my men right NEXT to the UFO so it saves me time from having to find it so I can kill all the aliens straight away. Alien AI They really need to be more intelligent. Back in the original UFO, aliens would move about actively, both back into and out of the UFO. Stacking up was a risky tactic to employ as you could have an alien pop out suddenly through the door, drop grenades or fired an explosive weapon and killed everyone. Aliens need to be ruthless in their battlefield tactics, to go on missions to find and kill the operatives who are engaging then. Right now all I need to do is kill everything outside, march up to the UFO and clear it step by step. As mentioned in another thread, ambushes, counter-attacks etc. needs to be done. Since the alien solders have no independent thought, they should fight aggressive battles of attrition. Dealing with Crash Sites There needs to be more information on dealing with a crash site. There's zero reconnaissance, zero considerations. March in kill all the aliens or air strike it. I want a briefing, an overview... to plan my course of action, my area of landing etc. Missions need to give meaningful tactical choices. Air strike should not be just be a decision of: 1. I don't have men available to deploy to mission (my expansion bases which intercepts but no dropships) 2. I can't be arsed to kill everything properly (my main reason for air strike) It should also include: 3. This mission is potentially too dangerous to undertake... 4. There are repercussions from civilian deaths etc. but that is far better than the amount of dead operatives that would happen 5. Evacuative mission. Enter crash site, evaluate civilians, leave and blow up location etc. It should be a tactical decision to airstrike a crash site... not one of convenience. Missions have to feel DANGEROUS. I don't want to go into mission thinking... oh yeah.. rinse and repeat. That being said... Alien Bases are too easy. Back in XCOM you feel extreme dread when you realise there's an Alien Base. Now I'm like... Meh. Just bring more grenades. Research When was the last time people demanded funding from a manager without giving a good reason? There needs to be a Research Proposal (basically giving information) about what the technology that's being researched will do for the player. If not for my knowledge of playing XCOM games... I wouldn't have known what the heck I must research and why it is important. You should include in the short write up, the potential that researching the technology will grant you. Plot holes If aliens need a low oxygen environment to live... by virtue of them crashing and potentially having malfunctioning equipment... isn't it simply a matter of time before they die of oxygen toxicity when their equipment fails??? As much as the almighty power of the plot demands that xcom operatives should risk their lives and go in and shoot... I think a smarter decision would be to simply fire an EMP device (after finding out how their electronics work) and let their natural biology do the rest.