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Xenonauts V1.04 Released!


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I kind of had a feeling, but was holding out a few hopes. On the download page,

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 7.41.01 PM.png

it shows this. I thought maybe the version I would download would have been one of the patched versions. As it stands, the current Mac version doesn't seem very engaging to me, and it's trying to fit far too much information on the screen. On my desktop everything reads just fine, but on my Macbook, all of the type is very tiny and hard to read.

Looking forward to more polished versions. Everything I have read says this is going to be outstanding!

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 7.41.01 PM.png

577e7cf347dac_ScreenShot2014-06-11at7.41

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I guess your Mac has a retina display and an insanely high resolution.

This means that it is scaled for a much bigger screen.

So you should be fine by chosing a different resolution according to your screen size.

What is the resolution of your Mac screen? And what is it's size in inch?

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OK. Since I've been a Mac user, I haven't been as aware of the specifics of my hardware, but I was able to track it down. The default resolution is 1280 x 800 and I believe it's a 13 inch screen. My regular games are Civ V and X-com, both of which display beautifully. Xenonauts seems to have information EVERYWHERE. I couldn't get a screen shot, even when I tried to launch it in windowed mode.

It's possible some graphics issues have been addressed, and I'm just seeing an old version. I can't read the time in the top left, I can barely read the updates at the bottom, too. It would be easier if the type were larger and they were displayed over the map. I honestly haven't done much more than that. I looked at some different screens yesterday on my large Mac, but today I just wanted to jump into the game play to see how it felt.

Should I try launching it in a lower resolution?

Thanks for the tips and help. I missed out on getting the X-com sequel when it was on sale on Steam, and thought I would get this after reading so many positive comments.

--Edit-- Not many choices in resolution. Found one that let me use windowed mode. Is that how the windows version looks? Screenshot :

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 9.07.38 PM.jpg

Screen Shot 2014-06-11 at 9.07.38 PM.jpg

577e7cf358d5f_ScreenShot2014-06-11at9.07

Edited by Thefunkbox
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Great! Now it feels like the game is getting close to being done.

I'm completely against this. They should remain hidden if not within radar range. It should require for the player to meticulously path interceptors to scan the uncovered area for bases where funding consistently drops. That's how the OG was, and that's the right way to do it IMHO.

Problem is, that without radar range, you can't be sure, if funding loss isn't because of constant ufo landing and other activity on territory, which you still, anyway, don't see with radar range. So if you even consider, that there might be base, you still need to spot it first. But imagine, that this base is somewhere very far cornered, where even your foxtrots can't reach with their own radar range. Don't you think that such small thing will ruin your game, that you simply just can't spot that goddamn base, and later on, you even just drop off, because you're tired for searching that base, which, actually, might not be there as well.

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OK. Since I've been a Mac user, I haven't been as aware of the specifics of my hardware, but I was able to track it down. The default resolution is 1280 x 800 and I believe it's a 13 inch screen. My regular games are Civ V and X-com, both of which display beautifully.

Aye, there is the problem. Your screen is small while the resolution is "normal". I honestly don't think that the game is made with having 13 inch screens in mind which have this resolution. Just to give a comparison: The Monitor of my "assisting PC" is 19 inch in size and has a resolution of 1280 x 1024. The smallest monitor I can buy from my retailer is a 17" screen with 1280 x 1024. This however is still a lot of additional space per pixel (it's 96.42 Pixel per Inch instead of your 113 Pixel per Inch). In addition your screen is using a 16 to 10 ratio. which is highly uncommon for such small resolutions. Back in the day when screens were small you used to have a 4 to 3 ratio (e.g. 800 x 600) and only when screens became bigger they tended to become widescreen, a couple of 16 to 10, but mostly 16 to 9 nowadays.

That is why the lowest resolution for Xenonauts is 1024/768 (4 to 3).

To be honest I don't think that there is much you can do about it. And I highly doubt that this game will be adjusted at this point to work on such a rather exotic setup (though that might be prominent amongst mac users).

Maybe you can try switching to 1024/768 and scale it so that you have black borders left and right mich like you would if you wanted to play an old 640x480 game in fullscreen.

Edited by Kordanor
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I'm afraid I've got a crash bug; at a guess I'd say its related to Wraiths attempting to teleport when they don't have enough TUs to do so due to being suppressed, but its reproducible in any case so I've attached a save.

[ATTACH]4146[/ATTACH]

*edit*

Haha, and another really weird one when I restarted that mission. I had a Wraith suddenly turn into a Caesan non-combatant after it threw a grenade. It still made the correct pain/death noises when I killed it and it left a Wraith corpse behind. Save attached.

[ATTACH]4147[/ATTACH]

crash bug.sav

wraith in disguise.sav

crash bug.sav

wraith in disguise.sav

Edited by Troublechuter
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Damn, now I noticed, my third base, which cost me 1 million, now will additionally place radars, that will cost me another 3/4 million. It's not like I'm whining, but bit of sad, that I'm losing money to goddamn last base insanely much. I knew I should quit play for week only after I finish third base. Now, when I'm ready to play further, it welcomes me with another money black-hole (.

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RE: Alien base detection.

Something as simple as a message saying "Alien base suspected in country/region X".

If that is not specific enough, you can add "Heavy alien activity spotted near town Y".

Towns already heavy their X/Y coordinates, so it's easy to find one close to the base and generate the message. That way you know roughly where to look.

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There's actually a slight trick you can do to detect alien bases. Since they drain funding from a country constantly, you can pause-play-pause-play while watching the funding of a particular country. If it keeps going down while you're doing it, you know there's a base in that region. (Although this is largely irrelevant with the recent change).

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There's actually a slight trick you can do to detect alien bases. Since they drain funding from a country constantly, you can pause-play-pause-play while watching the funding of a particular country. If it keeps going down while you're doing it, you know there's a base in that region. (Although this is largely irrelevant with the recent change).

This is the reason I support bases remain hidden until discovered by aircraft radar. Bases deal constant and small funding damage that you only need a few days to find in which continent it is, and then it would take a few flights to locate it, rather than removing the fun altogether by making it what effectively is instant discovery. It is probably easily moddable anyway so no big deal either way.

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OK. Since I've been a Mac user, I haven't been as aware of the specifics of my hardware, but I was able to track it down. The default resolution is 1280 x 800 and I believe it's a 13 inch screen. My regular games are Civ V and X-com, both of which display beautifully. Xenonauts seems to have information EVERYWHERE. I couldn't get a screen shot, even when I tried to launch it in windowed mode.

The game's not really designed to run on a screen that small. It does indeed have information everywhere and it'll really struggle to show it all on a 13-inch screen.

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There's actually a slight trick you can do to detect alien bases. Since they drain funding from a country constantly, you can pause-play-pause-play while watching the funding of a particular country. If it keeps going down while you're doing it, you know there's a base in that region. (Although this is largely irrelevant with the recent change).

I do that all the time, but I suppose that people who are unaware of this may go a really long time without knowing that there's an alien base somewhere, so to some degree the change makes sense.

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Well, yes, if it were up to me, I would do it a bit differently. A tutorial popup like the ones now present, to appear after Medium-sized UFOs, explaining that aliens may build bases. Then I'd replace the current popup that magically locates the exact base with a popup saying that reports put an alien base somewhere near city X, and that an aerial search should be undertaken.

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I hope they reconsider the design. I think there is a lot of extraneous information on the screen, and the display could be simplified. I suppose if that's what it is, then there's no changing it, but 13 - 15 inch screens don't seem to be uncommon in the land of laptops.

I appreciate everyone's input. I did just today notice a Mac thread, so I'll keep an eye out over there for any tips and tricks.

THANKS! You guys are all helpful with your observations.

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Any word on when the steam page is going to stop saying 'Early Access Game'? I'm waiting on it so I can put up a review.

Also the wikipedia article needs to be made more current too, come to think of it.

As far as i know the official release should be on monday

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