Chris Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 OK, I figured I'd better post one of these up because it's coming to the end of February and there's been some radio silence over the past week or so. First thing to say, I hope we'll have a new build out in the next couple of weeks. This will have AI in it again, the new Ground Combat UI and some significant UI upgrades to the Air Combat, amongst other things. We've also added a new UFO to the game and are working on the ground tiles for that at the moment. They should be in there too, along with the new tiles for the crashed alien Scout which include crash damage to the craft and the ground around it. Rendering has also continued, but I don't think we're ready to add any new alien races quite yet. We've also been adding quite a few functions to the game in terms of customisation - the points at which certain missions become available to alien UFOs and the points at which more powerful UFOs (and what type of UFO) are all completely moddable now. We've also made the base building maintenance and construction times moddable, so essentially we should have all the tools to properly start balancing the game shortly. Major developments this month have been: 1) We've parted company with our previous AI coder due to a lack of results achieved since when we picked him up at the end of December. We've got someone else taking over at least temporarily so we have some basic AI in place for the upcoming build - aliens will look around, shoot and move at the very least. Then we'll do the advanced AI in a less rushed manner once the game is at least playable. My apologies for the delays on this; it's been a bit of a problem area for us. 2) We're still looking at the Kickstarter fundraising thing with a mind to do it sooner rather than later, but it's just a question of finding the time really. Just keeping on top of all the work coming in can be difficult by itself! 3) Finally, our website was hacked repeatedly last week. There was a vulnerability in one of our Wordpress plugins that allowed hackers to place redirection code on our front page. I think it's fixed now, but basically it took up quite a lot of my time getting that done. Could have done without that. I'm hoping that the next release will work as a press release once the bugs in it are sorted out. The UI updates we have planned are pretty cool and also include tooltips, so should make the game a bit easier to understand. The crash site tiles will make the maps a lot more impressive, and having the aliens actually respond to your presence will make the game a bit more enjoyable too - there will actually be a challenge! Also, I think we've actually done a lot more this month than I've listed up there, but it's just temporarily slipped my mind... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggarius Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Great to hear, looking forward to seeing the next build, and sorry to hear about the AI coding issues happening this way. Hopefully it will only go forward from here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoIdidnt Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Great news Chris, thank the team for all of their hard work on this and welcome to the new AI coder. looking forward to trying the new build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amiga4ever Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Thx for info Chris ) I was waiting for general update. Next build will rock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigeminal Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Looking forward to the next build. Thinking that is when I'll jump in for 2 pre-orders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Speaking of welcoming a new AI coder. Will we be welcoming a webmaster soon or are you going to keep doing that yourself Chris? You mentioned in the thread notifying you on the matter that it reeally wasn't your thing and in this one that you could have done without dealing with it. Would a professional webmaster be worth the investment or just be a hassel? PS. welcome to the new AI coder DS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anotherdevil Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Good to hear, keep up the good work =] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Nope, the webmasters don't really have to do anything that I can't do unless the site gets destroyed by hackers, and even then I think monthly backups is the most sensible (and cheapest) solution to protect against that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superpirson Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 cool. crazy excited about the next build. I totally hesitated to pre-order because the game had a large-seeming price-tag, I wasn't sure it would work under wineskin. when I got barraged with bugs, I thought it was wine freaking out. little did I know they were all build-related bugs! once there fixed, this game will be epic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbobfury Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 That sounds good, Chris. Really looking forward to the next build purely for the inclusion of some AI. From the sound of it, even the basic AI will function similarly to the old UFO:EU AI, which would be good enough. But are you able to give us any hints or teasers as to what you're looking to incorporate into the more advanced AI functions? Also, I know you mentioned previously changing the way the 'to hit' chance is calculated, so that a soldier's chance to hit isn't negatively affected by cover he's right next to. Has this been implemented in the latest build, or is this something that will come later? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imperialus Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Awesome! Looking forward to the next build. Pity to hear about the AI programmer, welcome to the new fellow though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arturius Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Keep up the good work Team GoldHawk! Earthlings are counting on You! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranTorres Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Keep up the good work mate, cheers from Spain. Oh please just in case... Im still downloading the preorder but I hope you made the Canary Islands appear on the geoscape *wink *wink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slippery Jim Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) I would also like to say thanks for the update. I must admit that I too have been waiting to see how things progress before cracking out my wallet. Money is tight right now so I have to be careful what I spend on. As a mod maker I know how easy it is for projects to lose momentum (or sadly even die). I have been watching the situation with the AI and I am glad to see Chris has taken the difficult steps to get it back on track. Personally I think that getting the Kickstart fundraising going should be high priority considering the recent success of Double Fine. I think many people have become aware of this great system to fund projects and we will see a massive flood of "nostalgia" game start-ups. Don't get lost in the crowd. Edited March 4, 2012 by Slippery Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NullOrdo Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Quick question about your upcoming UI Update: Have you had a chance to fix the Snap/Auto shot, etc AP reserve buttons? By that I mean, are we able to press the button once and have it save our choice every turn? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigeminal Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I must admit that I too have been waiting to see how things progress before cracking out my wallet. Money is tight right now so I have to be careful what I spend on. As a mod maker I know how easy it is for projects to lose momentum (or sadly even die). I have been watching the situation with the AI and I am glad to see Chris has taken the difficult steps to get it back on track. Personally I think that getting the Kickstart fundraising going should be high priority considering the recent success of Double Fine. I think many people have become aware of this great system to fund projects and we will see a massive flood of "nostalgia" game start-ups. Don't get lost in the crowd. I agree with all your sentiments. I have also been reluctant to part with cash as I have seen some solid improvement in art, but have been more than a little concerned about the progress of the AI and other major features/bugs and the possibility of projects losing steam and being abandoned. Definitely nice to see the AI being taken care of and am really looking forward to some positive movement and additional news with the next release. I also think that a Kickstarter fund would be helpful. Although Double Fine is a true success story, a more reasonable goal may be something like FTL. Also an indie game with a smaller budget than Xenonauts, hoped to raise $10k. In less than 72 hours they are now at $70k! Given the definite quality difference between this game (looks very indie and low budget/low graphic fidelity) compared to Xenonauts (really an indie AAA title), I think Xenonauts could do quite well. Another key would be to point out that funds donated go 100% to making the product better! I think folks really respond to that. I even think their backing prizes would work great for Xenonauts, with some price adjustments, I was think something like the following: <$20 - A nice thank you. $20 - Pre-order with early access to the beta. $30 - Above and a Premium Pre-order badge on the forum and a PDF instruction manual with detailed back stories, equipment lists, tips and more. $40 - Above and PDF art book, a digital copy of the soundtrack and a thank you in the game's credits. $80 - Above rewards and an extra game & beta key for a friend. $100 - Above $40 rewards (no extra beta key for friend), a limited edition poster and your name will placed in the Xenonauts rosters so that players can hire you on their team. (This reward limited to 100 people to make it more "exclusive"). Higher awards would have to be decided on by Chris, but I think that is a great start! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slippery Jim Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 I guess I should have also said that once I see the Kickstart page go up I will probably open up my wallet, blow the dust and cobwebs out, and donate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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