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Ugliness of the Xenonauts...


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1. Geoscape - more precisely, the flat world of ancient ... is missing three turtles, elephants and whales. Where the Globe? Crisis in knowledge of geometry? It is known that the shortest path from point A to point B - is a straight line. Projection on the ball - becomes an arc with a minimum angle. How the hell did fly over the poles? No wonder that interceptors do not make effective fly.

2. Radar network (grid) - Aliens, welcome to the poles! Build up your base. This is a consequence from "Geoscape".

3. It turns out that the radar is built closer to the poles - not detect UFOs around the base, equidistant, and has a narrow (teardrop) pattern detection area.

Gaps in tactical mode...

4. When should you give a command to stand behind the wall, it is not clear exactly where the cursor is. However, when a soldier is already behind the wall, the wall becomes transparent. Should be corrected to the wall became transparent when hovering.

5. Shooting... It is not necessary to copy the original game completely. Necessary to include some improvements. This applies to the shooting. It would be nice if for each weapon would be nominal distance from which, with proper experience of soldier hit on target to become 100%, minus a penalty for enemy evasion. If the enemy does not have this parameter, it should be introduced. So, for the rifle - the distance from the soldier to the enemy must be 2 or 3 cells. For a sniper rifle - distance should be even greater. A gun for 1 or 2 cells. If the soldier is located beyond this distance - chance to hit reduced to 0% (if exceeded the maximum distance) with all the penalties. If a soldier is closer to the enemy than the nominal distance, the hit rate should be reduced to 50% (maybe higher) with all the bonuses and penalties. However, do not show misses in to ground, when distance is closer than nominal. This logic is explained by the reaction of the enemy on his raised arms and dexterity (a physical ability to evade the shot). It makes sense to consider the orientation of the enemy towards the shooter: see or not see.

6. Somehow, all participants in the battle - deaf or not use auditory organs. How about such a thing? You can introduce quiet (light) armor to sneak up from behind the enemy. Or at least to hear which way to go. Do you remember X-Com: Apocalypse?

Truth be told, the game still has many disadvantages. Does not have any innovations over the old games of the series X-Com. I would even say - degraded in relation to those.

The guys that make the game - worthy of respect! But if they hope to interest players in this genre with such a game - they are badly mistaken.

Game series of UFOs - more justified, even with the impossibility to punch walls and with their stupid economy...

It seems that the game will still be a work in progress, and its release - this grave mistake of publishers.

Good luck to the developers! And listen to the wishes of the players on the forum. I hope that you will create a masterpiece in version 2.0

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All the flaws you listed are very much accurate.

The lack of a geoscape globe is totally unacceptable. It was very characteristic of the original x-com, and is very cool. even new XCOM has a floating globe. The projection really brings a lot of issues with it, with 2d projection.

and the game is very slow, and boring. enemy turns take forever, moving units take forever and with 10+ units it became tedious.

very disappointing

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The lack of a globe is not a huge issue. I find the 2D globe acceptable because you can see everything going on in one go. With a Geoscape, you can`t.

Also, it`s very realistic, especially when you realise this is based around the late 90s and even today real-life war screens in the military are all on a flat surface JUST like in this game. I would only ask that the map be made a little brighter.

p.s. funnily enough, the Aliens have a Geoscape in their bases! ARE YOU AN ALIEN LOVER? ARREST HIM!:P

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Navi1982. If you read the development diary you'll see at the end of it that Xenonauts has done very well financially. Goldhawk has not made a grave mistake in releasing the game, nor were they mistaken that people would be interested. I'm afraid your analysis of the game based upon your pet peeves is incorrect in light of the facts.

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@op altough your points are well written and i can agree to some extent to most of them,your authoritative stance and judgement iritate me. First of all its your opinion.

Second you point all these negative points, but dont write any of the postives.

For example about the Geoscape,i dont care that its not a globe. For me the innovation with the ufo events popping up makes up for such a great mood, its for me better geoscape then in original.

2,3 - imho nitpicking, didnt notice any real impact on my gameplay

4- Yeah its annoying.Ideally there should be turning around the camera.But i beleive it was explained its the best they could do with the engine they had.

5- There are lots of improvements in shooting mechanics over the orginal.The fact that guns have finite range (even sniper rifles tough quite long),great supression mechincs, shotguns...

6- Would eb nice, nothing really that important.

Not mentioning superior air combat, airstrikes mechanics, no overpowered psi on earth side etc...

All in all imho you are nitpicking some mostly not important flaws, not mentioning any postives, and judgeing with a authoritative tone.:confused:

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The flat 2D map has as many advantages as it does disadvantages. If you're using a 3D globe you can only ever see half of the map at once, which gives you very poor awareness of what is happening across the world if there are multiple UFOs present (which there will be). You wouldn't be able to manage the large scale fighter / UFO engagements very easily at all.

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From a radar coverage perspective, I wish the Geoscape used a spherical globe. But scrolling around the world to select UFOs/crash sites late game would really get annoying, so I'm not entirely convinced it would end up better in the end.

A flat map that somehow allowed radar to wrap around would be best, although probably a huge technical challenge (even for the CE team).

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Fortunately playing the game is completely optional.

If it is not a game that you enjoy then you never need to load it up again!

I own quite a few games that I have only played once or twice, for me Xenonauts is not one of them but you really can't please everyone.

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I think you are very right, my first impression was: where the F%$ck is my spherical geoscape??? but then just got used to it. I have even many more complains, although the game is super enjoyable, but in the end, this guy is right, and we all know it. Puted in perspective, the original Xcom is still more complete than xeno. And my very personal opinion is exactly like yours, this shouldnt be the final version, there is a TON of things missing and improvable.

Still, I cant avoid to congratulate the developers, making a "modern" xcom is really, really hard, and they almost did it.

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Very easy to criticize a game when you've put no work into it...

If you don't like the game, uninstall it. It's pretty simple, nobody is going to make additional changes to please one or two players. =/

Edit:

Sure, players have a right to criticize a game for certain things they dislike, but taking the attitude that devs must get back on the project and tweak the game until it appeals to your personal tastes is disgusting, imo. Be thankful for what they've done, if you think it's incomplete then sign off.

Edited by ViewThePhenom
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I have nothing bad on 2D maps... But it should work like real 2D maps. For example as new google maps... where trajectory of flying (straight) is drawn by curves. And radar coverage is shown as very deformed circle on poles. Moreover, by rotating globe you can easy see everything on it and appreciate exact situation about distances. But when you said about monitoring map (in 2d) - it should be implemented too. Because in real situations strategists looking on all forms of earth representation. ;)

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I'm not sure I agree that the original X-Com is more complete than Xenonauts. It has a more accurate way of modelling shooting through cover than we do, but that's pretty much the only place where it is mechanically superior to Xenonauts.

Realistic modelling of the curve of the Earth in terms of flight paths and radar coverage is possible, but would confuse and annoy far more people than actually care about it and want it in the game. Radar circles are clear and easy to understand.

Having a 2D Geoscape and not modelling the curvature of the planet doesn't mean Xenonauts is incomplete, it just means we've taken different design decisions. You're allowed to disagree with the decisions we've made, of course, but then you're just arguing about personal taste. It doesn't mean the game is unfinished.

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Several of the forum members tried making mockups of how the geoscape would look using the kind of realistic distance variations you would find on a real map of the kind Xenonauts uses and to be truthful it looked bloody awful.

You could not tell at a glance what the range of any aircraft was, what the relative speed of aircraft where, how long an intercept could take, what coverage a radar station would have without building it and to me those things far outweigh any gains from a sense of realism.

I would have liked to see a 3D globe but I really don't feel the game to be unfinished without it, it is just different.

If you feel very strongly about it then apply for the community coder roles, find a community coder who agrees with you, or hire someone with the requisite coding experience to do the job for you.

Expecting someone to do the work for free to change the finished game to match your personal preferences is unlikely though so doing it yourself or hiring someone are the most likely to get what you want.

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I don't mind the 2D globe at all. Anytime you try to model a 3D object onto a 2D screen (or paper) you're going to be forced to make compromises. The early cartographers ran into the exact same issues resulting in many different ways to display the Earth each with it's own pluses and minuses. All whole Earth games struggle with this including "big time" games like CIV where you can't cross the poles going North and South. The only way to truly represent the planet with a computer system would be a holographic projection that you could walk around i.e. a true virtual globe.

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It didn't take me long to prefer the 2d map. From being able to see everything without rotating the globe round to the aesthetic link between it and the generals on the main menu.

I thought that not having an Antarctic base would be a pain, but the game's altered economy meant that it really didn't amount to an issue. My resources were tied up elsewhere all the time.

Gauddlike has already pointed out the real map mock-ups and it's much better the way it is.

The game pays it's homage to X-Com and didn't really take much form Apocalypse.

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The only way to truly represent the planet with a computer system would be a holographic projection that you could walk around i.e. a true virtual globe.

I bet if Xenonauts had released with that then people would still complain that they couldn't see what was happening on the other side without having to walk round it :P

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I bet if Xenonauts had released with that then people would still complain that they couldn't see what was happening on the other side without having to walk round it :P

LOL

This is exactly what I think would happen. Especially with the wave system of UFO appearances.

Can also imagine the comments:

"Meh, once the waves are coming I always have to rotate, pan and zoom back and forth to target, follow and waypointing my jets. Meh, it is so tedious and brings no fun, please do change this to a flat map and scrap the globe. This is game breaking for me!"

;););)

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If the Op paused to think about it just for a minute, he`d realise that the 2D map is actually a more efficient way to plan a campaign. The 3D globe is nice, but is not efficient.

For instance I love how you see all the extra starting phenomena like reports of crop circles, empty boats being found, electrical interference etc all in one go. this is what a real commander needs -Infomation Immediately. ... This is more imaginative and logical than the globe. That`s why I found it so easy to adapt to and probably why no one would use a 3D globe for real.

It`s just rose-tinted spectacles working here.

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Thanks for Development diary... I just read it. In addition to interesting facts, except excuses's nothing I saw. And not just a game developer's fault. I'm happy for him just for the fact that he managed to find the strength and gather a team. Bravo! But! Release of the game became hasty. And the author should specify and work on its shortcomings. Publisher - is someone who hurried process. And it's fair that people are demanding a refund or rectify the shortcomings. Cause many people bought into the advertising that the game is a reproduction of bestseller x-com. But, in fact - its degradation!

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Thanks for Development diary... I just read it. In addition to interesting facts, except excuses's nothing I saw. And not just a game developer's fault. I'm happy for him just for the fact that he managed to find the strength and gather a team. Bravo! But! Release of the game became hasty. And the author should specify and work on its shortcomings. Publisher - is someone who hurried process. And it's fair that people are demanding a refund or rectify the shortcomings. Cause many people bought into the advertising that the game is a reproduction of bestseller x-com. But, in fact - its degradation!

Did you even read 1 reply to you orginal post? And you say you read the dev diary but you didnt understand that it was self published , no publisher invloved, which is pretty clearly described there. :confused:

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