Xenonauts General Ideas (improving the experience)

From a purely fan perspective, I am happy that Goldhawk is moving on to other games. Especially after having read the Xenonauts development diary. When development started, Chris had zilch experience. The game as a whole suffers from a number of remarkably bad technical decisions, number one among them being the choice of engine. Then there were mistakes in art and design that came from a total lack of experience. And the game was programmed by a lot of different freelancers, several of whom were not really qualified.

At this point, Goldhawk is a studio led by a much more experienced Chris, with an experienced game industry programmer working for them, and with much more money than before to pay programmers. I am quite sure the next game they make is going to be much better in technical terms and in general accessibility.

Just to highlight how inexperienced the studio was when Xenonauts began - 5 years ago, a programmer told Chris that he could basically make X-COM from scratch in 6 months. And Chris believed that.

Yes, I fully understand that point of view. Thing is, what I (and I'm assuming many others) really want is a BETTER version of X-COM. Xenonauts shows us that it's entirely possible to keep the original recipe and make it really pop, but it also shows what happens when you settle for what you're dealt instead of pushing for what you could have. Please, please don't get me wrong, I would throw so much money at this game as it is, because it is such an amazing recreation of the original with so many upgrades and updates it's silly.

Mostly, I want a better engine. I want better graphics, I want more research options, I want longer games. XCOM:EU/EW gives me the graphics, but is severely lacking in a lot of ways. I've burned a lot of time in that game to get my X-COM fix, and now that I have Xenonauts, I'll be burning even more in Xeno. Just, nothing has really hit that sweet spot for me as far as an updated X-COM go.

What I ultimately want is a combination of X-COM: UFO and TFTD. The underwater part of the second game is what really got me sucked into this series. I'm ex-Navy, and I love the ocean. Having a game that lets you seamlessly move between each style, land and underwater, would wet my jimmy like nothing.

And research. Man, I am a sucker for research. It drives me insane that all the X-COM games and games like Xeno are limited to just three tiers of weapons, basically. In Xeno, it's laser, plasma, and MAG. I want more. Granted, this comes from wanting longer games. But I want more aliens, I want more ships to shoot down, I want more stuff to research! UFO:ET gave us like 7 or 8 tiers of weapons, several tiers of armors, etc. That's the kind of stuff that I just eat up. Always upgrading, always finding new and improved ways of killing your enemy.

Again, I can't say this enough because I really don't want people/GH to think I'm hating on it, but I really honestly love Xenonauts. I've already sunk several hours into pouring over the files to see what all I can edit. The mere fact that the game is editable so easily is a godsend above what the original X-COM had, I had to learn how to hex-edit to mod that game, and I was still severely limited. I already plan on investing hundreds of hours in this game, and if I can get the motivation, doing some serious modding.

I have so, so many ideas I would love to put into a game like this, but I lack the knowledge and the experience to do so. I know I sound like a whiny, needy bitch in this post lol. It's just that Xeno was SO CLOSE to being my holy grail of an X-COM update. It's like having sex, getting right to the 'O' point, and then just stopping.

I absolutely love all of you guys responsible for making and maintaining this game, as well as maintaining the community here on the forums. GH and it's official/unofficial helpers have reinvigorated my love for indy game companies. I really hope to see this company take off, and I look forward to whatever else you guys put together for us!

Right, for me, Xenonauts is the first game to truly scratch the X-COM itch. It is basically how I imagine a better X-COM, does away with some annoying parts, improves other aspects, maintains the core formula.

The good thing for those who want more quantity like you do (more weapons, more aliens), all of that is moddable. The game has been officially out for less than three months, and there are huge packs like XNT out there with new guns and aliens. There will surely be many more updates from modders, and importantly, this game is fairly easy to mod. Ridiculously easy when you compare it to hex editing, for sure! In the meanwhile some of my X:CE work goes towards letting people make better mods specifically with stuff like research, as I have for example added support for exclusive research branches into the game, and I also hope to see people take advantage of that.

Well, one thing's for sure, us modders are already dug in the trenches of Xenonauts Modding, even though we have to dig through hard gravel,

If GH is starting to make a new game, Chris should make a modder's bandwagon filled with comfy sofas, an exquisite cocktail bar, and a jacuzzi.

Hi all.

Love the game.

I played XCOM on my amega many years ago and played it again last year. I've also tried to play all the similar games like Jagged Alliance, Afterlight and Silent Storm.

I was never keen on the real-time element of the game. I didn't like the feeling of being in a research/base building race with the aliens, and I'm still not keen. Another game, possibly Xenowar, had an option to play a stand alone ground mission from the early,middle or late period of the campaign. I'd like that option in Xenonauts. Due to spoilers, I think it would be best if you had to unlock the periods in the campaign before you can pick them. It would be cool if there was a scoring system to so you can gauge how well you played.

The suppression system is a great addition.

XCOM was a great game. The Gollops made a better one though. Laser Squad Nemesis. RIP. Space Marines, robots, 'greys' and some monsters battling it out on a variety of maps. Rather that alternate turns it was played against other people by posting your turns to a server, which then ran both simultaneously to see what the result would be. It was the most exciting, finely tuned, tactical game I have ever played. AI will never replace a human for an opposition. It would be great if you could do a 2 player version of this game. Alternate turns with maybe a 'force point' method of picking weapons and soldiers. Maybe even make the aliens playable.

More. The modders are doing well in this respect already. More maps of the current style, but more variety. Swamp maps. Indoor maps (Like Apocalypse). Beach maps. South American maps.etc

New aliens, new weapons, new vehicles, etc etc etc.

BUT...I'm not a techy person so I would wait for an official update to the game rather than some of the complicated (to me) fiddling some mods require.

But as I said, I love the game already!

This has probably been brought up already, but if not, then the OP should check out the Xenophobia mod. It is pretty much exactly what he was looking for.

Personally, while I like Xenophobia, I'm more with Chris on the economy thing. Having to make your own ammunition was more tedious for me than fun (which is something that has been true for me for every game in the old XCOM series as well (UFO Defense, TFTD, and Apoc)) However, I really like ability to fund my program through the production and sale of alien/XCOM technology. XNT scratches the research/weapons/aliens/air combat itch, but it doesn't address the economy the way I'd like. Maybe there is some middle ground out there?

Yeah, its moddable enough and there was a reasonable effort to make it so. But all reports suggest that the codebase itself is very messy and hard to work with. It wouldn't be impossible to do stuff with - the community edition project has demonstrated that - but I think it would sap up far more effort than is worthwhile, especially when the alternative is making a brand new shiny game.

In other words, it's about opportunity cost. When people complain about Xenonauts having been 'abandoned' by GH (which isn't entirely true anyway) they're overlooking the opportunity cost of spending more time working on Xenonauts vs. doing something else. And as much as I like Xenoanuts, what I actually want is GH's next game because I suspect it's going to be vastly better.

I think that, to a degree, the XCOM genre (and let's be fair, it really is a genre now) is somewhat hobbled by the original game's success. Very very few titles aspire to really be more than a good remake of the original, and I only know of one that really attempted anything of a larger scope (UFO: Afterlight) though I have no doubt there are probably more out there.

What I'm saying is that I hope GH takes this success with XCOM style games and builds on it, both in coding quality, and in game scope.

I'm not too sure I want another "better" XCom from Goldhawk right now. You really have to enthused about a game to put in the hours required to get it done. By the end, you are sick of working on it even if you started off excited. To start another game based on the exact same theme without a break is a good way to go crazy. Battlefront did three WWII themed games with the same engine and then switched to modern warfare because in their words, "If we had to do another WWII game we just wouldn't do games anymore." i.e. they were completely sick of WW II and the engine they were using. Instead they took a couple years off rewrote their engine and released a modern warfare sim. Now, over 12 years later they are doing WWII again. So, I'm glad Chris is on to something different now.

I'm not too sure I want another "better" XCom from Goldhawk right now. You really have to enthused about a game to put in the hours required to get it done. By the end, you are sick of working on it even if you started off excited. To start another game based on the exact same theme without a break is a good way to go crazy. Battlefront did three WWII themed games with the same engine and then switched to modern warfare because in their words, "If we had to do another WWII game we just wouldn't do games anymore." i.e. they were completely sick of WW II and the engine they were using. Instead they took a couple years off rewrote their engine and released a modern warfare sim. Now, over 12 years later they are doing WWII again. So, I'm glad Chris is on to something different now.

And that's totally fair. Still, the successful publishing of Xenonauts bring me hope that there will one day be a better XCOM.

And that's totally fair. Still, the successful publishing of Xenonauts bring me hope that there will one day be a better XCOM.