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Xenonauts V1.5 Experimental Released!


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Xenonauts V1.5 will be the final version of Xenonauts when it is finished. However, this release just marks the start of the testing process and it will almost certainly see several iterations before we reach Xenonauts V1.5 Release.

This testing will take place on our Steam experimental branch rather than our main public branch. For information on how to access this and a full explanation of the risks / issues you may encounter, please read this thread: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/5958-Xenonauts-Experimental-Builds-Instructions

Xenonauts V1.5 merges large amounts of improvements from Xenonauts: Community Edition with some additional mod support added by the dev team. Because there are more people contributing to this build than normal and I'm not yet familiar with the version control software being used, the first few iterations may well be a little buggy.

V1.5 will load older saves, but older versions will not be able to load saves from V1.5!

SHORT CHANGELOG:

General:

  • The launcher now supports "modular" mods, allowing multiple compatible mods to be run simultaneously.
  • We are testing Steam Workshop integration, but it is not functional yet as it's not downloading to the correct directory.
  • We've aggressively archived files to reduce the filecount from 65k to 40k to try and fix some Steam download issues - specifically, we've archived UFO floors and civilian / friendly AI sprites. Let us know if this causes issues like invisible floors / units.

Geoscape:

  • Additional notification feed information on aircraft readiness ("Condor-1 Repaired" etc)
  • Autoresolve calculation has been tweaked to more closely match combat results. Let us know if this has an unexpectedly large effect on game balance.
  • There are now speed buttons in the air combat. I'm currently debating whether to remove them from V1.5 as they don't match the rest of the UI.

Ground Combat:

  • F5 can now be used to Quicksave the game.
  • The line-of-sight system has been improved, so there should be less situations where it gets screwy with building corners / verticality.
  • The projectile tracking system has been improved, so "miss" shots behave less strangely.
  • Walls and props now fade out when you mouseover them.
  • There is also an additional "Hide Roof" button mode that turns all walls / props on a level semi-transparent.
  • Directional cover indicators have been added.
  • Berserking Xenonauts no longer always target your own soldiers (this was due to a bug).
  • Soldiers now have their national flag next to their name in combat.

Balance:

  • Player feedback suggested alien Mind Control really wasn't very much fun to play against; there was no real counter to it. Therefore it now takes effect after a turn delay: i.e. the controlled soldier can't act until the next alien turn, after you've had a turn to flee / stun him / shoot him.
  • Morale regeneration is now applied at the end rather than the beginning of a turn. This has no gameplay effect but will stop the perceived issue of units on high health panicking for no reason - what is actually happening is a low-morale unit would panic and then immediately regenerate 40 morale (to stop them panicking for multiple turns)...making it appear like the panic occurred at high morale.

There are MANY, many more bugfixes and "common sense" changes than this included in the update - to the point where it would be impossible to list them all. These are largely the result of the hard work of the X:CE team, who deserve a lot of respect for their attention to detail and the sheer amount of work they have done in just three months.

However, V1.5 will not be identical to X:CE. I am planning to remove any gameplay tweaks I disagree with and will also be changing / reverting UI changes that I think compromise the visual quality of the game - an example is the enlarged clipboard on the Barracks screen that displays more information but also warps the clipboard graphics (although obviously this change will remain available in the X:CE branch).

I've had a look through the game but there have been so many updates made by the community coders I have almost certainly missed a few of their tweaks; if you encounter any changes that you disagree with them please post them up here for discussion.

(We'll also be posting up some guides for modders related to the new launcher soon too, as a lot of the testing around V1.5 will be about mod support and Steam Workshop integration.)

Enjoy!

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There's very little difference between this and X:CE except the new mod support (which is not fully operational due to the Steam Workshop download issue).

Mostly we just need people to play it to identify any issues that might have occurred as a result of the merge.

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Ok, dumb question time. About 1/3 through a CE game right now using several mods I love (esp Dynamic UFOs). If I switch to 1.5 and load my save, will I retain the mods? Will they have to be re-installed? Could there be conflicts with "gameplay tweaks I disagree with" or will the mods overwrite the vanilla data?

I'd like to try this due to the recurring issues I have with shooting around corners, but don't want to jeopardize my current progress

Edited by dpelectric
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If you've got X:CE 0.30 the corner shooting additions will already be in it.

The game would probably work OK if you reinstalled the mod, but unfortunately it then wouldn't be much use for testing purposes as we wouldn't know if any bugs were caused by V1.5 or by the mods themselves.

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Lol. Without going into detail, the corner shooting additions in 0.3hf1 are not working as advertised. But now I may have to bail that game anyhow due to a crash as soon as you try to assault an alien base. I'm confident that is a bug contained in CE, as other players have reported that is happening to them too with no mods installed. So, sigh, I guess I'll start again, this time 1.5 with fingers crossed

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Lol. Without going into detail, the corner shooting additions in 0.3hf1 are not working as advertised.

Yeah, if "The projectile tracking system has been improved, so "miss" shots behave less strangely" refers to the changes added in XCE 0.30 then I would recommend not including them, at least in their current form.

Not only is corner shooting currently problematic (bullets scattering into the corner being shot 'around') but it's also nerfed suppression from weapons fire as bullets that were previously landing near targets (thereby causing suppression) are now passing the target and therefore not causing suppression. Most extreme example of this I've seen: an alien out in the open being shot at by a machine gun, two rifle bursts and a few single rifle shots and not being suppressed.

It might also cause some hit-chance problems at close range but I've not done a proper test of that.

EDIT: Have just seen that the near-ground hit chance is moddable in config. Might be possible to come to a compromise with it?

Edited by kabill
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Yes, it appears there's some issues with V1.5 - a lot of the X:CE fixes currently seem to be deactivated. I'll ask Giovanni to look into that, as it's probably an issue with the way the X:CE settings are currently being handled as a compulsory mod.

I'll also ask him to deactivate the projectile tracking system then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I appreciate the support you've provided for the game so far, you've done better by your customers than a lot of "AAA" developers.

However, the most irritating usability issue I experience still hasn't been fixed: when you're changing the number of scientists/engineers/production/etc, a single click does nothing. You need to hold down on the button and have lightning reflexes to add/remove just one or two from whatever you're adjusting. I've seen so many people complain about this... here on this forum, on the Steam forum, in YouTube videos/LPs, everywhere. It seems like a minor thing but a large part of the game revolves around managing production, research, purchasing, selling, etc. A minor UI issue you experience frequently is a big problem, and in a strategy game it's a huge problem.

Adding insult to injury (at least as of the last version I played) if you accidentally set something to 0 while you're trying to set it to 1 (or even 2), you lose all your progress on that project and don't get any refund.

I can't imagine it'd be a hard thing to fix and it's such a pain in the neck. User interface in a strategy game is possibly the most important thing after general unit/gameplay balance. Graphics, sound, etc, it's just window dressing for the interface. I'm begging you, PLEASE fix this before you call it quits on further official development.

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