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Why is Xenonauts Set During the Cold War?


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Lately there have been a number of posts and threads that have been discussing making aspects of the Cold War more prevalent. Currently, there is very little emphasis currently in the game on the Cold War and how it affects the the game play. Most have taken this as negligence on the part of the developers, but I am of a different opinion. I assume that the developers picked this setting for a reason and that it is relevant to game. Given that the developers could have set the game at many different periods in history, why did they choose the Cold War?

My hypothesis is that they picked this setting because it is relevant to the alien's motivation for invading Earth. Namely, that the invasion of Earth is a war by proxy between galatic powers in a similar manner to what Vietnam was like for America. Perhaps later in the game Xenonauts would receive technological assistance from another alien species (like how America provided the Taliban Stinger missile launchers during Russia's invasion of Afghanistan).

What are your thoughts about why Goldhawk Interactive decided that the game should be set during the Cold War?

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I think just to give the game a nice 'retro' feel. If the Earth was threatened by an alien invasion, all Cold War differences would be set aside for mutual survival.

The aliens appear to show up already in a sort of Galactic Alliance of different species, so I'm not sure what more could be added in that regard. Harder tougher aliens show up later in the game, just like in the original.

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Namely, that the invasion of Earth is a war by proxy between galatic powers in a similar manner to what Vietnam was like for America

to me this implies that both warring races (or alliances) will have interacted with the planet previously. In order to make the analogy work anyway. Both superpowers infiltrated & provided support at various stages.

It could simply be a turf war to meet your requirements though. It's the equivalent of a hill to be captured. Neither side has ever spent any time on the hill, nor do either really care about it. But it is there to be taken.

Given that the developers could have set the game at many different periods in history, why did they choose the Cold War?
Going all UFOlogy - there have been assertions made that aliens began to arrive on Earth as a result of nuclear testing, and the use of such weapons on others.

Likewise a 'helpful' species of aliens fits the role of 'Space Brothers' very nicely. you might want to beef them up a bit though :) The Atlanteans from Conspiracy X would really fit your bill.

Most have taken this as negligence on the part of the developers

That's a bit strong for me. I think Geopolitics is an area ripe for exploration in Xenonauts and I believe adding things from the Geopol mod thread would add tremendously for the feel of the game.

But the Devs only have so much resource and time to devote. Not only that, but such a huge project looks daunting enough without having the foresight to add in so much flexibility to the game right form the start.

I'm sure Chris has commented on the Battlescape being the primary focus and that the storyline is down the pecking order. Not that it's being neglected, just that they feel it's not anywhere near as important.

Perhaps they wanted to get away from the near future feel of X-Com and put it into a more 'real world' framework? Likewise, putting it back in the 1970s removes a lot of the 'advanced' tech we see today having to be balanced in the game. At the same time, you would be able to keep the core weaponry recognisable. Best of all, what better way to show tension, than by placing the game in a world on the brink.

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You could set the game anywhen (made that word up especially for this post!).

Picking a time that people will be able to recognise just makes for a strong basis.

It was also a time when the Earths armed forces were probably at their largest and (arguably) strongest.

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Partly it's because of the need to be different, partly because it's a dark and tense period of human history which makes it a good setting and also because defending the real "historical" Earth is more engaging than a hypothetical sci-fi Earth or some other nameless planet.

But, yeah, it's too bad that the C-war and the world's nations aren't represented in the game beyond the story and visuals. It's the only thing I think is truly missing in Xenonauts. Maybe some mod will find a good way to rectify that.

"Cold War" dlc/expansion might be something to think about actually.

Edited by Jean-Luc
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The modern era of UFO's actually began in late WWII, as mysterious 'Foo fighters' were observed by both sides, small white lights that followed aircraft and were seen by both sides. After the dust settled, the allies, who had assumed these were secret German weapons, found no traces of their existence in the German records but did find the Germans reporting them as Allied weapons.

The theory being, after the atom bomb test at the Trinity test site, we 'sent out a signal' that we were now not just primitive naked monkeys, we were now primitive naked monkeys WITH THE BOMB. Activity increased dramatically, especially around the Trinity test site which is where (and why) the whole Roswell thing occurred.

It would have been super cool to start the game the day after the Trinity bomb test, with you starting out with P-51's as your fighter, for example, progressing through the eras to F-86 Sabre, F-4 Phantom, F-106 Starfighter, F-14 and F-15, on up to the F-22 or something. Maybe throw in country specific planes too.

But way too ambitious unfortunately for this game! Maybe a future project, beginning in 1944, could be thought out...

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P-51s and Yaks with .50 caliber and 12.7mm machine guns vs. Anti-gravity driven, plasma armed UFOs that can withstand multiple hits from missiles...kinda masochistic...no?

Anyways, my thought is that, since every major superpower is essentially at their most powerful militarily, the setting would be great. If the governments never revealed information on an invasion to the public, then the military build up to fight the aliens could be disguised as military preparedness for a believed Soviet invasion of Europe. Especially since both "sides" would actually be working towards the same purpose, so they can both agree to the maskirovka.

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yeah..... i always like using conventional weapons against more high-tech foe, battling uphill is very satisfying.

in contrary, i dislike too futuristic timeline such as those even a sand buggy would have installed a laser beam featuring in Command & Conquer 3 or 4.

solid ballistic bullets ROCKS!!! :o

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As in many eras, the Cold War era is a period where there were clearly defined superpowers in contention for superior position. However, unlike previous eras where superpowers could duke it out (such as Europes' colonial period) at that point in history, the rise of nuclear weaponry helped to create a sense of detente. NATO and the Warsaw Pact just couldn't go at it hammer and tongs, as that would be the signal for birds to fly and people to die. They got very, very close, but thankfully (for all of us sitting at our computers) saner heads did prevail. And 1973-1975 was a particularly riotous period. Consider that Nixon at that time was going through the Watergate scandal. The U.S. was pulling out of Vietnam. There was a lot going on.

Against this backdrop, the Xenonauts know the truth. That there is a fleet of 3000+ alien ships up there, slowly converting to operate in an atmosphere. Something must be done, but the superpowers of the time can't see beyond the noses on their collective faces. There were decades of propaganda prior to the alien invasion. Both sides are absolutely convinced the other wants to wipe them out and little green men from space, whom they know nothing about except for the Iceland Incident would be less important than the known threat of those commie bastards/american pigs. I mean, don't forget, the Cold War is still happening even as you play the game.

By setting Xenonauts in the Cold War era, the fate of the world is set squarely on the commander's shoulders. There is no help forthcoming from a planet whose weapons of mass destruction are pointed at each other, and will continue to be pointed at each other even when alien spaceships swoop down. Neither side trusts the other enough without overwhelming evidence, and by the time you have that evidence, it's too late.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Turns out the invading aliens were in fact Nazis, forcing the US and Russia to reanimate Roosevelt and Stalin

To be honest I think they chose the setting because they liked the settings, not just from a narrative point of view, but colour and architecturally (A lot of buildings you come across are brown and grey) and buildings in that period were more about practicality, not athestics. Everything in that timeperiod was blocky, which given the games isometric point of view, served one of the games ideals (imagine playing an isometric game set in the 21st century with buildings of complex shapes and geometry).

Edited by Animal Mother
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turns out the invading aliens were in fact nazis, forcing the us and russia to reanimate roosevelt and stalin

to be honest i think they chose the setting because they liked the settings, not just from a narrative point of view, but colour and architecturally (a lot of buildings you come across are brown and grey) and buildings in that period were more about practicality, not athestics. Everything in that timeperiod was blocky, which given the games isometric point of view, served one of the games ideals (imagine playing an isometric game set in the 21st century with buildings of complex shapes and geometry).

Stop reminding me of Iron Sky!!!!

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I Think it could have been WWII or Cold war setting, what was important was to make xenonauts distinctive and if set in the present day it would be close to other "clones", so (i think) they thought by doing it in another "retro-style" mood would make it more genuine (wich i think was a win bet so far).

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Against this backdrop, the Xenonauts know the truth. That there is a fleet of 3000+ alien ships up there, slowly converting to operate in an atmosphere. Something must be done, but the superpowers of the time can't see beyond the noses on their collective faces. There were decades of propaganda prior to the alien invasion. Both sides are absolutely convinced the other wants to wipe them out and little green men from space, whom they know nothing about except for the Iceland Incident would be less important than the known threat of those commie bastards/american pigs. I mean, don't forget, the Cold War is still happening even as you play the game.

By setting Xenonauts in the Cold War era, the fate of the world is set squarely on the commander's shoulders. There is no help forthcoming from a planet whose weapons of mass destruction are pointed at each other, and will continue to be pointed at each other even when alien spaceships swoop down. Neither side trusts the other enough without overwhelming evidence, and by the time you have that evidence, it's too late.

You sound too pessimistic.

Aliens landing and attacking would be enough to turn ANY head.

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Am I, Trashman? The 1970s were not the age of instant peer-to-peer communication that exist today. There are no mobile phones with built in cameras - the closest you got were the first portapaks developed by Sony. One you had shot some footage, you then needed to copy and distribute it - which cost money. Despite the wellspring of small independants, their footage would never reach the broader populace - as they can now via youtube. That would depend on the mass-media networks: radio, televison and newsprint. The mass-media networks of the time were either state owned - and therefore state-controlled, or run by massive networks whose chief goal was profit. What sold? Well, anything would sell. Little green men might sell, but then the lesson of Orson Wells' radio drama would have been firmly rubbed in. People did believe the fictionalised events of the radio drama. CBS was censured and sued many times over. What network exec would take the chance? They'd need definitive proof.

As the events of Xenonauts begin, there is no proof beyond the Iceland Incident. A "one-off", both sides might call it. It's more comforting to believe that the Iceland Incident is not the harbinger to something worse. Or if it is, then there's time to study it. To prepare for it. Even with the project set up, the report of "over 3,000 space ships in orbit" would be considered alarmist by the hawks on both sides convinced that the real threat is the American Pig/Commie Bastard with the very real nukes pointed at each other. As events progress the idea that there are other UFOs becomes more evident, but to start with, only the smallest and easily convertable harass humanity. If the Xenonauts are successful in downing these light UFOs, then it's all "hell, they're no threat!". After all, where are the alien nukes? The first alien terror mission would be the real wake-up call to the governments of the world, but not necessarily to the populace of the world. It's in the interest of broadcasters to cover the incident. But it's not in the interest of goverments to encourage panic. They'd most likely slap down as hard as possible on broadcasters, to prevent mass hysteria.

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The Iclandic Incidet is as solid as proof as it needs be.

A alien craft that was only brought down by use of nukes, and few aliens that deciamated entire regiments on both sides... Yeah. I'd say the military and goverment would be VERY well informed. They don't need YouTube for that.

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OBJECTION!

Trashman, the Iceland Incident is proof of what, exactly?

1) It is proof that there existed an unknown vessel capable of unknown speeds with an unheard of agility.

2) It is proof this unknown vessel was shot down using nuclear weapons

3) It is proof that neither the Americans or Russians were directly involved in the creation of this device.

4) It is proof that this unknown vessel had unknown weapons that conventional styles of warfare were ineffective against.

There are no other proofs to be deduced from this event.

Don't believe me? The most telling proof of all.

The Iceland Incident was in 1958.

Xenonauts reveal themselves to world powers in 1979.

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