My Experience with game

I have put about 50 hours into the V21 stable now on my first play through on normal. I just encountered and cleared my first battle ship and dealt with the very annoying mind control/dread problems. I dont know who is doing the mind control though. In the battle ship I captured an invisible alien commander, I wasn't sure if it was a bug or if he is supposed to be invisible... is he the mind control guy?

My second battle against the enemy (base assault) where they can mind control is when I quit. It was my experienced team and between the mind control, dread, and lizard guys running around every other corner suicide-grenading me I couldn't make much head way. I tried putting away my weapons, running through normally, rushing, having my brave soldiers leave their guns out and other put thiers away. nothing seemed to work, It was a very frustrating experience, especially with my experienced team whos veterancy seemed only to make them better at killing each other. I hope the mind control is limited to line of sight or its harder to mind control veteran in the future versions because this wasn't very fun to me. Also it would be cool if the dread increased the closer you got to the mind control alien.

Besides that I found the game completely engaging and one of the best strategy games I have played in the last few years. There was a lot of back and forth and great comeback moments... I look forward to release.

Bugs I noticed

-Music often no longer plays when returning to map from mission

-Game has frozen 2 or 3 times when a soldier begins to shoot in overwatch, the gun sound over and over and cannot finish action.

-Early and mid game, game will freeze after playing about 6-7 hours.

-Late game, game will freeze after playing about 2-4 hours.

-On terror mission in city, 2 walls can be seen and shot through. (I tried taking a screen shot but print screen doesnt seem to work on game.)

-Shields disappear when no weapon in other hand.

-Lizard guys change from having armor to not having armor sometimes while running around. When throwing grenades they are larger and about half way through the animation shrink back down to normal size.

The Dread and mind control have both been changed in the experimental versions. Check the patch notes for specific details

Almost every new player who comes to this forum, and seemingly a majority of the longer-term members, dislikes the balancing of the psionic attacks. They're too powerful and you have no defense against them (except doing nonsensical things like dropping your weapons). I don't want to sound strident, but there have been so many posts about this for so long, and none of the changes in the experimental builds have truly addressed the problem, that I'm really afraid this is going to alienate a lot of potential fans from an otherwise excellent game. I really hope GH does something definitive about it; could be as simple as removing psionic powers from easy and normal difficulties completely

Almost every new player who comes to this forum, and seemingly a majority of the longer-term members, dislikes the balancing of the psionic attacks. They're too powerful and you have no defense against them (except doing nonsensical things like dropping your weapons). I don't want to sound strident, but there have been so many posts about this for so long, and none of the changes in the experimental builds have truly addressed the problem, that I'm really afraid this is going to alienate a lot of potential fans from an otherwise excellent game. I really hope GH does something definitive about it; could be as simple as removing psionic powers from easy and normal difficulties completely

Several ideas have been proposed about how to make them less powerful and give the players a chance to defend against them. I think they will come to pass, but GH hasn't had a chance to get them programmed in yet.

I truly hope so. I only said what I just did because I really love this game; I've become a huge fan and it bothers me to see a small but constant stream of new players being turned off by the psionics. I am also extremely impressed by GH's level of customer interaction and unprecedented responsiveness, and I want to see them basking in the accolades I think they've otherwise richly earned.

I'll say it again: disable psionics for easy and normal completely, and leave that challenge to those who are ready for it on veteran and insane

One of the ideas I proposed was to make psionic effectiveness range dependent (hopefully, they would only work really well when you were quite close to the alien psionic.) This would allow you to hunt down the "emitter" because you would know he must be fairly close if the attacks start becoming effective. Another person proposed that psionics be mitigated by your bravery stat. I think this is an excellent idea. Then you could pick your recuits with that in mind. Also, there are bug reports that MC and berserk which are supposed to be line of sight only, aren't. Hopefully, we'll find out more about this soon.

Yes, I read the range-dependent idea you proposed, which I wholeheartedly endorse, and saw several other good ideas presented as well. I'm certain the aggregate ingenuity of GH and this forum will come up with a solution.

BUT, I still feel that new players shouldn't have to deal with this at all. I personally feel that there is more than enough challenge and plenty of a learning curve on easy and normal already without throwing in the "what's going on...?" confusion of psionic attacks from nowhere. Let it be something that players step up to and voluntarily accept when they feel they're ready to take things to another level.

Well, there is never any harm in adding start up options, at least IMO.

Indeed, Psionic attacks are annoying. Especially when your machinegunner gets mind controlled and she proceeds to gun down your entire friggin' team. I think the Bravery stat mitigating Psionic attacks is an excellent idea.

Hi I am a new player to Xenonauts, but a seasoned veteran of UFO: Enemy Unknown (of which I have played on and off for the last 20 years)

I am currently playing on Normal difficulty

I have only done 2 raids on alien bases in Xenonauts and yes the first one was a complete disaster, returning with only 3 of my 8 best soldiers, I now always bring "EXTRAS" on every mission (lol, private may not survive!)

I like the idea of the stronger psy attacks being LOS only and having soldiers stats affect the outcome, but don't like the idea of psy attacks being stripped completely from Normal difficulty, maybe from easy but not Normal.

I have however found that there is still a problem in regard to collision detection and Line of Sight, ie I sometimes can see through walls and floors(especially) although I have tried (as I will often let loose with the machine gun even on 0%hit to attempt a suppression), I am yet to manage a hit from firing through the walls though, so the collision detection is working for me in regards to weapons fire.

I don't know how the game is programmed but if it psy attacks use the same collision algorithms as the LoS, this may be the source of the problem.

After clearing a couple Battleships and nabbing my first Praetor (yay), Psi attacks aren't too bad if you know how to deal with them. However, I was constantly terrified that my rocket launcher guy would get mind-controlled and proceed to transform his squadmates into a delicious red mousse. I see how that could be slightly irritating on Ironman.

Yeah, psionic attacks will likely be nerfed further in the future. But there'll still be a stream of complaints about them appearing on the forums even then because most new players are just playing V21 Stable and won't get the updates.