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Colossus should be allowed to use modules & jetpack. I see it as integrated parts in the armour after certain techs are researched. Wraith should be in stealth mode when you encounter them. An hit should disable the stealth mode. If you didn't kill them after a certain turn they are back to stealth. Army size is perfect, yet i so wonder why Chinook has room for 18 soldiers, while the tier 2 version has fewer visible places.

Xenonauts 3. Coming to a PC near you in 2035(!)

I like long games too! The original XCOM: EU got it right. 35 missions to completion is far too short. 100 is much better. I don't want this game to be short (we have waited long enough for it!).

Yes! Variation is good. Also means the more you pound it with high-yield weapons the less equipment/aliens survive when it crashes (adds more to the strategy of making it crash, and keeps low yield aircraft weapons relevant throughout the game). Trying to shoot a UFO down with basic cannons is risky for interceptors but would provide more of a reward on crashing). This would be a great mechanic, but I thought it was in there already. I'm surprised it's not. I am waiting for xen 2 to be finished (aren't we all lol) and so haven't really played it that much.

There is a bonus you probably missed. Laser weapons are great for rookie soldiers. Solid acc bonus in case soldier has low accuracy stat. Check UFO-paedia again. Laser machine-gun is rather overwhelming beast. Due to thermal dmg type AND reduced recoil AND accuracy bonus.

This is a minor hotfix to Milestone 5 that we are releasing straight onto the normal public branches while we work on a larger batch of fixes! Changes: Fixed a crash that could occur when loading particular maps (could happen loading any mission after ATLAS Base). Fixed the Display Screen textbox being empty on the game settings panel.

> certain missions being too hard The only one that stood out to me was OO1-2 or whatever the hold-the-computer-for-six-turns mission is called. So many enemies coming so quickly compared to every other mission. But I think you already reduced the reinforcement rate in a more-recent patch. 1) Squad Sizes I'm happy with the current size, but your 8/10/12 proposal is acceptable too. 2) Colossus Armour I've never seen a reason to build it so I can't speak from experience. But if it could handle rocket launchers, or machine guns better that would improve things. If you want to make it exciting, treat it as a human-controlled MARS, let it equip MARS weaponry instead of human weapons. 3) Wraith Cloaking Field The "new" on-off-on-off is just silly. Could be either on or off at start and toggle upon first damage, both make some kind of sense, but toggling after every damage makes no sense at all. I do really like Skitso's suggestion even better ("Starts disabled, becomes active on damage for the rest of the turn. Become completely invisible on the next turn. Unable to shoot while invisible and uses all TU moving to a new location").

Milestone 5.22.1 Yes its still happening but seems worse, seems to change depending on which slots have the plating. Giza Base: Gemini 4 is ok but 12 is 65 and 13 is only 40 Asia Pacific Base: Gemini 10 is 115 Alaska Base: Gemini 11 is only 15 The facing direction might have been an error on my part and doesn't seem to be repeatable. user_sleep-189.json

Thanks for the bug report! Do you have a save when this happened? Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce both bugs. Were you just equipping the armor module when the bug happened? As for the soldier facings on the dropship, was this something that happened on random? A save would be very helpful as well!

Thanks, we'll give it a look and see what's going on. We'll get this fixed asap!

Hey guys. After playing 2 full campaigns on soldier and commander difficulties can share my thoughts about questions asked above. Little disclaimer - thats a subjective experience and you can agree or disagree and thats fine) "the general difficulty curve of the invasion" - quite same on both difficulties, moderate on the game start and become more and more simple after you advance at your tech-tree (generally and only if you know what to do and how to do on your geoscape). Probably the most unbalanced thing in a game generally are supporters system - some of them are totally worthless while some of them are op (-1 panic per region at month start sounds like a joke while +1 operation point per day is a game-changer especially in first months) "certain missions being too hard" - the hardest missions in whole game are several in the start of your campaign (when your soldiers are all rookies and you dont have any precious weapons/equipment and cant carry much because of low strength). First cleaners data computers mission and first civilian abduction mission are near impossible to complete with a 100% result on commander difficulty (but quite easy on soldier difficulty though). Also a psyons+cyberdrones terror mission is a nightmare on commander difficulty (cause drones are blowing everything around with a fusion burst reaction fire). I dont say those missions need balancing - on lower difficulties they are absolutely manageable. Just you asked about hardest so here they are) "certain enemies being too tough or too weak" - too tough is a cyberdrone badass lol While not a big problem on soldier difficulty several of them can bring you some big problems on commander difficulty. Probably the best way to balance him is to increase emp damage for electroshock grenades or at least make those grenades turning off his reaction fire for current turn. Cause enemy that cant be killed even in 2-3 shots, cant be blinded/suppressed and shooting everything that moves near him with a burst fire can be annoying sometimes. Hard to say who is the weakest among them - all other seem to be balanced (Sebillians throwing a gas grenade into you when you are inside your own smoke and have no damage out of it is a nice bonus - not sure if that needs to be changed or not lol) "certain weapons being overpowered or underpowered" - well i think the correct question should be "what weapons you use/shoot with the most and what the least". In my campaigns i used absolutely all of them and what seemed to me not so useful on soldier difficulty become surprisingly very useful on commander difficulty. Good example - on soldier difficulty i almost never used shields, pistols and shotguns but on commander difficulty those weapons become basic. IMO - weapons that need some rework are assault rifle and machinegun. AR has lots of firing modes but problem is that aimed shot outperforms all of them. Why would i bargain with a chances in other modes if i almost always see 100% on aimed shot? For me it looks like you need to either decrease accuracy for AR aimed shot or increase for all other modes (or make some changes with TUs costs - for example AR aimed shot cost 60% TU not 48%). Machinegun because it's too situational weapon. On one hand thats the only weapon that can 1-shot a Cyberdrone (if odds are on your side) on another you just dont need that amount of damage and usually will have an "overkill" with a high cost of 75% TUs. And with X3 burst fire risk of all 3 misses is too high. Hard to say how to balance this weapon properly - probably increasing accuracy for x3 burst (from 40% to 50-60%?) or adding 3rd firing mode with 1-round and higher accuracy+lower TUs. Squad Sizes: Why everyone talking about reducing a number of carrying soldiers for dropships? Maybe it's just better to add one more aircraft type - an interceptor-transport hybrid like it was in original xcom? Lets say it should be interceptor with a power between Phantom and Gemini that could carry 8 soldiers. So while intercepting a small/medium ufo you could send it with a 8-soldiers squad and start mission right after successful interception. But for large ufos and terror/alien base mission you could still use your 12-16 man dropships. I think such aircraft will solve all problems with squad sizes Colossus Armour: first of all need to add using all types of grenades with a range of a grenade launcher not just regular throw (i think this suit should have no problems with throwing something on long distance right?). Second you can add something like a "siege mode" ability for this suit - for example you activate it with a large amount of TU (60-80% TU) and become immobile but starting from next turn you get a TU discount for all combat actions like firing and throwing grenades (all actions for half TU price maybe) Wraith Cloaking Field: for me works just fine as it is. No need for any change. P.S. If i recall smth valuable will update this post. Have a good day everyone!

Thanks for the bug report, it looks like the civ remains mind controlled even though the Psyon it was linked to has died, we'll look into it and get it fixed

Thanks, we'll look into it and get it fixed

YES ! Volume of soldiers makes missions tedious. It is easy to forgot a soldier somewhere, then get killed. Especially in mopping up operations, move 16 soldiers (or even 12) in formation across map, feels like a boring work rather than game. Best solution is spread your soldiers wide, and run around like headless chicken. When some one get killed, load up game, then "discover" the alien carefully.That is true poison created by large team. Keep lenght of turn short is more important than keep campaign short. "8 / 10 / 12 soldiers, and then permitting 16 soldiers on the final mission." - Sounds like an instant improvement. It certainly make game more approachable.There is a minority of customers who would like 30 soldiers per mission (or something like that), so make sure it is possible in modding tools and announce this feature in advance, clear and loud. I would even go further. Make progress more granular, and rise up headcount for final escalations. I would go 8/9/10 progress for dropships. Keep majority of missions small team - manageable. Then 12 for Quantum Gateway missions - the end game content is always reserved for hardcore fans, so they can handle more. Then Final mission, go total bananas, 22 soldiers on Final mission, yes it sounds crazy. Chief scientist said : "Quantum Gateway is not reliable, there could be lost soldiers". (or something like that) Well, the final mission needs maximum firepower, all humanity relay on us, put All-in like poker player would say. So 22 soldiers go in knowing the risks. Quantum gate gets more unstable, then 16 soldiers survives the teleportation process. Job done, more firepower delivered and Chief scientist feel proud of himself. What happed to those missing 6 is Unknown. (perhaps a DLC cliffhanger ?) Regarding lowering amount of opponents, stay relaxed. Let players make a run with current number of opponents, and reduced soldiers. Then gather feedback, then make changes. You could make even a challenge, 4 winners, one for each difficulty, gets a free copy off Xenonuts 2. Personal Experience : Difficulty Veteran with HP bar and shot-dmg values visible. In my current playthru I used 9 soldiers up to the first Harvester. I take 12 soldiers on first harvester mission, it felt tedious, didnt like it. I am right before the first space mission, I will go with 12 soldiers to the end. I will make a report about opponents volume in final areas when I get there. ---------------------------------------------- I will comment other topics later.

They literally almost feel like a downgrade over accelerated as soon as you get them for some reason. I even rushed them. I'm not a stat cruncher, just an old Xcom 1995/ Xenonauts vet.

Description: I was trying to load into a tactical mission and the game crashed What Happened: I had recently started a new campaign. A new alien abduction mission spawned in Western China, so I sent out my starting Skyhawk-1 at it to start a tactical combat mission. I had to change out three soldiers from the ship before launching it due to prior injuries, though they had been automatically removed by the game for being wounded rather than just injured so all I had to do was place the three fresh recruits onto the ship. I also gave a few soldiers some new grenades as they had gained strength from the last mission. I then launched the Skyhawk, where it flew to the target. Once it arrived, I hit "Begin Tactical Mission" and the game froze and then crashed before even getting to the loading screen. Further information: See attached file. bug_report_2025-03-31-15h42_wn_5.22.1_unhandled_exception_0.zip

Description: I was responding to the first Terror Site. A civilian had come under alien mind control and evacuating them caused a CTD. What Happened: I ran a solder up to the mind controlled civilian and noticed I still had the ability to order an evacuation for that civilian despite the mind control effect. By activating the evac response, the game froze then crashed to desktop. bug_report_2025-03-31-17h46_gc_5.22.1_unhandled_exception_0.zip

Well, I just get nervous when I hear people who play on the highest difficulty suggesting it is too hard and think that if you feel that way I'd recommend lowering the difficulty before making the game more easy in general (which has a cascading effect). Even from commander to veteran makes it a lot easier.

Well i can agree with most of your points except just few (after playing on commander difficulty). First of all - just dont nerf smoke/gas masks. This part of a game works just perfect imo. Considering a fact that around 70-80% of time my soldiers were inside smoke (cause in some missions you basically cant poke your nose out of smoke because of react fire) nerfing smoke/masks will make some missions insanely hard. Regarding Sebillians with gas grenades - just give them alenium grens instead. Second - i dont see any imbalance in teleports usage. Yes they are a perfect way for kiting (tp in - shot - tp out OR tp-grenade-tp) but aliens can do the same arent they? So instead of changing a teleport system maybe just make aliens more actively using them for scouting and "shoot-tp out" strategy? All other points i probably agree

I like the suggestion that the Mind Shield as a health pack equivalent (put into secondary weapon slot) that gives the existing increased bravery state plus the ability to "heal/break" mind control, makes you ration its deployment and use Yes, I want nerfs to the most OP alien abilities and in general, I've tried to suggest a corresponding buff to compensate, but yeah the cyberdrone is oppressive as-is, especially in an open area. I get your point about making colossus different, but at the end of the day, it needs to be functional and worth the investment. To me, disallowing modules makes me not want to use it since you need things like auto-med to give your soldiers some survivability. You yourself admit that you haven't played with it. Most strenuously object to the portal/teleport costing 33% TUs, I could maybe see giving it the door treatment (4 TUs), and I get it you want to remove player cheese, which in a vacuum is fine, but the problem is there is too much AI cheese (namely map hacks/TU hacks) that the player needs some sort of advantage. Unless you are going to redesign the command rooms/bridges so they don't have 5+ aliens camping it's too big of a nerf. In general, I think cleaner missions are mostly in a good place. I get how lower difficulties might think they are easy, but again, that is not usually the case on commander (especially if you get a ton of agents camping your spawn and on certain map layouts). Agree on changing reaper ai, which should be near suicidal instead of often derping behind cover, don't agree on changing stats I just get nervous when I hear people who play on lower difficulties suggesting it is too easy and think that if you feel that way I'd recommend upping the difficulty before making the game more difficult in general (which has a cascading effect). Even from veteran to commander is a huge difficulty spike.

Ah, yeah that's a good point. In veteran ironman

Agree on air war Mind shield module suffers from similar issues as gas masks, as in being a completely passive item with no gameplay involved. I would change it to a first aid kit styled item that could be actively used to break already established mind control link. You seem to want a lot of nerfs in a lot of systems and enemy units yet it seems you've played in the absolute hardest difficulty setting. It's meant to be punishing... Giving colossus the ability to use modules and additional weapons and carry items make it just too similar to all other armours. Giving it a rocket launcher which people have waited for the whole game would feel amazing and unique.

May i ask which campaign difficulty those remarks were made for?

Colossus Armor Top idea : keep Colossus clumsy and limited to mg, but add some spice on top in a good way - soldier gets Experience points into levelling TU by walking with more than 80% carry capacity. Soldier in Colossus armour should get a chance to do that by carrying something useful. Backpack filled by mg ammo to reach carry capacity is silly. a] allow modules : all of them, I have never used The Brave module so at least this would be something new. AutoMed module is very logical, soldier is literally sealed in the armour so field medic could not even touch him. Workshop with special tools is required to get soldier in/out the armour. For Lore reason, DISABLE healing Colossus by standard MedKit. Edit Colossus description UFO-paedia accordingly. In general, Modules are heavy so it fills up the need to carry something meaningful b] allow carry shield in backpack: shields are heavy as hell, and they tend to get destroyed. Ability to provide a spare shield for a friend is nice gameplay c] turtle ninja : this option is based on previous. It is totally cool, hilarious and authentic at the same time ! - Colossus carry shield on his back, it is visually animated. It looks like turtle ninja. All attacks from backs (180 degree back ) are covered by the shield, e. i. shield is consumed as usual. Colossus can be used as a brick in breaches, door opening and so on. He turns his back to a danger zone, and holds it. It offers an unusual situations and fun gameplay ! And of course he could pass the shield to a friend too. Adding all three a] b] c] options at once would be ok. Fun gameplay offering unusual options, but not too strong in general. Certainly make team full of Colossus would not create an unbalanced advantage. BTW : There is an archetype in the past. In middle ages, Crossbow warrior with pavise (a type of large shield) on his back. He shoot his crossbow, then turn back to danger and crouch, in this position he reload crossbow, stand up turn front to danger and shoot. another pictures of crossbowman with a shield on his back https://se.pinterest.com/pin/370421138093551622/ https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/375909900117601743/ I will comment other areas later.

Here are my thoughts (plus an additional one not mentioned), from playing on Commander difficulty on the experimental branch: Colossus Armor (priority of fixes, 1 being most want down to least wanted, only feel real strongly about 1-3, and but honestly even if implement all changes, as long as you gate some of the upgrades/abilities behind tech or the colossus upgrade I'm not too worried about being OP, I mean it is a late-game armor so honestly it should be a bit on the stronger side): More effective LMG Modules (or at a minimum integrated healing) Additional weapons Carry other items Jetpack Wraith: As-is system (disabled, switches state) is fine IMO If you went to either 'activates at start of turn' or 'becomes active for the rest of the turn,' I think there needs to be a corresponding nerf, such as increased TU cost for all actions while cloaked, once damaged it is disabled for the rest of the mission, or limiting the number of wraiths that can spawn on a given map (Certain maps with big open areas and swarms of wraiths, were nightmares). Squad Sizes: I'm kind of ambivalent on this, as the time I actually get the pegasus dropship on commander is very late and honestly when you are getting spawns of 34-38 aliens on a map, you NEED that many (16) soldiers, so if the number of aliens is toned down to compensate I don't really care. ----- Okay now for things that weren't mentioned: Cyberdrones: Please nerf. I love the design change from its initial concept (essentially being a beefed up mentrarch), but the 3 shot is oppressive especially considering that it can reposition prior to doing so. Thoughts: 3 shots takes 100% TU, which I think is fair considering it can shoot from beyond normal line-of-sight. Otherwise, I can only have 1 shot. If not this, I think the emp grenade needs to cause 1-turn shutdown on robotic units Servitors: This is another alien unit that I think needs a rework. Given its lore entry its offensive prowess is insane. Thoughts: Healing friendly aliens costs TUs. Buff its healing capability by giving it an ability that allows it to add armor or heal on its turn (not as a reaction) Nerf offensive capabilities, remove its beams and perhaps give it some sort of static discharge ability (essentially a suppression grenade) See above comment about emp shutdown if no changes are made Mind Shield module: This needs a buff, as its benefits (considering its inventory size and weight) do not offer much benefit/protection Thoughts: Keep as-is, but reduce its inventory size Keep size as-is, but buff to completely prevent mind-control Mind-control in general: IMO, its a bit too strong in its current form, considering units can mind control from the other side of the map which seems OP Require mind control to have visual to the target There needs to be some sort of counter-play to free a mind controlled unit beyond yoloing to kill the alien that did the mind control (goes into comment about mind control from other side of the map) Clarity on exactly which alien unit is controlling your soldier UOO1&2: The missions themselves are an amazing addition and I love them. having said that providing the player images of the objects (perhaps on the loading screen or mission briefing) to give them an idea of what to look for Air War (not air combat): I would appreciate the occasional mid to late-game (p3 & p4) waves (e.g. 3-4 ufos at a time), as the most I have seen recently is 2 ufos at a time which makes the geoscape a bit boring between missions