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Okay... hear me out. I have been playing this game for a while now and I agree with others that late game play is getting boring. I also understand that the end play is still in development and to be patient. To that end, the idea put forth in that last update, that we can influence regions by recruiting supporters is very intriguing. How about taking that a step farther and allowing the player to influence surrounding regions in an attempt to recapture areas that have been lost due to panic… if certain conditions are met in the surrounding regions. Such as… Territory A is surrounded by 3 territories and was lost due to panic being over 100 for a period of time. Player influences 2 of the 3 territories surrounding the lost territory: by reducing panic, conducting espionage missions, recruiting all the supporters… Once that has been completed, a new mission allows the player to overthrow the leadership of the lost territory. If successful, the panic of the lost territory drops back to a preset number and all supporters of the territory are reset allowing the player to rebuild trust and income from the previously lost territory. On the same idea, if player loses a territory, but does nothing to influence supporters of surrounding territories, then the supporters can be recruited by the lost territory thus increasing panic in said territories. This would allow nothing to be completely lost and put more depth into the recruiting supporter’s portion of the game.

Maybe, just maybe, instead of modding we could just have a separate github repo with the translation files, controlled by the game devs, so that community could throw in their pull requests. After being reviewed by the devs, those could end up in the base game. Sounds feasible to me.

Talked about the bug with the shield upgrading mid flight with the team last night and the consensus is that we'll most likely leave how it works as is. This is because preventing the shield from being upgraded on soldiers mid-flight is going to end up requiring us to make a bunch of stuff to support this and as such will cost us a lot of dev time (which is always in short supply!). For now we'll just have to make do with Captain America being Chief Engineer in disguise

Hey there, thanks for posting a bug report! The fastest way to solve this would be upload your campaign save file so we can take a look at what happened as to why you're not getting the option to use missiles. I tested this on my end and was able to equip the missiles after the engineering project so something might be going on indeed. I'll link the thread Chris made for looking up your saves below. One small thing to check is, in case you built an early secondary base, is to see whether you might have started the engineering project on a new base that might not have engineers on it. We had a bug report similar to yours quite recently (they weren't able to make laser batteries), and the issue was that they started a project on a base w/o engineers. Might be worthwhile check that one out, just in case!

Thanks for the reply! While the secton running in your turn is intended as part of a random roll when you kill a Psyon, the lack of pop-up that notifies of this event is indeed a bug. We're working on getting it fixed!

I have an idea about grenades, each soldier has a range that can be thrown 100% or very highly, and when he throws it, he makes a judgment, and if he can't, then he can at least throw it in the farthest and specify the direction he can throw and 100% of the throw, so that he may avoid throwing the grenade under his feet (I use machine translation, I hope you understand)

Thanks, glad you're enjoying the game. I think you make a good point about the squadron intercepted / interception popups on the Geoscape, they should have the same button arrangement on them (and we can just disable the buttons that can't be used when enemy fighters attack you). I'll change that for Milestone 5. For the Terror missions, this is actually an AI issue and co-incidentally we were discussing it this morning. Basically what's happening is that aliens go into "combat mode" as soon as they sight an enemy unit, but this includes civilians and local forces too, so on Terror maps most aliens become hyper-aggressive right at the start of the mission because there's so many civvies around. Hopefully it'll be fixed in Milestone 5, with them going back to "normal" behaviour once they've killed the civilian. The grenade miss stuff we'll take a look at. I'm not that happy with the current grenade behaviour either.

I think (guessing really) the game is set up so that the smaller UFOs stop coming after a certain time (like it is in X1, by the endgame it is nearly all battleships). Because the final UFOs are not in the game yet then when it gets to the point where it is only those UFOs that come, there are no UFOs. I did like, though, that in X1, no matter how far in the game you went, there was always one scout that came out among all the battleships - it was a great way of training up rookies, going after those downed scouts and, for that matter, getting a practically guaranteed kill even with the weakest interceptors, AND the cash bounty if you didn't want to use it as a training op!

+1!

I remember in the original UFO/X-Com game throwing weapons to another soldier in a desperate attempt to enable them to attack when they were out of ammo or something similar! One of the things I loved about that game was how flexible it was; if you could think of it, you could probably do it in the game!

I would second this; more voice acting adds to the realism; one of the things I like about X-Com are the voice-overs from Central or others keeping you updated or introducing the mission. I wouldn't necessarily have them read all the reports though - that could get tedious quickly, but I think it is to the games loss that the only voice you hear is right at the beginning.

Well, I don't know what the devs are thinking about that, but I do know how much joy it gave me in the original UFO/Xcom game that the blaster launcher could punch a hole in the UFO at any point - very handy for avoiding getting slaughtered in the access lifts! I'd love to see that as a late game option.

Hi everyone, I have been playing X2 regularly since the pre-release came out and just wanted to give the devs some thoughts about gameplay and to hear what others players think. First, it is, on the whole, really great and I am enjoying it very much. I like the new missions (i.e. the ones not available in X1), I like how the game looks and the new UI. I like the way armour works in X2, and I like the tweaks to the weapons (such as advanced lasers, for example). I have even come to like the fact that on Veteran level I have to play the air game manually - something which I have never done previously) and am now enjoying what is for me a new part of the game. I also like the fact that you can customise the difficulty levels. So within the context of this being a really enjoyable game, here a a few suggestions/thoughts on things I would change to make it even better! This is a trivial thing, but in the air game dialogue box that first comes up with the various options (Commence Combat, Tail etc.) in the standard encounter the autoresolve option appears on the top line, but if you encounter fighters and get the reduced options, the autoresolve is on the bottom line. The number of times I have - out of habit - accidentally clicked manual combat when I intended to pick the autoresolve option...! A couple of rants on hit and miss percentages...: - I get that random numbers are random numbers but it is ridiculous to regularly miss 70% and 80% chances to hit three or even four times in a row! - Grenades: again, I get that if the change is less than 100% then all kinds of things can happen but is it really likely that soldiers will drop grenades on the tile in front of them or even two tiles in front of them quite so regularly?! Terror Missions: these go from being almost unwinnably tense at the start as the aliens quickly surround the dropship (which is good, I am OK with that) to almost unbearably tedious at the end as you have to search the whole map for the few remaining aliens. I realise that X1's solution of revealing all the aliens after 20 turns could make it too easy at the end, but surely there is something that could be done? What about a device that could be researched and engineered so that it could detect alien life and give a direction if nothing else? Also, still on Terror missions, what about an option to have the alenium bombs detonate after a given (high!) number of turns so that the Xenonauts have to find and deactivate by removing the alenium or whatever? On Ambush missions or other missions where you get to place your troops before the mission begins, it is sometimes quite hard to see around the map; the option to rotate the map should be available for placing the soldiers as it is when the combat commences. EDIT: I remembered another one: have the right click option to drop equipment on the ground from the inventory screen; it is a pain having to drag and drop everything, especially since the interface is a little bit picky about where the mouse pointer has to be when you drop! Finally, what about a repair option for the MARS/ARES units in combat? Again it could be researched and engineered maybe mid-game after a certain amount of technology had already been developed, and it could work similar to the medikit in that it would not do a full repair but only repair up to half the damage received. You could even have damaged units taking a certain amount of repair time at base (similar to injured soldiers) rather than instantly returning to full health. You could also have an option to speed up the repair as there is for the interceptors. Just some thoughts! Colin.

Hi, I have played-through Xenonauts 2 many times and have taken it as far as it will go on Ironman mode up to Commander level. I have now started at the Veteran level. I tried it a few times in Ironman mode but got wiped out fairly quickly so I have gone back to normal. I say that because the problem (below) didn't occur previously so it might be just coincidence that it has happened when I am playing in normal mode, or it might have something to do with it. In my latest playthrough, there are no missiles available for the aircraft. I have done the Atlas base mission and have done the research project for air weapons; I am reasonably sure I have done the engineering project for the missiles (it certainly doesn't appear in the list of available engineering projects), but missiles do not appear as an option in the Interceptor loadout. Unfortunately I cannot remember for sure if I did the engineering project so I don't know if the problem is the research did not result in the engineering project, or the engineering project did not result in missiles being available. So far I have been able to manage scouts and small UFOs with just canons but that won't last! Many thanks, Colin.

I replied in discord to not clutter this thread with off-topic

I don't really want to get into a long discussion about it in this thread, but I'm not sure I see the problem? I think the XCOM system is pretty dumb where an object only offers protection if you're within a meter of it. If the shooter and target are in a straight line, it doesn't actually matter where the cover is along that line in terms of how much of the target is obscured. Broadly, the reason you'd want to get closer to it (both in the game and in real life) is because then the object offers protection from incoming shots in a much wider angle than if you were several meters away from it (when it's only good from attacks from directly in front of you). But that's already modelled in the game, I know the current system isn't perfect but I think it works pretty well within the limitations of an abstracted / non-3d system.

Yes is Secton

Hey there, thanks for the bug report! Yeah, that is indeed rather interesting... I will have to bring this up with the rest of the team and see what they think! Also iirc the compiled bug report file usually contains the last 5 saves, plus it makes a save at the time you pressed F11.

Thanks for taking the time to post a bug report. By enemy units moving on your turn, are these Sectons? Sectons have a mechanic that has a chance of making them flee whenever a Psyon is killed. When the fleeing action is triggered, there's usually a pop-up that states what happened, but there's currently a bug when the Secton is hidden in the fog of war, this pop-up doesn't happen, and as such makes it seem like the secton is making a move on your turn. We're currently working on getting this fixed!

I beat the game for the seventh time now. In this last version that he released. I would like to give some suggestions The Medical Center needs a third improvement. A character I have with 100 health. Has 1 health after completing the quest. He survived luckily. But he spent 45 days in recovery. I believe that the medical center needs a third improvement for this. It's very annoying for your favorite soldier to be out of combat for so long. A suggestion I can give. It's as if in this third improvement. Release a bacta tank, where this soldier was extremely wounded. Have your treatment accelerated. And that he would be automatically placed in this treatment. It could limit up to 4 tanks. Not to get too robbed When building new aircraft. By my distraction. I forget to put the setup I'm using on her equipment. It would be interesting, if when building the ship. You can already configure the equipment that comes with it New missions. I would suggest that in the middle of the game forward. Had rescue missions. For example, if there is a vacancy in engineering. Missions to rescue engineers appear. And have a bonus of material recovered when finishing when saving them. In case the scientists have a mission to repay them, if there is a vacancy in the laboratory and they came with suitcases of money. I believe this helps in the middle of the game that is locked due to lack of money and resources and you save on hiring labor. Apart from the variation of missions, to give it a diverseness. Human enemies It would be interesting to have humans who ally themselves with the aliens. And you have to go put an end to this rebellion. You have two options to do this quest. Kill the traitors of humanity or capture them alive. And this has consequences in future missions. For example, the alies give military equipment to humans, such as weapons and armor. Do missions in sequence. I believe in the interval of travel from one mission to another. There would have to be the option of distributing the equipment among the troops. I did three missions in a row. In the last mission I lost almost a shift distributing ammunition and grenades between the soldiers who could carry more weight and those who had ammunition with those who did not Withdrawal option There was a mission that took 16 soldiers. This mission was complicated. I was left with 5 soldiers on the verge of death. And I made them retreat to the transport ship. But every end of the shift I had to cancel their actions. It would be interesting to have a button where you give an automatic order to an extremely wounded soldier. For him to return to the transport ship and cancel the turn automatically Alien base I wanted to give a suggestion of an alien base with only robotic units and a few aliens. A robo assembly base. I think that would be an interesting variation. Night Missions I don't know if it's a bug, but the aliens don't have a vision penalty on night missions. And that's kind of unfair Climate-varying missions It would be interesting to have missions with rain, wind, snowing and etc... Alien Commanders In order to capture Alia commanders It would be interesting that they have a different uniform or color so that we can easily differentiate them from normal enemies Alien Champions Another mission variation. Serious capture or eliminate some alien champion. Where it brings consequences to the game. And that mission would be extremely difficult I apologize for the bad English. I don't master the language

I don't know if it's specifically a Bug. But there are situations that I'm on my shift. When I kill an enemy. Another enemy appears advanced to my troops. Looking like a suicide attack. I apologize for the bad English. I used translator

I started a thread about the issues I have with the cover system few weeks ago where I wrote this: "While I think the cover system Xenonauts 2 currently has is elegant and works fine, there's one critical issue that really brings the tactical game down. The issue is that you don't need to use a cover to be in cover. It's completely irrelevant if you are hunkering behind a waist high concrete wall or if the said concrete wall just happens to be in between you and the shooter. It just doesn't make sense and makes tactical choises too easy. It just doesn't matter that much where you move your units, as there's almost always some cover in the line of fire (which means you are as good as in cover anyways) Proposition: kneeling next to a cover provides double kneeling buff, kneeling without a cover might also need to be debuffed so players really feel the need to find a cover." Any comment regarding this?

This fact need to bee better translated to game UI.

With September over it's once again time for our monthly Xenonauts 2 development update. Here's a quick rundown of the things we've been busy with this month! Milestone 5: Although we've continued to release hotfixes for Milestone 4 this month, our focus has been Milestone 5. If all goes well, we should (hopefully) have an early prototype of this update ready for testers to play later this month. Milestone 5 is taking a long time because we're making quite a few changes. Aside from the Phase system mentioned in the last update, we're also going to be testing a "strategic operations" system that gives the player more control over the Geoscape and opens up a greater number of strategic gameplay options. Essentially, the player gets a certain amount of "operation points" each day that can be spent on one-off missions to provide benefits (e.g. lowering Panic in a region, gaining an immediate cash injection, etc) or can be used to recruit Supporters in Geoscape regions who provide passive bonuses (e.g. increased monthly funding, reduced research / engineering times, etc). If you recruit all the Supporters in a region, you also gain a powerful Region Bonus for your organisation. Our goal for this system is to add a bit more strategic depth to the Geoscape, and provide players a way to reduce Panic in regions where they do not have aircraft or radar coverage. Choosing which types of Supporter and / or Region Bonuses players want to pursue should hopefully provide players some interesting strategic choices - we're looking forward to seeing what people think when they get to play it! New Missions / Terrain Tiles: Milestone 5 is intended to include the complete sequence of story missions, allowing players to play the entire campaign from start to finish. We've therefore been working on the final mission, creating some unique terrain tiles to reflect the setting in which it takes place. Similarly, we've also created some unique tiles for the areas where the player will encounter the alien leader species, the Eternals (the bridges of Battleship UFOs, and the command centers of the largest alien bases). We're also attempting to address feedback about mission variety becoming a bit stale towards the end of the game by adding two new story missions into the later stages of the campaign. These center around an orbital station the aliens have constructed high above Earth. This gives us an isolated environment where aliens outnumber humans, which is helpful because the presence of large numbers of enemy reinforcements means we can once again make use of some mission types that stopped making sense after the defeat of the Cleaners. We're still experimenting with these missions, but again we're hoping to have a basic version of them in the Milestone 5 prototype. Other Updates: We've also added various smaller systems to the game this month. Firstly, Xenonaut bases now cost varying amounts ($500k - $1.5m) depending on where they are placed. This means there's fewer places where placing a base is objectively a bad decision; the locations with optimal radar coverage are now also more expensive. It's worth bearing in mind this also affects the first base, meaning you'll have more starting funds available if you choose a cheaper location. In the tactical combat, we've added support for alien weapons capable of spawning clouds of (poison) gas on impact. This should allow us to equip certain alien species (probably Mantids) with weapons that behave a little differently from other alien units, while also making items such as the Rebreather a bit more useful. As you can see at the top of the screen, we've also continued to add new artwork to the game - the image above being tied to the Phase system and the updated storyline. Updated Game Editor: Over the last couple of updates I've mentioned our Game Editor upgrade, which is the first step towards having working modding tools for Xenonauts 2. Although work on the final modding tools won't start until after Milestone 5 is complete, this editor upgrade is now largely complete and will act as the foundation for our mod tools. That's it for now, I think - I had a few more smaller things I wanted to talk about, but this update has run long already so I'll leave it here. We'll post another development update once the Milestone 5 prototype is ready to play!

Yeah. That's the Valkyria Chronicles / Phoenix Point accuracy system, right? We tested it way back in the olden days of early X2 and we didn't like it. Any time you're basing hit chances on the actual 3d collision meshes of 3d objects rather than an abstracted "cover value", cover values because unpredictable. Everything works fine if you're shooting in a straight line - shots are more accurate if you're closer, less accurate if you're further away. But unless you're in a world made of cubes, taking one step to the left or right can dramatically affect the shot hit chance because an irregular part of one of the intervening objects (like a branch on a tree) may be added or removed to the fire path. Same is true for crouching, it can have a dramatic and unpredictable effect on hit chance. The problem is that this means that every soldier move involves using the preview mode to search half a dozen nearby tiles for the best hit chance on a particular enemy. Whereas in an abstracted system you know getting closer increases hit chance, and "flanking" to negate cover increases hit chance, and you can very easily deduce the pros and cons of moving to any given tile. The current system isn't perfect by any means but it is much snappier than a 3d system. Also, the final image you linked isn't quite right - the game only uses only the highest cover value from all intervening cover to prevent that problem occurring.