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Hi all - Long, long time player of the og XCOM games here (specifically UFO Defense and TFTD), going back into the 90s. Loved those games. Haven't played the newer XCOM games or Xenonauts 1, but I decided to go out on a lark and pick up Xenonauts 2, as it looks great. Turns out, it's a great game! Just made it to the endgame message and really enjoyed my time playing, and as a result, I figured I'd stop by and leave some feedback. Gameplay Overall really solid. Really harkens back to the old school games, with some really great quality of life upgrades such as being able to see at a glance how many TUs your guys will have left after a shot, or knowing the percent chance to hit after a movement before you even move. That system felt really natural and user friendly. Geoscape is really cool, though it did tend to skip a little bit when dragging the focal point between hemispheres. Tactical combat is excellent. Even tactical air combat felt really nice. Overall, I'd give it an 8/10. Sounds Really enjoyed the soundwork as well. Could always be better, but I didn't notice anything really lacking. 8/10 Music Music felt great. Atmospheric. 9/10. UI Especially for experienced gamers, the UI feels natural and all makes sense. 10/10. Technical performance I only encountered a single noticeable bug through my playthrough, and that was when one of my agents was stuck in an "Airborne state" while healing and I could never get access to him again. He was good too, so it was a bummer. Not super impactful though. There were some other stuff that's clearly not fleshed out yet due to the next milestone not having been hit yet - missing images, missing descriptions, etc. 7/10. Timeline and Progress This is the area that really messed me up. I decided to play on a normal start to dip my feet in, and I found the timeline to suffer from some of the same challenges as earlier versions. First, research progress combined with limited capital doesn't really allow for advanced interceptors by the time you start encountering better UFOs. Same thing with upgrading to Gemini fighters. By the time I hit about six months in game, I already had 3 bases up, but not nearly enough alienum to provide me with enough materials to build more than a small handful of advanced fighters, and certainly not enough to equip the fighters, my troopers, get base upgrades, etc. That felt pretty rough. By the time I hit the endscreen, most of my fighters were still Angels, and they simply had no chance of competing against the waves of 1 large cruise w/ 2 interceptors. Every UFO spotted was either that make up, or a bomber, or some other equally large UFO flanked by two interceptors. In short, I got to a point where I had to start making my own alienum just to be able to get enough to get adequate weapons on my fighters or to build more fighters. This was after I was already taking every possible crash site and mission, and scrimping what little alienum I managed to salvage. In addition, the endgame started seeing waves of UFO's similar to the above. I'd have 4 UFO groupings all hit at once all around the planet. They'd buzz around between my bases pinging my radar, but I wouldn't have the ability to down them. Then after a few days of this, they'd leave, and I'd have a window where zero UFOs would appear. Something felt very programmatic about this and it took away from the gameplay. Four waves of 3 UFOs each for a few days, then like 8 days without a single sighting. Over and over again. This pattern should be tweaked so that singular UFOs or other UFO groups still appear, even into the endgame. Regarding researching, it felt great overall, but I couldn't help but wonder if it could use some editing. Normal weapons felt good. Even advanced weapons felt good. Same with Laser weapons. But I couldn't afford the materials to be able to upgrade to Gauss. And by the time I did I already had researched Fusion, but couldn't afford that either. I believe a lot of that came down to base expenses and funding - by endgame I had 4 bases to ensure adequate world coverage, but the costs to maintain them would leave me with only an extra million per month. I'm no expert, but I felt like I was defending the earth and my rewards for doing so actually felt as though they got worse the longer I played. Something felt off about that. 5/10 Overall 8/10 Overall I really enjoyed the game, and can't wait for it to make it to v1.0. Some really compelling gameplay here that's a ton of fun. I do wish there would be a lot of tweaks made to timeline and progress, but outside of that I was having a blast. I realize that a lot of the more hardcore gamers here will probably tell me I need to git gud and I clearly didn't know what I was doing. Maybe they're right - maybe I'm just old and don't have the skills I used to. But I have beaten the old school XCOM games so I feel like I at least understand the basics of what's supposed to done. And I'd argue that this makes me closer to the "average" gamer when it comes to being able to review the game, rather than someone who's already a die hard fan of Xenonauts 2 and knows all of the minor tips and tricks. Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this. Again, I can't tell the team enough how much fun I had playing the game. I wish you all the best in your quest toward full release!

Hello everyone! April is now over and it's time for our monthly Xenonauts 2 progress update. Milestone 4: We've now done the bulk of the work on Milestone 4 and we've started internal testing on the updated campaign. Assuming there's no major issues we'll probably be releasing an early version of the build to the public early next week to get feedback - but initially this will be on our Protoype branches, as the build is currently too rough even for the Experimental branches. After a couple of weeks of polish the build should migrate to the Experimental branches, and hopefully into full public release on the normal Steam / GOG / Epic branches by the end of the month. Aside from the headline features for the build (Androns and the Harvester UFO for the aliens, the Colossus Battlesuit for the humans) we've got a long list of changes that should continue to improve the usability, balance, performance and stability of the game! Sound Design: Last month we brought an experienced sound designer onto the team to work on the game audio, as earlier in development we hadn't had the time and funds to give it the attention it deserved. Audio is sometimes an unappreciated part of game development, as the benefits of good sound effects can be quite subtle but are nonetheless very important. This month we've updated the strategy UI, creating nicer sounds for the standard click / hover / error actions and then adding new clips so give subtly different feedback for different actions a click can cause (like confirming an action, closing a window, opening a tooltip, etc). There's still a bit more work to be done on the UI sounds, but after that we'll be moving onto the tactical combat sounds and trying to give the different alien species a bit more character. As a side-effect of this process, we've also noticed various places the game didn't have sound but needed it. Some of these are already fixed in Milestone 4, e.g. now Medikits and the Automed Unit play a sound when healing a unit, and melee weapons play a sound if they miss the target. Levels & Environment Art: As Milestone 4 contains over thirty new maps, we've also brought on a fulltime freelance environment artist to help us improve the variety and quality of our tactical environments. We worked on an assortment of smaller tasks last month ranging from improving the ATLAS Base command room assets (wall screens and the command table) to fixing up some of the assets for the Alien Base maps, but once those were complete we began to focus on the Farm biome. Our plan is to add some new terrain objects and update some of the ground textures for the Farm to try and make the maps feel a bit more like a real agricultural environment, and then we'll be moving onto the Tropical biome to do the same thing (as there's not really enough tiles to do the inhabited areas of the Tropical maps properly right now). Once that's done, we'll be able to move onto our final biome - the Soviet Town terror maps! Alien Crews: This month we updated the crews for all the various UFOs / alien ground missions to ensure there was a steady escalation of new enemies throughout the campaign. The addition of Androns means we now have enough units to group the alien races together, so each species now has a dedicated secondary support unit and a terror unit. As part of this task we've added "heavy" variants of the Mentarch, Servitor and Cyberdrone that are tougher and have more powerful weapons, which start appearing towards the end of the campaign. We'll be adding new artwork and 3D models for these units in the next month or two. General Improvements: We've also made an assortment of improvements to other parts of the game. The air combat now supports weapons that are capable of shooting down missiles and we've added a new late-game escort UFO that provides an alternative to the alien Interceptor. We've added support for transferring scientists and engineers between bases. We've added a new soldier module that gives soldiers a 180-degree vision arc. We've made further improvements to the loading times, added many small usability features, and added various small new bits of content to the game. So overall it's been a busy month for us, with lots of good progress made. Thanks for reading and we'll hopefully have Milestone 4 in your hands soon!

Thank you so much for adding such options, Chris! The best approach for the UI would probably be to have separate options to customize the UI as much as possible, for example: - Enemy health numbers = enabled/disabled - Enemy damage and status messages (like "stun", "suppressed", "miss") = enabled/disabled - Flashing red circles below enemies = enabled/disabled (these are very immersion breaking). etc. Not seeing the enemy status at all was one of the best elements of the original X-Com. Not knowing the exact status of the enemy contributes to the "fear of the unknown" (and "horror") aspect that the original X-Com was so good at. One is fighting alien creatures in such a game, they should be frightening and not have health numbers or "suppressed" messages etc. floating above them. It also makes the player more "observant", which leads to more rewarding gameplay (Why all the graphics, like a projectile missing the target and hitting into an object behind, when there will be a "miss" popup anyway? Such UI messages are real immersion/atmosphere killers). Almost all successors of the old X-Com series seem to have forgotten about small details like these that made the original game so immersive and atmospheric: one had to be observant and had to carefully look at the "game world". The reason why it is often named as the best PC game of all time is not just because it was mechanically great, it is also because of what people felt when they played it, the "experience": it was an atmospheric, immersive and scary game. Being able to reduce the UI overlay would make Xenonauts much more immersive. The following expanded campaign option would be great: "Always night" If enabled, every tactical battle takes place at night (independently of the time of day on the operational map). Loved this for the old original X-Com too - it was so much more immersive to play. ---------------- Thank you very much for considering! In every mechanical aspect X2 is already much better than the "best PC game of all time", the original X-Com. The only thing that is still missing is the "atmosphere" (making it more immersive and scary) and this is probably crucial for being successful: it does not seem to matter that much if some single element is perfectly balanced or not (which might take a lot of development time too), it is much more about how the game feels as an "experience". It already feels like a "sober combat sim" exactly like the original X-Com and that is absolutely great - only the "horror"/"atmosphere" aspect is missing. Everyone that I ask about the original X-Com first tells me about that scary "barn and cornfield" night missions, seeing the silhouettes of creatures in the dark, hearing the footsteps in the dark, using the motion scanner (which had its own graphical representation that greatly enhanced the immersion) , etc. IF Xenonauts 2 would have all that it would be my new "best PC game of all time"...

Hello, I agree with pretty much everything from the OP. About air combats, i don’t like them, and i never liked them in any xcom-ish games. In X1 i used a mod to auto-win, so i could focus on everything else but air combat.

In the first image you can see how at night, the ground around the ufo is not illuminated correctly. The ufo hull is also partly in shadow and partly illuminated with no logic. In the second image you can see two shadows from the UFO hull. One nice, smooth drop shadow and another odd, darker one that looks like it shouldn't be there.

Add an option to disable the white 'miss' text popups whenever someone misses a shot

@Chris Revealing arrived enemy reinforcements in shroud looks odd and feels unrealistic in a mil-sim game. Add an option to disable it pls.

Throwables' icons should be darkened when the unit doesn't have enough TU's to use them the same way as hand weapons. Currently, only the green TU cost gets darkened / greyed out. It's odd to have two different UI visual logics side by side.

Night vision of aliens and those humans on the aliens side, seems pretty amazing - they can shoot me right across the board and i cant even see there location! Is there any plans to rebalance this, so you can actually hide in darkness, smoke grenades etc - and have night vision goggles as an extra?

Hey guys, im not sure what happened but I think my soldier got stuck again. Im sharing all my game files to see if it helps figure it out. The bug happened between 6:05 PM and 7:18 PM on 04/22/2024. saves.zip

Hey! I am so glad to find you. I explored information and got your website from the Google search engine. In my free time, I would like to read your all-latest updates and I'll suggest you to my fellows.

Thanks. We weren't able to reproduce this at our end though - can you reproduce this reliably? Do you have more detailed reproduction steps we could follow?

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I’m an XCom / Xeno 1 vet. I’ve read through the roadmap and intentional changes from X1 to X2. I got to the “end of content” on my latest run (day 260). I plan on adding more as it comes to me in replies. I condensed my ranting from earlier into this main post. Here are my thoughts & observations: Things I love: Tutorial is pretty solid. It does a good job of getting through the basics and is value added all around. Air combat tutorial might be good when it’s all ready. The shift view to see remaining TU and hit probability is great. I use it a lot. I also like that the hit % seems to generally match what happens, including having 100% probability shots. The 98% prob hit misses don’t happen. The Cleaner story line is good. It’s nice to have something else to fight and is a source of regular ground combat, especially early. Built in mechanics to keep unfun alien hunts minimal (win a crash with 3 turns on the ship if there’s a straggler, show aliens in base raid when you control the command center). Data Raids, VIP Raid missions I love the 1x1 vehicles (MARS). Crashing through things has been its biggest ability for me. Scouting is cool, but making permanent lines of sight or removing doors is amazing. I haven’t really used the other vehicles. I also love that all of your expendable are available to use rather than having to have a grenade on a belt slot if you want to use it. Having to “reload” grenades on your belt is not fun, so I like how you’ve done this. Things I don’t love: There’s a weird tension between the incentives to finish the cleaners quickly (monthly fund increase), being able to successfully clear that base (soldier level / skills and equipment), and falling behind in the air campaign. I wasn’t sure how much I should “farm” the cleaners because it’s a decent revenue source, and early game there’s a lot of demands for cash to get your bases up and going. I progressed quickly on the timeline but was nowhere ready for the base by 100%. I was able to get a 2nd base early and make a new interceptor or two, but if I hadn’t I think I would have fallen way behind in the mid game. I like tension like this in the game (decisions on how to spend resources / split efforts), but where it is now feels like I will bork my run if I don’t get add’l bases up with Angels even if I don’t need it right now. As it currently is, it seems like you have to know you need to do something the game isn’t pushing you towards, and it pushes hard to ground combat. It seems like mid game the regional threat increases way more from aerial attacks (little white events) than anything ground based (landings, crashes, terror events) that are uncleared (except alien bases - that thing will drive it up steadily). You have to have a lot of air power to deal with that, but cleaners really focus you on the ground. Maybe those white events are skewing the threat more than they should? Cleaner Ambush is too easy. I regularly finished those maps on my first combat turn. A well placed heavy kills 2, shotguns and snipers are about guaranteed 1 each, riflemen get the trickier ones remaining. It was a free $200k but really fiddly. Its a great way for early XP and cash, so if that’s why it’s like that, then I love it! Mission Impressions: Data Raids: Very cool missions. It’s a real balance between how many you send deep and how many pull security / are covering for extract. I don’t know if you get more cleaner progress for more data or not, or if its just a money thing. VIP raids: Same as data only I don’t remember if there’s a bond for extracting him alive vs dead. The lore is about kill or capture, but seems like capture is harder and should be more rewarding. Regardless, it’s fun with lots of choices. VIP extract: these felt like I was on the receiving end of an ambush and were pretty difficult to get through without heavy (not worth it) losses. I could see these with fewer prepositioned enemies but have cleaners reinforce behind you on T2 or 3, so it feels like a chase rather than an ambush. Comments on User Interface / Buttonology: Multiple load out saves, but not unlimited. I found myself spending a lot of time in the armory with A team and B team loadouts. Tie load out to what armor is worn. B team riflemen in lvl 1 armor have different presets (accelerated weapons) vs lvl 2 armor (lasers). I spent a lot of time making sure everyone had the right basics and I think that’s the intent of those load out saves. On that theme, sometimes the ammo automatically changes when equipping a weapon vs not. Going from accelerated to laser or vice versa should update the ammo in your bag as you equip the gun. Related - QoL drag and drop or drop over swap. If I have a 1x1 mag and 1x1 grenade I my backpack, I should be able to place the ammo onto the grenade slot and it put the grenade on my cursor instead of the “red” cell with the “oops” buzzer. Quick swap like sized items. In mission gear changes - can you make it so when I drag my medkit onto my secondary it put what was in the secondary onto my cursor? It’s kind of clunky to drop my pistol, put medkit in slot, then pick up my pistol. Comments / Questions (I don't need/want answers) on current content: Mission rewards vs damage: I don’t know if you get more alloys / crystals for damaging crashes less or destroying less of the alien base stuff inside. I don’t know if I like that idea or not. I’d be happier if I knew what things to avoid destroying or not if tied to rewards. Capturing the general vs killing him in the first mission: is there emphasis or reward for doing one vs another? I have done it both ways and I don’t think it changed anything. The dialogue is different for sure. In general I like games that have more information inside the game via help / xenopedia type things vs having to have a browser up on another screen. This game does a pretty good job of keeping information inside the UI. My main question I looked up (unsuccessfully) was what types of things escalate alien technology or attacks. I don’t know if there’s plans to have your ops officer kind of prod you a bit (“whew boss, seems like the bombers are picking it up, might want to focus on downing them”) rather than having it in the xenopedia entry (you should prioritize bombers). If clearing the cleaner base escalates aliens, maybe an intercepted message saying aliens are increasing aerial attacks / abductions / retaliation strikes or whatever would be nice to know. Kind of a “hey you just crossed a line” message. Unsolicited new content ideas: Base defense: Have a security kiosk in the lift area that when staffed reveals alien locations. It’s your base so you probably have cameras in it and would know where aliens are and have infiltrated. Have the kiosk require 200 TU to operate or something. It gives the broken / low equipment soldiers something to do other than guard the back doors while the able bodied defend. It also gives you more choices on how to do your defense. Kiosks make soldiers face the wall so they lose their FoV and don’t have TU to react. Medevac: increase the odds of “surviving” when incapacitated by carrying the injured back to the drop ship. 50% increase to survivability that drops 10% per turn they’re not on the ship , and penalties to surviving after that. It makes for more decisions on how to carry on in your mission and would create opportunity for aliens to maneuver onto you for mass. I did this on a data steal mission in hopes it’d help me save a downed soldier instead of him being MIA. Research: maybe make it so labs at other bases can research a different topic at a penalty to your overall efficiency? It would give some other incentive to make more labs at other locations and decide how you want to manage that. I was sending all corpses to one base with a small group of engineers to handle those engineer tasks while the main base pumped out gear, so it’d be along that line of thinking.

I have similar experiences with air combat. From 2/3 of the game I lost every air combat, while I won every ground mission. Well, I didn't have the resources to build and repair interceptors.

Description: getting a Time Units penalty (e.g. from picking up a body from the ground) makes the game resets the calculation of used time units of that soldier, allowing for further actions that would not be possible otherwise, like taking a shot or throwing a grenade. What happened: I moved a soldier to a body, picked it up and noticed that I could throw a grenade or take a shot using very few Time Units. Further information: It does not matter how many time units the soldier have used before receiving the penalty, the new time units is what is used as parameter to calculate the cost of an action. I attached a save file of the autosave of the start of the turn; a manual save after picking up a body; and the only log file I could find. user_day_44_vip_extraction_manual_save-4.json resolve_layers.log auto_groundcombat_turn_5_start-140.json

Good evening, I am very interested in the possibility of creating mods for your game, however, I was unable to find a modding tool. The only thing I managed to find an example of a mod on Github. Can you tell me if this link is still up to date?

This Sebillian shouldn't be visible behind trees:

In Cleaners Base there were a couple of walls that my soldiers could see through like this:

Hey there, thanks for the response. Yeah - we'd really appreciate if you can provide us the save before the ground combat mission ended if you still have them as that allows us to track what caused the soldier to get stuck in the "airborne" state.

Hi Team. I started noticing this bug on the mission where you rescue 3 soldiers that are not part of your team yet. You can control them in the mission, but they are at the ATLAS base. Funny thing is... a few missions later my guy finally healed back up and was then available. I can dig up the save files if you guys still need 'em.

sometime expectations are not met however i suppose it is not quite yet ready for beta ? :|