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Goldhawk, I was curious about what you thought about world governments (beyond providing funding) directly providing contract missions for the Xenonauts to potentially execute. Or they may come in the form of optional objectives within the standard missions. For example, supporting or relieving local forces, capturing aliens alive for their own research purposes, turning over captured alien bases entirely to the host government, after you already captured one for your purposes, for a pricey commission. I know the Geoscape effort to help develop a more lively narrative is a highly desirable goal within the community, and I think this may add to the tactical side of the game as well. I ask because I am one of those £500 Kickstarter backers, and I was really intrigued about being apart of the game. You mentioned the option of "Geoscape Situations" which included missing personnel, and that lead me to believe you may be interested in more diverse missions. If such options are possible, I would much more prefer to be represented a member of the local forces (US Army) that make contact with the Xenonauts during a mission; i.e. my unit is combat ineffective before the onset of a terror mission, but if one of the Xenonauts is able to link up with me on the map then I can provide off-map artillery fire support for the remainder of that mission. support like, Immediate Suppression and/or Immediate Smoke fire missions that can be called at the beginning of each turn. Just curious about what you think? P.S. Scott Manley (from Youtube) I believe got many of us into the first Xenonauts, and I think it would be awesome if you included him in some of the artwork for the research/tech tree. LOVE THE GAME!

Hello Team, Chris mentioned in one of his posts that RP elements will be in the game again. This time even closer to an RPG because of soldiers now have stats & skills (before they had just stats). I'd propose the Idea to give not only soldiers stats & skills, it would be nice to have the RP elements for scientists and engineers. Also, you have to save them in base attack missions. Both classes could specialise in the same way as you thought of the soldier (rifle skill vs. rocket skill vs. ...). Thinkable specialisations for scientists could be: Surgent: having a surgent in Base increases healing time of wounded units also he gets a bonus at autopsy speed. Physicist: he is specialised in this field, adding a bonus to his science hour value (making the research faster) if it is a physic project. Chemist: same bonus effect, if it is a chemical or metallic project. Construction specialist: same bonus effect, if it is a model or structure project. Thinkable specialisations for engineers could be: Mechanic: decrease repair time of interceptors, dropships & vehicles. Builder: decrease the build time of any structure in your base. Also decreases damage penalties during base def missions (now it would made sense that aliens try to damage your stuff :-) ) Armourer: he is specialised in making armours, adding a bonus to his work hour values if he works on any armour. Weaponsmith: same bonus effect, but if he works on any kind of weapon. With such specialisation you add much more depth to the game. I know that this will make the game bigger again, but this could be giving many more choices to the player and much more depth. Furthermore, you could need to bring them in some special missions. Beside the "three" classes already in game I propose a third one: Operative. He can be used within the base as well as field agent. In base the operative adds bonus to: detection of UFOS prices at sales and buys to recovery of any fatigue As field agent following he can do spy operations: gives you an update about relations of the target block / country and others as well as to aliens if there are any. recon operations: gives you an update about alien infrastructure in a region id there is any. diplomatic missions: slowly advances your relationship with a block / country. Recruiting missions: searches for veterans or advanced personnel instead of recruiting rookies in the labs, bays or barracks. With that you would make my dream come true: a game with much RP elements in a strategy game. Best Regards ShadowAdmiral

Dunno about any you but I always like to give those files a good read. Even the ones that aren't research reports but are available immediately to give the backstory. It sets the scene, creates immersion and ultimately tells the story of the game. However, a problem with them is that they're static and there's no reason to read them on your second time around. They're written in a very general manner without reference to any specifics; in effect, apart from the sequence of their reveal, they exist in isolation to the campaign. I feel that this really important element of the game would stand to gain from being able to include references to events or variables in the player's current playthrough. A few examples: Mentioning the names of soldiers or their actions on the field: Sergeant X will appreciate this new laser sniper, it is shiny and more accurate so even they wont be able to miss anymore. The outcome of first encounters with a new species: the Androns aren't very polite, they killed Sergeant X despite heavy fire from the laser sniper. The conditions of the Geoscape: disassembling that Andron was really tedious what with all those funding cutbacks. Try to avoid nuking any more of Europe, Commander. Ok, so those examples are a bit naff. But the direction I'm going with this is that the player can find the odd surprise or gain an achievement depending on their actions. Even something basic like having more detail in the xenopedia on higher skill settings, so when you step it up to Insane there is additional content. The writing is not bad at all in Xenonauts and this could really bring it to life. This idea could be taken even further in relation to the promised Geoscape Events. Say that clues are hidden within the xenopedia entries that relate to the better choices to make on Geoscape Events, but make those clues variable, changing with each new game. Another example: one of the backstory entries hints at an active nuclear silo near a small town in France, then, in a Geoscape Event you should try not to bomb that small town in France lest the mushroom cloud arise. But in your next play through, you can bomb the hell out of Carcassonne without worry of fallout.

I think in the new XCOM that soldiers are aware of any enemy within visual range worked much better than having to turn and face at every corner like the original X-COM (and Xe1).

Selecting soldier or location at that level of intelligence would requires custom code or scripting for each, and can potentially be a whole new different level from modable Geoscape Events. (Which in many games are triggered by simple conditions like stress, skill, money, research etc.) A potential middle point X2 can do is to record the first kill of every weapon and armour, first fallen location, in a predictable naming so that the xenopedia can try to use them. But I suspect these fixed trick will get old quickly, and it sounds like something that can be modded in, assuming mods will have a way to store custom properties to a game. So, um, good idea but no I don't see how that is feasible or suitable for vanilla, esp. that the better mod support goal is unlikely to be met.

Given that there is a drive to embed this game in the crossfire of the cold war, I think it would be highly appropriate to have the US, USSR and maybe a non-aligned representative (e.g. Sweden, a Pan-African Union) approach the Xenonauts with contracts or the like. And not just those Council Missions from XCOM either, there was no real choice in them because your actions didn't relate to supporting different factions. Having the global regions actually relate to one another would be cool.

If MARS can pass the kickstarter, please consider to able to add different races as soldiers. This could open huge opportunities. A runaway caesan at your ranks?.. a scout dog which becomes a cyborg one with laser firing eyes! , ok maybe without that eyes.. There is dogs at some of openXcom mods for scouting and rush attacks, and they look nice.. Letting him to get experience and becomes a demon spawn for enemies would be a nice addition.. This new races should able to have their own armor/weapon/items... like you should not able to give a gun to a dog but maybe a laser guide for aim buff?.. I know that this is hard maybe not so usefull to add main game but i want you to consider creating this kind of system for modding. A tamed reaper would be nice too.. Fun aside, it would be nice even to get unique characters from enemies at your ranks.. Like an event which adds a sebillian trooper to your ranks.. this could open the specialist soldier system too like adding different kind of soldiers with special weapons.. possibilities are endless with just some coding at development. Example: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2878.0

Yeah I hate to dissent with the will of the Kickstarter vote, but I agree with Drages, the whole MARS thing is quite underwhelming. Just personal preference. But, I would be interested to see the potential for non-human characters, especially if they can be acquired through mission activities or something. It has always been hugely appealing to mind control aliens just to have a go at using them as units, especially when they've got very different actions/capabilities.

Xenonauts 2: Controversial Inventory System.

To be honest, i would like to see very limited scientist rather then having 200 of them at a military base.. it's just lame to have so many non-soldier class people in a military base..

Looking for resources to do a UI mockup and found these on ArtStation! (Edit: Click for sharp image. The forum thumbnails are not doing them justice!) https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gqZn8

I've made a UI mockup with UI elements that I'd like to see: Bigger Everything! Well, except the weapons. See major equipments of all soldiers. See heal-able HP and stun damage. TU, HP, and main weapon above everyone (friends, foes, and 3rd parties). Outline move area, move + shot area (before turning), and vision cone. When selecting move location, show line to all enemies, and who can be shot from that location (after turning), and whether each can see you (red eye icon in the mockup, above the left alien). Default to move + fire instead of ignore move and fire. When hovering over target, see accuracy of all modes. See hovered target's TU and HP but without numbers. Full UI mockup (understandably most clustered): Animated mockup (Not always playing correctly; did my best): X2.mp4 Fine touches: See all inventory on screen (slot based), Selecter soldier's skills, Silhouette for human and alien, Replace shot mode text with icons, Firing hint. TU has a blue overwatch marker to represent snap TU. Tried adding current firing mode marker, but a bit redundant with moving shot boundary and live TU prediction. Floating TU and HP is white to emphasis coloured status icons such as the red eye for sight. If a walk plan renders you unable to fire at a target after turning, it can be conveyed by "not-attackable line" to that target. I think we can also rotate vision cone with mouse move, and update TU prediction (and maybe cone colour) to indicate whether there is enough TU left for overwatch. In hindsight I could have made the alien indicator smaller and add their weapon icons below. And add reaction shot indicator next to sight indicator.

Should an advanced AI be able to make errors? What I mean is, in case the programmers get to a "level 5" AI in the end, could a single unit have a chance to fumble, especially when under stress, and behave at "level 3"? History is full of bad decisions taken for various reasons. Does "fuzzy" AI exist, where you replace each branching by a set of branching, depending on (directed) random fortune? For example, the duel turned to be a draw and both the alien and you are half dead. It's the alien turn and "he" knows that if he stays here one turn more, he will be dead, plus he sees that your distant mates prepare to shoot at him. Based on the AI (mainly the distance of your mates), and the designed alien psychology, the alien would either shoot, kill you, and be soon dead, or take the chance and run for cover, because he thinks that he can still do more damage to more people, on the next turns. This kind of decision has not to be deterministic, except for (terran only?) robotic units, mind controled units or cheap clones that have little concern for themselves. I'd love a game where the alien would shoot at you (as you expect), but only in 6 cases out of 8, and would take the chance in 2 cases out of 8. Another example is when an omniscient enemy AI would have the map revealed and two of your snipers located, and still have one chance on 10 to send a unit in the open just in front of your snipers. Obviously, with such a "fuzzy" advanced AI, the concept of confusion would shine: just unbalance the finely tuned set of random chances, and make the most viable behaviour the less likely to occur.

I'm sorry, but as a programmer i can tell you that you are plain wrong. The basic steps for pretty much any unit in Xenonauts are virtually identical: move to optimal position, engage target if possible, repeat until no further effective moves can be made with the remaining TU. In the vanilla non-CE Xenonauts 1 i would even expect that all single tile ai-controllable units excluding reapers were using literally the same algorithms, with optional sub-routines for special abilities like flight or teleportation. Please keep in mind that the original topic of discussion was primarily whether the question "Is this an AI that is challenging due to strategic/tactical decisions rather than just stat / number superiourity?" can even be reasonably objectively answered. Actually, you just wrote a good scenario of how reapers could be shifted from slightly annoying nuisances to the actual terror troops they are supposed to represent. I tell you if reapers acted that smart, even if their stats were sub par, players would break out in cold sweat as soon as they hear that reapers might be in the operation area. And that will get you WAY better player reviews than just a super tanky no brain reaper that runs straight at the player, where it is not a skill challenge of positioning and identifying threat areas but instead a test on if you brought enough equipment to be able to gun down the reaper before it reaches your troops. Again, you might want to leave these things to people who are actual programmers. The fine tuning you speak of is definitely good and necessary, but implementing things like basic AI squad tactics is something that needs to be done before you can even send out your prototype to the testers for them to evaluate whether what you consider squad tactics is even worth anything ... and writing that AI code costs time and money.

It's exactly how @Jocko said. Thank you Jocko for that wonderful explanation. I would also like to point out that having a squad based system would make handling soldier stress and rotation a lot easier. For example if Alpha squad has been on a few missions and are stressed out it'd be as simple as assigning Bravo squad to the next mission while Alpha rests a few days. It would also greatly simplify a multiple click action (unassign each soldier from the dropship just to reassign others in their place along with their particular position in the bird).