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As Closed Beta V9 (which currently requires being on our Experimental branch) contains the first iteration of the realtime air combat model from X1, this thread is intended as a dumping ground for all those little gameplay issues that affect the air combat but aren't quite bugs - missing features, visual or sound problems, etc. Basically, if something is clearly breaking the game (e.g. a crash) then report is as a bug in the normal bug report forums. If something just isn't working properly (e.g. if the interceptors aren't pathing properly towards their targets, missiles aren't visually creating explosions, etc) then post it up here. For now let's avoid the meta discussion about whether the X1-style air combat is the right model for the game, or suggestions about where the air combat should develop from here. For the next week or two I'm mostly interested in making sure the air combat actually functions correctly before we start changing things up.

This is the official thread to discuss the balance of the V9 builds and the overall gameplay experience. Now the air combat is complete we've finally reached the point where I'm going to be doing an extended gameplay test and balance session so please post up particular weapons / aliens / UFOs / etc that feel badly balanced. I'd also be interested to know about areas of the game that seem really unpolished in a way that spoils your gameplay experience, too - I know there are a lot of them but hearing other people's opinions will help me prioritise what I should be fixing up or what content I should be adding. I won't be able to act on everything but really the more feedback I have to consider the better. This could be game systems, it could be particular UI panels looking bad, it could be certain parts of the game being unintuitive or hard to use, etc. Just post it up here. I'm aware the game balance hasn't changed much since V8 so I'll be reading over the comments in the V8 balance thread too. The plan is that we'll be releasing an update in about a week which will include a number of UI improvements, balance improvements and generally just should address some of the issues I find in my gameplay testing.

Closed Beta Build V9 has now been released on Steam and GOG. Note that this build is only available on our Experimental branch so you'll need to switch over to get this update (instructions on how to do that here). This build is also not being released on Xsolla - all Xsolla backers should now have a Steam or GOG key. If not, please let us know and we'll look into why. This build includes the updated air combat model and a refresh of the (non-Geoscape) strategic UI, along with a number of other features. Although the build is still rough in gameplay terms I'm planning to do a balance / gameplay pass on it as part of the hotfixes, so there'll be extra polish and potentially a bit of extra content arriving alongside the bugfixes in the next week or two. The biggest change is that you no longer have access to an air combat autoresolve function that will just autowin the battle; you now must either win the battles through the X1-style air combat system or use our improved autoresolve functionality that should give a much better approximation of the combat than it did in X1. Key Features: Strategic UI Update: the first part of the strategic UI refresh is now in place, covering the non-Geoscape management screens - Main Base, Research, Engineering, Base Stores, Personnel, Soldier Equip and Aircraft Equip. We've updated the layout and functionality on a few screens and reverted to a neater visual style more like X1; the final visual style of the UI may change in future but hopefully this is the final layout (subject to tweaks made due to community feedback and suggestions). Note that the art is not final; there's still areas we're using X1 placeholder stuff! Realtime Air Combat: the realtime air combat model from X1 has been implemented into X2. There's been a few tweaks to the setup that I will explain below but most will be familiar from X1 - please give it a test and let us know if anything is weird / broken. Once we've given it a proper test we'll start making changes to the balance, adding new aircraft / weapons and thinking about whether we can improve the visuals etc. Air Combat Autoresolve: we've implemented an entirely new air combat autoresolve formula that should give more accurate results than the X1 equivalent. In effect it simulates what happens if all the combatants fly directly towards each other at maximum speed, attacking as soon as their weapons come into firing range. If they reach one another, they stop dead and keep firing at point-blank range until one side is destroyed. It's a simplistic representation of air combat but one that should still avoid the somewhat nonsensical results that you could sometimes get from the X1 autoresolve! Air Combat: Weapons now have a hit %. This currently has no gameplay effect (all weapons are set to 100% Accuracy) but it's a variable we'll tweak in future updates. The manual Evade Roll no longer exists and has been replaced by an Evade % chance on all combatants, modified by the Evade modifier on each weapon (i.e. how easy is it to dodge this weapon). A successful evade roll will completely negate the damage from the incoming shot - so if you see missiles pass straight through a target, it's because they have evaded them. Your Falcon interceptors have a 25% Evade chance and your Foxtrots have a 0% Evade chance against alien fire. Your cannons ignore Evasion, but Sidewinders apply it normally and Avalanche missiles double the Evade chance of each UFO. We'll be discussing this mechanic with the community in the near future to see how well it works; we'll also be adding a visual indicator so you can see when it happens. The retreat area for the combat is now relative to the UFO and is currently just shaded green. If you touch the edge of this green area your interceptor will retreat. Gaemplay Updates: Soldier armour is now controlled by a dropdown like in X1, rather than having an inventory slot (this will make it easier to support modular armour). Aircraft now have pilot portraits. We'll be giving these guys pilot helmets and callsigns rather than names in an upcoming update. The wall-hiding system is now in the game, although my playtesting suggests that it's not working particularly well right now - we'll finesse that some more in the hotfixes. The arid (middle east) maps have had some updates to their ground textures to make them less visually noisy. Falcon interceptor and Skyhawk dropship are no longer purchased, but can be constructed in the workshop from the start of the game. They are also substantially cheaper than before, although not quite as cheap as they were in X1. Combat missions on the Geoscape no longer despawn if there is a dropship en-route to them. Anomalies (the little events spawned by UFOs on the Geoscape) no longer appear in the mutli-select popup list that occurs when you click on an area that contains multiple interactive objects, as they were just cluttering things up. Medals earned by your soldiers are now displayed on the mission-end debrief screen. Some basic art for the Skyhawk on the Aircraft screen. Sebillian autopsy and corpse art has been added. Semi-placeholder corpse art added for the Andron, Gundrone and Cyberdrone. Unassigned soldier tab on the Soldier Equip screen now displays the numbers of soldiers in that category. Units under mind control do not count for victory conditions; e.g. you won't lose if your last soldier is mind controlled and you can't win by mind-controlling the last alien. Bugfixes: Units should no longer be able to see up / down through solid floors and ceilings. You can now decommission a dropship without the game crashing. The equipment of the civilians and local forces is no longer being recovered after battle. Fixed some issues with loadouts for Unassigned soldiers. Fixed the Gun Drone and Cyberdrone not exploding and disappearing when killed. Please give the air combat a thorough test and let us know in this thread if you find anything that works differently from X1 or just feels worse for some reason. Feel free to report anything you notice, even if it is such a big issue it seems obvious or so small an issue you're not sure it matters - a LOT of work has gone into the air combat update and we're bound to have missed without realising.

I think it's a valid question to raise, and I'll probably write a longer post on the topic at some point because I imagine you're not the only person thinking this. I guess the question really boils down to what an individual considers sufficient innovation / gameplay change to be "different" to what came before. Over time the design Xenonauts 2 has drifted from being full of bold new ideas to something far more akin to the first game, which mostly happened as a result of those bold ideas colliding with reality and coming up short. The community has definitely played a role in our decision to move X2 closer to X1, but that could be interpreted either as hardcore fans hating change or just people flagging up new ideas that are outright worse than what they were replacing. Both of the changes you mention are in service of a deeper strategic layer than was originally planned in X2. I guess over time I've realised that that complexity in the tactical and strategic layers relative to other games in the genre pretty much IS Xenonauts; a lot of people liked Xenonauts 1 because the strategic layer was more freeform than the modern XCOM games and simplifying the strategy layer as we originally planned in X2 may not actually have been the adventurous choice given that is also what our main rivals have done. I've also found that the various mechanics in X-Com games are so heavily interconnected its difficult to change a major element without negatively affecting other parts of the game; having a simpler air combat model limits the Geoscape more than you might initially think. In general, I think within video games and the strategy genre in particular there's a proud tradition of sequels refining the original game without having to fundamentally change the mechanics. Civilisation II and Master of Orion II spring to mind, but something like Doom II also works for the comparison. If we deliver Xenonauts 1 with updated graphics, better stability and usability, address a number of the gameplay problems, add some new aliens / technology / other content and maybe a couple of well-chosen new gameplay systems to give players more options - is that not enough? Ultimately that's a question of personal taste, really. That said, I do feel bad for people who backed our Kickstarter or bought a pre-order on the basis of our bold promises about new features that have since changed; I think anyone in that situation has a legitimate case to argue they had been missold (which is why I'm happy to offer refunds to such people).