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Hi everyone - we've not released a build for a while, so it's time for another update to tell you what we've been working on and when you can expect to see a new release arrive. Delays & Disruption: The Christmas holidays are always disruptive to a business, but we've also had to spend a lot of time and effort trying to fix the loading bug that starting appearing in the V10 Experimental builds (basically the game would sometimes lock up when starting or loading a game). This has been a very thorny issue, as it's related to how Unity loads the asset bundles it uses to store game objects, so it's controlled by code deep within Unity rather than being anything we have any real control (or even visibility) over. We thought we'd found and fixed the issue on several occasions, but sadly it seems we've only managed to make it happen less frequently. This is an annoying bug, but it's not game-breaking given you can always just restart Xenonauts-2 and it'll probably load fine the second time around. We're therefore going to leave it for now and see if we can get some help from Unity themselves. Anyway, this bug has been a big reason why we've not been putting out many builds recently. New Features / Content: Despite the delays, we've actually done quite a bit to the game since the last public update. The two main features we've been working on are the mechanical units and the modular armour system, but I've also spent some time balancing the strategy layer and doing some of the plot-related writing. The Kickstarter soldiers are now all set up and working, and we're now starting to make a few visual updates to the ground combat missions and it's a short-term priority to add some more mission and map variation; if all goes well we might see some of the new mission types (item recovery / VIP Assassination) appearing in the game. Strategic Balancing / Writing: I'll talk first about what I've been doing. The strategic balancing involved me playing the campaign fighting the air battles but using developer cheats to auto-win the ground combat missions, so it allows me to check that all the UFOs are spawning correctly and functioning in the air combat, the missions are loading up properly and unlocking the appropriate research items, all the research and workshop projects are joined together correctly, and eventually that the final mission can be unlocked and won. It also means I need to ensure the escalating power of the UFOs can be matched by the player's interceptors and their weapons, because I can't progress through the game if I can't shoot down the UFOs. It was literally impossible to shoot down some of the UFOs in the last public build, so this is a good thing I then locked myself in a room for two or three weeks to write a whole bunch of the key research text - projects like Alien Alloys and Alenium that explain the fundamentals of how alien technology works, and then the 8 or so plot-related research projects starting with the Alien Invasion up until the stuff that unlocks Operation Endgame. This is why I've not been on the forums or posting news for a while; I needed to focus on that and once I got it done I had about three weeks of project management stuff to catch up on instead. Anyway, the first draft of those projects is now complete and will be in the next build (of course about two days after having finished the writing, I had a really good new idea for a new game mechanic that would subtly change the setting and require some more rewrites!) Vehicles: I'm pleased to say that mechanical units are now in the game and functional. No doubt there's a whole host of bugs and weird behaviour with them that we'll need to iron out over the coming months, but you can build a MARS in the workshop and equip it with any kind of infantry weapon, then assign it to a dropship and drive it round ground combat maps blasting aliens. It crushes things like the X1 vehicles did, which is fun but still pretty janky - it'll happily smash through solid brick walls but not little tables, and if it tries to go through a door it stops, opens the door and then smashes down the doorframe. All stuff we can fix though. Modular Armour: The modular armour system will hopefully be done in the next few days, but we've been thinking that for weeks now. It's a cool system, but it's a complex one due to all the different combinations of the modules and the way that they need to control the appearance of the soldier both on the strategy layer and (eventually) in the ground combat. Miscellaneous: All the Kickstarter backer soldiers have now been added, along with a large number of the custom portraits - another surprisingly time-consuming job, but it's another task crossed off the list. UFOs on the Geoscape can now have escort craft like they did in X1. We've updated Strategic Operations so they now add scientists / engineers to a hire pool rather than putting them directly into your base, which means Living Capacity checks now work properly and modders can entirely revert to the X1 hiring mechanics if they prefer (this also means we can more easily support splitting personnel by base like in X1 if we want to). We've done a bunch of other smaller things too, but I've already written a massive wall of text so I'll just stop here. Build V11 Plans and Priorities: So for V11 my priority is to get the modular armour finished, and then I want to start spending some time on the ground combat - both in terms of level design / variation, and game balance. After spending a lot of time improving the strategy layer over the past 6+ months I feel like we can now start looking at the game as a complete experience. That said, I'm also looking at a few new Geoscape systems that I'm hoping will mix things up right from the start of the game. I'll throw some threads up on those so you guys can discuss the ideas and give us your views - although these are still at the early stage of testing, so it's far from certain they'll survive! When can you expect V11? I suspect it'll be out on Tuesday February 4th.

I think the current idle stance animations are too passive. The idle stance from Xenonauts 1 where better because soldiers where at (low ready stance) > Combat ready stance with weapon muzzle pointed down and gunstock at shoulder. That created the atmosphere that a soldier is waiting for an allien to pop up and i think it increased the immersion and tension. I would suggest to create idle animations with low ready stance and when soldier runs out of TU to shoot switch to current idle stance. That way soldiers that have enough TU left for shooting will be at a combat stance so you will know they are ready to fight or shoot on overwatch and those with current idle unable to shoot. Sorry for my bad english

Modular armour is literally one of my favourite features in any video game ever, signed in just to express my excitement the game will have it! Any chance for teaser screenshot and/or mod support?

Maxim 56. Infantry exists to paint targets for people with real guns. I've played many games like Xenonaughts (X-com, UFO:After-whatever, Phoenix Point) and one thing that has always annoyed me is that there is no off-map support. Like, we're fighting off an invasion by a technologically superior enemy, and we are LOSING, and the powers-that-be can't be bothered to give us fire support? We got aircraft, why can't one of them strafe the enemy lines? Or have our transport stop a kilometer from the fight, and drop off two guys with a mortar? Calling out for people to rain hell down on the enemy positions have been a staple of human combat since WW1! Why aren't we doing that now? (salt) Now I know that this would shift the balance in the player's favor, but if the xenos are beating the regular armies of earth, they should be showing it. Give the xenos a CIWS, either deployed or mounted to a robot or something. Have the ufo's weapon systems be operational, and shoot back at the air support. If we want to be able to call in artillery from a nearby base, it would take time for them to get set up, which the xenos could use to fortify their position or destroy valuable artifacts.

It's not supposed to be fair. You're not inviting people to a honor duel, you're fighting for survival of your species, being "sporty" is for losers. And as I said, there are ways to balance it. By making it only available sometimes (artillery has to be brought into position, you need friendly assets nearby), depending on conditions, with costs involved. Again, if aliens bunker up in the UFO, how can you use artillery? You'd destroy all the equipment. And unnecessary destruction of civilian buildings would not be looked upon favorably (use of artillery could have a negative impact on mission performacne and country disposition)

You're saying this as if an improved Xenonauts is a bad thing and it has to be something completely different.