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I just feel that this is a big lackster. Yeah sure, you get on off chance a single suprise, but majority of enemies are going to be composed of the single "race" and early game especially suffers from it. It's not problem on first play through, or maybe even second, but as you go it's just a routine. You know what to expect, element of "surprise" is gone and just loses it's momentum. I know that there could be concern of the balance, but X2 also follows in footsteps of X1 research linear progression and tech advancement. That balance concern can be countered with trying to make research and gear progression "branched" and more varied. It's something XNT overhaul did for X1 (incorporated a lot of mini mods like Dynamic UFO) and built popular foundation that X-Division continued to carry on. But the core foundation of this overhauls, was that element of not feeling linearity. Even minimalistic overhaul mods, that didn't try to overhaul every aspects but extend vanilla, went head on after making UFO spawns more dynamic, and research/tech progression more verbose and varied. I just think X2 would miss a huge opportunity to take advantage of it's new clean slate that is not held back by technical reasons and have this mechanics in place natively, rather than lean heavily on mods to introduce it.

@Chris Not sure if its asked before, but would it be possible to mod multi-tile units in X2? Some of us still liked the mini-tanks from the previous game.

Yeah, not tougher but better looking and more moodier and oppressive.

You need to capture in each phases the engeneer of each species ASAP because they unlocke valuable tech without them you are screwed .

Thanks both for explaining how suppression works in the game, I didn't really understand it before but it seems pretty simple now.

Suppression is a tactical option to use when you need it. I rarely try and suppress with anything other than flashbangs too. If I get it from shoot its great, but I rarely have that as a goal. Its too unpredictable to rely on and I'd rather just shoot to kill. Generally I'll look at the level of risk I think I have if the alien shoots - if I've got a shield I may use that soldier to generate reaction fire rather than trying to suppress, and also it can be worth checking your reflexes too. High reflex soldiers are less likely to generate reaction fire.

If you suppress the alien, it gives you a reaction free environment so your troops are safe to act, but you have to rush in and kill it before the end of turn, thats the mentality of suppression tactics, they arent to lockdown aliens not to act, but for you to rush in for the kill safely. And for aliens that could still kill your soldiers effectively even after suppression..... well I would blame turn-based RNG for that.....sometimes.

I have to disagree, the activation after they have been suppressed: they can move and shoot, but they cannot move very far if they do so, we are talking 2 maybe 3 tiles if armed with a pistol. they can basically never shoot twice as the AI greatly prefers the firing options that it can only perform twice per turn tops. they can't use grenades atoll in the turn after they have been suppressed. if they can't get a shot on the player with that puny amount of movement, they generally just sit there and save their TU for a reaction the main benefit from suppression is that it stops enemy reactions, all enemies that can be suppressed lose all their TU the moment they get suppressed. this allows you to run up and perform a shotgun lobotomy without much resistance. it also allows ready-and-waiting machineguns to reflex suppress enemies and basically trap them in the open. the exact same goes for the player, if the player gets suppressed..he loses all TU and cannot react until its next activation, at the next activation you have half TU..so your movement is limited if you still want to land a accurate shot.

I like the new smaller version of the mars but the seem to be destructible to easy as the cleaners and some aliens have great first accuracy then again if they were covered by shields before start this wouldn't be a problem what about even having the side and back doors closed wen the copter lands or like av said before dropped in at a safer/another point on the game map as tbf the copter must have sensors for hear etc so would no a safe deployment point also I'd like the option of the guns at first to be between the 1s just now and a black market variety

Just speaking personally of course, but I wouldn't like to see night missions made easier by having circumstances that benefit the player. Part of the fear-factor comes from knowing that you're really up against it! I have a simple answer to the question of why would people choose to do night missions, which is to make all Terror, Abduction, and Alien Base missions be night missions. And inside UFOs too. They should be the scariest missions anyway, right? The issue here, as I see it, is that those missions -- well, Terror or Abduction at least -- could only be on the geoscape for a maximum of 12 hours, which is of course too limiting. I've been thinking about this today, and have what is (in my mind at least!) a neat solution. For Terror and Abduction missions, the aliens cover the area in a fog-like miasma of nano-particles (or whatever ). This is basically a way of creating night conditions even if the mission is encountered during the day. It fits the Abduction mission really well because the aliens want to keep their antics away from prying eyes, and Terror because it makes things, well, terrifying! This idea opens up more possibilities. Maybe the fog is weaponised to instil fear in humans (a bit like a milder version of the Scarecrow's toxins from Batman). This fits thematically, especially for Terror missions. So, any Xenonauts in this dark fog suffer a penalty to their bravery and are more likely to panic. Maybe the fog is neutralised by photons of light, so soliders can rally themselves by sticking to well-lit areas. Perhaps the effect is cumulative, and the longer a solider is in the dark, the lower their bravery gets. End their turn in some light to restore bravery. The current morale system is pretty barebones, so this could spice it up. Other night factors can include an accuracy penalty to shooting aliens in the dark, which could lead to a strategy of wanting the illuminate them with flares before attacking. There could be more equipment tailored to these "night" missions too, such as night vision goggles, anti-miasma torches, adrenaline shots to counter the bravery-sapping effect (synthesised from Reapers maybe?) Making it an alien-generated effect rather than just natural nighttime opens up a lot of possibilities, as you can basically give it any properties you like. Wouldn't it be cool if UFOs and alien bases followed this ruleset too? It could be like a defence mechanism activated by the aliens. It'd make them a lot scarier, for you the commander and for your troops as well. Maybe there's potential in tying Mantids into this, as they're currently a bit dull as enemies. Perhaps they generally excel in these conditions, as it mirrors their natural environment, so get buffs to their stats. For a special ability they could belch out concentrated miasma, making soldiers panic and creating a smoke effect. Capture a live specimen to unlock Panic Grenades, which have a big impact on an enemy's bravery. And it would be a great reason to have the kind of awesome lighting effects that a modern game engine allows! Lots of ideas, hopefully some good ones are in there somewhere

I feel that night missions should retain their difficulty, but have some situational circumstances that benefits the player. QOL features - Nightvision equipment To give more options for night play, nightvision goggles as equipment that remove the darkness penalty but reduces cone vision to simulate night vision goggles and their reduction of awareness. However adding new elements can accumulate micromanagement, so to prevent that, the accuracy module can by default be outfitted with night vision that provides a toggle on/off option with TU spent for soldiers to activate their night vision. - Choosing day/night battles Now this could be a tricky element, because the player can simply decide to attack at daytime only and nothing else, and the day/night cycle is an element for players to be more tactical due to missions having limited time, but if night missions are incentivised enough to be desired, then this would be a good feature. incentives for nighttime - Less civilians at night. Civilians might be more sparse in night missions, which if there is a bigger factor to prevent the loss of civilian life. If I recall in X1, there is an effect to whether you prevent the loss of civilians or local forces? Perhaps a gameplay element that having less civilian casualties result in better increase in goodwill, night missions would be perfect to minimise collateral damage in the field. - Alien strengths and weaknesses. If sunlight is a factor, aliens might provide some weaknesses at night missions. Regenerative abilities might be weaker or robot sensors have a smaller range for example. Or provide strengths such as more potent mesmerise abilities to strike true darkness in the hearts of the soldiers. - Subtle landing entries Nightime might provide some kind of shroud for landing crafts to land troops before the aliens could notice. If the starting positions of aliens are further from the landing craft, or are still bunched up around their crashed UFOs, that provides some tactical consideration. - Map variation Perhaps for an excuse to change map variety, the aliens might prop up mobile bases or scientific equipment depending on the time of day(solar plants in daytime if they actually used solar power, that provide cover and obstacles on the alien side) - Alien frequency Depends on the time of day, different types of aliens might be more frequent in the battlefield, which players can predict and adapt their tactics accordingly (reapers could be more frequent at night). Of course this will be limited to alien research or terror missions in the field, it would not make sense on crashed UFOs. If a player needs a specific alien to research this could turn their direction towards choosing the time of day to approach. - Weapons/armour changes I cant think of a realistic way of weapon changes on darkness, but perhaps armour might play a part. The stalker armour for example could be much more effective in areas of darkness. - Resources Perhaps nighttime would be ideal for clandestine activities to move alien research cargo or alien abduction pods for example. This provides a financial incentive for players to attack at nighttime, knowing that there is more chance of loot to be found, although that has to be balanced out otherwise, nighttime missions would be the meta for getting resources. - Story required night mission Perhaps a 'forced' incentive is to play a mission at night where a particular alien or technology could only be around at night.

The MARS to me is an early game clutch, designed to be an expansive soldier unit that has some perks(smashing through walls, godly sniper cannon) to make it highly attractive among a sea of privates that you have yet to rank up, but I do agree that the $250k price is just too much(its almost 2 MARS for a mid-tier aircraft). $150k seemed more reasonable as suggested.

What about adding some extra equipment for night ops (silencers for ballistic weapons or specialised silenced weapons, motion scanners, night vision) and in some missions (like the cleaner cells) with less enemies at night, while reinforcements coming in lets say 5 turns in high numbers if the xenonauts get discovered (meaning a sighted enemy is not dead in the same turn, no grenades, no demo charges etc f.e.) That would give the night missions another feel. And here I would agree with Skitso about the "fading" vision effect during night missions. Perhaps not so extensive as in the screenshot above, but it would be more realistic (the tiles, that would be only partially visible could have less chance/pecentage to see an enemy etc) Terror missions could be restricted to night time only f.e. or It could be worth adding some special missions with special equipment restricted for such missions only.

Yes, I think that X2 can easily be more atmospheric and immersive than X-Com with some small changes. Night missions are already really atmospheric also because of the more serious creepy music ( no "action music", it destroys atmosphere): So these night mission in wooded areas are already really atmospheric. Some small things would make the above more scary. For example: 1st rule to make an atmospheric, scary game: The enemy is "unknown". The players should not see the HP points or other states of the enemy "running around in the darkness". Strong enemies or enemies immune to certain ammunition types were so scary in the original, because you would shoot and shoot (not seeing the HP or other effect on the target), but they did not go down... that is "movie stuff" that makes a game an experience and the player also has to be more observant then, which automatically also increases immersion. And one cool thing in the original X-Com was how important the sound was in that regard: when hitting a silhouette in the darkness with the creature going down, one had to listen - was there a scream? If not it was just unconscious would either bleed out in the next turn lying there or (and that made it tense/creepy) it would get up again silently after some turn. The "unkown enemy" is the most important part and easy to achieve, no graphics changes needed, just options to turn them all off. I would prefer a simple in-game option: "always night". I did this in the original X-Com and TFTD in Dos via an edit. Increases the atmosphere a lot! I simply pretended: it is only possible to approach the crash/landing/colony/etc. site at night or "the aliens darkened the skies" (lol). BTW: I am new to the forum. Is there a way to contact the developers and discuss such ideas/suggestions/requests with them?

Absolutely! I always loved seeing your machine buddies fight alongside ya. That's why there's a longstanding tradition in giving tanks nicknames. Fingers crossed for a buff

I don't see the point of this. The cost of the flares is the time needed to throw them, not the number available. Unless there's some reason to go on night missions, making them harder is just going to cause people to avoid them even more. I suggest more time pressure, i.e., if you wait until morning you're at risk of lesser rewards, more opposition, etc.

100%, this is it exactly! I've really enjoyed my X2 time so far, but this comment is like a lightbulb moment: X2 is lacking the atmosphere of X-Com and TFTD. Those games were scary in a way that X2 currently isn't. Ironically, it might be in part due to the simpler graphics of the old games, as your imagination would do a lot of the heavy lifting and fill in the blanks. I think that better night missions are part of the solution, but even regular missions need more atmosphere and a sense of dread.

Make Terror and abduction missions night only?

Same here - I also got TFTD first. And to be honest, the original X-Com was a little bit of a letdown afterwards, because TFTD was gloomier, stranger and more oppressive than X-Com and it had atmosphere in spades. I loved the larger levels, "light management" in deep sea or night missions and the overall Lovecraftian horror atmosphere. TFTD is my absolute nr. 1 favorite game of all the time. I even prefer the Dos original over the OpenXcom version (despite all the advantages it has): the reason is the AI. Half of the AI in the original TFTD was fully random - and this is why the creatures moved and behaved so strange, which made them feel even more "alien". In other games, especially modern ones, the "creatures" move and fight like human soldiers or a human squad, total kills the immersion for me. Another detail that the other games lack: starting in the closed sub and having to open the door is such an atmospheric beginning of a mission. One always starts there, does not know what is outside until opening it. Running down the already open aircraft in the X-Com derivatives never reaches the atmosphere and feeling of anticipation of TFTD missions (what comes close to TFTD in this regard is "Teleglitch" mission starts, but it is a totally different genre). Not to speak of the strange alien structures of TFTD, like the colonies which looked like out of a Lynch movie, loved the colors... I wonder why nobody ever recreated this absolute gem. BTW: I still have the original European version with the beautiful cover:

I think the problem is that its pretty easy to avoid night battles, I know I'll often time my missions to ensure they are in daytime to avoid having to muck about with flares. Atmosphere may help encourage people to play them anyway, but anything that makes them tougher is actually a waste of developer resources. The tougher night battles, the more people will avoid them, and the less those mechanics get used.

Hi, I've built 6 bases in total but i lost 3 of them(i know... total noob xD). Now im trying to build a new one but when clicking the button of create new base nothing happen, and i have enough money. i guess that's because there is a limit of 6, but lost bases shouldn't count :)

I miss the really dark nights of XCOM. Like so dark it was hard to make out what was happening. So atmospheric. I'm hoping the visuals really get a good pass late beta. It's obviously something that can be done at any point, but some of the concept art for Xenonauts 2 was simply stunning, great lighting and shadows, and adding that back in would make night so much more atmospheric. I really liked sighting an alien and trying to work out what it was from its outline too. That just felt "shit what's out there". Obviously night missions in XCOM were quite manageable, but there was always this primal dread of them. With a modern lighting engine like Unity it could be amazing - little pools of streetlights and lamps illuminating the dark, flares thrown out and casting a dim orange illumination over a small area, etc. Feel like a really good visual update would make night missions work more than mechanical adjustments - most of the ways they don't "work" for me right now are really flavor related. Also all the troops should automatically stock 2 flares, and more should take up inventory space. 18 flares would cover most maps anyway.

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Gameplay / Balance Changes: It is now possible to redirect aircraft squadrons that are already in flight via the Launch Aircraft panel (this also allows you to split aircraft out of airborne squadrons). Updated the AI so it will only perform attacks on units that an alien unit has seen that turn, as it was apparently previously ignoring the vision rules. This could lead to some rather unfair situations where enemies were shooting beyond vision range or throwing grenades over walls at units they had never seen. Cleaner units reduced in Accuracy from 65 down to 55 for the suited guys (Agents) and 60 for the hazmat guys (Soldiers). Accuracy for enemies on Recruit difficulty has been dropped from 85% of normal values down to 80% of normal values. Stun Gun has been buffed a little - it now does slightly more Stun Damage, has improved accuracy and holds 4 shots rather than 3. UFO Armour and Health are now shown at maximum zoom level in the air combat. Updated a number of translation languages files to incorporate various changes and fixes. Bugfixes: Fixed a couple of memory leaks that triggered each time you saved the game. Fixed players being unable to demolish base structures. Actually fixed the Geoscape multi-select dialog revealing hidden missions like the Cleaner Base. Fixed the opening cutscene and several buttons on the tactical UI ignoring the settings volume sliders. Fixed units being able to shoot through floor tiles in the Alien Base maps if they had taken damage. Fixed a calculation issue that was causing the game to generate female soldiers at a higher rate than intended. Fixed aircraft callsigns repeating before all available names had been exhausted. Fixed "War Machine" achievement triggering off the Exosuit, rather than the Colossus (which isn't yet in the game). Fixed one of the barn window types not correctly shattering. Achievements are now disabled during the tutorial. Servitor Wreckage is no longer incorrectly called Gun Drone Wreckage. Fixed various hitbox issues around the edges of the Geoscape regions so they now better match the highlighted areas.

Just like this