Leaderboard

Hey Chris, thanks for taking time to reply. I am just glad that after all hurdles X2 went through we are going to have released version. I understand, that in active development things come and go. And that for some of original ideas and concepts it wasn't easy to discount. Personally, I find Reaper Hives and akin content interesting additions post release. There is a lot to explore here, if you chose path of expansions and given that you mentioned it yourself, we can assume this time around there will be ones, right? Similarly to that localised injuries, I understand it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but if it's implemented as toggle able function I am sure a lot folks in that niche would welcome it (me included ). Of course it's not on and off switch I get that, but it would be awesome if you decide to revisit in a future and integrate it into a full product. Glad to hear you haven't given up on more complex inventory and modular system. Did you guys by any chance consider introducing exhaustion, similar to how Long War did it for Xcom and later XCOM2 devs themselves ?

Overloading soldiers improved so it is total toxic gameplay which throws weight management out of the window. Last milestone I have recommended to restrict send overloaded soldiers on missions, nothing happened. Well, actually it is even worst, you have added a feature that TU reduction for weight is immediately refunded. Here is result, watch about 10 minutes to see a team load-out and "fun" which comes from the first round of the mission. Fully toxic :

It's been a long time since I played Xenonauts 2 (mostly since my college classes have been very difficult). I finally had some free time, and played a little bit of the newest stable build (right before the first medium ufo). I just want to get my thoughts out quickly on the general balance so far. I also played on veteran if that's relevant - The OP point mechanic seems pretty trivial right now. I just got a lot of points and was able to take out/recruit any supporter I needed so it just felt like an afterthought most of the time. I essentially just grabbed the cheapest supporter at any given time, and it seemed to work out fine for me. - I frankly don't like that the reinforcements can act in the same turn they spawn, and I also don't like that I don't know where in particular they do spawn. It just feels unfair when it feels like I cannot do anything to deal with the reinforcements before they are able to attack me. I feel like this can be easily fixed by not allowing the reinforcement to shoot you the same turn they spawn in (but are still able to move and take cover) and/or highlighting specific areas of the map where the reinforcement will spawn on enemy phase. To compensate for making the reinforcements easier to deal with, I think the reinforcement should also spawn in a turn or two earlier than normal. - The whole overwatch mechanic feels weirdly tuned to me. I've noticed that the enemies seem to activate overwatch shot more often and with much higher accuracy than my on soldiers. It felt like my soldiers hit their overwatch shots like a fourth of the time and the enemies hit their overwatch shots like half the time. I also noticed some weird things where my MARS seems to activate overwatch shots more often than even my rifle or shotgun soldiers. Sometimes, I run into a situation where an enemy takes a shot at me and for some reason the MARS is the first unit to take a shot back instead my three shotgun guys nearby. I don't know if this is a case of me not understanding of how the mechanic works or if it is actually behaving strangely. - I kind of disagree with @Skitso with how the accelerated weapons are now balanced. It feels like the accelerated weapons are much more balanced now than they were in previous milestones. I was able to unlock accelerated weapons early on and use them for almost two in-game months before acquiring laser weapons, and I was also gunning for laser weapons as soon as I had acquired alienium. And even when I acquired laser weapons, I did not have enough alienium to fully equip most of my team with laser weapons, so I end up still using accelerated weapons on some of my guys anyways. - I'm very confused as to how @Skitso and I had very different experiences with accelerated weapons in this build. It's almost the exact opposite experience as I had. I'm very interested in seeing how that happened.

Difficulty Veteran diary - with HealthBars over heads, One save only, no save scum. Reload allowed only for testing purposes [ 6.26 stable ] 2nd abduction mission in Docks 6 sectons as opponents where 2 killed by civilians - map feels empty, large and deserted. All 4 Sectons I met had pistols, like clones. Shipping containers in 2nd lvl has no laders so they are unreachable, not even one. Many shipping containers on floor level has no laders. Totally boring mission, satisfaction zero. Fix : add one more round and 3 opponents. Make sure that there are at least 2 different opponents types on a map !!! Make sure environment, (shipping containers) are useable to climb on. my first air combat in the new system graphics ok, controls not ok. Unfortunately it plays THE SAME WAY as BEFORE! Why do I have to control camera include zoom? Game should keep UFO in the Center of the screen AND auto-change zoom such way that all units are comfortably on the screen. I do Not like the gameplay, majority of input I am forced to do, is not about air-combat but camera control and pause/unpause, WTF ? Check the coin-up Space invaders - how much control input is about camera and pause - unpause ? That is how you do fun mini game. Until air-combat is improved gameplay-wise, I am going to use auto resolve. Save 3 sergeant , The story mission In the arctic, intense shoot-out. That is a good thing. Although, variation of opponents is not present, all clones, as usual. Also soldiers in mask did not use any gas related attack or grenade. Just simple shooting. Also loot is suspicious : There were 7 cleaner soldiers but we did not recover even one weapon or a clip. What did they use to shoot at me ? FIX : add lootable equipment on Cleaner Soldier , add some gas related attack on Cleaner Soldier Like a cone spray of gas = 45 degree in front with range of 4 tiles. Story mission Ambush convoy great idea as a concept but it somewhat do not work. Probably weakest mission of the 4 story missions. FIX : There should be some spice, something funny. Perhaps add spawn Cleaner_driver ? In second round of battle next to each truck cabin spawn a Civilian model with Knife and MedKit. He can heal his team mates (cleaner) or rush froward with a knife. No armour, average Civilian stats. This unit is adding something fun on top, is not ment to be decisive. 3 rd abduction mission Properly though mission. Soldier Cleaners and Mantids. Unfortunately Mantids did not have their signature weapon Symbiont louncher. Loot of Cleaner soldier is definitely wrong see : Also abduction tubes are bugged again, I wrote a special bug report on that. On top, it is difficult to link mission briefing to after mission report. In the after mission report, I dont see what I have actually done. "Locals survived" are not locals saved from tubes. It is chaotic. Also I dont know why I get 26 aloys, links are missing. Target and results = Briefing and after-combat reports = those two are in pairs, and should match, but they dont. VIP extraction mission very fun. I land at night, lots of smoke and few demo packs. Knives as sidearm. Idea is : " When they dont see you, they cant shoot you. Smoke and Darkness." I got some minor hits but killed 7. I have seen several vids of this mission exactly, but people are scared from night missions in general, dont realise that darkness could be advantage. That is sad. Perhaps add a hint to the briefing for suborn players. The green sentence above First UFO Scout Opponents Mantids (about 8 pcs) with one Simbiont Louncher and one Mentarch. Some Mantids had pistols at least one had something bigger. Good map, good opponents, good difficulty. Cleaner data Raid story mission I like idea of this map, and current layout is polished enough. I know in advance what awaits me, so I mop a floor with opponents. I had 3 accelerated rifles and a accelerated sniper. Accelerated weapons safely one shot opponents! I have seen complains that accelerated weapons are noob trap, and should be always skipped. I do not agree. Accelerated could be skipped, OR they also could give you edge for few missions. Current setting accelerated vs lasers is fine, do not change it. It offer opportunity for different approach which is perfect ! I enjoyed the fact, I could steal a bonus loot (cleaner SMG, and cleaner bodies) on the way out. Difficulty is OK, for a new player it will be a serious challenge. I made a bug report how to fix Cleaner soldier loot, do it please. We, the players want loot. More loot, more better. Anyway improvement : Set the the reinforcement come softly. First wave 1 soldier in each of 3 directions. Then rise size of each group by one soldier in another wave. It gives a player chance to backpedal. Current status feels more like a hit to the wall in high speed. If the player do not know what will happen, it most probably be a massacre or a rage quit. An old experience of DungeonMaster in ADaD says : "Player should win, if they are not totaly dumb." However, if you simply kill the player by sudden overwhelming reinforcement, it means = bad Dungeon Master. Capture Cleaner Leader The best story mission. It has main objective with a variant (kill or capture) AND side objectives which are spread all around map, so player can not gather them all. ( Map, mission design, idea, difficulty ) = all spot on. 7 soldiers of 8 use accelerated weapons. I do not use grenade luncher because I do not like save scum after random shot. Improvements : Reinforcements should arrive softly. First wave should always be one Cleaner soldier per group. Cleaner agents with ballistic vest are using default rifles, it means not valuable drop. It has to be fixed, all drop MUST be valuable. I carried two Cleaner bodies to chopper as loot because I could not take their weapons. That is bad. Crash site 2 Destroyer Sebilians and Mantids about half to half, plus Mentarch. Total 14 opponents which is adequate. Nice thing is, 4 of 6 Mantids used signature weapon The Symbiont launcher, good. Rest of the opponents used various weapons, also they had one grenade in their inventory, which is balanced. Nice variants of opponents. I have lost a soldier because I was greedy to capture another Sebiliand. Map is build site, which suffer mundane colour selection. Whole map uses the same red-brown palette. Worst situation is, when you look at second level, with partially discovered map, it is very difficult recognise what part of map is first floor, and what is second. Improvement : Floor of the building on the second level need some very colourful pattern. Best would be, that first floor of the building use also some colours, but different. Whole map is difficult to read and feels bleak. 4th Abduction mission Boreal 1 shield,1 sniper,6 rifles all accelerated weapons gave me an edge. I was lucky anticipating where opponents are, and RND hit chance was merciful. 9 oponents is adequate. PROBLEM : I have saved all 10 tubes (reduced Doomsday by 30%), pretty rare achievement, but after mission report do not show my result ! Locals Survived 10/11 in Mission Information table is bullshit. Doomsday counter is silently reduced but thats all. Satisfaction zero. To FIX : "Cleaner Soldier" should create "Cleaner Soldier Corpse" NOT "Cleaner Corpse" agents and soldiers do different corpses so make it clear. Also, I have noticed, this version of Cleaner drops "Ballistic Rifle" but I do not have any new item in warehouse. Unfortunately I didnt make a screnshot of a this drop, but this is total annoyance. I get a drop, finally it counts, but I can not sell anyway. FIX IT ! ============== Phase II ============= Crash site 3 Destroyer 2nd dockyard map is very nice. Sebilians and Mantids plus a Mentarch. Mantids had just one Simbiont louncher. Crash site 4 Scout 2nd jungle map at night. After a while I tryed night mission crash site. Not good. Problem : Aliens shoot from shroud made by darkness like if they see like in daylight. Same for sectons and mentarch, they ignore darkness. This part of game is still early beta. No night mission any more. Mission is nice, loot is nice. Althou One of my soldier was wit in 100 percent cover. I wrote a bug report. Although healthy amount of enemyies, all are clones again. No interest, boring oponents. day 110 : Cleaner HQ 1 shield, 2 laser mg,2 laser rifles,3 accelerated rifles, 2 medkits, plus bonus dmg on lasers Beautiful map, lots off details, nice colour pallete, the final room with the Stargate device is superb. All the PC with orange&black screen that is classic. Whoever did this deserve extra cookie. Nice touch is 2 cleaner leaders which provide 50k sell price if kidnapped. This version Cleaner soldier gives sellable loot (Cleaner Accelerated rifle) which is also nice. Laser mg is beast, I like the havock it does in a room full of furniture and agents. Well done !One soldier died in a serious shoot-out on the corridor crossroad with a sentry tower supported by 2 soldiers, but 30% chance of survival was merciful, so no loses this time. Aim bonus of laser weaponry is useless, because all soldiers at this moment has accuracy higher. (even recruits) One big compliment for new Cleaner Accelerated rifle ! It offers slightly better numbers than player could produce. Perfect. I have recommanded this system for lower levels of Cleaners, apparently you start to apply it from top to down. Good, now make also new sell-able guns for lower level cleaners which are a bit better than deffault rifle ( which is available for free). First terror mission Soviet Town 1 shield accelerated pistol, ( 1 sniper, 2 mg, 2 rifles ) laser , 2 cleaner accelerated rifles Map is well done, it feels like an industrial soviet suburb. 12 opponents but 3 were killed by civs. Armour around 20. 9 opponents left for me is way too weak. Terror misson without Reapers is nonsence. Psyonics can not controls civs. In general boring mission. On top, large amount of corners made my shield useless. The new "narrow shields feature" are better not to use at all. Shield reduces firepower but not rise safety. day 148 Landed Obsever 1shield, 2mg,4rifles = all fully upgraded lasers, 2 medkits Fun mission, I was very carefull, went slowly and shortest way to the UFO. Captured UFO , but then I discovered it cut my loot, so I have to reload and go as usual. Win by capturing UFO is badly done. Map, amount of oponents ok. 5 mantids 4 of them had luncher is nice. FIX Sebilians did not had even 1 grenade, that is bad ! day 149 Crashed Observer 1st 1 Shield, 1 Sniper, 2 mg, 4 riflemen,] all lasers with two upgrades. + 2medkits. decent map = some middle east half desert city. 5 Mantids where 4 had Loucher, good. Sebilians had one Officer sitting in the UFO control room, All other aliens went for a walk outside, include Mentarch. Seb had 4 nades which is very nice, but they didnt get a chance to use them. Easy mission I would say. day 153 Alien base 8 soldiers = 2 Shields, 2 MG, 1 Shotgun, 3 Rifles. All lasers with both upgrades. 2 medkits. I was very careful, walk slowly keep all soldiers close, try to cover front and back. In one case, a difficult room with 4 doors an alien surprised me from side I didnt expect, and my medic get one hit. In all other cases, I have managed to keep enough TU to stop attacker by reaction fire. In control room I didnt use whack-a-mole cheat, instead made proper breach. All in, full commit. 3 opponents where two close enough to suppress by one flash. Rest is just demopack fallowed 2 Mg clearing room then rifles made finish move. In final mop-up operation (with the help of camera system) only two opponents left, so it was easy to hunt them down. Map is all gray, I dont like it. Just like a collection of shoe boxes. At least doors and guardrails should be distinct in colours. Guardrails should be especially bright as a safety device. The top tube red, then panels toxic orange or something like that. Door lets make different colour, perhaps bright green ? ===================== I will add an short report on each mission, by editing this post. As long as I dont get totally bored.