Jump to content

Blade

Members
  • Posts

    49
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Blade

  1. The little guy shouldn't be blocking much even if he were alive. But now he is lying on the ground. Actually my previous shot hit and damaged the dead alien. See the screenshot. I have encountered one other problem as well, but I didn't make a shot. My soldier was standing next to a wall - probably next to a hole broken by explosives. I wanted to throw a grenade inside. I got 100% probability to hit. When I threw it, it hit the wall and exploded in the soldier's face. Twice. So, there might be a problem with LOS and broken walls.
  2. Different playthrough - same crash. Shot down 2 UFOs, finished with the ground combat at the 1st. Then whatever I do, after like 20 hours the game crashes. I have a suspicion - I have shot down an UFO previously that didn't generate a crash site. I have caught it over water, then chased it over land (some small islands). At the prompt I have shot it down, but it didn't generate a crash site or anything. I shrugged and moved on... it is possible that the crash happens 24 hours later when the non-existent crash site wants to disappear... I think the UFO was a destroyer, but not sure. Plus, this is just a theory I am trying to confirm now. output_log.crash.again.txt
  3. Hey! Actually I think what caused the CTD was not the grenade, but hovering over the alien. I had to reload many times to get around the bug, and I figured out that the only safe way is to aim grenades on the ground next to the alien. Sometimes aiming a gun at it caused a crash - but other times didn't, which was surprising. To make matters worse, if I ended the turn to kill the alien from attacks of opportunity, it also crashed during the movement of the alien - one soldier even fired at it, but around the 5th step it just crashed. It took like 20 tries to figure out how to throw grenades to shred its armor first, then finish it off with a frag grenade... So, to sum it up, it wasn't the explosion. It never got to the attack, crashed before I could actually throw the grenade or fire the shot.
  4. This happened in the 2nd or 3rd fight of the campaign. It CTDs on throwing a grenade on an alien. As I have thrown another of the same type by the same soldier just before, I can assume the problem is coming from actually aiming the grenade on the alien instead of on the ground hex. output_log.txt
  5. Exception: [INITIAL CRASH] - A fatal error occurred during Update[] - The Mission:15888 Mission - Crash Site [{No Owner}] didn't have an Icon Activity. This has occurred when I have finished 2 UFO missions and the dropship was almost back at base. I have tried to reload a previous save from the last combat, but the crash occurred again around the same time. output_log.txt
  6. Loading this game, when I switch to the equip soldiers screen it crashes. I suspect the "shadow armor", as I remember manufacturing one, but can't see it in the warehouse list. Save game and logs follow. output.log user_blade_1-58.json
  7. Some of the late game crash site combat saves cause CTD at 90% loading when loaded after restarting the game. When I load without exiting the game, it loads fine. All saves for the given scenario behave the same consistently. Attaching log and save. output.log user_blade_action_1-56.json
  8. When passing time on the Geospace with the above project being completed, game CTD at the time the project should be completed. No error message.
  9. Oh yeah, the F-22 Raptor, which was so much ahead its time that while it is better than the F-35, it is just not worth the double price so the US has stopped producing it. Perfect for Xenonauts - just like the H&K G11 assault rifle, which also never got used in large quantities because of the price, and the special ammo needed for it. The G11 is unique in that it can fire a 3-round burst before you can feel the recoil, effectively giving you 3 bullets for the TUs of a single shot. But, it is damn ugly if you ask me! (Interesting fact that it was implemented in JA2, so it is far from being the latest model...) There are so many interesting weapons on Earth, why everyone is using an AK-47...
  10. That is an interesting question - why would an UFO be harder to track than a stealth plane equipped with ECM? Possibly they have a nice good radar signature just like an old IL-2 bomber. The real limitation I see is speed - missiles have a top speed. If the UFO can fly around that, you will never hit it. Same is true with maximum altitude - if you can fly higher, the missile will lose you. Take the example of SR-71: it was never ever shot down, it was too fast, and the ceiling height was too high for interceptors or SAMs. But of course it is way worse with canons, where the bullets only lose speed after firing, possibly hitting the aircraft firing them at high speeds. Laser is the real solution - it is only the matter of distance you can close in (as energy dissipates in the air), the precision of firing, and the initial energy you can put into the beam (which is limited by the power source, which can be chemical, where ammo can be depleted, or limited by the power output of the reactor, for which you will need to carry a nuclear power plant, or something equivalent...). It all comes to energy density, and humanity sucks at that at the cold war era, or even today. If this would happen today, you would need to exploit the weaknesses of the UFOs (and alien minds) in flying in our atmosphere before they adapt and make mincemeat of all our military equipment.
  11. Well, complex question. A F-22 costs USD 150M. A more common F-35 costs USD 100M. On the other hand, they are produced relatively quickly - if there is war, and you place an order for 100, you get all 100 in a few months. Now to train a rookie fighter pilot for a common aircraft (like F16) costs around 10M USD and 2 years. To get someone regular will cost you like 15M and 3 years. You will need to add some for rare/unique planes like the Xenonauts frankenplanes. That is 20-30M we're talking about. You can get pilots as donation from countries who have more than planes, or if no one likes you, you won't be able to recruit at all, as fighter pilots are not exactly available on the open market. Well, not the young and good ones anyways... you will find some 40+ retired ones, and some gone AWOL for the real money... Now on the question of ejection seats - don't compare apples with cherry seeds. Compare the price of the ejection equipment with the cost of the pilot, and you get a better picture!
  12. Oh, yeah, and one more thing. Pilots are really inexpensive compared to aircraft. Aircraft can fly with a small downtime, but pilots become tired. Why can't I have multiple pilots for the same planes? The refueling and rearming time was really annoying in X1 - took hours instead of minutes IRL: https://www.quora.com/How-long-would-it-take-to-fuel-and-load-a-fighter-in-an-emergency-situation Today you can refuel jets in the air - yeah, to change pilot you will need to land. But the availability of the plane will be way higher than in X1. Range... now that is realistic. During the Falkland war, a UK bomber made it there and back without landing, but it took like 6 aerial refueling passes with 10+ support aircraft. True, that Victor was an old cold-war heavy bomber jet which drank fuel like a sailor on shore leave...
  13. Yeah, and I still miss the Cyberdisks from the old UFO - floating cyber-tanks with plasma canon - so elegant, so deadly, so beautiful!
  14. Wow, nice feature! Just please no poppers - the li'l kamikaze bastards game me the lilies quite enough times in UFO-3
  15. OK, if I have to spell it out for you: you need to wait 6 months and then check again. But I guess Chris will be here soon explaining it in 6 sentences. Sorry, forget I said anything.
  16. Actually, it is known that UX needs a lot of polishing, but that must wait till the game itself rolls like it should. Then come all "decoration" stuff - UX, pictures, text, UFOPedia, and so on. Think about it - every minute spent on making a feature tidy that doesn't make into the final game is wasted - that goes into something that actually makes a difference!
  17. OK, I dug into this heap of manure a bit. I mean the Steam - Epic war, no offense intended to the fine ladies and gentlemen here. This goes down to China - West war, to say it simply. China - through Tencent - owns Epic. Steam is unofficially available in China - it is not sanctioned, but not blocked by the Great Firewall either. But, they're not offering any Chinese localization, or Chinese games, so the penetration is relatively small (~30M gamers?). This is surely an annoyance to the Party and the Chairman, but it seems so far it wasn't considered worth dealing with, or it would be blocked by the Firewall altogether. Probably it would create too much unrest if they started to block it now. Now Epic is Tencent-owned, probably even founded. And Epic is very strictly blocked in China - not by the firewall, but by itself. They probably have their own Chinese market service, but the main reason is cultural separation. Now this is why they're so aggressive they are going into these exclusive deals - first they can afford it, second they don't mind the scorn and hatred coming out of it from both players and publishers. If the bombs fall far from your land, who cares where they fall? So yeah, call me paranoid, but I see a secret service manipulation in action. Steam weakening means less effect of western culture on Chinese kids. The frustrated western players are just a bit of collateral damage.
  18. Ah, now I understand. Thank you for the clarification, good sir!
  19. What I was trying to say is try managing scope when you're late. People won't mind too much if they don't get the Kickstarter stuff, or there is no Xenopedia in the game - but many will be if you only release it in 2021, or if it is crashing every 15 minutes. I still remember poor Arcanum - it is a fairly complex RPG, very complex dialog system, huge map, nice story, tons of unique quests - but it was so bugged when it came out that we just couldn't play it. Bad UX too. I played it years later - bugs were mostly fixed, and actually it was a good game!
  20. English, please. I have a feeling that you're assuming something, so you're trying to insult me, but don't have the balls to write it down straight - but your sentence just doesn't add up.
  21. Er, aliens are aliens. They don't think like humans. Remember, most of these aliens are grown in a lab, and they're mindless slaves. They worth nothing. What remained from the UFO is most probably not salvageable any more - it will never fly again. It is easier to manufacture another. Remember, the bastards have virtually infinite resources, and a fleet consisting of a thousand warships just orbiting Earth. Humanity is just another race to enslave, best of their DNA goes to the ruler race. The fate of humanity under the aliens is determined by their usefulness - if they produce any resources the aliens need... Or not. Remember, they're aliens, we just don't know. Maybe they will just annihilate Earth like the Necromongers. Maybe they'll shoot every other human in the head with a plasma pistol, like Thanos. Maybe they just want to make friends, but don't realize that humans have individuals not a mind-hive. Maybe they're peaceful, but there was a misunderstanding interpreting Humanity's intents sent in space, and now they think we're planning to destroy them, so they are shooting first... oh, I love "The Forever War"!
  22. Oh, I loved the "big blue rabbits" - appearing from nowhere in blind spots! Would be a real fright in an FPS!
  23. Hehe, interesting topic. I also have a feeling sometimes that there are too much tactical combat vs strategic, and get tired of sweeping across the 35th alien carrier as the basic challenge is the same, the loot is the same, there is just too much legwork. While a one-button auto-resolve seems crude, but how about enabling AI for the Xenonauts team as well? Maybe for just one round, or with a "stop" button so you can take over if they do anything stupid...
  24. Yeah, I see your point - thank you for considering my thoughts seriously. Just as a background: I work as an agility coach, so I criticize people for a living. OK, that's not all to the job. I am very well aware of the iron triangle of project management, and it doesn't look like that - no one, ever wants to get bad quality software as a result. (How it turns out... is another matter.) But yeah, basically budget (and in a smaller scale time) will determine the scope. Actually, I am not frustrated or angry about the progress. I am a bit sad that you haven't aimed higher. It is clear to me know that you never had the money to build something different - maybe you could have collected some more, but not sure if that much more. That means the players will get a Xenonauts 2.0 at the end, not a Xenonauts II. That is fine in my book, even if I was expecting more. As a professional, I see that you have grossly underestimated the time and money needed for even the intended scope. Actually, it is a human thing, we suck at estimating. What I can suggest is to cut the scope. Cut it to the bare minimum you can release (minimum marketable product), and add whatever you're still planning (and get money for) add later, in priority order. Maybe you can also release paid DLCs. I hate those, but this case I would understand, and gladly pay more, as I know it is not milking, I get actual value for the extra money, not just a weapon skin or a map texture pack. (I have a problem or two with HBS as well... no way I think they're the greatest. Also, look at Fallout 76, what a shame from the creators of Fallout 4! But that's really another league.) Your true power is that you are not only the developers, but the owners of this game. It is your child. "Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch." - now this is what is making some indie games so great. I work with people who are totally unmotivated because they don't even see their product used in production, let alone use it. As for using the community to test - I have mixed feelings. True, "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.". But I will only use (play) your product and report (or even fix!) bugs for you as long as it is enjoyable. Now the first version I tested was limited to 5 days of game time. The current version is way better, but it hung after 1 hour in a base mission, and as there are no mission saves, I didn't feel like re-starting it. I am fine doing it again with the next version. It that is enough for you, I am fine with it.
×
×
  • Create New...