Blade

Sound: I really love the new music tracks! On the other hand, I am missing the 3D sounds - it is so strange that I can't tell where that alien was shooting at that policeman, in modern games that is a basic feature. But combat UX is still pretty terrible anyways, so I guess that will improve. Lights: Jagged Alliance 2 was perfect in this. Ambient light changed by the minute, and visibility changed with it! Knifing were never so easy as in a night mission - but first, you had to find them by ear, as your steps might have been silent, you might have been wearing ninja clothes, but your eyes were the same v1.0 eyeballs! (Or were there any night vision goggles in JA2? I no longer remember...) On the other hand, I prefer fighting daytime, when I can clearly see. But I would miss the detail.

Hear, hear - Earth was full of AD sites even at the time of the cold war - oceans not so much, but you can't come 100 miles within a shore and they will fire at you if you're not identified, and have a radar signature. And if they launch fighters, those fire missiles too - so no need for anything fancy like drawing all those fighters. Just draw the "hot spots" (bases/SAMs/anything) as an area on the map, and if the UFO passes over, it takes damage with some minimal anim. Later the UFOs can begin to eradicate such spots - but they also have a learning curve, as we're similarly alien to them as they are to us! And yeah, if I were an alien, I would return to base for repairs if I have sustained structural damage.

Excellent thoughts, I could only second that. Too bad we probably won't see this happen in X-2: at the current stage as I see things, the current team won't be able to implement such a change within this year for sure. Maybe in X-3.

You haven't played Laser Squad? Noob! :P I still dread that dog-like combat bot... but that was my 1st turn-based strategy, probably the 1st turn-based strategy ever. Played it on my C=64, PCs weren't well spread at that time yet. You probably also haven't played Battle Isle 4: Incubation. I wouldn't say that was the hardest of them all - but definitely the most intellectually challenging. You can get it for free. Final Fantasy Tactics... that was also a similar challenge, no random factor as I remember. But yeah, if you ask me which were the best, I would say JA2 and UFO: Enemy Unknown.

I am pretty visual. I didn't enjoy the X-1 air combat because of the micro-managing - I enjoyed it because I could actually see the UFOs and the fighters fight. This... is not fun as it is. I have some ideas, but I am sure Chris and the rest of the team also have some. I don't care, but make it entertaining! It is a mini-game, it can be virtually *anything*! My idea: You're the commander in the action center. What do you see from the air combat? What do you hear? - You see some radar charts, maybe projected on a map - An audio-video feed from the pilot(s) - You have an XO - he can direct the fight, or you do with him along. He has his own comments, info on the UFO, etc. What do you do? - You give strategy. The pilot does his job on dodging and firing on his own. - You tell him: "Meet it head-on!", or "Harass it from a distance!", or "Close in cautiously!" - and he executes on his best skill (BTW pilots would be nice as staff, with stats...). Of course, you can give new commands as the situation changes - if you still have any of your planes left.

I was about to write this at the end of December, but felt that it is really not my business to criticize you, so I pressed the cancel button. I really like you, but I should have done it, for your sake. I went away for 3 months, came back, updated, played an hour. Reported 6 bugs during that time. I see new things, I see many changes I like, I don't see any I dislike. Good. However, what I see is that the game is still not ready for beta yet. IF you really want to make a good game, a game that is considerably better than the original Xenonauts, that is. My point is - why is the community doing the manual testing? If I can find 6 bugs in an hour, a professional tester would find about 18. 8 hours that is around 100... OK, let's say 60. By the time you're releasing, our job is just to give feedback on the features! We gave you almost 4 times the money you asked for - maybe you should spend some of the extra on some extra staff? QAs are generally easy to get. The rule of thumb we use is 1 QA per 2 devs. If we are at it, it wouldn't be too late to hire a professional UX specialist - they're expensive, but you only need one. UX, not UI designer - I don't mind if the graphic sucks, but when the controls are annoying, I get frustrated. Look at Harebrained. hey made the Shadowrun series on tablets. Good, but not that better than the oldie-but-goodie CRPG games like Planescape:Torment. An "A" game in my book. Now they have made the Battletech game on PC. (Seems they got a package deal from FASA.) It is so much better technologically I can't express. It is still not there - it is an "AA" game, not an "AAA". Your case - Xenonauts was an "A" game. If you want to get an "AA" game for Xenonauts 2, you need to change the way you're making it. You will need to grow a little, and that comes with growth pains. But if you don't take that pain, you'll have just another Xenonauts with slightly different mechanics and a slightly better 3D engine. If you're fine with that, then just ignore me - but beware, people will be disappointed.

I think this is a good thread. I would say that recovering from a total wipe doesn't make sense - just load the previous game and bomb the site to oblivion instead of sucking with it. On the other hand I don't like the hard levels of a real time strategy forcing me to use the spells "save game" and "load game" every second. One way is to TRY TO prevent me doing it. Iron Man with no save spell, pre-determined random numbers to make loading and trying again more useless. Then I'll become frustrated and start to cheat. If you try to stop me, I'll start hating the game and telling everyone about how much you suck. The other is to make these penalties for mistakes or bad luck smaller. Man down? Give him a good chance to recover after the battle - use cloning, cybernetics, medical treatment so he is not lost altogether. Or just have a large pool of fully trained soldiers available all the time - but this would kill the development aspect ("If everyone is super, no one will be"). So, I am looking forward to a combat system that tolerates mishaps better. The shot down interceptor recovery was an excellent example in X1 - in UFO, you needed to buy/build a new plane (but ofc. you could always hit the disengage button in combat). I would prefer advanced medicals and cybernetics to keep busted soldiers alive - trauma kits or even stasis fields to stop him from dying, and medevac waiting just 100m behind the xenonaut line. Plus, an abort mission with the VTOL coming in to the signaled location (so I don't have to spend an hour limping back to the drop zone), and collecting survivors under the protection of support guns and evac personnel.

I like the argument with the armor vs. damage type. So first contact aliens should bring plasma weapons and... basically forcefields that resist plasma. Humans can loot the plasma weapons, won't make too much good against shielded opponents. Then aliens realize that bullets can kill them - so they will prefer heavier armor. That is when the human scientists need to come up with something better - beam weapons that go through the shields faster, or the gauss which penetrates heavy armor with ease. Kinda same with the UFO-s - light ones will come with a shield but light armor, so conventional weapons have a chance; human advanced aircraft will look like a heap of human junk built around the alien power sources, computers, and weapon systems the xenonauts have pulled out of the wreck of UFOs. Forget about building a nice a shiny new airplane - the fastest new design I know of is the P90 by Lockheed Martin (SkunkWorks) - the prototype was designed and built in like 150 days. That is awesome for the 1st US jet fighter model (and a viable one in that) - but humanity just won't have this kind of time in case of an alien invasion. ... Let's face it - if that invasion would indeed occur, we would most certainly lose. And the reason is not the lack of resources - we have hundreds of thousands of excellent scientists and engineers, but we suck at working together, so we won't be able to do the work fast enough to survive.

Looting is fun. I remember I have tried not to use missiles to shoot down UFOs in the original UFO, as it had an effect on the wreck - tended to destroy the UFO power sources badly, and those were nice loot. (On the other hand, it was nice to have extra entrances on the UFO hull.) I am sure there is a way to integrate the alien weapons into the balance - the original UFO did exactly that. Alien plasma rifles were powerful, but not nearly as precise as lasers, and unwieldy (took more APs to fire). Let's face it - if alien weapons CAN be converted for soldier use, that is the logical first step - takes way less research and even less engineering to do that. Yeah, in the original UFO you really needed to rely on alien tech, as human rifles were pretty under-powered against even unarmored aliens. Xenonauts beginning is not that hopeless - the starting aliens can be killed with a couple of bullets, kind of similar to human resilience with heavy kevlar on.

Shields could be useful in X1, can be better in X2. The advantage is keeping the soldier alive until your turn. Push these shield guys ahead - probably they will be alive at the beginning of your turn, and spot for the rest of the squad, maybe pull a shotgun from the backpack and contribute. My problem was that they don't get partial cover defensive bonuses, so shield compared to ducking was not always the best option, and cost the main weapon slot. The other pain is an old decision, maybe from the original UFO - that grenades destroy loot. That rendered grenadier tactic useless for me (with the notable exception of stun grenades). IF the team would be willing to change this (come on, when will a frag grenade destroy equipment made of alien alloys??? The HE damage is negligible, the shrapnel kills!), then shield users would be improved as well.

I love UFO games from the "original" UFO. Xenonauts was the 1st sequel that gave back most of the same experience that I got from that old game 20 years ago - and with improvements! Now I am thinking about a limitation that wasn't in the original UFO - keeping and using the alien equipment. On one hand, in the scenario I can still pick up, and use alien equipment. But when the mission is over, the equipment is "taken away" from the soldier, the only thing I can do with it is to sell it for scraps. SERIOUSLY???!??? Please decide between: - Alien weapons and equipment is just not for humans. There is no trigger, you need psi to activate it, too heavy to even lift... whatever, but then I should not be able to use it in the scenario. I would not be happy, but would understood. - Alien weapons and equipment can be used by humans - but maybe less effective. You can still pull the trigger, but the scope is not for human eyes. You can prime the grenade, but throwing it is a feat, as it weights 10kg. The whole storage system (witch was way more sophisticated in that original UFO game 20 years ago) makes way more sense if you can use the loot. Not to mention, it makes the whole game more interesting. (On the picture: note that pile of pixels at the exit of the transport. That is the transport storage - extra equipment you could haul in, and loot from previous sites that hadn't been transferred to the base yet.)

I stunned an alien, then moved to pick up his rifle. I noticed that there are 2 bodies on the ground, but the dropped equipment was not duplicated. There was 2 more engineers lying in the vicinity (one dead, one stunned), but this was the only soldier.

Probably something region- or UFO specific. Consistent, just load the save game and pass a few minutes. output.log Blade 4.json

No, they didn't. But sure their main weapon is shotgun, and carried 1 slug and 1 taser shell pack in their belt. Still, during the mission their AP was OK (~50), it was after the mission when it grew, and it was permanent after.

Just to add my $.2: to fight aliens who can take multiple .308 bullets at 50m and still fight back - using a pistol or a knife... well, yeah. Forget anything but the most brutal sidearms - SMGs loaded with .50AE, pistols chambered for rifle ammo, or a sawed-off shotgun with special slug... it if can't kill an elephant, no point taking it to an alien hunt! We always assumed that the X-com (or whatever it is called) will use the best humanity can offer - the difference in price just doesn't matter. G11, M82, whatever you think is an overkill. And it won't be enough, it is just enough to give the soldiers a fighting chance. By the way - the grenade launcher is an excellent idea, way more useful than rocket launchers, but the aiming sucks big time. I still remember the "alien launcher" from the 1st UFO game - oh yeah. Too bad no sequel has ever implemented it again. Sorry, too much off-topic.

I also had a problem when the 1st shot in the combat crashed the game - but that was a single shot from an assault rifle. Good to know that there is a log...

Shomehow the forum refused the original of this screenshot all the time, I had to edit it...

I have tried only twice. Possibly it is only a display bug. Possibly it is not there if the soldier heals himself, only when healing someone else.

After one increase, soldier AP got very high. Geoscape Soldier roster shows 1 and 3 APs, but in-game it is actually 83 and 91. All of these are invalid, should be around 50.

I have a wounded soldier and another standing side-by-side. The other uses a med pack on the wounded one. The APs are deducted, but the HP/stun of the wounded soldier is not affected.

I want to empty an equipment slot. I drag the item outside of the equipment area. Expected: The slot becomes blank Actual: the piece of equipment flip backs into place. Only right clicking can remove an equipment. Note: Again that a small UX issue which kept annoying me even in X1.

I am opening a soldier's equipment. I am switching to the "belt" tab on the right. I am changing a frag grenade to a smoke grenade. I am going to the next soldier. I would expect that the "belt" remains selected on the right, so I can switch grenades quickly. Instead, it switches back to "Primary". Small, usability issue which quickly becomes annoying for the player.

I have a 4k monitor, started the game in full screen in native resolution. Started a new game, created a new base on Crete. Both the base, and the on-hover stability indicators on continents are displayed in the wrong places - some are off the screen, some are above Antarctica. Suggestion: there is no way you have missed this during development - just start the game in a bigger resolution monitor than HD.