Belmakor

How about laser weapon sights? They are not very high tech but go a large way toward increased accuracy. They can be retrofitted onto old weapons and so the unlimited weapon deal would not be an issue. Also, in reality the laser does not make the weapon more accurate, just the user. So you could increase every soldiers accuracy by 10 say from that point on-wards and you would not need to modify any files. This could be a starting tech or it could come after the first contact with aliens using laser technology.

Not sure how it will be at beta but at the moment almost all the different alien races have approximately the same amount of health (all around 40-60) but with varying degrees of armour. It seems to me that unless the starting weaponry is suitably mediocre there will be little reason to upgrade to expensive (both time and money) laser and plasma tech. Don't forget that half the fun (at least for me) from the first game was getting your ass kicked for the first few months until you are able to reverse engineer the alien tech and use it against them. In this period you are bound to lose a good proportion of your squad. They are not super human after all. All it takes is for you to keep one or two alive. Either you keep the starting weapons weak and progress tech to cope with tougher aliens, or the weapons start tough, get tougher and the aliens stay the same. That last option sounds unappealing to me and I would hope many others.

I thought indie games were supposed to be free from trolls ^

Unfortunately I think we are restricted as we are limited to tech in use during the cold war. Of course, such issues need not apply to later stage tech. AD, is your concern more related to the negatives of reaction fire or just the actual frustration in having to make 5-6 shots to kill? I believe the reaction fire issue can be addressed in other ways...

Oh I can sympathize with that. I'm not trying to make the game harder. If anything I feel that these modifications keep the difficulty around the same as weapons retain vanilla accuracy, have lower damage per shot but lower AP per shot (to balance out). The only thing I am aiming for in this version is to increase the usefulness of the rifle as a weapon, to make the shotgun have spread and to give you a reason to reload! =)

Unfortunately the only thing that can be modded at the moment is weapons, vehicles, maps and items! Anything else is in the developers hands. Out of curiosity, did you even try the modification? If you did you would notice that none of the weapons have been "nerfed" and indeed all offer up the same average damage as vanilla but just do so over more shots.

I take your point that it does offer up that style of play true. But you can still play safely and try and keep you troops alive as long as possible, you can choose to equip them with better weapons and armour (as is the Xcom way). You are still punished for losing troops due to the slow rate of experience gain and emotional attachment. If anything you should be forced to move away from starting weaponry quickly anyway as how can it possibly be as effective as a plasma cannon used by a space-faring race. Looking at it from another view point. Should a scientist be worth much more than a soldier in this environment? At the moment they are 20k and 25k respectively which means you either drop the soldier or increase the scientist (but then you are getting into very expensive territory when you are hiring 10 of them!) Tbh I agree that 5-6 shots to take out a low level guard is on the verge of dangerous. But the alternative is either making the accuracy of each weapon reduced so that you fire 3 and hit once for example. Or you forget about the strategic utility of ammo as you will never (unless you actively hunt down all the aliens with one soldier) run out of the ammo that was originally in the weapon - which loses some of the flavor of the game. In Xcom your weapons held (I think) about 12 rounds so it was quite possible you would need to reload once or twice per soldier. Here we have weapons with 30 or 50 rounds. It is just not possible to have quite the same strategic game without making the weapons weaker or reducing their accuracy. I would hope that once the reaction fire issue is resolved, having to hit a target 5 or 6 times (3 times with a rifle mind!) that this balance won't seem quite so punishing and will actually improve your enjoyment of the game. =)

Interesting comments. I think it is natural there will be two camps when it comes to weapon damage. I think vanilla is quite true to its xcom roots in terms of the damage of starting weaponry. However, my rationale is that xcom was set in the future where weapons were free to have any clip size and damage. Xenonauts on the other hand is in the cold war, where technology is only just making its way into military hardware. Imho not only is weak human tech realistic but also adds the utility of extra ammo to weapons that traditionally have high ammo counts. If you can drop a guard, say, in two shots then its unlikely you will ever need to reload a rifle or machine gun, or even a sniper during a mission in vanilla. I agree this leads to the significant and damaging issue of reaction fire which can be punishing at times. However, this may become less of an issue with the inclusion of AI LOS that is not infinite and 360 degrees. Secondly, it is my belief that in the highly militarised cold war soldiers should be relatively disposable (i.e. dirt cheap). Ideally i think the cost of a soldier should be dropped to 10k. Of course, you could choose instead to equip your men with better armour and alien tech if you wanted to play the concientious power. Having this reduced cost would offer up two styles of play. All in all though i will certainly look to keep balancing based on other players opinions. Out of interest, how have you found the rifle generally? Less or more useful? Also, is it just me or is the machine gun waaaay to accurate with its 5 shots even when it has a 20pc chance to hit?

Yes there does seem to be some unpredictability in the damage output of weapons. I had a go at equipping my whole squad with just pistols there and found them to be too weak (taking about 10-12 shots to kill a guard). After fiddling round with the "mitigation" and damage I have found a balance that takes out a guard in 6 shots. Does that seem reasonable? Ideally I would like to take out the pistol burst fire but as you say reaction fire can become a problem. I will leave it in to reflect 3 shots in quick succession (with same AP cost and accuracy as set 1) and which will limit reaction fire. I have also just noticed that "delay" only refers to the delay given to allow the animations to catch up with the projectiles so I have adjusted them. There appears no way of adjusting the time between burst shots yet...

Ahh ok. Tbh I hadn't actually considered that someone might actually want to use the pistol as a primary weapon. I think in the theme of things it might be worth increasing the damage to around 12 (a 20% reduction) and reducing the AP points by 2 also. This would keep the average damage close to vanilla but still make the pistol less hard hitting than a rifle at close range. Ideally it would be nice if Chris incorporates a weapon reaction modifier that would be weighted heavily towards pistol classes and which would offer a high reaction chance. I also wanted to make set 4 in the sniper single shot a 55AP, accuracy 250, with 1.5 damage. This would basically represent a head shot. There is a way to trick the game into doing this, i.e. by giving the rifle a burst mode with a shot count of 2, high accuracy and zero recoil, zero delay (in essence two shots hitting the exact same spot for double damage) but i'm hoping for a more elegant way. It would be quite nice if this set was only available to snipers with their accuracy stat above a certain threshold but this is probably asking too much!

Thanks for the feedback. Actually, although I nerfed the damage per shot of the rifle the action points are nearly half. The accuracy of the rifle remains the same, but without the intermediate set (which I felt was pointless). In essence what you get is approximately the same average damage during a turn that the vanilla offers. The biggest difference now is that you can shoot at more than one target (if you so choose) and also that you will tend to run through ammo alot quicker. This second fact actually makes the battle a little more interesting and makes taking extra ammo worthwhile (as opposed to just an AP drain). In terms of the pistol, I can sympathize. However, the increased CQB effectiveness of the rifle should now mean that the pistol is only used for Snipers who are in CQB (in which case they are probably in the wrong place anyway). Give it a try when your home and please feel free to re-iterate or make additional comments! =)

Disclaimer: This modification is for the root weapons.xml and weapons_gc.xml files. It is recommended that you back-up both existing files in case making these changes results in any instability. This is a fan made mod and as such is not endorsed by the developers. It is only intended as a fun balance mod to improve the groundscape experience until the game reaches beta and balancing is carried out --------- Description: The following modification effects the Xenonauts weapons only. The major changes in this version are to the rifle and shotgun and have been done to improve the strategic utility and balance of both weapons. Equipping of extra ammo should now be a strategic decision as a single riflemen no longer has the fire power to take out 7 aliens using a single clip over the course of a battle. Reloading now takes significantly more AP and therefore now needs to be taken into account when planning turns and ammo usage. The fragmentation of the shotgun now gives the shotgun more utility at short-range and less at moderate range. The increased burst shot count of the rifle now gives it some utility in close quarters as does the reduced AP of single shots. This reflects the potential high rate of in-direct fire that rifles can and do offer in military engagements. Try it out and give feedback! =) -------------- V1.0 Change log Pistol Weight reduced from 1.5kg to 0.75kg Damage reduced from 15 to 10 Reload cost increased to 10 from 3. Rifle Single shot has only two settings (down from three). Damage reduced from 25 to 15 Burst Fire shot count increased to 5 from 3. AP reduced on single shot settings to 13 and 20 respectively. Accuracy of single shots set to 100 and 150 respectively. Accuracy of burst shot reduced to 40. Reload cost increased to 17 from 3. Shotgun Single shot removed. Burst Fire shot now fires 3 separate shells to represent shell fragments. Clip size increased to 24, representing 8 shells. Projectile speed increased to 1600 Accuracy set to 110 AP cost set to 25 Damage per shell reduced to 13 from 40 (to represent shell fragments/increased shot number) Reload cost set to 17 * Note: reaction fire shots will only consume 1 shell (10 damage) as there is no way of setting reaction fire as burst shots. Sniper Rifle Reload cost increased from 3 to 17 Machine Gun Reload cost increased from 3 to 27 Burst shot count increased to 5 from 3. AP cost set to 30 Accuracy reduced to 60 from 80. Clip size increased to 50 (now functions correctly) --------------- V1.1 Changelog Pistol Damage returned to default 15 Burst shot AP increased to 30 (reflect 3 aimed shots in quick succession and which will limit chances of enemy reaction fire) Burst shot accuracy set to 80 (same as set 1) Mitigation changed from 5 to 15. Please try this out and give me some feedback! =) Instructions for use: Make a copy of the weapons.xml and weapons_gc.xml files and keep them safe somewhere! Copy and paste the following into the bold labelled file overwriting the existing information. For example, "Replaces pistol in weapons_gc.xml" means open up weapons_gc.xml (root: Desura/Common/xenonauts/assets) in a text editor, highlight the text referring to pistol and replace with the code underneath the bold heading. DO NOT COPY ACROSS THE BOLD TEXT OR ANY BREAKS "------". Repeat for each weapon. Save the file and close. -------------- START OF MODIFICATIONS ------------ Replaces pistol in weapons_gc.xml <Weapon name="weapon.pistol" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="10" hands="1" recoil="0" weight="1" clipSize="12" reloadAPCost="8" /> <SingleShot sound="Weapon Pistol Single" delay="0.8"> <Set1 ap="10" accuracy="80" /> <Set2 ap="12" accuracy="96" /> </SingleShot> <BurstFire ap="30" accuracy="80" sound="Weapon Pistol Single" delay="0.6" shotCount="3" /> <GUIImage name="gui/Pistol.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/pistol.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="default" type="kinetic" damage="15" mitigation="15"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1200"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos> </Weapon> Replaces shotgun in weapons_gc.xml <Weapon name="weapon.shotgun" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="8" hands="2" recoil="0" weight="5" clipSize="24" reloadAPCost="15" /> <SingleShot/> <BurstFire sound="Weapon Shotgun Single" delay="0.6" ap="25" accuracy="110" shotCount="3"/> <GUIImage name="gui/Shotgun.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/shotgun.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="default" type="kinetic" damage="15" mitigation="20"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1600"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos> </Weapon> Replaces Rifle in weapons_gc.xml <Weapon name="weapon.rifle" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="18" hands="2" recoil="40" weight="5" clipSize="30" reloadAPCost="15" /> <SingleShot sound="Weapon Assault Rifle Single" delay="0.6"> <Set1 ap="13" accuracy="100" /> <Set2 ap="20" accuracy="150" /> </SingleShot> <BurstFire ap="35" accuracy="40" sound="Weapon Assault Rifle Burst" delay="0.6" shotCount="5" /> <GUIImage name="gui/AssaultRifle.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/assaultrifle.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="default" type="kinetic" damage="15" mitigation="20"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1200"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos> </Weapon> Replaces Sniper in weapons_gc.xml <Weapon name="weapon.sniper" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="26" hands="2" recoil="0" weight="6.5" clipSize="15" reloadAPCost="15" /> <SingleShot sound="Weapon Sniper Single"> <Set1 ap="28" accuracy="125" /> <Set2 ap="33" accuracy="150" /> <Set3 ap="37" accuracy="175" /> <Set4 ap="43" accuracy="200" /> </SingleShot> <BurstFire/> <GUIImage name="gui/PrecisionRifle.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/assaultrifle.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="default" type="kinetic" damage="45" mitigation="25"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1200" delay="2.5"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos> </Weapon> Replaces Machinegun in weapons_gc.xml <Weapon name="weapon.machinegun" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1"> <props range="30" hands="2" recoil="65" weight="12.5" clipSize="50" reloadAPCost="25" /> <SingleShot /> <BurstFire ap="30" accuracy="60" sound="Weapon Machinegun Burst" shotCount="5" delay="0.6" /> <GUIImage name="gui/machinegun.png"/> <GroundImage name="grounditemimages/machinegun.png"/> <Ammos> <Ammo name="default" type="kinetic" damage="40" mitigation="15"> <Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1200"/> <Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/> </Ammo> </Ammos> </Weapon> --------------------- END OF MODIFICATIONS TO WEAPONS_GC.XML ---------- Replaces Pistol in weapons.xml <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapon.pistol</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/pistol</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/pistol</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ballistic</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Boolean">0</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">10</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">15</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">12</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">0.8</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">1</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">3</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ammo.ballistic.pistol</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">8</Data></Cell> </Row> Replaces Rifle in weapons.xml <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapon.rifle</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/assaultrifle</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ballistic</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Boolean">1</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">15</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">20</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">30</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">1</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ammo.ballistic.rifle</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">10</Data></Cell> </Row> Replaces Shotgun in weapons.xml <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapon.shotgun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/shotgun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/shotgun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ballistic</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Boolean">1</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">35</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">80</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">24</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">1.25</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ammo.ballistic.shotgun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">15</Data></Cell> </Row> Replaces Sniper in weapons.xml <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapon.sniper</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/precisionrifle</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/precisionrifle</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ballistic</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Boolean">1</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">35</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">260</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">15</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">1.25</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">6.5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ammo.ballistic.sniper</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">10</Data></Cell> </Row> Replaces Machine gun in weapons.xml <Row ss:AutoFitHeight="0"> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapon.machinegun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/machinegun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">weapons/ballistic/machinegun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ballistic</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Boolean">1</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">50</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">300</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">50</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">0.6</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">12.5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">5</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s22"><Data ss:Type="String">ammo.ballistic.machinegun</Data><NamedCell ss:Name="_FilterDatabase"/></Cell> <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">25</Data></Cell> </Row> --------------------- END OF MODIFICATIONS TO WEAPONS.XML ----------

Yes I did. Either I get a blank tileset or I get the bog-standard "industrialtest" map regardless of what name is referred to in the level selector.

I tried using the level editor, just rearranging the basic industrial test map. I saved the file and then tried to load it in Xenonauts however all I got was a blank map (just consisting of ground tiles and nothing else). Did I do something wrong? I double checked the name in the level.xml file but that didn't appear to be the problem

I would like to see a reaction fire modifier (I guess that's for a soldiers reaction stat?) for soldiers/aliens that have not moved during their turn. I had an instance just then of two soldiers (one with sniper rifle, one with rocket launcher) who were both crouched, facing the direction of a known alien threat (who was currently under the fog of war). They had not moved on their turn and had maximum AP. On the enemy turn one Guard moved about 3 tiles into my LOS and then shot both of my men (insta-kills). Neither of my men offered reaction fire due to whatever reason. I feel that troops that have not moved during their turn should have a greater chance of making reaction fire as in theory this signifies the fact that they have their weapon readied and would detect movement more easily than if they were moving themselves.

I realise that the key "M" should increase money as a quick way of testing the game but this also includes when you name your saved game using the M key. This account for my earlier bug report which stated I was getting money from nowhere. Really it was every time I rewrote my name in the save file!

Had this same problem also. Lost 6 men trying to storm the damn thing but they kept getting one shot killed by an alien who was getting two reaction fires to my zero.

Go into your Desura\Common\xenonauts\assets\weapons.xml Look for the Machine Gun in the weapons list and change the 8th line to 50. Press save and enjoy 50 clip size, with 5 shot bursts! =) <Cell ss:StyleID="s23"><Data ss:Type="Number">50</Data><NamedCell Tried and tested!

Normally during an engagement your aircraft notify you at the point where there fuel has dropped to the minimum required to return to base safely. If you hit "return to base" they then immediately head for the nearest edge and then return via the Geoscape to the base safely. Having selected "RTB" you no longer have any control over these aircraft and therefore cannot manually cause them to crash through a lack of fuel. However, if your aircraft were on Afterburner at the point at which they requested RTB and you allow for them to return then they will crash before ever reaching the base. I can surmise that this has occurred due to the increased fuel requirements for afterburn which are not accounted for in the formula used to determine the minimum fuel requirement. In other words, either the afterburn is not being turned off upon RTB and is causing a less than necessary fuel amount to actually make it there or at the point at which RTB occurs the aircraft has already dropped 1% or more below the required amount. This would happen if you are interpolating to calculate the point at which RTB occurs but using a fuel step that is equal to normal fuel requirements but less than afterburn fuel requirements. If you need me to make this clearer then please ask! =)

Chris, I don't know what state the development of alien weaponry is at but I had a suggestion (should you be looking for more variety) for an alien weapon. Basically it would be modelled around the concept of a burst fire machine gun. However, instead of firing three separate projectiles, it streams a beam (the equivalent length of three laser bursts) towards the same point. Obviously this would be a heavy weapon which if on target would be deadly but would lack the spread fire of an actual burst fire weapon. I presume that you already have an alien equivalent of the machine gun, but obviously a beam gun would be uber cool. I don't know what the practicality of such a weapon would be like but I just thought I'd put it out there all the same. It would be nice if the alien weapons weren't just masked equivalents of the Xenonaught weaponry. Cheers

Enjoying the change already, thanks! =)

Sathra has a better picture of it. But it also means that even if you don't have line of sight then you can sometimes see the aliens moving during their turn. This is particularly true of that warehouse area in the north.

I have experienced a bug where I can see the enemy through the wall if they are stood on the tile next to the wall. I experienced this same bug after firing a missile at the UFO engine room after which I could see the alien inside.

Exact same issue. Can I point out that this only seems to appear on the black background. I.e. it exists on the layer behind the sprite maps.

I recently had a case of my Chinook flying over to the USA from Europe in the hope of making it to a drop zone. Just before it reached the coast it of course notified me of its low fuel status and that it was returning to base. However, I had actually just completed a hangar in a base in Florida which was much closer to both the crash site and Chinook. Ideally I would have liked it if the Chinook could have made it to the mission (it would have had about 30% fuel left) and then continued on to the Florida base for a refuel. This was something you were able to do in the original UFO (if i remember correctly). You could even send up one of your interceptors to free area in the hangar bay for the Chinook to refuel. Unfortunately, once an aircraft notifies you of a low fuel status you are unable to redirect on otherwise control it. Would it be possible to allow for this? Of course this could lead to an instance of the redirected aircraft running out of fuel. This could result in automatic destruction (as is the UFO way) or perhaps a message notifying you that the aircraft had done an emergency landing at a national military base or airport and would be out of action for 1 week or something?