TheTuninator

If you don't include it as part of the base game, I'd definitely still suggest that you guys work this into your marketing in some way; a tool like this will be a very nice selling point, as I seriously doubt Firaxis' X-COM will have anything near this level of accessible modding capability.

If they built for a specific demo build with minimized crashing, night missions, some research, and some enemy variety, I think that could succeed. It'd probably be better and more feasible simply to get a build out to review sites, though, because reviewers will generally be more understanding of the fact that it's a alpha/beta version and just comment on the actual features of the game.

I honestly don't see how that can lead to a bad review. The only possible scenario I can see is, "I made some human or alien weapons way stronger in the weapon editor and the game was too easy/too hard as a result", in which case it is clearly the reviewer's fault and not the game's. Any reviewer worth his or her salt would note this, and if they don't the reader can easily deduce that it's entirely the reviewer's fault. Just add a little popup disclaimer saying "making human weapons noticeably stronger is likely to affect your gameplay experience adversely, proceed with caution" along with a "return to defaults" button, and you're completely fine. In any case, I think the potential positive PR far outweighs any negative PR that could result from including this editor in the game. Just look at how popular mods are for games like Fallout; people like to have personal control over the game, and this is just about as personal as it can get. Xenonauts is going to need things which make it an attractive option in comparison to Firaxis' X-COM, and I think this is a great way to start.

Yeah, I do prefer Xenonaut's muted Cold War sensibilities to the colorful Starship Troopers approach of normal X-COM; if that briefing-folder style GUI gets implemented, I can't see anything the Firaxis X-COM does being more atmospheric. As soon as a more completed build goes up, I will definitely do some LP footage then! You should also definitely get that Kickstarter thermometer with bonus ingame features running as well, if you can.

I fail to see the problem with that, personally. It's a single-player game; if you get the most enjoyment out of it when your pistol shots can tear apart walls, more power to you. Everyone's free to play single-player games their own way, and something like this would only enhance that freedom. It'll be no less available here than it would be as part of the actual game, so you might as well include it, because the ability to implement your own balance tweaks would absolutely be a huge selling point for the game. How many other games can boast the ability to allow the player to tweak the experience to directly match their own personal tastes and sensibilities? An editor like this represents an ideal way for Xenonauts to make itself a more attractive option in the face of the Firaxis X-COM remake. This also offers the potential to "crowdsource" balancing the game, which is something I imagine would take quite a load off of the Xenonauts team themselves.

Holy crap, that's amazing! This should be made into part of the game proper. The ability for users to fine-tune every weapon to their liking with ease and speed would be a huge advertising point. How many other single-player games grant you that level of control over your game experience?

Haha whoops, you're right, thought I was misremembering it. That is rather horrifying.

Speaking of Youtube, I have a Youtube channel with around ~16,000 subscribers. I mostly do Fallout videos, but I'll happily throw up some Xenonauts gameplay once the released build gets a bit more refined. I can't do professional-level video editing, so I can't make any actual trailers or anything, but I can provide raw footage for them as well as LP footage.

I agree that snap fire reserve cost could stand to be a bit lower; as it is, it's quite hard to effect any kind of advance at all with snap fire reserve on. Armored car HP could stand to be a bit higher as well, as it is the car is almost dead in one shot from a Caesan and that seems a bit fragile.

I would strongly urge you guys to work with an eye towards producing a suitable preview/demo build (i.e. night missions, improved GUI, some enemy variety, and some working research) and sending it to as many review sites as possible. It seems like you're almost there already, so that's definitely something I would recommend as a priority; if you give sites like RPS and PC Gamer a demo build they can throw screenshots/footage of up, that would be great publicity. You should also investigate if you can get on Steam if you haven't already; everything I've seen seems to indicate that indie games on Steam do a fairly decent business.

For real, I've never understood why they refuse to attempt to remake the best damn game they've ever made. Any AC remake would have roughly a 95% chance of failure, but still, I wish they'd make the attempt.

The fact that this is being released for console makes me uneasy. It's unfair, I know, but it's also undeniable that there is a distinct trend of "streamlining" for game series transferred to consoles. Let's hope that doesn't happen. I also hope this doesn't have an adverse effect from Xenonauts; I could see them getting positive press if the Firaxis one turns out to be bad/not a true successor to X-COM, in which case people will hold up Xenonauts as "this is what it should've been". I trust the Xenonauts team over Firaxis to create a compelling X-COM game at this point, so I'm curious to see where this goes.

Wow, what awful timing. Hope Xenonaut's okay, I think I trust you guys to make an X-COM style game more than Firaxis at this point. What they need to do is get off their butts and at least attempt a sequel to SMAC one of these days!

I like this UI a lot! Makes all the necessary information readily available, and looks quite good. Jean-Luc's suggestion for the soldier portrait placement also definitely works for me. It's probably better to have the main screen area unobstructed than the corners of the screen.

Ah, that makes sense! I take it that will be fixed eventually, then?

My favorites would be Freespace 2, Heroes of Might and Magic III and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Late 90s were a good time for PC games.

I think it'd be good for a slogan of sorts for the game; obviously it wouldn't be a great X-COM motto because it makes it sound like they're hiding under their beds instead of fighting. Though I think we can all confess the aliens do indeed scare us at least a bit, it's part of the charm.

Hmm, very true; an organization like X-COM that's basically underfunded and understaffed put up against a far more numerous and better-equipped extra-terrestrial foe could certainly take a very fatalistic view of things, something which the game atmosphere already supports. I like it!

Bars would definitely be great to have! I'll echo the suggestions of those that really bright colors such as neon green and purple should be avoided; they fit the aesthetic of the original X-COM but clash a bit with the really fantastic dark, slightly retro atmosphere you guys have created here. Slightly subdued colors would be better if it's possible.

Just want to add my compliments to those already listed in the thread. What I demand most from a game is atmosphere; story, gameplay, everything comes second for me to a game that can actually create a deeply immersive atmosphere. I'm happy to report that X-COM has that somewhat indefinable feeling of atmosphere in spades, and it's only an alpha build! I was sucked in at the CIC room at the main menu, and the handheld clipboards as menus were a stroke of genius. The Hidden Movement screen, the tilesets, the eerie ambient music of the geoscape...it practically oozes atmosphere. I don't know who the artist on this project is, but they have done a phenomenal job; everything from the menus to the base tilesets are gorgeous. I eagerly await a more finished product; as it currently stands, Xenonuats is probably my most anticipated game of 2012.

Agreed to this, it hits just the right note of creepy and sci-fi. Night battles/terror missions will obviously require something more pants-soilingly fear-inspiring, but the current soundtrack is definitely a genre I'd like to see them continue pursuing.

This happens to me as well, I have to dance around with constant pausing and leading of targets even at point-blank range to stand a chance of intercepting the UFOs. It never felt that hard to intercept in normal X-COM. I can be literally right on top of the UFO, to the point where the models are overlapping, and still chase it around for 2-3 minutes before running out of gas and having to return to base while it scoots away. This may be working as intended, but if so I'd advise looking at it a bit more because it really is rather frustrating to be so close but completely unable to close the final few pixels. It's also possible that this is just a result of me being rubbish at the game and not comprehending that my crap starter planes aren't supposed to be able to catch zippy little UFO scouts, in which case disregard the above post.

As a big X-Files fan, I have to suggest "Trust No One". As far as actual suggestions go, how about "Fear Not The Stars" or "The Last Hope Of Humanity"? A Latin slogan has both benefits and drawbacks to my mind; in in-game terms it'd have to be accompanied by an English translation for clarity, but it does make perfect sense as the slogan for an international organization since Latin is fairly non-denominational thanks to its status as a dead language. That's quite good, and rolls off the tongue nicely in both English and Latin.

I really like the idea of most of these, particularly additional in-game aesthetic variation with things such as the Russian weapons, additional soldier portraits, additional alien corpses, and so forth. Geoscape AI allies would also be very cool and a nice realism feature; although, if it would not be too difficult to facilitate there should be some option to toggle them off for the hardcore X-COM players who want to go it themselves. Myself, I think it's a fantastic idea.