Zinn

I don't even know why people are arguing that much, tbh. While the games are superficially similar to eachother, as far as marketing and sales go, they're completely different. The shooter, Firaxis' game and Xenonauts play very differently from eachother, are graphically miles from eachother (to the point of not having the same amount of dimensions, literally), different levels of funding and don't really share that many features. In fact, just about the only thing that these games have in common is a premise and an old fanbase of a series that began 18 years ago, who won't stop bitching at eachother for "liking what I don't like". Much like the Fallout fans, only not acting like 5-year-olds. Honestly, I read the points posted about what made them similar-yet-different on the previous pages and I decided to ask how many of said features don't exist in most games anyway, when you look at them that broadly? Equipping soldiers, managing bases and purchasing upgrades? Did someone say "every strategy game ever created"? Hell, most of that list is found in RPGs as well, like the Baldur's Gate series (turn-based, AP [dressed up in D&D rules], equipment, improvements [level up], research [feats/spells/whatever at new levels], world map, pleasing quest-givers and so on). Basically, what I'm saying is that as far as 99% of the market is concerned, the feature list itself doesn't matter one bit, as it isn't unique at all in a broad perspective (and certainly not considering all 3 are essentially remakes of various degrees). What matters is the overall package and presentation, along with immersion and playability. You would be an absolute idiot if you marketed Xenonauts the same way as Firaxis' game, and "XCOM" isn't even in the same genre! Xenonauts leans much further to the old school and hardcore "pure" X-COM side, for instance, whereas Firaxis' game abandons some staple features of the series in favor of new looks and somewhat different mechanics. If you want to be a bit crude, you can say - from a marketing perspective - that Firaxis' game is geared towards being modern and filled with buzzwords, whereas Xenonauts is a "what you see is what you get" throw-back to the original. Hell, I doubt they even market themselves on the same channels anyway, since Indie developers usually can't throw around the kind of cash required for magazines, big gaming sites and the likes. I'm not saying there won't be some overlap in potential buyers or that it'll be magical and easy to market and sell, I'm just pointing out that for Xenonauts to succeed, they can probably rely on youtube and (hopefully) good reviews, along with a little bit of attention on Steam and Desura, due to a smaller budget. After all, while a small budget is a pain in the ass to work with during development, it also means you can probably break even with 10.000 copies rather than 1.000.000.

Gotta say I'm a big fan of this stuff, it looks great I wonder if there's any specific though behind the little "Sector 02" in the top? Is it just random, local to the science division or what? Just thought it could be fun if sectors corresponded with the alignment to the left (Command Room, Base Command etc.)

I much prefer the actual art to the top-down silouette, as it also gives you a good idea of what to expect once you're on the ground: One should always be mindful about new players to the series and even a little bit of extra intelligence is useful to a newbie. That said, please change the title of the interception: While it's not strictly incorrect that the interception is successful upon catching up to the UFO(s), something along the lines of the above suggestion of "Engagement Range Reached" is more suitable. In the end, you can still lose all of your planes, which no one would deem a success

Actually, rare medals/achievements generally make people much more focused on obtaining them. After all, no one gets those medals and if you could get one for being sole survivor and you have two guys left vs one alien in the end, it would be odd if the least important guy (especially if a rookie) didn't bite the dust for an epic medal. To compare, you can look at a game like BF3, where you get ribbons and medals for virtually anything: There's no incentive for chasing most of them as they occur naturally over time and with skill. If you know odds are your guy will get a "kill 5 aliens" medal over time, there's no reason to force him to kill 5 aliens on the very first mission. It's always the major achievements that people go all out to get, not the "common" ones.

They could also do what most other games do: Pause the action on the Geoscape while the combat takes place.

The X-series has always been a favorite of mine, although I also played Descent and Freespace. Can't wait to see the new one: [video=youtube;LabrDe4XJo0]

Mein gott, someone on the internet who does not know Vocaloid? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocaloid Vocaloid is best known for spawning things like this, though (warning - extremely Japanese): [video=youtube;DTXO7KGHtjI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI

IIRC, you get to choose between a Steam key and a Desura key once the game gets to that point.

Alright, I've got a partial answer at the end. The problem seems to be that everything counts as an alien, including helpless civilians. I found the two "escaped aliens" from my ending screen earlier in the level, but as they were helpless humans, I turned my guys away from them (so they wouldn't kill 'em with reaction shots) and went on with the mission. Here is the end screen:

It seems that there is some confusion between aliens and humans in the new version, unless aliens have somehow become super sneaky without my knowledge: First, I spotted an alien (icon) but there was no alien to be seen. There was a civilian, however, but I continued the turn and figured there may have been a spotting bug or that the alien simply was in a darkened area after I turned my guy around. Upon ending the turn, I was surprised by the fact that the civilian registered as hostile and fired at my troops (missing them, thank god). So I verified that he was marked as hostile in my reticle (pic related) and killed him, when he let out an alien death scream. After being good and dead, the body dropped to the ground with a black tile, where the weapon should be. Still in human form, by the way: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Zinn/deadimposter.jpg Upon inspecting the body, however, it turned out to be a regular human as far as the game is concerned, with no loot, other than a soldier sprite (which I assume is an alpha issue, due to a lack of sprites/textures/whatever): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Zinn/idontevenknow.jpg Also, I can't seem to enter the menu during gameplay in Ground Combat. The Escape key worked fine on the Geoscape to make a save but nothing happens once I enter Ground Combat. I just posted direct links, as I wasn't sure how the forum here handles full size screens with IMG tags, or if the attachment system is worth much (some forums are iffy with attachments, in my experience). I'll try to finish the mission and see how it goes in relation to civilian deaths and such. EDIT: I'd like to add a minor update and note that there are indeed properly functioning aliens on the map: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Zinn/aliens.jpg EDIT 2: NOPE, my bad, it got even more confusing when I looted a dead one. It contained a soldier uniform sprite and an alien gun: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Zinn/Soweird.jpg

Premium here and it just worked for me.

Will you address them in the same way HK-47 does?

Option 4 here: Despite all the general whining, games have gotten quite good these days and yet a good few of the older ones still hold up.

Putting a tutorial in would be a very good idea. As far as games in general go, X-COM (and thus Xenonauts) is a fair bit on the hardcore side and you need some way of knowing these things. That said, a tutorial should probably just be a very basic mission with a couple of aliens that could do a step-by-step thing. For instance, it tells you to go through the door, go to cover, use different shots and such, while explaining the mechanics simply. It should then be possible to go to the in-game wiki and find a mechanics section, where the issues are explained in further detail. In other words, the basic tutorial lets you become acceptably competent, while you can study the wiki to go from "competent" to "expert" with some practice. Most importantly, though, the tutorial MUST be skippable: There's nothing more annoying than wasting precious time, when all you want to do is get going. I'm sure most people here have frowned at Skyrim, ME2 or other games where there's a forced intro/tutorial that essentially goes on forever, considering your knowledge during a second playthrough.

Yes. It's cheesy as hell but I like making a character that represents myself and a couple of friends: Helps raise the stakes in missions, when you only have your "real" friends left and someone has to go into the UFO and kill the last alien.

Xenonauts: They're in the walls! "Game over, man, game over!" "Terra United" "Say no to formaldehyde-face!" Xenonauts: We Can See "Mess with the best, die like the rest" Most are liberally stolen from various movies

Sorry, Xenonauts 2 was actually made in 1998, as a non-turnbased game. It also featured comets but of a less horny variety [video=youtube;dyJaaYoWPPw] Personally, I wouldn't mind some sort of silly easter egg in-game: It just has to be sufficiently rare (randomly generated), so it doesn't end up overpowering the doom and gloom of the actual invasion.

I really like the Cannon Fodder idea and also the ranks in that game. It was a great way to get attached to your troops, and I remember cursing the heavens when a guy from the original team in mission 1 died, halfway through the game. Especially if it was to some ridiculous thing like the last enemy, accidental friendly fire or a trap! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS, GOD? WHY WOULD YOU TAKE JOOLS FROM THIS WORLD? For Xenonauts, I actually do something quite cheesy: I like to add myself and a friend or two to the squad. I accept permadeath but I do everything humanly possible to prevent their deaths, which adds an interesting balance, since I also want them to level up (meaning they must be in the front lines). Some sort of history would be a very nice feature, with awards or military commendations upon certain achievements (killing 10 aliens, destroying a large UFO, resisting mind control, killing X aliens in one hit and so on).

Same message for me as well. How can I show my e-peen with no shiny badges?

My relationship with EVE is a bit ambivalent, tbh. I have played and it enjoyed it for a few months back in the day and it contains almost everything I'd ever want in an MMO on the PvP side, but ultimately, it was the gate system and not solo vs group that killed it for me (I enjoyed both, though getting a decent group was hard). I get that the universe is large and such, but in the end, travelling 30 gates to meet someone to MAYBE PvP a little bit got boring. While I certainly realise the necessity for gates and how they're set up in relation to territorial defense, all the travelling ended up doing me in. I am simply not enjoying 20-40 minutes of warping from gate to gate, when I could spend that time having fun in virtually any other game. These days, I generally play WoT for my PvP needs. All you need is a friend or two to play with and you can turn the tide of battle by yourselves.