OSUNightfall

Thanks. For some reason I figured if it'd be anywhere it would be in Xenonauts News and Announcements, rather than Goldhawk Announcements.

So I paid for the alpha access, but now I'm wondering: How do you know when a new build comes out? Is it always a news-post on the front page? Is there some thread with new alpha releases and version notes? How can we, as alpha participants, keep up with everything that is changing build to build?

While I think this sort of idea isn't entirely without merit, I tend to think that such a progression might leave the player feeling frustrated, because no matter what they do, they only enjoy the fruits of their efforts a short time before the aliens always come back with something better. This is the same problem I have with games like Bethesda's Oblivion, where every enemy in the world always levels with you. Edit: To be more clear, I don't have a problem with this sort of thing happening in a time-based manner dependent on difficulty level, but if you simply make it so that the aliens advance whenever you advance, as a player I get annoyed because I feel like the game is simply rigged to keep up with me no matter how high the level of my play.

Is this correct? If so, I'm willing to provisionally accept that it would address my concerns with the difficulty arc and dramatic arc. My one caveat would be that if this is the way things go, the player should probably receive some notification that they're now in a race against time. Without such a clue, I feel that many players might not realize the clock is truly ticking until it's too late. Perhaps a note from a military advisor or a line from one of the research projects: "Command now believes that it is only a matter of time until the aliens gain total supremacy over Earth. Unless..." Also, is there a "trigger" for this final alien ramp up, or do you envision it as being solely a factor of time? Each has merits and drawbacks.

Ah, I see. That's a significant shift from the tone and dramatic arc of X-Com, but in the context of that sort of shift, the two things you've mentioned make a lot more sense. I still hope you'll put some things in that mix up your tactical options a bit in the way that these items did. Part of the fun of researching incredibly advanced tech is finding things the aliens can do that we can't, yet, then being able to adapt that tech to the more traditional squad based combat of earth's forces. One thing I don't understand about the difficulty arc. Do you start out in a desperate situation that only gets worse and harder over time, even though you're advancing in power yourself, or is it a situation of you getting better compared to the aliens over time but never quite surpassing them? In the first scenario, it could be rather disheartening because it would feel like you're losing ground no matter how well you progress, with the level of your play merely determining how slowly you lose ground. This would feel rather like a slog up a treadmill where you just get farther and farther behind no matter how fast you walk. I'm skeptical that this difficulty curve would make for a compelling game. In the second scenario, for it to be appropriately dramatic, you would almost need an arc where you start out in a desperate situation, it slowly gets better, then the aliens eventually reveal a big "gotcha", at which point you would again be outclassed, with the level of play determining how desperate the situation gets when the aliens finally "get serious." This would give you your dramatic, losing fight, without making the player feel as though they're just losing ground no matter what in the early game. It seems like if if you did not have a gotcha, even if you never get to the point that the aliens fear you, you would still be able to overwhelm them by sheer logistics and numbers. Is either of these close to the mark? Also, let me make clear that I in no way regret my pre-order based on this. I'm still trying to get friends to pre-order, and when the game comes out, if the quality is still there, I'll probably buy several copies for friends. A true sequel to X-Com is something we've all dreamed about for a long time, and I want to help that succeed in any way I can. All my observations are aimed toward that goal, positive or negative. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

At least one could probably mod the Autocannon back in quite easily, if one were so inclined.

Apologies, I meant that PSI might require line of sight. Blasters (or the equivalent) could have several different things done to tone them down if it's felt that they need it. For example: a limit of two or three waypoints, and a reduced blast radius. What I really liked about options like this is that they opened up new tactics and new ways of playing the missions that you've already been playing half the game. Suddenly you have to think about how to integrate these new technologies into your play, which keeps things fresh about halfway through. If every alien tech is the equivalent of a new gun or grenade, things are going to get stale fast no matter how many new toys you research. I'm playing through a game of X-Com right now in fact. I know how it hurt when I lost my entire squad to one mind control a few days ago, or when I get hit with a blaster launcher. In my current game, I just lost 13 men and 2.2 million dollars during a base assault in a no manufacture, no-selling game in which I can ill afford that kind of loss. That base is sitting there in Africa, mocking me, and it might as well be made of fire for all the chance I have of taking it. But I know that I *will* take it some day. I know that one day it will fall, and I'll make the aliens pay for every drop of blood I lost there, and that one day I'll be on top, the one mind-controlling units and blaster-launching the aliens. I know that one day they'll be afraid of me. It's that sort of thing that I think makes the game special.

Chris, I've been following this game for several years, practically since the site went up, and finally made the leap and purchased a premium pre-order, because I finally felt the quality I was seeing was worthy of a pre-purchase. From what I've played, you guys are doing a great job of staying loyal to X-Com while updating it for a more modern time, and for your general fidelity to the original formula I salute you. That said... I've read that you've decided to remove human psi and blaster launchers from the game for being "unbalanced." I would caution you that in the midst of your re-imagining it is sometimes easy to overlook things that made the original game great, or try to "re-invent the wheel" because you feel you've found a better way. But I am dismayed to hear that you've made this decision in particular. Everyone can agree that blaster launchers and psi were broken, but I think that rather misses the point. This article articulates very well why things like psi and blaster launchers helped make the original great. Alien technology isn't supposed to be balanced, and it isn't supposed to play fair. It is supposed to be overwhelmingly superior to your own options, until you've co-opted them, bit by bit. At the beginning of the game your disadvantage seems insurmountable. As time passes, you get better and better tools, and you begin to realize you're turning the tide. Eventually, you realize you're actually on top, that the aliens are now inferior to you, and at that point you strike the killing blow to Cydonia. I understand the desire for absolute balance in a rules system. I design rules systems myself as a hobby. But even if you felt that psi and blasters were badly unbalanced, why not simply balance them, rather than remove them from the game entirely? Make PSI require line-of-sight, make it cost a large amount of TUs, make it harm the wielder, whatever you wish. But simply removing these things sounds like a harsh move to make in the name of balance. Discovering that suddenly humans could also train to use the psi abilities that had been slaughtering my men for months was one of my favorite parts of the original game; it was a game changer. Suddenly you have to build psi-schools, and you find out that all your soldiers have this potential hidden talent that you must now hone. In my opinion, psi abilities, broken or not, were one of the defining characteristics of the UFO experience, a turning point and watershed in the original game, and I'm saddened to hear that it won't be in this most excellent successor. I would ask that you consider carefully before committing to this decision. To end, I admire you greatly Chris, for the sacrifices you've made in the name of a game we all love very much. I'm sure that either way Xenonauts will turn out to be a good game. You've greatly impressed me so far. I just hope that somewhere in the research tree is something as cool as the old human psi abilities and the blaster launcher, or this just becomes a bland game of "move soldiers around map, shoot things and throw grenades."