ooey

I loved the names they tended to come up with in Blakes 7 (hope they never remake that - it would be trash just like all the modern remakes of things). Things like "Pell" and "Kerr Avon".

Lol - I'd rather go for Dr. Killdare or Dr. McCoy!

Yes, but Chris - you're the boss. He has to do what you say!

Chris, would you be able to confirm or deny that General Burt Reynolds will be making an appearance in Xenonauts 2. Without such a charismatic General, I believe the fight against the aliens is lost before it begins! If not, perhaps a Commander Roger Moore or Sean Connery? Get your artist on it now ;-)

I was kind of thinking of the younger generation (<18). They have short attention spans and move on to "the next thing" rather quickly. If we lose the younger gen, this type of game may not exist in the future. The concept of xen2 is similar to xen1 - it's not really like everything had to be totally re-written. I don't think it was a good idea to start off with a single base model anyway, but I suppose he wanted to do something a little different to xen1 for fear of people saying it was too similar. The premise of xen1 and even UFO:Enemy Unknown was good to start with. If Xenonauts lacks anything for me, it's alien "weirdness". Oh - and General Burt Reynolds from xen 1 it seems... Every xcom game has to have a General Burt.

Well, you will find the young amongst us to be more impatient, naturally. We are all different. There is no getting away from the fact that the longer the younger of us have to wait, the less interested they become. Being old, I only play a very few games (mainly War Thunder, Strategy titles like HOI3 and even UFO: enemy unknown/xen1). Being young, there are lots of shiny games about to distract them away (my 18 yo nephew plays all-sorts). Xen2 is one of a very few old-school turn-based games in development now - let's not turn them away from it. Seeing as xen2 is reasonably similar to xen1, you would think that many lessons had been learnt from xen1 which would have cut the development time dramatically. I never really minded if xen2 was to be a more refined and feature-packed version of xen1 (with a better ending). Alien: your passion is good, and your English is fine! But there are always going to be different viewpoints; neither is right or wrong really. It's really Chrisses decision and he will have to live or die by it. There was nothing wrong with the way he went about xen1, so why not do it with zen2 (that is release rough, refine later)? As long as players are aware this is his strategy then I think all will cope.

Just to let you know, I've been in since the start too (actually one of the first backers for Xenonauts 1). And yes, of course I want it to succeed, we all do (we backed it didn't we?). And no, alienkiller, we are not at extremes of the spectrum (I'm about half-way, whereas you want it released when "finished"). Technically, what would you regard as "finished"? When Chris says it is finished or when you can play right through to complete the game and defeat the aliens? I define it as the latter. Okay, it may have temporary placement graphics for certain things or none at all, or slight bugs, but if you can still get to the end you can regard it as finished. I think you missed my point. If released in THIS state, with the promise of fixes until it is finally up to the standard that Chris wants it, then you are forgetting one small but important point. Those that have held off playtesting themselves (either because they want a surprise when they tackle the finished product, or because they are too busy to playtest or for any other reason) will do so on 'release'. There are lots of us taking this path, which will add MANY MORE play testers, and thus hopefully any bugs will be ironed out faster. Do you see my point? And sure, I am grateful that there ARE people like you who aren't paid play testers who are helping to knock the game into shape for the rest of us - we thank you for your time and effort in doing so. My thoughts exactly. From what I've seen things are quite enjoyable and interesting as they are. I don't want to get deep into the game - I mainly want to keep it a surprise for its release (that's why I was overwhelmed with xen1). But. But... for the less patient the interest WILL wane the longer they have to wait. We want EVERYONE on board. And from what Chris has been saying, they are well on their way to a pre-Christmas release. So with regards to what 'I' believe to be a realistic release state (from what I have heard and seen so far), what is the harm in setting a pre-Christmas release date? Many many projects in the past that never set a release date just "disappeared". Bandersnatch killed Imagine (yes I am old enough to have had plenty of 8-bit computers). That game (on the ZX Spectrum) was one of many that kept having its release date changed and people just lost interest. The problem with it was, if I remember, it was too technically difficult to achieve for the 8-bit computers. Xen 2 is not really a technical challenge, just one of content. Chris proved with xen1 that him and his team are technically proficient.

Sorry Ailenkiller, but 4+ years is just too long for something that was promised long ago, Covid et all not withstanding. I am a patient person, have been and always will be. Do you profess to talk for Chris or/and Goldhawk now, do you? Do you REALLY think a release before xmas 2022 is too much to ask? Really? Do you not realise that people will start to fall away from the project? When do you what it to be released? Summer 2028? And don't just say "when it's finished", because as a Software Engineer myself, I know that a project can NEVER really be considered truly finished. There are always things that can be improved. The worst thing you can be as a games programmer is a perfectionist in this respect. Take the project to a decently acceptable conclusion, then let the modders continue the development (iron out things later) if they want to afterwards. As was seen with xen1, the team continued to make improvements after its official release - they didn't just 'drop' things. There is no reason at all why the game cannot be released in a "playable" finished state rather than a "totally" finished state, which is what I think Chris is aiming for. This is NOT to say that I don't trust Chris and his team or anything (I do, he's proved himself with xen1) but no one wants to wait forever. A lot of people have put a lot of money into this project. There is a balance to be had. And it is somewhere between releasing trash (xen2 has gone way beyond that from what I've seen) and waiting forever.

I gave up on star citizen a long, long time ago! It seems that quite a few games are in a constant state of development. Take War Thunder for example. They never really fix much (certainly not for joystick users anyway) but just add more content (i.e. a slightly different variant of the same plane). They also changed things that didn't need changing or fixing (I blame the Vodka). One thing I believe about xen 2 is that... IT HAS JUST GOT TO BE RELEASED IN A "FINISHED STATE" BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2022 AT THE VERY LATEST! Chris, if you can promise that then at least we can see the end is in sight. At present it feels like the end of the world will happen before xen 2 is released.

I think I will start playing in Ernest when Chris says it's the complete thing. So far I've tinkered with it all and am yet to come across anything I don't like about xen 2 (but then xen 1 was very very good in the first place). I don't think we can wait another Christmas though, Goldhawk! I think Chris's reputation from his first game has given him plenty of kudos that he and his team WILL deliver.

So, do we have a release date yet? The troops are getting restless. Even I am (and I'm a patient soul). By the looks of the updates you're nearly there it seems. I suppose we are looking for a time where everything is finished to a certain degree (if unpolished) where the game can be played through to its conclusion. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Surely this will be addressed?! It's a basic bug.

UFO 2 ET: thanks for the heads up on this one. I didn't know about that.

Maybe, but flashing says "urgent" to me. Maybe a flashing bleeding icon? It's a good way to get someones attention.

Just a bit about wounded soldiers. It would be an advantage to have their names flash in red if critically wounded and bleeding out; this catches the attention! Just a small improvement but a nice attention to detail. I remember this was the case for Rebelstar on the ZX spectrum (one of the very first tactical combat games released in 1986). If J Gollup can do it on the speccy then you guys most certainly can!