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This is exactly what I was talking about with regard to War Thunder funnily enough. If you are fighting others that also use a joystick they can actually miss too - just like in real air combat! Actually I've played WT against other stickers in practice matches and they really are a thing of beauty. War Thunder comes into its own there, and air combat maneuvers actually work. I'd love to see what young gamers make of things like Pacman and Defender. Such games probably wouldn't hold their attention for more than 5 minutes. They weren't games of tactical skill like Xenonauts, but they were games of skill nonetheless - especially Defender.

I see it like this: if you are a man and don't want any women in your squad then you should have that option. You are the commander in the game! If you are a woman and don't want any men in your squad then you should have that option. I don't go for all this political correctness nonsense that has been forced on people! It's up to you. You shouldn't be forced to conform. Men are better at some things, women others. And men in general happen to have the traits most suited to a soldier. Nothing wrong in that and in traditional roles is there? Men are men and women are women for a reason, and I think many in the modern world have lost sight of that. We ARE different !

I've found that there are no "easy" missions (at least when playing at veteran level iron man mode)! I think you've hit the nail on the head about the auto-resolve algorithms though. Why waste time on making a system where you are auto-resolving what is basically the core of the game (which is why and what we have bought the game for). I'd much rather the time was spent on game content, more complex alien AI etc. When you think about it, no part of a game should get good enough to the point where it is a certainty that you will win. A game should always present a challenge, otherwise there is no point in playing it. I'll give you an analogy here. In War Thunder, there are people who have risen to the maximum level of rank 100, but they still use a mouse to fly. The mouse in this game basically lets you fly an aircraft like a UFO, but there is nothing much too it once you learn and have used a mouse for years - it becomes an on the rails shooter basically, with the nuances of different aircraft being sanitised. You cannot "feel" different fighters. Some may be faster than others and some may turn a little better, but you have no recoil in your weapons (even 50mm anti-tank guns) so you can always land shots with precision accuracy, partly thanks to your AI instructor flying the aircraft for you. Compare this with a joypad or joystick, which I use. Sure, you are made to look like a mug when you stall and they can't. But a Spitfire feels different to a Hurricane to fly (less stable, more slippy etc.). Yet people don't step up to this more qualitative experience. In Xenonauts, every mission I play is different and tense. I may get over-confident and get my best man killed in assaulting a small UFO simply because I want him to gain a bit more Reaction experience by standing him in front of a UFO entrance. Its a risk/reward thing. I'd never really see why you would want that to be taken away from you, otherwise what's the point in playing at all? How would you feel if you sent your best man on a mission only for the auto-resolve algorithm to proclaim that he died on that mission through no fault of your own?

I don't know Juan. The tactical ground combat is the core element of the game! It wouldn't be much of a game without it.

lol

On a lighter note: as long as General Burt Reynolds features somewhere in the game (like he did in Xen1) then I'll be happy! When are the personal characters some paid for going into the game and will you have to input some sort of code to include them in your squad?

Of course, you could gas or stun the civies in xen1 and UFO: EU, but if I remember rightly it actually killed them ... lol

It would be much appreciated if you could also delete custom made weapons loadouts (say if you made an "Elite" class with symbol and loadout). I haven't looked recently so maybe you can now do this, but this was one thing which annoyed me slightly with zen1. You had a whole list of loadout names you no longer needed or that had become irrelevant as you progressed. Just a small thing though. I suppose this could be negated if you chose your loadout names more wisely (i.e. Anti-Sibillian) and just updated the equipment as you progressed.

I don't know. It made me feel like I was doing very well if I managed to prevent these from happening. I do recall, though, that xen agents would occasionally find an Alien base for you to raid that you hadn't detected.

This is very true. But it's as much a part of the gameplay as anything else I suppose. There will be times when the Aliens are re-organising themselves and you don't hear from them for a while. It means projects may come to a halt through lack of finance, and is when you may need to decide if you sell that extra lab or lay off staff etc.

Excellent - this means it's less likely to recruit Taliban RPG men into your squad then .

Heh heh. Not sure if Chris is old enough to remember UFO and Space 1999, but he may have caught the re-runs. I, like you probably are, am a child of the 70's & 80's. Maybe Xen3 could be set in the Terror From the Deep world. I never really got a chance to play that when it first came out because I was an Amiga nut and didn't have a PC. It probably did come out on the Amiga, but I may have been too busy studying or something. Still, there are some interesting concepts explored in those series. Remember the UFO with the very expensive telescope... which was useless because it got damaged and they couldn't tell the scale of the UFO homeworld because of it? Science-fiction has, as we know, given us plenty of science-fact.

So do I! Space 1999 was really the unofficial sequel to UFO. They don't make 'em like those anymore do they? 70s and 80s was a golden age for tv. They can still be found on forces TV here in the UK. What have the recent years given us? The destruction of Star Wars, Star Trek and many other franchises.

Have you ever watched that 80's sci fi series called "V"? That has Lizards and a rebel element to it. And it's about aliens invading the earth too. Actually it was very good! Those were the days when they still made great TV rather than wall-to-wall propaganda, mind. Max touched on this a bit though. Look at the absolute panic that's going around at the minute (which mainly seems to be about acquiring toilet rolls for some reason). And this is only due to a virus, not an extraterrestrial invasion! If Douglas Adams were still alive I think he'd have a right laugh as it does seem to fit into the world of HHGTTG humour in some aspects.

If I remember correctly you can deploy whatever vehicles you have available in your garage. If they are on your dropship they go back into the garage.

Insulting the devs gets nobody anywhere I'm afraid. We are all lucky that Chris decided to start Goldhawk up. I bet it was a big risk for him at the time, and I hope it has paid off handsomely for him (it seems like he made enough right choices, since there's a sequel now, doesn't it)? Here's an idea. Instead of trying to destroy his work, why don't you learn to code and put your ideas for a sequel to UFO:Enemy Unknown into something tangible? Who knows, it might gain a cult following like Xenonauts, and we would all love to see a healthy rivalry when it comes to turn-based games. Chris - stiff British upper lip, keep calm and carry on!

When you really need to kill then use explosive weapons. If you want loot then use projectile weapons! I think the hevy is a shrapnel weapon is it not, so you kind of have a bit of both worlds in there. It's not a particularly good weapon to combat Sibillians though, for obvious reasons. I think the explosive/projectile compromise is a good one depending on what your aim is. Shrapnel weapons are a half-way house. I haven't looked into it much because I don't want to spoil the surprise when the game is finally released. I've only had a quick look over how its progressing, but what I've seen so far is impressive and a good step up from xen1.

Oh no one's ever really safe in this world, are they? So you're right. But if you've lived your life as a programmer as I have then you are at far less risk. The big thing that we can do is work remotely (as most of Goldhawk do). That takes a lot of the human contact risk away. Some have stated that this virus has been released deliberately to usher in the new world order, and that we will all soon be under some kind of global martial law. If that's the case then maybe aliens will come to save us rather than kill us, as in Xenonauts . I think we all have our suspicions. Why now? I mean, the Chinese have been eating strange things for centuries! It could all blow over in a matter of months, or it could be years. Look at the panic it's causing now however. If this continues the world will not be as we once knew it in a few years with the banks collapsing etc. What a fragile world we live in! It does pay to be prepared.

It's interesting. One thing I felt I had to do on every single mission in Xen1 was to always sweep the area, eliminating every single Alien. It wasn't a prerequisite to do so, but it felt that if I didn't kill every single Alien that it would come back to haunt you. I don't know how many of us felt like this, but it may be something to work on with regard to the missions.

I think we can both see what he's getting at Chris. That's a very well thought out (and practical) response though.

Yes! I remember in Rebelstar on the ZX Spectrum (showing my age here) that if you were the attackers and you managed to blow up the 3 laser turrets in the base you got reinforcements for doing so (some with Photon weapons!). It's this kind of diversity that would make xen2 fresh. Diversity in terms of missions, maps etc. For xen1 this tended to be provided by the modding community. If xen2 is structured in such a way that it is easy to bolt on new modules for it then the sky really is the limit for this sort of thing.

A good game spreads more by word of mouth really. Not many knew about xen1 when it came out, but it must have done well enough by definition for chris and the team to produce a sequel, otherwise why bother? It's still a great game to play, and always will be, just as the original UFO: Enemy Unknown from Microprose was. Heck, I still even play Rebelstar on a Spectrum Emulator from time-to-time. Or even Lazer Squad. Classics of the past. One bolt from the blue I remember (because it nearly wrecked the 3rd year of my degree) was the Nintendo 64's Goldeneye, which I always say was better than the film. Compared to 1st person shooters from today it's very choppy, but it was dripping with atmosphere and quality. It just came out of nowhere to be one of the top games on the N64. Finally, remember that this game is really a labour of love. Chris personally loves this type of game and loved UFO (which is why Xen was produced). It's in his interest to make sure its a great game because he will probably be playing it himself! Programmers of Big companies cannot put this kind of love into the kind of corporate games they make simply because they aren't really 'engaged' as much in what they are producing. The goal for most of them is just a paycheck at the end of the day. Turn-based strategy is not really catered for these days in comparison to other types of games, yet there is definitely a market for them - as shown by xen1. This is why xen2 is so important.

Programmers have always tended to "self-isolate" regardless (I know, I have!). Sometimes its the only way to get things done without distractions. They'll be ok .

Well London is a condensed city and Goldhawk are based near kings cross... I'd say they are near to first release now, but updates may probably be stretched out. I wouldn't mind self-isolating and playing xen2 for a good while . But we may soon go into lockdown like Italy. They'll probably blame it on Brexit like they do everything (not Goldhawk - just people in general)!

Actually it would be nice to see a static picture of B52s carpet-bombing a terror site when you fail. It would kind of rub it in that you failed... I also like the fact that Xenonaut aircraft will always be superior in atmospheric maneuverability to UFOS. Anti-grav withstanding, it's our planet and we know its conditions best! Later ufos could have rapid "point" maneuverability though, which could be negated by lasers (they would easily dodge missiles).