[Bigger Fonts in Xenonauts 2]

2 hours ago, Larry Burstyn said:

In the early 1970's I built my first computer in my kitchen (did not have a garage).  I had to program the OS all by myself because none existed back then.  And I only had a total of 8K of memory.  I used a tape deck to remember the code as memory got wiped (did not stay) when I turned off the computer.  After some time I learned machine language by doing the OS programming and learned how to "hack" into other computers remotely.  I was curious as to what other people thought was so secret they required passwords and "firewalls" to protect it.  Never stole anything just looked and satisfied my curiosity.  Although one time I spotted a company that paid it's employees based on race and sex.  White males were paid more for the same job even though some of the female and black employees were more productive.  I sent out an email (on the HR persons email) to all employees saying what each person was paid...several months later there was a news article on the EEO bring a lawsuit against the company for this practice..  I have always maintained an interest in computers...which might be an inherited trait since my dad helped build the USA first computer for the government.  Back then bugs were really BUGS.  Giant cockroaches (which can keep getting bigger and bigger as long as they have a food source) would short out the tubes.  So someone had to physically go into the computer and clean them out.

 

RIght now I'm more interested in playing games than in doing programming...I'm RETIRED now.  So it's been years since I'm done any serious programming.

Nice. Well, playing games, writing programs, hacking around, inventing things, all of the same: Curiosity.

Can totally understand.

[Bigger Fonts in Xenonauts 2]

4 minutes ago, Solver said:

Read Goldhawk's development diary / post-mortem. I think it shows that Chris is extremely well aware of the weak aspects of Xenonauts 1. At least I agree almost entirely with the list of weaknesses that he identifiers, and so am very optimistic about Goldhawk doing a better job with the sequel.

Plus there's the fact that many technical mistakes were made due to the absence of an experienced software lead, or even any kind of experienced dev in the early stages of development. The Xeno 2 team is much more like a traditional software development team, with an excellent developer at the helm.

Looking forward to that. Good to hear that they are aware of it.

[Bigger Fonts in Xenonauts 2]

9 minutes ago, Charon said:

Actually i think so too, porting this to an android platform would be THE KILLER. Its a turn based game so you have all teh time in teh world to make decisions. Heres a screenshot we just happened to make, tell me what you think:

Looks interesting. I am not sure what I should exactly look for. Which mod is it?

 

Fonts appear a bit larger than Xenonauts on my screen. However, at least in the screenshot, some look still hardly

readable, for example the yellow-font list of soldiers properties on the upper left side (below the "Charlie -1")

 

Especially the top bar is a huge empty black bar, so there is much screen estate that can be invested into a 

better visible output without any loss.

 

 

[Bigger Fonts in Xenonauts 2]

9 minutes ago, Charon said:

Actually, makeing bigger fonts for people who need them is an hour job for a modder ... not everything can be made bigger, but most things.

There was obviously a mod that increased font sizes, however it seems not available in Steam workshop (at least

not in MacOS, don't know if this makes a difference). However, as I can read in the internet from the creator of the

mod it is far from perfect, for example some texts were clipped/truncated. 

 

Actually I am not so much searching for a font size increase in Xenonauts, I was suggesting to Goldhawk to consider this

an issue when they go forward with Xenonauts 2. That should be a design aspect from the beginning. It may later help

them to even port their game more easily to other devices with other screen ratios and resolutions (e.g. tablets, consoles).

 

[Bigger Fonts in Xenonauts 2]

3 hours ago, Charon said:

Not to mention these tini tiny scrollbar buttons which are practically invisible :D.

You are optimistic :).

 

Yes, you are right, they are also ridiculous. At least on my MacBook I can use vertical two-finger-slide

(I guess on Windows machines that would be mouse wheel) to browse up and down in those lists.

 

As said, those gestures and real point&click would work like a charm on a large iPadPro (and of course

on any other iPad and Android and Windows tablet). I am wondering, as there is a Linux version, why

there is no Android port? That would be a sort of killer app there, I guess.

 

Well, I guess, that is too optimistic to hope for that.

 

[Bigger Fonts in Xenonauts 2]

Great! I hope I will paying such games too when I turn 71 !!! Congrats for keeping up-to-date so well, my

parents are several years younger than you and wouldn't touch a computer game.

 

I hope Goldhawk Interactive realizes that there are games that are played across all ages, like this one.

My sons play them (16, 18), I play them (46) and Squaddie plays them with 71. What else can a company

wish for? If they do it right, they can build up a good and diverse fan base. But they should listen more to their

fan base, as the size complaints were present in the bulletin boards for many, many years. Just they were ignored.

And today, at least on the Steam (MacOS version) workshop pages, even the mod is not available (anymore) that

increased fonts to some extent.

 

[Bigger Fonts in Xenonauts 2]

Please consider that many people complained for years complained about the small font sizes in Xenonauts and many

indicated that this is reason not to buy the game. Consider that your program attracts older gamers who played already

Xcom. And for them the small fonts of Xenonauts are a pain. And, yes, we play on laptops, because we sit in planes,

on airport gates and hotel rooms on business trips. It is a shame that this "feature request" for scalable, better readable,

larger fonts was disregarded for years in the development of Xenonauts.

 

Other wishes along that line:

- Audio (reading those texts)

- Playing a well-readable Xenonauts-2 on a large iPadPro would be wonderful for me !

 

Otherwise, thanks for the nice game. I see Xenonauts as a test case and learning project towards a great

Xenonauts-2 which should try to omit all the mistakes of the first one.

 

Off topic, some other nice things would be:

- Being able to shoot or at least throw a grenade when standing besides an open door.

- Being able to rotate the map.