P-DEX

Ha! Seriously, I bet Goldhawk could hit $100,000 (or more?) by the deadline.

Just wanted to let you all know I got a guy on a forum I regularly frequent to place a pre-order. He posted this in reply to my Xenonauts pimping: Just one guy, but it's a start!

HA! Yes, it was a typo...I think I got excited. Changed the number in my original post to be less embarrassing!

Amazing! Over $21,000 pledged within 24 hours...and over thirty-five people contributing $200! If $50,000 is indeed the goal, I think you will make it very soon, Chris. Fantastic support so far. Again, I am amazed.

I had the same thing happen to me, seus. I found out that my Norton anti-virus did not like Xenonauts! I kept getting a SONAR warning, then the Xenonauts.exe would get corrupted when it tried to "fix" it. Then, I'd have to re-validate all the files, attempt to start again, then *poof*...same thing. The fix? Disable my anti-virus for fifteen minutes...just long enough to execute the program. No problems at all after that. In fact, I haven't played Xenonauts this crash-free ever! I went through my first multi-hour marathon a couple of days ago.

I also really like Jean-Luc's second image, with the alien head substituting for an "O". The black and white is perfect. To get all collegiate on you guys, the colors are symbolic of the "take no prisoners" theme of the game...the "humanity must prevail or the aliens will"...hence, the black and white theme. I graduated with a Commercial Art degree...trust me on this. Besides, adding any color (even a spot color) will cost much more money to make. And no, I don't just like it because Chris does, silly people!

I agree. I've re-started half a dozen times (new game) and haven't made it through one complete ground mission yet without a hidden movement crash. I've even used zzz's temporary fix...still no-go for me.

Looks like they've pushed the release date back. Fourth quarter of 2012 now.

lol!

Nice catch, Gaud. Thanks, man!

Just had this happen to me as well. My soldier (wounded) walked to, then stood over a dead alien. Hit inventory button...black screen for a few seconds then crash-out. Alien was Sebillian.

I had sent fighters to intercept a UFO, but it landed (turned green) before they engaged it. Sent my Chinook out with the fighters patrolling over the landed UFO. When I went into ground combat, the map displayed the "crashed" UFO tile set (which looks all kinds of freakin' cool, by the way!) As stated, there had been no air combat so no "damage" should have been accumulated(?) The reverse happened once...had shot down a UFO, landed a Chinook, the UFO displayed on the map had no damage. Don't know if it was because there is no crashed UFO tile set as of yet, bu there ya go. Playing longer now with the new build. Only one crash\lockup so far! Great work, guys! Keep it up!

Nutbarz, I added this change but I still had a lockup on the Sebillian reaction fire, specifically when one of my guys shot him, hit him, then he turned to shoot my guy. The "Reaction Fire" display appeared, then...lock up. It was the same Sebillian (the one on the small scout map that seems to always be at the rear of the craft, not moving...just spinning in place and taking pot shots at my guys). I guess he really IS guarding the craft.

Confirmed

I killed my Sebillian in the exact same spot. Sebillian scouters don't seem to be moving(?). Same thing about the music...

Happened to me as well. Sebillian reaction fire (I assume), freeze game, Sebillian spin-round...not necessarily in that order.

A good point and most likely true. Since we are discussing the MiG I was focusing on the Soviet side and their "reasoning" for not deploying it at the start. Since we weren't making the same case for the F-17 I just kinda accepted that there never was an "issue" for deploying them. In any case, there are good reasons for researching and for having the MiG at the start. Neither would be a game killer. Besides, I'm sure a future modder would make either one or the other possibility feasible at some point. NoIDidn't probably stated it best...that an alien attack/invasion probably would have the effect of focusing everyone on the bigger picture...even the Soviets.

I can see your point. I'll expand on my thinking a bit more to clarify. I look at it this way. In the very beginning, the Soviets would be willing to help the Xenonaut cause...to a point. 1) Soviet/WARSAW Pact Manpower? Oh yeah, we got lots of that. Plus we, the USSR, want to get involved for our own personal and political gain. So why not take a handful of the Soviet's best and brightest to participate? If nothing else, they can "report back" on what is really going on. Plus, we can show those weak Western democracies the toughness and fortitude of the Soviet Republic and her soldiers! 2) Millions of rubles to fund Xenonauts? A bit harder to swallow, but when you've got UFO's appearing all over the Motherland and the people are becoming restless you are losing a lot of face...you appear to not have control of the situation and that's bad news for a Soviet regime. So, while on the outside you may be projecting the atypical Soviet propaganda of "What UFO's? That's nothing more than NATO spy panes violating our airspace! Don't worry about it! We've got it all under control!" But underneath the table, they are paying a secretive international alien-buster force to hedge their bets. 3) Sharing technologically advanced Soviet hardware? Whoa, that's far enough, Comrade! You've already got some of our precious soldiers and an agreement to fund millions of rubles into an organization that we don't control outright...that should be enough for now. At least until we see some results. Otherwise, we'll do our own thing with our own resources and that includes MiG's! As far as your comments on the F-17, Chinook, and manpower, I would consider these "Western" (or at least "non-Soviet") so they would be much more willing to share their knowledge, technology, and soldiers. All I'm saying is that if you have F-17's and Chinook's already (beefed up though they may be) it stands to reason the Soviets would already have the equivalent with the MiG-32. So why spend valuable research time on it when you could spend that time researching something "more spacey"...like laser rifles, for instance. Of course, if you want to go the research route with the MiG, I'd recommend making it a "quick" research...no more than a couple of weeks. Either way, it's all good to me. I'm just thinking out loud here.

Here's my opinion/suggestion on the MiG. Don't have it research-able, but tie it's appearance to the "happiness" level of the Soviet Union. Consider this: You start the game with three F-17's. Your Xenonauts do their thing for a bit (say, a month or two), and if they are doing well enough the Soviets will finally show willingness to allow use of their MiG-32. The concept is to kinda-sorta go along with the historical bent of the Soviets in that they were very touchy and secretive (paranoid, if you will) when it came to their sharing of their technology. This is the Cold War after all. Now, how would you properly execute this idea? The obvious would to build your first base somewhere in Russia and start intercepting UFO's, which would be the quickest way of getting the MiG. However, some people may not want to always put their first base in Russia...so, you could just optionally tie the Soviet "willingness to share the MiG" with simple numbers (take x-number of alien craft, or research progress, or general Xenonaut success wherever your first base may be...or a combination of all three). You could use this method as the Soviet's way of saying "Hey, we're a closed and slightly paranoid nation, but we want in on this alien technology stuff! So, here's a MiG..." This way, you would have the hangar space ready to go at the outset and wouldn't need to spend time building a new one to house the MiG. Plus, it would be a kind of "reward" for the player if he is doing well at the beginning.

Bring on 9.1, baby! (rubs hand together)

I like the manual especially for the developer comments. Good to see how The Minds are working and what their expectations are.

Thanks for the response and explanation, Chris!

VJim's post got me thinking... On the crashed UFO maps, do you guys plan to incorporate different levels of smoke? By this I mean traveling to a freshly shot down UFO would cause more smoke to be displayed in and around the craft as opposed to, say, waiting a day or two then there being little smoke or damage? I remember the old XCOM days when I would waste a scout ship and send in the troops, land, then there being nothing but dead Sectoids (save one or two), a totally wrecked alien ship (where I was lucky if I got a few scraps of 'alien alloys'), and a whole lotta smoke around the crashed UFO, which could cause some tense moments when you can't see through it.

Thanks for the update, Chris. And the crashed UFO pic makes me all tingly in the naughty bits! Friggin' sweet, man!

Fantastic! That's what I said when I found this site as I was drooling and pouring over information from Firaxis' "Xcom" remake. The more I read, though, the more cautious I became. Not in a bad way, but a feeling of pure excitement to "wait and see". But then, I clicked on a link someone has left in the comments section that said "check out and support Xenonauts!" Glad I did. I spent some time looking around, read some of the forum posts from the developers, then promptly premium pre-ordered. A very cool, slick re-imaging of a true gaming classic. I'm very grateful that someone is finally getting it done right (at least to us cranky, don't-change-anything old timers like myself). The Xenonauts team has my full support and I sincerely hope you succeed in every way. Thank you for doing this! Jay (a.k.a. "P-DEX")