gunnergoz

Thanks for the clarification, Chris - that sounds very intriguing and fun. Wish I had the talent to help but I guess I'll have to restrict my input to being an armchair quarterback...which requires NO talent at all.

I've only just started exploring the game and how it plays but already there are heart-warming memory flashbacks to the original X-Com game that I loved so much. Kudos for that! If I have any suggestions, First is that you guys keep up working on quality and imagination and don't let the news of the Firaxis product push you into a premature release of your own game - strive for a fully finished and polished product. My second point is that you should permit maximum modification so the modding community can expand your game in the future. I look forward to a game that will be on my hard drive for a long time and that can stay fresh through public infusions of imagination and inspiration.

I bought this through Desura but would prefer to use Steam later for updates, etc. I don't really care to keep two such accounts and Steam works OK for me. Will it be possible to "transfer" my Xenonauts updates to Steam and close this Desura account at some point?

I vote for variety, as long as there is game balance and rationale for it. Having 6 versions of the M-16 rifle is not what I'm looking for but having real, practical variation in weapons makes sense. I know this is supposed to be the 1970's so there is a limit to what can be done, but for instance I could see something like the M-79 grenade launcher eventually evolving (with alien tech inspiration) into something like today's modern laser-assisted XM-25 GL. Shotguns could evolve into full auto versions, pistols could get laser sights, etc. Sniper rifles can evolve to bigger bore (e.g. .50 caliber) and/or more precise, longer-range versions. Also it is not clear yet what effect, if any, weapon reliability has upon the game. New/experimental weapons should have more breakdowns, while others like the AK series should be quite reliable but perhaps less accurate compared to, say, the M-16.

I would prefer an option to click to either leave immediately or to explore the battlefield further, perhaps pick up some items that were left behind. So far it is not clear to me that items left behind (i.e. not carried by your troops in their backpacks) are in fact being brought back.

I'm glad you mentioned the issue with the snap-shot priority not being carried over to the next turn. It is unnecessarily tedious to have to keep updating that when it should default to "keep the last state ordered."

Just a suggestion, but I would think that, once the troops leave their delivery vehicle/chopper, I for one think that the immediate area around it (the landing zone or LZ) should not go "dark" as unknown or unobserved territory. This is because, presumably, there would be a crew left on it who can keep an eye on the immediate area and there would in real life be some sort of radio contact kept with the ground element which would advise them if hostiles were to approach the landing zone. Just my 2 bits, you may feel differently about it.

Thank you Matthew; I should have mentioned that I tried that but all I could see was black "blankets" where there should have been graphics of the upper levels.

I've played my first UFO ground mission and noticed that I cannot see the upper levels/roofs nor can I use the stairs to climb up to them. This was true of both buildings and the grounded UFO. I have Win 7 Home Pro 64-bit, Intel i-5 2500K 3.3Ghz processor, 8GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce GTX560 with 2 GB video RAM. This is a new PC and AFAIK I have the latest drivers. Apart from that am having fun with it and look forward to the full release.