The New Romance

Nothing against Desura, but it just isn't working with Xenonauts. Glad to hear Steam is finally in reach!

According to Wikipedia, the name change happened in 1980. One of the reasons I still want Rhodesia in on this mod

Laser weaponry was my favourite in X-COM because it didn't require ammunition. I think that says all. I'm okay with "big" guns such as rocket launchers having a limited supply, or maybe even some sort of limit on plasma weapons (such as not being able to manufacture stuff but having to take it from the aliens). Managing every single bullet in every single standard issue pistol every ingame day is too much, though. The XCOM '12 approach might also be worth a look - weapons have unlimited ammo, but need reloading from time to time. I think this adds spice to the combat, but it doesn't turn the game into micro hell. You know, the best thing would probably be to have options à la Jagged Alliance 2 ("all the guns", or whatever it was called). I believe a substantial part of the Xenonauts community wants micro hell, and I can understand that sentiment. It's just that it wouldn't be my preference, and I guess it's worth it to serve a few more people if you can. Options never hurt anyone.

Still an important topic, I'd say. I am, however, unsure whether there's been an official and final reply regarding the topic.

Commando mission to Cydonia (or whatever the place will be in this game), I'd say. The aliens will be superior in numbers and equipment, but they'll still be vulnerable.

The Swiss Guard is mainly for show, but they're also actual soldiers. Whether they would send someone to fight they aliens is anyone's guess, though, as the Guard is only about a hundred men strong.

The more, the merrier - plus you can always choose to bring a smaller squad, but you can't just override a hard upper limit imposed by the game.

For those of you interested in Shadowrun, the Net Gain kickstarter might be interesting. Net Gain is about leading one of the Megacorps that make up the backdrop of normal cyberpunk, so compared to the "street level" where stuff like Cyberpunk 2077, Shadowrun or Neuromancer takes place, you'll be up high in a corporate skyscraper, vieing for control with other corps. The style is super-retro (at least the prototype is), and the setting is very interesting. Cyberpunk seems to have a sort of revival at the moment, but the more the merrier I say, and Net Gain gives the whole thing a cool spin.

Thanks again for both your opinions and for digging out the demo! I'll see if it works on Win 7.

Thanks a lot for that very detailed rundown! I was planning to buy them on GOG because I'm in Europe, and Steam oftentimes screws us over. I'd have to pay 19.99 € for the Triple Pack, which is 26 $ (pretty much the same as buying them piecemal on GOG, which has the same $ prices for everyone). I guess I'll just start of with AoW 1, then, which costs only 6 $ and probably suffices to try the series out. However, I might wait a day or two to see if Steam reacts to the AoW 3 announcement with a sale on the first games (which they often do).

Shit, I loved what I was seeing (only the dialogue system seemed unfamiliar, but not bad), up until they started to rotate the camera. I'm pretty sure they're proud of that possibility, and of course it allows the game to show off all its assets, but goddamn it I hate rotatable cameras, especially if their use is mandatory.

So that sounds even better than HOMM... as AoW 3 will not come out until autumn, which of the three existing games would you recommend to try out? They're quite el cheapo on GOG, especially the first one, but I'm not sure which one is the best starting point.

I never played an Age of Wonders game... is it similar to Heroes of Might and Magic? I loved HOMM 3, and I have nothing against trying out a similar but more modern game

I would love an Anti-Extraterrestrial K9 Corps. Oh yes I would. Flying aircraft carriers are a gorgeous idea as well, but maybe a little off in Xenonaut's mostly realistic '79 setting. Seems more like an alternate history/dieselpunk thing.

I'd be very happy about the incorporation of this mod into the official game.

XCOM is a mess. It's still not running properly for me. Their customer support doesn't care, they never got back to me after a short mail exchange. Guess they just couldn't find the problem and decided to just ignore me. Nobody's been willing to give me a refund, either. I'm not going to buy a 2K/Firaxis game again, especially not on launch day.

And most likely stuff that is more fun than psionics and B-bombs

Yeah! Looking forward to it.

Oh yeah. I like the direction of the suggestion.

I think soldier customization is one thing Firaxis' XCOM:EU actually got right (well, pretty much, they won't let you change sex or nationality, but you are allowed to facelift everyone into oblivion... oh well). I don't request customizable armour colour and Guile hairdos for Xenonauts, but I would be very glad if we could edit - first and last name - a separate nickname (call it "callsign") - if possible, faces, gender and nationality However, the last point would also mean we'd have to be able to choose a matching regiment, skin colour and all that, and I personally think those properties needn't be changeable - name and nickname are essential, however, and the current "callsign" system is quite awkward in that respect. National flag display would be a great addition as well.

I'm dissatisfied. I bought the game, and what I could play of it was good fun, but it's so buggy that I can practically not play it. There seems to be a rather large issue with some sort of memory leak, that makes the game lag and stutter even on high end rigs, and it's f***ing the game up for me after about two minutes of nicely running playtime. I have always wondered why so many people complain about being beta-monkeys even after the game's out, the paying customer getting shafted for pre-ordering and all that. Maybe had to do with me practically never pre-ordering. Now I know the reason.

You should definitely give it a chance when it gets cheaper, though. It's all kinds of fun, even though it might not have the same detailed layer as the original UFO:EU or Xenonauts. And, from what I hear, it's still brutal on Classic difficulty and above. Also, the demo really isn't fully representative of the whole game. I tried it, and now that I have the full game, I can only chime in with the choir of people who said so even before the release.

Welcome back! Hey, by the way, look what you've brought with you: Most users ever online was 635, Today at 23:02, and we're not that far below as of now. Seems the XCOM wave is taking our surfboard up and away as well I've read some mentions of it all around, and it looks as it's going to work out!

Desura sucks balls for Xenonauts, because the game is too big and has too many tiny sizes. I have other games on there, and while I agree that the UI is a little different from Steam's and thus takes adaption, the program itself is okay. I like Steam better because I'm used to it, but Desura is the indie platform. I think it's better to have Xenonauts on a portal that isn't working optimally rather than don't have it at all or only as a .zip download.