tunnelrat

Playing a game on normal, I was surprised by the staggering number of UFOs present in just the first month of game time, in the North American zone alone. I haven't played enough separate games, from scratch, to be able to determine if this is always the case... but in simply attempting to get some research done, after the first dozen ground missions I started sending up MiG-32's with 4x Avalanche loads to vaporize UFOs simply to attempt to stem the onslaught. At any given time, there could be up to 3 UFOs in the air over North America alone. By the time the first month ended, there'd be more than 40 UFOs, and close to 30 of those were non-fighters. The sheer size of the alien armada required to field such a force would signify imminent invasion on a massive scale. It seems rather absurd that, armed with the damning evidence of such activity, that ones funding would be based upon such trivial details as "aliens escaped" during a mission. You: "Gentlemen, as you can see here... we are facing the gravest threat mankind has ever faced..." US Chief of Staff: "Ermm... I'm reading here that 2 aliens escaped from downed UFO #129?" You: "Uh... I would need further clarification as to the specific mission, since we are literally being overrun, but aliens routinely escape from crash sites as our Combat Boots Mk. 1 are not always sufficient in speedy apprehension of..." US Chief of Staff: "It shows here that over one hundred alien craft were detected and yet no intercepted..." You: "Sir... we have lost 8 interceptors in the past 30 days... because they are faster, and are armed with technology we haven't yet been able to even..." AU Chief of Staff: "Oy! We 'ad a bugga lan' in the North'est Terror Tree an' you dinna even respon' to im!" You: "... Sir, we have one base. It's located in Colorado. We are unable to cover even the entire North American continent, let alone..." USSR Chief of Staff: "Yes, this is good point! Why is base in middle of capitalist pig land when glorious people's army sends best troops from Afghanistan front to fight?! You have Boris Pavlov, Boris Pavlov, Yuri Pavlov, Maxim Kozlov, Nikolai Romanov, and Anton Novikov! If solider name end with "OV" Soviet Union sends them to fight alien menace, but we see nothing of this!" You: "You know what? Eff this. Eff all of you. Enjoy your anal probes, I'm out." French Chief of Staff: "Sheet guys... they're firing missiles at us..." I am 100% all over this new creation... I just don't think the whole "grading system" jives with what is at hand let alone what is at stake. I know this is in keeping with the the legacy of the ancestral roots, but in its current iteration it just doesn't seem to fit. This opinion isn't from Xenonauts alones... the premise that a given government will, based on your inability to protect them, cut your funding... eventually joining the enemy... flies in the face of logic. Aliens terrorizing Beijing? Get em on the phone, tell them we are ready to deal!! Don't get me wrong, I get the whole premise behind it, and it's not that it's too difficult per se, it just doesn't make solid sense when it is all put together. If crime rises, do you cut funding to law enforcement? You aren't competing with any other organizations, so it isn't as if there is any alternative... "Xenonauts, you suck, we're going with XenoSquad!" So... suggestion wise... I guess: 1. Scale the initial engagements down to a level where "Do we really need these new "Xenonauts"/Proving yourself becomes legitimate. And/or 2. Scale funding appropriately with the threat level. The media, regardless of government attempts, even in 1979, would be absolutely ignited with stories and images of the dozens of craft shot down all over a country in this kind of conflict. No government caught nickel diming the only defense initiative in such an unprecedented crisis would be in power for any appreciable length of time. And/or 3. Change the criteria for a "successful" mission. Obliterating an invading craft in the sky is a big win. Killing X aliens while Y aliens escape (How is this even tracked? If big brother can grade us on this minute level, how about sharing this kind of intel during the mission?) being given a "poor" score seems a bit lopsided... you're fighting a vastly superior enemy. And/or 4. Flesh out the backstory/ongoing news reports, etc in a way that seeks to explain these various points. How are these cold-war era countries getting along, in light of the shared enemy? Is there alien propaganda? Are there any bleeding heart movements portraying Xenonauts as the "bad guy", wantonly slaying these visitors from across the galaxy? Any wacky religious movements causing problems? I really like the changes the dev team is making in regard to the deficiencies in the ancestral title... I just think the move toward making things more realistic is leaving some plot holes.

Since I recently started checking out Xenonauts, I am still running my starting base solely (NORAD... placed in the general vicinity of Cheyenne Mountain). I XCOM:EU, I usually started out with a base at Scapa Flow and then built the next two near NORAD and Vladivostok. I try to balance... I dunno, I guess a Nerd RP thing coupled with trying to cover as much area as possible, starting with the most lucrative of the nations. After I had 3 bases with tactical teams set up, I would start on the LP/OP bases to cover Southwest Asia (Usually based in Israel or Yemen, then South America (I set up an LP/OP near the Falklands, and sometime later a full on base in Brazil), LP/OP on Diego Garcia and then a full on base at Port Moresby. Was wondering how you all did your bases...

So, in sending a Chinook after a downed corvette (I believe) I noticed that once it got to the crash site it simply kept climbing... When it hit ~1,127,000M, the game crashed. Initially, I tried to re-assign the craft to the target as I thought I had screwed up the intercept order. I have screenshots, but the forum is telling me to pack sand when I try to upload... Anyway... not sure how repeatable the bug is (haven't seen it again) but the Chinook service ceiling does not appear to be capped properly either way. (First post just gives 404)

So, in sending a Chinook after a downed corvette (I believe) I noticed that once it got to the crash site it simply kept climbing... When it hit ~1,127,000M, the game crashed. Initially, I tried to re-assign the craft to the target as I thought I had screwed up the intercept order. I have screenshots, but the forum is telling me to pack sand when I try to upload... Anyway... not sure how repeatable the bug is (haven't seen it again) but the Chinook service ceiling does not appear to be capped properly either way.

I dunno about the mechanics behind the scenes or anything, but right now it appears that the vehicle is just a very large trooper with a lot of AP and basically the same HP. While it's impossible to tell what the intent is regarding the armor itself, it can cripple itself with its own HE rocket blasts, which puts it closer to a HUMVEE than an APC/AFV. If it's not going to be armored, it really needs to have its HP quadrupled or thereabouts to be a viable contender once things start getting hotter on the battlefield (i.e., enemies start moving/firing).

Do you mean snap vs. aimed shot? With that one, they were all snapshots... ~50%?

I searched the forum (probably poorly) because I assume this has to have already been brought up but found nothing, so I apologize if I am just retarded and/or rehashing something. My first go with ground combat, my Hunter found a Sebellian(sp?) and since I didn't want to remodel the entire block, I brought up the precision rifleman that was in tow. As far as the tiles went, it appeared that I had clear LOS to the target, but the Hunter was fairly close. Anyway, I fired... drilled the Hunter... nice shot.... glad we gave you a rifle with a scope Mr. Afghanistan Veteran. Next round, I say you know what there Pavlov... go ahead and take a knee. Sight alignment, sight picture, aim and squeeze. This time he not only tags the Hunter again, his second shot turns it into a scrap heap. Those must be SLAP rounds, or one hell of a critical hit. Third shot, I say damn the torpedos, Hunter-00 is already in the dustbin, fire away Pavlov. Smacks the Hunter a third time, this time vaporizing the scrap heap. At least we have no further LOS problems ahead of us, Yuri!! So, the Alien proves to be as resilient as the Hunter, taking two shots to go down... which is scary as well as impressive. So, obviously (I hope...) this is simply an early design consideration that has simply not had time to be fully fleshed out - or at the very least, a bug allowing precision rifles to golden-BB AFVs into oblivion. Assuming the former, an AFV should be impervious to small arms fire as well as fragmentation from high explosives... my questions are: 1. How are AFVs modeled/to be modeled in comparison with standard issue grunts (In basic or light armor... i.e., not mech suits or whatever heavy armor may be down the road)? Is this always to be a strictly hitpoint based model where beating it with a crowbar will eventually slag it? Or will there be another model? 2. Assuming a separate model is using for damage in relation to AFVs, would it be a % chance penetration model or a True/False method with Can Damage = True applying a multiplier and then simply reverting to a hitpoint based model? (I.e., 5.56 = False, no damage. 20mm HE = True x.05 Damage. Alien Plasma = True x 1 Damage. AP Rocket = True x 2 Damage.) Or perhaps something my tiny ferret brain has yet to dream of? Regardless of the answer, if any, to the above... Hunter-02 has been renamed "HONEYBADGER", which of course means that "it" is now "on", and that whatever deity these extraterrestrial turds pray to must be absolutely deluged with requests for deliverance. "Where is your abnormally large craniumed god NOW, extremely illegal aliens?" Honey Badger inquires....

Just fired up the game and had this happen on the second crash site, fixed both issues by using this fix! You guys rock!

I'm in the same "zomgee XCOM ROX!!!1one" boat I am sure most of you are. I read about this some time ago, and recently picked up the 1C collection on Steam... fired up UFO: Afterlight... and of course, it got the whole rash irritated and angry once again... was doing some research on Afterlight and stumbled upon the TotalBiscuit video. Watched about 1:30 of it in total... was more than enough for me. The fact that this entire project so squarely pulverizes the nail on its proverbial head that I ended up in some kind of space time distortion where I am not even excited... I am in this limbo of disbelief. Will play dev build tonight.

Capture? Son, you get in there and you kill every *** **** last one of them little **** * *******. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do.