Chris
-
Posts
11,771 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
647
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Downloads
Posts posted by Chris
-
-
This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!
Changes:
- Fixed the Supporters incorrectly offering a much smaller funding increase than in earlier versions.
- Fixed the game not correctly returning to the Main Menu after showing a Game Over screen.
- Fixed the starting Angel interceptor needing Armour unequipped / reequipped for it to function properly (for a second time).
- Fixed the three soldiers in the Rescue Soldiers mission having ballistic rifle ammo in their medikits.
-
9 hours ago, ih8california said:
Are you still considering module buffs to colossus armor?
Yeah, we are. I haven't had a chance to properly test it myself in my most recent playthrough so I've not finalised the changes for it yet.
5 hours ago, SoftwareSimian said:Is it expected that funding amounts are drastically lower? Supporters now give +$15k instead of +$150k, plot research gives +$75k instead of +$150k, etc
No, none of that data has changed. It's likely a bug related to the updated Funding Report. I'll look into it.
5 hours ago, Skitso said:Imo snipers shot cost/accuracy were fine and needed more range, damage and penetration.
Well, they've got more range now, which is the main thing. I think giving them a little more flexibility is fine too. Adding damage / penetration is a much bigger deal because it complicates the ratios between different tiers of weapon / enemy. I might buff those things in future but not in my first round of changes.
40 minutes ago, gG-Unknown said:Wraith Cloaking Field ability now triggers once at the end of a burst, meaning hitting a Wraith with two or more shotgun pellets / machinegun rounds / etc will only change the cloaking state once. // good partial improvement, but still waiting for fix the main issue the ON-OFF feature.
Shotgun - current shotgun is very very bad.
I made a full article, well several, but here is a short version :
Shotgun is a mid range soft-target weapon of specialist. It should be best against servitors, crawling bugs and targets which were softened by someone else.
range : 14 , number of pelets:5 ; armor destruction per pelet :1 ; dmg : is same as now but split into 5 instead of 3, which means armoured targets are mostly invulnerable.
The Wraith Cloaking Field is fine in my opinion. I like that it makes you think about your attack sequencing.
I also think the shotgun is fine as is - if anything, it's a bit overpowered. I'm not really interested in mirroring the real-life properties of a shotgun here, because this is a video game and having a weapon that is ineffective against armour would fall apart very quickly in the midgame where most enemies have at least some armour. Everyone would just use a rifle instead (just like in real life).
The commonly understood "shotgun" archetype in video games is something that does massive damage at short range by firing multiple smaller projectiles, and our current version works pretty well at doing what people expect while also being a viable primary weapon.
-
This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!
Unfortunately this update breaks save game compatibility, but if you want to continue your 6.4.0 campaign then please switch over to the Experimental Legacy branch.
Changes:
- Added research art for Biosurvey Array research project.
- Updated the ENDGAME biome art to reflect we now use a teleporter rather than the Pegasus.
- There's now a dedicated "Supporter" line in the Funding Report that shows the funding received by the Geoscape Supporters.
- Supporter icons are now darkened when they are in the "replacing" state.
- Building roofs on the UOO Sabotage mission are now destructible.
Balance Changes:
- Reaper Zombies now only spawn new Reapers if they survive the incubation period, which has been reduced to two turns. Killing the Zombie within two turns of it being spawned therefore prevents a new Reaper from spawning.
-
Sniper Rifles have been buffed and Rifles nerfed slightly, as there were situations where the rifle was a better pick for long-range sniping. The Sniper Rifle now has a longer range, is cheaper to fire, and the penalty for moving has been reduced a bit (but it can still only fire once per turn).
- Rifle accuracy slightly reduced (by about 5% on a 100% accuracy shot).
- Sniper Rifle range increased to 26 (from 20).
- Fire cost of both Sniper Rifle fire modes decreased to 52 / 64 TU (from 56 / 70 TU),
- Reduced the "no move" accuracy bonus on the sniper rifle by about half, and added a similar amount to the standard fire modes. Essentially this means the weapon is now more accurate if the soldier has moved, and the same as before if the soldier has not moved.
- Automed Unit is still too much of an autopick item, so the weight has been increased to 12 (from 8) and the healing amount decreased to 3 HP per turn (from 5). It's intended to stop units dying from bleeding wounds, rather than replacing conventional healing items!
- Wraith Cloaking Field ability now triggers once at the end of a burst, meaning hitting a Wraith with two or more shotgun pellets / machinegun rounds / etc will only change the cloaking state once.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed doors automatically closing after the line of sight updates. This means you should no longer see situations where the front door of a UFO closes at the start of the turn and the aliens inside are still visible in the fog of war.
- Fixed the game displaying the "UFO Captured by Xenonauts" toast at the end of the mission if the final alien was stunned.
- Fixed some more visual issues in various maps.
- Destruction particles should now correctly fall through the gaps between the space platforms on the UOO Sabotage maps.
- Fixed a bug in the French translation.
-
On 9/2/2025 at 10:51 AM, Vicus said:
Fair enough. As a suggestion if this is intentional, maybe have have the light expand a few more tiles and feather it a little like a normal light source?
It's not intentional, we'll get it fixed in the next week or two.
-
This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!
This is a small hotfix for 6.4.0 that should allow people to complete their existing campaigns on the Experimental Legacy branch, as we'll shortly be releasing 6.5.0 which will unfortunately break save game compatibility.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a crash loading ENDGAME part 2.
-
13 hours ago, vnhfremen said:
Simply pressing end turn from here will crash the game. I think it was the first turn as well.
bug_report_2025-09-01-16h07_gc_6.4.0_unhandled_exception_0.zip
Thanks. This error seems like it might be caused by map corruption, which usually occurs if you try to load a tactical mission save after a game update that changes something in that map?
Could you try loading the strategy save from just before the mission instead? It should work fine if you do that.
-
Just now, Skitso said:
I play on veteran and at least the first ~150 days seemed easier than ms5
Tactically, or strategically? And you played over the weekend, right? I ironed out a few tactical difficulty spikes in Phase 1 in 6.1 and 6.2, but to me the tactical battles still felt a little harder than M5.
It feels quite easy now I'm past day 150 though.
-
7 hours ago, Skitso said:
My first destroyer also didn't have sebillian crew. I remember it was forced at least at some point...
Yeah, it's no longer forced.
-
3 hours ago, Bookshelf11 said:
Either 6.1 or 6.2.
Thinking on losing, quite a lot of things stacked together really
- I lost the Andron/Wraith terror mission in the US which boosted panic up a ton and was broke constantly so I couldn't build a new base there to reduce UFO activity which cost me it as both North and South America were unable to be calmed down
- 2nd base I had in Asia was essentially worthless because I didn't have enough to make two hangers or two interceptors and by that time most UFOs then were either Observers I couldn't catch unless I upgraded the engines using the resources I couldn't shoot down to get or they had a Defender escort who I couldn't take on alone
- The 8 infiltrators reduced a lot of cash flow because I had to spend all my points on removing them or any that popped up, when most of the time I'd put those points into getting a starter fund for a new base or aircraft to help bootstrap my panic management, which indirectly led to me losing the air war and probably the campaign
- Funding was much lower than I anticipated, combined with multiple mission losses and the costs of losing so many people or MARS units, just couldn't afford much so I couldn't hire who I needed or build myself up
- Had a total loss on a Cleaner Convoy which wiped out my MARS, all my A Team and their gear meaning I lost a huge amount of resources, there were so many cleaners that it made it quite hard to not be overwhelmed even when I had the jump on them and managed to kill or supress quite a few on the first turn
- I also had a really bad abduction because the map was quite small so the enemies were close together and the landing zone was a kill zone, the artic map where you're surrounded by fencing and there's cargo containers up ahead, you can't really advance without having your sides exposed, I've had bad missions there before but this felt worse since I had less troops and more aliens
- A couple times where a unlucky dodge or dogfight led to a Angel getting downed due to the 150% UFO damage, leaving me unable to tackle the Phase 2 UFO wave and panic outbreaks, infiltrations or get resources from crashes
On average, the amount of troops and missions I lost were way higher than most campaigns due to I feel like having less soldiers and more enemies who have better aim. Losing armour on death, making new weapons, rebuilding MARS units and hiring up new troops really can drain your funding that it makes you unable to put it towards anything else, and when considering funding is lower and the amount of infiltrators is higher, your ability to spend Op points on a emergency reserve of cash is really strongly reduced, especially when you're using them to also reduce panic in countries you can't reach yet.
Yeah, sounds like several things snowballing together. I'll bear that in mind as I continue my own balance playthrough.
BTW, from your message it sounds like you don't usually play on Commander? If not, it might be worth giving your next campaign a try on Veteran (which is what I tend to balance on). You might find that M6 is slightly harder than M5 but without it being quite so harsh as Commander is.
-
This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!
Changes:
- The "pity" crash site that is spawned if you fail to shoot down the first Scout UFO has now been delayed, as in some cases it could spawn before the Scout Crash Site had timed out.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed a crash that could occur when starting a Base Defence mission, UOO mission, or ENDGAME mission.
- Fixed an AI hang that could occur during the AI turn (linked to Psyons).
- Vehicles no longer show their vision cone during the deployment phase, as this was old functionality from back in the days when Sentry Guns could not move.
- Fixed the Rescue Soldiers mission incorrectly claiming it gave a $225,000 reward.
- Fixed the Latin America Elite Scientist supporter displaying a green icon (rather than red) when an Infiltrator.
- Fixed a minor typo in the Demolition Grenade tooltip.
-
Hello everyone - welcome to our consolidated development update for July and August, which we've rolled together because I was away on holiday at the start of last month.
Milestone 6:
Let's start with the biggest news first. The initial version of Milestone 6 arrived on the Experimental branch a couple of weeks ago, and since then we've been working hard on patching and improving it in response to community bug reports / feedback. Milestone 6 is another major update for the game, and will be the penultimate update for Xenonauts 2 before we leave Early Access.Progress has generally been good since the initial Experimental build. We're continuing to release a steady stream of new content and bugfixes for Milestone 6, but there's still quite a few gameplay issues to work through before we can release it onto the standard branches for everyone to play. We're therefore expecting a late October release.
If anyone is interested in trying out the new content and giving us feedback (particularly if you play the highest or lowest difficulty settings), please feel free to hop over to the Experimental branch and give the new update a play, However, please be aware that Experimental builds haven't been tested as thoroughly as the public versions of the game and tend to contain more bugs!
Game Assets / Content:
The final public release of Milestone 6 will contain all the remaining content in our roadmap, except the Mod Tools (which are slated for Milestone 7). Most of this work is now either completed, or very close to it. In addition to everything covered in our previous monthly updates, we now have:- All the research art and research text in the game.
- The updated Air Combat UI fully implemented (barring a few last polishing tweaks).
- The ending cinematic completed in video form (so we just need to implement it in the game).
There's two major tasks left to finish before Milestone 6 is done. The first is the Air Combat tutorial, which has been fully written and designed and is currently being hooked up in the code. The other is the new Soviet Town biome - progress here has been a little slower, but we still have five draft maps set up. I'll be switching my focus to this once our current balance pass is complete, so we're hoping to have it in the game by the end of the month.
Balance / Gameplay Pass:
I devoted a lot of time this month to playing Milestone 6. There's been two reasons for this - firstly, it's been quite a while since we last did a proper balance pass on the game, and secondly because I need to properly understand the current player experience to plan Milestone 7.This has been useful, and I've enjoyed it. However, it can be time consuming - Xenonauts 2 is a long game, and every mission played usually ends in us seeing a dozen small improvements that need to be made (bugs, visual issues, tweaks to specific maps or terrain objects, changes to particular enemies, adjustments to the number of aliens in a particular mission, etc). Frequently I'll spend an entire morning fixing issues we spotted in a mission I only spent twenty minutes playing.
However, this is time well spent - as we approach the end of our development roadmap, Xenonauts 2 will benefit far more from time spent polishing the moment-to-moment gameplay experience than by adding further content (although we do still have a few cool new additions planned for Milestone 7). Coupled with the feedback we receive from players, we should be able to address many of the things that frustrate or disappoint players who would otherwise enjoy the game. That'll be our main focus for the remainder of the Early Access period.
OK, I think that wraps up everything we've been working on recently. Thanks for reading and, as always, an especially big thanks to all the community members who have been testing the game and reporting bugs. See you next month!
-
2
-
15 minutes ago, Bookshelf11 said:
Just wanted to check out the new milestone, so didn't expect to do a long one but felt very different, both because of the new changes and the difficulty. As almost always, lost due to North and South America getting overwhelmed.
- Difficulty wise, Commander feels extremely punishing, and potentially not balanced with the new amount of soldiers we get. I had 15 aliens on I think my first or second crashed scout, while only having 7 soldiers and a MARS to bring against them was really quite scary
- Androns and Wraiths as always felt very strong, lost my first terror mission because I got massacred by them, that 130% accuracy difficulty option is horrifying on them because they can just nail you so easily on those wide open lacking in cover streets while they're in buildings, 15 aliens total on that mission and I only managed to kill 10 of them before getting fully wiped out while again having only 8 units to use myself
- Was constantly starved for cash and honestly not much for alien resources, got lucky with a landed observer at day 150 but never really needed to dip into OP's to grab alloy or such
- Smaller maps were almost always bloodbaths because the amount of aliens were concentrated together so you ended up with mission fails within a couple turns or a win with 2 or 3 people surviving after the initial massacre
- I didn't mind disabling auto resolve at first but it can be slightly tedious with probes and destroyers past a certain point and even though I like the mini game, I can imagine some people finding it slightly disruptive especially with that 150% UFO damage meaning any slip up can take out a Angel very quickly
- Defender UFOs are very strong, only fought them twice but they absolutely castrated my Angels flying solo so it makes having two interceptors a hard check because you aren't taking it down alone and I just couldn't afford to build them quick enough meaning panic ruled near worldwide
- Also felt pretty starved for Operational Points constantly as well, especially at the start clearing all 8 infiltrators and the 2 or 3 that popped up along the way, with the rest going into cash or near the end reducing panic
- The earlier introduction of plasma weapons did feel like quite a step up difficulty wise, along with most of the start of Phase 2 feeling much more oppressive with how many UFOs waves spawn and a Alien base in Asia not long after
Honestly didn't enjoy the difficulty as much as I wanted to, felt like Legendary difficulty in Halo where it's really hard and punishing but not that fun because it's just teeth kicking you.
Thanks for this. Can I just check what versions you played on? I've tweaked a few of the most oppressive parts already but I don't know if you were playing before or after that. I released the last version (6.3.0) late in the evening on Friday, UK time, so if you were playing over the weekend it'll have been with all of my tweaks already included.
Did you lose simply because you couldn't keep up with the UFOs, or had you also failed some ground missions? Or done unusually badly on some missions like Abduction / Data Raid missions where you'd normally expect to get more rewards?
I agree that the game is probably a bit too tough at the moment.
-
Yeah, it only becomes active in Phase 2. However, there's only two Scouts in Phase 1 so it shouldn't be possible to complete three Crash Site prior to Phase 2 - I guess the free "pity" crash site is unlocking too early. You shouldn't be able to get that and also win the crash site for the initial Scout.
-
1 hour ago, Skitso said:
Yeah, when you,ve played a game a lot, stuff starts to happen almost on auto pilot and I move my mousexand give commands in a quite rapid manner. So when I give an order, I usually move instantly to give another order somewhere else, and I would really like to keep tje camera where I want and not see it snap back to the previous unit.
Yeah. To be clear, the game should only snap to track a moving soldier if the player has not manually moved the camera since giving that move order. Seems like our previous fix hasn't fully worked.
-
On 8/30/2025 at 9:19 AM, Vicus said:
Tooltip Error: The "Demolition Charge" tool tip refers to itself as a "Demolition Grenade"
UX: Unsure if bug or intended, but the Space bar appears to have two shortcut functions in the strategic layer. It will both change the speed to the lowest (essentially pausing) and centers the camera. Intuitively, i believe it should only pause the clock.
Combat Pathing: Pathing Error when selecting an area on a lower plane to a cliff that is present. May be due to fog of war obscuring what's a valid path, unsure. See screenshot, hard to tell but my cursor is on the plane BELLOW the floor.
Mission Reward: I did a mission to ambush 3 cleaner trucks. I think i was support to get $100 000 per truck, but i did not receive anything. The trucks were not damaged.Found some supplies in my storeroom that could be sold. This is where the reward was. Might need to make this clearer somehow.
Thanks. For the Geoscape speed, if you just want to change speed without centring the camera you can press F1.
For the combat pathing, you don't happen to have a save, do you? It's fine if not. I'm guessing the unit is trying to run off the edge of the map in order to get underneath the cliff or something.
I'll fix the tooltip error.
-
On 8/30/2025 at 8:35 AM, Skitso said:
Speaking of deployment phases, why doesn't the first ATLAS mission have one when all the other similar missions do?
I don't think it's a good idea to have a deployment region on the first mission.
-
On 8/28/2025 at 10:30 PM, ivashka8 said:
When I click "Play" in Steam I see this:
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
Nvidia Geforce Rtx 3050 Ti Laptop
Our tech director said he's happy to have a quick look at this, but he needs more information. If you could create a bug report in the bug report subforums with the required information in the sticky at the top of the page (specifically we need the log file) then hopefully we can identify the issue.
-
On 8/30/2025 at 8:29 AM, Skitso said:
Not sure if intended, but the new yellow dot (which I love, love, love!) that indicates new construction options doesn't go away when clicking the item. It goes away only when clicking the item and then deselecting it by clicking something else.
That's intentional, because an item is autoselected when you view a category and if that happened to be the new project, you'd never get the notification.
-
1
-
-
This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!
As this patch has edited a lot of maps, you will likely experience a crash if you try to load a tactical combat save from 6.2.0. To avoid this, please load your last strategy save instead!
We've now resolved our GOG upload problems so this build is also available on GOG!
Changes:
- Added research artwork for the Operation Endgame project.
-
Servitors have been nerfed a bit:
- They can no longer reaction fire.
- Their weapon is reduced from 30 Suppression to 20 Suppression.
- Their weapon now has 20 range and gains +1.5% hit chance for each tile closer than 20 range. Previously, the weapon had 15 range but gained +12% hit chance for each tile closer than 6 tiles (which could give them a 100% hit chance on a 10-round burst at short range).
- Cyberdrones now do +5 Damage per shot, and Heavy Cyberdrones do +10 Damage per shot.
- Reaper melee attack now has doubled chance of inflicting Bleeding Wounds, and Reaper Alpha melee damage increased to 80 (from 60).
- Cleaner Base mission now causes +1 Panic in each region per week until it is completed, and the -30 Doomsday effect has been removed (as it is no longer in Phase 1 so is irrelevant).
- Second Terror Site is now a little harder (as it occurs later than it did in Milestone 5).
- Small Alien Base missions now have one fewer unit in the upper level of the command room, and two or three extra (mostly weak) units in the lower level of the command room.
- Starting Angel Interceptor now has a functioning Armour item (previously you had to unequip it and then equip it for it to work correctly).
- Phantom now starts with an Armour equipped, rather than a Fuel Tank.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed the annoying bug that was making the game "laggy" and refuse to accept click / button input for a second or so after a unit finished moving.
- Fixed a crash that could occur if you tried to put a captured unit in the primary / secondary inventory slot of one of your soldiers.
- Fixed another AI hang.
- Fixed the Extract VIP mission incorrectly ending early if your soldiers are inside the dropship but the VIP is not.
- Fixed the mission debrief screen reporting soldiers as "Airborne" rather than KIA / MIA.
- Fixed being unable to re-route an airborne squadron to a new target due to it being "out of range" even if it actually was not.
- Fixed a number of issues with the German localisation that was causing the text "Ballistic LMG" to appear in all sorts of places.
- Another attempt at fixing the AI behaviour of civilians so they don't go running inside UFOs.
- Fixed the basic Cyberdrone firing green rather than blue projectiles.
- Fixed the Secton glowing Psionic Triangulation eyes causing a visual artifact when highlighted by the shot path.
- Fixed a number of visual issues in various maps.
-
On 8/28/2025 at 3:39 PM, MartinSGill said:
Enjoying 6.x so far. Great improvements,
A bug I noticed is that during the VIP assassination mission I tried to place the stunned VIP into my hand/weapon slot and that crashed the game (repeatable), was in 6.1.0
Also, has something changed with soldier movement timings? There seems to be half second delay after a soldier moves before I can do anything with them again (like crouch, target etc). I find it annoying and it's not something I ever noticed in pervious version (5 and earlier).
Glad you're enjoying it so far. Both of those bugs you mention should be fixed in the next update!
-
1
-
-
On 8/28/2025 at 1:21 PM, GARB_IN_PACK said:
I mean the game's source code responsible for xml parsing. At the moment, I need to understand the specifics of am*.xml and ufocontents parsing. Since during the development of the mod, I encountered completely inexplicable behavior of the game.
It's been many years since we gave people source code access and unfortunately I don't really have time to go through it all right now to set the process up again.
Those ufocontents files are meant to be viewed and edited in Excel, though. I forget exactly which version, maybe 2003 or 2007 or something. If you try to edit them with a standard text editor you'll probably run into problems!
-
On 8/28/2025 at 8:51 PM, SoftwareSimian said:
Did ambush mission. One soldier died. On the post-mission briefing they're listed as "Airborne" instead of "Killed In Action"
Thanks. We'll get this fixed shortly.
-
On 8/28/2025 at 10:30 PM, ivashka8 said:
When I click "Play" in Steam I see this:
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
Nvidia Geforce Rtx 3050 Ti Laptop
I'll ask our tech director about this on Monday. But remember the game doesn't officially support Linux, so I can't promise we'll have a solution for you!
-
This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!
Changes:
- Ensured the Dragonfly does actually only carry 10 soldiers now (it was still carrying 12 in 6.1.0).
- Reduced damage on Defender UFO weapon by 20%
- Set some of the lower-tier Cleaners in the Cleaner Base to have ballistic Rifles, rather than Accelerated Rifles
- Added a few more units to non-Sebillian versions of the first Terror Site (as it now occurs later than in Milestone 5)
- Soldiers on the post-mission debrief screen are now ordered based on their position in the strike team (previously it was random).
- Non-Xenonaut units no longer play a sound when crouching, as it could be quite irritating hearing all the noises during the AI turn.
Bugfixes:
- Fixed Gauss Weapons breaking and crashing / having no ammo after the Gauss Weapon Upgrade project was completed.
- Fixed a crash on the Armory screen.
- Fixed a crash during the AI turn that could occur when carrying an unconscious soldier.
- Fixed an issue where trying to "launch" an airborne dropship at a mission site threw an "actors in wrong state" error.
- Fixed an issue where terrain objects covered by the first tile of visible shroud were not hiding correctly.
- Fixed the Servitor model double-rendering.
- Fixed the post-mission debrief screen showing "Killed in Action" if a soldier was actually "Missing in Action".
- Fixed a number of issues with maps.
-
1
Milestone 6.7.0 Released (Experimental)!
in Xenonauts-2 Releases & Patch Notes
Posted
This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!
Changes:
Bugfixes: