Chris

Thanks. Yeah, we're hoping to get this bug fixed next week!

Thanks. Yeah, this looks like a bug to me. I'm guessing it might be something to do with when the upgrade project happened, and some of the generators using the old Generator value for adjacency where newly-built ones use the Alenium Generator value. Do you have a save game I can look at?

Thanks. Yeah, should be a simple fix.

Thanks. I think these are the default Unity logs rather than the logs from Xenonauts 2 - can you see if there's any in /My Documents/My Games/Xenonauts-2/Logs/ as well please?

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain! Gameplay / Balance Changes: It is now possible to redirect aircraft squadrons that are already in flight via the Launch Aircraft panel (this also allows you to split aircraft out of airborne squadrons). Updated the AI so it will only perform attacks on units that an alien unit has seen that turn, as it was apparently previously ignoring the vision rules. This could lead to some rather unfair situations where enemies were shooting beyond vision range or throwing grenades over walls at units they had never seen. Cleaner units reduced in Accuracy from 65 down to 55 for the suited guys (Agents) and 60 for the hazmat guys (Soldiers). Accuracy for enemies on Recruit difficulty has been dropped from 85% of normal values down to 80% of normal values. Stun Gun has been buffed a little - it now does slightly more Stun Damage, has improved accuracy and holds 4 shots rather than 3. UFO Armour and Health are now shown at maximum zoom level in the air combat. Updated a number of translation languages files to incorporate various changes and fixes. Bugfixes: Fixed a couple of memory leaks that triggered each time you saved the game. Fixed players being unable to demolish base structures. Actually fixed the Geoscape multi-select dialog revealing hidden missions like the Cleaner Base. Fixed the opening cutscene and several buttons on the tactical UI ignoring the settings volume sliders. Fixed units being able to shoot through floor tiles in the Alien Base maps if they had taken damage. Fixed a calculation issue that was causing the game to generate female soldiers at a higher rate than intended. Fixed aircraft callsigns repeating before all available names had been exhausted. Fixed "War Machine" achievement triggering off the Exosuit, rather than the Colossus (which isn't yet in the game). Fixed one of the barn window types not correctly shattering. Achievements are now disabled during the tutorial. Servitor Wreckage is no longer incorrectly called Gun Drone Wreckage. Fixed various hitbox issues around the edges of the Geoscape regions so they now better match the highlighted areas.

Thanks, there's a lot to chew on here. I have been mulling over alternatives to the modules system, but the real issue there (and to some extent with the module system itself) is that it overlaps with the armour system - like, if you put the Wraith camo effect on a module, I need to remove the Stalker stealth armour from the game. That said, I do like the idea for the detection module you mentioned. Anyway, what I've been considering to try and combine the two systems is for each armour to have several configurations which you can choose one of, and it gives a bonus. Maybe the Exosuit could either give 360 degree vision or have servomotors that grant the user +12 Time Units, for example. But it's not quite as simple as that. There's no combination where things slot together perfectly so it's just a case of finding the solution that works best out of several possible contenders. Yeah, the Sectons are kinda meh. I might actually change their ability so they gain an accuracy bonus near Psyons but always immediately panic and flee if you kill the Psyon. That would probably trigger fairly often within UFOs. I'm not sure about the alien auxilliaries - I think it's potentially more interesting to be able to see different combinations of primary / secondary races, rather than always getting the same partners. It's possible we can add more interesting alien abilities to the game too, but right now we don't have sufficiently good AI to handle it. It'd be interesting to have a melee-only large Sebillian that works like the XCOM Berserkers, but right now they'd be pushovers because the AI wouldn't use them properly. You're right about the Cleaners (as are the many people making the same point elsewhere). We do need to expand their role a bit more in the early game, and I'll be looking into that soon.

So which screen are you referring to precisely here? The actual Soldiers screen, or say the Soldier Assignment screen that pops up when you try to assign a soldier to a dropship slot? Do you already know that you can sort by the different column headers, including (I believe) Assignment?

So I don't particularly want to add extra benefits to different ranks because they're really just a quick way to signify how much stat progression a given soldier has earned, but I think there's scope to make medals more interesting in terms of the stats they grant. In fact, I think it's basically already supported in the game. Having "chunkier" abilities like you've outlined for some of the medals (like a free grenade throw or crouch / uncrouch each turn) kinda ends up in XCOM superpower territory for me, though, and I'd rather not go down that route (plus it would take longer to implement). So if we can come up with 8 interesting medals that offer varying stats instead of all just being +1 to all stats, that would be great. Particularly if the way they earn the medal is somewhat tied to the stat(s) that they grant.

Hey - translation is actually handed by our publisher rather than by us, but I don't believe they're planning to support any additional languages. We will be making the translation tools available during Early Access though so people can hopefully create their own user-made translations.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Yes, we're planning on addressing the AI issues in the game as part of our development roadmap. I'll also be adding some new ways for the players to manage Panic levels in the regions relatively soon. And yeah, we'll make sure the Spanish translation gets fully updated soon!

Thanks for posting your thoughts. I'll start out by pointing out a few requested features already in the game: Zoom is done with Pg Up / Pg Dn The financial report / expenses can be seen from the button on the top right of the Geoscape Autosave points can be controlled in the Settings Menu Friendly fire through friendlies can be disabled in the Settings too Right-click on the crouch button to reserve TU for it I appreciate your other thoughts too. Civilian AI is going to be worked on in the future. Yes, there are certain special mission types you can't avoid even if you shoot down all UFOs, but base defence is actually one of the only mission types that is completely avoidable. For the point about recognising the soldiers in combat, would it be helpful to show a portrait and role icon when you hover over the little statbars like we do in Xenonauts 1 then? The entire bottom of the UI changes to reflect the soldier being hovered over - is that not helpful? Or did you not notice it happening? You shouldn't need to remove the equipment from your injured soldiers - the UI doesn't explain it well, but soldiers don't "claim" equipment until you try and put them in the dropship. The secondary item slot is best thought of as a holster rather than the off-hand. You can put a 1-handed item / weapon in it and still carry a 2-handed weapon in the main slot.

Thanks for posting up your thoughts, I'm glad you're enjoying the game so far. To be honest the AI for the enemies on that mission type is extremely simplistic right now, so that's something that will be improved during the Early Access period. The Base Defence missions as a whole need a bit more polish because they're just not as much fun as they should be yet!

Thanks. Yeah, it's a translation issue. I'll get it updated.

Hi - there's already an opion in the game settings to disable friendly fire when there's a possibility of hitting an intervening unit

Goldhawk Interactive is looking to recruit a Gameplay Programmer to join the team working on Xenonauts 2. If you think that might be you, please read on! Job Description: We are looking for an additional Gameplay Programmer to join the team working on Xenonauts 2. You will be working in C# within the Unity game engine to implement new gameplay features and help polish the game under the mentorship of our Technical Director. As we are a small team, your work will have a big impact on the final game! This role is fully remote and can be either full-time or part-time (to a minium of 15 hours per week). The ideal candidate would have approximately three years of programming experience in the games industry, but we will also consider motivated candidates with less than this (some of our best programmers joined us while they were still students!) Given the varying levels of experience we are prepared to consider, the salary for this position will be negotiated on an individual basis. The following skills are essential: Fluent English Excellent knowledge of C# programming Familiar with Unity3D Familiar with Git (or other version-control software) Prior experience of video game programming, either professionally or in a hobbyist capacity (e.g. modding, game jams, etc) It would be ideal if you were: Familiar with Entity Component System frameworks Passionate about strategy and tactics games, especially the X-Com subgenre Situated in a European timezone If you are interested in applying for this role, please send an email to chris@xenonauts.com with your CV. Applications for this role will close on Sunday 20th August. EDIT: Applications for this position are now closed.

Goldhawk Interactive is looking to recruit a Level Designer to join the team working on Xenonauts 2. If you think that might be you, please read on! Job Description: The primary responsibility of the successful candidate will be designing maps for Xenonauts 2 using our in-house map creation tools. Ideally, we would like to find someone capable of taking control of the entire level creation process - not only creating maps, but also identifying new terrain tiles that would improve the maps and providing guidance to the 3D environment artists that create these assets. Additional competences are always valuable in small teams, and we put a lot of value on candidates with diverse skillsets that can contribute to the development process in other ways. Extra skills such as game design, writing, coding, art, project management, etc are all things we would consider a significant plus on any application. We do expect a candidate to be able to demonstrate some kind of prior game design or level design work, but modding or personal work will be considered if you have no previous industry experience. However familiarity with strategy / tactics games is absolutely necessary, including good knowledge of the X-Com subgenre in particular. This role is fully remote and we are willing to consider candidates located anywhere in the world. We are willing to consider both full-time and part-time candidates (minimum of 15 hours per week). The salary for this position is £27,500 / $35,000 per annum full-time equivalent. The following skills are essential: Fluent in English A passion for game design and the willingness to learn new skills / tools The ability to create maps that present interesting tactical choices, while also looking like realistic environments Strong familiarity with strategy games in general, including the X-Com subgenre in particular It would be beneficial if you: Have previous experience in level design Have previous experience using Unity3d Have previous experience using Git (or other version control software) Were sufficiently familiar with 3D modelling software to be able to experiment with / block out new terrain assets that you would like produced for your maps Live in a European time zone If you are interested in applying for this role, please send an email to chris@xenonauts.com with your CV. EDIT: applications to this role have now closed. Thanks to everyone that applied!

Hello everyone - we've reached the end of July, so it's time for our monthly development update. It's been an exciting month, with Xenonauts 2 finally launching into Early Access on July 18th. The launch has been a huge success, with the game selling over 40,000 copies in the past two weeks, and the whole development team is really grateful to anyone who supported us by buying a copy! Here's what we've been up to this month and what we have planned for the coming month! Critical Bugs & Performance Fixes: Almost all of this month has been spent fixing critical bugs like crashes or anything else that ruins the gameplay experience for players. We actually thought the game was pretty stable going into Early Access, but going from a pool of twenty to thirty regular testers to having tens of thousands of players exposed a LOT of issues we were previously unaware of. The last couple of weeks have therefore been rather intense, as we've had to patch the game numerous times to address these issues. Thankfully the worst of this should now be behind us; we released 1.28b on Friday which improved performance and has fixed the bulk of the critical bugs. Work continued over the weekend and we've now fixed the memory leak players have been encountering and also (finally) managed to find and fix the annoying bug where terrain objects would sometimes get destroyed but not visually update (leading to units being able to shoot or move through what appeared to be a solid object). Our immediate priority is to finish up the last couple of crashes we're aware of, and fix a couple more serious gameplay bugs - e.g. grenades missing when displaying 100% chance to hit. This should leave the foundations of the game in good enough shape to move on to other tasks. Loading Times: Once that is done, we'll be starting work on optimising the load times - hopefully this will happen towards the end of this week. There's not much more to say on this point beyond the fact that we're aware of the issue and we'll be working on it soon. Milestone 2: We're then planning to spend the remainder of the month working on Milestone 2. This will be the first major update for the game and it will involve changes to the campaign, which unfortunately means it will break save games (although you can continue to play your Milestone 1 campaign on the Legacy branches if you want). As the programmers have a lot of bugs and usability improvements to be working on, I'm planning to focus on the air combat balance and the pacing issues in the existing campaign for Milestone 2. This is likely to extend the playable time beyond 180 days but it will not introduce additional UFO types to the game - it's more likely that we'll be expanding the role of the Cleaners at the start of the game instead. The first Milestone 2 build will likely arrive on the Experimental branch in the next two or three weeks, where it will go through a number of iterations based on player feedback before being released onto the standard branches. Expanding the Team: Finally, the income from our Early Access launch means we can now expand the team to speed up development. The first positions we're looking to fill are that of a Level Designer and a Gameplay Programmer. If anyone is interested in applying, I've linked the job posts below: Level Design job post Gameplay Programmer job post Overall, July was a great month for the project and we've really enjoyed seeing people playing the game we've been working on for so long. We look forward to delivering more upgrades in August!

Thanks. Yeah, I think the issue is that I updated the alien base maps so you can't fly through the roofs any more - so that specific mission will be broken, but all the other ones should work fine!

Thanks. Yeah, we can reproduce this - we'll get it fixed.

Thanks. Yeah, this is a bug - it's something we've got logged to fix, we've just not quite got there yet!

Thanks. Yeah, I think that's exactly what's happening. We'll get that fixed.

Thanks. The game content ends at day 180 right now, but unfortunately the popup that tells you this was broken for a few days. We'll be adding more content as we update the game throughout Early Access!

Thanks guys, we can reproduce the bug and we'll be looking into it tomorrow.

Hi - can you tell me specifically what research / engineering project you're talking about? There's no project called "electronic" so I don't know what the issue is yet.

This is an update for the default Steam / GOG / Epic branches that contains all the fixes from versions 1.26 to 1.28 which have been tested on the Experimental build. The combined changelogs are shown below: Gameplay: Using shot preview move (Ctrl+Shift) no longer causes significant performance problems. Various smaller performance updates to both strategy and tactical layer (although these are unlikely to be noticable in an Experimental build due to the extra logging reducing overall performance) Added a "mission briefing" button to the Geoscape info panel for a tactical mission, which shows you the mission briefing on the strategy layer. Cleaner SMGs and Cleaner Accelerated Rifles are now recoverable and usable (by popular demand). The intro cinematic and the game mechanic popups are now enabled at the start of each campaign, regardless of whether the tutorial is enabled or not. Xenonaut Sentry Guns can now open doors, but are unable to crush objects. Reduced the spawn rate of Cleaner anomalies at the start of the game. Tooltips have been added for the various stat columns on the Soldier Recruitment panel. Snowmobiles should now explode when destroyed. Stalker Stealth Armour now displays as Gas Immune in Xenopedia. When hovering the cursor over the base icons in the top right, the base name is now displayed instantly rather than after a short delay. When hovering the cursor over a soldier in the vertical list on the dropship soldier arrangement screen, the popup showing their face / equipment is now show instantly rather than after a short delay. Key Fixes: Fixed a bug where the day 180 "Content Complete" popup was not being shown, and the game loss conditions were not triggering if you lost enough regions. Fixed a crash that could occur if you tried to begin a crash site mission when there was a wreckage site also present on the Geoscape. Fixed a bug that could cause multiple popups to spawn when intercepting UFOs or sending a dropship to a tactical mission. In both cases this could cause crashes. Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur during the alien turn if the aliens were using hovering units like Servitors. Fixed two rare crashes that could occur in the Soldier Equip pool due to corrupted Kickstarter backer soldiers. Fixed a rare crash that could occur if you built over 50 planes. General Fixes: It's no longer possible to find undiscovered Cleaner Cells / Bases / etc by clicking on a UFO or mission that has spawned near to where they are hidden. Fixed grenades / aircraft missiles not properly upgrading if you skip the Alenium project and go straight for Fusion. Aircraft will now start to immediately repair Armour after being upgraded. Fixed the tactical soldier inventory incorrectly charging TU for you to pick an item up and then put it back in the same spot. Fixed the tactical soldier inventory incorrectly forgetting to charge TU if you moved the same item multiple times. TU costs for abilities are now rounded up rather than down. This fixed some odd situations where it was occasionally better to have fewer TU. It should no longer be possible to use a jetpack to fly between rooms in the Alien Base, or to jetpack through the roof of the Dragonfly dropship. Fixed an issue where it was not possible to redirect a dropship in flight to a landed UFO site. MARS vehicles now correctly display their names in the tactical combat. Disabled the day 300 Orbital Bombardment research report (which wasn't supposed to be in the game). Psyon VIP on Cleaner Cell missions no longer reports recovering both a Stunned Psyon and a Cleaner VIP if captured alive. Stalker Stealth Armour no longer shows the hair of soldiers floating inside their helmet. Dead Cyberdrones should no longer appear to be alive again after loading a save. Fixed some terrain objects in the Xenonaut base showing a bright pink error texture when destroyed. Fixed the Boreal sawmill building roofs so they correctly disappear if destroyed. Fixed typos in the strategy tutorial, Frag Grenade tooltip, and Ballistic Weapons and Fighter Datacore research text. Fixed the Engineering recruit panel having tooltips referring to scientists instead of engineers. Fixed a text overflow issue in the soldier memorial screen. Cleaner ballistic rifles no longer have an additional 5-round burst. Bomber UFO no longer incorrectly referred to as "medum-size" in Xenopedia. HEVY now displays its damage type as Thermal on tooltips. Tactical Inventory no longer incorrectly refers to the Tactical Vest as the Belt. Rush replace on aircraft now correctly costs the listed amount of money. Fixed an issue where you could drag any type of ammo onto any weapon on the Soldier Equip screen and it would accept it. MARS now correctly displays its name in the tactical combat. Fixed some Xenopedia / tooltip typos.