Chris

That doesn't mean we won't do it, of course - it's just not the only thing we're working on. It's more than likely that some accuracy problems are fundamental and won't be correctable, but others can be fixed. It's a complex system and there's a lot to consider with it...but it is being looked at.

Blank pictures are still to be expected. ##### research projects are not. Please report which projects are causing it (best as a bug update) and I'll update them accordingly, it'll just be an error in strings.xml.

Thanks for the thoughts. I've only read the first page but it's useful to have new player thoughts. I think the game might be a bit too hard at the moment on normal, as you suggest. We'll look into it before release. EDIT - naturally, not having read page 2, I failed to realise I'd already replied to this...

The latest version of the game has the "finished" Xenopedia and they have been toned down a bit - the humour and sarcasm is no longer forced in at every available opportunity, because I thought there were some instances where I'd gone too far and it was a bit clumsy. However, I think having the arrogant asshole scientist is a good thing in general. It gives the game a bit more character (which is important when there's no actual in-game characters that aren't entirely randomly generated and therefore utterly devoid of character), and it is sort of justified by the fact you can't just replace a scientific genius if you think he's got a bad attitude. Many famous geniuses are characterised by being rather difficult people in some way. Your personal mileage may vary with my writing and it's cool with me if you think it's bad, but I hope that more people will like it than dislike it.

We don't want to add any more scripted missions beyond the starting two Light Scouts - we script it too much, and it just turns into a standard new XCOM-like strategy progression. The RNG is a pain sometimes but it balances out over time, it's just at the very start the pain is unusually bad if you're unlucky so we felt we had to mitigate that at least.

We're planning to have both Mac / Linux available on Steam on final release. However, as the Linux port is not native and uses a WINE wrapper it's a bit of a nightmare to set up to work with Steam. It actually may not be possible, but more likely it will just require a lot of work and liaising with Steam's tech guys.

The actual upgrade function is still available - the code was for the new UI background image changing that reflects the increasing tech level of the Xenonauts. However as the actual game code for that hasn't been merged yet, it doesn't work yet.

They'll just have a scanner that automatically scans sites and locates ones that have an out-of-date vBulletin install, then they'll press a button and it'll automatically inject malicious code. We'll have been attacked because their trawler randomly found our site, nothing deeper than that. It doesn't sound like it was particularly challenging for our web admin to correct (or trace), so they're clearly just some bored kids with little actual hacking ability.

Ishantil - how long did it take to turn into that fireball? The spread chance may have to be reduced. It is meant to burn and spread pretty effectively, but not necessarily turn the entire area into a fireball immediately....maybe one tile per turn.

The background art for the screens are quite old and have been updated, although often quite subtly, over the last year. The basic screen layouts are fairly similar. The new screens will be in at some point in the upcoming V20 Experimentals.

Because the 30x30 zone is the area you can deploy the soldiers in and just acts as an overlay on the existing map. There's not much point using drop-pods if you can only drop into a 6x6 landing area.

Mathematically in X-Com you should always burst fire if you can afford it. I didn't want that to be the case in Xenonauts, so the cost is higher per shot but the suppression damage is higher per TU than it is for an individual shot but the damage per TU spent is lower than a single shot. Or that's how it should work.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid it is indeed a bit too late to change how the bases are laid out and function.

OP - thanks for your thoughts. 3 and 4 we're looking at, 2 we're thinking about. 1 is too much of a UI change, I'm afraid. E4D - I suggest you put together a mod with your improved ranges and better accuracy, with buffed alien health etc. I've pretty much set my stall out at this point about how I think the game is best played, so the only thing that would convince me to change it would be actually playing a version that contains all of the changes you're suggesting - longer range, more accuracy, tougher aliens etc. I'm sure after a few iterations you would either be able to come up with something well-balanced or you'd run into so many problems it wouldn't work. If it's the former, maybe it'll inspire us to change it. But even if not, it might get bundled with the game and it sounds like the sort of thing a number of people on this forum would appreciate.

owe166 - are you sure you've updated your copy fully, then?

All the different battery levels should have the same accuracy, which is 80%. If they're not hitting, ever, then it sounds like something is wrong.

I imagine there's just an error in the code that is generating a landed UFO mission instead of a crashed one.

Yeah. Just an out-of-date version of vBulletin at our end and a simple script to use an exploit to change the forum style to something lame about their cause at their end. Other high-profile targets include a website about guinea pig cages. It's fixed now anyway.

The two Canadian nations represent "normal" Canadian names and French Canadian names, which don't really make sense to combine.

It does a flat damage reduction. However, projectiles have up + / - 50% random element in their damage.

No, it wasn't. Those concepts are quite old now, the actual screens do have women on them.

OK. As a temporary workaround I'll change the "destroyed" text to read "recovered" for datacores. The cash you receive after a mission is you selling the recovered artefacts to governments once you have taken what you need.

At the moment, we're planning to try the straightforward option where crash sites can be given to local forces in exchange for some money. These will then be dealt with by the local forces, probably using excessive amounts of firepower. This is going to be reflected by the UFO Crash Site pop-up having an "Assault" button and an "Airstrike" button. That should make the distinction relatively clear to the player (the Airstrike is conducted by local forces). In terms of gameplay effect, the idea is that the player is going to receive more money from the Airstrike option than from an Assault mission, but Assaulting will give soldier progression, researchable technology and alien materials too (plus some cash). If people want to Assault every single crash site, that should work fine for them. It's quite important in my view that the ONLY way the player can gain research artefacts and soldier progression is through the ground combat. If there are systems where you get either of them in another way, I think it'll really undermine the feel of the game. Money in Xenonauts is important, particularly in the early-game, but it will only get you so far. I think this idea will let players who do not want to do every single mission play the game without disadvantage, whilst not really handicapping those that do either. From a lore perspective it makes sense too. I've read the other solutions in the thread but they tend to either break the cardinal rule about soldier experience / research artefacts, or seem to be more complex than my current suggestion for no real gain that I can see. EDIT - also, consider that any way of limiting the number of crash sites (rather than the number a player actually attacks) causes tech tree problems. What if a player is unlucky and doesn't get a Scout crash site for a month? That'll put them way behind other players in research terms at that stage of the game through no fault of their own. Luck isn't meant to be such a major factor in your success / failure than it would be if you're heavily limiting crash sites numbers. Not much of a strategy game if it is.

This may need a nerf. Given that experienced players are just cowering behind the Chinook and newer players are finding it hard, I imagine we'll want to reduce alien numbers a bit.

No, the Alien Power Source is what triggers Alenium. That appears in both the Corvette and the large Scout (it's the animated prop). The datacores just trigger the fluff research description for that particular UFO type.