Chris

Thanks. I'll be pushing an updated version of the game to the Experimental branch later today. Once I do, it'd be great if you could test that and post up the logs when you have - we've added a bunch of extra logging that might help us debug where the issue is occurring.

Yeah, it's still on my radar, thanks.

Thanks, that's very helpful. I've put version 5.0.0 and version 4.27.0 experimental up on the testing branch - I'd also be curious to know if this issue existed in Milestone 4, or whether it was introduced with Milestone 5. BTW, you can tell if a build is an Experimental build or not by whether it has the text "development" in the bottom right hand of the screen. If it does, it's an experimental build. Just to be clear, when you say "Allow cinematic to run and strategy layer to load until 'Welcome to Xenonauts 2' tutorial dialog appears" do you genuinely mean that the first tutorial popup that says "welcome to Xenonauts 2" doesn't appear for you? Because in our testing that appears at 00:00:28, so we were assuming you were talking about not getting the Radar Range popup or the stuff to do with Geoscape Anomalies etc. Could you just clarify exactly where it fails?

This is another quick hotfix for Milestone 5, fixing a second pathway for the Reflexes bug to occur that we missed in the last hotfix. Bugfixes: Fixed a second variant of the bug where soldiers could permanently lose stats if a player loaded a tactical save in which their units had temporary debuffs from being Suppressed (Reflexes), causing the temporary debuff to become permanent. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to fix soldiers that have suffered this reduction with a patch, as the bug overwrites their original stat value - sorry about that!

That's an entirely different artist to the ones you've complained about previously, though, and that specific piece of art was painted two years ago (prior to the Early Access launch), back when AI image generation was very primitive. Which kinda illustrates the point I'm making - not every issue you see with a piece of art is because it's been generated by AI. Sometimes artists cut corners, sometimes they make mistakes, sometimes they just aren't technically capable enough to get everything in a scene perfect. In this case that's just the artist's style, which you can also see on all the interrogation art. He's a very talented artist (especially with biological creatures) but he's not great at industrial design, which is why the computer stuff at the top looks a bit weird.

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 another quick hotfix for Milestone 5, fixing a second pathway for the Reflexes bug to occur that we missed in the last hotfix. Bugfixes: Fixed a second variant of the bug where soldiers could permanently lose stats if a player loaded a tactical save in which their units had temporary debuffs from being Suppressed (Reflexes), causing the temporary debuff to become permanent. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to fix soldiers that have suffered this reduction with a patch, as the bug overwrites their original stat value - sorry about that!

It's not AI-generated. The artist has just painted over a 3d render of the in-game prop and placed it in front of the updated research UI background. No, you haven't. You're just making assumptions.

Ah, so it does. I thought it stored all previous versions. I've added a new branch called "testing" you can access with the password "goldhawk" that has three builds on it: 5.7.0 / 5.12.0 / 5.20.0

The scatter on the grenade launcher is a bit wild here - it looks like it's shooting about 45 degrees to the right, which is too much. The problem looks much worse because the game traces the path to see what intervening object will be hit, but then it fires the grenade at the tile in front of the intervening object. So instead of looking like the grenade smacks into the wall of a building (hitting it mid-way through the arc), it instead calculates a whole new full arc that ends just in front of the object and never actually hits the intervening object. Fixing that will make a lot of these issues go away, because it'll be obvious what's actually happening. It's just a complicated fix and we haven't had time to do it yet.

Thanks, this is really useful information given we can't repro it ourselves. I'm guessing the difference between Stable and Experimental is because Experimental builds have worse performance. Are your findings with the 5.24.0 Stable on GOG reproducible? Or is is just semi-random on the Stable builds where you get the bug sometimes but not others? I'm a bit sceptical that launching through GOG Galaxy would make any difference. One thing that would be really valuable if you have time is to revert to a few of the older Experimental versions in GOG and see if you get the same problem? At least then we might have some idea of when the bug was introduced? Was it in 5.12.0? Should be able to zero in on it fairly quickly if you half the version numbers each time.

Yeah, they should be. We've got settings for them but they don't currently affect the UI, we need to fix that up before we can re-enable them. Hopefully we'll get that done for Milestone 6.

This hotfix for Milestone 5 fixes a serious issue in the game considered urgent, so we're launching it straight onto the normal branches without letting people test it for a few days on the Experimental branches first. There's therefore a higher chance of stability issues than normal - we'll be watching the bug report forums closely over the weekend, so please let us know if you encounter any issues! The critical bug we're fixing can cause soldiers to suffer permanent stat loss if you're saving / loading during combat, as well as potentially getting stuck in the wounded state on the strategy layer. However, we're also toning down Mind Control and fixing an issue with night missions getting out of sync with the Geoscape night shadow. Changes: Mind Control for Psyons no longer uses squad sight, so Psyons need to get direct vision on a Xenonaut before they can cast the ability (Eternals can still cast Mind Control using squad sight). Added new art for the Alien Antigravity Unit research project. Added new injury / death sounds for the Eternal. Bugfixes: Fixed a bug where soldiers could permanently lose stats if a player loaded a tactical save in which their units had temporary debuffs from being Suppressed (Reflexes) or taking HP damage (Accuracy), as this caused the temporary debuffs to incorrectly become permanent. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to fix soldiers that have suffered from this issue - sorry about that! Fixed the day / night status of a mission on the Geoscape being set when it first spawns, rather than the time when the player actually begins the mission. Fixed a bug where smoke tiles and doors would sometimes appear invisible to the player, but still be present in gameplay terms. (Hopefully) fixed combat shields sometimes not disappearing when destroyed by enemy fire. Fixed the UOO Bridge Assault mission not allowing you to attempt it a second time if you abort the mission. Fixed soldiers getting stuck in the "airborne" state if you abort the Bridge Assault mission. Fixed the Geoscape objective text going off the edge of the screen on non-16:9 screens.

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: Mind Control for Psyons no longer uses squad sight, so Psyons need to get direct vision on a Xenonaut before they can cast the ability (Eternals can still cast Mind Control using squad sight). Added new injury / death sounds for the Eternal. Bugfixes: Fixed a bug where soldiers could permanently lose stats if a player loaded a tactical save in which their units had temporary debuffs from being Suppressed (Reflexes) or taking HP damage (Accuracy), as this caused the temporary debuffs to incorrectly become permanent. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to "fix" soldiers that have suffered from this issue. Fixed a bug where smoke tiles and doors would sometimes appear invisible to the player, but still be present in gameplay terms. Fixed the Geoscape objective text going off the edge of the screen on non-16:9 screens.

Also, just to clarify - is the healing itself working correctly? Or are they stuck at 20% health?

And you can reproduce it every time? Does it happen both on Experimental and the normal branches? Yes, it's potentially something that's linked to hardware. Koki's PC isn't as powerful as the PCs of the other people on the team that tested it. But then I just fired the game up on my very slow laptop and I couldn't reproduce it there either, so it's probably not purely linked to PC performance.

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: Added new art for the Alien Antigravity Unit research project. Bugfixes: Fixed the day / night status of a mission on the Geoscape being set when it spawns, rather than when you actually start the mission (a bug we accidentally introduced in the last hotfix). (Hopefully) fixed combat shields sometimes not disappearing when destroyed by enemy fire. Fixed the UOO Bridge Assault mission not allowing you to attempt it a second time if you abort the mission. Fixed soldiers getting stuck in the "airborne" state if you abort the Bridge Assault mission,

No, unfortunately not. We can't add big features like the air combat changes without breaking saves.

We're really struggling to reproduce this issue unfortunately. Koki was able to reproduce it reliably on the Experimental branch only for a bit, but none of the rest of us could - and now after switching branch to default and back again, he can't reproduce it again either. Bit frustrating as this is clearly an issue, but we don't have that many leads. There's a character conversation that occurs just before that point - are you doing anything unusual with it? I assume you skip it by pressing Esc?

Thanks - this should be fixed in 5.24.0, so if you load a save from before that ground combat it should work fine. Let me know if that's not the case!

This is another hotfix for Milestone 5 that fixes a few crashes and other gameplay issues. We've got another hotfix planned for this week, so please do report any issues you encounter and we'll do our best to fix them! Changes: Mind Control success chance now reduces by -2% for each tile between the caster and target (rather than -1%). Abduction tubes now stop their humming sound when opened. Bugfixes: Fixed a tactical crash that could occur at end of turn, or when alt+tabbing. Fixed a crash that could occur when selling items on the strategy level. Fixed an issue that was preventing aliens from using Mind Control (introduced in the last build). Fixed aircraft armour plating sometimes not removing their +armour bonus when unequipped, causing the interceptor to incorrectly gain a permanent buff. Fixed the tactical UI soldier minitabs (at the top of the screen) displaying the name of a dead zombified soldier as "reaper Reaper Zombie". Fixed the crosshair / shot hit chance calculation not updating immediately if you're hovering over an enemy and then press "C" to crouch. Fixed some instances where some stacked shipping containers were not correctly destruction linked, occasionally causing floating containers and some other issues.

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: Mind Control success chance now reduces by -2% for each tile between the caster and target (rather than -1%). Abduction tubes now stop their humming sound when opened. Bugfixes: Fixed a tactical crash that could occur at end of turn, or when alt+tabbing. Fixed a crash that could occur when selling items on the strategy level. Fixed an issue that was preventing aliens from using Mind Control (introduced in the last build). Fixed aircraft armour plating sometimes not removing their +armour bonus when unequipped, causing the interceptor to incorrectly gain a permanent buff. Fixed the tactical UI soldier minitabs (at the top of the screen) displaying the name of a dead zombified soldier as "reaper Reaper Zombie". Fixed the crosshair / shot hit chance calculation not updating immediately if you're hovering over an enemy and then press "C" to crouch. Fixed some instances where some stacked shipping containers were not correctly destruction linked, occasionally causing floating containers and some other issues.

This hotfix contains the first batch of fixes for Milestone 5. It fixes two serious bugs - the first being that alien Mind Control effectively never fails, and the second being a crash linked to mind-controlled civilians. Please let us know if you're experiencing bugs or major gameplay issues as we'll do our best to hotfix any problems as they arise! Changes: The ARES now moves as though it is equipped with a jetpack, and it no longer suffers fall damage. Alien Mind Control should now not attack the same soldier more than once per turn. Bugfixes: Fixed a crash after ordering a mind-controlled civilian to evacuate. Fixed a bug where a failed alien Mind Control attempt would cause a successful Mind Control attack on the same target immediately afterwards. Fixed vehicles suffering instant death from fall damage if the roof they were standing on was destroyed. Fixed hovering vehicles (ARES, Servitor, Cyberdrone) incorrectly suffering fall damage. Fixed the MARS / ARES not properly playing their destruction animation if destroyed by fall damage. The shot information panel (in the bottom right of the tactical UI) no longer incorrectly displays some lines in light grey rather than the normal dark grey, and the +10% Crouching hit chance bonus is now displayed in a consistent manner with the other multipliers.

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 hotfix contains the first batch of fixes for Milestone 5, and we're hoping to release it onto the standard branches before the weekend. It fixes two serious bugs - the first being that alien Mind Control effectively never fails, and the second being a crash linked to mind-controlled civilians. Changes: The ARES now moves as though it is equipped with a jetpack, and it no longer suffers fall damage. Alien Mind Control should now not attack the same soldier more than once per turn. Bugfixes: Fixed a crash after ordering a mind-controlled civilian to evacuate. Fixed a bug where a failed alien Mind Control attempt would cause a successful Mind Control attack on the same target immediately afterwards. Fixed vehicles suffering instant death from fall damage if the roof they were standing on was destroyed. Fixed hovering vehicles (ARES, Servitor, Cyberdrone) incorrectly suffering fall damage. Fixed the MARS / ARES not properly playing their destruction animation if destroyed by fall damage. The shot information panel (in the bottom right of the tactical UI) no longer incorrectly displays some lines in light grey rather than the normal dark grey, and the +10% Crouching hit chance bonus is now displayed in a consistent manner with the other multipliers.

This is a minor hotfix to Milestone 5 that we are releasing straight onto the normal public branches while we work on a larger batch of fixes! Changes: Fixed a crash that could occur when loading particular maps (could happen loading any mission after ATLAS Base). Fixed the Display Screen textbox being empty on the game settings panel.

It's time for our monthly development update, where I'll be taking this opportunity to talk about our plans for further updates and the eventual 1.0 release! Milestone 5 Public Release: Almost all of last month was spent working on the long-awaited Milestone 5, and yesterday we finally released it onto the standard Steam / GOG / Epic branches for everyone to play. This is a major update that adds a lot of new content to the game, but also allows players to unlock the final mission and win a campaign (the full changelog can be seen here). Overall, we're pleased with the way Milestone 5 turned out. I personally think that the addition of the Geoscape Supporters / Strategic Operations and the new Phase system have made the strategic layer a lot more engaging than before, and the new "UOO" missions add more variety to the second half of the game. We hope you all enjoy the update - many of these new systems are "extra" content (beyond what was in our original roadmap) that we've only been able to add because so many players have been willing to support an Early Access product! The next couple of weeks have been set aside to focus on fixing problems that people may experience in Milestone 5, so please report any bugs or gameplay issues you encounter and we'll do our best to fix them quickly. Milestone 6: In the meantime, we've started work on Milestone 6. This was originally intended to be a single large update that would bring the game all the way to final release, but Milestone 5 had such a long development cycle that we've changed our plans so players don't have to go so long between updates. The key goal for Milestone 6 is now to finish all the missing gameplay content - e.g. adding the final victory cinematic, adding all remaining research art, revamping the Air Combat to have an updated UI and a proper tutorial, adding the Soviet Town biome, etc. Essentially this represents completing the remaining content on our roadmap and finishing the areas of the game still marked as incomplete. We're also going to be adding some new content that we've already completed but never made it into Milestone 5. For example, we've got a full set of updated Sebillian models that we need to set up, and we're currently working on upgraded models for the Cyberdrone and Heavy Cyberdrone that make the two types more visually distinct. There's also a lot of new terrain tiles that we need to set up and add into our existing maps. Hopefully this means Milestone 6 will still feel like a substantial update, despite the changes to the game systems being largely limited to the air combat. Our aim is to have this update released on the public branches in three to four months. Pathway to 1.0: We'll then spend a few more months polishing up the game as we transition to our final 1.0 release, as there will still be plenty of things we want to improve. We'd like to spend some more time testing and improving the AI. We'd like to do a pass over all the maps. We'd like to optimise performance and load times a bit more. We need to build the mod tools. There's also a lot of sensible and relatively straightforward community suggestions that would improve the game. We probably won't have time to do everything we want, but we'll get as much in as we can! This means we're unlikely to add any major new features to the game beyond those already planned for Milestone 6. There was a lot of content on our original roadmap and we've gone beyond that on several occasions already (the new content in Milestone 5, the expansion to the Cleaners in Milestone 3, etc), so with our second anniversary of our Early Access launch approaching we need to shift focus from adding new content to polishing what we have. We're aiming for the 1.0 update to drop before the end of the year, but as always, we'll keep you posted. We'll have a better idea of the timetable once we're done with Milestone 6.