Chris

Nice to see some people playing around with the editor! Those tree tiles won't make it into the final game though - they're a relic from the original Farm tileset and don't really work very well from a game mechanics point of view. Nor is the painting style on them consistent with our new tiles. I might see if we can model up a few trees that fit the current tile dimensions a bit better though. Having an orchard would be nice, even if only for nostalgia purposes.

Heh, some of these questions are pretty open-ended, but I'll give it a quick go: 1) It's tough. Far more work than you'd ever believe, but it's satisfying to see it all come together and start to see other people enjoying what you've made. Sure beats my old job. Designing the aliens and weapons and all that stuff is one of the most fun parts of the process really - all the idea generation and style stuff is really good fun. But it only accounts for about 5% or less of what making a game actually entails. That's why ideas for games are generally worthless; its the execution that matters. 2) It depends what type of game you're making, really. How long is a piece of string? You can get away with basic graphics if they're stylised (i.e Minecraft etc). The most valuable guy on the team is probably the coder though - without one of them nothing will happen. You can make an (ugly) game without an artist, such as Dwarf Fortress, but if you have artists but not coders you've just got a collection of pictures. 3) I couldn't really say, to be honest - my experience has only been in an indie team and even then only at leading it. Xenonauts isn't exactly story-driven either. I think you'd have better luck getting into the industry as an animator than a story designer though because good animators are like gold dust. There's quite a few story designers floating around and you never need more than one. 4) Depends if you mean a 2D or 3D animator - I assume you mean a 2D one. Really the majority of animation work is 3D these days, but I don't know enough about the training for either to comment on it. Presumably go on a course to learn how to do it? You could probably self teach 2D animation if you tried hard enough for years but 3D animation requires knowing workflows etc that I imagine you couldn't completely self-teach. 5) Graphic artists are 2D artists and usually don't work in game design - more website design and advertising flyers etc. Usually in games you'll have 2D artists being the concept artists, designing the objects and locations to go in a game. Then they'll be modelled in 3D by a 3D artist and rigged and animated by a 3D animator and go in the game. 6) Depends on the game or team. Generally story isn't considered a very important part of a game, and the writers are a bit of an afterthought. I do the writing in Xenonauts but it's not a particularly narrative game so I can't really comment too much. The main job would be to produce the dialogue and text that will appear in the game - quest text, tutorial texts, what the characters say to each other etc. 7) Not for a while.

Yup a lot of this has been mentioned before. I'm glad you like the game and I think a lot of your issues will be fixed in the beta - although pilots levelling up and the crash site location being known aren't planned, and nor is a wider range of starting weapons. I'm a bit busy to go through and explain why in detail for each one but I've read your post and noted your thoughts

It has definitely been noted, believe me!

There should at least be civilians in the battles. The NPC allies haven't been added yet but are slated for the near future. The AI is the biggest concern right now though...

Kickstarter - having just seen DoubleFine put theirs up and end up with enough money to make King Midas blush (see here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure?ref=spotlight) I'm chatting to one of our US artists to see if we can use his bank accounts and get this done sooner rather than later...

Thanks, glad you like it!

Yeah this is a bit dated now, I'm gonna go ahead and close it

Yeah, seperate threads are best. The invisible aliens are missing sprite issues - it'd be helpful if you could kill the missing alien, then go to the tile it is standing on and open the inventory. If you mouseover the corpse that appears it should tell you the alien type. That'll let us find out where the missing sprites are. The Sebillian / Caesan thing is another sprite issue too. I think that's probably a relatively simple fix.

Update on what, specifically? If you've got a pre-order issue then email me at chris@xenonauts.com, everything else is working fine again now.

Yeah. We migrated the site and vBulletin wasn't compatible with Agora so everything got wiped. You'll find this forum is much nicer to use than before though!

I imagine this idea would probably work better after an alien invasion, on an occupied planet where humanity is rebelling against the minimal military presence left behind after the invasion.

If you send two F-17s rather than three aircraft against a Scout it will turn and fight rather than run away, which help. But yes, we do need to balance this properly still.

Cyllan, this article should explain the terrain generation system - it's semi-randomly generated: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/12/xenonauts-dev-diary-2/

Desura have authorised it now. Enjoy. Hopefully there's no show-stopping bugs - I'm going to bed now but will check this thread when I get up tomorrow.

Build V9 is available on Desura and ready to download. Sadly, it doesn't include everything we wanted to put in it, but it is still a substantial improvement on V8.9 that we released a few weeks ago. Expect further updates over the coming weeks as finish the features we want to go in V9, and then (fingers crossed) we'll actually release this build to various press outlets. OK, so here are the improvements made: GEOSCAPE: - Launch menu: We've implemented a new launch menu when you attack UFOs / Crash Sites. It'll look better with the new GUI, but essentially now you have to select a destination before the window appears, and then the interceptors are sorted by proximity of bases and an ETA is provided to the target as well as various information on the craft readiness levels. - Interceptor Engagement window: We've implemented a new window that appears prior to attacking an enemy craft. This gives you the information on your interceptors, including the amount of time (in seconds) they will have in combat before they have to disengage due to low fuel. It will also show an image for each UFO taking part in combat, so you have a better idea of what enemy types you are taking on in combat. - Training System: This was actually released in V8.9 but that's only because we'd already coded it when we did some emergency bugfixes. Basically it allows you to send new recruits away for a week or so in order to give them a small stat boost and promote them to Coporal (where they don't cause a morale penalty to the troops around them as newly-recruited Privates do). - Alien Bases: The basic code for these has been added. I don't think you'll be able to play long enough to be able to get to them yet, but they are there. I think attacking them causes a crash because we're still working on linking them with the ground combat, but if you see a little house icon appear on the Geoscape then you've found an alien base. Obviously development on them will continue over the next couple of months. AIR COMBAT: - Relative Positioning: We've added code so the UFOs and Interceptors will now appear in the air combat in the position and headings that they had on the Geoscape when the combat was launched. This may mean it's a bit tricky to shoot down Scouts now, so we might have to do some more balancing with this. But it should make air combat a bit less predictable than it was previously. GROUND COMBAT: - Farm Tileset: We've added the Farm tileset to the game with a couple of maps. This is actually the default tileset used when another tileset can't be found, so you'll probably see quite a bit of it. It's still a work in progress, but it looks quite nice. The barn tiles haven't yet been painted over and are in their bare 3D form, but they'll be updated shortly with prettier versions (if you see Mechanicus floating around the forums, he made them). Also, there's not really any props in the maps yet besides walls, fences and hedges. They'll come with time, but we're concentrating on getting the foundations for the different tilesets done first as they are the hard bit. - Industrial Tileset Visual Update: We've also redone the ground tiles in the Industrial tileset. It's still the same map you've collectively played thousands of times, but it looks quite a lot prettier now. I've set the game up so any combat in the northern hemisphere uses the Farm tileset, and any in the southern hemisphere uses the Industrial. - Sebillians: We've added the Sebillain aliens to the game too. You should be able to encounter Sebillian Noncoms and Guards in missions - UFOs will either contain them or Caesans early game. All UFOs are now generated with their crews on the Geoscape, so if you play later in the game you'll likely encounter UFOs full of what appear to be Caesan non-combatants. These are the default sprites for aliens not added to the game yet. If you start seeing them, you've played too far into the build... - Loading Times: The ground combat loading times used to be pretty extensive - it didn't affect me too badly as I had a solid state hard drive but I think they were pretty shocking if you didn't have one of them. We've significantly sped up loading times by tidying up the code required, putting a texture atlas in place for each tileset, and stopping the game pre-loading all possible unit animations. This has reduced loading times to about a quarter of what they were previously. The only tradeoff is if you see a very slight pause before the game plays an animation - this may happen if it is the first time the animation is played. It shouldn't be noticeable, but that's the price you pay for not spending 3 minutes looking at the load screen. - Tileset-specific Civilians: We've now got three different civilian types for both the Farm and Industrial tilesets, instead of the single office worker spawning everywhere. Each tileset has its own library of civilians to ensure consistency. The number of civilians will expand as development continues. - Fire System: There is now support in the game and terrain editor for flammable items. As yet we don't have waist-high grass in the game, so there's no massive firestorms caused by detonating a rocket in a field of hay, but the code is there for it. A unit will take 30 damage on entering a tile with fire in it, and 30 damage if he starts a turn in a tile that is on fire. This is mitigated by armour's incendiary resistance. I'm not sure the pathfinding has been updated for this though - please post up bug reports if you see troops merrily strolling through an inferno and getting injured as a result. - Soldier Sight Ranges: These have been increased by about 50-60% to be more in line with X-Com. Lots of complaints about how short they were previously, and I think you guys were right. The game is a bit more enjoyable this way. - Shadows: Units now have them. We'll probably implement different shadows for the aliens and civilians though, as these have been made to suit the Xenonaut units and their stances. They don't necessarily match the other units in the game properly. MISC: - Modding: You can now mod the game and be confident the Desura autoupdater will not wipe out your changes. The game will now preferentially read files from a folder in your documents (same place as your save games) rather than its own file structure if told to do so. Therefore if you want to change the stats of a weapon, you'd keep weapons_gc.xml in that folder and the game will give you the option load that instead of the one in its own files. There's a couple of options at the bottom of the launcher that are linked to this - if you're not interested in modding the game, just ignore them. Full details are on the wiki here: http://xenowiki.goldhawkinteractive.com/index.php?title=Basic_rules_and_principles_for_modifying_Xenonauts BUGFIXES: Ground Combat: - Night combat maps should no longer appear when it is not night-time. - Pressing "I" in the inventory screen will now close the inventory view. - Menus are once again accessable on the Ground Combat maps (just press Esc). - Hotkeys can now be used after making a save game. - Crash caused by rearranging items on the inventory screen is now fixed - The unclickable soldier / 'ghost soldier' issue is fixed - Sending a soldier to battle armed with a Precision Laser and Wolf armour will no longer cause a crash. Geoscape: - Extra scientists no longer appear if you load a save game when a research is in progress. - Notifications about crashsites escaping to space will no longer appear - On the equip screen the hotkey for fast equipping / un-equpping is changed to Mouse 2 / Right-click. - On the Soldier Equip screen the Infinity mark for human weapons no longer changes to "-" - Multiple Xenopedia notifications will appear for multiple researches completed at the same time. - Callsign length is limited for vehicles and soldiers to stop overlong names being used. - Hunters will no longer disappear when loading a save game containing an airborne Chinook. - Reassigning the engineers to a different project will no longer result in crash. - Loading a save game will no longer remove parts of the tech tree. Air Combat: - The destroyed UFO notification will display properly (eg: "crashed into the sea", "crash-landed", "destroyed") As you can see, it is a rather substantial update. Things that are missing that I would like to have included but have not been able to: AI Model - this is progressing but we're still working on it. It will follow as soon as possible. The game is very easy without it unfortunately, as aliens will only fire at you with reaction fire at the moment even if you stand directly in front of you... New Ground Combat GUI - again, this is being implemented at the moment but is not done. Additionally, the dropships and crashed UFOs still need quite a bit of work. We're trying a few experimental things to make them look more realistic, and things are going well. I expect to have some updated spawn zones and crash sites in a week or two. Here's a sneak preview of how the new Chinook looks: Old Chinook: http://www.xenonauts.com/devimages/oldchinook.png New Chinook #1: http://www.xenonauts.com/devimages/chinook1.png New Chinook #2: http://www.xenonauts.com/devimages/chinook2.png Again, this is a result of all the money we've had coming in from pre-orders. It allows us to go the extra mile and actually make things good, instead of sticking with what gets the job done. So if you've pre-ordered the game, thank you. Hopefully this helps illustrate why everyone wins when we get money in pre-release! We're going to try and apply a similar principle to the crashed UFOs. There's some technical issues to work through, but if we can solve them than the UFOs should actually look like they've crashed and the ground should actually look like a UFO has crashed into it. So, that could be fun. Anyway, plenty to look forward in the coming weeks - the AI being the biggest thing. Give the new build a play and report any bugs on the subforum so we can fix them up.

Once I have the press build for the game ready, I'll be looking to show it off to all kinds of journalists (and have an extensive list of people to send it to). However, I also want to tap the Youtube market. I was wondering what Youtube channels you guys watched that you thought might be a good fit for us to send a preview copy to so they can do a Let's Play for it? I know the two biggest players already, TotalBiscuit and the Yogscast. But then there's a whole host of smaller guys who might be worth talking to as well. Khombat mentioned the following channels: - paulsoaresjr (he's already been in touch but I'll need to remind him that we exist when the press build comes out) - jefmajor - VerbalProcessing Any other recommendations? I figure anything upwards of 10,000 subscribers is fair game if they regularly cover gaming news.

The sight range is actually tied to the armour that the soldier has equipped - so it can be found in armours_gc.xml. The next build will have 16 instead of 10 for the default sight range. This is more in line with X-Com, I didn't actually realise there was such a differential between us and them until I loaded up TFTD a few days back. The game is indeed more fun with longer sight ranges. Although it does make it even more obvious how stupid the AI is right now.

Next build has a significant upgrade to sight ranges. I checked in TFTD and was horrified at how short our sight ranges were by comparison.

That was the one with the polymorph, right?

There won't be any. I can't be bothered with it, I'd rather spend my time getting something useful in the game (or being asleep).

No, there's not a full list outside of my brain and my hard drive unfortunately. The 'insider' knowledge comes from having spent far too much time on the forums I'm afraid. Come beta all the features should be implemented and pretty well documented so if its not in there then, you can complain at will

Hmmm. The game should charge an upfront fee for hiring personnel equal to their first months' wages, as well as their wage cost. If it is not, it's not functioning correctly. That means you'd only be slowing your research by a day or two doing that.

I know they tell you different at university, Sunshard, but if you don't get a 2:1 then the world will not actually end immediately. Drinking would be still possible (and indeed very likely) afterwards.

Nah there's 6 interceptors. I just couldn't remember off the top of my head when I was typing and couldn't be bothered to count them. There's no armed transports - given the way the UFOs escalate, if your transport gets jumped by a UFO then it is toast anyway. There are five vehicles in the game, and an undetermined number of walkers which may range from 0 to 3 depending on how well they work in the game. The later ones will be more like mini-tanks than scout cars....but future tanks, of course... TF2 hats, none planned. I don't think we're big enough for Valve to care about doing a hats promotion for us. Everything else, Jean-Luc has answered.