Jump to content

Chris

Administrators
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10,940

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    497

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Chris

    [3.04 experimental - strategy] Abduction mission objectives are lacking

    in Xenonauts-2 Bug Reports

    Posted

    Thanks. The mission objectives have changed and there's no longer any required number of civilians you need to rescue, but the mission doesn't give you much reward unless you do make a decent effort to free them (although I think possibly we could change it so each abducted civilian also gives you +1 Panic in the region, as well as each successfully rescued one giving you -1 Panic).

    Anyway the bug is that the mission briefing is out of sync with the actual mechanics, and I'll get that fixed.

    [3.03 experimental - Tactical] Slight jankyness right after movement

    in Xenonauts-2 Bug Reports

    Posted

    On 2/3/2024 at 7:41 AM, Skitso said:

    Controlling Xenonaut units has become slightly janky after 3.0 update. Haven't been able to pinpoint the issue more precisely yet, but it seems often that right after the unit has finished the movement, the next click is not registered by the game. Pressing C to crouch, right click to rotate or just clicking to a tile is just not registered and it makes playing the game feel more unresponsive than before.

    EDIT:  It might be tied to a movement action that reveals new ground from the shroud.

    EDIT 2: Just load a save and make a move shown in the screenshot. Try to crouch (press C) as soon as the unit stops it's movement.

    image.thumb.jpeg.cc2302dfa16b95b1e4a2850ee24a25b1.jpeg

    user_janky_movement_bug-5.json 1.36 MB · 0 downloads

     

    14 hours ago, Von_Emmy said:

    I agree and like to add:
    Movement interruption seems to also be affected, it does not work right now!

    Thanks. Yes, we're looking into fixing this as a priority. Movement interruption not working is probably another symptom of to the same bug,

    [3.03 experimental strategy] Arranging soldier positions show an empty Skyhawk

    in Xenonauts-2 Bug Reports

    Posted

    On 2/3/2024 at 6:41 AM, Skitso said:

    Launch mission, click immediately Soldier positions and the Skyhawk is empty.

    EDIT: 2 non-bug things concerning the same screen:

    • Soldier positions screen should have the launch and abort launch buttons too.
    • Soldier positions button has "abort launch" tool tip

     

    Just load the save, launch the mission and go to the Soldier positions page. 

    user_day_16_arrange_soldiers_bug-4.json 284.43 kB · 0 downloads

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

    Milestone 3.0.4 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 note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

    Changes:

    • Added research text for the Fusion Weapons research project.
    • Cleaner reinforcements will now act more aggressively on most maps, and move quickly towards your dropship / extraction area.
    • The soldiers you can rescue on the Soldier Rescue missions now have +3 to all their base stats, in addition to the +3 to all stats they get for being a Sergeant rather than a Private.
    • Enabled a number of new maps (these were meant to be enabled in Milestone 3, but there was a minor error in the settings we've now corrected).
    • Fixed the character conversations that show at the start of the mission sometimes starting under the loading screen, so several lines have already been written out by the time you get to see them.
    • Fixed aircraft items incorrectly being marked as "junk" on the Stores screen.
    • Fixed a minor issue with fire paths where shooting round corners was more permissive if you were shooting through an adjacent unit.
    • Hopefully fixed an issue where the friendly VIP on the VIP Extraction mission had a rank in Russian (which was an issue with the localisation system).
    • Camera should no longer get stuck at a weird angle if you were halfway through rotating it and something else tried to take control of the camera (sighting an enemy, etc).

    V3.01 - Rescue mission "reward"

    in Xenonauts-2 Bug Reports

    Posted

    Yes, this isn't actually a bug - I think you just got unlucky with their stat rolls, and they do already have +3 in each stat due to combat experience because they are Sergeants.

    But I can see the point that "reward" soldiers should probably be better than a random soldier you can recruit from the general pool, so I'll give them an extra+3 base to each stat as well.

    Milestone 3.0.3 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 note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

    Changes:

    • Added new research artwork for the Gemini interceptor.
    • Added new research text for the Antigrav Emitter research.
    • Fixed an AI hang that could occur during the alien turn if an AI unit was unable to move (often in the Cleaner Base mission).
    • Fixed an issue in the Abduction mission where the abduction tubes were not disappearing once the timer ran out, and you could continue to free additional civilians.
    • Fixed some small visual issues with the abduction tube teleport away animation.
    • Removed some incorrect tooltips from the Mod Manager panel.
    • Like 1

    Milestone 3.0.2 Released! (Experimental)

    in Xenonauts-2 Releases & Patch Notes

    Posted

    4 hours ago, FelixN said:

    I played xenonauts 2 in early access. It's a beautiful game. I got to the point where the game told me that I now have to wait for further updates. The story is over. In the meantime I had many good bases, many equipped ships and a top team. It's a shame the story didn't continue. But then the glimmer of hope: Update 3.0.2 came out. I switched my game to experimental and downloaded update 3.0.2. Finally I can continue. :-) But why can I no longer load my old save games? Do I really have to start all over again? Why? And now if I start all over again from the beginning: What if the next update comes in a month. Do I have to start again from the beginning? How is that thought?
    Felix

    Thanks, I'm glad you like the game. Basically saves aren't compatible between different Milestones, so your Milestone 3 saves should remain playable throughout the entire of Milestone 3 but they won't work for Milestone 4.

    If you don't want to lose your saves it'd be best to wait until the end of Early Access, when you'll be able to play the entire game :)

    Xenonauts 2 January 2024 Update!

    in Monthly Development Updates

    Posted

    Hello everyone - this month's update covers both December and January, as I was out of the office over new year. We've all returned refreshed from our Christmas break and we hope you all had a good festive season too!

    Milestone 3:
    The biggest piece of news is that Milestone 3 is out on our Experimental branches for testing, with the goal of releasing the final version of Milestone 3 onto the default Steam / GOG / Epic branches on February 19th.

    There's an extensive changelog for Milestone 3 which you can read here, but this new build ticks off a number of content items on our roadmap: the Cruiser UFO, both alien and human Fusion Weapons, the third interceptor aircraft and third dropship aircraft, plus the ARES (an upgraded hovering version of the MARS).

    We're currently hotfixing the game on a daily basis to remove crashes and AI hangs encountered by our community, and we'll be focusing on smoothing out the game balance once the worst of the bugs are dealt with.

    Unity 2022 - Load Times & Borderless Fullscreen:
    The biggest single task we've completed on over the past couple of months has been upgrading to Unity 2022, which Milestone 3 now runs on. This has been quite disruptive, but worthwhile - the update has enabled us to reduce load times by ~30% across all parts of the game, and we're hoping to further improve that to a ~50% reduction in the coming months.

    The game now also properly supports Borderless Fullscreen mode, allowing you to freely Alt-Tab without issues (something a LOT of people in the community had been requesting). Players should encounter fewer issues with multi-monitor setups than before too.

    The upgrade should also help speed up development somewhat. I won't bore you with the technical details, but code compiles much faster in 2022 relative to our older version and there's much more powerful debug tools available, so we'll collectively be spending a lot less time twiddling our thumbs while we wait to test our work.

    AI Upgrades:
    The other major task we've been working on is AI improvements. The AI now has access to more information about the battlefield around it, and it's making much more sensible decisions in combat about where to position its units and how to attack.

    However, we're still keeping a close eye on the AI because further tweaks or bugfixes may be required - even minor issues in the AI settings can cause AI units to do bizarre things in certain situations. But the good news is that these issues should now be easy to fix, and it's just a case of testing the game enough to find them all.

    Specific AI improvements have been also made to the civilians (who were famously suicidal in older builds) and for melee aliens like Reapers, which had been struggling to attack effectively.

    New Assets:
    As well as the new content I already mentioned has been added for Milestone 3, we've been adding lots of new maps to the game and have also added a significant number of new 3D models for various soldier weapons that had previously been using placeholders. The research art for the new research projects is also largely complete and should be finished by the 19th.

    We're also starting to work on updates that won't appear until Milestone 4. Kickstarter backers will remember pre-Early Access versions of the game contained the Andron alien race, but they were removed due to issues with their models and animations. The updated Androns have now been designed and are in the process of being modelled up so we can reintroduce them in future.

    This is part of a wider task to create additional variants of existing aliens. The Wraiths in particular don't have enough 3D model variants to represent their different ranks, so we've designed a more heavily armoured Wraith variant that will appear in the later UFOs, and also designed a proper uniform for the basic "civilian" Wraith you encounter acting as a pilot or engineer inside UFOs (currently they just appear naked).

    Conclusion:
    Overall, it's been a productive couple of months for the team despite the disruption of the Christmas holidays. The Unity 2022 upgrade and the AI upgrades were both large tasks so it's nice to have them done, and I think Milestone 3 is going to be another significant upgrade for the game - once testing has ironed out all the kinks.

    Thanks for reading, and please let us know if you encounter any bugs or issues when playing on the Experimental branch!

    • Like 5

    Milestone 3.0.2 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 note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

    Changes:

    • Another fix for the MARS breaking the game after its first movement.
    • Fixed the Accelerated LMG causing the shooter to contort like a pretzel when firing it.
    • Fixed an issue in the Rescue Soldier recovery logic where in rare cases a rescued soldier could be recovered instead of one of your starting soldiers if there was insufficient space in the dropship.
    • Added some research text for the Pegasus dropship.

    Milestone 3.0.1 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 note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

    Changes:

    • Fixed the MARS becoming unresponsive and breaking the game after finishing it's first movement in the tactical combat (the Sentry Guns in the Cleaner Base could also cause this bug).
    • Fixed an issue where the soldiers that need to be rescued on the Soldier Rescue missions aren't correctly being added to your base after the mission.
    • Fixed an issue where the starting interceptor cannot use its afterburners in the air combat.
    • Fixed the Accelerated Machinegun being invisible (although soldiers now contort when firing it, which we're still looking into).
    • Fixed a few types of aliens not correctly showing the red obstruction shading when they are hidden behind an object.
    • Updated the name and tooltip on the Display Mode / Fullscreen Mode dropdown in the visual options, so it's more obvious what each option does.

    Milestone 3.0.0 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 note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

    This is our first test build for Milestone 3, and we're releasing it to test for stability issues that may have occurred as a result of us upgrading the game to use a newer version of Unity. The new content is included but still unpolished at this stage; we'll be finishing that off and starting to test that properly next week (assuming there's no widespread technical issues as a result of the Unity upgrade).

    KEY CHANGES:

    New Content: The playable time for the campaign has been extended to 260 days (from 180 days), during which time the Cruiser UFO will begin to spawn. This contains or unlocks several new pieces of content:

    • Cruiser UFO (with two interior layout variants)
    • Alien Fusion Weapons
    • Xenonaut Fusion Weapons
    • The Gemini interceptor
    • The Pegasus dropship
    • The ARES (an improved version of the MARS)

    At present we only have research text / art for some of these projects; the remainder will be finished by the end of next week.

    Unity 2022: We've upgraded Xenonauts 2 to run on Unity 2022, which is a much more modern version of Unity than we were previously using. We've tested the game pretty heavily at this end and fixed most of the bugs we encountered, but now we need to see how the game works on a wider selection of hardware. Please give the game a test and let us know if you encounter any issues! 

    Borderless Fullscreen: Borderless Fullscreen mode should now be properly supported in Xenonauts 2. The monitor resolution settings are now handled natively by Unity 2022 rather than through our own code so we'd appreciate it if people can give this feature a test and see if it is working as intended, particularly if you have multiple monitors or some kind of unusual hardware setup.

    Faster Loading: Load times should now be reduced by about 30% across all sections of the game, and we're hoping to reduce this by another 10%-20% in Milestone 4. However, please remember that this is an Experimental build and it has lots of extra logging that slow load times - for now, this is likely to cancel out any improvements compared to the "normal" build on the default branches!

    We've also taken the opportunity to move the tactical mission briefing onto the loading screen, rather than showing it at the start of the mission. This gives you something to read while the mission loads, and allows you to get into the action faster once the load is complete!

    AI Improvements: We've spent a lot of time working on the AI for this update, improving both the general decision-making of the AI and addressing various specific issues that have been affecting gameplay like:

    • Civilians are now much less suicidal.
    • Melee units (especially Reapers) should make better decisions.
    • AI units will no longer just stand in fire / smoke until they die or pass out. 
    • The AI will now open doors even if the tile on the other side is blocked by another unit, allowing them to shoot at Xenonauts camping doors.

    Pre-Mission Soldier Equip / Arrangement: One frequently requested feature was to add a button on the pre-mission Soldier Equip screen that allows the player to easily access the screen where they can set the positions of their soldiers within the dropship. We've now implemented this, allowing you to easily switch back and forth between these screens prior to launching a dropship.

    "Sell Junk Items" button: We've also added a button on the base stores screen that will set all "junk" items (e.g. items that are not used in research / engineering projects) to sell at maximum quantity. In future we may expand this system to allow autoselling items immediately after the mission, or we may add in a system where the reduced sale prices of items will increase over time (giving players an incentive not to always sell their junk immediately).

    Bleeding Wound Healing & Bleeding Aliens: Aliens can now suffer Bleeding Wounds when they take damage in the same way that Xenonauts do. However, each Bleeding Wound now have a 25% chance of healing and disappearing after it inflicts damage at the end of the turn.

    Unconscious units will now also continue to suffer damage from any bleeding wounds they suffered while conscious, and may die as a result.

    Mission Updates & Balancing: We did a balance pass on the early game as part of our AI testing. A number of tweaks have been made to reflect the fact Convoy Ambush missions felt a little too easy, whereas the second Abduction Site mission, the Cleaner Leader Elimination missions and any early Base Defence missions felt harder than other missions. We've also made a number of changes to specific mission types:

    Abduction missions:

    • Abduction missions no longer end immediately when the abduction tubes disappear; the mission will now continue until all alien forces are eliminated (effectively these are now deathmatch missions with a time-limited optional objective). This change was made because many players reported that the abrupt ending of the mission in previous versions could feel quite jarring.
    • You still gain Alien Alloys for each abduction tube you disable, but now you also gain -1 Panic in the local region for each surviving civilian that you released.
    • The timer on abduction tubes has been reduced by 2 turns (from 8 turns to 6 turns).
    • There's now a teleport animation when the tubes disappear.

    Data Raid missions:

    • These are the missions where you have to capture a certain number of Data Sticks from Cleaner computers. These have now been updated so victory is triggered off the number of computers you have interacted with (i.e. sabotaged), rather than how many Data Sticks you have brought back to the dropship.
    • This change is unlikely to affect too many players, and was made because having a retreating soldier killed while carrying Data Sticks could completely ruin a mission. In most cases the mission will play out exactly the same as it did before.
    • We've added a new UI element for this mission that shows how many Data Stick items are being carried by each soldier.
    • The objectives now show how many turns remaining until the enemy reinforcements start appearing.
    • Enemy reinforcements timer reduced by 1 turn, unless the mission is encountered in month 1.

    Extract VIP missions:

    • At the start of the mission, the camera shows the empty dropship you are trying to reach before panning to the starting positions of your soldiers. This gives the player clarity over which direction they need to travel at the start of the mission.
    • The VIP is now automatically added to your team at the start of the mission (rather than the player having to click on them).
    • The VIP now has 50 TU rather than 40 TU.
    • Enemy reinforcements timer reduced by 1 turn (from 9 to 8)
    • The objectives now show how many turns remaining until enemy reinforcements start appearing.

    Soldier Rescue missions:

    • Many players did not appear to understand that you were expected to leave 3 free slots in your dropship on this mission, which gave you space to pick up the 3 soldiers that needed to be rescued. We have therefore added them to the dropship as "ghost soldiers" that fill those dropship slots (this means you can also view their stats prior to the mission).
    • We've also updated the logic about which soldiers are recovered if the player does not leave those 3 free slots in their dropship. The game will now always pick living soldiers over dead soldiers (irrespective of their origin), and will prefer your existing soldiers to those you are supposedly trying to rescue.

    Eliminate VIP mission:

    • On Eliminate VIP missions, the camera will now pan to the VIP and show a message reading "VIP Sighted" when you see the target. It will also show a "VIP Eliminated" or "VIP Stunned" message at the appropriate points.
    • The objectives now show how many turns remaining until enemy reinforcements start appearing.

    MINOR BALANCE CHANGES:

    • We found that soldiers were becoming too strong too quickly in previous builds and this problem was just getting worse as we extended the length of the campaign. We've therefore taken several steps to slow down soldier progression a little:
      • Starting values for soldier attributes are now capped at 65 (previously 70)
      • Starting soldiers are now Privates rather than Corporals.
      • Reduced the speed at which soldiers gain combat experience to about 60% of the previous level.
      • The training speed of the Training Room has been halved (both the starting value and the gain from completing Interrogation projects).
    • It is no longer possible to see doors opening or closing under the fog of war, as this made the position of alien units very obvious. These doors will now only visually update when one of your units sees them.
    • Sectons now trigger their Psionic Triangulation accuracy bonus from being near Psyons, not by being near other Sectons. However, if the Psyon is killed (and no other Psyon is nearby) the Secton will now immediately panic and lose all remaining TU.
    • Duration of crash sites reduced from 72 hours to 32 hours.
    • Medikit weight increased to 25 (from 15).
    • Construction time of Radar Array reduced from 20 days to 15 days.
    • Using a healing item will no longer trigger enemy reaction fire.
    • Enabled reaction fire on the various alien melee weapons (mantids, sebillians, reapers, mentarch, zombies).
    • Air Combat balancing:
      • Reduced construction cost of missiles / torpedoes by 20%
      • Reduced upkeep for Angel from $100k to $75k per month
      • Reduced upkeep for Phantom from $150k to $120k per month
      • Destroyer UFO increased to 200HP (from 175).
      • Fighter UFO turn rate increased by 50%.
      • Fighter Cannon armour destruction increased to 2-5 (from 0-3).
      • Abductor UFO increased to 275HP (from 250).
      • Abductor Cannon range increased by 10%, armour destruction increased from 1-3 to 3-5, and reload time reduced from 0.75 sec to 0.5 sec. Projectile speed slowed down by 33%.
      • Alien Interceptor Missiles armour destruction increased to 3-7 (from 0-4).

    MINOR GAMEPLAY / CONTENT CHANGES:

    • Added a number of new maps for Terror Sites / ATLAS Base / Cleaner Data Raid / Convoy Ambush / Rescue VIP missions. 
    • Added new 3D models for the Cleaner Accelerated Rifle, Accelerated Shotgun, Accelerated LMG, Alloy Shield, Stun Gun and Stun Baton.
    • Added new 2D inventory tile art for the melee knife and the HEVY Smoke Rounds.
    • Added Fusion weapons to the game. For any Kickstarter backers who saw the old incarnation of these weapons, we've updated the designs of the Shotgun and LMG and also given each weapon a unique ammo battery design.
    • Added proper melee animations for the Mantid and Sebillian units.
    • Units now play an injury sound and injury animation when struck with a stun weapon that does not inflict damage.
    • Soldiers should now hide their carried weapon when performing their ladder climb animation.
    • It is now possible to use any combination of uppercase and lowercase letters in soldier / aircraft / base names.
    • Moved a check that was preventing a player launching an empty dropship from the Launch Aircraft screen to the pre-mission Soldier Equip screen instead (i.e. after you've had a chance to fill the dropship with soldiers).
    • Stopping chance 0% objects are no longer highlighted on the fire path.
    • Added a basic sort order system to the soldier loadout profiles.
    • Units that can crush terrain now do not crush an open double door when they pass through it (most noticable inside UFOs and in Alien Base missions).
    • The MARS now shows a custom "cannot interact" cursor when hovering over a mission objective item (like a computer desk) that soldiers can interact with but vehicles cannot.

    BUGFIXES:

    • Fixed a crash that could occur if you tried to run a building upgrade project when having a large number of buildings (most commonly occurred with the Gauss Battery Upgrade project).
    • Reloading a weapon in the tactical inventory now correctly plays the reload sound.
    • Fixed a bug where the text on UFO information pop-ups was not being displayed for users playing in Chinese / Japanese / Korean.
    • Fixed a bug where Unassigned soldiers are not showing certain items on their paperdoll image on the Soldier Equip screen (jetpacks, MARS weapons, etc).
    • Fixed soldiers sometimes not being removed from the dropship even when reduced to below 50% HP.
    • Fixed a bug where the Autofill Dropship button on the Soldier Equip screen could bypass the dropship vehicle limit.
    • Fixed a bug where Senty Guns were incorrectly showing on the Soldier Equip screen in secondary bases (they should only appear before Base Defence missions, as that's the only time they can be used).
    • Fixed a bug where the soldier paperdoll could get blurred if a certain combination of items were equipped
    • Fixed a bug where the soldier portrait could disappear on the dropship soldier arrangement screen
    • Fixed the bug where grenades could get stuck displaying a 0% hit chance.
    • Fixed a bug where units could stand in mid-air at the top of a ladder.
    • Fixed a bug where you could place two soldiers into the same destination tile if one of them was using a jetpack.
    • Fixed a bug where unconscious units could not be revived with a medikit,
    • Fixed a bug where the shoot/move preview hit calculations was not accurately updating the value for Wraith Cloaking Field based on the new soldier location being previewed.
    • Fixed a bug where TU values could end up with a decimal point after a Berserk action.
    • Fixed a bug where suppressing an enemy unit with reaction fire would not stop them finishing their planned movement.
    • Fixed a bug where crouching during the pre-battle deployment phase on cerrtain missions cost TU, and did not refund it if you stood up.
    • Fixed a bug where the crouch keyboard shortcut ("C") did not work during the pre-battle deployment phase.
    • Fixed a bug where the combat shield was not disappearing after being destroyed.
    • Fixed a bug where certain weapons could not be picked up from the ground after being dropped.
    • Fixed certain objective items (mostly the computer desks) being incorrectly rotated in some situations.
    • Fixed the Bleeding Wounds counter being displayed vertically if the unit has more than 10 Bleeding Wounds.
    • Fixed the open door mouse cursor remaining active on the menu if you press Esc while hovering over a door.
    • Fixed a visual issue where the green deployment area tiles could sometimes remain after the end of the deployment phase.
    • Fixed throwing a grenade / flare onto the roof of a building causing windows on the floor below to shatter.
    • Fixed some visual issues with the restaurant sign in the Western Town terror maps.
    • Fixed a number of bugs with the Ultimate Power achievement (bring all Colonels to a mission).
    • Like 8

    Milestone 2.21 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 note they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

    This is another small stability fix for Milestone 2 while we continue preparing Milestone 3 for release!

    Changes:

    • Fixed a crash that could occur when completing a building upgrade project if a lot of buildings existed across multiple bases (usually triggered by the Gauss Battery Upgrade engineering project).
    • Fixed a freeze that could occur when loading the game if you switched to a new monitor that does not support the resolution you had set on your previous monitor.
    • Fixed it being possible for aliens to spawn inside the walls of certain UFOs on the dockyard crash site maps.
    • Fixed the Servitor enemy corpse item being destroyed by its own death explosion.
    • Fixed Sentry Guns being visible in the Unassigned category of the Soldier Equip screen if viewing a base with no dropship present (they should only be displayed when preparing for a Base Defence mission).
    • Like 1

    [Milestone 2.20 Combat AI] civilian suicides lemming attack

    in Xenonauts-2 Bug Reports

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Espada-i-Daga said:

    unarmed civilians run to the aliens and commit suicide due to reactionary gunfire

    I already wrote about this bug and offered solutions: №1: make them run to the player's ship or hide in the style of the chrysalids or reapers from the aliens, so that their behavior at least looks like a person who is trying to survive and escape) 
    №2: allow the player to mark a place on the map where a civilian should run (like the player’s soldiers shouting at them where to run in order to escape and survive)

    photo_2023-12-20_14-20-42.jpg

    auto_groundcombat_turn_3_end-34.json 1.52 MB · 0 downloads

    Thanks. This issue should be fixed in our next major update (Milestone 3).

    Milestone 2 Impressions/review

    in Xenonauts-2 General Discussion

    Posted

    9 hours ago, Hayung said:

    Finished up the 200 days of Milestone 2 on Soldier difficulty. 

    The difficulty level was too easy for me, and that might affect some of my impressions but I've tried to consider that in my feedback. 

    Overall

    The game feels too much like a game right now. The tempo, pace and challenge are all too proportional to the players progress. Combined with the world and player assets feeling very sterile and largely a backdrop for the game mechanics. Its a minor thing and possibly aesthetic, but the bright and clean aesthetics of both your troops and the battlescapes also add to that sterile feeling. 

    It may be player preference, but little details and mechanics which exist not solely for the gameplay or balance can add a lot to the atmosphere and immersiveness. Things like OG Xcom's black market finance system, or new xcom's battlefields feeling like you're dropping into an existing fight with carnage all about.

    Further to that, xenonauts 2 rarely hits that feeling of fighting against an unknown threat of superior technology. Even higher difficulties look to ramp up the challenge with ever larger hoards of aliens. It often feels like you're going toe to toe with the aliens, and with a modest amount of research and retroengineering are quickly deploying equally effective, if not more effective weaponry and tactics. Which is incongruent with the lore which tries to paint xenonauts as an underground force, operating on the skin of its boots. 

    On to more specific points.

    Strategy Layer
    I think the pacing and interaction on the strategy layer is too sparse. 
    UFO wave system leads to periods of intense activity followed by long periods of lulls. I think the lulls could be good to give the player breathing room but because finances are tied to UFO missions and monthly funding and there isn't a lot of player actions to take and these periods become fairly dull. The loop goes a little like this;

    - Player gets mission, gets resources and sells to fund engineering or basebuilding. Wait.

    - Monthly funding comes, engineering or basebuilding options are chosen. Wait. 

    I also think the alien actions feel very gamey at the moment. it very much feels like the UFOs appear, and fly around waiting to be shot down. There doesn't appear to be any real agenda to what they are doing, other than gradually spawning larger and larger UFOs for the player to interact with. Not only that, but there is almost never a UFO spawn before the player can realistically engage with it. For me this detracts from the idea of an unknown threat, or superior technology and agenda. The lack of landed UFOs also misses a unique opportunistic risk/reward aspect of other titles. 

    Basebuilding, radar coverage and funding/panic models leads to a very one dimensional approach to gameplay. The very limited resources means every base build must absolutely maximise radar coverage and there is no compensation for choosing objectively worse or interesting locations. Leading to 2-3 bases along the equator or thereabouts every game. 

    This might be a soldier difficulty, but I also never really felt the need to consider where my base was going other than getting coverage of funding zones. There wasn't any particular area where the aliens seemed to focus that might force me to react with a base - the lack of conflict hotspots make the battle feel global but also removes player interaction with the game state. It feels like as long as you don't make dumb base location choices, you'll largely pick up most UFOs and if you have good enough aircraft you will shoot them down. 

    Finally, Aliens don't seem to react to your actions in a noticeable fashion - like moving operations or actively reacting to xeno actions. I got 1 base attack for each base in my playthrough, no more and it seemed to occur as a random chance when a wave was spawned. 


    Air Combat

    Aircombat feels OK. I don't crave a super complex air combat system for the game. It does seem a little too easy for human aircraft to shoot down UFOs with conventional weapons and UFO weapons feel very underwhelming. UFOs actions are simplistic and unresponsive to xenonaut aircraft - they don't speed up or try to reach unassailable altitudes. Different UFO behaviors could add a lot of spice to the air game. 

    I do think that the choices for equipping fighters could be refined to provide more tactical decisions - such as torpedos/missiles leaving less loot from tactical missions or even outright destroying the UFO. Cannons could provide reliable crash sites but carry much higher risk to the fighter from UFO weaponry. 

    There airgame balance to date has felt a bit binary - either too punishing with aircraft repair times and costs or too easy with even destroyed craft and pilots just being rebuild in a matter of days. 

    I appreciate this is a bit of a WIP area and might expect more polish. 

    Tactical Combat

    The core tactical combat feels very good. But the gameplay loop gets very repetitive. I didn't find the need to change loadouts much, or adjust strategies for different aliens. Civilians just feel like extra meatshields to reveal alien positions. 
    Missions felt identical, a crash site, alien base or terror site all felt exactly the same - deploy from dropship, find and destroy X number of aliens. This is both an atmospheric as well as gameplay observation. 
    A suggestion would be to have a crash site/terror mission feel like a warzone with damage and active combatants on both sides that the xenonauts are dropping in to clean up. A landing would be more like the pristine mission we have right now and alien bases should be dark, alien and terrifying. 

    Aliens and alien weapons on the whole feel too weak. The use of magnetic weapons for early aliens working alongside cleaners is great, but the full escalation to a range of more devastating weapons should be apparent, possibly alongside the appearance of a more warlike class. It wasn't long into my playthrough that I felt totally comfortable with 2-3 xenonauts operating together could happily handle 1-2 aliens, and while increasing the number of aliens will alter that, it feeds into my overarching feeling of fighting an equal or inferior enemy. 

    Aliens combat, other than a planned AI change, could use another pass on numbers v power. I think individual aliens should be less in number but more difficult to tackle. Human tactics like flashbang and smoke should initially have only mild success vs aliens, which could be improved with autopsies and interrogations. There is also an opportunity here to have aliens with differing levels of susceptibility to flashbangs, smoke, armour pen, thermal damage etc. This could be a mix of species or technology. I feel like the fidelity of the 3D tactical map and ability to zoom is underutilised by having most UI relevant elements text only. The appearance of the models is almost secondary - some minor variation between classes exist but its largely superficial. 

    Alien classes should also be unknown until interrogations are complete - even the simple addition of naming the units during tactical battle I feel removes a lot of the mystery of the early game. 

    Night missions are a real missed opportunity. I think there is a chance to make some very atmospheric missions at night. Or even strategic opportunities - maybe sebillians are terrible at range at night and have less TU. But during the day are terrifying opponents due to increased TU and resilience. 

    Smoke grenades and flashbangs are far too reliable a disabling mechanism and combined with shields currently feel like a crutch. Doesn't matter what alien you encounter, the approach is flashbang and shoot, if you can't kill, smoke and close distance, kill or stun if possible. I find this adds a lot to the repetitiveness of the battles, with only cyberdrones and servitors requiring a slightly different strategy - although ironically for cyberdrones it's the same strategy, but with extra steps. 

    I can't shake the feeling the game wanted that RNG - shit goes bad feeling of OG xcom but then at the same time introduced very reliable mechanics in throwing. Which as a minor pet peeve, I find shooting accurately much easier than throwing something to the right spot further than a couple metres away so the accuracy and reliability that xenonauts throw items right out the gate is a little jarring. 

    This also removes much of the desire for explosives. Given grenades often wouldn't kill things, it was preferable to use smoke and flashbangs which were very reliable protection from retaliation. 

    Positives

    This is all to say that I've found the game really enjoyable and compelling. The story framework is there and the art and graphics so far are fantastic (I just want more!). 

    I love the armour and weapon design and just hope either later on or via mods we can customise it just a bit. 

    The core gameplay loop is good, only compromised by how often you go through said loop. 

    The cleaners are a great addition with some cool missions and a great way to slowly transition to alien invasion. More hinted interaction between the two would be nifty.

    Thanks for all the feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to write it all out. We're on our Christmas holidays now but we'll be back at work at the start of January and I'll look through this again then.

    Glad you enjoyed the game overall :)

    • Like 1

    Armor Bugs -- Lost Items & Misrepresented Armor

    in Xenonauts-2 Bug Reports

    Posted

    22 hours ago, iamomnivore said:

    Okay, cool. That's good to know. I'm on Veteran, so it'd make sense that something like that might start kicking in. There are still some other concerning issues going on, here, but that does help.

    Thanks. This is one of the things where we need to look at save games to figure out if there's actually a problem - it's possible there is, but people are usually just confused about how the loadouts work (with unassigned soldiers only having "planned" loadouts and not actually claiming items until assigned to the dropship)

    Do you still have a save from the last turn of the tactical mission?

×
×
  • Create New...