Chris
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Posts posted by Chris
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15 hours ago, JohnH said:
Good afternoon,
Decent work so far, with a nice touch on the multiverse. I chatted with a senior physicist and she thinks this is your best approach.
In the current game, load times run far too long and you need to generate a reasonable quantity of varied art to put up during that screen shot.
The game will do well once improved to your target audience of old school turn-based strategy folks. Opening maps to the community and offering challenges with good merch would be wise, I think.
JohnH
Thanks. Yeah, improving load times is one of our priorities at the moment, you should hopefully see some good improvements on that front in the next month or two!
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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!
Milestone 2 has now been released onto our Experimental branches for testing. This is a significant update that includes new content, new features, and many usability improvements and bugfixes - but we're awaiting several pieces of updated art / some new research text / additional maps, and the game balance is currently worse than Milestone 1! Please let us know about any bugs and balance problems you encounter so we can continue to improve it.
Key Improvements: (includes all changes from previous Prototype builds!)
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Early Game Rework:
- The opening phase of the game has been expanded to increase the role of the Cleaners, and you now spend a bit more time battling them before the aliens begin to show up in force. This increaes the playable campaign duration from 180 days to 200 days.
- The new Probe UFO appears in the very early stages of the game. This is unmanned and does not create crash sites, but provides some early-game air combat practice and some research unlocks. As the invasion progresses it finds a new role as an early-game escort UFO that is eventually replaced by the Fighter UFO.
- The game story has been reworked to fit the new opening phase (which means it's worth replaying the tutorial). The player character is now a silent protagonist, and we've introduced a new character in the early game called The General that uses the previous Commander portrait.
- We've added several entirely new types of tactical mission to the game - Rescue Soldiers, Convoy Ambush, and Rescue VIP. We've also removed the standalone Cleaner Intel Hub and Cleaner Cell missions from Milestone 1 and turned them into generic Data Raid and Eliminate VIP missions that you may (or may not) encounter as part of the Cleaner activity on the Geoscape.
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Aircraft Weight System:
- Interceptors in Xenonauts 2 no longer have fixed weapon slots that can only take particular weapon types. Instead, we've introduced a more flexible system where they have several slots that can contain various different types of weapon or equipment. However, the aircraft now has an overall equipment weight limit that cannot be exceeded.
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Heavy Armour Variants:
- Each type of soldier armour in the game now has a "heavy" variant that can be enabled via a checkbox, which provides the wearer with improved protection at the cost of increased weight (and usually a small Accuracy reduction). This gives the player more choice when equipping their troops, particularly when using low-Strength soldiers. This system replaces the armour plate modules from Milestone 1.
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New Maps:
- The Dockyard and Jungle biomes have now been split apart, and we've created 5 new Crash Site maps for the Dockyard so we can support UFOs crashing in these regions.
- We've also started creating additional map variants for the new map types. The opening mission (ATLAS Base Reclaim) has two entirely new maps, and we're working on additional variants for the Cleaner Intel Hub mission (now called the Data Raid mission).
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Mod Management:
- We now have a Mod Management panel accessible on the title screen, as we've completed the backend systems that allow the game to load and prioritise mods. We're therefore now at the point where it's technically possible to create mods for the game - but I wouldn't recommend trying it yet, because it's very complex and we're working on some tools that will make the process much easier.
Gameplay Changes:
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Economy:
- Money is generally a little tighter than before. It's now cheaper to build additional bases, but aircraft are more expensive - the idea is that the player shouldn't need a full squadron of 3 planes in a base until the midgame at the earliest!
- Funding is no longer dependent on Panic level (unless the region is actually lost).
- The starting base has one less Hangar and one less Angel interceptor.
- Aircraft are more expensive to build, and you now have to pay for their equipment items indvidually.
- Cost for constructing new bases has been reduced from $750k to $500k.
- Soldier cost increased from $10k to $20k.
- Upkeep on base structures and aircraft increased by 50%.
- Upkeep costs for upgraded buildings (e.g. Alenium Generators) reduced to match those of their basic equivalent.
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Alien Invasion:
- Panic now falls by 10% of the current total in each region at the end of the month.
- Shooting down a UFO now reduces Panic by -1, rather than -2.
- The Cleaner Base no longer continually spawns Panic-raising anomalies on the Geoscape until destroyed. Instead, the Cleaners generate regular tactical missions on the Geoscape that will raise Panic if you do not complete them (these stop when the Cleaner Base is destroyed).
- Most alien activity now occurs a couple of weeks later than it did in Milestone 1, as this makes space for the extra Cleaner missions. There's a couple of extra early-game research projects to fill this space.
- The new Probe UFO is the first type of UFO to spawn. It is unmanned and so does not generate crash sites, and is weak enough that even a basic Angel can take it down relatively easily. Because the player only starts with one Angel and missiles / torpedoes now need to be researched, Scout UFOs are quite a lot more dangerous than they were in Milestone 1.
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Air Combat:
- Most weapon damage values have been changed to take into account the new slot system on the interceptors.
- All aircraft equipment now has to be built individually for your aircraft, rather than being unlocked as a global upgrade.
- Added two new equippable items for aircraft - Armour and Fuel Pods.
- Missiles and Torpedoes are no longer starting items and need to be researched.
- Updated the stats on various UFOs, and equipped some with new weapons. Certain UFOs now use a "hunter-killer missile" which is slow and can be dodged but contains enough fuel to loop back around and attempt to hit your aircraft a second time.
- All UFOs now use a dynamic battlefield in the air combat, where it moves based on the position of the main UFO. This prevents them flying off the map entirely.
- When an interceptor runs out of fuel and chooses to retreat from combat, it now does the updated Retreat action where it escapes after 3 seconds (rather than the old retreat action where they need to fly to the edge of the map).
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Heavy Armour:
- All soldier armours now have a "Heavy Armour" checkbox that increases the protection offered at the cost of additional weight and a small Accuracy reduction.
- Defender Armour has been removed, as it is now the heavy variant of the starting Tactical Armour.
- Armour Plate modules have been removed, as this new system makes them redundant.
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Tech Tree:
- Autopsies are no longer autocomplete missions, and can be researched after completing Xenobiology.
- Completing an autopsy research unlocks "Corpse Analysis" engineering projects for that alien species. This consumes corpses to provide a 10% and eventually a 20% damage bonus against that type of alien.
- Added a new research project called Aerial Warfare that unlocks missiles / torpedoes for your aircraft.
- Added new artwork for Reaper Interrogation research project.
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Weapons & Equipment:
- Modules can now be moved around inside the backpack.
- Ammo loaded into weapons now has weight. We have therefore also reduced the weight of all weapons by roughly the weight of their default ammo clip.
- Stun Baton and Combat Knife are now 3x1 items rather than 3x2.
- Rebreather module added as a starting item. This makes units smoke immune.
- Stun Baton and Stun Gun are now starting items.
- Machineguns now require 51% TU to fire the 3-round burst, not 50%.
- HEVY now uses %-based fire modes, like all other weapon types.
- HEVY has been reduced in weight.
- HEVY grenades no longer inflict reduced damage if they miss the target and detonate beyond the maximum range of the gun.
- HEVY Smoke Rounds no longer destroy enemy armour.
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Tactical Combat:
- Crouching now provides a 10% Accuracy bonus.
- Units have their Accuracy reduced by 0.25% for each 1% of missing Health. This also includes soldiers who are sent into battle not fully healed!
- Increased all alien HP by 20% to counterbalance them appearing later and the corpse analysis projects.
- On Xenonaut Base Defence missions, the player is now given vision on all alien units after 10 turns.
- Units will now automatically path to the intended location if using a melee weapon or placing C4 from more than one tile away.
- Time Units costs for fire modes now have a minimum of 1 Time Unit, as hugely overloaded soldiers were able to fire their weapons an unlimited number of times.
- Time Units are no longer refunded if an overweight soldier drops an item to reduce their TU penalty, as this permitted an exploit where units could use multiple 51%+ TU actions per turn. However, overweight TU penalties are only applied when you close the inventory screen so you're free to shuffle items about as long as the weight is at acceptable limits when you close the screen.
- Fleeing units now drop their Secondary weapon in addition to their Primary.
- Berserking will now always choose a random inanimate object as a target if no alien is nearby, and the soldier may recieve some bonus TU that allows them to fire more than normal if they berserk.
- Grenades now always damage shields if the unit carring the shield is in the blast radius.
- Shields will offer protection from grenade damage, but only if they're facing towards the tile where the grenade exploded.
- Jetpack move costs have been increased slightly, which means soldiers will now only use the jetpack if they cannot walk the path instead.
Usability / Visual Changes:
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Strategy:
- The icon for the Skyhawk dropship has been updated so it doesn't look like it is flying backwards.
- Mission briefings now accurately display the turn limits / reinforcement timers for timed missions, even when this value is modified by the difficulty setting.
- The "Items Arrived" popup will now split the list by base if items simultaneously arrive at multiple bases.
- The Damage value for weapons on their tooltip is now modified by the ammo loaded (e.g. the HEVY shows 0 damage if loaded with smoke rounds).
- The equipment selection menus on the Aircraft screen have been updated so they size themselves dynamically, which means they can display more weapons without having issues.
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Tactical Soldier Inventory:
- You can now scroll through soldiers using the left / right arrows, or by pressing the number hotkeys.
- Scrolling past a vehicle without an inventory (e.g. MARS) now simply skips past it, rather than closing the inventory screen.
- Added a "Reset Item Moves" button that resets all item moves and refunds all TU spent.
- Added a new line that shows the current TU of the soldier.
- Improved the way items stack when dropped on the ground (usually by a dead combatant).
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Tactical:
- Move paths for jetpack-equipped soldiers now display properly.
- Fixed various issues with the TU reserve system (which can be accessed by right-clicking the various weapon fire modes).
- Combat Shields now play an appropriate impact sound if hit by enemy fire, and a destruction sound if destroyed. They also play a spark visuel effect if they absorb all the damage, rather than a blood splatter.
- C4 now shows its blast radius once laid if you hover over the detonator, and will display a "Are you sure?" popup if you try to detonate it with a unit in the blast radius.
- Using Tab or Next Soldier to cycle through your soldiers now works correctly with soldier number 10 (who was previously being placed last).
- The combat camera zoom now switches between five preset distances, and the alt+scrollwheel zoom shortcut should now work correctly.
- The 3D models of dropped items are now placed within the tile to look like they are laying on the ground. Weapons in the hands of dead bodies are now also hidden (as those weapons are being shown as an item on the ground).
- Healing stun damage with a medikit now displays "Stun: -X" rather than "Stun: X", as some people thought the medikit was causing stun damage.
- Fixed several visual issues with the Alenium Generator objects in the Xenonaut Base defence missions.
Bugfixes:
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Strategy / General:
- Fixed a cursor offset bug that could occur if you tried to switch Xenonauts 2 between multiple monitors with different screen resolutions.
- Fixed various issues with the following achievements: First Contact, Counterfire, Unfriendly Fire, Welcome To Earth, Future Warfare.
- Fixed various visual issues with the hair / jaw of certain soldiers and the collars of certain types of armour.
- Removed the "do you want to save?" popup on quit if the player is playing Iron Man mode.
- Fixed an incorrect error message when trying to build the Gauss Blaster without completing Accelerated Cannon first.
- Fixed the visual highlight when hovering over the names of unassigned wounded soldiers.
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Tactical Combat:
- Fixed smoke and suppression damage incorrect passing through undamaged solid walls or closed doors.
- Fixed Combat Shields not functioning correctly or displaying correctly if picked up off the ground.
- Fixed the Secton glowing eyes that indicate Psionic Triangulation being active not triggering correctly.
- Fixed aliens and humans being revealed if they are stunned when the player does not have line of sight on them.
- Fixed dead soldiers sometimes surviving even when the player has a 0% survival chance.
- Fixed moving items around the inventory incorrectly not deducting TU in some cases.
- Fixed units being able to shoot themselves when using Ctrl+Shift to preview move & shoot actions.
- Fixed various issues that would occur when you pick up and drop corpse items, as sometimes the game was not properly reflecting the new location of the body (both visually and mechanically).
- Fixed units not playing their death animation correctly if they are stunned, then revived, then stunned / killed again.
- Fixed fleeing units dropping their weapons but their 3D model not updating to show they are now unarmed.
- Fixed revived units still visually holding the weapon they were carrying when they were stunned, despite them being unarmed and the gun being on the floor.
- Fixed HEVY soldiers incorrectly using 1-handed weapon animations if they switch to a pistol and then back to the HEVY.
- Fixed the 3D models of items on the ground not being removed if an explosion destroys those items.
- Fixed a misleading error message about uncrouching.
- Fixed blood puddles not correctly hiding when you changed camera level.
- Fixed camera incorrectly snapping to an alien the player cannot see going through a teleporter.
- Fixed an issue where an unloaded weapon would display 0/0 ammo, rather than 0/X.
- Fixed melee weapons causing the target to play their injury sound twice.
- Fixed the player gaining 50 Alenium simply by visiting an Alien Base and aborting the mission.
- Fixed hitbox issues with the main door on some of the larger UFOs (from Observer up).
- Fixed an issue with the Observer UFO sometimes having invisible terrain objects near its front door.
- Fixed destroyed doors in the Alien Base maps still showing the open / close door icon.
- Fixed the Electroshock Rifle having the incorrect silhouette in the minitabs at the top of the screen.
- Fixed melee attacks not causing units to rotate to face the attacker.
- Fixed AI units that are able to crush objects by walking through them absolutely trashing the interior of their UFO / base as they patrol around.
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Early Game Rework:
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Goldhawk Interactive are hiring a 3D Environment Artist to join the team working on Xenonauts 2. We are looking for an enthusiastic candidate capable of producing impressive environments for our tactical combat missions.
This is a remote role and we are considering applicants on either a full-time basis or a part-time basis, assuming they can contribute at least 16 hours per week to the project. Effectively this is a long-term remote freelancing role, as we expect there to be at least six months of work available to the successful candidate (and possibly more).
The Role:
- Creating 3D models for the terrain objects and buildings that make up the various battlefield environments in Xenonauts 2.
- Creating damaged / destroyed variants of these assets (including particle effects where necessary).
- Rexturing existing 3D assets to improve their visual appearance.
Key Skills:
- Essential: Fluent English.
- Essential: Strong 3D modelling and texturing skills in a Unity-compatible 3D modelling program of your choice.
- Essential: The ability to deliver cohesive and visually consistent 3D environments.
- Essential: Experience with the Unity game engine.
- Very Useful: Experience with particle systems.
- Useful: Familiarity with git or another form of source control software.
- Useful: Working hours that overlap with European time zones, as the team is largely based in the UK.
If you think you fit this description and want to apply for the role (or have any questions), please send an email to chris@xenonauts.com with a link to your portfolio, your expected pay rates, and any other information you feel is relevant.
We will be closing applications for this role on Wednesday 18th October.
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Goldhawk Interactive are hiring a 3D Character Artist / Animator to join the team working on Xenonauts 2. We are looking for an enthusiastic candidate who is knowledeable about the entire pipeline for creating 3D characters, from the initial modelling and texturing process through to rigging and animation.
This is a remote role and we are considering applicants on either a full-time basis or a part-time basis, assuming they can contribute at least 16 hours per week to the project. Effectively this is a long-term remote freelancing role, as we expect there to be at least six months of work available to the successful candidate (and possibly more).
The Role:
- Creating / editing textured 3D models for the characters in our games, ranging from human soldiers (wearing a variety of modern or advanced sci-fi armour suits) to civilians and various types of sci-fi alien species.
- Rigging these models.
- Creating / editing animations for these models performing various different actions, while armed with a variety of different types of weapon.
Key Skills:
- Essential: Fluent English.
- Essential: Strong 3D character modelling and texturing abilities in a Unity-compatible 3D program of your choice.
- Essential: Strong knowledge of rigging and animation in a Unity-compatible 3D program of your choice.
- Essential: At least some knowledge of Unity.
- Very Useful: Familiarity with rigging and animation in Max (as our existing rigs and animation sets were created in Max).
- Very Useful: The creativity to build upon existing 2D concepts to produce additional unit / equipment variants in a matching style.
- Useful: Familiarity with git or another form of source control software.
- Useful: Working hours that overlap with European time zones, as the team is largely based in the UK.
If you think you fit this description and want to apply for the role (or have any questions), please send an email to chris@xenonauts.com with a link to your portfolio, your expected pay rates, and any other information you feel is relevant.
We will be closing applications for this role on Wednesday 18th October.
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13 hours ago, Grobobobo said:
Yes, Currently missiles can't take down much of anything on their own from a distance. But the thing is, I don't think instakilling the ufo from the distance just like that is very good for the game, In X1 you could one-shot scouts with foxtrots and that was extremely boring. I think the missiles and torpedoes should be more powerful, but also in general require more effort/skill to use. Torpedoes for example could require you to lock on to a ufo for a long and constant time, while missiles could serve as a finishing burst to a ufo that's already softened up from its armor (but still eh against ufo's that can dodge them). Or just a weak-ish filler weapon that you throw in because you don't have any space for anything better.
I was talking about escort craft specifically in my previous message, as being able to pick them off from a distance without taking damage would be very useful but only in certain situations.
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September is over and it's time for our monthly development update. This month we've largely been working on Milestone 2, which is taking a while to arrive because it has slowly morphed into a rather substantial update!
However, we did release several early test builds of Milestone 2 on our Prototype branches this month so we could gather early community feedback on our ideas. The build is now shaping up nicely and we're expecting to move it over to the Experimental branches in the next week or two, where we'll continue to fix bugs and polish it until it's ready for general release.
Artist Recruitment:
Before I start talking about the new features, I quickly want to mention that Goldhawk is hiring a couple of additional 3D artists for Xenonauts 2. If you are potentially interested in joining our team as an Environment Artist or a Character Artist / Animator, please check out the posts below!- Recruitment - 3D Environment Artist (Remote, full-time / part-time)
- Recruitment - 3D Character Artist / Animator (Remote, full-time / part time)
New Missions & Early Game Update:
Two common issues raised in player feedback about the Early Access launch version of Xenonauts 2 were that the pacing of the campaign could be improved, and the role of the Cleaners (and their storyline) could be expanded.We therefore added quite a lot of new content to the opening section of the game in Milestone 2. There's now more Cleaner missions in the early game, including three new mission types - Rescue Soldiers, Convoy Ambush, and Rescue VIP - and the process of locating the Cleaner HQ has become more organic. Now you gain progress toward the HQ location simply by winning the Cleaner missions that spawn on the map, with extra progress earned if you capture prisoners for interrogation or if you recover optional Cleaner Data from the map.
I've also rewritten the dialogue around the tutorial and opening section to make the plot more interesting (and do a better job of involving the Cleaners), and I'll be continuing this process while Milestone 2 is on the Experimental branch.
Soldier Armour - Heavy / Light Variants:
We playtested a number of changes to soldier armour in the prototype builds, but the only improvement we decided to keep was creating Light and Heavy variants of each type of soldier armour. This replaces the existing ballistic plates modules from Milestone 1 with a checkbox that toggles between these heavy / light variants.Heavy armour simply weighs more, but offers greater protection that the lighter variant. This gives the player a lot more flexibility, and avoids the situation where your newly researched advanced armour is actually worthless because it's too heavy for many of your soldiers to use (as they can just use it in the lightweight configuration if needed). Feedback so far seems to suggest players consider this a big improvement over what we had before.
Interceptor Weight System / Air Combat Rebalance:
We've also taken a look at the air combat in Milestone 2. The biggest change is to how aircraft equipment works, as aircraft slots can now hold any type of item / weapon but each aircraft has an overall weight limit that the equipment loadout must stay below. We've also added a fuel pod item that boosts the aircraft range, and an armour plating item that boosts survivability. The UI for this system still needs work, but overall it feels pretty solid already.Some work has also been done on the UFOs themselves. We've introduced a new early-game unmanned UFO called the Probe, which is much weaker than the Scout and initially serves as a basic introduction to air combat before being used as the first type of escort craft for larger UFOs (as Fighter UFOs are too deadly to use as escorts early on). The existing UFOs have also been rebalanced to try and make them more distinct from one another.
New Maps:
Our new level designers started work in September, and their first task was to address the lack of UFO crash site maps in the Dockyard biome. We've now got five new maps to support this, and we're working on expanding the number of Jungle maps too. After that, we'll get to work creating more maps for the new mission types added in Milestone 2.(Community) Mod Tools:
We've also continued to develop the foundations for modding. We've finished implementing the mod management systems, and the "mods" panel is now accessible from the Main Menu screen in Milestone 2. Unfortunately the modding tools themselves require more work at our end than we expected, so we're still in the process of planning that out. We're making steady progress, though, and the game should have a solid set of modding tools in place before launch.And that's everything that I can think of - thanks for reading, and I'll write another progress update at the end of the month!
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Milestone 2 will shortly be moving to the Experimental branches, but for now we're still testing it on the Prototype branches while I finish updating the in-game text to reflect the new mechanics and lore. Hopefully this will therefore be the final Prototype build for Milestone 2.
You can access the Prototype branches by using the password "xenonautsproto" in Steam.
Gameplay Changes:
- Significant rewrites to the tutorial conversation and opening conversation so the lore now makes sense with the gameplay updates. The Commander is no longer a character, and has been replaced by The General - the previous commander of the Xenonauts.
- Reworked the invasion timeline so Mimics now act as escort craft, and Air Superiority missions (and therefore Fighter UFOs) are more common.
- Fighter UFOs now look different to Mimics.
- Monthly funding for players increased, and cost of new bases has been reduced from $750k to $500k. Upkeep cost on aircraft and base structures has been increased by 50%.
- Rebalanced the soldier Armour values. Heavy armour variants now double the protection offered, but triple the weight. Warden is now a little bit stronger, and Guardian Armour is a bit weaker.
- Angels now only have three equipment slots, not four.
- Torpedoes now do substantially increased damage.
- Aircraft armour now offers more protection.
- All manufactured aircraft equipment now sells for less than it costs to build. Tier 1 weapons / armour reduced in cost from $100k to $50k.
- Made month 1 Eliminate VIP mission slightly easier.
- Capturing an enemy alive no longer unlocks their autopsy, but completing the interrogation does so.
Fixes & Updates:
- Fixed a crash when selecting the MARS in the deployment phase before Ambush / Base Defence missions.
- Fixed an AI crash during the alien turn.
- Fixed the tutorial getting locked part-way through and being impossible to complete.
- Fixed the Cleaner Data Raid mission terminating as soon as you pick up the last USB stick, rather than when you get back to the dropship.
- Fixed dead soldiers sometimes surviving even when the player has a 0% survivial chance.
- Fixed the Exosuit being invisible in the Soldier Equip screen.
- Fixed some visual issues with the Guardian on the Soldier Equip screen.
- Fixed the Phantom equipment slots being misaligned, and two of them not counting towards the Weight limit on the plane.
- Fixed the Ambush mission sometimes not having any enemy combatants in it.
- Fixed aliens and humans being revealed if they are stunned when the player does not have line of sight on them.
- Added support for back layers on for armour on the Soldier Equip screen, allowing us to fix the "holes" in the collars.
- Set up the journalist VIP on the VIP Extraction mission to have the appropriate portrait / clothes.
- Fixed the new recovered items (shown in orange) being sorted to the bottom of the list on the mission debrief screen, rather than to the top.
- Fixed a couple of visual issues with the Alenium Reactor props on the base defence missions.
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I'll give this a proper read later, as I might close this thread and open a new one due to the upcoming patch containing a heavy rework of the balancing. Couple of quick comments though:
1) I really don't think there's space for any more armour in the tech tree, as you're already given one by almost every type of new UFO. Personally, I thought being able to remove the Defender Armour as an item (without actually removing it as an option) was one of the best things about adding this Heavy Armour checkbox!
2) @Grobobobo Missiles really should be competing against torpedoes, as they also have long range but are able to hit any target (unlike the torpedo). But I guess if a pair of missiles doesn't have enough firepower to take down an enemy escort UFO from long range then it's not actually worthwhile bringing them over another cannon, as you'll always have to close into short range to finish it off anyway.
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11 hours ago, Inventoraus_Rex said:
Not really a pressing matter, as I don't have the time to contribute much at the moment, but are there any updates on this topic?
We're just finalising some stuff at our end. Turns out supporting modding (or, rather, supporting the community making mods) requires more at our end than we thought. But we're nearly done with the extra stuff.
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Appreciate the replies. Some more responses:
- If you've encountered the Ambush mission bug where the enemy units don't spawn, it'd be great if you could provide a pre-mission save. It happened to me once but I assumed it was Unity being weird because I was editing entities while playing, but if it's a real bug then we need to get that fixed.
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Good points about the armour progression. The Guardian is definitely a bit too good at the moment, especially in its lighter version. I think for now I'm simplify things so the Light version has 50% of the armour of the Heavy version, but only 1/3 of the weight. Let's try the following values:
- Tactical = 6/12 Armour (Defender had 12 in Milestone 1)
- Warden = 8/16 Armour (Warden had 20 in Milestone 1)
- Guardian = 12/24 Armour (Guardian had 30 in Milestone 1, but was much heavier and cost more Alloys)
- Stalker = 9/18 Armour (had 18 in Milestone 1)
- Yes, we'll probably experiment with putting in some kind of upgrade for Angels so they can move at the speed of the Phantoms, but it'll cost significant Alenium. But I am aware that managing planes that fly at different speeds is a major pain in the ass.
- I've had a look over the aircraft weapons and I've significantly increased the damage on torpedoes, because they were hugely underpowered relative to missiles given how easy they are to dodge and how much they weigh.
- I'll also buff the basic aircraft armour to give 8 Armour rather than 5.
- @Grobobobo I'm curious why you're not using missiles in your aircraft loadouts? In 2.05 they're much better than torpedoes, aren't they?
- I think I will take the fourth slot off the Angel. The only potential item you'd lose is a missile, if you decided to go for a 4x missile loadout on the Angel. Every other loadout I can think of has the fourth item as a Fuel Pod.
- Having an item that increases radar range could be interesting, yeah.
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Thanks. To answer a few questions:
- Yes, in Milestone 3 we'll consider what new mission types we can add to try and keep the mission variety going once the Cleaners have been removed. It's not as easy given the logical setup (the humans are the ones likely to be getting reinforcements over time, not the aliens) but hopefully we can figure something out.
- Yeah, it makes sense to put the ATLAS base mission where the tutorial base is, that's a good point.
- What do other people think about the Warden? There's actually a slight error in the balancing atm, which I've now fixed - the Heavy tactical armour should offer 8 Armour in total (not 9), which is the same as the basic variant of the Warden. The heavy variant of the Warden increases this to 13 Armour. I think that feels about right to me; the Warden is either the same protection with a lot less weight or extra protection with the same weight.
- The reason why Accelerated Weapons are built individually is it's nice to have a steady drip of new items to build after every mission. I tried with both the Accelerated and Warden items being upgrades, but it made the early game boring as you frequently went more than one mission without improving your team. Is the problem the manufacture time? That can be reduced if needed.
- The Mimics are likely to have an expanded role as we continue to balance Milestone 2. Part of the reason for introducing them is that we can use them as escort craft in the early stages of the game, when two Fighter UFOs would be way too dangerous for the player.
- The hugely increased costs of the interceptors is a deliberate decision (although it might need more tweaking). The idea is that the player should have fewer planes at the start of the game, and that basic UFOs are balanced against one or maximum two aircraft. It's only in the midgame where you'd be fielding full squadrons, and even then a couple of Phantoms might be able to do the job of a full squad of Angels (particularly as you only have to pay for two sets of equipment). In Milestone 1 it is too easy for the player to win the air war, and part of that is because planes are too cheap.
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Although starting values are lower, monthly funding does increase significantly as you make progress in the plot. So the idea is to have a bit of a curve - early game building a second base and another interceptor should ideally be doable if players focus on that alone, but focusing on soldier equipment and training rooms / medical centers, or more scientists etc should be alternatives. And then as funding increases after a few months it'll be easier to start getting more air cover up across the world. I don't know if people feel that works, though?
- Might be interesting to make new bases a little cheaper, and maybe base structures a little cheaper too, but then increase upkeep costs on buildings and aircraft? That would make initial expansion easier, but make covering the whole globe in your forces a bit slower.
- The air combat values can certainly be balanced more. But is the existing system too restrictive? If we used those values you could get almost everything on even the starting interceptors, and then there's nowhere for the Phantom to go beyond numerical upgrades. I feel like there's a decent variety of loadouts for the starting Angel as is. I'm actually tempted to reduce the Angel to having three slots, because it feels like part of the problem is that players naturally want to fill all the slots but the Angel just doesn't have the carrying capacity to do it (but it'd be overpowered if it did).
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14 hours ago, Divisible by Zero said:
HI, I was just wondering. are the 2.+ prototype branches only available for steam users? I'm on the GOG beta channel and it will only download up to 1.33b
ThanksYeah, it is only for Steam users right now because it's simpler for these quick build tests. It should be out as a proper experimental build for GOG users to play by the end of the week though.
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On 9/29/2023 at 9:42 PM, andy079 said:
Hi there,
Just dropping in to say that it's really great that most of the text in the game isn't purely white on a purely black background. Thanks!
Even something like light grey on darker grey helps a lot, especially for those of us with astigmatism.
Glad that you’re finding it easier to read!
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7 hours ago, FNGPliskin said:
Started the new update campaign, so far I'm liking things but have run into two bugs so far: I couldn't finish the tutorial, the step to use the predictive shooting (click on a move order, hold shift to see the chances, and then execute) would not work no matter what I did. I just completed the mission to rescue the three survivors from the initial base, and all three were listed as KIA at the end of the mission screen despite being very alive at the end of the mission.
Thanks. I’ll check the tutorial tomorrow then.
For the rescued soldiers, was there space in the dropship? You should get a notification telling you to leave space in the dropship to bring them back. If you don’t, they’ll be listed as KIA.
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This is another update to our early test build for Milestone 2. The purpose of this build is to get feedback on the gameplay mechanics before we commit to updating all the lore / writing, and adding any new artwork required to support the new features and changes.
We've therefore released the game onto our new Prototype branches rather than our Experimental branches, as we only want people playing the build who have read this post and understand what the build is for! You can access the Prototype branches by using the password "xenonautsproto" in Steam.
Changes:
- Fixed the crash that would occur around day 75, when Alien Resupply missions would begin to (potentially) spawn on the Geoscape.
- Fixed a crash when you tried to do the tutorial.
- Fixed the Heavy Armour version of the Warden having an incorrect visual appearence in the tactical missions.
- Fixed the Wraith Corpse Analysis project incorrect unlocking off the Sebillian autopsy research.
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This is an update to our early test build for Milestone 2. The purpose of this build is to get feedback on the gameplay mechanics before we commit to updating all the lore / writing, and adding any new artwork required to support the new features and changes.
We've therefore released the game onto our new Prototype branches rather than our Experimental branches, as we only want people playing the build who have read this post and understand what the build is for! You can access the Prototype branches by using the password "xenonautsproto" in Steam.
Changes:
- Game now boots into Main Menu as normal, rather than straight into strategy.
- Aircraft weapons such as Torpedoes and Laser Lances should no longer cause a crash on the Soldier Equip screen once constructed.
- Hopefully fixed the issue where civilians look like purple-headed Xenonauts.
- There's now a "Reset Item Moves" button on the tactical inventory screen, and a new line that shows the current TUs of the soldier.
- Improved the way items stack when dropped on the ground by a dead combatant.
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2 hours ago, Skitso said:
Could you open up the thinking behind this change a bit?
Soldiers have way too much carrying capacity as it is, so removing armour modules make inventory management even more trivial. I would like there to be even more choises to be made what units can carry. You could have each armour have different inventory grid size, but is it a better way to balance it?
It's a bit unrelated to inventory size; the reason is so that any soldier can wear the most modern armour in the lightest variant rather than weak soldiers being unable to wear say Guardian Armour in any form. It also avoids the issue where the protection offered by the insert is unrelated to the armour it is placed in, which meant it could be relatively too weak on advanced armours and too strong on basic armour.
It also means we can give the player more overall options with fewer actual suits of armour; having the first 100 days contain the Tactical Suit, Defender Armour, Warden Armour and Guardian Armour was slight overkill. Now it's just Tactical Suit >> Warden >>> Guardian, which is clearer and more manageable.
If carry capacity ends up being too generous as a result I'd have thought we could just make modules larger to compensate.
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I'm now locking this thread as there's a new thread for the new Milestone 2 Prototype build (v2.03), which you can find at the link below. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on this!
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You can read about how to access this build and what changes are in it in this thread here:
This thread is for people to post up their opinions on the game balance or the new features, or any issues they encounter.
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Hi everyone - we've just released an early test build for Milestone 2. The purpose of this build is to get feedback on the gameplay mechanics before we commit to updating all the lore / writing, and adding any new artwork required to support the new features and changes.
We've therefore released the game onto our new Prototype branches rather than our Experimental branches, as we only want people playing the build who have read this post and understand what the build is for! You can access the Prototype branches by using the password "xenonautsproto" in Steam.
Changes:
We've made a lot of gameplay changes since Milestone 1, and quite a lot since we put Milestone 2.02 out for testing two or three weeks back. Here's a few of the key features to look out for:- The gameplay period is now 200 days instead of 180 days. This increase comes from expanding the opening phase of the game, where the player is taking on the Cleaners. We've involved the Cleaners more in the early storyline, tried to make them more threatening, and added more Cleaner missions.
- The story is now that the previous Commander was sent to present evidence of the alien invasion gathered by the Xenonauts to various world governments, but returns to base with an army of Cleaners and attempts to shut down the Xenonauts (which leads to the events of the tutorial and the loss of the original base). The first mission is now to reclaim the old base for long enough to gather all the research data and supplies needed to continue the fight at the new base. I explain this here because none of this is currently well-explained in the game.
- There's several new types of Cleaner mission, including an Ambush mission where you're attacking a Cleaner convoy and get to set up anywhere in the map prior to the mission, and a VIP Rescue mission where you're bringing a VIP back to the dropship to rescue them. Additionally, the Cleaner Cell and Cleaner Intel Hub missions are now just regular mission types that you may or may not encounter during the game. Note that right now there's only one test map for each of these missions.
- There's a new type of UFO in the early game called the Probe. This is unmanned and doesn't create a crash site, and exists just to give a few relatively easy air encounters before the manned UFOs start turning up.
- Each type of soldier armour now has a Light and Heavy variant, controlled by a checkbox. The heavy variant weighs more but offers more protection. This system replaces the Armour Insert soldier module, and the Defender Armour is now just the heavy variant of the basic Tactical Suit.
- There's now a rebreather module that makes you gas / smoke immune.
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Interceptors now have four Equipment slots that can hold any type of weapon or item, and each plane has a Weight and Weapon Bay limit that governs how much that plane can carry. This gives you more overall freedom about the equipment loadouts you can choose for your aircraft.
- All equipment (whether weapons or passive items like Armour) have a weight, and the plane cannot exceed their Weight capacity.
- Weapons fill a certain number of Weapon Bays, and each plane has 4 bays. Cannons and Lances fill two bays, Missiles and Torpedoes fill one bay (passive items don't fill a bay). This is to prevent the player taking more weapons than the UI can support.
- UFOs have been slightly rebalanced, but we'll be doing more of that in the next week or two,
- Monthly funding is tighter overall, as the game now takes longer so there's more monthly paydays given to the player during a campaign.
- Aircraft are more expensive, and their equipment is now manufactured individually rather than being global upgrades.
It'd be great if you could test the game and let us know if you encounter any bugs or major balance issues, and also let us know what you think of the new mechanics. If all goes well we'll then be able to release Milestone 2 onto the Experimental branches and start polishing it up soon!
Feedback should go in this thread:
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This is the final of three threads, and assumes you have read the previous two threads. This covers the Asset Bundle tool that will be created by the Goldhawk Interactive team so that modders can access and change the game assets.
Ultimately, the biggest downside to using Unity when it comes to modding is that all the assets in Xenonauts 2 are locked up inside Asset Bundles rather than being read from the file system. Not only does this mean modders cannot access the assets to modify them, but that Xenonauts 2 is unable to load game assets that are not held within an Asset Bundle.
This is obviously quite a significant issue for anyone creating even a simple mod, as they will be limited to using artwork and 3d models that already exists in vanilla Xenonauts 2 rather than being able to add their own.
Asset Bundle Tool:
We therefore need a tool that will allow modders to access Asset Bundles and add new assets to them, or to modify existing assets. It does not seem feasible to expect the community to create this tool, so the devs here at Goldhawk will create it.This will almost certainly take the form of a Unity plugin. This should hopefully require minimal Unity knowledge, as we can document the steps required to get it installed and working, e.g.:
- Download Unity
- Install plugin
- Open plugin window
- Use the GUI to select the assets you want to put into an Asset Bundle, and generate it at the click of a button
- Put the generated asset bundles in your mod directory
Asset Types:
However, this simple plugin will not be capable of processing every type of asset. The simplest assets just require the appropriate Import Settings being set in Unity, and these will work fine with the plugin. These include:- 2D Artwork
- Sound Effects / Music
- Textures for 3D objects
However, other types of assets are more complex and require setup within Unity, usually requiring scripts to function that require a much greater degree of setup. Initially these will be beyond the scope of the Asset Bundle tool, but we may create a more comprehensive tool in the future if there is a strong modding community. These asset types include:
- Materials for 3D objects (if they are using our own custom shaders)
- 3D Terrain Assets - these generally only require the script that governs the destruction states (undamaged / damaged / destroyed)
- 3D Characters - these are especially complex because numerous scripts are required, as well as various animation references etc
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This post is the second of three threads, and assumes you have already read the introductory Mod Loading & Simple Mods thread. This talks about the Mod Creator, which is the standalone tool which we believe is best developed and maintained by programmers within the community.
- Mod Loading & Simple Mods (Introduction)
- Mod Creator Tool (Community)
- Asset Editing & Asset Bundle Tool (Dev Team)
The intent is to create a standalone Mod Creator tool that allows a user with minimal technical expertise to view the data held within the various Xenonauts 2 entity templates (e.g. weapons, aliens, research projects, etc) in a GUI editor, and automatically export any changes they make as a mod package that can be uploaded to Steam Workshop or given to another player to install.
This tool will only support editing the game templates. It will be paired with the Asset Bundle tool to be created by the Goldhawk team, which will allow modders to add new assets or edit existing ones.
There is a public Github repository for the mod tools here. We're happy to grant collaborator access to anyone who wants to contribute, so please ask in this thread or on Discord etc if you would like that.
Why is this Mod Creator tool needed?
The task of editing templates can technically be done with only a text editor, but in practice there are several reasons why doing this is impractical:1) Human Readability: the JSON files used by the game to store this data are compressed for performance reasons, and their formatting (or lack of it) means they are difficult for a human to read in a text editor.
2) Template Component Inheritance: our JSON templates contain only the differences between their own values and those of their parent template. For example, if the weapon master template is set up to have a Damage component that is set to 20 Damage, and a Rifle is set to do 20 Damage, the JSON for the Rifle will not contain a Damage component (instead, it'll just inherit that component and value from its parent).
This means it's not always obvious what data a template contains by opening the JSON file, as the data you want to edit might actually be held in the parent template (or the parent's parent, etc). In the example above, if you wanted to set the Rifle to do 10 Damage you'd need to manually copy the component from the parent into the Rifle template and then edit the value, and getting that even slightly wrong will corrupt the whole template.
3) Directory Structure: the mod loader relies on the modded files following the same directory structure as the vanilla files they are meant to replace, and even a small error or typo here can cause problems. Given the template directory structure is quite complex it would be preferable if this were handled automatically.
Key Requirements:
The key requirements seem to be:
- The tool should not require access to Unity
- The tool should automatically create a manifest.json for the mod based upon the values entered by the player
- The tool needs to display all the information contained within the various game templates in a sensible UI (part of this will be handled by Goldhawk, as explained below).
- The tool needs to create modded templates in the appropriate directory structure, containing only the values changed from the vanilla templates
- The final mod should be output as a single zip file (as this is the format expected by Steam Workshop)
- Ideally, the tool should also allow the user to upload their file to Steam Workshop - as there is no manual upload tool for Steam Workshop!
The actual visual UI style of this tool does not have to be anything impressive; I've attached a screenshot of an editor for another X-Com game above that shows what modders can work with. The biggest and most important task is likely to be figuring out the layout and functionality of the UI. as there's lots of different types of entity and each has a lot of information within it.
However much of this work will actually already be done by Goldhawk, as many of the things that will make life easier for modders also make life easier for developers and the rules we set about how to display a component in our own development tools are saved into the templates the standalone editor will be reading. Some examples of these rules:
- Should the component be displayed at all? (some need to exist, but aren't relevant to designers)
- What is the sorting number of the component?
- If there are multiple values on a component, should they all be displayed or only some of them?
If you write an editor that reads these rules and hides the appropriate data, then displays the components in a vertical list based on ascending sort order, you will already have a fairly usable UI when you open a template (e.g. an alien like a Sebillian).
Obviously, it seems sensible for the standalone editor to also support expanding or overwriting these rules too, as the information that developers want access to may be different from what the average modder wants!
Technical Details:
Many of the technical decisions about this tool will ultimately need to be made by the community, such as what UI framework to use - Avalonia has been suggested, but ultimately whatever people know and are comfortable with would be fine.The only code and assets required should already exist in the directories of the installed game:
- The game templates are in /Xenonauts2/assets/assets/xenonauts/template/
- The code DLLs are in /Xenonauts2/Xenonauts2_Data/Managed/
Technical Documentation:
To be provided by our technical director GJ. -
This post is intended to explain the process of modding Xenonauts 2, covering the basic structure of a mod, how they can be loaded within Xenonauts 2, and how a simple mod can be created using only a text editor. This is the first of three thread, with the Mod Creator and Asset Bundle Tool having their own seperate threads.
- Mod Loading & Simple Mods (Introduction)
- Mod Creator Tool (Community)
- Asset Editing & Asset Bundle Tool (Dev Team)
What is a mod?
A mod is a folder within the game directory that contains one or more updated game files, and a manifest.json which contains the details of the mod itself.This is generally distributed as a zip file, which can either be uploaded to a service like Steam Workshop (which has support for automatically installing it in the appropriate directory) or can be given to a player to manually unzip in the appropriate directory.
The directory used for mods is: Xenonauts2/Assets/Assets/mods/
Xenonauts 2 Mod Loader
The Mod Loader is a panel built into Xenonauts 2 that allows the user to enable / disable the mods they have installed. It is accessed by pressing the "Mods" button on the Main Menu screen.
The Mod Loader will detect any valid mods that exist in the mod directory and display them in the list. Clicking any mod will allow you to view the details of that mod, and clicking the checkbox will enable / disable the mod.
The vertical order of the mod determines the priority of the mods, which matters if multiple mods conflict because they are changing the same values in a given template. You can click-and-drag to reorder mods in the priority list.
This part of the mod system is maintained by Goldhawk, and we are open to suggestions about how the interface can be improved or expanded. Here's a few quick thoughts of my own:
- Is the mod priority system obvious? Do we need to do more to flag up the fact it exists, like add a numerical column for it with an editable number?
- Having a button to delete a mod might be useful? (this would need Steam Workshop integration if so, otherwise it'll keep being re-downloaded)
- It might be useful to add a button that opens up the mod directory in file explorer?
Manifest.json
This text file contains all the details of the mod itself. An example manifest.json is shown below.{ "version": "0.0.4", "asset": { "Name": "Xenonauts Basic Cover Mod", "UID": "56bbba8a-7fb5-44c3-a6d3-834a2fb2d977", "Description": "A basic mod for Xenonauts 2 that changes cover values on all cover masters.", "Author": "Goldhawk Interactive", "Website":"http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/", "Tags":["Official", "Mod"], "Version": "1.0.0", "$type": "Common.Content.DataStructures.ContentPackManifest" }, "$type": "Common.Content.DataStructures.VersionedAsset" }The definition of each property is as follows:
- Name: the name of the mod displayed in the Mod Loader (set by mod creator)
- UID: this is a unique ID number for the mod, which should be autogenerated? what happens if two mods clash?
- Description: the description string of the mod displayed in the Mod Loader (set by mod creator)
- Author: the name of the mod creator displayed in the Mod Loader (set by mod creator)
- Website: the website of the mod creator displayed in the Mod Loader (set by mod creator)
- Tags: what are these for?
- Version: is this purely visual, or used by the Mod Loader to discard outdated versions of the same mod?
- $type: this value is part of the data structure and should not be changed.
Mod Files:
The mod also needs to contain the files that have been changed. Put simply, the game preferentially loads any file in a mod directory over the equivalent file in vanilla Xenonauts 2.The folder Xenonauts2/assets/assets/xenonauts/ in any installed version of Xenonauts 2 is the master "mod" for the vanilla game, holding all the core game assets created by Goldhawk. I mean this literally - if you navigate to that directory, you'll see the folder actually has its own manifest.json because the game treats it like a mod!
As an example, if you had a mod called "examplemod" and you wanted to edit this vanilla Xenonauts 2 file, you would place the modded file in the directory path below to load it instead of the vanilla file:
- Xenonauts2/assets/assets/xenonauts/template/strategy/player/xenonauts.json
- Xenonauts2/assets/assets/mods/examplemod/template/strategy/player/xenonauts.json
Note that the game is actually only loading the changed values here, not replacing the entire file. You therefore don't need to duplicate any data that is not actually being changed - if you were going to change the Damage value on a Ballistic Rifle, your modded file only needs to contain the updated Damage value as the rest of the data will be pulled from the vanilla Ballistic Rifle game file.
Creating a Simple Mod:
Creating a basic mod is therefore as simple as creating a folder in the mod directory, setting up a manifest.json, then duplicating any game templates that you want to edit and placing them in the appropriate directory structure within your mod folder. At that point you have a functional modification of the game that can be distributed to other users.However in practice this process is not as easy as it sounds. The biggest barrier is that the JSON files are very hard to read with a text editor, but there are several other issues too. This means we would like to create a standalone Mod Creator tool for our community that makes it more accessible!
It should also be noted that this process is inherently limited because it only allows editing data that exists in our JSON files, as game assets are held within Unity asset bundles and these cannot be edited outside of Unity. We will also need to create some form of Asset Bundle Tool that interfaces with Unity and allows users to add / edit the content within these Asset Bundles.
Read the next post in this series (which is about the Mod Creator tool) >>
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Yeah, this will be fixed in the next update!
A quick note from a long time gamer on load times, please work to shorten them
in Xenonauts-2 General Discussion
Posted
Thanks. Yeah, improving load times is one of our priorities at the moment, you should hopefully see some good improvements on that front in the next month or two!