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thothkins

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Everything posted by thothkins

  1. I had always hoped the connections between the companies in Apocalypse could be used across countries in an X-Com game, or Xenonauts. The invasion and your actions would have consequences for each country, that they would then react to or take advantage of.
  2. Thanks for that Sheepy, it was an interesting read.
  3. I enjoyed the original and gold versions quite a bit. So, it's not going to take too much for me to pick this up whenever it comes out.
  4. May 20th 2020 is the latest release date for this according to a recent e-mail.
  5. Very decent start Not having the £75/£100 looks a little unusual. But there's no point adding needless fluffery, if it's more trouble than its worth. Need to sign into a google account to vote? hmmm. The numbers have gone up rapidly even as I've typed this.
  6. Major event that happens in your home town? with some input on the type of event you'd like within the parameters of the game missions.
  7. Lots of interesting, positive mechanic changes in there. In particular I like the world becoming far more integral to the game, the creeping infiltration and the involvement of varied neutral missions. Some random thoughts... While having an alien boss can be used in all sorts of varied mission types and be fine, it would be nice to keep the option for multiple aliens for key missions/ random missions to keep the player on their toes and for increased difficulty levels. Having an injured squad limping to what you think is victory only to then spot another alien would add tension. It doesn't have to be hordes of them. Also keeping players on their toes would be to have some random factors in Threat. It would mean that you were never *exactly* sure when the aliens would launch an attack against you. You'd know it was close/ likely but they're ..well ... alien and a bit unpredictable. Various events could alter that Threat factor just a little, pulling it back or pushing it over that edge into an assault. Combining soldiers and staff looks really promising, resulting in a really specialised unit. In addition to the military aspects of it, it reminds me of all those pulp heroes who were as good at research as they were with a gun. Will the limit be affected if loads of people would like to name a staff member through a Kickstarter option? Players will regret putting Prof Quatermass out on a combat mission, just because they needed the warm bodies, only to see him shot though I used to avoid night missions like the plague! I really should have got some practice in
  8. Busking, garage sales, e-bay... all skills in X-Com:2 and could be ours in Xenonauts 2 too! I do agree about the tone of the art. It's one of the things I remember first when thinking about Xenonauts. I'd miss that miserable, underpaid, overworked look of my troops if it was replaced by the standard steroid abusing hero/heroines.
  9. Since the focus of Xenonauts was always the ground missions, there's a balance to add depth and choices to the game without it getting in the way, or turning into a board game. Much like the good air combat sometimes seemed to have too much importance at times. It does a bit. But since all the nations are really stingy in funding Xenonauts in the first place, their money must be going somewhere in the face of an alien invasion. Possibly setting up their own plans and units with a view to taking advantage of the invasion, even as they fight it. You'd get to reuse a lot of the human sprites by making them enemy spies, agents or soldiers too. Just off the top, but having a politically linked world helps here. You want to help Australia because they are key US allies in Oceania. If they go, then there's a domino affect both politically and in local forces being able to coordinate defences against the aliens. A look at facilities could also help. Perhaps Australia is the place where medical research is a premium. Labs located there get a bonus to medi-kits, surgeries and later technologies such as nanotech, cloning etc. Lose them, and the technology may be found elsewhere, but it will be harder to come by. Australia is also the place where the Castlemaine XXXX non-lethal cannon to capture aliens is being developed, as everyone knows. Without changing the shape of the world's landmasses there's not much we can do about this, but perhaps the Cold War political setting might be used to add a new mechanic or adapt existing ones that makes the initial base placement less constrained? Yup, having the player not only look out for humanity, but potentially a certain part of it. This could take the part of an overarching theme of the game. But it could also be horse trading in the middle of it. The US will increase spending on that new tank technology but only if you help that Engineer escape Berlin/ rescue him form the aliens etc. The Middle East will increase funding, but only if you don't give alternate energy technology to oil dependant nations. Little deals that then affect the game, change the globe and promote those important missions.
  10. Two questions - one, would you buy an improved version of Xenonauts again if we made it? I'd definitely buy it, or if it were to go the Kickstarter route, back it to at least the same level as before. Secondly, what annoyed you about the first game and what do you think we should improve? Probably just seeing how much that early engine decision hamstrung the game and made lots of other things so difficult. If you were free of that... then you must have simply loads of things you'd like to change. Intended Improvements: These are the improvements to Xenonauts that I'd like to make in a sequel: •Full 3D - We'd make the game in full 3D with a (90-degree) rotatable camera. I'd also want to replace soldier paperdolls and painted screen backgrounds etc on the strategy layer with 3D models. As someone has noted, there's an atmosphere around the original games. But since you know that, so I'm sure you'd know what you're after there. •Aliens - I'd like to add some more aliens, rework some of the existing ones mechanically to be more interesting and also redesign them so they look more striking and "alien" in the ground combat. I grew to quite like them. It's going to be really tough to top the X-Com greys and Chryssalids. But you had decent stand ins. A bit more oomph in their execution, losing the star trek outfits although it was nice pretending they were Wesley Crusher before opening fire:) etc. Perhaps not being able to use their weapons - leading into a more "believable" reverse engineered look for Xeno-weapons? •Research / Development - I want to add the concept of 'development' to the research tree, allowing you to continue researching "hub" technologies (like laser weapons etc) to increase their effectiveness if you choose. Choosing whether to improve existing tech or research new stuff should add more choice to the research tree. Losing the linearity of this would be good, and the hub idea opening up multiple further channels is a good start. I'm sure the economy and all the instantly appearing stuff could be looked at too. •Destructible UFOs - the UFO outer hulls should be destructible, which means we'll have to redesign them visually too. Yup, and also for the tactical changes blasted hulls made in the original. •Vertical Terrain - we should have hills etc in the game, rather than purely flat maps with buildings offering the only verticality. Definitely. A better tactical landscape offers all sorts of possibilities. •XCOM Cover System - I think the cover system in XCOM was very easy to understand and also integrated 'leaning' in an intuitive way, whereas our cover system was a bit of a mess. I think we'd probably switch to their cover system. •Soldier Colour Customisation - I want to redesign the armours so they are more recognisable from silhouette, allowing people to customise their colours of their troops (including having role-specific colour schemes). A relook at stats, skills, training, roles and customisation would be great in addition to the customisation. Having the ability to note memorable actions/mission notes for each would be nice too. UI - the existing UI is a bit of a mess, particularly with regards to the strategy layer, so we'd redo that. I was generally OK with it, but there's always room for improvement in everything. •Air Combat - I'm not sure exactly how I'd redesign this yet, but I think it could do with further improvement. I ended up really liking this. It still stands out...probably more than it was possibly intended to. •Tutorial - the game should use the Iceland Incident as a playable tutorial that explains the setting and the basic game mechanics. There's also the possibility of having a couple of things appear alter, depending on how you do in the tutorial. Certain personnel perhaps appearing later. •Modding Tools - we've been working on some pretty cool game editors and level editors, so the modding / translation / level creation tools will be much better than in Xenonauts 1 and will handle the "modular mod" stuff automatically. Always great to have. Other thoughts An more immersive cold war experience where countries shift allegiances, not only against the alien threat, but against each other would add another layer to the game. Tying resources/r&d to certain countries/ regions would be good too. Making the world part of the game, rather than just an interesting backdrop would make it a more memorable experience. Additional mission types, even if it's an increased number of secondary mission objectives. A motion scanner, sentry gun and a Reaper Hive
  11. Good News. I've been holding off so I could play this version. Lots of good changes too. Thanks to everyone for all the had work.
  12. Gah! incoming incendiary shells from tank commander Julian! Back into the building! What do mean we can't go back in because of the fire alarm? Gah! Run around aimlessly waving arms!
  13. Quick everyone, Pancakes is coming! We need to escape. Someone set off the fire alarm
  14. That troll is well on its way to being legless. Remember: Don't drink and smoke!
  15. Jillickers! I'd forgotten all about goodies! I've no idea what I put down for now. I'll need to dig it out. I always meant to get round to doing a T-Shirt of my avatar actually...
  16. thothkins

    Anime

    Different enough in tone from that edited BotP without the extra violence we got here. Ironically, to make up the time they added in 7 Zark 7 to make up the time, leading to more violent children who just wanted to shut him up.
  17. I didn't want to seem greedy, but I was thinking the same thing
  18. While the one on the right is sleeker and hi tech, I prefer the one on the left as it looks as though the engineers have spent ages trying to get it to stay stable in flight - in the end having to have a more intricate/busy looking piece of equipment just to get it working.
  19. The campers thought they would have pancakes for breakfast, over their fire. They couldn't have been more wrong.
  20. I've enjoyed tweaking Target: Earth as my X:Com board game.
  21. We had loads of guitars. But the man from Mars stopped eatin' cars and eatin' bars And now he only eats guitars. Flaming nuisance. Rapture's too good for 'im.
  22. Meanwhile, back on Earth mankind develops futuristic, corporate driven megacities. The Xenonauts have largely been mothballed, with a few scattered vets reclaiming salvaged UFOs, researching artefacts or patrolling the edges of humanity's expansion. Without warning, a dimension gate appears above a city. The gravitational havoc it causes only a precursor to the devastation unleashed by the alien craft that depart from it... Xeno-Apocalypse...
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