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thothkins

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Posts posted by thothkins

    I'll realise your map idea

    in Mapping Discussion

    Posted

    zzz did some lovely aliens that I think have made it into a more recent mod and I've seen the weapons around here...

    I played a terror mission with 20+ of zzz's aliens on it and a queen and it was great fun. To have the actual map would be great, and would also add a lot to industrial maps generally (possibly making decent use of the base facility assets too).

    Training facilities

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted

    I was booked onto a training course for pithy forum responses...but it was scrapped :(

    I was hoping the training would find it's niche in the game as it may have led to any number of specialisations. But the resources really needed to be used elsewhere and it just never seemed to get any momentum behind it.

    Ugliness of the Xenonauts...

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted

    It didn't take me long to prefer the 2d map. From being able to see everything without rotating the globe round to the aesthetic link between it and the generals on the main menu.

    I thought that not having an Antarctic base would be a pain, but the game's altered economy meant that it really didn't amount to an issue. My resources were tied up elsewhere all the time.

    Gauddlike has already pointed out the real map mock-ups and it's much better the way it is.

    The game pays it's homage to X-Com and didn't really take much form Apocalypse.

    regression

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted

    Now that would add something different. On one of your next battles you see that one of the aliens has a little medal icon hovering over it, showing that it killed a few of your guys in a lost mission. It's now tougher than it's peers, but will it be able to survive your vengeance? :)

    The only thing lacking is tone setting.

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted

    I agree that the intros were nice. but the absence of one in Xenonauts has not made me feel any less invested in saving the Xeno-world or made me feel that there was a lack of context.

    While the setting was always a fairly breif cover to get to the focus of the game: the battle scape, the Alien Invasion research that appears after a day or two, the novella and the web site back story were always more than enough for me. Point taken that tow of those are outwith the game itself.

    I'd argue that the all action, jumping X-Com soldiers form the original game intro don't quite match the terrified, wounded X-Com soldiers creeping through a corn field to certain death in the actual game :)

    Development Diary / Post-Mortem

    in Monthly Development Updates

    Posted

    Thanks for that Chris. It was an interesting summary of many of the things that have been discussed here over the months and months...and from the dev diary some more months and months.

    But that has always been one of the plus points. That despite the changing funding, the early set backs, the horrible engine you still discussed a lot of those issues with the people here.

    One quote concerned the realistic setting "I consider it a mistake. Firstly, we wasted the setting: the mistrust between the two superpowers is barely mentioned, let alone factored into the gameplay mechanics. I took an interesting period and

    then did nothing with it."

    As someone who banged on about the game crying out for this part to be developed further, I'd be the first to say that it was still one of the biggest attractions in the first place.

    Choosing that setting and,specifically, making that gritty Osprey style art available so early, gave the game a distinctive style that any amount of near-future games would fail to achieve. Like the stories behind each Xenonaut, there's a lot that can be picked up by the player's imagination in such a setting.

    Because of the interaction with the forum, it was clear what the priorities of the game were to be. So, while it's true to say that the setting wasn't developed as much as it could have been, it was always clear why. I'd never say it was wasted, since it was a big drawing point in the first place.

    Another quote "Having the community involved in development is of huge benefit to any team, but I really feel the

    optimal point to bring them in is when the prototyping phase is over and the design is largely settled."

    I can certainly see the appeal of that from a developers side. But from a player's view having all those discussions means that the reasons behind the choices are understood. I could pick half a dozen things from when the game design was largely settled and mistakenly think poorly of the game. Perhaps enough to not pick it up.

    Knowing how those decisions were reached, makes quite a difference. Having an opportunity to express an opinion before hand makes an even bigger difference. Not venting on several issues at once, as you would had the game been developed more privately also helps. The global reach chinook being a good example of this. It's a natural reaction to see people react poorly at first to small changes, let alone the larger design decisions that had to be made for Xenonauts. As uncomfortable as those first few days are, it works out in the end.

    I'll realise your map idea

    in Mapping Discussion

    Posted

    Hmm.. I wonder if arctic tileset would fit in Hadleys hope -themed compound... I've yet to map with arctic tileset so it's completely strange to me still.. :)

    An option for an Antarctic/Arctic map is Outpost 31, from the 1982 Thing movie.

    A map was put together for a Ting boardgame and there are lots of pics on the rest of the Outpost 31 site

    The only thing lacking is tone setting.

    in Xenonauts General Discussion

    Posted

    The cold war setting was an important factor in drawing me into Xenonauts. The bleak tone of the art and the rapidly escalating alien threat sets the game apart form other X-Com type games.

    I would have loved for that to have been taken further (a changing cold war political world based on the game events), but I totally understand where the resources had to be used. I'm not sure a title video would have added much more than the in game art already did. It would have been nice to see. But in the same way that a lot of features would be nice to see. I'd always prefer resources spent on the game itself.

    As someone has said, the Lore+ mod should add more of that original X-Com flavour.

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