Snarks

The cover system in Xenonauts annoys me a lot. I understand how it works, but it breaks immersion when a tile two tiles away blocks a shot. Playing around the cover system makes the firefight feel more like puzzle solving than an simulated combat experience; it feels like I'm gaming the system by exploiting awkward angles. In fact, the cover system is so immersion breaking that I find it hard to enjoy the game. Simply converting to XCOM EU's cover system is reason enough for me to buy Xenonauts Remake. Cover should be the immediate objects surrounding a soldier, not the dozen possible objects littered across the map. Edit: I've been reading a few of the forum posts and noticed something. There's no discussion on the ammo system! XCOM EU ammo system was infinitely more important than the one in Xenonauts. As it stands, ammo hardly matters because it is so easy to load up on a surplus of ammo on the soldiers. I suggest taking XCOM EU's ammo system, where for instance, a rifle fires 20% of its magazine rather than 1 bullet out of 20. Reloading needs to be a tactical consideration. Ammo conservation at the moment is either silly (running out of ammo in a short firefight) or a non-decision (too much ammo in the gun for reloads to really be important).

This is mainly directly at Chris, but I'll welcome other comments. So I want to make an indie game, and I'd really love to get some tips from the development of Xenonauts. I've followed development of Xenonauts, played it, loved it, but most of all, been surprised that it succeeded as much as it did. To cut to the point, I'll divide this into 3 sections: my resources, my plans, and a series of questions for Chris (but open for everyone else to discuss as well). I welcome any criticism. Resources [27,000 pounds in savings (converted from about 40,000 USD] [been exposed to coding (not saying I am an experienced coder, just that I know the basic concepts] [3 months to learn any kind of skill] [Friend in the UK who's a relatively experienced coder] [Worked on the Company of Heroes mod, Operation Market Garden, along with above friend (so we have good team chemistry)] [Friend has a basic turn base strategy game as his dissertation project. We are considering monetizing it as our first project for seed money, but we need to develop it further.] [Can do some basic statistics and numerical type mathematics] Plans [Acquire a Visa via my friend in the UK; his university might be able to sponsor me for a 5 year Visa] [Move to the UK (to work in person with my friend & possibly take advantage of a cost production subsidy (~25% of production cost refunded)] [Develop a simple game before trying a more complex game] [use the Unity engine (engine choice is important and Xenonauts was pretty constraint by its engine)] [Find people who can do art, music, and sound] Questions [How much funding did Xenonauts have initially? How did subsequent funding phases go?] [How important is working in proximity with people? I have no attachments in the US that will prevent me from flying over to the UK.] [is it better to "test the water" with a simple game or dive into a more complex idea you have in mind?] [should I consider part time employment, or is it better to concentrate on developing the game?] [Where can I go about recruiting people to work on other aspects of the game?] Any other tips or comments are welcomed. Thanks!

It's not that their stats, baring bravery, don't increase normally. It's the notion that it is easy to raise most stats if you did some silly things. The problem is akin to doing every single ground combat mission because the opportunity cost of is high. Airstrikes were introduced to discourage that behavior, although the current values doesn't seem to do a very good job of discouraging players from doing every ground combat mission. The opportunity cost of not loading your soldiers to the limit is a stat increase, and the drawbacks to loading them up is the loss of a couple of TUs. And last time I checked, you could also load them right at the limit, so they don't get a penalty but still receive a strength stat increase.

Making the funding a little random can help offset the normal base placement. Firaxis XCom had an interesting solution by making the different locations provide different benefits, although it ignored the traditional interception strategic layer aspects. At this point though, I'm not sure if Goldhawk can do anything to change the mechanics and metagame.

The problem is more along the lines of how soldiers get their stats increased. The game tends to encourage people to do gimmicky stuff for stat increases. In the OG, people would line troops up in front of a mindcontrolled enemy in order to train reflex. In Xenonauts, we do similar things such as making sure every soldier gets to shoot, making all the soldiers carry up to their limit, etc. It also isn't very feasible to train up bravery with the current values and mechanics. Overall, I feel that the stat increase mechanics aren't well designed, as it promotes behavior outside of what's intended as simply playing the game normally won't provide the same benefits.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the intended menu background. From what I can tell, this has been the case since 1.0, but that was only when I started playing again.

Bravery followed by reflex. Everything else can be compensated for so long as it isn't in the 40s range in which case, I probably won't be hiring that soldier anyways. I've also modded my own game to reduce the range of stats. A 40 any stat soldier is just kinda useless and would take too much effort to bring to par. Even though +5/-5 of a stat doesn't really mean that much, I find that my OCD makes me want to bring everyone's stats to around the same value. I've thought about making everyone start at a flat 55 or 60 for all stats, just so I won't get peeved about the asymmetry.

Aw shucks. What about stat increases from leveling up a stat? Is it possible to increase bravery by 2 points instead of 1 per level up then?

On a modding note, where are the values for the bonuses conferred by medals? The only part I could find and identify was a line under the strings file, but that seems like the text you get from mousing over rather than the actual stat change.

That actually sounds pretty cool. I'd imagine you can do things like refinement or different applications of the Xenonauts technologies.

I like to name my bases after traits associated with Xenonauts for extra immersion. Vigilant Intrepid Resolute Stalwart

You can throw grenades into an alien aircraft from the outside.

I'm in the camp of remake and not sequel myself. I'd like to see Xenonauts 2 with more features that builds off the existing stuff. I want to see something like Pact/NATO alignment that determines early game tech. More weapons that aren't just a progression of the original weapons. So flamethrower for ballistic, bouncing laser for laser, whatever for plasma for plasma, and etc. Just more of the game and more ambitious.

I was referring to Xenonauts the software, not the game universe. If we're talking really long term here, it's possible for Goldhawk to return to Xenonauts the game universe and redo the entire game on a new engine although I think it's fairly unlikely that it'll happen. I'm simply referring to the notion that Xenonauts could have been an even better game if the devs aren't so hamstringed by the engine.

It's a shame. I hope someday we'll get to see another XCom (or Xenonauts) remake that'll take advantage of a better engine. Xenonauts is a step up from XCom for the most part, but because of the engine, it's unlikely that the devs can make it two steps better.

Androns and Sebellian I find are particularly aggressive on terror missions. That said, I heard that there's going to be some changes so that the aliens don't spawn right outside of the Charlie. This means the aliens will sweep in from one side while the Xenonauts approach from the other. That said, I hope there's somekind of compromise that allows for the occasional in-your-face alien assaults.

Most of the gameplay content is already in. You can play the game from start to finish. Most of what's being done now is balancing, bug fixes, and things like research entries.

Will the sprite (in the base layout menu) be updated to be more sharp? At the moment, it looks very stretched especially when next to all the other sprites.

Checking it out now. I'd love to see how my playstyle differs from another on the same build.

Doesn't having more bases require more soldiers to defend against base attacks? Or do you just shoot them down before they get a chance to attack?

But is it possible to treat them in Xenonauts? When I tried to mouse over the body with a medkit, I don't seem to get any indicator to treat them.

Not to detract from the current discussion, but does anyone else find the laser sniper rifle lackluster? It seems to only have marginally better stats in damage, penetration, and range, but a lot less ammo. Boosting its ammo count to 8 or increasing its range advantage might make it more in line with the assault rifle -> laser rifle upgrade path.

Yes, I had a medical center. I'm not sure how you would revive someone who had been knocked out though.

So I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature, but occasionally I find that a Xenonaut who was shot and knocked to the ground survive at the end of the mission. Does this mean they were not fatally shot? I've also noticed that sometimes their body does not show up in the inventory screen until a few turns later. So if they can be wounded on the ground, is it possible to stabilize them?

Well, the ones I already suggested can be made realistic. VIP can be: a general, a politician, a renown scientist, etc. Macguffin cache could be: classified intelligence, prototype schematics, deciphered alien transmissions, a nuclear device, etc. Other potential secondary objectives: 1) Wounded personnel. You have to use your medkit to heal them. Maybe have them die after a dozen turns if not treated. Fluff reason: Wounded civilians have been spotted in the area requesting medical assistance. Attempt to reach the wounded survivors and apply first aid. 2) Alien communication array. Use explosives to blow up an alien device. Fluff reason: The aliens are broadcasting information relating to local forces and Xenonaut activities. Destroying them as soon as possible will reduce alien intel regarding Xenonauts capabilities. 3) Alien infiltrator. Kill a special Caesan unit that will hide or avoid the Xenonauts. Fluff reason: Intelligence have reported that an alien masquerading as a high level official (or alternatively, intelligence have suggested that an alien infiltrator) has been spotted in the area. Eliminate the target before they can escape. Now logic-wise, the cache objective makes little sense since the Xenonauts would just secure them after the battle anyways. So that one is a bit iffy although we can come up with some reason to make it more realistic. The VIP one is automatically accomplished if the VIP lives. All the other ones have time sensitive reasons attached for them to make sense. I.e. Wounded will bleed out by the end of the battle. Alien communications array will have broadcasted important intel by the end of the mission. Alien infiltrator would have managed to escape the area. We can leave out the masquerading as an official part and just have it ambiguous. I think these objectives can add some variety. We have some blow stuff-up type objective, an assassination objective, a healing objective, a defend the VIP objective, and a secure a location objective. Now we should also consider whether or not multiple objectives can appear or if we only want one per mission or a chance of having only one per mission. Edit: I've got an idea for a plausible MacGuffin cache. This one is easy too. Alien spacecraft spawns somewhere on the map and you have to keep a Xenonaut inside of it until the mission ends. Fluff reason: An alien spacecraft has been spotted in the area. Secure the craft before it evacuates the premise.