Voidfoam

I for one dont mind at all not being able to open up breaches with explosives. But if extra breaches is a must?, cant additional entry points be something that the game can randomize in the hulls if the UFO is shot down? Or fixed? And by the way arent the big ships that Zzz1010 made already "massive?" That "carrier" and Battleship would be huge on the map? Are they supposed to being bigger? And then are there a good game play perspective on why ships should be soo friggin huge? Are randomized interiors just gonna change whats in the ships? Power sources, navigation, generators ect? Or the very placement of the rooms? This would feel strange? Wouldnt you build the same class of battleship the same way? I would rather like a very thought out and tested interior, rather than a randomized one. And if two parter comes anyway. My suggestion is the following: Have one map for exterior, not overly big. Fighting the troops sent out to stop you. Make the "massive" ship a big shade, its hull visable outside the map. Then the next part is one single map with the massive ship on. More like the big ships in Apocalypse. This way the objective would be obvious on the first map. Making missions connected in a good way. And then you could be free from problems with map size, make the ships as Humongous as you feel.

zzz1010, seeing those fanmade pics of yours and then realizing i will never be able to breach such epic ufos, makes me a sad panda. Very nice work- dont do more now pls.

Ok last time i enter this thread until i finished the game. Have you all gone through the Xenonauts files also? In a game where secrets and researching the unknown is half the exitement?

I am pretty sure you are wrong. Since it looks almost exactly like the game do now, except they are firing all the time. Animations and even the Mutons are still as they are. That and they say it is old build gameplay on forehand. Even so its besides my point. I wasn't discussing the authenticity of the game play in the video. I was talking about firing all the time.

Still its the best looking fire fight i have seen from the game. The old discussion of an option "Constant fire on/off" would have been nice- i liked it anyways. Maybe not all units shall fire all the time, some pot shots here and there atleast

Hmm. Thanks for linking that video of earlier verisions of the game Xenomask. i Hadnt seen that. I must say i think that firefight with the Mutons around minute 39-41 is about the coolest state i have seen the game in. Note when he aims at the Mutons also, how the UI looks. Clearly a more PC-suited UI there. And the instant fire between the soliders and aliens look so much more violent. Like a real firefight. They should have kept this, exept for snipers and launchers, imo. Wonder if the files are still there so you can mod it back in, they clearly state that it has been ingame.

Xenomask i cant find that video you talked about when they show rhe earlier builds of new X-Com. Link pls. I am interested. And i dont think its strange at all people here being more hostile towards X-com than vice-versa. Xenonauts is the underdog in being tha smaller game. The very announcment way back spelled doom for Xenonauts. Until people realized they are very unalike in almost every aspect. I am glad i get two great and very diffrent games based on one i loved. Couldnt be better. And why shouldnt there be several floors on the Ufos in EU. From what i gathered there will be huge ships.

I feel that all crafts that are going to be "enterable" should handle it the same way. Inconsistency on this matter i feel wouldnt be a good thing, confusing. The corvettes can be made a tad bigger, they actually look a bit bigger in the interception fights. Then make them with maybe 3-4 rooms and a small hallway. Or maybe a single big room with some computers or chairs and stuff to quickly hide behind. There is no reason why fighting in the smaller crafts wouldnt be interesting. I for one loved the cruiser and large scout the best of all ships from Tftd and ole UFO. The largest like the battleship i was never overly exited about for som reason. Maybe this should be discussed also, interior Ufo design.

Ok then Chris. Maybe i missread you. But i was under the impression that only a small part of the big Ufos was going to be visable. If your intention is too show all of the enemy crafts in thier complete form -then i am settled with this new approach. Interaction was not my main concern if this is you new take. I just wanna se them, its ok if half is outside the map

Well actually its included in my work to be able to talk in telephone and text messages while i drive. Also to read timetables, and oversights of signal placements and so forth. Keep in mind i dont have too steer with a wheel. As long as i can keep a watchfull eye on the distance ahead of me, i am fine. Cant stop within a mile or two anyways . And lets stay on this gamechangeing topic shall we? Now that i gave it som thought i would also be well with say having half of this "too huge" ship stretching outside the combatzone, all but the hull being blacked out, and the rest reaching within the combatzone. Then you could still fight around atleast half of the hull on the map. And view the imposing ship in its full sieze at the same time. Then after you cleared the surroundings. Part 2 begins inside. Atleast i know what i am attacking and how it looks from the outside. Having only some tiles of it show at the end of the map is sorry to say, very cheap, and such a obvious shortcut. But still, preferably, i would like a two parter. If traditional X-com style is being irreversibly sloped. Second part then being breach and into the ship. Then you could still scout around the hull to find blastholes and cracks to enter through if it had been downed. But please! If you dont render the entire ship wtih tiles and interior, dont give me a little part of a Ufo tail at the end of a map to gather around, then letting me storm into anonymous gathering of rooms in a blavck void. Fine for a alien base, i guess its embedded in the ground. The Ufos you have created are fantastic. Atleast show the entire hulls, before we go inside.

I did understand the problem with the shape an tiles. I thought if you placed the big ship on a map itself you could make the walls wider and make bigger gap between outside and inside. Then exterior art could be more separated from interior shape and limitations with the tile system. And yes i could consider any form of exterior representation of the ships. But the only thing i feel is not ok is to have them like a wall on the edge of the map. That would feel cheap an actually like a huge leap backwards from ufo EU and Tftd. I am quite convinced that alot of people not only me, feel as if this is a big part of this game. I really dont wanna keep the bigger ships only for viewing in Xenopedia artform. It lame. And i am sorry if my posts are coming of as rude or short. But i am driving a train while composing them. :-)

Great you see, you can fit an entire battleship on a map just the sieze of a scout. Just skip the surroundings. I am not trying to be a hassle. I for reasons i feel obvious do wanna keep the full representation of Ufos on battlemap. If its a twoparter or not, this i dont care about.

Yes apparantly that came as a surprise. And yes i heard they were huge. So put them on a separate map alone. There you go. Two part mission and you keep the ufos: as stated before, i think ufos is a big part of a game that revolves around them. I do respect the issues, but i dont feel removing the exterior and breach part as unimportant as many here seem doing.

I really dislike the idea of never seeing the total exterior of the ship on a battlemap. As in dislike alot. Downing cool ufos is whats X-com/xenonauts is about. Why not have twopart maps where one map is the clearing the outside part. Then have a second part wich is called say "approach", where you then have the entire Ufo rendered as you planned. You can then have huge ships, they dont need to be smacked up in a crowded map. Anything is better than storming anonymous interiors in a game thats about storming ufos. I was falling in love with the ufodesign and look in this game.

I can agree on split missions, as long as the ships are lying there, epic and awe inspiring on the map. Not a boring little wall on the egde of the screen. The ships must be present. Then whats the first thing you do before assaulting the ship itself. You secure the outside. I think the ships should still have fixed crew sizes. Maybe randomizing how many aliens left the ship or remained inside, so that you would sometimes have heavier fighting outside, sometimes inside. When the outside is clear, which of course is important, cant have enemys attacking our guys from the back when we moved into the ship. Then too the beloved breach part. I personally also loved this in X-com. Setting up my guys, watching the doors, while preparing to move in. Not knowing at all whats on the other side. So let part two of the map initiate, but let the starting area be a representation of the breaching point. Weather it be the main doors of the ship, or a hole in the hull. let the outlines be black and all you see is the wall of the ship with the entrance, and the grass or whatever a few tiles around your men. Then we can still breach all we want! And i also think that if this should be a two parter, then you could well build more ambience around the interior of the ship. Different sounds weather its a landed ship or crashed, alarms, alien communication. Expand on that part.

A handgrenade should definatily not push over walls or rip bodies to bits, unless being a highexplosive one in a confined area. I love the grenade effect as they are right now. Anyway i like the idea of having both enemy corpses and equipment being destroyed. And having mangled bodies sounds like a cool thing. I dont know whats possible with the animations of explosions. But say you have a direct hit from a rocket on a enemy- Then could you animate him being torn to pieces within an explosion? Seing the body, maybe shaded black from the bright light and smoke, limbs and bits flying around. Then afterwards bits of flesh and so on lying around in the crater, maybe a broken rifle. I love the animation when the drones pulverize, feels very violent. Then say if the target isnt destroyed, the ordinary explosion plays? Just as long as they physically dont just go up into thin air, thats lame.

Alrighty, ty Giovanni. I must add the nordic capitals so i can save Stockholm and Oslo if terrorized, and of course ignore to aid Copenhagen.

Actually i wonder, how much changes will the map see before release? Any more citys? Can you add citys easily with modding?

The old floaters were some kind of predator mixed with machine. They were quite nice. The reimage reminds me of the strogg race in quake. And they dont hoover with scary slow grace, more like orc stormboys of warhammer 40k. Doesnt fit the X-com universe at all. And the muton are some kind of gorillamen, quite unimaginative. I envision the old ones moore like the humanoid alien in Prometheus, now thats a Muton. Snakemen and Etherals will join and maybe more. They said they kept most aliens a secret. And when game developers say such they usually already showed the most of it, but Snakemen surely. They were iconic. So how do people feel about bossfights and a narrative story?

I always thought the sounds for human guns and cannons sound really well. Shotguns and machine guns. But the alien weapons need something more. They are fine for thier smaller pistols. But rifles and alien airweapons lack the punch and dramatic effect. They sound too "pew pewie" About impact sounds, is it only for impacts upon targets? I mean when shells hit ufos an steel sound really good.

HA, lost in translation. Maybe i should have written "a balm for the eyes" I blame the late hour. Let me instead make the comparison of his text as a "pearl among pebbles." Does that go better with the beloved leader? Oh and Knox, your comparison to the U-boat war makes me feel as if you also played the shit out of Silent Hunter Grey wolves? Am i correct? As soon as i get tired of the more action oriented "remake" X-com by firaxis, i hope that a fully beta tested Xenonauts will greet me. It will rock. I am starting to get worried for Firaxis remake though. I dont think that one will be anything like the original, sadly.

Because you might wanna destroy some ships right away, not down them, or fight them with interceptors. Many players might find it tedious, but still don't wanna loose the score. Anyways i weren't aware that this have been suggested before. Maybe it should have gone in the FAQ then if it was such a common request.

Well i guess if you had that kind of SAM site support and they were effective i guess you wouldn't have much of a game. I like to think that the Aliens have disabled them somehow, or that USSRs and US missiles simply are not effective against UFOS. Maybe they can jam them, missile tracking not working on UFO signatures. Or that they are simply too fast and agile if they detect missile launches from the ground. My suggestion was something that i think would be easy to implement and would give the player(occasionally) and instant destruction option, if interception is not something he wants to bother with. And maybe you would build them with captured technology. Even if the SAM sites of earth were effective, i guess that Alien bombers and bigger ships would make short work of them as soon as they were detected when they open fire. Maybe the guns stay silent in fear of the overwhelming retaliatory measures of the enemy. So then, if alien tech could provide some kind of jamming device, or maybe rapid redeployment from point of launch. Then you could motivate their entry into the war, and give them a chance of survival.

Maybe something here will help you. The air combat isn't balanced yet. http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/2952-Lost-air-capability-let-alone-any-sort-of-superiority-Help%21

Post more, or write a novel why don't you. One of the best formulated posts i read on a forum. Like balm for the eyes. I agree with what you are saying also. Even though i hardly think i ever again will have a game carry me away as X-com did. Xenonauts will be a better game though. Its also darker than X-com ever was.