roxxed

Damn thats a good effort sheepy. All in all i like the concept. The bottom right weapon bar looks a litle "busy" where size and some items could be removed/scaled down for a cleaner look. The alien portrait and stats is a fantastic idea. I could imagine when you first greet these foes that things like rank, alien type, weapon type ect could be marked as "unknown" in origin until you directly research each one to slowly reveal more as you progress through the game. Would give a great sense of wanting to know more about something. There could also be an information "I" section that links researched alien lore attached to it. As for the soldier portraits they might work the way you added it. They could be incorperated in to the main middle section? But you would prob lose needed visual info. I guess the idea is if you click on something then a seperate portrait opens with extended details which i like. Having a higher focus on human and alien portraits and there backbone details give a rpg sense which the game really needs.

The entire UI needs improving and modernising IMO. Some sort of floating slightly transparent windows with thin boarders(slightly spaced from each respective slot) and possibly segregating the portraits, weapons and end turn menus on different parts the screen. For eg the soldier portraits could be front and center at the bottom with all the associated info with a mix of skito and mazex's ideas(this will give you all the space you need), bottom left could be your weapons , secondary slot, grenades ect, and the bottom right could be end turn, open game menu and a few others clearly separated from the center point portraits. The current thick border and larger UI symbolizes a "theme" which is a little old school and will age very poorly. Horribly done example, but with the right alignment, windowing and sizing it would look good. Could even squeeze it in a bit so it doesn't take the entire bottom of the screen. Included is a the transparent window effect I was speaking about, but with obvious changes to feel like Xenonauts.

Nice build. The addition of bits and pieces at the start and on the right work well but I'm receiving a massive performance loss in this build. It was perfect in build 19, but has since gone back to the same as 17. The destruction of walls etc works well. Still seems hit and miss at times when I'm under 3 blocks from a target and a shotgunner needs 3 shots to kill. If these aliens are an early to mid game type than I can understand or i guess the xenonauts are rookies. For kick starter, will there be any objective added to the map? Seeking out something in the bigger building at the back on an upper level would give reason and direction to move in for new people playing and could be explained in the opening dialog, otherwise I guess they just run around and kill whoever shows their face. UFO's were the end goal but they dont exists in this map. So far looking great.

Maybe the weapons could be tiered just in the same way you encounter new aliens so different weapon tech types work better(or worse) depending on the aliens you encounter and their resistance/armor(Ceasans could be resistant to kinetic, but not laser. Androns hate plasma, but can resist laser ect) This can be categorized in some way so the player knows and it can be a simple damage modifier. There could be times where they are almost completely resistant which would make you have to correctly go back, do some digging and research and re-arm your troops with the right mix(although this would be hard to implement in this extreme case). Each weapon tech could then have their own merit and get more coverage through the game depending on what aliens spawn. Early game aliens could appear in the late game and still have an advantage if you don't pay attention. Once reaching the MAG tech it could be the elite of them all and burns through pretty much everything it touches which would make it almost a god like weapon to have in all circumstances.

That developer shortcut is a life saver. Been running around the map everywhere now. I've just tested the reloading on all guns and its working correctly. I didn't realise that it uses up 50% of your TU's to reload so that's where I went wrong. Better telegraphing would work a treat here for newcomers alike. Regarding the map its probably mainly the starting area side, center point as you've said(but will be filled with a tank) and scattered foliage and gardens between walkways and various parts of the map. The garage on the right coming through the gate could have something in it and a few army vehicles along the road parked at the various street bays( I think you have jeeps to use). As soon as you walk up that road nothing is protecting you from the central direction unless you walk up the fence line. To add, the outside concrete divider barriers, the red brick signs and some other misc things can be shot through when standing next to them. Not sure if they offer blocking when being fired at. Wasn't there a shield icon that would appear near cover in earlier builds? I like how that looked. I guess some of the emptiness comes from the grass texture that's consistent across the entire map (apart from the gravel in some areas). Flat dirt texture's and bark could possibly fix this to simulate where people have walked or to highlight gardens along the fence line, vegetation and concrete pathways for a less "cleancut" look. This can relate to the official images on your website of the ship yard and seeing white and yellow line markings on the ground breaking up the concrete look(shown below). Could use some small clusters of foliage, trees and rocks in various locations to fill the starting point, sides of the map and misc locations (and the center of pathways), but it depends on how you can make it look without it standing out like a sore thumb. I'm not sure what assets you have to play with regarding smaller trees and shrubs but regardless of all this I'm sure you have great map guys that work on all this stuff and have already seen my points as they created the fine map below, but wouldn't hurt to relay it none the less.

Some Observations so far: • Performance now is much better and very playable on my 980Ti. Constant 60FPS with some dipping when panning over buildings. All on max quality 1440P. The night time lighting and shroud is looking good • Standing on a roof can reveal Aliens that are indoors below with no clear line of sight. Office dividers in buildings do not block line of sight as well as other small issues with revealing aliens that are clearly hidden, but can be still seen through windows and on the other side of the buildings. • Like X1, you can sometimes shoot through walls namely around corners and when hiding on/in a corner (most likely need a side stepping animation to negate this when firing a shot). Perhaps you should not be able to receive a hit when in this cover as most times its 100% block, unless when flanked or throwing a grenade/explosive(or you could force fire and take the wall out). Maybe when the side stepping animations occurs, reaction fire can take place so its not 100% safe • Some issues with firing through windows into buildings when the alien is standing in clear view eg: can fire from some positions while others I cant and has to be CTRL forced. I think it has something to do with the shrubs in front of windows and there chance to block. Accuracy penalty for low lying shrubs seems steep and the current 40% could be used when kneeling. You can also have a chance to hit the shrubs when firing from height on top of a building when you would shoot over it by a mile. • Cant seem to reload some weapons or is it just me. • Grenade launchers reaction fire hurt my troops on multiple occasions • Can pan screen on alien movement, and on mission abort is says mission complete. • The randomization of damage in most cases makes killing an alien in 4 - 5 shots(sometimes more). This randomization should be more so at long distances and slightly less for close range as being close is more risky and should be rewarding (shotguns and heavy machine guns can miss at close range and wont kill). Some projectiles will disappear mid flight with no hitting sound and aliens are deadly accurate(This is probably more so balancing, and not bugs). Probably just me but the plasma fire is visually very fast. • Some obvious map arrangement and filling like more cover items, more tree's and un-pruned shrubs/foliage etc. Currently lots of open empty space and the terrain is very flat with no hilly elevation(Love the setting and night time environment, buildings are nicely filled with props and the ladders make for different battle tactics). Some multi level buildings would look good although I'm not sure if you guys are up to that yet but of course like X1 and its official release, nicely filled maps will come in time. • Glass textures missing in windows Is there anyway to move around without the restriction of Time units? To test line of sight and positioning?

Thanks Chris. Was keen to get my hands on this one.

+1

Yes they did in both games. 1) I don't think this should be changed as it keeps the fear in Reapers and makes you stay away. As long as you check corners and keep your distance you should be fine. For them to attack they need to be pretty close to begin with on the start of their turn. Some sort of cue would be nice with all aliens where you get a heads up of knowing when something is under the shroud or close by like unique footsteps or specific sounds to each alien. This would make it so you could plan your attacks and defense better with a higher strategy element, but it cant always be relied on. Sometimes you get jumped scared and there is nothing you can do about it. This is the main frustrating part. Maybe a scout drone with low HP? 2) You can always speed up time a little and go back out when the tanks aren't quite full so you can catch the last few. They stick around for a while. However, some sort of minor fuel tank/range upgrade and able to add 1 or 2 more rocket ammo would be nice so there was more customizing of fighters before having to buy the fancy new one. I do like how currently there is an automated equipping side of it, but some customizing would be good. 3) I believe this was a limitation in the first 2D engine and hence a lot of aliens had less moving parts and were more confined to their block like structure. This could be expanded with unity and definitely yes more organic like tentacles and less "humany". The Tentaculat from TFTD was scary AF. It did however have the fighting style of the Reaper. 4) Sounds good and seems logical for a normal human to do. Sometimes though they are best staying put rather than becoming a target. The aliens vary rarely go back into buildings you've already checked, but this could change with improved AI and better use of vertical upper levels in buildings. 5) Agreed (with some voice overs would be nice) 6) lol

This was just a general idea on a mission objective and location. They do take the "terror" a bit out of the mix, but it could be interchanged with different locations or things that are human related(TFTD had shipping routes). Infrastructure could be a different type of terror mission completely and could be called something else to mix up the overall types of missions. As for the Bombs they could be changed for some sort of alien device that uses psionics or something that brings terror. I am against timed missions and it could be explained somehow in the prologue that negates this. Landed/Downed UFO missions have the goal of finding the UFO so you have an end direction. Colony missions gave you a few choices at least but as it currently stands, terror missions are just kill everything.

Agreed. Terror missions may not need to be 2 parts(this could be unique to other types of missions like a colony for eg where the first mission is finding the entrance and the 2nd is the main assault)but they could house a certain type of alien mixed into the group only found on terror sites, they could be strictly Urban based or some sort of human infrastructure hub unique to terror missions(with added Unity colour grading, weather or fog effects to change the mood up from UFO missions) and even to add the aliens have rigged 3 large bombs scattered around the map to destroy the city (in the top level of buildings) that you have to deactivate which gives you a reason to search every building, and they could be heavily guarded where the aliens are more so found in buildings sniping from a window at the top floor and you have to infiltrate like you would with a UFO. There could be multiple angles of attack like crawling up a drain pipe and coming through a window and when these 3 bombs are deactivated you must kill all remaining forces. However there wouldn't be a timer involved on the bombs, just the fact that they explode on mission failure and blow up the location in question for a big funding loss or even country withdrawal. Speaking of multi levels, will there be more hilly terrain and upper and lower decks of colony's in X-2? One thing I've notice in X1 colony's is they are completely flat with no boardwalks or stairs to move to higher or lower locations. Early games were renowned for this as aliens would hide in the upper locations and ambush you or you would have to try and reach them. Edit: If finding the aliens is a concern as they are hidden in multi story buildings (and dont come out), perhaps some sort of visual cue could be made like you hear faint distant noises, or a quick sound reveal of clunking pots or pans under the black shroud in the alien movement phase which gives you a direction to move in and explore. In X1 I would only find Androns hiding in corners on ground levels and Harridans on the roof with the same basic principal and alien mix throughout each terror mission. All upper levels of buildings were disregarded.

Thanks Chris.

Sounds great Chris and I'll be in early to back it I've had much fun with my last play through of X1 and its in line with improving the story experience as i think it should be more than shooting down craft and focusing on the next biggest gun. The current detailed xenopedia is great for this. Last question as this thread is getting slightly off topic, If kick starter and pre-sales are good, are there any plans to have a research tree so one can visually connect what preceded it? There seems to be a few main locations of data extraction. 1.) UFO tech 2.) corpses/live aliens 3.) recovered alien artifacts(weapons, misc items). They could be grouped somehow so you can see it coming together as the game progresses and you know acquiring that alien officer led to a new type of craft ect via a linked line with blank space in between to know you still need to find something else to complete it. I love researching in games and its just a thought, I dont ask for much

Fair call as it does waste unnecessary time. Are there any plans to add voice overs in X-2 to bridge certain elements more(like this) and read out item descriptions? Perhaps can be used to give more direction in storytelling and tutorials without creating a huge animation budget. Xcom reboot had the science chick that voiced things in battle and geoscape to acknowledge new things and could prepare you for the next visual cue.

Reviving this thread, terror from the deep had grueling 2 stage shipping routs and "alien activity detected" missions that were very similar to colony missions but still mixed it up a bit. Perhaps what is needed is a few more major events that only happen 3 or 4 times in a general play through like an air port, power plant, hospital, boat harbor or certain location mixed with a different mission objective for a big pinnacle event. TFTD was good in this way as general missions were underwater, but terror missions were on land and of course the former that was just explained which gave more variety. Other potential events could be shown between standard UFO missions in the early game to split things up like country's giving there input about their alien situation etc to tell more of a story rather then waiting for each consecutive UFO mission to appear. Seeing the bigger TFTD missions come up on the screen always gave me chills and seeing that art work and knowing whats to come. I Haven't seen much of this artwork in my current play though of X1.

In the original xcom the ability to keep corpses, alien guns and many different alien ship elements(that were pretty useless) was vital and another form of management with money when it came to selling it as it was something you had to pay attention to after missions. Relying on the funding from the council alone was not always enough to give you that much needed boost to buy those extra scientists or manufacture expensive things in the late game. I do wish however that you cant use any alien weaponry on the battlefield that you've picked up until you've researched it. It should say alien artifact like the original. How does a xenonaut know how to use it if they dont know what it is? Part of the mystery should be not knowing what your fighting against. This would go hand in hand with having to actually research corpses and not having it done automatically after the mission ends providing there is guidance or a simple verbal tutorial along the way of each newly discovered event in the early game until it becomes common place. Curiosity can do wonders.

Thanks Chris, I understand the direction you are coming from. X2 is looking great! Cant wait to see some more snippets of whats to come.

Hi Chris, what will be changing in regards to the UI both in the Battlescape and Geoscape? Will the Geoscape, research window, base building etc remain in the same structure with updated UI? What about general audio changes/FX's/atmosphere and possible Battlecape weather effects?(rain, snow fall, dusk and dawn missions) and general mood of the gameplay considering you guys now have Unity to play with. Just trying to generally understand if X-2 will be a clone of the original right down to its structure and menus with improvements considering team size and budget, or if there are any other major visual changes being considered. Cheers

Getting some performance issues with this build. I haven't played previous versions so I dont know if its normal. i5-4690k OC, 16gb Ram, Nvidia 980Ti, Windows 10. At 1440p with everything maxed i average around 15fps and under. At low quality its marginally better(Understood my PC is aged a bit but should be still up to the task) Every image of X-2 I find on the internet thats not official from Goldenhawk are playing at low quality which doesnt give the game a good look

Gameplay and UI is looking good!