flashman

gratz on hitting the 80% average on metacritic. I know its a duff metric, but its psychological and RPS did a nice piece on the game. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/xenonauts http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/07/10/impressions-the-triumph-and-struggle-of-xenonauts/#more-218925

Is there an ETA on the final mission fix? I would love to complete the game properly instead of the game completing it for me

All bodies are destroyed except the first of each kind. You can't sell them like in Xoom. The soldiers have a chance of not being killed in a sliding scale depending on how many hp past 0 they go. So they might be bleeding out but you patch them up. But they will end up need 3/4 weeks to recover

To clarify for the initial response on steam drm. Xenonauts is on steam but it doesn't need steam. The game is drm free if you launch the executable direct. Steam does not need to be logged in.

Here you go Chris, Hit end turn twice and it ends with success. turn new game 1.sav turn new game 1.sav

I just completed final mission without completing the final mission. I simply cleared the first 2 rooms and it ends. I have attached my save game. |Just hit enter to go through 2 turns and then it pops mission success for me. turn new game 1.sav turn new game 1.sav

Last night I had an alien pop out the door, chuck a grenade, blew up half my men, blew up the door, exposing my survivors to a torrent of rapid gunfire from his 6mates who could now see me due to the lack of door. This was followed by 2 more teleporting next to me to make a bad day lol

It's so easy to nit pick when so much hard work has gone into radically improving so much. Praise where praise is due!

Having stalked the forums and the map editor for a long time I was sidetracked by divorce a year ago and xenonauts disappeared into the ether of when I have free time. Now the game is at 1.0 I would just like to say: 1 thank you for including some my submaps in the final game! It's cool to know I designed some buildings that I am fighting over. 2 Praise height. I almost had a heart attack the first time I was hit from the second floor. Glad you got the ai to use upstairs. 3 clean goescape. I prefer the look and feel of the new goescape with a standard theme across the goescape. 4 events are popping up in a clearer and more worrying way. I start to panic now when Southern Africa is being strafed. 5 better hidden movement, less jarring and flows a little better. 6 aircraft changes last year felt a bit simplistic, but having played the game with them in it feels refreshing and means I can focus on the best part ground combat. 7 maps feel tighter and better paced. I also like some of the new designs and the use of props from different tile sets has helped with variety. 8 medal system makes me happy to level up units and I feel attached to them. 9 combat feels snappier and more responsive 10 bullets - generally go where there meant to go now with no weird right angled shots 11 xenopedia makes game feel complete and you have tried to write it from the perspective of an over excited and slightly mad scientist in love with his job but not the aliens. 12 loading times.. Omg.. This is amazing

The problem is that there are no game prompts pushing you to go for 3 bases in 3 months and you sacrifice so much in terms of progression that i can see large numbers of players instinctively going for lasers/wolf/interceptors. The game doesnt feel paced to get a 3rd base up by December, it feels paced for a 2nd base in October/November and a 3rd through December/January. Ignoring the financial issues balance atm, my solution for new players would be an instructional pop-up, this is because anyone coming from the new XCOM will have no idea about base expansion. 1) End of first month - 2 hrs before funding window is displayed. Have a popup telling players what is about to happen. "On the first of every month you will receive funding from around the world. However, these funds will change depending on how you deal with the alien threat on each continent. As a result you need to carefully balance the following areas to maximize success: 1) Base expansion to protect a greater proportion of funding nations. 2) Weapons and armour as you battle the extinction of mankind. 3) Development of high speed interceptors to neutralize them in the air. Our Intelligence analyst recommend that you have 3 bases fully operational by December." 2) Next, 2 hrs before the end of Month 2. A new popup window. "You are about to complete the second month of your global campaign. Look carefully at the changes in funding and identify which nations are at the greatest risk of being neutralized by the alien threat. Plan your base expansion so that you can protect these nations before you lose them permanently!"

Well I have been with xenonauts since before kickstarter and have played and completed every xcom, including interceptor, and I have to say that the rapid decline in monthly funding drops faster than any xcom game that I have played and this causes the game to be lost before it even starts. XCOM did +/- if you secured the USA it went up, if you ignore ASIA it went down. For the first few months this was perfectly fine and it allowed you to get a grip on the world because the positive countered the negative to a large degree. However, In Xenonauts I have now come to fear the end of month in V1.0 - Funding drops so fast- (seriously? We are fighting for survival here!) that by the 3rd month pay day brings results in -£300.000 due to upkeep and wages. Suddenly instead of planning that base expansion to save South America, I am forced to run 6 mission just to get back to 0.

Chris if it is in your power on Earth, prioritise the posting of the burnt DVD's. This way you can keep the good mojo flowing and avoid kickstarter reacting against you. I can guarantee someone will make a storm in a teacup if the game is 'officially' released before the backers DVD's ship.

Just realised I posted my thoughts on the wrong thread -moving here to tidy up my own mind. A full frontal media campaign will need several parts. I would do 2 videos - 1 explosive trailer 40secs and 1 kickstarter style exposition looking at the project in 5 mins with cuts to you saying thank you to the community for years of support. A polite gesture goes a long way to drumming up support. I would then sort out a range of new screenshots. Maybe have a best screenshot competition on the forums to help you now attachments are working. Just limit the tech level of the screenies if you want to prevent spoilers. Finally I would have 3 versions of the press releases to go out. Long form, short form and kickstarter. Email out a steamcode with every press release and if you are mates with any developers get them to chip in with some quotes. "The most authentic XCOM game since XCOM" i would also post the kickstarter version on the steam forums- to show you care about them. Obviously an update to the website is on your to do list as this will be the first port of call for many undecided people as well as reviewers. Also remember that you have 4668 backers. Even just posting out 1000 physical items could take you two weeks unless you use a fulfillment centre. Make sure your ready for it with tape, box cutters pre-printed labels with itemised requirements attached for every backer to save you a headache. Organise all the items to be posted by size, clearly mark the size/item on the box for when you are damn bloody tired. Have plenty of plasters on hand, moisturizer and never ever lick an envelope. That is why you have wet sponges.

Chris this post really needs to be copied and pasted on the kickstarter

wrong thread- the end

Glad you are into polishing phase, well done. However, I would be careful with steam since you have picked the moment that the floodgates have opened to set a release date. The amount of shovelware on the front page is now forcing new games off the release tab with hours instead of days. Hopefully steam will add new store filters within the next 10weeks, otherwise you can see rants by totalbiscuit and others about the issue. If you give the community notice about who you have spoken to etc then we can push other elements. Remember you are pushing Win/Mac and Linux and there a lot of very vocal mac and linux mags/sites who would give you coverage.

better but still manic! the joy of parenting 3 kids solo Now that Chris has managed to get all the assets into the game i will see about playing with the map editor again at the weekend.

Stinky I have combined the 2 map packs + your asset pack into CMP3. Hoping nothing is broken as i have not got time to check it with v20 atm. I have moved the CMP3 rar into the shared map folder on drop box. This means that you now have full control over the contents and can update it if you want with extra maps. My absence is painful but unfortunately I dont have much choice or time to do anything else atm. Silly ex wife

hey stinky Wow this feels weird. Spent 7 months chasing kids and the like. Gonna update CMP to include your fixes.

yes a way to tell maps as loading would be nice. ANyways.. Wow im not dead, but 3 kids solo is HARD!!!!

yeah the carrier/battleship maps not been done yet. I have had a wife crisis and I am looking after 3 kids fulltime o i not made anything in 8 weeks that and I suck. Carrier maps were next on my to do list before shit hit a fan so to speak.

if you have a screenie that would help else we have about a zillion arctic maps

Overlapping tiles, what ever you place down last/click last comes to top. it is like a powerpoint where you select bring to top. If there is something underneath it doesnt usually cause a problem. The biggest issue is making sure that ground tiles like grass are aligned correctly and to make sure that things dont join up random fashion. Most things have a set way to join up. You can use any other buildings in your maps but you need to be careful because not all styles work together. You have to copy the building you want from the tile type it is in, to the tile type that you want to use. E.g maps\town\building\gas_station - you could copy it to maps\farm\building\gas_station

I think people have higher expectations of what they want and they have grown to expect things to work all the time. If your tank got stuck because of the way a map worked then a review site would destroy the game for its poor quality/infuriating map design.

its not simply about density for difficulty, but you could accidently end up with maps that break vehicles because they need 3x3 movement or you could end up in Turkey shoot and loose all your troops coming off the ramps. Its a fine balancing act.