Dritz

I love the look of that U.I. Having both name and weapon on the soldier is perfect, the TU implementation looks super useful too.

No I didn't, but I did hear alot about it. I think the obviousness of it depends on the context. For example in Neverwinter nights one question was to what extent does the player let economic need drive morality? Life in the city of Neverwinter and its surrounding environs is expensive and dangerous. Good equipment and specialised gear is essential to win in battle. Now if you want to help people along the way, is it right to ask for compensation in return for that aid, and if they refuse citing poverty, demand it? If you're playing as a Paladin, which is what I would generally start out as, your moral alignment requires that you serve the community, even if it costs you the things you need to do that to the best of your ability. Sometimes the scenarios given could be quite nuanced. Or at least that's how I remember it. I haven't played that game for over a decade.

I wish I'd seen that before posting! I'm glad there are others thinking along the same lines. I agree with you, I'm happy to play X2 either way.

I was looking at the images of the Xenonaut missile base and it seemed strange to me. I knew I had read about missile base design somewhere and looked at some sites online to refresh my memory. I found information that I think could be useful in updating the game's layout of the missile base. Right now the control center is on the ground level. This is unrealistic as typically the sensitive areas of the base are heavily protected underground. I found this page dedicated to the Titan 2 missile base: http://www.titan2icbm.org/ and here's what it has to say about the main control center: "The control center was a buried, reinforced, concrete structure designed to withstand the effects of a nuclear blast. The ground shock accompanying the blast was nullified in the control center by a three level shock isolation cage supported by eight shock mounts hung form the domed roof. Each shock mount consisted of suspension rods and coil springs. The coil springs were mounted so that they would compress when supporting the static loads. Vertical shock was attenuated by additional compression of the springs. Vertical damping of the system was provided by four rotary-type shock absorbers. The frictional forces in the universal joints of the suspension rods were sufficient to provide damping of the lateral motion." Here's an illustration: If you don't want to make any drastic changes to what you've already got (though it would be so cool to have an actual missile base layout to play with!), you could think about rearranging the location of some of your base rooms? Maybe put your command/control center in the middle or at the bottom along with the research labs?

I would love to play a game that would force me to think of the issues you raise. I wish these questions weren't just in textbooks or magazines but in the movies we watch and the games we play. It would provoke some deeper thought, and uneasiness. The last game I played that had an echo of what you write about was Neverwinter Nights. I remember that game would do stuff like put suffering civilians in your path, making you feel duty bound to assist them, potentially sacrificing your own objectives on your own quests, and then give you the option to demand or request payment in return after the assistance was rendered. I would generally ask for something in return for the aid, gear in the game is expensive, you have to pay for stuff. If you wanted too, you could play the game like a savage and steal/kill from everyone you came across. If Xenonauts 2 made me ponder hard choices like turning to crime in order to fund a war, or gain some advantage, I would remember it forever, such games are very rare.

I really like Mazex's design. When I play I don't think of my soldiers as weapons or numbers, I'm not moving a team consisting of shotgun, rifle and sniper into position, or numbers three, five, and eight. I usually think of their names first, then what weapon they're carrying. Typically I tie each name to a particular weapon, i.e, the same two people are always snipers. Having all the information, name, number and weapon on the screen in a single panel would make it so much easier to select and plan who goes where rather than having to hover my mouse over a weapon image. The flags are a really nice touch. I know its not information that can be considered critical to the game mechanics, or design, but it just makes it all a bit more real. It's a detail that contributes to the fantasy of an international team of soldiers. I find this hard to explain, in the first Xenonauts, by the end of the game, it was like I had a bond of some kind with the soldiers, I knew their names, strengths, weapons they used, when one of them died it was a a serious blow. They weren't just numbers on a keyboard. I played so carefully, I never saved the game to raise the emotional stakes. To have more information about them, even a country flag, I just think it would be really nice. It's like dungeons and dragons, we're choosing to enter a fantasy, the more real you can make the fantasy appear, the more details you can give us, the better it is. Also when you start playing it's easier to remember who has what when you have a unique visual identifier that's more than just a weapon symbol, e.g I know Jackson from the U.S is my sniper, or Carter from Brazil has the shotgun, use her to storm that shack.