Arabian Knight

Well damn, Solver, you just said exactly the thoughts I've had on both of those subjects. Thrown in with the Praetors now, have we? As far as sounds go, I think the bottom line is that the game could use more. However, we should consider that, theoretically if that were to happen, whatever is used will be limited in scope and recycled frequently. Things like voiced lines likely will not go over as well as other ambient sound or effects, such as engine noise, looping flames, or alarms.

I will say, having played X-Division and X-Pansion Pack, that I actually preferred the latter. I enjoyed immensely most of the things X-Division did, especially in regards to all of the new equipment and vehicles. The reason that I preferred X-Pansion Pack was something Chris actually has alluded to in other discussions-X Division's construction projects are far too many for me. I actually do like having more projects, but X Division can feel pretty cluttered at times in the workshop (having to capture and dissemble UFOs for specific parts to build fighters is a cool idea, but becomes tedious for low level interceptors like the Foxtrot, for example). It was strange for me to see that I required an Alien datacore or something similar to build a design based on a MiG Foxhound, which is a real world plane, even if it was enhanced. I'm not saying to knock X Division, because I do enjoy it and am playing it currently, but that's the area for me that it falls behind. X-Pansion Pack I enjoyed because it was very true to vanilla, but with more goodies. Not nearly as many as X-Division of course, but the main things I enjoyed were the handful of new weapons (like the flamethrower, which I believe was their addition) and the new enemy types. The secondary attack for vehicles was also quite cool. The coolest thing they did, to me, was simply to add more to the base game without changing it too much. More weapons, more aliens, more data entries for those aliens, and more UFOs. X Division does all this and more, of course, but the amount of projects is overwhelming at times for me. I do like its base gameplay better, I will say-even though I enjoyed the higher difficulty with X-Pansion, it sometimes felt illogical how quickly my soldiers could die (reaction fire from a Caesan pistoleer from across the map, missing twice and then killing my shield trooper on the third shot? Not fun). So yeah. More items, more vehicles, that's basically what I liked.

Agreed. And Oblivion was my favorite of the Elder Scrolls games. As Skyrim proved, however, better voice acting does not equal a better story or atmosphere (especially if all that variety in VA talent only leads to two lines per character). Cheezy VA I feel would take away massively from the game. VA in general, perhaps not. This feels, however, like something that would have be planned much in advance of where the game is now. A voice here and there may be more feasible, or perhaps just for the lead scientist's briefs? Also consider the fact that the voice acting does limit modders later on, if they decide to add elements that normally would have been voice acted. I'm not necessarily arguing against voice acting in general, but it's probably a bit late to implement it on a significant scale. Everyone has their preferences, and while I would certainly laugh at a zany line every now and then, too much of that would turn me off personally. That's one reason I personally do not play the Warhammer games. I like the darker theme of Xenonauts, and the humor was done well in a way that did not detract from that. That last part is purely my opinion, of course. I really like what Wyldfyre said as well regarding individualization/customization of the soldiers and vehicles and what not. The medals added were pretty cool, and it would nice if they gave some sort of bonus, but cosmetic differences (not to the fantastic scale of X-Com, of course; we do not want to lose Xenonauts' unique style) for veteran soldiers or vehicles would highly enhance the experience. Also I feel that would be a lot easier to implement than additional voice acting, and easier for modders to add to later on if that becomes plausible. The original post was spot on in highlighting how one of the areas Xenonauts 1 could have vastly improved was the ambiance (I agree with Coffee Potato about 3D modeled shell casings, but if it's not a hugeproject, maybe sprites or images could be used), especially with regards to the dropship sounds and dust and such things. Of course, these are minor things to be added if Chris is happy with the state of the gameplay.

Thanks, Chris. Like Emily said, I figured it'd not be on the list.

I'm sorry if this has been covered already, Chris (or anyone who happens to know), but are there any plans for unique maps for certain areas? By this, I mostly am referring to certain cities that we would assume to end up being important alien targets, e.g. Washington, Moscow, London, Paris, Tokyo, and so on and so forth. While that would be neat, I am not necessarily requesting, I'm just curious on what stance, if any, the team has on that.

In the "Features" subforum, Chris has elaborated on the new "Operations" feature, which likely will include some measure of this in the game. Not sure if that is directly what you are suggesting or what the planned "Operations" will be entirely, but if you haven't checked it out yet, you should give it a look.

This is my first post. I hope I'm not...offending anyone by making my first post in a discussion thread about Xeno 2. I also realize that I'm relatively late to the party, and I do apologize. But it feels to me that the rank is not going to be changed. While it makes little for the system to be changed, as it has been implemented already and also is only an aesthetic issue, I did have a thought. Now, before I say this, I will say that the ranks being redone is not high on my personal list of priorities of what I would redo with all the work that is still being done. However, I did wonder if the easiest and simplest solution is just (as some have alluded to) to rename the ranks? Instead of the old PVT-CPL-SGT-(weird jump to officer ranks)-LT-CAP-MAJ-COL, what if you used some Xenonaut specific rankings? Even something so simple as X-PVT (Xenonaut Private, which is not the exact name I am suggesting so much as it as an example) denotes, rather easily, that the character's rank/rate is somehow different from the standard understanding, while still drawing a correlation with the real world title that tells you where the soldier stands relatively in the chain of command. What's more is that it allows the criteria for achieving rank to be subjective-that is, defined by the devs-which in this case we all know is based on alien killing skills. It would be rather easy to add a simple line or two to Xenopedia about it, just saying as much or maybe giving the ranking system, e.g., "Though we were conceived originally by NATO states, our military is recruited from around the globe, with support all corners of the world. We fight a new enemy, and thus need new criteria to put our best soldiers on the front lines. To this end, the Xenonauts have done away with the old command structures of past, and implemented our own new, and entirely objective, ranking system where neutralizing our new enemy is the only task that matters for our troops." Now, I personally like what Emily said earlier about assigning a few command ranks ourselves from a pool of eligible candidates (which not only adds a small interactive element for the player and possibly gameplay implications based on which soldiers deserve those buffs/responsibility, but also is essentially how it works at higher levels of command in real life), but that understandably is not an option. I think renaming the ranks is the easiest way to preserve the old system, which is intuitively based on how good the trooper is at killing aliens, and also removing the disconnect it creates when comparing it to the real life ranks it seeks to emulate. As we all know, conventional military forces are pyramids, essentially, and the current system also creates the minor issue of eliminating several ranks to simplify the order of promotion (e.g. First Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Second Lieutenant, etc.). Renaming solves both of those issues, allows for increased originality on the part of the game universe, and more accurately describes the criteria for progression, since unlike real ranks, this progression is based on skill and not command. And with the exception of units like the SEALs and other special forces here and there where actual rank is often affected by billeted rank responsibilities because of this issue, having several "captains" forming a squad is somewhat disconcerting to see. Using an original Xenonauts system addresses this issue without change of the mechanic. After all, these "captains" and "lieutenants" and such that are present in the game are really just soldiers, and the ranks they have are only indicative of combat skill. I think it'd work well with the least amount of change to the mechanic. In addition, the usage of small symbols on the portrait (akin to the role symbols we had in Xenonauts 1 where a soldier's combat role was indicated with an icon) can easily indicate the new rank's position in relation to the others. Therefore, even with new or different names, players can easily tell which rank is higher than the others. Just my thoughts on a minor issue.