[Pilot units in ground combat]

I'm aware that pilots will be added to X2, with various stats and permadeath. Would it be possible to have these pilots actually in the front of the dropship at mission start— possibly used to scout out the ground in front? Perhaps they could even hunker down/take fire?

[Suggestion: Different Endgame Approach]

Or maybe have the invaders launch an all-out assault once the mothership/whatever it is we need to kill is destroyed. Battleships coming in in the dozens, alien air superiority wings, base attacks with hordes of Androns and Heavy Drones every few days, Reaper hives that have to be cleared out... but maybe the fact that you completed Endgame finally puts the trust of the Council in you, and you get much increased funding. Or maybe the opposite approach happens, where random straggler UFOs (as you said) come in, but they're all different types and their crew of different races. Some things just need to be done for the sake of cool (like an idea I had for a mod for X1 where you could escape the alien bases in the light scout that sometimes was generated). 

[In the Defence of Armour]

So is the "real armour" the system implemented in X1? Because if so, I see no reason to change it.

[Xenonauts-2 May Update (including Discord server link)]

Oh, I see. I read that far too quickly 

[Xenonauts-2 May Update (including Discord server link)]

Wow! I'm impressed, especially with the artwork and the alternate win conditions. I'm also glad that you guys are reaching out to the community more (although that's never really been a problem), so hi Paul! Would someone mind filling me in/linking a thread about the multiple dropships and UFOs? If it's as cool as it sounds, I'm totally on board. It would make a lot of ground missions feel much more like dedicated, Iceland Incident-style combat rather than the small skirmishes that were the mainstay of X1. Of course, this begs the next question: Do you guys have any plans for dropship-based weaponry (door gunners, rocket launchers out the front of the ship) or features (your pilots can give a general overview of the terrain as they come in, or at least tell you "Hey, there's a couple of hungry-looking Reapers out our viewscreen"? Whatever direction you guys decide to take the game, I'm sure it will be amazing!

[Supply Requests]

X2 is going to have DLCs?

[What's the late game looking like?]

So... does that mean Reapers still have the one-hit kill attack? Or are they going to be more like Chryssalids now (more of a nuisance than anything in the late game)?

[What's the late game looking like?]

The Wraiths are probably my favorite alien for that reason... no psionic BS, no resistance to kinetics, no one-hit kill zombifying attack, somewhat stupid AI, goofy-looking... it's great.

[What's the late game looking like?]

18 hours ago, ooey said:

Also, I never really worked out if those things that could teleport in xen1 got to fire directly after they teleported. I would presume they teleported and then got to act on their next turn (in the same way that a Paratroop unit drops and takes time to gather together before it can attack). Otherwise teleportation is just too powerful.

Nah, it says on the wiki (I think) that Wraiths take 100% of their TUs to teleport. They always seem to teleport somewhere right behind your squad where a well-placed shotgun blast can put them down. Frankly, I think it generally hinders them more than anything else.

[Just finished endgame for the first time! [SPOILERS]]

Wow, that was stressful. I've been watching Scott Manley's playthrough (hence my username) since 2016 semi-religiously; I think I watched the Endgame episode for something like the fourth time today. I moved extremely quickly, because I'd much rather die at the hands of some Harridan ******* than by Reaper. I was also quite concerned as to the fact that I only had two Magstorms and the Singularity Cannon— half of Scott's team were heavy weapons troopers. In retrospect, it might have made the mission easier, but there's nothing like mag shotguns for clearing Sebillians out of those power core rooms.

Wow, what a mission though. I took only two soldiers to each reactor, and my Hyperion and the eight others moved up. I used the Singularity Cannon to clear the first room and never used it again— what a hassle to reload, although I suppose that balances its extreme coolness levels. Anyway, I figured I wasn't going to need the Hyperion, so I moved it even more aggressively than I did my troops— it fired the shot (well two shots, actually) that saved humanity, but it was quickly destroyed by Harridan snipers and Caeseans flanking it. After that, it was a mad dash to the exits, as my team had spent far too many turns (probably only three :)) in the room before the palace. We got everyone out though, and in the rush to kill Harridans blocking our escape I destroyed the tank carcass as well, not leaving any technology in enemy hands. I didn't even see any Reapers, though apparently two waves spawned.

I gotta say, I was surprised by the epilogue— Scott Manley, my main source of information in this never showed it after Endgame. (Either because it wasn't in the game when he played it or because it takes an extra mouse click to trigger, probably.) It certainly cleared up a lot of questions— what happened to the alien forces after the big bad died (although I wonder why Harridans and Reapers kept on fighting after its death... hmm)? How does Xenonauts factor into the new world order? Is the good Doctor still as self-obsessed as ever? (Sidenote: Stockholm was never terrorized or bombed particularly badly during the war, so I guess Snidely is getting those Nobels after all.) I like the "Enjoy Evening" button as well— it's a far cry from the other buttons and popups that detailed alien terror missions at night, crashed UFOs and imminent base invasions. Rather, I'd like to imagine I fell asleep quickly, firmly in the arms of my (as-of-yet fictional) husband... Regardless, thank you devs, and I hope something just as awesome will find its way into X2!

 

[What's the late game looking like?]

1 hour ago, Max_Caine said:

So the way "Mind War" in X2 currently works is, if a soldier is affected it by it you have a full turn before it kicks in to do something. If you kill the alien who used Mind War on said soldier then it stops before it even starts. Otherwise, you can do things like drop the gun the soldier is carrying, or send the soldier off somewhere they can't be a problem. Or you can build mindshields which go into the secondary slot. There are options. It only really gets annoying if you have qute a few aliens using Mind War at once. 

Oh sweet! So I don't have to do the "strategy" in X1 where you

1. Hoped the Praetor on crashed Battleships was already dead by the time you got there.
2. Avoided any missions with Caesans (and if you were Reaperphobic as well, like me, this really cut down the available Carrier missions to only Andron/Harridan sites).
3. Dropped all your soldiers' weapons on the ground every turn once you had breached the ship. This was the most effective, as I'm pretty sure the AI didn't know how to pick up weapons/throw grenades unless they were in the soldier's hand, but it was a time sink to have to do this every turn.

Are there any plans to have local forces be mind-controllable?

[What's the late game looking like?]

Specifically, how are the changes to the air war going to factor into the late game? Psionics (I swear I read something on here that alien mind control has been removed for X2, but I might be mistaken)? The actual "Engame" itself? I always thought it would be cool to have multiple win conditions for endgame... maybe if you failed to assassinate the High Praetor or something, you could try to shoot down the Dreadnought or take out Reaper hives across the globe... anyway, is there anything specific for what the late game of X2 will be like right now?