Hello Devs and Goldhawk Interactive:
Thank you for making your demo open to the public for feedback. That shows a great amount of trust in your userbase. I hope you are not disappointed! I played through the demo once on Steam and I had some thoughts as a new player to Xenonauts (but someone who played UFO Defense and ...the one that took place underwater that I don't like to talk about).
-My game did crash in the middle of the tutorial. I hope you are getting bug reports! It happened right after I killed the first wave and before the second wave was to show up (it worked the second time)
-The narrow view amount that each character can view feels bad. Is it 90 degrees? It seems like they should be able to see more into their periphery, and at least they should be able to show the terrain in there periphery, even if they can't see creatures in their periphery due to combat vision or something. Games should provide interesting choices, but when almost all of your moves are move+look+look, there is not choice, just a prescripted way on clicking.
-Related: It seems weird that when we drop, we don't have ANY idea where anything is. It seems like we should have at least some of the map visible (even if fog of war has already closed in).
-The strobing "hidden movement" screen is unpleasant. I know it's a throw back to the original x-com, but in the original x-com it didn't blink on and off. May I recommend 1) letting us move the camera around the map while enemies move so we can plan, and 2) replace the blinking hidden movement screen with a bar along the bottom or something that says "hidden movement". There's no reason to cover up the screen.
-I got a rescue mission which ended abruptly. One of my characters was surrounded, three move characters were closing in on an enemy and it ended, no injuries. If that is going to happen, we should see the enemies teleport away. Otherwise it stands to reason we'd need to fall back to the ship or eliminate all hostiles.
-I'd like tool tips or explanations for the many abbreviations used in game. It would also be helpful to know what the various ranks are and the order.
-It'd be nice to see the portraits in the soldier management screen (even if we have to mouse over them like any other screen). Also, during tactical missions, I think there should be a small portrait (perhaps their rank insignia too) instead of just a gun; if I have a squad of two types, there's no way to know who is what, since their guns are all the same and their numbers change every mission.
-The Medkit use is a bit fiddly. I let a player die out because I couldn't figure out how to use it. It wasn't until I got a second character there (I thought she couldn't use it on herself), that I realized you can't click on the square like other items, you have to click above the square. Related, it took me a while to figure out how to cancel grenades, it would be lovely if a right click did it. I have noticed that sometimes escape works to cancel out, sometimes it doesn't (dialog boxes). Sometimes enter or space moves forward, sometimes it doesn't. Adding more keyboard functionality would really help with accessibility.
-What are the yellow numbers above people's heads? A google search says that in X1 they are psionic damage, but it happened when soldiers (and aliens!) ran through smoke. That could have an explanation somewhere that I possibly missed.
-The maps seem flat. In the original x-com there were stairs and levels. I played xcom2 from firaxis and that did a great job of making levels feel meaningful. There's nothing like the feeling of setting a sniper on the top of a building in cover to snipe everything that people can scout, or getting an assault caught in an alley, and sending a bunch of other soldiers up to the second floor to all rain death down on the aliens on the ground. I know this is early access and probably more maps are coming, and I hope that there are many designs of maps, some open middle, some alleys with buildings on each side, some flat, some with many perching places etc. It can be a fun puzzle to navigate the physical environment.
-The farm map also seemed computer generated. One of my favorite parts about x-com and firaxis' xcom 2 is seeing familiar environments, hunting aliens through the familiar environments, and, let's be honest, destroying those environments. I grew up on a farm and the farm seemed to be randomly connected pieces. There was a cabbage patch, a field full of desks, a paddock (?), a bunch of hay bales on a stone floor, and a building full of water bottles. It seemed disjointed. I understand this is a beta, so I hope there is improvement on making the environments feel more like earth.
-It seems that people once rescued should run to a rally point, like our ship maybe? Perhaps you can use that relay system that you mentioned in a blog for monsters but adapt it for humans--have a "safe point" that humans try to get to once rescued by the soldiers. They ran randomly around the map and frequently were killed by hostiles.
Overall the graphics are very beautiful. The environments have colors that all fit together and look almost pastoral. The smokes and the trees animations look great. The portraits are great! I can tell that a lot of work went into these. I wish I had known about the kickstarter!
There are some great lines from the insufferable scientist (the aliens have sub human intelligence, like an engineer). I like the aerial combat, it's simple.
Having mutliple ways to end a mission is GREAT, instead of hunting that last alien around the entire map (who is always in a corner overwatching), just holding on to the ship for several turns is amazing!
Also, I really love the end of tactical mission "level up" screen! It's really well designed and has lots of useful information. It also feels great to see how everyone improved (and bad in a good way to see who was lost).
The tutorial was great, too! I was familiar with most of the mechanics already, but not all of them, and it was quick, enjoyable, and effective.
Please forgive the wall of text. I really enjoyed the original x-com and firaxis' xcom 2, so I had a lot of ideas while playing. I had fun playing xenonauts 2's demo, and I am cautiously optimistic to see the game develop. It's been on my wish list for several months now and I eagerly (and patiently) await updates.
