FLIR

Thank you for polishing the audio! It is an often neglected aspect that has a huge impact not just on the presentation, but also on gameplay. A particular example comes to my mind from the old days playing the 1st X-Com: an alien (and other combatants) would "scream" if being killed. If the alien was going down without a scream the player knew: it only became unconscious and might get up again after some time. This (and other sounds made it important for a player to be observant and oneself himself into the game. It is one of the many details that made X-Com such an atmospheric "immersive sim". I am glad that Xenonauts follows this approach! Also love the brooding ambient music in night missions. Would love the other battlescape ambient music being more subtle, creepy and "low-key" too.

Thank you so much for adding such options, Chris! The best approach for the UI would probably be to have separate options to customize the UI as much as possible, for example: - Enemy health numbers = enabled/disabled - Enemy damage and status messages (like "stun", "suppressed", "miss") = enabled/disabled - Flashing red circles below enemies = enabled/disabled (these are very immersion breaking). etc. Not seeing the enemy status at all was one of the best elements of the original X-Com. Not knowing the exact status of the enemy contributes to the "fear of the unknown" (and "horror") aspect that the original X-Com was so good at. One is fighting alien creatures in such a game, they should be frightening and not have health numbers or "suppressed" messages etc. floating above them. It also makes the player more "observant", which leads to more rewarding gameplay (Why all the graphics, like a projectile missing the target and hitting into an object behind, when there will be a "miss" popup anyway? Such UI messages are real immersion/atmosphere killers). Almost all successors of the old X-Com series seem to have forgotten about small details like these that made the original game so immersive and atmospheric: one had to be observant and had to carefully look at the "game world". The reason why it is often named as the best PC game of all time is not just because it was mechanically great, it is also because of what people felt when they played it, the "experience": it was an atmospheric, immersive and scary game. Being able to reduce the UI overlay would make Xenonauts much more immersive. The following expanded campaign option would be great: "Always night" If enabled, every tactical battle takes place at night (independently of the time of day on the operational map). Loved this for the old original X-Com too - it was so much more immersive to play. ---------------- Thank you very much for considering! In every mechanical aspect X2 is already much better than the "best PC game of all time", the original X-Com. The only thing that is still missing is the "atmosphere" (making it more immersive and scary) and this is probably crucial for being successful: it does not seem to matter that much if some single element is perfectly balanced or not (which might take a lot of development time too), it is much more about how the game feels as an "experience". It already feels like a "sober combat sim" exactly like the original X-Com and that is absolutely great - only the "horror"/"atmosphere" aspect is missing. Everyone that I ask about the original X-Com first tells me about that scary "barn and cornfield" night missions, seeing the silhouettes of creatures in the dark, hearing the footsteps in the dark, using the motion scanner (which had its own graphical representation that greatly enhanced the immersion) , etc. IF Xenonauts 2 would have all that it would be my new "best PC game of all time"...

Exactly - what many people remember from the original X-Com are those experiences and the atmosphere. Everyone of my colleagues and friends, who played the original X-Com, first talk about the creepy corn fields at night. And when it comes to X-Com: TFTD it is something like that: "The music + late night playing with no lights + alien base missions + high volume sonic cannon shots and aquanaut screams + tentaculats = the definition of terrifying" It is also the atmosphere and the "experience" that attracts a lot of people when it comes to games; not perfect gameplay mechanisms and balancing down to the smallest detail. It is about how it "feels" to play. The graphical presentation is a part of this: I love the sober mil-sim look of X2, but more darkness and things like fog could greatly increase how the game feels. For example: the alien bases would be much more atmospheric if they would be dark and maybe filled with fog (the alien creatures having their own atmosphere in there). "Darkwood" or "Aliens: Dark Descent" (aka X-Com: Colonial Marines) do it nice, albeit a little bit too much of everything. A more "sober" approach like in X2 would be better. And equally much can be achieved with game features: keeping the enemy creatures as "unknown" as possible (no status messages for the creatures: HP, "suppressed" etc.). A nice little, immersive gadget: a separate "motion sensor" (very atmospheric to have to use it and draw conclusions), presenting a motion sensor with overlay UI (something flashes on the virtual battlefield), on the other hand, is not atmospheric at all. This creates memorable experiences and is immersive/atmospheric ("What moves there in the darkness/inside the barn/house etc.): https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/File:Xenomorphs.png What players often remember most about games, the most memorable experiences, seem to be the "levels"/"missions"/etc. that they had to go through despite being hard (and dark and scary): Everyone talks about the "Tower of Latria" or having to climb down into the "Valley of Defilement" in Demons Souls, or "Blighttown" in Dark Souls. Same for the original X-Com: those atmospheric night missions, going through the cornfields... X2 is a game about alien creatures and the "unknown" (and not something like "Jagged Alliance") - so darkness and creating an overall eerie atmosphere would really fit imho.

Yes, I think that X2 can easily be more atmospheric and immersive than X-Com with some small changes. Night missions are already really atmospheric also because of the more serious creepy music ( no "action music", it destroys atmosphere): So these night mission in wooded areas are already really atmospheric. Some small things would make the above more scary. For example: 1st rule to make an atmospheric, scary game: The enemy is "unknown". The players should not see the HP points or other states of the enemy "running around in the darkness". Strong enemies or enemies immune to certain ammunition types were so scary in the original, because you would shoot and shoot (not seeing the HP or other effect on the target), but they did not go down... that is "movie stuff" that makes a game an experience and the player also has to be more observant then, which automatically also increases immersion. And one cool thing in the original X-Com was how important the sound was in that regard: when hitting a silhouette in the darkness with the creature going down, one had to listen - was there a scream? If not it was just unconscious would either bleed out in the next turn lying there or (and that made it tense/creepy) it would get up again silently after some turn. The "unkown enemy" is the most important part and easy to achieve, no graphics changes needed, just options to turn them all off. I would prefer a simple in-game option: "always night". I did this in the original X-Com and TFTD in Dos via an edit. Increases the atmosphere a lot! I simply pretended: it is only possible to approach the crash/landing/colony/etc. site at night or "the aliens darkened the skies" (lol). BTW: I am new to the forum. Is there a way to contact the developers and discuss such ideas/suggestions/requests with them?

Same here - I also got TFTD first. And to be honest, the original X-Com was a little bit of a letdown afterwards, because TFTD was gloomier, stranger and more oppressive than X-Com and it had atmosphere in spades. I loved the larger levels, "light management" in deep sea or night missions and the overall Lovecraftian horror atmosphere. TFTD is my absolute nr. 1 favorite game of all the time. I even prefer the Dos original over the OpenXcom version (despite all the advantages it has): the reason is the AI. Half of the AI in the original TFTD was fully random - and this is why the creatures moved and behaved so strange, which made them feel even more "alien". In other games, especially modern ones, the "creatures" move and fight like human soldiers or a human squad, total kills the immersion for me. Another detail that the other games lack: starting in the closed sub and having to open the door is such an atmospheric beginning of a mission. One always starts there, does not know what is outside until opening it. Running down the already open aircraft in the X-Com derivatives never reaches the atmosphere and feeling of anticipation of TFTD missions (what comes close to TFTD in this regard is "Teleglitch" mission starts, but it is a totally different genre). Not to speak of the strange alien structures of TFTD, like the colonies which looked like out of a Lynch movie, loved the colors... I wonder why nobody ever recreated this absolute gem. BTW: I still have the original European version with the beautiful cover:

Yes, the reason why the original X-Com and TFTD are my favorite games is: the atmosphere. They did so much right that others did not understand: the sound effects, the creepy music and the atmospheric graphics: darkness, fog, dust, smoke, etc. Seeing just the silhouettes of the alien creatures or identifying them based on their sound while they move in the darkness: that is so atmospheric. My single wish for Xenonauts 2 is that it creates a stronger atmosphere on visual (and audio level), everything else is great already! Dark corridors: