cwamartin

After a few playthroughs on initial release I stopped playing to see what difference the next Milestone would bring, so that I could come at it fresh, so here is my feedback on milestone 2. Overall, it is a great step forward; I have very much enjoyed playing X2 and commend the devs on their progress! I especially like that there is more variety of mission types, especially in the cleaner stage - the ambush missions, rescue VIP missions and the rescue soldiers mission along with the already existing data retrieval missions and abduction missions just make the game seem genuinely fresh rather than simply a rehash of the original Xenonauts. I think the difficulty of the ambush missions needs tweaking - they are far too easy; I had two and each time I killed all of the cleaners and got all the loot in two turns. Possibly there needs to be way more cleaners, or possibly the number of troops I can take needs to be limited because it is an ambush/covert mission? As the game progresses, however, we end up quite quickly back to the same basic missions - downed UFOs, Terror Missions and Base defence, and even these are basically the same mission - kill all the aliens. If there could be more variety in the mission types as the game progresses that would be great. Along similar lines, the Ops officer disappears as the game progresses; either remove the interactions completely from the game or have them for every mission. Perhaps the Ops officer could give audio briefings like "Central" does in the Firaxis XCom games? These are the things that make X2 distinct from X1, so don't have them drop off as the game progresses. I still think there should be some way to reduce panic that is under player control. At the minute if a region is nearing 100 there is little I can do unless a mission happens to come up in that region, and that mission happens to be one of the missions that reduces panic. Even removing an Alien Base does not reduce panic. I know that a certain amount of panic is created by the base being there and removing it stops that panic being generated, but for a major win like the takedown of an enemy base to not even reduce panic in the region by, say, 5 or 10, seems unrewarding! Also, on the issue of Alien Base missions, I liked the old X1 approach of having two ways to win - either destroy the generator of kill all the aliens. Maybe the first way would not reduce panic (but still stop panic being generated) and the second way would reduce panic? I also wonder of it is too late to do some tweaking to the development of weapons and aircraft. Essentially we have the same type of weapons throughout that get upgraded as research develops so in the end soldiers always carry one of the 6 weapon types - pistol, shotgun, rifle, machine gun, sniper rifle or grenade launcher; research does not add different weapon types, just more powerful versions of the same weapons. It is the same with aircraft or vehicles - they are essentially the same throughout the whole game they just get better armour or more powerful weapons (and a visual update). Perhaps these are things for the modders to do later but perhaps the devs could give some thought to it at this stage? Another thought I had was, could there be different Xenonauts base types; for example, an outpost that would have a cheaper initial cost to build but that could not have any more than, say, four buildings, or be restricted in some other way. For example, you might want a base that was nothing more than a radar listening post with a base defence battery and living quarters so that it could be defended. One more thought - it would be great if the game added to the type of challenges posed by more advanced aliens - after a certain stage the original UFO Enemy Unknown brought in mind control, for example, and that changed the very nature of the fight (as opposed to simply giving the aliens bigger and more powerful ships and weapons.) Just some thoughts; and congrats to the devs, the game is really coming along nicely.

I went about three play throughs without getting a grenade lobbed at me, and then, on the fourth, had two of my guys wiped out with a grenade! I had grenades thrown at me in the next play through as well. I think they may have tweaked something in one of the updates. I don't think it is just about LOS, I think it has more to do with whether your soldiers are grouped close together. The aliens will kill in the most efficient way possible so one grenade for two or more soldiers is what they will go for.

The UFO doors in X2 open the same way as they do in X1, so that has not changed. That being said, it does make sense that, initially at least, the soldiers don't know how to open UFO doors, or they can't because they are bio-sensitive or something. Thus it takes some research or technology to make it possible to open doors without destroying them. The doors should still be destructible though, and not just with C4 - a few blasts from a heavy machine gun should take out the doors of a smaller UFO (as it currently does) thus giving you two options for breaching early game UFOs. Of course, there is nothing quite as much fun as rolling your mag-rail (X1) equipped vehicle up to a UFO door and blowing it away along with the two aliens that were crouching just behind it; this is particularly satisfying with heavily armoured Sebellians...!

This might seem silly, but are you sure that cover is really there? There have been issues with items that have been destroyed still appearing undamaged, but they are actually not there anymore! The best way to tell is to get your soldier to walk beyond an object - a single click so that it displays the route but does not move the soldier. If the route shows up as going through the object then you know it is not really there even though you can see it! That being said, I am never quite sure whether you get cover from objects diagonally, if you know what I mean.

I don't think there is any way to do more than one research project. If you complete the Cleaner base missions you will get the full explanation of their origins. I think it makes for a nice bit of variety to be up against humans early in the game as well as aliens. But I think it needs tweaked a little because you don't really have to do anything about them. I would like to see the capture of one of the Cleaner leaders to be necessary to reveal the final base, and removing any Cleaner facility should reduce panic in the region to some degree. I think the funding increase is what happens if you have engineers but you don't have engineering projects - the engineers busy themselves doing maintenance tasks around the base and thus save you money. By the way, I like the Ops officer! However, you can always ESC out of the dialogue if you find it annoying. Maybe there could be an option on whether or not to have the dialogue at the start of missions but personally I find it is one of the things that give X2 a fresher feeling over X1

Yeah, that makes sense to me also - it can be a bit of a pain sending your shield around the world for a nearcut when it is literally just one square away with no obstacle between!

That happened me a couple of times after the latest release (1.29d, I think) but then it seemed to just go away. I usually had to save and re-load but sometimes it was enough to simply use the next soldier button.

Hmmmm. I think they need to update the civilian Ai before doing that, otherwise the scientists and engineers will be suicidally running toward the aliens...

Wasn't there something like this in X-Com Apocalypse? I have a vague memory of some huge creature rampaging around the city and it had to be shot down with multiple aircraft!

I also would go for a Reaper buff; it was not unusual for me, when playing X1, if I arrived at a terror site early in the game and realised Reapers were present to just abort; they were so hard to kill and could easily overwhelm the battlezone. That is the way they should be. As they are now, I am actually glad to see them because they are so easy to kill. They just run towards your troops mindlessly and rarely do they survive to get close enough to do any harm. Not to mention that in X1 they could run all the way from out of visual range up to your unsuspecting troops and take them out effortlessly. Now if you can see them at a distance the chances are they won't be able to reach you in one turn giving plenty of time to get ready for them. In X1 I used to reckon a Reaper needed a heavy weapon at point blank range to guarantee the kill and preferably a shotgun as well. And if it was a zombie then you doubled up! Until I knew all the reapers were dead (I used to make a note of how many there were in each UFO from the Hyperwave Communication thing) my troops crawled through the battlefield grouped close together so that they would have reserved enough TUs to shoot any Reapers that suddenly appeared to ruin their (and my) day...!

Hi Devs, First of all, I have been patiently waiting for the early release of X2 and then you release it right before I go on holiday and have no access to it - very poor timing on your part...! Anyway, after I got back I have been playing it fairly constantly; just for context, I am old enough to have played the original UFO Enemy Unknown when it first came out (on a Commodore Amiga no less!) and have tried various iterations of X-Com games since then; I was (still am) a big fan of X1, so here are my thoughts on X2 so far. First of all, this is a great game and I have enjoyed playing the early release version - congratulations on getting this far, it has been a long slog for you (and a long wait for us!). It is hard to tweak a game just enough so that it still appeals to people who love the first version but also still feels fresh enough to be worth the upgrade. I think on the whole X2 gets the balance fairly well, so good job. I know there will be a lot more to come and I don't know how much can be adjusted at this point, but here are my thoughts: 1) Variety I like the new mission types a lot - the cleaner base missions and the abduction missions, with the different goals it makes for a nice variety rather than the three basic types before (base defence, UFO/Base attacks and Terror missions). I particularly like the communication from Ops at the start of these missions. I would love it if the Ops comms could be done in audio using the same voice as in the introduction cinematic (I assume this is the Ops officer). This gives these missions a fresh feeling something distinct to X2 that differentiates it from X1. That is why I think you should also include this interaction/Ops at the start of every mission; the new missions only appear a few times and once you get to the standard UFO crash site missions etc it suddenly feels just like X1 again rather than X2. Also, I am not sure how random it is, but in the four campaigns I have played so far I only got 1 or 2 abduction missions in each so more of those please! 2) Cleaner Missions Again, I like this idea a lot and it also makes X2 distinct from X1, however I think it could be tweaked a little. At the minute you do the first mission and that kicks off progress on tracking the cleaner network, but that progress happens whether the player does anything more or not; indeed there is nothing more the player can do; eventually the two feeder bases come up and the main base, again without the player having to do anything. I think it would be better if there were additional missions to retrieve data required before each feeder base is revealed. Data retrieval should reveal the next part of the network and the final base should only be revealed if a leader is captured (not killed). Otherwise the cleaners thing can be just two missions in total. The first to get the initial data, then wait until the base is revealed and then attack the base. There is no real motivation to do anything else, especially since removing a Cleaner facility does not reduce panic (see below!) 3) Panic and Funding I am sure there are a lot of views on this but I think there should be more options to reduce panic. A Terror mission that fails will increase panic by 30 but if it succeeds it doesn't reduce it by anything? Removing a cleaner facility should also reduce panic by varying degrees, depending on the size of the facility. The same goes for an Alien base. It should not be easy to reduce panic, of course, but it also should not be impossible. I think it needs tweaked a little; either alien/cleaner activity should create less panic or there should be options to reduce it. Could there be an option to regain a funding region by completing a super hard mission - maybe eliminating an alien fortress or something of that kind? 4) Terror missions First, I miss the bit in X1 where, after a certain amount of turns (20?) the remaining aliens would be revealed - makes a long mission less of a grind! Also, the alien bombs seem a bit pointless - they cannot be defused and it doesn't matter how many of them there are. What about if they were on a countdown and each had to be defused within a certain time or it would go off and then the countdown resets and another one needs to be defused, until they are all done. The mission would fail if all the bombs go off (or if all the Xenonauts are killed, as now) but there would be a reward (maybe Alienium/alloys) for each bomb that was defused. Imagine our brave troops working their way through the ruins where one of the bombs have gone off, looking to prevent any more doing so - very cool! They would still have to kill all the aliens as well as defusing all the bombs since any aliens remaining alive would just reset the bombs after our troops leave (but not during the mission - that would be a nightmare!) Maybe the number of (currently suicidal) civilians saved would also have an impact on the mission rewards either in terms of panic reduction or materials gained. 5) Field Repair Kit Bit of a random one this, but I what about a way of repairing the MARS during a mission; it would be like the medkit - you cannot repair it to full HP, but you could repair some of the damage Just my thoughts - congrats again on a great game!