cwamartin

Hi, I really like the way we now have a bit of variation between weapon types and other tech, for example upgrading laser weaponry or Guardian Armour or engine upgrades for the interceptors. One of the (very few) things I didn't like about X1 is that all the various weapons are basically more powerful versions of the same basic types - pistol , shotgun, rifle, sniper rifle, machine gun so to get some variation that is unique to a given weapon type such as laser recharge is great. I wonder would it be possible to do something along similar lines with other weapon types to give more variation there also? For example, laser weapons could get increased damage but not the recharge option (or vice versa); Gauss weapons might get an upgrade to use ammunition that does more damage after research into one of the more advanced alien alloys or maybe to extend their range/accuracy after some appropriate research. Fusion weapons could get the opposite of whatever the laser weapon upgrade is (i.e. if the laser weapons got increased damage, fusion weapons would get recharge; if the laser weapons got recharge, fusion weapons would get increased damage). Maybe you could even limit the upgrade to specific weapon types, e.g. a Gauss sniper rifle could get an increased accuracy bonus whereas a laser shotgun could get increased range etc. Also, the aliens have poison grenades which we can capture but that goes nowhere as far as research and equipment is concerned. What about, after research, the rebreather equipment (I forget its proper name) could be updated to protect against poison grenades or, at least reduce the damage caused by poison grenades? What about grenades that poison the aliens for our troops to use? Another suggestion is that tech could be researched and developed mid-late game that allowed a device to be carried that could repair damage to the MARS or ARES units. It would work like a medikit in that it would only repair up to half the damage taken. Its use could be limited by making it very heavy so that a soldier who carried it would be limited in other equipment. Finally, I think the grenade/grenade launcher could do with more options. In X1 we had stun gas grenades; I would like to see them in X2. Also, what about high explosive, armour piercing, poison (see above) and incendiary options? What about a guided missile option (something like the Blaster Launcher from the original X-Com games) for an end-game weapon? Variety is your friend!! Many thanks

Hi, I don't know about anyone else but I actually quite enjoy those early game missions where my soldiers are working with just ballistic weapons and dealing with smaller UFOs. To me the game moves on too quickly past that; given that you can safely skip magnetic weapons and can do alienium research quite early it seems like no time until I am attacking larger UFOs with my troops armed with laser weaponry. Could there be an option to slow things down for people like me?! Maybe each new UFO type would only appear after two months instead of one? Research projects could also take a little longer. I do actually really enjoy playing this game and am not one of those people who are rushing to get to the endgame and defeat the aliens - I enjoy the campaign as it goes along and would be happier for it to take longer! Many thanks

Hi, I am continuing to enjoy the game and thanks for all the updates and ongoing development! With 5.16 I have found some odd things happening around the UOO1 missions. 1st, the first orbital attack comes while the counter says there are still 30 days to completion. Then, after I did my first UOO1 mission to the lower decks, the option to do that mission again disappears so I can only do the mission once. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not so maybe it is not a bug. Third, after doing the research to attack the upper decks the option to carry out that mission does not appear, so basically I have no way of delaying the bombardments or preventing them altogether. I should probably say that this was a 5.15 campaign that I continued after the 5.16 update so possibly that has something to do with it? I have not, as yet, started a new campaign with 5.16 although I may do so now since I have encountered the Terror Mission bug that others have reported (something to do with reaper zombies?) and since skipping the terror mission will push that continent over the 100 panic limit with nothing for me to do about it I think I will give up on this campaign! One or two other things: There are still objects that are not disappearing after they have been destroyed and thus fooling you into thinking you can use them as cover when in reality there is nothing there. This has happened with some of the long consoles inside a base or UFO and also with tall rocks if outside. Doors in bases are still behaving weirdly; it is really draining TU's when a soldier has to use up 8 to pass through double doors which have been closed automatically by the previous soldier walking through them when they were open. Also there are still some instances where MARS or ARES units will not go through open doors; the only way to guarantee that they can is for the MARS unit to smash through the door. This creates two problems: first, if there is an alien waiting behind the door and the MARS crashes through it, the alien gets an immediate free shot at the MARS (whereas if one of my troops opens the door the alien does not get to shoot at the MARS but then the MARS cannot travel through it). Second, it means I have to make sure the MARS crashes through every door because otherwise I will suddenly discover that to path through a door opened by one of my soldiers the MARS is planning to travel half-way round the base! Many thanks

Hi, At the end of my turn one of my troops was under alien mind control. At the beginning of the alien's turn that followed, that soldier moved and then his "box" turned green - which I assume meant he was released from mind control - followed by an immediate CTD. I was able to repeat the CTD by loading the save game from the end of my turn. I don't know if it is related or not but in the turn before, when the aliens put my soldier under mind control, I got multiple messages telling me that - I didn't count them but I reckon it was at least four messages telling me that soldier was under mind control. I actually thought it had got stuck in a loop and I would have to ctl-alt-del out of it but it eventually continued as normal. many thanks. bug_report_2025-03-08-15h57_gc_5.15.0_unhandled_exception_0.zip

Hi, I am getting the same problem - bug report attached. BTW, many thanks for the ongoing work, the game is really coming together nicely! bug_report_2025-03-06-16h20_st_5.14.0_unhandled_exception_0.zip

Yes, I had the same problem, also in a new campaign started in 5.12 It worked for a while but then seemed to stop - I didn't figure out exactly when because I didn't notice at first. I can see that they had made partial progress and then got stuck so it was doing the cooldown at some point.

Thanks, no problem starting over, that is part of using the experimental version!

I have had the same thing happen twice now in the opening phase of a Veteran-level campaign. I was on my way to an abduction mission; when I got near to the site it was still dark over the site so I set the troop carrier to patrol until it was daylight. When I then attempt to use the "Select New Target" option to resume towards the abduction site it causes a CTD. In both cases the abduction site was in Latin America - I don't know if that is relevant or is just a fluke. To be more precise the CTD happens not when I click on "Select New Target" but when I click on the target location, in this case the abduction site. I also noticed that the site did not turn red as (I think) it usually does when you hover over it with the cursor. Also, not sure of this is a bug or not, but in my most recent abduction mission I killed the last of the aliens in my final turn to save the civilians. I thought this would mean the other civilians would automatically be saved but at the end of the turn the remaining civilians were taken and then the mission completed. As I say, I don't know if this is a bug or is how it is supposed to work. Many thanks! bug_report_2025-02-21-15h27_st_5.11.0_unhandled_exception_0.zip

Hi, As soon as I kill the first alien on my first turn of the UOO1 bridge mission I get a CTD; it has happened twice now (using the same game save). The alien was a secton; I shot him using a fusion shotgun. I have attached the bug report zip file. Edit: I tried it for a third time, this time picking a different alien. I killed an Andron using the fusion canon on my ARES and got the same CTD. 2nd Edit: When I reloaded for the third time I aborted the mission and then immediately launched it again. This time everything worked normally. bug_report_2025-02-13-22h32_gc_5.9.0_unhandled_exception.zip

My thoughts on Milestone 5 so far - having got as far as Harvesters and the lower decks UUO-1 mission (no battleships as yet!) Overall, I like the new elements in the game and I think it is really helping to make it stand out from X1, so well done to the devs for continuing to add to the gameplay. The new early game dynamic with Operation Points/Doomsday counter is interesting but hardly seems much of a challenge as it is easy to simply use OP to reduce tension. Maybe it just needs tweaked a little. Like maybe you get 5 OP per day but you can gain extra by successfully completing a mission in this early phase of the game, say another 5 - 10 points? As it stands at the minute it takes no effort to gain enough points to reduce tension, it all happens automatically. So all I have to do is remember to check the tension levels and spend the points. It works better when we move to the next phase. I like that I can spend OP for panic reduction or gaining special materials. I also like the delegated UFO dynamic. It gives me more options when I need special materials - I can spend OP at any time from the Geoscape; I can spend more OP to get more materials from a downed UFO, or I can craft them myself (after the appropriate research) so I like all of that. I must confess I didn't check to see if this is the case or not, but it would be good to have the OP system as one of the things you can customise when starting a campaign - like you could chose how many OPs you get per day or per downed UFO etc. As for the VIPs on each continent, I must confess that I am not really motivated to use them much, apart from to eliminate the infiltrators. Once that is done I mostly ignore them. Maybe there needs to be some connection between the number of VIPs recruited and the likelihood of one of them becoming an infiltrator? If I recruit none of them month after month it becomes more likely the aliens will. For each one I do recruit it makes it slightly less likely the aliens will recruit one of the others? Something needs to motivate me to get those guys on board! I like the idea of upgrading the Angel Interceptor's engines - it makes them useful for so much longer in the game. Even against Harvesters, I can load one Angel interceptor with 2 heavy torpedoes and a missile and have it fire them all off from a distance and then retreat leaving the other two more nimble Phantoms to tackle the escorts and/or finish off the main ship. Similarly, I like the option to upgrade the Guardian armour. I know it then has the same armour points as the colossus and some are saying it makes the colossus pointless but I don't agree; the colossus still gives more strength so I am happy enough with that until the research project that enables the colossus to get its own upgrade. I am a bit mixed about the UUO-1 and the associated mission. I like the idea of orbital bombardment and how it is linked to global panic. On the other hand, I think it either needs to generate more panic in the continent that has been hit or it generates the same amount of panic as now but in addition generates a smaller amount of panic globally. As it stands an orbital strike increases panic in one continent by 20 points but I can reduce that by 10 right away using OPs and by another 10 as soon as the cooldown period expires. Since it is easy to do this twice in a 14-day period it means I can effectively negate the impact of the orbital bombardment. It means I can wait until I am good and ready - with fusion weapons and vanguard armour - before I attempt the UUO-1 mission. I should be under more pressure than that - every strike should raise the panic gradually but inevitably so that I am highly motivated to get that mission done sooner rather than later. This too should be something you can tweak in the customisation menu at the beginning of a campaign - how much continental and global panic is caused by each strike and how frequently the strikes happen. As for the associated mission, I think it is a bit underwhelming as it stands. First, I think you should need some kind of research followed by vehicle upgrade to be able to do the mission. It seems odd that a dropship intended for earthbound missions should be able to get us into lower orbit. Second, it would be good if there was some kind of special alien that is only encountered on the orbital platform, something more powerful than anything encountered elsewhere. The biome graphics are a bit meh. It should look more strange and alien with a spectacular backdrop - maybe a view of the earth from orbit? (EDIT: I forgot to say that the biome graphics in general are much improved, especially the new look for alien bases.) The mission itself is is only a rehash of the cleaner data raid mission so it would be good if it was something different than that; and also I am not at all clear as to what the device is that I should be attempting to destroy (as well as gathering the data) - a little more information would be helpful, even if it is only the chief scientist letting me know when I have come across it. Some things that are not new to milestone 5 I thought I'd comment on: Alien bases and supply UFOs. it would be good if there was some mechanism here by which the base gets harder to raid if it is getting uninterrupted supplies and easier to raid if all the supply ships are being shot down and raided before they get to the base. A newly established base would have a defined minimum amount of aliens and if raided in that state would yield a limited amount of materials. An established base that is being well supplied increases the number of aliens and materials that can be gained up to a maximum amount which it never exceeds. Maybe even the base could get smaller again if it is getting no supplies at all. There is an odd quirk in the alien base mission whereby if there are only Xenonauts in the control centre you have to move one of them each turn to reveal the aliens. This seems pointless and is annoying. Has the alien communicator thing been removed? After I raided a base I used to be able to run a research project that allowed me to build a device that would tell me what type of UFO had been detected and how many aliens were on it and what their mission was, but I haven't had that happen for quite some time now (even before milestone 5). I thought at first it might be because I had destroyed the central console in the control room, but even if I leave that intact I still don't get the alien communication research project. As I said, overall I am really enjoying the game and am liking the new gameplay - keep it coming, devs, keep it coming!

Yes, I have the same bug; only noticed it today (10th Jan). It just doesn't seem to register when you click on a base to transfer the aircraft to.

I think (guessing really) the game is set up so that the smaller UFOs stop coming after a certain time (like it is in X1, by the endgame it is nearly all battleships). Because the final UFOs are not in the game yet then when it gets to the point where it is only those UFOs that come, there are no UFOs. I did like, though, that in X1, no matter how far in the game you went, there was always one scout that came out among all the battleships - it was a great way of training up rookies, going after those downed scouts and, for that matter, getting a practically guaranteed kill even with the weakest interceptors, AND the cash bounty if you didn't want to use it as a training op!

+1!

I remember in the original UFO/X-Com game throwing weapons to another soldier in a desperate attempt to enable them to attack when they were out of ammo or something similar! One of the things I loved about that game was how flexible it was; if you could think of it, you could probably do it in the game!

I would second this; more voice acting adds to the realism; one of the things I like about X-Com are the voice-overs from Central or others keeping you updated or introducing the mission. I wouldn't necessarily have them read all the reports though - that could get tedious quickly, but I think it is to the games loss that the only voice you hear is right at the beginning.

Well, I don't know what the devs are thinking about that, but I do know how much joy it gave me in the original UFO/Xcom game that the blaster launcher could punch a hole in the UFO at any point - very handy for avoiding getting slaughtered in the access lifts! I'd love to see that as a late game option.

Hi everyone, I have been playing X2 regularly since the pre-release came out and just wanted to give the devs some thoughts about gameplay and to hear what others players think. First, it is, on the whole, really great and I am enjoying it very much. I like the new missions (i.e. the ones not available in X1), I like how the game looks and the new UI. I like the way armour works in X2, and I like the tweaks to the weapons (such as advanced lasers, for example). I have even come to like the fact that on Veteran level I have to play the air game manually - something which I have never done previously) and am now enjoying what is for me a new part of the game. I also like the fact that you can customise the difficulty levels. So within the context of this being a really enjoyable game, here a a few suggestions/thoughts on things I would change to make it even better! This is a trivial thing, but in the air game dialogue box that first comes up with the various options (Commence Combat, Tail etc.) in the standard encounter the autoresolve option appears on the top line, but if you encounter fighters and get the reduced options, the autoresolve is on the bottom line. The number of times I have - out of habit - accidentally clicked manual combat when I intended to pick the autoresolve option...! A couple of rants on hit and miss percentages...: - I get that random numbers are random numbers but it is ridiculous to regularly miss 70% and 80% chances to hit three or even four times in a row! - Grenades: again, I get that if the change is less than 100% then all kinds of things can happen but is it really likely that soldiers will drop grenades on the tile in front of them or even two tiles in front of them quite so regularly?! Terror Missions: these go from being almost unwinnably tense at the start as the aliens quickly surround the dropship (which is good, I am OK with that) to almost unbearably tedious at the end as you have to search the whole map for the few remaining aliens. I realise that X1's solution of revealing all the aliens after 20 turns could make it too easy at the end, but surely there is something that could be done? What about a device that could be researched and engineered so that it could detect alien life and give a direction if nothing else? Also, still on Terror missions, what about an option to have the alenium bombs detonate after a given (high!) number of turns so that the Xenonauts have to find and deactivate by removing the alenium or whatever? On Ambush missions or other missions where you get to place your troops before the mission begins, it is sometimes quite hard to see around the map; the option to rotate the map should be available for placing the soldiers as it is when the combat commences. EDIT: I remembered another one: have the right click option to drop equipment on the ground from the inventory screen; it is a pain having to drag and drop everything, especially since the interface is a little bit picky about where the mouse pointer has to be when you drop! Finally, what about a repair option for the MARS/ARES units in combat? Again it could be researched and engineered maybe mid-game after a certain amount of technology had already been developed, and it could work similar to the medikit in that it would not do a full repair but only repair up to half the damage received. You could even have damaged units taking a certain amount of repair time at base (similar to injured soldiers) rather than instantly returning to full health. You could also have an option to speed up the repair as there is for the interceptors. Just some thoughts! Colin.

Hi, I have played-through Xenonauts 2 many times and have taken it as far as it will go on Ironman mode up to Commander level. I have now started at the Veteran level. I tried it a few times in Ironman mode but got wiped out fairly quickly so I have gone back to normal. I say that because the problem (below) didn't occur previously so it might be just coincidence that it has happened when I am playing in normal mode, or it might have something to do with it. In my latest playthrough, there are no missiles available for the aircraft. I have done the Atlas base mission and have done the research project for air weapons; I am reasonably sure I have done the engineering project for the missiles (it certainly doesn't appear in the list of available engineering projects), but missiles do not appear as an option in the Interceptor loadout. Unfortunately I cannot remember for sure if I did the engineering project so I don't know if the problem is the research did not result in the engineering project, or the engineering project did not result in missiles being available. So far I have been able to manage scouts and small UFOs with just canons but that won't last! Many thanks, Colin.

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.