Targe

snow footprints would be cool! 3 types, alien, human, and mixed.

I miss the old cattle mutation mission where you find a cut up cow on the operating table in the abductor ufo in xcom EU. Always made me chuckle...

does anyone know if the dropship (chinook et al) take damage from stray fire? if not, it should

No, I hate caps of any kind, this is sci fi, not reality , and in sci fi the concept of the "Super Soldier" is well known, and part of what made the original xcom so fun. If your soldier consistently packs above her weight into the redline, her strength should continue to grow until she can bench press anyone in the locker room.

What is the current status of this? I can say that the current model in the beta is excellent and working great, and that I prefer strength to be a non hidden stat that increases with experience, and is dependent on how close to or over their current carrying capacity the soldier pushes it.

Don't forget to add Canada to your strings file

Here's a good start on North America: <--! North America !--> <City> <Name>Los Angeles</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1399,1267</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Vancouver</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1291,0912</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Seattle</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1304,0969</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>San Francisco</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1309,1176</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>San Diego</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1429,1301</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Phoenix</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1529,1269</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Chicago</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2096,1082</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Toronto</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2294,1039</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Quebec City</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2494,0962</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Halifax</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2649,1017</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Calgary</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1495,0876</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Edmonton</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1508,0817</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Saskatoon</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1667,0852</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Winnipeg</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1882,0904</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Regina</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1704,0887</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Miami</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2263,1455</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>New Orleans</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2056,1370</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Houston</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1929,1362</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>New York</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2406,1118</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Anchorage</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>0669,0635</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Kansas City</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1995,1155</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Denver</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1703,1121</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>St Johns</Name> <Country>Canada</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2889,0959</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Dallas</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>1887,1288</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Washington DC</Name> <Country>United States</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2344,1161</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City> <City> <Name>Nuuk</Name> <Country>Greenland</Country> <Population>3271110</Population> <Location>2909,0552</Location> <PopupDistance>0.5</PopupDistance> <DetailDistance>0.7</DetailDistance> </City>

I was going off old UFOEU, there were major countries represented, was better, but sure, Im ok with major geographic areas , so long as provincial and state capitols are all included.

Tanx man, mucho appreciated.

half my squads packing the machine gun (its a MMG, btw), I like rockets just because I love smackin those evil lizards in the chops. M16s have been just fine for keeping their heads down.

I think Cobra was the name of the YF-17, the plane that lost to the F-18. Stupid name for a US fighter imo, since they already have a gunship called that.

Working on Canada right now, finding it more difficult than I thought to match up with the geoscape. Lake Winnipeg for example has been drained and is now a giant swamp, which should make the already legendary mosquito problems there truly epic!

While cruising YouTube for authentic ufo vids, as I often ddo, I found some amazing background music that was perfect for xenonauts! Anyone figured out yet how to add custom music?

does anyone know if it will be possible to link specific maps to geoscape locations? if so, then everyone could make a home city project, and even add military bases! (Area 51, anyone?)

Ouch! Just make your own copy and write it yourself, Jim! Thats what Im doing. And incidentally, declassified reports from the ACTUAL CIA and airforce from the 1970s are often just as poorly written, and full of spelling mistakes (no spell checker on those old typewriters) I think Chris has done a fantastic job overall, and is rightly proud of his creative writing, so please, more tact.

awesome! now can someone tackle North and South America? (not forgetting Canada, Mexico, and Central America) Is there any way to do it other than comparing geoscape to google earth?

Is there going to be a geoscape editor, that also lets you define new countries? Would be nice to have Canada seperate from US,(we did fight a war with them afterall, to keep that) and a few major cities in Canada, like Toronto, and Vancouver. Vancouver Island also appears to have sank, which Im sure the 750,000 people who live there would disagree with...

What is estimated Steam release date? Waiting for Steam.

Any update on when this will be available on Steam? Desura is not sufficient.

http://www.amazon.ca/Alien-Invasion-Survival-Handbook-Extraterrestrial/dp/1600611621#reader_1600611621

Good god, hope they are not seriously setting it on Mercury...

Do you blame them? Imagine getting 3/4 done and then seeing Firaxis release their XCom, with this awesome Indie hot on it's tail! The market is saturated! They may as well give up! (I personally hope they don't, suspect they did though) UFO Extraterrestrials was the only true and proper remake of XCom so far, and an awesome job, other than they stupidly based it on another planet, completely removing the emotional attachment. Some things they changed which I really liked though were: - Just make interceptions occur on the Geoscape! What a duh! moment concept! They should have had a zoom in, though, rather than the ten mile long massive fighters zooming around the planet. Scale was ridiculously off. - Much more tech to research! Awesome! - More aliens and alien tanks! I thought I had the game licked until the GIANT KILLER ROBOTS showed up... oh crap, back to the lab... - Cool 'intercept UFO leader' missions, with extra bonus tech items! This was a great idea as well. Perhaps the only part they dropped the ball on was the end game, which was dull and boring, what a boring last mission! Other than the multi-string mission part which required you to really hump along a ton of extra ammo, which was different, but not such a great idea. A much cooler story line would have helped the end game.

I found this out the other day watching the interview with the original maker of XCom and the Firaxis bone head who bastardized it. UFO was a cheesy British television series in the 70's. Watch the first episode and tell me if you spot the Geoscape map! [video=youtube;4-5GAY7JfWU] Just awesome, but be warned... the sexism is OFF THE PLANET!!!

Some of these ideas are fairly close the current game, others I realize would require a new code base and a far bigger development project. Alternate Version XCOM ------------------------ Geoscape Improvements -------------------------- All current countries with 1 million people or more represented. Geoscape is 3D spinning globe again and faithful copy of Google Earth. Eventually with tech player can also view and build bases on Moon, and there are missions on the moon in space suits. Maps always match landscape landed on. Summer and Winter modelled (ie, in countries with winter, tiles are snow covered and trees bare in winter on maps). Tilt axis of sun angle also changes to shorten daylight time in appropriate hemisphere depending on time of year. Aircraft can request arial refuelling. Only major power countries have this ability, and if enough tankers shot down, they will no longer provide this request. The tanker appears on the map and fighers must rendevous with it) Anti-UFO defenses on map have range and fire when UFO's in range, not when they try to land on the base (if they make it that far it's too late) Base Aircraft available match country base is built in, or planes country has traditionally purchased (Ie, India likes Russian planes but has some Mirage 2000's and home-built Tejas) Maximum squadron size in an intercept increased to 5, same with aliens. Aircraft now need pilots, who are recruited as per soldiers. Pilots have various traits that improve certain features of the game, such as top airspeed, max range, hit chances of weapons, damage, ect... Number of kills kept for each pilot. Pilots also become injured. 2 pilots required for the landing vehicle used. If a plane is shot down, there is a good chance the pilot can eject safely and be recovered, but he will likley be badly injured and need a long time to recover. Research Improvements ------------------------ Research abilities increased: - Improve any building: workshops each improvement increases space and workers by 1 labs each improvement increases research ability and max scientists by 1 radar each improvement increases radar range and detection by 10 km - 1 % Can research cost reductions. Can research any weapon to improve it. Tactical Improvements -------------------------- Soldiers can now lie down in prone position and leopard crawl. This greatly improves accuracy and defensive bonus, but reduces movement to near zero (but not action points for firing) Machine guns can now choose sustained burst, which greatly drains ammo but fires more shots (6 instead of 3) 60 mm mortar added as weapon type. Can fire blind over buildings, can fire smoke, wp, or explosive. wp grenade added, causes fire damage and produces a lot of smoke. Sniper rifle added as weapon. Can research better rifles, including .50 cal sniper rifle (which is deadly in the early game and can fire across any map without penalty with ease) Consequently, the aliens also now get a plasma sniper rifle. combat knife added (range 1 close quarters combat weapon) bayonette added to assault rifles for close in work. katana added (same use as knife but MUCH more damage). Two handed weapon. martial arts is now a skill soldiers have. The higher this skill, the better they are with melee weapons, and... Hand to hand combat. Soldiers can now throw punches and kicks. player can find chainsaws to use in farm maps. Gun store in terror campaign has ammo reloads, shotguns, assault rifles, and pistols to choose from. Humans close by will loot it to use against aliens. DUCK! They are bad shots. Aliens otoh also now get melee weapons and use martial arts. This makes the Sebs MUCH more lethal... Bayonettes added to Seb plasma rifles. Soldiers may now learn 'perks' similar to the new Firaxis XCom title. Perks are random, as there are no soldier types, and adding this would be stupid. Visual Improvements ----------------------- Aliens are as per actual descriptions, ie, greys are greys and they are naked and grey; Reptillians are reptillian (no tails). UFO's are as per actual descriptions: - Scout - classic 'Mars Attacks' saucer style with bubble on top, 3 crew. (See Vancouver Island UFO picture for an actual photo of one of these) - Fighter - crescent shaped ship similar size to scout but heavier armed. (Lead ship of nine ship formation as sighted by pilot Kenneth Arnold over Mt. Rainier). 4 crew. Fighter now will crash and be added as a mission type. - Medium - classic 'hat shape' ship, as from original 'The Invaders'. (And from famous photos by Rex Heflin). 5 crew + 2 soldiers. Used in Abduction and Mutilation type missions. - Large - Triangle ship, as per Belgium sightings from 1980's. 6 crew + 4 soldiers. Used in small terror attack missions. - Very Large - Cone ship as per Jesse Mantell case. 7 crew + 6 soldiers. Used in base attack and large terror attack missions. - Huge - Giant flying Wing from Phoenix Lights cases. 10 crew + 12 soldiers. Used in base attack and large terror attack missions. - Transport - Flying Cigar shape, frequently reported. 2 crew + 10 soldiers. Used to transport aliens to bases and for large terror attack missions. Mission Types -------------- New mission types: Cattle mutilation, human abduction, electricity grid sabotage, nuclear base infiltration, Men in Black, Ancient Aliens Cattle Mutilation: Team lands in a farmer's field, find numerous cattle badly mutilated, find UFO with partially mutilated cow inside, aliens performing weird surgery on it. Aliens will attempt to get away by taking off. Must destroy main computer, all of the engines, or all aliens to prevent. If the UFO takes off, everybody still on UFO considered lost. Human Abduction: Team lands on a rural property and find aliens taking family from farm house to UFO. Must try to save as many of the family as possible. Some of the family are mind controlled zombies, some are still alert. Aliens will attempt to get as many humans on the UFO as possible and take off, same rules as above for take off. Electricy Grid: Map is of a power station. Live power lines and equipment everywhere make this a very dangerous map. Aliens are drawing power from the grid for their UFO. On discovery they will do a fighting withdrawal back to the UFO, attempting to destroy as much of the plant as possible. Must prevent damage to plant and try to capture UFO before it takes off. Nuclear Base Infiltration: Team finds aliens have landed at a nuclear missile base and are attempting to sabotage it and abduct military personnel. Kind of a hybrid between abduction and electricity grid scenario. Must prevent damage to the nuclear warheads. Men in Black: Team encounter alien Men In Black. They have a cloak-capable 1950's big ass sedan, and they are quick and sport automatic plasma pistols (MIB unique weapon). This is a small version of a city terrorization mission, set in urban environment. MIBs are modelled as caesians in dark suits, hats, and of course, sunglasses MIB objective is to kill all humans on map and escape in their car. Team must kill all MIB's and hopefully capture car, which can be researched for cloaking technology. Ancient Aliens - Team finds landed ufo at ancient ruins site. Aliens are in the ruins, searching for 'Atlantian Crystals' which are types of power crystals similar to Elerium they can use to power their devices. Team must locate as many crystals as possible and also attempt to capture the ufo. Various famous ruin sites that feature in UFO mythology are modelled and used from throughout the world.

It does, when one considers there are now hundreds of documented abduction reports that report short 3-4 foot tall large head large black eyed greys, (or tans, or off-whites, or dark browns) but all have the same basic body type of the ones coming into bedrooms and taking people up into spaceships. The Hills case was an excellent report, yes. The beings that visited and abducted them presented Betty with a star map that was later matched to the Zeta Reticuli star system, with Sol on the main trade routes they indicated. The beings most commonly abducting people now are not those beings. Those were from the same dimension as us at least! But that's hardly surprising, for as Dr. Kathy Turner found out one night from the government agent monitoring her phone line, "We know where they are from, and there at least 40 different races out there...". Earth is pretty much the San Diego Zoo of the Milky Way Galaxy. Races come from all over, to look at the monkeys, play with them, eat them, screw them, cross breed them, whatever.