Hello Everyone. Yesterday I go the message that i basically entered the Endless mode. I do still have to research exosuits, and buy nearly half of what I researched first, but I think as someone who has played the New X-coms, as well as the first Xenonauts I could offer some ideas and feedback to the campaign as it stands in [version 2.20]
I played on beginner for my first time with Xenonauts 2.
Campaign progression and Challenge:
Cleaners and the first missions were a good introduction and with early Rookies and Ballistics quite challenging. its also fun and rewards good play that we can loot their Accel-rifles during the Base raid. Overall however I felt on a strategic level they were kind of toothless. someone else on the forum suggested that their presence could interact with the UFO missions, making them less rewarding or harder if you wait too long. I like that Idea.
Cleaners missions offer a nice objective variety and side objectives that reward good skill and risk-taking, I felt a bit disappointed how few missions I had to complete to find their base.
on the negative, UFO, Terror and landings felt very boring in comparison. an optional, time sensitive or difficult side-objective (like Meld or time-sensitive alien Data) (maybe a valuable alien attempts to flee off the map?) might help. since there's no timer, reinforcements or extra reward I could casually take my time sweeping through the map safely.
During early lasers, maybe month 3-4 I felt the balance between Money and resources was good. in that I was restricted by my alenium and not my money, and that i had to carefully choose which project I want to implement.
I realized after a while that no matter how successful on Terrormissions, ufo-crashes or Airgame I was my funding stopped increasing. that's a very frustrating feeling.
I was a spendthrift. I save-scummed all deaths, did every mission I could, and only developed the crucial engineering research (armor and weapons). Because between building a base, outfitting a squad, upgrading equipment, and paying ridiculous amounts of money on both planes and every fiddly bit of equipment they use I simply did not have enough money. I was swimming in alenium und Alloys. I SOLD every corpse, weapon and table and still struggle. I won my first base Defense with BALLISTICS (that was fun).
on one hand, managing limited resources is vital and it does accomplish that. on the other, I feel it should be the exotic alien materials, not cash. especially on beginner.
I feel there should be an option so solve my money problem. we can make alien materials at cost once late-game. we can't make money really.
I stopped building up my base after month 3 with anything because I simply couldn't afford to. my third base was purely a hangar so that I had cover in the Airgame since I couldn't afford to build a real base
Global Strategy:
I felt considering how much I had to invest and pay for these scientists the difference in actual research speed is way, way to low.
at some point I realized I had to build a workshop and hire engineers or I wouldn't actually be able to use anything I research. I like it. Construction now feels as important as research.
I wish I could build ouposts smaller than bases. Maybe only 4x3 tiles, cheaper, so that I can plop down a radar or a few hangars.
Ground Combat
About halfway through the game I noticed that I have seen all maps and tiles. this was solved in Xenonauts 1 by community maps/mods but I feel a greater variety in the base game wouldn't hurt. if I get bored by the variety halfway through my first campaign... (but that's a content question and I know you guys are working on the fundamentals first)
overall I feel the game is best in the beginning and middle stages before you get Lasers/warden, since you're squishy and slow, forcing you to make use of smoke, flashbangs, MARS, suppression, flanking and overwatch ambush to engage in battle.
as you get your squad of Veterans up, and reach 80-100 TUs and accuracy, the game becomes very easy.
exploiting Line of sight/popping up, firing, breaking LOS remains very powerful.
I feel the alien AI is very simple, or maybe it currently does not have enough tools to really harass or make problems for a late-game team. No grenades, no direct psychic skills, little coordination (suppression + approaching) Sectons have the +accuracy passive, but I have never seen the AI make use of it.
Similary I found little synergy between aliens so far? the closest is Wraiths and their little fire support drones but they're ofter very spread out.
maybe instead of spreading out lone aliens, make little groups of them that coordinate so that's a more even Squad Vs Squad fight?
I just never felt. "oh this is a tricky".
Equipment:
Smokes are worth gold in the beginning, but actively hinder your shots late-game to the point I completely drop them.
I have never used the Grenade Launcher.
Currently there is no reason to use EMP damage. it only pierces armor, but that's useless if other weapons do more base damage, pierce anyway, or burn it away.
maybe make EMP suppression on hit for Robotics. (disrupted) and or increase base EMP damage to be inline with upgraded Laser/Gauss due to being so specialized.
the Tier2 Stunweapons look interesting, but you then realize that the Elec.Rifle only has 3 shots, lower range, and little damage.
EMP damage should disable Wraith cloaking.
Air Combat
the bomber is horribly fast, closes quickly, forces you to dodge with its barrage, and is a Air supremacy terror utterly incongruent with its description.
considering how expensive planes and their equipment are, you can only buy 1 plane a month realistically. and buy nothing else.
I feel I need to experiment and really focus on the airgame in my next playthrough.
PLEASE allow me to MERGE or SPLIT air Squadrons on the world map. sometimes I send out a phantom to deal with a scout, then a bigger UFO shows up. why do I have to fly back to base to reform into one Squadron? or I realize that the Angel is too slow to pursue but my two Phantoms could make it, but I can't Split them.
also for the sake of flexibility, allow me to simply FLY my airplanes to bases with empty hangars, transferring them that way. maybe simply to rearm and refuel.
more to come probably. I didn't write notes while playing.
