GreyICE

Thanks for that thread. I understand the idea, but frankly... that response is silly. Mood and feeling matter a lot. This is entertainment, I like feeling entertained, and a spooky night mission is cool and fun. Night missions should be scary and unwelcoming. If you want to make people do more of them, reward them for reaching the UFOs/Terror sites quickly - maybe make civilian deaths count, and make some number of civilians die every hour so that the Xenonauts showing up late would cost you council rep. I really liked your photoshop, it was obviously rough, but it already looked better. The harsh line is just too gameplay-ish, it's not how light works. If the dev wants the shade to have a mechanical effect, maybe shooting shaded units has an accuracy penalty if you don't have some form of nightvision - like you are having trouble seeing them, harder to hit them.

I miss the really dark nights of XCOM. Like so dark it was hard to make out what was happening. So atmospheric. I'm hoping the visuals really get a good pass late beta. It's obviously something that can be done at any point, but some of the concept art for Xenonauts 2 was simply stunning, great lighting and shadows, and adding that back in would make night so much more atmospheric. I really liked sighting an alien and trying to work out what it was from its outline too. That just felt "shit what's out there". Obviously night missions in XCOM were quite manageable, but there was always this primal dread of them. With a modern lighting engine like Unity it could be amazing - little pools of streetlights and lamps illuminating the dark, flares thrown out and casting a dim orange illumination over a small area, etc. Feel like a really good visual update would make night missions work more than mechanical adjustments - most of the ways they don't "work" for me right now are really flavor related. Also all the troops should automatically stock 2 flares, and more should take up inventory space. 18 flares would cover most maps anyway.

In real life 40 mm grenade launchers have airburst mode my dude. That means they'll detonate a fixed distance from the grenade launcher when the trigger is pulled. In Xenonauts, a grenade can go whistling past the target, across the road, over the fence, into a convienence store and kill the cashier. In real life, they'll detonate at the distance set when the trigger is pulled so if the alien is 50' away the grenade will detonate at 50'. This is done by a computer system that recognizes the distance to the target the grenade launcher was aimed at when the trigger was pulled, and sets the fuse as the grenade launches to automatically detonate at the fixed distance. While you could "miss", they would never go whistling off the map (that is as you say, a warcrime waiting to happen) Now we could ask this very complex programming to be done, or we could have grenade launchers replicate this behavior by arcing like thrown grenades, thus guaranteeing they detonate near the alien they're aimed at. In the interests of not driving the programmer insane, I know which one is simpler. This also has the benefit of being very intuitive, because the "grenade launcher" acts similarly to the "grenade" in game and it's always nice when two things that seem similar actually are similar, it makes the game more intuitive and readable. "Airburst" would be neither intuitive nor readable, while arcs would be. Also real life is a fun guide, but this is a fictional alien invasion where the cold war and the iron curtain are still alive and well in 2008. If things behave differently than their "real life" counterparts in the interests of making a better game, ah well.

What's not to love? It does similar damage to the pistol, takes a buttload of time units, never upgrades (even when other grenades get upgraded) and doesn't arc so it can just go flying past aliens (which is funny because direct hits barely do damage). Oh right here's a playtip - delete the Grenadier loadout immediately. Anything you can do with it you can do with thrown grenades too, and you'll have a real weapon. Gets outright embarassing when the plasma grenades hit for 75 and the grenade launcher is still hitting for 35 because... reasons. Just needs to be rethought entirely.

Just wanted to chime in to say that Laser Pistols are really far from useless. They do a chonking 33 damage for 20/30% TU cost, and have great accuracy at short range. They're not shotguns, but I've found them surprisingly great at handling problems. Lots of times I've killed everything from Sebillians to Reapers with just the pistol after the shield went bye bye. Do wish there was an intermediate upgrade after you discover alien alloys for an 'alloy shield', halfway between reinforced shield and basic shield. Right now the gap waiting for the second tier is ridiculously long, a middle tier right around lasers would be nice.

I hit 3, was planning for a full five, but was stymied by running out of research/beta. My usual base is top row of hangers, access lift in third row, then generator/stores/radar/2x defense south. Also threw spare labs and a living quarters in my first base so I could get all research there. Usually defend with 10xSentries, going to 16 if/when I get resources.

Grenade Launcher does shitall. Needs higher damage, for Alerium and Fusion explosives to upgrade it, needs to fire in an arc (shallower than throwing a grenade, but still an arc so it doesn't fly past). Combat knife weighing 10 lbs is so ridiculous it feels like a typo. Should be 1x2, take 1 lbs. Kabar combat knife is 0.7 lbs, a friggin claymore is 5.5 lbs. Heavy weapons are good. Like... really good. Like exceptionally good. They might need a little less damage per shot or something. Grenades and explosives in general feel weak. Fire is... terrible. Just terrible. We need some XCOM fire. I want this: https://imgur.com/WIwoefu Smoke's stun damage is really solid. Like, really. It's basically a stun grenade.

I love the idea of giving points for rescuing civilians (similar to original XCOM) but hate the idea of having to control those jerks. Let them run around like idiots. Maybe make rescuing civilians worth points, dead civilians cost points, rescuing army and losing army worth less (since army are risking their lives standardly)

So, just completed Build 1 and I liked it a lot! Obviously still has work to do but in great shape. So I'm going to be posting some ideas. All are free to use, I don't want any rights or credits, etc. etc. Anyway, I love research from capturing aliens. It was so fun in XCOM, it was fun in the Firaxis games, it's just fun! It's a little bit of flavor. Obviously there's the advanced medkits and regen module, and the mentarch, but here's some more ideas. Mantid - Compound Eye Module Engineering project, tactical module grants 180 (or 120 or 270) degree vision. Cool, flavorful, fun. Not sure it's great, but hey that's where this should be. Secton - Squadsight Module Allows anyone with a Tactical Module to fire at anyone in LOS of another person with a tactical module without penalty. Could be hard to code, just my idea based off their ability. Alternatively, +3 accuracy if within 5 spaces of another person with a Secton upgraded module. Psion - Mesmer Grenades Small radius, cause non-robotics to stand up, lose all time units, and walk a few squares in a random direction. Reaper - Reaper Claws Absolutely deadly close range weapon. Like really super high damage. Bonus if it uses the idea at the end Servitor (requires EMP to allow capture) - Heal Beam Secondary weapon, lets vehicles carry a 3 range medkit that can heal other vehicles too. Cyberdrone - Cyberdisk Vehicle Floating/hovering version of the Mars rover. Bonus idea - Rather than unlocking everything for manufacturing, manufacturing the upgraded modules requires captured aliens. So more Stalker or Healing modules requires more captured Stalkers/Sebillians, Reaper Claws need Reapers, etc. Gives a good minigame for capturing, and makes capture stuff more enticing to bring. Anyway, great game. Want ot post more thoughts after I have more time to digest.