StellarRat

You neglected the the choice: When it's ready. No software company should release a product with lots of bugs or game mechanics/balance issues. I've seen this happen before and it's bad. Once the game comes out it will get immediate published reviews before there is even a chance for patches that might solve all the problems. If it has problems that will cost a lot of sales and more often than not there is no second chance at the reviews. They rarely re-review things and if they do they don't make it a high visibility article. Usually is a passing note or addition to the first review. Sim City 5 and Sword of the Stars II come to mind.

Ideally, some aliens will block (say under cover and wait for targets) while others will try to sneak around your flanks.

The squad vision accuracy penalty as described by Puciek above does make a lot of sense to me. If you can't actually see the target even if someone is pointing it out to you then spray and pray is the best you can hope for. Only the sniper rifle, grenades/HE weapons, and assault/machineguns should get a reduction/avoid this penalty. That said, the penalty should apply to the aliens as well.

Chris, Maybe there should be a Bug Reporting thread for this and move all the current reports to it as well? The title doesn't seem to match the purpose of the thread anymore.

www.xenonauts.com still looks hijacked to me.

Yes, it's better now.

I'm getting this strange TWiki thing when I go to goldhawkinteractive. Also, www.xenonauts.com looks hijacked to me.

And voila! Fait accompli!

Wow! This literally more than doubled in the four hours since I put in my 2 cents worth. Looks like you'll get all the money you need Chris and team! Congrats on another successful funding!

How about if you use custom nose art submitted by $500 level people on jets and helicopters? Or name the aircraft after them? Or both? Obviously taste and reason would be required aka no porn on the AC.

I'd pay the extra $10 to do some beta playing/testing. One of the previous posters said he didn't think beta testers had much of a voice. I don't believe that is true with Goldhawk. I know that a couple of my ideas made into X1. I know that you take thoughtful suggestions seriously i.e. something that is not just ranting. :-)

I've advocated for either increased shotgun damage, an SMG, or a machine pistol since the first Xenonauts. That said, the shotgun should be great inside buildings and devastating at really close range. 00 shot from a shotgun has the same hitting power as a 9mm round and a single shotgun shell holds nine of them. So, going strictly by "reality" it should be like unloading an entire pistol at the target instantly. The other two weapons are basically just fully automatic pistols with the SMG having the advantage of being easier to control and having a larger clip. The machine pistol does have the advantage of being a one handed weapon, but would nearly useless at anything beyond very short range.

Not sure I'd do too much re-balancing on the shotguns yet. They should be much more effective inside spaceships and buildings. "My" shotgun would be devastating at close range and nearly useless long range if I was making a game.

I think before anyone assumes the AI "won't even challenge a moderately skilled human" we should see how it turns out. If I remember correctly many of the things that were possible/planned to do with the AI weren't implemented in Xenonauts 1 because they ran out of time to do them. I'm going to assume that Jjis-Jan (probably spelled wrong) is going to be able to put more "brains" into it this time around. He had all the ideas and solutions in planning before, so this time it would seem he'd be able to implement more of them.

I actually meant proximity grenades and a motion detector or some other device that allows you to detect hidden units even if it's just a camera that can look around corners or under doors. Sorry I wasn't really clear on that. A recon drone would be really cool! I also really hope we'll get some more chemical or bio weapons other than just stun gas and smoke. Fire weapons didn't make it into the last game, <hint, hint> . Of course, that assumes that the alien AI is smart not to just sit in one place and just die and also that the will aliens have similar capabilities or at least defenses against them. One could argue that the Reaper is a bio weapons I suppose.

Yes, yes, that's all very well and fine, but will we get area denial weapons and proximity detectors?

Chris - Earlier you mentioned that only about 40 personnel total were going to available. If you manage to get several / all the people killed what will happen? Assuming you haven't lost the game is it possible to simply run out of staff?

I like what I'm hearing in this thread about the expanded strategy side of the game vs. X1. I'm not sure I'm onboard with just having one alien and a bunch of humans minions to fight on the average mission. I'd prefer one boss alien and a bunch of minion aliens (aka low power red shirts) OR at least humans that have been mind controlled or something similar (brain implants inserted, etc...) and are totally under alien control. They should look somewhat alien like at a minimum and probably have some unique abilities / vulnerabilities vs. a regular human. I do agree that the current "picture" I have of the game as a war in the shadows is appealing. I agree with the poster that thinks intelligence gathering should be an important aspect of the game. I believe you should have base additions (hardware) and research to improve intel gathering as well as missions and personnel that can also improve your intel. In fact, one mission objective could be seizing aliens or minions to learn about where the next alien "attack" or whatever will be focused. Another could be stealing access codes that allow you tap into national intel resources. Another could be cracking alien transmission codes by stealing a key or device from the aliens, etc... You could even have missions where NOT shooting or being detected is a critical factor like sneaking into a place to copy some type of plans, tap a comm line, download data, etc... I very much would like more variety in mission types than X1 had and this plays right into that. Having good intel should lead to some type of advantage. Perhaps having your operatives arrive BEFORE the aliens and ambushing them in ground combat or intercepting them in transit to their objective. That would be most satisfying!

Yeah, an early research project would be OK. That system in in the wiki is actually quite deadly because it uses proximity fused mini-grenades, so you shoot over enemy cover and the grenade detonates above or behind the target. It basically negates anything but a pillbox or covered foxhole as cover. Even buildings aren't safe because it can be set to fire through any window or opening and blowup inside. But you are right about the small size, it wouldn't destroy much cover. However, it would be a great stun gas, mine, or poison gas delivery system and it could still destroy cover fairly quickly because it can fire MANY explosive rounds quickly and that adds up. The rate of fire is important. I'm guessing, but I imagine a direct hit from a 25 mm explosive round would probably blow a two or three foot hole in a brick wall. I imagine some alien upgrades would also up the explosive power of the weapon eventually.

I think I found a real life equivalent of roughly what you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM25_CDTE My other thought is you don't have to give it a name that means anything specific. You could just call it the XA40 or some other designation that means nothing specific other than a model number. That way people won't expect it to act in some specific manner. You can simply describe what it does and how to use it. That way YOU set the users' expectations instead of the other way around.

True, but there are smaller ones that can be handled by one person and reloaded fairly quickly like the M18 57mm. I'm not sure what the best approach would be. I just don't like a grenade launcher that can't fire over something.

I agree with Max on this. If the grenade launcher can't be used to shoot over objects you should name it something else. Recoilless rifle is good or just go back to rocket launcher. Personally, I see no reason why you can't just allow it to function as a real grenade launcher. You have hand grenades that can be tossed over objects and so the grenade launcher should work exactly same way except have much longer range and horrible accuracy in indirect mode. I'd just throw in a large accuracy penalty when trying to fire one over anything, mostly on range axis i.e. it tends to land short or long. It shouldn't be too hard as you already have Line of Sight mechanics in the game. That would discourage people from using them as "artillery" since the ammo supply is limited and in close combat you're likely to hit your own troops. I'm assuming the average solider could probably only carry 4 to 8 additional rounds of ammo for the grenade launcher. In real life, someone has to estimate the range accurately when they are used in indirect mode and a base plate is often employed that effectively turns them into little mortars. Without the base plate you probably won't hit anything with the first round and at worst you'll waste a lot of shots trying to find the range. You'd also need an observer if the target is not visible to the shooter. Hitting a moving target would be nearly impossible. Your explosion mechanics ideas sound awesome by the way. I'm all in favor of those.