Skitso

Okay, sounds good. It would still be great if GH could implement some kind of radar like in the new XCom to show even a general direction where the last alien is hiding. Chris? Aaron? Any input on this?

nope. Must be someone else. Or could it be me... i'm too skitso to know

It was the NW side toilet in the swimming pool buiding. Door was closed.

Okay, I finally got my first terror site. It seemed to take a bit too long for it to appear as light scout and scout missions started to get really tedious already (to the point I thought theres something wrong with the game as it felt its not progressing). The terror map was one from the community map pack and I literally had to search almost half an hour for the last alien that was hiding in a small toilet. Not so cool. I suppose Xenonauts could use a similar system to point out the direction of a last alien that was used in the new Xcom? As i have save spammed earlier missions this time, the terror site difficulty (with androns) seemed more in line with earlier missions as I had better soldiers, couple of wolf armors and laser weapons. The terror mission (night time) was really tense and suspenceful, so good job there GH! Overall more dense indoor urban map was a great variation after 30+ open desert/arctic/farm maps. The game needs much more these, felt great to get ambushed by an alien though a window. Also, AC is still a bit confusing and tough.. maybe we get to research foxtrot too early as it seems it's no good against smaller ufos and atleast I automatically thought it would be an upgrade over the first aircraft which it's not.

Nice!! I've taken the air combat as a light mini game, but it seems you really need to think what you do. Maybe even too much...?

yeah, also air combat could be a little more forgiving on normal I suppose...

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts Chris, I just want to help to make the game even better. I'll continue to write here as my game progresses. Thanks Dranak for your help and tips! Much appreciated.

I feel the same about terror missions and alien bases too (maybe scripting to make them happen). Feels like a have shot dozens of light scouts down and pretty much nothing else. The game needs IMO a bit more structure to counter the dullness of constant UFO raiding.

I started a new game and I'm getting along much better in ground combat this time around, as I have managed to keep my key soldiers alive pretty well. I feel the beginning of the game is getting a bit tedious and the game desperately needs more structure and guidance. It's November 20 now. I have crash site 22 going and not a single terror site or alien base or anything yet (is this normal?). Raiding a light scout after a light scout and few scouts. There's not nearly enough variation there. I also feel that the amount of UFO's is a bit overwhelming at times, but this might be intentional. I have 2 bases, one in europe with 4 condors and one in central America with two condors and I'm missing about half of the UFO's. Air combat seems a bit too difficult maybe... A scout with two small escorts seems to be too much for me, not to mention a landing ship... I probably need to build a couple of foxtrots. How many aircrafts / hangars you people have? I feel I have too few, even if my first base is full of them already Otherwise, great game! I'm hooked!

Thanks Stinky! I suppose I need to start a new game and try harder this time to survive my first terror mission.

okay, so no officers in crash sites or terror sites?

Getting no answer for this, so I quote myself here: So how am I supposed to know as a first timer what to do next. This objective for example is vague at best. The game desperately needs more direction (yes I know it's supposed to be sandboxy and old school, but still) at least for lower difficulty modes that us "normal" gamers are going to use for the first couple of games. The game could, for example, tell in the ground combat loading screen that there is an alien officer in this ufo you just shot down. It looks like this and that and you should use stun baton or grenade to take it down alive for interrogation. Something like that maybe? Or when a player seen an alien officer for the first time in ground combat, a pop up text could inform that "this alien here is the officer you are supposed to capture". Would make this game far more approachable.

I think the most organic and elegant way would be to make crash sites harder to reach: slower landing ships, more quickly dissappering crash sites etc. so it would be impossible or at least really hard for the completitionist -style player to do them all. As a noob xcom player, I'm not that thrilled to have even more semi abstract layers in an already complicated game. This would also push players to build additional bases around the globe to be able to respond more quickly to remote crash sites

Continuing my game and whoa, whats up with the difficulty in this game!? I know it should be hard, but god damn! I'm not sure if I'm meant to have better equipment or soldiers when going in to a first terror mission but man... my ballistic team with jackal armor didn't have a chance. After killing 13 caesans and one flying drone, I had at least 6 caesans and one drone left at the moment of full wipe. This game seems way, WAY too difficult for a non xcom veteran. If one is playing in a non optimum way, the cumulative losses mission after mission are making this game impossible. I love the game and practise makes perfect they say, but still... wow! I think the normal difficulty setting should be a bit more main stream maybe? Also, my current objective: "capture an alien officer for interrogation". I need more information. Where is one, what does one look like etc. A mission objective marker in ground combat, anything.

Today I started playing this game first time in a semi seriously manner. Here are a collection of thoughts I had in my first 5 hours or so: Whoa, I'm impressed! The game has really changed in the last 6 months or so. Superb improvements in every department. AI is really aggressive and deadly. Great job there. Music is nice and the game is surprisingly stable. I had only one crash and two or three strange behaviors in ground combat. I think the game could use a bit more tutorials in the early game. Atm I really don't know what I should be doing in the early months. Different mechanics should be explained much more clearly. The game is full of numbers, statistics etc, but the game doesn't give me enough information to make anything useful from it. For example what I should build in base and why, how my success is monitored, how my income is calculated etc. I could also use a bit more information on how different things effect country relations. There could be pop ups for every missed ufo or ground combat on how it affected your relations to that country? Okay, here's some random thoughts thus far: Please Chris and GH, don't take this in any bad way or as a too harsh critisism. I only want to make this game better. I might also be missing something so some problems might just be LTP (learn to play) problems. I would like the global map and air combat to edge scroll in the same manner as ground combat. Air combat doesn't even scroll with arrow keys like global map. A bit confusing that some parts of the game scrolls differently than others. If you zoom in the global map and try to build a base in a certain city, you can't do it. Cursor hot spots are too small and too low. (probably a known problem that is fixed with the new UI?) When reqruiting new people, they are referred as items when arrived. Some notification sound would be nice when alien is spotted in ground combat All invertory sceens should support click and move as well as drag'n drop. My first mission was an automated crash site with 9 sebillians. A bit steep learning curve as my ass was handed to me in a way I was never thought was possible in this game (6 xenonauts were killed). Cool I guess, but for a first timers I think it might be a bit too harsh... Some xenonauts death sounds are bad Unit getting gibbed doesn't have any sound effect. Some DooM'esque splatter sound effect would be nice! Some way to know which first aid level is the maximum so I wouldn't need to scroll them three times around every time... Are you going to fix the mirrored art in the global map screen? Seems a bit lazy... Why cant I start building a foxtrot if I don't have a free hangar? Seems a bit silly especially if my hangar is ready before foxtrot Research projects in the list at the right side of the screen shouldn't show projects that are already under work. or at least it should show its current state of progress and that the research is underway. How can I open UFO door without walking through it? I'm getting slaughtered by reaction fire whenever I try to breach the UFO's. Small Scout's layout is maybe a bit too annoying and lethal to breach as a frist UFO type that should be more like a tutorial for a noob player...

Looking mighty fine! This is just the thing this game needs visually. Thanks for doing this!

Seing those corals, I really hope GH would add more small random ground props to make the levels more visually varied.. like small rocks, tall grass etc

I absolutely agree with Solarius; I would take a bit odd looking random map over a stellar looking pre made one any day. Knowing that this location is completely unique and that I will never be here again nor will anybody else gives that special something to games with randomized content. Pre made maps tend often to feel too appropriate, too planned.

Hurrah! (#6?)

Yeah, I've been suggesting fire, smoke and debris around grounded ufos many times in the past, but at least for now it hasn't been implemented. I hope map editor would support placing smoke, fire and broken tiles for more broken terror sites etc. Hope Chris sees this and gives us more destruction!

I'm planning on doing some dense urban maps in the near future. I hope Stinky will also return in the map making as your maps are great!

There absolutely should be a small penalty in country relations if you simply skip the ground mission.

I should probably inroduce myself too. I'm 35 years old oldschool gamer and a has been indie game developer (our last game must be something like ten years old at least)from Finland. If you want to check my old games you can download them for free at http://koti.mbnet.fi/pacbros/skitsoproductions/index.htm Mine Bombers is an old top down mix of Bomberman, Dynablasters and Boulderdash, works only in Dosbox, Pac Brothers is newer and windows compatible Bubble Bobble clone with a hint of Pacman. I have lurked on these forums almost from the beginning(?) as I find it super intersting to follow a game project like this and see how it improves over time. Nice to see you all, and thanks GH for making this game. Looking good, hope you can finish this in a quality this game deserves!

I personally feel the game needs much more tight, claustrofobic spaces. More indoors than cover in open though... your map looks good.