alienman

Yeah. They would be really good in an alien base assault since often must leave corridors unguarded. I just find that trap gameplay really rewarding, so I'm hoping the Xenonauts devs will add something.

When defending my base, I started to think how fun it would be with some kind of proxy grenade, or mine to lure the aliens into. The OG X-com got one, but I have been thinking that a throwable one might be too powerful. So, how about a heavy mine instead? Something to make you ponder if you really want to carry it with you. It would play into other decisions too that way. Like carrying a lighter gun, and armor to be able to drag around the mine/mines. The enemies could use one too. To remove you either blow them up, or you need a special engineering tool (which also takes inventory place). But you get the mine by doing that for your own use. Maybe it could be a slightly different mine so would actually want to pick it up. Like a plasma mine that ignores armor or something. What do you all think?

In my latest campaign, I had some oddities with grenades. It didn't happen often, but when it did, it seemed every agent was affected by it. Once it happened storming the control room in an alien base. I beamed up and made sure I had 100% throw, but all throws just went high up into the air and landed at the agent's feet. That got repeated a couple of times. Tried both flashbangs and grenades. Maybe I hit the ceiling or something? Another oddity was when I blasted a hole open into a building on the artic map. There was an alien hiding inside in the corner, and I wanted to stun him. Made sure the throw was 100% or close, but every throw from outside the building seemed to hit the roof at the beginning of the building like the wall was still there. Tried that 4-5 times. Then I moved one soldier up next to the wall, and then I could lob a grenade at the alien.

From what I can see there is no kill tally on the mission debriefing. I miss that.

That system was useless, since you always took damage with your shield users. I don't understand the positives at all tbh, I just don't see. Not then, and not now.

I like the randomness of having AI doing whatever they want. Sometimes they help you, sometimes they die a screaming horrible death. I vote keep it as it is. AI could always be improved though.

Not too many, maybe 2-3 small ufos, one medium and one bigger with 2 floors.

I reached the ending point for the Xenonauts 2 early access version. Day 183 with the endgame progress at 73%. There is clearly more to do in-game, and I don't know what the endgame will be, but I got to say; the game seems short compared to the first game, and X-com games in general. However, I could all be wrong here and this last phase (endgame) last forever - I'm just surprised how fast everything escalated to this point. I mean, I just had a guy get the 10 missions medal. There are a few casualties in between, but I can't say I have been on that many missions. I think 2 terror missions, 2 base assaults, and a handful of UFO encounters, and then the cleaner missions of course. Is it supposed to go this fast? Will there be much more to do in the game?

A bonus aim for crouching should be a thing - to add more tactical options to the battles.

Thanks! I was wondering if there was a chance of seeing my guy in someone else's game

Can the backer soldiers show up in anyone's game, or do you have to activate them first?

Shame. I liked that you actually had to build more stuff/making the economic part more interesting.

I personally prefer the old style of shield. With that you knew your man would able to tank a couple of shots before it get useless. I understand the idea with it lasting longer, but since your man takes damage, I don't know.

This will be my final feedback for now since my playthrough has come to an end. This is all my own opinion of course. What I like, someone else might dislike, and so on. Anyway, here we go. I'm 100% sure I'm going to miss stuff, but let's start with the good stuff: New 3D engine (just wish the terrain wasn't that flat) New animations Awesome new music The combat in general is enjoyable. Much like Xenonauts 1 I like that UFOs are slower on the geoscape. Feels more realistic I like that the planes now track UFOs correctly I love that you have to equip planes now which makes them more individualized More to build with the engineers, which leads to more customization overall Combine different armor parts Armor will protect your men The new vehicle (MARS) is cool. And I like it's cheaper to repair when destroyed, instead of having to build a new one The economics of the game are much more brutal. I love it It seems you have to sell stuff to survive. This I like The aliens look cool, I like the brutes Reaper zombifying looks way cooler UI improvements when recruiting, now you see their face even The grenade arc looks better, and it looks like you are throwing something in a 3D world Xenopedia UI, like the extra info tabs you get in the top right corner when looking at a subject The alien base looks cool. I like the small flanking corridors General writing (Xenopedia stuff) Now to some negative stuff: Reaction fire galore, which slows down the game. Will expand on this below Alien base central command (second floor). It's way too open, and suicidal (frustrating) to attack Baseball grenade (throwing grenades in a straight line) No increased accuracy when crouching (In general, removing complexity is bad) Can't close base (alien) doors. I understand why this was changed from a gameplay/balance viewpoint, but it makes little sense otherwise. The door only got an open button? While the game is 3D, shooting seems to be "hitscan". The animation for the bullet feels fake, it's just there for effect. I have seen bullets pass through objects, units, and other things, that should have blocked the shot if it was a true 3D-rendered object in the world. Think Silent Storm game No date (months, years) on the geoscape. Feels very nondescript just having day XXX The setting. I like it, but I prefer the cool 80s NATO vs. Russia in Xenonauts 1 Why do we have pilots, when the pilot gets deleted with the plane if you decommission it? It seems like a pointless addition if that is that they are going to be Less detail in the environments, especially when looking at the human base tiles Beyond what is said here, and what has been said in this thread earlier, my main issue with the game is that it seems the best way to play is to play defensively/passively on the battlefield. And that seems to apply to the aliens as well. With that I mean - hunker down and wait for the aliens to come, and unleash hell on them with reaction fire. The aliens use these exact tactics as well, except for the suicidal half-blind Sebellians. One of the cool aspects of OG X-com, Terror from the Deep, Apocalypse, and Xenonauts is that there is a lot more movement involved, especially in TFTD. You move around on the map in these games, which leads to cool stuff, like actually having to explore which gets you to see different kinds of buildings/terrain. And it forces you out of your comfort zone. Phoenix Point and Battle Brothers (even if it works differently) have the same problem as Xenonauts 2. Phoenix Point has very small maps, and often more than half the map is already revealed when you load in. Often you spot enemies at the first turn too. There is no exploration, no tension, you go from geoscape to action immediately - and the best decision is just to hunker down and wait for the aliens. Now Battle Brothers are designed around this concept, but on some missions, you have to move around, and I always found these parts very enjoyable. Walking through a forest, looking for bandits, or some other horrible beast. After a while, the passive nature of Battle Brothers gets to me. It feels more like chess at times than an immersive game set in a harsh medieval fantasy world. Anyway, I find exploration and the tension that comes with that is currently missing in Xenonauts 2 (not entirely), much thanks to the incredibly punishing reaction fire (and small maps). This works both ways - the best option is to let the aliens make the mistake of moving, instead of you. That is all. I'm looking forward to future releases!

Yeah, seems you can go from ballistics to laser without too much trouble. I would still keep some men with me that use ballistics weapons, thanks to the ammo issue with laser refiles.

That is in general my go to tactics for Xeno. But the problem is that I can't close it when I fail to kill the things on the other side, which happens often enough. When you fail, your whole team is trapped there open for retaliation. I know it happened at times too in Xeno 1. Sometimes the engaged aliens would come through the door and grenade you. But yeah, I admit, It's not the most careful play. I learned a lesson. I have to utilize smoke much more, but it's also a question of carrying more smoke.

I have a feeling this will come in form of armor. Like in Xeno 1. One of the aliens have 360 view, going by the autopsy.

Meh. I'm no tactical genius, and I don't really blame the game. It's just not fun gameplay. So, how would you tackle the turrets? You can't close the doors. You can't move away from the door after opening them. You can't shoot them, you can't grenade them. Everything triggers reaction fire. It's either smoke, but that cripples your own aim. Shield? I don't get the shield in Xeno 2. It does not absorb damage the same way as in Xeno 1.

The 49:55 throw? You can see the alien in the other room throwing it pretty damn far.

Lol, it happens so often in Xenonauts, and other X-com like games. Mission start out well, then suddenly you take 65% losses to one alien or something like that. You can feel the rage building.

Good that it could be of help! Yeah, I know. I just like have my men sit. Feels more tactical :P Ah, this explains stuff. In the alien base I destroyed my MARS unit with a grenade, while standing behind it. That pissed me off.

Hehe, yeah, I mean, I'm not some tactical genius or anything. I just got really upset with the turrets. I had a grand old time before those started to massacre my men. Even Chris got killed. RIP. Not sure what you mean with dynamic? I didn't exactly do much. I just set my men up and the game almost played itself there. Also, reaction fire related. Perhaps. I do think I would have won it fairly, if the last aliens wasn't entrenched in that small room, watching from all sides. If they were placed in a larger command room like in Xenonauts 1, with doors that you can actually close, I think the situation wouldn't have been so upsetting for me :P What did you think of the baseball grenade?

I can only talk from the experience from one mission. But I ran pretty low. My guy with pistol ran out. I was running low on other units too, down to their last couple of shots. They could only carry one extra mag with them, since I run with a full set of grenades and such too. But it got me thinking I have to redo the inventory for the men with lasers. Then, if you use 3 shots to pin someone, that is more than half of ammo capacity in one go. I just like the added complexity. And looking at my men with mag rifles, they are down to around to a couple of rounds left in their rifle, but didn't have to reload. So, seems to be a big difference there. There is also the thing about having to waste precious time-units to reload all the time. I can't say for certain if it's a perfect balance or anything, but there is a clear difference between the weapons, at least. Now if mag rifles are worth it by its own, I don't know. It might be worth to skip, but then my comparison would be for standard ballistics and laser weapons.

Okay, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8648230ODU Video starts with the Cleaner base. At 24:47, we have the Xenonauts base defense. Then at 28:14 we have the Alien Base assault. At 49:55 we have the hilarious baseball grenade throw. This is all experienced as "first time". Also, just a warning. The saltiness might get a bit much at times. Curses, swearing and loud complaints will be heard

From my current playthrough so far. The laser weapons are much better overall, damage and accuracy. But they come with one huuuuuge issue. At first when I started to use the lasers, I thought, why even get the accelerated weapons?! But the problem with laser weapons are - they have the same weight as any other weapon, and only carry 5 shots per magazines. So you got to carry a shit ton of spare mags for it, which are heavy. And this, I think makes the accelerated weapons still viable. Especially when carry weight works like currency in Xenonauts. And in my game, I just researched a better armor, but it's heavy! Which makes this even more interesting. I have not made it yet, so I don't know the penalty. But I doubt the ones that use the armor will be able to carry a ton of extra mags with them. I like how it is now, that it is not upgrading all ballistics weapons. I like playing engineer/builder/quartermaster, and I like the aspect of when things hit the fan, you might have to go back to clunky old ballistics - guerilla style. Like how in the old X-com games when you got your base attacked, and every rookie had to defend, but the armory being reserved for the top units only. So you had to give them old junk to defend with. I always liked that rag tagged approach to the game.