Argroww

I've just played a game on Easy setting, I will admit I'm not a hardcore player, but I have played most of the XCOM style games out there. If I select EASY, I want EASY, it should result in a virtual cake-walk....okay so stupid decisions by me should result in me failing, I get that, but I was attempting to be careful in my ground missions, but by the 3rd mission I'd already lost half the soldiers I'd started with and was running so low on funds that I could not effectively replace them (this is after selecting a couple of extra buildings, building a condor and a scout tank thingy). It's been a while since I played a Easy game of XCOM, but I'm sure that the start of the game didn't result in so many deaths. The AI seems very intelligent and keeps the aliens hiding well (so I result in having a low accuracy) and when they do fire, even when my soldiers appear to be in the same "defended" position, they still get hit. Trouble is, everyone has a different idea out of what they expect from a game like this and to start with the humans should find it hard-going and perhaps die often even on easy...in which case make it easier for the player to keep buying replacement soldiers AND make base improvements and build the things that are researched....but I suppose there lies the balance with not giving so much money that it makes it easier to build a 2nd base right from the start. Maybe allow the Easy option to have an "unconscious" soldier instead of a dead soldier, so if you win the level you just get a load of soldiers in hospital, then the normal takes away that option and then the higher difficulties introducing more aliens and ships ETC. This option perhaps has the least code change as it's a tweak to not let the soldier die unless the missions fails?

@Gorlom I wasn't trying to compare Xenonauts to civ, whilst both being strategy games you are correct in that Xenonauts is telling a story and with civ you are kind of making your own. However the ideal of research tree design is the same. Whilst every tech should have a decent description, something that makes you want to read it rather than it simply being a means to another tech. I guess I just liked the idea that a tech would give a passive bonus, not something I've seen before in a UFO style game (I don't think UFO AI or many or the commercial remakes did this?), so it would be nice for some of the other "stepping stone" techs to also offer passive bonuses, increased radar range, or perhaps a better insight into those little events that pop up on the map or as with what jimbobfury said, perhaps have a few more options in regards to your relationship with the various nations. Might be nice to have a few more techs at the beginning too....not sure what though, so perhaps not...

People do it for civ 4...if xenonauts is well received enoguh there may well be people who are willing to spend the time developing the heavy mods, rather than smaller tweaks....I'll admit though that I'm not one of those people, I just like to see what people can do with mods

Sorry if there's already a thread with this title... I was thinking (after researching the alien corpses) that more techs need to have results other than just leading to another tech. During my hunt for civ 4 mods I found a discussion on how best to construct a tech tree, in that discussion it was identified that no tech should be only a stepping stone for another tech....otherwise why have it? With that in mind perhaps Zenonauts could inject in that every single tech gives a result beyond merely allowing you to research another tech. The first tech "Alien invasion"? (the one that leads to the MIG plane tech) could perhaps give access to a unique story mission "cave investigation" perhaps in which your chinook is sent out to examine some cave drawings which reveal that the aliens have visited earth before, completing this mission unlocks a new tech "why are they here? pt1" which looks into why they've returned (going off at a tangent...) The tech for the research of the plasma pistol perhaps allows you to sell the pistols for a higher amount....or perhaps just allows you to sell them. The alien alloys allows you to produce minor plane hull improvements and a heavier armour (not as good as the final result of the path because it slows down your soldier quite a lot, so of dubious value) Anyway the idea is that no tech only unlocks another research subject, it will also have some other benefit, be it a building, vehicle, object, passive bonus, or a hidden one-off mission (investigation type mission perhaps?...although either some kind of combat element needs to be added, or it's just a case of flying out with the chinook and back again)

SOmewhat related to this is something that allows the game to detect if all aliens are dead before even starting the mission, I started a crash site, move my soldiers, didn't see any aliens in that first move, went through a whole hidden movement series and then got the mission complete screen....although I suppose it's possible that one of the military units took out an aliens during the hidden movement?

I saved a game whilst I had 2 alien ships targeted with interceptors on their way, I then exited the game and was given a message stating that the alien ship has escaped into space and that I had lost the game. Although not sure if the last one is due to the alpha version not being coded to recognise the difference between game exit and game over?

Considering my initial interest in this game I've been very quiet on the forum.....although considering that the goldhawk website has been blocked at my workplace not entirely surprising. Anyway, to the point of my thread, what are people's thoughts on Total Conversions....perhaps somewhat limited given the nature of the Xenonauts game, but there is potential for other ideas using the base xenonauts engine. Perhaps an invasion by the hordes of Chaos with a kind of magi-tech theme for research options...or you could be defending the earth against to Goa-uld (sp?) from Stargate....or perhaps have a post-nuclear world?