RaptorEchelon

Having been incredibly busy for a long time I'm ashamed to admit I forgot I had Xenonauts on Desura. Of course as soon as I heard it released I had to go update it. My only regret is I can't play it on Steam. I can't believe I forgot I had a premium pre-order and everything. I was so caught up. Congratulations to the team, the game is fantastic.

I really want to buy this. I just don't think I can drop 30 pounds on another XCOM esque game. I have 100+ hours fo XCOM 2012 and I just do not need another 100.

I'd think that for the most part an understanding of the original XCOM would be al you need.

I actually just though of another use for it. What if a "deployed" MG stopped enemy reacton fire? You could then move other units into firing range without aliens taking the (almost always fatal) free shot. It doesnt even need to be a damaging move, it's jsut I feel it suits the MG role better. Also, Bipod on a handgun? It's more likely than you think:

Well if my second idea was implemented it would still require lots of AP to fire. So you'd still need the other weapons. It's the idea I prefer actually.

I've been playing a fair bit of Ground Combat, and one of my favourite uses for the machine gun is to set them up outside UFOs, wait a turn, open the door, and then burst fire whatever is on the other side. However, I don't see that as the only use for an MG. It costs a lot of AP to fire one, (45?) and that means if I move, I can't fire. I feel like the MG needs single shot options, low accuracy options, obviously, but it needs them. It's not like people don't use MGs in that capacity in real life. Second, why not an option to deploy it? It doesn't require any special animations, just get behind some cover, face the right direction and spend some TU to deploy, then next turn you get a boost to accuracy when burst firing. Maybe that'd be better instead of other firing options. Make it so that soldier can no longer move until I undeploy him. Just a though, because right now my MG is very limited when moving across terrain as he can't fire without setting up, then waiting a turn for his TU to refill.

That's the thing, even though Firaxis' game is entirely different (It's to XCOM what Civ Rev was to Civilisation agems), it instilled in me the careful patience needed to play. I don't know how the game would play amongst people who have no XCOM experience. Also I keep thinkign it'd be neat to boss about those local forces. I mean, isn't that what a military group would do in that situation? They'd shout at civvies, and boss about the cops.

I should point out that right now I have no suggestions. I havent really played enought as of yet to say "this should be done". However. I have been following Xenonauts since Eurogamer(?) 2011, when Totalbiscuit covered the gaem for his WTF Is series. I finally preordered it the other day and mostly that's due to the new XCOM by Firaxis. It's quickly become my favourite game yet, as I don't particularly enjoy the original XCOM for it's steep learning curve and lack of tutorials (or even tooltips). With Firaxis' game I've currently logged 100+ hours and several Ironman runs, none on Impossible. With Xenonauts I was expecting the same frustration I had with the original XCOM, and it's still there a bit, but I hoenstly think the new look the game has sort of made up for it alone. The move to real weaponry, neat animations, and a very nice Geoscape are some of the reasons I think I like Xenonauts. I've played some ground battles, and of course currently their arent a huge number of maps, so once I did them a few times it became easy to corner aliens, and then wipe them. Especially since I have access to a bunch of useful weapon types rather than one awful rifle or pistol. The game does have frustrations. It seems that by the time UFOs become too fast for my MIGs or F17s I need to build another base, but it doesn't feel like I've done enough or got enough funds to do so. So I'm left with a Europe base that's let nearly 15 UFOs escape because of range and fuel, and another base that will take a while to even reach combat readiness on basic UFOs. Reasearch of course isn't fully realised, and my biggest frustrations have been not knowing what to research to get something specific. So I'm left reasearching at random until I hit what I need. Of course not all of the research options have descriptions yet but I feel it shoudl still be clear what research leads to what. How do I know what leads to Anti-matter whatever for Plasma weapons? My opinion is overwhelmingly positive, and I didn't think it would be. Most of my issues are based in the fact the game is in Alpha, but that still feels like a cop out, I don't intend to treat is as such everywhere, because many of the main mechanics are in place and work. Overall, I enjoy Xenonauts, and no doubt It'll become a staple of my YT channel alongside Firaxis' XCOM, but for now, I feel like my enjoyment is being hampered ever so slightly by the base issue. I feel like myabe the game needs to recommend when to build a base so I know, maybe as an option that can be turned off.