Solver

Impressive work. Why is the modinfo with those codepoints specified in the entity format? Would it not make sense to have an actual UTF-8 encoded text file?

You can always find some unintended side-effect of how the game works and use it as an exploit. I don't now see the point of fixing the landed terror UFO exploit, that would only happen if you deliberately try to exploit it.

I never knew that about the infantry!

Why the L key? Is it some old function you activated that way?

Should be back up.

Not a chance. Sorry. I'm familiar with the popularity of the game in Russia, as well as the metro system and passengers, but there's no way Xenonauts is coming to Android.

Did it? That would be a mistake if so.

Let it reorganize. I am actually not sure why the dialog box comes up every time the exe is updated, but it does. Also the mods that are bundled with X:CE are already put in the correct order.

Right. I hadn't realized both are showing up, I'll see if I can make the first one invisible.

I have also had the experience, also in some very early versions of the game. There was a time when terror missions were basically Chinook defense missions because every alien would just rush towards it. Note you still have your 8 guys in that picture though! In the original X-Com, there'd be four bodies lying around...

Yeah, I understand the situation. Not worth fixing though in any way.

But is there a research that requires a Psion specifically? I don't recall any. Though this is a fair point, presumably you should be able to autopsy the body of a former prisoner.

But there is no reasonable scenario where you only get a stunned alien and no corpses. There are always many aliens of the same race. If you stunned an alien, you will have also killed aliens of the same race unless you really go out of your way not to.

Right, but those are just text. If it says "sent to research", it doesn't actually do anything unless it's your first kill of that race (in which case you get an autopsy). For killed aliens it says "sent to research", for live ones it says "executed" but in terms of the game all bodies just get discarded.

You only get to capture one alien per race. If you've captured one Caesan, all others will be executed. In addition you get to capture the few high-rank aliens that the game lists as objectives.

Absolutely, I've kept this in mind - there are of course some comments that simply don't reasonably apply to Xenonauts, and I've omitted those. So for whatever reason, a lot of that is about atmosphere and character. It seems to be a very common opinion that the originals are atmospherically superior to Xenonauts. From reading the comments that talk about this, I think it can be broken down into several aspects (this is my interpretation of other people's opinions): The alien appearance. Again, a well-known issue, no more needs to be said. The general creepiness. Come to think of it, Xenonauts didn't seem to try for creepiness. The original had some battle music that was more creepy than intense, several alien enemies that were designed to be creepy / off-putting, more night missions with aliens in every shadow, etc. Lack of "integration" of the Xenonauts story with pop culture. The original had some unmistakable references to general UFO, alien and conspiracy lore. The Sectoids are basically the aliens from X-Files and abduction stories. Alien abduction stories are reflected in the game, there's even an abductor UFO that has cows. The final mission lore is entirely inspired by alien lore popular at the time. Xenonauts has no such connections. As a personal note, I feel that conceptually the Cold War setting is far superior to the near-future of every other game, but admittedly Xenonauts did nothing with that setting. Another interesting complaint is that Xenonauts doesn't, early on, give the same feeling of being outgunned and dominated as the original. Upon some consideration, this is perhaps a fair criticism. The very predictable alien invasion progress in Xenonauts also doesn't throw any curveballs at you. In the original, you could get unlucky and get an early terror mission... and if it were anything but Floaters, you were pretty much screwed. Cyberdiscs took forever to kill with basic weapons, Chryssalids would eat all your rookies. Xenonauts has mechanics that prevent early terror missions or base assault missions, and doesn't allow for the sudden appearance of stronger-than-normal aliens. This is also related to squad sizes. In the original X-Com, you started with a squad of 14 (and you got 10 if you used a tank). This meant that the slaughter of your troops felt brutal but was more possible to deal with. You could lose 2 soldiers just trying to get out of the Skyranger, but you'd still have 12 left. Of which another couple would die during the mission. Xenonauts can be almost as unforgiving as the original (after all, your rookies probably do die in one hit) but even so, the smaller squad means you cannot lose 2 guys just getting out of your dropship. Some people also miss blaster bombs but I cannot understand why.

I spent some time reading Xenonauts discussions on forums that are mostly about XCOM:EU / XCOM2. Thought it might be an interesting different perspective. The main source of these is /r/xcom on Reddit. For entirely understandable reasons, Xenonauts comes up now and then among discussions about the two Firaxis games, and also understandably many of the same people love the 1994 game. There are some recurring comments, so maybe these can be of interest to Chris, although I do not think there is much radically new. Still, interesting given that many of these comments are from people who spent relatively little time with the game, unlike those on this forum. Xenonauts is often characterized as 'dry', 'bland', 'lacking personality' Whatever this elusive personality is, many comments feel that it's lacking in the game. Many of these comments cite character appearance - the bland appearance of the aliens, and your own soldiers not looking too special. One poster called them "janitors with an attitude". I think we're all mostly aware of these opinions, but it's worth noting that there are two looks people really like - the high-tech look (like late-game with Sentinel suits and mag guns), and the creepy, monstrous look (like the '94 game). X2 is certainly heading in the right direction as far as the aliens go. Another takeaway might be that it's good if your own soldiers start getting some distinct sci-fi gear after just a few upgrades. The other thing driving these comments seems to be that the game isn't particularly creepy. This could be taken to be both in looks and in gameplay - but I would have to agree that the original game somehow felt creepier. Maybe it's the night missions. The air combat is very popular Says it all really. The air combat minigame is one highly praised aspect. It's a part of Xenonauts I do not personally enjoy, but I seem to be in the minority on that one. The Chief Scientist is no less popular I couldn't help but notice the high amount of comments praising the writing for the Chief Scientist. Definitely should be kept in minded when writing X2. Much criticism for psionics Some people don't like the removal of human psionics, some others feel the alien psionic powers are unfun. Ground combat itself highly praised Again unsurprising - feedback for the actual ground combat part is, in general, very positive. The greater depth is in particular contrasted with the Firaxis games. Difficulty curve This is an interesting one. Some people talk about the difficulty curve of all the games, and here Xenonauts fits with the rest in terms of the early game being more difficult - your soldiers die in one hit, you need to supply new rookies and get your economy up, etc. But many people seemingly miss the drop in difficulty that the Firaxis games have at the end, and it's an interesting thought. In XCOM:EU and in XCOM2, your late-game squad clearly surpasses the aliens. This is largely due to the perk system - every soldier class has some devastating abilities. Xenonauts doesn't really have this. Yes, your late-game squad that has Magstorm+Predator and Mag+Sentinel outfits feels strong, but doesn't give you the same feeling of dominating. Again something worth thinking about. I do think balancing is very important, but in these games the feeling of beating the aliens is very rewarding. I liked how in XCOM2, I could towards the end have a few missions where I mop the floor with the aliens. It's satisfying. X2 might do well to occasionally let you experience this. Reaction fire Another recurring comment is that the reaction fire mechanics are difficult to understand, even if they work just like in the 90s, because they were also difficult to understand then. A fair point perhaps - when I first played the original X-Com, it took me forever to understand that mechanic.

Cannot be fixed, not with a reasonable amount of effort at least. strings.xml is a file that's expected (and managed by) the engine, unlike the other XML files that are managed by the game itself. So we don't control how strings.xml gets loaded and cannot apply custom Xenonauts stuff, like the modmerge system, to it. Theoretically of course, the whole string handling system could be rewritten, but that's too much work at this point. And yes, that's part of the reason why translation mods are expected to be separate mods.

I usually shy away from posting feature suggestions because I'm very much aware of the development time, so here goes one I know is simple to implement. Taking into account some other features (such as mixed race missions), I think it would be interesting to occasionally have partial intelligence reports on alien missions, somehow tied into the Geoscape. X1 has the quantum decryption, as did the original game. That's relatively late in the game, and provides full intel. My suggestions would be to also occasionally get partial information about the upcoming mission, consider it information from civilians, local military flights, and so on. Examples of such intel could be race info ("aliens have deployed robotic units on this mission", "a reconnaissance flight has spotted Sebillians"), numbers info ("a local outpost reported at least 8 hostiles before we lost contact"), and possibly objective/aggression/map info, whatever else fits with the combat. These should not be available always but should, when they are available, be helpful in preparing for the mission in the best way.

Version 0.34.2HF has been released - this is a very small update to 0.34.2, mostly for the needs of X-Division. Installation (Windows Steam users): Switch to the Community branch in Steam by right-clicking on Xenonauts, selecting Properties, going to the Betas tab and selecting Community. No access code is needed. You can enable/disable mods in "Modding Tools" in the game launcher. You can revert to the standard official game by switching back to the NONE branch in Steam. Installation (other users): 1. Download the base mod and the mod package. If upgrading from 0.34.2, you only need the base mod - there have been no changes in the mod package. 2. Launch the old version of the game, install the base mod using Modding Tools. Alternatively: extract the base mod into assets/mods/xce, overwriting everything. 3. Exit the game launcher. 4. Run the new executable from assets/mods/xce. It should display the version 0.34.2 HF 23/02/17. Using this launcher, go to Modding Tools and install the mod pack. Say Yes when asked about overwriting mods. 5. You can now play from assets/mods/xce, or optionally copy the files to the main game installation folder. What is the relation between X:CE 0.34.2 and Xenonauts 1.6x? The official Xenonauts releases incorporate some features/fixes from an older X:CE version, and some have intentionally not been included. X:CE 0.34.2 should contain all relevant Xenonauts 1.6x fixes and new features. If you already play X:CE, there should be no advantage to switching to Xenonauts 1.6x. X:CE 0.34 can read saved games from Xenonauts 1.5x or Xenonauts 1.6x, but Xenonauts 1.6x cannot read normal X:CE 0.34.2 saved games. Switching option saveCompatibility in assets/gameconfig.xml to "gh15x" before running X:CE should produce saves in a format that Xenonauts 1.5x or 1.6x can read (keep the option as "xce" for normal play, otherwise some new X:CE values may not be kept in save files). Note that Xenonauts 1.6x may still be unable to load such a saved game if it includes objects it doesn't know (e.g. researches from the Lore+ mod, or incendiary grenades from X:CE). Changes from 0.34.2: Mod feature: If Xenonauts retake a previously captured base from the aliens, the scientists and engineers will have been killed, as intended. Mod feature: fixes to country retaking code. Mod feature: For retaking Xenonaut bases, the ticker value of the alien base that spawns is now customizable. Crash fix: game will no longer crash if a stunned soldier gets blown up. Crash fix: game will no longer crash after a chain explosion that involves grenades on the ground. Bug fix: planes will not lose weapons if an upgrade is researched while they are in the air. Bug fix: fixed a calculation problem where crouching would be less effective for soldiers with 84+ accuracy, and harmful for soldiers with 100+ accuracy.

Thanks - this should now be fixed!

I can't load the save because of the mods. I can't use the Steam Workshop. Can you throw a zip with the item-adding mods (the flamers, stun guns) somewhere?

Haven't managed to reproduce a freeze on this save, although the turns are slow.

I just want to say this was a fantastic save. There was a bug with stunned soldiers getting killed in explosions, I fixed that. There's also another crash bug with chained explosions, if the explosion chain includes a grenade from a soldier killed in a previous explosion (ugh) that was also possible to identify and fix from this save. So @Pave - this was very good.

Have you by chance published that already?