Solver

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?

Wow, I'm surprised that fixed it, to be honest, was just a guess based on examining the dump file. Thank you for posting it along with your bug report, otherwise it would be impossible to say anything. Enjoy the game

Hmm, not seeing anything unusual there. Aside from a Finnish version of Windows. Have you tried running with RivaTuner disabled? I see it was hooked into the game.

My first suggestion would be to try and install the Community Edition, it is considerably less buggy and might fix this issue (although I've never even used a Windows 10 computer and cannot attest to how X:CE works with that).

Note to myself: that's the kneeling check in the Character code with its cap of 1.0. Soldier accuracy represented as float in the ground combat -> with crouching bonus and high accuracy, can go over 1.0. Triggers if Accuracy * 1.2 > 1.0, so starting at 84 acc.

Hahaaha!

Kinda unfair for this to be in the X:CE bug forum since it's a vanilla bug

It's me tweaking stuff in the background - went with a solution that prevents the logouts for now, while looking for a better long-term solution.

*drool*

Sounds like a bug! They're not supposed to lose ammo mid-flight of course, so if they actually did (and hadn't just shot the ammo), that would be a bug. If you can post that save (before the alenium research is completed) then the chances of this being fixed go significantly up!

Great! Yeah, I think the tropical set also adds some ambient sounds. It seems to me that, the more ambient sounds are playing, the higher the chances of freezing get, but it also seems to depend on the computer, I've had a hard time getting those freezes even when intentionally trying with many sounds.

Probably have to chalk it up to modern software sucking once again I do not see an option for a "plain text" edit box...

Most browsers these days support right-click -> paste as plain text, or similar, in text boxes such as the reply box.

Policenaut :b:

Only in X:CE though, where you can get reaction fire through doors. In vanilla, you can open the door and fire your own machine gun, eliminating the chance of suppression. I'd say it made assaulting UFOs easier than the rest of the combat.

What, I'm supposed to believe you now?

I don't actually remember how it was supposed to work. I think you're supposed to lose the airplanes and personnel but keep the buildings. And yes, it would be cool to fight in the Xenonaut base layout, but that was more challenging to implement, this is easy.