Xenomorph

Good find. Like Mox mentioned in the thread, reworking pathfinding because of this might be some chore; but maybe removing (or refunding) the turning AP from moving would offset this issue, while keeping it if we turn manually. With the refund already adjusted on the final cost for moving, we would never know

Those are called grenades and rockets If we were to get one of those, the aliens would have to get one too. Wouldn't be any fun.

AI is too defensive for mines or traps.

If you don't like bulky headgear, you need to change your avatar pic

I can see the OP point of view. I had a similar issue yesterday, where a lone alien was ducked behind a console near the entrance of a small ufo; i got 5 soldiers in , one after another, 2 heavy, 2 rifles and 1 sniper, at point blank none could hit the damn thing, and it was right there. For 2 rounds.

Awesome morale boost for the troops, having Flo walking around with that unique gun

Ufo smoke freezes when out of visual range.

Other soldier had no AP, and the one i wanted to shoot with had AP for a decent shot as was, or stand and shoot in that direction, no AP left to kneel again. In a tight corridor with an alien by the intersection, it wouldn't be fun... 35 deg seems a bit harsh, but maybe its just an engine thing. Not a big deal. Soldiers hunting aliens and holding hands doesn't look good in memorabilia pictures, anyway

@lightgemini Tytytyty, that helped save the day -------------------------------------------- When 2 soldiers are side by side, there will be friendly fire up to an angle of about 35deg... guess rookies are too fat, still probably just hitboxes, but maybe worth mentioning anyways. On missions, sometimes i cant click on soldiers to select them, have to click on the icons or press the number key. This was an industrial map, just did a middle east and had no problem... Ballistic sniper shots go right through aliens. Bug or candy, now we can hit as many as we can line up Overall loading seems faster (game and saves)? About 5 missions on, no crashes yet. Steam version, Running Win8.

Maybe because you're way too nervous about it And just hoping you dont have sniper rifles on every soldier, and trying to use them as shotguns.

%to hit is way lower if aliens are in cover, you have to destroy the cover first. If you still have ballistic weapons, forget about it, use stun grenades, flashbangs for suppression. Covers will go down easily once you get plasma, by then the only good cover is the dead alien that wont shoot at it And you're right about alien spam spray fire, its quite insane accurate, even across the map when they're using spotter. Gotta be VERY careful. Stun grenades and flashbangs are your friends, if things get tight.

Ive seen aliens trying to shoot through doors plenty at their bases, but not actually kill any of my soldiers through them, while intact. The right click to open doors wouldnt work for me, in the beginning, but then kinda got fixed. Still some situations where doors seem to jam, specially at their bases.

@Gauddlike Don't get me wrong in my comments, i'm not saying this is a MUST have feature. I'm totally fine if it's not implemented, it's not like i'm getting my guys killed at every corner so my apologies if i sounded like a troll. I know that these thing about games is always a box full of hard decisions, a most needed planning ahead and sticking with it (specially with a tight budget), and letting the community make suggestions about features can be as good as it can be horrible, creates pressure. And why did i mention those games? Just as i could have mentioned old rock'n'roll if we were talking about current rock'n'roll its all been played before, only difference is the sound

Good plan, ill try that next playthrough.

The thing is, the fear of not implementing/removing features in a game because of unbalance or exploitable mechanics, is what could make the difference between an awesome game and a simple meh game. You can use EU as a perfect example of that, it looks awesome with lots of bling, fluff and stuff, but that's about it. The lack of features makes it boring, repetitive, a good candidate for a shelve in the basement in the short term. All the balancing act firaxis pulled out of the hat has potentially exploitable mechanics. Now look at 2 other games : jagged alliance 2 and xcom-apocalypse. I would ask, what does JA2 have that makes me, and tons of others, go back and replay it compulsively over and over again? Lots and lots of personality, tons of stuff. Just as the orginal x-com, JA had its share of clones, and none could beat the original, because essential things are not there anymore, things that give it soul. Its still being modded to death, which is incredible. And what about apocalypse? It has its flaws, but they're easily forgettable for pure awesomeness. Potentially unbalancing mechanics like ambushing, flying, the super overpowered late game toxi-gun, you mention it, they're there, and they are awesomely fun, and they don't make the game any easier. And even when people say ambushing is overpowered, well, it's not. Aliens DO have a lot of firepower, and they use it. And things could go from good to a complete wipe in 10 seconds. This is not rocket science, and it would be a good thing if devs should stop worrying about unbalancing a game because of too many features, instead make them work. Being able to peek corners wouldn't be, in any way, an exploitable mechanic. If its made to simply be a peek, not a full aim snipe from cover, and provide only limited view (the soldier cant really see what's there, just that something is there, alien or npc) it will still be there, awesomely useful as it, but how would that be overpowered? How is that any different from having to walk around the corner to look and then back in? Being forced to do that so we can get shot at is ridiculous, maybe back in the day it was acceptable, but back in the day it was also acceptable having cars without air bags. About taking risks to reap rewards, you can use that when talking about money investments and whatnot, but NOT in military operations that involve the loss of life. Soldier takes risks, he's gonna bite it really quick, and everyone else will pay for it. And Xenonauts should not fall on the trap of not having enough options for combat and to assist with soldier survivability, also note, people here at the forums talk about challenge, challenge, challenge, but the majority is not even here, and they might care more about an awesome fun and ultra replayable game with plenty of options, something they can enjoy for a few hours after a long day at work, then a bag full of reloads and frustrations. You know what im talking about, if you read a game preview and its all about challenge challenge challenge, chances are it-will-suck. And sorry for the huge post, got itchy fingers

A rail gun projectile is accelerated through electromagnets much as a plasma ball, so there's not much of a difference, i guess a rail gun would be much easier to manufacture and lighter them a plasma, balance the weight with a really good ammo count. With added effect that slugs could be just slugs, or hollow carriers with poisons, acids, or even my wife's cooking. Now, can we have a toxi-gun, please, pleeeeease????????????????????????????? (Source: X-com Apocalypse)

I find it amusing how the debate ends up mentioning realism and tactics, but still we don't have night vision goggles, binoculars, and can't go prone, things that, in my point of view, are the basic of basics (not only) in ANY military operation, and available in the 70's. Um, going prone has been available for thousands of years, as a matter of fact. For a vanilla setting, of course. If i had a troop and one of my soldiers told me he couldn't go prone, i would issue him a brand new combat knife and a sack of potatoes. Shame there's no such things in Xenonauts oh, wait, no combat knifes??? alas, we have lasers, they cut and cook at the same time, we don't really need them knifes

I wonder how you did that ?? is that on easy setting? I managed every penny i got with a passion just enough to keep a few soldiers with armor and decent guns, and get 3 foxtrotes. Hm, now that i think of it, maybe i should have held on the foxtrotes and go for the second base. Higher upkeep, sure, but also moar missions+moar $$$, and the condors might just be enough to hold things off for a bit longer... Care to share your thoughts on how and why you were successful?

If you threaten to chop off a robot's finger, think he would care? I don't quite get the point on taking a robot "alive"for interrogation. Shoot the thing, bring back the gear and wires, and that's enough to figure how it works 70's technology wouldn't be able to tap into it's programming in time for it to be of any use, anyways. Better figure out how to give the troops some night vision goggles, just saying

Farmland maps have little to no cover at all. Wooden fences and bushes count towards accuracy, but not cover, at mid stage game with aliens spraying heavy plasma, being behind one of those or behind nothing is the same, and there is a lot of open terrain to cover.

I have a feeling i may be missing some stuff here... I played earlier versions on and off, and only recently got the Steam version, so i'm not very experienced with it yet, but i can't stop having a feeling, by going through this post, that there's also a "scripted" feeling on Xenonauts. It has been stated that things get rough in January (haven't got there yet), and its quite impossible to keep things up after 6 months. Does it basically mean forced game over, win it or lose it? As fact, there is only so much income we can get through the period, most of it through funding, and selling some extra loot; i do find this adequate, in some way, but it brings up severe limitations - base building, manufacturing stuff and how long it takes with only one base available, without going bankrupt. I just managed to save enough to build a second base with a radar on it, so i can also keep an eye on eastern Russia and rest of Asia. North and Central America are already gone, South to follow soon, and there was nothing i could have done about it. Maybe there's a way to keep everyone happy? I can't figure out how to fund covering the Old and New world with radars and fighters, and i have been killing plenty of UFO in my coverage area, haven't been throwing money away on stuff i don't need, only have 3 Foxtrot and 3 Condor, so far haven't lost any aircraft, but i'm still strapped for cash. Thinking about how things developed and how i could manage to get a second base on America early enough to keep it from baling out, i just conclude i probably couldn't. From the above, i could assume this might be a feature, much like "pick a side and stick with it"; saving half of the world is better then losing it all, guessing lore dictates everything will get back to normal once the aliens get their rears kicked out, if it wasn't for that so important cash flow, it wouldn't really matter. But it really doesn't play well as for playing the game on my own terms, drag it as much as i want to (i always loved to make them suffer a bit ), achieve air superiority and have the satisfaction of having a very organized, strong well funded military organization, with a good compliment of awesome arse-kickin soldiers, even if its for the bling, but they do keep the planet safe, and that's the main reason why the organization exists. I don't go back to XC-UD anymore, but i do go back to Apocalypse regularly, and no matter what how many says it sucks, it doesn't, and there's some good lessons to learn from it - rough start, but keep it up and money wont be a problem anymore - if not for manufacturing/selling/killing UFO, i can raid other organizations that allied with the aliens, get some good loot and bring them some pain, till money is not an issue anymore. Point is, there is no war without money, and its a little sad that so many games, as tendency, tend to use it as a degree of difficulty; EU is a good example of it, pretty much like "here's a hundred bucks, now go save the world, you can figure it out". It works, but it does get tiresome when we constantly have to figure out how to ride bicycles with no wheels, and for the most part, we can only get squares. I would hope for 2 gameplay modes, regular, as it is, and marathon. With marathon having the option to get additional funding from manufacturing/selling, of getting turncoat countries back, by achieving air superiority, wiping out all alien bases on the territory, and help forming a new government, even if it meant "distributing" some of the riches amassed by the organization to get them back on track, much like an investment. And delivering the final blow on the alien invasion as and when we see fit, because after so much work researching all that tech and manufacturing all those bad-arse guns, might as well have some fun with them, right Another thing is soldier character, i think its missing some. I cant seem to get a connection with any of them because they can do something special, be it by being able to shoot a fly from 5 miles away, running the whole map in one turn, you know what i mean. If any John a, Peter b or Charlie c get killed, its not a catastrophe, there will be no special memorial for being some special, just another soldier forgot to duck a big ball of barbecuing plasma. I think this would be a really good addition to the game, having those special soldiers that get special perks that can do special things, just because they are special, like us regular humans, were all different and some of us can do things no regular dude can. I would mention Jagged Alliance 2, i cant think of a better example of a game with character personality/traits, we all loved some and hated others. Sure its a special setting, but it would be a great setting if one of our totally generic and random soldiers was found to be a sniping crackshot, other being able to see in the dark better the cats, other have that outstanding amount of stamina and TU, other was a baseball player and can throw 2 grenades at the same time. You know what i mean maybe most of us like to stick to the same team over and over, some like to bring a couple rookies along to give them some training, just in case, but as for having the alien exterminator dream team, this is how it should go Things like these would really make Xenonauts stand out from the other stuff out there. One must have, replayability, not just because its fun, but also because there will always be something different. Being developed by an Indie team does have its disadvantages but many many benefits, has lots of strong points, and will be any modder's dream. If not THE perfect, surely A perfect candidate for UD spiritual successor, after so many fails. Sure there's UFO:AI, looks pretty solid as of lately, good competition and a game these dudes should keep an eye on.

I played over the weekend with Steam release and latest hotfix, some things i've noticed: Cant get the Buzzard suit to work, no matter what. Someone mentioned it only works of some occasions, but for me it wont at all In the beginning of the game, had a couple crashes assigning the Hunter to the dropship, but after that, all was fine. Aliens can definitely see through some walls, and they will try shooting through them. It wouldn't really bother me, if it didnt mean my solders will probably get sprayed from across the map. Some walls and concrete barricades can be walked through by soldiers. Also recall one specific building on a terror mission in Russia (top left supermarket), all windows could be walked through. And they were not broken. Sebillians seem to see a little better then its advertised. On a night terror mission, one of them critters was spotting my soldiers from over 10 squares away, and 2 others were spraying my soldiers from 20-25 squares away. Took me quite a few suicides and reloads to make sure there wasn't other critter closer then that one. On a night mission, spotting an alien and moving back from spotting range will make it vanish from sight. Is this a feature?

I cant even figure out how to use it >.< or its completely bugged. It just wont do anything, clicking on top of a building or alike just paths the long way walking. I was so looking forward jumping over walls...sigh.