Zekram Bogg

Thanks Kabill! Love your work btw! I can't play without Fir in the Hole anymore. It's too good.

Hi y'all! So I'm coming back to Xenonauts after a long (very long) hiatus from before the official release, and I just want to say thanks and have a question. Thanks for all the hard work on this everyone! I noticed that a bunch of the original community edition features made it into the official release of the game with 1.5 already, and have to say you folks have really made Xenonauts super awesome. Even more than it was! If I knew how to code at all, I'd help out. But alas, am a total noob, so I can just say thanks! My big noob question though: what order should I put these mods in the priority list? When I opted in to the Beta branch it put the base mod at the very bottom. That doesn't seem right, so I moved it to the top of the list, but am I correct in that assessment?

Hi! Can I reports spelling errors for Lore+ here? I love the mod (A LOT) and it's super awesome, but I noticed a bunch of them and would like to help out in whatever meager way I can by being that spell check jerk.

Yeah . . . that's pretty damn good. Totally agree.

Additionally, is there a check made to ensure that names aren't repeated? I mean, it doesn't seem like that would be complex, but it might be, so I dunno.

So after some reading of old post, I understand that the player isn't going to get psychic powers in Xenonauts, which is fine for balance reasons, as I get that such an ability can prove gamebreaking considering the focus on tactical combat of the game. However, there is an implementation of "taking control" of other non xenonaut units that I think would make sense and improve the game quite a bit. Basically, in order to increase the tactical ability of your squad, I think it would be incredibly useful to be able to order civilians around during battle zones. Essentially, what would happen is when you select a xenonaut and you move your cursor over nearby civilian (there would have to be a "speaking range" where the civilian can hear your selected 'naut) instead of a targeting cursor, you get a little speech bubble cursor and a percentage of success. If you click on it, you expend TU to tell the civilian what to do for that round, and you get temporary control of said civilian. This would allow for our 'nauts to do things like escort civilians to safer locations, and more importantly, to safely get them out of the line of fire or move them into a position so a medic can heal them if they are injured and bleeding. However it would be at major costs and be tricky. Namely, ordering a civilian would take a LOT, if not ALL of a Xenonaut's TU, so you're effectively sacrificing one character's movement/use to puppet another one. Secondly, it wouldn't always work, because civvies are panicked and running around like scared chickens when aliens are about. So there would have to be a success check, ideally between the bravery of the 'naut doing the ordering, and the civilian being ordered. Something like having a ratio where the Xenonaut's bravery must be 50 - 100% over the civilian's in order to have a moderate chance of success, and at 150% over the civilians, it's a strong chance, while at 200%, it's an almost guaranteed success (for this theoretical exercise, I assume the civilians all have very low bravery values). Civilians would also lose bravery just on sight of alien forces, and so could easily panic and lose control anyway, so it can be a lost cause. Also, while they aren't armed, they should have the ability to "hunker down" and hold position unless further ordered, so you can essentially put them in a spot that seems safe (like insider your chinook). Additionally, I'm assuming that local forces have higher bravery values than normal civvies, so it should be very low chance that the player can take control of armed civilians (Though still possible in certain situations). Again, the big advantage of this proposed feature is that the player can get a bit more tactical control of the battlefield vis a vis the civilian population. Also, it does just sort of make sense. I mean, I understand people freaking out when ET is lasering up their city with superheated plasma, but when the cavalry arrives, most people will listen to the higher authority and do what they say in order to save their own necks. It's not a 100% thing of course (hence not making it automatic) but it is something that could prove eminently useful in lots of tight spots. Because really, wouldn't it just be nice to tell a civvie to "GET DOWN!" so you could fire at the alien behind him? I know I think it would be.

So, whenever the player throws a grenade of any type right now, it's always a big heavy lob that sails through the air like a beautiful pop fly, ready to deliver death/stun/smoke/flash to whomever the grenade lands next to. This is good. It is as it should be. Except when it shouldn't. What I'm talking about here, are roofs. And Namely that a lot of the time on throwing a grenade, the grenade sails through the air, and through the upper floor or roof of a structure, into the spot where it lands. This . . . this is problematic. The obvious fix that needs to be implemented is in having the level architecture stop lobbed grenades that hit surfaces in the air mid-flight, but in order to fully resolve this issue, another aspect also has to be considered: creating an alternate type of grenade throw - the pitch. Basically, as with guns you can right-click to select different kinds of shot, so here, you right-click to select different types of throw. The advantages of the Pitch Versus the Lob is that it is a straight throw, and so it should be necessary when launching your exploding rocks into buildings where a lob is going to hit an over hang. In fact, pitching should act in general, like a gun in this regard, and high cover points will stop a pitched grenade dead in their tracks. Also, a pitch should give some increased distance on the throw, at the cost of some extra TU to be fair (for the wind up of course). Oh, and if you actually hit someone with a grenade, as in it hits the alien, not just the location, a pitch should do a little extra damage is it's going faster and has more force. This difference in throw types gives the user some increased versatility with grenades, and importantly, if the collision issues with lobbed grenades are ironed out, then it creates the necessity for such an ability.

So here's something I was considering while playing the new v19 steam build today: Where's the stun damage indicator in the UI? I mean, the original X-Com1994 has this, when you take stun damage, your HP bar fills up with a blue color, and when it reaches the max of your current total health for a unit, your trooper passes out. So, I'm just suggesting that this UI feature be implemented, as it's something that would A) be useful to have and B) was in the original game this one is based off of, so not having it seems a step back. If it's going to need a color on the bar, might I suggest Purple? Considering Suppression works against TUs, it would also be pretty boss to have a similar effect on your TU bar too Also, while on the UI, can we maybe get a better indicator or art to let us know where borders are when we view transparent objects? Something so we know where the borders of the object are on the ground when we try to move characters around an object? Especially with objects that have funny shapes, like alien ships. In general, can we also get transparent objects to go transparent when the cursor, not the just the character, goes behind them? Right now it's really difficult to tell where exactly you're moving your characters when it's in a location "Behind" an object that goes transparent, but only once the character gets to the location. Also, if there is a blindness effect for when you use flashbangs, the player has no way of knowing it right now. I understand that flashbangs cause high suppression, but if there is also a blindness/lowered accuracy effect (which I would expect there to be), there is no indication of this effect taking place. Some kind of color overlay on a character that is blinded (black or grey over the head is common here) would be especially useful.

In one of the farm maps there is a building type (a stable, I think) with large "windows" that are so large you can easily fit your Xenonaut soldiers through them, and seem to be designed with the intent that the player can vault through them. Unfortunately however, the player cannot, and it seems like a bug. See Attached photo: Steps to reproduce: 1) Load into battles until at a farm map with the building tiles seen in the photo (a stable?). 2) Notice that the building has VERY large windows and fairly low cover, enough that they seem intended for the player to vault through them. 3) Attempt to vault through these large "windows". 4) Notice that this does not work, and you feel sad and cheated. Suggestions to fix: Make those windows vault-able!

So I go to make some plane hangars in my 2nd base, and decide to change the layout a bit. I rotate two hangars to face sideways and place them, and everything seems fine. UNTIL the planes ship in, as they are surprisingly squat. That's when I realize that this happens with all the base room art. The rotation effect doesn't actually rotate the images, but just squishes them, as seen in the following two pictures: Steps to reproduce: 1) In either your initial base or a new base, build a new room that is two by one squares. 2) "Rotate" the room in the planning phase by turning your mousewheel. 3) Select the location of the room by clicking on two unoccupied horizontal squares. 4) Notice the room's art is the same rotation of the initial art, but just flattened. Suggested fixes: Well, obviously, actual rotation of the art would be be preferred. But while on the subject, is there any way to get a tool tip here on rotating the pieces of the base? I mean, I had no clue I could do this for quite some time. Additionally, some overlay arrows showing the facing of the rooms would be helpful once rotation is in.

Wow. That's pretty amazing. Also, what's the deal with planes "regenerating"? I lost a plane and it was "recovered"? What nonsense is that? When a plane get's blown out of the sky, it should be dead. Or am I unaware of degrees of death here?

If the user decides to use a medkit on another soldier, but that soldier has been placed behind a large prop which has gained transparency, then the medikit's use does not know to prioritze the prop, or person. As you can see in the attached image, attempting to use a medkit on a person behind a large tree had the medkit prioritizing the tree rather than the person behind it. Steps to reproduce: 1) Enter any map with large props and at least two soldiers, with one who has a medkit. 2) Let one soldier get damaged by an enemy, then move that soldier "behind" a large prop, as in, in position where the prop goes transparent. 3) Move the soldier with the medkit next to the injured soldier and attempt to use the medkit on the injured soldier. 4) Notice that the targeting priority of the medkit is on the prop, not the soldier for every pixel that is covered. If the soldier is completely covered by the prop, they cannot be healed. (Seriously, I lost good men to this bug!) Suggestions to resolve: 1) Remove ability to target props at all when using medkit. 2) Increase priority on PC's/NPC's when targeting, while lowering priority of props. Also, this is a general thing too. I mean, it happens with guns. In the 2nd attached image, I was attempting to target the Sebillian who was "behind" a tree, and the game kept wanting to target the tree. Also, I really only did this on this one map, so it might just be these trees, but I doubt it.

Yeah, it's be nice if there were at least some "personality types" for the different species. Like, the fall back and overwatch approach totally works for Caesans. With them, I dig it. With the Sebs? They seem like they should be rushing me, like, all the time. I suppose that's just my xenoracism acting up again, relying on lizard-alien prejudices, but it's just how I feel.

So you're saying that Halo lied to us all when they represented female Spartans as just "slightly shorter" people in mech suits? For shame. But yeah, true. Still I think if you could get female basic armor done, suspension of disbelief would probably work for the rest.

I dunno, I think if there was an option to escort cargo to ensure a speedy delivery, that'd be fine. Basically, when you make an item transfer normally, the 'nauts use back channels to get everything delivered via a thousand different services and such and so it isn't trackable, but it takes longer (and you can beef up the transfer time by a couple days here). But when you absolutely need something (someone?) delivered quickly? Call in you cargo plane and set up a direct flight. The hazard then is of course, you bring in the fact that that UFOs can shoot it down. Boom! Best of both worlds!

Yeah, after running into a particularly nasty night mission the other day, I gotta say . . . that lack of awareness while the enemies seem to suffer no such penalty . . . super fun. So yeah, there needs to be more incentive/mitigation on night missions, because I seriously never want to do one for anything larger than a light scout now. As people said, a medal for surviving like, 3 night-time missions would be good (and hard to get, because seriously). Maybe also give us SOME other tool or technique to mitigate the darkness, or at least a few aliens who need to use some kind of light source themselves? Or how about this? Alien plasma weapons give off a bit of a glow after their fired (as a lighting effect), so then the player can at least get a stronger sense of where the enemies are after they're ambushed and lose their best soldier.

Yeah, I'm new, and I totally didn't realize the blue bar WAS the bravery meter. I think there's a bit of a readability issue to be honest. I mean, the bar doesn't seem to swing much with team deaths/enemy kills. For most my nauts it's usually maxed out the whole time. And does the graphic function the same as the health bar? with the greyed out part when it lowers? Because it doesn't seem to.

Wow. That's pretty intricate. But, and this may seem the obvious question, why doesn't the player have any access to any of this info, even in a generalized sense? I mean, some sort of morale meter somewhere in the ground combat UI would be pretty handy to have. Even if it only measured the general group morale for your Xenonauts. It just seems odd to have such an intricate system in place, but then have no way for the the player to even notice its working until shit hits the fan. As I recall, the original X-Com had a moral meter for every individual soldier in a battle. That's probably taking it a bit too far, but a group meter that basically tracked the total for everyone on your team with a running tally (further obfuscated by making it text designations instead of numeric, so at the start of a mission, Team Morale reads "Steady", and when you score several kills it becomes "High" but then it gets to "Low" when the commander dies et cetera) would be really helpful for new players to understand that there's a morale system in place, and it's something they should be considering.

But do they have SHADES? And a MULLET? And an assault rifle?

Ooh, this would be especially nice. I second, or third, or whatever number we're on, this motion!

What'd be really neat, though probably impossible, would be to have localized audio tracks based on props/building zones. So like, you're in a terror mission, defending the populace of New York when you bust in the door of a convenience store to shoot the Caesan hiding behind the register, and you hear a bit of disco coming in through the radio on the counter. The Caesan react fires at your soldier and narrowly misses vaporizing packs of twinkies on the shelves. Tour soldier unloads his assault rifle in the direction of the Casan, who's ducked behind the counter . . . all while Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" plays in the background (top of the charts in 1979!)

At the VERY least, I'd like a dash in there, for consistency. I mean I look at "Condor - 01" as the default and I'm like, cool, I'll rename my jets Deathclaw - 01, Deathclaw 02 and so on" But then I can't put that dash in there and it's like . . .

One other thing that could make this really nice is if we could add one more bit of info to the soldier profiles: Marital status. Like right under the service record part that lists where the soldier originates from and their prior experience, if any (also, a question, when you get a soldier with prior war experience, do they have higher stats? Because they totally should). Basically you have a few statuses: - Single - Married, X Children. - Divorced, X Children. - Estranged, X Children. - Widowed, X Children. It'd be especially neat if you could make it so that the longer a 'naut was in service, it put strain on their relationship, and they could go from "Married" to "Estranged" to "Divorced". Then you have it so that Divorced and Single soldiers can date, and get morale bonuses when they go on missions together. But the point is, when a guy with six kids and a wife at home dies in service to the world to fight the aliens . . . the feels. Oh the feels!

As I see it, one thing that would be helpful here is to figure out the software they used to make the sprites in the first place. Do we know what that is (total newb here). I mean I just opened the asset files and yeah, modding the sprites is totally do-able, but it'd be by hand and a LOT of painstaking work to do that way. Making black and brown soldiers would be the easiest mod here, it's just going to require a lot of recoloring work, and a bit of programming to link the appropriate sprite pack to the correct soldier. On the one hand for the workload though, adding female soldiers is really only necessary for the basic armor set since like everyone said, the other armors cover everything up, so it'd only really need to be done well once. There's that at least. Though if you wanted to start adding in black, brown and asian women, that's another set of recolors. Personally, I'd like to see some battle damage sprite sets, but man . . . so much work.

Seconded. I'm surprised that at the very least, there isn't a "Damaged" variant of UFOs that is composed of tiles that can thus be breached. Like, the justification could be that when structurally intact, the advanced alien alloys are impervious to further damage since hull integrity hasn't been compromised. These are the types of ships you see only on landings, and it keeps the art already in the game. But when you shoot down a ship, then an alternate is used that retains the same basic original shape, but is composed of tiles that are tough, but destructible, especially by laser and plasma weapons. These can have some new layouts and variants so that the crashed ships show damage, and allow for alternate paths into the damaged ships to take out their commanders.