KevinHann

Yes, please! If you don't want to dedicate resources to this, at least consider making similar things reasonably comfortable to mod in afterwards!

Can you share a modular version of the mod?

Just to clarify, I can't put the current Tropical maps in my game if I'm already using the Tundra tileset, right?

I'd love to help but I'm reluctant since I barely have any time to get Xenonauts running atm, and I'd need to get familiar with the editor. My only experience with it was drawing some UFO designs and those are fairly simple to do back then, but I've forgotten even the little bit I learnt at the time.

I would buy it even if you don't make it! But I prefer that you do!

Yes, I suspected the positives of going 3D would be way too overwhelming to even consider this an actual choice to be made. As long as you strive to maintain faithful transition it should not be a problem. I was so impressed I kept finding new and new details to admire, especially when loading the submap editor, that I have total confidence you won't drop the ball on this one. Just make sure you add a bunch of new cool concept units, okay?

That looks great, mate! Keep going You are able to put that in the game and it works properly, right?

Since everybody is going through your intended improvements, I'll start off with the same and move on to things you didn't mention but would excite me to the extent I would go for by modding them in myself (or begging kabill to!) Full 3D - We'd make the game in full 3D with a (90-degree) rotatable camera. I'd also want to replace soldier paperdolls and painted screen backgrounds etc on the strategy layer with 3D models. I didn't have any issue with the way the game looked but knowing of your frustrations with the engine this sounds like a necessary improvement. The rotatable camera will be an asset, especially in tight spaces. +1, as long as you strive to preserve the original Xenonauts atmosphere which is one of the major reasons I am still following you. The game has a soul. Aliens - I'd like to add some more aliens, rework some of the existing ones mechanically to be more interesting and also redesign them so they look more striking and "alien" in the ground combat. I agree strongly here. I'd like to see each alien race broken down to more intriguing branches, each race with a specific combat flavor making it unique but in the same time each branch adding a different tactical layer during GC. Increasing ranks of each alien should also be preserved. Also, more races. If you intend to make it reasonably accessible for the community to mod in their own creatures and races it would help, but IMHO you would do well to get 4 or 5 races in, keeping Xenonauts 1 aliens but mixing them with reinforcements. Maybe one unique super-creature that is rarely encountered outside special events per race, too. I think you could use branches to form the crew of each tier of race-specific UFOs. Branch 1 would be weak expendable grunts, Branch 2 - special forces, Branch 3 - tactical units like snipers, Branch 4 - leadership and super creatures. Then fill each Branch with 3 different creatures, toss in ranks and we get plenty of variety in terms of opposition we could face in each mission. Just off the top of my head. Research / Development - I want to add the concept of 'development' to the research tree, allowing you to continue researching "hub" technologies (like laser weapons etc) to increase their effectiveness if you choose. Choosing whether to improve existing tech or research new stuff should add more choice to the research tree. That's alright. You would basically allow the players to focus on the areas they like, but if you combine this with actual difference between weapons and not just an increasing damage curve, you could truly allow everybody to customize their gameplay to their own taste by empowering the specific elements they enjoy, like standard assault guns / shields / explosives / heavy machine guns, etc. I am not a fan of weapon variety for the sake of having each cool weapon one can think of make an appearance without bringing anything significantly different from a tactical point of view. For the same reason I would be underwhelmed if there are a ton of options to customize each weapon just to be able to play with it. Not saying you shouldn't do that, too, but I recommend considering another approach: Do some research of what gameplay players prefer in terms of tactical approach (maybe a poll?) - I don't mean do they like machine guns or pistols, but how they enjoy to conduct a fight. Slow and steady advancement with firm LoS control? Separate two groups to clear the map while guarding each other's back? Rambo style suicide rush? Nuke them all? Pick the approaches that are most popular and enjoyable, or maybe even think of some yourself. Then redesign the entire weapon system to serve each of those approaches and focus the additional improvements and upgrades on enhancing them, giving the player the choice to become stronger and have the playstyle of choice more viable. At the expense of being weaker in everything else. Make players choose carefully what to upgrade and when, if they want to be able to Rambo the map let them, but they would also be taking the risk of lacking option B when it's needed. Alternatively balanced all-round tech advancement would make specific missions tougher than if the proper upgrades were present, so that there would be no winning formula that is discovered once and applied forever after. Destructible UFOs - the UFO outer hulls should be destructible, which means we'll have to redesign them visually too. I will be in the minority here but I don't want UFO hulls to be destructible, or at least not all segments. Could you leave the option to have completely indestructible tiles, at least for modding purposes? In the same time there is room for some tactical or technological variety with this. Let's assume UFO hulls have different composition. You need special items/weapons that have the necessary firepower (and from certain stage on, upgrades) to breach. Here is something that can tie in with my suggestion about enhancing different playstyles. Players who like to breach UFO hulls would have to dedicate a soldier for the purpose, and/or keep up with the technological curve to be able to employ this strategy, while paying some tactical cost for it. Or they could just shoot it down with hand guns and go through the hole - uninspiring. Vertical Terrain - we should have hills etc in the game, rather than purely flat maps with buildings offering the only verticality. Sure, this sounds great. Can't wait to see what Skitso will do with it when locked in a room with the map editor for a couple days! XCOM Cover System - I think the cover system in XCOM was very easy to understand and also integrated 'leaning' in an intuitive way, whereas our cover system was a bit of a mess. I think we'd probably switch to their cover system. Haven't played that game. If you believe it will work better, I'm with you. Xenonauts 1 cover system did take some suspension of disbelief to work. But keep in mind being frustrated by it is also a significant part of the charm which makes it feel so close to the spiritual ancestor. You change one detail too many of those links and the added sum of those relatively insignificant parts might equal regression in atmosphere and general feel. Soldier Colour Customisation - I want to redesign the armours so they are more recognisable from silhouette, allowing people to customise their colours of their troops (including having role-specific colour schemes). I don't personally care about this as much, but I'm glad to see you acknowledge the players who do. One of my tiny bothers with the game is soldiers are just faceless disposable meat to the grinder, which I find a wasted opportunity to engage the player on yet another emotional layer of attachment. This would be a decent step in addressing it. UI - the existing UI is a bit of a mess, particularly with regards to the strategy layer, so we'd redo that. Not really a mess but could be improved. Footnote - that's another detail you should be careful not to get away from the original for the sake of something fancy but soulless. Air Combat - I'm not sure exactly how I'd redesign this yet, but I think it could do with further improvement. There are numerous ways to tackle this one but it largely depends on the significance you want to give it. It wasn't massively distracting in Xenonauts 1 but it wasn't enjoyable once the novelty of each new UFO wore off. Also had 0 appeal during replays. An avenue you could consider would be putting the player interceptors in different, fluid, changing conditions. You attack a Landing Ship and it summons help if there is another UFO nearby, etc. Get additional features to each UFO from a tactical point of view, not just combat. Make the player think a couple moves ahead of the different scenarios that could occur not only during the fight but also after it. Like others have already pointed out (and I think kabill discovered it after attempting to make a mod) the predictability of Air Combat is its downfall. You get the knack of each UFO and repeat with same result - how many times before it gets boring, then frustrating, then stops feeling relevant at all. Tutorial - the game should use the Iceland Incident as a playable tutorial that explains the setting and the basic game mechanics. +1 Modding Tools - we've been working on some pretty cool game editors and level editors, so the modding / translation / level creation tools will be much better than in Xenonauts 1 and will handle the "modular mod" stuff automatically. +10 Two questions - one, would you buy an improved version of Xenonauts again if we made it? Can I pay you now? Secondly, what annoyed you about the first game and what do you think we should improve? I wouldn't say those things annoyed me but any of the following would greatly improve my personal experience, in addition to the things I already mentioned above. - There could have been better, more detailed plot progression, tied in with different objectives that also interweave with actual gameplay. Think about Final Mission - why not trigger several more of these as the Invasion progresses, building up the atmosphere and providing much welcome variety? Make the player race towards several objectives that can be met (knowing the game won't be lost upon failure but will proceed at a disadvantage). Breaking those down to actual steps that are more interactive will engage me a lot more with what's going on and how I'm progressing with research, base coverage, etc. Obviously would need some randomization or triggers to not pop up at the same time each playthrough. In two words, I'd like the story to be more interactive and actually impact my play directly at least on several occasions! Maybe I will need to save Tokyo from a Terror Attack because there's incredibly valuable research going on there? Or find and raid an Alien Base to retrieve precious components the USA needs for their civic defense turrets? Just examples, the more of these or similar I find in Xenonauts 2, the more I'll be excited! - More mission types, more aliens, more UFOs, many more variations of each. Rare but bigger missions. My enthusiasm started fading when new opponents stopped appearing. It became repetitive way before I was willing to consider closing the playthrough, effectively telling me the game ran out of things to offer before my hunger was satisfied. But up to that point I freaking loved it! - Make better use of the Geoscape - both in terms of Regions (I prefer Nations!) and Cities. Add more meaning to those. In Xenonauts it doesn't matter if a Terror attack devastated Paris, Rome or London. Maybe each city could have a popularity rating that determines how your crew will be meat by the locals, they could help or put you at disadvantage? If not, think of something else in this direction. I'd love the world to feel like a grid of relevant components. Just setup some basic factors and let modders play with it, it could flow so much new blood in the game! - Better final mission - I wouldn't say the current conclusion is poor, but it could be better. Definitely lacked the feeling of a culmination, even if it made perfect sense storywise. - Play on after beating the game - I don't want my game to throw me out when I've beaten the final mission, especially if there is enough intriguing additions/changes to keep my interest going - let me play on if I want to! - Reinforce the atmosphere of ALIEN INVASION going on! Especially as the game progresses! I'd like to see changing battlefields, showing progressive signs of invasion the more time goes on. I'd also like to see people fighting, both in AC and GC (and losing miserably). Let me sense the despair and hopelessness. - I absolutely loved the music, but it needs greater variety. Way greater. - More sounds. It is so sterile without mods at least adding voices to your soldiers. Sounds are a good way to translate the progressing Invasion sentiment btw. Everything is brooming with life at first, then gets more and more quiet, screams and explosions in the distance, things like that, rotated to match the location you are fighting at. It can be real creepy if balanced properly! - Interactive elements in GC. Usable extendable bridges. Turrets or even tanks at key locations (which the aliens could guard as points of strategic interest). Destructible things are one way to make the battlefield interactive - doesn't mean you should neglect other possibilities. - Make the world feel real. Instead of the Monthly Summary screen why not have several (real?) political figures interact with you, on a regular basis. Heck, you may even hire an actor or two and deliver actual voices! I don't care about South America or Southeastwestern Asia. But if the mayor of New York pops up on the phone desperately asking for help while I'm on my way to recover crucial components off an alien base on a Moscow assignment it would feel so much more alive! Just think of the possibilities you can explore from this point on - political relations just the top of the iceberg (which are much more realistic reasons for having your funding decreased/increased btw). - Furthermore, right now the only status you can get from each Region is... Lost. But this could be a dynamic world instead. Especially in that time period. If the US get this crucial research component to reinforce their defenses and the Soviet Union is being battered and hasn't picked up sufficient help from you for months... what's to stop the desperate commies from waging war on the US? If Nations can get in war with each other it would create even further more interesting settings to play with (different maps if you happen to be there for example, different music, etc) - there is potential for unique missions (a chance to stop the war by assassinating key political figures before it's too late, or some other way?) and of course your funding would suffer, or you could think of yet another resource to make this relevant, some new currency that's not in the game yet. Wars could last a month and result in stalemate (and severe diplomatic breakdown, forcing you to pick a side), occupation, complete destruction, take your pick. I can keep going but this is getting so long... If you'd like me to, let me know and I'll think of more. Or if this is taking you away from the direction you'd like to commit to - fair enough, at least I tried

I just have to make this emotional post: **** YES!!! Go for it, Goldhawk!!! To serve as placeholder until I get time to wipe my drools and gather my thoughts to write something cohesive.

Awesome, drages Looking forward to it, mate.

I agree with Skitso, you can't seriously expect a professional to work for free because you are doing a mod. How is it illegal to require a fee for your professional services? If the customer is unhappy with it don't pay and look for alternatives. There will be people willing to do it for free but you can't count on quality and persistence, nor control this way.

What needs to be done? I'm not sure I have the required skillset but I'm not short of enthusiasm

I'm not When I try to add the mod from the X:CE screen I can't see it (it's looking for .zip and it's a .rar, repacking as .zip doesn't help as game says it's not a mod file). Should I just unrar it in the game directory instead?

I'm having issues installing the mod for X:CE, can someone help?

I've looked around but haven't found a pack available for X:CE use. Is there any?

This is a mouth-watering prospect, is the project still alive?

Sent you a message with a link to those UFO design files, hopefully the link is still functional. If you need to discuss anything, I'm available

So it works? That's a brand new UFO? Dude you're golden! Do you think you could work with some of my designs from the other thread?

So new crashable UFOs can be added now? Awesome llunak is a hero!

I don't mind more substantial Air-Combat additions, but to be honest the meat of the game is Ground Combat. I never fell in love with the Air-Combat minigame and while it's definitely fun in the beginning and up to the point the player gets some reasonable radar coverage and a good enough fleet to match the curve of opposition strength, after a while it becomes a distraction. That's not to say it can't be improved or enhanced, or tweaked to someone's personal liking if you prefer! But in the same time Ground Combat was always the meat of the game. To me it feels it is missing a step (or several steps) of variety. I don't mean more random maps (even though those are great and definitely add a lot to the game!) but different types of maps/UFOs/missions to inject a different feel and atmosphere, just like the jump we get once we move from ballistic weapons fighting Scout crews to laser/plasma fighting bigger ships. The Landing Ship -> Carriers/Battleships doesn't deliver that jump for me. They don't feel like a sidestep that can be ignored, for sure, but I need more beyond that. What I mean is bigger and more sophisticated GC maps, including Alien Bases and Crash Sites. The Mothership design I was trying to push was aimed in that direction, despite all its flaws which were obviously there. I'd like to move away from the generic replay Crash Site mission X times to build Y interceptors to gear up, go to Final Mission and wrap it up. Instead I'd like a more personalized feel to each new mission, make it feel relative and important and not just a bunch of expendables risking to take a hit on your income if you lose or dropping slightly behind on the curve. I'd like it to feel like an actual long commando mission with sufficient challenging terrain that doesn't repeat and becomes a bigger, more complex version of the Carriers/Battleships/Large Alien Bases. I'd like to see a larger scale on pretty much everything. Ideally supplemented by new foes, new art, new beats of storyline in between the existing. It would be great if there could be different endings dependent on specific player choices at several points of the playthrough but that's not something hugely important, or relevant to this specific topic. If you look at my designs they were an attempt to get closer to this jump. They were never tested and I'm sure there are numerous things I'm unaware of in terms of balance, visual cohesion or just plain variables that need to be setup and work properly so that the game can execute them and deliver in terms of actual content. Obviously I can't look at them and pretend they are the next great thing because they aren't, they are just pictures without substance. They are mere illustrations of the direction I'd like to see explored

I haven't played for a while, just revisiting every now and then to see if there is some development of interest. I have great respect for heavily detailed mods (I've only barely touched the surface of what effort, knowledge and constant learning those require) although I am very demanding with those details personally and it takes a while till I configure the exact setup I would enjoy and since replaying several big mods leads to a general burnout with games like this one I stay clear until I am fully convinced I will get the exact experience I'm looking for. I don't intend that to sound off-putting, discouraging or unthankful though. I have nothing but respect for the dedicated modders who continue to find ways to expand on the vanilla game after so much time - keep up the good fight and may it make more and more players happy, as I'm sure it consistently does!

Aww come on, dead is a bit harsh I've been revisiting the forums periodically to see if there is any breakthrough with this particular topic since it is one thing that can certainly reignite my interest with the game. I cherish a longer, move varying progression of the alien opposition in terms of new enemies, more and more sophisticated battlefields, new UFOs, etc to enhance the experience since my enjoyment comes from that and the vanilla game becomes rather flat and repetitive too quickly for my personal taste.

I've got to say I'd just love it if there are new GC UFOs added, it would expand the gameplay scope a lot to my personal liking. If by mothership you are referring to my version, I would be buzzing if I could see some of my designs come to fruition to any modder (sadly I'm not sure I still have them physically after a recent swipe I was forced to do on my hard, but if it comes to that I can sniff around and try to find them). In any case, good luck with that direction, it's something I'd very much enjoy to see added!

I'm personally willing to live with the polishing issues as long as they are actually playable now. But I am so much outside Xenonauts right now that I will take forever just to adapt to the new versions if I even get that time, no chance I could edit them again regardless of my desire. But I'd certainly try and check them out if anyone puts them in a mod or something I could just run.

If anyone needs them I can look them up and upload them.