Lobster Man Commander

Excellent UFO model! Can't wait to board it Looking forward to trying out V8.2!

Nice work Goldhawk! Keep em' coming. It's starting to look like a really good game already

- Loading/Reloading weapons. Would be nice to see the magazine/round that you already have in the weapon you change clip in, re-appear in the inventory of that soldier. Sucks to change bazooka round to Stun, and suddenly the AP round you had in it disappears from the battlefield. Also for regular clips, it would be cool if the rounds count is remembered, so that the next time you change clips (back to the old one), the appropriate count is displayed.

Excellent status rapport! Thanks for letting us know where you're at, and where you're planning to go. I like the game so far, agree with hosser on the Title screen and music, -its truly outstanding! Hope everything works out with the UFO tiles. Can't wait to see how this continues to evolve.

To my great surprise I found this introductory thread here today... I've seen its title a couple of times before, but for some reason I guessed it was more of a Goldhawk members thread, and so I never came around to check it out. I have already posted some comments around and feel a bit strange introducing myself now, as it really should have been the other way around... But here goes! I am a die-hard fan of the old X-Com series. I especially played the old TFTD to death and beyond, and really enjoyed it! But I have played all the X-Com named games and liked them all up to and including interceptor, though not as much as the formerly released ones. I come from Norway, and so in these kind of games I always place my first base so that it at least has radar range covering my country I was to a low degree active in the old forum under the same name, but mostly a lurker as I normally am. So far I would count myself as pretty active on this forum (for better or worse) But we shall se what the future holds! Wish the team good luck, and can't wait to try the latest build out when I return to base! uhm.. I mean home ...Also I am a 10-foot lobsterman from T'Leth who will one day rule the world!

Dirty tactics is a broad notion I agree. I won't stand for persistent ambush-type attacks, or plain old cheating behavior. But I think the Aliens could theoretically be able to do everything that Xenonauts do, but to their advantage... To a certain degree. I think this type of game mechanics are a great way to immerse the player in to the universe and make it believable. I have made some posts on the ":)Base Defense" thread regarding the same subject. I think your example of a synopsis Alien leader-type is a great way to adhere to this mindset.

Excellent improvements! Impressive amount of working functions. Congrats! I'll try it out once I get home after work.

A scoremessuring AI - controlling the flow of the game from the Alien's perspective is preferable I agree. And I guess to some degree, the Aliens do respond to how good you're doing. (Correct me if I'm wrong here). But a full on fluent difficulty curve is hard to implement from a game balance viewpoint, And can be cheated pretty easily if you know what you're doing. The game becomes easier to read in some ways too, because after some trial and error, you know that if you ace the "last Terror mission" for the month, Aliens are gonna drop the hammer on you the very next. And by doing that, the fear of the unknown starts to fade away. However, that the Aliens uses tactics that are to their own advantage does feel more natural then them just smashing head-strong against a concrete wall day after day. So I am all for some dirty tactics, just not too much. And if its something that's not supposed to happen too often, I fear the development to implement it might be to costly for the budget for this game. But I might be wrong

Understood. I can definitely see this happening. I wish I could draw, do animation or voicework/soundwork because I would be the first one to step up. Unfortunately, I have none of those skills. Neither do I know people who have. Yet, if we can get some help from Chris's artist to do some drawings, or get access to some concept art that can be used. It can be finished in a fairly short amount of time. That is, If we find a helpful skilled animation artist, and someone who are good at sound to tie it all together. Man made things are a lot easier to draw then anatomically correct humans. You're spot on there. And if you can draw the scenic pictures, then that's one less thing to worry about. Chris if you're reading this, are you still interested in some kind of X-Com inspired intro to Xenonauts, independent of your decision on tutorial-type? By the way the interceptors sent after the UFO in the Iceland Incident fiction was F-8s -Checked it out to be sure.

The General looks excellent in my opinion! That's just what we need, only with color and background That guy is pretty talented! Although, this is one image, that goes a way to show how much work has to be put into something like this to make it work out. Sure most of the intro can be stills with background noise but, that's still a lot of drawings to do... And sound work... Luckily, the game is far from done. So we might have time yet:)

That's interesting. Does anyone on the forum have connections that can make this done non-profit wise?

Basic thinking for the rouge soldier idea: Xenonauts operative/scientist/worker who has been subjected to an infection or otherwise subverted to the Alien side. This subjection has made him stronger and/or crazy, so a task force (anything from 2-12 agents) has to hunt him down and destroy him, or subdue him for inquiry/autopsy. Some possible examples: * Infection turned Xenonaut employee into a crazy and powerful opponent Like Hector Hammond - crazy scientist - from "The Green Lantern" the movie. (kill or subdue individual) * Xenonaut employee infected by parasitic life-form like the chest-bursters of the "Alien" movies - (here the actual Alien might be the main target). * Infection that has gradually zombiefied Xenonaut employee - inspiration: Anything from a zombie from a regular zombiefilm to a monster from "The Thing" or something more sinister like that (kill or subdue individual) * Soldier has been exposed to extreme pressure and just turned plain old regularly insane. Could be in tactical mission, but would suck if he was killed and it turned out to be one of your favorite men. Was thinking more in the lane of base defense, but I guess the idea could be implemented into any and every aspect of the game. Anything from tactical missions to base defense or attack - to a pilot turned crazy in the middle of an interception. Wouldn't have to be a Xenonaut either. Could be a civilian or npc from one of the nations. But the most important thing is that this sort of stuff has to be pretty rare not to work against its purpose, and that its clear in some way that its not going to be a regular thing. And that's really what makes it hard to implement in this game, as the effort that is put into something has to equal something that is valuable for the entire game to a high degree.

Have you gotten any signals from Goldhawk that points to whether or not they would like to implement something like this, if they already have their own plans for intro, or the decision have been made not to have an intro at all?

If I use my imagination, I can see many ways to improve the immersion into this universe for the player. One clear example is to "upgrade" the random events that seams to happen all over the world though messages that show up in the lower-left corner of the map screen. Scripted events like: * Alien containment breaches, like Brad suggested. * Rouge soldiers going on killing-spree -not subtracted from the goldenguys sent on every mission. Only later to be found out to be infected/mind controlled by the Aliens. * Huge behemoth-type aliens that emerges and has to be taken out (think big Darksouls bosses) * Pilot recovery missions that only happen once or twice due to the fact that Alien weapons are so destructive * And so on... (there are probably hundreds of ideas for scripted events like these) These one-time, Two-time events would arguably add to the tone of the game and increase immersion into the fantastic universe of planetary defense. Players would never know what the game is going to throw at him next! ...And That has serious immersion-factor. But the major problem is that these things are extremely labor intensive development-wise. And sadly, can properly not be included at least at this stage of the Xenonauts-series... Yes its wishful thinking on my part, that this game will turn out to become a series but its the only thing a fan can really hope for Maybe if Chris and the gang decide to make a new Xenonauts based on the hopefully high profits from this game, they could add extra content like this witch would improve the entire experience in my opinion.

It saddens me to hear that development is slow and time consuming. But I guess that's unavoidable when projects like this increases in scope and passion. Hope it all works out for the better, and that it does not hurt the end product Hang in there guys!

I think the Goldhawk will do well not to stray to far from the formula in this respect. I know I would ragequit if I had my base taken over every time I sent out every able soldier in the barracks to battle the increase in ufo activity in the later stages of the game. Though I know every time is not what you meant I (want to) believe that as the story progresses and Xenonauts get better gear, the necessary change in difficulty should mean increasingly better equipped Aliens, harder Alien races and harder ufos should start showing up. This gives you new challenges and keeps the formula fresh. At some point you can start putting in hard secondary objectives in tactical missions, or have governments demanding higher monthly ratings to increase/keep their monthly payment. Just basically upping the ante a little bit. But those brutal ambush type attacks that you're mentioning, I think should be reserved for the hardest difficult setting of the game, if added at all. You can always mod the game yourself after release to make the Aliens drop kick you if that's what you're looking for Have them swarm you with battleships on day one if that's what you like! I understand the wish for a difficult game. I love a good challenge, that's one of the reasons I like these types of games. But the harder you make it the less people are gonna enjoy it, except a few die-hard guys like us of c!

Man I am really excited for the next alpha version Hope everything is going well with development!

Exactly what I was thinking of and more! Love the details anotherdevil! You can clearly tell a lof of tought has gone into the storyboard and the script even though its still in the rough. Just the way to make the one enemy UFO into something that is completly overpowering. There is alot of potential to this if we can only get a talented artist and animator intrested

I think this actually adds to the realism to the game. UFOs have thick - near impregnable armor. Xenonauts craft has to use missiles with big warheads to stand a chance to harm them. Even the smallest "Scout" Ufos can take a lot heavy auto cannon fire before going down. And that's a lot more caliber then anything we can bring to the ground. Always found it strange that I could use regular small arms fire to punch holes in the downed UFOs of the old series. While I had to use every missile I had from the interceptors to do the same in the air.

Can you classify the floor-tilesections inside rooms as wall tiles without them being walls? I had to draw this to find the logic. But its just like you said. The V shape comes up as the most logical tile collapse mechanic. Seems the easiest way to logically make this to work is to say that each tile that is not next to a tile connected to a wall section should collapse. But the only problem is, there is a bunch of them in the middle of the room witch has no connecting wall next to them. Rough sketch using symbols where X represents destroyed wall, and O a collapsed floor tile on a two story building seen from the sky: ._ XXXXX _ _ |##OOO###| |###O####| |########| Hope my useless, uneducated attempt was any help

Yeah I think I counted two already Put it in the Frequently Made Suggestions post?

That's good news. Don't want to make all the other cool equipment worthless just because a single piece is to good. But I swear I am still trying out that Testudo formation!

Aww man! That's unfortunate to say the least... Would love to see those images though... Do you think you still have them ? If we somehow got an artist to do this and Chris thinks its quality work, maybe they'll implement it! And then Goldhawk just have to make the tooltips and the mission, witch off course is a lot of work in itself. But at least not as much as making the whole shebang!

Agreed. I like the current musical direction. I think the correct musical tone is really important to this kind of game. X-com games had great scores. The music from Xenonauts so far is really fitting with the theme, and helps to set the mood. Hope the team continues along the same path!

I think you're on to something here! I especially like the intro-movie-into-first-mission-idea, as a take on the Iceland incident or another more recent conflict. A lot of really great games start off like that. Should eliminate a lot of in-game programming too... After that you could just run it as a normal mission with tooltips and some nice effects to really captivate the player. But aliens are overpowering/out number you, or cheat in some un-seen way so that you loose the entire squad and cause the mission to end. X-com: Enemy uknown had a great superhero themed anime-inspired intro cinematic. Since this game is inspired by it. It would definitely be sweet to at least see the same type of heroic intro. "Scramble all craft!" And I personally think it would be ironic and kind of cool that the game then continues to kill your entire squad... Kind of a sobering experience that sets the tone of the game. And prepares you for what is to come: you're gonna die alot if you're into superhero antics!