Thefunkbox

I think you hit the nail on the head. For me, it's just not even remotely engaging. There's no story, no characters, nothing. If it played like an arcade game, it would be acceptable, but for this kind of depth and strategy, some lead in would add a lot of atmosphere. As it stands, I start the game, I watch time tick, go after a couple of UFOs here and there, and next thing I know I'm on the ground going in several directions at once for no particular reason. I can understand where not having a linear storyline can help, as it does become frustrating in X-com when you know exactly what turn it's going to take and when. Having something a bit more open ended is very exciting. I tried playing it again, and I just can't get through the first ground battle. Part of my frustration is the seeming lack of balance between the alien capabilities and the human capabilities. Maybe I'm just not thinking strategically enough, but when shots come out of nowhere, and kill all of my guys, it's pretty frustrating. I also haven't figured out why they so rarely shoot back.

Wow. Excellent feedback all around. Sounds like I need to put in some more time and open my mind a little. For the most part, I didn't have a problem with X-com Enemy Unknown. I've enjoyed it immensely, although it seemed at times that if you had not advanced your troops or gear as fast as the game seemed to think you should, you hit a level where attacks came from EVERYWHERE and you had virtually no chance to survive, even if you had solid tactics. Personally, I always found a bit of joy in the fact that the environments were fully destructable, so that added a big element for me. I'm in my 40s, and I remember the frustration of playing games that were limited in their interaction. Anything you did only affected the characters around you. Having a wall I'm using as protection get dissolved was shocking and interesting at the same time. I have seen this game does it as well, although the feeling is not the same when it happens. I'm hoping the part of my brain that loves the strategy involved with Civilization will come to love this. I'm going to grumble every time I want to play it on my laptop, though. It's been my primary place for games, and this will be the first one that doesn't want to cooperate. From a design standpoint, I think having so much "useless" stuff on the screen (meaning an element that is not functional in any way) is silly. For example, on the map screen, if the graphics in the bottom corners were removed, then that leaves more room for text and information. While a lot of people game on sizeable machines, there are a few of us that make do with something a bit more compact.

OK. That's actually very helpful! I have never been a big modder, but I have played a few Civ mods, and they can be really fun. Hopefully with some play through I will get into it more. I do think the graphics are a part of the turn off for me right now. X-com feels complete and polished, and this feels like a throwback, but from what I can tell, that's intentional. That having been said, there seems to be a bit more of a strategic element in the ground battle system, and that is something I find very appealing. I have been playing X-com Enemy Unknown, and steam is running a sale on the sequel, so those may tide me over for a while. Sorry for the disjointed thoughts. Papa Murphy's computer system didn't want to play nice tonight, and I'm waiting extra long for my pizza!

OK... so I've played a bit of the newest version, and I just can't get into it. To me, the graphics are flat, there is nothing to draw me in, I have a lot of screen with very little information on it both during the waiting phase and the battle phase. I had read rave reviews about this game, and bought it based on that. Having played X-com and loving it, I thought for sure this would be a notch above, and to some people it seems to be. So my question is, in your opinion, what makes this game great? This is a genuine question. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything. I just want to read some other views so maybe I can figure out the element I'm missing. Right now I just don't get what's special about it.

Thanks for those updates, guys. I'm hoping Steam has the Mac version on Monday. As I mentioned, I have Steam and have activated my key, but they only offer the Windows version right now.

I'm having almost the exact same problem, except that even though I have Steam, the Mac version is not on there yet, so I seem to be stuck with a game that I can't patch. I just emailed HumbleBundle and I'm hoping they can help. The last Mac version they list is from June 7, but when I start the game, the date says the build is from May 31. I'm hoping Steam picks up the Mac version soon so I don't have to worry about this sort of thing.

Where did you download from? When clicking on the link provided in the email after I purchased the game, the version I got was Xenonauts - 1.0 - mac.dmg. When I launch the game, on the top right it says Xenonauts release 1.0 31/05/2014. How can I get an updated version? I don't see any options to download a patch or an update. -I'm not sure how I wound up there, but I purchased my copy from HumbleBundle. I think it was a link from the Xenonauts website if I remember correctly.

As I posted in another thread, I think the fonts are very bad. I'm on a macbook 13", which has not had a problem with any game, even games that seem to have a lot happening on the screen. Xenonauts is proving very difficult to decipher. It seems that there should be a way for the text to adjust in scale. If I'm on a smaller screen, then the text should take up a larger portion of the display. I don't think that should be a problem, as there seems to be a lot of unused space if I remember correctly. I think there are elements in there that aren't really necessary and wouldn't be missed if they were replaced with an area that allowed for larger and more readable text.

I hope they reconsider the design. I think there is a lot of extraneous information on the screen, and the display could be simplified. I suppose if that's what it is, then there's no changing it, but 13 - 15 inch screens don't seem to be uncommon in the land of laptops. I appreciate everyone's input. I did just today notice a Mac thread, so I'll keep an eye out over there for any tips and tricks. THANKS! You guys are all helpful with your observations.

OK. Since I've been a Mac user, I haven't been as aware of the specifics of my hardware, but I was able to track it down. The default resolution is 1280 x 800 and I believe it's a 13 inch screen. My regular games are Civ V and X-com, both of which display beautifully. Xenonauts seems to have information EVERYWHERE. I couldn't get a screen shot, even when I tried to launch it in windowed mode. It's possible some graphics issues have been addressed, and I'm just seeing an old version. I can't read the time in the top left, I can barely read the updates at the bottom, too. It would be easier if the type were larger and they were displayed over the map. I honestly haven't done much more than that. I looked at some different screens yesterday on my large Mac, but today I just wanted to jump into the game play to see how it felt. Should I try launching it in a lower resolution? Thanks for the tips and help. I missed out on getting the X-com sequel when it was on sale on Steam, and thought I would get this after reading so many positive comments. --Edit-- Not many choices in resolution. Found one that let me use windowed mode. Is that how the windows version looks? Screenshot :

I kind of had a feeling, but was holding out a few hopes. On the download page, it shows this. I thought maybe the version I would download would have been one of the patched versions. As it stands, the current Mac version doesn't seem very engaging to me, and it's trying to fit far too much information on the screen. On my desktop everything reads just fine, but on my Macbook, all of the type is very tiny and hard to read. Looking forward to more polished versions. Everything I have read says this is going to be outstanding!

Is this for Mac and Windows, or Windows only? I downloaded the Mac version, and it appears to be 1.0 dated 5/31/14.

There is a Mac version available for download. How did you purchase your copy? I went directly to the Xenonaut website, and was given an option between Windows and Mac. I downloaded the Mac version and tried it the other day. Later I entered the key into Steam so when the Mac version is available there, I can have them linked.