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Hello, all! I was hoping to be able to resist the siren call of Xenonauts, but alas it's lure proved too strong and I had to give it a go. I could pretend I'm sad or something - but yeah, no. So far I'm extremely pleased with the game, the direction, and most of all the wonderfully depressed faces on each and every human. More games need that~ More seriously though, there's a lot of ground I wanted to cover. Some of this is possibly not WAD though I didn't think anything was enough to warrant a bug report. Starting off, the lack of funds at the beginning of the game... I can't tell if I like it or not. On the one hand, actually having to sell alien artefacts is great and really makes you feel like you're pulling by on the skin of your teeth - but given the rate you hemorrhage money, it seems like it might fit the tone of the game better to instead make players think it won't be a problem, only for newbies to invest lots of money and get a pleasant surprise as funding is cut, and cut, and cut again. On the third hand though - I don't think I've ever gotten any better than good on a mission. I usually stun any aliens that aren't at full attention, as stun rods are quite handy, and am pretty good about avoiding civilian casualties... Mine or alien in cause. I don't reload in-stage, though I never ironman (I've just never understood the appeal), and I take a fairly long time to complete stages. I'm guessing the last one is holding my 'rank' back? This seems like a bug, though given my previously low (not terrible, just had drifted from average to bad) relation with the US, it could just be cause and effect: After a terror mission in Anchorage, which I completed successfully, I received several instances of "Terror Mission In Anchorage!!" pop up. Having just won the previous mission with a mostly green squad, I was in no condition to fight again and I assumed it was just the escorts from the landed craft bugging up or something; then I received multiple reports of Anchorage nuking itself, though my rating didn't seem to change at all. Figuring it was an appearance error, I ignored them and continued playing; only to find out that this month I've lost all of North America. I don't have any backup saves, so - WAD? (And if so, is there a way to restore relations, or did I just 'Terror from the Deep' it?) Chinook range seems a bit low. Would it be possible to build underway refueling points? I reckon it's probably too much to ask at this point in the game, but it might be cool to have extra installations that can come under attack from aliens... Or perhaps even humans. Weapon and armor upgrades seem really good, if a bit linear and almost not worth the investment. Given how rare money is, investing in bases and even in green squaddies seems more useful, as if you're a good enough player you'll be avoiding most shots in the first place. The first armor upgrade doesn't seem to be worth the money and time at all, whereas the wolf/buzzard suits are very usable, though again - perhaps not as important as another base, or a dropship, or an interceptor... It doesn't really feel like a choice, as you need power projection even to play - so all the cool extra upgrades are put off, and by the time you have cashflow to invest in them, something better (and more money/time intensive) has come along. I'm sure the problem is worse on Insane... Hunters... I don't know about the other (if there are any) armored vehicles yet, but these are definitely not worth the investment, even with Pulse Lasers. They are useful as cover, definitely, and both the rocket and laser attachments are fantastically effective; but the Hunter is too bulky to make up for the fact you're technically getting half the possible actions. And of course, machines don't self-improve like human resources do. That being said, again - that Pulse Laser is something. Very satisfying, 10/10 in alien zorching. Lore is fantastic. I feel like I personally know not only my squads, but the head of R&D. Clearly we'd be firm friends. Heh. There aren't enough games set in this time period with a serious setting - the only game that comes to mind being the in-dev East Vs. West - and you capture that as well as the feel of X-Com... Which isn't an easy feat, especially as Xenonauts is trying and succeeding at standing on its own merits. I don't know if I've got the time, but would you mind if I did a screenshot AAR/Let's Play of this at some point, or would you prefer people wait till beta is over? What else... One of my soldiers has no portrait or hands, just transparencies where they should be. This is definitely a bug, but please don't fix it. I've grown very attached to Джанна Живаневская, Invisible Woman. Of course, she can only turn invisible when there are no aliens around, so it's usefulness in combat is a bit less then optimal, but I remain convinced that humble invisibility is they key to not dying before the next budget report. Winning I mean. Winning. Yes. Again - fantastic so far, and thanks for surprising me and keeping me amazingly optimistic about the future of gaming. Congrats on getting into beta, onto steam, &c&c!

#1 Improvement: The AI is VASTLY better! It was aggressive, moved up and engaged my guys from three directions one turn out of the Chinook. I had two wounded before I could even get to decent cover. The AI used cover well and didn't retreat until it was outnumbered about four to one locally even then it moved back to a better and continued to fire. You will definitely need to use "real" tactics to win now. Running out across the open with no scouting and no covering fire will get you killed. You have to operate as a team now. Single troops are dead meat. It will ambush you and it will fire until you're dead. No more reaction fire only. I gotta give the AI a HUGE thumbs up. The new "blood drop" to indicate bleeding troops is an excellent idea. My only major issue: You still can't throw grenades from behind/over objects. I really think this ought to be fixed before the game is released to Steam. Only a couple small glitches. I was able to run through a car and I had some minor issues with the base menus. This might be an actual beta candidate, but I'll to play quite a bit more before I can be sure. Right now, I'm pretty impressed.

Ok I just seen this game on Steam and just about passed it over, but I accidently clicked on the link for it's info and now I'm here to grill people for answers, lol. I'm a huge fan of X-Com UFO Defense and pretty much that only one in the series. With that being said I didn't mind the new Enemy Unknown, but it wasn't UFO Defense. I've played all the other X-Coms in the series and most of the knockoffs of X-Com to date. None of the others have managed to keep my attention and they usually are un-installed within the week. So I ask as a major UFO Defense fan and a barely impressed fan of everything else will I be modestly interested in this game Xenonauts? The graphics seem right from the screens I've seen, but what about the nuts and bolts if you will? The only other question I have is; If this game will appeal to me is this the write time to buy it or are there to many game breaking bugs at the moment to properly enjoy it? Cheers,

Greetings all, Seeing how active the development forums are, I'd like to provide some impressions so far on Xenonauts. For background, I'm familiar with the original X-COM, and quite so with strategy games in general. Some time ago I tried UFO:AI which is definitely a good effort, but ultimately falls short for me due to several concerns, some of which that game will not address. So I spent a bit of time with the current Xenonaut build. The best thing I can immediately say is that it feels like XCOM. It will clearly feel overwhelming to those unfamiliar with the original, but such is the nature of this game. I like how Xenonauts keeps complexity of the original in things like soldier loadouts or manufacturing, and that is in fact why I preordered. I hope the game says true to XCOM throughout development. Pacing I did find the pacing of the game to be somewhat off. In the first month, I did 15 or 16 crashed UFO missions. That is a bit too often and becomes a tad annoying. On the contrary, I went a week in the third month without any contacts other than alien fighters. What I would like to see is instead more of a ramping-up feeling where alien attacks increase in frequency and intensity. Early combat The initial impressions from the tactical combat were very positive. It feels a lot like the original game, though perhaps more forgiving - my soldiers were able to take a hit even in the first mission without any armor. Some UI issues, like how to take aimed shots, took a while to figure out. Generally though engaging in combat is nice and intuitive, with just a few exceptions. Like grenades - apparently my soldier was unable to throw a grenade over a hedgerow that visually appears to be maybe chest high, causing the grenade to explode right in front of him. Hmm. I may have failed to figure it out so far, but it seems like there's no way to throw items anymore. I also can't figure it out with the "quick grenade" slots. If my soldier carries several types of grenades, can I choose which one becomes the quick grenade? I was greatly annoyed by some reaction fire coming through doors and hope that's a mistake. Specifically, I've been taking reaction fire when approaching the outer doors of a UFO. Capturing live aliens seems to be too easy. After researching stun weapons, I get stun rods, stun grenades and stun rockets? Why would I even want to use a stun rod when I could capture aliens by liberally using stun grenades? I really appreciate the idea, but capturing a live alien should be a risky proposition considerably more dangerous that just shooting him. The original XCOM did this well (until stun bombs anyhow). And it definitely seems like the scout car is extremely good, to the point where you always want to take it instead of 2 people. It can scout ahead to reveal aliens and draw fire, and has acceptable weapons, too. It's not that vehicles should be weak, but they should feel like a tradeoff and not like a no-brainer. Geoscape observations The most immediate thing I could not understand is, what's up with the starting base layout? Leftmost and rightmost tile columns are empty but most useful buildings have a width of 2 so I can actually not add workshops or laboratories there? Aside from that, so far I've been doing well in combat but absolutely stuck on the economy. Not really sure how you're supposed to make money. It should certainly not be as easy as in XCOM, and that's good, but is the money you get after UFO raids really the only source of income? Research is actually very fast, I even managed to have some downtime with nothing to research. I love the way various alien-related events appear on the geoscape outside your radar range, allowing you to guess where aliens are. That is a brilliant addition to the original formula. But... what in Gollop's name is going on with resource management? Okay, I get infinite ammo for ballistics and the like. I can live with it, though it would not be bad to have to factor it into my calculations. But why do I, upon researching Elenium explosives, get an endless supply of elenium-powered grenades, aircraft missiles and rockets for the launcher? In terms of immersion, that's just silly, but it also messes with the strategy layer. The game needs to be about a careful balancing of upsides and downsides, but so far it seems like there are many things that are just plain upgrades of the earlier things. Sometimes that's good, like laser weapons should be superior to ballistics, but it would feel better if elenium weapons like aircraft torpedos were scarce at least initially, until some time when you're able to set up constant production. And it's not just that elenium issue. I liked having individual clips for my soldiers back when I played the first XCOM, but it didn't play a large enough role. Now it's even more cosmetic, I feel. What does it really matter that rifles have clips if they are, themselves, infinite, and a soldier carrying a rifle + spare clip is guaranteed to never run dry? Some more combat I understand this is likely a design decision but I am not a fan of the random allied units on the maps. In addition to not quite feeling XCOM to me, it's also immersion-breaking. This is an invasion by aliens, the scariest thing in humanity's history, these aliens wield weapons that melt humans, yet some random hunter or a typical cop calmly engage a 2-meter tall alien lizard? Seems like there's no way of getting rid of outdated ammo. After I have Elenium explosives, my rocket launcher's "quick reload" slot still expects the typical human fragmentation explosive which I no longer have. The aliens on most missions do not appear particularly aggressive. I know the AI is always a work in progress, but they seem to randomly alternate between shooting and running. I was not able to figure out how to "hold a UFO". I tried to on one mission, not wanting to hunt down the last alien, so I sent 3 guys into a Scout, occupying both of the UFO's compartments. Nothing happened 5 turns later. I am still none the wiser. The technical stuff I love the graphics. It looks hand drawn and very much in the XCOM style, and it looks great, besides, such graphics are far less prone to aging than 3D graphics. Also the sound is well done. However, oh my, the crashes. Just stating the fact, not complaining - I know what a beta is. But my game crashed quite a lot. Occasional crashes when loading missions, a few in the battlescape, and now I am stuck on a mission that appears to always crash when loading. And I can't even find any logs that would allow me to spend 2 hours uselessly trying to avoid the crash by changing different variables ----------- Just wanted to get this out there, but I'll keep updating as I keep playing. So far the impressions are very positive, well done!

Just finished first mission and feels like 18.3 again with stability thus far knock on wood. Although the 'auto completion' of bringing up breifing screen after killing last alien (you dont have to click end turn) was hairy for a minute... it looked like it went right to geoscape... the top title bar of the game (Playing in window mode) showed 'not responding' then it un hiccuped and brought up the mission debrief. Unlimited flares on night missions now is nice if you use em. Is the cover indicator intentionally not showing up? Cause I havent seen it in this build or 18.4 but the shot line is picking up cover okay. Aliens did run out at me from out of the ship but they would some times do that before... one in the field i felt probably should have been able to shoot at my people and he just kinda stood there and didnt turn towards me. But first cesarian light scout so i'll continue to try to take notes on the ai. Can we ever have the ability to lay out our first base.. or at least suggest the storage and radar get built in bottom left and right corners as those 2 single space buildings being moved could allow for 2 additional 2 space horizontals (lab/workshop/living.) I usually start the game building a new store room in bottom right and deconstructing the one i start with once its built. then i free up a horizontal row. Or allow us to rotate buildings and play tetris? (But I imagine that would let you optimize base space too much...)

I really wanted to support this game because I loved the original Xcom series but don't think I'll like the new one, and want to support indie developers. So far there is quite a bit to like but I'm concerned about the fact that V18 is apparently a beta candidate as I think there is still a hell of a lot to do to make it what it should be, not just leftover bugs but essential game mechanics that look likely to be left out altogether. In my current game I have shot down 12 alien craft, researched the early vehicle, heavy fighter and a couple of alien techs. I started my first game on hard but due to a few game breaking bugs and my own incompetence am currently on easy. As I'm not that far through some of my gripes may turn out to be neutralised by more research (or more updates), but having read through various forum posts I'm concerned and wanted to register my current impressions. I also have to admit that I have little or no idea of how to make some of the improvents I consider neccessary. I also don't feel I've yet seen enough to comment on AI etc. Things I like: Geoscape - looks and feels good, with enough to make it important but not the core of the game. Air combat - I'm pleased that this has been included (so far I suck) and think it's about the right complexity/simplicity balance. I don't feel any need for pilots. Base management - looks nice, interested to see how my first base defence works. Things I don't like: Ground combat - Personally I feel that psionics should have a mid to late game role, I understand that badly implemented they can totally unbalance the whole thing but this is ultimately just a matter if designing them right. For example psi agents could be made slow and physically weak and in need of protection while also having a tendency to catastrophic blowback in some circumstances from using their powers - inexperienced psi agents could trigger booby traps in the minds of some aliens causing soldiers near the psi agent to become stunned, revealed through the fog of war, go beserk or suffer other deleterious effects. This would leave the player with the conundrum of a fragile unit that needs protection from a distance. Fair enough if the dev team have concluded that psi powers should not have a role in order to focus on the combat, but this leads me to my biggest gripe as the rest of combat is either bady bugged or seriously substandard. My current save is at the start of my second terror mission (I made it through the first one by saving every turn and many reloads), this time around my dropship has landed such that 4 (I think) aliens are visible by the time my troops have stepped out the doors and many more seem able to shoot me due to the nearby ones acting as spotters, or over long alien LOS/tendency to shoot through objects. This means that even when I tested what would happen if my troops cowered in the relative shelter of the chinook one had died and another was critical after the first alien turn. When I took a more traditional tactic of fanning out to the nearest points of mutually supportive cover I managed to take out one alien but 3 of my 8 troops died on the first alien turn, most of them due to fire from the still FOW enemies. I want the game to be hard but this is on easy. Apparently the inability of troops to take cover at and fire from corners is unlikely to be changed - this is absurd, given that cover is at the core of the game, I can't find it now but I read a post suggesting that calculating LOS from each corner of tile A to each corner of tile B might resolve this. Equally absurd is the fact that all maps are flat. Not that I have personal experience of a combat zone but surely varied terrain is fundamental to a game based around different teams shooting each other with guns. Grenades are still broken but I appreciate that this will be fixed. I get the impression that weapon variety may be limited to tiers (ballistic, laser, plasma etc) of more effective but otherwise functionally identical choices i.e shotgun type with short range and poor accuracy but high power, sniper type with long range and good accuracy but low fire rate. I am hoping that further research will prove me wrong and lead to more variety, such as mines, flamethrowers, grenade launchers and something to reveal distant areas like binoculars or aerial surveillance. Suggestions (some of which may render others unnessecary): - Cover at corners. - Variable terrain. - More cover. - less accurate aliens or tougher troops. - more map variation. - flares on night missions should illuminate more ground. - More plausible missed shot trajectories - a shot from near point blank range should not miss by a full 45 degrees. Suggestions for geoscape: - Governments could interact more than I've seen so far with Xenonauts and each other. - A bit more starter cash, lower costs, more forgiving governments, or a slightly slower ticker - I only have one base so far and already two cities have been nuked as dropships from my mid east base (chosen as a base there covers all its own region plus significant chunks of several others, base 2 will likely be Central America for similar reasons) just couldn't get to S America or New Zealand in time. I want to like this game and I'm sure a lots of hard work has gone in already but bugs aside there are still several deficiencies, that if left unremedied will lead to me giving up and feeling glad I only paid standard pre order. Please don't make excuses about the engine not permitting varied terrain or over features fundamental to a game such as this one. I'm sure it's true but it simply means a poor choice of engine was made in the first place Platypus

I've been playing the beta for a few days now, and I wanted to post some feedback on my experiences with it. I played the alpha for a bit as well, but I didn't get too far due to not wanting to get too much of the game spoiled. Starting with the most important thing first: The Tactical Layer: Squad Size Landing parties currently feel very small, especially in the early game. It doesn't allow for that much flexibility in tactics, and combined with the fact that bringing a vehicle instead of 2 more soldiers is a no-brainer, you really don't have many ways to approach any given problem. From reading the forum I've noticed that reducing it to 8-10-12 is under consideration. I'm hoping you'll consider increasing it as well, to something like 12-16-20, and making a vehicle take 4 soldier slots, so that bringing one is an actual decision, rather than being the best course of action. Maps Overall I think the maps are very well designed, allowing for multiple routes to an objective, and such. Despite this however, they manage to feel very linear. In the majority of the maps I've played, you have the landing craft on one side of the map, and the UFO on the other side. Most of them also don't seem to be very wide, making them feel more like corridors than anything, meaning that despite not knowing where the UFO is, I always know exactly where to look, even if it's the first time I play the map. Difficulty So far I've found ground combat to be incredibly easy and thus unrewarding. While I'm sure a lot of this stems from the AI being unfinished, I believe a lot of it is also a product of the corridor-like map design and low unit cap. I'm currently able to cover most of the map with a line of soldier, leaving very few dark corners for aliens to hide in and flank me from, and the low unit cap means that the alien presence needs to be proportionally low, which limits their options, just like mine are similarly limited. Another thing would be that since the first encounter, I've felt on even footing with the aliens. Assault rifles vs plasma pistols, lasers and armor versus plasma rifles, plasma vs plasma, I was never really playing catch-up, never really that one step behind. I did actually take a bit of a beating at first, but this was mostly because I was still learning how to best use the games features. In fact I still have 4 people on in my 6-man team that have been on every mission so far (meaning they have never even been heavily wounded in combat), which really illustrates how little danger the alien threat actually poses. The Cover System I really like the cover system overall, but it does feel a bit wonky and unintuitive at times. Take this situation for example: One unit is behind a cover that is 2 squares long, aiming at another unit that is not behind cover. The game ignores the first square of cover for the sake of aiming, but the cover in the next square is taken into consideration, even though you wouldn't logically hit it from that position unless you were aiming for it. Another thing would be shooting past several unconnected pieces of cover. From the way game presents it, it seems that each piece of cover is taken into consideration individually, instead of considering how much of the target is obscured by all the pieces of cover between you as a whole. I don't know exactly how the game calculates this however, so I might be wrong about this. Miscellaneous The sight range of your soldiers is pretty low. I'd love to see it increased a bit to allow for longer-range combat. The Reapers feel a bit underpowered in my experience. They'll wreck havoc on your team if they get close, but that doesn't seem to happen much unless they catch you by surprise. Could probably benefit from a small health boost. The Strategic Layer: Research & Development It's currently a bit strange. Research seems to be easily handled by a 15-man team through most of the game. Having autopsies done instantly seems strange as well, basically boiling down to being a damage bonus for meeting a race for the first time, rather than something you'd prioritize when you need it. Manufacturing scales up nicely at first, but suddenly jumps immensely, to the point where you suddenly need to build 3-4 extra workshops to get things done in time. A smoother increase to that point would be nice. Economy Feels a bit strange. Sometimes I'll be scraping by, until the council bails me out. Other times I'll be rolling around in cash, not even sure what to do with it all (though that is not a "problem" I have for very long). One thing is always constant though: I never really seem able to afford building, expanding and outfitting a second base. I'd make an argument for allowing manufacturing to be profitable, but that is already being discussed elsewhere it seems. Miscellaneous Air Combat: Feels pretty balanced, and it's quite fun. Kinda trivial once you get the hang of it, but that is to be expected really. Xenopedia: Love it, looking forward to it being complete. If possible I'd love to have individual pages about each weapon, displaying their stats, TU requirements, firing modes, etc. Especially for alien weapons, so I can better work out if they have any flaws I can exploit. Stats: I'm lacking a general overview of alien activity. It's hard to get an idea about what is going on in the world outside of my radar range. Bugs: Vanishing shots: A weapon will sometimes shoot, but not produce any projectiles. Seems to be related to the weapon running out of ammo while burst-firing. Equipment disappearing: All of a soldiers equipment will occasionally disappear forever. Seems to be related to an injured soldier being fully healed. Item duplication: At one point I was able to duplicate plasma rifles. I got the pop-up that my plasma rifles were done being manufactured. When I entered the manufacturing screen through the button in the pop-up, it still showed 1 still being in production, but 99% complete. I then went over to the soldier loadout screen, and removed a plasma rifle from a soldier that showed 0/10 (or whatever the ammo count is for it) left in the magazine. When I re-added it to the soldiers inventory, my stock of plasma rifles were not reduced, and I was able to remove and re-add it to duplicate as many as I wished. Buzzard armor: Throwing a grenade uses the unarmored sprite. When moving the soldier wearing it will often vanish, but a very large image of him moving will appear somewhere on the screen. The jumping mechanics is wonky, and often doesn't work at all. Fire and smoke will occasionally be visible in unexplored areas. Taking a wounded soldier with you into ground combat will allow you to fully heal his wounds with a medkit. Displayed chance-to-hit a target behind cover seems off. I am able to hit targets displaying 4% hit chance way more often than should be statistically possible. Soldiers that are KIA, and reported as such on the score screen, sometimes seem to show up injured in the medbay. Throughout the game magazines are incorrectly referred to as clips. These are not interchangeable terms (I know this seems like a small issue, but this is what it sounds like when you know the difference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRhGPVYRsOY ). Encountered a door I was unable to enter: With all that being said though, I'm having a blast with the game. It's a lot of fun, even in its current unfinished state. Good luck with the beta, and I hope this wall of text is at least somewhat useful.

Grenades How do you use them? Sometimes I can & sometimes I cannot. Also what does it mean if your target has an ammo clip on the sight helix(besides the fact that you cannot fire? There are two sorts of combat First Aid: what you carry yourself like everyone else: usually compressed pressure bandages etc and what carried by the Medics. Surely Xenonauts can give everyone a small healing agent a la that in UFO ET? MGun users should have a choice as most are capable of selective fire ie single, cluster of three or burst and so far mine has done nothing as he cannot move any distance or he loses burst fire and so is never there. Also a sniper can fire his rifle (especially if an autoloader) from the hip and it CAN be used in close combat and again especially if it has even a limited burst capacity. Flares are totally useless as they extend your visual range by so little they are a waste of effort. Any Heat detectors or movement detectors in the works? Yes I know that some are reptilian but not ALL reptiles were cold blooded and if these guys are then I will be surprised otherwise they will have lie in the sun for a hours to recharge. Last comment: most of my squad are at lieutenant level and still have the SAME accuracy that they did as rookies so what is the POINT of experience as this was a MUST in all other such games.(eg in UFO ET, Aftermath and the old UFO XCOM anyone who couldn't shoot was stacked with grenades and used as decoys(ie sacrificed) as accuracy is the primary skill followed by movement allowance. BTW I hate a squad full of officers and would rather a non UFO different ranking as in the WarCom mod for UFO enemy Unknown. Rookie, Priv 2, Priv 1, Corp 2, corp 1, Sergeant 2 then 1, then 0 (RSM) or lieutenant 2, then the usual officer rank ascent. I remember in TFTD when my whole winning team were Colonels which I thought was a bit of a joke but they were my best so...(yes I had lost a lot of men in that game and finished with near 140 troops IIRC although it could have been just 100 with dismissals if I did do that.

Or more specifically, the v18 beta candidate, dear America... ekhem, I mean dear beta-subscribers and developers. I've downloaded it, played a couple of missions (2? Because the pregenerated crashed ufo reports were upopulated one-turners). There are some things that I need to share with all of you. The things I liked: The look and feel of geoscape. Map instead of globe was a surprise, but a cat is fine too. The base UI is quite nice. It needs some improvements though - I mean, why the hell are all scientists/technicians not added to new project immediately? There should be at least an option/checkbox. The things I didn't like and should be reworked/changed in the final release: Flat maps. Seriously, you really shouldn't do a remake that's actualy worse than the original! Lack of cover on the maps - the maps are flat AND empty. That's a big no-no for a game that gives big defense bonuses for cover and a big aesthetic issue. By no means I want you to do another cover-system-shooter like XCOM:EU - just make it good. As there is no map rotation, the soldiers hidden behind obstacles (Chinook) are invisible. You should at least add some kind of transparency "bubble" for them - classic Fallout style. The battle intreface needs some major rework. Why the hell can I not select "spend all AP on aiming" from the weapon menu? Why there's no running option for soldiers? As it's a turn-only game, there should be an option to let your soldiers move/flank faster - with some drawbacks as decreased accuracy/spot/sight range. The kneeling/prone option should also be independent from movement for ergonomics sake - if I tell my soldier to run from cover to cover, he should automatically stand up, dash, and then go prone behind cover. There's a lots of space on the UI for such switches. The things that I'd suggest: Make ingame vehicles manned - it would be nice to have drivers gain experience and drive/pilot them even better in time. In the original (and the remakes) they're just a cheap Chryssalid baits as soon as your soldiers gain some experience and/or psi skills. Make smaller UFOs more prone to destruction instead of crashing, as new aircraft weapons are developed or at least add (researchable?) option like "aim for the reactor" to interceptor attack menu. I'd rather see severely reduced income/loot from scavenging destroyed wrecks (freelance agents option? letting the country that got crashed UFO share most/some of the loot based on country/x-com diplomacy rating?) than purposely shooting smaller ships into the sea or going through 800-th boring scout mission just to avoid the drop in ratings. I've dropped the UFO: Extraterrestrials after it began spawning massive fleets of ships and my geoscape looked like a face of a 14-year old with severe hormonal problems. Storage space on the transport ship - it should be reasonably weight constrained, but neverthless it's needed there. More to come

First pre-scripted crash UFO site is just a hundred miles out of my first base chinook range Grrrrr!

So while at work I was thinking about Xenonauts and V18, and rather than scatter them around the boards in 3-4 different threads I'll collect them all here for perusal. WARNING: May be rambling. The cross map shooting is problematic. I can understand the reasoning behind it, and its a good change, but depending on how the AI actually calculates hit chances maybe have it decide not to shoot if hit chance is under 5%? Would cut down on the AI using autofire so damn much too, and when it does, it would be much more unpleasant. Would stop the whole "plasma volleys across the map" bastardry, since attrition does not work in the players favour. Progression/escalation. Might look towards spreading it out more? I have no idea if there is actually any difference between the difficulties atm, so this would be for Normal diff, with the higher difficulties increasing wave frequency OR size by say, 20%? So easy would be 20% slower/smaller, Vet at 20% faster/higher and Super at 40% of Nomal. Or maybe mixing them up so the waves come slower in easy, faster in Vet, and faster AND larger in Super. Risk reward plays a part here since having more ships in the higher difficulties would make the game somewhat easier if you can keep up without losses due to all the resources and income from the crash sites. Tangent over, so the first 2 weeks would be Light Scouts, next 2 weeks or month of Scouts with Fighters appearing near the end, then a month or 2 (or 3!) of Corvettes with Heavy Fighters escorting them near the end as well as running their own missions. Why so long with Corvettes? Expansion. This phase would be the meat of the early game where you get the income and resources for getting new bases up and equipping them, not to mention the new interceptors to deal with the Heavy Fighters. Its a kind of 'breather episode' before the spike on Landing Ships. Could have multiple breather zones to let the player get comfortable with the next tier. Dunno, suggestion. Heavy plasma and terror missions would start showing up around the middle of the Corvette era. Problem with this is the tech speed. I was keeping up techwise with only 15 scientists (couldn't build much of it, but cest la vie). Might be a touch fast, especially if the escalation was slowed down. Would need testing, but maybe 50% increase? Resources. Might look at increasing the alloys per ship, since they aren't worth much for sale, so even if it was doubled its not much overall for the early ships. Maybe just 50% increase. Suit of Wolf per Scout? I think that's right, if you include the cash from the alien weapons. And with the extra alloys would let players sell some if they're doing well, as well as outfit a second team, or third if doing well enough. I think the actual income per ship is good, but maybe increase the price point of Alenium to 3 to 5k? Make a bigger point of selling or using. You get a constant trickle of Alenium every mission after the tech is researched. So its a kind of secondary income stream that might bite you in the ass come mid- and end-game.. Not to mention if you really balls up you can dump your alenium (keep typing elerium) stocks for a last gasp. Having more cover on the maps would be nice. But group them up, say like 3 rocks in a little flattened triangle. You could advance from cover site to cover site, but it risks grenade attacks. With lone cover around as well. Dead cows as cover in farm fields? Along with wheelbarrows, packing bins, etc. Would be pretty macabre to have cover for a terror map including a pile of death civvies or a wrecked tank turret. Snowmobiles in tundra, with an inherent risk of explosion. And dead bears I guess. Depends how indiscriminate the aliens are with their killing. Tundra seems about right, but there's a lack of rocks amongst the trees. Good cover overall, but your firing lines could be blocked, and trying to dig an alien out of there would be fun. Fighting among a scattered field of boulders would be good too, if it covers a whole map section. Give assault troops a good, if risky, workout. One of the town maps is a nice example with all the packing crates and stacks of barrels. Aliens don't go in there though. Its the one with the field of cover items to the left of the chinook with the ship to the northwest in a walled enclosure. Burned-out wreck of a car in a street would be nice to see as well. Orchards were great in the first X-com. Lost alot of troopers in there. I nuke them now. What is marked as cover is pretty erratic atm though. Some bushes are cover, some aren't. Cars are cover, but only from inside or something. Had a little splurge of ideas for alien squad behaviour in the V18 balance thread. Caesans use scouts ahead of a squad with rifles (making use of their good eyesight and ranged preference), Sebillians advance as a squad with no scouts, and try to get close (if they had reduced sight range compared to Caesans it would fit, as well as making use of their toughness). Androns move in tiny groups or alone (toughness and heavy weapons). Various terror units support the main troops in their preference (scouts/muscle/support respectively). Got the idea for Caesans from fighting Caesans from a Cruiser. They basically did exactly what I mentioned and it was nasty as heck, especially since most were armed with HP. Frontal assault was a bad idea. If you've made it this far, add your own ideas and opinions on my ideas. Mandibular Fossa!

Today I finished a game. Except, of course, final mission. It was tons of save/loads to workaround CTD situations, inevitable at this stage of development. And still, game is walkthrough-able, interesting and more or less old-good-UFO-like. I researched all available researches. Alas, some branches were closed. I couldn't dissect and/or interrogate reapers - no matter how many I killed or stunned, game didn't send them to lab. I had not used laser weapons: at the moment I had spare workshop and funds to build some, I already had researched plasma. Only planes I used were F17, Chinook, MiG an Corsair - more advanced planes were un-available, due to research tree. Moreover, when I researched EndMission, process of rearmament from Fs to Corsairs was still in progress. Intercepted UFOs and captured crashsites: It's OK with exploding fighters, bombers, interceptors. But StrikeCruiser? Did it supposed to self-destruct too, or it was a bug, or just shortage of luck? I seen (and kill) only 3 of them. Carriers, alas, were unavailable to capture due to a CTD bug. Battleship I seen only once, and it escaped with 73% damage. Many times I re-loaded that day, but it didn't return. Destroiers I didn't see at all. Strange things were in ground combat. Two soldiers hav un-obscured view of an alien - Sniper and Rifleman. Sniper's probability to hit is shown as 95%, Rifleman's - 50% (digits for example). Sniper missed 2 of 3, Rifleman hits 3 of 4. And it wasn't just once - it was more a rule than exception. Something in probability calculation is wrong... There are many other strange things, many of them I reported as a bugs. But - game is over, and game is good. Now I hope, in just a day or two it became - or DEVs (God bless them!) will make it - even better. Next two nights I will sleep more than 5 hours

(Sorry for bad english) I have been watching for ...i don't remember...years?. Anyway, this looked like the definitive X-com game i wanted to play. Then XCOM:EU was released, played it once. Fine game. Yesterday, i bought Xenonauts and downloaded the game. Wow! 18gb took a lot of time on Desura. I started a new game and did my first mission this morning and here are my impressions/suggestions/comments. I did NOT search the forums extensively trying to know if X topic was already discussed blah blah deal with it. 1. This IS X-com, yay! 2. One mission done but it took a lot of turn to encounter Aliens but then, maybe it is because the ship was small. 3. I would like a button to cycle soldiers. 4. A cover system, awesome! 5. Let soldiers use the tank as cover. 6. Have a global TU reservation rule toggle button. 7. I could see mobs through doors? 8. A map please. All i can think of, thanks to everyone working on this game! I can't wait for the release!

Hey guys, Just pre-ordered Xenonauts! The Firaxis remake of X-Com was a huge disappointment for me, riddled with silly bugs and watered down to a 'strategy-Lite' abomination that, thankfully, has failed to sell well. Having played Xenonauts I have to say THANKYOU! for staying true to the genre, and not giving in to the mass market, demographic driven tripe that is now the standard of modern gaming. There are so few good games out there right now (Torchlight 2, FarCry 3 (an ubisoft game no less!) Dishonored) and Xenonauts is right up there with them. I truly hope this game gets the recognition it deserves come release, and your hard work and sleepless nights rewarded. I am a former games industry QA veteran and will lend my skills to this game as often as I can. Sincerely, Tenzo77 (Stu)

Ok, some thoughts about the latest build... 1. Latest version is more stable than the previous one but for one thing: Saves from combat cannot be loaded 2. Interface keeps getting better; I like the combat UI, and on that note: I dread the day when the white backgounds go live. 3. Laser weaponry: Completely useless in current configuration. They do marginally more damage, but are WAY innacurate compared to ballistic weapons (tip to players: Equip the entire squad with sniper rifles and machine guns, and you'll wipe the floor with aliens). Also, the laser weapons cost a lot, and they are destroyed if your squaddie coughs. 4. Annoying new bug / feature: Squaddies can no longer climb over hedges, fences etc. meaning your squad is stopped by a 50 cm hindarance, which is silly. Also, the hedges in the farm tileset is indestructable, which is equally silly. Game forming up nicely, and is addictive as hell, which is how this types of game is supposed to be...

Hi guys, I'm a n00b at XCOM. I usually play RPGs, but also shooters, e.g. Arma series. Personally I hate the debate saying that FPS are braindead software for braindead players. I bought XCOM:EU by Firaxis and enjoyed the tactical map a lot. I like the turn based concept very much. I was aware that the Geoscape has been drastically "streamlined" but so what. For me it was a new and good game. I wasn't missing anything the same like I won't miss a Geoscape in Call of Duty You know what I mean. XCOM:EU brought me to original XCOM and then I heard about Xenonauts. I must say I enjoy it as well. A different game for me, with a very specific mood. And well done except I don't like the comic like soldies. They're kind of flat and 2D, whereas vehicles are painted 3D - inconsistence here. But thats just a minor thing, all in all it's just great fun. Even though I must say I'm beginning to lose my first game in Ironman/normal. "Ironman" which is both in Firaxis and Xenonauts: I must say it's a great option, because later you have no chance to save or return to old saves (except maybe if you manage saves on file system level). Otherwise I know myself, I couldn't resist to load old saves... I wish more games had it... All in all I think gamers often think too black/white. I can enjoy everyting: Just killing players in Multiplayer FPS, or doing micromanagement in Dwarf Fortress, or play chess, or play COD,... just depends on my mood. I am an ENEMY of terms like "COD Kids" etc... It's too over simplistic. I think nowadays we are in a great position of having millions of gorgeous games! And no, old games weren't better per se. Thanks for your time and thanks for Xeno devs for doing a great job! Michael

First I played TFTD as my first tactical squad game and played basically every major title (and not so major too) -JA, JA2, UFO:Aftermath, Brigade E5 ,Silent Storm and so on. XCOM EU is great game but it does have it shortcoming which prompted me to check out this project What I liked : - Art style and most of the splash screens. - strategic layer is close to original and thats better than xcom-eu - air combat has potential to be more interesting with close range/logn range and multifghter squad Needs work: - soldiers portraits are goofy - tactical ui need some work. Particularly hit % hints for all enemies on screen, better reservation for TU(so u dont have to cancel it when u actually shoot) ,auto end turns in crouch, squad numbers and HP/TU bar on top of units and so on - more animation(particularly idle animation and stuff like birds ,rain ,snow etc) and tile variety would surely help in improving overal feel of tactical section Disliked and main reasons I wouldnt be buying game in its present incarnation: - Hidden movement screen and general pace : The game pace is just like original xcom. Its glacially slow and unnecessarily sluggish with the bulk of the time spent passively watching civilians and aliens move , 1 by 1 , without any speed up, interrupted by pointless annoying "hidden movement" screen. There is no reason it shouldn't calculate all the moves in the background and display final result without artificially slowing the game Its 2012 and what was okish in original xcom is just not good today. Tactical part feels awfully inadequate today and is a drag to play. Being the core element of the game it makes or breaks the game I like real-time pause approach (as it is more organic and realistic, brigade -e5 combat is probably best implementation to date) , but even among turn based solution anything is better than what xenonauts has to offer. JA2/Silent storm combat for example are the minimum acceptable standard a new game should strive to achieve. - Those are cover/stealth and vision system, better overwatch/interrupt mechanic, faster turns by AI which do not slow the pace to a crawl. Xcom-EU combat is streamlined and simplified and so it lacks many options but even this is much better than xenonauts (and xcom eu has superior graphics and animation which compensate and mask the relative shallowness)

I recently joined the pre-order club and played the alpha build of Xenonauts, and now I'm posting about my first impressions. The game has a lot of potential and I hope it materializes, but it has a long way to go. Here is a list of comments I jotted down during my first assessment: General Comments - Text is too small - Not enough animation (everything is still pictures) - Clicking sound effect occurs even when clicking on something "unclickable" - It is not immediately obvious that you have to select a resolution smaller than your native resolution before windowed mode will work - Closing windowed mode game could prompt save or auto save - Geoscape clock continues to tick away when focus leaves game window, but sounds stop (audible hint that game is paused, even though it isn't) - Select lists are difficult to see what is selected (especially on personnel screen soldiers list) - Scroll bars are too thin in general. - Scroll bars shouldn't show up at all if not needed. - Buttons are not consistent (construct building button on base tab is huge and spans entire panel vs Hire or Dismiss solider on personnel screen). Interface screen navigation - Might be better to keep navigation menu a fixed set of tabs instead of changing it based on current screen and just disable the tab you're currently on - The geoscape screen should probably just be the first tab instead of a random circle button - When moving between tabs you should first show the tab's background and then slide in the panels over top in an animated way after a second delay and have a sound effect like an air lock door swoosh. This way you feel like you're walking into different rooms of your base and you get to see the cool images before they get covered up. It would be cool if the images were animated, even if just a little to make you feel more immersed. Main Menu - The buttons don't look like buttons - The phrases underneath the buttons seem unnecessary and are too small to read anyways. - It would be cool if the main menu was animated (map in back of room lit up as if tracking aliens, text on back wall scrolling, etc..) - It would be cool if the main menu had sound effects of commanders talking strategy and radar beeping - The scroll bar on game options window is too small and not immediately obvious. - Do not understand the "#####" options at bottom of options screen - Do not understand the Custom Solider List at bottom of options screen - The "Commence Operation" and "Resume Operation" buttons are confusingly displayed as a check boxes - Clicking the "Explanatory Tool Tips" check box does nothing - Iron Man Mode should simply be part of playing Veteran / Insane difficulty; simplify interface and remove check box - Animation when clipboard is moved into view is to fast - There doesn't seem to be a way to get back to original view once clipboard is in place Research - When research is complete it would be nice to display a message like "Research Complete" to give the seemingly random screen context. - When research is complete instead of just a close button there should be a button to allocate scientists to another project - The research complete screen could be jazzed up with some embossed borders; probably need padding around the text panel. Geoscape - Cursor is big and blocky and hard too see if over certain terrain - Tool tips missing (I expect to see explanations pop up over time controls on hover for example) - Key information text is too small and not enough margin on right Base Management - Text is too small - especially hard to see how many of each personnel type. - It isn't clear what number in parenthesis means beside personnel capacity - tool tip should explain this on hover. - Clicking on building should pop tool tip (I'm impatient), or alternatively could pop dialog with info and option to delete - Right clicking to delete isn't obvious. Easier to use interface if absolutely everything can be done with left mouse click. - There is no background image like on other screens... yet? - The command center building looks low resolution compared to other buildings - On the construct building screen there should be a space between the number of days and the word "DAYS" Vehicles - Should this be named "Tanks" or "Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs)" so as not to be confused with Aircraft, which are in fact vehicles as well? Aircraft - Drop ship shows one empty space, but I can't add another solider to drop ship via personnel or soldiers screen. Not clear why. Soldiers - Basic Armour doesn't really look like armor so might be better named "Jeans and collared shirt" - It isn't immediately obvious the solider list is being filtered by assignment. Maybe add "Any" option at top and select that by default? Personnel - Couldn't figure out how to start training on solider Ground Combat - hidden movement / end turn takes too long - There doesn't seem to be a "next solider" button to select the next solider. - The button "TGL RF" appears to toggle the roof, however the tool tip says it shows the soldier's statistics - The map button doesn't do anything - time between when click crouch command and solider begins to crouch is too long and I wonder if I clicked button or not. - The alien sighted icon is shown even after I have solider look away. In the original the icon was only shown when alien in line of sight. Similarly, other soldiers nowhere near the alien with no line of sight get alien sighted icon too, which is linked to same alien, outside line of sight! - Scrolling the screen when in windowed mode is tricky due to small "trigger" area - When I step out of the drop ship on first turn there are a ton of civilians and they're all facing the same direction. They all have an odd posture too. - If I try to shoot an alien with a pistol and I don't have enough AP no shot is fired, but I still hear the pistol fire sound - civilians walk through gate without it opening! - z-order (stacking order) wrong inside house on sofa because it appears my soldiers head is under it when standing below it - It is easy to accidentally click quick reload and it reloads even if it is a waste. Also the tool tip says it costs no extra TU, but it actually does use "AP" - right click to open door and wooden south facing door and no animation occurs/door doesn't open but I can walk through. - during hidden movement screen the cursor was the open door cursor for no apparent reason - civilian jumped bookcase inside house and landed outside house; he just went right through the wall! On the next turn he jumped back through the wall into the house! The tile is a corner tile inside the house with the half-height bookcase on terror map. - When I open eastward facing white door it opens, but is pushed back an entire tile! I can walk through the window in that same building! - I walked through a brick wall beside a dumpster to get inside the storeroom of a grocery store. - There is a NPC solider who is firing at an alien clear across the map that I can't even detect even though I'm farther up the map. How is it that he sees it? Is it because his NPC ally radioed in the location? - jumping the brick wall with flowers hedge animating is bad and solider appears to land on same side he started on! - I shot the tank missile at alien, it missed and hit a car, the car was pushed outside the map area (also the car didn't show any damage despite being hit with missile) - The game lets me shoot at aliens across the map even when there is darkness between the solider and alien (no line of sight due to darkness). - Aliens don't shoot back, they just run so far... - If you click on the quick grenade slot and then change your mind it is hard to cancel (clicking the quick grenade slot again does not cancel, you have to select a different solider and reselect the solider again). - throwing a grenade even one square in front of you only has 30% chance, this seems unreasonable. - Standing face to face with an alien my pistol only has a 36% chance to hit. From this close it should be almost impossible to miss! The range percent should go up quickly as you move further squares, but point-blank range should have accuracy bonus - standing on top of bushes and benches doesn't look quite right. - At the end of the mission the music should change. It just keeps playing the same old track while looking at end of mission stats. The original UFO defense had cool music at this end of mission screen. - Only three aliens in the terror mission

Start new game. Set up a base. Run a couple of missions. Shoot down some aliens. Run into bug in ground mission that forces me to abandon the mission or abandon the game. Repeat. That's been my story so far. Game crashes too much to be able to get past the first terror mission that shows up. So I can play it for about an hour. I can research about 6 techs before I'm forced to abandon the playthrough. Can't submit dump reports because the 'attach' button gave me a 404 last time I clicked on it. This game ain't ready for beta, that's for sure.

Just wanted to post my encouragement for all of you as far as making this game goes. I pre-ordered near the beginning of the year but never made a forum account. I've been monitoring the progress of the game though, and it all looks really great. Thanks for being true to your fans and the basic concepts of the genre, and thanks for making this awesome game.

Wow! This is a BIG improvement over 13.2. I noticed the aliens are least trying to seek cover. They're slightly more aggressive too. No freeze ups when starting ground combat, excellent! I also noticed that ground combat loads faster now. I could be crazy but I think the autofire spread has been reduced to a more reasonable arc, but I won't swear to that one. Air combat missile speed seems to be much faster now. Don't know if I like this. Does give the aliens less chance to shoot back. Will have to play some more. A few small problems I've noticed (all have been reported by others): Combat shield appears to have been removed. Explosions aren't visible. Aliens hide in containers and crates, but I can still tell they are there. Very bad for the poor alien that hid in a cargo container while my entry specialist planted C-4 all around his "hiding" spot. I haven't seen a single civilian on any map. Troops and helicopter sometimes land backwards. Not a big deal but defeats purpose of organizing your exit order. Sometimes you land and after the first turn you win instantly without a shot fired. I like this. I'm assuming all aliens killed on impact. Should be a message stating same though. Suggestions: I still think the suppression model needs to be changed so it is much less predictable. Once alien is pinned down you know you can just walk up and shoot him point blank. Too easy, no tension.

Hello, After not being able to support the Xenonauts kickstarter project in time I recently decided to jump on the pre-order wagon, and I've got to say that even after the very small amount of time I've spent playing the previous Xenonauts alpha build, the game looks very promising. Perhaps it's a bit silly, but what I'm loving the most when it comes to how Xenonauts fares to the original Xcom are small details like soldiers possessing various military and national backgrounds generated (I assume) with them, "mysterious phenomena" reported on the geoscape, or the fact that cities get nuked when left to the whim of alien forces. While I understand that such flavor elements are ultimately secondary or tertiary when it comes to gameplay, they really do make the game world come alive, and compound the sense of danger and mystery. Before I dive deeper into the alpha, I'm curious about the state of current enemy AI during ground combat. When playing the kickstarter demo, and what little I did the previous alpha build some days ago, I had the impression that enemies just kind of... stood in place, waiting to be shot during the early intercept missions I did. Can I count on getting my team of commandos slaughtered from the shadows a few times in the current build, or is that still unlikely? Also, there's no way to upgrade a pre-order to get that future iceland incident novella, is there? Aww well.

Hello all This is not my first time plying Xenonauts so I cant call this my first impressions, however my recent attempt with version 13 is my longest time I have played a single game and the farthest in it I have gotten, so I had some comments to share and a few questions about the game. I wanted to start off by saying that overall I have loved this game. The visuals, sound effects, and music were great. I also love the way you are doing the maps and that you give the map editor to fans. Ground combat feels very well done. There are a few things I would like to see changed but they are minor and the game is not finished so I didn't expect it to play like it is. The only things that I feel are even worth mentioning is that It would be nice if grenades had a indicator for hitting a target before hitting your intended target like bullets do. Air combat also felt fun and interesting. I am sure there is a lot that I have not discovered in terms of tactics and the like it it. It seems to be a much deeper system than X-coms air combat. In the beginning of the game things went really well. Shot down some ufos, did some ground missions, brought back cool stuff for the lab to look at. However after a while i seemed to hit a wall. All of a sudden I could not catch 90% of the ufos that would come, and even if I could there would be no way for me to kill them all. I doubt I am supposed to send 1 f-17 against 3 fighters and that was the only way I could cover all of the ufos on the map. I did have the mig and that could catch up with the fighters, but as I only had one it got destroyed every other battle. Once I get the mig am I supposed to sell off all my other ships to make a fleet of migs? do I need to make tons of hangers and ships so i have a chance at countering them all? Am I not supposed to be able to react to a lot of the ships out there? This game is really good so far and I am very glad it is being made, however my experiences have made me feel like I am either doing something very wrong, or that the game is unbalanced at the moment. Either way I felt I needed to mention this on the forum to either find out what I am doing wrong, or to find out that its not just the way the game is at the moment. Also random other question what do I need to get from a ufo to get to make laser weapons? I researched plasma pistols and rifles and the things that came after it and it seemed like that would lead to lasers, but it just stooped and I ran out of things to research. Sorry for the wall of text. I tried to make it somewhat readable. I hope I succeeded.

I know I'm new to the forum all in all, but I can't help but notice the rapidly accumulating number of new threads on the bugs forum since v13/13.1 has been released. Now I understand that as far as development is planned, the next step is to add the remaining features in alpha v14 and beta v1 but I think that perhaps it would be wiser to start debugging these problems now before proceeding to v14 where the game will become an unbearable (although I think it reached that point already) train wreck of bugs. Just my 2 cents about the current situation post release of v13.

i have been playing the game a lot now since i bought it last night and i don't regret buying it one bit and glad i have. there was one annoying part where i managed to ambush a guy with a shotgun point blank range not even a tile between us i shoot with the shotgun and the alien is still standing... i mean come on i was point blank range and i doubt at the very start of the game aliens have shields and that malarkey and what really fucked me off was i got to a point on my iron man game where i had done a load of missions and and 2 Sgt.s doing well really enjoying the game then the game goes fuck you and just only sent fighters, no scouts or other classes JUST fighters with loads 2 escorts i got this for 30 before i rage quit i mean come on i did not even get a ground mission for 30 minutes and then spent all my money on more planes to combat the fighters, i don't see why i was just getting fighter alien ships all the i mean none stop just them constantly apart from that i love the game and cant wait to see how this turns out im expecting really great things !