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Hi, This is my first post and I'd like to discuss something that has been bugging me about the setting. Basically, Iceland Incident is a single isolated occurrence that has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the game. Sort of like in original UFO:EU, the intro featured a red-armored Muton and a dropship which never appeared in the game. Reading it, I assumed that the explosion was caused by weaponizing the reactor and setting it to auto destruct the ship and the surroundings. I'd like to ask why the aliens do not repeat the incident. I presume they have limitless resources, and even if they don't, aliens should understand the notion of denying the enemy access to their material. If Xenonauts never discover the secrets of how alien reactors work, they can never hope to achieve air superiority or progress beyond Earth orbit, hence they never become a threat. Even if they are arrogant about their capabilities, they should still have the reactors wired to be fail-deadly and if the alien detachment loses combat, the reactor should automatically explode to deny us access to their power source (if they care) or just wipe out the squad that killed them out of spite. I suppose this would be seen as a very annoying kick in the teeth, but at the same time, it would fit the theme much better. In time, you would be able to determine the causes of the explosion and learn how to recognize that it's going to go off (to at least allow you a few minutes to a few hours to evacuate your troops), then how to suppress or even prevent it, but until then, you would be at the mercy of aliens never allowing you victory. Some would probably see it as artificial difficulty, but I never understood the original X-COM games in that aliens never denied you opportunity to gather their artifacts. Whereas by simply blowing up the power core with a single pistol shot would deny you one UFO Power Source and 49 Elerium. Not even on Superhuman difficulty. Same goes for intact ships landing and being assaulted. They should hear an incoming Skyranger, load up in the UFO, take off and shoot down the transport ship. If they had enough time to set up positions before you landed, they would have had more than enough time to get back in the UFO. If some of them couldn't board the ship for whatever reason, leave them outside, after all, they are expendable. After shooting down the X-COM aircraft, land again. Yeah, it would really be a dick move, but it would be far more realistic than just allowing you to take whatever you please. For Xenonauts, I would suggest one of two things: add alien scorched earth tactics or rewrite the Iceland Incident. Maybe explain why they can't repeat it. Still on the topic, it bugged me how easy it was in UFO:EU to blow up the power source (it exploded after being hit with a single pistol shot), and yet how impossible it was to take down a UFO -- one missile explosion near the UFO would have been more than enough, especially if the explosion was nuclear. Which brings me to the topic of Avalanche -- a supposedly nuclear missile. This also bugged me for different reasons -- you shoot down a UFO using six nuclear warheads and then land and soldiers run around in coveralls? This should be a high-radiation zone and even if aliens are very resistant, I don't think they could survive being hit with six nuclear warheads. There's nothing concerning EMP either. I really hope Xenonauts did not go into this nonsense. On a final note, I was surprised about MiG-31 and F-16 being used as basis for human interceptors. I know you wanted to have more-or-less equal representation of USA and USSR in the game, but I would suggest that incorrect aircraft were used and for the wrong reasons. MiG-31 is indeed one of the fastest interceptors ever in active service, which makes it an okay choice for a heavy fighter, but it didn't have enough lifting capability. More on that in a moment. F-16 is (relatively) cheap, first and foremost. But if price is no object, then it's a far less capable fighter than F-15, F-14 or F/A-18 which date from around the same era. F-16XL would have been a more viable competitor against F-15, but as it stands, if Xenonauts are supposed to be equipped with best fighters there are, F-16 would have never been my first choice. French Mirage 4000, which was in development from Mirage 2000, itself a very capable fighter aircraft, and/or Israeli Kfir, were also good candidates for being included. When it comes to a maneuverable fighter, however, I would suggest that MiG-29 would have been a better choice than F-16. Su-27 would have made a nice choice alongside F-15. I guess what bugged me the most about the peculiar choices made by developers is that the aircraft are really much less capable than their counterparts if money is of no object. Another important detail -- their range was much, much worse than comparable aircraft (Su-27 and F-15 have a lot better range than these). However, Americans had their own high-speed interceptors. YF-12 (related to A-12 Oxcart, itself related to SR-71) was a Mach 3+ capable aircraft. SR-71 itself was capable of sustained (this is very important) Mach 3.3 flight and it could carry a payload of 1.6 tons, which is three Phoenix missiles, eighteen Sidewinders, seven Sparrows or ten AMRAAMs. With less fuel onboard, it could probably carry more and it would be a more viable choice for a high-speed interceptor. When it comes to heavy fighters, bombers can be made into them (like the proposed B-1R), which would allow incredible payloads (20 times more than SR-71) and very high range. True, they would have nonexistent maneuverability, but if you wanted to deliver as many missiles as you could to a target, it would be the vehicle of my choice. XB-70 Valkyrie had Mach 3 capability, which would make it a good candidate for a fictional basis for a high speed heavy interceptor. My suggestion would be to increase the number of aircraft you can operate to 4 and change them to: 1. Hypersonic very heavy interceptor (developed from a supersonic bomber). Low survivability would ensure that they are used only when they are really needed. 2. Hypersonic heavy interceptor (developed from SR-71). Better survivability thanks to smaller size, but much less ordnance. 3. Ordinary heavy fighter based on Su-27. 4. Multirole fighter based on F-15 (or Mirage 2000/4000). Good luck on the project, I'll be sure to watch it closely!

As part of the celebrations for reaching our 100% funding on Kickstarter, we've announced a digital novella for all the Premium Preorderers and above (you'll recieve it if you Premium Preordered prior to Kickstarter too). This might be anything from 7,000/8,000 words up to 20,000 words. It might take a few months to arrive, but it'll arrive before the game does. It will tell the story of the Iceland Incident, humanity's first contact with extraterrestrials and the event that led to the foundation of the Xenonauts. It will tell the story of a Russian commander involved in the battle for the crashed UFO. It shouldn't be spoilerific - really it should just set some of the background for the game. It is to be written by Lee Stephen, who is the author of the Epic Universe series of books - they are currently the top selling independent sci-fi series in America. Writing is a very subjective thing, so but Lee has offered to write this for free - if you love what he writes, great! If you don't, fair enough - but it hasn't diverted any funds away from the game. So this can only be a good thing for us. Lee is a huge X-Com fan (hence why he's working for free), and I've pointed him at this thread. Please make him feel welcome and I'm sure he'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Alternatively, if you just want to wait and see what comes out of his brain over the next few months, that'll be fine too!