Megajoel Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 First, congratulations to the team for making such an awesome game. I've been playing since Xenonauts came to steam and have watched the game grow to what it is today, in addition to lurking on the forums. I liked several of the changes streamlining various aspects of the game (no more hassle of building individual rockets / clips, not having to grind through too many ufo missions for alien materials, air combat autoresolve, wraiths shooting immediately after teleporting, torpedos running out of fuel before hitting ufo's). I've enjoyed the game immensely since the latest release and just captured a ***spoiler*** praetor. Having said that, I have some gripes. 1) The aliens seem to have omnipotent vision, always knowing where your guys are. While I understand that might be needed because the alternative would result in too dumb / too difficult to code AI, it does result in several rather unfair moments. Case 1: My guys are unspotted, with the aliens on the other side of a hedgerow / high wall / trees. A grenade flies over and lands perfectly on someone's lap. Case 2: Reapers wait behind LOS blockers and make a run for your guys only once they are in attack range. Other aliens camp and only come round the corner to open fire when close enough to deal good damage. Case 3: Aliens reposition according to the closest soldiers, even those behind LOS blockers. 2) Another related point is that there is nothing a player can do against psionics. It feels cheap to have a Xenonaut randomly panic and go berserk and gun down his buddies near to him. Doesn't help that the morale bonus needs a proximity of 10 tiles. 3) As mentioned elsewhere, weapons feel too similar in terms of functionality across tiers. Sentinel armour providing 360 vision and Predator armour making strength a non-issue are examples of nice functionality additions to late game stuff. 4) Grenade throwing is a crap shoot. Soldiers often chuck the grenade directly into the prop right in front of them, with it landing directly on their toes. This probably can't be helped due to the engine I guess. Other that the above I have no other major gripes. Hats off to Chris and the team. Congratulations on the apparent success the game has achieved. Thank you for your passion and dedication in creating this game, and all the best in your next project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinHann Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I think the 10 tiles proximity bonus was disabled at some point so that doesn't really help anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gijs-Jan Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 All the AI issues you mentioned (except for Reapers, if you let other AI units spot you) have been fixed for quite some while ago; and this is the first in quite some time that I've heard them mentioned again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megajoel Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 @kevin: Well that tip is still in the loading screen hints. @Gijs: It's happened a few times in my current playthrough on the current version. To elaborate more what seems to happen very often is that aliens tend to wait behind LOS blockers and camp there. Only when someone approaches do they pop out to give my guys a burst to the face. Out of curiousity what was the solution applied? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gijs-Jan Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 You need to view the combat scenario from the AI perspective; its units are spread out around the map and it has vision on most tiles. Previously this lead to almost omnipotence; as the AI could with some clever statistics just figure out where you were. However it can still easily deduce which tiles will probably be dangerous and not just blindly run into them. There is extra aggressivity the moment you approach to counter this; but the AI doesn't have perfect information on where you are located. So if you position yourself correctly you will be able to "outsmart" it. As it's not fun to have your units grenaded from the other side of a wall; this was removed & dumbed down. I'm almost positively sure that the situation you described where you were grenaded from the other wall cannot happen in the current build. The AI is severely hampered with regards to grenade behavior; and will only use a grenade on a single unit in a very specific situation. (I'll let you figure out which one) As for using grenades on groups; please keep in mind that the LOS is a bit wonky sometimes and if an errant AI unit spots your group from across the wall; or through Psionics; all bets are off and you will get a grenade to the face. As for the popping out / remaining hidden; the aggressivity varies severely per the race. Would you expect the AI then to just run towards you out in the open? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megajoel Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 @Gijs: Thank you for your patience response. I was sure my units were not spotted the odinary way, but perhaps they were through psionics. I'll take your word for it. If i come across the above mentioned behaviour again I'll be happy to provide the savegame. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gijs-Jan Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 A bug is always an option; so send it my way the moment it happens again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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