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Thoughts for the game thus-far


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-*Remove* The Quick Reload Slot, there is no reason for it; if a player wants they could empty their soldier's weapon, move that magazine to the ground space (costing their soldier NO Time Units), select a magazine from the soldier's inventory to load into their weapon, and in the end it has the same results as the Quick Reload Slot with the added benefits of NOT LOSING the magazine that was in the weapon to start with and to load another magazine of the PLAYER's CHOOSING; it will also simplify in solving one of the bugs in the game, my other post explaining the bug can be found here in my other post: (Reloading weapons in Ground Combat bugs/ http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13555-Reloading-weapons-in-Ground-Combat-bugs)

-*Remove* the "Snapping" feature when the mouse cursor to objects when a soldier is being ordered to attack (shoot, throw grenade, etc.) something (to the enemy ship, to the player's transport, an object on the field, the alien craft door, etc.), let any tile on the map be target-able (only if the tile cannot be attacked for any reason is a player not able to attack that tile, not because the game wouldn't simply let the player attack there)

-Make a separate class edit menu; this is the (only) place classes can be created, renamed, edited (loadout wise), and deleted; this will help make sure classes are not altered by mistake when assigning them to soldiers

*Add a cancel button to when creating a new class

*Add a delete class option

-When a weapon/item/grenade/armor/soldier stat is being hovered over let their description be shown (a rule of thumb to followed that can help for most cases, if hovering over a weapon/item/grenade/armor/soldier stat shows their name it should also show everything else about, not JUST its name)

[*In Ground Combat let the descriptions of weapons and items be shown when hovered over with the mouse cursor while looking through a soldiers inventory

[*In Ground Combat descriptions of a grenade are shown when INSIDE the quick grenade slot, otherwise the quick grenade slot remains the same only showing the description of the slot itself

[*In Ground Combat at the bottom panel where it shows the weapons/items a soldier is currently holding let their descriptions be shown when hovered over with the mouse cursor

[*In Ground Combat when in a soldier's inventory, if the player hovers over the soldier's stats let the description of the stat being hovered over be shown

[*In the Base when changing the loadout of aircraft or a soldier's weapon or armor let the description of the weapon/armor be shown

-Add to the Xenopedia:

*A 'Geoscope' tab which explains how the Geoscope works and how to work it

*A 'Ground Combat' tab which explains to players how to work Ground Combat altogether; adding to this tab a 'Time Unit' cost chart to show the cost of:

-Opening/closing a door

-Turning (how much cost per 1 turn (degree))

-Moving (to an adjacent tile connected by its side versus to a diagonal tile)

-Croughing/Un-croughing

-Vaulting low-barriers

-Inventory management (between weapons slots, backpack, belt, ground, and to other soldiers)

-etc.

-Magazines should NOT be equip-able to a soldier's weapon slot, it makes no sense/reason to be able to do so

-Moving a weapon/item/grenade FROM a soldier's BELT TO that soldier's Backpack/Weapon slot should be HALF the Time Units it costs to move a weapon/item/grenade FROM a soldier's BACKPACK TO that soldier's Belt/Weapon slot, and moving a weapon/item/grenade FROM a soldier's WEAPON slot TO that soldier's Belt/Backpack should a THIRD of what it costs in Time Units to move weapon/item/grenade FROM a soldiers BACKPACK; this will REALLY make it more beneficial to have weapon/item/grenade on a soldier's belt rather than in their backpack

-Unloading then reloading/ reloading then unloading a soldier's weapon should NOT cost any Time Units as it does not cost any Time Units to move a weapon/item/grenade and then to move it back to where it was before; a rule of thumb should be that undoing ANY action (as if nothing happened) in a soldier's inventory should not cost any Time Units for that soldier

-In Ground Combat rework how a soldier's inventory looks to include:

*Adding that soldier's class name next to their class emblem

*Adding what armor that soldier has equipped

*Make it so that a 'Accept' & 'Cancel' option is given to a player to select, this is to REPLACE the current 'Close' button that is only given; this is to help players quickly close a soldier's inventory without needing to undo any changes the player may have made in that soldier's inventory and does not want the changes to save

**A crude edited JPEG has been attached to show what a soldier's inventory should more or less look like; OF COURSE, it goes without saying, that the actual rework of a soldier's inventory should be redone by someone who has an understanding and ability to remake the art in this game's regard!**

Xenonauts (redone) Inventory.jpg

-In Ground Combat when hovering the mouse cursor over the soldier's portrait it should show the soldiers background info (i.e. age, nationality, previous regiment, combat experience, kills, missions, and any other information along those lines)

-In Ground Combat, on the bottom panel, a soldier's class (class name & emblem) should be shown, maybe somewhere near (OR even on) the soldier's portrait

-For aircraft in the Geoscope make it so aircraft that have already launched can be made into squadrons (if other aircraft are near-by)/ separate from a squadron (granted they are in one to begin with); this will help players in UFO engagements by having more aircraft available per engagement/ retreat certain aircraft (because they are low on fuel/health/ammo, or any other reason) without needing to send the whole squadron back, respectively

-When in Air Combat, let there be a clickable option for an aircraft to either evade left or right; this option is already available via hotkey but is NOT available for the player to click; this is useful if the player is a non-hotkey type of player, why not give them the option to play as they want in this regard?

-In Ground Combat show an image of a magazine on the ground if there is a magazine(s) on that ground tile; currently there is an image of a weapon/item/grenade if they are on the ground, but not a magazine; this makes it difficult for players to pick-up dropped magazines if they don't remember exactly where they had their soldier drop it

-In Ground Combat let soldiers be able to trade weapons/items/grenades with other soldiers, how this works is that the player selects a soldier they want to have trade and then the player (can ONLY) select another soldier that is in an ADJESTANT tile (diagonal tiles count), a screen then pops up that shows the inventory (as it currently does WITHOUT the ground portion) of the first soldier (the soldier that was selected first) on the left and the inventory of the second soldier (as it currently does) on the right so that the inventory of the second soldier replaces the ground portion that would normally show in a soldier's inventory; from here TWO soldiers (ONLY) at a time can trade weapons/items/grenades one or the other may have with each other, BE SURE to add a neutral space to the bottom of the trade screen that can hold ALL the weapons/items/grenades BOTH soldiers can carry so that when soldiers are trading there isn't a conflict because one or both do not have free space to make the trade but do have space to hold the weapon/item/grenade though (total space=[(backpack:25+belt:8+largest weapon shield:~21+secondary to shield:6)*2]=120 tiles), the player can NOT click accept on a trade if there are ANY weapons/items/grenades left in the neutral space (the player would need to either change the trade to fit all weapons/items/grenades into both soldier's inventory, cancel the trade and drop some weapons/items/grenades, or just cancel the trade altogether), the reason a trade cannot be completed if there is a weapon(s)/item(s)/grenade(s) in the neutral space rather than allowing a trade to be completed and all weapon(s)/item(s)/grenade(s) left in the neutral space are just dropped on the ground of the first soldier is to ensure that nothing is accidentally overlooked by the player and ending up being a problem for the player in anyway; the reason for a trade feature altogether is so the player does not need to waste time/ the Time Units of soldiers by having them drop their weapon(s)/item(s)/grenade(s), moving that soldier, moving another soldier onto that same tile, picking up the weapon(s)/item(s)/grenade(s) on that tile, and then maybe redoing the process if the player wants that soldier to drop weapon(s)/item(s)/grenade(s) for the first soldier; when a trade occurs ONLY the first soldier needs to face the second soldier; the cost of a trade can be the same as when a soldier is giving/taking from the ground, soldier giving directly to the other soldier's inventory or to the neutral space costs nothing, but a soldier receiving from the other soldier directly or from the neutral space costs as much if taking from the ground depending where the weapon(s)/item(s)/grenade(s) goes (either to that soldier's backpack, belt, or weapon slot(s)), Time Unit costs are calculated for EACH soldier respectively according to what they give/take

Xenonauts (redone) Inventory.jpg

577e7d57e9b06_Xenonauts(redone)Inventory

Edited by Danny J
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This post contains my thoughts on the game, both big and small, I have thus far. Please feel free to remark and suggest any revision inputs of your own on anything posted, and even new ideas if you feel like it should be heard and discussed here! I hope to have these ideas discussed so that they may be implemented in a future patch(es)! The developers are more than free to use any to all these ideas at their own discretion, and change any ideas around as they deem fit! If an idea is not understood, or is felt to need more elaborating please ask in detail what you would like clarified. My Steam profile name is Commander 6, my Steam Username is highcommand82, and my actual name is Danny Jundi. Hope you enjoy!

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I hate to break it to you, but feature development was complete on Xenonauts a long term ago.

Thanks, it's nice to know that the Community Edition apparently hasn't done a single thing in the last 18 months.

As for the list, some of these have been fixed/implemented in the Community Edition, some are in the (long) todo list, some do not make much sense (quick reload removal because of a bug since it's "not needed", while asking for UI buttons just because a player possibly couldn't be bothered to hit a key for more precise control), and some are very low priority so that they would never be likely to get done.

Also, e.g. the Xenopedia articles can be easily done as a mod (assets/xenopedia.xml and assets/xenopediaimages), and there's http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10965-Community-Coder-Program! if anyone would feel like actually trying to do something about the features (so, as far as that "done by a professional" thing goes, you're indeed late if you insist on giving somebody money for this).

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If you're not aware of it already, you can either click the weapon or hold Ctrl to open up free-fire mode.

But yes, the game was released in 2014 and we've since moved on to developing new games. The community coders have continued developing the game with Xenonauts: Community Edition: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11882-What-is-Xenonauts-Community-Edition-how-do-I-get-it

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Except if magazines could be thrown at another soldier (or whatever cell at range). I'd rather have this feature implemented.

Seems like a neat idea, if not done for this game in particular, it would still definitely be awesome to have an option to play out a "...last mag, make it count..." kind of scenario in a tactical game!

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I hate to break it to you, but feature development was complete on Xenonauts a long term ago. The devs have moved on to other projects.

It never hurts to share ideas never-the-less! As it has been said, development of new games perhaps might be on the horizon for this development team for another tactical game; as so, it could be possible that some of these ideas can be implemented into that game (given how the games might be similar in nature; both tactical games)!

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Thanks, it's nice to know that the Community Edition apparently hasn't done a single thing in the last 18 months.

As for the list, some of these have been fixed/implemented in the Community Edition, some are in the (long) todo list, some do not make much sense (quick reload removal because of a bug since it's "not needed", while asking for UI buttons just because a player possibly couldn't be bothered to hit a key for more precise control), and some are very low priority so that they would never be likely to get done.

Also, e.g. the Xenopedia articles can be easily done as a mod (assets/xenopedia.xml and assets/xenopediaimages), and there's http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10965-Community-Coder-Program! if anyone would feel like actually trying to do something about the features (so, as far as that "done by a professional" thing goes, you're indeed late if you insist on giving somebody money for this).

I do insist you check out the post I made about the bug I have came across in my play through of the game thus-far http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/13555-Reloading-weapons-in-Ground-Combat-bugs, and also to read the rest of that removal point in this post so it might make more sense if you haven't already. The bug post summarized states that there is a bug where players can exploit the 'Quick Reload Slot' feature provided in the game where a player as a result can have their soldiers generate INFINITE ammo for themselves. The post point here does explain why the feature is "not needed" in that when the feature is used the rest of a weapon's magazine is forever LOST and there is no choose in what magazine is used (whether it be a half full one, a three-quarters full one, a completely full one, etc.); where otherwise the player can bypass the 'Quick Reload Slot' by manually reloading their soldier's weapon and retain the magazine that is in the weapon for future use while ALSO choosing which magazine is required depending on the situation at that moment.

In regards to the UI addition of separate evade direction buttons for Air Combat, I personally always use hotkeys whenever playing a Real Time Tactical game, but there are players that do use the buttons on the UI of RTTs only. It would be accommodating to those players to implement keys that DO have impact on their input into the game (its the difference between a successful clean evade or doom), even if the accommodation can be seen as a small one!

For the thoughts made in this post, it could POSSIBLY be that some of the features requested in this post could be integrated into the (long) to-do-list for the Community Edition, even if it means being at the very bottom of that list!

In regards to the UI art remake request, I am not sure how coding works quite yet (as I have not reached that course in my Game Design studies yet!), but if I were to make a blind guess, couldn't someone working on the Community Edition be able to do art for the UI in the game (again asking)!? When I said that the work should "be redone by a professional", I meant to say "it should be redone by someone who has an understanding and ability to make art in this game's regard" (so ANY one willing & able to do the art work, a.k.a. not me (at the moment!) for I do not have alot of experience/talent in art work yet, should be sought after) (sorry about the miscommunication)!

Edited by Danny J
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If you're not aware of it already, you can either click the weapon or hold Ctrl to open up free-fire mode.

But yes, the game was released in 2014 and we've since moved on to developing new games. The community coders have continued developing the game with Xenonauts: Community Edition: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/11882-What-is-Xenonauts-Community-Edition-how-do-I-get-it

Unfortunately I am not sure if the free-fire mode response was meant for me or for a responder to this post (and what the answer altogether was posed to respond to), but regardless, I am personally aware of the free-fire mode feature and have used it many times in my play-through before!

I do wish I was quicker to pick up this game (Xenonauts) and to give my feedback then, but I do hope that some of the thoughts I've made for this game (Xenonauts) could be translated into your next project and hope it serves to be of use to any extent by then!

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I have zero coding knowledge, so I wouldn't really be able to help.

I didn't say anything about coding, did I? There's a number of things I do for X:CE that involve graphics, mapping, fixing game objects and other stuff that would be nice to get done by somebody, and since there's nobody else to do those apparently, I end up being that somebody to do it, even though I'd much rather spend the time coding.

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E.g. for creating new maps (or submaps) I do not think you need to commit much, it'll be done when it'll be done. And you can consider it a sort of SimCity-like game :). Or if you'd prefer doing graphics, there's e.g. the hulls of damaged UFOs, where it'd be nice to have more variations rather than a damaged lightscout always having holes in the same place. And so on.

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