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Xenonauts-2 Closed Beta Build V2 Released!


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Today we're releasing an update to the Closed Beta builds that launched at the end of last year. V2 includes a number of new features and rather a lot of bugfixes, but is still primarily intended for testing purposes. If all goes well we'll start thinking about gameplay and game balance in the next major release, the V3 builds.

Please note the closed beta is only open to Kickstarter backers who have backed the game at the £25+ tiers. If you're not one of those backers, you'll have to wait until the game launches into Early Access - currently planned for March. If you'd like notification about the game when it launches, you can do one of the following:

Finally, please don't stream this build - the game is not yet ready to be shown to the public, and even if your viewers were impressed by what they see they couldn't buy the game. You'll be able to stream without any restrictions once we reach Early Access!

We've been working on a lot of things over the past four weeks, so I'll give a high-level overview of the key changes first and then include the full changes below!

  • Save Game Incompatibility: It's no longer possible to load save games from older versions of Xenonauts-2, as this tends to cause bugs.
  • Gameplay Time Extension: this build allows you to play for 20 days before it expires, whereas the previous build only allowed 7 days.
  • Dockyard "Raid" Mission: the first Geoscape activity in the game is now a ground mission called a Raid, which is a little like a small Terror Site. These currently all take place in our new Dockyard sub-biome, which is a much denser and industrial environment than the crash site maps. The aliens on these missions are relatively lightly equipped and use a new weapon called the Alien Magnetic Rifle, which inflicts Kinetic damage.
  • Radar Capacity & Uplink: there's a new base structure called the Radar Uplink which grants you 1 Radar Capacity for each Engineer assigned (you start with one in your base). The radars in your Geoscape Airbases are now toggles that you can freely flick on and off, but each Radar requires one Radar Capacity to activate. Note that not all UFOs require radar to detect - e.g. the new early-game Mimic UFOs does not.
  • DEFCON Counter: the early stages of the game now revolve around the DEFCON counter, and if it ever falls to zero the player loses the game. The Raids and the Mimic UFOs (see below) inflict DEFCON damage rather than damaging the Relations of the region; as the game progresses the aliens will move towards more open warfare with humanity and the DEFCON counter will be discarded.
  • Research Tree: the framework of the early game research tree has been added, with quick notes for what each project is intended to communicate (the text and art isn't ready yet).
  • Armory Loadouts & Improvements: the Armory was lacking a number of features relative to the equivalent screen in the first Xenonauts, and we spent quite some time adding them back in this cycle. The loadout system is now functional, the relevant ammo is now displayed next to weapons in the stores, you can use right-click to fast-equip items, the drag-to-reload functionality has been added, etc. Just makes the screen much easier to interact with.
  • Aircraft Weapons & Upgrades: this system is just a prelude to our planned overhaul of air combat in the next build, but you can now swap out the weapons on your aircraft. There is also an "upgrade" slot that allows you to equip a single item that specialises your interceptor in some regard - longer range, increased HP, greater speed. This stuff is largely placeholder but please still give it a quick test.
  • New Music / Sound Effects: we've added the first draft of some new music and weapon sounds to the game, hope you like them!

I'm pretty pleased with our recent progress and there's a lot of new stuff in the build, but this build is a stepping stone towards Build V3 where we start to emphasize the gameplay - so we've added a bunch of new content but not really worried too much about balancing it. I'd certainly recommend playing one of the new Dockyard missions; they're quite large maps with limited vision so I find them good fun!

CHANGELOG:

General:

  • Save games are now incompatible with different versions of the game. This prevents people from loading up saves in the wrong version and experiencing bugs that can't be fixed and don't affect anyone else.
  • The first draft of the new music has been added.

Geoscape:

  • The concept of Radar Capacity now exists and is generated by assigning Engineers to the Radar Uplink building in your base. Radars on your Geoscape airbases can be toggled on and off by clicking on them, but each active Radar consumes 1 Radar Capacity.
  • A new Mimic UFO spawns in the early game. It flies around inflicting DEFCON damage, but it does not require Radar coverage to detect and never generates a crash site.
  • UFO pathing has been updated so UFOs can now leave their spawn region, which prevents them bouncing around quite so much as they did before.
  • Resource generation (research, workshop, building construction, etc) now progresses every 1 hour instead of every 8 hours as previous.
  • The skeleton of a research tree has been added, with notes that explain what each research project is intended to communicate.
  • Combat Armour is now a researched item rather than a starting item.
  • Pressing Spacebar on the Geoscape a second time now returns the flow of time to its original speed.
  • UFOs that do not create crash sites now grant their "cargo" items (e.g. datacores) when shot down
  • If a UFO is "deterred" (badly damaged but not destroyed), it now correctly disappears from the Geoscape without generating a crash site.
  • Regional Relations and Infiltration is now a value out of 100 instead of 10, which allows more fine balancing.
  • UFOs should now correctly interrupt time when they spawn, even on the fastest speed settings.
  • Bugfix - fixed a crash where you would get two "initiate combat" pop-ups when your interceptors attacked a UFO
  • Bugfix - the Geoscape no longer wraps vertically.
  • Bugfix - the move path on the Geoscape now wraps correctly over the edge of the map.
  • Bugfix - when placing a Geoscape base, preview circles now wrap around the edge of the map
  • Bugfix - aircraft will no longer attempt to fly the long way to a target rather than fly across the edge of the map.

Armory:

  • The role / loadout system is available. This allows you to save and quickly equip troops with present equipment loadouts.
  • Weapons now display their ammo next to their tile in the Armory, rather than in the "Belt" tab
  • Right clicking on an item in the Armory panel will now "fast-equip" it, placing it in the best available position.
  • Switching a soldier to a new Primary weapon will delete all the ammo for the old weapon and replace it with the default ammo for the new weapon (if possible)
  • Multi-tile objects no longer snap to the wrong cursor position when you click and drag them
  • Dragging a clip anywhere on a weapon tile will now load that clip into the weapon - previously you needed to drag the ammo onto a specific part of the tile, but we've got rid of this now (this also works in the GC to allow you to manually reload your guns).
  • Secondary items can now offer bonuses to soldier Resistances, allowings items like a Rebreather or a Mind Shield that protect against specific types of damage.
  • Female soldiers no longer have male bodies and now have slightly different body art.
  • Bugfix - unlimited items in the Armory no longer lose their infinity symbol when you move one

Air Combat:

  • The "retreat zone" is now functional. Aircraft are removed from combat if they end their turn in the retreat zone.
  • You can update the weapon loadout of your aircraft in the new Aircraft screen.
  • All interceptors now possess an Upgrade slot that allows you to choose a single item to specialise your aircraft (currently fuel tank, afterburner, or additional armour).

Ground Combat:

  • The Raid ground combat mission is now available, currently only using the new Dockyard biome.
  • The "show Fog of War" mode is now on by default, but you can toggle it off by clicking the eye icon in the ground combat UI.
  • If a unit takes damage during the enemy turn, it will now rotate towards the shooter (this does not cost TU). This is a mechanic from the old X-Com, so if you shoot an alien in the back and don't kill it, your soldier may face reaction fire in response!
  • Civilians should now be appearing at crash sites and on Raids, although they are not yet biome-specific in terms of appearance.
  • In the ground combat, if a unit does not have enough TU to complete the full rotation you have ordered it to perform, it will turn as far as it can instead of just not turning at all.
  • The game will prevent you from attempting to heal a soldier that is at full HP / stun HP with a Medikit, preventing you wasting TU.
  • A notification now appears if you order a unit to perform a task that it does not have enough TU to perform
  • Grenades now support being set to explode at the end of the turn, although we've not yet updated the frag grenades to do so.
  • The roof auto-hide mechanics should now work better, specifically on UFOs - the roof should not hide unless you have revealed at least one of the interior tiles within the building / UFO.
  • Some new weapon fire sounds for the advanced / alien weapons have been added.
  • Bugfix - UFO take-and-hold mechanics should now function correctly, winning you the mission after 5 turns.
  • Bugfix - stunning an alien no longer creates two stunned body items.
  • Bugfix - smoke is no longer hidden by the camera system if any smoke exists on a camera level not currently being viewed
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I recorded a video and made it unlisted so only people clicking through this forum can access it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ihLVf0HItM

 

(timestamps are also in the youtube video, so you can jump right to the bug there)

 

0:52 still possible to cancel first base

1:28 hangar still highlight and clickable only left half

4:10 really unintuitive that clicking the Armory button does not return to the “aircraft screen”

5:50 at first glance no roles displayed is a little confusing

6:15 if I choose the “secondary tab”, then I return to the Armory “aircraft screen”, and then back to soldier equipment screen, both the “primary” and “secondary” tabs are highlighted. (same problem for belt etc.)

8:00 renaming soldiers the cursor is a little off position, writing corrects the position

8:23 during name writing the text position changes slightly in height

8:50 no aircraft displayed (probably because I canceled the first base)

9:45 the dots in message screen are different length in each row

10:10 “launch aircraft” button has a UFO picture although the target is just a waypoint. No interceptors are shown (probably because I canceled the first base)

10:30 day and night zones should be a bit more differentiated in darkness in my opinion

12:00 not showing TUs left at the end of movement is a major usability problem

13:20 I really miss the click and drag battlefield scrolling

16:40 I really hate the Hidden movement picture obstructing the screen. The Alien tur on top is enough

20:35 saving on ground combat does not work

22:35 probably the wrong “ufo door” sound playing

23:45 cursor not visible behind obstacle

33:53 there should be some feedback like “game saved successfully”

36:20 no instructions how to control the air combat, at least some button should be displayed

36:58 after not shooting down the UFO, I cannot click the squadron an tell it to fly home, olny the UFO is clickable

37:15 scroll wheel zooming was not fluid

 

other info: 4K monitor, Threadripper 1950X 4GHz, OBS loads cca 30-40% of GPU

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Yep It´s a very good new Version after the first Buildup. Now you test much more which is very very good. Much more fun to test then the first Buildup after the Game is now increased in Playtime.

And one word to the Main Base: Let it in the new Buildups. The Player / Tester has to use it´s eyes and brain where the Fighter-Base he / she had buildup. You can see it in differnt Colors too.

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Excited to play this!

 

Unfortunately, it seems that Overwatch feature still doesn't work, same as in previous builds :(.

It only works if I deliberately stop moving soldiers with enough TU for the shot. But if I try to move a soldier a bit further, it doesn't prevent the movement.

Edited by Mirritil
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I got some random crashes usually when mission completes.

Weirdly, I can't throw grenades over low bushes - they give 100% barrier against grenades.

Also, I can't shoot from the cover of the wall, esp. in the entrance to the UFO. E.g. I stand next to the door (to use the cover), open the door with the same soldier, I see aliens inside, but can't shoot them - 100% block because of the wall.

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