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So which aliens from Xenonauts 1 got cut?


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It's not completely settled yet, but right now I believe this is correct (maybe I forgot some of the X1 aliens):

  • X1 Caesans >>> X2 Psyons (3 models)
  • X1 Sebillians >>> X2 Sebillians (2 models)
  • X1 Reapers >>> X2 Reapers (2 models)
  • X1 Wraiths >>> X2 Wraiths (1 model)
  • X1 Androns >>> X2 Androns (1 model)
  • X1 Light Drone >>> X2 Gun Drone
  • X1 Heavy Drone >>> X2 Cyberdrone
  • X1 Praetor >>> X2 Mentarch
  • X1 Harridans >>> no equivalent
  • X1 Medium Drone >> no equivalent

The big change is how the ranks / variants work. In X1 the different ranks of the aliens were just colour coded upgrades that did the same as previous versions, but the Psyons had like 8 variants that basically did the same thing with varying degrees of efficiency. In X2 the Psyon Engineers are an entirely different model from the Psyon Soldier, and the Psyon psions looks dramatically different from the others. Potentially we'll have an Elite version of each of them too, where they have better armour and a few visual changes.

I think the answer is that we'll have more distinct aliens overall, but fewer variants that are essentially just palette swaps and thus less total aliens. We're also trying to mix the different variants together, so for example the Sebillian Brutes are larger and tougher but slower and less accurate than the Sebillian Warriors, but you encounter them on the same mission. In X1 all of the Sebillians were allegedly short-range fighters with bad accuracy, which doesn't make a very interesting mix when you fight them on a mission - we're hoping now that each race will have a mixture of weapons and capabilities to make the missions a bit more interesting.

We'll have to see how that plays out in practice though. We're getting close to the point we can playtest this stuff and it's only then that we can say whether our new system is better or worse than we had before, and adjust our plans accordingly.

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19 hours ago, roxxed said:

So Psyons(3 models) means 3 different ranks? Or are there different ranks mixed with the same model?

There was talk a while back about more tentaculat like aliens making it into the game?

aliens.png

So this is a very old image from the project, but you can see the red Psyon on the right is a different model to the black one on the left. The Sebillian in the image is also a lot bulkier than the design from X1, he's the Brute and the old X1 designs are the Warriors.

When I say "2 models" I mean there's two different base models that we can stick different armour arrangements on to create colour / armour variants, whereas in X1 we'd just have a single model for most of the races and then add additional armour to it to produce the higher ranks.

The flying tentacled brain in the Mentarch; my current thinking is that we'll use that to replace the X1 Praetors. There's also a spider / insect alien we've got in the game in X2 I missed from my list, the Mantids.

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Explained perfectly. 

The variation with this system could be so much more rather than the X1 "copy and paste" 8 Caesans running around the battlefield, and then maybe a slight visual change for the ones on the bridge of a ship. The Praetors for eg were only ever found in special locations and I never really got to fight them so in this case there could be a toned down soldier model thats pretty bad ass late game to fight.

I hope to a certain extent see more control strategies in place from the aliens rather than walking aimlessly around the map, like controlling high ground/windows, POI's or moving in groups with mixed ranks, but thats probably more an AI suggestion.

Edit: Also regarding the different alien ranks eg soldier, technician, navigator, commander etc it would be cool to see more less obvious research options come from them as you wouldn't initially think to prioritize it on the list. Running into the ships bridge or an alien control room to capture an alien was pretty obvious. The Deep One from TFTD was only found on land terror missions and you had to capture him alive to gain the aqua armour for your troops and unlock an entire chain of armour research. When I first played it I never would of though of this as he was a common alien to find in these particular missions and had his own unique rank unfamiliar to other aliens.

Edited by roxxed
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12 hours ago, Decius said:

What I'm seeing in that image is that the smallest alien is about the size of an adult human. Any plans/ideas for something smaller than a human?

That's a camera perspective thing, the little Psyons are only chest height and the Mantids are relatively small as well. There's actually a Size modifier in the code that means smaller aliens like the little Psyons or the Gun Drones are harder to hit, whereas you get an Accuracy bonus against the big Sebillians etc. This again should hopefully make the experience of fighting the different races more different.

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On 4/8/2019 at 6:36 PM, Chris said:

That's a camera perspective thing, the little Psyons are only chest height and the Mantids are relatively small as well. There's actually a Size modifier in the code that means smaller aliens like the little Psyons or the Gun Drones are harder to hit, whereas you get an Accuracy bonus against the big Sebillians etc. This again should hopefully make the experience of fighting the different races more different.

Wow, nice feature!

Just please no poppers - the li'l kamikaze bastards game me the lilies quite enough times in UFO-3 :D

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On 4/12/2019 at 12:00 AM, Blade said:

Wow, nice feature!

Just please no poppers - the li'l kamikaze bastards game me the lilies quite enough times in UFO-3 :D

The real problem I had with the poppers was that they forced a degenerate tactic of handling the crash sites; anyone you send in right away is gonna die to poppers, so you have to camp the door for long time.

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