General V8+ Suggestions for improvement.

[RotGtIE]

Just watched a video of 8.2 gameplay on youtube (

) and I got a couple of thoughts from it.

The shotguns look like they fire single projectiles. Are shotguns going to be firing slugs as their default or only ammo option, or are there plans to change shots from the shotgun to a more familiar cluster of shot?

I noted the hands of a soldier had to be free to throw a grenade. What about just throwing a grenade from the belt without fussing about in a soldier's inventory? The need to swap out a gun and the time unit cost were both major contributing factors in my very minimal use of grenades in X-Com, and I'd hate to see the same sort of fate befall grenades in Xenonauts for a similar reason.

Two sounds jumped out at me: the fire and the human death groan. The fire jumps out as being a little too...I dunno, sharp. Poppy. It's like rice krispies in milk. I think maybe a little bit of a duller burning sound effect might be in order. The human death groan has the opposite problem, I think. It's too dull - not really painful enough. The aliens shriek and scream beautifully, but the humans sound like my uncle snoring when they die. They sound more tired than in pain.

After another look-over, a third sound issue occurred to me - the grenade itself. Kind of an underwhelming sound effect for the explosion, a little too soft for something that should have a more sharp bang like a handheld explosive. The alien screams its death cry just a moment before the sound of the explosion is played, and the former almost completely drowns out the latter. Probably should be hearing the bang before the scream.

And finally, a concern about the enemy AI. I understand there's an AI for civilians that assigns threat values to areas where there are known combatants, and that drives civilians to run and hide in a believable fashion. But most of the aliens in this video don't look like they ever moved very far from their spawn locations, and one of the ones that did simply busted out of the door of a building and ran out into the middle of a street before turning around to find that he had run clear past a xenonaut. Only the ones who stayed put in their spawn point at a good chokepoint location presented much of a danger.

Is the enemy AI using a similar threat assessment as civilians to determine where known or possible danger may be before they make their moves? Is the alien AI going to try to coordinate their actions or otherwise act in a organized fashion? Or at least take a glance both ways after going through a door or around a corner so they don't blindly walk past any xenonauts that might be stacked up on a wall opposite them? I feel like the first thing the aliens should be trying to do is regroup, set up a defensive perimeter centered around a primary spawn location or strategic objective (like their ship), and then start scouting and hunting for xenonauts, attempting to "clear" a map of possible or known enemy presence section-by-section the same way players do.

[Chris]

No, the alien AI is currently as thick as a brick sandwich because it's not had any AI coding. It's0 something we're looking at rectifying at the moment.

The SFX etc are more something we'll polish up in the beta, or shift them around so they're more appropriate. They serve their purpose right now, although I admit they're probably not polished enough for the final game yet.

For the grenades, yes, lots of people have commented on how they'd like to throw them from their belt and we'll look at that when we put together the new ground combat GUI.

[Sathra]

The shotguns will only fire single-projectiles. They get replaced in later tiers by Carbines. Technically, the shotgun should be a SMG to avoid the confusion, but...c'mon, its shooting alien in the face with a shotgun. What's not to love about that?

[RotGtIE]

I always thought humanity as a whole reserved its shotguns for anti-zombie duty.

So the shotgun slugs are an intentional design decision? Because I really like how the bursts are fired from automatic weapons and I think a burst with closer intervals would do well in simulating the spread or shot effect of a typical shotgun shell, and that would make the shotgun more reliable in close quarters as it seems that's what it's supposed to be. Maybe you guys have a system whereby every shot in a burst consumes a bullet and that obviously wouldn't work for the shotgun shells. It would be kind of immersion-breaking to simply have a shotgun show the number of "projectiles" rather than "shells" in it and always be in burst mode, but would it be possible to "hide" the true ammo value of shotgun shells so that what the player sees in the GUI is the number of "shells" in a shotgun but have the game use the "true" value of how many projectiles of shot are in the weapon, and lock shotguns in a similarly hidden "burst" firing mode?

[Sathra]

Its also an Armour-piercing shotgun. Take that as you will.

[RotGtIE]

Flechettes.

[Sathra]

Probably. Its not something to really think about.

The whole shotgun thing got discussed before (twice I think). They're not going to spray due to some engine limitation (it'd looks like a cloud of bullets) and because it'd be alot of work and a unique firing show for a weapon that most players would stop using after a month or two of game time (there is only one shotgun type in the game).

[RotGtIE]

Ah, yeah, that's understandable enough. Pity though.

[anotherdevil]

it's a shotgun that kills aliens. 'nuff said. That it kills them by blowing one big hole in them, instead of a whole lot of little hots, just makes it cooler in my opinion...

[Sathra]

Too bad we can't have gouts of gore and bodies thrown around...

Oh well, possible sequel feature: "Nightmares for small children/joy for the gorelust crowd."

[anotherdevil]

Some of that extra content for the funding thermometer could be the 'bloody mess' perk =p

[cyllan]

Chris, i would like to see extra heavy armour fittable to tanks at the expense of weapons maybe...... you woulnt need to even change the armour icons much, but the original xcom tanks sucked.......... sooo much....

[cyllan]

ok one of the things i have learned from other x-com games (specially ufo ai) is that the aliens see you and rush you, which means you can predict patterns hold your ground crouched and massacre them like zombies.... this is my experince with ufo ai.

also aliens have "magical detectors" they know where you are even if they dont see you..... which is not very realistic.....

if anyone knows of a better xcom clone right now i would try it, i just dont know of any decent ones....

the AI coder better be a genious....... because big AI issues come even on AAA games, i wish him luck

[Gorlom]

cyllan have you tried looking up x-com on wikipedia? thats how i found this site. it should list the frenchise and most of the clones.

Also i think the aliens see further for balance issues. as well as share vision similar to how you act as a player.

And i see you refereing to other games Alien AI in your posts. maybe wait for the beta version and acctually play a misssion before you complain about the AI in this game?

[AtillatheBum]

I know this is more a beta/balancing type suggestion and that you guys are more concerned with just getting the game feature complete, but I'd like to see the stats of the 2 starting interceptors to be reversed. So the F-17 would have 160 hp, 2300 km/h top speed, etc., but keep the weapons loadout on the craft as they are now. As it stands, F-17s are almost useless against the early game ships, they aren't fast enough to catch them and even when they do, their firepower leaves a lot to be desired for such a slow craft. As if to make F-17s even more obsolete, the default Mig-32 loadout is almost unbeatable by the alien craft. The AI isn't able judge when to roll out of the way effectively due to the different missile speeds and all 4 missiles hit 9 times out of 10.

If you reverse the stats, it would turn the F-17 into a fast, agile, but relatively weak interceptor perfectly suitable for hunting down and destroying alien scout ships solo and mediums when in a squadron. It would also turn the Mig-32 into a heavy engagement platform useful for taking on the alien's larger, more heavily armored combatants where its low speed would be less of a disadvantage when weighed against its heavy armament and good health pool.

[Wakko]

Just watched a video of 8.2 gameplay on youtube (

) and I got a couple of thoughts from it.

My very first reaction was... the view distance the soldiers can see is terribad! It feels like its the same view distance soldiers had in the original xcom during night battles! I dont want to know how far the soldiers can see during night time in Xenonauts 3 tiles? *sarcasm*

But really... for me the view distance of soldiers seem very low. Especially for being daytime.

[anotherdevil]

I know this is more a beta/balancing type suggestion and that you guys are more concerned with just getting the game feature complete, but I'd like to see the stats of the 2 starting interceptors to be reversed. So the F-17 would have 160 hp, 2300 km/h top speed, etc., but keep the weapons loadout on the craft as they are now. As it stands, F-17s are almost useless against the early game ships, they aren't fast enough to catch them and even when they do, their firepower leaves a lot to be desired for such a slow craft. As if to make F-17s even more obsolete, the default Mig-32 loadout is almost unbeatable by the alien craft. The AI isn't able judge when to roll out of the way effectively due to the different missile speeds and all 4 missiles hit 9 times out of 10.

If you reverse the stats, it would turn the F-17 into a fast, agile, but relatively weak interceptor perfectly suitable for hunting down and destroying alien scout ships solo and mediums when in a squadron. It would also turn the Mig-32 into a heavy engagement platform useful for taking on the alien's larger, more heavily armored combatants where its low speed would be less of a disadvantage when weighed against its heavy armament and good health pool.

I kind of agree with you. See if there is another forum topic on air combat suggestions, or just make one of your own. v8.2 is quite dated by now

[Thann]

I would suggest to change the buttons to switch soldiers from top/down to left/right. I always mix them with the buttons for changing the height level.

[anotherdevil]

perhaps this should no longer be a sticky thread. v8.2 is quite old now...

[Sathra]

Hmm, perhaps. Or....

There we go! But yeah, its getting old and I don't think anyone actually reads it . I've been waiting for V9 to make a new one actually.

[Moonshine Fox]

Something that is incredibly odd is that if one of your soldiers walks into the open in an area, gets fired on by reaction fire and gets hit, there's a long delay where nothing happens. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, your soldier slumps to the ground and dies. There can be as much as 5-10 seconds from being hit to actually dying. It makes you sit there wondering "Okay, did he get wounded? *click* Wtf? *click* *click* Huh? *soldier dies* Oh...right..."

If those delays could be cleaned up, it would be great!

[anotherdevil]

+1 to the above

[The Master]

Various Comments & Feature Requests:

- Since this post is my first, I have played a months worth of game time in Xenonauts, and it's impressive. Glad you guys are making it!

- Music is excellent.

- My load time for ground combat is fine, even when running other programs.

- I don't know if other people have made the following comments or not, so I apologize ahead of time if the issues are already known.

In no particular order of importance:

- Can't buy dropships. I built two other bases, no dropship. My current dropship got blown away by an alien fighter, no replacement. Reload game.

- There should be some button or menu to pull up the save/load/etc. screen. Much better usability than guessing it's the Escape key.

- Constantly arming new soldiers is tedious. It would be nice to set up a default, i.e., everybody should use a pistol as primary and medikit as secondary, or everybody get whatever-the-good-armor-is-called, etc.

- A chart, or charts, to see data, i.e., funding by country, civilian deaths by country, etc. Original X-COM had quite a few.

- Any way to rotate the ground combat screen? The game uses 3D models, right? It would be easier to see the other side of walls and moving a soldier right up to certain places if the screen could rotate.

- I did see comments on changing colors for health/bars/etc. Please keep in mind some people are colorblind, and I know most people know that doesn't mean someone can only see black & white. But, sometimes, discerning between orange and red is difficult, or aqua and green, etc. Just make the colors vivid, bright, stand out from each other (like ROY G BIV).

- It would be nice to be able to delete saved games in-game.

- When someone plays the aerial combat for the first time, it's hard to figure out what to do. Do I fire the missiles? Does it fire automatically? Etc. I didn't even know you can change what alien aircraft the Xenonaut fighter can target until the aliens started coming in squadrons; then it's vital.

Thank you!

[iamkyon]

- Can't buy dropships. I built two other bases, no dropship. My current dropship got blown away by an alien fighter, no replacement. Reload game.

Caused by a newly-reported bug.

- There should be some button or menu to pull up the save/load/etc. screen. Much better usability than guessing it's the Escape key.

Your suggestion definitely deserves a mention in the thread dedicated to the upcoming Ground Combat GUI update.

- Constantly arming new soldiers is tedious. It would be nice to set up a default, i.e., everybody should use a pistol as primary and medikit as secondary, or everybody get whatever-the-good-armor-is-called, etc.

Customisable loadout templates are an oft-requested feature.

- A chart, or charts, to see data, i.e., funding by country, civilian deaths by country, etc. Original X-COM had quite a few.

This was brought up on the old forums by the more spreadsheet-obsessed contingent, not naming names, mind you! I second the motion.

- Any way to rotate the ground combat screen? The game uses 3D models, right? It would be easier to see the other side of walls and moving a soldier right up to certain places if the screen could rotate.

I'm afraid not. This is due to technical limitations imposed by the engine, I think.

- I did see comments on changing colors for health/bars/etc. Please keep in mind some people are colorblind, and I know most people know that doesn't mean someone can only see black & white. But, sometimes, discerning between orange and red is difficult, or aqua and green, etc. Just make the colors vivid, bright, stand out from each other (like ROY G BIV).

Worth pointing out.

- It would be nice to be able to delete saved games in-game.

I may have suggested it myself in this very thread.

- When someone plays the aerial combat for the first time, it's hard to figure out what to do. Do I fire the missiles? Does it fire automatically? Etc. I didn't even know you can change what alien aircraft the Xenonaut fighter can target until the aliens started coming in squadrons; then it's vital.

Consult the Xenonauts Manual and the wiki page on Air Combat for more tactical insights. The final product will, in all likelihood, have in-game hints in some shape or form.

[Stik10]

Hello, my name is Daniel Macarenco, and I'm one of admistradores site Xenonauts Brazil. The X-COM series was very successful in Brazil in the 90s, so that much of the time players still playing. But what many don't know is that the version that is being created here, it's the best remake of the series ever made. For this reason I created the site Xenonauts Brazil. Perhaps the lack of advertising in our country, which isn't an error, due to a limitation of the project, the game is still not well known. But this will change. Well ... I will promote the game here, and it will be a success by itself, but would like to make some suggestions to make him more attractive to Brazilians.

Translate to Portuguese: It will not be done now, or end of the project, and maybe even the developers put in the game other languages​​. But for the fans something they can later modify at least could be facilitated.

Soldiers of Brazil: Brazilian names! João Siqueira, Ademar da Silva, Ronaldo Oliveira. And... Brazilian Forces! BOPE and Agulhas Negras. This would attract the attention of Brazilians. And it would be easy to implement.

Whew! For now that's it. hehe

Edited January 14, 2012 by Stik10