Initial thoughts after few hours of play

[Ikko]

I had only few hours to get a glimpse of Xenonauts 2 Playtest and tought I would put here some of my initial impressions - maybe some are bugs (or features)

What I like:

• really like how the game feels right now and waiting for full version, especially tactical combat animations, movement, demolishion options etc.
• screens and information look clear and descriptive
• loving air combat
• abductions missions are cool - you really need to move quickly to get it. Forces completely different playstyle

What I'm not sure about:

• the blue circle aroung your base on strategic map - what does it really indicate? Thought it is a detection area of radar but radar in base description has 740km rage and the area around the base is way bigger than that
• Mesmerize skill - if its psychic origin - should it work against MARS? Was surprised by it
• Defender armour wiki entry is not there at the beginning when you already start with those
• When shooting target at very long range I aim centering screen on Alien, later on shot is made and I think screen tries to show as much of projectile path as possible but I would like to have it again centered on my target as when I clicked to shoot instead of needed to find it/scroll (after shot gets resolved)

 

[Alienkiller]

Thanks, that you like what we have done so far in the last 2 Years of hard Playtesting from us older Beta-Testers and the Devs brought in. That´s good for the Soul.

What your Questions belongs I can help:

a) The blue Circle around the Base is the existing maximum Radar-Range. You can upgrade it 2 Times atm. with building 2 more Radars, but we testet in older Versions a much better System. Hope the Upgrade-System comes back.

b) That´s an special Ability from the Ceasns or so. Yes it works against all Enemys, because that Aliens can link that Feature with other Aliens to reduce the Disadvangate of bad seeing (Nebula, Smoke etc.) like the Rangefinder you can use for your Soldiers / Vehicles.

c) Yes, not every useable Starting-usable-Things (like the Defender-Armor) is in the UFO-Pedia yet. We older Beta-Testers mentioned it already. The missing Entrys there will come in and exitings Entrys get the missing Parts (Texts, Pictures, special Informations) too with time. We all hope that will be completely done for the beginning Early-Access-Phase.

d) I haven´t seen an centering on an Alien yet. Either the shot hit or miss it. The shots are fast, that you can´t see them. You would need like in UFO ET-Series an longer to programm special Camera-Feature, that could show the flightpath of an Bullet like Laser, Plasma. Standard.

Hope that helps.

[Chris]

10 hours ago, Ikko said:

I had only few hours to get a glimpse of Xenonauts 2 Playtest and tought I would put here some of my initial impressions - maybe some are bugs (or features)

What I like:

• really like how the game feels right now and waiting for full version, especially tactical combat animations, movement, demolishion options etc.
• screens and information look clear and descriptive
• loving air combat
• abductions missions are cool - you really need to move quickly to get it. Forces completely different playstyle

What I'm not sure about:

• the blue circle aroung your base on strategic map - what does it really indicate? Thought it is a detection area of radar but radar in base description has 740km rage and the area around the base is way bigger than that
• Mesmerize skill - if its psychic origin - should it work against MARS? Was surprised by it
• Defender armour wiki entry is not there at the beginning when you already start with those
• When shooting target at very long range I aim centering screen on Alien, later on shot is made and I think screen tries to show as much of projectile path as possible but I would like to have it again centered on my target as when I clicked to shoot instead of needed to find it/scroll (after shot gets resolved)

Thanks for your thoughts and bug reports. I'm glad you're enjoying the experience overall. To answer your questions:

• Yeah, the blue circle is radar range. I suspect the 740km is probably correct if it's the radius of the circle, rather than the diameter?
• Yeah, you're correct - Mesmerise should not affect robotic units. We'll take a look at that in the new year and get it fixed.
• I'll get the defender armour added to the Xenopedia then, you're right.
• It'd be good to take a quicksave and grab a screenshot if this happens again. I'd have to look at the situation to make a decision about it - the problem with keeping the camera centered on the target if the shooter is a long way away is that the shooter might hit something very close to them and it wouldn't be obvious what had happened.

[Ikko]

The first/smallest radar range when you place a new base in Warsaw in Europe almost reaches to Iceland and covert whole Europe - thats is over 2000km radius.

Just thinking the radar description could use an update as it shows only 750km which is way to small to what can be seen on map.
Not a big issue - just wanted to mention it

[Chris]

30 minutes ago, Ikko said:

The first/smallest radar range when you place a new base in Warsaw in Europe almost reaches to Iceland and covert whole Europe - thats is over 2000km radius.

Just thinking the radar description could use an update as it shows only 750km which is way to small to what can be seen on map.
Not a big issue - just wanted to mention it

Hmmm, yeah, you're right. The numbers are way off. Thanks for pointing it out.