My detailed critques of the game as of v25.3

[Kamehamehayes]

I had been waiting to try this game out for a long time, and I was definitely not disappointed when I got to play the first few in-game months of the open beta. I definitely think this is on par with X1 in quality on this build alone. That’s awesome, but I think this game still has a lot of potential to keep growing and become a massive successor to the first game. Thus like many others, I would like to go into extensive detail with all of the critiques and grievances to improve the quality of the game even more. I spent a lot of time riding this, and it is quite wordy and detailed and is definitely not meant for a really fast consumption. 

 

The Geoscape

I hoped that the game would lean into the modern cold war aesthetic more than it has been on the geoscape. One of the biggest weaknesses of X1 was that the cold war setting had almost zero change on the actual gameplay of the game. The cold war is still going on, and tensions are still very high, but the gameplay does not reflect that fact in X1 or in X2. I feel like there should be a lot more going on in the geoscape to really add to the fact that NATO and Warsaw Pact states still have very different agendas and take very different directions when it comes to thwarting the alien invasion. This could be conveyed by each party having their own unique research that the Xenonauts can sponsor to gain unique technologies and reduce the panic of the affected regions, while also potentially increasing the panic of the opposing side. This is also in a much more modern era than the previous game, so maybe the game can also show and continue the technology race between NATO and Warsaw Pact states with modern technology and with alien technology. There are probably better and easier ways of conveying this in the geoscape, but I definitely want to see a political divide of some kind between both parties so that the gameplay can make the best use of the unique setting present within the game. 

This is a much smaller issue, but I think the “best” place to place your initial base is still the Southeastern Europe/Northern Africa area because it covers the most funding regions and minimizes the amount of ufos fought over water. While this makes logistical sense, it does feel like there needs to be another mechanic that can potentially encourage the player to experiment with where they place the starting base. This could range from passive modifiers (like with Firaxis xcom), or it can include systems that take advantage of the “modern cold war” setting. 

You’ve probably heard this before, but I think that new things to research are frontloaded and then drop off as your progress through the game. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is a little overwhelming to get so many things to research in the first couple of months. 

I really like the writing of the Xenopedia pages, for the same reason I liked them in the first game. However, while the head scientists dissing the engineers is funny, I think it would be better if other characters got in on the action. Perhaps there can be mentions of the head engineer messing with him back, or central can personally write to the scientist to chill out or something. Also, central does not seem to do much. She is on the title screen and has dialogue right after starting the game (and probably does mission briefings), but we don’t get much insight into her character, which I thought we would get more of seeing that she is a central figure on the title screen. 

I also feel that the geoscape is in desperate need of random events like was promised in the kickstarter. It would make the geoscape more interesting and will include more short-term decision making that I feel the geoscape is lacking. 

 

Air Combat 

I feel this is the part of the game that needs the most work on for a variety of reasons. 

Aircraft weapons cost way too much imo, and the cost of getting a new airplane with more than 2 autocannons is ridiculous imo. This would be a massive portion of your funding per month, and it is kinda ridiculous imo. If you do get caught being behind in the airgame, it is really, really hard to build the technologies needed to get back in the game. I would prefer for planes to be more expensive and cost more to maintain if the cost of aircraft weaponry would be reduced. That way, I can upgrade my current planes accordingly if I find myself behind as it does not eat all of my funding money away, while still making the player use substantial resources to upgrade their planes to better models. 

Semi related to the previous point, but I am not very encouraged to try new kind of aircraft weapons because of the high cost. If one does not really like using missiles once they get them, then that is just $200,000 down the drain. 

I don’t really understand what the point of the “tail ufo” option is right now. In X1, it was a tool to start behind the ufo so it was always useful, but here, you can place your planes wherever you want, so it doesn't matter imo. It just feels strange to have that option at this point if it doesn’t do anything to benefit the player gameplay wise (unless I’m missing some niche scenario that I didn’t consider). 

The actual air combat itself still relies on twitch reflexes and/or pause mashing in order to get the most out of it, which is something I know is trying to be avoided. On a similar note, the 2 and 3 speed options serve no purpose imo as 1 speed is best for reflexes and pause mashing and 4 speed is best for getting the fight over with as quickly as possible. I think x-div had a good solution here where 3 speed was actually the default speed and 1 and 2 speed were significantly slower so there was not as much reliance on reflexes and/or pause mashing. 

 

Ground Combat 

I feel this is where X2 shines the most over its predecessor

The stun gun does not seem very worth it to me atm because stun batons have a 100% chance to hit, making them always reliable, while stun guns do not have as high of a hit, it’s range is not that much better than a baton, and the infinite ammo on a baton makes it far outshine the stun gun as a reliable stunning weapon. I think that the stun baton tu usage nerf mentioned in another thread and perhaps giving the stun gun the ability to recharge its ammo once per turn would be enough to make them more of the same tier. 

I feel the “hidden movement” screen is outdated imo. There are a lot of nice idle animations that are more interesting to watch while the aliens go through their hidden movement imo, and the hidden movement screen really needs new art (as we have been seeing its current art for many years at this point). 

I also said that there needs to be a universal speedup option for ground combat back when the September demo released, I still very much agree with that as I think it will benefit the game massively. Although, would it be possible to be able to skip the enemy turn altogether? If I know the turn is going to be uneventful, then skipping it will make missions much better pacewise imo. 

I would also like to see more cleaners in ground combat missions. I feel like there is a lot of potential in their inclusion. It would be cool to see cleaners pretending to be civilians in terror missions, or see minor cells of cleaners still trying to sabotage your operations even after their base is destroyed. I would also like to see more missions where the cleaners and aliens work together. 

I would also like to see a little more verticality in maps. There is nothing wrong with the current flat maps, but I feel adding some more vertical maps will add a decent amount of variety.

It is difficult to tell which soldiers are which at a glance. This is not a big issue, but I feel male and female models can be more differentiated in some way and hair can be more apparent on soldiers. 

 

Misc Thoughts

You cannot change the soldier positions in the dropship when you get to the screen right before sending the dropship. I find that screen not particularly useful because I cannot change their positions. 

It would be nice if zoom in and out became proper features at some point. It would be nice to zoom out and see the entire tactical map from a distance or zoom in to see the aliens and soldiers in more detail. It is a small thing, but I feel it would be a nice thing to have right before the game fully releases. 

I also noticed that alien psi-amps are in the game currently. Does that mean the player's psionics will potentially be tested in the future at some point?

I might post more thoughts here in the future if I run into anything super significant. If anything needs clarification, then I can expand on it if needed. 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Kamehamehayes

[Chris]

Thanks. I'm glad you've enjoyed your time with the game so far, because as you say there's still a fair bit of development left to go so hopefully we can surpass the original Xenonauts soon.

I'll try to read this post properly and digest it full over the weekend.

[mclang]

On 1/11/2023 at 6:36 PM, Kamehamehayes said:

I don’t really understand what the point of the “tail ufo” option is right now. In X1, it was a tool to start behind the ufo so it was always useful, but here, you can place your planes wherever you want, so it doesn't matter imo. It just feels strange to have that option at this point if it doesn’t do anything to benefit the player gameplay wise (unless I’m missing some niche scenario that I didn’t consider). 

I use "tail ufo" regularly to get it over land before I shoot it down

[Kamehamehayes]

2 hours ago, mclang said:

I use "tail ufo" regularly to get it over land before I shoot it down

There's like two options to tail it. One is just "tail ufo" and the other it "tail ufo until over land". I understand why the second one exists, but the first one doesn't ever seem very useful imo. 

[mclang]

My bad, forgot that :/

[Kamehamehayes]

1 hour ago, mclang said:

My bad, forgot that :/

naw you're good 

[Alienkiller]

Tail UFO is usefull. In old X-Com (EU / TftD / Interceptor) f. e. that Option gives you the possibility to be in the Near and wait for Assistance.

In Xenonauts 2 that Option have an similar effect. An big Effect that Option will have later on, after the missing Features from the Geoscape come in.

 

The Tail UFO until over Land should be understandable from beginning on. That Option let the Interceptors wait to shoot the UFO down over Land either to make an Ground-Combat Version or getting Salvage-Money from the Country-Military.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Alienkiller

[asdfcyber]

'tail ufo' might also be useful if you want to reduce panic in a specific region and the ufo is heading their direction

[Alienkiller]

Haven´t testet that yet, but if it have that Effect, then it have already 2 effects.

[maxm222]

On 1/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, Kamehamehayes said:

I feel the “hidden movement” screen is outdated imo. There are a lot of nice idle animations that are more interesting to watch while the aliens go through their hidden movement imo, and the hidden movement screen really needs new art (as we have been seeing its current art for many years at this point). 

Agree 100%.  Almost any art from the game would be better looking.  The picture could also be smaller, so as not to have the screen filled with a graphic that we see over and over and over in our face.  I assume it's there for "visual interest" while we're waiting for aliens and others to move, but it's not necessary to keep hidden moves hidden since there's nothing going on "under" the graphic--so it doesn't need to be large.  I'd just as soon see a (small) question mark on the screen.

[Chris]

@Kamehamehayes right, sorry it's taken me about a month to get back to you on this. Thanks for your thoughts, I can't comment on everything but here's a few things that sprang to mind:

• Yes, I would still like to add another mechanic to the game that made the Geoscape more interesting and hopefully leant into the Cold War a bit more. I've got some ideas that we'll probably test, but things don't always work out as well in practice as they do in my head so I can't make any promises about that.
• I did already reduce the cost of aircraft weapons but I'll reduce it further for the next major build.
• Tail UFO doesn't have a particular usecase I'm aware of as distinct from Tail Until Over Land, but it's just functionality I think people expect to be there.
• The idea of slowing down the air combat speed with speed 1 is an interesting one, actually. Maybe we'd switch to three speeds and have the middle one half speed and the max one double speed. I'll have a think.
• Yeah, we're going to try and expand the Cleaners a bit in the next few months. They seem quite a popular addition to the game so we can give them a bit more airtime.
• The main way that we could make soldiers easy to tell apart would be adding a "hide helmet" mode, I think, because all the armour (which you get pretty much immediately) has helmets. That's on our to do list, but we've got a lot of other stuff to get through first.
• I'm not sure what you mean when you say you can't move the soldiers around in the dropship on the pre-mission screen? You can drag them up and down the list on the Soldier Equip screen to change their hotkey, and the Aircraft screen soldier arrangement panel still works even if the aircraft is airborne.

[Kamehamehayes]

On 2/8/2023 at 9:43 AM, Chris said:

 

• I'm not sure what you mean when you say you can't move the soldiers around in the dropship on the pre-mission screen? You can drag them up and down the list on the Soldier Equip screen to change their hotkey, and the Aircraft screen soldier arrangement panel still works even if the aircraft is airborne.

I know that you can move soldiers up and down the soldier equip screen, but I don’t really find that super useful as I don’t get to see where soldiers a positioned on the dropship itself. 
I didn’t know that you could change the soldier arrangement while the aircraft was airborne though. I don’t think it was in X1, and it does not sound super intuitive for that to work. I still think that the dropship screen should be present somewhere on the pre-mission screen, but it is nice you can change soldier placement even when the dropship is airborne.

On 2/8/2023 at 9:43 AM, Chris said:

 

• The idea of slowing down the air combat speed with speed 1 is an interesting one, actually. Maybe we'd switch to three speeds and have the middle one half speed and the max one double speed. I'll have a think.

I assume you mean that the minimum one would be half speed as opposed to the middle one, right? Unless I’m misinterpreting and you mean the far left node is normal, the middle one is slowest, and the far right one is fastest. I feel having the slowest on the left and the fastest on the right would be the most intuitive imo. 
Both methods sound pretty good though. I think this would add utility for all of the available air combat speeds and would make real-time air combat less about reaction time or pause mashing. 
 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Kamehamehayes

[Otsior]

On 1/11/2023 at 6:36 PM, Kamehamehayes said:

You cannot change the soldier positions in the dropship when you get to the screen right before sending the dropship. I find that screen not particularly useful because I cannot change their positions. 

It would be nice if zoom in and out became proper features at some point. It would be nice to zoom out and see the entire tactical map from a distance or zoom in to see the aliens and soldiers in more detail. It is a small thing, but I feel it would be a nice thing to have right before the game fully releases. 

I also noticed that alien psi-amps are in the game currently. Does that mean the player's psionics will potentially be tested in the future at some point?

I might post more thoughts here in the future if I run into anything super significant. If anything needs clarification, then I can expand on it if needed. 

 

With most difficult level it happens sometimes your first action triggers several counter actions and it really has matter how your soldiers were placed, it would be nice to be able to re-align them before mission

Edited February 14, 2023 by Otsior