Public Demo v3.02 Released (Experimental)

[Chris]

Our Steam / GOG experimental branches now contain a test build for our next public demo, which will only be available for a few days. This build is only available on our Experimental branch so you'll need to switch over to get this update (instructions on how to do that here).

Be aware that this demo has less gameplay than a standard build, as it cuts off at Day 50.  This demo will go live early next week (6th Feb) at which point we'll revert to having normal builds again - but right now the demo needs testing and we'd appreciate people giving it a quick try (the tutorial in particular). It'd be kinda embarrassing for us to put out a public big demo and have it full of crashes!

If you really can't live with the time limitation, then you can always switch back to V25.5 on the Experimental Legacy / Legacy branch instead!

General:

• The game now has a functional tutorial. Please give this a test and let us know if you experience any bugs with it, or if you can find any way to break it. We'll be updating the way the conversation element works next week, as we know it doesn't work very well in its current form.
  • The tutorial is tied to the "Introduction" button on the campaign creation menu. Disable that checkbox if you don't want to have to play through it.
• Esc menu now works in the air combat.
• Added new artwork for the following research projects: Cleaner Operations, Alien Alloys, Alenium.
• Visually restyled following UI popups:
  • Launch Aircraft panel
  • Squadron Information
  • UFO Intercepted
  • Squadron Intercepted
  • Air Combat Result
  • Abort Mission confirmation popup in tactical combat
• Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur if you clicked a save game on the Load Game screen while it was still loading the list of saves.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when changing camera level during a tactical mission after an alien was killed.
• Fixed a crash that could occur after an alien unit used a grenade.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when you disabled a newly-constructed Lab.
• Fixed an AI hang that could occur if a local forces unit was Mesmerised by a Psyon.
• Fixed various alien abilities getting messed up after loading a save game.
• Updated the Geoscape region borders to be neater and less pixelated, and updated the cities and base icons to look a little neater too.
• Crushing crushable objects now costs +1 TU.
• Camera no longer centers on the selected soldier at end of turn.
• Performance should be increased on the Soldier Equp screen.

[Demon]

Found a couple of issues changing resolution in the Visual menu.

1) Clicking on the resolution makes the other options in the menu disappear.

2) After confirming it seems to break confirmation sometimes. I.e. when trying to click "Save & Close" the popup confirmation appears for a split second and disappears without you being able to select Keep. It breaks randomly, once after changing the resolution one time, the next after changing it several. Restarting the game then the popup works correctly.

Native resolution widescreen 3440 x 1440

Edit - Restarting the game works as a workaround

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Demon
Added workaround text

[Chris]

11 hours ago, Demon said:

Found a couple of issues changing resolution in the Visual menu.

1) Clicking on the resolution makes the other options in the menu disappear.

2) After confirming it seems to break confirmation sometimes. I.e. when trying to click "Save & Close" the popup confirmation appears for a split second and disappears without you being able to select Keep. It breaks randomly, once after changing the resolution one time, the next after changing it several. Restarting the game then the popup works correctly.

Native resolution widescreen 3440 x 1440

Edit - Restarting the game works as a workaround

 

Thanks. We'll take a look at that.

[Emily_F]

@Chris It says it goes to day 50 but my game ended at day 40...  Not a huge thing but I thought I would let you know. 

[Alienkiller]

@Chris and Dev-Team: Very nice Public Demo. Esp. with the now integrated Tutorial and the whished Communication between the Main-Chars to give more Life to the Game.

Very good integration: Tutorial. Tested it several Times and find that it works very good. I haven´t found Failures in there.

Not so funny: In Ground Missions the Autosaves let you beginn in the Transport again. Dosen´t matter what Autosave you used.

Not so funny: The Conversations between the Main-Chars are to fast and not readable. There have to be adjusted that the Gamer can pause them and read them in it´s own speed.

 

That´s the Points I have found out in my short Testing.

 

[Emily_F]

1 hour ago, Alienkiller said:

@Chris

Not so funny: The Conversations between the Main-Chars are to fast and not readable. There have to be adjusted that the Gamer can pause them and read them in it´s own speed

 

That's odd - I had to click through each section of dialogue to make it move on to the next person. It wasn't automatic for me 

[Chris]

3 hours ago, Emily_F said:

@Chris It says it goes to day 50 but my game ended at day 40...  Not a huge thing but I thought I would let you know. 

Yeah, I changed that in the latest patch as there's not too much do in the last 10 days. Is it referenced anywhere in the game as being a 50 day thing (that I forgot the update)? Or just in my forum posts?

Also, yeah, the dialogue system has changed recently so I think you played the more recent version than Alienkiller.

1 hour ago, Alienkiller said:

@Chris and Dev-Team: Very nice Public Demo. Esp. with the now integrated Tutorial and the whished Communication between the Main-Chars to give more Life to the Game.

Very good integration: Tutorial. Tested it several Times and find that it works very good. I haven´t found Failures in there.

Not so funny: In Ground Missions the Autosaves let you beginn in the Transport again. Dosen´t matter what Autosave you used.

Not so funny: The Conversations between the Main-Chars are to fast and not readable. There have to be adjusted that the Gamer can pause them and read them in it´s own speed.

 

That´s the Points I have found out in my short Testing.

Thanks. Glad you like it. The two issues you've mentioned are now both fixed and an updated version of the demo should be available in the next couple of hours.