Milestone 1.22 Released!

[Chris]

This is only a minor update to the game, but it may help players that are struggling with the early-game Cleaner missions. We're working hard on fixing the remaining crashes in the game and hopefully we'll be releasing another stability patch tomorrow!

Changelog:

• Reinforcements in the Cleaner missions now spawn less frequently - the initial wave of reinforcements still spawn at the same time as before, but now you have 5 turns before another wave of reinforcements spawn (previously this was 2 turns). This means fighting through the reinforcements to finish the mission should now potentially be possible.
• Fixed an error in the "Armour Destruction" tooltip that was making it unreadable.
• Removed any reference to "Closed Beta" from the game version to prevent confusion.

[DaviddesJ]

I just hope you don't always give in to the whiners and make things easier. At least at the higher difficulties it should be hard.

[Sheena-Tiger]

4 hours ago, DaviddesJ said:

I just hope you don't always give in to the whiners and make things easier. At least at the higher difficulties it should be hard.

Hard is one thing, but the endless waves of overly well equipped reinforcements do not make a lot of sense.

That some come to the aid I can understand but by lore, those are loose cells of few people not communicating with each other. How can suddenly so many people show up, ready and fully equipped? From the moment the transport drops down to the moment when the first wave shows up would likely not be more than a minute or such.

On the other hand, I agree, for those people who ask for the difficulty, maybe make it not a fixed number but check for difficulty. Make the 5 turns the new normal (thus less punishing for newcomers or those who want a more relaxed pace... I take slow turns, I hate rushing) and 2 or maybe even 1 for the highest.

[Skitso]

It should be easy enough to add reinforcement difficulty as an option at the beginning of the game:

• Default (as it is now)
• +1 turn to arrive
• +2 turns to arrive and longer intervals
• +3 turns turns to arrive, longer intervals and fewer units

Edited July 20, 2023 by Skitso

[Solver]

It makes a lot of sense to modify the abduction/cleaner missions based on the difficulty level. Since people have struggled with cleaners, the default for reinforcements should perhaps be an extra turn compared to release, and abduction missions could be modified to require a different number of civilians rescued per difficulty.

[DaviddesJ]

I would just add an option to turn off all reinforcements and time limits. Separately from the dfificulty setting. That way players who want that could play that way. If it helps the game get more sales and positive reviews it's worth it. And very easy to implement. Also means you don't have to water down those reinforcements and time limits for those who want them.

[Angelus]

Hi!

Thank you very much for this great game! I love it! I love you all @Devs! =))))))))
 

The new patch is not yet live on GOG. Is it still coming?

The GOG version is still at 1.21.

Thanks again for this great game and for sticking to old virtues! JA3 has become a big disappointment for me. That's why I'm so happy to have discovered Xenonauts 2!

All the love!
Dominik

[Chris]

1 hour ago, Angelus said:

Hi!

Thank you very much for this great game! I love it! I love you all @Devs! =))))))))
 

The new patch is not yet live on GOG. Is it still coming?

The GOG version is still at 1.21.

Thanks again for this great game and for sticking to old virtues! JA3 has become a big disappointment for me. That's why I'm so happy to have discovered Xenonauts 2!

All the love!
Dominik

Yeah, GOG was having server issues again when we were uploading the build so we couldn't update GOG. However we're releasing a new patch today and GOG should be working again now.

[Angelus]

3 hours ago, Chris said:

Yeah, GOG was having server issues again when we were uploading the build so we couldn't update GOG. However we're releasing a new patch today and GOG should be working again now.

Thank you very much! A great weekend ahead! =)))))))))))))))))

[Pathfinder]

First of all, I don't understand how cleaners missions with 2 turns between reinforcements may be "impossible". It is hard, I agree, but it is far from being impossible. I beat them and only have to come back to airlift, as ammunition is depleting from killing wave after wave. If you know where they are coming, it is plainly simple - put there your soldiers and wait for spawns, and kill them. The big challenge is to clean up whole site off the regular enemy to have free soldiers to focus on reinforcement cleaners.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Pathfinder

[Chris]

5 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

First of all, I don't understand how cleaners missions with 2 turns between reinforcements may be "impossible". It is hard, I agree, but it is far from being impossible. I beat them and only have to come back to airlift, as ammunition is depleting from killing wave after wave. If you know where they are coming, it is plainly simple - put there your soldiers and wait for spawns, and kill them. The big challenge is to clean up whole site off the regular enemy to have free soldiers to focus on reinforcement cleaners.

"Impossible" was probably an exaggeration, yeah. But I think the change is still worthwhile

[Pathfinder]

If I may advice in the matter of this particular change. I actually liked the idea that came with X-COM (yes, this overpuffed "modern" game, made by a big company) - the idea where spawns does move a little bit. This makes a tactical, both, the opportunity and the challenge.

1* Opportunity - shoot them like ducks, by an overwatch fire - it would be really funny, and a nice break from (kind of) "hard work" of cleaning room after room,

2* Challenge - do placement of own soldiers in such a way that when they make overwatch shooting, they won't be in the own crossfire.

I have no idea if the code is easy to implement based on what is there, but I think that it would be beneficial to the gameplay. Most important - such spawns, should be prohibited from taking hostile actions against player on theirs spawning turn, as otherwise it would be too difficult to bear for most players.

Other idea in this matter is to allow spawns to happen in some area rather than exactly on specific tiles. Area, for example, 2 or 3 tiles radius. Compounded with previous idea this would pose additional fun and challenge.

By the way, great game. I was waiting for this one to come since X1. Thanks for making it.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Pathfinder

[Chris]

8 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

If I may advice in the matter of this particular change. I actually liked the idea that came with X-COM (yes, this overpuffed "modern" game, made by a big company) - the idea where spawns does move a little bit. This makes a tactical, both, the opportunity and the challenge.

1* Opportunity - shoot them like ducks, by an overwatch fire - it would be really funny, and a nice break from (kind of) "hard work" of cleaning room after room,

2* Challenge - do placement of own soldiers in such a way that when they make overwatch shooting, they won't be in the own crossfire.

I have no idea if the code is easy to implement based on what is there, but I think that it would be beneficial to the gameplay. Most important - such spawns, should be prohibited from taking hostile actions against player on theirs spawning turn, as otherwise it would be too difficult to bear for most players.

Other idea in this matter is to allow spawns to happen in some area rather than exactly on specific tiles. Area, for example, 2 or 3 tiles radius. Compounded with previous idea this would pose additional fun and challenge.

By the way, great game. I was waiting for this one to come since X1. Thanks for making it.

Thanks, glad you enjoy it - maybe consider leaving a Steam review if you do

I do agree with your suggestion about the reinforcements, yeah. It would be cool if they actually ran onto the map (triggering overwatch fire) rather than spawning in place. It's something we'll consider adding during Early Access but there's just so much to do already!

Allowing multiple potential spawn points is certainly easily possible, but a bit less cool than having them run in.

[Pathfinder]

6 hours ago, Chris said:

Thanks, glad you enjoy it - maybe consider leaving a Steam review if you do

I do agree with your suggestion about the reinforcements, yeah. It would be cool if they actually ran onto the map (triggering overwatch fire) rather than spawning in place. It's something we'll consider adding during Early Access but there's just so much to do already!

Allowing multiple potential spawn points is certainly easily possible, but a bit less cool than having them run in.

@Chris of course I will leave a review on Steam, that is for sure. However, I don't have that much time to play, to be able to find out everything that I would like to. Review will be done in the way to help you attract customers (of course, based on actual positives). You do a great job, and deserve to have steadily growing pool of customers. Funny, I left game opened on the computer, without actually playing it, as I left home, and it logged more than 50 hours, and I played only some 3-4 hours :D.

[Judy]

When you do a new release, does GOG automatically patch our game or do with have to uninstall and redownload it?    I also want to know what if it is intended for us to attack the cleaner sites as soon as they are present.  It was not quite clear and the dialog makes it seem that it is timed so you can lose if you don't rush the cleaners.  When I did the Cleaner Docks, there were very few missions to level up my soldiers.  I think 3 UFO missions only.  I was hoping for more UFOs missions before Cleaners.

[Chris]

5 hours ago, Judy said:

When you do a new release, does GOG automatically patch our game or do with have to uninstall and redownload it?    I also want to know what if it is intended for us to attack the cleaner sites as soon as they are present.  It was not quite clear and the dialog makes it seem that it is timed so you can lose if you don't rush the cleaners.  When I did the Cleaner Docks, there were very few missions to level up my soldiers.  I think 3 UFO missions only.  I was hoping for more UFOs missions before Cleaners.

If you're on GOG Galaxy then it should automatically update, yes.

You don't have to do the Cleaner docks missions immediately but that's roughly when you're expected to do it. But a lot of people do complain that those missions are too hard, so you can always wait a bit.