Xenonauts 2 is a much easier title than Xenonauts 1.

[Grobobobo]

For the record, this is an observation first, complaint second. If the devs decided to make xenonauts 2 easier to cater to the lower skill players, that's fine by me, It's a good decision. You're gonna upset a lot of players by making a game uncompromisingly difficult, and most of the time, to appease the """hardcore""" playerbase you just need to make the game appear difficult. The skilled players are probably just gonna make a overhaul mod that caters to them, it's a compromise FiraXCOM went with, and it's a good compromise.

I've recently replayed xenonauts 1 on insane, and it hit like a whiplash. The game is so much harder it's really hard to compare. Seriously, playing X2 on Commander is like playing x1 on normal. There are so, so many important mechanical changes between the titles that I've felt like were overlooked, I'm gonna try to list the most important ones from most impactful to least:
 

1.  LOS distance

This is by far the biggest fundamental change. Both games have an average effective weapon range of 20, but while in xenonauts 2 the soldier view range is 26, in xenonauts 1 it's 17. On top of that, in xenonauts 1 most of the alien sight range is 18, higher than xenonauts and well within the rifle range. This is massive, especially since the AI often abuses that fact. In x1, getting accurately shot from line of sight is very common, to the point where you have to paranoically smoke every possible angle the enemy can shoot you through. In xenonauts 2, it's switched. unless the aliens came out of a building, you will see them before they become a threat, and now YOU out-LOS them, because of sniper rifles. That makes overwatching in an open field a really effective strategy, especially since SR's no longer have a reaction fire penalty. The longer LOS is a good change, but it heavily benefits xenonauts.

2. LOS Symmetry

In xenonauts 1, there were some corners where a unit could see a different unit, but not the other way around. This could be used by both sides, but heavily benefited the aliens, first because of longer LOS, and second because catching an experienced soldier off-guard is a lot more rewarding than catching an alien off guard. In x2 sight is symmetric, which again, makes the game easier.

3. Alien AI
I mentioned earlier that in x1 aliens abused the hell out of their LOS advantages, but in general they were a lot more defensive. Alien AI in x1 makes you sometimes think they're cheating (they're not, but their sight advantages make them look like they do), and in general they camp a lot more, making them a lot more difficult to kill. in x2 they practically run in the open. X1 aliens sometimes were suicidal too, but only if they were sure that they could kill at least 1 of your soldiers.  This is already in a roadmap to be changed, but it's still currently a significant factor towards a difficulty decrease

4. Alien damage

in xenonauts 1, on insane the first enemy you fight deals 66 average damage. In xenonauts 2, the first enemy you fight deals 25 damage. Granted, armor values in xenonauts 1 are higher, but not that much higher. While in xenonauts 2 a soldier can still be one shot, in xenonauts 1 a soldier is usually one shot. Also, alien rifle does not currently have a burst function, meaning that they rarely suppress your soldiers outside of servitors, and making parking ballistic shields at melee range towards them a viable strategy. But even if they had it, burst in x1 is a lot better than burst in x2, but that's another topic.

5. Air game

That's a huge topic on its own, but to avoid making an even bigger wall of text, let's just say that with the newest version x1 air game is significantly harder than x2, despite the foxtrot nonsense. UFOS damage your funding a lot more, they outspeed your basic interceptors much faster, and you have to actually sometimes maybe do some maneuvering. In x2 you can just facetank almost everything now with basic angels.

6. Cover destruction
It's a lot easier to destroy cover in x2 than it is in x1. Too easily in my opinion, the aliens just can't hide from you at all. This is also a good place to mention that throwables in this game cost less to throw, and can be thrown further, and more accurately.

7. Training center

Xenonauts 1 units were deceptively not that replaceable. If your soldier died, you had to replace it with a private, and privates freaking sucked, sometimes weren't even able to carry the full gear. (until you get predator armor, which is a win condition) In xeno 2, you can easily train your soldiers up so they catch up to your own guys. Too easily too be honest, I think the training is too effective at its job, by mid game you have many 90-100 TU monsters. I think the diminishing returns from the training center should be increased.

8. Shot preview
This can appear as just a QOL, but being able to triangulate reliably if a shot from that position has clear LOS or not makes you significantly more lethal against aliens, In xenonauts 1 you had to practically guess, and a lot of times you were wrong, and when you were wrong you paid for it dearly. Sometimes you thought you were safe behind cover when it turned out the alien had a flanked shot, and sometimes you thought that position was a flank, when it actually wasn't. Now you don't have to take a risk like that.

9. Vehicles
Xeno 1 vehicles sucked, MARS is amazing, and you can have TWO of them mid game. Enough said.

10. Alien abilities
I know that xeno 2 has a lot more alien abilities, but nothing it has compares to xenonauts 1 psionics, not even the new wraiths.

To make it  fair, there are areas where xeno 2 is harder:

1. Higher enemy count
In xeno 1 the first mission contains 3-5 aliens, it's much more in xeno 2, but it doesn't compensate for the difficulty because they are a LOT less threatening individually.

2. Timed missions
A common complaint, but once you get used to it, the significantly longer LOS distance allows you to move quicker without being shot to death, so they're still more than manageable.

It's also worth noting that just because a game is more difficult, it doesn't mean that it's better. Xenonauts 2 is an overall better title than Xeno 1 despite the major difficulty drop, a lot of difficulty Xeno1 wasn't designed that well, and made the game tedious to play on insane. Xeno 2 is a lot more fun in its gameplay, it's just that a lack of challenge takes away a lot of spice from the game. A lot of the changes that make the game easier make the game better, but if the game is intended to be about as hard as xeno 1, It should have a bunch of balance passes.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Grobobobo
Fixed some typos

[Alienkiller]

Grobobobo, very good consolidated. I played X1 too as nothing better was there to the new XCOM-Series and UFO 1 ET.

I have to agree in the most Points that X1 was on Normal to Hard for Causal-Gamers and in most Parts to unballanced. The Devs and Modders tried their best in that time. But as X1 comes out, it was outdated about the wrong Production-Tools and unflexibility of the Game. That the Devs have noticed very fast and begunn to make X2, which overflow X1 in all Parts since the Beta-Phases and later Experimental-Phases with the new Game-Design-Engine.

The Devs & Freelancers beginn to use the big Potential from the Game-Design-Engine with the Milestone-Parts already to outdate some of the direct rivals and esp. X1 completely.  

[Komandos]

On 10/31/2023 at 10:20 PM, Grobobobo said:

1.  LOS distance

This is by far the biggest fundamental change. Both games have an average effective weapon range of 20, but while in xenonauts 2 the soldier view range is 26, in xenonauts 1 it's 17. On top of that, in xenonauts 1 most of the alien sight range is 18, higher than xenonauts and well within the rifle range. This is massive, especially since the AI often abuses that fact. In x1, getting accurately shot from line of sight is very common, to the point where you have to paranoically smoke every possible angle the enemy can shoot you through. In xenonauts 2, it's switched. unless the aliens came out of a building, you will see them before they become a threat, and now YOU out-LOS them, because of sniper rifles. That makes overwatching in an open field a really effective strategy, especially since SR's no longer have a reaction fire penalty. The longer LOS is a good change, but it heavily benefits xenonauts.

The fact that the visibility range in X2 has increased - I consider this a great achievement for the game and a positive side of the game. Now soldiers do not need to walk in dense crowds (Macedonian phalanxes) to support each other with firepower. Now the player spends less time exploring the entire location (now the game requires the player to spend less time exploring the entire location). To complicate the game: - the viewing range of the aliens should be greater than that of the player's soldiers.

[ooey]

Hmm. I don't know about this. Perhaps play on ironman mode if you find it easier or something? I've only played about a month of the campaign (ironman  + middle difficulty setting) and find it pretty challenging. I think they said the Aliens will have smarter AI (along with the NPC friendlies) in successive updates, so maybe things will get tougher. 

I'm sure they will get the balance right in the end.

Edited November 13, 2023 by ooey

[Grobobobo]

3 hours ago, ooey said:

Hmm. I don't know about this. Perhaps play on ironman mode if you find it easier

I AM playing on ironman (well, honestman, the ironman option is a bad idea for buggy, unfinished games that crash), that's already implied, the soldier replacability wouldn't matter as much if you can just savescum.

Hard to say if they get the balance "right", as that's subjective. But if they want to keep the difficulty the same as the first game, then there's a lot of work to do, the ai changes likely won't be enough.

[Komandos]

5 hours ago, ooey said:

I'm sure they will get the balance right in the end.

 

1 hour ago, Grobobobo said:

Hard to say if they get the balance "right", as that's subjective. But if they want to keep the difficulty the same as the first game, then there's a lot of work to do, the ai changes likely won't be enough.

As soon as the player gets familiar with the game, the difficulty of the game for the player will change. (The game will become easy). Therefore, it is impossible to "find" the "perfect balance of the game" in advance.

Therefore, it is silly to look for the "perfect balance in the game". The best option is to provide the player with a large set of tools with which the player can independently adjust the strength of the opponent. (The easiest way to increase the enemy's strength is to increase the number of aliens and the physical capabilities of the aliens).

[Grobobobo]

1 hour ago, Komandos said:

As soon as the player gets familiar with the game, the difficulty of the game for the player will change. (The game will become easy). Therefore, it is impossible to "find" the "perfect balance of the game" in advance.

That's not true. Xenonauts 1 on insane/ironman is difficult regardless of your knowledge of the game. People who can beat long war rebalance on impossible/ironman number in single digits despite most players being familiar with the mod.

[ooey]

Ha. I think Insane on Xen1 was just too insane! I always played it on ironman though. I don't think it ever got easy per sae. A campaign will always have its ups and downs.

[Alienkiller]

Belongs on the Games you have played already in that Gerne or similar Gernes. 1/3 of the Gamers say Xenonauts 2 is hard, 1/3 of the Gamers say Xenonauts 2 is easy and the last 1/3 find it good ballanced.

But we all don´t have to forget that the Game isn´t finsished with Refits, Reworks, Gapfillings, Bugfixes etc. Means that we only know what is testable in Playing as well as read what the Devs can bring in for the existing Version and working on for the next Milestones.

When the Game get in the final Phase (and that won´t be in short or medium time, when you look in the To-Do-List you can see in the Main-Menue), then we will realy see how easy or hard it will be.

We all or the most of us have only the comparission from old X-COM-Row, Xeonauts 1 & UFO 1 Extraterestials or the newer Games of that Gerne (new XCOM-Row, Phoenix Point, UFO ET-Series incl. UFO 1 ET-Rework) on easy to hard Difficultys and Hardcore-Hook or special Hardcore-Difficulty-Setting as best examples.

I have looked an very interesstering special Interview from German Game-Magazines: There get explained what the Difficulty Settings mean and why about 75 to 80% of the Gamers use the middle Difficulty "in our Case Commander or how it get called in the Middle". After whatching this explenation it´s lighter to understood the very easy to with the Hook or special Settings Hell-Difficultys.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Alienkiller