Chris Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 It's time for our monthly development update, where I'll be taking this opportunity to talk about our plans for further updates and the eventual 1.0 release! Milestone 5 Public Release: Almost all of last month was spent working on the long-awaited Milestone 5, and yesterday we finally released it onto the standard Steam / GOG / Epic branches for everyone to play. This is a major update that adds a lot of new content to the game, but also allows players to unlock the final mission and win a campaign (the full changelog can be seen here). Overall, we're pleased with the way Milestone 5 turned out. I personally think that the addition of the Geoscape Supporters / Strategic Operations and the new Phase system have made the strategic layer a lot more engaging than before, and the new "UOO" missions add more variety to the second half of the game. We hope you all enjoy the update - many of these new systems are "extra" content (beyond what was in our original roadmap) that we've only been able to add because so many players have been willing to support an Early Access product! The next couple of weeks have been set aside to focus on fixing problems that people may experience in Milestone 5, so please report any bugs or gameplay issues you encounter and we'll do our best to fix them quickly. Milestone 6: In the meantime, we've started work on Milestone 6. This was originally intended to be a single large update that would bring the game all the way to final release, but Milestone 5 had such a long development cycle that we've changed our plans so players don't have to go so long between updates. The key goal for Milestone 6 is now to finish all the missing gameplay content - e.g. adding the final victory cinematic, adding all remaining research art, revamping the Air Combat to have an updated UI and a proper tutorial, adding the Soviet Town biome, etc. Essentially this represents completing the remaining content on our roadmap and finishing the areas of the game still marked as incomplete. We're also going to be adding some new content that we've already completed but never made it into Milestone 5. For example, we've got a full set of updated Sebillian models that we need to set up, and we're currently working on upgraded models for the Cyberdrone and Heavy Cyberdrone that make the two types more visually distinct. There's also a lot of new terrain tiles that we need to set up and add into our existing maps. Hopefully this means Milestone 6 will still feel like a substantial update, despite the changes to the game systems being largely limited to the air combat. Our aim is to have this update released on the public branches in three to four months. Pathway to 1.0: We'll then spend a few more months polishing up the game as we transition to our final 1.0 release, as there will still be plenty of things we want to improve. We'd like to spend some more time testing and improving the AI. We'd like to do a pass over all the maps. We'd like to optimise performance and load times a bit more. We need to build the mod tools. There's also a lot of sensible and relatively straightforward community suggestions that would improve the game. We probably won't have time to do everything we want, but we'll get as much in as we can! This means we're unlikely to add any major new features to the game beyond those already planned for Milestone 6. There was a lot of content on our original roadmap and we've gone beyond that on several occasions already (the new content in Milestone 5, the expansion to the Cleaners in Milestone 3, etc), so with our second anniversary of our Early Access launch approaching we need to shift focus from adding new content to polishing what we have. We're aiming for the 1.0 update to drop before the end of the year, but as always, we'll keep you posted. We'll have a better idea of the timetable once we're done with Milestone 6. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gG-Unknown Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Sounds good. I was a bit worried you rush the final polishing stage, it is a real plague in these days. Hopefully you make a grand release as in old days of retail stores. BTW : Steam is missing this monthly update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odizzido Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 Pretty nifty. I've been wanting to play for quite some time now and it's cool that the end is in sight. I assume that given how the game has been made that the 1.0 release will be pretty playable/bug free too which will be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mszczuj Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Super cool! Does the saves from Milestone 5 will be loadable on next milestone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 On 4/8/2025 at 11:01 PM, mszczuj said: Super cool! Does the saves from Milestone 5 will be loadable on next milestone? No, unfortunately not. We can't add big features like the air combat changes without breaking saves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ih8california Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 Chris, are you considering larger feature updates post-1.0 launch? On 4/1/2025 at 9:17 AM, Chris said: ...There's also a lot of sensible and relatively straightforward community suggestions that would improve the game. We probably won't have time to do everything we want, but we'll get as much in as we can!.... Will we get a roadmap (or list) of the community suggestions that WILL make 1.0? Are you considering larger 'new' features post-1.0? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gG-Unknown Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 16 hours ago, ih8california said: Chris, are you considering larger feature updates post-1.0 launch? Will we get a roadmap (or list) of the community suggestions that WILL make 1.0? Are you considering larger 'new' features post-1.0? It all depends the sales. If you can convince all your friends to buy 12 copies each, then it almost certain we get a basket full of DLCs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alienkiller Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 Exactly gG-Unknown. But it looks very good for DLCs since the Game is in the Early-Access-Sale. A lot of People sold it after the Milestones in the Early Access-Sells started. And the Game get better & better since the Main-Problems from the Betas get solved in Milestone 1, 2 and 3 since Milestone 4 and 5. So for the Comrades which are asking about unlayed eggs: When Milestone 6 with the for Reworks / Refits / Updates shortly closed already integrated Content / Features as well as not fully done Content / Features (like Missing Pictures for R & D, an advanced Air-Fight, Workshop-Upgrades for Fighters, Transports, Armors etc. like the existing Kevlar-Armor) for the later final Version get done we will see what the Devs and Publisher decide. The final Base-Game after Milestone 6 or 7 will show in what Direction the Game goes. Like Stellaris or Hearts of Iron IV shows, if you have an good Base-Game with a lot of Potential, then a lot of DLCs are Possible. And when the Modders can use the Base-Game and DLCs to give it an long Life togehter with the Devs and Publisher, then it´s possible to make an eventually Xenonauts 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdfcyber Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 On 4/1/2025 at 3:17 PM, Chris said: We need to build the mod tools. Yes please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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