Milestone 6.9.0 Released! (Experimental)

[Chris]

This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain!

Unfortunately this update breaks save game compatibility - the bug where the Battleships were not spawning in Phase 5 can't be fixed in existing campaigns. I'll put 6.8.0 on the Experimental Legacy branch so people can continue playing it, but you'll need to capture the Eternal on the UOO Bridge Assault mission alive if you want to complete the game.

Changes:

• The Air Combat section of the tutorial has now been added to the existing tutorial.
• Added the final side-on art for the aircraft weapons in the air combat UI.
• Added an explanatory popup when the first UOO mission is unlocked, explaining you need to click the new button to launch the mission (as people often don't notice it).
• Added a new blast door variant on the Xenonaut Base mission which can be manually opened like other types of door, and does not autoclose at end of turn.
• Set various glass doors to smash like windows when shot through.

Balance Changes:

• Autopsy projects now autocomplete after Xenobiology has been researched.
• Colossus Power Fist now has +20 Accuracy to compensate for the Colossus Reflexes penalty.
• Stealthsuit heavy armour variant now reduces Accuracy by -3 (previously 0).
• Some changes to the UOO Sabotage mission:
  • The enemies on the UOO Sabotage mission now all have Fusion weapons (as the player has already encountered enemies with Fusion weapons at this point).
  • One Heavy Cyberdrone has been removed from the mission crew.
  • The central building should now contain aliens again.

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a crash that would occur if you used startWithCheats.bat and pressed H during a tactical mission.
• Fixed Battleships not appearing in phase 5.
• Fixed shroud and fog of war not appearing inside UFOs.
• Fixed being unable to heal unconscious Xenonauts in some situations.
• Fixed Sentry guns sometimes visually appearing to be destroyed, but still being alive.
• Fixed Endgame part 1 map starting with the Chinook dropship present.
• Fixed an AI issue where enemies were strongly discouraged from moving through closed doors.
• Fixed laser weapons snapping back to view the shooter when firing at targets at long range.
• Fixed the subtitles not appearing over the intro cinematic.
• Fixed a text error in the Aircraft Weapon tooltip (the Lock Time line),
• Fixed autoclosing blast doors in ATLAS / Cleaner Base closing even if there was an AI unit stood in the doorway.
• Fixed some frill offset issues in the Western Town store map.

[gG-Unknown]

6 hours ago, Chris said:

Changes:

 

Changes:

• Added a new blast door variant on the Xenonaut Base mission which can be manually opened like other types of door, and does not autoclose at end of turn.
• Set various glass doors to smash like windows when shot through.

== good, both changes are improvement of gameplay. Perhaps add lights ON-OFF switch (useable by player)  to some sections, so there are dark rooms. Especially alien base need an gameplay improvement. Perhaps lights ON could stay just for 3-5 turrns (random), then it auto switch off again.

Balance Changes:

• Colossus Power Fist now has +20 Accuracy to compensate for the Colossus Reflexes penalty.

== power fist is stupid idea in the first place. Combat is based on reflex (reaction and speed) but colossus is made (described) as slow&barely moving machine. Even sound of foot steps are slow and golem-like. add artificial bonus to override lore just to make stupid idea work is wrong design.

Edited September 17, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[berk]

During my last playthrough in Milestone 5 (Veteran difficulty), Xenonaut vehicles had no armour hardness, even with fully upgraded armour, which made them very flimsy against alien fusion weapons, and they would almost always die in 2 shots, even with the heavy plating option checked. I don't know if that was an oversight or an intended feature, but they felt way more viable when I modded them to have similar hardness to soldier armour of the same tech tier.

Also, flat TU modifiers from Vanguard armour (positive modifier) or heavy vehicle plating (negative modifier) did not affect firing costs. This allowed soldiers with sniper rifles or machine guns to fire twice in the same turn(machine gunners with maxed strength ironically had more firepower in Vanguard armour than in Colossus armour) and hurt the firepower of heavily armored vehicles (if they had a cannon they couldn't fire an aimed (56% TU) and a normal (40% TU) shot in the same turn, and if they had rockets they couldn't fire 2 normal shots (50% TU) in the same turn).

Additionally, it felt like suppression inflicted by xenonaut weapons didn't scale enough with higher tech tiers, if it scaled at all. In the early and midgame, I could suppress aliens even with rifles, but in the late game a 10 round fusion machine burst at medium range very often failed to suppress an alien, allowing it to return fire and send my Colossus armoured soldier to the med bay for 2 weeks. Shock grenades became the only reliable way to suppress enemies.

Furthermore, Androns were weak overall, and didn't feel like a formidable terror unit. They often stood in the open and had a permanent aim bonus against them, but their stats were lacking across the board, and failed to make up for their weaknesses. Even Praetorian Androns weren't able to stand up to gauss or fusion weapons and often went down in one or two hits. They were much easier to face than wraiths or servitors.

Finally, explosives with high armour destruction were a very hard counter to Cyberdrones, because they damaged both their standard armour and their frontal armour at the same time. Once you had fusion explosives, all it took was one grenade launcher shot to strip most of their armour, allowing you to easily gun then down with any weapon from the front, instead of having to engage with their sound sensor mechanic(or at least having to fire more than one armor destroying explosive at them before going for the kill).

These were the features that felt most off-putting to me, and I hope they get addressed.

[Chris]

On 9/26/2025 at 4:35 PM, berk said:

During my last playthrough in Milestone 5 (Veteran difficulty), Xenonaut vehicles had no armour hardness, even with fully upgraded armour, which made them very flimsy against alien fusion weapons, and they would almost always die in 2 shots, even with the heavy plating option checked. I don't know if that was an oversight or an intended feature, but they felt way more viable when I modded them to have similar hardness to soldier armour of the same tech tier.

Also, flat TU modifiers from Vanguard armour (positive modifier) or heavy vehicle plating (negative modifier) did not affect firing costs. This allowed soldiers with sniper rifles or machine guns to fire twice in the same turn(machine gunners with maxed strength ironically had more firepower in Vanguard armour than in Colossus armour) and hurt the firepower of heavily armored vehicles (if they had a cannon they couldn't fire an aimed (56% TU) and a normal (40% TU) shot in the same turn, and if they had rockets they couldn't fire 2 normal shots (50% TU) in the same turn).

Additionally, it felt like suppression inflicted by xenonaut weapons didn't scale enough with higher tech tiers, if it scaled at all. In the early and midgame, I could suppress aliens even with rifles, but in the late game a 10 round fusion machine burst at medium range very often failed to suppress an alien, allowing it to return fire and send my Colossus armoured soldier to the med bay for 2 weeks. Shock grenades became the only reliable way to suppress enemies.

Furthermore, Androns were weak overall, and didn't feel like a formidable terror unit. They often stood in the open and had a permanent aim bonus against them, but their stats were lacking across the board, and failed to make up for their weaknesses. Even Praetorian Androns weren't able to stand up to gauss or fusion weapons and often went down in one or two hits. They were much easier to face than wraiths or servitors.

Finally, explosives with high armour destruction were a very hard counter to Cyberdrones, because they damaged both their standard armour and their frontal armour at the same time. Once you had fusion explosives, all it took was one grenade launcher shot to strip most of their armour, allowing you to easily gun then down with any weapon from the front, instead of having to engage with their sound sensor mechanic(or at least having to fire more than one armor destroying explosive at them before going for the kill).

These were the features that felt most off-putting to me, and I hope they get addressed.

Thanks for the feedback. To answer a few of the points:

• You make a good point about the lack of hardness on vehicle armour, that's just an oversight on our part. I'll get that fixed in the next update.
• The Vanguard TU modifiers issue is a known problem and is on our fix list, we've just not got round to it yet. I hadn't realised it affected the MARS too though. Maybe I'll bump the priority up a bit.
• Yeah, the suppression values don't scale at all. However, nor does the alien Bravery. So I'm surprised that it becomes harder to suppress enemies as the game goes on - the fundamental calculation should stay the same (other than enemies like Sebillians are harder to suppress than say Sectons, but that's true right from the early stages of the game).
• I can't actually remember if I buffed Androns in M6 or not, actually. I'll keep an eye on it.
• Yeah, this is sort of the bonus of taking the HEVY (or grenades). They make Cyberdrones much easier to deal with. Perhaps the armour destruction values are a bit too high on the fusion explosives though.