Milestone 6 STABLE General Balance / Performance Feedback Thread

[Chris]

Hello everyone - now Milestone 6 has been released onto the public branches, I've opened this thread so players can discuss their feelings about the game balance. Quite a lot has changed since Milestone 5, and you can see the full list in the Milestone 6 STABLE patch notes.

It'd be great if we could limit this thread to balance chat, rather than using it to make suggestions about new content we could add. Milestone 7 will be focused on balance and polish so we're really interested to know what enemies / items / tactics you guys think are overpowered or underpowered. As always, please remember to let us know what difficulty level you're playing on when you post your thoughts!

Game Performance:
We're also planning to optimise the performance of Xenonauts 2 as part of Milestone 7, so we'd really like community feedback on which parts of the game feel sluggish, suffer framedrops or just take an annoyingly long time to load. We've attached a list below of places we think might need improvement, so let us know if you've noticed any of these being particularly bad - or if you have your own suggestions for places where performance is lacking!

• Strategy:
  • Load Times into strategy layer
  • Switching UI screens (e.g. moving from Geoscape to Research screen, etc)
  • Geoscape - when UFOs spawn
  • Geoscape - when time passing at high speed
• Tactical:
  • Load times into tactical missions
  • General framerate when looking around the map
  • Duration of AI turn
  • Explosions

Thanks in advance to everyone that takes the time to share your feedback with us!

[Skitso]

• In general, Cleaners with their deadly double burst fire feel a lot scarier than aliens at the beginning of the game. 
• normal armed civilians (not soldiers or cops) are too good and shouldn't have rifles.
• Sebillian melee is good for nothing (low reflexes so it doesn't hit anything?) 
• Most important balance issue: There's way too much OP's available at the very beginning. This effects everything (number of supporters, amount of resources, being able to do extra crash sites etc.) and makes the phase 1 doomsday completely trivial:
  • At day 88, doomsday is averted and I have 325OP in bank with a passive gain of 15.5OP per day. I never needed to even think about using the 'reduce panic' operation. And this is me skipping 2 cleaner missions and one abduction mission resulting in - what, 90 extra doomsday damage?
  • Doomsday feels trivial after the latest balance changes. It stayed below 50 with almost no effort, and there was always enough OP's to drop it to 0 if I ever I felt like it. (I didn't) And this was even though I skipped the intel gather mission and all those juicy OP rewards!)
  • And I don't mean it should be super punishing, but currently, you don't even need to think about it.
• Accelerated weapons still feel like a trap and I'm not sure how to make them more of a choice. 
  • Making them a few days quicker to research? (not enough by itself)
  • Manufacturing time/cost could also be lower? (not enough by itself)
  • Only one project that upgrades all ballistics to accelerated? (not a fan)
  • Push Lasers / alenium power research a bit later? (could work, combined with the 2 above)
  • Add lasers' Alenium requirements a bit more? (This might be the best solution)
    • On my current playthrough I tried to research and build accelerated weapons as soon as I could but I still got lasers available and enough Alenium for them before I had a chance to use the accelerated weapons even once. Also, laser upgrades come so fast, it further encourages going for the lasers.
• There're quite a few missions back to back at the beginning of the game. Making Cleaner VIP assassination and data raid missions persistent would give more flexibility and I could prepare for them better.
• Cleaner HQ difficulty seems now pretty much spot on!
• First Terror mission difficulty was pretty much spot on!
• First Alien base mission difficulty was a tad on easier side, but not much. Maybe add some cannon fodder units with lesser gear to fill the space.
• I would suggest introducing sentry guns a bit earlier (Put one in the Cleaner VIP assassination command room maybe?)
• First 4 months there's too much alien materials available. I shouldn't be able to build everything available unless I complete delegation crash sites or spend OP for additional materials. Increasing laser weapon cost would fix this too.
• Aircraft are too long in transit and are repaired too quickly.
• UUO and ENDGAME missions should also be played with night rules, same as alien base missions

Regarding performance, things that aren't mentioned in the OP, are deployment phases and base defence missions. For some reason they feel quite sluggish at least on my system. Apart from that, the biggest performance related thing for me is the severe stuttering in geoscape that reveal the upcoming UFO waves. Loading times for me are already good enough.

Edited November 23, 2025 by Skitso

[gG-Unknown]

OUU the mainfraim mission is better now. However, the new waves of enemies should come in the shortening intervals.

1st wave then 3 rounds to next

2nd wave then 2 rounds to next

3rd wave then 1 round to next

4th wave then 1 round to next

The reason is, in the final wave, just before you teleport out, you should be surrounded by alien hordes. It is called escalation. Best would be, do not  announce total number of turns  in advance, keep something unknown. Rather make a  call each wave from Operative director : "Hold on, dude, we  are  working on downloading data." Then after another wave Operative director : " We are almost there" and so on. Build  up tension by story telling !

Edited November 24, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

On 11/22/2025 at 8:14 AM, Skitso said:

• UUO and ENDGAME missions should also be played with night rules, same as alien base missions

I gave you a like  sign to  your post few days ago, becouse I fully agreed  on  each line. Back then.

However, you continue  editing first post, then inevitable happens - Disagreement.

1. UUO and  Engame  should be normalised  as much  as possible, it is nightmare already to set difficulty right. At the end of game, people could  own very different  options. Therefore, lowering late  missions variables is a must. No night rules there.

2. UUO and Endgame are in spaceship OR other planet, so night rules  gives no sense  at all. 

[Skitso]

3 hours ago, gG-Unknown said:

2. UUO and Endgame are in spaceship OR other planet, so night rules  gives no sense  at all. 

Alien bases are played with night rules which to me implie that aliens don't need lights or are accustomed to darker environment. So with that logic it makes sense that all their environments shouod be dark.

But enough of that. This thread should be left for balance talk only.

[gG-Unknown]

24 minutes ago, Skitso said:

Alien bases are played with night rules which to me implie that aliens don't need lights or are accustomed to darker environment. So with that logic it makes sense that all their environments shouod be dark.

But enough of that. This thread should be left for balance talk only.

Setting eviroment variables  is the balance. Night missions are  harder.

Probably  I didnt  understand your  idea. I thought, that you want apply day / night changes on  UOO  / Endgame missions, based  on time arrival,  therfore I said, no more variables.

But it looks like, you reccomend set UOO / Endgame / Alien Bases to the same   (fixed) environment type ? it makes sense !  At leas  for UOO it should be. Not sure about the alien  planet, becouse there is an open sky.

About darkness in  alien bases mission type, I think it is an opportunity for an objective :

add generators which can be activated for  3 turns. It will make light in adjacent   area.

What  you think ?

Edited November 24, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[berk]

Night missions aren't that big of deal anyway. Your soldiers get infinite weightless flares, can throw them at least twice as far as a normal grenade and the flares last forever once thrown. Furthermore, there are always soldiers who end up not getting good opportunities for a clean shot(like a shield user, a shotgunner at long range or a machinegunner with no targets nearby), so they can instead spend that turn throwing 5 flares each and single-handedly illuminating half the map on the spot. Oh, and vehicles have headlights too, for good measure.

[gG-Unknown]

un-predictability and risk management

 

There  was  an  idea in tah past, use wide random dmg range on  hit. Fortunately, Chriss realised it  is not so positive change because  predictability of outcome was way too random. When randomness is too high, value  of player skill goes down. They  say, you  can let an ape choose a   company for stock investment, if  market goes up your outcome  will be the same as super-skilled trader  would achieve.

As result,  based on this experience,  Xeno2 use now the same random ranges Xeno1, >>  dmg 50 - 150% of weapon declared output.

 

I reccomend  to reduce  this range even more to 70 - 130% for firearms, to make combat more predictable. There is enough randomness from shooting  chance and AI decisions that is good enough to get different results even when battle starting conditions are the same.  Lowering the dmg range gives player better chance for conscious planing and relevant risk management.

Throwing weapons (ballistic curve  weapons) has  higher chance to  (almost)  hit intended  target, so  there  can be 50 - 150% as it is now. Also, explosives are more unpredictable in general, so   it would be nice to  simulate this part of reality in  form of different random  dmg  range for firearms vs explosives.

On  top of this   I want introduce new firearm  weapon property :

• Deadly - weapon is deadly, every hit cause serious damage. Projectile has enormous energy or size so  even a scratch is life threatening. Weapon damage range is 100 - 130%

Yes, it is  a property on a weapon which makes it even more predictable, so average dmg  of Deadly weapon is higher, but max dmg  is not. It introduces a class of very reliable weapons. Now,  which firearms should  get this property ?

• Sniper rifle
• MARS canon

Reality check : When a human gets hit by an high energy sniper bullet or a 20mm canon shell, you can not get a flesh wound. Never!  Holywood graze, or  even more (in)famous Holywood " clean_pass_thru_a_biceps" it would in fact, both cases,  rip  off the arm completely. Therefore, make a class of weapons which can not make low dmg is reasonable.

Both are large calibre one shot per round, high dmg  weapons, which could turn course of battle. Player rely on these rare special units to solve the hot problems. These units have low TU/dmg ratio, therefore high level of  variation result makes it counter-productive. It  also means, that these reliable dmg dealers can not rule timed missions,  for simple reason TU/dmg ratio is low,therefore player will not have enough of  time to reach mission goal.

Weapon design should produce ether  :

• low  chance of hit, but high max TU/dmg ratio (machine gun, bonus suppression on mg is perfect side  effect)
• high chance of hit, but low          TU/dmg ratio (sniper    gun)

Then  let player manage risk outcome.

WHY  DO WE NEED deadly WEAPON PROPERTY >>> When we have high dmg weapons with low fire rate AND low TU/dmg  ratio, then we NEED lower the outcome variable on hit. Otherwise it is a pure lottery then skill of player is irrelevant. You  can  let an ape makes decisions, results will have same probability to  success as veteran player.

Edited December 14, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

Soldier-Zombie-Ripper transformation  is much better now. I am not sure if previous version copied armour from soldier to zombie, but it looks to me it does now, and it is cool.

Anyway, recommendation is :

• Zombie do not breathe   = immunity to poison gas (I have seen a zombie get damaged by a Sebilian gas grenade)
• Zombie is bullet sponge = set the zombie HP as double of the max of the human victim  HP 

1. lets use the same mechanic  as copy  armour. this way, we  get weak zombies from civilians, but tough zombies from soldiers. Various zombies, diversity is needed !
2. Player should spend lot  of ammo&TU to kill it, that is the purpose. Zombie itself is almost harmless but creates an "tactical overload" by  eating all the bullets. Once we get mechanic established, we can fine tune HP multiplier for zombie transformation, Instead  of proposed double  HP, perhaps (3.2 * HP) will be optimal, who knows :-] )

• Zombie is scary              = use dread aura  (see link below ))

Edited December 22, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

Need for More more variety of opponents is often highlighted in game criticism. 

Cleaners faction need another archetype :

Riot_Knight

• agent_in_armour  (model already exists) with  a riot shield, baton and one stun grenade

All missions with cleaners should use at least one unit of Riot_Knight.

Archetype Riot_Knight can cover all   the levels of enemies you do.

For later missions ( like Ethernal quard), there can be Riot_Knight Praetorian with upgraded equipment (use higher  lvl of player tech for shield, baton  and stun  grenade)

Edited December 17, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[Skitso]

1 hour ago, gG-Unknown said:

Need for More more variety of opponents is often highlighted in game criticism. 

Cleaners faction need another archetype :

Riot_Knight

• agent_in_armour  (model already exists) with  a riot shield, baton and one stun grenade

All missions with cleaners should use at least one unit of Riot_Knight.

Archetype Riot_Knight can cover all   the levels of enemies you do.

For later missions ( like Ethernal quard), there can be Riot_Knight Praetorian with upgraded equipment (use higher  lvl of player tech for shield, baton  and stun  grenade)

Yeah, I agree in a way that the tactical gameplay needs more back and forth gameplay where I'm not able to kill all the visible enemies during my turn all the time.

One solution is to add more bulletspongey enemies. (Shields, more armor)

Other is making AI more varied to make certain units preserve their life better: flee, reposition, keep their distance and heal themselves more actively. I would love to see servitor actively move in to heal wounded aliens.

Edited December 17, 2025 by Skitso

[gG-Unknown]

3 hours ago, Skitso said:

Yeah, I agree in a way

not able to kill all the visible enemies during my turn all the time. / Yes

One solution is to add more bulletspongey enemies. (Shields, more armor) / look one post higher  to see bullet sponge zombie with  variable HP.

Other is making AI more varied to make certain units preserve their life better: flee, reposition, keep their distance and heal themselves more actively. / lets only hope

I would love to see servitor actively move in to heal wounded aliens.  / I almost cried  when  Criss  mangled  servitor recently. I agree, servitor  need to be SOMETHNG  else than regular sprite who shoot from 20tiles. Some changes  done are good like sniper vs rifle balance, but some are horrible. Servitor mangled and Shield nerf are products of Chriss head injury  i  guess.  Sorry I had to vent it out.

Edited December 17, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

Sebilians melee and healing

 

1. Sebilians Reaction stat is too low,  which makes them harmless in melee.  Sebilians should be "melee aliens with full-auto guns". According to  clases - Pilot, Engineer, Soldier, Soldier-Officer. Add reaction stat to support differentiation between classes highest combat class (probably SoldierOfficer) add 12points on Reaction stat , lowest (probably pilot)  add 2 points on Reaction stat. >>> This change supports idea of differentiation opponents.
2. Sebilians regen and hunger should be more visible. Successful Sebilian melee  attack adds half amount of  damage done as bonus  HP.  When player gets attacked, red number (HP dmg received)  appears above head of the  soldier AND (at the same time) green  number (HP healing) of half value  appears above Sebilian head. This way player  gets imminent feeling  that Sebilians are  literally feeding  on  humans.  >>> It is personal now!
3. Overfeed feature. Bonus HP  which Sebilian gets by feeding (melee attack)  could go  above the  initial max HP of the class.  Althou, natural regen only  work up to the initial max HP of the class,  ( the bonus HP from Overfeed feature do not auto-regen).  Sebilians who are allowed to Overfeed  on civilians in terror missions  can be insane. It  also means, Sebilians never  shoot (or  grenade) at unarmed civs,  but melee attack them. Harmless Civs  are a sort of a portable healing/buffing box. There should be a safety limit set like  : overfeed can  take up to 3 times of initial max HP to avoid ridiculous numbers. >>> This feature   adds mundane "Saving civilian" task brand new meaning.
4. Set colour of Sebilian blood to green. No more purple blood puddles below a  green victim !

 

On 12/17/2025 at 5:29 PM, Skitso said:

Yeah, I agree in a way that the tactical gameplay needs more back and forth gameplay

You mean like this Example :

Sebilian is spawned to start a map with 100HP. Unfortunately he gets hit  and make green pudle  of blood. His HP is reduced to 70. Now, he decide to not  attack the main threat - soldier but run  back where unarmed civilian is kneeling. On the  next turn he gets natural regen 20HP to rise his lifebar on 90HP. Also, He manage melee the civilan for 60dmg, it feeds him half of dmg done >>> bonus 30HP. His HP max is defined by class to 100, but Overfeed feature allows him  to  rise HP even higher on 120HP. Now he is buffed up, so he goes for Soldier again.

Edited December 22, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[Skitso]

1 hour ago, gG-Unknown said:

You mean like this Example :

Sebilian is spawned to start a map with 100HP. Unfortunately he gets hit  and make green pudle  of blood. His HP is reduced to 70. Now, he decide to not  attack the main threat - soldier but run  back where unarmed civilian is kneeling. On the  next turn he gets natural regen 20HP to rise his lifebar on 90HP. Also, He manage melee the civilan for 60dmg, it feeds him half of dmg done >>> bonus 30HP. His HP max is defined by class to 100, but Overfeed feature allows him  to  rise HP even higher on 120HP. Now he is buffed up, so he goes for Soldier again.

Something like that, yeah. Or a single secton running away, being overwhelmed by three of my units to team up with two psyons inside a building to gain a triangulation buff and better cover. Or instead of standing and fighting, a wraith could gain some distance and try to snipe my units from further away on top of a building. Or instead of charging directly into my units in overwatch, a mantid could go around the building and try to flank them. Or keep hunkering in cover and keep firing symbiots around him. Stuff like that.

Edited December 18, 2025 by Skitso

[gG-Unknown]

Difficulty Veteran diary

- with HealthBars over heads, One save only, no save scum. Reload allowed only for testing purposes   [  6.26 stable  ]

• 2nd abduction mission in Docks

6 sectons  as opponents where 2 killed by civilians - map feels empty,  large and deserted. All 4 Sectons I met had pistols, like clones. Shipping containers in 2nd lvl has no laders so they are unreachable, not even one. Many shipping containers on floor level has no laders. Totally boring  mission, satisfaction zero. Fix : add one more round  and 3 opponents. Make sure that there are at least  2 different opponents types on  a map !!! Make sure environment, (shipping containers) are  useable to climb on.

• my first air  combat in the new system

graphics ok, controls not ok. Unfortunately it plays THE SAME WAY as BEFORE! Why do I have  to control camera include zoom? Game should keep UFO in the Center of the screen AND auto-change zoom such way that all units are comfortably on the screen. I do Not like the gameplay, majority of input I am forced to do, is not about  air-combat but camera control and pause/unpause, WTF ? Check the coin-up Space invaders - how much control input is about camera and  pause - unpause ? That is how you do fun mini game.  Until air-combat is improved gameplay-wise, I am going to use auto resolve.

• Save  3 sergeant , The story mission

In the arctic, intense shoot-out. That is a good thing. Although, variation of opponents is not present, all clones, as usual. Also soldiers in mask did not  use any gas  related  attack or grenade. Just simple shooting. Also loot  is suspicious :

There were 7 cleaner  soldiers but  we did  not recover even one weapon or a  clip. What did they use  to shoot at me ?

FIX : add  lootable equipment on Cleaner Soldier , add  some  gas  related attack on Cleaner  Soldier Like a cone spray of  gas = 45 degree in front with  range of  4 tiles.

• Story mission Ambush convoy

great idea as a  concept  but it somewhat do not work. Probably weakest mission of the 4 story missions. FIX : There should be some spice, something funny. Perhaps add spawn Cleaner_driver ? In second round of battle next to each truck cabin spawn a Civilian model with Knife and MedKit. He  can heal his team mates (cleaner) or  rush froward with a knife. No armour, average Civilian stats. This unit is adding something fun on top, is not ment to be decisive.

• 3 rd abduction mission

Properly though mission. Soldier Cleaners and Mantids. Unfortunately Mantids did not have their signature weapon Symbiont louncher.

Loot of Cleaner soldier is definitely wrong see : Also abduction  tubes are bugged again, I wrote a special bug report on that.  On top, it is difficult to link mission briefing to after mission  report. In the  after mission report, I  dont see what I have actually done. "Locals survived" are not  locals  saved from tubes. It is chaotic. Also I dont know why I get 26 aloys, links are missing. Target and results = Briefing and after-combat reports = those two are in pairs, and should  match, but they dont.

• VIP extraction mission

very fun. I land at night, lots of smoke and few  demo packs. Knives as sidearm.  Idea is : " When they dont see you,  they cant shoot you. Smoke and Darkness." I  got some minor hits but killed 7. I have seen several vids of this mission exactly, but people are scared from night missions in general, dont realise that darkness could  be advantage. That is  sad. Perhaps add a hint to the briefing for suborn players.    The  green sentence above

• First UFO Scout

Opponents Mantids (about 8 pcs) with one Simbiont Louncher and one Mentarch. Some Mantids had pistols at least one had something bigger. Good map, good opponents, good difficulty.

• Cleaner   data Raid story mission

I like idea of this map, and  current layout  is  polished enough.  I know in advance what awaits me,  so I mop  a floor with  opponents. I  had 3  accelerated rifles and a accelerated sniper.  Accelerated weapons safely one shot  opponents! I  have seen complains that  accelerated weapons are  noob trap, and  should be always  skipped. I do  not agree. Accelerated  could be  skipped, OR they  also  could give you  edge for  few  missions. Current  setting accelerated  vs lasers  is fine,  do not change  it. It offer opportunity for different approach which  is perfect !

  I enjoyed the fact,  I could steal  a bonus loot (cleaner  SMG,  and cleaner bodies) on the way out. Difficulty  is OK, for  a  new player it will  be a serious challenge. I made a bug report how to fix Cleaner soldier loot,  do it please. We, the players want loot. More loot,  more better.     

Anyway improvement :  Set the the reinforcement come  softly. First wave  1 soldier in each  of 3  directions.  Then  rise  size of each group  by  one soldier in  another  wave. It gives  a player chance to  backpedal. Current status feels more  like a hit to the wall in high speed.  If the player do not know what  will  happen,  it most probably  be a massacre or a rage quit. An  old experience  of  DungeonMaster in ADaD says  : "Player should  win,  if  they are not totaly dumb."  However, if you simply kill the player by  sudden overwhelming reinforcement, it means =  bad Dungeon Master.

• Capture  Cleaner Leader

The  best story mission. It has main objective with a variant (kill  or capture) AND side objectives which are  spread all around map,  so player can not gather them all. ( Map,  mission  design, idea,  difficulty )  =  all  spot on. 7 soldiers of 8 use accelerated weapons. I do not use grenade luncher because I do not like save  scum after  random shot.

Improvements : Reinforcements  should arrive  softly. First  wave  should always  be one Cleaner soldier per  group. Cleaner agents with  ballistic vest are using default rifles, it means not valuable  drop. It has to  be fixed,  all drop MUST  be  valuable. I carried two Cleaner bodies to  chopper  as loot because I could not take  their  weapons.  That  is  bad.

• Crash site 2 Destroyer

Sebilians and Mantids  about half to  half,  plus Mentarch. Total  14 opponents which is adequate.  Nice thing is, 4  of 6 Mantids used signature weapon The Symbiont launcher, good. Rest of the opponents used various weapons, also they had  one  grenade in their  inventory, which is  balanced. Nice variants of opponents. I  have lost a soldier because I was greedy to capture another Sebiliand.

Map is build site, which suffer mundane colour  selection. Whole  map uses  the same red-brown palette. Worst situation is, when you look at second level, with partially discovered map, it is very difficult recognise what  part of map is first floor,  and what  is second. Improvement : Floor of the  building on the second level need some very colourful pattern. Best would be, that first floor of the  building use also some colours, but different. Whole map is difficult to read and feels bleak.

• 4th Abduction mission Boreal

1 shield,1 sniper,6 rifles all accelerated weapons gave me an edge. I was lucky anticipating  where opponents are, and RND hit chance was merciful. 9 oponents is adequate. PROBLEM  : I have saved all 10 tubes (reduced Doomsday  by  30%), pretty rare achievement, but after mission report do not  show my result ! Locals Survived 10/11  in Mission Information table  is bullshit. Doomsday  counter is silently reduced but thats all. Satisfaction zero.

To FIX  : "Cleaner Soldier"  should create "Cleaner Soldier Corpse" NOT "Cleaner Corpse" agents and soldiers do different corpses so  make it clear. Also, I  have noticed, this version  of Cleaner drops  "Ballistic Rifle"  but I  do not  have  any new item in warehouse.  Unfortunately I didnt make a screnshot of a this drop, but this is total annoyance. I get a drop, finally it counts, but I can not sell anyway. FIX IT  !

 

============== Phase  II =============

• Crash site 3 Destroyer 2nd

dockyard map is very nice. Sebilians and Mantids plus a Mentarch. Mantids had just one Simbiont louncher.

• Crash site 4 Scout 2nd

jungle map at night. After a while I tryed night mission crash site. Not good. Problem : Aliens shoot from shroud made by  darkness like if they see like in  daylight.  Same for sectons and mentarch, they ignore darkness. This part of game is still early beta. No night mission any more.

Mission is nice, loot is nice. Althou One of my soldier was wit in 100 percent cover. I wrote a bug report. Although healthy amount of enemyies, all are clones again. No interest, boring oponents.

• day 110 :  Cleaner HQ

1 shield, 2 laser mg,2 laser rifles,3 accelerated rifles, 2  medkits, plus  bonus dmg on lasers

Beautiful map, lots off details,  nice colour pallete, the final room with  the Stargate device is superb. All the PC with orange&black screen that  is classic. Whoever did this deserve extra cookie.  Nice touch is 2 cleaner leaders which provide 50k sell  price if kidnapped. This version Cleaner soldier gives sellable loot (Cleaner Accelerated rifle) which is also nice. Laser mg is beast, I like the havock it does in a room  full of furniture and  agents.  Well done !One soldier  died in a  serious shoot-out on the corridor crossroad with  a sentry tower supported by  2 soldiers, but 30% chance  of  survival was merciful, so no  loses this time. Aim bonus of laser weaponry is useless, because  all soldiers at this  moment has accuracy higher. (even recruits)

One big compliment for new Cleaner  Accelerated rifle ! It offers slightly better numbers than player could produce. Perfect. I  have recommanded this system for lower levels of  Cleaners, apparently  you start to apply it  from  top to down. Good, now  make also new  sell-able guns  for lower level cleaners which are a bit better than deffault rifle ( which is  available  for free).

• First  terror mission  Soviet Town

1  shield accelerated pistol, ( 1 sniper,  2 mg,  2 rifles  ) laser , 2 cleaner accelerated rifles

Map is well done, it feels like an industrial soviet suburb. 12 opponents but 3  were killed by civs. Armour around 20.  9 opponents left for me is way too weak.  Terror misson without Reapers  is nonsence. Psyonics can not controls civs. In general boring mission. On top, large amount of corners made my shield useless.   The new  "narrow  shields  feature"  are better not to use at all. Shield reduces  firepower but not  rise safety.

• day 148 Landed Obsever

1shield, 2mg,4rifles = all fully upgraded  lasers, 2 medkits

Fun mission, I was very carefull, went slowly and shortest way to the UFO. Captured UFO , but then I discovered it cut my loot, so I have to reload and go as  usual. Win by capturing UFO is badly done.

Map, amount of oponents ok. 5 mantids 4 of them had luncher is nice. FIX Sebilians did not had even 1 grenade, that is bad !

=====================

I will add  an short  report on each  mission, by editing  this post. As long as I dont  get totally bored.

Edited Wednesday at 07:30 PM by gG-Unknown

[gG-Unknown]

 Doomsday counter dissipate without any link or influence in  second chapter,  when panic is the main driver.

When 2nd chapter start, panic of all regions is  50.

FIX : Transform Doomsday counter into panic. Simple split will do. For example >>> Doomsday 64 % transforms into 64 / 6 (regions) = 11 bonus panic for each region. It means, instead of 50 it would be 66.

This  simple fix also prevents, bad   gameplay  habit, when player let Doomsday rise in the end of 1st chapter, because it doesn’t matter. Player should  feel stress and do meaningful decisions all the time

Edited January 1 by gG-Unknown

[Skitso]

15 hours ago, gG-Unknown said:

 Doomsday counter dissipate without any link or influence in  second chapter,  when panic is the main driver.

When 2nd chapter start, panic of all regions is  50.

FIX : Transform Doomsday counter into panic. Simple split will do. For example >>> Doomsday 64 % transforms into 64 / 6 (regions) = 11 bonus panic for each region. It means, instead of 50 it would be 66.

This  simple fix also prevents, bad   gameplay  habit, when player let Doomsday rise in the end of 1st chapter, because it doesn’t matter. Player should  feel stress and do meaningful decisions all the time

Good idea in theory. But lore wise it doesn't make sense to convert doomsday directly into panic as they both represent completely different things. (tension between nations vs. people freaking out on extraterrestrial invasion)

You are right about the issue where doomsday doesn't matter in the end of phase 1 though. It's something that Chris does need to find a remedy for. 

[gG-Unknown]

6 hours ago, Skitso said:

(tension between nations vs. people freaking out on extraterrestrial invasion)

You are right about the issue where doomsday doesn't matter in the end of phase 1 though. It's something that Chris does need to find a remedy for.

Tension between nations is done by people who freaks out. Just look at BBC it is perfect example, broadcast service who has one sole purpose, create fear where is none AND suppress real threat.

If nation panic becouse of aliens or whether change doesnt matter. Panic state has no logic. Once people start to sell bitcoins, it is a form of panic, based on pudding. Reasons how it started are not relevant or logical.

 

Have you heard the story : 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Russians_are_coming

United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal in 1949. In full, Forrestal said "The Russians are coming. The Russians are coming. They're right around. I've seen Russian soldiers." Then he committed suicide by jumping  out of the window on 16th floor. It happened in city Bethesda US, closest russian military was about 10  000 miles away.

That is perfect example of Domsday incoming transformed into Aliens incoming.  In the year 1949 nuclear race was in full swing, Doomsday was very real, and wealthy people in US build a bunker under his house to survive a Russian invasion. Very similar to today Russophobia build up since 2014 by media and military complex.

Average US citizen cant differentiate Russian and alien, In fact, they use word alien for any foreigner.

Edited January 2 by gG-Unknown

[Kamehamehayes]

It's been a long time since I played Xenonauts 2 (mostly since my college classes have been very difficult). I finally had some free time, and played a little bit of the newest stable build (right before the first medium ufo). I just want to get my thoughts out quickly on the general balance so far. 

I also played on veteran if that's relevant

- The OP point mechanic seems pretty trivial right now. I just got a lot of points and was able to take out/recruit any supporter I needed so it just felt like an afterthought most of the time. I essentially just grabbed the cheapest supporter at any given time, and it seemed to work out fine for me. 

- I frankly don't like that the reinforcements can act in the same turn they spawn, and I also don't like that I don't know where in particular they do spawn. It just feels unfair when it feels like I cannot do anything to deal with the reinforcements before they are able to attack me. I feel like this can be easily fixed by not allowing the reinforcement to shoot you the same turn they spawn in (but are still able to move and take cover) and/or highlighting specific areas of the map where the reinforcement will spawn on enemy phase. To compensate for making the reinforcements easier to deal with, I think the reinforcement should also spawn in a turn or two earlier than normal. 

- The whole overwatch mechanic feels weirdly tuned to me. I've noticed that the enemies seem to activate overwatch shot more often and with much higher accuracy than my on soldiers. It felt like my soldiers hit their overwatch shots like a fourth of the time and the enemies hit their overwatch shots like half the time. I also noticed some weird things where my MARS seems to activate overwatch shots more often than even my rifle or shotgun soldiers. Sometimes, I run into a situation where an enemy takes a shot at me and for some reason the MARS is the first unit to take a shot back instead my three shotgun guys nearby. I don't know if this is a case of me not understanding of how the mechanic works or if it is actually behaving strangely. 
 

On 11/22/2025 at 12:14 AM, Skitso said:

On my current playthrough I tried to research and build accelerated weapons as soon as I could but I still got lasers available and enough Alenium for them before I had a chance to use the accelerated weapons even once. Also, laser upgrades come so fast, it further encourages going for the lasers.

- I kind of disagree with @Skitso  with how the accelerated weapons are now balanced. It feels like the accelerated weapons are much more balanced now than they were in previous milestones. I was able to unlock accelerated weapons early on and use them for almost two in-game months before acquiring laser weapons, and I was also gunning for laser weapons as soon as I had acquired alienium. And even when I acquired laser weapons, I did not have enough alienium to fully equip most of my team with laser weapons, so I end up still using accelerated weapons on some of my guys anyways.

- I'm very confused as to how @Skitso and I had very different experiences with accelerated weapons in this build. It's almost the exact opposite experience as I had. I'm very interested in seeing how that happened. 

[jamoecw]

I played after a long time of not playing and things are much better than even a year ago. The cut scenes are nice, the little dialog for important story missions, and I can finally defeat the aliens (Endgame Mission).

I used to grab the laser weapon for aircraft and drop everything else until plasma (I think that was the late game weapon that replaced the laser), and I still like the weapon but it doesn't seem like such a massive upgrade over everything, including missiles, so the air combat seems balanced now.

As you progress in the missions it seems like they tend to concentrate around your landing craft more and more, like before, which means about mid game the missions are 2 or 3 turns of very careful commands with 10 or so turns after that of mopping up the remaining 4 or 5 aliens. This has been a common thing and most Xcom like games tend to do this in order to boost the intensity without throwing a ton of enemies at you and eating up your limited supplies. The only thing I would be careful with for this is the cyberdrones, as a bunch of automatic explosive rounds on turn 1 or two while you are getting your guys out of the craft is a bit unfair (and why in the real world they don't drop the door on an APC in front of the enemy if they can help it, but instead do it near the combat and have them transit into combat using spacing and cover). I have only encountered this once in my playthrough, and I made sure to rush the best armor for my guys so they ended up surviving and winning the mission (lost all my MARS though, but that tends to happen on most of my missions since I use them for the risky stuff).

Grenades seem to follow the same aiming rules as the guns, so if someone is throwing a grenade through a window and has a poor chance due to that they might drop the nade at their feet instead of hitting any of the obstacles that make the throw hard.

Trying to shoot over the shoulder of the guy in front of you that is also kneeling sometimes doesn't happen, unlike Xenonauts 1, though the UI tells you this might be the case.

 

All of these are pretty minor quibbles, and I am very happy with the game. I am more than happy to back your next game, no matter what it is at this point.

[gG-Unknown]

Overloading  soldiers improved so it is total toxic gameplay which throws weight management out of the window.

 

Last milestone I have  recommended to restrict  send  overloaded  soldiers on  missions, nothing  happened.

Well, actually it is even worst, you  have added  a feature that  TU reduction for weight is immediately refunded.

Here is  result, watch about  10 minutes to  see a team load-out and "fun" which comes from the first round of the mission. Fully toxic :

 

Edited January 6 by gG-Unknown

[Skitso]

4 hours ago, gG-Unknown said:

Overloading  soldiers improved so it is total toxic gameplay which throws weight management out of the window.

 

Last milestone I have  recommended to restrict  send  overloaded  soldiers on  missions, nothing  happened.

Well, actually it is even worst, you  have added  a feature that  TU reduction for weight is immediately refunded.

Here is  result, watch about  10 minutes to  see a team load-out and "fun" which comes from the first round of the mission. Fully toxic :

 

Agree. This madness needs to go.

Also, checking that old Milestone 5 balance thread, it's full of great proposals that would improve the game. I hope Chris checks it through once more with a thought.

Edited January 6 by Skitso

[Chris]

Yes, it probably makes sense to add some kind of weight limit on soldiers on the soldier equip screen.

[Chris]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I've given it all a read and noted down several things to evaluate in the balance pass for Milestone 7.

[jamoecw]

On 1/6/2026 at 6:53 AM, gG-Unknown said:

Overloading  soldiers improved so it is total toxic gameplay which throws weight management out of the window.

 

Last milestone I have  recommended to restrict  send  overloaded  soldiers on  missions, nothing  happened.

Well, actually it is even worst, you  have added  a feature that  TU reduction for weight is immediately refunded.

Here is  result, watch about  10 minutes to  see a team load-out and "fun" which comes from the first round of the mission. Fully toxic :

 

I never really did that (overloading troops to get a stash on the dropship like in the original game had by default) in X1 or this game, but I can give some pointers:
The smoke is not cover, it seems like cover, but it isn't and it impairs you as much as the aliens, so using like cover is not the best idea. Use it to cover an exfill to a defensible location or to prod the enemies into moving in certain directions.

Cover for you is good, cover for them is bad, so so as the aliens did and destroy cover with the explosives and then finish with normal weapons. You can also destroy cover to gain entry into buildings instead of using doors, or to gain vision on areas with less risk to your men.

The MARS robots are better than new recruits, but worse than veterans, use them for dangerous things like peaking corners or vanguard scouting. Better to replace them than a soldier.

Snipers have good range, so good they can hit most aliens outside their line of sight if you use spotters and good locations. Since it usually takes a few TUs to trigger overwatch someone can poke their head out so a sniper can take the shot, the alien overwatches on the person firing or using TUs, so the sniper is safe if it is outside the LOS, and the spotter is safe since it is not using the TUs or attacking.

If you are going to sit in a location use good cover and shape the terrain to fit you, knock down troublesome buildings or walls, use destructible high ground well outside the range you spot and thus engage the aliens. Have fall back positions of cover and concealment. Ensure the aliens have blind corners they enter your 'area' through so you get the overwatch on them, a shotgun to the face might drop an alien at once.

Aliens don't heal, but just like your troops might stop bleeding they might as well. If one is injured and you don't have to deal with it and can keep it out of the fight let it lose health before it wants to fight some more, and use that time to deal with it more effectively, set up traps (either with overwatch or C4).

Shield units are great for tanking shots from one direction, so you can use them to eat the overwatch of an enemy before you bum rush them with close quarter weapons for a cheaper cost most of the time than a flashbang. Though flash bangs help eat the TUs for their turn incase things don't go right. This also means that if a shield unit in cover is the first thing an alien sees when assaulting your position and they are eager to fight, they will typically fire at the shield unit before looking around for nearby shotgun units.

LMGs while not long range weapons are better to be used at ranges of moderate chances to hit, since if they land most of their shots then they will do a lot more damage than probably any other weapon you bring. They are not great at overwatch so don't get too close though. The % to hit is for the first shot and the later ones drop due to recoil which is countered by strength, but never completely (even at 100 strength) so 50% is less than 50% for later shots. They also do their damage with each shot, letting them destroy cover and hitting the enemy behind that cover.

Kneeling makes you harder to hit and increases your chance to hit, this is very good for its cost.

Enemies need TUs for overwatch, so if you attack from different sides and the enemy spins around to get eyes on your forces but you use little enough Tus so they don't get a shot off you can spin them around so they get a less aimed shot or no shot on your troops.

Heavy armor is great at keeping your troops alive. Accuracy is great at keeping your troops alive. These are not equal but depending on how you use your troops depends on which one is more useful for which troop.

Hiring troops for a given purpose is important, and then using them appropriately for the mission. As the troops level up their skills they can do great things, but that takes a while so early and mid game they should be used based on what they are good at which means that no one tactic will carry the day as you won't always have the right troops for what you want to do and so you will need to know 3 or 4 ways to deal with any situation or enemy. It also means that better armor is something that helps you snowball and also helps you have the right tool for the job at hand. This means that being ahead of the curve on armor and using your men correctly can get you to late game without any weapon upgrades (the weapon upgrades are still helpful though so don't skip them entirely).

Buildings and civilians are good to save, but if you must do a mission and don't have good troops then level everything in a strategic and systematic manner. Do it to avoid checking corners, or clearing buildings, or dealing with defensible positions, as well as shaping the terrain to ensure that you have the best advantage when facing the aliens. The civilians? try to keep them alive in this situation as they are forward alien detectors that eat up alien TUs that aren't being used against your men. You can use smoke to flush an alien from a good position once they target a civilian into a bad position. If the civilian dies then that was its job, and later when you have better troops you can do better.

 

I only have a little over 150 hours in Xenonauts 2, so I probably missed some things, but I do have 300+ hours on Xenonauts 1 and maybe 600 on the original XCom games (the first two since the second is roughly a reskin, I have played the other XCom games a fair bit as well and the UFO series, and other games like XCom), but each game is a bit different and there have been lots of patches. One of the things that Xenonaughts does well relative to the other games is destructible terrain, though the UFO outer walls in X2 is non-destructible. Most likely due to balance as all other games tend to drop this during development if they include it. It reminds me of XCom Apocalypse, and the explosives are cheaper to bring and make use of, so you can use this to your advantage earlier on when you are still adjusting to the game over the others but once you do it should change your early game tactics. Similar to night missions and the flares, the other games had it, but I am pretty sure the aliens in Xenonauts also have limited vision unlike most of the others (technically they had limited vision but aside from the UFO games they had less impairment than you, in the UFO games they just had innate access to different vision modes).