Very long review

[Lighterius]

First of all, I want apologize in advance for any and all grammar/spelling mistakes here as English in not my native language and hope I’ll be able convey what I mean.

2 years ago I rage quit the game and left a negative review on steam because I thought the game was simply not fun and extremely frustrating. And I always loved X-Com series since I was a kid. Really wanted to love this game as well.

2 weeks ago I decided to have another go at it and finished it on Commander difficulty. Did anything change? Well, I finished the game, so obviously - yes. I'm gonna change my steam review to positive and suggest the game to my friends (that is if they want to set their asses on fire). However, atm I don't think I can give it more than 7/10 (probably 6.5) (note that completely average game is 5/10, and 10/10 is an insane masterpiece).

The game has very very high potential and the devs really improved it, but there are still a lot of problems to be sorted. This is my take on it and would love to hear where I’m right or wrong. Also, note that this is an opinion for Commander difficulty only and things may work differently on lower levels.

Basic gameplay:

1. Freakishly insane randomness to the point where it's not even funny. And it expresses itself mostly in damage ranges which can vary anywhere between 2 and 60 even in phase 1 (strangely enough I’ve never seen damage 1, but 2 – multiple times). Why? What's the mechanic of damage calculation? I can't think of any plausible reason to valid this kind of range. And I couldn't get used to it even in the very end-game where it ranges between 2 (if you have armor) and 150. Which in turn leads to problem 2.

2. Way too many one-shots. It is a miracle if your soldiers survive even 1 hit. A lot of the time they don't, no matter what rank they are or what armor they wear. Maybe Colossus or Vanguard will forgive 1 hit on max medals Colonel, but even then I had a lot of one shots. That is not okay. I do not believe this game can be completed without getting shot at and every one of them can insta kill. I think it would benefit to double or even triple HPs. I don’t think anyone likes this mechanic because it is not skill based. If instant death mechanic is implemented in the game it should be telegraphed so players can avoid it with skill.

3. Save scumming is the only possible way to complete the game on Commander. I do not like save scumming, I always try to avoid it if possible, but as a player I just can't calculate anything. Enemies can appear from every crack - doors, corners, teleport pads - and simply kill. There is no warning and there is no real comeback mechanic. If your top squad dies - it's all downhill from here and game over. Suggestion: motion tracker, like in aliens movie. Maybe not precise location, but general direction and approximate range. Maybe to balance it - make it work only if enemies are moving certain distance or making noise (current sound effects are not enough).

4. Lack of variety. All enemies feel the same - they run around, they shoot gun. I couldn't care less what's in front of me - a lizard, a psyon or a wraith. They are all the same. The only enemy I loved and respected was the Cyberdrone (that flying roundy tanky thingy). Its design is extremely cool - you can either pour into it from the front with a lot of guys or use tactics to get behind it. Really awesome and would love to see more designs like that. All other enemies don't have anything special about them. Even eternals are dudes with guns. Suggestion: make every enemy have its own quirk. Wraiths are snipers who stay at maximum range and shoot, retreat when someone is getting close. Psyons don't have guns but can use psychic abilities that can inflict damage or induce panic (maybe soldiers’ will and psyshield will be useful then). Lizards can stay the way they are as frontline brutes. Androns can be straightforward weapons platform and have 2 different weapons but they don’t take cover or something like that. Remove reapers - they simply suck. Or at least make them feral, so they always charge player using the shortest path even if it leaves them in the open.

5. AI has maphacks. It always knows where player's soldiers are. Just remove it, please. It butchers any kind of tactical gameplay.

Tactical missions:

6. The lack of variety goes for mission types as well - there is not enough of them. In my playthrough I have completed 33 missions, 5 (?) of which were plot missions, 2 alien bases, 1 base defense, 2 terror missions and 1 abduct. I think the rest were UFO related. The 2 "free" UFO crashes are fine, don't make less of them, make more of other random missions pop up. And on terror missions Alenium bombs don't even work, it's the same pew-pew-pew mission. 

7. Half of the armor types are useless and need rework. Enemies are always 1 level above in terms of weapons compared to player's armor and therefore Warden and Guardian armors don’t protection. If I left soldiers in Tactical armor it would feel absolutely the same - death in 1 shot. The first armor that really provides at least something new is Stalker (not survivability though). The first REAL armor is Colossus. Don't have any meaningful suggestions, maybe integrate simple exoskeleton to Guardian armor (+strength, +accuracy)? No idea what to do with Warden though.

8. Weapons were not created equally as well. In the early game I had to use mostly shotguns and rifles because of lack of TUs. Late game - shotguns and HMGs only. Other weapons just don't have enough firepower. I tried but couldn't figure out why would I bring sniper rifle, it requires a lot of TUs, doesn't have extreme amount of damage, doesn't headshot, has penalties for cover, and most maps don't have long corridors to shoot. Maybe if it ignored cover I'd find a place for it. Same goes for a rifle in the end-game, it has no redeeming quality compared to HMG which is simply a better rifle. Shotguns are fine. 

9. Recruits don’t scale with difficulty as game progresses. New recruits are viable only in the first half of the game (phases 1,2,3 max). In phases 4 and 5 recruits just don’t have enough stats to compete with aliens and always die in 1 shot regardless of anything. And late-game random missions are insane in terms of difficulty, much harder than plot missions. I was researching Endgame and had a random terror mission pop up with wraiths/andrones/servitors as enemies. Tried to do it with a squad of Lts and got owned. Managed to kill 5 enemies on turn 1, then another 12 come from every direction and just annihilate Lts (all wearing either Colossus or Vanguard). I think I could have won with save scumming, but honestly, my thought was that I couldn’t be bothered. I didn’t have problems with terror and didn’t need resources.

10. Corners are confusing. Sometimes I can't shoot when standing next to a corner but the enemy can shoot me. Why? Maybe if a rifle was nimble enough to shoot around the corner (with a penalty perhaps) than it would always have a use. Also I think soldiers should be able to peak or throw grenade around a corner when standing next to it. It's just common sense (?). Corners just feel weird in this game.

11. Overwatch is very bad and needs rework. You just can't rely on it. I had a situation when I had a firing line of 10 soldiers ready to breach a UFO (5 crouched + 5 behind them), all of them had TUs for a shot. Lizard opens the door, turns around, takes a couple of steps back, turns around, murders 3 guys with a volley. No overwatch. If I can't rely on it than why would I use it? Current overwatch requires player to sacrifice precious TUs for something that might not even trigger. This is most annoying when facing reapers, which can just waltz up to you and murder. Honestly, I think if a soldier has TUs left for a shot, then overwatch should always trigger on the first enemy movement.

12. Explosives and grenades feel very underwhelming. Booms should go big and hard. Grenade thrower and regular grenades can’t kill aliens in 3 hits in the late-game so I just stopped using explosives entirely. Explosions should just get a massive damage buff. Smoke on the other hand is fantastic, really awesome. Same goes for flashbang. But grenade throwing is a bit too expensive in terms of TUs, a 10-20% reduction in price would be cool.

Strategic map and aerial combat.

13. Operation points (OP) are the most valuable resource. You can buy cash, alenium and alloys, reduce panic and recruit supporters. So it seems a bit weird that most of it comes from passive income. I'd love to see more missions in which I can get OP as a reward for a job well done but less passive income. And I also thought that Cleaners got eliminated too early, it's a waste. Suggestion: Maybe more Cleaners missions in Phases 1,2,3 with more OP rewards.

14. Supporters, like weapons, are not equal, most notably the security and intelligence ones. Intelligence supporter provides valuable OP daily. And security supporter reduces panic by 1 globally +1 in a region once a month! My game lasted for 11 months, so it was ~20% panic reduction in a region over the course of the whole game, basically just 1 terror mission. It is so insignificant. Suggestion: add a passive regional bonus to security supporter which allows the first soldier to die in a mission instead survive with critical wounds. Can't say much about money, science and manufacturing supporters - they exist.

15. Way too few resources in the early game and way too many in the late game. I got the feeling that after the first alien base I was swimming in Alenium and alloys (big UFOs also helped), had enough cash to actually build bases, manufacture everything I want and didn’t feel the need to make compromises in spending resources. Also, would love to see base presets (like soldier load-outs) when constructing them. Something like a make base with 1 radar + 2 hangars + 2 queued fighters (assuming the workshop on other base is free) which are being constructed at the same time as the base is being built and then delivered when hangars finish for a total of *insert sum* cash and resources. Also, maybe lower the price of building a base but increase the price of maintaining it because it is too expensive to get another base up and running in the early- and mid-game when you have many other things to research and manufacture.

16. Air battles are fine but I can’t shake the feeling that something is missing. Maybe add pilot behaviors? “Maintain distance”, “close-up dogfight”, etc. Right now it’s just fly to the point and shoot. Micromanagement is possible but it’s not exciting: pause-resume-pause-resume. Also, the difficult fights are in the mid-game. Late-game is too easy, cruisers and battleships are just bullet sponges that don’t pose a threat. They need more escorts.

17. The Gemini fighter is a huge power spike compared to Phantom. Two Geminis can destroy any UFO group with no hull damage easily. Angels and Phantoms are very similar. Phantoms need a little buff I think, maybe to their evasion roll cooldown and speed or maybe some kind of new ability.

18. Air modules are too simple. I have never used fuel module because never had problems with range (the limiting factor is radar range rather than fuel). In comparison, armor module is a must. It’s not even a choice. Would love to see more modules (single use super afterburners and IR countermeasures for example).

Very minor point - laser air canon shot has a travel time. Really? Laser? While technically it does have a travel time but it’s a laser, it travels at the speed of light. At these distances it should be instant hit when fired. It can be a laser specialty – instant hits but weather conditions (add them?) can reduce efficiency.

On a bigger scale, weapon specialties can be a major thing. I would love to see weapon types as side grades rather than plain upgrades. Ground lasers had that unique thing – recharging ammo and less recoil. Too bad all other weapon types lack uniqueness and are pure upgrades. Gauss weapons can have increased range and unlimited ammo because they shoot little metal specks with a downside of fewer shots (more TUs to fire or fewer shots in a volley). Fusion weapons on the other hand have less range but are devastating at close ranges while losing efficiency the longer it travels (plasma dissipates while travelling).

Why do I think that side grades are better? If you encounter a UFO with let’s say 100 HP and your basic canon deals 5 damage it takes 20 shots to shoot it down. An upgraded canon now deals 10 damage but with scaling UFOs now have 200 HP, so it’s the same 20 shots. Basically, nothing has changed, the gameplay is the same. Side grades on the other hand have their upsides and downsides and provide choices that player has to make. The game changes based on what players decide to do. Players can screw up with what weapon type they choose and they will have to own this mistake.

 

But this wall of text doesn’t mean that everything is bad, I had a lot of funny, cool and simply memorable moments. One of which was an extremely fantastic play by the AI when it baited my planes with 3 UFO groups back-to-back without time to rearm and repair. When all planes were out of ammo and barely alive the AI launched an assault on my base. I just had to watch UFO fly towards my base with realization that I can’t do anything about it. Great job!

Overall, the game definitely left an impression on me and that is a good thing, that is what all games should try to achieve. I believe Xenonaughts 2 to be a solid foundation to be built upon and really look forward to what may come of it.

 

[Chris]

16 hours ago, Lighterius said:

First of all, I want apologize in advance for any and all grammar/spelling mistakes here as English in not my native language and hope I’ll be able convey what I mean.

2 years ago I rage quit the game and left a negative review on steam because I thought the game was simply not fun and extremely frustrating. And I always loved X-Com series since I was a kid. Really wanted to love this game as well.

2 weeks ago I decided to have another go at it and finished it on Commander difficulty. Did anything change? Well, I finished the game, so obviously - yes. I'm gonna change my steam review to positive and suggest the game to my friends (that is if they want to set their asses on fire). However, atm I don't think I can give it more than 7/10 (probably 6.5) (note that completely average game is 5/10, and 10/10 is an insane masterpiece).

The game has very very high potential and the devs really improved it, but there are still a lot of problems to be sorted. This is my take on it and would love to hear where I’m right or wrong. Also, note that this is an opinion for Commander difficulty only and things may work differently on lower levels.

Basic gameplay:

1. Freakishly insane randomness to the point where it's not even funny. And it expresses itself mostly in damage ranges which can vary anywhere between 2 and 60 even in phase 1 (strangely enough I’ve never seen damage 1, but 2 – multiple times). Why? What's the mechanic of damage calculation? I can't think of any plausible reason to valid this kind of range. And I couldn't get used to it even in the very end-game where it ranges between 2 (if you have armor) and 150. Which in turn leads to problem 2.

2. Way too many one-shots. It is a miracle if your soldiers survive even 1 hit. A lot of the time they don't, no matter what rank they are or what armor they wear. Maybe Colossus or Vanguard will forgive 1 hit on max medals Colonel, but even then I had a lot of one shots. That is not okay. I do not believe this game can be completed without getting shot at and every one of them can insta kill. I think it would benefit to double or even triple HPs. I don’t think anyone likes this mechanic because it is not skill based. If instant death mechanic is implemented in the game it should be telegraphed so players can avoid it with skill.

3. Save scumming is the only possible way to complete the game on Commander. I do not like save scumming, I always try to avoid it if possible, but as a player I just can't calculate anything. Enemies can appear from every crack - doors, corners, teleport pads - and simply kill. There is no warning and there is no real comeback mechanic. If your top squad dies - it's all downhill from here and game over. Suggestion: motion tracker, like in aliens movie. Maybe not precise location, but general direction and approximate range. Maybe to balance it - make it work only if enemies are moving certain distance or making noise (current sound effects are not enough).

4. Lack of variety. All enemies feel the same - they run around, they shoot gun. I couldn't care less what's in front of me - a lizard, a psyon or a wraith. They are all the same. The only enemy I loved and respected was the Cyberdrone (that flying roundy tanky thingy). Its design is extremely cool - you can either pour into it from the front with a lot of guys or use tactics to get behind it. Really awesome and would love to see more designs like that. All other enemies don't have anything special about them. Even eternals are dudes with guns. Suggestion: make every enemy have its own quirk. Wraiths are snipers who stay at maximum range and shoot, retreat when someone is getting close. Psyons don't have guns but can use psychic abilities that can inflict damage or induce panic (maybe soldiers’ will and psyshield will be useful then). Lizards can stay the way they are as frontline brutes. Androns can be straightforward weapons platform and have 2 different weapons but they don’t take cover or something like that. Remove reapers - they simply suck. Or at least make them feral, so they always charge player using the shortest path even if it leaves them in the open.

5. AI has maphacks. It always knows where player's soldiers are. Just remove it, please. It butchers any kind of tactical gameplay.

Tactical missions:

6. The lack of variety goes for mission types as well - there is not enough of them. In my playthrough I have completed 33 missions, 5 (?) of which were plot missions, 2 alien bases, 1 base defense, 2 terror missions and 1 abduct. I think the rest were UFO related. The 2 "free" UFO crashes are fine, don't make less of them, make more of other random missions pop up. And on terror missions Alenium bombs don't even work, it's the same pew-pew-pew mission. 

7. Half of the armor types are useless and need rework. Enemies are always 1 level above in terms of weapons compared to player's armor and therefore Warden and Guardian armors don’t protection. If I left soldiers in Tactical armor it would feel absolutely the same - death in 1 shot. The first armor that really provides at least something new is Stalker (not survivability though). The first REAL armor is Colossus. Don't have any meaningful suggestions, maybe integrate simple exoskeleton to Guardian armor (+strength, +accuracy)? No idea what to do with Warden though.

8. Weapons were not created equally as well. In the early game I had to use mostly shotguns and rifles because of lack of TUs. Late game - shotguns and HMGs only. Other weapons just don't have enough firepower. I tried but couldn't figure out why would I bring sniper rifle, it requires a lot of TUs, doesn't have extreme amount of damage, doesn't headshot, has penalties for cover, and most maps don't have long corridors to shoot. Maybe if it ignored cover I'd find a place for it. Same goes for a rifle in the end-game, it has no redeeming quality compared to HMG which is simply a better rifle. Shotguns are fine. 

9. Recruits don’t scale with difficulty as game progresses. New recruits are viable only in the first half of the game (phases 1,2,3 max). In phases 4 and 5 recruits just don’t have enough stats to compete with aliens and always die in 1 shot regardless of anything. And late-game random missions are insane in terms of difficulty, much harder than plot missions. I was researching Endgame and had a random terror mission pop up with wraiths/andrones/servitors as enemies. Tried to do it with a squad of Lts and got owned. Managed to kill 5 enemies on turn 1, then another 12 come from every direction and just annihilate Lts (all wearing either Colossus or Vanguard). I think I could have won with save scumming, but honestly, my thought was that I couldn’t be bothered. I didn’t have problems with terror and didn’t need resources.

10. Corners are confusing. Sometimes I can't shoot when standing next to a corner but the enemy can shoot me. Why? Maybe if a rifle was nimble enough to shoot around the corner (with a penalty perhaps) than it would always have a use. Also I think soldiers should be able to peak or throw grenade around a corner when standing next to it. It's just common sense (?). Corners just feel weird in this game.

11. Overwatch is very bad and needs rework. You just can't rely on it. I had a situation when I had a firing line of 10 soldiers ready to breach a UFO (5 crouched + 5 behind them), all of them had TUs for a shot. Lizard opens the door, turns around, takes a couple of steps back, turns around, murders 3 guys with a volley. No overwatch. If I can't rely on it than why would I use it? Current overwatch requires player to sacrifice precious TUs for something that might not even trigger. This is most annoying when facing reapers, which can just waltz up to you and murder. Honestly, I think if a soldier has TUs left for a shot, then overwatch should always trigger on the first enemy movement.

12. Explosives and grenades feel very underwhelming. Booms should go big and hard. Grenade thrower and regular grenades can’t kill aliens in 3 hits in the late-game so I just stopped using explosives entirely. Explosions should just get a massive damage buff. Smoke on the other hand is fantastic, really awesome. Same goes for flashbang. But grenade throwing is a bit too expensive in terms of TUs, a 10-20% reduction in price would be cool.

Strategic map and aerial combat.

13. Operation points (OP) are the most valuable resource. You can buy cash, alenium and alloys, reduce panic and recruit supporters. So it seems a bit weird that most of it comes from passive income. I'd love to see more missions in which I can get OP as a reward for a job well done but less passive income. And I also thought that Cleaners got eliminated too early, it's a waste. Suggestion: Maybe more Cleaners missions in Phases 1,2,3 with more OP rewards.

14. Supporters, like weapons, are not equal, most notably the security and intelligence ones. Intelligence supporter provides valuable OP daily. And security supporter reduces panic by 1 globally +1 in a region once a month! My game lasted for 11 months, so it was ~20% panic reduction in a region over the course of the whole game, basically just 1 terror mission. It is so insignificant. Suggestion: add a passive regional bonus to security supporter which allows the first soldier to die in a mission instead survive with critical wounds. Can't say much about money, science and manufacturing supporters - they exist.

15. Way too few resources in the early game and way too many in the late game. I got the feeling that after the first alien base I was swimming in Alenium and alloys (big UFOs also helped), had enough cash to actually build bases, manufacture everything I want and didn’t feel the need to make compromises in spending resources. Also, would love to see base presets (like soldier load-outs) when constructing them. Something like a make base with 1 radar + 2 hangars + 2 queued fighters (assuming the workshop on other base is free) which are being constructed at the same time as the base is being built and then delivered when hangars finish for a total of *insert sum* cash and resources. Also, maybe lower the price of building a base but increase the price of maintaining it because it is too expensive to get another base up and running in the early- and mid-game when you have many other things to research and manufacture.

16. Air battles are fine but I can’t shake the feeling that something is missing. Maybe add pilot behaviors? “Maintain distance”, “close-up dogfight”, etc. Right now it’s just fly to the point and shoot. Micromanagement is possible but it’s not exciting: pause-resume-pause-resume. Also, the difficult fights are in the mid-game. Late-game is too easy, cruisers and battleships are just bullet sponges that don’t pose a threat. They need more escorts.

17. The Gemini fighter is a huge power spike compared to Phantom. Two Geminis can destroy any UFO group with no hull damage easily. Angels and Phantoms are very similar. Phantoms need a little buff I think, maybe to their evasion roll cooldown and speed or maybe some kind of new ability.

18. Air modules are too simple. I have never used fuel module because never had problems with range (the limiting factor is radar range rather than fuel). In comparison, armor module is a must. It’s not even a choice. Would love to see more modules (single use super afterburners and IR countermeasures for example).

Very minor point - laser air canon shot has a travel time. Really? Laser? While technically it does have a travel time but it’s a laser, it travels at the speed of light. At these distances it should be instant hit when fired. It can be a laser specialty – instant hits but weather conditions (add them?) can reduce efficiency.

On a bigger scale, weapon specialties can be a major thing. I would love to see weapon types as side grades rather than plain upgrades. Ground lasers had that unique thing – recharging ammo and less recoil. Too bad all other weapon types lack uniqueness and are pure upgrades. Gauss weapons can have increased range and unlimited ammo because they shoot little metal specks with a downside of fewer shots (more TUs to fire or fewer shots in a volley). Fusion weapons on the other hand have less range but are devastating at close ranges while losing efficiency the longer it travels (plasma dissipates while travelling).

Why do I think that side grades are better? If you encounter a UFO with let’s say 100 HP and your basic canon deals 5 damage it takes 20 shots to shoot it down. An upgraded canon now deals 10 damage but with scaling UFOs now have 200 HP, so it’s the same 20 shots. Basically, nothing has changed, the gameplay is the same. Side grades on the other hand have their upsides and downsides and provide choices that player has to make. The game changes based on what players decide to do. Players can screw up with what weapon type they choose and they will have to own this mistake.

 

But this wall of text doesn’t mean that everything is bad, I had a lot of funny, cool and simply memorable moments. One of which was an extremely fantastic play by the AI when it baited my planes with 3 UFO groups back-to-back without time to rearm and repair. When all planes were out of ammo and barely alive the AI launched an assault on my base. I just had to watch UFO fly towards my base with realization that I can’t do anything about it. Great job!

Overall, the game definitely left an impression on me and that is a good thing, that is what all games should try to achieve. I believe Xenonaughts 2 to be a solid foundation to be built upon and really look forward to what may come of it.

Thanks for the long post, it's always useful to read someone's detailed impressions on the game. I'm also happy to read that our updates have changed a negative review to a positive one; we've put a lot of work into the game in Early Access and it's great to hear that it has improved the player experience for you.

I'll pick out a few specific points to reply to, but I think my main comment is that it sounds like you're playing the game on too hard a difficulty setting. If you're a big classic X-Com fan then really you should start on Veteran and only play on Commander if you want an insane challenge - it's for people that already know the game inside out, and if you jump straight in at that difficulty level then you'll regularly have "this feel like bullshit" moments and it's just a recipe for frustration rather than fun.

Specific points:

1) The damage randomisation is 50-150% of the weapon base damage, and then armour reduction is applied. So the effect of damage randomisation is magnified against units with armour, but that's a gameplay mechanic you need to engage with - you can always strip armour from enemies using explosives if you want to make damage more reliable, or use weapon types with higher armour penetration.

2+7) In general we want to go for a feeling of nobody ever being safe, where there's a chance even your best soldier in their best armour can be one-shotted by a lucky enemy hit from a tier-equivalent enemy weapon (this is taken straight from classic X-Com). The game loses a lot of tension if you know that your soldier is definitely able to take at least one hit; it's like knowing they have an extra life. However, the actual problem here sounds like you're perhaps getting the armour a bit too late - if anything, armour can be too powerful if you unlock it early because it turns your soldiers into tanks who can take 3-4 hits each until the enemy weapons catch up. Guardian armour in particular can be unlocked off the Destroyer UFO and is very strong if you get it early. Ironically the Colossus is currently considered by far the worst armour in the game by most players.

4) I agree, we'll hopefully give the aliens a bit more individual personality with some AI adjustments in the next major update.

5) Yes, the AI currently cheats in this regard. We're planning to fix that in the next major update.

9) For new recruits, the North America region bonus is a huge bonus to their stats (+5 in each) and if you've built Training Centers, the training rate increases with the number of alien species captured and interrogated. This won't allow you to replace a whole squad overnight but if you're losing 2-3 soldiers a mission it should allow you to constantly be filling gaps in your team without losing too much effectiveness.

11) It's important to understand how overwatch actually works - it's explained in the tooltips, but a unit will only reaction fire when they have higher Initiative than their target (which is Reflexes x % of TU remaining). If you've got a wall of soldiers who are all at low TU, they won't overwatch fire until the alien drops below a certain level of TU, but if they're on full TU then they'll overwatch fire much earlier. But the same things applies to the aliens, and knowing how the system works can make assaulting UFOs easier. It's not always a good idea when breaching a UFO to spend all the TUs of your first soldier through the door, because it basically guarantees that every alien in the room will get to overwatch fire at them, etc. The system is pretty good when you understand it, but I'll admit that it's not well explained at the moment. But it's little things like this that suggest you should probably play on Veteran rather than Commander.

14) Yeah, the panic Supporters might need a slight buff. It's effectively -7 Panic per month per supporter though, so -77 Panic over an 11 month campaign, and it sounds a bit better when written out that way. Probably still the weakest ones overall though.

In general, the late game has worse balance than the early game, and I think many of your later points show this. I'll be doing some more full campaign playthroughs as part of our next update so hopefully this will improve. In terms of new content, we're getting close to release now but some of the more interesting stuff (like weapon variety etc) are things we'd like to look at as post-launch content.

[Lighterius]

First of all, thank you for taking time to reply. I was excited to hear that you still have plans for the game after its release. And if I may, I'd like to take a little bit more of your time to point out something that I feel like I didn't explain.

I had time to think about what you said and realised that I just don't understand the logic behind game philosophy regarding difficulty (that includes my points about one-shots, recruits in the late game and damage randomisation). My problem was not that the game was hard. I knew it was hard by design and specifically chose Commander difficulty to see how I can fare against the biggest challenge there is. Also, I don't mind the game beating me, but the point is that the game has to BEAT me. So I want to expand on 2 situations I mentioned in the original post (the base defense I had to manage in mid-game and terror mission right before Endgame). Here's how my thought proccess went as I played.

Before base defense the game baited me and I made a mistake of chasing all UFO groups to exhaustion. The game capitalised on it and launched an attack when I couldn't defend airspace anymore. I lost the air war in that moment and could even loose the base because of that. The game outplayed me. It was my mistake and it was top-tier design. Love it!

Now for the terror mission. It's turn 1, ten lieutenants in best armor (3 Colossus and 7 Vanguard) and with almost best weapons (8 Fusion and 2 Gauss) come out of the dropship, take cover crouched, kill 5 aliens they see and that's it, no more TUs. Hit "End turn", watch as dozen of aliens with ranged weapons come out from the fog of war, snipe 3 guys, heavily wound 4th one (massive bleed+panic) and wound 2 more. I had no info to work upon, no time to prepare, no space to maneuver and no chance to react. That was unsalvagable and my problem with this situation is that I don't understand where did I make a mistake? It was turn 1, I had no choice in what to do. It felt like failing a DnD luck test rather than an X-COM challenge. The only thing that might have made a difference is if I brought Colonels, but is it really a mistake when after a certain point in the game you can't use anyone other than fully leveled soldiers?

My feelings were completely opposite to the first situation because the game didn't beat me, it cheated me. There was no challenge to overcome, no mistake to own and it was, as you said, "this feels like bullshit" moment. If I understand correctly, the phrase "we want to go for a feeling of nobody ever being safe, where there's a chance even your best soldier in their best armour can be one-shotted by a lucky enemy" means that it can happen on any difficulty. So as I understand it, it's not about me playing on Commander because any difficulty level has its one-shots and it doesn't matter if a player is new or experienced because enemies can just appear with no warning. Anyone can have this happen to them and I don't think any player would find this fun. What am I missing? I would honestly love to hear why the devs decided to make it this way.

Now imagine the same situation but the soldiers have more HP, enough to survive the first volley. I start the second turn not with 40% of my soldiers gone but instead with half of my squad badly wounded, couple of which are bleeding to death next turn. This is the first time I can react and make a choice. Do I just turn tail and run or do I commit? If I run it's obviously a mission loss (even worse because of all the wounds compared to not attempting the mission at all). But what if I decide to commit? Then there are couple of medics running around, patching people up, some soldiers throw smokes, maybe a flashbang, some supressive fire with potentially a couple of kills, the whole squad is trying to reposition to a better spot while full HP soldiers come to the front and "shield" wounded soldiers as best they can. Now, as I see it that feels a bit more of a gameplay that's dependent on player's choice. Maybe the squad will die on turn 2 or 3, but it was my decision to try.
So that's my reasoning behind not liking one-shots, huge damage ranges and weak recruits (yes, before Endgame I was maxed on all fronts and my "recruits" were the best they were going to get, they even lvl-up once or twice and had couple of medals, but they were not maxed out Colonels). Would appreciate if I can get an explanation of where am I wrong.

 

For the rest, I incline to agree with a lot of things you've written. I did sense that early game and late game just don't feel the same.

Regarding the overwatch, I still have my reservations about the whole mechanic but it was my mistake I had to learn. For some reason the "% of TUs remaining" part of the formula just didn't stick with my brain. I can write another wall of "angry" text about this mechanic and why I think it need to be improved, but I respect the devs for actually trying to make new style of overwatch in a tactical game (at least I've never seen any other resembling this one). And in the second half of the game I've learned how to play around using it.

I still don't completely understand how training center works. Does it provide passive exp to soldiers when they are idle on the base? Does it increase the amount of exp earned in missions? Or does it gradually boost some/all stats up until certain level? I really like the UI in general, it's clean with fine tooltips on everything, but in some cases, especially with unintuitive complex mechanics, the tooltips just aren't enough yet (for me at least).

As for armor, I don't get it why people think Colossus is the weakest armor. I really like it (wouldn't mind if you add more features to it though *wink-wink*) because it provides new gameplay option when you can just turn your soldiers into walking tanks and use them as breachers/shock troops. And by the time Colossus armor is built soldiers are high enough lvl to comfortably wield HMGs. I was using some Colossus armor just for its tankiness until the very end alongside Vanguard armor.

Also, I can't say with 100% certainty right now, but at least I don't think I delayed getting new armor because I remember thinking that my soldiers die too fast and if I get them new shiny clothes they will survive more (they will not). So I think I got armor tiers as fast as the game allowed me to. May I ask how the aliens get their weapon tier upgrades? Is it time or phase dependent? Because I managed to roll out Guardian armor for 1 mission before enemies got green fusion weapons (Guardian didn't protect against that at all until I got Colossus). Was I really that late or is it intentional?

 

Edited December 4, 2025 by Lighterius

[gG-Unknown]

20 hours ago, Lighterius said:

Now for the terror mission. It's turn 1, ten lieutenants in best armor (3 Colossus and 7 Vanguard) and with almost best weapons (8 Fusion and 2 Gauss) come out of the dropship, take cover crouched, kill 5 aliens they see and that's it, no more TUs. Hit "End turn", watch as dozen of aliens with ranged weapons come out from the fog of war, snipe 3 guys, heavily wound 4th one (massive bleed+panic) and wound 2 more. I had no info to work upon, no time to prepare, no space to maneuver and no chance to react. That was unsalvagable and my problem with this situation is that I don't understand where did I make a mistake? It was turn 1, I had no choice in what to do. It felt like failing a DnD luck test rather than an X-COM challenge.

Your idea is, "jump in, shoot like no tomorrow then win or loose".

Well, we have smoke grenades which gives you cover. You could smoke them, or smoke yourself, to get more time, or change position. I watch people playing on youtube to see mind process, it amaze me how stuborn and non-creative players are. :-)

A prot-tip : Hordes of opponents are coming becouse they see you.

Edited December 5, 2025 by gG-Unknown

[berk]

Untrained recruits are bad, but the game has training centers, which makes replacing losses and training in general so much less tedious than Xenonauts 1 and other similar games. Training centers passively give your soldiers XP(progress points) towards all their stats every hour they are stationed at the base (not sure if it applies to soldiers on airborne dropships). Their stats will increase without any need to send them out on a mission. The XP earned per hour increases as you interrogate different types of captured aliens, and there is also a region bonus from supporters that increases it further.  There are also diminishing returns on stat growth, I think a veteran soldier will have to train for up to 4 times as long as a fresh recruit before increasing his stats.

As far as terror missions are concerned, I strongly recommend to temporarily retreat if the aliens are trying to overrun you. Don't stand and fight against a wave of  12 aliens, pick off a few of them and move back, out of sight or behind 100% cover. Repeat until you reduce them to manageable numbers, but try not to get cornered on the edge of the map. You will probably have to do this twice on a late game terror mission.

As for security supporters, I think they should reduce the OP cost of eliminating infiltrators(maybe -5/10% for normal/elite). Two normal security supporters or 1 elite can already counteract the panic spread of up to 6 infiltrators spread across the world(without accounting for the local panic reduction every supporter gets), or the doomsday gain of 4 infiltrators in phase 1, so having an OP cost reduction in infiltrator elimination would encourage the player even further to invest in one or two security supporters and delay any mass infiltrator purges.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2025 by berk