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Some things that I noted...


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Hello,

as an alternative to 2K's version (the bugs made it un-playable again and that annoyed me heavily) I found this game, liked it at the spot and downloaded it instantly. Right from the beginning: The same great feeling as with my Amiga version of UFO in 199x.

My current game of Xenonauts is yet young - one base, no laser weapons, but I have seen that comments are welcome so I noted some things that occured to me. I don't know if they are reported somewhere else before, but I want to share them nevertheless.

The following list is not sorted in anyway:

  • Game tells me that new items arrived at base. Great, but what? Soldiers? Jets? Weapons? Some constructed items? Don't know that until I searched everywhere. => Would be great if a simple note was in that message.
  • Is it possible to assess the rough time line of the research? It can be a fuzzy note here, but just to know if an autopsy takes longer than research of a rifle or else.
  • The selection colour in the recruit screen and the interception screen is very weak. Barely visible what is selected.
  • Sometimes the repositioning of the soldiers next to the hunter (in the drop ship) is not possible. Soldiers have to be removed un-assigned, hunter positioned and soldieres re-assigned.
  • A wounded soldier is not easy to spot. Yes there is a message, but a more obvious sign would be better.
  • Rotation of map or just swap between two directions (maybe soldier graphics and other can be mirrored to ease that) would be really great. Sometimes it is impossible to see where the soldier is walking into. Even with roofs away. The half-visible walls appeare after the soldiers are behind them. OK I have read somewhere that this would require more programming effort but still...please.
  • Often, very often, an enemy is in view but I can't find him. The Alien head icon can be clicked to center (center? really?) but that does not help. I have to scan the area with my cursor to see if the cross becomes red for shooting. This is with enemies behind walls and other objects and also without that when the enemy is in the blackened (night missions) area.
  • Either the hunter vehicle is made out of paper or the enemy weapons are to strong against that. First unit I had was killed with the first and single shot from out of nowhere. Same happend with second vehicle.
  • The throwing of grenades, flares and other is not reliable. Very often the soldiers can't throw over a fence, plant or someone else. Although they achieved that in the same position three times before with the same percentage of success. => If they miss their target it should be somewhere around the target not direct in front of them. Then throwing should not be possible (blocked way). Also, soldiers can throw inside the buildings. Maybe only with roofs away. However this should not be possible, maybe only some squares but not to the other side of a building. Additionally soldiers can't throw and shoot along a building or the drop ship, although they stand next to the free way they can walk along. They will always hit it.
  • Sometimes it is not possible to click-select a crouched unit behind or at a plant, small wall or fence.
  • Un-assigned soldiers should be possible to assign at the "Soldier Equipment" screen too.
  • Some sounds of the hidden movement are much louder than other. My feeling is, that these are the sounds that are not inflicting my soldiers. I guess civilian interaction, enemies destroy scenery and so on.
  • Enemies can see and hit (50% chance) soldiers through the drop ship, either when they are inside or behind. My soldiers can't do this magic.
  • Sometimes healing is only possible in single HPs. Initially healing works for multiple HPs, when doing more after that multple HPs are not possible anymore. I have to move medic and wounded soldier a bit, wait for next turn and heal again. Medic unit has enough time units and wounded has still some HPs to be treated.
  • I don't know if intended, but often shots coming out of empty areas, either dark (night) or lightened. Sometimes an enemy hides behing something but sometimes there is nothing and view is unblocked.
  • Suppressed enemies should not be able to fire, or? They often can nevertheless, and they hit very well.

So that's it so far.

I have to say though this list is quite long that these "bugs" are not game-stopping. I am still loving it and will definitely continue.

Hope that helps.

By the way; I love the research flavour text. Really great. The game starts in 1979 and I thought (being an engineer myself) that research will go wrong due to time errors, but no. It was there before: Genetic engineering '72, stem cells `60, Kevlar 65 and so on. Nicely done. The alien impact will change it I guess.

Cheers

thixotrop

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Hello,

[*]Game tells me that new items arrived at base. Great, but what? Soldiers? Jets? Weapons? Some constructed items? Don't know that until I searched everywhere. => Would be great if a simple note was in that message.

Agree

[*]The selection colour in the recruit screen and the interception screen is very weak. Barely visible what is selected.

Agree

[*]Rotation of map or just swap between two directions (maybe soldier graphics and other can be mirrored to ease that) would be really great. Sometimes it is impossible to see where the soldier is walking into. Even with roofs away. The half-visible walls appeare after the soldiers are behind them. OK I have read somewhere that this would require more programming effort but still...please.

Won't happen

[*]Often, very often, an enemy is in view but I can't find him. The Alien head icon can be clicked to center (center? really?) but that does not help. I have to scan the area with my cursor to see if the cross becomes red for shooting. This is with enemies behind walls and other objects and also without that when the enemy is in the blackened (night missions) area.

Apparently there was a highlight that was taken out for some reason, like the cover indicator

[*]The throwing of grenades, flares and other is not reliable. Very often the soldiers can't throw over a fence, plant or someone else. Although they achieved that in the same position three times before with the same percentage of success. => If they miss their target it should be somewhere around the target not direct in front of them. Then throwing should not be possible (blocked way). Also, soldiers can throw inside the buildings. Maybe only with roofs away. However this should not be possible, maybe only some squares but not to the other side of a building. Additionally soldiers can't throw and shoot along a building or the drop ship, although they stand next to the free way they can walk along. They will always hit it.

Grenades are brokene.

[*]Un-assigned soldiers should be possible to assign at the "Soldier Equipment" screen too.

They can be

[*]I don't know if intended, but often shots coming out of empty areas, either dark (night) or lightened. Sometimes an enemy hides behing something but sometimes there is nothing and view is unblocked.

They generally have longer sight ranges, especially when you have Jackal armor hindering your vision

[*]Suppressed enemies should not be able to fire, or? They often can nevertheless, and they hit very well.

Suppressed just means they can't reaction fire, and get HALF action points.

Yep

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and here some more (all for V18 stable):

- Laser ammo packs say 12 rounds, packed in rifle 9 remain.

- Combat: My Foxtrot has no ammo anymore and is retreating from an alien vessel, far away and even out of screen, but as soon as the alien "rockets" leave the screen my Foxtrot is lost. Damn.

- Sometimes an empty research result screen pops up for no reason. Game continues when that screen is clicked away.

- After a mission: Soldiers seem to be incapable to reload their own weapons in base (maybe they don't do anything without order :)) As soon as I have manually reloaded a single weapon all other used weapons of all soldiers are also reloaded.

- Ok I already mentioned that the hunter vehicle seems to be made from paper, as it dies on single shots. But sometimes the huinter wreck is repaired in next mission sometimes it is completely lost. Bug or intended behavior due to different amount of damages? Maybe something like this: Damage dealt = 1 = wrecked. Damage = 2-10 = wrecked but can be repaired. Damage > 10 total loss.

- Also mentioned before: Some sounds in hidden movement are much louder than others. The teleporting sound is really really loud. I thought my speaker collapsed.

Now something serious:

Terror mission at Budapest (second time by the way, poor city): Game freezes after a couple of turns. Either in hidden movement screen or when I see a reaper alien approach a civillian (see image).

2013-06-09_00001.jpg

I have tried multiple times to avoid the freeze but no luck. Alt F4 is the only solution here.

What can I do?

@ svidangel

- Grenade proble is huge. Definitely at night missions because of intensive flare use.

- I have found the assignment of soldiers at soldier equipment screen, thanks for noting.

- I have read the thing with the sight ranges and with the Jackal armor, haven't thought it was that drastic.

Hope again someone is noticing this.

And for the freezing? Really hope theri is a workaround.

Cheers thixotrp

2013-06-09_00001.jpg

2013-06-09_00001.thumb.jpg.53fc2ac62e98f

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Some more answers for you:

-About grenades: afaik, right now they work pretty much like a projectile, which means that they can be thrown very far away, but they have a chance of "hitting" any obstacle that is in the way; a grenade rework is incoming, we have to hold on until then ;) .

-About flares: don't quote me on this, but I think that beside the accuracy issues, areas illuminated by them but not within sight of a xenonaut will show the terrain but will NOT show any aliens that are there.

-Speaking about sight, some alien species do have a longer sight range than the default human one: for example, IIRC the Caesans have a range of 18 tiles while the default xenonaut has 16 (and 14 with Jackal armour).

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@ BeornBlackclaw

Your fix worked wonderful for me and even more than once in that mission.

Just to tell you: I don't see any "target civillian..." messages, only this:

------------

Success!

Applying fix...

Found Xenonauts process:

- Window handle: 0x00030DOA

- Process ID: 0x00000B94

- Code pointer: 0x00BED531

------------

I don't know if that is of any use.

@ Amonchakad

The main problem I have with grenades and flares is that the soldiers are too stupid to throw them at least somehow in the correct direction/distance. A potted plant seems to be an unsurmountable blockage, also the own Charlie. At night missions this is really a nuisance. I have lost soldiers to this.

This "bug" may also apply to rockets mounted and launched from the hunter when using the lowest accuracy i.e. time units. At least I haven't seen the Charlie exploding...

I have read about the sight range, nevertheless it seems a bit unfair.

@ Chris

No problem.

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