V21 Stable Candidate Released!

[Hellraiser]

1. Game crash if click on the icon (for example equipment soldiers) in GEO view, after about an hour of the game.

2. Stable crash in tactical part when aliens turn and psionic attack. A short message about the attack, next - hidden movement, then crash.

[Chris]

Hellraiser - do you have saves / autosaves available for either of those games?

[Ol' Stinky]

Does the launcher take a long time to load (~1 min) for anyone else? Just on the first time you load it up, mind, after closing the game and starting the launcher again, it loads in around ten seconds. I don't know if it's a problem on my end or if everyone else gets it, too, otherwise I'd have put this in the bug forum. If it's only me then I'll reinstall the game.

[Hellraiser]

Hellraiser - do you have saves / autosaves available for either of those games?

Yes

[ATTACH]3004[/ATTACH]

engage.sav

engage.sav

[Gauddlike]

Does the launcher take a long time to load (~1 min) for anyone else? Just on the first time you load it up' date=' mind, after closing the game and starting the launcher again, it loads in around ten seconds. I don't know if it's a problem on my end or if everyone else gets it, too, otherwise I'd have put this in the bug forum. If it's only me then I'll reinstall the game.[/quote']

Always has done for me since the early versions.

I have a similar issue with a few other programs though so could be my system.

[TasothCommander]

- Added "ground" images for all weapons and equipment in the game

Some things are still missing ground images, the various rocket types and ammunition clips.

I've also noticed that the Scimitar and Hyperion tanks are missing their destroyed states, as well as no sprites for Xenonaut soldiers wielding the heavier alien weapons (too weirdly shaped for humans to use?).

[Chris]

Ammunition just doesn't get images when on the ground. It uses a slightly different in-game system.

Scimitar and Hyperion are due to get their destroyed states prior to release, we've not just found time to do it yet. The heavier alien weapons probably won't have special sprites simply due to the fact it'd require extra animation work; they just default to sprites of the heavy plasma rifle. It's a small inconsistency but not a game-breaker.

[RavenX]

Re: save games, unless we find major bugs in the game then this version will become the Stable version and the save games will work fine. But if we need to make fixes before then, that might break save games. So it's hard to say with certainty.

If the current "stable" version of the experimental stays the same when moving to the stable branch, it would be awesome if you or Aaron could make a post telling us exactly when it's moved to stable and before a version with changes made is moved to experimental. Even a window of only 12-24 hours would give those of us who want to keep our progress enough time and warning to switch over to the stable build in Steam. When the current experimental is pushed to stable, as long as there isn't another experimental build uploaded at the same time as our current experimental is pushed to stable, we should be good to go.

As for fixes, I've only ran into the "equipment tab crash" once since the latest patch to experimental and it was after a few hours of continuous play. Around the same time I also ran into the "no tabs can be clicked at all" bug but that was after I had reloaded a couple saves in succession pretty rapidly.

Compared to the experimental from last week those two bugs are just about gone. I also had some web pages open in the background and had tabbed out of game more than a few times which I think may help lead to whatever causes the "no tabs can be clicked at all" bug.

do you have saves / autosaves available for either of those games?

Is there a way to turn off the autosaves in the options or xmls somewhere? I save on my own before, during, and after every mission so I just end up immediately deleting the autosaves. It would be great if I could just turn them off completely or tell it how often to autosave.

Things are moving along really nicely. Keep up the excellent work. Hope this feedback helps a little.

[Chris]

Just copy the files in the Steam directory into a new directory if you're doing a playthrough, RavenX. Then you don't have to worry about any updates at all.

[cb6dba]

I take it the swap has broken the save games?

I just tried to load mine and the game crashed :-(

(in Steam it says I am on the experimental branch, but in the launcher is says V21 Stable)..

[cb6dba]

Now that is freaky - Although I cannot load any of my save games that were saved on the Geosphere, I can load up a save I did while in combat, save on the Geosphere, exit game and then load that save up...

tested this after a restart, seems I have a random some save games will load and other not. Saved inside a combat mission to test, save game could not be loaded. However loading from a combat save I know to be ok worked, I could also save on the Geosphere and load it up.

Don't really have the time to create a test plan for this :-(

Edited March 16, 2014 by cb6dba

[Nemeczek]

Still waiting for developer update news and realease date

[Chris]

We'll do a news update once the Stable build officially comes out - there's enough bugs in this version that we need to release a hotfix for it before it can go to full Stable.

[StellarRat]

We'll do a news update once the Stable build officially comes out - there's enough bugs in this version that we need to release a hotfix for it before it can go to full Stable.

Yeah, I'm having quite a few CTD's, but I can't put my finger on what's causing them. Both in ground combat and the geoscape.

[Troublechuter]

We'll do a news update once the Stable build officially comes out - there's enough bugs in this version that we need to release a hotfix for it before it can go to full Stable.

Will the hotfix break any existing saves?

[VaeliusNoctu]

After my second Terror Mission i must say a bit better as bevor but still:

1) to much Aliens

2) to much Aliens in a Group

3) Map to small so you run every step in hordes of KIs

4) Overpowered Equipment (KI)

5) Balance between heavy and challange completely wrong.

As the past releases: A super game by the bad balancing (in the terrorist missions) loses its charm and fun.

It is simply an exaggeration to many aliens on too small a map with too crass equipment. In principle, it is a hack and Slay in circular fashion, this is not a UFO game more.

I hope you can still find the right balance, at the moment it looks more like a tower defense game (because of the enemy masses) than to UFO.

As far as I could test it it was ok at UFO crashes and bases. I was previously but only in a base. What are you doing in my opinion is wrong, that you just put too many enemies in too small a map. It takes a lot of time for such a mission and it's already after the first no fun anymore but is only stress.

Edited March 18, 2014 by VaeliusNoctu

[DNK]

Not sure about the stable, but I did find terror missions in 21v5 to be slightly excessive in aliens. Though it made them quite challenging, especially when 3 separate plasma-explosive-gun aliens started firing on my guys from 3 different directions, it also was tedious, taking upwards of an hour to do a mission in that one case, and with minimal tactics since it was such a tiny map (basically just a looong shootout on a single small street submap). And that's with the alien drones being totally passive. Had they been active, not only would it have been longer but also near-impossible without suffering monstrous casualties (was bad enough as-was).

Like 10-15% reduction would be nice, necessary once drones work properly, and the terror maps really need to be expanded. They seem to be the smallest maps we have currently, and given they're second in importance to bases, that's a bit odd.

[Headnoob]

Terror missions are meant to be overwhelming, otherwise what the hell is the point, IT IS A TERROR MISSION.

Not some super hugbox mission where everyone blows kisses at each other.

[Troublechuter]

I found terror missions became a lot easier once I started bringing a rocket launcher or two along. Screw recovering artifacts, I'd quite like to win, thanks. The aliens don't pull any punches in terror missions, so neither do I.

[Pbs]

Terror missions are meant to be overwhelming, otherwise what the hell is the point, IT IS A TERROR MISSION.

Not some super hugbox mission where everyone blows kisses at each other.

Actually, its not terror missions. Its a game. So terror missions are meant to be fun. The game does have problems with balance. Оriginal XCOM was less realistic, simpler and more fun game.

[Gauddlike]

That's is why feedback is appreciated and important.

The balance is not yet finished so highlighting any problems, with suggestions on what you think would fix those issues, is useful.

[kabill]

Actually, its not terror missions. Its a game. So terror missions are meant to be fun. The game does have problems with balance. Оriginal XCOM was less realistic, simpler and more fun game.

Bear in mind that people find 'fun' in different things.

Personally, I like the terror missions as they are. I feel a small amount of dread while I'm preparing; hesitate about which soldiers to send (better soldiers increase chance of success; worse soldiers lessen the impact of catastrophic failure!); and load up on explosive grenades and rockets in a way I never would for a UFO mission. In other words, I never go into a UFO mission thinking I might lose; but there's always uncertainty about a terror mission. I like that. It means they play different and they're not just another ground mission but on a different map.

But as I say, different versions of fun.

[TasothCommander]

Ammunition just doesn't get images when on the ground. It uses a slightly different in-game system.

What kind of system? I didn't notice anything that might indicate a given tile contains a clip or rocket. While I'm okay with some sort of generic marker telling me where my dropped clips are, I think you should add individual sprites for rockets, if for no other reason than consistency. You've got them for every grenade variant, and judging from the space they take up in a Xenonaut's inventory, they're much smaller items than rockets.

[Chris]

They're defined differently in the code, and only the weapons have an image property. Grenades have images because they're weapons, and rockets don't because they're ammunition.

[TasothCommander]

They're defined differently in the code, and only the weapons have an image property. Grenades have images because they're weapons, and rockets don't because they're ammunition.

Ah, it seems I misunderstood you there. How hard would it be to implement a system that placed a marker on tiles that contain dropped ammunition? Would it be feasible at this point in development?