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End Game Review Screen


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I don't know if the team has plans to enhance the end-game experience beyond the "You win, fireworks!" screen or if they would have time/see a reason to, although I must admit I was a bit underwhelmed after completing the entire campaign.

I have a suggestion which would help personalize the outcome and link the player to the experiences he has had throughout his game. You guys might think it's redundant or not worth the effort at such a late stage (if so feel free to shoot the idea down) although I would really like something like it. I mean have a simple review of how you did, like a list of the major events region by region, possibly a simple sentence linked to it to form a story:

- 10231 fell victims to the alien invasion. 10230 airliner passengers and a cow.

- The Soviet Union was left nearly unscathed by the invasion thanks to the resilient support of the Xenonauts. With North America not so lucky the USSR has emerged as the new unrivaled global superpower.

- Australia was sacrificed in the strategic battle as the Xenonauts rarely found it possible to assist the distant continent. These are lands now barren, haunted by Reapers. Years will pass before humanity reclaims the territory.

- Buenos Aires was devastated by an alien Terror campaign. People will long remember the carnage after the Xenonauts refused to offer a helping hand in this darkest hour.

Etc. That would also add a little bit of replayability, at least for me.

Composing the texts shouldn't be that hard-labored but I don't know if linking all the events throughout one's save files to it is relatively simple code work or a genuine nightmare. I'm sorry for raising this so late, wish I had discovered the game much earlier. Or perhaps Goldhawk already have much better ideas of how to offer the player some closure - if that's the case I'm looking forward to it!

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This is a seriously great idea. But it's probably too late, unless Goldhawk makes an expansion pack.

They've got kickboxing kangaroos. Sending X-Com seemed redundant.

I just hope they might see merit in it and at least pull in the code needed for the community to fill in the content after release. Have no idea if that would be too much work or relatively simple though :(

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I'm still coming to terms with discovering the game at such a late stage and pretty much any issues I have with it simply cannot be addressed even if there was sufficient desire from the dev team. My particular worry is Xenonauts has rapidly decreasing replay value as once you've experienced the sentiment of discovery once (which works in a magnificent fashion!) it just can't keep you as engaged when starting over. I also wanted to see something more rewarding when you actually finish the campaign as my initial reaction when I wrapped it up and the "humanity wins" screen popped up was "Is that it?!"

Perhaps some of the experienced modders will drop by and share their thoughts of if it would be possible (even if hard) to mod it in at some stage - or anything else to enhance the conclusion experience if that particular idea doesn't appeal.

Edited by KevinHann
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I am not sure I see such a big problem.

The OG had a five or six screen end sequence (on DoS at least) that was the same each time without random elements and I don't feel that harmed the re-playability of it at all.

In fact I still replay the game now and I don't think it would be any different with a few random phrases thrown in at the end.

I play the game because the game itself is interesting to replay and there are different ways to play it, different strategies to try, different squad set ups, different handicaps to try and overcome.

There will almost certainly not be a completion video but I expect the current place holder completion screen will be replaced by something else with similar quality and style to the Xenopedia entries, I will be interested to see what they do.

I don't think it will matter much in the long run though.

If you enjoy this type of game then you will likely replay it for the game itself not the text on the end screen, if you don't like it then you will likely not play even if the ending has random elements.

For modding purposes there may be a way to borrow the functionality of the loading tips so elements of text could be randomly selected from a list but there would be no easy way to tie those to events from the game.

There doesn't appear to be any way to show which regions were lost for example so you couldn't show a player who had lost Australia text specific to that region.

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Fair enough, Gauddlike. But you will probably admit that while it wouldn't add much for you it might do for a relative number of players (it would for me). I don't see it as a this against that question. If you had this kind of ending it wouldn't kill your experience, right? If it gives something for another group of players and therefore extends the appeal of the game how can it be wrong?

Thank you for the thoughts on how difficult it would be to mod. Kind of expected that. :(

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I understand that but I can only post my personal feelings and allow others to post theirs.

I don't claim to speak for everyone, or even anyone, else.

I cannot say with any degree of certainty how many players would be for or against a specific feature when it is suggested, I can only say how I feel about it and read the views of others.

There are many suggestions that would appeal to some minority or majority of gamers but all of them cannot possibly be added, no matter how good they may be.

As close as the planned final release date is I believe adding and bugfixing a new feature like this can only come at the expense of polishing another feature, fixing outstanding bugs, or pushing back the release date further.

I added my personal view on the feature because I disagree that investing in developing this feature would have the impact on replayability that is suggested.

My opinion is based only on my experience with this type of game, not market research or anything quantitative.

I do agree that it would be better than the current screen though which really does need updating.

I am not against the suggested feature so much as unconvinced of its importance in the context of replayability, which was one of the main reasons given for it.

I am looking forward to see what Goldhawk come up with and if it includes random text then I will be happy anyway!

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This doesn't seem to generate any significant interest in the community so I guess there is no chance in it happening even on "it'll be possible to mod in" basis.

Well, no, I think there IS significant interest in the community, but Chris kinda threw cold water on this idea when similar iterations were discussed previously. So people might not see the point of weighing in about it all over again.

Maybe a skilled forum member could pick up the idea, but hey, it's almost summer, Memorial Day weekend, parades to go to, fishing to be done, amusement parks and swimming pools opening, real life going on. If it was the dead of winter and I had the know-how, maybe I'd give it a shot, but I don't fault anybody for not wanting to sit inside and work on marginal mods right now

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Well, no, I think there IS significant interest in the community, but Chris kinda threw cold water on this idea when similar iterations were discussed previously. So people might not see the point of weighing in about it all over again.

Maybe a skilled forum member could pick up the idea, but hey, it's almost summer, Memorial Day weekend, parades to go to, fishing to be done, amusement parks and swimming pools opening, real life going on. If it was the dead of winter and I had the know-how, maybe I'd give it a shot, but I don't fault anybody for not wanting to sit inside and work on marginal mods right now

It's alright, I just want to know it is achievable. Disappointing to learn it has been turned down before :(

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