Xenonauts Update (XCom Remake)

[Bletchley_Geek]

I can assure you that this is NO cakewalk.  Just when I thought I found a tactic that worked the Aliens would either do something different or they would throw a different type of Alien at me.   It's not like XCOM where, after you get lasers and first level armor, you can complete most missions with minimal loses and have plenty of soldiers with 20+ missions.  I think the longest any of my soldiers has survived is 8 missions.  Kamikaze pilots have a better chance of coming home safely than most of my troops.   

The tactical aspects of the game have been through a intense phase of re-balancing. I've been on the 'Experimental' Steam branch, and I've seen the 'Normal' difficulty level to oscillate wildly from 'Peanuts' to 'Crazy'. I haven't checked the last two builds, but looking into the patch notes, I see that they have reduced aliens accuracy significantly, which is a good thing. They were getting crazy perfect shots - and killing troopers like flies - in the tradition of the old X-COM, where the AI had the deck significantly stacked in its favour.

I also like the latests changes in the Time Units, allowing your units to do more stuff. For quite some time, I was left wondering what was all the fuss with X-COM system of 'two-moves' or 'move-and-do-action' turns, when Xenonauts TU costs pretty much allowed your units to do at most a 'long-move' or a 'move-and-aimed-shoot'/'move-and-use-medkit' during your turn :)

I have been 'testing' Xenonauts since the pre-Kickstarter days, and it's been quite a ride. I am happy with how things have turned out, in the end, yet there was a moment in early 2013 that I feared that the project wouldn't get through the finish line. Having said this, I'd not recommend the game unless you really want to support Chris and his team. And I also warn prospective buyers that this is a game where gameplay trumps presentation.

PS: The art style might look a bit of a shambles, but I reckon is totally coherent with Chris' vision, who's clearly a big 'classic Sci-Fi' fan who grew up watching pretty much the same movies and shows I did, and has dotted the game with little homages to quite iconic stuff. Hence your troops starting 'outfits' resemble so much those of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. troopers 'upgrading' to have a lovely S.W.A.T. TV Show kind of feel, and the 'starter-level' aliens are wearing redshirts  :)

[bbmike]

Bought it. My initial impressions are quite positive so far! Plays much like the original XCOM which is a very good thing IMO. As for the the graphics, it looks like they are fairly easy to mod. For now I'm okay with the stock graphics. It is supposed to be the 1970s after all.  ;D

[Grim.Reaper]

Gresham..stop posting people!!!  Trying hard to resist.

[KyzBP]

I can assure you that this is NO cakewalk.  Just when I thought I found a tactic that worked the Aliens would either do something different or they would throw a different type of Alien at me.   It's not like XCOM where, after you get lasers and first level armor, you can complete most missions with minimal loses and have plenty of soldiers with 20+ missions.  I think the longest any of my soldiers has survived is 8 missions.  Kamikaze pilots have a better chance of coming home safely than most of my troops.   

The tactical aspects of the game have been through a intense phase of re-balancing. I've been on the 'Experimental' Steam branch, and I've seen the 'Normal' difficulty level to oscillate wildly from 'Peanuts' to 'Crazy'. I haven't checked the last two builds, but looking into the patch notes, I see that they have reduced aliens accuracy significantly, which is a good thing. They were getting crazy perfect shots - and killing troopers like flies - in the tradition of the old X-COM, where the AI had the deck significantly stacked in its favour.

I also like the latests changes in the Time Units, allowing your units to do more stuff. For quite some time, I was left wondering what was all the fuss with X-COM system of 'two-moves' or 'move-and-do-action' turns, when Xenonauts TU costs pretty much allowed your units to do at most a 'long-move' or a 'move-and-aimed-shoot'/'move-and-use-medkit' during your turn :)

I have been 'testing' Xenonauts since the pre-Kickstarter days, and it's been quite a ride. I am happy with how things have turned out, in the end, yet there was a moment in early 2013 that I feared that the project wouldn't get through the finish line. Having said this, I'd not recommend the game unless you really want to support Chris and his team. And I also warn prospective buyers that this is a game where gameplay trumps presentation.

PS: The art style might look a bit of a shambles, but I reckon is totally coherent with Chris' vision, who's clearly a big 'classic Sci-Fi' fan who grew up watching pretty much the same movies and shows I did, and has dotted the game with little homages to quite iconic stuff. Hence your troops starting 'outfits' resemble so much those of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. troopers 'upgrading' to have a lovely S.W.A.T. TV Show kind of feel, and the 'starter-level' aliens are wearing redshirts  :)

B-G: I'm not 100% sure what you're getting at.  I can't tell whether you're praising or panning the game.  What I can tell you, as someone with NO ties to the creators of the the game, is that it is a great game, even in it's Beta state.  I'm having loads of fun right now.  I'm getting my powder blue covered butt kicked all over the planet.  I think it's great that in the beginning you have about a 30% survival rate, if you survive at all.  That's how I imagine it would be.  Eventually we'd figure it out and, hopefully, come out on top but not without a ton of losses.  That's what I'm experiencing right now.  Small gains.

As far as presentation goes I'd say it's well within what a Grog will tolerate.  I think most of us are a function over fashion crew and those of us who happily lost months or more of our lives playing XCOM in the 90's will appreciate what the creators have done with this.  This has more of the traditional XCOM feel than games recently released with XCOM in their title.  My only complaint was the uniforms.  I've already found a few mods that take care of that though so it's no big deal.

Thanks for all the time and probable input you've put into this games over the years.  Those of us who place XCOM at the top of the Best Games of All Time list (will) appreciate what you guys have done.  It's been too long since I've played a game where I've completely lost track of time but this one has that ability, even in it's Beta state.

[KyzBP]

Bought it. My initial impressions are quite positive so far! Plays much like the original XCOM which is a very good thing IMO. As for the the graphics, it looks like they are fairly easy to mod. For now I'm okay with the stock graphics. It is supposed to be the 1970s after all.  ;D

;D

[Bletchley_Geek]

B-G: I'm not 100% sure what you're getting at.  I can't tell whether you're praising or panning the game.  What I can tell you, as someone with NO ties to the creators of the the game, is that it is a great game, even in it's Beta state.  I'm having loads of fun right now.  I'm getting my powder blue covered butt kicked all over the planet.  I think it's great that in the beginning you have about a 30% survival rate, if you survive at all.  That's how I imagine it would be.  Eventually we'd figure it out and, hopefully, come out on top but not without a ton of losses.  That's what I'm experiencing right now.  Small gains.

As far as presentation goes I'd say it's well within what a Grog will tolerate.  I think most of us are a function over fashion crew and those of us who happily lost months or more of our lives playing XCOM in the 90's will appreciate what the creators have done with this.  This has more of the traditional XCOM feel than games recently released with XCOM in their title.  My only complaint was the uniforms.  I've already found a few mods that take care of that though so it's no big deal.

Thanks for all the time and probable input you've put into this games over the years.  Those of us who place XCOM at the top of the Best Games of All Time list (will) appreciate what you guys have done.  It's been too long since I've played a game where I've completely lost track of time but this one has that ability, even in it's Beta state.

I can't really pan or give excessive praise to a game that isn't finished, Kyz, it's design and game play has been in flux for a very long time. I wouldn't say I have "tie" with Chris and his crew other than that of having put some money in their pockets and encouraged them when all they had on the table was a quite messy alpha build in February 2012 (the original programmer Chris had in his team basically sold him a lot of bullcrap, chose the worst engine ever for this kind of game and left the job unfinished and undocumented, which sucks at many levels). Indeed I do have an emotional "tie" with them as I have been hanging out on their forums for a long time, sending some bug reports and participating on their remote data collection scheme.

Regarding game play vs. presentation: I don't make any assumptions on that, mate. I also find difficult to recommend without reservations an Early Access game. Caveat emptor and all that  :)

[Kushan]

Played a little bit of this tonight while I was waiting for the Titanfall que. Playing on normal. Breezed through the first two missions with only 1 wounded in the first the one. Was feeling rather confident, and then I got to the 3rd mission. Got half my squad killed right at the start by two thin men types that spawned right outside my shuttle. Luckily I saved before I started making moves. I normally try and not reload when things go bad, but I'm going to reload and make another attempt at it tomorrow.

Love how this game can just yanked the carpet out from under you if your not careful.

[bbmike]

I can't really pan or give excessive praise to a game that isn't finished, Kyz, it's design and game play has been in flux for a very long time...

On that note I did read on their forums in this thread (that was posted yesterday!) that they are basically done with the base game. It's one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and get it.

[Bletchley_Geek]

I can't really pan or give excessive praise to a game that isn't finished, Kyz, it's design and game play has been in flux for a very long time...

On that note I did read on their forums in this thread (that was posted yesterday!) that they are basically done with the base game. It's one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and get it.

Yeah, it's true they're polishing. Let's see how this final bug hunt goes, but I wouldn't be surprised that more rebalancing takes place. In any case, and just to further clarify my take on Xenonauts: it's shaping up to be perhaps the most satisfying crowd-funded revivals I have supported (Wasteland 2 is also looking pretty good to me).

[SgtRock]

You know with all the X-com clones, none have surpassed it, maybe some one should just update the original with new graphics?

[KyzBP]

I can't really pan or give excessive praise to a game that isn't finished, Kyz, it's design and game play has been in flux for a very long time...

On that note I did read on their forums in this thread (that was posted yesterday!) that they are basically done with the base game. It's one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and get it.

Yeah, it's true they're polishing. Let's see how this final bug hunt goes, but I wouldn't be surprised that more rebalancing takes place. In any case, and just to further clarify my take on Xenonauts: it's shaping up to be perhaps the most satisfying crowd-funded revivals I have supported (Wasteland 2 is also looking pretty good to me).

I agree completely.  Wasteland 2 still has a bit of work in front of it but I like the direction it's headed.

[KyzBP]

You know with all the X-com clones, none have surpassed it, maybe some one should just update the original with new graphics?

I've been saying the same thing for yearsssss.  I think this game is as close as it's going to get though.

[Kushan]

Just had a full team wipe during a small base assault mission. I might have established a second base in North America too early. Using it mainly for radar and for fighters. It seems to be working so far but upkeep costs might be too high for being only a few months in.

Noticed some weird behavior, most notable was some aliens just appearing out of nowhere. I'd be in a room with no enemies when I hit end turn, and then an alien will spawn in the middle of the room and shoot up half my squad.  Also has anyone noticed aliens don't seem to open doors

[Jarhead0331]

Also has anyone noticed aliens don't seem to open doors

Trippy...must be the same guys from the movie Signs.

[Nefaro]

Just had a full team wipe during a small base assault mission. I might have established a second base in North America too early. Using it mainly for radar and for fighters. It seems to be working so far but upkeep costs might be too high for being only a few months in.

Noticed some weird behavior, most notable was some aliens just appearing out of nowhere. I'd be in a room with no enemies when I hit end turn, and then an alien will spawn in the middle of the room and shoot up half my squad.  Also has anyone noticed aliens don't seem to open doors

Maybe they just teleport straight through doors and don't need to open them?