KickStarter Xenonauts 2 - now available on Early Access

[Alienman]

Think you can read some of the pain Chris suffered in the devblog thing that follows with the game.

 

[Raghar]

Starting from scratch (though I'm sure they can re-use parts of the code and they're definitely re-using some strategic layer assets) with an engine they can fully use for their needs sounds like a sensible idea.

Engine? It's fucking simple isometric game. What for would it need an engine. Program it from scratch, within half year you'd have something workable, and art assets would need long term development anyway.

Frankly even when they do something 3D, they can put stuff into OpenGL, and solve problems with efficient bullet collision, and destructible terrain (which is a problem). And as long as it's larger than one man programmer team, it's doable.

Engine... Instead of proper programming and using stringent programming practices.

 

[Visperas]

Starting from scratch (though I'm sure they can re-use parts of the code and they're definitely re-using some strategic layer assets) with an engine they can fully use for their needs sounds like a sensible idea.

Engine? It's fucking simple isometric game. What for would it need an engine. Program it from scratch, within half year you'd have something workable, and art assets would need long term development anyway.

Frankly even when they do something 3D, they can put stuff into OpenGL, and solve problems with efficient bullet collision, and destructible terrain (which is a problem). And as long as it's larger than one man programmer team, it's doable.

Engine... Instead of proper programming and using stringent programming practices.

Sounds like you should be out there making games...

 

[Falksi]

This is gonna be worth the wait.

Spoiler

Not

 

[Raghar]

Sounds like you should be out there making games...

10 years ago, they could ask. Nowadays I can do about 2 hours of development workload and that's not enough for normal developer job. And in fact, I'm preparing to return to politics. (Considering I spend last half of my spare time by writing preproduction stuff for two TV series instead of doing developer related stuff in my country, some people lost theirs chance.)

 

[Higher Game]

Xenonauts is the most refined Xcom clone and Grimoire is proof that long development can work. I'm still optimistic.

 

[ArchAngel]

Xenonauts is the most refined Xcom clone and Grimoire is proof that long development can work. I'm still optimistic.

Open Xcom is best Xcom clone and makes Xenonauts pointless

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Xenonauts is the most refined Xcom clone and Grimoire is proof that long development can work. I'm still optimistic.

Open Xcom is best Xcom clone and makes Xenonauts pointless

No.

 

[Alienman]

I get a different feel from Xeno than X-com so I would argue both have a point. So more clones please.

 

[Mazisky]

Xenonauts has a very dull art-style and look. I think OG xcom looks better despite being a 1994 game.

 

[ArchAngel]

Xenonauts is the most refined Xcom clone and Grimoire is proof that long development can work. I'm still optimistic.

Open Xcom is best Xcom clone and makes Xenonauts pointless

No.

I didn't expect autists from Xenonauts topic to agree with me. But it does not matter as I am right.

 

[Stavrophore]

Even if they were the same feature wise, i would still play xenonauts just for the graphics alone. I prefer sprites/3d models vs pixel graphic of xcom.

 

[ArchAngel]

Even if they were the same feature wise, i would still play xenonauts just for the graphics alone. I prefer sprites/3d models vs pixel graphic of xcom.

Considering Open Xcom has much more content and options they will never be even close in features. As for the rest, to each his own.

 

[agris]

Even if they were the same feature wise, i would still play xenonauts just for the graphics alone. I prefer sprites/3d models vs pixel graphic of xcom.

Considering Open Xcom has much more content and options they will never be even close in features. As for the rest, to each his own.

Unfortunately the open xcom scene is in the complete embrace of turboweebs, so while some projects like xPirates or XFilez sound interesting mechanically, those of us with functioning optical nerves are not going to experience it.

Xenonauts is it’s own thing anyway, I don’t see them competing.

 

[ArchAngel]

Even if they were the same feature wise, i would still play xenonauts just for the graphics alone. I prefer sprites/3d models vs pixel graphic of xcom.

Considering Open Xcom has much more content and options they will never be even close in features. As for the rest, to each his own.

Unfortunately the open xcom scene is in the complete embrace of turboweebs, so while some projects like xPirates or XFilez sound interesting mechanically, those of us with functioning optical nerves are not going to experience it.

Xenonauts is it’s own thing anyway, I don’t see them competing.

I am not talking about mods for Open Xcom, just Open Xcom as in fixed bug free 1994 Xcom with some good UI and QoL improvements that was added. Xenonauts only has real time air combat as something different than Open Xcom, everything else is not even on same level.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Xenonauts is the most refined Xcom clone and Grimoire is proof that long development can work. I'm still optimistic.

Open Xcom is best Xcom clone and makes Xenonauts pointless

No.

I didn't expect autists from Xenonauts topic to agree with me. But it does not matter as I am right.

No mr, you are wrong. I am right.

Simple as that

 

[agris]

As for the rest, to each his own.

Xenonauts is it’s own thing anyway, I don’t see them competing.

I am not talking about mods for Open Xcom, just Open Xcom as in fixed bug free 1994 Xcom with some good UI and QoL improvements that was added. Xenonauts only has real time air combat as something different than Open Xcom, everything else is not even on same level.

It's still its own thing, with its own maps and tech and weapons and approach to squad combat. I don't see open Xcom displacing or rendering redundant X1 or X2. People enjoying and recommending Xenonauts in no way takes away from open Xcom.

We need more games of this ilk, not less.

 

[ArchAngel]

I am not talking about X2, I am still waiting to play the release version before I can compare these two games. But Xenonauts was the biggest clone yet, except worse in almost every way.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

I really enjoyed Xenonauts, it had a charm of its own. Cold War feels mixed with OG UFO. As a Slav kid it felt very familiar

 

[Stavrophore]

With moving past the sprites and opening the modding possibility, xenonauts 2 could be a good base for overhauls. The community is there, so it's just a matter of giving them the toy to play.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://www.xenonauts.com/2021/07/31/xenonauts-2-july-update/

​

XENONAUTS 2 – JULY UPDATE
POSTED BY PAUL KTJULY 31, 2021
​

Welcome to July’s update! No public Closed Beta releases this month, as the team have been working away on some systemic stuff – we hope to resume those next month.


Tactical Enhancements

We’ve spent a fair bit of coder time improving the tactical AI. It now has a much more comprehensive understanding of both terrain and weaponry – it’ll be ready for some combat balancing next month.

We’re also planning to look into some “advanced” behaviours as part of this, whether it be squad behaviours that allow alien units to move and fight as teams, or unit-specific special abilities. Making the aliens feel more intelligent, with greater differentiation between the different species, should give the game more character.

Performance and Bug Fixes

Work has also taken place on various other aspects of gameplay. Performance on the Geoscape has been improved significantly, and we’ve implemented an initial version of the difficulty settings. In addition to that, we’ve finished the implementation of soldier medals.

Thanks to a community bug report, we realised that Landed UFO’s weren’t actually functional, despite support for them being there! We spent a bit of time looking into that and the coders fixed some related bugs, and now UFOs are landing like they should.

Visible Improvements

A significant number of new art assets have been added to the game as well. The last of the remaining Xenonaut armours has been modeled and sent off for rigging, so we expect all the final Xenonaut 3D models to be in the game by the end of August – you can see a couple of the designs in the images in this post.

There’s also been a new alien model added to the game: the Cyberdrone. This was previously a big white sphere but now actually has a unique design. There’s now at least one 3D model for all of the aliens in the game, and we’re going to turn our attention to differentiating the variants (so you can better tell an elite alien from a standard alien of the same species, etc).

There’s also new 2D art! We redesigned the Gauss weapons and have new-and-improved 2D art for that entire family of weapons. We’ve also added the top-down art for the two advanced dropships (as seen when arranging your troops inside them on the Aircraft screen), and as the 3D tiles are already complete we just need to paint the background art on the Soldier Equip screen for those and then they are done. This work should be completed next month.

Finally, we’ve brought back a freelance artist who was working with us on improving the look of the ground combat tiles. The quality of the ground combat environments is still quite variable, from the attractive dockyard maps we used in the Steam Demo through to biomes like Arid or the American Town which are not quite there yet. We’ll be working hard on retexturing some of the less attractive assets to bring them up to final quality, and we’ll also be adding the final destruction states to them too. It might take a few months for this to bear fruit but you’ll see quite a big improvement in the way the game looks when it does!

One more thing on the art front – the new UI art style also continues to develop. We hope to have the new main menu screen and it’s various sub-panels in the game next month (the “start new campaign” screen, load game screen, etc). Maybe even the new topbar too if things go well.

Technical Work

In addition to gameplay work, we’ve also been taking a look at some technical issues. We’re continuing to work on translation support, but that hit a speedbump this month because we had previously been linking items / projects together via their name (e.g. when specifying which item unlocks a Research project). Unfortunately, this system falls apart once the name becomes a value that changes based on language, so we had to rewrite quite a lot of code relating to that too. Despite that setback, we’re hoping to get translation support completed soon.

So, a very busy month with a lot of spinning plates. However, as you can see, progress on all these fronts continues to be positive – we hope to return to more game balancing work next month.
Many thanks for reading and for staying up-to-date with our work – as ever please do join us on Discord, the forums or the Steam community if you have any questions.

 

[Trithne]

We’re continuing to work on translation support, but that hit a speedbump this month because we had previously been linking items / projects together via their name (e.g. when specifying which item unlocks a Research project). Unfortunately, this system falls apart once the name becomes a value that changes based on language, so we had to rewrite quite a lot of code relating to that too.

In which Goldhawk apparently learns Database Design 101.

 

[Mazisky]

Is this vaporware? Since Nuxcom is dead for Marvel cashgrab and Phoenix Point feels bland, I see this game as the only hope

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Since Nuxcom is dead for Marvel cashgrab

I'm sorry, what? What else has Marvel decided to ruin this time?

 

[AgentFransis]

Is this vaporware? Since Nuxcom is dead for Marvel cashgrab and Phoenix Point feels bland, I see this game as the only hope

Only hope for what?