• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Xenonauts |OT| More X-COM than XCOM

jonnyp

Member
It is the X-com remake we deserved, but not the one we "got", in all but name according to most folks... plus it is being notably mod-supported already which should give it some legs.

Yeah, it's a solid game, closest to the original games of all the clones I've tried. Spent a lot of hours in it already. The only thing I would say lets it down somewhat is that maps aren't randomly created, there's a finite number although the community I think is creating more all the time. I find it weird they were able to do random maps 20 years ago but not in 2014. Also it's a shame that UFO hulls are not breachable like in the old games.

Also some issues with alien AI but not too bad and will probably be fixed in a patch.

Much better than the awful Firaxis game IMHO.
 
Yeah, it's a solid game, closest to the original games of all the clones I've tried. Spent a lot of hours in it already. The only thing I would say lets it down somewhat is that maps aren't randomly created, there's a finite number although the community I think is creating more all the time. I find it weird they were able to do random maps 20 years ago but not in 2014. Also it's a shame that UFO hulls are not breachable like in the old games.

Also some issues with alien AI but not too bad and will probably be fixed in a patch.

Much better than the awful Firaxis game IMHO.

There does seem to be a "mostly random" map mod already functioning for the launch version, plus one seemingly good enough that the dev is absorbing it into an official future patch?

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10166-Skitso-s-Ultimate-Megamix-Map-Pack
 

The_Poet

Banned
It is the X-com remake we deserved, but not the one we "got", in all but name according to most folks... plus it is being notably mod-supported already which should give it some legs.

I really enjoyed the 2012 XCOM, I thought we got what we wanted and deserved.

But I'm always game for more xcom(-esque) action
 

jonnyp

Member
There does seem to be a "mostly random" map mod already functioning for the launch version, plus one seemingly good enough that the dev is absorbing it into an official future patch?

http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/10166-Skitso-s-Ultimate-Megamix-Map-Pack

Cheers, but this is only a user map pack containing 36 maps which were made by a member of the community and some of them added into the game by the devs. They do not have the capability to generate random maps within the game unless that's changed very recently.

It's gotten better due to community doing stuff like map packs though. Well here's to hoping Xenonauts is a success and they make a sequel where they can fix stuff like this.
 
Bought this yesterday from the Humble Store and I'm pretty excited to try this out later today. This looks like classic X-COM and I really, really like classic X-COM. Hm, maybe I should play this and OpenXcom simultaneously.

I was thinking the same. Maybe I will replay X-COM with the OpenXCOM remaster.

A Chela fan? :D
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Well the game has officially left Early Access but Steam isn't letting them remove the flag.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/223830/announcements/detail/1353644118213059638

Goldhawk Interactive said:
Slightly sheepish update here!

Steam has a big button marked "Leave Early Access" on top of the developer backend. About five minutes ago I pressed it so Xenonauts could finally be officially released....but it's giving me an error instead, so we can't actually officially launch the game. I'll admit that that is quite funny, but if I'm honest it's the sort of funny I'd rather wasn't happening to me.

I think this is because we were one of the earlier games in Early Access - we can't actually edit the Early Access text on our store like devs who joined more recently are able to, so I assume we're on an older system or something (I actually suspect the game was "released" a year ago and hardcoded as Early Access at the time, which is why it won't now let me launch a second time).

Either way, I've emailed Steam for help but I don't know exactly when all the Early Access branding is going to be removed from our page. I'll just save the big update I wrote and post it up when it all does happen. This is all a bit anticlimactic, isn't it?
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Looks like they got it fixed, it's on the new release list now. The $20 pre-order price is gone too, $25 now.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
First contact with the Xenos went alright, Truman will have to eat through a tube for awhile, but all in all I'd call this a success.

14253953739_7d9e8ff234_o.png
 

Unicorn

Member
Been waiting for this. I'm broke as a joke though. I have 28 cents in my bank account.

IIt's a sad day when your job employs you only so that the bills can get paid and not much else.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Been waiting for this. I'm broke as a joke though. I have 28 cents in my bank account.

IIt's a sad day when your job employs you only so that the bills can get paid and not much else.

Well go enter the picture contest, you currently have a 50% chance of winning. :p
 
Put about 7 hours into my first "proper" campaign (dicked around for an hour when it first hit steam but was incomplete). I'm finding it pretty punishing on the funding side of things, I can't seem to work out how to keep it up, it seems like it's a slow inevitable decline and I'm having trouble equipping my troops with new stuff.

Any advice generally from people who've played it a lot?

Been waiting for this. I'm broke as a joke though. I have 28 cents in my bank account.

IIt's a sad day when your job employs you only so that the bills can get paid and not much else.

Enter my competition! Draw a crappy MS Paint image!
 

Remmy2112

Member
Put about 7 hours into my first "proper" campaign (dicked around for an hour when it first hit steam but was incomplete). I'm finding it pretty punishing on the funding side of things, I can't seem to work out how to keep it up, it seems like it's a slow inevitable decline and I'm having trouble equipping my troops with new stuff.

Any advice generally from people who've played it a lot?



Enter my competition! Draw a crappy MS Paint image!

You need to get your second base up in about the 2nd month and your third at about month 3-4. Cover southeast Asia, part of north and south America and Europe/Africa with their radius. Condors are your go-to for the first couple months as they carry small missiles and cannons and are pretty manueverable, a good fit against the early game scouts and fighters. You don't need Foxtrots until cruisers and bombers start showing up as the lighter craft can easily dodge their long range and slow missiles. You can equip them with small missiles if you want.
 
You need to get your second base up in about the 2nd month and your third at about month 3-4. Cover southeast Asia, part of north and south America and Europe/Africa with their radius. Condors are your go-to for the first couple months as they carry small missiles and cannons and are pretty manueverable, a good fit against the early game scouts and fighters. You don't need Foxtrots until cruisers and bombers start showing up as the lighter craft can easily dodge their long range and slow missiles. You can equip them with small missiles if you want.

There is absolutel no way I could afford a third base! I got my second up in month 2. First base: Crete covering North Africa, Middle East, Europe, Eastern USSR. Second base covering North / Central / part of South America. Ever since Month 2 I've been living paycheck to paycheck and have not been able to afford huge expenses. At least not while I'm supplying aircraft to bases, building armor etc.

I swear UFOs didn't show up in America until a month after the rader went up, yet I was still haemoraging money from them. The upkeep costs are crazy and I'm only earning 400k / month or something after costs.
 

Almighty

Member
I completely forgot about this game. I remember being so hyped for it up until Enemy Unknown was announced and then this game fell of my radar. I am still interested though now that the game is released, but I will probably wait for it to hit $15 or less before I bite.
 

Remmy2112

Member
I swear UFOs didn't show up in America until a month after the rader went up, yet I was still haemoraging money from them. The upkeep costs are crazy and I'm only earning 400k / month or something after costs.

I may be wrong but I think the UFOs focus on some areas over others and you can tell from those ticker prompts and the locations that pop up on the map so you should build your second and later third base in an area where they are hitting heavily.
 

Llyranor

Member
<3 <3 time units

<3 <3 16-unit squads

I loved what I played of the beta back in the Fall. Really looking forward to playing the full game when I get the time
 

Corto

Member
I bought this ages ago and decided not to play the alpha/early access builds to go in fresh. I'll jump in this weekend, also I got Consortium yesterday on GOG flash deals so this weekend will be Space/Alien galore for me!
 

Clevinger

Member
The text is almost unreadable on my laptop. Went to their forums where other people are having the problem and the developer is basically like, "Meh. It's hard to fix. Our next game will be better."

Wish I didn't waste money on this game.
 
Put about 7 hours into my first "proper" campaign (dicked around for an hour when it first hit steam but was incomplete). I'm finding it pretty punishing on the funding side of things, I can't seem to work out how to keep it up, it seems like it's a slow inevitable decline and I'm having trouble equipping my troops with new stuff.

Any advice generally from people who've played it a lot?

In what difficulty are you playing?
 

Xater

Member
How the hell do I create another base?

The text is almost unreadable on my laptop. Went to their forums where other people are having the problem and the developer is basically like, "Meh. It's hard to fix. Our next game will be better."

Wish I didn't waste money on this game.

That sucks. I have the same issue that the text super hard to read. I played around with different resolutions but nothing fixes it.
 

Sloane

Banned
The text is almost unreadable on my laptop. Went to their forums where other people are having the problem and the developer is basically like, "Meh. It's hard to fix. Our next game will be better."

Wish I didn't waste money on this game.
Yeah, it's another case of a developer just wanting the game to be "finished" despite it being nowhere near it after five years of development imo. The worst problem is the combat though which not only lacks any atmosphere and tension but also features a broken line of sight and cover system.

Was really looking forward to the final release, been following this game long before the Kickstarter (and even XCOM: Enemy Unknown) was announced but I can't recommend it. Seems the developer really wants to move on. Meh.
 

Kem0sabe

Member
I enjoyed the game for a bit, but its severely lacking the appeal of the older xcom games, everything looks too "clean", there is no immediate "the world is going to end" sense of urgency to the gameplay.

It's a by the numbers experience that lacks "soul".
 

Wanace

Member
Couple of questions:

I read you can't change troop names. True?

Fully destructible maps? Can you blow holes in walls? Are their fires? I loved catching buildings on fire to flush out those bastards in X-COM.

I want to get this game. If you can name troops and start fires I'll buy it today. Otherwise I'll wait for a sale.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Couple of questions:

I read you can't change troop names. True?

14458312525_b9dabcef21_o.jpg



Fully destructible maps? Can you blow holes in walls? Are their fires? I loved catching buildings on fire to flush out those bastards in X-COM.

Maps are fully destructible. Not sure about fires though, haven't seen that yet, but I haven't played around with explosives much either.

EDIT: Actually, in a screenshot I put in the OP...

14201211148_ea57320be8_o.jpg
 

Carcetti

Member
Is this a game for me? I played the crap out of X-Com and Terror From the Deep when they came out and enjoyed the Firaxis remake. Looking at this I'm seeing a very lifeless graphics style and I'm not sure what it's actually bringing to the table compared to the original game. Can someone sell me on this?
 

Phinor

Member
Pretty harsh so far. Five soldiers dead in two missions, all killed with one shot the moment they encountered an alien. Pretty much already know that this is one of those games I will have to re-start many, many times before finally getting anywhere. Reading this thread, at least I now know a good timing for second base. I was wondering about that, when to expand.
 
I enjoyed the game for a bit, but its severely lacking the appeal of the older xcom games, everything looks too "clean", there is no immediate "the world is going to end" sense of urgency to the gameplay.

It's a by the numbers experience that lacks "soul".

Yeah, I've been playing both this and Open X-Com recently, and while Xenonauts does so much right, the presentation - as polished as it is - is just too sterile. The gameplay is solid, the writing (in the reports etc.) is there, but they needed a better artist/art team. There's no character to the art, and while part of that is because they've gone in a more "real world" direction, that's not the whole problem.

In an ideal world, we'd have had a game like Xenonauts that took some elements of Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within, and had access to their artists and production budget.
 
The text is almost unreadable on my laptop. Went to their forums where other people are having the problem and the developer is basically like, "Meh. It's hard to fix. Our next game will be better."

Wish I didn't waste money on this game.

If you bought on gog, you can get a refund if within 30 days.
 
Wish you could customize soldier appearance.

And could change geoscspe speed while in the alert menus generally, not just the gotoand5 stuff on ufo detections.
 
Is this a game for me? I played the crap out of X-Com and Terror From the Deep when they came out and enjoyed the Firaxis remake. Looking at this I'm seeing a very lifeless graphics style and I'm not sure what it's actually bringing to the table compared to the original game. Can someone sell me on this?

I've only put 4 hours into the game, but I think its a must buy for x-com fans. It is very close to the original x-com. I can't speak to whats new, other than a fresh coat of paint to the UI and graphics. I haven't noticed much else. I like the art style, but that may be because it brings back fond memories of some rpgmaker games.
 

GungHo

Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
Ok, you guys have successfully sold another copy of this game.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I have been eyeing this game up. However with Rise of Nations just released and that Divinity RPG officially releasing in two weeks I might wait a bit for a sale. Or I will impulse purchase it friday night at like 12 pm after some beers. I'm guessing the second option haha.
 

Carroway

Member
After playing almost 160 hours of this game in its beta form, I will say that there is certainly enjoyment to find in it. The game offers a large variety of tactical options (going back to only 6 Squadmember at max, in Enemy Unknown from 12 is a very big adjustment) Also, something that isn't quite mentioned in the OT (from what I've read) are the armoured vehicles. Especially early on, they can give that edge without cutting down, too much, on available troops per mission.

One thing I like to do, is to create two, four man squads that can act independently of eachother. by doing that I can cover more ground on UFO missions, and also setup flanking manouvers.

Another thing that I really enjoy about the game is the Dogfightning minigame. It has enough depth to be challenging, especially when UFO's start having fighter escorts, yet simple enough to not take too much time away from base management or ground combat.

I'd say, if you like X-com style games, Xenonauts is very much a solid purchase..
 

methane47

Member
Part of the reason why I adore XCOM is the absolutely awesome art style.. Of both the original and the remake.

While Xenonauts has an incredibly dull style... Does it affect your enjoyment while actually playing? As the screens do nothing for me
 
Is this easier to figure out, interface-wise, than old school X-Com? I'm not talking about challenge, I just mean the UI. Old X-Com is way arcane to try and figure out...
 
Is this easier to figure out, interface-wise, than old school X-Com? I'm not talking about challenge, I just mean the UI. Old X-Com is way arcane to try and figure out...
Yep, absolutely. There are tooltips for most buttons and you can get through the missions by only clicking on your soldiers and the enemies. Many of the superfluous buttons have been removed.

I'm playing on normal and I completed my first two missions without losing anyone. The accuracy of my soldiers isn't great and the only way to gain an advantage is to group up against the enemies. I like the new suppression feature. Even if I don't hit the target it will allow for one of my shotgun guys to get closer.
 

The_Poet

Banned
Is the start meant to be this slow? I've spent 5+ days waiting for a UFO to enter my radar and I cant do anything else but wait.
 
Is the start meant to be this slow? I've spent 5+ days waiting for a UFO to enter my radar and I cant do anything else but wait.
Use the time to carefully prepare for the future. Don't forget to turn up the speed max (press 4) and then you will spend no time waiting for action.

I survived my first night mission and I'm doing steady progress with both research and manufacturing.
 
Top Bottom