Man, those goddamn mice! Who needs them? With just two buttons and some lame-o scroll wheel and relative movement and their pseudo-circular shape. They don’t even look like real mice at all!

With that in mind, what would you like to have keyboard shortcuts for? And I don’t mean just “oh I really like the F1 key!” (they’ll be customizable), what actions would you like shortcuts for? What do you need to really hardcore your experience with minimum effort and maximum speed?

Apparently people have a very hard time reading words, so I’ve written this post appropriately:

• Downloads now only has actual download info! Boring installation instructions were moved to the new Documentation! Also it’s all hosted on our site now!
• Failing to read the instructions still makes people angry and look at you funny on the subway!
• We’ve had an IRC channel for a while now! Come idle in the nerdiest whiniest chats ever!
• We’ve also had Git builds! They’re like nightly builds but more extreme! Windows only.
• Translators! There’s a forum for you! You don’t need to keep commenting in decade-old posts!

Also for the Windows users that feel all sad and lonely and compiler-less and missing out on the latest boldest changes, there are now automated Git Windows builds. These are made off the latest codebase, so

After a lot of peer pressure careful thinking and planning, the codebase has been moved over to Git on Github, and the Sourceforge SVN codebase will no longer be maintained. The Compiling instructions have been updated respectively (updated Contributing instructions will soon follow), so anyone who likes to compile the project should catch up. For Windows users, I recommend either Git Extensions or TortoiseGit.

Edit: Contribution instructions in the forum are now updated.

Seems there’s some people having trouble downloading from Sourceforge, so I’ve mirrored the files here in the meantime.

Edit: Looks like there’s a Sourceforge attack going on, which explains the issues.

You wanted it, you got it! Go check it all out in the Downloads page, and read it all carefully and throughly!

New features:

• Battlescape!
  • Crash site missions.
  • Map generation.
  • Pathfinding.
  • Alien placement.
  • Basic lighting.
  • Basic fog of war.
• New language format (with Spanish and Italian languages).
• Crude Unicode support.
• Windows installer for all your lazy needs!
• Load/save infinite games.
• Screenshot, FPS Counter and Fullscreen keys.
• Any-resolution scaling.
• Support for DOS music.
• Being able to remove bases (Access Lift).
• Friendly start reminder.

Bugfixes:

• Fixed cursor rendering.
• Removed unused strings and trademarked game names.
• Fixed craft maintenance bugs.
• Fixed text list alignment.
• Fixed bar rendering.
• Fixed crash when a UFO intercepted by multiple craft was destroyed.
• Fixed incorrect text in some screens.
• Fixed some localized strings not fitting on screen.
• Fixed palette bugs.
• Fixed various memory leaks.
• Fixed being able to click on globe through windows.
• Fixed bugs with multiple-target display.
• Various fixes to globe rendering.
• Fixed bug in text word-wrapping.
• Reorganized country/region data.
• Added OK button to Base Name window for people having trouble with Enter key.
• Removed preloading of every language (only one language is used at once, what was I thinking!).
• Fixed bug in pixel blitting.
• Improved error handling.
• Probably many other minor fixes.

And as usual, the technical notes:

• You can’t minimize dogfights.
• UFOs are nerfed to make them easier to intercept.
• Crafts rearming in base don’t use up ammo in base stores. This is to prevent them from running out since you can’t buy more ammo yet.
• Screenshots are saved in BMP since it doesn’t require libraries. DO NOT share them in this format, convert them to something sane like PNG/JPG first.
• You can control aliens on the Battlescape, have fun.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this. Sadly rulesets didn’t make it into this version, so I’ll tell you about the savegames instead.

The OpenXcom savegames are a brand new format, not like the original. All the save data is contained in one single YAML (by popular request) file, so you can move them, copy them, rename them, duplicate them, even edit them with a text editor if you want (though I’m not responsible if you break it). The only downside is the save name is the filename, so you can’t have two saves with the same name. But you can have as many as you want in your USER folder, so it all works out!

I realize there haven’t been a lot of interesting development news lately. Version 0.2 is kind of a boring milestone, more focused in internal engine stuff than gameplay. So I plan to finish it up soon so we can get right on back to the gameplay we all love!

And for all the lovely people desperately interested into translating OpenXcom in their own language, there’s now a Translations forum, just follow the guidelines and everything should go smoothly.

Finally, sir_nacnud on the forums has had some success getting the game to run on Android:

I’ve been interviewed by GamingOnLinux, so if you can’t enough info about the project, now’s your chance!