playing Xenonauts

[xracer]

Hey guys,
Always a supporter of anything xcom"y" I had the key for Xeno for ever and decided to get to playing it, and I have to say I am not satisfied, sure the graphics are nice and all, but game play is not there, I am playing in Insane mode it seems the AI is aware of all units locations and the aliens do not move much if any, they take a location and stay cover the whole time.
Also it makes no sense that all alien tech is sold,  and they explain that is because of our different anatomy, however in game play you can pick up the items and it. Anyone else else has played it lately?

[Emre]

Yeah, one of my few purchases that disappointed me. It can't be compared with openxcom, from alien ai to the map design it's a failure for me. Air combat can be interesting for the first few times but it gets really boring fast and you start to auto resolve it.

[Jstank]

The one thing that really eriked me about it is was that aliens never ever EVER came out of the craft to attack you. EVER. So when you approached a UFO and all the aliens outside were killed you would get all day to set up your troops outside the craft before you opened the door. The second thing I didn't like was that you couldn't produce anything for profit. I like producing things for profit. Its the way I like to play XCOM. The DEVS of Xenonauts specifically made sure you couldn't do this, and made it clear it was an activity that he didn't like. pshh. + the whole game feels very slow, the UI is tiny and hard to read and navigate. I have alot of other gripes about it. I have the play through up on my channel. Its not a bad game but its not as great as openxcom is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-QuWoKmGJk&list=PLdRzyg_rQbgsLSF6Lk_4--YLo9eTPBv5q

[xracer]

About the air combat, it is nice and it does get a little tiresome after a while, but seen this I figured I can do the auto resolve, usually when I manage I almost never get any damage, but auto resolve and all 3 of my crafts were at around 10% health!!!!
And the game feels very slow
The manufacturing thing is sad, and why would we sell alien tech!!!!
It is really disappointing I was expecting so much more
how I work the alien ships since I know the aliens never come out I position my soldiers beyond the sight limit of aliens then get one individual to open the door and from far away I just do sniper shots by the way all my soldiers are snipers, this is the only class I use I tried I variety and I just kept loosing men every single mission, with my current tactics once I spot an alien I uses other soldiers that are far away to kill it. And it has been working really well in like 5 missions I think I had one casualty.

[darkestaxe]

Personally I had the general impression that Xenonauts would be like X-COM with added functionality in an earlier time period. I thought it would mostly be a clone except for the stuff they added.

Generally I'm not a fan of clones because they tend to lack creativity, however when it comes to attempting to follow x-com every dev does the same thing. They clone half of it and substitute very little for the other half.

They usually all clone the same half too. They always keep the battlescape and throw away the geoscape, why?!?

If all they want is X-COM minus the geoscape then it's not x-com based it's just a generic squad tactics game. It's not like I have something against squad tactics games, but there's a reason X-COM was the #1 single player PC game of all time and it's not just because it had cool music and 3d squad tactics.

IMO Xenonauts will appeal to the same demographic as the EU2012. To be fair there does appear to be a more developed geoscape aspect.

There is Xenocide, though it's not that much more complete either. Oh well, we still have OXC.

[Jstank]

I'll disagree with you on that this game is trying to target FRAXIS XCOM audience. I believe that the devs really do like the original and tried to create a game that is in its spirit. Xenonauts has a geoscape, its just a less user friendly geoscape. They have a battlescape but it doesn't feel like XCOM's battle scape. The game doesn't feel right. From the way the aliens surge to the continuous annoyance of running out of fuel before you can catch one, to the battlescape where lowering the difficulty simply means your soldiers have more health as opposed to enemy's becoming less accurate, less equipped. Then there is the constant. Your soldier collapsed in battle like a %@& pokemon and is miraculously brought back to life with no explanation why instead of your soldier is bleeding out on the floor better do some first aid or he will die. These would all be minor things but there are so many of them that it really hurts the feel of the game. And lets not mention that awful teleporter noise. Or the fact that some of the later alien ships and rooms are completely devoid of anything interesting. The Craft doesn't look very destroyed when it crashes aside from some corpses astrune in different places and random fires. There are preset maps... preSET MAPS PRESET MAPS!!!! oh the humanity... YOU CAN"T EVEN OPEN AND CLOSE DOORS IN YOUR OWN BASE EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF DOORS ON ALIEN SHIPS.... WTF!!!!!!!! seriously i was going through my lp and I opened a door in my OWN BASE and it wouldn't let me close the freakin door. That is poor design choice right there..

takes breath... composes self....

I think that they made some very stubborn design decisions like manufacturing. I have read the posts about manufacturing. The devs have this hardcore stance against manufacturing items for profit. They think it is cheap mechanic and that your success should be from funding from nations and not self enterprise. They have also very specifically and deliberately kept the pathing of the aliens who start in the craft to stay in the craft and never open the door. to pop out and shoot you....


well im going to stop ranting now, no one likes to hear me ranting.

[Solarius Scorch]

well im going to stop ranting now, no one likes to hear me ranting.

I do! Because everything you said is true.

I feel awkward criticizing Xenonauts, since it was made by such a small studio, they are nice people and everything, plus the game has some kickass ideas like the air combat system and UFO activity (shooting down airliners, strafin warships etc.) plus some ideas that weren't as glamorous but worked well (you don't have to buy rifles for example, you have free and unlimited access to Earth weapons, but only Earth weapons). However, it is lacking in so many regards, mostly very little things like you said, but it adds up to an unsatisfactory end result. It's also lacking basic common sense at places, take for example how sprites are made: each facing, times each body position, times each weapon, times each armour, is a full separate sprite (which pretty much kills any attempt at modding graphics).
Is it a bad game? No, I don't think so. Is it disappointing? Yes. Is it as good as OpenXCom? Hell no.

[Aldorn]

I bought Xenonaut at his beginning, to support developpers

Before that, I bought Extraterrestrials, I tried XCOM 2012

But in fact, even if I was not aware of it, I was secretly waiting for OpenXcom 

[Recruit69]

I bought Xcom EU, i was massively disappointed to find all the micromanagement feature that OpenXcom has, is gone, in effect, dumbed down massively to gain a wider audience as much as possible.

Xenonaut, I also bought, I was also massively disappointed too, and in fact, it is probable unplayable, as even though the screen size tailors to your monitor.... the text layout/size remains the same, so ends up VERY TINY to the point it was HARD WORK, just to READ what's on the screen.... 

[Aldorn]

I bought Xcom EU, i was massively disappointed to find all the micromanagement feature that OpenXcom has, is gone, in effect, dumbed down massively to gain a wider audience as much as possible.

I like micromanagement, but you have a friend just above me

[darkestaxe]

I like micromanagement, but you have a friend just above me

Actually Recruit69 was complaining that the micromanagment was gone, meaning he liked it. Solarius Scorch was saying he liked some of the early streamlining at first but it ultimately ruined the experience.

I think we're all in agreement here that micro-management is awesome and cool, and streamlining is just less game.

[Aldorn]

Actually Recruit69 was complaining that the micromanagment was gone, meaning he liked it. Solarius Scorch was saying he liked some of the early streamlining at first but it ultimately ruined the experience.

I think we're all in agreement here that micro-management is awesome and cool, and streamlining is just less game.

As I am not fluent in english, sometimes I misunderstand, thanks for "translation" 

[Recruit69]

Sorry I should have been more clearer! But yes I felt that micromanaging is an important part of Xcom, essential even!

[aceshigh]

it has it´s problems, but the graphics are lovely, everything I wanted OpenXCom to have. Don´t know if that will ever happen. Even if OpenXCom sometime allow higher resolution graphical replacements, we can see graphical features in Xenonauts that are not "simply" higher res graphics... like tall grass from grass blocks in front of blocks behind it, or ships casting shadows, as well as soldiers and aliens...

[xracer]

although i can agree that the high res images look nice. the game is too dumb down, it cuts so many corners, and what is that with that tool tips!!! or whatever they call it the info windows they look so out of place. the cover system is not bad, not ideal but not bad.

Right now i already quit 2 games because in 2 month i lost over 400 K's in funding and lost countries, i have not lost a single ship or a single man, I work very slowly and very meticulously.  But no matter what i keep loosing support and loosing funding, my enthusiasm in starting to wane

The more I play it the more I see things that bug me :S well time to get back to good old OXC