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Xenonauts discussion

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Post by sum sine regno Sat May 24, 2014 3:34 am

Seeing as this form has little in the way of discussion, I figured why not breathe a little life into it, and why not a better topic than a good game?

Xenonauts I feel is one of the better indie games in the last while, and like the modern iteration of X-Com it addresses many of the flaws of the original game. It is of course quite different than X-Com remake, and is much lower tech- and much less forgiving at every difficulty level.

However it has one great feature that other games lack- that of local forces which include armed civilians, cops and soldiers, though they quickly become outmatched it can be a treat to see a cop take down an alien lizard space marine, or an armed local defeat a killer robot. These are unlikely but can happen depending on how luck you are. In game, I can say that having help from NPCs is quite useful- though they have shot the enemy I was intending to tag and bag to death.

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Post by Kelenas Sat May 24, 2014 6:01 pm

The armed NPCs supporting you sounds like a very interesting idea. Would be nice if that aspect was expanded.

One thing I always disliked about most games in the style of XCOM (ie, tactical combat combined with basebuilding/research/resource management/etc) was that in some cases the tactical combat could become a bit of a chore after a while. Especially if you get missions in very quick succession.

Being able to hand over missions to NPC-control would be a fairly nice alternative. On one hand, it obviously wouldn't be as competent as a real player, on the other, it means that you don't have to drudge through the 'n'th shot down ufo or alien abduction mission, when all you want is to finally see the results of that research project.

The only game I can think of that did that is UFO Aftermath. Certain plot-critical missions you had to control personally, but for everything else there was always the option of letting the allied NPC faction take care of it (often with a reasonable amount of success).

Back to Xenonauts, though; how's the controls and user interface?
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Post by sum sine regno Sat May 24, 2014 8:35 pm

Kelenas wrote:The armed NPCs supporting you sounds like a very interesting idea. Would be nice if that aspect was expanded.

One thing I always disliked about most games in the style of XCOM (ie, tactical combat combined with basebuilding/research/resource management/etc) was that in some cases the tactical combat could become a bit of a chore after a while. Especially if you get missions in very quick succession.

Being able to hand over missions to NPC-control would be a fairly nice alternative. On one hand, it obviously wouldn't be as competent as a real player, on the other, it means that you don't have to drudge through the 'n'th shot down ufo or alien abduction mission, when all you want is to finally see the results of that research project.

The only game I can think of that did that is UFO Aftermath. Certain plot-critical missions you had to control personally, but for everything else there was always the option of letting the allied NPC faction take care of it (often with a reasonable amount of success).

Back to Xenonauts, though; how's the controls and user interface?

Essentially the NPCs thing is like X-Com, except the civilians can shoot back and can occasionally get the better of the aliens. Though there isn't NPCs doing missions like Aftermath, sometimes UFOs will get downed by local forces instead giving you a free lunch (happened to me once). And you can call in an airstrike on downed craft and get part of the profits if you don't want to deal with it. So you really don't have to constantly do missions if you don't want to, but you should to gain needed resources. So it is more like X-Com, but with less tedium. And don't ignore a terror mission, it causes the attacked nation/someone else to nuke the site just to be sure...making them quite angry.

Anyways, interestingly enough the UFOs you don't shoot down, or don't see actually go around causing mayhem and disturbances, like Forest Fires, Abductions, dead zones in the sea, etc, all shown to you in the news ticker.

The UI is simple, and I think needs work, but it does have tabs for each soldier you are sending on a mission.

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Post by Kelenas Sun May 25, 2014 5:29 am

Hm, the UFO effects sounds interesting. Are they only fluff (ie, information, but without any game-mechanical effects), or do they have an impact on your gameplay as well?
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Post by sum sine regno Sun May 25, 2014 6:31 am

Kelenas wrote:Hm, the UFO effects sounds interesting. Are they only fluff (ie, information, but without any game-mechanical effects), or do they have an impact on your gameplay as well?

UFOs tend to have an indirect effect, in that they mess stuff up, and increase the casualty counter. They undermine the faith countries/regions have in you.

I have seen them attack military bases- by which I mean "UFO attacks base in X country causing X casualties" on the news ticker. I am pretty sure UFOs do have a tangible effect, but it is behind the scenes. I'd need to read what the Devs have to say on the matter. But the game is like a blend of the new and old Xcoms, with more believability, worse graphics then the new one, harder and perhaps more primitive then the new.

There is a ticker which counts down to automatic loss apparently, and letting UFOs run rampant causes it to count down.

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Post by Psyckosama Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:15 am

I'll admit I was extremely annoyed by the removal of human psionics from the game.

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