Xenonauts 2 News

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]Changes:[/p]

• [p]Alien autopsy research projects now autocomplete once Xenobiology has been researched.[/p]
• [p]Capturing The General alive on the ATLAS Base mission now only grants +100 Operations Points on research (down from +150).[/p]
• [p]Colossus Armour now makes the wearer immune to suppression.[/p]
• [p]Colossus Armour now has a new secondary melee weapon available called the Power Fist. For now, you'll have to manually equip this and the animations / art are placeholders (and it won't appear in existing campaigns), but it's effectively a free Energy Knife that doesn't weigh anything.[/p]
• [p]Basic Cyberdrone now only fires 2 shots (down from 3), but damage increased to 50 per shot (from 40). Heavy Cyberdrone still fires 3 shots.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed a crash that would occur on the UOO Sabotage mission when the reinforcements started spawning.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the Reaper Zombies incorrectly spawning a new Reaper every turn once they time out.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some issues with the camera focus when firing shots at long range.[/p]
• [p]Fixed vehicles always being illuminated on night missions, and the corner tiles on the ATLAS mission being visible even without line-of-sight.[/p]
• [p]More assorted map fixes.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone - welcome to our consolidated development update for July and August, which we've rolled together because I was away on holiday at the start of last month.[/p][h3]Milestone 6[/h3][p]Let's start with the biggest news first. The initial version of Milestone 6 arrived on the Experimental branch a couple of weeks ago, and since then we've been working hard on patching and improving it in response to community bug reports / feedback. Milestone 6 is another major update for the game, and will be the penultimate update for Xenonauts 2 before we leave Early Access.[/p][p]Progress has generally been good since the initial Experimental build. We're continuing to release a steady stream of new content and bugfixes for Milestone 6, but there's still quite a few gameplay issues to work through before we can release it onto the standard branches for everyone to play. We're therefore expecting a late October release.[/p][p]If anyone is interested in trying out the new content and giving us feedback (particularly if you play the highest or lowest difficulty settings), please feel free to hop over to the Experimental branch and give the new update a play, However, please be aware that Experimental builds haven't been tested as thoroughly as the public versions of the game and tend to contain more bugs![/p][h3]Game Assets / Content[/h3][p]The final public release of Milestone 6 will contain all the remaining content in our roadmap, except the Mod Tools (which are slated for Milestone 7). Most of this work is now either completed, or very close to it. In addition to everything covered in our previous monthly updates, we now have:[/p]

• [p]All the research art and research text in the game.[/p]
• [p]The updated Air Combat UI fully implemented (barring a few last polishing tweaks).[/p]
• [p]The ending cinematic completed in video form (so we just need to implement it in the game).[/p]

[p]There's two major tasks left to finish before Milestone 6 is done. The first is the Air Combat tutorial, which has been fully written and designed and is currently being hooked up in the code. The other is the new Soviet Town biome - progress here has been a little slower, but we still have five draft maps set up. I'll be switching my focus to this once our current balance pass is complete, so we're hoping to have it in the game by the end of the month.[/p][h3]Balance / Gameplay Pass[/h3][p]I devoted a lot of time this month to playing Milestone 6. There's been two reasons for this - firstly, it's been quite a while since we last did a proper balance pass on the game, and secondly because I need to properly understand the current player experience to plan Milestone 7.[/p][p]This has been useful, and I've enjoyed it. However, it can be time consuming - Xenonauts 2 is a long game, and every mission played usually ends in us seeing a dozen small improvements that need to be made (bugs, visual issues, tweaks to specific maps or terrain objects, changes to particular enemies, adjustments to the number of aliens in a particular mission, etc). Frequently I'll spend an entire morning fixing issues we spotted in a mission I only spent twenty minutes playing.[/p][p]However, this is time well spent - as we approach the end of our development roadmap, Xenonauts 2 will benefit far more from time spent polishing the moment-to-moment gameplay experience than by adding further content (although we do still have a few cool new additions planned for Milestone 7). Coupled with the feedback we receive from players, we should be able to address many of the things that frustrate or disappoint players who would otherwise enjoy the game. That'll be our main focus for the remainder of the Early Access period.[/p][p]OK, I think that wraps up everything we've been working on recently. Thanks for reading and, as always, an especially big thanks to all the community members who have been testing the game and reporting bugs. See you next month![/p]

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]Changes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed the Supporters incorrectly offering a much smaller funding increase than in earlier versions.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the game not correctly returning to the Main Menu after showing a Game Over screen.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the starting Angel interceptor needing Armour unequipped / reequipped for it to function properly (for a second time).[/p]
• [p]Fixed the three soldiers in the Rescue Soldiers mission having ballistic rifle ammo in their medikits.[/p]

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]Unfortunately this update breaks save game compatibility, but if you want to continue your 6.4.0 campaign then please switch over to the Experimental Legacy branch.[/p][p]Changes:[/p]

• [p]Added research art for Biosurvey Array research project.[/p]
• [p]Updated the ENDGAME biome art to reflect we now use a teleporter rather than the Pegasus.[/p]
• [p]There's now a dedicated "Supporter" line in the Funding Report that shows the funding received by the Geoscape Supporters.[/p]
• [p]Supporter icons are now darkened when they are in the "replacing" state.[/p]
• [p]Building roofs on the UOO Sabotage mission are now destructible.[/p]

[p]Balance Changes:[/p]

• [p]Reaper Zombies now only spawn new Reapers if they survive the incubation period, which has been reduced to two turns. Killing the Zombie within two turns of it being spawned therefore prevents a new Reaper from spawning.[/p]
• [p]Sniper Rifles have been buffed and Rifles nerfed slightly, as there were situations where the rifle was a better pick for long-range sniping. The Sniper Rifle now has a longer range, is cheaper to fire, and the penalty for moving has been reduced a bit (but it can still only fire once per turn).[/p]
  • [p]Rifle accuracy slightly reduced (by about 5% on a 100% accuracy shot).[/p]
  • [p]Sniper Rifle range increased to 26 (from 20).[/p]
  • [p]Fire cost of both Sniper Rifle fire modes decreased to 52 / 64 TU (from 56 / 70 TU)/[/p]
  • [p]Reduced the "no move" accuracy bonus on the sniper rifle by about half, and added a similar amount to the standard fire modes[/p]
• [p]Automed Unit weight has been increased to 12 (from 8) and the healing amount decreased to 3 HP per turn (from 5). This item was still too strong previously; these changes hopefully reinforce its intended role as stopping units dying from bleeding wounds (rather than replacing conventional healing items entirely)![/p]
• [p]Wraith Cloaking Field ability now triggers once at the end of a burst, meaning hitting a Wraith with two or more shotgun pellets / machinegun rounds / etc will only change the cloaking state once.[/p]

[p]Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed doors automatically closing after the line of sight updates. This means you should no longer see situations where the front door of a UFO closes at the start of the turn and the aliens inside are still visible in the fog of war.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the game displaying the "UFO Captured by Xenonauts" toast at the end of the mission if the final alien was stunned.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some more visual issues in various maps.[/p]
• [p]Destruction particles should now correctly fall through the gaps between the space platforms on the UOO Sabotage maps.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug in the French translation.[/p]

[p]This update is also only accessible by switching to our Experimental branches (instructions on how to do so here) - although please be aware they have slower load times and worse performance than normal builds due to the extra logging they contain![/p][p]This is a small hotfix for 6.4.0 that should allow people to complete their existing campaigns on the Experimental Legacy branch, as we'll shortly be releasing 6.5.0 which will unfortunately break save game compatibility.[/p][p]Bugfixes:[/p]

• [p]Fixed a crash loading ENDGAME part 2.[/p]