Thinking about picking Xenonauts up, few questions

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Hell_MINTH has Xenonauts

22 Nov, 2024 @ 7:09am

Thinking about picking Xenonauts up, few questions

Hi all,
I'm an old XCom fan (TFTD) that recently re-discovered XCom: Enemy Unknown and have been enjoying it for a while. However, I don't love the Firaxis game as much, and after some gameplay, I think the reason I keep bouncing off of XCom is due to the smaller squads and maps. In addition, the animations and cutscenes are cool, but slow the game down too much. It all just seems too dumbed-down. When I ran across Xenonauts on the internet, I was really excited, it looks like a faithful reproduction of the classic XCom experience, but in my research, I had some questions/concerns that I hope y'all can help me with.

For starters, one of the things I loved about the original XCom was the destructible environments and fire/smoke spread. Is that present in Xenonauts?

I've heard that this game is balls-hard and tedious, especially with money management. As much as I love TFTD, that too was pretty tedious, but you could sell alien technology to keep up. In Xenonauts, I have heard that the tight money situation forces you into repetitive gameplay. Is that a thing, and in what way?

How is tactical battle? Is it as complex as original XCom? Is it tough but fair, or does it lean on bullsh!t RNG too much?

And lastly, what guides would you recommend to get me acquainted and hit the ground running? Are there any streamers or youtubers that you'd recommend?

Side note: I'm not seriously considering Xenonauts 2, as I want a complete game and given the length and apparent rate of development, I'll pick that up later conditionally if it finishes in a good state. Also I like the mods I'm seeing here for X1, especially CE. However, if there is a really compelling argument to just pick up X2 instead, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

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Showing 1-13 of 13 comments

Stan

22 Nov, 2024 @ 7:11am

Community Edition

Narn

22 Nov, 2024 @ 9:10am

Xenonauts 1 does an okay job with the atmosphere and is pretty faithful to the source material, but there are some things I really dont like about it.

The first one being that almost everything you salvage from the alien crash sites or bases will be auto sold without any say on your part. Only a few select items are saved in your stores.

Second you cannot buy earth weapons. All the earth weapons are free. I really enjoyed buying, capturing, and hording earth weapons in xcom. I also liked it when you lost one you had to buy a new one. Its weird to me that you have a budget but the earth weapons are not part of that budget.

In addition any weapons you acquire from battle cannot be used.

Also the total number of world funding locations is dropped from country based to region based. I know why they did it but the simplification feels off. You cannot get a region back and you cannot keep playing without "official" government funding. I think the limit of regions you can lose is 2. I really dont like that. I think in the original XCom you could lose almost everything and keep going while subsisting on funding from captured items and manufactured goods. I liked that feeling during really long games.

Lastly research happens a lot on the smaller things without any input from you. It also happens to fast too. Same with production.

The rest of it is similar to the old Xcom experience though. The terrain is destructible and the tone is nice.

Last edited by Narn; 22 Nov, 2024 @ 9:28am

Stan

22 Nov, 2024 @ 9:46am

Xenonaugts is the $@#T ok. The community edition MOD is there via Steam Workshop.and that will add more complexity and depth. I put it like this Xenonaugts is closes thing you can get to the father of them all, the 1st xcom's period. So research what that is if you dont slready know HEL_MINTH and see if thats something you want. Good solid game, runs super smooth, it's not a large program storage wise or computer demanding wise and soundtrack got good tunes.

pipo.p

22 Nov, 2024 @ 9:48am

All the above is tweakable in files. For example, you can have smoke, or only smoke from crashed UFOs, deal chemical damage or stun damage (this wasn't implemented to not have aliens in crashed UFOs stunned after a number of turns); you can modifiy the chance for a crashed UFO to have its power core destroyed, consequently killing more crew, etc.

Also, Community Edition.

Hell_MINTH has Xenonauts

22 Nov, 2024 @ 11:12am

Thanks for taking the time to reply! I have a lot of time off coming up for the holidays, and want to choose the right game.

Originally posted by Narn:
Xenonauts 1 does an okay job with the atmosphere and is pretty faithful to the source material, but there are some things I really dont like about it.
...

This is great feedback, exactly what I was looking for. Of what you listed, I really dislike the free Earth weapons. The others seem pretty annoying, but no deal-breakers.

Originally posted by Stan:
Xenonaugts is the $@#T ok. The community edition MOD is there via Steam Workshop.and that will add more complexity and depth. I put it like this Xenonaugts is closes thing you can get to the father of them all, the 1st xcom's period. So research what that is if you dont slready know HEL_MINTH and see if thats something you want. Good solid game, runs super smooth, it's not a large program storage wise or computer demanding wise and soundtrack got good tunes.

I did try OG XCOM 1 in dosbox, but played Terror from the Deep back in the day, actually beat it (took MONTHS as I recall). They do play very similar, but I was weird I guess, I liked the underwater missions.

Originally posted by pipo.p:
All the above is tweakable in files. For example, you can have smoke, or only smoke from crashed UFOs, deal chemical damage or stun damage (this wasn't implemented to not have aliens in crashed UFOs stunned after a number of turns); you can modifiy the chance for a crashed UFO to have its power core destroyed, consequently killing more crew, etc.

Also, Community Edition.

I'm guessing that most of those tweaks are XML files then? I'll definitely run CE, there seems to be no good reason not to! Is there a github or something to access the CE source or modify, create pull requests and the like? If I get into X1, I may put some time into helping out on that, but of course I'd have to play a bit to not break more than I'd add!

Stan

22 Nov, 2024 @ 11:26am

Community edition is in like where you choose if you want to run Beta"s and stuff. You just have to turn it on.

Nyx (She/Her) has Xenonauts

22 Nov, 2024 @ 1:39pm

it'd take a lot of work but I'm pretty sure you could manually retune it such that you have to "buy" (manufacture) stuff instead of being given the starter weapons
but tbh you'll be off those so fast that it barely matters

pipo.p

22 Nov, 2024 @ 2:17pm

Originally posted by Hell_MINTH:
I'm guessing that most of those tweaks are XML files then? I'll definitely run CE, there seems to be no good reason not to! Is there a github or something to access the CE source or modify, create pull requests and the like?

You guess correctly, but xml files are already in vanilla game. You choose CE because it corrects some bugs, it enhances some texts and it changes some balance elements so that the game is less likelly exploited (the later may be upsetting). After last official patch, Devs released the code and rights to trusted modders who worked on it until 2020.

More here:
https://gtm.you1.cn/app/223830/discussions/0/35222218647006287/
https://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19508-xenonauts-community-edition-035-and-0351/

As for mods, I'm on Linux and Xenonauts's mod manager (run through Wine by Steam) seems to not be able to manage both manually installed mods (extract them in the /assets/mods/ folder) and subscribed mods. I had to unsubscribe and erase all Steam Worshop mods, and manually install all those I downloaded from Nexus. This wasn't a pain as I used to do exactly the same thing when I first play on Windows before I went on Steam.

Last edited by pipo.p; 22 Nov, 2024 @ 2:19pm

Narn

22 Nov, 2024 @ 4:58pm

Originally posted by Nyx (She/Her):
it'd take a lot of work but I'm pretty sure you could manually retune it such that you have to "buy" (manufacture) stuff instead of being given the starter weapons
but tbh you'll be off those so fast that it barely matters

I would do that if I knew where to look. Modding is a little obtuse for this game.

Hell_MINTH has Xenonauts

22 Nov, 2024 @ 8:14pm

Hellya, pulled the trigger. Xenonauts with CE is SO much better than XCom:EU. I don't need the eye candy.

Serious thanks to everyone for the tips and advice.

BTW, I'm following this video and it's given me a really solid start in the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv885hlwTPY&t=882s

#10

pipo.p

23 Nov, 2024 @ 5:58am

Originally posted by Narn:
I would do that if I knew where to look. Modding is a little obtuse for this game.

You can learn by peering at the three XCE mods xml files, and then at other xml files in companion mods.

Xml files that are spreadsheets are tricky to mod. They usually are large databases, and begin with 'excel' and 'workbook' strings.
Xml files that are settings are not. Example of settings files are: config, gameconfig, cities, armours, armours_gc...

The issue is to save them in the right format, therefore it is best to open an existing, saved xml file with Notepad++ (raw text mode) and modify it to create your own setttings file.

Advanced modding requires to have several xml files in your mod directory, as well as other assets files.

As an example, here is one of the custom settings files that are in my custom mod, it is the config.xml file that changes three settings by simply overwriting them (if vanilla or set in mods that are listed below this one (loaded before this one)):

<?xml version="1.0" ?> <Config> <Shot> <proportionStunDamage>0.1</proportionStunDamage> </Shot> <LOS> <LOSAngle>90</LOSAngle> </LOS> <CombatWindow> <RevealAllTiles afterTurns="40" />  </CombatWindow> </Config>

Of course, without any documentation, I only knew about those settings and their syntax by peering into XCE's or modders' own config.xml files.

Last edited by pipo.p; 23 Nov, 2024 @ 6:02am

#11

Sigi_Reuven [CH] has Xenonauts

23 Nov, 2024 @ 11:15am

The Firaxis Remakes aren´t that bad, especially with Long War + Long War Rebalance + Squadron Unleashed 2 installed on the 1st one. The 2nd felt always more rush and hurry and I haven´t liked it that much.

I am also an old X-Com Ufo Defense fan and I have a blast with the Open-Xcom versions. As for Xenos, I think its faithful, but I use some mods and for a new starter, I think you can´t go wrong with these 4:
- CE
- Fire in the Hole
- Enhanced Crash Sites
- Armoured Assault

Currently I am playing around with stuff like better Foxtrot, increased accuracy and some other mods, but atm I don´t know how it affects the gameplay.

If you are searching for a great X-Com game, try "Ufo: Extraterrestrials" :) I have the gold version still on CD and it was great with the BMan-Mod, but haven´t played it for years. Steam really has the Platinum Edition and als Ufo: Ext 2, but I don´t know how good they are on Steam.

Last edited by Sigi_Reuven [CH]; 23 Nov, 2024 @ 11:17am

#12

pipo.p

25 Nov, 2024 @ 12:59pm

Originally posted by Sigi_Reuven CH:
I think you can´t go wrong with these 4:
- CE
- Fire in the Hole
- Enhanced Crash Sites
- Armoured Assault

With the reserve that Armoured Assault replaced all-mighty HE-like guns with useful rapid-fire anti-personnel guns, without adding also (niche) useful AP-like single target guns as well (whereas AP-rockets are an unused vanilla asset).