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!
This update is another stability fix for Milestone 5 that hopefully fixes most of the remaining stability problems. Although we will continue to fix any bugs reported by the community, our plan is to start reviewing all the player feedback and begin making balance changes in the next hotfix.
Please note that this update contains a number of fixes for tactical maps. Geoscape saves from 5.5.0 and earlier should work fine, but some tactical saves from 5.5.0 will not load correctly. If you're having this problem, please load an earlier Geoscape save!
Gameplay Changes:
The Command Points UI in the bottom right of the Geoscape is now hidden until the Strategic Operations are unlocked after the ATLAS Base mission is completed.
The Operations Points cost for doing additional crash sites once that UFO type has been delegated now functions correctly (previously it wasn't actually deducting the cost).
The Doomsday Counter should now warn you when you go over 100 and give you until the end of the day to fix it, rather than instantly ending the game (the warning previously wasn't triggering if the passive increase at the end of the day took you above 100).
Living Quarters now consume power as intended.
Evacuating civilians will no longer path through fire and poison gas.
Added corpse artwork for the Symbiote, so they no longer use the dead Cleaner artwork.
The UOO Bridge Assault mission objective timer (defend the mainframe for X turns) is no longer modified by campaign settings, as people who wanted to effectively remove mission timers by using the +99 turns setting were being forced to defend the objective for over 100 turns.
Slightly increased the range of dropships to ensure they can reach anywhere in the world, as there were a few places you could put your base where it was not possible to reach certain missions.
The roofs on the Desert construction site buildings should now be properly destructible.
The strategic operations button cooldown overlay has now been inverted; it's shown fully greyed out when first activated and the grey overlay shrinks towards the bottom as the cooldown decreases.
Bugfixes:
Fixed an AI hang that could occur when heavy alien units tried to crush a wall and discovered an enemy unit stood directly behind it, preventing them from being able to complete their move.
Fixed another example of the 90% loading freeze on tactical missions, this one related to certain Tropical maps.
Fixed a crash that would occur if you cancelled the Reduce Panic strategic operation while choosing which region to target.
Fixed a crash that could occur during the AI turn if an explosion went partially beyond the playable area.
Fixed a crash that could occur when dragging items on top of other items in a soldier's backpack.
Fixed a crash that could occur if a UFO destroyed an undefended Xenonaut base that had soldiers / personnel / items midway through being transferred to it.
Fixed an issue where the Phase 5 timeline (which contains Battleship UFOs) would not trigger correctly if you completed the UOO Bridge Assault mission at a certain time. This fix will unfortunately not help anyone who is already in this situation.
Fixed the walkable tiles on top of shipping containers and certain vehicles being destroyed by grenades, which could cause units to fall inside the shipping containers and get stuck.
Hopefully fixed the issue where enemy reinforcements would sometimes be invisible.
Fixed the spawn locations on ENDGAME part 2 so units can no longer spawn inside objects.
Fixed the UOO Sabotage and UOO Bridge Assault missions not showing the post-mission debrief screen.
Fixed the move+shoot preview calculating TU costs slightly wrong on Soldier or Recruit difficulty if soldier rotation was part of the shot.
Fixed the Harvester UFO triggering the "capture" victory condition before the upper bridge level had been cleared.
Fixed units with jetpacks being able to fly out the top of the upper level rooms on the larger alien base maps.
Fixed achievements for completing the campaign not triggering.
Fixed "Ultimate Power" achievement unlocking if a single Colonel was present on the team, rather than requiring all soldiers present to be Colonels.
Fixed dead civilians incorrectly still showing the "evacuate" hover cursor.
Fixed the VIP minitab in the tactical UI not showing the HP and TU bars.
Fixed the Alien Symbiote Launcher weapon incorrectly being called the "Alien Symbiote Clip" in the base stores, and not being marked as junk.
Fixed the dockyard water edge tiles being destructible, and turning into walkable tiles when destroyed.
Fixed one of the alien consoles not visually disappearing when destroyed.
Fixed the roofs of the Boreal buildings.
Fixed the crashed Observer UFO hull not having a drop shadow.
Fixed the corner tiles in the alien base hangar rooms not revealing from the shroud.
Fixed an incorrectly rotated floor tile in the Destroyer UFO.
Hopefully fixed the issue that was causing certain user bug reports to contain only a single file.
We've removed the parked Scout UFO from the UOO Sabotage mission, as it was just causing confusion and also caused some gameplay problems.
Fixed the Geoscape timers on the left of the UI going offscreen on non-1080p screens.
Fixed the North American region displaying Infiltration rather than Panic on hover.
Fixed the Rush Replace button always displaying the cost as $30,000.
Fixed typos in the Fusion Weapon Upgrade project.
The MARS / ARES "Plasma Cannon" is now correctly called the "Fusion Cannon", and should have green rather than blue artwork and should fire green projectiles.
Save 35% on Xenonauts 2
In Xenonauts 2, you command a global defense organization tasked with intercepting alien threats and leading tactical ground missions. Build your base, manage resources, and engage in turn-based combat to protect humanity, now 35% off.
It's the end of the year and time for our monthly Xenonauts 2 development update. A fairly quick one this time, though, as I'm currently on holiday!
Milestone 5 Release:
The biggest news this month is that we released the initial Milestone 5 prototype on the Experimental branch on the 13th December. Although we did a lot of internal testing prior to releasing the prototype, it still ended up being very unstable (probably because we were still adding new features right up until release).
As the studio closed for Christmas on the 20th Dec, we then worked long hours to try and get the prototype into a more stable state before the holidays. After five hotfixes (including a festive Christmas Eve update) we managed to deal with most of the critical issues, leaving the prototype in much better shape. However, we're already aware of a number of bugs that we need to look at in January.
We'll also be adding a lot more content to Milestone 5 next month - as mentioned in previous updates, the initial prototype contains quite a lot of placeholder assets that we need to finish or replace before Milestone 5 is released on the standard branches.
Thanks once again to everyone who has taken the time to report bugs or give us feedback. If anyone wants to offer further thoughts, please do!
UFO Delegation:
One change in Milestone 5 proved controversial, which was the "UFO Delegation" feature. Basically, this is triggered after completing two Crash Sites of a particular UFO type, and it gives you a permanent monthly funding increase - but also imposes an Operations Point cost if you complete further Crash Site missions of that particular UFO type (there is a lore justification for this, but for the sake of brevity I won't explain it here).
We introduced this change because the player shoots down a lot of UFOs during the course of the game, and unfortunately there's two opposing (but equally valid) playstyles regarding the Crash Sites produced. The first group of players will happily fight every single tactical mission that spawns on the Geoscape, which can easily be 30+ Crash Sites over the course of a single campaign. The second group of players is happy to fight one or two Crash Sites of a particular UFO type to see the new content and unlock the associated research, but find it repetitive to do more than that.
It's extremely difficult to balance the game to account for both these playstyles, as it either ends up too easy for the people who like to complete every Crash Site (as they have way too much money / resources) or too tedious and grindy for the people who prefer to complete only one or two per UFO (as they're forced to complete every crash site to avoid money / resource shortages).
The delegation system was our attempt to support both sides by reducing the potential rewards for fighting lots of identical Crash Sites - players can still do it if they choose, but they gain less of an advantage than they did previously.
We've already listened to community feedback on this point (the Operations Point cost was previously a Panic penalty) and we'll continue to do so. Much like we added options for people who wanted to disable turn timers on tactical missions, if necessary we're prepared to add an optional "extended" mode that fully removes delegation and is balanced around the player completing every Crash Site.
However, this won't be possible until the game balance for the "normal" campaign is locked for final release in Milestone 6, as keeping an additional game mode updated while balance is still in flux would take up lots of development time.
So if you see people getting upset about this topic, please point them at this post. I think most people will find the new system an improvement overall, but we'll continue to support those who would prefer to play without it.
Conclusion:
That's everything from me. The first of us will be back at work on Thursday and we'll be back to full strength on Monday 6th, so expect the patches and updates for Milestone 5 to resume next week.
I'd like to close by thanking everyone for your support during 2024 - this game genuinely wouldn't be possible without our community. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a happy New Year!
Save 35% on Xenonauts 2
Experience the intense strategic gameplay of Xenonauts 2, now 35% off as part of the Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale.
In Xenonauts 2, you command a global defense organization tasked with intercepting alien threats and leading tactical ground missions. Build your base, manage resources, and engage in turn-based combat to protect humanity.
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!
We're technically shut down for Christmas, but this is another quick patch to fix a few crashes the community has encountered (although there's a few more on our radar that will need to wait until January).
Merry Christmas everyone!
Bugfixes:
Fixed a crash during the AI turn when an alien unit crushes a terrain object.
Fixed another crash during AI turn during alien movement.
Fixed a crash that could occur due to alien reaction fire.
Colossus can now carry Gauss LMG ammo.
MARS / ARES / Sentry Guns no longer suffer damage from poison gas.
Fixed the Supporter Info element showing "null" as the title line for the supporter effects section.
Xenonauts 2 at the Hooded Horse Winter Publisher Sale
Happy Holidays, everyone!
We’re excited to share that Xenonauts 2 is participating in the Winter Sale at 35% off. Check it and other games out at the Hooded Horse Winter Sale.
Milestone 5.0.0: Operation Endgame and the Battleship Arrive
Milestone 5.0.0 is now available on the Experimental branch. This update removes all playable time limits from the campaign, introduces new mechanics like Supporters and Strategic Operations on the Geoscape, and adds significant content to tactical combat, including new missions and alien units. https://steamcommunity.com/games/538030/announcements/detail/503937232361489171
Milestone 5.4.0 Released! (Experimental)
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!
We're shutting down for Christmas today, so this will probably be our last hotfix until early January. We haven't had time to fix everything that has been reported but hopefully the build is now fairly stable and you guys can play a bit over the holidays - please do continue to report any bugs you encounter and we'll get back to fixing them in January!
Bugfixes:
Fixed a crash that could occur when attempting to manually save the game.
Fixed Phase 5 not actually stopping the Orbital Bombardment.
Re-exported the text strings in the game. This should fix out-of-date text, such as the Generator building incorrectly displaying that it provided +50 Power when it now gives +40 Power.
Fixed an issue where the shroud or line of sight could take 10+ seconds to update if you moved / rotated a soldier immediately after an explosion.
Fixed a number of non-functioning teleporters in the UOO-1 Data Raid mission.
Fixed the Sebillian Leader T-posing if they were killed on impact in a UFO Crash Site.
Eternals can no longer be killed on impact in a UFO Crash Site.
Fixed the bodies of aliens that had been killed on impact in a Harvester Crash Site being placed on the empty mid-level of the UFO.
Fixed there being an invisible and indestructible tile on the bridge of the Harvester that blocked shooting and movement.
Fixed the spawn room for the UOO-1 Bridge Assault mission so soldiers will all spawn inside the intended room, and there's no props for them to end up embedded inside (we'll properly fix this in January, but this should make it playable now).
Fixed the boss alien not spawning in the correct spot on the second part of the ENDGAME mission.
Fixed a number of walls in the second part of the ENDGAME mission incorrectly being crushable but not destructible, causing some weird behaviour. All the internal walls in the map should now be crushable and destructible, whereas those around the edge should not be crushable nor destructible.
Fixed the alien plants in the white command areas displaying as pink error textures.
Fixed the Reinforced Shield incorrectly using the Combat Shield 2D inventory artwork.
Milestone 5.3.0 Released! (Experimental)
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!
Thanks to everyone who continues to test and report bugs in this milestone. We'll be releasing another hotfix tomorrow before we shut down for Christmas, so please do report any further bugs you encounter!
Gameplay Changes:
Updated the weapon configuration on the Battleship UFO so its frontal weapon is angled directly forwards and cannot rotate, and the two side-firing turret weapons have narrower rotation arcs.
The roof tiles on the desert buildings have temporarily been made indestructible again, as there's a visual issue where they don't disappear if destroyed.
Bugfixes:
Fixed a crash that would occur at the end of the tutorial, or at the end of tactical combat missions.
Fixed a crash that could occur in the tactical combat when either friendly or alien units were moving.
Another fix for the 90% loading screen bug. Please continue to report any further instances of this issue - I'm pretty sure we've got all the corrupted maps fixed now, but I said that after the last hotfix too!
Fixed the Operations Points value (and daily OP gain) showing incorrect values due to a quirk in the translation system.
Fixed the Phase 2a and Phase 3 popups incorrectly showing the text from Phase 1.
Fixed the post-mission debrief screen incorrectly showing all units (including the MARS) gaining +2 Strength / Bravery, even if they did not.
Fixed smoke and poison gas not being able to spawn on tiles containing combatants.
Fixed being unable to load HEVY ammo by dragging it over the weapon on the Soldier Equip screen / tactical inventory.
Fixed the "project available" pop-up sometimes incorrectly being shown before the linked Xenopedia research popup.
Fixed lost funding regions not losing their red border if they are brought back below 100 Panic and resume funding the Xenonauts.
Fixed the Scientist supporters not displaying a label on the region info panel.
Milestone 5.2.0 Released! (Experimental)
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!
This update does not break save games, but we would recommend starting a new campaign if possible. Although we can fix bugs, in many cases we can't undo corruption that might have been caused in existing campaigns!
Gameplay Changes:
Added new injury / death sounds for the Symbiote
Electroshock Baton now does 30 Stun Damage, which is a 50% increase over the Stun Baton (previously they did the same).
The Interceptor UFO now has 20 Armour instead of 2 Armour.
Bugfixes:
Fixed some more instances of the 90% loading screen freeze bug (it should now be completely gone),
Fixed a crash that would occur if you fired the Fusion Rockets on a MARS / ARES.
Fixed soldiers suffering a permanent -50% Reflexes modifier when suppressed (this was only intended to last one turn).
Fixed a tactical combat crash that could occur in certain circumstances when soldiers were moving.
Fixed the Reduce Panic strategic operation not working correctly.
Fixed a number of text display issues introduced in the previous hotfix, including all regions displaying as "NAM" and the game over screen displaying "null" everywhere.
Fixed capturing Cleaner Soldiers or Cleaner Agents incorrectly revealing the Cleaner Network Progress UI element.
Milestone 5.1.0 Released! (Experimental)
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!
This is a quick update intended to fix many of the most serious stability / game issues reported in Milestone 5, plus a few other relatively quick fixes for more minor issues. We'll release another hotfix later this week, so please keep reporting any bugs you encounter!
Gameplay Changes:
The Panic penalty for completing a UFO Crash Site after that UFO type has been delegated has been replaced with an Operations Point cost, which ranges from 35 (Scout) to 120 (Harvester) - hopefully this helps the system feel more like a cost than an outright punishment.
This penalty is now displayed in red text rather than green text.
Request Alloys and Request Alenium strategic operations are now only available from Phase 2 onwards.
The cost of a strategic operation now renders on one line when hovering over the button.
Updated the roadmap UI element to reflect the new content added in Milestone 5.
Bugfixes:
Fixed certain tactical missions hanging on the loading screen at 90% loaded (this was due to map corruption and affected the Boreal, Farm, and Western Town biomes).
Fixed a crash that would occur when the Scout UFO Delegation popup should appear - most frequently this would occur after the Funding Report on Day 60, but could also occur when a dropship returns to base after finishing a Scout UFO mission.
Fixed a crash that would occur whenever a UFO or mission containing a Sebillian Elite would spawn on the Geoscape (due to a corrupted unit loadout).
Fixed tactical mission saves becoming corrupted as soon as a civilian had evacuated from the map (sadly this doesn't fix the corrupted saves, but it will stop the corruption happening in future).
Fixed a crash that would occur if you blew up an enemy unit on a roof with grenades.
Fixed the Raise Funds strategic operation not working correctly.
Fixed Engineer Supporters incorrectly displaying text saying they boosted Research project speed (rather than Engineering project speed).
Fixed The General providing +10 Cleaner Network Progress if captured during the first mission, causing the UI for the Network Progress to appear when it should not. Instead, he now reduces Doomsday by -10.
Fixed the player needing to pay monthly wages for the 15 soldiers in the recruitment pool.
Fixed a Cleaner soldier incorrectly surviving a sniper shot during the tutorial.
Fixed a Cleaner incorrectly killing your soldier with reaction fire during the retreat at the end of the tutorial.
Fixed the game showing a Unity logo splash screen instead of the Goldhawk / Hooded Horse logos.
