XENONAUTS 2 UPDATE
This is the first major update on our main branches since March (apologies for that) and we think anyone who hasn't been playing on the Experimental branches is in for quite a treat given how much the game has changed since then. This has involved a total of 6 hotfixes, which might be a record for us!Īnyway, V22 is now out. This month we've mostly been working on turning the experimental builds of V22 into something ready to be released on our main Steam / GOG branches. Units are generally only vulnerable to panic if Xenonaut soldiers are dying around them (particularly high-ranking ones) or the unit itself has been wounded, or if there are psionic aliens messing with their heads.īalancing is still required but overall it should be a little smoother and easier to understand than it was in Xenonauts 1.Īs November draws to a close it's once again time for our monthly update. There's now a button that allows you to spend TU in order to gain Morale, and the morale system is a bit more sensible in general. The first is that Morale always starts at 100 for every soldier, and the Bravery of a soldier (boosted by the squad commander bonus) reduces the amount of Morale damage taken when something bad happens (a soldier with 0 Bravery takes about 3x the morale damage that soldier with 100 Bravery does). We've made a few improvements relative to the first Xenonauts. This system is mostly now implemented but there's still quite a few bugs and edge cases we're working through. We actually planned not to include this in Xenonauts 2 for quite a while, but ultimately we felt the game would be weaker without it and not having it gives us fewer tools when it comes to designing the alien abilities (particularly psionic ones). To read further details about the sequel, head over to the site.The main focus of recent work has been the soldier Morale system which causes soldiers to panic when things go horribly wrong on a mission. Their plan for Xenonauts 2 states: “Some of the issues in the original game were caused by our lack of experience / lack of early funding, whereas others were caused by the constraints remaining faithful to the design of a game dating back to 1994. The experience and income we have accumulated from the development of Xenonauts mean that we can make a sequel that significantly improves and expands on the first game – and this time we can be more innovative than before.” Xenonauts attempted to stay as faithful as possible to Julian Gollop’s UFO: Enemy Unknown from 1994, an approach which may be changing slightly for this sequel.
XENONAUTS 2 SERIES
It started development long before 2K and Firaxis’ reincarnation of the X-COM series as XCOM, during a period where it looked like the tactically-focused, turn-based series may never make a return. The first Xenonauts was released in 2014 after some five years in production.
We just figured we should tell everyone we're definitely working on it to stop all the questions re: Xeno 2 that have appeared with XCOM2 That’s a sentiment echoed by Xenonauts 2 developer Chris England on twitter. The team was planning to hold on to this announcement for a couple more months, but “the excitement created by the imminent release of XCOM 2 has also generated interest around our plans for the Xenonauts franchise, so we felt this was a good moment for us to confirm that we are working on a sequel”. A placeholder website says the game has been in “full production” since the start of the year and is aiming for a 2017 release. With all the XCOM / Enemy Unknown excitement floating around at the moment, Goldhawk Interactive have sensibly decided that this is a good time to confirm Xenonauts 2.