40 replies to this topic

[Mad]

This is a feedback I received via email

ok here is my feedback:



first of all: ITS AN AWESOME IDEA! i wouldn\'t tell you any news if i say \"you gotta alot more work todo\", but heck yeah you gotta alot more work todo.

graphics are nice so far. little more details in the base map would be nice.

music sucks after 10 minutes, and you know people will play this for hours. so pick somethin not so disturbin.

ive played some month and your game did well so far. far to much terror missions for me, but i guess thats subjective.

oh yeah and the ufo numerization sucks. when the first ufo you detect is ufo 6, my first thought was \"well i suck, only 1 out o 6!\".



i dont know if you get ever so far in finishing this \"project\", but i hope you will. as i said ITS AWESOME!



by,



jens



and yeah my english sucks, im from europe

And this is my response - the guy didn't use a usefull email adress

Hallo Jens!

I'll write this email in German language, since you do have a German email address.

Danke f?r die Blumen. Wir wissen durchaus, da? wir noch einen weiten Weg vor uns haben, aber wir werden dieses Projekt zuende bringen. Project Xenocide ist schon durch viele H?hen und Tiefen gegangen, aber wir haben uns immer wieder aufgerappelt.
Wenn Du schreibst da? Du mehr details im Baseview haben m?chtest, denke ich Du verweist damit auf die fehlenden Modelle der Facilities. Die werde nat?rlich noch nachgereicht! Aber das braucht auch seine Zeit; Grafik ist so ziemlich das Aufwendigste an einem solchen Spiel.
Mit der Musik, das ist eine gute Anmerkung. Wir suchen aber auch dringend noch Komponisten/DJs die unsere Musiksammlung erweitern, also falls Du jemanden kennst der helfen k?nnte und wollen w?rde, bitte verweise ihn doch an mich.
Viele Terrormissionen: Hier ist die AI noch nicht ganz ausgereift, das wird sicher noch einigen Feinschliff erfahren.
die Nummerierung der UFOs hilft nat?rlich auch, denn so wei?t du ob Du Deine detection Grid noch ausweiten musst. Aber ich denke auch das wird sich noch ?ndern.

Anyway, vielen Dank f?r Dein Feedback, hoffe Du bleibst uns Treu

Mfg

Mad
Project Xenocide Senior

which means translated more or less the following:

Dear Jens,

Thank you for your compliments. We do know, that we still have to go far, but we will finish this Project. Project xenocide has lived through many ups and downs, but we always landed back on our feet.
Since you are writing that you would like to have a more detailed Baseview, I guess you are referring to the missing facility models. Those will of course be implemented later! But this takes a lot of time, Graphics is one of the most time consuming tasks when doing such a game.
As for the music, this is a good remark. We are desperatly looking for music composers / DJs that could expand our Music collection, so if you know anyone who would be willing to help, please refer him to me.
Speaking of too many Terror missions, this might be due to a not 100% tuned AI, there will still be a lot of fine-tuning.
The numbering system we chose has an advantage: so you will always know if you still have to widen your detection grid. Anyway, this might change in the future.

Thank you for your feedback, stay tuned

Best wishes

Mad

[Mad]

Feedback via contact form:

Greetings, team.



My name is Jay. I\'ve been a fan of the X-Com series since I was about 16, as I was fairly terrified of it before then (the chrysslids gave me nightmares as a kid). I miss the original, and try to play it on occasion. About a year ago, I stumbled on Xenocide.



I\'m more than a little ashamed to say I forgot about it until this evening when I came back and saw your feature video. God, that takes me back. It\'s good to see you all still working on this after all this time, getting ever closer.



It looks like even after its original developers forgot it, your team, without funding or support, is the only one holding true to the spirit of the original X-Com game, which, come to think of it, is over 16 years old now. It\'s exciting to think that I may be invading terror sites again someday.


[...]



As it stands, though, I love the music you have (all of it), and the Geoscape view is superb (especially at night). I can\'t wait to see the combat, though, and will be watching for it.



[...]



Don\'t give up, guys, the fanbase is there.

[dteviot]

Thanks for posting that Mad, It's always nice to know that we're not alone, and other people are looking at our work and like it.

[Mad]

Thanks for posting that Mad, It's always nice to know that we're not alone, and other people are looking at our work and like it.

Yes, I thought so as well.

[Mad]

I received this a few days ago via the contact formular

for a game in its alpha stages Xenocide looks great, howwever it would be nice if the world map could be controlled by the mouse.



also the descriptions of the xnet firearms could really use an overhaul. take for instance the Beretta that you designated the T-37, Cassless ammunition isn\'t any less prone to jamming than conventional brass ammunition, however it does weigh half as much as conventional ammo. If you want a pistol that is very reliable and isn\'t prone to jamming, give it a large heavy slide, {that big mettal thing that is forced back when the bullet is fired} Much like the beretta. however the drawback to the beretta is the bullet it fires.



the G36 that you turned into a bullpup, I Like the design of your rifle. Its ergonomic, its small , it has the same length of barrel as a conventional rifle; the built in 4xscope is a nice touch. Yet still, a selector switch that can be manipulated with your thumb isn\'t special {unless the last rifle you used was an AK47} an ambidexterous selector switch is, an ambidexterous magazine release which you can manipulate with your trigger finger {much like M16\'s, only with both hands} is even better. Also I dont care if your ammunition is caseless or not you still need a way to eject chambered rounds, or even rounds that malfunctioned. also about that \"pnumatic buffering system\" is that anything like the {free floating barrel attached to various springs on the reciever of the M87 barret} also the butstock designed to \"minimize recoil sores\". Trust Me on this. Even the AK47 and its 7.62X39mm amunition wouldn\'t dammage your shoulder that much if you fired it. and most rifle rounds are supersonic rounds.



The Auto Cannon looks like it could be a very nice bullpup 20mm grenade launcher. However a 20mm grenade was never designed by the Soviet Union, the only 20mm\'s in existance are used with a few experimental NATO grenade launchers. these grenade launchers utalize technology similar to what Ronnie Barret uses for his M87/107 sniper rifles.



The Repeater cannon. If you want to build one of these It probably shouldn\'t use the same ammunition as the Auto Cannon, {maby a special17X35mm amunition that I though up 30 seconds ago} also if you want to bring the weight down on something like this make it out of plastic, and add steel reinforcements to to the places where moving parts contact each other. Steel will not sheer itself apart every time the bolt slides back, unlike plastic.



the rocket launcher. Suprisingly enough I don\'t have much to say about the rocket launcher itself. However the ammunition is a different story. The FE/CE rocket sounds usless, unless you use it to punch holes in walls,Much like the latest versions of the AT4, which have rockets that use two seperate charges, the first softens a wall by punching a hole in it, while the second makes that hole bigger, you can also delay the second charge to explode several millaseconds after the first, which would allow that charg to enter the hole created by the first and effecitvly destroy the room/building that you shot at.

the HE sounds like a fairly straight foward idea, and i like the concept of the incendary round however Napalm probably isn\'t the best choice for an exellarator. use White Phosporus, WP is some nasty shuckeroonies, it was also nicknamed Willie Peat.



the grenades If you want a powerful hand grenade just mold ball bearings into a plastic shell, that would probably create a grenade with an effective kill radius that would be larger than the maximum reasonable distance thrown. In fact thats probably why the M67/M37 hand grenades are so underpowered

If you want a good landmine take some pointers from bouncing betty\'s a cylinder that contains a high explosive on the inside and ballbearings on the outer edge. is propelled upward by an explosive charge a second charge goes off sending the ballbearings flying in every direction. effectivly killing everything within a certian distance.



suprisingly enough the M18 is a collord smoke grenade that the US Armed forces use the M8 Emmits white smoke,



I Cant say anything about the flashpods because Im not a Physisist.



The Battle Dress Uniform X-Com Style versus American soldier style.

As a soldier I found that It was ncessary to not only learn how to do my specific job but to also develop a basic understanding of the weapons, armor and various devices that not only I would use in combat but what my enemies would use in combat.

In the case of your uniforms you should specifically look at what would make a good set of body armor, as well as a good uniform.

The Armor should consist of some kind of Kevlar helmet {yes we make those out of kevlar now} and a vest with MOLLIE straps on the front, sides, and back. {MOLLIE straps are those little horizintal strips of fabric that you see on pictures of American soldiers body armor} MOLLIE straps allow you to add any size of pouch that you want directly on your body armor in any configuration you want which means a SAW or M240 gunner can strap spare ammunition on his vest as easily as someone with an M16. or in your case auto cannon ammo versus assault rife ammo. The camouflage should be the same color as the background and break up the silouett of a soilder at the same time insulation should be considered an additional layer that either goes under or over the uniform. The only way to protect yourself from radaition is to put several inches of lead inbetween you and the source of the radaition. if you want to protect yourself from heat use Nomex. and if you want to protect yourself from the cold use a second thicker jacket. Besides if you want to stay comfortable in cold weather you should use a vest that heats up your torso and head, so your body dosn\'t suck blood away from your limbs in a desperate attempt to keep your vital organs alive.



Barracks, if your living underground you should probably take the same approach to living space that the Navy does on submarines. bunk beds for two or three people, that each shift shares, dining, and recreational facilitiesthat are designed to save space.



I don\'t claim to be a physicist, chemist, or nuclear electriction for the Navy, Im just a computer tech in the Army who loves making things go boom.

[dteviot]

I received this a few days ago via the contact formular

for a game in its alpha stages Xenocide looks great, howwever it would be nice if the world map could be controlled by the mouse.

Did he realize he could use the right mouse button, or was there some other issue?

[Mad]

about game^ i've think it's not bad, but needs much much improvement. it's just 0.4 so i've think that's too early to say anything. it's can became best remake of old ufo (yes i've think that you has potential to do it). at my opinion, at first vere good to get just total clone of original ufo: enemy unknown, and after that insert new features there

He is talking about the 0.4.0.1835 release.

[Mad]

I received this a few days ago via the contact formular

for a game in its alpha stages Xenocide looks great, howwever it would be nice if the world map could be controlled by the mouse.

Did he realize he could use the right mouse button, or was there some other issue?

Oh, sorry, I never got back at you, mostly because the email address he provided was false and my response kept bouncing off...

[Mad]

More feedback!

> Hi Xenocide Folks,
>
>
>
> Have to admit I lost my faith in the project some while ago, after the engine change and whatnot... but am glad to see you guys doing very well, and have to admit things are looking pretty sleek.
>
>
>
> Feedback regarding the installer: Pretty confusing... technical jargon. Think of me as the German kid on youtube... \"Ich wil spielen!\". Make installation of prerequisites mandatory, and don\'t offer the confusing download-separately option. Do make sure you check if components are already installed - I already have the .Net Framework patched up to most recent version, but the installer did not detect that.
>
>
>
> The XNA updater thingamajiggy... it didn\'t work: \"Updating XNA Framework: UNEXPECTED FAILURE - make sure you are connected to the internet\"... I am connected.. Just downloaded quite a lot of megs worth of components for this game, and opened this page seconds ago. Add a \"Retry\" button to the updater, at very least. Pressing the EXIT button leads me to a Windows Vista \"Stopped working, Vista is informing Redmond about you running non-MS software and perhaps offer a tip on how to make it run\" dialog. Felt very sloppy.
>
>
>
> In fact - every time I start Xenocide I get that... so no joy on Vista for me yet. Boohoo. Hope the crash reports do manage to reach you through some obscure channel...
>
>
>
> This is Vista Home Premium, with .Net Framework 2.0, all Windows-Updated to the latest and greatest yesterday, running on a laptop with a souped-down GF8600 video and an AMD Turion running at a clockspeed I haven\'t managed to figure out yet.
>
>
>
> Best of luck... do keep up the great work!
>

The problem with Xenocide not starting has been solved - it was a missing XNA Refresh - which was not really surprising, sind dxxna seemed to have some problems...

Edited by Mad, 08 May 2008 - 03:03 AM.

[Mad]

Now he sent some feedback on the game itself:

Well, now that we have a fully running game, some feedback on the game itself. I know it is Pre-Alpha stuff and highly unpolished, but hey... it'd be a shame if you miss such glaring stuff while moving onward.

1. Base View - the images that are there are VERY blurry - this surprises, considering the very nice looking 3d images shown in the Image Gallery. Please don't use top-down view for the Base View, it's completely unrecognizeble what the various tiles do (heh.. hate to say it, but the big white squares with text are a lot more obvious than the tiles )

2. GUI - The bottom right part of the right-hand GUI menu in Base View looks messy.. the backdrop in which the buttons are supposed to fall ends before the buttons do, thus making the buttons overlap the border elements. Either fewer buttons, smaller buttons, or a different backdrop might do the trick. I'm playing at the default resolution the game started it - problem might go away at higher res.. I dunno.

3. GUI - text in confirmation buttons is weirdly aligned (somewhere to the top-left), might want to center this.

4. GUI - transparancy in dialog (in base view) is too transparent.. text is poorly readable when the dialog is over whiteish elements in the underlying GUI.

5. Font - Please... get a nicer font Most text looks really jaggy.

6. Base Markers - when looking at them at an angle, it's not obvious where the base is.. I mean that if the bottom of the marker is obscured by the planet, then you can't tell if the marker is there where the edge of the planet intersects the marker, or further 'down' behind the horizon.

7. Performance - Click Alien Mission and selecting a mission brings the entire game down to a crawl, but doesn't seem to do anything AFAICT.

The planet is looking amazing.. even without the high-res texture. Good job on that one.
The planetview music loop gets VERY annoying after a while... (the tada-dadum-dadum-tada-tada one with the organ-like strings overlaid).

Well... that's it for now... I guess most of these are already being worked on by your team, but figures it wouldn't hurt to chip it in anyway.

[dteviot]

1. Base View - the images that are there are VERY blurry - this surprises, considering the very nice looking 3d images shown in the Image Gallery. Please don't use top-down view for the Base View, it's completely unrecognizeble what the various tiles do (heh.. hate to say it, but the big white squares with text are a lot more obvious than the tiles )

I've made the same comment myself. Can we discuss using icons for the different facilities?

7. Performance - Click Alien Mission and selecting a mission brings the entire game down to a crawl, but doesn't seem to do anything AFAICT.

Showing the alien mission is kind of a bug. It's for debugging purposes, and should be hidden by setting controlAlienMissions in startsettings.xml to false.
I'll fix that up in the next day or two.
That said, the fact the at the game slows to a crawl when pressed is a concern.

[Mad]

1. Base View - the images that are there are VERY blurry - this surprises, considering the very nice looking 3d images shown in the Image Gallery. Please don't use top-down view for the Base View, it's completely unrecognizeble what the various tiles do (heh.. hate to say it, but the big white squares with text are a lot more obvious than the tiles )

I've made the same comment myself. Can we discuss using icons for the different facilities?

I don't see why not. Of course the 3D Baseview was a nice feature, but for now goodworking icons should be the way to go IMHO.
Edit: The only problem would be creating those - it seems that a simple shot from above does not do the trick, so the AWD would have to literally paint some icons.

Edited by Mad, 08 May 2008 - 02:36 PM.

[dteviot]

1. Base View - the images that are there are VERY blurry - this surprises, considering the very nice looking 3d images shown in the Image Gallery. Please don't use top-down view for the Base View, it's completely unrecognizeble what the various tiles do (heh.. hate to say it, but the big white squares with text are a lot more obvious than the tiles )

I've made the same comment myself. Can we discuss using icons for the different facilities?

I don't see why not. Of course the 3D Baseview was a nice feature, but for now goodworking icons should be the way to go IMHO.
Edit: The only problem would be creating those - it seems that a simple shot from above does not do the trick, so the AWD would have to literally paint some icons.

That shouldn't be a major issue, the sprite sheet holding the facility models used in the base view is Xenocide\Content\Models\Facility\FacilityNames.PNG

[Mad]

Been playing with 0.4.18350 and have some thoughts, ideas, suggestions . . .
1) Time options on Geoscape don't seem to match what they do. Def need "5
secs", "30 mins" intervals
as per the original but buttons seem to do this anyway?! Either way a couple
more options would be good.

2) Soldier names need work. (As an ex programmer - what would I need to help
with the project? )

3) Base rooms/sections will need connecting doors and/or passages. Needs to
be considered at some stage.

4) Realise it is very early in development but . . .
Battlescape needs some view control buttons. (I did find most of the
keyboard keys but still . .)
Namely "Zoom in"/"Zoom out" and/or Mouse wheel zoom
and "Rotate Left/Right"
plus "Next soldier" options. .
A 'selected soldier' box with Name, rank, MP's & fire option (L/R
hand) etc.
+ obviously the opportunity fire options.
5) When viewing soldiers need male/female+different hair/faces.
Also be nice if they had some scaling(say ? 10%) and have
fat/avg/thin ones.
I.e. Give them some personality . . .

All in all it's shaping up well though. Look forward to future developments.

Ok, By buttons I mean some on-screen buttons that can control camera
using mouse. Yes you can move to most views using the keys but it's quite
'clunky'. What is needed is a rotate that gives the same effect as pressing
A+Left
or D+right.
Would also be very cool to be able to switch to 'Soldier view' (thru their
eyes, with free look),
Or 'Over the shoulder/3rd person view' with single button.

Having seen the soldier names file I can see that you are on top of this . .
.
If you want I could send some more English/American/Australian (or other)
names to whoever is handling this.

Duplication of surname for male/female is my only query (Is this really
necessary?).
Some of the more obscure foreign names seemed strange (and 'made-up'(what do
I know?)) until you know their
country of origin.

What would be nice is to have a soldier pre-selection screen so you can have
some idea of their background/experience (+some stats) BEFORE you
order/buy/requisition them.

Edited by Mad, 20 May 2008 - 02:37 AM.

[Mad]

No major problem with the time buttons. But I was trying the original (as
you may have guessed I was a huge fan of the original) and they have [5sec]
and [30min] buttons as well as the others. But I also noticed in 4.1835 when
you click on the existing [1min] button time seems to advance by seconds,
not minutes. Same with the current [1hr] button, time advances by minutes
not hours and also with [1Day]. As I said not really a problem just
noticeable.

At the
moment the program just seems to pick random firstname - Surname
combinations from anywhere in the database which works Ok, but it would be
cool if say for half the soldiers (a percentage) it used First-Last name
combinations from THEIR country and for the other half it just used either a
first or last name from Their country combined with another random name. In
this case it would make sense to just have one list of Surnames per country
rather than duplicating this for male and female (as I said before).
If the names were used in this way it would also make sense to also have
some sort of ethnic profile under the country so that the program knows that
a native African should be black for example. There should also maybe some
sort of weighting on the countries themselves so that maybe the largest
contributors to the X-com budget
have the largest number of potential soldiers (or weighted by population),
rather than by the number of names under a particular country in the
database (as it is at the moment). (i.e. At the moment there will be a
higher proportion of Africaans or Arabic names as there are more in the DB).

[dteviot]

Been playing with 0.4.18350 and have some thoughts, ideas, suggestions . . .
1) Time options on Geoscape don't seem to match what they do. Def need "5
secs", "30 mins" intervals
as per the original but buttons seem to do this anyway?! Either way a couple
more options would be good.

That's because in Xenocide the time buttons don't do quite the same thing they do in X-Com.
In X-Com, the buttons specify the size of the step time is incremented in.
In Xenocide, the time buttons control how much game time takes place relative to real time.
e.g. if "1 Day" is selected, then Xenocide tries to run at a rate of 1 game day per real time second.
Note, if Xenocide can't run at that rate, it will run as fast as it can.

[Mad]

hey,
let me start by telling all of you congratulations and good luck on taking on this monumental project. i remember x-com is probably the best pc game i have ever played and rightly deserves the title \"best pc game of all time\". i look forward to your finished work and am very excited and incredibly relieved that you are going to do your best to stay true to the original x-com.

[Mad]

Awesome that you\'re undertaking this. XCOM is one of my top 3 games of all time, I was absolutely obsessed with it for a good portion of my childhood, and reading the info on this and your Wikipedia page makes me want to play this game again extremely badly! What current game has the same backstory, incorporates such an amount of thought (economics, research decisions, engineering, design, strategy, combat) and gives you that visceral sense of fear for your soldiers during combat? XCOM had it all, had everything that to me defines a classic game.
At any rate I loved this game and miss it. Reading through all the info you have posted on Xenocide, I can\'t help but still wonder where exactly your team is in building this game? Is there a full working version available? To tell the truth I don\'t understand most of the technical information on the info sites, i\'m not up with the error message jargon etc. But I am extremely interested in finding out more about the game and the progress you are making on it.
Thank you very much

[Mad]

I just downloaded the installer, in my opinion the installer works great. It has always been a pet peeve of mine when an auto installer detects that you do not have some file and then just aborts, this detected the absence then installed the needed file. Now I just have to figure out the game. Is it a common problem that time won\'t start running? I tried clicking on each of the time buttons but nothing. Also a feature that brings up at least the name of a base building when hovering over it would be great, being able to save over a file rather than having to delete it first is good, and on the base names caps lock does not work. Thank you though, sorry for the lack of brevity but its great that you all are doing this!

[Zombie]

Just used the installer for PX and I must say, for a computer newbie like myself it was foolproof (heck almost bombproof). I needed the XNA framework and Directx9.0 which the installer took care of while I did other things. Sweet. The biggest hassle was waiting for the Directx update to download (even with DSL at 1.5mB/s it took nearly 20 minutes to complete). Talk about bloatware...

Anyhow, if I can do it, anyone can.

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie, 11 September 2009 - 09:23 PM.

[Mad]

Just used the installer for PX and I must say, for a computer newbie like myself it was foolproof (heck almost bombproof). I needed the XNA framework and Directx9.0 which the installer took care of while I did other things. Sweet. The biggest hassle was waiting for the Directx update to download (even with DSL at 1.5mB/s it took nearly 20 minutes to complete). Talk about bloatware...

Anyhow, if I can do it, anyone can.

- Zombie

Haha, you'd be surprised...

[kafros]

You still receive emails from people complaining, even though they haven't installed the XNA runtime and the latest directx release?

[Mad]

You still receive emails from people complaining, even though they haven't installed the XNA runtime and the latest directx release?

Sometimes. Especially the Vista/DirectX9 issue comes up more often lately. Oh, and I got an email complaining it wouldn't work under Windows7 - didn't get around fixing this until now. So if you should have some free time... Be my guest

Edited by Mad, 14 September 2009 - 01:09 AM.

[gu35s]

i downloaded and install the game using the latest progress release. I had uninstalled netframe2 and xna3 so the installer ask if it should download and install for both and clicked on yes. When all was done and restart, it wouldn't run the game. Looking around showed no netframe or xna installed so I downloaded straight from microsoft site and installed both. then the game worked. I think the auto install didn't work.

in any case there are a great many feedback I can give for the UI all across the game but I wonder if there would be anyone to change it. The first thing to fix would be the fonts. It would be better to look like the concept screenshot in the gallery.

neway, off to work. hold on there PX. great potential.

Edited by gu35s, 15 October 2009 - 08:47 PM.

[Mad]

i downloaded and install the game using the latest progress release. I had uninstalled netframe2 and xna3 so the installer ask if it should download and install for both and clicked on yes. When all was done and restart, it wouldn't run the game. Looking around showed no netframe or xna installed so I downloaded straight from microsoft site and installed both. then the game worked. I think the auto install didn't work.

in any case there are a great many feedback I can give for the UI all across the game but I wonder if there would be anyone to change it. The first thing to fix would be the fonts. It would be better to look like the concept screenshot in the gallery.

neway, off to work. hold on there PX. great potential.

Yes, I've read some of your comments already. I wonder if you could change some of these things yourself and show us how it'll look. Design is not really a top priority at the moment, but if you would be willing to make us a UI which is better in your eyes, please post the necessary files in the commits thread.
About the installer: it is interesting to hear, could you please post or PM me your install.log from your Xenocide installation directoy, so we can figure out what went wrong?

[gu35s]

well, the install log is saying that it did even though i reinstalled it twice without reinstalling xenocide first.

**********************************************************
* Checking windows version/architecture,...
* - Windows Version: "XP"
* - Platform Architecture: "32"
* - CPU: Genuine Intel? CPU T2050 @ 1.60GHz, ~1596 Mhz
* - RAM: 1023 MB
* - Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300
* - VRAM: 256 MB.
* End of System Information Section
**********************************************************

* MSI Installer version is OK (3.1.4000.2435)! Installation can continue.
Checking your .NET Framework version...
* .NET Framework not found, download is required for program to run.
Pausing installation while downloaded .NET Framework installer runs.
Execute: F:\DOCUME~1\Ardy's\LOCALS~1\Temp\NetFx20SP1_x86.exe /q /c:"install /q"
* Completed .NET Framework install/update.
* Found/Installed .Net Framework 2 SP1! Proceeding with remainder of installation.
Installing XNA Framework 3.0
* XNA Framework 3.0 installed successfully!
Updating DirectX
* DirectX installed! Proceeding with remainder of installation.

I had made a simple something for the sidebar UI but I forgot my flash drive in the office. Senile me. Anyway, it was a simple something so I maybe able to recreate it in a bit and post it on the concept/fan art thread. And as I said before in that thread anything I posted in there you can take as you like.

Edited by gu35s, 16 October 2009 - 09:43 AM.

[Mad]

Interesting, you're the first to describe such a thing. We'll have to look into this. Thanks for the report.

[gu35s]

could be that most people did not realize that it wasn't installing properly. probably also why you had those reports saying the game not playable when "everything" were installed. some people probably took a look and goes, oh auto install required stuff, great.

[Mad]

could be that most people did not realize that it wasn't installing properly. probably also why you had those reports saying the game not playable when "everything" were installed. some people probably took a look and goes, oh auto install required stuff, great.

Nope the problems with "everything installed" almost always were missing a compound. Most often this was the case with DirectX9 under Vista. We only recently fixed this, since then you're the first to report problems. And trust me, if it doesn't install properly, people realize - with Xenocide not starting it seems this would be quite obvious. And the next "logical" step is always, no, not to check the prerequisites, but to write a complain...

[gu35s]

ah that. yeah.

"Hey it didn't work. Let see... should I take care of it by checking prerequisites and download the missing components in mere minutes or should I write a complain and wait for days before reply to help me get this game running? ... Ah heck, I have time. Let's write a complain."

[Mad]

ah that. yeah.

"Hey it didn't work. Let see... should I take care of it by checking prerequisites and download the missing components in mere minutes or should I write a complain and wait for days before reply to help me get this game running? ... Ah heck, I have time. Let's write a complain."

yepp...

[Mad]

This feedback reached me by email.

On Geoscape the time progress is very poor approx. just a few hours game time per minute real time on highest speed setting (1 day). One of my CPUs is used nearly 100%.

I\'m using high resolution geoscape.

My System:
Core 2 Duo E6600
Geforce 8800GT
4 GB RAM
Windows 7 x64

[kafros]

A week ago I noticed something worse. If I clicked anything except from the slowest setting, the game would "freeze" for large periods of time IF there were any crafts (human/alien) on the globe. And, I solved it by... starting a new game, doh!

Mysterious bug, I wonder if this is of similar cause...

[Mad]

A week ago I noticed something worse. If I clicked anything except from the slowest setting, the game would "freeze" for large periods of time IF there were any crafts (human/alien) on the globe. And, I solved it by... starting a new game, doh!

Mysterious bug, I wonder if this is of similar cause...

I guess it's a bug related to our switch to XNA 3.0, we did not have such problems with XNA 1.0 RF (Build 1835).

[Mad]

Comment via the contact form:

bravo! ive looked for years for a game as good as x-com and i always end up going back to the original. my girlfriend asks why i insist on playing such a low-tech game while all my insanely expensive brand new consoles sit idle. x-com is like chess! a classic! took a peek at xenocide and i cant wait till its finished. looks awesome! keep up the great work.

[kafros]

[Encha]

im a pure Xcom fan myself. and will always go for the games that seem simlar to the originals.

i liked Xcom Apocalypse the most.

i'm liking youre game.

i dont want to become annoying my asking questions all the time. but when this is something new im using. its bound to happen,

1# the time controls on the geoscope. are they supposed to work correctly. as i put it on 1 day. no time passes. but if i went to research screen or something simlar. and back to the globe. 2 days pass then it goes to non time moving. unless i do the repeat process.... to make time go.

2# do missions work,,, i got one to goto Cairo in egypt. and when i got in. my screen looked like this. and i could not do anytrhing. non the buttons on the screen do anything. i had to alt+F4 my game.. basically.


and on a note i saw about music and sounds. you could contact someone i know in the game industry. as he does some work over at Beyond Ascension where im from. his names Nathan Allen Pinard. hes done quite alot of work around from games, to online Machinima like Oxhorn's video's or Unforggotten Realms


but heres Nathan's site. i suggest you contact him if youre wanting some Major Sound and Music done, as he has a full sound studio at his disposal.


http://www.nathanallenpinard.com/

Nathan Allen Pinard is a specialist in composing for Video Games, Movies, Machinima, TV, and Films. Armed with a large arsenal of software, sound effects, and virtual instruments, Nathan can take on any of your projects while at the same time, offering you affordable rates.

Utilizing various libraries from Spectrasonics , East West , and the Vienna Symphonic Library , you will get the upmost quality in musicality, as well as engineering quality and realism.

Nathan has done work for Disney, orchestrating and co-writing the song "Dare to Dream" on "The Princess and the Frog: Tiana and Her Princess Friends" with several other composers. The album the song is featured on was recently released in stores.

Nathan has also worked with various clients such as Brandon M. Dennis . Known as ?Oxhorn? Brandon is the creator of popular World of Warcraft machinima films viewed by millions such as the ?Inventing Swear Words? and ?Associate Professor Evil? series, as well as other small films. Nathan has also worked with well known machinima author Johan Vagstedt with Firebolt Productions creating some of the most dramatic World Of Warcraftmachinima complete with heavy cinematic fight scenes.

Other than machinima, Nathan is also versed in composing for short live-action films, such as ?Runaway Rightie? and ?Finding Lost? by Will Nail, and is also currently working on a project by Carolyn Hodge of ?Moondancer Films? and "Emma's Wish"

Finally, aiming at one of his bigger passions, Nathan has aimed to create music and sound assets for games, starting with the IGF Student Showcase Winner "Boryokudan Rue", a point and click adventure game set in a sci-fi setting, created by The JBurger, along with an adventure based side-scrolling flash game by Yin Yang Productions entitled "Doodle Warrior"

Nathan is also undergoing a large Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming project taking the role of Lead Sound Manager in Conquest Of Heroes by indie gaming company Beyond Ascension . Nathan is responsible for the sound effects, music direction and composing, voice acting, casting and direction, as well as editing, hosting, and publishing the Burning Man Studios (now known as Beyond Ascension) Presents podcast series with information about the game, and audio book segments about the story.

Services Provided:

* High Quality Composition or Orchestration for any Media
* Sound Design
* Voice Acting, Casting, and Direction
* Mixing/Mastering
* Unique Instrument Performance with Duduk, Penny Whistle, Low Irish Whistle, Napalese Flute, and various Recorders

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by Encha, 06 April 2010 - 02:41 PM.

[dteviot]

1# the time controls on the geoscope. are they supposed to work correctly. as i put it on 1 day. no time passes. but if i went to research screen or something simlar. and back to the globe. 2 days pass then it goes to non time moving. unless i do the repeat process.... to make time go.

Time should progress. We did have a couple of people who reported a bug similar to yours and it was fixed. However, I assume you're running the prebuilt code from the website, and I'm not sure that's been updated with the fix.

2# do missions work,,, i got one to goto Cairo in egypt. and when i got in. my screen looked like this. and i could not do anytrhing. non the buttons on the screen do anything. i had to alt+F4 my game.. basically.

Yes, the missions should also work, although the controls are not obvious.
IIRC, you should be able to move the viewpoint with the arrow keys. You can click on a soldier to select the soldier, then click on a place to either move the soldier or have him shoot.
On reflection, I suppose when the battlescape starts, I should put up a dialog with instructions. (A better solution is required, but it should do for a start.)

[Encha]

Time should progress. We did have a couple of people who reported a bug similar to yours and it was fixed. However, I assume you're running the prebuilt code from the website, and I'm not sure that's been updated with the fix.

well i downloaded the installer from the main site. so surely it should be updated. if it came from the site. but if you mean a bug fix in the Dev Installer then no. i dont have that.

the website currently shows...

Progress Release 0.4.0.1836
04 Apr 2008

being the only Available Download. that im using.

Yes, the missions should also work, although the controls are not obvious.
IIRC, you should be able to move the viewpoint with the arrow keys. You can click on a soldier to select the soldier, then click on a place to either move the soldier or have him shoot.
On reflection, I suppose when the battlescape starts, I should put up a dialog with instructions. (A better solution is required, but it should do for a start.)

i found that A, D keys rotate that camara, and Arrow Keys move it. but really really slow pace of 1 pixel every second.

and ive had 3 attempts at missions and all look like the screenshot i put up.

all the squad members arms up like their Human Crucifixs. and move like it to. but really slowely also.

[dteviot]

i found that A, D keys rotate that camara, and Arrow Keys move it. but really really slow pace of 1 pixel every second.

Hm, should not be that slow. Although it might depend on the hardware you're using. I may need to do something about that.

all the squad members arms up like their Human Crucifixs. and move like it to. but really slowely also.

Yup. That's because that's the only soldier model we have. It's not animated. I have thought of downloading some free MD2 models, but that's for the future.

[Encha]

Hm, should not be that slow. Although it might depend on the hardware you're using. I may need to do something about that.

hardware... dual core Cpu 2.4ghz . Crossfire X ATI 2x 3870 HD 512mb cards. 4 gb of ram... Creative X-Fi Sound card.... (Alienware M17)

Edited by Encha, 10 April 2010 - 07:30 PM.