Kickstarter Projects, IN SPAAAAACE!

[Hotfoot]

Okay, so I've been following some new Kickstarters, since some of the previous ones I've been following have been funded (Wasteland 2, Shadowrun, Starlight Inception), while other have, well...not.

But two new projects have hit my radar. First up is Xenonauts, an Indie remake of the X-Com series. I would have probably let this one slip, but they did something no other project has yet done: release a demo of their game. They're only asking for $50k, and they've got it, but I'll be damned if the demo itself isn't already pretty addicting. Sure, it's buggy and incomplete, but it's an alpha demo, and for that, it's pretty solid. If nothing else, check out the demo and judge for yourself.

The next project is a ghost from my past I never expected to see again, Conquest: Frontier Wars 2. The original game wasn't great, suffered from a lot of balance issues, and was a 2.5d fleet combat game. But man the fun I used to have with it. LAN parties with all of us against nightmare AI in desperate slogging battles, island hopping from system to system. This is the game by which I judged Sins of a Solar Empire against, and found Sins lacking. But this Kickstarter I'm not so sure about. The sequel has been in development hell for nearly a decade, and they want over half a million ($675k) to get it done. Yeah, I know, not much of a stretch from the Wasteland/Shadowrun/DoubleFine game requests, but still, I'm going to have to chew that one over.

So the indie game revolution continues unabated, it seems, despite attempts to take advantage of people with it. We'll see where it goes I guess.

[Batman]

(re:Xenonauts)
Is there any particular reason they couldn't just use real world aircraft designations? The F-17 is for all practical purposes visually an F-16, why not just call it an F-16 (unless you want to bring up the problem that an F-16 could carry a lot more than two Sidewinders)? Same for the MiG-32.
The game starts in 1979 for Valen's sake so it's not like those planes wouldn't have been around at the time.
I keep losing MiGs at a depessing rate though that may be in part to me not having bothered to read the manual (though I do think the old X-Com's air combat subengine was a lot more intuitive where their vs mine engagement range was concerned).
Continuous decrease in funding thanks to most of the UFO incursions occuring outside my area of influence despite the fact that within my area of influence, I kill 4 out of 5 UFOs I detect, even if I lose an interceptor now and then.

[Hotfoot]

Because those names and designations are often owned by the companies, blah blah it happens all the time. It's why in a lot of games you see something that is basically an AK-47 or an M-16 but they're called other things.

As far as air combat goes, interceptors are good, but they're not anti-fighter craft, they are effectively bombers, best for hitting scouts, corvettes, and other heavy alien craft. Against fighters, the best bet with Interceptors is to load up with all anti-fighter missiles, with one of them being a sidewinder. Click on the missiles you don't want to fire so they are red in the beginning of the fight, fire one missile, wait for the fighter to dodge, then unleash three sidewinders/two alenium missiles so they'll hit when the fighter comes out of the dodge, and bam, dead fighter.

Interceptors also can't really do evasive rolls, so deploy them accordingly. Using multiple fighters to confuse the enemy and lead them off to have another fighter tail them. But really, regular F-17(6)'s are the best for anti-fighter work, and using guns and good maneuvers to take down enemy fighters and scouts.

And good base placement is key, as is setting up a second base as soon as possible. My main base in my current game is just southwest of Cairo, and my other base is around Texas, giving me good coverage across most of the world. My third base, most likely, will be around Japan somewhere.

[frigidmagi]

I should point out the F-17 is a real jet. It was the one that the F-16 beat out.

[Hotfoot]

While true, I went back and looked at the jet again, and it's clearly an F-16, down to the single engine.

Also, you nearly got yourself killed by an alien plasma rifle and had to spend two weeks in the infirmary. If I hadn't given you advanced armor, you'd be dead.

[Batman]

Real world military equipment designations are used in games all the freaking time (and I do know about the Cobra frigid).
I kept using interceptors primarily because they were the only thing I could build at the time and it's not like the game doesn't come out and tell you they stink in a dogfight, I just liked the higher speed and extra missiles.
And while I haven't spent all that much time on this game so far (call it 2 hours or so), at least in Geoscape/base management mode it seems to be perfectly stable.

[Hotfoot]

And just as often, they aren't, oh well. Usually it has something to do with if the game developer got permission to use the designation in the game or not, since some weapon manufacturers get a little testy about if their gear is shown in a good light or not. Given that these guys are a small company with little chance to go call everyone up over planes, tanks, and guns, much less work out deals with them, it's easier to just give the guns other names and not get sued by a company looking to protect its good name over a videogame (yes, this happens). Look at games like Ace Combat and HAWX, or Jane's games. They almost always have a little bit saying "with special thanks to Lockeed, Boeing, etc." in there, and it's for a reason. You can agree or disagree with it, but it happens all the time.

And you can buy the F-17's at any time, just go to the aircraft tab in the base and select "buy new aircraft". Boom, instant F-17, no waiting around for it to be built. Same with the transports and vehicles.

There is a nasty little set of bugs in bases regarding research projects (don't do more than one at a time, basically), but it seems to be largely cosmetic and not show-stopping. Not sure if gear is supposed to be lost when a trooper using the gear is wounded or whatever, but losing a set of wolf armor is freaking painful. Oh, and if you come up against a Corvette being supported by a pair of fighters? Kill the fighters first, THEN the corvette. I once sniped the corvette with a bunch of torpedoes and flew away, only to have the "Crash Site" continue flying around and take out the chopper I sent in.

[Batman]

Looks like I'll have to read the manual afterall, and I finally found a few bugs (which took me long enough given this is an alpha demo).
1. No saving during ground missions. Well technically this is incorrect, the game will let you save, it just doesn't make a difference because the mission will go redo from start every time you reload.
2. The alien plasma infantry weapons look silly. Yes, I know, that's not really a bug, I just thought it should be mentioned.
3. Reloading is a really nifty way to get scientists for free (not only up to but exceeding your maximum lab and dormitory capacity).

And where the hell does this thing park its savegames? Given that I effectively can't save during ground missions anyway I'd like do get rid of all those superfluous saves.

Alpha so who knows (other than hopefully the developers) what the final product will look like, but so far, especially on easy, the need to establish more bases comes far too early, and the research guys telling me 'sorry, we're too stupid to develop plasma weapons at this point but we can use the knowledge we gained for laser technology' followed by laser weapons not being available for research was majorly annoying.

No selling standard equipment or aircraft-lame. One of my initial sources of income in the original X-COM was getting rid of all the goods I didn't need. I had kinda hoped to raise some cash selling MiG-32s. No such luck, apparently.

That being said, alpha demo. The visuals (other than the air fights, which leave something to be desired) are nothing to sneeze at, there being local forces besides your team fighting the aliens is an interesting addition, it took me like three ground missions to actually notice the Chinook has side doors, and while your agents still couldn't hit the ground if it wasn't for gravity, they absolutely can hit the man in front of them.

[frigidmagi]

Infantry work is dirty, dangerous and underpaid. It's still better then being a fighter pilot.