Aliens: Fireteam

How many hours did you play AFE?

Hi, as the title says, when the game is out on xbox gamepass, my friends already have the xbox game pass for pc. I have the game purchased on steam, would we be able to play together??

Our has been out for some time now, bringing with it a new Kit, Phalanx! We mentioned this was only the start of AFE’s free content updates. Today we bring you an early look at what’s coming to the game with our Year 1 Roadmap!

AFE Year 1 Roadmap

You can look forward to Season 2 before the end of the year! With it we will introduce a New Game Mode, as well as a New Feature, Weapons, Attachments, Challenge Cards, and a variety of cosmetics! If you enjoyed Horde Mode then we’re sure you will enjoy our next new game modes. You can expect twists to the session length, goals, and the tools you will have available, as well as the cool new environments they will be set in.

Our focus is first on bringing quality of life improvements to the game that will add more enjoyment to the game’s existing content. These new features shouldn’t drastically alter the way the game is currently played, but we hope you will greatly enjoy them all the same . We'll share more details as we approach the release of each of these free Season updates, so stay frosty and keep an eye out.

Of course, as we have mentioned before, we will also make quality of life updates and necessary changes between the big seasonal updates. And if you haven’t already, then read up on our .

Endeavor Pass DLC

As we did with and the release of the Wey-Yu Armoury Pack DLC, future Endeavor Pass DLC will also be released to coincide with the start of a new Season. Each of these DLC Packs will contain an assortment of outfits, head accessories, weapon decals, weapon colors, emotes, and more. They can be purchased individually for $9.99 each, or you can also upgrade to the Deluxe Edition to get all 4 DLC packs as they're released, along with the additional Endeavor Veteran Pack.

Join us for a Q&A

We're excited to discuss the game's future with you, and address any questions you have.

We will hold another Q&A session on our official Discord server, which will be held in text form. Developers will answer live the best questions submitted during the Q&A in our #questions-and-answers channel.

So save the date and join us this Friday, October 29th, at 12:00 P.M. PDT at:

Developer Q&A Session Archive

An archive of the Q&A session that was hosted on December 3, 2021.

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Zinc - Hey folks, apologies - I'm feeling quite under the weather today. While it might be fun to have me slip up and talk about things in progress that we'll be revealing in the coming months - or worse, have some sort of fever dream and promise crazy new features that'll garner the rage of the development team... I'm gonna ask for forgiveness as I sit this QnA out. : )

Higgs, Caydiem, and Matz are gonna be there, and trust me, they've got covered with all things Season 2 and beyond, and as usual, better than me. : )

Have fun and talk to you all soon!"

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Distance2Jupiter — Q: Can we just talk about the requisition credits situation? How many credits come with the Nostromo Salvage Pack? I mean, this is a commercial ship, not a rescue ship... and my account only has so much space.

Higgs - A: Let's go over the bonus situation. 12K bonus req. Creds, 750 rep scrip included in the Nostromo Salvage pack

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T-Karp — Q: Will there be more Aliens Story-Based Maps added in the future (ether as a paid dlc or free dlc update), or can we just expect to get new game modes, and a map with the game mode?

Caydiem - A: We understand folks are thirsty for more story-based content and we hear you. We don’t have anything to talk about today, but you never know what the future holds!

Higgs: The whole dev team is still working on Fireteam Elite, so we have some big things in progress even BEYOND what is on the roadmap.

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The Facehugger — Q: Will you improve on the mechanics of The Facehuggers and and add chestbursters?

Matz - A: We're currently happy with how Facehuggers work in the context of the game. While that does mean your compatriot doesn't get chestbursted, their current functionality plays better with the overall game flow.

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Ursa Major — Q: Several requests have been made to allow players to sell/exchange unwanted Challenge cards for more desirable ones (at a cost). Any plans to implement such a feature in the future?

Caydiem - A: We definitely hear that folks have unwanted challenge cards piling up. No specifics as of yet, but we’re looking into interesting ways to play with this.

Higgs: I can confirm it's not a match 3 mobile app.

Caydiem: (yet)

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La Cobra Real (Rojo) [42] — Q: do you plan to change requirements for electrokills achievement since now a player can only get it by destroying eggs with coils?

Matz - A: We’ve been doing some fixes under the hood and that achievement should be easier to get in Season 2.

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RaginRaptor — Q: Is the flickering issue fixed for Xbox series x and will it be implemented in the season 2 patch on the 14th. And are you adding the photosensitive warning to splash screen on the 14th also.

Higgs - A: Even more small fixes are coming with Season 2 that should further reduce it’s occurrence - but the better news -> We believe we have a real good fix for this system issue, and it’ll be in a patch as soon as possible after S2 launch. With how rare an occurrence this is, we need a little more time to fully test it and ensure it’s successful.

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meaglin — Q: is the game gonna get bug fixes, patches, and a fix for the freezing and crashing

Caydiem - A: We’re continuing to look into crash reports and fix them as we find solutions. Whenever you encounter a freeze or crash, please follow the protocol to report a bug - more detailed information is always helpful!

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HooptieJ — Q: currently bug reports go into essentially a blackbox- and the filer never sees the status; it would be beneficial to all to see if things are a: actually flagged as bugs or closed -if/what that reason is - already filed, as intended or unable to reproduce, and what if any priority they are...(we want to help you guys help us!) Are there any plans to Improve the Bug reporting system? (a public bug tracker ticket system or the like so we can improve the quality of reporting?)

Honourael - A: We’re working on optimizing our bug reporting structure, but we currently don’t foresee following up on individual bug reports. Please do continue sharing your reports though, it may feel sometimes like it goes into a black box, but they all help us out tremendously in identifying issues in the game and their causes.

Matz: We definitely see them, and we get them into our internal bug tracking and make lots of our fixes based on these reports. We appreciate them greatly!

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TragicPeek(YT) — Q: Hoping we get a crossplay feature to bring all the players together. Is this something we will see in the future of the game?

Higgs - A: We are working towards it! Crossplay with Xbox and Windows Store will be released with Season 2, and that is a big first step - we have nothing to announce further but it’s something we want to achieve at some point.

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Saansilt [PITS OF SPITE] Poet — Q: I see in the Point Defense video the bursters have two health sections. Was the health on bursters nerfed?

Matz - A: No changes were made to Burster health. Keep in mind their health changes based on difficulty. It's the marketing team playing, they like to keep it... Casual.

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jonnyyy — Q: are we geting more achievemens/trophies with season 2 and/or future seasons ?

Caydiem - A: Sorry, no achievements for Season 2 - but we hear the folks who are interested in more trophy chasing.

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Voltov — Q: how you guys came up with the sound effects for the elite xenomorphs, are those animal sounds ?

Higgs - A: For Fireteam Elite, they are a big gumbo of all sorts of sounds… but there is indeed a heavy influence from a very specific, very cute animal. You’ll never guess.

Matz: (it's not me, i promise)

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Dezhnev — Q: Not exactly related to Point Defense. But, will Season 2 (or perhaps another patch close by) include balance changes or a bit of love to other parts of the game?

Caydiem - A: In addition to the major parts of Season 2 we’ve talked about, we have a number of balance changes and fixes in the update.

Higgs: There's tons of bug fixes, performance and stability improvements, and some visual improvements on some platforms too. Seasons (and the patches between season updates!) have all sorts of changes. Watch those patch notes!

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Retropocalypse — Q: are there any plans to improve Alpha and Beta? (e.g. giving them basic commands)

Matz - A: While we love our Synth friends, we currently have no plans to add any major features to them. We always evaluate them to see if they need any performance tweaks, but keep in mind that we don’t intend them to be used above Standard Difficulty.

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HooptieJ — Q: because i made such jokes.... What is the best Dinosaur? What is Suspirias favorite ninja turtle?

Caydiem - A: The best dinosaur is the ankylosaurus and I will not be taking questions about this. (Also no one asked me but Donatello obviously)

Honourael: Leonardo. And Dracorex is best dinosaur, because dragons (even though they might just be juvenile pachycephalosaurus).

Suspiria: A. Velociraptor, because … chicken! Ninja turtle? The one named after a famous artist!

Matz: the answer to both questions is the Triceratons.

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mrdope667 — Q: Are the new game mode playable offline

Higgs - A: Yes, you can roll solo. Remember you’ll have to connect to your platform to patch.

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Dezhnev — Q: The new outdoor environment, and Requisition Cabinet (place where you buy things in between rounds) got me thinking. Have you given thought on adding new consumables (or making changes/balance to existing ones), or perhaps things exclusive to new game modes? I was thinking it would be awesome to call the Gunship to bombard a certain location, or perhaps call reinforcements for a round or so to guard one place.

Matz - A: We’ve definitely given thought to new consumables, and have played around with them plenty. If we find something that feels good and makes sense for the game at large (or an individual mode), we’ll add it. We currently don’t have anything.

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Cherno Alpha — Q: Will the unobtainable intel on the PS4 be fixed in the upcoming update?

Caydiem - A: The Season 2 patch includes some fixes that should hopefully help folks who were previously unable to pick up intel or get the intel achievement/trophy.

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BaK — Q to Matz - Cold Iron: What would you say is the best weapon in general to use in the game, from your technical perspective!

Matz - A: Whichever one suits your playstyle! I love all my babies, and while i gravitate towards some more than others, i switch them up from mission to mission regularly, and make choices based on my Kit and what my Teammates are bringing.

I also frequently play with guns that haven’t been released yet.

The current one i'm using a lot is the upcoming Zvezda, go go purple pew pew!

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MrBurton10 — Q: Any hints on what the new challenge cards are?

Honourael - A: We can do more than that! All of the upcoming Season 2 challenge cards were announced in our Content Creators kit, and can be found in the S2 New Content - Detailed Fact Sheet inside of the Season 2 folder here:

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Prometheus — Q: We see engineer structures in the defense mode, will there be any additions to the lore?

Caydiem - A: Our writer works with us designers to ensure every map we put together is rooted in the lore. Herrera may not launch into a history lesson, but it’s a part of the story we’re telling. :)

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Claud — Q: Will you consider nerfing extreme and insane mode a bit? Considering most people can't beat the higher difficulties (or buff gun damage, increase health bars, increase max ammo, etc)

Higgs - A: We’re discussing the possibility of additional difficulty options- but we have zero plans to nerf extreme or insane. We named em that way for a reason :)

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La Cobra Real (Rojo) [42] — Q: Do you plan to rebalance horde mode (adding cards maybe)? as of now extreme and insane are almost impossible to complete

Matz - A: We’re currently happy with how Horde Mode is performing in general, difficulty wise. We are looking at possibilities for Challenge Cards in game modes, but many of our existing ones wouldn’t work at all here, so we need to keep that in mind.

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BaK — Q: has there been any progress made on the timer when waiting for players, so we can extend how long we wait?

Caydiem - A: We heard folks having trouble with the queue timer, so it should be removed in the Season 2 patch!

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PhoenixKai — Q: for the crossplay between Xbox and windows, will there be an option to disable the crossplay?

Higgs - A: No, there’s no option for that

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NocFenix — Q: Secondly, can ya'll do a live streaming of your Q&A in the future, please? This text based format is great for reading after the fact, but I would prefer to see ya'lls in person reactions as you read the questions and then answer them.

Higgs - A: It’s definitely not off the table. But as you say, one of the benefits of text form is having a log readily available after we’re done, and I have also seen some players who are hearing impaired and say they value having these in written form. That said, we do still enjoy having live interaction opportunities like those when we can, and we’re keeping an eye out for having more opportunities like those.

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a few people poked me to ask Q: At what time will Season 2 release on my particular platform?

Higgs - A: On 12/14 Release (PST):

Game pass should go live around noon.

All other Platforms live with Season 2 around 9am (I keep saying "around" because sometimes there are delays in pushing patches with platforms, I don't want to promise a very specific time)

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HooptieJ — Q: Hey cold iron, solve a chat argument for us , what is the proper temp for a steak to be cooked to?

Matz - A: I personally believe people should be able to eat the food they like to eat. While i like my beef jerky to come from a bag, you do you.

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Soup Sandwich — Q: is the ost will be available to buy along with the season 2??

Higgs - A: Still no soundtrack release news to share, but I just listened to mixed tracks and it sounds :chefkiss:

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dossaer — Q: sombreros?

Honourael - A: Muy interesante.

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HooptieJ — Q: BaK has been showing off his new hat, how do i get one of those badboys?

Higgs - A: We sent a Cold Iron swag care package to our launch window mods to thank them. Come work with us! It’s part of the new employee pack too

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Suspiria: That's a wrap for today's Q and A. Thank you all for joining us today!

Matz: thanks everybody, time for some lunch before getting back to work on [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]!

Honourael: Thank you everyone for participating! We do appreciate having opportunities like these to chat and cover some of your questions. Please do consider that we can’t answer all questions as some just pertain to things that are in the works, but we still hear you and hope you look forward to our future updates as much as we are to bring them to you.

Suspiria: Also thanks to Higgs, Caydiem, Matz, and Honourael for being here to answer your great questions!

Higgs: Thanks all! See you on the Endeavor!

Before I start my personal rant, I would like to disclose some information about myself.
I have been playing this game for about 46.8 hours with my friends at this point. Before this, me and my friends played a lot of shooter games, specifically Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and Deep Rock Galactic. We love challenges, if a game is hard, we'd do anything to overcome the game. We often find ourselves playing ranked on Rainbow Six and Apex Legends, and other coop shooters at the highest difficulties. I also personally love playing games like Doom Eternal on Nightmare difficulty occasionally.

At first when we booted up Aliens fireteam, we were really stoked. We enjoyed playing normal and intense difficulties. However our frustrations with the game started on extreme, and on that point I felt that something was really off with the game's combat chess.

A "combat chess" is the way how variations of enemies take up specific roles to pressure and challenge the player. I first heard of this term when watching numerous interviews of Hugo Martin, who is the creative director of Id Software, and was one of the main guys responsible for the phenomenal Doom Eternal that was released in 2020. Using the combat chess analogy, I would list down the xenomorphs and their roles against players based on my observation. Do correct me if I am wrong.

Runner - Fodder for players to chew through and is the bulk of the xenomorph strain in this game.

Prowler - Trapping players who lack situational awareness and is responsible in restraining and immobilizing players

Burster - Suicide bombers who is supposed to test player's awareness during heated fights and to direct player attention to them as soon as they spawn.

Spitter - Ranged xenomorphs that targets players with a nasty ranged AOE acid attack.

Drone - Xenomorph pressure unit, designed for players to work together as a team to take down before running away. Will also test player reflexes before proceeding to grapple players.

Warrior - Similar to drones as a pressure unit but with armor and is more aggressive. Does not run away and presence remains until it is dead.

Crusher - Tank xenomorph designed to rush and break through defense lines with invincible front armor. Requires coordination to take down.

Praetorian - Another tank xenomorph that behaves like a xenomorph warrior that requires team coordination to attack its weak spots in order to take it down quickly.

All went well until we were at extreme difficulty, I felt that a portion of the combat chess in this game started making no sense to me and I shall explain why in a moment.

I felt that the Prowler is a really well designed xenomorph, hiding and ambushing players, but its distinct red colored skin and large round head encouraged shooters to shoot its head since it has a larger than usual health pool. It also makes a distinct sound, so players are held accountable if they fall prey to a random Prowler tucked away in some corner. The Crusher, and Praetorian to me in my opinion, is also a very well thought-out design. They have weaknesses despite their immerse strength that encourages players to coordinate to take them down. Crushers are easily stunned by abilities and it takes awhile for it to stand up. The Praetorian has a very obvious weakness in its chest and the green dot at the back of its thick carapace. Making them manageable and if a team fails to account for these guys, the players are held accountable so it doesn't feel like the game is trying to screw the player intentionally.

This is where it really starts to fall apart for me:

Bursters: I cannot wrap my head around the fact that these suicide units are absolute bullet sponges. It really goes against conventional logic for a xenomorph unit that's literally about to explode at any time to be able to absorb so many bullets in the first place. This definitely does not scale well to the extreme difficulty. Having 4 of them spawning alongside hundreds of runners that are already pretty tanky in extreme difficulty can be a death sentence for many players. The worse part about these xenomorphs is that they occasionally stumble like the rest of the runners. I personally liked the animation, however the moving speed of a stumbling xeno is literally no different of that of a running xenomorph, making these Bursters extremely annoying to deal with when they keep stumbling forward at players in alarming speeds.

Spitters: Conventional video game logic will always make hard hitting ranged units much easier to kill, as a way to compensate for their ability to hide behind cover at range, or the ability to distance itself from players to deal damage. But I swear to god the Spitters in this game are like M1A1 Abrams tanks with the size of a Leprechaun hiding behind cover spitting AOE attacks, AND not to mention the Spitter's color is so dark, it often blends in with the background. Making this guy a really pain in the ass to deal with. It took all 3 of my teammates 1.5 to 1 magazines to kill this damn thing. Making this guy hide behind cover made it even frustrating.

Warriors: Drones on extreme difficulty is pesky enough to deal with, but at least they lack armor and will occasionally give up after reaching a certain health level. But the warriors literally take the cake of the in terms of frustrating me and my teammates. You literally have to shoot through their armor in order to even start taking critical headshot bonus damage. To make matters worse, they're alarmingly fast compared to the Praetorian. Making a Xeno so resistant to bullets and giving them the speed of a Lamborghini is really frustrating. Even with turrets, mines and cryo grids doesn't do much justice since this Xeno is so difficult to deal with thanks to its speed and armour thickness, takes the player's attention off from the runners way too long. Making players such as me, believing that the combat chess balance has been thrown off at extreme difficulties. It makes no sense to me that a Xenomorph Warrior is harder to deal with compared to a Xenomorph Crusher or Praetorian. At least the Praetorian is slow, and has weakpoints, and the Crusher is easily stunned and will occasionally fall on its belly at the ground, creating an opening for players to exploit their softer bodies. The Xenomorph, like the praetorian merely kneels when a stunning ability is activated. Its like as if this Xenomorph literally have no weaknesses, and its so well rounded that players can't deal with adequately.

I will give some personal suggestions in regards to each problem I've encountered. For the Bursters, its either the HP needs to be lowered, or the Xenos should at least slow down when they are stumbled, and not initiate an Apex Legends style slide on the ground to dodge my bullets. As for the Spitters, its either the HP for the Spitters are lowered drastically, or the color of the skin has to changed to a lighter tone and make the Spitters hide behind cover much less. As for the Xenomorph Warrior, I would suggest lowering its base speed AND the Armor values of this Xenomorph. I would urge the devs and playtesters to play this game in extreme and take my suggestion in as a consideration.

Despite all the negative rant on this post, I do love Aliens Fireteam and I think its a really well made game for the money. But in all seriousness, I really do hope extreme difficulty gets balanced out to make the player feel accountable, and not make it feel like the game is constantly trying to screw us over. A good combat chess will make the combat loop fun even at higher difficulties, and good combat chess means better player engagement and potentially a longer lifespan for the game.

I’m curious as to what you guys think is going to happen with the game. Especially with player counts in the 500-700 range.

An archive of the Q&A session that was hosted on October 29, 2021. Sorry for the delay!

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Dezhnev — Q: Are you planning on including the APC (armored vehicle from the movie) or the dropship on future missions? It would be awesome to see more events like in Mission 2-1.

Higgs: I agree that was awesome! Those vehicle moments were great in the Aliens film, it’s in my mind when thinking about future campaign missions.

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Q: Will Cold Iron prevent us from modding AFE? Even mods that aren't intended to affect any other players?

Zinc: We have seen some nice mods created by the community, but we’ve also gotten a lot of complaints about people who, unintentionally, end up playing with modded players. Like many of you mentioned, we don’t have a mod development toolkit… this means that we can’t tell a “good mod” from a “bad mod”. It also means that we can’t ensure that, as we continue to update the game, we can support the mods and the changes they’ve made to save files going forward. As modding became more prevalent… we wanted to give folks the heads up that if you have modded your game, it may be at the risk of compromising your save file - and Cold Iron can’t guarantee we can keep it valid enough to play the game.

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Azuvector — Q: Have you considered applying friction to enemies that go into a Stumble state, so that when they're stumbling and sliding on the ground, they take more of a penalty by having their closing speed/distance with the player reduced slightly?

Higgs: We know about the stumble issues, and we agree we need to do something about it. We’ve been playtesting some changes to how it works that we expect will greatly improve stumble as a whole.

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kov4cs — Q: Will Quick Play be updated to signal to the lobby what level they will be thrown into so they can prepare accordingly?

Zinc: We’re aware of this - it was an oversight when we were trying to get the feature out to you all ASAP. A solution is upcoming.

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kov4cs — Q: how is Cold Iron responding to the precipitous player drop-off since AFE's initial release, and how does it plan on better sustaining user retention

Zinc: as for the “numbers” - of course we’d love to have everyone in the world playing the game constantly. However, we love the fact that we have a solid and passionate core community, and all of Cold Iron is still working on future Aliens: Fireteam Elite development - issues, QoL, new features and content… a bunch of which we hope improves not just retention, but the game in general. We’re excited with where Aliens: Fireteam Elite is… and still are working to make it even better.

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Soup Sandwich — Q: Do the unwritten feature on the Road-Map will includes the possibility to buy the truly AWESOME original soundtrack of Aliens Fireteam Elite? (Please...)

Higgs: Austin and I are working on getting the OST into your hands and ears. When we have more details we’ll be sure to let you know!

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Azuvector — Q: The format of Aliens: Fireteam Elite is setup in such a way that a vast amount of stories could be told with the game. (Colonial Marines cruising around the galaxy, stomping bugs (Probably mixed up with with other problems too.) The core gameplay loop is wonderful. The graphics, environmental craftsmanship and integration of the very murky Aliens lore are top notch. What are your long term plans for AFE?

Zinc: Thanks for the kind words! Like I mentioned, all of Cold Iron is still working on the game and we’ve got a lot more stories to tell about the Endeavor and LV-895. I’d love to fully explain our entire future roadmap… but marketing would have my head. : )

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BaKula — Q: In the road map you said "Year one roadmap" does this mean you'll consider developing the game for another year if things go well?

Higgs: Yeah, it’s not the “forever road map”, it’s only year one - and we are already starting to spin up discussions what year 2 could look like. There’s so much cool free content coming out during Y1, which is NOW, so we are focusing on that right now.

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Corporal Hicks — Q: Are you able to talk about when we'll be seeing more campaign content or Horde mode maps? Thanks

Higgs: The roadmap gives a bit of a look into that - Season 2 and 4 will have new Game Modes, which if you enjoyed Horde Mode, you’ll like these - with some twists on the strategies, length, and location. Season 2 is fast approaching!

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Hemi — Q: Have you considered getting rid of the level 20 cap and moving towards a more sustainable levelling system like Payday 2's infamy system, or is the level 20 cap final?

Zinc: It’s going to be a while before it’s in your hands, but we are looking at (and working on) a couple of new things that will help add a much longer “tail” for those of you (like me) who like leveling things up.

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JLGB_92 — Q: is there going to be a photo mode added in the future?

Higgs: We aren’t planning on a photo mode, but we are going to put in an option to remove the HUD UI entirely, which is something related that players/photographers have asked for. So you won't have to rely on challenge cards to get rid of the HUD for those nice clean shots.

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Dezhnev — Q: Are you planning on doing changes to the way difficulties work? Right now it feels like Recon is mandatory for higher difficulties.

Zinc: We’re constantly looking to the community for feedback on how all aspects of the game balance are working. Difficulties are one of the things that we review on a regular basis. Keep the feedback coming - it definitely helps drive our discussions!

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Azuvector — Q: Who's the most annoying user on this server? If it's me, who's the second most annoying? (I figured I'd stop after 11 questions, unless I think up something else good.)

Zinc: Zinc - Cold Iron… that dude acts like he knows everything.

Higgs; Stole my answer.

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BaKula — Q: What are the sort of things we can expect from 'new features'. will it be just new things in the game menus and hangar, or does this go as far as to cover maps and campaigns?

Zinc: “New Features” are things other than maps or campaigns. These features tend to be extensions to current systems or frequent requests by the community. (Trying my best not to slip up here and just list them. : )

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GuapoPogi — Q: Has any thought been given to adding a completion tracker that is accessible to the players so we can see what missions/difficulties the game thinks we have completed?

Higgs: Lots of thought.

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kov4cs — Q: Are more maps being planned for future DLC / expansions?

Zinc: “There are things we’re working on that aren’t on the roadmap” : )

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Bermuda ∆ — Q: Higgs - Cold Iron I love your hat, will there be Aliens Fireteam Elite merch in future?

Higgs: The quickest way to get Fireteam merch is to get hired at Cold Iron. We are expanding the team right now and have a ton of open positions. Maybe we'll put a digital version of this hat in game too...

Zinc: Go to the website! If there's a position you're suited for, apply! Tell your friends! We're adding folks to help us support Fireteam!

Higgs: (I wasn't joking - we really are hiring a lot of people right now

Higgs: And rumor is that we pay in more than free hats and chocolate.

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Azuvector — Q: There are many, many bugs that have been reported in bug-reports that have not been addressed for months, and do not appear in the known issues. Will a major bugfixing patch be coming soon? Some of these bugs impact gameplay significantly or the visual appearance of the game when playing or streaming. Many of these have been reported since launch.

Zinc: We hate them as much as you do. It’s been our engineering team’s highest priority since launch to fix bugs and performance issues as we can find and reproduce them reliably in the studio. . We’ll continue to make that so. We're not holding back for a specific "bug fixing" patch... we'll get the fixes and improvements out to you as soon as we can.

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Azuvector — Q: What sorts of communication of future plans and current issues being addressed can players expect from Cold Iron going forward?

Higgs: We’ll continue to update the roadmap with more specifics as we get closer to each of the Seasons releasing. Each patch we make (including the between-season fixes and quality of life improvements) has detailed patch notes so you can see what was updated. On Discord, other than Q&As and normal chat, we have a known-issues channel where you can see many of the issues we are working on, possible workarounds, and if we’ve patched it yet.

Honourael: Since we also added Suspiria - Cold Iron to the team, we'll be able to help keep the known issues thread more up to date (amongst many other things she can help us out with!)

Suspiria: I think I just got voluntold

Honourae: Its a team effort

Zinc: See! Hiring more people to support Aliens: Fireteam Elite.... right in front of you! : )

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Larcade - 6450212 (NA) — Q: Do you guys have plan to rebalance damage on guns so that we can have more option to choose from beside a very few guns with high base damage. (On insane difficulty)

Zinc: We just released a large “Weapon Balance” patch just the other week. Similar to what I said about the difficulties… We continually evaluate the balance of the weapons in the game and will make changes as needed. Keep telling us what you think is working and what doesn’t!

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Saansilt [PITS OF SPITE] Poet — Q: Will we see armor customization too?

Higgs: We are focusing on adding additional kit-skins - And some of the ones coming out soon are pretty out there compared to what we have now. Alien fans should feel real comfortable in some of the new outfits

Zinc: I, personally, can't wait. Finish them NOW, Higgs - Cold Iron!

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Prometheus — Q: Are we going to see more Engineers or lore stuff? The story ending was pretty open.

Zinc: “There are things we’re working on that aren’t on the roadmap…”

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Hemi — Q: Did the massive soar of popularity overwhelm Cold Iron a bit? Did you guys expect the game to sell this much?

Zinc: We’re a pretty small studio and this is Cold Iron’s first game. We set out to make a fun Aliens game that friends could play together. I think it’s an understatement to say that we’ve been stunned and humbled by the response so far. We’re overjoyed that the success of Fireteam is letting us continue to work on the game, improve what’s there, and add new stuff!

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Death4theDead — Q: Series X bug are you any closer to finding the source of the issue( flickering)

Higgs: No 100% fix has been patched yet for the rare flickering white screen issue, but multiple things have already been patched which have reduced the occurrence globally. We have people working full time on this issue and have found a few mitigations (use 1080P, 60hz screen, and shutting down the game completely and restarting the application) but sadly we have not found the root cause of the issue, or why it happens to a few people but not others. It’s incredibly frustrating for me personally, I want this fixed ASAP!

Update: Good news: We think we have a possible band-aid fix, and once we prove it out, we’ll patch it in.

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HooptieJ — Q: can you guys please explain the intent of some of the Perks? for the perks available in multiple Levels, Is there intent for the perks to stack? (IE: range extenders, cooldown reducers, and damge buffs)

Zinc: Yes - totally. You can stack perks… it’s a choice you can make to laser focus on improving one set of stats, but in doing so, you use up space that might make your kit more versatile.

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Bermuda ∆ — Q: Good morning from Down Unda, thanks for a great game. I'd like to know if there's going to be a special Halloween event?

Zinc: Sorry, nothing specific for in-game this year.

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Azuvector — Q: How many people are on staff at Cold Iron? What's a "pretty small studio" to you?

Higgs: We are around 50 right now, including IT, operations, management, etc. But we are also expanding the team to accomplish even more!

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Azuvector — Q: How do the random drops work for perks/weapons/attachments/etc? They seem excessively random. Has there been any thought put in to ensure players are gradually able to acquire all of these(Perhaps just a modifier to increase the chance over time.), even if the random number generator is not wanting to drop them something that day/week/month?

Zinc: We do have systems to make sure you’re earning rewards that you haven’t gotten already. Also be aware that some of the attachments/perks and weapons are only available in certain locations and difficulties.

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Barret, Grinnon (XB1) — Q: Y'all doing alright? I imagine its has been a crazy couple of months.

Zinc: Thanks for asking! You all have been keeping us busy… but boy isn’t that preferable to the opposite! : )

Like I mentioned above - as game developers, there are always systems, content, stories, art that you just can’t get in for launch. It’s great to be able to keep working on Aliens: Fireteam Elite and get some of that stuff in!

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JLGB_92 — Q: any plans on being able to pause the game in solo play

Zic: Cool idea… but (surprisingly) it would take a lot of engineering effort to do that. It might get on the list, but there would be a big list of other things that we want to get out to you first.

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Higgs: That was fun. Thanks for the questions Marines! I'll see you on the Endeavor

Zinc: Thanks for all the great questions, and more so - the passion you all are bringing to the community. The whole Cold Iron team is still working as hard as they can to support and add to Aliens: Fireteam Elite. We’re really looking forward to the upcoming releases. Your feedback and passion is the fuel we use to keep making the game better and better. Keep it up!

Honourael: And that officially ends our Discord Q&A! Thank you all for joining us and we'll continue to do our best to listen to your feedback and help how we can.

Zinc: (I think we should be trying to do these more often… eh?)

Zinc: - Craig “There are things we’re working on that aren’t on the roadmap…” Zinkievich

Higgs: (we didn't put Soon™ into the roadmap, so gold star for us)

Higgs: If it wasn't clear....

100% there are things that we are working on that are not on the roadmap - and we'll be updating the roadmap with more specifics as we announce them.

SEASON 2 SOON! ™

Bye!

For any of the lurkers out there that didn't buy it yet!

Looks like the PS4/PS5 versions are still $33 at Amazon (same as Walmart I believe).