0.6 will be out in about 2 weeks, I will post a news item if xou allows me to :)
It has many many bugfixes and under-the-hood improvements but what most players will notice is:
- finally being able to force (fullbright) models clientside, so you can play with a keel-like model if you like
- duel gets more tactical due slower weapon switch delay (still faster than QL though, but not instant anymore) and a more advanced health/armor system (very similar to what QL has, with health/armor caps). The XPM ruleset also has gimmicks like newton projectiles (e.g. rockets that get fired relative to your movement speed) and exploding projectiles (it was possible to blow a rocket up with another projectiles, which was quite random at times) turned off to reduce randomness.
I played quite some duels recently on the 0.6beta XPM server and I enjoyed it much more compared to what it had been in 0.5. Quakers will like the direction that xonotic went, UT players seemed more happy too with that tactical aspect added. Only some old nexuiz players seem not entirely happy that they are forced to use their brain now :)
You can try the 0.6beta yourself if you wish: http://beta.xonotic.org/autobuild/Xonotic-latest.zip
user: xonotic password: g-23
The zip file also contains an updater so you don't have to download the 1gig again in future.
Regarding graphical customization: well you can turn effects on/off via menu, use the gl_picmip_* cvars to adjust picmip and force fullbright models and colors. I guess that's what most people need. Just keep in mind that the forcemodel features are only available on 0.6beta servers as they are not compatible with 0.5 clients.
I've started to play Xonotic 2 weeks ago, game became more interesting, beatiful and funny. 0.6beta looks very promissed. Also netcode side is rather good as warsow's one (and 3 times better than ql's one!) Gameplay is mixed between qw and ql, but the movement is easer.
P.S. But the one thing I still miss a lot - weapon like LigthingGun or LaserGun T_T
P.s. after one week of playing I feel I like this game. Impressive weapon models and qw like knock back!