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I don't think the current Geoscape can be salvaged without being totally overhauled. Everything hinges around a single X-Com base where all your resources and buildings are tied up, it'd break things massively to let you have multiple bases like you could in the original. Let alone the clever things you could do, like hide a base in the North Pole where you'd build nothing but quarters and laboratories with all your scientists, and ship samples of anything you need researched up there like some arctic Area 51. It boils down to the original X-Com being simulationist while FiraX-Com is gamey. It's very balanced as games go, but it sacrifices that sense of innovation and "realism" (loosely) for some mechanics that work, but don't make a lot of sense. Why can't I have more than one Skyranger and send all three of them out to abduction sites? It forces an awkward discrete choice which can be difficult to make, but ignores how you would actually try and resolve that choice outside of arbitrary game mechanics. In a way, it's ok, because the original X-Com still exists, and the new one works still well for a load of different reasons, but I would've liked to see FiraX-Com take more of a cue from it on the strategic side. The other thing is the original's sense of horror and suspense, because the aliens didn't announce themselves with a musical sting, night missions were terrifying, shots were being fired and you didn't know from where, and grenades fly out of the darkness to blow up your entire 14-man team. That's another casualty, since the new game is much more upfront and action movie-esque, but it's a shame to miss that part of what made the first game so memorable.
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Sep 3, 2013 10:28
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As a bit of an aside, did Xenonaughts ever get anywhere? I remember being excited about it in the runup to EU's release.
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Sep 3, 2013 11:19
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Darkrenown posted:As a bit of an aside, did Xenonaughts ever get anywhere? I remember being excited about it in the runup to EU's release. It's mostly complete at the moment. They just released a stable Beta version and seem to be moving towards a full release. Still a fair number of Xenopedia files missing and it's slightly crashy at times, but overall it's a damned solid game that will happily buttfuck you and leave you asking for more.
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Sep 3, 2013 11:42
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All that really needs to be done is the fix that was modded in early on. The Abduction/Terror UFOs are usually invisible and untargetable. That was changeable, and people did. And much more fun was had by all, because it was possible to stop them in their tracks.
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Sep 3, 2013 14:18
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Pimpmust posted:I'd like to see them rebalance Squad Sight snipers more than just add the squid thing, two of those just makes pretty much anything trivial short of storming Battleships. Some Damage drop-off perhaps? 
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Sep 3, 2013 14:51
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Bloodly posted:All that really needs to be done is the fix that was modded in early on. The Abduction/Terror UFOs are usually invisible and untargetable. That was changeable, and people did. And much more fun was had by all, because it was possible to stop them in their tracks.
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Sep 3, 2013 14:52
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Boing posted:The other thing is the original's sense of horror and suspense, because the aliens didn't announce themselves with a musical sting, night missions were terrifying, shots were being fired and you didn't know from where, and grenades fly out of the darkness to blow up your entire 14-man team. That's another casualty, since the new game is much more upfront and action movie-esque, but it's a shame to miss that part of what made the first game so memorable.
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Sep 3, 2013 15:03
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Was playing tired last night and mis clicked a colonel heavy into a flanked no cover position surrounded by 4 mutons. That was unfortunate.
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Sep 3, 2013 15:07
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I can't believe I managed a mission where 12 loving Floaters appeared within a single turn (basically every enemy squad on the map arrived pretty much all at once). It was the office building mission, the one with the fountain in the centre. I managed to slaughter my way through them only losing 1 soldier. It was a bad loss, an experienced Assault trooper but goddamn was it a fight to remember. The only thing that would have improved it would have been if I was playing Ironman but I threw so many tantrums during my 20 attempts to start an ironman run that I gave up and just played on Classic. E: also, gently caress forest missions. When Enemy Within hits, I really hope there's a bunch of new UFO maps because I loving hate playing those maps. PiCroft fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Sep 3, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 15:10
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Yesterday, one of my top Assaults got spooked after getting hit by a Muton that no one had LOS on. She was a Major and had been gravely wounded a few times, putting her Will at the mid 40s. As soon as she was hit she panicked, turned around and gut shotted my sniper with her Scatter Laser. She died instantly after already revived once that mission. I might have to let that Assault go. 
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Sep 3, 2013 15:12
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So if I grab that Amazon deal someone mentioned earlier (EU + all DLC for $10) and pop the code into Steam, I'll be able to play it on OSX even though Amazon only lists the PC version, right?
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Sep 3, 2013 15:13
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Bloodly posted:All that really needs to be done is the fix that was modded in early on. The Abduction/Terror UFOs are usually invisible and untargetable. That was changeable, and people did. And much more fun was had by all, because it was possible to stop them in their tracks. Anyone got a link to this?
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Sep 3, 2013 15:21
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Hulk Krogan posted:So if I grab that Amazon deal someone mentioned earlier (EU + all DLC for $10) and pop the code into Steam, I'll be able to play it on OSX even though Amazon only lists the PC version, right? Should be, it's SteamPlay. You get one version, you get the other.
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Sep 3, 2013 15:28
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Hulk Krogan posted:So if I grab that Amazon deal someone mentioned earlier (EU + all DLC for $10) and pop the code into Steam, I'll be able to play it on OSX even though Amazon only lists the PC version, right? Unlike those cruel console plebs, the PC Master Races have no problem with sharing.
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Sep 3, 2013 16:08
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That's what I thought. Thanks! Not even sure my Macbook can run it, but for $10 I'll give it a shot. Been playing the poo poo out of the iPad version and I'd like to get the full experience.
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Sep 3, 2013 16:16
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Mechtoids! Pure and evil from the space dimension!
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Sep 3, 2013 16:47
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Crazy Ted posted:This is what I really miss from the new X-Com. I don't want to say that it's boring to have encounters with aliens start the way they do, but it takes a lot of suspense out of the game. Yeah, I've never panicked and ordered an insane amount of firepower on an area just because there might be one of those gray bastards lurking in the darkness while playing EW. In EW, if they're shooting at you, you know exactly where they are. I also miss being able to fire on a point instead of just an enemy, and having the bullets be simulated and hit things at random. Having the option to blanket a house in incendiary rounds and rockets while a few rookies take potshots in with rifles was awesome.
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Sep 3, 2013 16:54
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Crusader posted:Mechtoids! Pure and evil from the space dimension! This reminds me: I want a toy sectoid, possibly with action mechtoid suit. I also want a sectoid plushie. For my kids. Yeah.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:05
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Yeah, I've never panicked and ordered an insane amount of firepower on an area just because there might be one of those gray bastards lurking in the darkness while playing EW. In EW, if they're shooting at you, you know exactly where they are. I also miss being able to fire on a point instead of just an enemy, and having the bullets be simulated and hit things at random. Having the option to blanket a house in incendiary rounds and rockets while a few rookies take potshots in with rifles was awesome.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:17
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Lotish posted:I also want a sectoid plushie. For my kids. Yeah.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:17
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Crazy Ted posted:In the original, the best way to open up a hole in a fence or some shrubs to get a vantage point or just avoid walking an extra distance was to aim some rifle fire at it. I was actually really surprise when I first started playing and couldn't aim at the aliens cover.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:20
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http://kotaku.com/xcom-isnt-any-easier-in-enemy-within-but-it-is-more-t-1244778141quote:You could go through Enemy Within playing with unmodified human soldiers, Gupta said, though it will be tremendously difficult, as the aliens will still bring their Mechtoids, in addition to their dreadful Mutons and Sectopods (which, considering your strengths with MEC troopers, have been buffed to out-tough the Mechtoids. Oh, great.) Internally, some players at Firaxis have been able to win with this kind of racial purity. Gupta admitted he considered offering an achievement for doing so, but decided against it because he didn't want to give a disincentive for trying the new creations. quote:Gupta said the game's strategy layer—the geoscape where you're constantly excavating, researching recovered materials and building aircraft and weapons—has not been overhauled. Nor has the game's conclusion, which Gupta acknowledged some have found anticlimactic. Edgecase fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Sep 3, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 18:23
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Modding news! Sort of! More stuff is getting moved into the INI files to help out modders, but there won't be any dedicated tools. At least, not at the moment.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:34
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Burning_Monk posted:I was actually really surprise when I first started playing and couldn't aim at the aliens cover.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:40
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Boing posted:I don't think the current Geoscape can be salvaged without being totally overhauled. Everything hinges around a single X-Com base where all your resources and buildings are tied up, it'd break things massively to let you have multiple bases like you could in the original. Let alone the clever things you could do, like hide a base in the North Pole where you'd build nothing but quarters and laboratories with all your scientists, and ship samples of anything you need researched up there like some arctic Area 51. One base + hangar-only bases was the right decision. It's not like you are actually short on space in the new game. quote:It boils down to the original X-Com being simulationist while FiraX-Com is gamey. It's very balanced as games go, but it sacrifices that sense of innovation and "realism" (loosely) for some mechanics that work, but don't make a lot of sense. Why can't I have more than one Skyranger and send all three of them out to abduction sites? It forces an awkward discrete choice which can be difficult to make, but ignores how you would actually try and resolve that choice outside of arbitrary game mechanics. quote:The other thing is the original's sense of horror and suspense, because the aliens didn't announce themselves with a musical sting, night missions were terrifying, shots were being fired and you didn't know from where, and grenades fly out of the darkness to blow up your entire 14-man team. That's another casualty, since the new game is much more upfront and action movie-esque, but it's a shame to miss that part of what made the first game so memorable. This I definitely agree with though. First of all, those loving animations get old fast. (Is there a way to turn them off or speed them up btw? even if it involves resource hacking) Nor do I really see what is really lost by having aliens just patrol as normal units around the map as they used to instead of the current buggy system of "hidden squad markers" randomly shuffling about the map so you can discover them standing over a corpse in one of a handful preset locations. I mean, ok, you introduced cover, so the goal was the get the aliens to head for cover relative to your position. Fair enough, but again, why this arbitrary solution of making it literally impossible to simply find the aliens out of position? It simply means the players now come up with even more contrived counter-strategies, like setting up an overwatch party in front of a building and then circling around the back to do the "uncover" so the aliens run towards your firing squad instead. It's stupid and it feels stupid. Why can't the aliens just move through cover relative to where they think you are, much like you do with them? You'd even be able to add some lovely little "stealth" mechanics where bursting through doors makes a ton of noise (revealing your likely position) but quietly opening them does not. Also, does the new game even allow hidden shots from either side? It seems like whenever you can see the aliens, they can always see you... I guess this was a casualty of directional fields of vision being removed, which is... well at least excusable because of the UI overhead it adds. I have to say though, it would be really nice to have a more simulation-y X-Com-like game to complement EU. Maybe something more like Frozen Synapse then strictly turn-based, but with full 3d line-of-sight but of course keeping destructible environments and the morale system. That would be a swell game.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:47
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So I'm new to this and got the other skill over squad sight. Should I get a new sniper ( dudes rank 4)
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Sep 3, 2013 19:04
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The Biggest Jerk posted:So I'm new to this and got the other skill over squad sight. Should I get a new sniper ( dudes rank 4)
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Sep 3, 2013 19:06
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Mr. Wynand posted:Why can't the aliens just move through cover relative to where they think you are, much like you do with them? You'd even be able to add some lovely little "stealth" mechanics where bursting through doors makes a ton of noise (revealing your likely position) but quietly opening them does not. This part should be a given, because the game *already tracks and displays that info*, so there's really nothing stopping Firaxis from implementing a better system for all that stuff (like modders have already managed to hobble together). I second the "feel" of the original being completely different, way more suspense-filled and less "action-hero" due to a lot of these issues/design choices (Depending on your cup of tea it's either "bad/good"!). Personally I think the game would be improved, at least for the higher difficulties, by reintroducing some of that suspenseful play and greater range of enemy movement/threat. For example right now night missions don't really feel all that different from day missions, mechanics-wise where they used to be "Can I avoid this?  Terror Mission?  Nope!  "Pimpmust fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Sep 3, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 19:18
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Mr. Wynand posted:This I definitely agree with though. First of all, those loving animations get old fast. (Is there a way to turn them off or speed them up btw? even if it involves resource hacking) Toolboks does just that, along with some other nice things.
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Sep 3, 2013 19:20
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Lady Naga posted:Toolboks does just that, along with some other nice things. Can it also disable/speed-up those loving sectoid mind-link animations? God I am stick of waiting for those.
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Sep 3, 2013 19:34
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Mr. Wynand posted:Can it also disable/speed-up those loving sectoid mind-link animations? God I am stick of waiting for those. Especially when it happens off camera so you're stuck staring at one of your dudes for like 20 seconds while you hear wooshing noises.
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Sep 3, 2013 19:43
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Crusader posted:Mechtoids! Pure and evil from the space dimension! What's with the codpiece?
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Sep 3, 2013 20:26
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Lady Naga posted:Toolboks does just that, along with some other nice things.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:48
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The strategic part of the game is a whole pile of weird compromises between trying to make the game more boardgame-y and more sim-y. Right now the alien AI actually generates a set number of missions each month, and then determines how many of those you can see based on your satellite coverage/some dice rolls. That's all fine in principal, except that in this case it makes the game feel kind of same-y month to month, and makes the aliens feel less like they're reacting to your actions, or actually really doing anything. I hope that the AI's strategic behaviors are among the things Firaxis is making easier to mod in EW (right now they're almost completely inaccessible). I think just making things a bit more variable would go a long way towards spicing up the game on the strategic level. Stuff sort of like this:
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Sep 3, 2013 20:49
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Edgecase posted:http://kotaku.com/xcom-isnt-any-easier-in-enemy-within-but-it-is-more-t-1244778141 Aw that's too bad  . Here I was hoping that the geoscape was getting the Gods and Kings treatment. I'll probably still buy the expansion though for rocket punches and hats.
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Sep 3, 2013 21:34
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The Biggest Jerk posted:So I'm new to this and got the other skill over squad sight. Should I get a new sniper ( dudes rank 4) I would say yes for sure. Snipers almost feel like dead weight to me until they get Squadsight.
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Sep 3, 2013 22:15
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The Biggest Jerk posted:So I'm new to this and got the other skill over squad sight. Should I get a new sniper ( dudes rank 4) Squadsight turns your sniper into a battlefield god, while snap shot turns him into a slighty worse soldier. You don't need to get a new sniper, but you are missing out on such a strength.
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Sep 3, 2013 22:19
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euphronius posted:Was playing tired last night and mis clicked a colonel heavy into a flanked no cover position surrounded by 4 mutons. That was unfortunate. I know that feeling, except I wasn't tired and the game was just being a big jerk. For some reason the game was mixing up the levels of elevation. For example, all my guys were permanently bluish wireframes indicating they were on a lower level, regardless of what level I scrolled to. I moved my second best guy to the edge of a balcony overlooking the area ahead and the game went "Oh, so you want to have him leap off the balcony and move forward two tiles, okie doke". Naturally six spider bastards fresh out of the projects came over and gave him a vicious shanking before attempting to leave and getting stuck in the scenery.
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Sep 3, 2013 22:22
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Is packs of enemies activating while still in the fog of war intended or a bug? By this I mean, they're not moving out of the fog of war into my line of sight and activating. Rather, they're still inside the fog of war, activate, and then remain in the fog of war until their next turn when they begin to advance to me. I just wanna know if I'd be justified in reloading my last save, as I don't like losing to bugs if this is one. I also had something happen where a Sectopod was not within line of sight of any of my soldiers, but was still able to fire at one of them.
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Sep 3, 2013 22:33
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Viridiant posted:Is packs of enemies activating while still in the fog of war intended or a bug? By this I mean, they're not moving out of the fog of war into my line of sight and activating. Rather, they're still inside the fog of war, activate, and then remain in the fog of war until their next turn when they begin to advance to me. I just wanna know if I'd be justified in reloading my last save, as I don't like losing to bugs if this is one. Technically it's a bug, since there's not SUPPOSED to be an allowance for activations on XCOM agents without the reaction round from the aliens. But people were just bitching in the last page or so that they missed being shot from the dark with no warning, so 
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