X-COM Firaxis - XCOM: Enemy Unknown + Enemy Within Expansion

[Average Manatee]

The smart option would be to penalize players for collateral damage if they start nuking every building just in case aliens are inside. Which means it absolutely won't be what Firaxis chooses, because penalizing players is so last-gen.

 

[Raghar]

There was a UFO game with an one base already. http://ufo.ufo-extraterrestrials.com/ It sucked. One base is bit silly because it allows your opponent to kill you in one decapitating strike. Thus you place all/majority of defenses on that one base.

One the other hand it would be one of better strategy games.

 

[spectre]

Aftershick and Aftermath had one proper base as well, and it wasn't that bad. Guess Firaxis is picking up some hints here

One base is bit silly because it allows your opponent to kill you in one decapitating strike.

True. If there is only one XCOM base, it would make much more sense to make it mobile, but I reckon that's not going to happen.

 

[Darth Roxor]

True. If there is only one XCOM base, it would make much more sense to make it mobile

This could actually be a p. cool mechanic. In case your position is compromised, you have to jet all assets to a different part of the globe, but you'd have to do good recon there, to see whether the area is not a subject of heavy alien activity, which would effectively leave you falling from the frying pan into the fire. Sending scouting parties to a sector that need some time to establish proper sitrep, doing costly research there, all the while massive alien bombardment is wrecking your base.

But this is obviously never going to happen. I doubt whether there even will be base attacks, except for some emotionally engaging scripted mission of epic alien retalation.

 

[Sitra Achara]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...actics-exploring-xcom-39-s-combat-part-2.aspx

 

[spectre]

Hm. Obviously it's a totally different game now. Somehow the sectiods feel much less threatening now that you can just hide behind the corner and supress them. Not sure if like.
But, more importantly, what the fuck is wrong with the scale of the game? Epic battles to control the grocery store? And why do all the previews so far only show 4 squaddies?
I'm really, really hoping these are just early game/tutorial missions.

Funny though, even though it clearly doesn't come anywhere close to a proper xcom remake (suprise surprise),
I'm actually excited like a baby, since it's a rare case of turn based tactical game with some minor rpg-elements.

 

[Haba]

But, more importantly, what the fuck is wrong with the scale of the game? Epic battles to control the grocery store? And why do all the previews so far only show 4 squaddies?
I'm really, really hoping these are just early game/tutorial missions.

Think for a moment. Cinematic scenes, traits, small maps, camera closer to action... Wanna bet that missions are also shorter?

Notice the Sectoid's percent-to-hit is at 65%, this is because he countered our Suppression by Mind Merging with an unrevealed cohort. This alien ability has increased the Sectoid’s health and made him tougher.

OK! Also provides a handy quest compass. Like all psionic abilities should.

 

[Forgotten Friend]

Hm. Obviously it's a totally different game now. Somehow the sectiods feel much less threatening now that you can just hide behind the corner and supress them. Not sure if like.
But, more importantly, what the fuck is wrong with the scale of the game? Epic battles to control the grocery store? And why do all the previews so far only show 4 squaddies?
I'm really, really hoping these are just early game/tutorial missions.

Funny though, even though it clearly doesn't come anywhere close to a proper xcom remake (suprise surprise),
I'm actually excited like a baby, since it's a rare case of turn based tactical game with some minor rpg-elements.

Yep, the scale will ruin it even if nothing else will.

That is one of the big points that Julian Gollop brought up as being hard for people to understand when making a tactical game. The scale has to be small or else a tactical game will play out badly. Which makes sense, since tactics is all about positioning.

 

[chzr]

Aftershick and Aftermath had one proper base as well, and it wasn't that bad. Guess Firaxis is picking up some hints here

wut? in aftermath, you were capturing bases that you turned into engineering/research/military function, in aftershock you captured cities and built facilities there (and had the flying 'ufo' to manage things and deploy troops). only game where you had 1 fixed base was afterlight.

 

[spectre]

I obviosly meant Afterlight and Aftershock, sorry.
Well, in Aftershock were more like procuction and resource gathering outposts, not exactly bases in the XCOM sense - you didn't put soldiers, radar and aircraft there (partly because the whole air combat thing was scrapped). Laputa was still THE main base.
And you had only one base in Afterlight and you just plopped resource extractors here and there.
Actually, I could be satisfied with something similar to any of the two approaches - one central base, but still give me an incentive to hold some ground.

Think for a moment. Cinematic scenes, traits, small maps, camera closer to action... Wanna bet that missions are also shorter?

Well, I can't say I'd miss two-parter lobsterman shipping route terror missions.
Unless Firaxis really bends over backwards to fuck this up, and the missions are really glorious encounters like: 4 squaddies vs. 3 mutons fighting over a lone gas station, in which case there will be rage.

Yeah I noticed the alien cinematics. First thing I'll be turning off if possible, unless they happen to be unobtrusive, which I know to be wishful thinking.

Dunno about the camera angle. As you can see, you can zoom out quite a bit, so my guess is that the author zoomed in to make it more cinematic and shit.
To be honest, I've seen it done a lot, f.e. most Total War previews have "cinemetic" in-battle screenies, while in regular gameplay you spend most of the time zoomed out.
I mean, Firaxis cannot be that dumb to automatically change the camera to over-the-shoulder when you're giving firing orders, right?
Hey, whishful thinking again.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Are there any good XCOM clones out there that aren't total shit? Right now I only heard of UFO: Extraterrestrials and the After-something series. Which one would you recommend to get started with?

 

[Syril]

all are shit, go and play old xcom , why play shitty remake ?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Because the old XCOM has pixels as large as quaders, I don't think my cool TFT would like those.

 

[spectre]

Actually, that is pretty much the truth. You're best bet is play the originals. I think only Xenonauts looks kinda passable.
Extraterrestrials is pretty shit. It's supposedly playable With BTMan's mod, but I never got around to trying it out. They totally managed to wreck the atmosphere on this one, imo.
I remember starting new game, seeing some weird ass planet with weird ass provice names and asking myself, what the fuck is this shit? Not a good first impression.

There was also that remake based on the Quake 2 engine, Alien Invasion, not sure if it's alive still. Was at alpha stage when I played it.
Not bad AI, fugly art direction, no destructible terrain. May be worth checking out if they actually improved it in the last two years.

Then there's always XCOM Apocalypse. It has some fugly candy colors, but a friend of mine swears there's a freat game underneath. You need a Win95 virtual machine to run it flawlessly, though.

If you want passable graphics, you're only hope is the After---- series. It's RtWP and a very, very, very distant cousin of XCOM. Still, it's good for what it is, Aftermath has nice atmosphere (earth swept clean of life by a biological attack),
Aftershock has better gameplay, Afterlight is basically a Let's colonize Mars sim.

So, if you want a true remake, you're pretty much boned. The original UFO still holds the crown with regards to atmosphere and gameplay.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

There's always Incubation, which right now I'm trying to...ahm, track down.

 

[Achilles]

Xenonauts will probably be your best bet but it's not out yet. The UFO: After- games are decent.

 

[someone else]

Then there's always XCOM Apocalypse. You need a Win95 virtual machine to run it flawlessly, though.

Dosbox works fine.

 

[spectre]

It runs on dosbox, but I never managed to get any audio on it.

There's always Incubation, which right now I'm trying to...ahm, track down.

Decent game, although I have never really considered it related to xcom.
I recently learned that it had a 40 mission expansion pack, wilderness encounters or somesuch and I'm keeping my eyes peeled for it.
Anyways, if you need any help tracking it down, drop me a line. It's both pretty rare and functionally abandonware.

 

[belated]

I think it's included in the Battlle Isle Platinum pack at GOG.

 

[someone else]

It runs on dosbox, but I never managed to get any audio on it.

You should easily get sound working by configuring the dosbox settings. Music is the problem, best way is to download the music and put them in the folder. You can do a search on apoc music, there are a few threads on other forums on how to solve it.
Here I even give you the link to the music, though I don't remember using this:
http://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/index.php?cid=57

 

[spectre]

Yeah, it just felt easier to simply setup a virtual machine, but thanks for the tips.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Sid Meier sez pretty graphics equals easier access

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Sid Meier sez pretty graphics equals easier access

Why, Sid? Why?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

While this is true to some extend, I think Sid shouldn't talk about graphics, it's not his field of expertise.

 

[Syril]

better gfx - more accessible...... for dumbfucks he forgot to add