Project Xenocide

[Shoelip]

So, a new progress release of that freeware Xcom-alike (apparently) Project Xenocide just came out the other day so I decided I'd try it. No luck. The stupid exe just gives me that generic "[program name] has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." message with the Send Error Report, and Don't Send options as soon as I double click it. It doesn't even seem to try to do anything. I have .Net Framework 3.0 and I downloaded and installed XNA runtime 2.0. Has anyone else tried this and gotten it to run? I'm not a member of their forums so I figured I'd just ask here and see if anyone knew anything before I bothered signing up.

 

[dagorkan]

Having frequented their forums I doubt it's anywhere near playable and won't be for many years. If you want a playable X-COM clone get UFO:AI or UFO:ET (much improved with the patches and mods you can find on ufo-scene.com)

 

[Shoelip]

What's UFO:ET?

 

[dagorkan]

ufo-extraterrestrials.com

First commercial game since 1995 that has been faithful to the original X-COM design. You can buy it on Gamersgate, the dev team (first time Indies) apparently went bankrupt making it.

It's not perfect but with the patches and mods it's the best substitute for X-COM that I've ever found.

 

[Shoelip]

Does it have destructible terrain?

 

[dagorkan]

You can destroy walls, trees, doors, things like that and explode a new entry to a UFO but it doesn't have gravity, eg destroying the walls of a building causing the upper floors to collapse.

Biggest problem and difference from X-COM is that the levels are pre-designed, there are a few hundred of them but you'll eventually come across the same maps. However all modern games seem to suffer from this (UFO:AI notably).

 

[Shoelip]

Well, it might be worth getting then.

I don't think I'd buy an X-Com alike without destroyable terrain unless it was otherwise better than the original X-Com.

Seriously, why don't more games have destroyable terrain? Seriously.

 

[fastjack]

re

i love x-com and have played just about if not every clone and sequel but i could not get into ufo:et. The soldiers not dying thing and the horrible animations killed it. I assume one of the first things mods did was let soldiers die and allow you to recruit your own people?

anyway i had high hopes before release, it was a real let down.

also i used to follow xenocides progress many years ago (like 8) and i would guess its going nowhere anyway. Reminds me of waiting for mechwar3d for so long then out of the blue battlemech 3d comes out and does more than mechwar3d ever really hopedto, and with only a couple of germans working for a year or two.

lesson: forget xenocide and wait for quiet idustrious germans to make a betterr x-com successor.

 

[dagorkan]

Re Shoelip:
The obsession with 3D photorealistic environments perhaps (though Silent Storm managed it). Which is the same reason you don't see much randomly generated terrain either, that stuff was based on a number of different tile-sets that you could swap around, must be harder to get right with 3D.

Re Fastjack:

i love x-com and have played just about if not every clone and sequel but i could not get into ufo:et. The soldiers not dying thing and the horrible animations killed it. I assume one of the first things mods did was let soldiers die and allow you to recruit your own people?

anyway i had high hopes before release, it was a real let down.

Well me too, I bought it on the day of release though I knew about the no-death part. In any case the patch + the mods which started being made fixed almost everything, deaths, recruitment, zooming, hot keys, rebalancing and a ton of improvements. Go and get the mod on ufo-scene, I think it's called B-man's mod it makes it almost like a higher resolution X-Com. Nearly all the features are optional or have several settings (controlled through the in-game menu) and they've even added original X-Com aliens and troops (though of course they're in low resolution - just scaled up the sprites).

lesson: forget xenocide and wait for quiet idustrious germans to make a betterr x-com successor.

Will never happen. Look at ET, a commercial failure, Julian Gollop's games (Laser Squad?), an internet-only niche... meanwhile the RtwP UFO: After-crap games are available everywhere, that's where the money is. Gamers don't want a new X-COM, maybe they'll bitch about it but they won't support the Indies they'll go buy Oblivion or GTA instead.

 

[Shoelip]

That's right, Silent Storm. I really ought to get that. I don't suppose it has many management fetures like X-Com or Jagged Alliance though does it?

 

[dagorkan]

That's right, Silent Storm. I really ought to get that. I don't suppose it has many management fetures like X-Com or Jagged Alliance though does it?

Practically zero. You can exchange weapons (for free, what's available depends on plot progression), change around one of your team members (which you wouldn't because you're just losing experience) and visit the hospital if one of your guys gets too wounded and you have the higher game difficulty on. No money, no time constraints, it's all about completing a series of predesigned missions or doing the some (mostly identical) 'random' encounters to get your XP up.

I like what it is but it's not really squad tactics when you have five people under your control. Also the level design was a bit disappointing.

 

[Shoelip]

Still, they blew up real nice if the demo was anything to go by.