general gaming topic

2012-01-12 02:44:31 pm

So some things will be different, but you've got to expect that. Even if it's not a 100% remake I'm still highly looking forward to what Firaxis can do with the game. Already saw people losing hope in the comments just from the few bits they got from the article/video, but as long as it's still fun and contains the overall spirit of the original games I think I'll be ok with that. Would I want more of the mechanics to be like the original? Sure. But just because they aren't doesn't mean I'm already giving up on it. (Besides, there's that hinted "Classic Mode" difficulty that has me intrigued as to what exactly that means.)

And they showed off a few new alien types in that article apparently. Only returning one out of the ones I saw were Sectoids, so it looks like we won't be getting all of the classic line. (Again, kinda expected but there's not a lot to go on yet so we could be surprised later. Do wonder if Cyberdiscs are still there since they mentioned both sides get tanks, plus they're kinda attached to Sectoids) If only one other type came back besides them I'd definitely want Chryssalids though. No question.

So some things will be different, but you've got to expect that. Even if it's not a 100% remake I'm still highly looking forward to what Firaxis can do with the game. Already saw people losing hope in the comments just from the few bits they got from the article/video, but as long as it's still fun and contains the overall spirit of the original games I think I'll be ok with that. Would I want more of the mechanics to be like the original? Sure. But just because they aren't doesn't mean I'm already giving up on it. (Besides, there's that hinted "Classic Mode" difficulty that has me intrigued as to what exactly that means.)

And they showed off a few new alien types in that article apparently. Only returning one out of the ones I saw were Sectoids, so it looks like we won't be getting all of the classic line. (Again, kinda expected but there's not a lot to go on yet so we could be surprised later. Do wonder if Cyberdiscs are still there since they mentioned both sides get tanks, plus they're kinda attached to Sectoids) If only one other type came back besides them I'd definitely want Chryssalids though. No question.

Quietus

2012-01-12 02:46:13 pm

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

Hard to be angry when you have such a boner, I guess. aiwebs_004

Prime Hunter

2012-01-12 02:48:33 pm

Well I'm pretty sure Tomatobob and I were doing a similar dance internally when we found out. Still the best X-COM news in years.

J_SNAKE

2012-01-12 04:51:34 pm

The only reason I posted it is to enforce your spirit! Haha

tomatobob

Edit history:

tomatobob: 2012-01-12 07:48:52 pm

2012-01-12 07:48:21 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Already saw people losing hope in the comments just from the few bits they got from the article/video

Shows that the internet will bitch about anything and everything. I complain about things all the time but everything I've heard about this game so far sounds boss.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Only returning one out of the ones I saw were Sectoids, so it looks like we won't be getting all of the classic line. (Again, kinda expected but there's not a lot to go on yet so we could be surprised later. Do wonder if Cyberdiscs are still there since they mentioned both sides get tanks, plus they're kinda attached to Sectoids).

Mutons and Cyberdiscs are in. Mutons are still total bad asses apparently, so that's cool.

Prime Hunter

2012-01-12 07:57:02 pm

They are? Guess I missed that. Was it in the video and I missed it somehow or was it in the article itself? (Which I haven't read)

tomatobob

2012-01-12 08:04:17 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

It was the article. Though you very quickly see the Muton in the video while he's tossing the magazine around like a tool.

Also, people are mad about losing time units? Shit, you pretty much only ever got two actions a turn in the original anyway. You either took two auto shots or moved into position to take one auto shot. Snapshots were a waste and aimed shots never hit anyway along with eating pretty much all of your time units. Auto shots gave you the greatest chance to hit per time unit and you got two unless you were lucky enough for a soldier to hit a magic number where they could take three, then they gain one more tu and the cost scales up and it's two again. So who cares?

Prime Hunter

Edit history:

Prime Hunter: 2012-01-12 08:14:48 pm

Prime Hunter: 2012-01-12 08:14:21 pm

2012-01-12 08:13:46 pm

Something I saw mentioned was the fact that you can technically move into position and fire at two different aliens with Time Units, but you might not be able to with this new system. (Which sounds more like what D&D has been doing lately from the stories my brother has told me of 4th edition as far as having separate Move and Action phases on someone's turn)

I do like Time Units but this new system still gives us turns and sounds better than what the new JA2 remake is doing. From what I understand that is going to be more like KOTOR with the ability to attack in real time or to pause and setup a few actions. I don't have a problem with that system since I love the KOTOR games but it's not turn based which is what I expect when I play either JA or X-COM.

So yeah, I think it's people being too picky again. As long as the system works and is good I don't care if they switch it a little since we're still getting turn based squad gameplay.

tomatobob

2012-01-12 08:26:44 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Prime Hunter:

Something I saw mentioned was the fact that you can technically move into position and fire at two different aliens with Time Units

Maybe if you take one step and use only snapshots. But snapshots are dumb who would do that? By the time you can consistently hit with one snapshot in the original you've got a guy who is a completely bad ass sniper and at that point being able to move is irrelevant because he can hit things across the map from the Skyranger. Also he'll have 0 psi strength and get mind controlled into killing your whole squad before getting blaster bombed.

I just think people are building the original up a little too much in what it allowed you to do. They probably haven't played it too recently. Time unit costs scale with a unit's time units, only good it did you was allow you to move a greater distance. Covering ground faster than everyone else is neat, but also pretty likely to get a dude murdered. I might miss the option to run all the way across the map in a clean up phase of a Terror Mission, but then I have no idea how movement works yet so I also might not.

[quote="Prime Hunter"]Something I saw mentioned was the fact that you can technically move into position and fire at two different aliens with Time Units[/quote]
Maybe if you take one step and use only snapshots. But snapshots are dumb who would do that? By the time you can consistently hit with one snapshot in the original you've got a guy who is a completely bad ass sniper and at that point being able to move is irrelevant because he can hit things across the map from the Skyranger. Also he'll have 0 psi strength and get mind controlled into killing your whole squad before getting blaster bombed.

I just think people are building the original up a little too much in what it allowed you to do. They probably haven't played it too recently. Time unit costs scale with a unit's time units, only good it did you was allow you to move a greater distance. Covering ground faster than everyone else is neat, but also pretty likely to get a dude murdered. I might miss the option to run all the way across the map in a clean up phase of a Terror Mission, but then I have no idea how movement works yet so I also might not.

Prime Hunter

2012-01-12 08:47:07 pm

Yeah, the scaling is why my great plan to use a Chryssalid and give him a gun wouldn't work as well since it would cost a ton of TUs to shoot at anything despite being able to rush all across the map with him. (This is in a hypothetical scenario where I got to play multiplayer with someone since I've seen people who have been able to do that before. Guess it would work with Psi too now that I think about it, but chances are he'd turn back to their side just as I got him into position and now there's an enemy Chryssalid with one of MY guns mowing down MY guys.)

Again, it's way too early to tell how things are going to go down and one early article isn't nearly enough to completely judge how any game will be played.

And we've turned yet another topic into an X-COM discussion if you haven't noticed.

tomatobob

2012-01-12 09:00:51 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

All topics will become X-COM. X-COM is The Way. X-COM is All.

tomatobob

2012-01-12 09:03:21 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Alterantively:

Sup losers, play X-COM and it'll make sense!

Poision Envy

Edit history:

Poision Envy: 2012-01-12 09:06:50 pm

2012-01-12 09:06:44 pm

Club 27 Goals

I tried. there was a lot of pixely thing and I couldn't win

tomatobob

2012-01-12 09:12:27 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Trying is acceptable.

Idkbutlike2

2012-01-12 09:16:04 pm

I used to watch my dad play it all the time on his PDA. I think he let me play one time while my mom had a doctor's appointment and we were waiting outside the office. Don't remember much about the game other than a guy running around and aliens showing up around a neighborhood.

Quietus

2012-01-13 08:01:11 am

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

I did look into X-COM when you were waffling about it a while back. It's the one that's like a mix of Tetris, Gran Turismo, and Tekken, right? Anxious

arkarian

2012-01-13 09:50:49 am

red chamber dream

o_O

kesvalk

Edit history:

kesvalk: 2012-01-13 10:42:55 am

kesvalk: 2012-01-13 10:42:18 am

2012-01-13 10:40:51 am

Indie Lover

i played lot's of X-COM in my life, but i never got to the mars part, terror missions always fucked me and i didn't had enough resources to get my team back to full power and everything would blow up in the end...

is still one of my favorite games of all time though...
i liked x-com apocalypse a lot too, the world map was very fun, and the complete mayhem that a mission could turn out was very, VERY fun...

i hope this guys have a easier difficult on the game, at least i could try to finish the game this time... the game was hard as hell...

Quietus

2012-01-13 10:57:08 am

Super Secret Area - Dead Ahead!

Part of J_SNAKE's video above talked about difficulties, where the hardest was 'classic' mode, in which you had the timer back in the game, so your moves had to be more planned.

kesvalk

2012-01-13 12:05:09 pm

Indie Lover

my problem was never the strategy part, is the aliens one-hit killing my soldiers ALL THE TIME...

if they could at least survive 2 shots it would be a completely different history...

also, anyone checked xenonauts? it seems like a good game too, and way more like the original...
god, i will need to buy x-com on steam now... i want to play the old game...

also, X-Com is prolly the most remade game EVER... you guys knew that there was a x-com based game on the GBA?

kesvalk

2012-01-13 12:21:44 pm

Indie Lover

just brought the x-com pack, gonna install it when my internet get back on...

there are any differences in the terror of the deep sequel? i played when i was a kid, so i don't know if there are any differences, aside from alien species...

Prime Hunter

2012-01-13 01:30:43 pm

Play UFO Defense FIRST. I mean it, seriously. TFTD will absolutely murder you if you are still having some trouble with the original. Because there was a bug with UFO Defense when it first came out that reset the difficulty back to Beginner after the first mission people complained it was too easy and they made TFTD A LOT harder even on its Beginner difficulty. (Steam's version has this bug in it normally but it can be fixed, although for you I'd say play on Beginner anyway until you get used to the game/beat it once or twice.)

And as far as soldiers dying in one-two hits, expect that most of the way through the game. With higher quality armor and med-kits you can maybe double that number at best unless one of your guys gets lucky with the damage roll and barely gets scratched. Still a good chance your guy might drop in a single shot no matter what armor type he has or how much health he has. That's due to the way the damage is calculated in this game. (A single shot can do anywhere from 0% to 200% of the listed damage I think no matter what weapon it is)

Play UFO Defense FIRST. I mean it, seriously. TFTD will absolutely murder you if you are still having some trouble with the original. Because there was a bug with UFO Defense when it first came out that reset the difficulty back to Beginner after the first mission people complained it was too easy and they made TFTD A LOT harder even on its Beginner difficulty. (Steam's version has this bug in it normally but it can be fixed, although for you I'd say play on Beginner anyway until you get used to the game/beat it once or twice.)

And as far as soldiers dying in one-two hits, expect that most of the way through the game. With higher quality armor and med-kits you can maybe double that number at best unless one of your guys gets lucky with the damage roll and barely gets scratched. Still a good chance your guy might drop in a single shot no matter what armor type he has or how much health he has. That's due to the way the damage is calculated in this game. (A single shot can do anywhere from 0% to 200% of the listed damage I think no matter what weapon it is)

kesvalk

2012-01-13 01:45:47 pm

Indie Lover

well, that explains the storm trooper syndrome...

Prime Hunter

2012-01-13 01:46:39 pm

And yeah, there have been a ton of X-COM like games over the years, but to most fans they never came close to capturing what made the original so great. I think I tried one of the UFO series in a demo once before but couldn't get into it as much for whatever reason.

Xenonauts looks like it's going to be the closest thing to the original other than the new Enemy Unknown Firaxis is making so I've had my eye on it since I first heard about it. I'll probably check it out once they release it.

kesvalk

2012-01-13 01:50:15 pm

Indie Lover

it's a very complex game, so it's difficult to clone...

i hope the new one don't dumb down things too much, i liked the cover system, but i am concerned with the entire class system, and even more so to not be able to recruit from a specified class...

leaving this type of decisions to the RNG god is never a good thing...