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X-COM

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Re: X-COM

#221

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

JohnBooty wrote: post #96
kiksy wrote: post #35

A solid article. I'd disagree with the "single play through" and "pointless starting weapons" comments though. For me it was multiple play throughs learning about what worked and what didn't. This for me was actually a thing that kept me coming back. Trying out new tactics, base locations and equipment to see what worked. All the while trying to balance the budget and keep the squad alive long enough to level up. A t…

I'd disagree with the "single play through" and "pointless starting weapons" comments though. For me it was multiple play throughs learning about what worked and what didn't. This for me was actually a thing that kept me coming back. Absolutely! Without cheating and looking at FAQs, it's essentially impossible to win your first playthrough... or your second, or third. It's not fair. But it makes you keep coming back.…

> Without cheating and looking at FAQs, it's essentially impossible to win your first playthrough

Personally I don't recall any big problems on my first playthrough. The biggest obstacle was understanding that we need to capture a live enemy commander to progress further. Other than that, things were pretty ok, considering that difficulty glitch.

Funny thing was that I've figured out that the game has TANKS only on 3rd game. Before that, what did those "HWP" mean was rather unclear.

Re: X-COM

#222

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

purple-again wrote: post #106
kiksy wrote: post #35

A solid article. I'd disagree with the "single play through" and "pointless starting weapons" comments though. For me it was multiple play throughs learning about what worked and what didn't. This for me was actually a thing that kept me coming back. Trying out new tactics, base locations and equipment to see what worked. All the while trying to balance the budget and keep the squad alive long enough to level up. A t…

This is the precise moment that pulled me out of the article and I left lol. The optimal starting strategy is to put avalanche missles on your fighters and the cannon is useless? That is objectively untrue! The optimal starting strategy is TWO cannons. Avalanche missles are objectively wrong. They destroy small craft leaving you with no easy early ground missions. The cannons are more than capable of taking down a ti…

No. The optimal strategy is to follow the UFO until it lands and capture it intact, salvaging all equipment!

Re: X-COM

#223

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

eru wrote: post #74
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember correctly, they gained awareness unconditionally, so they always or almost always had the opportunity to take the first shot.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLwSYej6R2k&list=PL_lgEqY9K6... for more than you ever wanted to know about the rebooted X-Com. To get the beat on an alien pod, you need to use some kind of stealth-ing mechanic. Otherwise, it's mostly about guessing where they are, and trapping them with overwatch.

I generally liked the rebooted X-COM2 (rebooted X-COM, only so-so), but this pod system is very unfortunate. Wandering aliens on the map in the original were way better.

Re: X-COM

#224

Post by eru »

nottorp wrote: post #141
eru wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The limited number of turns in Frozen Synapse make more sense than in XCom 2. Mostly because Frozen Synapse is actually a multiplayer game. Also compare the 'turn limits' in Into the Breach that are very well done: you have to hold out for four turns in all missions.

I'm complaining about the time limit to send your turn in in multiplayer. I'm afraid I never played single player Frozen Synapse. Laser Squad Nemesis (multiplayer, that game was never seriously single player) was so good that when I saw Frozen Synapse copied the simultaneous orders mechanic I jumped straight into the multiplayer and never looked back. However instead of having 90 day games like in LSN you had like...…

I seemed to remember that you can set your own time limits on private games?

My memory is a bit hazy. I mostly played with a friend, and only a few times on random internet matches.

Re: X-COM

#225

Post by eru »

Delk wrote: post #180
eru wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would actually welcome the following variant of save-scumming: You can plan all you like, ie save-scum. But you can't keep it. You can only make forward progress that counts, when you first disable your save-scum ability for a bit. Of course, that only works for questions of probability, like hitting shots or not. It doesn't address that save-scumming also reveals information you are not supposed to have. There's a…

I've played the first reboot in the ironman mode, and there's a point to avoiding save-scumming, but there's a point where I find it may actually make the game less enjoyable. I found myself making every move so calculated (and seeing it as a massive mistake whenever I failed at that) that it actually took away some of the atmosphere of the game for me. I had too much of a motivation to make the game less exciting an…

Yes, it depends on how you play.

The first reboot is susceptible to overwatch crawl. And if playing in Iron Man mode that's what you (or me) might end up doing automatically.

They tried to fix that in the DLC and in XCom 2. With mixed success.

The original also had that problem: if you waited for long enough (35 rounds or something) the aliens would come rushing towards you.

Re: X-COM

#226

Post by eru »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #223
eru wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLwSYej6R2k&list=PL_lgEqY9K6... for more than you ever wanted to know about the rebooted X-Com. To get the beat on an alien pod, you need to use some kind of stealth-ing mechanic. Otherwise, it's mostly about guessing where they are, and trapping them with overwatch.

I generally liked the rebooted X-COM2 (rebooted X-COM, only so-so), but this pod system is very unfortunate. Wandering aliens on the map in the original were way better.

X-COM2 has wandering pods, for what it's worth.

Re: X-COM

#227

Post by eru »

the_af wrote: post #201
ncallaway wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can play XCOM while eating a sandwich or drinking coffee, while I can't play an RTS that way. To be clear, Frozen Synapse is also a turn-based strategy game. You can enjoy your sandwich or coffee while playing. The difference it's you and your opponent plan your turn simultaneously. But you are still fundamentally planning a turn. The aspect I enjoy about the mechanic is it leaves a lot more uncertainty in the ai…

A bit like Laser Squad Nemesis then? (Also by the Gollop brothers if I recall correctly). I should be ashamed: I own Frozen Synapse, but I think I've never played it. Yet another impulse buy :(

Yes, Frozen Synapse pays explicit Homage to Laser Squad Nemesis. I think it's quite a bit more polished though, because it's deliberately more streamlined.

If I remember right, LSN still had tiles (and thus probably discrete units of time)?

Frozen Synapse, for better or worse, goes for a much more continuous approach. Making for a very different feeling game.

Re: X-COM

#228

Post by jeffbee »

chaostheory wrote: post #219
sandworm101 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try "Xenonauts", a recent remake of X-com using the original mechanics. It isn't a direct port, they have added a couple mechanics in areas like air combat, but it is 95% x-com with better graphics. My want: Xenonauts + TFTD. TFTD was the pinnacle of the x-com franchise imho. That opening sequence, and all the sound, was amazing. I still hear TFTD sounds being reused in modern scifi.

One of the creators of X-com released his own game recently: Phoenix Point https://phoenixpoint.info/

But it's terrible.

Re: X-COM

#229

Post by on_and_off »

n3k5 wrote: post #25
jonathanlydall wrote: post #3

One of my favourite games growing up. I tried replaying it about 10 years ago but it’s got serious quality of life problems with the mission aspect of the game. Particularly, it had no way to remember or save gear assignments between missions. So you would spend like 5 minutes at the start of every mission giving your guys the correct stuff for their stats. Every. Damn. Time. The other thing that bugged me on mission…

> Particularly, it had no way to remember or save gear assignments between missions. OpenXcom has this, plus a lot of other improvements and bug-fixes. I'm no expert (played it and the original for a few hours each about a year ago) but my impression is that it manages to pull off nice QoL-improvements while staying faithful to the feel and gameplay of the original game.

I really need to try open-xcom.

I know that there are also some total conversion like Piratez XCOM.

I tried to love the firaxis XCOMs. They kind of scratch the same itch and I appreciate not to have to manage bullets in the inventory but some of the simplified mechanics just don't work that well.

Clusters of enemies in particular seems like very poor design to me. It has caused tons of issues in their 2 games, from encouraging turtling as a the main dominant strategy to forcing firaxis to add timers to try to force players out of the play style their game made dominant.

Re: X-COM

#230

Post by chaostheory »

jeffbee wrote: post #228
chaostheory wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the creators of X-com released his own game recently: Phoenix Point https://phoenixpoint.info/

But it's terrible.

It was a few months ago, but it looks like they keep patching it. I played it a few days ago and it was much better. Could pull a No Man's Sky.
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