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X-COM

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Re: X-COM

#231

Post by type_enthusiast »

Delk wrote: post #181
type_enthusiast wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well sure, when you put it that way it sounds simple! I was 12 or so, and I spent a few nights trying to figure out the "plain data file" before shrugging and going back to playing X-Com.

Well, reverse engineering binary data is hard and laborious, and probably incomprehensible to almost any 12-year-old (and the majority of adults). (I'm assuming they were binary. I really can't remember what they were.)

Gotta be honest, I installed the game tonight under DOSBox thinking I would give thirty-something, seasoned engineer me another crack at decoding the file format. But then, those UFOs kept landing and I mean, somebody had to do something about it. And then all of a sudden my kids were like "daddy where are you" and the file format (and UFOs) once again had to wait for another day...

Re: X-COM

#232

Post by skocznymroczny »

zenojevski wrote: post #60

Even greater than UFO Defense, in my opinion, was its expansion - Terror From the Deep . It truly taught me that our oceans are so close, yet much farther than outer space can ever be. Looking at that lone blue globe in space always makes me feel so insignificant, so meaningless. Space is vast, but empty, and sterile. Down the abyss, not even light can shine to bless and purify. The greatest contributor to that is ce…

I like TFTD, but it has some flaws:

- weird research paths. It was possible to ruin your game by doing the wrong research in wrong order. Also, you need a lot of luck to get some techs, e.g. to get early armor you need to kill a Deep One, which usually are only found in the beginning of the game and near the end of it. Similarly to get a vibroblade which is very useful against Lobstermen, you need to kill a Calcinite, which is a very rare spawn in the game.

- maps are too big. I like the variety, but the maps are just too big. Also they consist of tight tunnels providing perfect shooting gallery opportunities for the aliens

- tentaculats are badly balanced. I fear no lobstermen disruptors, I fear no tasoth mind control, but a one or two tentaculats can destroy your team in a single round. And they can fly across half the map to get you.

Re: X-COM

#233

Post by skocznymroczny »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #134

I love the original X-com and take it for a spin every few years. By far the greatest thing original X-com had was the sense of mystery and dread of the unknown on your first playthrough. You didn't know what lies ahead, you didn't know what technologies to research, and how to do what. New aliens were catching you by surprise all the time, and Chrysalids, god, they were so so scary. When I got to flying armor my guy…

For me the best part of X-Com is when you actually learn the mechanics of the game. When you learn the missions that aliens do, recognize how the ships look like. If you see three-four supply ships on the ground you know they're either resupplying or building a colony. Do you attack the colony, or harvest the supply ships that come regularly?

Look at the chart. Seeing extremely high alien activity in some remote country? High odds there's an alien base there.

Re: X-COM

#234

Post by rasz »

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.

X-COM: Apocalypse was also terrible, proving Julian Gollop was simply lucky and at the right time meeting right people.

Re: X-COM

#235

Post by type_enthusiast »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #184
IggleSniggle wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is it! The special sauce of the original is that there is so much mystery; "Enemy Unknown" is the whole idea. While I love the Firaxis reboot, and think it has better gameplay , I'm not sure it's strictly a better game. It all feels so clean and organized, and it's always clear what needs to be done. There's no sense of bureaucratic panic, wasted time on pointless tech-trees, or over-investment in a singula…

Hey, don't offend Laser Rifles! First, they are a valuable source of income (second only to Light Alloys + Personal Armors production, but that requires 2 components and is also messy), and do not require any ammunition, firing endlessly. My every soldier carried an obligatory Laser Rifle in his backpack, taking it out and firing it every chance he had, achieving 3 objectives at once: - the more stuff you carry, the…

I played this game though probably 100 times and never realized that repeatedly firing weapons is what improves a soldier's accuracy. So thanks for that. I mean, it makes perfect sense when you think about it, as long as you assume there is no other training that these soldiers go through behind the scenes. Which... Yeah.

Re: X-COM

#236

Post by JohnBooty »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #221
JohnBooty wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 3…

This is rather difficult to believe!

At a minimum... there's no way to know that the alien base invasions are a thing, and unless you've laid out your bases in order to facilitate their defense -- setting up chokepoints and such -- they are easy pickings for the aliens. That's something you could get right by luck the first time... but there's no reason to lay your base out in such a way unless you know about it.

It's also difficult to know things like which weapons you can manufacture for strong financial returns. The midgame is tough unless you stumble upon this.

Also, just in general, winning strategies to beat the aliens aren't that easy to come by. Takes a fair amount of experimentation and heavy soldier losses. It's really tough to progress if you lose a lot of soldiers and/or drop ships.

And on your first play through it's also not clear what timetable you're working with and how fast the alien threats ramp up. Some of that is tied to your progression and some isn't IIRC.

Aside from the base layout thing, savescumming can definitely help obviously. =)

Of course, I know there were revisions made between the Euro, US, and Playstation versions. I think there were some difficulty tweaks. Not sure. So perhaps we had different experiences in that regard.

Re: X-COM

#237

Post by kapp »

zenojevski wrote: post #60

Even greater than UFO Defense, in my opinion, was its expansion - Terror From the Deep . It truly taught me that our oceans are so close, yet much farther than outer space can ever be. Looking at that lone blue globe in space always makes me feel so insignificant, so meaningless. Space is vast, but empty, and sterile. Down the abyss, not even light can shine to bless and purify. The greatest contributor to that is ce…

"The mod requested could not be found."

I believe the correct link is: https://openxcom.mod.io/orchestra-of-the-deep

Re: X-COM

#238

Post by kapp »

JohnBooty wrote: post #236
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 3…

This is rather difficult to believe! At a minimum... there's no way to know that the alien base invasions are a thing, and unless you've laid out your bases in order to facilitate their defense -- setting up chokepoints and such -- they are easy pickings for the aliens. That's something you could get right by luck the first time... but there's no reason to lay your base out in such a way unless you know about it. It'…

"Missile Defences" base structure was available to build right away, so that was at least a hint :)
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