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X-COM

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Re: X-COM

#41

Post by nottorp »

kqr wrote: post #9

If you liked X-COM, I can recommend Frozen Synapse, which is similar in many ways and very different in others. The biggest difference is probably that after all players have planned their turns, they are executed simultaneously.

Frozen Synapse is a simplified clone of Laser Squad Nemesis, which was done by... you guessed, the Gollops.

Sadly that game is no longer available. It was multiplayer only (it had some single player but it was an afterthought) and they've taken it down long ago.

Re: X-COM

#42

Post by freddie_mercury »

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…

"for many or most of us, this is a strategy game to play through once rather than over and over again"

What part of that do you disagree with? He didn't say that everybody only played it through a single time. You don't need to argue against a strawman.

Re: X-COM

#43

Post by jonathanlydall »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #26

I loved the original X-Com, but I couldn't get into the new ones. My biggest issue with the original game is that as soon as one alien sees you, all aliens sees you starting to mindcontrol your entire team which easily spirals out of control. Luckily, modern reimplementations such as OpenXcom allow you to disable it and require line of sight checks before MC attempts.

We got the Prima Games strategy guide which was superb in that explained every single mechanic of the game.

After reading it my brother worked out how and then made a super bad ass psy team.

The key understanding is that there is a base psy attribute for characters which can never change and then another one which can improve through experience.

So your previously best characters probably land up having terrible base psy stat, so you need to abandon them ultimately unfortunately.

So he made lots of psy labs to find the strong soldiers. Then started getting them to skill up psy skill on missions.

Once they could mind control then it was to skill them up in other regards like accuracy and reactions. You would mind control aliens, have them drop their weapons then end your turn with them facing away from your guys ready to shoot them. During the aliens turn they would start walking and then get shot by the reacting “rookie” 3 blocks away. The rookies accuracy and reaction improved quickly.

If I recall he managed to complete the final mission in like 3 turns per part by mind controlling the first alien he could see, then using that to find the next alien to mind control and so on.

Re: X-COM

#44

Post by rhn_mk1 »

simonw wrote: post #18

One of my favourite things about XCOM was the destructible scenery. The isometric building design (on the procedurally generated maps) was superb, and you could blast holes in it to make your own routes through the map. Likewise the design of the larger UFOs themselves was so exciting - not to mention the variety of scenery a UFO might land in. It was so far ahead of its time in that regard.

One of the fatal flaws that made the reboot X-COM worse than the original was the inability to control the environment. Shots could no longer be aimed at scenery, and stray shots that hit the walls anyway proved that said walls were made out of cardboard. Even a pistol round could break an undamaged wall!

This made hiding behind corners much less useful: if you're suddenly flanked, you have a great risk of losing your cover entirely, no matter how strong the wall looked.

Not being able to create own passages or drop floors from under aliens are just nasty consequences of that.

The second flaw was that the enemy did not just seek you out, they always knew where you were, making it impossible to sneak up on them. I get the need to shorten the battles, but catching enemies unaware was my favorite tactic to survive despite technical disadvantage.

Re: X-COM

#46

Post by nottorp »

sgillen wrote: post #14
senectus1 wrote: post #4

With the exception of the lateest one, I've loved all the x-com games dearly. So many hours spent recruiting newbies, training them up, building equipment, researching tech then hunting down and killing alien scum!

Do you mean Xcom2 or Chimera Squad?

Xcom 2 is a disaster due to the arbitrary time (or turn, for the nitpickers) limits in all missions.

If you don't rush via the shortest path or if you do the unthinkable and explore the map a bit you'll run out of time and die.

And if you install a mod that removes the turn limits it becomes way too easy because it's balanced for rushing blindly ahead and it's like taking candy from a baby if you have time to scout and position yourself.

Chimera squad... what's chimera squad? Didn't look at anything after xcom 2.

To continue whining, the current Firaxis ruined Civilization as well. They tried to 'improve' religion and ended up adding another tactical layer. You're fighting the military war and the religious war. But with the military war you can make peace now and then, or simply not attack. The religious war never ends. Which means that every single turn you have to take care of umpteenth religious units making the game full of pointless busywork.

Re: X-COM

#47

Post by usrusr »

hooande wrote: post #15

I loved, loved X-COM. It had an ability to capture imagination in a way that few turn based strategy games do. The randomly generated soldier names still loom large as heroes in my mind. I was affected when they were killed in action. "Bernard Dujardin", wherever you are, I salute you

The names dripping so heavily with national cliches, but they all throwing their skills in a single jar (and their limbs) because humanity vs aliens, it was truly impressive.

And the multitude of viable tactics and strategies... a friend of mine was systematically playing for earliest Mars victory, he ended up never shooting at scout UFO to lure in bigger targets. "If they don't set up a base by $date I won't be able to beat my record of $otherdate". Pretty sure that approach wasn't consciously designed into the game, but it worked out because the inner logic was sufficiently complete (even if perhaps not actually sound, he ended up doing some pretty radical strategical hacks)

Re: X-COM

#48

Post by jraedisch »

burlesona wrote: post #33

Great article, and a very fair review of a wonderful game with very sharp edges. I will say, the best part of the Firaxis reboot of X-Com is that it perfectly captured the fun that I _remembered_ from the original game. It captured this so well that I remember thinking it was literally the same game with new graphics. Then I went back and replayed the original... and remembered how hard and clunky it actually was :)…

I did not play the original Master of Orion, but absolutely loved the second part.

I started focussing on science (namely Psilons) and only later developed a taste for trying out other strategies/races. I often played multiplayer with friends too, and really liked the laid back atmosphere enabled by turn based strategy.

Re: X-COM

#49

Post by joosters »

pjmlp wrote: post #28

I loved this series all the way back to Rebelstar Raiders. Must have spent endless hours playing all Laser Squad versions on the Speccy and it was only natural to jump into X-COM. Although the ones that moved away from the Rebelstar Raiders/Laser Squad initial concept are not worthy to me.

I grew up playing Rebelstar 2, and Chaos, his other amazing game... part of my early programming experience was making a map editor for R2 and making new monsters for Chaos!

Re: X-COM

#50

Post by pjmlp »

joosters wrote: post #49
pjmlp wrote: post #28

I loved this series all the way back to Rebelstar Raiders. Must have spent endless hours playing all Laser Squad versions on the Speccy and it was only natural to jump into X-COM. Although the ones that moved away from the Rebelstar Raiders/Laser Squad initial concept are not worthy to me.

I grew up playing Rebelstar 2, and Chaos, his other amazing game... part of my early programming experience was making a map editor for R2 and making new monsters for Chaos!

Chaos! Another one, including its successor that was more Laser Squad like, Wizards something.
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