Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

X-COM

filfre.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 238 posts

Re: X-COM

#51

Post by kiksy »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #42
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.

Neither did I say "everybody played through it multiple times". I stated "for me".

Re: X-COM

#52

Post by user5994461 »

nottorp wrote: post #46
sgillen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Chimera squad is the latest Xcom game. It's a bit simplified and you jump straight into position. It's nice to not have to spend 50 hours moving around but not everybody likes the change in gameplay.

Do NOT buy it though, the game is buggy as fuck.

Re: X-COM

#53

Post by joosters »

pjmlp wrote: post #50
joosters wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think that was Lords of Chaos? I got that game from a magazine cover tape, but wasn't that impressed (it didn't help that I had no manual for it!)

Re: X-COM

#54

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

nottorp wrote: post #46
sgillen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

I enjoyed xcom2 much more than the reboot. Constraints of all kinds ($$$ and other resources) made much more sense for a resistance fighter of a humanity that had lost the war. It added the sense of urgency and danger.

Re: X-COM

#55

Post by eru »

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…

If you want to play the classic X-COM today, make sure to grab the latest community patches.

I really liked the old X-COM games and had anticipated that I would not like the reboot very much.

However, while I wouldn't want to miss the originals for the reboot, the reboots are done very solidly and in most instances I even find myself agreeing with the streamlining the new authors chose.

If you want a tactical squad-level game that goes beyond what the original X-COM did, I suggest having a look at Frozen Synapse. Frozen Synapse has much fewer elements than X-COM, but its major innovation is that each turn both you and your opponent plan your turns concurrently at your leisure and then the turn plays out over 5 seconds in continuous time.

In contrast, I always felt the serialising that X-COM enforced to be an artificial limitation.

Re: X-COM

#56

Post by cgearhart »

I loved this game so much growing up, and this was a great article about it. It captured all the things I loved, and covered a lot of history I never knew.

One thing that caught my eye was the author’s complaint about no in-game exposition or tutorials at the start of the game. It seems silly in 2020, but in 1994 it was common for games to come with a reasonably lengthy manual printed on dead trees that explained all those things—or else there were printed strategy guides and magazines that talked about clever tricks. I read a borrowed copy of that book cover to cover before I even had a computer to actually run the game on. I still have a copy in my garage.

My first copy was pirated on 3.5” floppy disks from the school computer lab. Eventually I bought a copy to get the manual. Later on I bought a copy to get it on CD. Eventually I bought another copy to get the whole original collection on CD. And last year I played the reboots which got me nostalgic enough to buy the original and apocalypse on steam.

Good times. :-)

Re: X-COM

#57

Post by eru »

jraedisch wrote: post #48
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.

Please go ahead and play the first Master of Orion. It's by far my favourite of the pair. (Make sure you get the latest community patches.)

The genius of the first MoO was that it really paired down the tedious busy work. And the tech system works a charm, it's cleverly randomised in a way that's not really possible with the more prevalent DAG based tech trees.

Re: X-COM

#58

Post by pjmlp »

joosters wrote: post #53
pjmlp wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think that was Lords of Chaos? I got that game from a magazine cover tape, but wasn't that impressed (it didn't help that I had no manual for it!)

Yeah that was it.

Re: X-COM

#59

Post by eru »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #44
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 you…

You can still catch enemies unaware. In fact, enemies in the reboots only become aware of you when you are within visible range of their pod (ie group).

The pod system is at the heart of the reboots. High level play involves exploiting it to the hilt.

Re: X-COM

#60

Post by zenojevski »

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 certainly its soundtrack. With its unnerving, relentless low horns; harps hitting on the same two or three notes; there's a feeling of utter despair, hopelessness. A sense of doom, as aquanauts armed with teeny darts and harpoons grunt through the deaths of their colleagues, outmatched by opponents so unfairly superior, in the harshest environment on Earth. They couldn't have done a better job.

I have been working on a new "HD" soundtrack for TFTD that I plan to release as a mod for OpenXCOM (this article is great timing!). I am not finished yet, but you can listen to some of the tracks already (and download them if you wish):

• Geoscape 1: https://clyp.it/b3wf24qt?token=1171341361084200df1e81a5699dd...

• Geoscape 2: https://clyp.it/4qog1dq1?token=91b0b871435a3beac898f96cec945...

• Geoscape 3: https://clyp.it/cr2uakoj?token=f1e0cda592185ae0152d47bf70a9d...

• Geoscape 4: https://clyp.it/cf0c5xbx?token=4557e7bd10b693695f04085eeed9b...

• Geoscape 6: https://clyp.it/gyspu3ry?token=502115f5d9c7c0f0b5f844aa63ef6...

Or follow updates on the mod page: https://openxcom.mod.io/orchestra-from-the-deep

Enjoy, and let me know, shall you try them in OpenXCOM!

Post reply on HN