endersblade

Anyone recommending they add some sort of contrived ridiculous card game to X2 should be banned from the forums. Seriously, that would be suicide for X2. I know exactly the sort of system you are referring to, and no, it would not make a good addition to X2 no matter how you spin it. This isn't that type of game.

Yep I loved the system in X1, I just didn't like the fact that not only were some of them way too situational but you have no idea how to earn them without looking them up elsewhere.

You couldn't pay me enough to play a game like that. You make it sound like the Aliens just shoot for arms and legs, and our arms and legs are just paper. This isn't a Roguelike survival game.

You know Chris, after seeing your posts that are getting more and more...hostile? Tired? It makes me sorry for ever complaining about it copying stuff from XCOM. You are completely right, you are allowed to make this game however you see fit. It's one thing to disagree with the direction you're going and explain why, but some of us are just getting out of control with pointing it out and claiming it's going to ruin your game without any basis or even knowing HOW you implement it. I can completely understand you getting tired of responding to us about it. There are now a few parts with this game that I don't agree with the direction they're going, but as I've mentioned before I have faith in you guys. X1 was a phenomenal game and I'm hoping X2 is as well; I just know it will be different, and whether or not that's good or bad remains to be seen. It's awesome that you have opened it up to us for discussions and ideas and even moreso that you've actually listened and responded. At this point you should mostly have everything planned out and shouldn't worry too much about the ravings going on here.

I like psionics, I hate psionics pertaining to mind control, especially when the psi-alien CAN'T EVEN SEE ME. In none of the descriptions has it been told that the aliens have a 'hive mind' situation (specifically for psi-capable aliens in this instance). Since that is not the case, an alien should at least have line of sight on you, OR if we're going the route of if one alien sees you all aliens see you (which I think is complete BS), then once an alien CAN'T see you, psi should no longer be capable. Psi attacks are great, causing soldiers to panic, go berserk, or even doing damage via psi is perfectly fine. Hell, even using it to buff friendly aliens would be cool. Mind Control has got to go though. There is absolutely nothing fun about playing russian roulette when landing at a mission - will one or more of my soldiers get MC'd and murder the rest of them, leaving me with nothing but a bunch of rookies back at base? Along that same vein, I don't think eventually giving you gear that makes you immune to psi is a good idea either. It then makes psi-capable aliens just about useless. The morale system, where the more you're attacked the more you can resist, is a great way of doing it. If you eventually become immune that way, at least you earned it.

As an extremely hardcore fanatical X-COM player, I actually LIKED both of the changes you mentioned. The severe lack of ammo at certain points in X-COM/TFTD put what I considered an artificial strain on the game. Ok granted the the fact you have to PURCHASE a plane but it gets automatically rebuilt from scratch when it gets shot down is a bit strange initially, but once you realize that they start with the wreckage and just fix it up from there rather than literally starting with the first screw and going up from there, it makes a lot more sense. Also, anyone that says X1 is casual is not playing the same game that I am lol. I think X1 changed just enough that it is still a spiritual successor to X-COM, but enough has changed that it was its own game. It kept what made the series fun (base building, TUs, etc) but at the same time updated and/or changed several things that were really just unneeded micromanagement in a game that wasn't really micromanage-y in the first place. But that's my key problem with X2. Instead of being a spiritual successor to the BEST version of X-COM, it seems to be more a spiritual successor to the 2012 XCOM. (I'm still reeling from the fact that game is 6 years old at this point!) To put things in comparison, think of it like shoes. You've worn the same brand of shoes all of your life, they're comfortable, affordable, and durable. Then suddenly the company that made those shoes does something drastic - maybe got bought out, outsourced the manufacturing, or got new management. Now the shoes are still the same brand, but maybe they're low quality, more expensive, and not all that comfortable. So, being the entrepreneur you are, you decide to make your own shoe company and release shoes based on how your old shoes were. They're a complete success and everyone loves them. So you become rich and powerful and greedy and want more money, so you do the same thing the other company did. Your new shoes are low quality, more expensive. Do you think people are going to buy them like they did the originals? Don't you think you'd catch some backlash from that? While I may be the only one viewing it like that, this is how I view the changes made in X2. You have strayed from what made X1 so great, being a clone of X-COM which has been in just about every Top X computer game lists I have ever seen, to now copying the lesser quality version. No, you aren't copying everything point for point. But enough of it that it feels like a 2012 XCOM clone. I'm not saying, overall, this is bad. Like you mentioned, the game isn't even released yet. I have high hopes that the game will be enjoyable regardless of what I've said so far. You have sold me on it. My hope is that, even IF you are copying things from 2012 XCOM, I won't be playing the game going, "Oh, that's from XCOM, that's from XCOM, even THAT'S from XCOM" but will instead not really notice because the game is good enough to hold my attention. If I took the time to think about it, I could probably nitpick the hell out of X1, but I found the game so absolutely wonderful that I just overlook any of the flaws it has. They didn't matter enough to detract from the gameplay. Anyway, I'll get down from my soapbox. I'm so glad the kickstarter did so well, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the release!

I'm sad to see the real-time interception go, but this actually looks really good! As far as people complaining about it being repetitive - at least it isn't as lazy as X-COM and TFTD were! Posting this in a hurry so I haven't read the whole thing, but do we still have the option to auto-complete the fights like we did in X1?

As I mentioned the idea is to land the ship and strip it for parts, not use it. A simple hand-waving of "we poked around enough to land it, but the technology would take us years to figure out" would be enough to explain why we don't just commandeer the Aliens' largest ship and turn it against them. I actually think this would make a great DLC - "Dreadnaughts". Introducing an ultra-large, late-game ship (or ships) that are two-stage and require us to tackle them by boarding and landing. Introducing a dynamic to air and tactical combat not seen in the base game. @Drages about escorts. Think about ID4. Those ships were massive and had absolutely zero need for an escort because our planes couldn't do anything at all to it. It had fighters, sure, and the Dreads in X2 in this scenario could launch them, maybe that's what our fighters will be shooting at while the transport is attempting to land on it. But the ship itself is just too large and too well shielded/armored to even care about what our planes shoot at it.

I doubt a ship that large would have an escort, it wouldn't really need one (especially if you take into consideration MOST ships in X1 didn't have any, and if the Aliens feel they are superior to us they wouldn't feel the need) since it's so large and impregnable, and probably armed to the teeth anyway. As I mentioned in my previous post, we would basically harass them with interceptors, and while it's busy swatting at flies, we land our troop transport inside the ship. Or hell, outside and work our way in, whatever works.

XCOM did it ONCE, and it was an actual DLC lol. I wouldn't consider something the like that to be a copy, especially considering how interesting and innovative it is for this genre.

Exactly, that's why I liked it. As I said, I enjoyed the underwater theme. Don't care that it was just a reskinned version of the same game released in just 6 months from start to finish. I prefer it over the original. It's almost like people have different opinions or something. Also, the common rumor is that the next XCOM game will be underwater. One of the WotC endings leads on to it, plus the fact the last stage is actually underwater. T'leth reference? Who knows. People like TFTD because the idea is different. Aliens invade Earth from space all the time. But from underwater? That's awesome. I was in the Navy for 8 years, I love the ocean and what's beneath it fascinates me much, much more than what's in outer space.

I agree with you to a point. While I am more willing to support GHI and Chris now than ever, I heartily agree that trying to basically strip pieces from the 2012 XCOM is NOT the route they should be going. I have fought against it in almost every thread in the X2 Features forum. The reason that game sold so well was the pure nostalgia trip people got from seeing the XCOM name. While I think, overall, the game was good, and its sequel after HEAVY modification was as well, they are just spin-offs like the UFO: AfterX series was to me. They might carry the XCOM name, but that's just because Firaxis has the rights to it. It wasn't XCOM to me, it was a spin-off. I don't care if Xenonauts 2, 3, 4, however high they go with it are just carbon copies of the previous games maybe with slightly different graphics or aliens or a different engine. As long as they're still faithful X-COM clones, I will back every single one of their kickstarters. Hell, TFTD was MY personal favorite because it was underwater, but nobody has bothered to do a clone of that one. X3 could be the first. But if they're going to continue this trend of copying the newer XCOM games, like you, I will abandon this series. And I hate saying that, because X1 was such a masterpiece, even if it was done on the Diner Dash engine. So far about the last bastion of hope for me is that they're sticking to the old, original style of time units. If they make it function like 2012 XCOM, I'm done. They have the opportunity to both stick to the original style AND improve upon it, because let's face it, X-COM was not perfect. But instead to just copy the remakes? No thanks. Now I'm not saying this game is completely copying 2012 XCOM, but enough of it is that it raises an eyebrow.

Ha, the character I made in the PG looks almost nothing like me lol. I futzed with it for over an hour and finally settled on something I could at least pass off. Don't get me wrong, the PG is awesome, and I know there is no way for them to handle every single face shape, style, beard, eyes, etc. I did what I could with what I had access to. I didn't pay enough for a fully custom one from a picture, so I get what I paid for. It will at least have my name and such, so I'm cool with that.

Haha that would be hilarious :-) @Ravn7 Yeah, lore-wise I'd say that we get in, kill all the aliens, land the ship somewhere safe, strip it for parts we can use, then blow up/incinerate the rest. Basically you get the loot from the mission, then you get a lot of alloy/alenium/whatever this game uses and possible research projects. They could also house one of the top tier officer types for you to capture, if that's a thing in this game. It could be set up as one of those two-phase missions, like X-COM and TFTD had. The first part being your boarding party fighting their way in from the hangar/cargo bay, then the second being fighting your way to the bridge and taking over the ship. Since something like this would be late game, it should be difficult but not impossible to tackle with the research you should have at that point. The second half being more difficult depending on how you performed on the first half - if you managed to sneak in and get to the exit point without being detected/killing anything, then the aliens on the second part might be fewer in number or less organized or something. But if you go in guns blazing on the first mission, the UFO is alerted to your presence, and the second half will be much harder. On the other side of this, these ships should exclusively be sent out for missions that will require you to respond. Base attacks, terror attacks, etc, anything that initiates a mission for you to send soldiers to. That way if you don't try to board it and take it over, it will at still force you to respond to it. I've always like the idea of the aliens throwing the largest of their ships at you, something the size of a city that your puny planes, no matter how many you have, could ever possibly take it down. So you either attempt to board it, as we have been discussing, or just wait for it to land or do whatever it's supposed to and strike when it is vulnerable.

That was the exact idea I had about the removed Dreadnaughts from X1. Just so massive that you can't shoot them down, so you send troops to them, like you said via boarding, to take it down from the inside. So you kill the crew, land the ship, and you get the resources and equipment and such. It could be a sort of mini game. Your interceptors pick at it and dodge incoming fire long enough for your dropship to enter the hangar, then they peel off. So there's a risk of losing planes in the process.