crusherven

Part of the problem, Seafireliv, is that Goldhawk is a new indie studio with an unknown reputation. You already see a lot of people saying that it's expensive for an indie production. It's possible they could have hired someone else to add the kind of flavor you're talking about, but it would have inevitably added to the cost of the game. I actually like the 2d graphics as well, fwiw. Too bad it's so labor-intensive.

Untrue. In many competitive games, like Warcraft 3 or Starcraft, every faction is equally viable, even in a tournament with highly competitive players. But the different options give flavor and depth to the game. Civilization isn't as finely balanced, but it's similar. So are good MMO's. A mage and a rogue may equally viable choices, but still bring different strengths to the team, feel completely different, and lend themselves to different strategies.

I didn't have any trouble at all putting my main objection to it in words, and it's not realism.

I'm not sure "xcom 2012 did that so let's not" is the greatest argument of all time. Variety in maps is a good thing. If you think about warcraft or c&c, ever so often they'd have a different mission type without a base, and although I prefer to have a base, doing something different did make the game more interesting.

I have to really disagree. The economy in the original xcom was what was broken, because after a month or two neither resources nor money was ever a concern. Crash sites gave so much money you never had to worry about it. Yeah, you could manufacture for profit, but it's not like you really needed to. In Xenonauts, on the other hand, you have to think about what you're doing with your money. You didn't, and that's why you got into trouble financially. You actually have to consider whether its worth hiring extra scientists to get new techs faster, or whether you're better off expanding air coverage or building more advanced weapons. That's exactly the sort of decision you should have to make. If manufacturing for a profit were an option, they would have reduced the money from other sources (like crash sites) so you'd simply be forced to do it.

If you're going to tell me I got it wrong, you shouldn't start by talking about the expansion changed things. I never played the expansion and don't intend to spend money on it. Being able to waltz across the map until you activate a pack is exactly what makes it more shallow. And you don't need shields on veteran difficulty to scout with. That's what shotguns are for. That's why I said "most" rather than all. A few of them move around but for the most part it's not a concern. But I can't say I ever saw packs deliberately assisting each other, even on the top difficulty, in Firaxis XCOM. If they hadn't been activated, they'd just sit there until an explosion affected them or you moved in range. The danger of being shot from beyond visual range is a significant and qualitative difference. It means you always have to be conscious of how you're moving your troops, even if you don't see aliens. That's directly related to the fact that aliens don't have to be activated by the player to be dangerous. The fact that they can and will move around in an unpredictable way (but don't get a cheesy free move when you see them) means better tactics are both possible and required. Edit: I did not hate Firaxis XCom. It was fun. It's just not replayable to me because the ground combat is lame. As far as I can tell, unactivated packs have no AI (I believe this is what kabill was objected to). They either sit their like slugs or they patrol on what looks like a predefined path. I could be wrong on this part, but I suspect what some people think is the AI coming to help in a fight is really just a preset patrol that happened to run into you.

It would be nice if light missiles could lock on or something. Currently they're only of marginal use and inferior to the guns.

Not to speak of elite soldiers, but part of the point of boot camp is to put you in crisis situations to "inoculate" you to high stress. It's how we're built--after successfully making it through a stressful situation, you become better equipped to handle similar situations. Realistically someone who has seen a lot of combat and been hit before is not going to panic at getting hit again. You already know you can get shot and live. Of course, the real question is whether or not it makes sense in the game. Personally I think high-ranking soldiers are too prone to panic. It's pretty weird when a colonel with 60+ bravery and 20 missions take a hit for 1/3 of their HP and drops their weapon and runs.

What? Did you never notice the way most packs in the Firaxis version don't activate until you enter visual range? It's completely different. They just sit there until they are spotted, which is why they get an extra turn. They can literally be sitting one tile beyond visual range while a battle is going on, and will not move until you move a little farther forward. That (and a couple other factors) means you basically don't have to worry about getting sniped from beyond visual range. I'm sorry, but if you didn't notice the differences, you weren't paying attention.

Thinking that Firaxis XCOM is relatively shallow has nothing to do with being "fashionable." It just is. Heck, there's not even an AI to speak of, and aliens just kinda appear.

What's the total monthly upkeep on all those?

How is it cheating to modify items.xml to let you manufacture for a profit, but not cheating to ask someone else to do the same for you?

I believe the point is to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. That is what is best.

It's not unusual for a region to have poor relations before you can put the third base up. If you're unlucky, you'll lose the region, but losing a single region or even two is not the end of the world. Or the aliens might completely ignore that region for a month. It's pretty random.

Yeah, would you believe those Americans? Not using the same English word as the other English-speaking countries for everything? They really need to get in line. Also, batteries don't go "dead," they go "flat," and it's the "boot" of the car, not the "trunk."

For true snipers, sure. In Xenonauts, though, you have more of a designated marksman than a sniper. It's not going to be a super high powered scope. That said, I've had quite a bit of success with some of my snipers firing reaction shots (just make sure their reactions are in the 60s).

You don't, and I wouldn't. It's cheaper to rely on base defenses and air power to protect your secondary bases, and you don't get enough money from ground missions to justify maintaining and equipping a second team. Solver does make a good point about keeping *some* soldiers at your other bases, though.

I'll agree that that it's too easy to prevent terror sites. I'm in Feb and I haven't seen a single one.

The rocket has an AP head that breaches the door and then releases the gas. It's science.

IMO do your manufacturing at the base with the ground team if you want to avoid transfer fees. I think it's better to do all the manufacturing in one base so that if you want to get a project done quickly you can.

Because I have a job. I enjoy the missions, but doing fewer means I can finish the game sooner, and maybe even play it again.

I think the solution is not to wait that long before hiring. I try to keep a pretty deep roster and cycle through them so that a couple bad injuries or dead doesn't mean I have to bring multiple rookies.

I don't think they're retaining the old magazine at that speed, though. It's a lot faster if you're just dropping the old mag.

Are suppression values a lot higher on insane or something? I've never had an LMG fail to suppress a non-andron alien at that range.

I've found that giving all my snipers shotguns as well really helps on clearing the command room on a landing ship. I use shock grenades and/or LMGs to suppress everything, then have all men with shotguns rush in. It feels more like room clearing in real life and actually works really well, so long as you outnumber the remaining aliens.