IBNobody

What I'm saying, though, is that it doesn't matter if you had one or one hundred bases. They don't do anything. The base mechanic was gutted so heavily that having a second base wouldn't add anything. In EU1994, you needed those extra bases for radar coverage, extra lab and workshop space, and extra hangars. In EU2012, you get hangars on every continent automatically, you build sats for radar coverage, and you don't need to build one single lab/workshop to beat the game. You need to look deeper at the game to see how much it is tainted.

Did you really give the game bad marks for having a single base that never gets attacked? If those are your main pinch points, consider that you only have to build a handful of base modules. You don't need workshops or labs. Until the end-game, you just need 5x satellite nodes, 2-3 power plants, an alien containment facility, a foundary, and an officer training school. The game has worse problems than simplified base management.... like how unseen aliens never try to engage your party.

Thanks for the response. I was asking about the squad-based tactical portion of the game, though. Will you get enough gun tech to kill the "final common enemy type" (akin to EU1994's Etherials) with 1-2 soldiers on a single turn, or will it take 6+ guys shooting at the same target to kill it? My play type is that I like to see my soldiers somewhat evenly matched at the end stages of the game. I don't want to reach the technical pinnacle and then feel like I'm trying to take down a plethora of Lobstermen ...every... ...battle... At that point, the game becomes a chore to play. A non-X-Com reference would be the UFO: After* games, particularly the first one. When the Reticulans started showing up with shields, the game ramped up significantly in difficulty. You couldn't tech-up your weapons beyond where you were currently, and it would take an alpha-strike by most of your team members to kill them. I beat the game, but I hated that last part. It would be nice to encounter the toughest enemies, struggle to kill them, get a new weapon as a reward, and then wipe the floor with them (or at least not struggle with them). I think this is still possible to do this and keep the pressure of the UFO invasion escalation. The aliens would realize that they can't win a ground war. Instead, they send in their super UFO's. They know that they are going to lose a few UFOs (have them shot down), but they don't care about the crew once the UFO crashes. As for air combat... Running out of alien missiles and losing the war at the very end would be painful, especially if you need those missiles to access the final mission. If the option to do the final mission pops up, and THEN I start to run out of missiles, I'd be happy with that. It's not any different than some of the "complete final mission before day X" scenarios that other games in the genre have. They let you do that in UFO Aftermath.

I read Chris' comments about X-Com: EU having an inverse difficulty curve. After borrowing a copy and beating the game on classic, I agree. The game starts out hard. As you play, the game gets easy. In the end, it's ridiculously easy. It wasn't just that you got the firepower you needed. Your troops had enough special abilities to hold their own. Add in a 4-use invulnerability/guaranteed-critical armor ability, and the game was cake. I remember TFTD, too. Once Lobstermen showed up, the game kept up a pretty flat difficulty curve (i.e. hard!). New weapons softened the blow, but it was still rough. It never felt like you ever had the advantage until they started spawning less. How will Xenonaut's difficulty curve play out? Will you always feel outgunned? Or will there be a final tech in the game that appears after you've encountered the last new alien type that will make you feel a little more equal?

SS Gold is available on GoG without the extremely nasty DRM. It's only $10, and it includes SS Sentinels.

I was hoping that XCOM EU would have been a futuristic Silent Storm with more polish. SS and its sequel SS Sentinels are not perfect, but they are damn good games. They added many new features to the tactical squad-based game. * Rag-doll physics * Being able to "hear" enemies - having the game place a silhouette where your character thought they heard someone * Being able to unload a clip into the ceiling or floor and killing anyone below/above you * Stealth - My favorite playthrough was as a solo stealth assassin, complete with a katana and throwing stars. * Being able to use your teammates as spotters for your snipers and using the sniper rifle's high penetration to shoot through multiple walls

Turn-based revival? Not likely. There may be an uptick, but strategy games are very niche. People don't want to think, and traditional TBS games are horrible at multi-player. Those of us who like complex strategy games are few and far between when compared to the general gamer. Seeing how watered down XCOM: EU is, I don't want to see another classic franchise re-imaged for the console crowd. Plus, we've already had to live through one really bad Master Of Orion remake. (Never played Rebel Star, but... I bought Laser Squad on floppies from the discount bin at KB Toys 20ish years ago, and I played the heck out of the 4 missions you had access to.)

If they function anything like the original, they are only there to attack UFOs that are attempting to attack your base.

I totally understand the UI clutter aspect. That's why I suggested a hotkey.

I'm always a fan of the "improve-stats-by-using-them" school that X-COM and Silent Storm employed. Xenonauts does follow this scheme, right? It looked to be that way in the Alpha. Do you have to damage enemies to get a stat to increase? Is there a limit to how much you can improve your characters on a single mission?

Thanks for your comments. It helped me rethink a few things. What you describe is what I am doing now. I just have a bad habit of not moving my rocket launcher trooper because he doesn't shoot every turn. A "next unmoved unit" button/hotkey has been in many games. It was even in the original X-COM. I'm not sure why it was left out of Xenonauts. You're right. I only abuse loading/saving when I do something extremely stupid or if I need to meet a specific goal (like stun an enemy). My perfect game is where nobody dies. That may work, but at that point, I should just type in a new name. Let me refine my comment, then... * Saving shouldn't require mandatory keyboard input. I'm running at 1680x1050 and 1600x900 Windowed.

The game is great, and I'm having to stop myself from playing the Alpha too much. Still, I saw that there were a few rough edges that I'd hope to see resolved in the release candidate. Combat: * I can't reserve TU's for kneeling. I know this was a common complaint. Maybe a quick fix would be to enable TU reservation by right-clicking on the kneel icon? * There is no "next unit" button or hotkey that you can use to cycle to the next unit with full TU's. You can use the mouse wheel to cycle through units, but that brings up units that have no free TU's. When I'm cycling through my units, it's usually because I'm at the end of my turn. I want to make sure everybody has moved. * There are no quick-save / quick-load buttons or hotkeys. I know many of you like to play iron man. I don't. I'm more of a deus-ex-machina type of player. I like to play on hard mode with save and reload in order to get that perfect game. (As a bonus, I'd like to see the quick-save generate a new save game each time.) * I can't overwrite an existing save. Clicking on a save greys out the save button. * Where is the option to use reserved TU's for shots? The tooltip for the "TU Reserve" UI mentions a setting in the game options, but the game options don't have that isn't there. * Hitting ESC brings up the save/load/options menu, but hitting ESC again doesn't close it. * I've seen multiple occasions where I'm given a shot at the enemy (% chance to hit), but the next shot has no chance to hit. Soldier Equipment Screen: * I can't delete/clear roles I created by accident. * When selecting armor, the "clickbox" is very small. I have to click BELOW the armor name. (Ex: The game interprets clicking on the "Jackal Armor" text as a "Basic Armor" selection.)

I played the PC demo. That gave enough of an understanding of the game for me to make a judgement call on whether or not it was worth $50. That's what demo's are for. You did play the demo before you bought the game, right? You didn't just plunk money down on a game based on the title, without any research, did you? If you did, that makes your opinion completely and utterly irrelevant. ::grin::

I know. I'm waiting for the badge to appear.

I think that XCOM is fun, but there are three things I don't like. 1. It doesn't play like X-COM, even though it's called X-COM. 2. You can't shoot random things (walls, doors, windows, etc.) with guns. 3. It's not worth $50. I'll wait until it's selling for $10 on Steam, and then try to brainwash myself that I'm playing a totally new game called MOCX. My money went to Xenonauts, instead. I voted with my wallet!