Search the Community

I've avoided the new Xcom; aside from anything else, the way I am makes playing with a few soldiers that you absolutely cannot afford to be badly hurt Not Fun. Still, I'm a sucker for anything that's 75% off, which this is until the 7th. It's also free to play for that period. Just don't fall for the XCOM EW add-on (unless you want it), as that's only 10% off.

I better post this question in off topic, since I so far only played and loved the new X-COM and am not an original X-Com player nor have I installed my Xenonauts pre-order yet, so excuse my potential sillyness: In the new X-COM with its two action system, a safe way to explore the map was to move one soldier as far forward as possible with the first action, then move the other soldiers in behind, but never forther forward than the first soldier. If you didn't stumble upon an enemy, you put everyone on Overwatch and did repeated this for the next move. If your first soldier did run into something, the rest of the team still had all their actions, so you didn't run into the risk of just having spent all actions right before the discovered enemy makes their turn. This is what I call the snail-leapfrogging tactic. It is pretty effective, but also extremely slow. It was fun for the first playthrough, since it added to the tension, and keyboard shortcuts made plaything this way less tedious, but so far it has kept me from starting a second playthough. So, does Xenonauts also need this extremely cautions forward clawl, is this maybe even inherent to turn based combat? Or are there better ways to move about the map, in either X-COM or Xenonauts?

For those who are interested but have been waiting for the price to be more reasonable. The 75% discount is for 24 hours starting the 19/7/13.

I have now found the two biggest and most important faults with XCOM:EU (and yes, I reinstalled the game and started to play it again in spite of earlier bouts, to come to grips with its fault and greats). My foremost grudges with this game is: 1. The fact that you only manage ONE base on the whole planet, and 2. The enemy NEVER attacks the base. In the old XCOM games, the fact that you could build several bases meant that even on the hardest playing level, when loosing a lot of good and experienced combat personnel, you still had few more personnel that could fill the gaps from other bases. This means one VERY important thing: in the old games you didn't have to cheat by reloading the game over and over when the whole group went to the wind and was killed outright. And, the worry that bases could be attacked added to the feeling of a great threat (not to mention the overall atmosphere is lacking in XCOM:EU). Good base building and personnel managing skills are not as important here in XCOM:EU as in the old games. I say: let's see what Xenonauts have to offer in these two parts. I am eager to know.

I know, i'm a cheap basted for owning a dated console, and worse still I am playing an XCOM game on it. BUT anyone got EU on sexbox?? does anyone want to play some PvP against me??

" What do you think about the new XCOM: Enemy Unknown? Have you played in it? Did you like it? What in this game is cool, and what would you do differently? I think Firaxis did a terrific job with the new XCOM. They have made a very console friendly and accessible game, but it still has a lot of strategic and tactical depth. The character progression is done very well, and the tactical combat system is great. I would have done things differently for sure. I was a bit disappointed that the Geoscape is basically irrelevant, with no strategy involved about positioning of bases, detection ranges, base attacks and so on. It is also a shame that there is no random map generation. The development of the alien menace seems to be driven by specific events, such as the first alien base assault, rather than the aliens own development agenda as in the original X-Com. XCOM series always had a lot of fans, but now it is at a new peak of popularity. Would you like to work on a new part of this franchise? No, I think I am done with X-Com. I tried many times for many years to get a remake underway, but Firaxis finally did it. Also, there is a promising and more faithful remake nearing completion called ‘Xenonauts’." Source P.S.: Just registered just to post this, if this has already been posted, sorry about it

I know it seems like most everyone plays on Classic, but it just so happens that I need input from someone who played - and preferably completed - the game on Normal as well. Ufopaedia has information about how the difficulties are different, and raw numbers are clear enough. What I'm looking for is practical experience - how did the AI behave on Normal, how did it feel, was it much worse.

Hi guys, I've just premium pre-ordered Xenonauts about a week after beating the new X-COM game from Firaxis on Classic Ironman. I've been following the project passively since its conception and even posted a few times on the old forums, but I haven't had the time to dive in-depth into Xenonauts until now. Now that that's out of the way, I wanted to share a few positives from the new X-COM game that I think made the game more fluid than the original, as well as a few things that were very bad ideas. I realize that this is very far in the development pipeline, but it could be that some of these good mechanics can be taken into account nonetheless. The Good: Cover system: The cover system (taken in a vacuum) was in my opinion very well set up. Simple yet complex at the same time. Barring a few silly objects that provide cover, the idea of half and full cover is great. Flanking is also part of this mechanic also worked very well. Most likely this sort of mechanic is already in Xenonauts. Soldier progression: This is another system that impressed me. Very simple, yet very powerful. You have to make a meaningful (usually) choice at every rank. This is how you customize and build your squad, allowing them to complement each other. I did absolutely hate all of the item-related abilities (especially ones that were a must). I.E. 3 uses on medkit, smoke grenade, extra rockets, extra grenades. Soldier customization: Not much to say here. There was a lot of customization available, which added to the overall immersion, and helped you get attached to your soldiers. We all know, losing soldiers you are attached to is an integral part of X-COM. Ironman mode: Trivial to implement, incredibly fun. The argument that people can play Ironman style by just not loading is flawed - the temptations are too strong. Not having that option changes the game completely. This is one feature that I think should make it into Xenonauts - it's simple to implement and incredibly powerful. Base building: This is more about synergies between facilities. It's such a fun idea I'd love to see it in X-COM. It doesn't need to astounding things, but small bonuses would make base building more fun than just using space where you have space. Movement system: Not having to worry about time units and seeing exactly where you can move and how and the idea that you have to decide whether you want to take a shot or move some more made the gameplay much more enjoyable. This played very nicely with the Overwatch ability. Again, simple, but powerful. Foundry projects: I loved the idea of improving existing equipment and having yet another "research" hub, but without a tree as such. Fun. Live alien captures: This made the UFO missions shine. You wanted to capture live aliens. You wanted to interrogate them and get those juicy bonuses. This was well done. The fact that alien weapons destroyed themselves on death was irritating though. Information display: Important information about abilities, aliens that you've researched (in combat) etc. hi chance was easily accessible in game with a breakdown of what modifiers apply and why. This is CRITICAL for learning and understanding the game and ultimately made the game enjoyable despite its huge shortcomings in other areas. The Bad: Soldier loadout: There was a distinct lack in selecting loadout for your soldiers. While I really liked the item slots system for extra armor/utility things, I really hated that I can't bring extra grenades/rockets/flares/stun guns/etc. The one positive was the fact that I didn't have to worry about ammunition for conventional firearms. It was just a hassle in the original. Abduction missions: This felt like a very artificial way to make the game challenging. These missions were usually easy and boring. Research tree: Not enough research, not enough research variety, laser weapons too powerful, or plasma weapons too weak. Soldier psionics: There's a good reason why Xenonauts doesn't have it. Although, it did make the game exciting because not every soldier was gifted and there was a strategic decision involved in testing your soldiers. Problem came down to 180 will soldier mind controlling an Ethereal with 91% likelihood to then mind control more stuff. Mind control gets out of hand. The first two abilities were pretty good though, and even the mind control alternative. Just not mind control itself. Base management: Why can't I manufacture cool toys and sell them? Why can't I sell anything and everything? Why can't I hire scientists/engineers? One good thing here was council requests for items. Rest was pretty rotten. The Ugly: Pull mechanics: Missions felt like World of Warcraft dungeons, where you pull a pack at a time and destroy them before moving on to the next pack. Really horrible mechanic that should never ever be in an X-COM game. Combat mechanics: Why can't I shoot my gun at walls to take down cover? I can miss and take down cover though? Why does my rocket have such a short range? Why is my sniper unable to even attempt a shot across the map without Squad Sight ability? Aspects of this were awful. Interception: What? How did they manage to make it worse than the original?

Yes, as the thread title says, I have now played XCOM:EU, and done it for several hours. And as I am of the old XCOM school (having played through all the two first games from the nineties and a greater part of the third) and also own the two first games. So what are my verdict? This: In short: The game of XCOM:EU is very appealing to the eye, have the kind of graphics you've grown accustomed to these days. And it's certainly nice bling bling compared to the old games. But (and this is a BIG BUT): the game lacks the general atmosphere of the old games. Take the music* for instance, it's got nowhere near the suspenceful air of the music you had playing on the Geomap as well as on the menues and in building the base/ministering the XCOM soldiers. And the classic "burp" when you change the screens is important! Though, I have not yet played for long, this general lack of dark feeling IS DISTURBING. I already get a "plastic" feeling from all the personas talking onscreen, before and between missions. The also look very artificial. No, I actually had to stop playing from getting nauseous. I don't know if I am in the mood of playing for a while now... Disappointed! I will try it out some more though. Not giving up yet. But this makes me look forward to Xenonauts! *The kind of music I'd like is more this: Or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URtn78-kzFg&NR Or the more modern version:

Hi all, another xcom/tftd/apocalypse veteran, wanting to jot his thoughts down for both reference and for anyone else who wants to read. It will meander a bit as I do enjoy the drink, but feel free to ignore! First off, I did play almost 100 hours of the new XCOM EU, and while I was amped about the whole thing at the beginning, I hadn't actually played any of the demos (busy with Guild Wars 2 and Borderlands 2) so I was actually hoping for something more like Xenonauts. I might have even gotten the two confused. Nevertheless, at 100 hours I imagine I've gotten my money's worth, even if I did end up just blasting through impossible to be sure I could do it and be sure there were no surprises. Ended up with a partial normal game where I got my ass kicked because I didn't appreciate the 20 day build time on satellites or just how important satellites were in general, and then wrecked normal, classic, and impossible in turn (though I lost two countries on impossible, sadface). A lot of what I'm including has been said before, but I'm adding it all in as a summary for my personal impressions. I don't think I'll feel any need to revisit it so many times like I did the original and TFTD. I enjoyed the game for what it was. Not XCOM in the classic sense, but a fun enough quasi tactical game that took a lot of elements from the original XCOM and used them in a more "mass appeal" sort of game. I started out with high hopes, and managed to enjoy some aspects of the game, although that largely involved turning the whole thing into a drinking game. I found the graphics to be fine, I didn't need super realistic graphics for a strategy game like this. The music droned on nicely. Nothing edgy or amazing, but I also felt no need to mute it and turn on a playlist most of the time. And the game itself... well it was a decent game. It kept me interested. The AI was shit, the forced choices were a rather blatant gating system after years of playing MMOs, and the removal of large amounts of control from the play in order to force the choices and gating system grated on my nerved, but I found an easy counter to that. I took a drink every time something reminded me that this wasn't really XCOM any more. So... basically every time tactical combat was interrupted by an unskippable cutscene or I wished I could blast a hole in the side of anything without using a rocket or a grenade. I definitely feel I got my 50$ or so out of it, but I was also disappointed by what it ended up being. 1. Difficulty level = how deep of a hole will we start you in. Honestly, after the first 3 months, none of the difficulties felt too terribly different. Once I was up to a squad of 6 and had at least laser weapons and a few promotions under everyone's respective belts, well it was mostly just mowing down aliens as they magically popped into existence. 2. Squad size: worked very well for what the game was. In order to make the streamlined squad size work, however, they had to linearize all the maps, and replace randomly (or cleverly if the AI was up to it) wandering enemies with "spawns" that just happened to be in your way. Terror missions were actually some of my favorite missions simply because it actually felt like the aliens were THERE before I actually triggered them. Most of the time. If I drank enough. 3. Soldier promotions, skill trees. I actually really liked these and felt this was an improvement over the original XCOM. Admittedly, with the squad size of 6 and dynamically spawning enemies it felt something like Dragon Ages 2 of XCOM (and don't forget to take cover!), but I liked the flavor that it gave to the game, and the utility it gave to individual soldiers. 4. *B#@^ing: I wish to hell I had found out I could mute soldiers earlier. I swear "I've got my eyes on" is going to haunt me. At least they had that option for the people who found it, and disabling SOME of the action cam scenes. However the inability to skip the voiceovers after the first game (YES explosions destroy gear, THANKS, can I shoot them now please?) or the silly animations whenever you spawn an enemy was irritating. 5. Given that you could only have one Skyranger, thus forcing artificial choices into the game (I really do wonder how much I might have enjoyed the game if I hadn't played XCOM, or if it hadn't been named something related to it), I actually didn't mind having only one base. Until I started playing the Xenonauts preorder. Sigh. The fact that you could intercept or get a Skyranger to anything you could intercept was just one of many things that made the game feel like a collection of mini-games, and not a "world." 6. Ruining the immersion. Well, in addition to the single Skyranger (lets see, the first thing they said was that the aliens were testing our defenses... no one figured it might be a good idea to build a second and third skyranger for this?) being able to reach anything that landed or crashed, and interceptors simply reaching anything that appeared over their continent (or in the case of the firestorm, reach the overseer... anywhere), there were several other things that bothered me even through my stupor. Credits? I can sell an alien propulsion source for 75 credits? Has the world come to a massive recession? Too many zeros scare people away now? Oh, and the ground combat. Oh god the ground combat. I've already seen the complaints of animations failing and soldiers firing backwards (worth a drink), or a crouched alien firing through an entire semi truck, a wall of a building, and its roof to hit my squaddie! At least that I could forgive eventually since for me it always worked both ways, but the fact that shots couldn't miss and hit any other alien kind of ruined the immersion and made it feel like a bunch of dice rolls. This terrible resolution of shots in combat was fine once I got used to it (that's the game, may as well beat it!) but it ruined any kind of feeling like there was an actual world there, not just a bunch of percentages getting played out. Hell I could shoot the soldier right in front of me multiple times... and do no damage since it was just a miss on the alien I was aiming for. But again, that combat resolution worked both ways so I was willing to put up with it in the end. It just felt more like a card or dice game than a much much older game had managed to do already. Add to that the AI dropping enemies WITHIN your squad when it decides to spawn something... (and I'm talking about crash landed ships here, not the "incoming waves of XRAYS" from some missions). It really felt like a game. A game for drinking, and that was how I played it! 7. Research and the foundry. Like the solider perks and leveling, a big +++ from me. Making the interrogation of live aliens have a real and tangible impact on the progress of the game, and not to mention making all of the alien autopsies potentially useful in some way was fantastic. How many times had I just not bothered to dissect a snakeman because... well, fkit. Who needs a ufopaedia entry the 15th time they are playing the game. Aside from the one base one Skyranger limit they did to force "choices" I found a lot of the levelling and research changes to be quite nice. 8. On that note, pure opinion, but where the @#$^ were snakemen. Really? Thin men? Get #@$^ed. 9. Soldier inventory. More unrealistic dumbing down in the name of forcing "choices." Wait, we could have spawned 5 or even 6 enemies at once if we'd given them an expanded inventory? nowai. 10. Item use for the interceptor fights was nice, although the limited number of interceptions and limited ways you could engage kinda took the punch out of how nifty I found it. Nice to see similar things in what little Xenonauts I have played. 11. Bugs vs Ironman. I haven't actually given an actual ironman game a try due to the bugs I encountered on normal. Too many turns stuck on alien activity that I had to reload and force the AI to change it's procedures (easy enough to do once you've seen enough) to avoid the bug becoming a problem, or autosaves just plain not happening before a CTD. I'm sure it's possible, I just don't feel like risking it vs playing with saves. I was very happy to see the ability to name saved games in Xenonauts! I'll blame consoles for the lack in EU. 12. Story. I actually liked the story in EU, and while I hated most of the characters and the voice acting, I felt like it tied the whole thing together fairly well, for what it was. It also helped explain the complete lack of a morale/panicking mechanic in the aliens, which annoyed me at first. 13. Inability to sell gear you crafted or found via stunning aliens... well, I could sell those laser rifles for 300ish credits to a country IF IT ASKS. But heaven forbid I try to pawn them off to anyone who wants them for less. It may have fit the way they balanced the game, but with all the balancing and forced choices they used to create "the game" it became less of a game and more of a set of structured hoops to jump through. Speaking of hoops to jump through, I don't think I ever felt any more obviously than when I was trying to shoot down my first Overseer UFO. 14. On the upside I liked the way the council assigned missions mixed things up. Especially on impossible it was fun racing to disable the bomb or covering the path out for the VIP. Such mission options definitely added to the game, and it would be great to see something similar in Xenonauts! Really looking forward to xenonauts, it's nice to feel my excitement growing for the game as I play, not my alcohol tolerance. So far the base interface and the aerial combat have been great! Ground combat... well, aside from the game crashing very frequently, a couple more keybindings would be nice! Especially "Next soldier" and an option to set a key to any given TU setting. It would be great to just hit a key upon selecting a soldier the first time to reserve snap shot! Or another to go back to "none" so you could take a shot without clicking off. Or maybe I am missing something, I have only explored about 4-5 CTDs worth.

So, how do the two compare? What makes them both different? One thing I notice is that Xenonauts doesn't have leg or shoulder inventory slots. Yes, UFO:EU, not XCOM:EU

Alright so I found out yesterday Firaxis is making a new Xcom called Enemy Unkown that is supposed to be very close to basically the best game ever, 94's UFO Defense. So I become ecstatic, after figuring out how to download and setup the original and a few hours of that I started thinking about the choice of PC vs Console, which led me to do more research on the game, which led me to Xenonauts. Another Xcom: UFO Defense type game. SO my question is whats up with that? I am getting the impression that Xenonauts is going to be a very close replication of the original with a different story line and a bunch of different proper nouns. Firaxis's game seems to claim to be going for a replica while slighltly simplifying the game (only one base, 4-6 man teams, no time units, which they may be able to make work). I seem to be able to find more information on Xcom: Enemy Unknown though, so could you guys help me out and give me a detailed response comparing the two?

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/914467-xcom-enemy-unknown-review-ufo-apocalypse Firaxis havn't messed up. If Xenonauts is just as good as this when finished it'll do me! I will get both anyway, as I have seen enough of Chris'es brainchild to convince me it's going to be just as good.

Playable demo now at Steam