I suggest more special/scripted missions

[Gauddlike]

Scripted missions do follow a script, it does have holes in it for you to do things differently but you know when you get to point A then action B will happen, if you survive that then you can proceed to point C where action D occurs etc.

Using that method in a game with as many potential ground missions as Xenonauts is a recipe for repetition.

It depends entirely how deeply you go into scripting for it of course.

As has been said a few touches, like sentries setting off alarms, are scripted events within a mission and can add a lot to them.

My objection was to the idea of overusing these triggers.

Due to randomly generated maps location based triggers are unlikely to work well. Object based triggers that get randomly seeded into missions might be more viable however. While it's not quite the same as a scripted mission it would still add another element of interest in the game while keeping to the theme of random mission generation.

As long as the rewards are well balanced and any penalties are not too devastating then I don't see a problem with that.

Giving big rewards or penalties to something the player has no control over, or worse tying game progression in to getting one of these random events (as in the x-com commanders), is not good game design in my opinion.

It works for fluff items or research pretty well though.

[Lightzy]

Gorlom, I think it's a brilliant idea not to bother with the semantics so much.

Call it what you will,

What I think would further the enjoyment from ground missions and so make people want to play them more is "Special Missions" that are either part of the story (like, instead of 1 final mission, have ... 5 of those, unique story missions)

Or, have missions just like that, only that you don't HAVE to do them.

They pop up randomly each playthrough

They are extra tough, but they give you special rewards if you complete them (not to mention unique tactical gameplay, because the map is custom-made and so will likely be a lot more interesting and engaging than a random made one)

I don't understand what's so wrong with that.

If anything was missing for me from the original x-com it's more interesting missions and the jagged alliance 2 combat system

A JA2-Xcom hybrid is my ultimate wishlist game

PS: As for penalizing the player for events he has no control over, well, as an X-Com veteran I don't mind that at all. It's what life and Xcom are all about.

Never had your best 2 soldiers 1-shot killed the moment they stepped out of the avenger?

Or one of your crew going berzerk and backshooting 2 squadmates?

I went through a lot of soldiers in X-Com.

If you mind it so much you can always save-reload

Edited March 13, 2012 by Lightzy

[Gorlom]

As I recall aftershock (or whichever game in the afterX series) tried that. One mission was to get some special intel or something (that didnt seem to give any rewards as far as I could tell), and one mission was to free greys and you got them as teammates. For me it was just a huge dissapointment.

[Gauddlike]

PS: As for penalizing the player for events he has no control over, well, as an X-Com veteran I don't mind that at all. It's what life and Xcom are all about.

That depends on the way it is done.

You can always overcome the majority of tactical mishaps like the ones you mention as examples.

I was referring more to the sort of events that can tip the whole game one way or another, regardless of player involvement.

Those are situations that need to be avoided by good game design.

A few rogue troopers who can't fire straight as part of the x-com lineage and I look forward to meeting them

I agree with you that missions can be made more enjoyable and interesting, although I don't share your view that the ones in the original were dull.

Well not until mind control and blaster bombs made them so easy it hurt to play any other way.