Some ideas from an old xcom fan

[benrs]

Hi all,

 

First I would say that I am a very old fan of UFO series. Played it back then.

UFO defense is my all-time favorite game.

Thru the years I played many Xcom like games -xcom apocalypse, aftermath series (math, shock and light), xenonuts and xcom enemy unknown 1-2

 

I never totally left ufo defense and always came back to it as the years passed.

Until xenonuts came out, there was no true successor to the series. But now I can say that if I want to play an xcom game, xenonuts is definitely the game I will choose.

After long time finely I can say that ufo defense is absolute.

So I find myself here, reading on xenonts 2 and I do have some ideas that I would like to see.

 

First of all,

 

if something works, don't change it. xcom formula is working and working good. Stick with it. the best thing for me in games and in ufo defense and in xenonuts in particular, is that you can play the game in iron man and you can allow yourself loosing troops, crafts or missions and keep on playing without it being a big issue. xcom enemy unknown failed this thing . I really felt that you need to be extremely lucky and play a really specific way to advance without save load in the "new" xcom. It was also so intensive and tense. xenonuts is not like that . You can lose your craft and it's not a big deal, it will cost you in time, founding and in new soldiers but you will pass it. And with all that, the game is still very challenging. Management challenging, which is good. Keep it like that.

 

Missions should not be extremely hard, they should be challenging and fun. Some time you have the upper hand and some time the aliens has it. if the game won't be so punishing (Hham... New xcom) then we should even have the option to consider a retreat (I know we had it but it was never really needed). The most important here is that the missions will flow. Again, save load ruin the flow so keep it fun and challenging. xenonuts had an issue with the flow part  when you did a carrier mission. The first few where nice but after that, entering the ship and going right and left was boring. ufo defense extra-large ship was much more fun to play in.

 

Personally I love ammo. I love the micro management. I love that it weights and that you can't put as much as you want. I love that some time in a mission you use all your ammo and you need to retrieve some from a dead corpse or even change a weapon. Good job there. i would think about adding the need to manufacture the ammo as it was fun for me.

 

Since you mentioned that we don't get the alien weapon at the start of the game, I have an idea here.

 

In ufo aftermath (if I remember correctly) you could retrieve some weapons from the aliens or more precise the infected humans. And I am not talking about alien technology,  it was human weapons. The earlier mutations used them. That was how you built yours earlier arsenal. You could make us find random weapons, some better than others also find small amount of ammo for them. The anticipation to see what you found was very fun and this will also add a management thing. Maybe after some time we could even manufacture those (although I would prefer that manufacture will be hard to do and that we will focus on finding them in the battlefield.) you could make a retrieving stash missions which will bring some weapons and ammo.

 

Keep the game free and not story lined. It is fun that you can play the game in defiantly. Aliens that pop in the sky should be random - in xenonuts , the ships that pop are parallel to your advance which is some kind of boring. i want to see the smallest ship even at the end game. As I said, some time you have the upper hand and some time the alien's dose.

 

Game graphic - I think this was one of the main issues in xenonuts. The graphic seemed old. Personally I really don't mind about graphic and the playability is much more important. But when I learned about the game, and when I talk with friends that love those games, graphic was an issue. After you play for 3 hours the graphic is almost meaningless (at least for me) but I know it was an issue for some of my friends.

 

Human faces - more! Much more! Much much more! I hate to see the same face again and I hate even more when it happens frequently. Give us more faces, at least a triple of what you had. Use the community to make some faces or something. Maybe release the tolls to do so.

 

I would like to attach more to each soldier, yet I would like to have a lot of them in base. More faces, more medals, more data on the soldiers, maybe a mood or something, flags, friends and bonds. Make me more attached for each one. So losing him will mean more for me.

 

I am sure that some more ideas will pop soon....

 

 

 

[Ninothree]

There are some pretty solid ideas that you're sounding, the original game had a lot of style and keeping to that is not bad idea. A lot of people have got some love for the newer xcom games that are coming out, they capitalised on the arcade/RPG style with a big graphics budget to boot. Xenonauts is truer in many senses to the originals and the lack of flashy graphics isn't a problem if the strategy is what you're after. Though that is exactly it, finding the strategy that is worth preserving and rebooting, whilst snipping out what doesn't add anything.

You mention the micromanagement aspect of the game, there are cool parts of that, like scavenging and the satisfaction of resource planning. But it has been said a few times on the forum that it quickly becomes a tired mechanic and it is no fun if your play through is damaged because you forgot to build more ammo for a crucial mission. Having said that, firaxis xcom removed almost all the strategy and the game is near enough purely squad tactics. There is definitely some in-between, and unfortunately, that in-between is not recreating the bits over which you get nostalgic.

I agree with some parts of the micromanagement. Xenonauts should be making a virtue of the inventory system that they've kept, so allowing ground combat use that mechanic a lot more - things like passing weapons between soldiers or picking up grenades off fallen enemies.