First Impressions from a long time fan.

[Coffee Potato]

Hello there developy folks and others! So for the sake of reference, I'm someone who adored the hell out of XCOM back in the day, but sucked at it. Loved EU, but got better at it. Loved TFTD but didn't have the prerequisite 18 straight days to beat a trawler mission, was interested in Apocalypse, but had no clue how to play it, got Xenonauts from a friend, and absolutely adored the dang thing until around midway through the Corvette stage, and have been utterly enamored with X-Division for over a year now. I always prefer to play Ironman, if it makes a difference.

Of all of these, I preferred X-Division the most, just due to the utter freedom and satisfaction it gave, especially when it came to countering chaotic cover mechanics with functional armor.

Introductions out of the way, figured I'd chuck my 2 cents on the pile. 

First, the UI. Loving the changes there so far, it kind of reminds me of a mix of old XCOM and the good parts of the Jagged Alliance 2 remake. I was hoping for Primary/Secondary slots since Xeno1, and the belt system is nice (though auto replenishing items from the pack would be nice, if possibly abuse-able.)

Second, weapon options/roles. Great to see things like knives showing up, I would be interested to know if they bypass armor or give a reaction bonus, because they didn't seem too handy as far as I saw, aside from infinite ammo. It's nice to see Shotguns getting more oomph at the cost of their third burst shot, snipers are as good as ever, but rifles and LMGs seem to be hanging out in the sad corner. Even at point blank, I was regularly seeing shotguns out-performing an LMG in a per-shot bases. Maybe it was bad luck, and maybe it's their suppression role being really limited at the moment, but they certainly don't have the threat they once had. That being said, I'm hopeful that they will reprise their X-Div role of a two-burst heavy mid range support type dealie. It seems their big limiting factor is rookies not having more TUs to fire so far. Loving the new SMGs, and it's great to see that alien weapons don't carry the harsh penalties they used to. I'd love to see a sawn-off or some such as an "oh crap" button against quick things. 

Third, the Air Game. Doesn't seem like folks care for that one yet. I'm hopeful that it'll evolve into something neat, since it would need more units and options to be strategic. I'm assuming armor/speed and weapon options will result in some interesting things of having more maneuverable craft being used to drag a UFO to a heavier build, in my mind, anyway. It will be interesting to see what you have in mind there. I loved the old system, it was iconic, and felt pretty good, especially in end game and X-Div.

Side note, I keep bringing up the ol XDiv. Please stick to this same trend of allowing more options earlier, maybe allow more branching tech paths to sort through. It's a fantastic feeling of progress when every battle has the potential for new research, and every day passed is one day closer to something new. While the same level of intense science action might be way too much for most, it would be great to just see more pieced-together research projects. Like honestly, I loved early game Xenonauts, but that phase when you needed to keep on doing Corvettes and Scouts for a few months to avoid going completely bankrupt once the Cruisers and Battleships started rolling in....and every mission was basically just a chance to lose units and only gain cash, it was a massive downer. I'm all for a depressing loss wall, but it would be great to avoid the rut. I've been through that phase twice on X-Div now, and loved it all the way, just because of the different unit capture types. Yes, technically XCOM 1 did it first, but the medics crashed the game, so they lost some points there. 

Speaking of downer stuff, thank you guys for fixing COVER! It's great to see it working realistically now, it feels FANTASTIC! I hope the armor system becomes a little more comprehensive (again, XDiv really nailed that one something fierce using the original mechanics), but so far it's great to see the basic armor at least giving more survivability. Insta death is less common, so far I haven't seen those old impossible angle shot situations (Looking at you, two guaranteed death tiles by the doors on the Charlie), and I'm seeing a lot more of that "ok, these losses were my mistake, not cover shenanigans". Great stuff there, A+, would get into fights with two invisible sebillians stacked up on top of each other again.

Sebillians. Oh dang, thems are some beefy bois. Loving what seems like different AIs this time around, with the soldiers running to take cover when overwhelmed, and the engineers acting like john woo. Felt absolutely excellent to fight these guys, though having to execute all the stunned ones sure felt....like a violation of some laws. Anywho, great to see them doing their role well. They seem, again, far more believable than the original. They mostly just react when shot at, so they're playing defensive, they're basically acting like a lizard, and attack using their bulk to their advantage, instead of sniping from impossible angles. (I might be a little salty at unavoidable night missions vs Elite Sebs on Insane from this last week.)

Psyons and "legally not a sectoid"s are looking nifty, liking the techy dynamic there. Drones having voices cracked me up. 

OK, more stuff. Loving the queue system, A+ there. Loving the training system, it seems like we're going to see a lot more acceptable losses this time around. Absolutely adoring the side missions, those always do it for me, and even the starting variety here is really giving a lot of life to the world. Loving the "totally not a council mission" missions, those feel great. Maybe something like rescuing a failed infiltrator removal or some such might be in the cards later? I had a few dozen ideas for that kinda stuff, though, side missions are my jam. Oh, and good lord I love this new drop ship. Everything about it, I love it. 

While there were technical negatives, it's early to be judging any of that, and I'm extremely happy with the directions things are heading. The only thing that had me a bit confused was suppression right now, which I assume will get fixed later. It would be nice to still have some degree of not suppressing your own folks as often, since presumably they are talking to each other, and know it's coming. It's 2018, after all!

Hoping for the best, and looking forward to more!

-Coffee Potato

 

Edit:

Also, loving the music and new UFO design, feels dang nice.

The little stun meter under the HP bar helps a lot. 

Also, tried the knife more, it's pretty alright actually. I've discussed at length that maybe a spear would make a lot of sense in this universe, since often melee seems pretty strong, shields are strong, and melee seems to do an OK job for an anti-armor role that doesn't require rockets. One extra tile, I mean I know I'd duct tape a stun baton and knife to a broom handle in this setting XD. Just a dream.

The way the base layouts is handled is currently my favorite in the genre, definitely feels like a natural evolution of WOTC.

These new portraits are on point. Nailed it on that one, I hope I can still photoshop in random crap, like a smiling Labrador or Cow without issues.

I hope Rifles get more range. They seem a little droopy at the moment.

Is panic gone? I know I wouldn't say no to friendly fire being gone from panic.

 

Suggestions/Random Ideas

Have You thought about a Dwarf Fortress like system, where someone getting too stressed out causes them to disappear, and have some sort of random event? Like maybe they just offed themselves after their squad got jacked up by mind control, but maybe they got super into working out, and gained some strength, or felt really inspired, giving them some extra TUs for the next couple days?

Probably not a new thing, but it would be nice to have some custom difficulty options. On the last one I loved Insane for everything but the damage scaling, which just felt crappy when someone in a Predator Suit got sniped across the map for 80 and insta killed by a pistol.

Scout Dogs seem like they would be really fitting in this setting. Maybe they could be a primary weapon?

Weapon Swap button please. I'd love to not accidentally snipe someone when I wanted to use up TUs. 

Decoys as a secondary weapon. Or, something more reliable than shields or smoke for surviving the first rounds of a Terror mission. XD's approach was not having TM's spawn with units indoors, which allowed for a more lenient initial landing. Why does the pilot always try to kill the dang rookies?

Aerial Recon, but maybe every 3 turns or so, and only outdoors? Is that possible? A Scanner of some kind?

Please no mid game "you have to harvest 50 corvettes or you starve in 2 months" period. Or an auto resolve?

Uploading portraits would be amazing. 

I saw this briefly touched upon before, but have there been any thoughts to assign different ranks based on highest stats? Such as those willpower bonus "commandy" ones getting the expected ranks based on bravery, rather than prowess? I actually don't know if that stat is the one that decides the will bonus or what, now that I think about it. 

More locals please!

Please let the aliens need to reload in this one. Those rapid fire insta death cannons were pretty cheap. 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Coffee Potato

[Chris]

Thanks - always good to get the thoughts of new community members, so I'll read this through properly later. Quick question though: what version are you playing on (it says it on the title screen)?

[Coffee Potato]

19 hours ago, Chris said:

Thanks - always good to get the thoughts of new community members, so I'll read this through properly later. Quick question though: what version are you playing on (it says it on the title screen)?

That would be version 1.6.37, Experimental Xsolla Branch. 

Also, Video of the dealie is here, if that's OK. I didn't get a "no, don't stream it you horrible person", so I assume it was OK. If not, I'll remove it. 

 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Coffee Potato

[Chris]

Thanks. Unfortunately we do have a streaming embargo until Early Access (which just consists of asking people nicely not to stream the game) so if you wouldn't mind holding off on the streaming for a couple of months that would be great

I'm glad that you're enjoying the game. It's quite interesting that you've listed two features as "improved" when they're currently only partially functional (the AI and cover), I'm guessing you just got lucky and the game did some random stuff that made it looked cleverer than it was. But I think people only start to credit the game with being better than it actually is when the other systems are working well, so I consider that a good sign overall!

[Coffee Potato]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

Thanks. Unfortunately we do have a streaming embargo until Early Access (which just consists of asking people nicely not to stream the game) so if you wouldn't mind holding off on the streaming for a couple of months that would be great

I'm glad that you're enjoying the game. It's quite interesting that you've listed two features as "improved" when they're currently only partially functional (the AI and cover), I'm guessing you just got lucky and the game did some random stuff that made it looked cleverer than it was. But I think people only start to credit the game with being better than it actually is when the other systems are working well, so I consider that a good sign overall!

Yes sir, and sorry, I'll hold off on that for now. But yeah, absolutely loving it so far, and really hope that cover stays this way, having viable and understandable defense mechanics always does it for me (Such as the two covers in the way still effectively counting as cover for a crouching guy, aside from the whole 50% chance thing. Even if unintentional, it feels great!

[Chris]

I suspect that guy is just lucky to be alive - the covers system works the same as it did in X1, where only the highest item of intervening cover is counted as cover and then you get a defensive bonus from crouching.

The reason it's done that way is that otherwise it'd be virtually impossible to hit a target that was standing at the end of a row of say four identical barrels, because every barrel would reduce the chance to hit by 30%. Realistically though once your shot avoided hitting the first barrel it's pretty unlikely to hit any of the other barrels either (because they're pretty similar in size), and so we only count the biggest piece of cover between the shooter and the target.

[Coffee Potato]

Weird, no idea what happened, then. I do know that whatever happened, my folks aren't dying nearly as much when standing in cover. It's likely the sight angles getting fixed, I E those death tiles where apparently the whole map sees one guy, but they can never see who shot them.