Thank you Goldhawk for not showing too much too early!

[dracopticon]

Hi all.

I'm just here to express my appreciation for the fact that Goldhawk Interactive is not showing too much of things like alien monsters or monster tactics in their advertisement for the game, something Fireaxis have already done in their campaign for their XCOM game. That fact alone decided it for me when I thought about what game I would choose! Regards, Erik.

[Scrimpton]

Well, so far there isn't much in the way of alien tactics to show.

Feel free to check out the AI dev diaries!

[Hosi]

Well firaxis is trying to get more people,not just x-com fans to buy their game, so they have to show a lot of the game. I mean ya we would all buy it if they didn't show much but not many others would. There is still a lot left to be seen tho, the furthest they have shown is late-midgame stuff, lasers and upgraded armors. Still plenty of aliens yet to be seen and who knows how much tech, tho I suspect it won't be to far off from the old games.

[wiglafman1225]

Hi all.

I'm just here to express my appreciation for the fact that Goldhawk Interactive is not showing too much of things like alien monsters or monster tactics in their advertisement for the game, something Fireaxis have already done in their campaign for their XCOM game. That fact alone decided it for me when I thought about what game I would choose! Regards, Erik.

So you're picking a game with no tactics and no AI and no fixed release date over a finished product, because the developers of the finished product are advertising their game? You just concluded Goldhawk is holding back all the good parts of the game?

Fascinating.

[Gorlom]

You just concluded Goldhawk is holding back all the good parts of the game?

Fascinating.

well... Goldhawk kind of is. the alpha has a lot of content purposely left out of it, which many forum members has discovered while looking through the game files of certain versions (where Chris has been extra sloppy in "sanitising" the build for release to preorder customers). This is because Chris doesn't want to spoil everything by showing it all early before the game is close to resembling a finished game.

I can't really tell what it is you are so upset about in the "lack of progress" you mention? Is it lack of new content (items, enemies, research and/or story) or the game mechanics that you find has not progressed since April?

[thothkins]

I think it's a nice, unwritten part of the forum that we don't post up spoilers (is it still unwritten if I've just written that? ) so that for the vast part of things, we only post about what's in the latest build.

I've managed to avoid a lot of the Firaxis coverage to avoid spoilers and not having to worry about it too much round here is a plus point. I'm very much with Dracopticon on that one.

You just concluded Goldhawk is holding back all the good parts of the game?

Seeing some of the advanced tech and research hinted at is enough to pick up this game. Really.

It's not one or the other really. Both are worth buying. There are as many tastes between the two as posters around these parts.

Edited October 9, 2012 by thothkins

[dracopticon]

So you're picking a game with no tactics and no AI and no fixed release date over a finished product, because the developers of the finished product are advertising their game? You just concluded Goldhawk is holding back all the good parts of the game?

Fascinating.

Yeah, I'm a fascinating kinda guy. And then again, it's only about personal taste when it comes to the content of advertising. And I've seen enough of how the game looks to be right at home. "Home" in this matter means being one of the veterans of XCOM games from the olden days of PC gaming.

Edited October 8, 2012 by dracopticon

[ElTee]

So you're picking a game with no tactics and no AI and no fixed release date over a finished product, because the developers of the finished product are advertising their game? You just concluded Goldhawk is holding back all the good parts of the game?

Fascinating.

Yeeah. I don't follow it. I picked up Xenonauts because of the demo. No way in hell I'd buy something while knowing nothing about it.

[anotherdevil]

Yeeah. I don't follow it. I picked up Xenonauts because of the demo. No way in hell I'd buy something while knowing nothing about it.

I'm glad Goldhawk know how to do a better demo than Firaxis!

[dracopticon]

Yeeah. I don't follow it. I picked up Xenonauts because of the demo. No way in hell I'd buy something while knowing nothing about it.

And you just know for a fact that I haven't seen their demo? I don't think so. And why all this aggravation against a person saying "thank you"? Haven't you something better to do?

[thothkins]

Godarn polite folks. with their "pleases" and "thakyoukindlies" Make me sick. Yup, that's what they do. Can't stand 'em. Don't want 'em near me. And they better not ask me if they c'n "please" have som o' mah moonshine. No sir!

[ooey]

It's good that Goldhawk havn't shown too much other than the early equipment in the game. I want to be suprised when I start to play it. That's what a good game should do. You unlock its secrets as you go along. Avoids the old "get heavy plasma quick" syndrome. Actually, considering this, I wonder if each weapon graphic will be assigned a different designation each time you play through?

That is to say that the unknown weapon you are researching may be a plasma rifle or a heavy plasma depending on your playthrough. That would help with the heavy plasma syndrome, wouldn't it?

[Gorlom]

It's good that Goldhawk havn't shown too much other than the early equipment in the game. I want to be suprised when I start to play it. That's what a good game should do. You unlock its secrets as you go along. Avoids the old "get heavy plasma quick" syndrome. Actually, considering this, I wonder if each weapon graphic will be assigned a different designation each time you play through?

That is to say that the unknown weapon you are researching may be a plasma rifle or a heavy plasma depending on your playthrough. That would help with the heavy plasma syndrome, wouldn't it?

I'm not exactly clear on this train of thought. How would it help? And for clarification I probably should ask what exactly is the problem with the heavy plasma syndrome as you see it?

[ooey]

1. Well put simply, I never like to see too much of what a game has too offer too soon/before I've played it. I just like to see teasers. It's enough to know that the content is there and that you will come across it later.

2. Basically, once you had the Heavy Plasma in the original UFO:EU, that was a good enough weapon to take you to the end of the game (there wasn't a more powerful point weapon, so no point in researching the others). Once you spotted one ot those (alien artefacts) you would know to research it and not bother with the plasma rifle et all (basically a tech tree dead end).

[Gorlom]

ok, the problem is defined. but how would

Actually, considering this, I wonder if each weapon graphic will be assigned a different designation each time you play through?

help with that problem?

I'm still not quite clear on what it would accomplish?

Edited October 9, 2012 by Gorlom

[ooey]

Well - suppose you choose to research an unknown weapon that looks like it may be powerful. Once you have researched it it may turn out not to be as powerful as it looks (plasma rifle) or doing it again in another playthrough that weapon might actually turn out to be the heavy plasma.

Maybe the smaller alien weapons are more powerful in one playthrough (think Men in Black) whereas the reverse is true in another playthrough. IMHO it makes the game a little fresher evertime you play through it again from the beginning.

[Buzzles]

Ah, you're talking generated stats! A lovely idea, and one perhaps Chris should keep in mind for other games, but sadly it's not something that can be to applied to Xenonauts, mostly because there's a distinct set of specific role filling alien weapons, rather than something like the tier system the player gets to play with.

That sort of generated stats system either requires everyone to draw items from the same pool, or enough items that you can group types together and tweak only the stats for that type, to avoid things like pistols being sniper rifles (when they logically shouldn't).

[ooey]

That was one of the first things I was going to do in my xcom remake. Thankfully I don't need to now that there are TWO great xcom-type games coming out!! Is that what it's called then - Generated Stats? Who says the meek little alien pistol cannot be the powerful heavy plasma in another universe(!?) ;-) .

[Buzzles]

Who says the meek little alien pistol cannot be the powerful heavy plasma in another universe(!?) ;-) .

Well, apart from the logic aspect, it's a balance issue. Allowing things like that to happen basically means your game will be incredibly unbalanced, probably to the point of being unplayable, and there's no way to balance it either. You have to put some restrictions on it.

[Gorlom]

Ah, you're talking generated stats!

I didn't think he was talking generated stats. I thought he was talking about fixed stats but randomly applied graphics. In one game the heavy plasma looks like the bulkiest plasma weapon, in another it looks like the pistol and in the third it looks like the rifle. It would always be named heavy plasma and have the same stats, but never look the same.

This would be confusing when trying to research the alien artefacts and possibly a little frustrating.

Although I don't see how it would really help with the problem still.

[Buzzles]

I didn't think he was talking generated stats. I thought he was talking about fixed stats but randomly applied graphics. In one game the heavy plasma looks like the bulkiest plasma weapon, in another it looks like the pistol and in the third it looks like the rifle. It would always be named heavy plasma and have the same stats, but never look the same.

It's the same thing from a different approach

[Gorlom]

It's the same thing from a different approach

but it would be balanced the same way the game is now. all it would do is make it uncertain if you are researching the plasma pistol, plasma rifle or heavy plasma. right?

[Buzzles]

Ah yes, re-reading your post, it's not quite the same. Your version is just swapping images and leaving the base item the same, I thought he meant swapping the stats on the base items and leaving the images the same.

[thothkins]

from my parallel universe, I thought he meant that the research trees would be different each time, so that leaping down a route where you thought heavy plasma would be, wouldn't always be the same path. Adding a bit of difference into the replay value of the game.

[Gorlom]

from my parallel universe, I thought he meant that the research trees would be different each time, so that leaping down a route where you thought heavy plasma would be, wouldn't always be the same path. Adding a bit of difference into the replay value of the game.

That would help with the heavy plasma syndrom. just not sure if it would be fun or possible to do without filling up the research tree with a lot of "fluff research".