On replayability so far

[Steelpoint]

The way the current system is set up is that most mid to late game missions tend to feature two or more Alien species during a mission as each main specie (Ceasan, Sebillian, Andron) has at least one sub specie that is attached to it.

The only missions where you are against only one Alien specie are the early game missions, and I feel this makes sense as it does not overload a new player with too many Aliens and gives a chance for the game to introduce the three main Alien species.

[StellarRat]

I need to point out too that the aliens are not very differentiated right now. So, that's another thing to think about. Later their attributes and actions will be quite different as will be the AI for each one.

[Solver]

You know, the presence of just 3 races as "primary" ones can explain why aliens feel less varied than in the original. That had five primary races. Sectoids, Floaters, Snakemen, Mutons, Ethereals. Three of them would be present from the early game, with Mutons and Ethereals joining the party later. Although the earlier races still remain when the later ones hit the game, sometimes the Sectoids vanish, but you're facing no less than 4 races after the game has progressed a bit. Not so in Xenonauts.

[StellarRat]

You know, the presence of just 3 races as "primary" ones can explain why aliens feel less varied than in the original. That had five primary races. Sectoids, Floaters, Snakemen, Mutons, Ethereals. Three of them would be present from the early game, with Mutons and Ethereals joining the party later. Although the earlier races still remain when the later ones hit the game, sometimes the Sectoids vanish, but you're facing no less than 4 races after the game has progressed a bit. Not so in Xenonauts.

Something that could be easily changed I imagine. If I was going to have a landing of lower level aliens later in the game I'd increase the numbers substantially. The lower level red shirt Ceasans would just be targets later in the game. The red shirt would be very appropiate at that juncture.

[Solver]

Caesans have an elegant solution ready which comes from the original and Sectoids. Higher rank Caesans have psionics, as Sectoids did in the original. So while definitely a lesser threat, their landings would still have some potency, especially if the redshirt guys are filtered out and promoted at least to the basic blueshirts. Like I've mentioned before, I'd actually like some more variation in mission difficulty at a given point, though of course there should not be landings consisting of 4 pistol-wielding redshirts into the game's third month.

[StellarRat]

We may all run screaming from any of them once the AI is done. Our discussion with Gjiis-Jan leads me to believe that ALL of the aliens will be very dangerous by the time he is finished.

[Moonshine Fox]

To me personally, map variety is the big bugbear. Whenever I land in a desert area (which seems to be really often) it's *always* the same kind of military base in the desert with one local defender and two civilians, a UFO to the northeast and 9/10 times Sebillians. It's getting very old very quickly. Much much more so than the Firaxis XCOM and it's set maps.

[StellarRat]

To me personally, map variety is the big bugbear. Whenever I land in a desert area (which seems to be really often) it's *always* the same kind of military base in the desert with one local defender and two civilians, a UFO to the northeast and 9/10 times Sebillians. It's getting very old very quickly. Much much more so than the Firaxis XCOM and it's set maps.

Would you be happier if the map was the same, but the number of civilians and positions of the aliens changed more? Or do you feel more maps is the solution?

[Lightzy]

MOAAAAR MAAPS!

Seriously, until this game has like 10,000 good maps (no bugs), I don't think it could live up to the randomness of xcom

Also, i guess this is a personal preference thing, but I dislike androns being a 'main race'.. they're not really a race, they're manufactured robots that would be much more interesting as a companion race for weak ceaseans (who should remain combat-weak later into the game).

I hope they add a new prime race, something like the snakemen or something else that's bizzare. Possibly insectoid.

[Moonshine Fox]

Honestly? I'd like to see the randomness from XCOM back. I don't really mind the tileset that much. The original didn't have too many of those, after all. But having the exact same layout over and over again and knowing exactly where the UFO is ... it's just enough to knock my enjoyment right out of me. I stopped playing yesterday just because I got that map for the fifth time in a row. It's simply very unfun.

So I'd say more maps. Or at least random maps. Positioning wouldn't help if you know exactly where the UFO is.

[Solver]

I would be willing to live with fewer props, illogical layouts or many other things if there were more randomness. The OG did it brilliantly. I would not know where the UFO was, and I would not even know where buildings were. On a terror map, there could be a warehouse in the corner, or not. It was amazing, and it's hard to replicate even with 50, 100 or 150 maps.

I would love the randomness of X-COM to be back. For a farm map, just put them together completely randomly out of submaps in a grid, and woohoo!

Otherwise, having more random alien spawns would be great. Should again be less predictable.

[StellarRat]

I think Chris said that randomly generating maps wasn't possible under the current code infrastructure. So, that leaves more maps and more randomization of the alien starting positions as the only choices. I do have to say though, that it was fairly easy to predict where most of the aliens would be even in the OG. I was usually able to kill some with blind fire.

Edited June 5, 2013 by StellarRat

[flashman]

Well a map can be as random as the number of submaps it has. You can have say 50different submap layouts using 10submaps and 50 variations for each submap. The problem is getting them all to work in a cohesive way or accepting that random layouts won't be as good as a single planned level.

[Lightzy]

At least if the planned levels were good..

some are awesome with buildings and carparks and cool stuff (but after the 50th time not so cool at all), but most maps are just.. kinda empty. a bit of rock here, a couple of trees there.. no real cover and so on.. Not at all like the new x-com maps which are freaking amazing... they're like... alive!

If there can be no real randomness then I hope the community manages to get more tilesets and props up and have like a 10,000 map 'kickstarter' (lets all see if we can make 10,000 good maps in 3 months! the top 50 maps get a free copy of xenonauts to give to friends, or other cool prizes, or money!)

[smoitessier]

It's a pity there is no way to have random maps, def need more maps when this goes gold

[Gauddlike]

The planned maps only work if there are enough of them that you don't see them more than a few times in a game.

I personally prefer more variation.

As long as the maps are not blatantly wrong, like having buildings with doors opening onto walls and so on, then I am fine with it.

A few extra variations on each submap can make a world of difference to the replayability of a map.

[Solver]

Maps can be randomly built out of submaps, the problem is props, as far as I understand. I'd be happy with strangely placed or even no prop maps as long as they are completely random, at least for a section of maps. Really I think the best solution is a combination. Some heavily randomized maps, some that are more or less static.