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[BibiMaghoo]

The world needs more Xcom, so this is a good thing. Multiple bases now please, with greater levels of customisation within them for specialising.

 

[Miker]

As a console player, XCOM is really one of the only serious strategy games I've ever played. What's wrong with the way it handles it? I always felt like it was pretty effective for what it was aiming for.

My problem with it was the alien spawning system. Aliens effectively didn't exist until your troops crossed an invisible line on your turn, at which point said aliens would be able to move into cover. If you sent up a unit to the front line via sprinting, he then has no actions remaining, and thus at the mercy of wherever the aliens decided to move into cover. Same with any other units that had no moves remaining at that point. Oh, and god forbid your last unit moving on a turn discovers aliens.

My solution was to keep most of my squad together, but have one dedicated scouting unit. Said unit would always move first on a turn, without sprinting, and move forward to trigger the aliens, but also still be able to fire or retreat as needed. Then, with the aliens settled in place, so to speak, I would move the rest of my squad to flush them out.

I personally found it to be a contrived system that didn't mesh with the "rules" of the game, and rewarded overly cautious and slow play. I think in the expansion they introduced a time (turn?) limited resource in order to get players to move across the map more quickly.

 

[matrixman92]

Meh, if it's XCOM then color me disappointed

yep, same. Would have even preferred space/future mafia

 

[Fragamemnon]

I dunno, have you seen the EXALT troops' AI? I don't think they could manage a fast food restaurant, much less a world government.

An interesting tack on this is if the new XCOM doesn't really feature a "traditional" XCOM project at all, but puts you in the command of waging and escalating a global insurgency (can we say terrorist?) campaign against the Advent.

It would be a way that you could "start over from next to nothing" vs. a clearly superior threat and eventually turn the tables on the oppressors using their own technology and know-how against them.

My problem with it was the alien spawning system. Aliens effectively didn't exist until your troops crossed an invisible line on your turn, at which point said aliens would be able to move into cover.

The other option would be for the aliens on the map to be pre-activated and to shoot your dude in the face when he/she reveals them. This is cheap and would have players raging because this isn't the OG X-COM and each troop is super valuable. The scatter-on-reveal mechanic is a way of allowing aliens to exist in the fog and neither be sitting ducks or lurking unavoidable killers. You can't just have them sit there derping in the open because of the game's cover system would heavily punish that.

I think in the expansion they introduced a time (turn?) limited resource in order to get players to move across the map more quickly.

There is a new resource in the expansion that rewards aggressive play. Get the Meld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlUM4VwLQzI

Note that the game also offered battle scanners for revealing fog without activation and always gives you sound cue on the nearest alien to a soldier every two turns. If you have good surround sound, the aliens also will call out after every alien move and you can get a sense of the direction from the audio even without the visual cue.

Moving into the fog of war on a double move/sprint is an art form but is very doable in the right circumstances.

 

[Mesoian]

As a console player, XCOM is really one of the only serious strategy games I've ever played. What's wrong with the way it handles it? I always felt like it was pretty effective for what it was aiming for.

I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE the fact that enemy turns prior to discovery don't really matter and the fact that discovery basically gives them two free turns. It's the one thing that I truly don't like about the game. It makes setting up ambushes way more difficult than it should and often punishes good strategy, and is the number 1 reason why high ground snipers make late game so trivial.

But that's me. A lot of people I know don't seem to mind. It just drives me up the wall.

My problem with it was the alien spawning system. Aliens effectively didn't exist until your troops crossed an invisible line on your turn, at which point said aliens would be able to move into cover. If you sent up a unit to the front line via sprinting, he then has no actions remaining, and thus at the mercy of wherever the aliens decided to move into cover. Same with any other units that had no moves remaining at that point. Oh, and god forbid your last unit moving on a turn discovers aliens.

My solution was to keep most of my squad together, but have one dedicated scouting unit. Said unit would always move first on a turn, without sprinting, and move forward to trigger the aliens, but also still be able to fire or retreat as needed. Then, with the aliens settled in place, so to speak, I would move the rest of my squad to flush them out.

I personally found it to be a contrived system that didn't mesh with the "rules" of the game, and rewarded overly cautious and slow play. I think in the expansion they introduced a time (turn?) limited resource in order to get players to move across the map more quickly.

Absolutely.

 

[Steel]

Just don't get too excited for Civ Rev 2, unless it's significantly different from the mobile version. That game is pretty bad.

Yeah, Civ Rev one itself was an abortion. Dunno what they were thinking, civ V could've been ported to console as it was, dunno why they had to dumb it down to the point of filth.

 

[MattyG]

Just don't get too excited for Civ Rev 2, unless it's significantly different from the mobile version. That game is pretty bad.

Yeah, that's what I'd heard. A true Civ game would be a great fit for the Vita, but I don't see it ever happening.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

This thread reminds me that I hope that E3 XCOM EU+ rumor that is coming to PS Vita is true.

 

[Hopeford]

I'll be celebrating like a lunatic if it's a new XCOM. About damn time.

My problem with it was the alien spawning system. Aliens effectively didn't exist until your troops crossed an invisible line on your turn, at which point said aliens would be able to move into cover. If you sent up a unit to the front line via sprinting, he then has no actions remaining, and thus at the mercy of wherever the aliens decided to move into cover. Same with any other units that had no moves remaining at that point. Oh, and god forbid your last unit moving on a turn discovers aliens.

My solution was to keep most of my squad together, but have one dedicated scouting unit. Said unit would always move first on a turn, without sprinting, and move forward to trigger the aliens, but also still be able to fire or retreat as needed. Then, with the aliens settled in place, so to speak, I would move the rest of my squad to flush them out.

I personally found it to be a contrived system that didn't mesh with the "rules" of the game, and rewarded overly cautious and slow play. I think in the expansion they introduced a time (turn?) limited resource in order to get players to move across the map more quickly.

Hmm, I understand that complaint but I disagree about sending a soldier sprinting being an issue. In general the game meant for you to blue-move every soldier, then overwatch(the tutorial is a lying, fickle creature) so that you can catch any pods that patrol into you. Activating aliens on a dash is a bad move, yeah, but that's because double-moving ahead is a seriously bad move to make. I mean you're right in that it leaves you at a horrible disadvantage, but in my opinion it leaves you at a disadvantage the same way unequipping your armor in a JRPG leaves you at a disadvantage. It's just not a good move. I don't think you should ever dash in the game unless you are using a slow unit to catch up with another one, and he's just moving through ground you already made sure is free from pod activations.

 

[Baalzebup]

This pleases me. I hope the strategic depth will be higher this time around. X-COM good, even excellent at times, but there was definitely plenty to improve even after the Enemy Within expansion.

 

[Neuromancer]

If it's another Xcom game I hope they figure out how to make randomly generated levels this time. I ran into so many repeats last game, and it got old.

 

[Sephiroth_GR_]

That's interesting. I think we'll get an announcement at MS Press Conference.

 

[Ombala]

XCOM? I hope so it was my favorite strategy game last gen.

 

[Majanew]

XCOM? lol, pass

 

[Polish Folk Hero]

I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE the fact that enemy turns prior to discovery don't really matter and the fact that discovery basically gives them two free turns. It's the one thing that I truly don't like about the game. It makes setting up ambushes way more difficult than it should and often punishes good strategy, and is the number 1 reason why high ground snipers make late game so trivial.

But that's me. A lot of people I know don't seem to mind. It just drives me up the wall.

I agree, hated that free turn they had when discovered. Even when I knew they were there. I'm hoping they have an option to remove the fog of war then it's pure strategy. Anything indoors would be blacked out thus breaching would be a risky endeavor.

Glad to see we get another XCOM, assuming it is XCOM. E3 HYPE TRAIN!

 

[Neuromancer]

What's the evidence for this being Xcom? The Firaxis tweet and the geoscape sounding music?

 

[MattyG]

What's the evidence for this being Xcom? The Firaxis tweet and the geoscape sounding music?

And posters in the concept art on the website that looks exactly like movie posters in Enemy Within. Also, the concept sounds similar to X-COM Apocalypse.

 

[Hopeford]

What's the evidence for this being Xcom? The Firaxis tweet and the geoscape sounding music?

There's also the fact that if you download the pdf then check the font names, one of them is listed as "Xcom Regular." Not sure if this was brought up yet, but yeah.

 

[Neuromancer]

Interesting, thanks.

 

[RPG_Fanatic]

New Xcom tease. This is relevant to my interests. I hope they build on the previous game and make it bigger and better.

 

[Palehorse]

There's also the fact that if you download the pdf then check the font names, one of them is listed as "Xcom Regular." Not sure if this was brought up yet, but yeah.

Ohhhh yeahhhhh. Well if that's not a smoking gun I don't know what is.

I'm excited but don't want to wait for 2K to do their full tease/rollout. Just tell me now so I can start hyperventilating.

 

[CertifiedFP]

Oh dear, look at these people stealing my thunder when I was the guy repeating over and over that this was so blatantly an XCOM Apocalypse remake under the name XCOM: Advent Future.

EDIT: Now that I think about it... There's a twist here. Instead of Apocalypse's setup of the city being besieged by aliens... The city is already run by the aliens. Either that or those trippy hints I see to that point are alien propaganda in a vein similar to EU's mission-fail quote of it all being a "misunderstanding".

 

[Baalzebup]

EDIT: Now that I think about it... There's a twist here. Instead of Apocalypse's setup of the city being besieged by aliens... The city is already run by the aliens. Either that or those trippy hints I see to that point are alien propaganda in a vein similar to EU's mission-fail quote of it all being a "misunderstanding".

Or you know, EXALT having a resurgence after the temple ship is blown up and X-COM is disbanded. ADVENT being written on all caps sounds much like a renamed EXALT.

 

[Trigger]

I need some new Xcom bad. There's so much room for improvement.

 

[Funky Papa]

But I need my Lovecraftian Terror from the Deep fix... 😞

 

[Dr Campino]

Oh god, I would be so happy if it's a new XCOM. One of my favourites last gen.

 

[Miker]

Hmm, I understand that complaint but I disagree about sending a soldier sprinting being an issue. In general the game meant for you to blue-move every soldier, then overwatch(the tutorial is a lying, fickle creature) so that you can catch any pods that patrol into you. Activating aliens on a dash is a bad move, yeah, but that's because double-moving ahead is a seriously bad move to make. I mean you're right in that it leaves you at a horrible disadvantage, but in my opinion it leaves you at a disadvantage the same way unequipping your armor in a JRPG leaves you at a disadvantage. It's just not a good move. I don't think you should ever dash in the game unless you are using a slow unit to catch up with another one, and he's just moving through ground you already made sure is free from pod activations.

I didn't mean that it was a good move - I meant for it to illustrate that the safest and perhaps most optimal solution was to play very slowly, and it disrupted the game's pacing at times.

The other option would be for the aliens on the map to be pre-activated and to shoot your dude in the face when he/she reveals them. This is cheap and would have players raging because this isn't the OG X-COM and each troop is super valuable. The scatter-on-reveal mechanic is a way of allowing aliens to exist in the fog and neither be sitting ducks or lurking unavoidable killers. You can't just have them sit there derping in the open because of the game's cover system would heavily punish that.



There is a new resource in the expansion that rewards aggressive play. Get the Meld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlUM4VwLQzI

Note that the game also offered battle scanners for revealing fog without activation and always gives you sound cue on the nearest alien to a soldier every two turns. If you have good surround sound, the aliens also will call out after every alien move and you can get a sense of the direction from the audio even without the visual cue.

Moving into the fog of war on a double move/sprint is an art form but is very doable in the right circumstances.

I recognize that the scatter on reveal mechanic is something of a necessary evil, but that doesn't stop me from disliking it. The alternatives, as you mention, aren't perfect solutions either, and I understand the reasoning behind the current system. And call me crazy, but I don't like directional audio playing a role in my turn based strategy games.

Oh, and cool username!

 

[Grimsen]

I love what Firaxis did with XCOM, but I hated Apocalypse.

I'm torn.

 

[vpance]

Most people were unhappy with the lack of randomized maps but between engine constraints and the shit sandwich consoles the game also ran on it just wasn't happening.

I thought Enemy Within added a lot to the base game. There's a lot of new maps and you can also install Long War which strives for non-deterministic outcomes in all of the game's systems.

I wouldn't mind randomized maps, but 3D procedural generation and destructibility are hard to get right on their own, never mind in conjunction, especially in a franchise where accidentally or intentionally blowing through walls to get to aliens is a thing.

I hope they do figure it out, but I imagine they thought most people would be happy completing the game once through where map repetition wouldn't be a huge issue for them.

I liked XCOM for the most part but the knowledge of precanned maps and scatter on first sighting made it a bit of a game of fish for the alien and running a scouter out in front as bait.

 

[CertifiedFP]

More XCOM proof.

Those are Thin-Men eyes if I ever saw them.

 

[Poodlestrike]

More XCOM proof.

Those are Thin-Men eyes if I ever saw them.

Could be genemods.

One thing I'd really like them to do story-wise is hammer home the implications of all that advanced alien tech we had to come up with to drive them off the first time. Society would be transformed.

 

[Hopeford]

I didn't mean that it was a good move - I meant for it to illustrate that the safest and perhaps most optimal solution was to play very slowly, and it disrupted the game's pacing at times.

Oh yeah, that's a fair point, my bad. I just personally don't mind the game being slow paced, I think that makes for very fun and tense missions.

 

[serversurfer]

Some of the finest strategy games around.

As a really high level view, you have a squad of soldiers who fight turn based battles while also managing a base that allows you new technologies and tactical options.

You forgot "brutal." Demon's Souls is the X-Com of action games.

Trying to rush your troops forward to find the aliens may sound like a good idea, but it would actually be more efficient to feed them directly in to a meat grinder back at your base. Since the aliens are always on defense, they already have an inherent advantage over your own troops, and simply locating the enemy is an incredibly perilous undertaking. In fact, a basic part of my strategy was to always take a couple of rooks as scouts, knowing that by the end of the mission they'd likely both be dead. On the rare occasion that one of them actually survived a mission, I took that as "proving their worth," and only then would I start grooming them to become a permanent part of the team. (Permanent, until I make a mistake and get them killed, natch.)

I should note that I'm talking mostly about the PS1 game here. I didn't play the new one much, but for some reason it didn't seem quite as punishing.

My problem with it was the alien spawning system. Aliens effectively didn't exist until your troops crossed an invisible line on your turn, at which point said aliens would be able to move into cover. If you sent up a unit to the front line via sprinting, he then has no actions remaining, and thus at the mercy of wherever the aliens decided to move into cover. Same with any other units that had no moves remaining at that point. Oh, and god forbid your last unit moving on a turn discovers aliens.

My solution was to keep most of my squad together, but have one dedicated scouting unit. Said unit would always move first on a turn, without sprinting, and move forward to trigger the aliens, but also still be able to fire or retreat as needed. Then, with the aliens settled in place, so to speak, I would move the rest of my squad to flush them out.

I personally found it to be a contrived system that didn't mesh with the "rules" of the game, and rewarded overly cautious and slow play. I think in the expansion they introduced a time (turn?) limited resource in order to get players to move across the map more quickly.

Umm, that's like the best thing about X-Com. Rewarding cautiousness while punishing carelessness is exactly what a war game should do. That's sorta how war works. =/

The other option would be for the aliens on the map to be pre-activated and to shoot your dude in the face when he/she reveals them. This is cheap and would have players raging because this isn't the OG X-COM and each troop is super valuable. The scatter-on-reveal mechanic is a way of allowing aliens to exist in the fog and neither be sitting ducks or lurking unavoidable killers. You can't just have them sit there derping in the open because of the game's cover system would heavily punish that.

Ha! I knew the new game was easier, and yeah, that was it. I'm used to having the aliens on overwatch, and rounding every corner not knowing if you're about to be shot in the face. It actually taught you the proper ways to both take and hold ground. Good times.

I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE the fact that enemy turns prior to discovery don't really matter and the fact that discovery basically gives them two free turns. It's the one thing that I truly don't like about the game. It makes setting up ambushes way more difficult than it should and often punishes good strategy, and is the number 1 reason why high ground snipers make late game so trivial.

Err, how does one ambush an entrenched adversary? And what good strategy does it punish? Seems like it only ever punished terrible strategies, such as trying to advance a man without sufficient covering fire, and that sort of thing.

I'm hoping they have an option to remove the fog of war then it's pure strategy.

How does removing the fog of war make the game more strategic? =/

Anything indoors would be blacked out thus breaching would be a risky endeavor.

Didn't you just say we should get rid of the fog of war? Shouldn't the entire battle be risky? It is a battle, after all.

 

[Sijil]

Oh man oh man a new Xcom with a far future setting will be so awesome, especially now that Solomon knows what mistakes to avoid after Xcom Apocalypse.

Tho after the ending of Xcom EU, you'd think Humans would be developing space travel and preparing for a counter offensive since the main Alien threat has yet to manifest.

Imagine a new long war mod!

 

[Lucreto]

I was hoping for a new BioShock, disappointed now.

Only hope is the concept artist just likes the images or wanting to throw people off.

 

[ashecitism]

There's also the fact that if you download the pdf then check the font names, one of them is listed as "Xcom Regular." Not sure if this was brought up yet, but yeah.

yeah

 

[Dysun]

I wanted Bioshock, but XCOM is a fine alternative.

 

[Miker]

Oh yeah, that's a fair point, my bad. I just personally don't mind the game being slow paced, I think that makes for very fun and tense missions.

It honestly wasn't a huge deal. I just gripe about it because it's honestly one of the few problems with the game. But yeah, by endgame, most of my missions started and progress in the same way. Scout -> engage -> finish -> scout, etc.

Umm, that's like the best thing about X-Com. Rewarding cautiousness while punishing carelessness is exactly what a war game should do. That's sorta how war works. =/

I found it actively discouraged aggressive play, and I think Firaxis at least partially acknowledged it, because they introduced a time-limited resource, Meld, in the expansion.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I'm not up to date on the franchise, but is there any evidence that we'll ever see anything Bioshock again?

 

[Miker]

Guys, what if it's a new XCOM: Enforcer? Everybody wants that, right?

 

[Baalzebup]

Guys, what if it's a new XCOM: Enforcer? Everybody wants that, right?

You should be covered in tar and feathers just for mentioning that piece of excrement. Every other X-COM title in history has some merit for existing. Enforcer does not.

 

[Fracas]

I love Bioshock, but a new XCOM is cool too I guess! Enemy Unknown was fantastic.

Looking forward to the announcement.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

MOAR XCOM YASSSS!

 

[Decado]

Hopefully they support mods on PC. Was quite pissed about that.

Also...take a book from the mods. Made xcom so much better.

 

[Hopeford]

So when should we expect them to officially announce this game? E3 or is there some earlier 2K event where this could get announced on?

 

[Sinatar]

Guys, what if it's a new XCOM: Enforcer? Everybody wants that, right?

Enforcer was better then that Bureau shooter thing they released.

 

[Poodlestrike]

So when should we expect them to officially announce this game? E3 or is there some earlier 2K event where this could get announced on?

E3, probably.

 

[SavoyPrime]

Meh, if it's XCOM then color me disappointed

Co-sign.

 

[Jintor]

Am I gonna have to restart an LP again?!?!?!??! I don't think I have it in me!!!!

 

[Lulubop]

XCOM? lol, pass

Ya man, that last game was shit and everyone hated it. Lol