My Comments On Aftermath..

[ApOcaLyPSe_1985]

Lo,

 

I bought UFO: Aftermath a while ago and started playing (patched to v1.2) and well, I have bad comments. But bad comments lead to patching right at least, that's what I hope.

 

Well, first of all the geosphere could have been alot nicer (adding ocean depths, bumpmapping) but that's ok. I was suprised at the tiny menu, but I can understand because of the story. Still, it looks empty.. but I think all xcom veterans have that problem

 

So I went battling some bad ass transgenants. I don't really like the way realtime + autopause mode is used. My soldiers pause at everything, it's crazy.

"Let's walk over there. Oh, soldier 1 is here, game pauses. I click play. Soldier 2 arrives, game pauses. I click play again. Oh my god..., the rest still needs to come... pause, pause, etc, etc."

It's really annoying and needs to be fixed.

X-COM Apocalypse paused the game only when hostile units are spotted or when units are seriously injured or killed. UFO: Aftermath should be like that.

 

Also, when I want to put something other in my hand (like a grenade for example) and after that I walk somewhere else, then the soldier tends to "forget" this and auto-equips his item that was in his hands before.

It should be fixed so that the soldier remembers this and equips the selected item after his actions are completed.

 

I don't really like the ufopedia, or glossary in this game.

I wanted to view some weapons, and what do I get... a weapon model spinning at "0wnage" speed. I want to look at still pictures, maybe watch a video as a second option.

 

Also, a part of the game difficulty is taken away by making the standard equipment at the beginning unlimited. unlimited shotgun, pistol, armor, medkits, nades... I want to produce that with my engineers.

This really confuses the story. Almost all life was eradicated by the spore rain, contact lost everywhere and surviving humans are spreaded across the globe... and suddenly Phoenix Company knows how to get "a unlimited supply" of that stuff.

 

Some text edits might be handy to do too.

About the name Phoenix Company, wouldn't it be cooler to just leave it as "Phoenix"?

I think it is. Phoenix Company sounds kinda dull. Non action company in my opinion.

Also, on a "transgenant capture mission" the briefing mentions to "incapitate" aliens and not kill them.

It would sound cooler to "neutralize" transgenants and not eliminate them.

 

Lol, that's a lot of comments, but to me they are the most important ones to fix.

 

But hey, UFO: Aftermath is great and definitly a great follow-up to the xcom series!

It even has the great addictive gameplay!

Fantastic job, thank you for the game! I hope to see more sequels in the future

[ApOcaLyPSe_1985]

Oh, and yet another comment from me

 

Your ruining one of the important aspects of the game, uncovering the unknown!

I target "A reticulan or a Slimethrower" for example.

Nooooooo, you ruined a part of the game cause I now know that alien name!

 

The same for weapons. They appear in my equip screen already, a long with name and stats. It's supposed to be secret, cause you need to research it first!!!

 

And last, the same goes for live aliens and corpses. I already get a research report just by clicking on the name while it's actually unresearched. Researching only gives me the stats of the unit and a nice place in the glossary.

I want to uncover that unknown information!

 

Waaaaah!

[Pete]

Just a few notes (so as not to repeat myself again ) - some very good points here, so I'll only pick out the ones that aren't going to be fixed (for definite IMO) as they're options that can be turned off:-

 

The pausing for every little thing is changeable in the options menu in the tactical part of the game. You can turn off the "Director's Cut" camera spins and the pauses when your guys change their underpants and all that jazz.

 

Actions being forgotten only happen when you seem to leave it a while in between giving them tehir next order (cancels the swappage of items) or cancel their previous order. Give them the order to swap the items, then the order to move and they should do it unles you deselect the units in between the two actions.

 

I'm not sure, but this seems to behave better for me after the 1.2 patch is applies... that or I've gotten used to how it works by now

 

I don't use the glossary as all items cn be viewed anyway through the squad eqip screen.research screen/development screen... so I can;t comment there.

 

As for game difficulty - don;t worry about the unlimited starting equipment as the rest of the game makes up for the lack of difficulty in this area

 

IIRC - Phoenix Company was a result of a fan vote, and I *think* Tammy came up with taht one, so watch your ground Also, notice the unintentional but humorous Phoenix Company

 

As fo the neutralise suggestion - neutralise could be taken to mean eliminate as well. We need an army bod in here to confirm how that term is used.

 

I agree with your view though - very cool game in my opinion

[RedBear]

"Eliminate" - destroy target totally, utterly - whole point target is supposed to be "dead", good and!

 

"Neutralise" - funny catchall term that is generally left to individual discretion. The usual idea is to stop the target from interfering with other ongoing operations. Depending upon the tactical situation, this can mean anything from "incapacitation" (via "capture" or "unconciousness") to destruction of target.

 

However, if the "neutralise" order is given with a "wink", this generally means something like - "blow their brains out as quickly, quietly, and with as little mess and fuss as possible".

 

It's these funny little nuances that can make all the difference.

[ApOcaLyPSe_1985]

Thnx man,

 

It was so close, and I didn't notice it

Still, the glossary could have used real 3d models instead of videos. That way it was easier to fix the speed.

 

BUT, I have another comment!

 

My oh my, my soldier gets hit to many times and lost half of it's health. After eliminating the resistance (which takes a while) he doesn't seem to bother the pain any bit.

Where are the fatal wounds??? The injuries... so important as well

It's kinda unrealistic to get raped by 2 rockets and survive without fatal injuries.

With my unlimited supply of medkits, my soldiers are fixed in no time, tho they do have to recover in the sickbay.

 

As you can see, I would like to see injuries in a future patch

It adds realism, and also a improved chance to survive the sometimes horrific difficulty. Some aliens are just too powerful, it would be cool to choke them in their own wounds.

[Pete]

Easy solution to injuries - the remaining humans are all fearless muppets with no sense of pain

 

Good point though in all seriousness - a badly wounded and uncinscious soldier should die after a certain amount of time unless they're patched up. That's the easy fix for this situation... possibly something for a later patch/mod.

[samsmithnz]

Well I've been playing the game for a good amount of time now, and I thought I'd log my own opinion. (WARNING MINOR-MAJOR SPOILERS)

 

Overall this is a good game (I estimate I'm about 85% into it), I'm really enjoying the X-Com and Fallout cross. But I HAVE to make some comparisons to X-Com, its impossible not too. To me, gameplay-wise, this game is VERY similar to X-COM Apocalypse. Especially the way my soldiers seem to get attacked and just 'melt' (these bug-hives are really annoying...), and the hard-ness changes (which again are related to those bugs and alien missile launchers)

 

I couldn't help but notice that the 1/2 turnbased and 1/2 real time turned out to be real time with breakpoints...

 

Good points first:

 

There are some good aspects that I think have been explored. Only having to kill a certain number of aliens is fantastic... If only you couldn't end the mission if you were still being attacked... I also really like the delegation feature, it means you can skip some of the really hard missions (and also the easy boring missions), and the interception variation is fun too.

 

I really like the scripted story missions too, I just wish their were more of them... the biomass node missions could be more epic for example (instead of having to kill all the enemies...)

 

The story twists are nice... don't want to spoil anything... but I like it...

 

Not so good points now

 

Also, I think that I'm reliezed one of the funnest things about the X-Com series was being able to blow EVERYTHING up. There was nothing funner than firing missles THROUGH a building to explore . Only being able to blow up certain items (like buses and such), forces me to ignore this destory everything strategy.

 

I am a bit disappointed with research and production, the whole development menufacturing difference thing is still a but confusing to me, even after reading the manual. Items seem to move from the 'unable to develop' to 'able to develop' sections for pratically no reason! Not being able to build more than one item at a time sucks too.

 

The aliens look a little silly, but I guess its ok with the research mutantion explationations...

 

Conclusion

 

I'm still waiting for a remake of the first X-Com (hence my own projects), and if the remake goes real time, I hope that its more like Fallout Tactics...

 

Now its back to the aliens... its my 3rd attempt (after being squashed by biomass so much I felt I should start over), but in this attempt I seem to have been able to localise the biomass to the Arctic and South Africa... I have control of 2/3 of the world now, and its time to do a lot of production so that I can find some alien ship and go to the moon...

[ApOcaLyPSe_1985]

I am a bit disappointed with research and production, the whole development menufacturing difference thing is still a but confusing to me, even after reading the manual. Items seem to move from the 'unable to develop' to 'able to develop' sections for pratically no reason! Not being able to build more than one item at a time sucks too.

 

Heh, I was researching improved armor and helmet. After finishing research with improved armor, I could already manufacture helmets lol.

[Ghostrider]

I don't really like the ufopedia, or glossary in this game.

I wanted to view some weapons, and what do I get... a weapon model spinning at "0wnage" speed. I want to look at still pictures, maybe watch a video as a second option.

I agree - do not like the UFOPEDIA how it is now - little shoddy . STIL PICTURES or 3D net MODELS 3D STUDIO MAX style would be great ...

 

And also I don't like the fact you know the name of projects far before you actually can KNOW the meaning of it - BIOMASS NOWHERE NEAR but you have it in RaD menus ... Hmmm no good ...

 

BUT THE GAME IS GOOD - the action and addiction also Playing it and enjoyeing am I ( YODA ) ... But the strategic part is shoddy compared to UFO 1 ...

[ApOcaLyPSe_1985]

I have another comment:

 

In the beginning I always forgot to upgrade the skills of my soldier with every levelup. Until the 5th level I began to realise I was forgetting something important.

The game didn't memorize that so my 5 precious points to spend on skills we're lost

It would be nice to let the game memorise this, just in case.

 

Btw, it's strange but I find UFO: Aftermath even more addictive then the original series

I can't wait for the multiplayer addon or possible expansion packs

[samsmithnz]

I'm pretty sure you weren't losing those upgrades, they were just being applied to the top attribute (probably strength)

[Cpl. Facehugger]

Id like there to be less aliens who have one-hit-kill weapons such as microslugs, rocketlaunchers, psi, etc. The difficulty goes crazy right after I finish the Soviet base mission, and right after I reject the *MAJOR SPOILERS* Reticulan offer. It is like the aliens suddenly bring up super duper weapons while I still have crappy armor. Why do they all seem to have Rockets, microslugs or psi? Cant one just have a laser pistol anymore?

[quasarstrider]

I guess you didn't research the Enhanced Armors when you should have. They are pretty nice, on the level of Sun armor with increased defense against Paralysis and Exception if you get one of the Enhanced Psi Helmets.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

I did, but I usually had my engineers making me more nice plasma shotguns and energy cells Besides, my guys in sun armor don't seem to survive very long once hit by a microslug. And psi helmets don't seem to protect myself against sneaky alien mind control. I beat the russian mission by sniping all the aliens outside the wall, then setting my men up in strategic ambush positions, then sending my fastest guy out to get their attention. It didn't work as well as I hoped (3 dead from the evil microslug gun) but I managed to make it inside and continue the game.

 

But I have a problem with the retrubition mission. Where is the exit? (I have the key) I can't seem to find it.

[ein001]

Ive only played the demo and read a lot of the forum complaints, but im pretty sure this game would have bombed if it hadnt been compared to X-com.

[alaric]

I want to add 1 thing I find a bit annoying, and that is how damage is calculated. Or maybe I have it totally upside down. Anyways it seems like then hit % is actually the amount of the max damage you'll do or something like that, so as long as you have a percentage you'll always do damage. I think that increases difficulty quite a bit since aliens often get away at least 1 shot. Correct me if I'm wrong about how it's calculated tho.

 

Another thing, stealth. Is there actually a point to the stealth skill? am I missing something? I really think stealth could have been done better!

 

Otherwise, it's a nice game. It was so long ago since I played xcom 1 that I am not bothered with any changes in gameplay they made in this from the original, I just get a cozy ufo feeling in my body when I play it!

[OG_Gleep]

Hehe almost every negative point of a design flaw you made was actually you not understanding the game.

 

The only negative things I have to say about the game, is what others have already mentioned.

 

I would like to have a detailed Eng department, that whole section needs to be reworked. This also applies to research.

 

Base management nonexistant. That was one of the best features in Xcom. It really deepend the immersion in the game. And being able to defend a base you created and see it in glorious 3/4 view was cool.

 

Since this game really revolves around your soldiers, it really baffles me that you guys didn't let us have multiple squads. We may have 100 soldiers, but only 7 are going to be active at any one time. Why would you replace your level 8 guys that you have been pimping aliens with since the get go, for raw recruits. Only way that is going to happen is if one of the Super 7 catches something on shore leave. I think giving us greater latitude in all departments that include staff (Soldiers, Pilots, Scientists, Engineers, etc etc) would make for a much deeper and rewarding game.

 

More time in between missions would be nice. I know you can delegate them, and if left unchecked they will get resolved by themselves, but you feel like a bad commander passing time working on research and development when there are 10 hotspots on the map. Especially if those are bases.

 

Lessen the amount of guns and ammo found on base captures, or make base missions less frequent. There was a period in my game where I went on 6 consecutive base missions, I had to do another type of missions just to break up to routine after that. There were two other base missions available as well. This wouldn't be bad however if you took the above points into consideration, but in the current version of the game it takes the magic out of getting new weapons. I now have a arsenal of weapons no one is every going to use, because they were obsolete fast. Plus there is only 7 opportunites to take different weapons per mission. If there were multiple squads this would be the right volume.

 

 

I know that there must have been a huge discussion about how to make this game different from XCOM, but imho you cut out some of the best parts. If you would have fixed the negatives, and enhanced the positives this would have been game of the year imho.

[quasarstrider]

No less guns please. I have 20 bases and am running out of ammo fast. I dunno if it is because of HARD or because of V1.2. But then again, I mostly stick to MP-5 against Transgenants and MP-7 against Reticulans, so...

 

Gotta love Heckler and Koch in this game.