UFOAS: The verdict

[Martian base commander]

Well,I really don't know how to begin this topic,but lets start with the basics.

After dedicating a lot of time and effort towards playing this game I have now come to the bitter conclusion that its all been a waste of time.I had got the Cult right down to their last 3 provinces,right in the corner of N.China where they could f###ing rot for all I care! I had done EVERYTHING right in my game,strategically I had played it sound,and in good spirits,then all of a sudden they appear right in the middle of my track network in central Europe and N.America,cutting off nearly all my supply.I had seen no signs of these Starghosts,had no research to conduct after completing it all,I EVEN rebuilt those damn labs to make sure I had done it all,another waste of bloody time!.

I have no choice but to quit playing UFOAS before I tear out whats left of my hair.

I understand others have encountered similar problems and I would like to chat with some of these individuals.

On a final note,I hope to see some of you again next February,on what I hope to be better terms,and with a game that can finally be called "worth the money"

I mean what else am I supposed to do?! keep playing this shit until I am shitting in my nappy due to old age?! no way man,I am going to start playing some other game/s for a while.I might even start playing return to Castle Wolfenstein again,which in MY opinion deserves the title "great game".As far as strategy and tactics go I think Silent Hunter III has to be up there with the best.

Cenega and Altar had better deliver the goods next February,or there is going to be some VERY angry folk sending them foul emails!.

 

See you next year!

 

 

Having just scoured this forum for ANY advice on this SERIOUS flaw I learned that because the Cult had no bases left,only 4 resource provinces this was the problem,and didnt trigger the next phase of the game.

Looks like I need to start again,only because I bloody LOVE this game really!! I AM CRAZY!!

[Crazy Gringo]

As much enjoyable the game is to play 2 patches from ALTAR just doesn't cut the mustard. The game is still bugged with the two patches applied.

If you didn't encounter the starghosts on the giant peanut in the sky or on the ground then you are doomed to play an neverending game and might as well start over. I had someone at ALTAR 'crack' my savegame so that I could finish it.

One question that could be raised about the bugs in Aftershock is if it has been 'abandoned' as in no more patches/fixes. And what is to blame for this abandonment? If it is UFO Afterlight then should we forgive then for not completing the work on UFO Aftershock?

As for UFO Afterlight it does look nice but if the bugs are around they better be prepared for some broadsides of flak from some angry gamers.

If you are going to start another game, Blueblood. Then do try out the Weapons rebalance mod....It is a real goodie.

My verdict is that the game is worth the money I spent on it. Despite it's 'unfinished'.

[Martian base commander]

Cheers for the support Gringo,its good to know others are as pissed off as me.Really though,what do these companies actually think we are?do we DESERVE this level of incompetence?! Thats all I want to say regarding companies,as im sure there are hidden agendas even 'I' don't understand.

I can't begin to tell you man how utterly upset and disappointed I am though,I had put SO much time and effort into my last game,about 3 bloody months!!

 

Anyhow,take it easy Gringo,and keep the guns blazing!

[Azrael Strife]

I might get it eventually, but I don't have high hopes for that one, to me they took a big step backwards and a big step forward at the same time with UFO: AS (dunno if they are now where they were at the beginning, but I don't think they advanced that much...).

Missions are awfully and tragically repetitive, I have the feeling I've done it all, combat has little variety, research is... boring, and I don't like how they force you to take more time to advance in the game by having the unupgradeable Laputa Lab, research in AM, while simpler (overall game was simpler) was far more interesting to me.

[Martian base commander]

I agree Azrael,as much as it hurts I agree.

The missions actually WERE starting to become tedious after a while.The research I thought was quite interesting in areas,however the autopsies were bland and not as detailed as I thought they should be.

Yet,SOMETHING is keeping me playing,could it be from my childhood?,a seasoned veteran of X-COM which has to be my most beloved game of all time!,am I trying to relive those days?

Something is keeping me going,I think its the inherant desire of all humans to explore,and to delve deeper into the unknown.

I must build this spaceship and get up there!!

[Azrael Strife]

I've had it with this game, I've deleted it today, I was assaulting the Wargot Mothership when I got completely bored out of my mind, that game is beyond me, I can find better uses for the harddrive space

[Martian base commander]

Azrael.

 

Did you encounter bugs in that Wargot mission,or were you REALLY bored?

Say,hard drives make great beer mats!

[NKF]

To me, they should've spent more time streamlining the game to improve its hardware performance and have their entire QA team sacked. I think this was just another case of focusing too much on the bells and whistles rather than the actual gameplay.

 

I don't see why it needs such awfully high specs to run. The combat and AI behaviour is so simplistic, and you hardly ever need to interact with the environment, much less destroy any insignificant bits of it that make little to no difference (like walls of corrugated aluminium walls needing the plasma shotgun to blast open). The extra levels don't add to the gameplay at all, and once you've played a few of each different type of map, you'll know how to play the rest. And the weapons? Too many redundant weapons or impotent weapons that take more effort to set up and use than what you get out of them.

 

Mind you, what little I have got out of it has been pleasing. I mean, they've got a few good ideas there, but all the let downs tend to nullify them. I just don't see myself ever replaying this game once I've beaten it. Mark my words, I will beat it - I don't want all the time I've invested in it to go to waste.

 

- NKF

[Azrael Strife]

Azrael.

 

Did you encounter bugs in that Wargot mission,or were you REALLY bored?

Say,hard drives make great beer mats!

Really bored. The only real bug I came across was a recurrent one in Geosphere. Light would literally come out of the geosphere through the seams in the Earth texture. Annoying.

I get sick of the monotony of the game, plus its insane loading times for a game that certainly does not justify them! I mean, it doesn't have state of the art graphics (luckily, it would prob take an hour to load, then), it's not that complex, I've played games with way superior graphics and loading times are well under the minute, this is just too much.

[Martian base commander]

I have to agree with you on the graphical issue,there are games out there with far superior graphics and more complex content.

For all the negatives of the game I still seem to like it,and iv'e had it since its release date.I think its down to being an ardent X-COM fan back in the 90's and the fact that I have'nt finished UFO yet and am eager to uncover new things,but with the army of bugs in this game I may be walking with a walking stick by the time that happens!

Just to finish with,I didnt get the Starghost trigger in my last game,which was HIGHLY infuriating!,I apparently wiped the Cult out too early leaving them with no base.Odd isnt it?,one would have thought that wiping the Cult out early doors would have given the player a distinct tactical advantage

[Azrael Strife]

Making the Cult unbeatable in that way is so lame, they could have had it done in a more... subtle way, for example, if you destroy the last Cultist province, INSTEAD of 3 more Cultist provinces popping on the map out of the blue, the system could generate a random number from, say, 1 - 3 instead of always 3, and have them capture your provinces not all at the same time so it's not so freaking obvious, I mean, what's even the point? They should have had a random chance of the Cultists capturing a low-knowledge province no matter whether you have destroyed all the cultist provinces or not, that way it would have been significantly more realistic and less lame. Just a personal rant, nevermind me

 

I'm an X-Com fan too! That's why I am eagerly waiting for UFO: Extraterrestrials! The game seems to be heavily based on X-Com, more than any of these... 'spiritual successors' have ever been, the video rocks, I can't wait and I'll keep my fingers crossed, cause UFO: ET seems like the last chance, UFO series are utterly disappointing, UFO: AL might be good, but I'm convinced these games will never be as good as X-Com.

[Martian base commander]

Yeah,its very unrealistic and annoying that the Cult can suddenly appear at WILL inside your fortress of territories and act like they are so "mighty" .The enemies are way too easy and predictable,I am really hoping the StarGhosts (if ever I meet them) live upto their...terrifying? description hehe.The developers I think would have made things better by making the Cult TRY and force their way past your frontier provinces instead,because you imagine,do you think the security forces guarding the border lands would let anyone in looking even SLIGHTLY out of place? take todays' mess for example with terrorists,guards and police are prepared to shoot someone for merely wearing a backpack! No way,totally unrealistic the Cultists!,they would be finished man,no funding,nothing!.

I have heard something about XCOM-ET but dont know a lot of details,I might scour the net for some stuff

As far as UFO-AL ? put it this way mate,if they f##k up next time I think they will be out of business.We pay good money and praise these guys only to be shit upon with a lice ridden disc!

I will give them the benefit of the doubt next time *fingers crossed* .

[Azrael Strife]

Take a look at this thread and watch the video, you'll like it.

[Martian base commander]

mm,not bad by the looks of it.Does sort of resemble the old X-COMs a bit,nice crisp graphics too.

I will have to look at the vid later,bit busy on UFOAS tonight

 

Cheers.

[Inviaible man]

Hello all.

 

I

[Slaughter]

I don't know for sure what the difference is exactly, but the modders here or at the official ALTAR forums can probably answer this. As for making the game more challenging, I'd suggest you try some mods from our files section (Advanced Missions, Total Rebalance and Martial Assault for instance).

[Inviaible man]

Thank you, Slaughter, but mmm.. It seems those mods are for UFO:AL and I

[NKF]

Assuming you're using the plain vanilla unmodded weapon set, most of the exotic weapons like the Katana and throwing knives/shuriken and what have you are very handy at the start, but I find they quickly become novelty weapons once the tougher enemies start to appear. In fact, sometimes to the point where they're ineffective. In the last third of the game, the appearance of the SG's render them almost useless.

 

Just to keep the game interesting, it is a lot of fun to build up a few experts in the various fields. The XM8 rifles tend to be universally accepted since they are consistently effective in any hands and quite deadly in those highly specialised in rifles. However, a really well levelled cyborg (lvl 20+) who put every single stat upgrade into a stat or field that boosts any particular ranged weapon skill will turn almost any ranged weapon into a lethal weapon, such as pairs of laser pistols that can out-gun Wargots.

 

Aftershock differs greatly from the X-Com games in that the battles are even more depressingly monotonous than X-Com's. It's always the same map or a minor variation of the same map. Enemies might be slightly randomised in placement, but your placement and your destinations (if present) are always at the same place. The X-Com games had randomised maps, and although the map block elements were the same, the randomisation forced you to change how approached the battle constantly as you wouldn't know where the crashed UFO was or what terrain features will block your access to it. The higher mortality rate also forces you to be more careful.

 

That said, Aftershock is still entertaining in its own way, the amazingly rapid changing strengths in the enemy forces keeps things quite interesting until you get to the repetitive bits where little story progression takes place. You'd just think that in this day and age, with all the advancements we've come so far in terms of game development that we'd expect a game like to this at least have some dynamic map generation system to keep things interesting.

 

- NKF

[Slaughter]

Thank you, Slaughter, but mmm.. It seems those mods are for UFO:AL and I

[Inviaible man]

Well, second impressions:

 

Fighting Wargots was fun. No repetitiveness nor such things you all complain about, EXCEPT for the damn missions in 2 parts, where you have to eternally bombard the enemy who is closed up in those small rooms and wan

[Inviaible man]

OK I have not finishe dit yet and I don

[NKF]

The repetitiveness mentioned earlier is that the fights are almost always the same. How many of the enemies rush at you at the same time or which direction they appear may vary slightly depending on their placement at the start of the battle. Otherwise it's the same mission on the same map over and over again.

 

Using small squads is easy. Stick to your main 7 active team members and a small team of reserves. Don't get too many or else you'll spread the experience out over too large a number of soldiers. I'd recommend up to but not more than 7 extras.

 

Try to make as many of the main squad members attend every battle. This way, even if they don't actively participate in the battle, they'll keep earning experience. The better they get, the less injury they willl receive and the faster they'll take down their opponents.

 

By the time you get a weapons master of a very high level, you can easily ace all the battles with just the one or two soldiers. Even then, you'd best fill all the slots anyway so everyone will keep steadily rising in levels.

 

- NKF

[Inviaible man]

I installed weapon rebalance mod and now it seems more interesting, if not too tough. I already have warp weapons, so it is not so hard, but I m thinking what it would be to fight SG without them...

 

Now I need to know how to edit my savefiles to correct the new armor slots, etc. and the link shadowarrior provides to the forums is not functional, can you please tell me where are the instructions?

 

I will post this last elsewhere...

[Nicol.Bolas]

I liked the game a lot, but then again, I play no reloading. Unbeatable Cultists and slow laputa lab are the criticisms I agree with. I encountered no bugs, maybe the bugs people experience are due to excessive reloading, I wouldn

[NKF]

I doubt saving/reloading has anything to do with the bugs - if they happen, they happen. Heh, for me this game was so slow (on my hardware at the time) that using save/reload immortality was NOT an option - so technically I had to slog through the game on ironman whether I liked it or not just to beat it.

 

The unbeatable cultists aren't pleasant, but I think they may have done it this way on purpose as you do have to raid a cult temple to steal some techno thingymabob later in the game. It's merely a mechanism to allow aggressive players to still get the tech later on. About the only thing you could do about it is not attack the last cult-owned territory, and just work around it. The SG stolen territories on the other hand are worse. However they are preventable.

 

As for the bugs in general - install the most up-to-date patch and start a brand new campaign, and everything should be fine and dandy for the most part. At least in my experience it was.

 

- NKF