PC Zone, May 07, X-Com news item.

[Danial]

Anyway, it occurred to me yesterday that I have no idea how Psi would work in a first person view.

Being the FPS enthusiast I am, I've thought long and hard about the possible workings of an X-COM shooter. If it was a team-based game (which I assume it would be), using Psi would simply make the MC'd alien one of your team for a certain period of time. If lone-wolf style, I'd assume it would just make them an ally for a time.

[NKF]

Squad combat in the style of Battlezones I/II would be neat too - sans the tanks, of course.

 

Just thinking aloud here regarding psi implementation in an FPS (or TPS):

 

For panic, you would even have an area-effect panic wave that gets emitted for as long as there's psi energy. Aliens would drop their weapons and flee, or go berserk and shoot wildly. To counterbalance the area effect nature, perhaps its effects are slower or enemies must roll a psi defence roll for every panic wave.

 

Mind probing could be done in a similar fashion, but you get a readout of the hitpoints and a few other statuses of aliens caught in your field (i.e. floating hitpoint/mana bars like in most peon pumpers). More in-depth detail could be brought up by targeting specific units with the probe.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

I think Alliance was going to make units hallucinate, hence causing them to shoot into space or at their own units.

 

Hmm. It appears we still don't have what footage there was of that game in our files section... Time to start uploading, methinks.

[Danial]

Hallucinations are something I haven't seen done in a shooter. Could be an interesting feature.

 

I think I'd find the Mind Probe even more useless in a FPS than I did in the original

[Gimli]

Bah, silly me, I kept thinking that since the alien is being MC'd, you have to control him and so your MC guy remains stationary and is in danger of being shot. Nevermind, I shall go bang my head repeatedly against the wall somewhere.

 

NKF, did you think that for mind probing it would pause the game so you could read the stats in peace?

 

Anyway, I'm not opposed to an idea of an X-COM FPS, but I'd really like to see a game closer to UFO. Also, I would have a few conditions for such a game. First, that it doesn't run against anything in the previous games story-wise, it's barely connected as it is, hehe. Second, I don't want it to be just another run-of-the-mill shooter. There's plenty of those. I want different mission types, not just kill everything, but also for example protecting civilians, saving important scientists from the aliens' clutches, hacking into alien systems and so on. That would also mean your team wouldn't always consist of soldiers, but of scientists, engineers and medics as well, depending on the situation. I'd like it to be crammed with as many tactical options as possible, and the aforementioned different squads would add to that. Third, I want non-linearity. Often we are stuck in just one path, or if there are more paths they all have the same result. What I'd like to see is some influence from RPGs, in other words choice and consequence.

So for example, you could choose to not go onto a mission where the aliens are transporting an important piece of technology on their ship, but if you do, it would mean you'll have a harder time fighting them later. Or you could choose not to "remove" the head of Transtellar who is under alien control, but that would result in resource (Elerium) problems. In other words, I am speaking of choices executed with actions. While you would be able to approach each of these in more than one way and the results may vary, you could also make a non-action. And of course, you would not be forced into any of these missions, they are there to fill in the story and make your life a bit easier. Mind you, none of these would be as extensive as in an RPG, so not more than say 30-40 missions, possibly less.

Finally, base management is a must with all that goes with it.

 

Still, I'll point out again I would much rather have something like UFO, in other words a TB strategy, because that's why I love X-COM. But if you're developing an FPS, then you better make sure it's the best FPS there is.

 

EDIT: Being lazy as I am, do we have Interceptor videos uploaded? I've found some on YouTube yesterday, so I was wondering.

[Danial]

I'd still play a Strategy game if that's what they made, but I'd personally prefer a Shooter so I could get up-close-and-personal with the aliens I adored from the original UFO.

 

As far as the points you made, I whole-heartedly agree. Mixing up the mission types would make it much more interesting. As for non-linearity, I think Crysis will set a new shooter bench-mark for that. An example from that game is that you commandeer a VTOL and enroute to an ammo supply station, you hear a radio message asking for help with an alien attack on a patrol, Now, you can either continue on to the supply station, saving your own health and ammo, leaving the patrol to ultimately perish OR you can go and help them, finding a particular weapon in the process that would not have been found normally until later in the game. So each action has it's pros and cons.

[Knan]

Hallucinations are something I haven't seen done in a shooter. Could be an interesting feature.

 

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth have hallucinations. Or at least panic and semi-insanity.

 

Which reminds me, I should get hold of that sometime...

[Danial]

I have CoC:DCotE, but its hallucinations are nothing more than semi-transparent pictures flashed up on screen for a few frames. It's not very exciting.

 

Changing a team-mates display model to look like an enemy would be much more fun. As would phantom models

[NKF]

Wasn't there a game not too many years ago where your character drifted between the dream world and real world and sometimes went insane and could not distinguish the two, only to find that the enemies killed were innocents?

 

Fun idea, but it would have to look very convincing (i.e. befuddle the player) or else all you'd end up doing is watch the behaviour pattern of the character to determine who they are. I mean, hulking half robot half monster with lots of rusty spiky bits walking about a garden watering flowers with a watering can is going to be a bit convincing. Or the group of girl guides shooting hot green balls of death at you out of a weird looking blasters would be dead giveaways.

 

- NKF

[Danial]

Wasn't there a game not too many years ago where your character drifted between the dream world and real world and sometimes went insane and could not distinguish the two, only to find that the enemies killed were innocents?

Sounds intriguing. Any more clues as to what this game might have been?