OldManBrian's notes

[Ruivoml]

Hey guys! I'm new here (well, new as in just registered.. since i do access these forums as read-only since 2004 i think..). Didn't find no place to introduce meself, but well there isn't much to talk about hehe. Played the original trilogy back in 97 back-to-back and skipped the other two. Still play the first three to date.

 

But since theres a new one coming out i felt this was as good a time as any to register and go around. So i did, to bring this from the 2k forums. It is a compilation of info from GI that a member named OldManBrian (not sure if he is registered here as well) posted there. So i'll quote as it is, since it isn't my post:

 

 

 

Sorry if this is unorganized, it is pulled from a bunch of different sources:

 

 

•Destructible environments

 

•In the scenario they showed, one member died. Because of this the other squadmates didn't get an experience bonus

 

•Without the bonus, the sniper leveled up still. He was able to choose from two abilities. Either Squad Sight(which means he can shoot anything a squadmate can see) and Snap Shot(which lets him shoot after moving. Something snipers aren't normally allowed to do)

 

•You can't recruit specific classes. You can only recruit rookies and then level them up to become specific classes

 

•The guys in suits in the screenshots are 'Thin Man' aliens. They're able to leap long distances

 

•Challenge is stressed a lot

 

•same quick save/load system though they are considering an iron man type mode where you can't load previous saves

 

•Firaxis states that they're not rebooting it, they're re imagining it. Using the same core gameplay with modern technology, weapons, audiovisuals, etc.

 

 

 

 

There's apparently a 'Heavy Armed Mobile Cover Platform that serves as a powerful rock on which to anchor any tactical advantage' and you can directly customize the heavy troops armor and weapons individually.

 

THE VAST MAJORITY OF XCOM'S CONTENT COMES IN THE FORM OF PROCEDURUALLY GENERATED MISSIONS AND ENCOUNTERS, MEANING THAT EVERY PLAYTHROUGH UNFOLDS DIFFERENTLY. (Sorry for the caps, just quoting here.)

 

 

 

 

•randomly generated missions, terrain. Developer says you'll never play the exact same mission twice outside of a few story missions which feature in-game cinematics

 

•fog of war is confirmed. area starts off with darkness everywhere, and the average soldier can't see ☺☺☺☺

 

•enemy spawns are randomized

 

•mobile platform called SHIV; customizable for new chasis

 

•Sectoids and Mutons confirmed

 

•The base's screenshot is accurate. It is now a side shot instead of top down. You can also upgrade your base, like the satellite, with alien technology

 

•There was an example in one scenario where Japan had the laser rifle already developed before the invasion because they felt threatened, so that seems random.

 

•You have 16 countries in the funding council you need to keep happy. Some provide more money, but others, like Africa, provide more raw resources

 

•The sniper units have a grappling hook ability to get on top of buildings

 

•Gunners have a suppressing fire

 

•you can equip your xcom guys with all kinds of different guns. customization looks like a big deal

 

•Apparently there's some sort of cinematic view when your guys get killed. They didn't cite VATS or anything, so I doubt it's too in depth

 

•Unexperienced agents can panic, freak out, etc if something bad happens

 

•Firaxis designer states that the PC version will have an enhanced interface. He cites Dragon Age: Origins on PC and console as a big inspiration

 

 

 

 

•No black blobs in Firaxis's XCOM. The guys in suits are called "Thin Men" and they can use weapons, jump large distances, and puke disgusting goo.

 

•No action points. The game uses a move-and-shoot (or move-and-move) dynamic. They don't want people piddling around counting individual action points. Some will call this a concession to consolitis; others will call it useful streamlining.

 

•Soldiers gain perk-like abilities when leveling up; some examples given are, for a sniper, Snap Shot (move-then-shoot, not normally a sniper option) or Squad Sight (shoot any enemy anyone on your squad can see -- not sure of the rationale there....).

 

•Environments are destructible, as we would wish.

 

•Soldiers can still panic, but not to the point of wiping the squad. Likewise, you'll never get plasma-bombed right out of the carrier. They want to make the game more fair, and those were specifically mentioned.

 

•The strategic layer is extremely robust. You still need to choose which countries to send missions to, which offers of aid (in exchange for more protection) you'll accept from which countries, which alien technologies you'll research, etc. The back-and-forth between tactical and strategic play remains at the heart of the game.

 

•Overwatch, duck-and-cover, etc. are all still very much present, tactically.

 

•You can research vehicles, which take the place of a squaddie. They don't gain XP and when they are destroyed they are lost for good, but they provide serious cover and firepower. One example given is a mobile heavy weapons platform that serves as a good overwatcher for a tactical advance.

 

•Sectoids and Mutons are in. Cyberdiscs and Thin Men are also mentioned. Evidently psionics are also in.

 

•Aliens have their own special perk-like abilities as well.

Overall it looks really ☺☺☺☺ing fantastic and I am now DAY ONE.

 

 

 

The article specifically cites a sniper spending their entire turn to take an aimed shot for Massive Damage. Perhaps it's more accurate to think of the game as having only two action points per turn, for Move-Shoot, or Move-Move, or Aim-Shoot, etc.

 

Gus, like I said, overwatch is in the game. In, in, in the game. You definitely can set up squaddies who haven't used all their actions in a turn, such that they can do overwatch and shoot the instant something comes into view.

 

 

 

 

Reloading costs an action, so it is a tactical consideration. Ducking into cover is the main positioning mechanic they mention. They also mention supppressive fire as another mechanic -- your heavy weapons guy can lay down a barrage that can paralyze pinned units (e.g. remove their actions). Grenades are in, wounding is in. Generally it doesn't sound like there are fewer tactical options, but rather that the bookkeeping is simplified.

 

 

 

(This part was by the author of the GI article)

Apologies if the article was unclear, but the deal is that sniper rifles are unusual in that they take a full turn to shoot. You can unlock a move-shoot perk for snipers at some experience level, but your basic sniper rifle takes a full turn to fire.

 

Ammo is abstracted. You're assumed to be carrying enough clips to reload as much as you want, but it takes a turn to do so. Suppressive fire is crazy awesome, for instance, but it burns through ammo like a mofo so you're borrowing turns down the road to kick ass now.

 

Body positions - AIUI you are assumed to be kneeling behind partial cover etc. They didn't go into a ton of detail here. Personally that's a level of control granularity that I'm not concerned about preserving, so long as I have other awesome ☺☺☺☺ that I can do and creative tactics to explore. Which from what I've seen will not be lacking.

 

 

So yeah, you only have one base. Building different bases has been removed, but you still buy satellite coverage (the new radar) and build hangars for interception in different countries. Your single base is like way more crazy awesome than any base from the original, though, and presents lots of opportunities for more decision-making in terms of digging deeper as well as what kind of expansion facilities you add on (see the screenshot of the "ant farm" that we put online Monday).

 

 

------------------------------------------

 

Without a doubt, this game looks FANTASTIC! I'm worried about them saying they want to make the game more "fair" and toning down soldiers going berserk and whatnot, but still even with that this looks like it is going to be a great successor to the original!

 

Original post link!

 

 

EDIT: More stuff: https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...my-unknown.aspx

 

 

OOooohh

[FullAuto]

Welcome, good first post!

[Bomb Bloke]

Hiya Ruivoml, welcome on board! Thanks for posting that, a very interesting read!

 

I've gone ahead and moved your post out of the magazine cover thread, as it really branches away from screenshots and merits its own discussion.

 

So it really sounds like inventory management is flat out gone. Will be interesting to see how this plays out - will acquiring a single plasma gun really give you unlimited clips for the thing?! I'm guessing they'll play that off as "research = infinite manufactured items available right away", but still... hrm. Will it be possible to drag bodies around the battlefield? I guess they ditched that last one in Apoc and it wasn't missed too much...

 

"Squad sight" is a hilarious perk idea. Still, I'm not sure I like the idea of troops having too many perks to acquire in their lifetime; too many and they become "essential", and that drives save scumming.

 

The reboot vs re-imagining thing suddenly makes me think 2K's XCOM is going to be quietly forgotten. I'm suddenly wondering if it'll be released. Makes me feel sorry for them.

 

When I first heard of all this, I was mostly indifferent - figured I was well beyond caring. My inner fan-boy is starting to wake up, though, and I'm starting to think I'll buy this regardless of whether my computer will run it.

[Ruivoml]

Yeah the squad-sight thing.. I believe that the 2-TU thing might sound little, but if you look the area around the selected soldier that's a very big area he can move around in. And once he moves, one would assume that he would get another area entirely. That's generally how hex turn-based games work isn't? I remember a PC mech game where players could only move inside said area of hexes, but depending on the unit the area would be bigger or smaller. (EDIT: Missionforce: Cyberstorm. Remembered the name hehe)

 

Taking that into consideration, it might be that the normal, perkless unit are unable to shoot outside that area, so they wouldn't be able to shoot enemies their squadmates have spotted unless their area overlapped on the position that alien is in. And that might be where the "squad-sight" perk comes in handy.

 

 

 

Personally i wasn't too excited about the "only one base" thing. It might mean that the base won't be vulnerable to attacks the way they were in the original trilogy. And if the sattelite and the additional hangars aren't destroyable.. that will be too easy =(

 

 

 

And about wanting to keep perk-heavy troops... well.. the part where they emphasized that the "HWP" units would be "gone forever" when killed makes me wonder.. Does that mean that normal soldiers won't be gone forever when killed?

[Space Voyager]

Personally i wasn't too excited about the "only one base" thing. It might mean that the base won't be vulnerable to attacks the way they were in the original trilogy. And if the sattelite and the additional hangars aren't destroyable.. that will be too easy =(

Yes, there are elements that I do not love outright but hey, nothing is perfect.

 

I'd love to see the return of multiple bases and "real" ammo. Also having a satellite seems pretty weird considering whom you are fighting... This is not a ground-based enemy and satellite should be an easy target for aliens.

 

"HWP" units would be "gone forever" when killed makes me wonder.. Does that mean that normal soldiers won't be gone forever when killed?

I hope not. This may just mean that they can not be repaired.

[Bomb Bloke]

Taking that into consideration, it might be that the normal, perkless unit are unable to shoot outside that area, so they wouldn't be able to shoot enemies their squadmates have spotted unless their area overlapped on the position that alien is in. And that might be where the "squad-sight" perk comes in handy.

Yep, exactly. The joke is that this has been a point of contention over the years (there was even a little argument about it quite recently) - should X-COM units be allowed to take aim at targets that're too far away for them to "see"? This wraps that little question up quite neatly.

 

(Personally, I always thought the answer to that should be "yes" - you've got a system setup where troopers can report exact enemy positions to you, it makes sense that other units should be able to get the same info).

 

Personally i wasn't too excited about the "only one base" thing. It might mean that the base won't be vulnerable to attacks the way they were in the original trilogy. And if the sattelite and the additional hangars aren't destroyable.. that will be too easy =(

I'd hope it means that losing the base is an instant game over, as opposed to "no base defense missions". But when I look at the size of the base we've been shown, I'm somehow doubting we'll be expecting to battle right through it... It'd be quite manageable if we only have to worry about the actual entry points though, as in the original game.

 

There's also the matter of getting your troops all around the world. Being limited to one base significantly reduces your ability to efficiently reach certain areas of the globe - being able to readily protect the whole planet was much of the point of making extra bases, even if we tended to fill the things up with extra workshops. Perhaps the outposts can at least be assigned hangars/troop quarters?

 

And about wanting to keep perk-heavy troops... well.. the part where they emphasized that the "HWP" units would be "gone forever" when killed makes me wonder.. Does that mean that normal soldiers won't be gone forever when killed?

Yeah, you'd think it easier to repair a vehicle then a corpse, wouldn't you? Could be they mean you can't make/buy more, but that doesn't make much sense either.

[Ruivoml]

Going a little off-topic, i think it would be awesome if we would be able to indeed "repair corpses" hehe. Or more to the point: Research, adapt and use the alien cloning technology to clone lost soldiers that were battle-hardened veterans by using their dead corpses. It's quite ugly alright.. but.. hey... War is ugly =)

[Thorondor]

Research, adapt and use the alien cloning technology to clone lost soldiers that were battle-hardened veterans by using their dead corpses. It's quite ugly alright.. but.. hey... War is ugly =)

Don't know if you realise it, but you're taking a page right out of Total Annihilation there:

A murderous war began. ARM developed high-powered combat suits for its soldiers; CORE transferred the minds of its finest soldiers into deadly machines, duplicating its best fighters thousands of times over. ARM countered this by using cloning. The war raged on, consuming the resources of the entire galaxy, and leaving most of it a scorched wasteland.

So, do you want us to start the research?

 

Quite a bit of neat info from OldManBrian.

 

The picture we're getting seems quite promising, and the simplicity of the '2AP' system in particular is clever; both because it's a good abstraction (it's true that the vast majority of the time in the original games we either move, shoot or reload/prime stuff, or we don't and save up APs for overwatch), one that is very easy to learn, and a well-tested system in wargames/boardgames (and even P&P Dungeons & Dragons [actions, etc]).

 

I think it will work well enough, and lower the barrier to entry even.

 

There are some things which I'm not as convinced with, however, especially in moving towards an RPG-like perk-oriented class system for troopers.

 

Sure, recruits start classless and it's up to you to build them up as you prefer (probably by looking over their starting stats) so 'customising' them, as well as the equipment they carry, but Bomb Bloke's point is indeed a valid one - an experienced soldier here will actually be a custom-perked soldier, not just a ranked one with honed accuracy or throwing ability, and getting such a trooper killed can have their individual worth weigh more than would be desireable.

 

Not exactly a show-stopper in itself, but it is somewhat indicative of a leaning towards a more 'party-oriented' squad. And what happens to the deceased's gear? Is it lost too? Or maybe it's not possible for any of your other 'party/squad members' to use his custom armour and weaponry.

 

This could be partly countered by slowly building up two teams - a main one and a secondary - with members of one being redundancy backup for the other's, but, in the end, that's still a player's "workaround" to what's essentially a more RPG-ish core design where you'll have to copy perk-structure to replicate a soldier.

 

Squad management and the presence of people adept in specific roles in a squad are fine, but a class-slanted implementation can and will affect the 'meta-game' and reload potential.

 

Another issue already brought up is the single base, which naturally impacts response times depending on where it is situated and so limits your effectiveness in certain areas of the globe more than others, unnecessarily, I would say.

 

Even if initial base "placement" is allowed to the player, most people will inevitably end up putting it nearest to the largest possible congregation of most substantial funding countries to improve their starting conditions, making it mostly a moot point.

 

Another substantial side-effect of the 'uber-base' take is that it makes X-Com as a whole more vulnerable, seeing as taking out a single location will effectively put an end to operationality.

 

::

 

And, by the way, welcome to active posting, Ruivoml.

[ShadowBlade]

This is all very good information. Lots of interesting ideas in there. I like some more than others, but it's still all very interesting, and we'd have to see things in practice to fully understand them. Now onto speculation on specific points that jumped out to me.

 

Satellite coverage's the weirdest from my point of view. If there's anything X-COM doesn't have in the face of an alien invasion is space superiority. Satellites would be far more vulnerable to UFO attacks than radar sites, but I guess sats are "cooler" than radars these days. Seems you can acquire coverage from individual nations, and if that were up to me, I'd say it's radar coverage, which would be functionally the same in game terms.

 

Ammo abstraction's debatable. I don't remember ever running out of rifle/pistol ammunition in UFO/TFTD, so I don't think I'd mind if we were to have "unlimited" ammo for small arms. That said, larger weapons with traditionally limited, more precious rounds (like rocket launchers, autocannons and later BBLs) should make use of some ordnance accounting. I can't really accept heavy weapon troopers firing rockets every other turn.

 

About having a single main base, well, as far as my personal experience goes, I always had a single primary base in the old games and secondaries generally acting as listening posts or airbases. And that latter capability's maintained since we can purchase additional detection coverage and place hangars for interception in funding countries. Of course, those options would likely be reduced if the aliens successfully managed to infiltrate governments, but I don't see any problem with that. As for base defenses, well, we don't have any information either way, but I doubt they'd leave your HQ untouchable nor overly vulnerable.

 

As for the worth of the individual soldier and their more RPG-likeness, I'm not seeing any major problems there. Sure, there'll be less expendable perk-heavy troopers, but in the original games a guy with high stats was just as precious. Perks come with levels in UFO:EU, so they should come hand-in-hand with stat increases (we're not sure if actual actions add to that yet; I hope so). I don't see classes as a bad thing: we don't have much info on that aspect so I can't say more, but I do see them as an useful way to prevent extremely experienced soldiers from being able to do everything in a godlike fashion.

 

Regarding story missions: I don't mind a small handful of them, but what I definitely wouldn't like is a long chain of missions that'd make the randomized content feel secondary and lackluster. I'd keep the number quiet low and give them a unique context but jazzed up with randomness so that we don't have to tackle the same Cydonia game after game.

 

And about soldier mortality and the like, well, we're mostly blind here, but I could tolerate the devs tweaking certain things to make the game easier as long as there's multiple difficulty levels to please us all. Say, one of the things I'd do is make it so a trooper can be either incapacitated or KIA when shot down, and link the probability of each conclusion to the difficulty setting. That way a random newb player with low tolerance for challenge can enjoy the game on Very Easy without becoming frustrated since his guys are only being knocked out, and a grizzled veteran can savour KIA after KIA on Hard. Accessibility with smart compromise.

 

Finally, among the less controversial things I really like are suppressive fire and "body positions" (which I guess adds prone to kneeling and standing alternatives), which open more tactical avenues to exploit. In addition, I reckon it's great that we'll be able to interact with founding countries a lot more than in the original game, in which they were mostly a monthly cash figure, and that each nation can contribute in different ways.

[Ruivoml]

Don't know if you realise it, but you're taking a page right out of Total Annihilation there:

 

So, do you want us to start the research?

 

Quite a bit of neat info from OldManBrian.

 

The picture we're getting seems quite promising, and the simplicity of the '2AP' system in particular is clever; both because it's a good abstraction (it's true that the vast majority of the time in the original games we either move, shoot or reload/prime stuff, or we don't and save up APs for overwatch), one that is very easy to learn, and a well-tested system in wargames/boardgames (and even P&P Dungeons & Dragons [actions, etc]).

 

I think it will work well enough, and lower the barrier to entry even.

 

There are some things which I'm not as convinced with, however, especially in moving towards an RPG-like perk-oriented class system for troopers.

 

Sure, recruits start classless and it's up to you to build them up as you prefer (probably by looking over their starting stats) so 'customising' them, as well as the equipment they carry, but Bomb Bloke's point is indeed a valid one - an experienced soldier here will actually be a custom-perked soldier, not just a ranked one with honed accuracy or throwing ability, and getting such a trooper killed can have their individual worth weigh more than would be desireable.

 

Not exactly a show-stopper in itself, but it is somewhat indicative of a leaning towards a more 'party-oriented' squad. And what happens to the deceased's gear? Is it lost too? Or maybe it's not possible for any of your other 'party/squad members' to use his custom armour and weaponry.

 

This could be partly countered by slowly building up two teams - a main one and a secondary - with members of one being redundancy backup for the other's, but, in the end, that's still a player's "workaround" to what's essentially a more RPG-ish core design where you'll have to copy perk-structure to replicate a soldier.

 

Squad management and the presence of people adept in specific roles in a squad are fine, but a class-slanted implementation can and will affect the 'meta-game' and reload potential.

 

Another issue already brought up is the single base, which naturally impacts response times depending on where it is situated and so limits your effectiveness in certain areas of the globe more than others, unnecessarily, I would say.

 

Even if initial base "placement" is allowed to the player, most people will inevitably end up putting it nearest to the largest possible congregation of most substantial funding countries to improve their starting conditions, making it mostly a moot point.

 

Another substantial side-effect of the 'uber-base' take is that it makes X-Com as a whole more vulnerable, seeing as taking out a single location will effectively put an end to operationality.

 

::

 

And, by the way, welcome to active posting, Ruivoml.

 

 

Hmm true, there's another source. I was thinking more along the lines of the Templar One novel from EVE Online fiction. But in the original mythos i think its funny how nobody ever used or even talked about cloning tech they got from the first '99 aliens. It would have naturally been available to them from day one of shooting down a supply ship.

 

 

About the base thing, they've mentioned you will be able to buy or rent hangar space in several countries to use as outposts. If you will have some sort of management of those outposts is unknown at the time though. We're also not sure if the main base will be vulnerable to attacks or not.

 

Its also not known if it will be possible to have the same number of soldiers we had in the originals, where you'd bring all soldiers you could carry and have them all take a stroll when only one alien was left.

 

 

Anyway i think some of that stuff will be easelly moddable, considering that Firaxis allows modding in games like Civ V and such.

 

 

 

And thank you =)

[Ruivoml]

Added another link to the OP. Only two things to say:

 

 

"Oooohh"

 

and

 

"Insectoids!?!?!"

 

By the way i think thats supposed to be a Muton

[Ruivoml]

Even more info:

 

 

Hmm. Perhaps that's what those little ticks on the little info readouts next to each soldier represent? Though that would give the Slendermen fewer hexes to move, but then again, perhaps they leap several hexes at once? We'll have to see how this all works.

 

[EDIT]: And some more from gameinformer, this time via RPGCodex. Forgive me if this was posted already and I didn't spot it, I'm feeling rather drained:

 

'The PC Difference - XCOM obviously has deep PC roots and a hardcore fanbase with strong feelings about strategy franchises moving to consoles. It's natural for them to worry about a game like XCOM being dumbed down during the transition from keyboard to gamepad. Everything that Firaxis has shown so far indicates that any 'dumbing down' is limited solely to removing over-designed rules. For example, the original's Time Units have been removed for a simple move+action (or double move) for each unit. The idea is to let players still make the same decisions - move here, shoot that - without having to precisely calculate steps taken and type of shots fired in order to optimize that final five percent of combat effciency. And fear not, PC players - Firaxis is planning to take advantage of the platform's unique capabilities to provide an enhanced interface. Lead designer Jake Solomon uses DA:O as an example of what he wants to happen with XCOM. He suggested a zoomed-out full-map view of the tactical map as the kind of feature that PC players can expect that might not make it into the console versions. Finally, if you're an XCOM devotee from the old days, take comfort in the fact that the hardest difficulty is simply called Classic Mode.'

 

Other notable gameplay changes mentioned: no more Aimed/Snap/Auto shots, but there are two special abilities you can choose between at each level up that add more actions (the example is a choice the sniper gets: 'Squad Sight which lets him fire at any enemy a squadmate can see, or Snap Shot which lets him take a quick shot after moving, an ability normally restricted from sniper rifles).

 

Oh yeah, there are classes; the ones mentioned are sniper, support, and heavy. Rookies don't come with their class identified, you have to level them up to find out which they are. Weapon clips are gone but you still need to reload, it doesn't say if there are infinite reloads but you no longer manufacture or load clips onto the Skyranger.

 

The 16 individual countries will each have demands and assign missions - the article mentions Japan requesting a shipment of laser rifles as a reaction to XCOM not protecting their territory, and Africa as being a poor continent but rich in raw materials needed for manufacturing (each continent will have a bonus). The missions are mostly procedurally generated, but there are specific "tentpole scenarios that take place at certain points in the narrative. These come in several forms, from in-game cinematics showing the growing alien threat through the lens of human newscasts to setpiece tactical battles. Firaxis hopes to use these moments to create some semblance of overarching narrative despite the strategic layer being completely player-driven... Firaxis insists that its tactical AI as well as the unique capabilities and squad compositions each player will bring to them will maintain the game's integrity."

 

When a soldier is killed by a destructive enough weapon, "his equipment is so badly damaged that it can't be salvaged." Environments are destructible, and suppressive fire is in the game - the example is a heavy pinning down a Sectoid, denying it a turn during the aliens' turn. There are pictures of Sectoids, Mutons, and Cyberdiscs, which are fairly faithful to the originals, although cyberdiscs also come in spiderlike forms. Sectoids can use their psionic abilities to link up with each other to increase their effectiveness, but killing one will kill any others it is linked with. Mutons have Blood Call, "a battle cry that excites surrounding Mutons into a kind of animalistic fury.

 

Finally, the gay hipsters are called Thin Men. "The Thin Man is strikingly similar to the Slender Man myths. It may be that some morphogenic race has been secretly studying humanity, and has sent these human facsimiles to Earth as spies. Unnaturally tall and slender, Thin Men are not perfect replicas.... Once engaged in battle, a Thin Man will perform acrobatic maneuvers unlike any human. Thin Men are capable of covering large swaths of ground in a single bound. Snipers should be wary of their ability to jump up several stories in a single leap. Once engaged in close quarters, the Thin Man unhinges its jaw and vomits forth a spray of corrosive putrescence... upon expiration, a Thin Man will explode in an acid shower damaging nearby equipment and field personel."

 

I have no idea why they chose to feature the Thin Men in the first released screenshots - there are about 30 and those are easily the worst. The tactical view is moveable from a bird's eye 70 degree view to ground level behind/to the side of the soldier. The picture of the geoscape is incomplete, it only shows the globe. The base screens seem similar - the example is a research screen, with a list of topics and a scientist presumably moving in the background. Soldiers are indeed clad in Gears of War style armor, but both soldiers and aliens are drawn in a very clean comic style reminiscent of the animated cinematics of the original (or the Firaxis house style circa Civ V).

 

 

So would the move+move refill your "hex bar" once, but then you can't fire?

 

Link: https://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?1...979#post1492979

 

Over 30 alien species...

 

Also didn't noticed, but indeed the armors are reminiscent of the original intro cinematic. (without looking ridiculously comicky, as they were)

 

The description of the thin-men doesn't makes one think this game will be a stroll around the park in the harder difficulties. And about the hardest one being called classic mode.. well.. classic mode in what difficulty level? Beginner? Superhuman!? hehe

[Pete]

I hope they reveal the Chrysalids last - that would be the ultimate tease

 

Loving all this, and thanks for taking the time to pull it all together!

 

I'm thinking of the perks and levelling system in terms of Silent Storm more than anything, and that's a good example really. Basically what this is adding that SS didn't is that your soldier is a blank slate and you get to choose their career path in addition to their expertise. If done well, this can actually give you far more of an attachment to your squad than the original ever did, which would be excellent

[Space Voyager]

If done well, this can actually give you far more of an attachment to your squad than the original ever did, which would be excellent

True. Unless they go down the UFO:Afterlight path where you have to reload practically every time you lose a soldier. If there are enough available rookies it is ok.

[Thorondor]

Another great deluge of yummy XCOM: EU info!

 

Over 30 alien species...

Are you sure they're not actually refering to a batch of 30 screenshots ?

 

::

 

Thanks for reporting back on the good stuff, Ruivoml!

[Bomb Bloke]

"Classic" difficulty? Well, in the original game difficulty locked itself to "beginner" after the first mission, so I doubt they're thinking of a great challenge...

 

More seriously, what I suspect is that the game will play something like Apoc, where soldiers could reliably take a decent level of punishment without being killed (well, up until the aliens started using Devastators, at least), but I'm sorta doubting the "main game" is going to see a lot of one-shot-kills - odds are "classic" mode will re-introduce those.

 

The classes thing sounds a little odd. They make it sound like they're pre-determined - a rookie will be class such-and-such, but you don't get to find that out until they "level". Surely a guy who's suitable for carrying heavy weapons will easily be distinguishable from a decent scout right off the bat?! Or perhaps I haven't been paying enough attention to the screenshots and videos (seriously, I'm lazy, it's faster for me to just read stuff) and all soldiers will have the same "hulk" build. :S

 

So let's say you get randomly assigned troopers of diffferent classes. Two ways that can be handled - either randomly, in which case you might get screwed by being handed a whole squad of eg snipers (squad sight would be fairly useless with no decent scouts!), or the game gives you what you're short on (in which case losing your leveled heavy guy means that the next "unidentified rookie" you get... will be a heavy guy).

 

Of course, the section on classes might be poorly worded - I can't see any good reason not to handle it like the original, where shooting leads to better accuracy, shooting aliens on their turn led to better reactions, and so on. (Putting aside psi: accuracy, reactions and TUs were THE three main stats worth anything. Anything else could either slide, or would be boosted over the course of raising those three).

 

While a good UFO trooper was a jack of all trades, you get what I mean - the "blank slate rookie" you assign to the rooftops shouldn't turn out to be a scout.

[Ruivoml]

In one of the screenshots of one of the soldiers in the concept art video, the soldier is called "Medium Soldier", so the models for light, medium and heavy soldiers might be different.

 

I hope we can recruit rookies like i did in the original EU. recruit 30, and fire all who don't have TU + Accyracy over 60 and good reactions. Which would leave me with 6 or 7 good recruits.

 

In apocalypse you would get three to four available per week but didn't matter, because they were harder to kill as you mentioned.

 

And yeah.. he probably meant 30 screenshots... I read it too fast and i thought that he meant that "Out of 30 aliens the thin mean are easelly one of the worst". What with carrying all alien weapons, leaping whole buildings and vomiting corrosive acid up close. That sounds bad ass.

 

 

EDIT:

 

Some clarification i've found

[Hobbes]

"Insectoids!?!?!"

 

Actually I think that name predates the original game as a part of UFO folklore/conspiracy theories. The Gollops simply took a lot of those theories and adapted them to the game, thus we have (in)Sectoids.

[Pete]

Actually I think that name predates the original game as a part of UFO folklore/conspiracy theories. The Gollops simply took a lot of those theories and adapted them to the game, thus we have (in)Sectoids.

 

Which actually makes sense if you look at the original Enemy Unknown cover art with the big hovering bug-like aliens with guns for arms.