X-COM: Resurrection

[Gimli]

OK, people, now you're typing too fast.

Well, I spoke against this in Aftershock. Aftermath had a HUGE amount of weapons, and most of them were way too similar. 10 assault rifles that are more or less identical in stats and function are useless in my opinion. I know there are different opinions on this, but I think it's much better in Aftershock (using these games as example since it's a little fresher in my memory). UFO: EU could have used more weapons, I agree with that, but I still find differentiation in weapons more important than quantity. What's the point in having lots of weapons you never use?

 

Well, let's not use Serious Sam as a measure for what is realistic wink.gif. Still, your point is valid. Silent Storm (yeah, I know wink.gif) let's you burst, but accuracy gets worse with every shot. Just like real world (I've been in the army). You can easily burst a 20 bullet magazine, but it's really no use. You're guaranteed to be way of target long before you empty the magazine. Might be a little different with weapons like M60, since it's much heavier, but remember that you have to CARRY the ammo as well...

 

I agree with both. Yes, Serious Sam was a drastic example, should have used something better.

 

You have to remember the difference between personal armour and vehicle armour. The weapons used against ships are huge and powerful compared to the weapons soldiers carry. A grenade against the ship would be like throwing a water balloon at a car. Not saying that personal weapons couldn't damage the ship, but a laser cannon at a ship has tremendous power compared to a laser rifle carried by a soldier.

 

Edit: You really type too fast.

 

*removed*

 

100 000, I doubt it. Seriously! (fansite for Serious Sam, I know , but I post there a lot) tried to raise a measly 1000$ for a server upgrade and barely got 500$. They have ~12 000 members. But like you said, anything is possible. Maybe we should somehow test the waters for that, first.

 

If Nival has that many people working there... they're my candidate too. It's not uncommon though that teams get additions from the old developer team (Prince of Persia), maybe they'd be willing too. Do you know if there are fans of X-COM there?

 

 

What I meant was, you could destroy the walls of UFOs (with a blaster launcher), so why not Skyranger. But this really isn't important, I certainly won't loose any sleep if others want the Skyranger to be there.

I agree. But terrorists are often controlled by aliens I think? Therefore some of them might act smart based on the directions from the aliens.

 

Yes, definitely.

 

RPG all the way, I personally love RPGs, and agree with you, it would make your squaddies specialists, which would be cool to watch, especially later in the game.

 

As for TB/RT, I'm also pretty certain one of them will get sacrificed, personally I can go with either one, under the condition that it's done properly.

 

A few things I forgot: Formations, no need to explain this. Maybe add more research as far as capturing live aliens go. To make the live ones more valuable. But with some hints, I remember abandoning TFTD for some time, until I found out about the Lobsterman Navigator thing.

 

Finally, the story, it would be best that if we want some things differently, that they don't go against what is already there, but to try and find a solution which will be able to go with both the original and the change. So it's best just to add where there are "holes", meaning things that weren't explained and so on. For example adding the "Alien language" to the research, although I wouldn't like this example really there (to leave it for sequels).

 

I realized a lot is already there in other games, but I still don't have them, otherwise I'd probably not mention those.

 

I am pretty certain a lot of things will get canned, except in the extremely lucky case that there is a big enough team.

 

I'm willing to devote all my spare time for this, because X-Com is my favorite game, and I hope there will be others, too.

Edited December 14, 2005 by Slaughter

[Slaughter]

The Gollops are still very interested in making turn-based squad level strategy games.

Yep, in an ideal world I'd like to have them working with the Nival team and a dedicated publisher. We'll contact them soon enough and see. Might be hard to convince them to go to Russia however

[Gimli]

With high-speed internet and other technologies, maybe they won't have to go there except, when they need to have meetings. The rest they could do over video conference thingies.

 

Edit: Oh, yeah, I edited my two previous posts, in case you missed it.

[FullAuto]

No Dave Ellis. Keep the man out of it.

[Slaughter]

100 000, I doubt it. Seriously! (fansite for Serious Sam, I know , but I post there a lot) tried to raise a measly 1000$ for a server upgrade and barely got 500$. They have ~12 000 members. But like you said, anything is possible. Maybe we should somehow test the waters for that, first.

Hehe, yeah, $100 000 is a VERY HIGH goal. But let's keep in mind that giving money to the development of your favourite game and a fan-site is two different things. Fan-sites come and go, games last forever (or until there are no PCs to play them on ).

 

If Nival has that many people working there... they're my candidate too. It's not uncommon though that teams get additions from the old developer team (Prince of Persia), maybe they'd be willing too. Do you know if there are fans of X-COM there?

Fans of X-COM where? In Nival?

[Gimli]

Yes, Nival, that's what I meant.

[Slaughter]

Yes, Nival, that's what I meant.

Well, I would be very surprised if there wasn't. Did you see the post here? This is one of the Nival programmers toying around with the Silent Storm engine. Nival has developed Silent Storm, Silent Storm: Sentinels, Hammer & Sickle (well, not Nival) and Night Watch on the Silent Storm engine, and they are all turn-based. They asked Ubisoft to be allowed to develop the next Heroes game, and it is also turn-based. With so many turn-based fans in their ranks, I'd be mighty surprised if most weren't X-COM fans.

 

EDIT: I've spoken to one of my contacts in Nival. He confirms that most of the Nival team are X-COM fans, and that many team members would be very interested in developing a new X-COM game

[uriaheep]

Finally, the story, it would be best that if we want some things differently, that they don't go against what is already there, but to try and find a solution which will be able to go with both the original and the change. So it's best just to add where there are "holes", meaning things that weren't explained and so on. For example adding the "Alien language" to the research, although I wouldn't like this example really there (to leave it for sequels).

 

I once designed a table top wargame based on X-Com and brought in a sideline story. It sort of went on the lines of a further intelligence above the level of the aliens in the first game. A tougher set of aliens that had almost enslaved the others. It didn't reach production stages as Space Hulk was on the drawing boards at the same time but I still own all the copyrights to it.

 

It may lend itself to this.

[Mouse Nightshirt]

EDIT: I've spoken to one of my contacts in Nival. He confirms that most of the Nival team are X-COM fans, and that many team members would be very interested in developing a new X-COM game

 

If that's the case, then a combined fan/developer "plea" could work wonders. If a large contingent of fans as well as a successful developer like Nival were to go to 2k with a plan, then very possibly it could work.

[Gimli]

OK, I've been busy for the last few days, but now I can finally start doing something.

 

In the meantime, I did a little investigation. From what I've seen, Take 2 is listed everywhere as the owner of the rights to X-COM. However, further researching seems to imply that Firaxis indeed does have X-COM, but I assume that since Take 2 is the formal owner of the rights, Firaxis gets some sort of license from Take 2 to develop the game. To confirm this, I've noticed that the same thing goes for Civilization. Take 2 is the formal owner, but Firaxis develops it. To conclude, from the info I have, I am 99.99% sure that Firaxis holds X-COM. I won't reveal my sources publicly right now, I'm not sure it's a very good idea, I need some time to see if there are any bad sides to posting this publicly.

 

In the meantime, I have to try and get some interviews done, and try to dig up an e-mail of someone in Take 2/2K Games. I don't want to speculate right now on Take 2/2K or Firaxis, I'll hold on to my comments right now. We'll get a clearer picture if we can contact them and get some sort of response.

 

Does anyone know if there are some official forums for Civilization and Pirates? Is anyone a member of those?

 

I've remembered that I saw a trailer of Heroes 5 awhile ago, so I looked at it again. So I'm wondering if Nival did that animation on it's own, or did they get some company to do it for them? It is common lately to get other companies to do animations for you, one of the recent examples being Relic who hired Blur Studios to do some animations for them (though I've only seen the intro).

 

From what you guys told me, Nival seems to be the best choice right now. A team of 120 developers, who are also fans of X-COM, just can't miss IMO. And they are under Ubisoft, which says a lot, too, since Ubisoft has grown very powerful lately, with a lot of good games, and I doubt they'd publish Heroes 5 if Nival wasn't good.

[Zombie]

Does anyone know if there are some official forums for Civilization and Pirates? Is anyone a member of those?

The official website for Civilization is here. Nowhere does it show any official forums. The community link at the lower left has plenty of fan sites listed, but none seem to be sanctioned. Heck, even Firaxis doesn't have forums.

 

- Zombie

[Slaughter]

I've remembered that I saw a trailer of Heroes 5 awhile ago, so I looked at it again. So I'm wondering if Nival did that animation on it's own, or did they get some company to do it for them? It is common lately to get other companies to do animations for you, one of the recent examples being Relic who hired Blur Studios to do some animations for them (though I've only seen the intro).

 

From what you guys told me, Nival seems to be the best choice right now. A team of 120 developers, who are also fans of X-COM, just can't miss IMO. And they are under Ubisoft, which says a lot, too, since Ubisoft has grown very powerful lately, with a lot of good games, and I doubt they'd publish Heroes 5 if Nival wasn't good.

Heroes 5 is built on a modified version of the Silent Storm engine, and I am fairly sure Nival does the animations themselves. I can't confirm it however.

 

The asked Ubisoft to be allowed to develop Heroes 5, and I think Ubi were smart to accept . Time will tell however...

[Stun Grenade]

The official website for Civilization is here. Nowhere does it show any official forums. The community link at the lower left has plenty of fan sites listed, but none seem to be sanctioned. Heck, even Firaxis doesn't have forums.

 

- Zombie

 

Closest active and productve forums are:

Civ Fanatics with a tinge of Pirates

Addicted to Pirates

 

Editing to say that: Zombie, that url you posted is for an old version of a Fireaxis game. I seem to find 2K Games pop up.. which appear to be taken over Take Two lmao. It never ends..

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Any developments on the resurrection?

[Slaughter]

No, not really. I'll try to get in touch with the Gollops, but besides that I prefer to hold it off until the summer. This last semester at University is going to be a killer for me, so I really can't start this right now. If anyone else wants to have a go that's fine, but for me it has to wait until then. And whatever is done, it has to be done right. Starting something "half-hearted" is no good.

[Gimli]

Same thing here. The end of the semester is nearing, and things are not looking good for me right now. Maybe I'll get some time from mid February to the start of March, but not likely. This year is the most difficult, so I must pull through, they say after the second year it's relatively easy. :/

[Slaughter]

Same thing here. The end of the semester is nearing, and things are not looking good for me right now. Maybe I'll get some time from mid February to the start of March, but not likely. This year is the most difficult, so I must pull through, they say after the second year it's relatively easy. :/

They also tell you Santa is real...

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Everyone tells me the second year is easier. It has to be. I don't see how it can be getting any harder!

[Gimli]

That depends on the college/university/whatever. In mine, the second year is th emost difficult, because we have electronics, electrotechnics and so on, and most of these I will never see in my life again. Luckily in the third year, I get to choose my course, so I can finally get to what I went here in the first place, which is Computer Science, in other words, programming.

[Slaughter]

Well, I am at my second bachelor degree now. The first one was computer science, and I'm close to finishing my economics one now. The first year wasn't too interesting at either one, the second year got better, while the third is a blast (if anything school can be called that). Reason is that the first year is very generic, second is half-generic and the third is really interesting. But I promise you that the most interesting year is also the hardest year. Not necessarily because it IS the hardest year, but because you make it the hardest year. Most interesting = most work.

[Gimli]

Hmmm, now this is very interesting. A few days ago, my lawyer cousin was here, so I asked him if it was possible that the publisher holds the rights to a trademark, and then hires someone to develop a game -- well, actually, I asked about any kind of publishing, such as books etc. And yes, it would be possible for Take 2 to have rights to X-COM, and then give the license for developing to someone.

 

HOWEVER, today I read something that shed some new light on this. Take 2 recently BOUGHT Irrational games, which will be developing BioShock, a spiritual sequel to System Shock 2. And the site where I read this, also said that Take 2 BOUGHT Firaxis, which means that Take 2 actually does have the rights, not Firaxis. I wish I had more time, btu right now I'm on a pretty tight schedule, so I can't dig out anything. And there are a few things I have in mind, things that I should get information about, but it will have to wait, which is bad, because if we wanted either Firaxis or Nival to develop the game, we'd have to do something about it soon, otherwise they'll start a new project, and we'll have to wait at least another year or possibly 2-3 years for another chance, not to mention the game itself.

[Bomb Bloke]

So now Take 2 owns the rights! :mad:

 

We really need to set up a timeline page somewhere around here.

[Slaughter]

Righty, just a quick update to mention that Julian lends his support to the project . I'm going to E3 this year, in addition to writing my bachelor thesis on the future of turn-based games, so you can be sure I'll do my best to get this going. Still, it has to wait until summer for me.

[Azrael Strife]

Who's Julian?

[Slaughter]

Who's Julian?

Julian Gollop, creator of X-COM...