X-COM: Resurrection

[Snakeman]

For the first question, I say yep.

 

For the second, a couple of things I can think of right off the bat to make things easier on new gamers...

 

1) Tool Tips: I'm seeing these in a lot of new games. The concept being you hold your cursor over an icon, unit, map point of interest or menu item and see a short blurb about it in text form.

 

2) Tutorials: These have been staples to games a lot longer than the above for good reason.

 

3) Skirmish: Also not much of a staple as long as tutorials in games but has become a nice feature for playing scenarios out individually whether they came from actual campaign type missions, were standalone, or were user made and swappable to other players.

 

I'd like to take a moment to flesh out 2. Seems necessary for the kind of complexities fans are looking for in an X-COM Redux. And by extension, it makes 3 just as attractive.

 

It just seems very practical to me that if a remake of this kind of game were to adopt or expand upon old features, a tutorial is key, especially for new players your trying to attract til they get their footing.

 

- Diplomacy

- Research

- Manufacturing

- Inventory Management (what's on ships, in bases, in soldier backpacks)

- Gesocape actions and terrain manipulation through combat or other methods

- Battlescape actions and terrain manipulation through combat or other methods

- Weather effects (if it ever got this deep, a player may want to know how a particular weapon or unit is affected by weather effects). This could be tied to a basic unit movement/posture/weapon useage tutorial under the Battlescape heading.

- Component Management (tied to inventory management if "creation" of units is a possibility) - being free to improve or reinvent market items or researched items via smaller component tie ins. Tanks, ships, hand held weaponry or even base modules as well.

- Editor Tutorial - If we'd also like to have a way to create our own campaigns, stand alone scenarios for Skirmish, or to create for the purposes of exporting to players, other units, weapons or other tidbits such as terrain we created.

- Last but not least, Recruitment screening (as compared to the older original, a revamp is in order)

 

So as you can see, a tutorial for this kind of game is a must depending on how deep into things a developer would want a player to get with their product.

 

For 3 - Skirmish, it also seems just as necessary if not just a curtesey to players to want some quick hot seat action whether its just to play a game in a short time frame or to simply test out things made through editors and then exported.

 

Also it would be cool by way of testing out how units can move around in situations (like base attacks/defenses before they happen for example - during the design process for a base) to practice a given map before you get to put it in action. (i.e. how units interact with modules at bases essentially - from how corridor segments are aligned to defense installation placements to even the prepositioning of your units where you want them to be spawned or to test some module feature tied to bases - buttons that need pushing, motion or other sensor monitoring, or even for testing out how AI unit pathfinding can be balanced.).

[Luppo]

I could donate $1 and I would not even notice I donated something. So, if there were 100 000 people who wanted new XCom, it would be enough. Some people might even donate more (like $2-5), which reduces the amount of people needed - or gets bigger amount.

 

Interesting to notice that people are discussing about creating new XCom. I have also ideas about what I'd like to have in the game, but at least all the good elements of the first XCom should be included, of course.

[Gimli]

I'd like to say that a project financed by the fans is HIGHLY unlikely in my opinion. My main argument is that a lot of people do not have money or are not interested in donating, and the proof is at another forum. It took the admins a whole year to raise a measly 1000 $ for help donating money for a new server. Of course, this was just part of the server's cost. And this was a Serious Sam official fan forum with over 13 000 members and it is a "live" franchise. Secondly, donating 1$ has some problems, I think it has to do with tax, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the point is that unless you're donating at least 5-10$ it's not really helpful.

But finding an interested developer and convincing them to take the development is much more possible. However it would require an immense ammount of work to show them they would get a good enough support. Which means that not just the staff would work, it would be much stronger if as much people helped out as possible (and there are LOTS of things to contribute).

[Luppo]

Yes, I agree that getting donations is very hard. Some voluntary server maintenance cost may not be regarded as heroic act as getting to donate support for new much loved XCom production.

 

But, the donating hero for new XCom could be awarded a virtual medal, that he/she can wear in forum signatures or web pages. The golden medal could have text "Heroic supporter of new XCom" and it could have a link to XCom Ressurrection page. There would be a short description of the project and a way how to become a heroic supporter oneself, too. This way the word would spread all over the world and the project could get the $100 000 dollars easily. And, because the money goes to pay the project, it would be a kind of pre-payment for the game. So all who have the medal would get the game a dollar more cheaply. (Well, naturally everybody could say that they have the medal, but so what? A dollar is not much. You get more when you start selling the game. And those who really supported, would know in their hearts that they are the real supporters.) Anyway, there are currently also lots of pure donation sites all over the internet.

 

But surely this money collecting would need some effort. You would have to put up a web page and open a donations account eg. in PayPal or something. Then you would have to create the requirements list, get developers, contracts, and so on.

 

There exists many other projects (commercial and opensource) that try to create something like XCom was. So do we need XCom Ressurrection still, or can we be happy with the other projects?

[predator887]

Really miss X-Com, First game i ever played and never played any one better since.

 

anyway in terms of now what would i would absolutely love to see would be a First Person tactical Shooter, not just a blast like Doom 3 or Half life but a really intense atmospheric game that had the Xcom setting and atmosphere and the realism of a game like Rainbow six or Swat, where 1 shot could kill you . Im not talking about some cheesy sort of story of a life of an xcom soldier with a linear storyline where you get told where to go and its all based around you like in Call of duty or other games, maybe some sort of COOP online experience where a bunch of 10 or so players would disembark from the skyranger and have a map to clear (similar to the swat series or the rainbow six series but with Xcoms unique backdrop?. so for example you could have 5 players playing disembark from the skyranger, would be allowed to choose there kit and there would be a breifing premission, you would have really dark maps with fog and stuff to build up the teension and the great xcom music, you would have a big map that you had to clear with maybe farhouse and some feilds or whatever and that would be it but it would be extremely hard, you would have to use everything at your disposal to fight a very intelligent enemy like in original games, where even a small crash site can be lethal if you are careeles , you could clear it any way you like within the confines of the "board" like in the original. YOu would end up with clans having ranks and tactics set out and lots of custom maps, it would be great. THats what i would like to see in the next xcom but it would have to be executed very well and unfortunately games are becoming really poor nowadays so i wouldnt have faith in anyone yo do justice to xcom so it probably is better of that they dont even bother, they would just try to milk the name of Xcom for all its worth. I know that its not realistic that it would happen but thats just my idea of what i would love to happen because nowadays its all about what sells well and lets face it, people are more inrterested in running around like sociopaths with guns blowing each others brains out than playing intense tactical games that require skill to master

 

but thats just my 2 cents

[The Veteran]

Hmm... FPS and X-Com in the same post always bring me back to Enforcer. Go and check out the section on it here if you haven't heard of it before but it is technically a first person X-Com...

 

The kind of gameplay you're talking about seems to be more akin to email XCom than it does to Enforcer though. More of a MMORPG than a FPS (apologies for the random smatterings of abbrieviations [or alternatively AFTRSOA]) MAybe have both XCom troopers and the aliens with controllers, similar to battlefield say, but have no respawning and a lower survivability rate. As with the original games it would only take a few shots to kill a trooper or a grey. Keep that in motion maybe...

 

Personally though even if it were done well I'm not sure an online XCom in that style would ever win me over. I don't think there can ever really be another XCom period. When people say XCom was great what they really mean is UFO:Enemy Unknonw (or whatever regional variance they may have grown up with) was great. On the whole the rest of the series were never as good...

[Gimli]

You know, I've given this much thought lately - what I would do if I had the opportunity to get the license. And I can't find a good solution. There are three obvious options:

 

1) Remake(s)

2) Leave it alone, and not do anything

3) Sequel

 

The problem with first is that you're bound to get mixed reactions. If you don't change anything (cosmetic changes don't matter here), you'll be slammed by reviewers and a good deal of players. If you do change something, you're bound to turn some fans off, and for X-COM which is rather niche, that's bad. Even though the only change I would make now would be to add story missions to give more meat to the story. Each of these missions may or may not appear in the game, depending on your (in)actions. And you could ignore them, but that would yield consequences, and the same would be true if you successfully finished them. However I'm afraid it could ruin the balance of the game. Also, if you're remaking the first, do you remake the rest (excluding Enforcer )? Even more tough choices here, since the fan base is split over these. And if you're adding story to the first one, it is somehow expected that you do the same for the others.

 

Also, both Apocalypse and Interceptor could use a good deal of fixing, Apocalypse in the way of adding cut content, as well as putting more stress on the political side and the influence of organizations. Not just that, it was missing night missions, and had many other gameplay problems, most notably the broken turn-based mode. And there's another problem: TB or RTwP, or both? Going for both is difficult, I don't know any game that had done it successfully, simply because they mean a radically different approach to playing. That makes for difficult balancing. Then there's the design of aliens. While the organic design is good in theory, it really did look like The Muppet Show ™. So they would need to be redrawn, to make them look scarier. Also, I think I know why most of them looked so harmless. If you take a look at bipedal aliens in the UFO and TFTD tactical games, you'll notice that while colourful, they look more convincing because they look stronger, and that is because they're all muscle-y (is that a word?). If you added that to the ones in Apocalypse, it would make a huge difference. Lastly, even if you fixed all of these, it is still very tangential to the storyline, so it's difficult to fit it in.

As for Interceptor, I would assume it should look more like Freespace or Wing Commander, but to be honest, I haven't played those, So I am just assuming they work the way I expect them to, meaning mostly that they are non-linear. And even if you do it right, would fans play it since it's a space combat game?

 

The problem with second is that it would be a shame to leave a world so full of potential to gather dust. On the other hand, it makes sure it doesn't get any more "ruined".

 

The third is what I would opt for currently, though since I'm always thinking about it all, it may change any day. It seems to me that continuing the storyline as it was planned - through Genesis and perhaps Alliance - would be a good decision, it can be fit in well enough, and it would get the story back on track. The problem is that even if it did everything else like UFO, there is one significant difference, and that is that you are in the offensive in Genesis which could mean a very different approach strategically, and players may not like it. On the other hand, if it was done well, it could turn out to be a worthy sequel. But my biggest beef with this was that it still left a lot of the complete story relatively empty, and this does need fixing if we want a more believable setting. However, I've come up with a solution that I believe could be decent enough. Why not simply fill in the blanks through various short/long stories the way UFO and TFTD were somewhat connected (Decomissioning, Moray in the wreck etc.)? Not sure about the downsides of this though. I'll give it more thought and if I have anything else worth adding, I'll write it down.

[predator887]

Hmm... FPS and X-Com in the same post always bring me back to Enforcer. Go and check out the section on it here if you haven't heard of it before but it is technically a first person X-Com...

 

The kind of gameplay you're talking about seems to be more akin to email XCom than it does to Enforcer though. More of a MMORPG than a FPS (apologies for the random smatterings of abbrieviations [or alternatively AFTRSOA]) MAybe have both XCom troopers and the aliens with controllers, similar to battlefield say, but have no respawning and a lower survivability rate. As with the original games it would only take a few shots to kill a trooper or a grey. Keep that in motion maybe...

 

Personally though even if it were done well I'm not sure an online XCom in that style would ever win me over. I don't think there can ever really be another XCom period. When people say XCom was great what they really mean is UFO:Enemy Unknonw (or whatever regional variance they may have grown up with) was great. On the whole the rest of the series were never as good...

 

just because Xcom as a FPS was done badly in the past doent mmean it shouldnt be attempted again, I have my own idea of what would be great and im sure lots have other opininons but for me but im dead against having a battlefield type game, it woould have to be done well while keepoing the great atmosphere of xcom and having a similar setup to battlefeild just loses any atmoshere of the game, xcom is about smalll squad tactical combat against an equally small group of aliens no more than 50 strong but more often than not only about 5 aliens, so therere would be no need for respaewns, there is limited vehicles, no need to have battlefeilds eppic scale to it,so taking all these factors away and that sounds nothing like BF lol, it should be like the original xcom in that it is lethal, if you just rush forward without thinking you will be killed so i would be thinking about the coop experience of the rainbow six series as a template for the game and the aim should be to try to recreate the tactical missions of xcom original but from a 3-D and real time perspective.

 

As for the next gtame its not possible to keep it turnbased, that just wont appeal to enough people , and trying to compromise doesnt sem reasonable either, what im suggesting is similar to the way Swat 2 an tactical 2D game changed to Swat 3 which was the 3D Tactical shooter. Im not alking about doom or some other FPS im talking about a tactical shooter, as time moves on and computers get better games have to change also

[The Veteran]

As for the next gtame its not possible to keep it turnbased, that just wont appeal to enough people , and trying to compromise doesnt sem reasonable either, what im suggesting is similar to the way Swat 2 an tactical 2D game changed to Swat 3 which was the 3D Tactical shooter.

 

Not too sure about that last comment though... It is technically possible to keep it turn based, what you're saying though is that more people would play it if it was real time right?

 

I'm not sure that's actually true to facts though. I myself would much rather play a new XCom as turnbased thatn realtime. I always used TB in Apoc for example...

 

Honestly though I think changing the game too much is going to turn off way more people than keeping a lot of things the same. That's just what I think though! lol

[predator887]

your obviously a diehard xcom fan and i respect that.

 

if we were sticking to a 2D game then yes i would say im still in favour of turnbased game but thats not to say a real time game wouldnt work.

 

Im just saying it wont sell well and wont appeal to the mass audiences so you need a balance so im saying take the tactical combat part of the game and turn it into a 3D tactical Shooter, not a fragfest, im talking about a realistic atmospheric representation of it as one of the soldiers, not a dramatised, linear story but a map that you and your squad have to clear of aliens and you can do it anyway you like while keeping what made the 2D isometric version so great. Can you imagine playing with a group of you online alll in the dark with your rifles trying to clear a farmhous and surrounding area, you would disembark from the skyranger and wouldnt be able to see anything and would have to light it up with flares, there is so many aspects like how would mind control worjk etc that would have to be incorporated and to keep the atmosphere you would need to have a highly skilled AI where 1 shot could kill you if you put one step in the wrong place.

 

but im just putting some ideas i have out there, its never gonna hapen and if there ever is a new xcom game i doubt it will live up to its name, they will just use the name to make money

[Bomb Bloke]

I've played Apocalypse in TB mode only once that I can remember, but I prefer playing the original UFO (which is TB only).

 

Ever noticed that the less time you wait before producing another title in a series, the more lenient your target audience is? I suppose it's because they expect less, so it's harder to dissapoint.

 

Personally I'd like to see a 3D shooter like Alliance, with a GeoScape like UFO and R&D like Apocalypse.

 

Maybe even a combat system like Dungeon Keeper, where you can play it as a top down strategy, or take direct control of your troopers on the ground. Similar to Battlezone II, I suppose.

[Skie]

- Strong 3d engine like the one in Silent Storm. In addition to looking very good, it has ragdoll and destructible terrain like you never saw it!

- Innovation like modifiable weapons (like UFO: Aftershock), delegating missions (like UFO: Aftermath), viewmodes (like UFO: Aftershock) and so on.

- More variation in the tactical missions to make it less repetitive.

- Better AI (yes, it sucked in UFO: EU). This would help make the tactical missions more interesting.

- Much stronger RPG system (like UFO: Aftershock).

- Stronger story integration with the game (this was no good in UFO: EU).

- Many other improvements.

 

There are a few things I would set as absolutes however:

- Small squad tactical combat and global scale strategy.

- Turn-based tactical system.

 

I agree with everything here...

 

This stuff may have already been said, I haven't read the whole thread...but...

 

On the topic of the repetative tactical missions and delegation, I always thought that X-COM protecting one continent (at the first) felt out of place. I really think if X-COM were to be updated, it'd be cool if the countries/continents had their own anti-alien groups.

 

This would actually add to gameplay in multiple ways...

1. When bagging a big nasty UFO, you could request another country provide some co-op support. Obviously, they could decline.

2. The other anti-alien groups could request assistance from your team. Obviously, you could decline.

3. 1 & 2 but for base defense. It'd be nice if the base missions didn't work like "well, the alien ship landed in the same location as our base so we opened the doors and let 'em right in." It'd be much nicer if it took the aliens some time to engage in combat.

4. The other anti-alien groups would bag the aliens for their respective areas (eliminating a lot of the repetition).

5. Research isn't so static. The other groups would be doing research as well and possibly a story element would be that the results of the research are shared.

6. Resources aren't so static. It'd actually make sense that you'd sell/trade elerium-115 (I think that's what it's called) to another group.

 

Some other things I've thought about...

Your squad should really be the elite. Given current technology they should have a birds-eye-view of the battlefield prior to going in. FOW would still apply though. Things like the parachute cams and other conveinences of modern warfare would be awesome to have.

 

A possible off-shoot, would be like a what if aliens attacked in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Low tech X-COM might be kind of cool.

 

With things like the terror missions, it'd be cool if the civilians would at least fight back a little. I mean, there'd be more than a few gun-toting civies. It'd also be nice if the aliens in the terror missions would have destruction of the city as one of their goals. Taking buildings down and that kind of thing.

[Charge]

I haven't been keeping up with this at all, simply enjoying my Altar's UFO games, with fond memories of the old X-Coms.

 

So tell me, is there anything going on with this?

[Slaughter]

Not at the moment, no. There are rumours indicating that Irrational (2K Games) is working on a new X-COM game however....

[Jazoja]

Here is my vision: (first described on CryMod forum, it is an updated version)

- All parts of the XCOM redesigned in 3D based on the CryEngine. (realistic mod video1,

, video3)

- Bringing together several popular styles in one game.

 

Tactical FPS:

- The FPS-part of the game should be something like seen in the Rainbow Six:Vegas series. (a bit slow-paced, and realistic, with experience points and character customization)

 

Real-Time Strategy:

- the FPS part viewed from higher (like a satellite-view) should be the RTS part, and another player (eg. a captain) could give orders to the team or soldiers. (and the players can consider it)

- that man can be anywhere virtually, he sees the action and giving orders through a satellit-connection

 

Flight simulator:

- dogfights with alien ships and transferring soldiers to missions (and back)

 

Equipments:

- in the meantime, while players are transferred to the fight-ground (and sitting in the plane), could be enough time to organise the team to a hierarchy, by chosing leaders, snipers, etc.

- when these leaders give an order, all the players under them can see the given command

- it all tries to avoid the free-for-all chaos and the sudden-death like situations

 

Characters:

- soldier/commando: something like in R6V

- pilot: bringing the soldiers to the ground, and shooting down the alien crafts in dogfights

- base manager: a player managing the research/manufacture/sell/buy/build/etc. jobs of a base

 

What I have seen in crysis and crysis 2:

- large scale environments,

- dynamic day/night,

- destructible world,

- vehicles, airplanes

- cities

- aliens

- AI for the aliens, (and in case automatizing things that no one wants)

- nanosuit (like personal armor, etc)

- character customization (including facial animation)

gives a perfect base for this game. (but the XCOM rights are in Firaxis hands)

 

What needed:

- designing and animating in 3D all assets from the original game (from aliens to garbage cans)

- acquiring and refining sounds from original

- designing a 3D planet, with surface datas regarding local differences (jungle, tropical, mountain, house types, vehicles)

- a dynamic terrain generating script

- a point system for describing the abilities of players

- a top-view in game editor for base management (similar to cryengine sandbox editor)

- a top-view in game view for issuing commands

 

Differences/add-ons:

- snakeman is useless, instead I'd make a long snake (like a python), which would be lurking in the shadows and attacking and killing like the real ones

- cryssalid should fight with bare hands and put ovules into dead bodies. of course it should take a while to develop the new cryssalid not just some minutes (idea from Genesis: several Chryssalid types regarding what lifeform it is developed from)

- easily moddable (to add custom fan-created aliens, maps, weapons, etc.)

- large maps (like smaller cities)

- paratrooping (like in crysis one startin scenes), to avoid jumping right into the nest of enemies

- air-strike calling (like in COD4:MW)

- night-vision, heat-vision (vegas)

- sniper weapons

- customizable weapons (like in vegas, and not in crysis)

- tagging enemies, civilians (like in vegas)

- giving orders to civilians (like saving hostages in counter strike)

 

Single player mode and background story

And in the SP part of the game, the player could play along the story of a regular man, who just lives his life, aliens are coming-moving silently in secret, just like in the X-Files series. But slowly alien activities getting higher, and more agressive.

Aliens start terrorising people, and our hero grabs a weapon and start fighting against. Later in the game, police, army, politics, etc founding a new organization called X-COM, and our man starts his journey through the world to reach the XCOM HQ.

Through the journey could be key elements like:

- terrorsite

- crash-site

- landed ufo

- etc.

 

Multi player mode

The SP part ends when our man arrives at the main base to join the special forces of XCOM.

From that point starts the MP (or MMO) part, where you can choose what you want to be (commando, pilot, manager, etc.), and anytime you log in you can get into action.

 

Of course when there is no call for a ground fight, there is nothing to do.

But players can see the stats (UFOs currently flying on radar, shot down UFOs), and together with the other players, can vote when should they leave and arrive on the crash-site.

There could be some counter (e.g. on the windows desktop) showing the time of the next planned action.

 

Random-generated maps/story:

Becouse of the the nature of the original X-COM (randomly generated ground-scenes), SP mode could also profit from these elements. Just like the terrorist-hunt mode in R6V, players could play on a randomly generated map, against aliens. With all these different maps or scenes, we could random-generate a brand-new SP anytime we want.

 

Abilities

At the start you could choose a randomly generated character, and later advance it into a direction what you want. (like in R6V2)

I would leave out the abilities like bravery, moral, and the events like panicked. Players are doing this by themselves. Instead of it, there could be a statistics, showing the outcome of former control attempts. E.g. how many times did you shoot down your teammate as a result of an alien control, etc.

 

Mind-probe:

The character/player statistic could be seeable with the use-of mind probe. And after that you can decide whether you want to try controlling that man or find a weaker prey.

 

Psionic abilities

With the psionoc weapon, when you can see the enemy, you could control the another character. I mean looking out from the head of the another and when you move the mouse, you move his crosshair. He doesn't lose control, but you can control too, like playing one character with two mouse/keyboard.

While a player controls an other player he could not control his own.

 

The psyched player does not know that he is under control, but from signs this could be figured out like:

 

- occasionally moving crosshair, and shooting a friend instead of an alien

- suddenly you drop a handgrenade under yourself

- suddenly step out from the cover to the fire-line

- etc.

 

In these situations players should be aware that an alien directly sees him, and should move to cover or warn the others.

Edited February 19, 2011 by Jazoja

[Jazoja]

something strange with this forum

I had to cut down the end of the line becouse with that it showed always error...f**k!

the line does not consist anything vulgar or similar, but the error reporting form was also unable to send the message...:-)

the line is:

suddenly you drop a handgrenade under - yourself or into the middle of your team

try to post it wihout the hyphen in the middle

[Bomb Bloke]

Can't seem to figure out this forum bug you're referring to, but I suspect it has something to do with post length...

 

Anyway, I hate to say it, but you've got too many ideas there. Some of them sound like fun; but my point is that a lot of ground work would need to be implemented before you could start on even half of those things.

 

I can tell you the game rights are no longer in the hands of Firaxis - 2K has them, and are currently making a 3D X-COM game of their own (... sorta. An XCOM game, at least). Remains to be seen as to whether it'll be any good, but I suspect it'll be implementing a fair few of the ideas you've got listed here.

[Jazoja]

Can't seem to figure out this forum bug you're referring to, but I suspect it has something to do with post length...

Something strange. When I try to edit my post, and just clear the mentioned hyphen, I can not save it...

 

Anyway, I hate to say it, but you've got too many ideas there. Some of them sound like fun; but my point is that a lot of ground work would need to be implemented before you could start on even half of those things.

I think ground work is completely done in crysis & cryengine.

 

I can tell you the game rights are no longer in the hands of Firaxis - 2K has them, and are currently making a 3D X-COM game of their own (... sorta. An XCOM game, at least).

Yes I know. I had read everything what I have had found on internet. From Julian Gollop to 2K, through all the games that may be affected or influenced by X-COM.

 

Remains to be seen as to whether it'll be any good, but I suspect it'll be implementing a fair few of the ideas you've got listed here.

I think my idea is far different from the XCOM. I tried to write it down, but as I thought before too, words are hardly enough to clearly describe a vision.(But I have to mention that this vision is not 100% clear yet)