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Just got the latest newsletter (4-30-16) from Game Informer and saw they had a Top 10 alien races section. XCOM's Thin Man comes in at #6, which I guess is justified. But nothing from the X-COM series? Thought for sure Sectoids would be in there, or at least a token appearance of the Lobsterman from TFTD. Nope. So how can the Space Invaders "aliens" come in at #4? Unbelievable! http://www.gameinformer.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Components-ImageFileViewer/CommunityServer-Blogs-Components-WeblogFiles-00-00-00-00-09/1803.Thin-Men.jpg_2D00_610x0.jpg - Zombie

BEHOLD.

Gameinformer did an interview with Erik Caponi, Lead Narrative Designer.

So I'm wanting to document the DLC-side of the game in the UFOpedia wiki, but there's a few aspects of it that'll be a bit tricky for me to work out on my own... First off: Soldier customisation. I know both the Elite Soldier Pack (ESP) and Slingshot add a number of extra helmets to the game, but I'm not sure about the armour decoration side of things. I have both, and can remove them from my game at will, but saves made with a certain DLC won't load unless it's active. I'd need to do a fair bit of playing to research all the armours with and without each DLC to see how they can be customised... With both, the kevlar (default), skeleton and carapaces armours have three forms of "decoration". All other armours (ghost, titan, arch-angel and psi) have two. Now, I've been able to do a quick check of the kevlar suit without Slingshot, and I still get three versions of that armour. But Slingshot has what appears to be an extra model file for that! Maybe I'm confusing myself, and Slingshot alters ESP's version of that third model or... something. Anyway, best I can make out, the base game doesn't let you alter armour decoration at all. ESP adds a secondary deco to kevlar, skeleton and carapace armours, and Slingshot adds a third deco to those armours plus secondary decos to the titan, ghost, arch-angel and psi suits. ... At least, best I can make out. If anyone here has ESP but not Slingshot, I'd appreciate them confirming here exactly how many armour decos are available to you. Likewise if anyone has Slingshot but not ESP. Late-game saves with either one of those DLCs active (but not both) would also be great to have, or even screenshots of the armour decos for comparison (to see if Slingshot changes what ESP adds). --------------------------------------- While I'm at it, in my DLC folder (which is: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\XComGame\DLC\PCConsole) I have two directories: Elite Soldier Pack: DLC_PackIn Slingshot: DLC_Day060 This thread suggests the titles of the next few. Slingshot was indeed released about two months after the game, so the folder title of "DLC_Day060" makes sense, but the "DLC_PreOrder" folderthat thread mentions has got me wondering. I used a pre-order code to get ESP - so why isn't it in a "DLC_PreOrder" folder? Does anyone have this "DLC_PreOrder" folder? If so, how did you acquire the game? "DLC_Day090" strongly suggests that another DLC is going to arrive in a week or two, and online reports reckon it'll be called "Progeny". Scraping through the INI files in the game and the few last entries on this list of achievements, it seems reasonably clear that this'll be similar to Slingshot in that it'll include a unique unit (Annette) and three council missions. I think there'll be a few more armour decos and maybe a few more helmets, but I'm not sure (I suspect Slingshot already includes the visual resources for Annette, as it adds four new hairstyles, only one of which is used by Slingshot's unique unit). "DLC_Day120" has got me stumped. I don't think there's anything in the current game files suggesting what this'll be about, which means that there might not even be anything planned for it as yet. Still, there's a lot of room for DLC in this game - new customisation is nice, maps would be better, and an extended campaign'd be the icing on the cake.

So having started roughly a fortnight ago, I've now finished the new XCOM. Decent fun, will play again (and again and again and again, because OCD drives me towards that "A Continental Fellow" achievement...). Anyway, that frees me up to discuss the game without fear of having anything spoiled for me. First point on the agenda - those green pods. What are they? They're made of metal, but have green glowing points all over. You see them right at the very start during the intro, falling down into the city and seemingly EATING a citizen. During battles, unfortunate victims wrapped in green gunge are seen sprawled around them. And so it was that I spent my first few missions giving them a wide berth on the basis that they were clearly very dangerous and powerful... whatever they were. Back at base, the scientific team seemingly gave them a look, said "meh" and went back to looking at the exploded gun shrapnel. Hello...? Soon it became clear that the game wanted me to ignore them (other then as a fairly reliable source of random cover), though I hung on to a suspicion that later on the aliens would spring a trap with them or... something... and provide some acknowledgement that they were there. So to me, they beg for an explanation. On the surface, they appear to be nothing more then automated people-snatching devices, but why they show up everywhere (be it a populated area or a sparse woodland) and entirely ignore your troopers (who also seemingly neglect to tell any of the research staff back at base about them) remains a mystery to me.

No suggestions thread?! I better start one. No time to go through all threads right now, so please do excuse me if you find nothing new. My suggestions: 1) Make all gear available to the team in the Skyranger before the mission, whether someone has it equipped or not. 2) I'd love to have the numbered shortcuts for the basic actions everyone can perform always the same. Fire=1, overwatch=2, reload=3 (if the weapon is full simply leave it out), hunker down=4. Constant changes are very annoying. Soldier specific actions can follow mixed, no problem. 3) If a move is not spent, have overwatch kick in automatic. If it is a sniper and can not move&shoot, have the pistol selected automatically and overwatch. Everything else is just additional clicks with no point whatsoever. I'll think of more, now I have work to do.

There is a special What if Machine out at GameSpot, dedicated to XCOM.