Thorondor Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Humanity has been staring at the stars and dreaming for centuries, but it's not easy to envision what alien life might actually look like. It's also not easy to resist the urge to try. The designers at Firaxis have the advantage of building off an existing framework, but redesigning 18-year-old character concepts for a modern audience was still no simple task. We chat with Firaxis Lead Designer Jake Solomon and Lead Artist Greg Foertsch about the process of designing the aliens in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.And so begins the latest Gameinformer exclusive piece looking to chronicle, both textually and visually, the process and the artistic genes that went into the evolutionary work to bring that special alienness so peculiar of X-Com's foes one step further. Hop on over for a glimpse of what went into their secret Darwinian machinations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Amazing! I specially like the great twist they gave the Cyberdisc, but I love all the designs. I love how they tried to improve on the original designs, keeping their essence but expanding it as well. I find it formidable, since many developers working on alleged remakes either keep things the same way, barely tweaked, or trash the old and "reboot" something 90% different (i.e. XCOM FPS). It takes a lot of skill to pull this off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted January 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Yep, pretty nice job. And looks like you hit the jackpot on that Cyberdisc transformation hunch too, ShadowBlade! :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hoping for more aliens to be revealed... oh well The Cyberdisk is a nice twist (someone else had already mentioned the shape shifting form here), I'm loving the Muton (oh please, include human/alien heads on the their belts). Sectoids... I'm kinda wondering what the Ethereals will look like after the description they made, because to me they are offshots of the same species. Thin Men... no opinion whatsoever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 At least we now know that on the other shot where we were trying to work out where/what the third alien was it was actually two Cyberdiscs Love the artwork, glad they didn't change the Sectoid too much. Changing the Muton makes sense to me, and if he's now tribal then they're going to have to suggest a higher intelligence level than the original UFOPedia entry gives him. At least he's smart enough to be wearing armour this time around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tycow Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 The Thin Men... creepy as a creepy thing! D: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 And Know Thyself... ... this is another photo that was posted recently on the 2K forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Yep, pretty nice job. And looks like you hit the jackpot on that Cyberdisc transformation hunch too, ShadowBlade! :: Nahhh, I just speculated the "prickly bot" was a Cyberdisc. Not that it could actually transform back and forth between an actual, smooth disc and a spiky death machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 And Know Thyself... ... this is another photo that was posted recently on the 2K forums That's pretty awesome - not only changing your squad's names, but also their looks! You can now spend hours getting your squad looking like your mates only to have them all slaughtered on the first mission. Whether on purpose or by accident is up to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapnKill Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Very nice.. although I don't want to see more, not on the alien front, I want to be SURPRISED when I encounter them But if they keep posting articles, I obviously can't help myself, I have to look!! OH THE HUMANITY!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Voyager Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I have to admit I love it all. Cyberdisk reminds me of droideka actually be that is a good thing in my book. So far so great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I have to admit I love it all. Cyberdisk reminds me of droideka Yikes... that shape also looked familiar for some reason, now I know why Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Oh, belatedly, and about the "unofficial" picture Hobbes posted, I like the extended country of origin mechanic. In the art video, I remember seeing little flag patches on the back of soldiers. It's a nice touch, even if the name of the trooper may (or may not) make his nationality obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted January 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 You know, to me, the 'transformed' Cyberdiscs, both in colour and aesthetic, tend to be evocative of Warhammer 40k's Eldar unit traits: https://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m430265_front_pic.jpg https://www.shawnwoods.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/eldar_army_wallpaper_1600x1200.jpg :: What trickery will they try next? https://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/bjork-love01.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flark Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 This is all too exciting! I can't wait to play this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 You know, to me, the 'transformed' Cyberdiscs, both in colour and aesthetic, tend to be evocative of Warhammer 40k's Eldar unit traitsIt does look vaguely similar to a Wraithlord (the big, first robot), but I believe it's coincidental, since the designers had to work with the Cyberdisc's smooth, curved saucer sections to come up with the "unraveled" form. Unlike the Eldar design's case, it's not an arbitrary decision. If they had employed different shapes, it would no longer be disc-shaped, now would it? Sure, you could make the transformation much more small-scale, using much smaller bits to recompose the machine. But then the two forms would feel a lot less related to each other. It's one of the qualms I have with the new Transformers, compared to the classic ones. They're a lot less believable: it's such a fast, complicated transformation, and there's such a scarce connection between robot and vehicle forms it may very well be utter BS. And if it's not, it's a complete waste of effort because it fails to achieve any reasonable degree of verisimilitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullAuto Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gollop interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 Gollop interview. Damn... you got it first Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullAuto Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 Well, you know, didn't want to make a song and dance about it. /buffs nails on shirt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted January 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 FA, you fiend! Well I'd venture Julian is actually going to get quite a lot of what he says he would be looking to have in the new game. Procedurally generated destructible environs are in, a kind of skill-tree character progression is in, and the combat system is bound to be quite accessible with its wargame-ish "2AP" approach. So, about the only aspect where both he and FA might find things not as sure-fire is possibly on the AI front. :: Still, they've mentioned the ability to suppress foes which is a good start. Now all they have to do is try not to make aliens bee-line your way at the first sighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowBlade Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 I beatchu both! Sid Meier Talks XCOM: Enemy Unknown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 I beatchu both! Sid Meier Talks XCOM: Enemy Unknown This is getting personal.... LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted January 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 Nope. Your Sid post was made the same minute as mine. :: And I even had time to put together a news post banner image, so there!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullAuto Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 So, about the only aspect where both he and FA might find things not as sure-fire is possibly on the AI front. Skip this rant: I must admit, in a few years I probably won't be playing strategy games at all, because of this. AI isn't advancing, because you can't see it on screen, you can't boast about how beautiful it is or how many channels it uses. It's part of the game that is hidden, but it really shouldn't be a great mystery. I happen to play a lot of Japanese tactical games, where they're usually blended with strong RPG elements. For these, you usually find rudimentary AI, plus a lot of scripting. Scripting works nicely when the player lets the game push them around. It doesn't work when the player uses unconventional tactics, observes enemy behaviour closely, repeats sections, etc. You end up probing for the script's activator, moving a unit past point x, fighting conservatively until turn y when the enemy reinforcements turn up at your rear, etc. It's really rather dispiriting because it breaks any illusion you have, it dispels the suspension of disbelief, and you end up trying to bare-facedly manipulate the game, as it has tried to manipulate you. It's not the manipulation one objects to, it's how blatant it is. Advance Wars is one of my favourite strategy games, despite the fact that the AI cheats its arse off in the first few games, and despite the fact that it has a bad case of Japanese Last Boss Syndrome. JLBS is a disease whereby the last boss of a game is a total pain in the arse. It is either stupidly hard, takes a long, boring time, or introduces a new gameplay style. AW, not content with merely presenting you with fiendish tactical challenges, drops you in the shit and puts you in a position where you have to puzzle through massive attrition, find the best coping strategy, and suffer efficiently until you can kill the boss. It's not that AW's bosses are incredibly hard, they're just incredibly, mind-numbingly tedious, so fighting them is gruelling. For tactics, e.g. small units like in X-Com, JA2, Men of War, etc, there are manuals, histories and reams and reams of information all out there, for free, on how to fight and win battles. In the case of strategy (actual strategy, not RTS) there is even more. Generals have written books, historians dissect campaigns and wars, armchair generals write even more, and it's all out there, for free. Yet, people refuse to even program the AI with internally consistent logic. Enemy troops sit in their positions. They don't work together, they don't move together, they don't even provide mutually supporting fire, they're essentially on the battlefield alone. They fight (to use the word loosely) the player as a group of individuals. Yet they should be contesting the result. If your aircraft gets shot down over enemy territory, do you and your fellow crewmembers stand around making sure everyone looks good? No. You might prepare positions and wait for an attack/rescue, or surrender, or sabotage anything on your craft that is of value to the enemy, or split up and run, etc etc. When X-Com first came out, the aliens sitting around was acceptable. It is no longer acceptable, as least to me. Looking back at X-Com, if you were an alien superbrain, is that how you would go about taking over Earth? To me, it's a little ridiculous, but they had lots of constraints on what the hardware could do, among other factors, and that's a good reason for some of the flaws, but not for others, and it is a good reason for even fewer limitations now. The misunderstandings start, fuelled by the media, from the individual soldier on upwards, and they only multiply the higher you go. The enemy side needs goals, and the enemy must try to attain them, and those goals must be attainable. Just because your game is tactical does not mean it should be blind to strategy, or even exclude strategic factors. Different battles will have different objectives, which means different fighting styles for both sides. I'm going to stop there, but I have another few thousand words of pure rage-laced bullshit if anyone needs cavity insulation at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted January 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 I must admit, in a few years I probably won't be playing strategy games at all, because of this. AI isn't advancing, (...)What? Trying to quit the habit? Come, now... Hate to break it to you, but Empress Strategy is a cruel, unrelenting mistress that ever teases but never delivers you from grasp. You're not getting off that easy. So what happens when a pompous little runt of a scholar, a thief, knower of history from some lesser, God-forsaken corner of the outside world has the cheek to enter your domains? Like the dragon atop his treasured pile of conquests you squirm ever-so-slightly, your nostrils dilating at the scent of prey, and little by little, slowly but surely, gleaming slits become a full gazing stare, and you lust - lust for that shiny bauble that the usurper dangles in front of you: the Crown of Supremacy. You can never really fully claim it. Not entirely and not for good. But you are keen to keep it, and none other shall take it, to boast of that - that they have gotten past you, outwitted you, ridiculed your rule - not while you still draw breath. You'll see to roasting the little perpetrators, chainmail wrapping and all, throwing them down the mountain a broken heap for others to see. And, despite yourself, in your deepest of rumbling voices you fiercely invite another to try and best you if they dare. :: Ages are but playthings for you, when you are engaged in the time-honoured ritual of besting pretenders at PBEM... https://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8625/smaugoeildavidwaytt.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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