Gene Splicing An Inheritance

[Thorondor]

Recreating and updating a classic game isn't easy, especially when the original is your favorite game of all time. The lead designer of XCOM: Enemy Unknown is Jake Solomon. It's his job to pick apart the original game and update the key ingredients for a 2012 audience. X─COM fanboys will no doubt object to any and all changes from the original formula, but Solomon is quick to stress his own allegiance to the 1994 PC title.

Bringing the classic under the microscope, Firaxis took care to bring change and modernity but, as explained, only where it mattered. Find out all about it at Gameinformer's latest article here.

[StVier]

Absolutely love the last question... and the reaction.

[NKF]

Just me being geeky here thanks to my intimiate knowledge of the original game - but when the discussion came to the Time units vs. action system, I could not help but feel that the design team aren't quite grasping how the Time unit system works and functions in this game that they put it in the 'too hard' basket and did something simpler.

 

In my mind, there are so many different ways the TU system can be abstracted, and displayed to the player that it needn't be confusing. Plus how it relates to the reaction system...

 

Oh well.

 

- NKF

 

edit: Just for the record, I don't mind the change to move/action or move/move system. Hopefully it'll end up something like Valkyria Chronicles where a move action is a free move limited by distance, but even a Disgaea style move/act system would work if done right.

[Space Voyager]

I support any change that does not significantly reduce the decision making and/or difficulty but does significantly shorten the time a player spends in an individual mission. Actually I wonder if this change is all I'd wish for, but it is something. At least I won't be spending the time to sum individual actions' TUs to optimize the turn to the full.

 

I love the strategic chatter between X-COM and funders, I missed more strategic action in the originals.

 

Somehow I never caught the term "base" in plural, is a single base a definitive fact that I missed somewhere or still in speculation? Also I wonder about that satellite coverage, what it means and what it does.

[SGCSG1]

I support any change that does not significantly reduce the decision making and/or difficulty but does significantly shorten the time a player spends in an individual mission. Actually I wonder if this change is all I'd wish for, but it is something. At least I won't be spending the time to sum individual actions' TUs to optimize the turn to the full.

 

I love the strategic chatter between X-COM and funders, I missed more strategic action in the originals.

 

Somehow I never caught the term "base" in plural, is a single base a definitive fact that I missed somewhere or still in speculation? Also I wonder about that satellite coverage, what it means and what it does.

 

 

I thought I read that you only have one base in the game. I'm hoping the new action system is something like UFO - real time till something happens then turn based. In X-com it was boring as hell moving your guys all over the map if nothing was happening.

[flark]

I thought I read that you only have one base in the game.

Only one base. Oh no, I hope not. Part of the fun was expanding your forces by building more bases around the globe. It was also fun deciding which soldiers to send to which base. Your oldest surviving squaddies from your original base end up being your commanders of the new bases.

 

 

 

I'm hoping the new action system is something like UFO - real time till something happens then turn based. In X-com it was boring as hell moving your guys all over the map if nothing was happening.

I disagree. I hate being caught out of position/formation when turn based combat kicks in just because I didn't have "time" to select units when the game was in real time.

 

Turned based only for me please.

[FullAuto]

Also I wonder about that satellite coverage, what it means and what it does.

 

Satellite coverage works like radars in the original, gives you coverage over certain areas.

[ShadowBlade]

Yeah, as far as I know from the articles and some forum posts, you have a main base that's upgraded like in the original, and then you can buy satellite coverage and stand-alone interception hangars from the funding countries.

 

It's a considerable mechanical change, but in practice it doesn't differ much from my traditional playstyle, personally. I never had more than one main base, and secondary facilities were primarily radar stations and/or airbases. You can technically achieve the same result with the new mechanics.

 

Same as the move-action system, from my point of view. Your troopers seldom performed more than two significant actions per turn, TUs or no TUs.

 

I do wonder, however, how they'll handle finer actions like changing stances. I assume grenade priming will either be gone (hope not) or free. If crouching/standing doesn't take up a full action, I hope the devs come up with some other smart trade-off. But it shouldn't be free, since there's no point in having two non-equivalent options when one is clearly better and costs no more than a button click.

 

But on the whole, that they won't significantly alter my playstyle doesn't change the fact both these alterations do deprive the player of some measure of choice. As usual, however, we'll see how these mechanics work in the new, unknown dynamics of XCOM:EU. Nobody can presume to give a final opinion with the information available.

[CapnKill]

Just me being geeky here thanks to my intimiate knowledge of the original game - but when the discussion came to the Time units vs. action system, I could not help but feel that the design team aren't quite grasping how the Time unit system works and functions in this game that they put it in the 'too hard' basket and did something simpler.

 

In my mind, there are so many different ways the TU system can be abstracted, and displayed to the player that it needn't be confusing. Plus how it relates to the reaction system...

 

Oh well.

 

- NKF

 

edit: Just for the record, I don't mind the change to move/action or move/move system. Hopefully it'll end up something like Valkyria Chronicles where a move action is a free move limited by distance, but even a Disgaea style move/act system would work if done right.

 

 

These guys are just as big of geeks as we are over the original game, so I have complete confidence that if they prefer this new movement system over the traditional TUs, then I will also be happy with it

 

I thought I read that you only have one base in the game. I'm hoping the new action system is something like UFO - real time till something happens then turn based. In X-com it was boring as hell moving your guys all over the map if nothing was happening.

 

no no no... needs to be 100% turn base, which I think it will be. I hate real time anything in these games, I love moving each guy in position, leap frogging from corner to corner, etc.. etc...

 

 

I disagree. I hate being caught out of position/formation when turn based combat kicks in just because I didn't have "time" to select units when the game was in real time.

 

Turned based only for me please.

 

^^^^^ This + 100000000 Internetz!

[silencer_pl]

I disagree. I hate being caught out of position/formation when turn based combat kicks in just because I didn't have "time" to select units when the game was in real time.

 

Turned based only for me please.

 

In JA2 and Silent Storm it wasn't that bad how you think.

[NKF]

I think it's referring to the occasions where you would meet the conditions to drop out of combat, and before you've had a chance to do anything, the AI rushes in to attack and gets the first move on you with you at a disadvantage. In this respect, it's the same problem with most RTS games with AI opponents - the AI is able to organize its troops in a matter of seconds.

 

In JA2, some of the the random patrol encounters out in the wild at night tended to be brutal this way. But of course, that just means you've been thrown into a bad situation.

 

Some good old pause-able-realtime or time compression options (all ala Apocalypse) for the real-time portion would fix this no trouble though.

 

- NKF