Actual, turn-based strategy X-Com sequel in the works

[The Vault Dweller]

I'm sold. I was very skeptical too.

,
The Vault Dweller

 

[Surf Solar]

Not touching this game until they come out with a UI patch. I cannot stand that horrible, laggy camera, "shoot mode", forced list menus instead of simple point-and-click when navigating the base, and the ugly transparent text that gets difficult to read whenever the background is a little busy.

I played it with an xbox controller on PC and the controls were smooth. So, I have no real complaint about the UI.

Also, just finished it. The ending was " -.- " worthy, but the rest of the game I found really good.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I don't understand all complaints about the UI. I thought it was decent.

Though there is this sort of glitch where the game can't decide which floor you want to be on. Whenever I try to move one of my guys on a roof, it flickers like crazy and he ends up dashing to the ground floor.

 

[aenemic]

I'm in fucking love with this game. it's even better than I expected it to be. I didn't think it would feel as similar to the original as it does.

finished my first playthrough an hour or so ago. ironman on normal. only lost 2 soldiers throughout the entire game (plus one on the last fight). but holy hell, was it tough sometimes. I really had to use tactics and on one occassion even abandon the mission in order not to lose my guys. it was challenging in a way that forced you to think and plan ahead. playing on ironman obviously made every decision a lot more hard to make, and I would likely have thought it was way too easy if I could save and load during the missions.

I did try classic at first, made it up until the first terror mission, then things fell apart quickly. tomorrow I'm starting a new classic ironman. just gotta get those satellites up. they're the key to everything.

I played it with an xbox controller

Well, you are clearly playing the game as was intended by the developers.

you say that like there's something wrong with it.

I'm playing with a 360 controller as well, and I'm glad I do because it's pretty much perfect this way. I will have to try keyboard + mouse later to see how it is, though. but honestly, the game works so well with a controller that I don't see much point in using mouse and keyboard.

as for the UI, I don't see at all what you mean. I've never had trouble reading text.

it's not like the game is unplayable, far from it. it's very smooth, easy to get into and controls and menues are very intuitive.

 

[Surf Solar]

Install this one if you think the game is unfair to you towards classic gameplay (everyone should play it in classic anyway).

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?158376-Anti-cheating-mod-and-real-ufos-released!-Classic-difficult-only

It allows you to shoot down all alien crafts just like it was in the original. In the game like it was delivered by Firaxis, you can only choose between 3 abduction sites when some UFO gets too close. This one adds the possiblity that you can actually shoot down ALL oif them making Interceptors a much more of a big deal. You REALLY have to engage sky superioristy to shoot down all the vessels that would normally mean terror missions, abductions, or even landings. It is very cl0se to the original UFO experience, ;(

 

[Crni Vuk]

you say that like there's something wrong with it.

I'm playing with a 360 controller as well, and I'm glad I do because it's pretty much perfect this way. I will have to try keyboard + mouse later to see how it is, though. but honestly, the game works so well with a controller that I don't see much point in using mouse and keyboard.

as for the UI, I don't see at all what you mean. I've never had trouble reading text.

it's not like the game is unplayable, far from it. it's very smooth, easy to get into and controls and menues are very intuitive.

yeah ... well because it is wrong. I respect your love for the game, but if there is some criticsm regarding the controls then its in my eyes not any excuse to tell someone that he should play it with a controller.

 

[fedaykin]

The controls and UI are just HORRIBLE. They didn't fix anything that was wrong in the demo. That's why I'm not going to buy this game.

 

[aenemic]

yeah ... well because it is wrong. I respect your love for the game, but if there is some criticsm regarding the controls then its in my eyes not any excuse to tell someone that he should play it with a controller.

how is it in any way wrong to play the game the way the developers intended?

and I meant I don't see any reason for me to play with keyboard and mouse since I have a controller and it works wonders.

it's a shame that the controls are so bad some people won't play the game, but I think it says more about them for passing up on such a fantastic game that could actually bring back deep turn-based strategy games to the market for that reason alone. I played the demo with keyboard and mouse and I didn't have any problems with that either, once I got used to the short-keys.

 

[Kilus]

Just finished the game(a few hours ago). Really great game, tactical combat is where it shines and the geoscape is a little lacklustre.

As for the UI, I found it better than X-COM: Ufo Defence UI which to mean is a example of early 90's horrible UI style. Plus I used keyboard for everything except moving, explosives and looking around the map.

Edit: X-COM: Apocalypse still has the best UI.

 

[aenemic]

Install this one if you think the game is unfair to you towards classic gameplay (everyone should play it in classic anyway).

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?158376-Anti-cheating-mod-and-real-ufos-released!-Classic-difficult-only

It allows you to shoot down all alien crafts just like it was in the original. In the game like it was delivered by Firaxis, you can only choose between 3 abduction sites when some UFO gets too close. This one adds the possiblity that you can actually shoot down ALL oif them making Interceptors a much more of a big deal. You REALLY have to engage sky superioristy to shoot down all the vessels that would normally mean terror missions, abductions, or even landings. It is very cl0se to the original UFO experience, ;(

nice. one of the few complaints I have is that geoscape feels too random. I barely got to shoot down any UFO's at all (and only used the Firestorm once), and abductions and terror attacks could as easily happen in countries where I had satelites as anywhere else. it felt more like a random mission generator than an actual strategic layer.

 

[Alphadrop]

Problem with that mod is that as it makes abduction ships function the same way as normal ones so you get extra panic (on top of 2 panic from not choosing the mission) if you don't shoot em down. Kinda tricky early-middle game as Interceptors suuuuck. Or that may just be my luck with having a large ufo wreck my satellite network and two shotting my jets.

[spoiler:52e46105ab]

[/spoiler:52e46105ab]
Dumbest Muton award goes to, that guy for running there and not doing anything. Also this game really needs a higher percentage of daytime missions, they look pretty.

 

[Kilus]

So video files take up 8.75 GB on my system with the total folder size being 12.7 GB. What the hell.

 

[Crni Vuk]

yeah ... well because it is wrong. I respect your love for the game, but if there is some criticsm regarding the controls then its in my eyes not any excuse to tell someone that he should play it with a controller.

how is it in any way wrong to play the game the way the developers intended?

Is that really ... serious?

Have we come so far that we discuss why its not terrible for some PC game if it has bad support for the mouse and keyboard? In a turn based top down/birds view strategy game?

I could care less if the developers "intended" X-Com to be played with a controller or not.

I use a mouse. And a keyboard. Its THE standard on the PC. Not everyone has a controller. Not everyone actually wants a controller. And why should? For the last 30 years the keyboard and at least for the last 20 years the mouse have proven to be excellent hardware capable of doing everything smoothly.

We have to make a difference here. Between experience and what should be a standard. Good controls and UI even with keyboard and mouse? That should be a standard and ANY developer who fails to deliver that for a PC game makes a mistake. As simple as that.

I mean as far as I know X-Com is not some kind of racing or flying sim where you get the best fun with some expensive controller or joystick.

 

[aenemic]

Crni, this isn't about that. I asked if it's wrong to play a game the way it's meant by the developers to be played. I tried pointing out what an odd statement Sea made, that is all.

started a new classic ironman run today, and it went to shit pretty fast. I made it a lot further on my first one. this time, I lost 3 countries in europe after the second month, without any real chance to get the panic levels down. I had even sent my first satelite to Germany, but the other three countries didn't really care it seems. gonna have to start over, I don't really see this ending well.

like I said before, getting satelites up seems to be the key to success in this game. but it can really take forever until you have a second nexus, and satelites are expensive and take a long time to build. in the meantime, much comes down to luck in order for panic not to spread.

 

[Kilus]

Crni, XCOM has the best mouse+keyboard controls of the whole series in my opinion. It also works with a controller.

 

[34thcell]

It's horrendous for mouse and keyboard. The ui has improved (not saying much), but the mouse is very problematic. Especially frequent issues with choosing the place to throw grenades/fire missiles.

 

[Alphadrop]

The grenade/rocket issue is the only problem I have with the mouse, looks like an issue with mouse acceleration kicking in so will hopefully be fixed.
Otherwise the only thing I use the keyboard for is the camera, everything else is the mouse baby.

Classic is a pain with panic levels at the beginning, surprised I haven't lost any yet in my third month. Mostly due to a lucky Terror Mission lowering the panic level of 3 countries on 5 down to 2.
About to loose India though, and most of Europe is on 4 after a large ufo shot down my German sat.

 

[Surf Solar]

I only noticed too late that whenever you do an abduction mission on, say, china, and win it, it lowers the entire continents panic level a bit. Should have noticed this earlier...

Starting my ironman run now, wish me luck. The game is really good.

Like alphadrop said, I wish ther'd be more missions during daytime, or inside buildings, not the same old wilderness/forest area when shooting down the UFOs. Why can't a downed UFO not go down in a city for example? etc.

Also, I wish they'd make a less retarded ending. I had a mission on the largest UFO size I shot down (a battleship) and this was MUCH MUCH harder than the last mission where I was pretty disappointed...

 

[fedaykin]

It's horrendous for mouse and keyboard. The ui has improved (not saying much), but the mouse is very problematic. Especially frequent issues with choosing the place to throw grenades/fire missiles.

And the fucking zoom. I can't understand why they had to make it zoom back in every time you switch to another soldier. The zoom is so close that it prevents me from having a good overview. Was it so hard to add an option to make the zoom stick?

 

[Alphadrop]

Also, I wish they'd make a less retarded ending. I had a mission on the largest UFO size I shot down (a battleship) and this was MUCH MUCH harder than the last mission where I was pretty disappointed...

Sounds similar to UFO: Afterlight, the ending to that had the easiest alien base ever, especially as a previous mission allowed you to kill 99% of the aliens there before attacking it.