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XCOM: Enemy Unknown |OT| Neo GAF is Under Alien Control

Minsc

Gold Member
I heard on normal like 20 hrs iirc

I did read the length goes up a fair amount on classic, being that it's much harder, but that sounds about right for normal.

You could probably get a shorter game by using iron man and/or impossible settings! :)

tetrisgrammaton said:
maybe but i don't care what the game is called because strategy usually works best (imo) when all the variables are known and you are left grappling with how they (it, your pieces) fit on the board

I disagree. There's a lot of tension to be gained by not being certain of everything, and that tension is integral to the X-Com experience. Being able to have the option to push your units to the max and take riskier/longer shots than say what would normally be a "known hit" shot adds to the tactical experience by giving you more options. Games where everything is spelled out the same way every time loss the element of randomness and become much more methodical and safe. The Advance Wars formula is definitely less interesting to me than what X-Com uses.

It sounds like you're playing on normal too, which is a much easier mode from what I read, so I do think you'd benefit going to classic or impossible, as it would make the levels harder so your decisions at the base section would be more important, and it also introduces a higher risk of having nations drop their support for you, adding tension there as well.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
C'mon, we all know Blanka has an anaconda.


See?

QQaZA.gif
 

KPJZKC

Member
Just voicing a small concern, would be great if somebody who knows better could correct me, but is the game designed in such a way that it's a race to complete it?

Given that you get two or three terror missions at a time and you can only complete one, overall panic is obviously going to rise (unless successfully completing it drops it by double the rise or more). As you can lose the game if 8(?) countries drop out of the funding, I'm worried that it will be a rush rather than taking your time (obviously not really taking your time but you know what I mean, just enjoying the game.

Anybody able to argue with me on this?
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Just voicing a small concern, would be great if somebody who knows better could correct me, but is the game designed in such a way that it's a race to complete it?

Given that you get two or three terror missions at a time and you can only complete one, overall panic is obviously going to rise (unless successfully completing it drops it by double the rise or more). As you can lose the game if 8(?) countries drop out of the funding, I'm worried that it will be a rush rather than taking your time (obviously not really taking your time but you know what I mean, just enjoying the game.

Anybody able to argue with me on this?

I believe the concept of "time is of the essence" is something that will always be there with regards to managing panic across the world. With that said, unlike the original x-com the time in Strategic mode isn't realtime so in that sense you can enjoy the game at your pace and definitely avoid a 'dash to the finish line' per se. In the end the odds are stacked against you in this game of decisions, you're not really supposed to have all the countries alive and content, you will lose either a couple of all of them I assume.
 

McNum

Member
Just voicing a small concern, would be great if somebody who knows better could correct me, but is the game designed in such a way that it's a race to complete it?

Given that you get two or three terror missions at a time and you can only complete one, overall panic is obviously going to rise (unless successfully completing it drops it by double the rise or more). As you can lose the game if 8(?) countries drop out of the funding, I'm worried that it will be a rush rather than taking your time (obviously not really taking your time but you know what I mean, just enjoying the game.

Anybody able to argue with me on this?
There are more ways to reduce panic. Now on Impossible, possibly Classic, too, you're right. It will be a rush. But with enough satellite coverage and going to the missions in the nations with the highest panic level, you should be able to keep the game running for a long, long time.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's possible, with a lot of work, mind you, to reach a state where you can keep the alien invasion in a stalemate. You know, with satellite coverage on all nations, interceptors ready to take out all UFOs, and keeping panic down by picking the right missions for it. Just not on Impossible.
 
I believe the concept of "time is of the essence" is something that will always be there with regards to managing panic across the world. With that said, unlike the original x-com the time in Strategic mode isn't realtime so in that sense you can enjoy the game at your pace and definitely avoid a 'dash to the finish line' per se. In the end the odds are stacked against you in this game of decisions, you're not really supposed to have all the countries alive and content, you will lose either a couple of all of them I assume.

I doubt 5sec time lapse in the original made you nervous.
 

KPJZKC

Member
I believe the concept of "time is of the essence" is something that will always be there with regards to managing panic across the world. With that said, unlike the original x-com the time in Strategic mode isn't realtime so in that sense you can enjoy the game at your pace and definitely avoid a 'dash to the finish line' per se. In the end the odds are stacked against you in this game of decisions, you're not really supposed to have all the countries alive and content, you will lose either a couple of all of them I assume.

There are more ways to reduce panic. Now on Impossible, possibly Classic, too, you're right. It will be a rush. But with enough satellite coverage and going to the missions in the nations with the highest panic level, you should be able to keep the game running for a long, long time.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's possible, with a lot of work, mind you, to reach a state where you can keep the alien invasion in a stalemate. You know, with satellite coverage on all nations, interceptors ready to take out all UFOs, and keeping panic down by picking the right missions for it. Just not on Impossible.

Great, thanks guys!
 

Nocebo

Member
Just voicing a small concern, would be great if somebody who knows better could correct me, but is the game designed in such a way that it's a race to complete it?

Given that you get two or three terror missions at a time and you can only complete one, overall panic is obviously going to rise (unless successfully completing it drops it by double the rise or more). As you can lose the game if 8(?) countries drop out of the funding, I'm worried that it will be a rush rather than taking your time (obviously not really taking your time but you know what I mean, just enjoying the game.

Anybody able to argue with me on this?
I have to say I'm concerned a little about this as well. It seems the progress of the game is more guided and defined than it was before. I read in an interview (I think about the Classic difficulty and stuff) that
June is when the Mutons start appearing
which sort of suggests the time line is set in stone. Also the fact that they can easily pin a number on the game length and the amount of maps you'll see worries me a bit. I'm pretty sure I saw Jake Solomon being quoted as saying there will be typically X amount of missions in any given game.
From that I assumed the game/story basically progresses no matter what the player does aside from failing the game of course. Unless he meant "if you play it perfectly then you will have do about X missions".
The number he gave felt rather low to me, I don't know if he was talking about normal or classic though and I don't know if the mission count goes up if the difficulty goes up.
 

Jintor

Member
I liked 5min every second. It was just the right time lapse where I could sort of relax until we had a hit on the radar.
 
I liked 5min every second. It was just the right time lapse where I could sort of relax until we had a hit on the radar.

I never got a confirmation for this, but I believe in original the longer the interval the bigger the chance to get UFO contact. I remembered I could go 15-20 days without a UFO on a 1 hour lapse, never managed to do that on a 1 day lapse.
 

Xater

Member
I have to say I'm concerned a little about this as well. It seems the progress of the game is more guided and defined than it was before. I read in an interview (I think about the Classic difficulty and stuff) that
June is when the Mutons start appearing
which sort of suggests the time line is set in stone. Also the fact that they can easily pin a number on the game length and the amount of maps you'll see worries me a bit. I'm pretty sure I saw Jake Solomon being quoted as saying there will be typically X amount of missions in any given game.
From that I assumed the game/story basically progresses no matter what the player does aside from failing the game of course. Unless he meant "if you play it perfectly then you will have do about X missions".


Um it does, because if you do nothing you will just lose the game. This is a game with an actual fail state just like the original you will be overrun by the aliens.
 

Nocebo

Member
Um it does, because if you do nothing you will just lose the game. This is a game with an actual fail state just like the original you will be overrun by the aliens.
No, what I mean is you'll get forced into story missions no matter what? In the original you had to capture certain ranks of aliens to unlock stuff. Also I remember the original scaling with research you had done and not that
June is always when the Mutons roll around for instance
or maybe I was imagining things.
I never got a confirmation for this, but I believe in original the longer the interval the bigger the chance to get UFO contact. I remembered I could go 15-20 days without a UFO on a 1 hour lapse, never managed to do that on a 1 day lapse.
Yea I'm pretty sure this was the case. I remember testing this with a time interval of 1 day and got no activity for a month and thus got a poor rating from the council.
 

Jintor

Member
Dude, in the original you could run into
Ethereals
first UFO mission out. Story progression is linked both to missions/overall objectives and research trees in this one.
 

Nocebo

Member
Dude, in the original you could run into
Ethereals
first UFO mission out. Story progression is linked both to missions/overall objectives and research trees in this one.
Those floaty things with the capes? Weren't they weak as fuck?
Well good to know it's still related to research and stuff isn't forced on you too much.

Edit: Oh wait they're the ones with orange robes? I don't recall encountering them early. hmm.
 

McNum

Member
Those floaty things with the capes? Weren't they weak as fuck?
Well good to know it's still related to research and stuff isn't forced on you too much.
There are two floaty things with capes. The first being Floaters, which are weak. The second being Etherals, who also wear a hood, which are physically weak, but will mess you up fiercely with mind control.

Etherals are bad news in the original. Of course, if you're ready for them, they're manageble, but they can really mess up anyone who's unprepared. Show up with your big badass Blaster Launcher and you're not even going to leave the Skyranger. Mind Control and... *BOOM* That's classic X-Com. I both hope and don't hope that the new one has dick-moves like that, too.
 
Ethereals were the ones with serious mind control powers and generally only showed up later in the game or at bases. Personally I only ever found Sectoids at first, but floaters were never far behind.
Shame there's no Snakemen in the game. Maybe the game could do with a few more alien species for us to dissect?

In the demo editor I put a few Sectoid commanders in. And yes, they used mind control pretty much straight away.
 

Nocebo

Member
What does the Classic have?
You start with less scientists and engineers. You start without an officer training facility which would allow you to upgrade your squad size. You have to earn the officer training facility by having a soldier with a certain promotion if I recall correctly. Plus the enemies have slightly higher hit points etc. Panic levels increase faster... stuff like that.
 
I'd just like to say if I panic and shoot and kill Pvt. UnknownSoldier, it has nothing to do with appearences in the WP7 thread no siree... it's just an unfortunate coincidence...

The percent certainty of those of us in Contact Team Alpha dying is roughly the same as the percent certainty of Windows Phone 8 dying on launch. There's nothing coincidental about it!
 
I have never played Terror from the Deep but I'm extremely intrigued by the setting so I hope this does well and an expansion and/or sequel in that vein follow.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Many people hated TftD because it felt (well, it was) like a cash grab, but I loved the setting and the Jules Verne-like aesthetics. It was also mental hard. Boat missions were basically a spoonful of fuck off.

I hope we get a similar expansion/sequel.
 

Nocebo

Member
Many people hated TftD because it felt (well, it was) like a cash grab, but I loved the setting and the Jules Verne-like aesthetics. It was also mental hard. Boat missions were basically a spoonful of fuck off.

I hope we get a similar expansion/sequel.
I loved it too. It was actually the first X-Com I ever played. It was only till much later that I got the first one.
I really loved the lobster guys for some reason. It just felt so satisfying when you killed one of them because they were so tough.
 

Jintor

Member
Director of Operations – CLASSIFIED Z2_BETA // REPORTS>PRE-PROJECT REPORT 0013 – COUNCIL FUNDING OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE //

Preliminary security clearance procedures are progressing at an acceptable rate. While a large number of military personnel have been volunteered from among the ranks of the member nations, only four soldiers have completed the vetting process so far and are ready for deployment; these individuals have been assigned to Contact Team Alpha. Meanwhile, additional personnel are currently undergoing clearance procedures on-base. Alternative personnel are also being contacted, processed, and relocated, in anticipation of the unscheduled termination of the primary selections.

Science team personnel are proving more difficult to get our hands on, but we are currently liaising with a number of academic, commercial and industrial institutions around the world. It’s unfortunate that most of the fields we’re looking for experts in don’t actually exist yet, but I’m sure we can tempt some renegades out of the woodwork with talk of Xenobiology, alien technologies and massive amounts of funding. I need not remind you all that security vetting is of paramount importance in this area, so delays may be expected. Nonetheless, we have acquired a number of qualified team leads, including the infamous Dr. Billiechu (who has been assigned to head of Science Team, after vigorous internal debate) and the radical scholar Dr. Slackbladder (whose release from British custody is greatly appreciated and may yet prove vital to the defence of this planet).

Two Interceptor-class fighter jets and a Skyranger-class VTOL aircraft have arrived on-base; our Piloting and Engineering staff are currently modifying them to meet expected standards, although specifications are estimates only at this juncture. Our Operations staff have also arrived and are familiarising themselves with the base’s various technical systems. Cpt. McNum’s recall from retirement in an advisory capacity in particular is also appreciated.

Relay my thanks to the German councilmember for the use of this facility; Lt. Corky informs me that hardly any repairs were required, besides replacement signage and the like. Finally, the satellite uplink facilities are currently coming online, although due to some technical problems with our equipment we will likely not possess operational capacity for at least another week.
 

dejan

Member
I don't have a quote, but I'm pretty sure I remember Jake Solomon saying in a recent video that he's actually not a big fan of TftD and if they would make a sequel to XCOM it most propably would not be something like TftD.
 

Jintor

Member
Just so everybody knows, GAFCOM's Steam announcements feature is free for any member to use, so if you're looking for multiplayer use that to look for a partner (hopefully)
 
Dude, in the original you could run into
Ethereals
first UFO mission out. Story progression is linked both to missions/overall objectives and research trees in this one.

No, you couldn't. They were on a fixed 6-month timer, same as Lobstermen in TFTD.
 

Corky

Nine out of ten orphans can't tell the difference.
Can someone explain to a x-com newbie what ironman mode is?

1 save file
autosave keeps saving over it constantly
your decisions matter
can't reload/redo/retry your mistakes
"rogue-like-esque"
 

Mikeside

Member
Can someone explain to a x-com newbie what ironman mode is?

One save slot with autosave so you have to accept whatever happens. Dead soldiers are gone forever.

Otherwise known as "the real fun begins here".

I love these modes - adds so much tension and fun to gameplay. Am loving my hardcore Torchlight II character. Until he dies. That's gonna be sad :(
 
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