XCOM 2

ls612 said:

I've been reading about what they are planning to do with XCOM 2 and modding, and it sounds extremely exciting. Not only are they planning to release an XCOM modbuddy, but they are going to release the gameplay DLL source, like for civ 4 and 5, AND the Unreal editor they use internally to develop new assets, AND 50 GB or so of their own development assets. This is really more support for modding than I've seen for any game in a long while.

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Yep, even if its crap the community will make it great. Although i think it should be pretty decent in its own right. I know there are quite a number of scripted maps. And the editors allow you to create your own. My only worry is that the geoscape strategy will be a little lite. But we shall see.

ls612 said:

I've been reading about what they are planning to do with XCOM 2 and modding, and it sounds extremely exciting. Not only are they planning to release an XCOM modbuddy, but they are going to release the gameplay DLL source, like for civ 4 and 5, AND the Unreal editor they use internally to develop new assets, AND 50 GB or so of their own development assets. This is really more support for modding than I've seen for any game in a long while.

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Bring on the new Long War!

New XCOM2 trailer:

Link to video.

Looks super badass!!

I loved the trailer until the "pre-order now and get the..."
All pre-order bonuses do for me is make me want to wait for a complete or GOTY edition, mostly out of spite.

ls612 said:

I've been reading about what they are planning to do with XCOM 2 and modding, and it sounds extremely exciting. Not only are they planning to release an XCOM modbuddy, but they are going to release the gameplay DLL source, like for civ 4 and 5, AND the Unreal editor they use internally to develop new assets, AND 50 GB or so of their own development assets. This is really more support for modding than I've seen for any game in a long while.

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Well maybe if no devs will make a decent necromunda game then maybe someone will create an XCOM total conversion!

EDIT: Lo and behold I just went on to youtube and Quill18 has some gameplay footage.

GoodSarmatian said:

I loved the trailer until the "pre-order now and get the..."
All pre-order bonuses do for me is make me want to wait for a complete or GOTY edition, mostly out of spite.

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Seems it's just a skin pack, just like the first XCOM's preorder bonus, so easily passable.

This game is going to be amazing. Only wish it was out in time for the holidays this year.

I don’t know how good this game is going to be. But there are a number of things that draw me to it like its going to be a great game:

1. It is fully moddable and there are a ton of tools for modders to get their hands on.
2. It is fully moddable and there are a ton of tools for modders to get their hands on. This point is so important it is worth restating twice.
3. The graphics look excellent.
4. In general it seems that everything has been made more badass. Except there are no mechs (that you build and – I expect an expansion.
5. I think the devs have looked at long war and seen where their game was at the end point of its life cycle. This gives me hope for the future. My only slight worry is that the community will be a fair way from the developers. This makes skill settings all the more vital.
6. Full customisation seems like a very good thing.
7. Full procedural developed maps also is a massive win.

So I think this has a lot going for it. And there is enough of the base game in there that it will still feel similar and “the same”, whilst at the same time being wildly different and also having the potential to be more than wildly different (via mods).

Finally, I think it’s a positive that the community have been given access to it now. To take a load of youtubers and get them into the studio to showcase the game is a good thing. And although they will almost certainly be constricted in some way in what they can say (whether real or imagined constraints). You can at least tell whether they really enjoy the game, or think they would really enjoy it. It just feels right if you ask me. I hope im not wrong. Ive poured 500+ hours into XCOM so this release is a big deal for me.

Just watched Angry Joe play through a mission on it. I can't say I'm super stoked about every aspect of it. Some features of it do look awesome but there's a lot that seems missing too. The strategy layer looks even more simplified than in EU, which was already kind of dredging the bottom of the barrel strategically. No air combat. Worse, no fatigue system ala Long War, so the way to victory in the vanilla version of the game is going to be just like in EU where you train a core of 6 troops and most likely restart if anything happens to them, it's a system that does not emphasize having a deep roster.

The silver lining to all of this of course is the modding support. GREAT decision by Firaxis, most of my complaints about the game will probably be moot within a month of release thanks to this.

Wolfbeckett said:

Just watched Angry Joe play through a mission on it. I can't say I'm super stoked about every aspect of it. Some features of it do look awesome but there's a lot that seems missing too. The strategy layer looks even more simplified than in EU, which was already kind of dredging the bottom of the barrel strategically. No air combat. Worse, no fatigue system ala Long War, so the way to victory in the vanilla version of the game is going to be just like in EU where you train a core of 6 troops and most likely restart if anything happens to them, it's a system that does not emphasize having a deep roster.

The silver lining to all of this of course is the modding support. GREAT decision by Firaxis, most of my complaints about the game will probably be moot within a month of release thanks to this.

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Having only ever played on ironman (not on long war - im not crazy - i play on bronzeman instead). I consider only using 6 troops a poor tactic. Because as you say - if anything happens to them you are screwed. Constant troop rotations are still a good tactic to employ, particularly on smaller UFOs and easier missions. You just needed one or two high ranked soldiers to babysit a much weaker squad. Exalt missions were great later in the game for lower ranked soldiers as they basically degenerated into a shooting gallery.

Was that on impossible difficulty? I never got good enough to do I/I but I watched a bunch of Youtubers do it and none of them trained more than their core 6, on I/I I just just don't think you have enough time to do it, you need every mission to train your main group and by the time they're trained the alien difficulty has ramped up too much for newbies to survive.

Having one dream squad is a huge issue because as soon as you mess up one mission it is game over. It is far better in EW to have a squad and at least a backup squad's worth of soldiers.

That said WOW the customization options for the soldiers this time around are impressive.

ls612 said:

Having one dream squad is a huge issue because as soon as you mess up one mission it is game over. It is far better in EW to have a squad and at least a backup squad's worth of soldiers.

That said WOW the customization options for the soldiers this time around are impressive.

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Of course it's better. It would even better still to have 5 backup squad's worth. But there is a limited number of missions to bring people on for training and once you get past a certain point it's almost impossible to actually do because you get to a point where any of the aliens can 1 shot a newbie from across the map out of full cover. The question is, does the pacing of the game allow for that kind of spreading the XP around? On earlier difficulties maybe but from what I've seen at the high end of gameplay it doesn't seem doable, you need every mission just to get your core team trained up in time to handle the ever escalating alien difficulty.

That said, most of the campaigns I watched WERE pre-EW, so maybe the addition of the EXALT missions changes things.

Wolfbeckett said:

Was that on impossible difficulty? I never got good enough to do I/I but I watched a bunch of Youtubers do it and none of them trained more than their core 6, on I/I I just just don't think you have enough time to do it, you need every mission to train your main group and by the time they're trained the alien difficulty has ramped up too much for newbies to survive.

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No i played on classic. The really really good people who play on II can do that because they basically dont lose any soldiers, or hardly any at all. For lesser mortals like myself, there is always a chance i bite off more than i can chew. And for that i need a contingency of some sort.

I did sort of find though that you could quite often get a soldier promoted to colonel quite quickly. Particularly snipers.

After watching a bit of gameplay footage I might reverse my resolution. The base building looks like it's been simplified, but we now have s strategic map where we can choose our missions and plan our route instead of simply recting to alien attacks. I also like the stealthy approach in the beginning. Two of the biggest frustrations from Enemy Unknown seem to be gone.
Looks like a week one purchase.
I'll not pre-order because only a fool buys a game before reading reviews, and Firaxis have used up all their fool points with me for this decade.

Just watched Beagle's preview vids and I'm hyped again. I still think the design direction stuff in the strategic layer that I mentioned before is a shame but the tactical layer looks like it's locked down tight. The stealth mechanics, destructable roofs, and hacking stuff all looks awesome. Also nice to see that Firaxis took some UI cues from Long War (icon net to overwatching troops, UI display showing that enemies have armor/DR). In spite of my efforts to manage my expectations I have to admit that I'm getting pretty excited for this one.

It looks pretty excellent.

The character creation needs some Kiss makeup options though.

Wish there was more helmet/armor deco options but other than that it looks good. Wonder what they're replacing air combat with...

edingess said:

Wonder what they're replacing air combat with...

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Gwent.

I've watched a ton of the gameplay videos posted in the past day or so with the preview build, and can say that I think they have done a good job with the strategic map. Injuries last a LONG time (a month or so) meaning you better have backup. However there is also the ability to manually train a rookie into a class in your ship so you can more easily create reserves.