Can't Find XCOM Removal Mod

[Steelrails]

Has anyone made a mod yet that removes the XCOM unit from the game? I've looked through Steam and here and haven't been able to find one yet. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Socratatus]

I second this. If only the Devs were democratic enough to make the GDR and Xcom units optional in the settings. A smart Dev would`ve done it to please everyone.

Let me know when it happens. (preferably a non-Steam one as they work better for me).

 

[That Other Guy]

Does anyone have a serious problem with the mechanical stats of those two (super cavalry and super paratrooper), or do they just dislike that firaxis decided to be a little silly with the future units?

 

[PhilBowles]

I dislike linking the XCOM unit to a specific fictional universe. The GDR gets a free pass because the name indicates the developers' intent to make it a joke unit (I still think there should be an associated joke achievement: Robots in Disguise - upgrade a unit to a Giant Death Robot). An XCOM unit feels like crass advertising.

Only used XCOM once, and that playing "One More Turn". The drop range is a bit silly, but I didn't have any issue with the stats.

There is a mod that makes the "XCOM Project" a World Congress project and XCOM units can't be built without it, so that's always a possibility as a "next best thing".

 

[Louis XXIV]

I second this. If only the Devs were democratic enough to make the GDR and Xcom units optional in the settings. A smart Dev would`ve done it to please everyone.

Better yet, extend it so any or every unit can be removed from the game through an optional setting. Let's have a game with no units whatsoever. Fun!

 

[kingchris20]

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<Rant>You guys just take this a bit too seriously, its a game with a "shout-out" unit from their sister-studio's game.

Just like you said Phil, the only time you can really get to them is by playing one more turn anyway.

I don't see how people can both like games (fictional at their core) and dislike putting "fictional" things in them........

Sorry</Rant>​

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[PhilBowles]

<TopicData>

<Row>

<Rant>You guys just take this a bit too seriously, its a game with a "shout-out" unit from their sister-studio's game.

Just like you said Phil, the only time you can really get to them is by playing one more turn anyway.

I don't see how people can both like games (fictional at their core) and dislike putting "fictional" thing in them........

Sorry</Rant>​

</Row>​

</TopicData>

It's an immersion thing. Lord of the Rings and Star Trek are both fictional, but I'd find it somewhat immersion-breaking to find Sauron commanding legions of Klingons.

A large part of the point of Civilization is that it's a freeform approach to history - things that might have been can be explored. XCOM is a specific fictional product of a particular game's fictional context, and implicitly relies on world history having followed its real-world path to a certain point - if you don't have an alien invasion of the 'real world' and the fixed 16 funding nations (6 of which - Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa and Australia - aren't in Civ anyway) to support them, you don't have XCOM.

 

[Merciorum]

It's an immersion thing. Lord of the Rings and Star Trek are both fictional, but I'd find it somewhat immersion-breaking to find Sauron commanding legions of Klingons.

A large part of the point of Civilization is that it's a freeform approach to history - things that might have been can be explored. XCOM is a specific fictional product of a particular game's fictional context, and implicitly relies on world history having followed its real-world path to a certain point - if you don't have an alien invasion of the 'real world' and the fixed 16 funding nations (6 of which - Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa and Australia - aren't in Civ anyway) to support them, you don't have XCOM.

Yeah, that's what Europa Universalis is for. Not Civ. Embrace the XCOM and GDRs.

 

[rastak]

It's an immersion thing. Lord of the Rings and Star Trek are both fictional, but I'd find it somewhat immersion-breaking to find Sauron commanding legions of Klingons.

A large part of the point of Civilization is that it's a freeform approach to history - things that might have been can be explored. XCOM is a specific fictional product of a particular game's fictional context, and implicitly relies on world history having followed its real-world path to a certain point - if you don't have an alien invasion of the 'real world' and the fixed 16 funding nations (6 of which - Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa and Australia - aren't in Civ anyway) to support them, you don't have XCOM.

Sounds like you want the game to end before any future era......cause you damn well don't know what will happen in the future. Perhaps you could create a mod ending the game in 2013?

 

[Tachii]

I don't see it as advertising. People who don't play XCOM wouldn't likely get the game just because Civ5 expansion decided to add an unit in. Whereas those who played XCOM like me sees it as a good easter egg-ish thing to add in. I don't really know how someone could hate a unit so much to want to remove it. :|

 

[kingchris20]

It's an immersion thing. Lord of the Rings and Star Trek are both fictional, but I'd find it somewhat immersion-breaking to find Sauron commanding legions of Klingons.

A large part of the point of Civilization is that it's a freeform approach to history - things that might have been can be explored. XCOM is a specific fictional product of a particular game's fictional context, and implicitly relies on world history having followed its real-world path to a certain point - if you don't have an alien invasion of the 'real world' and the fixed 16 funding nations (6 of which - Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa and Australia - aren't in Civ anyway) to support them, you don't have XCOM.

Anyone can easily realize this, but my opinion is that using this depth of realism on a fictional game to begin with, is a bit serious. In the famous words of Joker, "Why so Serious?"

Besides:

1. I don't see anything/anyone/any group relocating a population to another planet (one of the game's victory conditions from the start of Civ V) or any current ambition of doing so.

2. Corporations are the modern day "warmongers", but they are not to be found in Civ V

3. Without Firaxis, there is no Civ V or XCOM. If an XCOM soldier is the only thing that can also shoot green lasers (to opposite the GDR), then why not?

4. And I'm quite sure Maria I didn't rule Portugal from 4000 BC to present day/into the future

Civ V is a game about what-ifs, alternate realities, etc. Who says there are no XCOM soldiers in alternate histories/realities? I mean, without the "Dark Ages" where would the world be technologically? If the Dark Ages hadn't ended when they did? Where would the world be spiritually? What if the guys at Firaxis used their braniac smarts in an alternate reality to create plasma ray guns, and an Alien race who has be observing Earth started to get a little "Concerned" with our advancement, and decided to invade against real XCOM soldiers

All a bit crazy, but no less crazy than the ideas of alternate realities to begin with.

Its all about perception.....

 

[Steelrails]

So is there an actual mod?

I object to the units because they do not follow the progression of units in the game.

I also object to them for aesthetic reasons. "Giant Death Robot" really? That's bad taste and poor design.

There's a limit to unrealism. There's a reason there isn't magic and in the ancient era you don't summon Apollo or Odin to crush your enemies. The GDR and XCom units are akin to dragons and wizards. The other aspects of unrealism are acceptable, given the game's goals and limitations.

Might as well just start putting in DaVinci flying machines in the Renaissance era.

It's all about taste, moderation, sophistacation, and knowing when to say no. Just because you CAN put in an XCOM or GDR, doesn't mean you should.

 

[PhilBowles]

Yeah, that's what Europa Universalis is for. Not Civ. Embrace the XCOM and GDRs.

EU is anything but freeform as far as I know, and if it's anything like Crusader Kings - it's much closer to something like Total War or my all-time favourite board game, Britannia, where you have set territories and the boundaries of every country and province are preset. All you change through gameplay is who owns which of these defined sets of territory at any given point. It's a "what if?" game, but that's not the same as what I'd call a freeform approach to history, especially as it's set in a defined historical period which implicitly accepts that real-world history has to have progressed in a certain way to a fixed point.

 

[NukeAJS]

I dislike linking the XCOM unit to a specific fictional universe. The GDR gets a free pass because the name indicates the developers' intent to make it a joke unit (I still think there should be an associated joke achievement: Robots in Disguise - upgrade a unit to a Giant Death Robot). An XCOM unit feels like crass advertising.

Maybe it is crass advertising but the paratrooper really needed a unit to upgrade into and there's nothing else in the world that it could upgrade into sooo XCOM squad does make sense.

 

[NukeAJS]

It's all about taste, moderation, sophistication, and knowing when to say no. Just because you CAN put in an XCOM or GDR, doesn't mean you should.

Would you remove the 2-3 future techs (not the literal tech called "future tech") then as well? It's very possible that nuclear fusion won't be harnessed for hundreds of years, if at all. So, it's basically a "magic" tech --nanotechnology and Particle Physics to a lesser extent.

 

[RealHuhn]

Actually, I think the XCOM squad is a great addition for gameplay. It indirectly buffed the paratrooper and it makes the bottom part of the tree a lot more interesting for warmongering civs.

With a healthy tech rate, these guys can be beelined quite effectively. Sniping resources is something I missed from Civ 4 anyway.

Oh, and I don't have a problem with fictional units.

 

[Bakspatel]

Everyone there is a mod available that removes both XCOM and GDR. It is called "Units - No Futuristic Units" and is created by BlouBlou. Available at the Steam Workshop.

 

[Abraxis]

I don't really have a problem with GDRs, but X-Com? Their whole existence is contingent on an alien invasion, as a direct response to.. aliens.
Why and how would they exist without aliens, and why are they attacking humans. It just feels so forced and nonsensical. A GDR, fine, it's a bit impractical, but at the end of the day it's a war machine just like tanks and fighter jets, it's a conceivable evolution.

Without aliens, there simply is no X-Com, or Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. It's just too ham-fisted and tasteless. It would be like having advanced naval military tradition in a fictional universe without water.

If you want to do a nod to your sister studio, texture them just like the X-Com soldiers, and call them something else. That would have been acceptable, at some point everyone would zoom in and say "hey, these advanced paratroopers look like X-Com soldiers, what a neat little nod, I'm glad I noticed that". Actually calling them X-Com Squad, it's just so... infuriatingly tasteless to the point of actually being offensive when you think about it. It flies in the face of the very tradition of Easter Eggs as being HIDDEN. I just imagine some poor kid somewhere with douchebag parents walking up to him Easter morning, upending a bucket of chocolate eggs on his head, then moronically sauntering off to screw up their next project JarJar Binks style. All the while patting themselves on the back for how clever they are.

It just screams of lack of experience or belonging within the industry. Like a Harvard graduate walking into an alley calling people homie, it just wreaks of someone sacrificing their integrity to fit in to something they don't understand.

God I didn't even care that much before posting this, now I f***ing hate them.

I mean, did anyone even like those cheap waxy egg chocolates? It was the search, and the excitement of finding hidden treasure that made Easter fun.

 

[PhilBowles]

I don't see it as advertising. People who don't play XCOM wouldn't likely get the game just because Civ5 expansion decided to add an unit in. Whereas those who played XCOM like me sees it as a good easter egg-ish thing to add in. I don't really know how someone could hate a unit so much to want to remove it. :|

Most advertising isn't going to directly sell products - it's aimed at promoting "brand awareness". The XCOM unit isn't an "easter egg" - those are hidden (hence the name) and need some work by the player to "unveil". This means that in most cases they don't come into play or can be avoided - while in BNW, even if you don't tech to XCOM Squads you see them in the tech tree and Civilopedia.

Maybe it is crass advertising but the paratrooper really needed a unit to upgrade into and there's nothing else in the world that it could upgrade into sooo XCOM squad does make sense.

Why was it any more deserving of an upgrade than Chariot Archers, AT Guns or Marines? Nanotechnology is not a useful tech for a paratrooper upgrade - it's too late and not on a particularly direct tech path. So there's no plausible argument from necessity. Had they genuinely felt a need for a paratrooper upgrade, they could have done what G&K did with Infantry - rename the current (WWII era) unit Airbone Infantry and added a Paratrooper unit a couple of techs down the line to reflect modern paratroopers.

 

[Lochlann]

Would you remove the 2-3 future techs (not the literal tech called "future tech") then as well? It's very possible that nuclear fusion won't be harnessed for hundreds of years, if at all. So, it's basically a "magic" tech --nanotechnology and Particle Physics to a lesser extent.

Well, not all fictions qualify as magic. Sure, fusion, nanotech, GDRs, etc., are fictional, but they are built on real concepts. What makes them fictional is our lack of necessary technological sophistication, not a fictional basic premise. Fusion exists and happens all the time, for example; there's nothing "magic" about that. Our ability to replicate and harness fusion may be in the future, but it's built on reality.

As has been pointed out effectively, this is not true of X-COM units. Their very premise is fictional--or "as yet unproven", if you prefer--unlike other things in the game, which merely append fictional technological advances to nonfictional premises. Even the GDR is exactly as the Civilopedia describes it: "a Modern Armor unit on steroids". It is futuristic, certainly, and can be criticized on that basis if you'd like, but it isn't built upon a fictional premise the way X-COM squads are.

All that said, I personally don't mind the X-COM units. A little tacky, a little silly, but meh, things are pretty much gravy (or toast) at their stage of the game anyway. And even if they weren't, it still doesn't bug me. But the units really are in a different ballpark from other things in the game, thematically and in terms of realism, and I can certainly see that disagreeing with people.