SJSerio
Centurion
So, I have played through my first game and I loved the experience. It certainly was a rare treat. I look forward to more attempts in defeating the enemy menace! While I loved the original, and there are certainly certain aspects that I missed, I feel that Firaxis did a very wonderful job in not only reviving, but re-envisioning the X-COM franchise.
Please note I posted a shorter version of this in the main UFO Enemy Unknown thread a few weeks ago, but it was quickly lost in the ether. I am posting it here, with a few more details, in hopes to get more response and feedback, and hopefully bring to the attention of the developers or potential modders.
That said, there are a couple nit-picks that I do have and, if possible, I would love to see either Firaxis or, at the very least, modders address.
Squads
First, the soldier selection system is pretty cumbersome, IMO. It can be a bit of a pain to sort through every mission and keep your troops fairly balanced. Plus, if you would like to rotate your troops, you can easily loose track as you fill in holes and switch the ones that were automatically put in by the game.
Solution
Allow for squads. I would say up to four squads of up to 6 a piece. Any extra soldiers that you have would be your reserves. In the barracks screen, you can assign each soldier to a particular squad or reserves. Perhaps the default names would be Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta though the player can customize the names if they like (i.e., Red like Red 5).
When you send your Skyranger out on a mission, you can quickly select which squad that you want to send. Of course, how the player handles it would be up to them they could rotate each mission (which would make sense and would give injured members time to heal before their next mission) or they could assign each squad for specific mission types (Alpha handles Abductions, Bravo handles UFOs and Charlie handles Terror, etc.)
Service Record
OK, I have to admit I am a stats addict. I love stats! Perhaps the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of stats in the game. About all that is offered is number of missions and kills. Without a doubt, they could certainly go more in depth with the stat tracking. To me, it is part of the reward of playing.
Solution
Each soldier should have a Service Record which you can go into. Even with the dead ones, if you select their name in the memorial, it would open their record and give you their details. It would have the breakdown of not only how many kills they have, but how many of each alien type. Perhaps even assists ones that they shot, but did not kill. It could also types of missions the soldier has been on, as well as the types of UFO's they raided, etc.
The second page could be devoted to certain accolades and achievements that the soldier accomplishes which earns them medals. For example,
there are many more possibilities.
The third page could be dedicated to Disciplinary Actions. Or, put simply, bad actions. They would include,
A bonus would also be to include a photo of the soldier.
Multiplayer
Well, we all know that the multiplayer is rather simplistic. To me, that is fine. Sure, it would be nice to add more things like different mission types (a multiplayer terror mission would be cool). But the only real gripe that I have is with the selection of soldiers. It is quite a pain when going into a match to have to go through and basically create a squad from scratch. It is especially painful when you are trying to use human soldiers and all of the parts that can be customized. It can slow down the match process a lot when entering a match, even more so when the number of points is changed from your initial setup.
Solution
Allow the player to create a pool of soldiers/aliens. The pool should allow for many so that the player can set their variations ranging from the basic soldier with standard issue equipment to the decked out elite soldier. Also, it would be nice to be able to customize the soldiers just as in the single player (more so as you could change parameters not changeable in single player like gender and country). It would also be nice if players who have the elite pack could customize their soldiers further (and possibly provide insentive for those who dont have it, but come across players who do).
It could be even better if, while in Single player campaign, you could save copies of your soldiers to the multi-pool. When you save them, they would be saved as-is and you could copy multiple versions (rookie, trained, elite, psi, etc.)
Aliens, while simpler, could also be stored. This way, I could save Bob, the Floater or Marty, the misunderstood Muton Berserker (who is really just a baby at heart and upset that his favorite candy is missing) in the pool and select them for any matches which I would like to bring them along.
In the end, it should make it much easier to start a match as you can just adjust for the points by picking from your pool of already to go soldiers.
****************************************************************
Well, those are pretty much my nitpicks with the game. As I said, overall, I am happy with the experience. It was certainly worth the wait. The additions above would go a long way for me in rounding out the experience. I would love to hear (or read) any thoughts or comments on the these suggestions. I hope that either Firaxis would implement these into future patches, updates, expansions of the game and/or modders will be able to do so.
Please note I posted a shorter version of this in the main UFO Enemy Unknown thread a few weeks ago, but it was quickly lost in the ether. I am posting it here, with a few more details, in hopes to get more response and feedback, and hopefully bring to the attention of the developers or potential modders.
That said, there are a couple nit-picks that I do have and, if possible, I would love to see either Firaxis or, at the very least, modders address.
Squads
First, the soldier selection system is pretty cumbersome, IMO. It can be a bit of a pain to sort through every mission and keep your troops fairly balanced. Plus, if you would like to rotate your troops, you can easily loose track as you fill in holes and switch the ones that were automatically put in by the game.
Solution
Allow for squads. I would say up to four squads of up to 6 a piece. Any extra soldiers that you have would be your reserves. In the barracks screen, you can assign each soldier to a particular squad or reserves. Perhaps the default names would be Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta though the player can customize the names if they like (i.e., Red like Red 5).
When you send your Skyranger out on a mission, you can quickly select which squad that you want to send. Of course, how the player handles it would be up to them they could rotate each mission (which would make sense and would give injured members time to heal before their next mission) or they could assign each squad for specific mission types (Alpha handles Abductions, Bravo handles UFOs and Charlie handles Terror, etc.)
Service Record
OK, I have to admit I am a stats addict. I love stats! Perhaps the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of stats in the game. About all that is offered is number of missions and kills. Without a doubt, they could certainly go more in depth with the stat tracking. To me, it is part of the reward of playing.
Solution
Each soldier should have a Service Record which you can go into. Even with the dead ones, if you select their name in the memorial, it would open their record and give you their details. It would have the breakdown of not only how many kills they have, but how many of each alien type. Perhaps even assists ones that they shot, but did not kill. It could also types of missions the soldier has been on, as well as the types of UFO's they raided, etc.
The second page could be devoted to certain accolades and achievements that the soldier accomplishes which earns them medals. For example,
- Wounded in Combat (with a count)
- First Blood - the first to kill on a mission
- Last Man (woman) Standing - the only survivor of a mission
- Cleaner - took out the last alien on a particular mission (with count)
- Civilians Saved (total number and average per Terror Mission)
there are many more possibilities.
The third page could be dedicated to Disciplinary Actions. Or, put simply, bad actions. They would include,
- Number of Panics
- Number of times controlled by aliens
- Friendly Fire (from misfires or while panicked)
- Friendly Kills - Civilians
- Friendly Kills - XCOM Soldiers
A bonus would also be to include a photo of the soldier.
Multiplayer
Well, we all know that the multiplayer is rather simplistic. To me, that is fine. Sure, it would be nice to add more things like different mission types (a multiplayer terror mission would be cool). But the only real gripe that I have is with the selection of soldiers. It is quite a pain when going into a match to have to go through and basically create a squad from scratch. It is especially painful when you are trying to use human soldiers and all of the parts that can be customized. It can slow down the match process a lot when entering a match, even more so when the number of points is changed from your initial setup.
Solution
Allow the player to create a pool of soldiers/aliens. The pool should allow for many so that the player can set their variations ranging from the basic soldier with standard issue equipment to the decked out elite soldier. Also, it would be nice to be able to customize the soldiers just as in the single player (more so as you could change parameters not changeable in single player like gender and country). It would also be nice if players who have the elite pack could customize their soldiers further (and possibly provide insentive for those who dont have it, but come across players who do).
It could be even better if, while in Single player campaign, you could save copies of your soldiers to the multi-pool. When you save them, they would be saved as-is and you could copy multiple versions (rookie, trained, elite, psi, etc.)
Aliens, while simpler, could also be stored. This way, I could save Bob, the Floater or Marty, the misunderstood Muton Berserker (who is really just a baby at heart and upset that his favorite candy is missing) in the pool and select them for any matches which I would like to bring them along.
In the end, it should make it much easier to start a match as you can just adjust for the points by picking from your pool of already to go soldiers.
****************************************************************
Well, those are pretty much my nitpicks with the game. As I said, overall, I am happy with the experience. It was certainly worth the wait. The additions above would go a long way for me in rounding out the experience. I would love to hear (or read) any thoughts or comments on the these suggestions. I hope that either Firaxis would implement these into future patches, updates, expansions of the game and/or modders will be able to do so.
