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[Sheb]

My take on this was that all aliens operations are protected by low-level psionics fields, that just mess up with most people. Consider how stupidly civies in terror missions acts for exemple.

Our solders aren't the best of the best, they're just the few that can withstand the psi field.

[scrdest]

Skill aside, X-COM at *tier zero* gear (i.e. ballistics and armor) is better equipped that at least 99% of military forces - that general you save in a Council mission implies so much, and the base assault rifle is an experimental model.

And again, Aim is an abstraction of the turn-based combat system - what seems like an operative missing a clean shot might in fact be an alien running to cover on the next turn, for example.

[Wimopy]

Looks like I misinterpreted the Volunteer part (I kinda shouldn't post 'round midnight, either). Still, him surviving the great heroic sacrifice part means it might come back in some plot later. Possibly, anyways, unless XCOM2 starts an entirely new continuity (which it might, if XCOM gets curbstomped).


I'm thinking a large-scale military attack is an easy target for aerial bombardment and the likes. And if a country (which, unlike XCOM, has a known location, has no subtlety, etc.) attacks the aliens in a coordinated fashion, the aliens can just send a larger amount of troops. Add to that that thin men can supposedly infiltrate human society and you've got a serious problem.
Don't forget how XCOM had trouble defending their own HQ, and that was a heavily fortified, secret base. Most national military HQs aren't that fortunate.

And yeah, mobilising even a platoon is a lengthy task. The Skyranger can get to a city in a few hours and by then it's already chaos and the amount of survivors is rather low already. By the time any military troop that can deploy ground forces gets there, it's likely there's nothing to save, just a few straggling aliens and a few very lucky citizens left.

On the aim thing...
Though the aliens don't move much during the turn-based abstraction, in real life, they would. And they move in strange ways, with strange patterns. Their physiology is strange as well. That's what leads to missed shots. (At least against thin men and sectoids) Against larger targets, it's probably the fear factor that that muton will get pissed if you shoot him and he's carrying a plasma rifle that can tear apart any modern armoured vehicle in a few shots. Ethereals have a psi-shield. Outsiders are made of energy, so they affect bullet flight paths. (This might also be a case where any alien power source is involved.)

Well, that's for ballistic and laser weapons, anyway. Plasma weapons are likely a bit hard to get used to for rookies. It also has blinding light effects which don't really help lay down much fire.

And there's the psychological effect of going against the vastly superior unknown as well. Sure, soldiers are hardened and prepared for it, but the complete unknown still unnerves them. They can understand what a human thinks and know what to expect, but not when it comes to aliens.

[puke]

the base assault rifle is an experimental model.

because special operators love going into battle with experimental ballistic weapons, rather than ones that have been well tried and proven.

I say that sarcastically, but from what I've read the China Lake /was/ a huge hit for the guys whom had the opportunity to use it in the field.

And speaking of which, LETS HAVE SOME HYPE FOR THE MILKOR MGL!!!  Or is it supposed to be a M32?  I cant tell.

I'm hoping mods let us tweak in some seriously heavy firepower, like automatic shotguns and explosive shells.  Automatic grenade launchers like the PAW-20 or XM-25.  Heavys fireing Type-87's from the hip...

If they've made the environments properly destructible, I know some modders will turn it up to 11.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I'd still love to see an X-Com made with Silent Storm's engine. It's the only game where your rifleman can accidentally your whole squad by shooting down a stairwell at an enemy, because the bullet grazed the guy, then went down through the floorboards and set off a chain reaction in the fuel and ammo storage in the building's basement.

[TempAcc]

Yea, I really love the silent storm engine and it could totally be adapted to make a sweet xcom game. The destructible enviroments of EU dont even come close to the detailed destructible enviroments of any silent storm games.

[Sonlirain]

Silent storm was (and still is) stupidly exploitable tho. Sniping through walls for example.
Still it would be pretty interesting to see. Especially with the MECs (Panzerhosen) nerfed enough to not wade through everything short of laser cannons.
I remember that even rocket launchers did scratch damage at best and the only effective weapons were laser cannons and a special unique rifle.
And even those didn't do much to the suit. Instead they killed the piots.

[puke]

Sniping through walls sounds legit.  I've put high caliber rounds clear through 12 inch thick tree trunks.  Drywall is thin.

Unless these are stone walls?  Even then, you just need a bigger gun

[scriver]

MECs (Panzerhosen)

"Tank pants"?

[Hawk132]

Actually, they were called "Panzerklein".

[scriver]

I believe I am going to stick with "tank pants."

[TempAcc]

Panzerklein made the game kinda dumb. I mean, it was an interesting variation in gameplay, but the fact that your whole team could use them and you pretty much had to use them in order to go toe to toe with the enemies past that point kinda screwed with the gameplay. In this aspect, X-COM did the right thing with the mek suit thing. You cant have a whole team with it (I think?), and there's clear advantages and disadvantages to using it, instead of just being one huge advantage with negligible drawbacks.

[Sheb]

There is nothing stopping you from having a whole squad of MEC troopers, and they're superior to normal humans. It's just that Meld is limiting.

[puke]

You can... but (in LW at least) you can't afford to put everyone in them, and you need to rest the troopers between fights which makes them even more scarce a resource.

I could usually field one or two with each squad of 6.

[Sheb]

Yeah, just saying there is no hard cap, if you wanted to you could refrain from boarding the Temple Ship for a couple years to collect enough Meld.