Topic: X-Com Chimera Squad (Read 733486 times)

Scoops Novel · « **Reply #6225 on:** May 03, 2017, 09:35:24 am »

How do you get across moral ambiguity without going Spec Ops the line? The game would need a lot more detective work. You'd need multiple factions within Advent representing your various flavors of collaborator and determine which shadow is the real government. Even then, i'm not sure how satisfying the clues would be.

Actually, i think developing the untrusty elements in your own resistance would do a better job.

Mephansteras · « **Reply #6226 on:** May 03, 2017, 11:27:03 am »

I've pondered how the game could have done more with the human populace as a whole. Right now people are either in the resistance havens and allies or anywhere else and effectively hostile (giving away your position when spotted). I think it'd have been neat to deal with the PR aspects of things. Do you go full terrorist completely ignoring civilian casualties and simply accepting that people are going to hate you while working to take down the aliens? Do you do PR campaigns and carefully avoid civilian casualties in an attempt to get the people on your side, maybe even inciting riots against the aliens?

What about having people in the slums and outlying settlements be more likely to be x-com sympathizers, with the civilians you meet on missions in those areas being more neutral or maybe even helping you out a bit (like giving away Advent positions).

And the resistance in general, I feel, is kinda shallow. A few mods have expanded their role a bit, but it is still thin. They're always dead by the time you get there, or gone in some other way. Why not some missions where you protect the hacker? Or have to get it to them and escort them out?

Chiefwaffles · « **Reply #6227 on:** May 03, 2017, 05:21:17 pm »

I've always felt that while XCOM2 is a better game overall, but it just doesn't do the theming as well as EU.

XCOM1 knew exactly where it was. The music, ambience, that little piano riff(?) you get on pod unveils, the general unsettling nature of the aliens shown by creations like the floaters...
It all worked together to create a very competent theme. There was also a theme of "super heroes" which they very intentionally worked towards (XCOM1 had the character models purposely made in comically-sized "super hero" proportions) and pulled off well. In the end you had this group of heros facing off against he unknown. Of course it wasn't perfect, but it worked and was enjoyable.

Then XCOM2 just seems to not know what its theme is other than "good guys vs. bad guys". Though I am glad it didn't go the way some people wanted with stupid things like "reverse terror missions". While a more morally-grey XCOM could work, they don't need to go with shock value like that. But I digress; my point is that XCOM2 ultimately fails to XCOM1 in its theming while it succeeds in nearly everything else.

RAM · « **Reply #6228 on:** May 03, 2017, 06:01:14 pm »

I wonder if you can add vision before the aliens are spawned. That way you could have resistance civilians who provide additional map-awareness from before the battle starts, to help plan your attack. And then there would e the issue of, if you can see them, then they should be able to visually convey how many hostiles they can see. And if you contact them directly with some sort of action they should be able to provide detailed intelligence on enemy numbers in the map or such...

TheDarkStar · « **Reply #6229 on:** May 03, 2017, 06:07:47 pm »

Quote from: Chiefwaffles on May 03, 2017, 05:21:17 pm

Then XCOM2 just seems to not know what it's theme is other than "good guys vs. bad guys". Though I am glad it didn't go the way some people wanted with stupid things like "reverse terror missions". While a more morally-grey XCOM could work, they don't need to go with shock value like that. But I digress; my point is that XCOM2 ultimately fails to XCOM1 in its theming while it succeeds in nearly everything else.

tbh if I owned XCOM 2 I'd be advocating for a mod that made XCOM terrorists rather than good guys with no base. Or at least more like what Rolan described a few posts back.

Retropunch · « **Reply #6230 on:** May 04, 2017, 08:28:35 am »

Quote from: Chiefwaffles on May 03, 2017, 05:21:17 pm

Then XCOM2 just seems to not know what its theme is other than "good guys vs. bad guys". Though I am glad it didn't go the way some people wanted with stupid things like "reverse terror missions". While a more morally-grey XCOM could work, they don't need to go with shock value like that. But I digress; my point is that XCOM2 ultimately fails to XCOM1 in its theming while it succeeds in nearly everything else.

That was a big part of my issue with it - whilst I'm glad they changed stuff up, it was still one of the more tenuous settings I've ever played in.

They couldn't go gritty enough for it to work as a sort of 'last survivors' type thing, and they didn't really manage to make the whole moving base thing work effectively.

It felt like they had this great plan on paper but sort of couldn't follow it through properly.

EnigmaticHat · « **Reply #6231 on:** May 05, 2017, 03:07:36 am »

I read the whole thing as a cyberpunk story and it pretty much worked. It even has the vague transhumanist "what have we created" ending with, well,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Chiefwaffles · « **Reply #6232 on:** May 05, 2017, 03:19:56 am »

I still like the fan theory that

Spoiler: The Bureau + XCOM2 Spoilers (click to show/hide)

They seem to intend to build off of XCOM2, though. The final mission had quite a bit of dialogue and story that's too cryptic to be fully understandable with all that we've been given story-wise. Then there's the sequel hook. They're clearly planning for the future in 2 versus 1's more self-contained story.

My bet is that we get an EW-style expansion then XCOM3 after some amount of years. I have literally no idea what XCOM3 would be about but I really hope they do something like they did with XCOM2. I loved the ADVENT future site as well as the cinematic trailer. Even though I love XCOM2 (more so than 1) the initial hype for it was probably the best part.

My Name is Immaterial · « **Reply #6233 on:** May 05, 2017, 04:53:55 am »

Quote from: Chiefwaffles on May 05, 2017, 03:19:56 am

My bet is that we get an EW-style expansion then XCOM3 after some amount of years. I have literally no idea what XCOM3 would be about but I really hope they do something like they did with XCOM2.

Based on ending spoilers, I'm pretty sure that we're going to get something like Terror from the Deep.

Everyone body's been talking about a possible EW expansion, but what would that look like? I mean, we got new enemies and a new class with the other two DLC, so what could an expansion add? I'm thinking that they might try and flesh out the resistance mechanics, but I dunno. Thoughts?

Sanctume · « **Reply #6234 on:** May 05, 2017, 11:52:42 am »

I am currently enjoying XCOM LW 1.0 -- Anyone else reboot a new campaign?

nenjin · « **Reply #6235 on:** June 04, 2017, 03:41:04 pm »

So opinions on Long War 2?

FWIW I am not great at XCOM. I'm save scummer. Most of the mods I got for my first playthrough we were about loosening restrictions, especially the mission timer.

I like what I'm reading in LW2 but it also sounds like a way more challenging game. I like the variety of management activities though. How configurable is LW2? Can you adjust the mission timers etc... so you don't have to sprint through every mission and actually have time to fight the Elites in good order, or is your back against a wall in most missions? What's the compatibility like with other mods?

Modding is a blessing to video games, but man I wish it didn't take a solid day of research, downloading and testing to get playing.

Just found this though, should speed things up: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e7YrjDSl95Hmt1ZPSlsBStvQk95uLX_KcmWS4OoDBak/edit#gid=0 <--- Long War 2 mod compatibility list.

nenjin · « **Reply #6236 on:** June 04, 2017, 08:33:46 pm »

Spoiler: The list I went with (click to show/hide)

nenjin · « **Reply #6237 on:** June 05, 2017, 10:16:21 am »

Well the game doesn't crash but probably 1/5th of the mods don't seem to work with LW2.

I used the Steam workshop to install all this stuff, instead of going through the Nexus Mod Manager. Does install order matter when you're doing the Workshop?

Mephansteras · « **Reply #6238 on:** June 05, 2017, 10:35:44 am »

Not that I'm aware of. My mod list seems to work fine with LW2, although I specifically only have gameplay mods installed that say they work with it. Cosmetic/Voice stuff, of course, should be fine regardless.

nenjin · « **Reply #6239 on:** June 05, 2017, 10:55:00 am »

Yeah I only ran mods on their compatibility list but it's from January so that's six months where they could have diverged and no one has checked.

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Author Topic: X-Com Chimera Squad (Read 733486 times)

Scoops Novel

Re: X-Com 2: Ita Longissimum Bellum Coepit

Mephansteras

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Chiefwaffles

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RAM

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TheDarkStar

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Retropunch

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EnigmaticHat

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Chiefwaffles

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My Name is Immaterial

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Sanctume

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nenjin

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nenjin

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nenjin

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Mephansteras

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nenjin

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