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[Anvilfolk]

So that's a new version coming out tomorrow, huh?

I guess I'll wait until tomorrow until I start playing then

[fred1248]

I thought this game was dead, and completely given up my hope on the game when you started working on cogmind.
I am so glad that I was wrong.

[MonkeyHead]

I am so much more worked up about playing a campaign mode on this than the other AAA xcom.

[Wrex]

When I saw that post, I was reminded of the MW2 guys absolutely losing their shit when the inevitable booster nuke landed.

[Kyzrati]

I thought this game was dead, and completely given up my hope on the game when you started working on cogmind.
I am so glad that I was wrong.

Dead?! Cogmind was just a 7DRL I ended up spending an extra few weeks on to improve since it was as popular, or even more popular, than X@COM (though quite likely because X@COM is still far from finished, and there are lots of potential players waiting on the sidelines).

I've been working on X@COM almost constantly since, and R6 even came out after Cogmind, though releases aren't coming as quickly as in the early days. This is because during early development it was easy to put out a new version with lots of new content, but now that I've got all the easy stuff (battlescape mechanics) pretty much done, it takes a lot more effort/time to put new features in because they're generally not as simple to add. Much of the progress this year has also been on less visible internal features setting the game up for the future. (Edit: My internal changelog for the past few months has grown exponentially compared to early releases...) Can't build a grand game on a crappy foundation! (I'm also a dad now, which is definitely a time sink... Hopefully at 12 months I can teach him to program and he can help me make up for lost time )

X@COM will always be in development. We haven't even gotten to the geoscape yet!

Well, that's a bit of a change from your standard X-Com. Sensible, though, with an alien invasion going on and all.

Hehe, the image was half-meant in a metaphorical sense, as in there's an earthshattering big new happy release coming out

Though admittedly the problem you have to deal with in the new scenario is far from standard X-COM fare, and it plays quite differently from your average X-COM mission. The purpose is to showcase the ability scripting system I worked on for over a month.

So that's a new version coming out tomorrow, huh?

I guess I'll wait until tomorrow until I start playing then

This. Releasing for ARRP 2012. It's an X@COM anniversary! (The first pre-alpha tech demo was released for ARRP 2011...)

[Markus]

Having just found this great piece of work, I was looking back through blogposts about "Terminal Obsession" and saw national guard soldiers in the combat logs. So, we'll get non-operative humans with guns now? No more civillains wandering aimlessly and no missing militaries?

[Kyzrati]

Most definitely.

The demo scenario "Area 51" has you fighting alongside a couple groups of other soldiers, and "Exodus" has you assisting the National Guard (rather, they're assisting you). The scenario coming out with the next release is much, much crazier.

[Markus]

Hm... I know that this is more for later in development, but can Civillians be defined as more than just "Civillians?" I'd assume that aliens landing in a mafia infested city would not end well for anyone. Especially if the mafia get's their hands on a blaster bomb. Of course, if we see some policemen that would help us out. Or, y'know, that extremely insane hill billy who packs a rocket launcher as "Varmint repellant."

[Kyzrati]

R7 (<--2 char understatement)

Time for a brand new scenario: CATACLYSM!

I know the blog post is long, but I strongly recommend you guys read at least most of the release notes, since the gameplay in this version is very different from before. You can recruit civilians, arm them even, and there is generally a lot more interaction happening than what you've seen before.

Cataclysm highlights:
- Survive a zombie apocalypse
- Randomly generated town! (triple the variety of Exodus)
- Recruit NPC followers
- Rescue civilians, or turn them into your personal army

Changelog highlights:
- Chryssalids, Zombies, Silacoids
- Morale
- Medi-kit
- Motion Scanner
- Mind Probe
- Unit profile window
- Use/Manipulate actions
- Context help

Feel free to talk about what you find and share strategies with fellow B12-ers, because many players could have quite different experiences depending on what kinds of towns they get. I'm especially interested in what kinds of fun encounters everyone has--it's a pretty entertaining scenario, but in the near term I don't have enough spare time to play myself! I owe the wife some time after spending several weeks glued to my computer to bring you this

If you find anything amiss, report it and if it's serious enough I'll release an update.

Hm... I know that this is more for later in development, but can Civillians be defined as more than just "Civillians?" I'd assume that aliens landing in a mafia infested city would not end well for anyone. Especially if the mafia get's their hands on a blaster bomb. Of course, if we see some policemen that would help us out. Or, y'know, that extremely insane hill billy who packs a rocket launcher as "Varmint repellant."

You're in luck. The version I released moments ago is exactly that. Times 10.

[Geen]

HOLY SHIT YES SO MUCH AWESOME...
Wait, lemme guess, you've been playing Cataclysm?
Whales needs to add sectoids now.

[Draxis]

Cataclysm is lots of Fun - from the Last Death thread: 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My team was leading a large group of civilians out of a zombie-infested area, when a zombie runs up and attacks my lead man.  He smashes down the zombie with a sledgehammer, but a alien emerges from the corpse and strikes him down.  He drops the unstable compound he is carrying, and it explodes, wiping out my whole team.  This causes the similar compounds carried by the rest of my team - we got them out of an abandoned laboratory, and were using them as grenades - to explode as well, killing most of the civilians following us and leveling a block and a half. 

On maps with a police station, the cops seem to just hang out in the station, and refuse to follow my guys or do anything else.

[Anvilfolk]

I never got past surviving a couple of days in Cataclysm...


Also, what is the situation with X@COM? Any ETA on campaign modes? Right now it seems like you have mostly scenarios?

[Kyzrati]

HOLY SHIT YES SO MUCH AWESOME...
Wait, lemme guess, you've been playing Cataclysm?
Whales needs to add sectoids now.

Yeah, I played a bit of Cataclysm a little while back. I want to play more, but just don't have the time. Instead I sometimes read the B12 thread and browse what people are doing, which is a lot of fun, too!

It seemed an appropriate scenario for R7 because the latest addition was Chryssalids/Zombies

I also linked to Whales' site on my blog post, which got a lot of attention--hopefully brought him some traffic, too. Now someone can mod in a downed UFO with sectoids roaming about in the wilderness

Cataclysm is lots of Fun - from the Last Death thread: 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My team was leading a large group of civilians out of a zombie-infested area, when a zombie runs up and attacks my lead man.  He smashes down the zombie with a sledgehammer, but a alien emerges from the corpse and strikes him down.  He drops the unstable compound he is carrying, and it explodes, wiping out my whole team.  This causes the similar compounds carried by the rest of my team - we got them out of an abandoned laboratory, and were using them as grenades - to explode as well, killing most of the civilians following us and leveling a block and a half. 

As above, I love reading these things when I can't play myself

On maps with a police station, the cops seem to just hang out in the station, and refuse to follow my guys or do anything else.

Yeah, not all of the NPCs will follow you; many will just defend their own territory. I should've had the police tell you something to indicate this (the other stationary NPCs do).

The police are just defending their station, so you can hang out there and have them protect you, or...
they do all follow Sgt. Jackson, so if you kill him the police will split up and start patrolling the level as their leader is dead. Maybe I could switch the police to eventually rush out of their station--I didn't want them to be out in force too early, because they may be too effective in slowing the spread of the infection before it really gets underway.

There is one patrol officer who leaves the station on his own though. Maybe you didn't meet him.

Also, what is the situation with X@COM? Any ETA on campaign modes? Right now it seems like you have mostly scenarios?

The scenarios are just placeholders for testing the battlescape and to let people have some fun with the game while it's in early development. Can't do campaign mode until the geoscape is ready. Now that the mechanics are close to 100%, there's a lot of battlescape improvement to be done, including making it possible to play all the original X-COM maps, before I can move on to geoscape development.

[Draxis]

Yeah, the police thing makes sense, but I would have them hanging put in the lobby or something - there was a fight with my whole team, a bunch of civilians, and even more zombies right outside and I was unable to get their attention.

[Mephansteras]

Oooh, can't wait to try out the newest version.