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[GlyphGryph]

Only thing I don't really like is the fire. Would have preferred they keep the alien levitation orb thing. It would be much more scary if not only could it fly (and apparently teleport), but if it was also perfectly silent while doing so - maybe with a gentle hum, but no more.

Rocket jets =/= stealthy hunter soldiers.

[Silfurdreki]

Only thing I don't really like is the fire. Would have preferred they keep the alien levitation orb thing. It would be much more scary if not only could it fly (and apparently teleport), but if it was also perfectly silent while doing so - maybe with a gentle hum, but no more.

Rocket jets =/= stealthy hunter soldiers.

I agree that they would be scarier if they were silent, although I think they were going for a more aggressive style than the old floaters had, which I think they've certainly accomplished. They should definitely keep the small steering thrusters, though, too few games have such thrusters.

Also, I think that they don't actually teleport, I got the impression that they can fly and flank you really fast which, to the player, would seem like they were teleporting.

[Delta Foxtrot]

The video actually got me thinking about Zerglings. Only these guys fly and shoot plasma. So far so good. I really like the aggressive pack hunter aesthetic they're going for. What I'm missing however is the horns. I couldn't care less about the cape, but for me the quintessential Floater feature (aside from floating) is the horns.

[Aklyon]

How about a horned cape then?

[Sirus]

I admit I was hesitant about the screenshots, but the video of the floaters actually seemed terrifying. They look far more dangerous than they were before, and we even got some nice footage of X-COM soldiers dying horribly to plasma.

So yeah, I accept the new floater look.

[Heron TSG]

If they're making Floaters hyperaggressive, I can't wait to throw my squad into the gaping maws of fight some Chryssalids.

[Microcline]

I'm pretty okay with the floater redesign.  In the original, floaters were something of a joke as they had low defenses, no psionics, and their terror unit was a giant target that needed to close into melee range to do anything.

I do somewhat miss the old anti-grav system.  In the original, the only thing that they had going for them was that you never knew when a floater was hiding behind a building, and making them hyper-aggressive seems to limit this.  While I'm not advocating a return to turns of looking for the last alien, it would be nice if some of the aliens set up ambushes for the player instead of rushing into battle.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, let's be honest. Original floaters were the sort of thing that make you say, "Whew, it wasn't absolutely anything else."

[Dohon]

Another official "community video". This time about the Art of the new Xcom. Go here.

[MaximumZero]

Shiny. Thanks for the link.

[Dohon]

New interview over at RPS. Part 1 today, part 2 tomorrow.

First part talks about the Floater, the length of the game, approximately how many fatalities you can expect to suffer, coming up with prototypical names for the soldiers, squad sizes and modding. Also, three screenshots. A very good read.

[Sirus]

20 to 22 casualties

This guy must be much better than I am, because I just got to heavy lasers and have at least that many deaths

[lordcooper]

Lower squad sizes and him being in charge of making the game probably have something to do with that.

[Frelock]

Lower squad sizes and him being in charge of making the game probably have something to do with that.

Especially the former, I think.  After all, if you have a squad size of 4, then 20 casualties is 5 full squads, equivalent to something like 70 casualties in the original (using a fully loaded skyranger as a "squad").  Though on the low end, that seems to be a reasonable number of deaths, especially if you don't count sacrificial rookies (a tactic that will no longer be very viable).

[Aklyon]

Are you counting the 'Psiattack dummy' in the sacrificial rookies part? That guy who was always targetted and ended up sitting in the back of the skyranger with nothing but a electroflare.