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[Sinistar]

I remember back when I had my first very own computer. One day, I tried to install demo of Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy.

I was enraged to see it needed freaking 110+ MB. And just a DEMO! I say!

Ah, back in the days when I was struggling with "you have 0 empty space on partition C:"

Yep, those were the days...

No please excuse me for not contributing anything XCOM related.

[Briggsy16]

I really don't understand how people struggle with hard dive space.

[GlyphGryph]

Prevailing attitudes are that you should leave about 10% of any hard drive available for it to rearrange stuff. If you don't, it makes the computer crawl like a mother because it has to break every "move this file here" command into the smallest available piece.

I'm pretty sure "move this file here" command doesn't actually move anything but the location-data. Which is trivially small.

Swap space is where the RAM actions go when you run out of RAM. If you don't have hard drive space for swapping in and out blocks of RAM-data, then going over your RAM limit is... really rather bad.

[timferius]

They pretty much give away terabyte harddrives these days. A year or two ago, I went to replace my failing Harddrive, and all I could find were 500GB or Terabytes, all dirt cheap.
Still working on filling that one up. Almost got it!

[Sergius]

I really don't understand how people struggle with hard dive space.

Some people are on gaming notebooks, and their 1GB hard disks aren't that common or inexpensive.

Having external storage helps, but you can't just move installed games there and expect them to work right (specially over USB).

If you mean why people fill their disks with junk, well, I think XCOM kinda proves the point that games take a LOT of space.

[Tack]

This needs to happen even sooner.

However, judging by how I've chained my things up- I should almost be finished with Borderlands when this hits me.
I may need someone to call me every few days to check I haven't died from my month-long nerdgasm.

[Werdna]

May as well pull the discussion somewhere else.

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/xcom-enemy-unknown/1225995p1.html

Scroll down to the bottom of the article. At least we know one of the old aliens is gone... though didn't everyone just use them for reaction practice?

I think that's actually the first interview that disappointed me a little bit.  No motion scanners because you didn't personally use them?  What?  I was at least mollified that the 'scanning' mechanic seems to be integrated into 'hearing' instead (a good idea), but man I loved the motion scanners, it gave the game a little bit of that Aliens vibe and was fun trying to pinpoint the exact square to send a blaster bomb flying into.  Not to mention it was helpful to locate the last $%&$%ing alien on the map.  Did anyone else not use these?  I can't even imagine playing the original without these, unless you're savescumming, so I have to wonder about that guy's playing of the original.

Ditto for cutting proximity grenades.  Yes, they were kinda redundant if you're throwing them right at an alien, I get that, but they were awesome for just leaving them to "cover" a corner of a building or near a door you're suspicious of, and act as a tripwire to notify you when/if an alien came by there (and in the early game, blow it to shreds).  They were a fun tactic and I used them a lot, and in a pinch early in the game, they even worked OK as a normal grenade.  Crossing my fingers that all these other new tactical mechanics they talk about will be satisfying replacements.

Have to agree with Garth, I think I would've enjoyed the delayed-blast mechanic on grenades.  If your moron focus groups weren't grasping the concept, maybe add something to your UI like a mini-clock over the thrown grenade to ram it home that this is how grenades work.

The missing alien - good riddance.  I had totally forgotten about them, they're that forgettable, and the new aliens sound great.  Melee - don't want it.  Glad the stun rod and all that it implies is still there though - zapping aliens early on was some great white-knuckle game play and problem solving, and I look forward to more of it.

[dogstile]

The problem is with the new maps proxi grenades would just make it really easy. First turn, get your guys to cover, lob em at the side of the map you want cover from. Then sweep the other side. Repeat for every map because it would be such an easy tactic. Same thing with the motion scanners, the maps don't really look like they're designed for you to use them over sight, especially with the snipers ability to throw those battle scanners.

The enemies all seem like they're going to attack you once you've gotten the ball rolling, so at most it would be a "enemies are here, here, here and here, roughly, therefore I will use all this cover to protect myself and never lose a unit". With the decreased squad size, I think they had make it a bit riskier when searching for enemies.

The delayed blast thing pissed me off though. At the very least, if you want an instant detonation, make it so you use both actions throwing a grenade instead of one. That way you could "cook it" before throwing. That way you would have to think about where to place your guy before you threw the damn nade. Aside from that, anyone with half a brain would realise grenades blow up a turn after they're thrown after using one for the first time, did they really take out delayed blasts just to spare them that? Pah

From a strictly game design point of view, I can see why they went the direction they did. I can see why its a tad annoying for classic players though.

[Neonivek]

I think that's actually the first interview that disappointed me a little bit.  No motion scanners because you didn't personally use them?

My surprise! no wait I have no surprise.

Look... unless the Scanner had a gun I don't think it is going to be in the game.

[Werdna]

The problem is with the new maps proxi grenades would just make it really easy. First turn, get your guys to cover, lob em at the side of the map you want cover from. Then sweep the other side. Repeat for every map because it would be such an easy tactic. Same thing with the motion scanners, the maps don't really look like they're designed for you to use them over sight, especially with the snipers ability to throw those battle scanners.

The prox grenades in the original were not very strong.  They ended up being more useful as a tripwire, and maybe to soften up an alien, but for lethal options they were greatly outclassed once you got the alien grenades.  They also had the nice drawback that you had to be aware of unexploded ones.  I don't see how this would make the new one any easier than the old one if they kept their lethality low.

Scanner I agree, it sounds like between 'hearing' and the battle scanner, the motion scanner mechanics are already covered.  I was mostly a bit irked by his claim that he never used them and thought they were uninteresting.  I sorta wonder how he could mention that in a design meeting without other folks giving him grief - I've no idea how someone can play the original without motion scanners and not savescum or Redshirt their way through all the missions.  They save time and lives.

I do greatly appreciate that the enemy AI is more "combined tactics" though and I see your point there where these items would be needed less.  Would gladly sacrifice them for a more exciting  firefight.

[Fikes]

Hard drive space can be an issue if you are using solid state drives. I ran into this problem when I bought my new computer. I had 1 TB free on a secondary drive but only 120 gigs on my SSD. Guess which drive I liked to install games on?

Also huge space requirements = longer download times.

As a side note, I remember Wing Commander 4. It was one of the first games to offer full motion video. Two things stick out about that game. First, when you installed it, it told you "We will only install a very little bit on your computer, everything else is run off of the CD drive. This saves you on hard drive space." Wing Commander 4 was from a time when hard drive space was expensive and the practice was to save on space at the expense of speed.

When I installed it on a newer computer it told me "Your processor is faster than possible."

I am tempted to pick up Enemy Unknown and do a full blind IronMan LP on it. As soon as I finish the JA2 one.

[dogstile]

We'll just have to see. I had no idea proxy grenades were that weak, my only memory of the first X-COM that involved them is my friends dad playing it in front of me and he was using them really effectively but I don't know what on. Making them even weaker than frag grenades would be a fun way for them to balance them, especially if they reduced blast size or made it so they didn't take out walls.

I dunno, I have a feeling they're trying to limit the hell out of the offensive abilities you have to make ammo juggling more of an issue for you to deal with. Being all "shit, i'm out", running away and dropping a proxy in front of you would probably make it a bit to easy. On the plus side, if I ever get a chance, I have a few new questions for Jeff.

(Also, i'm totally doing a blind ironman run of the game, I just need to know what setup i'm going to need so I can talk, play and record at the same time)

[Kilroy the Grand]

I have 80gb hdd.

20gb games, 10gb assorted stuff, 40gb - Star Trek TNG/DS9 episodes

The rest is currently rather empty.

I have like 200gigs of shit that I have no idea what it is. I've rediscovered entire seasons of shows I don't even remember.

Get a terabyte harddrive. It's worth it.

[Werdna]

We'll just have to see. I had no idea proxy grenades were that weak, my only memory of the first X-COM that involved them is my friends dad playing it in front of me and he was using them really effectively but I don't know what on. Making them even weaker than frag grenades would be a fun way for them to balance them, especially if they reduced blast size or made it so they didn't take out walls.

I wouldn't say they were weak, they just became a little outclassed later in the game where lategame aliens would frequently survive the blast.  It was a nice way to pinpoint them and eat up their TU's though.  They had lots of tactical uses that I thought made them way better than normals, so I tended to bring them instead.  I'd still bring them even if they were weaker than the frag grenades; I played with small squads and the prox grenades became my way of keeping eyes on parts of the map that I imagine most people used the big squads for.  But like you said, the AI has largely changed from "wander around here until they find me" to more of a "there the pinks are, lets get em", so your strat of a first-round minefield could make them a little lame in the new version.

Just looked them up on the UFOPaedia, the normal grenades were 50HE, prox 70HE, and alien grenades were 90HE.  So they were in the middle.  They sure felt weaker than alien grenades, but maybe that's because alien grenades were strong enough to wipe out more walls and leave a bigger 'visual' impression.

[dogstile]

In other news, heroes are in the game and recruit-able.

Spoiler: "SIIIIIIID" (click to show/hide)

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/10/xcom-enemy-unknown-sid-meier-not-the-only-heroic-game-developer-cameo/

I'm betting somewhere, there is a thread on a forum dedicated to bitching about the boobplate.