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[Drakale]

So far I have to say the squad combat mechanics is the best part of the game. It removed some of the tediousness of the original and generally is an all around improvement.

<Rant>
I'm not quite as enthusiastic about the geoscape aspect of the game though. Too much randomness to my taste, where a bad string of mission location can really screw you over. Just lost a game where I won 100% of my fights, but some countries never showed up and panicked. There is only so many satellites you can deploy, and you cannot foresee what countries will get panic hits in the future.

The whole atmosphere of the base is also a bit of a let down. It feels like a bad episode of CSI:NY.
</Rant>

[USEC_OFFICER]

Are there even still blaster bombs?

Having looked through the game data, all I can say is: Yes, and meh. I haven't seen it in game yet, but it's definitively nothing like the original, if the game data is anything to go by.

<Rant>
I'm not quite as enthusiastic about the geoscape aspect of the game though. Too much randomness to my taste, where a bad string of mission location can really screw you over. Just lost a game where I won 100% of my fights, but some countries never showed up and panicked. There is only so many satellites you can deploy, and you cannot foresee what countries will get panic hits in the future.

The whole atmosphere of the base is also a bit of a let down. It feels like a bad episode of CSI:NY.
</Rant>

I agree with you completely about the geoscape aspects, but I'm not 100% certain how random the abduction missions are. An option exists in the game data that should allow you to detect UFOs conducting abductions/terror missions. I might toggle that option, then crank up my starting satellites/uplinks and the UFO detection chance to see how truly random it is.

EDIT: Hmm... the changes to the config file didn't seem to take... I'll have to look into this a bit.

EDIT2: And it turns out that the .ini files are mostly for show. Most of the data is hard-coded in the .exe, so changing is going to require tools that I really don't want to fiddle with. Hopefully they'll re-enable the .ini files some point in the future, else I don't see how it would be possible to mod XCOM without some weird fan program so that you don't have to download the entire .exe to play a mod.

[Mephansteras]

Anyone else have solid X-Com Dreams last night?

[Sirus]

I did

Although I'm a little annoyed that I can't seem to zoom in on the various rooms in the base. I want to see my employees wandering around and doing what I pay them for.

[nenjin]

Are you certain it works for aliens?

The tool tip for the ability explicitly states ALL UNITS, not friendly units or XCOM soldiers.

[Cthulhu]

I'm pretty sure basic smoke straight up says aliens get cover too.

I can't decide how I like the Geoscape.  The big thing is that the way things are currently set up, it doesn't feel as sandboxy as the original.  In the original, UFOs had missions, they flew there, did their mission, left, at any point you could detect one.  Maybe I just don't have the satellite coverage for that to work yet, but right now the way things work it almost feels like the game's randomly generating sets of missions and having me pick one, which is not how XCOM should be.   

Point being, in the original XCOM it almost felt like a competitive thing.  The aliens were acting within the rules of the game with the goal of winning, just like you.  This I feel like they're just teleporting around or having ships appear for you to shoot down.  The aliens' goal is to be shot by XCOM agents.

[Kilroy the Grand]

That german doctor....

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Mephansteras]

I'm pretty sure basic smoke straight up says aliens get cover too.

I can't decide how I like the Geoscape.  The big thing is that the way things are currently set up, it doesn't feel as sandboxy as the original.  In the original, UFOs had missions, they flew there, did their mission, left, at any point you could detect one.  Maybe I just don't have the satellite coverage for that to work yet, but right now the way things work it almost feels like the game's randomly generating sets of missions and having me pick one, which is not how XCOM should be.   

Point being, in the original XCOM it almost felt like a competitive thing.  The aliens were acting within the rules of the game with the goal of winning, just like you.  This I feel like they're just teleporting around or having ships appear for you to shoot down.  The aliens' goal is to be shot by XCOM agents.

Yeah, the whole 'Pick one of Three Missions' feels really artificial and gamey. I liked the more free-form approach of the original better. You still felt stretched thin and you couldn't always deal with everything that happened, but it felt much more organic and strategic.

I also find the Ant Farm to be really disappointing. So much potential that just wasn't used...

[Satarus]

Unfortunately, upgraded versions of smoke make it less than ideal to smoke enemies. You don't exactly want to pump up already bad-ass aliens full of combat drugs, do you?

You are missing the reason I smoke the alien.  I don't want the alien to be able to retaliate if I miss my stun or if I accidently reveal one of his buddies when I move in for the stun.  Smoke gives a good defense bonus so you can mitigate risky cover.

[Urist McSpike]

So how does the multiplayer work?  I noticed units cost points but it doesn't seem to be something where you have a limit to how much you can spend.  Is it like Warhammer where squads are matched up with similar point-cost squads?

Check out the multiplayer gameplay video if you like.  You get points to buy your squad, with more elite troops costing more, and buy equipment.  You can also set up a timer for each player, which ends your turn even if you have moves left.

I'm not sure if I like the base/geoscape portions either.  The finances seem a bit whacky, with the change from the original's thousands & millions of dollars to this one's tens & hundreds.  Plus you don't (at least I haven't yet) get a massive influx of cash from producing arms or strip-mining ufo's.  I mean, building one satellite will cost you about a month of time & money, and each satellite uplink can control 2.  I'm about 4 months in, have 2 up already, still can't scrounge enough resources to buy another uplink, and have half the world at 3-4 panic.  But in the original game, at this point I have a steady sequence of ufo intercepts & crashes to get cash from, have a 2nd radar/interceptor base built, have 2 more about built, and world-wide panic is much lower.

[MaximumZero]

Yeah, once modding tools come out, the first thing I'm doing is upping the limit on Sat-Uplinks. For them to only be able to control two seems absurdly low.

[Sirus]

So, no word on those modifiers I posted a while back? Random stat progression, wounds decrease combat ability, stuff like that?

[Mephansteras]

Another thing that strikes me as odd is that we no longer hire engineers or scientists. They're strictly given as rewards. It's all pretty limiting.

Which isn't to say that I'm not enjoying the game. But it feels more like a game and less like saving the world than the original did.

@Sirus: I haven't seen any confirmation that those are actually in the game anywhere on the official forums.

[alway]

So another thing I learned, related to the power core thing:
Gas pumps make terrible cover. Le boom.

[timferius]

So, no word on those modifiers I posted a while back? Random stat progression, wounds decrease combat ability, stuff like that?

I didn't see it yesterday, I'm afraid I may have been duped in my original post, it may have been a too good to be true thing. I'll try to dig around a bit more tonight.