UFO: The Two Sides

Holy crap!

xcom mod with:

  • upgraded graphics
  • upgraded ui
  • xp/vista/7 compatibility
  • multiplayer
  • play (campaign) as alien.

web site: http://ufotts.ninex.info/ (beta available)
(beta) trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ3d09D_Wko

Someone install and play this and report back.

Wait, if this was possible why wasn’t it done, like, 15 years ago?

Better late then never, I suppose. Modernizing the UI alone would instantly make Xcom far more accessible to new players.

If I wasn’t at work I’d be installing it right now. It looks like they’ve added everything I could have asked for.

Because the game itself is only a little over 15 years old? Like, if it was possible to make quad core CPUs, why didn’t they do it 15 years ago right?

Looks interesting. I like that they aren’t really trying to reinvent anything, though I do hope that doesn’t mean they will be getting the attention of the rights holders. The multiplayer stuff is interesting, but not my primary interest, but I very much would like to see the single player.

from FAQ:

Q: Why making ufo:tts if the original game is still playable (and even still sold)? If its a faithful remake what sense is to play ufo:tts over ufo 1?

A: It is a close remake, not fateful. It however uses fateful graphics and as faithful as we could get menu layouts.
Some of the below features can be applied to ufo 1 via mods, however the most important ones are unique.

  • Ufo:tts features a number of user interface improvements (keyboard shortcuts, more info on screen…).
  • higher screen resolution with higher unit’s resolution, and wide screen support in tactical battle, allowing you to see more.
  • Multiplayer
  • Playable as both sides (single and multiplayer)
  • Ufo player is not random anymore. In the original game the only profit you got from shooting down alien battleship was the profit you gain yourself. You could shoot down 1000s of them and aliens would not feel it. In ufo:tts Aliens have their own economic system. This gives more satisfaction and more meaning to shooting down alien crafts as it harms their economy.
  • Tweaks to tactical combat which can further be divided into:
    a) Different handling of weapon’s aim and damage, hopefully adding more decisionmaking to the game rather than ’shot the first alien you see with whatever you have in your hand’.
    b) With reworked aim, introduction of sniper rifle (the only weapon added to the game, as im opposed to adding much, at least at this point in production), which actually works like a sniper rifle and its aim is calculated in a different way than normal weapon’s.
    c) With changed aim and damage system, weapons are more diverse, its not only the best damage / accuracy vs time units, but heavy weapons and rifles work in a different way. Generally, weapons have been slightly rebalanced, to make the arming phase more interesting, not only pack your soldiers with heavy plasmas (occasionally laser rifles) and some blasters.
    d) Reintroduction of ‘new’ special abbilities. Why ‘reintroduction’? Because those abbilities were in the original game, but only mentioned in the ufopedia. Like, snakemen laying eggs, celatid’s abbility to detect brain waves (acting like a radar). Everything was mentioned in the first game, but wasnt present on the battlefield, which was a let down for everyone who liked to read those autopsy and live specimen examinations.
    e) Addition of a new soldier’s stat – perception. Again, im opposed to adding much at this stage, as it can break the fun original game had. But perception simply blended extremly well into the game, allowing soldiers to act better as scouts.
    f) Some other, minor improvements, like right clicking to open the door (a’la terror from the deep), and a couple of new inventions that are still being tested.
  • reworked air combat. Original game’s air combat was very flawed in design. If you had range advantage over the alien ship, you could shot it down without any retalation fire.
  • reworked xcom plane’s stats so that useless firestorm and lightning can find their place in the game again. (This is actually a bigger change than simply buffing up their stats :)
  • some of the technologies have been reworked in various ways.

And there will be some balancing changes because of multiplayer (blaster launcher nerf)…

This is great news, and I hope it delivers. Playing the very accessible but retro Alien Assault (aka Space Hulk) has greatly increased my interest in finally playing Xcom, but I’ve never been able to get past the first few screens and the noncombat metagame. I guess that kind of stuff requires patience and RTFM, which I lack.

Hey Jape, ever own a Honda Prelude?

What I’ve seen so far is very promising (I’ve played 2 of the betas, including the current version) though there are obviously still some bugs to be fixed and further balancing is needed in a few cases.
I really like the fact that they don’t just re-create the game with better graphics; they’re actually adding a whole lot of content while still keeping enough of the original to have the same advantages.

I tried to start a game playing as aliens, and the base looked interesting, but I just got a message every game-hour that ‘aliens have won’ and nothing ever happened. I started to play as humans but the interface was just different enough from what I was used to that I didn’t feel like spending the time figuring it out. I’ll put more time into it next week.

There is no xcom AI, you have to play it with someone else as xcom.

I guess I missed that.

awwwwesome

  • Ufo player is not random anymore. In the original game the only profit you got from shooting down alien battleship was the profit you gain yourself. You could shoot down 1000s of them and aliens would not feel it. In ufo:tts Aliens have their own economic system. This gives more satisfaction and more meaning to shooting down alien crafts as it harms their economy.

awwweeesome

e) Addition of a new soldier’s stat – perception. Again, im opposed to adding much at this stage, as it can break the fun original game had. But perception simply blended extremly well into the game, allowing soldiers to act better as scouts.

awwwwesome

Loaded it up and tried to play but I couldn’t get soldiers to shoot, clicking on the gun and then choosing a firing mode didn’t give me the crosshair cursor, all that worked properly for me was the throwing option.

i had the same bug. was able to shoot after ending my turn.

Strange, never ran into that one before. Are you sure the weapon was loaded? I don’t remember how it was in the original game but in UFO:TTS you have to load the game when choosing your soldier’s weapon layout, at least when you choose it for the first time.

You might want to post your findings and save games over on the official forum so the developers can take care of that bug…

I’m sorry, I’m pretty sure that list of features said MULTIPLAYER. hoo hoo hoo hoo

Started playing a game right now with a friend from high school. When they say multiplayer they mean MULTIPLAYER. This game is going to take us a full year to complete.