XCOM: Enemy Unknown

CLWheeljack · 2012-11-09T07:21:21.000Z

kedaha:

The fact you and many others prefer that shows why Firaxis has gone down this route, but it doesn’t change the fact that the conscious decision to dumb down the game (in relation to the previous games) was made in the first place.

You say dumb down, I say streamline.

This has all been hashed out at length already, though. Nobody is going to be convinced by anybody else.

kedaha · 2012-11-09T07:41:32.000Z

CLWheeljack:

You say dumb down, I say streamline.

This has all been hashed out at length already, though. Nobody is going to be convinced by anybody else.

An FPS with no choices, no turns and nothing but a straight path from start to finish is streamlined, it’s also dumbed down. I don’t really see your point.

The new X-Com is a different game designed to do different things, I was only challenging Wolff’s assertion that none of the design decisions made for the game fitted the term ‘consolitis’.

Telefrog · 2012-11-09T07:44:53.000Z

The way the mouse isn’t used for pretty basic things strikes me as evidence that resources were spent to make the UI work on consoles to the detriment of the PC.

Murbella · 2012-11-09T07:59:37.000Z

So did they figure out how to sort my save games by date in this patch? And did they fix the semi common ui freeze bug that makes the save order bug even more annoying?

robc04 · 2012-11-09T08:02:16.000Z

CLWheeljack:

You say dumb down, I say streamline.

This has all been hashed out at length already, though. Nobody is going to be convinced by anybody else.

Why don’t people discuss less heated topics like politics or religion? :-)

Wolff · 2012-11-09T08:07:46.000Z

I have only used mouse keyboard what doesn’t work?

I will agree the geoscape has less depth but won’t concede the combat does. Note that more diddly bits doesn’t equal depth it just means more diddly bits.

Nezz · 2012-11-09T08:55:46.000Z

kedaha:

Sacrificing depth in the name of accessibility screams consoles to me and it’s inarguable that the new X-Com has far less depth than the old ones.

Using that definition of depth, Tai Shogi has more depth than Shogi. It’s the kind of numerical depth created by multiplication of redunancies and appreciated chiefly by mathematicians.

Joe_M · 2012-11-09T10:05:11.000Z

TurinTur:

Steam had a peak of 70k Xcom players. Through comparisons with other games in the past, that at least means 700k units sold (global).

It was also a top seller on Steam before and after release so I have some hope that the digital numbers dwarf the NPD numbers.

nomaar · 2012-11-09T10:34:46.000Z

Just noticed the Xenonauts lead designer had some interesting things to say about XCOM EU.

Goldhawk Interactive

Thoughts & Lessons from X-COM: Enemy Unknown (by Firaxis)

Some of you may have noticed that Firaxis released a game called X-COM: Enemy Unknown recently (others of you may have been hiding under rocks in a cave somewhere and missed it). This is kind of a big deal for the genre and for us, and Ive been...

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-11-09T10:52:40.000Z

Hopefully his game comes out and blows us all away, I suppose. Put up, or shut up, sort of thing.

Seems like he’s just listing bullet points from every discussion on XCOM EU… ever. You either really like what they have done here, or you don’t. Most people seem to like the more “board game” approach to the design, myself included, so complaining about the “rules” feels silly to me now. Like bitching about how reinforcements work in Risk.

ATB · 2012-11-09T11:17:07.000Z

I really enjoyed Xcom, but find the classic difficulty to be more BS than about skill. Tried a few mods, but then I felt like the AI was dumbed down…

Jonathan_Crane · 2012-11-10T08:12:33.000Z

Jonathan Crane:

Well, my steam copy is crashing when I try to start it up. Closing and restarting Steam did not help. Rebooting did not help. Verifying the cache did not help. I have deleted the local copy, and am now redownloading. Fingers crossed…

I seem to have fixed the crash when starting problem, so I’ll just put this up in case anyone else had this problem:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1474-QLNM-7532

lists the following:

Browse to your XCOM Enemy Unknown installation folder (Usually C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown)
Run the following installers:
…\Steamapps\Common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\VCredist\vcredist_x86.exe
…\Steamapps\Common\XCom-Enemy-Unknown\DirectX\DXSETUP.exe
Reboot your computer and test any issues again.

… and that’s what worked.

Delta · 2012-11-11T09:14:13.000Z

I’m a little confused. I manufactured a bunch of Laser Rifles and pistols, and while I can equip the pistols for my soldiers, I can’t find out how to equip the rifles. They’re just not in the list of equippable things. What am I missing?

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-11-11T09:18:22.000Z

Delta:

I’m a little confused. I manufactured a bunch of Laser Rifles and pistols, and while I can equip the pistols for my soldiers, I can’t find out how to equip the rifles. They’re just not in the list of equippable things. What am I missing?

How are you doing it? It should just be a matter of clicking on the primary weapon of an assault or support class and picking Laser Rifles from the list.

Note you cannot give Laser Rifles to Heavy or Sniper units.

Stepsongrapes · 2012-11-11T09:19:15.000Z

Delta:

I’m a little confused. I manufactured a bunch of Laser Rifles and pistols, and while I can equip the pistols for my soldiers, I can’t find out how to equip the rifles. They’re just not in the list of equippable things. What am I missing?

Not all soldiers can use the rifle class. Are you trying to equip a sniper or heavy perhaps?

Delta · 2012-11-11T09:21:22.000Z

Ah-ha! And can I not give them to rookies?

lostcawz · 2012-11-11T09:23:23.000Z

How is this on the PS3 vs the PC? I’m sure there will be mods at some point that I’ll want but by then I’ll just pick up the PC version on sale. So for now I was planning on consoling the hell out of this unless there is some sort of horrible bug or whatnot I hadn’t heard of yet.

And how is the multiplayer? I haven’t heard much about it, which is surprising really.

Stepsongrapes · 2012-11-11T09:31:28.000Z

Delta:

Ah-ha! And can I not give them to rookies?

You can give them to rookies, IIRC.

HumanTon · 2012-11-11T09:55:40.000Z

TurinTur:

Steam had a peak of 70k Xcom players. Through comparisons with other games in the past, that at least means 700k units sold (global).

Combine that with worldwide disc sales and you probably have 1 million sales overall … in other words, about what the original did Back In The Day (though it took a much longer period of time for the original to hit a million.)

So it’s not exactly going to make the Halo franchise nervous, but the numbers are probably what the Firaxis people were planning/hoping for. And it’s very good for a turn-based tactical game.

Murbella · 2012-11-11T09:57:33.000Z

Delta:

I’m a little confused. I manufactured a bunch of Laser Rifles and pistols, and while I can equip the pistols for my soldiers, I can’t find out how to equip the rifles. They’re just not in the list of equippable things. What am I missing?

They should show up in the primary weapons list when you change a soldier’s primary weapon.

If i recall correctly, and i’m pretty sure i do, even if the soldier cannot use a rifle (heavy cannot, i dont think sniper can either but you’d be stupid to equip them with anything other than a sniper rifle so i never checked), it should still show up in the list as something you can’t equip.