/v/ - Video Games

Don't tell me Phoenix Point is an Epic exclusive.

I can wait a year.

>>16578991

Or you can pirate.

Why did they abandon the original story line of the ayys being assholes, and it now being about muh chosen?

>>16579583

Why? The Aliens are stil assholes. Now they are just (((chosen))) assholes.

>>16579604

Originally they came to earth to be complete dicks. Now they come to earth to try to turn humans into super special chosen for reasons that don't make sense.

Building my first gollop chamber in EW. It's smooth sailing so far. I think I'm going to build a hover SHIV army before the game ends for shits and giggles.

Just got NuCom 2 on sale with the expansion stuff and I'm kinda trash at it. Any good general advice for somebody new to this?

Going to play terror of the deep. Is open xcom compatible with it yet?

>>16578945

Not only did it go Epic exclusive, but Gollop argued with people, saying that they could refund literally every backer and still have money to spare, and that people were complaining over having to click a different button. He also sperged for a bit over how his housing is subpar and how he drives an old car, for some reason.

>>16578999

The trips don't lie, but the game is going to have to be downright amazing to bother. The game is launching on a platform known for making even the largest releases die. The modding scene they tried to drum up isn't going to exist. With Gollop's record at making spiritual successors to X-Com, nobody playing it is in the best interests of both him and people who would have played it.

>>16579774

It's been compatible for quite a long time, so you won't have to worry about weird bugs or stability issues.

>>16578692

I love nu-COM!

Pheonix Point looks amazing, that is all.

>>16579583

>>16579612

Did you beat the original nucom campaign? Because it explains their reasons for invading earth rather than just wiping out humanity form orbit. The X-com 2 story doesn't actually make sense unless they're going for an XCOM: Apocalypse style bigger bad thing which they might be.

What are some good (original) X-COM mods?

I tried looking up X-piratez and I get the feeling one of the main devs is a giant hypermuscle femdom fetishist.

>>16582536

They are pretty good.

>>16578897

The base invasion in my game was nuts, it ended with 2 MECs guarding the entrance of the starting area from an onslaught of Mectoids, only one of them survived.

post the thin man webm

I have Xcom, but haven't finished it, and I've had Xenonauts for a while, but haven't played it yet. Which one should I play?

>>16582780

>>X-Files

That's a pretty good mod. I especially like the setting and how you slowly gain the governments recognition and eventually become known as x-com. The variety of missions is impressive but some do get repetitive. I highly recommend it

Anyone have any good modlists for XCOM 2?

>>16582837

Going from being seen as a waste of tax money to x-com was pretty great, also liked the department leaders you had to hire and them questioning the fuck you were doing before they got there.

>The variety of missions is impressive but some do get repetitive.

Most missions don't have a negative score for ignoring them so its not too bad once you've got all the research from said mission.

>>16582780

>X-Piratez

Can I have a harem of fit pirate girls to lewd?

>>16582913

One of the first research project is the crew having a party and it devolving to a orgy so I guess? One project (forget what it was) the head brainer misunderstands and think you wanted to marry her. You can dress your gals up as hookers and give sexual touches so good it makes them go into cum comas. Seductress outfit becomes unironically one of the better ways to capture and train a bunch of stats.

>>16582913

The bigger question is can you lewd regular women with your harem of amazonian pirate girls?

since we're talking about fetishes and all.

Also X-files sounds exactly what I'd like. Thanks anon. What's the status of the 40k mods, for any of the Xcom games including XShit2?

>>16582978

The only way to play.

Exterminate xenos with overpowered weapons and overpowered soldiers in the name of the Emperor!

>>16583018

I'd rather exterminate xenos as the Emperor himself, honestly.

>>16578945

>>16578959

Bravo, they literally killed the game with this move.

>>16583079

You are not man enough to play the emperor.

>>16583437

Are there xcom lewd mods yet?

>>16583473

It's an alien snake, we're not looking for the ancient human equivalents, if anything the attraction is to the snake form.

>>16583473

>Lamia comes from Greek mythology

You mean the mythology that has 10 different versions of every myth? Forgive me for not taking your word as law.

>>16583473

stfu nerd

>>16583525

>also, opeapoc when?

They're still working on achieving 1.0 parity, but what is there is playable, if bugging and missing features.

>>16583535

I can't wait for 1.0. apocalypse was my favorite game. I'd really love to see a extensive mod as xcomfiles for it.

>>16582780

Xpiratez was fun but yeah its way bloated. I dont even feel like a big tiddy amazon mutant musclegirl pirate anymore.

Building a shota harem was nice though and the lore is pretty great

X -files is fantastic. I like how research can carry you a lot so doing the same mission ls over and over doest suck.

>>16583579

One of the main problems I had despite the shit balance and trash endgame grind was how quickly you stop being dirty pirate hookers and just became the all female mercenary group with a doom guy shota army. X-files really captures the feeling of going from a shitty agency to ayy stomping X-Com.

>>16583676

Xfiles makes me wish it was a full game but Im happy with the way it is now just due to the work put in it.

>you take public transportation and rent fucking cars to do missions

Do you think they do coach or firstclass because I can only imagine 2 sullen xcom agents packed in some shitty overbooked southwest flight going to try and blackbag a sweaty neet /x/fag because he knows to much

I would still say xpiratez is worth playing due to the work put into it but it lost the whole pirate theme somewhere along the way

>doom guy shotas

I like how it implies the gals walk around the base topless or less and the shotas dont know how to deal with that.

>>16582453

>did you beat nu-com

Yes, and it was mildly fun if lacking in a lot of functionality of UFO defense. I thought the reason the war in ufo defense took some time to ramp up was because the aliens themselves were also building up their forces, and it took them a long time to get to earth.

>>16583437

There was a fan project to make a humans vs aliens mode for ufo defense, but it got axed for nu-com.

>>16583437

The only mods I've seen that come close to it are a few xcom 2 wotc mods that lets you recruit aliens as units, so far I've only got mutons, sectoids and vipers so I wouldn't know if theres more.

>>16583918

How do they bring back sectoids and mutated wildlife via public transport? Do they dress the sectoid up as a child and handcuff it to the seat handle while secretly poking it with stun prods? do they stick the mutated wolf in the pet holding cargo?

>>16588287

probably in black bags

>>16588321

I loved the setting but the menus were so FUCKING bad. I couldn't stomach trying to replay it without my youngster-autism.

>>16588321

it wasn't too bad for a GBA game. I remember the sniper being OP as shit though.

>>16583480

> if anything the attraction is to the snake form

You are the problem.

You need to be extermianted.

Are there any mods that unfuck psionics in Xenonauts? Or at least disable mind control. I tried messing around with AP cost in psionicpowers_gc.xml and removing the ability in aiprops.xml, but it ended up causing infinite enemy turns. My problem in particular is the lack of any active measures you could take to combat ayy psionic abilities, considering they don't even need to see you to spam mind control and berzerk.

>>16578945

I recall people saying this about steam when it first came out.

>>16582837

That mod sounds so cool that I finally got around to pirating everything to get OpenXcom set up. Will I miss out on much if I put off vanilla until later?

>>16589289

High willpower on soldiers.

Never had issue and I beat the game handily.

Tough I did play it modded with a few extra goodies (gattling gun)

>>16602106

Do the standard one-entrance-base setup thing

Ignore dart rifles and shit, they are ass, go straight for Gauss

Try to capture a Gillman for better armor

Don't ignore melee weapons, you'll encounter LOBSTERMEN pretty soon. Even a electro-prod is better than a gun in that case.

Fuck cruise ships.

>>16589206

You don't really need rebalance mods. As far as QoL goes you need the Shut Up mods to avoid the endless wordswordswordswords for the retarded OC donut steel Chosen and faster movement/overwatch all.

>>16602446

>fuck cruise ships

I just barely manage to clear the ship mission on the upper decks with just five people. I couldn't believe it when it was a two part mission. I immediately abandoned it because there was no way I could beat it. It seems that you have to go for gauss weapons immediately, or alien weapons because the tasoths are so durable they take 4 or 5 explosive round gas canon shots to finally die.

>>16602520

True, on the lower difficulties you can jump almost straight to Sonic weapons but EVEN THEN they won't help you against the lobsters.

>>16602529

Lobstermen can't be destroyed even with large missiles? Also my last mission with large missiles would have been without any casualties if not for two rookies killing four people despite having a firing accuracy of 65+.

>>16602574

Lobstermen have the same base stats as Mutons did in the first game, but have hidden damage reduction to everything you can throw at them except melee weapons. The smallest of these is Sonic weapons, which only deal half damage. Explosive weaponry is worse off, dealing only 30% of their listed damage to Lobstermen.

They take 200% damage from melee weapons, but actually getting close enough to use one is tricky unless the Lobsterman you're attacking has wasted all their TUs.

>>16602452

Don't forget evac all.

I think mods that add enemies or improve AI combined with mods that add new toys can make the game much more interesting.

For instance there's one that adds ammo slots so you can give everyone special ammo, but this naturally makes shit easier since you now have essentially a free slot and ammo is quite useful when you don't have do consider other options. Worst case it's free +1 damage for random snekrounds on everyone.

Can any of you snekfags reupload all the porn on /xen/? 90% of it is 404'd now.

>>16602701

LW tries to fix the shit aspects of nucom by heaping on new different shit, nothing more

>>16602701

yep, that's why it's shit. I think I shot down like 5 supply ships at one stage and I just quit the game at thinking of having to do 5 supply ship missions in a row.

>>16603176

To be fair that's how nucom always ends for me. The missions just get in the way of getting shit done.

>Oh you want to finish two things before doing this story mission? Here have four missions that will rape you with penalties if you even think of skipping them.

>using mod that lets me field as many people as I want each engagement

>bring the whole army every mission

>massive amounts of deaths

>panic spreads like wildfire

>friendly fire constantly

>stray grenades take out 3+ people each throw

>four missions in and I'm starting to run low on lads

>constantly spending all my dosh on them

>rookie meat grinder ramping up even harder as difficulty rises

>panic rises with it

holy fuck no wonder the imperial guardsmen have commissars to keep morale up.

>>16603254

Now use a mod that adds commissars, morale boost and all.

>>16603599

Man I wish the Xenonauts guys would make Aquanauts. I loved fighting on the sea floor.

>>16603605

I don't like most of the designs for xenonauts. The aliens don't look as intimidating as the aliens in x-com.

I just hit the assassin's stronghold in Nu-Com 2 and the fight is kicking my ass. Not really sure how to handle it. It's less the gal herself and more the constant stream of mobs spawning into the area that I can't handle as well as shoot down the objective. If I can fight the tide long enough will she eventually only spawn two guys when she pops back in, or will stuff just constantly be warping in till it's over?

Anon playing terror of the deep for the first time here. I wish i set the difficulty higher than beginner. I've got some of the best rookies I've ever seen on my team right now. Kill a lobsterman in two hits reliably with the large alien sonic guns, and from halfway across the map. A totally different story from my very first play through. I abandoned an artifact mission since after seeing four tentaculates, and getting hit with mind attacks I decided it wasn't worth it. I did capture one of the tentaculates alive though. My team is easily beating tasoths and lobsterman, but I haven't seen a single calcite yet.

I've always wanted to know how Nu-XCOM 1 and 2 stack up. How different are the 2? Both have long war mods I believe. Which is better?

>>16605724

Neither are faithful successors to UFO, let's get that out of the way first.

NuCom 1 is a bit simplistic but has a certain style to it that makes it "good enough". It's neither particularly tactical or strategic.

NuCom 2 is OC donut steel anime-tier garbage.

>>16605728

I see. What a shame.

I've probably played Xenonauts the most and Open XCOM second. However, I've not entered any thread about either before. What is the consensus. Which is superior?

>>16605728

>Neither are faithful successors to UFO

They didn't even get the terror missions right. In the first xcom games missions would appear I think based on ufos that appear. Terror ships would spawn terror missions if left alone. The result of this is you would often have to decide what was priority if many things happened at once. In nu-com you are giving three choices when a terror mission pops up. In other words nu-com forces you to make a decision instead of letting it happen organically. The fact they also put a turn limit in nu-com 2 also shows they have a poor grasp of what x-com is supposed to be.

>>16605724

Personally I think they're mobile game tier. They lack a significant amount of options basically leading you to the safest way to get through anything being copious amounts of grenades.

All rookies start off with the same stats and a base hit chance of 65%(unless you use second wave options). You can't outfit your guys with different armors or weapons, or even secondary items like medkits or smoke grenades, meaning the first few missions are in the hands of luck and how many grenades you have. You can't choose what specialization your guys get so your shittiest aim guy can end up as sniper. You're stuck with one weapon type for any class, with tier upgrades only giving you additional damage(aim in the case of lasers, but I might be thinking of Long War). The only thing you have control of is when you use your grenades. And with what little I played of X2 before quitting(because it might as well be a slightly souped up version of the previous game, with the exact same bugs and shitty AI, with a tacked on shit stealth mechanic that invisible inc did a hundred times better) you get even more grenades to fuck everything.

I think the music in these games, especially UFO Defense, is really underrated.

>>16602106

>I'm playing it right now, and it seems much harder on beginner than ufo defense is on superhuman.

that is because everyone bitched that the first game was too easy, but it was a bug.

>>16605794

Supposedly all the devs were required to play UFO before they started development. Must have learned pretty much nothing from the experience.

>>16605538

I usually go all-in on the early landing in LW since the reward from a successful mission gives a great head start in case the late and mid air game screws me over.

>>16605738

who gives a fuck what any hivemind thinks, play the one you like the best. i prefer openxcom and feel like it's still the superior game from a design standpoint, but i'm also old and grew up playing the original so it might just be nostalgia speaking

>>16605484

If you think LW in XCOM1 is BS wait until you play LW2 in XCOM2.

>Especially the fatigue system

The idea behind it isn't half bad, in fact the way it's implemented in War of the Chosen is actually pretty intuitive

>XCOM taking the fight to alien planets.

I've thought about this a bit, it should definitely be done at some point. It has the potential to make the strategic layer much more interesting, and there are different directions it could go in: Ender's Game style hail Mary to accomplish an objective, or a slow expanding Starcraft/Starship Troopers grand strategy. One of the faults I see in XCOM games (having only really played the nucoms) is that maps and terrain feel somewhat arbitrary and disconnected from strategic reasoning. Geography should feel more of a gameplay element when you're responsible for a campaign with supply lines and targets rather than merely reacting to aliens.

>>16606912

I know that the original ends in a mars invasion, but I assumed it was basically a scripted sequence like the temple ship and base assault missions in nucoms. I should really play them if they're closer to what I want.

>MUH GUERRILLA WARFARE

>Don't actually engage in guerrilla activities

>The only covert aspect is the stealth at the beginning of half the missions

NuCom 2 is wasted potential. Civ 5 and 6 are wasted potential too. Firaxis shouldn't be allowed to hold either IP, they clearly can't handle them.

Randomly decided to start up Xenonauts recently.

Things were going fairly well. Got my second base and laser weapons going. The only real blip is my Hunter Scout Car randomly exploded. It fired a rocket at an alien 15 squares away, the alien exploded and died but then my car also exploded. 50k out the window. I mean, I know it's better to have the extra 2 dudes for experience points but it still drove me mad

>>16607052

Oh also, fuck Gollop. Can't wait to pirate Phoenix Point

>>16607054

I hope it's good in the first place. You don't shit on your customers like that if you aren't actively trying to shun anyone from playing your game.

>>16605538

>Or git gud, win the large landing in march and basically win the game right there

Did this with 4 LMG and 2 Snipers

>>16602434

I know about high willpower, that's why I said active measures. I mainly have a problem with larger ships and enemy bases where a bunch of psions are hidden in a labyrinth that forces you to endure several turns of mind rape because of their close proximity while you have no way to retaliate or somehow protect yourself. I'm mostly fine with Berzerk (because it doesn't instantly fuck you over 100% of the time), it's just the Mind Control that I'd like to remove altogether or at least make it less spammable.

>>16606728

>how to tell when someone's only played the console reboot

>>16607062

Note also that Tencent's "guaranteed sales" arrangements are effectively a payment to a game's developer for every copy that game doesn't sell. A developer wouldn't sign an agreement like that if they were expecting their game to be successful.

>>16578692

why isn't xcom the most popular game in the world?

it is literally perfect

like whith constant DLC updates and yearly sequels and wide exposure, streaming and e-sports and zoom zooms going insane about it etc?

the new one is super casual friendly and even has extended visual customization and a photo booth and everything

instead we get loot shooters and muh battle royal

fuck this timeline

So,what's the consensus? is Xcom 2 any good? I'm kinda interested in the character customization and alien mods.

>>16607574

it's ok with the dlc if a bit easy, get the evac all mod and you're good

>>16607687

guess not

>>16607608

all of these are reasonable points but the matter is: I want more XCOM, and more people talking about XCOM

I am willing to put up with normies or whatever (which I ignore, anyway) if it means me getting more XCOM with more content. and not just a bear bones game every 5 years then pray for a sequel

any other game scratch the itch of having squadies you start caring for and get sad when they die?

>>16607223

Is it guaranteed sales or just a financial incentive for a timed exclusive?

How would guaranteed sales even work?

When the hell is it coming out? I feel like I've been waiting a decade on both Phoenix Point and End State.

>>16607840

This is literally evil.

>>16606946

the endgame alien homeworld invasion in the original is in fact a hand-crafted level. i hesitate to call it "scripted" because that implies it will always play out the exact same way, but the layout and enemies are always the same.

>>16607840

I want people to talk about UFO but certainly not Nucom.

>>16579669

Take a lot of drugs so when one of your guys takes 1 damage and he screams, runs away, shoots randomly and wipes out your entire team and then dies, you don't kill yourself.

>>16583334

Shit like this makes me question my boner.

>>16582536

Aftermath - Start with basically nothing and build up from there. Finally meet greys but they pack mini gun grenade launcher so you'll need to use one troop as sergeant baits.

Aftershock - More of the previous but with different variations on soldiers. Space orks show up at one point.

Afterlight - Limited number of people, better tech, terraforming, two kinds of greys, beastmen, and electrofunk aliens to fight or friend. Missions are limited but there are mods to expand that. Robots are fun, the 4 minigun robot and the tank shell setup is nice.

Overall I'd say Afterlight is the most fun, but Aftermath is definitely the hardest of the lot.

>>16608015

OG X-Com was good but Nu XCOM is good too

t. someone who's being playing X-Com: UFO Defense (or as it was colloquially known "UFO: Enemy Unknown") since I was 12

>>16579669

No tips needed, a combination of the hero characters and the ability to grab both sides of the skill tree have completely wrecked any balance xcom 2 once had

Just do whatever and you'll probably still beat hard mode

>>16582673

Community Edition is probably a must at this point. Sort of an official Vanila+ mod.

>>16607849

Blood Bowl, I guess.

You play seasons with Your Dudes, leveling them up and watching them grow. Then some dick whose (Rat) Ogre has Mighty Blow and Pile On breaks their spine or just outright kills them.

>>16578692

I love "mod" that give soldiers random abilities. It was in Enemy Within. It should be in second x-com too.

>>16607572

Enemy Within is perfect. Secon x-com have h insane loading times. I can’t pley for minute and wait 3 minutes to load save after missed shot.

Looks like Xenonauts 2 is going back to top-down multibase!

YAY!

https://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/index.php?/topic/20115-x2-base-mechanics-community-poll/

>>16610190

>they want a single dropship gameplay style

for fucks sake

Is there a easy version of Terror from the deep? I love the aesthetic of it but I don't want to get butt raped every time? Wished Xenonauts 2 went with Terror from the deep.

>>16610611

you got it backwards

>>16610087

>load save after missed shot

What a faggot.

>>16610515

Into the trash it goes. Why would they think this is a good idea? Looks like they also want to make it so that scientists and engineers are managed from a global pool rather than a per-base basis. It's this kind of dumbing down and "streamlining" that made nuXCOM shit. This genre works best when you give the player the freedom to do things however they want.

>>16611238

If the choice between X1 and 2 is gonna be between a little graphical overhaul and actual content/mechanics I don't know why I would bother playing 2.

>>16610553

Terror From The Deep, but on the easiest difficulty.

>>16611572

>If the choice between X1 and 2 is gonna be between a little graphical overhaul and actual content/mechanics I don't know why I would bother playing 2.

This.

>>16611578

Alright I'll try that, Should I add open xcom?

>>16603254

Which mod are you talking about?

>>16583391

A bunch of people that worked for the government on the topic of UFOs have come out in the media recently confirming they are not our vehicles with some outright saying it is "their" opinion that they're alien in nature.

>>16583374

Aliens are probably about to break their secrecy. They're highly political and deceptive so anyone's guess what the agenda will be.

Blue Beam was a fake release. Everyone always focuses on the singular part of the faked alien invasion and ignore the other three parts of Earthquake machines, sitting the Anti Christ on the throne of the world and other insanity. It was given to a Christian Truther and it was absurd from the start.

Real information about the governments capabilities is vastly more disturbing than bluebeam as they're willing to dose population centers with hallucinogens and already have done two confirmed trial runs to test the results. They've also beemed into a person's head making them think they were abducted by aliens. It immediately gave the person severe brain cancer and killed him causing the project to be terminated by it's own scientists.

>>16607857

You're given a flat payment when your game releases in exchange for not receiving any money for your game's sales until it reaches a certain sales threshold.

>>16602106

I find it's actually easier than UFO Defense if played properly.

>Abuse the better starting craft

You have doors and you don't have the ramp bullshit. Spend a few turns scouting, using your motion detector, throwing grenades on everything you see while ending turns still inside the craft.

>Gauss

sucks

>Sonic

Also nerfed, which honestly makes the game easier because the AI can't auto-fire so you generally only take one hit max. The weapons are excellent for sniping which generally advantages the player.

>Armor

Is way more valuable. UFO Defense weapons roll 0%-200% for damage. TFTD weapons roll 50%-150%. This means armor is way, way more reliable for staying alive (coupled with Aliens not autofiring). In particular tanks are much more durable and likely to be able to take a few turns of fire before going down, and the improved tanks are even better. Use them for scouting.

>Melee

Certain enemy types semi-demand it. Stun rods are acceptable. You can eventually just use the stun launcher though.

>Psi

Can appear on routine aquatoid missions, since lower rank ones are capable. You can encounter psi on the first mission in fact. Don't fret through, their stats are actually pretty shit and if you figure out which of your soldiers has shit defense and hold them back, the ones who are moderately capable are basically immune to these early aquatoids.

>Cyberdisks don't exist

Cyberdisks don't exist.

>>16602446

Don't use gauss

Just use the heavy cannon equivalent with HE ammo and go straight to sonic ASAP.

>>16612679

Keep in mind that the sales threshold in question, IIRC, tends to be 300,000 units - which I think is way beyond what any of the games on the Epic Store are going to be getting in anything but the absolute best case scenario for them.

Is there an xcom2 mod that adds collision for walls and solid objects so my sniper isn't crit to dead from behind a brick chimney from a mile away 2stores down?

Also how so i remove nig scientist, he annoys the piss out of me.

Playing xcom files again and fuck me man, I get overwhelmed by the guns in this game. I always have a hard time remembering the stats. I know that there aren't any bad guns sorta, just better guns for different jobs, some are more accurate, some are faster, some you can hide. I like the variety but it can be overwhelming.

>>16612930

I'm playing it for the first time and yeah, there's a fuckload of guns to choose from. I've found that the absolute best thing for the early game though is magnums. Hits like a truck, decently fast, and in the hands of an agent with 100+ accuracy can hit reliably from long distance. The G11 is also pretty good with it's stupidly accurate auto shot.

That said, I'm really enjoying these infiltration missions becuase they force you to vary what gear you use. The very first one I did had me running around a ski resort trying to hit ninjas with clubs throwing knives.

>>16610087

>not constantly taking sub 50% shots and scorching cover with grenades and rocket

See, this wouldn't be an issue if you weren't a dumbass and actually made use of the tools given, can't flank? Nade them, not enough nades? Fucking take a heavy with cover destroying attacks

>>16611572

>>16611238

Hopefully they'll realize people didn't give them money for a shittier looking XCOM:EU

>>16613275

Back in the day, I'd take ALL heavy guns, nades and shoot at anything that moves.

Fuck that alien in particular and the entire area aroudn him.

"The science teams needs them in one piece for study?" FUCK THAT.

EDF way or bust!

>>16613066

>>16612930

pistols are OP. especially in early game when the average goon doesn't have any armor. accuracy and rate of fire are the things you should be looking at. damage comes after.

that and the psy amp in the other hand is the best combo

>>16612180

>should I add openxcom

Yes. It makes the interface so much more user friendly, and allows mouse wheel scroll of the different levels of the battlescape. Also I suffered a major setback on a alien colony raid. I got into the second level, and was immediately obliterated by those disruptor rockets traveling through the base like a race horse. I lost all my guns, ammo, medi-kits, and all but one of my psi users who was thankfully my best. Who knew those rockets would be even more bullshit than psi in ufo defense. Oh well I just wont do colony raids now, but now the ayys have six bases on the map.

>>16614293

that's how rpgs work. the character can improve which is the appeal

>>16614293

So you can invest in abilities and items that either dramatically improve or outright circumvent that.

I remember a very valid strategy in EU on the hardest settings being to just throw grenades at anything, your own research be dammed, and switch your entire team out for gunbots the moment you could, who didn't care about shit like mind control or allies dieing.

>theres people who still don't understand that LW mods are made to fuck you over

I get it, they're shit, this is no news but everyone and their mom tells you how it ramps up the difficulty to stupid levels so I don't know what you guys expect. Also iirc you can modify the amounts of ayys in pods and pods in general, but theres a nice feeling of doom when coming across 3x5 pods of chryssis with lighting reflexes as passive

>>16614327

But LW adds so much to EU it feels impossible to go back to vanilla

>more equipment options

>more ability options

>more units out

>more classes and the ability to choose who to upgrade to what

>can respond to any number of invasions as long as you have the resources capable of doing so

>fatigue system incentivizes rotating roster

>allows for additional mods like A FUCKING RANGE INDICATOR JESUS CHRIST FIRAXIS WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU

>>16614355

It just adds so much more complexity in comparison to vanilla you usually feel it lackluster if you go back, it's the same for games like stalker with their standalone mod versions like anomaly that adds stuff that should have been in base game

>>16614293

>Why would I want a % decide whether I win or lose?

That's only a small part of xcom, but it's an indispensable one. The reason xcom gets it right is because since you have the ability to lose a mission, but still persevere the dice rolls mimic the uncertainty of the battle field. Xcom at it's core is more about resource management, and threat/risk mitigation. The dice rolls merely add another layer of risk on top of it. Other games get it wrong because since you can't go forward if you lose, just makes it an exercise in frustration. Xcom gets it right while other games use the mechanics as padding for what are usually very short games.

>>16614293

Because it's a game about managing risk, you can flank, destroy cover, make ambushes, all to avoid missing shots, wasting ammo, putting your soldiers in risky situations, if one dies other will take their place, it's just how it works, maybe you will learn about your mistake and the rookie will live until he becomes colonel, maybe you didn't learn and will lose a whole squad worth of soldiers for it. Also you kill ayys and defend earth without having to deal with political bullshit.

>>16615241

I would say with. Its like the "complete" version of the game, plus I don't know if you would want to do it twice.

>>16615538

Mods go in documents/openXcom/mods

Unless they are one of the major TC mods, which generally have their own installation with openxcom bundled (just give them a copy of your x-com files). I think TWoTS is one of those.

>>16614327

I don't know where this idea came from that UFO and TFTD were "sooper duper hard brah xD". They weren't except for that bug that set the difficulty to the wrong setting. TFTD was annoying with the Lobstermen but still perfectly playable. The various "Human weapons only" or "Pacific Only" playthroughs prove this. Along comes the LW team and shits up XCOM with tedious "muh Dark Souls" difficulty.

>>16614293

All you've explained is that you don't like the console reboots. Keep in mind that the original has actual ballistic physics where the reboots have dice rolls.

>>16616055

It was just another mod in the pile of mods you had for it, people were looking for something stupidly hard to play since vanilla was braindead, it's like asking "why stalker players get shit like misery or anomaly that makes the game ten times harder for no good reason", it's just a niche playerbase who likes overwhelming odds against them, I'm not defending them thought, a lot of decisions were shit like giving overseers passive health regen on top of an already big hp bar ON TOP of stupidly good stats, ammount isn't even an issue because you can tone those down in the .inis but giving all kinds of passives as baseline really fucked over any semblance of balance

I just finished terror from the deep. The final mission is boring as hell, and nothing but corridors for the final area. At least in the second area you can shoot through the walls to get shit done.

Having XCOM on the vita is nice, but my god these pre-mission load times are awful.

I mean it's still better than not having it at all.

So how exactly does pressing caps lock instantly have the EU/EW loading screens be complete?

Is it a fuckup on Firaxis' part, or unreal engine? I'm genuinely curious.

>>16615755

I'll have to check to see if I can find that, I don't have openXcom in my documents since I put it somewhere else but then again I have to check if openXcom is in /my documents/. Yeah I tried their method of putting the game files into the bundle, but it didn't have any of the defult mods openXcom comes with. That's the only problem I have with it.

>I don't have openXcom in my documents since I put it somewhere else

It doesn't matter. That's where the game stores its settings files.

>>16617672

Return to halfchan.

>>16606084

That are they didn't like it because of the difficulty.

Christ the new one will always live in the shadow of the original.

>Bullet projections

>Meaningful cover

>Building destruction

>AI moves around the map, and doesn't spawn in groups.

>Places on the map you want to take for strategic purposes like good cover, height.

<You will never mow down sectoids from three stories above, them completely blind to your location

<You will never set up your recruits like a swat squad checking every angle then breaching the next turn into a ufo

<You will never make multiple bases made for different purposes adding benefits but increasing challenge as you have increased the space you need to protect.

They took all the great things about X-com, said lmao now fuck that shit, let all combat mechanics be stripped and replaced with RNG.

Also lets streamline base building to a retarded level as well as research.

I bought The game at gamespot years ago, beat it less then 16 hours and returned it the next day

>>16617725

>Christ the new one will always live in the shadow of the original.

That's basically true for all of gaming. Virtually every sequel or spiritual sequel somehow manages to be inferior to the original, be it in terms of mechanics, scope, ambition, writing or gameplay.

It's quite extraordinary to see development teams that have a hundred times more employees and a thousand times bigger budgets fail to achieve what six dudes in a garage could do. Good analogue for the whole of Western civilization as well - what takes a dozen white men to do requires hundreds of shitskins and women to poorly imitate.

>>16616265

I think it's a way to force loading everything needed at once which is why it hangs for a bit until it's fully loaded, the alternative it's a smooth loading that takes longer but doesn't (almost) hang so you can get a nice cinematic loading screen of your dudes, NuCom 2 (and maybe WoTC) does this as well, I'd say it's a not a fuck up at all, rather a deliberate choice, the (((developer's vision))) at work, if you will, at least it's nice to have a choice in the matter, even if it's somewhat hidden.

>>16617749

They also did it for free half the time minus free living space in the garage or basement.

>>16617749

It's pretty crazy. I wish big studios would stop spending millions on marketing and bleeding-edge graphics and would instead spend them on QA and hiring competent writers and programmers. And stop chasing the "wider audience" bullshit; pick a niche and stick with it.

Of course the industry is a long way from doing any of these things. I managed to make myself feel depressed just by writing this. Time to stop posting and play more videogames I guess.

>>16620044

How's that different from UFO lmao

Just smoke bomb your entrance brah

>>16620044

>Actually doing stuff on the first turn

You gotta skip that turn so the aliens use up their time units and can't fuck you with reaction shots every time you take a step.

Smoke helps too, but it'll impair your vision as much as the enemy's.

>>16620054

If it was above the water he can't use the smoke grenade equivalents which are not as powerful as ufo defense.

>>16624202

>how do you fuckers play long war?

Don't.

>>16624202

Flashbangs/smoke to help against terrible odds, copious amounts of overwatch if you're feeling like a woman and copious amounts supression->flanking.

It's still not really recommended. The whole reason I was looking forward to Phoenix Point is that it looked to streamline UFO defense but not overly simplify it like EU did. It felt like Long War's added "depth" but without the constraints of a mobile game and hopefully without the bullshit.

>>16624202

>how do you fuckers play long war?

You don't because it's a typical autism mod full of tedium.

>>16624202

Longwar makes nuXCOM almost good, but it does get pretty awful lategame when you start getting waves after waves of carriers with 30-50 aliens in each

>>16622442

>I am using real time as it seems to be easier to kill the brain slugs that way.

realtime it's faster, but going for the turn based variant is much more precice. it can get pretty chaotic under realtime, but I still play that mode almost constantly

>One thing that is bothering me though is the frequency of alien attacks is extremely high in comparison to lets say a part of a base being built.

I don't remember there being any method of increasing building speed. as for aliens being detected frequency, it depends on how you handle the UFOs. most UFO incursions end with ayys dropping more ayys in to buildings. if you manage to shoot them down before they do, then the mission ammount decreases.

>How bad is it to ignore aliens when they are spotted?

also, if end missions well, there will be less ayys in the next mission. if you just skip missions, the next ones will be "less easy". and depending on the building they landed in, that owning organization may turn permanently hostile. so if you get a mission in some slum dump ran by diablo, consider it low prio. if it's a lets say marsec building then be sure to go for it

>>16622442

Note that alien progression is also tied to how well you do in your missions. Shoot down more UFOs and do more successful missions, and they'd bring out the big guns faster. (Aka, you'd see transporters and attack crafts on week 3 instead of say, week 5 if you were bumbling along.)

There's a few ways you can cheese the game, of course, but I think the game is much better when you're actively not trying to break it. Protip: dual wielding machineguns breaks real time mode.

>>16627642

>Protip: dual wielding machineguns breaks real time mode.

Easy way to run out of ammo by day 2 though. Supplies are limited in what you can buy each weak, can only do stuff like this when you get the alien weapons.

>>16632542

Apocalypse exists.

>>16632542

Real time XCOM seems like it would be a clusterfuck. To be fair, though, I never played Apocalypse's real time mode either.

I've been wanting to make my own XCOM off and on for a couple years now. It would be like Apocalypse in that there's only a city (Victorian London) but this time the threat is cultists and demons

Tech progression would be like oldschool black powder trash to steampunk to magitech. Rather than shooting down UFOs you would be investigating the city for strange activity. Hiring anything from street urchins to bobbies to proper investigators.

I didn't get far in my thoughts because I sincerely doubt anything will come of it anyway.

>>16632696

If you ever make something of it, I'd play it.

>>16632696

If it has sexy nun outifts I'll consider playing it.

>>16632705

Sure, maybe the sneaky teleporty flying upgrade is demonic enhancement which needs to be given to someone of great faith to prevent the corruption of the soul. But in an outfit more suitable for high mobility.

And also they need to be chained to some degree. For reasons.

>>16632776

Honestly, the retraint thing came first from the instability that come from making people demons first and acknowledgement of that common fetish second

>>16632696

>Real time XCOM seems like it would be a clusterfuck.

I played a few games like that, real time works, especially with planning and speed (time progression) controls.

The game moves faster and there are no silly exploits of the initative system that makes the enemy look retarded.

I seriously question the brainpower of anyone who cannot handle something like that.

>>16632819

Those are for head pats only.

>>16632696

Play Apocalypse and the real time spin-offs at least to figure out what to do and what not to do

>>16632917

>Play Apocalypse

But the alien designs are so awful

>>16633106

This. The aliens are all halflife rejects.

>>16633284

>>16633287

Actually now that I've seen them again I think they are MiB the movie rejects.

>>16632696

I also had a neat idea where you could toss squadmates equipment. If someone had enough reflexes they could catch a tossed grenade from a teammate, pull the pin and toss it father.

Naturally, there's a good chance the gear won't be caught or miss its mark, but it could lead to some clutch plays if good enough rolls are made.

>playing openxcom

>walk out of skyranger

>instantly shot to death

>order another unit out

>instantly shot to death

>abort mission

>>16636079

That's nothing. On difficulties higher than veteran I have not even walked out of the skyranger without being shot because three terror disks spawned right in front of me. I should put two rockets on the first four guys from now on.

>>16636079

Sounds like fun

>>16636079

Throw a smoke grenade at the bottom of the ramp and skip the first turn without moving anyone.

>>16636079

Do as >>16636242 says, enemies have full TU on the first turn so if any of them are facing the skyranger you'll get fucked with reaction fire if you so much as move.

The game gets so much easier when you understand the mechanics behind reaction fire.

>>16632542

Make X-Com: Apocalypse but with bullet drop and bullet penetration. And waifus.

>>16636087

>>16636079

If you ever land and see more than one alien below the landing ramp, and they are both looking at you, abort. Otherwise throw a smoke grenade outside the ramp and end your turn - aliens begin the game with full TUs, and therefore can snap shot at least 3 times with reaction fire. Once you end your first turn, they move around, typically leaving them with enough TUs in reserve to fire once.

The smoke isn't for a cover bonus of any kind, nor is it actually useful for protecting your soldiers as they offload. It's main purpose is to prevent aliens from making eye contact with your soldiers inside the Skyranger. You can end the first turn without smoke or movement, but you're risking the Cyberdisk that spawned two feet away from your ramp lifting up and sticking its dick inside the Skyranger like it's a big meaty fleshlight. Smoke is most effective for breaking line of sight, not crawling through it.

The reason I mention that the smoke isn't that helpful in actually protecting the offloading of troops is that vision calculations in smoke are janky. Sometimes an alien can see into the smoke and react upon you, while you're unable to see that alien. This can occur in reverse as well. Also, sometimes an alien will wander into the smoke without seeing you, and your troops manage to fumble around and not spot the alien. The alien will inevitably notice you before you notice it.

>>16633284

>>16633287

I genuinely like Apocalypse's aliens and I think the game has a great atmosphere, even though the faggot who made the alien art for the UFOPedia did a shitty job. I just write it off as early 3D. I actually get spooked when I split my agents up to wander around an apartment complex, holding motion scanners and looking for the last alien.

>>16607461

If you ain't first, you're last. Win or die. X-com's not about bein' no pussy-ass nigga. If you only do shit that's easy, you're gonna quickly have nothing easy to do. There is a critical difference in playing a hard game and coming out on top, and playing a game where the difficulty quickly exceeds salvageable levels due to inaction, and being a legitimate bitch is going to net you the latter. Besides, it's the first month, what are you going to lose, some squaddies and a nano vest? If you could send two Skyrangers of troops and sacrifice all but a single rookie against that supply vessel, it's STILL a good trade.

>>16636325

>If you ever land and see more than one alien below the landing ramp, and they are both looking at you, abort.

When ever I encounter mutons that is 100% the scenario every time on any difficulty higher than beginner. On top of that they are usually on top of a building as well. The first three xcom games plus the latest version of openxcom are in the sharethread right now for anyone interested.

>>16636325

>>16636242

Dropping smoke at your feet rather than throwing avoids any potential reaction fire. Especially you should drop at night when you don't know what's beyond your vision range.

>>>/v/16645463

>>>/v/16645771

This account is pure cringe, the amount of virtue signaling is off the charts. If anyone is interested, check out his social network account (https://vk.com/jbarger), it seems to have some real photos and doxxable info.

>>16646420

you guys really do glow in the dark, holy shit.

>>16646438

You're not weaseling your way out of this one, those 4um steam groups and facebook memes on VK.com were a mistake.

Oh, and, there are screenshots showing Win10 UI lmao.

Relatedly, here's an interview with Julian that touches on modern game development and what he calls "brute force". It's worth a read.

http://archive.is/sG4T1

>>16646494

Bingo. Except that I'd really expect a good chunk of each game's budget to be getting embezzled.

>>16578692

if you weren't playing the original UFO: Enemy Unknown under the original title in 1994, you don't deserve to discuss it.

How long is an openxcom playthrough supposed to last? I've been playing this thing for 4 days straight.

>>16650323

Depends how lucky you get/ how much you're doing the endgame objectives.

>>16651043

>Actually bringing a full avenger full of soldiers

Fuck, I never do that. I can barely find enough for 12 people to do without most of them standing around doing nothing. My usual avenger setup is 16 soldiers plus two hovertanks, and even then I struggle to make use of all of them.

>>16651439

>using the tanks ever

I never use those things. Every time I've ever used them they always die to one shot from a heavy plasma rifle.

>>16651685

The main use of tanks in UFO is as scouts. They never run out of stamina, have high TUs and are expendable (i.e. them dying doesn't wast 10 missions of level ups that your soldiers require to become good scouts). Rocket tanks also have enough ammo to level a block or two without needing to reload. If you are doing everything properly they shouldn't be shot at much thanks to smoke, and you can clear maps much more quickly than you could with soldier scouts (which means more likely to cause an alien panic chain that makes mop up easy).

That said, they are kind of bad in every other situation. Using one on a skyranger is a bit too risky if things go south on a terror mission and the tank gets sniped immediately by a cyberdisk, though I still use them for UFO landings. TFTD has much, much stronger tanks.

>>16652456

The reason I never use them is the expense. By the time I am comfortable using a tank I am already way past the point of needing them for something like that.

>>16652549

What difficulty are you playing on? On Superhuman finishing missions is worth millions so any price is pretty irrelevant as long as shit gets done.

>>16651685

>Every time I've ever used them they always die to one shot from a heavy plasma rifle.

I learned this the hard way when I made my first hovertank.

>>16578692

I started playing XCOM2 “it’s my first XCOM game” and after dicking around on veteran for a few missions to learn the game, I jumped straight into legendary. Is it normal to lose half your squad every mission? MEC’s are fucking brutal, hitting and one one shotting my dudes every time they shoot, and spamming rockets. While Stun Lancers rush you.

>>16653572

Yeah actually it is, impossible is designed as essentially a challenge to see how far you can go before you lose.

>>16653595

>>16653618

Alright thanks for the advice

It’s funny, shortly after I posted this I ran into two pods side by side. There was a a Muton, Two Mecs, a trooper, and a Stun Lancer. Entire squad was massacred in two turns. The two rookies I brought along ate a Muton grenade, one of my guys was raped by the Lancer, and the rest were gunned down by the the MECs. Maybe I should try commander lol.

Am I the only one who uses blacks as forlorn hopes?

>>16656839

I just edit all the nonwhites into whites tbh.

>>16658279

That's racist, anon.

>>16665442

I made it a point to dismiss all israeli troops from my NuCOM rosters.

>>16668586

Nevermind, it's too janky to play.

>>16669020

What is?

>>16670960

https://ufoai.org/

>throw grenade at map edge

<it falls off the map

>have to micromanage gear for every soldier

<you don't even get to make a single preset like in xcom, and the loadout is per-soldier not per-slot on dropship

>the aliens land in absolutely random places of the world and there are no activity graphs which means that when you start your tiny coverage is meaningless and every nation will be ravaged by aliens while your only source of income is the dwindling monthly payout

Myou can't send aircraft to patrol, which paired with the previous means you can bork a save because RNG said so, and it's very likely to happen

>still haven't figured out how workshop slots work exactly, but it seems that my 2nd base can lose workshop slots because of a project on the 1st, likely a bug

>even lower weapon accuracy than the original (6% for default assault rifle burst rifle shots from afar), if you're wielding a SMG you can hit a friendly at a 60 degree angle to your side, sniper rifle with 40% accuracy (that's all with newbie troops though)

>weapons have a max range at which their projectiles become popcorn

>clunky camera controls on both battle and geo scape, on battle mode you zoom in and out with the mouse, and then you have a bunch of keyboard controls for different kinds of rotation and moving around, flight controls would've been much simpler

>on geoscape your camera can't move over the north or south poles or rotate the planet, in the first you could roll the planet like a ball and have the poles upside down if you wanted, and the artificial limitation is really jarring

>you can spot and be spotted through solid walls at times, which is extra weird, considering the hitboxes for bullets are perfect

Decided to continue my Xenonauts playthrough. I just downed a Battleship full of Sebillians and Reapers with a single Praetor on the bridge. What's the best strategy for capturing one alive? I'm playing with Community Edition, if that makes any difference.

>>16618046

>programmers

Dude. The one, and probably the primary reason as to why vidyagayms are shit nowadays is because people don't know how to program for shit. All the tools have made it too easy, all the while overall complexity has gone up. End result being, people can make mediocre and awful shit easily while not having a fucking clue as to how it even works.

>>16632542

Close Combat Russi- AYY LMAO Front

>>16679872

How does that go? Do you end up losing shitloads of rookies every battle?

>>16679872

I have not played, but it is on my to play list.