noabbitnofun

Thinking about it, I was wondering how we could think of ideas to make the tranfers a little less artificial and more realisitic. (I indeed don't like the guy who comes in and has several scientists and soldiers in his luggage What about this... ? Transferring "goods" are physically located on the map, that is you can see them moving. You don't just get a "will arrive in X hours" - they are on their way. Thus alien ships could (?) spot them. An seize them? (yuk!!!) We could be given to choose how the transfer occurs: - either use a standard parcel delivering company (for goods), thus taking the risk of being discovered "publically", at leat if you claim the goods back - or use an XCOM transporter (more expensive?) ... there may not be enough to it to implement it. Well, ok, maybe someone will find something better? Yan

Reacting to an old post but... BASE SIZE I think we cound enhance the atmosphere by letting the base owner pay for what they have, i.e. you pay for the room available at your base. (Plus government should have the right to limit the size depending on the action of the XCOM in the country. We are hosted by the country after all, are we not?) This way we can get the players to start in a "small underground cabinet" and you get the feeling that they are few, they can be really cornered in there, and it is a gloomy place to live in. Yuk. My 3 cents... Yan

I really liked the final message from... err, sorry, I don't remember who. Well anyway. Base damage would be great. Collapse the buildings when their pillars are blasted, please! please! And let it take some time to dig back entries to the collapsed buildings & repair - it makes you feel how your base is. Can we also keep some markings of the previous fights in the base? (Or is there someone cleaning up the blood and replacing the furniture?) Regarding the feeling, I also think the gloomy part is great - play with lights coming from the soldiers. (They can guide the aliens too...) So if the electricity is down, can we get to see the soldiers open the doors manually (like force a bar in the middle and slide it apart)? Could the "non evacuated personnel" be hiding in some of the furniture of the base as well, which you don't get to know until you open it... or blast it? Please do make it so that, on a base attack, the extra equipment is not just "lying on the floor" but is indeed in a locker at the armory or something. (Time to prevent aliens from blasting that room out!) Regarding the attack from ships, I think the amount of time the ships have is limited because they don't want to be public to the country where the base is. Except that country could be alien friendly. In which case I would like to see the starving effect, yes I would! (Forcing you out in the open if you cannot send a rescue form another base...) Regarding the security cams, I still think you should have more advantage than you do today in XCOM's, in terms of seeing the invador. What about "most cameras are out but sometimes you get to see 1-2 spots here and there"? (It could require manual operatio, which indeed will let you feel as in Duke Nukem - you could be shot while watching the screen. Yan

Just as for radars, there comes the question for weapon ranges... I think it should be up to the player to choose. I am personnally in two minds on this: sometimes I just want to see if I can fire or not; sometimes I just think real life does not show you until you have tried to shoot. Anyone mentionned about weapons before?

Just a few more words. Although I understand some players like to prepare their soldiers for each mission, I was personnally fed up with this pretty quick. It just got in the way since I know I wanted to give everysoldier this big gun except that guy with a biggy other thing etc. I think it would indeed be convenient to set a profile per person. Not necessarilly a template (even though I like the idea but with the following goals: - if a soldier is at a base and does not change crafts, it should be pre-equipped with the same equipment as last mission - after a mission, if some equipment is missing in the craft's assignment, it should be automatically loaded from the base's stores - after this operation, automatic re-order / manufacturing of the goods should be triggered (added to the list of things to produce, at the end of course). (We could therefore set a certain quantity used as a buffer at the base, the buffer being on the one hand used by the after-mission soldiers, and on ther other hand automatically re-filled.) I might get to write the algorithm if you want. So that logistics can be handled more easilly, and we can concentrate on getting the green guys... Am I the only one to want this? Yan

BUGS? (I know programmers will read this differently but...) What about Alien missions to sacrifice a few units just to get into you base and release bugs. I mean, anything that can spread in your base to decoy the buildings, kill people, slow your research or anything. Ex: They have a wonderfull chemical formula with which first you have only bad scent (still slowing recovery, research, production) that makes your employess leave you if it stays too long. Ex2: They release buggy buggers that hatch and replicate, then try to kill your guys. (A little mission to clean them out in your own base?) You might have to research a bit to find the counter measure... Unless the aliens take you out before, that is. Regarding the way this "contamination" comes in, it could be direct Alien attack to your base, but also (why not?) Alien manipulation of one of your members, or they could release this stuff in the whole country (they don't have to care, do they?) It could be also be coming from a government / Nation that does not like you (for any reason of theirs). Of course it would be nice not to have too much of this - to keep the focus on killing the aliens themselves. Any thoughts? Yan

What can they do on top of what they already do?

Just to add to the conversation... This is my point of view. The suggestions below may be far from your thoughts, so just comment on! DIPLOMACY I really think diplomacy is a need. Not to change the game from a "dark alien hunt" game into a "lots of text and where is the info I need" game. So we need just something more elaborate, as was said before. I really think we need to get the nations bigger than a simple "I pay you that much and actually I think this of you and that of the aliens". So for instance... - I like the idea already mentionned about nations research. Don't you? - I think we could get aware of elections in big (democratic) countries (or be warned of the premises of a government military takeover). This way the player could investigate whether the candidates are "standard humans", "humans sponsored by an XCOM cmpany" (in multi-player) or aliens disguised. (Sounds like a set of missions could be requirement to get this intelligence.) Then the XCOM could try to influence back to prevent the election / takeover of the Alien candidates. And if it fails bam! Big harder mission to knock the guy out (there were posts on this kind of elements in previous threads). I think Nations definitely need to be in alos as you already included in the feature list (as mission'ed people at crash sites). This should also go with "civilians" spotting XCOM bases and telling their government... which can tell the Aliens. ALIEN MISSIONS RELATED TO DIPLOMACY - Definitely we mentionned here about human missions. Not Alien missions. What about them? Don't you think that we could have a few Aliens missions to get influence in a country (whether political infiltration or actual military power)? BASE SPOTTING Regarding the AI, has anyone made suggestions regarding the fact that the Aliens acted strangely (IMHO) in XCOM1: when they spotted your base, they attacked once. Then wooops - they forgot about your base location. But indeed inreal life they would not - they would just send craft after craft to burn you down. I think it would help get into the game to have this too (and help make the player feel uncomfortable). We could allow to move base elements by dismantling them and convoying them out to another base - in a sloooooow manner so that aliens still get a huge chance of kicking you hard before you leave. And of course facilities that are not available do not defend your base anymore. :-) I would like to add - if not already taken into acocunt - that camouflage technologies & buildings could be usefull here. Plus you would get to place them on the base "ground" level. What about a few things to try to keep civilians out? This is too long a post already, so I pause here. Hello there - it is your turn! Yan

What about using our keyboards too? (I was not able to play the current version but) it sounds to me this was a real miss in the original game. Just using a hotkey for all actions is nice. Then comes the question on what the arrows do... I guess I will let people tell what they think.

I just went to a site that deals with old games that are now in the public domain. And these games (XCOM 1 & 2) are public domain now! >8-) So I just tried them... and played a great deal!!!! (until I was too upfed with the bugs, that is.) I guess anyone wanting these games can just go to http://www.abandonware-france.org/ then click "strategie" and UFO... (Anyone knowing an English equivalent of this great site?) Play a lot! And enjoy real life too.