What Alien Invasion needs in order to replace XCOM1 as the best game

[Fistleaf]

Personally, I will be satisfied with option 4.  Option 1 will make it better than XCOM.

[geever]

It IS a different game already NOT a clone!

-geever

[Fistleaf]

What I mean is: how can Alien Invasion be at least as good as XCOM?
There are so many commercial versions of XCOM-like games like UFO:Afterlight/Aftermath/Extraterrestrials, but none has really achieved the cult status of the original XCOM.  Alien Invasion may end up as just another wannabe.

[BTAxis]

Option 4 is never going to happen anyway.

[Another Guy]

A mix of the first 4, but especially 3. Every mission being just about killing/stunning all aliens on map get boring quick. Secondary objectives like defending something, time (turns) limit, no gunfire maps (just melee in case of an industrial compound where everything may explode. No need to make destructable terrain, just set gunfire weapons as not usable for both sides), capturing a particular unique alien instead of killing it (failing to do so would be a failed mission), etc.
The possibilities for making missions different r endless. Making it random with random maps make it even better (rather than bind some objective to a particular map and some particular unique event).

[Sirine]

I've voted no.4. (Just make a bug-free clone of XCOM1 with better graphics and music)
Here are my reason:-
1) The original XCom have something all other does not have... GAME BALANCE.
2) Super reaction interaction. It make turn-base playout like realtimes... many game FAIL to do that, including JA2, AND all other series of XCOM. (INCLUDING "Terror from the Deep" even they are using the same engine... the game inventory, maps and creature grew too big... hence game balance collapse)
3) Allow cheating... awkward enought... XCom allow you to do save/load in combat, and you might get different result from different action. This some how enrich the game play experience.
Example:- You know there are alien in a room. So, you save the game.
1st try) You open the room door. Opps, reaction fire... you were dead. Reload the game.
2nd try) You blast open the room door. Opps, reaction fire again... you were dead again. Reload the game again.
3rd try) You blast open from another angle, throw in a grenade...kabooom.... you smile... cause you are happy on the out come. Don't you?

The series of events that happend above, save->load->save->load->save...is actually something very HUMAN in nature... you fail, and you try. Xcom make it better... dynamic and randomize, sometimes 30% shot do hit target, sometimes 90% do miss the target... sometime a miss hit kill an alien, sometime the alien suppose to die but after 3~4 hit, the alien still standing there... hightly unstable. Yes, hightly unstable, but somehow total UNDER control... [means that you can save and load anytime].

Try out the game yourself below....refresh your joyfull memory..

Found at google...

X-COM is still being sold. Let's not do that.

[Fistleaf]

Option 4 is never going to happen anyway.

That could be the reason why there is no worthy successor to XCOM1.  Maybe game creators should wake up & see what the real problem is, instead of concentrating on 3D graphics and more of everything.  More doesn't mean better.

[geever]

That could be the reason why there is no worthy successor to XCOM1.  Maybe game creators should wake up & see what the real problem is, instead of concentrating on 3D graphics and more of everything.  More doesn't mean better.

Hmm? What are you speaking about? Why should we copy that game?

-geever

[BTAxis]

Nobody's "concentrating on 3D graphics". Bullshit - ignored.

[homunculus]

[...]
1) The original XCom have something all other does not have... GAME BALANCE.
[...]

once you get your hands on the psi weapons the game becomes quite unbalanced imo.

[Another Guy]

once you get your hands on the psi weapons the game becomes quite unbalanced imo.

Considering some alien races have psionic powers on high skills on multiple soldiers and do not seem to require line of sight or psi weapons for using it... Nah, psi weapons do not unbalance it at all.

[shevegen]

The options suck a bit.

But I picked "AI", because I recall some missions where aliens behaved in a pattern which repeated itself.
Like they saw me, and went back to cover.
This is very bad if it is 100% always the same behaviour. I think aliens need to somehow change, or "decide"
between different strategies.

[Sirine]

Agree with 『shevegen』。
AI and the reaction fire still have space for improvement.

『Another Guy』：-Thanks for supporting.
『homunculus』：- It still BALANCE in overall. Any other unbalance nature that you can notice in the game? (beside psi weapon, some bugs like max 80 inventory items)
『geever』：- This is just a topic to discuss...I believe nothing to do with the UFO:AI development... And everybody here love a good game... and Xcom1 is one of them.
『BTAxis』：- Just to say..."Hi"...

[homunculus]

once you get your hands on the psi weapons the game becomes quite unbalanced imo.

Considering some alien races have psionic powers on high skills on multiple soldiers and do not seem to require line of sight or psi weapons for using it... Nah, psi weapons do not unbalance it at all.

we are talking about xcom enemy unknown, right?
you needed somebody to see the alien.
but you didn't need line of sight from the guy who was doing the psi attack.

your controlled and disarmed and otherwise very friendly alien sees another alien who drops its guns and that other alien sees another alien who drops its guns and sees another alien who drops its guns and sees an alien commander who either blows itself and its friends up or just drops the launcher and scouts some more for you.
this is how your soldiers will very rarely have a line of sight with an armed alien.

when you do some planning, you build yourself a few psi-labs (10 or more) and recruit a lot of soldiers to get a team of 80+ psi soldiers asap after capturing sectoid leader from a terror mission.

how soon you get the psi is really secondary, it is this scouting tactics that turns out to be unbalanced in favor of the player.

[Another Guy]

Aliens can do pretty much the same (specially ethereals), and often do, panic/beseking 1/3 of ur soldiers and mind controling one or 2 of them. The really unbalancing factor I see is not from the game concept, but the AI bug that alien never pick weapons from the ground after droping it.
But again, a bug is a bug. Should not be considered as unbalancing on the game concept.

Edit: U r correct about the line of sight for soldiers, but aliens never seemed to require line of sight for themselves to use THEIR psionic powers. Sometimes  if u ended the turn with everyone still on dropship facing a map corner, some soldier would still panic.