Storyline suggestion

[geisthund]

Hi,
i've played the game up to the alien base (and won it once with some effort) and I've got to say this is an amazing game, given that it's free. It actually recreates a lot of the old world "X-com" feel. You guys have put some fantastic effort into it, and 2.4 vs 2.3 really shows the lengths towards which you guys are going to make it look professional.
I have no doubt it won't be long before cutscenes start appearing.

I have one request though.

I understand that you have a backstory of sorts detailing the evolution through time of humanity -- as did X-com. But one thing I think Xcom could have done better, which you guys have the chance to do - is to develop the alien backstory as well, and give it all a context, as well as give the game a certain maturity. For instance, if we found out that the aliens are a collection of conquered species bound together by a master-race xxx years ago... then somewhere along the way in game enemy humans could start appearing... or perhaps good aliens.

Or perhaps a renegade political faction of a larger confederacy which arrives later in the game dramatically to either assist humanity, or conquer it...

Also it might be nicer if a storyline continued to unfold as we played the game - at the moment the storyline is entirely made up of tech tree updates. There aren't any News events to generate human interest. It just feels like chasing down goals. (which was very much what X com was about, and is more than enough to create a good game.)

As an example, Total Annihilation (for any of you old enough to remember) had a campaign which was always preceded by a story, such that you felt really drawn into the war for good / evil.

[TrashMan]

In that case, you are better off placing your hopes in mod of somekind.

[geisthund]

Why exactly is that?
Is that because it would be technically too difficult to implement an unfolding backstory? Or do you feel it wouldn't fit the feel and authenticity of the original X-com feel of the game?

The game just feels a little... soul-less at the moment. An excellent technical display, with wonderful mechanics and graphics but missing that something extra that keeps you glued to the seat.

With the high frequency of incursions and repetitiveness of the missions (I must have shot down and played a few hundred missions from start to end) pretty much the only thing that kept me going was curiosity about the tech tree, rather than genuine interest in the game. At times it feels a bit plodding because of this.

With the original X-coms IIRC there weren't quite so many missions. X-com 3 also had the added plus of travel to the alien world just at the point when it began to feel repetitive (ie after you had fought in pretty much every building and UFO type possible)

I felt it was a pity the "second half" of the game ended so quickly though. It would have been interesting to have to set up a fortified base in alien territory and start trying to gain a larger foothold and push them back on home-ground until the final objective was reached.

Just my few cents.

[TrashMan]

No...the planned storyline is just... far, far less realistic than the rest of the game, shall we say?

And yes, the mission frequency and soldier progression have not been balanced properly, given that there is no end yet.

[geisthund]

Hmm.

Do you mean the current planned storyline, or the ideas I threw out, off the cuff? (Which raises the question : How does realism figure in a sci-fi game dealing with aliens invading a future earth, but that is a whole different kettle of fish, no?)

Is there even a current planned storyline?

I found this on the site :

"What we as a team wanted to make is a brand new experience that tries to surpass the quality of games from 1992, rather than simply recreate them with flashier graphics. "

Well, I guess what I was trying to get at with the previous post was that what's missing is a game-world, built up around the game.

For instance, in planescape torment (and pretty much all the best games I've ever played), or even sci-fi movies (eg star trek, star wars) an entire game universe has been created and the game / movie "fits" into the universe. (with the exception of star wars episodes iv v and vi which... sucked) The universe includes things that would normally happen, outside of the immediate context. political relationships, interpersonal relationships, backstories etcetc

At the moment, with what the game presents, what I see (from the user-end) is a combat interface and geoscape interface, with an unfolding tech tree.

The entire backstory is unidimensional, and deals exclusively with how we humans ended up going from present day to the redefined political borders that exist in the game - up to the point of alien contact.

The story pretty much halts there, and so far I haven't learnt anything about who the aliens are and what they want, much less why there are so many different shapes of aliens but they all want the same thing, which is... err... to shoot at my troops, and any civilians they happen to be standing near to.

X-com had a little more story in that we knew why the aliens were here - they were harvesting human beings for parts. We never really found out what that was about either.

the UFO series of games had some strange biomass thing going, which as the games advanced proved to be a force for remodelling earth into a new alien haven. We never did find out much about who the aliens were either, and the games generally felt very flat.

With movies like star trek, a large amount of effort has gone into writing a behind the scenes story so that things feel... real. We know that different alien governments exist, each has relationships between themselves, and nothing is absolutely black and white. Different aliens behave differently, all have their own motives, some exist in conferations (humans) or collectives (like the borg), yet others are just angry and trigger happy (eg romulans) etcetc.
Does this make sense?

[ShipIt]

The story pretty much halts there, and so far I haven't learnt anything about who the aliens are and what they want, much less why there are so many different shapes of aliens but they all want the same thing, which is... err... to shoot at my troops, and any civilians they happen to be standing near to.

What do you expect? A letter from the alien leader wich explains everything to you? You won´t get one. If you want to know, you´ll have to find out.

[geisthund]

I don't expect - I request. I'm requesting a story agent, for instance aliens revealing bits and pieces while under interrogation.

I understand the game is still under construction. That's exactly why I'm making this suggestion - to try to help make it more than it is. I don't mean to cause offense... Thus far from start to destruction of alien base, there hasn't been a glimmer of why or who anywhere. Hence the motivation to make this suggestion, which from the looks of it is pretty poorly received - so perhaps it's not worth the effort after all.

[ShipIt]

for instance aliens revealing bits and pieces while under interrogation

Last time I played the campaign of UFO: AI it was like that.

[TrashMan]

Hmm.

Do you mean the current planned storyline, or the ideas I threw out, off the cuff? (Which raises the question : How does realism figure in a sci-fi game dealing with aliens invading a future earth, but that is a whole different kettle of fish, no?)

I'm reffering to the currently planned storyline.

As how does realism figure into it - look at it this way. The descriptions of items and weapons and pretty much anything have been made to sound realistic. Real physicals knowledge, theorethical and similar. The alies are a big exception. Not because tehy are aliens, but because of their underlines story.

They are basicly a empire that conqered entire GALAXIES (no, not a typo) and are controlled by a sentient, telephatic virus.

[geisthund]

ah. I went back through my ufopedia and realized i'd missed the one entry mentioning the virus. That is an interesting premise, similar to the book Ground Zero.

I hope this will be fleshed out more as the game progresses.

Also I find it puzzling that the aliens revert to low sentience in the absence of the virus. Does this mean they clear it by themselves immunologically?

And if as the ufopaedia states some approach the intellect of humans - surely some of their history and culture can be gleaned from them? Or do they remain hostile even in the absence of their viral masters?

[TrashMan]

I consider the premise stupid/silly. Telephatic virus? Really? REALLY?

[Crystan]

I consider the premise stupid/silly. Telephatic virus? Really? REALLY?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KsMWrvdjtBI/S7rDJqeUpSI/AAAAAAAAAvo/pVUlGZf2V1Q/s1600/YARLY.jpg

[Nutter]

Also I find it puzzling that the aliens revert to low sentience in the absence of the virus. Does this mean they clear it by themselves immunologically?

Actually, it's more of a thing that the virus has an individual working similairly to how a single neuron functions in a standard brain. Insects tend to do it.
Probably stunts the brain a fair bit or the telepathy just hammers too much of it down to actually have much use other than the basic functions.
Point is, they work like ants; You place a hundred of them on a table and they'll march themselves to death in a circle but if you get a few million...well.

That's why they don't really do much untill you get the full ten.
Come to think of it, stunting the central nervous system like that is actually a rather decent tactical idea. You have one and he's not really worth jack shit while a full alien storage is just a fucking security breach waiting to happen. One additional alien to kill is all the difference you can have between a promoted rookie and a dead elite every now and then.
Ten are far worse than that hassle.

[TrashMan]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KsMWrvdjtBI/S7rDJqeUpSI/AAAAAAAAAvo/pVUlGZf2V1Q/s1600/YARLY.jpg

Interestingly neough, that image doesn't make it any less stupid.

Viruses, construct smaller then cells, having telepathic ability. I enver heard anything so redicolous in my life. Alien ponies farting deadly rainbows would make more sense.

The alien virus conquering galaxies and beign stopped by are tiny planet?


Now, if the virus altered the brain to make is succeptabel to telephatic suggestion/dominance...if the alien empire was not TAHT big..if it was in turmoil/war or something, so that it not WTFPWNing Earth in 5 minutes makes sense.... it would be different matter.

[Crystan]

A intelligent virus or a biomass that eat planets to become a mega huge brain - i always love the obscure stories of ufo games

Interestingly neough, that image doesn't make it any less stupid.

Hehehehehehe

The alien virus conquering galaxies and beign stopped by are tiny planet?

Well humans are almost always the last line of defence. If you take a look at movies like I-Day, Transformers and Battlefield Earth etc. Humans are the superior race in the universe.