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Discussion / Re: Feedback and impressions after 1 campaign
« on: November 28, 2012, 04:33:22 pm »
I'll add my feedback. I'm in a similar situation to Kouko, having just finished one Standard-difficulty campaign in version 2.4.
The number of encounters has been covered many times, so I'll only say that yes, there are many. Around 250 in my game. I'm not sure what missions the aliens are pursuing - do they scout first, then try to terrorize and/or use "diplomacy" to try to steer a region away from the player? Do they harvest randomly? I guess the sheer number of encounters would not be a bad thing if they were part of an overall strategy. For example, the aliens could just decide to blitz the Revolutionary Countries to try to permanently turn them against the player (maybe they already do this?)
Combat - here I'll compare the game to the X-Com series. In X-Com, there were the following killers: mind control (not yet implemented, so no comment here), explosives (grenade falling at the foot of a soldier is murder, regardless of armor), "terrorists" such as the Tentaculat or the Brainsucker from X-Com Apocalypse, and last but not least, close combat. In my most recent play-throughs of Apocalypse and Terror, easily 80% of my casualties came from the above sources. Any sort of regular bullet-type fire the player can compensate for via armor, cover, tactics etc.
Now, UFO AI: Aliens rarely use grenades. They don't seem to have any other explosive weapon, either. There are no alien terrorists that can see you, come to you across half a landscape, and kill you or worse unless you get lucky with your reaction shots. So, reaction shots are a luxury, not a necessity. Aliens ARE very effective at close combat - when they use it. I lost a few guys to the plasma blade. It's more effective than a pistol - so maybe they should use it more often? Instead, I see aliens actually walk right past my guys, and end their turn in the open, instead of using the TUs to whip out a plasma blade and butcher one of my guys.
Overall, though, I think that the game is great and it will only get better. Even the pretty consistent criticism of "too many encounters" can be overcome if these encounters become as lethal as X-Com Terror encounters, for example (I *never* went into those thinking that all of my guys have a 99% chance of survival). Easier said than done, I know.
That's my two cents. Thanks for a great game.
The number of encounters has been covered many times, so I'll only say that yes, there are many. Around 250 in my game. I'm not sure what missions the aliens are pursuing - do they scout first, then try to terrorize and/or use "diplomacy" to try to steer a region away from the player? Do they harvest randomly? I guess the sheer number of encounters would not be a bad thing if they were part of an overall strategy. For example, the aliens could just decide to blitz the Revolutionary Countries to try to permanently turn them against the player (maybe they already do this?)
Combat - here I'll compare the game to the X-Com series. In X-Com, there were the following killers: mind control (not yet implemented, so no comment here), explosives (grenade falling at the foot of a soldier is murder, regardless of armor), "terrorists" such as the Tentaculat or the Brainsucker from X-Com Apocalypse, and last but not least, close combat. In my most recent play-throughs of Apocalypse and Terror, easily 80% of my casualties came from the above sources. Any sort of regular bullet-type fire the player can compensate for via armor, cover, tactics etc.
Now, UFO AI: Aliens rarely use grenades. They don't seem to have any other explosive weapon, either. There are no alien terrorists that can see you, come to you across half a landscape, and kill you or worse unless you get lucky with your reaction shots. So, reaction shots are a luxury, not a necessity. Aliens ARE very effective at close combat - when they use it. I lost a few guys to the plasma blade. It's more effective than a pistol - so maybe they should use it more often? Instead, I see aliens actually walk right past my guys, and end their turn in the open, instead of using the TUs to whip out a plasma blade and butcher one of my guys.
Overall, though, I think that the game is great and it will only get better. Even the pretty consistent criticism of "too many encounters" can be overcome if these encounters become as lethal as X-Com Terror encounters, for example (I *never* went into those thinking that all of my guys have a 99% chance of survival). Easier said than done, I know.
That's my two cents. Thanks for a great game.