|
Orange Devil posted:Eliminating enemy reaction fire before doing the Big Thing you're trying to do reminds me of Firaxis X-Com, but even they had the sense to give you plenty of options to eliminate or work around overwatch (flashbangs, surpressing fire, moving only in cover, a couple of other skills I'm forgetting I'm sure). The only way this game gives you is soaking up the hits, and then it makes sense to have the rear-line squads who otherwise couldn't get in range to do anything effective (because melee is effective and shooting is much less so) just eat all the lead, until the other side miraculously runs out of defensive fire (why exactly?). Firaxis XCOM was also on my mind, but for a different reason: at higher difficulties, the game removes the limit on the number of aliens that can be engaged with XCOM, and it also won't steer away any additional "pods" of enemies from being activated. Taken together, the player can be overwhelmed, and the goal is to eliminate aliens as quickly as possible: waiting and bunkering down risks additional enemies joining the fight; get too many, and they'll shoot often enough to beat the miss chance. This doesn't necessarily mean forcing the player to take bad shots, but rather that the player might need to execute a movement for a flanking shot, even in the face of a known Overwatch that you can't afford to remove before ordering the movement. this is combined with the sequel having timers on missions: even at easier difficulties, needing to blow up the transmitter in 6 turns or whatever means you cannot afford to be as methodical as you might want I think this tends to impose the same kind of pressure that we're coming across here, but it manages to convey it in a much more natural, intuitive manner
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 15:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 10:19 |
|
|
It’s weird to me that GTS seems to have a lot of the effect that you suggest are lacking from ASL, even though it’s working at a company scale.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 16:32
|
|
|
gradenko_2000 posted:intermission: I wonder how they portray the nazi feldgendarmerie.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 21:11
|
|
|
gradenko_2000 posted:
the xcom pod activation mechanism make the game feel so luck based even beyond the % chance of taking shots it's like when you are engaging one pod it feels like you can't even flank them or something because that -might- trigger another Pod which makes it gg for your game: in a game which is supposed to be entirely about tactical positioning. It's like it doesn't even matter how well you position the battle outcome is entirely contigent on whether one of your guys accidentally stumbles upon an alien Pod's LoS. the best class in the game was the scout one which can go invisible and not be detected: because you can scout out where all the enemy pods are beforehand to make sure you never activate one you don't want to Typo has issued a correction as of 21:32 on Feb 19, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 21:29
|
|
|
I was going to say, xcom 2 pretty much fixed that problem by giving you stealth Xcom 1 was definitely a bunch of bullshit that way though
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 21:53
|
|
|
the only xcom 1 I know is UFO enemy unknown
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 21:53
|
|
|
What if XCOM, but against Nazis and via baguette country? https://store.steampowered.com/app/2085370/Classified_France_44/
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 23:30
|
|
|
Skaffen-Amtiskaw posted:What if XCOM, but against Nazis and via baguette country? This looks cool but lol https://www.pcgamer.com/wage-psychological-warfare-behind-enemy-lines-in-this-xcom-like-world-war-2-turn-based-strategy-game/ quote:I do think, however, that tonally a little something may be getting lost along the way. The game is a very serious take on a very serious conflict—not dour or miserable, but certainly very aware of the realities of war. It seems jarring, then, that for example your soldiers cannot die—if taken out during a mission, they simply retreat from the battle. Not every game needs XCOM-like permadeath, but it's hard not to feel like it would've better served the themes here, with new operatives recruited perhaps from the Resistance to replace fallen heroes. This is from a year ago so maybe it changed, but a ww2 game without any death is really something. I will probably still play this though as something I've learned about myself is my reptile brain is activated by turn based squad games where you control individual soldiers and level them up and will shovel any gaming slop that fits this description down my gullet
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 03:14
|
|
|
bedpan posted:the only xcom 1 I know is UFO enemy unknown quoted for truth. i played it only a few years before they released the newer version, and people's complaints have just made me want to stay with the og. i don't mind the graphics, and i'd swear you'd learn better small squad tactics than a host of other games. Even just stacking outside the door of a UFO or dispersal at a hot LZ, the fact you could use smoke grenades to make a slaughter into a fair fight. Plus it primes you to take casualties, because although it's valuable to keep your soldiers alive, sometimes the mission is a higher priority. but there's not lots of games where you can go, "this mission is fubar", grab whatever tech and wounded people you can and run back to the skyranger to dust off, still a failure but salvaging a bad situation. plus it teaches the lesson that FF has mentioned a couple times, that you can use explosives or steel to save lives, where at the end game you break out the blaster launchers and nuke the whole map (or at least anywhere that shots are coming from) instead of risking your soldiers.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 04:48
|
|
|
since "Masters of the Air" is out, this game is topical again quote:Mission 1 quote:Mission 2
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 07:31
|
|
|
lol 20% accuracy on a bombing run with no active opposition
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 07:39
|
|
|
The real way to play OG X-Com is to be the planet's leading arms trader, and instead of clearing alien bases, just set up shop right next to them and repeatedly loot them, while having multiple laser weaponry manufacturing facilities on the side.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 09:27
|
|
|
ModernMajorGeneral posted:This looks cool but lol Gonna have it on my to watch list then when it comes out. I only stumbled across it as I was redownloading Worms: Armageddon and the Team 17 page had a pre-order up. Permadeath exists in Worms. Brutal warfare. As for B-17 action, I used to have the original Microprose game on the Amiga 500 and got the PC remake that came out in the late ‘90s too. I did see they remastered the latter because of Masters Of The Air, though apparently it hasn’t addressed some old bugs and has introduced new ones. Will check back in on that, else it was a day one purchase (literally got an e-Mail on it after finishing episode one).
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 10:16
|
|
|
one of the cool idiosyncrasies of OG X-Com is that your troops don't need line-of-sight to a target to start shooting at it, so you can send out a scout (preferably your highest Reaction soldier), and then they'll pause as soon as they spot an alien, and then everyone that's hanging back can fire from a distance with no fear of return fire. it might take a lot of shots because the great distance will mean even being slightly off will be magnified sevenfold over the trajectory of the shot, but with enough auto shots from rifles, you can beat the odds. this is eventually what became Squad Sight in nu-XCOM
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 10:20
|
|
|
Priming a proximity mine on every scouting rookie was funny. Counterproductive for the most part, but funny.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 10:24
|
|
|
my dad posted:Priming a proximity mine on every scouting rookie was funny. Counterproductive for the most part, but funny. if you're falling behind the technology curve rookies with hi-x are the great equalizer
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 10:43
|
|
|
gradenko_2000 posted:one of the cool idiosyncrasies of OG X-Com is that your troops don't need line-of-sight to a target to start shooting at it, so you can send out a scout (preferably your highest Reaction soldier), and then they'll pause as soon as they spot an alien, and then everyone that's hanging back can fire from a distance with no fear of return fire. it might take a lot of shots because the great distance will mean even being slightly off will be magnified sevenfold over the trajectory of the shot, but with enough auto shots from rifles, you can beat the odds. this but with the high explosive ammo made for a very funny map by the end of the combat
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 14:31
|
|
|
my dad posted:The real way to play OG X-Com is to be the planet's leading arms trader, and instead of clearing alien bases, just set up shop right next to them and repeatedly loot them, while having multiple laser weaponry manufacturing facilities on the side. Or you can farm Floater or Snakeman supply ships heading to known alien bases. On the other hand it can get boring after so many missions that are basically the same.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:39
|
|
|
i think the best thing about it, compared to most other strategy games, is it actually felt like the aliens were trying to win. they actually could get human governments on their side, you could get defunded. you actually had to avoid missions that were too difficult if you weren't ready for them, but you'd suffer the consequences for missing it. plus the time-based action made it possible to do all sort of badass stuff. Like a guy priming a grenade, throwing it to a closer teammate, and that guy throwing it at a target, or even throwing a magazine to a soldier in an exposed position. i'd honestly say if you can put up with the graphics, it's still a great game to play and, reiterating what i said earlier, probably better for teaching small scale tactics than a ton of other stuff. if I was running a military, everyone sergeant and up would have their cydonia patches.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:00
|
|
|
grenades are like cheats in xcom 1-2 they do decent damage but more importantly they reduce variance, like if you throw a grenade it hits 100% of the time so it's easy to plan around that instead of wondering wtf are you gonna do if 2 of ur 85% shots miss
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:16
|
|
|
Ardent Communist posted:i'd honestly say if you can put up with the graphics, it's still a great game to play and, reiterating what i said earlier, probably better for teaching small scale tactics than a ton of other stuff. Typo posted:grenades are like cheats in xcom 1-2 this is a big part of it! the "maneuver" part of "fire-and-maneuver" is supposed to get you close enough to the enemy that you can chuck grenades at them, because bullets might miss, but grenades [usually] do not
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:28
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure you can have throws miss, or at least not go exactly where they are supposed to...but then, they do have a pretty decent radius so that doesn't tend to matter. as my dad always said, "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades".
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:44
|
|
|
Ardent Communist posted:I'm pretty sure you can have throws miss, or at least not go exactly where they are supposed to...but then, they do have a pretty decent radius so that doesn't tend to matter. as my dad always said, "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades". I think the long war mod added variance to grenades to account for stuff like this
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 19:25
|
|
|
atelier morgan posted:if you're falling behind the technology curve rookies with hi-x are the great equalizer And there is absolutely no such thing as overkill when it comes to fighting Chrysalids.  As much as I love to joke about rookies being expendable, the price of explosive ordnance I'd lob at an enemy to save them is approximatly "yes". Even in an utterly ruthless calculus that doesn't put much value on them, they remain a piece on the board, and a piece, any piece, is always more useful than no piece. e: In Open X-Com, the mission on which I start pre-emptively exploding walls in uninhabited areas to avoid bad lines of fire is the first one. Breaching ufos as bad enough as is, no need to waste blood on barns.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 19:33
|
|
|
Typo posted:I think the long war mod added variance to grenades to account for stuff like this Only for wrist rockets used by the technical class. Hand grenades and Grenadier launchers are still 100% accurate I grew up on Xcom TFTD and my dreams are forever haunted by lobster men
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 19:52
|
|
|
my dad posted:And there is absolutely no such thing as overkill when it comes to fighting Chrysalids.  xcom is almost unique in that explosive, incendiary and smoke are all useful and also that ordnance is king; if you try playing it along the ideas of the cult of the operator you'll get nowhere, explosions to guarantee kills and shape the battlefield are mandatory to prevail and storming ufos will teach you that when it comes to small arms in tight quarters your finest die just like the rest when they get unlucky ordnance is so good that even an absolute idiot can beat openxcom provided a willingness to use absolutely excess amounts of explosives and the determination to keep going through failure: the yogscast guys beat ufo, tftd, final mod pack and x-com files after all every time i play an openxcom mod that has mortars getting mortars is like getting handed thunderbolts by zeus atelier morgan has issued a correction as of 20:09 on Feb 20, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 20:05
|
|
|
StashAugustine posted:I think Torch is the tutorial level in Unity of Command lmao Maybe in two, in one it's capturing Crimea.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 20:53
|
|
|
StashAugustine posted:I think Torch is the tutorial level in Unity of Command lmao in UOC2 the opening level is kasserine pass.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 21:08
|
|
|
vuk83 posted:in UOC2 the opening level is kasserine pass. fitting that was basically the tutorial boss for the US army irl
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 23:03
|
|
|
atelier morgan posted:
the moment in X-Com Files where you unlock the explosives license and can start purchasing and using indirect-fire grenade launchers is one of the most satisfying power spikes I have ever experienced in a game, it isn't just a massive increase in your killing power, they also open up so many new tactical options. up to that point you've mostly been reacting to the enemy and struggling to survive every encounter, indirect fire support lets you finally seize the initiative and start dictating how battles will go. everyone should play X-Com Files if they like classic X-Com at all btw. the premise is that you're playing X-Com before it became X-Com, starting as an irrelevant joke of an organization with no mandate or legitimacy, investigating cryptid sightings and UFO abduction stories and trying to prove to the UN that there is actually something happening, and very gradually building into the alien-fighting organization we know and love.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2024 05:38
|
|
|
I remember grenade launchers in openxcom being very awkward to use bc if the arc’s height exceeded the number of z levels on the map it wouldn’t be able to fire, did they find a way around that? i don’t think it was a major issue in the original since the only grenades were thrown by hand and didn’t have enough range that it’d become an issue but actual launchers ran into it pretty often
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2024 06:43
|
|
|
If someone could please do the needful and do an openxcom full conversion to Phoenix Command
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2024 06:59
|
|
|
the large units sizes in divide and conquer makes the deployment issues medieval 2 has in siege defences much worse
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2024 03:30
|
|
|
Megamissen posted:the large units sizes in divide and conquer makes the deployment issues medieval 2 has in siege defences much worse hold on until the next version releases with the engine overhaul. It has like 300 soldier units for trashy goblins and other similar chaff.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2024 03:38
|
|
|
Tankbuster posted:hold on until the next version releases with the engine overhaul. It has like 300 soldier units for trashy goblins and other similar chaff. playing d&c 4.5 (found out i had downloaded but not installed it in 2020 lol, AGO said it needed 4.6 so eeh) i like enedwaith, lots of cheap units and the economy (which is usually the biggest pain) is surprisingly good allied gondor, bree and the high elves so i only really have one direction to worry about
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2024 06:25
|
|
|
FrancisFukyomama posted:I remember grenade launchers in openxcom being very awkward to use bc if the arc’s height exceeded the number of z levels on the map it wouldn’t be able to fire, did they find a way around that? i don’t think it was a major issue in the original since the only grenades were thrown by hand and didn’t have enough range that it’d become an issue but actual launchers ran into it pretty often I’m not sure but xcom files might just default to giving maps huge numbers of z-levels - some of them involve attacking 20 floor skyscrapers
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2024 19:56
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f0MYTil1NM
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2024 21:10
|
|
|
Megamissen posted:playing d&c 4.5 (found out i had downloaded but not installed it in 2020 lol, AGO said it needed 4.6 so eeh) you can install AGO on the current version of 5.0 just fine. As an aside, I am now doing a dunedain campaign - between the fluff and its starting position it feels like running the closest thing to an insurgency that you can get in medieval 2 total war. Your Dunedain units are basically those epic guerillas in a chinese historical movie - low in number but highly skilled in combat - filled up with drafted people from eriador that will do the job of fixing enemies. Your opponents are gundabad, orcs of the misty mountains and Angmar. Unlike most mainstream factions you can recruit your guerilla fighting numenoreans in the heartland from the tiniest of villages - your goals are either to press north and take back the old capital of Arnor, keep the elves in imladris and the dwarves in Moria to anchor your flank, all the while taking and holding territory to the north. Eventually you are going to create a buffer state with the elder races keeping you stable, transition from a guerilla fight to a standing and governing state with aragorn as king and then march southwards to keep up the good fight against evil. Its really cool and a completely different playstyle than something like Dale where you are using the river Celduin to project power into Rhun.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2024 02:13
|
|
|
Slitherine just dropped, of all things, a licensed Terminator game, and it's an RTS, and it's...good? I am shocked to report that the Terminator video game that released with zero fanfare or marketing is good. It plays very, very much like Company of Heroes, it was an obvious inspiration, but there's enough interesting mechanics and design decisions for it to have its own identity, it doesn't feel like a cheap cash-in. Scarcity is a running theme - the idea is you're playing a guerrilla force with no industrial base, so you're constantly short of everything and having to make decisions about how to spend your limited resources. In service of this, they decided to make everything finite - all ammunition for every weapon is limited (and certain particularly valuable munitions like ATGMs are very limited), spare parts for vehicle repairs are limited, fuel is limited (and many of the best vehicles in the game are fuel-inefficient and burn through it very very quickly, such as the M1 Abrams, which guzzles so much of your precious gas that it's a genuine pain to deploy), personnel are limited (and qualified personnel even more so - losing a unit that knows how to fly an airplane or drive a tank or operate a recoilless rifle can be a massive blow even if you technically have enough people to replace them), and food is limited, with just keeping your men fed becoming a serious problem as your force gets larger. Because of this, battlefield salvage is an important part of the game, and at times it feels almost like the original Homeworld, trying to capture as much poo poo intact as possible to add it to your ragtag army. Abandoned or crippled vehicles can be recovered if you have a crew that knows how to drive them and the spare parts to fix them, fuel and ammunition can be recovered from the battlefield, dropped weapons can be retrieved, the stuff you don't want can be traded to friendly settlements for 'Goodwill' (the game's currency) that can then be used to purchase things you do. Also much like Homeworld, the game is perfectly happy to let you remain on many maps after the objectives have been completed, allowing you to pick over the ruins and methodically hoover up anything interesting that got left behind. Maps are huge and open-ended and have a shitload of optional objectives, hidden objectives, mutually exclusive choices, and alternate routes, and bizarrely there are even occasionally RPG-style conversations with friendly NPCs, with dialogue trees and poo poo, that can occasionally lead to side missions which give you an additional optional objective in exchange for some reward (e.g. a guy will give you enough infantry weapons to arm a squad of volunteers if you can find a working automobile for him). The vehicle combat is also surprisingly detailed for a game about fighting robots, with every vehicle having multiple modeled subsystems that can all be damaged or disabled separately to different effects, individually-modeled armor facings, and (for manned vehicles) individually-modeled crewmembers who can be disabled/killed with different effects (if the driver gets shot out of your technical it's going to stop moving, for example). Vehicles can be heavily customized with things like extra armor, upgraded engines, more or different weapons, and many of them can also have trailers hitched to them, to carry additional supplies or people, or extra firepower like towed artillery. This is probably as close to a Mad Max strategy game as we're ever going to get, and it is pretty fun building up a ragtag assortment of junky technicals, 18-wheelers, and old military hardware, manned by militia volunteers and pressganged wasteland bandits, and trying to keep them alive against an enemy that is (at least on Hard difficulty, the one I am playing on) both qualitatively and quantitatively superior.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2024 19:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 10:19 |
|
|
I've heard really good things about it across the board, surprisingly.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2024 21:42
|
|