Let's Give Up On The Idea Of Doing A Let's Play - XENONAUTS

[Parrhesia]

I've played XCOM. I've played X-COM. Now the time has come to test new frontiers. To blindly go where no man has gone before.

If you want to sign up as one of the bold many to save mankind, please leave your name and a short personal description below.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Parrhesia

[IGdood]

What parts of the characters are customizable aside from maybe name?

[Rehab]

I wish to blindly go as well

Archie Midi, pasty beanpole medic-alike of any suitably Central-to-Eastern European country, reporting for duty

[Integrity]

maybe name?

yep! every dude gets a nationality and a prior service record (modestly neat, despite all my gripes with xenonauts) but you can't change those

you could request a region (i don't remember what nations the game supports vanilla) and get the first dude to come from there i guess

[IGdood]

yep! every dude gets a nationality and a prior service record (modestly neat, despite all my gripes with xenonauts) but you can't change those

you could request a region (i don't remember what nations the game supports vanilla) and get the first dude to come from there i guess

Ah, I see

Just want one guy to be named IGdood then. Everything else can be up to the player's discretion.

[riariadne]

Name "Lightning" because throwback to Integrity's XCOM stuff, from AMERICA.

[Magical CC]

yep! every dude gets a nationality and a prior service record (modestly neat, despite all my gripes with xenonauts) but you can't change those

you could request a region (i don't remember what nations the game supports vanilla) and get the first dude to come from there i guess

Uhm...what is the point of nationality other than the look? Do they get special training record from their nation? Or relationship between dudes with hostile nations are bad?

I read the review (the only one) from gamefaqs. Can you tell me how many percentage of that review is the truth?

[Integrity]

Uhm...what is the point of nationality other than the look? Do they get special training record from their nation? Or relationship between dudes with hostile nations are bad?

I read the review (the only one) from gamefaqs. Can you tell me how many percentage of that review is the truth?

nationality Only affects their default name and the flag that they wear (potentially community edition patch only). service record is entirely cosmetic but is also affected by nation - american, ex-marine, saw combat in korea, etc.

i'm pooping/showering atm but i'll check the gamespot review when i'm done and get back to you.

EDIT: eh, it did a pretty good job. the problem is that xenonauts copies (can barely call it a homage, lbr) x-com in a lot of ways that it really shouldn't have. the nicest thing i can say about the interface is that it's better than the interface for a ms-dos game from 1994. the reactions system is as much of a piece of shit as it was in x-com. time units was lifted wholesale from x-com except minus the super cool paper dolls (you remember how you could stick shit to shoulders and legs? dope.)

the strategic management game is IMMENSELY IMPROVED in one way: 'local militaries supply' blah blah blah you have an unlimited supply of ballistic weapons, ammo, basic grenades, detpacks, and medkits. once you research bigger stuff, you have to build it, but as far as equipment goes you have and always will have unlimited ballistic stuff. none of x-com's classic ordering 50 magazines of HE AC ammo. that said, being realistic past and not speculative future, you don't have the HC and AC and that makes me really sad :( the lmg does a pretty solid job of covering that patch by firing ten round bursts though.

the tactical ground combat is pretty good. it's x-com original except it runs more smoothly, there's no reason to differentiate. the single thing i can think to differentiate it from x-com ufo d is that you have a sweet quick grenade button and suppression is a thing (and pretty well implemented tbf). my only major gripe about tactical combat is that sometimes a shot will "miss" ballistically right into an alien and the bullet will literally impact him with a "Miss!" and that really fucking sucks considering how x-com worked ('misses' with trajectories through aliens still hit them) and how xcom worked ('miss' and 'hit' were binary and there were no ballistics). ballistics with a 'miss' that paths into an aliens missing is just taking the worst of both systems. that said, i'm not convinced that that's not a bug.

though that said line of sight doesn't account for peeking around cover which is sort of really stupid for a cover-based shooter in tyool 2014.

the tactical air combat game is Gash and the best thing i can say about it is that you can reliably autoresolve early on. problem is, i dunno how long you're able to do that - i've never made it past lasers for one big reason:

jesus christ bugs. i've had two games stolen from under me because my entire chinook full of soldiers (note: this is every soldier you start with except two) bugged out and decided it existed but only sort of and game progress halted. the only fix the latter time would have been to go back and redo two long battles and i don't know if that would have done it tbh.

EDIT2: oh ya and windowed mode is ridiculously stupid and literally doesn't work unless you select a resolution that is sufficiently smaller than your native.

so i guess the bottom line is it IS x-com: ufo defense 2, in both good and bad ways. i think the firaxis redo is overall better, but it's a different kind of game. xenonauts has none of the flash and slam of xcom and i think it suffers for that. there isn't any visceral feedback on basically anything you do ever in the game. your little sprite mans are arguably less interactive and personable than even the eight bits of x-com: ufo d.

i'd recommend xenonauts to somebody who wants to relive x-com but can't (/cannot stand the dos-ness of it all) or to somebody who never played the original x-com. opentftd is going to be incredibly sick though and will probably kill off any lasting interest i have in the game.

in proper closing

i think this is a perfect summation of my feelings on the game.

EDIT3: it's still better than xcom: long war though.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Integrity

[Parrhesia]

tbf the problem with a blind run is I got to rediscover all over again the fact that original xcom is kind of a trainwreck to me. this may never be completed lol

(technically it's been started)

(i'm using the nonexistant signups as an excuse. what do you mean there would've been more had i put actual effort into the op)