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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4129 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 9, 2022

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Just finished XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. It fixed the gameplay issues I had with vanilla XCOM 2 + minor DLC, the voice actor selection was a fun surprise, and the additional story and gameplay elements were fantastic; my only complaint is that they should have tried to actually integrate the Alien Hunters DLC rather than just tossing its boss baddies into regular missions. My playthrough was longer than it should have been, but that was probably my fault for being too paranoid of the possibility of speedrunning myself into a corner. (In the first XCOM remake I made it to the final battle and then just couldn't beat it). It was also very clever of them to make the canon XCOM 1 ending "the player loses", not just because this made me feel better about being a loser, but because it gave them a good diagetic excuse for not going too wild with the story and gameplay changes.

(edit: strikethrough added for accuracy)

I'm playing XCOM Long War, except with the Rebalance mod. So far I've really enjoyed its changes.

This was a great game. It's a shame nothing in the genre has really matched XCOM imo.

I keep wondering when someone will make a new Jagged Alliance style game.

You have played and finished Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 "Wildfire"* right ? That's a .. solid improvement on the original JA 2. Much tougher, tons more guns, much better maps. (strategic layer is almost the same, but all the maps were made more interesting. some new mechanics).

*it's a combination of 1.13 with the 'Wildfire' mod maps. It was a bit of a pain to install back in the day, but it's probably still possible to get all the mods needed.

IMO, you'll have to make it yourself, I think. All the JA remakes were not good by shit tier studios.

Almost bought some of the 3d Russian ones, but upon closer review the magic was probably gone.

I've an idea for what I think would be a worthy successor. Have much of the game outline, mechanics / skeleton of a story for in my head.

It'd be use the assets of the isometric RPG game Underrail:Infusion. That's sequel to Underrail, which is an excellent isometric indie RPG. A fix for the cravings us old guys have for 1990s style games.

Not exactly Fallout - more combat oriented, of course it being indie, the graphics are unimpressive, but the game is just good.

So the idea is try to talk the dev into either letting someone make, or perhaps eventually making a tactical game like Jagged Alliance with assets that they're making for an isometric RPG set in the same 'universe'.

I feel like the two games wouldn't have be that much in competition with one another.

It's a very long shot, but I feel like writing up a proposal and lobbying it at him and seeing what he says is worth it.

There'd not be that much actual programming involved, as most of the logic would be the same in both games, so shouldn't be too difficult to develop. Merely make a shitton of maps, some interface changes, write all the dialogue and scripts. Just. Heh.

If I were remaking a game it'd be Star Legions, a sort of proto RTS where you play the explicit bad guy (a rip off of Klingons dialed up to 11). You're the invasion commander overseeing a series of Invasions of peaceful planets for glory and wealth.

I mean, if you're invading peaceful planets you are a bad guy. Doesn't have to be explicit or painted green.

There's really no point to planetary invasions whatsoever. Pure sadism, really.

It was also very clever of them to make the canon XCOM 1 ending "the player loses"

I actually really hated this and it's one of the reasons I prefer the first game. When I finished the first game I was really interested to see where they would take the story. But then they threw out the intriguing foundation they laid! It was very disappointing to me.

If you like the first game, have you tried the Long War? I've heard great things, and I like the fatigue system + longer campaign, but never gotten around to setting it up.

I've never done Long War but have also heard great things. I actually never finished an Enemy Within campaign either! I'm a real slacker, lol.

Hah it's ok. Enemy Within was pretty lackluster imo.

That's quite fair. But did you have to say it out loud? Now I'm going to have to edit my comment accordingly...

They did foreshadow a "terror from the deep 2" sequel pretty hard with the ending cut scene, didn't they? But maybe they realized an asset swap cash-in like the first TFTD wasn't an option, and had to get creative.

Nah I agree with @SubstantialFrivolity. The plot of the first was fascinating - the humans are able to fight the aliens without getting immediately wiped out because the Ethereals (aliens) have noticed a dire threat, and are seeking to Uplift a race genetically, mechanically, and psionically, because their own genetic potential has failed to meet the threat. They think humanity is the last chance to defeat this unknown threat, so they've been training us by fighting us and allowing us to slowly receive their technology.

Then for the plot of XCOM 2, the aliens won and took over Earth, so they basically rehash the same plot again. You are a human commander fighting the aliens. And when the story ends, what do you know! The aliens say the exact same thing, "you shouldn't destroy us we are preparing you for a greater threat!."

It's just lazy writing in my opinion. They failed to execute on the great base they set up. (Not sure why I felt the need to spoiler tag, but they're great games if you haven't played them.)

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