The aliens seem much more active on terror missions, probably because of all the civilian targets. So sometimes they run out chasing civilian targets and "activate" themselves.
Got another question. Is anyone else finding that in Terror missions that all of the aliens tend to congregate around your landing site? I did a mission last night that was supposed to be 'difficult'. Only all of the aliens were in the quarter quadrant that my soldiers landed in and came out of the woodwork almost all at once.
I remember that in the original (particular TFTD) that you had to scour the entire board sometimes to find all of the hiding aliens. Now they just seem to appear as soon as you land and come rushing at you.
Might have something to do with me only playing on Normal. Been thinking about kicking it up to Classic but not sure if that would help things out at all.
So far I find the biggest change in 'feel' is related to sight distance and night vision. In the original X-COMs the aliens could see in the dark and could see a few squares more than your soldiers. Often that meant night attacks were suicidal and you would dance your interceptors around to keep a terror site active until daybreak. Now, whether it's night or day everyone can see the same distance. Gone is the 'shot from nowhere' that kills one of your troops.
Balancing that, however, is the loss of 'squad sight' for all your troops. In the original X-COM, if an alien was spotted anyone could shoot at it with line of sight. And also aliens would remain spotted through the end of the turn. That meant you could have one guy go in, spot the aliens, and run away. Then you could fire with complete impunity with your second line. This was the only way to win in the beginning without armor. You'd use your tanks to spot and your soldiers to get kills. Personally, I thought it was kind of cheap, but totally necessary.
I do like the engine a lot though. And think that it could be retasked to fit a bunch of other games. At the very least I hope it inspires people to make more turn based tactical combat type games. Because I love them.
I do like the engine a lot though. And think that it could be retasked to fit a bunch of other games. At the very least I hope it inspires people to make more turn based tactical combat type games. Because I love them.
Off topic:
If they hadn't just made Syndicate into another crappy FPS remake I'd say that would be at the top of the list. Same with another turn based fallout (although that one made a pretty ok shooter)
You either lit flairs or had night vision goggles. Or you set off an incendiary round.
No night vision goggles, but you can see via street lamps, fires, flares, and other misc light sources. Fighting UFOs in farmland was a pain at nightIt has been a while since I played. But I want to say that you got something on that order at some point. I remember playing some night missions and thinking that I wish more of my soldiers had night vision. But that it did exist. I'd have to go back and play, but I am pretty sure it was in at least one of the games.
If I am wrong, then I am wrong. But I don't think so.
No night vision goggles, but you can see via street lamps, fires, flares, and other misc light sources. Fighting UFOs in farmland was a pain at night
I find the size of the maps (much smaller) different. In the original, you had to hunt across sometimes really big boards. And up 4-5 levels just to find the buggers. That is a significant difference.
Squad size is different as well. Bigger maps made it necessary to have larger groups. But that was fine because you could form squads that were balanced and covered each other's backs.
X-COM's maps were definitely larger than XCOM's but they weren't actually that huge either. The slog was controlling 14 soldiers and 3 tanks.
Perhaps you played TFTD and you're remember that instead? They made that game absolutely enormous in scale and it was quite a bit worse for it.
I played all three, though admittedly quite a while ago. I played Apocalypse most recently and definitely remember pretty large maps. Maybe only one City block, but even that was 5-10X as large as the maps in Xcom:EU. And usually involved 5 levels where the current engine has a problem with 2-3.
And yeah, TFTD was known for mid size to large maps with loads and loads of little obstructions where aliens could hide behind. You had to spend a really long time searching out the one remaining alien hiding among the rocks.
lol, thisThe slog was controlling 14 soldiers and 3 tanks (plus you spent a quarter of missions carefully getting off the Skyranger).
The end was good though and I lost 4 of my 6 men finishing off the last room.
The last room was way too easy for me on my classic playthrough. Opened the door, and had my two snipers setup to double tap already. Made short work of it, and made the ending feel a lot less dramatic than it should have been.
Just now getting into a classic ironman playthrough. So many rookies die; if only the fuckers could shoot worth shit. And then when they do hit...only do 2 damage instead of 3.
If you're careful, you can insert your team into the final room without setting the boss off. When I did it in Normal Ironman, I maneuvered to the perfect position, then killed off every single ethereal and mutons without them ever getting a turn.They could totally fix that last room if they simply made the boss spawn after all your guys are inside (and then lock the door).