X-Com Features Wish List

[davidf]

Updates 1/17/2011
Also Ill be doing polls for the larger groupings so I can meaningfully order the suggestions based on forum feedback Ill start the polls next week.

I'll try to keep a tally of other player’s suggestions and update this master post as we go. I can already see this post is going to go long

Sanity Check, i know they are not going to have time to do everything we suggest, but I hope they get a chance to do 1 or 2 fan suggested inputs. Radically changing play is a bad idea, but throwing the hardcore fans a bone that doesnt take too much resources and adds to the feel of play...would be appreciated! Lots of great suggestions but concerned that some of these requests go more into fundemental game design than feature requests. I'll include them but I'm doing some semi sorting of the inputs to the ones that fit within my understanding of the above defintion more towards the top, as they are more likely to be considered than design choices that could potentially require Firaxis to completly retool the game.

Base Building
• Allow Multiple base construction and customization.
• Infirmary will speed up healing process for injured troopers significantly
Combat
• Have a chance that civilians are armed, or military, local police forces show. Having locals trading fire with the aliens will at first seems like a boon to the player, but later having your squads get in a cross fire will turn armed civilians and authorities into a mixed blessing and some great X -Com style thematic moments!
• Save weapon loadouts of squads, with allowing players to create multiple templates for their troopers
• Custom location loadout of soldiers when loading skyranger/transport
• Lightning more useful, possibly by giving it doors on all sides
• Have both Turn Based and Real Time options available for the tactical combat.
• Missions have more (optional) objectives that simply kill or move to location, such as rescue/protect&recruit expert staff missions.
• Make lighter smaller weapons have advantages over larger counterparts, like better chance to hit at shorter distancs and higher ranking for opportunity fire.
• Increase the utility of armor: In X-Com your power armor will likely protect you from a plasma pistol shot, maybe even a rifle, but by that point in time the aliens are all using heavy plasmas anyhow and they cut through power armor like butter.
• Weather and other things that effect LOS and the fog of war and add to the tactical depth of the encounter. Elements would could have an impact on LOS, vision depth, how guns behave
• Allow players to deploy larger teams into the field, depending on the tech, 24+
• During a mission, there might be a low chance that the local mayor, govenor, scientist, etc is in the area, and it is up to the player to decide if he wants to keep mopping up at their own pace, or high-tail it to the npc
• Terror mission has multiple outcomes, escort survivors out of the city, defeat the aliens, and saving civies if able. With different effects depending on outcome.
• Realistic weapons
• Weapon mods
• Different posture & shoot from cover options like prone, crouch, lean from cover.
• Ballistic shields for soldiers
• Day/night cycle added to the ground battles. So that if the land at 6pm and its night time. Depending on how long the battle lasts the day could become slowly brighter as the sun comes up and day becomes night.
• Replay of combat event in realtime


Design
• Speaking of who is making the game. I would love to create a civ like palace for key accomplishments. How about a museum, that has a few upgrades that can be purchased and the rest that are earned by game progress merits. Maybe these upgrades could even give you a small bump to your monthly budget, due to additional visitors to your museum?
• Another Civ nod. I would love a vanity ending, where you get points based on set accomplishment, keeping countries happy, ect and an associated ranking based on those earned points
• Any new threats and challenge keep to theme of the original and includes new threats and challenges that matches pop culture of alien lore so we go..’oh right i know what’s that’s from!’. Like a mobile weapons platform that a sectiod drives that is like a mortar gun (Battlefield Earth) or a crysaliod upgrade that actually masks itself for a time as a friendly and wreaks havoc back at base (The Thing).
• If you are going to have a farm mission map, have some cows for darned sake. I mean really!!
• Highly moddable design to allow player to tweak for the hard core fans
• Keep the meaningful parts of X-Com- Destructible terrain. Multiple levels, meaningful micromanagement in the geoscape and battle, damage types (incendiary, armour piercing, laser, plasma, melee, stun, explosive, etc), Please keep British spellings, i.e. Personal Armour, Unit Skill System
• Keep the system requirements down
• Blood. We'd all prefer a mature game.
• Intelligent counter strategies to player success, like timed self destruct to alien craft after first few are taken, and base assault if very effective in defeating alien goals.
• A Proper PC UI and not some console ported rubbish
• Ideas from other X-com game (and homages) Cyborg parts for soldiers, ability to recruit sympathetic Aliens to your cause, Powered Armor suits with heavy setup weapons.
• A HUGE variety of enemies and weapons
• The ability to select and move a group of troops, instead of moving them one at a time - which is incredibly annoying if you want more than one to go to the same place.
• Allow the player to select and move another trooper while the previous trooper to completing his movement task, to allow players to the option to speed up the flow of turns.
• Fog of war

Game Settings
• Iconic X-com favorites: - Chryssalids, Blaster launchers, sectoids, power armor, (more to come I'm sure)
• Bring back the Men In Black, which were supposed to appear on the original game. Have parallel secret organizations with their own agenda and that can fight/collaborate with XCOM. Set a multiplayer version based this.
• Underwater missions built in (i.e. Terror of the Deep)s. possibly as DLC.
• Actual alien looking aliens as enemies; hideous, slimy, tentacled, clawed, fanged abominations instead of cartoon figures.
•

Geoscape
• Make air combat more tactical. (editor’s amendment I love anything that allows for more depth and complexity to play, if players want to micromanage, but also allow for these added improvements to be easily auto managed if that level of complexity isn’t desired)
• Have the countries do something else other than give you money or join the alien side. Geoscape should have a political element into it that would reflect also in combat, like losing an immediate alien assault on any XCOM bases located on a country that defected to the aliens. Or you could also have assassination missions like killing a country leadership before it signed a pact with the aliens. Or performing your own abductions for interrogations
• A City Destroyer type and when it arrives over a city, you have a countdown and unless you can get some fighters over there and damage it a certain amount, then the city is toast.
• Integrate diplomacy into the recruitment process too. Say for example you make the US happy with you one month. In addition to increased funding, you might see a Navy Seal or Green Beret appear in your recruitment pool. (editors comment meaningful micromanagement, such as suggested by OP)
• Data lots of data is good.. chance to hit, DPS stats on weapons with skills applied, all this good stats like we love
• Some type of information warfare component, as the aliens attempt to steal sensitive data from military networks and spread propaganda on the internet via human agents
• Deployment craft for smaller teams is faster to deploy, while larger team deployments are much slower
• More balanced resource management system
• Biomass, like in UFO: Aftermath
•

Manufacturing
• Scienced based tech

Research
• Expand the types of alien tech (editor's addition, in a meaningful way)- (paraphrasing poster) allow for more rock paper scissor implantation of new techs, rather than having everyone just run around with Blaster launchers and heavy plasma weapons by the end of the game.
• Night vision as a researchable and expensive upgrade from the electroflares. Possibly also shotguns and perhaps grenade launchers, though their role is largely taken by the heavy cannon.
• Less linear research to improve replayability
• Specialized scientists that give extra bonuses to specific types of research

Replayability
• A list here


Soldiers
• Medals for the squaddies. You can do this automatic style, like in apocalypse where a squaddie earns it for completing a certain criteria. Have me (the commander) award a portion of the eligible candidates every month with medals. Have the medals give the squaddie a boost to their calm values and a chance to boost psi resistance (maybe with the first medal a bump and each subsequent a reduced chance of a bump).
• Player assigned promotions to squad member based on eligible pool.
• Cloning: Research, adapt and use the alien cloning technology to clone lost soldiers that were battle-hardened veterans by using their dead corpses.
• A evolving perk system where the latter ones are better, more impactful
• Have specialist/named characters (soldiers/scientists) with specific bonusses or skills. These characters should not be editable at all.
• Have generic characters that are editable (names/looks)
• Detailed performance statistics for every individual soldier: Kills, favorite weapon, missions joined, etc.

Storyline

Other
• Merchandising: Badges, miniatures, nerf guns, patches, coffee mugs
• Rock Paper Shotgun wishlist
• Gamespy list

[Sifer2]

I would like to see Underwater missions built in. Similar to that mod that combined original X-Com an Terror of the Deep missions. If this is asking too much then maybe underwater missions as DLC.


I would also like to see some ideas from later X-Com's and the UFO series possibly. Like Cyborg parts for soldiers. Ability to recruit sympathetic Aliens to your cause. Powered Armor suits with heavy setup weapons.

I also thought the Biomass was a really interesting idea from Aftermath. Dunno how well it would fit but I would not mind seeing something like it. Maybe appearing on Harder difficulties only.

[Brian Damage]

davidf: Some interesting ideas; I think X-Com are a tad covert to have their own museum, though.

Sifer2: I'd like TFTD as a DLC (it's definitely more DLC than sequel material, unless they really add a lot to it - if they're even going to do a remake of it, that is), personally, rather than mixing them up. I would like seeing some defector Gill Men, though, considering they're supposed to be distantly related to humans. Maybe have a set of randomly-appearing side-missions you can complete (like the Kabron Pirates from Interceptor, but with more of a point), ending with you gaining the ability to hire and retain them for large sums of money (due to their needing specialised quarters). Possible advantages in battle include greater underwater vison range and fatser movement due to not needing a suit - perhaps even the ability to swim, built-in.

Personally, I'd be interested in seeing night vision as a researchable and expensive upgrade from the electroflares. Possibly also shotguns and perhaps grenade launchers, though their role is largely taken by the heavy cannon.

[EDIT]: Had another thought: if it's set now or in the near future, they could add some type of information warfare component, as the aliens attempt to steal sensitive data from military networks and spread propaganda on the internet via human agents (Cult of Sirius, anyone?). Could even tie into an expanded alien infiltration mechanic, including allowing you to win back a subverted country.

[Nosmirc]

I would like to see Underwater missions built in. Similar to that mod that combined original X-Com an Terror of the Deep missions. If this is asking too much then maybe underwater missions as DLC.


I would also like to see some ideas from later X-Com's and the UFO series possibly. Like Cyborg parts for soldiers. Ability to recruit sympathetic Aliens to your cause. Powered Armor suits with heavy setup weapons.

I also thought the Biomass was a really interesting idea from Aftermath. Dunno how well it would fit but I would not mind seeing something like it. Maybe appearing on Harder difficulties only.

Eh, the thing is Biomass was done, as you said, in Aftermath, and the other XCOM is doing something similar. Besides, I'd like to see a more technologically focused enemy, rather then organics.

Agree with the cyborg idea though. Cybernetics are trez cool yo. Especially if you incorporate it into injuries. And hulking power suits are a definate must.

I'm digging the suggestions for more in depth civilians and the such. Can't wait to see what juicy details GI has.

[Sifer2]

Eh, the thing is Biomass was done, as you said, in Aftermath, and the other XCOM is doing something similar. Besides, I'd like to see a more technologically focused enemy, rather then organics.

Yeah I would kind of like to see both though. Technology focused aliens who are smart an use good tactics. And Biomass mutants who are just more like beasts an rush you in large numbers. It worked in Starcraft, and Halo anyway :P

I also thought how you had to fight back the Biomass on the Geoscape map was cool. The concept could be further improved though with having the Biomass mutants evolve to counter weapons you use against them. So it keeps you researching new weapon types an ways to kill the Biomass spread until you can wipe it out entirely.

[Goonzie]

One wish, just one. Give us proper physics in combat, like Silent Storm had..

[Hobbes__]

In my opinion, in general stick to the original game, probably give it a reboot regarding the time era (from the 90s to the 10s) regarding weapons, tech, etc. But don't add plot elements from TFTD or Apoc or any other game just because their cool - you'd have to make huge changes to the plot and storyline to justify their appearance. And don't just copy ideas from other games, you can simply develop some elements of the original game instead to add new original things.
Some particular wishes:
* Have both Turn Based and Real Time options available for the tactical combat. Apocalypse's combat system is the best of the 3 precisely because it allows for both. TB may sound as archaic but it's an easier way to learn combat than jumping into RT right away.
* Keep all of the original races, but redesign some of them, like the Silacoids/Celatids and add some of the races on Enforcer for more variety.
* Bring back the Men In Black, which were supposed to appear on the original game. Have parallel secret organizations with their own agenda and that can fight/collaborate with XCOM. Set a multiplayer version based this.
* Have the countries do something else other than give you money or join the alien side. Geoscape should have a political element into it that would reflect also in combat, like losing an immediate alien assault on any XCOM bases located on a country that defected to the aliens. Or you could also have assassination missions like killing a country leadership before it signed a pact with the aliens. Or performing your own abductions for interrogations... lots and lots of ideas from the real world there
*

[davidf]

I would like to see Underwater missions built in. Similar to that mod that combined original X-Com an Terror of the Deep missions. If this is asking too much then maybe underwater missions as DLC.

Say what? Where is this mod?!?! Id LOVE to play that!

[davidf]

Some good ideas I really liked the ideas about information warfare, added depth to geoscape, and MIB suggestions in particular!

FYI i added in your folks suggestions, but apparently a mod has to approve them due to the age of my account :\

[Codex]

Done, sorry about that - I fixed it. In an effort to stop spam, some posts get caught in the moderation queue if the post account edits them and is newer. If you've got an issue with it in the future shoot me a pm and I'll pull the posts out of the queue.

[Cpl_Facehugger]

Say what? Where is this mod?!?! Id LOVE to play that!

Yeah. Definitely want a link to that.

That being said, I don't really want TFTD content in this game. To properly do it justice, you'd need it to be a totally different world rather than the normal battlescape with a blue filter. We're talking sequel or possibly huge DLC scale changes here. It would be neat as hell (particularly since UFOs in modern UFO lore are also known for tooting around underwater), but I don't want it to detract from the main gameplay.

Also, hulking power armor is a must.

But biotech is something I'd like to get away from. It feels like there's too many biotech aliens around in pop culture these days. Flood, Tyranids, Zerg, etc, Necromorphs (not really aliens but meh). We already had biotech users in Apoc, and it wasn't as interesting as aliens who actually use tech instead of fishguns and pig-rifles.

Cybernetics are fine so long as they look more interesting. I don't want to fight Strogg in my X-Com. Human Revolution or especially Muton-style cybernetics though? I'm down with that.

...Also, Chryssalids. There have to be Chryssalids in this game. They are the iconic enemy of the series.

[imperialus]

Just some random thoughts on various things mentioned.

I'd keep electroflares but add the possibility of night vision goggles as well. They extend your vision, but limit your field of view significantly.

Keep the micromanagement. Seriously. The managment aspect of X-Com has always been my favorite part. I want to be able to faff about with my soldiers, compare strength scores, pick the guy who's job it is to open doors based on his crappy bravery, pick snipers based on accuracy and equip my soldiers accordingly. I'd actually expand on it a bit the way that X-Com Apocalypse did. I like the fact that in Apoc you can see the stats of a pool of potential recruits and pick the best from them. Like Apoc you could integrate diplomacy into the recruitment process too. Say for example you make the US happy with you one month. In addition to increased funding, you might see a Navy Seal or Green Beret appear in your recruitment pool. I also prefered Apoc's research method where you would have at most, two dozen or so scientists and engineers of varying ability rather than the hundreds of clones you would sometimes accumulate in X-Com.

Expand the types of alien tech. By late game X-Com nearly every single squad looked the same unless you were deliberately hampering yourself with RP elements (giving scouts plasma pistols and snipers plasma rifles for example). Otherwise everyone had power or flying armor. You had a dude with a blaster launcher, a dude (or two) with a psi amp and everyone else had a heavy plasma, an extra clip and an alien grenade or two. This was mirrored by the alien loadouts where by month 4 or 5 (at the latest) they stopped using anything but heavy plasmas. If you expanded the different types of alien weapons available, and made more viable options throughout the game I think it would make the research portion a lot more engaging.

Increase the utility of armour. If I'm running around in a suit of power armour made out of alien alloys and powered by Elerium I should be able to survive a shot or two, even from some of the better weapons in the game. In X-Com your power armour will likely protect you from a plasma pistol shot, maybe even a rifle, but by that point in time the aliens are all using heavy plasmas anyhow and they cut through power armour like butter.

Make air combat more tactical.

I'm OK with the idea of including both TB and RT combat but I think it needs to be implemented with a lot of care. Make sure that you end up creating a well balanced experience for players who prefer either playstyle. For example poppers and brainsuckers in Apoc were absolute nightmares with turn based combat, but minor inconveniences during realtime. I'd be cautiously open to the idea of a simultaneous turn based battlescape too but only if it was well executed.

[Brian Damage]

Oh, one thing: I've seen more than a few players who simply don't bother with the pistol weapons, or even the plasma rifle - how about you make them more attractive by coding it so that the lighter the object(s) held in the hands, the faster inventory accessing is in terms of time units? It would make a pistol-and-grenade guy much more appealing.

Also, seconding the implementation of Apoc's hiring mechanisms or something similar. Half the guys you hire are just gonna be fired because of low Psi scores anyway, let's cut the monetary wastage down :P

[davidf]

Guys PM, me if I miss one of your requests.

I'm (re)looking at the list and I really want to reword mine and others into formal requirements. I worked at 12+ years as a engineer/project manager and I'm really tempted to rewrite/word these into actual functional/non functional requirements. lol

[Cpl_Facehugger]

Anyway, I disagree somewhat with making armor more resilient. One of the key things that generated tension in X-Com (in addition to the "hidden movement" screen and the music + sound effects) was how your guys were never safe, ever. Even if they were in thick power armor, a lucky sectoid could still punk them single handedly. This was one of the larger flaws of Apocalypse besides the art direction - your guys were bullet sponges in armor until the aliens started using high end guns... And then they turned right back into sponges once you got disruptor armor. The grace period when your guys were highly vulnerable to alien weapons was pretty short. Indeed, only brainsuckers and poppers were a major threat until then.

Armor could stand to be made a bit better compared to X-Com 1, but I don't want it to be guarantee that you'll be able to shrug off alien weapons no matter your armor. It'd also really emphasize the power of the aliens if even your ultra-thick power armor can basically only turn a killing blow into a wounding one.

I'm thinking something like the relationship between TFTD's magnetic ion armor and the sonic cannon might be a good middle point. There was an, IIRC, 60% chance that you could resist a sonic cannon blast to the frontal armor without major damage. Most aliens could fire twice if they didn't move that turn, which means there's still an acceptable chance that you can die. And if they catch you from below, or the sides, you could be taken out by even weaker guns.

[Ranger Six]

Amongst other things, I'd like to see some X-Com tie-in merchandise.

Not just standard stuff like mousepads, T-shirts, key rings and the like... but things like patches, coffee mugs, and possibly even customizable X-Com ID badges.

I don't know how feasible that last item is, but if it is, it'd probably work best if you did something similar to what the folks behind Flynn Lives did with their Encom International ID badges. (Yes, that is my Encom ID. And yes, I was such a big nerd that I wore it when I went to see Tron: Legacy - but I digress.)

I swear, if I could get my hands on an X-Com coffee mug and an X-Com ID badge, I would be a very happy man. (And I'd probably use them both as props in at least one interlude for the Let's Play of X-Com: Terror From The Deep that I'm working on.)

[Brian Damage]

Merchandise-wise, I'll go with Nosmirc's not-really-a-suggestion-but-anyway: X-Com nerf guns :P.

Also, I'm gonna drop this here, as though it's "Must haves" that have already been a staple of the series, it makes the point that disconnected second floors of buildings hovering in mid air really won't do in this day and age - we want to see things collapsing

[Ranger Six]

X-Com nerf guns

Oh, yeah, those too! And if they're based on the alien weapons, they should use the green disc ammo that some of the newer Nerf guns use. (I think they're part of the N-Strike Vigilon line. I may have to break out the old Google-Fu...)

Having broken out the old Google-Fu, I can confidently state that the Nerf guns in question are part of the Vortex line, and that the Vigilon is one of the guns in said line.

Here's a link with some more information.

[IllusionOfLife]

(Yes, that is my Encom ID. And yes, I was such a big nerd that I wore it when I went to see Tron: Legacy - but I digress.)

Oh I did too, and the Flynn Lives shirt, and the Arcade Aid Pins… *ahem* where was I?

Oh yes! As far as merchandise goes I'm always a sucker for prop replicas or anything of the like. I'm not familiar enough with X-COM to have any particular suggestions for what those replicas could be, but that type of merchandise is generally what I look for.

[Zhab]

I agree with X-com licensed merchandise. I would like a number of them to come packaged into some collector edition of the game.

[Robby Vitriolic]

Hello all,

I spent many nights playing X-com and TFTD with friends (the turn based nature was very conducive to hanging out).
Remember the equipping screen? Where you have to go to each individual trooper and configure their inventory? One feature we always wished for was the ability to save loadouts for our squad. For example, there was one guy who always had the heavy weapon, and another that had a plasma pistol and grenades. Ideally for each Soldier you could have a few presets, click a button and they get configured (assuming the stuff is still in your overall inventory). Thoughts? davidf, feel free to clarify this suggestion when you consolidate the wish list.

[Nosmirc]

Powered Armour with a huge gatling gun statue plz.

And a facepalm at nerf guns ><

[Ranger Six]

And a facepalm at nerf guns ><

...What do you mean, "it's not awesome"?!

[Brian Damage]

Hello all,

I spent many nights playing X-com and TFTD with friends (the turn based nature was very conducive to hanging out).
Remember the equipping screen? Where you have to go to each individual trooper and configure their inventory? One feature we always wished for was the ability to save loadouts for our squad. For example, there was one guy who always had the heavy weapon, and another that had a plasma pistol and grenades. Ideally for each Soldier you could have a few presets, click a button and they get configured (assuming the stuff is still in your overall inventory). Thoughts? davidf, feel free to clarify this suggestion when you consolidate the wish list.

How about some sort of clickable, draggable, customisable template? Say, equip a "dummy" with personal armour, a plasma pistol, two pistol clips on the belt, a motion detector and three grenades, save the template configuration as "Armour+Pistol+Grenade", then when equipping soldiers, flick to a "templates" tab, and assuming you've got the equipment on the craft (if you don't the template is greyed out or non-visible), you can just drag the template icon onto your soldier's paper doll, and it equips him/her all at once? Also, the game remembers you used that template, and if ammo is available when the soldier comes back to base, it restocks him/her.

[Nosmirc]

...What do you mean, "it's not awesome"?!

The facepalm was more at the direction my nerf blaster launchers went (was going for a 'make them less powerful yo' then a 'a blaster launcher that shoots nerf missiles!')

[Brian Damage]

Well, a good idea being accidental doesn't stop it being a good idea :P.

Also, two things I'd like to see:

*Please keep British spellings or offer them as an option. I want my Personal Armour :P.

*Please don't forget damage types (incendiary, armour piercing, laser, plasma, melee, stun, explosive, etc).

[BandofGypsies]

Some decent ideas here.. (in particular saving arms/weapons templates etc...)

Here's another.. (apologies if it is already listed...)

Please, PLEASE give us the choice of where we place our soldiers in vehicles...
Your Commanding Officer doesn't necessarily like being the first one off the ramp... and consequently first to get iced.

Many a good CO has been needlessley lost in this fashion...

[SamBC]

I'm really liking some of the cyberpunky suggestions, cybernetics and all, but realism would mean that you'd need to find aliens using that sort of technology in order to learn it - because we don't have it now (not quite, anyway).

I agree that meaningful micromanagement should stay. I loved supplementing my income mid-game with selling manufactured stuff. Also, need to maintain the scarcity factor of Elerium in the original game.

Really big one for me - keep the system requirements down - there's no reason a game like this shouldn't be able to be run on a mid-range laptop, for instance.

Oh, here's one more... base defence facilities like the original are dull as hell - you don't end up with a base being assaulted! Let's have base defence facilities like those in Apocalypse - automatic gun emplacements. Then you always actually have to fight, but the location of the defences within the base is incredibly important.

[nomotog]

The most important improvement would be mission verity. UFOs, terror missions, even base attacks. They all boil down to bug hunts where the goal is to kill everyone. There is a lot they can do to improve that.

[Hobbes__]

Say what? Where is this mod?!?! Id LOVE to play that!

Scott T Jones' XComUtil editor for UFO/TFTD

[heniv]

Some good points in this tread and some not so good.

I really hope they stay true to the original game, but i think that a few enhancements of the weak point of XCom would be in order for a remake. One can take a look at all the XCom & UFO games too see what was good and what was bad (example, Apocalypse art-style )

Missions
XCom had some great missions, there were however only 2 objectives. Kill all A or move to B. UFO had some improvements on this, but they could both actually learn allot from SC2 campaign.

Resource Management
Elerium - Alien Alloys - Funds, this game is actually a resource management game when you think about it. The system of turning loot into direct arms for your soldiers was systemicly broken, your growth in power and funds was too steep.

Better to break down loot into resources, (perhaps energy & materials, elerium & alloys) that you then have to decide what to invest them into; funds, arms or research. This will also make preparing for missions more important.

I hope for a more balanced resource management system in the remake.


Research & Manufacturing
The research and manufacturing in XCom is the base of progression in the game. Making it less linear would provide a more varied game experience.

Another layer of complexity would improve it, for example; having specialized scientists that give bonus to some research (better plasma, shorter research time). Hence giving you the option to optimize your research.

You could even get missions to rescue/protect&recruit expert staff.

Manufacturing (research also) could also be expanded in base management, by additions or upgrades to speed up or improve certain types of tech.


Armour
This have been noted before, a more flexible armour system would give a more varied game imo. Armour should be balance of protection vs function. But don't make constant flying suits, it broke the late-game and took the tactics out of the terrain part (make scout drones instead). Also... damage types is important.


Politics
Was way to abstract in XCom, but I trust Firaxis on this point... it's one of their areas of expertise.

[SamBC]

I have no problem with flying suits in general. The balance in XCOM:APOC was better, though. Armour came in 6 pieces, you could mix and match (the flying ability came with one of the chest pieces), and the flying version was the least strong of the three armour types available. Initially, you could only get the basic Megapol armour, after a certain time you could get the lighter, flight-capable Marsec armour, and with research you could build the lighter-but-stronger X-COM armour, particularly effective against the aliens biologically-based weapons and disruptors. Of course, you could also steal and build the alien personal energy shields.

Also, in that game, soldiers and purchased equipment all had scarcity as well. There was a limited pool to recruit/buy from that was renewed each week.

I'd love to see a game with the basic story and structure of Enemy Unknown (aka UFO Defence), but the equipment, personnel and resource management more like Apocalypse.

[Brian Damage]

Some good points in this tread and some not so good.

I really hope they stay true to the original game, but i think that a few enhancements of the weak point of XCom would be in order for a remake. One can take a look at all the XCom & UFO games too see what was good and what was bad (example, Apocalypse art-style )

Personally, I'd just take the snappiness of the unit responses in Apoc's battlegame, the single-shot rapid fire mechanic, and the statted scientists (EDIT: Okay, the previews of personnel stats when hiring were nice, too, as was the mix 'n' match armour system). Everything else in UFO was grand, apart from the UI. Maybe extend the interception minigame.

Missions
XCom had some great missions, there were however only 2 objectives. Kill all A or move to B. UFO had some improvements on this, but they could both actually learn allot from SC2 campaign.

What, precisely?

Resource Management
Elerium - Alien Alloys - Funds, this game is actually a resource management game when you think about it. The system of turning loot into direct arms for your soldiers was systemicly broken, your growth in power and funds was too steep.

Better to break down loot into resources, (perhaps energy & materials, elerium & alloys) that you then have to decide what to invest them into; funds, arms or research. This will also make preparing for missions more important.

I hope for a more balanced resource management system in the remake.

That sounds boringly abstract.

Research & Manufacturing
The research and manufacturing in XCom is the base of progression in the game. Making it less linear would provide a more varied game experience.

How would you suggest they do that short of varying the rarity of each alien object in each specific playthrough? I wouldn't really go for allowing you to get plasma rifles by researching blaster launchers if that's what you mean - it's a bit of a leap.

Another layer of complexity would improve it, for example; having specialized scientists that give bonus to some research (better plasma, shorter research time). Hence giving you the option to optimize your research.

I liked the way Apocalypse did it with scientists simply having a skill value (plus discrete divisions between biotech and quantum physics).

You could even get missions to rescue/protect&recruit expert staff.

Woah woah woah... are we talking escort missions here? Eww.

Manufacturing (research also) could also be expanded in base management, by additions or upgrades to speed up or improve certain types of tech.

I could see, perhaps, laboratories being outfitted with one piece of specialised equipment each - say, a particle accelerator (alien weapons) or zero-gravity chamber (elerium research beyond the UFO Power Source stage), but then I wonder if the research tree's big enough for that - would the player get enough mileage out of it?

Armour
This have been noted before, a more flexible armour system would give a more varied game imo. Armour should be balance of protection vs function. But don't make constant flying suits, it broke the late-game and took the tactics out of the terrain part (make scout drones instead). Also... damage types is important.

Much like the blaster launcher, I felt the late-game imbalance of the flying suits was actually part of the flavour of X-Com - you've used the aliens' tech better than their stagnant empire ever could, and now things are just a little more evenly balanced. Besides, terrain doesn't mean much to them in terms of knowing where all your guys are anyway (I always assumed they were all telepathically linked or could sense minds or something :P).

[EDIT]: Y'know, if they absolutely had to "nerf" the flying suits, I'd prefer they made them harder to make or more expensive, rather than altering how they worked (because, after all, the just put you on equal fotting, physically, with Ethereals and Floaters).

[BandofGypsies]

Whilst i have been mulling over the possibilities of what a new X-COM can offer... there is another thing i would really love to see (providing everything else writ large is lifted from the original games...)

Weather

I want to see things that can potentially affect LOS. The Fog of war...

Rain.. imagine touching down, storming the battlefield, the sound of footsteps trudging through the muddy fields... etc. Your field of vision obscured by drifts of rain showering the countryside...

Snow... imagine storming that downed UFO in the antarctic wading through waist deep snow... tracing out footprints... tracking them. Even seeing snow falling.. actively reducing your field of sight...

Wind.. and the potential to affect bullet trajectory... etc.

Essentially, give the environments some life and character.. and not just window dressing either... these elements have an impact on LOS, vision depth, how guns behave...

[FAT MAN GO BOOM]

Any chance of a remake of X-Com and X-com Terror from the deep and have it in a collectors edition with X-Com Enemy Unknown

also would love to see some deep bade building and researching and manufacturing in the game still..

[Brian Damage]

Whilst i have been mulling over the possibilities of what a new X-COM can offer... there is another thing i would really love to see (providing everything else writ large is lifted from the original games...)

Weather

I want to see things that can potentially affect LOS. The Fog of war...

Rain.. imagine touching down, storming the battlefield, the sound of footsteps trudging through the muddy fields... etc. Your field of vision obscured by drifts of rain showering the countryside...

Snow... imagine storming that downed UFO in the antarctic wading through waist deep snow... tracing out footprints... tracking them. Even seeing snow falling.. actively reducing your field of sight...

Wind.. and the potential to affect bullet trajectory... etc.

Essentially, give the environments some life and character.. and not just window dressing either... these elements have an impact on LOS, vision depth, how guns behave...

Time-limited dust from the dropship's VTOL landing in a desert zone. For about three turns it stops you seeing enemies if you're still near the craft, but also stops them seeing you. Maybe have it so that antigrav craft don't have this problem.

Not sure about wind affected bullet trajectories, however. That seems a little too complex - you'd have to pay attention to the wind direction and speed - are you suggesting people will be having to aim to one side of an enemy, or are you advocating a greater miss chance when firing through a cross-breeze?

Also: Make the Lightning more useful, possibly by giving it doors on all sides. And does anyone think they should give the antigrav craft more flight time per unit of fuel? I think that was one thing I used to hear people complain about...

[heniv]

What, precisely?

For an RTS game SC2 has guite good variety on their missions; Conquer, defend, time-survival, escort, high-jack, item capture, "infiltration" and so on...

That sounds boringly abstract.

How is it abstract? Each mission rewards an amount of resources (Elerium-115 & Alien Alloys) depending on the difficulty of the mission. These can then be spent on manufacturing, research or be sold for funds. This also makes it easier to scale the difficulty of the game due to better metrics.

The problem with XCom what that you were swimming in (Heavy) Plasma Rifles +Clips, Alien Granades and Alien Alloys in just a few missions. You are never faced with a decision of;

What do I have to spend my resources on?

How would you suggest they do that short of varying the rarity of each alien object in each specific playthrough? I wouldn't really go for allowing you to get plasma rifles by researching blaster launchers if that's what you mean - it's a bit of a leap.

No,im thinking a wider research tree with more utility. Of course you need some sort of scaling in power of Rifles -> Laser-> Plasma -> Blasters.

Woah woah woah... are we talking escort missions here? Eww.

UFO:s escort missions, however a bit crude, were actually fun.

I could see, perhaps, laboratories being outfitted with one piece of specialised equipment each .... but then I wonder if the research tree's big enough for that - would the player get enough mileage out of it?

I was thinking more of the manufacturing, faster production, better quality gear and so on.

Much like the blaster launcher, I felt the late-game imbalance of the flying suits was actually part of the flavour of X-Com - you've used the aliens' tech better than their stagnant empire ever could, and now things are just a little more evenly balanced. Besides, terrain doesn't mean much to them in terms of knowing where all your guys are anyway (I always assumed they were all telepathically linked or could sense minds or something :P).

[EDIT]: Y'know, if they absolutely had to "nerf" the flying suits, I'd prefer they made them harder to make or more expensive, rather than altering how they worked (because, after all, the just put you on equal fotting, physically, with Ethereals and Floaters).

Flying Suits, Blaster Lunchers & Mind Probes breaks the game for me. There is no counter to those. Their skill to power ratio is absurd, using a flying scout and then either chain-MC the aliens or surgically Blaster strike the entire alien team is just boring.

Vision - Movement - Fire

This is the basis for all combat, nothing in combat exists that can't be included into one or several of these concepts. Flying (or rather constant flying) breaks the game by giving almost unlimited movement and vision. The map layout doesn't matter anymore since you easily can move and get vision of everywhere (with small risk I might add). This is a point were the balance of utility vs power is not working, gaining that much mobility/utility must come at a price of power. Lets take SC2 as an example, high mobility/utility units come with a drawback.
- Hellions, Reapers, Phoenixes , high mobility but weak or specialised.
- Immortals, Siege Tanks, Roach, strong but slow or limited range.
- Ghost, Templars, Infestors, high skill->power ratio but weak and hard to use.

- Soldier(s) in a flying suit with Heavy Plasma, backed up with Blaster and Mine Probe support. ROFLStomp.

[kenthen]

Woah woah woah... are we talking escort missions here? Eww.

What do you mean "ew"? It's not like whomever you're escorting has to be AI-controlled and braindead. And as long as that's not the case, I don't get the gut reaction there.

[OldManBrian]

For an RTS game SC2 has guite good variety on their missions; Conquer, defend, time-survival, escort, high-jack, item capture, "infiltration" and so on...

You seem to really love StarCraft 2, but honestly I don't think the devs should be looking there for inspiration.

StarCraft spoon fed missions and plot down the players throat. This is not what X-Com is about. There HUNDREDS of memorable battles in X-Com I've either experienced or heard about from friends or online, and that was done by NOT having explicitly defined objectives and forced plot points. StarCraft on the other hand, well I can't remember a single unuiqe experience from that game, and the missions I played were exactly the same as the missions everybody else did.

The devs should be creating a random and varied experience that encourages players to make their own goals and stories. THAT is a large part what made the original so great.

Vision - Movement - Fire

This is the basis for all combat, nothing in combat exists that can't be included into one or several of these concepts. Flying (or rather constant flying) breaks the game by giving almost unlimited movement and vision. The map layout doesn't matter anymore since you easily can move and get vision of everywhere (with small risk I might add). This is a point were the balance of utility vs power is not working, gaining that much mobility/utility must come at a price of power. Lets take SC2 as an example, high mobility/utility units come with a drawback.
- Hellions, Reapers, Phoenixes , high mobility but weak or specialised.
- Immortals, Siege Tanks, Roach, strong but slow or limited range.
- Ghost, Templars, Infestors, high skill->power ratio but weak and hard to use.

- Soldier(s) in a flying suit with Heavy Plasma, backed up with Blaster and Mine Probe support. ROFLStomp.

I agree with this, as long as the changes would allow for different gameplay situations and not just (counter muton with tech X, counter sectoid with tech Y, etc) which is how most RTS games are. If X-Com degenerated into a rock-paper-scissors style form a balance it would ruin the game.

The problem with comparing ANY RTS with X-Com gameplay wise, is that RTS games are not about micro-level tactics. RTS is about macro-level timing, and resource management. The faster player who can manage his resources almost always wins in RTS's. The battle almost doesn't even matter, and is usually a mass of units slugging away at another mass of units. The winner is the one who spent the most resources, unless one player or another was foolish about focusing on a single, counterable, unit type. No amount of good tactics will sway a battle in an RTS, the larger, more balanced army always wins.

If anything I would look more to Chess for inspiration, where each piece allows for a DIFFERENT strategy, not just a statistical counter to another peice. This promotes genuinely different gameplay situations, and not just the illusion of strategy that rock-paper-scissors does.

Using armor as an example:
No armor - Free, bonus to TU's for not being encumbered by armor
Personel Armor - Cheap, like a crude alien alloy bullet proof vest, best frontal protection, but that's it.
Power Armor - Expensive, highest overall protection, uses some elerium to power it.
Flight Armor - Very Expensive, moderate overall protection, uses high elerium to power it, shot in back might detonate jetpack.

[vorius]

XCOM is definitely my favorite game title of all time. And I've played a ton of games!

What made it so fun is the rich blend of strategic and tactical gameplay. It kept the game feeling fresh and exciting. I really enjoyed especially the beginning where you had a team of rookies using Earth based weapons in almost hopeless missions against such superior, unknown enemies.

Here is a quick list of things I'd like the newest XCOM to maintain or offer:

1) Allows us to deploy large teams, at least up to 24 like I believe XCOM used to allow. 36 would be nice too. One of the biggest failures I feel with the UFO games done by Altair was the strict team size limit of I believe. It meant that losing one team member was a huge blow, and to top it off hiring new replacements wasnt easy. It meant that in order to play the game you basically cannot suffer losses. But I'd like XCOM to reinforce the idea of how powerful the aliens are by giving the player the expectation that he needs to deploy a pretty large team, and expect to suffer massive casualties!

As for balance and micromanagement of larger teams - I think 1) your deployment craft should be such that crafts that can deploy large teams are slow, while fast ones can deploy smaller teams. So as you progress in the game this sort of guides you towards smaller elite forces. And 2) Allow teams to be grouped into smaller squads, and you can have some control over squads as groups. So while exploring you can click a squad of 5 people and click on the map for them all to move together there, but they spread out a bit of course on their own during the movement, sort of like how UFO handles it when you move groups of people.

2) Moving groups of team members together. I did mention this already, but it needs to be made into its own separate item. Moving groups of people would be an invaluable interface feature to break the tedium of later games where you are kind of tired of micromanaging everyone so much. You should be able to select a group of people and move them as one unit simultaneously.

3) AI. This is probably the most important element, really. The AI needs to be both ruthless and forgiving at the same time. If the AI is too ruthless in the beginning, it could be too frustrating. But if the AI is too forgiving in the later game, it would be too boring. One neat idea is that the AI is structured in a tiered fashion, which is tied to alien units. The aliens would of course have ranks, just like original XCOM, right? I know there was Commanders at least. Maybe have a few more like Lieutenant and Captain. The presence of these aliens on the battlescape basically triggers more advanced AI for the enemy. And then if you manage to incapacitate their commanders, you cause them to lose their AI potential simulating a break down in their chain of command.

4) Unit Skill System- This has got to stay. No XP system, please! Just improve skills from use like the original. XP systems just dont make sense... Hey I shot at aliens from 500 yards my whole career so now I'm an advanced battlefield medic.. what??

5) Custom Ranks- I think the player should be allows to come up with his own ranks for his teams, and assign them accordingly. Maybe still have an automated system like the original but allow us to modify the command tree. Maybe I want someone else to be a commander. God knows in real life skilled people dont always make it to the top!

I'll think of more later!