Your three least favourite parts of the original X-Com?

[iceycat25]

1. The empahasis on alien tech. I agree with the original poster, human tech should have been more emphasized. Hated all the anime stylized human tech too, gimmie M16s and MP5s.

2. Getting shot just trying to get out of the Skyranger. You can only move two guys that are blocking the only exit, first guy takes a single step and an alien that was randomly generated 6 squares in fron t of the exit gets a reaction shot and drops your man before he completes that first step. Yeah that sucked.

3. Having to choose a loadout everytime. I agree, once I customize my soldier, leave him be until I change something. I like to change things, just you know, hold my settings, that's all.

[coyote_blue]

1. "Turn & burn" - that weird glitch you got sometimes where you'd click slightly off true, and the guy would turn and face up, burning just enough TUs to ruin your chances of reaction fire.

Basically, all TU sucked in Enemy Unknown. I only realized the shots were calculated percentages when I got on a wiki - ten to fifteen years after I started playing it. You can call that hard-core or true challenge - I call it dumb design. If I want inscrutable mechanics, I play a puzzle game.

2. No Tricky Peek. How hard is this? I open the door, I throw in a grenade.

3. Being rewarded for Scorched Earth/Cannon Fodder tactics when it wasn't appropriate.

If I had a blaster launcher, the first round was going into the second floor of that barn, and detonated on the center tile of the floor. No, I will not be clearing the rooms or checking the roof. I will listen instead for the sweet sound of alien death screams.

I am also firmly OUT of the "wish I had 30 dudes on the Skyranger" camp. The game does not reward you for using that many dudes wisely - in fact, it punishes you, because you end up spending every turn fiddling with the fan-out pattern, and not shooting anyone.

If you're using 30 dudes in the way the game rewards you for, you're sending scouts out to be murdered, and then sniping their killers in vengeance. Or you're doing that silly-assed grenade relay.

Other people may feel more like they're in charge of a huge, desperate army with 30 dudes, but I always thought, "Even if we assume I don't care about men's lives, new soldiers are not this cheap. To say nothing of the explosives I use every single turn."

I hear what you're sayin', katscan, about not having to play that way. But design matters - if Super Mario gives me the mushroom power up, they expect me to use it. So the critique stands.

[Zaran]

1. Lack of Inventory saving.
2. Losing a nation because a ship with the Alien Infiltration mission set down even though I successfully sent a skyranger and took out all the aliens.
3. The ability for aliens to know exactly where all of my units were and who had the weakest psionic strength when they only had one soldier in view.

[UninventiveName]

I've been playing through Enemy Unknown again due to the current rash of articles about Firaxis' reboot so these are fairly fresh in my mind:

1/ Losing 3 or 4 guys before properly starting a mission because you get reaction shot by some unseen heavy plasma-wielding alien every time you try to step out of the skyranger. See also: Almost your entire squad getting blown up on the second turn because you get shot by a blaster launcher while still clustered.

2/ Ammo. Such a pain. Remembering to manufacture it and also the fact that you lose all clips from you previous mission even if you only fired 1 round out of 35.

3/ General lack of tactical nuance. Everyone makes out like X-Com is incredibly deep, which of course it was at the time, but most of the actual combat tactics boil down to sweeping forward with your rookies, sniping with your veterans and always ensuring you have some TUs left if you're unsure of what's round the corner.

This is why I've been fairly happy hearing about most of the changes being made. Like some people were up in arms about removal of time units as if they were somehow reducing the complexity of the game - as mentioned above, the tactics in the original were nowhere near as complex as fanatics claim. Adding cover and special abilities (if done right) will hugely up the strategy element regardless of whether time units are involved or not. Similarly, getting rid of ammo is a great option. I'm not even that bothered about the small squad sizes as in the original I only ever had 4-6 guys in a squad who I really cared about. The rest were meat shields who I used to locate and flush out the aliens.

[Howellren]

1: re-equipping soldiers every mission.

2: Late game too many missions. Early game you do 1-3 missions/month. Late game it's often 10-20 (or you skip them and lose), waiting for 3-4 months of research to carry through requires 50 missions, which begins to feel like a real grind.

3: save-gaming. Admittedly it's partially a self-inflicted grievance. You either save and reload a ton, or the game is significantly more difficult & frustrating. The need to use the save & reload feature leads to a slipperey slope.

My biggest worry for the new release is #3. The game should not be built upon the expectation of frequent save/reloads. Players should be able to win & lose battles, level and lose solders, destroy enemy craft and have their own destroyed. They should be able to have setbacks, but be able to weather them.

[TheFinn]

The game should not be built upon the expectation of frequent save/reloads. Players should be able to win & lose battles, level and lose solders, destroy enemy craft and have their own destroyed. They should be able to have setbacks, but be able to weather them.

The new game has an 'ironman' mode - the game saves automatically and in a single file position. It one interview I got the impression that the game might be saving every time you do something so you may not be able to have a 'power short' restore your soldier's life when the computer mysterious turns off and on mid-mission.

[Howellren]

The new game has an 'ironman' mode - the game saves automatically and in a single file position. It one interview I got the impression that the game might be saving every time you do something so you may not be able to have a 'power short' restore your soldier's life when the computer mysterious turns off and on mid-mission.

I know of ironman mode. I just hope it's not as insane as "hardcore" mode for diablo 3.

Ultimately, ironman or no, no single failure should cripple a game as to force a reload. This was not the case in the first game. You lose 1 battle and you face a tremendous setback. Your chances of losing again were heavily increased and another loss would all but finish you. This is ok if your on harder difficulties, but not for normal. Normal feels normal only if you rely heavily on reloads.

[Chaos Marine]

You know, if people sniping your dudes the second they step from the Skyranger, have you considered the fact that there were smoke grenades you could use?

[Howellren]

You know, if people sniping your dudes the second they step from the Skyranger, have you considered the fact that there were smoke grenades you could use?

.... You know, a bit embarrassed to say, but I never did think of that. I always just thought they were terrible. I'm totally going to do that now in my next play through. Thanks.

Still think the save issue needs review though.

[Notorious_BLT]

You know, if people sniping your dudes the second they step from the Skyranger, have you considered the fact that there were smoke grenades you could use?

^QFT. Smoke grenades are how I keep most of my squad alive in the early stages of the game. Without them you might as well charge your soldiers into a chipper-shredder if you're playing on superhuman.

Edit: I totally forgot my 3 things.

1.) Redoing my troop loadouts EVERY time I fly to a new mission. "Eigor! I gave you a heavy plasma cannon every mission for the last 45 missions, why the heck are you holding a psi amp and a pipe cleaner?!"

2.) Once any alien got sight of even one of your troops it opened up your entire squad to MC attempts if a psi capable alien was present. "Bob walked right up next to a Sectoid on the field and suddenly Greg in accounting back at the base started panicking and trying to shoot an imaginary gun at all the other accountants."

3.) Can't open a door without walking through it first/ no peripheral vision. I realize there's a mod for the door thing but I don't like mods. Also the door thing was fixed in TFTD (yay?). Anyhow, I hated having to walk through a door in order to open it and the accompanying lack of peripheral vision was also really aggravating. I liked to think the reason my soldiers had no peripheral vision upon walking into a room through a door was because they had dazed themselves by walking directly into the door at speed. If only they knew about that handy little "Open door" button.

[Howellren]

^QFT. Smoke grenades are how I keep most of my squad alive in the early stages of the game. Without them you might as well charge your soldiers into a chipper-shredder if you're playing on superhuman.

I think we should all post "use a smoke grenade" in response to anyone who is posting stupid complaints.

Dont like the new look of floaters? Use a smoke grenade!
Hate how psionic powers work? Use a smoke grenade!
Wall of text? (I'm very guilty of this one) throw a smoke grenade!

[Notorious_BLT]

I think we should all post "use a smoke grenade" in response to anyone who is posting stupid complaints.

Dont like the new look of floaters? Use a smoke grenade!
Hate how psionic powers work? Use a smoke grenade!
Wall of text? (I'm very guilty of this one) throw a smoke grenade!

I hated how the floaters could like fly and junk OMG so OP!!!

ಠ_ಠ Throw a smoke grenade!

[AmazingMoose]

1: Re-equipping every mission.

2: Limited real endgame options. (psi and blaster-launcher)

3: In mission saves. (Come on. That's just cheesy, at least limit it)

[Inkidu]

^QFT. Smoke grenades are how I keep most of my squad alive in the early stages of the game. Without them you might as well charge your soldiers into a chipper-shredder if you're playing on superhuman.

Edit: I totally forgot my 3 things.

1.) Redoing my troop loadouts EVERY time I fly to a new mission. "Eigor! I gave you a heavy plasma cannon every mission for the last 45 missions, why the heck are you holding a psi amp and a pipe cleaner?!"

2.) Once any alien got sight of even one of your troops it opened up your entire squad to MC attempts if a psi capable alien was present. "Bob walked right up next to a Sectoid on the field and suddenly Greg in accounting back at the base started panicking and trying to shoot an imaginary gun at all the other accountants."

3.) Can't open a door without walking through it first/ no peripheral vision. I realize there's a mod for the door thing but I don't like mods. Also the door thing was fixed in TFTD (yay?). Anyhow, I hated having to walk through a door in order to open it and the accompanying lack of peripheral vision was also really aggravating. I liked to think the reason my soldiers had no peripheral vision upon walking into a room through a door was because they had dazed themselves by walking directly into the door at speed. If only they knew about that handy little "Open door" button.

Two things:

While smoke grenades can save your ass remember that aliens can still kill you handily even in smoke.
Also, it doesn't really help when the guy getting ready to pop the smoke gets wasted on the ramp when he goes to throw it.

[UninventiveName]

You know, if people sniping your dudes the second they step from the Skyranger, have you considered the fact that there were smoke grenades you could use?

It's true but it would be nice to be able to, you know, step outside the transport vehicle without scattering smoke grenades like confetti first.

Well if that isn't valid then I want to substitute it for alien psionics being used on every member of your squad when only a single person is in sight.

[Geawiel]

*XCom Apoc, Alien reaction- There were NEVER any aliens hiding. There were awesome multistory buildings, with all kinds of cool interior objects, close in doors, bathrooms, closets, stairwells, etc. But GUESS WHAT? It was all just eye candy because the second your guys walked into the center courtyard, the aliens would just rush you from every corner and you end up just having a firefight out in the open, or at best, using part of the first story of a building. What a waste of an awesome environment. The aliens wouldn't even set up and snipe or anything, to force you to enter the buildings.

I actually had quite a few APOC games where I found that last alien hiding in some random room. I remember a few times finding a multiworm hiding in a bathroom stall. Then, having my guy open fire on it and getting insta mobbed. It only took a couple of those times and I stopped sending solos out to scour the map. I always kept in at least pairs, both equipped with HE ammo or grenades. With my luck, it was usually the multiworms...

[xcomcommander]

Yes, I was mistaken. That feature did only first show up in TFTD.

Proud fact; It was me that got it in there by request, back in the day :-)

[samsmithnz]

Proud fact; It was me that got it in there by request, back in the day :-)

I sense a good story here. Please elaborate!

[Notorious_BLT]

Two things:

While smoke grenades can save your ass remember that aliens can still kill you handily even in smoke.
Also, it doesn't really help when the guy getting ready to pop the smoke gets wasted on the ramp when he goes to throw it.

Oh I realize all of this. I've been playing XCOM:UD for nearly 17 years now so I know well that no plan is ever 100% water tight. I was merely saying that in the early stages of the game that smoke grenades were a key part of ensuring my troops survival. I think it's worth mentioning though that my first turns were usually spent just throwing one smoke grenade out the Skyrangers hatch and hitting End Turn so that when I did venture out it was under the cover of smoke.

[samsmithnz]

Oh I realize all of this. I've been playing XCOM:UD for nearly 17 years now so I know well that no plan is ever 100% water tight. I was merely saying that in the early stages of the game that smoke grenades were a key part of ensuring my troops survival. I think it's worth mentioning though that my first turns were usually spent just throwing one smoke grenade out the Skyrangers hatch and hitting End Turn so that when I did venture out it was under the cover of smoke.

It's interesting, because my strategies have never involved smoke grenades, I've always assumed they are completely useless. My strategy was always to get 1 or 2 guys out and just look around, if I see an enemy, focus on them, if I don't, get the squad out and fan...

[TheFinn]

It's interesting, because my strategies have never involved smoke grenades, I've always assumed they are completely useless. My strategy was always to get 1 or 2 guys out and just look around, if I see an enemy, focus on them, if I don't, get the squad out and fan...

I was in the same boat. I always found smoke seemed to screw up my guys more than the aliens. It didn't feel like it provided anything in the way of cover to me.

[Notorious_BLT]

I was in the same boat. I always found smoke seemed to screw up my guys more than the aliens. It didn't feel like it provided anything in the way of cover to me.

From what I remember the mechanic is that it blocks LOS coming from outside into the cloud up to a certain point but allows you to see from fairly far into the cloud and out if that makes sense. I believe it also gave shots targeting units within the smoke some numerical penalty to hit rather than providing the games version of cover.

[coyote_blue]

My first turn was "jump off side of ramp, hug landing gear". I never had anyone explain smokers to me until more than a decade later, when I found the wikis. And it sure as crap ain't in the manual.

Also, all this talk of smoke grenades doesn't cover seeing 2 or 3 Dreaded Red Boxes of Sighting before you even move your first guy. Very frequent in Terror missions. "Lemme just throw this here grenade...70 INCOMING PLASMA SHOTS TO FACE!" "Well, crap. I'd better shoot them before they get a chance to shoot back. - MISS! 70 MORE PLASMA SHOTS TO FACE!"

[Howellren]

My first turn was "jump off side of ramp, hug landing gear". I never had anyone explain smokers to me until more than a decade later, when I found the wikis. And it sure as crap ain't in the manual.

Also, all this talk of smoke grenades doesn't cover seeing 2 or 3 Dreaded Red Boxes of Sighting before you even move your first guy. Very frequent in Terror missions. "Lemme just throw this here grenade...70 INCOMING PLASMA SHOTS TO FACE!" "Well, crap. I'd better shoot them before they get a chance to shoot back. - MISS! 70 MORE PLASMA SHOTS TO FACE!"

I give this post a Facebook thumbs up!

[Notorious_BLT]

My first turn was "jump off side of ramp, hug landing gear". I never had anyone explain smokers to me until more than a decade later, when I found the wikis. And it sure as crap ain't in the manual.

Also, all this talk of smoke grenades doesn't cover seeing 2 or 3 Dreaded Red Boxes of Sighting before you even move your first guy. Very frequent in Terror missions. "Lemme just throw this here grenade...70 INCOMING PLASMA SHOTS TO FACE!" "Well, crap. I'd better shoot them before they get a chance to shoot back. - MISS! 70 MORE PLASMA SHOTS TO FACE!"

Oh memories...

[Evil_Weasel]

1) Anywhere mind controll:

Psi able alians with the ability to mind-rape you from anywhere, and if they have gain controll of a guy, they can do it again no mater where they send him. You didnt have a range either, but at least one of your guys has to see them on the round you try... butnot the alians, thats too much at ask.

2) They wont give them back after mind controll:

If one of your guys is under alian control, and you complete da mission..... you lose that guy BULLF****NG S*** give that guy back.... dose he run off screaming and drooling into the woods? WTF! Kill, stun, doesnt matter, if you have a guy under mind control and the mission ends, good bye guy.

3) I guess, the crap AI is the last thing:

I mean its persistent throughout the game. Each alian has about the same AI programing. They have a little patroll path, and they can see about 2-3 sqaurs more than you, they shoot from about that distance and then move out of your sight range, rinse, wash, repeat.

Theres a few more little things but those are the top 3... Still love it though!

[PeppermintShore]

1. having to equip each soldier before each mission rather than have the ablity to equip them in base and just tweek them before the mission.
2. Destroying stairs in a mission by mistake or an alien destroying the stairs when you know that an alien is up there and you spent 40+ turns trying to blow the walls out on the building so that you can get line of sight and take it out, but after throwing multiple grenades and firing multiple heavy weapons that should have leveled the building, giving up and bugging out.
3. abandoning a mission and having to move all the team back the the skyranger so you dont lose them rather than having the option to click abandon and the have a further option to wait for you team to get back where the computer plots the quickest route and for you team to get back and calculate loses that way.

[Doyaldinho]

1. Skyranger slaughter!
2. Clunky soldier interface, everything you needed to know was spread over several pages and you had to manually equip each soldier before every mission. Grrr!
3. My original Amiga copy of the game missing a disk so I couldn't run terror missions. That made things.... difficult.

I'll also add ammo as a bonus 4th, surely I could delegate the mundane production of ammo to a subordinate? Although I am the head of the organisation, I shouldn't have to have the final say on having bullets in guns. The answer is "yes" people!

[Howellren]

Didn't the original copy of the game also have one of those silly codebooks? It asked you to look up a code on a certain page of the rulebook to login.

My brother reminded me of this. I said "well that's silly, people will just look the codes up online". Then he reminded me that it was 1994 and nobody really had the internet.........

I'm only 27, but this is one of those moments where I think "holy crap, I feel old".

[xcomcommander]

I sense a good story here. Please elaborate!

Well, I rang microprose a little while after i heard the game was coming out. I must have been 14/15! So i asked to be put through to the dev team as i had an idea. So an unconvinced dev came on the phone - i was siting on the floor leaning against my parents wall, i remember it perfectly! And i tried to tell him my idea (Basically make it so we can see the soldiers stats from the loadout screen) and he didnt get it at first so i told him what i did now, which was rename the soldiers to "Jo bloggs heavy" or "sam sniper", and he got why i wanted the change. so his voice changed to an understanding appreciative one when he got what i was thrusting at, and that was that.

So, when tftd came out, i saw we could access the stats! What made be realise it really was my idea that made it in at the last minute was how clunky the interface was for viewing the stats. It really was like it was shoe horned in at the end. In actual fact i still renamed my soliders to save swapping between screens.

there ya go, my bit of history :-)

[samsmithnz]

Awesome! Funny that they just put a dev on the phone with you. This would *never* happen now. haha.

Well, I rang microprose a little while after i heard the game was coming out. I must have been 14/15! So i asked to be put through to the dev team as i had an idea. So an unconvinced dev came on the phone - i was siting on the floor leaning against my parents wall, i remember it perfectly! And i tried to tell him my idea (Basically make it so we can see the soldiers stats from the loadout screen) and he didnt get it at first so i told him what i did now, which was rename the soldiers to "Jo bloggs heavy" or "sam sniper", and he got why i wanted the change. so his voice changed to an understanding appreciative one when he got what i was thrusting at, and that was that.

So, when tftd came out, i saw we could access the stats! What made be realise it really was my idea that made it in at the last minute was how clunky the interface was for viewing the stats. It really was like it was shoe horned in at the end. In actual fact i still renamed my soliders to save swapping between screens.

there ya go, my bit of history :-)

[alexey7891]

this thread is so funny ))for me even the so called "bad parts" were fun

[xcomcommander]

Awesome! Funny that they just put a dev on the phone with you. This would *never* happen now. haha.

Yeah, i left that part of the story out because im not 100% on the details of this bit as i was excited when i rang, but there was a bit of a 'gatekeeper' at the start that i spoke to who was either against me speaking to them or somehat trying to put me off, but i was very enthusiastic and insistent so i got through. Cant say more than that 15 years later!

[VoyagerI]

My only real beef is with the wildly unbalanced weapons. There's an appealing amount of tactical depth available with the initial human weapons, where each one is designed for a different purpose. Throw in the different ammo types and it's a delightful range of options.

Then you stop using them all by the second month because you finished researching Laser Rifles.

[Howellren]

My only real beef is with the wildly unbalanced weapons. There's an appealing amount of tactical depth available with the initial human weapons, where each one is designed for a different purpose. Throw in the different ammo types and it's a delightful range of options.

Then you stop using them all by the second month because you finished researching Laser Rifles.

I think you're right, but I think if they balance it right, the aliens will get stronger as the game progresses as well. At first your fighting sectoids; later on you're fighting sectopods, etherials, mutons, etc.

It also appears that they are making the same kinds of item diversities with laser/plasma weapons as they have with human weapons. We've already seen plasma/laster snipers, shotguns, rifles, heavy's, etc.

[Doyaldinho]

this thread is so funny ))for me even the so called "bad parts" were fun

When things go wrong in UFO account for some of my most vivid gaming memories as a kid. It was so great because you could lose, which made progress al the more rewarding.

I've also thought of number 5 after seeing your avatar. I never got to see the insectoid like alien on the cover of the box. Hopefully Firaxis will sneak them in their version!

[mike1]

Did anyone say:

When a soldier panicked, they would drop their weapons and run into into battle?

[Hoya]

1. Boooooooring air battle. Our intercepter always win!
2. Equip all soldiers before battle. Absolutely annoying.
3. Heavy plasma always rule?! Poor weapon balance.

[Usul]

1. Boooooooring air battle. Our intercepter always win!

Then your better then me. I lost some of interceptors (even when attacking with two at the same time).

[SupernovaXL]

There has been alot of people complaining about how the last alien always hides in the building furthest away....er where do you want it to hide?... in the skyranger? I would run in the opposite direction too if I was the last man standing.