Natural Selection of Manly Men.

[Bizarro]

With a squad cap of 6 this ruins my entire strategy I used to do with the Original...

Only the strongest would survive I would have no vehicles with me just literally a sky-Ranger packed full of meat for the grinder.

Admittedly quite the masochistic style of play.. but it is what I enjoyed the most.. the fact that I could do this in
MULTIPLE BASES ALL OVER THE WORLD SO WHEN IT WAS TIME FOR HEAVY DUTY ACTION

all my captains would come together from accross the planet in an almost power ranger fashion and all go on one special mission together.

After their glorious victory they would travel back to their HOME bases and start to train more recruits themselves (or what I imagined as they where on the field of combat)

PLEASE do not limit the squads to 6 not only would it personally screw with my strategy but it would also remove alot of the Logistical gameplay we all love about even just loading that Interceptor or Skyranger.. making the choice at the start to roll with two tanks and four people or a squad of 12 and when you upgraded your ships into larger vessels it gave you more space to take more recruits with you for some action and not only that but the alien count would ramp up a bit... sure I understand the idea of these lone dudes being badasses killing 50 aliens. but what happened to that dread and strange joy of sending 10+ recruits into a terror mission to only have one survive who was the lowest skilled out of all of them because he went berserk and got lucky killing the last alien after he finally cracked after seeing 8 people or so die.


Please do not limit squads to such a small number.. if people want to take a small elite task force in that should be their choice not the only one.


all that being said if im not mistaken the maximum number of aliens in a late game terror mission are the same as the player can fit into an Avenger which is 26 squad members.. which I think is a great number.

Maybe even 24 to backwardly reference the HHGTTG

http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Craft

[carldivine]

too late, better deal with it.

[Hilvon]

Well...
As much as I do believe that losing a rookie to a plasma beam out of the dark just after he set foot out of a Ranger, contributed to X-Com Atmosphere of terror... it really did not do well to an atmosphere of commanding an elite force.
I did not myself load games just to cut casualties, but I preferred not to lose a man if possible and Rookie-Rush tactics were not really my style.

Plus Dev say they want to put much weight on decisions vs consequence. And if you have 24 men at hand loosing 1 man would be like “Pfff… no big deal. Never liked his name anyway”.

So yes, I belive that 6 men squad would be enough. ((Truth be told in original X-Com I rarely esed more than that. The rest of soldiers were idle in the ranger (or around - to avoid 1 mindcontrolled result in massacre in the crew conpartment) most of missins serving as a reserved reinforcements in case of heavy casualties in the active force.))

[PeppermintShore]

yeah, i play the meat grider rule myself. once a solider has got its first kill it receives armour, better kit and training. once the soldier survives 10 missions he/she gets semi-retired and sent to another base as base guard. That way if the sub-base gets attacked the aliens could be facing a squad or mean ass'd veterans rather than a bunch or rookies.

As for the new game this tactic had been knocked on the head. As i'm not even sure you will have soldiers in the sub-bases you place around the globe. As if my memory is correct they will only be for interceptors and nothing more.

But this is not a bad thing. Just a new challenge. Although i love the first two original games, i am glade that they are doing something slightly different with the game. As i have played games that i loved and had a graphics upgrade, and they rarely get played more than once, as its the same game after all and i get bored very quickly. Change is good, and there is enough change in the game to make it a new challenge and keep it fresh, while keeping the basics nailed down that made the original game a great classic, which i hope this one will be too so that i'm still playing it 18 years from now.

[Bizarro]

Atleast Firaxis is making it ! so hopefully the modding scene is everything im hoping for where I could just tweak that limit myself even if civ4 is anything to go off.. (havn't really looked into 5)

[Howellren]

With a squad cap of 6 this ruins my entire strategy I used to do with the Original...

Only the strongest would survive I would have no vehicles with me just literally a sky-Ranger packed full of meat for the grinder.

Admittedly quite the masochistic style of play.. but it is what I enjoyed the most.. the fact that I could do this in
MULTIPLE BASES ALL OVER THE WORLD SO WHEN IT WAS TIME FOR HEAVY DUTY ACTION

all my captains would come together from accross the planet in an almost power ranger fashion and all go on one special mission together.

After their glorious victory they would travel back to their HOME bases and start to train more recruits themselves (or what I imagined as they where on the field of combat)

PLEASE do not limit the squads to 6 not only would it personally screw with my strategy but it would also remove alot of the Logistical gameplay we all love about even just loading that Interceptor or Skyranger.. making the choice at the start to roll with two tanks and four people or a squad of 12 and when you upgraded your ships into larger vessels it gave you more space to take more recruits with you for some action and not only that but the alien count would ramp up a bit... sure I understand the idea of these lone dudes being badasses killing 50 aliens. but what happened to that dread and strange joy of sending 10+ recruits into a terror mission to only have one survive who was the lowest skilled out of all of them because he went berserk and got lucky killing the last alien after he finally cracked after seeing 8 people or so die.


Please do not limit squads to such a small number.. if people want to take a small elite task force in that should be their choice not the only one.


all that being said if im not mistaken the maximum number of aliens in a late game terror mission are the same as the player can fit into an Avenger which is 26 squad members.. which I think is a great number.

Maybe even 24 to backwardly reference the HHGTTG

http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Craft

Throw a smoke grenade.

[Roladin]

If you want to zerg someone down so badly you will have to play the aliens, I think.

It's a new game with new rules, new mechanics and a whole new dynamic. So yes, you will need to adopt your tactics.

Crying out loud that the small size will ruin the game is a little premature I think. If it where the only thing they have changed than I would agree with you. But what I hope is that all the new things will result in a new game experience, but as great as the old one was.

[Inkidu]

La sigh...

*Turns on tape recorder*

It's too late. It doesn't mean utter ruin. Have you tried playing the original with six guys and one main base? It's totally doable. The Darwinist approach is basically autopilot. Anything that gets away from the logistics of cannon fodder and put it in the realm of actual tactical combat is a win in my book. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

*End tape recording*

*Recorder explodes in a thick blanket of smoke*

That's right...

[Kilo use]

If you want to zerg someone down so badly you will have to play the aliens, I think.

It's a new game with new rules, new mechanics and a whole new dynamic. So yes, you will need to adopt your tactics.

Crying out loud that the small size will ruin the game is a little premature I think. If it where the only thing they have changed than I would agree with you. But what I hope is that all the new things will result in a new game experience, but as great as the old one was.

In all of the interviews I have seen, the firaxis guys have said all the changes have been about balance. They are striving to make it equally as challenging, but not just copy the game exactly. In the new game, each soldier seems to be more capable with the addition of perks. It seems like throwaway soldiers are not going to as prevalent or effective of a strategy anymore.

[Hilvon]

It seems like throwaway soldiers are not going to as prevalent or effective of a strategy anymore.

Unless they make another class for soldiers to take: A Redshirt. With a special skill: If he gets shot on the run he keeps running and expanding your line of sight and dies only at the end of route...

[coyote_blue]

La sigh...

*Turns on tape recorder*

It's too late. It doesn't mean utter ruin. Have you tried playing the original with six guys and one main base? It's totally doable. The Darwinist approach is basically autopilot. Anything that gets away from the logistics of cannon fodder and put it in the realm of actual tactical combat is a win in my book. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

*End tape recording*

*Recorder explodes in a thick blanket of smoke*

That's right...

October 9th means that, for PS3 release, a totally complete game needs to be in Sony's hands on September 9th (two weeks or so of "certification" - whatever the hell that is - and two weeks to press discs and truck them to Gamestop). External playtesting should start 45-90 days before that - so, now or next month.

The design process took four years. Changing everything to re-balance the game for 20+ soldiers (assuming no maps need to be redrawn) could take six months to a year: Jake plays through the game once for every new build (see the Angry Joe interview, where he talks about the Memorial Wall), so playtesting a rebalance takes 20 man-hours (half a week's work), just to find out if it's broken.

So as I have said to multiplayer: herpa durpy durp not-gonna-happen.