BNice wrote:Questengine wrote:tanstaafl wrote:Solomon predicts free-aiming will be one “one of the first mods”,Anybody know what this means? I've got 400hrs on EU and EW and I don't know how free-aiming would fit into this game.
I think free-aiming means you will be able to aim at aliens like a shooter. So you would select fire, then it would go into a free-aiming mode where you can target parts of the bodies. Then I guess it's up to the mod how accuracy works.
"Free-aiming" refers to the ability in the original X-Com games to shoot at a specific tile as opposed to an alien. This allowed you to shoot into the fog of war to potentially hit an alien or to target walls/objects to destroy them. As opposed to XCOM:EU in which to shoot your gun, you must target an alien.
Ahhhh ok. Sounds like it would be a neat addition.
tanstaafl wrote:Solomon predicts free-aiming will be one “one of the first mods”,Anybody know what this means? I've got 400hrs on EU and EW and I don't know how free-aiming would fit into this game.
Also I want to put in my vote for controller support. It's the only way I played the PC version. I wonder if it can be modded in before Firaxis adds it officially. And we need "overwatch all" on the controller. The keyboard had that but the controller did not (or at least I could never find it).
Speaking of controller support. If they put it in, I hope they implement it in a less rigid fashion. Tykl, if you are reading this, my issues with the first game are:
1. To use a controller, you must enable it in a menu.
2. The mouse cursor stays on if enable controller and start using it. In my case, it remained always on, and would be stuck in the middle of the screen if I did not move it to the side.
3. You cannot switch back and forth freely between M&K and controller, and have to go back to the menu to switch.
In other games, with the xbox360 controller at least, I find the implementation much better where the controller is always enabled (but can be fully turned off) and the game displays M&K prompts until the controller is touched, at which point, the on screen prompts change immediately, and (I think) rumble turns on. Pressing a button on the keyboard or mouse returns to M&K mode.
BNice wrote:Questengine wrote:tanstaafl wrote:Solomon predicts free-aiming will be one “one of the first mods”,Anybody know what this means? I've got 400hrs on EU and EW and I don't know how free-aiming would fit into this game.
I think free-aiming means you will be able to aim at aliens like a shooter. So you would select fire, then it would go into a free-aiming mode where you can target parts of the bodies. Then I guess it's up to the mod how accuracy works.
"Free-aiming" refers to the ability in the original X-Com games to shoot at a specific tile as opposed to an alien. This allowed you to shoot into the fog of war to potentially hit an alien or to target walls/objects to destroy them. As opposed to XCOM:EU in which to shoot your gun, you must target an alien.
Ok, that makes pretty good sense, thanks.
"Free-aiming" refers to the ability in the original X-Com games to shoot at a specific tile as opposed to an alien. This allowed you to shoot into the fog of war to potentially hit an alien or to target walls/objects to destroy them. As opposed to XCOM:EU in which to shoot your gun, you must target an alien.
Aaaah, Laser Squad aiming. Seriously, I got ZX Spectrum flashback when I read your post.
Free-Aiming is like a Mech's collateral damage perk, right? You would select it, and then an area of effect would highlight where we would shoot, with maybe some distance cap or something. Something like this?
I would love to have it, but if it's not implemented, I honestly won't mind at all. EU and EW played beautifully without it.
Free-Aiming is like a Mech's collateral damage perk, right? You would select it, and then an area of effect would highlight where we would shoot, with maybe some distance cap or something. Something like this?
Sort of. In UFO, TFTD and Apoc free aiming could be done on any tile on the map. If there was an object on that tile like a tree, wall or alien your soldier would aim for centre mass. If the tile was empty they would aim for the ground on that tile.
It was really just a tile-based way to pick the aiming vector of your shots. XCOM wouldn't need to do this because you could simply use the third person camera.
It was really just a tile-based way to pick the aiming vector of your shots. XCOM wouldn't need to do this because you could simply use the third person camera.
Oh that's a good point, so basically an XCOM take on the Valkyria Chronicles way of doing things. Yeah, I can see that being a mod I'd be interested in!
Direct feed footage of what IGN showed at E3.
I guess that's Central Officer Bradford? You can hear him better in this version of the video. But he's been replaced with a generic, boring, yelling version of himself. 
I hope they bring back the old voice actor for the games release.
Is the official language of Advent soldiers Simlish?
I guess that's Central Officer Bradford? You can hear him better in this version of the video. But he's been replaced with a generic, boring, yelling version of himself.
It sounds like Bradford had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Couple things that stood out to me:
- f*ck yeah first strike! The ability to ambush enemies and get the first hit in is something I've wanted since the very beginning. It was possible to do that kind of thing using Battle Scanners however you could only do so with squad sight or with grenades from soldiers out of LOS because if they could see the enemies it would trigger them. If they could retrofit that into EW that would totally revamp the game because you could actively hunt alien packs instead of being afraid to advance because you might "pull" more mobs than you are ready for.
- Seems this the demo version of the XCOM melee attack is a direct move-slash. That can't be the final version because standing out of cover like that will just get you gunned down.
- Awesome snakewoman, I'm sure the non-demo version won't be so overpowered.
- The hit point numbers are getting rather inflated, the UI guys are going to have to find a way to make the HP bars shorter. In the previous game they stacked them vertically, which wasn't a perfect solution either.
- The amount of info surrounding each trooper is getting kind of inflated too, the cover condition, the name, the hitpoints etc. Either this will have to be streamlined or the game will need to be smarter about which side/quadrant of the soldier it displays the UI information so that it doesn't get hidden by terrain.
- That's a berzerker? Awesome! They didn't change too much about it, it looks like a highres version of the EU berzerker without the red armour. It has more of a feral personality to it.
Alien 1: OK, so, we're making a new soldier based on their snakes and we need to figure out how it's gonna look.
Alien 2: How about arms? Those are handy. (get it?)
Alien 1: Good thought, good thought, arms are in.
Alien 3: Tits.
Alien 1: ...You wa-
Alien 3: Yeah, tits. Give her tits.
Alien 2: Why?
Alien 3: Because tits is why. Shut up.
Alien 1: Snakes don't even hav-
Alien 3: Shut up shut up shut up
I chalk that up to...ummm....
I got nothin'.
And the XCom mod scene is way different right now. How much would you have paid for The Long War? I think I would have dropped $15-20 easily.
I'd have paid $20 for Long War and I never got more than 1/2 way through it! It's kind of weird though when you consider how many revisions Long War has gone through and all the changes it's seen, you almost have to consider something like "early access" for mods? In fact, I hope Johnny Lump makes a great mod for XCOM 2 and they DO let them be sold so he can finally see some real reward for his work.
I think I'd spend money on XCOM mods like some folks do on DOTA. I played EU so long and XCOM 2 looks to have even more longevity, I can see myself buying all sorts of armor, weapons, system mods, whatever. Very often I was just looking for an excuse to play EU again, so if I could have paid $5 for just some simple but cool reskin mod, I would have done it in a heartbeat.
Regarding controller vs keyboard:
In EU: with the controller, if I want to sell 200 elerium, I hold right on the d-pad for a few seconds. With the mouse, I have to click 200 times (I couldn't find any other way to do it). This is terrible.
Now if you want to argue that with proper keyboard/mouse support I'd simply type in two-zero-zero-enter to make that sale, then fine, that's surely optimized for keyboard/mouse, but I still don't think its the optimal experience for the game. I don't want to have to click in a tiny text box to begin entering the number and I don't want to take my eyes off the screen to find the numbers on the keyboard. With the controller, while I'm holding right on the d-pad for a few seconds, my eyes are reviewing the rest of my inventory seeing what else I might sell or what I'm short on. I'd argue that the controller is the best option here, regardless of any optimized keyboard implementation.
Now if you want to argue that with proper keyboard/mouse support I'd simply type in two-zero-zero-enter to make that sale, then fine, that's surely optimized for keyboard/mouse, but I still don't think its the optimal experience for the game.
You could just make it so that clicking and holding down the button increases the number of objects sold by 1 per .1 seconds. Then it would only take you 10 seconds to queue up 100 items and sell them. Or as you point out you could also allow players to enter exact amounts.
The only advantage analog controllers have over mouse and keyboard is incremental input. Apart from moving the camera around with finer precision over WSAD it's really not an advantage for a game like this.
Nice thread banner we got now. Also happened to see this:
Heh, remember this? I tried resizing it to proper banner dimentions. Unfortunately the shadowing on the banner is a bit aggressive and you lose a lot of the fine details at the bottom edge.
It's been too quiet!
Tkyl! Give us something! Anything!
It's been too quiet!
Tkyl! Give us something! Anything!
:hump:
^
I'm hoping for a commentated walkthrough at Gamescom with everything; the Avenger, picking your squad and some new aliens. No more IGN information dribble plz.
We will be showing more at Gamescom. I can't say more than that.
We will be showing more at Gamescom. I can't say more than that.
Why is he studying Barney's arm with a monocle? 
Why is he studying Barney's arm with a monocle? :P
Damn you.
We will be showing more at Gamescom. I can't say more than that.
You can! You just choose not to! 
Strategy layer!
Holy sh*t, the ant farm looks so cool. Your soldiers walks around! So many options for characters and weapon customization too. Wow, the strategy layer as a whole just looks to have more variables. I need this game.
Hopefully they release a direct feed video of this because you can't really hear the game audio.
Tkyl,
I don't know how to say this, but you and your team have made something insane here. Every little thing I saw in those 15 minutes, is perfect. Personality modifier?! Holy cow, I can't wait to see how that comes into play on the field with our soldiers. The training, the strategy, the dark events, the narrative continuity, the choices, the stakes, the ant farm, the resources, the customization, the weapon customization, jesus effin christ, man. You guys have it all!
I haven't looked forward to a game this much in I don't know how long, so seriously, props to you guys. I can't wait to see even more from here on to November!!!
Double posting for this beauty:
Very impressed. I was originally going to hold off on getting this because of the conflict in release dates with Fallout, but holy cow this looks so good.
Dark events and the level of customisation really stand out for me. It all comes down to Choice. Giving so much choice to the player is a damn awesome thing. Very impressed.
Since the last game was all about fighting the aliens, I assume this one is about seducing them?
Since the last game was all about fighting the aliens, I assume this one is about seducing them?
Hell yeah, romance options! Very mass effect-y. This is where the ethereal's 2 extra hands... come in handy.
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