XCOM lead designer: “We kept iterating on squad size and combat dynamics”

GB: "XCOM: Enemy Unkown is a cover-heavy, tactical game, and there were reasons to why it was designed that way. We asked lead designer and programmer Jake Solomon about this in a yet to be published interview, and he revealed how the game went through a lot of iterations before arriving at the final version, which offered a lot of tactical gameplay"

[vortis]

Meh, maybe in the sequel we can get the 25+ squads on massive maps with X-Com: Apocalypse style destructibility.

It still baffles me how games these days can't just remake old concepts with new-school technology, especially with procedural destruction and environment mapping pretty much being standard-fare in most middleware tools these days.

[mynameisEvil]

I think those 26-man squads in the original took what was already time-consuming to an unnecessarily long extreme. I feel like 12-men squads would probably be best, maintaining what this game tried so hard to do, which is make every soldier feel important without making it feel too limited. Also, I feel like the two-action system had some stupid decisions put in place. For instance, if you have a squad member reload at the beginning of their turn, they can't do anything else. However, if you move first, you can still reload. This same piece of stupidity bleeds over into other actions, such as attacking (which is only counter-acted by one of the classes by a perk). Oh, and I feel, again, limited by only two actions. 3 or 4 would certainly help or, better yet, the reintroduction of the Time Unit system.

As for other problems... the fact that you can have Interceptors all over the world, but only one F***ING SKYRANGER is STUPID. Another thing, why can't we shoot down the UFOs that create the abduction missions without going onto the XCOM Nexus to altering things in your .exe? And the feature that's actually in the game, but locked, actually makes the game harder while also offering really hard decisions (if you take down a UFO, no UFO will come to replace it in that area, so you forever forfeit whatever bonuses that area would normally give you). Why was second wave disabled (it basically allowed for a good number of game modifiers after you completed the game), again requiring us to go into the .exe to turn it on? Why are the weapons just strict upgrades rather than "side-grades" that offer more tactical decisions to be made?

Back to the combat aspect's problems: Why do we really need to have the aliens constantly introduce themselves via a short cinematic (this is infuriating for me)? How can Sectoids on classic shoot from across the map and mostly get a critical on your guys when your highly-experienced soldier can't even target them because of how far away they are? Why can't we choose between different types of fire? For instance, we can't use free-aim with the exception of a few special pieces of equipment such as rocket launchers and frag grenades? Speaking of special equipment, why does some fiber-mesh vest or whatever keep you from carrying a medkit? Why can you only carry one grenade at a time? Why is this section of the game so buggy and why does the camera suck so much ass?

I could go on and on as I have just an enormous list of problems with the game. With that said, I am REALLY REALLY enjoying it, despite all of the problems it has. It's still a genuinely fun game, even if it forces you to do things you don't want to do a lot of times. If I had to rate it, I'd still give it above an 8, I think.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

@Vortis - Did you even read the article?

“We wanted a system where soldiers interacted more, and so we added abilities that linked together in interesting ways and started to work more as a squad."

“That actually made the game less interesting tactically when you had a huge number of guys because you could pretty much sweep the opposition on your turn.
“So we kept iterating on squad size and combat dynamics, and I think there was a pretty big shift at some point and the current version of the combat system was added, and suddenly the game felt a lot more tactical, and a lot more about making decisions with real consequences.”

More people on screen doesn't make it better... this generation of gamer gets way too caught up in that idea. "OHHH you can have a gazillion dudes on screen that has to make the game great!"

Far too many games get caught up in that idea too. I am more than happy with this iteration of X-com.

[vortis]

Dude, I'm old-school and I liked the old games because I played with a lot of guys. It was jut how I played.

I don't even like the new skill system that much, it just isn't that fun to me. Plus, never running out of ammo means I can just have a dude auto-fire the entire match with no consequence.

But back to the squad sizes...in the old X-Coms you could have as many or as few as you wanted.

For some missions I would only take my elite 4 and leave the rest behind. On some missions I needed about two or three tanks and a handful of soldiers. On some missions I used all 20 guys and a tank or two. I liked having the choice.

Also, mynameisEvil brings out some great points but the one that knocks me the most is the lack of itemization and item micromanagement.

If they're going to restrict how many guys I can use on-screen at least let me customize their gear. In the old X-Coms I could load a guy up with various explosives, grenades, rockets, the works. Now, I can't do that...I can't equip a guy with four or five high-explosives and completely level a city.

You can no longer just have a dude with laser pistols in each hand run around with a lot of time units, picking off enemies using auto-fire.

I like the game but a lot of the decisions they made to accommodate casual gamers really does piss me off, as I feel as if I'm playing a dumbed-down version of a classic.

Still, I hope in the sequel they ramp up the features and bring back a lot of what made the first three X-Com games classics.

Oh yeah, and they really need to let you make multiple bases with multiple carrier ships.

[mynameisEvil]

Hmm, I don't even know how I forgot about multiple bases. Speaking of bases, I would like to choose SPECIFICALLY where the bases are placed. In the original game, I sometimes put them in strategically sound places. Sometimes, I might place a base in the approximate location of where I live to give it a bit more of a personal flair. And being able to rename them should certainly be a feature, too.

[vortis]

Totally.

For instance, if you put your base on a small island in the ocean it made it a lot more difficult for aliens to attack or invade your base. But you risked being in an isolated location and it made scanning for ships on the mainland harder.

Mainland bases provided much more tactical coverage but you were easy pickings for a Muton battleship.

Dang, I miss that game...I may have to reinstall it soon.

[mynameisEvil]

Speaking of the thing you just kind of touched on... I can't believe they also took out base defense. When you were getting cocky and overpowered, wiping everything out, the original just went, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU SLUT? Enjoy these aliens blowing everything up, you game-ruining prick!"

But, yeah, no base defense. Now that I think about it, every aspect of this game is hugely flawed. Base management is lacking in comparison to the originals, air combat is strangely lacking in comparison (that's saying something, too), the geoscape itself is a friggin' joke as the only thing you can really do there is scan for activity, tell your Interceptors to intercept, and pick which site of alien activity you want to go to. Combat is a mess due to balance issues on classic and a lot of the horror is removed with aliens just blurting out their presence.

I don't know why I like a game that's so flawed everywhere, but whatever.