The Future of XCOM | A Retrospective and Wishlist
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- This took me far too long, but I hope you all enjoy it. It's easily my most ambitious video to date.
The modern XCOM series has had me hooked ever since Enemy Unknown/Within back in 2012, and after nearly 2000 hours of XCOM 2 I have gotten plenty of time to think on what I'd really like to see done to the series in the future. This is my first, true long form video essay with a ton of effort behind it, and I hope it turned out well.
This is the kind of content I'm going to try my hand at for a while, with hopefully far less gaps in between them, now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing. Thank you all for watching over the years, from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you to OverEnglishMan for voicing The Hunter!: / @editedward
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I wonder whatever happened to that Sethorven guy.
Welcome back, Commander.
Just saying, i never see the squid bug and the loading time of the game is heavily affected by the amount of mods one installed. Btw my favorite chosen is the assassin, I nuke the warlock(literally) and the hunter is personally been hunted down by my in game avatar(yes he is a sniper).
Oi
I'm halfway through and I'm having an absolute blast, you're on point with a lot of you're....well with your points
Good job man, absolutely loving this content
I'm aware of the loading times being affected by mods. I mention that it's on me in the video, dude. Lol.
Will you continue the xcom playthrough
It'd be cool if the next Xcom game had a end of level replay mechanic where you can watch a replay of the entire mission but with all troops moving at the same time for each turn so you could see all the combat and stealth play out in real time without all the pauses between turns and individual character movements, It'd make for some really cool carnage montages.
Makes me think of what Fights in tight spaces is trying to do.
The game already keeps a record of all actions taken in your mission, it's even possible to load a save as a replay! So your wish may be granted.
@@BP-jm4dq how to do that?
AWESOME idea. Like Super Meat Boy but with actual war.
The sad problem with this is: Explosives.
*90% hit chance* MISS
*50% hit chance* HIT AND CRIT
That's my first Xcom experience.
Sounds about right
Because crit and hit are not separate rolls
@@o0zeke0o84 Only for XCOM 2
@@davidplumb2604 oh, he didn't specify what xcom was so he might be talking about xcom eu but yeah, That's why there's a mod that adds the old eu rolls into the base Xcom 2 game
Yup, even after loading multiple times just to see and confirm the BS for laughs.
i love how "Mission Accomplished" goes through all necessary emotions:
"we won!
...but it ain't over...
but! let's celebrate our victory now, and prepare to win the war!"
My favorite moment with the Hunter is when you storm his base and are 1/4th of the way through and he tells you with a hint of embarassment and desperation something like "You are probably waiting some sort of trap ahead waiting for you. Well, there is not. I wasn't expecting you to make it this far."
He's not scared, he's not angry, he's not being deceptive. He's just baffled it came to this and he didn't consider the posibility.
I thought the line was “well there is not, I didn’t think anyone would enter this place willingly”
He says he’d love to tell you you’re walking into a trap, but that would be lying. He didn’t think anyone would willingly enter his stronghold
I'd personally love increased cutscenes with our custom soldiers interacting with the world, as well as additional customization options. XCOM 2 did a fantastic job with customization, and the mods just made it better.
Phoenix Point allows for extensive customization so could be a good jumping off point. PP customizes vehicles, flyers and the base alongside soldiers with 3 unlockable faction techs, vehicles and weapons to augment your vanilla gear. Curious to see a Firaxis take on this would look like. Long War also added a lot more depth.
@@mitchcameron PP also kinda stinks so…
@@mitchcameron I'm sorry let me process that
PP CUSTOMIZATION
I LOVED That Cutscene with all your troopers Really loved that (its one of the last cutscenes before the final mission)
@@theclone9123.Cyberpunk 2077?
my request: when estabolishing contact with a new region, it's one of YOUR OWN soldiers in the cutscene, not just some random nobody
Not Dave the intern
^^ Long Live Dave
@@EditEdward so you could say that Dave has enter in your heart?
Edit: I wish that we could have more cutscenes with our soldiers showing a little personality and interacting with the world of XCOM like the introduction mission to war of the Chosen’s Reapers and Skirmishers; or like the beginning of XCOM Enemy Unknown with your soldiers investigating a battle field with cutscenes with each of them finding something, reacting appropriately and sharing some dialogue with base command and the other soldiers.
for some reason I always thought it was Bradford that went to the new regions
I do hope they bring a bit of the horror element from enemy unknown. Like when the berzerker killed a squad mate and you just see the blood splash agianst the screen showing the utter power it has and the chrysalis ripping into your soldiers and seeing their body jerk as the eggs are implanted is still brutal
Honestly the revamped Chrysalids were not really all that scary, in the new games I had to LET the Chrysalids attack a civilian or soldier and then allow them to pop out. The original game especially if you landed at night was terrifying even at a lower difficulty because they could pop out from anywhere and zombify your soldiers in one bite and then when you thought it was better the zombified soldiers skin would sluff off and there's another full health Crysalid right in the middle of your soldiers.....waiting to do the same thing....
yeah it was missing in the sequel i do hope they do bring that back in the next one.... it wasnt just terrifying though your right but it also made each mission you were in tense like anything can go wrong even on the lower diffs but like you said i also wish they bring it back too.
Most of the designs weren't that great, imo. They should bring back the smaller sectoids. I think the size difference helped play up the bigger guys a bit.
@@Jadefox32 Oh hell yes! I still get flashbacks when thinking about nighttime missions in UFO Defense against chryssalids... Particularly when several of them are waiting scattered around your landing craft, just waiting for you.
@@Jadefox32 Oh hell yes! I still get flashbacks when thinking about nighttime missions in UFO Defense against chryssalids... Particularly when several of them are waiting scattered around your landing craft, just waiting for you.
That self jab at “taking 3 months to animate a gun” made me laugh more than it should
He encapsulated the bleeding arrogance the Hunter embodies. I love it. You know, I often find myself shouting "Eat Shit!" Whenever I take him out.
On the concept of Co-op Xcom, me and a buddy did a playthrough once where we each commanded half the squad and took turns commanding our units and making field decisions. It was insanely fun
Yea works like that in Halo wars 2 it could be fun if done right
@@stubblytuna4068Same with Halo Wars 1.
Not sure if Red Alert 3 also did it since it’s been awhile.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the menu squid" HP Lovecraft after his first play through of X-COM 2.
"Every character Nolan North voices must be a smartass."
Cpt. Walker - Am I a joke to you?
Isn't that the guy from Spec Ops: The Line?
@@requiem6465 Yep
Well, he was a bit of a smartass at first.
Ghost Rider, Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Honestly expanding the sitrep system would solve a lot of problems. Having tons of different modifiers that you could manipulate with geoscape upgrade things and an expanded alien sitrep system could seriously improve the games randomness without numerical frustrations.
This is why Raider Factions is one of the best things the XCOM modding community has pumped out, among other great things.
though there's one sitrep I can do without: FREAKING LOW PROFILE, that sitrep REALLY should not have been added in the first place but I am willing to tolerate being an EARLY GAME ONLY sitrep that simply exists to say "hey, don't rely just on one specific squad" and gets phased out once a vast majority of your soldiers would be rendered unavailable due to it
@@keeganlafferty1395 How about Surgical strike on resistance heaven mission?
@@darykeng that one isn't so bad if you got a decent enough squad and/or the Celatid mod (which includes deployable mobile turrets)
@@MrCardz it's good but jank and very picky compatibility wise even in 2024
He finally did it. M’boy did it!
Edit: having now watched it. Dude. Make more longform essays. You fit this schtick too well and the writing, pacing etc is great.
Also thank you for my totally underserved popups among “the crew” (you know the gang) in the co op bit. Wasn’t expecting that my guy. o7
Ay yo
Dunno why but I had been unsubbed...no clue why though
@@aeonclokwork youtube unsubs you from channels sometimes. Not sure why, but its been a thing for a while
I love this tiny awsome community.
They can probably fix the feelings of people on this with animation. If they for example made the animation where the alien dodges out of the way on a miss, it actually makes us realize that it is really possible for a point blank range shot to miss just like when someone comes at us with a knife we try to sidestep it. Makes it more realistic.
Didn't Enemy Unknown have that?
@@bigmonkey1254 not sure xcom 2 has it though which is the better measure of the future of the game imho.
Except, dodge is different than miss, so that would mislead people.
@@aolson1111 true but they could work around that making misses within one or two tiles impossible (it really doesn't make much sense for trained soldiers to miss in that situation, unless the enemy dodges)
@@bigmonkey1254 I was about to say I’m like 95% sure it did.
"2k is looking to keep this series going for a while" Haha yeah they definitely are! Can't wait for x-com 3...
I liked the video; however, I cannot entirely agree with nerfing the endgame abilities as it goes against the game‘s narrative (from weakling to badass). Also, it would kill that satisfying feeling that comes from taking the war to the aliens after they had beat you so many times before. My suggestion would be to make the strategic layer harder, making everything more urgent and difficult without removing any of the badass abilities.
Just as long as they leave Rookie difficulty alone.
Disagree. XCOM Enemy Within had a good amount of difficulty. There wasn't much overpoweredness in that game, the Aliens could still easily kill you on almost any mission.
@@serathaevistille995 If You'd had said Enemy Unknown then I'd have been inclined to agree with you, but have you heard of... Mimetic skin? I'd be lying if I said that Gene mods didn't make End Game XCOM EW much easier than EU.
@@MeAMoose Yes, I have. And I don't use it. Lol. What a lot of people forget about, 'overpowered' things in a singleplayer game is... Does it honestly matter? If it's overpowered, then fine, have fun with it. Do you get bored of being overpowered and the game being too easy? Fine, don't use the overpowered thing. It's very different from something being OP in multiplayer, because getting killed by an OP weapon over and over makes people think they have to use it themselves to compete and domino effect ensues. That... Doesn't happen in singleplayer, so who cares. Hell, I don't even care that XCOM 2 is a cakewalk by the mid-game, because it feels so damn fucking fun. And that's the important part of a game. Fun.
@@serathaevistille995 Your point was that it wasn't overpowered, not that it didn't matter whether it was or not. Either way I disagree (there's a reason why squadsight was nerfed from EU to EW).
It's here! It's finally here!
*♫Resistance Rad-i-o~♫*
Alright people. It's time to reminisce, and to look forward. I know the war against ADVENT has entered a lul, but just because there's nothing grand to tell you about doesn't mean the war has somehow been lost. Think about it, when was the last time you heard of ADVENT making a move either? No. This cold war is simmering right underneath the surface, and like two grandmasters playing chess, sometimes simply moving pieces into place is the most important move you can make.
It is the metaphorical calm before the storm.
With that said, how about we catch up on some history together, shall we?
First of all, we always knew the aliens weren't all powerful. I mean, come on, they show up with UFOs and a mothership, and yet they're content to go the infiltration route, dismantling our power structures from within. They were running scared back then, and why wouldn't they? In the brief skirmishes we had, our Earth-developed fighters actually shot down UFOs on the regular. For all their advanced tech, we could beat them head on.
But they didn't come at us head on, and it's telling that they've only become the power they have because of willing collaboration with the aid of our homebrew weasels. Now I'm not about to say the world's governments were saints before the invasion, but I'd side with the devil I know over the devil I don't any day of the week.
And speaking of the devil we know.. the Skirmishers. ADVENT puppets breaking free of their puppeteers, We need to consider the angle that they aren't unique. That all the aliens we have faced so far are nothing more than thralls to their masters. I'm not saying you should show them mercy out on the battlefields, because they don't have the option to show you any either, but there's a distinct possibility that if we win this war, we won't go back to the normal before it - because doing so would be to stab the skirmishers in the back.
And call it wishful thinking if you must, but I hope we're better than that. We're fighting a war for our survival, yes, and you won't find me ever saying that we should rein in our efforts to do so, but once our very survival stops being on the line.. I hope there's enough humanity left in ourselves to consider options beyond extermination. The Elders are bastards not just because of what they've done, but because of what they've quite literally forced others to do. Let's not, once this is over, become even more tyrannical than they were.
This broadcast goes out to the skirmishers in particular - who fight at our side despite the uncertainty they face in the world should we win.
ruclips.net/video/dbftQpzIyUk/видео.html
What the heck happened on Chimera Squad?
@@ODDnanref Chimera Squad only describes events in one city, we don't know what happened worldwide after XCOM won.
@@lowcalibremine3004 humanity won
Xcom just lit the spark
In enemy unknown, everyone would just shoot at once but the camera would pan through while everyone was shooting.
I had 3 squad mates Overwatch a Priest
GOTT IST *DED*
XD
What an intense minute, because he didn’t trigger Stasis!
Fun fact: The Chosen are actually in Xcom Enemy Unknown during a DLC mission pack known as The Furies. In that mission series you save 3 superior Psionic soldiers each named after the Furies in Greek Mythology. It was confirmed that in Xcom: War of the Chosen the Furies were never saved and upon completion of the Alien psionic s project they became the Chosen as we now know them.
where was it confirmed?
@@Mish844 I don't think it was but it's a solid theory. I remember a comment saying that in XCOM 2 you could find the bodies at a scan point where the mission took place in XCOM:EU, but after they introduced WotC, that was changed and the bodies couldn't be found, so that strongly points to this theory being the canon.
That’s contradicted by the comic. At least the hunter. He was a former reaper who got kidnapped and then brainwashed.
I've always wanted to be able to assign squads/teams - so having an A team, B team, etc. Like how in Stargate they have SG-1, SG-2, and so on. Combined with the bonding system it would be easier to keep certain groups of characters together and would make it easier to swap out teams for missions.
Would also love to be able to have more than one active squad in the field. So I can send multiple squads out gathering intel or en route to another location across the globe.
I’m still waiting for a mod where we can recruit the Hunter. Honestly he was the most human of the chosen and I kinda expected him to turn on the elders.
Or a side story where the Hunter ropes XCOM into missions that just totally annoys the other two.
Fun fact: on Nexusmods, there is an abandoned (AFAIK), early alpha, but technically *functional* mod that in fact lets you recruit the Chosen! For testing purposes, it lets you get them early for nothing, but the eventual plan, IIRC, was to use their essence, dropped from killing them in their Stronghold, to "revive" them in the Proving Ground, free from the Elders and willing to help XCOM reclaim their world.
They even have various chatter and comments - outside of the usual quote prompts for soldiers, as the Warlock and Hunter tend to react to you shooting enemies near them with something along the lines of "Was that meant for me?"
I’m actually one of the people who hate that arrogant asshole. I prefer the female chosen (idk what’s called in english, i’m italian and in italian they call her assassin)
I think the female chosen was the more human of the three. She dven admitted her defeat and wished for XCOM to win back the earth after we defeated her!
The Chosen are all irredeemable cowards.
@@Dragonblaster1 Irredeemable cowards? Annoying/frustrating murderous jerks, yes. But irredeemable cowards? Please explain.
Mission Accomplished is ABSOLUTELY the music that plays when cool dudes in leather jackets and aviators walk away from giant explosions
It's a remake of the intro music for the original game
That "Squid" or "graphical bug that only appears on the main menu" does not in fact only appear on the main menu. I've had one of my soldiers do that in the middle of a mission.
I like what 2K and Firaxis did with getting recruitable aliens, and being able to see what they could do in Cholera Squad. The individual turn based combat is a neat idea for close encounters, but for bigger scale the 2 turns works best imo.
Two things I do wish they add:
1. Multiclassing: Cause I play DnD and multiclassing can add some crazy stuff, and it would be even cooler if each multiclass even got unique abilities, kind of like how the. MEC's could in enemy within.
2. Body type advantages: Smaller people being harder to hit and getting into smaller spaces, bigger people Mr Xing through walls, ect. Seeing heoght differences and weigjt differences would be nice for customization as well.
Cholera squad omggg 💀💀
Multiclas it more dificult balance
Multiclass would be easily doable with the classic X-COM inventory system.
I really liked the aspect where you sent a few troopers on a secret mission. I think dispatching troops to multiple locations would be cool.
My absolute favorite thing to do in base game xcom 2 was make factory destruction missions a solo infiltration mission. I'd send a single shadow ranger in and make them get into position to plant the bomb and escape on the same turn while staying concealed the entire time. It was so fun. The missions with a smaller squad size are the most fun to me, even if the RNG can't average as well due to fewer actions per turn.
That’s why I highly recommend modded classic Xcom. Your veteran soldiers just get better stats. They never get (significantly) more durable outside of armor and there aren’t any major get of jail free cards. Combo that with hyper lethal alien weaponry and more soldiers at your disposal per mission and it feels like an actual conflict and not
“ON TODAY’S EPISODE OF DRAGONBALL Z, GOKU KILLS A SECTOPOD SINGLEHANDEDLY IN ONE TURN”
That and modern XCOM’s veteran soldiers are so irreplaceable that I’d compare a playthrough to climbing a skyscraper with a squad wipe being falling off it. Fall 2-3 floors up, not that bad. Fall 40 floors up, and they’re gonna need more than a mop to clean up that mistake.
It doesn't take an expert to notice that XCOM2 in general has a problem with alpha-strike meta. You either wipe the aliens in a single turn or the aliens wipe you in a single turn. That makes fights pretty short-lived because they are determined by too powerful abilities. I guess it makes sense because you;re a guerilla force, but I hope they introduce a lot less of those in the next game and replace them with stats like you said originals had.
And using the 'Beta Strike' option can only help so much because most of the abilities weren't built for it, so they don't scale. In fact, using this option by the late-game usually means that the aliens have a hard very time because the player abilities stacking on top of each other have so much overkill damage, you can still alpha strike the aliens while they can't.
Actually losing troops regularly each mission without losing the game did more to build a sense of power from the aliens then current iterations. The reduced squad size was a mistake IMO.
@@namenotavailable the funny thing is while the tactical battles were far less forgiving, the council was way more forgiving of a squad wipe. They’re far more understanding over the fact that you lost against technologically and potentially numerically superior aliens.
Also, definitely. Modern XCOM aliens feel like total pushovers compared to the most incompetent and fragile sectoid of classic
What I really hope they WON'T do is go by CS's path of "every soldier is a hero and they can't die". I mean sure permanent characters are easier to get attached (Cherub is precious) to and to make personality for, but it really removes the tension from your decisions when you know that no matter how much you mess up you won't lose anyone. Lets be honest we all had moments when you need to sacrifice a soldier for the rest of the team to live. And even just random soldiers can become MVP that you will cherish and remember.
i know itll never happen, but xcom really should have something like the nemesis system from shadow of war
I´m pretty sure thats not something they will keep. Chimera´s Squad purpose seemed to be to world build a world that is no longer our own (like it used to be in Enemy Unknown) Most world building came from character interaction, and you cant have that if everyone is dead.
@@2013HORSEMEATSCANDAL We can dream. But yeah, it will never happen, mainly ´cause Warner patented the mechanic and now they can sue anyone who tries something similar.
@@axios4702 Which is quite sad. But honestly it wouldn't happen anyway considering how much effort it would take to implement in something like XCOM.
@@2013HORSEMEATSCANDAL Yeah, imagine some of your high profile soldiers having their own rivals? That would be so cool!
I disagree with the argument that the game is "too" easy at the end game. YES you are VERY powerful for sure, and maybe even OP. But I think that's what I love so much about this game because it's SO SATISFYING to finally slaughter the aliens who were slaughtering YOU at the beginning of the game. This game puts you at COMPLETE disadvantage at the beginning making you barely scrape through missions while losing soldiers every time. Only to slowly upgrade, cling to life and eventually become so powerful that you're now taking the fight TO the aliens. It's incredibly satisfying to me and is why I have done so many playthroughs, to come across enemies that were once terrifying, and ANIHILATE them in a single turn.
The only thing that annoys me, and I have played every X-Com and XCOM game is; they always end with the Plasma weapons but don't go any further. It would be nice if there was a technology step beyond plasma, one that even the enemy didn't think of but then it would be insanely OP for you as XCOM. Also, very late game, your scientists have nothing left to research. It would be great if you could split some off to do some +1 research. You do get some extra with WOTC where you can snuffle up some random +1s to a selection of tech if you have the right facility for a limited period of time, but it would be cool if you could take a specialised path into an endgame weapon design, or be able to carry on developing weapons feature set further (and the enemy get the chance to do the same). That way, every game is unique. Just a thought. How it is, it is almost entirely a linear rush to the end of trees. It would incentivise you to get the final mission done. I had all bar the final mission to do and I just "covert missioned" for about 6 years of game time to get the willpower, speed and HP of my top soldiers up for some huge cheese, because there appears to be no failing date, you can carry on for decades as long as you keep the Avatar Project from finishing (which with the right choices is very easy).
Its hard to to sell me that I'm really that bad ass when the aliens really aren't that strong to begin with
A good way of balancing the end game is giving the AI more tools and more capability. For example, more utility items that offer protection towards your items and them using abilities and items you have like grenades. Alongside that making specialized units more common, with Spec Ops versions being on par with early Mid game player units, but can work well in pods with other specialists. Alongside that give more technologies to add more variety in-game for armor, weapons, and other gear for players and AI.
My rangers early game:
Got em but damn 21 days in the infirmary
Rangers late game:
*WOOSH WOOSH WOOSH*
End game missions are so fucking boring doe
Once you gets used to the classic, you'll LOVE the mods. The xcom files in particular is really something else.
Aw, I got it on Switch
I in particular wonder what a Star-Trek style AU (diplomat tourism instead of war) would be with all these alien species
“I’ll be honest... your roided up brother is the only human person I can expect to SURVIVE marrying a Berserker. Just call ahead of time if you’re gonna visit them, and let them live their own way.”
My wish list for a new XCOM game.
1. More Synthwave.
2. More customization options for your soldiers (More accents and languages, in particular)
3. Canonize that Mutons need those rebreathers to survive and that there eyes are naturally a solid orange/yellow color because holy shit the Muton in Chimera Squad looks stupid.
4. The option to recruit alien squad members. The idea of Humanity teaming up with all the freed aliens, taking the fight to those asshole Ethereals and liberating the original homeworlds of the Mutons, Vipers and Sectoids sounds rad as Hell.
5. More sneks.
I would love more structured story missions like Newfoundland in xcom 1
Ah, Newfoundland...
1. It showed fairly thoroughly that overwatch didn't quite work well enough.
2. I already forgot about it.
I would like to see a Darkest Dungeon like good and bad traits system, I think it would help give individual soldiers more of a personality while still adding on to gameplay to make a tactical choice to exclude certain member depending on what you know about a mission. some traits could be like buff or debuff based on the environment like cities, forests, bases, or maybe traits that make soldiers more or less effective against certain enemy types.
I mean the game has negative traits, but they only nuke your will and have a tendency to panic your units which can cause many stupid hits on enemies
There are a lot of systems already so having have your squad healing and then dealing with ptsd could slow down the game a lot (not a bad thing). It would add a more realistic set of mechanics but might not fit the tone. Just depends how it is executed.
+1 for the "Take Down" mechanic thing. that's the first thing i missed from Chimera Squad when i went back to Xcom 2. Had five soldiers all unable to hit a single 1HP ADVENT officer even when flanking. Whole operation failed because of that.
I like the take down mechanic. That should have been a thing in XCOM 2 considering the covert nature of the squad.
Never seen that squid bug before. Gez it scared the crap out of me when I first saw it in this video. Great video about XCOM in regards to flaws such as the early game struggles and the late game being overpowered in your favor. Let’s hope XCOM 3 addresses these flaws and adds some new features. Found your channel due to the XCOM tank video and I’m glad I did.
If anything, the ending of X Com 2 War of the Chosen suggests that the next game will go the route of X Com Terror From The Deep.
The ending of chimera squad is also a cliff hanger, so who knows what we are getting.
@@sripuranam if you hear the elders in enemy within they warn of the "greater threat" if you played the original xcom 3 apocalypse you know. The new alien threat actually keeps sectoids...... As a food source o and they can infect any unit with this thing called a brain sucker like the face hugger from alien but it gets shot out of a launcher by other aliens then you have to deal with an exalt like cult and criminal human gangs or any other humans that get coopted but you can command tanks apc's motorcycles and various air units
@@ianirizarry30 I hope in the next modern xcom APC and IFVs are implemented. I don’t understand why our elite xcom teams are flown into combat in an aircraft that doesn’t even have door gunners
If they turn Xcom 3 into a TftD-remake, I sure hope they unf*ck the bungled research tree of the orginal game.
@@ranekeisenkralle8265 Tasoth Commander Bullshit flashbacks, yes, I know that well.
The squid bug actually appeared in a mission for me and possessed my psi operative. It was silly but at the same time, really creepy with how she used her powers and attacking.
This video is the first time I've seen it, and Steam says 1,650 hours for me.
Perils of the Warp
I believe she has turned into something of lovecraftian horror.
I wasn't expecting OEM Hunter, lol.
This scene made me laugh
No one expects the random Hunter incursion.
A surprise, to be sure. But a welcome one!
You're spot on about that subdue skill. Nothing more frustrating in early game than working down the enemy to low health, then move your last unit in for the killing shot at point blank, missing and that last mob killing it. Its kinda like how D&D evolved from "no matter how easy it is you're trying to do, if you roll a 1 you critically fuck up" to "take 10".
On the geo-scape level I would love to see a competitive mode where you could play as the aliens against a friend. If the Geo-scape was set up in such a manner it would make that part of the game feel more like a game. heck if we could just take the combat mechanic to a FFA risk type game that would be fun.
In regards to random number generation: Early on in the Fire Emblem series, Intelligent Systems noticed that, in play testing, a single RNG roll *feels* like you're missing more often than you should. Their solution was to instead roll two random numbers and take the average. This means you're less likely to hit on the lower end, but on the higher end your chance to hit is actually higher than the number shown - actually a 90% chance if your chance to hit shown is in the 80s. This makes it *feel* like you're hitting as often as the game says you should, because when the number is high, each miss feels worse. This would be a good solution for XCOM, too.
I only get frustrated at times when you have to kill an enemy then miss an 85% shot, but that's OK got someone else with a 88% shot, end up missing that shot and then miss a 3rd shot at over 70%, then loose 2 operatives in ensuing chaos
@@tomasdawe4423 lost an ironman once to this exact situation, ugh
A better idea might be to simply streamline the targeting system. Take Mutent Year Zero for instance, there's only five possibilities in that game when you're aiming at a foe - no chance to hit, 25% chance, 50%, 75% and 100% - and it mostly depends from your weapon's efffective range and the cover the opponent has, that's it (apart from special items like smoke or flare grenades). This means that if you're next to an enemy with a free line of sight and no special circumstances, your chance to hit them WILL be 100%, which is definitely not how it happens in Xcom. In addition to this, MYZ displays your future chances to hit when hovering over the location you want to move to, so that you can check if, for instance, the flanking maneuver you intend to perform would be effective or wasted.
I don’t think that would work well with xcom. In fire emblem your playable units tend to have much higher hit rates than your early game xcom soldiers. Early game in xcom it’s hard to get above a 45% hit chance without flanking an enemy or getting right in their face. This would make early game xcom even more unreliable as that 45% would be even lower.
Early game XCOM is about how to build your strategy around how to flank your opponents, and making backup plans for the misses. The system is also rigged in the vanilla version so a 80% shot is more likely to be a 90%, luckily they have removed the rigged system in Long War so when it says 70% or 90% it really is that number it rolls for. If you remove the actual meaning behind the percentages, you remove the need to actual plan and strategise, you know, the reason you are playing XCOM instead of other games :)
He returns!!!! Please the next Xcom be a terror from sea like the ending hinted at at the end of Xcom 2 and facing the “threat” that the elders are scared of
I hope that’ll be a thing
I don't think that it was hinting at Terror from the Deep. I think that it was moving towards xcom apocalypse and that the "threat" was most likely the micronoid aggregate.
@@voidsire8668 Yeah, and I feel like one of the campaigns of Tactical Legacy, the one where Crysalids are being drawn out of the ocean, is pretty much intended to be a quick and easy Terror From the Deep because they had decided by then they weren't going to do a full modern game of it.
@@voidsire8668 that’s too bad though. I always found the ultimate alien (which was basically just cthulu) to be a vastly more intimidating threat then the micronoid aggregate.
Alien squad members would be nice, maybe not having variable classes like humans but having much more pronounced roles and strengths/weaknesses, and maybe being limited in equipment
Something like the Faction Heroes in WotC?
There is a mod.
There is a mod that lets you get them as your own but I don't know how they do the classes
maybe something like the aliens in chimera squad, could recycle the moveset
Maybe something to do with a skull jack would be cool, like if you skull jack some alien to unconscious and get them in the end of mission. Throw autopsy and resources for balance such.
You have made a significant improvement to my XCOM experience by getting me to switch to the UFO Defense soundtrack!
Ngl, i kinda owe you for introducing me to this series, and generally speaking you're one of my favourite creators on the plarform
Thank you for highlighting the Mission Accomplished one, that's genuinely incredible. I've played for 200 hours and I've not really perceived it
I'm happy that you, too, recognize how amazing "Mission Accomplished" is.
As someone who played the originals, you have no idea how much nostalgia made the epic new soundtrack so much more awesome. Never were so many tears of joy shed and screams of joy shouted. I have the entire soundtrack added to my portable music player.
I think instead of just nerfing the endgame, it would also be cool if the enemies got improved tactics over time, and also if their reveal action wasn't always to move somewhere, but also do some attacks or suppression fire. For improved tactics, it would be cool if there were ambushes (overwatch) that might trigger once 2 or 3 of the squad is within view. Also, it would be cool of enemy squads could coordinate better, like having all enemies rush to the battle from the whole map once combat has started. Also, enemy snipers would be scary as hell, especially combined with tactics where the rest of the squad bunkers down and plays defensive while enemy snipers picks you off.
23:10 This whole interrogation sequence is one of the biggest reasons why i like EU over Xcom 2
So much personality in just a single cutscene
Plus the music hits hard
Fucking lost it at both OEM Hunter, and the epic guitar solo. You sir, are a master of your craft. I hope you continue making content and wish you the best Seth.
I'd love to see more love for the lore of EU and EW. I know we retconned those out of existence already, but there's still plenty to discover. After getting to play with snake ladies and mutons on Chimera Squad, I started wishing we could explore more alien characters. What happens when your soldiers start bonding with a berserker? What if a thin man refused to leave its disguise and went rogue as an xcom informant? Could it be possible for psy ops to mind meld with a sectoid? How would floaters integrate back into intergalactic society? What the fuck do we do about the chrysalids now that the elders aren't around to keep them leashed? Did we really ever get rid of all the floating, invisible, robo-squids? After the fall of advent, wouldn't now be the time for exalt to start mounting their own scrappy resistance? What if, hear me out here, we replicated the entirety of xcom:bureau in the style of resistance radio missions? There's so much left to unpack here!
Commenting for the Algorithm Sempai to notice this!!!
Seems to be working... adding to the comments to boost.
Woop algorithm daddy brung me!
well... there the lot of stuff from the first Xcom what i really miss
-like miss a shot, went flying somewhere else and may hit some enemy behind the target.. not disappearing into thin air.
-overwatch could be adjust by %. So no Shotgun shot across the whole map and then getting facehuged by the same mob
-Airfight was astounding detailt. Like taking down a ufo with light weapons left the wreck mostly intact. Usefull for looting elirum.
But blowing it to pieces with the plasmablaster and there wouldnt be much loot.
-that little shit of sectoid tries to hide in a barn... burn it down with the auto cannon and incendiary bullets
As a veteran of the original UFO Defense game, I thought that the awesomeness of the soundtrack was just my nostalgia getting the better of me, but I was truly delighted to see you go on and on about the amazing new adaptations of the original music.
The music from the Tactical Legacy pack is so good, I sometimes forget I have a mission to do :D Oh, and the Hunter is my favourite Chosen too, he makes me laugh so much :D
What was the wait from the last video? 3 Months?
120% worth it. Keep it up Commander!
"Also I won't be talking about the original games. I haven't played those yet."
Oh so you haven't experienced TRUE XCOM pain yet? *cries inside*
I remember playing X-COM back in college, and going in for a mission and have my guys pile out of the ship only to immediately get mind controlled and slaughter each other without me having any clue wtf was happening.
Good times :-)
@@Doomquill Don't forget in Terror from the Deep when you'd load into a mission, pop open the door to your skyranger and watch in terror as a single projectile come flying out of the darkness, flew straight into your skyranger and wiped out your entire squad on Turn 0.
@@Doomquill i remember a alien mind controling one of my guy in the ship, right after landing; he had a rocket launcher, that was a quick mission
@@PablitaOrtega77 i kinda likes when incidents like that happen cause it forced you to limit who got to carry and utilise your own explosive and restricted the amount you deploy with. This in turn sort of stopped players from spamming explosives in the mid to late game until psi strength was high enough to make it a non issue.
@@rhyssmith4218 indeed, still a painful memory.
The Co-op idea is literally the greatest thing I've ever heard suggested for XCOM
One idea I would really love to see, since XCOM will probably be in full force in 3, is a Danger Room style mission. Where participants fight simulated aliens and can only be wounded and not killed. This can allow a commander to not only start a mission by their choice, but also let other soldiers beside your very best to catch without the worries from covert ops. You can obviously choice what these soldiers fight, which can not only promote them further but also has a chance to wound them for longer or give them a particular phobia from the training.
All I know right now is that I'm still waiting for terror from the deep inspired modern xcom game. Also yeah that early game RNG feels like your rolling dice to roll dice. But I kind of enjoyed it some good laughs for me.
A TftD-remake would be nice, but only under one condition: They need to seriously overhaul the research tree. Back in the old game that was a hot mess where you couldn't even research stuff you looted from a mission, because you first needed to interrogate some alien before or something.
I’m actually surprised Commander Sethorven only has 1800 hours
Ah the channel that convinced me to come back to XCOM after i forgot it, you are alive, goood! Please release more awesome content ^^
Edit: Also as someone who plays paradox games 1800h is... well not rookie numbers but definetly squadie
Unironically, the segment about the Tactical Legacy Pack music is making me consider another playthrough of XCOM 2. Damn, I didn't know it had that awesome a tracklist.
4:48 when it comes to Random Number Jesus, it sometimes helps to remember what we say in medicine: the patient lives in the sample, not the distribution. A rare disease isn't rare for you after you already have it.
My aunt is in the hospital rn and watching ur videos really makes me laugh and forget how sad i feel
#1 on my wishlist, no more instant fail timers
Now I want to see Seth go through a campaign of open X-com or xenonauts I think seeing him have to take on UFO battleships. *evil laugh* OG blaster bombs were brutal.
I think the problem with most late game items is how they are basically just upgrades to things you already have. Magnetic Weapons are essentially Conventional Weapons but with +1 damage and a new skin that shoots red glowy stuff, and Plasma Weapons are essentially Magnetic Weapons but with an additional +1 damage and a new skin that shoots green glowy stuff. They should be more like sidegrades with advantages and disadvantages, whose utility depends on the situation you are in. This would also improve the customisation in the game, giving players a bit more freedom to use the weapons they want to use, instead of just always ending up using the same stuff in the end. Long War 2 comes close to this. In Long War 2, two additional weapon tiers are offered, Laser Weapons and Coil Weapons. These weapons do more than just add damage. Laser Weapons also have a 5% increase in accuracy, making them very useful for long range or for poorly trained rookies. Coil Weapons have +2 armour penetration, making them useful for taking out armoured units such as MECs and Sectopods. Plasma Weapons were also overhauled to deal rupture damage, which increases damage with successive shots, making it a good weapon for dealing with boss enemies. Now of course, I say Long War 2 "comes close", because they throw all that out the window by having the plasma weapons deal much more damage than anything preceding them, completely overshadowing the their unique properties, but their is potential here.
Hey Seth, just wanted to mention something that you didn't mention. I forget the specific building name, but it's the building that allows you to get any ability for any class as long as you have the ability points in War of the Chosen. You want a sniper with fan fire and serial, you can do that. You want a Specialist who is a medic and combat guy/girl, you can do that. So on and so on. Not even mentioning how the RNG for the random abilities that the Skirmisher, Reaper and Templar can get outside of their normal move set. I once got a starting Reaper with the ability Shadowstrike, which increases the aim and crit chance by 25%. Which made them a must have for every mission since they should always be in concealment. Another campaign I got Bladestorm on my starting Templar, which gave them the ability to take a 100% chance swing on any target that comes into range. And since, to my knowledge, the Templar can't miss any melee swing........... The RNG is the biggest, well, randomness in Xcom 2 War of the Chosen. It can screw you over in the worst way possible, or it can be your very best friend like I mentioned above.
Gotta keep that in mind!
You got Ana and Baraka!!!
XD
The only issue I have is in regards to nerfing late game and buffing early game.
See, Xcom works as a curve at the moment. You start struggling, you end dominating (the black Scottish cyclops).
However, if we change that to be a straight diagonal line in terms of power-difficulty, each mission might feel more fair and balanced for both sides, but they will begin to feel the same MUCH earlier than they do now.
I propose a different idea.
What if instead of simply giving the AI more health, or nerfing all our soldiers abilities. We make changes to some active abilities, give them single use rather than recharge, AND we start fighting enemies with unique training and abilities not unlike our own.
If chimera squad is something to go by, XCOM is already welcoming in aliens into their ranks, so what if ideologically there was a split?
Some people wanted to guide the world to a new technical renaissance, the other wanted to leave and seek revenge on the elders?
This split could be a basis for straight up choosing which side of the coin you wanted to be on, give you access to all these aliens with unique physiological traits and the abilities of XCOM.
And your enemies would be on the same playing Field.
Could this not give an interesting and EVOLVING conflict to the game?
Thoughts?
I agree, but I believe Firaxis is heading for a Terror from the Deep vibe in the sequel if XCOM2's ending is anything to go by.
@@ChadVulpes perhaps, but it'd be a weird side step considering the topic of Chimera Squad
@@Pat-The-Cat nobody’s saying they won’t incorporate both ideas. CS was more of a side project, though, so I think XCOM2’s ending is a better indicator for what’s to come, since it was a main entry in the series. That’s all.
@@ChadVulpes fair enough
I just hope Julian Shen returns as an AI for our base and we get to have some more aliens on our team.
Also: The Templars, Skirmishers, Sparks, and Reapers retain relevance in the lore moving forward unlike what happened to the Enemy Within DLC stuff.
The hang ups and lags are probably due to the engine Xcom EU/EW and 2 were developed on. They used Unreal Engine 3, and the issues 2 (and probably EU/EW) have are eerily similar to Killing Floor 2 (made on the same engine):
Long loading times (loading maps take awhile, regardless of your PC specs).
Weird hang ups (KF2 has a problem where it hangs up for awhile after killing a boss; this occurs once, but is guaranteed to happen everytime you launch the game).
General Jank (this one is self-explanatory, both games have some jank in their mechanics and features).
I think these issues are an engine thing as UE3 is pretty old, but they do so well at masking the dated engine with their visuals. It makes you think they’re using Unreal Engine 4 when they’re really not.
Stumbled upon this just now, and man. What a blast watching these videos. You've raised some valid points throughout, and I'm curious to know even more... Curse not being able to sit down and just, talk about XCOM more.
Overall, loved the video, may have to take a look into your content some more.
It was so sweet getting those tracks in the legacy pack. I'd been listening to a lot of those melodies in their original version for years and it was just cool to see them updated and brought to new people. :)
Ok you know what that Co-OP idea sounds pretty good actually, even if it'll most likely never happen.
The only barrier I can see is the speedup/slowdown of time at the geoscape
Id probably be the most interested in more chosen like enemies or other personalities with in the ranks of the enemy. Just seems like a cool idea.
Tactical Legacy's music really reminds me of Deep Rock Galactic's ost, and I'm ALL FOR IT
0:45 May I just say that, with this being the first video of yours I've seen, that was _incredibly_ polite. I appreciate that.
I think that, in and of itself, is worth my sub.
The original 1994 X-COM is still my favorite. And I say that as someone who was playing Final Fantasy Tactics around that time instead, and only found out about X-COM 10 years after it's release from recommendations of what a good game it was. This isn't just nostalgia, I had to struggle to even get the game working in Dosbox. Yeah, it's ancient, it's buggy, it's hard to control, but it was so disappointing that the 'new xcom' games gutted the gameplay so heavily, dumbing it down instead of just fixing it up. I'm still hoping that the future of X-COM will impress me, but until that happens I'll maintain that the original is still the best designed game of the series.
I just hope they bring back the atmosphere of the first two games. It really added to the experience.
Co-op Is the dream we all need but don't deserve.
Maybe something like xcommanderless (every player controls a squadmember, no comms allowed preferably) which is a community concept that uses computer sharing would be cool if it was implemented in Xcom3. Would be better than nothing at least.
@@teecee1827 ngl that sounds pretty fun
@@noahthonnard293 ruclips.net/video/y5zZwCxZk-g/видео.html this is the concept better explained. I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to implement with game 3.
@@teecee1827 Oh wow! Your right! I bet it could even just be a setting you turn on in a campaign maybe called co-commanders or something. Thanks for sharing!
I feel like WotC were the perfect time to try experiment at least, we have a total of 4 factions. If each faction was player controlled and works together with one another from another part of the world that would be cool, add more unique units to each faction and bam every player get a different playstyle and adds replayability. You see CPU resistance fighters take turns on some retaliation missions, what if those were people. Ofc they also got buff up the alien forces to keep the difficulty leveled or just allow less units from each player depending on how many joins in on one mission. This is all a dreams but it sounds like it would take Xcom to the next level, at least in my opinion
I have one criticism only of your gripes. That you would want to get rid of the Menu Creature. First time I saw that I laughed so hard it was painful. They need to make that be a base function of the menu with added variation for how it twists and convulses.
Great video as a whole but using that music to end it really sealed the deal for me. Congrats!
Long War has lots to learn from. I love their squad mechanics, but it can be expanded upon. Build each squad for different specialization with squad wide skill trees beyond the classes.
Your idea of picking your own mission to start will play well with specialized squads. You'll have to balance which squad you want to reserve for random events. Which squad to send in to mission 1 that will impact the mission 2 depending on how 1 goes, but you'll have to lock in deployment for mission 2 before mission 1 starts to time things perfectly so the enemy respond can be controlled.
Another suggestion would an expanded version of entry from Chimera Squad's entry point system, but pick where you deploy from the start of the mission instead of just by a door. Deploy a lone unit at the corner of a map while the remaining of your squad go loud at a defensible position.
Add in varying missions with different gameplays. Certain missions will play more like Chimera Squad, other regularly, while some large scale missions let you take control of ally NPC squads (but not individual soldier).
Expanded version of the next game's equivalent of jets and resistance would be nice. Manage pilots or outpost leaders like soldiers with their own skill sets. New strategic/tactical gameplay different from main missions that let you steer to the desired outcome rather than having direct control.
With Coop, it would be interesting to have different factions with different tactics and varying goals, not just identical XCOM divisions all over the globe. Regular military will have more man power but less tech, PMC faction that are like glass canon, private tech firm that deploys more robots and bonus points against enemy mechs. Or each coop player takes a department role in the XCOM organization.
The hunter part had me laughing in tears
You forgot about how the port versions of XCOM 2 on other devices is a complete joke. Especially not even having the legacy pack available to them.
Things I would ask for:
a) Mass Effect style Codex entries.
as of now, xcom world is very much.. inconsistent and its worldbuilding is very skeletal. This would allow firaxis to actually eplore it to more depth without slowing the game by random exposition dialogues or cutscenes. Also perhaps this would stop idiotic things like alien rulers using teleportation.. or vipers having psionics, or berzerkers..
b) T3 weapons start.
Seriously, if they make a sequel we should start with plasma weaponry. World standard likewise should be a mix of magnetic and some plasma weaponry and technology. If they want a full research tree, add in T4 and T5
c) Living word
Perhaps we could see evidence of the world existing outside of xcom. Random citizens or local forces assisting in missions, local forces helping take down alien crafts, and so on. This could be solved by an expanded sitrep system with different mission modifiers, which would also help to reduce the predictability factor.
Definitely start from at least T2, no bullshit ballistic weapons from T1. If they are going TFTD, got to start from the Gauss weapons. The darts are just ridiculous. Living world also sounds cool, local cells to assist (such as those diverse ones in Chimera Squad, I kinda liked the unmasked Muton). Maybe some more factions too. I liked the extra ones we got in WOTC but some more on top would be nice.
Its amazing how a game that's so old, and plays out the exact same way every single time, still has such longevity.
The Subdue ability is so helpful for the reasons Sethorven stated. Another way Chimera Squad made a vast improvement is reinventing overwatch. Basically, it's Killzone with a single shot. I hope this type of overwatch is integrated into a Xcom 3. It could easily combo with upgrades relating to overwatch like Ever Vigilant, Cover Fire, etc. Also, a new pair of upgrades could alter the degrees of the cone for a change in distance. This simple addition could add layers of strategy and become a new staple mechanic.
That "Nananana! Listen to this!" came at perfect moment, i was just about to skip ahead.
I agree with what you said there about the music - and as soeone who has indeed played the original games - both UFO Defense and Terror From the Deep, I really do appreciate this trip down Memory Lane with the modern recreation of these iconic tracks.
With UFO Defense in particular, you really missed out on something. Thing is, you tend to have a lot more lads and lasses with you in that game, than you do in the modern version - and boy oh boy, do you need that strength in numbers. If you got really bad luck you had a cluster of chryssalids waiting scattered around your landing craft - which very, VERY easily meant a mission failure. Because unlike their modern recreation, back in the day a melee attack from them meant an instant-zombiefication and upon attacking that zombie an instant +1 chryssalid on the field. In fact I am glad Xcom didn't recreate them they way they used to be. Those old chryssalids really are the stuff of nightmares - even more so than the Ethereals with all ther psi-shenanigans.
With Terror From the Deep, however, I have less good memories. Mostly because they really screwed up the research tree with that one. To the point where you couldn't research stuff you looted from a mission, because you lacked a random previous research - including interrogation of captured aliens. This got so frustrating throughout all my attempts, that I eventually abandoned the game.
I sure hope that when they recreate Terror From the Deep, they fix that mess so that i can actually enjoy it this time around. The boarding actions against ships were a real challenge back in the day.
Either way, I'd like to see a list of all the WotC mods you used. The cosmetic stuff in particular.
Pheonix point does aiming «rng» right imo, where every bullet has an area where it can hit
Halfway through the video and coop XCom PLEASE.
I've kinda made it coop by getting with a friend or four and 'I'm gonna control this guy' and we pass the controller or sometimes it lets you control everything from each controller (this was on the couch). It was SOOO much fun. There were a few times when all your own made characters were injured and so you had to control one of your friends' characters, but man it was amazing.
I think something that could have been cool to see done is something that puts more on the line. Having the commander be a unit that when you use them and have to use them it's everything on the line. We'd be able to make them into any class and look how we want, probably unique versions of the classes or just unique class types ingeneral.
What Xcom 3 needs is an end of battle live action replay. Where the battle is replayed as a cinematic. I always try to imagine my battles in real time. It would be so cool to see.
8:30 In this situation, you don't even need the Chosen sniper.
You could replicate this with a Plasma Lance with an Extended Mag, and Auto Reloader. Thats up to 3 free reloads and 6 shots per mag.
That means one could hypothetically fire **18** shots without even ending ones turn in the base game with equipment thats purchasable at the only market in the game.
Assassin: *Keisei Gyakuten blasting out of speakers*
Warlock: *Autistic Screeching*
Hunter: Ayy lmao now watch this shot.
Thank you. Reminded me of why I have loved XCom for so long. I have been hooked from the very first one and I really have enjoyed playing Chimera Squad as well.
I couldn't agree more that Tactical Legacy soundtrack was the absolute best best best thing ever. It made me love a game that I felt I couldn't love any more.