Hawk07

+1 on the swirls, they make me feel it is an alien tornado or something like this. As far as countries are concerned, if you fail enough to have the council disband, the video shows the guy speaking mind-controlled by aliens. This explains why countries lost are not coming back. But still even if it does not make too much sense I would like to get back countries. There was one awkward game where I did really well for the most part, but lost India and the dominoes started falling till right after the Alien Base mission I had no soldiers in a good health (all wounded) and could not do an abduction mission that popped, which made 3 countries leave and oh, well you know the rest... :( So yeah this is a top priority especially for Classic rebalancing and Marathon games, if you really like battles and want to have a way to prolong the gaming experience!

@BGBailen Yeap, that's what I am talking about. By the way as far triggers are concerned they are too simple to be a problem. Been working with Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne Map Editors (quite good editors for someone to learn mapping basics) and they are exactly this. Tiles and triggers even though the game was not exactly tile-based. So let's hope for a map editor being done. (If I was a better coder I would start up a project to make a usable map editor as soon as people figured out more stuff about the game and maps...) @babyjebu5 Well, randoms are not included because some company (hint: name starts with F) got lazy at doing what you say. Really random maps are tons more fun than pre-made scripted maps. I want my alien base attack done well and being quite epic, agreed, but when it comes to day-to-day abductions and terror missions (seriously I have only played 5 of them in total and suprisingly I even got to see a second map, thought there was only one friggin terror mission map :down: ) I need some variety and I don't want the replayability turned down a lot because some development team got lazy with the game and decided "Oh, let's skip random missions, it is better to make 50 maps." By the way I also absolutely hate the VIP missions - only seen three of them (Anna Something, Van Doorn and a guy in the Road with the Bridge where I really know Thin Men that well that I can finish it with no damage to my soldiers at all) - is there even any more than these?

Snipers are invaluable because they (with good planning) are immortal. Assaults and heavies have a tendency of being expendables because of wounds and you may need a couple of replacements so train a second group of them. As far as the Support class is concerned, I want to point out that they can do more stuff than the medikit, I used a smokesguy as a front soldier, he did pretty well till he got headshot with a 10 damage critical, but they can be decent in a ton of roles. And one more thing, never, ever, ever underestimate the pistols and not upgrade them. You are going to regret this choice.

I think maps are a concern for Firaxis as the upcoming DLC will feature some chinese-themed maps if I am correct. Which seems they want to address this, so even if they do not support modding they may want to release a map editor. But I was concerned about the community part for now, as Firaxis is "too busy making cash from the upcoming DLC"! :S

Thanks for the tips, some of them were not too obvious to me so I got some priorities straight now. :)

Well, this is my opinion and criticize all you want: (:P) First off to make it clear I have not been a fan of the origjnal XCOM simply because I was 1 year old when it came out and got my first PC way later (about 2002) so yeah, I did not even have a chance! Now that we got this one, let's get to the points I want to make: 1. Graphics-wise the game looks fantastic, everything is sleek and good-looking while retaining the urban settings I have seen in Let's Plays of the original (yes I haven't played it still) and keeping the ultimate ability to destroy everything in the terrain. But there are some clipping issues and de-coupled animations, this is something that can be modded to get improved so yeah not too big a deal as it does not affect the game a lot. 2. Base management is dull and could use a lot more things plus I hate the defaut placement of the things inside my base. Let me build me uplink where I want it to make a ton of uplinks and a nexus in the middle, don't pin it to a location I hate even more if it is 9/10 times surrounded by steam veins. And the base is not too great by a long shot. It is a graphic overload only, we could have it text-bsed with more attention paid to the stuff we can do and our decisions. I would love to see base being attacked as people say it was possible in the original, it would be cool - probably moddable over time as well. 3. I absolutely love the tactics of the game in terms of cover and how you need to manage who does what, I would like a little more depth like a system with 4 action-points (each of the current ones to be replaced with two smaller moves, allowing for more precise things to be done), but the cover system is quite polished and allows you to make decisions. 4. Inventory... well actually items, cause there is no inventory. You pretty much understand it is not here because many people hate micromanaging and this will anyways be modded in the game at some point, just the vanilla experience needs to be accesible even by the unaware crowds (like me) and even some vets of the game may actually not like the micromanagement of the inventory. It forces you to make hard choices before a battle and choose only one item (2 with deep pockets) in order or you to think and not take all the vests and chitins in your team plus a couple medikits and scopes just in case. You have to pick a medikit for the doctors, a scope for the guy far in your back and buff those assaults and heavies with chitins and vests just in case a heavy armor is not enough. Hard choices are good and they do not feel pretentious here... 5. I absolutely hate the fact classes are assigned by the game randomly. Period. Seriously lemme choose which guys I want to snipe or let me get a decent 1/6 rookies assault. I got into a mission and returned with all 6 rookies promoted (yeah I was lucky). 3 snipers 3 supports. Trolling a lot random algorithms? 6. The skill system is quite good, some choices feel like no-brainers though, would like some more hard-choice stuff here. Still most skills are decent and allow for some varied gameplay and tactics. 7. I want a map making kit badly. No, let me point it out as it has to be pointed out - REALLY REALLY BADLY! I need more maps. Being a non-veteran and not too much of a tactician I have failed 5 times on classic and I almost know most maps, it is just hide and seek. Either that or a case of hide and die... Just another thing that falls on the shoulders of the modding community. 8. This is only me I think but I hate doctor Vahl(en) or whatever she is called. Having played 6 playthroughs being told not to use explosives and not to kill outsiders when I have no arc throwers with me makes me wish XCOM is for real so I can slap her in the face. REALLY! 9. I want more progression and variety in weapons - really ballistic, laser, plasma ONLY? Ok, maybe modders will do this but why did they make it so unpolished? They could have put some effort on it so there is no need to rush to plasma or there was a reason to use lasers. And yes I know the modding community already fixed this, but hey, half-done on release date...? 10. I am just as positive as every pleyer who played the original on getting us a UFOpedia. Yes it is a good thing to have and would have been no effort for them. I can find all the info I need, but seriously they expect me to run around the game looking for this info? No, this is just half-done. 11. More missions shall be needed to finish the game. Period. I have managed to fail the game 5 times but 3 were deep in the story and I had a few missions done and got to the alien base where I would unlock the psy abilites. 12. Panic is rediculous at points, both world-wise and soldier-wise. Seriously a rookie died, what where you trained for, soldiers? Plucking feathers out of hens? It is like a chain reaction. I had one sectoid and an outsider left, then a rookie gets killed, two rookies panic and kill my colonel assault and sniper. Now, seriously game? This is not the Earth's best, this is the Earth's worst! And what is it with abductions making me lose countries? I help mexico and I lose all of Asia and South America. I might as well not help anyone and put no troops to risk. 13. Outsiders are too preditctable as well, hate the one-outsider-left-in-the-core-room feelling. 14. Loadout screen needs to be improved because it ain't useable well anough by a long shot. They wanted to avoid micromanagement, yet still they have us pick on the soldier's equipment one by one. Let me outfit the whole team with carapace, use all lasers and put nano fiber to all of them. That would be a time-saver. 15. I absolutely love the videos and all the cutscenes, but the aliens announcing themselves theatrically gets old as does the kill shots of snipers picking a floater 5 miles away. I want my adrenaline running dring a shot, while it is a case of good animation - bad animation now... 16. Need more terror and VIP mission too badly. All I get is shot down UFOs - boring or abductions - too hard choices and after a point it seems like all abduction missions are "Very difficult". 17. Squad size is just fine, but I would opt for a grand total of 8 if possible via modding. But 20 as it was in the original is ridiculous and involves rookies as pin cushions. 18. Enemies fell genuinely ferasome at least on the first plyathrough. I just pissed my pants first time against chryssalids and when I see a berserker or sectopod my initial reaction is "Oh come on, this will kill me". I absolutely love the feeling enemied evoke in most situations. 19. One up for a second skyranger. Really I had something like 2k creds at some point, why not one more skyranger? 20. Rookies are rookies, get over yourselves, do not expect fancy stuff, not goo stats. First months will be tricky to get good teams, but later on you can dump them in the dozens and get the classes you need with the stats you need. That is, if you do not lose all of them. I think I can go on with this list forever but these are my main points. Overall score for me (as a new player to the series) is about 85% only because it is a lot of fun and has much replay value if you keep on failing. I do not forgive the development team for delivering an incomplete game, especially when they expect the community to fix a couple of thing for themselves, saying something generic that it is moddable, without any clues on how whatsoever. I think it is a nice game, feels good, can be improved a lot, but it is something for old players to say "ok we can have some fun time repaying, remembering our childhood, even if it is not as much fun and complex" and for new guys to say to themselves (like I did) "How the heck did I not know about this game in the first place? It is absolutely perfect". The fact that this game is opened up to a new playerbase and it did not turn away the old playerbase it had (like the upcoming XCOM fps is going to do) is a win-win situation in my book. Just because old players can ask for things to be improved and new players can bring more new ideas to it. And this makes it a game with potential to be too awesome. Now I think I shall stop typing... this purpe ray of light behind me... is getting... somewhat... more... attractive... the world needs my abilities to protect it... :P

I know this is a very early moment to ask about something like this, but do we have any info whatsoever in the direction of mapmaking in this game? I have been in the nexus community for quite some time and I would love to mess with making a mod in this game now that I have enough time (as opposed to other nexus games that I did not). I believe that if we could extract all the models and resources for maps, it's essentially enough to make a ton of new maps just by creating new layouts. The problem is if this is possible at all and what kind of hints we have here... I would love to hear from anyone with a clue as of where to start... :)