UFO Defense Redux

[amblingalong]

Hey everyone,

 

As a huge fan of the original XCOM and someone who greatly enjoyed this iteration, I'm looking forward to putting together a mod to bring back some of the aspects of the first game I thought made it stand out. In general (and I realize this may be controversial) I don't plan on drastically modifying the battles themselves; adding TUs back in, for example, would require essentially building a new game entirely, and as much as I want random maps added back in, I quite frankly wouldn't know where to start. What I do want to do is make changes to the strategic level and recreate some of the depth of the first game. Some of the things I list below will likely never be possible, but I want to brainstorm as much as I can and then get to work.

 

A quick word about my skills- I am a solid modder, but I am not a particularly talented texture artist or modeler. If this mod catches on- and I hope it will- I would love to work with anyone who has those talents, or indeed, anyone who wants to help at all. So, without further ado, here's the first draft of the type of ideas I'm looking for. I'm looking for consensus at least among the fans of the original, though, which means if you hate an idea here, speak up, explain why, and I'll listen carefully.

 

-Currently feasible-

• Allow interception of terror and abduction UFO's
  
• Make laser never have to reload (and balance by making them slightly more expensive)
  
• Require you to interrogate a psychic alien to learn psionics
  
• Denerf soldiers starting health on classic/impossible
  
• Add a couple zeros to the end of all the costs- this is silly, but the scaled-down economy irritates me.
  

 

-Potentially feasible-

• Allow construction of multiple Skyrangers, which should allow you to respond to multiple abductions simultaneously
  
• Let you use fighters to destroy downed UFOs instead of assaulting them (makes sense from a fluff and from a gameplay perspective; basically you lose out on a ton of resources but might be a last resort if you're overwhelmed)
  
• When soldiers die, you lose their equipment (maybe Classic/Impossible only?)
  
• Add a couple weapons back in, specifically stun launchers, flares and proximity grenades (i.e. mines)
  
• Add in another step to complete the game, researching the Avenger; I thought it was weird that for me, at least, 70% of the game seems to happen before I assault the alien base, then another 20% before I get the hyperwave decoder, and then maybe 10% before I assault the temple ship. Basically, I usually max everything out very quickly, even on Impossible, and then what should be a huge chunk of the game- stopping alien ships using the hyperwave decoder- barely lasts a couple missions. Let me know if you have any other ideas to adjust pacing.
  
• Free Aim
  
• Allow you to sell weapons, items and armor (would require re-balancing time to create and costs)
  
• Enable nationality-appropriate voices (the hard part here is not adding the new voice files, but making soldiers default to the correct voice for their nationality)
  
• Allow you to directly purchase engineers and scientists
  
• Require a certain number of scientists to research certain high-level technologies

 

-Would require creating new maps-

• Add more types of maps (arctic, jungle, desert, mountain)
  
• Add more maps, period; frankly this is probably the thing I want most out of everything here
  
• Alien Base Construction Ships appear occasionally in regions with high Panic levels; if they're not detected and shot down, they will build an Alien Base, which if not subsequently detected and assaulted, will increase the Panic level of the host country by one level per month until it leaves the Council
  
• Cydonia- I can't be the only one who thought the current ending was anticlimactic, right?
  Base defense missions; the good thing is that the top two levels of your base are essentially static, so it wouldn't be that hard (assuming mapping is feasible) to create a standard layout for it. Since this map will be the same for every base defense mission, it would just need to be huge, with multiple entry points for aliens, which would allow for a lot of tactical possibilities. Potentially, you could invest in defensive upgrades (autoturrets? healing stations?) as well. Losing, of course, would result in losing the game. And, if possible, I'd love to give you a way higher squad cap for the mission- 12? 18?- and then also throw an absurd number of baddies at you. Essentially I would like this to be the most epic, sprawling battle possible, unless I can top it with Cydonia.

 

Let me know your thoughts, criticisms, and suggestions, and if you want to partner up to get these things done, welcome aboard!

Edited October 14, 2012 by amblingalong

[acky1]

I really like your idea, I've actually modded my own for personal use that does a couple things you've listed here (I also doubled my XP required for promotion). I know a lot of what you listed could be changed now very easily, or I've seen people talk about it. Having played it through twice now I almost think some of the game transitions are dependent upon research and the others are upon those three important missions; ending up to the temple ship. I like to play a nice slow paced game, I think the beginning is the best part of the game, developing your infantry, discovering lasers, etc... In "XCOMEU" I feel that the game is way too fast. I blink my eyes and I have plasma's.

[snwkill]

I like these ideas, I hate how they tied events to certain milestones that the player makes. It is quite comical because the easiest alien to stun is the energy shard guy, which in turn makes the base spawn before i even get lasers. I almost think that satellites should be a little easier to launch, to get coverage, but in turn scale down some of the rewards.

[Solver]

I've done some of that in a UFO Classic mini-mod I published last night, and I want to do more. I am extremely familiar with other Firaxis games, but not really with Unreal engine games. Sadly, it seems that we're getting access to a very limited set of modding tools, unless more gets released.

 

One of the things I am trying to accomplish now is making all items require construction time, even if it's short, no more of this instant laser rifle production. I also want a partial equipment loss from dead soldiers. Not losing all equipment (feasible), but only losing armor worn by killed soldiers, not currently sure if that is possible.

 

Unfortunately, some key elements of the original game, like free aim and base defense missions, are very unlikely to be possible.

[acky1]

Unfortunately, some key elements of the original game, like free aim and base defense missions, are very unlikely to be possible.

 

I tend to disagree, if we can get a map editor you could make a base and then add in a script that is similar to the abduction ones but this one spawns a mission to defend an XCOM installation on such and such continent. I'm still holding out hope.

[Solver]

It is the script part I am worried about - has anyone managed to get access to the scripts yet?

[amblingalong]

Unfortunately, some key elements of the original game, like free aim and base defense missions, are very unlikely to be possible.

 

Yeah, I think we're all praying for a real set of mod tools. Even if we don't get a Creation Kit equivalent, I think Firaxis would be smart to release the map creator they used and put in place some system for accepting user-generated maps; the map repetition was one of the weakest parts of the game for me.

 

I'm speaking in theory right now, but I'm thinking free aim should be possible by forcing weapons to use the rocket launcher script for targeting. Since LOS checks and the UI are already built, I'm hoping there's a way to shoehorn it in. As for base defense, I think this one's a tossup; if we get real mod tools and if we get a map creator, though, I bet I can do it. The tough part would be creating the new assets (the base tileset, for example).

 

And of course as someone who cares a lot about making mods polished- that is, making it feel like they're a smoothly integrated part of the original game- I'd need to find creative ways to avoid needing new cutscenes, for all these missions.

[KristmasKthulhu]

I'm actually hoping for someone to figure out a way to get rid of all the cutscenes. At the risk of sounding like I'm about to tell you kids to get off my lawn, there was no need for cutscenes in the original, and there's definitely no need for them now. As far as I'm concerned, not having new cutscenes would be perfect for any map/mission add-ons that I would look into downloading.

[amblingalong]

I'm actually hoping for someone to figure out a way to get rid of all the cutscenes. At the risk of sounding like I'm about to tell you kids to get off my lawn, there was no need for cutscenes in the original, and there's definitely no need for them now. As far as I'm concerned, not having new cutscenes would be perfect for any map/mission add-ons that I would look into downloading.

 

The way I see it, the problem is that the cutscenes communicate a lot of information that isn't otherwise conveyed. If the game was built not to need them I'd agree entirely, but just ripping them out and not adding anything in would make for a really disjointed experience, as things stands. Maybe once we get deep into the scripting files there will be a way to workaround the problem, though.

[Guinnessmonkey]

I'm actually hoping for someone to figure out a way to get rid of all the cutscenes. At the risk of sounding like I'm about to tell you kids to get off my lawn, there was no need for cutscenes in the original, and there's definitely no need for them now. As far as I'm concerned, not having new cutscenes would be perfect for any map/mission add-ons that I would look into downloading.

The original game's lack of cutscenes wasn't some aesthetic choice they made, but a budgetary and technological one (they're expensive, require voice actors, and didn't really exist in gaming back then. Quality ones started to creep into strategy games after Starcraft showed people how to do them well, and that was half a decade after XCOM). How, exactly, does having a little cutscene when you develop a new weapon or interrogate a new alien detract from the game? I've seen some odd complaints before, but the very existence of cutscenes? Really?