Julian Gollop (i.e. original X-COM / UFO: Enemy Unknown developer) shares his thoughts of Firaxis' game.
Extract:-
We [Mythos Games] had absolutely nothing to do with the development of Terror Under The Deep because we licensed our code to Microprose. I think they made some classic mistakes in turn-based games, which is to make the difficulty too tough and the levels too big, long and tedious to get through. In turn-based games the really difficult thing to get right - and I wouldn't claim I've got it right - is that you need to keep each turn having at least some interesting decisions for the player about where to go, what to attack, how to attack.
If you have some boring turns where you're just moving guys around without any real interesting decision-making then turn-based games can get very dull very quickly. It's difficult to get right.
God I hated TUTD.
Yeah, skill trees are a good concept; I've always liked them. It would be good to apply them in this case so you have a choice of paths of development and involving alien technology with it. I'd like to fix the psionics in the game so they're more interesting and balanced. But I'm not sure what else I'd do fundamentally to the game system. Of course, more interesting weapons and huge explosions.
And more convincing destructible terrain. We were going in this direction with The Dreamland Chronicles [a cancelled 3D tactical game for PS2 and PC that was very similar in design to Valkyria Chronicles] because we had fully destructible buildings. It was a pain to do it, especially on PS2, so we were quite limited in the complexity of the maps we could develop - though in some ways that's a good thing. Small, focused environments that have lots of interaction rather than endless landscapes of static elements. In that [XCOM screenshot], I'd like to be able to blow up the trees and their cover and create big craters in the ground with explosions and so forth.
Its a lol he can't even get the name right. TFTD's difficulty is a pretty hilarious result of listening to fans complain about UFO being too easy because it had a difficulty reseting bug that nobody fixed until fan patches.
You know, I was thinking on the issue of making funding countries more than lines in a spreadsheet, and realized it would be pretty cool if the game had the funding regions useful for more than moneys.
For example, you'd need local airbases to enable UFO interception, having good relations would provide certain bonuses (like new tech, scientists, elite soldiers etc.)
And then make the nations ask things of you that were at odds with other countries: say, you have a radar satellite ready for launch and the funding nations start giving you missions to increase coverage of their territorry - and of course those who don't get covered get annoyed with you and you possibly need to do other stuff for them to avoid giving the nation to alien influences.
So you'd have to balance your relations with the world based on numerous factors, depending on what exactly you need/want (do I suck up to the US for their piles of cash, or to Russia in order to get a batch of awesome Spetznaz recruits?), the level of their alien influence, etc etc etc.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
They talk about region specific-rewards (like different perks you get for having total coverage of a region) and it sounds like different countries will make different demands of you, and completing those 'sidequest' things will get you rewards. They're definitely aiming to challenge the player to choose between different priorities.
Mid-combat inventory management gone. You assign a limited amount of items to each soldier before combat, and those items grant special abilities or passive benefits during combat
Multiple grenade types. Multiple rocket types. Question of multiple ammo types was dodged
Lots of talk about squad-size.Summary: larger squad sizes weren't fun in playtesting due to the new depth of the combat. Too many soldiers made the tactical depth disappear. I'm personally guessing we won't see the squad limit go above 10 at most after listening
They do talk about the consequence this has on the effect of casualty rates as well, and why it makes people who liked the massive casualty rates concerned
Support class: Anyone can use medi kit/healing items, but support class does it better. Can use smoke grenade, etc. Is built around combos with other classes.
Devs talk more about soldier customization. They really like and encourage naming soldiers after friends and family (bonus: just noticed the soldiers in the screenshots so far were named after the Game Informer writers)
They discuss the consequences of random assignment of classes to rookies. You won't get perfect control of your squad composition. They are expecting you to have back up soldiers lined up in advance anyway to replace wounded/dead veterans.
Items are not class-locked. You won't lose the use of an item just because you're missing a specific class. All soldiers are killers, classes just make them a bit better in particular areas than others.
Critical Wounds -> Lower bravery won't make soldiers less effective in physical combat. Just less resistant to mind control/tricks of the mind. Critical wounds are not actually very common. They make it sound more like a system of "limited extra lives" where a soldier has the chance to come away with a permanent bravery penalty rather than just getting killed outright
Special aliens with boss-like qualities mentioned together with set-piece missions.
Several mission types. More than just terror missions and hunt-and-kill-and-collect-loot
Devs claim you can complete two play-throughs without seeing the same combat location twice.
On difficulty curve: Devs want there to be a point in the game where the player will feel that they are finally able to stand toe-to-toe with the aliens. Difficulty is not matched to your progress. If you fall behind on tech, aliens will slaughter you
Easy difficulty: for newcomers to XCom; Hard difficulty: no assurance you'll win the game; Classic difficulty: intended to address all concerns hardcore XCom fans might have
Ironman mode is in. No save/reloading allowed!
No plans for recording missions so you can watch the replay at this time
Devs want to include Guile haircuts (they might already be in. Lots of joking around at this question)
It seems their Advance Wars combat might mean they can reduce combat times and make the game more rounded, which can only be a good thing. I'm curious about average map size, since it seems reasonably small.
