
OpenXcom 1.0 - etiam
http://openxcom.org/2014/06/openxcom-1-0/
======
danso
Congrats to the team...I think my appetite for this has been whetted a little
by the modern 2K Games remake...which, I know, is kind of heresy, but it
really is a great example of how streamlining and simplifying an already
decently-thought-out game (i.e. restricting soldiers to one special weapon and
grenade, and base management to one base) can still be satisfying.

That said, in the remake, the AI is inexplicably "boxed" up. That is, the AI
doesn't move until you stumble upon them...and so if you're patient and
methodical, it's not terribly hard to win most fights, scratch-free. That
ruined the tension that the original game had...The About page for Open-XCOM
says the AI is improved...I'd love to see a writeup on what was changed.

~~~
angersock
I picked up the original XCOM on Steam again, last having played it on an old
486 box--I remembered my lessons, and the first mission I'd intercepted a
little scout craft (2 crewman, one of whom died on impact).

So, naturally, I deploy 12 squaddies, leapfrog and encircle the crashed craft
on a farm in broad daylight (never, ever, at night, ever), and proceed to fill
it full of detpacks. Perfect, flawless run. I'm feeling cocky.

Next mission, terror mission, and within three turns I've lost like half my
team to friendly fire (unfortunate incident with an incendiary rocket), a
quarter to enemy fire, and the last few guys are either panicking or getting
crushed in a pincer between alien tank units (cyberdiscs) and heavy infantry.

And that's when I realized that pretty much no modern games are as _hard_ and
_unforgiving_ as that old DOS wonder. You start the game with a bunch of folks
in T-shirts and M16s, and by the end you are literally space marines whose
mere presence sends elite enemy units scurrying in terror--and more
importantly, the game made you earn it, every step of the way.

EDIT:

Their Github!

[https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom/](https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom/)

~~~
Pxtl
Actually, it's hard to deny that X-Com did have a serious gameplay fault in
its difficulty curve, as much as we loved the nostalgia.

At the easy difficulty modes (most new players) the curve is completely
backwards. It stars out brutally difficult and becomes easier as you gain
access to heavy plasma weapons.

If a total wipe of your early team was a forgiving event compared to late-game
losses, that could be excused as setting tone, but it's not like that -
players just save-scummed until the mission worked. That's not good gameplay.

I mean, the game's merits easily overshadowed its flaws, but the reverse-
difficulty is a serious flaw.

~~~
angersock
So, the trick with the early game was to accept losses, right?

Once you realized "Hey, we're totally outgunned...we just need to flood the
aliens until we get better gear", things changed. Missions became more about
resource management: what is the bare minimum I can field to wipe these guys,
what can I build and manufacture that has the highest profit margin, etc.?

Terror missions, for example, early on devolved into "Set fire to everything,
because we need the light, and shoot the civilians, because they could be used
to feed the Chrysalids and make more Chrysalids."

The enemies in the game stayed largely the same difficulty, but your equipment
got better and better and tactics switched as you were able to field more
expensive units--and unless you ran a really _tight_ resource game, you
treated those expensive units much differently.

The thing that made the game feel unique was exactly that: the reverse-
difficulty. If you started kicking ass, and then things got harder, it'd be
annoying--instead, you had some early success, discovered just how outclassed
you were, and after a few restarts learned how to fight a technologically-
superior enemy until you had achieved force parity.

~~~
dccoolgai
I remember it having a nice subtle balance - you couldn't afford to just let
terror missions go unmolested because you would quickly lose funding. On the
other hand, you couldn't just grind soldiers out because you needed them to
progress with skills, etc. for the endgame... although there was a sort of
plateu around when you got armor and psi-ops where things got boring between,
say the 70% and 95% where you were just waiting to capture that one thing you
missed in the earlier missions... from what I remember, that was the worst
thing; There were like 2 or 3 things you needed for your tech tree that only
appeared in early missions and they were really difficult to get after that.

------
devindotcom
I'm so pumped for this, tried it about a year ago and decided to wait. The
games I come back to in my life are Mega Man 2 (okay and a few other NES
games), Final Fantasy III/VI, and XCOM. Others I dip into and remind myself of
every once in a while, but these I actually regularly play through semi-
regularly because they're just such a joy. Can't wait to dig in, maybe with a
mod or two, and fret over my squad for a few hours. Thanks to the team.

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swombat
Nice but... the iPad game completely took care of all my XCom cravings for
quite some time. It was one of the most solid iPad games I've encountered.
It's more a remake than an adaptation, and they really put in a lot of effort
to bring the first XCom game into the 21st century, and it shows.

It cost £10 or so, and I never regretted a single penny of it. If you loved
this game, I really recommend getting XCom on the iPad.

PS: This is not meant to take away from what these guys are doing... but
watching that ancient creaky interface after being treated to the modern touch
interface in the iPad game was somewhat painful. Here's a video:

~~~
ericd
Which version? I'm only seeing Enemy Unknown and something called "Aliens
versus Humans" which looks like a direct clone, but which the reviews say is
sort of a shallow imitation of the original. Is there another I should be
looking for? (XCOM is one of my top 5 of all time, would love a direct copy of
the original with a graphical update)

~~~
Jtsummers
Enemy Unknown is the Xcom game.

~~~
ericd
Damn, I was hoping he meant a real remake of the original. Enemy Unknown was
good, but it isn't in my top 5.

~~~
wrboyce
I am confused as to what the original could be if not "X-COM: Enemy Unknown"
(AKA "UFO: Enemy Unknown"/"X-COM: UFO Defense" released in 1994 on
Amiga/CD32/DOS/PSx/Windows by MicroProse)?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-COM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-COM)

~~~
masklinn
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is not a straight remake of UFO: Enemy Unknown / X-COM:
UFO Defense, it's a "reimagination". RPS's XCOM review also serves as a
comparison/diff to X-COM: [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/08/xcom-
review/](http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/08/xcom-review/)

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ekianjo
It's worth noting that there is another Open Source Xcom game clone, UFO Alien
Invasion: [http://ufoai.org/wiki/News](http://ufoai.org/wiki/News) (has 3d
graphics).

~~~
leoc
OpenXcom's not really a clone though, it's a repolishing of the original
X-COM. [http://www.xenonauts.com/](http://www.xenonauts.com/) is another
clone/spiritual successor.

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aquadrop
That's the game (original) I played for years in my childhood, and opening
theme was my favorite music video :) Thanks to the team behind OpenXcom.

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snorrah
Interesting timing, since Xenonauts
([http://store.steampowered.com/app/223830/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/223830/))
came out of early release today!

~~~
rurounijones
Which is very fun and keeps the spirit of the original X-Com alive and well.

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skriticos2
Hm, this needs the original game assets, which I just bought on Steam. Trouble
is, I can't download them on Linux because it's listed as a 'windows' game. _<
facepalm>_

~~~
nknighthb
Steam's Windows version is known to run under Wine. It doesn't run _great_ ,
but you can certainly use it enough to download game assets.

~~~
skriticos2
I've done that a few times, but I don't want to clutter my current system with
the wine + winetricks packages _again_ for the upteenths time. I was hoping to
find an accessible way now that Linux is first class citizen for Steam.

~~~
Elv13
You can create a disposable chroot debootstrap and use "xhost +" on the host
to let Steam run. This is what I do every time I need something that require
Java on my desktop.

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tunnuz
This is one of my all time favorite games. So I'm really happy someone is
wishing to bring on its legacy. I think I'll play it very soon.

~~~
rurounijones
Have a look at Xenonauts
([http://store.steampowered.com/app/223830/](http://store.steampowered.com/app/223830/))
as well, it very much keeps the original x-com spirit alive.

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aidenn0
Note that the original X-Com always played on Beginner difficulty. The
developers never found out about this bug, and so may the sequel extremely
more difficult, thus making it not at all fun for all but the most hardcore
strategy gamers.

~~~
viseztrance
That can't be right. I fondly remember playing it on impossible, and almost
all of the aliens started with heavy plasmas, and aside from that even the
smaller ufos had twice the number of regular units.

~~~
aidenn0
Gamespy mentions it here: [http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/x-com-ufo-
defense/1216654p3.html](http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/x-com-ufo-
defense/1216654p3.html)

Wikipedia claims that the difficulty didn't reset until after the first
Battlescape mission, which might explain things.

Aha!
[http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Known_Bugs#Difficul...](http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Known_Bugs#Difficulty_Bug)

It was only on the DOS version, the windows version did not have the bug;
perhaps you played the windows version?

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Vektorweg
I really like OpenXcom, but like the original Xcom i can't play it because of
its rather stupid hit calculations. Range to the target isn't used for
calculating the chance to hit a target. Because the troops can't hit something
when it stands in front of them. Resulting in funny battles.

There is an build-in mod to reduce the chance to hit a target based on range.
Since this doesn't solve the issue, the melee aliens become even more
dangerous. And from all games around, Xcom do have the nastiest melee alien
ever.

~~~
devindotcom
Is this true? I've definitely unloaded a few full auto shots into aliens
nearby and the hit rate seemed drastically higher than if I were to do that at
range.

~~~
Vektorweg
Its also noted in the changelog:

    
    
        - Range based accuracy removed - UFO Extender accuracy added.
    

or in the ingame settings.

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Tsutsukakushi
Xcom fans should also check out x@com.
[http://xcomrl.blogspot.fi/](http://xcomrl.blogspot.fi/)

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radimm
You say Xcom, I hear floppy disks :) what a memories! Thanks for sharing, will
give it a go over the weekend.

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bobcostas55
How's Xenonauts? Have they made enough changes to justify the price?

~~~
rurounijones
What do you mean by changes? It is a complete remake with the same theme, not
a modification.

But yes, I am enjoying it and it is in the spirit of the original x-com.

the only downside I have noticed so far is that I seem to be seeing the same
maps a lot (although with X-Com chopper and UFO location randomised)

