X-COM, XCOM and their derivatives - Including: Xenonauts, Phoenix Point, and assorted tactical turn-based alien shoot-a-thons

[Rich Evans Apologist]

First time reaching this part of the game.

After doing a breakdown of the turrets, you get the defense matrix building. It puts turrets on those maps that are friendly, which can put in a surprising amount of work if you have the supplies sitting around. It's also supposed to reduce the success rate of Chosen infiltration attempts when playing WOTC, but someone on the dev team forgot to actually call that function so you need a mod to have that building do that.

I finally finished fixing all of my custom character data that got fucked from fiddling with mods, and I've at long last found a nice, optimal configuration to enjoy the long war mod with.

Spoiler: shaping up to be a solid group

Squad 1: Wesker, Garrus, the Darkest Dungeon narrator, Jerry Seinfeld, and Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
Squad 2: Smiling Jack, Dale Gribble, Bane, Homer Simpson, and the Vindicare Assassin.

 

[Moths]

Sup niggers time to unearth this skeleton with some news

Firaxis has announced they are shutting down Xcom 2's multiplayer services at the end of this month. Notably this will also break the challenge gamemode as well as the standard vs match. Firaxis announced they are doing this to 'redirect resources' to other projects in production.

Funnily enough though multiplayer will still be available on Linux, Steam Deck and console releases of the game past this date. If your a completionist on pc i'd recommend getting the multiplayer only achievements soon as they do not plan to support multiplayer on PC past this time.

Full article: https://www.pcgamesn.com/xcom-2/multiplayer-shut-down-date

Note: this game came out in 2016 with the most recent DLC being released in 2018

 

[White Devil]

Hopefully they put co op in Xcom 3 whenever that comes out. I know Firaxis refused to help any of the modders trying to do co op on 2.

 

[Moths]

Hopefully they put co op in Xcom 3 whenever that comes out. I know Firaxis refused to help any of the modders trying to do co op on 2.

tbh I cant really see where they'll go with a story for 3. Has there even be any info leaked about it yet?

 

[Agarathium1066]

tbh I cant really see where they'll go with a story for 3. Has there even be any info leaked about it yet?

If memory is serving me right at the end of 2 the psychic resistance faction talks about a 'new enemy' while looking over the ocean. It was sort've implying a potentail Terror From the Deep style foe. Though who knows if they'll do that or not since the original X-Com ended with a threat that the Ethereals were preparing for.

 

[Kane Lives]

Sup niggers time to provide unearth this skeleton with some news

Firaxis has announced they are shutting down Xcom 2's multiplayer services at the end of this month. Notably this will also break the challenge gamemode as well as the standard vs match. Firaxis announced they are doing this to 'redirect resources' to other projects in production.

Funnily enough though multiplayer will still be available on Linux, Steam Deck and console releases of the game past this date. If your a completionist on pc i'd recommend getting the multiplayer only achievements soon as they do not plan to support multiplayer on PC past this time.

Full article: https://www.pcgamesn.com/xcom-2/multiplayer-shut-down-date

Note: this game came out in 2016 with the most recent DLC being released in 2018

I hate this niggery when game devs force everyone to use their matchmaking, and whoopsie doosie "we gonna turn them off now sucks to be you" when they run out of budget.

At least give people a goldsrc esque lobby for P2P multiplayer. Or you know, use a third party matchmaker like the good old days of Gamespy (before it shut down and fucked all those games over anyway).

 

[White Devil]

I hate this niggery when game devs force everyone to use their matchmaking, and whoopsie doosie "we gonna turn them off now sucks to be you" when they run out of budget.

At least give people a goldsrc esque lobby for P2P multiplayer. Or you know, use a third party matchmaker like the good old days of Gamespy (before it shut down and fucked all those games over anyway).

The thing is you can get a lot of those popular games that used gamespy working again for MP.

 

[NerdShamer]

If memory is serving me right at the end of 2 the psychic resistance faction talks about a 'new enemy' while looking over the ocean. It was sort've implying a potentail Terror From the Deep style foe. Though who knows if they'll do that or not since the original X-Com ended with a threat that the Ethereals were preparing for.

Well, considering what we got with Chimera Squad, it's pretty clear that writing an gripping story is too much for Firaxis.

 

[Agarathium1066]

Well, considering what we got with Chimera Squad, it's pretty clear that writing an gripping story is too much for Firaxis.

They don't even need a good story given the summary of their two mainline entries are. "Aliens invade, steal their shit and kill them" followed by "Aliens took over, steal their shit and kill them". Just add "Ancient Sea Aliens are invading" to the list or "EXTRADIMENSIONAL ALIENS!"

They'll probably still flub that too trying to make shitty social commentary.

 

[Corn Flakes]

They don't even need a good story given the summary of their two mainline entries are. "Aliens invade, steal their shit and kill them" followed by "Aliens took over, steal their shit and kill them". Just add "Ancient Sea Aliens are invading" to the list or "EXTRADIMENSIONAL ALIENS!"

They'll probably still flub that too trying to make shitty social commentary.

Even if they don't flub it, back in when Terror From The Deep was released Lovecraftian references were still something new for a lot of people.

In 2022, though? We've had so much of that aesthetic it's just kind of tacky. Gollop tried to make it work with Phoenix Point and it flew about as well as a brick tied to a single solitary party balloon.

 

[NerdShamer]

Even if they don't flub it, back in when Terror From The Deep was released Lovecraftian references were still something new for a lot of people.

In 2022, though? We've had so much of that aesthetic it's just kind of tacky. Gollop tried to make it work with Phoenix Point and it flew about as well as a brick tied to a single solitary party balloon.

Well Phoenix Point had quite a few things working against it. Namely because it's mostly an series of featureless menus and there's hardly anything entertaining about the game.

As it is, you're mostly fighting mindless mutants while backing an generic cult or two.

 

[White Devil]

Well Phoenix Point had quite a few things working against it. Namely because it's mostly an series of featureless menus and there's hardly anything entertaining about the game.

As it is, you're mostly fighting mindless mutants while backing an generic cult or two.

And the whole EGS debacle.

 

[Mooger Meng]

They don't even need a good story given the summary of their two mainline entries are. "Aliens invade, steal their shit and kill them" followed by "Aliens took over, steal their shit and kill them". Just add "Ancient Sea Aliens are invading" to the list or "EXTRADIMENSIONAL ALIENS!"

They'll probably still flub that too trying to make shitty social commentary.

Honestly, they could have done just fine by skipping the idea of Chimera Squad entirely and not explaining how the slave races integrated with human society; just smash cut to the next game 100-150+ years down the line and have your units' races just be bare chassis that the class gets bolted onto, and if they insist on having the kind of Central/Tygan/Shen power trio and story elements again, have new Central be a human psychic (it's a form of comms, after all) and the other two be aliens, maybe slip in a few nods to how someone (maybe whatever robotic brain-inna-jar Vhalen turns herself into) would never have thought X-Com would allow aliens to help defend humanity and how earth is more than just humans now.
Subtle wouldn't have twatter clapping like retarded seals, but it also wouldn't predisposition Firaxis to making a dogshit game and putting the franchise on life support.

 

[Kane Lives]

Honestly, they could have done just fine by skipping the idea of Chimera Squad entirely and not explaining how the slave races integrated with human society; just smash cut to the next game 100-150+ years down the line and have your units' races just be bare chassis that the class gets bolted onto, and if they insist on having the kind of Central/Tygan/Shen power trio and story elements again, have new Central be a human psychic (it's a form of comms, after all) and the other two be aliens, maybe slip in a few nods to how someone (maybe whatever robotic brain-inna-jar Vhalen turns herself into) would never have thought X-Com would allow aliens to help defend humanity and how earth is more than just humans now.
Subtle wouldn't have twatter clapping like retarded seals, but it also wouldn't predisposition Firaxis to making a dogshit game and putting the franchise on life support.

Wait did Chimera Squad flop or something? Last I checked practically all of Twitter and Reddit were cumming over snake whores and Torque. I assumed it sold decently enough.

 

[Twitter Hate Mob]

Wait did Chimera Squad flop or something? Last I checked practically all of Twitter and Reddit were cumming over snake whores and Torque. I assumed it sold decently enough.

Chimera Squad



Xcom2

That's a ludicrous drop-off.

 

[Mooger Meng]

Wait did Chimera Squad flop or something? Last I checked practically all of Twitter and Reddit were cumming over snake whores and Torque. I assumed it sold decently enough.

View attachment 3054353

Chimera Squad

View attachment 3054354

Xcom2

That's a ludicrous drop-off.

Snex sells, but not well enough to make money hand over fist in comparison to War of the Chosen.
I hadn't looked at the numbers, but I figured since there was radio silence about Chimera Squad a month or two after its release and NuCom 2 was still getting all the modding attention, it hadn't done anywhere near as well as its predecessor. Some of that might be attributed to CS being a shorter and less involved game overall, but it helps prove a point: Twatter and Peddit, much like /v/, don't play video games.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Chimera Squad was an obvious cash-grab spin-off and it made money like an obvious cash-grab spin-off. That is, not a lot. It existed to put the franchise on a holding pattern, nothing more.

Just because you see a lot of people thirsting over a game, doesn't mean it was successful. After all, the game cost money but all the sniddies on twitter were free.

 

[L50LasPak]

Wait did Chimera Squad flop or something? Last I checked practically all of Twitter and Reddit were cumming over snake whores and Torque. I assumed it sold decently enough.

As is often the case, just because people are talking a lot about a product doesn't mean they're actually buying it. One of the biggest reasons why marketing doesn't actually sell anything. Funnily enough, one of the greatest examples of this was also meme shit involving snakes; Snakes On A Plane, which had a huge internet following and then proceeded to bomb at the box office.

 

[Agarathium1066]

As is often the case, just because people are talking a lot about a product doesn't mean they're actually buying it. One of the biggest reasons why marketing doesn't actually sell anything. Funnily enough, one of the greatest examples of this was also meme shit involving snakes; Snakes On A Plane, which had a huge internet following and then proceeded to bomb at the box office.

I recall Snakes On A Plane being so fucking stupid as to include the meme line in the trailers. They literally gave away the only thing that people would go to the movie for and that's it.

When I saw some of the screenshots preview for Chimera I just figured the entire thing was based purely off 'Snakes are heckinwholesome-arino fellow redditors!'

Turns out it was that and mehish gameplay so that was a bullet dodged.

 

[L50LasPak]

I recall Snakes On A Plane being so fucking stupid as to include the meme line in the trailers. They literally gave away the only thing that people would go to the movie for and that's it.

Speaking of putting snake-related meme shit in the trailer:

I would like to point out that Chimera Squad had the balls to canonize viper brothels.
View attachment 1997442

I heard elsewhere that Snakes on a Plane originally didn't have the infamous line in it though, and it was only added after people kept spamming the official forum with it. If that's accurate then it comes off as even more pathetic, basically signaling "Hey, look! We put your stupid meme in the movie! Please buy a ticket!"