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[XCOM] is a genre. Daemonhunters out on consoles now!

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Posts

  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular
    Massena wrote: »
    So if I wanted to scratch the squad tactical combat itch, which is the better game: Daemonhunters or Mechanicus?

    Daemonhunters is closer to XCOM, and I find it to be the more polished game. Mechanicus has a sort of charm as it makes the best of its limitations with style.

    I did kinda bounce off Mechanicus while I'm now on my second runthrough of Daemonhunters.

    Of course, there is a substantial price difference, as Daemonhunters was just released and Mechanicus is on sale for 20% of the cost, counting DLC.

  • Tiger BurningTiger Burning Dig if you will, the pictureRegistered User, SolidSaints Tube regular
    obf5vgk6mmh5.png

    Project "what if just overwatch?" has hit a snag.

    Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with
  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular
    Okay, Daemonhunters bug.

    I have a section where I need to fly around some warp storms looking for something, but since I improved the ship's Gellar field (the thing that prevents everybody onboard from being possessed or mutated whenever we enter the warp), almost nothing ever happens to me in warp storms. I've been flying around for weeks trying to get this to trigger. Guess I can put my game on hold for awhile to see if they fix the bug. I DID just get the Mechanicus DLC...

  • AsherAsher Registered User regular
    edited June 2022
    Question this thread might be able to help me with, while getting the OG Chaos Gate from GoG, I had a flash of memory of some ancient turn based tactics game I played as a kid/teenager, or at least the demo of. I kind for the life of me remember what it was called and my initial search has yielded no success, so I wonder if anyone can help me.

    It must have been 90s or possibly early 00s and was pretty primitive 3d graphics. Aside from that it was an X-Com like but maybe closer to modern X-Com weirdly. It was Sci Fi and set in a big sci fi city, like a 40k hive world I think. You had a squad of (I think) 4 dudes and fought aliens (or possibly mutants?) I remember getting a kind of Genestealer vibe. The 2nd mission of the demo had you trying to get to an escape point (possibly a train?)

    I've got really vivid but incomplete memories of it, but the lists of retro turn based tactics games have turned up nothing.

    Anyone got any ideas?

    I really need to get back to Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters too, I was enjoying it heaps but got distracted by Hardspace Shipbreaker.

    EDIT: Aaaaand, naturally, as soon as I ask I figure it out. Incubation: Time is Running Out. Which is apparently part of the battle isle series, which I never knew.

    Asher on
    I put models on Instagram now: asher_paints
  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular
    Asher wrote: »

    EDIT: Aaaaand, naturally, as soon as I ask I figure it out. Incubation: Time is Running Out. Which is apparently part of the battle isle series, which I never knew.

    I had never heard of that game or series... of course I never even played XCOM until the Firaxis reboot.

    Looking at the Wiki, they sold less than 5,000 copies of Incubation: Time is Running Out in 1997, so it's a good thing you remembered, because there's a great chance nobody else here has played it (now watch two nerds post a detailed tactical analysis).

  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    edited June 2022
    I like Mechanicus, but it has a power curve that breaks very easily because enemies don't really scale. About midgame you'll find that you're rolling over encounters without having to think about it at all.

    The new difficulty customization is very detailed, but it's a bit annoying that the player has to construct a difficulty that will actually be both challenging and possible to beat

    I'd recommend Chaos Gate over Mechanicus

    About 99% of the lines of dialogue in Chaos Gate have egregious comma splices, though, so brace yourself to endure this very serious and relevant problem

    Evil Multifarious on
  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular

    About 99% of the lines of dialogue in Chaos Gate have egregious comma splices, though, so brace yourself to endure this very serious and relevant problem

    Hey, "Egregious" is the name of my Brother-Librarian!

    Anyway I would argue that excessive punctuation is part and parcel to the Warhammer Experience.

  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular

    About 99% of the lines of dialogue in Chaos Gate have egregious comma splices, though, so brace yourself to endure this very serious and relevant problem

    Hey, "Egregious" is the name of my Brother-Librarian!

    Anyway I would argue that excessive punctuation is part and parcel to the Warhammer Experience.

    It's not excessive, just erroneous — they persistently use commas when they should use a period to divide the sentences (or a semicolon, or an em-dash, if they want to keep it as one sentence).

    It's something an editor would notice immediately and change almost without thinking, but I genuinely see it in more than half the lines, I'd estimate. I've never seen such rampant comma splices.

    In the grim darkness of the future, there is only one run-on sentence

  • MorninglordMorninglord I'm tired of being Batman, so today I'll be Owl.Registered User regular

    About 99% of the lines of dialogue in Chaos Gate have egregious comma splices, though, so brace yourself to endure this very serious and relevant problem

    Hey, "Egregious" is the name of my Brother-Librarian!

    Anyway I would argue that excessive punctuation is part and parcel to the Warhammer Experience.

    It's not excessive, just erroneous — they persistently use commas when they should use a period to divide the sentences (or a semicolon, or an em-dash, if they want to keep it as one sentence).

    It's something an editor would notice immediately and change almost without thinking, but I genuinely see it in more than half the lines, I'd estimate. I've never seen such rampant comma splices.

    In the grim darkness of the future, there is only one run-on sentence

    https://youtu.be/He02Z5YdZbg

    (PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
  • AsherAsher Registered User regular
    Asher wrote: »

    EDIT: Aaaaand, naturally, as soon as I ask I figure it out. Incubation: Time is Running Out. Which is apparently part of the battle isle series, which I never knew.

    I had never heard of that game or series... of course I never even played XCOM until the Firaxis reboot.

    Looking at the Wiki, they sold less than 5,000 copies of Incubation: Time is Running Out in 1997, so it's a good thing you remembered, because there's a great chance nobody else here has played it (now watch two nerds post a detailed tactical analysis).

    I must have played it when I was ... 11ish. Pretty tempted to get it from GoG and roll around in some nostalgia.

    I put models on Instagram now: asher_paints
  • IoloIolo iolo Registered User regular
    Asher wrote: »
    Asher wrote: »

    EDIT: Aaaaand, naturally, as soon as I ask I figure it out. Incubation: Time is Running Out. Which is apparently part of the battle isle series, which I never knew.

    I had never heard of that game or series... of course I never even played XCOM until the Firaxis reboot.

    Looking at the Wiki, they sold less than 5,000 copies of Incubation: Time is Running Out in 1997, so it's a good thing you remembered, because there's a great chance nobody else here has played it (now watch two nerds post a detailed tactical analysis).

    I must have played it when I was ... 11ish. Pretty tempted to get it from GoG and roll around in some nostalgia.

    I played it! Crazy that it only sold 5000 copies. I remember that your units had two gear slots and there was lots of gear, but the item that granted an extra AP was so powerful you were crazy not to run one on every troop. Also I remember enjoying unlocking a flamethrower.

    Lt. Iolo's First Day
    Steam profile.
    Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
  • Mr RayMr Ray Sarcasm sphereRegistered User regular
    edited June 2022
    So how about that Terra Invicta? This is the game that's been in development for a while by Pavonis Interactive, the team behind the Long War mods for XCOM and XCOM 2, who decided to make a full-fledged game off the back of their success. A bunch of streamers and YouTubers were randomly sent demo versions yesterday and the video footage is coming out and it looks... frankly incredible. Where Midnight Suns or Daemonhunters are the tactical layer of XCOM without the strategy, this is more like the strategy layer minus the tactical, but with said strategy layer vastly increased to the point of basically being a Paradox style grand strategy game. This game looks complicated as fuck and I am here for it.

    Rather than starting with a pre-existing multinational organization dedicated to fighting the aliens, you start with one politician, one scientist and you, the great commandy one on board, and your job is to form a multinational council capable of taking the aliens on. Which may involve infiltrating various nations to gain control of their military forces, or siphoning off their natural resources, or using your clout with the scientific community to steer the direction of their research (the scientists of the world will continue to do their own research with or without you!). Or you could just run public outreach campaigns right out in the open to try and gain support for your cause, of course this will expose you to disruption or outright assassination by other factions, who might prefer to try to get along with the aliens, or outright submit to them.

    There's all sorts of crazy political bullshit you can get up to, in a way that reminds me of Paradox games more than anything else. You can federate Australia and New Zealand into an Australasian Union. You can break the United States apart into several smaller countries. You can give nuclear weapons to pretty much any nation on Earth. You can overthrow a bunch of small vulnerable third-world nations to put your own puppets in charge. You can do this to larger, more established nations too, its just a lot harder. You can infiltrate other multinational groups too like CERN or Interpol or the IMF or Hezbollah. Why would you want to do this? Fucked if I know, this shit's complicated. The whole goal is to eventually end up in a position where you can build your own fleet of spaceships and take the alien invasion on head-on, its just that the research and engineering and resources to build even the crappiest of spaceships takes resources on the scale of nations, so you're going to have to do some politicking before you can get to the whole "defending the planet" part. You want to shoot down a UFO and assault the wreck? Okay, but first you're going to need control of a nation's air force that is capable of shooting it down, and a special forces outfit that's capable of assaulting the wreck.

    TLDR; Its XCOM, but strategy layer only, and you're playing as the council rather than XCOM itself, and a big chunk of the game is spent attempting to get the nations of earth to put aside their differences and form something like XCOM in the first place. But it ends up with space combat between fleets on the scale of the whole solar system.

    Rimmy just released twelve goddamn hours of unedited gameplay footage, of which I've only watched two so far. I'm sure some more tightly edited videos will be forthcoming from other content creators, but for now this is what we've got:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f_XZgcuW1I

    Mr Ray on
  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    Color me intrigued

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular
    Point of note, Daemonhunters has a strategic layer; it's just fairly rudimentary compared to a 4X. You need to manage the corruption levels of the sector map, and you can upgrade your ship to deal with it in various ways.

    It's about XCOM 2 level.

  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    Point of note, Daemonhunters has a strategic layer; it's just fairly rudimentary compared to a 4X. You need to manage the corruption levels of the sector map, and you can upgrade your ship to deal with it in various ways.

    It's about XCOM 2 level.

    I was going to say!

    I'm surprised to hear Terra Invicta doesn't have a tactical layer, but "paradox grand strategy about founding XCOM" is a super interesting concept and it sounds hugely ambitious

    My reaction to the fact that you must unite the nations of Earth through espionage and political maneuvering to face the alien threat is "oh so we're all screwed, got it"

  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    Terra Invicta has space battles, which are its tactical layer equivalent.

  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    That's a real interesting take on the formula. I prefer the tactical side to the games because of the moments they produce - the rookie who takes down a Sectopod or whatever.

    But I also really like Crusader Kings.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • SaldonasSaldonas See you space cowboy...Registered User regular
    I've been wondering when more news on that game would be coming out. It sounds quite intriguing and not at all what I expected. This honestly says a lot about why they designed the Long War mods the way they did. They're more about the puzzle and moving pieces it would seem.

    Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/carthuun
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  • Mr RayMr Ray Sarcasm sphereRegistered User regular
    edited June 2022
    Terra Invicta has space battles, which are its tactical layer equivalent.

    This is true, although its going to be a while before you see them; Rimmy after twelve hours of play just managed to get his first real spaceship. This thing was very clearly made by the Long War devs...

    Has anyone actually been able to download the demo? When I click the "Download" button on the store page it just redirects me back to the store page that I was already on... sounds like I'm not the only one getting this problem, maybe its been given the internet hug of death?

    Also I find it very amusing that, four hours into Rimmy's video he says he's getting ready to pack up and go to sleep. Seven hours later he's still playing. If that isn't a glowing recommendation, I don't know what is.

    *edit* Ahh, this video is in fact split into two sessions, not one twelve-hour mega session. That makes more sense.

    Mr Ray on
  • Mr RayMr Ray Sarcasm sphereRegistered User regular
    I did it, guys!
    e8lxa6ez7f5x.jpg

    I also merged Australia and New Zealand into the Republic of the Southern Cross. I can't say I've done much actual fighting of aliens yet, but this is a fantastic political dicking-around simulator so far.

  • Mr RayMr Ray Sarcasm sphereRegistered User regular
    Man, I'm just fixing all of recent history's greatest mistakes today:
    jj9rlen45jf0.jpg

  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    Wow, Invicta is fully one of those 4x grand strategies that's just a spreadsheet with graphics, isn't it

    Gonna take a pass on that

  • Vic_HazardVic_Hazard Registered User regular
    edited June 2022
    Yeah it being modern day crusader king doesnt make me more interested.

    I've played some 500 days in Chaos Gate and I'm finding it mediocre. It's not terrible, but its clunky enough that a lot of animations and stuff wastes your time. But more importantly on legendary iron man first playthrough I feel like the campaign is wasting my time. All of the difficulty stems from the game dumping strategy layer debuffs and resource costs on me while having huge timers on me getting anything done. It all turns into a treadmill where every mission is easy but I have to spend 3 more missions and 30 days because something broke. Oh and I've 45 days of less campaign progression, during which something else broke, now spend a month repairing the hull etc.

    I got pulled back to gears tactics instead, a game with only the tactical layer but it's pretty much the most well made game in the entire genre. I still consider xcom 2 the best because it just contains more stuff but gears is certainly the most polished with the tightest core gameplay loop.

    Vic_Hazard on
  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Yeah it being modern day crusader king doesnt make me more interested.

    I've played some 500 days in Chaos Gate and I'm finding it mediocre. It's not terrible, but its clunky enough that a lot of animations and stuff wastes your time. But more importantly on legendary iron man first playthrough I feel like the campaign is wasting my time. All of the difficulty stems from the game dumping strategy layer debuffs and resource costs on me while having huge timers on me getting anything done. It all turns into a treadmill where every mission is easy but I have to spend 3 more missions and 30 days because something broke. Oh and I've 45 days of less campaign progression, during which something else broke, now spend a month repairing the hull etc.

    I got pulled back to gears tactics instead, a game with only the tactical layer but it's pretty much the most well made game in the entire genre. I still consider xcom 2 the best because it just contains more stuff but gears is certainly the most polished with the tightest core gameplay loop.

    I'm not sure what you mean by "strategy layer debuffs." Are you talking about the Grandmaster giving you requirements?

    Since repairs, plot research, and missions can all happen simultaneously I'm not overly concerned with stuff on the ship breaking. Once you get a couple construction speed buffs you're more limited by lack of servitors than time.

    It sounds like you haven't finished the game. I found that the climax mission was a pretty interesting challenge. I'm now playing on the 2nd highest difficulty in Grandmaster/Ironman mode and I'm looking forward to how my team holds up.

    I really liked Gears Tactics, but despite it being slick to play there just isn't enough meat on the bones, strategy-wise. Once you do the main campaign you CAN still play, but you're just spinning wheels at that point.

  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    I would agree that Chaos Gate is too easy. Like dramatically too easy. I'm struggling to finish it.

    They improved the AI a bit but they just don't really attack you. Once you have level 2 and 3 gear, you're able to stack such absurd buffs that one knight can also level a whole enemy pod without assistance.

    Gears Tactics was a better-designed tactical challenge, though the campaign layer is dreadful

  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    BATTLETECH is currently sating my XCOM needs and the steam sale should be next week.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • Mr RayMr Ray Sarcasm sphereRegistered User regular
    Sounds like I'm the only one pumped for Terra Invicta then. Which makes sense I guess; it really is more Crusader Kings than XCOM at this point, other than the setting. And also probably the most complicated game I've ever played, up there with Hearts of Iron. I'm now many many hours into the demo and close to finally being able to build my first spaceship, and suddenly all these new windows pop up, and I've now got to worry about Delta-V, exhaust velocity, tons-per-gigawatt, orbital transfer windows and a bunch of other shit I haven't had to worry about since Kerbal Space Program.

    All this to say, I wouldn't be surprised if most people bounce off Terra Invicta hard. But for me. personally, its like someone put three of my favorite games (namely Crusader Kings, XCOM and Kerbal Space Program) together in one big package and I'm 100% here for it.

  • MorninglordMorninglord I'm tired of being Batman, so today I'll be Owl.Registered User regular
    edited June 2022
    Wow, Invicta is fully one of those 4x grand strategies that's just a spreadsheet with graphics, isn't it

    Gonna take a pass on that

    Stop Im already horny.
    Mr Ray wrote: »
    Sounds like I'm the only one pumped for Terra Invicta then.
    You sure arent, see above. Im just too busy atm to dive in. Its waiting on my hdd.

    Morninglord on
    (PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
  • Vic_HazardVic_Hazard Registered User regular
    edited June 2022
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Yeah it being modern day crusader king doesnt make me more interested.

    I've played some 500 days in Chaos Gate and I'm finding it mediocre. It's not terrible, but its clunky enough that a lot of animations and stuff wastes your time. But more importantly on legendary iron man first playthrough I feel like the campaign is wasting my time. All of the difficulty stems from the game dumping strategy layer debuffs and resource costs on me while having huge timers on me getting anything done. It all turns into a treadmill where every mission is easy but I have to spend 3 more missions and 30 days because something broke. Oh and I've 45 days of less campaign progression, during which something else broke, now spend a month repairing the hull etc.

    I got pulled back to gears tactics instead, a game with only the tactical layer but it's pretty much the most well made game in the entire genre. I still consider xcom 2 the best because it just contains more stuff but gears is certainly the most polished with the tightest core gameplay loop.

    I'm not sure what you mean by "strategy layer debuffs." Are you talking about the Grandmaster giving you requirements?

    Since repairs, plot research, and missions can all happen simultaneously I'm not overly concerned with stuff on the ship breaking. Once you get a couple construction speed buffs you're more limited by lack of servitors than time.

    It sounds like you haven't finished the game. I found that the climax mission was a pretty interesting challenge. I'm now playing on the 2nd highest difficulty in Grandmaster/Ironman mode and I'm looking forward to how my team holds up.

    I really liked Gears Tactics, but despite it being slick to play there just isn't enough meat on the bones, strategy-wise. Once you do the main campaign you CAN still play, but you're just spinning wheels at that point.

    Delayed construction, delayed research etc.

    I've not finished it no, but I'm gassing out. Mainly because even the highest difficulty setting makes the missions feel like a grind and on legendary said debuffs and building timers makes everything take forever. This is not necessarily a huge criticism for the game, it might simply not be designed for someone who plays legendary ironman xcom but it's an issue for me. It certainly scratches the itch the first oh 20 hours or so!

    I agree with the criticisms about gears, it's not really replayable once you've beaten it (although beating it on highest took tons of replays for me) and there is no strategy level to speak of. I want a sequel! Or anyone to steal everything from its tactical layer and put into something else.

    Vic_Hazard on
  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Yeah it being modern day crusader king doesnt make me more interested.

    I've played some 500 days in Chaos Gate and I'm finding it mediocre. It's not terrible, but its clunky enough that a lot of animations and stuff wastes your time. But more importantly on legendary iron man first playthrough I feel like the campaign is wasting my time. All of the difficulty stems from the game dumping strategy layer debuffs and resource costs on me while having huge timers on me getting anything done. It all turns into a treadmill where every mission is easy but I have to spend 3 more missions and 30 days because something broke. Oh and I've 45 days of less campaign progression, during which something else broke, now spend a month repairing the hull etc.

    I got pulled back to gears tactics instead, a game with only the tactical layer but it's pretty much the most well made game in the entire genre. I still consider xcom 2 the best because it just contains more stuff but gears is certainly the most polished with the tightest core gameplay loop.

    I'm not sure what you mean by "strategy layer debuffs." Are you talking about the Grandmaster giving you requirements?

    Since repairs, plot research, and missions can all happen simultaneously I'm not overly concerned with stuff on the ship breaking. Once you get a couple construction speed buffs you're more limited by lack of servitors than time.

    It sounds like you haven't finished the game. I found that the climax mission was a pretty interesting challenge. I'm now playing on the 2nd highest difficulty in Grandmaster/Ironman mode and I'm looking forward to how my team holds up.

    I really liked Gears Tactics, but despite it being slick to play there just isn't enough meat on the bones, strategy-wise. Once you do the main campaign you CAN still play, but you're just spinning wheels at that point.

    Delayed construction, delayed research etc.

    I've not finished it no, but I'm gassing out. Mainly because even the highest difficulty setting makes the missions feel like a grind and on legendary said debuffs and building timers makes everything take forever. This is not necessarily a huge criticism for the game, it might simply not be designed for someone who plays legendary ironman xcom but it's an issue for me. It certainly scratches the itch the first oh 20 hours or so!

    I agree with the criticisms about gears, it's not really replayable once you've beaten it (although beating it on highest took tons of replays for me) and there is no strategy level to speak of. I want a sequel! Or anyone to steal everything from its tactical layer and put into something else.

    I never play highest difficulty or ironman first, because I want to experience the story without having to worry about one bad turn ending my run or inflated strategic requirements. XCOM classic difficulty is just fine.

    One of my favorite things about Daemonhunters is that they got Aaron Demski-Bowden from the Black Library to write it...he wrote the (genrally quite good) Grey Knight novels. The story FEELS like a proper 40K Inquisition yarn, and that has value to me by itself.

    I ran into a truly weird error in my current ironman run. I got to a story mission where you start with the Inquisitor and your knights arrive at a rate of one per round.

    After one round I had a power outage and had to reload. Reloaded just fine; finished the mission. Two missions later I have another mission featuring the Inquisitor. When it loads after the gear up screen, I have one knight and the Inquisitor on different sides of the map. There's a new map, but all of the enemies that were present in the mission when the outage happened are still there (including the former boss).

    I'm thinking I'm going to lose this one.

  • MorninglordMorninglord I'm tired of being Batman, so today I'll be Owl.Registered User regular
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Yeah it being modern day crusader king doesnt make me more interested.

    I've played some 500 days in Chaos Gate and I'm finding it mediocre. It's not terrible, but its clunky enough that a lot of animations and stuff wastes your time. But more importantly on legendary iron man first playthrough I feel like the campaign is wasting my time. All of the difficulty stems from the game dumping strategy layer debuffs and resource costs on me while having huge timers on me getting anything done. It all turns into a treadmill where every mission is easy but I have to spend 3 more missions and 30 days because something broke. Oh and I've 45 days of less campaign progression, during which something else broke, now spend a month repairing the hull etc.

    I got pulled back to gears tactics instead, a game with only the tactical layer but it's pretty much the most well made game in the entire genre. I still consider xcom 2 the best because it just contains more stuff but gears is certainly the most polished with the tightest core gameplay loop.

    I'm not sure what you mean by "strategy layer debuffs." Are you talking about the Grandmaster giving you requirements?

    Since repairs, plot research, and missions can all happen simultaneously I'm not overly concerned with stuff on the ship breaking. Once you get a couple construction speed buffs you're more limited by lack of servitors than time.

    It sounds like you haven't finished the game. I found that the climax mission was a pretty interesting challenge. I'm now playing on the 2nd highest difficulty in Grandmaster/Ironman mode and I'm looking forward to how my team holds up.

    I really liked Gears Tactics, but despite it being slick to play there just isn't enough meat on the bones, strategy-wise. Once you do the main campaign you CAN still play, but you're just spinning wheels at that point.

    Delayed construction, delayed research etc.

    I've not finished it no, but I'm gassing out. Mainly because even the highest difficulty setting makes the missions feel like a grind and on legendary said debuffs and building timers makes everything take forever. This is not necessarily a huge criticism for the game, it might simply not be designed for someone who plays legendary ironman xcom but it's an issue for me. It certainly scratches the itch the first oh 20 hours or so!

    I agree with the criticisms about gears, it's not really replayable once you've beaten it (although beating it on highest took tons of replays for me) and there is no strategy level to speak of. I want a sequel! Or anyone to steal everything from its tactical layer and put into something else.

    I never play highest difficulty or ironman first, because I want to experience the story without having to worry about one bad turn ending my run or inflated strategic requirements. XCOM classic difficulty is just fine.

    One of my favorite things about Daemonhunters is that they got Aaron Demski-Bowden from the Black Library to write it...he wrote the (genrally quite good) Grey Knight novels. The story FEELS like a proper 40K Inquisition yarn, and that has value to me by itself.

    I ran into a truly weird error in my current ironman run. I got to a story mission where you start with the Inquisitor and your knights arrive at a rate of one per round.

    After one round I had a power outage and had to reload. Reloaded just fine; finished the mission. Two missions later I have another mission featuring the Inquisitor. When it loads after the gear up screen, I have one knight and the Inquisitor on different sides of the map. There's a new map, but all of the enemies that were present in the mission when the outage happened are still there (including the former boss).

    I'm thinking I'm going to lose this one.

    That wasn't a power outage, it was a warp storm. Welcome to 40k.

    (PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
  • SiliconStewSiliconStew Registered User regular
    Mr Ray wrote: »
    Sounds like I'm the only one pumped for Terra Invicta then. Which makes sense I guess; it really is more Crusader Kings than XCOM at this point, other than the setting. And also probably the most complicated game I've ever played, up there with Hearts of Iron. I'm now many many hours into the demo and close to finally being able to build my first spaceship, and suddenly all these new windows pop up, and I've now got to worry about Delta-V, exhaust velocity, tons-per-gigawatt, orbital transfer windows and a bunch of other shit I haven't had to worry about since Kerbal Space Program.

    All this to say, I wouldn't be surprised if most people bounce off Terra Invicta hard. But for me. personally, its like someone put three of my favorite games (namely Crusader Kings, XCOM and Kerbal Space Program) together in one big package and I'm 100% here for it.

    I'm going to give it a try because I love the concept and the hard SF design of the ships. But I was not a fan of Long War. I didn't think it added enough to overcome making the game interminably slow paced. So that does give me some concern here, particularly when that streamer took 12 hours of play before getting to build their first ship.

    Maybe there could be a Short War mod made for this one.

    Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
  • CorsiniCorsini Registered User regular
    Is there a Short War mod for XCOM 2? I have never won a game of XCOM 2, and I don't want it to take even longer but I do like adding piles of stuff.

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  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Vic_Hazard wrote: »
    Yeah it being modern day crusader king doesnt make me more interested.

    I've played some 500 days in Chaos Gate and I'm finding it mediocre. It's not terrible, but its clunky enough that a lot of animations and stuff wastes your time. But more importantly on legendary iron man first playthrough I feel like the campaign is wasting my time. All of the difficulty stems from the game dumping strategy layer debuffs and resource costs on me while having huge timers on me getting anything done. It all turns into a treadmill where every mission is easy but I have to spend 3 more missions and 30 days because something broke. Oh and I've 45 days of less campaign progression, during which something else broke, now spend a month repairing the hull etc.

    I got pulled back to gears tactics instead, a game with only the tactical layer but it's pretty much the most well made game in the entire genre. I still consider xcom 2 the best because it just contains more stuff but gears is certainly the most polished with the tightest core gameplay loop.

    I'm not sure what you mean by "strategy layer debuffs." Are you talking about the Grandmaster giving you requirements?

    Since repairs, plot research, and missions can all happen simultaneously I'm not overly concerned with stuff on the ship breaking. Once you get a couple construction speed buffs you're more limited by lack of servitors than time.

    It sounds like you haven't finished the game. I found that the climax mission was a pretty interesting challenge. I'm now playing on the 2nd highest difficulty in Grandmaster/Ironman mode and I'm looking forward to how my team holds up.

    I really liked Gears Tactics, but despite it being slick to play there just isn't enough meat on the bones, strategy-wise. Once you do the main campaign you CAN still play, but you're just spinning wheels at that point.

    Delayed construction, delayed research etc.

    I've not finished it no, but I'm gassing out. Mainly because even the highest difficulty setting makes the missions feel like a grind and on legendary said debuffs and building timers makes everything take forever. This is not necessarily a huge criticism for the game, it might simply not be designed for someone who plays legendary ironman xcom but it's an issue for me. It certainly scratches the itch the first oh 20 hours or so!

    I agree with the criticisms about gears, it's not really replayable once you've beaten it (although beating it on highest took tons of replays for me) and there is no strategy level to speak of. I want a sequel! Or anyone to steal everything from its tactical layer and put into something else.

    I never play highest difficulty or ironman first, because I want to experience the story without having to worry about one bad turn ending my run or inflated strategic requirements. XCOM classic difficulty is just fine.

    One of my favorite things about Daemonhunters is that they got Aaron Demski-Bowden from the Black Library to write it...he wrote the (genrally quite good) Grey Knight novels. The story FEELS like a proper 40K Inquisition yarn, and that has value to me by itself.

    I ran into a truly weird error in my current ironman run. I got to a story mission where you start with the Inquisitor and your knights arrive at a rate of one per round.

    After one round I had a power outage and had to reload. Reloaded just fine; finished the mission. Two missions later I have another mission featuring the Inquisitor. When it loads after the gear up screen, I have one knight and the Inquisitor on different sides of the map. There's a new map, but all of the enemies that were present in the mission when the outage happened are still there (including the former boss).

    I'm thinking I'm going to lose this one.

    That wasn't a power outage, it was a warp storm. Welcome to 40k.

    So I actually won. I had one Justicar and the Inquisitor. I had Kartha run straight to the Noctilith Crown and start the ritual timer. Since the bad guys were from the power loss'd boss battle, there weren't any defenders in the Chaos Gate room, nor were there portals opening every turn.

    So my Justicar just ran around...well, fell around. He had been a couple elevation levels up in the boss battle so whenever he moved he flew around with his arms out like he was falling. The bad guys couldn't hit them with most of their attacks because they read him as two levels up in elevation. The important thing was, they paid no attention to the Inquisitor a few rooms over destroying their Morbus gate.

    The Justicar still got some incidental damage and just barely survived to the end of the ritual.

    He got a level up, which was nice...so did my paladin, for some reason, despite not even deploying.

    I got an achievement, Exercise in Restraint, which I assume is about winning without doing any damage.

    I sure hope that bug is out of the system now.

  • GarthorGarthor Registered User regular
    Mr Ray wrote: »
    Sounds like I'm the only one pumped for Terra Invicta then. Which makes sense I guess; it really is more Crusader Kings than XCOM at this point, other than the setting. And also probably the most complicated game I've ever played, up there with Hearts of Iron. I'm now many many hours into the demo and close to finally being able to build my first spaceship, and suddenly all these new windows pop up, and I've now got to worry about Delta-V, exhaust velocity, tons-per-gigawatt, orbital transfer windows and a bunch of other shit I haven't had to worry about since Kerbal Space Program.

    All this to say, I wouldn't be surprised if most people bounce off Terra Invicta hard. But for me. personally, its like someone put three of my favorite games (namely Crusader Kings, XCOM and Kerbal Space Program) together in one big package and I'm 100% here for it.

    I'm going to give it a try because I love the concept and the hard SF design of the ships. But I was not a fan of Long War. I didn't think it added enough to overcome making the game interminably slow paced. So that does give me some concern here, particularly when that streamer took 12 hours of play before getting to build their first ship.

    Maybe there could be a Short War mod made for this one.

    They do say they’ll have two alternate starting scenarios: one for the Cold War and one in the Near Future with some space development already present.

  • DracomicronDracomicron Registered User regular

    I got an achievement, Exercise in Restraint, which I assume is about winning without doing any damage.

    So I looked it up and the cheevo was for doing a spawning or Morbus mission without spending Willpower.

    It was easy to do, frankly, because Vakir spent most of her time doing the ritual and my grey knight's skills were all...greyed out.

  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    Terra Invicta looks to be in a weird place. The arc of the game is to create XCOM itself before engaging aliens in space battle. Taking a dozen hours to get to your first ship seems too long. What's the balance here? Is the meat of the game the political stuff or the space fighting?

    Crusader Kings the whole game is the political stuff with the occasional war. But the goal is whatever you set for yourself, you like make your own story.

    Where does TI fit in that spectrum I'm not sure.

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  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    Every time a new 40k strategy game comes out I have to be amazed all over again that nobody’s done anything good with necromunda (I know there’s that rogue factor game recently but /fart)

    It could almost just be an Xcom 2 conversion! God I can see it so perfectly in my mind

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  • MorninglordMorninglord I'm tired of being Batman, so today I'll be Owl.Registered User regular
    edited June 2022
    MegaMan001 wrote: »
    Terra Invicta looks to be in a weird place. The arc of the game is to create XCOM itself before engaging aliens in space battle. Taking a dozen hours to get to your first ship seems too long. What's the balance here? Is the meat of the game the political stuff or the space fighting?

    Crusader Kings the whole game is the political stuff with the occasional war. But the goal is whatever you set for yourself, you like make your own story.

    Where does TI fit in that spectrum I'm not sure.

    That sounds on par with the premise to me? Step 1: make Xcom. Step 2: fight aliens.

    Its not make xcom while fighting aliens.

    It just sounds like a new type of strategy game. The invasion sim if you will, where the magical xcom special forces aren't already waiting and you have to prepare the logistical ground work. That's perfectly fine, people are allowed to create novel ideas.

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