u/Azursong

This poll is just for fun, although I admit I'm curious what the fans here are thinking. I would have added an "undecided (explain)" if reddit allowed more options. So if that's you, go ahead and pretend you selected that option and tell us about it.

View Poll

I think, in general, this earth has more of a level playing field there are a lot more viable places you can start.

I wanted to share that the Indonesian island of borneo is a workhorse for boost in my campaign I just started, with good IP, low unrest, equatorial location and even a starting army. I'm eyeing a southeast asia strategy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Against_the_Storm/s/WlgjOsAp85

In preparation for ZCOM i replayed a vanilla XCOM2 WOTC ironman campaign (with integrated DLC). XCOM is one of my favorite games and I am a lifelong Star Wars fan so suffice to say i am excited about ZCOM. 

I wanted to reflect on the shortcomings of XCOM2 as a game. These are opportunities for ZCOM to succeed and achieve greatness. I don’t think I will be able to avoid judging ZCOM with respect to the extent it resolves, or fails to resolve, XCOM pain points. Without further ado, here is how I perceive the primary pain points and shortcomings of XCOM2:

1. Challenge, pace and scaling - The gameplay challenge of playing XCOM2 peaks in the early/mid game when XCOM rolls out the complete roster of enemies. It takes a little longer in game to match the tech level of the enemies you are facing, but as soon as you hit certain science/technology thresholds and have a few operators of sufficient experience you steamroll the back half of the game with very little tension.
2. Low enemy variety and high enemy predictability - Once you’ve “solved” enemy patterns there is very little actual decisionmaking to do. You just repeat the same gameplan ad nauseum. There are a lot of possible gameplay design levers to help fix this problem. More enemy types would help, but also more variability in enemy team composition, and more frequent mapwide environment effects are some of my ideas.
3. Line of Sight and pod engagement - In XCOM, only enemies that you have spotted with your LOS can attack you. This creates a perverse gameplay incentive to minimize your own LOS to ensure you are only engaging one group at a time. I am happy that early ZCOM gameplay reveals have highlighted changes in this area.
4. Polish - For every combat action in XCOM2 it seems to me that there is a 50/50 chance that the combat animation will play with the correct timing and orientation. I am sure that this is not what the game designers envisioned. Also, pregnant pauses while the game was processing…some unknown quantity… was a constant problem going all the way to XCOM1:EU
5. UI - This was a pain point for me, often having to navigate many screens away to find information needed to make certain base decisions, and struggling constantly to locate equipment equipped by operators on the bench. During tactical engagements finding the details of status effects impacting the combat is way too hard. There has to be a better way to handle all this.

This was my experience. Happy to hear from others. Cheers!

I'm looking for it.

I have been tinkering with it and i have been unable to get it to work.