Why There's No Multiple Bases in XCOM - Firaxis Q&A

[Frankster]

Somehow, I have the feeling it wouldn't. It didn't make the original any more interesting, either. Heck, I didn't ever bother calling them "Bases", but "Scanner/Laser Cannon Factory", because that's all they did.

I respectively disagree with you on this, having multiple bases and giving them distinct personalities was one of my joys in original xcom. I still remember fondly the time my "trainning base" where i sent all the rookies was assaulted and i had 60+ rookies armed with at best laser guns holding off a base assault led by mutons.

Casualties were heavy, just 5 dudes survived at the end, 3 of which weren't crying in a corner. It was glorious.

I have tons of stories like this so yeh, respectfully disagree with you.

Also as an aside, not cool breaking the game then complaining it's easy Cmon the laser cannon trick is basically the games money cheat, no wonder you're saying the things you're saying!

Otherwise on topic... None of the guys arguments convinced me, especially in the age of teleconferencing so why the guy feels having individually named story characters prohibits multiple bases is beyond me.

Personally i prefer the "its to be more like a boardgame" explanation, it just makes more sense to me.

 

[Master_Fubar23]

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1. You didn't even read the post:

I did read your post, and yet again you?re going to make statements that are wrong but I don?t expect much from you.

base attacks make no sense in the story. Much less in the 1994 XCOM.

You are fighting an infinite army, one that can swarm your ass on day 1 and kill you.

Really? So all those small craft that start coming in are the main battle force? There?s so many scouts they blot out the sun?! Wrong. Their main base is on Mars and anyone who has an ounce of knowledge regarding war knows intelligence is key. The Master Brain stated how it basically created humans millions of years ago, so when it decides to invade it sends scouts to determine what is needed to colonize the planet. They have the mindset of they created us so they can do whatever they like but we fight back destroying their scouts. So please, tell me how they can swarm you on day one when it based on the statistics in the game it would have taken them over 2 years just to get to Earth from mars. Send in scouts, send in a forward force, set up supply lines, send in main battalion. Hmm, looks like the aliens used standard battle tactics and taking into consideration that it takes time for the aliens to fly from Mars to Earth. It fits perfectly with the plot of the original. The new one on the other hand was shit. They have their main flying fortress on Earth over the ocean. So why didn?t they just zerg rush the entire planet? They were right there

Yet somehow they stop at 10 aliens that die in 1 shot from the weapons they drop by the 3rd mission. After their tiny force is dead they fly off and "forget."

That's not adding to the story, that's just an excuse for more explosions.

Oh you mean how the New XCom works? Since their HQ is on Earth and they don't... say attack the XCom base or completely destroy the major population centers on Earth? What a joke.

2. And I suck? Really? I have yet to have any of my soldiers die. All thanks to fast research and knowing normal guns don't cut it past the first terror mission. Your plan of using normal weapons to the end means you are chewing through a lot of soldiers. Fact is, Ill believe it when I see a video of you doing it against the ethereals.

And I bet your talking about the new XCom which was piss easy even on classic. Also considering rockets can't get upgraded until the very end, your I believe it when I see is moot. 1 rifleman with a shotgun, 2 heavy gunners, one sniper, and everyone equipped with scopes was just too easy. Only lost 4 men through my play through and that was to a Heavy floater, sectopod, and the end boss uber etherail. . Especially, with how stupid the new XCom set up the units to be "activated" when your men see them instead of having the aliens set up defensive positions and relaying intel to troops in the back but I guess that would be too much work for Firaxis. Also I didn't say I only used basic weapons from start to finish I said I didn't have laser weapons for the first terror mission. I skipped over laser weapons and only bothered to make plasma weapons once they were available and I was fine the entire time. Reading to op for you I guess.

3. 40-60? Oh so an army of 40 people can beat an infinite army and keep earth safe? Really? because thats how I did it in XCOM 1.

my tiny ass force coming in and killing everything. No way for me to actually fail anymore than toss shit loads of units at cydonia.

And that came AFTER you researched the best weapons and crafts. Having enough bases to cover the Earth with AA craft and send in the agents to mop up. However, if you didn't upgrade anything and used basic fighters and fighter weapons, you would not be able to take down an alien battleship which is what the world governments would have. Hence, why X-Com was needed and worked.

Which by the way is the dumbest story I ever read. It had a brain that was brought out at the very last second than gave a long overblown speech on what mars used to be like then died. That is much worse than a mother ship we boarded in the upper atmosphere.

That's your opinion but you are wrong in that the mother ship was in the upper atmosphere. Go rewatch the ending, the damn mother ship is hover below or in the cloud line. Any jet or helicopter could of landed on it so anyone in the world with access to a VOTL craft could of went to it. So why couldn't any modern government send 100's of thousands of troops there to stop the enemy? Oh right, some bs invisibility kept the HQ safe and if you didn't have a psy-ops soldiers the world would die in a black hole. BUT WAIT!!! Since you beat the enemy and have a psy-ops soldier there who can just so happen control the HQ, he can send the mother ship flying up into spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace and have it explode with the added kicker of...wait for it... the mother ship not forming a black hole! Why? who cares. you get a nice little cut scene of debris falling from the sky, a black screen with XCOM on it, and then a summery report. gg. In reality the new XComs ending was complete shit.

Story was not XCOM's strong suit. Its been said many times over, mostly because of how rushed it was so it won't be cancelled. It was just there for more explosions.

Wonderful, glad you told me something I already know. A rushed game that ended up being shit. Last, preorder for me and last XCom game for me as well.

4. It was for food. Not material to make more aliens, and they had an infinite supply of materials.
Even the unused alien reproduction research doesn't even mention making protein into more aliens.
http://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Reproduction.

Is there a thing that's like selective hearing but selective reading? I didn't say the material was used to make more aliens. I said they used it as supplies and yes food is considered to be supplies.

5. Lastly, it wasn't best of the best in 1994. That idea didn't really come in until 2012. because there is no way a "best of the best" team has a lot of recruits that can't make a simple shot and needed lasers to be accurate.

Your point is what? That your reading comprehension skills need improvement? I said " XCOM can only field 4-6 men/women at a time of the worlds "best of the best", that's just a disgrace. Over 7 billion people on the planet and out of all the governments it only takes 10 soldiers (only lost 4 soldiers in my play through) to end the enemy threat? Bullshit." Did you send in only 4 men back in 1994? No, probably not. Why bother limiting yourself like that. Are you forced into only having 4-6 soldier in 2012? Yes, you are. So why are you trying to correct me on something I didn't say.

6. You did copy paste bases? for what? My play through shown how unnecessary they are. I beat the game with a single base no less. They were useless unless they were radar or interceptor stacks.

Lmao, tell me how useless the extra bases were when you had your ass handed to yourself to a base attack. Game over anyone? The point of multiple bases were so I had a pool of extra soldiers to either transfer or use to attack in the event my 2 main forces were tied up and extra places to send equipment that might be lost in the attack. Also, as I said before. If I lost a base, it wasn't "Game over man!" it was a set back.

I beat the game with one base, came back, and then placed enough radar and interceptor stacks to intercept any alien invasion of any kind. I could sit on my ass forever.

So how can your team of 40 not do it? When it has been XCOM tradition that once you reach a certain point the game is just easy unless you get into psionics?

At what point did I ever say my group of 40-60 soldiers couldn't handle it? If I have 20 men flying to a terror site, another 20 flying to a crash UFO, I would have had another 20 in my main base incase of an attack. If you want to play the game in a fashion that makes it not fun for you, then that is entirely YOUR choice. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. However, with the restrictions the new XCOM imposed on the player like myself that made the game not fun for me and that is bullshit that I will not tolerate. But I really should of known better and waited when the hype surrounding XCOM felt like the same for Duke Nukem and Homefront.

 

[EternallyBored]

Wait, did anyone actually build extra bases in the original x-com for any other reason than to increase scanner coverage and break the economy by selling laser rifles? Most of xcoms fun with its simulation came at the tactical level with the squad combat. The strategic layer was honestly a little disappointing in the original, even the touted base invasions that people keep complaining about not being in the new game were usually the most hated mission type and were either piss easy or instant gameover depending on your basic base layout.

The base invasions and multiple base concepts were interesting, but the original xcom mostly squandered them, they were usually the worst aspects of the strategic layer gameplay. Offshoot bases were just chores in micromanagement, and their only real benefit was scanning more area or breaking the hell out of the games poorly balanced economy. After the first game I basically played every subsequent game with more money than I ever needed, extra bases basically broke strategic layer planning and economy. The base invasions were an interesting concept, but too narrow and not implemented well enough to really make them worthwhile. Once you get a halfway decent base layout planned out, the base invasions are just giant wastes of time that add nothing of any worth to the game as a whole.

That said, I see these features like I see the mako from Mass Effect. They were interesting ideas that weren't implemented very well in the first game. People liked the idea but hated the execution, but rather than fix the mako and make it more interesting, Bioware just axed the entire concept for the sequel, Firaxis decided to do the same thing for the xcom reboot. Still, I would like to see the ideas that the first xcom implemented so poorly, actually used well, maybe xenonauts can deliver.

 

[Master_Fubar23]

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Alright, you convinced me... that you never played the first one. Arguing with someone that can barely read, keeps trying to correct or prove a point with things I never said or asked, changes what they said from post to post, and has to take notes from a wiki to try justify his points is ridiculous. So I'm going to stop wasting brain cells on you and get to something better. Your blatant disregard for facts is quite amusing which is why Firaxis was able to make a shit game that a lot of people like you ate up. The new XCom was not paced, had shitty based building, ridiculous restraints on everything from the lack of TU's to having to pick and choose what part of the world to save, shit story, and a horrible ending that made no sense. Go on and keep buying shit games from Dev's that clearly don't give a shit unless its their original IP's, I'm sure the types of games they make will keep people like you content. lol no cover in the 90's? what a joke.