XCOM Patch Making Easy Mode Easier

[Serinanth]

They need to fix the mind control issue I just experienced. When a mind-controlled alien is the last alien alive. Can't stun it, can't shoot it, can't cancel the MC. You can hit them with a rocket or a grenade to cancel the MC and you can wait out until the MC's 4 turns is over. But ideally the mission should end with that alien being captured alive, at least let me stun it or something.

 

[Strazdas]

Easy mode was already pretty easy to begin with. Surprised some people had trouble with it. Then again I'm not exactly new to these kinds of games, so maybe I'm not the right person to ask.

Well i can speak form eprsonal experience that when you go to a new type of gameplay it can be overwhelming. i remember when i saw "total war" first time (like 10 years ago) i was like "what the hell, ill let computer do my battles for me". because iw as loosign every singleone of them. now i cant think of how it is even possible to be as inefficient as AI fights.
This isnt limited to computer games. im a economics bachelor, and when i speak about economy, in what i think is the most simple terms, everyone stares at me not understanding me, because apparently i use "specific terminology".
Now personally i think game should encourage trying to learn, not just make a lower difficulty setting, but it looks like most games nowday just make you invincible fridge with a gun anyway.

 

[Racecarlock]

Well jesus christ, if you don't like easy mode, don't play on easy mode. Simple, but I don't think you would like a game if you got killed 76 times before coming up with even a basic strategy. And if you do, that's fine, but that doesn't mean other people should have to put up with it.

In easy mode. You DON'T DIE.

Aliens cant hit shit. You hit every single time.

It worries me that people find easy mode too hard.

Why? It's not like the way they play is affecting the way you play. They're not holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play on easy, so what's the problem? Do people really have this much of a problem with other people playing a game the way they want to?

 

[BreakfastMan]

Well jesus christ, if you don't like easy mode, don't play on easy mode. Simple, but I don't think you would like a game if you got killed 76 times before coming up with even a basic strategy. And if you do, that's fine, but that doesn't mean other people should have to put up with it.

In easy mode. You DON'T DIE.

Aliens cant hit shit. You hit every single time.

It worries me that people find easy mode too hard.

Why? It's not like the way they play is affecting the way you play. They're not holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play on easy, so what's the problem? Do people really have this much of a problem with other people playing a game the way they want to?

Playing easy mode in XCOM is like the Ethereals walking up to you, putting your plasma pistol to their head, and asking you to "please kill me."

... and you miss a point blank shot to head and say "this game is too hard!"

That's what bothers me. Its not that they are playing on easy, ITS PLAYING ON EASY AND STILL LOSING EVEN IF EASY MAKES YOU PRACTICALLY INVINCIBLE.

Its like having INFINITE HEALTH, WALL HACKS, SPEED HACKS, AIM BOTS THAT KILL PEOPLE ACROSS THE MAP, AND INFINITE AMMO IN A MATCH OF COD AND YOU STILL DIE AND KILL NO ONE.

To lose on easy mode (which MAKES you win) and ASK THE COMPANY TO MAKE IT EASIER is embarrassing.

For those people asking, maybe. Not for you, so why do you care? You have no reason to care and you have given no reason to care.

 

[Racecarlock]

Well jesus christ, if you don't like easy mode, don't play on easy mode. Simple, but I don't think you would like a game if you got killed 76 times before coming up with even a basic strategy. And if you do, that's fine, but that doesn't mean other people should have to put up with it.

In easy mode. You DON'T DIE.

Aliens cant hit shit. You hit every single time.

It worries me that people find easy mode too hard.

Why? It's not like the way they play is affecting the way you play. They're not holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play on easy, so what's the problem? Do people really have this much of a problem with other people playing a game the way they want to?

Playing easy mode in XCOM is like the Ethereals walking up to you, putting your plasma pistol to their head, and asking you to "please kill me."

... and you miss a point blank shot to head and say "this game is too hard!"

That's what bothers me. Its not that they are playing on easy, ITS PLAYING ON EASY AND STILL LOSING EVEN IF EASY MAKES YOU PRACTICALLY INVINCIBLE.

Its like having INFINITE HEALTH, WALL HACKS, SPEED HACKS, AIM BOTS THAT KILL PEOPLE ACROSS THE MAP, AND INFINITE AMMO IN A MATCH OF COD AND YOU STILL DIE AND KILL NO ONE.

To lose on easy mode (which MAKES you win) and ASK THE COMPANY TO MAKE IT EASIER is embarrassing.

Are you seriously getting angry that other people are losing at a game? Even if it is on easy? I mean, seriously? You need to get outside for a day or so. Maybe go swimming or something. I mean, holy hell.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Well jesus christ, if you don't like easy mode, don't play on easy mode. Simple, but I don't think you would like a game if you got killed 76 times before coming up with even a basic strategy. And if you do, that's fine, but that doesn't mean other people should have to put up with it.

In easy mode. You DON'T DIE.

Aliens cant hit shit. You hit every single time.

It worries me that people find easy mode too hard.

Why? It's not like the way they play is affecting the way you play. They're not holding a gun to your head and forcing you to play on easy, so what's the problem? Do people really have this much of a problem with other people playing a game the way they want to?

Playing easy mode in XCOM is like the Ethereals walking up to you, putting your plasma pistol to their head, and asking you to "please kill me."

... and you miss a point blank shot to head and say "this game is too hard!"

That's what bothers me. Its not that they are playing on easy, ITS PLAYING ON EASY AND STILL LOSING EVEN IF EASY MAKES YOU PRACTICALLY INVINCIBLE.

Its like having INFINITE HEALTH, WALL HACKS, SPEED HACKS, AIM BOTS THAT KILL PEOPLE ACROSS THE MAP, AND INFINITE AMMO IN A MATCH OF COD AND YOU STILL DIE AND KILL NO ONE.

To lose on easy mode (which MAKES you win) and ASK THE COMPANY TO MAKE IT EASIER is embarrassing.

For those people asking, maybe. Not for you, so why do you care? You have no reason to care and you have given no reason to care.

It matters because 2K already has a bad enough opinion of non-COD games. If they think people are too stupid to handle basic thinking, then you can say goodbye to Civilization, XCOM, and even Firaxis.

If they think people are too stupid, then they will just drop everything except rail shooters which is what they wanted to do before Firaxis convinced them to do a test run. They already have a low opinion of gamers as it is.

And yet the game has already sold a crap-ton as is, as you yourself have posted on this very forum [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.392742-2K-XCOM-was-a-success-eats-own-words]. Hell, the easy mode has probably added to sales (I know they got a sale out of me for adding it in). So I highly doubt that they would abandon something that has already made them a tidy profit just because some people wanted the easy mode to be easier. :\

 

[Okulossos]

Major Fixes
-Abductor roof visibility problems resolved

YEEEEEEEEEEESS!!! Finally!!!!!!

Easy mode easier? Why is that a problem? Who cares? I don't!
But all in all this is great news!

 

[BreakfastMan]

Its not profits that 2K is concerned about. They KNOW XCOM can make money and will milk it for all its worth, its the ATTITUDE of how they go about future installments.

Games are not held to the highest bar, they are held to the LOWEST bar when they are made.

If Easy mode becomes easier, then the other modes fall suit.

Normal becomes easy.

Classic becomes normal.

Impossible becomes classic.

Ridiculous slippery slope fallacy is ridiculous. I mean, you might have a point if all game modes were becoming easier (hell, even if normal were becoming easier) and that a common criticism was that the game was too hard. Good thing neither of those things have happened then, eh?

EDIT: Then, of course, there is the fact that taking the XCOM franchise the COD route makes absolutely no damn sense, no matter what way you look at it.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Its not profits that 2K is concerned about. They KNOW XCOM can make money and will milk it for all its worth, its the ATTITUDE of how they go about future installments.

Games are not held to the highest bar, they are held to the LOWEST bar when they are made.

If Easy mode becomes easier, then the other modes fall suit.

Normal becomes easy.

Classic becomes normal.

Impossible becomes classic.

Ridiculous slippery slope fallacy is ridiculous. I mean, you might have a point if all game modes were becoming easier (hell, even if normal were becoming easier) and that a common criticism was that the game was too hard. Good thing neither of those things have happened then, eh?

They can't make all modes easier since the game was ABOUT being hard. That requires a whole new restructuring and more money that 2K is not willing to spend.

Its what 2K will think AFTER this. They will take this feedback and apply it to later games.

And what feedback did they get, exactly? A lot of people complaining that it was too hard, or a lot of people saying that they liked how hard it was? Because from what I have seen, it looks a hell of a lot more like the latter. Every single review I have seen compliments the difficulty and nearly every single comment about the game's difficulty I have seen has been positive. If there are a lot of people complaining that the game is too hard/too complex, I have managed to avoid them somehow.

This is the same publisher that thought Bioshock 2 was a good idea and wanted to make XCOM into Bioshock 2.5, I wouldn't put it past them.

And we saw how well both of those turned out for 2K, didn't we? Companies can learn from mistakes, you know.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Now that people are complaining about thegame being hard, it just reinforces 2k's mentality that even remotely challenging games "scare" gamers away.

WHAT PEOPLE!?!?! Every single damn review has praised the difficulty. Every single damn post I have seen on these (and other) forums about the game has praised the difficulty. The only changes being made to the game are being made to the easy mode, not normal (which would be just as easy to change as easy, so there must be a reason they are not changing that as well). You would think that just might be something that 2K freaking notices! God damn, I feel like I am repeating myself over and over here.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Now that people are complaining about thegame being hard, it just reinforces 2k's mentality that even remotely challenging games "scare" gamers away.

WHAT PEOPLE!?!?! Every single damn review has praised the difficulty. Every single damn post I have seen on these (and other) forums about the game has praised the difficulty. The only changes being made to the game are being made to the easy mode, not normal (which would be just as easy to change as easy, so there must be a reason they are not changing that as well). You would think that just might be something that 2K freaking notices! God damn, I feel like I am repeating myself over and over here.

They received feedback to make easy mode easier.

Notice how the feedback was not to make normal or classic or impossible mode easier, just easy mode. That should tell you a lot. Devs typically are not in the business of removing things that many people say they like.

It must be a sizable chunk since 2K took the time out of their day to address this.

A single day for one guy, maybe.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Now that people are complaining about thegame being hard, it just reinforces 2k's mentality that even remotely challenging games "scare" gamers away.

WHAT PEOPLE!?!?! Every single damn review has praised the difficulty. Every single damn post I have seen on these (and other) forums about the game has praised the difficulty. The only changes being made to the game are being made to the easy mode, not normal (which would be just as easy to change as easy, so there must be a reason they are not changing that as well). You would think that just might be something that 2K freaking notices! God damn, I feel like I am repeating myself over and over here.

They received feedback to make easy mode easier.

Notice how the feedback was not to make normal or class or impossible mode easier, just easy mode. That should tell you a lot.

It must be a sizable chunk since 2K took the time out of their day to address this.

A sizable chunk out of a single day for one guy, maybe.

Easy mode is the barrier of entry for a game.

They wont touch much of the original game since that takes money out of 2K's pocket.

They WILL most likely apply this incident to future games, since they will keep this barrier of entry thing in mind.

I have said this 3 times now.

So what, they will make easy difficulty easier in future games? Oh, the horror, whatever shall we do.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Now that people are complaining about thegame being hard, it just reinforces 2k's mentality that even remotely challenging games "scare" gamers away.

WHAT PEOPLE!?!?! Every single damn review has praised the difficulty. Every single damn post I have seen on these (and other) forums about the game has praised the difficulty. The only changes being made to the game are being made to the easy mode, not normal (which would be just as easy to change as easy, so there must be a reason they are not changing that as well). You would think that just might be something that 2K freaking notices! God damn, I feel like I am repeating myself over and over here.

They received feedback to make easy mode easier.

Notice how the feedback was not to make normal or class or impossible mode easier, just easy mode. That should tell you a lot.

It must be a sizable chunk since 2K took the time out of their day to address this.

A sizable chunk out of a single day for one guy, maybe.

Easy mode is the barrier of entry for a game.

They wont touch much of the original game since that takes money out of 2K's pocket.

They WILL most likely apply this incident to future games, since they will keep this barrier of entry thing in mind.

I have said this 3 times now.

So what, they will make easy difficulty easier in future games? Oh, the horror, whatever shall we do.

The easy difficulty is a barrier of entry. They cannot make normal much harder, since difficulty is a scale.

A lower barrier of entry means everything will be designed for a low entry point. They will be pulling their heavier punches.

Why? Why would they possibly want to make the game easier when nearly all of the feedback has complimented them on how hard the game is? It makes no sense, from a business standpoint or a design standpoint. That is why this is a slippery slope fallacy: you are assuming that one necessarily follows the other, when that is not the case. Yes, they will keep the lower barrier of entry in mind for future titles, but do you know what else they will keep in mind? How much so many liked how difficult the game was. Games are not designed for the lowest possible entry point. They are designed for the largest base. And the largest base is the one that likes the difficulty.

 

[deathninja]

It's not like they're altering classic or impossible, so those of us who cut our teeth on UFO defence years ago can still scream at the monitor if we want.

On the other hand, it lowers the barrier to entry fro strategy newbies (I can imagine there's a fair few on consoles). That way the neophytes can build up to the harder modes if they want, and the grognards are unaffected.

tl;dr - Nothing to see here people, move along.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

I'm currently playing through XCOM on normal, and having an enjoyable, if slightly difficult, time. It's not a style of game I'm used to, so there are moments when I make mistakes that I'm sure a lot of people would classify as 'rookie mistakes,' but I'm still enjoying it.

That said, I do understand why some people would play on Easy mode. And, not to be 'that guy' or anything, but aren't a few of you sort of missing the point? Like, saying they should have just added a 'n00b' difficulty, or saying that some people 'are actually playing XCOM like it's The Sims 3: Aliens and Guns Edition' is being really harsh. Maybe some people would like to experience the game once without being crushed by the challenge. I know that once I got the hang of Normal mode, I abandoned a game to jump to Classic mode, and promptly got my ass kicked, so I reloaded my Normal game to get an even better fix on the game. I'm sure there are people that would just like to try the game without worrying overmuch about being kicked in the teeth by it, and I'm sure a lot of those people, after beating it on Easy, will try it again on a harder difficulty.

Calling people out for wanting it a little bit easier just seems a bit immature, in my opinion. It's not like there's anything in the game forcing you to play it that way. It's just an option in the game that you could totally ignore if you wanted, like changing the language setting, or choosing whether or not to have subtitles on: it might add something to someone else's experience, but having it there isn't taking away from yours.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

I'm currently playing through XCOM on normal, and having an enjoyable, if slightly difficult, time. It's not a style of game I'm used to, so there are moments when I make mistakes that I'm sure a lot of people would classify as 'rookie mistakes,' but I'm still enjoying it.

That said, I do understand why some people would play on Easy mode. And, not to be 'that guy' or anything, but aren't a few of you sort of missing the point? Like, saying they should have just added a 'n00b' difficulty, or saying that some people 'are actually playing XCOM like it's The Sims 3: Aliens and Guns Edition' is being really harsh. Maybe some people would like to experience the game once without being crushed by the challenge. I know that once I got the hang of Normal mode, I abandoned a game to jump to Classic mode, and promptly got my ass kicked, so I reloaded my Normal game to get an even better fix on the game. I'm sure there are people that would just like to try the game without worrying overmuch about being kicked in the teeth by it, and I'm sure a lot of those people, after beating it on Easy, will try it again on a harder difficulty.

Calling people out for wanting it a little bit easier just seems a bit immature, in my opinion. It's not like there's anything in the game forcing you to play it that way. It's just an option in the game that you could totally ignore if you wanted, like changing the language setting, or choosing whether or not to have subtitles on: it might add something to someone else's experience, but having it there isn't taking away from yours.

The problem there is that people who are comfortable with the present easy mode will now be orphaned. They can either hike up the difficulty or play something too easy for them. And while I've no direct evidence of this, I'd be willing to bet that that group is substantially larger than the group of people that find easy too hard.

So yeah, just making a new difficulty mode might've been the best idea...

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

The problem there is that people who are comfortable with the present easy mode will now be orphaned. They can either hike up the difficulty or play something too easy for them. And while I've no direct evidence of this, I'd be willing to bet that that group is substantially larger than the group of people that find easy too hard.

So yeah, just making a new difficulty mode might've been the best idea...

I could agree with that, but the thing is, I'm not seeing anyone saying that they're comfortable with easy and don't want it changed. I didn't read every comment, but the ones I did read are just complaining that there's an easy mode in the first place, which is the wrong attitude to take, I think.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Why? Why would they possibly want to make the game easier when nearly all of the feedback has complimented them on how hard the game is?

That is a good question. You should ask them since they have done this already.

We are talking about making easy mode easier, not the entire game easier (unless, for some reason, you count fixing bugs as making the game easier). There is a mighty big difference.

 

[malkavianmadman]

I will admit the first time I played XCOM I did so on easy. I usually do this however, to learn how to play the game. I don't think they need to make it any damn easier though. I mean I completed the game with no deaths on my first play through and that just seemed weird.

 

[BreakfastMan]

We are talking about making easy mode easier, not the entire game easier (unless, for some reason, you count fixing bugs as making the game easier). There is a mighty big difference.

He is mentioning the possibility of the entire game being dumbed down if the publisher perceives the gamer population to be comprised of those too stupid to eat. They may do this in order to "broaden the appeal".

I don't understand why you are so totally dismissive of this possibility.

The reason I am dismissive of this possibility is that the publisher would have to be freaking blind in order to not get that most of the people who have played the game like the difficulty. Lowering the barrier of entry does not mean lowering the challenge ceiling. It might be different if the majority of people were complaining that the game is too hard, but that is obviously not the case. And since devs and pubs are not in the business of removing things from games that most customers have expressively stated they like, the notion that they would remove something that most people like is absurd.