XCOM! Enemy Unknown

[Grenn]

Yeah, I'll agree that not having full camera control is pretty bad these days, but at least we get the 4 corners view. It's the first X-Com game with any camera controls at all so I guess I can't complain too much

[Xionanx]

LET THE MODDING BEGIN!! So, after checking out whats going on over at Nexus I was able to cobble together a game balance mod for myself. Most of the changes that I made are personal preference changes, and if you guys want I can post the mod file here for the changes I made. There are also other mod files available at Nexus if you don't particularly like my changes. However, it seems a lot of the changes I made are duplicated in other people mods they have posted, only with minor variations... a "Theme" is developing it seems.

Anyway, here is a list of the changes that I made and if there is interest I'll post the mod up for download somewhere:

General Changes:

Chryssalids always make zombies on all difficulties, now you don't have to SEE a corpse for it to turn into a zombie!!
Removed limit on the number of aliens who will attack at once, the default is 5 on easy/normal. (Be preparred to be hammered on all sides... no more enemies standing there and doing nothing because 5 aliens have already attempted to attack you.. YOU WILL GET SWARMED)
Increase Abduction Reward Cash from 200 to 250
Increase the Scientist and Engineer Abduction reward from 4 to 5
You can now detect and shoot down UFO's before they start Abduction/Terror missions (NOTE YOU STILL NEED TO HAVE A SATELLITE IN ORDER TO SPOT THE UFO TO SHOOT IT DOWN)
Lowered the number of Scientists needed to make the first lab from 6 to 5
Lowered the number of engineed needed to make the first workshop from 6 to 5
Lowered the multiplier for the number of engineers needed to make Satelite Uplinks from 10 to 5
Lowered the multiplier for the number of engineers needed to make Satelite Nexus from 15 to 10
Lowered the number of days it takes to test for PSI ability from 10 Days to 5 Days
Increased the number of testing slots in the PSI testing facility from 3 to 6
Increased Starting money from 100 to 250
Increased base monthly funding from 175 to 250 on Easy and Normal, Left Classic at 75 and Hard at 50
Reduced the Cost of removing base upgrades from 5 to 0
Events that increase panic no longer affect the entire continent, just the country the event takes place in.
Adjusted monthly panic reduction chance to be more linear on Easy/Normal mode: 100% chance at Panic 5, 75% chance at panic 4, 50% chance at panic 3 or less.
Reduced the time it takes to manufacture Satelites from 20 days to 5.
Enabled Second Wave (These are bonus options built into the game but disabled by default, NOTE YOU STILL NEED TO BEAT THE GAME AT LEAST ONCE TO UNLOCK THESE OPTIONS)
Thinmen no longer suffer HP and Damage penalties on NORMAL mode
Your soldiers no longer start with reduced HP on Classic or Hard Mode
Doubled Range of all Sniper Weapons (you still have accuracy falloff)
Gave every weapon the ability to take reaction shots 360 degrees around the unit (some weapons could only react in the direction your unit was facing, but considering the wonky facing mechanics of XCOM I decided to "Fix" this problem *NOTE!!! This effects your units AND the Aliens! BE WARNED!!!)

Personal Opinion change:
Normalized nation funding to be a little less racist/elitist. By default there are 16 contries that provide funding for a total of 1480 maximum funding each month. I have simply divided that number by 16 and given each country an equal funding amount so it seems a little less one sided in what countires get a satellite first.. Everyone deserves equal satellite coverage!! NOTE that the result was 92.5 and since the game doesn't do "Half" currency, I rounded up to 93 for every country so the net result is a MINOR increase in total funding available (1488 v 1480). Also note that there are actually more countries on the list then just the 16, however the other 20 Countries listed gave a default of 0 contribution, so I wasn't sure if adjusting those values would actually effect the game or not. If I were to divide the 1480 by 36 total countries then each would be giving just 42 which would mean larger continental coverage areas for satellites would NET more income.. I'll have to see how it plays out.

I would love to remove the reaction animation and free move that aliens get when they first spot you so that you can "Ambush" aliens, but I can't seem to find that setting anywhere. (at this point in time I think this is beyond my ability, perhaps someone in the mod community will figure it out)

Also, if any of you have suggestions for a "Custom" change you want made let me know and I'll see what I can do.

EDIT!!!

Things I am considering that I know (think) can be done:
1) Adding the ability to stun as default kit for all weapons/or armor IE an "Under the Barrel" ARC Thrower. (You will still need to research it and build the containment facility before it will be worthwhile, but it would free up an item slot that I feel is "Wasted" in most missions)

2) Some kind of class stat balance - Having played with the game enough I have come to the conclusion that the "Heavy" class is the worst class in the game hands down. It's only "real" ability is that it has more HP then the other classes but since there are no "Threat" mechanics you can't exactly make it a "Tank". TBH I think I would rather have a team full of nothing but support as they get increased movement, better healing, two inventory slots, can use Plasma Rifles and Pistols, can wear all the armors, have good overall accuracy. All the heavy brings is a "Rocket Launcher" and frankly I don't use it often enough to justify having it on the team... So anyway, I'm thinking about giving the heavy a "Base Cover" to "Pretend" that it is wearing some kind of "Heavy" armor variant so that way it ALWAYS gets the "Effect" of partial cover even while standing out in the open. This would result in A) it being able to do something no other class can do and B) will make it an effective "Tank" as enemies tend to try to shoot units not standing in cover before they try to shoot anything else, therefore justifying all those extra HP it's getting on level ups.

3) Some kind of "Trauma" pack built into all the armors that functions as a one use medkit, because what soldier doesn't at least have a basic first aid kit. IMO the Support Class will still be viable as it can heal more often and better (with skill selection) and with this addition the other "Skill Choices" upon level up become more tempting as its no longer OBVIOUS that taking the bonus healing skills are the superior choice..

4) Removing the need for "Alien Corpses" to make items.. as really? Exactly WHAT are you pulling out of that corpse in order to make a "Dodge" upgrade for my strike craft?? Its just silly. (this would free up your corpses to be sold for money)

[Grenn]

I was playin around with the ini files yesterday for a bit too, haven't actually changed anything yet but it was fun to poke around in it for a while.

I like some of the changes you made, others I feel make the game too easy. 5 days for satellites and 0 cost for removing rooms both seems like easy mode to me just for example.

As for your ideas, here are some comments:

1. I'd rather see the Arc Thrower have more than 2 shots per mission than see it become some sort of tertiary weapon. I really think that the upgrade research you do on it should really improve the ammo count as well as the effectiveness of the stun. I think making some sort of 'underbarrel' stun would make the game far too easy, especially considering how multipurpose the Arc Thrower becomes later in the game if you play with a SHIV on your squad.

2. Stat class balance does need some serious addressing. The Heavy class obviously has some sort of penalty to aim that isn't accounted for in the displayed 'chance to hit' numbers you see when making a shot. In my most recent game more than half my starting soldiers ended up as heavies so I didn't have a choice but to play with them and I've seen them miss on shots that should have been impossible to miss...I have a save where a Heavy is using a Heavy Laser and he's got a 95% chance to hit while flanking a Thin Man and he'll miss every single time I load the save. I've reloaded it more than 30 times and he's never landed the shot. The penalty seems worse while using the Heavy Laser, but I don't have any documentation on that, it just feels like it hits less than the LMG did. I looked at the stats for the Heavy Laser in the ini file and it doesn't have any penalty to aim, so either it's my imagination or it's a coding issue. I would love to see Heavies have some Defense on them by default, or at least always count as having half cover and half cover counting as full to account for them being 'Heavily' armored. I know there's an ability for snipers that does that, but I think it would be nice for it to be a default ability for Heavies like all Snipers automatically get +20 Aim. I'd also like the ability to remove their god awful rocket launcher and let them carry a freakin pistol...it makes no sense to me that they can't swap that out if they want to...

3. I could see a 'Trauma' kit in the Titan or Archangel armors, but not as a typical medkit functions. I'd have those armors just automatically stabilize the wearer if they take a critical wound. It wouldn't get them back in the fight, but it'd remove the need to have someone go save them if they get taken out and survive the attack. To be honest I haven't taken a medkit on a mission with me at all in my recent game, there's really no point when you're playing on Classic or Impossible. At those difficulties your soldiers usually aren't going to survive long enough to get healed if they start taking damage, and if they do it's usually close enough to the end of the mission that you can clean up with them all beat up and let them heal back at base. I still picked up the 'use a medkit 3 times' ability on a couple of my supports, but I didn't take the 'heals 50% more' ability on any of them. Avoiding the damage all together by using a smoke grenade is a far better option than trying to use a medkit to heal up afterwards IMO.

4. If you read the autopsy descriptions they talk about the implants and materials in the alien bodies that are used to make the boosters for your interceptors and other items. It's stuff that your engineers can't replicate, like alien alloys and ship parts, so the only way to get them is to remove them from the corpses you bring home. I'd prefer it if the materials needed were just automatically removed from the corpses when you got back to base and were kept as separate items, so you could sell the corpses for 5 a piece and then the implants or w/e would be another item that you could sell for 2 or 3 each if you didn't want to keep them to build boosters with.

Ideas for stuff that I didn't see in the ini files:

A. I want more Council requests...they removed the ability to fund yourself through building and selling items, but they sort of compensated for that by having the Council countries submit requests for stuff like corpses or items and have them offer rewards for those goods. Usually they offer currency in exchange, sometimes they'll offer soldiers, scientists, or engineers, but it's usually cash. I'd love to see those requests come in more frequently, like 2 or 3 a week, so you could pick and chose which ones to fulfill instead of just getting 1 or 2 a month and not really having any reason to not fill them. I'd also like to see the rewards for filling requests expanded to include stuff like alien alloys, elerium, and alien corpses. A lot of the requests have flavor text about them making requests for your advanced items to help them increase their own defense forces, so it makes sense that their own armies would be fighting the aliens too and perhaps having occasional successes. So they'd have alloys, weapon fragments, and corpses of their own but they don't have X-Com's scientists and engineers to do anything with those things. It would make sense that they'd trade them to you in exchange for completed items.

B. I want to be able to take more soldiers into combat...in the original X-Com you started with a Skyranger that could carry 12 soldiers into the fight...I really dislike that they limit you to a 6 man squad. I get that they made the maps smaller and the game moves a bit faster, but that's not always satisfying. ( i saw in the ini file there's a value for the Skyranger capacity, but I don't know if changing it would do anything to allow you to bring more soldiers since the squad loadout screen is pretty much filled with just the 6)

C. I want to be able to run more than 1 squad at a time. I dislike that you only ever have 1 Skyranger to haul your troops around in, it's just stupid. What military organization would have just 1 troop transport, or be able to only respond to 1 attack at a time? It's the pinnacle of idiocy, no real military organization would survive a fight only being able to respond to 1 thing at a time...

[Xionanx]

1. I have successfully made the Arc Thrower count as a "Pistol" so you can now equip it in place of your standard side arm. I gave it damage and range stats exactly equal to the BASIC started pistol, so you can immediately swap out your pistols for the Arc Thrower as soon as you research it. It can still only STUN 2x per battle, and if you use its pistol mode it counts as your stun uses if you haven't used the stun effect yet. I personally like this as its a cool new damage animation, even if its only meh damage and range.

2. Heavies do have the LOWEST "Aim" per any class and get the least amount of Aim bonus on rank up. However the issue you are running into with your heavy always missing is that the "Random" numbers aren't actually random. At the start of every match a "Seed" of random numbers is generated, and they are placed into a "Que" for use. This list is SAVED with your save games, so reloading and shooting will ALWAYS get you the exact same result unless you CHANGE THE ORDER IN WHICH YOU ATTACK. So, in order for you heavy to connect with his 95% chance to hit, you would actually need to use someone else FIRST and have them waste an attack.. then use your heavy. This was done intentionally to prevent the exact thing you are doing, it's called "SaveScumming" when you save/load/try.. rince/repeat until you succeed. There are countless threads about many a gamer thwarted in XCOM by the random number sheet.. lol.

Anyway, back to talking about the heavy: I am thinking of giving them a flat defense bonus of 20 which is the equivalent of partial cover, which will stack with cover of course.. So you can stand out in the open or REALLY get defensive with one, making heavy one of the most survivable classes vs the others. That or I could just give them the same HP and Aim progression as the other classes so they feel less gimp overall..

3. Sadly, I am currently unable to add med kits to armors.. or I should say I "Can" but they have 0 charges and therefore dont work.. which is kinda pointless. I'm waiting on "real" modders to fix this issue.

4. I can't remove the corpse cost anyway, as there is no setting for it. Consuming corpses seems to be hard coded into it some where and not adjustable.

A1. I can easily adjust the number of days between council requests. I think by default its 7 days before the RNG starts testing to see if one pops up. I can drop that down to like 1 so you constantly being spammed with requests. (or some other number of days to be more reasonable)

A2. Rewards for fullfilling requests seem to be limited to just money, engineers, or scientists. However, if you are looking to get "More" of those, then the ability to shoot down UFO's which I added will mean MORE missions.. IE.. Currently you can't shoot them down, so what happens is the abduction popup occurs and you pick 1 of three missions.. however, if you shoot down all 3 UFOs, you now have 3 crash sites to raid for supplies... which in turn means more

B. Apparently you CAN take more soldiers into combat, however the maps don't have the spawn points to support them. So what ends up happening is your extra soldiers get spawned at enemy spawn points rather then at your drop ship.. There is a guy working on this exact issue, give it time and I'm sure he'll come up with a solution.

C. I too would like to run more then 1 squad, however again with the shoot down the UFO's option turned on, your ONE Skyranger is more then sufficient to raid all the landing zones.. that is IF your strike craft are up to the task of shooting them down in the first place.


As far as the "Easy" stuff I added to the game.. Currently it takes MORE time to make a satellite then it does to make and advance UFO technology fighter craft... And we have been making satellites for roughly 60yrs now... so yeah, I dropped the time down. 20 days was insane long to make satellites and I feel 5 is long enough. Reducing the cost to remove structures was more of a WTF it costs $5 to remove something that it cost me $300 +random resources to build.. It was kinda insulting. $5 to $0 is not that big of a change, but its certainly less irritating then being forced to pay to remove stuff... It would have been nice if there was a way to RECOVER money/resources upon removing structures, which would have made a lot more sense IMO.

EDIT: Anyway, I guess I'll make a "Clean" version with a more detailed change log and post it up for people to download. I'm sure someone will appreciate it.

[Xionanx]

OK, here is the link to the updated mod:
XCOM EU Balance Mod - Xionanx.7z (https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resi...IU-rLjca_bUOXY)

How to use:
1. Unzip the contents and copy them into your /xcom/binaries/win32 folder
2. Run PATCHER.BAT - This program will make a backup of your original game.exe and then patch in the mod
3. Play and enjoy

Changes:

Armors
- Unchanged

Characters
- Gave the Battle Scanner ability the full sight range of a squad member per the description of the ability (Up from 18 to 27)

Weapons
- Gave ALL weapons 360 degree over-watch reaction angle, this is in response to the wonky "look" direction mechanics of the game that would sometimes prevent over-watch from functioning properly; This change effects both player and alien weapons.
- Arc Thrower now counts as a Pistol and can be equipped in place of your pistol on units capable of using a pistol. It has the same base stats as the basic pistol and benefits from both pistol research upgrades and Arc Thrower research upgrades. Using it as an ATTACK consumes stun charges and will NOT stun the target, you must still activate the stun effect for it to stun and you still must be withing stunning range for the stun effect to function.

General Mode Balance Changes
- Easy, Normal, Classic, and Impossible mode have been stripped of all HP, Aim, Will, Defense, and Damage Bonus's and Penalties. You will still face more units, a smarter AI, and have less resources on the harder modes; you just won't be doing it against buffed aliens with weakened/penalized soldiers.

Class Changes
- Support is unchanged
- Heavy now gets 1 HP per rank, +20 Defense at squaddie rank and +10 at colonel, and +1 additional Aim per rank. Your heavy is now your "tank" class.
- Assault now gets 1 additional Aim at colonel rank, bringing its total max Aim to the same level as a Support.
- Sniper now gets 1 Additional mobility at Squaddie, lieutenant, and Colonel Rank. Snipers should be more mobile then support.
- Here are the modified stat progression tables:

Support -
Squaddie HP +1 Aim +5 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Corporal HP +0 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Sergeant HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Lieutenant HP +0 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Captain HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Major HP +0 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Colonel HP +1 Aim +5 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0

Heavy -
Squaddie HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +20 Mobility +0
Corporal HP +1 Aim +2 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Sergeant HP +1 Aim +2 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Lieutenant HP +1 Aim +2 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Captain HP +1 Aim +2 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Major HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Colonel HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +10 Mobility +0

Assault -
Squaddie HP +1 Aim +5 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Corporal HP +0 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Sergeant HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Lieutenant HP +0 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Captain HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Major HP +0 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Colonel HP +1 Aim +5 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0

Sniper -
Squaddie HP +0 Aim +10 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +1
Corporal HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Sergeant HP +0 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Lieutenant HP +1 Aim +3 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +1
Captain HP +0 Aim +4 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Major HP +1 Aim +7 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +0
Colonel HP +0 Aim +10 Will +2 Defense +0 Mobility +1

*** Note, the mobility and defense changes do not appear to be working at this time.

General Changes:
- Normalized funding from all nations, now every nation provides 93 funding for a base maximum funding of 1488 from countries, this is up from the previous maximum of 1480. (note that in easy mode nation funding is 150% of base)
- Units killed by Chryssalids will now always make zombies on all difficulties regardless of thier position on the screen, previously units killed off screen did NOT turn into zombies.
- Adjusted the maximum number of Active Alien units in battle mode: Easy mode max is 5, Normal mode max is 10, and Classic and Impossible mode max is unlimited. This directly effects difficulty so expect normal mode combat to be a little harder then it was, easy, classic, and impossible modes are unchanged.
- Turned on the ability to detect UFO's before they engage in Abduction or Terror missions if you have satellite coverage over that country. Interceptors will now be working overtime to keep the skies clear!
- Lowered the number of days between random council missions from 7 to 5, this should result in more frequent council missions requiring your attention.
- Lowered the numbber of Scientists needed to make the first lab from 6 to 5
- Lowered the number of engineers needed to make the first workshop from 6 to 5
- Lowered the number of days it takes to test for PSI ability from 10 Days to 5 Days
- Increased the number of testing slots in the PSI testing facility from 3 to 6
- Increased initial funding from 100 to 250
- Reduced the Cost of removing base upgrades from 5 to 0
- Events that increase panic no longer affect the entire continent, just the country the event takes place in.
- Reduced the time it takes to manufacture Satelites from 20 days to 10 days.
- Enabled Second Wave; These are bonus options built into the game but disabled by default, they become available to you once you have completed the game at least once.

I removed some of the things in my previous list based on feedback, this is a complete list of the current changes.

EDIT: You will also need to "CLICK" on the file in my skydrive to download it, ignore the other files unless you want some character sheets and back-stories for the dresden files lol

EDIT2: After some testing it turns out that I can't add defense to Heavies at all.. so the entire class has just ONE thing as it's claim to fame.. the rocket launcher. Which is really nothing more then a longer range grenade.

So I'm left with a couple of options:
1) Beef up the rocket launcher to make it MUCH more intimidating. I already tested this out where I increased its damage radius by a factor of 4 and literally blew a whole building off the map... which was cool and all but I think a bit too much. But then again, it just 1 shot a match so bringing a heavy who can wipe out a whole building MIGHT be a good way to speed up abduction missions..

2) Normalize the heavies stats to be equal to the support class, and then modify it's equipment table to allow it to use assault rifles and pistols like the other classes can. This would remove some of the flavor of the class for sure, but it would make it a LOT more useful then it's current incarnation. In this way if a player decides they would still rather have it carry a rocket launcher they can do that, but it will have more equipment options open to pick from.

3) Ignore it and move on with my life.. which will likely happen regardless as I quickly grow tired of things.

[Xionanx]

There is a bug in my mod. Be careful when using the Arc Thrower as a pistol AND a Light Plasma Rifle as you can get "Stuck" in Arc Thrower mode for the rest of the battle. May not happen all the time, but it does happen so there you go...

[Jeroboam]

I'm still alive! Been spending my very limited gaming time recently on XCOM, just about to finish my first playthrough (normal, ironman). It went really well I thought, and gave me a lot of good ideas for classic. I had one Heavy make it all the way through from the first mission, ended up with almost 100 kills.

Strangely enough two things really sealed this game for me after an initial rocky start, one was changing to play with a 360 controller on the PC, which allowed me to relax and changed my mindset, just like was said above, and the other was having 3 majors and 3 captains killed in back to back missions about 2/3 of the way through the game. I was devastated, but picking up the pieces and holding it together until I could get my team back on its feet gave the game a very real sense of weight. I am glad I am playing on ironman, because if not, I would have definitely reloaded when my two top snipers were killed within seconds of each other.

(In fairness it was my fault, I grappled to what a I thought was a great vantage point in the construction zone type map, but there was a room full of aliens underneath it. Cyberdisc, two drones, 3 Mutons, and another 3 Mutons moved up next turn, they never had a chance.)

[Grenn]

I've finally beaten the game and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with the ending. I don't know why, it just felt wrong.

Also, I've noted a couple more things that irk me:

1. You can't target friendly units with attacks. This includes aliens under mind control, which means you can't shoot an alien that's under your control to kill it or stun it. This is contrary to all previous X-Com games and is a huge thorn in my side, and I'm sure in others as well. In the previous games if all the aliens left on the field were MC'd you'd win the mission and get to bring them home as captives. If you know the MC effect is about to drop you can't finish the alien off before it does. Aliens also don't seem to panic in this game so after the MC drops they just go back to fighting you instead of running away, which sucks since the MC drops at the end of your turn and they get their full action on their turn even if you spent all their actions during your turn before the effect expired. On the bright side if an alien under your control dies its weapons don't explode...small consolation though imo.

2. You can't pick up or drop weapons or items in mission. This means that if you've only got 1 soldier with a medkit and he goes down you can't have someone pick it up and heal him. It also means that you can't force an enemy to drop his weapon through Mind Control so he's disarmed when the effect ends

3. You can't target objects or get the 'free cursor' attack anytime you want. I've come across more than a few instances where I know an alien's behind a wall but none of my units have los on him. In previous games I could have just shot the wall out on purpose to get at him, and if I was really lucky even hit him with the extra bullets as they go through the hole in the wall. Now, if you don't have a rocket launcher or a grenade and the room to use it, you're forced to run around the corner to take the shot

[Xionanx]

I can actually add the "Free Aim" in that your looking for there easily with a few simply INI edits, sadly the other two cant be done currently.

I personally didn't like a LOT of the limitations of this game, be once you look at it as a "Console" game they are more tolerable because for a "Console" game its pretty good strategy game.. It actually prompted me to download "UFO Alien Invasion" which is a FREE fan made XCOM successor with all the detailed actions you could want.. yeah, the grapics are a little wonky, and its not exactly "User Friendly" but it certainly has more DEPTH then XCOM: EU does.

As far as the "Story Goes" I still haven't beaten the game.. I've been putting it off with modding and then restarting to test my mod changes. However a game in this genre that I personally feel made the Alien invasion both A) MAKE SENSE and B) HAD A GOOD STORY and C) HAD GOOD DEPTH was "UFO: Aftermath" - DEFINANTLY WORTH PLAYING IF YOUR A FAN OF THESE TYPE OF GAMES!!!

Spoiler: In UFO: Aftermath the aliens start with biological warfare, which is EXACTLY what any intelligent species would do upon invading a planet.. kill as many people off with plague before you even put troops on the ground. The people who "Survive" are left struggling trying to scrape together resources to fight back..so again, you don't have some "Mysterious" world orginazation that just happens to have major technology available.. it makes RESEARCH make more sense.. etc.. Anyway, its a better game all around, it just needed A) more press coverage, and B) better graphics/sound.. Would be great to see a remake of that game.

[Grenn]

I have the entire UFO series of games, I think I got them all from GamersGate for like $15 for the trilogy. They're all very good, but Aftermath is my favorite. Just beware, the endgame is stupidly hard, after you reach a certain point the aliens all start coming at you with aoe weapons and rocket launcher type attacks. Even with the best armors in the game they'll 1 shot your men with a launcher... The sequels have better graphics and more options, but they feel a lot more cartoonish than the first game. I'd love to see a remake or another sequel for the series, and maybe it'll happen if the genre starts making a comeback through X-Com.

I suppose I'll have to go look up this UFO Alien Invasion game, I've never heard of it before.