Support for interchangeable gameplay features from all 3 X-Com Games

[Turbo]

Before anything, I'd like to say hi, and that I'm following the development of OpenXCom closely and with great interest!

I would like to see the engine support gameplay from all 3 games, maybe to allow playing any of the 3 games using the same engine. I'd like each of a particular game's feature to be toggleable to allow it's usage and incorporation into another.

I'll explain further what I mean by "game specific gameplay features":

- X-Com 1 gameplay features: the game as we know it
- X-Com TFTD gameplay features: melee weapons; right-click for opening doors; terror missions in different areas; specific graphics, sounds, enemy units and weapons from game
- X-Com Apocalypse: gravity influences terrain destruction; team/squad selection and orders; real time mode (+specific graphics, sounds, enemy units and weapons from game)

As an example, I would like to be able to enable features from TFTD or Apocalypse in X-Com 1, such as melee weapons or gravity influencing the destruction of terrain, and play X-Com 1 as if it had those features from the start. Or play TFTD using weapons from the first game. Or mix and match from every game.
Using "levels" from both the 1st and 2nd game would also be nice, such as terror missions from the first and second game.
(As a bonus, it would be nice to have a menu with a full list of available features, and toggle which to use on the game).


I realise that X-Com Apocalypse takes quite the dramatic turn away from the previous two, specially the "Geoscape/Cityscape", which would be quite complex to implement, but I think the specific features I mention above would be interesting to be in the game (and not the Geoscape city engine itself).

A few of these are a lot of work, but some aren't that hard I think, and would be quite nice to have.

[SupSuper]

I had planned on supporting UFO/TFTD features since both games are virtually the same and UFO could benefit from some of TFTD's improvements like the right-click doors, scrolling ground equipment, seeing soldier stats on the pre-equip screen, etc.

Apoc is probably much further down the line though, since stuff like collapsible destructible environment and real-time is a whole lot more complex and would probably take quite some time to properly integrate into a UFO/TFTD engine. I'll keep it in mind though.


I think some kind of menu for turning on/off extra features at will is gonna be inevitable since everyone has their own preferences for playing the game. The problem is figuring out what features are too major to be able to change mid-game, or which are too minor that there's no need for an option.
My main goal for now is to introduce features that don't have a major impact in the core gameplay, but are like minor fixes/patches to the original that feel natural like they should've always been there in the first place.

[pmprog]

The problem is figuring out what features are too major to be able to change mid-game

Easiest to start with, don't allow any to be changed once the game is started. You'll already have the toggling code written for the New Game menu, so when somebody requests the ability to change in-game, just have a second Option menu and put the option in 

[battlesquid]

+1

Combining the best of all three games is a great idea

[pmprog]

Apocalypse is too radically different to merge. In both graphics and gameplay. Porting the aliens, weapons, research etc. across to UFO/TFTD would be possible, but you'd have to redo the graphics so they keep the same visual style.

I really liked some Apoc tactical features like Aggression, but some (most significantly was shooting mode) made the UI cluttered and I kept forgetting to set before I shot.

[battlesquid]

Apocalypse is too radically different to merge. In both graphics and gameplay. Porting the aliens, weapons, research etc. across to UFO/TFTD would be possible, but you'd have to redo the graphics so they keep the same visual style.

I really liked some Apoc tactical features like Aggression, but some (most significantly was shooting mode) made the UI cluttered and I kept forgetting to set before I shot.

I totally agree that xcom apoc graphics are a different matter. My votes regarding to xcom apoc was for specific parts only:
+1 gravity influences terrain destruction;  https:// i always thought walls hanging in the air seemed like a bug, bad or unimplemented feature
?    team/squad selection and orders;  https:// no sure about this
-1  real time mode https:// disagree
-1  specific graphics, sounds https:// disagree
-1  enemy units and weapons from game https:// i think its enough combining UFO and TFTD. combining units+equipment from all three is too much i think. Still I really would like to see the Psymorph, which is probably my favorite foe from xcom apoc

[Daiky]

I think I have to check out apocalypse (I never played it) for this gravity influences destruction. Because I wanted to implement such a thing in my battlescape, but I never figured out how, maybe apoc can give me ideas...

[michal]

Go, play it - it's quite interesting and enjoyable game.

[terbro10]

XCOMutil was an interesting mod for XCOM UFO in the terrain and space ship aspect of the battlescape randomly mixing up the tiles so as every mission was never the same. I'm glad to not know when the next door I'm walking through is the control room of a space ship with a commander with 80 odd reactions inside!

[hellblade]

Just like to voice my concern as well.

As much as I love apocalypse, it's just not the same game as X-Com.

Apoc was for much much larger battles both in geoscape and battlescape.

Lastly, as much as I love apocalypse,  many Xcom fans actually hate it.