Little review/aar after finally finishing the mod

[rezaf]

Phew. I did it.
Took me more than half a year, because for reasons described below I really, really lost steam in the latter third of the game and basically had force myself to press on at least a couple of times a week.
Post-game said I played 1179 missions, and it sure felt that way.

First, let's get the good stuff out of the way:
- it's still X-Com, and it shows. The basic gameplay loop works just as well as it always has, and as long as all the pillars of the original formula are in place, the game (and thus the mod) is as addictive as it used to be.
- Few bugs. For a mod that changes as much as this one does and contain as much stuff as this one does, I hardly ran into any issues. For whatever reason I once failed to get the loot one mission should have yielded, I never managed to exterminate EXALT (or did I?) - at least I could've researched EXALT HQ again after already finishing them ... but besides fairly minor issues like these that can be ignored or resolved by editing the savegame, there was nothing to write home about in terms of errors.
- Visuals and sound. Sure, these are outdated by a few decades now, but the art direction is still good and the game mostly does a very good job bringing in assets that fit the mood.
- Lot's of content. I'm listing it low in the list, because it ended up also being a negative for me.

Now the things I didn't enjoy so much:
- The first phase of the game, in which you play an undercover organization, doesn't work so well. It's impressive how this has been jury-rigged into an engine that wasn't designed to accomodate it, but that doesn't change the fact that it FEELS jury-rigged. Stuff like the civilian car "aircraft" just are a little weird. And X-Com-style missions with two soldiers leave a little bit to be desired, imo.
- In I'd say about the first half of the game, there's too much reliance on interrogation. Before you get any of the advanced toys, capturing aliens with the early-game arsenal can be taxing, especially if an unlucky roll of the RNG dice have you run into mutons in a couple of the first alien waves. This phase of the game was brutal and taxing, and frankly, not fun. One way to address this would be to field mutons only in later waves, if that's possible. Alternatively, there could be a way to get to advanced equipment without relying so heavily on live captures.
- There's a couple of tech bottlenecks, in which there's hardly anything left to research before you got over a certain hurdle - for example before you get access to the final lab, which requires a complicated web of things to be captured and researched - again, this wasn't very fun, and often months had to pass before I got a chance to assault a certain vessel or somesuch.
- Finally, the last third of the game was totally and utterly barren for me. I'd completely run out of research opportunities, and had 250 researchers twiddling their thumbs. I had 80 engineers twiddling their thumbs. Occasionally, a mission spawned which granted me some long obsolete project, for example I think the last techs I researched were Dino Egg and the Throwing Axe. Go figure.
Between loooooong periods of playing the waiting game and just doing standard missions - most of which should imo have long stopped spawning at that point, such as raving mad man, crop circles, jarhead factory etc - and way, WAY, WAAAAAY too many underground cavern missions, I eventually did the aquanaut missions (the entire underwater portion of the game was undercooked and felt a bit tacked on, imo), the zombie/mummy missions (also felt like a weird addition) and the doom missions (I'm not sure I ever finished that plotline), and then it took me about half a year (maybe more, I'm not sure) of ingame time to finally get through the moon mission chain.
Afterwardy, cydonia was surprisingly easy - and, frankly, I'm kinda glad this is over. 

Regardless of my criticism, hats off to the dev(s) for creating this mod, it's undoubtedly quite the achievement and experience.
I hope none of my points offends anyone, and I don't expect any of them to be fixed just because I say so - frankly, having finished the mod, I don't care THAT much. 
But if I could write a wishlist to santa, I'd at the very least wish for a couple of guaranteed "weak alien" waves very early in the invasion and some steamlining in the end to either make the road to the endgame less time consuming or redistribute research so it isn't so terribly boring in the final stretch of the game.

In any event, thanks for creating the mod. 

[Solarius Scorch]

Thank you for this detailed and honest review! Feedback like this is very useful.

[Apocca]

Lot's of content.

I agree, this mod has allot of content. Hats off!

- The first phase of the game, in which you play an undercover organization, doesn't work so well.

I liked this part very much. It also states that in the description of the mod.

- In I'd say about the first half of the game, there's too much reliance on interrogation

Not an issue for me, as I played other mods which are also highly reliant on interrogations.

a couple of guaranteed "weak alien" waves

In the beginning you have a change on an UFO landing or some "Military shot down a UFO" missions.

The only issue, as with all mods is the RNG. You can be unlucky with the random rolls and not get something.

Overal very positive about this mod. Most things you are having issues with is just unlucky RNG.

[JDS]

Id like to give a bit of feedback too.
About me: This is my first time playing Old-Xcom, but i have exp in New-Xcom and maybe more relevant in Jagged Alliance 1,2 and Deadly Games.
I also started and played through unmodded OXCE and UNXCOM since i took a break from Files - and am now early/mid in my first TFTD run.
Files i played on the second difficulty, one below veteran. The others i played on Veteran.

First, the stuff i liked:
- The mod feels overall polished compaired to the others i played. I realy like that everything is linked to a full description, stats for nerds etc.
- i especially like that i get the combat analysis once i interrogated someone
- I love the atmosphere in the beginning of the game, two Agents driving around in a car, detaining people for interrogation, and then going on to fight cult safehouses once i know about them
- Cant say enough about how much i like the storyprogression, especially in the beginning of the game
- Weapon progression - i like that there is a lot of progression not only in firepower, but also in utility. MG-Licence, Explosive Licence, stuff like MORTAR open whole new worlds every time.
- AI-Units. Love the way they are implemented. I would have loved to have 3-4 More to have one in each base and 2-3 in my Main squad, but RNG wasnt with me this run. Every Tier is either great in utility or Tankiness/Firepower at the time of unlock. It also just feels good that its not wasted XP to use them.

Stuff i dont like:
- Hangars / Missions requiering certain Vehicles. For earlygame its great and i like it, but later on i run out of space. I need a Fighter, a good Trooptransporter (SkyRaider/Kitsune i like most) and a Landrover for Undercover missions - but on some covered missions im also allowed the Dragonfly (or was it osprey?)  - Anyway, i would prefer if there was at least one vehicle less needed. Maybe a research a bit later, after i get the Landrover "Local contacts - you are provided with the biggest fitting vehicle on the missionsight" - so i can just go there with less people on the Skyraider but get the other vehicle on the battlescape.
- Beam Wepons. I was hyped to finally have Laserweapons for my Craft - and was very disappointed that Cannons and Beam are different classes - even the Tormentor cant use Beam, i think its too restrictive to only have them on Alien-Adapted-Crafts.
- Unfair missions. Maybe its because im bad/undergeared/ didnt know each mission before going into it - but some missions felt just bad. Im kind of fine going to a Wild Creature mission, seeing my 2 Agents surrounded by 8 Spikeboars and just leave again, or going to a Cult-HQ with a helicopter and very quickly recognize that i need to upgrade my Transport first - but for example "Cyberweb attacking a member of the council", and other missions where i cant take a look and just leave just felt bad. It feels like it is ment to be played by someone who already knows every missions in and out.
- Alloy/Tritanium, especially in light of having the research ready for Tritanium Ammunition, Tritanium Vests and Tritanium Heavy Suits - but not having Access to enough Alloy to build them. The first thing i did with it was the first fighter jet that needed Alloys to produce - i saved up for it since i thought i need to shoot down ufos to get more alloys. That was all the Alloys i had until the Invasion started. The first Armor i produced because i had enough Alloys were Cybersuits. Tritanium Vests and Heavy Tritanium Suites are useless right now, and Tritanium Ammo is something i sometimes looted from MiB but never produced myself.
- Agents are too Valuable. The Mod is realy hard.  i kind of need God-Agents, fully trained with atleast Bio-Enhancement and TNI to carry decent gear and also hit the 100s of enemies, wich takes ages to get them there. I cannot affort to lose them so i savescummed. A lot. The later i got into the game, the more i savescummed. The earlygame was great. 2 Agents surrounded by Spikeboars, turn around with one to see them, Reactionshot-> Agent dead - lol, thats X-Com, and take off with the other Agent. Fine, just a Rookie easy to replace. But leaving the Kitsune on Turn 2 with one of my Elite-Soldiers, with smokescreen on the ground, 3rd person to leave it got shot from half the map away by a Turret on a Battleship that i hadnt spotted yet - yep, thats a reload. It would take probably multiple month to replace him, and a month in this mod takes longer (Real-Time) than half a full campaign of unmodded XCom. Combined with the need for high sanity, i need to only send expirienced soldiers on hard missions - sanity also forces me to push forward harder, the harder the mission is - wich leads to more death - or reloads in my case.
- Also: FK Zombie Caves & Vampire Castle

I know i rambled a bit about the stuff i dont like, thats because it felt realy frustrating. Sorry about that.
Overall i realy like the mod, and will probably restart it soon.
On my restart i will probably look for a bigger hangar mod, edit recruit sanity to be basicly infinite, and increase startingstats & price of rookies as i progress through the game. I will also start with a Tritanium-Matrix in my inventory.
Hopefully thats enough to not make it a savescumm-fest again.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thank you very much for the breakdown. I am happy about the praiase, and let me address the negative points:

- Hangars: I actually agree, but I am hoping that hangar types will make their way to the engine soon. This will allow small hangars (garages?) which will hold cars and similar vehicles, freeing some space and making base management easier.
- Beamn weapons: I am flexible here, but realistically beam weapons need different mounting from ammo-fed weapons (thick power cables vs. loading mechanism), so striking the right blaance is hard.
Unfair missions: a consequence of having more freedom/RNG/surprise factor. Best I can say is "if it looks bad, GTFO". That's how it's meant to be played, anyway. I understand it's painful at times for story reasons, but that's how it is. It's a dark and gritty setting.
Tritanium: I am gradually increasing their availability without allowing you to make them too early. Consider this WIP.
Irreplaceable agents: I am aware, but haven't come up with a satisfactory solution yet. (I don't want to allow for hiring veterans later on, because it's hard to tackle balance-wise, and also controversial from the setting point of view.) For now I just hope it's not too bad.
FK Zombie Caves & Vampire Castle: agreed! But it's kind of optional and very well rewarded.

[psavola]

Irreplaceable agents: I am aware, but haven't come up with a satisfactory solution yet. (I don't want to allow for hiring veterans later on, because it's hard to tackle balance-wise, and also controversial from the setting point of view.) For now I just hope it's not too bad.

One option that would go a little bit in that direction would be to remove the commendations bonuses. In the long run they grant huge bonuses on top of what can be easily achieved by regular experience, making the veterans significantly better compared to vanilla or mods which don't have them. But I doubt that fits in your plans.

[Stone Lake]

As a loss enthusiast and team-wipe enjoyer, towering on hundreds of corpses of my troops, I assure that there is no such thing as irreplaceable agents. Sure, getting them shredded by a static object feels cheap and unfair. But also completely avoidable with experience. No mission in the game requires your guys to have hundred in all stats to win.

[Solarius Scorch]

One option that would go a little bit in that direction would be to remove the commendations bonuses.

Like... remove a significant portion of the game? Is this really necessary? Maybe it is...

As a loss enthusiast and team-wipe enjoyer, towering on hundreds of corpses of my troops, I assure that there is no such thing as irreplaceable agents. Sure, getting them shredded by a static object feels cheap and unfair. But also completely avoidable with experience. No mission in the game requires your guys to have hundred in all stats to win.

I think so too, although the frustration of having to command rookies is real.

[Enoch]

One option that would go a little bit in that direction would be to remove the commendations bonuses. In the long run they grant huge bonuses on top of what can be easily achieved by regular experience, making the veterans significantly better compared to vanilla or mods which don't have them. But I doubt that fits in your plans.

Like... remove a significant portion of the game? Is this really necessary? Maybe it is...

Perhaps the solution could lie in a new type of transformation. You'd unlock it in the mid-late game, and it would turn brand new rookies into relatively ok agents that you could at least take into UFO encounters without cringing too hard.
Make it take a very long time compared to other transformations (a month, maybe more?) and have it depend upon dismantling one of the mid-game factions or have it require some sort of semi-rare item or resource. Call it "X-Com Virtual Reality training" or something similar.
If it sounds too strong, you can have it decrease Sanity by a lot so that it can't be used in conjonction with other transformations. Or make it incompatible with all other good transformations, so you can go from fresh recruit to regular trooper easily but can't then turn those regular troopers into true elite agents.

[Solarius Scorch]

Perhaps the solution could lie in a new type of transformation. You'd unlock it in the mid-late game, and it would turn brand new rookies into relatively ok agents that you could at least take into UFO encounters without cringing too hard.
Make it take a very long time compared to other transformations (a month, maybe more?) and have it depend upon dismantling one of the mid-game factions or have it require some sort of semi-rare item or resource. Call it "X-Com Virtual Reality training" or something similar.
If it sounds too strong, you can have it decrease Sanity by a lot so that it can't be used in conjonction with other transformations. Or make it incompatible with all other good transformations, so you can go from fresh recruit to regular trooper easily but can't then turn those regular troopers into true elite agents.

This is more or less what the "advanced transformations" are for: Olympians, Kyberi and Proteans. I've just added two more recently (Spartans and Infernals) and right now I'm working on expanding the Kyberi with various cybernetic implants. The question is if these transformations actually fulfil such a role.

Another possible solution would be doing something similar to Piratez and adding some "training courses", like a shooting range course etc., which take considerable time (like a month) and increase your stats by a certain amount (but within normal caps). I'm just a bit worried that it'll make training facilities obsolete.

[Dreams_Of_Cheese]

I recall from years ago that the gym facility used to be much stronger than is now. It was good enough that I kept a training base with a few dozen rookies and several gyms so that I'd have a decent pool of replacement soldiers to pull from as casualties got more intense. I understand wanting to avoid this kind of strategy for the early game, but I think there's probably room for an upgraded gym, maybe reliant on alien medics or similar research so that you'd only get it post-invasion.

[Juku121]

We already have a bunch of rookie equalisers: upgraded equipment (how it mostly worked in the OG), minor transformations and soldier type transformations. The issue is just that a maxed and commendated veteran is still quite a ways beyond that, and intentionally so. There's no reconciling this without a definite redesign of the whole system. The agents are either expendable or they are not. Right now, it seems to be more not for most players, excepting those hardcore enthusiasts who gleefully embrace their corpse mountains.


As to the gym, I recall it having only one global speed setting, so it might not be possible to make an upgraded version without some praying at the code altars.

[Alex_D]

I found myself using (my own custom) statstrings vital to keep track of my best soldiers and rookies. I keep a special flag ("++") for soldiers that were "maximized", this is trained beyond a point that they could not gain any more stats. Those soldiers were given command duty on secondary bases (read not HQ base) until Cydonia or until needed to cover for heavy casualties (read wounded) after a major mission. I also keep another flag for soldiers who were done training at the gym but have yet to maximize ("+").

I remember before commendations and such, said max-out soldiers ("++") were sort of quick to attain. After commendations (and a new campaign) soldiers will be done with the gym ("+") but will take like forever to maximize ("++") making them rare and valuable.

I'd like for statstrings to react to also transformations present (or absent) and not just stat numbers.

In my opinion, having lots of different type of soldiers after a certain point only add to the decision fatigue or just plain out clutter. I realize I don't use that many types of soldiers, I focus on stock types and such for most of the game. It's maybe just me and my gameplay style.

I'd like to see if armor and weapons can be allowed to wear or use based on certain commendations or transformations, like allow or forbid the use of this armor or item if this or that transformation is present on the soldier profile. This would decrease the number of soldier types to a minimum, in my opinion. Currently armors are only filtered for soldiers types, and this is as far as I know how OXCE works. And for items, I believe they are done by damage equations to an extent.

Another possible solution would be doing something similar to Piratez and adding some "training courses", like a shooting range course etc., which take considerable time (like a month) and increase your stats by a certain amount (but within normal caps). I'm just a bit worried that it'll make training facilities obsolete.

I'm currently playing XPZ. I noticed that the order of the transformations, or withholding some until regular training is done, can potentially lead to maybe higher stats, than training rookie peasants and slave soldiers (and loks, and cats, and ogres).
But I like the way regular soldiers can be "manufactured" with certain stats and transformations built in.

[psavola]

I found myself using (my own custom) statstrings vital to keep track of my best soldiers and rookies. I keep a special flag ("++") for soldiers that were "maximized", this is trained beyond a point that they could not gain any more stats. Those soldiers were given command duty on secondary bases (read not HQ base) until Cydonia or until needed to cover for heavy casualties (read wounded) after a major mission. I also keep another flag for soldiers who were done training at the gym but have yet to maximize ("+").

I remember before commendations and such, said max-out soldiers ("++") were sort of quick to attain. After commendations (and a new campaign) soldiers will be done with the gym ("+") but will take like forever to maximize ("++") making them rare and valuable.

I'd like for statstrings to react to also transformations present (or absent) and not just stat numbers.
(...)

Starving Poet's reverse statstrings (https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/reversed-stat-strings-for-x-com-files) does much of this and it has been very useful in my early game at least. It hasn't been updated in a while so I suppose at least some later-game features are missing. In some cases it might be useful to track commendations also, but that would require some special encoding in the name.

[Stone Lake]

The agents are either expendable or they are not. Right now, it seems to be more not for most players, excepting those hardcore enthusiasts who gleefully embrace their corpse mountains.

There's nothing "hardcore" about this, vanilla x-com was glorified tactical take on lemmings.

Feeling that the agents are expendable and agents really being expendable are different things. I think I'd hate to play if agents really felt expendable, that would took a bit of the wind out of role-playing. You need to build them up, to feel that they're needed. And then, it's kinda obvious you get attached to your John Wick that was carrying the campaign from day 1. And yet, he's not really necessary, the show goes on.

Also I guess most people wanna play John Wicks only, and yet still avoid the consequence that comes with it, that John Wicks are always put in danger instead of expandable-er troops. This is a strategy-ish game, to manage limited resources. John Wicks are limited, duh.

I recall from years ago that the gym facility used to be much stronger than is now. It was good enough that I kept a training base with a few dozen rookies and several gyms so that I'd have a decent pool of replacement soldiers to pull from as casualties got more intense.

This strat is still valid to keep adequate resupply of troops. Training them takes more time now, but that just means that you need to have more training bases, which doesn't cost much.

Gym training-maxed rookies are decent and combat-ready, if you equip them proper. Give them TU+ armor, plasma pistol and some grenades. Now they can be scouts and meat shields, which is A LOT. They act as supports while remaining veterans solve harder problems with their pew-pew turbo disintegrators. Therefore, you don't need much battlescape time or resources to raise combat-ready troops. And don't get me started on dogs, rookie dogs are sectoid's nightmares.

The problem is if you want those gym rats to become as hardened as your hardest bastards. This is long and potentially infinite journey. That's where the feeling of "irreplaceable" comes from. You have to apply and track transformations, look at soldier stats individually, which is time-consuming and clunky. Maybe could be solved with a better UI, but alas...

I'd suggest maybe "bundle" transformations that would serve as a one-package deal instead of bio-ex, combat pilot, etc., maybe, with lesser yields and less strict requirements, and maybe it's own transformation chains.