i played X-COM UFO maybe 5 times due to smearing graphics, by the time i got the patch in 1998, i already moved on to terror from the deep and maybe played 50 times in 1995~1998, after that i couldnt play it anymore, due to scrolling was too fast and dosbox back then was too slow and i had it with no hotkey supports. then moved to jagged alliance 2 for last 25 years.
i decided to check X-COM for a possible remake 3 weeks ago, i learned about openxcom.
i played it and i LOVED it SO MUCH with hotkey supports.
i played openxcom UFO defense, i failed it due to not knowing what i played was all easy difficulty not veteran
but my true play lied in the X-COM 2 terror from the deep.
i found this that openxcom used the universal patched one which i didnt know and never used it before.
i found that a universal patch was NOT a patch and it was more of a MOD
its game play was not even remotely similar in fact, it took the opposite path of the original game play
the original XCOM was all about us players being as offensive
but the universal patch made us players as defense as we could be
the universal patch openxcom would go like these
*all aliens will COME TO YOU even the ones in the vessels
*tanky lobsters are being knocked out like falling leaves asking for being knocked out again and again
*paths of Tentaculats and calcinites and maybe lobsters too are noticeably different from the original
o = going right
x = going left
original one : oooooxxxxoooooooo was most likely the zigzagging way
universal one : ooooooooooooooooo
by doing so, they changed some kind of game balance further
*dye grenades in the original disperse slowly, it is NOT broken as they said made it out to be
by changing this, they changed the ENTIRE original game play like this
since aliens can NOT see you in the blanket of smoke. so modders made all field aliens converge toward you, and in 2 turns, some of them WILL already reach to your submarine's door. so you players now in trouble with 80 limit item carry. so universal patch removed the 80 item carry limit. PLAYERS need to carry more items for the universal patch, a lot of dye grenades and at least 20 flares.
after 1st dye grenade's power is gone after 10th turn, you use another dye grenade, now the rest of the aliens in the UFO vessel's core places starts to come out and comes to you. YOU DONT EVER NEED TO RAID ALIENS in vessels in universal.
but in the original XCOM, you play offensive
you come to them by dragging all 10 marines to them. aliens in there are SO defensive, there also EXISTS an impossibility for you to win, no amounts of saving and loading games wont cure this.
*and finally universal patch workshop production has about 30% faster duration and less work space needed.
*in a new patch, lobster commanders are NOT elusive, it makes the game end too fast for me. it was probably the worst patch made with ver 2
in a unpatched version lobster commanders were quite often so elusive to make people think that the game was broken but it was not broken, you just capture lobster commanders a couple more times and WITH ONLY SHOKBOMBS for the whole mission, or commanders die, which added more fun time to play leviathans.
openxcom using universal patch does not and must not represent the original XCOM UFO.
would it be possible for you GOOD modders to compile one with the original X-COM UFO series?
mods are all in good and fun, but a MOD is ONLY MEANINGFUL if the original game play is preserved even in some corner of universe.
