TFTD theory: Was supposed to take place in WW2

[Mr. Quiet]

So I was reading through Steam comments as usual on the TFTD forum. I came across this post:

Basically what happened was that TFTD originally was meant to be in the WW2 era and have ♥♥♥♥ like tesla tech, nazis and lovecraftian monsters, but they had to rush it so it became what it is.

You are not wrong in that the setting was suppose to be WW2 Era but that Microprose felt that it didn't make any sense and so it was moved to the present era.

Am I the only one that doesn't see this? I wonder if they intended it that way halfway into development or early on? Last night, I was watching an LP from JStank and Meridian. I was also wondering why so much yellow is in the game. Maybe someone can answer that too. Yellow subs are a thing in Lego, that why?

So I feel a WWII would have been a lot more different, except the monsters. They had lots of sea monster movies in those years with aliens. About Tesla tech... I read about Nikola Tesla, so it would of been neat to have in the game somehow. Electricity tech in water, no way.. Maybe exclusively on surface missions, maybe these guys are lying, or maybe the WWII setting wouldn't have had underwater battles. I need to know more. So yeah, that's what I'm here to find out.

Mr. Gollop did his own 101 history for the X-COM games, but he didn't have anything to do with TFTD if I remember correctly in the video, so nothing was really explained of the sequel. I doubt he even pitched it.

Steam topic is "Lovecraft inspired?". Dunno how to link it over from my Steam browser. It's an old topic that was bumped to the front page.

Come, share your thoughts!

[Hobbes]

Someone has a lively imagination that doesn't correspond to reality, unfortunately.

There was never an intention to making TFTD in a WW2 setting, and we actually know this because the TFTD Draft Publishing Plan is available. This is an internal Microprose document that describes TFTD's development process and it contains no references to WW2, Nazis and Tesla.

Lovecraft influences in TFTD are a fact though (Cthulu/Ry'leh = T'Leth, Deep Ones, etc.) 

[yrizoud]

Yellow has been a common color for submarine equipment, for a very long time.
https://m.thevintagenews.com/2016/03/24/jacques-cousteaus-underwater-colonies-from-the-1960s-copy/
I don't know the reason, but if I had to guess, I would say that visible equipment will be less likely to be lost (if small) or accidentally swum into (if big).

[Arthanor]

Yeah, as an oceanographer, I can say that yellow (or bright orange) are definitely favored colors when at sea, because of how much of the sea and sky are grey blue. It makes things (and people!) much easier to spot. Of course, navies are all about steel grays and blues, but that's different. At the beginning of TftD, before it is rebooted, XCom is more of a scavenging company than anything, so it makes sense that they'd have colorful stuff. What's maybe strange is that their suits go from camo-ish blue to bright yellow, but maybe that happens as they realize that aliens don't care about camo (they spot you in the dark as well as in bright light, so presumably they use a different method of localisation.. or are so sensitive as to not care).

[Warboy1982]

presumably aqua-plastics don't take paint very well, even with primer.

[Arthanor]

But then.. all the advanced armors are bright yellow!

The real answer, probably, is just that yellow diving stuff stands out from the environment, looked cool in the Cousteau ocean explorer way and better featured the soldiers.

[Muukalainen]

Thinking about the crap weapons, jet harpoons, and clumsy heavy diving suits without any armour, it actually makes sense, that it was supposed to originally happen in WW2 era.

Apocalypse is actually based on Cold War. All the soldiers are wearing Soviet Russian style fur hats.

[Hobbes]

Apocalypse is actually based on Cold War. All the soldiers are wearing Soviet Russian style fur hats.

And this shoud be their soundtrack while flying around in the Valkyrie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sxTbfeYdO0

Replace where they sing 'Lenin' with 'XCOM'

[The_Funktasm]

Maybe it's not my place as I haven't played all the games, but it seems like a typical game timeline that gets more and more confusing on down the line.