XCOM: Chimera Squad

[Solarius Scorch]

I wasn't even focusing on my own mod, but on X-Com in general.
Yes, flanking works on nuCom, but like everything else, it does so due to completely abstract and arbitrary rules, not because of how the simulation is constructed. In fact, there is no simulation, just a set of rules like in a card game. It works more like Age of Wonders: Planetfall; but AoW:P is a game of a greater scale (operating on the level of whole squads), so it's less jarring.

[vadracas]

I wasn't even focusing on my own mod, but on X-Com in general.
Yes, flanking works on nuCom, but like everything else, it does so due to completely abstract and arbitrary rules, not because of how the simulation is constructed. In fact, there is no simulation, just a set of rules like in a card game. It works more like Age of Wonders: Planetfall; but AoW:P is a game of a greater scale (operating on the level of whole squads), so it's less jarring.

Completely agree, Nucom is not a simulation, but a complex set of rules can still be fun to play(Chimera squad stretches it to a far too simplistic point though).

[Bobit]

I agree, it's less simulationistic. But so is every boardgame/wargame, DRM (die roll modifier) is a universal term there. I can't think of a single grid-based small-scale boardgame though (in Squad Leader each chit is more than 1 unit afaik, in Upfront you have no grid), and you're right that it feels more gamey at small-scale. People actually have an intuition for small-scale, since people experience life as individual people and not collective armies. NuCOM subverts that expectation, doesn't necessarily make it a bad game, but does make it feel odd.

[Solarius Scorch]

I agree, it's less simulationistic. But so is every boardgame/wargame, DRM (die roll modifier) is a universal term there. I can't think of a single grid-based small-scale boardgame though (in Squad Leader each chit is more than 1 unit afaik, in Upfront you have no grid), and you're right that it feels more gamey at small-scale. People actually have an intuition for small-scale, since people experience life as individual people and not collective armies. NuCOM subverts that expectation, doesn't necessarily make it a bad game, but does make it feel odd.

Yes, very true. But I guess it all comes down to expectation; if I play X-Com, then I want X-Com the tactical game, not X-Com board-pretending-to-be-tactical game.  If I want something this, I'll play some other game - like Planetfall, which I actually like.