Xcom: Enemy unknown discussion

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What the hell is he really saying here:

Are Time Units still used to measure time during turns in battles?

No. “We had time units in our game, and we said, ‘Can we improve on this?’” explains Solomon. “Yeah, I think we can. Time units are a great mechanic, but the player spends too much time thinking about that system. We want to add so much to XCOM – classes, perks, a ton of new weapons and a cover system and new mission objectives – and you cannot add that much stuff without making sure everything in there is carrying its weight.”

Time units are out, but what is the solution?
 
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Exactly my question. The gameplay video makes it look like its turn based. Maybe time units are not explicitly shown and are hidden under the hood somehow? You got me.
 
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That was kinda answered in the last round of interviews, I thought. They dropped time units in favor of 2 phases (which really, functionally, amount to 2 "summary" time units in my mind). You get a move phase and an attack/defend phase. During the move phase, you can, well, move...a certain number of hexes. Generally speaking, whether you move 1 hex or 20 has no impact on your attack. Snipers can cash in their move phase for a special attack. Some other class can cash in their attack phase for extra movement.

I always thought the buttons to reserve enough time units for the 3 attacks was fine, but apparently the designers thought that mechanic was just too darn confusing for the console kiddies and they'd continually run out of points and be unable to attack.
 
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Thanks for the explanation DTE. Do you know if the "attacks of opportunity" are in? I liked the element of surprise in battles in the original.
 
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Overall it's kind of similar to the 3rd/4th edition D&D system where everyone gets a standard action and a move.

I think there was a review somewhere that said you could use your attack to go on overwatch in order to shoot on the enemy turn.
 
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Yep, like fadedc says, as far as the opportunity fire. You have to burn your attack phase in order to "lay in wait", but that's functionally no different from reserving points at the end of your turn. It really seems like the same gameplay mechanics are available to you, but instead of having 70 points to work with, you get 2 phases.

Now, the only thing I can think of that might not work under the new system is getting multiple shots while on guard duty. Say you've got a guy in a nice hole, waiting for critters to wander by. At the end of turn one, a big ugly wanders by. You guard pops it, but doesn't quite kill it. For turn 2, you take a snap shot and finish off the baddie. You save your remaining points in turn 2, and take another opportunity shot when the next critter wanders into view. Under the 2 phase system, as it's been sketched out so far (admittedly not a detailed explanation), that would be 2 attacks in a single turn which appears to be a no-no.
 
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Good point DTE, another tactic that looks like a goner with this new system is opening a door, firing, and backing out around a corner all in 1 turn. This new system seems to disallow this. :/
 
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The flip side of only allowing one shot when guarding is that the person you shoot at will only take one shot back too. So instead of you shooting at your enemy 3 times before they can react, and then your enemy shooting 3 times back before you can react, you will take 1 shot, and then they will take 1 back.

For moving, firing a shot and moving away, there are advanced classes that can break the rules and take more actions, so it's possible that one of them might be able to do it. You might have like a skirmisher who can move, shoot, and move again, while a basic soldier can only move and shoot, then next turn he could shoot again and move back.
 
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Gonna use my mighty mod powers to move this thread over to RPG General. It probably makes more sense to bring that thread over here, but I'm a mere mortal over there. Should help with the confusion and multiple postings.
 
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You did that intentionally, didn't you... ;)
 
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Yeah, both threads should be merged if possible. Not a big deal though.

PS: Nice video. I Hope you can turn off the quicktime cinematics. Will aliens attack your bases and can you defend them like in the original? Odd that they shifted the plane of your base to vertical from the purely horizontal.
 
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I thought a merge might get confusing (the default is to mix them in chronological order) so I kept both threads. Now that they're in this forum, they're beyond my meddling.

The developers said during one of the various interviews we've seen/read that base defense was definitely in the game.

Will catch the video when I get home. Sounds like it will be interesting.
 
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What's with all these YouTube videos lately that require you to create an account just to watch them? I find it hard to believe there's anything in that vid that necessitates me proving I'm 17 or older to watch it.
 
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