What's the point of the Slingshot pack?

[Baleur]

This isn't Mass Effect with scripted story missions (lol wait, it is).
It's supposed to be an open ended sandbox game.

Why is a DLC even released that has a set of pre-scripted chain missions? That are always the same everytime you play them? What?!!

Release some DLC that adds new RANDOM MAPS, new WEAPON TYPES, new ENEMY TYPES, new RANDOM MISSION TYPES. New techs!
Release something that expands on the base sandbox gameplay. Don't friggin make the game even MORE scripted and identical for each playthrough..

What are the devs thinking...
Here you have a sandbox game that has one major flaw, it's too scripted and linear.
What do you do? Release more linear DLC.

Sigh. No interest in purchasing it.

[Barser]

Your totally right about that. The last thing needed is making the game more linear. I guess some people like it? But its not in the spirit of xcom.

[Zaxx]

God, X-COM interpeted as a sandbox game? Nothing to do here I guess.

[Barser]

Originally posted by Zaxx:

God, X-COM interpeted as a sandbox game? Nothing to do here I guess.

Well it kinda where. Also the first games was not as scripted and you always ended up with unpredictable things in the campaign which made the game replayable over and over again.

In the new one its always the same things that happens. The only thing different is how you approach these things and when you finally have found out the optimal way there is no reason to come back.

Therefore the game needs to be more unpredictable and the slingshot dlc is just more scripted missions.

The game is good but it wouldnt take so much efford to make it great.

[Bindal]

They might be scripted, but that doesn't mean you can (and will) play them the same way. For once, you're not always having the same squad and won't do the exact same actions.
Second, these missions are - considering how early they appear - quite challenging. The first mission has you facing a Chryssalid long before the first terror mission. Second mission? A muton and you have to finish the whole thing in less than 10 rounds.

The reward isn't too shabby either, it gives you access to the Blaster Bomb Research early on (not the weapon itself, but that would be rather gamebreaking), allowing you to skip the need to shoot down and raid a battleship.

Finally, the added customisation is worth mentioning, too.

Tho, it is indeed not a great DLC, especially for the price (which Firaxis knows, too). Having it half the price would probably be best (as well as having the chance to have the first and second missions maps randomly for council and abduction missions - third won't work because it's on a flying alien ship).

[Baleur]

And thats even worse. Getting powerful "freebies" that makes the mid and lategame of the campaign easier is awful, i hate when games do that, either as pre-order bonuses or in DLC.
Idk. Maybe i'm getting old and grumpy, even though i'm not even 30 yet.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Baleur:

And thats even worse. Getting powerful "freebies" that makes the mid and lategame of the campaign easier is awful, i hate when games do that, either as pre-order bonuses or in DLC.
Idk. Maybe i'm getting old and grumpy, even though i'm not even 30 yet.

You only get the ability to research it, not the weapon itself. And that early in the game, you probably won't be able to afford that kind of research yet.
And once again, getting it is quite a challenge as you have to finish three missions, which throw some aliens at you, which you usually won't see for quite a while (as said for Mission 1, you get a Chryssalid long before the first terror mission. Mission 2 forces you face a Muton early in month 2 as well as do the entire mission in less than 10 turns).
So, the only thing it does is remove anything luck-related to get the Blaster Launcher. Everything else? Got an equivalent.

(And a Heavy on the 4th rank isn't really that much worth, either - on some abduction missions, you can get guys of a far higher rank)

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by Barser:

Originally posted by Zaxx:

God, X-COM interpeted as a sandbox game? Nothing to do here I guess.

Well it kinda where. Also the first games was not as scripted and you always ended up with unpredictable things in the campaign which made the game replayable over and over again.

In the new one its always the same things that happens. The only thing different is how you approach these things and when you finally have found out the optimal way there is no reason to come back.

Therefore the game needs to be more unpredictable and the slingshot dlc is just more scripted missions.

The game is good but it wouldnt take so much efford to make it great.

X-COM was never a sandbox game, you don't know the meaning of the word if you think it has anything to do with it. GTA is a sandbox game, Assassin's Creed is a sandbox game, even Fallout 3 or Skyrim is a sandbox game, X-COM is not. Why is that? In a sandbox game you go wherever you want whenever you please and do all the various stuff the game has to offer.

Compared to this X-COM always tells you what to do and when to do it and the so called freedom is mostly fake. You can build your base wherever you want. Does it matter where you build your base? No, not at all. The same goes for missions: UFOs trigger, terror sites trigger and alien bases come up, that's all. It's not a sandbox, it's just a TBS with a huge scope. It feels like you'd call Heroes of Might & Magic sandbox.

As for what is scripted and what isn't: Enemy Unknown is not scripted, the events, enemy placements and everything in the game is random except for council missions and the temple ship assault. That's fine because there you have simple storylines along the way which makes the gameplay experience more varied in the end.

What people seem not to realize is that Enemy Unknown benefits a lot from the fact that it has actual level design compared to the tile based random generated levels from the original game. I think it's great that the levels are designed specifically with the tactical possibilites of the game in mind and this shows in the combat mechanics: they simply couldn't be this refined if the levels were made totally random. Again this doesn't make EU scripted because the enemy placements are totally random. If you want to see a scripted game have a look at CoD.

[othinchyld]

I just wish I could play the damn game. It's constantly crashing and forcing me to re-install ( a 3hr process) so i can play it.

[lucio1019]

XCOM is NOT a sandbox game???
This is a crazy world...Someone need the definition of sandbox game.

And the only purpose of DLC is MAKING MORE MONEY.
Firaxis screwed XCOM up. They know it.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by lucio1019:

XCOM is NOT a sandbox game???
This is a crazy world...Someone need the definition of sandbox game.

Sims is a Sandbox game, XCOM is not. Never been. Why? Because you could WIN THE DARN GAME or play long enough to get to its variant of a killscreen (which would be 'Aliens build more bases per day than you can take out')

[Zaxx]

Originally posted by lucio1019:

XCOM is NOT a sandbox game???
This is a crazy world...Someone need the definition of sandbox game.

And the only purpose of DLC is MAKING MORE MONEY.
Firaxis screwed XCOM up. They know it.

You know what is the only pupose of any game released? MAKING MORE MONEY, that evil thing that keeps companies afloat. Firaxis is so evil. They know it.

Also X-COM has nothing to do with a sandbox environment, don't be an idiot (though I think I might be a little late with this advice). Free roaming is a key aspect to a sandbox game and X-COM has none of that. Is that a problem? No, it's not a problem, what the hell would we do with free roaming in an X-COM game?

I really can't understand where this stupid idea of X-COM being a sandbox game comes from. It looks like super hardcore fans of the first game are so blinded they think that the whole gaming industry is just the child of X-COM, the holy game where everything comes from. "I've always felt like that our planet Earth is just a ripoff from the geoscape of X-COM." :D

[Nat_401]

IMO, this dlc was a mistake, if you can pass this challanging hurdle, the game becomes rather easy. In my last playthrough I managed to capture a muton in the train mission, giving me access to plasma weapons even faster (I rush plasma as standard and ignore puny human laser technology) and had a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of elerium and ailen alloys to build plasma sniper/heavy and alloy cannons, with plenty left over to outfit my troops in titan armour, didnt even bother researching the Blaster. Takes a lot of the challange out of the game, kinda wish that if you take down the battleship the aliens get pissed and speed up the invasion process like introducing higher tier aliens sooner and giving them normal plasma rifles sooner, to compensate for the huge advantage you have recieved.

[Barser]

Enough with the sandbox discussion. Imo the original was kinda sandbox like and gave you a lot more freedom compared to the new one. You could fly around looking for aliens building bases where you want, selling and managing artifacts, weapons and all kinds of stuff while the new one limits you in pretty much everything.

The missions is streamlined and in the end the campaigns end up a lot more similar each time you play through compared to the old ones.

Imo thats a huge minus but I respect that other people have different ideas of how they want there games to be. Adding more linear missions is not what I wish to be added to this game.

[Cougarific]

So back ON TOPIC, after release the first hints the devs dropped about the first DLC made it pretty clear the "point" of the release was simply to allow players access to the Blaster Launcher earlier in the game.

It's an amazing weapon and many people were only getting to use it once, on the last mission, or never even getting it at all.

The impression I got right from like, the day after release, was that the DLC was crafted solely as a way to get the B.L. out there sooner.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Barser:

Enough with the sandbox discussion. Imo the original was kinda sandbox like and gave you a lot more freedom compared to the new one. You could fly around looking for aliens building bases where you want, selling and managing artifacts, weapons and all kinds of stuff while the new one limits you in pretty much everything.

You couldn't fly around. You just scanned for activty and reacted to that.
When you build a base, what did you do with it? You used it to expand your radar and let it make money.
Selling stuff was also only really possible after a mission.

And guess what? the new game does the exact same - except it replaces "money-making radar-base" with "saterlite", which fulfill the same purpose, overall.

Originally posted by Cougarific:

So back ON TOPIC, the first hints to be dropped about the first DLC release made it pretty clear the "point" of the release was simply to allow players access to the Blaster Launcher earlier in the game.

It's an amazing weapon and many people were only getting to use it once, on the last mission, or never even getting it at all.

The impression I got right from like, the day after release, was that the DLC was crafted solely as a way to get the B.L. out there sooner.

I wouldn't say "sooner" but rather "more likely" as the only real challenge without the DLC is to get a battleship to appear after you got a heavily armed Firestorm. The battleship itself isn't really that hard. Yes, still pretty hard, but compared to shooting it down in the first place? Cakewalk.
And Slingshot basically eliminates the requirement of luck (as you are very unlikely to afford the research for the Blaster Launcher once you recieved it as other things will have a higher priority)