Working on an X-com-style tactical game... Thread

looks pretty cool, reminds me of the same style Introversion uses with their games. (ie. that Translucent wireframe look).

Good luck.

Thanks guys!  We're in a closed beta at the moment and people seem to really like it so fingers crossed...

Thanks Mars_3k!  We've ended up coming quite a way from our original starting point of aiming for something similar - there are a lot of innovations in Synapse.  For example, Synapse isn't based on a grid, so you can move your units anywhere you want.

Also, there's no "action points" - you make a plan, then test it in real-time.  You simply have a finite amount of time each turn to do whatever you want.

One other thing - you can see all of your opponents' units at the start of each match.  I found the "hunt the unit" aspect of the endgame in each X-com level quite irritating, and this eliminates that.  It makes the game much more tactical - your opponent can still easily spring traps and surprises on you, it doesn't take away the tension, but it does mean that you can make a much more structured plan. 

One of the absolute best aspects of Synapse is faking out your opponent.  If he's guarding an area that you have to get into, you can perform a huge assault on one side, then send a sneaky unit around in a weird direction to catch him off-guard.

Although we've made a *lot* of changes and innovations in this genre, we're really hoping fans of those games will give Synapse a try.  It's great to hear that you're excited and we really want to live up to your expectations.

Ha, it's definitely not something I've really seen done before, but it's completely vital to the game...

In the main game mode, Secure, both players start by bidding for an area of territory they think they'll be able to defend.  The player who bids the largest area wins the bidding, and must defend his selected area.

The attacking team has start zones in various places on the level, and can place his units anywhere within them - so it's not like everything is completely prescribed.  I've often been caught out by clever unit placement at the start of a match!  This replicates some of the "I don't know where the attack is coming from" fun of fog of war, without the endless messing around.

Too many games use fog of war as a crutch - interesting tactical play and planning often takes place when you know where your opponents are already.  I find that you will too frequently have to set up contingency plans and sacrifice units just to figure out where someone is, which isn't necessarily that interesting.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, our game is pretty different from a standard RTS, and I haven't seen anything that comparable even from turn-based games: we'll see how beta players react to our gameplay innovations...should be interesting!

JA2 was an amazing game!

I hope this fog of war thing doesn't become an issue for people - it really is possible to make a huge variety of different plans (there's no grid system, so units can move all over the place) and this element of control really means that the surprise aspect (which, to me is probably the only positive of fog of war) of the strategy is still present.

Heh, wow I didn't know such mods existed - genius.

Thanks - really enjoyed reading about that.  We've got a new update about Frozen Synapse coming up later today over here...

Thanks!  We're having a tough time at the moment, as we've got a lot of contract work to do, but still pressing on with the game.  Just hard to fit everything in!  We really hope to have some significant progress on the game to show soon as well.