It would be helpful to have a trading exchange. A single screen where you can go to buy, sell and recruit. It’s a real pain schlepping around the geoscape looking to see who’s buying and selling what, and at what price. Lists for each commodities ordered by price or type and soldiers ordered by skill, skill level, and price.
5 Likes
+1 - It’s hardly Elite with only 3 items to trade. I agree, you should just be able to exchange stuff at will if it’s going to be as simplistic as this, trade is not presently an interesting aspect of the game.
The alternative, is to have specific orders/requests that come to you from Havens… i.e. this one wants 5 assault rifles to be delivered, this place needs ammo for shotguns etc
1 Like
Trade is a bit shallow right now. Guess some players dont want to trade, so for their part its okay. Personally I wouldnt mind if trade was deeper and had more meaning.
I even think other survivors should come and visit my base now and then, asking to make trade for different parts they are in need of. If I dont have it at the moment, maybe I could offer them to find the parts in a short timespan to help them out for some extra credit.
Trading shouldn’t be shallow, no matter it’s designed for being a key feature or not. Better make it deeper or remove it completely.
No. Phoenix bases are supposed to be hidden from common eyes.
Agreed. Personally, I would remove it completely:
Food: Turn it into a population cap. More food, more people and/or morale. Turn the food cost of recruits into a time-based event like scouting where the aircraft hang around the haven looking for someone interested in joining.
Materials: Keep it as it is. It work well as cost for building and manufacturing.
Tech: Only gain and use them for special “once and only” events or abilities. Radar scan, researches, events, etc. Idea is the make it the resource for special occasions while Materials is the daily common thing.
EDIT: I just remembered that UFO:Aftershock had this “3 resources & trading” scheme. It turned out bland and didn’t had any impact on the strategic layer much. XCOM 2’s money/intel resource is something more interesting to look for.
3 Likes
I’d agree if left as it is, other than a resource gathering mechanism, it doesn’t make much sense. But it could be used to deepen the strategy part of the game and would help make things a little less, combat followed by more combat…
Never played aftershock, the last (and best for me) was Apocalypse. So much depth, I particularly enjoyed (late game) having my guys teleport next to an alien, pickpocket a grenade from them, arm it, then pop it back on the alien. BOOM!!!
The biggest hopes/suggestions I have with regards to trading
- It supports a system where havens are able to help repel attacks on their own. Trading food supports population, trading materials supports infrastructure, trading tech supports research. Since population acts as a proxy for health and military strength, then infrastructure projects can act as modifiers (like training center increasing the proportion % of military strength contributed from population), the system can remain relatively simple while remaining impactful.
- Expanded haven reputation leads to more random events in an area of influence around the haven. If as Havens grow or shrink expressed an influence on the surrounding area similar to pandoran nests. Rescuing civilians from ambushes, random exploration markers, sea side bonfires, and potentially new havens. There don’t have to be many events and rarity would probably be beneficial.
These systems would compete with the major faction warring and could potentially clutter the geoscape, but I’ve noticed that by the time I get to the 4th continent in my games, there’s 2-5 havens remaining in the shadow of a lair/citadel and it’s a wasteland. But of course, this is kind of from a perspective of neverending longevity, I guess it’s understandable not seeing population growth considering we’re talking about the passage of days and weeks, not years. But realistically, if you are supporting nearby towns, and as your reputation for saving those towns grows, migration should occur to grow those havens.
@PorkyCat Of all the old school XCOM games, I was intrigued immensely watching Apocalypse. There were so many systems at work and in play, I am honestly surprised the game didn’t blow up a computer or two as city factions destroyed massive highways during eruptions of gang related violence.