UPDATE: It seems that changing the iPad language to English works, since I've been playing flawlessly with soldier voices for quite some time now I guess there are many things which the game handles differently according to the language settings. Unfortunately, one of them is the savegames. You won't be able to load your savegames from one language to another, they just won't be there and you'll get a message similar to "some savegames are not displayed because they were done on a different language." I have occupied all the spaces and I still get the message, so I guess they are saved on a completely different archive. Luckily, this doesn't affect the second wave unlockables. I've just begun a new game on classic difficulty with all the second wave options I had unlocked on normal difficulty and Spanish language settings. What I don't have any more are my soldiers with their stats. Anyway, I enjoy the game so much that I don't mind playing it again
Hey Gang, I know one of the cute bits with Second Wave is how completing the game at various difficulties unlocks new options. What I'd like to know, and it looks like you, VBF, could easily answer this question. Does completing the game on Normal automatically grant you all of the Easy Second Wave unlocks or does the game expect you to clear it again even on Easy to get to those extra bits? I know in Firaxis' previous strategy game on iOS, Civ Rev, a win at any difficulty automatically implies a win in all lower difficulties with that civilization, but who is to say how they handle it here. Oh, and another question, since the game does track top scores, does taking on some of the deliberately handicapping tweaks of Second Wave give you any sort of end of campaign point bonus? Call me old fashioned but if I add in some of those tweaks to make the game near impossible I can only hope it is reflected in my score.
I bit the bullet and finally bought this. Not a big strategy game guy but fun so far. A little overwhelming.
Wow so this might be the thing causing the problems to other users..Do email firaxis so they can patch it up..Good job finding the cause...
Yes, you unlock easy and normal Second Wave options by finishing just on normal mode. I don't know about the "end of campaign point bonus", I have just begun a new Second Wave game. Just sent an e-mail to 2K support. Hopefully it will fall into the right hands and they will check it out. I'm pretty sure the problem comes from the localization of the game to different languages. It would be great to hear from forum members who play XCom in other languages aside from English and Spanish about the crashes in different languages.
I still have some crashes here and there but it's definitely less than before.Maybe it wouldn't crash anymore when i deactivate the voices again?Don't know yet.Playing the german version but all the voices are still english,only the textmenues are in german.
It already looks pretty awesome on the iPad 3 (what I have) and, as far as I recall, we both have the same screen resolution. The only potential difference I could imagine is that it might play smoother on your device?
In the Spanish version voices are in English too, but the texts are in Spanish. I guess if you deactivate voices it would possibly reduce crashes. While playing the English version I've only had one crash, but I had to lock the iPad previously and unlock it after to continue playing. It didn't crash immediately though. I think the game is so memory-intensive that even the slightest thing (i.e. Screen lock) can affect performance and make it crash. They would possibly solve more crashes if they had less things loaded onto memory in the 1GB RAM devices as they have in 512MB RAM devices such as the iPhone 4s. Unfortunately, this might affect smoothness too.
I could be wrong of course, but I'm pretty sure that the lighting/shadows don't need 'fixing' andthat they weren't broken - I imagine that they were deliberately excluded as the game is already incredibly demanding. Whether the game will be updated when the next generation of iOS devices comes out is up for debate, I guess, but I doubt this'll be added. As for crashes, most people are saying they're less frequent but still present - you can look at the last 3-4 pages for details.
The lighting/shadows were one of the things removed so as to shrink the iOS version from +13GB to 3.3GB, along hi-res textures, 2-3 maps and several things more, so nothing to fix there.
Unfortunately, yes there is. First and foremost, iTunes install archive size limit is 2GB, so you have to fit an app in that install size. Second is that not everyone can afford 128GB devices. Many of us have 16GB devices. I'd love to have 128GB devices, but my budget for iOS devices is very limited. If they were to make a 16GB game, that would require downloads inside the game itself (something like Walking Dead Game) and it would leave many people without chances of playing the game, and therefore reduce sales. I think it was a good choice reducing the game to 3.3GB installed. With this game and Star Wars: KotOR I already have 50% of my iPad storage space occupied.
If we're arguing filesize, there's a very simple solution: just give users the option to download more maps and higher res textures if they so desire. The shadows and lighting don't take up any substantial space; they're an effect like bloom or shaders.
I would also want more eyecandy, but from what I've seen playing on iPad 4 it's barely holding normal playing framerate as it is in later missions, with it often falling down in close combat with lots of enemies condensed in tight space like 3-floor building or motherships, effects like smoke around, etc. I had so terrible framerate in terror mission once , had 6 people in building shooting at 7 or so enemies in cover, smoke all around from grenade, when game zoomed in to shooting mode it was around 15 FPS I can swear that. I don't mind much now sudden fluctuation of FPS as I got used to it and most of time it's not that bad, but with inducing new effects to game it can only get worse.If they can maybe optimize game better for iOS in future some additional effects would be always nice.
Hmmm, sorry to hear about these frame rate concerns. I was considering getting this, but I'm really picky about frame rate drops so ill probably hold off. For some reason I get annoyed with lag or stutter that other players wouldn't be bothered by. It's now arguably the most important thing for me graphically when I'm trying out a game.
@Aventador: I agree,sometimes i wish it would be some more frames.At least a rock solid 30 fps although it's definitely totally playable and not that important for this kind of game.As you said,a little annoying in a big UFO and the Pad gets quite warm then^^ I don't care that much about some missing shadows or light effects,looks still very good for an iOS game.Would prefer to have a little more map variation.
Framerate is pretty much stable on my Iphone 5 though with this type of game, turn based strategy, framerate is not really that much of a factor. Still my all time favorite IOS game.
