Turn based. Because players are gonna end up constantly hitting the space bar to pause it anyway. Don't feel you have to pander to the ADD crowd by making everything shoot by the screen at 12 parsecs.

Your description now, made me think of the two systems being implemented together.

The Fallout TB serving as a sort of "planning phase" of "command phase" and the actual combat taking place in the XCOM TP, and like the other people suggested, you going back to the TB phase to give commands based on a system of Action Points, which could also be based on your performance in battle, stats and etc.

But the option still in my mind of letting people choose in a menu if they want the combat to be "XCOM like" or "Fallout like".

Yeah. I prefer my games to be more tactical and slow paced, but some people prefer to speed through things. I was considering having the large scale battles to be like Total War. In order to have the upper hand, you would need to place certain units in specific regions surrounding your defences or your enemies. Let's say you place a scout in enemy territory. Your scout would be able to notify you of advances by the enemy very quickly, but would have a higher chance of being captured or killed. Having too many scouts in one area makes it easier for the enemy to spot you and aggravates them to be more on the offensive in terms of attrition warfare.

I like Doorkickers style that it is real time but you pause and plan before hand and during the fight.

I agree. I hate playing strategy games that determine your hit or miss ratio by random numbers. It rubs me the wrong way when I am in point blank range of the enemy and miss completely. This happened many times while playing XCOM, which is the only thing I hate about the game. In my game, you would be in a 3rd person mode when aiming down your sights or talking to NPCs. Based on your characters abilities and skills, your chances for effectiveness would be higher. A bullet to the chest from a 3 year old hurts just as much as a veteran soldier, however, what separates these two is the ability to maintain concentrated fire.

So on a base level, something like The Bureau: XCOM Declassified?

Yes. Exactly.

Sounds great. :)

Real-time with pause with options to automatically pause after every round. That way you get real-time, RTwP and sort of-turn based.

Anyway, I prefer RTwP. I actually like to choose when to pause. Turn-based, even if done well, cannot really have a certain flow a really good real-time game can achieve but without a pause function, tactics during combat is not ideal.

*signed*

It was one of the things that made SW:Kotor and Transistor so awesome.

In turn-based combat I apply real-world logic to explain these mechanics. Just because the "turn" is slow, doesn't mean the implementation of your action in the world of the game is slow. By this I mean:

Just because everyone is "standing around waiting for you to shoot them in the face" doesn't mean that is how it actually is coming across in the game-world logic. It's all "active", targets are in motion, you don't have all day to pull the trigger (even though you actually do in reality, in the game, it's not like they're standing around going "man, his shot is taking forever to get off), things are happening that cause these mechanics.

A 3-year old would have a harder time picking up the gun, loading it, cocking it, aiming it steadily, and even then, granted they "succeed" in getting all of that done, they have to contend with their target who is most likely rushing at them screaming "NOO" and intimidating them to a point where they can't aim steady or effectively hit a human 3 feet in front of their face. It makes sense, to me/I seek out ways for it to make sense.

I love your ideas though, a pool of APs for the team to use is great. You could even choose to "break up" the action, instead of each turn resetting the entire pool, you could say "execute now", allow your turn to unfold as far as you've planned, which also allows the AI to perform a certain amount of moves (ratio to how much of the AP pool you've used so far) and then continue on with the turn.

Looking forward to hearing more.

I will also say that I'm a fan of real-time NO pause combat, but NOT fast-action-oriented either. Games that operate like an MMO does, where you have timers and time to choose which skills and spells to use during the actual fight, spaced out in a way that makes the action engaging and player-skill based with no need for twitch (good timing, yes, twitch-ability, no) but no pausing either. Different weapons have different speeds of executing, ability and skill timers, etc.

Oh, okay. I understand. The 3 year old example was pretty weird, but I used to visit a lot of states where kids were already memorising guns models by age 4. Anyways, I understand you completely. I feel that a set of AP points by individual would be a preference for some. I have decided to split up the move sets in two camps, one by individual AP points, the other by team AP points. Actions such as intimidation are extremely effective the less seasoned a character is. Intimidated players would spend more AP points on a single action. If a player is intimidated too much, they will shut down completely for the rest of the battle, leaving them exposed unless they are guarded by a teammate.. Once these players get back from battle, they will suffer PTSD. This PTSD will lower their sleep and rating and increase hunger rating, making them less effective in battle. If these players enter battle before they are able to once again cope, they will be more on edge and more likely to make extreme decisions when you are not controlling them. This means that if they are in Guard, they will shoot anything that moves (besides their teammates). This could mean killing enemies or killing innocents. However, intimidation for hardened players would have to result in something extremely scarring such as children dying and the like. I would also have a "cooldown" method. If a player consistently forces high end players without building up other players, the base defenses get significantly lower. Having low tier soldiers at home base makes the area more prone to successful attacks or raids.