How to do X-COM in 3d?

Any ideas how I could do an X-COM type game, with the ability to design maps (i.e. using lots of 3D tiles) in 3D?

Obviously most games of this style have been isometric 2d maps - due to the huge amount of vertices / faces you'd need for each tile to be modelled in 3d.

I thought about creating prefabs (e.g. for a room or corridor) and linking these together in some sort of editor, but it's not ideal because it would restrict variation when creating maps.

Oh and I want it to be tile-based, so that you can move in 8 directions (left right up down diagonal)

Something like UFO Aftershock or Afterlight?

http://www.strategycore.co.uk/xcom/pg/links

As you can see, there is one under dev using the quake 2 engine.

UFO Aftershock or Afterlight there was also aftermath. But from what you wrote maybe you mean more like Genesis?

Best bet, would be to look at the NWN (1) editors, Just ignore the fact that there are all Oldie worldie, and see how they did it, which is exactly how you descibe wanting to do it.

The first of the UFO seriers uses Tiled maps, but the second two use predefined landscapes.

I'll have a look into the NWN editor(s).

I haven't played either Aftershock or Afterlight - I'm thinking back to the days of Enemy Unknown!

This appears closest to what I'm after - but this looks like it uses a 2D rendered isometric board:
http://www.ufo-extraterrestrials.com/UFO_ET_Searching.html

I'd like to use 3D to allow rotating and a certain about of zooming. But having 256x256 separate 3d mesh 'tiles' just won't be efficient - or will it? Unless I hide / show on the fly?

If it isn't feasible, I won't start this game

No, id say the After Ufo series is what your after

All three of the UFO:after****** are now available in a pack.
Buy them and look. (Or simply download the demos)

You have a better eye than me. Before I played it, I thought it was 3d, but now that I've played it, you're right, it's using a 2d renderered isometric map.

A while ago, for something to do on a cold wet day, I wrote a "DBPro Matrix Command set" for Blitz3D, it's ideal for doing tiled landscapes - although I mockingly recreated the DBP syntax but they're all just B3D functions and can be renamed. If you want to look for it then check it out in the Showcase section / or was it code archives?

Anyway, it's a fully functional terrain tile system with a few extra features and could suite the project quite well.

Anyone still remember Incubation?:
http://www.ag.ru/screenshots/incubation_time_is_running_out/115414

sounds interesting banshee

I still have Incubation and it's addon somewhere. I thought it was really good. Unfortunately I've never been able to get it too work under XP.

Naked War is a 3D tile based game. Not sure if it's close to X-com.

That's true - do you treat each tile as a separate model, or do you have some funky way of manipulating the 'board' as one big mesh?

A big mesh. Actually I divide the map into 'chunks' of 10x10 tiles so when I rebuilt a section I don't have to rebuild the entire map.

Interesting, I'll have another look at NW.

p.s. download link on this page doesn't work (in the red box where it says 'Try it out for free': http://www.naked-war.com/hq/index.php

The download link works fine from here.

In the middle of the page - where it says

"Naked War is distributed exclusively online as a direct download product.
Its completely free to download, free to play, and free to register.
Purchasing a subscription allows you to initiate new games against your friends.
Try it out for free, today, from this website!"

Oh right, cheers. I'll tell Ste.