Firstly, those 3d models are bl**dy awesome. So low poly, and cartoony, but look soo cool. With that style you could pump out soo many models pretty quickly I'd think.

Lol, I love em Very Happy .

Ok, I mostly use Lightwave for modeling,animating,render,etc. And Milkshape for making UT models. I posted my current LW work in the Introduce yourself thread (page 7), I'll post some updates and other stuff when I can get back to my own pc. I've used blender a hand full of times, but still need more time with it before I'm comfortable.
Thank you In fact i've done them quite quickly. Also, they're interchangeable, so that you can make a set of caps, vest, etc, and then use them as you wish (in the case we want to make equipments in that way).
I didn't used textures for them. We could decide to completely texture them, to texture only some mesh (for example, the body armour) or to leave them this way (which is the simplest ). Also, if some of you have a pale idea on how to do it, we could think of hacking up a cell rendering for complete cartoonish look
About blender, i found it very good for many reasons. It's interface is somehow weird at the beginning, but it's designed for heavy use and it works good. Also, you can write plugins and exporters in python (a language that i usually hate but in this case it does his job ). I've already written an exporter that i use in my engine and works very good.
Also blender is nice for texturing, it has good unwrapping tools to generate the texture "skeleton".

Sadly I've never played X-COM/UFO, so i'm not too sure of the game play.
Could I hear some more of your thoughts on the setting, gameplay, story,etc.
Are you thinking total 3d or 3d rendered sprites? 3d tile based? Tactical like FF Tactics, ogre tactics? or just a hack and slash?
Too bad you didn't try it It's a masterpiece of the genre.
My idea about the setting is to do something like a mix, like Final Fantasy. That is, fantasy but without dropping completely guns, robots, etc.

The game map would be something like a square-tiled map (flat) with stilized elements on it (trees, rocks, whatever).
The look i'd like to have is like the one of Hopmon, a great game that i adore for it's semplicity and good looking yet simple graphics (from which i inspired for my models).





About the game play, the basic functionality is based on action points. Each unit has its own AP, that are replenished at the beginning of the turn. They can be spent for moving, using items, attacking, etc. The max value can be influenced by many factors, for example wearing heavy items will decrease it. Apart from the AP, there are the classical RPG values, mainly strength, constitution, agility, magical power.
I would keep this basic part quite small, perhaps just this four values or few more to define units. Maybe some other "tag" for tecnical use (human, undead, mechanical, flying etc).

Then, each unit can be equipped with a weapon and an armour (if human), can wear some items (ready for use), and can carry a certain amount of items.

The weapon can certainly be used to attack, which will be the main way of dealing damages in the game.
Weapons could be defined by some values, such as precision, range, damage dealt, etc. The resolutions of attacks will involve some easy calculation considering weapon stats, target stats, etc. like all RPG (D&D).
Each unit can have one or more default attacks, that can be used "like a weapon". This default attack can be for example a (weak) punch for humans (that are meant to use weapon), but can be a (powerfull) bite for a wolf or a throwing spike for a living plant.
About items, what i'd like is that each object can be "activated" to accomplish an effect. For example, a "magic mushroom" can be used (eated) to restore some life points, while a magic scroll can be used to cast the relative spell.
The effect may be one-use only or repeatable. The items can need a certain level on some RPG values to be used, and the relative effect can be great or small depending on them (for examples, magical items may need a minimum value for "magic power" to be used).
Units can also have effects. They works exacly like the effects for items. So a Paladin can have the "ability" to heal a little his friends, another unit could have the ability to increase it's action points for a turn in exchange for some life points (a kind of berserk). This will add more variety to the unit definition beside RPG values.

The point in this model is that the effects can be whatever, with no predefined "classes" or such. Much like in Magic The Gathering. Hopefully, this will make the game "wide" (and expandable) and players will always have a chance to see something new in each match.
In the "battle.net" part of the game players will be able to buy/sell stuff with each other and/or with a general "market".
At the moment of entering the game, they will choose a portion of their stuff to put in play (like in real miniature games). Some rules of each match will set the power of each army that is put in play (so that the match will be equilibrated).

Ok, that's it. I think this model will not be hard to implement, yet it should provide a nice game play.
Of course, i'd like to know what you think about it

I've been wanting to make turn based game for ages, and I have heaps of ideas.
I'd love for you to start a a small Dev team for this.
I think it should be kept extremely simply (at first), don't worry too much about simple things like graphics, those can be change later. But yeah, i'm loving those 3d models Very Happy .
So yeah, waiting for your reply...
Well if we start, we are already three
A condition for me is that the game should be open source and should run on linux too (no problem for this, i'll make it work on it).