Some impressions after first tests...

[Plaguicida]

Hello all,

First of all I want to say this looks like a promising game! Keep on this very good work!!!

Second, I would like to point some issues and questions regarding the game. Hope you can help me with some of them:

- Why are there so few soldiers in the world? If I lost 4 team members in a mission, then I have to wait a very long time until some replacements come. I know each nation will help regarding its feelings towards PHALANX... but while most of them are happy, I simply do not receive enough soldiers to reconstruct my squads in a, let's say, 'fair' casualty rate of one human per two aliens... (after all they are aliens with plasma rifles!). I prefered the UFO:EU system in which you just recruited people.

- Movements are smooth, but they tend to be very slow, specially when you forget to wake up the soldier before make him/her walk. Are there any key to speed up the movements?

- Till now I have played 6 or 7 terrorism missions and not a single one air interception... I want to use the Stiletto!!!

- Why people are not afraid of aliens? I mean, PHALANX receives information about a landing UFO, they fly there... and, hells... they find a house in which there are 4 aliens and 3 or 4 humans! I mean... if PHALANX ships does not teleport to a certain area, people should have had time to get out of there!!! Civilians should only be present in terror missions, IMHO.

- Smoke, destructible terrain, fog, sounds, and not a fuly viewed map (see some topic speaking about 'atmosphere').

- Grenades are usually more risky for the user than for the aliens... but this is probably because I simply haven't learn how to use them.

- I would like to select the exact point in which my base will be located! It was cool when in UFO:EU I put my first base in my hometown!

- Usually the maps are very large. I would appreciate smaller maps for small missions, specially because combined with slow soldier movements I pass a lot of time just moving around looking for an alien, and after three or four missions it begins to be a little bit boring...

Jus some impressions... I will keep on this feedback. Thanks again for the good work!

[Moredeth]

Hello all,
- Till now I have played 6 or 7 terrorism missions and not a single one air interception... I want to use the Stiletto!!!

- Grenades are usually more risky for the user than for the aliens... but this is probably because I simply haven't learn how to use them.

- Usually the maps are very large. I would appreciate smaller maps for small missions, specially because combined with slow soldier movements I pass a lot of time just moving around looking for an alien, and after three or four missions it begins to be a little bit boring...

interception not implemented yet

grenades you have to take care not to throw them if you have roof over your head else they will bounce against it, press up key few time and see if your trajectory hit some wall/ceiling

i didn't find map too large except last one i got, but a running option for soldier would be a nice add.

[canahari]

Hello!

I would like to suggest too some other things.


Tactical missions

 - It would be nice to get some visible warning when a soldier is seeing an alien. This red line is good, but when I am slower, it disappears before I find the opponent. The other - and more important - problem is that when there is an alien in my soldier's sight _yet_ when my turn starts, (s)he don't report it!! So it happens that I move with my soldiers unseeingly (in worst case closer to the alien) instead of shooting it down.
I loved that little red numbered squares in the bottom of my screen in the X-Com series. But any other solution would be good too for me.

 - I cannot stop my soldiers, when they are moving - so its impossible to modify their route.

 - In the village07n map I starting with my troops in a house, my ship isn't there. Is this bug or feature?

 - The map loading messages bespeak what species of aliens with what weapons will be my opponents.

 - Is it possible (theoretically) to make a squad that is larger than 8? I hope so...



In-game info

 - I'm badly missing some things from object info when I equip my soldiers, e. g.:
   * defensive stats of armors,
   * the weight of the object ,
   * what kind of ammo is there in the weapon,
   * for what weapon is the magazine,
   * which fire mode needs what number of rounds,
   * how many rounds is there in the magazine.

 - And a short description (in the Building tab) of the facility what I want to build would be very nice too.


Researching

 - I don't understand that when I have to research the C-F Cartridge for the Laser Pistol/Rifle, why I haven't to research the ammos for other weapons - plasma, bolter, etc. In my opinion the separate weapon and ammo research is illogical - what scientist says "it's done", when no ammo for it yet?

 - And the other side: why can I use the weapon when the ammo magazine of it is unknown for me?


Production

 - I was really surprised when I was realised that I can buy too the things I've researched. Is this bug or feature? (In my opinion is that extremely illogical. These are top-secret military researches

 - In the right side in production info box is that for example an ammo magazine is complete in 2 hours. Every case? No matter how many workers have I?


Bugs?

 - When one of my soldiers tried to use a medikit on himself, his TU decreased by 20 but his health didn't change.


Now I'm going to play
Bye,
E.

[Wanderer]

-- canahari
In the upper right is the # of visible aliens you see.  Clicking the number (or space bar) will scroll you through the visible aliens.

There is an option for 'confirm movement' that will let you see pathing.

In the equipping screen for the aircraft, there's a tab in the bottom left allowing you to switch from player stats to object stats.  It doesn't have all the data you're looking for, but at least you can see what ammo goes to what gun.

As far as I've been able to tell, the medikit will not work on damage that you arrived with.  I've not had the opportunity to test it on damage from that round.

Weapons: It will allow you to use the Particle Weapons when you can't make the ammo.  I have no idea how to press bullets, but I can scope a rifle real easy.  Same theory.  I think.


-- Plaguicida
You'll do interceptions a lot more later... but you won't get maps for them yet, you just blow 'em up and make countries happy.

Smoke kinda occurs, but you'll definately see fire.  Destructible terrain is something they're working on (and I don't have details, I'll let someone who does answer that).

You're looking for smaller maps... I'm looking for bigger ones. XD  I want a sniper to be *useful* dangit.

Grenades: They work just fine... you just need to get used to their physics... and blast radius.  Now, a primed and ready grenade or a timer would be nice, but that's another topic.

[canahari]

In the upper right is the # of visible aliens you see.  Clicking the number (or space bar) will scroll you through the visible aliens.

Umm, okay, you are right. Thank you, this is great.

There is an option for 'confirm movement' that will let you see pathing.

I don't need to see pathing, I just would like to modify the soldier's path if I change my mind whilst the soldier is moving. And it would be also nice, when I could get up from crouch during moving.

In the equipping screen for the aircraft, there's a tab in the bottom left allowing you to switch from player stats to object stats.  It doesn't have all the data you're looking for, but at least you can see what ammo goes to what gun.

Not always - my favourite is the "flechette shells", which I tried out with almost every secondary weapon, until I realised that it is for the little shotgun. :> But the "MP magazine" needs some thinkin' too.

As far as I've been able to tell, the medikit will not work on damage that you arrived with.  I've not had the opportunity to test it on damage from that round.

Hm. The medikit heals, when a soldier uses it on a teammate, I tried out (and I was surprised that it can completely heal a wounded soldier). But if the soldier tries to heal himself, the TU is lost but the HP stays.

Weapons: It will allow you to use the Particle Weapons when you can't make the ammo.  I have no idea how to press bullets, but I can scope a rifle real easy.  Same theory.  I think.

And the loading? While the ammo is unknown for me, it doesn't appear on my equip screen, so I cannot give plus ammo for my soldiers, not even if I have got. However, the rifles on the equip screen are loaded. And atfer combat are they loaded again.
 

Best regards,
E.

[Voller]

I don't need to see pathing, I just would like to modify the soldier's path if I change my mind whilst the soldier is moving. And it would be also nice, when I could get up from crouch during moving.

Yeah I find that very annoying, too. It would be nice if right clicking or pressing esc would make the soldier stop whatever he's doing.

Hm. The medikit heals, when a soldier uses it on a teammate, I tried out (and I was surprised that it can completely heal a wounded soldier). But if the soldier tries to heal himself, the TU is lost but the HP stays.

I think you're not supposed to be able to use it on yourself. If I remember correctly it also has a negative chance to hit if you try and do that. It's not quite right that you can't use it although it takes up your TUs, though. Guess that's a bug.

[Zenerka]

I don't need to see pathing, I just would like to modify the soldier's path if I change my mind whilst the soldier is moving. And it would be also nice, when I could get up from crouch during moving.

Yeah I find that very annoying, too. It would be nice if right clicking or pressing esc would make the soldier stop whatever he's doing.

Not easy. Mind that what you see is client side while the server calculates asmoving. You want to stop moving of an soldier by simply clicking, what if server already calculated the whole movement and updated new position of your soldier?
I am first to see such functionality in game, but I cannot imagine the good way to implement it.

Hm. The medikit heals, when a soldier uses it on a teammate, I tried out (and I was surprised that it can completely heal a wounded soldier). But if the soldier tries to heal himself, the TU is lost but the HP stays.

I think you're not supposed to be able to use it on yourself. If I remember correctly it also has a negative chance to hit if you try and do that. It's not quite right that you can't use it although it takes up your TUs, though. Guess that's a bug.

The medikit is not supposed to heal the one who carry it nor to take TUs from the one who tried to use it on himself. A bug. I believe it is not supposed to heal completely. I will look at the medikit usage algorithm.

[Winter]

Not easy. Mind that what you see is client side while the server calculates asmoving. You want to stop moving of an soldier by simply clicking, what if server already calculated the whole movement and updated new position of your soldier?
I am first to see such functionality in game, but I cannot imagine the good way to implement it.

You could maybe incorporate some code where the server calculates the soldier's full course, but only updates his position square by square according to a timer which runs equal to the soldier's move animation. Right-click, stop timer, stop updating position.

Regards,
Winter

[Psawhn]

Or possibly have the client update back to the server at which square the soldier stopped moving.