Dogfights

[Tasoth cmdr.]

Will there be a minigame or something like that for the dogfights like in the very first ufo games.
it's quite sad, than nothing more than pre equip depends on me. of course i don't want a full-fledged flight simulator but most of times i helplessly behold my interseptor and alien ship shot down each other with the rockets and shey just silently disappear from the radars. it's a Dogfight! there should be just something.

[Kamuflaro]

I see rockets flying on the geoscape, but I remember the combat window on X-COM. This method we have here is by far superior

[nemchenk]

Me, I prefer the mini-game It allowed you to have more control on the dogfight, and was more exciting as it was in real time.

[Tasoth cmdr.]

I see rockets flying on the geoscape

that miserable one pixel dots?.. Oh well... ))

Maybe minigames in ufo 1,2 wan't that good, but it Was more exciting.

And by the way, does anyone use shiva cannon or particle cannon or T-sometheng rockets?
shiva's range is to small and other two slow you down. so all we've got is good old one-pixel-rocket fighting.

[Ryok]

Stileto whit 3x Rocket launcher range7 and computer/ecm. Fire 3 rocket at 1 and load/save to kill ufo. 1hit-kill. Ufo or stileto 

[nemchenk]

load/save to kill ufo.

bleh!! 

[Tasoth cmdr.]

Stileto whit 3x Rocket launcher range7 and computer/ecm. Fire 3 rocket at 1 and load/save to kill ufo. 1hit-kill. Ufo or stileto 

load\save is a "good" tactic, yeah... ))

And the only one effective equipment is 3 rocket launchers. And all othe stuff is total unusable. So why this tons of research, hours of production?..

We need much more balanced and playable aircraft management and air-to-air battle system

[mattheus]

that miserable one pixel dots?.. Oh well... ))

They are some 10 pixels long and some pixel wide if you zoom in to them on Geoscape. I think they are already too big and unrealistic in such way, but surely armor and weapons will be worked on and combat will change much. You know - 2.2 was first version with ship combat introduced!

[NQue]

Hey all,

Yeah I agree with Tasoth Cmdr. on this one. The Geoscape battle thing is a bit of a pain in the ass. Plus, ridiculously unrealistic (and contradictory to given info). Repeating rockets shooting thousands of miles? Well, okay, that's at least possible, but the cannon!! What is going on there?

I don't really think the old mini-game was that exciting though. Maybe an updated UFO:AI mini-game could be made? You could go as far as a 3D real-time air-chase, with trees/desert/farms/etc. flying by underneath (if the UFO was moving of course). You could target sections of the UFO to strike (wings to bring it down, or weaponry first to disable it, that kind of thing) ...That might be a little too much work for a mini-game. But still, maybe?

[Destructavator]

Repeating rockets shooting thousands of miles? Well, okay, that's at least possible, but the cannon!! What is going on there?

Interesting that you point that out - In real life, we have and have had for some years rockets and missles that fire from fighter aircraft that go very far, many miles in fact, and if you actually read through manuals for some of the fighter-jet-action type games out there, the ones based on real aircraft that is, many of the simulations actually shorten the range of such missles by very drastic amounts in the simulation/game.  They typically do that for such games so that combat in those simulations are more exciting, allowing the player to close in on enemy fighters and actually see them and engage in dogfights, etc.  After all, if the player in one of those games could take out an enemy fighter jet from very far away (as in real life), they wouldn't get into as many close-range fights and such games would be boring.

Further, this game takes place years in the future, with even better technology.

You are very right about the cannon, however, as in real life such weapons have, relatively, very short range and are used in air-to-air combat as last resort from what I've heard.

Regarding the current combat system in this game, I will say that one thing that's nice about it is that multiple aircraft can be involved in combat at the same time.  Several of the player's fighters can persue a UFO at the same time, while that UFO is after one of the player's transports headed toward a ground mission.

[NQue]

Mmm, yes I see about the rockets. But the cannon-fire is still a no-no, right? So, how about getting rid of the cannon altogether (seeing as the UFOs and fighters don't go close enough to each other for that) and replace it with something more... long range?

[Destructavator]

I agree - I know that in real life they do have these strange things - I forget what they're called, KEMs or something, that are kind of between a missle and a cannon, and they go rather far, as well as having small size so that many of them can be carried in a (real-life) aircraft.  I'd imagine such things, or things based upon them, would still be around in the future.

Again, I don't remember much about them, I heard about them several years back, and back then they were very new, one of those new technologies.

I think one of the other forum users here was an ex-air-force guy, I don't know if he's still here or not and could shed some light on this...  (I could be remembering wrong.)

[BTAxis]

Cannons will not be removed.

[Doctor J]

that miserable one pixel dots?.. Oh well... ))

Actually, the one pixel dots ARE the cannon shells.

[Destructavator]

Cannons will not be removed.

I agree, they are useful in real life as a backup when missles miss and aircraft become very close and engage in short-range combat, manuvering around each other, From what I've heard in the past when fighter aircraft get that close they can actually be much safer than missles, which do have a minimum range.

I also seem to remember wacthing footage several years back of real aircraft using cannons on ground targets, although how common such usage is I don't really know as I'm not an expert on the subject.  I saw in the videos cannons being used on both vehicles on the ground as well as individual people, although I don't know off-hand if they were the same type of cannon, and again, I'm not an expert.

This may actually be a good addition to the game, as last resort calling in airstrikes on targets if a ground mission seems too difficult.  It would only work for some maps, as some tactical parts are not out-doors in open areas (for example, the mine map), although I'd imagine it would be easy to add a flag or variable so that some maps could have an airstrike available (as last resort) and some could not, and I'd imagine it wouldn't require re-making any existing maps, it would just be attaching a variable along with the list of maps, and it could be reflected in the text in mission briefings/loading screens.  Just an idea!

As for the things that were in-between missles and cannons, the new technology, I remember they were smaller than missles (I think several dozen could be loaded in an aircraft at once), but they were larger than cannon shells and were fired from some kind of laser-guided device for accuracy, and punched holes in targets via intense kinetic energy force, but I don't recall if they actually had any kind of explosive warhead or not.  Again, I'm not fully sure about those points, I'd have to do some digging and research, although they might be a nice addition to the game.  I think those things also had a much longer range than cannons, although not the many miles that missles would go, but again I'd have to research it.