Hello, I wish to be helpful with the game development especially with texturing, concept art and maybe a bit of modelling but unfortunately, I am already pretty busy with a few personal projects of mine. I might be able to provide a bit of help when I am done with my own projects somewhere around late summer. In any case, I must say that UFO is awesome and thank you for making and developing this game, I would still like to be able to contribute despite my lack of time. I might possibly have time to do a few reskins (mostly for amours because we need more of them!) however, I am new to open source development and I would need a quick explanation as to how it truly works, what needs to be done and where I can find the skins.
As an aspiring game designer, nothing stop me from brainstorming a bit about what I would possibly like to see in UFO:AI, I am more than sure you must have seen similar suggestions but I just recently joined the forum and haven’t had time to browse threads a lot.
Take those for what they are, possible suggestion, like them or not I don’t really intend to bash my head against the wall if you think they do not fit the vision of what you wish to accomplish with the development so feel free to dismiss them. I’m warning you, this is a long read! I am mostly writing this because as said, I wish to contribute and give something back considering it entertained me for many hours and totally deserve attention.
1: Squad creation or team creation.
Purpose: Roleplay flavour, possible statistical boost and easier soldier management.
Implementation: The way I would see this is that you can create squads of X men (subjective number). This would make it easier to hire/unhire and affect a squad of soldiers to a dropship rather than scrolling across the list of potential soldiers.
The Squad leader could possibly give a small bonus to accuracy or TU when he his near his troops, if a squad leader die during combat, a negative bonus or effect could take place, this would be to simulate leadership upon the squad. A squad leader should technically be higher ranked than his squad members for the bonus effects to affect them the most, this would allow the fresh recruits to ‘’profit’’ of the experience from the veteran soldiers. A co-leader could possibly be made as well to be able to keep this bonus while spreading forces across the field. If a Squad leader fall or his stuck in the hospital, the co-leader could take over for the next mission. A squad with a dead leader need to appoint a new one before engaging a new mission, possibly requiring training and possibly temporary blocking access to this squad while the leader train. This would allow the players to actually make uses of multiple teams and all those soldiers who are stuck in the rooster unhired.
Members are just your core soldiers. There are seven or six (co-leader or not) of them which can be swapped in and out with the Reserve (remaining soldiers). Those soldiers are the core of the Team and could possibly once again receive a small bonus when the core team is sent on the field together.
Reserve are the remaining soldiers affected to a squad, the reserve is existing for the purpose of replacing wounded members or to call upon more specialised roles. The reserve could contain between two and five members.
2: Cryo weapons? Support Weapons?
Purpose: Those weapons could be use as lethal force but their main role is to support teammates or fill specific roles.
Implementation: The way I envision this is that cryo weapons could be use in a way similar to how the flamethrower currently work for damage, it would be an alternative to heat damage and could actually slow down aliens reaction time or drain a bit of their TU. Frost could be more effective at slowing down heavily armoured targets crippling their gear and be an overall nice support weapon addition to the game. I already see the grenade launcher as some sort of support weapon but it would possibly need more variation, possibly cryo grenades or more non lethal effects? In overall I think having support weapons would contribute greatly to create strategic interest amongst the players.
3: More non-combat items requiring to be used
Purpose: Allowing scouting and giving a nice range of combos with one handed weapons such as pistols.
Implementation: I think that scouting should be a very important part of the game and being able to properly localize alien position before engaging should be a crucial tactical advantage. How many times did you lose a member because you had to blindly rush in a room only to find 3 aliens waiting for you there, I lost many members because of this and members should be as precious as they can be, the loss of a member should have a drastic effect.
But where am I getting to with this you might ask? Scouting gadgets, handheld scanner, binoculars, things that need to be used similar to how the medkit is used, things that can be equipped with a one handed weapon. A handheld scanner for example could be used to scan a certain amount of squares within a close localisation, for example your scout throw a scan in the next room before sending your main forces in, this would allow the players to have an approximate evaluation of what is waiting within that room. Some counter items worn by aliens could exist as well, maybe some kind of anti-scanning device which would make them undetectable at the exception of naked eye.
Binoculars could be used for scouting, allowing a scout to see farther than they really can with naked eye, from what I read across the board, there will be an implementation of sight in the future releases and this would be a good start to use this mechanic. Some variations could possibly exist as well, night vision or maybe X-ray.
Radio? It could be possible to have radio contact with an aircraft, allowing a surgical strike from whatever aircraft came along the dropship upon the field, with limited uses of course but it could be a nice addition attempting to strike down aliens without exposing your soldiers. Of course a scout would be needed to locate alien positions before calling down an airstrike or the actual airstrike could take a turn before coming down upon your foes.
Deployable cover maybe? Something that can provide you with a defensive bonus, things like force fields, gadgets that can be thrown or placed upon the ground either permanently or temporary.
4: More Aliens
Purpose: longer mission, less Alien hunting across larger maps, more action, more epicness and more strategy.
Implementation: I think this speak for itself, they possibly could use alternate tactics either hunting or defending in packs or solo, swarming you, coming from behind while keeping you busy in front. The downside is that you have to wait longer during enemy turn for them to play but most of the waiting in the current form of the game is due to alien hunting and wasting turns doing nothing but carefully moving across the map only to find them all entrenched in the same place. The idea of a small elite group of soldiers taking upon larger groups of foes should be something appealing to any gamer, I should feel cautious, afraid and overwhelmed when I’m fighting aliens. I would possibly like to see an alien dropship either land or teleport reinforcements on the field. See them use airstrike maybe? It would be important to have ways to counter and alien airstrike, once again maybe gadgets.
Possible Alien tactics
Rush: This is basically what it says, aliens attempting to push at you running straight under fire, maybe using tougher armoured units to soak damage followed by some serious firepower or melee troops.
Death line: This is a tactic I actually use with my own soldiers, the death line is basically a slow advance from 2-4 soldiers with full reaction fire standing side by side. It’s vulnerable to AoE effects but it is a great way to make a tactical push upon a position killing anything that pokes their noses where they shouldn’t.
The circle: This tactic is about swarming the opponent coming down from every side. Troops could possibly be teleported everywhere around you, requiring the player to take defensive positioning.
Death from above: Carefully laying down snipers on high positions covering the troops advancing and using scouts to spot your soldiers.
5: More armour
Purpose: While there is a nice selection of weapons, the armour selection is pretty limited, I would like to see heavier armour restricting movement for more protection or the total opposite.
Implementation, I don’t think it could be very hard to implement a few more type of armours, I can provide new textures for existing armours or provide a few concepts or futuristic looking protection, I can model alright and unwrap the texture but I have no experience implementing models in a game yet.
What I would like to see is mostly more protection at the cost of movement, something allowing a soldier to take a few shots or pushing upon an enemy position, something to use close combat or heavy weapons with, basically a slow walking juggernaught opening the way for your troops or an entrenched impenetrable wall. The movement effect should be drastic to compensate so you don’t want to outfit every soldier with this type of protection. Possibly some very heavy power armour with shoulder mounted weapons, like a railgun cannon or laser cannon, maybe a Gatling gun with an ammo box mounted on the shoulder.
Lighter Armour should be used as well, either for lightning strikes or for scouts, they should allow an increase in movement speed over heavier protection and make your troops fragile but quick on their feet. Of course at the opposite of a heavy power amour, you could have lightweight power armour accelerating the movement rate and strength of a soldier even more maybe making them efficient at rushing in melee combat. Something like power armour that isn’t thicker than a second layer of skin or clothes, it could possibly be a miniature, expensive and complex layer of exterior machinery.
More medium protection options would be nice as well, something that is the bread and butter of most soldiers in a team, unlike light or heavy armour, this provide an average ground while the others provide specialization, it would allow some serious strategic assets if a player can adapt his playstyle to the game by using a combo of armours and weapons.
I might add some more possible ideas later, or develop upon an idea if requested but I feel that 4 pages worth of text is enough for now
Thanks for reading and maybe considering some of theses.
