Weaker radar

[Titan]

Dunno quite how simple this is, but I think that you shouldn't be able to tell what type of UFO it is until either you capture one of the type (IE, you recover a harvester, Harvesters will appear as harvesters in geoscape) or you research something.

This would add an early game element of uncertainty, because you have no idea if the UFO is a fighter or a supply ship, etc, and you have to plan engagements.

[Another Guy]

Actually, UFO type only appears on UFO description after it's researched. Ofc u can tell what type it is by ship's model, but it wouldn't be very realistic to hide the ship's model untill it's researched.  

Edit: As for UFOs and equipment captured and not yet researched, some suggestions here.

[vedrit]

What I think Titan means is that on the Geoscape, you can visably tell the difference between the UFOs, despite not having researched them. I agree. This makes it too easy to say "Hm. Thats a Fighter. I wont send my interceptor to attack because I know, at this point, the Fighter is superior."
X:COM had it right to only say its size (Small, medium, large, XLarge, XSmall), and I think this would be good until the ship has been researched or adv. radar is in place.

[Another Guy]

Well, it makes sense on gameplay point of view, but I can't see how would it fit in the plot not to see the craft model untill it's researched. After all, researched or not, the interceptor pilots would always see the same thing. If it would be switched to stat numbers (size, speed, etc) the problem would remain. One would always be able to tell what craft it is by the stats as it would never change for that craft type.

Mmmm, maybe if alien crafts have some equipment scramble system unique to every craft we could replace models by some icon and show "? ? ?" on all the stats untill that type of craft is researched, but would be very hard to make some good explanation for some very advanced system that do not avoid radar detection.

[BTAxis]

Is it really so bad that players can tell which UFO it is by the model? What's the worst that can happen?

[vedrit]

They can go a year without shooting down anything but scouts. I made it policy to not go after Fighters or Harvesters until I have better interceptors, unless the target has spent considerable amount of time in SAM range.
Maybe we can make a more generic model for the UFOs on the Geoscape. Or something similar to LOD, where the closer a craft gets to the UFO, like it gets within visual range (Which would probably be just outside of firing range), then the icon changes to what we have now.

[Another Guy]

The problem with this is... Once researched, u r suposed to know exactly what type of UFO it is as soon as radar spots them, so this should only work for unresearched UFOs. Seems a lot of coding work to me...

[BTAxis]

If you go a year killing only scouts you're probably going to get in trouble. The campaign is set up so you have to win in about 3 years (on normal difficulty) or the aliens will overwhelm you. Also, if you let the larger UFOs carry out their missions you're going to feel the effects in terms of nation happiness.

[vedrit]

The problem with this is... Once researched, u r suposed to know exactly what type of UFO it is as soon as radar spots them, so this should only work for unresearched UFOs. Seems a lot of coding work to me...

Ofcourse

If you go a year killing only scouts you're probably going to get in trouble. The campaign is set up so you have to win in about 3 years (on normal difficulty) or the aliens will overwhelm you. Also, if you let the larger UFOs carry out their missions you're going to feel the effects in terms of nation happiness.

Ok, so not a year, but several months. That doesnt include doing terror missions. You dont risk ships when you do those. Doing terror missions alone is enough to keep nations Happy or above

[BTAxis]

I still don't see the problem. On the other hand, even if we did "hide" the UFOs we'd still have to give the player some info on the size of the UFO, because otherwise it's a totally blind gamble when you send in your interceptors, and I don't think anybody would like that.

[vedrit]

Yes, you would tell them the size, like I suggested we do something similar to what X-Com did.
Isnt there supposed to be a gamble so early on? Isnt is supposed to be impossible to know if you can take on the craft if your scientists havent researched it, or your pilots havent seen it? Sending out interceptors has to be as carefully done as a mission, but being able to see what your up against, even though you shouldnt, changes it into a too easy decision.

[BTAxis]

It's really a non-issue. You argue people can tell what UFO it is by its icon, but that's assuming they've already played the game and KNOW what each icon represents. But then they'd still know if they only knew the size, because not all UFOs appear right away. If you know the order in which they're introduced (and that info is wiki'd) it's really no different.

So, bottom line, my opinion is that there's little point trying to implement something like that.

[vedrit]

It only takes 1 downed interceptor to figure it out. But if the shapes could be different UFOs (Later on in the dev, possibly)