Some ideas

[Digin_BR]

Hi there everyone, i have some ideas that i think would be a good improvement to the game. also, ill use this thread to reinforce some ideas that other ppl suggested and say whats my own version of that ideas.

so here it goes:

MISSIONS:

i think the game is still pretty limited in terms of variety of mission tipes...and there are loads of tipes of missions that are already well known from most games...i think these can fit in the UFO:AI gameplay and would be a real add to the gameplay.

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"Search & Rescue - VIP/Briefcase" :
*Aliens are attacking a certain person, for example, the USAs president in the whitehouse or an civilian informant...
*Your job is to send an S&R squad to prevent the aliens from killing that person or preventing them from extracting the briefcase that certain person droped when he/she got killed...
*You have limited time to extract the VIP or the Briefcase to a safe place...

SPECIAL PARAMETERS:
fail to extract the VIP = economical problems or "central command unhappiness"...
fail to extract the briefcase (that was containing valiable research data, inteligence reports or whatever was on it) = higher alien activity or something like it...

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"Search & Rescue - Artifact Of Danger(AOD)/Artifact Of Research(AOR)" :
*Aliens are attacking a certain AOD, for example, the core of a nuclear reactor or an high-priority research artifact...
*Your job is to defend the objective for some time, untill all waves of aliens are gone or a kinda major rescue team arives...
*You must open your way to the objective, and once there, you must defend it against a certain number of aliens/alien-waves or for a certain time...if your rescue team dies or the objective gets destroyed, you fail...

SPECIAL PARAMETERS:
if you fail at AOD, you lose your crew (the rescue team members die, due to the explosion/nuclear fallout/viral contamination or whatever was the AOD)...
if you fail at AOR, you get one or some of your current researches back to point zero, or an penalty related to your researches...

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-BASED ON OTHER USER IDEA-
"SURVIVAL" :
*when one crew gets shotdown by aliens over land, it has a 0%-to-50% chance of being able to get a emergency landing...in case it happens, you have to option to send a rescue team or not...if you accept, then you are moved to the crashsite to control the survivors in battle...
*the survivors must, well, survive, untill the rescue team comes to, well, rescue them...  
*you are to hold your ground for a certain time (countdown) or for a certain number of aliens-to-kill...
*its important to notice that there is a chance to lose crewmembers and/or equipment BEFORE the mission starts...with means you cant relly that your gonna be able to use all members of the crew or all equipment...still, it will happen for you to not lose any crew nor equipment at most part of the time, becouse if the landing is brute enough to get crewmenbers killed or equipment loss, its also able to trigger the explosive equipment carried, killing all, with is already counted in the 50%+ chance of NOT TRIGGERING an survival mission...

SPECIAL PARAMETERS:
*this mission does only happens for transport aircraft, fighter-planes will never ever trigger an survival mission...
*this mission has from 0% to up to 50% of chance of happening, with means you cant expect to retrieve your crew always...by the invert, its a great chance they die in the landing or simply not get able to emergency land...and so, not trigger an survival mission...
*you may lose some crewmembers and equipment during the emergency landing...but in case it happens, you lose few...
*in case you succed at surviving, you get all your surviving crew in the flight back to base with the rescue team...the flight of the rescue team is invulnerable, to prevent bugs...alien aircrafts will simply ignore it during the flight back to base...BUT IN CASE THE RESCUE GETS SHOTDOWN DURING THE GO TO THE RESCUE, THEN U LOSE BOTH CREWS...so its a good idea to send fighter aircrafts to scort the rescue team path...
*in case you succed at surviving, only your crewmembers are saved, all the equipment or most of the equipment is left behind due to the limitation on the wheight the rescue aircraft can carrie...(this is for the rescued crew equipment, the rescue-team equipment is untouched)

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these are my ideas for new mission tipes, hope you like them...
your opinions aboult them would be apretiated...
sorry for any error in english...my language is very diferent from english...just hope i didnt made any major mistake and that my ideas are understandable...

Regards, Digin_BR.

EDIT: sorry for extremely long post as well...

[Destructavator]

Hi, Welcome to the forum,

Some of these do sound like interesting ideas, but I'd be surprised if they really all made it into the game, as many sound like they might over-complicate the game mechanics.

I will say that ideas such as defending dropships that have been shot down have been proposed more than once, and even that one I don't know how likely it is to make it into the game soon.

As far as I know there are a few things in the works for more missions types, not just "hunt down all aliens and avoid hurting any civilians" like most missions are, namely defending a base from alien attack and invading an alien base.  The development version already has base defense missions although I think they are still being worked on, just like everything else in the coming 2.3, although 2.3 still has quite a bit to be done before release.

[shevegen]

Well a compromise might be to try out some new mission types (if they are easy to implement)
and ask for feedback.

The "limited time" approach might enhance the game perhaps, for a very few limited missions.
I cant think of a real mission right now which enhances this hehe ... but maybe we could keep it in
mind and find a scenario which could make sense (and provides fun) ... perhaps time-based
explosions where aliens want to destroy a dam, or a power generator, and your units need to
destroy that device before it goes off (and causes huge destruction)

Anyway, I am happy to try out different maps all the time, I felt that the positioning of soliders
and finding of the aliens is one of the most fun aspect of the game, and so every change to maps,
new objects or anything, just adds to the fun of the game (or challenge)

[Digin_BR]

yea, thats the whole point behind my ideas on new mission types...the current stable version(2.1) kinda does only have "hunt aliens + cover civilians" as objective...and the game dosent take too much to become monotone (repeating "same mission" over and over)...

actualy, to talk the truth, i think the current "replay factor" is trash, if u played the game once, at the second time you play it is simply a perfect copy of the 1st...even alien positions become predictable enough to be able to play in hard with just a bunch of flashbangs, smoke grenades and a knife as equipment of the soldiers, and still get 5+ survivors even in open-camp maps...(and yes, im talking very very seriously aboult that...give it a try if u never did...)

at last mission types are much easyer to implement than most things, and they would add some real punch-up to the games replay factor...improving alien spawnpoints would make theyr starting positions less predictable and help too...there are maps on 2.1 that just have 2 sets of spawnpoints...man, there is a scenario where my snipers take 5 aliens down before the 3rd turn...3 of em at the very 1st turn sometimes...so, seriously, this game needs some real improvements on the replay factor...

another important point is that its taking way too much time for new releaces to come out...the latest stable version is already 1 year old!...the developer team is packing way too much improvements before next releasse...

guys! one improvement-pack at a time!
no need for a 100% remastered game per releasse!
do you notice that this way, the time that it usualy takes to releasse a new version in other games, you are going to spend JUST FIXING BUGS of your releasse?

[homunculus]

well, if the civilians are killed the aliens might move back to the ufo and take off.

[...]
guys! one improvement-pack at a time!
no need for a 100% remastered game per releasse!
do you notice that this way, the time that it usualy takes to releasse a new version in other games, you are going to spend JUST FIXING BUGS of your releasse?

lol, don't worry, they either don't fix the bugs or else the stable release is years away.
nothing to worry about either way.

[Digin_BR]

lol, don't worry, they either don't fix the bugs or else the stable release is years away.
nothing to worry about either way.

GPO Team: 2           (GPO = Gamers Pissed Off)
DEV Team: 0

rsrsrs...cmon DEV team! your gonna be disqualified if you dont hurry up and reach our interest!    (official stable releasse 2.3)

[geever]

yea, thats the whole point behind my ideas on new mission types...the current stable version(2.1) ...

The current stable version is 2.2.1 not 2.1.

actualy, to talk the truth, i think the current "replay factor" is trash, if u played the game once, at the second time you play it is simply a perfect copy of the 1st...even alien positions become predictable enough to be able to play in hard with just a bunch of flashbangs, smoke grenades and a knife as equipment of the soldiers, and still get 5+ survivors even in open-camp maps...(and yes, im talking very very seriously aboult that...give it a try if u never did...)

In the current development version the missions are not the same. Maps are assembled from pieces (like XCOM did).

at last mission types are much easyer to implement than most things,

Oh, If you're so clever, please do it! I'm fed up with arrogant people who think they know how difficult to do some feature and they expect us to do them.

another important point is that its taking way too much time for new releaces to come out...the latest stable version is already 1 year old!...the developer team is packing way too much improvements before next releasse...

I don't think you want an unusable release. It's not about "way too much improvements" but the code is that buggy we cannot do a release.

guys! one improvement-pack at a time!
no need for a 100% remastered game per releasse!
do you notice that this way, the time that it usualy takes to releasse a new version in other games, you are going to spend JUST FIXING BUGS of your releasse?

Behave yourself! Making orders doesn't make a sense here.

You've got your warn.

-geever

[homunculus]

GPO Team: 2           (GPO = Gamers Pissed Off)
DEV Team: 0

rsrsrs...cmon DEV team! your gonna be disqualified if you dont hurry up and reach our interest!    (official stable releasse 2.3)

really, relax, i hope you didn't count me in the gpo team.

i do think that the devs have gotten very much involved with the total development of the game.

but as for being pissed off about it, that's absolutely none of my business how and when they do it if they do it at all.
the very opposite, they have a hobby that also benefits some other people (who could be called 'leechers', btw.. the leechers are pissed off, yeah right).

[Winter]

Every time somebody moans about hurrying up the release, we add another 6 months. And kill a kitten.

So, kindly adopt a more respectful tone and let our coders get the hell on with things. They know what needs to be done, and if that involves long waits between releases, then I support them completely.

Regards,
Winter

[Kenner]

We all have a choice here. If we think development is taking too long, we can get involved and help speed up development by contributing to the project, or we can shut the heck up.

another important point is that its taking way too much time for new releaces to come out...the latest stable version is already 1 year old!...the developer team is packing way too much improvements before next releasse...

[odie]

yea, thats the whole point behind my ideas on new mission types...the current stable version(2.1) kinda does only have "hunt aliens + cover civilians" as objective...and the game dosent take too much to become monotone (repeating "same mission" over and over)...

Hi Digin,

I saw your initial post, but refrained to comment as i was unwell then.

Now i am back and see more of your post.

First off, let me also welcome you to the forum. Let me assume first and foremost that you have made the posts so far out of concern and wishing a sooner stable release. But I have to say u have been at best misinformed and not understood the development plans.

I am not part of the development's team, but I believe the following might help u understand this project better:

Next, i have a question for you - Have u went thru the tons of threads here (in other topics too) about the development plans? Have u tried out some of the current 2.3 development builts (or downloaded the SVN and built em yourself to try out?). (At least i have a stickied thread with alot of the current builts - though do not expect them to be stable, as it was built primarily and painstakingly to help beta testers root out the bugs, AND to keep the anxious excited with 'peeks' into future 2.3 stable release).

3rdly, Have u checked out the roadmaps for this project? As in what the developers are looking to release in 2.3?? Maybe you should.

The first point you made already sounded like u haven seen any of those before you 'suggested'.

actualy, to talk the truth, i think the current "replay factor" is trash, if u played the game once, at the second time you play it is simply a perfect copy of the 1st...even alien positions become predictable enough to be able to play in hard with just a bunch of flashbangs, smoke grenades and a knife as equipment of the soldiers, and still get 5+ survivors even in open-camp maps...(and yes, im talking very very seriously aboult that...give it a try if u never did...)

This is what i meant by ignorance factor - Balancing is still not in the roadmap and hence not done. i am sure in the future, it would not be the same 'predictable' behaviour. Why? Cos there have been tons of improvements made to the AI Scripts of aliens and civilians already.

Btw, you are on v 2.1? Why did u not play 2.2.1 (the latest release)?? Have u been misinformed that 2.1 is the latest stable release?

at last mission types are much easyer to implement than most things, and they would add some real punch-up to the games replay factor...improving alien spawnpoints would make theyr starting positions less predictable and help too...there are maps on 2.1 that just have 2 sets of spawnpoints...man, there is a scenario where my snipers take 5 aliens down before the 3rd turn...3 of em at the very 1st turn sometimes...so, seriously, this game needs some real improvements on the replay factor...

Again, maybe i attribute this point to misinformation. Try the 2.2.1 version and see if this negates this point ok?

another important point is that its taking way too much time for new releaces to come out...the latest stable version is already 1 year old!...the developer team is packing way too much improvements before next releasse...

Well, I forgive the poor spellings since your native lang is not english. Why is it so long? They have an objective to meet - Roadmaps: Which is why u should see them.

And another is to read and follow the threads - there is a current major bug which needs to be resolved before it can be released. And the big bug that we all know here (except u perhaps)? Its called PATHFINDING. And only 2 of the developers are actually familiar with them, and working on em day in day out furiously (AND without $$$, lest u forget). And they have full time jobs too. Understand that!

guys! one improvement-pack at a time!
no need for a 100% remastered game per releasse!
do you notice that this way, the time that it usualy takes to releasse a new version in other games, you are going to spend JUST FIXING BUGS of your releasse?

PS: Let me remind u that despite languages, having bolded and underlined text = rude netiquette. Maybe i can suggest u take an online course here - Netiquette 101[/quote]

Back to the points u actually made. Well, see my points slightly above - A MAJOR BUG has to be FIXED first before its called STABLE RELEASE.

Whats the point of releasing a "stable release" when we all can predict a bug (or BUGS for tat matter) and let everyone (and fans esp) be disappointed?

Hence, quoting geever -

Making orders doesn't make a sense here.

Dun make orders. Do your homework and then offer help, instead of making comments like yours ok?

~Empty Vessel Makes the Most Noise~

[Borsti67]

Every time somebody moans about hurrying up the release, we add another 6 months. And kill a kitten.

mwahaha 

[PhilRoi]

mwahaha 

ohh nnoooo,, puhleease  think of the kittens!!!!!!!

[Digin_BR]

aboult the 2.1 -> 2.1.1 things (quoting them all is useless)...

well, by 2.1 i was meaning the 2.1.1 from the very start...tought it wasnt that important to specify the current version that much...as you can see by yourselves, its very clear everyone knows 2.1.1 is the last stable...

--------------------

aboult the "dont order" related comments...i wasnt ordering nothing...you do your work by yourselves and on your own responsability...if it sounded like ordering/commanding, sorry me, that was way NOT the intention...

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aboult the "implementing mission types is easyer than most things" related comments...

well, the simple fact is that i, in over 4 years of modding at various games, including 2 on command&conquer series, "Mount & Blade", and "Half-Life 2"/VSE (Valve Source Engine), i have never ever meet a single game where it was easyer to work with the game physics than to work mission types...

i can say from my modding time, THERE ARE VERY FEW THINGS EASYER THAN MODDING MISSION-TYPES...most of those are related to artwork more than coding (new equipments, user-interfaces, ...)

i do realise that in UFO: AI, modding equipment and objects(needed for the mission-types i proposed) seems way much harder than in most games...

actualy, in "Mount & Blade", it was kinda just create the weapon/shield 3D model, texture it, put the damage/speed/resistance values in a .txt file and add a line in another .txt file...i could easily create over 4 non-bugged, fully-usable weapons/shields every day...this for creating a 100% new weapon...i could mod all equipments in the game with values compatible and realistic to the mod within 24h...the easyest equipment-related modding i ever worked at...

but still, i am pretty sure that implementing mission-types is way, WAY HELL, more worth the worktime (due to the high add on games "replay" factor, with means reducing the feeling of repeating same things when u play by the second time and take much less time than improving other things to reach that high add)...

i wasnt being arrogant, or at last i didnt had any intention on being...and the simple fact is that i really dont have any idea on how hard it is to mod/add gametypes in UFO: AI engine...i havant given it a try yet...but in the other hand, from my experience with modding other games, i was predicting modding/adding missions and mission-types would be easyer here as they have been easyer in the other games...

if im really wrong aboult that, and u guys do really guarantee me that in UFO: AI its actualy harder instead of easyer, then i can just say im really sorry for my mistake...

--------------------

Every time somebody moans about hurrying up the release, we add another 6 months. And kill a kitten.

So, kindly adopt a more respectful tone and let our coders get the hell on with things. They know what needs to be done, and if that involves long waits between releases, then I support them completely.

Regards,
Winter

at my vision, i was not being unrespectfull with the game DEVs...and in my opinion...no, they dont know exactly what people wants unless they tell em...they know how to do theyr job, but theyr job is to implement the most-wanted features as soon as possible...and that feature is currently clearly "replay factor improvement", by the tons of threads i seen before posting this one...

i just dont think that theyr using theyr worktime with the best efficiency...i seen in the beta-threads that, for the best improvements of replay factor, theyr working at AI more than at mission-types...and AI, at all games i modded at, was harder to improve than mission-types to implement...while both give the game almost the same improvement of replay factor...

if theyr working for the best of the UFO: AI players, i also do support theyr delay on releassing stable versions, no doubt...

but if theyr wasting time implementing features that require loads of worktime while there are improvements that are much more worth it waiting, then i wanna let em know my disaproval on the delay...

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aboult if i tryed 2.3 builds out...yea i did, and the GUI, AI and equipment improvements are really cool...but the replay factor is still very far away from the desired...it needs some real quick punch-up...but its already 3 times better than the 2.1.1 replay factor...so i can only say to the DEVs...keep up the good work at improving the game...the replay factor improvement is just as expected for a game releasse, and the other improvements are actualy more than i expected from a game releasse...but taking the delay into count, the improvement on replay factor is little under the expectations for such long worktime on the general improvement...

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again, i would like to say sorry for anything i sayd and that sounded wrongly...as i sayd in the starting post, my language isnt english, i sometimes think one thing and my wrightening means that thinking completely different...

Regards, Digin_BR.

EDIT: and now that im a little more used to the game main consepts, i will start working on modding it... but i dont have much available time for gamming, so ill start by helping at the 3D models, with i see your seeking for replacements and working on the advanced armors...i can also share some of the textures sources i have, with provide textures free (for both public and commercial use) that can be used as base for the textures of the models needed...as well as to replace some textures by more realistic ones if needed...(rocks, ground, walls, blood splaters, ... everything u might think of)

ill post my 3D work as well as the texture-sources at a thread on the artwork section...probably tomorow or todays night(brazil time)

[geever]

... its very clear everyone knows 2.1.1 is the last stable...

Still wrong version.

aboult the "dont order" related comments...i wasnt ordering nothing...you do your work by yourselves and on your own responsability...if it sounded like ordering/commanding, sorry me, that was way NOT the intention...

Then don't use bold and underscored at the same time, it was shouting..

aboult the "implementing mission types is easyer than most things" related comments...

well, the simple fact is that i, in over 4 years of modding at various games, including 2 on command&conquer series, "Mount & Blade", and "Half-Life 2"/VSE (Valve Source Engine), i have never ever meet a single game where it was easyer to work with the game physics than to work mission types...

i can say from my modding time, THERE ARE VERY FEW THINGS EASYER THAN MODDING MISSION-TYPES...most of those are related to artwork more than coding (new equipments, user-interfaces, ...)

i do realise that in UFO: AI, modding equipment and objects(needed for the mission-types i proposed) seems way much harder than in most games...

actualy, in "Mount & Blade", it was kinda just create the weapon/shield 3D model, texture it, put the damage/speed/resistance values in a .txt file and add a line in another .txt file...i could easily create over 4 non-bugged, fully-usable weapons/shields every day...this for creating a 100% new weapon...i could mod all equipments in the game with values compatible and realistic to the mod within 24h...the easyest equipment-related modding i ever worked at...

but still, i am pretty sure that implementing mission-types is way, WAY HELL, more worth the worktime (due to the high add on games "replay" factor, with means reducing the feeling of repeating same things when u play by the second time and take much less time than improving other things to reach that high add)...

I don't think modding equipment is difficult with UFO:AI.
About mission types: Yes they were suggested before and may happen in the future but it's not a priority. Our game is far from finished.

at my vision, i was not being unrespectfull with the game DEVs...and in my opinion...no, they dont know exactly what people wants unless they tell em...they know how to do theyr job, but theyr job is to implement the most-wanted features as soon as possible...and that feature is currently clearly "replay factor improvement", by the tons of threads i seen before posting this one...

i just dont think that theyr using theyr worktime with the best efficiency...i seen in the beta-threads that, for the best improvements of replay factor, theyr working at AI more than at mission-types...and AI, at all games i modded at, was harder to improve than mission-types to implement...while both give the game almost the same improvement of replay factor...

"their job is to implement the most-wanted features as soon as possible" <- You are wrong with this, really!

"i just dont think that theyr using theyr worktime with the best efficiency" <- WTF? Worktime? We're doing it in our free time for free.

-geever