My Compliments (Plus a Suggestion)

[Specialist290]

First off:  Awesome game

I recently come across this game from, of all places, TV Tropes.  I tried out the 2.2.1 build first, but found it to be a bit clunky, so I upgraded to 2.3 after browsing around the forums a bit.  Then I tried to register, but there was a little hiccup (involving me somehow sharing an IP address with a spambot); fortunately, that got ironed out pretty well.

I never was a veteran of the old X-COM / UFO games, but after finding some pretty compelling reads on the Let's Play! Archive, I was inspired to look for similar freeware games (I'm on a bit of a tight budget).  I followed a link I found elsewhere on the aforementioned TVTropes, and lo and behold, now I'm converted!  It runs a little slow on my comp sometimes (especially on the larger maps), but it's been pretty fun so far, although I haven't advanced very far in the plotline.

I do, however, have one suggestion:  When placing new installations, I think that it would be very helpful to include a radar "shadow" for any radar-capable installations.  I believe that that would take a lot of guesswork out of where to place them for max coverage of the most land surface with the fewest sites.  As it stands right now, it seems like the only way you can see the coverage is after the site is already built, which of course costs money.

[Borsti67]

nice idea!

[Hertzila]

I have to agree with Borsti67, good idea!
BTW, how on earth did you end up here from TV Tropes? I have read that site a lot and never caught any mention of UFO:AI. From what trope did you find this?

Edit: Forgot again...  Welcome to the forums!

[Specialist290]

Somehow, the game got it's own Works page.  I guess there's a really dedicated fan out there.  I forget how I found that page originally, though.

Incidentally, I've been doing some looking around, and I'd like to volunteer my services to help out a little.  I probably won't be coding anything (very little programming experience), but I'd absolutely love to help out with the worldbuilding side of things, particularly ironing out some of the rough spots I've seen in the backstory.  I can't promise I'll always be around (still a college student, alas; some things must come first), but I've always wanted to try my hand at writing and worldbuilding

[Hertzila]

Then I would suggest contacting and discussing it with Winter, who is (or at least I've got the picture that he is) the main writer of the official campaign.

[Specialist290]

Thought up a couple more suggestions while playing last night:

1.  A minimap on the Battlescape that includes colored dots to represent currently visible units, color-coded by type (probably something like blue for your soldiers, red for hostiles, green / white for civilians, and so on).

2.  Flares.  During night missions, soldiers can throw / roll them like grenades to provide an on-the-spot light source, extending their vision.

[Gren]

Thought up a couple more suggestions while playing last night:

1.  A minimap on the Battlescape that includes colored dots to represent currently visible units, color-coded by type (probably something like blue for your soldiers, red for hostiles, green / white for civilians, and so on).

Try pressing the Home key in a mission.. 

2.  Flares.  During night missions, soldiers can throw / roll them like grenades to provide an on-the-spot light source, extending their vision.

Remember these in the Original game - but I don't miss them tbh.