general feedback on 2.3

[nanomage]

hello
i have played v2.3 for a while and i'd like to post some general feedback
overall, i find it is a great game, although playing it leaves a weird feeling because its unfinished.
i'll try to post bugs that i have observed in a "technical support" subforum, but there are also some strange things that are not bugs actually, but still confused me very much.

first of all, it's alien use of antimatter propelled aircraft. Upon completing UFO research, engineers report its fuel tanks to contain up to 1g of antimatter. According to a known formula, this results in total energy of 2m*c ² being produced during annihilation with another gram of matter. Even if we assume the alien engines to channel all resulting radiation back of the rocket, it would still only have gained momentum of 2*m*c. Given m is 1g, this momentum can only change the spped of a 100-ton aircraft (and UFOs look much heavier) to the speed of 2*c*m/M = 600 centimeters per second. But this is far too small a value to be able to maneuvre in athmospere or, even worse- to climb an orbit. UFOs should either have access to much larger amounts of antimatter or use some propelling scheme other than just channeling annihilation products back of the engine. Or, i may be wrong, but correct me, if so.

The second thing that confused me is that alien particle beam weaponry is claimed by my advisors as beeing poorly balanced and uncomfortable for humans and, because of this, inaccurate in human hands. However, according to research reports, PB weapons themselves are simple to build, and, if so, what prevents humans from building theit own version of PB rifle, comfortable and thus accurate for them. It would just be some other metal shape wrapped around set of lenses and magnets that channel particle beam from accelerator to target,

I have also found that i'm unable to research anything after 'XVI Census' and 'Enemy on Earth revisited' and XVI rate in all the globe doesn't seem tomove avay from 0.0% even after i allowed some corruptors and harvester to land, terrorize population and fly avay safely. Is it because of game version or i am doing something wrong?

The last thing is huge stockpile of alien materials which seems to grow and grow as you continue capturing and disassembling UFOs. they do not seem to be suited for anything other than eating storage space. Also it takes extremely long to sell them. i guess it's just because i play a development version and they are going to be used in production of some hi-tech vehicles in later versions, arent' they?

I also want to ask a question about user interface: is there any hope of a command-line user interface from game console, especally for base management, say something like
sell -base="HQ" -item="Alien Materials" -quantity=10000
This would help against piles of alien materials and help automate equipping/reequipping soldiers for different maps.

[Hertzila]

1. In space you have a point, they would need to lug around mass-tanks that would hold either gas or liquid that they can use with their thrusters, otherwise they can't gain any thrust (remember that in a matter-antimatter annihilation the mass transforms into energy, so the 2 grams of stuff don't contribute to thrust). On Earth, however, there is plenty of air their thrusters can use as the required mass and in case that's not enough, they can still lug around mass-tanks provided they are inside their ships and not external tanks.

[nanomage]

1. In space you have a point, they would need to lug around mass-tanks that would hold either gas or liquid that they can use with their thrusters, otherwise they can't gain any thrust (remember that in a matter-antimatter annihilation the mass transforms into energy, so the 2 grams of stuff don't contribute to thrust). On Earth, however, there is plenty of air their thrusters can use as the required mass and in case that's not enough, they can still lug around mass-tanks provided they are inside their ships and not external tanks.

Radiation has momentum (p = E/c) as well as matter, so why shouldn't radiation obtained in matter-antimatter annihilation count towards thurst?
 And you are right about the mass-tanks - they would really help by carrying enough mass to through away. But then, UFOs should really have these "mass tanks", and advisors should mention them in their reports. Not that it changes anything in gameplay, but, in my opinion, one of the strong points of the game is that descriptions of all these alien technological marvels have certain degree of credibility.They are still fantastic, but never absurd. It's like science fiction - you may have a "photon spaceship", but you are not going to see "Voodoo powered aqua-blaster" or something

[Duke]

If the aliens have FTL drives, Einstein has already been proven to be wrong. So his formulas may not always apply

A game designer has to construct a nice gameplay in the first place and then find a suitable name and explanation for the 'weapon type 3' he needed for the gameplay. So feel free to come up with a better explanation why humans can't use PB very well.

Agreed, selling alien mat is a pita. Changing this has been requested many times and will happen sooner or later.

[setreset1]

A physics comment:
you forgot to square root. The correct thrust would be obtained like this:

assume the antimatter energy is totally converted into kinetic energy:
E = m c^2 = 1/2 M v^2
v = c sqrt(2 m /M)
for 1 gram of antimatter (+1 of matter) m=2*10^-3 Kg
M=100 Tonnes=10^5 Kg
c=3*10^8 m/s
v=3*10^8*sqrt(2*2*10^-3/10^5)=3*10^8*2*10^-4=
v=6*10^4 m/s, or 60 Km per second, which is quite fast.

[nanomage]

edited out a typo in formulas

A physics comment:
you forgot to square root. The correct thrust would be obtained like this:

assume the antimatter energy is totally converted into kinetic energy:
E = m c^2 = 1/2 M v^2
v = c sqrt(2 m /M)
for 1 gram of antimatter (+1 of matter) m=2*10^-3 Kg
M=100 Tonnes=10^5 Kg
c=3*10^8 m/s
v=3*10^8*sqrt(2*2*10^-3/10^5)=3*10^8*2*10^-4=
v=6*10^4 m/s, or 60 Km per second, which is quite fast.

Sorry, but this is erroneous calculation.
You are applying the law of conservations of energy. It's ok, energy does conserve, but not in the way you describe.
Energy of matter-antimatter annihilation cannot be converted totally into kinetic energy of spacecraft, and it is because momentum conserves too.
It is the conservation of momentum that i applied in my calculation.
2mc²/c= E/c = p = Mv
and that's really all.
You don't even need to solve diff.equations for reactive movement (because craft's mass changes too little during acceleration)
and you don't need to mess with relativistic kinematics either (because craft is not going to have high speed)

If the aliens have FTL drives, Einstein has already been proven to be wrong. So his formulas may not always apply

i agree that in fiction world you are not bound to obey the laws of physics, but isn't less violation of them better?
I think that several sentences about "mass tanks", used in UFOs to accelerate matter to gain thrust in vacuum and mentioning that they could use athmospheric air for this purpose, would greatly increase the credibility of the game (at least for those like me)

A game designer has to construct a nice gameplay in the first place and then find a suitable name and explanation for the 'weapon type 3' he needed for the gameplay. So feel free to come up with a better explanation why humans can't use PB very well.

I think that engineers could just mention strong recoil that doesn't allow high accuracy.
Or maybe they can claim that PB weapons themsselves are too complicated to reproduce, and then humans would be forced to use unbalanced and not-ergonomic alien guns.

How about console commands? Are there any commands to manage bases or equip soldiers/craft from command line, or is there a hope they will appear? Can i use some kind of scripting language to automate these tasks?
 

[Duke]

..., but isn't less violation of them better?

Agreed oc. And I'm glad to say that my little provocation worked out fine and made you start to *contribute*
We have a dedicated forum for this type of contributions titled 'design'. Could you plz cut&paste your suggestions there ?
Afaik that's the best place to make the responsible devs integrate your suggestions into the game. (@other devs: correct me if I'm wrong, plz)

btw still I believe that 99,9% (including me) of our users are not able / willing to calculate the potential thrust gained from antimatter

[Duke]

Oops,...

How about console commands?

Afaik this is the first time this has been requested.
Except for getting rid of alien mats, where do you expect benefits from cmds ?? Gimme usecases !

[dingoperson]

I just came to check on the forum to see if the game was ready enough to get a good experience out of, and having read this list of complaints I have made my decision 

[nanomage]

Agreed oc. And I'm glad to say that my little provocation worked out fine and made you start to *contribute*
We have a dedicated forum for this type of contributions titled 'design'. Could you plz cut&paste your suggestions there ?
Afaik that's the best place to make the responsible devs integrate your suggestions into the game. (@other devs: correct me if I'm wrong, plz)

Any gamer would gladly catch an opportunity to contribute to the game he likes, and i'd be glad too.  I'll try to make a comprehensive text and check maths again before posting there.

btw still I believe that 99,9% (including me) of our users are not able / willing to calculate the potential thrust gained from antimatter

I have been interested in spacecraft propelling since childhood :-) After all, our chemical rockets are so dirty&clumsy that you can't help dreaming about something more elegant.

Oops,...Afaik this is the first time this has been requested.
Except for getting rid of alien mats, where do you expect benefits from cmds ?? Gimme usecases !

 
What i'd like the best would be commands for assigning equipment to soldiers and aircraft
say, to equip every soldier on base  A with a medikit, placing it automatically, you's type comething like

foreach $soldier in @(base{"A"}->soldiers) equip_actor $soldier -item="medikit" -slot=autofit

To equip 2-nd craft at the same base with a PB weapon it would be

equip_craft $(base{"A"}->aircraft)[1] -item="Particle Beam Weapon" -slot=1

Of course syntax is totally arbitrary, it can be any other if it fits the game more. I do not know the game code at all.

btw, are there any docs i can read to know it better?

[Duke]

Not a very convincing usecase.
There is an (ongoing?) discussion about "equipment templates" either on team or person level. Imho that's the way to go. I don't know the status of neither discussion nor implementation. Plz use forum search to learn more.

I do not know the game code at all. btw, are there any docs i can read to know it better?

Yes and no. You have seen our wiki ?
If "game code" refers to the C-code: No, there is no tutorial, overview doc, ...
In this case plz visit the 'Newbie coders' forum.