Hey :) - Newbie with a few questions

[Master of Chaos]

Hello People of Earth! 

First of all, I'd like to say that this is a great game - well done to everyone who has contributed towards it!    I am an artist myself (although I have no experience with digital art yet), and I'd love to contribute whenever I can..

I have a few noob questions I wanna ask:

1) So every month or so there's an update or something which you have changed in the game - how do I "update" my version of UFO: AI without losing my progress in-game?

2) When I try to open the map editor (UFO Radiant), it says "Engine Path: Not Found". There are two gaps and I am able to browse for the Engine Path and Compiler Binary, but could somebody tell me where I can find them?!

3) Lastly, my game lags, and it lags really bad when I'm viewing from more than 3 stories high - which can be annoying. How can I fix this? (I have a decent computer with Nvidia 8600 gs, Intel Q6600, 3GB RAM) Any particular settings which will make my game play smoother?



I also wanna suggest a few things, please tell me what you think!

- The loading screen doesn't do the game much justice - I think it can be improved in terms of how it looks!
- To make the game even more fun, I think that "Unlockables" should be added (Things like additional Guns, Planes e.t.c.)
- I think including ships or "sea bases" would be interesting
- Soldiers should be able to heal themselves

That's all I can think of - I'll try to contribute whenever I can

Thanks for reading

That Guy

[Hertzila]

Hello People of Earth!  

Hello Sky Guy!

1) So every month or so there's an update or something which you have changed in the game - how do I "update" my version of UFO: AI without losing my progress in-game?

Get the source and compile it.
Savegame compatibility is usually ok but sometimes a code change renders old savegames incompatible. This post should help ya.

I also wanna suggest a few things, please tell me what you think!

- The loading screen doesn't do the game much justice - I think it can be improved in terms of how it looks!
- To make the game even more fun, I think that "Unlockables" should be added (Things like additional Guns, Planes e.t.c.)
- I think including ships or "sea bases" would be interesting
- Soldiers should be able to heal themselves

In the order from top to bottom:
- True and since you're an artist, I'm fairly sure you could do that and get it included in the official version. Mostly, however, I'd like those tips and/or other text snippets appear in loading screens.
- I'm not sure what other way you could get stuff, other than researching that is. Besides, devs have said IIRC that human equipment has enough stuff already (so we who prefer more stuff need to rely on modders).
- Sorry, this has been shot down numerous times.
- I'm not sure about this, depends on the implementation I think.

[Mattn]

First of all, I'd like to say that this is a great game - well done to everyone who has contributed towards it!    I am an artist myself (although I have no experience with digital art yet), and I'd love to contribute whenever I can..

Great to hear that you like it - we could always need new contributors - especially artists.

1) So every month or so there's an update or something which you have changed in the game - how do I "update" my version of UFO: AI without losing my progress in-game?

There are updates every hour - you have to get the svn repository and download the codeblocks package (see http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Code::Blocks_%28guided_with_GUI%29 ) - if you need help with it join our irc channel and we can assist you.

2) When I try to open the map editor (UFO Radiant), it says "Engine Path: Not Found". There are two gaps and I am able to browse for the Engine Path and Compiler Binary, but could somebody tell me where I can find them?!

the engine path is the ufoai installation folder (or svn repository checkout folder if you would like to be on the bleeding edge and follow the advice from answer #1)
the ufo2map binary should be inside that folder.

3) Lastly, my game lags, and it lags really bad when I'm viewing from more than 3 stories high - which can be annoying. How can I fix this? (I have a decent computer with Nvidia 8600 gs, Intel Q6600, 3GB RAM) Any particular settings which will make my game play smoother?

did you try to disable glsl shaders?

- The loading screen doesn't do the game much justice - I think it can be improved in terms of how it looks!

you are more than welcome to improve those images (map loading screens and game loading screen - and everything else that can be improved )

- To make the game even more fun, I think that "Unlockables" should be added (Things like additional Guns, Planes e.t.c.)

There will be new stuff in the technology tree when we get the ufopedia articles written and the models and images that are needed for new items. As always, we need artist power - so you are absolutely right here

- I think including ships or "sea bases" would be interesting

Maybe someone is willing to do this in a separate campaign, but this is currently no goal for the current campaign that is in development.

- Soldiers should be able to heal themselves

to tell the truth, there was a reason we deactivated that (can't remember right now) - but i played some matches recently and thought exactly the same

That's all I can think of - I'll try to contribute whenever I can

I'll take your word on this

[H-Hour]

Hi ThatGuy, on the art front, of course the best thing to do is to take something you want to improve and go for it! Keep in mind that the more central a piece of artwork is to the game, the more you particular the devs will be about how it looks. The loading screen is a good case in point. You should definitely give it a shot if it's something you want to improve, but be prepared to work collaboratively on its development.

Do check out the Contribute page for more info on artwork/maps/modelling, and don't hesitate to ask in our IRC channel or in the forums if you have any questions.