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Author Topic: New to the game, feedback and questions  (Read 4956 times)

Offline UFOhunter

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New to the game, feedback and questions
« on: October 19, 2010, 01:04:37 pm »
I came across this per accident, dl-ed the Win release version 2.3 ca. 10 days ago and have been playing quite a lot since then (campaign, one difficulty below normal for the start).

First a big thanks to everyone involved making this game, I was in search of a more modern X-COM style game for ages, and UFO:AI is really a great achievement. It's very addictive, and fun to play.

Having an ATI gfx card I had initially trouble with a black geoscape and ugly stripes on textures in the battlescape, but after reading the FAQ and some forum threads I found the right settings that work. Since then the game has been remarkably stable on my machine, I had a CTD sometimes, but overall it's rare.

One thing which gives me headaches right now is the slow campaign progress and the high number of missions. As said, I played quite a lot recently, but soon I'll be more busy with other things. However, during the last days my campaign progressed ca. 1 year in game time. In that period my statistics show hundreds of battles, over 60 base attacks alone. And I didn't even play every mission, even stopped UFO interception for a while at all since I just found it a bit too much. At that pace I feel I have to devote the rest of my life to end tis game ...;)

Nah, I actually like long games, but of course if things take simply too long people could lose interest or might feel tired. I read this point was raised several times in other threads, so it isn't new , but I wanted to stress its importance. Still, a good thing is that even with the campaign going on for ca. 1 year I still get sometimes to play maps I hadn't seen before, which is nice and keeps motivation up.

There are some things I didn't fully understand yet. I skimmed the forums, but if they were answered already I didn't find the threads, so maybe someone could help me out here:

1. Is there any way to get rid of a base you don't want anymore? I found a thread debating if it should be possible to destroy the entrance like all other buildings. I understood it's WAD that the entrance cannot be destroyed in the same way - so is there no way to get rid of a base? I built one I don't need, and while the Aliens attack my HQ and main bases a lot they never attcked there, so it seems I'm stuck with it....

2. What does "production limit" mean? I first thought it means the number of items you can build of one type, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's also different from the number of workers producing.

3. Is there a way to see in the UFOpaedia what hangar size you need for a certain craft. It seems some don't work with big hangars?

4. The interface feels sometimes not optimal. Is there a way to configure what keys do what in game? Or for example, I'd love to use arrow keys to rotate the planet in the geoscape - is something like this doable?

That's all for now, I'm sure I have more to ask later. Overall playing the game so far has been a great experience.

« Last Edit: October 19, 2010, 01:07:28 pm by UFOhunter »

Offline geever

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Re: New to the game, feedback and questions
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2010, 03:50:56 pm »
Welcome!

1. Is there any way to get rid of a base you don't want anymore?

Not yet. It's not implemented. But will be - hopefully - possible soon.

2. What does "production limit" mean?

You can have 5 * $numberOfWorkshops items on the queue at the same time.

3. Is there a way to see in the UFOpaedia what hangar size you need for a certain craft. It seems some don't work with big hangars?

I'm not sure about the interface - but should be there at aircraft. In general: dropships and Saracen goes to large hangar, every other interceptor goes to small ones.

4. The interface feels sometimes not optimal. Is there a way to configure what keys do what in game? Or for example, I'd love to use arrow keys to rotate the planet in the geoscape - is something like this doable?

Edit keys.cfg for it.

-geever

Offline bayo

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Re: New to the game, feedback and questions
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2010, 05:17:03 pm »
Quote
4. The interface feels sometimes not optimal. Is there a way to configure what keys do what in game? Or for example, I'd love to use arrow keys to rotate the planet in the geoscape - is something like this doable?
It should be the case, cause I dont think we use arrow in this screen.

Offline Duke

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Re: New to the game, feedback and questions
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2010, 12:08:05 am »
Hi and welcome :)

Thanks for skimming the forums and reading the docs.
Keep up the good work of asking *qualified* questions ;)

Offline UFOhunter

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Re: New to the game, feedback and questions
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2010, 02:19:49 pm »
Thanks for all the answers :)

I'll definately try to edit the keys.cfg.




Offline UFOhunter

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Re: New to the game, feedback and questions
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2010, 06:19:52 pm »
OK, I played a bit further. First I ran into the nasty bug where a base attack is loaded and messes up your base afterwards (becomes inaccessible even if you win). I read about it in the forum...but only after it happened, so I had to go back to an old save ca. half a year in-game before.  ;D :(

Anyway I progressed with that new attempt so far that I have now four alien types. Bloodspiders appeared in only one mission, then never again so far. Shevars otoh come now regularly. The last UFO type that appeared is the supply ship.

However, for quite a while now in the game there seems to be no change, so I wonder are there actually more aliens implemented yet? I understand there's at least one further UFO type already in (bomber), is that correct?

I also had a couple of map issues, in some cases I was thrown back to the geoscape immediately after a mission was supposed to start (so I could not actually fight it).

In another case (underground pipe map) it was generally playable, but I noticed a problem with the map itself, namely that my soldiers where standing quasi "in the air" on a part that was supposed to be a hole in the ground leading to a lower level...Maybe someone can say if these are known problems or if I should better report them.

Anyway, still loving the game.

Offline Duke

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Re: New to the game, feedback and questions
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2010, 11:40:35 pm »
I also had a couple of map issues, in some cases I was thrown back to the geoscape immediately after a mission was supposed to start (so I could not actually fight it).
In case of a 'crash to geoscape' you'll find some sort of error msg in your ufoconsole.log. We need that to determine whether it's a known issue or not.

In another case (underground pipe map) it was generally playable, but I noticed a problem with the map itself, namely that my soldiers where standing quasi "in the air" on a part that was supposed to be a hole in the ground leading to a lower level...Maybe someone can say if these are known problems or if I should better report them.
I started pipes in skirmish. I noticed the roof of the dropship doesn't come off as usual ==> the map may have a height adjustment problem.
So yes, please report it.

Offline UFOhunter

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Re: New to the game, feedback and questions
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2010, 07:59:56 pm »
OK, I reported the problem on the pipes map. Unfortunately I don't have other saves anymore, so can't provide any logs for the other problems (also not sure on which maps exactly those occured since I got always thrown out immediately). I'll watch out for them if I can catch them again and see to provide logs then.


However, I changed to a new 2.4 version now. Love all the new additions so far, but can anyone give me a bit of gameplay advice?

Thing is, I tried a campaign on "normal" two times now, but lost both within ca. 30-40 days game time because some nation always gets a bad attitude. First it was America, the second time Asia. But I had won every battle (skipped none), and tried to intercept every UFO I could (though some escaped).

Still, that didn't help, which is quite frustrating esp. when you win the missions all the time...