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Author Topic: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things  (Read 9038 times)

Offline Crazy Tom

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Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« on: February 02, 2011, 01:22:26 am »
I've been playing the game for I'd guess a total of over forty eight hours now, probably more, and I really like what I'm seeing, so I thought I'd pop in and give my two cents:

My first, and most important (IMO) suggestion is that we should be able to tell the Firebird where to land. Perhaps the soldier equipment code that tell you whether something will fit in a slot or not could be adapted? I personally favor blitzkrieg tactics, going in fast and heavy, so having to slowly move my guys around the map is the most tedious part of the game for me.
This would seem like a game breaker, but really it adds to the realism and it goes into my second point:

Aliens seem to spawn in certain predetermined locations, near their UFO mostly. Having them stand around in the open is a bit weird from a realism point of view and it also makes the game an endless repetition of 'flank and storm the UFO'. Perhaps In the future a randomizer can set different places (such as a house or piece of cover) as their 'central base', that way one has to clean out the houses one at a time. Mind you, for terror missions, it makes sense to find one or two left behind to guard the UFO, but not in crass mission.

Soldiers can't hit anything without lasers. I think everyone else has brought this point up, so that'll all I'll say on the matter. But it really detracts from the weapons I can use, lack of variety and all that.

Aliens won't attack my SAM sites/Radar Towers. I suppose it could be due to the fact that I sent them running with their tails between their legs when they went afer my base, but somehow I doubt it. :D

And finally, I just wanted to point out that a few details are off in the UFOpedia texts, seeing as their the easiest things to change and realism is second only to game mechanics, I'll probably write up some edits for your consideration a bit later.

Offline H-Hour

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2011, 10:57:38 am »
My first, and most important (IMO) suggestion is that we should be able to tell the Firebird where to land. Perhaps the soldier equipment code that tell you whether something will fit in a slot or not could be adapted? I personally favor blitzkrieg tactics, going in fast and heavy, so having to slowly move my guys around the map is the most tedious part of the game for me.

With the way that maps are compiled and pieced together at the moment, this can't be done. It would take pretty significant changes to the renderer and other components to make this feasable.

Aliens seem to spawn in certain predetermined locations, near their UFO mostly. Having them stand around in the open is a bit weird from a realism point of view and it also makes the game an endless repetition of 'flank and storm the UFO'. Perhaps In the future a randomizer can set different places (such as a house or piece of cover) as their 'central base', that way one has to clean out the houses one at a time. Mind you, for terror missions, it makes sense to find one or two left behind to guard the UFO, but not in crass mission.

This is possible at the moment and even implemented on several maps. We'd love to have more mappers maintaining existing maps and creating new ones if you're interested.

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2011, 07:07:28 pm »
I would live to, but I'm far too busy, the most I can contribute now are the technical edits for the UFOpedia I've posted in the design section.

BTW, I just set up the latest version of UFOAI and I've lost my old save games, that normal?

Offline Kemlo

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2011, 08:09:29 pm »
I would live to, but I'm far too busy, the most I can contribute now are the technical edits for the UFOpedia I've posted in the design section.

BTW, I just set up the latest version of UFOAI and I've lost my old save games, that normal?
If you've switched from the 2.3 branch to the 2.4 branch then yes, that is normal.

Offline geever

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2011, 09:55:00 pm »
BTW, I just set up the latest version of UFOAI and I've lost my old save games, that normal?

If you updated from 2.3 to 2.3.1, you need to rename the user directory to 2.3.1

The user directory depends on your OS, check the FAQ

-geever

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2011, 11:52:28 pm »
If you updated from 2.3 to 2.3.1, you need to rename the user directory to 2.3.1

The user directory depends on your OS, check the FAQ

-geever

User directory, user directory... what's the user directory? :(

Offline H-Hour

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2011, 11:55:04 pm »
User directory, user directory... what's the user directory? :(

The user directory depends on your OS, check the FAQ

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2011, 12:58:46 am »
Wait... am I supposed to move the savegame files from the 2.3 folder to the 2.3.1 folder? If so, I have to say I don't know what the savegame files actually look like. :-\

Offline geever

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2011, 09:05:12 am »
Wait... am I supposed to move the savegame files from the 2.3 folder to the 2.3.1 folder? If so, I have to say I don't know what the savegame files actually look like. :-\

You can just rename the whole directory so you have all previous saves, game configuration, and multiplayer teamdefs in the new version.

-geever

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2011, 06:23:10 pm »
I... am confused. I have two folders, one's 2.3 the other 2.3.1, I can't rename the 2.3 to 2.3.1 because there's already a 2.3.1, am I doing something wrong here?

Offline geever

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2011, 07:10:34 pm »
I... am confused. I have two folders, one's 2.3 the other 2.3.1, I can't rename the 2.3 to 2.3.1 because there's already a 2.3.1, am I doing something wrong here?

When you started 2.3.1 first time it created the directory, saved the configuration in it and so.
You should know if there is any important in that new directory or you can just remove it and rename the old one to new.
You can of course merge them (only copy/move the things you need from the old one).

If you choose the latter (merging), the directory has a self-evident structure. Savegames are in base/save directory, their extension is savx.

-geever

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2011, 08:19:32 pm »
I'm in base, but the only folders visible are maps and i18n, also, no sign of any .savx files.

Offline geever

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #12 on: February 03, 2011, 08:31:40 pm »
I'm in base, but the only folders visible are maps and i18n, also, no sign of any .savx files.

then you missed what is the userdirectory.

-geever

Offline Crazy Tom

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #13 on: February 03, 2011, 09:00:47 pm »
I tried doing what the FAQ said: documents and settings --> username --> but then there's nothing called Application Data

Offline Kemlo

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Re: Feedback on Mechanics and Little Things
« Reply #14 on: February 03, 2011, 09:35:16 pm »
It depends on which version of Windows you're using.
In Windows 7 for example, you want:
Users -> username -> AppData -> Roaming -> UFOAI

AppData is a hidden folder though so make sure that hidden files and folders are shown (from Fodler and Search options in Explorer)