General > Discussion
An Open Letter to the Developers
letsdance:
--- Quote ---Hello and thanks for taking the time to read this. Thanks for making this game on your own time and resources. While I would like nothing more than to claim that I registered to thank and praise, I have to admit I want to humbly submit some criticisms. I'm just a gamer, nobody important, and much of what I say below are simply my personal opinions, not truths. So you are welcome to take what I said with a grain of salt or ignore them entirely. Discussion of differences is a healthy part of any community and I hope you all understand that regardless of the level of criticism, I will do you no wrong and hope you continual successes in the future.
--- End quote ---
i can only second this. i am only posting improvement suggestions for good games. othere are simply not worth it.
i've been watching this project with great interest for a long time. i also try to play it every now and then, but i never keep playing much longer than the end of the first month, because the interface is so cumbersome. i loved xcom and i am grateful for every remake. but maybe you could put a little higher priority to make playing the game easier. i'm not talking about the difficulty level, i am just talking about the interface. some of my issues may already be solved, but i couldn't find information for such hotkey or similar. my last try just ended (version 2.4, around may 16th game time, was fed up with aircraft management and air combat). ok, so here it goes:
better highlight active soldier in battlescape - i often moved the wrong one
"next soldier" hotkey in battlescape and an option to set a soldiers turn finished (so he won't turn up again when i hit next soldier)
hotkey to deactive reserved time units for active soldier, or let me use the action that the units have been reserved for, without cancelling the reservation first
show grid in battlescape, i often moved to the wrong space
Show the movement path that my soldier will take before i click
add soldier information (stats etc) in ufopaedia. i would like to read up there, how movement points are calculated for example.
add melee weapon (knife etc) stats in ufopaedia
add aircraft stats in ufopaedia
option to quickly launch an aircraft for a patrol mission (suggestion: right click on base)
a button to access my soldiers inventory from soldiers menu (something like this is planned i think)
remove the repair aircraft cheat. it's alot faster to unmount everything, sell and rebuy the aircraft (suggest to make price depending on aircraft health at least, and remove sold aircrafts completely). this is an interface issue for me, because it is like a fast repair option, that requires many clicks. alternatively speed up ship repair speed by ALOT or add a single click cheat button.
show aircraft health when i can select one for a Mission, and also in the message about won air combats.
show me how the air fight went. i just see "lost a battle" but i have no clue why or how i lost it. this makes fitting aircrafts very frustrating because i have no clue how the air combat goes.
take me to the proper screen when i click a message (for example when i click a research finished message, take me to the lab, when i click a lost combat message, take me to the battle site etc)
some non-interface issues:
it would also be good to add a shipping time when buying anything, like xcom
pricing issues for crafted items have already been discussed and are worked on in 2.5, as far as i read
medikits can heal soldiers quite easily, but when i leave them wounded in combat they take forever to heal (i think also already being worked on in 2.5)
somewhere i read that aircraft armor has unfixable serious balancing issues. why not just take it out instead of letting us waste time with it?
Battlescared:
Some of this I agree with, some I think you just need to learn how the game works. I've played ufoai a lot more and eventually, the interface gets more natural.
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---better highlight active soldier in battlescape - i often moved the wrong one
Show the movement path that my soldier will take before i click
show grid in battlescape, i often moved to the wrong space
--- End quote ---
These three seem related. This happens to me once in a while too, but usually it's because my computer is a little slow and the fps gets a bit low, and also because I've zoomed into a new char and think I have him selected, but the guy I really have selected is not visible. That's my error though. Your suggestion about seeing the tracks of soldiers would help with this, and there is a way to see it in game, but I only see it when I'm waiting my turn. We both may need a little info on this.
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---add soldier information (stats etc) in ufopaedia. i would like to read up there, how movement points are calculated for example.
--- End quote ---
This is in 2.5.
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---option to quickly launch an aircraft for a patrol mission (suggestion: right click on base)
--- End quote ---
Agree. Launching a craft is a bit cumbersome right now, unless I'm missing something.
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---remove the repair aircraft cheat. it's alot faster to unmount everything, sell and rebuy the aircraft (suggest to make price depending on aircraft health at least, and remove sold aircrafts completely). this is an interface issue for me, because it is like a fast repair option, that requires many clicks. alternatively speed up ship repair speed by ALOT or add a single click cheat button.
--- End quote ---
You don't have to cheat, you know. They repair fast enough. You can also just let the UFO go and get it later.
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---show aircraft health when i can select one for a Mission, and also in the message about won air combats.
show me how the air fight went. i just see "lost a battle" but i have no clue why or how i lost it. this makes fitting aircrafts very frustrating because i have no clue how the air combat goes.
--- End quote ---
Hit the slowest speed button just before you engage, 5 seconds I think. Then you can watch it in painful detail. I usually watch on the 5 minutes setting and I can tell what's going on. If you watch it any faster than that, yeah, you'll just see the end result without knowing what happened.
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---take me to the proper screen when i click a message (for example when i click a research finished message, take me to the lab, when i click a lost combat message, take me to the battle site etc)
it would also be good to add a shipping time when buying anything, like xcom
--- End quote ---
Sounds like good suggestions.
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---medikits can heal soldiers quite easily, but when i leave them wounded in combat they take forever to heal (i think also already being worked on in 2.5)
--- End quote ---
2.5 changes med kits and healing dramatically. I like the new system better, though some will find it makes battle a too tough.
DarkRain:
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---hotkey to deactive reserved time units for active soldier, or let me use the action that the units have been reserved for, without cancelling the reservation first
--- End quote ---
You can deactivate reaction fire with [X], other actions should use reserved TU correctly. Note that I'm talking about 2.5-dev
--- Quote ---Show the movement path that my soldier will take before i click
--- End quote ---
Options -> Gameplay -> Confirm Actions -> Moving Only (Setting Yes will ask you to confirm when shooting as well as moving)
--- Quote ---a button to access my soldiers inventory from soldiers menu (something like this is planned i think)
--- End quote ---
In 2.5 you can equip your soldiers from the employees menu.
--- Quote ---it would also be good to add a shipping time when buying anything, like xcom
--- End quote ---
Planned, but I don't think it will make into 2.5.
In fact it is planned to redo the whole UI, but this has been postponed, so it won't happen until 2.6 or later.
H-Hour:
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---pricing issues for crafted items have already been discussed and are worked on in 2.5, as far as i read
--- End quote ---
If you're looking for a production economy, 2.5's changes are probably not what you expect. You still won't be able to produce regular items and then sell them for profit. But disassembling UFOs (and selling the parts) will net you a small profit, so maintaining a large number of workers can now be "cost-efficient".
--- Quote from: letsdance on August 04, 2013, 05:06:26 pm ---somewhere i read that aircraft armor has unfixable serious balancing issues. why not just take it out instead of letting us waste time with it?
--- End quote ---
You may have read me complaining somewhere about armour-piercing rounds. Armour itself has no balancing issues and I equip all the craft I can afford to equip with armour. However, in the backend code all weapons treat armour just like "extra HP", so there is no difference, for example, between the regular Shiva rounds and the amour-piercing Shiva rounds in terms of how they impact different UFOs. These two ammo types are the only ones directly affected by this at the moment. It's a mechanic with room for improvement in the future, but I'd agree that the confusion and lack of feedback you identified with air combat should take precedence.
Sandro:
That could be a call for DT/DR system, as in Fallout series :)
Simple and works pretty good.
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