Notes from veteren XCOM player after his first UFOAI game

[pe9298]

Having moved over to Ubuntu, I was pleased to find an open source version of one of my favourite old games. I started with the simple scenario, normal difficulty and with the official 2.4 release.

I soon got that old feeling and greatly enjoyed the start of the game.

But after a while some small niggles appeared

- there were a couple of game freezes, KB and mouse dead, when I was in the battleground, both after I clicked for my next move. I am happy to provide logs, but which ones? (Excuse me if this is elsewhere on the site, I have not found i yet)
- I got to August and suddenly all research projects dried up. My scientists got very bored doing nothing.
- I fought about 50 battles, more than 40 were the same one, with a Harvester landing in an African village. (Most of these were triggered at midnight, so I also fought them in the dark, which was hard with the sun shining through my window). Since I had bases and radars scattered over the globe, I would have expected the aliens to be landing elsewhere than mostly Africa, in my case somewhere need Cairo.
- I got the impression that this simple scenario had just dried up, and had finished without a proper finale. Does anything else happen? Do UFOs appear? Do research projects appear? I can imagine that it s just a simple training scenario, but this needs to be in the description.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great game. The developers must be proud of what they have achieved. This should be in the Ubuntu software Center. If it gets there, you will have a flood of new players.

Many thanks for this great game.

[pe9298]

I just read the Topic: Official Debian release for UFO:AI

(There is just so much on these forums for a noobie to read)

It looks like the movement to Ubuntu software center is started.

:-)

[H-Hour]

Probably all of your complaints are gone or greatly improved in 2.5-dev. It's really a great milestone. Hopefully we'll get to a proper stable release soon.

[Battlescared]

I just want to add that in playing 2.5 I've been amazed at how few times I've played the same maps.  The number and variety of the new ones is great. 

I'm also surprised at having all the research done by August.  I've never gotten to a point like that, but maybe I'm not aggressive enough in research.

[H-Hour]

I'm also surprised at having all the research done by August.  I've never gotten to a point like that, but maybe I'm not aggressive enough in research.

When you say "all the research", do you mean you're waiting on something new to arrive to research? What kind of UFOs and weapons are you facing?

[Visitor]

When you say "all the research", do you mean you're waiting on something new to arrive to research? What kind of UFOs and weapons are you facing?

Given he states he never got to the point of having no available research topics, possibly because he's not aggresive enough in pursuing research, I'd assume he just means that he's surprised by OPs mention of no research available in August. I suspect it's just one of those things that was ironed out in current 2.5.

[pe9298]

Remember this is 2.4, and the simple game not the full one.
Yes the game seems to dry up.  No UFOs ever. And no research projects. Just more Alien landings and mostly these are the same battleground.
It's quite OK that the simple game is limited, but I feel there should be some sort of ending.
But I should try 2.5.

[Battlescared]

My current game is in November when I somewhat stopped playing.  But I'm researching Dragon Interceptors, have a few autopsies to do, I'm seeing the big green guys (forget the name), am still researching parts of the main story line, etc.

Maybe it's just the opposite of my assumption, maybe I'm more aggressive at keeping the story line going and researching parts so I've opened more of it up.  I can't see how he could have possibly got this far unless he just loaded up with scientists and labs.  I have two research labs going with 30 scientists total.  They are pretty much always busy.  It seems there was a time when I was close to having a gap in research topics, but it filled back up again.

Have you built ufo storage facilities and started researching ufos?

[pe9298]

I had 58 scientists for quite a while. Basically, whenever I had scientists available, I recruited them. Only when the available projects disappeared did I stop recruiting.

"Have you built ufo storage facilities and started researching ufos?".  No, since I have never seen a UFO in flight. Does this building release new options?

[pe9298]

I just checked with my game

"Have you built ufo storage facilities and started researching ufos?" - No UFO storage built because it is not available!

I should note I have captured 2 types of live alien (Taman and the tough one with the funny name) and researched them both. Should I try to capture more different aliens ?

[vedrit]

and the simple game not the full one.

Well, part of your problem is just as you have mentioned: It's the simple campaign. What did you expect?
Then again, I'm not even sure why there is a simple campaign.

[pe9298]

You are likely to be right.

But if a simple game is offered it should be explained and should have some sort of ending, if only something like

"Well done, you have proved yourself to be an able beginner, now try the full game!"

[H-Hour]

The "Simple Campaign" has been removed until it is more fully developed.

[Battlescared]

I had 58 scientists for quite a while. Basically, whenever I had scientists available, I recruited them. Only when the available projects disappeared did I stop recruiting.

"Have you built ufo storage facilities and started researching ufos?".  No, since I have never seen a UFO in flight. Does this building release new options?

Just to be sure, just because you recruited 58... did you actually have lab space for all of them?  A lab is pretty expensive, and allows 20 scientists to work.  58 scientists would need 3 labs.

But yeah, if you can't build ufo storage facilities in simple game mode, then you won't see a significant portion of the research tree.

[vedrit]

Just to be sure, just because you recruited 58... did you actually have lab space for all of them?  A lab is pretty expensive, and allows 20 scientists to work.  58 scientists would need 3 labs.

But yeah, if you can't build ufo storage facilities in simple game mode, then you won't see a significant portion of the research tree.

Last I played (Today, on the Sept. 8th build) labs (And workshops) only provide workspace for 10 employees