Technical support > Feature Requests

Allow to manually land the transport on geoscape

<< < (2/4) > >>

ShipIt:
When time advances, aliens will upgrade their equipment. This should enforce the player to research, develop and deploy better equipment, too. If he does not do that, or even if he is not fast enough in doing that, he will lose the game. This is how the game mechanics should work.

This suggestion contradicts that by helping the player to work around this mechanics. Instead of using faster dropships, or guarding his dropships with advanced fighters, he can simply escape by emergency landing and winning his soldiers back in a battlescape mission.

An unguarded Firebird getting hit by a Gunboat out of nowhere without a chance to escape is not unfair imo. It´s just what happens when the player is still using the starting equipment, whilst the aliens already did upgrade theirs twice. In other words - What do you think your chances are with just a knife in a gunfight?

Oc, not all of the game mechanics are implemented properly (or at all) yet. E.g. we are missing the Hyperion Armed Dropship, and there is no option to let fighters auto-guard a dropship.

Rodmar:

--- Quote from: ShipIt on May 29, 2015, 07:38:36 am ---An unguarded Firebird getting hit by a Gunboat out of nowhere without a chance to escape is not unfair imo. It´s just what happens when the player is still using the starting equipment, whilst the aliens already did upgrade theirs twice. In other words - What do you think your chances are with just a knife in a gunfight?

Oc, not all of the game mechanics are implemented properly (or at all) yet. E.g. we are missing the Hyperion Armed Dropship, and there is no option to let fighters auto-guard a dropship.

--- End quote ---
I'd like to make a late comment. I lost myself a Firebird to a Corrupter. It was my Beta team toward an easy mission.

Spoiler: As it was a trans-continental mission and should the Corrupter's mission have been an interception, the transport was doomed the moment when the Corrupter was detected thousands of kilometers ahead (before flying out of radar coverage). But as I didn't realize that the routes were crossing (so far away: Baltic Sea - Bering Straits; mission in Ural), I let the transport pass the point of non return, and despite I had saved prior to the ground mission (i.e. too late), whatever the direction I would flee in, the Corrupter would appear again when detected by the Firebird, and start chasing it.

In another XCOM game, Xenonauts, transports are attacked too, and pretty soon. You escort them. Is there a difference? Maybe. I don't remember the relative aircraft speeds, but :


* the sense of danger is more present (tragic events pop up on the Geoscape on each day: Earth is under attack);
* cargo crafts may be attacked, and you probably already lost one cargo with some weapons inside (cargo are AI unarmed aircrafts that fly from base to base when you order a transfer);
* as such, you get accustomed to escort valuable cargo;
but most importantly


* thanks to a tactical aerial fight mini-game, you soon get used to deal with bigger UFO. The UFO sometimes fly in squadrons (mostly the fighters), and you have to launch squadrons at them. Escorting a transport is then more natural. Even the Harvester-equivalent can be dealt with 3 starting or poorly upgraded aircraft (1 fast Sarrasin-like with long range Sparrow-like missiles that unload them all to severely soften the UFO if lucky, and mainly to "draw aggro" before acting as a bait, and 2 Stiletto-like that manage to maneuver and pin down the UFO from behind with SR missiles and SHIVA-like; when the big UFO is escorted, you may need a fourth aircraft and deal with the escort before). Also, dogfight is important as the bigger, the less nimble UFO.
In UFO:AI, it's true we are not so urged to research PBW and new fighters, until the very first Corrupter appears (and even then, they could be dealt the same way the Harvester still are at this time: let's wait for them to land, or build a SAM network and lure them into it if you're faster). In 2.4 on normal, the Starchaser could be skipped (to save resources), and when the last interceptor would be build, now the Harvesters and Corrupters may now be taken down quite easely.
It's frustrating that the first or second time you spot a Corrupter, it's when it targets a transport.

That said, it's true that I had postponed the 2-tier transport (not build already by Ortnok and needler times) because I was waiting for my second factory base (the first one is to dismantle the UFO), and chiefly, because a 8-men team is enough to deal with Harvester and Fighter missions (until alien last tier equipment). I'd became lazy...


Suggestions (if not already implemented) :


* Soften the learning curve by
- adding more alien patrol (1 or 2 fighters) that will target lone PHALANX fighters at first;
- ensuring that no transport is targeted by an alien retaliatory mission before a fighter is (a fighter only cost 50 kc, 1-2 Harvester missions in playing time, whereas a full transport cost probably thrice, plus several in-game month);
- having Col. Falkland send a memo to warn the uncaring base commander (if at a given alien interest, research X, Y are not researched, and craft/weapon Z is not in base inventory).
* Allow emergency landing and subsequent SAR missions, as suggested above, but know that it can be easily quite bloody (for instance, put 16 civilians on the map, and kill one rescued PHALANX soldier for every 2 civilians killed during the SAR mission, also, the first transport is considered to have crashed (the alien ship landed on the spot to finish it), or devise another, more imaginative, specific SAR mission (kill X% at crashing/landing time, kill Y%/hour if SAR is delayed, ...).

tembero:
I think the issue with the alien ship is a valid one but the solution I believe could resolve far less technically. I have been treated to the dramatic theatre of "XCOM - Enemy Unknown" by Firaxis and I believe herein lies the answer. Throughout said game you get prompted into dialogue with scientists, engineers and Tactical Advisors and it is made ever-so-clear that the aliens are dominant on the globe outside of the XCOM facility. Not that the aliens intercept your craft in that game, yet you would not be surprised if they did.

I think a little more atmosphere upon the geoscape would raise the level of expectation of the aliens intent/attention, maybe Orsen Wells "red weed" making it's way across the landscape. Or If you try to send a skyranger 1,000's of miles a tactical advisor could pop up and suggest and interceptor escort or sing 'no Nathanual no'.
 

fireday:
i think it is real idea
and - game have one troubles - lack of independent airports

in tip of the day - "to intercept fast UFOs - run interceptors from different angles"
but there only one option to start airplane - base

i see two solutions:
- make airbase on geoscape (like air defenses station)
- make allow to manually land the airships (transport) on geoscape

sry for my eng

geever:

--- Quote from: anatoliy on May 26, 2015, 11:51:09 pm ---Dear developers,

First, thanks a lot for the game! It gave me a lot of good time to remember. // This was enough fun for two thankful posts)

Once upon a time a Gunboat destroyed my Heracles with the best troops and gear. That was sad but logical and somewhat inevitable consequence of enemy's air superiority. After that I bought a Firebird, waited for the Gunboat to disappear and sent it on the mission. It was intercepted too but left a "Firebird-crash" mission. The question is: why not allow the player to manually land transports, leading to the same rescue mission? It's logical thing to do, relives the frustration and the relevant mechanic is already implemented.

--- End quote ---

The UFO could just shoot a few AM rockets and blow up your people on the ground...

-geever

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page