General > Discussion
New user, with a suggestion you've heard 100 times, and some feedback
damiac:
Hi Guys,
I just tried this game (version 2.5 release) over this weekend, and it's a lot of fun. Great job!
I have some feedback, it's a bit rambling but oh well:
1. Reaction Fire mechanics aren't very well explained in game. There's already a battlescape tutorial, perhaps a little more explanation on how RF works, how to choose a fire mode, etc would help. That picture on the forum with all the callouts to the various elements is really helpful, it'd be great if that could be integrated into the game.
2. UFO Types: I'm not great at remembering things just by a picture. I know my interceptors can shoot down some ships, but they're too weak for others. Unfortunately, if I haven't captured a ship yet, the game doesn't tell me what type it is, so the only way I can figure out to differentiate them is their top speed, which I think isn't unique to any given UFO. It'd be nice if the unknown UFO types had some kind of descriptor, even if it's just Large, medium, and small, so I can stop suiciding my interceptors on UFOs they can't possibly beat.
3. Maps & Cover: From reading here, I know it's a known problem, but I want to stress that some maps have just brutal layouts, where your troops are just standing out in the middle of a field with aliens around when you start the mission. Some maps just don't seem to have enough cover available. I know smoke grenades can help with that to a degree, but it would be nice if the maps were a bit more neutral, instead of favoring the aliens so much.
4. Battlescape Saving: I know, I know, it's a taboo, with good reasons, but hear me out. If you read on this forum how people play the game, and how slowly you have to play sometimes to be safe, it's not unheard of for people to say some missions, when played well, take upwards of 3-5 hours. Most people don't just have blocks of 3-5 hours to devote to a game, so their only choice is to either leave the program running, or to save it in a VM. However, there are plenty of roguelike games that prevent save scumming, yet still realize their players might not be able to finish the entire game in a sitting. That's why my proposal is that the battlescape should allow a "Save&Quit" function, and when you reload that save, the game would delete it. This prevents savescumming, while still allowing someone with limited time to fully enjoy this game, just like how most roguelikes do it.
That's all I have. I saved the best for last, really the ability to play out extended battlescape situations over multiple play sessions would be huge. I haven't seen this exact proposal before, so I thought it was at least worth throwing out there.
ShipIt:
--- Quote from: damiac on October 27, 2015, 05:37:28 pm ---...
3. Maps & Cover: From reading here, I know it's a known problem, but I want to stress that some maps [name the map(s) in question, attach a screenshot to illustrate] have just brutal layouts, where your troops are just standing out in the middle of a field with aliens around when you start the mission. Some maps [name the map(s) in question, attach a screenshot to illustrate] just don't seem to have enough cover available. I know smoke grenades can help with that to a degree, but it would be nice if the maps [put in the names, attach a screenshot to illustrate] were a bit more neutral, instead of favoring the aliens so much.
...
--- End quote ---
Just a suggestion.
anonymissimus:
--- Quote from: damiac on October 27, 2015, 05:37:28 pm ---4. Battlescape Saving: I know, I know, it's a taboo, with good reasons, but hear me out. If you read on this forum how people play the game, and how slowly you have to play sometimes to be safe, it's not unheard of for people to say some missions, when played well, take upwards of 3-5 hours. Most people don't just have blocks of 3-5 hours to devote to a game, so their only choice is to either leave the program running, or to save it in a VM. However, there are plenty of roguelike games that prevent save scumming, yet still realize their players might not be able to finish the entire game in a sitting. That's why my proposal is that the battlescape should allow a "Save&Quit" function, and when you reload that save, the game would delete it. This prevents savescumming, while still allowing someone with limited time to fully enjoy this game, just like how most roguelikes do it.
That's all I have. I saved the best for last, really the ability to play out extended battlescape situations over multiple play sessions would be huge. I haven't seen this exact proposal before, so I thought it was at least worth throwing out there.
--- End quote ---
This so-called taboo is garbage out of a bad reason and an easy excuse for not needing to implement and maintain battlescape saves. Something that's true for all parts of the code however. People will always find a way to cheat if they desire to anyway. In those roguelikes mentioned you just have to copy the savefile while the game is shut down and copy back after quit. In UFO:AI you can cheat in other ways already, such as saving immediately before playing a battle and retrying if it doesn't go well enough. Just in case the "retry" feature gets removed.
Moreover, the lack of battlescape saves make reproduction of battlescape bugs a nightmare and thus leads to instability.
Lastly, whenever maps are redone, they tend to grow larger than they had been. Thus the time needed to play maps has increased over the years. At some point UFO:AI becomes unplayable without battlescape saves. This was not thought of at the time this so-called taboo was instantiated I presume.
ShipIt:
--- Quote from: anonymissimus on October 28, 2015, 03:50:14 pm ---... an easy excuse for not needing to implement and maintain battlescape saves. ...
--- End quote ---
If this would actually be true, I would say we at least have an excuse.
And I would ask, what is yours?
anonymissimus:
--- Quote from: ShipIt on October 28, 2015, 04:20:43 pm ---And I would ask, what is yours?
--- End quote ---
Until recently the fact that UFO:AI could not be compiled with MSVC while I'm not quite used to developing on Linux. As of now, more the fact that I always lacked the hardware to compile big projects as fast as I want and probably the issue that I would need MSVC 2013 for UFO:AI, using hwoarangmy's recent work.
I'd be happy if it could be agreed upon that the taboo is bad and it would be nice to have battlescape saves anyway but we lack the time or whatever.
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