Messages

46

Design / UFO interceptions

« on: June 02, 2006, 01:51:03 pm »

Sounds good, but what if the pilot's craft is shot down? Does the pilot get a chance to survive, or is he lost forever? I assume the pilots will have an eject mechanism in their craft, but does the pilot always eject in time? What if a weak craft gets destroyed in one hit from an alien beam weapon? The pilot wouldn't have a chance.

For pilot ejection, it may be possible to add a value specific to the aircraft type, which would reflect the chance of survival of the pilot. This value could improve over time with better technology discovered, why not add new techs to the tech tree.

And we could go to a real far extent, with a shot down pilot that you have to save (Combat Search And Rescue missions) before the aliens capture it, if that sounds credible. Oh well, just a thought.

Malick

47

Design / Design: UFOs

« on: June 02, 2006, 01:47:11 pm »

I think implementing variants on the UFO classes should be relatively easy. It's just a matter of changing some numbers around, and perhaps adding or removing a weapon.

But keep in mind that we don't have meshes for all the UFOs as it is, and we can't really afford different meshes to reflect the modifications.

As it is, having a Destroyer Mk IV and Destroyer Mk I look exactly the same is ok. It's not one or two guns that are going to change anything on screen. And this will give the player some nasty surprises  :wink:

Malick

48

Design / Design: UFOs

« on: June 02, 2006, 01:28:52 pm »

They may be an advancing force with no production and retooling capabilities,just possessing supplies and recruits.And as such they would send what scouts they have as probes and/or cannon fodder/diversion.

Well, with the actual form of the story, I think it is pertinent to say that the alien's invading force has little to no mean of producing new ships. They are an expeditionary force by definition: limited number of assets that they have to manage.

On the other hand, it's not totally irealistic to say that they are able to modify some of their crafts on the field. Like, say, making their Scout a bit faster and maneuvering by removing armor plates or pumping up their reactors, giving their Destroyer more firepower but reducing their speed and so on. These modifications have always been done by units on the field (look at WW2) and I see no reason (other than a technical difficulty) that the antareans wouldn't be able to do so.

Malick

49

Design / UFO interceptions

« on: June 02, 2006, 01:17:39 pm »

Hi,

I like the idea of having pilots, that you assign to a specific aircraft and that have specific abilities that modify their aircraft's stats accordingly. This will give another level of immersion to the player, if it doesn't end up with too much micro management.

Why not apply the same system that already exists for soldiers: promotions, medals, wounds and heal times etc.. The pilots' abilities may be like:
Maneuver/Dogfight - how good is the pilot to place his aircraft in good position when pursuing an enemy
Precision - how good is the pilot at getting a successful shot at his target
Fuel Management - the pilot may know how to optimize his aircraft range
Speed - in the same fashion, he may know how to get the best out of his aircraft's propulsion system

Kills could be recorded, number of sorties, etc.. Pilots could be assigned to any kind of craft: dropships or fighters. Obviously, best pilots should have the best craft.

Malick

50

Design / Design: Storyline

« on: May 27, 2006, 01:17:43 pm »

Regarding the application of the Geneva Conventions, remember the Laconia incident during WW2. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident

"Now that it was apparent that the Americans would attack rescue missions under the Red Cross flag, Dönitz ordered that rescues were prohibited, survivors were to be left in the sea."

The german Kriegsmarine still applied some traditions : saving the lives of the crew of the boat they had just sank. And tradition is just what it is all about. After that event, forget your feelings, because the enemy does not seem to have any...

Malick

51

Design / Design: Storyline

« on: May 25, 2006, 06:54:53 pm »

(...) Of course, before the "gloves off" event, aliens can be captured alive, but scientists can't perform adequate research on them because of their POW rights. In terms of game effects, this means the alien research tree is not available prior to the event.

OK, that's what I wanted to know. Aliens can be captured, though unlikely, but they won't really be of use because of their "rights" as POW until this event. What I wouldn't like is being told that the war gets on another level, and that now I am allowed to take prisoners... It would seem to work the other way around.

Malick

52

Design / Design: Storyline

« on: May 25, 2006, 04:52:22 pm »

In combat situations, many aliens will be captured alive. The Geneva Conventions stipulate that all POW be treated fairly and given food and medication. Does this mean that prior to the "take the gloves off" event, these prisoners serve no purpose to Phalanx ? Or is Phalanx combat unit given the ability to capture live aliens only after the event ?

I'd rather say that the "Total War" doctrine gives little chance to take prisoners, in my opinion. So in the first stage of the "war", there would be a lot of prisoners, mainly foot soldiers. They will be well treated, but would give little to no intel as they wouldn't be fully interrogated. On the other hand, the latter stage of the war would allow a fewer number of prisoners, some units precisely targeted as being of some value by intelligence sevice, which would then be squeazed until they reveal whatever they know.

Malick

53

Design / Design: Storyline

« on: May 25, 2006, 02:31:42 pm »

I like the idea of "taking gloves off". It seems credible that after a certain amount of terrors and alien's actions, the governments of the world finaly give Phalanx full power to deal with the enemy. Now, war is total and all actions will be taken to prevail. This may in fact allow the player to research some techs, like:

Live aliens experiments : better knowledge of the alien organism and may allow to find new ways of killing them (see below).

Biological warfare : a gas is developed to be specifically efficient against aliens, can be used in grenades or modified flame thrower.

Active interrogation methods : better knowledge of their way of life (who cares ?  :twisted: ), better knowledge of their general intentions and plans.

Could be many more. This could be a major step in the story and the tech tree. Thinking of this, could there be a counter part, like, let's say a notable drop in recruits morale or something like this ? Or aliens become harder to capture alive, now that they are aware that they'll be tortured...

Malick

54

Design / Design: Storyline

« on: May 25, 2006, 11:30:31 am »

Hi !

Hey Altugi, I like some of your ideas, some I have to disagree. By the way, you seem to be quite productive

First: I am one that believes that an excellent story is actually more important than anything else. The next thing in order of priority is immersion and atmosphere. Once a game gets these two right, I can excuse any flaw or bug. In fact, a tactical mission has no reason to be if it doesn't fit into a particular story. It can be the most challenging, funny or anything, if it doesn't fit into a story, it's just another tactical mission.

I know that tac missions are important, and I think that's why the first dev team started by programming this aspect of the game. Because making challenging missions in a 3D map is a technical task. Everything else belongs to the setting and the immersion ! For example I would rather have an editable log for each soldier than a super realistic physics model for the game.

Without a strongly believable storyline and techtree, tac missions are just what their name tells. On the other hand, if the mission fits perfectly in the story line, we can have great fun with a very simplistic mission. Any one ever tried to capture an alien commander in UFO ? I may have tried a hundred times to intercept a big enough ship, risked my agents' lives, developed tactics, felt stupid when the alien tried to shoot his blaster next a wall... This felt right because I wanted to capture him alive, because I had to if I wanted to have intel on the enemy.

Next : I wanted to know, are weapon stats fixed in game ? I mean, can a weapon or any object stat be changed during the game by a specific event (like a technology) without using a new model ? This could prove useful, like for the medikits for example.

"Recent firefights with the enemy left us with many wounded and killed operatives. After a study of last month causes of death by enemy fire, it has been decided to improve our operatives' medical abilities on the field. The medikits in dotation have been upgraded to a new standard, better reflecting the actual threats encountered during battle, giving better chances of survival for wounded soldiers."

Malick

55

Design / Names

« on: May 11, 2006, 03:16:16 pm »

Ok, I'll add some arabic names, not that much though. If I ever made a mistake, I'd be glad to know, we learn something every day !

names arabic
{
   female
   {
   Fareeda
   Fathia
   Fatima
   Aaliya
   Abia
   Meira
   Rasha
   Naiya
   Nadia
   Natara
   Hanna
   Essa
   Isa
   Amal
   Emel
   Ayar
   Badieh
   Dabab
   Damaa
   Ebra
   }
   
   male
   {
   Ali
   Kader
   Seif
   Tarik
   Aziz
   Mustaffa
   Abdel-Kader
   Abdul-Matin
   Abdul-Majid
   Abdul-Jalil
   Adham
   Dabrir
   Fakhir
   Farran
   Abdullah
   Abdalrahman
   Adish
   Ahmad
   Jassir
   Mahmoud
   Manuosh
   Rafi
   Namir
   Hasan
   Ahmed
   }

   lastname
   {
   "al Masri"
   Khaleq
   "Abu Rajab"
   "al Ghadban"
   "Jabr Solagh"
   "al Din"
   "al Hashimi"
   Mubarak
   Hassan
   Assar
   Hussein
   "al Hussein"
   Arafat
   Nasser
   Jabir
   Rasheed
   Sharif
   Sulaiman
   Zahar
   Bouzid
   Haqzouk
   "Reza Shebani"
   Ahmadi
   }
}

With all these names, this is gonna be quite a list ! ^^

Malick

BTW, I just read that Malick in arab means King. Now I know why I chose this nickname !

56

Design / Names

« on: May 10, 2006, 06:43:57 pm »

If I may shed some light on Killertomato's list for Hoehrer:

These are mostly italian names, in my opinion:

Stefanie
Sandra
Ilona
Martina
Lorena
Bianca
Carmella

These are mostly french:

Isabelle
Catherine
Anette
Christine

These can be found in many "western" or european countries:

Julia
Alexandra

And the last one is mostly japanese, I believe.

Kyomi

EDIT:  I know the country tag isn't shown anywhere, it was just to point it out.  

Malick

57

Design / Names

« on: May 10, 2006, 06:17:40 pm »

I guess the more the merrier !

Keep 'em coming if you have some more UFO:AI won't be hurt by some variety...

Malick

58

Design / Design: Equipment

« on: May 10, 2006, 04:04:41 pm »

Hmmmm, ok, you got a point there cause that's what I would do. Didn't even think of how I would play it...

Malick

59

Design / Names

« on: May 10, 2006, 03:59:04 pm »

Hehe ok But we may call that list Canadian-French, cause no girl here has been called Evette for at least 200 years, same thing with last names ! Funny thing anyway ^^

Malick

60

Discussion / error on startup

« on: May 10, 2006, 03:44:22 pm »

Na, I got them... There's always a Windows mistery somewhere behind a problem.

EDIT: After deleting and reinstalling, I get an error message:
could not find font: f_small

Malick