UFO:Alien Invasion

General => Tactics => Topic started by: quip on October 22, 2007, 08:20:51 pm

Title: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: quip on October 22, 2007, 08:20:51 pm
Yes, I know this is pretty weenie.  But I have a terrible time doing those night missions - its so dark!

So, instead of clicking on the mission and then choosing an aircraft, I just:

1) Start my aircraft.
2)  Fly it near the mission.
3)  Wait for daylight
4) Do the mission.

For other newbies, this will help you avoid them.  But at some point, I guess you should try to play the night missions too.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Micky on December 27, 2007, 06:03:46 pm
Yes, I know this is pretty weenie.  But I have a terrible time doing those night missions - its so dark!
[...]

... it may be easier to "turn-on" the lights:
Options > Video > Move "Gamma" slider  ;D
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Dogbarian on January 25, 2008, 05:46:39 pm
New guy here (just read some news about a Mac version being posted).

Related to the night missions here, do the IR goggles work yet?  If so, what effect should I get?  Pressing the button to use them from the main tactical interface seems to do nothing.  Or should I log this as a bug?
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Sarkus on February 01, 2008, 10:00:48 pm
New guy here (just read some news about a Mac version being posted).

Related to the night missions here, do the IR goggles work yet?  If so, what effect should I get?  Pressing the button to use them from the main tactical interface seems to do nothing.  Or should I log this as a bug?

IR goggles don't work.

I haven't really had an issue with the night missions.  I just turn up the gamma so I can see well enough.  I assume the game is factoring darkness into my soldier's ability to see and hit aliens, but some things I've read suggest that isn't the case and the darkness is just for appearance right now.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: vvb on February 02, 2008, 08:13:14 am
About a half year ago I've wrote following:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=1569.0 (http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=1569.0)
I think THIS will be good.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: shevegen on February 21, 2008, 01:33:22 am
Maybe there could be more light-effects in general?
I dont know ... spaceship could give more light... battle suits... maybe some weapons...
maybe exploding grenades could give a little bit light for a few rounds... etc
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Silveressa on February 21, 2008, 03:48:15 am
I'd like to see a couple things, done to make night More interesting:

#1: At night a light attachment on the ends of guns to give a cone of brighter light as you move (provided the game engine can handle this) and if using IR goggles and a plasma blast passes within 3-4 squares near you it blinds you for a round like a flash gren would (plasma is supposed to be as hot as the sun and probably just as bright)

#2 a skill for the soldiers called "night fighting," with the higher the skill the lower the penalties to fight in the dark (and even a bonus at higher levels). This would make it more advantageous to fight at night as opposed to the day time in some situations.


Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: swanwarrior on March 02, 2008, 01:20:37 pm
The last suggestion is cool... reminds me of Jagged Alliance 2, where mercenaries had the ability to fight better at night than others, and it came really handy.

I like the cone of light too, good visual effect mostly.

And using IR goggles near an explosion of plasma, well.... that would surely overload them for a while, and make them useless for a round or two.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Judge on May 13, 2008, 01:36:30 am
Another method to avoiding night missions, is just clicking cancel when the mission arrives. The ship will stay at the mission, wait until it's sunny, then double click the mission, and select to send the aircraft that's allready right on the mission.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: ponkan on May 13, 2008, 10:43:10 am
#2 a skill for the soldiers called "night fighting," with the higher the skill the lower the penalties to fight in the dark (and even a bonus at higher levels). This would make it more advantageous to fight at night as opposed to the day time in some situations.

A human soldier should never fight better at night than during the daytime, at least on an absolute scale. They could have a significantly higher night fighting skill (if implemented) than their enemies, which would make them fight better at night in a relative sense. In other words, they'd fight worse anytime it's night, but might have better chances to survive/win the encounter at night because they have the better night fighting skills.

Personally, I think night missions are part of the game, and I play them when they come up. It would be nice to be able to see something though, using either a personal circle of light ala X-Com, or flashlight as has been suggested, but since lighting in maps is pre-rendered, I won't be holding my breath on this.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Silveressa on May 13, 2008, 11:06:15 am
Good point on the penalty ratio, although the aliens should have a significant penalty as well when fighting at night too, since otherwise there's really no tactical advantage to fighting at night.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Captain Bipto on May 14, 2008, 01:59:37 am
Man I hate night missions, they are too scary for me.  Eww the Mine map at night is terrible,  let the civvies die, my men need sunlight! :-[
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Nevasith on May 17, 2008, 06:42:48 pm
hate night missions. My men are trained and armed well enough to deal with the night mission, but my eyes are not. Gamma looks terrible, so the only reasonable solution is to wait until the morning.
VVB:
You like the night missions- start them as you ship arrives. Personally i dislike them, not because there are some penalties for accuracy(if there are any), but its a real pain to look at the dark screen and think what is that thing in the shadow, or which shadow is actually an open door.
If anyone ever comes to an idea of forcing night missions a way to disable them is a must as long, as there is no way to improve the vision.
As a player my task is to think about tactic, not to strain my eyes.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Captain Bipto on May 19, 2008, 11:22:20 am
I think it was in 2.2 (maybe 2.3, happened many beers ago) not sure but one time during a night mission I killed a civvie cos he showed up on my alien seen counter...sneaky devs.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: DanielOR on May 19, 2008, 08:30:03 pm
Cpt. Bipto - no way!  you sure it was not a miss that hit a friendly that was standing next to an alien (dead man then, anyway)?  If the devs messed with target descrimination - mad props!
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Captain Bipto on May 20, 2008, 07:56:36 am
Cpt. Bipto - no way!  you sure it was not a miss that hit a friendly that was standing next to an alien (dead man then, anyway)?  If the devs messed with target descrimination - mad props!

Naw I am sure there was not alien nearby cos the counter dropped.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Aiki-Knight on May 31, 2008, 08:07:19 am
I'd like to see a couple things, done to make night More interesting:

#1: At night a light attachment on the ends of guns to give a cone of brighter light as you move (provided the game engine can handle this) and if using IR goggles and a plasma blast passes within 3-4 squares near you it blinds you for a round like a flash gren would (plasma is supposed to be as hot as the sun and probably just as bright)

I disagree with this. You don't go into night combat with a nice bright light on the end of your weapon, telling your enemy exactly where you are. The light could never illuminate enemies as far away as they could see the light. You'd only be giving them a target to shoot at. Better to let humans' natural night vision kick in after a few minutes than have agents go running around with bright targets showing the aliens where to shoot. Having the lights would seem like a good idea, except that it does more harm than good in night-fighting. The trick is to see in the dark without being seen.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Doctor J on June 01, 2008, 12:04:56 am
Despite gallant notions of adapting to conditions, a surprising number of friendly fire incidents happen when somebody pulls the trigger w/o being absolutely sure what their barrel is pointing at.  That is why SWAT teams have tactical flashlights mounted on their guns.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Silveressa on June 01, 2008, 01:27:22 am
If one wanted to get suitably high tech, one could use infrared flashlights (which are invisible to normal human vision) then supplement said soldiers with infrared sensitive goggles thus giving them  a clear tactical advantage. (.vs humans anyway, what spectrum of light the aliens see in is another matter entirely.)
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Winter on June 01, 2008, 02:03:07 am
If one wanted to get suitably high tech, one could use infrared flashlights (which are invisible to normal human vision) then supplement said soldiers with infrared sensitive goggles thus giving them  a clear tactical advantage. (.vs humans anyway, what spectrum of light the aliens see in is another matter entirely.)

Too fiddly. It's one of the main features of Shevaar that they have fine infrared vision, and the Ortnoks too have limited infrared sight.

Regards,
Winter
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: DanielOR on June 01, 2008, 10:11:00 am
G-D I hate night missions...did in X-COM, still do here...I am solidly in the "hover and wait for daybreak" camp. 
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Darkpriest667 on June 01, 2008, 03:32:59 pm
G-D I hate night missions...did in X-COM, still do here...I am solidly in the "hover and wait for daybreak" camp. 

Daniel I am also part of the wait for daybreak camp.... Night missions =  more casualties civilian and team.. I'm not willing to do that :D
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Aiki-Knight on June 04, 2008, 08:34:32 am
Despite gallant notions of adapting to conditions, a surprising number of friendly fire incidents happen when somebody pulls the trigger w/o being absolutely sure what their barrel is pointing at.  That is why SWAT teams have tactical flashlights mounted on their guns.

What SWAT does against drug dealers is one thing. What a trained military force would do to flashlight-wielders at night is another. Flashlights could be needed in some cases, but on a large battlefield, it's exactly an invitation to get shot by anyone with a rifle. There's nothing gallant about it. I'd rather see the game get the IR goggles working, since that would likely require as much coding as a mutable light source on the end of a rifle.
Title: Re: How to Avoid Night Missions
Post by: Falion on June 07, 2008, 09:19:02 pm
Indeed, having a light source at the end of a firearm...just makes you a target. Consider an enemy hiding behind cover somewhere...watching for some intruder into his area. Here comes this light bouncing around all over the area...not exactly covert by any means...and a good invitation to getting shot is all it really is.