UFO:Alien Invasion

Technical support => Feature Requests => Topic started by: White_Cat on August 30, 2009, 02:12:28 am

Title: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: White_Cat on August 30, 2009, 02:12:28 am
Spoiler warning! Plenty of plot details below...

Okay since the first time I played TFTD I always wodered what happened to the technology from the first war... Sure surface weapons don't work well underwater... And you research plasma weapons to derive gauss weapons... But what happened to the flying suits, hover tanks, small launchers and other goodies that only work above ground (like in those terror missions)? I always wanted X-Com 1 and 2 to be one game. There had been things I always wanted to do... For example if I were to shoot down a ufo over the sea it would get destroyed... It was lame when you couldn't shoot down usos when they were above water (what happened to the avenger from xcom1?). However if I have the subs to go to that crash site I should be able to recover some of the stuff... Air breathing aliens that can't breath underwater would die of course (just as underwater aliens would die above ground)... You get the idea... XCOM1 & 2 always looked... rather alike...

So... based on the above rationale...

I think it might be nice if the game makes use of "seas" for future combat. The technology to fight under water would of course have to be researched... It never made sense in TFTD that you start with all the high tech subs to shoot down USOs... Of course all this is a thought exercise at this point. I am not sure myself if this really is a good idea. I can see why people (particularly programmers) would oppose this. It would be a nightmare to code the new underwater physics...

The game in its current form is far from being complete... The game itself is developing unique ideas such as that infestation feature... People are already talking about stuff like "Cure virus missions + injection-gun"... Something I am looking forward to... :)

I personally do not quite want this game to conclude... Once its over... It's over... :(
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Destructavator on August 30, 2009, 03:10:27 am
I recall underwater missions being mentioned before, and I'm sorry to say that in the past when such an idea was brought up it was rejected or decided to be very unlikely to happen, sorry.

Yes, the game is incomplete, we haven't gotten through the whole planned plot yet.
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: White_Cat on August 30, 2009, 05:48:16 am
I recall underwater missions being mentioned before, and I'm sorry to say that in the past when such an idea was brought up it was rejected or decided to be very unlikely to happen, sorry.

Yes, the game is incomplete, we haven't gotten through the whole planned plot yet.

What I propose is a possible and very distant goal. Probably nothing to worry about for years to come... Like I said this is intended as a thought exercise at this point.

I'd be interested in reading this past discussion...
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: geever on August 30, 2009, 09:24:00 am
Just to clarify: this is not a sequel of XCOM games. We cannot - but don't want either - put in weapons from XCOM due to copyright reasons.

-geever
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Thyranim on August 30, 2009, 12:33:11 pm
same was for me. i loved xcom1 and i also loved xcom2 ... an xcom 2 1/2 or something similar would have been great, so that there is both :D
but it never happend :(

i don't think that the thread was started to say, that all of the xcom-features and equipment should be copied in this UOF:AI game...

i understand it so, as a creative director so that this game does not only fight on ground as xcom1 but also does fight under water as xcom2... without copying anything as there is not copied anything before, there doesn not have to be copied anything in the future ;)

but the question stays, if there is a slight possibility for the latergame to have both: fight on ground and fight under water

i believe that there are enough people who are willing to be creative to get names and texts for the equipment if necessary so we don't have to get in any copyright-trouble ;)
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Gunner on August 30, 2009, 02:00:58 pm
Spoiler warning! Plenty of plot details below...

Okay since the first time I played TFTD I always wodered what happened to the technology from the first war... Sure surface weapons don't work well underwater... And you research plasma weapons to derive gauss weapons... But what happened to the flying suits, hover tanks, small launchers and other goodies that only work above ground (like in those terror missions)? I always wanted X-Com 1 and 2 to be one game. There had been things I always wanted to do... For example if I were to shoot down a ufo over the sea it would get destroyed... It was lame when you couldn't shoot down usos when they were above water (what happened to the avenger from xcom1?). However if I have the subs to go to that crash site I should be able to recover some of the stuff... Air breathing aliens that can't breath underwater would die of course (just as underwater aliens would die above ground)... You get the idea... XCOM1 & 2 always looked... rather alike...

most of the advanced alien weapons were based on Elerium 115, and with humans being unable to duplicate this substance until X-Com Interceptor then humans are force to fall back on human tech. that means no blaster bombs no plasmas and no stun bombs
with all stockpiles of Elerium devoted to the development of space flight.

also the stroy line indecates that the goverments of earth had decided that the aliens weren't going to bother us again so scrapped XCom leaving them running as little more than a UN R&D group. until the alien threat returns and they have to scramble to rebuild XCom into a force that can defend humanity again.

as for being hard to code you would probably just have to massively increase the gravity modifier for throwing (to simulate the waters resistance to the thrown objects) or just dump them entirely, otherwise the physics could be left fairly unchanged. which is probably why XCom2 is set underwater
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: White_Cat on August 30, 2009, 06:10:45 pm
most of the advanced alien weapons were based on Elerium 115, and with humans being unable to duplicate this substance until X-Com Interceptor then humans are force to fall back on human tech. that means no blaster bombs no plasmas and no stun bombs
with all stockpiles of Elerium devoted to the development of space flight.

also the stroy line indecates that the goverments of earth had decided that the aliens weren't going to bother us again so scrapped XCom leaving them running as little more than a UN R&D group. until the alien threat returns and they have to scramble to rebuild XCom into a force that can defend humanity again.

as for being hard to code you would probably just have to massively increase the gravity modifier for throwing (to simulate the waters resistance to the thrown objects) or just dump them entirely, otherwise the physics could be left fairly unchanged. which is probably why XCom2 is set underwater

That story you mentioned could work for xcom2 (after all there was something like 5 decades between the two wars). It doesn't explain why humans didn't mine elerium from mars as they did in xcom apocalypse. It doesn't explain why laser weapons dont exist in xcom2. Even if they scraped XCom completely, doesn't explain nothing is discovered in the 50 years. Doesn't make sense for under water weapons to be developed like those heavy under warer weapons. What do they need those for? Fishing? I do not want a copy of xcom-2 in UFO:AI. I already mentioned plenty of flaws of XCom2 and I wasn't even trying...

But taking UFO:AI war underwater as a later plot twist in the long run could be fun... :)

Coding wise you'd have to establish which weapon to use underwater and which ones not. We already have a coil/rail/needle gun which operate like gauss weapons.
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Gunner on August 30, 2009, 06:37:59 pm
lasers are degraded by the density of the material they are passing through so a laser would be almost unusable under water.

as for why they didn't mine it they hadn't found the alien stockpile until the apocalypse time frame

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elerium-115 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elerium-115)
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: White_Cat on August 31, 2009, 12:43:14 am
lasers are degraded by the density of the material they are passing through so a laser would be almost unusable under water.

as for why they didn't mine it they hadn't found the alien stockpile until the apocalypse time frame

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elerium-115 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elerium-115)

Right but what about during above ground missions? Like when ships or shore installations are attacked? Lasers would sure have helped...

All I am saying is even alien alloys would be of use... There isn't even a trace of the first war in xcom2. I always saw that as an illogical gap. No background story will change any of this... Xcom2 was a cheap replica of the first game with research tree dumped into a blender...

What I propose here is not the rehash of xcom2. What I propose is underwater battles in UFO:AI...
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Gunner on August 31, 2009, 02:47:52 am
they would have but honestly they where over powered for the first game. the lack of ammo just made it too powerful and the gauss was a good replacement
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: White_Cat on August 31, 2009, 06:13:57 am
they would have but honestly they where over powered for the first game. the lack of ammo just made it too powerful and the gauss was a good replacement

I am not talking about game balance issues. What I mean is the second game proceeded as if the first one never happened... No item from game 1 made it to game 2... There were similar/identical items for sure but you didn't have anything from the past game...
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Kildor on August 31, 2009, 07:36:18 am
Sorry, but what`s request do you do? UFO:AI have nothing common with other UFO:* or X-Com * games. It have its own world, own universe and so on. And no, we wouldn`t, (and aren`t able) move our setting to any other world.
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: White_Cat on August 31, 2009, 07:59:50 am
Sorry, but what`s request do you do? UFO:AI have nothing common with other UFO:* or X-Com * games. It have its own world, own universe and so on. And no, we wouldn`t, (and aren`t able) move our setting to any other world.

Like I stated above... What I propose is as UFO:AI progresses we should have the ability to fight under-water.

Conceptually UFO:AI currently follows the gameplay of Xcom1 (you shoot ufos, kill aliens, research, and other above ground activity). What I propose is as game progresses we should have underwater fights as well as above ground ones. Currently game ends after you destroy an alien base... I do not believe that is the planned ending. It is merely how far this project progressed...

Research would unlock under water bases (which you need to construct on your own)... I think 8 above ground bases and 8 underground bases would do the trick... Research would unlock under water weapons... You could shoot down a USO (Unidentified Swimming Object) above ground to capture it to research it I suppose...

What I basically propose is additional under water missions. This would become available just as you are done researching most of the above ground technologies...
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Imposeren on August 31, 2009, 08:38:32 am
lasers are degraded by the density of the material they are passing through so a laser would be almost unusable under water.
Can't they just use other frequency for laser, for example UV which(i'm not sure) passes through water
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: White_Cat on August 31, 2009, 09:21:00 am
Can't they just use other frequency for laser, for example UV which(i'm not sure) passes through water

They don't need to... They can use it as is above ground :)

Lasers won't work well under water. Lasers are heat based weapons. Heat dissipates fast under water.
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: Gunner on August 31, 2009, 01:00:33 pm
Can't they just use other frequency for laser, for example UV which(i'm not sure) passes through water

all lasers are degradeded no matter the frequency. but yes some frequencies are degraded more than others, microwaves are particularly susceptible so masers would be extremely poor, the ones least suspetable are the ELF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_low_frequency) used in some communication systems however their very nature makes then unsuitable for laser as they pass through targets with out losing very much energy. plus your laser would have to be several miles in size

grasers (Gamma Laser) might be effective to but would still be heavily degraded
Title: Re: Terror From the Deep (Something to think about)
Post by: shevegen on September 08, 2009, 01:47:45 pm
The problem with such an extension is that it would require a lot of adaptation.

Perhaps one day in the distant future the game could extend itself so people could play underwater, or attack alien bases (instead of "only" defending earth), but it sounds as if you are suggesting things which quite like take years of developers time away too quickly, and I am not sure that this would help finish some other issues at hand at all ...but here is another idea, we could try to recruit coders from china solely working on these ideas, to make some kind of sequel to UFO:AI ;)