UFO:Alien Invasion
General => Discussion => Topic started by: bazzietuk on April 23, 2012, 02:43:44 am
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New to the board but decided to post a suggestion after messing around with the main map and controls.
Any chance of putting a base section on the main screen console, even a number would help bound to a keyboard shortcut (display a 1 symbol for the first base or press the 1 key on the keyboard to zoom the map to that base on the globe)?
Also it'd be helpful with buttons to confirm actions, also when buying selling items, have them in separate columns or pages for each action. It gets a bit confusing for a total newbie when you don't know if you've purchased something or not or started building or researching something.
Would also put some type of save points into the main tactical part of the game. On the easiest level unlimited save points for instance and as you progress up to the harder levels have less save points until you hit the hardest level where you have no saves for the tactical portion.
Also the ship loadout screens can be annoying when you have a box drawn over a vehicle but can't click it to select that part of it to load a weapon on, also time taken to refit a weapon and ammo is quite annoying. Just minor niggles on that one though, it'd take time in real life so understandable taking time in a game but not hours to load ammo.
Also it's confusing with additions to the ship (armour, targetting computer etc). It doesn't make clear if these take up weapon slots of not when fitted.
Other than these few suggestions I commend everyone involved in this project, I have been after a worthy successor to UFO: Enemy Unknown for a long time, even the sequels to the original kind of sucked. Looking forward to the next build and the commercial 2K games rebuild of UFO :) Keep up the good work, thanks for the game.
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Any chance of putting a base section on the main screen console, even a number would help bound to a keyboard shortcut (display a 1 symbol for the first base or press the 1 key on the keyboard to zoom the map to that base on the globe)?
I would not add 1,2,3... keyboard shortcut for bases because then someone would ask the same for installations, aircraft, ufo, missions and so.
Also it'd be helpful with buttons to confirm actions, also when buying selling items, have them in separate columns or pages for each action. It gets a bit confusing for a total newbie when you don't know if you've purchased something or not or started building or researching something.
Yes it is planned. I'm going to convert the market to a special transfer, with basket and delayed item availability.
Would also put some type of save points into the main tactical part of the game. On the easiest level unlimited save points for instance and as you progress up to the harder levels have less save points until you hit the hardest level where you have no saves for the tactical portion.
Please use the forum search function. You will find quite some reasons it won't happen.
also time taken to refit a weapon and ammo is quite annoying. Just minor niggles on that one though, it'd take time in real life so understandable taking time in a game but not hours to load ammo.
Ammo is reloaded in no time. Replacing a weapon is taking time.
-geever
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I can understand people wanting keyboard shortcuts for everything if possible but numbers for bases would be helpful instead of having to scroll around the globe to find the base you want, even the possibility of adding them to a CTRL+1 key for example like you can with RTS games would help. Just makes navigation to bases quicker, especially if pressing it opens up the base layout and you can then click on which base you want to get to.
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you can bind the command "mn_base_select" with the parameters 0-7 to keys you like.
see http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/Manual:Key_Bindings for more information
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[...]I'm going to convert the market to a special transfer, with basket and delayed item availability.[...]
you mean, like the web shops, with those standards and best practices?
i am so excited at the prospect of some gui from rl being used in a game that it feels like excitement poisoning :)
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I had another thought last night after playing for hours.
What about implementing a tactical box like the original UFO Enemy Unknown game when attempting to shoot down UFO's. The process in place is quite unforgiving at times with some of the more powerful UFO's, you don't get a chance to outrun them, land or return them to base before they're completely destroyed (annoyed me after a terror mission and a UFO intercepted my troop transport and blew it away on my way back to the base and there was nothing I could do about it). Even in a situation like that the ability to land and defend your vehicle from the UFO on the ground would be a nice idea, I mean you take the offensive like in a base defence mission but it's a totally random area you don't know the layout of same as the enemy doesn't. At least then you'd have a fighting chance and if you could kill all the aliens on the mission you take off again and continue your way back to base and also capture another UFO and equipment. But this is distracting from my first point.
The original UFO had a box that come up when you intercepted a UFO and gave you options to shoot it, tail it (follow it) or disengage from the conflict. This allowed you to get more than one interceptor to attack the UFO (from another base), so tailing the UFO until the other arrived then attacking in force (2 instead of 1 at a time). This helped greatly with the biggest ships in the game and gave you a fighting chance against them.
Also a few more questions, do damaged ships repair when in the base or do you have to manually repair them (with engineers)?
Do the ships even get repaired or do their health go down until they're completely useless and you end up selling them and buying a new one?
Is there a limit on UFO yards and Sam & Radar sites? Currently I have two bases set up around the globe (another in the process of being built) and I can't seem to build more than 2 SAM sites & Radar installations. I also noticed last night I can't build anymore UFO yards either just bases now. Is there some description somewhere on the build limitations of each?
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What about implementing a tactical box like the original UFO Enemy Unknown game when attempting to shoot down UFO's.
Aircombat feature is planned. TBH we had two versions of it already but they were wrong, had to be removed.
Also a few more questions, do damaged ships repair when in the base or do you have to manually repair them (with engineers)?
Yes, the aircraft are slowly repaired in hangars. (Hangars have own mechanics, you do not need engineers for that)
Is there a limit on UFO yards and Sam & Radar sites? Currently I have two bases set up around the globe (another in the process of being built) and I can't seem to build more than 2 SAM sites & Radar installations. I also noticed last night I can't build anymore UFO yards either just bases now. Is there some description somewhere on the build limitations of each?
Yes, the limit is 3 installation per working base.
-geever
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Was one of the air combat ideas like the original UFO as they seemed to work quite well, although with UFO AI, it may not because of the intercept points the craft sometime choose (for instance from a base in South America to a UFO in Central USA it decided to go via the south pole and then over the north pole to intercept it).
Thanks for the info on craft repair, that gives me another idea for the game if possible. Adding time details for repair when you view the craft. Same thing also would be helpful in the hospital part when soldiers are injured to let you know how long they'll be in hospital for to fully heal. Although I'm not sure if it's a bug or planned but if you take injured soldiers into the battlefield you can heal them with medpacks and they don't go back into the hospital upon return. Quicker way of healing them than using the hospital to do it. Think someone else mentioned this before as well.
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Had another idea that should be implemented (at least I think it should). On the battlefield there should be an option to lay down on the ground. You have walking & crouching so laying down flat should allow you to aim better and have a higher chance of hitting your target. Also laying down would make your men safer against enemy fire. Obviously you'd use up more time units laying down and standing back up or crouching but it'd help with random shots from enemies being so accurate with the slightest move you make (small niggle after multiple battlefield missions where the enemy is nearby and as soon as you try to move or take a shot they kill your man with deadly accuracy and the same with the next few men you try to move as well) :(
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Prone position is on the feature list we would like to implement, but it's not easy. We need all models support prone position with animations(!). The new soldier models support prone position as far as I know but not the others. We need modelers and animators for this task. If you know some, convince them to help us! ;)
-geever
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I have an idea - customaization of the recruitment pool. I'd like to be able to edit files to have more control over the recruits than I have now. For example, I'd like to be able to set the ratio of male to female recruits (it's true I could just increase the number of recruits in general, but that seriously affects balance, and the randomness still doesn'0t gurantee you'll get enough)
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Would like to see more of each weapons ammo available at the end of each month. When you've got more than 4 bases set up you sometimes can't get enough ammo for the weapons each month to keep them operating :( Especially the missile systems where you sometimes only get 50 to share between all the bases. I know this may not be important during the start of the game with few bases and before you start developing weapons that don't need ammo (lasers for instance).
Also some of the other items get quite rare to find after a while (night vision goggles). It can take a few months to get enough for a squad of 8 troops.
Sorry I don't know anyone modellers or animators to help out or I'd try to convince them to get onboard with the project :)
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Also some of the other items get quite rare to find after a while (night vision goggles). It can take a few months to get enough for a squad of 8 troops.
You can produce more in your workshops...
-geever
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You need more, you make them. Later in game, you will need full workshop base per 2 squads at least.
But actually...what are you buying? Only ammo I can think of that isn't made obsolete by advances in game that you can buy are DF cartridges and MG magazines, and those are usually on market in enough numbers to cover your needs.
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There was talk of spliting the soldiers from the aircraft, so you cna view and equip them separately. Is that in the wroks currenlty..
Also, don't you just hate it when you have a great idea and by the time you get to type it out, you can't recall what it was?
EDIT:
Front, rear and side armor...like in the first X-Com? Makes flanking and positioning even more important!
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Had the same problem Trashman, loads of ideas while playing but by the time I come to type them up I've forgotten half of them :) LOL
The items that get rare are the T20 rockets I think they're called. I'm early in the game and currently have 4 bases going doing research and have only just done some of the laser weapons (craft one and laser rifle). I know I have the laser rifle cartridge to research which is currently going on and then I'll use it for my troops instead of sonic weapons which are quite hit and miss on the battlefield even when standing right next to an alien.
Thought of another suggestion as well. I'm not sure if it's the same with all weapons but with the sonic rifle when you choose 3 round burst it fires one shot which splits into 3 in a w formation. When using this option neither of the shots seems to come anywhere near the enemy. In the original games 3 round burst fired a single shot 3 times one after another, obviously not all 3 hit their target but it was more effective in the original UFO games than in UFO AI. So any chance of making the 3 round burst fire 3 bullets one after another instead of 3 at once?
Also I'm not sure if after doing quite a few missions and getting kills with your squad the number of time units doesn't seem to increase that much. As it stands I have a few squad members that are still alive after about 100 missions and have racked up kills but in the battlefield I don't seem to have many time units for them to do anything, maybe move a bit and fire an aimed shot and have them set up for reaction shots and that's it. Can take about 30 turns to go from one side of the map to another when stopping to shoot. Shouldn't their time units increase more the longer they're alive?
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I guess the soldier progress isn't balanced yet, when the game has no end yet ;)
Which reminds me - any word if aircraft will be add-able again? It just looks like step backward to not be able to add craft anymore.
Also, the base could really use a mid-tile that closes corredors. Will make a mock-up to show what I mean later.