Messages

1

Discussion / Re: More General Feedback and stuck

« on: February 28, 2010, 12:38:08 am »

That was interesting; I continued my save game and there was a new terror mission waiting for me when the game started even though it wasn't there when I quit the game previously.

However, DOH!, I never built any UFO hangers, I thought the UFO Hangers were for my advanced ships (a la the Avenger and Firestorm from XCOM); guess that is what I get for not reading the descriptions of all of the buildings.

So I decided to start a new game and go from there. Will let you know.

Oh, one more kudos, twice now I have lost a Firebird because the aliens went after them! Nasty coders!

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Discussion / Re: More General Feedback and stuck

« on: February 27, 2010, 07:11:14 pm »

Thanks for the reply Lt Custard. I will go ahead and disassembly my captured ships.

Status update. Apparently I wasn't as stuck as I thought I was because I let the time fly by and not quite a month later I got another mission; this one a 'crashed ufo' but one I didn't shoot down. It was a Harvester with 8 tangos, I brought 4 of them home alive and apparently one was an officer which opened 2 more research ques which in turn opened two more (the alien virus cure was one). I had two more 'crashed ufo' show up and I got two more alive tangos out of the first but had to kill all in the 2nd one.

Now I have sped up time and over six months have past without a sight of any alien activity. The only change was the virus spread from 3% to 4%.

Only question I have now is that I have a full alien containment (10 alive aliens). Do I build another and transfer them or just whack them? Will that help?

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Discussion / More General Feedback and stuck

« on: February 27, 2010, 03:32:33 am »

Greetings again.

It has been a couple of years since I last really played around with UFOAI and thought I would share my thoughts of the latest (as of a week ago) stable build.

First, let me give you guys some Kudos for sticking with it and not letting it flounder. There is a marked improvement over the previous build I played with (previous one had glitches where the cursor would not line up exactly on the soldiers rectangle among other issues).

Second, I have gotten maybe a week or so of solid gaming out of the game with only what appeared to me as minor issues but now I think I am stuck.

The bugs include a few errors in the pedia, such as no game stats for the researched particle weapons (however when you go to the sell window, you can see their stats there).
The ship board particle weapon has no graphics just a red square, indeed there is a few research items that don't have graphics some before and some after research is complete (the autopsies have no research completed graphics) only the shipboard particle weapon has the red square (my guess, from my experience with Freedom Force means that the engine doesn't think there is a graphic present, but that is just a guess).

Next up is I have gotten three or four black screens of not-so-death. I got two or three of them when I completed a mission, it had some small print in the top middle which to me was gibberish but down at the bottom right corner was a note to press any key; pressing any key took me back to the geo-sphere with the Firebird above the previous mission site, flying home like nothing was wrong.

This black screen appeared on more time. When I got my monthly stipend for August that took me over 1billion or 10 billion or something; either way when it went over that number I got the black screen of not so death again and again it continued when I pressed a button (enter).

However, I think I am stuck now because I have captured four guys and after researching them I cannot research any of the ship board items and those are the only things left to research. I could see three in the research que; Astrogation, engines and ship particle weapons but I Transferred one astrogation unit to my second research base and that item no longer shows up in the research que at either base.

Interface wise there is a few things that can be added; specifically with base management it can get downright confusing what is going on. For example; when equipping planes, there is no indication what plane you are working on. Just as there is not an easy way to figure out how many slots you have available for personnel.

As mentioned above, Transferring can seem buggy. I had items I transferred simply not show up at the other base; real important when you transfer a fighter and the fighter does a no show. Additionally, twice when transferring the large fighter a large fighter appeared on the Geo-sphere, once above a base and once in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. They stayed there until another event message flashed.

Balance wise, on Standard difficulty the game as expect was much harder early on with lots of deaths but once I got the advance armor the deaths petered off, especially if I took my time with the missions; however my guys seemed to get much more opportunity fires then the aliens.

The assault rifle seemed practically useless early; the SMG was much deadlier; my guys were more effective with just the SMG, Bolter and Grenade Launcher. The sniper rifle seemed too inaccurate and weak when it did hit, the rocket launcher too much of a niche weapon (because of the small maps and built up terrain; there is a few maps that it is ideal on but you never know what maps you are going to get.

Oh, hey more kudos; the only maps that I thought I played more than once was the ones where I shot down a ufo; lots of different maps. Good job there.

I think I found another bug though, once I had researched most of the alien artifacts, I was suddenly bringing in over 300K in creds per mission (which is how I broke the bank).

Question; what happens to the intact ufo’s that get captured on the ground? You get the option to sell them to host nations and I did that twice to improve relations but kept the rest and yet they did not show up in my storage (knowing how much stuff was in storage was another interface issue as well).

Hope this helps and thanks again for all of your hard work.
Pariahsolo

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Discussion / UFO:AI Vs That Other UFO Game

« on: June 02, 2007, 01:46:33 am »

Ahem, we have 8.  

Sorry, was at work and I just couldn't remember (ET as 2, XCOM had 5, I knew AI had at least 5, I almost put 6 down, but decided to play it safe, and wrong).

More then welcome to help if you're bored...

I have seriously thought about offering, however, coding wise, I know next to nothing. Computer wise I like to say, "I know enough to be dangerous; to the computer", an exaggeration, yes. I am not somone who is a self learner, hands on and by instruction is the only way I learn. The only skill that I could possibly be of use would be limited to beta-test, help with the fiction/UFOpedia and design/balance.

If I may be so bold, my first thought of the basic soldiers (without armor on) in the inventory screen was that they were uglier grahic wise then the original XCOM, but then I told myself to 'shut it', because I knew I couldn't do any better (the armor suits look much better). I once tried to create new units for CIV 2, mistake.

I have tried to help here. I have posted questions and made points that I thought would help (I posted with screen shots about how my "actors" can get out of synch graphically, but that thread didn't get much of a response.

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Discussion / UFO:AI Vs That Other UFO Game

« on: June 01, 2007, 05:33:08 pm »

Greetings all,

I am just curious to know if the development of UFO:AI took a hit when UFO: Extraterrestrials came out (download was available something like May 4th)?

Yes, I was one of those evil guys who bought the download and I have been following Choas Concepts forum as well as elsewhere regarding UFO: ET and I am assuming some of the parties here have been tooting the UFO: AI horn because UFO:AI has been getting the mentions, especially when someone points out the UFO:ET only has 2 levels in the battlescape and UFO:AI has 5.

I haven't played UFO:AI for almost a month, more so then anything, because I have reached the end of the research tree and got tired of playing the same maps. Now even though I am playing UFO:ET, I am still eagerly awaiting the next version of UFO:AI.

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Discussion / And Then

« on: May 11, 2007, 10:32:01 pm »

Ahh, I think I see the disconnect. If I may:

advanced pistols when dual wielded tend to bring more firepower to bear than a single rifle or heavy variant of the same technology

Surreal, I think you are looking at this strictly in a numbers in the game way, while Brev is looking at it from a real world point of view.

I think a legit question, that would also bring us a full circle back to the one that started this thread would be:

How would a Dual Wield Pistol stack against the SMG?
How would a Dual Wield Laser pistol stack against the SMG?
How would Dual Plasma and Dual Particle stack?

From what has been said, it looks like the SMG would (and possible should) beat all four. Yes? No?

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Discussion / And Then

« on: May 11, 2007, 05:17:31 pm »

But as UFO:AI is a rather technically-contexted game,

Uh, hello, little green men, lasers, plasma and particle weapons, UFO:AI IS a fantasy game.

I do agree, thanks to holliwierd, the coolness of dual pistols, no matter how illogical, is a given. First and foremost, this is a game. To, you know, have fun with.

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Discussion / And Then

« on: May 10, 2007, 03:10:48 am »

Actually, from what I have heard and read, over in that country that is spelled with 4 letters, the US military is finding that the average gun battle takes place in less then 100 meters. The reason? The gun battles are happening on street corners and not out in the desert. Additionally, there is no static lines warfare ivolved, instead they are rallying around points, like a school building.

So what we are seeing in the game regarding ranges of combat is "realistic" enough.

Are you claiming that point blank encounters are common in real combat? While much urban combat in 'real life' does take place at close range, I doubt you'll find any facts or figures confirming that a signifigant portion of encounters occurs at ultra short distances (which I shall define as 10 meters or less). In UFO:AI I'd estimate conservatively that about half, if not a majority of all conflict transpires at it (given that 1 tile = 1 meter).

No, I said less the 100 meters. But yes, it also happens at less then 10 meters. I have a nephew who had to shoot a kid not much younger then him (he is 24) because the kid came around a corner in a back alley and wouldn't drop his AK47.

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Discussion / And Then

« on: May 08, 2007, 08:48:23 pm »

As well, combat on average in real life tends to take place at distances signifigantly greater than those more typical to gameplay in UFO:AI.

Actually, from what I have heard and read, over in that country that is spelled with 4 letters, the US military is finding that the average gun battle takes place in less then 100 meters. The reason? The gun battles are happening on street corners and not out in the desert. Additionally, there is no static lines warfare ivolved, instead they are rallying around points, like a school building.

So what we are seeing in the game regarding ranges of combat is "realistic" enough.

10

Discussion / And Then

« on: May 08, 2007, 04:20:27 am »

Ok, I finally found where Vista hid my screenshots. I am going to try to post them here: Note: again these are pics of where the graphic of the soldiers are not lined up with where the game shows them to be.

This image is from 2.0 and shows the Mansion with two soldiers locked together.


This one is with the latest version and it isn't that clear, but look for the green cursor (plus sign), you can barely make out the blue cursor showing zero movement, the soldier with the bright green circle under him is the actual soldier that is misplaced.


This picture shows the misplaced soldier healing the one in front of him. He is still misplaced but you can see the green line ending in the red circle showing he is in range to heal him.


Here is two more soldiers locked together graphically.


Another one where a soldier is not lined up with his cursor. The green gook is shells from the Grenade Launcher Flechettes.


Another one where the green plus shows where the soldier should be standing and he is to the left, facing the wrong way.

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Discussion / And Then

« on: May 05, 2007, 07:51:31 pm »

Hey,

I have taken some screen shots showing how the graphic of a soldier is off from where he is actually located. However, I have a Vista OS and I can't figure out where Vista stored the dang screen shots at. I took one previously of the Mansion map and I took 4 today on the City (nightclub) map.

So, anyone got a clue where Vista is storing these screen shots? (Note: Vista does not store them in the applications directory, this is true for all saved files as well).

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Discussion / And Then

« on: May 04, 2007, 04:26:26 pm »

If I may...

Outside of the game still lagging (I think it is connected to the music, because when the game lags, the music sounds like it is skipping, is there a way to turn off the music completely? Turning the volume down to zero doesn't help with the lag), the one criticism I have is graphically, a lot of times I will have a soldier move, but that last square they don't move into completely. The cursor icon will show the soldier in the square, but the graphics will only show him half way in the the square.

This has lead to soldiers being locked in place or blocking a doorway (it has happened twice on the Mansion map just inside the main doorway). When they are locked in place, they will not move one square, but if you give them an order to walk further then 1 square they will then move.

Thank you for the time and effort you have put into this game.

Albert - Pariah - eastwoodaen

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Discussion / And Then

« on: May 01, 2007, 03:17:29 pm »

While I don't think I have used the SMG, except for maybe once, I have used the 7.62mm Pistol, the Machine Pistol and the Micro Shotgun. The 7.62mm will get you killed using it, so the first thing I do is sell all of those. The Micro Shotgun actually works early on, but once they show up in armor, move on. The Machine Pistol is the one that surprised me, because if the first burst didn't drop them, then the second normally would, and if it took a third burst, I normally had enough AP's for a 3rd. Where all of these weapons fail is in reactionary fire.

Kaerius is right though, the Heavy Laser is a priority to research, because I find that weapon over powering. It is one weapon that mid to late game that will kill an alien with reactionary fire, more often then not.

I am thinknig that maybe the research tree needs to be tweaked so that, like in Xcom, you have to research the laser pistol and the laser rifle before you can get the heavy laser.

Here is a question I will ask because I don't remember reading it elsewhere. Regarding dual pistols, the UFOPaedia states that the laser pistols would be ideal for someone to wield two of them. Has that been implimented into the game? Will it?

Thanks all,

Albert - Pariah - eastwoodaen

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Feature Requests / And Then

« on: April 19, 2007, 08:19:53 pm »

I have two mouse issues.

Slow drag AND fast drag.

The slow drag always happens when I go to the Equip screen. The music starts skipping the same time the mouse does. I have tried turning the music off in the Options screen, but that doesn't help. Some times the slow mouse will also happen in the combat screen, but this is rare compared to the Equip Screen which does it almost all of the time.

The other mouse issue I get is just the opposite, in the combat screen, where the mouse flies across the screen. (Yes, I did adjust the mouse setting in the Options screen, but after not seeing an effect in the Equip Screen, I moved it back to near what it was.) In the combat screen the mouse flies towards whatever side I move the mouse to. If I use the number button to jump to a soldier, if I move the mouse to the left, it flies all the way to the left hand side of the map, making it very difficult to target aliens near the middle of the map.

The biggest issue I have had playing the game, that I haven't seen a bug report on is the fact that the soldiers can end up outside of where the 3d block states that the soldier is standing in. For example, on the Mansion map, I had two soldiers lockup just inside the front door because even though their 3d blocks showed they were standing right next to each other, the graphics of the two soldiers had them sharing the same space, outside of their square (I took a screen shot of this, but I haven't figured out where Vista saved the pic at).

Additionally at the Mansion Map, soldiers on the grand staircase seems to get out of their 3d block quite often. But then this issue seems to happen a lot on stairs.

In the Cave map, on the 1st cave level, behind the staircase going down from the entrance, their is a ledge where you can see and shoot down to the bottom level. Twice now a soldier will get stuck outside of his 3d block, the 3d block will show the soldier at the edge, but the grahic shows the soldier mostly in the square behind that ledge square.

There has been instances where a soldier who is stuck outside of his 3d square will be stuck and even though move commands are given and the TU is expended, the soldier does not move at all.

My system is an AMD Dual Core, Vista OS, 2 gig ram, nVidia 7600GT vid card displayed on a 19" flatscreen LCD.

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Discussion / Save in Combat

« on: April 17, 2007, 04:23:44 pm »

I do have a suggestion that would solve the above situation and still keep the terror/punishment feeling. Do allow to save the game and then automatically quit back to desktop. I also suggest that savegames during combat cannot be reloaded until 5 minutes after they have been saved.

Honestly, that wait 5 minutes before you can reload is on the anal side. If someone wants to munch out and essentially cheat, let them. It would be no different if they got their hands on a "trainer program" to pump up all of their stats to 150. Cheaters will cheat. Don't worry about them.

Why? Just as Iron Man players like to thump their chests about how they play the game, cheaters like to cheat because they get enjoyment out of playing that way.

As the game designers, are you so narrow minded to dictate how someone has to enjoy the game?

Albert - Pariah - eastwoodaen[/code]