Messages

31

Discussion / Re: Base design

« on: August 06, 2008, 11:17:04 pm »

The base units do seem a little arbitrary with regards to what is open and what isn't.  The small UFO hangers especially - do they really need 3 open doors at ground level?  One massive roof opening would seem more sensible.  Other buildings have doors at ground level that are closed, it seems odd that the UFO hangers would have 3 doors left open when under attack.

The workshop doesn't need its own door, either, as anything coming in and out can go through the designated base entrance.  What else is the designated entrance for, after all?

Similarly, from the way it is described there is actually no reason at all for the radar to have an above ground opening.

Aliens should be able to effect entry through:

Entrance (duh!)
Missile Silos
All 4 hangers.

These are the only facilities IIRC that actually need independent access to the surface.

HOWEVER:
Only the entrance hall really needs ground level doors.
Alien entrance to the others should only be through breaking through the hatches in the roof and dropping down into the base.

After all, why even bother with a special entrance stair-well if so many other parts of the compound have doors you can just waltz through at ground level?

32

Offtopic / Re: News Story: "Astronaut Says Government Covering Up UFOs" (USA)

« on: August 05, 2008, 08:50:06 am »

Space is insanely large.

If there is any intelligent life out there, in order to reach us they would have to have technology that to us poor ignorant savages would be indistinguishable from magic.

I really, really doubt that a race with so much power, and the motivation to cross the stars, would spend its time abducting ignorant hicks, mutilating cattle and putting on flashy light shows.

And at the same time, there is no way on earth that any earth government that exists is both secure enough and competent enough to hide the existence of genuine contact with aliens.

Is there life out there?  Possibly - its a big universe.  Has it visited us?  No.

****

As for the "hoax" of landing on th moon, that lovely thing about "the flag was waving" - why would the flag be waving in the wind on a closed sound-stage?  Wheras it would well appear to be waving on the moon thanks to the stiffening wires thoughtfully included by those that supplied the flag, who knew that the flag would just hang limply without them in the near vacuouus lunar atmosphere.

Seriously, if you believe the government is competent enough to hide the existence of aliens, how can you also believe they are so incompetent that they faked a moon landing but couldn't hide the fact they faked it?

"Moon hoax" conspiracy theorists are about 1 step up from "Intelligent Design 'theorists'" and only a couple of steps above flat-earthers.

33

Feature Requests / Re: Day or night during missions

« on: August 03, 2008, 01:03:11 pm »

A base at the north and south pole is actually no different from having 2 bases on the equator, 1/2 a rotation away.  No different at all in terms of coverage or dropship range.

34

Tactics / Re: Your Tactics

« on: August 01, 2008, 11:39:00 pm »

The only information i'm aware of is here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Skills/Improvement.

The 2.3 info is very handy but neglects to say how many points are needed to earn an increase.

35

Feature Requests / Re: Will someone please answer this question

« on: August 01, 2008, 09:30:01 am »

Is it actually a bug, or a feature that has not yet been implemented?

I assumed it was common knowledge that you couldn't loot dead soldiers, and therefore didn't report it as a bug.

/As an aside, we could do with some sort of "conatiners" on maps - especially on base defence, so that you can look inside your weapons locker and loot yourself a weapon more suited to the task at hand...

36

FAQ / Re: research: how it works ?

« on: July 31, 2008, 09:13:48 am »

I have found that if you start research in one base, but then cancel it, taking all the scientists away, you cannot then start researching that project at another base, you must always come back to the original.

(Maybe you accidentally clicked one scientist onto a given research project, and immediately removed him.  Or maybe you started some research but then captured some tech which you thought was more important)

37

Feature Requests / Re: Radar and Satellites

« on: July 30, 2008, 10:59:32 pm »

I am forced to agree.

An incident on the scale of Mumbai and its aftermath does not gel very well with the fate of the world subsequently being put in the hands of 8 not-particularly elite combat soldiers with off-the-shelf weapons.

38

Design / Re: Defending downed DROPSHIPs?

« on: July 29, 2008, 09:11:14 am »

Au contraire - if you are gathering info for an invasion, which type of
"animal" bears the most investigation?

a) The ones that scream alot and run away, often straight into the jaws of a tissue-harvesting blood-spider?

b) The ones that fight back, appearing to work together despite being individuals - something almost incomprehensible to the aliens?

39

Design / Re: Defending downed DROPSHIPs?

« on: July 29, 2008, 12:45:56 am »

It would be another signifigant odd-behavior for the aliens. I would think their perspective would be to finish off the dropship on the ground with weaponsfire from above. There's also the problem that smaller UFOs are not supposed to be landing capable. I'm sure some apologetic could be devised.

In fact, the aliens want specimens, so landing to engage in battle would make more sense than nuking the site from orbit.

40

Feature Requests / Re: Radar and Satellites

« on: July 28, 2008, 09:13:44 am »

As an interesting aside - the alien craft are bereft of comms gear.  Communicating the way they do, they may not even realise what the multitude of sattelites in our skies are for.

41

Discussion / Re: Alien Morale

« on: July 28, 2008, 08:45:03 am »

I'm confused.

They don't respond to torture or threats of death because the hivemind doens't care much about an individual: but they can be demoralized.

While perhaps a fun game mechanic (and another reason for flamethrowers, which should be very demoralizing), I'm not sure how that makes sense.

It makes perfect sense if you think about how the hivemind works.
They are not getting demoralised, but as the aliens in a group get killed off, the remaining ones suffer a drop in intelligence.  It may effect some more than others, but a lone alien will be running on almost pure instinct without much actual thought - for some, that may include fighting on but for others it will result in hiding in a corner in a panic.

42

Feature Requests / Re: Radar and Satellites

« on: July 27, 2008, 05:29:35 pm »

The first thing an alien invasion would do is shoot down orbital satelites.

Steve

 The Satellite Situation Report from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Dated September, 1997, counts almost 25,000 man-made objects: 8681 currently in orbit, and over 16,000 objects in a state of decay. Not every single satellite is included, since some are too small or too far away from home to be detected.

Not that I'm arguing with you, but thats a lot of satellites.

If thats what they did then it needs mentioning in the Background that the first inkling of an attack came when TV, telecommunication and GPS systems all failed as the aliens systematically eliminated satellites from earth orbit.  First casualties of the invasion were likely the crew of the ISS and any shuttle crrently in orbit...

43

Tactics / Re: What's your favoret load out?

« on: July 26, 2008, 11:24:14 pm »

I usually have:

2 Close Assault troops:  SMGs and plenty of grenades and flashbangs, plus a medikit.   Later upgrading the SMGs for plasma pistols primarily to allow them use of a medikit or stunprod without losing ranged shooting.

4 "Grunts" with Assault rifles, upgrading to bolters ASAP.  Carry the basic pistol as backup, + 2 grenades and 2 flashbangs.

2 Support troopers with Grenade Launchers.  They also carry medikits and a powerful backup pistol.

If the troops I have do not have sufficient AW skills, I'll give them sniper rifles or machine guns, depending on what their highest skill is.  Or possible shotguns.  If my would-be grendier has poor HE skills but good HW skills I may use the Rocket Launcher.

Recent successes with the Coil Gun (it rocks!) are making me quite keen to replace one or two grunts with specialist snipers, if I have a starting squad with a sufficiently skilled sniper to make it worthwhile.

***

I usually split my squad into 2, with a CC, an HE and two ARs in each.  The ARs give cover as the CC advances and peeks behind cover, and should he spot an alien I use indirect burst-fire from the HE to take it out or weaken it, only stopping to shoot it directly if I'm very confident of being able to hide if it doesn't die - or if I am very confident that one fo the ARs can finish it off if required.

***

I'm prejudiced against lasers for no apparent reason, they just sound weak in the descriptions.    I seldom use them, though in squads with a HW specialist I do eventually replace the machine gun with a heavy laser.

44

Feature Requests / Radar and Satellites

« on: July 25, 2008, 10:17:47 pm »

A minor point with regards to the story - something needs to be said about the ineffectiveness of the worlds network of surveillance sattelites.

Why else are we totally unable to use them, instead having to build ground-based radar installations.

Either the aliens must have destroyed them upon arrival, a la independence day, or the aliens are somehow cloaked from the satellite tech.  Either way, it needs mentioning in the story.

The question of why the tech used in the ground based radar can't be put into orbital satellites also needs to be answered - do the aliens detect and destroy them (or any attempt to launch them)?  If so, why does it take them so long to do the same to the ground based radar installations?

****

Second point - a feature request, really, to do with the radar installations and proposed SAM installations. 

It is assumed that most countries would build their own defences and radar installations - who would want to be reliant on protection from outside?  Instead of having to build off-base radar and SAM sites, it might be cooler to have countries with a happyness over a given level to offer the output of their own radar facilities to PHALANX.

This would give the same effect as building the radar installations whilst at the same time explainign why no ground crew are required for said installation.  At the same time, it would give  a reward/motivation for keeping nations happy - if you don't perform to their satisfaction, they'll cut you out of their radar net thus decreasing your coverage.

Similarly, at a really high level of happyness they might trust you so much that they are willing to turn over control of their SAM sites to PHALANX - or even their own interceptor bases (which would be launchable but not "editable").

45

Feature Requests / Bug Report 2.3 Dev - Aircraft equipment screen crashes

« on: July 24, 2008, 11:58:59 am »

Running 2.3 dev in safe mode (as ordinary mode always screws up the textures for me).

When equipping stilleto interceptors with weapons, I am fine for the 1st and 2nd hardpoint, but trying to equip the third always causes a crash with the message:

Assertion failed!

Program C:\program files\ufo-2.3-dev\ufo.exe
File D:\Games\UFOAI\src\client\cl_mapfightequip.c
Line: 193

Expression: airequipselectedslot < aircraft->maxweapons