Messages

46

Feature Requests / 2.3 Hangar bug

« on: July 23, 2008, 03:10:35 pm »

On the way back from a mission, my firebird looked like it was going to run into a UFO.

I clicked on it, and chose "new home base", choosing a base that was much closer and apparently had hanger space.  No problem.

However, the base in question, whilst it had a completed hangar, did not have a completed power-plant.

As a result, after landing my firebird was no longer available.

***

The script for changing a home-base whilst in flight needs to check not only hangar space, but that the hangar in question has a functioning power-supply.  And, presumably, it would also need a functioning living quarters with room for the troops that are currently on board.

47

Discussion / Re: Latest real-world weaponry

« on: July 22, 2008, 08:35:59 am »

The original was designed by Anatoli(?) Kalashnikov for the soviet army.  But like many succesful firearms, its production has been licenced to a large number of other countries.

48

Offtopic / Re: News Story - UFOs in real life

« on: July 21, 2008, 07:41:43 am »

I've always thought it would be a nice idea to take all of the corrupt leaders in governments and lock them away in a room somewhere where they can fight each other all by themselves, and leave the rest of us out of it so we can go about our daily business without them f***ing it up for us with resources they get from taxes they force upon us.

Yup.  Of course, you then have to make sure that the people who get to define corruption and enforce the locking up are themselves not corrupt...

49

Windows / Re: is there a new Beta?

« on: July 18, 2008, 09:20:19 pm »

As a complete non-programmer, is there an easy way for me to play the most recent beta?  I tried th emost recent *packaged* beta but it's a few months old and has some major glitches.

50

Feature Requests / Re: Revise Initial Base Layout

« on: July 17, 2008, 10:44:06 pm »

1. You can disable autobuild and set up your initial base as you want! (This is also a "cheat", because these buildings will be set up in no time, but whatever you build later - or to the autobuilded they will take days as usual.)

I tried this in my newly downloaded 2.3, and it did not supply me with an entrance, nor the option to build one.  Since some buildings have "entrance" as one of their pre-reqs, whilst I was able to build a base, very little worked.  (Power-plant has an "entrance" pre-req, and if it doesn't work it has a knock-on effect on those installations requiring the power plant)

51

Feature Requests / Re: Revise Initial Base Layout

« on: July 17, 2008, 07:16:40 am »

Can we get a definitive "These are alien spawn points, these are human spawn points", as its not as intuitive as it should be...

I'd have thought any facility which requires access to the surface would be a spawn point, but that does not appear to be the case.

52

Discussion / Re: Some ideas for an already great game!

« on: July 16, 2008, 07:47:44 am »

The kink that would need ironing out with the medikit would be dealing with the player attempting to move the wounded soldier out of range after assigning the medic to heal. 

That's actually a flaw with the exisiting system too.  It takes 20 TUs to treat an injured person but the injured person, in effect, does not need to be there whilst being treated as he can use up all of his TUs reaching the medic, or leaving the medic after being treated.

Realistically, if it takes 20 TUs to apply a bandage then the bandag-ee needs to be there for all of those 20 TUs too.

53

Discussion / Re: Latest real-world weaponry

« on: July 15, 2008, 08:13:28 pm »

No, the G11 got scuppered by the reunification of Germany, although it was apparently quite reliable to fire despite its complexity.

There was also an issue with the buildup of residue from the propellants.  In a conventional rifle the propellant residue is captured inside the brass, but the G11's caseless design meant that the residue built up inside the receiver and could lead to fouling.

Not a problem, of course, for the Bolter.  Mind you, if the Bolter's "cannonade" is meant to represent a 3-round "pre-recoil" burst similar to that from a G11, I would suggest that its spread be reduced.

54

Discussion / Re: Some ideas for an already great game!

« on: July 15, 2008, 07:21:00 am »

He isn't talking about reloading during reaction fire, BT, he is talking about being able to begin a "long" (high TU) action in one turn and finish it in the next.

You might run into cover and want to start reloading, but only have 10 tu left out of the 15 required.  Those 10 TU are currently wasted.  It does make more sense that said soldier could start reloading as soon as he reaches cover, instead of having to wait doing nothing for some arbitary amount of time.

Similarly with a combat medic who rushes over to his patient and has 15 tu left - and can now do nothing with them, having to stand around twiddling his thumbs until the magical "round" passes and he now has 20. 

Reloading and Healing are, however, the only 2 actions that I can see this making sense for.

55

Discussion / Re: Always lose air battles

« on: July 14, 2008, 07:23:55 pm »

I very rarely lose a plane (in ordinary difficulty, at least).

Taking the advice of a previous poster, I have at each "interception base":

1 Saracen with armour and 2 ECM pods, plus 2 missile launchers.
3 Stillettos with no armour, 1 targeting computer, 2 missile launchers and a cannon.

On detection of a UFO within flight range, I send up the Saracen first, so that the UFO targets it.  Then I launch the 3 stillettoes.  The UFO is decoyed into shooting at the harder to hit, harder to damage saracen whilst all 4 planes unload their missiles at it. 

Ideally this is done within the SAM range of a base with 2 missile launchers, too, and it is very rare for me to lose a plane, and I've never failed to shoot down the UFO with this method.

56

Feature Requests / Re: Differentiating Between Cover and Concealment

« on: July 13, 2008, 10:15:25 pm »

The biggest snag I can see is the Alien AI.

If shooting through walls is possible, it should be possible for everyone.

The aliens already clairvoyantly know exactly where your men are.  If hiding behind a wall becomes no defence against a particle rifle, things are going to get rather difficult for us poor beleagured earthmen.

57

Discussion / Re: Inventory/Equipment Screen

« on: July 13, 2008, 01:20:41 pm »

i don't think that the soldier equipment is a real problem
in each of my base i have a handfll of weapon/armor/grenades/... buyed on the international market

Its not the equipment availability, its the time spent equipping.

I transferred my whole kill-team to a new base to allow the old one to go full-time research, and was somewhat annoyed to find I had to re-equip each of them from scratch.

58

Tactics / Re: Riot Shotgun/flechette - useless? (2.3)

« on: July 11, 2008, 08:12:11 pm »

The shotgun's advantage over the assault rifle ought to be its versatility, just like the grenade launcher, in a way.

As well as saboted AP rounds and flechettes, there could be Gas "ferret" rounds, incendiary rounds, etc. All ver minimal area effect (ie, not remotely superceding the grenade launcher)  but in some circumstances being a better choice than a thrown grenade (sacrificing area for range).

http://www.hi-vel.com/Catalog__18/Specialized_Shotshell_Ammuniti/specialized_shotshell_ammuniti.html

59

Tactics / Re: As capturing aliens living (with that weapon)

« on: July 11, 2008, 08:04:29 am »

Don't forget that ordinary damage also contributes to stunning.

I've had three orlocks shrug off a gas grenade, but followed it up from a shot from a plasma-armed grenade launcher.  They became stunned rather than killed.

I don't know if the stun rather than kill in this instance is certain, or based on the damage delivered by each, or what.

But it is still a particularly useful thing to know when your stun-rodder has just run up, zapped an alien, and the alien is still standing.  Get another soldier to finish it of with with a conventional weapon and there is a very good chance it will fall stunned rather than dead.

60

Discussion / Re: Inventory/Equipment Screen

« on: July 11, 2008, 07:57:14 am »

base defence has been in previous versions and will be back.

what used to happen is that your soldiers had the same gear you equipped them with when you send them out in the dropship.

But what if there was no dropship at the base, just a garrison of soldiers?

Also - I noted when transfering soldiers from one base to another that all their equipment gets left behind.  THis is a bit of a pain.