First: Great game! I've been enjoying it tremendously and I'm downloading the newest build to start it over again! I love the development (this time there was a Corrupter-Model in a terror mission and the alien base which I'd never seen before)
So, great work, keep it up.
Feedback:
> Maximum limit / month: 600 000 CrPhallanx needs to defend earth against the virus. This can only be done if Phallanx has fighter aircraft available almost everywhere. Basically every continent would need a base but this is impossible at the moment. I had 5 bases and I'm not sure whether a 6th one wouldn't have ruined me financially in mid-game.
=> such an important institution should (if successful!) have enough money to expand.
=> Another alternative: I could imagine that Phallanx would just
use cities of friendly countries to put a fighter there. I played another remake of UFO and this was a very nice feature. The cities repaired and fueled your aircraft but didn't rearm "fancy" weaponry (like alien stuff, etc). They cities were paid for this "service".
> Research and triggersAt the beginning of the game there is an awful lot to research. It's very hard to decide what items to go for first. That's brilliant and I think it's realistic in a scenario in which a lot of new technology is introduced via war. Now, I've been playing with 60 scientists and thus I had quite good research capabilities.
In mid-game there is still some interesting things but the closer I git to the end (virus enters the game), the less interesting things there are to research.
=> perhaps it would be good to use "triggers" to make sure that there is enough to research left even in the later part of the game. An example will be given in the next point.
>
The Corruptor Story and research: Feed the player more smaller bitsSome things that sprang to my mind: Basically it splits the story up into more smaller bits of information.
> Corrupter shot down => mission => research: "Ship Corruptor"
> "Disassemble Corruptor" => new pieces of alien ufo equipment are recovered: "Virus canisters", "Injection Devices"
=> new research: "Injection Devices" => more horror details about aliens infecting humans
=> new research: "Virus Canisters" => more details on the virus
=> new research: "Dropping mechanism" => player learns about the ability to drop these "injection devices".
=> new research: "Alien from a Corruptor" => player can learn (if there are enough other captures aliens) something about the mission
=> new research: "Hypothesis on Corruptor" => after having done the research on the new ufo stuff and a crew member, the mission of the Corrupter should be revealed.
You see what I mean: Don't give the player all the information in just 1 research mission (as it is now), but feed them bits, but lots of them. The appearance of the Corruptor is a key element in the game. I would like to stress its importance by making the player reserach a lot and piece the story together.
> Improve close combat firing weapons in mid- and end-game. All close combat weapons are useless once medium armor is used by aliens. It's a pity that all the brave close combat 50+ skill guys have no weapons to use but only carry stun grenades.
=> my favourit solution: After "medium armor" is researched (=trigger), makind comes up with new kinds of ammo to counter the better armor. This could be combined with the next point (alien materials) because that stuff should be great to make highly penetrative rounds.
=> there is a thread on this topic, so I keep it short here:
http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=4327.0> Make Alien materials useful or allow me to get rid of it fasterI accumulated whole tons of Alien materials. If you sell >6000 of these, you need to put a heavy item on the mouse button. I made coffee while all the stuff was sold (no joking). It took several minutes.
=> add a faster "counting" after 30 secons. Steps of 100 would be fine for worthless (3cr) items like alien materials.
or, much better:
=> give sense to the alien materials:
> Fighters can only be built with these.
> New weapons need it
> new kinds of ammunition could use it (see above)
> Bases could be protected effectively against bombing runs by adding "armor" (this would also explain why aliens do not simply wipe out Phallanx bases but attack them with soldiers)
=> this would open up another research branch: "What can we do with these materials?" with easy trigger points "New development: We found a way to shape the materials even more precisely. Now we are able to form smaller things like..."
> Ranking system of soldiersIt's too slow. I only got 1 soldier who wasn't a Rifleman.
=> speed up the ranking system: For every 5 soldiers in Phallanx there should be a superior (a Sergeant), for every 15 an officer, etc... the best person gets promoted.
> Skill systemI also don't understand how the skills increase. Some seem to be linked to the weapons you use, and to kills (grenade launcher guys level fast), some other skills don't change at all while others change faster. I didn't find a system behind it.
Health is a problem, though. I haven't seen it rise, which I would like to. My best Close Combat soldier had 80 HP which was not enough at the end of the game. She kept dying from every stupid needle.
Okay, this is what I wanted to feedback to you. Thank you for the great game!
Andy
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