Messages

61

Newbie Coding / Re: Question on List Formatting

« on: May 24, 2012, 12:25:57 am »

Ok, I agree.  Was fine for me, but not for your overall design.  I'll work on putting them in two columns and move the spinners between the columns.  Will take a bit longer and I just got swamped with more RL.  I'll work on it though.  I saw on one of the web pages that you'll take submissions anonymously.  Well, you know where it will come from, but I'll tap that input line and when I finish it I'll send it all to you with a write up and fully commented code to do with as you will.  If I get a little more ambitious I'll download the 2.5 trunk and make sure the two baselines aren't diverging with my changes.

62

Newbie Coding / Re: Question on List Formatting

« on: May 22, 2012, 10:54:41 pm »

Guys,

Attached is a screen shot of the small mod I did.  Asking for feedback if it's something you would like to add permanently, or if you'd like changes to the way it's coded.

Coding wise, it's a bit of a hack to use the existing field and zero pad it to make everything line up.  It also had the side effect of changing the title on all the tabs for the transfer, so I still have to clean that up.   To line it all up correctly and get rid of the zero padding, I'd have to add another column to it.  I'd be happy to do that if you want me to, but that will take longer.  I also added the amount of free storage at the destination base in the base description, which I'd like to adjust it as you add items to transfer, but that will involve changing some function calls that might not work in all places.

Fire away.  I don't want to make the jump to full time programmer yet and start working on the main trunk, sorry, but this was something that was bothering me while playing the game and seemed easy to do, but little enough that you guys might not want to spend time on it.  Again, happy to make it conform to your design goals better if you want, just let me know.  When I'm done I'll submit it to you for review.

63

Discussion / Re: attributes for other personnel types?

« on: May 22, 2012, 02:38:27 am »

I feel like the subgames involved simply aren't rich enough to justify stats—at least without some significant modifications in how research and production work, I'd actually suggest the other way and replace the current named-units-with-checkbox system with a spinner like inventory for workers and scientists. Pilots also don't have a rich subgame, but at least you don't need to deal with a lot of them.

~J

Yeah, I agree.  As it is right now, spinners would be easier than having to select each one.  The end result is the same.

My overall vote would be to define stats for workers/scientists/pilots and have them develop over time.  Perhaps in harder games make them scarcer from the countries, maybe no more than one a month  from each country, and again, have to protect them during base raids.  Aliens could be programmed to go after the better workers/scientists to knock them off and set back production.  If researchers and engineering stats increased over time, then it would be an impact to lose one as you'd have to develop new ones to replace them to get production levels back up.

64

Newbie Coding / Re: Question on List Formatting

« on: May 22, 2012, 01:51:17 am »

Yes, the *.ufo files should be in one of the *.pk3 (ufos.pk3), its a simple zip file so you can extract them easily.

Ah-ha.  I guess the pk was a clue to pkzip, but hadn't run across that yet in my wanderings.  Thanks!

65

Newbie Coding / Re: Question on List Formatting

« on: May 22, 2012, 01:36:08 am »

Ok, figured out the ui editor, sort of.  I was able to modify the field width in there and found the extracted window in my local directory.  The editor could really use some better documentation, but I guess it worked.

I guess I can submit the extracted window script file as part of a solution when I'm done.  I am not sure how to make it part of the game, but if you like the change I come up with, you can decide how to make that happen.  If not at least I'll know how to modify it for my games in the future.

66

Newbie Coding / Re: Question on List Formatting

« on: May 22, 2012, 01:14:04 am »

Well, now I'm even more confused.  I have no script files on my 2.4/base install, just ones under unittest.  I see the base/etc.../*.ufo scripts in my old 2.2 and 2.3 installation directories, but I have nothing in the 2.4.  I know I have compiled them in because the there are UI's that are different in 2.4 from 2.3 and earlier.  The game is working fine.

I downloaded the sources listed http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/Download and extracted.  Are they by chance in the .pk3 files now?  And I need to extract them?  I don't see anything like that mentioned in the wiki, but there are only *.pk3 files under base.

67

Newbie Coding / Re: Question on List Formatting

« on: May 22, 2012, 12:08:45 am »

Thank you, H-hour.  That should get me started.  I hadn't started looking at the scripting yet.

68

Discussion / Re: attributes for other personnel types?

« on: May 22, 2012, 12:05:51 am »

I would like it.  Scientists and workers used to have stats, but they were the same as soldiers and didn't make much sense, as I recall.  I would like to see stats on them too and have it impact development time.  I also liked the idea of XCOM that we had to protect them in base attacks.  I wish that was in here too.

It it too much micromanagement?  Probably.  I would still like it though.

69

Newbie Coding / Question on List Formatting

« on: May 21, 2012, 11:55:28 pm »

Hi,

I thought I'd take a stab at modifying the transfer screen to tell me how much of each item is at a destination site.  Figured that out, great, but for the life of me I can't figure out how the string is actually formatted for display on screen.  My small mod works ok for low quantities, though a bit ugly.  I chose to just add it to the "amounts" list and if there is more than 0 items at the destination site, display it in the same field, with a simple separator char to distinguish the two numbers.  Seemed the easiest way with least impact.  But if the item number gets over 2 chars at each site, then the display reads "..." since it can't fit the required chars into the space provided.

I'd like to clean it up and submit for your approval, assuming I can get it looking halfway decent, but I can't seem to figure out where the formatting or control of the field width is provided.  It seems to be shot off into the global void where some function not related to the actual transfer screen functions picks it up and decides what to do with it, and I don't see where that is.  Can anyone give me a quick synopsis on it and where to look?

70

Discussion / Re: Herakles: A death trap?

« on: May 21, 2012, 02:02:14 am »

After playing a mission or two with the herakles, I think it's a good ship.  This is the way XCOM used to be, landing and then having to fight your way off the ship.  That first step off the ship was the scariest moment.  It was something I kind of missed in UFO:AI when we'd land and have our soldiers already deployed, in sometimes not so good patterns.  I never really liked it when half the squad is positioned on the side of the ship away from the aliens and lose basically a turn trying to get them to the other side. I like fighting my way off the ship.

That said, some things that might make it better:

- I always wanted the ability to set the order of my troops.  Since technically, the moment the door opens we should be ready to go.  I'd love to have my assault guys up front ready to head out, my snipers close behind already crouched and ready to acquire targets.  Would it be possible to set the order at least of our troops in the drop ship?   Maybe just assign numbers to each position and let us order the troops in the squad assignment.  You have ways of setting the priority of items on the Production list; could use the same method to move soldiers up and down the list to order them.

- Maybe a window or two on the sides so we can see out?  Possibly sniper holes?  That would make it easier to figure out what is going on around us.  Yes it makes us a target, but I find it hard to believe we'd build a ship with no radar or windows.  For a long term idea, maybe put a radar on it and have it highlight the people standing nearby, civies as well as aliens.

- The alien AI needs to learn to hide somewhat.  It just rushes the entrance.  It's almost too easy to just sit back and wait for them to position themselves at the door to be picked off.  Not sure if all the maps have the same issue.

71

Tactics / Re: Base invasion

« on: May 18, 2012, 08:37:18 pm »

This is not true. Last time I played a base defence mission my men were spawned in hospital and command centre, none of them in living quarters.

Fixed.  In this last game on 2.4, probably 5 or 6 base defenses, I don't recall any time when they spawned somewhere other than the living quarters.  Point taken though and I modified my post.

The strategy still works though as those buildings should still be built on the other side of the entrance from the hangars... if possible.  Sometimes the starting entrance isn't in a good position for that, but they should be close to the entrance at least.

I wonder if your chars spawn in the hospital if any of them are injured?  Or maybe if you have a high ranking officer then they spawn in the command center?  It may also have to do with how many living quarters you have.  If you only have one living quarter, it will put 4 in there, and the other 4 will need to go somewhere else.

72

Discussion / Re: Weapons and damage in 2.5 (HEAD)

« on: May 18, 2012, 08:10:24 pm »

No offense intended, Jon_dArc, I just prefer to figure out what works for me through playing the game and not analyzing the stats behind the scenes.  To each his own.

In most games I've played, there are always weapons that don't quite cut it.  The laser rifle is one, so as to why have it in the game?  Well, if you've never played it, you'd try it, find out it didn't work like you had hoped, and move on.  Just like in real life.  So you do the research, design and build it, field it, and guess what... the troops come back with reports that the weapon didn't work exactly like the eggheads thought it would.  Back to the drawing board.  That's why I said the research needs to be in order, so you go through that progression.  I did it in order just because, and I like the heavy laser much better.

For reference, back in XCOM, I eventually found out that the laser rifle kicked the most butt and a squad of guys armed with them could cut a map down quickly, even in the later stages.  The heavy laser and laser pistol sucked, however, but I still had to go through them to find that out.  This game is different, so it doesn't bother me if the laser rifle doesn't cut it.  There are others that do, and if the assault rifle works better for a persons tactics than the laser rifle, then that's the weapon they should field.  Hot lead still has certain advantages.

73

Tactics / Re: My battle strategy

« on: May 18, 2012, 07:57:27 pm »

My strat is:

2x Assaults (assault rifles to start, upgrade to em rifle and plasma rifle)
2x Heavy (Machine guns, upgrade to heavy lasers and plasma blaster)
3x Sniper (sniper rifles, upgrade to coilgun at some point, but the basic sniper rifle is good throughout the entire game)
1x Grenade Launcher/Stunner

I like to keep a good mix of weaponry, so I use all types.  This helps with ammo distribution and making sure I never run out of anything, though UFO:AI is pretty good at keeping ammo available in the store.

Med kits on all, grenades and flashbangs, but to be honest, I never use them.  With 3 snipers, I take down most at long range and the assaults are there to help keep the bad guys away from the snipers and heavies.  If I get rushed, the Grenadier puts the hurtin on them while the rest pick em off.  I also keep at least 2 extra ammo packs for everyone.

For Harvester assaults, I first wait for all the aliens to rush out and pick them off from the sides.  Then I send in my assaults in first, put them just before the stairwell... hard to describe, but as you go in through the back of the UFO, you go through the main door, then two more doors.  Just after you get into the main body, there are some shelves or something.  I put my two assault guys between the shelves and the stair well, my two heavies just this side of the shelves, and snipers behind them in the doors.  Then I wait for the the enemy to rush.  They usually stop just at my assault guys without firing and without reaction points, depending on the weapon they have, who then pick them off quickly with bursts.  If needed, I finish them off with the heavies.  Then I send my guys forward to take any enemies who may be hiding in the stairwell.  Game over.

I do mix it up a bit on squads, replacing the third sniper for something else, depending on what is available.

74

Tactics / Re: Very difficult time with this game...

« on: May 18, 2012, 07:19:53 pm »

I always use a squad of 8.  It makes sweeping the maps much easier as you can spread your guys around and it's harder for the enemy to go back into areas you've already searched.  There are some maps that start with 4 or 5 aliens in view as well, and for those times it's great to have a full 8 members ready to engage.

75

Tactics / Re: Base invasion

« on: May 18, 2012, 07:12:49 pm »

Exactly.  Three pages to get the most basic solution; design your bases for defense.

Aliens only come in through the entrance, large hanger, and the basic radar tower.  Rebuild your radar to advanced later to get rid of one more spot, though the radar tower can be an excellent sniper spot.  Early on I try to get a couple guys there fast to start picking them off at the entrance, because radar is often near the entrance.  Your troops often spawn in your living quarters, so build 2 close to the entrance.  Use the entrance as your choke point.  This means you lose a few spots of area to build in, but it's worth it for the ease of defense, and you can always build more bases.  Most of the time, they come in through the entrance.  I haven't had any spawn inside the command center or anywhere inside the base.

Once the attack starts, get your guys to the entrance choke point and stake out all corridors coming from it, if designed right, will not be more than 2.  Deal with any aliens as they come down, try to entice them if you can.  While you deal with them, send 3 or 4 of your guys on ahead to try to take the radar tower or large hanger so you can flank the ones at the entrance.  If you've designed your base right, there won't be very many corridors and a 2x2 squad arrangement for them will get you there without leaving any place unsearched.

Base defense is simple if you plan for it.  Should take no longer than any other mission.

EDITED: Troop spawn points.