Messages

91

Discussion / Re: New soldier stat increase system

« on: February 15, 2008, 07:16:19 pm »

I like the new proposed system. If anything, I'd add a slight accuracy/weapons boost for misses, as has already been stated. Unfortunately, how would the game differentiate between a miss on a targeted alien, and just random firing on walls? (Or even a hit on an alien that is not targeted?)

Perhaps an alternative proposal for the mind stat could be that it is increased slightly for almost any action, not just kills. This rewards supporting roles such as stunning an alien, using flashbombs or smoke grenades, being a medic - in general, teamwork skills. Perhaps this could even be extended to simple things like sighting an alien or civilian, rewarding scouting.

Unfortunately, some of these are in the list of usable statistics, which makes them unworkable for now.


Edit: Another thought: It could be that the underlying rules themselves can be complicated, as long as they're described simply. For example, saying "Firing at aliens will increase accuracy and proficiency with that weapon class," even though the actual increase is determined by some formula using the soldier's hits, misses, and existing mind, accuracy, and weapons skill. Anyone interested enough to know the exact formula will be able to understand and take advantage of the system quantitatively. Anyone who is only interested in the simple formula sees the direct results of his actions anyway qualitatively. (ie: That person sees that soldiers who take more shots at aliens tend to get better stat increases)

92

Artwork / Re: MIMIR Telescope/Carrier Animation

« on: February 08, 2008, 10:53:11 pm »

I hate triple posting, but here's the previous rendered sequence with the static/rewind added.

https://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~djetowns/public_html/misc_files/UFO_AI/MIMIR_final110001_0940.avi

93

Tactics / Re: How do you protect the Firebird?

« on: February 07, 2008, 05:48:24 am »

I disagree with aliens starting an engagement with PHALANX. Personally, I think the aliens should not shoot at any PHALANX craft unless under attack by them. There is no conceivable way that the aliens can distinguish a Firebird from the thousands of other airliners in the air at any given moment, unless they had spies on the ground supplying transponder data. (Perhaps that's another consequence of losing regions to XVI - overflying aircraft have a chance to be engaged or shot down).

(Edit: Of course, this is the tactics forum, so maybe this post has no place here)

94

Discussion / Re: First aid?

« on: February 06, 2008, 07:14:55 pm »

I like the X-COM system, too. Also, wounded soldiers had a handicap to their abilities. Of course, it's up to the developers if they want to be 'inspired' by the system, or try to use their own system that works.

Me, I think it makes sense that soldiers would not be allowed on missions until the doctors clear them. I'd sometimes accidentally bring a trooper along who had only a dozen hitpoints, and I'd wonder "Why did anybody even allow him on the plane? He must be limping and have to change his bandages every day."

Of course, in X-Com, because hospital time was based on number of HP lost, my more experienced soldiers were bedridden a lot longer than rookies were (assuming they survived). I think percentage of HP lost would be a better algorithm.

Oh, one addition to the hospital screen should be a countdown to when the soldier would be fully healed.

95

Discussion / Re: Civilians... those little buggers.

« on: February 06, 2008, 06:56:44 pm »

I'd also like to point out that, in later stages of the game, PHALANX soldiers are likely to be wearing more advanced powered armour and may be just as unrecognizable/inhuman as the aliens are.

To the civvie AI rules, I'd add that they would remember where the latest seen alien was for one or two turns, so it will run away just a little farther. I'd also add that they hide upon hearing weapons fire nearby (any gun or grenade discharge within 5-10 tiles) and wait a turn or two before roaming again.

I remember reading a proposal in the wiki about a new waypointing system: The existing pathing algorithm does not work well for longer distances (like aliens invading a base), so a network of nodes would be used by the AI for long-distance movement. Something like this would be good for civilians: If running away from an alien, it will choose the farthest node from the alien such that the path to the node does not take it any closer to the alien. If no such path exists, then the waypointing will simply try to find the furthest location from the alien (with existing pathing system), such that the path does not come closer to the alien and the endpoint is in a place with 2 or more walls.

96

Discussion / Re: Save in Combat

« on: February 06, 2008, 06:31:14 pm »

A forced quit after a save in a tactical mission, combined with deleting the saved file after load, I think would be the best way to go. If the player desperately wants to manually copy a backup of their save file... well, it might just be too much trouble to use some authentication scheme rather than just letting them do it. On the extreme end, players could conceivably just save the memory state of the program, and there's no defense against that.

But if the player finds it too cumbersome to save-backup-load (then to reload, quit-restore-load), then the job has been accomplished, hasn't it?

97

Artwork / Re: MIMIR Telescope/Carrier Animation

« on: February 04, 2008, 09:37:42 pm »

https://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~djetowns/public_html/misc_files/UFO_AI/MIMIR_final110001_0850.avi

Just finished rendering another pass. There's no post-processing (zoom effects, static, rewinding) etc... on it just yet. This is just to test the lack of camera shake and stuff. When I get time later today, there'll be some static and rewinds.

98

Discussion / Re: The backgrounds graphics used are really ugly

« on: February 04, 2008, 05:31:53 pm »

I do have a GUI template for the current style at.

http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Psawhn

Anybody's welcome to modify the files to change the background. Here's a quick example I whipped up:

99

Artwork / Re: MIMIR Telescope/Carrier Animation

« on: February 04, 2008, 03:32:47 am »

That's an idea I'm willing to try. I didn't think of rewinding combined with light static, though, which I think will seem better than just a raw rewind. I agree, though, that the double-zoom might not be needed.

Another idea I had was a 'scan' that goes through and enhances the resolution, however I think that would be lost with only a few stars in the field of view.

I have to re-render the first sequence to get rid of the rollercoaster camera, and while I'm at it I might as well re-render the second sequence to take away a few of those glitches. Once I finish rendering, though, I save the files so it's easy enough to chance post-processing. It's also easy enough to go and change parts of the animation, as long as the frames match up before and after. (So we could experiment with alternative jump-in flashes and graphics.)

100

Artwork / Re: Alien Autopsies

« on: February 02, 2008, 01:18:32 am »

I actually thought that the aliens didn't even have genitalia anymore - maybe I was just thinking of X-Com, where the aliens are cloned.

101

Design / Re: Basic economy

« on: February 01, 2008, 07:41:49 pm »

I agree that shipping delays are good, but they are incompatible with the current implementation of autosell.
Any item that PHALANX brings should either not be sold, or be replaced (if used up, like a grenade) by another of that item brought along by the aliens (if available). Perhaps on the mission debrief there could be a tab that takes you to another page showing recovered items, used items, and items slated to be sold.
Only items recovered in a mission can be autosold. If you have a stockpile of plasma clips at base, and recover some more and choose to autosell these, the stockpiled clips should not be touched.

A neat little effect might be that each base has a random shipping time modifier. Basically, that one base in Central Asia will have 72+4 hours for new supplies, but the base in Japan has 72-3 hours.

102

Artwork / Re: MIMIR Telescope/Carrier Animation

« on: February 01, 2008, 07:25:14 pm »

Ah, now I get what you mean. Basically have no tracking on the camera at all, and the UFO just happens to jump within view and fly past. I can save my pretty Earth rig for other shots, too, instead of trying to squeeze it in.

I can try a second of static. That'll probably tie things together a bit better.

And, yeah, I accidentally overwrote the first frame of animation with that stupid cube. 

103

Artwork / Re: MIMIR Telescope/Carrier Animation

« on: February 01, 2008, 06:38:55 pm »

Pff, took me long enough... 

https://webdisk.ucalgary.ca/~djetowns/public_html/misc_files/UFO_AI/MIMIR_final70001_0833.avi

Went with a blinky zoom box instead of a picture-in-picture approach. There's a bunch of dressing and scientifikey whatzamahoozits that I I want to add to the image later.

What I'm worried about is when the animation starts playing for the second time, before the zoom, the player might think "oh, it just repeats" and not actually watch anything. It's easy enough to cut bits out if it doesn't work.

104

Artwork / Re: Highlighting selected units

« on: February 01, 2008, 05:16:01 pm »

I agree that thickness of the circle should be enough, combined with pulsing green/transparent or green/white. (Or maybe dark green/light green).

Something else that'd be nice are fainter (maybe about what we have now) green circles around all (unselected) friendlies (and red around enemies, blue, yellow, etc), that increase in intensity as you zoom out. When zoomed out fully, the actual models would be too small to make out properly, but coloured circles would give you a good glance at your overall tactical situation. (And throw in a hotkey to turn these circles on/off, for screenshot-takers.)

105

Discussion / Re: how can i build a second base?

« on: January 28, 2008, 09:24:52 pm »

Three of the geoscape buttons (Build base, Ufopedia, Graphs & Finance) are hidden, and must be moused over to uncover them. (Personally, I don't agree with this. Later, I intend to go over most of the menus and redo them to be more user-friendly, but I don't know when I'll get around to that. I have to read up how to do that on the wiki, too.)