Messages

1

Discussion / Re: Is that all there is?

« on: February 05, 2011, 10:25:56 pm »

Well, I've just seen the unexpected end sequence on 2.2.1 and now I'm a bit sad. The game ended kinda quickly after about 40 missions... however the last mission was called "TODO" and I began to suspect something :]
Anyway I had a lot of fun while playing, thanks guys! I appreciate all the hard work and many details put into this game - very different maps, nice graphic design, climatic music, not mentioning that some research emails from dr Connor were pure joy to read.
Surely I gonna try it after a while, but on higher difficulty level, or maybe meanwhile it will appear new universal Mac version that works out of the box? I hope so - reading about all new features in 2.3+ is like a teaser.

BTW does the developer team accept any donations? I would gladly send a few credits as I feel obligated to at least buy you guys a large pizza but can't find any address or Paypal account.

2

Feature Requests / Re: more strategy in 2.4

« on: January 15, 2011, 04:28:02 pm »

Hello all,

First of all, my big thanks and appreciations to all involved in developing UFO:AI! I've been playing the original UFO on Amiga ages ago, and since then missed this game. Now I can again spend some time fighting aliens, but in new improved 3d environment and with great music

Before continuing, I have to admit that I am playing the ancient unsupported 2.2.1 version for Mac PPC, which is amazingly stable and  - except 2-3 small issues - I had no crashes or problems so far. Anyway, before posting I have read the Proposals section and most of forum threads to get the picture of the development status - but if in my text I missed some options that are already implemented, please forgive me.

Now, to the point. I have seen lots of excellent ideas proposed on the forum, that would expand the plyability, realism and player-experience. One that catched my attention, was a suggestion to increase battlescape mission diversity, include region happiness factor and interaction with civilians or other local forces. So far (please note my 2.2.1) we have strictly "soldiers vs aliens on map" plus wandering NPC characters that sometimes get killed. I will try to describe a few modifications that - I hope - would bring some, ahem, more realism into battling aliens scenario.

In short:
Including NPCs into conflict as an active participant, providing various feedback or hints that player may find useful. Communication prompt indicated as small marker over civilians head. Info displayed as simple text messages or perhaps small popup window with text and person face.

Background:
We are civilians living in a town, village, working in factory etc. and suddenly, from the blue sky - the aliens invaded! Shooting, killing, pillaging, abducting and skreeking "die puny earthlings". Few hours later arrives the Phalanx squad and starts fighting back the alien scum. How would the local civilians react and what can influence their behaviour?

Of course most of the civilians will hide and wait, run in panic or get accidentally killed by explosion or standing in fireline. But some of them, seeing how soldiers are fighting the aliens, might try to help them and share some advice, depending on many factors. Being a local that knows the surrounding area, would you signal the special forces' soldier that his enemy is hiding near? Or would you just hide and watch what is happening?

Terms in general:

• We can assume that eg. only 1 out of 3 civilians would try to communicate, we don't want role-playing with everybody talking to everybody. Having 10 civilians on the map, maybe 3 of them would be helpful. With some randomization it would give maybe 1-2 hints while mission, without overusing this feature.
  
• The factor above may be modified by region happiness and Phalanx reputation. If civilians know the soldiers are doing good job, they will be more friendly to them. But if player has killed some civilians (on some missions before or in this region), they will not cooperate, or act unfriendly.
  

The interaction/communication can be divided into few types, eg:

• On drop zone we can have sometimes a civilian (or local authority) meeting soldiers and giving general information about the enemy - "They came from the north", "They have flying drones", "They abducting people for experiments". Player may guess alien ship location, alien race or their mission type (scientific). This can be helpful with "fog of war" enabled on the map and possibly allow rearming squad at the dropship, accordingly to the enemy type.
  
• On the map we can have civilian warn the soldier about something. If the local person knows there is an alien in close range (eg. in radius of 10 steps, on other side of the wall, on the roof etc.) and the civilian sees approaching soldier - who does not see enemy - he may give him a hint - "One of them is somewhere around", "There are hiding near", "Watch for the roofs". Of course having soldiers equipped with some advanced alien-locating gizmos would make this advice unnecessary.
  
• On the map civilians may express their opinion about overall player score and reputation. If the Phalanx forces arrived quickly on terror site, some may greet them "Good you are here". Skipping or failing some missions will cause bad fame and the civilians instead of helping would just make accusations "You do nothing to help us!". On the other hand, using heavy weapons and explosives may result in "Thats my shop you just blew up!". May sound silly, but reminds that we act in populated area and should not just nuke all region from the orbit to be sure.
  
• On the map the civilians could sometimes hide (crouch) or be wounded and call for help. Hiding civilian may indicate near alien. Healing wounded civilian is not obligatory, but would increase mission ranking and player reputation. Wounded may also have important information.
  
• Civilians move on alien turn, they can approach soldiers or run away from them. Communication can be initiated in player turn, when soldier is 3-5 steps from civilian having "speak marker" over head. Message can be displayed as one line of text, or as small dialog window with NPC person.
  

Implementation:

In my humble opinion, should not be very complicated, however I understand if devs disagree with me
Extension of battlescape includes following elements:

• computing player reputation, depending on overall mission ranking, region happiness and current map activity
• adding communication markers to a number of NPCs per map
• adding ability to display text message after clicking on NPC with marker
• trigger communication marker on soldier approach
• detect combination: civilian + soldier + unseen alien
• hint types randomized or given in order of importance: near alien warning, general situation info, player score opinion or other stuff
• allow NPCs to approach soldiers, hide, get wounded or run away

I believe the key to make this feature work, is unique list of various messages or hints that will not repeat in each mission and therefore keep the player interested in exploring them. I hope some of the ideas may help to enrich the gaming experience. And if I have more of these, I will not hesitate to share