Messages

1

Discussion / Re: New wound and healing system on 2.5-dev

« on: July 27, 2012, 05:53:52 pm »

A fourth way would be that during a mission, the medkit can only heal soldiers by a certain percentage of their max health, say (for argument's sake) 80%.

So for example if a soldier had 100 max health, and took some damage, the medkit could heal up to 80hp, regardless of how many times he is wounded, however after it has healed 80hp total, using the medkit won't have any more effect for that mission. So he needs to go back to hospital to heal.

This could be exploited a bit though, if you take wounded soldiers on fresh, easy missions to heal them up, but you could make it so that soldiers that are 'moderately' or 'heavily' wounded can't leave the hospital.

Alternately, just give a cap on how much health the medkit can heal in a mission, per solider. That way the medkit still has 'infinite ammo', but limited use. If that made any sense...

2

Tactics / Re: Where/why/how many bases do you build?

« on: July 25, 2012, 03:54:29 pm »

Huh, I've always been able to sell crashed UFOs, don't know if that changed at all in 2.5?

Do the interceptors cost lots because you are losing them, or is it just the missiles that are too costly? Once you get the ariel laser you should swap out all/most of the weapons with it, since it doesn't use ammo.

And don't try shooting down harvesters either, they are worth much more to you intact anyway, if you keep them in your UFO yard.

3

Tactics / Re: Combat Medics

« on: July 09, 2012, 01:52:43 pm »

My coil gun users have a particle pistol as a "backup weapon" in case they run out of ammo (which is a very real possibility with that weapon), though that in itself is a tradeoff between having the backup pistol or having a medkit, or having 2 more coil shots.
My grenade launcher guy has one for close quarters where using a grenade would be detrimental to his long and short term health (though it could be argued that a particle pistol can be used as a primary weapon given its power and accuracy.)

Speaking of plasma blades, all my troops keep one of those in their holsters too, next to the medkit (yeah, they have to be careful which one they pull out  ). They are very good for when you discover a heavily armoured ortnok round the corner, but you don't have enough TU or troops to bring him down with regular fire. And for close encounters in general.

4

Tactics / Re: Combat Medics

« on: July 06, 2012, 01:53:10 pm »

Again, though, "quickly" is 20 TUs instead of 22. You really find the savings that valuable?

~J

^This +1

I equip all my troops with a medkit in their holsters, and give them all two handed weapons otherwise. The rocket launcher is the only one who can't use a medkit without un-equipping his main weapon, but I've stopped using them in favour of grenade launchers.

Besides, any troop can get injured, and there's no way to know if the medic is going to be in the right place at the right time, so best to make everyone capable of it. Plus, medics can't heal themselves (unless I've been doing it wrong...)
I'd rather have the extra firepower, and prevent injuries through having more dead aliens

5

Tactics / Re: Hoverbots. AARGH!

« on: June 22, 2012, 01:22:29 pm »

Whoa whoa whoa, BACK UP a sec. There are Hoverbots now?? 

Can somebody shoot some screens of these things in action? (please quality pics with maxed out settings and widescreen resolution) Its actually a news on indiedb worth.

^ This!

6

Feature Requests / Re: Geoscape countries

« on: June 16, 2012, 02:07:24 am »

The countries are still there, its just the territories are grouped under different names, your home country is still there waiting to be invaded by aliens! (Its not that far in the future)

Not more cowbells?

Everyone needs more cowbells!

7

Offtopic / Re: Firaxis Games announces XCOM: Enemy Unknown

« on: June 07, 2012, 06:05:02 pm »

The main site has a new E3 trailer up.
Its all cutscene rather than gameplay, but it does show a few new enemies by the looks of it

8

Offtopic / Re: Flash-based Xcom-like game

« on: June 07, 2012, 06:01:16 pm »

This flash game is finished now, 'Mission in space' though like a numpty I managed to delete my save game...

The troops have separate movement and action points, oh and, the aliens are infinite, so don't hang around trying to kill them all...

9

Discussion / Re: Aliens can freak out too

« on: June 03, 2012, 12:50:01 pm »

I've had an alien go mad and kill one other alien I think, but that's the only other alien there was in that vicinity. I've also had one kill his buddy who was near my troops, but that was cos his aim was rubbish I think (Plasma pistol ain't too accurate).

I've noticed that when the aliens cower in my campaign they sometimes appear to 'drop' their weapon on the floor (you can see a plasma rifle on the floor for instance) while they are cowering, but then the next turn when they recover, they suddly have their weapon again

(though it makes a bit more gameplay sense to me that cowering aliens/soldiers would keep their weapons, I remember in a much earlier version when soldiers freaked out much easier, they would drop their weapons and run about, and that became really frustrating to recover from)

Incidentally, I've never seen one of my troops freak out yet, though I don't loose that many troops...
(and they tend to die way before they lose morale)

Civilians attacking you is part of the story. It's this XVI virus and you can research it to get the message, that aliens use humans.

Also, I often got the message "alien bla is in mad rage", though in 2.3 I had more aliens gunning down their own kind than in 2.4.

Ahh that's interesting, that means the electrolaser makes much more sense, I understand why its a primary weapon now even though its a stungun...

10

Discussion / Re: Alien propulsion won't work IRL

« on: May 30, 2012, 05:03:42 pm »

The key difference between an explosion, as such, and a matter/antimatter annihilation is that while both produce (or release, if we're being precise) energy, the former does so with a negligible change in the total mass of the reactants. At perfect efficiency, a matter/antimatter annihilation leaves you unable to propel anything, because although you've released huge amounts of energy there's no longer any mass to push against any other mass.

Ah, thats, quite true. I did NOT think things all the way through. 

Though unfortunately, that IS what the UFOpedia currently says (using the explosive force):

It uses direct matter-antimatter annihilation to generate thrust by injecting protons and antiprotons into the reaction chamber, then channeling this explosive force out the back of the engine.

so...

11

Discussion / Re: Alien propulsion won't work IRL

« on: May 30, 2012, 03:48:20 pm »

*WARNING BIG POST AHEAD*

In the simplest terms, it's a gravity sensor, scanning for minute changes in a background gravitational field. Everything travelling through a gravity field disturbs the field to some degree based on its size, mass and composition.

Well, sorry to disappoint you guys, but with thisin "alien detection" you already gave the aliens the ability to play with gravitational field so advanced, that simple agrav looks child's play.

Nooo you mis-read that. The alien detection does not 'Play' with the gravitational field at all, it detects changes in the background field, caused by other objects passing through it. Its purely Passive. Remember, all objects with mass have their own gravity, just that its too tiny for *us* to detect on anything other than a planet, (or a mountain, if you've got more sensitive equipment. Think GRACE. Its been  in orbit since 2002)

With regards to how the aliens do it, think of the gravitational lensing effect that stars have on the space around them but on a much, much MUCH tinier scale. They are detecting how much the mass of an object (say, a fighter jet) is bending the space around it, due to its (tiny) gravitational field.
(I THINK, obviously I don't know how the aliens do it, its not said exactly in the game. But I'm fine with that. It explains enough to be believable on current science, but doesn't make up a bunch of sci-fi explanation for how stuff works. And it can't anyway, since the point of view its from, we don't have the same theoretical know-how as the aliens do)

Since you want to be a "hard sci-fi", you should change your alien propulsion ideas. Well, sorry, but this just won't work this way. The linear momentum preservation law tells us, that in order to move forward, we need to throw something backward, easy as that.

Yes, Newton's 3rd law, 'The action and reaction forces between two bodies are equal, opposite'.
Chemical engines work by throwing out lots of mass (all that Hydrogen + Oxygen) at a high velocity (thats what all the combustion is for), giving lots of momentum (Mass x Velocity). The space shuttle, for instance, throws out lots of fuel with lots of momentum out the back, and it goes forward.

However, Newton's 3rd law ALSO applies to EXPLOSIONS. Thats how a gun works.
When you fire a gun, a bullet comes out one end, and the barrel recoils in the other. But the barrel and the bullet are not pushing on each other!! There's an explosion inbetween, which pushes on both. The barrel contains the explosion, so most of the force goes into pushing the bullet forwards and the barrel back. If the barrel wasn't strong enough, it would also explode outward, but that's not too fun.

The antimatter engine, as described in the UFOpedia, is effectively using the explosive force to push the rocket along. Not the craziest idea we've had. (see 0.23 - 1.18). (It doesn't use little bomblets like this, but the principle is the same.)

Suppose the antimatter itself is this "something". 1000 points of AM is 10 grams, while a full tank is ~50 points, means, 0.5 grams + 0.5 grams of matter = 1.0 gram. Assume the engine efficiency is 100%, and this gram goes out at the speed of light.

While your numbers are lovely, what you're doing is effectively how an Ion engine works, i.e firing a constant stream of low mass particles (ions in this case) out the back of a spacecraft at near-the speed of light. A different way of getting lots of momentum. Good for space, but not for getting off the planet .

In the air, this engine can still work as a ramjet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramjet), although ramjet is working only on high speeds, and you have to think of some other propulsion system to give the ship initial acceleration.
But anyway, in space - you're out of luck.

NO  . Anti-matter Annihilation DOES NOT EQUAL combustion!! Combustion requires Oxygen (space rockets work cos we take our own liquid oxygen with us).
Anti-matter Annihilation changes Matter into Energy direct. E=mc². (Cliché I know, but yes, you can actually use that equation here!). Mass, x Speed of light squared = Shitloads of energy. The mass actually isn't there anymore... its been converted to energy. Mass is in effect a different form of energy. Conservation laws of Mass and Energy are not broken.
Both can result in explosions, yes, but Combustion requires oxygen.

How about having antimatter reactors and plasma drives?

The annoying thing about this is that it's bloody hard to find a propulsion method that properly illustrates their technological advantage without resorting to some sort of agrav or something of the sort.

Seriously, glorofied rockets and FTL just doesn't sound right, does it?

That sounds like a good idea to me. Using the explosive force of anti-matter as the propulsion did strike me as *glorified rocket engine* as well, it didn't quite sit right.
Also if you are using the antimatter as the propellent, how off-earth would you use it to go FTL?? Antimatter reactor and plasma drives seems to make more sense to me. (With FTL as some separate system, that does whatever it does using the power from the reactor)

Since the aliens can get plasma weapons working in our atmosphere fine, plasma engines sound plausible. The engines as they are look like they could be plasma engines or whatever. Antimatter reactor could definitely get lots of power out of them. No need to say how they work, just that for the aliens, they do.

12

Discussion / Re: Feedback

« on: May 27, 2012, 01:55:46 am »

TACTICAL SCREEN

Using the standard UI, in the upper left corner where the portrait and name are, under the name should be a red square for each enemy unit visible to his LOS. Clicking on each red dot center screen on enemy unit visible to the selected friendly unit.

I *think* this IS already possible, one of the tips of the day said that pressing t, while a soldier was selected, was supposed to draw a line to any aliens visible from that particular soldier. I checked the controls and its listed there too. Can't remember getting it to work myself though, need to try again.

13

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

« on: May 24, 2012, 11:13:55 pm »

The rebalancing has been dramatic. How things were in 2.4 is only relevant insofar as existing player expectations will be guided by that.

Ack, I'm probably not qualified to be talking about damage output then, but yeah, disscussion I can go for at least! 

It took a while, but I could usually get a sniper to 36 TUs. Also, 30 TUs for an aimed shot plus a snap shot were easily doable

Egads, 34 TUs is the best I can manage at the moment! Currently just got to researching the Dragon interceptor, and its October. And thats only cos that guy was an elite recruit. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here >.<

Yeah I noticed the aimed + snap shot combo, quite nice, but was only really possible if the sniper was already crouched and in position from the previous turn, which didn't happen too often for me, the aliens tended to move out of position if they were still alive 

(sniper rifle) a snap shot did 105 damage for the same TU cost as a laser rifle's 126±15 for wave fire, but armor/resistance are tripled against the latter, and although the snap shot is more likely to miss altogether the laser rifle is more likely to suffer from reduced damage by missing at least one of the three shots.

I prefer reduced damage to no damage, but I guess that's just my personal preference. My mine gripe was that, while powerful, I couldn't rely on my snipers, they were more of an added bonus, especially since they couldn't take out an unarmoured Taman on their own (but that's changed now in 2.5 from what I understand, so my tactics would probably change accordingly)

This is a balancing exercise—my goal isn't to pick the best weapon, it's to make sure that all weapons have a reason to be picked.

The laser rifle requires a three-step research process, then either production or a long wait for the market to spin up. After all that, it should be a clear improvement in at least some circumstance.

Agreed.

*[2.4 disclaimer]* I found the laser rifle's 'niche' to be very long ranges - you can take shots that, with other weapons, you wouldn't even attempt. With an assult rifle you might look at a range of 20/30 squares and just think "Best to take cover and wait/move in closer". With a laser rifle you'd take some shots. Sure you'll miss a few. Yes, once medium armour shows up they aren't so great anymore. But if you can take out the unarmoured guys out before they are close enough to do damage, that's always valuble. (Maybe I'm just reckless with ammo though, heh)

This is what the sniper rifle is supposed to be for as well, but in 2.4 I didn't find it accurate enough, so I switched over to laser power. Then again, by my own logic I should probably have used the rocket sniper launcher, but I wanted to check out the lasers too, since the last time I played UFO:AI was before it even had laser weapons o_0

If the 2.5 changes mean the laser weapons no longer fit that use (or any other), then... well... I'm out of useful comments really 

I haven't yet developed a principled way to account for accuracy,

Could perhaps try considering the weapons at 3 distinct ranges, short medium, long? Yeah I know, then it becomes a question of 'what do people consider long range' but that my idea all the same

14

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

« on: May 24, 2012, 02:17:34 pm »

Eh, what I say will only count for 2.4 stable release, as I haven't played 2.5, but I always used the laser rifle and heavy laser as a replacement for the sniper rifle, not the assault rifle. Primarily because of the higher accuracy (until something better come along), and the fact that you could never take a 2nd aimed shot with the sniper rifle. Typically both my snipers would miss in a turn, and then my troops would be in danger.

The laser rifle was never gonna compete with the assault rifle in terms of damage output, since it doesn't have a full-auto fire mode, and takes more TUs to fire the same amount of shots. I thought the whole point of the laser weapons was low-damge, but near guaranteed hit? If the accuracy has been lowered that kinda defeats the point...