Messages

1

Feature Requests / Re: Reaction fire & TU reservation

« on: November 29, 2015, 04:15:30 pm »

I like the global tu reservation idea, If I have to walk my soldiers across the entire map for the instance of a sole remaining bloodspider. I would only want reservation when nearing the target and rarely after setting individual allocations do the reactions mode gets used. A 1-click global Reservation generally allows for some minor tactical refinement before the assault.

On the individual TU reservation quite often I find I have not allowed a spare TU for directional positioning, so I have effectively stored TU's whilst "not" peeking around a corner. Perhaps some options like save "10 Tu's" , "15 Tu's", "20 Tu's" maybe of benefit.

On the business of automation, is it not possible to have a continue to target feature whereby if you select a point on the other side of the map the soldier will automatically head to that point if he has unallocated, unreserved TU's at the end of the turn, or on a global "continue action" button.

2

Feature Requests / Re: Smoke on higher difficulty settings

« on: September 25, 2015, 07:01:42 pm »

at least allow typing "MILLION" when a soldier is in smoke to give 1,000,000 credits on the geoscape.

3

Feature Requests / Re: Smoke on higher difficulty settings

« on: September 25, 2015, 08:53:54 am »

"it all depends on the map and start positions" - I agree with this sentiment to a degree, but on some of the really small maps you land the shiip right smack bang in the middle of the aliens, you are surrounded and flanked from the offset. If the aliens have the ability to shoot at you in smoke you are gambling that your shots on the first turn are all successful, and then thats the map complete, win or lose, on to the next one...

If the idea of aliens being more 'informed' to deal with smoke is in the pipeline I still believe that a more steadfast visual counter measure would be prudent in the first 2 turns.

Can there be 2 types of smoke:-

                                              1. A lighter canister of smoke for troops, semi translucent to aliens
                                              2. A skyranger countermeasure, deployed on landing obscuring a couple of tiles around the skyranger, totally opaque, to Aliens and Phalanx combined.

A Skyranger smoke countermeasure would also make a plausible "bolt-hole" for civilians evading terror. It may also play a part in skyranger/interceptor evasion of other airbourne hostiles.

4

Feature Requests / Re: Allow to manually land the transport on geoscape

« on: September 23, 2015, 12:38:47 pm »

I think the issue with the alien ship is a valid one but the solution I believe could resolve far less technically. I have been treated to the dramatic theatre of "XCOM - Enemy Unknown" by Firaxis and I believe herein lies the answer. Throughout said game you get prompted into dialogue with scientists, engineers and Tactical Advisors and it is made ever-so-clear that the aliens are dominant on the globe outside of the XCOM facility. Not that the aliens intercept your craft in that game, yet you would not be surprised if they did.

I think a little more atmosphere upon the geoscape would raise the level of expectation of the aliens intent/attention, maybe Orsen Wells "red weed" making it's way across the landscape. Or If you try to send a skyranger 1,000's of miles a tactical advisor could pop up and suggest and interceptor escort or sing 'no Nathanual no'.
 

5

Feature Requests / Re: Smoke on higher difficulty settings

« on: September 22, 2015, 11:00:02 pm »

The 1st 2 turns on some maps are brutal, particually on small maps. Without smoke your soldiers are cut down before they have even disembarked from the Phalanx Skyranger. If smoke does not provide adequate cover I believe the process would just become a task in temper management.

Once your in turn 3-4 smoke is less of a necessity, and firing smoke from a grenade launcher away from your squad to lure aliens makes for some potentially interesting play. Is their a way to secure the 1st 2 turns?

6

Discussion / Re: Phalanx Base Invasion

« on: August 19, 2015, 09:07:41 pm »

cool, looking forward to revisiting cheyenne mountain

7

Discussion / Phalanx Base Invasion

« on: August 18, 2015, 02:40:05 am »

I enjoy the base invasion mission but think it is lacking a little.

There is some fantastic artwork in this scene and some novel ideas. However the ploding aliens very rarely enter the base complex itself, preferring to waddle about on the surface, which is of course quite plain looking.

Perhaps, someone would be skilled enough to enrich this mission with a little wizardry in the scripts. Perhaps make the aliens rush the control room. If they detonate a bomb on that vicinity it is game over.

Regards,

Drazil

8

Feature Requests / Re: Reaction fire, I really think this is good advice...

« on: July 27, 2014, 02:38:49 am »

 o
 |
/---  @ @ @ @ @             @ @ @ @
/\                            o-t-<     

This diagram was created with automatic blitz reaction fire, 1 tu to fire and 1 tu to reload.

zap zap

9

Feature Requests / Re: Reaction fire, I really think this is good advice...

« on: June 08, 2014, 03:48:46 am »

My long post to reaction fire was mainly an aversion to reaction fire in the turn based strat - Silent Storm. You would get spotted by the enemy from a free roaming scenario without the Time Unit counter and then the Computer would then move 20 units across your field of vision, into a comfortably prone position a yard from your characters nose and death-kill your digi-starlet. All of this at the most meandering pace a game can move at ( and they say that patience is a virtue ).

The mechanics of reaction fire here, in UFO:AI are reasonable in the sense that your own reactions on the mouse are not registered as a component of the outcome of the simulated developing situation.

Using the breaching door scenario it is reasonable to believe that you would want your character to have the cover of the walls around the door frame to remain himself concealed + reduce the angle of incident to the target in this instance probably firing on contact if even a civilian waltzes through gap . But knowing the exact moment your character will attack eventually becomes predictable along with the enemy characters preferred paths ( generally speaking for all computer games ). The style of reaction shooting in UFO enemy unknown created an exacting unpredictability on boths sides of the fence so the maneuver was always an enlightened gamble, but invariably the quickest reacting and best tactic was the victor. Considering that all actions available to the human are available to the computer in a small scale environment ( without the ability to spring out of a broom cupboard dressed as an ironing board for example ) then the computer can randomly and unwittingly create tactics to counter the player on occasions, adding a character reaction ability leaves you only escaping the encounter from the skin of your pants.

Edit:- Occasionally in XCOM ( EU ) Huge firefights would uncontrollably escalate across the map with human player RF, and if you had trained your characters well, you may stop the terror attack gloriously. Appreciating that reactions are not premeditated by context will create it's own battles for wisdom in the mind. But like the Frozen Synapse endeavour it is nice to release a larger strategy all in one click. click click boom.

OK - I'll make a stand, I would prefer a reaction stat to a finite action point counter.

Edit edit:- and finally in the editing edits sections of the post it's good to see that UFO:AI will make it into the Debian Repo's, I have been using Wine to play most recently but now armed with the knowledge that I will soon apt-get some fried aliens invaders I have reached 10 action points on the build-from-source counter and have a fancying to pack a blaster launcher in the 'ol codeblocks... good luck commander, you'll need it. 

10

Feature Requests / Re: Reaction fire, I really think this is good advice...

« on: April 09, 2014, 01:55:43 am »

When you stand behind the door waiting for old snakeman to walk through, you are expecting to use reaction fire, in a turn based game the only way you can copy a reactional strategy is to have fire outside of your own turn. Therefore I think the character should be set with a button click to expect to react, rather than just leaving him in an open field doing nothing. But the fire mode should be one that is not specified as an 'in-turn' strategy action such as aimed, snap or auto fire, hidden to the player in the fire menu. It should allow that both parties are completing actions simulanteously. Some games allow a reaction or interrupt to give a whole team a chance of completing a whole new round whilst the opposing character spends that time picking his nose!.
  Thinking whilst typing there, but a selected reaction shot on your turn should allow you to react immediately on sight of the enemy. But maybe once your character has reacted each subsequent action ( turn, shoot ) should only happen after a set number of action points expended by the opposition. thus

Turn on Reaction Fire -> Spot Enemy & Fire -> shot misses -> enemy spends 10 action points aiming & shooting -> he misses -> you fire again & use all reaction points -> shot misses -> Ortnok uses final action points and eats your brain.

This could allow the reaction statistic to be more relevant as well, providing a ratio from action points to reaction points conversion.

edit - or the reaction fire/speed statistic could be used to calculate TU's for the reaction fire only type shot. I would try and write a patch but my c++ skills are on the brink of meltdown with pointers/deferencers!

edit again - yes got it this time - each ammo has its own reaction fire type

Assault rifle clip - 2 quick auto type shots at 2/3 auto shot tu's
fletchette shells - 1 snap shot type blast at snap shot tu's
m203 grenades - blow your whole team up hiding in the skyranger for only 10 tu's, however you like.

On reaction fire confirmation would be great, click where to fire, right click cancel. can pops back up after 10 tu's of any alien if cancelled. allows for a little outmaneuvering.

Each soldier has his speed stat.

Speed 30 is your all alien or human average reaction speed only as an example which equates to no tu spend modifiers

reaction -: 1 ( speed 30 ) x 9 ( Assault rifle 2/3 auto-fire type reaction fire ) x 1 ( position latitudually to the north pole ) = 9 tu's for soldier 2 fire a couple of abysmal looking shots at alien, before browning he's trousers. Game user can curse at no logics but he's own poor strategy. Thus leading to more feature requests!

Kind Regards,

Tembero 

11

Discussion / Re: Seasons

« on: March 07, 2013, 12:08:26 pm »

Freak?!

12

Discussion / Re: 2.5 sucks completely

« on: February 12, 2013, 03:22:08 pm »

{exerpt from ufo xcom enemy unknown} turn 1 - smoke thrown out of back of skyranger, soldiers moved out into smoke. turn 2, 4 soldiers remain of the original 14 after soldier glimpsed in skyranger by blaster launcher equiped alien. Anger at loss of Colonel causes agressive seek and destroy. Turn 3 - 1 soldier has not been cut down by reaction fire but is now panicking. Turn 4 - Game Over! I believe the aliens are a little playable than in the original XCOM.

13

Feature Requests / Re: Base Improvements

« on: January 21, 2013, 09:08:17 pm »

I have been playing similar games to this 1 for millions of years (slight exageration possibly) but I think sometimes intensive mind-numbing coding must seep through into intensive mind numbing gameplay, but extra dimensions are always pleasant in my experience.

14

Feature Requests / Re: Base Improvements

« on: January 21, 2013, 07:44:11 pm »

Krillians idea rocks, and like he states it is probably only a stones throw from what is available presently, the proposition may not be set in granite, but it is better than wiping the slate. I agree with above, others such as my own above, have been like mixing chalk with... well metamorphic rocks.

15

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Re: [2.5_dev_13/01/19] (Map: Office Complex) Crash to geoscape upon starting combat

« on: January 21, 2013, 06:36:48 pm »

I have had success running this mission at night on geoscape time twice, not in daylight many times.