Messages

1

Feature Requests / Re: suggestion

« on: September 08, 2008, 09:17:14 pm »

What does "pick your loot at the end of a mission" actually mean?

Surely you can only take whatever the enemies had, not some kind of lucky grab bag.

2

Feature Requests / Re: Convoy map to hard

« on: August 25, 2008, 08:42:42 am »

I honestly didn't have much of a problem with it, on standard difficulty in 2.2.

My standard squad at the time consisted of

2 plasma pistols
2 Grenade Launchers
4 Bolters

2 Pistoliers to hunt the 1 or 2 aliens at the camp-site.

1 GL and 2 Bolters taking cover in front of the 1st truck, not entering the canyon.
1 GL and 2 bolters going over the hills to the right.

Take it slowly and cautiosly, and generally stay hidden, not relying on reaction fire to take out aliens.  Use the fastest bolter-carriers to peek out from cover, see what's approaching, and if nothing very close, hide again.  As the aliens get close enough, rain auto-fire grenades onto any group, take out any survivors with cannonade fire.

***

I haven't had this mission since restarting with a 2.3 dev, and now my standard squad has only 2 Bolters, having replaced 2 with dedicated coil guns.  With these, I'd be much more confident about using long-range reation fire on this mission, as in the hands of at least a semi-skilled sniper they get a very large proportion of 1 shot kills even on snap-fire. 

***

The only way it is too hard is if you consider it a failure when civilians get killed.  Frankly, if none of my men get killed, I consider that a win.  The civilian behaviour is so random that I pretty much ignore their presence on the battlefield, except to ensure I don't hit them with stray grenades.

3

Discussion / Re: Latest real-world weaponry

« on: August 23, 2008, 11:57:52 am »

The games generic weaponry is fine, IMO, since:

1)  Its assumed that the experienced master-at-arms of PHALANX have already chosen the best weapon from those available for the missions they envision PHALANX engaging in.

2) It avoids any arguments from gun-nuts saying "why do Phalanx use the Steyr AUG?  Everyone knows that the HK-G17 is a better rifle.  Blah blah blah...

3) It avoids any question of a particular model of weapon/calibre of ammunition becoming obsolete within the games lifetime.  Not very likely, admittedly, but if a new firearm innovation did sweep the market next year - one of those "god its obvious now somebody has thought of it" sweeping improvements that do, occasionally, happen in any field - UFO AI won't be left with tech that would clearly be obsolete in the year that the game is set in.

4

Feature Requests / Re: Hard questions should we just close it and forget?

« on: August 22, 2008, 07:31:54 pm »

They didn't close it becuase its a hard question.  They didn't close it because of the lack of an answer.

It's a very easy question, which has a very simple answer..  The answer is "No."

They don't like the answer any more that anyone else, but its the answer they have, due to the limitations of the engine.

5

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 20, 2008, 03:16:12 pm »

Now you're just making things up and using them as arguments. None of this is planned for now. Aliens can go for:
- The power plant
- Alien Containment
- The command centre
- Any landed craft

Until you hear otherwise from someone on the dev team, this isn't going to change.

I was just going by the descriptions of the objects in the actual game.  You know, the descriptive text in the 'pedia that says "don't let the aliens damage your radar", "don't let the aliens damage your missile launcher" etc etc.

If the aliens are going to ignore all that stuff, then I suggest changing the 'pedia entries to say "don't worry about defending this."

6

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 20, 2008, 12:41:07 pm »

Currently, the choke points are easy enough to set up because the aliens have only one ability - kill people.

But the future games, with the multi-level bases, the aliens will also be able to damage your base.  It will not be a question of sitting and waiting for them in the choke-point between their entry areas and the critical areas - unless you want them bashing your hangars to bits, sabotaging your missile defefences and radar, and firing up the weapons in your captured UFOs...

I therefore don't think that having the aliens completely visible in the base defence missions will be a problem, as long as there are enough alien teams about to make choosing what to defend a tough choice...

7

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 20, 2008, 09:54:41 am »

Maybe you've not been reading this thread very well, because so far the aliens are barely given half a chance. And just compensating with number isn't going to work, really.

Wait, are these the same aliens who know exactly where we are at all times?

In addition, unlike the alines that drop onto farms to kidnap yokels and mutilate cattle, these are going to be aliens who know they are going into heavy fire.  They are expecting heavy resistance and so they should all be wearing medium or heavy armour.  There are only a few weapons available to the player that will garauntee a reaction-fire kill of a heavily armoured alien, and most can be fired once or twice at the most, so if large waves of aliens in heavy armour come pouring around the corner the player is going to be screwed if he is relying on reaction fire - especially if the aliens make forced entry into two locations.

Most missions are painstaking games of hide-and-seek - and over a large area, that can get pretty tedious.  I think that changing the pace for the base invasion missions would be a good thing, and add an air of desperation to the proceedings instead of the current miasma of drudgery.

***

And I have been reading this thread right from the start, and fail to see where abouts the aliens not being given half a chance comes in.  If you are talking about the shoot-downs prior to invasion, that's a concious choice by the player to dedicate resources to air defence.  Again it would be readily defeatable in most cases - the fluff text talks about UFOs escorting each other, and if a harvester and 2 fighters come flying in as a group its going to be very hard for most players to shoot them all down before they arrive...

8

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 19, 2008, 09:57:07 pm »

Why not just skip on the micromanagment and place cameras all over the place (as a high-tech  important base should have) by default?

Seconded.  Just make all aliens in base missions visible.  Ought to be some advantage for the home team, right?

Pile in enough aliens to make it a tough fight, and it becomes an exciting desperate battle instead of a tedious creep coerign every possible hidey hole looking for that one last alien.  Would give it a different feel and a faster pace than the usual missions.

9

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 19, 2008, 04:22:52 pm »

As an idea we could seal all the external base doors and make several of them breakable for the aliens to open. Best way would be to make two identical versions of the map sections for each base facility. One version would have solid closed doors, the second would have breakable external doors. You could then choose which version of the map section to use when setting up the whole map, probably random 50% chance to start. Probably would want to have the base entrance always be open, just in case.

There is a breakable brush in the game engine, it is currently used for glass in several maps and aliens will shoot through it. May need to check if the breakable brush can be used to open/close paths

It does - on the industrial maps you can jump out of the windows after you have shot them out.

Personally my only current problem with the base invasions is how long it takes to hunt down that last !@#$ alien on the surface or wherever he is. That bugger makes my base invasion missions take two to three times as long as anything else. Heck, I've started reloading until I shoot the UFO down because the last alien takes so long to find.

Quoted for truth!

10

Discussion / Re: Latest real-world weaponry

« on: August 19, 2008, 09:22:09 am »

Of course, realistically speaking there is no "best" assault rifle.

Only "best for this circumstance".

The circumstance of equipping a massive army that's going to operate for extended time in the field with minimal logistical support?  Probably the AK.

The circumstance of arming rag-tag geurilla armies who are going to have zero maintainance facilities?  Probably the AK.

The circumstance of arming a small, ultra-elite team who will have excellent logistical support and regular access to high-tech facilities?  You can probably do better.

The circumstance of wanting something that will function as an assault rifle but that can also be held under the arm to give a shorter profile better for use in confined spaces?   Something with a bullbup configuration - not an AK.

The circumstance of wanting an assault rifle that can also be used for accurate long range sniping?  Not an AK.

Now they've worked the bugs out of it, I have a passing fondness for the SA-80 for those situations.  Wouldn't want it for large armies in the field, (thought the UK Armed forces have chosen it for that role) but Its bull-pup layout makes it equally handy for room-clearance and its one of the few assault rifles that comes, as standard, with an optical scope and is accurate enough to warrant it.

Not particularly familiar with the modern M-16s, though again I would assume that after so many years of use in the field they have gotten it working pretty well.

Steyr's AUG range always seemed attractive, and pleasingly "high tech", especially the modular design allowing the same components to be used for LMGs, ARs and SMG.  Ought to be worth something in the field, that, though I have no direct experience of them.  From the look of the graphics, that's what Phalanx's AR is based on. 

11

Discussion / Re: Energy and Powered Armor

« on: August 19, 2008, 09:08:51 am »

You do know that the game already comes with powered armour, right?  (2.3 Dev).

My entire squad is fitted with it. 

The animation is (at least on mine) not perfect - crouched walking isn't animated and there is no "life" animation to make suit-wearers look alive when just standing around.

12

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 18, 2008, 02:42:11 pm »

As an aside, the only reason I find it easy to shoot down incoming would-be base attacks at the moment is due to a strategic choice - my base has no intercepters but it is built in the centre of a square of other bases, each having the central base in their radar range and being equipped with 1 saracen and 2 stilletos each.

Not only does this provide excellent protection against base invasion, it means my dropship can move around relatively safe from UFOs.  The trade-off is the reduced amount of coverage - nothing in South America or Australia, thoug I do have 1 base left to build...

If I had spread my bases out in a more convenional fashion, I'd either be sacrificing 4 sections of my home base to provide its own interception team (tight!) or I'd be relatively defenceless vs base invasions.

As I said, its a trade off - but one I am happy with given how tedious base invasions currently are...

13

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 18, 2008, 10:22:45 am »

Then maybe we should handle radars more like in X-COM, where UFOs weren't automatically detected. Rather, they had a chance of being detected while in radar range. Because if UFOs going for the PHALANX base can really be detected that easily and that far in advance, it might be too easy to prevent them from getting there at all.

Just as long as we don't go down the totally contrived route of being able to detect any UFO *except* the ones that miraculously avoid radar whilst heading directly towards your base.

14

Feature Requests / Re: request: soldiers start out in same place

« on: August 17, 2008, 10:36:30 pm »

It is implied that it is. For a while now the plan has been to provide the player with a number of choices before the battle starts, such as whether or not to let the interceptors take off in order to avoid having them destroyed by the alien invaders, whether or not to kill the aliens in containment in case the aliens set them free, and whether or not to shut down the reactor to prevent the aliens from damaging it in operation. All of these are choices made on a moment's notice as the aliens invade the base.

That makes no sense unless the invader isn't tracked on radar, which would defeat the object of radar.

My intercepters use usually launched, not to protect them, but to shoot the UFO down before it reaches my base.  It makes no sense to be able to scramble pilots and shoot SAMS, but that the rest of the base personell don't noice anything going on.

15

Feature Requests / Re: multiple dropships on missions

« on: August 17, 2008, 10:32:00 pm »

currently there is a limitation in the code to only use 8 soldiers (and not only code - also hud layout and so on)

Well, multiple dropships aside, thats going to need fixing for two reasons:

1)  8 men + UAV
2) The advanced dropships with larger capacity.