Messages

1

Feature Requests / Re: Making combat feel more like future than like WWII

« on: December 11, 2009, 01:12:56 am »

So you really don't agree that combat feels quite "like today" or "even yesterday" and not like "X years in the future"?

I strongly feel like that.

But okay. I can understand the "guided rocket" point... sorry, I didn't check that before.

Andreas

remember this is the world of tomorrow where war has become out dated. soldiers now serve mostly in a peace keeping and police role. and look what happened between WW1 and WW2, mass disarmament and weapon technology regressed and that was in only a few years. so these guys would be equipped with the minimal that fits the task. they've probably had blow the dust off of the old weapon stockpiles just to provide you with any heavy weapons.

2

Feature Requests / Re: Playable Intro and Civilian Life Cut-Scenes

« on: November 13, 2009, 11:11:29 am »

I dunno about having special "crappy" versions of the same human starting weapons though, if that would be a pain to impliment or whatever, the squad could just have same weapons. Handwave by having the mission dialogue mention that your squad is the elite vanguard of the Indian Army with all these neat weapons.

well you could probably hack it by raising the difficulty of that mission, so if your on the medium difficulty you play that mission on the medium rules, of you on medium you play with the hard rules etc

personally i think you should start with 'crappy' human weapon and have to use research to turn them into weapon that can face the aliens by say replacing ammo.

i know the designers have tried to balance the game so that no weapon is useless. but for the aliens to march through the human like they do then it just doesn't make sense that guys with assault rifles can fight them on equal terms.

or maybe altering the story line so that one of the government's nuke an attack site, and then phalanx take over ground intercepts while the threat of nuclear retaliation prevents the mass assaults that wiped out cities around the world or some other explanation why it suddenly goes from aliens in total control of the war wiping out cities at will to tiny probing attacks that have minimal strategic or tactical value.

3

Feature Requests / Re: other Human Armed forces? & civilian intelligence

« on: November 13, 2009, 10:42:18 am »

I also really hate the idea that civilians would have pistols or other weapons and that they would fight back. Guess what. Weapon ownership in most nations is strictly illegal. The USA is the only nation in the world that offers such liberal gun-ownership freedoms and by 2057, I'm certain that movement will be gone. It gets more and more illegal as the years go by. By the year 2057, its safe to say no civilian has access to anything more lethal then a cowering stance in the corner.

that is just plain wrong most countries allow the ownership of firearms, the types and rules that apply vary by country. and with the threat of alien invasion you can bet that sales of firearms have gone through the roof.

the UK has some of the strictest rule on firearms in the world and is hence one of an equally few nations that isn't required to have armed police officers except for 'special' units that are deployed specifically to counter firearms offences. and even there in the countryside there are plenty of hunting weapons like shotguns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics

infact in places like Switzerland people are legally required to own fire arms

4

Feature Requests / Re: Minor cosmetic/Usability fix; no night while chooseing base loation

« on: September 29, 2009, 04:53:12 pm »

your computer will save what is it trying to show not what is shown.that can end up being completely different to what you see, especially if you are changing settings.

probably means that the problem is between your computer and the monitor, (ie video drivers, video hardware, monitor hardware) but you knew that all ready

5

Feature Requests / Re: Epic Mode

« on: September 21, 2009, 11:18:20 am »

i do think my "win" and your *win* mean quite the same

So... how long does it take to run out of story? (There is a story ark in the game atm? )

in the stable version it runs out at the first infection mission IIRC

not sure on the Dev Version

6

Feature Requests / Re: Licensing

« on: September 21, 2009, 10:32:07 am »

I am fairly certain being named objects does not matter, as long as it uses discrete code blocks.  I believe that as long as the code is not a simple top down and has functions that are independent with things passed to them, and returning values, it is object oriented code. 

Not 100% certain though.  I am a little foggy where modular programming ends, which they certainly use, and Object Oriented begins.  Just have always thought if one part of the program can be called from any part in the main thread and it is independent of it,  it is object oriented.

it doesn't matter how discretely coded it it it still reacts differently to OO, in procedural code variable can be created and destroyed locally or exist global there is no equivalent to the to the object level variable, while it doesn't seem like a massive difference it does require a different mindset one that i haven't used in a long while

7

Feature Requests / Re: Licensing

« on: September 21, 2009, 10:29:41 am »

It appears to me UFO-AI is entirely built on OO programing...

Perhaps you are confusing Object Oriented, with GUI Design Integrated IDE's like visual basic?

definitely not
there are 3 sorts of programming language Procedural based around calling Procedure, OO which is is based around grouped data structures and Method packets and functional which is based on defining functions.
it's C which is purely procedural with no OO, though i can see how you could make the mistake of linking it to VB, VB while a OO language still keeps most of the Procedural functionality of it's predecessors and while that back compatibility makes is easier for people to move into it from procedural it results in a large number of people writing OO code that have no idea what they are doing and continue to write Procedural code.

8

Feature Requests / Re: about realism

« on: September 19, 2009, 09:34:15 pm »

well if you are interested the publishers have released a free digital version of all the books
which is currently being hosted here http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/11-UntotheBreachCD/UntotheBreachCD/

9

Feature Requests / Re: about realism

« on: September 17, 2009, 10:13:42 am »

If it was "only" about the rate of fire i'd have mentioned metalstorm -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO93-8a39SY&feature=related
i can't see a useful real world application for that yet, it looks like a one shot thing to me

ah good old metal storm, have you seen the Aldenate Series of books by John Ringo, in the 3rd book he introduced a version of that fitted to a M1A2 Chassis metalstorm.avi developed as a light anti spacecraft weapon

10

Feature Requests / Re: about realism

« on: September 16, 2009, 08:15:42 pm »

i'd say it's a 3-sec 6 shot burst for the GL.... and... i'll not even mention that shot...machineguns's rate of fire ^^

i bet ~75 years would make a hand-held version of this quite possible, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHf_vMd5MOQ&feature=related

but it's a game about aliens invading earth, so i'm not looking for that much realism anyways

well we've been able to make machine gun that much faster than modern ones do for decades but if the size of the magazine hasn't increased enough to make much increase is weapon rate of fire worthwhile. shifting to caseless ammunition with increase mag size slightly so could support a higher rate of fire. but not likely to change much.

just look at the HK G11 developed during the 1970s and 1980s.
Cartridge    4.73x33 mm caseless ammunition
bullet mass 3.25 g
Rate of fire    550 rounds/min full auto, 2200 rounds/min 3 round burst
Muzzle velocity    Approx. 930 m/s (3,050 ft/s)
Effective range    400 m
Feed system    45 or 50-round detachable box magazine

2200 rounds a minute but with a 50 round mag that means it can discharge it's entire magazine in 1.4 seconds. hence it being limited a quarter of it's maximum rate for full auto.

rate of fire isn't everything

11

Feature Requests / Re: about realism

« on: September 16, 2009, 01:29:58 pm »

you can add screenshots without zipping them

About the grenade launcher... well i think it's fine as it is. Most of the aliens i meet need 3 grenades to kill (perhaps just increase the TU for 3 round burst so you can't do 2 of them in one round), it has no reaction fire and there is always the chance to hit some wall instead of a door an pulverize yourself About accuracy: there are quite accurate grenade launchers out there right now, and i doubt they won't improve over the next ~75 Years...

edit: ok, in term of "reality" we probably would have to lower the TUs of all the weapons, considering stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnrizaO-X00&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX-99a1JCc4

note they aren't using it in burst mode just (admittedly fast) single mode

12

Feature Requests / Re: Select Soldiers for Base defense?

« on: September 15, 2009, 11:19:32 am »

It makes no sense for me to implement temporary hack for that for 2 players.

-geever

if the max size 8 hard limit is staying then it isn't a temporary hack it's a bug fix, if the hard limit is going then it's outside of the if in my statement.

IIRC a screen has been proposed and accepted, that will allow the user to alter the troops equipment just prior to starting a mission, this would just be a tweak to that screen. show all available troops with their equipment but don't let the user select more than 8 troops while that is the limit. basically identical to assigning them to a drop ship.

13

Feature Requests / Re: Minor economic tweak

« on: September 15, 2009, 10:10:50 am »

I actually am betting this is already planned but if its not:

It would be nice to have dynamic values for revenue from countries, not the static values based solely on if they are happy or sad at the moment.

Example

America's attitude is exuberant: In month one they give you 56,000 credits.. Month two 57.600 Credits, Month three 58300 credits.

Now lets say they are unhappy.... Month one they give you 40,000 month two 35,000  Month three 31,4000..

Perhaps also factor in UFO sales, as it seems reasonable if a country gets cool toys from you, they would give you more, like add 500 credits a month on to whatever country you sell a ufo to...

This kinda simulates the economic effects of being successful and unsuccessful at defending the planet as well..

i suggested something similar and was told that so far it's outside of the remit of the game as it currently stands and that they are focusing on improving what they have, and not on adding completely new features.

14

Feature Requests / Re: an idea

« on: September 15, 2009, 10:06:09 am »

Though I have to say an UFO:AI FPS would be interesting .

kinda XCom Alliance?

15

Feature Requests / Re: Select Soldiers for Base defense?

« on: September 15, 2009, 10:04:16 am »

The aircraft-soldier dependency is a hard limit now. It will change once but until that there is a hack that makes it possible to defend your base. If the base is attacked everyone should take part in defending it (but 8 soldiers is another hard limit now.).

-geever

if the hard limit is staying then i have to say it makes sense to either select troops from the drop ships to defend the base or as suggested here prompt the user to choose which solders they want