Messages

1

Design / Re: Civilian AI Scripting

« on: December 28, 2009, 08:06:12 pm »

Is the herd(phalanx) behavior intended to be a pain in the ass? I've frequently had issues in combat with civilians standing in my line of fire and obstructing doorways between me and the aliens. Obviously my soldiers are going to be in the heat of combat, so herd(phalanx) is equivalent to 'run toward gunfire'.

I would much prefer: herd(phalanx) --> herd(dropship/insertion).  That is, the civis see the soldiers, run to them, and the soldiers tell them to go to the ship (usually the safest direction).

There should definitely be a panic mode for civis, where they freak out and do counter-productive things, and having them stick to my soldiers like glue would be a great example of that sort of behavior. The default though should be something like the above, a simple, rational, evacuation.

As things are now, civilians are essentially suicidal. The only way to save them is to kill the aliens as rapidly as possible (hence preventing the civis from getting themselves killed). I effectively ignore the civilians when they're not in my way. 
If I could count on the civis to act logically it would improve game play. I might actively seek them out (in order to send them to the ship) and maintain secure routes of egress for them. That would be a significant tactical addition to the game.

 

2

Feature Requests / Re: Human vs. Human and more?

« on: December 28, 2009, 07:00:51 pm »

It seems that the original suggestion would add minimal value at best. Why would you want an AI team flying missions in your game? It doesn't make sense. With most of the basic tech tree still needing to be implemented this is far from necessary.

Though I do agree with the later comments that some of the human npcs could be armed (or even just programmed to run away from, rather than towards, the sound of combat). I just played the military convoy terror attack. A cool map, which would be a natural place to have your force arrive in the middle of an ongoing firefight.

3

Feature Requests / Re: Scientist, Medics, and Workers

« on: December 28, 2009, 06:46:52 pm »

I completely agree! This aspect of the interface is very annoying.

Say I've got forty workers hired at a base and I want to add 10 more. I need to click the down arrow thirty times (if you're going to do it this way, a scroll bar here would be a huge improvement) and then click ten check boxes to select the workers. Even then it's difficult to know if I have my count right. So after forty mouse clicks I've finally conveyed the info '+10 workers', and I'm not even really sure if I've selected precisely ten or not. 

At a minimum: Display a total workers (scientists) count so I can see how many I've got while hiring and firing. Add in a scroll bar so I can quickly navigate to the bottom of the list.

or even better: Hire workers (scientists) the same way you buy/sell items.