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Topics - Coyote

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1
Design / Idea for more UFOpaedia entries
« on: May 10, 2011, 01:52:29 am »
So, I've noticed that the 'Proposed Equipment' section on the wiki includes civilian weapons.  I figure that, if they were compiling data on how to deal with an alien threat, PHALANX would also try to collect information on the equipment that other humans might use when engaging in combat with aliens, and put together a basic assessment of their effectiveness, so I've decided to put together some very basic example UFOpaedia entries in an attempt to show what that might look like.  Note that literally none of this is set in stone, as the weapons I'm writing about do not yet exist in-game, and might never exist in-game.  Let me know what you think - if there are any improvements you think can be made please suggest them.


First, the proposed Hunting Rifle. 

CLASSIFIED LEVEL YELLOW

PHALANX Extraterrestrial Response Unit

Technical Document, Delta Clearance

Filed: <DATE> 2084

By: Cdr. <NAME PENDING>, R&D: <SOMETHING> Division, PHALANX, Atlantic Operations Command



Overview

The alien attack on Mumbai made our situation painfully clear. Their technology is far more advanced than ours. The complete inability of Commonwealth troops to make a dent in the Mumbai offensive revealed critical weaknesses in current military training and equipment. They lost three battalions just bringing the aliens to a standstill without inflicting significant casualties. PHALANX has to overcome these odds, and to do that we need the very best human technology has to offer.

The Excalibur Program was created to find the most effective weapons on Earth by reviewing their manufacturing standards, durability, operational record, and their combat performance in the situations where we've managed to bring the aliens to battle. A sub-project of this program, dubbed 'Excalibur-B', has been assigned the sole duty of examining weapons currently in widespread use among civilians, law enforcement, and military units worldwide and assessing their effectiveness in combat with our newfound foe.

Hunting rifles are extremely common in civilian hands in most nations.  They exist in a variety of sizes, weights, designs, calibers, and magazine sizes.  Although bolt and lever-action rifles can still be found in rural areas or in the hands of collectors (or in nations where semi-automatic firearms are outlawed), most modern hunting rifles are semi-automatic single-shot weapons firing simple smokeless-powder centerfire ammunition in mid-sized calibers, the most popular being the venerable Russian 7.62x39mm and American .308 Winchester (also known as 7.62x51mm NATO) cartridges.  Although these rounds have long been obsolete for military purposes, they are as effective against unarmored targets (such as wildlife) as ever, and remain popular among civilian marksmen.

Generally designed for engaging targets at medium to long ranges, and never intended for sustained combat operations, hunting rifles are of little use in urban combat or home defense scenarios, and in close quarters the long barrel and relatively slow fire rate may serve to render the weapon almost completely ineffective.  In wide-open areas, however, rifles of this type come into their own; they can be terrifyingly accurate in the hands of a skilled marksman, and usually possess more than sufficient power to bring down their intended targets.  However, it is important to remember that an armed and trained alien enemy is a far more significant threat than a deer or boar.

Recommended Doctrine

There is absolutely no reason for any PHALANX operative to ever make use of one of these weapons, and as such there are no plans to make them available in our arsenal.  However, it is reasonable to assume that, at some point in the future, we may encounter firearms of this type in the hands of armed civilians in the field.  Friendlies equipped with these weapons will, as with most armed civilians, usually be little more than a liability to both themselves and PHALANX, but sufficiently skilled individuals armed with hunting rifles and stationed in good positions will likely be able to easily hold their own against a small number of unarmored aliens at medium to long range.  As most hunting rifles are ineffective against human body armor, it is reasonable to assume that they will be ineffective against alien body armor as well, and in a CQB situation they will be worse than useless even against unarmored targets.

Addenda

None.

2
Feature Requests / Back Up
« on: May 09, 2011, 09:35:31 pm »
This is a fairly simple request: give us an option to, when ordering a soldier to move to a location behind them,  have them walk backwards instead of turning around and walking over there, allowing them to reposition without us then having to spend a TU turning them back around.  Not sure if this is possible to implement, but it would be extremely useful.

3
Discussion / A few questions
« on: May 09, 2011, 02:40:31 am »
I had a lot of issues getting this game to work properly, all of which were eventually traced back to PEBKAC, and now that I've gotten things going I've played a while and formulated a list of questions about the game in general.

1.  What happened to the incendiary grenade, flashbang, and smoke grenade?  They were in earlier versions, and in 2.2 flashbangs were actually an integral part of my strategy, but in this version they seem to have inexplicably disappeared.

2.  Is it just me, or is research substantially slower in this version than in previous versions?  I play on Normal at all times, and researching on this difficulty really does seem like it takes longer to complete the same projects with the same amount of scientists than it did in 2.2.

3.  Is there a way for me to add more names to the pool from which employee names are selected?

4.  What parameters have to be fulfilled before equipment you research becomes purchasable on the open market without you having to manufacture it yourself?  I know that, for example, DF Cartridges eventually become buyable but am not quite clear on what has to be done before this happens.

5.  Is there a way for a soldier to use an equipped medkit on themselves?

6.  Is the 8-soldiers-on-the-map-at-a-time limit hardcoded?  Is it possible to mod in dropships with a higher capacity, or use more than eight soldiers at a time during base defense missions?

4
Bugs in older version (2.3.1) / Bugs with sound and video options
« on: November 24, 2010, 06:34:44 pm »
I've been playing a while and noticed a few issues with the options, namely the fact that I cannot change any of them.  There are also numerous sound issues.

-In Battlescape, the audio is almost immediately overwhelmed by ear-splitting static that persists even if I turn the effects and music volume all the way down and only goes away once I've turned sound off.

-Once I have turned sound off, attempting to turn it back on crashes the game immediately to desktop.  No error message, no lockup, it just disappears.

-The texture resolution cap cannot be changed.  Changing it and then restarting the game reverts it back to whatever it originally was, while changing it without restarting the game has no effect.

-Attempting to turn off texture compression does nothing.

-Changing most video options does nothing; of the ones that actually can be changed, most of them cannot be turned off again once turned on without uninstalling and then reinstalling the game.

-Attempting to change most gameplay options has no effect whatsoever.

-The game has a tendency to randomly crash to desktop while on the options menus, even if I don't actually do anything.

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