Topics

1

Bugs prior to release 2.3 / reducing sound deducts TUs

« on: April 14, 2010, 12:30:28 pm »

I really found a strange bug:

As i lowered the sound output  at my laptop, my soldier was deducted TUs (3 TUs per use of the wheel)!! Not error message was produced...^^

2

User modifications / Problems modding weapons and techtree

« on: April 11, 2010, 04:56:35 pm »

Hi, i am trying to modify some weapon and tech scripts a little bit and i encountered some problems i wasnt able to find a solution via the wiki...maybe somebody around could help?

1. I want to move some initial weapons (and their tech) to a later time in the campaign. I removed the entries (e.g. riotshot gun) in researched list, equipment campaign_player and equipment campaign_initial_market, but i still start with a riot shotgun...any way to change this without coding?

2. I want to move some starting techs (e.g. combat armor) to a later time by adding a research_AND...but every time i try this, the geoscape crashes and i dont understand why.

3. I want to use the multiplayer weapons (changed of course) in the campaign...i changed the research time to 0 (in research.ufo), moved the entries from weapons_multiplayer.ufo to weapons_human.ufo. that seems to work kind of...but once i change the research value to a positve value, geoscape crashes again.

The geoscape chrash happen in two ways:
a) once i start a new campaign, i build my first base, it is placed, but cant be chosen. Every time i try to pick the base, a new base will be built. (most of the time)
b) geoscape wont appear at all (rare)

3

Discussion / Weapon balancing/finetuning

« on: February 15, 2008, 07:18:30 pm »

Hi,

some weapons are quite well balanced right now, but i...was interrupted. PHALANX brought me back. 

EDIT:  ARRGH!! Dont know what happened here, post continued:

EDIT2: I DONT BELIVE IT!! I just sat here for half an hour, editing my post and IT IS GONE THE SECOND TIME. Will try again the next days. Just TOO pissed off right now...

4

Feature Requests / More infos about enemies

« on: January 20, 2008, 11:59:52 pm »

I think i havent mentioned it before: really great work!  It is just cool to play one on favorites once again.

Right now I am thinking about some small modifications and i have a little proposal and some questions:

I would really like to see some more information about the aliens. If i move the cursor on top of an alien, it just stats what kind of alien it is...but there are huge differences concerning possible armor and weapons. I would handle a heavily armor orthok with  plasma blaster quite diffrently than an othok without any armor and plasma pistol...ok, if i take a closer look, i often recognize the weapon, but as the lighting is often bad, i sometimes dont. I think it would be really cool to have a little box with the most relevant information, after you have found out the most relevant information via research:

Alien Type (if researched)
Armor (none, light, medium)
Weaponry (at least if it is a light, medium or heavy weapon)
approx. health (healthy, wounded, close to death)

The last point is the most important one for me.i hit an alien once and lose contact. after a while, i meet a similar alien...but is this the one i wounded? how often will i have to hit him  for a kill...?

Question: Where can i find out the EXACT resistances of the various alien types? The research offers some vague clues, but id like to know more. Especially when using bursts there are big differences in the effectiveness of various weapons...to give one example (i entered some weapons stats into excel and calculated the damage per TU for unarmored, light armored and medium armored aliens)

The laser pistol is really great against unarmored aliens: sufficient range, very low spread and it is within the top 30% of damage/TU against unarmored, using pulsed fire.

Against light armored enemies (adding 12 points armor) it is still quite ok, but pulsed becomes almost useless, while wave-fire still performs ok.

Against medium armored enemies (adding 26 points armor) pistols just suck, almost the worst damage/TU available.

I know that lasers are supposed to work this way and i like the idea of adjusting to your enemies and choosing diffrent weaponry (just dont fight heavily armored enemies with lasers). But the example shows, that 10-15 points damage reduction make a huge difference. So IF e.g. Orthoks have about 10 points laser resistance, i would know not to shoot with lasers even on light armored orthoks...right now i just have to guess. A situation i dont really like in a game where it is really easy to lose important soldiers... there is no time for trial and error.

Oh, another point, different topic: I was REALLY surprised when i noticed that there are HUGE differences about the impact of crouching! (e.g. flamethrower - no difference, Sniper rifle factor 0.3!) Some ingame info/warning about this OR a consistant factor would be nice...

5

FAQ / How to modify the Stats-advancement?

« on: January 20, 2008, 02:49:01 am »

Id like to modify the stats-advancement of my soldiers...the advancement of their weapon stats seems quite ok, and finally realized that their accuracy will become slowly better...but concerning speed there is no advancement i noticed...ok, just after about 20 missions and about 10-15 kills per soldier...not enough for me...

6

Discussion / estimating factors for to-hit-chance

« on: January 18, 2008, 12:10:46 pm »

Dont know if these questions belong here, but i give it a try:

It think it is really important to make your shots count -> a high damage weapon is useless if you dont hit often enough. Therefore i am searching for some information about the exact effects of the the follwiong factors (Version 2.2):

Accuracy vs. Weapon skill:
How do these two factors EXACTLY influence the chance to hit?

Their importance greatly effects my choice of troopers...right now i value accuracy over wepon skill, as accuracy is really slow to improve...

To give an example: I want to have an sniper for long range shots. Two troopers could qualify:

Nr.1:  Accuracy 27, but Sniper only 18
Nr.2:  Accuracy only 21, but Sniper 28

Which one will have a better chance to hit on, lets say, 20 "Hexes" distance (same weapon)

Range vs. Spread:

In understand that the range limit of course limits your maximum range and that spread is an indicator of the amount of misfire/the amount of spreading your single shots.

1. What does this range (e.g. range 22) actually mean? 22 feet? 22 "hexes"? 22 meters? I assume that "hexes" are meant...but then: Sniper rifles and bolters have a range of 250! That is much more than any map will ever have...are there any benefits on aiming on targets much closer than the maximum range?

2. What does spread 2,3 or 4 actually mean? How important  are these numbers? I actually know, the higher the spread, the more bullets will hit surrounding "hexes". And this might be used for additional effects (killing more than one target per shot), so i dont realy need to know the exact effects of spread for these fire modes (full auto, spray)

But when not using some full-auto, but a single shot (e. g. snap shot, aimed shot) lesser spread is perferred of course. At this point range comes into play.

Which weapon will have a better chance to hit?

Situation: Two troopers, identical accuracy and identical weapon skill. There is an enemy at 20 "hexes":

Nr. 3: Laser Pistol ( Range 60, Spread 0,4)
Nr. 4: Laser Rifle (Range 90, Spread 1)
Nr. 5: Particle Beam Rifle (Range 150, Spread 1,5)
Nr. 6: Bolter (Range 250, Spread 1,7)
Nr. 7: Sniper Rifle (Range 250, Spread 0,9)

I assume that range MUST have an impact, otherwise the CLOSE combat weapon "Laser pistol" should have the best chance to hit...and this cant be. But how BIG are the effects of spread and range combined...

One last pint: I was really pleasantly surprised by the laser weaponry. If spread has some consirable impact on the chances to hit, lasers might become actually useful for precise fire...

7

Feature Requests / Some ideas for balancing

« on: January 15, 2008, 02:40:22 am »

After I started a new campaign (hard difficulty,just arrived in May, first year) i came up with some thoughts about balancing:

1) For me, the aliens develop new weaponry just TOO fast. I know, Phalanx is meant to be inferior and outgunned...but i will capture my first tachyon beams rifle before i even started to research any plasma tech (went for railgun, alien armor and nanacomp armor -> survival of my soldiers is more important then weaponry...) It is just boring to know that you will be able to research any alien weapon within a few months...why should i even bother to research lasers? I just pick the most advanced stuff! AFAIK, the tech development could be much more dynamic and interesting. I few ideas:

Remove some starting equipment, especially combat armor. You will use it anyways, you could decrease weapon damage for an equal effect. This way you could start to research an additional "terran tech" and improve you soldiers by this. Furthermore, i would delay the new "armor tech" a while.

Slow down the improving weaponry of the aliens a lot. Without the combat armor, they will still be a threat, even with plasma pistols. Remove the alien armor from the beginning of the game (found one on the first encounter). This way, the terran equipment will stay efficient for some time and then introduce armored aliens (you might even improve the armor, to make new developments urgent)

Put some tech before the railgun. It is just boring to be able to research one weapon that can be used for all the game as first tech. I think the railgun would be a nice addition for the midgame.

Improve the laser (kind of replacement for the rail gun) and make it a little less powerful (perhaps even with some benefits e.g. high range, high precision, high armor penetration) than plasma technology. This way researching laser will start to become useful.

Remove the Saracen from the start, have him being researched and improve the stats (especially speed). Right now, if a UFO is detected, there is almost no chance to get it (had about 10 UFO sightings, lauched fighters and lost contact...boring). If the saracen becomes much faster, at least you will have some means to actually shot some UFOs down...

Remove polymer armor for fighters. Add some new terran fighter weaponry (capital lasers, laser guided rockets, improved fighter armor) and make them efficient enough to shot down small UFOs and to survive more encounters. Make air fights a clear decision: Either you win and survive or you lose. This way you will have to decide if you want to "pimp" your fighters or your ground troops.

Add some special ammo (e.g. armor piercing). This way, the normal weaponry (like assault rifles) stays interesting a much longer time...

I imagine the development of the conflict like this: The aliens invaded and have a starting advantage in techs (plasma psitols and rifles, only two simple species). Phalanx starts to counter their invasion and brings up some new terran answers (development of better terran tech (lasers, combat armor, saracen, bolter etc.) Right when the terrans think they are getting closer, the aliens take one further step (new alien armor, plasma blaster and granades, new species) and phalanx has to come up with new solutions (copy the armor, armor piercing bullets, copy the alien tech) and this dance can be repeated again and again.

8

Feature Requests / Some bugs in 2.2

« on: January 14, 2008, 06:31:06 pm »

I just downloaded 2.2 and I discovered some minor bugs:

1. After i shot down an UFO (typically Harvester) i get the message, that the battle ist lost and I lose the fighter.

2. Something is wrong with production/production times: I have 10 workers employed and after 20 days they were unable to produce a single bolter.

3. Sometimes you cant see the HP of your soldiers when assigning them to your craft, which makes it quite uncomfortable to sort out wounded soliders...