Topics

1

Artwork / Display of Radar Fog-of-War

« on: March 15, 2008, 08:53:45 pm »

I saw on IRC that KrackenO was working on improving the radar display.

But rather than placing an overlay where the radar reaches, it could be more clearly displayed by letting the radar visually punch holes in the fog of war.  The places where you can see are now crisp and clearer than the rest of the world, rather than dulled by a green haze.
The radar circles are still included, but at a lesser opacity, due to their decreased importance, though they still have some usefulness in seeing which base causes what.

Recipe:
fog of war color: Medium Grey
fog of war opacity: ~45%
intermediate opacity:  ~33%
radar circle opacity: ~33%

Of course, in actual use, somewhat different numbers may prove better, but i messed around with different settings, and these should provide a good start.

[attachment deleted by admin]

2

Design / The Gameplay of the XVI plague

« on: February 16, 2008, 07:49:29 pm »

Ok, there are some threads talking about how the XVI plauge will spread accross the geoscape like this one.

For this purposes of this topic, i don't care how it looks, and i don't care about what the XVI is.  The question is, how do you fight a worldwide plague in this game?  Obviously the elite PHALANX troops aren't going to forcibly inoculate the whole world.


The one piece of info: apparently alien bases are the source of this plague.  But that leaves a lot of unanswered questions.


Can the player prevent the construction of alien bases?

What happen when a base is destroyed, but has spread XVI in the immediate area?  The spread slows... the XVI dies out... or nothing?

Is the player actually able to stop the XVI or is it an inevitable part of the story-line?

If the player can cure an infected area... how does he do that?

How does XVI infection relate to the 8 nations paying the bills?

3

Artwork / The Future is... yesterday?

« on: February 14, 2008, 06:54:27 am »

Going through the maps, i'm left with the feeling that this game is set in the 1990s, not 70 years in the future.

While i appreciate that it's a lot of work to make all these models and maps, i'm struck by the absence of anything to make this look like the future... even assuming an global and technological economic downturn, something will change.

I'd like to suggest some differences:


* Display screens are cheap and nearly paper-thin.  No clunky CRTs

* Paper is still used but not nearly so much

* Signs and labels whenever possible are iconic rather than verbal, due to more global mixing

* Cars are different, perhaps with much smaller engines (fuel cell)?

* There are more people, thus things tend to be more crowded.


* however it's the near future.  Jetson's type tech like tele-transportation, anti-gravity, ubiquitous robotic servants/ AIs, flying cars are still dreams for the future.

I expect Winter will have something to say on this topic.

4

Design / alien concept: "The Growing Thing"

« on: February 11, 2008, 06:11:46 am »

I don't know what plans (if any) there are for additional alien types, but i assume the door isn't closed on more types.  Here's an odd alien concept that's been rolling around in my head.  It may not be the most powerful or sophisticated of the aliens, but i think it offers a significantly different kind of opponent: one without a face.

the Growing Thing. (provisional name)

Scientists will have difficulty classifying it as animal or plant.  Mostly it looks like a tangled mess of tentacles or roots, half protruding out of the ground.  In a few there are taller bulbous growths.  But if any earth life comes too close, the roots will rip out of the ground, and attempt to entangle the victim.  Microscopically thin hairs can pierce conventional armor, and inject a digestive agent.  A human (for instance) that does not manage to break away would be dead in a few minutes.

However the bulbous growths are more dangerous.  They can expel spore pod.  It can even aim this pod with some accuracy. The pod splatters on impact spreading a caustic goo filled with spores.  More of the root/tenticles may quickly grow on that spot.

If the organism gains sufficient nourishment, such as by killing a person it will grow another of the bulbous things to expand further.

Like a tree, the organism is not much effected by bullets, however flames and explosive do great damage too it.  It has not been known to attack aliens under any circumstances.


Game mechanic explanation:

There are basically  2 types of this organism (but we could include intermediate forms for slower growth)
A) a square of root-tenticles
B) a square of root-tenticles with a spore pod spitter.  Much higher hit points.

"A" cannot move.  It can only attack humans in adjacent squares (and/or in it's square if we can allow humans to walk on it)
If an "A" kills a human, a new "A" will be spawned in the humans square, and after 1 turn the new "A" will grow into a "B"

"B"s may take 1 of 3 options per turn,
1) if any humans are in range shoot a spore glob at them, else...
2) spawn a new "A" in an adjacent square (if any accessible square doesn't' already have a "A"), else
3) shoot a spore pod in a random direction

Spore pod if they:
1) kill a human will grow a new "B"
2) damage a human will grow a new "A"
3) land on open ground have a random chance of growing a new "A".


Don't know if it is possible to implement this (i'm sure it not without some tweaking).  But at the very least should provide some interesting food for thought.

See also the rough attached sketch.

[attachment deleted by admin]

5

Artwork / various Visual Identities make a world convincing

« on: February 09, 2008, 07:55:16 am »

On of the things that helps make an imaginary world look real, are the various symbols, logos, for companies, nations, signs, etc. in use as part of every day life.  I thought it would be interesting to develop some.

I'm starting with flags for the national blocs.  Don't know exactly where they will be used, but opportunities should arise, if they are available.  All this flags are at least a partly original, and should more or less be guessable, if you know the backstory.

Africa: self explanatory.

Asia: Most Asian flags have some sort of sun symbol, and use red.  I did both in a way IMHO that feels Asian.

Europe: a modest evolution of the EU flag.

Islamic Union: Using the colors of many Arab flags, it's reminiscent of the flag of "Organization of the Islamic Conference" and the colonial flag of Arab Revolt.




[attachment deleted by admin]

6

Artwork / Highlighting selected units

« on: February 01, 2008, 03:07:57 am »

Against a various backgrounds, such as a strongly patterned one, it's sometimes rather hard to tell which soldier is selected, simply by the stronger green color.

I'd suggest the shape change more or less like so:

At-a-glance understanding is much easier.

[attachment deleted by admin]

7

Design / Managing Mundane vs. Cutting Edge Gear and Equipment

« on: January 30, 2008, 08:21:37 am »

Ok, my personal preference is for a minimum of micromanagement, but i think i have an idea which should be relatively easy to implement, simplify the beginning of the game for newcomers, and most importantly minimize the part of the game that (i expect) few people enjoy.


It's easy to understand having a limited supply of high tech weaponry which your tech guys just invented a few days ago.  When you've just invented the plasma rifle (for instance), it's easy to care about how many you have, and it's not too burdensome to route it to make sure the right people have it.

However the same can't be said of the mundane items you start the game with-- combat knives, gunpowder weapons and ammo, etc.  It's also harder to understand why there is a severely limited amount of this stuff.  For me, at least, it seems burdensome to have to make sure all my bases have enough of this basic stuff, which any decent military base should have crate-loads of sitting around.

Why not simply eliminate the non-researched gear & equipment from the Production, Buy/Sell, and Transfer screens? 
This mundane gear could be available when equipping soldiers on an unlimited basis.  Which is essentially how it would be in an actual, efficient military base, but more importantly it saves more time for the fun parts of the game.

8

Artwork / Battle display Geoscape

« on: January 28, 2008, 02:51:12 am »

Rather than attempting a photographic view of the earth from orbit, i think it would be more useful (and more interesting) to create an view such as a commander might use to plan global strategy, such as the roughly done attached image.

The various national blocks each have their own color with slightly glowing borders, and population centers are indicated by white dots.  I think it looks more appropriately science-fictiony, while also being more useful.

I can more carefully produce such a texture at double the resolution of the current one if desired.  Currently the game crashes for me if i give it a 4096x 2048 texture, but there may be a way to avoid that.

[attachment deleted by admin]

9

Artwork / Urban and Arctic camouflage

« on: January 26, 2008, 11:38:07 pm »

I like to use the 4 different uniform colors to help distinguish my soldiers, regardless of where i'm sending them they will have a variety to arctic, urban, jungle, & desert uniforms, so i can tell at a glance who is who.


However the urban and arctic uniforms are quite similar especially when viewed under non-ideal circumstances.

If i applied the following color-shift to all textures would it be accepted?
The new arctic camo is lighter, grayer, and the dark spots are a a little brownish.  I realize arctic camo has various styles, but this style is more distinct.



[attachment deleted by admin]

10

Artwork / Atmospheric glow around the earth

« on: January 26, 2008, 10:08:24 pm »

I have redone the atmospheric layer which is placed over the globe.  This should make appear more realistic.
www.jwbjerk.com/dl/ufo/map_background.tga

This is intended to layer over the globe, to provide the realistic hazing near the horizon.  I'm not sure if that's the way it currently works or not.

I haven't been able to test it because i'm not quite sure how to re-zip the pk3 files so that the game accepts them.

11

Artwork / individual faces on soldiers

« on: January 26, 2008, 06:47:15 pm »

I'm interested in creating some new textures to work with existing models to allow more soldiers to have unique faces.

Can someone explain how the current system works?

I'm assuming "head01..." through "head-5..." represent different models, and a,b,c, etc represent different textures?

There seem to be 4 armor colors used in the game, but there are 2 additional ones in the image folders... will these be used?

There are a lot of images, some of which seem to be unused.
please explain which files are needed for a new face skin variant,
and how to get the game to use the variant.

12

Feature Requests / Please show radar radius when setting new bases

« on: January 26, 2008, 04:49:12 pm »

This one's a feature request.

When placing a base it would be extremely useful to see the radar radius of any point that the mouse is over

13

Feature Requests / Wrong Default automatically sells new types of Equipment

« on: January 26, 2008, 04:40:00 pm »

Most of the time when i discover (or retro-engineer) a new tech and start manufacture, i find that the "buy/sell" screen is set up to sell this new gear.

It seems pretty obvious that people will want to keep the new gear they make.

on 2.2 Mac OsX universal

14

Feature Requests / Scientist, Medics, and Workers

« on: January 25, 2008, 10:48:35 pm »

Unless you plan to give these employees unique stats (and i don't see a point to that) the current system of hiring/firing the non-soldier employees is needlessly difficult.

It would be much easier on the player if he could (for instance) hire and fire workers from the production screen, where there's already a readout that tells how many workers the current facilities can accommodate.

It currently takes a lot of clicking back and forth between various screens to make full use of your living quarters without hiring excess people.

15

Feature Requests / Launching intercept aircraft has strange requirements

« on: January 25, 2008, 08:45:28 pm »

Apparently "Living Quarters" are required to launch intercept aircraft at an alien target.  It took me a while to figure out why i my secondary bases could never attack alien craft.
However without the living quarters i can buy and equip and even launch those planes, but they refuse to go anywhere.

It doesn't make sense to me that aircraft require living quarters, since other buildings such and the command center, radar, and storage which realistically require people, don't require the living quarters because that staff is not one of the 4 employees simulated by the game.

However if you do decide this prerequisite is desirable, it should be explained in the documentation.

On 2.2 MacOsX Universal
(submitted to sourceforge also)