Topics

1

Tactics / Favourite Map

« on: September 25, 2014, 11:43:33 pm »

Alien Base,

  Recently, whilst traipsing through the boonies (the boonies being the areas outside of radar coverage, heh) my transport stumbled upon an alien base.  I just gotta say, this is definitely a pretty sweet map and well worth the build up.  First off, there just wasn't a moment where I felt like I was being coerced into some horribly ugly run-the-gauntlet scenario, of which I was sorta expecting.  Granted it had some very interesting angles and passage-ways but overall I was struck by how comfortable the map felt.  Even though there were areas with rather long line-of-sights, there was always cover of some sort so that even up against multiple lines-of-fire I felt like smart movement would win the day.  Yes I was under fire, yes I was worried bout what was going to show up round corner A and B and then C, yes my head voice was whispering 'all things are going to end terribly terribly wrong' and still I felt like I had plenty of options, real choices, so yeah, I stood a chance. 

  Seriously great map.  Honestly, this is one of my very favourite and expected maps to play.  If you rush the Dam that can also rock.. cover.. that is how I decide my favs..

What are yours?

2

Discussion / Recruits

« on: September 24, 2014, 01:16:30 am »

..you get virtually useless soldiers

I see this a lot so I will post why I think earths forces suck.. with some interpretively 'cherry select' spoilers from the fluff flavour text:

  Its been almost 50 years since the Second Cold War, which was the last major Earth conflict and perhaps for the first time most of the mega-nations are enjoying an extended period of peace and cooperation.  After the Second Cold War the Republic of China has slowly become much friendlier and more and more focused on tech, which is I guess sorta the same path that Japan took after WWII.  That said, The Asian Republic has the Earth's "trained to the highest standard" military force.  Add to that, that it seems like its been decades since most of Earth's military's have been actively involved in any kind of conflict at all.  There has been some sorta moratorium ( not officially stated anywhere but.. have.. you.. SEEN those cars?) on anything remotely war-tech and over all the Earthside forces are really in no position to deal with any occupation force never mind the damned Aliens.

  I am not entirely convinced that Earth's 'Elite' troops are all that elite.  Yes, sure they have training but in actual combat experience they are neon green and at non-Phalanx tech levels ( Phalanx itself having been shelved some time ago and is yet considered more high tech.)  I do doubt current forces are using bows and arrows exactly.. but it is safe to say it's some low level tech shite.

  Story lore wise I see Mumbai as a sorta invasion attack, like full D-Day level aggression.. and we lost.  The Aliens tested us, noticed we had junk and moved their resources around.  ( Who knows how many other non Earth planets they are currently targeting.)  We're no longer considered any kind of real threat so the Alien threat goes from full scale invasion to a less costly ( and just as effective) more exploratory, Plan B.

  Obviously the best thing for the planet would be for Phalanx to sell the pre moratorium old-but-superior tech to the rest of earths forces but mad power hungry Generals being mad power hungry Generals.. that's not happening and hence there is no real cohesive earth side offensive.  We're basically an occupied world that has just barely managed to mount a resistance force ( belatedly) and thus funding, manpower, support are all strongly dependent on showing its effectiveness.  Or some such.

  TL:DR These aren't the soldier recruits the world needs but these are the soldier recruits the world deserves.

3

Tactics / Update: Weapon Tables

« on: April 11, 2014, 08:03:51 pm »

http://ufoai.org/wiki/Comprehensive_weapon_table_of_the_development_version

Recently Dumper updated the comprehensive weapons table.  You can easily sort the tables by clicking any of the header values;  allowing you to see how each weapon performs against say: Alien Body Armour.. Or even allowing a person to check the splash damage of your own Frag Grenade against your troop Combat Armour...ie not so friendly fire /me cough cough butimayjustdoitanyways cause sometimes the only thing between me and an Alien is one of your own.

The tables also include the accuracy spreads, crouch effects and other non pure damage values.  Highely useful and allows a person to easily compare the various weapons that UFO:AI has to offer from a multitude of perspectives.

Small gripe; the main ranged table is so large I occasionly get lost in it /me heeh and the list unfortunately does not include the individual Alien resistances at the moment, so actual in-game damage results may not exactly match the values expressed within the weapon tables.

That said the weapon tables are still of significant utility; far easier than using notepad to sift through who knows what ufo files and mad props @Dumper for their creation and most recent update.  Thanks mate.

4

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Workshop

« on: January 24, 2013, 04:40:26 am »

How often does the Geoscape / Base / Base Summary -> Workshop get updated?
  If I hire workers, they show right away but when I unhire  (I'm sorry mais we're moving to a more automated Production Delivery System and due to the now unnessary redundacy of a labour intensive PDS we will no longer be requiring your fine efforts) the screen still shows the same amount.
  e.g.  From a starting first base, Workshop 10/10, unhire all Ten workers, and Base Summary screen still shows Workshop 10/10

Also from the Geoscape, selecting airborne craft (own) and then Using right mouse button with mouse motion to zoom + -   will break targeting command.  (Using the middle scroll button to zoom + - or pressed middle button works just fine)  The right mouse button also cancels?  =  ( I'm sorry  this isn't a bug per se as much an idiot moment.) 

5

User modifications / Desktop Shortcut

« on: January 22, 2013, 10:22:07 pm »

Is there any kind of command parameter one could add after ufo.exe that would load an existing mod? (within the main/mods/ directory)

It feels kinda silly, loading the base (main) first then having to activate the mod, load again.. when I could just put the mod changes into the base dir, and only load once. (I have an older/mucho slow com and I swear this double loading is killing me)

I really like the separation of the mods folder, its much cleaner, just looking for a way to pre-load it. (and save some time   )

6

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Map Fails to Load

« on: December 12, 2012, 10:19:58 pm »

Dec 12 Build

  Twas an Alien landing in East Asian Village, loads black screen.  I think this is a known bug, tracker says it's closed?

http://sourceforge.net/p/ufoai/bugs/3290/

7

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Soldier stuck in map...

« on: December 11, 2012, 09:42:59 pm »

  On map frozen landscape (ice) there's an ugly scar feature with an ice bridge, if you step off into the skinny side you get stuck.  There are two ice bridges (the solid one has fatter exits so no problem), the raised one you can see under is the one I mean.


  Also, does the RF for the knives just not work?  I swear there were times during the campaign with the Monomolecular Knife when I had either function (stab/throw) engaged and nothing; so I tried to get a RF stab/throw in skirmish mode with the combat knife, monomolecular knife and kerrblade(just the single stab function)  and it was a no go there too.

8

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Inventory Assertion Fail

« on: November 22, 2012, 08:39:52 pm »

   There appears to be a glitch with the Electromagnetic Rifle Magazine which allows you to stack them improperly (See:  screen caps One through Three).  At Three, the game (if you load a save or entering of mission) will reset the overlapping Mag back to screen One in the soldier inventory.  But if you force it (take away all other available space) as in screen Four, then attempt to enter a mission or load a save you get the assertion pop-up (something like)--->

Window Pop-Up:

Assertion Failed!
Program: C:\blahblah\ufo.exe
File: src/game/inventory.cpp
Line: 112

Expression: checkedTo


You have options to Abort, Retry (debug - JIT must be enabled) or just ignore.  If you ignore (Screen 5) the items just overlap.
   * - Attempting to Retry (w/o JIT) will result a crash (crashdump)

   I've tried this other items but the Electro Mag is the only one that seems to allow this (although I didn't check them all).  Ufoconsole is a new start/attempt to load (much smaller) and the save which forces it.

::UFO: Alien Invasion 2.5-dev IA-32 Nov 22 2012 DEBUG build 1353542701::

9

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Researching

« on: November 21, 2012, 02:30:30 am »

   This happens when researching an Alien tech(eg Alien body armour), after a mission from a seperate base if you sell all recovered(eg Alien body armour) from that base, then your scientists(at first base) are set idle and your research on that tech stops.  Despite there being(eg Alien body armour) in stock at the base doing the researching.

   Also,  does the base-->research  screen have any kind of scroll bar? I'm playing on hard (early game; simply cannot keep up) and I'm sure I have more research proposals, but the screen only shows.. 11 proposals at a time.  When I complete a research another one shows up, so its workable.

   I don't think I have to research in a certain order here, they are all active proposals.