Topics

1

Feature Requests / 't' shows soldier's los

« on: March 08, 2013, 02:21:51 am »

When I press 't' to cycle through enemy units in a soldier's line of sight, it would be cool if I could get an idea of the rest of the soldier's line of sight. I was thinking just blue lines showing the peripheries of the soldier's vision, because it would be easy to code.

2

Discussion / Seasons

« on: March 07, 2013, 03:42:09 am »

It's a little silly to get "frozen landscape" maps in Northern Manitoba in July, just sayin'. Surely given the biome-map matching system it would be feasible to filter out certain maps in certain months?

3

User modifications / Custom difficulty?

« on: February 25, 2013, 04:30:50 pm »

I really enjoy the challenge brought on by the tougher aliens on higher difficulty, but I prefer the pacing of easy games. This had me thinking, would it be that hard to implement a custom difficulty setting?

Basically, I'd like to be able to set some of the following variables when I create my game:
-human/alien damage multipliers
-rate of alien craft appearances
-rate of alien difficulty increases
-starting cash
-minimum nation happiness
-all the other things that vary by difficulty, like number of soldiers and stuff.

This part seems like it would be easy to implement, since the variation is already present. If it's possible, I'd love to also be able to set:
-research speed multiplier and production speed multiplier
-rate of nation happiness decay
-multipliers for human and alien time units (another Handicap button)

There are probably other things that could be changed that I haven't listed. Really, just setting the first several options myself would make for a fun game setup option, and to my understanding shouldn't be that tough to establish.

4

Discussion / PHALANX base design

« on: February 23, 2013, 04:50:16 pm »

First, since this is my first post here, I'll get the praise out: This is a great game, and I am playing the dickens out of it in all my copious free time as a full time student and new dad. I'm really enjoying the 2.5 changes, which have added some genuine challenge without being too hard to enjoy (those lizard dudes can be downright scary), and all in all I love the reimagining of the original xcom. Sad that terrain can't be more destructible, but them's the breaks I guess (bahaha).

Anyway. I have had a long string of base attacks lately, and I just have to ask: What is the deal with PHALANX base design? They go to all this effort to put the whole base underground, but then make every second module type an access point. The main lift entry is designed such that it's far easier for an attacking force to gain control and hold the top from defenders than it is for defenders to protect the bottom. The whole thing, to put it bluntly, kind of stinks. This is exacerbated by a starting base design that puts access points all around the map, and a mission start system that often places enemies closer to the major defensive positions than your own troops.

Some of this could be alleviated by having UFOpedia list which buildings contain surface access, since it's kind of random to a newer user (eg workshops, but not small hangars...). Really, though, it seems to me like some of the base attack stuff needs reworking, at the very least making the main access defensible for defenders and having your soldiers start out in a logical location rather than scattered willy-nilly throughout the base. And perhaps having the aliens not actually start the invasion inside the base? It'd be great if they had to deploy like PHALANX troops do at the beginning of our attack missions.

I apologise if this is a well known complaint. I'm still learning where to find things in this community.

Nice to meet you all,
Erk