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Topics - Sgt. Hatter

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Feature Requests / A tactical benefit to autopsy research
« on: March 08, 2010, 08:32:41 pm »
I've been thinking about this lately, and I've come to the realization that autopsy research really doesn't serve much of a purpose outside of developing stun weaponry and storyline research.

Basically, if you're just looking to kill alien scum, focus your research elsewhere.

I'd like to see biological research topics affect the battlefield a bit more tangibly.  To that end, I'd like to propose the ability to examine enemies in combat.  Here's how it might work...

Against enemies you have not researched: Nothing happens.  The enemy is displayed as "unknown alien race."  You gain no other information on them.

Against enemies you have researched: Not only is their race revealed, but you can now get additional information on the target, provided that someone currently has line-of-sight to the target.  The amount of information is dependent upon the highest MIND score of all the soldiers that currently have line of sight to the target.

  • 0-19 MIND: You can only identify the race of the subject.
  • 20-39 MIND: You can identify the race of the subject, and get an idea of its health, as an adjective ("Unhurt", "Wounded", "Seriously Wounded", "Nearly Dead")
  • 40-59 MIND: In addition to the health adjective, you get another indicating stun damage ("Fit", "Dazed", "Wavering", "Nearly Unconscious")
  • 60-89 MIND: You can determine the enemy's morale.  ("Stable", "Shaken", "Fearful", "Terrified")
  • 90+ MIND: Superhuman mental capability has given you the ability to replace each of the adjectives above with an exact number.

Now, I realize that this idea might be quite powerful.  There may need to be limitations.  One might be that examining enemies is an actual action in combat, requiring you to spend a few TUs to size up your subject.  Doing so would only be valid on the turn you do it, and only against the targetted subject.  An unexamined enemy simply shows you their race.

Fluff-wise, you can justify this by having soldiers be briefed on the enemies that DivBio has researched, with their MIND score indicating how well they paid attention and remember those briefings.  "This is a Taman.  Here's where the vital organs are; aim your gun at these.  Here's what happens when you expose one to high concentrations of CHOKE..."

Advantages To This Idea: Requires no rebalancing; has no effect on battle beyond providing the player with information.  Some elements are already present in the game (battlescape already takes into account whether the enemy is researched or not.)  May provide a more "even" playfield for players (depending on whether or not the AI "cheats" and has access to your unit stats when determining its tactical actions.)

Disadvantages To This Idea: More work, including testing.  May provide players with information they shouldn't have.

2
Feature Requests / Better hit indication
« on: March 08, 2010, 07:14:38 pm »
Sometimes, particularly with explosive or stun weapons, it can be difficult to tell whether your shots are actually hitting or doing damage.  It's particularly bad when, say, you drop a grenade next to a victim, it explodes, and the cretin's still standing there like nothing happened.  Did I hit him and he survived?  Did the game not register a hit when it should have?  Or did I simply miss?

If possible, and not too much trouble, I'd like a bit more obvious an indication that the victim's been hit.  Maybe a wincing or doubling-over-in-pain animation?  Possibly a sound cue?  Hearing my enemies screaming in pain is always satisfying, but it currently only occurs upon their death.

3
Right now, all of the shopping interfaces are set up so that every click on the up or down arrows immediately buys or sells the indicated number of items.  This makes it very easy to over-click and wind up selling or buying too much, then you have to buy or sell in the opposite direction to fix the problem.  Due to items having different buying and selling prices, this can eat into your profits.

What I'd like to propose is a shopping system that lets you preview your transactions before you finalize them.  Rather than immediately buying or selling, your transactions are logged and added to a transaction window that lists all the purchases or sales you've requested.  When you're done, you click "confirm transactions" on the window, and this finalizes all of your purchases or sales and adjusts your money and inventory appropriately.

If I'm not clear and you'd like a better explanation, I have (admittedly very rough) illustrations that I could share.

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