Messages

1

Discussion / Re: Itemconsumption on missions.

« on: September 28, 2013, 05:24:16 pm »

If a storage-system for dropships is planned anyways such "exploits" wouldn't be necessary.

That is even better.

2

Discussion / Re: Itemconsumption on missions.

« on: September 25, 2013, 12:07:49 pm »

Wow. Comprehensive. Thanks.

Individual round-count is really much more accurate than I had expected. It's good to know that my Elite-troop knows the value of those hightech-rounds and collects them in a cardboard-box in the storage room.

AFAIR the above applies also when you reload during the mission, if the replaced magazine had any remaining shots they are stored, and the game tries to form complete clips back at the base.

Also interesting. How many times have I not reloaded before attempting a charge because I just didn't want to waste those ~500creds half a magazine would cost. I know it's greedy, but Phalanx can't afford generosity.

Finally, the game updates the whole base inventory at the beginning of a mission, that's the reason the soldiers are restocked if you do several missions in a row (as long as there's still enough ammo at the base), that is a known bug

I don't think this should be a bug at all. It makes perfect common sense.
It goes without saying that a human being has a limit as to how much he can carry. It therefore makes sense, that you can't load your soldiers with infinite rounds for a single mission.
The dropship however, is a heavy lifting piece of hightech equipment capable of circling the entire globe on one fuel tank. For the purpose of killing aliens it is your soldiers base by extension. Now fitting backup-guns into the dropship would be thinkable but perhaps a little crowded still. However, concerning small consumable items such as ammo, grenades and medpacks ... I think phalanx would be smart and capable enough to have a couple crates of refills in the dropship and have those soldiers combat-ready at all times.
 
From a balancing standpoint, I am admittedly a little undecided.
It could be cool having to evaluate how you outfit your team: Whether to go for secondary weapons and medpacks for everyone or alternatively for more rounds so they could easily complete a second mission. But it could also just be a pain in the butt having to bother with it, having to go back to base and relaunch numerous times and so forth.

3

Discussion / Re: Itemconsumption on missions.

« on: September 24, 2013, 11:53:45 pm »

I can only answer the last one. Soldiers gain xp at the end of a mission. You can see any rank gains in the geoscape log. Therefore, multiple missions in a ssingle trip will all count.

Ah yeah. You're right ... the rankups show immediately in the geoscape-log. Thanks.

... only shoot one bullet, you might find that you then have 19 other times you will still have 20. ...

Exactly the type of randomness I am talking about.
About selling everything while on a mission: Will try that next time I am on the hunt. 

4

Discussion / Re: Disruptive changes to stat calculation in latest 2.5-dev

« on: September 24, 2013, 10:04:01 pm »

It's really uncanny how often the new guy on the team gets blasted when the aliens have a choice of targets.

Ahahahahaha ... so funny. But oh so true.

Just had another Rookie-Grenadier bite the dust yesterday. The two vets who were supposed to have his back were probably just shrugging their shoulders. I will never know what exactly happened there because I only noticed he was dead, when the mission was almost over. 

5

Discussion / Re: Review & Suggestions

« on: September 24, 2013, 08:14:49 pm »

Button to rearrange staff in employee-, Aircraft- + equipment-screens.


Hello guys.

This has probably been requested before.
I am really missing a button or functionality to "drag and drop" soldiers in my employee-, aircraft-, and equipment-screen.
I guess it really depends on how much order you need, but I train my crews according to general experience and weapon-classes. It would be nice, if one could arrange the order of ones soldiers e.g. from veteran to rookie or group them according to their weapons of choice: all snipers on top, then the heavies, then ...
Right now, it gets especially messy when you get like 40 new recruits every month and have to scroll down three pages just to get to that one guy who made the team ... I have actually started firing everbody but the ones I decided to train, so the soldiers I actually use are all on top of the list. 

6

Discussion / Re: A Request

« on: September 24, 2013, 08:08:51 pm »

Yes, the SHIFT-key is your friend here.

Unfortunately, it doesnt work in the buy/sell screen.

7

Discussion / Itemconsumption on missions.

« on: September 24, 2013, 08:03:00 pm »

Hey guys.

After picking up my 2,5dev campaign with the latest version (just couldnt wait for final release anymore hehehe), I finally have to ask these questions:

How is the consumption of battlefield-"consumables" (i.e. grenades, reloads) calculated?
Is the item-counter in the homebase of the dropship always up to date, even if the dropship is still on its way back to base?

I have been trying to track it but just cant really wrap my head around it.
E.g. ... :
If a soldier dumps 50% of his ammo-cartridge into Aliens during the mission, will he use up a whole cartridge?
If a soldier reloads once (and thus definitely uses a cartridge), will this be shown in the base-buy/sell-menu right after the mission even if the ship is still on its way back?
If my crew is on its way to a mission and I decide to sell all my grenades in the homebase, will they be stuck without any grenades?

It gets especially complicated when you do two missions in a row with the same dropship. Funny enough, even if the soldiers have used items, their original loadout will still be 100% present at the beginning of the 2nd mission.
How is this handled?


While I am at it, I might as well ask a similar set of questions concerning xp-gain:
Is this immediate, meaning in the very moment of action during a mission? Or does xp-gain set in when the mission is over? Or when the crew has returned to base? ...
And also: Are xp-points and kills from the two missions added up or is it just the last mission that contributes to the xp-gain?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

8

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Re: Graphic anomalies on Mansion and Urban Periphery

« on: January 18, 2013, 04:32:11 pm »

To disable these maps in your campaign, first create a backup copy of /base/ufos/maps.ufo and store it somewhere you will remember. Then open the file in its original location. Locate the mapdef involved (search for text that says mansion or urban periphery). mansion_huge mapdef looks like this:

 mapdef mansion_huge
 {
    map            "+mansion"
    param         "huge"
    description      "_Mansion"
    maxaliens      19
    multiplayer      true
    teams         4

Under multiplayer true, add a parameter: campaign false.

 mapdef mansion_huge
 {
    map            "+mansion"
    param         "huge"
    description      "_Mansion"
    maxaliens      19
    multiplayer      true
    campaign      false
    teams         4

Note that one map may have several mapdefs, so you'll need to look for more than one for each problem map. They should be listed one after the other though, to make them easy to find.

Hey H Hour.

I tried to find these files but since I used an installer, I only wound up with a 0maps.pk3 file which contains all kinds of map files ending in .ump and .bsp as well as folders containing even more .ump and .bsp files.

There is mansion and mansion1 as files and folders (but no "urban periphery" and no "high-rise").

How would I go about modding out the maps usage during the campaign in that case?

9

Windows / Re: 2.5 dev: Where are all my game files?

« on: January 18, 2013, 04:23:55 pm »

Thanks geever.

I'd say I found them in the 0maps.pk3-file in the /base folder.

10

Windows / 2.5 dev: Where are all my game files?

« on: January 18, 2013, 03:32:59 pm »

Hi people.

I have encountered a problem:

in /base/ufos/ there are supposed to be various files such as:

maps.ufo
weapons.ufo

The thing is, that in my folder there is only a ptl_misc.ufo and nothing else.
File-search hasn't yielded any results either.
I'd need the maps-file to mod out the broken maps as explained here: http://ufoai.org/forum/index.php?topic=7249.0

The game as such is working fine though, so they have to be somewhere I guess.

Any ideas?

11

Tactics / Re: Beginner's guide

« on: September 21, 2010, 05:45:56 am »

I appreciate the bolter much more when aliens start to wear heavier armor. The damage and armor penetration of the 3-shot is excellent and TU cost is fairly low. But this is definitely not high priority in the early game.

Laser technology is fast to research and gives the best boost at the start, in particular since your soldiers cannot shoot to save their lives, so the accuracy really helps. The laser rifle and heavy laser are the main tools in the early game, the heavy laser effectively replacing the sniper rifle. Then the priority is armor, but it takes time to research & disassemble ships for materials.

Laser is awesome, Bolter is underestimated, Sniper got nerfed to the point of bye-bye.

I use the Bolters as close-range shotgun-replacement because like you said: Triple-shot will kick the shit outa the lizardmen.
Since Sniper-Rifles really suck since 2.3 the other good thing about the Bolter is, that you can keep your Snipers in training until you have researched the coilgun: They will deal out single-round fire (sniper-skill) while advancing to a range close enough for the triple-hit (assault).

12

Discussion / Re: Will 2.3.1 fix reaction fire?

« on: September 21, 2010, 05:24:26 am »

2.3.1   Searched around a bit ... couldn't find any announcement that there will be such a thing. *shrug

13

Discussion / Re: Some gameplay questions

« on: July 15, 2010, 05:54:27 am »

All my countries are "exuberant", but the salary costs still are draining my cash (I've got about 30 soldiers, 50 scientists and 40 workers).  I'm starting to run out of stuff to research, so I could probably fire some scientists and save some money.

My PHALANX's financial controlling department firmly believes in "the power of new years eve":

PHALANX is to be shut down.
Or else, certain doom is coming.
No base shall be manned at 0:00 the 30th of december.
No employee shall shoot, research, pilot or assemble.
Your are all fired!
Champagne for everyone!

---

Also, what do you need 30 soldiers for?
Even if you employ two teams and have a couple heal up in the hospital every now and then you shouldn't exceed some 18 guys.

14

Discussion / Re: A few questions from a beginner

« on: July 15, 2010, 05:33:54 am »

Thanks geever.

Here I was planning my whole baselayout strategy according to those hints.

15

Discussion / Re: A few questions from a beginner

« on: July 14, 2010, 07:33:53 am »

Concerning Ufo-yards (2.3 stable) :

I read like everywhere on this board that your yard should be as close to the base of disassembly as possible to speed up the process.
Also, some people were writing about needing a Hangar to disassemble ufos.

Now I got to the point of finally taking apart my first ufos and none of that seems to matter:

- One base half across the globe from the yard indicates the exact same amount of time for disassembly as the other base which is right next to the yard.
(Relative to amount of workers employed: 20 workers right next to the yard need 1100hours to take apart a scout, 40 workers 20.000km away will need 550 hours.)

- When starting disassembly I am not asked to provide hangar-space to do so.
The bases do have hangars, they are currently used by aircraft though.


Any hints on that?