Topics

31

Design / Design: Storyline

« on: April 07, 2006, 11:42:03 pm »

Purpose of this thread: Brainstorming the basic storyline and setting to use in the main UFO:AI game.

Preliminary ideas here (Hoehrer, update this with the improvements you made, please.)

32

Design / Design: Aliens

« on: April 07, 2006, 11:38:44 pm »

Purpose of this thread: brainstorming aliens to create for the main UFO:AI game, deciding on what aliens to include.

Preliminary ideas here.

Some brainstroming from my side... i'm not arguing for anything of that to get included, just listing it.

Alien types that came to my mind:
* Parasites - Small worm-like creatures that infect your soldier and kills/mutate/whatever it. If the target is killed the worms duplicate and spread.
* Cyborg cows - for the ufo-fanboys out there ... just kidding
* Alien plants - Extra terestial plants that are hazardous (pollen/dust) to humans when standing next to them. (in alien bases/ships)
* Small attack critter - basically the 'nicer' (do not mix that up with "non-lethal") and smaller version of the Shevaar (EDIT i don't mean the shape/species here)... that is a pretty fast close combat (and maybe ranged combat) attacker.

Those alien plants sound interesting. They'd give players a gas-based hazard outside multiplayer. They'd have to be in alien botanies, though. No walking plants!
Otherwise, the aliens you propose sound reasonable, though I think we shouldn't create too many of them. However, it did occur to me earlier that I had not catered for a typically psionic alien (I keep wanting to use the term 'psyker', because I like the word, but the Warhammer people would be all over me if I did). I don't really want to create an Ethereal ripoff. It is reasonable to have the Antareans themselves use psi later on in the game, but perhaps we should add a fourth "caste", the Psionics. Workers wouldn't have that kind of delicate equipment or training, Soldiers are too busy pulling triggers and Commanders are too few in number.

33

Design / Design: Equipment

« on: April 07, 2006, 11:35:17 pm »

Purpose of this thread: Brainstorming the core equipment list for the main UFO:AI game, deciding on what equipment to include.

Preliminary ideas here.

Some brainstroming from my side... i'm not arguing for anything of that to get included, just listing it.

Weapons/items that we could include:
* EMP grenades  - Especially to disable those evil Hovernets and Cyborg Ortnok for a short time.
* deployable/portable (energy) shields - might not be a good idea per se
* alien plasma blade (may not be a good/often used weapon of choice, but is devasating if used by aliens)
* Foam gun ... why stunning the alien when you can make it in-animated ... just an idea
* Automated weapon platforms - Can also store equipment for other teram members (ammo, medipacks, etc...)
* EDIT Jetpack (no armor, but lighter and faster).
* EDIT spy drone

Alien types that came to my mind:
* Parasites - Small worm-like creatures that infect your soldier and kills/mutate/whatever it. If the target is killed the worms duplicate and spread.
* Cyborg cows - for the ufo-fanboys out there ... just kidding
* Alien plants - Extra terestial plants that are hazardous (pollen/dust) to humans when standing next to them. (in alien bases/ships)
* Small attack critter - basically the 'nicer' (do not mix that up with "non-lethal") and smaller version of the Shevaar (EDIT i don't mean the shape/species here)... that is a pretty fast close combat (and maybe ranged combat) attacker.

Also i think a discussion about soldier enhancements (human cyborgs?) or even robots (but why take robots if you can have smaller weapon platforms that are easier to build and do the same) is needed.
EDIT I think (maybe only advanced) psi-abilities should require at least one enhancing implant.

Werner

Hmm. The implants thing sounds good to me. That'd be one way to distinguish X-COM from the "normal" army, too. I'll have to put some thought into this.

I'm asking myself how useful energy shields and plasma blades are when mines do the job of cutting off a passage and all the combat is ranged anyway. I'm pushing the envelope with the mines as it is. And EMP? What sort of damage would it do? Plus they wouldn't be too effective against a flying enemy. I downright don't like spy drones - part of the UFO experience is walking around a corner and running into your friendly neighborhood alien. Plus we have IR Goggles anyway.

34

Design / Storyline, tech tree, general content design

« on: April 07, 2006, 12:22:28 pm »

This thread is outdated and none of it is applicable to the current development. It's kept here only for archival purposes.

--Winter


Okay. It's a good thing UFO:AI is in development, and it's getting better all the time. But there's not much going on with the actual game design. With "game", I mean here the content; things like the storyline, the tech tree, weapons, equipment, enemies. If this stuff doesn't appear sooner or later, we'll end up with a working game engine, but with nothing more running on that engine than a demo. A few weapons, a few aliens, but not a full-fledged UFO game.

So, what needs to be done?
- Storyline. Who are the aliens? Where do they come from? What sort of technology do they have? Why are they attacking Earth? How can they be defeated?
- Tech tree. Closely related to the storyline, the player has to find out the answers to the questions above through research. So there need to be research topics, requirements, etc.
- Enemies. As far as I know there are two types of aliens (correct me if I'm wrong here, people). I think we need six or seven or so, some of which will appear later in the game. For this we need models.
- Equipment. What exists now is basic human weaponry (rifles, pistols, grenades), some early tachyon/laser weaponry and some early alien weaponry. Those last two weapon types in particular need to be expanded, and don't forget balancing of all the weapons. Also, there should probably some additional stuff like smoke grenades (if and when support for them is added), mines/traps, stun weaponry, deployable turrets, you name it.
- More maps. What we have now is pretty good, but you can never have enough maps.
- Things I haven't thought of in this post. Feel free to brainstorm with me.

So, this needs to be done. I can take a shot at creating a storyline myself, although it's doubtful i'll come up with something original and useful. I'm no modeller, though, so we should start recruiting some.

EDIT by hoherer
This thread has been splitted into several sub-topic/threads. You might want to see there for more recent information:
Design: Storyline
Design: Tech tree
Design: Equipment
Design: UFOs
Design: Aliens

There are more threads though, but these are the main ones.
EDIT end

35

Design / UFO interceptions

« on: March 27, 2006, 03:41:34 pm »

Hello everyone. I was wondering about what UFO interception would be like in UFO:AI, eventually. As we all know, there was not too much to it in the original UFO, and even less in UFO:Aftermath. X-Force, however, has a (potentially) nice arcade minigame. I'm interested in hearing what you all believe UFO interception should be. Myself, I wouldn't mind a more interactive model, where playing skill factors in more than it did in the original. But on the other hand, maybe it would be to the detriment of the game's fun if it was.

36

Artwork / Missing head mesh

« on: March 09, 2006, 09:54:32 am »

Just in case nobody noticed it yet: there's a head that disappears when the soldier is equipped with armor.

37

Discussion / Camera controls

« on: March 09, 2006, 08:57:48 am »

When playing a mission in UFO:AI I found the camera controls rather tedious. As it is you use the numpad keys for moving the camera, and WASD for rotation and level switching. This works, but it's not really very convenient.

What I propose is that - in due time - the camera controls are changed to be more similar to the camera controls in Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War. Here's a brief description of how it works:

- To scroll the view, use the cursor keys or move the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen.
- To rotate the camera, press down ALT and move the mouse left or right.
- To pan the camera, press down ALT and move the mouse up or down.
- To zoom, press down ALT and the LMB, and move the mouse up or down. Alternatively, use the mouse wheel.

When playing DoW, I found these camera controls very comfortable, so it'd be nice if something was used for UFO:AI as well. What do you all think?

38

Discussion / IRC

« on: March 04, 2006, 12:14:54 pm »

As usual, here's my we-also-have-an-IRC-channel post:

server: irc.freenode.org
channel: #ufo:ai