Topics

16

Mac / Maximized windowed mode?

« on: May 02, 2011, 03:06:55 am »

Two screens, I usually keep the game (WoW for five years...) on big and browser/chat on little. I know what IRC is and sort of how it works, too, figured we could cut down on me spamming the forums if I managed to get IRC on my small screen.

Til then I'll be polluting the forums. Heh. 1900*1200 big screen.

I clicked the IRC link from the main page after download a Mac IRC app (LimeChat), but it seemed empty after I plunked in irc.freenode.org #ufoai

Plus it'd be nice if I could take notes for my newbie guide while playing: http://ufoai.ninex.info/forum/index.php?topic=5927.msg47229#msg47229

17

Discussion / Difficulty level changes what exactly?

« on: May 02, 2011, 02:29:18 am »

I searched the wiki & game manual and found nothing.

Doesn't seem to do much with the combat AI.

Does seem to do much with numbers of scientists and money stuff and diplomacy (i.e., ease with which you can lose the game).

Does it affect air-to-air combat?

Insane difficulty seems to lose Stilettos a lot, and I thought I played almost perfectly but lost easily after a month and some days. Seems multiple bases are a requirement right off the bat?

18

Discussion / Writer, video editor, military mercenary guy would like to help.

« on: May 01, 2011, 10:52:19 pm »

10.9 years in the US Navy. 3 Gulf deployments. Solo test dives in Atmospheric Dive Suits (google it) down to 2,000ft. Qualified on all military diving equipment known to mankind (damn near).
1 year bodyguarding in India.
Other security/intel work, experience drafting classified Conf/Secret messages.
Published writer, expert-level English.
Former WoW pvp/pve movie maker with ~400,000 views, longest movie 1h33min.
X-Com.
Chaos Gate faq writer (gamefaqs.com).

Just managed to get the game working last night, played til 0430 and noticed stuff I can fix:

intro_sequence.txt - I can toss stuff together if you tell me what you want, how long, and in an easy-to-write txt format. I have zero coding experience but I can copy/paste. Show me the backstory or no story and I'll come up with something.

UFOpaedia - should really be UFOpedia imho. It seems somewhat ready to go on the wiki at http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Translation:Laser_txt/en

...but it's not in game. I'm guessing that's a ways off due to getting it into the right format.

If you just need a blurb for each in-game entry in a text file, then I can knock out a hundred of those in a day. They won't be accurate, but it'll be something.

I'm currently job-hunting so not right now, but conceivably later on I could make a pretty spiffy little intro/advertising video for the game. See my past WoW work or my rl film here:

19

Mac / Making things a little more newbie-user-friendly.

« on: May 01, 2011, 10:16:23 pm »

I find out about the game.
I go to the site.
I finally see a link to "Download" (there really should be a huge button up top saying "Download the game for free for PC, Mac, Linux, whatever ...HERE."
I find the Mac OS X "stable" release build down a ways on the page.
I download.
Crash. Nothing works.
I go the wiki part about Macs. "Compile for Mac."
I think "compile" means putting a game together after you download but I'm not really sure and it seems pretty complicated.
I go to forums and figure out somewhere in a thread that I should be using a "dev" build.
I download that. It has a readme file that says go to the site.
It works.
Tons of keyboard commands aren't explained. There's no tutorial taking you through how to play or figure it out.
The readme just points to a website I already visited.


Suggestions:
1. Make the initial download link point to the build that you want people to use when they don't know how to do complicated computer stuff.
2. Just a basic list of keyboard commands in the readme file.
3. Basic list of little idiosyncracies like having to close a door and re-open it before you can get another person through.

20

FAQ / Newbie guide?

« on: May 01, 2011, 10:55:56 am »

Hi.

If you worked on this project I love you. In a totally non-inappropriate way.

I played through the campaign, learned a bunch of stuff and thought - hey, wouldn't it be great if someone had written a quick easy guide on obvious bugs and issues currently affecting the game?

Is there something like that as of now, or should I start one?



Few issues I was going to cover (all on an iMac):
1. Opening doors must be done for each person going through the opening, the door has to be closed and re-opened for each person.
2. Your first base should really be in the middle of a big landmass, or else you'll shoot down UFO's over water and poo for you.
3. It's a good idea to write down all the keyboard commands on a piece of paper. Some that were missing from the in-game list:
X - cycle react fire
End - brings up a "radar" screen (goggles-related??)
ASWD and the arrow keys are decent ways to make sense of confusion. The numbers on the left of the screen tells you how much vertical terrain is displayed, controlled by the up/down arrow keys.
F/R tilts the camera
4. Pressing "Esc" a little too quick can get ugly when you accidentally start a base defense with no save game and some people without gear or weapons.
5. Pleased is better than Content. I think.
6. Camouflage colours do not affect enemy chance to hit. I think.
7. If you keep forgetting who's good at what or carrying what weapon, put an S for sniper, H for heavy and A for assault behind their last name.
8. UGV stands for...?
9. If your darn base is too big, make a quick drawing of it on a piece of paper and you can plan your sweep defense better.