Messages

16

Discussion / Re: 2 small, but nice features for the squad window

« on: February 03, 2008, 07:19:03 pm »

I usually only keep 8 soldiers at a base, letting the injured soldiers recuperate in civilian hospitals off-base.  Still, using the hospital building, with a medic, and keeping the soldier on base should lead to quicker recovery times.  However, it does take up living space, building space, plus the difference in healing rates isn't significant to the best of my knowledge.  Maybe I'll try it in the new release.

17

Tactics / Re: Pilots?

« on: February 03, 2008, 07:13:57 pm »

Actually, there's a big difference...

Using your soldiers as pilots will exasperate the soldier shortage. 

18

Tactics / Re: scientists

« on: February 02, 2008, 04:44:42 am »

Don't worry, the limited number of soldiers will soon make your scientist shortage seem trivial. 

19

Discussion / Re: 2 small, but nice features for the squad window

« on: February 02, 2008, 04:37:02 am »

Sorry, I'm not sure of the technical aspects of the game, but I know that if the soldier is removed from the dropship, the equipment is removed from the soldier.  Try it, you'll like it.   

20

Discussion / Re: Some thought

« on: February 01, 2008, 08:57:59 pm »

I remember the aliens in the original X-Com always used reaction fire.  I hated to have officers at the top of the solider list, because they would be the first off the dropship, and the first soldier off the dropship tended to get fragged by alien reaction fire.  Of course, reaction fire was more deadly in that game than in this one, with near-certain death from the plasma weapons instead of the health loss in this game.  In this game, you have to wait for particle weapons in order to see instant death.  Plus, the plasma weapons tend not to hit.

21

Discussion / Re: 2 small, but nice features for the squad window

« on: February 01, 2008, 08:49:44 pm »

Since equipment loadouts are stored with the dropship and not the soldiers, you can just unload then load the soldier on the dropship, and the soldier will have nothing in the squad menu.

22

Discussion / Re: Medic Packs

« on: January 30, 2008, 05:51:31 am »

Depending on how many uses the medpaks have, I doubt the issue of medpak usage limits will play a major factor in the game.  In the original X-Com, medpaks rarely ran out (of course, that's because soldiers rarely survived getting shot).  If medpaks have a limit on the number of uses, players will simply carry more medpaks.  Although I imagine coding the medpaks to have a limited number of uses is fairly simple, it doesn't seem like a major issue.

Now one thing that is major is how medpak healing is handled by the game.  If the damage healed is permanent, then nobody will use hospitals.  If medpaks don't heal enough in missions, then nobody will use them, chosing instead to use their turn (which is basically how long it takes a rookie to apply a medpak currently) for something more constructive.  It seems that the current system is working well, with medpaks taking roughly two uses to restore a soldier's health from half to full, and the healing not being fully permanent.  Still, the newest version has only been out for two weeks.

23

Discussion / Re: Soldier models

« on: January 30, 2008, 05:40:25 am »

I seem to recall the soldiers in the original X-Com also had big heads, although not to the point of the soldiers in this game.  Before anyone complains, they should see how the soldiers in Apoc look....
Bunch of ugly Russian clones....
Nothing like the cute Russians in the magazines.   

24

Discussion / Re: 2.2 Release: Dead Civilians count?

« on: January 30, 2008, 05:33:37 am »

I'm basically undecided on the issue of the civilian death count, but it's important to note that you can win a mission with all civilians dead.  Plus, considering civilian movements, civilian initial positioning, and the alien start positions, some missions start out with civilians dying on turns two and three, with little to nothing that the player can do.  Right now, I'm trying to use my soldiers as bodyguards for the civilians, trapping them into places where my soldiers can at least get reaction fire on the aliens.  Even thought soldiers are hard to come by, their losses don't automatically lead to game over.  Still, I'll have to see how this affects my game experience before I decided where I fall on this issue.

Also, I've always took it in this game and all the X-Com games that game over generally means the government abandoned the project, which eventually leads to alien victory.  Of course, I may not have enough experience with the game over screen.   

25

Discussion / Re: First aid?

« on: January 30, 2008, 05:21:00 am »

I think stedly means that the doctors will heal you, eventually, after ALL the paperwork is filled out, provided they can't find a loophole to avoid helping you.  In other words, at a very, very slow rate.

26

Discussion / Re: Cyber-Soldiers

« on: January 30, 2008, 05:16:05 am »

That's cool, I don't mind playing the development versions.  They tend to be *fairly* stable.
Besides, cybernetics never work right on the first try, right? 

27

Discussion / Cyber-Soldiers

« on: January 26, 2008, 10:47:53 pm »

I'm sitting here, waiting for the newest version of this great game to load, and I read that Implants haven't been implemented yet.  So I'm wondering, is this an item we can expect to see in a few months, or is it a more distant dream?  Also, what can we expect when the Implant feature has been implanted in the game? 

I'm guessing that implants will increase the stats and skills of soldiers.  I'm looking forward to reading the descriptions to the new implants in the UFOpedia!

28

Discussion / Re: Civilians... those little buggers.

« on: January 26, 2008, 10:38:17 pm »

Mustang said:

Most civilians would run to the drop ship once they saw it because it would represent their only safe area, even if it meant exposing themselves to worse danger than than hiding.

However, Phalanx is a covert operation, so it's unlikely that most civilians would recognize the drop ship as a safe area.  In fact, the dropship of Phalanx might be mistaken by less knowledgable civilians as belonging to the alien invaders (but this is unlikely since the Phalanx dropship started life as a civilian transport).  I guess in some cases, the civilians might see the dropship as human in origin, and hope that they can hitch a ride out to the battlezone.  Also, while I like the idea of subduing hysterical humans and putting them in a safe place, the idea of taking them away in the dropship is unsound.  After all, wouldn't the dropship be taking the maximum number of soldiers into combat?  I'm certain most players don't take less than 8 soldiers on a mission unless they have no choice (which is common considering the shortage of soldiers).  Still, it would be cool if a battle could be resolved by just fleeing with the civilians instead of fighting to the death.   

29

Tactics / Re: Use of the Smoke Grenade

« on: January 10, 2008, 04:29:15 am »

I recall reading that smoke grenades are not functioning in the game at this time.  Or, the alien could have just beat the smoke modifier for it's roll.  Finally, the smoke may currently be programmed to only block visibility on the same plane, thus the alien shot down at your soldier, where there was no smoke.  The AI always knows where you are, even when it's controlled units can't see you.  I'm no programmer, and these are just my ideas, but they may at least make you feel better.  If it was just one alien, you would have been better to use a flash grenade.  I know they at least work fine.

30

Feature Requests / Idea for another Alien Interest

« on: August 14, 2007, 12:08:12 am »

I agree with andycon about including human-alien interactions.  The inclusion of a human-alien militia would tie in with the JA mod, at least with the humans as advisaries.  Plus, history has shown that invaders, no matter how cruel and evil, can find supporters among the invaded.

The only problem I see is that the aliens in this game seem to feel an extreme sense of superiority.  I wonder if the aliens in this game would even want to bother with human helpers.  Still, I think the aliens would rather see human casualties than alien ones.  I'm afraid I don't understand the alien perspective enough to say whether they would be willing to use human followers.

Human infiltrators could start closer to sensative instalations for base invasions than aliens, thus ensuring further damage.  They should also start with explosive weapons, at least frag grenades.  Or they can work behind the scenes, eliminating personnel, slowing research and manufacturing, and destroying equipment.  This would require expending money for security, possibly building new base facilities such as security checkpoints and internal sensors.  These security facilities might hurt the moral of soldiers, since nobody likes the inconvenience of invasive security measures, and everybody is paranoid about being watched.