Messages

31

Discussion / Re: New soldier stat increase system

« on: February 13, 2008, 07:27:44 pm »

Perhaps permanent reductions could be eliminated or reduced according to difficulty level, but they should exist. Honestly. If you let your soldiers consistantly suffer major injuries (which are required for hp loss, so you can make some mistakes), you deserve to suffer for it.

For me its not about making mistakes. If you make something wrong, you deserve to be punished (gameplaywise). Agreed.

One thing i was trying to point out is, that suffering major injuries happens quite often in UFO:AI. It often takes only one hit to be close to death. Alien walks around a corner, fires its tachyon rifle once, hits and retreats, without taking any reaction fire...Even the best tactics cant pervent THAT. I agree to the fact, that getting wounded should have some effect, but for me rebalancing the medikit, and therefore causing the need for some time in hospital i ok for me...

One last thing: what is the real GAIN for gameplay/fun of changing BTAxis mechanism? It might be my own personal approach, but i dont really care how realistic a game is, as long it is fun to play.

32

Discussion / Re: New soldier stat increase system

« on: February 13, 2008, 05:38:53 pm »

I could agree to most of the "health reduction after being wounded"-positions due to their realism...but then:
Why do you guys want to make the game even more difficult? The power of alien weaponry increases during the game, you face tougher and more deadly aliens...and you are going to LOOSE health for barely surving an encounter...do this on some consectutive missions and you have no chance to save your hard built up 50-mission trooper, cause he has only 50 HP left and will almost die from any hit....NO FUN!

Even if you simply negate the health-xp for that mission, i dont like the GAME-MECHANISM behind it...my soldiers are supposed to become better, so that they might survive a hit from late-game superior alein weaponry...keep in mind that the missions are suposed to become more challenging as the campaign goes on. This might included more enemies, better weapons or something like this. You simply NEED these HPs to have a fair chance to survive, well a fair chance of not loosing a well built up soldier....

Conclusion: I would strongly dislike ANY penalty for being wounded, as this would force me to play even more perfect (missions without even being wounded)... For me, it is challenging enough to keep all your soliders alive during some missions, so i dont need any game mechanics to make this even harder...

Concerning Mind-increase: Regardless how this mechanism will be implemented, i think that mind HAS to improve BEFORE you actually need it. I remember one of the really old X-COMs when you got a PSI rating really late in the game...and i was really pissed off to realise that half of my elite squad was bound to be controlled due to their pityful PSI-rating...and I had to replace them. An experinced soldier should have a fair chance to deal with PSI-attacks, even if he started with a bad rating...

33

Discussion / Re: New soldier stat increase system

« on: February 12, 2008, 07:22:45 pm »

The system really looks great. Cant wait to test it! 

If I understood it correctly, there is no way to implement it into the current, cause it will break the save options?! I wouldnt mind an occasional crash, just to want to use this system!!

34

Feature Requests / Re: Need new ammos for Launchers

« on: February 11, 2008, 10:54:38 pm »

 I think, that adding much more ammo types, espcially gas granades and rockets and any kind of superior range flash bangs would pretty much overpower rocket launchers and granade lauchers.

I still like the idea of some improved missile ammo, as I rarely use the rocket laucher right now: snipers do a better job.

I`d really love to see some improved ammo (perhaps kind of plasma ammo, armor piercing) for conventional weapons (assaults, MG) to make them an alternative to alien weaponry/laser/bolter...

35

Discussion / Re: estimating factors for to-hit-chance

« on: February 10, 2008, 02:28:07 pm »

Back to the issue about the pricipal accuracy vs weapon skill issue though (as that won't change much even with the new system), I acknowledge eleazar's argument that accuracy is useless because weapon skill already IS accuracy. We could solve this by removing accuracy, but I feel the better way to go is to make the weapon skills do something else. For example, unlock fire modes on weapons. Something like that.

Hmm, sounds like a good idea. There would probably be a lot of balancing needed, but i am always fond of additional "goodies"...and unlocking fire modes would a nice example, though i am not quite sure if this would the game more difficult...expecially in the beginning. I f i imagine that i would have to do without auto-fire modes, inferno, aimed sniper shots etc....THAT would be really tough 

If you go for the version "unlocking fire modes", I think a new weapon category "alien weaponry" might come in handy...perhaps the combined value of alien weaponry and the weapon skill unlocks the fire modes of alien weapons. This way a skilled Assault weapon user might be better with alien assault weapons (-> more and better firemodes) that an unskilled one

36

Discussion / Re: estimating factors for to-hit-chance

« on: February 10, 2008, 12:44:08 pm »

Important detail is that I'm currently rewriting the skill increase code to not be based on kills anymore.

Well, i cant wait to see that new mechanism.

Thx for your hard work! 

37

Discussion / Re: estimating factors for to-hit-chance

« on: February 10, 2008, 12:23:29 pm »

If I got that right we all agree on only increasing the skill of the weapon used. This way soldiers specialise on one, perhaps two weapon categories. 

The point we disagree on, is the need for an accuracy skill. I hope i got that right:

eleazar and myself perfer the idea that ONLY the weapon skill is sufficient. This way you only have calculate one skill into your considereations for choosing a soldier.

BTAxis perfers TWO seperate skills. As both skills (the APPROPRIATE weapon skill AND accuracy) improve via the same mechanism (kills), a veteran is automaticly moderately skilled in using weapons he is not specialised in, due to his improved accuracy skill.

38

Feature Requests / Re: Convoy map to hard

« on: February 09, 2008, 01:43:37 am »

Lol. With laser rifles, rocket and grenade launchers this mission is cake. Seriously.

You dont even need rockets. Lasers, perhaps a few bolters and grenade lauchers really do the job.
(Most of the time I go for 2 grenades, 3 laser rifles, 2 snipers and 1 bolter)
-> both granades, 1 sniper and 2 lasers up the hill on the right and the rest covering the long alley, with a short trip to the left lone alien... 

39

Discussion / Re: estimating factors for to-hit-chance

« on: February 08, 2008, 06:25:04 pm »

So then really what's the point of the accuracy stat?
You simply have to mentally add it to each of the weapon skills to gauge how skilled a soldier will be.

I agree on that point. Though i really love the "tiny bits" that improve and i therefore really like to see my guys getting better, there is no need for the skill "accuracy".

Sure, one could argument that there IS a competence how well somebody might be able to aim...

But the way skill advancement works (now and probably also in future versions) Accuracy AND the weapon skill both go up with the number of kills...so why not put them together into one weapon skill. It makes the game easier to understand (the better your weapon skill is, the better you will be able to score a hit)...

So, besides for a realism argument: where is the point of having two seperate skills?

40

Feature Requests / Re: Testing feedback and suggestions for the early stage of the game

« on: February 04, 2008, 01:08:16 am »

Problem:

I've set up a base (the 1st) in the middle of EU, and I got it working fine, squad, tech people, buildings and so on. But, it happened that the aliens attacked Wellington, and I could do nothing about it, because it was out of reach (the dropship wouldn't fly that far, even with 2 extra fuel tanks). So the 1st month ended, and I couldn't rescue anyone in Wellington. I've tried making a base in Australia, but it become operational to late and i lost the game very fast, even though the other countries were happy.
So, I think it's silly to have such events in areas that are out of reach for you in the very begining.

Wellington is the primary reason why i always build my HQ in Northern Africa, just below the text. From that point you can reach any mission available atm...

41

Tactics / Re: As capturing aliens living (with that weapon)

« on: February 03, 2008, 03:55:12 pm »

I would like to know how to capture the aliens with life because I do not see any weapon that the freeze...

The game is excellent

Tnks

Just be patient. You need to research all three alien autopsies and alien breathing apparatus. You will then be able to research your first weapon with stun: stun rod. Using stunrods will allow to capture aliens alive. Stun grenades will also do the job, but the come later (after the research Life alien). Hope this helps.

42

Discussion / Re: Game ends on 5. Jan. 2085

« on: February 02, 2008, 12:13:48 pm »

It probably wont help...really sounds like you have reached the current end of the storyline, as the game is still evolving...

43

Design / Re: Basic economy

« on: February 01, 2008, 06:03:17 pm »

secondly, i think there should be a penalty for selling stuff (maybe only get 75% of value of item on open market) and another penalty for buying it (maybe costs 150% of value). thirdly, (dammit, i've already used my 2 cents!) i think there should be a shipping delay of 6-24 hours before the item arrives on base. These are little things that would add a bit more realism AND gameplay value to the game.

I disagree. These changes might add a little bit more realism, but i dont see how they add any gameplay value...so if you could explain what gain there might be?

I only see drawbacks in Value penalty and shipping time and no benefits for gameplay:

Right now, the autosell funktion is sometimes automaticly actived, so some items are sold, even if i dont want them to be sold. I dont mind this bug right now, cause i just can buy these items back.
Furthermore, most of the time i only keep one weapons for research. Selling e.g. plasma weapons is quite convinient right now: I put the sell marker to maximum (10 units per click), sell all and buy 1 unit back...fast and easy. with penalty and shipping times all these easy to handle mechanism wouldnt work...

44

Discussion / Re: Auto-completing missions

« on: January 30, 2008, 12:41:45 am »

According to my experience they currently do not get any kills and therefore no xp/leveling up of skills. Might be random though.

I second that observation. No kills, no skills, plus you sometimes lose...

45

Mac / Re: Health bar bug...I think.

« on: January 29, 2008, 03:36:02 pm »

Workaround: Just click at the rename pen and press enter. The Healthbar repears for all soldiers.