Messages

61

Discussion / Re: Autofire TU Usage

« on: January 23, 2008, 12:35:14 am »

I've been working on rebalanced stats myself. Perhaps we could compare notes sometime and see if we can establish a better set through collaboration.

Sound like a good idea. Once I am done with my first run, i could attach the change log file (excel sheet) somewhere...

62

Discussion / Re: Autofire TU Usage

« on: January 22, 2008, 10:47:13 pm »

Do keep in mind that flat TU costs in the context of this discussion does not mean equal TU costs for the firemodes of different weapons, so much as TU costs that do not remain proportional to soldier's TU pool.

That said, even if the Speed ability were to reflect reflexes and targeting speed, this would at best afford only a minor influence on the overall TU cost of any given weapon's autofire mode. Overall, the biggest determining factor for TU consumption relative to the # of shots given such modes, is the weapon's rate of fire, which is unaffected by such things. Because this is so, the vast majority of the cost (at the very least) of any given autofire mode should remain constant between soldiers (unless we're talking about a short burst). Personally, I'm not adverse to the idea of hybridizing percentage and flat costs, as long as the former is proportionate in prominence to a firemode's autofire component.
 
Clearly you have not seen the SMG .

ok, i think, i slowly understand

If i understood it correctly, you do not suggest to change anything about damge/TUs, but only to change the fixed TUs into percentages...this way a solider with speed 20 (about 30 TUs) and a soldier with speed 100 (i think about 40 TUs?) could use the autofire mode (lets say it costs 25%) equally often, as their reflexes (aka speed) is not dependent on the ability to fire their weapon...!

If i got that right: Ok, i see your point.

I still dont like it. As I stated before i love to see me soldiers become better. And I like to use this to my advantage...preferably to fire more often! But this will become impossible with percentages...furthermore: as the difference in TUs/speed is quite minimal right now, there wouldnt be much difference to the fixed system...perhaps only 1-2 TUs...and if I would be the one to write the code, i probably wouldnt do it. Much work, minimal effect. Sorry...

Concerning the SMG: Yeah, thats one nasty one. I am right now working on some little rebalacing of the different weapons. I was really surprised to see that the SMG in Fullauto is much more efficient than the assault rifle and even the MG (concerning damage/TU), even against armored enemies...

I REALLY miss some kind of Sniper-weapon-improvement, so i am readjusting the laser rifle with an additional sniper mode...
But one major point is to nerf the SMG (e.g. reduce range of bursts to 20, increase spread, reduce crouch, increase effectivity of armor against it)...the SMG is still a quite potent weapon but it is at least less efficient...an MG should simply be more devastating as a SMG...

63

Discussion / Re: Autofire TU Usage

« on: January 22, 2008, 05:50:51 pm »

@tobbe
Can you please explain this a bit more detailed? How is a weapon imbalanced if the soldier is able to handle it more quickly? If swiftness and accuracy under stress -if that is as well a proper interpretation of the speed variable- enables one soldier to aim quicker it is not the weapon which is imbalanced but rather the soldiers advantage for his higher speed.

I think your argument would merely point out that we should consider less additional TU per speed point?
But this has nothing to do with realistic impact on weapon use.

I would agree that TU should be considered carefully as a trained soldier is not that much slower than a very good sprinter.

I will try.

First: I accept the Real life effect that there is no difference in the time needed to pull a trigger...be it a MG, a SMG, a Plasma Blster or Particlebeam Cannon...it takes lets say a second - done.

I am talking about the game mechanic of damage ratings of weapons.

There are losts of others factors balancing (e.g. spread, crouch, range, effect vs. various armours)weapons, but i will limit the analysis towards this one factor (damage/TU)

In the game you obviously try to use the most efficient weapon possible. This can be represented be damage/TU. Right now all weapons are fairly balanced. There is no real Uber-weapon because the higher damage potential a weapon has, the more TUs you need to "pull the trigger". The damage/TU varies around 5 to 30 damage per TU, most high damage values have to be calculated down due to spread, whereas low damage values often have a much higher chance to hit. This narrows the damage/TU values to about 8 to 15 damage per TU. So there are differences but not within small limits. If you equalize the TUs needed for firemodes, simply choosing weapons with higher damage becomes a "No-Brainer"...ill try to give an example:

atm the particlebeam cannon requires 24 TU for rapid shots (not even full auto) and deals up to 600 points of damage (assuming all shots hit, not very likely with a spread of 2.5...). This means the weapon deals about 25 damage/TU

the Assault rifle requires 18 TU for full auto and deals up to 336 points of damage, with an equal spread chance. This equals about 18 damage/TU.

This way PHALANX has at least a chance to deal sufficient damage to kill the aliens.

If you would reduce the TUs needed for the P-Beam cannon (argument: just pull the trigger!) to lets say 18, the Cannon would be able to deliver an enormous amount of about 34 damage/TU. (The hardest hitter right now is the flamethrower (30 Damage/TU) and this weapon has a severely limited range.) So after i have researched particlebeam cannons, i switch with as many as possible soldiers to cannons, to inflict the most damage/TU, and this would result in having most of your forces running around with p-beam cannons. This would reduce the variety of the game a lot and make the game less interesting.

So you are right to claim that in RL there is no difference in the time needed to pull the trigger, right.
But implementing this into the game would cause an imbalance as in creating Uber-Weapons.

Concerning the Speed/TU-System: If you want to keep it simple, there is simply no chance to make it completely "realistic"...just consider the fact that you need e.g. 10 TUs to fire a laser pistol pulse. Ans you need the same amount of TUs to move 5 squares, a distance of about 20 feet...not realistic at all. But it is a simple, easy to understand und working mechanic. I am quite content to sacrifice as much realism as needed to create a well working and balanced combat system.

About the comparison between sprinter and trained soldier: You might be right, but I WANT to see my stats go up and I WANT to feel/see the effects! So if id only gain 1 TU per 10 speed, the game would become less interesting for me, almost boring. In fact, i discovered UFO:AI a few months ago and once i realized that your soldiers did not improve, i stopped playing...not enogh development..or to discribe it with Robin D. Laws "not enough tiny bits"...

All of this is of course just my own personal preference how this kind of a game should be be, feel free to disagree...

64

Discussion / Re: Intercepting UFOs

« on: January 22, 2008, 09:44:57 am »

Working with 2.2 release

@canahari: A Saracen is as fast as a stiletto, and therefore just more expensive and has fewer weapon slots.

@DaNippers: Sereon Stealth ship?? Whats that? I am right now tweaking the aircraftstats a little to make dogfights more interesting and i didnt see such a ship in the codes???

BY the way, once I am done with tweaking the aircraft, anyone interested to give it a try?

65

Discussion / Re: 2.2 Release: Dead Civilians count?

« on: January 22, 2008, 09:39:39 am »

Implying that civ deaths on the geoscape are irrelevant. But then:

Which implies that civ deaths on the geoscape do count.

May someone please clarify? 

My experiences:

1. Any dead civilian at geoscapes counts. Therefore it is important to engage geoscape missions within a few days (i normally wait a bit to avoid night fights)

2. Dead civilians in tactical missions only count if you lose the mission! As long a you finish the mission succesfully, it doesnt matter how many civilians you lost...

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Discussion / Re: Autofire TU Usage

« on: January 22, 2008, 09:34:50 am »

I disagree. If there would be a fixed amount of TUs for Autofire modes, some weapons would simply be WAY overprowered. The different amount of TUs (for all firemodes) is simply needed for balance reasons, regardless how easy it may be to pull the trigger...

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Tactics / Re: New Base interceptors?

« on: January 22, 2008, 12:04:46 am »

Had the same bug, weapons were already installed... But after a few days the problem was gone...
I suspect that the interceptors had to be fueled completely before they appear on the overview...

68

Feature Requests / Re: missed UFO Theory?

« on: January 21, 2008, 10:04:14 am »

i c! thanks for the help. i shall go hunt down a scout!

unfortunately you will have to wait for a landed version. just to shoot one down is not enough...good luck!

69

Feature Requests / More infos about enemies

« on: January 20, 2008, 11:59:52 pm »

I think i havent mentioned it before: really great work!  It is just cool to play one on favorites once again.

Right now I am thinking about some small modifications and i have a little proposal and some questions:

I would really like to see some more information about the aliens. If i move the cursor on top of an alien, it just stats what kind of alien it is...but there are huge differences concerning possible armor and weapons. I would handle a heavily armor orthok with  plasma blaster quite diffrently than an othok without any armor and plasma pistol...ok, if i take a closer look, i often recognize the weapon, but as the lighting is often bad, i sometimes dont. I think it would be really cool to have a little box with the most relevant information, after you have found out the most relevant information via research:

Alien Type (if researched)
Armor (none, light, medium)
Weaponry (at least if it is a light, medium or heavy weapon)
approx. health (healthy, wounded, close to death)

The last point is the most important one for me.i hit an alien once and lose contact. after a while, i meet a similar alien...but is this the one i wounded? how often will i have to hit him  for a kill...?

Question: Where can i find out the EXACT resistances of the various alien types? The research offers some vague clues, but id like to know more. Especially when using bursts there are big differences in the effectiveness of various weapons...to give one example (i entered some weapons stats into excel and calculated the damage per TU for unarmored, light armored and medium armored aliens)

The laser pistol is really great against unarmored aliens: sufficient range, very low spread and it is within the top 30% of damage/TU against unarmored, using pulsed fire.

Against light armored enemies (adding 12 points armor) it is still quite ok, but pulsed becomes almost useless, while wave-fire still performs ok.

Against medium armored enemies (adding 26 points armor) pistols just suck, almost the worst damage/TU available.

I know that lasers are supposed to work this way and i like the idea of adjusting to your enemies and choosing diffrent weaponry (just dont fight heavily armored enemies with lasers). But the example shows, that 10-15 points damage reduction make a huge difference. So IF e.g. Orthoks have about 10 points laser resistance, i would know not to shoot with lasers even on light armored orthoks...right now i just have to guess. A situation i dont really like in a game where it is really easy to lose important soldiers... there is no time for trial and error.

Oh, another point, different topic: I was REALLY surprised when i noticed that there are HUGE differences about the impact of crouching! (e.g. flamethrower - no difference, Sniper rifle factor 0.3!) Some ingame info/warning about this OR a consistant factor would be nice...

70

FAQ / Re: How to get relax the civilian death limit

« on: January 20, 2008, 05:42:16 pm »

Yes, but preserve the directory structure in the zip file, so the files end up in base/ufos/.

I really appreciate your help! Thx!

71

FAQ / Re: How to get relax the civilian death limit

« on: January 20, 2008, 05:38:33 pm »

As stated, PK3 is just zip (note: zip is not the same as 7-zip).

You don't have to repack the files to make it work. As long as you preserve the directory structure, the game will use your modified files.

I just took a closer look at the directory structure and i realised, that i am not sure where to extract the "new" files to...is it sufficient to extract the .pk3 files into the same folder (base-directory)?

72

FAQ / Re: How to modify the Stats-advancement?

« on: January 20, 2008, 05:13:12 pm »

i like your ideas. sounds really good. I am not that bad in maths, but I didnt really understand your explanations about the progression of the XP, but the basic idea looks great! 

73

FAQ / Re: How to get relax the civilian death limit

« on: January 20, 2008, 04:16:49 pm »

To unpack the PK3, just use a zip-capable unpacker, like winzip. Make sure to extract the "ufos" directory with it. The script files themselves are just plain text, so use any editor you like.

I have another question: I found the file, was able to unpack it and now i am about to change some stuff for my own use (especially weapon stats and aircraft stats). Once i finish the changes: how to repack the new stuff? I use 7zip, and this does not offer to create a .pk3 file...

74

FAQ / Re: How to modify the Stats-advancement?

« on: January 20, 2008, 04:03:27 pm »

Thx for the link, though i already noticed the thread. Id really like to know more about your current plans/ideas...just out of curiosity...

edit: as it needs to be coded, i am not sure, how difficult a complex learning curve might be. I would be quite content, if all stats would

1) actually increase at all
2) grow at a moderate speed
3) you have the possiblity to train your replacement soldiers (training), so that the loss of one specific/extraordinary trooper is not that devastating...

75

FAQ / Re: How to modify the Stats-advancement?

« on: January 20, 2008, 03:37:01 pm »

You will have to change the code and recompile the game yourself. This can not be done with scripts.

Thx for the info...so i wont be able to do that myself...that brings up some questions:

1. Will HP and speed ever go up?
2. I sometimes have more HP than normal (105/80). Bug or intended?
3. What are the actual plans about stat advancement?