Messages

31

Discussion / Re: Dogfights

« on: March 01, 2008, 12:48:40 pm »

that miserable one pixel dots?.. Oh well... ))

They are some 10 pixels long and some pixel wide if you zoom in to them on Geoscape. I think they are already too big and unrealistic in such way, but surely armor and weapons will be worked on and combat will change much. You know - 2.2 was first version with ship combat introduced!

32

Discussion / Re: My first impressions

« on: February 15, 2008, 06:11:21 pm »

There are five aircrafts - two of them are researchable. I'm not very sure about 2.2, I have played  development edition some month before 2.2 release and at least then two new crafts were available later. Unfortunately they both are interceptors (or "John Rambo" delivery crafts - one assignable soldier place).

12 (or 16 - limit is not decided yet by TODO list) man squads will sure be available in future, this is in work if you had read forum /TODO list. This and many other things are in TODO list or under consideration : http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/TODO/2.3

I agree with  "It would be nice to be able to switch base even when in a sub-window on the base screen." and "Reports on the results of interception is a bit to discrete. It's easy to miss the loss of an aircraft."

And some things will probably go too far, wont be really usable or give too much development headache, for example: "The dropship has a cannon. It would be nice if it could be operated by a soldier, in order to clear the immediate surroundings." - I think I have seen such thing rejected by developers in forum at least once before.

33

Artwork / Re: Alien launcher (portable)

« on: February 13, 2008, 05:08:45 pm »

Wow! Yes - this is much more alien like concept then first one. I don't think that all alien weapons must be very curvy, this one here already has such nice oval shape magnetic coils. I like it!

Thanks for picking up my word! I definetly think that aliens need such rocket launcher too and after nice acceleration and direct flight missile should have pre-programmed turn or even homing capability like such advanced Alien weapons in both Terror From the Deep and Apocalypse had. Such heavy artillery to give fire support to fight against armored alien raptors or UVG's or what ever we can add to aliens arsenal later. Maybe we can have different missiles for it so some are just for direct launch like current RPG and some with different degree of advanced flight control features.

34

Mapping / Re: Trying to "make maps"

« on: February 12, 2008, 05:48:43 pm »

Dont worry! This is not fatal, game works still if you have finished make maps. Game even runs before, but until some maps are not compiled you may encounter missions where map is not available.
make maps produces from every mapname.map file mapname.bsp file. They aren't packed together.

35

Mapping / Re: Ship map

« on: February 11, 2008, 10:51:37 pm »

Did you base your work on some existing ferry layout, like this?

Not exactly on one, but I my summerhouse is on island over 8 km ferry crossing and I have used big (Silja Line) roro ships between Turku (Finland) - Stockholm and Tallinn - Stockholm and quick ferries (SuperSeaCat) in Tallinn-Helsinki route. So I'm quite used to use ferries and I have tried to get overview of such ships when using them. Outer appearance is mostly like such big and slow, but economical ferries and inside can be configured yet like community wants.

Thanks for positive feedback! If I got more time in May and June I hope to finish it (if nobody wont finish it before) or do some other maps (cargoship?). Even if I cant spend time on this model for some months, everyone can criticize and also!

36

Mapping / Re: Ship map

« on: February 11, 2008, 02:16:12 am »

Okay , silence.
Because I have to concentrate to my master thesis now, I post three current shots and current map file. Ship outer structure is almost complete, but must be textured / named and added walls and furniture inside. In moment there are no pipes to funnels from engines (simple black boxes in first deck level). For realistic propose those could be also added. I used ship bridge furniture, ship radars and masts, and one small lifeboat from harbor map, but this ship will need much bigger lifeboats.
So - my work is GPL ;-)
Anyone - feel free to modify, change, add details!



[attachment deleted by admin]

37

Artwork / Re: SRPMW model

« on: February 10, 2008, 07:01:17 pm »

I think it's nice, but we have too many human weapons already. Maybe you can form it to be more alien like? Not only texture, but also shape. Alien rocketlauncher would be nice addition, I think! Especially if shots can be previously controlled like Distruptor Pulse Launcher in Terror from Deep or one weapon in Apocalypse. Such longer range grenade launcher with capability to shot some degrees behind edge with using two or three waypoints shooting.

38

Feature Requests / Re: Bug: Aircrafts can fly without Pilots

« on: February 10, 2008, 02:07:49 pm »

This feature is not implemented yet, I'm not sure how urgent it is so how soon - if ever - it will be implemented. If pilots and piloting skill will be implemented, then probably we will need also pilot rescue missions and not all players want such things. And we need a lot of mapping work too for random rescue  missions then. Rescue missions wont help much in alien technology research propose too.

39

Mapping / Re: Ship map

« on: February 08, 2008, 10:09:53 am »

Okay, I add some shots. Details are still low, interior needs much more work and I'm not used to texturing yet, but she has grown. I hope I can do some more on weekend, but not today. I also need lifeboats, I left room for four or at least two to be hanged in middle of the ship. Added ramps on car deck, in moment cars are removed - but they will be back in complete map.

[attachment deleted by admin]

40

Feature Requests / Re: ramblings

« on: February 07, 2008, 01:24:44 pm »

5) Bases are already quite big for base defense missions. More tiles on which to build could make base defense a area nightmare. But at same time I think also that bases are quite too small and its very few room to spend for double facilities (like two or more laboratories and at same time maintaining every other facility also in same base).

6) different ammo will change range in very few examples - like howitzer shots with additional rocket engine which in turn takes space of explosives so it wont be so powerful anymore when coming down 10 to 15 km further from normal range (25 km). Plasma grenades for rocket launcher are very well more powerful and usable.

(My comments are not "official" because I'm not developer and probably someone can add / correct me.)

41

Mapping / Ship map

« on: February 07, 2008, 03:30:09 am »

So - to not to fill map suggestions topic with ship maps, I make new topic for it.

Now I managed to make more real looking bow for ship. It's in moment configured as roll-on/roll-of (RORO) ferry, so it's suitable for shorter distances only (Baltic Sea, Mediterranean, Sea of Japan etc). Unfortunately I was not able to turn most prefab cars (their texture went mad in change of angle). On first deck (floor) is engines and maintance area. Second and third are for cars (so can use higher buses and trucks too). Fourth and fifth should be partially cabin's and restaurant and shopping area. To seventh probably Captains quarters, bridge and bar. Feel free to make suggestions too!

RORO should be fine ship type for searching aliens because quite big open area inside and missions in in short distance ferry suitable areas should be fine because they will be in range from Phalanx land bases. In moment we have fixed locations for missions, I don't know how was it in Terror from Deep, but it should not be problem for us to add some locations to Baltic Sea, North Sea, Carribean, Red Sea, in Indonesian straits and so on. So game will pick up one or more during campaign.

Because my inexperience in mapping ship has quite few details yet and higher decks are completely missing. I hope to hold more shop and restaurant centric arrangement to make clearing ship easier. Aliens should start somewhere in middle / lower decks and Phalanx on roof / helicopter landing area.

[attachment deleted by admin]

42

Feature Requests / Re: ramblings

« on: February 07, 2008, 01:08:52 am »

5) base size - bigger bases already are costing more because every building in base costs money to build and maintain

6) like grenade launcher which already has plasma grenade?

7) in moment base areas are quite small, there are no room for additional buildings and such training would never be so simple that one month gives some stats

base attacks are not active in release (2.2) and wont became so in 2.2 branch, I don't know about development version (2.3), but I think they are not active there also in moment, but will be in near future before 2.3 release

43

Windows / Re: need help with running ufo:ai with eeepc 4g

« on: February 06, 2008, 07:02:41 pm »

eeepc? this small chat+writing laptop without hard drive? funny tought to run 3d game on it, for gaming you should use normal notebook or normal pc. i'm very sure that extraterrestrials wont run either, but probably you can use old ufo defence and terror from deep with dosbox emulation.

44

Mapping / Re: suggestions for new maps

« on: February 05, 2008, 08:52:27 pm »

Okay, ship has been mentioned in many times - so I show one draft. Its in moment in simple cargo configuraton, but this should be changed to ro-ro, container or whatever afterwards. I have few experience with radiant so making angeled bow has been some trouble. In moment it will go up straight like in ocean liners of beginning of 20th century.

[attachment deleted by admin]

45

Discussion / Re: Machine gun / Autocannon Discussion

« on: February 04, 2008, 01:32:50 am »

But small caliber (5,56 or 7,62) minigun could be usable thing in heavy powerarmor if man in it weights three times as much as normal soldier. Such minigun's are used in transport helicopters as fire support weapons. Even giving machine gun fire while standing is unrealistic, machine gun should be fired in crouching mode or when laying down.

But machine gun is quite useless in moment. Maybe it could be useful when huge (2x2) alien monsters with very high health points are implemented, but in moment most aliens would be killed also easily by assault rifle and submachinegun fire. Otherwise it works when spreading bullets in line of aliens - but this is very unrealistic situation, because they will hide normal wise.