Messages

196

Design / Re: The Gameplay of the XVI plague

« on: March 01, 2008, 01:55:05 pm »

To be honest, if a storyline would offer no way to "win" (like in Cthulhu novels, where cthulhu and his forces always kinda win) for the player, I think it would turn down playing after a while. I mean... the aliens will return one day anyway, so a win would be temporary only or? Maybe they colonized multiple planets already...

197

Design / Re: Basic economy

« on: March 01, 2008, 01:52:33 pm »

Yes, very hard means you kinda are poor extremely quickly.

But what is more annoying is that, on very hard level, you cant find soldiers to replace dead soldiers ... that is even more difficult for me, because my guys die all the time in hard levels

198

Design / Re: On the subject of more base buildings....

« on: March 01, 2008, 01:49:10 pm »

I think this is not bad, but I believe there are a few more urgent things. Personally I'd just love if its more focussed on the human vs. alien gameplay first, because I think missions are the most fun part of the game right now

199

Design / Re: Medikits

« on: March 01, 2008, 01:47:51 pm »

"every actor will have a structure for body parts with the level of wound"

I think that is a great idea. I missed that a bit

200

Design / Re: alien concept: "The Growing Thing"

« on: March 01, 2008, 01:46:24 pm »

I think this sounds like a nice concept. I could also imagine a few missions more with "forest style" scenario (i.e. not always only buildings, but maybe a few trees too. Ok a tree does not give a lot of cover, but it looks nice!)

And plants eating humans sounds quite... reminds me of a certain movie I liked a lot.
So yay!

201

Discussion / Re: Good job, btw.

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:25:58 am »

Yeah its really good
lets hope the devs can steer in an acceptable direction
sometimes people disagree on specifics but still think there were a lot of improves
i saw this happen on wesnoth

202

Discussion / Re: Encumberance

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:25:14 am »

If strength also starts heavily influencing what equipment you can take on a mission, then strength becomes THE most important stat in the game, and I don't like that.

Well pure strength is not everything, endurance is important too, but it is a fact that someone who is physically stronger simply can carry more stuff than someone is weaker. If that wont be the case in UFO, it will look weird why the 50kg guy can carry as much as the 120kg muscle machine

203

Discussion / Re: Recoil?

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:23:05 am »

I dont really have an opinion for or against, I am totally neutral on this, however I must make one remakr:

AFAIK the planned idea is to simply disallow soldiers below a certain Strength from carrying certain weapons.

This should not be the case. It should be a weight-strength relation, and before one jumps from "can use/carry this weapon" it should rather impact on encumberance first.

Think of an old lady that tries to carry a bag of rice, if she manages it will encumber her but maybe she will manage!
Now think if reallife simply tells her "sorry, your strength is too low" simply because it is easier this way than to model encumberance and let her carry that heavy bag slowly ... (which isnt *that* difficult either...)

204

Discussion / Re: Save in Combat

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:19:18 am »

I am actually fine with no-save during combat but I hope there are other ways to speed up combat.
For example, disable animation of your units, or dont care if crouched units move slower than non-crouched units (in their animations). Also maybe some hotkey combo tricks like space to select alien and "x" key to fire in best available mode or something etc..

205

Discussion / Re: My first impressions

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:17:07 am »

I realise that many players don't agree with me on this and that it would be a major rethink, but I just want to mention it.

I agree with you, however I like BOTH ways (in UFO 1 and UFO 3 Apocalypse)

But one thing, in either case, I would like to see would be grouping, so that I can at least either rearrange the numbers of the units, or that i can put them into groups or otherwise move them together.

Its a little bit annoying to misclick, and do so on individual units

206

Discussion / Re: X-Com veteran's initial impressions...

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:14:41 am »

I agree about both the idiot part of the civilians and the count.

I think as long as the civiliasn behave like idiots, the number of allowed casualties should increase.
Right now they are so silly that they would fall off a cliff and die horribly, and the world believes its your fault!

207

Discussion / Re: 2.2 Release: Dead Civilians count?

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:12:24 am »

"The precise implementation of this is not clear yet, though."

You could make a first hack without thinking much about it

Lets say on every mission around 3 civilians die. If 5 die, this number is too hugh, thus adjust the decay towards this~ (depends on the difficulty level maybe as well)

208

Discussion / AI versus "logical choices"

« on: February 23, 2008, 05:10:42 am »

Lately i had four xcom units arranged. One was moving too close to the alien and I expected him to die.
My mistake i guess.

However the alien in question used his close combat weapon, and WALKED AROUND the front unit, attacking
the unit behind him (who I thought would auto-fire, because that one was walking around crouched and I ensured he had plenty of movement points left to fire)

What disturbs me in this situation is that the AI went straight for it - could it be that the alien targeted the "strongest" or most dangerous unit?
At any rate I would personally think that hitting the most-forward unit makes most sense if you "think" like an alien. In reallife he wouldnt run around someone only to start hacking on someone in backrow. (Maybe he has a reason, or its a crazy alien that does not think like humans though)

So whatever it is, Personally this behaviour totally surprised me, and I think the aliens should rather prefer to hit what is closest to them (I dont intend to "bait" them but I find it not realistic to run around a unit to hit another unit without any reason)

209

Tactics / Re: How to Avoid Night Missions

« on: February 21, 2008, 01:33:22 am »

Maybe there could be more light-effects in general?
I dont know ... spaceship could give more light... battle suits... maybe some weapons...
maybe exploding grenades could give a little bit light for a few rounds... etc

210

Discussion / Re: Weapon balancing/finetuning

« on: February 21, 2008, 01:32:11 am »

I agree partially, especially about close combat. I think close combat is extremely risky, there should be some benefits to compensate a _bit_
Here a few suggestions i.e. mostly based on bladed weapons or hammers:
- can cause enemy to lose weapon
- may move enemy a few squares back if you win the attack (you followup on the hit), this represents something like a bull rush forward (sounds desperate...)
- ability to destroy enemy weapons under certain circumstances (should be extremely rare)

Also, i dont want to make the game too complicated, but one thing which is great is any tech/skill tree for your soldiers. One could even focus on close combat, using ninja stealth suit and sneaking from alien to alien - just for fun!   might be a fun way to play the game using people with swords instead of guns against aliens