Messages

16

Discussion / Re: comment on new combat system

« on: September 17, 2013, 11:27:06 pm »

hm, i know what i should expect, yet it hurts to loose a guy that survived more than 50 battles yet

my point is that it was possible before the recent AI changes, even though it was hard. what really disturbs me on it is that aliens still can "sense" me without paying TUs, and with bigger range than i could using goggles. if - somewhen - aliens would hide on purpose and would play cooperatively death will be unavoidable, and not only for 1-2, but for more than half of the team.

the problem wont be half as big if i could use not only 12 soldiers, but lets say 20, even 15 would help big time. what kills me is the split into 4 teams that is required at one point to clear the area "behind" the entrance. at best i'd have 4 soldiers heading "right", 2 guarding the entrance "ahead" and 6 to the left, to be split into 2 teams. one of those 6 will use a distance weapon, so hardly can take part in reaction killing enemies that come around the corner. anyway, thats more a tactics thing now.

what i wrote this comment for initially was for 2 things:

1st: wanted to thank for better AI, even though not perfect
2nd: wanted to remind that esp. enemy base missions got much harder.

17

Discussion / comment on new combat system

« on: September 17, 2013, 03:38:56 pm »

i was quite pleased to find the combat system changed in the recent version. although aliens could work cooperatively (instead of now), the alien run at your position at the start of the fight is finally over. the lurking of aliens therefore is not possible anymore too. unfortunately the aliens still know whom of my guys is wounded most, even if he/she got the wounds from an earlier fight

all those things that i really like much

the bad thing about that change is the chance of late-fight-deaths of soldiers in missions with more than ~15 opponents. i tried to do an alien base run with my best team (about 50-60 combats, weap skills somewhere between 70 and 90, quite much health and so on). well, one base run.... more like 20 at same base. the best i could master so far was 16 kills, i saw at least 2 others, and for the time it took it felt like there were another 5-10. unfortunally that was when my computer froze. cant tell why but i dont think it was UfoAI. on every other try i never crossed 10 kills without own losses.

what i want to say about it:
either the complexity of the alien base is too big (no more than 5 guys per team possible / 2,5 teams though)
or the amount of enemies is too high
or the aliens aim too well

also some rooms have obstacles that force you to split-up, esp. those rooms with large fuel tanks, and crossing that room you'd have to turn to 2 sides. may be i did the base in a bad situation. the aliens already are on the latest tech level while i am not yet. Still it hurts.

18

Discussion / Re: 2.5-dev Feedback (Early Game, Hard difficulty)

« on: September 17, 2013, 03:23:08 pm »

aliens dont prefer close combat usually. they do a) if they are facing several soldiers and likely would be dead if they'd try to fire (aliens should hide here imho,....) or b) if the time required to leave your reaction zone is lower than required for reaction. in that case the alien could shoot 2-3 times without getting reaction fire. mean, but clever.

aliens wont close-up - imho - as long as the own death is improbable (only 1-2 guys could react) or when your reaction takes more time than their fire (e.g. using snipers and heavy weapons to defend plasmas)

IMHO reaction fire should be changed a bit. my suggestion would be that

1st reaction ability should not only depend on time units, but ALSO on - lets say - mind skill (cant tell if it is "brain", "mind" or whatever in the english version)
2nd crouched soldiers with the correct turning angle should fire earlier (on Time unit base) than soldiers that must turn b4 they can shoot.
3rd soldiers (out of correct angle) should turn (on the bases of 2-4 TU spent by the opponent) before the real reaction would start to count.

as it is now sometimes it can be useful not to fire 1st when facing several aliens. instead you could wait for them to move and shoot 1st. no big difference on just one opponent (even though yet present), but bigtime difference on facing 2 or more aliens. having fast guns (pistols, lasers, plasmas etc) you can likely kill them all before they can release a shot.

19

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / seemingly 2 problems on intercept

« on: September 15, 2013, 09:20:16 pm »

(win version 2.5 sept 4th on win 7 / 64 Bit)
problem no.1
ufo's on intercept missions seemingly don't fight other ships any more and though can be shot down without damage
i am not totally sure but i think that was different and more logical on earlier versions already
explanation for picture:
#2 (Dragon NA) intercepts #1 (ufo)
#3 (corrupter) intercepts #2 (Dragon NA, can read it @ top)
#4 (starchaser) intercepts #3 (ufo), will be without damage in my version

problem no.2
i am _not_ totally sure but it feels like the starchaser (once in in-fight) wont use its main weapons (particle beams) any longer and instead will kill the ufo using its laser only. the fight takes much longer than expected and a rapid laser sound is all i can hear. might be worth a check.

picture + savegame attached for  no 1 and no 2



EDIT:
something i forgot to mention

there is another interception problem (no.3):
if your interceptor is faster than the ufo it intercepts _AND_ approaches it from ahead _AND_ you choose a slow clock timing (5 minutes or lower for example) it happens that your interceptor will stay ahead of the ufo until either its changed manually or the ufo turns (so that the interceptor is behind the ufo). Being very unlucky it can even happen that the ufo may shoot while the interceptor is out of range. if required i could try to create such a savegame.

20

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Re: bug @ alien transfer - latest 2.5

« on: September 09, 2013, 10:05:28 am »

ok, there it is. for base selection see previous post.

21

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / Re: bug @ alien transfer - latest 2.5

« on: September 09, 2013, 09:59:51 am »

ok, created a new savegame, but the bug is obvious.

again: while transferring aliens the amounts of aliens of the "from"-section are correct, while the amounts of aliens at the "to"-section are _shown_ in a way where alive and dead alien values are exchanged. if the target base has 5 alive sheevar and 10 dead ones, in the transfer window it will show 10 alive and 5 deads.

the transfer itself works properly.

i've attached 2 pictures showing the transfer screen from #1 base to #3 base and (of course without transfer happening) the same situation from base #3 to base #1.

unfortunately i didn't find the savegames so far. will see if i can find some information concerning save game location within this forum

22

Bugs in stable version (2.5) / bug @ alien transfer - latest 2.5

« on: September 06, 2013, 09:43:17 pm »

from base #2 to base #1
the "from" values might be ok, guess those are only the live and dead aliens of last mission (no containment)
the "to" values seemingly are wrong as it shows i only had 1 dead taman, 0 dead sheevar, BUT 107 tamans alive.

EDIT: "reality" in base #1 was somethin between 100 and 110 tamans dead, 1 taman alive (so likely those were just switched) and about 40-50 dead sheevars (0 alive, so likely switch happened here too)

guess that's clear enough, but if required, i'd have a screenshot as well

greets

23

Windows / Re: font problem 2.5 latest (sept/03/13)

« on: September 04, 2013, 11:32:59 am »

hope this one works....


other things that came up:

- got no pictures of landed and crashed ufos on world map (only red cross instead)
- hospital is quite "filled" with workers, scientists, pilots and so on, all green. did that happen by intention?

24

Windows / font problem 2.5 latest (sept/03/13)

« on: September 04, 2013, 12:18:39 am »

forgot: W7 / 64 bit | used full installer

what i had:

2.4 full
2.5 (June) installed in separate folder

what i did

installed new 2.5 on top of the June version, after having problems with resolution (lowest resolution for some reason) & font removed all, reinstalled latest version

after that i changed everything back to settings i used before, but the font problem still remains (looks like no TTF on wrong size, pixelized)

QUESTIONS

did you (devs) changed anything on behalf of fonts, or is it me, and if: how could i try to fix it?
Any ideas?

EDIT: explanation: every text smaller than the text of buttons is weird now, be it help text, text within the initial menu, numbers in any subpart of the main menu (employee, research, buy/sell, whatever)

25

Discussion / Re: New autobattle

« on: June 07, 2012, 11:29:59 pm »

You're wrong. The number of missions spawned doesn't depend on number of bases you've built. It must have been a coincidence.

well, might be

Wrong: If auto-fight is available, player would know "ah... it has nothing new, interesting stuff for me", and will suggest using autofight. We don't want it.

I dont know who you address with "we", but i wrote down MY opinion to it, as far as i have read the thread, i'm not the only one there. nevermind.

Again, no. The fact the same maps repeat too much is only that we don't have enough of them. You can find instructions on wiki about map making!

i dont think that you'd want like 50 different fighter crash maps, thats about the number i at least played them without autobattle in one run. even if you'd have 10 of them I would like to use autocombat on some. you could handle it with "less fights", but would feel wrong somehow too. about the map making: 15-10 years ago i would have offered some help on coding, i've never been a designer. today other - smaller - "people" eat my time.

In my opinion, - and this will be the last time I write it down -, autofight should only depend on the soldiers/aliens incorporated in the fight and their equipment and some luck, yes. This includes the soldier's stats which improves by doing missions.

i have read your opinion before, so no need to write it down again. yet i think it should have another bases, as described above. i no more and no less wrote exactly that down.

by the way: about that point it felt like you took those things personal. wasn't meant alike. As far as I understood it it is a suggestions thread, and while that's the case I was free enough to tell what I think would be nice. Having seen lots of strategy games, usually winning them by analyzing opponent's strategies in several test runs, I think that I have some feeling to it.

I also know that i'm not THE guy to tell you something, only giving suggestions and "external" feedback

in that way:
have a nice day

btw: sorry for my English: non-native

26

Discussion / Re: New autobattle

« on: June 07, 2012, 07:17:32 pm »

Reasons for Autobattle
For me Auto-Battle should be a tool when standards happen too often.

in an attempt to cover all earth quite early i observed that in that early stage the number of ufos rose with the number of bases. while i had 1 ufo per 3 days earlier, later on i had 2-3 daily

suggestions
global
- autobattle should only be possible when there is nothing new to the player: map has been played, all races are known (autopsy), all used weapons and armor are known, ufo type is known
- there should be a slight increase in performance if within the last 5 battles on that maptype at least 3 were played, and there should be a slight decay in performance if anything is auto-battled, not much but a slight bit
- that increase and decay should also be bases of the points gained by the soldiers
- generally points gained should be about half of those of a real battle max
- points gained should depend on equipment (weapon type), map type (more or less physical training on small/large maps, precision enforced or not), and other equipment (ie. intelligence <-> medikit and so on

per combat
- map types (close combat, open map, lots of hidings, lack of it) should favor one or the other weapon type. counts for both sides
- armor and race stats should have an impact (bigger one)
- numbers should have an impact
- weapons used should have a big impact
- skills of combatants should have quite an impact
- rank (=strategic knowledge) should have at least a small impact

most important of all:
runs should vary in result, but slightly. please don't create completely random fights. if there are 20 good equipped enemies that kill you completely in 1 run, it shouldn't be possible to kill them lossless in the next. use ranges to handle it a bit.

random fights should cover the easier battles, not the rare hard ones

27

Tactics / Re: beach resort map tactics

« on: May 17, 2012, 03:34:59 pm »

observed that to crouch not only increases hit% for oneself but seems to sink it for the enemy. snipers and lasers are good idea for that kind of battle. lasers are weak, nevertheless i'm using las-rifle + heavy las as part of my team for the distance. rockets work quite well too. the rest better hides

28

Tactics / Re: Base invasion

« on: May 17, 2012, 03:29:36 pm »

Base design to perfectly handle base assaults:

align all hangars + entrance at once side, spread all quarters (usually not exceeding 3 except science base possibly) close to it, concentrated on the middle of the base map. to design the base like that could mean a little more waiting constructing a new base, but imho its worth it on any assault. choose other more open buildings (like stocks) to finish the coverage of hangars and so on, so that 1-2 soldiers at least can observe that area. avoid complicated buildings like quarantine close to it as you'd need 3 soldiers at least to cover it. the rest is done by some waiting near the entrances.

29

Tactics / AI: Strategic weaknesses + gaining points at Auto-combats

« on: May 17, 2012, 03:04:46 pm »

as suggestible from headline post will be parted into 2 parts. Sorry for my English in advance.

strategic weaknesses
during my playing 2.4 i observed 2 different "weaknesses" of the AI

1st thing is that alien behavior is quite predictable in general. If Phalanx is in range, it moves closer (not the case if badly wounded), if not it moves closer to civilians. so far so good. inappropriate is that it's possible to "lurk" them closer behind an obstacle, as they mostly come around the corner with nearly no TUs left. Even worse: having another soldier in quite some distance, with a laser rifle for example, the remaining TUs are wasted to him, not to the close one. A - partly - random behavior concept could fix that, making it more challenging.

Even worse it the 2nd aspect: on maps were most aliens are within the ship, especially harvester, it is possible to "collect" them on one point, moving to where the wing ends in the UFO (front of it). using IR glasses you then usually can observe 6-10 aliens gathering on nearest spots within the UFO. The rest of the team can be gathered without any interruption at the back of the UFO. When everything is ready you just move the front one a bit farther away, making 2-5 aliens approach at the back within 2 turns, the rest - dependent of distance - is still at the front. there is no "safer" way of execution. don't thing that the AI is meant to behave like that.

Auto-combats
As game progresses the "lust for battle" declines a bit, especially after 100th ufo without bigger changes in aliens (3 types) and weapons (plasma rifle, plasma blaster, smaller stuff). Thats why i started to use Auto-combats a bit.

Entering the combats i used my typical setup (1 rocket, 2 sniper, 1 maschine gun, 1 heavy laser, 1 las rifle, 1 plas rifle, 1 bolter, all with 2nd armor). therefor i would have to live with my soldiers i chose them quite careful (*1) [....]

1st thing i observed is that Auto-combat - if successful - lifts all stats for those that got the kills, it doesn't just lift the weapon stats of the weapon used plus it does lift strength speed accuracy and wisdom way better than a normal combat would do. I mean: nice for the moment, but why? after a while was even angry i didn't try that before.

2nd thing: Combats vs observers / fighters are usually won without losses. while that's not the case on any bigger ship i'm asking myself how important the "quality" of the soldiers would be for the outcome, as i received comparable results for untrained soldiers of other bases shortly after. Is the terrain of interest for Auto-combat - may be combined with equipment used?

3rd: why Auto-combat is not possible on all maps, just on some?

Auto-combat generally is a nice feature in the late mid- and endgame, especially when all the world is covered by bases (seems as number of UFOs corresponds to it), but it has its faults. Still it SHOULD NOT exceed point gains possible without it.


*1:
4 classes:
complete waste: accuracy below 25, speed/strength below 20, targets most soldiers
acceptable: accuracy above 25, speed/strength above 20
specialist: acceptable + 1 class of weapon above 35 (rare)
super-soldier: all stats >30, sometimes up to 40 (very rare)

"supers" usually used as assaults or heavies


EDIT: to make that clear: i enjoyed the game so far, thats why i dealt to it a bit more. This is no criticism, thats just points that are worth a 2nd look by developers. most of the rest is pretty fine. Thank you for making it!

30

Bugs in older version (2.4) / Re: Missing items in storage

« on: May 13, 2012, 03:02:36 am »

had your problem too, kurja,

disassambled on 3 bases, tried to "unify" the material to build a dragon, transfered from the other 2 bases, all material lost @ target base, some medikits, some weapons and some ammo lost as well.

unfortunally when i realized that all used saves were newer, only one was older, more than 6 months :-/

btw: i wouldnt have transfered the material, because - intended or not - selling it and buying it on next base is much faster, but was too lazy to wait for 2500 units about to run up twice (sell, buy) instead of once (transfer). Some things in that point:

- sell/buy shouldnt be a possible 0-time transfer method
- selling/buying in 10's and 100's would be nice
- 7000 material for one figher, well, is quite much.