Messages

31

Feature Requests / Request: Miserable burst-fire sounds and slow animations.

« on: March 10, 2009, 04:58:20 pm »

Ok, I've had enough with the current burst sounds for Assault Rifle and Machine Gun. Full Auto sounds fine but the controlled bursts... they're miserable. I assume the game tries to employ single shots in rapid succession to create a feeling of burst fire? Which is bad, BAD! The intervals between shots are uneven and unpleasant to listen. This has to change and I'm ready to do it, audioediting-wise. Does all this sound ludicrous? I think I'll name the burst sound files, for example, assaultrifle_3.wav for 3-round AR burst. Assaultrifle.wav is the original sound file, _3 notes the bullet count. Shouldn't be that much work (thinking only Assault Rifle and Machine Gun here).

How much work in the code would it require to take advantage of these new separate (and probably more fluid sounding) sound files for different fire modes?
The philosophy I was thinking was that if burst sound file exists, make the game use it. If not, create the burst sound the traditional way.

Also, animations are slooow. Soldiers walk. Maybe it is a stroll through the park. Maybe it's combat and soldiers and aliens should run. Ok, I know, running would require making new animations. What I'm asking is a way to increase the animation speed. Christ, it feels like forever to see a soldier to crouch. Or perhaps there already is a way to increase the animation speed during tactical?

32

FAQ / Re: i can't change the language

« on: March 10, 2009, 03:14:21 pm »

I deleted all the other folders which contained translations except English, the language I wanted. Because I prefer decent English over crappy translation.

33

Discussion / Re: Line of sight Vs Line of Fire

« on: March 10, 2009, 12:04:56 am »

It'd be nice to be able to shoot down from rooftops without having to walk all the way to the edge just because the edge is blocking the LOF but not your LOS
Then again, aliens should be able to do exactly the same. Also, if players were able to shoot when the soldier's head is visible, wouldn't that create more annoyances with line of fire? Right now, you're pretty much forced to step out of the cover, just so that your waist-high cover doesn't block your LOF. Much like the aliens, I assume. And how would it affect reaction fire? Either lot less of firing, since the soldiers and the aliens wouldn't be able to get a clear shot, or lot more misses, since you'd see lot more heads peeking behind cover. You would have to be able to tell the soldier when it's ok to shoot. 10% to hit? 20?

Changing the LOF to your LOS seems like a nice idea... at first. But there are further complications and potential annoyances involved, as you can see.

34

Artwork / Re: Animation for character models

« on: March 09, 2009, 11:42:38 pm »

Prone position. I think there's a reason why it never got into x-com. Prone guy should hog two tiles, right? Wouldn't an x-com operative taking two tiles of space create an issue or two?

35

Windows / Re: ver 2.2.1: game freezes then system reboots

« on: March 08, 2009, 03:03:37 pm »

Try changing the process priority to Normal. Default for UFO:AI is High Priority. I got random freezes during missions. Stopped getting those ever since I changed the priority to Normal. You can either change the priority in Task Manager after launching and minimizing the game OR finding and editing the config file which is buried in Application Data. There's a line sys_priority = 1 or something like that. Change it to 0 and it will always start with Normal priority.

36

Windows / Re: Getting...static?

« on: March 08, 2009, 02:51:42 pm »

I get audio static too. It happens always when the music track changes, never mid-song. A workaround is to save, exit to main menu (at which point the static goes away) and load the savegame. I know... works in geoscape only. Using XP Pro, Creative XtremeGamer soundcard, drivers maybe few months old. All audio settings at default (ingame, OS, soundcard software settings). At least they should be... ffdshow codec pack installed. And Winamp. In case this that is helpful somehow. Game version at 2.2.1.
EDIT: Oh, and the static always goes away when the music track changes again.

37

Windows / Re: Very High (Process-)Priority

« on: March 07, 2009, 05:14:01 pm »

This is so wrong. I thought there was something seriously wrong with my machine since I started getting those random freezes too. Overheating or a dying motherboard / power supply / video card came into mind at first... and in my case overheating seemed so unlikely. And all this time the freezes were caused by this rather covert setting of High Priority. Devs: Might want to consider putting that config file into the game installation folder, instead burying it in the Application Data of XP.

Lesson learned. If a program freezes, check its priority. Honestly, I would've defaulted the whole thing to Normal and made a separate mention in a little paragraph titled "How to increase UFO:AI performance", along with a warning that other programs might suffer if the priority is changed. But that's just me.

Not only all this, setting
set sys_priority "1" gives High Priority but
set sys_priority "0" gives Normal.
There is no option for AboveNormal, which is between those two :| (though you can change it in the TaskManager if you AltTab out of the game after starting it, which is always an annoyance)

Curiously, the freezes didn't occur from the beginning, but later in the game. And only after 15 minutes of playing a tactical mission. Although this has been a bit troubling experience, something positive did come out of this. It made me look inside my PC case and noticed one of the case fans wasn't operating. Apparently forgot to replug it a month back while installing new hardware.

Also, if any of you get a freeze during a mission, don't hit the reset button on your PC case immediately. The freeze might pass or let go for a moment after a minute or two (move your mouse cursor around every 10 seconds or so to check). I witnessed this several times. That's your chance to exit the game.

EDIT: Looks like the culprit was my mouse after all. Switched mouse and got no more 1-2 second pauses (in High they were untolerable, in Normal manageable). However, running the game in High process priority wasn't still a good idea. Background processes still suffered.