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Discussion / Re: Finished game on 2.5 Hard mode. Thoughts and experiences.
« on: October 24, 2013, 11:53:34 pm »Are the armour and weapon tables (http://ufoai.org/wiki/Weapon_tables) still up to the date (for version 2.5)?No, not even a little bit. Our wiki is packed with outdated info. I wouldn't recommend it for any non-development information.
Interesting. I see two minor issues here, both possibly related to the in-game feedback thing. First the unarmored aliens take more damage from plasma, and second I can't tell if an alien is wearing light or heavy armor. For a time I did arm some of my garrisons with laser rifles but the lasers underperformed the plasma in close quarters and the armored ortnoks and combat bloodspiders were highly resistant. Still the lasers did rock the shevarr pretty hard but I don't know if they can even wear armor.Actually, by the time you get lasers, all aliens except the Shevaar will be wearing light armour (Bloodspiders and Hovernets both have protection values equivalent to light armour). So for all aliens but the Shevaar (who can not wear armour), the laser rifle outperforms the plasma rifle -- with the caveat that it does not have a full-auto option.
I think that the issue for me is that lasers are another siituational weapon. They are better at longer ranges (but I have snipers fot that) and less damage for equal or greater TUs at point blank range. In my play style lasers compete against sniper rifles rather than against plasma rifles, and they lose in that comparison.
I admit the distinction between light and heavy armour could be clearer (although I think it's not that hard to notice). But by the time you see Ortnoks, Tamans will be in heavy armour (and Combat Bloodspiders and Combat Hovernets have heavy-equivalent values). The aliens have reinforced their armour against lasers by this point, so it's really in your interest to move quickly to Encased Plasma or Particle Beams. This is late-game, though, so you'll be on the back foot until you can deploy one of these -- regardless of whether you use Laser Rifles or Plasma Rifles at this point.
Is there a thought of adding a health bar to aliens on the battlescape? Stick a +/- 10% inaccuracy on the bar and it is useful without being spoilery. I would advise against giving it a number display (except perhaps a % of total health number). This would help players in game to better judee the armor/weapon interactions.
I have always liked that there is a little ambiguity in the game in how it doesn't tell you everything about your enemy. But I have been thinking that a rough gauge is important for getting in-game feedback about the impact of weapons. A lot of important thresholds happen with weapon/armour/health stats that go unnoticed. Showing one of three icons -- full health (90-100%), wounded (15-90%), near death (15%) -- would really help discern the impact of a hit, and help make decisions about when it's useful to deploy a low-power weapon (like a pistol or incendiary grenade). Having this information seems plausible without being too number-y. If you saw an enemy combatant on the field, you could probably tell if it was seriously wounded, or if it was limping along near death. Even if you knew nothing else of its physiology. But this is definitely not a 2.5 feature. Maybe 2.6, maybe later.
