request: soldiers start out in same place

[roger.books]

Minor annoyance, I like to run my squad as two fire teams.  If they had consistent positions relative to their plane it would be wonderful.  I spend my first turn sorting out teams.

Roger

[TrashMan]

I?m more pissed at bease defnse.

The Team Room does nothing. Aren't soliders supposed to start THERE?

[BTAxis]

No.

Besides, the team room will be removed eventually.

[TrashMan]

Eh? Why? What's wrong with the team room?

[BTAxis]

It's pointless. It doesn't serve any function except boosting the soldiers' morale (right now), which means you automatically HAVE to build one in any base that has soldiers, or it'll feel like you're being penalized. In other words, it just sits there, taking up space.

[TrashMan]

Isn't it supposed to also be the place where your soldiers start? That way you can better defend the base.

[Mayhem]

Not really.  it's a leisure facility, so if they were in their your soldiers wouldn't be armed.

That being the case, the soldiers that were off duty really ought to start in the store-room, as that is where all the weapons and armour are kept and where they would have had to go to get geared up.  There are no real facilities for "on-duty" guards, at the moment, which is a shame.

I personally think that the entrance ramp should include a guard post.

[TrashMan]

I personalyl think that hangars should include CLOSED doors. PHALANX has an open door policy during aien invasions.

[BTAxis]

Alien attacks on PHALANX bases aren't planned events. they happen unexpectedly. As such soldiers are "supposed" to start spread out.

[TrashMan]

They can't be THAT unexpected..with all those radars and everything you should have at least a few minutes to prepare.
I mean - you can go in the base and equipp your soldiers when the enemy attacks. You can shoot the enemy UFO with SAM's.

ATM almost all of your soldiers start at the command center - thus the only smart thing when designing the base is to place the command center as close to the entrance and hangar bays as possible - which is totally illogical.

Still doesn't explain the open doors - having them open at all times is not a smart policy.

[BTAxis]

I don't like the start positions in the command centre much either, but then again any place is as good as any other. Plus I'd prefer random starting positions to prevent players from massing their soldiers close to the alien start positions through clever base design.

[Mayhem]

Random positions only make sense for off duty, unarmed and unarmoured troops.

To suggest that they heard the alarm, ran to the armoury, got their armour and weapons, and THEN wandered off to a random position in the base is stretching the suspension of disbelief to breaking point.

Plus, we know exactly how long they have to get ready - you can time it on the geoscape as soon as it becomes obvious that the UFO is headed for your base...  the warning may only be a few mins but it is not an "out of nowhere" surprise.

[BTAxis]

It is implied that it is. For a while now the plan has been to provide the player with a number of choices before the battle starts, such as whether or not to let the interceptors take off in order to avoid having them destroyed by the alien invaders, whether or not to kill the aliens in containment in case the aliens set them free, and whether or not to shut down the reactor to prevent the aliens from damaging it in operation. All of these are choices made on a moment's notice as the aliens invade the base.

[TrashMan]

Again, doesn't make much sense that the aliens (which you CAN track), especially close to your radar arrays and base, pop up and deploy troops out of nowhere. The very landing and troop deployment takes at least a bit of time.

I'm all for more and tougher aliens on base attacks, but making the defenders look like total idiots?

[ghosta]

How about choosing the starting position of your soldiers (if possible with this engine)?

And of course the aliens need to be able to attack from different positions. Lets call it teleport-technology. The alien ship tries to get in range for teleporting their soldiers into the human base. Maybe it is a bit difficult to teleport them through large distances in materia, so they get teleported through the hangar doors, the elevator, maybe the radar. So the player has to defend different locations in his base. Then you also can replace fallen alien soldiers until the ship is empty and they have to leave.

But in general this is a question of gameplay! And the "story behind" should adapt, not the other way round.

Just another question: How many actors on a map can be placed with the current engine?