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Author Topic: Boys dream come true  (Read 4600 times)

Offline halo

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Boys dream come true
« on: March 22, 2010, 07:19:06 pm »
I still remember the first time i discovered UFO:X-COM or what exactly was it called. About fifteen years ago.. I spent many, many nights with my computer, cold sweat running down my spine, trying to survive.
I really do not know what it was that made this game so captivating; i mean graphics was inferior, even for that time; UI was terrible, requiring gazillions of mouseclicks; sound.. i never got it to work properly.

So i started to dream about what this game should look like. I dreamt a lot that time. And i wrote things down, very detailed. And i realised, with much, much sorrow, that i'll never going to see that game.

Many years passed, every once and a while i digged UFO out, played some, and dreamt again. It still is my favorite game, no other has given such feeling. But some joy is lost, because it is not what i dream about.

Last week i stumbled upon UfoAI (2.2). So i took a look.

Beautiful. Starting with installer - just beautiful. Not too many programs for linux contain decent installers.

Battlescape is EXCACTLY as i had visioned. Bullseye. 100% and some more. This isometric look-a-like 3D - just brilliant. First person view - super. Many thanks to developers who made it work. Special thanks to artists who have extremely well captured the cartoonish feel of original xcom but done that very subtly. So as i read from forums that lots of graphics is reworked, im kinda doubtful - is it possible to make even better or does it ruin some feeling? Time will tell.
Only one thing is that freaks the hell out of me - crouching. I certainly hope that this is well known problem, only temporary and never-again-seen in current development version, but really, are those soldiers making a poo onto battlefield? No soldier will squat like this if he has to aim and shoot. This position gives no stabilty, only good bowel movement. While shooting low, always one knee on the ground, elbow of gunsupporting hand onto another, raised knee, and your gun is not wobbling anymore.

I do realise why such effect came into play, its all about additional coding and artwork vs more important problems, right? So dont take it badly.

I would really play it even as it is (still talking about 2.2). I'd really like to. But i cannot.
Because i have children, and core team clearly has none. Or they would not make declarations like "battlescape save will never-ever happen". Not to mention that it is seriously hypocritical to talk about "exploiting save" and "breaking the feel of terror", while having large REPLAY button at the end of mission. Yes, i certainly believe that it is one helluva lots of hard work to code properly, but not impossible.

So perhaps in fifteen? years we shall meet again. Certainly hope so. Godspeed.
But meanwhile, a boys dream has come true. Thank you all. Sniff.

Offline vedrit

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Re: Boys dream come true
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2010, 10:12:35 pm »
The crouching thing is- yes- beign fixed. As you may have noticed, the character models are being re-worked, along with the animations involved. We are taking a hard look into proper stances, so you can be relieved (not #2) that crouching will look better.

Offline Hertzila

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Re: Boys dream come true
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2010, 10:16:32 pm »
Unless somebody comes up and codes that save function and makes his own modified version of UFO:AI, battlescape save won't happen.

Sorry to disappoint you but the FPV is removed from future releases. IIRC it had something to do with textures.

Offline MCR

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Re: Boys dream come true
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2010, 03:10:07 pm »
Afaik FPV is not completely off the table. There might be 'something like this' implemented some day. The problem with the already existing FPV (2.2.1) was, that some of the surfaces only visible from that view do not have textures assigned & are not drawn @ all (like ceilings for example), so it did not look perfect & also afair was not implemented very nicely, so Mattn decided to remove the code completely until someone comes along & programs a new, perfect version for this.

So feel free to send patches...  ;)

Offline BTAxis

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Re: Boys dream come true
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2010, 04:22:42 pm »
It would have been fairly easy to fix that (making the ceiling faces part of a special level that only gets drawn in FPV mode), but mattn didn't like that idea.

Offline MCR

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Re: Boys dream come true
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2010, 04:37:45 pm »
Hey, BTAxis  ;) !
I like that idea, if this helps & I think one of the last things Mattn wrote regarding FPV was, that he is awaiting patches. I can even find that comment of him, so  ::)
Wait. I will find it in a moment...
Here it is:
   
Re: First person view
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2009, 07:36:49 pm by Mattn »
Quote:

fpv will not get back into the game!

what we can do is a mode that is close to first person - e.g. if you want to target with a sniper. but this mode will never ever display any ceiling (as our maps don't have them). I've removed it because it looked like crap in the current implementation. If somebody wants to contribute a new version - i'm waiting for patches.

Quote end.

He is waiting for patches ! (I already like that saying a lot  ;D)

Offline MCR

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Re: Boys dream come true
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2010, 04:40:14 pm »
Okay, he said 'close to first person', but I would be very satisfied with this version also ;)

Offline Legendman3

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Re: Boys dream come true
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2010, 10:30:23 pm »
*clap* *clap* *clap*  :)