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Author Topic: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills  (Read 3343 times)

Offline ManicMiner

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Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« on: August 02, 2010, 02:45:46 pm »
Hi,

This is just a rough suggestion in light of the Wiki being a bit out of date...

It's not going to be obvious (to newbies) whether firing a plasma etc is a "heavy" weapon or a HE weapon and this might be a bit ambiguous given the skills for the grunts shows "High Explosives" and "Heavy Weapons".

Ditto applies to alien weaponry particularly the Plasma Blaster.

I assume for the moment that only launchers (rocket and grenade) and grenades are "HE" and no alien weapons are either "HE" or equivalent to flamethrower.

If that assumption is wrong, is there any way to make it a bit easier to work out - for example, indicate which weapons and fire method a soldier is best suited to wielding when equipping him/her from the base?

I don't have any specific ideas on this, but maybe a tab for "Recommended Weaponry" in addition to the categories, which lists the weapons and ammo which suit that soldier the best.


Offline bayo

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Re: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2010, 03:00:02 pm »
Yes, we should provide something to improve that. Maybe a popup with some simple indicators can help new players. It should not be very hard to do. But i dont know how/where the skill soldier/weapon is computed, that's the only problem to me.

I create https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/ufoai/ticket/91 to remember it.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2010, 03:11:10 pm by bayo »

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2010, 07:49:14 pm »
IMO I think what would be better then "recommended weaponry" would be a line of text indicating a *specialization* for a soldier.  ("Sniper," "Demolition Expert," "Scout," etc.)  In some cases perhaps a secondary specialty could also be listed, the game would simply look at what skills are the highest compared to the others to decide.

Edit:  If we really wanted to make the game interesting, we could have text personnel files generated by the soldier's skills, explaining what a soldier is good at and what tests they performed poorly in.
 
« Last Edit: August 02, 2010, 07:51:38 pm by Destructavator »

Offline Thrashard96

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Re: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2010, 09:37:57 pm »
I agree: this would be a good idea. ;D

Offline Lew Yard

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Re: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2010, 10:17:29 pm »
One problem is that skills aren't tied to the weapon per se, but the fire mode.  One weapon can have multiple fire modes.  For instance, it is entirely legal (and already done, IIRC) to have an Aimed Shot mode use 'sniper' while a Snap Shot mode uses 'assault' for the very same weapon.    The grenade launcher can launch flechette rounds (ala the shotgun); I'd have to check the .ufo file (or load up the game) to verify whether that actually uses the 'High Explosive' skill or not.

It would make sense to allow some sortability of the soldiers, however, as well as perhaps color-coding the stat values so that unusually high values draw the eye.  This would be particularly useful for identifying elites.

Offline rynait

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Re: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2010, 11:23:07 pm »
Hello,

destructavator says...
Edit:  If we really wanted to make the game interesting, we could have text personnel files generated by the soldier's skills, explaining what a soldier is good at and what tests they performed poorly in.

...

Well I think that idea is nice (and give useful tip to configure the squad) but might be a problem for very easy campaign (getting alot of recruits), I suspect will generate a lot of soldier email?  However I have to stay quiet cuz have not started up the 2.4 version yet.

R

Offline Destructavator

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Re: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2010, 12:28:14 am »
Hello,

destructavator says...
Edit:  If we really wanted to make the game interesting, we could have text personnel files generated by the soldier's skills, explaining what a soldier is good at and what tests they performed poorly in.

...

Well I think that idea is nice (and give useful tip to configure the squad) but might be a problem for very easy campaign (getting alot of recruits), I suspect will generate a lot of soldier email?  However I have to stay quiet cuz have not started up the 2.4 version yet.

R

I didn't mean email - I meant a database or profile screen where the player could pull a soldier's file and look at information about them whenever they wanted to.

Offline ManicMiner

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Re: Equip Soldiers - Weapons Categories and Skills
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2010, 12:56:57 pm »
Hi,

TBH I like the idea of a specialization but not the idea of a personnel file. They are only expendable grunts, after all. Besides, I don't like eye candy that gets in the way of game play because I'll eventually start to ignore it.

You know, like the advisors in Civilization... useful when you're starting out, but intrusive if you know what you're doing; any serious long term player turns them off.

When I was first playing UFO:AI I researched weapons that I never, ever tried out in the field, simply because I was trying to learn too many things at the same time. I had workshops and labs on the go, missions to do... I just didn't have the time to figure out through trial and error, if it's worth my while giving that rather phallic-looking heavy plasma weapon to my machine gun totin' Rambo dude, or should I give it to my rocket launcher dude instead.


That is why I was talking about the Equip screen iterating through a character's stats, finding the highest one, then iterating through the list of weapons available for everything with a fire method that best fits that skill, and sticking the list on a "Recommended" tab.

You don't have to be anal retentive about explaining the fire mode: "look mate, this guy's a sniper, so here is a sniper rifle, TIP: don't use the sniper rifle like a baseball bat.". I'm sure they can figure out which fire mode is best, once they're on a mission. The problem's not figuring out the fire mode, it's knowing if I've got the right guy for the right weapon.

What weapons should my favorite arsonist upgrade to, once he's got bored with his flame-thrower? God knows, so he's still using that while everyone else is on alien-inspired tech.

Even now I'm minded to ask, what the heck do you need to fire the plasma ball, because I've given that weapon to everyone with every skill rating in my elite squad and not one of them can hit a building at ten paces using that fire mode.

Maybe I need to hire a different grunt to make it worth having...