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Author Topic: 2.5 sucks completely  (Read 235562 times)

Offline Merlin

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #105 on: May 27, 2013, 08:05:31 am »
Back in 2.4 the Laser weapons research felt like wasting time. The player could get the more powerful Plasma weapons within the same time frame. So we delayed the appearance of the handheld Lasers, which now outperform the Plasma weapons in many ways. But you are on your own to find out how to get them. Oc I can tell it´s not about catching a Hovernet.

You play the nightly build of 2.5-dev? Whats the build date of your version (see main menu screen)? What difficulty level?

I just feel odd as I have like nothing to research right now. Heck right now it's climb up the UFO parts tech tree.

As for the game, May 25 is the date on the main menu. Running on normal, and I just bumped into a terror mission. Found a new alien(Or the green one from 2.4 in a new skin) and plasma rifles. But then I found out the map was wonky and quit. Also, while I don't feel the aliens are any tougher(hoverbots are op), I do feel that the maps are way more stacked against me than the older maps. That or I just memorized everything about them.

Offline ShipIt

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #106 on: May 27, 2013, 08:51:23 am »
I just feel odd as I have like nothing to research right now. Heck right now it's climb up the UFO parts tech tree.
...

In 2.5 we tried to reduce the mission count. Along with the changed research tree this might result in an empty research queue for some players in the very early stage of the campaign.

... the map was wonky ...

?

...
 Also, while I don't feel the aliens are any tougher ...

There were no changes made regarding this. But because of the weight/encumberance and wounds system the missions are harder to solve imo.

...
 I do feel that the maps are way more stacked against me than the older maps. That or I just memorized everything about them.

Because of a bug in the map selection code in 2.4 (and presumably earlier versions, too) you only saw a small part of the available maps. E.g. most of the time you shot down a UFO in 2.4 you would have to play the "+ufocrash" map. This was fixed, but oc not every map is as good as it should be. If you feel like a map needs to be impoved, you are invited to write your thoughts down as a feature request in our issue tracker.


Offline Merlin

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #107 on: May 27, 2013, 09:19:38 pm »
Actually I'm in June, with a terror mission looming. As for the map that was wonky, it was titled like "Harbor". It had these rasied platforms on stilts with a staircase going up to them. I saw some workers run down them in a panic, but could not raise my veiw to see the actual platform. So if an alien gets up there, I can't do anything about it.

So far I like 2.5. It's a bit more kick you in the teeth but you can tell there's issues with it. Maps, wounds, and RF still a bit wonky. I just posted thoughts in this topic as it's like the main discussion topic for it, even if the title is wrong.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2013, 09:54:21 pm by Merlin »

Offline UFOhunter

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #108 on: May 28, 2013, 05:38:55 pm »
I've played 2.5dev now for over a year (game time of course) and thought I'd add my two cents:

Overall the game is still great. Fighting the aliens is more difficult than I remember from 2.3/4, but generally it's good to keep it challenging. Re op - flashbangs are definately working in my game. I also get RF for my own guys, though rarely (no prob for me though), and in comparison to that alien RF seems a bit over the top...

Other than that:

1. It's cool to have smoke grenades to hide yourself, but when hiding "in the clouds" becomes the primary thing to do in some maps it is imo less fun. Also firing out of the smoke screen just to avoid getting killed feels a bit like cheating, but otoh with so deadly aliens it remains often your best choice.

The above seems to be related partly to starting positions on certain maps - sometimes your tough elite guys prefer to approach the combat zone from the worst thinkable tactical position, which means you throw smoke grenades around for some time until finally finding cover.

I never tried the map editor - can you actually modify starting positions there?

2. I have no prob with the Aliens having superior capability for reaction fire, but when they hit  (nearly) everything 20-30 squares away, but otoh do nothing when you crouch or run directly in front of them it feels strange.

3. It seems particle rifles and needler guns are the most advanced weapons? If so I'm wondering whether they're coming too early or if research is too fast generally. As said, I'm in the game for over a year now and for a good deal of time the aliens only use those two basic categories of weapons and nothing else anymore.

Maybe alien teams could still use a bit variety in equipment in later battles, maybe depending on their role or UFO to make things more interesting.

Is it actually possible to mod which (of the available) weapons aliens use in specific missions and from a certain point in time?

4. Power armour slows you down a tad? I thought I get one of those nifty power suits that amplify human power ;) Also, it seems to do worse vs. later alien weaponry (said particle thingies). Is this intended?

5. Sometimes alien behaviour is strange - on some maps they are super-aggressive, on others more passive. This wouldn't be a prob in itself, but sometimes it's contrary to the specific type of mission you play. For example in base attacks only some of them enter my base, but the bulk stands around outside doing nothing until I hunt them down. Otoh I'd expect them to be more on the defense when their UFO just got knocked out of the sky by PHLX interceptors.

6. There are some nice maps I have not seen before, but overall there seems to be less variety than I remember. I skimmed through other threads, read some maps have probs now, so maybe this is only a temporary issue.

7. When firing multi shots using beam weapons like lasers and PBs the beams sometimes start way besides the weapon (probably a known prob)

8. Imo, aliens should die more often instead of get stunned purely from wounds. At least in my campaign I barely had to make serious efforts to capture aliens alive because many simply got stunned during combat (maybe luck on my part though).



Overall still a great game, far from "sucking completely" :)



Offline H-Hour

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #109 on: May 28, 2013, 07:00:09 pm »
1. Starting positions are a big part of the problem, but general lack of cover is the heart of the issue. Yes, you can modify these in the map editor, and its not terribly difficult to add more cover. More mappers with the will to fix up these tactical issues would be great.

3. Are you mixing up "particle" and "plasma" weapons? Particle shouldn't come until pretty late in the game, maybe a year in. Although if you're playing Very Hard they'll come sooner.

Alien equipment was recently changed so that even late in the game you will face some of the lesser weapons. To mod this further, look into /base/ufos/equipment_missions.ufo as well as /base/ufos/alientype_missions.ufo.

4. Early on in the 2.5-dev cycle, power armour performed worse against particle weaponry, but this was fixed a while ago. Are you using recent builds?

5. These are pathfinding issues in the AI. The base is the worst map for them, because aliens generally try to move as close as possible to your soldiers, even if that's on the ground directly above them (and it usually is).

8. I found this as well. Stunning was not necessary. Worth fixing at some point, but I haven't looked into it.

Offline kurja

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #110 on: May 28, 2013, 07:24:03 pm »
#5

Would it be possible, with reasonable effort, to have some sort of "nav point" thingie for AI aliens in the maps? Like an invisible object the AI would want to home in on, and the nav point thingie probably should disappear after a set number of turns... okay that's not a quick thing to implement but would enable mappers to direct the aliens a bit.

Offline ShipIt

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #111 on: May 28, 2013, 07:35:25 pm »
...
8. Imo, aliens should die more often instead of get stunned purely from wounds. At least in my campaign I barely had to make serious efforts to capture aliens alive because many simply got stunned during combat (maybe luck on my part though).
...

This happens on crash sites, where some aliens are already hurt so they have only few stun points left. And, as H-Hour said, I never had to actively stun an alien during my campaign, too.

...
Overall still a great game, far from "sucking completely" :)

Good to hear from time to time.  ;)


After all, I played some more missions and found the changes in RF and the adjustments to the alien weaponry are really changed the "feel" of the game. Your soldiers are using the RF much more liberally, so now it is easier to trap aliens in good positions. Also, because of the changed weaponry the overall difficulty in the late stage of the campaign went down. That´s because your vets in Power Armour have no problems to survive a hit from a Plasma Blaster/Rifle, so they can fire back afterwards.

So, if you play 2.5-dev, make sure your version is up-to-date.

Offline UFOhunter

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #112 on: May 28, 2013, 07:37:01 pm »
Thx for the answers.

Re version, I installed the full version from the Win nightly build thread

"ufoai-2.5-dev-1351893478-Debug-pentium-m-O1-sse2-7z-small-win32.exe"

I didn't use the update utility yet, maybe I should do that. I just have to get around silly AVG to give false alerts...

Offline H-Hour

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #113 on: May 28, 2013, 07:53:50 pm »
We now offer nightly builds you can download for windows, so you don't need the update utility. Look under the Development section on our download page and download the "UFO:AI installer". That is updated regularly.

Offline ShipIt

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #114 on: May 28, 2013, 08:50:14 pm »
#5

Would it be possible, with reasonable effort, to have some sort of "nav point" thingie for AI aliens in the maps? Like an invisible object the AI would want to home in on, and the nav point thingie probably should disappear after a set number of turns... okay that's not a quick thing to implement but would enable mappers to direct the aliens a bit.

We have something similar for civvies. Not sure if it works, though.

Biggest problem is, nobody is actively developing or even maintaining the AI code. Oc DarkRain did some fixes and improvements, but I doubt we can make big steps soon.

Offline kurja

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #115 on: May 28, 2013, 10:52:58 pm »
We have something similar for civvies. Not sure if it works, though.

Biggest problem is, nobody is actively developing or even maintaining the AI code. Oc DarkRain did some fixes and improvements, but I doubt we can make big steps soon.

yay, but if that already exists, do you think it would be possible for a mapper to use it to direct the alien team?

Offline ShipIt

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #116 on: May 29, 2013, 06:20:39 am »
yay, but if that already exists, do you think it would be possible for a mapper to use it to direct the alien team?

Right now it´s just for civilians (info_civilian_target).


Offline Mattn

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #117 on: May 29, 2013, 08:59:57 am »
Actually I'm in June, with a terror mission looming. As for the map that was wonky, it was titled like "Harbor". It had these rasied platforms on stilts with a staircase going up to them. I saw some workers run down them in a panic, but could not raise my veiw to see the actual platform. So if an alien gets up there, I can't do anything about it.

Maybe worth a bug ticket - then we won't forget this bug.

Offline kurja

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #118 on: May 29, 2013, 02:43:45 pm »
Right now it´s just for civilians (info_civilian_target).

Yes, I meant if the same could be implemented for alien team with reasonable effort to enable suggested function.

Offline UFOhunter

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Re: 2.5 sucks completely
« Reply #119 on: May 29, 2013, 04:59:03 pm »
We now offer nightly builds you can download for windows, so you don't need the update utility. Look under the Development section on our download page and download the "UFO:AI installer". That is updated regularly.

Thx for the hint, I now changed to the latest build.