Design: Equipment

[BTAxis]

Feel free to add anything from the docs to the wiki, but you'd better not change anything in the storyline page right now (that one's already in). There's currently a lot of discussion going on about the storyline.

[Moonuni]

from what it sounds like, there is some great stuff to come, i think that possably adding turrets to the sides of the [human] crafts that would fire if aliens came too close or something would be neat, and same would go for the UFO crafts having turrets firing on the human troops.  also im a huge starcraft fan, so the idea of turrets sounds good to me, either ship mounted or stand-alone.  im not a coder, i wish that i could help more with the acutal making of the game, so thanks

[BTAxis]

Turrets? I don't understand how those would work in the game. A UFO interception is a one-on-one affair, and it is assumed that all weapons on both craft can fire on the other craft. Turrets in tactical combat make sense in base attack missions. Apocalypse had special defense facilities for that purpose. Outside bases. though, I don't see how you would implement them and how they would be useful.

[Moonuni]

something that could deploy like an item from somones backpack that would not move, but could cover an area

[BTAxis]

Well, something similar to that is in the design docs: the laser mine. It actr pretty much as a turret. It's not implemented yet, though.

[BloodMagus]

BT, I think Moonuni was trying to suggest that prehaps the UFO crafts could have mounted anti infantry weapons, much like the machine gun on the door of a military chopper. Specifically for warding off would be boarding parties when the crafted was on the ground.

Mind you, I think this would be something found on later models of UFO as a response to Phalanx attacks. It would make sense that if you're losing craft to boarding parties when you're landed, that you set up some point defense turrets to stop infantry. But seeing as initial craft were for aerospace attacks, the idea of someone physically entering your craft when it was on the ground and hijacking it would be unheard of to the aliens.

[BTAxis]

Oh. In that case, the role is more or less fulfilled by the Hovernets. Those are flying machines built by the aliens, and get deployed during UFO missions to protect the UFO. Of course, since they're mobile and actively seek out their target, they don't have a very "turrety" feel to them.

[altugi]

Maybe have turrets first, and introduce the hovernet and the laser mine in later stages. So you can have increasing difficulty in these missions too.

In terms of gameplay; turrets, hovernet and the laser mine are different challenges. You'd have to develope quite different tactics to master them.

[Northen_Wolf]

turrents?? turrent is mach gun with movment sensor?

turrent=machin gun+movement sensor=automatic assault rifle= bad damage+2 enterance +8 soldiers = 4soldiers per enetrance= least two kills if not more= useless killing machine...

[Bandobras]

Maybe have turrets first, and introduce the hovernet and the laser mine in later stages. So you can have increasing difficulty in these missions too.

I agree. I also like the idea of turrets mounted on dropships. This adds more tactical options --- retreat towards the protection of your dropship turrets, lure alines to your dropship, hide injured/rescued people in the dropship. Of course the bigger the dropship the better the turret (or you can even upgrade them when techs are researched).

As for ufo turrets --- would they be destructible? Infinite ammunition? I guess dropship turrets should be both indestructible and have infinite ammunition, but this could be an overkill for ufos... OTOH this is a nice tactical variety --- you do not destroy them, as you do with all aliens, but evade them, hide from them, etc. They should have limited range and power, though. Perhaps one shot per turn, so that you can make it shot at you heavily armoured soldier and then safely walk you weaklings into cover. Pure fun!

[Bandobras]

Flash grenades sound reasonable

I like the idea too. I wonder what effect should the grenade have. Blindness? Paralysis? All the different conditions are really nice for tactics and they are really distinct: paralysis (the target looses a turn or two), panicked (the same, but likely to happen again), blindness (reduced accuracy), asleep (wakes as soon as attacked), confusion (semi-random movement), stasis (looses turns but immune to damage, not likely except by magic in an RPG:)), bleeding (looses health over subsequent turns), burning (the same but can spread), unconsious, under mind control, etc. Perhaps some weapons could also induce a condition?

melee weapons

I really like them. They are totally distinct tactically from ranged weapons and have their use when fighting inside buildings, when charging to defend a civilan/CEO/valuable equipment/etc., when fighting against enemies that have no ranged weapons/are out of ammunition/are temporarily disabled. They should be quite powerful and fast, to compete with, say, point-blank assault rifle in auto-mode for close combat (but the knife only has to compete with the pistol). I remember I usually killed most of the aliens in the final map of TD1 in maximal difficulty by standing next to them and hitting them repeatedly with autoshots from a shotgun or assault rifle (from afar I didn't do enough damage and so I risked retaliation). It would be more natual to slash them open with a sword several times under different angles...