Building Upgrades

[koduesp]

Hello!

I have a suggestion that I don't think would be too hard to implement, and wouldn't be entirely out of original X-Com. Of course back then there wasn't a possibility to upgrade buildings, but with this suggestion base layout wouldn't need to change, and not even made any bigger.

With appropriate researches there could be an option to upgrade buildings in base. Upgraded workshops and laboratories would allow for more workers and scientists to do their magic, and living quarters would accommodate more people. This would be balanced with initial upgrade cost and greater running costs.

Radar and Advanced Radar could be made into one building.

Keeping it simple like this would just add a bit micromanagement and add a little content.

However, if anyone on the Dev department fancies it, there could be even some added specialization to these upgrades.

For example, living quarters might be upgraded later in the game with some sort of training facility - having even a really slow idle stat gain for rookies would tremendously help in getting soldiers to actually equip late-game tech.

Well, this was my suggestion. I guess I try not to bloat this one, so I'm pressing the "post" button instead of extending this suggestion into novel lengths

[Duke]

Thanks, that idea is good See also
http://ufoai.org/wiki/Proposals/Advanced_Facilities

[ShipIt]

How would that make the game any better?

Easier maybe, because the player doesn´t need to build new bases in order to expand it´s research and workshop capacity. Players always want the game to be easy.

Easy games are for children.

[koduesp]

How would that make the game any better?

Easier maybe, because the player doesn´t need to build new bases in order to expand it´s research and workshop capacity. Players always want the game to be easy.

Easy games are for children.

Better as in "not so annoying". Yes, of course game is harder in some ways if there just isn't options available to adjust to different situations. But I don't think that's a good way for a game to be hard.

However, if properly balanced, it wouldn't make game easier in a bad way (that is, easier to win), but would add nice option to have. I admit it, I'm a sucker for options



There was this link to proposed advanced facilities... well, if that's the way to go, I'll probably love it. My thinking here was mainly focusing on not messing up too much with the building sizes and such, so it'd be less effort to include this as the game would need a lot less additional maps, graphics and whatnot.

[ShipIt]

Maybe I should have asked that before: What version are you playing?

If, by some chance, your idea is based on playing the stable 2.4, I think the request is reasonable.

However, the times needed for research and disassembling were adjusted in 2.5-dev. You don´t need those huge hordes of workers anymore, as it was back in 2.4. Same for scientists, where in addition research rate can easily be modded.

[geever]

Honestly, I think the current facilities can host too much people already... Have you seen the maps in a battle? 20 people in such a small Living quarters? And you would like to like double it? The only way these upgrades are reasonable IMHO is if we decreased the capacity of the basic ones...

-geever

[Noordung]

How would that make the game any better?

Easier maybe, because the player doesn´t need to build new bases in order to expand it´s research and workshop capacity. Players always want the game to be easy.

Easy games are for children.

more realistic. you equip your laboatory with better equiptment, you buey new machines for your worksop, you dig deeper and havemore beds for your soliders...

[ShipIt]

more realistic. you equip your laboatory with better equiptment, you buey new machines for your worksop, you dig deeper and havemore beds for your soliders...

Oc this would be natural. But, we are trying to develop a strategy game, with round-based tactical fighting - not a real live sim. So we focus on basic elements to reach our goal instead of adding content that doesn´t improve gameplay in any way.

For max realism I always recommend leaving house once in a while, or playing MS Flight Simulator.

[Visitor]

In all honesty, while I don't feel strongly about stuff like additional equipment for facilities and so on, I can say that such could make the game better, not simply easier. I understand that it's not base-building sim, but any element that allows customization and adds to the feeling of progression is nearly always adding to enjoyment for average player as long as it also doesn't add too much complexity - and it's mostly such complexity and in-depth management that makes a difference here.

The only problem with such I'd see would be amount of work necessary to add such gimmicks, which gameplay enhancement may be simply too feeble to warrant.

If it wouldn't take too much work and there would be more facilities which are basically improved versions of what we have now, I'd like an option of refitting/upgrading them at a slightly cheaper price/faster completion rate in comparison to building some from scratch, though..

Telling people to play some flight simulator or go out when they simply argue for some feature on the basis of realism - which they may enjoy, even if others won't and which is somewhat fitting point in the game that does put some worth in it is rather uncalled for, if not simply rude - the same it'd be if someone would tell players who don't care about realism in UFO:AI to quickly leave the game forever and play random surreal arcade platformer instead. Such suggestions never solve the problem, being simple 'if you like something like that, go away'. Especially since the suggestion mentions realism as the reason why it'd make sense, but isn't made just for the sake of realism, as it could add to the fun for some in general.

[koduesp]

Whoa.

I read this thread and decide to write a little longer and better thought reply after I visit a grocery shop.

When I come back, this Visitor guy has pretty much already answered all the points I was about to raise - and probably in better grammar I could have achieved

I'm actually quite amazed that this post generated even this much discussion. Usually any sort of suggestions in game forums fall to deaf ears, because (as it reads in the contribute to project page) free games usually need actual work done rather than ideas.

Anyway, I'll still chime in a little bit.

I'm actually playing the 2.5dev version, and indeed this suggestion didn't stem from frustration to slow research or disassembling. In fact it came out as an idea that I thought would be something I would enjoy in a game like this.

At the moment of writing I'm probably quite late in the game, as I'm researching orbital ufo activity. At this point in the game two things encouraged me to write this suggestion about building upgrades.

1) When you create a new base, there are some "rock" areas. Now, one of my bases had annoying number of those. I don't, however, see these rock areas as a bad thing for the game, and I wouldn't want them removed. But if I did have some tools at my disposal to cope with these obstacles (by paying premium price for premium services... or facilities) I'm pretty sure I'd love that option to be there.

2) A fully built base becomes boring. When every square has been filled there is nothing left to do within that base. Visitor had a good point that game shouldn't devolve into base building sim either, but I'm sure thing could be kept simple enough. With some possibilities to tweak your base even after you've built it full would make interesting and meaningful choices a part of base building even during later stages of the game.


So... in a few words, I don't want easier or faster. I just want... more Neither of those two points are great problems in the game, both can easily be lived with, but to my mind they certainly are areas that could be improved upon.

If the advanced facilities are being planned in some way or another, this building upgrade suggestion could open up a few possibilities there, too. For example, the advanced laboratory that was proposed would be required for some late game researches. Merge these two ideas and there you got a meaningful late game choice for laboratory building upgrade.

This post is starting to go beyond proper lengths, so I will continue some other time. I want to thank everyone for the comments and interest on this topic.