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TU reservation with less clicking and better feedback


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edit: I have meanwhile been convinced by Gauddlike's arguments that my original proposal is lacking. Below is a revised version. A big thank you to everyone who provided feedback!

Hi there,

First of I'd like to say that as a huge fan of XCOM I greatly appreciate how close you stick to the concepts of the series. But in one way you are imo a bit to close to the classics: reserving time units in ground combat. I have only played Xenonauts for a short time up to now, but I already encountered a number of situations where I thought to myself "well, that could be done in a less click-intensive manner".

I'll give you an example:

Usually I reserve time units for a reaction shot. But if I then encounter an alien while using the rest of my TUs for movement, I want to shoot him. It happens rather often that the game won't let me do that, cause I don't have enough TUs left for two shots (the one I want to take and the reaction shot). This requires me to deselect the 'reserve TUs option', clicking on the alien a second time and reselecting the reserve option at the start of the next turn. That's a lot of clicking.

I'd suggest to implement one of the following solutions to this:

- Allow the usage of reserved TUs for aggressive actions like shooting or throwing a grenade, with one additional safety-click on the target and displaying a 'click again to use reserved TUs' overlay.

- Allow the usage of reserved TUs for aggressive actions like shooting or throwing a grenade as long as a modifier key is held (© by Gazz ^^).

If one of this options is used make the text of the reserve-options greyed out, so the player has visual feedback that this unit won't react during the enemies turn any more, but leave the previously selected option selected.

Additional visual feedback would also be nice. By which I mean this: introduce a 4th color for the path highlighting. Green tiles = tiles that can be reached that leave enough TUs for auto reaction fire. Blue = enough TUs left for snap shot reaction. Yellow = no reaction fire possible. Red = Unreachable in this turn.

Hopefully this is helpful to you!

Keep up the good work!

Alex

Edited by pack.wolf
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- Do away with the reservation system altogether by giving us additional visual feedback. By which I mean this: introduce a 4th color for the path highlighting. Green tiles = tiles that can be reached that leave enough TUs for auto reaction fire. Blue = enough TUs left for snap shot reaction. Yellow = no reaction fire possible. Red = Unreachable in this turn. Actually I'd really like to see this independent of if you remove the option to reserve TUs or not, because more and better unobtrusive visual feedback is always welcome to me.

Already suggested this a while ago, but not sure what came of it. I'm a bit confused though by your suggestion, particularly this line

It happens rather often that the game won't let me do that, cause I don't have enough TUs left for two shots (the one I want to take and the reaction shot).

How were you expecting it to change so that you could have enough to shoot twice? You said you didn't have enough AP left...

A simpler suggestion would be that while you reserve AP for the reaction fire shot, you could still use that AP if you chose by double clicking the attack button.

So I reserve for a shot. Now I see an alien who I really want to shoot. I tell my character to shoot, but the game is reserving that AP. So I click again to tell the game I really mean it, and it shoots. Next turn AP reserve is the same (once they code that in) and all I had to do was double click on the alien to fire...

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Already suggested this a while ago, but not sure what came of it.
Sorry, I only did a very basic search and didn't find anything.
I'm a bit confused though by your suggestion, particularly this line ...
Actually I meant exactly the thing you describe. I only want to fire the one shot I have reserved TUs for. But the game won't let me since they are, well, reserved. If I had enough TUs left to shoot twice the game would let me shoot once (but then I'd want it to let me shoot twice, using all the remaining TUs...). I probably wasn't too clear on that, but yeah, what you said :D
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I don't like that system.

If you have the AP reserved then you don't want to accidentally use it, that is the whole point in reserving it.

If you are saving AP for reaction fire then accidentally use it by, for example using too many AP to aim in your own turn you might as well not have the reserve.

I like having the safety net, it means I can concentrate on the rest of the game without having to worry about running out.

Edited by Gauddlike
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@Gauddlike: I partially agree with you there. Accidental use of the reserved TUs should be prevented. That's why I'd like some kind of overlay warning message and a required second click to actually fire anyway. That would still cut the number of clicks from 4 to 2 (plus it would remove the need to move the cursor, which takes a lot more time than the actual clicks). I'm not saying to remove reserve altogether, but rather to streamline the interface.

@Gazz: That's a neat idea, hadn't thought of that. Very nice!

I guess one solution would be to implement all the different solutions to this issue (second click, modifier key, visual indicator instead of reserve) and add an option to the configuration menu to choose one of them. The first two should be easy and quick to implement, the third one might need a more significant amount of coding.

Even if one or more of the options would get dropped again before final release it would be nice to have them in for a time. So everyone could gather experience with all of them and provide feedback as to which method they preferred.

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- Do away with the reservation system altogether by giving us additional visual feedback. By which I mean this: introduce a 4th color for the path highlighting. Green tiles = tiles that can be reached that leave enough TUs for auto reaction fire. Blue = enough TUs left for snap shot reaction. Yellow = no reaction fire possible. Red = Unreachable in this turn. Actually I'd really like to see this independent of if you remove the option to reserve TUs or not, because more and better unobtrusive visual feedback is always welcome to me.

Yep, good suggestion.

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What about when you aren't moving?

Your colour system won't help you to work out how many AP you need to reserve when you are performing other tasks.

For example turning, firing shots, adding aim levels to shots, using a medikit, throwing a grenade, and rearranging items in your inventory do not have a colour attachment.

It is half a system that won't work on its own.

It may be a nice addition to the current system but again will still not overcome the initial problem of being unable to use reserved AP without turning off reserve.

I am also generally against mixing in too many colour variations.

There are plenty of colour blind who will already struggle without adding more colour complexity.

Using hotkeys for the different reserve levels, or to switch between levels, would be easier.

Maybe use [ and ] to change levels.

For example you have reserve level 3 set, you want to fire a shot so you hit [ to take your reserve down a notch and give you enough free AP to fire.

It still prevents you from using those AP accidentally but makes it quicker to change levels when you need to.

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What about when you aren't moving?

Your colour system won't help you to work out how many AP you need to reserve when you are performing other tasks.

For example turning, firing shots, adding aim levels to shots, using a medikit, throwing a grenade, and rearranging items in your inventory do not have a colour attachment.

It is half a system that won't work on its own.

It may be a nice addition to the current system but again will still not overcome the initial problem of being unable to use reserved AP without turning off reserve.

I am also generally against mixing in too many colour variations.

There are plenty of colour blind who will already struggle without adding more colour complexity.

Using hotkeys for the different reserve levels, or to switch between levels, would be easier.

Maybe use [ and ] to change levels.

For example you have reserve level 3 set, you want to fire a shot so you hit [ to take your reserve down a notch and give you enough free AP to fire.

It still prevents you from using those AP accidentally but makes it quicker to change levels when you need to.

Where are [ and ] on a english/international keyboard? on a swedish keyboard you need to press ctrl+alt+8/9 for those characters.

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