Level Design Principles Discussion

[Chris]

I've decided that we need to take a more scientific approach to designing the maps in Xenonauts. There's a variety of reasons for this; we're in a good place to do it with Aaron joining full-time, we've put together all of the buildings we plan to use in the game and can start on the props properly now, extended experience with the new XCOM has taught me a lot of lessons about map design, etc.

This thread will contain some spoilers about the tech tree for humans and the abilities of a couple of alien races. It's nothing particularly different to the original Enemy Unknown, but if you really don't want to know then you should stop reading now.

Firstly, the current situation. Our maps in Xenonauts are currently designed with no particular rhyme or reason beyond what I personally think looks good. I've tried to create realistic looking buildings and the new level designer has tried to emphasise more tight and claustrophobic maps where there is scope for aliens to sneak up and get the jump on you. However, there's a few problems - the lack of props can leave maps quite devoid of cover in various areas (like the roads), and the buildings are probably too crammed together in the other areas. It's a bit weird, and it doesn't scale well as the maps get larger.

I want to put together a series of principles that I and other users can use when generating maps for Xenonauts which will ensure our maps are visually coherent, tactically interesting and fun to play. I think the result of this would be more spacious maps overall; the towns etc in things like Day-Z / Arma 2 (or here) have more space between the buildings and look a lot more natural for it.

I'm open to suggestions on new things we should consider for design rules, or suggestions for how we can apply these rules to our existing maps. Basically, comments of all kinds welcome - I'm grappling with the theory of level design for the first time!

HIGH-LEVEL:

- Purpose: I guess the different mission types need to have a different feel. This is partly drawn from the AI behaviour but the level design would affect this a lot:

Crash Site:

A cautious search-and-destroy mission where you are hunting a limited number of aliens. Maps should be relatively open with fewer buildings (only one or two), with less dense waist-high cover but various walls / hedges to to block LOS (so the map is divided into "sections" that you comb through). Aliens generally skulk about and attack your troops when they get into firing range.

Terror Mission:

Much more like open warfare in feel, with the aliens being highly aggressive and destructive. There should be more buildings than on the Crash Sites, with relatively flimsy waist-high cover filling the space between them and inside them. Line of sight is only really blocked by buildings.

Alien Base Attack:

Intended to be frightening and claustrophobic in feel. Narrow (3 tile) corridors connect larger rooms together; walls of rooms / corridors are made of earth and are invulnerable. Lots of strange / exotic machinery in the rooms, hopefully the props can tell part of the story of the aliens and their intentions visually. Take place in darkness, with the corridors being lit but the actual rooms only lit when they have glowing equipment. Naturally, lights will be destructible so using explosives will throw an area in darkness afterwards too. Aliens will be both scattered through the map and clustered in the command room and mostly just skulk about.

Xenonaut Base Defence:

Should feel familiar so you want to be careful not to blow things up (it's your base) and also tense about losing the base. Base should look lived in, and objects should look like they've been abandoned in a hurry. Rooms should be small but densely packed with props, so the mission should be a case of sweeping your base to find the wall breaches and then fierce short-range fighting in the rooms around the breaches. Cover should be designed to be easily flanked from adjacent rooms; it should provide protection only to one direction. Aliens should be relatively few in number but aggressive and well equipped, and should stick together (the number of wall breaches will increase as the UFOs get larger).

- Map Size: This should be fixed based on the UFO type, irrespective of tileset. We want a progression from early in the game in two ways; firstly in raw size the maps should increase to take into account the larger Xenonaut squads and greater numbers of aliens, then secondly we want a visual progression from rural settings to more grandiose maps for terror missions and the larger UFOs.

- Civilians / Friendly AI units: This should be updated so it is set for each individual level. Civilians and Friendly AI troops should be set to spawn in logical areas, generally around buildings.

MAP-SPECIFIC:

-Logical: The map should look authentic and have an internal logic to it. Buildings from other tilesets should not be used and the buildings / props used should be authentic. For example, if you are doing a rural Soviet Town map, don't put lamp-posts beside the road. If you fill a house with props, it should not have a bed in the living room or multiple televisions in one room etc. If you're doing an Arctic map, you only want one building or a small group of buildings on the map, no matter how large it is, etc.

- Line of sight: All maps should use full-height walls or barriers to break up LOS (though it is harder in the Arctic / Desert tilesets). Having the map open and visible makes it dull and turns it into a sniping match, so you want plenty of opportunity to come face-to-face with an alien (not present in the current Farmyard maps, for example). Hedgerows, buildings, tall walls - just make sure you've got enough in there that there's plenty of potential places for aliens to hide. Those areas can be quite open and spacious; they just shouldn't be visible until you round the corner.

- Open Areas: Once you enter an area of the map, you should be able to see most of it at a glance. Exploring lots of small rooms or nooks and crannies behind shelves etc is time consuming and boring. One or two walls or large items that block LOS should be used strategically if the space needs to be subdivided, the other items should offer cover but not block LOS. This means tall props should be placed around the outside of building interiors, with half-height cover in the middle of rooms.

- Vehicles / Heavy: Vehicles and "Heavy" units are able to crush cover and walk through structural walls, so use thick barriers marked as uncrushable (hedgerows, rock formations, large props etc) in strategic to stop vehicles having a completely free rein across the map. Similarly, remember to include places where tactical use of a vehicle could be helpful (breaching a chain link fence etc).

- Verticality: There are no ladders or sloped terrain in Xenonauts beyond stairs, but verticality is an important part of maps as height confers bonus sight distance and shot accuracy. Buildings should have stairs to their roofs where practical (ie. flat roof buildings) and there should also be otherwise-inaccessible spots where jetpack-equipped units can move to. The jetpack should be a major tactical advantage.

-Building Levels: No buildings should have more than two levels (ie, no more than one extra floor beyond the ground floor and roof). Ideally, buildings that are more than one level tall should not have floors above the ground floor and should just be empty space on the the second level. This stops buildings taking too long to search and creating camera issues.

- Destructibility: Most items on the battlefield will be destructible. Maps should allow players to use this to their advantage. Explosive props are a good example, or places where vehicles can destroy terrain blocking the movement of your infantry. There are a lot of ways that we could explore destructibility, but I don't think we've really found many of them yet. If you've got any ideas, then please post them in this thread.

Those are the design rules and ideas I've come up with as I've been thinking about it for the last hour or two, so if anyone has suggestions for other things I should be considering or feedback I'd be interested in reading them.

[irongamer]

Has the idea of possible random goals during a mission been discussed?

I don't mean for every crash site or other alien activity missions. Just that it would be possible that there would be something more than a clean sweep. Maybe the aliens dragged some device away from their wreck and have enabled it. A goal would be to shut it off. The device could have effects on the mission, boosting alien shields, increasing alien offence, or randomly converting civilians to something else. Maybe the device is set to overload and creates a large explosion destroying a building after a certain amount of time (most likely lowering your mission score). The goals would not serve as a binary function for mission success or failure. The goals would be random elements that may or may not impact your mission score depending on how well you play.

This would add more work and may stray too far from the original. However, it would allow for the possibility of more interesting missions than "sweep up the mess." Each crash site or other activity site could possibly have another layer to make it feel a little more unique and dynamic.

Edited October 31, 2012 by irongamer

[Jean-Luc]

A good overall plan.

I'd add just one thing. If possible avoid making the maps look contrived, like they are pre-set "battle arenas". I think the new XCOM suffers from this to an extent. Don't forcibly place cover items in places where they don't make sense. The way the fallen logs were arranged in XCOM's crash sites reminded me of the

in American Gladiators.

[Max_Caine]

There is another factor you can add to your level design principles - tightness of level. By that, I mean both the size of the level and the number of active actors in it are correct for the expectation of the player, and the time spent playing the level should reflect the number of times the player will expect to play that type of level . A small ufo should have a small crew on a small map with a small number of civvies/friendly soliders on it. The map should not take very long to play out because the player might be doing many small ufo crash investigations, but at the same time should not be so short that you start thinking "what was the point?". Larger ufo have larger maps, but as the time invested in each map becomes greater, it shouldn't be so great that the player is thinking "man, not another one!". Personaly, I think this is something that XCOM:EU overdid. Their maps are very fast to progress (even for the big UFOs) which is good, but they are perhaps a little too fast to progress through.

[Max_Caine]

Not quite a double post, more a new info post.

Chris, this wikipedia page on level design may not be notable for its information, but it does cite several sources which I think bear reading in relation to this thread. Check the sources, see if there's anything you find useful.

EDIT:

I was thinking about the X-Com, XCOM and X-Comish games and flow control. Where is the player directed on any particular map? Well, in XCOM, flow control is very pronounced. Regardless of the mission type, the underlying flow is bite-sized chunks of combat which steer the player in a certain direction (usually forward). You move your troops, trigger a spawn, fight the baddies, move your troops, trigger a spawn, fight the baddies. The baddies usually are spawned in a linear fashion, encouraging the player to move in a specific direction rather than all over the map. Maps also seem to be rectangular in shape, with a defined start, and a semi-defined end, which encourages a linear progression.

In X-Com EU, flow control is more subtle, but as present. UFO maps are square in formation. They are presented with a certain amount of baddies dotted across the landscape and a certain number of baddies located inside the UFO. In general, the baddies outside the UFO stay outside the UFO, the baddies inside the UFO stay inside the UFO. Additionally, baddies inside the UFO tend to stay upon the level they spawn on. Therefore, the player is directed towards the UFO as he knows (after several battles) that there is a high chance of baddies inside it. He is also directed to check all of the UFO, as he also knows that there will be baddies on each level of the UFO.

In X-COM EU terror missions, there is no discernible flow. Events happen across the map simultaneously and there is no prior knowledge that can help the player. He is instead encouraged to gradually fan out across the map, looking for baddies, checking every level and building (because he cannot know where to check and where not to check). As events are generally beyond the control of the player (he cannot prevent aliens killing civilians in Hidden Movement, and civilians are not very clever), there is no drive to quickly seek out the alien, nor does he get any help in finding hotspots.

In X-Com EU base defence missions, flow is tightly controlled around specific choke points. Very quickly the player will know where baddies will enter, and while he has no control over where his own troops will spawn, he can marshal them quickly to respond to points of entry. In base assault missions, there is no discernible flow. Like terror missions, the baddies are spawned all over the map. There are no key points of interest, so the player slowly fans out and eliminates everything on the map.

I believe that Xenonauts should model itself on subtle forms of flow control, but learn from X-Com. To prevent this from becoming TL;DR, all I will say is that in Terror missions, I suggest providing somewhere for the civilians to go. It directs the flow of the mission. If the player knows there will be strongpoints, that civilians will be moving towards them, and the soliders manning them are insufficient to protect the strongpoints, then he is more likely to search for the strongpoints and reinforce them, rather than slowly fan out across the map and faff around.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Max_Caine

[tunatime]

Crash Site:

i think on crash sites that most of the aliens should be by the ufo or by a place they can defend easily instead of just roaming around. my thinking is this when they get shot down they are probably waiting for evac and trying to hold till reinforcements get there. you could also have it that if you take to long to get to the ufo that there could be some kind of self destruct go off.

Terror Mission:

i think terror missions should have an urban warfare type of feel to it lots of buildings and stuff you would find in a city, and also have terror missions out in rule places where theirs not so much their like a little town few buildings a few cars and that's about it.

Alien Base Attack

i like your ideas but why take place in darkness? could be cool if you have nvg and what not you could use though

- Civilians / Friendly AI units

what gets me about the npc ai is this you have civilians just running around and cops shooting at aliens.

cops should guard the civilians and they should take the civilians to a place they can defend and hold up there. army forces should try to seek out the alien and kill them

- Verticality- please add more of this to the maps where you could send snipers to the high ground to scout/take out aliens, but make it so aliens try to do the same thing.

-Building Levels- you should have high buildings in a city map, but make it so that any aliens in them don't just hide, walking down a street whit a tall building next to it should have the fell of any senced now a group of aliens might start shooting out me though those windows. so if the ai was good and the aliens don't just sit hiding so you have to go clear all buildings, i think tall buildings could be fun

[Chris]

Thanks for your comments all. Max Caine, you in particular raise some interesting points with your discussion of flow control.

I agree the new XCOM missions are too linear and signposted. The original X-COM does do it quite well, though. For our base defence missions, hopefully we can have the aliens working in small teams that are grouped together, so each mission is a series of short and intense firefights. Should make them quite fast-paced despite the size of the base maps.

For the terror sites, yes, it could work well having one or more strongpoints defended by National Guard that the civilians are running toward and the aliens are attacking. We'll think about that. Particularly fun if the Reapers (Chryssalids) are on the mission!

[alcari]

I quite like the whole document, but I see a few potential problems.

Alien Base Attack:

If you plan on 3-wide hallways, be sure that any other cover is not spawned "opposite" other cover, leaving you only a single square to pass through, as it would probably just annoy you. I'm a fan of making the hard choice. Do I duck into a side passage for cover from the front, possibly taking flanking fire? Do I advance and attack, or retreat and let them come to me?

Open Areas:

Ohhhh, yes please! Having to hunt out that final alien cowering in a deadend corner is terribly annoying. Though you could solve this with the (slightly out of character) method of having the last alien on the map come to the UFO, or to your squad.

Vehicles / Heavy: Uncrushable hedgerows? Maybe uncrushable concrete barriers, but you can drive through a hedgerow with your family car. It's kind of annoying to have arbitrary limits on what specific object can be crushed, and which one needs a fair bit of high explosives to break. Also, driving over cover means your troops don't get to use it either, so I think the amount of invulnerable cover shouldn't be very high.

For the terror sites, yes, it could work well having one or more strongpoints defended by National Guard that the civilians are running toward and the aliens are attacking. We'll think about that. Particularly fun if the Reapers (Chryssalids) are on the mission!

Sooo, what you're saying is that we should bring a LOT of explosives?

Edited November 1, 2012 by alcari

[flashman]

ideas for ice/desert

Does not have to be devoid of life-

Start the level at 1st floor height- trick the user-

this would allow for clever use of angles to create v-shaped valleys/u-shaped=

Use natural terrain features to break up LOS - indestrcutible objects like TORS/DRUMLINS- Basket full of eggs-

glacial areas can have lots of dense vegetation- trees as well as piles of moraine- rocks left/dumped by glaciers- these often form straight line ridges - lateral- edges - terminal- going across -

if you created a map that made use of these natural features you could create lots of cover.

Use water/ lakes rivers to direct flow- and to create unpassable areas.

http://jupiter.plymouth.edu/~sci_ed/Turski/Courses/Earth_Science/Images/3.moraines.jpg - moraine

http://jupiter.plymouth.edu/~sci_ed/Turski/Courses/Earth_Science/Images/8.glaciatedtopo.jpg - features

http://jupiter.plymouth.edu/~sci_ed/Turski/Courses/Earth_Science/Images/4.drumlin.jpg - drumlins

http://jupiter.plymouth.edu/~sci_ed/Turski/Courses/Earth_Science/Images/2.kettlelakes.jpg - kettle lakes

I would also avoid using desert/arctic for terror - stick to Urban areas-

Potentially make desert/arctic maps smaller due to the fact that you would be very focused on a particular area around the crash site.

Edited November 1, 2012 by flashman

[StellarRat]

Vehicles / Heavy: Uncrushable hedgerows? Maybe uncrushable concrete barriers, but you can drive through a hedgerow with your family car.

Not 100% true. There are plain old hedges in a family garden then there are "real" hedgerows that are planted by farmers to act as fences. These are part dirt wall, part small trees, and part traditional hedge plants and very dense. No family car could penetrate these. Those kind of hedgerows can stop vehicles and GREATLY slow down soldiers trying to pass through them. In WWII tanks were outfitted with bulldozer blades to allow them to penetrate "real" hedgerows in France. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhino_Tank . High explosives were also effective for breaching them. Edited November 1, 2012 by StellarRat

[Jean-Luc]

Crash Site:

i think on crash sites that most of the aliens should be by the ufo or by a place they can defend easily instead of just roaming around. my thinking is this when they get shot down they are probably waiting for evac and trying to hold till reinforcements get there.

This is a good point imo.

The aliens would be spread out on a landed UFO map because they're on a mission doing their thing but in the case of a crash they'd be a lot more defensive and turtly.

[Chris]

Alcari - what StellarRat said. If you think you can drive your car through one of these then you're either from Texas or seriously underestimating how tough trees are. There's a difference between a hedge and a hedgerow

Jean-Luc / Tuna - I'm not keen on having all the alien soldiers by the UFO on crash site missions because it's boring, even if it would make some sense. You may as well just have a linear corridor level like in the new X-Com if you're going to do that.

Flashman - the terror sites only occur in the Town and Soviet Town tilesets.

[StellarRat]

I agree too. I think alien commander would find the closest defensible ground and try to hold it and potentially ambush anyone that came by. They wouldn't be out looking for a good pub. This specially true for small ships and at the start of the game when the aliens are heavily outmatched by the Xenonauts.

[tunatime]

Alcari - what StellarRat said. If you think you can drive your car through one of these then you're either from Texas or seriously underestimating how tough trees are. There's a difference between a hedge and a hedgerow

Jean-Luc / Tuna - I'm not keen on having all the alien soldiers by the UFO on crash site missions because it's boring, even if it would make some sense. You may as well just have a linear corridor level like in the new X-Com if you're going to do that.

Flashman - the terror sites only occur in the Town and Soviet Town tilesets.

i think it could add some o shits to the game when you find the ufo( or have them randomly in a building some place) and there are a group of aliens by the thing ripping your guys apart. to me i would rather have a few larger groups of aliens then 5 groups of 1 alien spread all over the map, becuese when you find 1 alien you know your going to kill it but if you come up to 3 or 4 you know you might lose some men. or just buff the alien ai so they work together more

[Gauddlike]

I like the sound of the design principles but they do seem to underplay the map type as a deciding factor.

A crash site/landed UFO on a farm should play differently to one in an industrial area and different to one in the arctic.

Map types can have their own theme to break up landing/crash sites as you will probably be doing a few of them.

A general theme is good as well because it makes for a bigger surprise when you get a map that varies from expectations.

For example landing on a farm expecting a lot of fields and a few barns but finding a large farmhouse with numerous outbuildings surrounded by a few small fields.

I also think if the AI is up to using elevation to it's advantage then an occasional taller building on some maps could be a good thing.

Walking through the town to find an alien sniper has taken up residence on the third floor of a building forces you to decide if you should try to avoid line of sight from the building, level it to get rid of him, or risk clearing it room by room in case of civilians.

Seeing one of those buildings show up on the map can give you a sense of dread as you don't know if someone is watching you from there until the shot is fired.

It is different if they are just hiding places that bulk out the floor space of your maps though, that would be a little dull.

[thothkins]

Crash site

“Maps should be relatively open with fewer buildings (only one or two”

There’s a lot of open space on the maps at the moment and the building offer little tension (caveat on all such comments is partly AI based). In EU1994 courtyards/ enclosed areas with surrounding buildings offered plenty of tension. You would have stables and barns in the farm maps for example to offer a different look.

“Aliens generally skulk about and attack your troops when they get into firing range.“

I’d also like to see the aliens be more aggressive in picking off invading forces, while the others stayed by the craft (detonation of core or some such).

Is the building size more about the camera than anything else, as a tense “clear the aliens out of our well designed apt block” would be ok once in a while. Thinking Apocalypse.

Xenonaut Base Defence

“Aliens should be relatively few in number but aggressive and well equipped, and should stick together (the number of wall breaches will increase as the UFOs get larger)”

UFOExtraterrestrials had some excellent base defence missions. There were enough aliens to get the feeling of almost being overwhelmed. Depends on how aggressively and tactically minded these will be here. In that game, they still came through the hanger choke points.

Generally, there should be a feeling that each map looks as it’s supposed to be without artificially herding the player to perform certain functions. No path of hedges for example, leading to the UFO. There should always be a number of clear options available.

I’d prefer if player actions didn’t spawn too much (unless it’s an alien sub mission). I’d rather the AI was good enough to have all of the aliens try to anticipate and fight against the Xenonauts. For example, if the player waits around long enough the aliens will have more time to find better sniping shots. They won’t wait until the player has reached point X before thinking that getting to a sniping spot is a good idea.

Enough in each map to provide some tension. Landing in the middle of a large field, that takes up a large chunk of the map, for example is a bit dull, provides no cover and leaves you completely open. A mad dash into cover that can take a round or two feels a lot better than six or seven rounds edging your way towards civilisation.

I’d imagine that each type of alien will have different goals on the battlescape. Varying numbers of each could vary the types of actions that they would be able to take. That would vary things up a bit.

Look to enhance certain features of the each map type. Ridges as well as large blocks, large sand dunes for deserts that sort of thing.

[vaultdweller]

For the terror sites, yes, it could work well having one or more strongpoints defended by National Guard that the civilians are running toward and the aliens are attacking. We'll think about that. Particularly fun if the Reapers (Chryssalids) are on the mission!

Yes. Hell. Freaking. Yes.

{Edit}

I'll also get behind whoever suggested having additional secondary goals to make the missions feel more varied.

With respect to open areas and breaking up line-of-sight: I agree with these as general principles, but occasional deviations would be good. I think it's fine if there's the odd mission where snipers reign supreme. I also think it's fine if there are occasional, densely-packed environments with very little line of sight for snipers.

Also, as others have noted, alien snipers with high vantage points add a lot of potential tension.

Edited November 2, 2012 by vaultdweller

[TrashMan]

My only desire is for maps that make sense.

Any "forcing" of a concept just ends up feeling wrong.

When developers go "we must have more chest-high cover. Put some stuff in" and end up making maps that feel fake.

I'll adopt to a map.

Large, open farmland? I'll bring in more snipers.

A huge office complex? My CC specialist will lead the way with shotguns.

Of course, it would be nice if the Crashsite also has a short discriptor as to waht area we're going in so we cna make our team selection before we set out. Well that or having a storage space inside the chopper for a few extra shotguns.

[xcorps]

Of course, it would be nice if the Crashsite also has a short discriptor as to waht area we're going in so we cna make our team selection before we set out. Well that or having a storage space inside the chopper for a few extra shotguns.

I agree. There should be some level of recon prior to deployment. Even a flyover by the interceptor would give you terrain info.

[HWP]

Too much flow control is much worse than none at all.

I think the game needs, most of all, variety in its maps, and then you leave the player to find out how to apply himself to it. By all means avoid things like a 4x4 grid of 5-floor city blocks, but that doesn't mean all lone 3-level buildings need to be razed.

TFTD had some very challenging moments with multiple levels. Height can be an important gameplay element, taller buildings add a level of detail to the game. If there are few on a map (as few as one) and they have open floor layouts, they aren't a problem, but they can be a nice element.

[Belmakor]

For crash-sites i'm definitely in favour of the majority of the aliens hunkering down somewhere and trying to ambush you. After all that's what humans would do in that situation. Maybe set 30% of the aliens on the map to roam and the others to hunker down. The roamers could occasionally be set to specifically run away and lead you into an ambush. Other times the majority would be spread out or in and around the UFO (perhaps you have caught them napping or in disarray).

On the sparse maps like arctic there should be almost no friendly AI. Snow banks/drifts, snow covered vehicles, outhouses, frozen lakes (don't need water animation!), fallen trees, logs, perhaps a comms array, a dead reindeer carcass. Please have any facility almost buried in snow as it really adds to the atmosphere like in "The Thing". Static footprints might be an interesting thing to add in. These could act to almost guide the xenonauts to the UFO, or perhaps a dead end or worse! Even better, ploughed snow from an object being dragged (perhaps the occasional blood stain) would add to the tension and the feeling that something ominous looms. Another outrageous thought. Perhaps you should make the FOG of war a whitish grey in the snow missions? Make it seem like the snow is enveloping you and reduce the vision. A scarecrow in a Russian snow covered field at the edge of your vision might cause you to panic and fire off some shots! =)

On an open map with one large building it makes sense to have the building in-between the UFO and the skyranger. Not only from a realism point of view with the pilot attempting to mask your approach but also from a game-play point of view as it immediately makes this structure the focal point of the map as the likely place where action will take part at the same time subtly directing towards the UFO. Its less important then that the surrounding area is fields or open terrain spotted with sporadic cover as these only offer flanking options with higher risk/reward.

On another note, in missions with few buildings it probably makes sense to have the windows and doors facing south like in real life (better for the FOV anyway). Also if there are smaller buildings off a larger one its likely that the doors should be facing each other as one would path their own buildings in life (apart from a garage of-course).

Think about where windows should be placed or props should be placed in relation to a room. A window is not going to be located a foot away from a large shelf for example. Windows would probably tie in with areas of high LOS as the purpose is to let maximum light into a room and thus LOS would be preserved naturally in most instances. This also means you can in a sense clear rooms quickly by looking in a window but at the same time you can quite easily be spotted out one and shot at. Perhaps placing a block that stops items spawning very near to (adjacent is ok) windows would be a first step. If you haven't already got one, a mechanic whereby you can see out from a room through a window to maximum LOS should have a reversal whereby it is difficult to see in through a window (perhaps only one or two tiles) until you are a few steps away. Its realistic and a good mechanic that you can't see an alien in the middle of a room from a mile away.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Belmakor

[TrashMan]

UFO: AI has basic discriptors of a charsh site.

Would be nice to have information like:

UFO Size: Small

Terrian type: Grassland/field

Structure type: Small farm

[xcorps]

I guess my question sort of fits with the thread.

Why is there no water?

[thothkins]

Static footprints might be an interesting thing to add in. These could act to almost guide the xenonauts to the UFO, or perhaps a dead end or worse!

Is anyone else picturing Sebillians on stilts with human feet at the bottoms, pretending to be local forces? Sneaky devils.

[Belmakor]

I guess my question sort of fits with the thread.

Why is there no water?

Because that would require an animation which I think is limited by the engine (i'm not 100% sure thats the reason though!)