Jump to content

Recommended Posts

It may be a tiny bit late for drastic changes, but the idea just came to me now and it might find consideration later, if time permits.

The hidden movement phase has two functions: 1) It shows what the soldiers perceive during the aliens' turn, so that alien's the player can retrace aliens' positions from the directions of bullets and civilians. 2) the waiting creates tension.

For me, the waiting also creates aggression towards the game developers. I don't like to be made to wait. I'd rather the soldiers did the thinking themselves. If they were shot at from some direction, they might just mark an area as potential alien ground. If they saw an alien pass them by, without noticing them, they might indicate, that an alien of type X went "that way". In game terms they could do so by overlaying the map (including the fog of war) with an arrow. This would also give the game more of a role playing feel. Additionally, the game could replay the soldiers memory of what they saw during the hidden movement phase on demand. It shouldn't need to be accurate every time though, as memory never is. If soldiers return fire, the game would need to show. But if they are killed or unconscious, it shouldn't, as they wouldn't live to tell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ehhh... why shouldn't I see if my soldiers are killed? If I walk a guy into a building and get him killed, I see that. I don't know why the enemy's turn should be different in that respect.

To me, waiting a short period of time is acceptable within limits. I don't want to wait a long time and I don't care what civilians are doing in the least. I like the hidden movement phase in XCOM for the suspense and the information it gives you about how active the enemy is and/or how many are left. Maybe it shouldn't tell you so much, but it's a feature I liked from the original.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd rather the soldiers did the thinking themselves. If they were shot at from some direction, they might just mark an area as potential alien ground. If they saw an alien pass them by, without noticing them, they might indicate, that an alien of type X went "that way". In game terms they could do so by overlaying the map (including the fog of war) with an arrow. This would also give the game more of a role playing feel. Additionally, the game could replay the soldiers memory of what they saw during the hidden movement phase on demand. It shouldn't need to be accurate every time though, as memory never is. If soldiers return fire, the game would need to show. But if they are killed or unconscious, it shouldn't, as they wouldn't live to tell.

To be honest, this looks exactly like what's implemented (or is going to be implemented since this isn't feature complete yet) already.

If an alien fires at you from a hidden position, a solder isn't automatically going to zero in on its location (or even its general direction), he/she's going to take cover (although given the plasma weapons the filthy Xenos use, there's not much use of a wooden fence as a barrier...). Plus, should this be happening in real-time, this is happening in the span of seconds, so there's not much of a chance to actually "look" in the direction of the incoming fire anyways.

Unless you're complaining about the "Hidden movement screen doesn't show incoming fire towards your troops" thing. That, I think the devs have yet to tweak to their liking...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The hidden movement phase has two functions: 1) It shows what the soldiers perceive during the aliens' turn, so that alien's the player can retrace aliens' positions from the directions of bullets and civilians. 2) the waiting creates tension.

I like the ideas as long as they aren't too precise. Obviously, some weapons are easier to locate than others. A continuous beam weapon would be very easy to locate IF the wavelength was in the visible spectrum, while gunpowder weapons and IR lasers would very difficult to locate.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...