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Ambience


Selvhan

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As I was playing the game, I realized that the ambience, for me, is not dark enough. I think it needs to be more dark and the player need to realized more how grim the situation is.

1st I was thinking that the music was not stressing me enough but the music is good. Then I played a little to X-com ufo defense, the good old game, and I think I found out something.

Remember when you were advancing your soldiers carefully and then, you hear the sound of a plasma rifle coming out from nowhere. The pace of reaction fire is much more faster. You don't have a text telling you that an alien is reacting. It just happen, and it happened fast.

So my suggestion would be to remove the text saying alien are reacting. Just make them react as you advance your soldier. And make them react fast. Speed up the animation a little when firing.

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As I was playing the game, I realized that the ambience, for me, is not dark enough...Remember when you were advancing your soldiers carefully and then, you hear the sound of a plasma rifle coming out from nowhere. The pace of reaction fire is much more faster. You don't have a text telling you that an alien is reacting. It just happen, and it happened fast.

So my suggestion would be to remove the text saying alien are reacting. Just make them react as you advance your soldier. And make them react fast. Speed up the animation a little when firing.

I think he's on to something. That's how I remember the OG too. The sudden shot from the dark did make the OG a little more suspenseful. There was no warning for alien reaction fire and it's really not needed for either side IMO, but if you want to leave it in for the humans it won't hurt anything.
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@Myth Why leave it in? Taking it out doesnt make the game harder in any way. People where able to figure out what happened back then I'm sure they will be able to figure out now it was a reaction shot of an alien that caught them off guard.

I'm also for taking it out. It breaks the immersion a little but more importantly: it has no use. I can see it's a reaction shot of either side if someone shoots who shouldn't be doing anything at all because its not his turn and its not like I can do anything about it if the warning comes up.

Edited by StK
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Personally I'm hoping for some cosmetic change to the edges of the FoW. They feel a bit too clean atm. :D

I think that giving players an extra tile of "greyed out" vision would alleviate that problem with minimal coding or artwork required. But a fuzzy border would be cool, too, if it isn't too much work.

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Some type of grey graduation would look very cool.

My favourite mockup is from buzubuzu: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/1243-V9.1-Ground-Combat-Fog-of-War?p=15507&viewfull=1#post15507

(could the images for the black FoW be made bigger than the grid system? sort of overlap each other.)

Edited by Gorlom
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I heard speeding up the firing animation. Doet! OXC has the option to change firing speed just as the original did. I want a little bit of realism to my games, so I max out firing speed so I can see some fast shooting. Makes for awesome 5-second reaction/shooting scenes. Worth every second and is very intense. I hope the Xenonauts engine can handle fast shooting too.

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Yeah, I have to agree; smoothing the FOW edges would make the game look really good and atmospheric. I hope GH can add all kinds of extra visual goodies like that (foot prints in sand and snow, slight full screen blue hue in night time missions, cloud shadows, non gameplay shrubbery and tall grass...) as the game moves more in the final polish phase.

slight vignetting (darkened screen edges) could also add a bit in atmosphere department...

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Personally I find that the interception music seems... inappropriately jaunty and upbeat, even whimsical. Instead of being filled with the dread that TFTD's inspired, I always find my shoulders shifting about in tune with the melody. I guess it's warranted in confrontations with small scouts and the like, but something ominous and menacing is definitely in order for larger, more dangerous ships and formations.

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two things being discussed here now. First the reaction fire. I totally agree, I remember practically jumping out of my seat in the OG when the aliens would reaction fire. It would startle you, in this game not so much. I added a lot to the tension and the feeling of being scared with each step your high ranking troops took. Secondly the edges of the FOW. Both suggestions are very good, the smoothed out one looks amazing and would help immersion by making it less obvious were in a 2d grid environment. However if easier simply adding a 1 tile additional grayed out vision would accomplish a lot towards that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The change to fog of war that Chris mentioned a while ago would add to the claustrophobic feel. The change was that you only see what a Xenonaut can see right at that moment. Not until the end of the current turn, as currently happens. I think the sight ranges would have to be slightly increased along with this though.

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One other thing I would say about the Ambience is related to one of the music pieces on the Battlescape.

It the music track Ground Combat 2 from about the 1:30 mark until about 3:00 minute mark. There is this string bit that sounds like something out of one of the older James Bond films - really out of place in terms of all the other soundtracks. I'd love it if that section was removed!

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footprints and cloud shadows are outside the scope of the engine afaik.

actually, I'm quite sure atleast footprints could be doable. Each step would damage ground tiles the same way shooting does atm. The footprint graphics can't of course be direction based but rather random, general markings like shot marks are now. More walking in a certain square, the more pronounced these markings would become...

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Personally I find that the interception music seems... inappropriately jaunty and upbeat, even whimsical. Instead of being filled with the dread that TFTD's inspired, I always find my shoulders shifting about in tune with the melody. I guess it's warranted in confrontations with small scouts and the like, but something ominous and menacing is definitely in order for larger, more dangerous ships and formations.
One other thing I would say about the Ambience is related to one of the music pieces on the Battlescape.

It the music track Ground Combat 2 from about the 1:30 mark until about 3:00 minute mark. There is this string bit that sounds like something out of one of the older James Bond films - really out of place in terms of all the other soundtracks. I'd love it if that section was removed!

The problem here is that it is impossible to satisfy everybody. Some people love the interception music, some don't. Same as for certain passages of the other tunes.

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