thewatcher

I like this idea and its along the lines of what I was getting at. So your saying that chasing down aline ships and shooting them down is not fun because thats what GrumpySage and my idea kinda is. The base fires at the alien ship. The alien ship could fire back (knock out your defenses). You have to select what kind of defense to put up just like you have to tell your interceptors how close to get to an alien ship. I think it would be a fun mechanic to add to the game but I fully understand about it being most likely a "luxury item"

Ok but to bring the conversation back to what I was originally asking about. I would like thoughts on the locked door and base defense targeting. Think of it this way, when an alien ship trys to land at my base, I would like to tell my base "try to destroy it out-right" or "try to take out its life support" so there are fewer aliens to face, or "dont fire..let them come!". If I research a ship (iv captured an aline and got the info) maybe some targets unlock, or become available (aka they have a higher chance of reaching the goal i set) The doors, no base in the cold war era has doors that can be walked though by ppl outside of base personal. I would hope that aliens have to do something (spend a good chunk of time units) getting through doors in my base. Now that where all back on topic ...

rofl

O and about controlling base defenses, lets say, there is a list of targets such at "mothership engines" "mothership life-support" "mothership bridge" and so on. You chose what to target, one of those will randomly (on the back end) be a "crittical hit" resulting in the ship crashing, and maybe one-two others mean bad damage, and all the others, no effect because of armor. I just want to see something more animated then "fire ... hit/miss"

Im just trying to point out that if the aliens attacked say, fort nocks, the doors arnt just going to be open, I would hope the same holds true for the alines trying to attack my base, that doors wont just let them into rooms, the alines should have to "do something" to the door (blow it up, cut through it, hack its security). In x-com that lack always bugged me. The question was, alines spawn where when attacking a base (service lift/hanger) Ok, can I place my troops in the hanger and service lift (guessing not/exclusion zone) fine, ill place all my troops at the entrance of each hanger, and 1 tile outside the service entrance. (what happens next) I open door, toss in grenade, shoot everything, maybe move my tank inside the hanger. *level over in 1 -2 turns* (was it fun?) not so much? (was it better then xcom's base attacks?) in xcom the random troop placement was worse. (why?) because my guys would be spread too thin and one poor soul would have his back to an open hanger and have to take on 5 alines by himself *and get shot at for turning around * (ok how can we solve this?) start the troops in one location like a command center is a possible idea

Chris any thoughts about the door idea and troop placement/alien spawn idea inside the human base?

Well if you think about it, they had tanks in Xcom during base defense and if I remember the video from this website the tank is 2X wide so the hallways won’t be huge at all. I think Xcom where 3X hallways. Let’s say aliens (as a 2nd objective) try to destroy a research lab. In order to for them to get in there they have to hack the door. That gives you enough turns to move troops in and try to stop them. Otherwise when the missions over you find your research is set back by months. (I think I remember something about based on base damage it could effect research and item production) maybe the aliens could go after the radar or alien containment and free a few extra buddies (see #idea for details). In those kinds of cases it would be nice to have something say "quick the aliens are going for the X" and know I have to fight my way there otherwise I'll be in real trouble. (Just a thought) Same can hold true for alien bases, you try to get to an objective and have to get though something, holding back near by aliens who where alerted to your presence from your direct action. I’m sure you could feed that into the alien AI like a "reaction" having them move to the area where the infiltration was happening. Now im not saying, tell me how many or show me through fog of war just like on a terror mission where the screen would jump and come up with a white box or something like that. *something like "caution, alines have been alerted to your presence"* Think of it like this, if base damage has a direct impact on research and development or a 2nd win objective for the aliens just happens to be placed during base building (by an inexperienced player) next to a natural spawn point for aliens, say a hanger bay. Then it would only be fair to give the player some reaction time to move units in and try to kill those aliens. Also, think of it this way. If we get to place our troops ourselves (and we learn where the AI likes to spawn) then we will just place our troops in locations (like outside hangers) and have the mission wrapped up in 1 turn. (though im playing devils advocate here cuz I love this idea) Even if you put an exclusion zone inside the hangers I would just place my troops at the doors ready to move in. Now, if our troops started in one location like a command center or an armory it would only be fair to have some kind of "time buyer" for players to move troops from that location to defend those key 2nd objectives. I’m not saying that just because a doors there a player wont loose the 2nd objective. On that note another idea just hit me. (#idea) What if the primary goal of the aliens was like a jail brake (they go for the containment units to free others you captured for research), or "retaliation" (the extermination of all your soldiers), or "sabotage" where they go after radar, research, production ... that could be a cool game dynamic. Just some thoughts, I know, im very passionate about this subject - and quite random, sr lol

Chris I was more going for the idea of the first stage of base defense being much like the air combat where you get to watch/play a direct roll in how effective your defenses are instead of just seeing text that says "firing" and "hit" or "miss". In tandem with that would be the same damage calculation for air battle for number of dead aliens based on damage from base defense. I believe thats how Xcoms system worked. Im not so stuck on automated base defense per say in the ground combat faze Im just talking about the first stage when the ship trys to land nearby. In regards to the doors. Sure, have doors that are locked grading key objectives that take "holding for 5 turns" to "hack" and unlock. Same as holding a downed ship to win. Any thoughts or response to the atmosphere of the base? Im not sure how hard it would be to add something like a pulsing red light or a flashing sign that says evacuate or maybe just red lighting along the floor. I just always thought the xcom bases looked like another day at the office when under attack.

I know I asked this on the old forms but I wanted to ask again, and maybe get an update as to where Chris/others stand on this subject. First of I love x-com, own it, played it for years and I love what your doing with this project and cant wait for the beta to come out. I personalty loved in X-com having my base attacked and getting to use my base defenses to shoot/damage/destroy incoming craft. Sadly the start of the base attack was just a screen with text and not anything more exciting. (The start of my wishlist/question rant *deep breath*) 1. Could you take your air combat system and mod it to run base attacks. Aka. You have to do something to help/hurt your chances at hitting or missing the aliens. 2. Base evaluation of non combat personnel. I never understood why, when the base was being attacked. My interceptors never did anything? Maybe add them into the base defense mix prior to the ships landing? (would explain why they left the base) 3. Where my solders spawn. I always found it funny that they would be just all over the place, in a hallway with there backs to an open hanger bay, just to turn around and find 5 heavily armed aliens looking at you (and firing do to reaction). Could we start off in a central place, like a command center or armory? 4. Tanks tanks everywhere. I used to keep a few on hand in my inventory just so I could use them during a base attack. They where ez to replace instead of a soldier Id been working on for a few missions. Please tell me we will not be limited to 12 troops and/or some limited combination. I can understand limitations due to space in the dropship but this is home turf. 5. A little atmosphere. The base is under attack, would a pulsing red alarm light every once and a while be out of the question? 6. No locks? Im sure human bases would have locked doors in such a top notch base. If an alien wanted to get somewhere important couldn't we have them have to "hack" the door code or something? 7. Checkpoint. Any chance of having something like a base upgrade that lets you add "retractable security walls" "These walls installed in the floor of hallway intersections rise up during base defenses to help give your troops cover when protecting key intersections of your base" Same distributable train and if you lose a intersection the aliens can make use of the cover. I'm thinking of a 3x3 cube with each corner having two walls in the case of X intersection and a 1X3 for a T intersection. I look forward to reading all the reply's.