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A few suggestions, smoother FOV, weapon modulariy and more


danzer

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Hello guys!

Just got this game and I almost wept on my first mission, I love the visuals, the gameplay, and I absolutely applaud you good sirs, I have not a single doubt that my premium pre-order was well invested.

Noooow, that's not to say there isn't room for improvements, if only to my own personal preferences after a first impression...

Let's get down to brass tacks!

1. Weapon modularity

One of the things I adore with Jagged Alliance 2 gameplay was the modularity of most the weapons; get an AK47,

stick a silencer on it, get a grenade launcher going and long range scope and you got a multi-role weapon capable of either engaging targets silently at long ranges, or blow them up.

UFO: Aftershock and Afterlight did this too.

What systems like these do is that they close the gap between tiers, and make the game progression less focused on tiers and getting to the next one, and more on what advantages each weapon provide.

2. Smoother field of vision

While just a minor nitpick, I'd like an option to smooth out the field of vision to something akin to those used by other games, it's sort of more modern and you could do neat tricks where aliens could be visible just at the edge of your vision.

It'd also make the game slightly less "blocky" ;P

3. More goddamn senses

Now, there's perhaps nothing more enjoyable than a Chryssalid sneaking up on your soldiers and making mincemeat out of your poor chaps, I don't really see that happening with a Disc or a Reaper.

Now, the UFO series pretty much had the best solution to this, adding detection based on sound, psionics, thermal and electronic imaging and even smell.

4. A solid engine with extensibility

I think the engine is already pretty solid enough and I see there's some potential for modding already present, (although to what extent I currently have no clue, but I will certainly look into it) making this fully modable would immensely increase the replay value.

I know that most dev tools often are spartan in comparison to a genuine SDK, such as UDK or the source SDK, but any tools and new toys you could make available to us would be incredibly appreciated!

Just look at some of the more recent successes: The Bethesda/Obsidian studio games, Garry's Mod, Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress.

Also, it'd pretty much snuff out every single thread for suggestions on this forum :P

5. Multiplayer

This is pretty much optional, and I'm already asking too much, but multiplayer X-Com has already been proven to work and is the most hilarious thing ever.

Hilarious you say? Ever seen the expression on someones face when they realize that they've just entered a house with a few pounds of high explosive set to explode on the next turn, madly rushing his remaining soldiers for cover?

Priceless.

Examples: JA2 1.13, UFO:TTS (Even includes strategic), UFO2K (Highly recommend you guys check this out)

Lastly, I love this project and to be honest, and I'm pretty much content with how development is coming along.

Keep up the good work!

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1. Weapon modularity

One of the things I adore with Jagged Alliance 2 gameplay was the modularity of most the weapons; get an AK47,

stick a silencer on it, get a grenade launcher going and long range scope and you got a multi-role weapon capable of either engaging targets silently at long ranges, or blow them up.

UFO: Aftershock and Afterlight did this too.

What systems like these do is that they close the gap between tiers, and make the game progression less focused on tiers and getting to the next one, and more on what advantages each weapon provide.

Depends on if there is a big gap between tiers to begin with. I believe Chris and the rest will manage to create a smooth progression without makeing each tier feel like a plateau.

3. More goddamn senses

Now, there's perhaps nothing more enjoyable than a Chryssalid sneaking up on your soldiers and making mincemeat out of your poor chaps, I don't really see that happening with a Disc or a Reaper.

Now, the UFO series pretty much had the best solution to this, adding detection based on sound, psionics, thermal and electronic imaging and even smell.

Didn't that get kinda silly? There were too many detection abilities imo. If they were added into Xenonauts now I fear that they would just feel tacked on rather then beeing a working part of. Sound might work as a mechanic, dunno about it from the coders point of view though.

Edited by Gorlom
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I think sound would be alright, smell is a bit too much... =p

I remember reading about a system, long ago, that tried to incorporate smell into games. You basically had a "thing" attached to your pc that contained various compounds (or something) that would release different smells depending on the game context. I expect games would have needed to be designed specifically with this in mind.

In any case, no thanks.

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Well, yeah, smells would kind of not fit in correctly, but I'd still imagine that the sound of larger objects at closer ranges wouldn't break the game completely.

On an other note completely on another tangent, wouldn't it be awesome if the game came boxed with a scratch-and-sniff card and an ingame index on what stuff smells like, imagine this:

"Hrm, there's a (index number) three behind my unit..."

*scratches number three on the card*

"Smells like snakemen!"

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Probably the only thing there I'd be interested in implementing would be 2), although that's polishing stuff and we need to finish the core game first.

The other stuff is quite a lot of effort to add compared to the return (or just isn't possible), except #1 where it's an intentional decision to keep the weapons simple and flexible. The progression to higher technology tiers kinda replaces the need for modularity in my book.

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In reference to allowing weapons to have the ability to take-on addons or mods, will the engine allow for Modders to be able to design such things at the least? :) I have no problem with the game's base being designed around tiers without needing modularity, though it would be nice if modders had the support for it should they choose to implement, and balance around it.

Not certain how feasible it would be to add such a feature to the engine.

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No.

You could create mini-trees for various weapons and research your way down a different path, creating further "modifications" of the base weapon.

You could even use this to "update" old weapons, extending their shelf life and creating more tactical diversity.

For instance, once you have researched Alienium you get another research option for extended power (magazine) laser weapons.

Alien armour research could lead to better AP rounds for the basic machine gun...

Adding stuff is easy in Xeno. Changing any game functions via mods is practically impossible.

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