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I've been working with for quite some time (as an amateur). From what I've learned, Unity is really solid but has a few certain areas which are not at the level of quality the rest is at. A friend of mine said that physics end up a bit random/buggy and I've had other problems.

Nevertheless, I am trying to work on my own 2d tactical strategy game atm, at least learning/working at the basic framework.

Just out of interest, what will you be using for grid movement/pathfinding and Line of Sight evaluation?

[i'm working with this atm, for a beginner there is not much in clear tutorials, and apparently you can do it in 20 different ways.]

cheers

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There are plenty of things that would reduce a game down to a simple to understand state, like only being able to stand in certain spots or tiles, but that doesn't mean it is a good game mechanic.

Frozen Synapse for example never caused me the kind of confusion you refer to as being solved by a tile based system, plenty of people are confused by how the cover system works in Xenonauts though.

No reason to stick to it just because some people might be confused by an alternative.

Kind of off the topic though, much prefer to be looking forward to how Chris decides to go about developing his ideas.

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Core features:

- enclose pastures

- watch jobless peasants flock to the cities

- experience the atmosphere of destitute desperation

- deluxe edition authentic life sized rotten potato replica

Bringing in those new looms has resulted in the beginnings of a luddite movement. Do you :-

a) bribe the local judge to mete out harsh sentences such as execution and deportation on a large group as a deterrent?

b) build a secret room in your mill and hope for the best?

c) lower working conditions yet further as a "punishment" and let peer pressure eradicate the movement.

d) ensure that only children can use your new loom. They are easier to control and you can pay them less!

Yes! It's Dark Satanic Mill Manager! A Game with a lot of (moral) depths, but a low life expectancy...just like the workforce!

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alien interrogation sim!

1. captured aliens are tortured until they give up their secrets!

2. browse torture weapons like nipple clamps and water boarding!

3. Have the choice of killing or keeping aliens that have been interrogated!

great idea for a xenonauts mini game :P

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There is always room for a sequel.

For example humankind expands out from Earth using the technology they inherited from the alien invaders only to find out that large parts of the galaxy are ruled by other members of the same group as the invasion leader.

Those factions unite against the Earthlings and the few friendly races they have encountered.

Same basic game as Xenonauts but instead of a single planet you are defending a whole solar system or spiral arm.

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Meanwhile, back on Earth mankind develops futuristic, corporate driven megacities. The Xenonauts have largely been mothballed, with a few scattered vets reclaiming salvaged UFOs, researching artefacts or patrolling the edges of humanity's expansion.

Without warning, a dimension gate appears above a city. The gravitational havoc it causes only a precursor to the devastation unleashed by the alien craft that depart from it...

Xeno-Apocalypse...

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The problem with galaxy wide sequels is that the aliens have too much power. How can we really expect to fight an enemy with a million or so planets under their control, offensively? My point exactly, we can't, 1:1000 000 odds are just not worth it. If aliens controlled, say 20 planets, it would be possible to fight them on certain circumstances.

I'd like a game where several Praetors and their subordinates go into hiding on Earth and try to end humanity each one in their own ways, while also fighting each other for dominance. The player can place operatives in regions to find out about Praetors working in the region and later trying to stop their operations. Making Xenonauts into an anti-extra-terrestrial terrorism organization?

My two cents anyway.

Edit: added 1st paragraph.

Edited by JustasJ
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The numbers are exactly what you say they are when you create the lore for your game. You could have an enemy number in the billions and give the player no chance at all but that wouldn't make for much of a game. To use your own suggestion as an example the aliens could number a few thousand, maybe a million? That leaves them outnumbered by over 7 billion people but for game purposes you need to make them some kind of challenge.

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Years after the alien invasion a group of people all around the world becoming so devoted to the Aliens of the past, that they call themselves "Transients" and are beginning to experiment with alien DNA (Caesans). They change themselves into part human part Caesan, strive for more influence to be able to contact the real aliens out in space to free them from the mere humans which they regard as of minor value.

Beginning small with activists groups turning more and more into terrorists until a para-military movement exists. They fight the nations, don't care about human loss and a global Counter-Operation is reinstated: Xenonauts.

In the meantime a small fleet of UFO's has arrived creeping through normal space as the hyperspace inhibitor is still active since the war against the aliens. The fleet stay in hiding and has contact to the Transients, supporting them out from the shadows in their war agains humanity.

The global conflict against the transients becoming more and more aggressive as normal humans are changed into Transients against their will and their group grow in numbers. Will the Xenonauts and humanity win the escalating conflict, or will it be too late and the aliens win the war eventually?

--------

The "Transients" are not my idea. Took them from one of the graphic novels "Transmetropolitan" by Warren Ellis.

transmetropolitan2 cover.jpg

transmetropolitan2 cover.jpg

577e7d1749d6b_transmetropolitan2cover.jp

Edited by thixotrop
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I second Gauddlike's opinion in that I don't think that the battlescape needs to be aligned to a grid, and a grid definitely doesn't automatically make the game simpler or quicker. A grid works well for Xenonauts (which is essentially a fancy board game). For a 3D world, however, I think that an aura that highlights the ground to demarcate the maximum range that a unit can move on its turn allows for a more natural-looking environment. Of course, the 3D-world can be aligned to a grid (either hexagonal or rectangular), but the art and level design has to be more carefully crafted in order to support that decision.

Another important point is that a well-designed battlescape allows the player to move units quickly when there is no action, but it also allows for a decent amount of complexity and precision management during the big engagements. For example, TFTD had horrendously long missions, partly because the player was forced to move units one-by-one until the last alien was eliminated. In contrast, JA2 and Xenonauts got around this by allowing some form of simultaneous unit movement. The new XCOM does away with time units altogether, which I believe was a good design decision.

I hope that the "Big Game" has a more well-developed geoscape than either Xenonauts or XCOM did. Xenonauts was an improvement over XCOM in terms of logistic simplification (i.e., not having to ensure that your base didn't run out of ammo, grenades, and paper clips), and Xenonauts was FAR more balanced than XCOM, thanks in part to the amount of beta testing it received. But I think that there were a few critical issues that reduced the depth of Xenonauts, mostly at the level of the Geoscape. Of course, the game was supposed to be a spiritual successor to XCOM, so this linear style of gameplay was justified.

But, I digress. Every game of Xenonauts (and XCOM) plays out identically. You always start with the same base (optimally positioned in the Middle East), and then you're besieged by the exact same waves of increasingly beefier aliens, whose equipment you salvage in order to progress down the same, linear tech tree. And to top it off, the final showdown is always the same thing. In order to improve the depth of an XCOM-style game:

- The geoscape could be randomized for every game, as it's a sci-fi setting and you're no longer restricted to fighting over the entire Earth.

- The research path could be vastly expanded and furcated so that the player is no longer able to get everything in one game. Perhaps, instead of just laser guns and jackal armor, there are three types of tier-one weapons and two types of tier-1 armor, each of which has its own unique strength and weakness.

- There could be different types of missions, each of which would require a different distribution of types of operatives or weapons.

Finally, I hope that some form of a multiplayer mode is added. At the minimum, a deathmatch style mode would be nice, but there is a lot of opportunity for creativity in making a massively-multiplayer-campaign-mode that takes place in a persistent universe. For example, two teams of ten players could wage war in a game that takes place over the course of two weeks. I'm inspired by the concept of the (imaginary) board game, Risktego, the game of Risk where every battle is decided not by throwing the dice, game of Stratego. To translate that to an XCOM style game, the decisions at the geoscape level would have to be made communally or by a team captain, but each battle would be assigned to a single player, and battles would have to be able to be played out concurrently.

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For your big game, you should take at least a brief look at UFO:Afterlight. The tactical combat was horrific, but the strategic level was genuinely fun and had some interesting concepts (including alien diplomacy, multiple factions, terraforming, and other goodies). Lots of interesting ideas for a game that is expanding on the XCOM style.

- The geoscape could be randomized for every game, as it's a sci-fi setting and you're no longer restricted to fighting over the entire Earth.

- The research path could be vastly expanded and furcated so that the player is no longer able to get everything in one game. Perhaps, instead of just laser guns and jackal armor, there are three types of tier-one weapons and two types of tier-1 armor, each of which has its own unique strength and weakness.

- There could be different types of missions, each of which would require a different distribution of types of operatives or weapons.

I really like all three of these :D

Edited by JDCollie
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YAY!@!!!!!

Jagged Alliance remake!!! YAY!!!! (well not remake but you get my meaning. please make it as close to Jagged Alliance 2 as possible in terms of mechanics! with full control over soldier actions (crouch, prone, moving while prone and crouched etc etc), with intelligent squad AI that tries to surround and flank you and moves from cover to cover, full stats for soldiers including stealth, control of heavy weapons, light weapons, etc etc, with interesting characters, with...

Actually I'm gonna go play Jagged Alliance 2 a bit.

haha!

so make it as close as possible in depth, thanks bye

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