krolyn
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Posts posted by krolyn
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Completely agree! It makes no sense to leave the aliens roaming around and the rest of the humans inside the tubes.
I would much rather have that after X turns the aliens get some reinforcements (like the cleaner missions).
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I've been (re-)playing a bit of X1 lately and I found myself missing a clear differentiation between LOS and shots barriers. The former would affect the probability of seeing a unit as well as the accuracy of hitting hit ("sight" cover), while the latter would affect the probability of a shot being "intercepted" by some obstacle ("shot" cover). Even though they are similar in practice (both affect the prob of hitting the target), theoretically, are quite different. I think it would be really nice to have these two kinds of cover more explicitely defined. For example, on X1 combat map, when you see the cover signs, what does it mean? That aliens cannot see my soldier? That cannot shoot him? Or both?
So, what if we'd had:
- only "sight" cover (or some with small shot penalty) = big objects that obstruct vision/accuracy but do not really affect bullets: bushes, trees, thins walls (like wood or thin metal), smoke, ...
- only "shot" cover = objects that affect bullets (are hard) but not big enough to completely block LOS: rocks, small concrete blocks, low walls, vehicles, etc...
- full cover = big and heavy/hard objects = high concrete walls, thick metal structures, etc..
Right now on X1 there is an attempt to model this but most objects that provide sight cover also provide shot cover (e.g. bushes). In this case, I think it should provide a small shot penalty but a full sight penalty. This would allow for another layer in the gameplay where a unit is shot wihtout seeing the enemy: ambush.
It would also be nice to have a more direct idea of the type/level of cover provided by each object. Current system (with the small color marks and the letter L/M/H/F) is quite good but maybe it could be tweaked so that (e.g.) color applies to sight and the letter for the shot (or vice-versa).
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On 10/12/2015 at 6:42 AM, drages said:
You don't need to edit every map for one melee attack destroy, as I said the xml file of that fence is enough.
Everybody can do it as a little mod. You can change every fence or object you think problematic.
Actually I've been trying to do it, but cannot find the XML files "controlling" each tile on any given map. Is there an easy way to get it? I tried the Map editor, but it has generic names that do not match any filename. Anyone has any idea how I can find the right XML to edit?
cheers,
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Dear all,
I'd like to mod some tile files, but I find it quite difficult to find where they are located. Is there an easy way to, from a GC mission (or even from the map), find out where the files for a giver tile are located?
thanks,
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I've been playing Xeno for a bit and I find it super well made and fun. However, after a while, I start to get a bit annoyed by some unrealistic aspects of it, like narrow sight, super short gun ranges, cover is pretty useless, rare interrupt shots, etc... So, I decided to see if I could "improve" it a bit with the available mods. I settled for a few (see list below) but there were still things not quite to my liking and would like to have some feedback/help, just to make sure some changes won't have unintended effects:
- remove player/alien penalty/bonuses. I'd like to have a game without any arbitrary bonus (e.g. extra accuracy, HP, AP) to either side on Veteran dificulty level. Are there many?
- wide 180 sight. It avoids constant turning and a human can be aware at pretty much 180
- sight penalty for aliens since they would not be prepared for earth environment
- better cover. My reasoning is that chances of getting hit through high cover should be close to null, except if you have a sniper rifle. I'm looking for a more tactical approach where shooting at an enemy with no cover shold have high chances of a hit, but if he is behind cover is pretty much useless (except for suppression). This would force (I hope) the attacking side (usually the player) to come up with alternative strategies (flanking, ambush, rockets, greandes, etc...), since those are the only efficient ways to hit the enemy. This also kind of works as an implicit bonus to the defending side since it would have had time to prepare terrain, choose defences, etc...
- aliens fortify more. to make the previous point work, aliens need to fortify more, otherwise it is too easy. I think it is in aiprops.xml, no?
- player acess to civilians and local forces LOS/vision/position, since it is expected that they would try to help Xeno in locating the aliens.
- Xeno recon could give the player access to the full map, no?
- specify initial location of aliens/civilians/local forces on missions. sometimes alien initial positions leads to weird situation, like civilians right next to aliens or local forces. Specially on Terror missions, this leads to a carnage in the first 2 or 3 turns, where pretty much all civilians and local forces are wiped out. I'd like to have aliens initially only around the crash site (or a corner if terror site), and civilians/local forces randomly but not near the crash site (or entry point) since they'd avoid it
- UFO door not facing map borders. sometimes the UFO door is super close to the map border and these makes it super difficult to enter since as soon as you open the door all aliens fire and kill a bunch of your soldiers. It would be nice if there was more space so you could have some soldier further away.
- increase aircraft ammo
- on config.xml there are two parts ("interveningStoppingChance" and "EnhancedCrashSites") that sound interesting but I'm not sure what they do.
thanks,
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Loaded mods (in this order): Tactical Armories v1.0, Dynamic UFOs v3.0, Geographic addition v1.1, Hold the Line! v3.1, Xenonauts Fix Pack v1.41, Tropical and Swamp Tileset v1.61, Skitso's Improved tile Art Pack v1.1, Skitso's Ultimate Megamix Map Pack 2000 v1.62, Extended Weapons Description For Fighters v1.0.1, Khall's More Portraits v1.0, Khall's Tundra Tileset, Lore+ v1.1c3, NewCars v0.5, Random Map Pack Arctic Collection v1.0, Random Map Pack Desert Style v0.2, Random Map Pack Farm Edition v1.4, Restored Community Map Pack v1.0, Skitso's Alien Base Booster Pack v1.1, X:CE v0.34.2 HF
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Yeah, I tried X-Division but I felt it too heavily moded for me. Is AI on any particular files? Maybe I can get those from X-Division and put them on another mod...
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On 3/12/2017 at 10:12 PM, Charon said:
Because people didnt like to be outsmarted by an AI, they wanted to win, easy and straightforward.
EDIT: Challenge - yes, but only in moderation and only as big as the average player is smart enough to handle it.
Yes, but tweaking down the AI will benefit the player, while all those random bonuses benefit the AI, no!?!? So, why not just tweak one of them for each difficulty level.
Oh well, I'm just wondering cause on all these games I always had the feeling that the AI was not very good and the only way to balance it out was to give it bonuses on all kinds of things. And I'd REALLY like to play against an AI with no weird bonuses or penalties.
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Hey @Mask, I really like the idea behind this Mod! Just make it as similar to reality as possible and, if it is not working, then it is because there is some spec that is not realistic! I'd love to give it a try but the link is down. Also, has it been updated to the latest versions?
thanks,
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Hummm, ok.... but then you are saying aliens with 100% AI are quite effective at hunting down the soldiers EVEN without all those bonuses to HP/accuracy/...!?!? Cause then, why downtune the AI? Why not make the several difficulty levels dependent solely on AI efficiency?
PS - nice drawings...
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On 3/7/2016 at 11:01 AM, Charon said:
But the ai was tuned down by A LOT. The AI Developer said that the ai was so good at the beginningof the development (without every cheating - just using all available information) that the players simply got outplayed by the aliens efficently ganking up on the Xenonauts in "groups" at the starting position.
Hey @Charon, was the AI really tuned down? If so, then there would be no need to give aliens bonus/advantages and I've read somewher that under some settings they have (at least) some HP bonus. But does that mean that on the hardest difficulty setting, aliens have no bonus/advantage whatsoever? That'd be quite impressive...
FGV
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I've just started playing with this mod, but I think I'll really like it... keeping it mostly like the original but fixing/tweaking some things!! I've played it for a couple of hours and thought of a couple of suggestions:
===> groud missions
- I find cover to be not that effective; how can you get shot with a plasma rifle from far away, when behind high cover?!?! I think increasing the effectiveness of cover would make the fights more fun and realistic (specially when there is no prone position!) since, 1) shooting at something behind cover becomes useless (except for suppression), and so 2) that "forces" the attacking side (usually the player) to actually come up with alternative active strategies (flanking, ambush, rockets, smoke greandes, etc...), since those are the only efficient ways to hit the enemy. This last one 3) is actually an implicit bonus to the defending side since it would have had time to prepare terrain, choose defences, etc...- location of aliens/civilians/local forces at start seems to be pretty much random, but that leads to some weird situations: Xeno landing right next to an alien (you'd expect them to land on a safe area, no?), or aliens right next to a civilian (why whold the civilian not run?). So, in UFO missions I'd suggest placing aliens initially only around the crash site, and civilians/local forces randomly but not near the crash site; ideally they'd move towards the landing site for cover/protection (they'd be waiting for the arrival of Xeno).
On terror missions, I'd stick with the randomly distribution since aliens would be all over, actively attacking the city when Xeno arrive.- player acess to civlians and local forces LOS/vision/position, since it is expected that they would try to help Xeno in locating the aliens.
- I've already suggested this on another threads, but always thought it would be cool to have have alien re-inforcements. The idea would be that, when a UFO is shot down, aliens would send a heavily armored but small rescue mission after X turns that would just try to rescue all surviving aliens and some of the recoverable items. This would give a "bonus" to the player if he was fast.
- reaction fire should probably be tweaked. I've had some cases of aliens running right in front of my soldiers (with full TUs) and being able to fire first. Also, a soldier with enough TUs, should always have reaction fire if it sees an alien (within a reasonable probability of hitting it)
==> air missions
- fights are too easy on autoresolve... two F17 take down a fighter without taking any damage. -
Hi all,
I recently played Xenonauts and I must say it is quite good. IMHO, the vast-majority of XCOM-like games released are just "copies" with improved appeareance (graphics, video, music, etc...), but you guys introduced some cool new things, like cover, radars, SAM sites, soldier shields, being able to jump walls, etc... Since you guys are planning to make Xenonauts 2, I though I'd throw in some suggestions.
I tried to create a new thread, since these are rather diverse suggestions, but could not find a way so I just added them here.
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# Tactical Map #
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- Alien communication
An issue transversal to all X-COM games is that aliens don't seem to comunicate between them. That is, if one alien sees a soldier the rest of the aliens doesn't react to it. Shouldn't they converge on that position? Or at least, react accordingly like choosing better cover spots or try to cover possible soldier escape routes. Another case where alien communication would be important is on keeping track of which areas of the map have already been cleared. This would be specially important when aliens are activelly searching for the soldiers (see Alien Behaviour below).
- Battle mechanics: usually in these kind of games, since the maps are small, all fights were almost at close-range! With that comes a number of consequences: short LOS (you needed to get really close to see the enemy), reduction in weapon range (so soldiers have to move closer to the target), reduction in troop accuracy (to avoid the constant slaughter) and weapon power (several shoots to kill an alien). This makes for some really weird battles, with elite soldier missing shots at close-range, or when you have to shoot an alien 4 or 5 times before it dies. This makes no sense and all these things can be improved with some small changes to shooting mechanics and AI tactics (see below): slightly bigger scenarios, lethal weapons (a couple of hits to kill; maybe even one if sniper or heavy weapon), increased accuracy and weapon power (no missing at point-blank range or with sniper rifles). All these would lead to more reallistic fights, namely, long-range (you need to keep the distance), greater importance on interrupt shots, aliens actually taking cover, aliens communicating between them, ... And with all this, different styles of play and tactics, like flanking, ambush (maybe adding possibility of cammouflage), use of heavy weapons, snipping, grenades, etc... and even a new troop class, the scout (with extra camouflage ability?)!!
- Prone postion: For what I say above, I think it would make sense to re-introduce the prone position. Maybe just increasing the TU cost to change to prone and move when proned...
- Cover system: right now Xenonauts has two types of objects that provide cover. Either full cover (or not visible), when a soldier is always 100% under cover and cannot shoot or be shot at (like from behind a wall or tall structure), or partial cover, when a soldier is partially covered but he can still shoot from behind it (like small walls, etc...) and be shot at (with a penalty). I think on this last category, we could allow for temporary full cover (kinda like the opposite of "leaning"). This would provide the ideal scenario for ambushes or temporary full cover (when reloading, taking heavy fire, injured, or healing/being healed), etc... The idea is that the soldiers would have the option (spending TUs) to be totally concealed but unable to shoot or see anything.
- "Plan and play" option: don't know why no other game has tried this mode but I must say I loved it in XCOM:Apocalypse (or in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action). Above all it allows for the simultaneous movement of all units (soldiers, aliens or civilians) making all fight experience more realistic, but also allowing for the player to just sit back and watch his tactic unfold. It could also simplify battle mechanics, like movement points, interrupt shots, cover fire,... I know this would probably involve a lot of changes to the games mechanic, but thought of mentioning it here anyway just in case...
- Alien re-inforcements: when a ship is shot down aliens could send a rescuing mission after X turns. This would give a "bonus" to the player if he was fast.
- Civilians: civilians should run towards the drop ship and stay there. It is expected that civilians would have seen Xenonauts' drop ship arriving from far and would move towards the landing site.
- Alien Behaviour: On a typical battle, aliens are usually scattered throughtout the map. When they see a soldier, they attack suicidally (even if they are behind cover) and the only thing that, in the end, balances things is their superior technology (and this advantage is usually constant throughout the game). I must say xenonauts is much better than that, but I'll leave some ideas anyway for X2. The first thing would be to have alien behaviour and firepower defined. Regarding behaviour, we can imagine some simple scenarios:
defensive - aliens cluster together on a highly fortified area (either inside a ship or outside) and never leave cover. If cover is destroyed, they'd look for alternative cover.
cautious - aliens form small groups/squads and try to activelly find the soldiers but always looking for cover and moving rather slowly
normal - aliens form small groups/squads and try to activelly find the soldiers but taking less cover and moving faster
aggressive - aliens scatter and try to destroy everything (kinda like now)
As for the firepower, it would depend on the type of ship:
recon ship - light (mainly pistols and maybe a rifle)
transport ship - light
cruisers - medium (pistols, rifles, some heavy)
corvette - medium
battleships - heavy (rifles, heavy weapons, grenades, launchers, chemical weapons, drones, etc...)
landing ship - heavy
For every mission, we could randomly pick a strategy (to reflect the commanding officer personality) and the firepower depending on the alien ship. There can be a couple of exceptions, like "scout ship shot down" that it could be always defensive (due to the low firepower available) or "terror site", where the aliens would always be aggressive.
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# Geoscape #
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- Alien Infiltration: alliens try to infliltrate countries and bring them to their side; countries would initially try to deal with the threat and only call XCOM if needed. Xenonauts could also go to any country "un-invited" and look for aliens (preventive action); if none found the country wouldn't be happy. Also, any non-dealt infiltrartion would spill to neighbouring countries.
- World map: have more and smaller regions/countries. Reading currents sugestions of having only 5 regions sounds way too few.... You loose one region and you loose ~20% of your "support"?!?! I think it's too drastic....
- Two spheres of influence: classify countries/regions as leaning towards Earth/Xeno or alliens. Initially all would side with XCOM, but if infiltrated or if the player neglects a lot of missions there, would slowly switch sides. I also think each country could have its own army (that would also buy stuff from Xenonauts manufacturing, if this is available) and only call Xenonauts if it couldn't handle it.
- Human rebels or pro-alien sect/fanatics that would fight Xenonauts and all allied countries. They could also have secret bases that Xenonauts can try to discover and attack. they always help aliens infiltrate earth and never support the player.
- Android soldiers (like in XCOM:Apocalypse): initially higher stats but do not improve with time.
- Fighter squads: if attacking an alien ship with more than one fighter, have them fly in formation (i.e. at the same speed). If not, the alien can just shoot them down one-by-one!
- Surviving aliens: if a ship is shot down it is unlikely that it has a full crew. The number of surviving aliens should depend on the amount of damage suffered. Not quite sure how it is calculated now, but we could assume hitpoints to reflect alien ships shield/armor and, when depleted, the following hit would bring the ship down. The ammount of damage inflicted by that last shot would determine the ammount of damage and the probability of each alien to survive. If the last shot was too strong, the ship would be fully destroyed.
Ideas from first 30 days
in Xenonauts-2 General Discussion
Posted
First I must say that X2 looks quite good! Compared to X1 I specially like the reinforcements after X turns and the manually placing of interceptors before aerial fights.
Suggestions: