Max_Caine

Yes, I should have been far more obvious about that. I imagine that a fair bit of pre realtime stuff this is still buiried in the code (e.g. the Chief Scienctist amd Ops Manager being able to level up) so I'm guessing it's easier to bring code that still there back to the surface, re-purposed for another use rather than make new things from scratch.

Thread moved to general discussion.

Yes, a weapon image would be a big improvement. Also knowing what direction a solider is in when I mouseover the portrait would be dead handy so I know where they are in relation to the solider I've currently selected.

I believe that the Stress stat, which was explicitly intended for the fatigue mechanic when X2 was still going to be turn-based is still around. Why not link that to carrying stuff? Everyone can be Olympic weightlifters if they want, but there'd be a penalty for it in increased stress from carrying all that junk around.

Having played this for a bit, I found that the character portraits up at the top were less useful than the previous weapon indicators. I found the previous design had more value, because I could know what a solider currently had in their hands.

Just to re-emphasize what Chris has written in the original post: Please could people first try out the new build then make their opinions known on the new UI, as your opinions on the UI are of more value when they are informed by your experience of it.

To buy a hangar, click on the hangar. To buy an aircraft for a hangar, first buy a hangar, then click on the hangar you have bought. To buy new radar, you must first make sure there are enough engineers working in the radar uplink building on the main base. 1 engineer per radar you want to buy.

Been messing around with the weapon JSON files for my own personal amusement. I was wondering if down the line more flexibility could be put into the FireModes. For example, I've been trying to turn one of the FireModes into an "Overdrive Mode", a FireMode where you spend a considerable amount of AP to get a special shot unique to the type and class of the weapon. Basically, it would be dumping all the energy of the battery into an overcharged shot. I was trying to get a FireMode for laser weapons where the damage of the shot was considerably more powerful than a normal shot, but it ate up all your AP (so a risk/reward situation), but I haven't been able to set up a FireMode with a damage value that would override the default damage value for the weapon. With more flexibility in the FireMode types, you could make a special mode for the more advanced weapons that helps to set it more apart from other weapon types. Writing this out, I'm now thinking that if you could get more flexible FireModes then you could do things like make weapon classes REALLY unique. For example, plasma weapons could have the same base accuracy for each FireMode and the more expensive FireModes would instead boost the damage, a-la Imperial plasma guns from W40K with their power settings. Is anything like that possible?

The word "pellet" in this case is something of a misnomer. What it refers to is what would otherwise be called a bullet in other weapon systems. The shotgun fires 4 of these at once. Experiments with more than 4 turn the shotgun into something more like a blunderbuss or streetsweeper.

Having played X1 for quite a while now, there's a real sense that positioning is important. Alien weapons are generally 2-shot deadly (even with armour) so you have to manoeuvre your troops into good positions to get the baddies while they can't get you as easily. But while positioning is important, cover doesn't feel important. This is difficult to put into words, but it feels to me that the 30% block box that a squaddie hides behind isn't important because the 32% barrier that's between the squaddie and an alien that shoots at him takes precedence. So could cover feel more like cover? I mean, there's lots of cover in the maps, they just don't feel like cover. I remember in an early iteration of X1 cover granted a "saving throw", which was taking after a shot hit the target. Could we have something like that, perhaps? Perhaps the block % could also double as a malus to damage, so if LOS passes through a piece of terrain which is next to a soldier, then when damage is calulated, the block % is added to any armour when calulating damage. Would that be possible? EDIT: Perhaps only if a squaddies is crouched as well?

I haven't played X1 in a long time, so I don't remember what happens with gas tanks. However, I can say that no, aliens will not shoot gas tanks on purpose - just by accident. Unlike like XCOM EU, you can shoot ANY terrain, as there's a force-fire feature, so you can blow holes in walls and use them as entry points etc.

So, in terms of gameplay, the shotgun as it stands in X2 is a very good weapon. It's a good weapon because every shot is four simultaneous shots, that means there are four chances to hit every time a squaddie pulls the trigger, and the squaddie can pull the trigger 2-3 times in a row. Even though the chance to-ht per pellet is relatively small, the shotgun stands a good chance of hitting per shot at least once. This is why I made the adjustments that I did to the assault rifle. It could not compete with the shotgun. With the prior stats, you could get 2-3 shots using snap/normal, a burst of 3 with burst, or 1 with aimed. And that's it. Snap/normal you were likely to miss, aimed you were still fairly likely to miss especially with starting troopers, and the payoff for hitting with a single assault rifle bulet isn't the same as hitting with 2-3 shotgun pellets. Prior to my changes, it was better for me to run like a madman towards the enemy and engage them at close range or better yet, wait for them to come to me and hit them with solid overwatch fire. But by making snap/normal and burst cheaper, the assault rifle can put more shots downrange at a longer distance than the shotgun can. The assault rifle is now handier than the shotgun at longer distances, but is still more likely to miss than the 4-pellet shotgun, so equilbrium is restored. I think people need to stop thinking "realistically". It's unesscessary. Gameplay is all that matters. EDIT: How did the LMG changes work out?

I've started a docklands raid mission, with Sebillians. I carry out a variety of actions with all the squaddies, including killing a Sebillian. The game moves to the Alien turn, then CTDs. Log below: output.log

There are three "aim" modes, snap, normal, aimed and a "burst" mode. Like in X1, the number of shots a mode fires is independant of what the mode says it is, so it's entirely possible to introduce a "normal" mode which fires 7 shots, and a "burst" mode which fires 10. Like X1, it seems that the "aim" modes and the "burst" mode as names are hard-coded which is a bit weird as the coding clearly follows at least some OO principles so I would have thought that that instead names like "snap" or "normal", you would have something more like "firemode1", and a separate description name which would appear on the screen. But if you like we can mess around with the different fire modes for the LMG and see what works. EDIT: Clearly I have to much time on my hands. Here's a sample LMG file, with a 7 and 10-shot mode. ballistic_lmg.json