Skitso

There isn't a thread for Beta AI behavior discussion yet. Or at least I didn't find one. I posted some of my thoughts in the mapping section already but I seemed to wander off there. I think alien placement should be more random and dynamic. At the moment the levels are full of places that you simply know not to have aliens in. I know the AI is not done and that it's ment to be more passive at crash sites, but I'd like them to wander around the levels more active, set ambushes in second floor windows, patrol in packs etc. There should be more variance in alien numbers, like 1-6 on small scout vs. always 2 or 3. My point: there shouldn't be too rigid rules on maps or alien placement to keep things fresh and frightening. Surprising and unexpected should happen now and then to keep the player on their toes. ATM I can move around the levels too carelessly knowing where the enemies are and how many are left to kill.

Sorry to doubple post, but I think alien placement should also be more random. At the moment the levels are full of places that you simply know not to have aliens in. I'd like them to wander around the levels more active and set ambushes in second floor windows etc. My point: there shouldn't be too rigid rules on maps or alien placement to keep things fresh and frightening. Surprising and unexpected should happen now and then to keep the player on their toes. ATM I can move around the levels too carelessly knowing where the enemies are and that there is only one left for I have killed two already.. ugh, going slightly off topic here..

I think too rigid rules on how to create a map in a certain tileset could make the game too predictable. IMO there should be lots of maps that break the pattern to surprise the player. Of course there has to be some guidelines to make maps functional and playable but otherwise I'd like lots of different and even surprising layouts in each tileset (although I understand they should in general differ from each other gameplay wise)

It would also be an organic way to provide cover around the ufo's. You know, dirt piles, loose debris, smoke etc. This needs to be done!

Yea.. dammit. That was one of my favorite graphical details in the game. I sure hope they make a come back. :-/

Huh, not a single response? Doesn't anybody agree or has this been discussed already elsewhere? Or are the shot down ufo's graphics in ground combat maps known to be work in progress?

Are the crashed ufo graphics final? I'm asking because I think the older ones looked much nicer. They had lots of visible air combat damage all around the hull and were digged deep in the ground with long crash landing trails in the ground behind them. I hope the new ones are going to get the same bashed up treatment. I also hope they will have some debris (as additional cover maybe), fire and some smoke around them.

there's only one "right" value: the slowest possible animation framerate without actor sliding is the right one. I think 28 is pretty spot on.

It's not only about the animation speed but the relation to xeno's moving speed. It's really fast to experiment on your own actually. Just alter one troop (for example a xeno with basic armour and machine gun) it's only 8 files. Then in game equip all troops with machine gun and move troops around.

Okay, I changed xenonaut with basic armour armed with machine gun to use frametime of 25 in running animations and it sure looks a lot better already! Maybe should be a bit slower value .. (maybe 30?) I don't know if other animations like shooting and going prone should be fixed too, but the running was the most important and it looks much better this way as the animation speed matches better with the units running speed. Maybe jumping over obstacles should be made a bit faster too..?

Yeah, too much work to be done by hand. (and without salary ) I really hope Chris gets this fixed in the final game as it makes the otherwise good looking animations seem a bit unfinished.

I cant find the correct xml-files that contain the frametime setting. I looked in units\xenonaut\armour.basic\none\run_(direction).xml but it must be a wrong file...?

It's not like you would need to re-render everything. Just display the existing frames faster to fit the speed xenonauts are moving in the gameworld. I myself am not a technically gifted, so this was just kind of a tip for the developement team to consider to make the game even better and more polished.

I think the walking animations of xenonauts are a bit off. The units seem to "float" and "glide" and not have a proper connection to the ground. I think it's because of the animation speed is a bit too slow compared to the speed the sprites are moving. Fixing this little thing (either by slowing units a bit or speeding the animation, or a bit of both) should make a world of difference in grounding the units in the game world. Maybe there could even be an option to alter unit movement speed

I think they should even use these graphics (scaled smaller) in the base building screen instead of the topdown old square room pictures.

My only experience on Xenonauts is the old Kickstarter demo, but I also noticed the jarringly bad FOW effect. The black isn't that good looking atmosphere wise. The other thing is smoke: there should be lots of it around the downed ufo. And fire too. While Xenonauts is smart looking game and captures the original X-com feel better than any other game yet, it lacks some of the atmosphere and ambience. This is mostly because too sterile and clean looking surroundings. There needs to be more random crap, blood, rocks etc. all over the place over the normal tiles. FOW effect also plays a role in this and I think it's a really important thing to fix in polish phase. Please get it right and you have a gem in your hands.

I agree that the room selector seems a bit out of place style wise compared to geoscape look. Same problem is with air combat graphics. Miniguns, missiles and all the other green/red graphics (while nice) are completely in different art style than soldier portraits, and weapons in ground combat..

I must ask, why are all the weapon and menu graphics in the air combat UI made in totally different style than all the other graphics in the game? You should pursue an unified look thorough the game, so the minigun, missile and fighter jet graphics IMO should look "realistic" in the same manner as soldier portraits and their weapons, no? This way you won't have problems like this, where different windows and screens don't match overall atmosphere.

I must agree that the human death sounds are.. uh, a bit strange. The overall soundscape is a bit sterile at the moment, so all kinds of small ambient background sounds would liven it up. For example, crickets and owl howling at night time farm missions, wind blowing, dog barking, stuff like that. Also radio chatter, explosions, sirens in city locations... I would also welcome squad selection chatter in Jagged alliance or C&C style. It doesnt have to be anything complex, but something would be nice. There needs to be JA -styled text after the hidden movement that xenonaut XX heared a (loud/definite/faint) (walking/explosion/gunfire) sound from direction XX. IMO THIS IS A MUST!!