bernlin2000

I think you run the risk there of making the AI too smart for its own good: i.e. "book smart" but not "street smart". For me, the calculation of who to attack is pretty simple: if they have the lowest health (and there isn't another unit who might be better suited for taking the final kill shot, not sure how that sort of thought process could be implemented into an AI) or I have the highest chance of making the shot without missing, then that's who I'm going to shoot. I don't think a ton of factors should go into things like that, and of course visibility should factor into all this stuff: I got the vibe that you might be suggesting they have information on all my soldiers. They should only have info on those soldier they or their alien pals can see normally (i.e. the same visibility my soldiers have).

The only thing I'd say about your update is: there's no such thing as a too-smart AI. You guys know what they did for XCOM right? Normal difficulty features, in fact, a partially "shackled" AI, while Easy is even more-so (it seems, mainly, that some of the enemies don't use some of their more powerful abilities either ever or not as often, like rocketing instantly hovering from one part of the map, to behind your soldiers). You have to go up to "Classic" mode just to get the full AI experience, and by then they are penalizing soldiers (less hp) and strategy elements (and I think having both at the same time makes it a bit too hard...there should have been 5 difficulty settings in that game, an extra between Normal and Classic). I'm really looking forward to doing scenarios that will be an important part of development testing: this might be the first game I've ever played where I had that kind of possibly game-changing input.

My first post here, and I thought this update was an appropriate place to start. This project is floating all around the interwebz, no doubt partially as a result of the fervor surrounding Firaxis' recent XCOM release (which I have bought and played through quite thoroughly the last few days). At first, when I read the "project status" I had the impression things were going quite slow (perhaps the project had even stopped), but after reading the most recent news updates it seemed pretty clear to me that you guys are working pretty hard on this game. So much so that I was willing to throw 20 dollars into the ether in the hopes we're going to get the kind of game Firaxis just released, but much deeper are far more strategic/tactic-"y". From what I've seen in the forums so far (not much), I think this will be a given. I wish you guys good luck, and I can't wait to start toying around with what you guys have done. As someone who never played the original (although I have recently bought it off Steam, and probably will some time here...), I probably am coming from a different perspective than others, likely one that might emphasize graphics more. Frankly, as long as the game lands somewhere between X-COM and XCOM (hopefully at least at the 50% mark) I'd be a very satisfied pre-orderer. Continued good fortune on wrapping up Alpha and moving on to greener (and less buggy) pastures.