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As we're thinking about V20 now and the features we want to put in it, it's time to discuss the largest balance problem in the game: the number of missions each player will complete. Players will generally fall into two camps: those who will do literally every mission that the game generates, and those who will do a couple of each type of crash-site and just leave the rest to rot. The idea is actually that the player does not do all the crash sites they generate. We're balancing the game around the assumption the player does 30-40 missions during a game, total. However, to make the Geoscape strategy challenging, there needs to be a LOT more than 30 UFOs appearing over the course of the game. Xenonauts has been specifically designed so a player is not penalised for not doing crash site missions. You don't receive any relations penalty for letting one time out. Yet some people still feel the need to do all of the missions, whilst simultaneously complaining that doing so many of each mission type rapidly became boring (I'm looking at you, Light Scouts). I thought this seemed odd and raised it on the forums - and people explained that the game actually DOES penalise you for not doing the missions. The reason is opportunity cost - you don't LOSE anything for not doing a crash site, but you also don't gain the soldier experience, funding boost and one-off equipment sales you'd get from doing the mission. Ultimately, this is a strategy game, and the best strategy is to do all the missions...even if the cost is boredom. "Fun" isn't a useful in-game commodity so it's bad design if we're relying on player boredom to prevent them doing all the missions. TL;DR - there has to be a gameplay benefit to not doing a crash site mission if many players are ever going to feel like they are allowed to let one time out. I would like to add a system into V20 where the player is able to "donate" a crash site to the local forces in exchange for an immediate funding boost or a relations boost (which translate to more monthly funding). We will remove the relations boost from the current crash site completion system, so the choice will become: Captured alien equipment / materials, soldier experience, funding boost from selling weapons, or Risk-free funding boost, probably larger than the one from the selling captured equipment in the first option I am hoping that this means most people will do a couple of crash sites for each UFO type, then will just take a funding boost for the remainder. There may be circumstances where they want to grind more, for example training up a rookie squad or turning their existing team into death machines, but that will be a genuine choice rather than 100% optimal. I'm pretty much set on introducing some kind of choice to the game for crash sites, but I'm still open to suggestions on what that choice may be. Funding seems the most obvious one, but I'm happy to listen to alternatives. Thoughts? EDIT - my conclusions after having read the thread can be found here: http://www.goldhawkinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php/7314-Doing-Every-Mission-Solution?p=85735&viewfull=1#post85735
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Will there be any further secondary objectives in the game beyond holding onto the UFO for X number of turns? This is partly off the back of the suggestion that the numerous Light Scout missions were dull*, so this sort of thing could add some variety into them. It's also from a page on Laser Squad (Gollop X-Com precursor) that listed the missions.** Although X-Com didn't have these, it's come up a fair bit previously. List of various missions here. *Although there's map variation, alien AI and general invasion balancing still to be finished. ** "The Assassins" - The mission's objective is to assassinate Sterner Regnix, the boss of a weapons manufacturer who is using illegal methods to get the best out of his workers. The player will lead a small squad of troops and infiltrate Regnix's hideout and eliminate him by any means, all the while dealing with Regnix's droid squad that patrol the hideout. "Moonbase Assault" - A small squad must penetrate the Omni Corporation moon base, via the airlocks, and destroy a great number of their databanks and analyzers that hold sensitive information. "Rescue from the Mines" - After a routine mission goes badly wrong, three members of the rebel squad are held prisoner in the Metallix Corp mines. A squad of troops must negotiate the mine complex, free all three prisoners and escape. "The Cyber Hordes" - A small squad must defend a rebel station from the attack of an advancing droid squad invasion. The rebel base holds seven stabilizer cores vital to the planet's stability and the droids have focused their efforts on these targets. "Paradise Valley" - Following on from "The Cyber Hordes", the destruction of the stabilizer cores has left the colony in ruins and assault ships hover above waiting for the time of attack. To prevent capture of the rebel blueprints for their advanced starfighter the data has been transferred onto a portable security device and a squad is given the task of escaping from the colony with the device. "The Stardrive" - A group of mercenaries have captured the stardrive controller for a new rebel fighter. A rebel squad must go to their hidden base and retrieve the device. "Laser Platoon" - A free for all deathmatch as equal teams are pitted against each other. Big (ten man) squads, with reinforcements arriving frequently, explore the symmetrical map hunting down or sniping the equally equipped opposition.
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v19 stable candidate 2 - first few missions
thothkins posted a topic in Xenonauts General Discussion
On the 6th of the first month, I had three consecutive missions. I was being careful with the ammo towards the end of the second, knowing the Chinook would be making another stop before returning home. Boosts to shotguns and sniper rifles seem to be making a difference in this build. I even took out an alien with 0% chance from a pistol shot. I do think that the aliens are a little easy at present. Certainly compared to earlier builds. I miss the tougher Sebillian in particular. Perhaps light scouts, with fewer and tougher of those, to differentiate them more form the Ceasians? Just a thought. Plays very well so far, and it continues to improve each release.- 10 replies
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It's the third week in January. I've just had the largest wave of UFOs yet. I'm about to take off for a terror mission, when I see a landing ship angling in towards my base. Sure enough, it's a base attack. Glad I held off, as several builds ago I had to defend with three injured soldiers. After the base attack, it's off to a landed Cruiser. Then it's off to a terror site in Kiev (I take on the UFO). As I'm returning I see that there's a landing in Canada. Do I have enough fuel? I surely do, and it's another Cruiser. While getting to the Cruiser my interceptors take down a UFO just over the border in the US. Alas, it's only a Heavy Fighter, but I would probably have had enough to get there too, had it been a crash site. That's probably the longest the Chinook has been up for me. Never mind all my posts about grenades. I really, really needed them all here. Note: I look out for the Base Attack just from experience with the game. In waves of UFOs it's going to catch out a number of players with a Chinook in the air. Now, if I didn't have a few spare soldiers that would be game over. Just something to think about.
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Over in a thread discussing Jackal armour, StellarRat said:- that got me thinking, what were the most challenging missions for everyone else. For me there was a big jump in alien numbers from 7-8 to 21 in my first Alien Base defence in 19/4. Not just the numbers but the alien rank increased by a couple of steps as well. As I'm using ballistic weapons, even the grenadiers were stretched at the time. I'm fairly sure that if the aliens had been slightly more aggressive, I'd have been overrun.
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As an aid to hidden movement, it might be interesting for your soldiers to pick up on noises behind them, inside buildings etc. Perhaps when they hear gunfire, it could place a marker in the general area where they heard it to indicate where the aliens might be? For Christmas or my Birthday, I would also like one of the following: 1. A snake camera that I can feed through a door before breaching 2. New mission types - rescue the abductee's, destroy the comms radar/turret, recover intel, recon the area etc. 3. Stims (similar to some other posts I have seen) 4. Androids - maybe they come later, who knows! 5. Drones to scout out the landing area later on, or motion sensors
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I'd like it if we could train extra-espcial operatives who can go on one man missions into either: Alien Infested territories Alien Ships(crazeh I know) Deep Alien Compounds with like rare tech to steal, or intel to record. Missions like kidnapping ALIEN VIP. Steal Alien vehicles. Sabotage alien structures for future assaults. etc. The idea is to add special new buildings and training for a new type of Future Soldier - Alright the REAL idea is that in this game: [video=youtube;REqTL-d7l28]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REqTL-d7l28 was epic because you were one guy, on a mission, in and out. With your own set of trials. It would also be cool to have special units who you REALLY needed to prepare extra especially for their special mission. Every item could be a life saving turn in the mission. Instead of just throwing 10 guys into the mix and hoping for the mix. Extra Stuff to add: Specialized melee weapons Specialized unarmed take downs. Stealth? Throwing knives? Hacking skills The missions should play with objectives like 1. Record special object on camera 2. Steal intel chip from alien computer 3. Infiltrate base and rescue hostage? 4. Plant explosives at key objectives and detonate and escape 5. Blow the base up 6. Steal prototype weapon 7. Wear a bandana. 8. Mess stuff up. 9. Spy. 10. Hijack vehicles and drive them back to base with alien hack device. 11. Stuff. Yeah I think it'd be cool to have one man missions where using the stuff you got available is key. It'd be epic if you could even draw out the missions with some survival aspects, or missions where you can leave your man there and so if you launch an attack youve got someone behind enemy lines surviving. Which leads me to my other suggestion: 1. Add field ops where survival gear dictates the success of your missions 2. Field ops are multiple day missions where you need to deal with objectives that cant be finished in one mission. 3. Add MRE items. 4. Improved medkits. 5. Field Sleeping bags. 6. Starvation? All these missions are played with a kind of save and go thing, each one cataloging an on going operation on the world map (like a crash site icon does) and clicking one will go to the mission to show you the status. Then I guess as you pass the time the computer will either complete or fail a task based on some preset parameters to simulate the mission progress. So you'd have to code predefined zones for your characters in spots that they might end up being during the mission unattended progress. Or you could simply have them in stand by mode while time passes and based on where you placed them they might get caught and die or get caught and start a tactical round that requires your immediate attention. Multiple missions would be all qued. For multiple abrupt contacts. Hmmm yeah, would be bad ess!!!!
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I think there are too many crashsite missions and investigations. I don't know about the rest of the community, but one or two of the soliders usually got wounded in a single mission and they take a long time to recover. By the time I finished fifth crashsite mission in my 120mins of playing, I already recruited 4 new soliders just to keep up with the game, and I have 6 soldiers that can't run any mission, and 2 soliders that are injured so they have like half of their hit points. Anyone with me on this point.
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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.
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I think it would be nice if we get additional information in geoscape about a crashsite or any other ground mission. Atm it is only "crashsite number XX". But if i shot down 3 Ufos i have 3 crashsites and if the fights were intense i perhaps don't remembr exactly what crashsite was the big ufo or the small one. Another thing is: Will my dropship arrive on day or night when i take-off now? And what kind of area is it. Is it farm lands? Is it a city or desert? Is the area crowded with cover or open space? Since you already have intel about that area from your fighters that shot down the ufo you should have the right to know that stuff. The reason why i want to know that is that you can equip your soldiers better for those special situations. For example if it is an area with a lot of cover i won't take my sniper with me and get more shotguns. Or if its open space i only pick a few shotguns and prefer long range weapons. So i'd like to have in geoscape ground mission information: - Ufo size - Dropship time of arrival - Information about the terrain Edit: Sry. Forget about the stuff i wrote about Dropship arrival.
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On the back of my last post, I also think it would be a good idea to have some incidents that are considered more major that a terrorist mission. By that I mean one of the following: - Attack on government facilities - Attack on military facilities - Beachhead (landing of alien forces to create a larger zone for heavy troop drops) - Capital city attack In all of these scenarios, the decision to intervene would be more detrimental or more beneficial due to the scale of the incident. Again, I think it would add a little to the tone of the whole invasion by giving less frequent, but higher tension missions to embark on that could have a big impact on the war.
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I have one more suggestion about the differences between UFO crashed and landed and here's my thoughts: - in crashed UFO most of the aliens should be inside or around the damaged UFO. Some of the crew could be dead already (about it I mentioned before in other thread). Because we sent chinook asap Aliens didn't have time to disperse around also raumatic shock slowed their - in landed UFO most of the aliens "doing research" around and only guards should stay inside UFO Rest we need to find "and kill" outdoors What do U think about it?
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Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere already. Firstly - wonderful to be playing Xenonauts after XCOM:EU -- I had my first two UFOs at the same time, and seven within a few days. Actually feels like there's an alien invasion. I haven't played the Alpha for some time so not sure if this is new, but my first crash had a single survivor then the next 3 or 4 had none (so I moved everyone around on the first turn then the mission ended), then again I had a crash with just a single survivor. I'm playing on normal mode but even so this seems a bit too easy. Have I just been really lucky or do other people see this too?
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Hi everybody, hi every body do we know if here are going to be 2 species working together on whathaveyou Because all i have seen are cesian craft, and sebilion craft. EDIT: ummm i mean that will there ever be 2 types of aliens on teh same ship?
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I'd be nice if mapmakers could also associate a textual briefing with their maps. That could give maps a lot of character and a little preview of what the player is in for. Make it optional, so if there's no .txt briefing file then the default briefing loads.
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There have been several times it's very apparent I'm not going to be able to physically finish a mission. It would be nice in this case to have the ability to press a key and abort the mission (with proper penalty of course).
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What does everyone think of being able to fly the Chinook to a secondary (or even tertiary) crash site/grounded UFO/terror mission instead of having to fly back to base? As long as you still have enough fuel and sufficient ammo for your troopers on board the dropship, the game could maybe allow the player to re-direct to a new objective?
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Like you have the town-terror thing, the base defence, and the final mission.. Well, why not have more types or even absolutely unique missions? For example 1) a mission where you have to escort villagers out of a raided town 2) a mission to explore a hidden cave where ancient human-kind recorded contact with aliens, to search for some information that could help you defeat the aliens 3) a cooking competition (a la pizza tycoon) against various alien race commanders 4) a mission to raid a special type of alien base where humans are experimented on to rescue some ULTRA ELITE, HUGE PSY-RATING humans which the aliens have captured for study 5) a mission inside an egyptian pyramid or aztec .. er.. something 6) a mission to machu-pichu 7) STEALTH MISSIONS! To install a computer virus on an alien ship/base computer, UNDETECTED. 8) A mission to wobbly bobbly boop
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EDITED Chris, Interested in hearing your opinion on the possibility of occasional events/missions. I can't remember if somewhere in the recess of the forum this has already been discussed and decided on so I will lay it down anyway! These would be pop ups (like the UFO intercept screen) which would have a world government make a request or demand of you. These would be very occasional (one a month or less - probably ticker based) and be things like; North America requests 200 laser rifles. Completion of this mission will enable the North American's to automatically deal with all future fighter/scout crash-sites. Time Limit: None. (Obviously these missions would only occur after the correct tech had been unlocked but might be a nice alternative to clicking away lower value missions in the mid-late game). Europe requests increased XCOM patrols above their territory due to increased alien activity. Completion of this mission will lead to +10 approval rating - Time Limit: 1 Month Africa demands immediate XCOM assistance with a terror site in Cape Town (I believe this is already in the game anyway!) Asia demands 3 alien power sources to alleviate severe power shortages across the continent. Completion of this mission will lead to increased funding from Asia; 100,000 p.m. Time Limit: 2 Months. I understand that this suggestion may be unworkable but I thought it might open an interesting discussion as to how you could make manufacturing useful (while not wholly profitable) and also alleviate some issues with the monotony of clearing small crash sites in the mid-late game. It would also give people a reason to send out Aircraft on patrols other than to try and find enemy bases.
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After you kill the last alien on a map, the mission automatically ends (at least it did for me in 8.9). It'd be nice if you had the option to keep exploring the map and then end the mission from the menu. In my last mission, I didn't get to see what the alien ship looks like from inside because all the aliens were outside.
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I searched the forums and couldn't find a thread about this, weird. I just started playing and I noticed there was no quick resolve option (Though I'd never use that) but more importantly you can't move squad members in a group. On very tricky missions who would want to do that, however on the repetitive missions I really believe this is a must. I don't want to move every member of 10 to the edge of the map over 10 turns, it's a grind and it's boring. Also (and tell me if I should post this in another thread) I'm available to fill in some item descriptions for free if you want, I do freelance article writing online and write science fiction
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Well may be the theme of redneck abduction led me to this idea. There are two types of ordinary mission in xcom: - crashed ufo discovery - non-crashed ufo discovery In case ufo was not crashed operatives can catch cosmites with their pants down. ie aliens can be cought in the process of conducting their eivil buisiness. The process of abduction istelf can be implemented! Note, aliens behavoir can be completely different depending of what is their situation, plan and expectations! If they have crashed then some cosmites are fixing soucer and some are hanging around defending the perimeter. Or i more like an idea that they are hanging around with a reason human can not undarstand at all Also the most important thing is what should be the behavoir of non-crashed abduction ship? Imagine you have killed 1-2 aliens when approaching to ufo at nigh and then it started to lift off. I would poo my pants if this have happened when i was 10 yo playing xcom. Completely new turn.
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- abduction
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I have yet to get to play a ground mission in the builds released so far. Is there something special you have to do? No aliens ships are ever spotted on the ground. No matter how long I follow one in the air (until my fuel requires me to return to base) they never land. When I intercept there's only 2 outcomes: 1) I destroy the ship outright. 2) The intercept screen appears overlaid on top of the world map and about 10 seconds later the game crashes. So how do you actually test the ground combat?
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There have been many (and extensive =) threads on the old forum about how training in general could work. Pretty much everyone agrees that while some in-base training is reasonable, experience through missions should be paramount. So I've been thinking about how exactly the game should decide how much experience / stats a soldier gains from which actions during a mission. The stats we have are action points resilience strength accuracy reflexes bravery missions kills rank 'rank' experience points as a hidden stat (assumed) For some stats it's obvious which actions to assign. Firing guns increases accuracy. Duh. For other stats it's not so clear cut. While it is the obvious thing to attach reflexes to reaction fire during the alien turn, it leaves the issue of overall progression. Firing guns happens a lot in the player turn but also in combination with reaction fire. That leads to a lot more accuracy skillups than there are for reflexes. If important stats just won't go up, that is frustrating and often leads to... Gaming the system / exploits. A soldier should not gain accuracy by silly actions like firing 20 magazines worth of aimed shots at a ground tile in front of him. In JA2, the easiest way to gain strength is to overload your soldiers to several hundred percent of their carrying capacity, ordering them to travel to an adjacent tile (ideally of "difficult" terrain), and immediately canceling the order while the game is still paused. Repeat. Some considerations will certainly apply to all stats, others to particular stats or situations. I don't know what everyone will come up with or in which order so... just gunna have to play it by ear. =P
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- experience
- missions
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