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A few thoughts from an X-Com fan


Betuor

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I have been looking at your game and I'm very pleased and I only have a few suggestions:

1. I know this will never get added, but I'd like a undo button for one reason: sometimes you accidently move a unit, I did it twice today myself.

2. How about adding radar stations so you don't have to buy a whole base to get a radar? Or, better yet, why doesn't the countries tell you or share their radar stations with you? (Okay, last part wouldn't make a good game, but still?)

3. I would like it if you buy more building space for your bases.

4. It would be cool if you could put in other HWPs in the game. I would really like a small arterilly or flak/mortar unit and a heli.

5. I think a flak/mortar weapon would be useful.

6. I would also like if you made a logical place to recieve your weapons from. I get you might could find a pistol on the black market, maybe even an sidewinder missile, but a jet or tank, not likly. (If I'm not mistaken, you bought them on the blackmarket in the first game.)

7. This might be hard to program, but could you allow us to send more then one dropship to an area. This might lessen the strategy, but they do do it in real life. It's very logical to do on a base assualt.

8. Once again, a helicopter. I would like if they added more of them.

I also have a question: when you shoot down a squad of ufos, does the crash site have all three of them or does it make three seperate crash sites?

Edited by Betuor
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1. I like this too, maybe it could be incorporated?

2. This was talked about, can't remember what was decided. Sathra will know.

3. I think the point is to make you think more about what to build where, rather than not having any tactical aspects at all.

4. wouldn't fit with the feel of the game (see 5)

5. wouldn't fit. It makes balance too hard, it adds units that don't get exp and are far tougher to the game, and it lessens the amount of tactics. Plus then you have to make the equivalent ones for the aliens, and that's a lot of art and animation, for something that is supposed to be a squad (of men) based game

6. you get your weapons from the nations who are funding you. After all you are trying to save the world...

7. unbalances the game immensely

8. as far as I know, just the one crash site. but with only the major UFO in it. So if a battleship with 2 fighter escorts, you only have to fight through the battleship.

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I still think it should be said that the smaller ufo's, the ones that don't spawn a crash even if you shoot them down on their own, are unmanned. THAT'S why you don't need to fight a crew, that's why they're so irrelevant. Have them automatically picked up during the mission, or destroyed entirely or what have you (I'd prefer the former, something else to research. Otherwise I'd wonder what the hell they were, given you never recover them, never get the option to research them, they're just something to deal with that the game otherwise never acknowledges)

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I still think it should be said that the smaller ufo's, the ones that don't spawn a crash even if you shoot them down on their own, are unmanned. THAT'S why you don't need to fight a crew, that's why they're so irrelevant. Have them automatically picked up during the mission, or destroyed entirely or what have you (I'd prefer the former, something else to research. Otherwise I'd wonder what the hell they were, given you never recover them, never get the option to research them, they're just something to deal with that the game otherwise never acknowledges)

Really good point, UAV's for scouting make a lot of sense.

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I have been looking at your game and I'm very pleased and I only have a few suggestions:

1. I know this will never get added, but I'd like a undo button for one reason: sometimes you accidently move a unit, I did it twice today myself.

2. How about adding radar ststions so you don't have to buy a whole base to get a radar?

3. I would like it if you buy more building space for your bases.

4. It would be cool if you could put in other HWPs in the game. I would really like a small arterilly or flak/mortar unit and a heli.

5. I think a flak/mortar weapon would be useful.

6. I would also like if you made a logical place to recieve your weapons from. I get you might could find a pistol on the black market, mabey even an sidewinder missile, but a jet or tank, not likly.

7. This might be hard to program, but could you allow us to send more then one dropship to an area. This might lessen the strategy, but they do do it in real life.

I also have a question: when you shoot down a squad of ufos, does the crash site have all three of them or does it make three seperate crash sites?

#1 I dont think you can add this, if you move some where and see an area, how do you undo what you have seen?

#4-5 this is a no-no, they didnt like the design of the blaster bomb where you can hit a certain area with no real risk or scouting. its not very tactical when you can just bomb an area without having LoS

#7 - This is not such a bad idea, but I guess it might be hard to do because if you have 2 dropships you should have twice the size of the map?

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Its more that the Fighter-class UFO are about the size and (roughly)toughness of actual fighter jets. Even if they don't disintegrate when you shoot them down, there's no way anything is going to survive when they hit the ground. Its an engine with guns stuck to it, there isn't much else in them.

You can probably get the Xenopedia reports for them somehow though. Navigators maybe? (Like X-com did for all the UFO's).

1. Hoywolf's got it right. That was the end result of the discussion. Getting around that just adds more problems compared to not having it. Besides, we've got confirmation click movement and its turn-based, no need to rush.

2.No off-base installations. Its a balance and design thing. Bases are meant to be the core part of your force projection, and their placement is important (especially due to their cost). Having off-base installations weakens that (whether radar, air-fields, missile emplacements, etc).

3. Nope. Similar reason to off-base installations. Placement and internal arrangement of bases is important. Being able to expand them whenever reduces the challenge. I think they're bigger than X-com's anyways. Can also upgrade the defense buildings as you tech up, so you don't have to dismantle and build a new building each time.

4 and 5. No indirect weapons besides grenades. Reduces tactics too much. Your vehicles can have their weapons upgraded as you tech up (and build their new weapons).

6. What AD said. You also don't buy the starting tier weapons for the same reason (vehicles you do, but that more like rent/support set-up costs)

7. Nope. Too messy, and again, reduces tactics alot.

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You underestimate crash-site investigators Sathra. I'll accept the point about nothing being able to survive, but even scraps would be worth picking up until the representative technology is obsolete. You would want EVERYTHING you could get, as you never know what might be the key to unlocking understanding. And even a scrap of biological material can lead to massive understanding about an organism; biochemistry, tolerances, what might kill it and what it might need to live etc. Likewise with armour fragments, weapon parts, computer circuitry or engine elements.

Half of engineering is knowing something can be done in the first place. After that, any information at all helps out. I always laugh when I think about just how much alike so many Russian/Chinese aircraft are to American versions that came first. There is no reason those fighter-class ufo wrecks would be ignored as not worth the effort until/unless they had become obsolete technology to everyone involved. And even then they might be scavenged for pure material, unless the return was inefficient and/or dangerous.

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Compared to attacking and salvaging the mostly complete (and far larger) UFO's you can ground-attack they aren't worth much. Much of the same basic stuff is in them, barring a few delicate special components (like missiles) which could probably be figured out elsewhere.

Its a time vs result expenditure thing. Is it really worth adding pop-ups telling you that you've salvaged your 50th fighter without you actually doing anything beyond shooting it down? You could make players have to salvage them manually, but fighter-class ships would be encountered much more often than anything else (since they're escorts to the capital ships).

More importantly, if its just collecting scrap and slime, players don't even need to be informed of it beyond "we should do this to get more information of Alien Fighter Craft".

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I was figuring the returns would just be folded into the larger salvage from the main mission, or if separate crash sites were ever introduced have it be an automatic recovery just by sending a transport there (akin to the first two unmanned ufos in apoc) or you could even say that the minor crashes were recovered by the nations within which the crash occurred and any benefits shared with the Xenonaut organisation. I just think some solution for their presence in battle yet their absence after needs to be presented.

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Don't forget, your resources are limited after so many years of no-one knowing that Xenonauts even exists. While you've got your hands full with the main threat & biggest potential swag bag, the local governments will probably be quite happy to step in and 'help' by securing and disposing of any other crash sites & debris.

(Although your host nations have agreed to give you authority, I doubt they are happy about all that advanced alien tech. not being under their direct control.)

Depending on the size of the maps, it would be interesting to sometimes see wreckage or a crash site from one of the escort craft on the mission map.

Edit: Or even a large ship broken into sections over separate areas on the map.. Ok, I'm drifting now :)

Edited by Dix
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Remember that the UFO's will come in waves as well.

You will only have a certain amount of time and manpower to follow up these crash sites.

Your team would naturally pick the biggest and best opportunities for finding something useful.

The other side is that they would also need to cleanse the big ships of survivors.

The little pile of wreckage with little value or interest can be left to the local authorities to deal with.

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#1 I dont think you can add this, if you move some where and see an area, how do you undo what you have seen?

#4-5 this is a no-no, they didnt like the design of the blaster bomb where you can hit a certain area with no real risk or scouting. its not very tactical when you can just bomb an area without having LoS

#7 - This is not such a bad idea, but I guess it might be hard to do because if you have 2 dropships you should have twice the size of the map?

It's logical if you think about it. If you were going to attack the aliens HQ, wouldn't you send everyone you had? Also, I heard they might add a 'beam me down' feature which wouldn't require you to place in the extra dropships. Although, you could put a limit of, say, 3 to a crash site and a limit of 5 to a base assualt. Also, you never see your ship at the base. Finally, how in the world did you gain entry, did they leave the door open?

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You underestimate crash-site investigators Sathra. I'll accept the point about nothing being able to survive, but even scraps would be worth picking up until the representative technology is obsolete. You would want EVERYTHING you could get, as you never know what might be the key to unlocking understanding. And even a scrap of biological material can lead to massive understanding about an organism; biochemistry, tolerances, what might kill it and what it might need to live etc. Likewise with armour fragments, weapon parts, computer circuitry or engine elements.

Half of engineering is knowing something can be done in the first place. After that, any information at all helps out. I always laugh when I think about just how much alike so many Russian/Chinese aircraft are to American versions that came first. There is no reason those fighter-class ufo wrecks would be ignored as not worth the effort until/unless they had become obsolete technology to everyone involved. And even then they might be scavenged for pure material, unless the return was inefficient and/or dangerous.

Humans also can eject from falling aircrafts, why not aliens?

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Also, you never see your ship at the base. Finally, how in the world did you gain entry, did they leave the door open?

You said the password, it's 'humans suck'. Everyone knows that is the aliens secret password. We had a poll on the old forum about it. Honest...

Humans also can eject from falling aircrafts, why not aliens?

Um, glue. Definitely glue. They get stuck in the cockpit. Plus these are primarily SPACE craft, not much use of an ejector seat in space (where it wouldn't work anyway...)

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There's that, and Chris did mention that the terror strikes are suicide missions (aliens can't survive that long in Earth's atmosphere). Not so important chasing down one or two aliens across the wilderness when it could be left to local forces.

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Plus these are primarily SPACE craft, not much use of an ejector seat in space (where it wouldn't work anyway...)

... How do you think they work currently ad?

Okay, so we've come up with one or two plausible ideas for the absence of fighter-class ufo recovery missions; either have them added automatically after the main mission, or say local forces cleaned up while we do more important stuff. My main point is that whatever we decide, it needs to be obvious in-game, or else these phantom ufos stand a real chance of annoying people. Getting your aircraft shot down by something you can find no evidence of and never can gain from would irritate me...

Edited by Elydo
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Hmm, you'd still get score for shooting them down though, even if you get nothing else.

They're arguably meant to be annoying though, they're escort craft. You need to avoid or shoot them down to get to whatever they're escorting. And the Superiority mission Fighter pairs create events while they fly around, which also affect your score and the invasion ticker.

So you're saying that we'd at least need to have some blurb at some point saying something about why they aren't recovered? Could do that in the Xenopedia entries, but they could be too optional (however we get the reports for the escort-class UFO's).

We can't really include them in the ground combats, because you don't necessarily shoot them down in the same spot as the primary. (It was brought up in the old forums).

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... How do you think they work currently ad?

I believe they currently work by a small explosion pushing off the canopy, and then another explosion forcing the chair out of the craft. What with no air in space, it'd be kinda hard to have that second explosion go off. Plus your parachute would do noting, total waste of space =p

(pun not intended, but kinda like it anyway)

I agree with you there. Just on the mission end screen, have another section about the materials recovered from the crashed fighters. If you only got one while engaging them, you get less, but it's not going to be much anyways

Edited by anotherdevil
making my pun funnier
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Hi everyone,

I'm new here. So many avid XCOM fans here! I'm in love with this game already, even though the current build is quite empty. I can't believe we're finally getting a proper XCOM successor! It's too damn good to be true! PLEASE FINISH THIS GAME! You have our full support =)

I didn't want to make a new thread, but I have quite a few thoughts/questions too:

1. Double clicking certain areas and buttons causes the game to crash on my system. I didn't see much mention of this happening to others, so maybe it's just me. Just wanted to put that out there, as the earlier it's reported the better (I hope)! Might just be a byproduct of the alpha build.

2. Will aliens be able to escape the map, or will they be programmed to fight to the death, no matter how many turns it takes, enabling camp-out tactics again?

3. The last and only thread about night vision is this one. It seems that flares will once again be the only way of lighting up the map on night missions. Has the consensus changed at all? Any plans on adding nightvision technology in the mid/late/end game portion of the research tree? Perhaps technology can be granted to the aliens for balance.

Maybe we can use a rock-paper-scissors formula, like so:

- Aliens gain invisibility tech in the mid-game stage. XCOM is provided nightvision as the counter-tech. Aliens then gain heat suppression to counter XCOM's nightvision tech (forcing the player to revisit flares + normal vision)

- Agents with unassisted night vision have the best chance of spotting aliens using heat suppressing technology (they will appear like normal aliens). Agent will not be able to directly see aliens using cloaking technology (unless they perform a combat action, revealing themselves)

- Agents with infrared vision have the best chance of spotting aliens using cloaking technology. Agent will not be able to directly see aliens using heat suppressing technology. Hostile units outside of unassisted night vision range is displayed as 'heat signatures' (red-orange blobs or something), unless they are using heat-suppressing tech.

- Agents can switch between unassisted and infrared optics with the use of some TUs (putting on/taking off the goggles). 10 or so TUs sounds reasonable.

- Late game aliens will use a lot of heat suppressing tech during the night and cloaking tech in the daytime, however, higher difficulties will try to directly counter your equipment loadouts (if you have a lot of night vision, they will equip heat suppressing tech, and vice versa), forcing you to balance your squads' kits.

- Agents suffer accuracy penalties firing at aliens that they cannot directly see (they are taking orders from their teammates, like "fire into that window!"), so it is preferable to have your agent be using the correct optics for their target.

4. If #3 is not going to be implemented, will XCOM agents have any way of tracking enemy positions or movements on the battlescape, like motion sensors or something similar? Maybe sensors or radar scans can be added as a late/end game tech on top of #3, to counter the alien's heat suppressing abilities. Perhaps operating the sensor equipment has high TU costs.

5. Will there be any flashbang-type grenades for assisting in clearing a room (maybe as a mid-game tech)? Perhaps the effect reduces the reaction stat of those effected, possibly allowing you to breach a room without being shot at. However, aliens with super-high reaction stats will still shoot at you when you come through the doorway. Higher difficulty multipliers can increase the alien's reaction stats accordingly.

6. A useful base facility that was in Apocalypse and not in UFOD/TFTD was the Security Station. It was a facility that you would build next to hangars/access lifts, which housed base defenses that shot at enemies. Will we be seeing a similar facility in Xenonauts?

7. What's the difference between the Medikit and the Medipack in Xenonauts (in the current build)?

8. Will agents and equipment be in limited supply (and restocked every week, like Apocalypse), or will they be limitless, as long as you can afford them (like the originals)?

9. I heard selling captured equipment and basic funding would be the only ways of making money. How about selling your tech patents? Say we sell the technology "laser pistols". Then, we will gain an increase in our monthly funding (royalties from the sale of laser pistols around the world), or maybe a set amount (e.g. a one-time payment of $5,000,000), however we lose the ability to manufacture our own, and must buy from retailers (at an expensive, capitalistic price) if we ever want additional laser pistols. Let's face it, laser pistols become widely unused once laser rifles are researched (many technologies follow the same fate). If funds are tight, selling tech can be a good way of making some quick bucks, especially unused high-level research.

10. Will there be any shielding technology?

11. Might be a bit unrealistic to ask this question right now but...

Are there any plans for DLC/Expansion packs to this game? I'm thinking that once the game's been out for a year or two, the community can put together a wishlist of bugs, features, etc. that are near-universally demanded, enabling the devs to create the ultimate supplement/expansion pack.

Even though we're only still in alpha, I hope you guys plan to add to it after release, because Xenonauts has the potential to be the ULTIMATE XCOM game, or hell, TBS game for that matter...bar none.

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I believe they currently work by a small explosion pushing off the canopy, and then another explosion forcing the chair out of the craft. What with no air in space, it'd be kinda hard to have that second explosion go off. Plus your parachute would do noting, total waste of space =p

It depends on the type, but generally a series of explosions separates the canopy, then a rocket pushes the entire chair mechanism out of the aircraft. A space system would require alterations, but is certain possible, and both explosions and rockets work in vacuum. Explosions don't propagate very well, but they do explode. And in space you wouldn't need a parachute, you wouldn't need anything outside a gravity well, and within one you'd still only need a system of thrusters or an EMU.

You only need air if you're using something in the air (ie. oxygen as a combustible)

I kinda like the idea of grenades that lower alien reactions. It won't help the schmuck who has to open the door mind you... Still, shield and flashbang.

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