how harder aliens come to play?

[ufo_hunter]

I am not sure how you are going to make the game AI to advance to harder ufos/aliens as the game goes on, but please, please try to make it smooth like it was in the original x-com.

Some years ago I remeber playing a game an x-com remake (I forget the name) and there harder aliens were spawned after a certain research point. As I remember tier 2 or 3 aliens got on board as soon as laser rifle was researched and the game became insanely hard if you did not know it would happen and be prepeared. This also led to abuse of the engine since player could leave a certain action/research aside until (s)he felt ready for the next "tier" of aliens.

It would be more realistic if harder/top level aliens would occasionally show up in the early stages of the game and even possibly force the player to evacuate all troops so not to get totally over-run.

One memory from x-com was a night fight in the jungle againts a shot down terror ship full of ethereals and 2 sectopods. I had barely laser rifles and personal armour for my soldiers and those aliens gave me a run for my money...One of the rare occasions that I did actually evacuate and let that site disappear from the map. (I was never one to abuse save/load if things went south)

Also weak aliens should sometimes show up at the later part of the game when you can sometimes just wipe the floor with them with all the high end weapons.

I hope that made any sence...I am looking forward on this project!

[Gorlom]

Chris said that the alien/computer side gains points for completeing tasks and will progress once it gains enough points. Meaning if you play really good it takes longer but if you play badly (ignore the aliens and let them do as they please) the invasion will progress much swifter. Either case there wont be any fixed progression points as I understand it.

[Gauddlike]

Chris has mentioned that the alien races will appear at various points controlled by a 'ticker' system.

The way I read his posts was:

This ticker will run from the start of the game and steadily increase over time.

Certain events, such as research or completing missions, will add to the ticker.

That does mean that research will make the advanced aliens arrive earlier but it won't be tied to a specific research topic.

You wouldn't know exactly what will trigger the emergence of the new ships and races but you know they will turn up sooner or later.

I am also hoping for a chance at some randomisation of the mission difficulty by throwing harder or weaker aliens into the mix.

Adds a bit of variety and can really shake your complacency when you run into something extra tough

[Gorlom]

Guess I got it wrong then.

[Gauddlike]

Not really.

Both sides can advance the ticker.

The ticker is just a collection area for the points you were talking about.

Plus as I said, that is just the way I read it, I could be completely wrong!

[AradoX]

I am also hoping for a chance at some randomisation of the mission difficulty by throwing harder or weaker aliens into the mix.

Adds a bit of variety and can really shake your complacency when you run into something extra tough

Don't want to hijack the thread, but also a definate vote for randomisation from me!

[Chris]

It should be a fairly smooth progression hopefully. There's not much scope for randomisation, but in many ways that's a good thing. We need to start working on the balancing and pacing of the game this week too actually for the public release. I think it takes too long for the heavier UFOs to start appearing relative to the research project times personally.