ninjaed13 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I have a few ideas to do with the drop ships within Xenonaughts. Idea 1) When Chinooks get shot down (They do, it happened to me) you should be able to do recovery missions. They would work similarly to the ground missions but there would be a downed Chinook instead of a UFO. Depending on the armor they were wearing and so on different soldiers would be injured at varying levels and some/most killed outright. Also depending on how long you leave it there will be more and more aliens, and they will kill the survivors off. Idea 2) This is more a question to be honest, can we buy a new one yet? Before now if you lost your Chinook you would have to load a save. Thanks for reading -Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterwolves Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 (edited) Yeah, in 9.2 you can buy extra chinooks. I like the idea of search and rescue missions too - it would add another kind of mission to the mix. Very nice! I imagine it would be your most heroic dudes who would survive, and you could make it a survival mission where you have the troops who survived. They have to survive a meat grinder (enemies continually arrive) for a certain number of turns, and/or reach an extraction point. The extraction could be carried out by local forces, so you don't have to worry about suppling a chinook to pick them up. It would just give your team one last chance at survival, and after all, I always found that the attachment you got to your troops was a big part of UFO: EU. Love the idea! Edited April 16, 2012 by winterwolves Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pack.wolf Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 That is a pretty cool idea. Both "Surviving crew must fend of waves" and "Send rescue team with another Chinook" (the later could be similar to terror missions with the civilians replaced by wounded and badly equipped AI-controlled Xenonauts) would be awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjaed13 Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Yeah and the survivors would be AI controlled, they would be in a panicked frenzy either running all over the place or hiding. So you have to find them first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjaed13 Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Thanks for the replies btw, this is my first ever thread ;3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The New Romance Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Sounds cool. I believe from the artwork side it wouldn't necessitate that much additional work, maybe just two versions of a downed Chinook (and all the coding), so this might actually be a realistic suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjaed13 Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Yeah I was thinking for the Chinook like on it's side, broken rotors smashed windows and a few fire animations. Which (I may be wrong here as I know nothing about coding/animating/spriting) can't be too hard to do ;P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPyro Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I like the idea, although I'm not sure I'd want it implemented in exactly this way. Many people might not have a second Chinook at the ready, and if there is an incoming delivery time then everybody might die before your new Chinook arrived. I like the idea of the shot-down team having to defend themselves from attackers until rescued; this could be put down to a local military rescue team rather than having to dispatch a mission yourself. Starting the mission with wounded troops, with medics trying to get people back functioning while the least-wounded guys hold off the first wave; that has some potential to be quite cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjaed13 Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 It was only an idea, to be honest I posted it to get suggestions before it was (hopefully ;D) implemented. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzuBuzu Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 (edited) I like both ideas, though the survival/defense one might make a better fit for the game (not having a new Chinook ready right away or crash site not within reach of any other base that has one). And like you guys mentioned it shouldn't require that much extra work. It could follow the format of base defense missions, with your guys starting out injured/bleeding/unconscious and in dire need of medical attention (hope you had some medikits on board) while aliens try and wipe them out (maybe use a very aggressive flavor of AI for this mission). And like winterwolves said, it would give you a chance to save the soldiers you've been grooming throughout the game. Loosing your entire elite squad when your dropship gets shot down, while realistic, is somewhat harsh. Edited April 16, 2012 by BuzuBuzu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjaed13 Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 There are base defense missions?!?!?! If it's late into the campaign I wouldn't know about it. I play for long periods of time without saving then it crashes and I lose all of my progress... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 tough one. the Chinook trots along nicely at between 300 -700 feet according to the first thing I set my eyes on. Obviosuly, it depends on when it's shot down. But all of mine get shot down half way home usually or in the last third, so I guess they would be at their operational altitude. So, the guys are expected to survive that kind of a fall in the wreckage. I think people have survived similar crashes, so OK. However, the Chinook has been shot out of the air by alien plasma type weaponry, reducing survival chances significantly. It's a balance against the frustration of losing your main transport weighed agianst the fact that you are the administrator of the A- Team, who can survive anything at all. I imagine if it's shot down over the sea, then it's just lost at sea, rather than have a new tileset for it (outside of modding)? I found that putting an escort on my Chinook made a huge difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The New Romance Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 There are base defense missions?!?!?! If it's late into the campaign I wouldn't know about it. I play for long periods of time without saving then it crashes and I lose all of my progress... Not yet. They will be implemented soon, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjaed13 Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Also with a helicopter falling the rotors act as parachutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pack.wolf Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 @thothkins: a helicopter can be damaged to a point where there is no way for it to stay airborne but where it is still able to land quite safely. Of course it can be damaged a lot more too. There should be a mechanic similar to the player shooting down UFOs. If the chopper is shot down over water, that's it, it's gone. If it's hit by to much damage, that's it, destroyed in air. If it crashes the amount of damage taken should in some way influence how many soldiers die instantly, how many are wounded and how badly, how many miraculously are fine, and how much equipment is destroyed by the crash. Of course there should be a random element to it. Especially for which soldiers are killed and wounded. If you're falling out of the sky in a chunk of metal with rotor blades your rank insignia can't really help you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 What about parachutes? If you got a UFO uncomming about to shoot your ride down wouldn't you jump out if chutes were available? That vehicle might be blocking the main exit but theres still 1 door on either side that the soldiers can use right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterwolves Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 There could still be a chance of recovering soldiers shot down over the water too- picked up by coastguard or navy - just with the random number of survivors, but no mission. Military helicopters that operate over water tend to have flotation devices and they would have life jackets too. The rotors acting as a parachute for an chopper is called auto-rotation - and only works if the rotor is undamaged - not very likely with battle damage. But people do survive helicopter crashes all the time, and after all, our aliens survive their crashes very well, so why can't we? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 The rotors acting as a parachute for an chopper is called auto-rotation - and only works if the rotor is undamaged - not very likely with battle damage. But people do survive helicopter crashes all the time, and after all, our aliens survive their crashes very well, so why can't we? I think I have a parachute fixation.. Would it be possible to equip the Helicopter itself with parachutes attached to the hull, that deploy incase of the rotors get damaged? I'm now assuming that if there is no such thing in real life it is because people don't fly personell helicopters in situations where rotors could be shot off... or that parachutes simply wouldn't be effective. PS. Or because its a really stupid idea incase the chutes malfunction and deploy while the rotors are still spinning... not a pretty sight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterwolves Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I have seen a design for a light aircraft parachute somewhere, but it just is not a great solution for a helicopter, as you would need to either mount it above the rotors, or eject the rotors to deploy it. If you search for whole plane parachutes you'll find some stuff about it. So it is possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I imagine if the aliens are sent to hunt and destroy your teams they would probably just make sure the transport was destroyed. They are dealing with a defenceless and fragile target they have been sent out to totally destroy. If the helicopter was damaged and attempting to land the alien fighters would just shoot it a few more times surely? Same goes for parachutes or the wreckage itself. On the other side we are dealing with tough and well armed vessels that we would like to take down with minimal damage in order to salvage and research them. Big differences to both the craft and the amount of force used/required to take it down. That accounts for why aliens can survive their crashes while our transports are death traps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 We're planning to make it so that Chinooks shot down don't kill all the crew automatically, but each person has a % chance of survival depending on whether shot down over land / water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 No rescue mission though? Make them walk home, that's what they get for not avoiding the enemy quick enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonVanCaneghem Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 No rescue mission though?Make them walk home, that's what they get for not avoiding the enemy quick enough I've always figured there must be some kind of unmentioned background support going on. Like when you shoot down a UFO and somehow you are able to recover the alloys and all the loot.. I don't think it is all being crammed into the Chinook. Some kind of support crew must be going in and breaking down the materials and transporting them. I imagine some kind of search and rescue team would be deployed by the local authorities and coordinated with Xenonaut HQ in the case of a crashed transport. Unless of course we're talking Apocalypse, in which case UFOs could disappear up the tailpipe of a hoverbike. On most fronts, I'm glad the UFO recovery process is automated. If the player were in charge of coordinating the UFO recovery, you would get the possibility to have the following take place: You deploy your recovery team right behind your ground troops. Ground team clears the site, then the recovery team starts working. Aliens send their own scout to see what is happening at the crash site. Your interceptor remains on patrol nearby to cover the recovery team. Recovery team then needs escort to base as the aliens attempt to shoot them down. So you'd get the feeling of really having to fight to get a hold of new alien tech. You could tie in alien response to the materials/technology captured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thothkins Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 a helicopter can be damaged to a point where there is no way for it to stay airborne but where it is still able to land quite safely. Of course it can be damaged a lot more too. I did say in my post that people have survived such things, ya know Just playing around with the idea. When my Chinook was wiped out , it didn't look as though the aliens were mucking about. They have advanced weaponry, hunted my poor little transport down (going right for it, the rotters) and the destroyed message seemed pretty accurate (not that there is another option). I think there's more chance of a 'rescue your ejected Interceptor pilot' mission than helping the chinook occupants going by the feel of the game. Considering it can take a UFO a few hits to take out one of the interceptors, perhaps there is hope for the Chinook. That's possibly just the early UFOs though. As touched on by Gauddlike, perhaps the mission becomes more likely later on when the Xenonauts have incorporated alien alloys into the hull of their transport craft. Depending on the motives of the aliens, would they be likely to send in a ship just to land and take on the Chinook survivors on the ground. We do it because they want out toys. Do they care? They can abduct another hill billy for genetic information. Why take the risk with a Xnaut team? As someone said, if they bothered at all, it would probably be to strafe the crash site. If pilots had skills, think how nice it would be to get that little geoscape message that the coastguard had fished him out of the drink and he's ready to take on the [insert slightly offfensive name for the enemy of your choice] once again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamoecw Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 simple role reversal mission seems simple enough. afterwards the survivors get picked up and sent back to base. as for the why, simple interrogation of their enemies. We're planning to make it so that Chinooks shot down don't kill all the crew automatically, but each person has a % chance of survival depending on whether shot down over land / water. nice! so there's a chance those shot down over water will live? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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