[Idea] Zonal Upgrades

[VanTrellen]

Hello,

Since I'm relatively new to the forums, I wanted to first congratulate the dev. team for making a classic in a new and interesting way. I really like what I have seen so far, especially the in art department (I haven't tried the game yet, just watched some gameplay vids of v9.2).

Having said that, I would like to throw off an idea, just in case someone finds it interesting.

My main concern with xcom games was that no matter what's your point in the game, you can always find a smaller ufo, with "lesser" aliens on it. This can be especially annoying when you have advanced considerably in the game, you have a relatively powerful team armed to the teeth with uber-weapons, and you still see around those tiny little UFO's that you could just ignore, but that still annoy you like a mosquito.

So here comes the idea...the ability to upgrade a territory's

[A] Air Defenses: Automatically shoots at UFO's, without need of interecption. The higher a country's Air Defense, the more accurate and more damaging it is (thus when high enough it could destroy lesser UFO's automatically). These defenses don't need to shown anywhere, and could be like base defenses (Laser, Plasma, etc).

Military Readiness. This represents training to local military & civilian population. It comes into play during tactical missions, so that the higher it is the greater % you have to encounter helpful soldiers during a mission that are chasing the aliens. Also, it would make civilians less prone to panick (better morale), and perhaps they could even have a % to have a gun or shotgun to use against an alien invading their house. Optionally you could have a morale boost figthing in territories with a good military readiness.

ALSO When a smaller UFO is shot down automatically (by your interceptors or Air Defenses) and you don't go there to investigate, Military Readiness could indicate that there is a % that local troops go there and automatically investigate in your stead the crash site, and perhaps even send you some stuff as a gift (a part of the loot?).

In graphic terms it won't affect things too much, except that it would need some new window (or tab) where you can develop/purchase these for a particular area (requiring time and money).

PS: I noticed on the globe screen that these "areas" are already there, like USA+Canada, Russia, and all have a green contour when you put your mouse over them.

I hope I was not too obscure in my explanations, and feel free to ask clarifications!

Edited April 19, 2012 by VanTrellen
Correcting Typos

[Gorlom]

I think Chris has planned this but without player interaction. That after a while when you are advanced enough local forces will take out smaller UFOs by themselves without the need to upgrade or train them.

As I understand it not sending a team out to crashed UFOs will not have any negative impact, you miss out on the materials but you don't get any negative score.

I'm uncertain how I feel about local forces sending recovered materials to Xenonauts. It's a blanace issue surely, but I assume it's going to be better to leave that bit out.

[VanTrellen]

The main idea is to automate certain missions when you are "advanced" enough.

Also, it's also nice to know what happens in the world besides what we do, certainly all countries/regions do have their own armies, and it's good to know that whatever we are doing is making an effect on the world. Perhaps a region "preparedness" could be achieved either by the sub-system I suggested, or even by just successfully completing a certain amount of missions (or something else), I am honestly not picky, as long as it gives more depth to the game and makes things more interesting.

Edited April 20, 2012 by VanTrellen

[Gorlom]

I realize my third paragraph might have made me sound negative to the whole suggestion. I want to clear things up by saying that I think that manageing the rest of the worlds response to UFOs could be interesting if implemented the right way and that I am in no way against it. Just the "free materials" bit =P

[winterwolves]

I would not want to go too far down the road of automation. I think you need to feel like what you are doing is critical to the cause. If the nations are doing so much with their armed forces, what are we here for?

I definitely agree that nations should not send you goods. They are already funding you after all.

I remember really looking forward to master of orion 3, then I found there was so much automation built in, I felt like I was watching the game, not playing it.

Easier ufos are useful if you lose a lot of your elite soldiers and have to train up rookies, and you can always just leave the crash sites if you want to.

I suppose you do still need to shoot them down though.

[VanTrellen]

On second thought, receiving free stuff is not a good idea since in general it makes the game easier , and we don't really want that (plus it would feel like cheating).

In terms of automation, I am highly against it, especially if it detracts to the game. I am only suggesting some sort of mini-game existing within the existing framework of the game to make it slightly more engaging, while removing some missions that might seem a bit tedious later on in the game (but with the options of still doing them if you want to).

[Chris]

The current system works by the AI having a ticker, which can only tick up. New mission types (research, terror attack, etc) become available as the ticker reaches certain points. Each mission is performed by a certain UFO within a designated ticker range - so from 0-200 it might be performed by a Scout, but from 200-500 it might be performed by a Corvette and so on.

With a bit of balancing (which we'll do most extensively in beta) this should provide the right level of challenge for the player, but not have any small and pointless UFOs flying around.

[Gauddlike]

Two man (thing?) redneck abduction teams are never pointless.

[thothkins]

As I understand it not sending a team out to crashed UFOs will not have any negative impact, you miss out on the materials but you don't get any negative score.

I'm not at all sure about this. If the XNauts can't be bothered pursuing a retrieval mission, then it should have a detrimental affect on funding from the nation where the op would have taken place.

If the government of that nation can muster local forces to deal with the threat, then that too should have an affect. As posted earlier, what do they need the XNauts for, if they can protect themselves or feel they *have* to protect themselves.

Much prefer Chris' comments that as the ticker moves on the invasion simply will stop sending smaller craft as that part of their plan has been quashed/moved on etc. to bigger and more nefarious things.

Edited December 17, 2012 by thothkins

[Chris]

The local forces have trouble shooting down the UFOs, not blowing up crashed ones with artillery or whatever. Having to investigate every crash site would be a massive time drain on the player and there's no penalty for not doing so.