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I'm often bothered by unnecessary content in games. Call it bloat or fluff but, it often doesn't make things any better. It might make me feel like I don't undrstand some gameplay mechanics or the game might feel unfinished. In X2 it's the alien corpse and weapon items that are displayed in ground combat inventory while standing on top of them. They are there with all this nice art etc, but as far as I'm aware, they are completely useless and feels I'm either not getting it or the game is missing some important feature that's tied to them.

Same odd feel of missing content comes from the characters at the base.  You see this important looking woman character in the title screen and after that she pops up once at the beginning of the game in text box, but after that, not s single popup has a portait attached to them and that's the last time you see that particular woman character too. Then we have the head scientist and the mechanic. The Scientist guy has some role and personality through the Xenopedia texts, but that's it basicly. For all this not to feel like an afterthought fluff, it needs to be made a cohesive part of the game. Add more role to the woman character and mechanic, have all relevant popups have the corresponding portait next to them like the first popup with the woman etc.

Any thoughts?

Edited by Skitso
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Skitso, without the Battlefield-Parts you can catch or look into, the Game would only half done. Not all is useable at the first look. But you can use it for anything else (like Tech-Upgrades, Weapon-Upgrades, Row-Materials or whatever later on).

In UFO 2 ET you can use the Alien-Weapons after Research, but only that you find on the Battlefield. You can´t rebuild them. 

In new XCOM you get the Weapons as Raw-Materials (don´t remember the Name for it) to build up other Things or for Upgrades.

In old XCOM-Row you can use the Alien-Weapons after Research and Rebuild them (OK it´s only Plasma or Sonic) but the Ammo is very limited.

In Phoenix Point you have to make a good friendship between the 3 Habitats to get the Technology from them and Upgrade your own Technology with their Knowleadge (like Human-Upgrades etc.)

 

Where I give you right is that the Main-Chars (Main-Tech, Main-Scientist, Main-Operator) in the Game come to short. We have to wait and see what comes in more from them. Chris said already, that there are Game-Parts which will bring the Main-Chars a big step nearer to the Player. The Tutorial is one of them.

 

 

Edited by Alienkiller
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6 hours ago, Skitso said:

I'm often bothered by unnecessary content in games. Call if bloat or fluff but, it often doesn't make things any better. It might make me feel like I don't undrstand some gameplay mechanics or the game might feel unfinished. In X2 it's the alien corpse and weapon items that are displayed in ground combat inventory while standing on top of them. They are there with all this nice art etc, but as far as I'm aware, they are completely useless and feels I'm either not ether getting it or the game is missing some important feature that's tied to them.

I definitely agree that there should be another mechanic associated with alien corpses and there items as they do not seem to be doing very much, but I don’t think they are entirely useless either. In the cleaner intelligence hub mission, you are forced to return to the dropship to escape and finish the mission, which means that you do not acquire any corpses or stunned cleaners during mission conclusion. If you want to acquire a corpse or stunned cleaner during that mission, you have to go on top of them and pick them up yourself off the ground so that you get them later. If more missions like those are added in the future, then you will be forced to pick things off the ground in order to acquire any additional corpses, weapons, etc. 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi, sorry to interrupt the conversation, if that's what I'm doing, but in the original game the corpses could be carried to your ship, even if you lost the scenario. In fact in a retreat you carried everything your characters carried with you. This might still be the case, I haven't retreated much in this game. There also used to be a way to use medic packs on corpses. In Ufo2 you could even get a higher chance of having a character survive by using the medic pack on a corpse of a former comrade. Also all those weapons are counted. Which is something I really like. The aliens only have weapons that you can bring back to your base and try to research, they don't have weapons that disappear after an attack, which many other games have and this annoys me to no end in those games. 
Having a mechanic around the corpses shouldn't be overdone though. I mean you could take samples from corpses for example and that could be fun for a mission or two and it could also turn into a lot of work for not enough fun I suppose. I know some players want to take away bloat and fluff, but I'm not sure how to define those things in a good way. Sometimes bloat and fluff is fun, like in the first dungeon keeper. In that case it would actually be a good thing.

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On 19.01.2023 at 10:20, Skitso said:

In X2 it's the alien corpse and weapon items that are displayed in ground combat inventory while standing on top of them. They are there with all this nice art etc, but as far as I'm aware, they are completely useless and feels I'm either not getting it or the game is missing some important feature that's tied to them.

In the classic UFO (X-COM), the player's soldiers could pick up enemy ammunition and enemy weapons on the battlefield and use them in battles. Also: the soldiers had the opportunity to pick up their wounded comrades and take them out of the zone of explosions, fire, destruction. Also: soldiers had the opportunity to pick up wounded and stunned aliens, take them out of the zone of fire and destruction. However, the desire of the game to tightly control the balance of forces of the player and the aliens (at all stages of the game) led to many restrictions (in Xenonauts 1), which locked the player in a narrow corridor of possibilities and forced the player to move along this narrow corridor. In fact: collecting artifacts on the battlefield and using them in battle is a very useful function on the battlefield, the potential of which is poorly realized.

The main reason is that the alien soldiers and the player's soldiers, in terms of their physical capabilities, practically do not differ from each other. Moreover, with the development of technology, the physical capabilities of the player's soldiers begin to exceed the physical capabilities of the alien soldiers. And the only way to maintain the balance of power is to limit the player's soldiers in the possibility of using alien artifacts.

If the game makes the aliens physically very strong, then the aliens' weapons and grenades will gain huge weight, and therefore the player will be able to use them, but will have a large penalty for exceeding the weight.

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Yep, Komandos that´s correct with yor Explenation from the old X-COM-Row (EU / TftD / Apocalypse) as well as Xenonauts 1 (and the Limitations there).

Not for nothing the Devs and we Main-Beta-Testers make from Beginning on an Newstart for the Xenonauts-Row. There you can too carring Soldiers / Stunned Enemys if you want. It´s not get shown like in the new XCOM-Row or Phoenix Point, but you can.

Where I give Komandos and Doshniel right is, that the Alien-Weapons can´t be used atm. But therefore the Devs and we Main-Beta-Testers will find an Solution. We already testet to dismantle them for Ressources as well as direct as Resource-Parts which works fine. But both outcomes were unsatisfactory. That´s why we searching for other Options like:

1. Using them like in old X-Com, Phoenix Point, UFO ET-Row, but that would be boring too and only an Copy & Paste from them.

2. Using them as Upgrades for existing Weapons / Ammo to make f. e. the Standard-Weapons / Ammonition lighter and better.

3. Point 2 incl. more Options for R & D / Founder-States and similar

 

The Humans and Aliens differ drastically, esp. in Xenonauts 2. The Game is ballanced in the Crew-Numbers (f. e. the Scout / Destroyer have the same Crew-Size as the Banana-Helicopter from your Organisation) and raises with more advanced UFOs and overflow your own Tranpsport Capabilitys (from what I have tested personaly up to the highest Time Limiter yet and seen from other Main-Beta-Testers). As well as the Aliens have special Abilitys, which you later Step by Step compensate later a little bit with R & D and Soldier-Training.

People which never testet Xenonauts 2 or played it in the last advanced Version are unaware of that.

That means: Don´t compare old Apples with new oranges.

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