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Hidden movement picture on/off. Fog of war?


Damhoof

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I just wondered if there is a way to remove or toggle away the hidden movement picture. I just find that it puts me off to hear sounds of combat and not see my guys. It takes my attention away from the combat scenario.

There is also a minor issue to me that soldiers would go into battle without at least knowing the lay of the land, and i find myself sending guys to the edge of the map instead of going to points of more interest.

Could there be a fog of war that was not so black and dense? At least for the lower difficulty settings would be nice. While i realize that its a departure from the standard or classic xcom esque scenario these things do detract from my experience and i don`t think either of these things would be hard to implement as optional features.

Edited by Damhoof
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Just a question, but would you not find it as off-putting to be looking at the map, listening to the sound of off-vision, combat, footsteps and whatnot and not see anything more than you would have when looking at the hidden movement screen?

No. Because at least then I can watch my guys being safe rather than get some pretty beautiful artwork hiding what is going on in the fog of war. It just disturbs me greatly to hear people dying and not at least see the field of battle. Suddenly being popped out of the situation at hand to look at a picture takes away from this notion of a continuous battle.

Ah. Analogy time. Its like playing a game with your friends, only to have a blindfold put on you for a minute every five minutes which robs you of sight, and lets you hear the sound of other people playing.

At least to me it removes me from the events i can control (Moving my soldiers and vehicle around) and puts me in a place I know that I can`t control (Hidden movement screen).

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The only thing I will say about "events you can control", well, when it's the alien's turn, there are no events that the player can control. It's all out of his hands then, so the player is removed from events whether it's looking at a piece of art or the map. A better analogy is playing game of scrabble where each player leaves the room after his turn is over, and being invited back in either when the players turn comes again, or if a another player plays a set of letters on a word the player made.

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Please don't do that. The hidden movement screen is one of the most memorable things from the original game (at least for me). One word: SUSPENSE. I remember playing the original game on a 386, where the enemy movement turn on larger maps with more enemies and civilians could take 5 minutes or more and the hidden movement screen together with the absolutely creepy music made me sit in my chair, scared s**tless. I stared at the screen the whole time, listening for every sound that could tell me what was going on, ready to c**p my pants whenever i heard a door open, gunfire, or a deathcry, almost praying that i would not see the hidden movement screen interrupted by a sudden shot from the dark, aimed at my precious soldiers whose armor was still being made in my workshops.

I bought Xenonauts after having played the XCOM:EU demo, which lacks any kind of suspense. So please don't take the suspense from me in this game :)

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Okay, seriously, does everyone have to make jabs at XCOM:EU based on demo on their firsts posts on every xcom site? :P

Seriously though, yeah, removing hidden movement screens would be bad, I'd be happier if they added more pics, like how Apocalypse had multiple ones.(I guess they could one up apocalypse by having hidden movement screen update based on alien invasion phase/aliens/your researched technology instead of spoilering future armor)

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I was thinking the same thing, XenoMask! Having the hidden movement screen reflect the setting (tileset), alien invasion phase or state of research would certainly be a great addition. However, I'm aware that such dynamic artwork would likely be a complicated matter to implement, and time-consuming/expensive to procure in the first place. Although I think there might be a few fans of the game with great artistic skills that could maybe supply Goldhawk with their own creations together with an appropriate written consent to use it (for commercial purposes and free of charge or royalty) if suitable for the game. I'd even volunteer myself, but my talents lie far from the realm of visual art... Of course I'm just speculating here, as I have no real idea about the legal aspects of external contributions like these, but how cool would it be to know that your art scares the hell out of thousands of would-be saviours of mankind? :)

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  • 3 months later...

Can you add an option that disables the Hidden movement picture, and have a more disciple-style movement system while between turns. "i e. skips through unseen enemy units movements, but pans to visible enemy units movements". The reason why i'm asking this is because the way it is now, when the picture keeps flickering on and off rather fast and it gets me very sick and dizzy feeling and I have to turn my monitor off; This is not a very good thing for me because it could cause me to have a seizure.

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Can you add an option that disables the Hidden movement picture, and have a more disciple-style movement system while between turns. "i e. skips through unseen enemy units movements, but pans to visible enemy units movements". The reason why i'm asking this is because the way it is now, when the picture keeps flickering on and off rather fast and it gets me very sick and dizzy feeling and I have to turn my monitor off; This is not a very good thing for me because it could cause me to have a seizure.

The Hidden Movement screen is there to hide the movement. If your soldiers can't see what's happening, it's hidden movement. If an alien does stuff within the LOS, the screen goes away until there are no more observations. I don't see why it needs to be removed.

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The Hidden Movement screen is there to hide the movement. If your soldiers can't see what's happening, it's hidden movement. If an alien does stuff within the LOS, the screen goes away until there are no more observations. I don't see why it needs to be removed.

I never said get rid of the Fog of War "the black areas" i was saying remove the stupid hidden movement picture fyi the fog of war is meant to hide movements the picture serves no purpose!

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I don't think it's stupid. It's nostalgic.

"It's nostalgic" alone isn't any kind of argument for adding, well, anything to a (non-retro) game.

Not that I feel one way or the other about it, it doesn't really matter with Xenonauts; your units do not have any kind of idle animations, the maps don't have anything animated, watching a static "hidden movement" screen isn't much different from watching a static battlescape.

Edited by Kaguya
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I wouldn't mind an option to just skip it. End turn, show visible hostile movement if any, if none - next turn.

Actually I would turn that option on and never look back except for the most critical missions like alien bases and final. Looking at that screen wastes a lot of time.

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I think it is important to keep it there, since it actually, as already noted in this thread, amplifies the feeling of no control.

My pulse usually rises a bit when the hidden movement screen disappears since I don't know whether it was just a civilian that moved, or if a platoon of mutons are going to fuck up my entire squad. :)

I don't think there is any reason to add an option to disable it.

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"It's nostalgic" alone isn't any kind of argument for adding, well, anything to a (non-retro) game.

Not that I feel one way or the other about it, it doesn't really matter with Xenonauts; your units do not have any kind of idle animations, the maps don't have anything animated, watching a static "hidden movement" screen isn't much different from watching a static battlescape.

Did you really just say that?

A) The game is set in the late 70s.

B) The game it was based on is about 18 years old.

I'd say it's a retro game in both respects.

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Did you really just say that?

A) The game is set in the late 70s.

B) The game it was based on is about 18 years old.

I'd say it's a retro game in both respects.

The setting is in 1970, the game isn't done with 1970ies tech (or isn't even made to look like it was, unlike all the 8bit/16bit indie games coming out today.). Or should we scrap all the graphics in the game and make it look like Pong because the game is set in 1970?

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was also based on a 18 years old game. That didn't make it "retro".

Edited by Kaguya
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A similar thread can be found here if you'd like to read more.

I'm very much on the side of keeping it in there.

- the sudden glimpses of enemy movement behind it add to the tension

- the sounds you hear behind it also add to the tension

- the graphic is atmospheric.

- it's a homage to the original game

- It was an exciting part of the original game, so if it ain't broke...

I would like to have the option of rotating the graphic, just for a bit of variety. This is discussed here.

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The setting is in 1970, the game isn't done with 1970ies tech (or isn't even made to look like it was, unlike all the 8bit/16bit indie games coming out today.). Or should we scrap all the graphics in the game and make it look like Pong because the game is set in 1970?

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was also based on a 18 years old game. That didn't make it "retro".

Have you seen the haircuts that they had in the OG? Or the skintight armor and ridiculous looking guns. I'd say that's pretty retro.

And I coulda sworn that the game was set in 1978/1979 when I read the overview page.

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Have you seen the haircuts that they had in the OG? Or the skintight armor and ridiculous looking guns. I'd say that's pretty retro.

And I coulda sworn that the game was set in 1978/1979 when I read the overview page.

most of every thing in the game is 1970 era except the MK-153 SMAW is 1984 era and the radar in the game is 2000 era

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- the sudden glimpses of enemy movement behind it add to the tension

- the sounds you hear behind it also add to the tension

- the graphic is atmospheric.

- it's a homage to the original game

- It was an exciting part of the original game, so if it ain't broke...

I mostly used that part to make me some tea, drink some of it, or go to the bathroom. Well, computers weren't as fast back in the day, and UFO had a lot of hidden movement.

There just isn't that much tension in ten guys in power suits beating up on a sectoid medium scout.

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Ah, I didn't often have a fully powered squad at any point in the game. So, there was always a chance that something would go wrong. Hence, some excitement.

Not that making tea isn't exciting too. Which to choose Darjeeling or English breakfast?

There's always the option that you pick up again on the Nietzschean terror hidden within the Brownian motion of a cup of tea, and let us get on with enjoying the Hidden Movement. :)

Again it's down to wanting everything that should be in the game, in there, and then adding little toggles for people who want to change one or two aspects of it, for me.

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mm Ill have to side with Thoth on this one, even in fully powered armored, youll get a fleet supply cruzer and half the aliens have blasta launchers (or at least 6 by my count) you got you 16 dudes and 2 expendable tanks but...did he see my man? em I about to hear "Zshwwooooooo BOOM!" are they going to see me and just try shoot at me, is it a group? just one...crap one is worse..."Zshwwooooo BOOM!"

thank god, he just took a guess and nuked the screen next to my troops o.O

...later that mission he didnt guess...RIP you 3

EPIC xD

would have liked better ai in OG though : /

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