Ground combat: Friendly NPCs game mechanic

[hawk66]

Hi,

I've learned that the game will contain friendly, armed NPCs (law enforcement, other soldiers(?)). Is the design already finalized - so how does this feature influence game mechanics ?

For example, do the friendly NPCs attack the aliens by themselves etc.?

Anyways, I like the idea very much, since it adds more variety to the game.

Thanks.

Edited December 30, 2012 by hawk66

[thothkins]

HI,

Yes there are already friendly forces in the game, who can help you combat the alien menace. There are different ones, depending on the type of map that is used for the mission - riflemen with parkas on for the Arctic, policemen for the industrial ones etc.

I have had a few aliens picked off by local forces. They do attack the aliens independently of the Xenonauts.

They are also useful to get a bearing on where the aliens are located on the maps.

There's some suggestion that their weapons may improve throughout the game, as the technology released by the Xenonauts to the funding councils also improves.

This ties in nicely with the plan to have local air interception take care of the smaller craft at some point later in the game, allowing the Xenonauts to focus on the larger craft.

[hawk66]

That sounds cool

Another option might be that in some scenarios you are the supreme commander of the battlefield and give the friendly NPCs/squads high level orders (e.g. defend this sector, rescue civilians in that sector).

I'd love such an option, although I understand that this would be not so easy to implement and has probably not a high priority.

Anyways, what do you guys think about it from a feature point of view?

[thothkins]

When the local forces and civilians have come up, it has mostly been to try to control the civilians as in this thread. Mainly due to the original EU game in 1994 having them run into your line of fire and standing in doorways, just when you needed to get through. See also Buddhist civilian thread for how silly they can be sometimes

Someone did bring up communicating with the local forces - but possibly stalled on how this would be done in game and on possible language barriers etc.

The other consideration for the local forces has mainly been around air interception, as mentioned.

Here are a few local forces pics to give you a better idea how cool they are.

[Commissar Pancakes]

Speaking of...anyone notice that the local forces change sprites to a Xenonaut whenever firing?

[thothkins]

That's the Xenonaut Outreach programme. To ensure that funding nations don't do terrible things with the r&d that Xenonauts will give them, or be infiltrated by aliens, Xenonauts has positioned agents within them.

The sprite change is simply the game giving you a nod that this is the case. Cunning really, and not an oversight at all I'm sure.

[Commissar Pancakes]

Then that's a lot of dead undercover Xenonaut agents...

[thothkins]

people always ask. If there's an alien invasion, why don't the funding nations give more. Well, they do. It's just that the vast majority fo ti goes to the Outreach Programme to ensure local coordination against the enemy.