Just another bunch of suggestions

[ziame]

1. Enemy statistics

I wouldn't mind having alien statistics available in-game. I do like the way you guys handled the GC, that you can't see hitpoints and such, but IMO after capturing/researching an alien, I should be able to view in-game how much hitpoints they got, what they're resistant to etc.

Simply adding some stats to the end of autopsy report would be cool.

2. Enemy status

Basically, make it similar to Air Combat in GC. Hover over enemy and it says like "unharmed" "wounded" "serious injury". Not hitpoints or percents, just "observable" info.

3. Soviet Union

Now, this is a big one. There are three problems with Soviet Union.

First, it encompasses countries that never were affiliated with SU (Austria...)

Solution: move the borders a bit

Second, it encompasses countries that never were an actual part of SU (Poland, Hungary *satellite countries/ vassals*). Some people may take offense to that. Do we want people taking offense to that?

Solution: change the name from "Soviet Union" to "Warsaw Pact"

Third, it's just so damn big compared to other blocks.

Solution: split into SU West/SU East?

4. Charlie transport's space

Right now, it looks weird, that there are 3 places left and soldiers cannot be put there. While I can explain it being the place for loot and booty, some may think it's a bug.

Solution: remove three squares from Charlie or place red Xs over them

5. Alien names

Just a really loose suggestion. The names are great and all, Sebillians, Harridan, they sound cool but are... out of place. How do we know they are called that? If those were soldier-given names, they would be "greys" and "lizards" and "flyers"; were they scientist-given, they would be "reptilians" "engineers" etc.

The names are just out of the blue. But that's a minor nitpick from me.

6. Air Combat Evade

Very minor, as we have keyboard shortcuts, but now, there is only one "evade" button in the craft control, which is seemingly random in choosing left/right.

Solution: add another evade button on the other side of craft image, corresponding to the direction(right side of the craft, evade to right etc)

7. Crash log

Now this is a big one from me. It's really annoying when the game crashes and you have no way of knowing what went wrong. It would also help you, the developers. Game crashes, I check what went wrong, try and fix it; post a bug report on forum "Problem with XXX, possible solution included".

8. Ironman backups

Very minor, but it would be great if the game auto-backed up the previous save game. (game breaking bugs and all)

(and please, don't give me "GIVING A WAY TO CHEAT" argument. If someone wants to save-scumm, he will regardless)

9. Soldier Equip screen improvement:

Do away with collapsing menus. Collapsing menus are the work of Satan. Change the "switch role" option should be accessible by clicking the class icon, "set as default eq" should be just a button somewhere. The menus are just extra click here. (very minor, obviously, but would improve the looks and feel of that menu)

10. Research project

Let me commence project even when there are no scientists left. (Especially that it auto-assigns all scientists to project, so I have to deduce guys from project, then commence etc, waste of clicks)

11. Ground combat

While it's really cool right now, and I'm seriously liking it, there are some quirks:

a) burst fire through window stops every bullet. Self explaining I think. I can get behind stopping one bullet, but not a whole burst.

b) add smash window option for 5 TUs, to save them bullets (why not open? No new sprites needed with smash)

c) Civilians running into UFOs, seriously that needs fixing

d) I don't know how feasible that is, but taking control of nearest locals would be GREAT. So that I can get them out of the way, use local forces to bolster my attack etc

e) I would love some "firing arc" view. Explanation: I hit a button, say "T", and around the selected soldier I can see green cone, as long as range, for effective weapon range and extra TUs needed for turn, yellow for 1 TU, red for 2 extra TU etc. Very minor and yet very useful.

Bonus points:

Perhaps make it so the firing arcs are shown from the "last place the soldier's in": without movement order, it is shown around soldier, with order, it shows around the last place he'll end up at.

f) actual advantages and disadvantages to ducking:

example: soldier behind low cover, when ducking gets more "blocked" from the shots aimed at him (so that alien shooting a standing soldier behind low cover has 50% block, ducking soldier 75%), but also gets penalties to aim(due to view obstructed by cover).

Bonus points:

ducking in the open lowering chance to hit, but increasing chance for crit; also boosting aim

12. Vehicle storage

Very minor but would be very cool: a limited cargo space in vehicles, that might be used for

a) vehicle extra ammo (should take much space, like one extra clip taking whole space)

b) soldier extra EQ (ammo, grenades, medkits)

c) perhaps collecting loot in the future

13. Dropship usage in GC

This one would net you some great props from players.

>Soldier is wounded and laying on the ground

>Pick up soldier

>Drop him in dropship

>Wounded guy gets 50% more chances to survive

would be great to cut losses on aborted missions

and second one:

>stun alien / kill new alien

>realise mission is unwinnable at this point

>bring corpses/EQ to dropship

>earn research credit ONLY FOR THOSE as if the mission was won

Might net some negative relations points for balance "Xenonauts flew in, killed some guys, collected them and ran the hell away, wtf is wrong with those guys".

That's all folks, thanks for the read. If some things are present in the game and I haven't noticed them, feel free to insult me.

[Max_Caine]

Regarding enemy statistics. Wouldn't you find it jarring to go from prose to hard stats?

[ziame]

Regarding enemy statistics. Wouldn't you find it jarring to go from prose to hard stats?

That's just a suggestion. Personally I would add another 'chapter' to Xenopedia with Alien stats,

or structure the window with separate area for stats. I've even drawn the window but html broke it. :<

Something like this:

https://imageshack.com/i/5i7x4hp

Edited January 13, 2014 by ziame

[Gorlom]

5. The name "Sebillian" seems to be a reference to the language the reptilian race in Everquest speaks.

Maybe the other names are also subtle references that once you discover them adds to your enjoyment?

[ziame]

5. The name "Sebillian" seems to be a reference to the language the reptilian race in Everquest speaks.

Maybe the other names are also subtle references that once you discover them adds to your enjoyment?

Ha! I never played Everquest, so the reference rings hollow. And again, a bit anachronistic in that case, as Everquest hadn't yet been created by that point in time. Anyway that's just a minor nitpick, thinking out loud you know.

[Chris]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm a bit pressed for time and you've written such a long post I can't really hope to reply to them all, but I have read them