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Static vs. percentage-based TU costs


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So I recall that back in the v20 build, TU costs to fire weapons were static. That is, for a snap shot, it cost 20 TU to fire, period, no matter how much or little total TU your soldier has.

However, now, like in X-Com, the cost to fire a weapon is scaled in proportion to how many time units your soldier has. I think this is flawed.

It's my understanding that TU is, essentially, a measure of how fast your soldiers are. How fast they can run, how fast they can turn, how fast they can bring their weapon to bear and fire. All that. So I don't understand why the soldiers that are faster take more time to shoot? It makes no sense. To me, a soldier that is faster should be able to shoot more times in the same turn.

Thoughts? Comments? Reasons why I'm an idiot?

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I agree but the devs changed it because veterans were too good in comparison with rookies, and the high level aliens were too deadly.

Instead of tweaking the system already in place they re-invented the wheel in a ham-handed attempt to solve everything with one solution and here we are.

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The old system was broken so got replaced.

The current system is far closer to achieving the balance the devs want.

Maybe the old system could have been tweaked to make it into a less broken system but I am not convinced.

Legit sees it as reinventing the wheel while I see it as throwing out the system that was sub par and replacing it with one that performs its function better.

In fact this is the same system as the original game Xenonauts is based on so technically the current system IS the wheel while the system legit prefers is the failed reinvention.

Feel free to make a balance pass and demonstrate that the old system was not as broken as I think it was if you are attached to it.

I would be happy to look over it once you post up the modded files if time permits.

Neither one is perfect and I would like to see another used but I don't think there is time left to develop a new system.

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I don't mind the new system, there is only one tiny annoyance though... With the static time unit cost it was really easy to reserve time units for a snap shot, since you knew it was always 20 TU's, so you didn't have to use the reserve TU toggle switch painstakingly for every soldier at the start of each mission (and fiddle with it throughout when you preferred running that little extra distance)

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I agree, that is an unfortunate aspect of the current system.

The system I would prefer would have static costs to make this easier.

The percentage system is halfway between the old system and the one I would like.

Sadly it isn't possible to add a new type of time unit to run alongside the current ones so I can't mod in my preference.

I don't think it would be a quick addition to the code either so I doubt Chris would want to risk the bugs it could cause to add it either.

*edit*

Incidentally what do you think of the suggestion to add the shot costs to the movement path?

Edited by Gauddlike
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Thank you for the replies. I read through Chris's post that was linked and it's honestly convinced me. I hadn't thought of it as representing mobility of movement but keeping weapon movement/fire speed the same. That is, if we (for sake of argument) see each turn as representing 10 seconds, that means that a person with 60 TU moves 20% faster than a person with 50 TU in that space of time, but no matter how many TU a person has, it still takes (for a 30% cost action) 3 seconds to raise, aim, and fire the gun. I think that's reasonable to say.

One suggestion I have to address the varying numbers to reserve and the chore of setting every unit to reserve enough for a snap shot: Have a button on the UI near the slider to the effect of "apply to all units", which would apply the current unit's setting to all of your units. Possibly also in the soldier equip base screen, there could be an option for "default TU reserve" or something like that.

*edit*

Incidentally what do you think of the suggestion to add the shot costs to the movement path?

That'd be awesome. Just have small text at the points in the path that say "snap" or "normal" or "aimed" or "burst" that indicate how far you can move and still have enough time to shoot.

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I agree but the devs changed it because veterans were too good in comparison with rookies, and the high level aliens were too deadly.

Instead of tweaking the system already in place they re-invented the wheel in a ham-handed attempt to solve everything with one solution and here we are.

I like ham.

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reserve TU toggle switch painstakingly for every soldier at the start of each mission

Why need to move it if you can just look at it? I don't know why some one need this reserving, maybe because "legacy" . One turn you don't need to shoot at all, other turn you need to kneel and burst and another turn maybe move, snap and move. Path is shows how many will remain after you move and slider shows how many you need, not very difficult.

What I want is allways see number in grenade slot how many will cost throwing of this granade.

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That'd be awesome. Just have small text at the points in the path that say "snap" or "normal" or "aimed" or "burst" that indicate how far you can move and still have enough time to shoot.

I think that was Aarons suggestion on how to display the information, I was just asking what people thought about it rather than claiming it ;)

Why need to move it if you can just look at it? I don't know why some one need this reserving, maybe because "legacy" . One turn you don't need to shoot at all, other turn you need to kneel and burst and another turn maybe move, snap and move. Path is shows how many will remain after you move and slider shows how many you need, not very difficult.

What I want is allways see number in grenade slot how many will cost throwing of this granade.

I only use the reserve if I am planning on moving a long distance quickly but there is some risk of an enemy so I don't need to manually check each time, I can just look at the yellow boxes.

If I need fine control of the actions I turn it off.

Good idea on the grenade TU costs, not sure where I would display it without being cluttered.

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