Messages

6976

Tools / Re: does OXC has autogenerated offline ufopedia from mod content ?

« on: September 15, 2016, 11:09:52 pm »

Thanks Meridan,
I was think about inbuilt option to check stuff during game by entering ufopedia for a moment by middle click.
Tom

Yes, that is actually very easy to integrate.
It's just a few lines of code.
If DEVs show interest, I will prepare a PR.

6977

XPiratez / Re: Heat vision formulas and statistics

« on: September 15, 2016, 11:02:28 pm »

Isn't the ability to change a TPK into a clean sweep with a couple of clicks the very definition of cheesiness?

Yes, it is.
Well said.

I wouldn't say it's cheesy.  It can be all the difference between a clean sweep and having a blaster bomb flown into Skyranger turn 2. Would that be fun?

On top of Dioxine's excellent comment... the chance of blaster launcher on turn 2 in vanilla Xcom is exactly 0%.
AI is allowed to use blaster launchers (and also grenades!) only from turn 3...

6978

XPiratez / Re: Heat vision formulas and statistics

« on: September 15, 2016, 10:30:21 pm »

I'm curious: How can you make nerf smoke such that edge camping isn't efficient anymore, yet keep it useful to other circumstances (most importantly, covering disembarkation).

Good that you mention it.
"Map-edge smoke-camping" is not much of an interest to me, whoever uses it is "selber schuld" ("it's their own fault" in English I guess or something like that). Such players are either too new to the game and are just trying to survive; or too cheesy to deserve our attention. It takes a lot of time to set it up and they are basically just punishing themselves.

What I would like to see being less effective than it is right now is exactly the disembarkation cover... it should hurt. "Smoke and wait 1 turn" is definitely in the "Cheesiest Top 3" and unlike the previous cheese, it takes only seconds to set up and perform. It's so damn easy and effective that even I can't help myself and use it a lot more than I'm ready to admit. And to prevent this (especially with craft which are not on ground level) even very small levels of ThV are already enough

6979

Tools / Re: does OXC has autogenerated offline ufopedia from mod content ?

« on: September 15, 2016, 06:35:17 pm »

Any chance to integrate ufopedia into vanilla ?

What do you mean? Ufopedia is part of vanilla.

Btw i was rather thinking about something offline that could generate documentation like the one created for Piratez. Thanks.

My change is in-game and will be able to generate output offline.

6980

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: September 15, 2016, 04:51:41 pm »

Code: [Select]

      - name: AREA51BASE79
        width: 10
        length: 10
        items:
          STR_COLT45:
            - [4, 1, 0]
          STR_COLT45_CLIP:
            - [4, 1, 0]
            - [4, 1, 0]
          STR_GRENADE_FRAG:
            - [2, 14, 1]

Map block size is only 10x10, but frag grenade is on position [2, 14, 1]... in case when this block is on the edges of the map, it will crash, because it will be outside of map borders.

In this case:
- map size(60, 60, 10)
- position(2, 14, 1) + offset(10, 50, 0) = position(12, 64, 1)

6981

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: September 15, 2016, 02:20:48 pm »

It fails during map generation, trying to place a frag grenade... probably trying to place it outside of map boundaries.

I'll have a closer look in the evening.

6982

XPiratez / Heat vision formulas and statistics

« on: September 15, 2016, 12:42:50 pm »

Continuation of discussion on YouTube...

1. There is a big difference between even 90% and 100% (max value I used is 80%, by the way). Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

In practical terms there is no difference between 90% and 100%.
Can you give me an example of a scenario so that we can run the numbers on it?

2. Not really triple, since half is usually more than enough (smoke gren dropped under your feet gives 360 protection). So actually double should insulate fully against up to ~70% ThV.

In theory, ideal non-overlapping double smoke cloud from standard smoke grenade protects against approx. 85-97% ThV, depending on distance between units.

But that is extremely theoretical!
Any of the following decreases the protection significantly:
a/ enemy moving towards you (inside the smoke)
b/ enemy flanking you (around the smoke) -- this makes the most difference
c/ each turn decreases smoke density

EDIT: I removed the numbers, since they depends heavily on distance to target. But the decrease in protection can be anywhere between 0 and two thirds.

3. The world is full of psychos, and there are weapons to smoke up whole map; also player has their own ThV so can play this to their advantage.

Fair enough, I haven't seen such weapons yet.
But psychos will always find a way.
Point I am trying to make is that smoke should give some protection and/or advantage to you too... but if you say that player has their own ThV too, maybe it's already balanced... I haven't looked which armor has ThV and how much.
Majority of players are not like hellrazor (I think), in my opinion the balance should be for an average player, not for the cheesiest of the cheesiest.

4. Only few enemy factions have more than 60% ThV. Most enemies have either 0 or 40-60. They're usually mixed. So smoke does help but you gotta use hard cover too.

I still think 60% is too much (unless the player has easy-ish access to powerful-ish ThV too of course).

Already 20% gives them the ability to completely negate "mutual surprise", which is the biggest factor (in my opinion).
40% gives them a window to spend their full TUs on reaction fire before you even spot them (in most common cases).

Linked is a Google Docs sheet, which you can use to calculate the effectiveness of ThV.
It works well for turn zero and non-overlapping smoke clouds.
With overlapping smoke clouds, margin for error should be around 10% (normal 10%, not flat).
With passing turns, margin for error should be also around 10% (not flat) until 6 turns or so, then it becomes bigger (I didn't test how much exactly).

PS: for others a table to have a rough idea how much ThV guarantees to see through smoke walls with different thickness under perfect conditions:

Note: numbers differ significantly with total distance to target, this example is with 14 tiles between units

3-4 tiles: heat vision 0%
5 tiles: heat vision 19%
6 tiles: heat vision 33%
7 tiles: heat vision 42%
8 tiles: heat vision 50%
9 tiles: heat vision 55%
10 tiles: heat vision 60%

Please note that these percentages guarantee visibility even under perfect conditions.
Under imperfect (i.e. normal) conditions, these numbers drop significantly as described above.

6983

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99C.1 - 10 Sep - Become an Idol!

« on: September 15, 2016, 12:25:11 pm »

Well, it's a natural thing that only people who are dissatisfied give feedback.

No, that's just not true.
If it was true, we would have only same/similar opinions about a given topic everywhere.

The normal case is 50/50, if it's a yes/no topic; or totally random if it's a multiple choice topic.
Many people regularly (daily) fight here over all sorts of topics... some think Psi is overpowered, some think Psi is underpowered. Some want to remove feature A (dissatisfied), some want to keep feature A under all circumstances (satisfied). Both groups give feedback.

PS: it's natural to give only negative feedback if you can't influence anything (e.g. bug reports to Microsoft or Google)... if there is even the slightest chance that someone will listen to you and maybe even take inspiration from you, you'll give tons of positive feedback too

6984

Tools / Re: does OXC has autogenerated offline ufopedia from mod content ?

« on: September 15, 2016, 10:04:59 am »

OXCE+ has a built-in Tech Tree Viewer: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4697.msg66743.html#msg66743

And I am working also on the "Ruleset Visualizer" with export to text file possibility: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4850.0.html
(one of the uses would be to make the work of people maintaining Piratez wiki easier... I think that might be what you're looking for)

6985

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99C.1 - 10 Sep - Become an Idol!

« on: September 15, 2016, 10:00:12 am »

I envision it as you're basically locked between sell and tranfer screens, freely switchable, with 'done' button appearing when problems are solved either way.

Yeah, that's probably the only practical way at the moment.
Let's see if I can force the screens to do my bidding.

6986

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99C.1 - 10 Sep - Become an Idol!

« on: September 15, 2016, 09:27:05 am »

You know, usually in all discussions and threads, people have very different opinions about a given topic.
This is the first discussion in months, where all players give identical feedback.
Not listening to this feedback is of course your right, arguing (even with rock-solid arguments) is also your right, ... it's just not "smart" (I can't find a right english word, I hope you know what I mean).

- We all experience tedium with alien containment, if you don't, it doesn't mean others don't either. Maybe you are the only one?
- I also have alien containment in all 8 bases... but that doesn't help... sorry but you simply DON'T have 288 tiles... the only time when you have problems with alien containment is after the mission (debriefing)... at that time you have access ONLY to 36 tiles... and that's a big fucking difference.

Anyway, I agree we can cut the discussion. You've clearly made your mind already.

PS: for others... I wanted to make that "transfer feature" in debriefing yesterday... and it would be very easy with one alien containment type... but since we have unlimited number of containment types since recently, it became a much harder task I really regret I agreed to implement that stupid feature. I'll implement the transfer eventually, but it will take some time... and probably it won't have any GUI (with unlimited containment types, I couldn't think of any way of visualizing the process).

6987

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99C.1 - 10 Sep - Become an Idol!

« on: September 14, 2016, 08:51:51 pm »

From what I've seen on LPs, the default mid-game tactic against weaker factions (Traders or below) is: plate mail + shield -> stunning everyone with shields. So it is an issue.
But do I think it poses a problem with prisons? Not really. I'm with Dioxine here.

We all understand the reasoning... it's flawless. You're absolutely right! Just saying that the gameplay experience suffers... what's right is not always the best.

Anyway, as suggested, I am implementing a feature to send the extra prisoners to other bases at random automatically... then I can capture all 80 deep ones, keep 15 and send the rest to a dedicated alien containment base for further processing into pies.

6988

XPiratez / Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - 0.99C.1 - 10 Sep - Become an Idol!

« on: September 13, 2016, 11:55:37 pm »

I believe the stress was on the "more compact" storage, e.g. 40 beings instead of 15.
It's not the money that's scarce in this game, it's the building space...

6989

Work In Progress / Re: regions within regions?

« on: September 13, 2016, 06:49:06 pm »

Just like that?
Won't you tell us what you're planning to do with it?

6990

Open Feedback / Re: How Often do You Use the Heavy Cannon?

« on: September 13, 2016, 11:31:42 am »

Early on, I use:
- 60% rifles
- 25% heavy cannon + HE ammo
- 10% rocket launcher
- 5% heavy explosives