OpenXcom Forum

Modding => Work In Progress => Topic started by: winterheart on May 04, 2013, 04:35:35 pm

Title: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: winterheart on May 04, 2013, 04:35:35 pm
During the game I was in a terror mission against snakemen and chryssalids. I had to wipe up whole city, destroying half of the buildings. And I thought that if the government would put up to XCOM bill for caused damage?
Each destroyed element of map have a certain price. Blew up the house - you pay for it. Killed the owners - pay compensation to relatives. Fired a heavy missile to gas station - get ready for a big compensation for devastation.
How's that idea?
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: xracer on May 06, 2013, 06:57:39 pm
I like the idea, i like it a lot, but X-COM is a secret organization, technically as far as i remember they do not exist :)

I think this is the idea of the score and funding, maybe it could be reimplemented, take into account destruction since we already take into account civilians casualties.

If the amount of damage to structures is lets say for example
damage 5%  = -5 performance points
damage 10%  = -15 performance points
damage 25%  = -40 performance points
damage 50%  = -75 performance points
damage 75%  = -100 performance points
damage 95%  = -150 performance points
damage 100%  = -200 performance points

this way they damage will be reflected in our monthly "bill" do too much damage to the structures and governments won't be happy with you.

About the civilians and compensation that could be rather complicated to implement, or a simple $$ value could be assigned to a civilian but then again you are in warfare scenario and will civilians killed by alien be held against X-COM since they actually "failed" to protect them??
I think the way the civilians are treated is fair enough for now, maybe give them a little more weight in score value
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: kkmic on May 07, 2013, 05:25:07 pm
Performance points as payment for damages? I like the idea.
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: 54x on May 26, 2013, 10:24:32 pm
I like the idea, i like it a lot, but X-COM is a secret organization, technically as far as i remember they do not exist :)

I think this is the idea of the score and funding, maybe it could be reimplemented, take into account destruction since we already take into account civilians casualties.

If the amount of damage to structures is lets say for example
damage 5%  = -5 performance points
damage 10%  = -15 performance points
damage 25%  = -40 performance points
damage 50%  = -75 performance points
damage 75%  = -100 performance points
damage 95%  = -150 performance points
damage 100%  = -200 performance points

this way they damage will be reflected in our monthly "bill" do too much damage to the structures and governments won't be happy with you.

About the civilians and compensation that could be rather complicated to implement, or a simple $$ value could be assigned to a civilian but then again you are in warfare scenario and will civilians killed by alien be held against X-COM since they actually "failed" to protect them??
I think the way the civilians are treated is fair enough for now, maybe give them a little more weight in score value

Were we to do this we'd probably need an urban mission bonus of at least a few points to compensate for doing a small amount of damage.
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: xracer on May 28, 2013, 06:56:34 pm
Were we to do this we'd probably need an urban mission bonus of at least a few points to compensate for doing a small amount of damage.

the bonus is you get no penalties :) you know just doing your job, destroy the alien menace, and not the earth while at it ;)

or we can do a little adjustment,

if damage == 0 the pp += 10;

There that should do it :)
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: moriarty on May 28, 2013, 10:15:50 pm
I think what 54x is trying to say that in urban missions, there is almost no way of killing the aliens without doing a whole lot of collateral damage, much more so than in other terrains. so the mission itself should provide some kind of extra bonus - otherwise, you'll always end up with "terrible" ratings even if you save all civilians and kill all aliens.
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: xracer on May 29, 2013, 03:45:38 am
well that is what happens when you destroy a whole village just to kill 3 aliens :P
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: Volutar on May 29, 2013, 08:08:07 am
So it would be more effective to skip mission and let aliens rape whole village, than complete mission with side-effect of destroying of couple of houses
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: 54x on May 29, 2013, 10:25:03 am
I think what 54x is trying to say that in urban missions, there is almost no way of killing the aliens without doing a whole lot of collateral damage, much more so than in other terrains. so the mission itself should provide some kind of extra bonus - otherwise, you'll always end up with "terrible" ratings even if you save all civilians and kill all aliens.

Actually I'm saying that doing a moderate should be roughly the same score as currently if all other performance measures are neutral, and doing no damage at all should reward MORE score. It's perfectly reasonable to do a little damage when ie. missing windows and the world governments would understand that. It might be a bit ridiculous to blaster bomb your way through an entire city, however, and managing to kill all the aliens while doing little to no property damage should actually increase your score, all other things equal.

This is one of those areas where it's rightly harder to score well on the strategic layer while maintaining all of your soldiers and equipment, when you're on the higher difficulty levels. :) If you picked Superhuman you did so for a reason, I hope! :D
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: xracer on May 29, 2013, 05:30:48 pm
I understand your point.

And to a degree I agree, maybe make the penalty less so that way you will have a better score even if you didn't destroy much of the area.
Or there can be a calculation to anticipate the max score, because we know with bigger ships you can get better scores.

at that time we can adjust the amounts of penalty applied.

damage 0%  = 10 performance points
damage 5%  = -2 performance points
damage 10%  = -5 performance points
damage 25%  = -10 performance points
damage 50%  = -25 performance points
damage 75%  = -50 performance points
damage 95%  = -75 performance points
damage 100%  = -100 performance points

or

damage 0%  = 50 performance points
damage 5%  = 10 performance points
damage 10%  = 5 performance points
damage 25%  = -10 performance points
damage 50%  = -25 performance points
damage 75%  = -50 performance points
damage 95%  = -75 performance points
damage 100%  = -100 performance points
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: moriarty on May 31, 2013, 03:38:46 pm
hmmm... does this only apply to human-made structures or to all kind of terrain? if you burn down a part of a jungle, will you get the penalty?

also, do you still get penalty if it was the aliens who did the destruction? I'm thinking of terror mission where aliens shoot blaster bombs...?
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: Nightwolf on May 31, 2013, 03:43:48 pm
Well, you get negative point for Aliens shooting (killing) humans, so...

Anyway i think, the best way to give you more points or lesser, is how fast you did the mission and how much ammo you wasted.
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: 54x on June 01, 2013, 12:09:18 am
hmmm... does this only apply to human-made structures or to all kind of terrain? if you burn down a part of a jungle, will you get the penalty?

also, do you still get penalty if it was the aliens who did the destruction? I'm thinking of terror mission where aliens shoot blaster bombs...?

I was figuring specifically urban missions and any damaged tile would subtract from your score- so if the aliens bring along launchers to their terror party, you pay the price if you don't take them out.
Title: Re: Mod idea: "Damage compensation"
Post by: xracer on June 01, 2013, 05:02:43 am
also, do you still get penalty if it was the aliens who did the destruction? I'm thinking of terror mission where aliens shoot blaster bombs...?
Well, you get negative point for Aliens shooting (killing) humans, so...

I agree with Nightwolf, or what i think he is implying, since is your fault that you didn't protect it, you should get negative points.

hmmm... does this only apply to human-made structures or to all kind of terrain? if you burn down a part of a jungle, will you get the penalty?

We are trying to protect the whole earth :P you can't just go around destroying the rainforest!!!! :)