Messages

1

XPiratez / Re: Think's Think Tank & Suggestions

« on: April 25, 2016, 07:36:37 am »

E.
Research

1. Nearing the mid-game there are several issues with a lack of research topics, and it generally takes a long time to find a new one, this can be solved by several different ways. The first is to introduce more research topics, with a greater chance of finding a new one per mission. The second option is to introduce some blueprints for very valuable weapons that you can find several of to construct a complete blueprint, which you can then use to research a topic of your choice (more blueprints = more valuable topics). What this would do is give a common item you can find in most UFOs (would be very abundant in Bases, less so in ships, and little-none in terror missions). The third option is to introduce a reusable research option available to the beginning of the game called "Experiment" which would take a long time to research (30-ish days for 4 Brainers) and the reward would be a new research option that is in your same tech level, so there is essentially no possibility that a low-tier player would get instant access to lasers or plasma weapons. This would effectively always give you a way to progress, even if you absolutely hit a wall, and would also solve much of the "hunt for that one item" syndrome currently experienced. It may be difficult to implement, but it would be beneficial to the overall game. Research topics actually provide a crucial part of X-Com's cycle of play, where you go to the battlefield, research, and manufacture, rinse and repeat. Many people don't realize it but research provides much of the incentive to continue playing the game, because the hope of better gear to use and fight others with is a very addictive cycle, and with an absence of research the game grinds to a slow crawl, and the player loses a lot of interest.

I really like this one.  This is the problem I have, that it's very unclear what the next "research objectives" are and without intimate knowledge of the tech tree, you have no idea what to go after next to make progress.  I've actually ran into this particular issue on more than one occasion.  Granted, the obvious solution is to capture enemies with prejudice, but that's not always a good or even feasible idea.  Not without huge risks that could very possibly not be worth the payoff.

I don't know how I feel about the weapon/air combat booster ideas.  I'm not saying they're bad, they're quite good conceptually, but I feel like each weapon should specialize itself, not the boosters.  And the different vessels fill different niches themselves, without needing specific boosters to differentiate them.  Your suggestions would definitely add the ability to make a very specialized vessel, like say taking the Barracuda and giving it the dodge boost and make an almost unhittable target for the enemies.  But if you look carefully thru the bootypedia and the wiki it becomes very clear that each ship fulfills a very specific role.  Maybe a bigger focus on the weapons on the ships?  I don't know what other items are available as you get farther, but all I have is the 10% acc boost and the speed boost items for vessels, so even this may be a moot point.

As I've said I'm not terribly far into the game, so I can't exactly comment on the rest to much degree, but it all sounds pretty good in theory at least.  Regardless of necessity, the biggest problem you would run into is viability via coding for all these things.  Although the devs are pretty smart, so I would actually bank on them knowing of way to implement your suggestions, instead of my usual "I don't think that's possible" view of things.

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XPiratez / Re: How does 'choking' damage work?

« on: April 25, 2016, 07:19:17 am »

So, the answer is not only complicated, but not even really an answer? Or maybe I just misunderstood it.

But one premise that I don't think anyone actually answered is how you can tell which choking weapons only stun and which ones do actual health dmg.

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XPiratez / Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod

« on: April 25, 2016, 07:14:15 am »

For the most part, the reason I play the way I do is to see how things work.  At this point it's mostly to learn about the tech tree and the requirements to get past certain points in it.  It's the only limiting factor I still have at this point.  Once I'm more familiar with what it takes to get certain technologies, I plan on going back and playing at a higher difficulty without cheesing, but right now it's simply to avoid frustration while learning key things.

4

XPiratez / Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod

« on: April 18, 2016, 11:18:13 am »

I for one feel like the game is well-balanced.  The only problem I have is research being gated with semi-unclear requirements as to what unlocks the next set.  Obviously, working with an old game there are certain limitations to what hints you can give, or make apparent.  And this is not even a complaint, exactly, it's a minor frustration that is greatly overshadowed by the rest of the genius work this mod is.

Improving on this mod is probably going to be difficult.  I only play on difficulty 1 and savescum because I'm not terribly good at this game, and RNGesus seriously hates me SO much.  I would like to thank all of you guys that are involved in this project and that have contributed.  As something that originally just caught my interest and made think I'd spend a few hours messing around with it, this game has consumed almost all of my playtime for the last 2 weeks.

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XPiratez / Re: Miniguns and vulcan guns

« on: April 16, 2016, 11:38:59 am »

I got 3, not entirely intentional, but I took it.  2 were in a hallway on a supply ship.  1 was just past the corner.  The 2 were standing 2 squares apart, slightly diagonal, so I was happy but not surprised.  3rd guy I was shocked about.  Almost felt bad.  Spray and pray ftw!

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XPiratez / Re: Sorta stuck advice appreciated.

« on: April 16, 2016, 11:25:57 am »

I've run into similar problems with the tech requirements.  I've captured and interrogated everything that comes in up to medium sized ships to the point that I can't interrogate any more.  All the "free research topics" are used up. And the only items that give me any more of those random ones are the humanist files.  Except I've exhausted the academy engineers too.  I've yet to come across AND capture the top tier units with the exception of a guildmaster, but the 2nd one captured doesn't give me a research topic for his code, despite the fact that I've researched The Solar Governor and had the game TELL ME to do that.

Idea?  I mentioned this in my own post on the tech topic, but I'd like to reiterate here since it's a possible solution: Some tech should possibly be unlockable thru sheer numbers.

I have taken apart about 150 different laser guns.  Of varying types.  If my Brainers can't figure out how they work and how to make them after breaking them down DOZENS of times, they're all fired.  And maybe tier it?  So it takes X for laser tech, and 2X for gauss (though this may be a simpler technology, though 2X still makes sense since they seem to be higher dmg), and since Plasma is final tier (?) make it take 10X or maybe even not possible thru simple disassembling them?

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XPiratez / Re: Suggestions on how to improve the mod

« on: April 16, 2016, 11:07:51 am »

So here's my take on all of this talk:

Does it thematically fit that you produce metric shittons of grog to sell on market to fund your crew and operations?  Probably not.

Does it work well as a game mechanic?  Hell, YES.

While there's a lot of things that have changed from vanilla to this mod, almost all of which is super in depth and wonderful, when the game requires you to manage certain resources to keep playing, making that more complicated may not be the better solution.  Even if it breaks the immersion a little.  So while producing X-grog to offset your maintenance costs is a little not-so-pirate-y, it makes sense from a purely gameplay perspective.  If you have an alternative that doesn't bog you down in TONS of micromanagement, that might elicit a better response and I'd be all ears myself.  But in game with SO much to do already, making something that works as it should more complicated for little to no reason is probably not constructive.

That being said, I agree about making looting ships would make it feel more thematically fitting.  BUT, I also understand Dixione's argument about adding purely "sell only" items is actually just going to clutter things up more.  While it would be more fitting of the feel of the mod, it isn't entirely necessary.  Would it be cool and fun and give incentive to attack that large cruiser that could be carrying tons of cargo but has units up the wazoo?  Sure.  But does it unbalance things?  That's debatable, and I'm probably going to end up siding with the dev on this one, regardless of what I'd "like to see".

Lastly, and this is kind of not important since it's been stated that coding the market thing would be hard and I can't see too many people willingly taking on that headache, but I'm really against that idea.  Unless you'd like to throw in different items to manufacture that take no materials, you're just shooting yourself in the foot.  This comes back to the realism/game balance argument above.  It makes much more "sense", but needlessly drags you down into managing things that don't add any major value to the game.

Just my 2 cents.

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XPiratez / Tech Tree questions

« on: April 16, 2016, 10:41:50 am »

So I've been at this for weeks trying to learn more, and despite the huge boost in popularity in this mod since the RPS article, there's still not a lot of info.  I know there's the googledocs thing that let's you search for specific techs and shows all the things that lead to it and from it.  And I also understand the tech tree is massive, and so interconnected a picture would be nigh impossible.  But would it be possible to draw up something that shows the major points?  Like, capturing and interrogating unit x leads to research b, f, g, which are massive categories like laser tech, armor sets 2, and room whatever?

I don't know how much sense I'm making, but I keep hitting roadblocks with research.  Despite capturing and interrogating every variation of unit I come across.  And disassembling my 10th gauss/laser/plasma weapon.  I understand locking things behind the "gates" like you have, but after a certain point, wouldn't they be able to use figure some things out thru simple experimentation?  Like, I have HUNDREDS (being literal here) of energy weapon parts and the gauss equivalent (name escapes me atm).  My Brainers are well past the point (and it kind of talks about this point in some of the research reports, too, so it fits lore-wise) where they can break down that singular component and figure out how it works and how to make it.  Even if it's just thru pure numbers.

It's entirely possible I'm just missing some piece of the puzzle.  RNG really REALLY hates me.  Always has.  But I can't interrogate anything I capture anymore, and that includes things like Guildmasters, and yet I have maybe 1/4th of the armors and 1/8th of the weapons unlocked.  Obviously when the wiki becomes more complete, this would be a moot point, but until then, I am SERIOUSLY stuck.