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Suggestions / Re: Multiplayer via UFO2000 project
« on: October 12, 2012, 04:39:09 pm »I made the UFO2000 installer, do I count as a developer?
You might not need to create a direct interface between both programs. IIRC UFO2000 has some kind of save/script support, so a simpler approach would be to just generate a file with the mission data that would be loaded into UFO2000, play a game, and put the results back in OpenXcom.
Anyways that's besides the point. Supporting multiplayer is not an "implementation" issue, it's a "gameplay" issue. This is the kind of discussion that goes around and around over and over again, people always think "hey what if the other side had a human?", that it'd be that simple, that it'd be fun. But I don't think playing X-Com multiplayer is an enjoyable experience. You can't just "tack on" multiplayer to it.
Let me clarify. X-Com is designed to be a struggle, a challenge for the player. The odds aren't in your favor. You have to fight your way from the bottom until you can finally top them. It's a reverse difficulty curve where you start as difficult as possible and only start easing up as you gain leverage on them. It's a brutal yet enjoyable experience, but it's not balanced. The aliens are better than you, stronger than you, more powerful than you. By default it's an unforgiving punishing game and that's just with an alien AI. With an alien human, well you might as well just sit down and take it because you've pushed so far against you you're gonna have a hard time ever winning or having fun. Blaster bombs and mind control are insta-game-overs. I'm not making this up, people have tried this.
Basically if you wanted proper X-Com multiplayer you'd have to redesign the game from scratch to make sure it's balanced and fun for both sides, like UFO2000 and UFO:TTS did, and that's not really within our scope right now.
I understand your point. But there was already a popular project : UFO : The Two Sides, which was shut down for whatever reason. Yes the game would have to be re-designed ultimately, but having the ability to have LAN, at a vanilla state of the game, would provide added interest for the game. For added difficulty people tend to limit their use of psi and blaster launchers, there are various challenges that you would play, various tech levels, forbidden tech. After all this is a LAN game with a person you know, not an internet tryhard that will do everything just to win.
AI is fun, but only for so long, openxcom seems to promise an ultimately moddable game, and the major issues could be fixed, even on personal basis. LAN games will spice up the otherwise dumb AI that was present both in EU and TFTD. And heck, I always wished to play with that crysalid.
PS. where in the internet games the developers are forced to develop a balanced and unexploitable game, since otherwise the player base would exploit every little trick just to win, in personal LAN vs friend game people tend to be able to achieve the agreement to have enjoyable and fun game, even with major lack of balance. UFO2000 lacks hugely the geoscape aspect of the game, and focuses purely on battlescape, so completely uneven matches would simply ruin the game, where in vanilla xcom, having most of your squad killed, and the remaining guys scrambling to get back to the skyranger was not too uncommon, and definitely did not ruin the game.
PSS. With additional option to turn on AI for some battles (where its more of a fast 3 turn psi cleanup) would completely remove the routine boredom of high-tech missions for the 2nd player.
