Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - 54x

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 13
1
Programming / Re: OpenXcom 1.1
« on: December 22, 2014, 08:49:04 am »
Yankes, 1.1 version, besides obvious gameplay fixes and patches, and tftd supporting things, should also include noticeable amount of "quality of life" things, to be much more attractive than 1.0. And there are not much of them right now. Need some more. And then, perhaps, new milestone will popup. I guess it will be first months of 2015.

What urgent QoL changes do we need for 1.1? Really QoL changes can be added at any point that we're NOT trying to lock down bugs and create a milestone build.

2
Programming / Re: OpenXcom 1.1
« on: December 21, 2014, 09:46:44 am »
I'm pretty sure a lot of the discussions about what to use which milestone numbers for included at least partial TFTD support for 1.1.

And if Warboy has to break mods in an upcoming patch, he might as well branch the development for TFTD, and figure out as many things he'll need to break as possible, so he can break them all at once.

3
Programming / Re: OpenTFTD Question
« on: December 21, 2014, 09:42:58 am »
Pretty sure you've got the right approach. It needs to be at least partially playable before it's worth doing any TFTD-related nightlies.

4
Offtopic / Re: What do you think has caused OpenXcom to succeed?
« on: July 20, 2014, 03:42:27 am »
Hmmm... I don't know.

Did you ever play Worms 2? Did you ever try customising it? I loved every aspect of tweaking the gameplay. What happened when I bought the Worms Armageddon - you can pick power 1-5. meh. Being able to decided how much spread from the minigun, and how many bullets it contained made for some interesting battles.

At the same time, yes, you can get lost in the customisation, and spend longer tweaking than playing.

But just because there's a large number of available options, doesn't mean you have to - or even should - play them all.

I would never turn Ironman mode on, and argue that that can be mimic'd outside of the game without needing to be coded in; but I won't knock the game for having it.

Yeah, I think the important part of this is that you have to be careful how you present the choices to players so as not to overwhelm them. OpenXcom has been good about this.

It might be better if we categorised the advanced options and consolidated them a bit at some point, but at least the complications are properly hidden away. :)

5
It's a solid re-imagining of XCOM that follows modern conventions rather than trying to be a 100% faithful remake. If you go in expecting it to be old XCOM you'll probably be disappointed, but it's a great game if judged on its own merits.

Agree that the support is not the best and the DLC is meh. The expansion is worthwhile though, and they've fixed a lot of stuff with it.

6
Programming / Re: Option for autofire recoil
« on: July 19, 2014, 03:17:47 pm »
IMHO the idea, while interesting mathematically, is subject to Occham's Razor - adding a lot complexity for inconsequential in-game effect. Why?

1. The current autoshot accuracy averages the recoil in already, that's why it's lower than snap shot accuracy. Game-wise it doesn't make any difference if the separate bullets have varied or constant hit chances, as long as the average accuracy holds.
2. As Falko mentioned, the formula has problem with weapons where recoil is small or unknown - like lasers and plasmas. Maybe they work in reverse, shot tracing overwhelming the recoil effect and improving accuracy with every extra shot?
3. It is debatable what effect soldier's Strength, as in XCom Strength, can have on autofire accuracy. The Firing Accuracy parameter already covers how steady are shooter's hands.
4.Weapon's weight and construction has far more impact on recoil than soldier's (real-life) strenght. Human muscle system is nowhere as rigid as a metal tripod, it cushions a force, then counteracts (with delay).
5.Real life shows that proper weapon bracing has far more impact on accuracy than brute strength (again, Firing Accuracy stat in XCom, which already influences autofire accuracy).
6.The formula ignores the number of projectiles fired, thus dramatically reducing the accuracy of the final shots in a long burst, skewing the statistics.

But, to play devil's advocate...
A. A soldier in power armor should be able to brace the weapon much more effectively, thus measurably reducing recoil.
B. If we agree that Strength indeed has any measurable effect on accuracy, there is no need to calculate hit chances for every bullet, as (see 1.) the results are averaged anyway. Plus, if every bullet has different accuracy, the player is given false information about hit chances.
C. If a weapon had freely adjustable burst length - like in JA2 - a recoil formula would be needed, but again, a formula modyfying averaged accuracy would suffice.

Therefore, I'd vote for a much simpler solution:
a) Optional recoil parameter for a weapon. It is equal to required Strength to use the weapon efficiently. A soldier suffers [-2%?] autofire hit chance for every Strength point lower.
b) Optionally, they also suffer [half of that value?] when firing snap/aimed shots.
c) When kneeling, the Recoil parameter of any weapon is treated as [15?] points lower.
d) An armor can have Anti-Recoil parameter, which again, lowers the recoil of a weapon.
e) So, no need for complex calculations or gutting the mechanics, just a modifier to current Auto accuracy.

Actually I feel you're mis-applying Occam's razor in this case. Even the initial proposal has a distinct effect from rolling lower accuracy into auto shot, as it effects the likelihood the shot will hit 2 or 3 times. With a flat accuracy, the shot can potential hit 3 times rather often. If the second and third shots have lower accuracy however, then auto might become a bit less incentivised against high-health aliens. Also, even if it didn't have a gameplay effect, to be honest, it's a cool flavour option.

The point of simulating recoil is not to drop accuracy. You can have any degree of accuracy you want with or without simulating recoil. The point of simulating recoil is essentially that the faster you take shots, the more likely your aim is to be effected by the "kick" of your weapon. (basically, it gives a larger incentive to strategic positioning and aimed shots than currently exists, as opposed to a "bullet spray" strategy) Ideally, simulating recoil should actually make your initial shot in a turn more likely to hit, given the penalty.

Ideally, if you're adding recoil, it should apply to every subsequent shot on the same turn for the same soldier, not just to the second and third shots in an auto burst. Then it becomes a real tactical consequence, and having a soldier rush forward to act as a turret in subsequent turns doesn't work so well.

Thoughts:

Strength differential between the required strength and actual strength should ideally effect the recoil step rather than applying a flat bonus or penalty. Higher-strength soldiers will be able to bullet-spray more effectively that way. This should reinforce existing playstyles- in the early game you're trying to snipe off any aliens you can, in the late game you can sometimes go toe-to-toe with the weaker ones.

Walking shots with lasers resulting in a negative recoil makes sense realistically, but could have funky gameplay results. Worth trying it out.

7
+2 for Day/Night icon because it is usefull for select between smoke granate or flash light

- 0.5 for Alien race/mission type

+ 0.5 for the others

Eh if you've got a hyperwave decoder you've had access to the race/mission info already, so makes sense to add that to the dialogue. A more granular display of the light level would be better than day/night as well.

Given the fact that you can rename craft or track their numbers I don't think we really need to include their base of operations. If you want that info just name your crafts Skyranger-EU or Avenger-AU, etc...

8
That's just confusing. I'd suggest a double-arrow instead.

9
Programming / Re: AI of close combat aliens
« on: June 24, 2014, 08:34:01 am »
i'd settle for getting reapers to not be completely useless. they need TUs if they're gonna be melee units, something they severely lack compared to say... a chryssalid

Eh, I always figured they were supposed to be a bullet-soak to distract XCOM from the floaters shooting civilians. :)

10
Resources / Re: Palettes for XCOM in GIMP/Paintshop format
« on: June 19, 2014, 07:31:42 am »
Paintshop Pro plays nice with palettes, and it still does all the way up to X5. I would've thought that photoshop would too with the correct settings.

11
Open Feedback / Re: Yaay 1.0 %cough% TFTD %cough yaaay woooo 1.0
« on: June 18, 2014, 08:47:51 am »
If you guys are really that enthusiastic for a hybrid game, essentially the first step is developing and perfecting support for all of TFTD's assets... by which time a TFTD ruleset will most likely be complete and OpenTFTD will be done. So either way it's better to focus on what can be done to code in support for TFTD.

12
Fan-Stuff / Re: Soldier names
« on: October 25, 2013, 08:01:37 am »
Sorry for the necro. I compiled some Turkish names, so if the window for applications is still open, I'd like to throw them through ;D

By the way, I was going through the other files and I noticed that the first 132 names in Hungarian.nam are all Turkish. It kinda looks like a copy/paste mishap to me.

Ah, that may be Fenyo's problem with the file then. :) Thanks very much!

13
Suggestions / Re: Ideas for new alien races?
« on: October 17, 2013, 09:17:10 am »
according to the canon, the aliens are trying to gain control of earth to further the war effort. what are they fighting AGAINST?

a greater threat than the alien brain surely exists. although we know nothing of it's nature. if i had to hazard a guess i'd go with self-replicating machines (stargate's replicators/the borg), the progenitors of the human race (the zentraedi, prometheus's engineers), a sentient AI (skynet, the geth), or something beyond our experience, something from Lovecraft's worst nightmares (babylon 5's shadows, mass effect's reapers)

I'm not so sure it wasn't just everything that wasn't assimilated that was their enemy.

14
Programming / Re: How to code the AI
« on: August 07, 2013, 11:13:45 am »
the AI is similar but different, i'm currently working on making it MORE similar, by sifting through the decompiled original and taking notes where appropriate.
i have to say, for the most part what we're doing is very similar to what i'm seeing in the original, except we cheat LESS. in the original the aliens had eyes in the back of their heads, for example, and they know where you are even if they can't see you (not just for psi targetting).
and the cover assessment was MUCH more simple in the original, except they had 2 types of cover, full and partial. i've even found some unused code for melee attacking without a weapon (code that was probably actually put to use in TFTD) which gives me a nice insight into the melee damage calculations regarding melee accuracy and strength.

the AI was much more... squad based in the original. aliens would stop patrolling to seek out enemies they "know of" but can't see when in range, for example. i'll be working on this today ;)

Cheers for that clarification, I was aware we were making it more similar in a lot of individual ways and that it was currently original code, but this clarifies that a lot... :D

15
Programming / Re: How to code the AI
« on: August 06, 2013, 10:13:22 pm »
You know... Some of us still like the fact that it plays like the original. It's nice to have deadly aliens, but I guess for most people it's not really fun when you play one mission for  four hours only because you have to repeat it over and over again ;)

It doesn't play like the original. ;) If saves were portable you could see for yourself, but iirc, the AI is entirely new code?

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 13