Messages

31

Open Feedback / Re: Aliens too passive?

« on: January 16, 2014, 11:36:06 pm »

No, I don't think radar coverage is the issue -- I've had Hyper Wave Decoders up since the beginning of March, and a base that has good coverage across Europe + North Africa and one that covers North America. Almost all the the alien activity charts read 0 or close to 0, so stuff isn't really happening that I'm not detecting. I took a look at the code that generates the missions, and it looks like the game just generates a terror mission + 1 other random mission every month. That seems a bit low compared to the original game, but I guess it's possible if you're very luck (or unlucky), you'll get a bunch of small alien missions like research.

I can hardly believe that the code only generates 2 missions per month, as I'm currently in late May and have had nearly 40 crashed UFOs, in addition to the terror missions (can't remember how many of those, but it would be around 1 per month if I'm not mistaken...

I'm pretty sure the original game threw more missions at you, early on, with a good mix of UFO sizes and missions. It seems all the UFOs in my game are small or very small, at least until several months into the game. But I don't see a shortage of the small ones at least.

32

Open Feedback / Re: Aliens too passive?

« on: January 16, 2014, 03:36:05 pm »

I'm also playing on veteran difficulty, and I've had plenty of alien activity. MAybe your radar coverage is not good enough? I just encountered Ethereals now at the end of May, apart from that it has been Sectoids, Floaters and Snakemen.

However, I do notice that it seems the original game sent out more medium and large type UFOs earlier in the game. They seem quite rare in OpenXcom, though I have sen some (harvesters and abductor types).

33

Programming / Re: AI of close combat aliens

« on: January 16, 2014, 12:17:37 am »

Yeah, it does work very much like the original, so if it's working as designed, great job

But since apparently a new AI has been put in, maybe it would be cool to make the Reapers a bit more bloodthirsty. Right now they are nothing but free reaction training for my troops...

34

Open Feedback / Re: Does the code take smoke into account for hit calculations?

« on: January 16, 2014, 12:16:17 am »

So, about cover.. I always assumed that it played no part in the chance to hit, but that if it physically blocks the shot, obviously the guy behind it won't get hit. So a shot that deviates a bit down can hit a stone wall instead of the target's legs.

Is that correct?

35

Open Feedback / Re: Does the code take smoke into account for hit calculations?

« on: January 15, 2014, 07:14:36 pm »

I haven't looked at accuracy code before, but I have noticed there is an advanced option that takes more factors into account when aiming. That might be what you are looking for regarding added challenge.

I did play with that for a while, but it didn't seem to work well for me, so toggled it off. My question was about the game at regular settings..

36

Open Feedback / Does the code take smoke into account for hit calculations?

« on: January 15, 2014, 12:40:42 pm »

Just wondering, as the player only gets displayed a set percentage number when selecting the type of shot, is that further modified depending on the condition of the actual target tile - for example if there is smoke?

37

Programming / AI of close combat aliens

« on: January 15, 2014, 12:29:29 pm »

Just wanted to give a bit of feedback - against Reapers I noticed that they don't try to get into close range to bite, they just run around at the edge of vision and do nothing unless there's a target really close by.

Maybe a special AI routine for melee units would work?

Wouldn't have to be advanced, as a Reaper is just a big berserk terror monster anyway, so it would seem credible that it would just run mindlessly at any target at top speed to bite..

I'm using the latest build by the way.


EDIT: just realized that this should probably have gone in the "suggestions" subforum, and that probably you are already are of this issue with Reapers

38

Fan-Stuff / Re: the master race.

« on: January 14, 2014, 07:29:52 pm »

sectoids, mutons and ethereals are cloned en masse.

Is that from the game files, or your own theory on it?

I always thought the Ethereals and the Sectoids were the same race, with the small guys somehow being the "drones" of their hive society, and the Ethereals being individuals allowed to "mature" and the ones running the whole affair, with the Brain being sort of their queen bee.

I thought the other races were either enslaved (Snakemen) or genetically created for a certain role (Mutons) or lesser creatures found throughout the galaxy and turned into terror weapons (Chrysalids etc.).

Cool poem anyway!

39

Fan-Stuff / Re: the master race.

« on: January 09, 2014, 08:57:37 pm »

But why the snakemen? Of all the races in this game, for the snakemen to be the masters of them all.. I'm puzzled

40

Open Feedback / Re: Carrying downed squadmate to the Skyranger won't save her?

« on: January 09, 2014, 01:14:21 pm »

i thought i had accounted for this...

I am using the latest build, if that's what you mean ?

41

Open Feedback / Re: I think there is an important typo in the original game data..

« on: January 09, 2014, 01:04:01 pm »

Well it has the word heavy in the name...

And Sectoids maybe shouldn't be wielding them. Seeing they are pretty much the beginner level aliens and get boosts in the form of Psionics later on.
And are accompanied by the deadly Cyberdisc... XD

One of the few things the new Xcom did right was not giving heavy plasma's to Sectoids ^^

I agree with that, it always looked silly too, a tiny sectoid wielding a gun as big as itself

Makes sense too that the sectoids bring the cyberdiscs to add the firepower they are not able to carry themselves. Ethereals also bring big death machines, maybe they were also originally intended to be too weak to carry the heavy plasma?

I think through all this we can glimpse some earlier stage of gameplay design, that was scrapped in order to simply give every alien a heavy plasma towards the end game.

Maybe it was due to the original idea about adaptive difficulty not being implemented in the game after all. The easiest "fix" to get the game shipped was simply to give aliens better and better weapons based on the number of the month. Leading eventually to heavyplasmania.

42

Open Feedback / Re: I think there is an important typo in the original game data..

« on: January 08, 2014, 11:47:36 am »

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Item_Weight

plasma weapons are light weight. compare a pistol and a plasma pistol. it's almost half the weight. also, you're not including the weight of a clip. a LOADED heavy plasma weighs 11, the same as a standard rifle. i don't think this is a mistake or an oversight, this is alien technology, made using lightweight alien alloys. i see no problem here.

i mean, heck, just look at the data in this format:

conventional pistol: 8
laser pistol: 7
plasma pistol: 6

standard rifle: 11
laser rifle: 8
plasma rifle: 8

heavy cannon: 24
heavy laser: 18
heavy plasma: 11

Going by these numbers for loaded weapons, a plasma pistol is 25% lighter than a standard pistol, a plasma rifle is 25% lighter than a standard rifle (rounded up)... if a loaded heavy plasma followed this pattern, it would weigh 18 units.

Now I'm not arguing for "realism" here, who knows what an alien weapon would weigh. It just seems curious to me.

If the heavy plasma was intended to weigh 18 without clip, then that would have balanced it out in the early game, when your rookies are still too weak to carry it.

I find heavy plasmas on some of the very first UFOs, and can research them straight away, so why bother with plasma pistols and rifles?

Well, as was said, thanks to openxcom, I can mod this out myself, so I'm good. Just wanted to raise the issue here and hear what all of you thought about it

43

Open Feedback / Re: Carrying downed squadmate to the Skyranger won't save her?

« on: January 08, 2014, 01:38:38 am »

Yes that is also my theory, too bad I don't have a savegame to submit for testing it..

44

Open Feedback / Re: Carrying downed squadmate to the Skyranger won't save her?

« on: January 08, 2014, 01:25:19 am »

Neither floor nor backpack .. was holding the unconscious person in the left hand slot. Maybe that's why?

45

Open Feedback / Carrying downed squadmate to the Skyranger won't save her?

« on: January 07, 2014, 11:42:54 pm »

I just had a very dramatic battle where I lost more than half the squad within 3 turns.. will spare you the details, but it involves landing at a terror site next to a Cyberdisc, running out to knock it down with a stun rod.. then finding another disc hovering just behind the first one.

Anyway, the question is: My heroic captain managed to pick up a wounded squadmate, then run up the ramp to the Skyranger in the last moments, but when I returned to base, that squadmember was listed as dead.

Did she die in transit, or does the game fail to account for wounded squaddies at dustoff?