Messages

46

Work In Progress / Re: [Idea]Depleted Elerium/Elerium Craft Weapons

« on: August 10, 2014, 10:17:31 pm »

Interesting concept.  I completely concur with moriarty.

Items that have +1 likes for logical, applicable ideas that would be interesting are:

Infantry Weapons:
Depleted Elerium Blaster Bomb: I could see this as the ammo for the Terran version of the weapon.
Depleted Elerium Grenade: Dirty grenade.  How to find a half point between greande and alien grenade?  Not sure.

Craft Weapons
Depleted Elerium Missile and Launcher: A heavy missile.  If only there was a way to mitigate damage to ships knocked down by aircraft.  This would punch holes thru the hull nicely.
Depleted Elerium Rocket and Launcher: Hmm...sort of fires 20 to take down a terror ship, but in incredibly rapid concession?  I like the idea.

Craft
Advanced Interceptor: Booyah!  Awesome!

However...
Depleted Elerium Interceptor: Just can't see it.  If it was that good, the Aliens would have done this already. 

Alien Alloy is for protection.  I can see it being a component to make the Tank or Craft vehicles, but no one is going to wear radioactive armor and think they are safer.  Even DU sees use in Chobham armor.  But other than that...

47

Suggestions / Re: Civilians in transport should count as saved

« on: August 08, 2014, 05:42:11 pm »

Actually, that would be an interesting idea.  Rescues giving an award.  Each civilian saved gives a 10% chance of getting a scientist, engineer or soldier added to your mix.  Didn't Apoc have that?

48

Suggestions / Re: Realistic sectopod's

« on: August 08, 2014, 05:38:14 pm »

IF sectopods are under mind control by ethereal's shouldnt they be deactivated or stuned if the ethereal MC'ing it is killed or stunned?

That's called "Flavor Text".  Its a form of sugar and food coloring on top of the humble pie they dish out on you.

49

Released Mods / Re: [CRAFT] Sentinel class interceptor.

« on: August 02, 2014, 10:32:08 pm »

Noticed that if the Sentinel Mod is active, it shows up in the rental category even if you have 0 quantity of Sentinels. 

50

Playthroughs / Re: My First Ever Base Defence, and my Second Base Defence

« on: August 02, 2014, 09:56:01 pm »

Never set up for reaction fire.  Sometimes, you'll be pleased as punch...more often than not, however, you are the one reacting to the unexpected corpse that used to be a guy you had high hopes for!

51

Suggestions / Re: HWP options

« on: August 02, 2014, 09:48:03 pm »

Ok, now with that you can justify anything.
Personally, i like some kind of in-game logic, but that is of course a matter of taste.

Anyway, I would appreciate it very much, if one can modify the explosion and corpse recovery behavior via the ruleset.

In Game Logic:  The Cyberdisc is an advanced weapons platform designed to battle the enemies of Sectoids.  It is a terror weapon designed to close in on its target and annhilate it with no prejudice.  The sectoids were pleased to that the Cyberdisc's internal power supply explodes with incredible force upon breach.  It made their weapon that much more lethal against its flaws. 

However, the Cyberdisc has a critical design flaw.  When fighting in waves, it was important for the destruction of one Cyberdisc to not cause a chain reaction that fraticides.  Such a fraticide could halt an offensive in its tracts, destroying a wave of Cyberdiscs, and any Sectoid within range.  When exposed to massive increase in heat from explosive or incendiary damage, the Cyberdisc internal coolants overload and spills.  When the Cyberdisc has underwent too much damage and the coolant system is flooded, its internal power source gets exposed to the leaked coolants, killing the needed reaction temperature to maintain itself.  The Cyberdisc collapses in a heap. 

A necessary evil to prevent fraticide...but an exploit that XCOM agents must use wisely to take a Cyberdisc out of commission in order to dissassemble.

52

Open Feedback / Re: OpenXCom and TFTD Terrorists

« on: August 02, 2014, 07:31:42 am »

Ah...Gillmen.  They were just so much fun to shoot and kill. 

Gillmen are Deep Ones, imo...the aliens "cloned" Deep Ones.  Weaker than true Deep Ones, for they are harvested and not true sons of Man and Deep Ones!

Maybe...just maybe thats why Deep Ones are the shocktroops of Gillmen in the game.  Perhaps in truth, the Gillmen are the shock troops of the Deep men, and we have it all backwards!  Now that would be interesting to see implemented in a second generation XCOM game.  The terror unit is actually the brains of the operation!

Interesting read about Gillmen:

"Producer William Alland was attending a dinner party during the filming of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (in which Alland played the reporter Thompson) in 1941 when Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa told him about the myth of a race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon river. Figueroa spoke of a friend of his who disappeared in the Amazon while filming a documentary on a rumored population of fish people. Alland then wrote story notes entitled "The Sea Monster" ten years later.[1]"

That is the Gillmen, aka, creature of the Black Lagoon, etc.

53

Open Feedback / Re: OpenXCom and TFTD Terrorists

« on: August 02, 2014, 06:57:25 am »

Great topic!  Its not jumping the gun to get constructive convo going.

TFTD had known flaws for numerous reasons that went to production.  Thats why the strat guide varied from the actual game.  I'm not complaining mind you...glad they did because the game would have been obsolete on arrival within a two years.

Deep Ones are based on HP Lovecraft, and clearly the creative image of the Deep One with a rifle is based on that and other authors lore.  XCOM is a game of discovery of lore, and the real threat behind them.  The one in game does not reflect the lore of Deep Ones. 

That being said, Deep Ones were supposed to be hybrid.  They were swift, moved on all fours sometimes and struck with their claws.  They could also move on their legs, but stand like a man.  They should not have a spit attack, but should have a viscious claw attack, or a weapon attack with their sonic weapons.  IMO, Deep Ones, if implemented, should be segmented into "classes" if you will like Sectoids. 

IMO, they would be:
HYBRIDs and MONSTEROUS. 

MONSTEROUS (or whatever) should be based on a Reaper.  Move fast, deliver a nasty melee attack, but unlike a reaper, can go through doors and climb stairs!

HYBRID:  Should deploy weapons, have intelligence, and unlock lots of key lore. 

In theory, they are not aliens...or descendents of aliens. They are terran.  I prefer to think they were subjugated by the aliens, and with aliens deep asleep, the deep ones escaped and bred into quite oceanic cities.  For the past few thousand years they endured, but kept quiet, for fear of awakening the Alien/Gods. 

Hybids are actually the children of Man and Deep Ones, since times of old.   Deep Ones have low reproductive abilities and use human reproduction through women sacrificed to gods of the Seas, etc.  (Deep Ones had no cloning technology...they had lost all connection with technology upon escaping their masters 10 millenia ago. 

At birth, Hybrids appear as children who love the call of the sea.  They look and appear as human in every way.  They just feel an uncanny affinity for the deep ocean's call.  As these children get older they grow into their true lineage (oily scaly skin, rheumatic eyes, horrid teeth, bi-sected tongue, etc.  )  Eventually they get the call of the wild and throw themselves to the sea where they metaporhosis over decades into Deep Ones.  They wander the deep in search of others of their ilk.  Meanwhile they are witnessed by sea-farers as mermen and mermaids. 

Eventually they formed cities..ancient cities.  Devil's Reef, Ahu-Y'hloa, G'll-Hoo, Bod Reef, Bermuda, etc.  Quietly and simply they lived...always in balance with their environment.

When mankind began to travel beneath the waves in early 20th century in their loud machines (Submarines), the Deep Ones tried to warn mankind not to tread beneath the waves and disturb the ancient Gods sleep.  They're requests became demands, and their demands fell on unsympathetic human ears. The Deep Ones warnings eventually threatened the tide of mankinds progression to conquer earth, sea, and sky. 

The US gov't fought a secret oceanic war against these underwater cities with their submarines, torpedoes, and depth charges... and destroyed Deep One cities in the late 1920's and 1930's.  It was near genocide, and America covered up the entire affair like they would one day do in Roswell.  When the ancient ones eventually awoke (i.e. TFTD), the Deep Ones that survived pledged themselves to their old masters in fear...Their "masters" used the Deep Ones to find out about mankind, and used the Deep Ones in their scheme to take the earth as harbringers of ruin. 

Interestingly...upon interogation, Deep Ones are free from the evil influences become sympathetic.  They offer up a bounty of lore and technology they gleaned from their masters in order to help mankind, whom they see as more brother and kin.

54

Suggestions / Re: Nerfed Alien PSI setting and Laser/Plasma autocannon modifification

« on: July 30, 2014, 06:25:13 am »

Psionics...its whats for dinner.

Why water it down so much?  Sectoids are push overs until Psionics kicks in midgame.  Thats what seperates the paper tigers and sheep from the real wolves on your team.

Once your spotted, the aliens have the same abilities you do...they just don't need a Psiamp to do it.  Reasonable exchange for having human supertroopers who can out fight a muton, and pull out a psiamp and cripple an ethereal in late game.  Reasonable exchange.

Line of sight is alright...but it really weakens only one alien race...the Sectoids.

55

Work In Progress / Re: [RESEARCH/PROGRESSION] Lasers from Heavy to Pistol

« on: July 28, 2014, 03:48:59 pm »

Consider your experiment successful then.  For game-mechanics, the pistol became obsolete on arrival a bit.  Not terribly, but enough to demand something relatively significant enough to make it worthy of being a mid-game weapon that has to go head to head with the standard plasma route. 

Its a great idea you have...and its logical.   We all can agree to that.  Reducing the TU% on Laser Pistol when auto and increasing accuracy at all for aimed/snap/auto  by 15-20% is valued, me thinks.   I'll try that tomorrow and see how it played.

56

Open Feedback / Re: No terror missions?

« on: July 28, 2014, 06:55:05 am »

Lol...

Just finished a session.  Got 2 base defenses, a terror site, and encountered floaters with blaster launchers.   Sheer experience and dumb luck kept my young boys from getting turned to slatherings of flesh on a wall.

That was all in the month of January!

57

Work In Progress / Re: [RESEARCH/PROGRESSION] Lasers from Heavy to Pistol

« on: July 28, 2014, 06:50:22 am »

Accuracy is nice, but the Laser rifle should be more accurate and its at 100% on aimed.  The pistol is shabby, but a 20% increase is barely noticeable.

I could see your point...but I argue this...who are your enemies in midgame?  Snakemen & Mutons.  Laser Pistol is woefully useless against them, for the most part...and will get them both more mad than hurt on the first hit.  Even a laser rifle has to be up close and make sure you get at least 2 good hits in to make sure it -may- go down.  The laser pistol would need 2.5 to 3 shots to take down a muton.

If I may suggest, if not upping the power level, then reduce the TUs on the auto fire while also increasing accuracy. 

Why?  Because its mid game...and because the concept is not that the pistol is weaker...its just miniaturized version of the rifle (different than the vanilla concept).  Theoretically, what it lacks are the ergonmics that make it easier to be more accurate with a rifle .  Its not based on physics like a ballistic rifle.  Its not even power levels that makes it more accurate.  In this alternative to vanilla, the laser pistol is just a mini-rifle.  For all the research points invested, the pistol needs help against the foes of mid-game to justify.

58

Work In Progress / Re: [RESEARCH/PROGRESSION] Lasers from Heavy to Pistol

« on: July 28, 2014, 01:03:11 am »

Also...when doing a mod, you should really only include the deltas (differences) from the main.  I had to change your original mod because it interfered with other mods that affected the graphics of the laser weapons. 

Again...only include the lines in the ruleset thats a change from the original.

59

Work In Progress / Re: [RESEARCH/PROGRESSION] Lasers from Heavy to Pistol

« on: July 28, 2014, 12:47:25 am »

I'm starting testing on this.  Cannon first seems the most logical of the group upon playtest. 

However, the pistol needs a bit more edge since it now directly competes with plasma.  Its only advantage I'm seeing is that Plasma Pistol clips have to be manufactured after a while unless you horde them.  I didn't. 

I think the damage for the rifle and the pistol should be the same (60 Damage Units), with the advantage going to the rifle because its more accurate by far.  Makes the pistol an interesting choice then, and actually has a more solid purpose in the midgame.  The laser pistol became a midgame weapon instead of the first researchable weapon.

60

Suggestions / Re: the 80 item limit

« on: July 24, 2014, 04:34:45 am »

Looks like a new field called "maxItems" for each ship (section "  crafts:" of the ruleset)
When it's not defined (the default) or specifically set to 0, the number of items is unlimited.

A stock mod "Limit_Craft_Item_Capacities.rul" has been added which sets all limits to 80. Feel free to test and tweak.

Tweak, tweak, TWEAK!

My skyranger is my portable base of operations.  Racks of ammo and grenades are in a crate in the back, packed neatly next to my men's socks and wife beater t-shirts.