Topics

31

Suggestions / ruleset: research

« on: September 18, 2013, 04:04:29 am »

I've just started modifying my research ruleset, and I would like to propose a change:

Currently, it is possible to define a required item for a given research project only via the "needItem" boolean. This is limited in several ways: the item needed needs to have the same name as the research project and you need exactly one item.

I propose changing this to a string+value (item + amount) list.

For example, it would make total sense if researching plasma rifle would need 1 (or perhaps 2) plasma rifle(s) as a reverse engineering template plus a few units of alien alloys as raw material. Elerium research could need several units of elerium. A proper autopsy might need more than one corpse (imagine trying to properly get a full anatomy report from a sectoid that was killed by a grenade...)

32

Suggestions / weapon "profiles" - penetration vs. stopping power etc.

« on: September 03, 2013, 11:02:02 pm »

I think the different kinds of weapons and ammunition could do with a little more variability.

- traditional bullet weapons should be able to stun and throw back
conventional weapons that use bullets (at more-or-less high velocities) transfer a lot of kinetic energy to the target. this should be able to cause stun damage (even when not hitting the head). also, it should be possible to push the target back, perhaps only if a certain damage threshold is crossed? or, to account for strong and large units, if more than a certain percentage of maximum health has been exceeded?

- plasma weapons should cause fires
it's super-heated matter! 'nuff said! if an alien fires a large plasma through a wheat tile, the tile should be on fire afterward. this would cause nice little paths of destruction, even giving you a possibility to locate the alien

- laser weapons should penetrate
admittedly, this is debatable. if you argue that laser weapons use short laser pulses, they will only cause "simple" damage.
but if they use longer beams like the laser "bullet" sprite implies, they should be able to penetrate stuff - especially wooden walls and the like. we might even make it so that you cannot destroy objects with a laser (you would only burn holes through them, but wouldn't be able to destroy them entirely), but the beam passes through them, losing only a part of it's strength. it would add to the strategy part of the game, because you would need to bring other weapons if you want to shoot down walls, but could possibly kill enemies behind walls without them ever seeing you - if your laser is strong enough (Heavy Laser returns as a useful weapon...)

- explosions should push
the shockwave of an explosion should be able to move units and objects outward, if it doesn't destroy them.

- stun rod should cause damage. real damage.
the cattle prod should be able to electrocute units to death. and alien units should recover from stun damage more rapidly. catching aliens alive and keeping them alive-but-subdued should be made harder


effectively, I think we could do this with additional weapon damage variables:

"objectDamage" - a multiplier: after actual damage is determined, damage to objects is multiplied by this. 0 means "weapon doesn't damage objects", 0.1 means only 1/10th of damage is being done if the target being hit is an object and so on.

"damagePenetration" - a multiplier: bullet will continue with damage*damagePenetration strength after hitting whatever has been hit, if damage would have been sufficient to kill or destroy the target. shouldn't be 1 or above, to avoid weird effects. default (vanilla) behaviour is "0" - bullet stops (even if it was a large plasma blast that hit a wooden chair).

"kineticEffect" - a boolean: if "1", the game will check damage imparted vs. maximum health of target and see if the item/unit/object is being pushed away from point of origin (and, possibly, how far). or possibly even a multiplier, to tune this effect for different weapon types... shotgun comes to mind, with a lot of kinetic effect. Plasma, on the other hand, shouldn't have a kinetic effect - all it does is burn. extemely so, but no kinetic effect.

"burnEffect" - another boolean: if "1", bullet will cause incendiary damage to tiles it passes through



what do you think?

33

Suggestions / Geoscape labels

« on: August 28, 2013, 01:52:10 pm »

originating from this thread, it might be nice to have additional floating information labels on the Geoscape:
- the names of X-Com bases (toggled in advanced options, shows the base name next to the little square on the globe... all zoom levels)
- the names of X-Com craft (toggled in advanced options; perhaps only when zoomed in?)
- additional UFO information, where available (togled in advanced options; perhaps only when zoomed in?)
- possibly the expiration time of terror sites and crash sites as a countdown? or maybe, if you think that's giving the player too much information he shouldn't have, perhaps simply counting up the time since creation of the site?

of course, right now the globe would become very crowded with all of these turned on at the same time, but since there is development of higher-resolution globes going on, it would become even more useful later on

34

Work In Progress / Mind Shield

« on: August 09, 2013, 02:02:31 pm »

there was a mind shield in Apoc... would it be possible to add one in OpenXcom? (Or any kind of stat-boosting item, for that matter?)

it would be nice to have a mechanic that allows for an item to have a property "ModifyXY: <integer value>". yes, negative numbers, too: perhaps the mind shield would increase Psi Power, but decrease Psi Skill while equipped? would make sense to me.

maybe there could even be two "modify" properties: "ModifyWhileInInventory" and "ModifyWhileEquipped" - a mind shield in the backpack might still help, but a sniper scope would only work if held in the other hand (or something like that)

This would also open the door for a whole lot of RPG-like stuff, which might be interesting for total conversion mods... Sword of +5 Strength, anyone?

@WarBoy, what do you think?


As for the Mind Shield intself, I would suggest the following:

research on mind shield can start after having researched Mind Probe. It would be an early-to-mid-game item that helps you fend off Psi attacks when you have not yet discovered a way to even screen for psi ability in your soldiers.

construction requires 1 Mind Probe per Mind Shield. you don't have complete understanding of the technology involved, but you are able to modify the circuitry of the Mind Probe to create some kind of "Psionic Static Noise". Maybe the fluff text could even mention that using the Mind Shield appears to give some soldiers a headache, while others are unaffected, hinting at latent psionic abilities.

the graphics would be very similar to the Mind Probe: perhaps the silvery orb with a part cut away, and some little LCD displays and LEDs added?

35

Suggestions / continuity fixing (or: more realistic transfer between geo and battle)

« on: July 20, 2013, 11:26:27 am »

the recent idea of an EMP cannon got me thinking about continuity again. I've been thinking about this before, but now might be the right time to start implementing this...

here's the general idea: currently, the stuff you do to a UFO in the geoscape hardly affects the battlescape and vice versa.

1) if you hammer a medium scout with avalanche missiles until it crashes, you might end up with an undamaged battlescape UFO. if you wear down the same UFO with twin cannons, it might turn out completely destroyed.

2) if you board a landed supply ship, shoot all three power sources, grab the elerium, run out and leave, the UFO will take off and fly away.

3) if you enter an alien base, shoot all aliens but one, set off high explosives in every room (except the control room), leave the base and immediately come back, everything will be restored to its original state.

4) apparently, UFOs that are shot down drop down vertically, because they will be found in the middle of destructible terrain without any collateral damage.


so, I'd like to propose some additional mechanics:

1) damage transfer
battlescape UFOs should receive damage depending on the weapons that were used on them. the easiest way I can think of would be keeping track of the excess damage the UFO receives in shooting it down, and using additional "virtual explosions" before the start of the battle to simulate the effects (although we should make sure that those explosions don't damage the terrain - the damage was dealt before the crash, after all). this would even make low-power weapons like cannons or lasers more useful again, because they will cause less excess damage and have a higher chance of leaving UFOs intact. I'd like to see a battleship with a huge hole in the side where my fusion cannon ripped it open.

2) reverse damage transfer
if you cripple a landed UFO, its state should change from "landed" to "crashed". this would include destroying >50% of its power sources, destroying all navigation units, or destroying >25% of hull tiles.
(on the other hand, I believe the aliens should be able to repair hull damage, so perhaps it would even make sense to determine the cause of the crash in the geoscape when shooting it down... but that might be too complicated)

3) mission site continuity
any mission site (especially alien bases and xcom bases) should retain the damage they sustained, and this should have an effect on the geoscape gameplay. for xcom bases, perhaps damaged base modules could need repair time? alien base "farming" could be severely hindered by this, but on the other hand it would be easier to destroy heavily defended alien bases by "softening" them.

4) "path of destruction"
in crash sites, terrain damage should be included (remember apocalypse? the missions where you had to enter the UFO through sewer tunnels because the UFO was partially buried from the impact). this should be easy, I guess... simply determine a random direction and distance, and set off pre-battlescape explosions along the determined path. I'd love to see a building with a hole through it where a medium scout crashed through

36

Suggestions / squishy exploding power sources in battlescape

« on: May 31, 2013, 12:59:44 pm »

has anybody ever wondered why the UFO power sources sometimes destroy most of the UFO during the crash, but if you shoot them with plasma they simply break?

well I do. so I suggest an optional game mechanic: squishy power sources. UFO Power Sources in the battlescape should have a chance of exploding when receiving damage. I guess the chances would have to be adjusted for different types of ammo:

lowest probability     stun - incendiary - AP - laser - HE - plasma - alien grenade - Blaster Bomb      highest probability

I put the Alien Grenade and Blaster Bomb as a separate type of damage at the high end of the scale because even though both do HE damage for in-game purposes, my Sci-Fi-logic tells me that an Elerium-based explosion should trigger some kind of resonance.


oh, and because of my post in this thread, if anybody likes the idea enough to make it a commit for an optional mechanic, please include the possibility for "explosion damage strength adjusted by amount of Elerium"

37

Suggestions / finding the correct user directory

« on: March 07, 2013, 10:06:00 am »

now this is a bit weird, and I don't know if it is easy to resolve... maybe by changing the order in which openxcom checks for valid user directories...

I have OpenXcom in my dropbox, so I can play across several computers. in order to have the saves there also, I created the directory OpenXcom\User for the user data and stuff.

I just downloaded my OpenXcom from my dropbox (directly from the website) onto a computer that is not mine, and (because it was offered as default) put it into "My Documents".

I started the game, and was informed of the incomplete state, prompted for language etc. as if it was freshly installed. Apparently, the game looked for the default user data directory "My Documents\OpenXcom" and found it, but didn't find the config file there, because it was actually in "My Documents\OpenXcom\User".

The problem was easily resolved by moving the OpenXcom directory to the Desktop instead, but still it was kind of weird at first. Considering that the default game installation directory is called "OpenXcom", perhaps the default user data directory name should be "OpenXcomUserData" or something like that? That way the game won't get confused if somebody installs the game into "My Documents".

38

Suggestions / ESC should bring up options screen in geoscape

« on: February 28, 2013, 10:52:29 pm »

in the battlescape, hitting "ESC" brings up the options screen. the same should apply to the geoscape IMHO.

39

Suggestions / "force fire" when no line of fire - hotkey?

« on: February 28, 2013, 10:49:58 pm »

do we have a hotkey to force firing even though the LOF is blocked? this might be nice. especially for breaking down (multiple) walls when trying to fire at an alien...

40

Suggestions / buy/sell screen mouse wheel use

« on: February 22, 2013, 10:55:54 am »

okay, so if I use the mouse wheel anywhere on the buy/sell screen except the arrows, it scrolls the list, but if I use it on the arrows, it changes the amount to buy/sell in certain steps (defined in the config).

is there a way to turn that amount increase/decrease function off? I don't like it, and frequently end up increasing/decreasing amounts when all I want to do is scroll. I was thinking about setting the amount to "0" in the config file, but that would still mean I can't scroll as long as the mouse pointer is on the arrows, right?

41

Work In Progress / helpful tool for sprite creation

« on: February 10, 2013, 02:24:55 pm »

I found this while pondering an easier way to create a sprite for an interceptor for the battlescape (see https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,929.msg9043.html#msg9043 )

you need blender https://www.blender.org/
and I would suggest using irfanview https://www.irfanview.de/

both are also available as portable apps https://portableapps.com/

here in the independent gaming forum, user "Rock D" posted something very helpful: a blender file that allows you to create isometric views for a given 3d model. what it does is it rotates a camera around the object in the correct angle and distance and stuff, and takes snapshots. for our purposes, the snapshots are too large and too many, but you can easily choose the right ones out of there and batch-convert them using irfanview.

so once you have a 3d model, you can turn it into sprites easily. and if we ever go high-res, the 3d models can be used again to create high-res sprites

42

Suggestions / suggestion: identification of version in save file name and screenshots

« on: January 31, 2013, 02:33:12 pm »

With all those reports coming in of old bugs, made by people who use old versions: would it be possible to include the exact version of the .exe used in the savegame filename as well as in the screenshot filename, and possibly as a watermark for the screenshot as well?

Save files would be "git2013_??_??_?_[user defined name].sav"
Screenshots "git2013_??_??_?_[counter].png"
Screenshots would have "git2013_??_??_?" written in the upper left corner.

This way we could immediately see if the reported bug is actually a current issue.

43

Suggestions / re-balancing PSI using time units... ?

« on: January 04, 2013, 02:28:49 pm »

this is a re-post of something that crept up on me while writing in another thread:

I was thinking about the mechanics of PSI-attacks and mind-controlling.

if you want to make somebody do something, you have to act out all his actions in your mind and project them into his brain. simple commands like "run forward" would probably take next to no time.
but reacting on the environment? you'd have to be in the victim's mind in real-time, so you would need at least as much time for mind-controlling him as he would need for doing that stuff himself.

even if the mind-control is acting on a more abstract level (giving impulses like "run forward", "shoot at that moving unit", "activate and drop a grenade"), it should still cost time-units based on the victims actions.

this could be used to balance PSI more, because the old "PSI soldier with 100 TUs can make four aliens run amok across the entire playing field" would no longer work - the PSI soldier's TUs would only be enough for either making one unit do a lot of stuff, or for making several units do very basic stuff like killing themselves.

when a PSI soldier is controlling an alien, everything he makes the alien do would also use some of the soldier's time units. the exact amount (half of the time units are also subtracted from the controlling soldier?) would have to be determined by play-testing, to make sure it feels right. the amount (or rather the fraction) of TUs used could also depend on the PSI skill level. that way, ethereals could still be very deadly

44

Suggestions / soldier equip screen access from basescape?

« on: December 23, 2012, 12:25:55 am »

I was just thinking: now that we have soldier's equipment "sticky" (a.k.a. the game will try to equip the soldier in the same way he was last equipped), perhaps we should allow the player to equip soldiers from within the basescape?

If you agree, I have a suggestion about where to put that possibility: I propose using the "soldier" screen, where clicking the soldier's rank insignia in the upper left-hand corner could transfer you to the equip screen. so wherever you are, that icon would be used to toggle between the equip screen and the stat screen, just like in the pre-mission equip screen.

45

Suggestions / interface: equip screen - "next/previous soldier" by arrow keys?

« on: November 11, 2012, 03:29:56 pm »

the soldier inventory / equip screen has huge arrow buttons to go to the next/previous soldier, but shouldn't it also be possible to use the right/left arrow keys?

you could even think about using the mouse wheel, but that would possibly be too sensitive and skip to another soldier when you don't want to...

the arrow keys are not used for anything else here, so it shouldn't interfere with anything. maybe the up/down key could also switch to the soldier stat screen (like clicking the rank insignia on the top left does). 

speaking of that, perhaps we could implement a third screen for every soldier: "statistics"?

it would show things like
- recruitment day
- days in service
- missions survived
- wounds received (total)
- enemies killed
- enemies stunned
- civilians killed
- shots fired

I know that some of these are not recorded as of now, but it might be worth the effort these statistics could even stay for a "memorial" after the soldier was killed.