Graphs notifications or improvement

[Xilmi]

3. Enable the "UFO Activity Notification feature" (where would I find it?)

I already answered this in my first reply to you:
"Feature is enabled on Options=>Advanced=>BOXCE=>Geoscape=>Display hidden alien activity"

Then after I am a bit more up2speed I could get the fun of Brutal AI - is it possible to enable it "in the middle" of a game? Or do I need to start from 1999 with this on?

It can be turned on and off at any time. Even mid-mission. So you are not hardlocking yourself into it.

[Xilmi]

Is there a way to display them all without filtering for those who do not care filtering?

Good question. The filtering usually takes me an additional click but I have to do less scrolling. An option to not filter would be quite useful. If it exists, I don't know about it. Maybe we can ask Meridian.

[krakp]

I already answered this in my first reply to you:
"Feature is enabled on Options=>Advanced=>BOXCE=>Geoscape=>Display hidden alien activity"

True that - sorry I missed it before :-).

Just coming back to #2

2. Disable Brutal AI (is this enough to be back to "vanilla OXC"? or would I need to disable some more features?)

?

[Xilmi]

2. Disable Brutal AI (is this enough to be back to "vanilla OXC"? or would I need to disable some more features?)

Yes. There shouldn't be any gameplay-changes active other than that. Maybe a few QoL-things here and there. Like being able to queue a production-project without it taking away workshop-space before you assign an engineer. Other than that the default-ruleset should be as vanilla as regular OpenXCom.
Note that even there you have no item-limit for your crafts. If you want the item-limit from the Dos-game back, you'll have to explicitely enable it somewhere in the advanced options for OXC.
I guess this might be the biggest gameplay change they made a default over the Dos-version, as that severely impacts soldier-loadouts.

[krakp]

This is really cool :-)

Yesterday I downloaded and installed BOXCE (thanks @Xilmi for the great youtube installation video).

I first tested the notifications:

@Alpha Centauri Bear: this feature was my dream since I understood the value of the Activity Graphs (especially in the early game with basically no radar coverage). I love the way you implemented it, it is very intuitive and I love the fact that you exclude the activity of the detected UFOs - this allows to go after the "undetected" ones only :-)
I tested it in the setting #2 (so showing all the changes every 30 min - like the Activity Graphs do) and I loved it!! However, I noticed a small thing that makes your version "better" than the Activity Graphs - the graphs "rescale" after some time (after you reach the multiple of 90). So the later you are in the game, the less granular your graphs get - no matter how good you are at reading them, the visuals only get updated every 2 values (in the range of 90-180), 3 values for 180-270 etc.

So maybe it would be "fair" to also have a setting (#3?) allowing to scale in the same way, ie. show every point of activity in the range 0-90, every 2 points in 90-180, etc.
But as I wrote - this feature it totally cool anyway and I will use it even without this update :-)


@Xilmi: I also tested the Brutal UI and what can I say.... It is Brutal :-) . I used to play Xcom on Superhuman, but BUI is just a different enemy altogether.... I am not quite sure if I am ready for it yet :-). But it will definitely be tested deeper at some moment.
By the way - I read that also OXCE has different AI than the original XCOM - how would you compare them?
Is OXCE AI "easier" than XCOM?

What I also noticed is that I can enable/disable BAI as a MOD and also in the BOXCE settings: what is the difference? Also - if I disable it in the BOXCE settings - is the first option a "main/master" one controlling all the others? Or do I actually need to disable them one by one? The UI does not seem to be giving clear tips on this :-). Will I get weird behaviors if I enable just some of them? Are there dependencies?

Anyway guys - you are doing a great job here - this game is a great fun to play (even more than XCOM - I wouldn't believe I would ever say this :-)).

[Xilmi]

By the way - I read that also OXCE has different AI than the original XCOM - how would you compare them?
Is OXCE AI "easier" than XCOM?

Well, the original code wasn't available so they tried to more or less recreate the behavior from the original based on their observation.
How accurate this recreation was and whether it's harder or easier than the original is really hard to tell without extensive testing.

What I also noticed is that I can enable/disable BAI as a MOD and also in the BOXCE settings: what is the difference?

The mod force-enables the option and also "enhanced dogfight behavior" as well as "aggressive retaliation" it also disables the capability to research Psi-Amplifiers. It's kinda an "this is how it's meant to be played by the author"-mod. Whereas the option just regulates the AI and doesn't enforce any other settings.

Also - if I disable it in the BOXCE settings - is the first option a "main/master" one controlling all the others? Or do I actually need to disable them one by one? The UI does not seem to be giving clear tips on this :-). Will I get weird behaviors if I enable just some of them? Are there dependencies?

If you disable "Brutal AI" all the other stuff associated with the brutal AI is ignored. Except for Brutal Neutrals and Autoplay.

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

Glad you like it. I, myself, struggled with these graph for long. Implemented this as soon as I got the opportunity to contribute.

So maybe it would be "fair" to also have a setting (#3?) allowing to scale in the same way, ie. show every point of activity in the range 0-90, every 2 points in 90-180, etc.

You can increase scale of graph by pressing "+" and see your one point increment regardless of the initial graph scale.

[Meridian]

Well, the original code wasn't available so they tried to more or less recreate the behavior from the original based on their observation.
How accurate this recreation was and whether it's harder or easier than the original is really hard to tell without extensive testing.

The AI code was reverse-engineered and is identical to the original.
It was not done based on "observation".
Beyond AI code, there are minimal differences to the whole AI experience, caused by other factors, e.g. more complex pathfinding.

[krakp]

Thanks @Xilmi - now I know how to control BAI.

@Alpha Centauri Bear: my original XCOM does not react to the '+' button, so I guess this is an OXC(E?) feature. Also - even if you zoom in, it is only practical when the value is very small - for big values they are "above the screen", so the zoom does not help (the zooming happens on the 0 level, not at the peak).
I remember when I used to play XCOM it was enough for one country/region to go "over scale", so that the scaling (and thus granularity) would change for all of them. 
But anyway - your feature is great as it is, so totally no worries- I don't want to sound like a smarta$$ here :-)

@Meridian - thanks for confirming - so playing OXC(E) I'll have a very similar AI experience as with XCOM. If I want to go for the next level I can enable BOXCE.

Cheers guys!

[Alpha Centauri Bear]

@Alpha Centauri Bear: my original XCOM does not react to the '+' button, so I guess this is an OXC(E?) feature. Also - even if you zoom in, it is only practical when the value is very small - for big values they are "above the screen", so the zoom does not help (the zooming happens on the 0 level, not at the peak).
I remember when I used to play XCOM it was enough for one country/region to go "over scale", so that the scaling (and thus granularity) would change for all of them. 
But anyway - your feature is great as it is, so totally no worries- I don't want to sound like a smarta$$ here :-)
Cheers guys!

It is a

• on numeric keyboard. Check the Options - Controls. The key is listed there for "Zoom in, graphs".

That is fine suggestion, no worries. I just don't want to overly complicate it even if it is perceived somewhat unfair. Think of it as "local news".

[krakp]

It is a

• on numeric keyboard. Check the Options - Controls. The key is listed there for "Zoom in, graphs".

But that's an OXCE option... Not even OXC. I was comparing to the "original XCOM", where there is no such option :-). And even with the Zoom In possible - open a game with a lot of activity already and try to zoom in on a region that has a high value. There is no way this could help you notice the difference between 800 and 801 :-)

[krakp]

I played a bit more with this feature and noticed that it works a bit differently than the Activity Graphs:

- it will show activity as 1 for a landed UFO (Graphs show +2)
- it will not show additional activity for a completed mission
- it will not show activity generated by an alien base, etc.

Have you considered "plugging" this functionality into the
void Country::addActivityAlien(int activity)  (AND void Region::addActivityAlien(int activity) )
functions?

This way you would really track the activity (as the Graphs do) rather than track UFOs.
 

[Xilmi]

Have you considered "plugging" this functionality into the
void Country::addActivityAlien(int activity)  (AND void Region::addActivityAlien(int activity) )
functions?

I completely agree. This seems to be a way better way and if Alpha Centauri Bear doesn't do it, I shall look into doing that myself.

[krakp]

Since this is the functionality that brought me to this forum (and to OXC / BOXCE) in the first place (thanks a million Alpha Centauri Bear!!!) and since the UI is already fully implemented (otherwise I would have no idea how to even start), I guess I could rework a bit the logic so that we get a pure QoL feature that just shows exactly what the Activity Graphs do:

- activity for all the UFOs (also the detected ones - which might be a bit of a bummer - the current feature excludes them which is quite practical... But the Activity Graphs obviously do not exclude the detected ones, so for a purist it would make sense not to do it either).
- correct counting for landed UFOs (+2 per 30 minutes)
- including the missions (e.g Terror!)
- and the bases
- and whatever else I might have forgotten (do mods allow for activity points to be generated for other actions than in vanilla?)

Additionally (as I mentioned in one of my previous comments on this thread), the activity graphs rescale after the value goes over 90 for a country/region (they will then only show increments of 2) and with every further "doubling" (180, 360, 720, etc) each time halving the granularity. So when the activity for one of the regions later in the game goes over 720, the Graph will scale up to 1440 and only "move" when there are additional 16 activity points in the region. That's how I was considering to implement it.

I was just wondering whether Alpha Centauri Bear already considered the implementation inside addActivityAlien and decided against it for some reasons that he found out during his analysis / implementation...

Let me know guys if you see any "red flags" and whether you would like me to implement this feature in the next weeks (or whether you are already working on it Xilmi - you seem to have liked my idea :-).

[Xilmi]

I don't personally use this feature as it just annoyed me too much as it is, when I tried.
If someone who actually uses it has an idea on how to improve it, I'm open to it.

Also on second thought about my previous comment I'm not so sure anymore. You brought up some points about why there might be good reasons not to track everything. But on the other hand you also say that differentiating between different things wouldn't be possible by the graphs.

So for now I wouldn't do anything. If you want to cook something up, feel free to do it.