[OLD] Old OXCE discussion thread

[Dioxine]

After few days of extensive tests, I like the 3.3. Even if someone isn't into scripting, the new light effects alone are worth upgrading. I found no bugs either. Highly reccomended.

[bladum]

7) ability to set intelligence for soldiers that would define their own speed of gaining experience on the top of global parameter. This does not have to be shown on the UI but could be also randomized just like any other stat. Some soldier types could have 80-120% but others 200% or 50% of base rate.

This wound not have good impact on gameplay. Only thing that players will do is to dump all solders that have less than 100%. Without UI it would be even worser because you don't know who to sell.

i was thinking about soldiers section. Standard soldier, cyborg or hybrid like in apocalypse could use such system. Cyborg wont be able to learn at all.... hybrid would learn faster.

9) Another idea to have 2 images for alien ship during interception. One after research, second before research of this particular alien ship.

[HelmetHair]

i was thinking about soldiers section. Standard soldier, cyborg or hybrid like in apocalypse could use such system. Cyborg wont be able to learn at all.... hybrid would learn faster.

That's dumb. Thinking that any "Cyborg" wouldn't have a team constantly making upgrades and refinements that translate to enhanced performance is naive. You are neglecting the "organism" portion of a cyborg, in that in definition there are organic and inorganic parts parts merged together. Biological systems respond to stimulus, artificial ones can be programmed and so those two facts  together make the case that if there was enough mastery of the technology to create a cyborg, then it could learn or be "taught".

[Arthanor]

Maybe not this one, but cases can be made for slower and faster learning soldier types. Whereas it's robots that have a longer development cycle than humans learn (indeed, an improvement on all robots should be as good for all robots of the same series, a process better represented by a patch/upgrade mechanic in the workshop than by battlefield learning).

I could also see a limit of craft number for interceptions, because airspace is not unlimited even if it is big. For something really fast and maneuverable (so changing directions a lot), trying to have many crafts following would expose pilots to errors and collisions, a situation best avoided by: reducing/capping the number of crafts trailing to a safe number.

But the kneeling one shows a misunderstanding of the TU system. Firing has a relative cost: it's the same % of your turn and it is the reference for an action in the game. An armor that gives more TUs means a soldier is moving/kneeling faster, an armor that removes TUs means that you move/kneel slower. Tweaking kneel costs, door opening cost or moving cost is meaningless.

[Solarius Scorch]

Maybe not this one, but cases can be made for slower and faster learning soldier types. Whereas it's robots

All right, heresy time:
How about we turn HWPs into a soldier type instead of HWP type? And various turrets as armours for them?
They would either be unable to learn (caps the same as starting stats) or maybe they would learn only in some areas (like Reactions). And it should make HWP management easier, as you would only change the armour (which must be produced first, of course).

[bladum]

heresy time

i am just throwing ideas, maybe you will use it one way or another.

1) I assume changing armour during battle is very big change and wont be able to implement. It could be big inventory slot of type 3 (armour) and then just drag and drop armour just like any other item.
2) display armour weight somewhere on the soldier inventory screen. Now to check what is armour weight the only way is to remove all inventory / items from soldier. it may be also displayed as a "mouse over" event when mouse cursor is over the soldier image then item description is shown "Personal armour [12]" just like any other item.
3) any easier way to unload weapon on the soldier inventory screen (like RMB on weapon to auto unload). If clicked on ground then unload would be done on ground. If clicked on inventory then it would be added to same place if applicable, if not then to hand, if not then to the ground.
4) action on UI to reload weapon automatically, so you can choose snap / auto / aim / throw / reload option now (commit here https://github.com/Bladum/OpenXcom/commit/53b1b1fb03479759c7c0877a5afa859d9bc90851)
5) display more complex item action information box once choose item action during battle (commit https://github.com/Bladum/OpenXcom/commit/53b1b1fb03479759c7c0877a5afa859d9bc90851), it display smaller font with more detailed information about action performed. Also with smaller font more actions could be added in the future.

Sorry for no screens for UI changes but i made commits some time ago.

[ohartenstein23]

All right, heresy time:
How about we turn HWPs into a soldier type instead of HWP type? And various turrets as armours for them?
They would either be unable to learn (caps the same as starting stats) or maybe they would learn only in some areas (like Reactions). And it should make HWP management easier, as you would only change the armour (which must be produced first, of course).

Isn't this already somewhat possible due to Meridian's work on manufacturable soldier types?  It's possible to define a soldier type that has minStats, maxStats, and statCaps all the same, not count towards promotions, have a default armor that looks like a HWP chassis and can only equip certain armor types (turrets or upgrades for the chassis), and the armor can block out the inventory as necessary.  It's not HWP->soldier conversion, but we pretty much have the soldier->HWP conversion.

[Solarius Scorch]

Isn't this already somewhat possible due to Meridian's work on manufacturable soldier types?

Yes, I only realized it after I wrote it.

And a +1 for armour weight display!

[bladum]

great Solar that you like at least one thing

few another ideas

1) aiming level of details that are displayed when soldier is aiming at the enemy

level 0 - reduced vision, no percentage chance displayed
level 1 - current vision, percentage chance displayed
level 2 - improved vision, percentage chance to hit + potential damage (for wall ? object etc)
level 3 - total vision, chance to hit + potential damage + current life or weakness etc

This similar to perk system in Fallout.

Level may be related to either skill of soldier (accuracy) or his promotion level or equipment (custom tags) or race / soldier / armour type.

2) some items are not designed to be thrown at all. Therefore either it should be modifier to weight or to throwing accuracy. Grenade 3 (3) but high explosive is 6 (12) effective for throwing so it rather should be . It may also be done as a flag, not designed for throwing and changing weight for throwing by 50% or 100%.

3) in closed rooms when ceiling is low, there is problem to throw far away as item is being blocked by ceiling. Possible to implement alternative way of throwing working similar like bullet but with shorter range ?

4) ability to recover unit from battle based from enemy or neutral unit that survived battle (stunned or alive). It would generate x-com soldier (based on one of selected types in "soldier") inside transporter based on data defined in unit class itself. It would be useful for rescue mission or to get single / unique soldiers.

[Solarius Scorch]

great Solar that you like at least one thing

Hey, I liked many! Some of your ideas are on the Solar's Wishlist!

1) aiming level of details that are displayed when soldier is aiming at the enemy

level 0 - reduced vision, no percentage chance displayed
level 1 - current vision, percentage chance displayed
level 2 - improved vision, percentage chance to hit + potential damage (for wall ? object etc)
level 3 - total vision, chance to hit + potential damage + current life or weakness etc

This similar to perk system in Fallout.

But we don't have perks in OXC... We have a more continuous human model. So saying "soldiers with Accuracy 50+ will see X" is not the right path.
But I can imagine some sort of super-scanner that displays enemy HP or something.

2) some items are not designed to be thrown at all. Therefore either it should be modifier to weight or to throwing accuracy. Grenade 3 (3) but high explosive is 6 (12) effective for throwing so it rather should be . It may also be done as a flag, not designed for throwing and changing weight for throwing by 50% or 100%.

Yes, accuracy for throwing would be useful.

3) in closed rooms when ceiling is low, there is problem to throw far away as item is being blocked by ceiling. Possible to implement alternative way of throwing working similar like bullet but with shorter range ?

Maybe not like a bullet, but some sort of "low" trajectory would be useful... But only if the AI could do it too.

4) ability to recover unit from battle based from enemy or neutral unit that survived battle (stunned or alive). It would generate x-com soldier (based on one of selected types in "soldier") inside transporter based on data defined in unit class itself. It would be useful for rescue mission or to get single / unique soldiers.

Potentially powerful feature. Rescue missions are much needed!

Yankes, are turnLimit and chronoTrigger flags in OXCE? I think they're pretty old, so I'd expect them to be in, but they don't work for me.

[Yankes]

Not yet, I will soon start on merging recent changes from master and it will be added.

[Meridian]

This was added to allow light "bleed" through doors. Without this you will never see doors if you approach them from behind.

I still think it is not compatible with vanilla... the indexes used are just different.

For example the doors are not shown anymore, even though it's day and they are clearly visible, see attached.

[Yankes]

It should work it that case. This is only case or this happens for other doors too? If this only case then this my fault and I will fix it.

[Meridian]

It should work it that case. This is only case or this happens for other doors too? If this only case then this my fault and I will fix it.

I played first time with 3.3 yesterday and only for a few hours... but I'll check some other situations soon.

Did you mean other doors in this UFO or other doors in other UFOs/buildings?
In this UFO (very large battleship), all doors to the east and south are not visible.

[Yankes]

I played first time with 3.3 yesterday and only for a few hours... but I'll check some other situations soon.

Did you mean other doors in this UFO or other doors in other UFOs/buildings?
In this UFO (very large battleship), all doors to the east and south are not visible.

In other buildings.