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Author Topic: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion  (Read 18444 times)

Offline Hobbes

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #30 on: January 16, 2015, 08:48:56 pm »
This post is about the new factions that this mod will introduce. It contains a few spoilers, so be warned before reading it.

MJ-12
This faction is very similar to robin's Men In Black mod, being a secret group with its own agenda involving Earth and the aliens. But my main inspiration for this faction comes from its role in the Unknown Menace, the 692 pages fanfic I wrote about the original game a long time ago, and MJ-12 was also a very important piece of UFO folklore in the 1990s.

Without spoiling too much, MJ-12 is a highly professional and secret organization, whose research can be ahead of XCom's. Another way I see them is as XCom's evil twin. As the game progresses, you'll see them using better weapons and engaging on more complex activities. They use a set of weaponry where the weapons look very similar graphically, since they were all developed together (recovered items can be used by XCom straight away, so that the player can also have those really nice looking guns).

They fly around in their own Skyranger transports, which can be easily be destroyed by your interceptors when detected, but you may want to consider letting them land. Besides the weapons, captured and interrogated MJ-12 personnel can unlock some critical alien research for XCom, since their own scientists have already been working on advanced weaponry for a while. Their missions will also take place in some new settings, such as their Skyranger also being present on the map, plus new maps I will create later. And to find out more about the organization, you can always capture their higher ranking officers.

Cultists

The clear inspiration for those is the Cult of Sirius from XCom: Apocalypse, being a human fifth column that sees the aliens as saviors. According to their initial description, "The aliens have had a profound effect on human society, with new and existing groups appearing as a result of the invasion. While most of these groups are benign or harmless in nature, others are clearly looking to change the old balance of power on Earth and will take any means necessary to achieve their goals, including becoming allies with the aliens. The cultist movement propaganda poses their actions as a crusade against the corruption of Earth and even gives religious overtones to the alien's appearance. While recognizing its threat, Earth's governments have chosen not to get involved in an effort not to lend credibility to their claims, and have assigned XCom to privately deal with the cultists".

During missions Cultists will initially be more like a civilian mob, being armed with everything they can lay their hands on (Pistols, AK-47s, Hunting Rifles, etc.). But as the game progresses, their alien 'friends' will take notice and start equipping them with advanced tech, and even using them during their own missions. Cultists will also fly around in Transport Planes, have their specific maps, and capturing some of its members can unlock key research topics.

Other Aliens

Finally, it will be possible to encounter new alien races. Those aliens are not allied with the main aliens but they have taken notice of Earth because of the invasion and have also decided to join the party. They will fly around in their own UFOs and it is also possible to unlock key research topics through them. I won't reveal more but these aliens will basically pop up unexpectedly and they can be quite a challenge.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #31 on: January 28, 2015, 09:47:28 pm »
I just saw this and it looks really good. Can't say much more at this point, it's too complex for me to judge but it looks pretty potent.

As for lose ideas, perhaps you'd want to read this thread of mine - it contains some ideas meant to add more content to the game by making it start earlier, where X-Com is more of an X-Files group (to investigate aliens) than military and slowly develops from there into what we know. It may be a bit too much, but it's the best new stuff I can come up with.

Offline Hobbes

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #32 on: January 28, 2015, 11:43:51 pm »
I just saw this and it looks really good. Can't say much more at this point, it's too complex for me to judge but it looks pretty potent.

As for lose ideas, perhaps you'd want to read this thread of mine - it contains some ideas meant to add more content to the game by making it start earlier, where X-Com is more of an X-Files group (to investigate aliens) than military and slowly develops from there into what we know. It may be a bit too much, but it's the best new stuff I can come up with.

I had already checked that topic when I was getting an overview of what was already existent. :)

Not really interested into something that large, both because several of your suggestions can't be implemented but also because it almost seems 3 separate games put together. Plus the FMP is a great effort of organization all these mods together (it's going to be listed on my credits because it really helped) but it's simply too much variety.

I've basically finished the design phase at this point and I'm implementing everything. It is taking longer than I expected though because of graphic work and ruleset bugs, but hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be able to release a beta for playtesting.

Offline davide

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #33 on: January 29, 2015, 02:36:20 pm »

Offline Hobbes

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #34 on: February 02, 2015, 09:39:38 pm »
I read something of interesting:

https://colabti.org/irclogger/irclogger_log/openxcom?date=2015-01-29#l16

 8)

This will be interesting when implemented.

Meanwhile, I've added a ton of stuff over the weekend and in the next week I hope I can finally release a beta testing version. 8)

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #35 on: February 03, 2015, 07:31:28 pm »
I am surprised they only got a passing mention, but a mod I would not play without anymore is the Gauss weapons mod. in mid-game, having a choice between two weapon techs is really neat. It does slow your research down somewhat since you need to research both weapon trees, but I enjoy having different weapons for different roles.

As it is usually implemented, Gauss having higher power, slower shots makes its heavy and sniper variants more appealing (until you meet ap resistant aliens) while lasers remain good spray and pray pew-pew/breaching weapons. Gunslinger operatives becomes relevant (one pistol is good up close, one for medium range shots, so they make great breachers), odd weapons like the laser sniper rifle become good designated marksmen rifle for competent operatives supporting the front line scouts.

Keeping all the weapons balanced and relevant in the face of plasma weapons is tricky, but gives a very rewarding multi-tier play instead of rushing for the "best" weapon type.

Offline Hobbes

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #36 on: February 03, 2015, 08:10:56 pm »
I am surprised they only got a passing mention, but a mod I would not play without anymore is the Gauss weapons mod. in mid-game, having a choice between two weapon techs is really neat. It does slow your research down somewhat since you need to research both weapon trees, but I enjoy having different weapons for different roles.

As it is usually implemented, Gauss having higher power, slower shots makes its heavy and sniper variants more appealing (until you meet ap resistant aliens) while lasers remain good spray and pray pew-pew/breaching weapons. Gunslinger operatives becomes relevant (one pistol is good up close, one for medium range shots, so they make great breachers), odd weapons like the laser sniper rifle become good designated marksmen rifle for competent operatives supporting the front line scouts.

Keeping all the weapons balanced and relevant in the face of plasma weapons is tricky, but gives a very rewarding multi-tier play instead of rushing for the "best" weapon type.

So far I've went instead with a different approach than adding a new weapons tier: you can capture (but not manufacture) upgraded versions of conventional weapons, or capture and, use, after completing their research, downgraded versions of plasmas. Or upgrade your lasers through research.

It is possible to add a new tech to the 2nd tier of weapons but I'll need to lock it to Alien Materials research and it will have to be a Tier II minus. It would be better though to have a different name than Gauss, since that is a TFTD specific tech and I'm avoiding using any of those.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #37 on: February 04, 2015, 02:06:13 pm »
Modding weaponry becomes more significant if you also play around with alien armours. For example, Gauss weapons as I made them are relatively high-powered, but they're also armour-piercing, and some aliens are highly resistant to this damage type (primarily Mutons). Just saying.

Offline Hobbes

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #38 on: February 04, 2015, 03:13:07 pm »
Modding weaponry becomes more significant if you also play around with alien armours. For example, Gauss weapons as I made them are relatively high-powered, but they're also armour-piercing, and some aliens are highly resistant to this damage type (primarily Mutons). Just saying.

Rock-paper-scissors logic :)

At this stage I'm done with adding new stuff though and I'm focused on getting everything to work since there's a ton of new content (weapons, units, missions, research). I just need to finish debugging the research and write several UFOPedia entries and the expansion will be ready for some serious testing.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2015, 03:24:36 pm by Hobbes »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [BRAINSTORMING] Suggestions and ideas for an expansion
« Reply #39 on: February 04, 2015, 05:29:37 pm »
Rock-paper-scissors logic :)

It's true, but it's still IMO better than linear logic, and besides it's sort of written into the engine. I think it's fine as long as you don't go overboard and weave it into the tech tree properly.

At this stage I'm done with adding new stuff though and I'm focused on getting everything to work since there's a ton of new content (weapons, units, missions, research). I just need to finish debugging the research and write several UFOPedia entries and the expansion will be ready for some serious testing.

Yes! :)