Area 51 - General Feedback thread

[Meridian]

Can't agree with that because enemy Interceptor radars shows only if you have Hyper wave decoder on you base, and imo this is fair, because decoder show full 100% info about detected UFO include what they're aggressive.

If that makes any difference, I agree with Shiroi

[Hobbes]

Can't agree with that because enemy Interceptor radars shows only if you have Hyper wave decoder on you base, and imo this is fair, because decoder show full 100% info about detected UFO include what they're aggressive.

And also, not all alien bases can launch UFO interceptors, so that would reveal as well which ones are dangerous.

Regardless, the main reason why I choose not to reveal such info is that I'm not a fan of revealing all game info directly to the player, because that affects gameplay in a number of ways that detract from the original game's experience.

Just a single example: you likely use the OXC option that displays how far a soldier can reach with its current TUs. It may surprise you that I don't, because I have no need for it - I learned to mentally calculate TU cost while playing the original years ago, and while I still make mistakes and sometimes miscalculate, that's part of the learning process.

And the player learning for itself how the system works, through trial and error, is a lot more engaging that spoon feeding him/her all the info. It's also more frustrating but that's part of the deal.

If that makes any difference, I agree with Shiroi

Yeah, we already had this discussion

One of these days I'm gonna get my hands on a psi-amp and change your mind

[Hobbes]

Just encountered this "Superman" during a terror mission, haven't checked yet what the whole thing is about but the unit sprite's face/hair is not consistent with the portrait

EDIT: I realize now that most civilian sprites are not exactly same as their paper dolls, but this one particular sprite looks really odd

There are a ton of missing paper dolls... unless someone has the artistic skills to draw them (which I lack despite several attempts) or fix them, the current ones will have to do since they're a minor issue.

[Mr. Quiet]

Hobbes, I'm running a slightly older version and I notice nothing but Spacefarers in the beginning, after 5-6 missions total. I haven't encountered Greys or Floaters, except on Terror missions. Is this intended?

Edit: are updates game-save compatible? I haven't searched, thought I'd ask directly

[Hobbes]

Hobbes, I'm running a slightly older version and I notice nothing but Spacefarers in the beginning, after 5-6 missions total. I haven't encountered Greys or Floaters, except on Terror missions. Is this intended?

That's normal, even for the vanilla game.

Edit: are updates game-save compatible? I haven't searched, thought I'd ask directly

If they're not, I'll post a warning when I release an update.

[Yeoman]

I did one of those defense missions. The frustrating part about it is that the installation is covered in high fences that your bullets can't go through (they have to be destroyed first) but the enemies' plasma weapons go through them. A bunch of your soldiers are placed in the second floor of the building when the mission starts and they're basically useless and you have to get them to the roof or on the ground outside.


Having high fences for such buildings makes sense, but it's counterintuitive (you expect it to help you, but it works against you) and not fun to deal with with the way they work in the game.

[Hobbes]

I did one of those defense missions. The frustrating part about it is that the installation is covered in high fences that your bullets can't go through (they have to be destroyed first) but the enemies' plasma weapons go through them. A bunch of your soldiers are placed in the second floor of the building when the mission starts and they're basically useless and you have to get them to the roof or on the ground outside.

Having high fences for such buildings makes sense, but it's counterintuitive (you expect it to help you, but it works against you) and not fun to deal with with the way they work in the game.

Something to consider: you can win the mission by simply surviving 25 turns, hunkering down and covering the entrances to the main building, thus killing all the aliens is optional. 

[SIMON]

Is there something up with v0.9.7 as when I research any alien other than the basic aliens they don't show up in the ufopaedia. At first, I thought it might be a conflict with some of the other mods I have on but I did a fresh install with extended 5.3 of 18/03/19 and only area 51 v0.9.7 activated and after checking in debug mode the only aliens to appear are the basic ones. See attached for fresh test.

[Hobbes]

Is there something up with v0.9.7 as when I research any alien other than the basic aliens they don't show up in the ufopaedia. At first, I thought it might be a conflict with some of the other mods I have on but I did a fresh install with extended 5.3 of 18/03/19 and only area 51 v0.9.7 activated and after checking in debug mode the only aliens to appear are the basic ones. See attached for fresh test.

Just tested this and by adding a Spacefarer Soldier and researching it. UFOPedia article appeared without an issue.

PS - I noticed on the zip file you posted that you have the /user folder inside the OXCE folder, which I don't think it's a good idea.

[Solarius Scorch]

PS - I noticed on the zip file you posted that you have the /user folder inside the OXCE folder, which I don't think it's a good idea.

Where else would it be? In some hellish My Documents folder?

[Meridian]

Just tested this and by adding a Spacefarer Soldier and researching it. UFOPedia article appeared without an issue.

PS - I noticed on the zip file you posted that you have the /user folder inside the OXCE folder, which I don't think it's a good idea.

It's a syntax error in "ufopedia_Area_51.rul".

"ufopedia:" is duplicated on line 757... just remove that line and it will work.

[Solarius Scorch]

I really recommend using SupSuper's VS Code plugin. It's great for catching this sort of bugs.

[SIMON]

Thanks that did the trick.

[Hobbes]

I've updated 0.97 with a fix for this issue (I had already fixed it, that's why I couldn't see it), plus some minor changes in preparation for 0.971:
* UFOPedia craft articles now correctly display stats
* Skyranger and most other transports now only require 1 pilot
* Xenophobia now has a chance of being activated before a mission, making it less likely to appear since Meridian has recently implemented globalChance for starting conditions. However, it will be required to upgrade to the latest OXCE for this setting to be activated.

[BBHood217]

A terror mission is happening in Oslo, but it always crashes with "no xcom units could be placed on the map" whenever I try to land there.  RNG reseeding doesn't seem to work either, it crashes no matter what.