Re: The X-Com Files - 3.5: Whispers In The Dark

[mumble]

Actually, xcom uses giant vaccume tubes to transfer from base to base, which is why its faster 

Interesting point, in all seriousness, but I think that shipping people is a little harder, maybe?? legalities and all... ..Plus its kinda assumed you WONT have 2 bases very early anyway.

[Dr.Crowley]

Holy shit I just thought of a huge logical flaw.

We can transfer a person or any equipment in like 18 hours or less. however getting a 2 guys anywhere with a plane and renting a car can be like 3 days. we should be hiring the shipping manager to plan transportation. if he can find a way to ship tons of explosives, dead bodies, and entire fucking armored vehicles around the planet like it was another day at DHL; fuck we need that guy.

Well, we have Chief Scientist, Xenologist, Military Envoy... Shipping Manager fit here perfectly! Cue another research: "Hiring Shipping Manager" 

[Solarius Scorch]

Why can xcom get vans when using public transit, but NOT when using a private jet? Just seems dumb, and makes it more of a sidegrade than an upgrade.

Yes, because it is a sidegrade. The luxury car is an alternative to the van - only two people, but way faster.

The rationale is probably something like "jet too fast to get the van it time Commander, derp".

We can transfer a person or any equipment in like 18 hours or less. however getting a 2 guys anywhere with a plane and renting a car can be like 3 days. we should be hiring the shipping manager to plan transportation. if he can find a way to ship tons of explosives, dead bodies, and entire fucking armored vehicles around the planet like it was another day at DHL; fuck we need that guy.

There are limits to what I can do with a mod; this is simply how it works. But bear in mind that "X-Com base to X-Com base" is not the same as "X-Com base to the middle of nowhere".

Note that if you have another, closer X-Com base, you can transfer your agents there first and then take a van from there.

Well, we have Chief Scientist, Xenologist, Military Envoy... Shipping Manager fit here perfectly! Cue another research: "Hiring Shipping Manager" 

[mumble]

Seems the spider caves mission is a bit much early on, with just vans.  The 2 times I've done it, I end up fleaing the caves after saving the town, and still end up with a VERY hefty point hit

Perhaps, given the larger nature, there should be an "invasion repelled" bonus, or something? I wince when I get this mission, because I know I'm going to have -200 points or something, it reminds me of the giant spiders from FTL, in a sense 

Perhaps maybe the town could be slightly better equiped in its fighting back against it. I know it might not be on par with xcom, but what about police officers with hkmp5s, or shotguns? say, 5 spawned in on the mission...I realize its meant to be hard, but something to buffer it out would be nice, because it seems like, unless you kill the entire nest (I cannot do this with just SMGS and a van) your absolutely screwed for points.

....Maybe even a few hazmat guys with poison sprayers trying to kill them, I dont know.

[Solarius Scorch]

Giving the civilians a bit better defences is not a bad idea as such, but then I'd have to make a new special terrain, new special civilians, ugh...

It's just like any other terror: either you are ready for it, or you are not. If you are not, you just have to swallow it. Not every horror movie ends well

[mumble]

Point taken, and I would accept that were it not a 2 stage event

How about this : at least make civilians in the nest armed to the teeth, and maybe spawning ON the tiles you spawn, like a coordinated xcom / police effort???

At very least, I figure anybody whos brave enough to enter the nest would have something pretty powerful, OR, the nest would be desolate of humans to begin with

this honestly really adds to the problem, since if you flea from the nest, everyone inside it dies.

Alternatively, is there a way to add units to your squad for JUST a mission, like, after clearing the town, a couple cops work under your authority to help, giving some extra fresh blood, but nothing special?

[Solarius Scorch]

Point taken, and I would accept that were it not a 2 stage event

How about this : at least make civilians in the nest armed to the teeth, and maybe spawning ON the tiles you spawn, like a coordinated xcom / police effort???

At very least, I figure anybody whos brave enough to enter the nest would have something pretty powerful, OR, the nest would be desolate of humans to begin with

this honestly really adds to the problem, since if you flea from the nest, everyone inside it dies.

Alternatively, is there a way to add units to your squad for JUST a mission, like, after clearing the town, a couple cops work under your authority to help, giving some extra fresh blood, but nothing special?

These civilians were there as half-escaped spiders food, so I didn't give them weapons... But I guess I can give them some reinforcements, why not.

Temporary suad members are not possible though.

[mumble]

These civilians were there as half-escaped spiders food, so I didn't give them weapons...

Bone clubs?

Throwing rocks?

 

I thought there was a bone club already...

[Solarius Scorch]

Yeah, but then I'd have to make a special civilian, holding a bone club, only for this mission!

I'll just give them more police and stuff.

(I have never, ever gotten this mission by the way, so it's hardly well-tested.)

[mumble]

In that case, ill give you a run down of the main things I see

First off, its mostly like normal terror, yes, but the 2 stage makes it very much 2 fold in potency :  twice the number of civilians to die, twice the blow at failing. Usually I end up with something like 16 civilians dead, which is 300 or something, then the amount of kills make it SLIGHTLY better, but not much

The caves are the worst, as its VERY CQC oriented, giving the spiders an immense advantage. I think if you could generate it so you start at the "mouth" of a cave, it would be better, rather than surrounded on all sides by spiders. Both times I had 1 agent on each side, hoped for the best, and got wrecked because spiders on all sides, and with 4 people, this is too much.

In retrospect, maybe making the cave entrance a bit more like an entrance to a bunker would be better, but with a hill going down into the cave? Just something so the player isn't absolutely surrounded when already weakened, and with no visibility. Because this is the biggest thing, the caves are so narrow and winding, your fucked if you have people with reactions sub 60... maybe making the caves more open would be better, as on average they are 1 - 2 tiles wide, and very twisting which limits visibility to something like 15 tiles out of the gate 

[Solarius Scorch]

OK, I'll think about it, but cave mapping is really complicated. Can't promise much at this point!

[mumble]

How about this ? maybe make a series of "web" walls around the cave, with a very low HP, so the player can shoot / burn them down to explore the cave??? Something similar to glass, but a different texture 

[Solarius Scorch]

How about this ? maybe make a series of "web" walls around the cave, with a very low HP, so the player can shoot / burn them down to explore the cave??? Something similar to glass, but a different texture 

Sounds like an interesting idea, but I'm not sure I understand... What would be on the other side of the web, and what wouldn't?

[mumble]

I would think maybe the spawn would be sealed with a few "web" doors, and corridors would get a chance to have webs blocking them. So in short, at the start, many of the corridors are blocked, and the player needs to burn / blow open web to get into different room with spiders, and on the flip side, spiders would have limited paths at first, and possibly be locked into rooms even... If you took the approach of having the spawn wrapped in an area of rock, with web doors, you could even have a bottleneck vs zerg rush like scenario. at first, with MORE spiders than on the surface, but a bottleneck to make it doable / tense


....not sure how pheasable these are, or if you want to rework it, but I'm just throwing ideas.

[Solarius Scorch]

It is doable... Much work though. We'll see how the new balance works first.

And in other news, I've finished the next zombie mission. It features new terrain and a new unit.