Solar's wishlist

[Arthanor]

That seems sensible. I'm impressed you even went with NE-SE-SW-NW wall destruction as well.

It would have expected to require that you face the wall you want to destroy directly and can only destroy objects to the NE-SE-SW-NW of you if there are no walls in the way.

[Meridian]

That seems sensible. I'm impressed you even went with NE-SE-SW-NW wall destruction as well.

It would have expected to require that you face the wall you want to destroy directly and can only destroy objects to the NE-SE-SW-NW of you if there are no walls in the way.

Well, without those cases, it would be almost the same as what the Hammer does already today.
If I can't make it work, maybe I'll decrease the scope to N, E, S and W only and basically make hammers without projectiles

[Arthanor]

Hammer + the possibility to destroy objects in diagonals - the fake 100% chance to hit enemies that hammers have currently. That's already quite an improvement imho.

Good luck with your even more ambitious project

Maybe there should be a way to sponsor your coding work along with your LP'ing! (As soon as I get rid of that stupid bandwith limit, I'm gonna binge watch some LPs! I should have preemptively registered on patreon so I can later watch my gal's VIP adventure, instead of abandoning the LP.)

[Solarius Scorch]

As I said in the second post, I don't like Solar's "crew unification" proposal ("everybody can do everything"), I won't be implementing that. We'd have a completely different game if we did that.

Yes, I know it's bold, for a lack of a better word... But that's the direction Apocalypse took, and I absolutely loved it. Of course they didn't really introduce this mechanics, because the game was only half done, but still it promised!
And it's more justified in Piratez than classic X-Com.

Anyway, great job with the terrain destruction! This should streamline the game a lot!

As soon as I get rid of that stupid bandwith limit, I'm gonna binge watch some LPs!

Bandwidth limit? Where are you Arthanor, Northern Sudan? O_o
Last time I heard these words was at least 10 years ago...

[Arthanor]

Nope, in the great Canadian metropolis of Montreal. I thought  these limits were a thing of the past about 10 years ago , but then they came back. Most large ISPs have them for fiber op or cable connections.

For some unknown reason, you can get fast Internet but with a limit of 20 Go, which you would exceed in little time. Then you can pay even more to up (or get rid of) that limit, or sign up for even more expensive, faster Internet with a bit higher limit. I have a big enough limit not to worry when I'm home but there is still a limit. I'm on an extended work trip now so I have to deal with what's provided.

This random little piece of info was brought to you by the Canadian heritage minutes. I hope you don't mind the off-topic too much, Meridian.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks Arthanor, a friend of mine from Canada mentioned something like this, but I thought he wasn't being serious.

Anyway, back on topic: I am considering adding more psionic powers to the Great Duumvirate of Panic and Mind Control. I mean powers that actually require new code and cannot be hacked with damageAlter and such. Do you people think it makes sense? And Meridian, does it clash with the "no AI modding" principle?

[Surrealistik]

As a Torontonian, at the center of the Canadian universe, pre-war cradle of the great MegaPrimus, I've no such issue with bandwidth caps despite having Bell as my ISP.

[Eddie]

If we get the "runts for craft repair" thing, can I ask for a small feature? I would appreciate the option to make the repairs cost money or resources.

With free repair, the economic decision for air battle has been to not use the expansive missiles and rather let your ship get damaged. This is kind of immersion breaking for me, as in real life you would mostly do the opposite. I know Dioxine just posted the lore is ships regenerate by themselves to explain the "free-repairs" feature, doesn't mean I like it.

[Dioxine]

They do repair themselves (this is canonic lore from XCOM Interceptor), I never said for free That's sorta integrated into Maintenance costs; however an ability to set extra repair costs would be cool. However this would even further penalize air combat in favor of just waiting for stuff to land...

[Eddie]

Air combat could be buffed by making battles at shot down UFOs easier (well, you already have the exploding power sources) or making battles at landed UFOs tougher.

Best idea I've had so far for tougher landed UFOs: Have a timer during which you have to get a gal inside the enemy UFO, or it will power up engines and weapons and destroy your ship that is a sitting duck on the ground. Even better would be to have objectives inside the UFO that you have to destroy to disable the timer, for example a computer in the engine room or a computer on the bridge (destroying either will stop the timer). Plasmacutters would be a really useful item for these kind of missions.

If you had that, the next feature would be: an option to bombard a landed UFO to turn a "landed" site into a "crashed" site, so you can choose your risk/reward.

[Solarius Scorch]

Best idea I've had so far for tougher landed UFOs: Have a timer during which you have to get a gal inside the enemy UFO, or it will power up engines and weapons and destroy your ship that is a sitting duck on the ground.

Well Supply Ships sort of work like this already.
But... more timed missions? I am torn between groaning at this and giggling at the players' frustration! Because it makes sense.

If you had that, the next feature would be: an option to bombard a landed UFO to turn a "landed" site into a "crashed" site, so you can choose your risk/reward.

That would be more complicated and hard to integrate...

[Dioxine]

Best idea I've had so far for tougher landed UFOs: Have a timer during which you have to get a gal inside the enemy UFO, or it will power up engines and weapons and destroy your ship that is a sitting duck on the ground.

I'd welcome such a feature with open arms, as it penalizes passive play. Maybe not as punishing as insta destruction (your ship can get airborne fast, and later return for troops), but you should be grounded for, like, 1hr, while the UFO escapes.

[Meridian]

Anyway, back on topic: I am considering adding more psionic powers to the Great Duumvirate of Panic and Mind Control. I mean powers that actually require new code and cannot be hacked with damageAlter and such. Do you people think it makes sense? And Meridian, does it clash with the "no AI modding" principle?

Well, you didn't tell us much.
I'd need a bit more info about what should this new thing be to tell anything reasonable.

[Solarius Scorch]

Well, you didn't tell us much.
I'd need a bit more info about what should this new thing be to tell anything reasonable.

Well, I'm not completely sure yet, I'd have to design it first. And I don't really want to work on this if it's not going to get implemented... Well, the vicious circle.

I am thinking about things like this (cherry-picked from various threads):

- Psi Strike: The target must take a psionic test. Failure will result in health damage, ignoring armor. The test is based on a roll taking into account the psionic strength of the victim and the psi power (Str * Skill) of the user. Mindfray deals no fatal wounds.
- Psi Stun: Like Psi Strike, but deals stun damage. (Intended to be weaker.)
- Psi Disturbance: Reduce the target's TUs, Stamina, Reactions, Firing, Throwing, Strength and Melee by a percentage, depending on test result.
- Inspire Unit: Boosts morale and heals Fatal Wounds. This power will never fail and the effects are based on the user's psionic strength and skill.
- Psi Scan: The unit gets PsiVision equal to their Psi Strength/10, until the end of turn.
- Blind: The target's vision range decreases until end of their turn, often to 0.
- Suggestion: Point any location on map. The target unit will now think it's extremely important to get there (a temporary node with very high Importance, which only works on one alien).

But these are just examples, not my actual ideas to implement.

[Meridian]

Doable.
And if you don't need them in addition to Mind control and Panic... but instead of them (i.e. redefine what these two do, per weapon), I wouldn't have to touch the AI.

Mind control could be replaced by: psi strike, blind
Panic could be replaced by: psi stun, disturbance

The rest doesn't need to be available to AI I guess?
"Use" (on psi weapon, added by Yankes) can be replaced by: inspire, suggestion
"Use" (on motion scanner item type) can be replaced by: psi scan

PS: btw. please think also about if these ideas add anything (new) to the game... I won't be implementing any more features like the Alien Containment types, which are there just for decoration