changes to UFO missions: pre-/post-mission loadout of UFOs and alien bases

[moriarty]

now that karvanit implemented UFOs landing (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,764.0.html), I've been thinking about some things that are kind of weird in the original, and definitely  not intentionally so, but simply owed to the limits of programming time (and technology) at the time it was made.


- when a UFO lands for a terror mission, what happens to the UFO? do they dismantle it? is it blown up to make sure the alien terror crew doesn't simply take off again, but fights until the last alien is dead? this either needs an additional explanation, or a different way of handling it. I propose this:

1) the UFO first lands, to set up the terror mission. if you arrive during this time (i.e. transport craft directly chasing the UFO), you will find an urban battlescape (civilians included) plus landed terror ship, with a certain number of aliens still inside the UFO, possibly minimizing the number of civilian casualties by storming the UFO and catching them before they can disembark. this could be handled as a terror mission (points awarded for civilians saved) or as a new mission type.

2) after the "set-up time", the terror mission is created, and the UFO takes off again. here's the catch: if you shoot down the terror ship now, it should only have a skeleton crew! after all, the terror team is already occupied.


- when a UFO lands for an alien base building or alien base supply mission, why does all the stuff stay on board? they are delivering the stuff! the amount of loot should decrease over time, and if you shoot one down after it completed the mission, the UFO should be almost empty!

- when you assault an alien base and leave without destroying it / killing all the aliens, the base should stay weakened for a while. I know alien base farming or "milking" is a viable tactic, and it shouldn't be entirely prevented, but perhaps this will make it less effective, because if you "farm" too often, you will get less loot.
also, I guess it should be possible for a "weaker" human player to repeatedly attack an alien base, slowly killing the aliens off, weakening them and then finally destroying the alien base. this would need to be balanced carefully, of course. maybe it will lead to an earlier alien base supply mission? perhaps with additional or stronger alien units?

[Yankes]

I think that alien should leave they bases if they attacked too often or increases defense after first attack.

[moriarty]

anything other than the original way (a base that simply gets reset to the state before the attack) would be fine with me the game needs to respond to the actions of the player. if a player can take any kind of action without evoking some kind of reaction, it's against Newton's third law of gaming

same thing with the UFOs: if a UFO that is described as a transport craft carries the same stuff on the way to a base and returning from the base, something doesn't add up. it's against the first law of gaming thermodynamics.

[Warboy1982]

i always figured that the resources from the battleship with the base establishment missions went into construction of the base itself (ignoring the fact that the base is constructed as soon as the battleship enters the atmosphere)

i was pretty sure there was a big difference in the elerium you got from a supply ship if you captured it before landing/while landed vs shooting it down afterwards, so at least there's that.

as for alien bases being "weakened", they should only remain that way until the next supply mission is generated (and carried out successfully) and as a balancing measure, perhaps the alien AI could "abandon" a base that's been assaulted a few times, because it KNOWS the base has been discovered, and exploited for resources. hell, why not even have the aliens set traps all over the base when they abandon it, so the next time you go there, the rooms below the starting area are packed with primed proximity grenades or something, and everything of value has been removed, except maybe one engineer in the control room (to keep the battle running) watching the monitors and setting off defenses. maybe the aliens DON'T leave, and install some base defense modules and grav shields of their own?

[moriarty]

i always figured that the resources from the battleship with the base establishment missions went into construction of the base itself (ignoring the fact that the base is constructed as soon as the battleship enters the atmosphere)

i was pretty sure there was a big difference in the elerium you got from a supply ship if you captured it before landing/while landed vs shooting it down afterwards, so at least there's that.

#1 would be believable if the battleship disappeared upon completion of the base building mission, which it doesn't... it just takes off and leaves again, and if you manage to shoot it down, it will be like any other battleship, full of aliens and equipment. that's precisely what I mean! we tend to make up our own little stories of how the aliens do this or that, but the game is actually much simpler - and, once you look more closely, much less believable.

#2 nope. the only difference comes from the fact that no UFO ever carries elerium outside of its power sources, and the ones you shoot down usually have less of those intact so a supply ship that lands will have (3 power sources*50 units=)150 units, but one you shoot down might have less. you are actually pointing out another thing: a supply ship on a base building or supply mission should carry extra elerium! perhaps even an additional power source in the "middle floor" compartment somewhere.