9 replies to this topic

[Cyrus_Darkheart]

This project looks great, keep up the good work.
One idea, though I know very little about how feasible it would be to implement, would be for different cities to look, well, different. When you're doing a terror mission in say, Tokyo, it would be neat to have buildings and textures that would be distinct from a European city mission.
The random layout of the map could be preserved, and the building architecture itself could be the same from city to city, but to have a different look in different parts of the world would give the game a great touch of realism. I think one of the best parts of the original game was the atmosphere, and I think that this might even improve that a bit.
It would be neat to have this in effect regionally for all of the missions (instead of just the universal farm-buildings), but just adjusting the building appearance for the terror missions might be sufficient.
Any thoughts?

Cyrus Darkheart

[Cyrus_Darkheart]

(oh, and sorry if this idea has already been discussed in previous threads)

[Seelie]

Personally, I think the best way to handle this is the way most games that encourage modding do it. Have the cityscape/tileset refer to a text file to call up specific graphics. Let people make their own graphics and alter the text file to increase the number of cityscapes. Then the team only needs to make one cityscape initially. But anyone who wants to can make their own. Over time the varieties are going to get quite high and it will be modular in a very easy to mod format.

[red knight]

This project looks great, keep up the good work.
One idea, though I know very little about how feasible it would be to implement, would be for different cities to look, well, different.  When you're doing a terror mission in say, Tokyo, it would be neat to have buildings and textures that would be distinct from a European city mission. 
The random layout of the map could be preserved, and the building architecture itself could be the same from city to city, but to have a different look in different parts of the world would give the game a great touch of realism.  I think one of the best parts of the original game was the atmosphere, and I think that this might even improve that a bit.
It would be neat to have this in effect regionally for all of the missions (instead of just the universal farm-buildings), but just adjusting the building appearance for the terror missions might be sufficient. 
Any thoughts?

Cyrus Darkheart

In fact i had thought about it going a little farther... i had think about using geographical data like ecosystems, rainfall, population, etc to generate better terrains based on that data (procedurally of course)... in fact i had downloaded a geographical database with all that info, but didnt have time to look at it (low than lower priority )

Greetings
Red Knight

[5parrowhawk]

Would be awesome. For major cities you could have a terror mission that happens inside a single 10-storey (or more!) skyscraper (but firstly, the AI has to be set to hunt the humans rather than camping for this map, or it'll take forever to fight out). The map would be smaller horizontally to compensate for the height, and the Skyranger would touch down on the rooftop helipad, from which the agents would enter the building. (Presumably the bugs haven't infiltrated past the upper floors.)

Or you could have a street-level city mission with large skyscrapers, but the lifts and stairwells are locked so units can't go any higher than the 2nd or 3rd storey. (You can blast through the upper-floor windows and go in with Flying Suits for sniper positions, but you won't find aliens in there.)

The other point is that, unfortunately, most modern cities look remarkably similar. The layouts could be modified a bit though - Tokyo would have a slightly less "squarish" layout with a few more neon signs; Hong Kong would be packed with signboards hanging from the buildings (which would have staircases opening out onto the street, making perfect ambush points); New York would have cabs parked on the roadside; London would have the usual London cabs and buses, as well as a couple of "retro" buildings and more garden space. The suburbs would have more changes though, I guess.

I just found it odd that the city missions in UFO were all tiny little structures, more like suburbs than a real city.

[War_Lord]

We brainstormed about this kind of thing on IRC one night. I totally agree that different places should look "different" (especially cities). I think that this will definately be something we can and will implement, and I think it would be a dirty shame not to.

[gangsta]

yup that skyskraper idea did come up during the irc brainstorm thing when we first came up with that multiplayer mode where the aliens start out with all countries.

[Dover]

Sorry to revive a long dead topic, but...

I always thought terror missions were taken far to lightly in XCOM1. My formal list of complaints:
- The cities are at most 8 buildings large. Not even the smallest city is THAT small.
- There are at most 10 civilians in the whole city.
- There are less enemies in a terror mission than there are in downed battleships or newly-founded alien bases.

Complaining without offering an alternative leads to nothing, so my sollution would be:
- Make the cities bigger. I mean really big. If I remember correctly, XCOM1 used 40 by 40 tiles for terror missions. I think it should be AT LEAST 250 by 250, if not much more.
- With all this new size, add more civilians (and a variety too. All the civies looking the same was rather depressing).
- With all this space, the amount of aliens should be tripled, at the very least. Of course, this bring up balence issues, which brings me to...
- Allow more than one craftful of men to land at a terror site (Or any mission, for that matter). After all, this is a HUGE deal! Aliens are invading human cities. Is X-Com really going to limit itself to a measly 10 soldiers and a HWP? I think not.

If not, perhaps it could be added as an "Alien Invasion" mission, bringing together a force similar to what aliens use on infiltration and base-making missions.

This is slightly off topic, but:
- In addition to their terrorist buddies, all alien races should be given an "Alien HWP", which carrys all the advantages of a human HWP (Cannot be stunned, MCed, paniced, etc). Advanced HWPs (Hovertanks and the like) can only be produced after researching debris from the alien variety.

Once again, sorry for reviving a long-dead topic.


Love,
~Dover

Edited by Dover, 18 February 2006 - 04:43 AM.

[fux0r666]

In the original X-Com, the AO (area of operations/map) was a small neighbourhood, not the entire city, and the character of the terror missions were dictated by the number/type of enemies in the AO. I'm not super up-to-date on my Xcom lore, I actually didn't really like the game, but why would a terror ship's 'terror agent' deployment be greater than all hands on a battleship?

I do agree, though: a greater variety of civilians is quite desirable.

Also, remember that a greater mission scope (larger map, more aliens, more xcom agents) would multiply the mission time and effort. You don't want to bog down the player with work. If such a thing were to be implimented, some sort of autonomous control for X-Com squads may be necessary in order to keep the missions manageable.

[Blood Angel]

If such a thing were to be implimented, some sort of autonomous control for X-Com squads may be necessary in order to keep the missions manageable.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps an Apoc-style "move as squad" option?