18 replies to this topic

[crazy_higer]

I was thinking - why can't I duck-tape a flashlight to my gun if I'm off to a night mission? And why can't I attach some sort of a cold steel blade to my beloved AK? Why can't I attach a sniper scope to my handgun, if I feel like it? And who the heck said I can't put a silencer on my gun to blow out the brains of an alien without disturbing the peace and quiet of the battlefield?

Somebody tell me! Who says all that?!

[Blehm 98]

Actually, if we ever plan on making the aliens more aware of their surroundings(they actually here their friend get blown up by a heavy plasma when he's right behind him, it is just too easy when you can kill an alien facing you and the ones not facing you don't hear)
that would add use to silencers
it would also, at some point, mean the aliens watch what direction a grenade or flare came from or where shots came from and shoot or grenade in its general direction too

[crazy_higer]

Just thought of something really nice - whenever a soldier/alien get's hit and dies, he falls in the opposite direction, so that if anyone sees the body, they'd have a clue where the shot came from.

[UnFleshed One]

Too low diversity of weapons for such kind of things IMHO (I am about the first post). And there is no point in addon if you can buy it in the store. Unless there will be tradeoffs, like reduced damage for silencer, low reaction for sniper scope (and maybe low close range accuracy), very high visibility for flashlight (makes sense to use only in curved walkways). Also more weight and more TUs.

[Blehm 98]

yeah, silencer would be reduced damage, and i think drift factors would have to go up a bit
flashlight would eliminate all night vision problems in a narrow band in the direction the soldier if facing
no sniper scopes

[UnFleshed One]

Flashlight will eliminate all night vision problems for enemy snipers in about 180 degrees in the direction the soldier is facing.

Edited by UnFleshed One, 08 August 2005 - 01:56 AM.

[Blehm 98]

well, that would make night missions too easy and take away the usefullnes of electroflares, if we add flashlights it is only 2-3 squares band in front of him

[mikker]

Hmmm... hasn't this been suggested before? I think I remember something with it...

[Blehm 98]

yeah, i seem to remember that too

[PaladinWOL]

My ideas:

when you research different human tech weapons, they aren't full weapons theyare add-ons. this makes use of the original rifle much greater as its the only one that attaches things.

example: research a laser tech, you equip a laser to your rifle, same for shotgun, frag grenade/ smoke grenade launcher, etc.

My cool idea (to me):

Troops paradrop into battlefield and skyranger lands somewhere else on map. I thought this would add to the suspense. You have to search for the UFO and blast it and now escaping isn't as easy.

Also, man I love X Com and I like what you guys are doing here. When are we expecting the 1.0 version to be fully playable?

[Blehm 98]

If your dropping into an area where teh aliens are, it will still take a minute to get to the ground, even in LALO jumps, so you'll start with 5 aliens around you. I don't think so

[sir_schwick]

Electroflares are still useful when you do not want to give the aliens a lead targetting indicator on your person. An electroflare reveals little about the thrower. A flashlight on a gun barrel makes a nice bullseye. Also, addons would increase weight, reduce accuracy, and reactions since they are heavier and unbalance the weapon. Snapping on a motion sensor makes lots of sense so you don't have to grab it out of your pocket. Sniper scopes obviously have their downsides, such as interfering with the regular scope.

Also, paradrop operations usually have the LZ cleared by teams with gliders. You could attach many, foldeable gliders to the back of the Carrier then have your troops glide in undetected. HALO jumps(that is what I thought they were called) are usually for situations were gliders cannot be used first. This would be the only way you could approach a working UFO safely.

[CaptainKnight]

HALO jumps are High Altitude, Low Opening jumps. LALO are Low Altitude, Low Opening Jumps. Same thing but lower essentially.

And I like the idea of addons, but it sounds like it could get too fiddly. Like having one gun with like 5 or 6 addons until it is just unrealistic. Unless you wanted to do a slots system or something.

Edited by CaptainKnight, 16 August 2005 - 04:55 AM.

[sir_schwick]

Wouldn't be much of a stretch for equipment to have slots, since men do the same for infantry.

[MightyBalrog]

Im of the opinion that these ideas would seem unfeesable. I would think why flash lights are not on weapons would be:

1. Vibration of Weapon would cause problems
2. Energy Source for light would be hard to incorperate into weapons which are already built for compact and ease of carring ... which includes over all cumbersome and bulkiness of its body
3. its overall effectiveness of lighting an area is limited, night vision of soldiers may be more useful
4. Why have light built into a weapon when the suits of armor make a much more logical choice.

If a flashlight is allowed it should be an item that is hand held and specifically used as a light... ie take a hand slot which is not holding another item. Then it would have a narrow beam of light eminating from the hand held light.

Im of the Opinion that the time and effort put into coding features like this would not be worth the little bit of effect it would have. In essence it these features would not increase the gameplay experience enough to make it worth while. Especially if it could be sovled easier by just introducing another weapon that just had these feature built in... not have them piece mealed together.

[boinker]

I may not be an expert on combat, but I would think that carrying a flashlight into a nighttime firefight with the enemy is absolute suicide. If you are trying to find me in the woods in the dark with a flashlight, chances are I will find you first, unless I'm blind.

In order for you to see me, your light has to hit me directly. For me, all it takes for me to spot the unfortunate light bearer is the flash of light in the distance, in which case I just aim at the flash and pull the trigger, then wait for the screams.

In some cases in real life wars, soldiers were even forbidden to light a cigarette, because a sniper can home in on that cigarette cherry and blow their faces off. And this is only a little cigarette we're talkin about.

So if flashlights are going to be implemented, make it so it will make whoever is carrying it become visible to aliens much further away. Even in narrow hallways the light bouncing off the walls will give away your position to someone in the next corner, inviting a grenade tossed your way.

[sir_schwick]

Night vision on armor(all kinds) is much more logical and coincidentally realistic as well as fun. I personally always enjoyed that green lighting.

[Snakeman]

So if flashlights are going to be implemented, make it so it will make whoever is carrying it become visible to aliens much further away. Even in narrow hallways the light bouncing off the walls will give away your position to someone in the next corner, inviting a grenade tossed your way.

First, I like the idea that, if flashlights are used at all, they should be integrated into the suits and/or on HWPs. Not that the choice shouldn't be open for weapons modifications, but as a couple of people already pointed out, it'll introduce penalties. I think that as long as that is taken into consideration with the designs of weapons players could come up with, it'd make for interesting battles.

It could add to the unpredictablity of battle so I'm not against modifications.

This sounds very much suited for an accompanying game editor - map, units, tools and weapons etc.

Something else I like here that you touched on, light bouncing around. If light could be used well in different ways i.e. indirectly like this, you could limit temporarily at least, the "bullseye" factor by not directly lighting up a target's postion. Or as shwick mentioned, colored lights rather than bright white lights used by soldiers. Something like a deep red or green color wouldn't broadcast your position as badly and probably only illuminate a 1-2 tile length as opposed to a while light that'd possibly go as far as 10? tiles.

Alternatively, maybe lights can act as distractions as well, such as strobing effects or something. Together with a soldier standing by a UFO door with a stun rod is probably a better alternative to using proximity mine traps.

Edited by Snakeman, 04 April 2006 - 06:54 PM.