New Facility Idea

[GreatGold]

Sup All -

 

So mamutas hit upon an idea (see his "Research" post: http://www.xcomufo.com/forums//index.php?a...f=3&t=1155&hl=) and I just thought this might be worth looking at and working with.

 

mamutas suggested connecting research among all X-COM bases, to sum it up, which I think is a great idea. I just also think it needs some sort of balance, perhaps in the form of a facility that is exspensive, big, and takes a while to build and maintain. Otherwise you'd have 1000 scientists popping out tech at a dozen a day...

 

So this facility could be some sort of X-Net Comm Center, to tie it in with the X-Net idea. Every base that has it is connected to the actual RESEARCH aspect of X-Net and can contribute scientists towards a project that was started at any other base which has the facility, and is therefore on the network.

 

Obviously this idea of culmulative research could really boost research speed, which is why it needs to be balanced with the facilty (or something else). What do you all think?

 

This idea could also hold true to a Manurfacturing Development Center, or something to that effect), allowing different bases with emphasis on production to split up larger projects and share them between eachother (such as aircraft, HWP, etc).

 

What y'all think, and a big to mamutas for sparking the culmulative research idea!

 

Thanks,

Gold

[Breunor]

There had also been discussion regarding an administration facility to deal with various aspects of the base, perhaps helping automate things, perhaps just a glorified access lift with no function at first. Coordinated research could be one benefit of this facility, each base that has it can contribute free scientists to projects at other bases which also have the facility. So long as each base has what it needs to research locally, this would be realistic. The facility cost and upkeep would need to be balanced with the benefit of focusing all of your research, sounds like it's a plausible feature.

 

Rather than start a new thread on the same topic, why not just continue posting to the original thread?

[GreatGold]

Sorry -

 

Must have missed that thread.

 

Gold

[Guest blaa]

I wouldn't expect vastly new facilities for v1.0. It would be best to have a working game first like the original then we "add" new facilites to test them from a game mechanics point of view.

[Breunor]

I thought that was the thread you were referring to in your first post GreatGold... perhaps I missed something, I'm not sure. Either way, it's a nice concept and I've put it into my list. As Stewart said, it'll be one of many version 2 items to consider I expect.

 

Have a good one,

Breunor

[GreatGold]

Hey -

 

My bad, that first post I'm referencing was in regard to mammy's idea about combined research. I didnt want to steal his idea/glory by hijacking the thread and turning it from a research discussion to a facilities one...so I made a new one. My bad.

 

Gold

[Breunor]

Nah, nobody's bad. My concern is that lots of good ideas get spread all over, I thought keeping all the discussion about how to update research in general together would be easier for people to follow, that's all. You're right though, it would become 2 topics, the facility design versus UI design.

[Guest blaa]

I thought up a new one last night.

 

A factory.

 

Basically, it's a workshop, requires no engineers, builds things in less time and at less cost but . . . . .

 

it gets these bonuses by being robotic so when you build it it is tooled to build ONLY one thing; that's the trade-off.

[GreatGold]

Stewart -

 

Thats an interesting idea... So if you like Heavy Plasma, youo build this facility, and then it only manurfactures this specific item? It could work, but I would suggest that the length of time and amount of money it costs to build and per month to maintain should be proportional to the item being built.

 

As an example, a factory for a Avenger should cost a lot lot more and take a lot lot longer to build than a laser pistol factory. Does this sound right?

 

Perhaps this facility could be called an A.M.P (Automated Manurfacturing Plant)? Or something snazzier?

 

Gold

[Guest blaa]

Maybe. But logically that doesn't nessessarily follow though. Perhaps items could be put in groups:

 

Craft

Craft equipment

HWPs

Armour

Personel Equipment

 

etc.

 

but the easiest (from a programming point of view) is to have one size fits all and the bonuses applied be a fixed percentage applied to whatever is built.

[Cubik]

Putting the items in groups makes sense.

 

GreatGold: Bigger items could just require a bigger factory, ala APOC. I think that APOCs' system worked great.

 

And why not make a powerplant facility? Different facilities could have a diffrent power drain, and if you have too few powerplants, you would be able to allocate the power between the different facilities.

[GreatGold]

Powerplants are an interesting idea. Especially if we could work someway to introduce Elerium power into them. Perhaps 3 levels of powerplants: conventional(cheapest, least power), nuclear(exspensive, more power), and elerium (exspensive, very powerful[only need one? per base then], and the player must determine how much Elerium to allocate towards power vs other things).

 

This leads me towards a question. Ive been following the overall base facility threads, but I assume for v1.0 that we are just keeping the orginal base setup, such as size. So in v2.0+ is there a possibilty to actually make bases more expandable, in which case all these great ideas and facilities could be implemented?

 

So far we have:

X-Net Communications Center

Administration Building

Some sort of Access Lift upgrade?

Powerplants

Automated Manurfacturing Plant

 

So what are we still missing?

 

Gold

[revenant4]

I think if you are going to combine the scientists they should cost considerably more...otherwise there would be hundreds of scientists that would research things in less than a day...I'm just thinking back to when I used to play X-COM I thought having scientists specific to one location took more strategy...I always made one base for strictly research that had just research facilities, Living Quarters, maybe 1 store, and many defense systems...there was no need for radars or even hangars becuse it was only for research...you could just transfer the remains of an exploration to the base to be researched...I also had the same kind of base for the manufactering part...

that's all I have to say bout that

[Cubik]

Add a level to those powerplants: fusion. Using elerium as the source of power in the powerplant seems to be a good idea.

[Guest blaa]

Okay here's anouther facility idea. Nothing fancy though.

 

Access Tunnel

Cost $50,000

Maintenence $1,000

Build Time 1 day

 

What's it for? It allows you to build your base quicker.

[GreatGold]

Hey -

 

I like the idea of the Improved Access Tunnel . But I'm gonna quote myself cause I'm concerned with this aspect :

 

This leads me towards a question. Ive been following the overall base facility threads, but I assume for v1.0 that we are just keeping the orginal base setup, such as size. So in v2.0+ is there a possibilty to actually make bases more expandable, in which case all these great ideas and facilities could be implemented?

 

I'd like to get a higher-ups and coders opinion on this if possible. Cause we have some great ideas, and combined with the original facilities, A LOT of great ideas. So how are we gonna balance this?

 

Gold

[red knight]

Okay here's anouther facility idea.  Nothing fancy though.

 

Access Tunnel

Cost $50,000

Maintenence $1,000

Build Time 1 day

 

What's it for?  It allows you to build your base quicker.

Where is the drawback of using it??? Remember Balance...

 

Greetings

Red Knight

[GreatGold]

Red Knight -

 

 

Before you goooooooooooo!! From a programming point of view, is there a limit to base size? I assume not, and that its just a balance issue, but I'd like your word, as it is close to Gods .

 

Gold

[Guest blaa]

Okay here's anouther facility idea.  Nothing fancy though.

 

Access Tunnel

Cost $50,000

Maintenence $1,000

Build Time 1 day

 

What's it for?  It allows you to build your base quicker.

Where is the drawback of using it??? Remember Balance...

 

Greetings

Red Knight

Cost, it's cheaper to not use it and just build your base. It's like the medi-kit what's the draw-back of using that!

 

Balance doesn't nessessarily have to occur within each idea; you just need balance with the game as a whole. Benificial base facilities could be balanced of with things like having to build a medical facility or your guys don't get better or a repair facility or your tanks and airplanes aren't fixed. Making people have to buy fuel for their aircraft and so.

 

I think having missile/fusion defense require purchase/manufacture of rounds might be a little too much though.

[Breunor]

The access tunnel is a nice concept. It allows you to extend your building area quickly, and once you have the base developed you can go back and gut the tunnel to put in something else. I don't see if affecting the balance in any way, if you're willing to give up $50K for faster base development more power to you.

[red knight]

Red Knight -

 

 

Before you goooooooooooo!!  From a programming point of view, is there a limit to base size?  I assume not, and that its just a balance issue, but I'd like your word, as it is close to Gods  .

 

Gold

Not at all, just balance....

 

The point with the medikit, you have to use a lot of time units (probably at open terrain) to help one of your guys under heavy fire (it is not free as you can see)....

 

About the access tunnel, be careful with the base partitioning problem that was stated a lot of time ago...

 

Greetings

Red Knight

[Guest blaa]

Well the access tunnel does cost money and does nothing except exist . . . .

 

Partitioning problem? Que? I thought we're using the 6x6 thing, I recall seeing that in the feature list proposal anyway.

 

For size for now I'd keep it @ 36 facilites, in future versions if we add more facilites that you basically /must/ build then we may think about boosting the 36 limit.

[red knight]

Well the access tunnel does cost money and does nothing except exist . . . .

 

Partitioning problem?  Que?  I thought we're using the 6x6 thing, I recall seeing that in the feature list proposal anyway.

 

For size for now I'd keep it @ 36 facilites, in future versions if we add more facilites that you basically /must/ build then we may think about boosting the 36 limit.

Suppose you have 1 access lift in the top left corner. And put one of those facilities at the lower right corner, nothing more. Do you connect those? or just let the base partitioned?

 

Greetings

Red Knight

[Breunor]

I understood the access tunnel would be built like every other facility, must be connected to an existing facility. The name access tunnel might suggest it's an entrance to the base, it's not. Just an empty space that builds quick so you can extend how many edges are available to build other stuff off of. So you wouldn't be allowed to build the access tunnel off in the corner any more than another facility.

[Guest blaa]

Yes, access TUNNEL not access LIFT. My oppologies (is that spelt with an "a"?) for any confusion.

[Thurstan]

On the power plant idea it might be possible to make up a shortfall by buying power from the national grid, at a ongoing cost, as an alternative to slowed production/research.

[Kenshiro]

I think there's a facility that is critically missing from the base, and that is a weapons range. Every industrialized nation infantry base I've ever heard of(especially covert ops ones) and even civilian police departments have a range of some kind.

 

This would allow for the marksmanship/heavy weapons training we discussed in the soldier interface screen thread awhile back. Your soldiers could be assigned to marksmanship training on the same lines as the psionics training.

 

On a similar vein, a physical training facility would also be useful. This would contain items such as an obstacle course and a gym. This would boost your soldiers' physical attributes for as long as they were assigned to this type of training. Although I imagine a regular PT (physical training, read: military calisthenics/exercise) regimen would already be in place with or without this facility, its a lot harder to make gains when you are already in shape (as X-Corps soldiers would conceivably be) without some kind of workout facility. This being a secret base, I couldn't see the troops just heading out to the local gym in the nearest town (if there IS even a nearest town) and compromising the whole project.

 

Having these facilities would give you the ability to not only improve your soldiers, but also to specialize them, giving the player a lot more control over the team composition. Instead of having to assign generalists to all positions, he or she can simply train up the troops to fit the team position.

[Guest Jim69]

They had 1 in Apoc, there should be another level 2 this IMO. If u don't train the soldiers then their skills degenerate over the weeks and months. Reason? If u didn't do something 4 a month that u have been training 2 do then ur skills will suffer. This would stop peeps thinkin that they'll skip the facility and just improve them thru battles alone. The skill jumps shouldn't be very big, they'd get much better thru battle, but it's better 2 have it than not.