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Thoughts on the tactical interface


Fulby

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Unit colours:

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple I think

Hopefully that will make it easier to identify which unit a path (and maybe targeting line) belongs to.

 

Looks like a Walk/Run toggle for each unit but there's a pic of a soldier crouching.

 

The Action button might open up a menu of available actions (including crouching). Or it may be done via the game world view (right click on a unit or something).

 

A C/CE button presumably for undoing orders easily.

 

The little red gun icons to the right of the portraits:

The second soldier, M Legerer, has four bars next to the icon but the rest only have 3. Same in all the shots, could be weapon skill.

 

Hostile unit spotted: Alien

Brings back memories of Apocalypse that does :laugh:

 

Enter Next Area button (right hand side)

Multi-map missions?

 

I can't see an obvious slow motion option, unless the hour glass icons do that.

 

:P Fulby

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Sweet! We have all the smilies here! :bomber: :bomber: :bomber:

 

Well... all the good ones, anyway. :alien2:

 

Back to topic...

 

I'll presume we have a FPS mode here? :inlove:

 

Now, just a thought. One of the (many) games coming out in a while uses a save feature which is based on time. It takes so long to save, and if your interupted, tough!

 

This means you can't save in a firefight (unless you are incredibly lucky), and would iron out all the reloading scams which havce plauged the older games! :P :bomber: :laugh:

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As far as I remember, there will be no first person view in the game. Julian Gollop who was behind the original Dreamland project wanted some FPS fighting, but the chaps at Altar have stuck strictly to a 3rd person view so you can see what's going on around you.

 

It IS fully rotatable though, so should look amazing when you're actually playing it.

 

And no, no rnks will be transferred from my X-COM board, as we're setting up another XCTC forum to transfer stuff to, so this one has nothing to do with the other site (apart from practically looking identical! :laugh: )

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I've got to say, I was worried by the Dreamland screenshots they were showing, it looked like the combat would be disorientating. Now, after seeing these shots, I realize they are staying with the tried and true formula of XCOM and JA that gives you a battlefield view, but keeps you close to the action.

It's funny, I feel like I can finally come out of hiding now that another TB game is coming. Other than a few JA2 boards, the turn based squad combat fans are extremely neglected when it comes to games. Here's hoping this one won't disappoint, and a hello to everyone :laugh:

 

Hurlshot

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I hope it will be something like Dungeon Siege or Baldur's Gate.

Those gameplays are quite good with the pause option.

Or to be close, X-com Apocalypse.

 

I can accept this, if it will work fine.

 

Let's not burry the gamplay before the final relesae.

 

:devil:

 

 

I just can't way for a playable demo.

 

:laugh:

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Naturally the guys from Altar are there with their demo to show off :laugh: That's where the new screenshots in the gallery came from.

 

Not too sure how long it'll be before there's any kind of releaseable demo. I'll have to ask that in my next interview :P

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Perhaps a blow-by-blow account of an actual tactical mission would help?

 

Obviously a whole mission may take a bit of time to explain, but certainly the movement orders andevets that occur would be interesting to know about.

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A FPS mode would be nice, it's what everyone was dying for with Alliance! :laugh:

 

In 3rd person mode, although you can view all terrian, you will (hopefully) only be able to see enemies if your units can. FPS mode doesn't give you that.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not all for ANOTHER run around and shoot things game, but it would be nice if it were optional. Like in Apocalypse, where you choose real-time or turn based games. It looks like this new one doesn't play in real time, I theenk... :P

 

Though I doubt they would add it at this stage :P

 

(An FPS mode, I mean)

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It looks like this new one doesn't play in real time, I theenk...

 

Yes it will run in real time :laugh:

You assign orders to your men (when paused)

Then you hit the "play" button, and watch them performing your orders.

When something unexpected happens, the game will pause and you can change the orders the way you want...

 

[EDIT: some typos ] :P

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It actually sounds as if it will run exactly like the new game by the original creators of XCOM, Laser Squad Nemesis. You make orders, push play, and both sides go at it. The difference is LSN operates on turns, because you play against humans, but UFO will be pausable at any time. I guess you can say it is similiar to Baldurs Gate as well, but I imagine the giving of orders is closer to LSN. Speaking of which, LSN is worth a try, just to see how this new style of squad combat works. It's a free download, and a ridiculously low $15 to join the league for 6 months. I only played for a week or so before I got bored (I need story) but I don't feel I wasted any money, and it is an interesting concept.

 

Hurlshot

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Yup bu the thing to remember, even with all this real-time carrying out of orders is that it's still turn-based :P

 

It's confusing me as well, but the idea is a bit like LSN (but looks nicer IMO) where you do actually have turns and when you click play they play out. Yup, when an event occurs it pauses just like in LSN or X-COM Apocalypse, nd allows you to change orders, but it still ends a turn at some point and allows you to plan out your next set of moves.

 

That's the impression I was getting anyway - stop me if I'm wrong :P

 

I think the idea of this system was to give the player more control, and give them a set time whe they can sit back and give the units orders without having toworry about what's happening across the other side of the map, cos nothing happens until you press play ;)

 

That way, the combat is more realistic, as all your men move at once, in more realism, following your orders more closely, and because the squad is smaller, you can keep an eye on them all :laugh:

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Yup, when an event occurs it pauses just like in LSN or X-COM Apocalypse, and allows you to change orders

I didn't think you could change orders mid-turn with LSN?

Comparisons to fixed turn length simultaneous TB games don't help much in understanding the control system. Those games are designed so that the player enters X seconds worth of control orders and some guidelines regarding events, and the game engine handles the orders and makes decisions based on the player's guidelines for the next X seconds of game time.

 

The "Hold on Sight" and "Fire at Will" guidelines in LSN (I think that's what they're called) are the only way the player can influence their units depending events during the turn.

 

The UFO:A style of system instead uses auto-pause and manual-pause so the player can consider events as they occur and adjust unit orders as necessary. The player isn't rushed to make a decision, doesn't need to try and account for every possible event in advance (which would require a near infinite number of "guideline" controls or heavy AI scripting), and most importantly the player's control of his units in a situation isn't restricted by the interface/control system.

 

The game world still determines what control you have of your units, it's a pretty pointless control system if all your soldiers have only one form of attack or if one course of action will always be best no matter the situation.

 

I think it's important to note the "real-time" aspect isn't to make the combat faster or to make it play like an RTS. The only similarity is that actions in the game world can overlap. We were trying to get away from the real-time moniker on the ALTAR forum because of people's preconceptions about the term, mainly that anything referred to as real-time is an FPS or RTS. In UFO:A you won't being controlling your units in real-time, you only issue orders to your soldiers when the game world is paused.

 

See the "new name for combat system" thread on the official board for another discussion of this which includes clarifications by ALTAR. Hopefully someone will make a decent explanation of the combat control system and add it to the ALTAR FAQ, which may lessen the confusion.

 

:laugh: Fulby

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@ Fulby - Just goes to show that I haven;t played LSN since the Beta and I don;t remember oo much about it :laugh:

 

Thanks for clearing that up though!! Even I didn't know all of that :P

 

@ Hellbount_PT - News being posted now and you're getting the credit for it :P I'll have to e-mail Altar and see if they'll give us some non-Bonusweb'ed versions to add to the gallery here.

 

Thanks guys!!

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I know how the system is supposed to go in Aftermath, and there is an important differance to Apocalpyse.

 

No troop AI.

 

In Apoc, if you troops see an alien, they jump behind chairs, wall, desks etc... and take cover. All this while automaticly shooting away.

 

If you want one troop to go somewhere, and other troops are in the way, they will move aside (to a limited extant, adimittidly) and let him (/her) pass.

 

In Aftermath, you have to do all that stuff manualy.

 

Or am I mis-understanding the term "absolutely no troop AI? :P

 

Incidenlty, Pete, buddy, pal, mate, could you change the :laugh: smily back to ??? ? It's a lot quicker to type, and saves me having to move the mouse all the way over to the smily panel and clicking.

 

Lemme try my hopeful look smily out.

 

:alien2:

 

Nope. It's a sectoid all right. :P

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Yup, there probably is something to stop you running into stuff, and there definitely is something to stop your men crashing into each other wherever they go, but what they're meaning by "No AI" as far as I understand it is that your men won't carry out an order you did NOT give them (unlike in Apoc).

 

This takes us back to the time of more realistic turn-based where you had complete control. Sure, it's got it's pros and cons, but you won't have soldiers running into the line of fire or jumping off tall buildings because of so-called AI :laugh:

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