ufo the two sides

[The Veteran]

Does it work over the net then? I'll happily go a few rounds as I'm rather impressed with this offering myself

[Lysear]

Yeah it works, still a few balance issues though (snakemen laying eggs, plasma research is based on wether the alien player wants the humans to have it, and without plasma the aliens can just tech up to mutons and the human has slim to no chance.)

 

also detecting ufo`s is a pain, radar sucks and the graphs are 2-3 days delayed so an alien player can just rotate around the map and its hard to catch any.

 

Some house rules are needed to make it fair.

[The Veteran]

Well then start writing some down! I'll make sure I have a recent release tomorrow and we'll try a game.

[Lysear]

Well as the alien player i think i would :-

 

not use snakeman eggs (and not use snakemen terror missions - so no chryssalid)

Tech plasma first - (giving the human a chance to get muton beating weapons)

 

Those are the main things that unbalance it atm. But im sure we will find more as it progresses

 

Will be online tomorrow

 

PM me your msn if you have one. Makes it easier to chat

[The Veteran]

Downloaded the most recent build and just checked out the multiplayer options. Seems we need the IP address of the host. So who is going to host, when are we going to play and who wants what side? Also how can we enable chatting at the same time as playing the game? I don't use MSN but I do have Skype... And finally is there a way to save progress in a multiplayer game or do we just play as long as we can then stop...

[Lysear]

Yeah ill host, already forwarded ther required port. There is a chat function in game by pressing Tab followed by ctrl. I dont mind playing either side.

 

Saving is enabled and ill have an autosave running too just in case of crashes.

 

Just need to work out a time when you and i are online (I`m GMT btw)

 

Only 1 more rule i thought of, but this is entirely optional (i use this rule in my singleplayer games of tftd and ufo), is to only use auto shot when within 5 tiles of your enemy. But as i said entirely optional

[The Veteran]

Wow! What a rollercoaster ride that was :S We managed to get in a good few hours of gaming last night (till about 1am!) and played through just under 3 months with varying results. There were some missions that weren't particularly challenging for my Commies at all including a few small scouts that seem harder to destroy in this game than the original. There were also two notable pastings I took though, one from a large scout and one from just 6 aliens in a medium! I'm happy to say I achieved immediate revenge both time but I lost 10 troopers and a tank on both occasions. The last mission we played last night saw a team of 7 armoured vets with laser rifles and alien grenades get absolutely slaughtered by just 8 poorly armed sectoids!!!

 

Certainly playing against a human is far more challenging than a superhuman game and it forces a complete rethink of strategy and that's a very good thing... Having only played a few months in the early game it's hard to say whether or not the balance is right but personally I feel it should be easier for the alien player (Lysear in this game) to build new UFOs and troops. Simply give them more units with poorer stats as that's kind of the whole point of X-Com, overwhelming odds... In the total wipeouts I've suffered to date, it seems that the alien stats are almost too good when you couple them with a keen tactical human brain.

 

Of course, that's not to say it's wrong or unbalanced, we won't know that until we've played into the late game! I'm just saying that it might be an idea for the devs to move the alien player more towards numerical superiority than they currently seem to be. As it is I have to land at each and every site for missions but I'd like to see it a bit more hectic with more detections. Give me a reason to drop them in the ocean sometimes when I'm not up for the fight...

 

Hopefully Lysear will come and share his thoughts at some point too as I'm yet to play the aliens so can only discuss the human side of the war. Regarding further gaming I'm out to the gym this morning so will be either this afternoon or probably not at all. Will pm you when I'm back around lunchtime if I fancy another bashing

[Lysear]

Well im always up for it (will have to be after 9:30 tonight though, going bowling) ^^. Had so much fun last night.

 

From my (the aliens) point of view, i thought the balance was decent witht the rules that i stuck to, by sticking to 1 region until you found me gave you a fighting chance, if i rotated my patrols every time there probably would have been even less interceptions. I think it needs an increse in radar strength (but im not sure if multiple modules does this in tts).

 

Replacing UFO`s on the aliens side isnt that hard, i just made it hard for myself by not building extra workshop type thingys (it was my first game as aliens, was unsure what the buildings do ), now that i have been playtesting most of the night on singleplayer with aliens i know better what the buildings do .

 

As for the tactical battles, facing a human opponent is much more thrilling than pasting the ai, the balance is in favor of xcom in the early game in terms of 14 troops (or 10 and a tank ) facing a max of 8 in a large scout, but from the view of the alien player if i can take out 4+ of the xcom forces (officers if im lucky, i can make the others panic) then i count the mission as a success.

 

Teching plasma first slowed me down, but it also allowed me to get rifles, which negated the personal armour when Vet got it , Plus on the aliens side research is directly tied to the abduction missions i send my craft on.... the more they are intercepted the less research i get (and vet did a good job of intercepting my small scouts)

 

However with the introduction of the large scout and some bigger ships i think i can negate the xcoms numerical advantage, also most of our fights had been in the dark too, which gave me the advantage due to the aliens better night vision

 

But all in all im definatly looking forward to more (and it was very fitting that in one of the missions, my sectoid had 4 contacts, and the tu`s for an aimed shot - picking a random soldier it fired and killed him, then i got a message from Vet saying it was the one he renamed after himself, made me lol)

[The Veteran]

You around before bowling mate? I'm back now and fancy a bit of a play but I certainly don't want another 2am bedtime :s Let me know if you have time for a few rounds before you go out!

 

And yes you are a swine, I renamed only 3 troopers and of the 4 in the lineup one was me and one was Pete. He got me

[Lysear]

Bah wish i was lol, had to go shopping with the mrs and the daughter now im about to do a bit weight training and then jump in the bath before my league, even if your only up for doing until 11 or so tonight we may be able to get a litttle more played .

 

eager to get my large scouts up in the air again (at least til you pound em with avalanches)

[The Veteran]

I believe there is the base defence of Eire to settle as well... If you want to send over 3 UFOs like last time and try again then I owe it to you after the mixup last time. I extracted all the sprites I needed anyway so we're good to go this time. As a word of warning, I'll be installing missile defences at some point and that'll put some serious hurt on any attempts to even land your troops

[Lysear]

i think the max troops on a base assault/defense mission is something like 35 per side too, just imagine the slaughter. well as i still need to rebuild and get some research up n running, ill leave your base alone for the moment. Once you get shiny power armour im hoping i can at least field snakeys or maybe even muties .

 

still i had fun suiciding those 16 or so sectoids (soo many pretty fireworks).

 

*poof and im gone*

[silencer_pl]

Go for Etherals

 

Looks like you found some fun.

[The Veteran]

Mucho funo Silencer! And you're there as well My new roster consists of Pete, myself, Lysear, BombBloke, Sunflash, BladeFireLight, NKF, Fullauto, Jman and of course Tammy fills the token female trooper spot You'll notice that's only 10 as the 4 new ones are currently unnamed but Silencer one of them is destined to be you

 

I lost my third tank to plasma fire last night so I've decided it's beyond their time now and I won't be buying anymore. We're currently at the stage of Power armour and plasma rifles for the goodguys with the obligatory alien nades in hand. I'm researching up to craft plasma cannons but of course I can't get them until I nab me a heavy plasma (I think Lysear is researching them now though) Flying suits will be finished soon but that will by no means be a game winner. Playing a human opponent is very different to any AI in the original and it's much harder than superhuman in the tactical segments!

 

Anyway I'm going to be taking applications for a new roster soon as we'll be attempting a 2-sided AAR once we finish this game which could be very interesting! Never before have you had a chance to cheer on the aliens We'll start a new thread for it to stop spamming up this one so keep a look out for it and send in your name and profile for selection. I want at least 50 troopers for the roster so I need everyone there is!

 

I almost forgot to mention the warcrime of the century as it happens... Someone send NKF in here, he'll want to hear this...

 

The last mission we played yesterday was a landed Abductor and it was by far the best so far. It was a farm map with lots of buildings plenty of cover and 11 floaters to my 14 men. We had similar weapons too but my power armour made it hard work for Lysear and he had to try and sneak up close to autoshot me to death

 

Anyway, after an early stunbomb took 2 troopers out of action he managed to appear in a window directly above one trooper and killed him with a 3 shot burst. Turns out he'd shot himself which we both found highy amusing!

 

A second death was our Sunflash who had made a stunning job of flanking the UFO in the NW corner of the map butLysear being a human opponent was wise to this and the cowardly alien leader was waiting for him with death from above

 

The only other human casualty was I am sad to say, a friend to us all... Poor NKF... He formed part of the firing line back near the ranger and he was knocked out with a stunbomb one turn. Ok fine, I can live with that. Next turn however we spot an alien sniper in the window to the west and he shoot NKF's unarmed, unconscious body and kills him!!!

 

I call warcrime on you sir! How dare you take my NKF away from me! Now I'll have to rename a whole extra soldier lol

[Lysear]

If i didnt kill him while he was in an unconcious heap on the floor, you may have revived him to cause merry hell on me i done it for the good of my troops, and the fact im an evil bastard

[silencer_pl]

Are you guys telling each other where you have missions or is the alien player limited with mission territory ?

Could you explain how it is at start of the game? How is the elerium capturing. You seem to play extremly fast.

 

Oh and wish I could join you

 

 

Edit: By the looks of videos - you could see each other movement... but waiting for your input.

[The Veteran]

No reason we can't play more games mate, let one of us know if you want to have a go!

 

Basically, gameplay is identical to a normal singleplayer for the human but there's a lot more waiting as the alien player must build UFOs, clone troops, research new weapons etc... Elerium just like everything else is captured the same way as the original. Win a mission and the spoils go to you. I'm not sure how the aliens get it but I assume they manufacture it (like we do with alien alloys and laser weapons) I have seen Lysear receive a shipment from Cydonia at his main base though so I can't say for sure.

 

As for missions, I'm the hunter and Lysear is the hunted. He's making it easier for me by carrying out all of his missions in one area until I catch him in the act and then he'll move. This way I can use the graph to locate his activity and then eventually a patrol should get lucky.

 

I must say, detection is very disappointing with this game as it takes a lot to find any UFOs, the base radars seem to do nothing at all... We discussed this briefly though and I imagine it has to be this way in order to allow the alien player some chance of victory. What with only having 4 or so craft at once it would end the game very quickly if I detected them easily.

 

If Lysear sent each craft out to a different zone every time he launched a mission I think the human player would have a very hard time tracking them down so I don't know if there's a way to counter that in the game. Patrols and radars certainly won't do it as I have 3 bases all with large arrays in them which do nothing. All of my patrols are useless too. At one point I knew full well Lysear was operating in Europe (one of the smallest zones there is!) but none of my 5 patrol craft could find any of his UFOs for days and days!

 

Engagements with UFOs are a bit crappy too. Lysear has found a way to group UFOs so I guess I can do that with my interceptors but in the event that a landed craft I'm shadowing takes flight it seems to be impossible to minimise the combat window to allow other interceptors to join the fight.

 

We'll be noting down the good and the bad points while we play anyway so we'll see. It's certainly a very fun game to play against a human opponent so I'm enjoying myself so far

[Lysear]

Yeah grouping my craft helps me send them out a bit quicker, but im sure i have done it in singleplayer too, when pressing ctrl + 1 (remember not numberpad1) i get a window popping up with my ufos listed, then i just select the ones i want to group (then once done press ok to accept the group), Then whenever you want to select the group you just press 1 on its own and you should be able to send that group wherever you want, and if they intercept something they will get to attack it together.

 

Elerium onmy side is only gotten from cydonia shipments too, i can produce alloys and concreete in my bases (concrete is used for buliding facilities), i have to harvest the population to get organs (breeding new aliens) and alien food (needed for sending out ufo`s on missions), but the cydonia shipment also brings those other things so if i do get hampered too much by xcom i can at least rebuild somewhat .

 

At the minute i am pretty much learning the alien side as it goes, but the tips and stuff i have learned so far will make the aar awesomely fun and btw silencer they introduced a new ufo on my side it seems, i know it isnt in the origional anyway and it is definatly an anti-intercepter craft The mighty DESTROYER, so hopefully i can escort my lesser craft .

 

But yeah in summary it is a lot of work on the aliens side in sending out multiple ufo`s and breeding and stuff, but it is very fun and i think it would make it far too hard if i rotated patrols without giving silencer a chance to find me .

[silencer_pl]

You are playing 0.98 or 0.99 version ? How are the bugs, crashes etc.

 

I would like to play - I am free after work around 18 CEST time, that is GMT + 2 now (summer time).

I use skype so if any of you have time we could ping each other then.

 

Oh and about the elerium I was rather asking is it the same after you shot down the UFO. You have PA now, but in our single/multi gameplay we barely have elerium for basic needs

 

The game would be definetly harder for human if one have base in EU other in NA or SA.

[The Veteran]

I'm certainly playing 0.99 so I guess Lysear is too! The download is here if you don't already have it, top one of the two : TheTwoSides

 

To answer an earlier question which so far has gone unnoticed, you absolutely cannot see any enemy movements. It's completely hidden with no tells at all. Just like a normal game you need to look out for doors and origin of fire and so on. An annoyance for me is that there is no map and corpses/items are not visible without LoS but I have a reason for this I think... Our first mission today was me invading Lysear's main base in Africa and everyone was panicking on both sides by the end! If we'd been able to see where the wespons were getting dropped it would've made it a lot easier to find our foes so I think that's why they don't allow it to be constantly visible... As for having no map, well that's inexcusable but it is still in development so I'll just wait a bit longer!!!

 

As for today's excitement I don't think either one of us can convey the excitement involved in a mission on such a scale as the one we played today but sadly it didn't go my way in the end

 

Lysear had 15 troops made up of sectoids and snakemen with 2 psi-capable units to add to the mix. There were also 4 reapers and a cyberdisc on top of the fact that alien base defence missions provide the player with ALL tech! Yep, blaster launchers and heavy plasmas!

 

I'd taken a full team of 14 flying suit'd plasma riflin' nade wieldin' nutjobs and things went very well for a long time. We exchanged kills here and there right from the get go, each one with it's own little tale to tell! It reached a point where I had 7 troops left to Lysears 4 and that was with all the terror units gone and the remnants panicking frequently. I was quite chuffed...

 

Everything went wrong in the next turn sadly as my 3 troops got into position to enter the command complex. Within 3 turns I lost 5 men with just Thorondor (who I hadn't armoured) and flying suit Pete left to save the day. Obviously they panicked something dreadful and we ended up with a 2 on 2 battle when bleeding caused some deaths for Lysear.

 

I got very lucky very quickly and spotted his last Floater right by my position. He was dispatched and I even tracked down his last unit. Odds of 2 to 1 I surrounded him without ever letting him even know I was there but he emerged from his hidey hole 1 turn too early and a quick change in my plan meant the grenade that was meant to kill him somehow didn't

 

He knocked out Thor next turn and I had Pete leg it right round the map to try and destroy the command complex (not knowing if that would constitute victory in a multi player game) I made it there undetected and tore the place up but it sadly counted for nought...

 

As I exited the command complex I chose to turn left instead of right and ended my turn with a sectoid looking at Pete with an evil little smirk on it's face

 

Total loss and the base survives because of 1 sectoid! Bah... So then I had to rebuild but I've smashed up a load of UFOs since and am feeling better about myself! Found a second base in Japan and destroyed one Abductor mid flight and successfully sieged a landed Harvester to round off the days adventures!

 

Lysear is now at work and I'm X-Com'd out but I am very much enjoying it and I believe Lysear is too. I'm going to have another go at his base tomorrow but based on my last attempt I'm not looking forward to it! Got to finish this game one way or another before we can start the AAR

[zimmer1213]

It looks like they took down the downloads due to concerns of legality issues. This thing sounds really cool, wish I would have seen this while it was still available. Honestly I'd be so disappointed if a publisher pulled a dick move on something like that instead of trying to recruit that kind of idea into the game genre.

[Pete]

Yeah, this is the reason why: https://ufotts.ninex.info/forum/index.php?t...msg7798#msg7798

 

But I'm still not entirely sure I follow what's said there.

 

If you do something like this before setting up your own company then it's surely not an issue for the company you set up? And if someone other than yourself decides to write "From the team that brought you UFO:TTS" then that's surely not a problem unless as a member of the team you're saying it yourself.

 

But then again I'm not a lawyer, it's their project and I applaud the fact that they're discussing setting up a company and I suppose potentially releasing similar games (at a guess).

 

The way I personally view the ongoing development of many fan-based X-COM projects at the moment is that it's a good sign that 2K haven't gotten involved. I remember back in the day when Infogrames/Atari stomped heavily on such projects and got the lawyers involved and I'm thinking that someone at 2K must know about at least one of these projects by now and are simply doing nothing about it.

 

That's not a nod of approval, as they can't give it, but it's not a cease and desist either - it's simply letting them get on with it.

[zimmer1213]

I ran across that post in the forum after I made my post. What they said makes sense. Since their team actually makes games to sell for profit, it puts them at risk for litigation. As advertisement or not, the license holder can claim that their game, which bears a likeness of their licensed game, can interfer in the sale of their own title costing them potential profits. Any other game developer could be seen as rival competition. The distribution of this game, even if it is free, could be seen as a promotion of their work for other products. It could further be seen as using another companies licensed material with out their permission to promote their own material.

[Azrael Strife]

Changing the art assets and names should be enough for them to be safe, anyway.

[silencer_pl]

I think that changing names wont solve the problems - they cold get in trouble with Chaos Concept and their UFO:ET project, which is similar to X-Com in few ways.