What an interesting game!

[Zombie]

As I was fooling around with EU the other day, I stumbled upon something rather interesting to say the least. See, I normally don't use many explosives as they destroy objects on the battlescape, but it just so happens that a Sectoid soldier was on top of a farm rooftop and wouldn't come down to play. So one of my soldiers tossed a grenade up there, and *BOOM!* one very dead Sectoid. In fact, the explosion was enough to vaporize the body and all that was left was a Plasma Pistol and a Mind Probe. While this is interesting, the part that got me was that the explosion opened up a hole in the roof and made things brighter inside. Take a look:

 

 

Neat stuff! I also collected a couple more shots which show the effect of totally removing the ceiling:

 

 

Even with complete daylight, roofs/ceilings make things inside darker. Who would have thunk it.

 

So what do you find interesting about this game? Tell me your ideas.

 

- Zombie

[Fox]

Yeah that's crazy... I've never really noticed that.

 

I've been playing through a game lately and I have been taking several precautions lately that seem to almost never get my guys killed.

 

For example, I ALWAYS drop smoke's out the bottom of the assault craft, always seek aliens with HWPs and shoot them from afar where reaction can't take hold. I also have been equipping EVERY soldier with motion scanners. They weigh nothing (esp. for a seasoned soldier) and are cheap to use on the fly.

 

Knowing small tricks like this, being able to illuminate the room better with a nade to the roof, could help a lot in the early part of the game when your rooks with rifles need an edge at night.

 

Nicely done.

[Zombie]

Knowing small tricks like this, being able to illuminate the room better with a nade to the roof, could help a lot in the early part of the game when your rooks with rifles need an edge at night.

What a great strategy! Now I'm off to check how well this works during actual nighttime mission conditions. That will be the real litmus test.

 

- Zombie

[Snakeman]

Well recently when I play, I try to avoid night time missions simply cause I hate the space even a handful of flares takes up. Besides, on a training ship like mine, that's an extra pistol or rifle clip. Anyway, against my style I did a supply ship mission when it was on the verge of daylight.

 

I completely forgot the distances involved in spotting something in daylight vs darkness. To me, its like finding them almost on top of you before you can see them.

[Accounting Troll]

I first discovered that when I came across blaster bombs and I realised that there is a quicker way to clearing out a farm building than sending in a couple of squaddies.

 

It works with UFOs as well, at least during day time and twilight. I've never noticed any difference to the lighting through this tactic during night time missions. However, you tend to destroy a lot of potential salvage if you do this.

[Fox]

My favorite tactic at night is to just have one person with an autocannon with two clips of incindiary, and a laser rifle in his backpack.

 

I just did a supply ship mission when it was landed, so it had to be at night - I had no choice. So I simply equipped my captain with the autocannon, and he has a flying suit. I armor my men based on rank:

 

Rookie - Personal

Squaddie/Sergeant - Power

Captain/Colonel/Commander - Flying

 

This guy has something on the order of 70 something accuracy, pretty decent, and I just light up the ground from up above whereever I please. You can create daytime very very quick with this tactic.

[Zombie]

Ok, my most recent tests revealed that spotting distances in the dark remained the same whether or not the roof was gone. At least this was true during the darkest part of the night. Ah well, nice thought. I think Bomb Bloke can shed some proverbial light on this subject as he made a map viewer/editor which can change brightness levels on the battlescape.

 

Indeed, incendiary ammo is a great way to light up the battlefield. Flares aren't bad either, but they suffer from being able to throw them far enough out to be effective - especially with low strength rookies. I really like incendiary on missions with a lot of vegetation/flammables. Jungles, and farms, and forests, oh my. Lay a few rounds down in this terrain and then sit back and watch it spread.

 

- Zombie

[Danial]

Even with complete daylight, roofs/ceilings make things inside darker. Who would have thunk it.

Just goes to show what a good job they did of the graphics engine

[Zombie]

Well, I'm impressed - especially with what they had to work with. They put a lot of time into implementing lots of subtle things which makes this game so fun to play.

 

- Zombie

[uriaheep]

I guess that's why such an old game can still command such respect and be played so many times.

 

I bet one day there will be some kind of fan website????.....

[Bomb Bloke]

Quite some time ago I was playing a terror mission in the dark. One of my stray rounds went into a building and hit a lamp which had been illuminating the room. That was the end of the lamp, and also the end of the light... And my view of the alien in the room, assuming my memory is entirely accurate.

 

Each tile has a stat which dictates how it blocks light. It's not the case that they either do or they don't: Items are partly transparent. For example, a solid roof blocks light coming from overhead, but only some of it. Whether the building has walls seems to have nothing to do with it, so destroying those won't further brighten the room.

 

Other light sources (such as lamps) seem to be mainly uneffected by terrain. A lamp on the ground seems to illuminate the top floor just as well as the bottom. Best way to view this effect is to check out the roof of a house during a night mission.

 

Zombies' pictures indicate that this is also true for units. The second image shows the location of the unit on the ground floor, via the light he produces. And likewise, the third image allows you to see the units on the second story.

 

So is there any use for this information? Well, it might be possible that throwing a flare onto the roof of a farm house is just as effective as throwing one in through the window.

[Gimli]

I swear you guys are the craziest fanboys of anything on the entire planet.

The kind of things you guys find out...

[Zombie]

I swear you guys are the craziest fanboys of anything on the entire planet.

The kind of things you guys find out...

It really is amazing how much stuff is in this game once you start to look. And test. And play. And edit. And hack. You get the point. Next time you have nothing to do, take the game for a spin around the block.

 

So Gimli, what is interesting about this game to you?

 

- Zombie

[uriaheep]

Just been looking at explosions in bases and ships. I'm seeing evidence that enclosure of the explosion "pushes" it further down corridors - beyond the range of the explosion in open spaces.

 

If this is the case then it's a nice touch.

 

I'll have another look at that tonight.

[Gimli]

So Gimli, what is interesting about this game to you?

 

Lots of things, but my brain is in standby mode due to too much studying, hehe. But the thing I find the most interesting is that all of these things were done in only 9 months (I think it was 9 months, but I can't remember where I read this). I mean, when I think about all the things you guys discovered, like what the system for the monthly score is (among many other things) and add to this the story, research etc. it's amazing that they could have completed it in 9 months (unless I've managed to mix that number with something).

[Zombie]

Here is something rather interesting I encountered the other day while testing on farm terrain. It's how unit height plays a role in-game. What I did was stand a Sectoid and a solder on a hay bale and then looked at the floor above to see what was visible. The solder's head was, but the Sectoid was hidden. Take a look:

 

 

LOL. At least height is used for something.

 

- Zombie

[Bomb Bloke]

That one has to do with the order in which the game draws sprites, but it isn't just a cosmetic thing - As you know, the soldier can actually see what's in the above room from that position.

 

The head doesn't stick through in my editer, because I draw things in a different order. I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing yet.

 

You also get this effect with hover tanks, I think even when they aren't lodged on hay and the like...

[seeker]

i notice the ceiling blocking light when i saw med and large UFO with blown tops. the interior show 2 shades of light.

 

however, in daylight, i doubt removing ceiling will increase spoting range of alien inside by soldiers outside.

(unverifed, just my guess)

 

another interesting fact about unit height.

i was walking beside a wooden fence and get shot at. i spin around and see no alien. i kneel and spin again. now i saw the sectoid at other side of fence!

so i think the wooden fence block LOS differently for different heights. i can see the terrain but not the alien while standing. only by kneeling can i see.

 

question: does it work the same for apple trees? ie kneeling in the dense apple module lets you see better?

question: how can a short sectoid peek thru a barn window? my kneeling soldier cannot peek through.

 

________________________________

 

another unverify scene:

 

~|

~|

A| ~~~ ~

~S

 

A = alien

S=soldier

 

soldier can sometime see alien around a corner(south west corner) but unable to shoot. (no LOS)

at other corners , South east corner i think, soldier is able to shoot at alien and alien is unable to reaction fire. (saw him reaction spin but he didnt fire even after i injured him)

[NKF]

X-Com has some horrible line of sight calculations when it comes to corners. Horrible. You can sometimes get a reaction shot triggered by an alien inside the UFO, but the shot will get blocked by the hull. This often happens with aliens at weird angles and on different elevations. It's even more frustrating when the aliens get a perfect shot through the seams of your Skyranger, where nothing should get through.

 

As for your sectoid - there is the possibility that it did not have enough TUs to fire its weapon, but did have enough TUs to look in your direction as soon as it was alerted by your attack.

 

As for the light levels - it will have some effect, but the effect will hardly be as obvious as it is during night attacks.

 

- NKF

[Bomb Bloke]

I believe a kneeling soldier is shorter then a Sectoid.