Take Me To Your Leader
by Kyzrati on 20110907 , under Brainstorm, Video
I was going to add grenade priming today, but the X-COM system seems like it may be incompatible with X@COM. For a breakdown of the original timing system, see here.
I like the original system. Despite not being intuitive and obvious at first, it's fair and works pretty well. The problem is, it only really works when you have two sides (X-COM + aliens), no more (civilians are ignored for grenade timing purposes). But X@COM supports an unlimited number of factions (teams on a given level) so you can potentially have more groups than just X-COM and aliens.
Not sure what to do about this yet. Checking grenade timers only at the beginning of a new round is obviously unfair, and using the thrower's turn as a reference may not be flexible (or fair) enough in some cases. I'll have to think on it some more, but thought I'd throw it out there to see what others think.
Maybe a faction's grenades can only go off at the beginning or end of their own turn. Thus priming to 0 will explode as soon as you end your turn, 1 will go off just before your next turn, 2 = after your next turn, 3 = beginning of the turn after that. Seems confusing, though really you don't prime for much other than 0 or 1, maybe 2...
The main thing this leaves out is the ability to have a grenade go off between other factions' turns
but that doesn't seem possible to work out, or even necessary actually. And maybe I've come up with the answer myself while writing this post :)
4 comments
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Kyzrati
September 8, 2011 at 8:41 AM
Yep, most of the basic mechanics are in. Proxies are coming next update. Melee attacks, since they weren't in the original, won't be implemented right away (as you know), though a while back I did add a DAMAGE_MELEE type and gave all items a melee damage property for future use, so it'll exist eventually. (Technically you can make melee weapons already--just assign a weapon the ME damageType and give it a range of 1, though it'll use the actual damage of the weapon instead of its physical melee damage in that case, since the latter is not referenced anywhere. It would also rely on firing accuracy at this point, since the melee skill is still unused as well.)
Large units and reaction fire are the remaining major logical components.
Then there's sound FX (probably the last thing to do before an initial release) and font modification (using a libtcod default at present--probably won't switch before initial release, though).
There's also some semi-boring-yet-absolutely-essential parts to tackle soon: message log and interface. The interface is going to take a bit of work to get right, because I need to write an effective framework to base it on, which could take a little while (relative to the rapid pace of all the recent additions).
The main thing keeping me from releasing a tech demo right now is the complete lack of a real interface. Once the interface is coming along, the entire battlescape should fall together pretty quickly.
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Jotaf
September 8, 2011 at 11:17 AM
Man this looks awesome! And really fun to play too. Give us some toys like the guided weapons and you'll be set :) Also love the fire effect, I was considering having similar fade-in-fade-out effects for the magic in my RL!
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Kyzrati
September 8, 2011 at 11:50 AM
Thanks Jotaf! I can't wait to implement the things I've got in mind that are hopefully going to really blow people away ::secretive smile::
The fire/smoke worked out pretty well, and is really easy to do--I highly recommend it :)
(I was thinking of making a pure fantasy RL based on the X@COM engine that would use particle effects for magic, which could be pretty cool, too, but for now I think a sci-fi RL where the "console" is an integral component of the immersion is a better route. Maybe I'll join 7DRL next year and do a quick one just for fun...)
September 7, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Yeah, it sounds like you talked yourself into an answer just discussing it. =B
You seem to have covered a lot of the basic business. Grenades with timers, basic projectiles, explosives, guided bombs. What's up next, then? Proximity grenades? Melee attacks? It'd be nifty if the dummied out melee strikes were available (With balance fixed, obviously). Being able to put the butt of a rifle into some smug Ethereal's face would be awesome. Vanilla XCOM conversion probably wouldn't have it, but since you keep mentioning extended stuff being planned eventually they would sure fit in there.