New NESes, ideas, development, etc

Coolio!

I agree on the maps, let's keep it simple to keep it painless for you.

Tentative super-nations? I may have offended thousands of peoples in the creation of this map, though.
Spoiler :


I just spent the past half hour or so coming up with a combat model, but realized it was a bit too complicated. To sum it up it would have seen players assign orders to their soldiers via "Routines." These "Routines", in turn, give bonuses during the three specific "Rounds" of combat (Opening/Engagement/Closing). i.e. a "Scouting" Routine gives you +3/+2/+1 & +/- your DEX/BRA scores, meaning +3 in the opening round, +2 in the engagement round, +1 in the closing round, and it has the added effect of putting the soldier up in the front so in the case of deaths they are the ones to die first.

However, on top of this there were stat bonuses, weapon bonuses, etc. etc. and it seemed like it was too much to do every turn for so many players.
 
The only thing that's offensive is that you picked a map designed to provide a lot of detail and resolution for the purpose of accuracy, and drew slapdash lines over it in two minutes. That those lines don't correspond to anything at all is forgivable by comparison.
 
After dwelling on it a bit maybe combat should just be super-simplified for the sake of moderator sanity? Just give 'squad doctrines' that see bonuses in various rounds, with weapons providing bonuses too a shared Squad WEP. So:

Squad 1 (WEP: 5) - Overwhelming Assault Routine (+3/+11/+6)
Soldier X (AMERIU/???/???/???) Rifle, Grenade x 2
Soldier Y (NESTA/???/???/???) Rifle, Grenade x 2
Soldier Z (ASA/???/???/???) Pistol, Grenade x 3

Would be what players would send for their orders. We could have STR dictate how many "slots" a soldier has for armaments, so "Very Poor" = 2 slots; "Poor" = 3 slots; "Average" = 4 slots and so on so forth. You can overload a soldier, but for ever slot they go over they add a -1 to their squad's roll. Certain weapons could take up more slots (to represent ammo carried and such); i.e. in the case above Rifles take up 2 slots, Pistols & Grenades take up 1. Grenades are somewhat special in the WEP in that they give a one-time bonus of 3 during a round that sees players on the threshold of the various 'degrees of failure' (I'll explain that more later, but the gist being players should expect to lose some guys each mission; when adding up the squad WEP + Routine Bonus + Round roll you take this sum and compare it to the alien's Terror score (determined by the types of aliens), then compare the difference between these two opposing sums to a table to see how much damage was sustained/dished out in that round).

I'll have to think on it more.


edit:

@dachs: I just took the prettiest map and whored it up a bit with cheap photoshop makeup. DEAL WITH IT. :p
 
Nationality could serve as more than just fluff: if a nation signs a peace treaty with the aliens, there would be a chance that the soldiers/pilots/researchers/developers of that nation would abandon X-COM, since their nation would essentially order him to get back.

I would suggest giving soldiers a small morale boost when they are fighting on their home turf as well. Nothing motivates like protecting your people from being turned into Chrysalids!

Also, I'm loving the rules you guys are coming up with. Needless to say, as soon as this forms, I'm in!
 
Well, my idea for the map would be this. We would get 12 Superstates in total.
Spoiler :

Dark Blue: United States of North America (USNA)
Dark Red: Republic of the Andes (RotA)
Green: Amazonas Federal Union (AFU)
Gold: European Federation (EF)
Brown: Union of West African States (UWAS)
Magenta: South African Union (SAU)
Green-Lead: Arab-Jewish Nation (AJN) Red Sea Nation (RSN)
Navy Blue: Russian United Federation (RUF)
Orange: Indian Raj (IR)
Red: East Asian Dominion (EAD)
Lead Blue: Indochinese Democratic Community (IDC)
Light Blue: Pacific Republic


As you can see, I picked the map with the cities marked, and all the borders are still there. If you think it is good, I'll work on eliminating most cities and the borders.

About Squad Doctrines: Perfect idea. Will definitely include it.

Slots & Strength: It is good, though, I'd say that a normal soldier would be able to carry 1 Rifle with enough ammunition for a medium engagement, 1 Pistol with ammunition and perhaps two or three grenades.

Combat System: Quite a good idea. Three rounds should, hopefully, be enough to take care of the whole combat, although maybe extra rounds could be added if necessary. I don't exactly understand what WEP means, but I can guess its use.

Home Turf Bonus: perfect!
 
nutranurse, you have a paper to finish start.
 
Well, my idea for the map would be this. We would get 12 Superstates in total.
Spoiler :

Dark Blue: United States of North America (USNA)
Dark Red: Republic of the Andes (RotA)
Green: Amazonas Federal Union (AFU)
Gold: European Federation (EF)
Brown: Union of West African States (UWAS)
Magenta: South African Union (SAU)
Green-Lead: Arab-Jewish Nation (AJN)
Navy Blue: Russian United Federation (RFN)
Orange: Indian Raj (IR)
Red: East Asian Dominion (EAD)
Lead Blue: Indochinese Democratic Community (IDC)
Light Blue: Pacific Republic


As you can see, I picked the map with the cities marked, and all the borders are still there. If you think it is good, I'll work on eliminating most cities and the borders.

About Squad Doctrines: Perfect idea. Will definitely include it.

Slots & Strength: It is good, though, I'd say that a normal soldier would be able to carry 1 Rifle with enough ammunition for a medium engagement, 1 Pistol with ammunition and perhaps two or three grenades.

Combat System: Quite a good idea. Three rounds should, hopefully, be enough to take care of the whole combat, although maybe extra rounds could be added if necessary. I don't exactly understand what WEP means, but I can guess its use.

Home Turf Bonus: perfect!

Yeah, I like the map and the divisions.

I'd rename the Arab-Jewish alliance, though, if you're going to throw Somali and Ethiopia and the other east africa states into the mix. Near-East Coalition/Alliance/Union? I know that the African states aren't "Near-East" per say, but, well, they are east.

By WEP I mean Weapon power. Like, a rifle contributes 2 WEP; a pistol 1 WEP; and a grenade 3 WEP* (with special conditions; it can be used only once per grenade).

What I mean is if you have a squad WEP (all their weapon WEP, routine bonuses, and rolls) of 35 (for the first round) you compare it to the alien's Terror score, which in this example is going to be 35 (for the first round). The difference for the round is 0. You take this values and compare it to a chart (which has yet to be made) to get the "degrees of failure" (Dof).

So if:

-50 to -25 = Heavy Failure (2 Death; 1 Alien Death)

-24 to -1 = Slight Failure (1 Death; 2 Alien Death)

0 = Inconclusive (1 Wound; 1 Alien Death)

+1 to +25 = Slight Victory (3 Alien Death)

+26 to +50 = Heavy Victory (5 Alien Death)

Then the result of the opening round would be one soldier gets wounded and one alien dies. Note that these values are entirely made up for this example---we would need to make some proper scale/chart for the DoF.

nutranurse, you have a paper to finish start.

Quiet you.
 
Wait, did you just waltz into this forum, unrelated to anything you're actually doing, and post a reply to a post from seven years ago that consists solely of a video indicating that you, the unknown poster, are aware of the allusion that das was making back in 2005?

That was a rhetorical question, by the way.
 
I've erased the borders, I'll try to erase some cities to make it more presentable. It is going to be hard work :(. If someone can help me, I'd be grateful. (Though, I might as well pick the map without cities and copy-paste the capitals. WHICH I NOW REALISE IS WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE FROM THE START!)

As for the round points, there should be some sort of system by which you wound an alien and knock it out, and thus allow you to capture it.
 
Oh poop, how could I forget wounding aliens? Well we can model this pretty easily via giving a flat rate of 5% of normal gun kills = a stunned alien (wounding it, or bashing it in the head).

The % can be increased via equipping soldiers with Stun-Prods. We could determine gun kills vs stun prods via... well, dice roll really. Without stun-prods kills have a 1-5 chance of wounding the "killed" alien. With stun prod kills have a 1-50 chance of wounding the "killed" alien, though this applies only to the same amount of kills as stun prods present per round.

That all sounds confusing, but let me give you an example:

Round 1 Sees 2 aliens dead. Normally there would only be a 5% chance for each alien to be unconscious rather than dead. However, 1 unlucky rookie has a stun-prod; thus making the first "Dead Alien" have a 50% chance of being unconscious rather than dead. The second alien, however, still only has a 5% chance of being unconscious due to the squad having only 1 stun-prod. If the soldier wielding the stun-prod did not die during the round then in Round 2 the first alien kill will have the 50% chance of being unconscious rather than dead.


Also, I was thinking how we could determine what soldiers die when human deaths occur. Now, the main (and cruelest) way I could determine this would be to just generate a number from a range that corresponds to the number of soldiers (i.e. if a squad has 5 soldiers then generate numbers from 1 - 5 via a random number generator (check random.org)) and whatever number comes up determines what soldier dies. Again, this is cruel and utterly random.

There has to be a better way.
 
Why not have the alien capture be in the squad doctrines/player orders? I would expect that soldiers defending their homes from nightmarish space horrors would shoot to kill unless under strict orders to hold back. Also, it makes the mod's job easier and adds another strategic element for the players to balance.
 
Or we could do that. So much simpler.
 
This is the definite map.
Spoiler :


About the combat system: I have a simple system on my mind.
Each weapon has WP (Rifle=2, Pistol=2...).
Depending on what weapon is going to be used, each player adds a bonus to that WP. If it is a melée weapon (katana, stun baton, nightstick...) it is STR, but if it is a long-range weapon, they use DEX.
Other circumstances (for example, the Home Turf Bonus) add extra to the WP for each soldier.
The WP for all soldiers is added.
We add the bonuses from Doctrines.
We add up the Terror of all aliens.
We throw two random numbers and add each to the two teams.
We compare, and determine who wins the round.

Capturing living aliens could be done two ways: the way hbar suggests, and then other that happens at the end of Round 3. If there are still living aliens and they have been handily losing, they could try to run away. There would be then a die throw and comparaison between Human WP and Alien... DEX? If the Humans win, a number of Aliens would be captured and the rest would die. In case of a tie, the Humans may capture or kill a few and the rest would escape. If the Aliens win, all of them escape.

The mechanic for dead soldiers is certainly complicated. Mmmm... that's gonna be hard. So far, the only thing I can think of is that the soldiers that have to fight at short distance would have a greater chance to die, unless they wear armor.
 
Alas, got in on this discussion late!

I would suggest a more modern, sparser map--possibly one of the reference maps Symph was using, and closer to the X-COM geoscape.

Instead of funding from the UN, you get your funding and the bulk of your soldiers from the G-20; with a few military liaisons or technical from various other states (Israel, Taiwan, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria?)

It is *useful* to you to defend countries like, say, North Korea or Iran, who have incentives to sign treaties with aliens. But now there is an added political element--consider a scenario of storming an Ethereal base on North Korean soil...
 
Alas, got in on this discussion late!

I would suggest a more modern, sparser map--possibly one of the reference maps Symph was using, and closer to the X-COM geoscape.

Instead of funding from the UN, you get your funding and the bulk of your soldiers from the G-20; with a few military liaisons or technical from various other states (Israel, Taiwan, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria?)

It is *useful* to you to defend countries like, say, North Korea or Iran, who have incentives to sign treaties with aliens. But now there is an added political element--consider a scenario of storming an Ethereal base on North Korean soil...

To be honest, your idea is really good, but it adds a degree of complication I would rather not deal with...
 
Are you going to keep saving that map as a jpg? Because their compression hideous and terrifying. :p
 
More things about X-COM:
In the X-COM games, one lab can have up to 50 Scientists working on one research project, independently of what is being studied. My suggestion to keep the number of Doctors limited is that the top limit is 1 Doctor per each 10 Researchers. Thus, since you start with 10 Scientists in the game, you have 1 Doctor and 9 Scientists. Also, a Doctor's wage should be bigger than a Scientists, about 10%. Thus, if a Scientist earns, say, 60000$/Month (that's the wage in the game) a Doctor would earn 66000$/Month. The bonuses Doctors give to research would depend on the nature of the research, but I'd say that, for most things, their Theoretical knowledge (TEO) would give a bonus while in the first 25% of research, and their Practical knowledge (PRA) would give a bonus while in the remaining 75% of research. We could also combine TEO and PRA to have Knowledge (KNO) which gives a bonus to the whole research and helps me a lot.

The development is a bit more difficult to work on. In the game, you start with 10 Engineers (I suggest we use a 1 Inventor per 9 Engineers ratio and 10% extra wage for Inventors) and a Workshop has 50 slots, but objects that are being built occupy one or more slots, so you can't put 50 Engineers to work at the same time unless you have more than one workshop, although you can build more than one thing at the same time. At game effects, consider that the Engineers are working 24/7, and thus 1 Engineer can do 720 Work Hours per month (Assuming 1 month = 30 days). Check here to see the Costs of all items, as well as other important information. We can easily eliminate redundancies, such as the fact that several weapons have different kinds of ammunition, and reduce it to one to simplify things.
As for the production part, I guess we can do it like in the game. And, like for Doctors, the Inventors could have just 1 stat to make things easier.
 
Well, more about X-COM! To be exact, the stats:
Spoiler Player Stats :

1: The XCorp Name. 2: Player's Name. 3: Background (have yet to decide if we will do this) 4: Standing within X-COM. The higher it is, the more money you will be getting. At standing 0, you get no money.
5: The economy. Funds states how much money you are getting monthly from X-COM; Bank, what you have as a reserve; Costs, what you spend monthly between workers' wages, crafts' rental and facilities' and defenses' maintenance, and End what you will have at the end of the month.
6: Total number of workers of each kind. Sol=Soldiers, Pil=Pilots, Sci=Scientists, Doc=Doctors, Eng=Engineers, Inv=Inventors. Also, the number of craft of each kind: INT=Interceptor (your first aerial weapon against the UFOs), and SKY=Skyranger (a VTOL aircraft that transports your troops to the different missions. You start with 10 Soldiers, 2 Pilots, 9 of each Scientists and Engineers, 1 Doctor and 1 Inventor.
7: Soldiers' stats: Name, number of base, nationality, strength, dexterity, bravery and psi (this stat will be hidden until the moment it becomes possible for the soldiers to use their psychic powers). The last four can change as the soldiers become more experienced.
8: Pilots' stats: Names, number of base, nationality, type of aircraft, speed, agility and power. The last four can change with time, the first by simply changing the aircraft used by the pilot, the other three by modifying the different planes. Agility can also change as the pilot becomes more experimented.
9: Doctors' stats: Names, number of base nationality and knowledge. Knowledge can change as the doctor becomes more acquainted with alien technology.
10: Inventors' stats. Names, number of base nationality and knowledge. Knowledge can change as the inventor becomes more acquainted with alien technology.
11: Name of the base. Just for fluff.
12: Base number. Important, at least for me.
13: Base's location. Important, because the missions you can be informed about will depend on where your base is.
14: Base's stats. From top to bottom, the personnel present at the base, the available facilities, the base's defences, the research being done in the laboratory and the work done in the workshop. Research shows the project that remains unfinished by the end of the month, how many researchers are working on it, how much accumulated knowledge there is between all the Doctors working on the project (remember, 1 Doctor per each 10 researchers at the same time), how much work can be done in a month and some other data related to research. The window about the Workshops is the same.
1 laboratory can only concentrate on one kind of research, but the workshops can work on as many things as their space allows.
15: Free space. Living refers to the living space available (1 Living Quarters gives refuge to 50 people) and Stores to the storage space available (1 Stores gives 50 storage space).
16: Hardware. This shows what you have in the base when it comes to weaponry and other things.
Everything with a ? is something that you have not found or researched yet. (PSI should say ? too, but it is too late, so...)


Spoiler X-COM Stats :

1: X-COM. The organization's name.
2: Geneva, the location where X-COM's HQ is.
3: The list of the different nations. Besides their name, it shows the level of support for X-COM, how much money they give to X-COM in dollars if their support was about 50% and the money they are putting. If a country goes down to 0% support you have 1 month to do something about it, or they will sign a deal with the aliens and you won't be getting any money out of them. This also shows the total funding X-COM is getting and how much they have reserved for emergencies. I have yet to decide what should be an acceptable quantity in terms of money, but hopefully I will come up with a good one that becomes fair.
4: What each X-Corp is getting in terms of money. X-COM will be reserving part of the monthly funding for emergencies, and divide the rest of it to all the X-Corps. How much each X-Corp gets will be proportional to their standing.
5: Soldier Pool. This is where all Soldier candidates to joining X-COM will show up. Stats are the same as in Players' Stats.
6: Pilot Pool. Like Soldier Pool, for Pilots.
7: Doctor Pool. Like Soldier Pool, for Doctors.
8: Inventor Pool. Like Soldier Pool, for Inventors.
6:
 
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