Design Brainstorming : More Country Detail

[Amineri]

I've been pondering the concept some more, and feel like I'm starting to converge toward some more concrete design details.

 

In this post I'm going to focus a bit more on how the system would look from each FC Country's perspective.

 

Each FC Country would be independently trying to achieve its own goals (which are not the same as XCOM's). Each Country really only cares about 2 stats : its panic and its tech level. The goal is to increase tech and minimize panic (but only for itself ... they don't really care about other countries OR XCOM's success). Narratively the alien invasion is going to be a period of great change -- bigger than the industrial or information age revolutions. Each governement wants to come out on top. Historically dominant countries want to preserve their status. 2nd and 3rd tier powers see the alien technology as an opportunity to catapult themselves up to become a world power.

 

However, XCOM is a mechanism for the Country to achieve its goals. XCOM has more capabilities and better access to necessary research/alien artifacts. In this light the FC Countries view XCOM less as a way to save the world and more as a tool to achieve their own dominance. Some countries may even go a step further (I think it's obvious how EXALT could fit into this system :wink: ).

 

Each FC Country has 3 possible actions it can take :

1) Changing funding to XCOM. Countries will increase funding to XCOM if XCOM is helping them keep their panic down and helping them acquire alien tech. However increased funding reduces free cash to be used for the other 2 actions. Lowering funding frees up cash to use for the other 2 actions.

 

2) Generate a FC Request for alien artifacts from XCOM. These alien artifacts can be researched and provide a boost to the FC Country's tech level. Such requests should be generally more profitable than gray market sales, and are one of the principle ways to acquire scientists/engineers from FC Countries. Each FC Country would be aware of what artifacts XCOM has, and what other countries have bid in the past (as well as which requests were fulfilled and which were declined). A country can also request that XCOM provide them with a satellite, which will boost their tech gain rate.

 

3) Directly spend cash to try and improve their own tech. This is the least efficient use of cash, with a small chance to succeed. On their own each FC Country would take a long time (thinking 10 to 20 years). This is primarily intended as a cash sink. Every FC Country generates its maximum cash every month. A % of this cash goes to XCOM (based on current funding level). The remaining cash is kept by each Country and is used to generate FC Requests. This acts as a sink for any cash left over to prevent it from piling up.

 

In this system Abduction rewards would disappear. Instead XCOM would collect artifacts (weapons fragments and corpses at the least) from such missions, which can be used to fulfil more FC requests to generate more funding.

 

Since each FC Country is fairly simple in terms of choices, a fairly simple agent system can be coded up, where each FC Country will have its own agent playing it. Since each agent has two priorities (maximize tech and minimize panic), the relative weight assigned to each priority would be randomized separately for each FC Country at the beginning of each campaign. This would be a hidden variable, though.

 

Most of the first post's design about the stats still applies. This just provides an additional perspective to understanding how the system would work and be coded up.

 

--------------------------------

 

Regarding satellites and detection :

 

I had a follow up thought on how UFO detections might be tweaked. There is a variable for each mission and UFO (stored in XGMission and XGUFO respectively) named m_iDetectedBy. This controls whether the UFO appears on the geoscape. For instance, Abductor and Terror missions/ships are set to not be detected unless there is a satellite present in the country the UFO/Mission is in.

 

With a little more logic added, these UFOs / Missions could be made more randomized.

 

My concept:

1) Satellites at base provide a 50% chance to detect a UFO/mission in the country it covers

2) Each Interceptor/Firestorm provides a 5% chance to detect over the entire continent. With the "more interceptors" mod, this can be up to 6 on a continent. Narratively this would be due to regular flight patrols.

3) The stealth satellites foundry project would be re-made into an "Advanced Detection Algorithms" project that boosts satellite detection from 50% to 70%.

 

An initial campaign setup with 1 satellite over HQ country and 4 interceptors (as in Long War) would provide 70% detection chance in HQ Country and a 20% chance in every other country on the continent.

 

Without the foundry project the max detection chance is 80%, achieved with a satellite and 6 interceptors. With the foundry project is is possible to achieve 100% detection, but only with a satellite and 6 interceptors.

 

Without satellites, the best coverage would require 6 interceptors on every continent (so 30 in total), and would only grant 30% detection chances.

[dubiousintent]

At first glance, I like where you are going with this. I'll see if I can provide something a little more constructive after some thought.

 

-Dubious-

Edited October 25, 2013 by dubiousintent

[Hobbes77]

Each country having it's own fleet of Interceptors, depending tech level/resources available?

 

Then when Abductions/Terror sites appeared there would also be a UFO generated and the countries would launch those interceptors (but the air battle would be controlled by the player) and try to shoot down the UFOs that just launched an assault on their cities. The player would then have to send the Skyranger to the Abduction/Terror site but could also choose to send an additional mission afterwards (without the KIAs/wounded soldiers) to recover one of the crashed UFOs (and reduce a little of the panic generated by the Abduction/Terror Site).

[Krazyguy75]

Highly unlikely. Anything that has to have AI controlled objects requires AI. It may be possible, but I don't think it's likely.

[Amineri]

Each country having it's own fleet of Interceptors, depending tech level/resources available?

 

Then when Abductions/Terror sites appeared there would also be a UFO generated and the countries would launch those interceptors (but the air battle would be controlled by the player) and try to shoot down the UFOs that just launched an assault on their cities. The player would then have to send the Skyranger to the Abduction/Terror site but could also choose to send an additional mission afterwards (without the KIAs/wounded soldiers) to recover one of the crashed UFOs (and reduce a little of the panic generated by the Abduction/Terror Site).

 

I like the idea. Sort of making XCOM feel like a part of a larger struggle. Currently it feels like XCOM is the only human force fighting the aliens and all the rest of the world's militaries are just sitting on their hands, which feels a bit off.

 

Regarding the Abduction/Terror sites : in vanilla there aren't any UFOs simply because those UFOs are set to be undetectable. The game code actually spawns a pair of UFO missions (a scout followed by the real ship). However the UFOs are made invisible AND the vanilla strategyAI code is prevented from planning such missions where the player has a satellite.

 

There have been a variety of mods already that turn on these UFOs, which I think I'd rather include instead of effectively giving the player "free" interceptors with which to shoot down UFOs. If the player can control the interceptor, I think it would really feel more like the player's interceptor instead of the Country's military's. Plus, the interceptor game really isn't all that interactive. Most of the air campaign is about pre-interception strategy - building, equipping and positioning interceptors, as well as building the interceptor consumables.

 

That said, I think it would be a great idea to add some new things to help give a better sense about the larger conflict (which the existing militaries are poorly equipped to handle until they start getting access to improved tech). Will have to ponder about this. Right now the only such concept included is pretty abstract -- that higher tech level would reduce panic gain.

 

One idea I'll toss out there is that perhaps a scouting UFO has a chance to be shot down (based on tech level of the country), resulting in the occasional crashed UFO mission where the player doesn't have satellite coverage. This would of course require some changes to the StrategyAI, as currently such 'scouting' UFO missions can only occur where the player has satellites.

[morro123]

I know you seem to be moving to another direction, but I feet that I should nevertheless share some ideas in your thread.

 

I think you could tie governmet's opinions to several additional variables: 1) infiltration levels; 2) request fullfiling (also affecting tech level, may require a request system design); 3) casualties (soldiers of same nationality); 4) council missions not affecting panic levels; 5) random events (alien related or not); XCOM activity in general.

 

I agree that opinions should at the very least influence funding and/or trigger some kind of penalty/reward in order to attract your attention even if you already have a satellite lauched over that country. That way you will hopefully prevent "moral hazards". However, you still have to find a way to make the player "decide".

 

Random or scripted events showing the alien growing hostility could also add to the feeling of "global invasion". Military defeats, continental economic crises, energy or food shortages, massive vandalism, curfew and coups should become more frequent as the months go by and should certainly have a direct impact on the government attitude towards XCOM. Choosing to act or not to do it might appease some countries while infuriating others.

 

I've posted more ideas under the XCOM: Funding and Council Grades threads in the XCOM Requests subforum, feel free to check them out (sorry I dont know how to post a link!) :blush: :ermm:

 

Really eager to see interceptor patrols make it back to XCOM!

[Amineri]

@ morro123 : Read through the post, and a lot of good ideas in there. As to the interceptor patrols ... much as I'd like to actually add the ability to launch missions that would have the interceptors fly around on patrols : (a) it seems like a lot of micromanagement (b) it would a ton of work to try and modify the UI to allow it. If someone else creates a UI mod to allow for interceptor patrols, that's great, but in the interim I'm thinking of just abstracting interceptor patrols by adding detection chance based on interceptors present at each interceptor base.

[Bertilsson]

If you could also edit in a probability that the detected UFO is a crashed one, then it would be the equivalence of the local military not only discovering the UFO, but also successfully shooting it down :)

[Amineri]

Here's my first cut at a more detailed breakdown of how the new panic scaling would be implemented.

 

As much as possible the panic adjustments will continue to use the DGC.ini panic values. This will have to be re-examined after EW is released.

 

 

1) New panic functionality

a) XGCountry.m_iPanic is already an integer value -- no change needed.

b) Rewrite XGCountry.AddPanic for new panic scale.

-- remove clamping from 0 to 4, replace with clamping from 0 to 100, with -1 for "left XCOM"

-- add "save chance" for each point of panic added based on country's tech-level (tech level variable TBD)

-- Loop over each point of added panic, with a rand roll (based on tech) for each point to be added or not

-- use bSuppressHeadline parameter to disallow such "save chance"

c) Change PANIC_DEFECT_THRESHHOLD_* value in DGC.ini (currently set to 5 for all difficulties)

-- Rework XGWorld.WhoIsLeaving to alter defection mechanics based on panic (currently uses GetPanicBlocks)

d) Rework XGCountry.GetPanicColor to scale from 0-100 value to 0-4 value

e) Rework XGCountry.GetPanicBlocks to scale from 0-100 value to 0-5 value

f) Rework XGCountry.CalcFunding Results Driven SW option for new panic scaling

g) Rework XGWorld.AddInitialPanic for new panic scaling

h) Rework XGWorld.ReducePanic and Satellite panic reduction factors SAT_PANIC_REDUCTION_PER_MONTH, PANIC_5_REDUCTION_CHANCE, PANIC_4_REDUCTION_CHANCE, and PANIC_LOW_REDUCTION_CHANCE

i) Adjust DGC.ini panic factors PANIC_UFO_SHOOTDOWN, PANIC_SAT_DESTROYED_*, PANIC_UFO_IGNORED, PANIC_UFO_ESCAPED, PANIC_ABDUCTION_THWARTED_*, PANIC_TERROR_*, PANIC_ABDUCTION_*, PANIC_UFO_ASSAULT, PANIC_SAT_ADDED_COUNTRY

j) Adjust panic increments from failed/successful FC Missions in XGFundingCouncil.BuildMission

-- failure panic defined in kMission.iPanicOnFailure = 1;

-- success panic defined via kMission.arrRewards.AddItem(6); kMission.arrRewardAmounts.AddItem(-1);

k) Rework XGStrategyAI.CalcTerrorMissionPanicResult for new panic scale

l) If using multiple alien bases mod, change the panic for rejoining countries in XGStrategyAI.JoinXCom

m) Add numeric display of panic for country to situation room (when country is selected, numeric value in window in screen center)

-- possibilities for adding :

XGSatelliteSitRoomUI.UpdateCountry

XGSatelliteSitRoomUI.UpdateContinent

XGSatelliteSitRoomUI.UpdateCountryHelp

 

[Hobbes77]

 

 

m) Add numeric display of panic for country to situation room (when country is selected, numeric value in window in screen center)

-- possibilities for adding :

XGSatelliteSitRoomUI.UpdateCountry

XGSatelliteSitRoomUI.UpdateContinent

XGSatelliteSitRoomUI.UpdateCountryHelp

What if you used a color bar that converted the 0-100 scale into color? For instance, 0 would be the pure XCOM blue, then as panic increased it would slowly change into green, then yellow, orange and ending up in bright red. The player wouldn't know the exact value but by comparing two different lue bars it would be possible which country had more panic. It would also add a little more element of uncertainty not knowing the exact value rather than having it displayed the whole time.