Topics

1

XPiratez / [Suggestion] Hands exhaustion/boredom mechanics

« on: July 25, 2017, 05:42:32 pm »

I have seen related discussion on discord. Here is my idea of mechanics that encourages using units not too often and not too rare.

Units gain new dynamic stat - Thirst (meaning blood thirst or battle thirst).

It changes in the range from 0 to 9 and is shown in hands tables such as "select crew" or "hands" on the far right.

It ticks up by 1 per week. If unit goes to combat, it ticks down by 1. Also, if unit has above 5 Thirst in battle and does some exp-granting activity, it ticks down by one and this exp gain is tripled. So, if Hand goes to combat once per month and actually is doing something there, she will not lose stats (and will have nice exp bonuses)

If Thirst is already 9 and has to tick up, it drains stats, because soldier is out of practice. Something like -10 to 3 different stats at random.

If Thirst is 0 and unit goes to combat, it stays 0, but unit has significant temporary stat penalties during this combat - such as -20 to each stat.

2

XPiratez / Vision model that makes sense.

« on: May 14, 2017, 02:01:06 pm »

I was thinking about vision model that woul make more sense. So, here it is.

There is two vision checks - one in normal spectrum, and another in infrared. Infrared one relies on thing's own thermal emission and does not require light.

Algorithm for calculating "obscureness" for normal vision (NV):

1. Start with 100%.
2. Add some number for insufficient light. It can be binary (as it is no), or scale with light levels below good. If target has Night Camo, this penalty is MULTIPLIED by Night Camo value.
3. If target has any (non-night-specific) Camo, add it's value too.
4. For every cell on sight line obscured by smoke and probably other obstacles (fire, windows, doors, bushes etc), add value proportional to number of obstacles and their "obstacleness".
5. Multiply it all by range.
6. If result is more than some threshold, target is invisible.

For Infrared Vision (IR), algorithm is similar, but there is no step 2, and value of Camo at step 3 and obstacleness of things at step 4 can be different. For example, smoke is worse at blocking IR than NV, and fire is better. Some camos can block only one type of vision, or one better than another.

3

XPiratez / Pedipal - GIMP plugin for converting images to Pedia-compatible palette

« on: February 14, 2017, 03:16:44 pm »

Unpack this file to your GIMP folder, usually %UserProfile%/.gimp-2.8 on Windows.

It contains script itself and a reference palette, which is a palette where mandatory Bootypedia colors are in place, and other slots are filled with #B00B15

When you run Gimp, there will be "Make pedia-compatible" option in Images menu, and it does just that with current image. It will ask you for reference palette and filler color, but they are set right by default, so you can just press OK.

Internally it does pretty much what Meridian describes in this https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4957.msg72548.html#msg72548 post.

UPDATE: 1.0.1 version. Fixed couple of bugs, found thanks to Escavel and Solaris Scorch. One bug was that first color in reference palette was wrong, other was that script failed when there were too few colors in image. Both are fixed

4

XPiratez / What if... some researches could be reusable and trigger missions on completion?

« on: January 11, 2017, 07:33:38 pm »

I was looking into code and it does not look too hard. Basically, skip (*i)->removeResearch(*iter); in GeoscapState.cpp when "repeatable" flag is set, and do processCommand for missionTriggered param if one is present.

What possibilities would this open. It would allow "buying" missions for highly configurable price in Brainer's and Runt's time and items.  And chain missions in different ways, with forking, even some C&C, etc. It would make Brainers useful even if you have run out of all (or all interesting) researches.

~50 brainerdays seems a reasonable price for something that you should not use lightly, and can be way more for late-game missions. Including some kind of prisoner in price could be a good idea too, as they are harder to keep for a long time, and it can give use for many prisoner types.

For example, instead of waiting while RNG would give you a Reticulan Base Probe, you would craft 10 SG novices and 10 Data Disks into a "Lead to Reticulan Base" item, research it for 300 Brainerdays, and get a Reticulan Base mission on finish. With 3 Guild Reps and a hefty sum of money you will be able to research Guildmaster Location. Or it could be something even more complex, detective-like work, with combination of questioning different people, checking different leads, etc. It can be useful for other mods, such as X-Com Files.

5

XPiratez / [UI Suggestion] Retain scroll position in lists et al.

« on: January 08, 2017, 06:37:29 pm »

Most annoying thing about UI now is that usually when you do something with a list item, then list is scrolled back to beginning, and you have to find again the place.

Such as:

Crafting list - after making new craft task, seeing craft info by middle click etc
Research list - after middle click
Bootypedia - after seeing article
Ground item list on equipment screen - when switching character, checking item info, etc
Vessel equipment screen - after checking item info
Miraculously, Fence, Black Market and Ship screens do not have this problem.
Armor selection - would be nice if it would remember position between openings, would make simpler equipping same armor on different troops NOT by "Armor" troop list in Vessel screen.

Hands/Training/Voodoo list - would be great if there would be possible to switch between them easily with a button and/or key, while retaining scroll position. Because useful info is spread between them. And, of cause, rtain scrolling after seeing troop info.
Also, Training list has a great list of primary stats, so would be useful even on bases without Dojo/Pool

Crew/Armor lists - same as above, would be good to be able switch between them, and retain position after checking troop's info.

Also, would be useful to jump to Inventory screen by some button from troop info screen.

Ship list - needs a way to see Hand info

6

XPiratez / Interrogation recipes suggestion

« on: January 02, 2017, 11:14:29 pm »

Currently interrogation (one that nets you "broken" specimen) only require the subject itself, which is boring. I suggest making recipes more interesting.
Here is the draft. "Return" means that object is returned along with the "broken" person as the recipe result.

=Academy Medic=

Slave Lasher

Return :

Slave Lasher

=Academy Engineer=

Slave x4
Chateu
Smoke

Return:

Slave x4

=Academy Esper=

Manacles x4
Rope
Baseball Bat
Whip
Handle
Advanced Medpack

=Trade Engineer=

Personal Database x3
Old Earth Books
Government Papers
Vodka x2

=Trade Rep=

Eye-phone

=Reverend=

Altar Boy
Slave Maid
Gladiatrix
Ghoul
Shambler
Crackx5
Battle drugs
Vodka x3
Beer x5
Chateu x2
X-Grog
Lingerie x5

Return:

Yeowman
Shrine Maiden
Gladiatrix
Ghoul
Shambler

= Merc Engineer =

$100k

7

XPiratez / Trappingz 1.0 - plugin for GIMP for paperdoll generation

« on: December 24, 2016, 02:47:40 pm »

This plugin takes a Gimp layered image (or a Photoshop layered image, opened in Gimp) and a directory of nudes for each gal with base bodies in Main subdir, optional Hairs directory and whatever other layers you want.
Then each body (and whatnot) is inserted instead of corresponding layer of source image, and then it all is converted to Battlescape palette and saved into the output dir.

Note that one of layers, and therefore one of nudes subdirs should be Main and have an image for each needed output, while other dirs can only have images for some bodies. It's because plugin uses this dir to know which base bodies exist.

Name of the result is the same as the body image (with maybe different extension - plugin takes any image type and outputs ping or gif by your choice). But if output dir is named Body_<something> (such as Body_500), then output file name will be body<something>_<sourcename_without_ext>_pir.gif

I.e. if your source body files are named F1.gif, F2.gif etc, then you will get a dir of properlly named OpenXCOM-ready files.

Plugin can be called from Image menu.

Attached file release.zip contains script itself (trappingz.py, goes to %UserProfile%/.gimp-2.8/plug-ins), battlescape palette (XCOM-BattleScape.gpl.gpl, goes to %UserProfile%/.gimp-2.8/palettes), example nudes dir (all bodies from X-Piratez 0.99E.3, and two test hairdos) and an example project Zuki.xcf.

As you can see, example has clothes layer between the hair and the main body, and a diadem on the of all that top, and this order is preserved in the result images.

In theory, plugin can even work with partial opacity of some layers, though aesthetics of the result vary wildly. I have to test it more.

One minor bug: if you save as a gif with some layers hidden (instead of completely removed), result will be an animated image for some reason. I have yet to find the cause. No such problem when saving as png, naturally - hidden layers will simple not show.