Author Archives: SupSuper

Version 0.2 is out!

You wanted it, you got it! Go check it all out in the Downloads page, and read it all carefully and throughly!

New features:

  • Battlescape!
    • Crash site missions.
    • Map generation.
    • Pathfinding.
    • Alien placement.
    • Basic lighting.
    • Basic fog of war.
  • New language format (with Spanish and Italian languages).
  • Crude Unicode support.
  • Windows installer for all your lazy needs!
  • Load/save infinite games.
  • Screenshot, FPS Counter and Fullscreen keys.
  • Any-resolution scaling.
  • Support for DOS music.
  • Being able to remove bases (Access Lift).
  • Friendly start reminder.

Bugfixes:

  • Fixed cursor rendering.
  • Removed unused strings and trademarked game names.
  • Fixed craft maintenance bugs.
  • Fixed text list alignment.
  • Fixed bar rendering.
  • Fixed crash when a UFO intercepted by multiple craft was destroyed.
  • Fixed incorrect text in some screens.
  • Fixed some localized strings not fitting on screen.
  • Fixed palette bugs.
  • Fixed various memory leaks.
  • Fixed being able to click on globe through windows.
  • Fixed bugs with multiple-target display.
  • Various fixes to globe rendering.
  • Fixed bug in text word-wrapping.
  • Reorganized country/region data.
  • Added OK button to Base Name window for people having trouble with Enter key.
  • Removed preloading of every language (only one language is used at once, what was I thinking!).
  • Fixed bug in pixel blitting.
  • Improved error handling.
  • Probably many other minor fixes.

And as usual, the technical notes:

  • You can’t minimize dogfights.
  • UFOs are nerfed to make them easier to intercept.
  • Crafts rearming in base don’t use up ammo in base stores. This is to prevent them from running out since you can’t buy more ammo yet.
  • Screenshots are saved in BMP since it doesn’t require libraries. DO NOT share them in this format, convert them to something sane like PNG/JPG first.
  • You can control aliens on the Battlescape, have fun.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this. Sadly rulesets didn’t make it into this version, so I’ll tell you about the savegames instead.

The OpenXcom savegames are a brand new format, not like the original. All the save data is contained in one single YAML (by popular request) file, so you can move them, copy them, rename them, duplicate them, even edit them with a text editor if you want (though I’m not responsible if you break it). The only downside is the save name is the filename, so you can’t have two saves with the same name. But you can have as many as you want in your USER folder, so it all works out!

Event dump

I realize there haven’t been a lot of interesting development news lately. Version 0.2 is kind of a boring milestone, more focused in internal engine stuff than gameplay. So I plan to finish it up soon so we can get right on back to the gameplay we all love!

And for all the lovely people desperately interested into translating OpenXcom in their own language, there’s now a Translations forum, just follow the guidelines and everything should go smoothly.

Finally, sir_nacnud on the forums has had some success getting the game to run on Android:

Happy new year!

Sorry I was too busy partying and drinking during actual New Years Eve. Anyways here’s some development updates from, well, me.

Saved games have been really requested for some reason, even though they’re not that handy this early on, but they’ll make debugging easier. Plus infinite saves!

More languages! The format had to be tweaked to tie in with the new savegame format, so to try it out I decided to port the Italian and Spanish languages from the PSX version too.

On that note, there seems to be a bunch of interest in translating the game to bold new languages popping up. Support isn’t quite finalized yet, but still, if you’ve already done/know of a fan-translation for the original X-Com,

The difficulty bug is back!

Some of you might remember ye olde difficulty bug that made all the games in the original UFO be reset to Beginner difficulty.

Well, guess what! Currently due to an issue with yaml-cpp, all loaded saved games are reset to the default difficulty, Beginner!

Don’t worry, I plan to get it sorted before release. 😛