CHANGELOG (changes are so many and so minute most of the times, it's hard to keep track of every tiny little detail)
Latest Update: March 31— [UFO/TFTD] Added cheatTurn: 30 for Terror Mission, Base Defense, Battleship, Alien Base Assault and final Cydonia level for UFO/EU, and Terror Missions (Port, Island, Cruiser & Cargo Ship), Artifact Site, Base Defense, Dreadnought, Alien Base/Colony Assault and first 2 T'leth Levels. Final T'leth level gets cheatTurn: 40. (Not sure if cruise/cargo ships need that too at level 2.)
— [UFO/TFTD] Increased Elerium/Zrbite recovery points to 25 per 25 (instead of 5 per 50)
***NOT WORKING***, UFO/Mag Navigation to 10 (from 5) and doubled/reverted sale price to original 80K (from 40K) to be more line with Power Source/Ion Beam Accelerators with recovery points at 25 and sell price at 12,5K.
Feb 6 update— [UFO/TFTD] Reduced manufacture cost of Alloys/Plastics to 1000 (from 3000) so that it may be your earliest profitable manufacture (sell for 3250).
— [UFO/TFTD] Added clips to Plasma Beam & Sonic Oscillator, as well as Hovertank/Plasma & Displacer/Sonic. Also corrected minor sound issue (all Laser weapons were using the same fire sound).
— UFO/EU's difficulty level brought up to TFTD's standards! No longer for sissies
— [UFO] Finally added Muton Elite (Armored Guard) to Cydonia's final level. These dudes are Muton Soldiers on steroids and they are so morally firm they won't panic if you drop Blaster Bombs on their pails or leaders! Also, put back Ethereal Ascendant (haven't decided on white "negative" sprite or purple one, but I went with first/original choice for now) to guard Brain Room. These little additions are just to give the player a little bit of a "final battle" feel to Cydonia. May also add tougher Sectopod (alloy sprite) later.
— [UFO only] Speaking of which, re-reviewed all aliens' stats, armors & damage modifiers again (what a pain in the @ss), including for terror units. Biggest change may be Sectopod's overall armor reduction (since we're now using TFTD damage model), but it got more health and less Laser weakness. Armor still strongest in game, though.
TFTD re-review still pending— [TFTD] Removed 'retaliation: false' oversight from Mixed Races.
Feb 8 update— [UFO only] Added Sectopod "mecha" movesound :O
— [UFO/TFTD] Lowered Psi-Amp/Disruptor TU cost to 36% (just like the aliens) from 66%. I get that MC is super cheap, but limiting it to only once per turn with such low success rate early on takes all the fun away from it.
— [UFO only] Fixed minor weight issue with Waspite and Gazer whose original weight (20) was causing their corpses to "disappear" under their weapons. Adjusted weights to 30 and 40, respectively, more like other aliens. Problem solved.
— [UFO/TFTD] Flying & Mag. Navigation Armor new requirement (aside from previous Power & Ion Armor: Hovertank/Plasma & Displacer/Sonic, respectively. Reason: Push flying armors a bit back, obviously, as they give a tremendously huge advantage once acquired. The "excuse" behind this is
miniaturization: first, you can make UFO crafts of your own, then flying HWP/SWS, and then anti-grav armor for your troops.
— [UFO/TFTD] Addded UFO Extender accuracy to all weapons manually (only difference with original is Auto/Hydro-Jet Cannon now having auto-range 7 and snap 15 like the rest of the other weapons instead of 5 and 10, respectively).
— [UFO/TFTD] Increased Alien Containment and Psi/MC-Lab Capacity to 15 each (prev. 10).
— [UFO/TFTD] Mind Probe/MC Reader's only requirement now is just Sectoid/Aquatoid Corpse.
Feb 13 big update— [UFO only] Made Cydonia Landing mission a 60x60 map with height 6, which allows to fly over pyramids (previously 50x50 height 4), and increased total alien deployment to 16 min, 31 max with +8 random (previously min 12, max 20). This was a MUST (in fact, I originally made it 70x70 but I figured most players may consider it a bit too much so I dropped it to 60x60).
— [UFO/TFTD] On that last note: increased height to 6 (from 4) for all "open environment" maps except alien UFO/SUBs. In other words: Terror Sites, Cargo/Cruise Ships (part 1), Artifact Site (part 1), Alien Colony (part 1).
-- [TFTD only] Reduced size of Alien Colony part 2 to 50x50 (from 60x60). Reason: it's not that 60x60 is huge, it's just that it's a 3-levels/tiers maze! One thing is walking around one flat tier/level alone, another altogether is searching 3 levels/tiers of multiple rooms on a large 60x60 map. Was also temped to increase shade to 5 (from 0) to add to the "hidden movement" experience, but I left it was it was for the time being. I would have reduced part 1's size (60x60) as well, but map is hard-coded.
— [UFO only] FIRESTORM rebranded THUNDERSTORM to be more in line with LIGHTNING.
— [TFTD only] Finally split Drill family into just 2 tiers: Vibro Blade & Heavy, 80 and 130 damage respectively (accuracy also improved slightly.) Reason: 3 Drills are just unnecessary as they all kill most aliens in one hit just the same.
— [UFO/TFTD] Entire alien deployment
re-reviewed (serious pain in the @ss). Minor weapon loadout changes here and there. Perhaps "biggest" changes are:
(1) Commanders no longer drop for Base Defense (they stay in their Dreadnoughts/Battleships while the rest of the crew does the mopping below!). Capture a Commander (to unlock final mission) now requires actual Dreadnought/Battleship raid or an Alien Base Assault. Reason: not gonna hand Commander over on a silver platter
(2) Changed number of aliens deployed in Alien Colony Pt1 & Pt2 to more closely match those of UFO/EU's Alien Base Assault. Reason: not only are alien bases 2-parters in TFTD (and labyrinthine mazes on second level), but the actual deployments are
overwhelmingly high: whilst UFO/EU has 12/22/6 (min/max/+random) TFTD has 20/31/13. Soooo... we have come to a "middle ground" and settled for 17/26/9 for both mods to (a) make TFTD's alien bases less tedius and (b) make UFO/EU's a bit more challenging.
— [UFO/TFTD] Also removed psiSkill from all races (Commanders), now it's more like vanilla: (UFO) Sectoid Medic, Leader, Comm: 30, 45, 60. Ethereal Leader, Comm: 50, 60. Muton Comm: 50. Waspite Comm: 45. Gazer Comm: 35. (TFTD) Aquatoid Medic, Navi, Comm: 30, 45, 60. Tasoth Navi, Comm: 40, 50. Gill Comm: 35. ***Probably wanna change research so that these ranks only unlock Psi-Amp/MC-Disruptor?
Feb 16 update— [UFO/TFTD] Reduced reactions, firing accuracy & melee caps to 80. Reason? I cannot believe this game used to be played with 120 caps! I had already dropped them to 100, but no matter: once soldiers hit 80 they won't miss a thing and it's no fun to have perfect accuracy all the time. Be grateful I have decided to still leave Bravery & PsiStrength at 100...
— [TFTD only] Added stun attack (snap only, 55 TUs, 110 damage, 5 blastRadius) for Hallucinoids and updated UFOpedia to reflect this (as an aside, when I first played TFTD some years back I remember these nightmarish jellyfish stunning my entire team on alien colony assaults! I wanted to bring that nostalgia back). Also increased their stun resistance so they don't stun themselves out (but can still be stunned).
— [TFTD only] And while we're at it: added dye weapon (snap only, 55 TUs, basically the same effect as a dye grenade) for Xarquids. Now they fit UFOpedia's description. They won't use it as often (they'll reaction-fire with their regular sonic attack) but will occasionally spurt some ink at ya! Also removed their dye/smoke vulnerability to go along with it.
— [TFTD only] RE-REVIEWED (again) stats, armor & damage modifiers for all aliens, including terror units. Now the UFO/TFTD 2nd major re-review is complete and I can take a rest. No huge changes, though, but should make everything better. Because Calcinite is the only terror without any kind of ranged attack, increased its health exponentially but reduced its armor somewhat. This will allow it to take lots of hits before it goes down. And it makes sense, because of the whole "amorphous mass of ectoplasm" thing.
— [UFO only] Finally! Tank/Laser reskin got matching-color corpse.
— [UFO only] Pistol, Laser Pistol & Plasma Pistol got a little reskin. And Laser Rifle as well. Also, Laser clips got a little purely aesthetic change (not completely satisfied with it, but it'll do for now).
Feb 18 TFTD-only update— [TFTD only] Removed Xarquid's ink spurt. Reason: makes them less deadly/threatening. If I make it too cheap (TUs), they'll snap with it over their regular sonic attack. If I make it too expensive, they won't have TUs left for 2-3 consecutive sonic attacks. And dropping range to just 5 doesn't make much of a difference: once close to your aquanauts, they'll just resolve to spurting ink and then swim around in the dye without attacking.
— [TFTD only] Finally edited Magnetic Ion Armor's spritesheet to display missing orange "grav-pack" on land so it looks just like underwater when "flying." Now it looks good, no more awkward flying.
— [TFTD only] Corrected Diving Suits bigOb color from white undersuit to light blue. It simply didn't look right since there's nothing white about it, it's all blue. Also did same for Plastic Aqua Armor: from (again) white vanilla undersuit and light-green gloves/boots to dark greenish-blue suit with white gloves/boots to match actual inventory sprite. (May wanna do the same palette change to spritesheet later since it's almost undistinguishable from Diving Suit's light blue look.)
— [TFTD only] Also implemented Xeno Wiper interface color swaps which makes reactions and strength bars in soldier stats/info screen better to read/distinguish. As well as minor bigOb corpse color corrections for Tasoth (orange crest to red) and Aquatoid (green skin to blue).
— [TFTD only] Added meleeHitSound to drills (used Calcinite's melee "thump!" in absence of better sound FX). And did the same for poor Triscene's melee attack too (previous "tap" was extremely underwhelming for such a gargantuan mouth, to say the least).
Because maximum character length has been exceeded in this post, it has been continued HERE
TO-DO-LIST PENDING/TESTING (short-term)-- [TFTD] Swap Battleship intercept/pedia sprite with Supply Cruiser.
*NOT WORKING**-- [UFO/TFTD] Maybe increase terrorist research points to 150 (from 50) to give them some sort of "benefit"?
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[UFO/TFTD] Research: unlock alien weapons by rank. Reason: encourage live alien research (also has the side-effect of getting more alien craft UFOpedia entries, which is generally lacking)? DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Re-review item loadouts for aliens since those with Blasters/DPLs ain't using them! DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Remove corpse req from Mind Probe/MC Reader? DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Add UFO Extender accuracy to all weapons manually. DONE--
[UFO] Also, add Armored Muton and Ethereal Ascendant for final Cydonia mission. DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Review difficulty levels, maybe bring UFO/EU up to TFTD's standards? Also review statGrowthMultipliers (may wanna add some health?). DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Ro-order deployment rank order so that Commanders don't go first in reverse order down to Soldiers (only final missions)? <<
BAD IDEA (spawning determined by rank order as listed in deployment, don't want terror units in the wrong places)
PENDING (mid-term)-- [TFD] Make separate mod for Cruise/Cargo Ship missions 1-parters to make them less tedious?
-- [UFO/TFTD] Create 2nd type of non-recoverable Alien Grenade/Pulser to (1) reduce player's cash flow from selling loot by the hundreds and (2) allow me to give aliens more grenades?
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[UFO/TFTD] Re-review/rehaul alien stats & armor. Stats increase by alien rank. Also review terrorists. DONE--
[UFO] New Laser clips still pending (purely aesthetic). DONE--
[TFTD] Remove Vibro Blade. Make it simple, just 2 drills: Thermic and Heavy Thermic? The 3 drills are just unnecessary as they all kill Lobsters just the same. DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Psi-attack by alien race rather than all-race Commanders: 3 Sectoid, 2 Ethereals, 1 Muton? (TFTD) 3 Aquatoid, 2 Tasoth, 1 Gill? DONE--
[UFO] Give Anthropod only one type of Spitter? Reason: same Spitter appears (in name) as 'duplicate' in base's store, research screen, Soldier Diaries, etc. RESOLVED (Just used Naked Corpse version for all Spitters--this doesn't change the Soldier Diaries so Naked version will still appear as such)
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[TFTD] Correct display of DYE, ELECTRIC and DRILL (TFTD still using UFO's SMOKE, ACID and MELEE). DONE (decided to keep as it was for SMOKE & MELEE, only changes to ACID/ELECTRIC)
PENDING (long-term)-- [TFTD] HQSounds like UFO. Including better interface sounds.
-- [TFTD] More mapblocks/terrain variations, especially for Port & Island Terror.
-- [UFO/TFTD] Make HWP/SWS "corpses" recoverable? Use scraps to refurbish at workshop.
-- [UFO/TFTD] Add/display damage modifier values on UFOpedia alien files?
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[TFTD] Fix pathing of new TFDT craft (pretty much done by Roxis, but still needs a couple touch-ups, such as being able to climb atop the HAMMERHEAD, etc). DONE by Roxis
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[UFO/TFTD] Review and rework UFO statistics to improve intercept fights. DONE--
[TFTD] Coelacanth/Gauss should get a color reskin like Tank/Laser. Preferably light grey with touches of orange to fit Gauss weapons style. DONE--
[TFTD] Add inventory images for all aliens. POSTPONED--
[UFO] Tank/Laser reskin still needs matching-color corpse (currently uses vanilla/brown one). DONE--
[TFTD] Improved hand-obs like UFO DONE (TFTD Combo Patch 1.5)
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[UFO] Add "mecha" moveSound to Sectopod. DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Review weight of corpses and other items. DONE--
[UFO/TFTD] Review space items occupy at base. DONE
OTHER PENDING MODS -- [MOD, TFTD] 5th TFTD race. Shark Guy from XenoOps is good, but TFTD should get one final Chthulu-themed alien. Its sorely missing and game feels half-finished without it! It does build up all this expectation with the whole "Great Dreamer" lore and all we get is Lobsterman (which I love, but one kinda expects some kind of squid/tentacle alien to show up in the end!).
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[GRAPHICS, TFTD] Alt/recolored explosions to work both on land and underwater. Currently works only on land and crashes game underwater. Same goes for all other sounds (they'll work just on land). DONE--
[GRAPHICS, TFTD] Flying Magnetic-Ion Armor on land is missing the orange "gravity pack" that it has underwater. This is because Mag-Ion Armor was originally designed to only "fly" underwater so it doesn't get it on land. DONE--
[TFTD] Future idea: use Silacoid's sprite to spawn Calcinite's formless mass of entrails upon death! And give it new ranged attack: spew acid (TFTD electric, but whatever). DONE
FEATURE/MOD REQUESTS (+ BUG FIXES)-- [BUG/FIX] Corpse-related research bug (same goes for UFO components).
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[QOL] Allow deployment of HWP/SWS without full ammo (this would also get rid of "not enough ammo" messages). DONE by Meridian for OXCE
-- [QOL] Add UFO radar window. This would be similar to intercept window, only that instead of listing your interceptions this would show all UFOs/bases currently detected by radar (with respective type/size, location, mission, etc.). Useful when there's over 10 red dots flying around all at once.
-- [QOL] Display number of days in Psi/MC training. This could be in both/either (a) soldier's stat screen and (b) Psi/MC-Lab screen. Why hasn't this been implemented already?
