Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste

[Solarius Scorch]

That's a bunch of bugs I've never heard of. Of course I will check them, but they are pretty suspicious.

[krautbernd]

I can upload the save in question if that helps.

I still have trouble wrapping my mind about how mission generation works. According to the reference missions without a defined region "use the normal regional distribution". I have no idea what that means, nor where said distribution would be defined.

Does that mean hybrid bases and meetings could spawn in any regions defined in the regions.rul? Wouldn't that also lead to...problems...as far as deployments are concerned?

[Solarius Scorch]

BTW, the Syndicate building still has rooms that lack doors:

It has a door, right in the middle of the northern wall.

Also, might i suggest removing the Dragonfly from the allowed crafts list for inifiltration missions? I just don't see how turning up in something that looks like a friggin' gunship would help your agents with the whole undercover thing.

It's deliberate. It is a civilian vehicle, assumed to be... well not exactly common, but no more unusual than a private jet. It's perhaps the biggest sign that this reality is not 100% the same as our 1990s.

EDIT:
Not sure if this is intended, but there seems to be something wrong with the upper floors. Namely that you can fall through them:

Yeah, it's called an elevator...
But I think I'll block it, since people are too eager to jump down the shaft.

My MAGMA zombie lab mission somehow spawned with a hybrid control assault:

Right now I can't see a reason why this would happen (assuming you haven't doctored the save). Curious.

As far as i can tell you've defined a region for the hybrid control assault mission, but there is no region assigned to the mission in the missionscripts.rul - replacing 'REGION_MAGMA_LAB' with 'REGION_HYBRID_CONTROL' in my save spawns the correct mission, but i'd really like to know why the region defaults to MAGMA_LAB in the first place.

As I said, I have no idea-
...oh darn. I forgot to add regionWeights to them missionScripts. It should look like this:

Code: [Select]

  - type: hybridControl
    firstMonth: 0
    executionOdds: 6
    missionWeights:
      0:
        STR_HYBRID_CONTROL_ASSAULT: 100
    regionWeights:
      0:
        REGION_HYBRID_CONTROL: 100
    useTable: false
    researchTriggers:
      STR_HYBRID_CONTROLLERS: true
    startDelay: 20
    randomDelay: 43500


BTW hybridBase and hybridmeeting are also missing regions.

They don't need a region, as they are UFOs. (I should redo it some day.)

Also, the  marker name assigned to STR_HYBRID_CONTROL_ASSAULT is STR_REPTOID_BASE - is this intended?

Um... No...

Thanks for the thorough report!

[krautbernd]

It has a door, right in the middle of the northern wall.

Must be one of those non-operational doors that camouflages itself as a wall then, because my agents refuse to enter the room:

It's deliberate. It is a civilian vehicle, assumed to be... well not exactly common, but no more unusual than a private jet. It's perhaps the biggest sign that this reality is not 100% the same as our 1990s.

Then why isn't it included in STR_WINTERSPORTS_GEAR or STR_BEACH_GEAR? Those also allow Helicopters. People take helicopters and jets to winter resorts/beach locations all the time (well, extremely rich people that is) - if the Dragonfly is not more unusual than other private air vehicles, why can't we take it on those missions?

Yeah, it's called an elevator...
But I think I'll block it, since people are too eager to jump down the shaft.

Solarius please, i wouldn't have bothered to report if i fell down the elevator shaft - though that would be extremely frustrating and i'm still miffed about not being allowed to bring jump suits on those missions. Man that would be epic. Picture True Lies combined with The Terminator.

The tile in question is north-west of the actual shaft - which is inacessible on that level, see screenshots. The only reason i even noticed was because that security captain suddenly dropped from the ceiling and started shooting at my agents. (Unfortunately for him he brought a gun to a knife fight and was promptly stabbed to death.)



Also please don't block the elevator shaft.

They don't need a region, as they are UFOs. (I should redo it some day.)

Yeah i guess that explains those traveling hybrid bases i encountered in earlier versions.

[Alex_D]

Then why isn't it included in STR_WINTERSPORTS_GEAR or STR_BEACH_GEAR? Those also allow Helicopters. People take helicopters and jets to winter resorts/beach locations all the time (well, extremely rich people that is) - if the Dragonfly is not more unusual than other private air vehicles, why can't we take it on those missions?

If I'm not mistaken the Syndicate operates also Dragonflies, thus I assumed that if one uses one of them, their security team could potentially mistaken them by one of theirs. Like SW:ROTJ and their Lambda Shuttle.

I'm even thinking, if Solarius agrees, when the Mi-25 craft map is done, that a similar approach can be used on the Red Dawn HQ mission (or some other mission). Talk about massacres. 

[Solarius Scorch]

Must be one of those non-operational doors that camouflages itself as a wall then, because my agents refuse to enter the room:

Bingo. You were right, they were camouflaged - because of a glitch, they looked fine in the editor, but didn't work in the game.
I feel really silly now. Sorry I doubted you.

Then why isn't it included in STR_WINTERSPORTS_GEAR or STR_BEACH_GEAR? Those also allow Helicopters. People take helicopters and jets to winter resorts/beach locations all the time (well, extremely rich people that is) - if the Dragonfly is not more unusual than other private air vehicles, why can't we take it on those missions?

Hmmm... It's not like I haven't though about it. Still, I don't want to mix these "sub-settings" too much - a Dragonfly may be okay on the roof of a multinational corporation, but I don't want it everywhere. I aim to maintain low profile when it comes to sci-fi elements, and the Dragonfly being allowed on downtown missions is a bit of an exception.
Sure, you can argue it's inconsistent, and I can't say you're wrong. But I prefer to trat the Dragonfly as a novelty which is only semi-official (not secret, but not widely available yet).

Solarius please, i wouldn't have bothered to report if i fell down the elevator shaft - though that would be extremely frustrating and i'm still miffed about not being allowed to bring jump suits on those missions. Man that would be epic. Picture True Lies combined with The Terminator.

The tile in question is north-west of the actual shaft - which is inacessible on that level, see screenshots. The only reason i even noticed was because that security captain suddenly dropped from the ceiling and started shooting at my agents. (Unfortunately for him he brought a gun to a knife fight and was promptly stabbed to death.)

Again you are correct, there was a hole in the floor, obscured by the wall.
I'm such a doofus sometimes.

Also please don't block the elevator shaft.

See, the problem is with how the AI operates, and the fact that the building is transparent. As soon as the enemy unit spots you outside, it tries to engage you and in most circumstances this means shortening the distance first. So the AI looks for the shortest route to get down to you, and this shortest route is obviously jumping down the elevator shaft. Which leads to the ground level (the cellar). In effect, after a few turns the AI units gather below the lobby and you can engaged them there, without seeing much of the building.
There are two possible solutions:
1) Block the shaft, so they can't jump down and need to use the stairs.
2) Make the external wall non-transparent.
Each solution has its own advantages and issues. I am leaning towards one of them, but I would like to hear your thoughts first.

If I'm not mistaken the Syndicate operates also Dragonflies, thus I assumed that if one uses one of them, their security team could potentially mistaken them by one of theirs. Like SW:ROTJ and their Lambda Shuttle.

Potentially yes, but the game doesn't go that deeply into storytelling. You can assume so if you want.

I'm even thinking, if Solarius agrees, when the Mi-25 craft map is done, that a similar approach can be used on the Red Dawn HQ mission (or some other mission). Talk about massacres. 

Well there are no restrictions on that mission anyway.

[krautbernd]

See, the problem is with how the AI operates, and the fact that the building is transparent. As soon as the enemy unit spots you outside, it tries to engage you and in most circumstances this means shortening the distance first. So the AI looks for the shortest route to get down to you, and this shortest route is obviously jumping down the elevator shaft. Which leads to the ground level (the cellar). In effect, after a few turns the AI units gather below the lobby and you can engaged them there, without seeing much of the building.
There are two possible solutions:
1) Block the shaft, so they can't jump down and need to use the stairs.
2) Make the external wall non-transparent.
Each solution has its own advantages and issues. I am leaning towards one of them, but I would like to hear your thoughts first.

Thing is i personally never encountered this in any of my playthroughs - the AI was never interested in the elevator shaft. What they were interested in though was jumping out of the broken windows of a highrise building. Making the external walls non-transparent would probably make more 'sense' (as in, windows of real life office buildings are often mirrored for thermal/privacy reasons), but in my experience things go south as soon as you start using explosives and break windows on multiple levels. Once that happens my agents on the ground also tend to get shot at from the upper floors without being able to reaction fire, probably because of the distance.

I'm hesitant to recommend either solution, since i tend to enter the building pretty quickly (or at least quickly enough to still encounter enemies on the upper floors). Maybe wait for feedback from players who've actually run into this? The solution might also depend on the mission type (raid/disc, CEO arrest).

[Alex_D]

So the AI looks for the shortest route to get down to you, and this shortest route is obviously jumping down the elevator shaft.

What I found in my previous campaign is the AI units panicking, shooting at random, and eventually breaking the glass windows. Then they were jumping from the nth floor on to the street and engaging my team from behind. I had to leave behind a small guard to deal with them, while my main team was clearing the rooms floor by floor.

I knew about that locked room. By the second mission, I had some soldiers with pick axles opening these walls. In some cases there were enemy soldiers trapped inside. I imagined in previous missions, they just surrendered while still locked in.

Potentially yes, but the game doesn't go that deeply into storytelling. You can assume so if you want.

I want to believe.   Plus seriously, that is the reason I thought one of the cover Syndicate mission allowed the DragonFly, just because it's one of their crafts. Now I see this was a coincidence.

Well there are no restrictions on that mission anyway.

I don't know if you have enabled craft missions to the Cults specifically (subs not counting), and if you have specific crafts in mind for each of these cults.

[JustTheDude/CABSHEP]

I have a one "bad taste" found in mod. Missions like "Syndicate Warehouse" are... Empty. All loot we can get is what guards and scientists were carrying, like they were guarding nothing, or like X-Com just ignores stuff inside.
Also their ships give nothing.

[Solarius Scorch]

I have a one "bad taste" found in mod. Missions like "Syndicate Warehouse" are... Empty. All loot we can get is what guards and scientists were carrying, like they were guarding nothing, or like X-Com just ignores stuff inside.
Also their ships give nothing.

Yeah, I get your point. I'll think about it.

[krautbernd]

Can you check the minotaur floorob/bigob sprites? The floorob-entry points to the bigob.png instead of the floorob one.

[Solarius Scorch]

Hmm, I thought I fixed it long ago. Thanks.

[krautbernd]

As far as i can tell it was fixed. Maybe you used an earlier version while adding new sprites?

[Vangrimar1]

There is a mission in which the X-com finds the refuge of a scientist and must be protected from M.I.B. For some reason, instead of M.I.B., I had Black Lotus with laser weapons.

Another question: can something be done with dishonest mind control from aliens when they use them through walls. Today I lost my base when the sectoids seized half of my soldiers on the first move.

[BlackStaff]

Have you selected this mod "UFOextender_Psionic_Line_Of_Fire" ?