Topics

106

OXCE Builds & Ports / OXCE v7.12 for Android

« on: September 19, 2018, 09:31:12 am »

Android version has been upgraded to v5.0 too.

Download: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5258.0.html

107

OpenXcom Extended / OXCE (OpenXcom Extended) main thread

« on: September 17, 2018, 05:28:34 pm »

Good news everyone!

OXCE and OXCE+ have merged together!

Starting with version 5.0, there will be only one "extended version"... and we decided to stick with the name "OpenXcom Extended" or "OXCE" for short.

I will be slowly renaming anything important from OXCE+ to just OXCE... please have some patience, it will take a bit of time.

I have also locked the original OXCE and OXCE+ discussion threads, please continue the discussion in this common thread.

As for technical info:
- the main common GitHub repository is: https://github.com/MeridianOXC/OpenXcom/
- Yankes' repo is effectively frozen
- both myself and Yankes have full and equal commit rights to the common repository

The new and shiny OXCE 5.0 can be officially downloaded from here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5258.0.html

Cheers,
Meridian

108

Playthroughs / New LP: TFTD TWoTS: The world of terrifying silence

« on: August 26, 2018, 10:48:55 pm »

Hi all,

my Area 51 LP is nearing completion (in 2-4 weeks)... so I'd like to gather some feedback on what would you like to see next (if anything)?

So far I've played
- OG xcom
- OG tftd
- OpenXcom xcom
- OpenXcom final mod pack
- OXCE/OXCE+ piratez
- OXCE+ area 51 (in progress)

Both FMP and PirateZ have evolved enough over the years to warrant a new campaign, but new mods and ideas are also welcome.

My secret tip would be TWoTS... but I'll let you decide.

PS: please don't write more than 2 suggestions per post... I am aware of the available mods and TCs, I just need help selecting one.

109

OXCE Suggestions Rejected / [OXCE] Why was my suggestion rejected?

« on: August 08, 2018, 08:10:13 pm »

Hi all,

every now and then, ideas and suggestions appear that I reject right away.

I don't reject these ideas, because I don't like them or because I don't like you.
On the contrary, I have implemented (or merged) features I (personally) don't like; and also for people I'm not best friends with.

The rejection comes from the fact that they are not in scope of this project (OXCE).
You can read more about the project scope here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5251.0.html

I'd like to explain a bit more, what these reasons are (and give a few examples), so that I can just point to this post, whenever I reject something.
Roughly, there are 4 categories:

1. Changing game experience

OpenXcom (and OXCE) has an ambition to provide the original xcom experience.
Of course, you could say there are many small exceptions already, but there are no big exceptions, and I won't be the first to make one.

Don't ask for features like:
- getting rid of palettes and support true colors
- bringing UI to FullHD era (and have a complete basescape UI in one screen or something like that)
- and so on...

OpenXcom is a 320x200x8 game and anything that cannot fit into that won't be done.
So please don't ask for "just one more button above Intercept button on the Geoscape", you're wasting your time.

2. Changing high-level game concepts/models

OpenXcom is not a generic game engine (it's not Unreal Engine or anything like that).
The advantage is that modding is VERY EASY (relatively speaking) and can be done practically by anyone.
The disadvantage is that highest-level game framework is fixed.

Many concepts are so fundamental that they can't be changed without changing practically everything.
These are actually hardest to understand for an amateur, and sometimes sound absurd, but that doesn't change how things are.

Examples:
- there are only 3 factions in a battle and adding even 1 more (or even only changing the behavior of the existing 3) means changing everything
- scientists/engineers "don't exist individually", they can't defend the base (and vice versa soldiers can't help with research no matter how smart they are)
- HWPs "don't exist individually", they can't gain experience no matter how nicely you ask
- armors "don't exist individually", soldiers are not actually wearing their own piece of armor... they just know what type of armor they are wearing
(with the exception of left/right/rear/front/bottom armor values that are temporarily tracked during (a single) battle, the remaining 95% of armor attributes cannot vary from soldier to soldier wearing the same armor type)
- weapons/items "don't exist individually", you cannot paint your favourite soldier's gun yellow, and keep other soldier's guns (of the same type) blue
(for same reason, the weapons cannot stay partially loaded across multiple battles)

There's of course much more, I just wanted to show you the game from a different perspective.
Things you know from real world don't work in the game until implemented... and we implemented only what was necessary (or thought would be nice to have).

PS: nobody made a Matrix yet, game always has a simplified model of reality
PPS: past decisions impact future options (if you want to remain backwards-compatible... which I do)

3. Changing high-level game mechanics/laws

The game mechanics are complex and complicated!
How many of you knew the game actually has a 3D engine below the 2D battlescape?

I know many hate the "No line of fire" message, I hate it too!
That doesn't mean we should change it... the game was designed and implemented with particular "laws of physics" (illustratively speaking) and they are correct in the game's world,
even if they don't 100% match the ideal laws. Btw. most of the time the game IS right. Only a small percentage of your daily rage-quits are caused by imperfect laws of physics.

Making "laws of physics" moddable to a degree is feasible, but highly impractical... the most probable outcome would be buggy, inconsistent and unmaintainable code.

Examples:
 - Battlescape: gravity, smoke, lines of sight/fire, reaction fire, pathfinding, high-level AI model, ...
(e.g. don't ask for "shooting from eye level")
 - Geoscape: various event triggers, event frequency...
(e.g. don't ask for Research completion checks every 5 seconds (instead of once a day); weather simulation; or geoscape time not stopping during active dogfights)

4. Too invasive changes

This point actually includes all previous points, but there are other things too.

The goal of OpenXcom Extended -- as the name says -- is to extend, not to rewrite.
I want to keep merging OXC features, and for that we need to be compatible at least on the highest level.
So changes that would make merging impossible are just not going to happen.

Example:
- adding multiplayer support


PS: even if your suggestion doesn't fall into any of the categories above (and thus is not automatically rejected), I have personal priorities and tastes and some ideas will just stay on the waiting list forever...

110

OpenXcom Extended / [4] OXCE mechanics compared to OpenXcom (differences)

« on: July 29, 2018, 01:36:40 pm »

Hi folks,

people often ask me how different is OXCE from OXC and if they still get the vanilla experience.
I usually answer that we are 99%+ compatible and vast majority of new mechanics must be modded before taking effect.

Obviously the next question is... what is that <1% ?
So this post will summarize the changes in game mechanics (not GUI!) that are NOT optional.

If you start a new game in unmodded OXCE, you may notice the following differences:

1. Throwing random stuff around doesn't train throwing accuracy anymore
(it can be trained by using grenades, arcing weapons, limited range weapons and weapons flagged by a modder as such... in unmodded scenario, it's basically just grenades and proxies)

2. Enemies panic less (not by much) when they are in huge numbers
(this doesn't apply to unmodded games, because vanilla never generates enough enemies for this to happen)

3. Stunned units are still considered as units for explosion damage calculation (not as corpse items)
(let's consider an explosive weapon that needs 3 shots to kill a unit... in OXC when you stun a unit you need only one shot to "remove" the unconscious body from the game, in OXCE you need 4 shots, 3 to kill and 1 to remove the dead corpse)

4. Hitting a tile floor will hit a stunned unit on the ground; fire and smoke affect them too

5. Chain TERRAIN explosions can't cancel each other
(for example if one terrain explosion causes two more terrain explosions very close to each other (e.g. exploding oil barrels)... in OXCE both new explosions will happen... in OXC the first of the two will most likely cancel the second one)

Note: this does NOT affect two grenades (or any other explosive items), just terrain explosions

6. Hand wounds only matter when you actually use hands
(if a weapon is not in your hands (e.g. a special weapon) it doesn't suffer penalty from fatal wounds on hands in OXCE)
(only possible in modded games actually)

7. Since OXCE v7.0, calculations using item `maxRange` are happening in 3D. In OXC, the calculations are in 2D (ignoring the Z coordinate).

8. Since OXCE 7.9.14, an Ironman game is NOT saved automatically when you press Alt+F4 in Windows (or equivalent in other operating systems).
(This can lead to all kinds of save corruption, and I don't have time or patience to fix peoples' saves anymore.)
(In OXC, the saving is still done (including save corruption).)

9. TODO...

I can't currently think of any more... but I will enhance this list once I recall anything else or implement something new.

Disclaimer:
----------------
- OXCE has an ambition to stay true to the vanilla experience!
- When asking for new features, please formulate it in a way so that vanilla experience is preserved... otherwise they will be rejected!
- If you notice a difference in mechanics that is not listed above, please let me know... I will either fix it or put it on the list

Regards,
Meridian

111

OXCE Support / [Answered] low fuel problem while escorting transport home

« on: July 24, 2018, 08:36:38 pm »

from https://openxcom.org/bugs/openxcom/issues/1402

When a ship is on it's way home, sometimes a message pops up saying it has low fuel and so is returning home. Ok, annoying but not a real problem.

But while the interceptor with small fuel capacity is escorting a transport and the transport is returning home after mission, than it is a problem. The interceptor could easily stay with the transport (the path IS the path home and fuel depends on path length), but chooses to fly home alone, leaving the transport unguarded.

So my wish:

Either better fuel calculation (OXC/OXCE/OXCE+), so the message would not pop up - there is more than enough fuel for getting home, even if the fuel tanks are less than half full.

Or workaround (OXCE?/OXCE+): Escorting crafts, who escort a transport returning home after mission, should bypass this redirection order. Maybe they could be sticking to that transport on the rest of their way home.

Varana

112

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [DONE] [Feedback] No line of fire indicator

« on: July 04, 2018, 12:26:56 pm »

http://volutar.myds.me/patches.html I think OXCE would greatly benefit from those

oh man, that no LoF indicator would be amazing.

So, I looked into this... the main idea is pretty simple and elegant, there are however some serious bugs in volutar's implementation:

1/ not all calls of TileEngine.canTargetUnit() were updated (specifically in AIModule)... so AI is basically broken with wrong parameters being passed

2/ not all places in Map.drawTerrain() were updated... the objects are not always highlighted when causing no LOF

3/ targeting empty tiles (without any parts) is slightly broken, in special cases

4/ highlighting no LOF tiles when targeting empty tiles doesn't work at all (e.g. when shooting out from skyranger into air on 2nd level through skyranger walls)... although there are comments in the code that it was specifically implemented... it wasn't... or was forgotten in the middle of the implementation... or maybe it depends on other commits?

5/ there's a change in handling arcing shots, which may have unwanted side-effects... I am not 100% sure here, I will have to discuss with Warboy... I will probably just remove it, not sure what its purpose is supposed to be

6/ uninitialized variable when shooting into darkness

PS: also no idea what patch format was used, but my git could not import anything (after trying really hard)... I had to rewrite the whole code manually :/

113

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [Documentation] Sharing UFO and TFTD article types across

« on: March 30, 2018, 07:29:17 pm »

If anyone would like to use TFTD-like pedia articles in UFO, it's now possible in OXCE+.

v2018-03-30 or above: https://lxnt.wtf/oxem/builds//ExtendedPlus/Extended+-3.10a-b2193e4-2018-03-30-win32.7z

--

Features:
1. unhardcoded palettes and colors (per article type)
2. support for INFO button (stats for nerds)
3. suppport for completely new palettes

Planned (soon):
4. support for custom palettes per article (maybe, low prio)
5. support for UFO article types in TFTD

--

I am attaching a sample mod with 1 example for each of the 8 types of articles: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6166.0;attach=36839

The sample has:
1. craft type, PAL_UFOPAEDIA, Avenger
2. craft weapon type, PAL_BATTLEPEDIA, Fusion Ball
3. vehicle type, PAL_BATTLEPEDIA, Hovertank -- this is different from vanilla, where HWPs used PAL_UFOPAEDIA (without images)... PAL_BATTLEPEDIA will allow sharing graphics between pedia and inventory
4. item type, PAL_BATTLEPEDIA, Heavy Cannon
5. armor type, PAL_BATTLEPEDIA, Power Suit
6. base facility type, PAL_BASESCAPE, Fusion Defenses
7. generic image type, PAL_UFOPAEDIA, Muton
8. UFO type, PAL_GEOSCAPE, Harvester

114

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [DONE] [Feedback] [Documentation] Hunter-killer

« on: September 21, 2017, 07:58:27 pm »

0:56 hunter killer targets skyranger
1:20 hunter killer switches to interceptor (bigger priority)
1:32 hunter killer attacks!

115

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [Documentation] Jukebox

« on: August 25, 2017, 01:50:13 pm »

See attached.

Default hotkey is END, but can be changed in options.
Hotkey works in the geoscape (globe view) and battlescape (map view).

116

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [Documentation] Palette preview in TestScreen

« on: August 13, 2017, 03:00:10 pm »

I've added new functionality to test screen (hotkey Ctrl+T while debug: true) to preview all text colors for all palettes and contrasts.

For xcom1-based mods:
 - PAL_GEOSCAPE
 - PAL_BASESCAPE
 - PAL_GRAPHS
 - PAL_UFOPAEDIA
 - PAL_BATTLEPEDIA
 - PAL_BATTLESCAPE, low/high contrast

For xcom2-based mods:
 - PAL_GEOSCAPE
 - PAL_BASESCAPE
 - PAL_GRAPHS
 - PAL_BATTLESCAPE, low/high contrast
 - PAL_BATTLESCAPE_1, low/high contrast
 - PAL_BATTLESCAPE_2, low/high contrast
 - PAL_BATTLESCAPE_3, low/high contrast

High contrast is used on many battlescape GUIs, for example Inventory GUI.

117

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [DONE] [Suggestion] Neo's wishlist

« on: August 10, 2017, 09:42:56 pm »

Split into separate thread.

Meridian, maybe you like some new features I was thinking about and can add them to OXCE+.

1. Definable sounds for events on geoscape. Would be nice to add a sound effect on UFO detection like in the intro cutscene "Warning, warning... UFO detected!".
Play definable sounds for events which may be nice to have:
- UFO detected
- Research complete
- Production complete (workshop and facilities separate)
- Goods have arrived
- Mission event alert, like terror missions (be able to give every different mission type its own sound would be cool)

Most could be achieved through custom vars like "Event_SFX_UFO: 154" and missions get something like "BriefingAlertSound: 155" in alienDeployments.
undefined = feature deactivated/unused


2. Some menu backgrounds are still not moddable via ruleset and you need to replace original graphics files. And it always bothers me that the HWP ufopedia background can not be customised. I would really like to make proper backgrounds for every tank, my doggies and other units. Adding  "image_id: SOMEHWPBACKGROUND_CPAL.SPK" support for this kind of pedia entries (type 3) would be cool.


3. Is there a hidden option to disable the "move base facilities around" feature? I like nearly everything in OXCE and OXCE+, but this is to cheaty for me. Moving underground facilities without costs or time consumption around is not very realistic and make proper base planing redundant. I think a user option for this feature, like the tech-tree viewer got, would be good (if there isn't already one).


4. The mission briefing music play most of the time only for 2-4 seconds until you hit OK. This is a little sad, especially with custom music. Would be cool if the briefing music would continue playing until you have equip your soldiers and start the mission. As optional feature of course.

118

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [DONE] [Suggestion] StatStrings per soldier type

« on: August 08, 2017, 02:52:59 pm »

StatStrings can now be defined on soldier types as well.

If found, these specific rules are used... if missing, fall-back are the global StatStrings.

Code: [Select]

soldiers:
  - type: STR_SOLDIER
    statStrings:
      - string: "ZzZ"
        firing: [70, ~]
      - string: "Z"
        firing: [60, 69]
      - string: "z"
        firing: [~, 59]


119

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [Documentation] Craft loadout templates

« on: August 08, 2017, 01:34:08 pm »

Similar to soldier inventory templates.
Activate using quicksave and quickload hotkeys (usually F5 and F9).
There are 10 available templates, which are campaign-specific (=saved in your save file).
Doesn't work in "New Battle" mode.

Saved are only items visible on the GUI (i.e. filtered out items are not saved).
Loaded are all items (before loading the quicksearch filter and category filter are reset).

If there are not enough items available in the base, a list of missing items will be reported.
If HWP ammunition is missing or there is not enough room for HWPs... they will be reported as missing HWPs.

Code: [Select]

extraStrings:
  - type: en-US
    strings:
      STR_SAVE_CRAFT_LOADOUT_TEMPLATE: "SAVE CRAFT LOADOUT"
      STR_LOAD_CRAFT_LOADOUT_TEMPLATE: "LOAD CRAFT LOADOUT"


120

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [Documentation] Debug mode options

« on: August 07, 2017, 03:51:09 pm »

So, after years, I finally got tired of manually editing save files for testing purposes.

I'll be adding shortcuts (for debug mode only of course), to cover the most frequent/repetitive editing.
So far, I have:
ctrl+1 = set funds to 999 999 999
ctrl+2 = finish all facility construction projects
ctrl+3 = +50 scientists and engineers
ctrl+4 = +2 of all items (recoverable, not live alien, sell cost > 0)
ctrl+5 = +2 of all live aliens (recoverable, sell cost > 0)
ctrl+6 = reset monthly xcom and alien region/country activity

Anything else I've missed for geoscape?
What other things do you edit when you test?
I could think of "remove all ufos", "remove all ongoing missions", "perform monthly mission generation" etc... not sure how useful it would be for modders?
Maybe show a list of running missions in-game?
How about more battlescape debug commands?

Hit me with ideas...