Messages

271

The X-Com Files / Re: Night missions lighting problems

« on: May 29, 2022, 10:57:37 am »

Engine determine this and if engine will not expose this to mods then mod can't do any thing to solve it,

Oh, fantastic! Not only lighting level is obscured from player, but also from program! A was not wrong when I said, that game does everything to hide the truth.

Lighting from all sources in a tile sums up and if it is above a certain threshold you are seen as if it is day.

I really hope this is not how it works. Words "sums up" suggests that 1 soldier in darkness is fine, but 4 soldiers standing together combine their "personal lighting" and become visible. No, my experience shows this is not happening.

It is an issue for the OXCE forum. There are other mods that use Night Combat like XCF, I think Piratez for example.

Considering that that these mods exists for many years, and this issue with lighting is still present, I don't think something will changed in the future. But really strange that this discussion hasn't occurred earlier (I checked forum).

For problem at hand, script can detect this, and make unit lot darken when invisible, and more bright when visible.
Or we can see a different color arrow when pressing Alt. Lighter or darker soldiers is prone to errors.

Both solutions are bad. Player need to know about tile lighting before moving an agent in.

In any case, thanks for replys.

272

The X-Com Files / Re: Night missions lighting problems

« on: May 28, 2022, 11:29:35 pm »

This is directly related to XCF, because it is XCF which made lighting important. Base game clearly preferred cosmetic over functionality. So, may be there is another mod that helps with lighting? Something like night vision toggle by space or scroll lock.

273

The X-Com Files / Night missions lighting problems

« on: May 28, 2022, 11:39:38 am »

After a lot of research about unit visibility during night missions I found several important info:

• During night missions units have reduced visibility.
• When a unit is lit by a light source it is visible like during a day.
• There is no such thing as "brightly lit" or "slightly lit". Either a unit is visible like at night or like at day.
• In a base game aliens (player's only opponent) at night see as good as at day, so it was irrelevant for a player to hide his units in darkness.
• In this mode, however, putting your agents in dark areas is a matter of life and death.
• Game does pretty much everything to prevent player to know with certainty if a specific tile is considered to be lit or not.
• According to this article https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Night_Missions there is a "cosmetic" lighting. That is it looks like a light, but it is not.

The big question is: is there a way to know with certainty if a specific tile is lit or not?
More specific question is about Dragonfly craft. It has light sources that produce very strange asymmetric shadow with some parts being slightly lighter then others. Agents stationed beneath the Dragonfly often are targeted by enemies even from afar with no obvious spotters near by. I know, enemy soldiers are capable to shoot at places where they saw player's agents even few turns earlier, so maybe this is not due to agents are actually standing at light, but who knows?

274

Playthroughs / Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish

« on: May 25, 2022, 06:36:06 pm »

So you bought a piu-piu-helicopter? I find it useless. It can only fight cultist mansion vehicles (and even not all of them). But is it really worth to fight them at all? Cultist vehicles activate only when you are close to a mansion and after that fall into sleep for a while. So you don't even have to "clear your way" for ground troops. I am not sure even about do pilots even gain experience from air battles...

Do you also find it frustrating, that on special mission screen there is info about allowed armor, but no info about what craft can be used? Before every such mission I have to "test" it using OSPREY to see allowed crafts. Text about allowed equipment is also vague. Mostly you can understand that, but not always. I was almost certain, that you can take only concealed weapons on the final Syndicate mission. Luckily I wasn't playing on Ironman...

275

Playthroughs / Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish

« on: May 22, 2022, 05:12:53 pm »

Now that I have a bow, I will use it as well, since it trains Throwing and that requires wasting grenades otherwise.

According to the same article you mentioned about training:

Throwing Accuracy is trivial to train: each time a soldier throws any object, they will get a Throwing Accuracy action. If you're positive to have killed the last alien, have your soldiers throw away all their gear before the turn ends. Unlike all the other stats, performing Throwing Accuracy actions will not trigger secondary stat increases.

So you don't need a bow, just empty your inventory!  Probably false info, or fixed in this mod, because I don't remember gaining experience from throwing light sources...

Please, do comment.

OK.  How many "ironman-ish moments" were at this point? 28? This is more times than I reloaded during my full playthrough. But who am I to judge, I did it only on "Experienced" difficulty. (Now I am playing on Veteran.)

276

Playthroughs / Re: X-Com Files Mod, Superman, Ironman-ish

« on: May 22, 2022, 11:17:02 am »

But it exist, therefore I have to build it somewhere and try using Rats.

Oh! Rats... They are not completely useless, but sadly not worth 1 place in a craft. Maybe you will find a better application for them. Sadly, after middle game there is nothing for rats to eat...

2. The Light Pistol is for training Reactions. It is the hardest thing to train.

Yes, I notices your obsession with reaction training during your playthrough... But does it really worth the effort? Can you even feel, that agents with better reaction perform better? You see, if agents do not train their reaction by their own, it looks like it is not needed.

11 actions is the maximum that matters for training

Can you, please, tell more about that? Is this another arcane mechanics that only code readers know about?

May be on some maze like mission. With Osprey I will have enough men to have somebody carry them around.

The "funny" thing is: the more agents you have, the less is need for Position Marker. And yes, zombie maze map while you have little crafts is probably the only real application for those markers.

I don't savescum for every death or small detail, though.

E-e-h-h-h... All right, I will not comment about this...

One of the main reasons for activating ironman in the options is that it will always autosave into my save. I don't have to remember to save manually.

You can configure to save each turn in game options.

277

Playthroughs / This is awesome walkthrough!

« on: May 21, 2022, 10:38:59 pm »

Hello!

This walkthrough is amazing! And only experienced players can understand that. Your playstyle is so different from mine. I have learned so much from it. Especially about shotguns. I thought they are useless because of their short range, but you showed me how efficient they may be. Also thanks to mentioning how bullets fly from a shotgun (1 leading bullet and all other with similar direction). I didn't know that and was unable to figure it out on my own on the battlefield. Also thanks for mentioning "who yet not contributed" key combination. I wish "key combination" section in ufopedia listed all of them... And your comments! They are awesome too. So much satire about silly game mechanics and art.

I have some questions about your "adventure":

• Why have you built another prison and animal pen? I think there is no need to keep so many prisoners. You will sell them eventually. Are you afraid to sell them and not being able to research them later? But most of your inmates were easy to recapture, like low level cultist.
• Many times you brought to missions that tiny 1x1 pistol along with Desert Eagle. Why? It would be more reasonable to bring another Desert Eagle clip instead.
• Is there a reason why you bring on missions basically whole arsenal of weapons? I understand you need different weapons for different situations and additional ammo, but not so many. Looks like you just want to postpone the preparation phase (weapon distribution) to the very end. I was slightly satisfied when this pile of armaments blown up eventually. You were asking for it for a long time.
• Are you planning to use "Position Marker" somehow? I find this lamppost completely useless. If only this thing was throwable like a grenade...

I wish that RNG-goddess where nice to you during your future combats. By the way, do you regret enabling "Ironman mod"? In either case, know, that you have one more follower on this thread!

278

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.4: Flesh and Circuitry

« on: May 16, 2022, 07:08:02 pm »

I searched for "psi formula" and immediately got this: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Psionic_Equations

Thanks for link. So X-COM Files only changed formula for psi defense and added requirement for vision? Hmmm... Maybe Skulljack is not so useless after all...

Well, it probably helps, but I wouldn't say it's necessary... I don't do this when playing other X-com mods, and I'm doing fine. To each their own.

I really want to understand the place of each item in this mod. Some items have very narrow niche. This is where calculations are necessary.

I honestly think that this particular point should be discussed on the level of OXCE. (I do not have any strong beliefs here myself.)

Oh, sorry, since I rediscovered X-COM recently I am still not sure what is a part of OXCE and what is part of the mod.

In darkness.

Actually I usually storm outposts at night. But I use Trace Flares. My experience of fighting in darkness at close range: it is suicide!

279

The X-Com Files / Re: Accuracy Modifiers & Dropoff

« on: May 15, 2022, 10:30:06 pm »

Attached is a test save, try to shoot the alien on the other side of the map.

WOW! Mindblowing!  Never seen that before and I played a lot. Next step is to repeat this in my walkthrough, I guess.

Sadly, you either remember wrong (we all do), or you were very lucky back then.

Seriously, I don't know what to think now. I very well remember how I trained a monster-aquanaut, that was able to 100% hit with Sonic Canon, initially with aimed shot, eventually with snap shot. And I terrorized with him aliens until T'leth mission. And he never missed, really! Jungle episode I mentioned earlier also was not a single event. This was at time when there were no limit of how high soldiers stats can go... May be someone hacked my game...

May I exploit your kindness more and ask slightly unrelated question? What is wrong with shotguns in X-COM files? If a shotgun fires 7 bullets at once and there is 50% success chance, I expect, that at least 3 bullets hit the target, but in reality it is way less. So what exactly means success hit chance for scattered ammunition? I know, there is one stat in "more info" section about bullet spreading, but I can't figure out what that actually means...

280

The X-Com Files / Re: Accuracy Modifiers & Dropoff

« on: May 15, 2022, 07:05:09 pm »

If you don't believe the players, maybe you'll believe the developer.

Here's the facts:
1. there is no such thing as "chance to hit" on ranged weapons in the original xcom or openxcom... just accept it, it's the bitter truth
...

If you now feel like your whole life was a lie, welcome to xcom... there's many more such surprises waiting for you if you dig deep enough.

How can I believe this when it is the opposite of what I experienced for many years playing original X-COM (including TFTD) for DOS on my Windows 95 and then X-COM for windows on later versions of windows? Back then, when I was young, there was no such thing as obstacles on line of fire. If line of fire existed and game says accuracy is 100%, then I always hit the target. Even if target was so enclosed with jungle bushes, that every released bullet hit the same head part over and over again. I remember my frustration about this unrealistic mechanics.
I don't know when obstacles were implemented (I rediscovered X-COM as OXCE recently), and now it is possible to miss with 100%. I finished a walkthrough of X-COM Files (1.5 month of almost non-stop playing) and I never missed a single bullet if accuracy was above 100% and there were no obstacles, no matter how far the target was. At least I thinks so, because it is very hard to determine is there is an obstacle or not on some maps. I will pay very close attention to shots on great distances during my next walkthrough. Maybe I will change my mind when I eventually miss a target when there clearly were no obstacles, but until then I am confident, that there is no hidden penalties for long shots.

281

The X-Com Files / Re: Accuracy Modifiers & Dropoff

« on: May 15, 2022, 04:33:32 pm »

Not true. Old XCom DOES work like Phoenix Point.
The accuracy percent is a misnomer. The "percent" shown is how big/small the cone is.

Oh, come on! I am, maybe, not the the most experienced X-COM player, but even I can see this is not how bullets fly...

I have seen 200% and above shots miss happily at long ranges.

This is ALWAYS due to obstacles and NEVER due to distance. Or we are playing different games...

See Use of accuracy on UFOPaedia: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Accuracy_formula

I see: Chance to Hit% = Accuracy * Kneeling Bonus * Accuracy Penalty * Weapon Firing Mode Accuracy. There is no distance in this formula!
I know, there is a section called "Use of Accuracy" where they talk about distances, but since it goes in contrary with the first part of an article, I have less faith in the whole article.

282

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.4: Flesh and Circuitry

« on: May 15, 2022, 04:01:45 pm »

Shotguns have decent accuracy up close and with aimed shots quite far away. They are really good on the Strange creatures early on, because you must clear the closest enemies as fast as possible, Also some of them have a readily available stun round, which isn't the best but is longer range than the Tasers. I found them very useful on the Large Zombie missions since they deal tons of damage for the TU used.

As I suspected. Good against early creatures, against some zombies, good for stun rounds (but this is only 1 specific shotgun), bad for pretty much everything else.

One thing I hate about shotguns (with scattering ammo) is that even with 100% accuracy not all rounds hit the target. If distance is relatively big, even smaller number of rounds hit the target. I even suspect that 100% accuracy means that there is 100% chance for 1 round (out of 7) to hit and that is all.

283

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 2.4: Flesh and Circuitry

« on: May 15, 2022, 03:48:09 pm »

Thank you for your answers.

There's only one type of smoke, with variable density. As for the formula, I also had to look for it, found it here: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Smoke_Grenade. The final value is 1-3 points per round, but most unprotected units in XCF have 400% modifire to smoke, so multiply this by 4.

According to this article there are 3 types of smoke with different denity (how I expeced) and it is impossible to distiguish between then by glance (how typical).

These shields should work exactly the same, the only difference being in how much damage they can absorb.
Shields work before armour, and armour only starts working after a shield is coimpletely depleted. Unless it's a damage type that completely ignores this type of shield.
Sorry, no pklan to adding more formulas. That would be pointless info dump. If you're interested, you can check the script in scripts_XCOMFILES.rul.

So it is possible to take down shields with many shots with low caliber bullets? Strange that I was unable to do that Black Lotus Avatar. And event more stranger is that Ufopedia article about purple (if I recall correctly) shield clearly states that it is immune to low caliber shots. That is why I was so confused. I will definitely check the formula.

Distance definitely matters, yes. As for the formula, I don't keep such things to memory, but it should be easy to find on the ufopaedia.org page.

Well I visited ufopaedia.org previously and now. Specifically article about psi-amp. Call me blind, but I don't see any percentages of success. And ufopaedia.org suck in a way that there is no "all article list". You have to know exactly what to search in advance.

That's another vanilla mechanic which I never bothered to check. Honestly, what's the point? It works, that's what matters.

Well, I also had this attitude while played original X-COM. But with this mod with so much options it is no longer possible. But I finally found the right article on ufopaedia.org, so OK.

If I recall correctly, Meridian specifically rejected this, because he considered it a cheat. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, I understand that, partially. I just believe that leaving all how it is now is even worse than cheating. Can I request at least a tiny notice in ufopedia inside article about melee, that "percentage you see are misleading"?

I think that means you're a sniper player. I am much feedback like this, but for different weapon classes - for example "pistols are the only viable weapons" is fairly popular. I personally find sniper rifles very useful, but only on large open areas, whereas cannons are more for city warfare.
...
Well, I am doing my best to make weapon classes "balanced" in the sense of catering to various player types. I totally hear your arguments, I treat them seriously and will keep them in mind. But there are many players making claims and their opinions vary wildly...

Good to know. Now I can use sniper rifles without thinking that I am exploiting some bugs.

Weird - everyone is saying how rubbish assault rifles are compared to SMGs... A matter of preference, I suppose.

Very strange. Typical battle is an assault on cultist stockpile: a building full of cultist in the middle of a desert with no covers at all. How am I suppose to win this without long range weapons???

If you want to see the new countries on an older campaign, you will have to add them manually - please refer to the previous release post for details.

Release post for 2.4? There is only "Note: the new countries will only appear a new campaign. (Or if you edit them manually into your save.)".
Can I not add them and just play? This will not screw founding or something else? Sorry for stupid questions, that probably were answered many times, but really cannot find those answers.

MODIFIED:
Yes, just updated the mod. Everything looks fine even without new countries.

284

The X-Com Files / Re: Accuracy Modifiers & Dropoff

« on: May 15, 2022, 09:38:27 am »

The game shoots inside a cone centered at the target, and the higher the accuracy is, the smaller the cone.

This only happens with missed bullets. Otherwise there would be no such thing as effective distance and accuracy dropoff. I wish bullets in X-COM flies like in Phoenix Point, but they not. Same goes with throwing grenades. X% to throw a grenade in the exact spot, (100-X)% to throw it everywhere else inside a circle. This is even more annoying then with bullets.

The game's UI isn't able to show you the real percentage in either case.

I would disagree with that. Ctrl+M screen, where we can see missed/hit/0dmg info, would be a perfect place to show info about dodging. Also I wish it was more easy visually and soundly distinguish between missed hit, dodged hit and 0 damage hit.

285

The X-Com Files / Re: Accuracy Modifiers & Dropoff

« on: May 14, 2022, 10:01:37 am »

If a weapon has "accuracy modifier" then this "accuracy modifier" substitute the default "accuracy modifier" that is the agent's shooting skill.
I your case formula would be 65 * 65 * 0.01 * 1.4 = 59.15. I don't know how you get 70%... May be by sitting?

Accuracy dropoff only applies when the target is outside weapon's effective range (which depends also on firing mode (aimed, snapped...). Weapon's effective range is shown in additional info page. If not, then default values are applied, which can be seen in default values page.

Shooting accuracy is not the most obscure mechanics of this game. Soon you will have a lot "fun" when your agent fails to hit a cultist 10 times in a row with a knife, despite shown 50% probability...