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Modding => Released Mods => IDT Modding Hub => Topic started by: efrenespartano on January 26, 2022, 09:32:56 am

Title: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: efrenespartano on January 26, 2022, 09:32:56 am
Howdy, everyone! I'm happy to announce our newest (small) mod!

Reach: The Fall is a total conversion set in the Halo universe. I've wanted to play a Halo mod since years ago and so far just one existed (but on the old dead mod website) made by Diemaco and someone asked for one (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=8458.0), but the idea never grew into a full mod. So, our team made this! This is meant to be a really small and pleascent mod. Something you can play meanwhile you return from work or get the meal ready. The average campaign will last a couple of hours, so don't worry about having to play this 24/7, 365 days in order to finish it. This doesn't mean it will be easy. The Covenant infantry is numerous and their weapons are dangerous.

The project puts you in charge of a combined task force, composed of SPARTAN-IIIs, ODSTs, Army Troopers and Marines. Several UNSC and Covenant weapons are in too!

There is room for further development, of course. More weapons, armors and enemies are planned as well.

You can get it here, from mod.io (https://openxcom.mod.io/reach-the-fall-a-halo-mod)

Make sure to join us at the Inventorum Development Team Discord server! (https://discord.com/invite/EhDaubscTx)

FEATURES:
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: efrenespartano on January 26, 2022, 09:33:42 am
Changelog:

Code: [Select]

18-August-2024: v1.1
Changes made:
* Updated to OXCE v7.13
* Solved fatal crash with gravlift on Spire missions, by wethan2
* Small buff to Grunts bravery, suggested by himalayan rock salt overdose & jamesbrand97
- Minor: 20 to 30
- Major: 30 to 40
- Heavy: 40 to 45
- Ultra: 60 to 70
* Added melee attack on Needler, suggested by himalayan rock salt overdose & jamesbrand97
* Plasma Pistol does 50% of stun damage
* Small buff to M7S SMG effective range, suggestd by jamesbrand97

01-February-2024: v1.0
Changes made:
* Updated to OXCE v7.11
* Added Terrain Pack terrains, originally made by Hobbes & collaborators
* Added MJOLNIR Mark V[B] Armor with shielding, exclusively for SPARTAN-IIIs; sprites by efrenespartano, Hans Woofington and Kretus
* Added UNSC Surface Base, by b1ackwolf & efrenespartano
* Added new Covenant units, active camo script by Filip-H:
- Sangheili: Stealth, SpecOps, Shipmaster, Fleetmaster
* Added Covenant Weapons, by Kretus
- Type-51 Needle Rifle
* Added M12 Warthog as 2x2 armor, with built-in M41 Chaingun
* Replaced vanilla Alien Base with Covenant Spire map after a successful infiltration
* Decreased TU cost of M7 SMG to increase the rate of fire
* Reduced cost of Target Locator from 5 million to 1 million
* Nerfed Needler damage (was 35, now 30), increased TU costs
* Rebalanced Grunts, Elites and Jackals stats (reduced reactions, health in regular units, buffed stats on Ultras and Zealots)
* Increased hitAnimation speed on Plasma Rifle and Plasma Repeater
* Added custom ranks for all UNSC units
* Solved issues with several Covenant maps
* New cursor sprites, Halo Wars style
* Battle Rifle now behaves like a shotgun and consumes 3 bullets per shot, updated sound effects
* Recolored Base Sprites to green, added Medikits and Armor Abilities to starting base
* Disabled hiring of Scientists and Engineers
* Increased height of the alienDeployments to avoid crashes with Ship Gravlift mapBlock, reported by Generic_Scout
* Increased damage done to shields on SRS-99 Sniper Rifle from 100% to 250%
* Reduced M7 SMG effective range, reduced TU cost, increased close-quarters accuracy; suggested by Generic_Scout
* Reduced accuracy dropoff of M247H Machine Gun from 20 to 2, increased damage by 70, by Kretus; suggested by Generic_Scout
* Increased Energy Sword damage to shields from 200% to 300%
* Added new explosion animations to UNSC and Covenant Artillery & Grenades
* Fixed droppods and gravlift tile issues, reported by Rclipse
* Minor bugfixing


23-Oct-2023 v0.3
Changes made:
* Updated to OXCE v7.9.8
* Added UNSC weapons, by Kretus & efrenespartano
- SPARTAN/ODST: M6/V Spartan Laser, M247H Machine Gun, MA5K Carbine
- Marine Corps: M45 Tactical Shotgun, M41 SPNKr Rocket Launcher
- Army: M90 CAWS Shotgun, M319 Grenade Launcher, H-165 Target Locator
* UNSC weapons now have a faster hitAnimation, instead of not having any
* Balanced enemy number of enemies in Ship Assaults, added doors to UNSC spawn points
* Reduced cost of SPARTAN-IIIs, from 5,000,000 to 1,000,000, slightly buffed HPs

8-Nov-2022 v0.2
Changes made:
*Updated to OXCE v7.8
*Added Armor Abilities to Spartans; script by Filip-H, sprites by efrenespartano & Filip-H
*Orange flash on shield break, by Filip-H
*Removed craftWeapons from being buyable, by Filip-H
*Updated ammosprite script, now loaded weapons in Ufopedia, by Filip-H
*Fixed MAC Cannon string issue, by Filip-H
*Spartan armor colour can now be changed, by Filip-H
*Fixed marines and troopes being able to use SPI, by Filip-H
*Enabled Medikit and Flare to store, increased MA37 accuracy, added custom fire modes to Covenant rifles too, by efrenespartano
*Elite Minors are now light blue instead of dark blue, by efrenespartano
*Recolored and expanded Alien Base, now Covenant base/ship, by efrenespartano
*New Spirit, added two-stage missions on Capital ships, by efrenespartano
*Updates and tweaks to covenant weaponry entries in en-US, by Ikhanad
*Addendum to pedia entries, corrections and revisions to spanish version by Ikhanad
*removed duplicate ufopedia article, commented out redundant articles, by Filip-H
*fixed loft issues, moved droppod from mad edge to prevent stuck troops by Filip-H
*droppods deploy on turn 2 instead of trough knife, fixed pelican dropship issues, by Filip-H
*reduced enemy grenade amount, by Filip-H
*reduced odst camo values to more reasonable levels, by Filip-H
*Removed hitAnimation on ballistic weapons to make the bullets go faster, by efrenespartano


25-Jan-2022 v0.1.1 Open Beta
Changes made:
*Disabled specialUseEmptyHandShow
*Minor balance changes (Plasma weapons do more damage to Shields)
*Added missing Covenant weapon Pedia text
*Changed fontset

25-Jan-2022 v0.1 Open Beta
Changes made:
*Updated to OXCE v7.4.4
*Added CMP Extended terrains
*Brand new planet Reach, custom regions and cities
*2 month-long fast campaign
*Halo Reach, 3, ODST and Halo Wars music
*English(US) and Spanish (LATAM 419) supported
*Added UNSC units & armors
- SPARTAN-III [SPI Armor, four color variants]
- ODST [ODST Battle Armor]
- Marine [Marine BDU (Standard, Balaclava, Light, Service Cap variants)]
- Army Trooper [Army BDU (Standard, Balaclava, Light, Service Cap variants)]
*Added UNSC weapons
- SPARTAN/ODST: M6/SOCOM, M7S, SRS99
- Marine Corps: MA5B, BR55, M6C
- Army: MA37, M392, M6G
- Improved diemaco's original weapon sprites
- New Medikit sprite
- Integrated specialWeapon Knife weapon
*Added UNSC ships & weapons
- Capital Ships: Paris-class Heavy Frigate, Stalward-class Light Frigate
- Combat Craft: Sabre Fighter, Longsword Interceptor
- Transport Craft: Falcon Gunship, Falcon Transport, Pelican Dropship
- Weapons: MAC, 30mm Cannon, 50mm Cannon, AA Battery, 70mm Chaingun, SHIVA-class Nuke, Archer Missile, ST/Medusa Missile, ASGM-10 Missile
*Added Covenant units
- Sangheili (Minor, Major, Ultra, Zealot)
- Kig-Yar (Minor, Major, Sniper)
- Unggoy (Minor, Major, Heavy, Ultra)
*Added Covenant weapons
- Type-25 Pistol, Type-25 Plasma Rifle/Elite-pattern, Type-25 Plasma Rifle/Brute-pattern, Type-51 Plasma Repeater, Type-33 'Needler' GLM, Type-51 Carbine, Type-1 Antipersonnel 'Plasma' Grenade, Type-33 'Fuel Rod Gun' LAAW, Type-1 Energy Sword, Jackal Minor Shield Gauntlet, Jackal Major Shield Gauntlet
*Added Covenant ships
- Capital Ships: SDV-class Heavy Corvette, CPV-class Heavy Destroyer, CCS-class Battlecruiser, CAS-class Assault Carrier
- Combat Craft: Banshee Fighter Wing, Seraph Fighter
- Transport Craft: Spirit Dropship

8-Aug-2014 r0002 Harvest
Changes made:
*Added T25 Plasma Pistol, Plasma Rifle, PR/I, and T51.
*Added MA37 ICWS and SRS99.
*Added M6C and M6C/SOCOM.
Credits:
*efrenespartano: lead design, sprites and rulesets
*Filip H: beta tester, ideas and scripts
*Hans Woofington: beta tester, ideas and armor parts used in SPI paperdoll, ODST, army and marine fatigues paperdoll template.
*Ikhanad: lead design, Pedia entries text

-Meridian: ruleset reference, OXCE dev
-SupSuper: globe markers template, OXC dev
-Yankes: OXCE dev
-Warboy: OXC dev

*Alnoaht: beta tester
*BaileyJIII: menu backgrounds
*b1ackwolf: beta tester
*Bohemond: Unit Sprite Studio and Globe Editor tools
*bulletdesigner: original Pelican, Falcon, Shuttles tilesets (modified)
*Buscher: tester
*cfowler7: Evacuation mission background image
*CMP Staff: geoscape textures, terrain files
*Diemaco: T25 Plasma Pistol, Plasma Rifle, PR/I, T51, SRS99, M6C and M6C/SOCOM sprites and rulesets (modified)
*Drakon: tester
*Drages: Plasma and Needler hitAnimations
*Grand-Lobster-King: All Grunts paperdolls (modified to fit OXC size and palettes)
*InnerRyag & NRE Team: Jackal Shield Gauntlets, Sangheili & Jackal Corpse sprites, Plasma Grenade sprites (modified)
*Isaac Hannaford: conceptual art used on menu backgrounds
*Kael Schwabauer: testers
*Kenny Magnusson: conceptual art used on menu backgrounds
*Leflair: Kig-Yar, Sangheili, Unggoy spritesheet template, tester
*liberation: original region data ruleset
*LordHayabusa357: Marine report image
*Martin O'Donnell: original Halo Reach, Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST soundtrack
*Michael Salvatori: Halo Reach, Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST soundtrack
*ohartenstein23: SPI spritesheets template
*starslab: adapted Amiga fontset and ruleset
*Stephen Rippy: original Halo Wars soundtrack
*Tal'Raziid: tester
*Wallz2296: All Sangheili paperdolls (modified to fit OXC size and palettes)
*XCROSS: UI ruleset template


==================================================
######################
###### LICENSE: ######
######################

Halo Reach & Halo 3 © Microsoft Corporation. "Reach: The Fall" was created under Microsoft's "Game Content Usage Rules" using assets from Halo Reach and Halo 3, and it is not endorsed by or affiliated with Microsoft.

https://www.xbox.com/en-us/developers/rules

This free mod is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, with the exception of the copyrighted soundtrack assets and intellectual properties of the Halo franchise (concepts, enemies, weapons, conceptual art), belong to Microsoft. The IDT logo, made by us, is considered All Rights Reserved. This is, you can not use, share, adapt or modify it without our explicit consent. Any other content, created by the Inventorum Development Team members, contributed for free by the OpenXcom community members, and of course, adapted or reused from another projects is distributed under said license. You can share it for free (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) or adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material). But you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
(https://unboundedwebimages.s3.amazonaws.com/static_pages/byncsa.png)
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: ontherun on January 26, 2022, 09:41:44 am
Nice, congrats!  8)
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: efrenespartano on January 26, 2022, 09:51:26 am
Quote from: ontherun on January 26, 2022, 09:41:44 am
Nice, congrats!  8)

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it if you try it :D
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: Aemolia on December 25, 2022, 11:42:52 pm
I registered just to ask. Why are regions named after traditional Hungarian cities?
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: efrenespartano on December 28, 2022, 01:57:04 am
Quote from: Aemolia on December 25, 2022, 11:42:52 pm
I registered just to ask. Why are regions named after traditional Hungarian cities?

The reason behind the Hungarian names of Reach  (https://www.halopedia.org/Reach)is because most of the original settlers where Eastern European (https://www.halopedia.org/Human_languages#:~:text=Because%20a%20number%20of%20its,have%20been%20his%20native%20language.). Jorge-052 speaks it, in the Winter Contingency (https://halo.fandom.com/wiki/Winter_Contingency_(level)) mission, there is a part where Noble Team encounters some villagers and Jorge talks with them in Hungarian.
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: Aemolia on January 20, 2023, 08:32:53 pm
Thanks for explaining. I tried your mod but I found it a bit confusing.

ELites take entire cartridges before falling, some weapon stats feel out of place, research and manufacture options are missing, and one time some wooden shacks appeared instead of the spaceship I shot down. Am I missing something?
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: Lone Wolf on February 12, 2023, 01:12:18 am
Since there's not a lot of discussion about this mod I figured that I would post a little bit to help newbies learn more about the mod since this is an enjoyable play.  It also feels pretty close to the lore in gameplay, and as a long time Halo fan I found this mod to be pretty fun and I think it would be great for it to get more attention and support.

Disclaimer: I am not infallible and there are probably things I got wrong somewhere.  If you find them go ahead and correct me as I do not want to spread misinformation. 

The general idea:
   This mod reenacts the fall of Reach from Halo, which means its going to be a short campaign (about two months).  You may not think that is going to be a lot of time, but with all the enemy transports flying around you'll have plenty of missions to go on.

Big things to note:
   1. THIS IS NOT A FINISHED MOD!  At the time of this writing you can tell this mod still has a long way to go before it is complete and you will find stuff like bugs or unbalanced missions.  There are still many things which can be implemented to improve gameplay, and make the mod more interesting.  Do not expect a completely polished and finished game.
   2. No research: You really think your egg heads are going to do in two months what the rest of humanity could do in 25 years?
   3. No production: All your stuff can be bought.
   4. Air Combat: This is a big part of the mod and you will have access to both fighter craft (such as longswords and sabers) or capital ships like the UNSC light frigate.  Covenant craft will be the same, ranging from banshee's to CSS battle cruisers.  The idea is the same, use fighters to fight fighters and dropships, and capital ships to fight other capital ships.
      + As of the time of this writing, air combat is basically a joke as you are able to down every Covenant craft that you encounter as long as you don't do something stupid like send a longsword at a battle cruiser.  If you want enemies to land, you will have to wait it out, or shoot them down and this is where basically all of your missions will come from (except the scripted final mission, and the base assaults).
      + You can use Saber fighters or Longswords, but just use a capital ship for most things as those are very heavily armed and can roll any craft.  They can also deploy squads using drop pods into the crash sites too.


Ground Combat:
   This is the main draw to this mod.  While only a few Covenant units have been implemented, the majority of the UNSC and Covenant arsenals have been replicated and combat between your dudes and the aliens feels faithful to how it was in the books.  Combat is challenging, fun, and will not be easy. 
   
   1. The main thing to remember is that you will be flying in with smaller sized squads than in other games (6-12) and you will be facing a lot of enemies.  Use smoke and cover liberally as you will always be heavily outnumbered.
   2. While the alien weapons do a lot less damage than plasma tier weapons in the original X-Com game, your dudes armor is not that great and can (and will) die in one or two hits.  This is not Halo 1 on easy mode here...
   3. All weapons will have very low TU costs to fire, meaning that it is conceivable that you will get 5-6 aimed/burst/full auto shots off a turn.  You can complain about ammo shortages, but believe me...you will need to fire that much.

Enemies: There are three units that have been implemented at the time of this writing; Grunts, Jackals, and Elites.
   1. Grunts: Weak units as you would expect.  These guys can be one shot by most weapons and can be ignored in favor of more dangerous threats for the most part.  The only exception is grunt heavies (green guys) who are carrying a Fuel Rod Gun.  Shoot them first.
   2. Jackals: A bit tougher than grunts, but still weak.  Their shield gauntlet makes them a bit tanky, but they can still be one shot by most weapons.  The only ones that are really dangerous are the snipers since guys with Covenant Carbines and good firing accuracy is not a good combo for your dudes.
   3. Elites: These guys make the mod hard.  Their normal stats are alright, but the fact that each one has personal shields makes them very, very tanky.  Even the weakest Elite, the minors (blue guys), have a shield strength of 200, which means they can soak up a lot of shots before you are able to start hitting their actual health.  You will need to focus fire with several troops in order to bring these guys down...and there are always a lot of these guys.

Your Dudes:  You have four options, Marines, Army Troopers, ODSTs, or Spartans.
   1. Marines: Probably the weakest option.  They are comparable to original game rookies and they boast slightly higher reaction times and TUs than the Army guys since they are supposed to be more mobile.  However, the rest of their stats suck in comparison to the Army guys and in my opinion, there's nothing these guys can do that the Army troopers can't do better.  Use them if you like role playing.
   2. Army troopers: Comparable to the original game rookies, these guys are less mobile than Marines, but they have higher firing accuracy and strength stats.  They cost the same as Marines (about $40000) and their stats tend to be better. 
      - NOTE: Army and Marines get basically the same armor options: Standard, light, Balaclava, and Cap.  Standard is the tankiest, but doesn't give additional bonuses.  Light gives up a lot of armor for better TU and Reactions (enough that Army guys can reach standard amor Marine TUs).  Balaclava is a middle ground between standard and light giving some TU bonus for losing a bit less armor.  The cap gives up a little armor for extra bravery.  I tried out every armor and found that they really didn't impact my gameplay that much, but giving Snipers and scouts light armor isn't a bad idea.  Alternatively, giving everyone standard means they might survive an extra hit if they are lucky.
   3. ODSTs: These guys are spec ops of the UNSC and it shows.  They have veteran stats (firing accuracy in the 80s and 90s, 50s and 60s strength, etc.)  They only have one armor choice, but it is better than the regular troops anyway.  They cost a lot, but considering how easy it is to make money off of captured Covenant equipment, and how low the squad sizes are in the mod, $200000 isn't a bad deal.
   4. Spartans: These guys are the super soldiers and all of their stats are very high.  Their armor is also the tankiest, although Spartans will still die in a few hits as they do not have shields yet in the game (unless you add it yourself as it is pretty easy to do so).  Spartans are the best however you will have to sell multiple Kidneys to hire more than the initial six you start off with at 5 million a pop.
      - NOTE: You will not care about score for the campaign, but ODST and Spartan deaths will result in a large negative to your score.  If you care about that, be careful of losing these guys.

   A player that focuses on optimization will mostly likely use a mix of the four, ODSTs and Spartans for heavy weapons carriers and snipers, and Army and Marines for scouts and cannon fodder.   I like to stay faithful to lore and logic and use all squads of one type (a.k.a only Marines, only Army, only ODSTs, etc.).  Either way, it can still be pretty fun.


Weapons: Most weapons will have very low TU costs to fire with some exceptions.  Now the difference between Covenant weapons and UNSC is that human weapons tend to deal less damage, but are more accurate, while alien weapons deal more damage, but less accurate.  I have very little experience with using Covenant weapons as I like the human weapons more.  However, you will capture enough of their equipment that outfitting your squad with Covenant weapons is very doable.
   1. Covenant Weapons: I have not used these enough to comment on them.  Play it yourself if you want to know more.
   2. Human Weapons:
      - The pistols: You have three options with the magnum doing the highest damage, and the other two being a bit less, but more damage.  I prefer the SCOM pistol myself, but ultimately these will end up being backup weapons.  I use these when my main gun runs dry, and you do not have time to reload.
      - The Assault rifles: You have two rifles, the M5AB, or the M37.  They are basically the exact same gun, except with the TUs for the firing action swapped out a bit, and the M5AB has more ammo.  You can fire Double shots (two well aimed, decent range shots), burst (I think three decently aimed, decent range shots), and full auto.  This is a good mid range option and I use it less as an assault rifle and more like a discount LMG.  Good on my support troopers.
      - The BR55: This is a great marksman ship rifle for your sniper troops.  It can fire in highly accurate bursts or auto fire and hits hard enough that a single guy can kill an Elite Minor one on one with the weapon.  This is the weapon of choice for most of my sniper teams.
      - The DMR: An alternative to the BR55, it only fires single shots, but they are of much higher damage.  This is a good weapon for one-shotting any Grunts or Jackals on the map.  Terrible for engaging Elites though.
      - The Sniper Rifle: Actually crappy.  Unlike the other weapons, it has high TU costs so you will only get 2 aimed, or 3 snap shot firings a turn if you stand still.  Each shot does 100 damage which seems like a lot, but when you factor Elite shield strength its actually dog shit.  The gun is overkill on grunts and jackals so you would never shoot them with it.  Meanwhile, Elites have at least 200 shield strength at their weakest, which means you will need at least two shots to break the shield of a weaker one.  Three shots in total to kill it, and that is just a minor.  The other Elites have stronger shields, so you are much better off taking another weapon. 
         + I actually moded the sniper to have 200 damage in an attempt to balance it out to make it more like the first person shooter games where one shot would break a minor's shield.  At 200 damage it becomes more worth it to take.
      - The M7: This smg is okay.  It doesn't do a lot of damage, but it fires a lot of shots and has good ammo capacity.  The aim and range is not great, but in close quarters it can do well.
      - The M7S: The lore uses this as the spec ops SMG for ODSTs, you will call it a sub machine gun, I call it the shield stripper.  I love this thing as it fires a lot of shots, and is pretty accurate.  I put this on all of my scouts, and on a trooper with decent aim they can get a lot of hits on someone with it.  They may not kill an Elite, but they will greatly weaken the shield enough that a marksman with a DMR or BR55 can finish it.
      - Frag Grenades: Mostly useless unless you need some indirect fire like if a guy is hiding on the other side of a hill.
      - Smoke Grenades: Its a staple in every other Openxcom mod, and it will be here too.  Use liberally, especially when exiting a Pelican.
      - Med-kits: A must take as it will keep your guys in the fight longer.  Take especially if you have Spartans as bleeding out with one is painful.

Squad tactics and composition:
   The typical scout-sniper approach works well here as in most games so build around that.  Hide snipers behind smoke or behind cover and use scouts to take on enemies in piecemeal packets.  The biggest thing is to remember to concentrate fire on an Elite to finish him before moving on to the next target.  You will need multiple guys to kill one Elite!  Identify, major threats like anyone holding a Fuel Rod cannon and kill them first.
       - Do not hide guys inside smoke, make sure they are behind smoke and have a bit of distance between the cloud and them as plenty of Elites will be packing energy swords.  Energy swords will one shot anyone, including Spartans, and smoke obscures them and will allow Elites to get close and sneak up on your guys.  You have been warned!
      - Make sure all of your guys are out of the field of your fire.  You will be shooting a lot of shots in this mod and they seem to have some mysterious power to magnetically attract friendly fire.  I have had guys on the other side of the map accidentally hit another fireteam because of the amount of shots they spit out each turn.  Friendly fire is a VERY real possibility here.

   As for squad composition...its whatever works for you.  Personally, I tend to group my troops into three man fire teams since most crafts deploy in some multiple of 3.  The crafts are that follows:
      - Falcon Gunship: 6 men
      - Falcon: 9 men
      - Pelican: 12 men
      - Heavy Frigate: 8 men
      - Light Frigate 12 men

   I tend to use two different fireteams for my missions, the heavy weapons team and the maneuver team.
      - The heavy weapons team consists of three troops with the following loadouts:
         + One guy with a Sniper rifle for heavy hitting and long range damage, and a pistol for backup.
         + One guy with a DMR, a pistol, and a med-kit.  He may also be the team lead or the commander.
         + One guy with a BR55, a Fuel Rod cannon (our only substitute for a rocket launcher since the human version hasn't been implemented yet), and a pistol.

      - The maneuver team:
         + One marksman with a BR55, and a pistol.
         + One support trooper with a M5AB, med-kit and a pistol.
         + One scout with a M7S 'shield stripper', and a pistol.

      I also tend to give every trooper one smoke and one frag grenade.

      For the crafts I tend to do this:
         - Falcon Gunship: 2 maneuver sections (although I will replace one marksman BR55 with a sniper rifle).
         - Falcon VTOL: 2 maneuver sections and one heavy weapons team.
         - Pelican, Light Frigate: 3 maneuver sections, 1 heavy weapons team.
         - Heavy Frigate: 2 maneuver sections, 1 two man heavy weapons team with the Fuel Rod gunner removed.

   This is just some advice on what I found to be effective, and there are many players more experienced than me that can do this better.  You may also have your own playstyle so do whatever works.  I should also note, that all troops come with combat knives built into their characters so melee is possible and viable in close quarters.

The last bit I will mention is about craft deployment.  Falcons and Pelicans are like regular craft in which you will deploy from a VTOL and will be exposed to enemy fire.  Falcons are a bit better as you have two exit points that are raised and can provide good firing platforms for snipers.  Pelicans are more like traditional Skyrangers where you will exit out the back of the craft and are VERY vulnerable to an unluckily placed fuel rod gunner.  The frigates on the other hand, will deploy your troops in drop pods which is pretty cool.  They can shoot out of the drop pod and easily clear an LZ before pushing out with them.  The only danger is that the pods can be dropped right in front of downed enemy craft or squads of enemies.  This can result in things going quite poorly, but that's XCOM.
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: Lone Wolf on February 12, 2023, 01:33:33 am
I also figured I would post a Bugs and Balance section here for the developer:

- I noted that drop pods seem to have a larger spawn box than what appears on the screen.  With the exception of the square right outside the door, I cannot move anyone within one tile of the outside part of the drop pod...almost as if there is an invisible wall that extends one tile out from the pod.  This is not much of an issue, but in rare cases, a drop pod will spawn right at the edge of the map...about one-two tiles away from the edge.  Since we can't move anyone in that 'invisible wall' space of 1 tile, this will trap the passenger inside the pod until the end of the mission. 

- Another thing about drop pods is that I had a hard time trying to open the door.  I know it says strike and fire in the UFOPedia, and in an earlier build (the one before the current one I think), you used to be able to melee it open with a single knife action.  However, I have been unable to use the knife action as the game gives me a "there is no one there" pop-up text.  Thus, my guys get trapped in a pod until turn two.  Again, not much of an issue, but it does allow the enemy to get a free turn of shooting on them, and fuel rod gunners can wipe the squad as the explosions will still go through the pod.

- On the final mission, is there a squad cap?  I went in with a Light Frigate of 12 men, but only 8 spawned on the map.  If this is intentional, no problem.  If it isn't, then this is a bug.

- I have also found the base assaults and second stage missions for the capital ships to be very unbalanced as it is not uncommon to have 6-7 Elites spawn facing my deployment zones.  This tends to be a problem, as the moment one of my guys twitch the whole squad (in both deployment locations mind you as this happens in both areas) will get wiped out by the reaction fire.  The times that there are not an entire squad of Covenant ready to blast me on the mission startup, they tend to be right outside the room on all four sides, and I have had squads of aliens rush in turn 2 and slaughter everyone.  The only times that my squad even had a chance was when I got lucky and the map spawned both deployment zones near a corner of the map.  Even so, most of the squad is usually killed as a lot of Elites tend to rush them very quickly.  The only way I was able to clear these is by pushing into one of those rooms with the single file gravity door, and camp on the second floor as aliens will go up one by one and be mowed down by my reaction fire.  I think the issue here is that the base map is too small for the amount of enemies that spawn.  I good fix would be to make the map area a few rooms larger to spread out the enemy spawn zones. 
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: efrenespartano on December 17, 2023, 06:20:53 am
Greetings, fellow Bloodgulch dwellers!

Some months ago, a new update of the Halo mod was published
but i kinda forgot the forums, so I'm just announcing it :P
!

A new dev is working alongside us to improve and expand the mod, this time more weapons from Halo: Reach are in! New things are coming. Big, big things.
[/font]

Changelog:

Code: [Select]
23-Oct-2023 v0.3
Changes made:
* Updated to OXCE v7.9.8
* Added UNSC weapons, by Kretus & efrenespartano
- SPARTAN/ODST: M6/V Spartan Laser, M247H Machine Gun, MA5K Carbine
- Marine Corps: M45 Tactical Shotgun, M41 SPNKr Rocket Launcher
- Army: M90 CAWS Shotgun, M319 Grenade Launcher, H-165 Target Locator
* UNSC weapons now have a faster hitAnimation, instead of not having any
* Balanced enemy number of enemies in Ship Assaults, added doors to UNSC spawn points
* Reduced cost of SPARTAN-IIIs, from 5,000,000 to 1,000,000, slightly buffed HPs
Quote from: Lone Wolf on February 12, 2023, 01:12:18 am
Since there's not a lot of discussion about this mod I figured that I would post a little bit to help newbies learn more about the mod since this is an enjoyable play.  It also feels pretty close to the lore in gameplay, and as a long time Halo fan I found this mod to be pretty fun and I think it would be great for it to get more attention and support.


This is an extremely well done review, thanks for taking the time to write it an play our stuff! Most of your review feedback was solved and your good points remain, as well.
Title: Re: [TC][OXCE][SMALL MOD] Reach: The Fall, a Halo mod
Post by: efrenespartano on August 25, 2024, 05:01:12 am
Greetings, fellow Helljumpers!

As usual, I forget to update the forums  :P
Anyway, we got to v1.0 a couple of months ago and now we have just released a patch (get it here) (https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/reach-the-fall-a-halo-mod), solving some pesky issues with the Spire mission (kindly solved my wethan2, our newest dev)

Among the (not-so) new stuff on the project, we did a major mod reorganization. Greatly expanded SPARTAN MJOLNIR armors, a Warthog armor, new Covenant heavy and stealth units, a deep rebalance and Hobbes' Terrain Pack (among a lot of stuff)!

The full changelog for v1.0 is below:



Code: [Select]
01-February-2024: v1.0
Changes made:
* Updated to OXCE v7.11
* Added Terrain Pack terrains, originally made by Hobbes & collaborators
* Added MJOLNIR Mark V[B] Armor with shielding, exclusively for SPARTAN-IIIs; sprites by efrenespartano, Hans Woofington and Kretus
* Added UNSC Surface Base, by b1ackwolf & efrenespartano
* Added new Covenant units, active camo script by Filip-H:
- Sangheili: Stealth, SpecOps, Shipmaster, Fleetmaster
* Added Covenant Weapons, by Kretus
- Type-51 Needle Rifle
* Added M12 Warthog as 2x2 armor, with built-in M41 Chaingun
* Replaced vanilla Alien Base with Covenant Spire map after a successful infiltration
* Decreased TU cost of M7 SMG to increase the rate of fire
* Reduced cost of Target Locator from 5 million to 1 million
* Nerfed Needler damage (was 35, now 30), increased TU costs
* Rebalanced Grunts, Elites and Jackals stats (reduced reactions, health in regular units, buffed stats on Ultras and Zealots)
* Increased hitAnimation speed on Plasma Rifle and Plasma Repeater
* Added custom ranks for all UNSC units
* Solved issues with several Covenant maps
* New cursor sprites, Halo Wars style
* Battle Rifle now behaves like a shotgun and consumes 3 bullets per shot, updated sound effects
* Recolored Base Sprites to green, added Medikits and Armor Abilities to starting base
* Disabled hiring of Scientists and Engineers
* Increased height of the alienDeployments to avoid crashes with Ship Gravlift mapBlock, reported by Generic_Scout
* Increased damage done to shields on SRS-99 Sniper Rifle from 100% to 250%
* Reduced M7 SMG effective range, reduced TU cost, increased close-quarters accuracy; suggested by Generic_Scout
* Reduced accuracy dropoff of M247H Machine Gun from 20 to 2, increased damage by 70, by Kretus; suggested by Generic_Scout
* Increased Energy Sword damage to shields from 200% to 300%
* Added new explosion animations to UNSC and Covenant Artillery & Grenades
* Fixed droppods and gravlift tile issues, reported by Rclipse
* Minor bugfixing

The changelog for this week update is below, basically a balance pass and some fatal bugfixing

Code: [Select]
18-August-2024: v1.1
Changes made:
* Updated to OXCE v7.13
* Solved fatal crash with gravlift on Spire missions, by wethan2
* Small buff to Grunts bravery, suggested by himalayan rock salt overdose & jamesbrand97
- Minor: 20 to 30
- Major: 30 to 40
- Heavy: 40 to 45
- Ultra: 60 to 70
* Added melee attack on Needler, suggested by himalayan rock salt overdose & jamesbrand97
* Plasma Pistol does 50% of stun damage
* Small buff to M7S SMG effective range, suggestd by jamesbrand97
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/932014855131643924/1186645533285163070/image.png?ex=66cbcb85&is=66ca7a05&hm=b956bcb7e4d5e13bf52953486cce22015a60cf56fd8315c63c37e6dae373d809&)

(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/932014855131643924/1201147894225457242/Screenshot_2024-01-28-20-44-03-51_453a4061c7f6678c6d19034e5dac709d.jpg?ex=66cbd1e6&is=66ca8066&hm=fd2afc64484def667af2c3c68ebc8d94749d2544ceebaa4d16c3d5780b8e368c&)

(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/932014855131643924/1169894592552898660/image.png?ex=66cb7ffe&is=66ca2e7e&hm=6d4493cf737187618844bcd70df011041f4a596ab2eefc127eb2f863827cec7f&)

Also, if you want to diversify your experience, you can enable one of the many "Skull" submods! (https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/halo-submods) Similar of those found on the main games, you can have a firefight with full Elite Zealots and Grunt Ultras! Or more explosions! Or even a small Marathon-themed submod too!

(https://image.modcdn.io/mods/bd28/3494167/800px-halo3-skull-fog-floodgate.1.jpg)