OpenXcom Forum

Modding => Work In Progress => Topic started by: robin on February 19, 2014, 12:54:28 am

Title: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on February 19, 2014, 12:54:28 am
Actually when developing X-COM, Gollop wanted to add Men in Black, but Microprose said no.
The idea is: if X-COM was the expression of the "let's fight the alien invaders" side of humanity leaders, Men In Black were the expression of the "let's get in bed with the aliens invaders" side.

So I'd like to get them in, that is: add an antagonist human organization to the game.

I'm trying to keep the mechanics as simple as I can, hoping it will help to make the mod doable (I can't code. Nope).
Also they must be "simple" because aliens are and should remain the main enemy.

Basically: you have a chance of encountering them in CRASH-SITE ground missions, because while you (X-COM) get to the crashed UFO to clear the aliens out, Men in Black at the same time go there to help the aliens disappear safely. They wouldn't substitute part of the alien crew, but they'll be all extra enemies (so the mission will become more difficult if it has them in).
This chance would not be fixed:
- the more time passes between the UFO downing and the beginning of the battlescape mission, the higher the chance they have gotten there before you.
- chance doubled (or noticeably higher) if the UFO wreck is inside the territory of an Enemy Nation.

Can this be done by simply editing the ruleset (and making new graphics)? ..can this be done at all?

I already did the sprite for the MIB trooper:

(https://abload.de/img/capture_18022014_00127sl8.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_18022014_00127sl8.png)

Thanks for the attention.


DOWNLOAD
I've posted these mods in the "Completed Mods" forum:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2180.0
Download them there.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Svanh on February 19, 2014, 02:28:12 am
AS far as I'm aware, you wouldn't be able to do this perfectly with ruleset editting. You could add a MIB race (Or one for each alien race) which has its own UFOs, add in standard aliens with the agents and name the race after the applicable alien race. You could also change the definitions of each alien race and add in some MIB agents here and there, but they would be guaranteed to be on most missions.

I'd suggest looking at my cult mod and trying to emulate the race definitions with your own agents. Adding them into the mission definitions in a different proportion to the standard race they are based off would be a good way to fake having a chance to meet MIB agents on a standard mission.

This explanation might be a bit confusing. Please tell me if you need me to elaborate.  :)

Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Mr. Quiet on February 19, 2014, 02:47:13 am
Heck yeah! This is what I've been crying about since I started posting here. My idea was to have Men in black suits show up in SUVs and Hummers packing machine guns, trying to take the UFO spoils for themselves.. It's you vs. Aliens vs. Men in Black.

I really like those sprites you put up. Black government agents in Haz-mats.

I love this idea because these guys are so mysterious, you don't know anything about them... until you research it 8)

Anyways, I remember posting lots of stuff about what I wanted MIB to be like. But I forgot everything now and I think however works with you on adding this, you'll both do the right thing.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: robin on February 22, 2014, 08:52:47 pm
So I completed the graphics for the Men In Black standard soldier (sprites, inventory, corpse floor, corpse bigobs)

I wanted to test that everything worked, throwing together a quick ruleset that hijacked the standard jumpsuit into using the new Men In Black graphics...
..but it doesn't work (game crashes on loading battelscape savegame, or, in the equipping phase a the verystart of a battlescape mission, I try to access a soldier who uses the new graphics).

The resource files I'm using are:
- MIB_0.PCK (made importing the paletted bitmap into PCKview, and saving as PCK file. I'm sure it works : if I rename it XCOM_0.PCK and overwrite the original XCOM_0.PCK,  I get the new sprite inagme);
- MIB_0.TAB (this is made along the PCK above, when i save the bitmap with PCKview);
- inventory_MIB0.gif (BattleBigObs palette);
- bigobs_MIB0_CORPSE.gif (bigobs palette);
- floorob_MIB0_CORPSE.gif (battlescape palette);

This is the latest version of this "quick" ruleset. I did a lot of small change but the game crashes.. I don't know what I'm missing:
Code: [Select]
items:
  - type: STR_MIB0_CORPSE
    name: STR_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 64
    floorSprite: 77
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
armors:
  - type: STR_NONE_UC
    spriteSheet: MIB_0.PCK
    spriteInv: MIB0
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB0_CORPSE
extraSprites:
  - type: MIB_0.PCK
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_0/
  - type: MIB0
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory_MIB0.gif
  - type: BIGOBS.PCK
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB0_CORPSE.gif
  - type: FLOOROB.PCK
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB0_CORPSE.gif


Halp!
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Shoes on February 22, 2014, 09:06:16 pm
When does the game crash, on load or when a mission (that probably has MiB members) starts?
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: robin on February 22, 2014, 09:20:31 pm
When does the game crash, on load or when a mission (that probably has MiB members) starts?
Loading into geoscape, no problem untill: 1) starting battlescape = crash before before equip screen is shown; 2) bases --> equip craft -> skyranger --> equipment --> inventory (to equip soldiers) = crash before the equipping screen is shown
Loading into battlescape = crash

So it could be the inventory image, but it really should be ok..
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Shoes on February 22, 2014, 09:24:13 pm
Oddly enough, I know more about the source code than the ruleset ;p so I can't review your work :3
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Svanh on February 23, 2014, 04:49:54 am
Code: [Select]
items:
  - type: STR_MIB0_CORPSE
    name: STR_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 64
    floorSprite: 77
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
armors:
  - type: STR_NONE_UC
    spriteSheet: MIB_0.PCK
    spriteInv: MIB0
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB0_CORPSE
extraSprites:
  - type: MIB_0.PCK
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_0/
  - type: MIB0
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory_MIB0.gif
  - type: BIGOBS.PCK
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB0_CORPSE.gif
  - type: FLOOROB.PCK
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB0_CORPSE.gif

The number before the image path is important. Where you have "0: <file path>" the image is replacing image 0 in the standard set or type. This isn't a problem for the first two images as they are in their own types. In addition, BigSprite and FloorSprite should reference the number of the desired image in BIGOBS.pck and FLOOROBS.pck respectively. You are referencing images 64 (BIGOBS) and 77 (FLOOROBS) for your corpse item when you should use 0 and 0 according to your ExtraSprite definition. You should change your ExtraSprites definition first though.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: robin on February 23, 2014, 12:43:51 pm
The number before the image path is important. Where you have "0: <file path>" the image is replacing image 0 in the standard set or type. This isn't a problem for the first two images as they are in their own types. In addition, BigSprite and FloorSprite should reference the number of the desired image in BIGOBS.pck and FLOOROBS.pck respectively. You are referencing images 64 (BIGOBS) and 77 (FLOOROBS) for your corpse item when you should use 0 and 0 according to your ExtraSprite definition. You should change your ExtraSprites definition first though.

I don't get exactly what you want me to do but:

Code: [Select]
items:
  - type: STR_MIB0_CORPSE
    name: STR_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 64
    floorSprite: 77
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
armors:
  - type: STR_NONE_UC
    spriteSheet: MIB_0
    spriteInv: MIB0
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB0_CORPSE
extraSprites:
  - type: MIB_0
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_0/
  - type: MIB0
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory/MIB0.gif
  - type: BIGOBS.PCK
    files:
      64: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB0_CORPSE.gif
  - type: FLOOROB.PCK
    files:
      77: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB0_CORPSE.gif

(still crashes)


Code: [Select]
items:
  - type: STR_MIB0_CORPSE
    name: STR_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 0
    floorSprite: 0
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
armors:
  - type: STR_NONE_UC
    spriteSheet: MIB_0
    spriteInv: MIB0
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB0_CORPSE
extraSprites:
  - type: MIB_0
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_0/
  - type: MIB0
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory/MIB0.gif
  - type: BIGOBS.PCK
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB0_CORPSE.gif
  - type: FLOOROB.PCK
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB0_CORPSE.gif

(still crashes)
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Warboy1982 on February 23, 2014, 03:13:15 pm
the problem is the pck format. the extrasprites in the ruleset is there to replace it. use the original gif/png/bmp/whatever files, name them sequentially, or arrange them in a single image, and subdivide it. don't bother with pck/tab.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Svanh on February 24, 2014, 05:23:28 am
Code: [Select]
items:
  - type: STR_MIB0_CORPSE
    name: STR_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 64
    floorSprite: 77
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
armors:
  - type: STR_NONE_UC
    spriteSheet: MIB_0
    spriteInv: MIB0
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB0_CORPSE
extraSprites:
  - type: MIB_0
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_0/
  - type: MIB0
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory/MIB0.gif
  - type: BIGOBS.PCK
    files:
      64: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB0_CORPSE.gif
  - type: FLOOROB.PCK
    files:
      77: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB0_CORPSE.gif

This should work for the images so long as you don't use any mods that use 64 in FLOOROB.pck and 77 in BIGOBS.pck. Your problem might be the lack of damage modifiers and armour ratings on the custom armour. It probably doesn't help that you've made MIB armour replace the standard jumpsuit so all standard X-Com soldiers look like MIBs. Have you done that for testing purposes?
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Dioxine on February 24, 2014, 02:56:24 pm
What Warboy said, don't use PCK format for extrasprites and it should work fine.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: robin on March 05, 2014, 03:26:24 pm
Thanks a lot guys. I did as you said and indeed now it works!

Graphics is all done (I'm still thinking of adding a MIB "terror" unit, but not for now).
Here's a screenshot for the MIB leader sprite, sporting a lab coat ontop of the regular suit:
(https://abload.de/img/capture_05032014_0043vxbq.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_05032014_0043vxbq.png)
(https://abload.de/thumb/capture_05032014_005b3x9q.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_05032014_005b3x9q.png)
(https://abload.de/img/inventory_mib20xdfr.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=inventory_mib20xdfr.gif)

But I'm still a modding 'rookie' so I have some issues with the ruleset.

First I'd like that MIB missions to be more prevalent at the beginning of the game, to become lesser prevalent in the middle-to-late game.
Let's say:
- Beginning - 33% of the mission are MIB missions (other 66% would be sort-of-equally divided between floaters and sectoids - vanilla is 50-50%);
- Middle - 25%
- Late - 20%
Basically: as the game progresses the MIB importance as an antagonist will diminish, focusing more and more on the aliens, with their increasing openly aggressive behavior.
I'm not sure how to do this.. is that even possibile?
I also don't understand how the "timer" entry fro missions works, I tried the same values used for equivalent alien missions, but.. well I can't seem to get any MIB missions in my little testing.

Also I have a problem with ufopaedia-research.
Right now this is what I get in Ufopaedia\Alien Research:
(https://abload.de/img/capture_05032014_0061luga.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_05032014_0061luga.png)

and I shouldn't have those entries because they should appear only after the interrogation-research.

Can anyone give me some hints?

ruleset as it is right now:

Code: [Select]
regions:
  - type: STR_NORTH_AMERICA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 10
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 10
  - type: STR_ARCTIC
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 10
  - type: STR_ANTARCTICA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 10
  - type: STR_SOUTH_AMERICA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 8
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 8
  - type: STR_EUROPE
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 10
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 10
  - type: STR_NORTH_AFRICA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 6
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 6
  - type: STR_SOUTHERN_AFRICA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 4
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 4
  - type: STR_CENTRAL_ASIA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 2
  - type: STR_SOUTH_EAST_ASIA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 10
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 10
  - type: STR_SIBERIA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 4
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 4
  - type: STR_AUSTRALASIA
    missionWeights:
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: 2
      STR_MIB_TERROR: 2
items:
  - type: STR_MIB0_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 300
    floorSprite: 300
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
  - type: STR_MIB1_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 301
    floorSprite: 301
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
  - type: STR_MIB2_CORPSE
    weight: 24
    bigSprite: 302
    floorSprite: 302
    invWidth: 2
    invHeight: 3
    armor: 30
    recover: false
ufos:
  - type: STR_MIB_PROBE
    size: STR_VERY_SMALL
    sprite: 0
    damageMax: 50
    speedMax: 2200
    accel: 12
    power: 0
    range: 0
    score: 50
    reload: 56
    breakOffTime: 100
    battlescapeTerrainData:
      name: UFO1A
      mapDataSets:
        - BLANKS
        - UFO1
      mapBlocks:
        - name: UFO1A
          width: 10
          length: 10
  - type: STR_MIB_SCOUT
    size: STR_SMALL
    sprite: 1
    damageMax: 200
    speedMax: 2400
    accel: 9
    power: 20
    range: 15
    score: 75
    reload: 28
    breakOffTime: 125
    battlescapeTerrainData:
      name: UFO_110
      mapDataSets:
        - BLANKS
        - U_EXT02
        - U_WALL02
        - U_BITS
      mapBlocks:
        - name: UFO_110
          width: 10
          length: 10
  - type: STR_MIB_VESSEL
    size: STR_SMALL
    sprite: 2
    damageMax: 250
    speedMax: 2700
    accel: 9
    power: 20
    range: 34
    score: 125
    reload: 24
    breakOffTime: 150
    battlescapeTerrainData:
      name: UFO_120
      mapDataSets:
        - BLANKS
        - U_EXT02
        - U_WALL02
        - U_BITS
      mapBlocks:
        - name: UFO_120
          width: 20
          length: 20
armors:
  - type: MIB_ARMOR0
    spriteSheet: MIB_0.PCK
    spriteInv: inventory_MIB0
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB0_CORPSE
    frontArmor: 12
    sideArmor: 8
    rearArmor: 5
    underArmor: 2
    damageModifier:
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.2
      - 1.6
      - 1.0
    loftempsSet: [ 3 ]
  - type: MIB_ARMOR1
    spriteSheet: MIB_1.PCK
    spriteInv: inventory_MIB1
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB1_CORPSE
    frontArmor: 50
    sideArmor: 40
    rearArmor: 30
    underArmor: 30
    damageModifier:
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.8
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.9
      - 1.0
      - 1.1
      - 0.0
    loftempsSet: [ 3 ]
  - type: MIB_ARMOR2
    spriteSheet: MIB_2.PCK
    spriteInv: inventory_MIB2
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_MIB2_CORPSE
    frontArmor: 50
    sideArmor: 40
    rearArmor: 30
    underArmor: 30
    damageModifier:
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.8
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.9
      - 1.0
      - 1.1
      - 0.0
    loftempsSet: [ 3 ]
units:
  - type: STR_MIB_AGENT
    race: STR_MIB
    stats:
      tu: 58
      stamina: 70
      health: 35
      bravery: 60
      reactions: 46
      firing: 55
      throwing: 62
      strength: 45
      psiStrength: 35
      psiSkill: 0
      melee: 76
    armor: MIB_ARMOR0
    standHeight: 21
    kneelHeight: 14
    value: 20
    intelligence: 4
    aggression: 1
  - type: STR_MIB_SOLDIER
    race: STR_MIB
    stats:
      tu: 62
      stamina: 74
      health: 37
      bravery: 60
      reactions: 48
      firing: 57
      throwing: 64
      strength: 47
      psiStrength: 35
      psiSkill: 0
      melee: 76
    armor: MIB_ARMOR1
    standHeight: 21
    kneelHeight: 14
    value: 20
    intelligence: 4
    aggression: 1
  - type: STR_MIB_LEADER
    race: STR_MIB
    stats:
      tu: 66
      stamina: 80
      health: 39
      bravery: 60
      reactions: 52
      firing: 61
      throwing: 68
      strength: 49
      psiStrength: 40
      psiSkill: 0
      melee: 76
    armor: MIB_ARMOR2
    standHeight: 21
    kneelHeight: 14
    value: 30
    intelligence: 5
    aggression: 0
alienRaces:
  - id: STR_MIB
    members:
    - STR_MIB_SOLDIER
    - STR_MIB_LEADER
    - STR_MIB_LEADER
    - STR_MIB_SOLDIER
    - STR_MIB_SOLDIER
    - STR_MIB_AGENT
    - STR_MIB_AGENT
    - STR_MIB_AGENT
alienDeployments:
  - type: STR_MIB_PROBE
    data:
      - alienRank: 5
        lowQty: 3
        highQty: 6
        dQty: 3
        percentageOutsideUfo: 100
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PISTOL
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
    width: 40
    length: 40
    height: 4
  - type: STR_MIB_SCOUT
    data:
      - alienRank: 5
        lowQty: 2
        highQty: 4
        dQty: 2
        percentageOutsideUfo: 60
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PISTOL
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 4
        lowQty: 2
        highQty: 3
        dQty: 2
        percentageOutsideUfo: 60
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_RIFLE
            - STR_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_RIFLE
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
    width: 40
    length: 40
    height: 4
  - type: STR_MIB_VESSEL
    data:
      - alienRank: 5
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 3
        dQty: 5
        percentageOutsideUfo: 65
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PISTOL
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 4
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 1
        dQty: 1
        percentageOutsideUfo: 25
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_RIFLE
            - STR_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_RIFLE
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 2
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 2
        dQty: 1
        percentageOutsideUfo: 35
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_CANNON
            - STR_HC_HE_AMMO
            - STR_HC_HE_AMMO
            - STR_HC_HE_AMMO
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_LASER
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_SMALL_LAUNCHER
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
    width: 50
    length: 50
    height: 4
  - type: STR_MIB_TERROR
    data:
      - alienRank: 5
        lowQty: 4
        highQty: 6
        dQty: 1
        percentageOutsideUfo: 70
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PISTOL
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 4
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 2
        dQty: 0
        percentageOutsideUfo: 20
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_RIFLE
            - STR_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_RIFLE
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 3
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 1
        dQty: 1
        percentageOutsideUfo: 20
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_AUTO_CANNON
            - STR_AC_AP_AMMO
            - STR_AC_AP_AMMO
            - STR_AC_AP_AMMO
          -
            - STR_AUTO_CANNON
            - STR_AC_HE_AMMO
            - STR_AC_HE_AMMO
            - STR_AC_HE_AMMO
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 2
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 2
        dQty: 0
        percentageOutsideUfo: 20
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_CANNON
            - STR_HC_HE_AMMO
            - STR_HC_HE_AMMO
            - STR_HC_HE_AMMO
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_LASER
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_SMALL_LAUNCHER
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
      - alienRank: 1
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 1
        dQty: 0
        percentageOutsideUfo: 0
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PISTOL
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 6
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 3
        dQty: 2
        percentageOutsideUfo: 50
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PISTOL
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
      - alienRank: 7
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 3
        dQty: 2
        percentageOutsideUfo: 50
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PISTOL
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
    width: 50
    length: 50
    height: 4
    civilians: 16
    # roadTypeOdds: [EWRoad, NWRoad] (Crossroad is remainder)
    roadTypeOdds: [50, 25]
    terrain: URBAN
research:
  - name: STR_MIB_AGENT
    cost: 180
    points: 0
    needItem: true
    unlocks:
      - STR_MIB_ACTIVITY
  - name: STR_MIB_SOLDIER
    cost: 180
    points: 0
    needItem: true
    unlocks:
      - STR_MIB_ACTIVITY
  - name: STR_MIB_LEADER
    cost: 192
    points: 0
    needItem: true
    unlocks:
      - STR_MIB_PLOT
  - name: STR_MIB_ACTIVITY
    cost: 0
    points: 50
    needItem: true
    dependencies:
      - STR_MIB_AGENT
      - STR_MIB_SOLDIER     
  - name: STR_MIB_PLOT
    cost: 0
    points: 50
    needItem: true
    dependencies:
      - STR_MIB_LEADER
ufopaedia:
  - id: STR_MIB_ACTIVITY
    type_id: 8
    section: STR_ALIEN_RESEARCH_UC
    text: STR_MIB_ACTIVITY_UFOPAEDIA
  - id: STR_MIB_PLOT
    type_id: 8
    section: STR_ALIEN_RESEARCH_UC
    text: STR_MIB_PLOT_UFOPAEDIA
alienMissions:
  - type: STR_MIB_COVERUP
    points: 0
    raceWeights:
      0:
          STR_MIB: 100
      1:
          STR_MIB: 100
      3:
          STR_MIB: 100
      5:
          STR_MIB: 100
      7:
          STR_MIB: 100
    waves:
      - ufo: STR_MIB_PROBE
        count: 1
        trajectory: P0
        timer: 9000
      - ufo: STR_MIB_SCOUT
        count: 1
        trajectory: P2
        timer: 7800
      - ufo: STR_MIB_VESSEL
        count: 2
        trajectory: P4
        timer: 9000
  - type: STR_MIB_TERROR
    points: 0
    raceWeights:
      0:
          STR_MIB: 100
      1:
          STR_MIB: 100
      3:
          STR_MIB: 100
      5:
          STR_MIB: 100
      7:
          STR_MIB: 100
    waves:
      - ufo: STR_MIB_SCOUT
        count: 1
        trajectory: P1
        timer: 30000
      - ufo: STR_MIB_VESSEL
        count: 1
        trajectory: P1
        timer: 19200
      - ufo: STR_MIB_VESSEL
        count: 1
        trajectory: P0
        timer: 24000
      - ufo: STR_MIB_VESSEL
        count: 1
        trajectory: P7
        timer: 18000       
extraSprites:
  - type: MIB_0.PCK
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_0/
  - type: inventory_MIB0
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory_MIB0.gif
  - type: MIB_1.PCK
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_1/
  - type: inventory_MIB1
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory_MIB1.gif
  - type: MIB_2.PCK
    width: 32
    height: 40
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/MIB_2/
  - type: inventory_MIB2
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/men_in_black/inventory_MIB2.gif
  - type: BIGOBS.PCK
    files:
      300: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB0_CORPSE.gif
      301: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB1_CORPSE.gif
      302: Resources/men_in_black/bigobs_MIB2_CORPSE.gif
  - type: FLOOROB.PCK
    files:
      300: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB0_CORPSE.gif
      301: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB1_CORPSE.gif
      302: Resources/men_in_black/floorob_MIB2_CORPSE.gif
extraStrings:
  - type: en-GB
    strings:
      STR_MIB: Men In Black
      STR_MIB_AGENT: MIB Agent
      STR_MIB_SOLDIER: MIB Soldier
      STR_MIB_LEADER: MIB Leader
      STR_MIB0_CORPSE: MIB Corpse
      STR_MIB1_CORPSE: MIB Corpse
      STR_MIB2_CORPSE: MIB Corpse
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: Men in Black Coverup
      STR_MIB_TERROR: Men In Black Roundup
      STR_MIB_ACTIVITY: Men in Black Activity
      STR_MIB_PLOT: Men In Black Plot
      STR_MIB_ACTIVITY_UFOPAEDIA: Men in Black are an organization whose goal is to conceal all kind information about the aliens and their activities. They also seem to have a neutral, if not firendly, relationship with them. We need to capture a leader to know more.
      STR_MIB_PLOT_UFOPAEDIA: Men in Black and X-COM are two faces of the same coin. Both were founded by the world elites, but while X-COM was ment to fight the invaders, MIB were ment to appease them. Looks like the world leader wanted to keep their options open.
  - type: en-US
    strings:
      STR_MIB: Men In Black
      STR_MIB_AGENT: MIB Agent
      STR_MIB_SOLDIER: MIB Soldier
      STR_MIB_LEADER: MIB Leader
      STR_MIB0_CORPSE: MIB Corpse
      STR_MIB1_CORPSE: MIB Corpse
      STR_MIB2_CORPSE: MIB Corpse
      STR_MIB_COVERUP: Men in Black Coverup
      STR_MIB_TERROR: Men In Black Roundup
      STR_MIB_ACTIVITY: Men in Black Activity
      STR_MIB_PLOT: Men In Black Plot
      STR_MIB_ACTIVITY_UFOPAEDIA: Men in Black are an organization whose goal is to conceal all kind information about the aliens and their activities. They also seem to have a neutral, if not firendly, relationship with them. We need to capture a leader to know more.
      STR_MIB_PLOT_UFOPAEDIA: Men in Black and X-COM are two faces of the same coin. Both were founded by the world elites, but while X-COM was ment to fight the invaders, MIB were ment to appease them. Looks like the world leader wanted to keep their options open.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: robin on March 09, 2014, 09:57:02 pm
Well it's done...

..sort of: it needs testing. if someone wants to help me test it.

MIB mission are somewhat rare.. but I don't know exactly how to control their frequency.
They should happen more likely in the US and Europe (and China near the coast).

Some screenshots

Sniper Rifle:
(https://abload.de/img/capture_09032014_001d1up4.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_09032014_001d1up4.png)

Machine Pistol:
(https://abload.de/img/capture_09032014_052xbuid.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_09032014_052xbuid.png)

Man in Black Agent (there's also Soldier and Leader, which use different sprites):
(https://abload.de/img/capture_09032014_011yvu0b.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_09032014_011yvu0b.png)

Once I'm sure there are no issues, I'll post it into Complete Mods forum.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black sorta): possible?
Post by: Gifty on March 09, 2014, 10:07:42 pm
This looks fantastic. Loving the sprites.
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black): test version done
Post by: robin on March 19, 2014, 03:42:11 pm
Since I've accumulated several tweaks, I'm uploading a new test version, 1.1.

Download at the first post!

MIB missions still seems to be ultra-rare.. but they shouldn't in paper! I'm no sure how to fix this...
Title: Re: Antagonist organization (Men in Black): test version done
Post by: robin on March 20, 2014, 04:06:53 pm
I'm also drawing a new alien, inspired by the game cover art (I thought the games lacked a bug alien... well there are the Chryssalids,  but they are more like a crab imho).

Right now the tiers are:

-Early game
--- Floaters
--- Sectoids
-Middle game
--- Mutons
--- Snakemen
-Late game
--- Ethereals

I'd have them join the Ethereals as a late game alien race. It's a float-type (legs-less) alien. High stats but fragile (no psy power).
Name'd be "Waspite" (tentative). I'm still thinking about their terrorist unit, but it'll be something very simple to draw.

Right now the color is green.. I think it looks good but it's the same color as Mutons.. so I'm thinking about chaining it to blue (or red?).. mmmmh.

(https://abload.de/img/capture_19032014_013ldkm6.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_19032014_013ldkm6.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_19032014_0056qjgj.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_19032014_0056qjgj.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_19032014_003yfksf.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_19032014_003yfksf.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Jo5hua on March 20, 2014, 04:27:35 pm
I think the green looks great! Especially if it's Muton green. Also great to see the mysterious cover alien.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 20, 2014, 05:13:16 pm
it must be green to match the cover, nice work!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Fox105iwsp on March 20, 2014, 08:00:47 pm
Wow! The cover Alien ^_^ Looks great!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: robin on March 20, 2014, 09:38:07 pm
it must be green to match the cover, nice work!
Well it's not exactly like the cover alien.
The cover alien head is about twice the size and looks like a cross between a bug and a tuber.
Mine's is 100% bug. ;D
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 20, 2014, 10:07:41 pm
its the alien playable now?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: robin on March 20, 2014, 10:31:08 pm
The sprite is "ingame" (uses recolored floater arms though): I saved it as .pck and rewrote the floater .pck, so now I get them instead of floaters in my game.
But the ruleset doesn't exist; there's no floorob graphics, no bigobs graphics, no inventory image, no ufopedia (autopsy, live specimen) pictures.

It will take some time before it reach "version 1.0" status.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: yrizoud on March 21, 2014, 12:27:12 am
And sounds, it should be possible to find insect sounds and lower them an octave or two :)
About the name, you can look at the Wikipedia page of Wasp or Bee to find many interesting names from their classification of insects : Apocrita, Aculeata, Vespoid, Apoid, Apida, Apiform, and many others.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Solarius Scorch on March 21, 2014, 12:45:53 am
I like Waspite the best! It somehow fits the original (campy) names.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 21, 2014, 03:08:54 am
your alien is very very similar to the cover one!
i think it must be similar to floaters coz the are very very mechanical even the arms
in the picture seems laser weapons attached directly to the body and maybe stun rods.
i think if the head its so big maybe they must be very psi powered but as you say fragile an easy to kill then you have a reason to carry terror units, maybe you can use the flying saucer from tftd as terror unit.
don't forget the yellow green glow at the bottom.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 21, 2014, 03:55:48 am
sorry about the double post but i found your terror unit to equip
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Gifty on March 21, 2014, 08:05:15 am
This mod keeps looking better every time I look at it. Keep doing what you're doing.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Incognito on March 22, 2014, 07:05:28 am
I always thought the cover alien was more fly like than wasp like.

I'll throw out Sarcophage (flesh eater) as a suggestion taken from the latin name of the flesh fly.

Or maybe Beelzoid from Beelzebub, lord of the flies.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: robin on March 22, 2014, 03:26:29 pm
I always thought the cover alien was more fly like than wasp like.

I'll throw out Sarcophage (flesh eater) as a suggestion taken from the latin name of the flesh fly.

Or maybe Beelzoid from Beelzebub, lord of the flies.
The cover picture indeed looks similar to fly. But as I said, the alien head in my sprite is different and it looks more wasp-like.

I like Beelzoid, it "sounds" right; but I'm still leaning towards Waspite, I find it more distinctive and straightforward.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: ThatDude on March 22, 2014, 09:01:58 pm
How about those odd weapons they carry on the cover? I'd like to see those!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: robin on March 22, 2014, 10:19:18 pm
How about those odd weapons they carry on the cover? I'd like to see those!
Yeah it would be cool.
For version 1.0 I'm focusing on having the alien and the terror unit done. After that I'll see what I can do about the weapons.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 22, 2014, 10:20:38 pm
Cool
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: ThatDude on March 23, 2014, 05:59:20 pm
Just wondering, are the Men In Black supposed to show up naturally? I haven't gotten any missions with them, but I've definitely noticed more aliens.  ???
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.1 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: robin on March 23, 2014, 06:55:18 pm
They should. I don't know why they don't, and that's why I still haven't posted the mod in the "Completed Mods" section.

You can fight them in quick battles, if you want to get a taste of them (select the large scout ufo to have them in full force!).

(I've updated the .zip in the first post with this new ruleset too, there are no other changes).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: ThatDude on March 23, 2014, 07:15:57 pm
Yeah, I just now started a mission and found some dude in a slim, black, power suit. I guess I was just impatient  :P

EDIT: Would it be possible to let us use the suits they wear after killing one and bringing him back to base?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: robin on March 23, 2014, 07:41:50 pm
Yes. It would be just some ruleset additions and changes.

But I don't know about it, I want to avoid having purely aesthetic additions. That armor is weaker than the Personal Armor (and you will likely have Alien Alloys researched by the time), so gameplay-wise it's "superfluous"; if I'd introduce a new usable armor, it would fill (or at least try to) a role.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: ThatDude on March 23, 2014, 09:02:30 pm
Yes. It would be just some ruleset additions and changes.

But I don't know about it, I want to avoid having purely aesthetic additions. That armor is weaker than the Personal Armor (and you will likely have Alien Alloys researched by the time), so gameplay-wise it's "superfluous"; if I'd introduce a new usable armor, it would fill (or at least try to) a role.
I was referring to the soldier's/leader's armor, but you could make late game versions of them with black and green, badass looking flying suits. I was thinking about how in Enemy Within you can use EXALT's version of everything, maybe the Men-In-Black could have stuff equivalent to XCOM's but with small changes, and different appearances. (And maybe special abilities?  ;) )
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Dioxine on March 23, 2014, 11:29:39 pm
Just a funny side note, I've always imagined X-Com being the real men in black - removing the aliens and any evidence of their existence :)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 26, 2014, 09:43:06 pm
Please please please take a look of this before make your terror unit
https://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/59201/ (https://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/59201/)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: robin on March 27, 2014, 12:27:40 am
I really wanted something simple for my terror unit, so I could make it fairly quickly.. and I'm already drawing it. Sorry.
It actually is a 4-legged robot too! But yeah, different than that and way more simple.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also new alien WIP)
Post by: ThatDude on March 27, 2014, 01:17:57 am
What will this terror unit be able to do? Will it have powerful, alien alloy claws and loads of time units, can it zombify people? Oh, and a side note, the way you described it being a 4-legged terror unit makes me think of something like a Hunter from Half-Life 2.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also cover alien ALPHA)
Post by: robin on March 29, 2014, 03:31:45 am
(https://abload.de/img/capture_29032014_0022fj8t.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_29032014_0022fj8t.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_29032014_0015nbhh.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_29032014_0015nbhh.png)

Oh well, the terror unit right now doesn't attack. I wanted to make a suicide drone, but mixing melee and explosion damage doesn't seem to work.
(It'll still explode when killed, same as a cyberdisc; the death-explosion is definitively too strong but I can't tune it down).
I'll have to go with plan B about its main attack.

TO DO:
-giving the terror unit an attack
-bigobs
-ufopedia graphics
-change walking sound for the terror unit
-balance

download just under here.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also cover alien ALPHA)
Post by: ThatDude on March 29, 2014, 06:03:08 am
Will there be special research benefits or reasons to bring those guys back in one piece?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also cover alien ALPHA)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 31, 2014, 05:59:10 pm
I need help to translate the name, maybe if you link me to a wikipedia, of what insect are you using to name the alin race...
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also cover alien ALPHA)
Post by: Angelus_EV on March 31, 2014, 06:02:17 pm
Hoooo i see is a wasp, sorry
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2 (also cover alien ALPHA)
Post by: robin on April 03, 2014, 09:40:55 pm
Hoooo i see is a wasp, sorry
The name "Waspite" come from two things:
1. "Wasp", just as you thought.
2. The Antmen aliens from this movie (book) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Men_in_the_Moon_(1964_film)), which are called "Selenites".
So: "Selenite" minus "Selene" plus "Wasp" = "Waspite"

---
I added a new version of the mod, 0.8 (download  attached in the first post).
The terror unit is done and working.
It is currently called "Injectrod" but "Cybermite" is still pondered.
It has an average-powered melee attack and it is "slow" as a reaper while being waaaay more frail; but it is small and therefore (theoretically) more difficult to hit.
Aaaand it has a nasty ability, that makes it already dangerous BEFORE it's next to your agents, so be careful :P

To do (for 1.0):
+ bigobs
+ ufopedia
---- injectrod
---- injectrod autopsy

(https://abload.de/img/capture_03042014_012eyusi.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_03042014_012eyusi.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_03042014_013t0uig.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_03042014_013t0uig.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 03, 2014, 10:38:49 pm
I have a request, although I think it won't be taken lightly. Would it be possible to make the Waspites slightly more brownish or reddish in colour? The problem here is that they can be really hard to see on grass backgrounds and, in fact, this already happens with mutons on jungle scenarios, on what people like to call a case of "find the muton".

(https://www.ufopaedia.org/images/0/0f/Mutblending.png)
Protip: bottom right corner

So yeah aside from that, we don't really have any kind of yellow or brownish aliens other than the reapers. It would also fit the name "wasp" a bit more, since wasps are yellow and not green.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 03, 2014, 10:47:04 pm
It's too late for that I fear, since now I've already drawn the ufopedia art for the Waspite. Changing the color of the sprites is easy, the ufopedia art is harder (it's not hard to just change it, but I'm still limited to the palette so the result cold be ugly).

But even green colored it should be quite more visible that the muton, thanks to the big yellow eyes and the spiral metallic torso.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 03, 2014, 11:02:09 pm
So yeah aside from that, we don't really have any kind of yellow or brownish aliens other than the reapers. It would also fit the name "wasp" a bit more, since wasps are yellow and not green.

snakemen and ethereals don't count as yellow or brownish?

besides, it's the cover alien, it's green on the cover, it'd be weird to have it brown in game (and yes i know there's a red muton in the intro)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 03, 2014, 11:20:19 pm
Snakemen do, you're right, but ethereals are more on the red side.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: ThatDude on April 04, 2014, 12:54:08 am
Honestly, I'm amazed to see a quality mod built in such short time! I like how the sprites look like they're actually supposed to be in the game and not from a mod. I love the autopsy sprite, very well done!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 04, 2014, 04:44:57 am
OMFG! Man this cover alien its amazing!!! the ufopedia and autopsy sprites are the best!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

on the other hand.... i changes your ruleset to have a veeery psi aggressive alien
soldiers have 10 on psi strength..... commanders 60
make me have fear now!

and changed the cybermite whit the sectopod, i sorry its too small.

PD. the game crashes when i try to see the ufopedia waspite even whit the untoched ruleset.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 04, 2014, 09:58:38 am
Honestly, I'm amazed to see a quality mod built in such short time! I like how the sprites look like they're actually supposed to be in the game and not from a mod. I love the autopsy sprite, very well done!
Thanks. I found out about OpenXcom modding capabilities only recently; people had already done amazing stuff and I have to catch up. Half-jokes aside,  I'm dedicating almost all my free time to it now but as soon as I reach 1.0 I'll calm down. Probably.

The game crashes when i try to see the ufopedia waspite even whit the untoched ruleset.
It does. I'll look into it tomorrow.

Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 04, 2014, 11:54:35 am
To be fair I'm quite impressed with your work so far. You're quite the draftsman.

I wanted to ask you how will MIB equipment will level up. I was thinking they should tag along your own research tech from one point (as in, getting laser weapons when you do, kinda like they somehow stole your tech), but just start receiving standard alien plasma weaponry from one point in the game. As for the extra weapons, like the sniper and the machine pistol, would it be possible to make them optional? I'm not really a fan of new weapon mods to be fair.

Additionally, should MIB adopt certain behaviours aliens don't? I was thinking it would be nice to have them use medikits to heal and maybe even revive each other, although that will certain require some AI trickery.

Finally, and considering you're perhaps one of the best sprite artists we have around, I'd like to ask you something on behalf of core development. As we have some fan contributions to be included as part of the main OXC package (notably Arne's alien weapon icons) I was wondering if you could ever find the time to create alien paperdolls for the battlescape inventory menus. It's one of those lacking bits of artwork that always annoyed me in x-com, and I honestly feel we should gap it up the same way we did with the alien weapon icons. The problem is, we need a good artist.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 04, 2014, 02:26:36 pm
hey maybe your alien can be named Mantide
(https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSP0SaTUrfYw794TUm7f-q2tYvF4QU3Kc4HRdD4Scks_VNQQzQ)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 04, 2014, 10:08:26 pm
To be fair I'm quite impressed with your work so far. You're quite the draftsman.

I wanted to ask you how will MIB equipment will level up. I was thinking they should tag along your own research tech from one point (as in, getting laser weapons when you do, kinda like they somehow stole your tech), but just start receiving standard alien plasma weaponry from one point in the game. As for the extra weapons, like the sniper and the machine pistol, would it be possible to make them optional? I'm not really a fan of new weapon mods to be fair.

Additionally, should MIB adopt certain behaviours aliens don't? I was thinking it would be nice to have them use medikits to heal and maybe even revive each other, although that will certain require some AI trickery.

Finally, and considering you're perhaps one of the best sprite artists we have around, I'd like to ask you something on behalf of core development. As we have some fan contributions to be included as part of the main OXC package (notably Arne's alien weapon icons) I was wondering if you could ever find the time to create alien paperdolls for the battlescape inventory menus. It's one of those lacking bits of artwork that always annoyed me in x-com, and I honestly feel we should gap it up the same way we did with the alien weapon icons. The problem is, we need a good artist.
MIB right now have standard weapons and laser weapons, but no plasma weapons. This because I want them to "feel" different than the aliens, and there isn't much more I can do by editing a ruleset (they're also humans, so I can't give them strange abilities, like zombification). The idea was to give them their own weapon tech, rail weapons*, but I sort of dropped it since I started working on the cover aliens.

The stuff you ask for (medkit use) is cool but beyond my capabilities (I can't code), and frankly also beyond the amount of time end effort I want to dedicate to this mod.
I always thought of the MIB mod as a simple addition to the game: and extra "a little different" enemy faction, nothing more. My intention of making it was also to learn about OpenXcom modding, before, eventually, starting to do the (big) mods I really want to make: Apocalypse Redux or perhaps something about Cthulhu set around year 1900. The mod though already outgrew its original concept, since I added the cover aliens.

It's possible to make the new weapons optional. Initially it was to be like that, but working on the mod split in a modular form could be painful, so for now, until I'm sure everything works well (for example I can't get my UFOpaedia entries to work), I'll keep it together.

* this was the bigobs for the new railgun
(https://abload.de/img/bigobs_railgun2p2ud5.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=bigobs_railgun2p2ud5.gif)
but the lazyness defeated me on this one :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 05, 2014, 02:02:15 am
Man i wondering,  maybe the crash problem is what the ufopedia image must be complete even the text box at 640x400 maybe SupSuper can help you

and thinking to future maybe you can do a underwater version of this alien
like this


Edit: sorry image died!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 05, 2014, 02:34:09 pm
Managed to get the MIB ufopaedia image entry working.

(https://abload.de/img/capture_05042014_003ikumm.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_05042014_003ikumm.png)

Now hopefully the same trick will work for the aliens too.

edit:
aaaaaaand done,

(https://abload.de/img/capture_05042014_004giung.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_05042014_004giung.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: volutar on April 05, 2014, 05:35:36 pm
Excuse me, I'll comment image of ufopaedia entry for MiB.
There's no dithering in xcom art stylistic. It's comics like with hard cel shades.
(https://www.ufopaedia.org/images/thumb/2/21/BACK13SCR.png/800px-BACK13SCR.png)

And even if there are some gradients, they should fit single colour group.
(https://ufopedia.csignal.org/ufopedia/084.png)

Not that Floyed-Steinberg: (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Michelangelo%27s_David_-_Floyd-Steinberg.png) with chaotic dither pattern, but ordered: (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Michelangelo%27s_David_-_Bayer.png)

Waspite autopsy, looks more than authentic, and deserves words of cheers.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 05, 2014, 05:41:31 pm
Excuse me, I'll comment image of ufopaedia entry for MiB.
There's no dithering in xcom art stylistic. It's comics like with hard cel shades.
You're correct; it was the first ufopedia pic I did and I still didn't think about the dithering.
I'm going to fix its style.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 05, 2014, 06:34:55 pm
robin, in order to be my hero, you need to make a tftd variation of the waspite

this guy can be your inspiration

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Mantis_shrimp_from_front.jpg)

hehehe you are the best artist ever.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 05, 2014, 07:52:05 pm
oh god kill it with phosphor!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 06, 2014, 12:10:24 am
hehe
I don't think I'll ever work on TFTD,  there's too much stuff I'd like to do before TFTD.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 06, 2014, 12:20:46 am
hehe
I don't think I'll ever work on TFTD,  there's too much stuff I'd like to do before TFTD.

If you ever get to work on X-Com Apocalypse, count me in.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 06, 2014, 12:59:10 am
I'll soon as I finish this, I think I'll start on that; the Cthulhu idea is very cool but needs coding (did a concept drawing for it quite some time ago too).
(Though it won't be 100% Apocalypse, I've amassed many designs that I want to use for it, instead of just using vanilla designs).
(And Apocalypse would need coding too for the factions and the diplomacy, but it can still be "fine enough" without that part).
But an Apocalypse mod would be a huge, huge project; even if I start who knows if I'll ever finish.
Still thinking.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 06, 2014, 01:05:57 am
But an Apocalypse mod would be a huge, huge project; even if I start who knows if I'll ever finish.
Still thinking.

I'm pretty sure you would find many, many collaborators. An upgrade is sorely needed since the game was released.

On the MiB mod, do you think it'd be viable to make the MiB appear only after the first country defects? Just a loose thought.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 06, 2014, 01:09:47 am
I'm pretty sure that would require coding.

Also in the ufopaedia entry I state that MiB and X-Com where created as two faces of the same coin, so there's actually no need for a defection to justify their existance.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 06, 2014, 01:17:24 am
I'm pretty sure that would require coding.

Also in the ufopaedia entry I state that MiB and X-Com where created as two faces of the same coin, so there's actually no need for a defection to justify their existance.

Yes, absolutely.

Hmm, on a different note: how about giving them shotguns too? That's what I did; I'm using my own Alien Armoury Expanded mod, which uses 4 tiers of weapons instead of 3, so I had to give them something anyway. I just think a shotgun is an agent thing to use.
(Ruleset attached; note that there are no resources, it's just to show how it looks like.)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 06, 2014, 01:27:30 am
Thought about adding a shotgun too, other than the machine pistol and the sniper rifle, but (if I understood correctly what warboy said), the AI isn't "conscious" of the range stuff, so shotguns wouldn't be used effectively against the player.
Also I just don't think I'm going to touch the weapons anymore. I already have to separate the new weapons from the MiB to make them optional, so I won't add more non-vanilla weapons to this mod (if I do, it'll be that railgun).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Align on April 06, 2014, 07:36:28 pm
Tiny nitpick: "ment" should be "meant".
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 06, 2014, 09:01:52 pm
Tiny nitpick: "ment" should be "meant".
Fixed, thanks.

Should have worked on this yesterday and today but ended up playing Chaos Reborn all the time.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Mr. Quiet on April 07, 2014, 03:37:16 am
Damn, I leave for a few days and come back to see this mod has grown!! Thanks Robin!! I hope to see some MIB vs. Aliens vs. X-COM melee. It's a free-for-all I hope.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 07, 2014, 08:33:30 pm
you solved the ufopedia problem in both mods? i must re download the same files or u have a new ones?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 08, 2014, 08:50:57 pm
you solved the ufopedia problem in both mods? i must re download the same files or u have a new ones?
Yes, ufopaedia entries are fixed, but I was waiting to have at least the new MiB picture before uploading a new version.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Mr. Quiet on April 10, 2014, 02:12:59 am
This mod is awesome!! You've done some very high quality work here! I'll forget that the MIB are friendly to aliens, I think it will be a good thing, reminds me of X-Files  8) The insect aliens look evil! I haven't seen them in my game though..
I'll get back to you on suggestions after I play for awhile.

What else are you planning to add on the next update??

Edit: I just realized the Alien you made is based on the Alien on the cover box art. I've always wanted to know why they put that alien on the cover. Did Gollop ever say anything about it? I wanna know what he named it if he ever did. Anyone with twitter want to ask him?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 10, 2014, 05:37:29 am
I wanna know what he named it if he ever did.

i want to say "Gregory"? he looks like a Greg.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 10, 2014, 11:09:34 am
This mod is awesome!! You've done some very high quality work here! I'll forget that the MIB are friendly to aliens, I think it will be a good thing, reminds me of X-Files  8) The insect aliens look evil! I haven't seen them in my game though..
I'll get back to you on suggestions after I play for awhile.

What else are you planning to add on the next update??

Edit: I just realized the Alien you made is based on the Alien on the cover box art. I've always wanted to know why they put that alien on the cover. Did Gollop ever say anything about it? I wanna know what he named it if he ever did. Anyone with twitter want to ask him?
The cover alien appears later in the game, it is an endgame-tier alien race just like Ethereals; play a quick battle if you don't want to wait that long.

Right now I just want to finish this because I'm itching to do something different, so I'm not planning to add anything else. The do to list is:
- Finish MiB ufopaedia art.
- Do Cybermite ufopaedia art.
- Do Cybermite autopsy ufopaedia.
- Separate new weapons from MiB (this looks a little painful so I might get lazy and leave everything together. Sorry).
- Balance the new aliens stats.

Gollop now is doing a kickstarter for his new game (you funded it already, right? RIGHT? DO IT). As soon as it's over, I'll try asking him on twitter.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 10, 2014, 05:46:11 pm
The cover alien appears later in the game, it is an endgame-tier alien race just like Ethereals

Which means March. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 10, 2014, 09:46:35 pm
- Separate new weapons from MiB (this looks a little painful so I might get lazy and leave everything together. Sorry).

Oh man, no way. Just ask fro someone to help you with it.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Mr. Quiet on April 11, 2014, 12:33:48 am
What about adding more units for the MIB, please Robin! The MIB's way of creating new tech should be very different from ours, since the aliens will be sharing tech with the MIB, but also comes with a cost... Cyborg tech, DNA manipulation, or even letting the aliens put an alien parasite egg in them, with a Symbiosis relationship, spreads through the body, and will improve fighting ability by a lot, and tentacles or weird arms will appear out of there bodies when they take a hit. Reminds me of the movie, "the thing"...

I have a question, what do those little terror bugs do? Do they just bite you? They kept biting my operatives and nothing happened. They were wearing power armor. I guess my guys are immune if they have armor?

Thanks for you mod, it's awesome, just hope going after the MIB on almost every mission doesn't get boring. I wish you also gave them "hidden in public view" bases so we can go after them.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 11, 2014, 01:49:00 am
What about adding more units for the MIB, please Robin! The MIB's way of creating new tech should be very different from ours, since the aliens will be sharing tech with the MIB, but also comes with a cost... Cyborg tech, DNA manipulation, or even letting the aliens put an alien parasite egg in them, with a Symbiosis relationship, spreads through the body, and will improve fighting ability by a lot, and tentacles or weird arms will appear out of there bodies when they take a hit. Reminds me of the movie, "the thing"...

I have a question, what do those little terror bugs do? Do they just bite you? They kept biting my operatives and nothing happened. They were wearing power armor. I guess my guys are immune if they have armor?

Thanks for you mod, it's awesome, just hope going after the MIB on almost every mission doesn't get boring. I wish you also gave them "hidden in public view" bases so we can go after them.
Do they really appear THAT frequently? During all my testing they almost never showed up.
Thanks also a lot for the feedback on the terror bugs, I'll increase their bite damage. I started with a low one bacuse their "explode on death" ability seemd already very nasty.

About the rest..
Your ideas are clearly cool, but as I already said this is intended to be a relatively simple addition (also MiB are intended to be a "side dish" enemy).
I may give the the possibility to build bases, provided it is simple enough...


The UFOpaedia entry for the MiB is like this now:

(https://abload.de/img/capture_11042014_001ieuie.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_11042014_001ieuie.png)

I couldn't match 100% the original style afterall, but I hope it is good enough.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 11, 2014, 02:45:30 am
wow you art is so similar to the original game than can be used to make a total conversion mod, as a background image in a menu....

simply Great!

applause!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Mr. Quiet on April 11, 2014, 02:50:52 am
Me too, the new screen looks really nice!

I understand if you're wanting to move to other projects after this. So what's next? Let us know!
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 11, 2014, 03:35:31 am
One thing though. Remember  it's actually written XCom in game, and not X-COM. So you might want to correct that.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 11, 2014, 07:21:07 pm
One thing though. Remember  it's actually written XCom in game, and not X-COM. So you might want to correct that.
fixed.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Align on April 12, 2014, 12:49:53 pm
I can't help but think there's something odd about the hair and mouth of the new MiB image, compared to the old one.
And the second "ment" should also be "meant" :X
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.2; Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 12, 2014, 09:57:41 pm
I can't help but think there's something odd about the hair and mouth of the new MiB image, compared to the old one.
And the second "ment" should also be "meant" :X
The old one was a photo, this is a drawing and I'm not Caravaggio! ;_;

"ment" fixed.


EDIT:

Sort of a big update (version 1.8 ) today:
+ Made the new weapons OPTIONAL;
+ MiB Terror mission works for real now (civilians are in; untested in the campaign, quick battle works - see screenshot);
+ Added MiB Commander, has Psi Power (no new sprite though);
+ Now MiB can sort of build a sort of base (still untested in the campaign, but the quick battle works - see screenshot)... Right now the base is a big warehouse lol.
Ideally I'd have to make a very big custom building, but I already checked and making new maps seems a pain...
.. maybe it's possible to make it a two-stage mission, having a XBASE terrain as the second map? Warboy1982 what do you say?

Assaulting a MiB facility in the whatever pole.
(https://abload.de/img/capture_12042014_019sndkh.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_12042014_019sndkh.png)

MiB Soldier killing civilians
(https://abload.de/img/capture_12042014_005unel5.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_12042014_005unel5.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Mr. Quiet on April 12, 2014, 11:32:04 pm
I like it, because they are agents who went as far as to getting plastic surgery to show they're hardcore for the Shadow Governmental Organization and also I dunno what other benefit looking alike will have, besides never revealing there past identity. I like it :D
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 13, 2014, 12:51:14 am
uuuuh... leave it with me, i'll get back to you on that.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 13, 2014, 01:20:32 am
I'm testing the campaign and...

..maybe the groundtimer for ufos can't be set too high. The game sometime crashes, and I think the culprit is the groundtimer with the insane number; the other long groundtimer, which is 86400 (24 hours) gets "cut": the ufo appears on the ground the disappear (without flying away) and not even 1 hour passed.
I think I was actually totally wrong on that.

..But still the game now crashes during the campaign. And I haven't got a single special mission, so I guess the problem is related to these new special missions. I fear it's their groundtimer or their ufo trajectories.
So, I'm sorry but the current version is broken for the campaign.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Mr. Quiet on April 13, 2014, 03:28:50 am
I see. I haven't seen any either. Please fix it Robin plzzz ;) when you have time. Should I start a new game? or nothing else is affected?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Iapetus on April 13, 2014, 04:17:28 am
I was looking at the rulesets and it appears that the MiBs don't use the sniper rifle/machine pistol even if they are enabled? I could be totally wrong though. 

Keep up the great work I'm really liking this mod.  :)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 13, 2014, 10:55:47 am
I was looking at the rulesets and it appears that the MiBs don't use the sniper rifle/machine pistol even if they are enabled? I could be totally wrong though. 

Keep up the great work I'm really liking this mod.  :)
You're right, new weapons are only for you now, MiB don't use them anymore. This is because maintaining two deployment lists while you're still working on the ruleset, is just annoying.
When everything will be settled and done, then maybe (maybe!) I'll add the extra deployment list with the new weapons (at least I'd like the MiB agents to use sniper rifles in terror missions).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 14, 2014, 04:55:28 pm
Nope, can't get the new special missions (MiB terror and MiB base) to work as I intended: with the ufo spawning directly on the ground, and staying there for either 12 hours (MiB terror) or 20 years (MiB base).
Playing the campaign I don't get any “fixed” ufos, until the game suddenly closes up (my guess is that this happens as the firts of these special mission is generated, but I really don't know).

Both missions work in Quick Battle, so there shouldn't be any problem with the battlescape part itself. Although the MiB terror doesn't use the URBAN terrain as listed in the “alienDeployments:” section, instead it still usese the geoscape terrain (it is normal for this to happen though).

To make the ufo spawns grounded and stay down, I created new ufo trajectories with groundtimer set to 36000 (= 10 hours, for MiB terror) and 630720000 (= 20 years, for MiB base) and with a single waypoint [1, 0, 0].
These trajectories are, I think, the culprit for the crashing campaign. Are perhaps the standard initial [5, 4, 100] and  final [5, 0, 100] waypoints, mandatory for some reason (serving as entering and exiting “door” for the ufo)? The game doesn't seems to crash anymore with those added in, but no ufo stays on the ground more than 1 hour.. is there perhaps a hardcoded "move-to-next-waypoint" timer, that forcibly cuts the groundtimer when it's time for the ufo to move on?
Also: what are the “globe zones” in the waypoints, I mean: what stands for "0" or "5"?

Down there I've attached the ruleset as it is right now.

If anyone could give me some hints. Maybe what I'm trying to do is just impossible.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 14, 2014, 05:03:53 pm
Dioxine tried to make his own trajectory as well, and it also crashed the game when it tried to spawn this particular UFO. Some info on this matter would be priceless.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 14, 2014, 05:19:37 pm
By the way, is there a log that can give me some info about the crashes\errors?
Getting "Where's my memory, Lebowski?" is hilarious but not exactly helpful :P

Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 14, 2014, 07:09:22 pm
a trajectory must have AT LEAST 2 entries in it, the first is where the UFO appears, the second is where it moves to, these are BOTH used when the ufo is spawned.
when it reaches the waypoint, it sets the next entry as its destination, if the next waypoint says altitude 0, it will land immediately and start counting down, then lift off and move towards the waypoint. it repeats this until it reaches the last waypoiny, and then it disappears.

so you need at least 2 waypoints, the first one can be at 0 altitude and it will spawn on land and not fly anywhere until the 20 year timer is up.

edit: that last bit is true as of this commit (https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom/commit/0d03fc77625aa2fc51d192123a618208c4cd86db)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 14, 2014, 07:30:16 pm
Thanks.
So..

Code: [Select]
ufoTrajectories:
  - id: F1
    groundTimer: 630720000
    waypoints:
      - [1, 0 , 0]
      - [1, 0 , 0]

this will spawn an ufo right away on the ground for 20 years.. right?

And what does the "1" stands for (I mean this --> [1, 0, 0] )? Arctic?
I've found this: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=ZONAL.DAT
but it doesn't seem the same numeration frankly, since the numeration in trajectories has "5" as the highest value used.

Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 14, 2014, 09:09:58 pm
there are mission zones defined in the regions in the ruleset, the number there corresponds to which set of zones to use. in order to SEE the zones, enable debug in your config and hit ctrl+D in geoscape a few times. the  first set of boxes will be regional borders, the second set is country borders, and the third set is mission zone borders.

if you want to see the boxes for one region at a time, i can only suggest temporarily removing them from the ruleset, this is a debugging feature, not a common use feature, it's not going to be user friendly, it's ME friendly.

here's a small key for reference:

0: pink
1: orange
2: white
3: green
4: aqua
5: yellow
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: SupSuper on April 14, 2014, 10:02:20 pm
By the way, is there a log that can give me some info about the crashes\errors?
Getting "Where's my memory, Lebowski?" is hilarious but not exactly helpful :P
There is an "openxcom.log" in your User folder, but by definition errors are exceptional and not something we can just make "human-readable" easily, or our job would be much simpler. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 14, 2014, 11:10:45 pm
Not really on topic, but regarding the trajectories:
Can you have one that has no landing point? The UFO just appearing, flying some and then disappearing?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Dioxine on April 15, 2014, 04:08:27 am
Dioxine tried to make his own trajectory as well, and it also crashed the game when it tried to spawn this particular UFO. Some info on this matter would be priceless.

Oh yeah, no big deal making a trajectory, it just bombed out when UFO tried to land because I set landing timer to 0 (I didn't want that particular UFO to land, just kinda zip around the place, since it has powerful guns but a tiny crew). Setting it to 5 "solved" the problem. The error message said something about THOU SHALL NOT USE TIME UNITS SMALLER THAN 5 SECONDS :)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 15, 2014, 03:32:10 pm
P0 and P8 never touch the ground
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 18, 2014, 02:17:09 am
(https://abload.de/img/cybermite_preview2mf4k.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=cybermite_preview2mf4k.gif)

Ufopaedia graphics for cover alien mod is done. So it reaches finally 1.0 status. Ooopss, still the bigobs to do!

Should work since I didn't touch anything other than powering up the Injectrod (still not sold on the name, maybe cybermite is better) melee damage.

Download at first post.



Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: moriarty on April 18, 2014, 01:00:50 pm
very nice! I love your pixel art. do you paint it by hand or do you create 3D models and convert them?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: kkmic on April 18, 2014, 01:55:45 pm
Should work since I didn't touch anything other than powering up the Injectrod (still not sold on the name, maybe cybermite is better) melee damage.

Cybermite.

BTW, very nice artwork.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 ! Cover Alien -alpha 0.8
Post by: robin on April 18, 2014, 02:48:29 pm
very nice! I love your pixel art. do you paint it by hand or do you create 3D models and convert them?
Paint by hand. I have a 2D mind.

Cybermite.

BTW, very nice artwork.
Cybermite it is then!

And thanks both for the praise.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 18, 2014, 03:03:05 pm
You should find a cool name for this mod. Name it like it was an expansion. Too bad "Enem Within" is already taken :p. You should also tweet Julian Gollop to see what he thinks of this mod.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 18, 2014, 03:14:33 pm
what do you think of adding X-files mod too?
maybe  Mulder and Scully can help x-com
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 18, 2014, 03:19:14 pm
what do you think of adding X-files mod too?
maybe  Mulder and Scully can help x-com

The FBI? Pfffft. They don't even know X-com exists.
Although Mulder heard something somewhere once. He told Scully, but she was not impressed.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Angelus_EV on April 18, 2014, 03:34:21 pm
they don't need to know xcom just be there killing aliens!
they are part of the alien culture.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 18, 2014, 04:14:05 pm
Mulder heard something somewhere once. He told Scully, but she was not impressed.

[offtopic] you just described 95% of the episodes of The X-Files [/offtopic]
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: kkmic on April 18, 2014, 04:35:12 pm
Sadly, MOTW (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villain_of_the_week) episodes were the norm.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: robin on April 19, 2014, 11:28:09 pm
Should have made those bigobs today but:

(https://abload.de/img/units_multiworm_anim_nta8n.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=units_multiworm_anim_nta8n.gif)


Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 20, 2014, 03:10:25 am
Should have made those bigobs today but:

(https://abload.de/img/units_multiworm_anim_nta8n.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=units_multiworm_anim_nta8n.gif)

O_O

Do want.

More on topic: I modified your ruleset by adding listOrder, so the Waspites and Cybermites appear in correct places now. Ruleset attached.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 20, 2014, 10:50:17 am
oh god is that a multiworm?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: robin on April 20, 2014, 11:35:43 am
It is. I had hoped that a 2x2 unit would spawn 4 units upon death (one per tile occupied by the unit), but this "useful glitch" isn't there. :P

But I'll finish this mod first. Bigobs, bigobs!

More on topic: I modified your ruleset by adding listOrder, so the Waspites and Cybermites appear in correct places now. Ruleset attached.
Thanks. Will upload with new version once the bigobs are ready (not today*).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 20, 2014, 06:22:10 pm
Thanks. Will upload with new version once the bigobs are ready (not today).

Actually, I'll also make listOrders for research, ufopaedia and other stuff; for now it only covers items.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: robin on April 20, 2014, 11:39:23 pm
So I've uploaded new versions.

cover alien is done, bigobs are finally in and everything should work properly.

men in black..
I've removed the special missions because I just can't make them work:
- still couldn't get any ufo spawning fixed on ground.
- MiB base mission second (underground) stage crashes the game.
- the MiB terror mission without the possibility to lock it to the urban terrain*, didn't make sense to me (can't have civilians strolling around in desert/the poles/jungle).
I just want to go back at drawing sprites, multiworm & company are calling me; so I'll wait for someone else to solve these things and then I'll copypaste his ruleset. Sorry.

* this was a known fact though; I tried making a new geoscape urban terrain with space for ufo landing hoping for some kind of miracle, which didn't happen.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 20, 2014, 11:42:09 pm
- the MiB terror mission without the possibility to lock it to the urban terrain, didn't make sense to me (can't have civilians strolling around in desert/the poles/jungle).

I have no problem with this :)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: robin on April 20, 2014, 11:56:41 pm
I frankly really don't like it, seems more like a glitch than anything else.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 21, 2014, 12:03:44 am
I frankly really don't like it, seems more like a glitch than anything else.

It'll be better if we get terrain-specific civilians. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: robin on April 21, 2014, 12:14:29 am
It'll be better if we get terrain-specific civilians. :P
Lots of new sprites to draw for civilians that 90% of the time will end up murdered in unseen parts of the map, when I could be drawing multiworms and hyperworms.
I'll take the worms, thanks :P

(And having small crowds in the open desert would still look weird to me).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 21, 2014, 01:10:04 am
I'm sure we could still Dioxine's sprites. :) Anyway, this is a code-related issue anyway. If one needs to write the code, one can also make the code calculate number of civilians depending on the terrain (including 0).

But what am I talking about? I want Multiworms too! :D
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: robin on April 21, 2014, 12:24:30 pm
lol

The animation ingame is fast but there's nothing I can do about it. Also the worm will always stop in the "condensed" position, because otherwise the "tail" would end "inside" walls.

(https://abload.de/img/capture_21042014_003iakn5.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_21042014_003iakn5.png)

(Still a long way to go).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 21, 2014, 01:46:59 pm
Very nice! Is there a new race to use them?

As for the cover_alien mod, I'm attaching an update of all listOrders - including Ufopedia, Research and so on.

Also, this mod is crashing my game. :P Not sure why, but certainly not because of some listOrders I added (the non-modified original file from you does the same thing anyway). Either something's wrong with the Waspite mod, or it conflicts with some other mod I have...

EDIT: I tried disabling all other mods except cover_alien. Still crashed my game when I completed research of a live Waspite Soldier.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: robin on April 21, 2014, 03:20:28 pm
It's faaar too early for the multiworm to be usable.
In the picture it's actually an "hijacked" HWP tank, that uses the sectopod spritesheet (because the standard tank spritesheet doesn't have animation frames) with some of it frames changed with the multiworm ones; if I turn the thing any other direction than south-east, it'll revert to sectopod graphics.


Pretty strange the crash with the cover alien. I guess there's something wrong in the research section; I really hope to solve the issue very quickly, my mind is already enslaved by micronoids and they want me to work on the multiworm.


Edit:
Ok so I fixed it, a research entry was missing. I also fixed the order of the machine pistol clip, which was erroneously displayed under the pistol in the purchase menu.
Will update later or tomorrow, once I'v pasted in your listOrders (thanks btw).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 21, 2014, 06:41:11 pm
No problem!

Awaiting the update, since my game is stalled ;)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: robin on April 21, 2014, 07:45:53 pm
Are you using the men in black mod too?

If yes, are you getting any MiB crash sites?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9 | Cover Alien 1.1
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 21, 2014, 08:35:49 pm
No I don't; I'm waiting on a working version. ;)

I'm not above doing some testing, but I don't really have the time right now.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 22, 2014, 11:53:38 am
Working (hopefully) version is up. Haven't added the listOrders for the research section because it changed a bit.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 22, 2014, 12:54:37 pm
Working (hopefully) version is up. Haven't added the listOrders for the research section because it changed a bit.

Go ahead and add them to the same items. Just leave alone any new ones, I'll assign them numbers later (unless you want to do it yourself).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.8 | Cover Alien 0.9
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 22, 2014, 01:22:23 pm
men in black..
I've removed the special missions because I just can't make them work:

What do you mean by special missions?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 22, 2014, 02:10:05 pm
Go ahead and add them to the same items. Just leave alone any new ones, I'll assign them numbers later (unless you want to do it yourself).
But what's the point of listOrders for research? I mean, for items and ufopaedia it's obviously to make them appear in the desired place in the buy-sell menu / ufopaedia menu, but for research.. yeah there's the list when you select a new project but I frankly never noticed there was some kind of order in there lol.

However I'll add theml in the next version (I have to understand how listOrder works first, though), and I'll add Italian text too.

What do you mean by special missions?
I tried to have MiB do a terror-like mission, with a ufo (using the graphics of a house, so there wouldn't be any actual ufo on the battlescape) spawned grounded (green icon) for 10 hours, and forcing a URBAN terrain (with civilians too) for the battlescape.

I also tried to have MiB build bases, again with a ufo (using the graphics of a large warehouse) spawned grounded for 20 years, with a 2nd stage following the first battlescape battle, using the X-COM base terrain.

I couldn't get them to work for more than one reason, so I scrapped them (for now).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 22, 2014, 06:02:52 pm
I frankly never noticed there was some kind of order in there lol.

Lol, me neither really, before I got interested in this. :P I'm sure some people out there treat this very seriously though, so why not appease them.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Hythlodaeus on April 22, 2014, 07:03:52 pm
But what's the point of listOrders for research? I mean, for items and ufopaedia it's obviously to make them appear in the desired place in the buy-sell menu / ufopaedia menu, but for research.. yeah there's the list when you select a new project but I frankly never noticed there was some kind of order in there lol.

However I'll add theml in the next version (I have to understand how listOrder works first, though), and I'll add Italian text too.
I tried to have MiB do a terror-like mission, with a ufo (using the graphics of a house, so there wouldn't be any actual ufo on the battlescape) spawned grounded (green icon) for 10 hours, and forcing a URBAN terrain (with civilians too) for the battlescape.

I also tried to have MiB build bases, again with a ufo (using the graphics of a large warehouse) spawned grounded for 20 years, with a 2nd stage following the first battlescape battle, using the X-COM base terrain.

I couldn't get them to work for more than one reason, so I scrapped them (for now).

Perhaps you should've kept it simple. Why not a MIB base that's just a wharehouse/large complex?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 22, 2014, 07:58:28 pm
Perhaps you should've kept it simple. Why not a MIB base that's just a wharehouse/large complex?
I've already written about this in the topic.
I couldn't get ufo spawning fixed on the ground for the proper amount of time: it doesn't make sense to have "flying warehouses" roaming around the globe for some minutes then disappearing.

So the whole idea is frozen until someone else more competent than me saves the day (for example Dioxine, I'm sure he'll manage to do something, and then I'll pillage his ruleset like there's no tomorrow!).
 8)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 23, 2014, 05:00:25 pm
(https://abload.de/img/multiworm_party_hardfkoy7.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=multiworm_party_hardfkoy7.gif)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: moriarty on April 23, 2014, 05:20:36 pm
very nice... but where did the pimples/craters/holes/suckers/whatever-they-really-are go? :)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 23, 2014, 05:57:10 pm
Don't worry they'll be back.
At this stage I'm interested in "getting right" the overall shape during the movement (it's a bit subtle but if you look I already improved the South-east animation compared the gif I posted before).
When I'm satisfied, I can safely add all the details.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 25, 2014, 07:49:37 pm
The ufo palette isn't friendly when trying to reproduce the original look, I'd need more a brown-ish green to have a better (smoother) red-to-green transition.
The red in the palette is also very bright (it is used to draw the box-select cursor afterall), so I'm actually using an orange here.

I'm thinking of going with an original coloration. Uhm....
(https://abload.de/img/multiworm_screen_testgoj5u.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=multiworm_screen_testgoj5u.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 26, 2014, 01:34:36 am
X-Com: UFO Defense has a completely different philosophy when it comes to colours; it's basically more cartoonish.

I really like the brownish one. All of them look good though.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 26, 2014, 01:59:00 am
The "yellow brown" near the guy, or the "orange brown" (same colorset as Reaper) near the interface?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 26, 2014, 03:23:40 am
The "yellow brown" near the guy, or the "orange brown" (same colorset as Reaper) near the interface?

Having pondered it, I prefer the one near the guy, but all colour schemes look fine and professional.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 1.9a | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: civilian on April 26, 2014, 11:25:06 am
The ufo palette isn't friendly when trying to reproduce the original look, I'd need more a brown-ish green to have a better (smoother) red-to-green transition.
The red in the palette is also very bright (it is used to draw the box-select cursor afterall), so I'm actually using an orange here.

I'm thinking of going with an original coloration. Uhm....
(https://abload.de/img/multiworm_screen_testgoj5u.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=multiworm_screen_testgoj5u.png)

Awesome!  :o And yes, the yellow/browwn one closest to the agent looks best imo.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 27, 2014, 06:57:00 pm
Sort of big-ish update (2.1) for MiB MOD.

Added and new sprite for the leader\commander. They look like JC Denton (Deus Ex 1) now. Silly but fun.
Also added a bigger ufo (abductor) to the MiB fleet and the Italian translation.

Here's the full cast, I don't think I'm going to change/add it anymore:
(https://abload.de/img/mibfullcastmjkt6.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=mibfullcastmjkt6.gif)


edit:
v 2.2 up, fixed death screams.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 27, 2014, 09:38:52 pm
Can you please explain what the deal is with the additional weapons (MACHINE PISTOL, SNIPER RIFLE)?

Are they just for X-Com to use, or will MiB use them too? I suppose they won't, since I can't see them in the alienDeployments section.

The main reason I'm asking is that I'd like to add a version that is compatible with the Alien Armoury Extended mod, which uses 4 loadouts instead of 3 (so basically I need to add one weapon per "alien"), so I want to make sure I'll use proper weapons.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 27, 2014, 10:02:03 pm
Right now they're only for X-COM. This is not set in stone though; I'm actually thinking, for a still-not-dated next version, to re-merging everything and having MiB use them.
I know some people would dislike that but its not like I'm adding a "plasma chain nuker" or a "laser everything 9000": it's two simple, weak, "tier1" weapons and I really dislike having 2 rulesets around for something that minor.

(I was actually waiting before doing that, to be able to implement the MiB terror/base mission).
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 27, 2014, 10:18:09 pm
Thanks!

I'm attaching a modified ruleset for Alien Armoury Expanded, in case someone wants to use both at the same time.

PS. It's completely untested. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 27, 2014, 10:24:46 pm
Be careful because I include modified ItemLevels in my mib MOD, I think you need to remove that.. right?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on April 27, 2014, 10:33:44 pm
Be careful because I include modified ItemLevels in my mib MOD, I think you need to remove that.. right?

Crap, you're right...

Edited the ruleset and posted it in the same post.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 29, 2014, 12:30:15 pm
So guys.. help.

I've managed (it seems) to have ufo spawning already on ground for a indefinite amount of time (tested and it works with "P-" trajectories, I still have doubt about brand new trajectories).
The trajectories I'm testing now are all like this (20 years on land ufo):
    groundTimer: 630720000 
    waypoints:
      - [x, 1 , 100]
      - [x, 0 , 100]
(where x = 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5)

Also it could be that setting the timer too long could cause this error:

(https://abload.de/img/capture_29042014_001hjjr9.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_29042014_001hjjr9.png)

Not sure about this, it happened only once and I haven't been able to reproduce it again.


But for 10-hours terror mission there shouldn't be a problem. So, since I can't force a terrain, I need an ufo that looks like a "bunch of huts" (this way I can have civilians on the map, since there'll be this little group of houses, no matter what kind of terrain the geoscape assign to the mission; and maybe adding some black SUVs fro the MiB).

The problem is that it seems I can't into mapview. Can't even manage to load the extra maps form the "completed mods" section (I was going to rip everything of  course).
Is there a for-dummies guide around? Is the version on luke website obsolete?
I need a mapview guru that I can harass to hold my hand while I fail countless times.
Thanks.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Warboy1982 on April 29, 2014, 02:54:01 pm
you need to play around with the paths to get it working, here's my configs... edit the paths.pth and mapedit.dat to match your folder structure and make sure to rename all of luke's pck/mcd/tab files as ALLCAPS
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 29, 2014, 09:40:31 pm
you need to play around with the paths to get it working, here's my configs... edit the paths.pth and mapedit.dat to match your folder structure and make sure to rename all of luke's pck/mcd/tab files as ALLCAPS
I'm not using lukes though but HOBBES.
I feel like I'm missing something very basic.
When I run mapView for the first time it asks me for the game paths, all the maps, routes, terrains, are in there, the old an the new: it automatically the generates all the data for the old maps but nothing at all for the new, is it normal that it manages to "sense" only the old files while completely miss the new ones?
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: civilian on April 30, 2014, 12:20:34 pm
Yes, mapview is not very user-friendly, you have to import the maps over the path menu, one by one, adding the required PCK tilesets for each map IN THE RIGHT ORDER. That and I can not seem to get it to recognize the new tilesets.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on April 30, 2014, 02:37:12 pm
Yeah.

I managed to import all the stuff (area 51 maps and tilesets is what I'm using). I've put together some sets from that map-set to do the MiB base; it's a pity that copy-paste doesn't copy the nodes/spawnpoints, so right now I'm re-doing all of them.
I know it's quite a lazy job what I'm doing but I'm still not even sure that the base mission will work ingame.

[image removed, outdated]

In my next mod I want to replace the ufo-alien base graphics. I hope won't be a nightmare to do...
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on May 02, 2014, 12:29:04 am
So I've mad a map. It doesn't work,.
When I click on "Quick Battle" the game closes up immediately.

I don't understand what I'm missing/doing wrong. Not the slightest clue.
(It might seems strange that a map is used as an ufo, but it can be done, I tested it with the common warehouse and it works).

Attached all the relevant files down here, if anyone could give me a hint...

Thanks.

It works. I'm an idiot. Sorry fro the false alarm.

(https://abload.de/img/capture_02052014_007kbka4.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_02052014_007kbka4.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_02052014_006g3jjb.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_02052014_006g3jjb.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: luke83 on May 02, 2014, 09:06:18 am
looks good
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on May 02, 2014, 02:59:35 pm
Yep, I'm quite happy. I also feared the routes were too complicated (and some parameters of the nodes are unexplained, like "flag"), but it looks like they're working correctly.

(https://abload.de/img/mbase01o7yoi.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=mbase01o7yoi.gif)

Now I have to make the village for the "MiB terror" kind of mission. That one will exceed the 30x30 size, I hope it'll be ok.
Title: Re: Men in Black -beta 2.2 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: civilian on May 03, 2014, 02:53:59 pm
Cool!  :D
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on May 04, 2014, 01:58:18 am
2.6 release candidate uploaded.
So the MiB MOD is basically done.
The the MiB terror mission is now implemented too, and since I managed to get a MiB base mission I'm very sure everything is working now (bugs aside).
(Once I've tested more, I'll also upload it on the mod site).

Here's the village I'm using for the MiB terror (you can test it immediatly with a Quick Battle; the MiB base too of course).
It looks bleak because it needs to go along with any kind of terrain, desert, jungle and ice included.
I'ts not randomized because it is actually a "ufo map"; until we can't force a terrain we have to settle with this technique.

(https://abload.de/img/villge01rybxo.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=villge01rybxo.gif)

(https://abload.de/img/capture_03052014_041hvqut.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_03052014_041hvqut.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_03052014_040vtqok.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_03052014_040vtqok.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Angelus_EV on May 04, 2014, 02:48:59 am
Wow then, whit this way anyone can do a map to replace final cidonia and do a challenger map or maybe a set of alternate semi final maps like a sectoid clone center or a crhisalid nest
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 04, 2014, 03:00:16 am
Wow then, whit this way anyone can do a map to replace final cidonia and do a challenger map or maybe a set of alternate semi final maps like a sectoid clone center or a crhisalid nest

Yeah, you basically need to make a new alien mission, assign it to the desired race (or races, but I can see you're thinking of race-specific missions) and that's it.
Although if you want Chryssalids only, or Chryssalids with Snakemen in some other proportions, or whatever non-standard, you'll have to specify a "new" race.
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Angelus_EV on May 04, 2014, 03:02:16 am
Well its just an idea coding it's a dream for me
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: civilian on May 04, 2014, 12:28:33 pm
Impressive work! Gonna test this mod in my (soon to start) new campaign, my current one is 99% done (only need to go to Cydonia)  :) I have to admit I have used your MIB soldier graphics for a personal mod (I added the Thin Men Race to my game) so I have to remove those before I start again... ;D
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Avalanche on May 06, 2014, 12:20:23 am
So, I'm having a kind of funny problem with your mod. My second month, I ran into a very large UFO which just sat on the ground forever. The first time I attacked it, I got a crash (don't remember if it was M_Vector or assertion failure) so I left it. I waited a while, tried it again, and it turned out to be an MiB site, which worked fine. Flash to the end of the month, I have a score of -5000. I just found out why today. Out in Hawaii, there are FOUR MiB ufos just chilling on the ground. Based on their numbers, there's at least one more hidden somewhere else that I haven't found yet. I might be able to salvage this month if I attack all of them (which is going to be painful), but it's going to be rough.

If we don't get notifications about these MiB crafts, the game's going to be pretty much unwinable.
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on May 06, 2014, 12:41:36 am
Thanks a lot for the feedback.

I'll answer more thoroughly tomorrow because now I have to do things.
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: Iapetus on May 06, 2014, 02:57:49 am
For me some but not all of the MiB crashed UFO sites, identified with hyper-wave decoder, crash the game (I've got a ton of mods so it could easily be related to that though it only happens with MiB missions.) it seems like it's maybe only happening with one type of mission but I've not had time to confirm that. Some of them do work as expected though.

Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.6 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on May 06, 2014, 12:05:12 pm
Thanks.

About the crash.
We'd need the full error message, so we could check with one of the coders to get a clue of what's going wrong; best thing would be a screenshot of the error-message window, if there's any. I'm going to test a bit this evening, hoping to get it. I might be powerless against it, if I can't correct it through the ruleset; if that isn't possible the only thing remaining to do would be to disable the problematic thing altogether (AKA disabling the mission).
(I still suspect the game doesn't like a groundtimer higher than some unknown limit).

About the ufos chilling around.
I was aware of this problem, and that's why, while I believed the mod to be complete (couldn't predict the crash of course), I didn't post it as a "complete mod".
This issue won't ever go away, it's bound to the fact that I'm using ufos to mimic something that isn't a ufo; the goal is to strike a balance where while still happening, it doesn't ruin your score too much. In my internal version I've already made some changes, increasing the timer between ufo waves (one of the also spawned 2 ufos instead of one); I'll also lower the groundtimer for the base from 2 years to 1 year, but that's the minimum to make sense, it's a "base" afterall.
..OR there could be a way to selectively set the negative score for the mission and set it doesn't give any when left alone... but: you do the missions to not get scored negatively (and lose the game), if that doesn't happen then who cares!

The real problem is that these missions should be modified Alien Terror and Alien Base missions, giving the notification when they happen and everything else, but instead they're ufos. Until I can't make them int their proper form, they' won't work flawlessly.
Title: Re: Men in Black -RC 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.2
Post by: robin on May 07, 2014, 03:02:35 am
So I upped a new version. I tried to run a couple of quick campaigns and  I didn't get any crash.. but I didn't get any fixed ufos too (they're rarer now, MiB bases at least).
Changed some values here and there, but I didn't exactly fix anything as I didn't find anything "wrong". So I dunno.
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: robin on May 07, 2014, 10:59:22 am
Updated the Cover Alien mod too.
Version 1.2 was already complete, but the Waspite stats weren't as high as they should have been; now they're as skilled as Ethereals but more frail (little less health and half the armor), and they don't have psy powers (strong resistance to them though). Since their body is half plant I made them vulnerable to fire (poor fire, so useless, let's give it something more to do; the 200% damage might sound high, but since they're flying units they won't be walking around inside fires as much as land aliens).
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 07, 2014, 01:05:54 pm
Your deployments seem to lack this part:
Code: [Select]
    width: 50
    length: 50
    height: 4
Is it really unnecessary?

As for the Waspites, how about giving them high AP resistance too? Since they're plants and everything... :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: civilian on May 07, 2014, 01:09:55 pm
Started a new campaign with your MIB (version 2.6) mod. First thing to say: Impressive work with the units and maps!

There were some problems though:

First: I had 5(!) battleship landings in a row, once i finished one rural city map mission, the next BB appeared.
Second: Despite killing all aliens with no own casualties the score was highly negative due some of the civilians being killed. Maybe raise the score points for MIB units x2 or sth, right now it is impossible to get a positive score.
Third: Laser Weapons: It is perfectly possible now to get them all before you have researched them, not good. Why not remove the custom loadouts entirely (along with the AlienItemLevel list that conflicts with other mods, e.g. Alien Armoury mod))? Also: Some people (like me  ;D ) use the laser clip mod and thus your units start without ammo. Removing the loadouts would give the MIB units the alien weapons which would be perfectly fine imo. And it would be more compatible and stable.

Also: The sniper rifle and machine pistol: I think many (if not all) mod users already have those weapons installed, no need to add them.

The new big Rural City mapblock is very nicely done, but after playing 5 missions in a row on that terrain i can say: it needs more variety, please add some different layouts, maybe even only slightly edited versions of the original, doesn't matter.

Congrats on that certain terrain block, though, it somehow feels very believable and rural, good job!

Now however for a gamebreaker:

End of march my game ended because I had a negative score (without any visible reason) of -16636(!!!)  :(

The mod is very promising and the resources are very good, however it needs some small bugfixes and balance changes. Once that is done, this mod will rule the world!  :)
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 07, 2014, 01:17:52 pm
Third: Laser Weapons: It is perfectly possible now to get them all before you have researched them, not good. Why not remove the custom loadouts entirely (along with the AlienItemLevel list that conflicts with other mods, e.g. Alien Armoury mod))? Also: Some people (like me  ;D ) use the laser clip mod and thus your units start without ammo. Removing the loadouts would give the MIB units the alien weapons which would be perfectly fine imo. And it would be more compatible and stable.

The problem is, that would take away the most interesting feature of this mod (to me anyway), which is going against enemies with human weapons. This allows for completely different tactics and gives more use to X-Com armours below the Power Suit.

Also: The sniper rifle and machine pistol: I think many (if not all) mod users already have those weapons installed, no need to add them.

We can't assume that :) I use it, sure, but we can't break the mod for people who don't. I guess Robin could add in the readme that these mods are required, but as I understand, he made these weapons from scratch, so it's not the same content.
Once the Final Mod Pack is released, it'll be easier. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: civilian on May 07, 2014, 01:21:11 pm
Ok I see your point with the human weaponry, I hadn't thought about that.  :)
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: robin on May 07, 2014, 02:40:12 pm
Your deployments seem to lack this part:
Code: [Select]
    width: 50
    length: 50
    height: 4
Is it really unnecessary?

As for the Waspites, how about giving them high AP resistance too? Since they're plants and everything... :P
Wow totally missed that bit, I'm going to fix ASAP.

About the AP resistance, I won't add it. The reason is that a lot of aliens are resistant to AP (and AP weapons have low damage too), no need to add an extra one to the list.
(Besides you'll probably have laser weapons already when you start encountering them).


Started a new campaign with your MIB (version 2.6) mod. First thing to say: Impressive work with the units and maps!

There were some problems though:

First: I had 5(!) battleship landings in a row, once i finished one rural city map mission, the next BB appeared.
Second: Despite killing all aliens with no own casualties the score was highly negative due some of the civilians being killed. Maybe raise the score points for MIB units x2 or sth, right now it is impossible to get a positive score.
Third: Laser Weapons: It is perfectly possible now to get them all before you have researched them, not good. Why not remove the custom loadouts entirely (along with the AlienItemLevel list that conflicts with other mods, e.g. Alien Armoury mod))? Also: Some people (like me  ;D ) use the laser clip mod and thus your units start without ammo. Removing the loadouts would give the MIB units the alien weapons which would be perfectly fine imo. And it would be more compatible and stable.

Also: The sniper rifle and machine pistol: I think many (if not all) mod users already have those weapons installed, no need to add them.

The new big Rural City mapblock is very nicely done, but after playing 5 missions in a row on that terrain i can say: it needs more variety, please add some different layouts, maybe even only slightly edited versions of the original, doesn't matter.

Congrats on that certain terrain block, though, it somehow feels very believable and rural, good job!

Now however for a gamebreaker:

End of march my game ended because I had a negative score (without any visible reason) of -16636(!!!)  :(

The mod is very promising and the resources are very good, however it needs some small bugfixes and balance changes. Once that is done, this mod will rule the world!  :)
First of all: thanks.

I need some details about your battleship problem: do you mean a conventional battleship (with aliens) or a MiB mission (grounded ufo with "very large" size)? Because in the first case, my mod doesn't touch that. In the second case, the new 2.7 version should mitigate this behaviour (it may need further mitigation though!).

I'll look into scores, I admit I haven't checked them.

Loadouts: I want the MiB to use human weaponry at the start, so they'll stay (it's actually fun to have the conventional X-Com arsenal pointed at you for once, instead of the usual plasma). I don't see it being a problem that you get laser weaponry before researching it (you still get them very quickly). Maybe I'll tweak the itemleves to delay their appearance further.

My sniper rifle and machine pistol are made form scratch: bigobs, sprites, floorob, all new. If you use these mod, and you prefer the other version, you'll have to modify it yourself; sorry (I once had separated ruleset, but I merged them and I won't split them anymore).

Adding variations of the rural map is planned, but it's not a quick thing to do (copying the buildings around is fast and easy, remaking all the nodes and the routes is not), and I frankly prefer drawing sprites than mapping.

The super-negative score should be related to the excessive amount of MiB bases generated with the version 2.6. As I said above, 2.7 should mitigate this, but it may very well need further addressing.
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 07, 2014, 05:15:05 pm
Wow totally missed that bit, I'm going to fix ASAP.

AAAAARRRRGH and I already made the 4-level version to be used with Alien Armoury Expanded.

About the AP resistance, I won't add it. The reason is that a lot of aliens are resistant to AP

Fair point...

(and AP weapons have low damage too), no need to add an extra one to the list.

Not as much anymore, with my Gauss mod XD

The super-negative score should be related to the excessive amount of MiB bases generated with the version 2.6. As I said above, 2.7 should mitigate this, but it may very well need further addressing.

You can also just increase the number of MiB operatives in missions, to make more points available :P
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: robin on May 07, 2014, 05:35:57 pm
AAAAARRRRGH and I already made the 4-level version to be used with Alien Armoury Expanded.

Fair point...

Not as much anymore, with my Gauss mod XD

You can also just increase the number of MiB operatives in missions, to make more points available :P
Sorry man, but the mod is actually still in development (there's also that crash that might still be there), so.. I suggest to wait before working on it because it can still change.

For the score what I'll do is to assign a recovery score to standard and laser weapons (they're score-less right now). I'll also slightly increase the score of the MiB units.
The amount of units deployed is already slightly higher (or at least on par) with alien deployments for same kind of mission, I think it's fine.
Title: Re: Men in Black -??? 2.7 | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: Warboy1982 on May 07, 2014, 08:02:54 pm
those are some seriously sweet maps, i love the creativity that's going on in this thread.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.8 "forever beta" | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: robin on May 07, 2014, 10:36:09 pm
Upped 2.8, hopefully should be more friendly with the battlescape scoring.
Download at first post as always.
I too need to start doing some testing on this now. I should be able to star a proper campaign soon.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.8 "forever beta" | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: civilian on May 09, 2014, 11:39:53 am
Thanks for the updates! And yes, the battleship was the MIB one. Oh and fwiw: The Waspites/Cybermites are awesome, I really like them! You are very skilled with those unit sprites and graphics! And maps!   :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.8 "forever beta" | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 09, 2014, 08:00:59 pm
Here's the Polish translation of your cover alien mod strings, if you want:

Code: [Select]
  - type: pl-PL
    strings:
      STR_WASPITE: Szerszon
      STR_CYBERMITE: Cybroztocz
      STR_CYBERMITE_TERRORIST: Cybroztocz Terrorysta
      STR_WASPITE_SOLDIER: Szerszon Żołnierz
      STR_WASPITE_MEDIC: Szerszon Medyk
      STR_WASPITE_ENGINEER: Szerszon Inżynier
      STR_WASPITE_NAVIGATOR: Szerszon Nawigator
      STR_WASPITE_LEADER: Szerszon Lider
      STR_WASPITE_COMMANDER: Szerszon Przywódca
      STR_WASPITE_CORPSE: Zwłoki szerszona
      STR_CYBERMITE_CORPSE: Wrak cybroztocza
      STR_WASPITE_AUTOPSY: Sekcja zwłok szerszona
      STR_CYBERMITE_AUTOPSY: Sekcja wraku cybroztocza
      STR_WASPITE_UFOPAEDIA: Szerszoni to elitarni żołnierze i zamachowcy.  Są bardzo agresywni, genetycznie wyinżynierowani i cybernetycznie ulepszeni, co czyni z nich groźnych wrogów.  Ich niezbyt mocna budowa wskazuje jednak raczej na rolę we wsparciu niż w piechocie.  Spiralne urządzenia, które zastępują ich oryginalne ciała, generują pole antygrawitacyjne, które pozwala im unosić się w powietrzu.
      STR_WASPITE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: Anatomia tej istoty balansuje na skraju obłędu.  Główny korpus składa się ze spiralnego systemu podtrzymywania życia, połączonego z roślinnym, wyinżynierowanym genetycznie symbiontem.  Do ciała przymocowana jest para mechanicznych ramion oraz owadzia głowa, która zapewne jest jedyną pozostałością po oryginalnym gatunku.  Część roślinna jest wysoce podatna na ogień.
      STR_CYBERMITE_UFOPAEDIA: Ten minirobot to broń terrorystyczna, reprezentująca przewagę inżynierii obcych.  Gdy tylko jego czuły sensor optyczny wykryje cel, podbiega on do niego i atakuje.  Zminiaturyzowany napęd na Elerium jest ustawiony tak, aby wybuchał po odniesieniu poważnych uszkodzeń, przez co strzelanie do cybroztocza jest niebezpieczne dla wszystkich wokół.
      STR_CYBERMITE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: Najciekawszą częścią robota jest jego broń, metaliczne żądło połączone z małym zbiornikiem, który prawdopodobnie był wypełniony silną toksyną.  Rdzeń napędu jest zbyt uszkodzony, by w pełni go zbadać, jednak wydaje się być zaprojektowany tak, by był mało odporny na obrażenia i miał tendencje do wybuchania.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.8 "forever beta" | Cover Alien 1.4
Post by: robin on May 09, 2014, 09:27:50 pm
Thanks, I'll add them as soon as I can.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: Avalanche on May 12, 2014, 05:27:33 am
If I'm already in the middle of a game, is it safe to upgrade to 2.9 from 2.8? Also, do the waspites actually appear ingame, or just in the free battles?

As a side note, since upgrading to 2.8, I've yet to have a score of -4000! Success!
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: robin on May 12, 2014, 10:12:10 am
The only difference is the stats of the new weapons. (sniper rilfe, machine pistol). So it *should* be safe.. You can continue with 2.8 though, I'm also not entirely sold on the new stats.
Waspites should regularly appear ingame (ufos, terror, make base).

And I'm very happy hearing that the score has been "tamed".
I hope though that what SupSuper did in the last build
Quote
SupSuper, Mon May 12 04:19:43 2014
Make landed UFOs take off after a failed mission.
doesn't break the mod though, my MiB Base ufo especially is meant to stay down even after failed missions.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: SupSuper on May 12, 2014, 05:34:59 pm
I hope though that what SupSuper did in the last builddoesn't break the mod though, my MiB Base ufo especially is meant to stay down even after failed missions.
Well it's a vanilla feature. :P Internally it means the UFO just fast-forwards ahead to the next waypoint.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: MickTheMage on May 12, 2014, 06:18:03 pm
Here is Slovak translation of your cover alien mod... :)

Code: [Select]
  - type: sk-SK
    strings:
      STR_WASPITE: Waspite
      STR_CYBERMITE: Kybermit
      STR_CYBERMITE_TERRORIST: Kybermit terorista
      STR_WASPITE_SOLDIER: Waspite vojak
      STR_WASPITE_MEDIC: Waspite medik
      STR_WASPITE_ENGINEER: Waspite inžinier
      STR_WASPITE_NAVIGATOR: Waspite navigátor
      STR_WASPITE_LEADER: Waspite vodca
      STR_WASPITE_COMMANDER: Waspite veliteľ
      STR_WASPITE_CORPSE: Mŕtvola waspita
      STR_CYBERMITE_CORPSE: Mŕtvola kybermita
      STR_WASPITE_AUTOPSY: Pitva waspita
      STR_CYBERMITE_AUTOPSY: Pitva kybermita
      STR_WASPITE_UFOPAEDIA: Waspiti sú elitnými teroristickými agentmi a bojovníkmi. Sú veľmi agresívny, geneticky upravení a kyberneticky vylepšení, čo z nich robí hrôzostrašných protivníkov. Ich celková zraniteľnosť však naznačuje úlohu delostrelectva, než úlohu pechoty. Špirálové zariadenie, ktoré nahrádza ich originálne telá, generuje antigravitačné pole umožňujúce tomuto druhu vznášať sa vo vzduchu.
      STR_WASPITE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: Anatómia tohto tvora hraničí so šialenstvom. Telo pozostáva zo špirálovitého zariadenia na podporu života kombinovaného so symbiotickou rastlinou, ktorá vznikla za pomoci bioinžinierstva. Telo tvora pozostáva z transplantovaného páru mechanických rúk a hmyzu podobnej hlave, ktorá je pravdepodobne jediným originálnym pozostatkom pôvodného druhu. Rastlinná časť trupu je citlivá na oheň.
      STR_CYBERMITE_UFOPAEDIA: Tento miniatúrny robot je automatickou teroristickou zbraňou a predstavuje vrchol mimozemskej robotiky. Akonáhle výkonný optický senzor spozoruje cieľ, tvor sa proti nemu rozbehne a zaútočí. Miniaturizované elériové jadro je nastavené tak, aby sa pri vyššom poškodení zapálilo a explodovalo. Zabitie tohto tvora je tak veľmi nebezpečné pre kohokoľvek v jeho blízkosti. 
      STR_CYBERMITE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: Najvýraznejším rysom tohto neuveriteľne komplexného robota je jeho zbraň - zliatinové žihadlo napojené na miniatúrnu nádrž. Z analýzy zvyškov sa zdá, že je naplnená veľmi silným toxínom. Enregetické jadro je príliš poškodené, čo zabraňuje detailnejšej analýze. Zdá sa však, že je navrhnuté tak aby bolo náchylné na poškodenie. Toto poškodenie potom spôsobí, že robot vybuchne.
 
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: robin on May 12, 2014, 06:34:03 pm
Well it's a vanilla feature. :P Internally it means the UFO just fast-forwards ahead to the next waypoint.
should be all right then; I was worried :P


Here is Slovak translation of your cover alien mod... :)
Thanks. Adding and uploading asap.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 12, 2014, 08:57:13 pm
I hope though that what SupSuper did in the last builddoesn't break the mod though, my MiB Base ufo especially is meant to stay down even after failed missions.

Wouldn't it make sense for the MiB to immediately dismantle their base, once its location has been compromised? :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: robin on May 12, 2014, 09:35:43 pm
Wouldn't it make sense for the MiB to immediately dismantle their base, once its location has been compromised? :)
Well, yes it would. But what if you saw it "fly away"?
:P
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 13, 2014, 12:44:22 am
Well, yes it would. But what if you saw it "fly away"?
:P

It'd be hilarious.

Honestly though, I didn't expect it to have a flying trajectory at all.


EDIT:

Robin, take a look at this thread and Sup's response: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2132.0

So you might want to trim down the ruleset by removing the vanilla races from the Waspite mod - new alienMissions entries will be merged with the basic ruleset.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9 | Cover Alien 1.5
Post by: robin on May 13, 2014, 12:51:15 am
Robin, take a look at this thread and Sup's response: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2132.0

So you might want to trim down the ruleset by removing the vanilla races from the Waspite mod - new alienMissions entries will be merged with the basic ruleset.
Thanks. I'm going to clean it when I can.

edit: 1.6 version still not clean. forgot to do it :_(

I'll just leave this here
(https://abload.de/img/capture_13052014_003e6jol.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_13052014_003e6jol.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_13052014_002anjjl.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_13052014_002anjjl.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6
Post by: civilian on May 14, 2014, 12:07:13 pm
Ooooohh, nice, what are those?  :o

I love the rural map fwiw:

Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6
Post by: robin on May 14, 2014, 12:12:09 pm
Ooooohh, nice, what are those?  :o

I love the rural map fwiw:
Obviously:
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=X-COM_Disruptor_Armor

Yeah, I'm quite proud of my new maps. Thanks for appreciating.


edit:
Spritesheet for Disruptor Hybrid Armor: complete (actually I'll touch it again a little to adjust some pixels but it's done).
I love this armor.
(This is not part of the MiB/cover alien mods, but who cares).
(https://abload.de/img/capture_14052014_015pcjjx.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_14052014_015pcjjx.png)


Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6
Post by: Angelus_EV on May 15, 2014, 12:26:15 am
Are you doing a total conversion? Will we have an Apocalypse mod? I hope so! ! The most epic thing, make city maps whit apoc stile
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6
Post by: Angelus_EV on May 15, 2014, 12:38:02 am
like this:
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6
Post by: Gifty on May 15, 2014, 08:28:34 am
I know I keep saying this, but every time I check on this thread my mind gets blown all over again. That Disruptor armor looks wicked.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6
Post by: robin on May 16, 2014, 04:54:24 pm
like this:
Well, I haven't investigated this properly, but completely interior maps should be possible. Sort of.
You'd need an adapted urban (or the like) terrain (the BLANKS, instead of the usual lawn, changed into a roof-helipad), and a completely new map set, built to mimic parts of the same whole building (it will be hard to deal with the randomization, it'll take no small amount of thinking-mapping-testing).

It's a lot of work and they'll still have a weird look in the end. So I frankly think that for a mod that has consistently all-interior missions, it would be better to wait for the eventual option to override the geoscape-defined terrain.

(https://abload.de/img/disruptor_armorlnjyu.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=disruptor_armorlnjyu.gif)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6
Post by: robin on May 18, 2014, 10:48:18 pm
So I was looking at the discarded alien designs for the original game and I got inspired by a couple of them and ended up making another new alien race.

Still WIP of course, terror unit included.

I need names.
I'm calling the "energy disc" terror unit "Spectre", while I'm calling the alien "Gazer" since it has that big singe eye in the middle of its forehead.
But these names aren't "alien sounding" enough.

(https://abload.de/img/capture_18052014_0160osgl.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_18052014_0160osgl.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_18052014_006eyspl.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_18052014_006eyspl.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_18052014_002v7sdm.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_18052014_002v7sdm.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 18, 2014, 11:02:58 pm
This is beyond awesome.

How about you change the name "Spectre" to "Spectral"? And name the basic race "Phantroms"? It's a bit silly, but I think it fits the game. :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: robin on May 18, 2014, 11:08:35 pm
Sorry I don't like it.
For the energy thing I'd like a name derived from "color" or  "chromatic", to recall Lovecraft's "Color out of space".
I just can't think of anything special though.

Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Falko on May 18, 2014, 11:17:05 pm
Sorry I don't like it.
For the energy thing I'd like a name derived from "color" or  "chromatic", to recall Lovecraft's "Color out of space".
I just can't think of anything special though.
how about using colour in another language see the sidebar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color
Dath, Ibara, Spalva, Llimphi, Midab, ...
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 18, 2014, 11:34:14 pm
Sorry I don't like it.
For the energy thing I'd like a name derived from "color" or  "chromatic", to recall Lovecraft's "Color out of space".
I just can't think of anything special though.

Ah, I see. Sure, I'll think of something more Lovecraftian, but on the other hand I guess you would be the best one to author the name. :)

Now, it is not my place to ask, but why do you place all your mods in one thread? Frankly, it's rather confusing to have two of them here, and now there's yet another one... Could you please think of putting them in separate threads? Just don't take it personally, please - I'm trying to help. :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: robin on May 18, 2014, 11:47:02 pm
Ah, I see. Sure, I'll think of something more Lovecraftian, but on the other hand I guess you would be the best one to author the name. :)

Now, it is not my place to ask, but why do you place all your mods in one thread? Frankly, it's rather confusing to have two of them here, and now there's yet another one... Could you please think of putting them in separate threads? Just don't take it personally, please - I'm trying to help. :)
No problem at all! I'm sorry if I sound pissed sometimes: I'm not, I'm just answering quickly while I keep drawing and I might not pay attention to my tone  :-[

And yeah you are right, I should really make some order. It's just that I start drawing as soon as I have time and and then it's already time to go to bed lol.
(I've actually subscribed to the mod site some time ago but I never received any email confirmation).

how about using colour in another language see the sidebar of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color
Dath, Ibara, Spalva, Llimphi, Midab, ...
I'll look into them but they seem a little to "sophisticated".
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Warboy1982 on May 19, 2014, 01:42:53 am
Langoliers for the energy discs? Cyclops for the one-eyed monster? (giggity) aren't a lot the alien names generally assumed to be "what the soldiers call them" (snakemen, ethereals, reapers)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: yrizoud on May 19, 2014, 02:00:06 am
Laserdiscs  ;D
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Gifty on May 19, 2014, 02:12:59 am
Langoliers for the energy discs?
That would be so great that I think it would render me unable to play for laughing too hard about the movie.

I like the "chromatic" angle, it has a cool retro sci-fi vibe.

It can't be stopped! It can't be defined! Flee for your lives to escape the wrath of...
The Chromadisk/Chromatron/Omnichrome/Holochrome!

Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Angelus_EV on May 19, 2014, 02:39:49 am
its like a space time hole? and... no arms thing?
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: robin on May 19, 2014, 02:40:32 am
Langoliers for the energy discs? Cyclops for the one-eyed monster? (giggity) aren't a lot the alien names generally assumed to be "what the soldiers call them" (snakemen, ethereals, reapers)
I too thought about "Cyclops". But the word makes me think of something giant-sized. I also thought of a "similar-sounding" name, like "Klopian" but not sold at all.

Laserdiscs  ;D
lol it's hilarious how adequate it is!

That would be so great that I think it would render me unable to play for laughing too hard about the movie.

I like the "chromatic" angle, it has a cool retro sci-fi vibe.

It can't be stopped! It can't be defined! Flee for your lives to escape the wrath of...
The Chromadisk/Chromatron/Omnichrome/Holochrome!

These sound good.
I was thinking about Pulser.
mmm
Holochrome + TFTD Biodrone = Holodrone (it is actually a drone so it would fit).

its like a space time hole? and... no arms thing?
I was testing the legs animation there and it was still arms-less at that time. Now it's already all done but the Ufopaedia graphics.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: NeXaXeN on May 19, 2014, 05:27:49 am
I know I'm new, but to add my two cents:

1. These new races look awesome. I can't wait to expand my game with them.

2. I'm with holodrone for the disk.

As for the armless, two-legged alien, I'll toss out Uniped  (uni = one, ped = walker; one eyed walker... has 3 syllables like other alien names.... )

Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: civilian on May 19, 2014, 04:18:59 pm
Just something I "discovered" when adding all the TFTD races to my game: Make the stats/aliens unique, otherwise they are just e.g. "Mutons with a different look" and feel bland. What i mean is make them e.g. the way the Lobstermen were in TFTD, know what I'm trying to say?  :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 19, 2014, 05:30:59 pm
I suggest examining the aliens we already have and looking for "holes" - stat configurations that haven't been used yet.

I'm attaching an Excel file with all UFO races as a reference.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: robin on May 20, 2014, 02:48:59 pm
I suggest examining the aliens we already have and looking for "holes" - stat configurations that haven't been used yet.

I'm attaching an Excel file with all UFO races as a reference.
Nice! Very useful.


(https://abload.de/img/gazerufopeadiampslk.gif) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=gazerufopeadiampslk.gif)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Angelus_EV on May 20, 2014, 06:48:12 pm
wow!!!!!!! you left me speechless
Might this race clearly say Mutons Floaters and Cyclops are the same race but due to the mechanical-genetic alterations, doing different jobs, This Seems to be a super detector or something.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: MickTheMage on May 20, 2014, 07:27:16 pm
Dear robin, you are awesome! Hmm, maybe if you will have time - sometime :) don't want make a Thin Man mod for good old UFOEU? :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 20, 2014, 07:43:04 pm
Wow... Just wow.

You totally have to do a Photoshop tutorial... Or just submit the process of painting on YouTube. :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: robin on May 20, 2014, 07:45:15 pm
Dear robin, you are awesome! Hmm, maybe if you will have time - sometime :) don't want make a Thin Man mod for good old UFOEU? :)
I don't like them. And in general I'm not fond of the remake.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: Angelus_EV on May 20, 2014, 08:46:33 pm
you are perfect doing aliens!

i only think what you cover alien must look like this:
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: MickTheMage on May 20, 2014, 09:26:49 pm
I don't like them. And in general I'm not fond of the remake.

Well, nobody is perfect. ;) Just keep your beautiful inspired/original work!
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9a | Cover Alien 1.6 | New needs name
Post by: robin on May 20, 2014, 09:47:45 pm
you are perfect doing aliens!

i only think what you cover alien must look like this:
Too angry. Angry look is more fitting for a monster than an alien.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0!!!
Post by: robin on May 21, 2014, 12:44:13 am
Gazer + Holodrone up.
All done, and should work allright.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 21, 2014, 05:13:09 am
One Polish translation coming up :)

Code: [Select]
  - type: pl-PL
    strings:
      STR_GAZER: Gap
      STR_HOLODRONE: Holodron
      STR_HOLODRONE_TERRORIST: Holodron Terrorysta
      STR_GAZER_SOLDIER: Gap Żołnierz
      STR_GAZER_MEDIC: Gap Medyk
      STR_GAZER_ENGINEER: Gap Inżynier
      STR_GAZER_NAVIGATOR: Gap Nawigator
      STR_GAZER_LEADER: Gap Lider
      STR_GAZER_COMMANDER: Gap Przywódca
      STR_GAZER_CORPSE: Zwłoki gapia
      STR_HOLODRONE_CORPSE: Zwłoki holodrona
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY: Sekcja zwłok gapia
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY: Sekcja zwłok holodrona
      STR_GAZER_UFOPAEDIA: "Gapie przypominają stojące na dwóch nogach żółwie i w istocie są tak wytrzymałe, na jakie wyglądają. Ich masywne, ciężkie pancerze dają im nadzwyczajną odporność na wszelkiego rodzaju ataki, a w szczególności na amunicję przeciwpancerną i plazmę."
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: "Najbardziej widoczną cechą anatomii tego stwora jest wielkie, pojedyncze oko; przypomina ono oczy skorupiaków, lecz jest znacznie bardziej zaawansowane. Jego pancerz nie jest po prostu noszony: mieści on wiele cyberwszczepów, które podłączone są do różnych organów stworzenia, więc tworzy jego stałą powłokę."
      STR_HOLODRONE_UFOPAEDIA: "Holodron to żyjąca, latająca broń artyleryjska. Stworzenia te są chronione przez bańki plazmy, która zakłóca trafiające w nie ataki plazmowe oraz ogień. Możliwe jest, że ich głównym przeznaczeniem jest walka z przeciwnikiem uzbrojonym w broń plazmową. Mechanizm ten wytwarza zbyt wiele ciepła i radiacji, by stosować go w pancerzach dla ludzi."
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: "Holodron to bardzo skomplikowana maszyna, zasilana wielkim jak na jej rozmiary rdzeniem napędzanym elerium. Wybiegają z niego dwa kanały, które służą do transmisji plazmy tworzącej bańkę wokół całej istoty. Nie ulega wątpliwości, że rdzeń może wytworzyć też dodatkową energię, a następnie wystrzelić ją w formie silnego promienia lasera."

BTW you have a typo in "crustacean".

Great mod, thanks!
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Sectoid_Soldier on May 21, 2014, 06:00:55 am
A degree in art should be recommended in designing 'alien races'.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: civilian on May 21, 2014, 01:58:01 pm
Damn fine work with the graphics, robin!  :o
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: kkmic on May 21, 2014, 02:56:02 pm
F-ing awesome!
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on May 21, 2014, 04:21:42 pm
Thank you all.

I'll update with the PL translation (and possibly IT too) and the typo fixing, when I can.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: MickTheMage on May 21, 2014, 04:35:07 pm
Slovak translation here:

Code: [Select]
  - type: sk-SK
    strings:
      STR_GAZER: Gazer
      STR_HOLODRONE: Holodron
      STR_HOLODRONE_TERRORIST: Holodron terorista
      STR_GAZER_SOLDIER: Gazer vojak
      STR_GAZER_MEDIC: Gazer medik
      STR_GAZER_ENGINEER: Gazer inžinier
      STR_GAZER_NAVIGATOR: Gazer navigátor
      STR_GAZER_LEADER: Gazer vodca
      STR_GAZER_COMMANDER: Gazer veliteľ
      STR_GAZER_CORPSE: Mŕtvola Gazera
      STR_HOLODRONE_CORPSE: Pozostatky Holodrona
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY: Pitva Gazera
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY: Pitva Holodrona
      STR_GAZER_UFOPAEDIA: Vzhľad Gazerov pripomína stojacu korytnačku a skutočne sú tak húževnatí ako vyzerajú. Ich objemná ťažká zbroj ich chráni proti mnohým druhom poškodenia, špeciálne odolná je proti prierazným strelám a plazme.
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: Najnápadnejšou anatomickou črtou tohto mimozemšťana je oko; má vlastnosti kôrovca avšak je omnoho viac vyvinutejší. Zbroj nemá len jednoducho oblečenú - kybernetické implantáty, ktoré z neho vyrastajú sú priamo napojené na orgány tohto tvora. Zbroj tak tvorí jeho ulitu.
      STR_HOLODRONE_UFOPAEDIA: Holodróny sú živé, lietajúce, delostrelecké zbrane. Sú chránené bublinou z plazmy, ktorá ruší účinok plazmových útokov a ohňa. Zdá sa, že boli vyvinuté špeciálne na boj proti protivníkom vyzbrojeným plazmovými zbraňami. Mechanizmus, na ktorom je tento systém postavený vytvára príliš veľa tepla a rádioaktivity, aby sa dal aplikovať na ľudskú zbroj.
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: Tento veľmi komplexný stroj je napájaný, vzhľadom na jeho veľkosť, masívnym elériovým jadrom. Pomocou dvoch tyčí vychádzajúcich z tohto jadra sa vytvára plazmová bublina, ktorá obklopuje tohto tvora. Rovnako je zrejmé, že jadro môže nazhromaždiť energiu a pomocou nej generovať silný laserový lúč.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on May 22, 2014, 07:21:18 pm
(https://abload.de/img/capture_22052014_0030pqc2.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_22052014_0030pqc2.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_22052014_0026mrp5.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_22052014_0026mrp5.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_22052014_0013wo8h.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_22052014_0013wo8h.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: kkmic on May 23, 2014, 01:23:38 pm
The best thing to say is to quote myself :D

F-ing awesome!
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on May 23, 2014, 03:18:00 pm
I've posted these mods in the "Completed Mods" forum:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2180.0
Download them there.

(The new version in that topic contain the posted translations).

I could work on them again in the future, tweaking, balancing an maybe adding something, but I feel they've reached a "complete enough" state to be used.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: MontyDrake on May 25, 2014, 01:26:01 am
I've downloaded the Waspites and the Gazers and I've seen you haven't a spanish traslation. So here it is.

Waspites
Code: [Select]
type: es
    strings:
      STR_WASPITE: Waspite
      STR_CYBERMITE: Cyberpulga
      STR_CYBERMITE_TERRORIST: Terrorista Cyberpulga
      STR_WASPITE_SOLDIER: Soldado Waspite
      STR_WASPITE_MEDIC: Médico Waspite
      STR_WASPITE_ENGINEER: Técnico Waspite
      STR_WASPITE_NAVIGATOR: Navegante Waspite
      STR_WASPITE_LEADER: Líder Waspite
      STR_WASPITE_COMMANDER: Comandante Waspite
      STR_WASPITE_CORPSE: Cadaver de waspite
      STR_CYBERMITE_CORPSE: Cadaver de cyberpulga
      STR_WASPITE_AUTOPSY: Autopsia de Waspite
      STR_CYBERMITE_AUTOPSY: Autopsia de Cyberpulga
      STR_WASPITE_UFOPAEDIA: Los Waspites son combatientes e incursores de élite. Tienen una naturaleza agresiva y están mejorados genética y cibernéticamente, convirtiéndolos en enemigos temibls. Sin embargo, su fragilidad general indica que ocupan más el rol de la artillería que el de la infantería. El dispositivo espiral que reemplaza sus cuerpos originales genera un campo anti-gravedad, lo que les permite flotar en el aire.
      STR_WASPITE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: La anatomía de esta criatura es rayana a la locura. Su cuerpo consiste en un sistema de soporte vital de arquitectura espiral en simbiosis con una planta modificada mediante bioingeniería. Ensamblados al cuerpo hay dos brazos mecánicos, y la cabeza de la criatura muy posiblemente sea lo única parte original del cuerpo original de la criatura. Su biología vegetal hace a estra criatura vulnerable al fuego.
      STR_CYBERMITE_UFOPAEDIA: Este robot en miniatura es un arma de incursión automatizada, y es el culmen de la robótica alienígena. Tan pronto como su potente sensor óptico capta a un objetivo, la criatura corre hacía este y ataca. El núcleo de elerio miniaturizado se sobrecarga y explota al recibir demasiado daño, haciendo poco recomendable matar a la criatura para cualquiera cercano a esta.
      STR_CYBERMITE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: La característica más prominente de este complejo robot es su arma, un aguijón de aleación unido a un microtanque que, por las trazas encontradas, va cargado con una potente toxina. El núcleo de energía está demasiado dañado para ser estudiado en profundidad, pero parece diseñado para ser muy vulnerable al daño, y es muy posible que explote en consecuencia.

Gazers
Code: [Select]
- type: es
    strings:
      STR_GAZER: Mirón
      STR_HOLODRONE: Holodrón
      STR_HOLODRONE_TERRORIST: Terrorista Holodrón
      STR_GAZER_SOLDIER: Soldado Mirón
      STR_GAZER_MEDIC: Médico Mirón
      STR_GAZER_ENGINEER: Técnico Mirón
      STR_GAZER_NAVIGATOR: Navegante Mirón
      STR_GAZER_LEADER: Líder Mirón
      STR_GAZER_COMMANDER: Comandante Mirón
      STR_GAZER_CORPSE: Cadáver de mirón
      STR_HOLODRONE_CORPSE: Cadáver de holodrón
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY: Autopsia de Mirón
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY: Autopsia de Holodrón
      STR_GAZER_UFOPAEDIA: Los mirones se parecen a tortugas erguidas y son tan resistentes como aparentan. Su aparatosa armadura proporciona una resistencia formidable contra impactos de cualquier tipo, particularmente munición perforante y plasma.
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: El único gran ojo es el detalle anatómico más prominente de este alienígena; tiene rasgos de crustáceo, pero está mucho más evolucionado. Su gruesa armadura es una simple coraza; implantes cibernéticos unen esta con los órganos internos de la criatura, es un caparazón artificial implantado.
      STR_HOLODRONE_UFOPAEDIA: Los holodrones armas flotantes de artillería viviente. Están protegidos por una burbuja de plasma que interfiere con los proyectiles de plasma y fuego. Parece que estuvieran específicamente diseñados para combatir a enemigos equipados con armas de plasma. El mecanismo de protección alcanza una temperatura excesiva, y es demasiado radiactivo como para incorporarlo a una armadura humana.
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: Un autómata extremadamente complejo alimentado por un núcleo de elerio, masivo para su tamaño. Dos conductos se extienden desde el núcleo y generan una burbuja de plasma que envuelve al artefacto. Es evidente que el núcleo puede sobrecargarse y acumular energía extra para generar un potente rayo láser.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on May 25, 2014, 01:47:37 am
Thanks. Will add when I can.


(https://abload.de/img/capture_24052014_003tfuoo.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_24052014_003tfuoo.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on May 25, 2014, 03:38:20 pm
A quick work, making the MiB 3.0 mod compatible with Alien Armoury Expanded.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Yankes on May 25, 2014, 04:27:05 pm
robin, your units have great graphic quality, and more important they blend well with rest of xcom.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on May 27, 2014, 12:15:31 am
(https://abload.de/img/capture_26052014_0096lj2r.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_26052014_0096lj2r.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_26052014_008usk2m.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_26052014_008usk2m.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_26052014_006k7kwd.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_26052014_006k7kwd.png)

Really need to make a new topic for this.

(I also need to update the mods with the stuff you guys posted.)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Piotr Karol Żółtowski (Piter432) on June 02, 2014, 02:25:21 pm
One Polish translation coming up :)

[...]

Let mi write small proposition (Don't need to change original PL translation):
Code: [Select]
  - type: pl-PL
    strings:
      STR_GAZER: Gap
      STR_HOLODRONE: Holodron
      STR_HOLODRONE_TERRORIST: Holodron Terrorysta
      STR_GAZER_SOLDIER: Gap Żołnierz
      STR_GAZER_MEDIC: Gap Medyk
      STR_GAZER_ENGINEER: Gap Inżynier
      STR_GAZER_NAVIGATOR: Gap Nawigator
      STR_GAZER_LEADER: Gap Lider
      STR_GAZER_COMMANDER: Gap Przywódca
      STR_GAZER_CORPSE: Ciało Gapia
      STR_HOLODRONE_CORPSE: Ciało Holodrona
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY: Sekcja zwłok Gapia
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY: Sekcja zwłok Holodrona
      STR_GAZER_UFOPAEDIA: "Gapie przypominają stojące na dwóch nogach żółwie i w istocie są tak wytrzymałe, na jakie wyglądają. Ich masywne, ciężkie pancerze dają im nadzwyczajną odporność na wszelkiego rodzaju ataki, a w szczególności na amunicję przeciwpancerną i plazmową."
      STR_GAZER_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: "Najbardziej widoczną cechą anatomii tego stwora jest wielkie, pojedyncze oko; przypomina ono oczy skorupiaków, lecz jest znacznie bardziej zaawansowane. Jego pancerz nie jest po prostu noszony: mieści on wiele cyberwszczepów, które podłączone są do różnych organów stworzenia, co tworzy jego stałą powłokę."
      STR_HOLODRONE_UFOPAEDIA: "Holodron to żyjąca, latająca broń artyleryjska. Stworzenia te są chronione poprzez bańki plazmy, które zakłócają trafiające w nie ataki plazmowe oraz ogień. Możliwe jest, że ich głównym przeznaczeniem jest walka z przeciwnikiem uzbrojonym w broń plazmową. Mechanizm ten wytwarza zbyt wiele ciepła i radiacji, zeby stosować go w pancerzach dla ludzi."
      STR_HOLODRONE_AUTOPSY_UFOPAEDIA: "Holodron to bardzo skomplikowana maszyna, zasilana wielkim jak na jej rozmiary rdzeniem napędzanym Elerium. Wybiegają z niego dwa kanały, które służą do transmisji plazmy tworzącej bańkę wokół całej istoty. Nie ulega wątpliwości, że rdzeń może wytworzyć też dodatkową energię, a następnie wystrzelić ją w formie silnego promienia lasera."

Remember, I'm just meeting with "Gazer" word, so I'm not sure about proper PL translation.


@Edit
Thx Solarius for tips. About "Ciało/Sekcja zwłok Holodrona" and "Ciało/Sekcja zwłok Gapia": I'm don't know what radius75 and other Polish translators think about "Ciało/Sekcja zwłok holodrona" and "Ciało/Sekcja zwłok gapia" (first letter of alien name is lowercase), that's why first letter is uppercase.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 02, 2014, 03:45:05 pm
Naturally, translations are always up for debate. However, I will defend my "gap" translation because:
- it is a valid Polish word (though rare),
- it sounds grammatically sound, since "przyglądać się" is a reflexive verb, which is not reflected in the species name,
- in my opinion, "przyglądacz" sounds awkward.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Piotr Karol Żółtowski (Piter432) on June 02, 2014, 04:33:43 pm
Thx Solarius for explaining. I just edited my previous post.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: davide on June 02, 2014, 11:21:07 pm
beautifull :P
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Jstank on June 06, 2014, 06:11:59 pm
I got this one running in my modded x com. I have had some skirmishes with these guys in the battle menu but havn't encountered them in the field yet. Can't wait to meet these guys!
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 07, 2014, 02:43:50 pm
oh shi-
(https://abload.de/img/capture_07062014_005tslay.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07062014_005tslay.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Daroh on June 08, 2014, 12:11:15 am
Oh god Robin, stop it, you're spoiling us.

Actually no, keep at it, I'm amazed at the frequency you can pump out these things and how well they fit the style.

(made an account pretty much for the purpose of saying this)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Xangi on June 08, 2014, 01:20:12 am
Have you considered making a sort of sub-mod that makes the MiB more like the thin men from the new EU? It seems like they'd make for a neat alien race as well for people who would want that sort of thing. It's also justify the whole "flying around in UFOs" thing.

Also I was reading the plans you originally had for the MiB and I'm not sure if someone has already mentioned this, but there is a mod that adds mixed-race UFOs which might be able to approximate the "MiB show up to help the aliens vanish" thing you wanted to do.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Daroh on June 08, 2014, 01:33:40 am
I recall robin saying somewhere that he didn't like the new xcom so has no plans to incorporate any of the "new" races, nothing stopping you from tinkering with the ruleset from the MIB mod for personal use though, they would probably need a new "weapon" for the acid spit, make it incendiary to emulate the acid and cause them to explode on death.

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Ruleset_Reference_%28OpenXcom%29# (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Ruleset_Reference_%28OpenXcom%29#)
Plenty of reference material on there to play with :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Aldorn on June 08, 2014, 01:35:59 am
Actually no, keep at it, I'm amazed at the frequency you can pump out these things and how well they fit the style.
::)
Crystal clear

Robin :  CHALLENGE !
Feel free to create as many new aliens as luke83 created alternative ufos...
 ;)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Xangi on June 08, 2014, 01:52:12 am
@Daroh
That's a bit disappointing, but I totally understand. I didn't like it much either honestly. I wasn't suggesting making then INTO thin men, just functioning more like an explicitly alien race that's designed to look human. Actually, my internal vision of them is more like the Observers from Fringe, human looking but very inhuman in reality.

Also, maybe somebody can help me out here, I'm trying to use the Waspites and Gazers and I keep getting a crash on startup "yaml-cpp: error at line ### (varies, is 591 for waspites), column 5: key not found: points" I'm assuming this is because I did something wrong since nobody else is reporting this crash.

EDIT:Apparently the latest git build fixes this, my mistake.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 08, 2014, 11:39:06 am
That's a bit disappointing, but I totally understand. I didn't like it much either honestly. I wasn't suggesting making then INTO thin men, just functioning more like an explicitly alien race that's designed to look human. Actually, my internal vision of them is more like the Observers from Fringe, human looking but very inhuman in reality.
Both the MiB and my alien races are conceived (on paper) so that the game still "feels vanilla" when you play it with them on.
I thought about having "hybrid MiB", human-made fake aliens, new tech.
Cool stuff; but it would have become a "X-Files Mod" or something, with a big portion of the conflict focused on fighting the humans. I didn't want that.

Also the "big mod" I wanted to work was an Apocalypse trubute-totalconversion and or a Cthulhu mod. From the very beginning I didn't want to spend too much time on the MiB mod.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Xangi on June 09, 2014, 12:01:17 am
snip
Well if I get around to it (Still have a STALKER mod to finish up) I'll see about using the sprites to make what I'm picturing and see if it works well. If it does I'll post it here for people to check out.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 09, 2014, 01:50:23 pm
hybrid MiBs
Cthulhu mod

This would actually be quite related. You could make a Lovecraftian race and use parts of them to make MiB hybrids :) (For example alien head, dressed in a normal MiB suit.)

EDIT:
Suddenly, MiB ships started crashing my game whern I attempt to intercept them. Since there was no mod update, this must be related to the new night builds; I heard of the same thing suddenly happening to Dioxine's mod.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Minotaton on June 09, 2014, 06:23:04 pm
I would like to see a terror unit more from xfiles. It has both human and alien DNA. Think the aliens from the starship troopers cartoon that can switch between both forms. Can cloak as a civilian and then switch to alien form and attack by surprise.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 19, 2014, 03:44:22 am
Robin, there's another issue... of sorts. The melee skill.

all MiBs have Melee 76. While it's consistent with the aliens, it doesn't make much sense, since your own people start with 20 or 30.

Suggested melee values:
Code: [Select]
  - type: STR_MIB_AGENT
      melee: 20
  - type: STR_MIB_SOLDIER
      melee: 30
  - type: STR_MIB_MEDIC
      melee: 25
  - type: STR_MIB_DEMOMAN
      melee: 30
  - type: STR_MIB_LEADER
      melee: 40
  - type: STR_MIB_COMMANDER
      melee: 45

So maybe now they won't leisurely parry my knife attacks with bare hands. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 19, 2014, 03:47:43 am
Thanks. I'll modify them when I can.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 19, 2014, 03:50:25 am
Thanks. I'll modify them when I can.

Great!

And just curious, what about your worms? :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 19, 2014, 11:40:05 am
Great!

And just curious, what about your worms? :)
Worms are still on the TO DO list of course. The problem with them is that 2x2 units are painful: every time I want to see them ingame I need to split them apart to build the spritesheet.
So they have been put on hold and won't be in the 0.1 version of the mod.

But I haven' been idling as you can see from the screens I'm dropping here from time to time; and I haven't shown everything.
I'm a bit scared about the ruleset now.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: moriarty on June 19, 2014, 02:07:54 pm
The problem with them is that 2x2 units are painful: every time I want to see them ingame I need to split them apart to build the spritesheet.

it would be extremely cool if somebody could create an automatic splitter. maybe we should give a shout out to the clever programmers?
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 19, 2014, 05:15:09 pm
it would be extremely cool if somebody could create an automatic splitter. maybe we should give a shout out to the clever programmers?

Yes! +1.

Anyway, Robin, what is the 0.1 version you're talking about? You don't mean an Apocalypse conversion, do you? :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: TOUGH GUY on June 21, 2014, 08:51:40 am
Hello there! I have recently installed the wonderful OpenXcom as well as this mod, and I just had to sign up here because there's two things that I can't get out of my head.

First, are MiBs supposed to pop up all the time? I swear I get their ufos a lot, way more often than regular aliens. Playing on... uh... I'm a filthy casual, I think it's the middle difficulty. I mean for one alien ufo there's like three or four MiB ones, not even exaggerating. Not a single base either, it's all just terror or them just flying around in their large scouts, getting shot down and then exterminated by my rad dudes.

In fact, I was starting to think I ought to edit the ruleset somehow, so frequent were the MiB missions. Would that be the ufo mission weight variable under particular regions?

Second, somewhere in this thread there's a mention of capturing MiB leaders which leads to interrogation and research. Except not a single time have I been able to cap one. I even mind probed a dude and confirmed he was a commander before stunning. Is there a prerequisite or anything like that, or have I just missed something really obvious like usual?
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 21, 2014, 11:28:48 am
Hello there! I have recently installed the wonderful OpenXcom as well as this mod, and I just had to sign up here because there's two things that I can't get out of my head.

First, are MiBs supposed to pop up all the time? I swear I get their ufos a lot, way more often than regular aliens. Playing on... uh... I'm a filthy casual, I think it's the middle difficulty. I mean for one alien ufo there's like three or four MiB ones, not even exaggerating. Not a single base either, it's all just terror or them just flying around in their large scouts, getting shot down and then exterminated by my rad dudes.

In fact, I was starting to think I ought to edit the ruleset somehow, so frequent were the MiB missions. Would that be the ufo mission weight variable under particular regions?

Second, somewhere in this thread there's a mention of capturing MiB leaders which leads to interrogation and research. Except not a single time have I been able to cap one. I even mind probed a dude and confirmed he was a commander before stunning. Is there a prerequisite or anything like that, or have I just missed something really obvious like usual?
It's very strange. During my testing MiB popped up rarely, certainly significantly less frequently than aliens (it's also in the numbers, alien missions have just higher chances to happen).
What version are you using?

In theory there were two interrogation-researches available by capturing MiB. In practice I couldn't make them work, so in the latest version (3.3) I scrapped them. Sorry.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: TOUGH GUY on June 21, 2014, 11:54:55 am
Oh right, that explains the second part then. And I'm using the 3.1 version, I suspect I must have downloaded it right before you published the 3.3 update, seeing as I have downloaded it only like two days ago or thereabouts. I'll try updating.

Whoops, niculinux is right, looks like I should have used the other forum section.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: niculinux on June 21, 2014, 12:18:38 pm
I don't know but this thread may be closed because Men in Black was actually relased as full mod? (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2180.msg23618#new)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 21, 2014, 03:58:02 pm
I don't know but this thread may be closed because Men in Black was actually relased as full mod? (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2180.msg23618#new)
Yes it's better to use that thread for these mods.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 21, 2014, 05:51:19 pm
Yes it's better to use that thread for these mods.

Perhaps this one could be closed then, with a link to the new thread in the last post?

Frankly I didn't even notice there are two threads, even thou I post in both.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 27, 2014, 02:31:55 am
(https://abload.de/img/capture_27062014_0082ejqd.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_27062014_0082ejqd.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_27062014_0021lk5q.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_27062014_0021lk5q.png)
self praise mode ON: so good

Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 27, 2014, 02:38:12 am
moar

(https://abload.de/img/capture_27062014_0071wjy5.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_27062014_0071wjy5.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_27062014_003gbk36.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_27062014_003gbk36.png)
(this is the auto cannon)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Aldorn on June 28, 2014, 08:00:03 am
Hey Robin, did you see that info (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=737.msg23789#msg23789) from dear Hobbes, and also the attached link (https://www.gollopgames.com/2013/04/original-x-com-concept-art.html) ?
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Gifty on June 28, 2014, 10:00:03 am
If I'm not mistaken, the Gazer is based off some of that concept art, so I think he's already aware of it.
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 28, 2014, 10:43:55 am
Yes, it's exactly as Gifty said. :)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 29, 2014, 12:01:17 pm
silver = (megapol) personal armor
red = flying armor
orange = power armor

(https://abload.de/img/capture_29062014_001syjaa.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_29062014_001syjaa.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Aldorn on June 29, 2014, 12:31:56 pm
Would the MiB try to dissimulate themselves ? :o
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: robin on June 29, 2014, 12:36:37 pm
No lol wait this is another mod, it's not related to MiB. I haven't made proper topic because still too incomplete.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: michal on June 29, 2014, 12:59:53 pm
Robin, that's really awesome work. Beautiful art. It's really great to have such talented person in Openxcom modding community! Totally impressed!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Jstank on June 30, 2014, 10:34:00 am
Just ran into these ass holes on my play through. They killed 8 of my dudes. Thanks alot Robin....No seriously it was fantastic!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on June 30, 2014, 02:04:12 pm
Just ran into these ass holes on my play through. They killed 8 of my dudes. Thanks alot Robin....No seriously it was fantastic!
Happy to hear this :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 30, 2014, 03:18:59 pm
Robin, you don't mean me adding these mods to the FMP compilation, right? :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on June 30, 2014, 05:59:20 pm
Robin, you don't mean me adding these mods to the FMP compilation, right? :)
Go ahead :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on June 30, 2014, 06:12:36 pm
Go ahead :)

Thanks!
Hopefully I'll be able to upload a beta version within 30 hours.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Sturm on July 06, 2014, 01:41:12 am
Wow, what's the deal with the X-Com 3 stuff O: .

Awesome sprites. How did you learn to make them?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 07, 2014, 01:48:07 am
X-Com vs Cult of Sirius in the desert:

(https://abload.de/img/capture_07072014_001gpkkh.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07072014_001gpkkh.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_07072014_003udkc7.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07072014_003udkc7.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_07072014_0048vjnn.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07072014_0048vjnn.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_07072014_010lwjyi.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07072014_010lwjyi.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_07072014_011rhjvs.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07072014_011rhjvs.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_07072014_017lakcf.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07072014_017lakcf.png)

(and some other dudes):
(https://abload.de/img/capture_07072014_02035spd.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_07072014_02035spd.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: SupSuper on July 07, 2014, 02:26:36 am
*swoon*

;D
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Sturm on July 07, 2014, 02:56:20 pm
Wow.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Mackus on July 08, 2014, 01:36:50 am
Those are some nice armours. Which mod are they from? Or are they gonna be included in next MiB version?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: skaianDestiny on July 08, 2014, 04:30:11 am
Those are some nice armours. Which mod are they from? Or are they gonna be included in next MiB version?
Those are armors from XCOM: Apocalypse.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hadan on July 08, 2014, 08:48:43 am
Wow, really nice work!

Cant wait for this to be released  :D
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Arcalane on July 08, 2014, 10:15:21 am
Megapol armour is looking good, but the Marsec armour looks weird (the original design had more gold and silver components, esp. in the arms (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Marsec_Armor)) and the Disruptor armour might look better with a black or dark grey underlay in place of the red; you could never see the red details in Apoc anyway.

CoS armour looks more or less spot on though, at least from what I remember of using their temples full of goons as target practice for my troopers. The leaders should have fancy capes or something. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 08, 2014, 11:11:20 am
Megapol armour is looking good, but the Marsec armour looks weird (the original design had more gold and silver components, esp. in the arms (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Marsec_Armor)) and the Disruptor armour might look better with a black or dark grey underlay in place of the red; you could never see the red details in Apoc anyway.

CoS armour looks more or less spot on though, at least from what I remember of using their temples full of goons as target practice for my troopers. The leaders should have fancy capes or something. :P
This isn't a strict conversion (which can't even be done, as of now), but is more of a tribute. It wants to make you remember Apoc, while still being partly its own thing.

About the armor, believe me: it's better for the armors to be as monochromatic as possible. Differently-colored details on them are a bad thing. The Disruptor armor will undergo some changes (too much details on the torso; helm too big; but the red will probably stay, I like it).
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Mackus on July 08, 2014, 12:32:44 pm
Those are armors from XCOM: Apocalypse.
No. They are obviously based on those from Apocalypse, but they are for OXC. I asked which mod are they from, so I could download them, obviously.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Arcalane on July 08, 2014, 10:22:41 pm
This isn't a strict conversion (which can't even be done, as of now), but is more of a tribute. It wants to make you remember Apoc, while still being partly its own thing.

About the armor, believe me: it's better for the armors to be as monochromatic as possible. Differently-colored details on them are a bad thing. The Disruptor armor will undergo some changes (too much details on the torso; helm too big; but the red will probably stay, I like it).

Of course, I wasn't assuming that (esp. since the OpenApoc teaser (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=9.msg25928#msg25928)) but it was simply some thoughts on the matter. That particular combination of reds just looks really weird/bland with that much saturation and so few details, though from what I understand it's a palette limitation?

Thing is, the Megapol and Disruptor are reasonably recognizable - the Marsec to me is only recognizable with the company of the other two to provide context. If they weren't there, it would be "what's up with that weird red power/flying suit?".
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 08, 2014, 10:36:58 pm
The armor has some details; the problem is that the gradient of the red is kind of "narrow", so the results of using it is that it gives a "flatter" coloration compared to the rest of the colors.
Sadly: that red is the only one available; the only other "reddish" color in the palette, switches to orange-yellow in its lighter tones.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 14, 2014, 12:59:19 am
Alien drilling
(the drill is the best thing ever)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_09072014_001f1kb4.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_09072014_001f1kb4.png)

Mind bender and Psiclone (which works as an alternative mind bender itself)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_12072014_00221kpz.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_12072014_00221kpz.png)

Armor-less rookies dual-wielding incendiary grenades
(https://abload.de/img/capture_13072014_00112kxx.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_13072014_00112kxx.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Jstank on July 14, 2014, 01:24:53 am
Mother of god they are graboids... and I'm completely out of ammo!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 15, 2014, 04:35:12 pm
(https://abload.de/img/capture_15072014_001igjpr.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_15072014_001igjpr.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on July 15, 2014, 08:13:01 pm
This Is A Drill. (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThisIsADrill)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: niculinux on July 15, 2014, 08:51:27 pm
No lol wait this is another mod, it's not related to MiB. I haven't made proper topic because still too incomplete.

Well...it may be called: ufo: apocalypse[i/]?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 18, 2014, 06:19:34 pm
(https://abload.de/img/capture_18072014_002qssy4.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_18072014_002qssy4.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Aldorn on July 18, 2014, 11:58:59 pm
Are you working on a wargame ?
 ;)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Hobbes on July 19, 2014, 08:31:36 pm
Well...it may be called: ufo: apocalypse[i/]?

Or Terror From The Apocalypse
Or Apocalypse From The Deep
Or Deeply Apocalyptical Terror
Or Terrorize The Apocalypse

;)
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: Solarius Scorch on July 19, 2014, 08:38:36 pm
Or Terror From The Apocalypse
Or Apocalypse From The Deep
Or Deeply Apocalyptical Terror
Or Terrorize The Apocalypse

My vote is on Apocalypse From The Deep.

Where have the 80s gone? :(
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Sturm on July 20, 2014, 04:44:05 am
I like your screens a lot, I often use them as wallpapers.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 24, 2014, 01:27:09 am
wasted so much time on these. and there's still more to do :(

(https://abload.de/img/capture_24072014_001y4u6w.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_24072014_001y4u6w.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_24072014_004ioux2.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_24072014_004ioux2.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_24072014_003xvuhv.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_24072014_003xvuhv.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_24072014_002ybu51.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_24072014_002ybu51.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Yankes on July 24, 2014, 01:33:42 am
like always, hi-quality graphic in xcom style.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Dioxine on July 24, 2014, 05:49:35 am
Pixel art so nice you want to lick it :) You've really improved over these few months!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Arthanor on July 24, 2014, 06:47:53 am
Great looking designs! I really like the armors!

My only critic would be the unarmored model (Lenie Bos), where the cloth shows wrinkles/structures, but the details don't at all. To our left/character's right, the vertical line is totally straight, and the three buttons/gray squares are all the same size and equally spaced. It makes it look like they are just displayed above the character instead of being part of the uniform.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: skaianDestiny on July 24, 2014, 06:49:35 am
Robin your work is quality as always.  Can't wait to see the finished product!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: ex0 on July 24, 2014, 07:08:49 am
These graphics look spectacularly good!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: michal on July 24, 2014, 02:13:46 pm
Wow, wow, wow !!!!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: luke83 on July 24, 2014, 02:15:34 pm
Excellent work mate, keep it up :D
Title: Re: Men in Black 2.9b | Cover Alien 1.7 | Gazer Alien 1.0
Post by: niculinux on July 27, 2014, 10:12:30 pm
Or Terror From The Apocalypse
Or Apocalypse From The Deep
Or Deeply Apocalyptical Terror
Or Terrorize The Apocalypse

;)

I'd go for deeply ap8caliptical terror. More than a simple mod it may be atotal or partial conversion. Sine i find it quite futuristic, robin, imthugh you get some ispiration from the board game "space crusade"? I owned tht geme in the early '90, and tht plot may fit very well for a mod or whatever ;)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Mr. Quiet on July 27, 2014, 10:38:29 pm
Robin your work is top notch! Are you going to make a total conversion of X-COM, mainly changing the graphics and text?? I see you made the 3 different kinds of armor as native and many kinds of weapons. Then Aliens are next huh :D Let us know, this is exciting!!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 28, 2014, 12:38:58 am
Damn I wanted to make the bigob too but I didn't make in time.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on July 28, 2014, 12:48:20 am
I really like your style.

This one is plain, but honestly, it's way better than the original.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on July 28, 2014, 12:53:19 am
Damn I wanted to make the bigob too but I didn't make in time.

Thumbs up on the Anthropod!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Aldorn on July 28, 2014, 02:32:07 am
Keep this way mate !
This new alien is exactly the one we need to complete the list  8)
Are its eyes totally white because this alien only operates at night ?  ::)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: davide on July 28, 2014, 12:42:53 pm
I am waiting Popper and Hyper Woorm too .... ::)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 29, 2014, 10:43:44 pm
I am waiting Popper and Hyper Woorm too .... ::)
I'm sorry but very probably both won't be in my mod.


The Anthropod-Spitter combo is ready, I could release it as a standalone thing.. even though they are clearly of a different type, compared to the rest of the alien cast.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Daedalus on July 29, 2014, 11:07:23 pm
So much better than the original...
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Aldorn on July 29, 2014, 11:41:25 pm
Miam !  ::)  8)

So Anthropod is the Terrorist unit for Spitter alien race !
So Spitter is the Terrorist unit for Anthropod alien race !

The Anthropod-Spitter combo is ready, I could release it as a standalone thing.. even though they are clearly of a different type, compared to the rest of the alien cast.

I beg your pardon ?

They are exactly what they have to, and fully integrated to the new wave of aliens you designed
I guess vanilla team would have wanted recruiting you (even if you were a small kid at this time  :P)

There was 5 races, there are now 8, it's a +60%, you propose an interesting ROI  :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 30, 2014, 12:14:34 am
Uploaded: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2180.0

Hope everything works, I'm done for today.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on July 31, 2014, 11:41:21 pm
(https://abload.de/img/capture_31072014_002exu81.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_31072014_002exu81.png)
:
- cult soldier
- cult heavy soldier
(yes, the helmets are clearly from the zaku)
- the guys with the beret are corporate security (female one will never be used but it looks good).

Still one batch of these to go.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: guille1434 on August 01, 2014, 12:59:09 am
Excellent work!!  8)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Arthanor on August 01, 2014, 01:07:03 am
Soldiers and guards look awesome! And the new alien pairs? WOW!! I'll download all three and give them a run as I test my mod. When are they supposed to start showing up in the game? (My game just entered March).
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Aldorn on August 01, 2014, 01:07:25 am
Robin, you are just mad, but that's good for all of us  :)

A question about new Anthropod&Spitter alien race

- regarding Spitter terrorist : you gave him sometime alien rank 2, 3, or 4. How will it deal with weapon assignation in alien deployments ? I guess it could cause some issues, but I did not test it yet, as I am still integrating it

- regarding Anthropod : did you have any hidden intention while creating this race so that it has neither leader nor commander ?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 01, 2014, 02:16:19 am
Robin, you are just mad, but that's good for all of us  :)

A question about new Anthropod&Spitter alien race

- regarding Spitter terrorist : you gave him sometime alien rank 2, 3, or 4. How will it deal with weapon assignation in alien deployments ? I guess it could cause some issues, but I did not test it yet, as I am still integrating it

- regarding Anthropod : did you have any hidden intention while creating this race so that it has neither leader nor commander ?
- Yes, Spitters also have other ranks than terrorist ranks. I did a quick battle and I didn't notice any issue.....  So... maybe... it's fine!
... Damn, I don't think I can get away without testing this time  :-X

- Yes, Anthropods are like Mutons, leaderless.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Aldorn on August 01, 2014, 02:40:31 am
Not sure if it may cause an issue or not, but, given that you proceeded differently with waspites and gazers, I prefer to report before forgetting it

Regarding Anthropod's SpriteInv, you did not specified size of image
    width: 320
    height: 200

Sorry, I changed the label so I don't remember yours, also :
under "Armors:" section, have a look at
  - type: ANTHROPOD_ARMOR0
    spriteInv:
then jump to corresponding string under "extraSprites:" section
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 01, 2014, 02:56:34 am
Regarding Anthropod's SpriteInv, you did not specified size of image
    width: 320
    height: 200
Is this required? I'm not using it in my other mods.

Quote
under "Armors:" section, have a look at
  - type: ANTHROPOD_ARMOR0
    spriteInv:
then jump to corresponding string under "extraSprites:" section
My brain already went into off-mode, but I don't understand what you are pointing out, they are both "inventory_ANTHROPOD".
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Aldorn on August 01, 2014, 03:10:15 am
Is this required? I'm not using it in my other mods.
Don't know, perhaps I added it myself to your other races
Do not take care

My brain already went into off-mode, but I don't understand what you are pointing out, they are both "inventory_ANTHROPOD".
yes
I should have made the effort to get it back
I confirm, I was speaking about
Code: [Select]
extraSprites:
  - type: inventory_ANTHROPOD
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/anthropod_alien/inv_ANTHROPOD.gif
that I would have written
Code: [Select]
extraSprites:
  - type: inventory_ANTHROPOD
    width: 320
    height: 200
    singleImage: true
    files:
      0: Resources/anthropod_alien/inv_ANTHROPOD.gif

Don't pay attention, I will integrate it as I think it has to be, then test it, and write somewhere what I think that could cause eventual issue and keep it in case it could be useful for debugging purposes

But your previous alien race mods did not meet so many issues, so let's think it will be same here
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 23, 2014, 11:24:18 pm
(https://abload.de/img/capture_23082014_0025fj5i.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_23082014_0025fj5i.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_23082014_005y5k6i.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_23082014_005y5k6i.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_23082014_00824j7r.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_23082014_00824j7r.png)
(https://abload.de/img/capture_23082014_012abj01.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_23082014_012abj01.png)

Too much time to make maps like this. The others will be more modular.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on August 23, 2014, 11:40:26 pm
It's way cool, man. Way cool.

...But why is your resolution so freaking huge? :P
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on August 24, 2014, 03:20:33 am
(https://abload.de/img/capture_23082014_012abj01.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_23082014_012abj01.png)

Too much time to make maps like this. The others will be more modular.

*drool*

Please tell me you found a way to convert Apocalypse's tilesets to be used in UFO...

Although I actually suspect that you have used old UFO/TFTD tiles with new ones to make those tilesets ;)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 24, 2014, 03:51:58 am
Well the "conversion" method is:
1. look at apoc screenshot and identify the DO WANT tiles;
2. check UFO/TFTD if there are similar tiles to work on;
3. if yes: rip and retouch; if not: draw from scratch.

(I don't know how to rip graphics from Apoc. There should be tool from Bomb Bloke I think, but it's more fun drawing things).
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on August 24, 2014, 04:07:38 am
Well the "conversion" method is:
1. look at apoc screenshot and identify the DO WANT tiles;
2. check UFO/TFTD if there are similar tiles to work on;
3. if yes: rip and retouch; if not: draw from scratch.

(I don't know how to rip graphics from Apoc. There should be tool from Bomb Bloke I think, but it's more fun drawing things).

There is a map editor for Apoc if you want to see the tilesets in detail.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: smexyvami on August 24, 2014, 04:54:14 am
(https://abload.de/img/capture_31072014_002exu81.png) (https://abload.de/image.php?img=capture_31072014_002exu81.png)
:
- cult soldier
- cult heavy soldier
(yes, the helmets are clearly from the zaku)
- the guys with the beret are corporate security (female one will never be used but it looks good).

Still one batch of these to go.
way to be sexist! there are females in the sicurity indistry and armed forses
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 24, 2014, 09:32:23 am
way to be sexist! there are females in the sicurity indistry and armed forses
Currently the only way to have male and female versions of the same unit is by creating TWO separate units.
In the case of corporate security I have only one "unit slot" available, so I have to choose: male or female; I'm going with male.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: smexyvami on August 24, 2014, 12:42:23 pm
Currently the only way to have male and female versions of the same unit is by creating TWO separate units.
In the case of corporate security I have only one "unit slot" available, so I have to choose: male or female; I'm going with male.

 ohh well fair enught :-X
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on August 24, 2014, 02:22:46 pm
Make another faction for the female. :P
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 24, 2014, 02:47:57 pm
Make another faction for the female. :P
Deal. Introducing "Corporate Amazons" and "Females of Sirius" factions.
;D
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on August 24, 2014, 02:58:46 pm
Good!

Now, I was looking at the Zaku suit and had a crazy idea: how about giving it an armoured skirt? I mean something like on this Chaos space Marine model:

(https://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2010/11/26/158705_md-Son%20of%20Bob.JPG)

The main reason is that I think it'd look good on this particular armour, but also as an excuse to give it a better under armour. (No, I certainly do not intend to steal those graphics for my own purposes, and especially not trying to manipulate you into making exactly what I need. Absolutely not.)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 24, 2014, 03:10:00 pm
Well the problem is exactly that skirts (and mantles) are very "warhammer 40K" (or "Mutant Chronicles", which I'm more fond of), and I want to keep the look of my armors as distinctive from those as possible. (Also armors are done-done, not gonna touch them anymore unless something is broken).
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on August 24, 2014, 03:37:08 pm
Deal. Introducing "Corporate Amazons" and "Females of Sirius" factions.
;D

Or the "Virgins of Sirius" :D

Man, I really wish I could draw tiles as good as yours! :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on August 24, 2014, 04:21:25 pm
Well the problem is exactly that skirts (and mantles) are very "warhammer 40K" (or "Mutant Chronicles", which I'm more fond of), and I want to keep the look of my armors as distinctive from those as possible. (Also armors are done-done, not gonna touch them anymore unless something is broken).

I don't think armoured skirts are so strongly associated with WH40K and MC (yes, I like it too, even the movie wasn't nearly as bad as the rumour says), but I guess it's hard to gauge just like that. Anyway, I understand your concerns.

Would you hold it against me if I made someone else do this tried to do it myself?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Vulgar Monkey on August 24, 2014, 11:36:06 pm
If you look at medieval armour or even modern kevlar, there's actually several usable design of 'skirt' or crotch protection (ahem) that allow for varying mobility or protection. Personally I think they all look fairly obstructive but if you want a big tanky suit then limited mobility is usually in keeping with that, so it'd be a good way of communicating it visually. Probably the hardest part is doing them in a way that looks practical but not overly 'ornate', due to the usual association with fantasy armours.

Also 'females of sirius' sounds like some kind of top shelf special interest magazine. :D
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: smexyvami on August 25, 2014, 04:02:18 pm
If you look at medieval armour or even modern kevlar, there's actually several usable design of 'skirt' or crotch protection (ahem) that allow for varying mobility or protection. Personally I think they all look fairly obstructive but if you want a big tanky suit then limited mobility is usually in keeping with that, so it'd be a good way of communicating it visually. Probably the hardest part is doing them in a way that looks practical but not overly 'ornate', due to the usual association with fantasy armours.

Also 'females of sirius' sounds like some kind of top shelf special interest magazine. :D

Battle sister! . viking Valkyrie!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: ivandogovich on August 25, 2014, 08:49:01 pm
Tagging in late here... but those Apocalypse-esque maps are Beautiful!  Nice Work!
Cheers, Ivan :D
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 26, 2014, 03:05:47 pm
Would you hold it against me if I made someone else do this tried to do it myself?
No problem, but it will still take some time before I release something.


Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Mustang on August 28, 2014, 04:30:28 am
Man the MiB tanks are murder. I eventually ran out of rockets and ended up losing the mission because none of my other weapons seemed to even put a dent in them.
I really like the mods! Never thought X-Com could feel so fresh
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: XCOMFan419 on August 28, 2014, 04:53:49 am
Yeah. I had a Tank/Plasma Cannon from my own Tanks, Drones, Sectopods? Oh my! engage an MiB tank. Needless to say, we all know who won that engagement.

But it was pretty cool if I may say so. Kinda makes me wish for recording equipment. It was an epic battle.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on August 31, 2014, 11:17:57 pm
Robin, can you please tell me how you ripped these graphics from the Apocalypse tilesets? I've tried several tools and all of them failed.
Or better yet, is there a repository of unpacked files?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on August 31, 2014, 11:20:51 pm
I haven't ripped them, I re-drew them from scratch looking at the screenshots.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Dioxine on August 31, 2014, 11:28:04 pm
I re-drew them from scratch looking at the screenshots.

Mother of God. I am in sheer awe.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: smexyvami on August 31, 2014, 11:32:11 pm
I haven't ripped them, I re-drew them from scratch looking at the screenshots.

 art master
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on August 31, 2014, 11:48:39 pm
OK, same here. Hands down.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Sturm on September 01, 2014, 01:13:27 am
Wow.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 03, 2014, 12:17:47 am
some more
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: smexyvami on September 03, 2014, 02:39:51 am
when is leo mobil suit armor :P and gundom wepons beem swords ect
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on September 03, 2014, 06:17:36 pm
some more

They seem pretty accurate representations of the Temple of Sirius maps. However, one thing I've started noticing is that the individual tiles look too blocky/geometrical.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 04, 2014, 12:19:13 pm
They seem pretty accurate representations of the Temple of Sirius maps. However, one thing I've started noticing is that the individual tiles look too blocky/geometrical.
Yeah I'm making some modifications that hopefully will reduce this effect.
Having to draw things using so few pixel makes several things easier, but you can also end up with indecipherable clusters of pixels :-X
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: LeBashar on September 05, 2014, 12:32:20 pm
Robin, I try to modify your holodrone unit for making it able to respawn (the first shot laser, and the respawned shot explosive) but I don't known how to add picture. While you have already made it for spitter, surely you know what I must to add to the sprite sheet work make this work ?

My ruleset work with the zombie sprites, but crash with the holodrone's.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 05, 2014, 12:38:24 pm
You have to make second holodrone unit with the abilities you want, then you give the first unit the respawn ability, linking it to that second unit you added.
Look at how the zombie unit respawns into a chryssalid, in the default 'Xcom1Ruleset.rul'.

Ops, didn't read last sentence. Mmmh maybe the problem is a wrong drawingRoutine?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: skymarshall on September 05, 2014, 01:56:20 pm
Really like all your new sprites!  They're really professionally done

Microprose should have employed you back in the 90s :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: LeBashar on September 05, 2014, 03:14:53 pm
Quote
Ops, didn't read last sentence. Mmmh maybe the problem is a wrong drawingRoutine?

It's clearly a graphical problem, but I don't know how it's work.

for now I have this :
Code: [Select]
- type: HOLODRONE_ARMOR
    spriteSheet: HOLODRONE.PCK
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_HOLODRONE_CORPSE
    frontArmor: 70
    sideArmor: 70
    rearArmor: 70
    underArmor: 70
    drawingRoutine: 8
    movementType: 1
    damageModifier:
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 0.0
      - 1.0
      - 2.2
      - 0.0
    loftempsSet: [ 4 ]

And the game crash when the holodrone2 respawn (the holodrone2 have the same armor, maybe it's the problem ? )
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 05, 2014, 03:37:17 pm
It's clearly a graphical problem, but I don't know how it's work.
[...]

My 'child' Spitter uses different armor than its 'parent' because it looks different (shell-less). I don't think using the same armor is the cause of the issue, but you can quickly make another armor by duplicating the original one, to test if that's the case.

I didn't have any problem with the Spitter spawning; I also remember making a Reaper spawn a Chryssalid for testing purposes, without issue (was quite some time ago though).
Theoretically, just adding this line:

    spawnUnit: STR_HOLODRONE2_TERRORIST (or whatever you call it)

at the bottom of your parent unit, in the "units" section, should be enough to make the whole thing work (well, you also have to create the child unit of course).
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: LeBashar on September 05, 2014, 04:00:46 pm
I've tested it, but whatever the unit I choose in spawnunit:, nothing work. Even "spawnUnit: STR_HOLODRONE_TERRORIST"

But the spritesheet of holodrone don't count many pictures, and have nothing about the spawn like zombie's or soldier's ones, this can be the problem ?

If I give to the holodrone the armor of zombie, all the rulseset work perfectly.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Dioxine on September 05, 2014, 04:20:42 pm
@LeBashar:
To avoid crashes, you need to add spawning animation to any unit that spawns another unit (starts in the same place on the spritesheet as normal death animation, requires as many frames as the deathFrames parametre, analyze STR_SNAKEMAN_ENGINEER entry & COS_2.png in Piratez for reference), like the flesh coming off a Zombie and a Chryssalid coming out frames are a part of Zombie's spritesheet. Otherwise you might try setting deathFrames to 0. Hope it helps
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 05, 2014, 04:33:42 pm
@LeBashar:
To avoid crashes, you need to add spawning animation to any unit that spawns another unit (starts in the same place on the spritesheet as normal death animation, requires as many frames as the deathFrames parametre, analyze STR_SNAKEMAN_ENGINEER entry & COS_2.png in Piratez for reference), like the flesh coming off a Zombie and a Chryssalid coming out frames are a part of Zombie's spritesheet. Otherwise you might try setting deathFrames to 0. Hope it helps
This wasn't in the ruleset when I did my spawning things. For example when I made a Chryssalid spawn from a Reaper, it worked  just by adding the "spawnUnit" entry ( then it simply "waited", with the Repaer already dead, for the missing respawn frames, untill the Chryss materialized out of thin air). It could be possible that my Spitter, lacking all this new stuff, makes the OXC nightly versions crash.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: LeBashar on September 05, 2014, 07:15:09 pm
I've made more tests and the holodrone spawn as robin describe, if I made it from any unit another. There is no animation or picture but it's work. Just for holodrone, it crash.

I have found nothing about "deathframes" in the ruleset reference, how does it work exactly ? with add of deathFrames: 0, game still crash.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 06, 2014, 12:35:06 am
Is there a limit to the number of enemy units spawnable into a map? (The original game had a limit IIRC, like 36 or something).

Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on September 06, 2014, 04:16:24 am
Is there a limit to the number of enemy units spawnable into a map? (The original game had a limit IIRC, like 36 or something).

The limit on the original game was related to the total number of objects (including XCom and alien units) that could be present in a map, which was limited to 256 entries. I don't know the actual limits for the alien units/objects though, but during base defense missions it was common for the game to spawn aliens without any weapons since they had reached the limit.

In any case, the 256 limit has been removed on OXC since you have no apparent limit on the number of objects you can bring on the Skyranger. One big issue however, is that with the vanilla maps the battlescape may not have enough active spawn points for all the aliens that it is supposed to generate, which it then generates on passive (with spawn set to 0) spawn points. This can also happen in Base Defense missions, and the result is aliens being spawn on Living Quarters or any other place that you thought defended.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Falko on September 06, 2014, 04:24:21 am
One big issue however, is that with the vanilla maps the battlescape may not have enough active spawn points for all the aliens that it is supposed to generate, which it then generates on passive (with spawn set to 0) spawn points. This can also happen in Base Defense missions, and the result is aliens being spawn on Living Quarters or any other place that you thought defended.
<Falko>i thought https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1885.msg31529#msg31529 is not true
<SupSuper>that was true in the original. dunno about openxcom
<Warboy>untrue
<Warboy>the patch fixes the spawn points in bases
<Warboy>there was a "large terror unit" spawn point in the general stores
<Warboy>probably one or two others as well, but it doesn't occur in openxcom

Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on September 06, 2014, 02:57:51 pm
<Falko>i thought https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1885.msg31529#msg31529 is not true
<SupSuper>that was true in the original. dunno about openxcom
<Warboy>untrue
<Warboy>the patch fixes the spawn points in bases
<Warboy>there was a "large terror unit" spawn point in the general stores
<Warboy>probably one or two others as well, but it doesn't occur in openxcom

Thanks for clearing this up.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: guille1434 on September 08, 2014, 04:04:26 am
Hello! I don't know if this is the correct thread to report this, but... I think there is a small glitch in the Men in Black mod... I am playing (and enjoying) a game of OpenX-Com with the FMP mod, and I saw some times when going in a misiion against the MiB, there is a "MiB Demonman" that has a heavy Cannon as armament but no ammo at all for it... may be there is something that can be done to fix this?
Thanks!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 08, 2014, 11:20:16 am
Hello! I don't know if this is the correct thread to report this, but... I think there is a small glitch in the Men in Black mod... I am playing (and enjoying) a game of OpenX-Com with the FMP mod, and I saw some times when going in a misiion against the MiB, there is a "MiB Demonman" that has a heavy Cannon as armament but no ammo at all for it... may be there is something that can be done to fix this?
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback.
I have noticed that sometimes a MiB spawns without a weapon. But I don't know why and I don't know how to fix it.

Regarding the heavy cannon ammo, they all seem to be in. I just controlled quickly because I don't have time now. I don't know about FMP tough because I'm not its author.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on September 08, 2014, 06:18:33 pm
As the FMP developer, I can assure you all MiBs have properly defined equipment when it comes to the Heavy Cannon. Therefore the problem lies elsewhere.

Would you have a save available, or at least tell me what was the MiB craft/mission?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: NoelBuddy on September 11, 2014, 07:35:23 pm
Forgive me if I'm bringing up an idea that's already been discussed, but I was looking at the MIB mod thinking about how I'd like to integrate it into my rulesets/plot line and was thinking there should be missions where you face both MIB and Aliens. 

Towards this purpose I'm putting together a few mission sets that will feature mixed race groups.  First I wanted to put together a set of "fake" sorties which will feature sporadic UFOs which will look like just another wave in a vanilla mission, but if it's brought down there will be MIB there by the time the skyranger arrives. Once I figure out this map making system I'd like to make expanded landing sites for these UFOs to include the MIB craft that responded to the crash.

Also thinking about alien meeting or ambassador missions, but haven't really worked on that idea yet, and am not sure how exactly I'd handle the possibility of them being shot down...

Here's the version 0.01 ruleset for what I'm thinking anyhow, requires basic MIB mod to run.

Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: NoelBuddy on September 11, 2014, 07:50:22 pm
I have noticed that sometimes a MiB spawns without a weapon. But I don't know why and I don't know how to fix it.

This may have to do with the soldiers being in the rank 6 spot in the race list, most races reserve the last two ranks for terror units so if they happen to use another mission deployment there is a chance to get a bunch of unarmed agents wandering around.  I confirmed this behavior by starting a terror battle with them as the opponent, haven't seen this in general gameplay tho.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: guille1434 on September 11, 2014, 08:03:55 pm
As the FMP developer, I can assure you all MiBs have properly defined equipment when it comes to the Heavy Cannon. Therefore the problem lies elsewhere.

Would you have a save available, or at least tell me what was the MiB craft/mission?

Hi Solarius! If I am not mistaken, the MiB craft was a downed MiB Transporter II and the mission was MiB Cover-Up

By the way, just a suggestion: Would you or the modder that made that very nice enemy faction consider implementing a stronger variant of MiB race for the late game? When facing and advanced and fully equipped X-Com squad (with Power or Flying suits, and plasma wepons) they are no match!

Thanks for the attention!  8)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on September 12, 2014, 10:00:37 am
By the way, just a suggestion: Would you or the modder that made that very nice enemy faction consider implementing a stronger variant of MiB race for the late game? When facing and advanced and fully equipped X-Com squad (with Power or Flying suits, and plasma wepons) they are no match!

Thanks for the attention!  8)

I don't think Robin has any further plans for this mod (Star Gods bless him if he does), but I could think of something. :-)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: guille1434 on September 12, 2014, 03:29:13 pm
That would be great Mr. Solarius! Right now, I am in a play test, and yes I made the game too looong on purpose (I am at Aug, 2000 I think) and the MiB missions are easy ones where X-Com can go and grab some easy Elerium from that guys... To give MiB a chance to give a stronger defense would be really, really great and fun!  8)

Just an idea: May be making MiB men more resistant (or nearly/totally impervious) to mind control?  If possible, giving them some armor type which boost their Psi Strenght in mid/late game... Or to change the race stats giving them higher Psi Strenght for that game stages...
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Solarius Scorch on September 12, 2014, 05:08:43 pm
I don't think making them more psi resistant would be justified, because why would they be. Perhaps I'll copy Dioxine and just give the Psi-Amp limited range.

As for the MiB, just making a second race with Power Armours and maybe hovertanks would be  best.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: pkrcel on September 12, 2014, 05:44:32 pm
I don't think making them more psi resistant would be justified, because why would they be. Perhaps I'll copy Dioxine and just give the Psi-Amp limited range.

Sorry for going OT...how has Dioxine linmited the Psi-Amp Range? Do you think it would be possible to do the same to the Aline PSI weapon?

Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: guille1434 on September 12, 2014, 08:31:42 pm
I don't think making them more psi resistant would be justified, because why would they be. Perhaps I'll copy Dioxine and just give the Psi-Amp limited range.

As for the MiB, just making a second race with Power Armours and maybe hovertanks would be  best.

I don't know, may be Aliens discovered a way to protect human brains from being controlled by other human brains, and give the necessary info and gedgets to its human "allies"? :-)

But the two ideas you propose are very good, I specially like the one about limiting the psi amp range... How could it be done?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Dioxine on September 12, 2014, 09:00:01 pm
As simply as adding maxRange to the Psi Amp item. I'd suggest a value below sight range (20). Should work for the alien psi weapon too, but IMO their psi abilities do not need a nerf.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: pkrcel on September 12, 2014, 11:45:54 pm
I'd simply like they could do like the humans, namely they can't retain targetability on a tropper that has been spotted ONCE.

This causes all the most difficult situations in which a single mind control snowballs in a mess, since Aliens may uncover ALL your positions as soon as turn (say) 3 and then *never* forget.

I know vanilla plays like this but (to me) it s serious unfun that once spotted there's no way to get out of that crap....I do not like to play without possibilities, had there been a countermeasure that I fail to employ or some hard tactic....it would be different.

Of course once psi aware you can select & train soldier that weather down psi attack very well, and in turn make the game crazy easy with psi attacks.....having a specular handling of psi powers could do the trick for a while but once you have a ocuple superhumans the tide is on your side anyway.

Limiting Alien psi range may "mimic" the fact that while still out of the UFO only a few aliens could be able to psi-attack you.

Breaching the UFO still, would still provide quite a challenge.

Too bad that's hardcoded, I'd really like to try alien psi that plays like the psi-amp (or as I call it the "everywhere sniper").



Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on September 13, 2014, 11:27:39 am
I don't think Robin has any further plans for this mod (Star Gods bless him if he does), but I could think of something. :-)
This.

Mod is done in my POV. Sure it could potentially be expanded crazily if I wanted to.
I have to add the Russian translation, and I'll keep bug fixing/balancing it, but that's it.  And right now I don't have time to breathe.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on October 04, 2014, 09:06:20 pm
(https://a.pomf.se/yzdexn.png)
(https://a.pomf.se/pvyfia.png)

This alien exists thanks to Gifty.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: new_civilian on October 06, 2014, 11:56:42 am
Awesome!  :o
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on October 26, 2014, 11:28:13 pm
(https://a.pomf.se/sjxhtx.gif)
1000 hours in photoshop.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: NoelBuddy on October 27, 2014, 05:51:46 pm
 :o Pretty!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: XOps on October 28, 2014, 01:31:18 am
1000 hours in photoshop.

Sounds about right. Adding new craft battlescape graphics into the game is insanely hard.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Falko on October 28, 2014, 03:09:18 am
yeah new maptiles seems to be a lot of work
recoloring existing PCK files is easy in comparision the 3 attached zipfiles took like 2 minutes
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on October 28, 2014, 12:22:01 pm
Sounds about right. Adding new craft battlescape graphics into the game is insanely hard.
Indeed. New crafts should really be made by 3D artists; I'm almost tempted to learn some 3D tool myself, it would be much easier (and way better result) to draw them, Apocalypse's crafts are mostly made of simple shapes. You just have to render deactivating the perspective (AFAIK it should be possible).

I'm going to use UFO walls; I'm just trying to come up with new, Apocalypse-style, noses, but turning off "perspective" in my brain and minding the tiles (be sure that things fit reasonably within them), is damn hard.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: XOps on October 28, 2014, 04:12:46 pm
Indeed. New crafts should really be made by 3D artists; I'm almost tempted to learn some 3D tool myself, it would be much easier (and way better result) to draw them, Apocalypse's crafts are mostly made of simple shapes. You just have to render deactivating the perspective (AFAIK it should be possible).

I'm going to use UFO walls; I'm just trying to come up with new, Apocalypse-style, noses, but turning off "perspective" in my brain and minding the tiles (be sure that things fit reasonably within them), is damn hard.

I can recommend Sketchup. It's free and pretty easy to learn. That's what I used to make a new craft (see pic below, though it still needs some touch ups). The hard part is chopping up the 3D model in photoshop. Perspective is kind of tricky, but the ISO view got it close enough and the rest was touched up in photoshop. Taking it apart though and turning it into tiles is really freaking hard.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on October 28, 2014, 04:22:54 pm
Woah, you're good.
I actually thought about Sketchup too; I tried it once when it was still Google's, it's indeed easy but I'm also totally noob about 3D.
I don't know, I think I'll probably keep drawing them directly 2D :-\.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: NoelBuddy on October 28, 2014, 05:41:23 pm
I can recommend Sketchup. It's free and pretty easy to learn. That's what I used to make a new craft (see pic below, though it still needs some touch ups). The hard part is chopping up the 3D model in photoshop. Perspective is kind of tricky, but the ISO view got it close enough and the rest was touched up in photoshop. Taking it apart though and turning it into tiles is really freaking hard.

And now my using an isometric rendered video game as an excuse to practice 3d drawing comes full circle.. er full sphere rather.  Like the work, any recommendations for someone who's comfortable using sketchUp but hasn't attempted anything like this before?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: XOps on October 28, 2014, 07:38:35 pm
And now my using an isometric rendered video game as an excuse to practice 3d drawing comes full circle.. er full sphere rather.  Like the work, any recommendations for someone who's comfortable using sketchUp but hasn't attempted anything like this before?

If you are trying to make something as complex as the craft I did, then my only advice is be insane  :P. Out of all the things i modded, adding that craft was the absolute hardest thing I have ever done in terms of XCom modding. The most difficult part was trying to wrap my brain around what part of the craft was at what level on the battlescape. Otherwise I would advise making sure that parallel projection is active in the Camera menu and then activating the ISO view. This gets you very close to the battlescape's perspective. However even then you will need to make some adjustments in photoshop Other than that, try to keep the model very basic. Most details are going to be lost when shrank down to XCom resolution anyway. Best just keep it simple.

Woah, you're good.
I actually thought about Sketchup too; I tried it once when it was still Google's, it's indeed easy but I'm also totally noob about 3D.
I don't know, I think I'll probably keep drawing them directly 2D :-\.

I would still recommend playing with 3D modelling. Even if you don't use it directly, it's a great tool to figure out lighting and perspective. I also use it for concept design. I think 3D would be great tool if you give it chance. Regardless your stuff will be awesome anyways. It always is  :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: NoelBuddy on October 28, 2014, 07:45:58 pm
...then my only advice is be insane  :P

EXCELLENT!! That's my chief qualification!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on November 03, 2014, 02:00:15 am
Still looking quite messy.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: jackstraw2323 on November 03, 2014, 03:59:41 am
@LeBashar:
To avoid crashes, you need to add spawning animation to any unit that spawns another unit (starts in the same place on the spritesheet as normal death animation, requires as many frames as the deathFrames parametre, analyze STR_SNAKEMAN_ENGINEER entry & COS_2.png in Piratez for reference), like the flesh coming off a Zombie and a Chryssalid coming out frames are a part of Zombie's spritesheet. Otherwise you might try setting deathFrames to 0. Hope it helps

This seems like the most apropriate place to ask. I've been working on this for a mod, and while I can get it partially working there are a couple of issues.

1. Specab: 3 for the unit indicates it should respawn. However, turning this on means that the original unit doesn't appear. I.E. i never see the zombie, it just goes straight to the crysalid.
2. If I swap out the spawn unit for the zombie, the unit will spawn, but the game will crash on turn end. Has anyone else had luck recently with this behavior? Is there some missing setting I'm not getting?
EDIT: It would seem that the model provided by the Zombie unit works provided you make the spawned unit a live_terrorist and give it a built in weapon. Still not sure about the respawn behavior at this time.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: new_civilian on November 03, 2014, 12:09:36 pm
Still looking quite messy.
Boy, those are cool!  8)

Make sure you release them once you consider them unmessy!  ;D
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on November 09, 2014, 10:44:34 pm
just a couple of little fixes and the industrial tileset is finally dooneeeeeeeeaaarrrrgh
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on November 09, 2014, 11:01:42 pm
another one two three
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on November 16, 2014, 07:03:01 pm
Battlescape assembled (randomly, like any usual battlescape):


Edit:
Anything larger than 10x10 is automatically considered a "Large Block", in relation to map generation?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: davide on November 17, 2014, 12:30:34 am
for OpenXCom 1.0  large block are only 20x20

Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: HotIceHilda on November 18, 2014, 01:54:14 am
New crafts look interesting, in the future if you improve you should try to make the XCOM craft shown in the intro. You would of thought someone would already made a mod of it. Also, have you implemented the ability to research Cydonia or Bust from a gazer commander or cover alien commander  yet?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on November 24, 2014, 12:57:24 am
Cult maps look definitely more messy than warehouse.
Guess I'll have to use map scripting to improve them.

Now I just to go over all the ruleset again, fill all the holes, playtest a bit, .. argh
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on December 09, 2014, 10:48:15 am
with map scripting i can now basically make apocalypse maps (not exactly 1:1 but whatever).


Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on December 13, 2014, 09:25:05 pm
lol
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Warboy1982 on December 13, 2014, 11:57:52 pm
i made superhuman spawn ALL units, regardless of spawn node availability. The extras get placed "near a friend" of equal or greater size.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on December 14, 2014, 12:20:08 am
Yeah I suspected it was because there were too many units for the map. Was fun finding them all lined up :P
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Yankes on December 14, 2014, 01:17:48 am
this maps are epic. Look better than original ones.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on December 30, 2014, 01:42:36 am
Looks like a mass is going on down there, there's a psiclone on the altar too: psychedelic mass.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: ivandogovich on December 30, 2014, 02:21:17 am
Damn, sweet Robin!  8)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: volutar on December 30, 2014, 08:52:32 am
Robin I think you should show how smoke animation looks, either video or gif. For my taste it looks very promising and more pleasant than vanilla. Though those checkered patterns layered from different Z levels won't get any more "dense", it still be kept "mild" comparing to heavy vanilla patches.
And I don't know which version are you using, but 1.0 has a flaw - it doesn't shade smoke patches with terrain. It was fixed long ago in the nightlies.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on December 30, 2014, 10:43:42 am
Smoke is not animated actually; though the game moves/switches it around (from density 2 to 3) and the final effect is decent.. I think. Frankly smoke wasn't "scheduled" for modification, I had to do it because otherwise the swarm alien would have been invisible in vanilla smoke. Layered density is still partly visible but, yeah, the final look of it is not as heavy as vanilla's (though vanilla smoke wasn't meant to be layered, IIRC it was flat like explosions.

Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: volutar on December 30, 2014, 01:19:44 pm
robin, if you will make smoke animated, but kept with same checkered pattern (for any frame), it won't cause "full obstruction".
I feel like its style can be really neat. GL with finishing that.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Duke_Falcon on January 07, 2015, 11:14:40 am
Hi!

Robin, do you need Brainsucker sprites? I made one for Venomtoad of Alien Navy mod (under strong and early development). If you like that you are free to use!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on January 07, 2015, 11:46:04 am
Hi!

Robin, do you need Brainsucker sprites? I made one for Venomtoad of Alien Navy mod (under strong and early development). If you like that you are free to use!
Thank you very much, but I'm changing the alien life forms tree and I dropped Brainsuckers in the process.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on January 10, 2015, 02:25:49 pm
Last craft.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on January 10, 2015, 05:20:51 pm
Robin, those new Apocalypse inspired maps are insanely good looking. Are you thinking of converting Apocalypse to OpenXCom?

One suggestion though would be not to deploy the Skyranger/Valkyrie on building maps but instead use spawn points and exit areas. From my experience in testing getting the map block of the craft to fit with a 4 level height map block doesn't work that good in visual terms. And you could still use the Valkyrie map block in UFO assaults.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: ivandogovich on January 10, 2015, 05:27:19 pm
Robin, the things that you do with the capabilities of this engine simply amaze me!  That craft is awesome!!
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on January 10, 2015, 06:10:48 pm
Robin, those new Apocalypse inspired maps are insanely good looking. Are you thinking of converting Apocalypse to OpenXCom?

One suggestion though would be not to deploy the Skyranger/Valkyrie on building maps but instead use spawn points and exit areas. From my experience in testing getting the map block of the craft to fit with a 4 level height map block doesn't work that good in visual terms. And you could still use the Valkyrie map block in UFO assaults.
It's more of a tribute to apocalypse visual design and setting, than a conversion; I have many different-personal things.

Buildings maps already do not deploy crafts. On temples the agents are spawned in that room with the greek-like columns, that you can see in the screen above; on warehouses they are spawned on the roof, around a big 3x3 grav lift.

Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on January 14, 2015, 02:12:31 am
Robotanks (left to right): plasma, rocket, laser.
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: ivandogovich on January 14, 2015, 02:26:57 am
I wanna see the boomeroid graphics! :)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: shadics on January 17, 2015, 09:28:41 am
OMG!
extreme good work dude!!  ;D
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on January 17, 2015, 03:25:41 pm
Robotanks (left to right): plasma, rocket, laser.

I think that pink color doesn't combine that good with the rest of the terrain. Have you tried making the Annihilator craft more red, like its picture on the UFOPedia screen?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on January 17, 2015, 03:42:49 pm
I think that pink color doesn't combine that good with the rest of the terrain. Have you tried making the Annihilator craft more red, like its picture on the UFOPedia screen?
Urban terrain will be completely replaced in the future; that red shouldn't look so out of place anymore then.
Anyway that's the only red available in the palette; the next one available is just plain orange (much more orange than ufopaedia picture).
There's nothing I can do, if I try to avoid the pink-ish highlight tones of the red, the stuff loses to much contrast and becomes too flat and too dark.


Alien rocket launcher with autofire:
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Hobbes on January 17, 2015, 03:53:55 pm
Anyway that's the only red available in the palette; the next one available is just plain orange (much more orange than ufopaedia picture).
There's nothing I can do, if I try to avoid the pink-ish highlight tones of the red, the stuff loses to much contrast and becomes too flat and too dark.

What about the red used on the Muton Commander mod?

(https://www.openxcom.com/content/modimages/thumb_VLKPLRXJ062420140133.png)
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: Mackus on January 17, 2015, 04:45:07 pm
Damn, those are some good weapon and armour graphics. Any chance they get released?
Title: Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing
Post by: robin on January 17, 2015, 04:47:50 pm
What about the red used on the Muton Commander mod?

(https://www.openxcom.com/content/modimages/thumb_VLKPLRXJ062420140133.png)
It's the same red, it just avoids using the pinkish highlights because it starts from a darker shade and the lighter parts of the figure use different colors (alloy grey for shoulder pad and purple for face).
The current use of the red I'm using is the one that gave me, for my taste, the best result visually, despite the pink. That muton for example is too dark; it's still fine in its case because the red part is not glossy and uses a relatively limited range of shades of red. But for a glossier thing fully red (like the craft or the tank), it uses a wider range of shades of the color to achieve the correct looking contrast: if you use a relatively dark shade for your highlights (to avoid the pink), then the shadows will end up using very dark shades of red (blackish) and the resulting will look too dark, like the object has an incorrect lighting compared to its surroundings.

I hope I described the issue correctly, my English is far form excellent.

I could darken the sides of the tank so it looks less pink (and a little better overall) but frankly this retouch would have a priority so low that.. it's just better to leave it be.

Damn, those are some good weapon and armour graphics. Any chance they get released?
Well, I made them to release them :P, they're just not ready yet.