OpenXcom Forum
Modding => Released Mods => The X-Com Files => Topic started by: Solarius Scorch on September 21, 2014, 02:27:54 pm
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This thread is (for now) a developer notes thing, meant for the presentation and possibly consultation of a future project that I'm thinking of.
I am currently the sole developer of the Final Mod Pack (https://www.openxcom.com/mod/final-mod-pack), a project meant to include as much community content as possible while maintaining everything vanilla as it was (with small exceptions). I am also planning on discontinuing the project in the near future, most likely after TFTD comes out.
Now, I certainly have not gotten bored with the FMP or anything like that. Actually, it's quite the opposite: it has reached a stage where it's become too constricting for many of my ideas. The FMP is meant to preserve the vanilla feel in most regards, and I would like to do some more radical changes to the game; make it longer, bigger and more intricate, but not tedious. And this can only be done by changing a game's general design, otherwise you can only add so much new content before it turns into a pile of random crap. Besides, this project will likely require additions to the code, which is something I wouldn't accept in the FMP.
TL;DR: I am going to increase the scope of the game to make room for more factions, research, fluff and items, but primarily to present a richer storyline (but without any railroading). Details below.
WHAT WILL THIS FMP+ BE?
In short, it moves the game time back into late 90's, before any serious invasion begins, but when some alien-related activities are already underway: strange happenings, secret cults, UFO sightings. This early X-Com is not a military organization yet, just a secret organization (under)funded by the UN to investigate events that may be related to aliens; basically, global X-Files. As the game progresses, X-Com gradually becomes what we know from the vanilla game and the playstyle changes according to research, time flow and special event triggers.
The general flow of the campaign is planned to look like this:
Phase 1: The Agency
X-Com agents do not have access to actual military equipment, because they're more detectives than soldiers. Their objectives are to react to phenomena around the world, investigate and subdue any resistance.
Their enemies are mostly cultists (as of now, 4 different factions with varied types of connections to the aliens), the hybrids, later Men in Black (which would be extremely powerful in comparison at this stage) and if you're (un)lucky, an occasional Sectoid.
Equipment? No military guns (except what you capture from the enemies, who mostly aren't very well-equipped either), no tanks, no uniforms (formal suits FTW). No access to radars (but there will be a Command Centre, which will act like a very crappy radar with global coverage via gathering reports), no fighters. The X-Com agency gains access to one VTOL vehicle, which is essentially a smaller and much slower (500 knots?) version of the Skyranger, and may also buy helicopters which are even poorer in stats. (I thought about ground vehicles too, but haven't found a reliable way of adding them - maybe via a transport craft which in itself isn't fit for landing near an investigation site?) Better build more bases ASAP, because those cultists on the other side of the world won't wait on you. Oh, and you can only build surface bases (see below).
Phase 2: The UFO Defence
This stage is pretty much the starting point of the vanilla game. Advancing to this stage requires completing a number of research projects which essentially serve to expose the entirety of the threat to the UN to convince them to give you more privileges, like authorisation to officially use military equipment. Of course, the transition is smooth: the point of getting these privileges may come before or after such things like developing the Skyranger design or getting access to actual underground bases.
Phase 3: ?
There are many possibilities of what to do with the X-Com project after conquering Cydonia, and all of the remain pure fantasies at this point. Travelling a galaxy map to explore and fight on various planets of the alien empire? Preparing for a second wave of the attack, now more serious? Some transition to TFTD (assuming a hybrid game would not be possible)? This phase is here just for show, really; I don't have any concrete plans.
WHAT CODE CHANGES ARE REQUIRED?
First off, I am not a coder, and will be unable to code this myself (until I learn C++ in record time). But many of the required changes were already proposed or even committed though, so I think it's realistic to hope for them to happen. If they don't make it to the main code, it should be easy for most programmers on this forum to include them in a branch (like OpenXCom Extended (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=2915.0), which is a very promising project). And those that haven't been coded by anyone yet, they look fairly easy to do to my layman eye, if a kind soul agrees to actually do it.
1. Geoscape events.
By this I mean events that are generated on the Geoscape and are not UFOs, like the Alien Terror mission. They may or may not be automatically shown to the player, I think we'll need both cases. This will almost certainly be included in the code, since TFTD requires this; let's just hope it won't be hard-coded. And OpenXCom Extended reportedly has it already to some degree.
2. Missions unlockable at a certain time, or after a special event.
Right now, if you code a mission into the game, it'll become possible from month 1. This is no good, since I don't want to see many alien missions before the invasion develops! Fortunately, the code that makes this possible is already written, just not included in the main branch.
If it's possible, we could also make some missions triggerable by some special event on the players' part, for example disabling Alien Retaliation until the local cult is destroyed or seriously crippled. This would require much more work though, and I do not consider it critical at this point.
3. Killing off one faction, or making mission chances dependant on time or special event.
At the beginning, you'll be fighting several human factions, with little to no aliens. But once the alien war starts for real, I would like these faction to completely or mostly fade into background, since they probably won't be much of a threat anymore. Therefore I want these factions (well, races in game terms) to be completely destroyed if you manage to research and complete a "Cult HQ or Bust" mission, or at least make them less active over time (so that cult missions appear less often). I am not aware of any piece of code that does either of these two.
4. Surface bases.
Complex, expensive underground bases would be unsuitable for a mostly civilian organization like an early X-Com. A surface base works similarly, but it is composed of normal buildings on an open ground. Such a base is much cheaper to build and maintain, but also hard to defend, since the aliens spawn everywhere, and some facilities can't be built there.
I am not aware of such code, but I don't think it'd be too complex - just add a second base type to choose, and enable underground bases to be researched/unlocked by something else. And making the new graphics would be necessary, but this isn't a problem - there are many resources we can use, and more can be produced.
An additional idea is to enable a two-stage base defense for underground bases, where at first you can fight the aliens on the ground. The aliens will try to get to the buildings which lead below the earth (above the hangars and the lift), and you would get a chance to stop them there, but fighting such a battle would be harder. Any alien that reaches the exit point is removed from the mission and will be spawned in the underground base defence part; the same goes for your own units. This idea is just a fantasy though, since it'd be hard to code and a hell to balance properly.
5. More bases, region-dependant bases.
While I think 8 bases are more than enough for the vanilla game, perhaps it won't be enough for the FMP+. I am not sure about this, but I'll include this condition to remain on the safe side.
Perhaps base slots would be unlockable by research, to represent growing political influence?
Perhaps each slot/some slots can be assigned to a country/region, to represent political arrangements within the UN?
6. Race-dependant loadouts (alienDeployments).
It's already a problem in the current version of the FMP: any race that attacks your base has the same equipment (plasmas etc.), because equipment is assigned by mission, not by race. This means that you can't make a faction that uses different equipment. It's the same problem with terror missions and pretty much any other mission, for example every UFO has the same crew and the same armoury. This makes things especially problematic for this project, since I want human factions to be able to do standard missions (like X-Com base assault), and not giving them plasmas. I am not aware of such code and this is probably the most complex change of all ideas here (excluding those which are explicitly marked as just fantasies).
7. Un-hardcoding UFO types from certain missions.
Right now, only Battleships can make base assaults, and only Terror Ships can terrorize the population. Since I want human factions to do both of these, we would have to be able to define this by ruleset. (And it would be nice to have in the normal game too.) I don't know if anyone has done this.
8. Separating item access in the shop from item usability.
Last but not least, there is the problem with the store: the only way to remove an item from the store is to give it a "requires:" flag, which makes it dependant on a particular research. Unfortunately, this means that this item will appear to you as an Alien Artifact and you won't be able to use it on the battlefield - if you can't buy a rifle, you can't use a rifle! This would have to be separated somehow, probably by adding a new flag for the items that are usable, but not buyable at the moment. (Of course it only applies to items that are supposed to be buyable later; there's no problem with items that simply can't be bought at all, like for example the Laser Rifle.)
Now, this wall quite a bit of text, so thanks for reaching this point. :) If you have any comments, please go ahead and let me know.
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Awesome! I love the vision here. Sounds really interesting, and it is beautifully explained. :)
Comment:
6. Race-dependant loadouts (alienDeployments).
It's already a problem in the current version of the FMP: any race that attacks your base has the same equipment (plasmas etc.), because equipment is assigned by mission, not by race. This means that you can't make a faction that uses different equipment. It's the same problem with terror missions and pretty much any other mission, for example every UFO has the same crew and the same armoury. This makes things especially problematic for this project, since I want human factions to be able to do standard missions (like X-Com base assault), and not giving them plasmas. I am not aware of such code and this is probably the most complex change of all ideas here (excluding those which are explicitly marked as just fantasies).
Couldn't you do this now by making race specific missions? Or can any mission be done by any race? what I'm thinking, is that STR_SNAKEMAN_TERROR would be set with the raceWeights attribute so that only they could use it. Same for your cult mission. STR_CULT1_POLITICAL_RALLY is weighted to only Cult One, etc.
Cheers, Ivan :D
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Awesome! I love the vision here. Sounds really interesting, and it is beautifully explained. :)
Thank you :)
Couldn't you do this now by making race specific missions? Or can any mission be done by any race?
There can be race-specific missions, but each mission would have to be separate for the race. Right now, Terror and Base Assault are hardcoded, so we can't add them multiple times for each race.
what I'm thinking, is that STR_SNAKEMAN_TERROR would be set with the raceWeights attribute so that only they could use it. Same for your cult mission. STR_CULT1_POLITICAL_RALLY is weighted to only Cult One, etc.
Yeah, it could work like this, but still requires changes to the code.
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Too work to do. I am not a coder. But may try test and translate to spanish if you want
When i read The first step i think similar to the start of xcom bureau XD
For the 3 step may be war in mars
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I think that the real interesting mission types would be in the beginning before X-Com takes off. A limited number of investigators, out of a helicopter in remote areas trying to figure out WTF is going on. Reports of grave robbing, Chupacabra, skinwalkers or other strange happenings. Scrabbling in the dark to make sense of why weird shit keeps happening around the world and your biggest competitor is organizations like NATO or the former Warsaw pact.
Imagine having ONLY 2 guys at night in the middle of the desert with pistols and knives hunting "Something" through the remains of a 19th century cemetery. The tension of knowing it could be nothing or something big. The mission could be bullshit, or it could be very bad. What if what these two poor shmucks were investigating was a crysalid?
Yeah this could be good.
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I love this idea Scorch.
To avoid making a huge TL;DR post, I'll keep my comments brief:
Phases: I'd love a "hybrid" game in that you have to take out
(1) Cydonia (EU), then
(2) T'Leth (TFTD), then
(3) a new HQ (based on the custom races you and others have been making) that uses UFOs and USOs... so you need new craft that can do Air and Water and Space?,
(3.5) Eliminate all the renegade factions on earth (Cult of Sirius, Exalt, MiB, etc.) and then
(4) Invade the alien home world! Give them a taste of their own medicine! End the extraterrestrial threat once and for all!
Coding: I'm no coder either, so I don't know if these are possible:
a) If certain missions are ENABLED by in game criteria, how about DISABLING them?
Example: Alien Infiltration works through alien hybrids. What if you could do a CYDONIA OR BUST! style mission to take out the hybrid facility? Fail, and you lose the craft and your operatives. Succeed, and Alien Infiltration missions end.
b) Either/Or endings: Is it possible to code outcomes based on mission actions?
Example: I always hated my operatives dying in TFTD taking out T'Leth. What if you had a choice?
i. Take out the pylons, and the alien destroys T'Leth and your team ala vanilla.
ii. SET CHARGES: You have X turns to get your operatives to the elevator and escape. T'Leth blows, and your escaping operatives survive.
Whatever you do Scorch, I know it will rock.
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Solarius Scorch I think last one will be easy to implements. In next week I will try do it in my branch.
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I love this idea Scorch.
To avoid making a huge TL;DR post, I'll keep my comments brief:
Phases: I'd love a "hybrid" game in that you have to take out
(1) Cydonia (EU), then
(2) T'Leth (TFTD), then
(3) a new HQ (based on the custom races you and others have been making) that uses UFOs and USOs... so you need new craft that can do Air and Water and Space?,
(3.5) Eliminate all the renegade factions on earth (Cult of Sirius, Exalt, MiB, etc.) and then
(4) Invade the alien home world! Give them a taste of their own medicine! End the extraterrestrial threat once and for all!
Coding: I'm no coder either, so I don't know if these are possible:
a) If certain missions are ENABLED by in game criteria, how about DISABLING them?
Example: Alien Infiltration works through alien hybrids. What if you could do a CYDONIA OR BUST! style mission to take out the hybrid facility? Fail, and you lose the craft and your operatives. Succeed, and Alien Infiltration missions end.
b) Either/Or endings: Is it possible to code outcomes based on mission actions?
Example: I always hated my operatives dying in TFTD taking out T'Leth. What if you had a choice?
i. Take out the pylons, and the alien destroys T'Leth and your team ala vanilla.
ii. SET CHARGES: You have X turns to get your operatives to the elevator and escape. T'Leth blows, and your escaping operatives survive.
Whatever you do Scorch, I know it will rock.
I too would love to see a hybrid game, but with the underwater portion kicking in with the first alien base removal.
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I think that the real interesting mission types would be in the beginning before X-Com takes off. A limited number of investigators, out of a helicopter in remote areas trying to figure out WTF is going on. Reports of grave robbing, Chupacabra, skinwalkers or other strange happenings.
Yes, exactly this! Though the actual scope would have to be limited, after all it's a tactical game. And as much as I love Call of Cthulhu, we can't just throw any supernatural rumours in the game, only stuff related to the aliens.
a) If certain missions are ENABLED by in game criteria, how about DISABLING them?
Shouldn't be a problem, disabling works more or less fine via ruleset, as long as the thing isn't hardcoded.
Example: Alien Infiltration works through alien hybrids. What if you could do a CYDONIA OR BUST! style mission to take out the hybrid facility? Fail, and you lose the craft and your operatives. Succeed, and Alien Infiltration missions end.
Yeah, that's what I meant in the opening post. Though I don't think you should be able to stop vanilla missions.
b) Either/Or endings: Is it possible to code outcomes based on mission actions?
I would like to know about this too :)
Solarius Scorch I think last one will be easy to implements. In next week I will try do it in my branch.
Very cool. Thanks!
How about other stuff? I would like your opinion whether it's doable at all (realistically).
I too would love to see a hybrid game, but with the underwater portion kicking in with the first alien base removal.
But if you meet TFTD enemies after you already have plasmas, blasters, Avengers and all that, they won't stand a chance...
Besides, I want to link one cult faction with the Gillmen. :)
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+100
I am very interesting about this idea
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But if you meet TFTD enemies after you already have plasmas, blasters, Avengers and all that, they won't stand a chance...
Besides, I want to link one cult faction with the Gillmen. :)
No, I mean literally after your first base mission assaulting an alien base you start seeing USO activity. Besides, plasma weapons, and blaster bombs don't work underwater, oh and no armor either... so literally you would be starting over :)
The differences in the tech tree between above and below water should be pronounced. Alien alloy vs Aqua plastics, alien alloys being cheaper but being unsuitable for aquatic work, while aqua plastics work above and below water but are REALLY expensive. Also the damage types could be really neat to see how they would play off one another. Sonic being super effective against alien alloys and plasma being super effective against aqua plastics, and introducing a THIRD material that consumes both to manufacture that can handle both.
It also opens up possibilities with armor, where you can have flying suits on land missions and Mag Ion armor underwater. Laser weapons on land gauss underwater. Plasma doesn't work underwater but does way more damage, while sonics do less damage but can go anywhere.
Oh, and being able to recover UFOs shot down over water would rock. Being able to scavenge a few bits and pieces instead of literally nothing.
Then there are the terror mission combinations that make me sweat just a little thinking about. Lobsterman/ Chrysalids and Ethereals/Biodrome ugh.... I'd prolly just pack it in.
-HH
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Phase 3: ?
There are many possibilities of what to do with the X-Com project after conquering Cydonia, and all of the remain pure fantasies at this point. Travelling a galaxy map to explore and fight on various planets of the alien empire? Preparing for a second wave of the attack, now more serious? Some transition to TFTD (assuming a hybrid game would not be possible)? This phase is here just for show, really; I don't have any concrete plans.
Why not like something: Cydonia is ruined but not full destroyed and Mars is still under alien controll whom want Cydonia back. Then X-com troops survived Cydonia shall be your starting on Mars and Cydonia your first base. Scientists and the rest on route from Earth along with supplies but the first month you must survive on your own.
Then your goal is to find and destroy all alien bases on Mars while you continually raided by aliens. Terrors could occur on the surrounding (around Cydonia) earthling colony. Then as you slowly progress with this you can gather small pieces of indicating infos what lead swiftly to TFTD storyline...
Some example:
(https://i.imgur.com/FozYcxF.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/fqM6nig.png)
This way the player got some preview from the TFTD world and a continous storyline. Like your scientists found alien datas about long lost colony ships (T'leth) and that they wanted Earth because they thought one ship lost there (but not found them, so it need time to pass to T'leth revive). How it fit to the TFTD intro? Let us assume that the mentioned beam is a common sign of alert what spread every direction of the universe and travel untill the nearest alien sensors sense or catch it. Since T'leth was on Earth it was the first to catch the signal. And it also enabling some expansion: The signal reach far colonies what begin to assebling a retaliation force against Earth (eta 50-60 years after Cydonia's fall shall they may arrive?)... Many possibilities could be hidden there and this is just my idea about it.
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No, I mean literally after your first base mission assaulting an alien base you start seeing USO activity. Besides, plasma weapons, and blaster bombs don't work underwater, oh and no armor either... so literally you would be starting over :)
Yeah, because Flying Suits are known for being extremely water-soluble. :P
And even if plasma doesn't work underwater, there are still plasma grenades and blaster bombs... And surface missions.
The differences in the tech tree between above and below water should be pronounced. Alien alloy vs Aqua plastics, alien alloys being cheaper but being unsuitable for aquatic work
Yeah, its solubility has already been established... XD
while aqua plastics work above and below water but are REALLY expensive. Also the damage types could be really neat to see how they would play off one another. Sonic being super effective against alien alloys and plasma being super effective against aqua plastics, and introducing a THIRD material that consumes both to manufacture that can handle both.
Having had a laugh, yeah, a theoretical hybrid game would require designing parameters for both materials. And a reason to research them.
It also opens up possibilities with armor, where you can have flying suits on land missions and Mag Ion armor underwater. Laser weapons on land gauss underwater. Plasma doesn't work underwater but does way more damage, while sonics do less damage but can go anywhere.
Maybe... Too much balancing for me to say anything right now. :P
Oh, and being able to recover UFOs shot down over water would rock. Being able to scavenge a few bits and pieces instead of literally nothing.
Hell yeah.
Then there are the terror mission combinations that make me sweat just a little thinking about. Lobsterman/ Chrysalids and Ethereals/Biodrome ugh.... I'd prolly just pack it in.
Haha!
EDIT:
@ Duke Falcon: Perhaps it's a bit too railroady though. I'd rather have a more self-driven, sandbox experience...
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If the flaying sistems is the ambient compressed and expulsed may be compatible with 2 ambients. Air for land and water for marine ambient.
The plasma is viable in water if the reaction is in the weapon internal. Only have bubbles in the line of fire. And decreased the distance and power
Enviado desde mi LG-D802 mediante Tapatalk
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If the flaying sistems is the ambient compressed and expulsed may be compatible with 2 ambients. Air for land and water for marine ambient.
The plasma is viable in water if the reaction is in the weapon internal. Only have bubbles in the line of fire. And decreased the distance and power
Yeah, something could be done with this, as long as there's code.
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Wow, great read, I love it!! This is something I wanna play right now Solarius :D
I have a radical proposition. The United Nations doesn't give you a dime to go on your own until they give you X-COM.
You start this prequel as you said, one of the UN's investigative officers. You'll have authorization to operate within many of the randomly generated allied military bases around the world. Included in this package: military trans to your desired location, NATO arms, and research laboratories for discoveries/artifacts. That's all they give you, but on your own, you already have established a few trustworthy connections to major agencies of national governments for up-to-date anomaly reports, access to I dunno, and etc.
On your way to figuring out what's going on in the world, your superiors will send proper agents, a few at a time, whenever they feel like it, to aid you in completing your investigations. After all, these UN bureaucrats want a full written report of your activities every month. When you jack in enough score points from missions and research discoveries for big juicy reports, the UN will realize this is far too big for them. So the few that you answered to will form what we have today the Council of Funding Nations.
Once the CFN sets up X-COM, you automatically go on to the familiar opening part of the game to set up your base. Now finally you're given a budget and control over something psst beautiful ;) Everything you collected will transfer to your base automatically, even the agents you had early on that barely survived are yours. The Skyranger, Jets, everything is already set up ready for use. I only hope you make it so your inventory is empty, so you decide what you want to buy, instead of the boring part of having to unload the Skyranger and sell half of your weapons to make room for better stuff. That's vanilla.
Edit: About safe houses during Phase 1. You'll automatically set one up on the Geoscape before a mission, since air cav only drops you within very safe and undetectable distances. As well, when you complete a mission, you'll automatically head back to the safe house you set up on the Geoscape by to hide from enemy retaliations and to contact military for strategic pick-up. In this mode, you're vulnerable to attacks from cultists, MiB, or whoever you pissed off, so you'll enter into safe house defense if they find you before military picks you up. Abandoned buildings, jungle hideout, caves would be awesome. Make it rare, but also depending on how long military takes to arrive. Also would be cool to have a surface military base defense if assassins/mercs show up right before Phase 2 trying to eliminate your agents for documenting their secret operations and alien pacts.
Anyways I can go on, I just want to share a pov where you're not so safe in the world during Phase 1. Nothing to control 'cept your green operatives. So take what you like or not, I'm going to sleep now :D
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It's an interesting scenario, Quiet-san, and consistent. However, at the time I consider it a bit too ambitious when it comes down to coding; I would prefer to keep the required new code at a minimum, to make the project more realistic for now (above-ground bases being the only indulgence). Still, I'm not saying no - if we ever reach the stage outlined in the initial post, it can still be expanded.
The only think I am wary of is moving too far away from the tactical genre. After all, the only people playing this mod will be tactical game fans, so I wouldn't want to change it into something drastically different, because X-Com fans will dislike it and other people will never learn about its existence. ;)
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4. Surface bases.
Something like this mayhaps:
(https://i.imgur.com/kdB2SjK.png)
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The only think I am wary of is moving too far away from the tactical genre. After all, the only people playing this mod will be tactical game fans, so I wouldn't want to change it into something drastically different, because X-Com fans will dislike it and other people will never learn about its existence. ;)
I totally agree. Staying with the genre of tactical gaming is important. However, let us revisit the idea I had earlier, but focus it down.
Ok, what I am personally taking away is that you are looking at the whole picnic from beginning to end of XCom and doing a little thought experiment on what exactly tickles your pickle.
Well, you seemed to express an interest in the time before and leading up to the founding of Xcom so why not start there and let us think about how it could be implemented.
1. A base would have to exist and would have to be from a government organization known for secrecy and had active investigations well into the 90's into UFOs....enter the CIA.
2. Instead of detection range.... there is no detection range because there is no radar.... yeah. The player must rely on graphs to chart reported alien activity and send out air craft to patrol.
3. Upon detection, the UFOs will just do what they do and either hit the horizon at warp speed or RARELY land which you then send a team out to investigate. Make the landing time very short and you spend months chasing them down hoping to get lucky.
4. In the meantime you have missions that occur in cities, imagine like terror sites, but done a little differently. Where your team must destroy data in a filing cabinet or computer (like a synonium device) with or without interference from civillians, or MAYBE an alien infiltrator, who looks VERY human.
5. no more than just a few operators on a mission keeps everything VERY brutal. Also limit weapons to what could reasonably hidden in a three piece suit like a pistol a knife maybe 1 grenade. yeah MIB baby :)
6. After a progression of several enemies and your score is high enough, you lose the game and X-com begins. :)
Thoughts?
-HH
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6. After a progression of several enemies and your score is high enough, you lose the game and X-com begins. :)
ROFLMAO!! Frickin Brutal! That's X-Com baby!!
Actually, you could couch in terms of: You were so successful, that the aliens had to drop their covert methods and begin their overt campaign to gain planetary supremacy.
1. A base would have to exist and would have to be from a government organization known for secrecy and had active investigations well into the 90's into UFOs....enter the CIA.
Start with a set of bases on each continent (CIA Stations), or maybe just two, but with the ability to build more. Scoped down facilities. One hangar, one garage, small equipment room, small investigative lab (10 max investigators) ... etc.
When you finish this Covert Phase, you should be able to bring your soldiers with you into the Main Xcom campaign.
Some really cool ideas here. :D
Cheers, Ivan :D
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2. Instead of detection range.... there is no detection range because there is no radar.... yeah. The player must rely on graphs to chart reported alien activity and send out air craft to patrol.
maybe instead of radar, you would have to rely on "UFO sightings"? in terms of in-game mechanics: radar sites (invisible to the player) with just a few miles range, but very high detection probability would exist all around the globe, representing people who can spot UFOs and phone some government agency or other, giving you a UFO alert - but the UFO will disappear soon, because it leaves the detection radius. those sites could even exist in oceans, representing ships that happen to be there.
that way, you will often get blips, but rarely have a chance to send a craft there in time, unless you are able to guess at the trajectory because the UFO has been spotted several times along its way.
for this to work, it would be nice to increase the detection frequency, though... currently, the game only checks for possible detection every 30 (game-)minutes.
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I've made my own take on a "tiny Skyranger" (8 crew), I know there's been aplenty of those, but maybe you'll like it:
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I've made my own take on a "tiny Skyranger" (8 crew), I know there's been aplenty of those, but maybe you'll like it:
With all those engines it should be quite a bit faster, but less loiter time. And it looks Awesome!
Cheers, Ivan :D
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Something like this mayhaps:
(https://i.imgur.com/kdB2SjK.png)
By Shai-Hulud, where have you found such nice sprites?! XD
1. A base would have to exist and would have to be from a government organization known for secrecy and had active investigations well into the 90's into UFOs....enter the CIA.
Please, not CIA. Everything but CIA. :P But yeah, something like that.
2. Instead of detection range.... there is no detection range because there is no radar.... yeah. The player must rely on graphs to chart reported alien activity and send out air craft to patrol.
Yes, but I'd still keep the "Command Centre" as a very low-quality radar with global coverage. It makes things a bit easier and less anal than relying solely upon a fleet of craft which you wou;dn't really have at the beginning, except transport and maybe one small AWACS.
3. Upon detection, the UFOs will just do what they do and either hit the horizon at warp speed or RARELY land which you then send a team out to investigate. Make the landing time very short and you spend months chasing them down hoping to get lucky.
Yeah, could happen, but remember aliens won't be active too often at first... Or at least seen.
4. In the meantime you have missions that occur in cities, imagine like terror sites, but done a little differently. Where your team must destroy data in a filing cabinet or computer (like a synonium device) with or without interference from civillians, or MAYBE an alien infiltrator, who looks VERY human.
Yes, yes! And raiding warehouses/mansions filled with cultists.
5. no more than just a few operators on a mission keeps everything VERY brutal. Also limit weapons to what could reasonably hidden in a three piece suit like a pistol a knife maybe 1 grenade. yeah MIB baby :)
Yeah, I'd love that. We'll see if it's possible; for now, there's limited availability of firearms.
6. After a progression of several enemies and your score is high enough, you lose the game and X-com begins. :)
...what? NOOOOOOOOO!!! XD
maybe instead of radar, you would have to rely on "UFO sightings"? in terms of in-game mechanics: radar sites (invisible to the player) with just a few miles range, but very high detection probability would exist all around the globe, representing people who can spot UFOs and phone some government agency or other, giving you a UFO alert - but the UFO will disappear soon, because it leaves the detection radius. those sites could even exist in oceans, representing ships that happen to be there.
Hey, this is a splendid idea. The entire vanilla radar thing is a bit fishy anyway: UFOs are supposed to be invisible to radar; and if they aren't, why isn't everybody shooting them down by themselves? Basing it on sightings would make much more sense.
I've made my own take on a "tiny Skyranger" (8 crew), I know there's been aplenty of those, but maybe you'll like it:
Not bad, though those top engines are huge. O_o
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By Shai-Hulud, where have you found such nice sprites?! XD
In Dune X : Building of an X-com game! :)
Seemed a good idea to use some D2 sprites after some edit along with X-com sprites. Fit nice together and easy to handle, create, manufacture, upkeep and sell or sack. Or interrogate.
Bila Kaifa!
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I think I know a few good ideas for making the story go "off the rails" :P
1st Idea: Random Order of games
Since the aliens seem to be Aquatic in origin, what if when you begin as X-Com, you start seeing TFTD enemies instead of the original UFO Defense ones? You could have made choices in Phase one that could lead to the CFN to fund for Underwater combat against aliens rather than Surface combat. That way you either start with either a UFO game or TFTD game, and then after the Alien City/Cydonia falls, it sends a message to the other planet and then you go on to the next game, resulting in a varying metagame experience!
2nd Idea: Defensive endgame rather than Offensive endgame
What If you would rather not invade Cydonia? After 2 or 2 1/2 years, maybe an alien Super-UFO will be developed, probably using the human face on Cydonia as the hull (Andross!? :o ) and have enough firepower to destroy the planet! At that point you will have a time limit until the Super-UFO reaches earth to intercept it with an avenger and blow a large enough hole in the hull to invade the ship and disable it. As opposed to stopping all surface alien activity when you destroy Cydonia, you will still have a few (albeit less intense) encounters with aliens as you transition your research to TFTD-related gameplay.
I gotta think of more, but it's midnight here and I should be in bed. Expect more possibly tomorrow.
EDIT: It's not tomorrow but hey, I got more ideas.
3rd Idea: Apocalypse intervenes early
During the land incursion, it is entirely possible that suddenly the interdimensional aliens appear. They could either help the aliens defeat you or become a third party, battling both your XCOM forces and the first alien group. There can be missions where both groups appear and fight eachother, called "Conflict zones." Just think: Mutons vs Anthropods!
The above has a rare chance of happening, but it allows for even more story-going options! Do you defeat the brain in Cydonia and go on to fight the interdimensional menace, or do you destroy the dimensional alien city and go for Cydonia later?
This will never happen in the TFTD portion of the mod because otherwise that risks dependency on a cross-game, and would also make things super confusing.
4th Idea: There are always the possibility of mutants!
With so much alien activity going on in earth, there are bound to be human-alien crossbreeds. You are going to have to manage relations not only with the countries but also the band of mutant clans that form. Will you treat them kindly with their revolution against a rogue agency (aka MiB and so on) and have them help you fight the aliens, or will you just downright obliterate them because of the risk of increased alien infiltration?
Yes, I agree there is a frack-ton of coding involved, but I bet if you share this project with some of the active coders, they could accept to do a bit of the more serious coding work! Maybe have Yankes of the OpenXcom Extended project help you? It might just be worthwhile if you two work together. There are also other good coders out there. Think about it.
Heck, maybe even SupSuper, Warboy and some other source coders could do a bit of work to allow some of this for regular OpenXcom!
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1st Idea: Random Order of games
Since the aliens seem to be Aquatic in origin, what if when you begin as X-Com, you start seeing TFTD enemies instead of the original UFO Defense ones? You could have made choices in Phase one that could lead to the CFN to fund for Underwater combat against aliens rather than Surface combat. That way you either start with either a UFO game or TFTD game, and then after the Alien City/Cydonia falls, it sends a message to the other planet and then you go on to the next game, resulting in a varying metagame experience!
Who knows, maybe it'd work? But of course it's an extremely remote idea as of now. :)
2nd Idea: Defensive endgame rather than Offensive endgame
What If you would rather not invade Cydonia? After 2 or 2 1/2 years, maybe an alien Super-UFO will be developed, probably using the human face on Cydonia as the hull (Andross!? :o ) and have enough firepower to destroy the planet! At that point you will have a time limit until the Super-UFO reaches earth to intercept it with an avenger and blow a large enough hole in the hull to invade the ship and disable it. As opposed to stopping all surface alien activity when you destroy Cydonia, you will still have a few (albeit less intense) encounters with aliens as you transition your research to TFTD-related gameplay.
Maybe. I like the sketch, but of course, it has almost zero chance of happening. :)
3rd Idea: Apocalypse intervenes early
During the land incursion, it is entirely possible that suddenly the interdimensional aliens appear. They could either help the aliens defeat you or become a third party, battling both your XCOM forces and the first alien group. There can be missions where both groups appear and fight eachother, called "Conflict zones." Just think: Mutons vs Anthropods!
The above has a rare chance of happening, but it allows for even more story-going options! Do you defeat the brain in Cydonia and go on to fight the interdimensional menace, or do you destroy the dimensional alien city and go for Cydonia later?
This will never happen in the TFTD portion of the mod because otherwise that risks dependency on a cross-game, and would also make things super confusing.
I'm not sure how we would explain this shift, unless perhaps we could integrate it with my loose idea of one cult faction that deals with dimensional gates and summoning Doom creatures... :P
4th Idea: There are always the possibility of mutants!
With so much alien activity going on in earth, there are bound to be human-alien crossbreeds. You are going to have to manage relations not only with the countries but also the band of mutant clans that form. Will you treat them kindly with their revolution against a rogue agency (aka MiB and so on) and have them help you fight the aliens, or will you just downright obliterate them because of the risk of increased alien infiltration?
The half-alien hybrids are already in the FMP! :D
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I like the whole idea but is it realistic? Like, will it take 10years? Lol.
I like the idea for phase 3 being that you destroy Cydonia base but that's just an outpost... the humans realize it took all the resources Earth had just to get to Mars and without a breakthrough new technology light years beyond our current one then there is no hope but to simply try to repel each new attack that inevitably comes from the stars since we can not take the fight to them.
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X-com Interceptor :)
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X-com Interceptor :)
True, but how are we going to integrate that into the tactical game genre? That would almost be like trying to make a game out of the turn-based combat system from Master of Orion II! I mean, it's not a bad idea, but also know that Interceptor isn't even in Xcom Lore. If we are to integrate interceptor ( which is probably not going to happen any time soon :P ) then we will have to create a new game entirely.
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Nah, I was just screwing around.
It would be like slapping Command and Conquer with Wing Commander.... Just no... :)
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To make a working *Interceptor game (as in: a strategical game based on the same idea, without actual sitting-in-the-cockpit) the only new thing you need is code for UFOs to actively seek out & engage XCom craft. The devs have made globe (map) modifiable, and Yankes' custom .exe (OXCom Extended) has functions to modify XCom craft.
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Dioxine, that is a very interesting idea!
Why am I suddenly seeing in my head some of the possibilities like having an AWACS act as bait for an interceptor squadron to take out a UFO?
Or Having to escort your Skyranger back to base because the aliens might try to shoot it down.
Hmm, you got my brain tickling.
-HH
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I like the whole idea but is it realistic? Like, will it take 10years? Lol.
I like the idea for phase 3 being that you destroy Cydonia base but that's just an outpost... the humans realize it took all the resources Earth had just to get to Mars and without a breakthrough new technology light years beyond our current one then there is no hope but to simply try to repel each new attack that inevitably comes from the stars since we can not take the fight to them.
Well, THIS would indeed take like 10 years... Still worth it! 8)
Well, maybe not the "X-Com Interceptor" part, but having a star map or something like that, with various worlds to visit, would be beyond awesome.
Dioxine, that is a very interesting idea!
Why am I suddenly seeing in my head some of the possibilities like having an AWACS act as bait for an interceptor squadron to take out a UFO?
Or Having to escort your Skyranger back to base because the aliens might try to shoot it down.
One word: Xenonauts! :)
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Xenonauts indeed had UFOs intercepting you craft...
Extraterrestials had that PLUS UFOs weighing their chances against human crafts and often using their speed advantage to keep far away from your interceptors until you got bored/ran low on fuel... OR lost most of your ammo and sustained damage in another fight.
Oh yeah and then there were UFO Swarms... :)
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Men in Black (which would be extremely powerful in comparison at this stage) (...) no uniforms (formal suits FTW)..
That would make early X-Com men in black, though. Also, originally, Men in Black were supposed to be X-Cop spies but were cut out to simplify the game, so maybe MiBs could be early X-Com, not opponents.
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Maybe XCom will be the Men In Blue instead? I think the idea of a "Detective agency" as a pre-start of XCom would be nice. You're working for the UN/NATO/Whatever, bringing together what little scaps of info you can get.
Then, as it is your efforts that made XCom happen and you are the most experienced team around, you get to lead XCom as well.
In classical UFO background, the MiB are shady people and they seem to collaborate with the aliens and coverup at least as much as protect the population. It makes sense that XCom, the entity created to uncompromisingly push back the aliens, would be at odds with them, even though that's not exactly what the creators initially thought of.
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Somewhat Off-topic...Recently I was thinking about the feasibility of a "Play-as-alien" mod with the default exe. The graphics would be the smallest problem, what would be really problematic is the resource/ starting weapon part. I mean realistically they would have access to the best weapons right from the start, where to go from there? ::) anyway...
Back to Topic: I am not sure about including the first part (fighting cultists etc) in the mod, it sounds more like a total conversion of its own. This might be simply too big in scope for one mod alone. When making the Kiryu-Kai mod i ran into a similar wall, it grew too big, too complex, i simply didn't know where to go anymore, so I abandonded the mod and released it a s a tiny cut-down bonsai mod :-)
tldr: Focus on one stage ::)
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That would make early X-Com men in black, though. Also, originally, Men in Black were supposed to be X-Cop spies but were cut out to simplify the game, so maybe MiBs could be early X-Com, not opponents.
Yep, that's the general idea. Still, we have Robin's MiBs already, they're semi-cannon and nice looking, so why get rid of them?
Maybe XCom will be the Men In Blue instead? I think the idea of a "Detective agency" as a pre-start of XCom would be nice. You're working for the UN/NATO/Whatever, bringing together what little scaps of info you can get.
Then, as it is your efforts that made XCom happen and you are the most experienced team around, you get to lead XCom as well.
In classical UFO background, the MiB are shady people and they seem to collaborate with the aliens and coverup at least as much as protect the population. It makes sense that XCom, the entity created to uncompromisingly push back the aliens, would be at odds with them, even though that's not exactly what the creators initially thought of.
Yeah.
Somewhat Off-topic...Recently I was thinking about the feasibility of a "Play-as-alien" mod with the default exe. The graphics would be the smallest problem, what would be really problematic is the resource/ starting weapon part. I mean realistically they would have access to the best weapons right from the start, where to go from there? ::)
Right, it's not a new idea, and I like it too. It's been discussed in several threads.
Back to Topic: I am not sure about including the first part (fighting cultists etc) in the mod, it sounds more like a total conversion of its own. This might be simply too big in scope for one mod alone. When making the Kiryu-Kai mod i ran into a similar wall, it grew too big, too complex, i simply didn't know where to go anymore, so I abandonded the mod and released it a s a tiny cut-down bonsai mod :-)
tldr: Focus on one stage ::)
I am totally aware of the danger of getting too much on my plate, that's why I'm always working in small steps. I don't think this particular project is too complex though, as long as I keep the interest.
I also tend to steal as much as possible, to make it go faster. :)
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Which is perfectly ok imo: :)
Btw, you could use all the existing "old" weapons (AK-47, Tommy gun etc etc) and make the game start way earlier, maybe even the 40s or 50s? Also, the Interceptors would be 50's fighters and the air defenses could be the nuclear Nike SAM's they used back then.... Oh and then the AIR-2 Genie nuclear air-2-air missile for the interceptors!! *drools and takes cold shower* ;D
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Btw, you could use all the existing "old" weapons (AK-47, Tommy gun etc etc) and make the game start way earlier, maybe even the 40s or 50s?
Hell no. :D That would be a way too looooong game until 1999! :]
But another mod like this, or its conversion, why not? I'd like it! Let's prolong the IIWW into space. :)
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That's what I fantasize about these days, too: a 50's-Xcom or a Play-As-Alien mod. But atm I struggle to get even tiny mods released, my concentration and attention span are somewhat low these days and bug-fixing seems to take away most of my time... ;D
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I've been thinking about the X-Com base issues lately, and after much consideration, I chose the following concept as the most streamlined and elegant:
Two-level bases.
This has actually been suggested for the normal game; namely, you have two layers of the X-Com base, and you can switch between them in the base view. In battlescape, they form a single, 4-level map.
While somewhat interesting, this feature was too superfluous to be implemented in the vanilla game, as well as presented a number of balance problems, and was therefore rightfully rejected. However, in the FMP+ project, it would fit perfectly, allowing us to have a surface level and an underground level.
Some buildings can only be built on the surface level:
- Small Radar System
- Large Radar System
- Missile/Laser/Gauss/Plasma/Fusion Defences
- Landing Pad (a hangar variant, related to some vehicles)
Some buildings can only be built on the underground level:
Some buildings appear on both levels:
And many buildings can appear on either level (though they look different of course):
- Command Centre
- Living Quarters
- Laboratory
- Workshop
- General Stores
- Alien Containment
- Psi-Lab
- Hyper-Wave Decoder
As you can see, you can pretty much ignore the underground level for much of the game if you want to, but surface facilities are way harder to defend, and possibly for other reasons (preliminary bombardment?). So it's in your best interest to get underground when you can. And this is mostly related to your progress - both in terms of research and available funds (remember, underground is expensive).
What will this system require of the code? Well, two things:
a) Two layer base layout (both in the base view and in the battlescape).
b) Flags for facilities to indicate where they can be built.
Note that buildings that can appear anywhere are actually two different buildings, which may even have different stats (for example, a surface general store can hold more stuff). The construction menu only shows facilities that apply for the active layer.
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Mmm nice concept but i think is to hard to do the 2 levels base. I think
Enviado desde mi LG-D802 mediante Tapatalk
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Mmm nice concept but i think is to hard to do the 2 levels base. I think
For the player it would be quite easy, just a button for switching the layer back and forth. A bit of a hassle when compared with the vanilla game, yes, but IMO justifiable, as it serves some ends.
For the programmer, I can't say for sure, but I don't think it's overly complicated. In theory, it consists of the following parts:
1. Making the interface for the above. Rather trivial.
2. Introducing the two layers and the code to make them work. Also should be rather trivial.
3. Introducing the necessary additional flags and rules to the ruleset. They would serve two major functions:
a) Enabling allocation of the facility to a particular layer (or both).
b) Making sure that vanilla facilities work as intended. I mean, this is the FMP+ thread, but I am aware of the fact that most people will use OXXT (OpenXcom eXTended) for different purposes, with different mods. Therefore the original ruleset should work like before, so facilities with no special flags should only be buildable on the lower level.
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In an underground base, aliens appear in the hangar and access lift because they're coming from the surface. Where will aliens spawn in the two-level base?
If you were willing to make the battlescape even bigger, you could drop a landed battleship next to the base (6x6x4 becomes 6x9x6). Alternately, aliens could spawn around the edges, or even randomly throughout the surface level (contributing to the difficulty defending it).
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In an underground base, aliens appear in the hangar and access lift because they're coming from the surface. Where will aliens spawn in the two-level base?
Basically everywhere. :) Well, not inside the buildings, but potentially everywhere around them (deployment via grav lifts can do this easily). Therefore your best tactics should normally be keeping to the lower level, unless you feel badass enough to stop them on the surface, before they do too much damage to the surface facilities.
If you were willing to make the battlescape even bigger, you could drop a landed battleship next to the base (6x6x4 becomes 6x9x6).
I'm afraid that placing a big ship on the already big map could make it too tedious. X-Com is not a game designed for very large maps, they're just not necessary for the experience and I'm unwilling to make them big just for the hell of it (it wasn't always the case, but that's my current standing). But perhaps we could experiment with it at some point and see what can be done.
As a side note, if we ever add a Battleship to the Base Defense, then we would certainly have to add a Terror Shipc to the Terror Site! And also give it a departing trajectory. 8)
Alternately, aliens could spawn around the edges, or even randomly throughout the surface level (contributing to the difficulty defending it).
Right, precisely this.
EDIT:
Falko did some interesting experiments with 4-layer base, treated like a normal 4-layer map, partly underground. It's interesting, but while it does create the impression of a two-layer base, it doesn't really give us the freedom to build any underground facility under any surface facility, and I think it would be too great a limitation. Sure, you could have various variants of surface and underground facilities, unlockable by various research etc., but that's it. So as much as I appreciate Falko's efforts, I still think we need a two-layer base...
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I love this mod Scorch! I really like all the extra research topics to keep my scientists busy. I loaded the Assault rifle mod (since it has alien alloys ammo as well) and it's downright epic.
Only downside is that with the latest build the combat maps are wonky. My skyrangers spawn inside buildings, as do the UFOs. XD
Only thing I can suggest, in the 'MOAR RESEARCH!' category is adding alien ranks as a research topic (to flesh out the alien society some more). I tried to make a mod like that but I never got it to work. XD
Regardless, I'm in love with the mod. Keep it up. :)
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Great idea, NeXaXeN! I'll think about it.
About the maps, I certainly will fix them soon, when I find the time. And I've been awfully busy lately.
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Super excited by this concept. Made an account just to post about an observation.
Everyone is quoting CIA, UN, MIB (I am thinking the movie, too new to be familiar with in game MIB), or some other semi-legitimate secret organization. However, let us consider how X-Com really operates?
Sell and trade of living/dead alien life forms?
EDIT: Bio-hazard anyone?
Sell and trade of advanced weapons technology?
- I mean, seriously, you sell mind probes to the highest bidder?
No regard to international law?
Little to no regard for human life?
This sounds more like a black market organization than anything else. I see x-com birthing from the dredges of society, mercenaries with no moral compass.
Perhaps, over the last fifty years your 'organization' has acquired rare and unique artifacts to the discriminating consumer. Fifty years of experience in tracking, acquiring, handling, and sell of commodities that don't technically exist. When the alien threat becomes more prominent (Phase 2) the worlds leaders turn to your specialized experience to 'handle' the situation discretely.
Mechanics wise:
PH 1-
No initial funding (Yikes! But not that significant at second glance, you just have to watch your budget more carefully)
-You can gain small amounts of 'unofficial' funding from discreet third parties for services rendered as you progress. Perhaps a preset first mission gets you a small initial income...
Advanced network of discreet 'associates'
-You actually have 30-60% global detection, compensated by the fact that you have no interceptors and limited mobility
PH 2-
You acquire international support and aid.
-Funding begins! This means you can't just ignore activity anymore. Before you could ignore 'unwanted' targets and choose for maximum profit, but now you will loose support.
Your network dissolves
-Most discreet criminals know when to not be on the Christmas card list. You loose some, or most of your network.
-It is recoverable, by mission, in ways that show the less legal crowd that you wont turn them in.
You gain access to advanced military resources.
-Combat aircraft is the only real advantage
-Better labs?
-Now you have engineers?
Hope you like some of this.
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Everyone is quoting CIA, UN, MIB (I am thinking the movie, too new to be familiar with in game MIB), or some other semi-legitimate secret organization. However, let us consider how X-Com really operates? (...)
This sounds more like a black market organization than anything else. I see x-com birthing from the dredges of society, mercenaries with no moral compass.
Which is exactly like the CIA and the like work. And with higher stakes, X-Com would probably care even less. There's nothing strange about that.
A game about mercenaries, including alien hunters, would be extremely interesting, it's a good idea, but it would be even harder to make. Plus, seeing as some private organization is dealing with this stuff, it is inevitable that national agencies around the world would be there way earlier, and therefore would probably require various mechanics to include them somehow. In other words, it's an interesting concept, but too ambitious for me now. :3
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This... This is pretty much the most ambitious mod I have ever seen. What you are intending to do is basically remaking almost the entire code to produce this mod. If completed as per specifications, this is without a doubt going to be the epicest mod I have ever played. Even I, who renown myself as grammar Hitler, am butchering the language just to display my awe at this mod. I wish I could help, but my coding skills suck balls i.e. no coding experience at all.
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Thanks, but at this stage it's not really a mod, merely an idea. But we have to start somewhere. :)
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I can't code, but if you need help in other aspects like ideas or beta-testing just ask.
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Solarus, Your idea still reminds me of the UFO tv show. But much, much better!
I believe there is a terrain by Hobbes (I think?) where the Skyranger is replaced by a APC. I wonder if that can get resurrected? That would fit perfect with your idea here. Even if simply to dig up some of the work and you apply your considerably skillz toward it.
UPDATE: Found it!
Mudranger
https://www.strategycore.co.uk/files/mudranger/
Thread:
https://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/topic/8065-skyrangerapc-creation-thread/page__st__40
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Just an update: I seem to have actually started working on the project. It's still in early stages, but I have designed much of the new stuff already and have a general idea of how to go about it. Most points from the original post are actually in.
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Wow. That sounds cool. I saw your original FMP and honestly I was overwhelmed by it as someone who hasn't been playing original XCOM for about 20 years now ;)
Do you know if anyone has put together something like FMP-light that just has what you would consider the bare essentials like extra maps / fixed lore entries (reproduction) ?
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Wow. That sounds cool. I saw your original FMP and honestly I was overwhelmed by it as someone who hasn't been playing original XCOM for about 20 years now ;)
Thanks. It was supposed to be just a mod pack, but then it grew and, you know how it is when you start fixing things. :)
Do you know if anyone has put together something like FMP-light that just has what you would consider the bare essentials like extra maps / fixed lore entries (reproduction) ?
Hmm, not really; we have separate mods and then we have the big projects. At least I can't recall anything.
EDIT: A little screenshot teaser.
(https://i.imgur.com/nVKVRbl.png)
EDIT: Made sprites for X-Com agents in suits and black leather coats. This will be your starting outfit! (There was a download, but it's been removed for now, since I'm still fixing this.)
(https://i.imgur.com/XxssrY1.gif)
(https://i.imgur.com/0GSUGfH.gif)
EDIT: The horrors you'll meet...
(https://i.imgur.com/NZ5AuSr.gif)
EDIT: Despite their looks, these guys are not good guys.
(https://i.imgur.com/C7eLM8w.png?1)
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Very promisin'! May i humbky suggest a couple of names for the mod? My "inputs":
X-com: x-files;
Secret servicies.
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Very promisin'! May i humbky suggest a couple of names for the mod? My "inputs":
X-com: x-files;
Secret servicies.
The name's already X-Com Files, so you were pretty close. :)
I'm making new enemy factions now (mostly humans). Expect a lot of cheese and some 80's - 90's nostalgia.
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These look like some sort of kung fu monks :)
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These look like some sort of kung fu monks :)
That's because they are some sort of kung fu monks!
But they also have these:
(https://i.imgur.com/hHb060P.gif)
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Hmm... skirt and shoes should be black :)
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Hmm... skirt and shoes should be black :)
Yeah, I know improvements are necessary, but first I want to keep the "one faction per day" output. :) But good call.
EDIT: Great, now I'm knee-deep in Cthulhu Mythos.
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I like the look of that tentacly/ethereal creature! :)
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Thanks for the interest, everyone! I wasn't active much lately, because I was modding. ;) I got Dioxine to help me with mission scripting and he's doing a wonderful job, but it's still far from finished; let's just say for now that cultists spawn where they should.
We also worked on the paperdolls. Here's an updated gallery, with the new stormtrooper armour from XOps (helmet was drawn by Dioxine) and some new faces, on the same armour and on the power suit:
(https://i.imgur.com/rD6vk2t.gif)
There will be more faces coming! :)
EDIT: More faces have arrived, updating the picture. Thanks to Dioxine for immense help.
Also a little teaser:
(https://i.imgur.com/uXvjLXM.png)
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EDIT: More faces have arrived, updating the picture. Thanks to Dioxine for immense help.
Also a little teaser:
(https://i.imgur.com/uXvjLXM.png)
I don't really get the point of the image in the Personal Protection 'pedia entry. It doesn't look like an armored vest to me, just a bearded guy. Is he supposed to be the Quartermaster? If so, thats kinda cool if your entries that are just unlocks and don't give info for an item/etc directly, look like a report from various characters on your base. Quartermaster, Ground Crew Chief (Hangars : Craft Weapons tiers etc), Research Director, Alien Containment Warden, etc.
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I don't really get the point of the image in the Personal Protection 'pedia entry. It doesn't look like an armored vest to me, just a bearded guy. Is he supposed to be the Quartermaster? If so, thats kinda cool if your entries that are just unlocks and don't give info for an item/etc directly, look like a report from various characters on your base. Quartermaster, Ground Crew Chief (Hangars : Craft Weapons tiers etc), Research Director, Alien Containment Warden, etc.
Correct! He's the Quartermaster. Here's his first appearance:
(https://i.imgur.com/e2UBTIs.png)
And yes, there are other members on your team; some of them from the beginning, some you'll have to recruit. Expect Stargateness when it comes to the NPC cast. :)
(I know the picture itself is not that great at the moment, I'll think how to make it more presentable - add a frame or something. Suggestions are welcome.)
EDIT: And here's the introduction to our Chief Medical Officer.
(https://i.imgur.com/fxQLLK5.png)
(I know these texts are unpolished, but quick tests are quick; I'll work on it.)
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Actually, the image is really good in that context. Hmmm... the only thing that might be cool is custom backgrounds for the different characters, representative of where they work. Something as simple as different colors for each section, and just that color in the background might work. I realize there's not a lot of pixel space over the shoulders of these characters, so Having a hangar in the background, etc, may not work. A different Option might be to include the Title of the character in the image. Or maybe a 2-3 letter Designation, QM, ENG, SCI, etc. if the Title is too long otherwise. Anyway, just brainstorming here. :)
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Actually, the image is really good in that context. Hmmm... the only thing that might be cool is custom backgrounds for the different characters, representative of where they work. Something as simple as different colors for each section, and just that color in the background might work. I realize there's not a lot of pixel space over the shoulders of these characters, so Having a hangar in the background, etc, may not work. A different Option might be to include the Title of the character in the image. Or maybe a 2-3 letter Designation, QM, ENG, SCI, etc. if the Title is too long otherwise. Anyway, just brainstorming here. :)
Yeah, job-related backgrounds are something I've considered myself. I think the pixel count will allow for this, I just need to find a suitable picture and give it a try. Maybe also some desk on the first plane so that they wouldn't be just standing there awkwardly, but I'm not sure about this one.
Adding titles would be good, but I don't want to go there because translations. But maybe some sort of symbol? Hmm...
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How 'bout....
(https://i.imgur.com/t65bBcR.jpg)
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It certainly keeps the 90's feel. :D
But while it doesn't look bad, I think it clashes with X-Com graphics a bit too much. It is tempting though.
EDIT: I'm working on new Reptoids, more fitting with the "alien CIA" trope. Hopefully no more red Tasoths to fulfil that role, since I want actual Tasoths in the game.
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Lizard men. In business suits. With tails. I have no words, this outdoes everything I've seen here :)
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if you want testers.... and spanish trans..... in a future send me a private XD...
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if you want testers.... and spanish trans..... in a future send me a private XD...
Thanks, but it's still quite a way to go. I would like to release it ASAP, even if it's unpolished or just bare bones, but I still need to add lots and lots of content to get to the bare minimum. Plus I need to wait for OXCE update, since I need some features from the nightlies that aren't in OXCE yet.
But sure, I'll appreciate help when it happens.
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The part of me that used to be an English teacher has an eye-twitch going on about some of the typos I see :P I'd be more than happy to help you with any I spot. The other part of me wants to wait until I play this, so I don't spoil the surprises by reading all the text logs.
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The part of me that used to be an English teacher has an eye-twitch going on about some of the typos I see :P I'd be more than happy to help you with any I spot. The other part of me wants to wait until I play this, so I don't spoil the surprises by reading all the text logs.
Yes please, help will be appreciated. My English is quite rusty.
Meanwhile, I made some good progress over the weekend. Cultists are conspiring around the planet in hidden outposts, strange animals show up properly (and sometimes attack small towns) and you're busy completing your crew while dealing with all the events. The next step will be completing these factions' missions, and then we'll have deeper levels of secrecy, like Men in Black and the Syndicate and... oh, you'll see. :) But designing all this will take months.
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Hey, if you are still working on this, then you can count me in for a german translation! ;)
Also, after looking at your ideas I have to say that my ideas, at least for like having human enemies first and having to convince the UN to get militarygrade weaponry and facilities. I had some ideas for myself, of course, but could I maybe help you with this project instead? I'd love to bring in ideas, work on rulesets and maybe try a bit of spriting (when I finally get back on the PC and get PhotoShop to accept the palettes >:( ).
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Hey, if you are still working on this, then you can count me in for a german translation! ;)
I'm playing the pre-0.1 version as a tester, and it's not only still on... it's probably the most awesome XCom experience I've had so far, although the learning curve is STEEP :)
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Sure, I'll be happy to cooperate. But I want to focus on releasing a 0.1 version first.
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I'm playing the pre-0.1 version as a tester, and it's not only still on... it's probably the most awesome XCom experience I've had so far, although the learning curve is STEEP :)
:o From the creator of Piratez, that's quite some praise! I'm looking forward to this! Go go Solarius!
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I gotta say, that sounds great! (Also, so many personalities, I feel so small ;D )
I'll be back on PC on a hour, if you'd like me to start translating or maybe let me test it out a bit, just contact me. ;)
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I gotta say, that sounds great! (Also, so many personalities, I feel so small ;D )
I'll be back on PC on a hour, if you'd like me to start translating or maybe let me test it out a bit, just contact me. ;)
Well, as soon as I get a working version, I'll be happy to share.
For now, I could send you some files to translate, but everything keeps changing, so... patience. :)
EDIT:
New feature in the mod: dossiers on prominent human enemies! :) (and not just enemies)
(https://i.imgur.com/fZ8YyM8.png)
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Sounds like this is shaping up to be the best total conversion for Openxcom yet.
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It's finally here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4595.0.html
I'll keep this thread for previews, blogging etc., and that other one will probably become the main.