OpenXcom Forum

Modding => Work In Progress => Topic started by: SupSuper on February 06, 2015, 04:07:06 pm

Title: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on February 06, 2015, 04:07:06 pm
As some of you might have heard, we're working on major changes to the mission infrastructure in order to accommodate TFTD's crazy mission variety in OpenXcom. However there's no way to do this without a lot of drastic changes to the ruleset data which will not be backwards-compatible, so I figured I'd give you an early warning, as they will be rolling out in the nightlies soon.

The bad news: This will break some mods! Mods that have customized alien missions or world data will very likely break until they're updated to the new standards. Certain map mods might also be affected.

The good news: A bunch more features for modders!

- Globe markers (the indicators for bases/crafts/sites/etc) are customizable.
- Globe polygons can have one or more associated terrains (eg. different maps depending on the world region).
- Mission zones (eg. cities) can have one or more associated terrains (eg. different maps depending on the city).
- Terrains can have different probabilities (eg. 30% FOREST1 40% FOREST2 20% FOREST3).
- Sites are no longer restricted to terror sites.
- Sites can have custom names, markers, deployments, alerts, etc. (eg. port/island/ship/artefact).
- Missions can have different probabilities.
- There can be multiple missions of the same type (eg. multiple types of terror missions).
- Missions can spawn sites directly (instead of requiring UFOs to spawn sites).
- Missions can customize the wave behavior somewhat (instead of always being hardcoded that Terror Ships spawn Terror Sites, etc).
- Sites can have different durations.

Our priority is TFTD support though, so don't take this as an excuse for extra feature requests.

If you're planning on using any of the upcoming features, note that they will be very volatile and likely to change until we've ruled out every issue. However the more people testing them, the sooner that will happen. :)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on February 06, 2015, 05:43:20 pm
- Globe markers (the indicators for bases/crafts/sites/etc) are customizable.
- Globe polygons can have one or more associated terrains (eg. different maps depending on the world region).
- Mission zones (eg. cities) can have one or more associated terrains (eg. different maps depending on the city).
- Terrains can have different probabilities (eg. 30% FOREST1 40% FOREST2 20% FOREST3).
- Sites are no longer restricted to terror sites.
- Sites can have custom names, markers, deployments, alerts, etc. (eg. port/island/ship/artefact).
- Missions can have different probabilities.
- There can be multiple missions of the same type (eg. multiple types of terror missions).
- Missions can spawn sites directly (instead of requiring UFOs to spawn sites).
- Missions can customize the wave behavior somewhat (instead of always being hardcoded that Terror Ships spawn Terror Sites, etc).
- Sites can have different durations.

*mental orgasm*  8)

Quote
Our priority is TFTD support though, so don't take this as an excuse for extra feature requests.

Me? *hides list of unfulfilled requests* ::)

Quote
If you're planning on using any of the upcoming features, note that they will be very volatile and likely to change until we've ruled out every issue. However the more people testing them, the sooner that will happen. :)

Where do I sign in? :D
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: robin on February 06, 2015, 05:59:45 pm
welp, stop adding things!
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Align on February 07, 2015, 08:48:40 pm
Sounds like it'll be very useful for the MiB mod.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on March 02, 2015, 02:13:09 pm
The new mission stuff will go up on Git soon, so I figured I'd give a break down of the changes ahead of time to avoid any unexpected surprises. It's probably gonna get real confusing, so feel free to ask any questions you have (it'll be clearer once the updated ruleset is up).

Changes to globe terrain

- Region cities and mission areas have been combined. This is because keeping them separate just leads to redundancy and confusion (mission areas are what the game actually cares about, the "cities" are just visual indicators on the globe). Worse, in TFTD not every mission takes place in a city. In fact, a "terror mission" can be completely different depending on the area it takes place in!

So where before you had this:
Code: [Select]
cities:
  - name: STR_LAGOS
    lon: 3.125
    lat: -6.5
  - name: STR_CAIRO
    lon: 31.25
    lat: -30
  - name: STR_CASABLANCA
    lon: 352.375
    lat: -33.5
missionZones:
  ...
  -
    - [3.125, 3.125, -6.5, -6.5]
    - [31.25, 31.25, -30, -30]
    - [352.375, 352.375, -33.5, -33.5]

It's been reduced to this:
Code: [Select]
missionZones:
  ...
  -
    - [3.125, 3.125, -6.5, -6.5, -1, STR_LAGOS]
    - [31.25, 31.25, -30, -30, -1, STR_CAIRO]
    - [352.375, 352.375, -33.5, -33.5, -1, STR_CASABLANCA]
If the zone has a name, it'll show up as a "city" on the globe. The -1 is the new associated "texture" (more on that below).

- Instead of terrains being associated to globe textures, now globe textures are associated to terrains. Why? Because that's how TFTD does it. :P There's a new texture definition for this, example:
Code: [Select]
globe:
  textures:
    - id: 0
      terrain:
        - name: CULTA123
          weight: 40
        - name: CULTA456
          weight: 60
          area: [0, 360, -90, 0]
In this case, when a UFO mission starts on globe texture 0, there is a 40% chance of CULTA123 being picked and 60% chance of CULTA456 being picked, however CULTA456 will only be used if the mission is within the north hemisphere (area).

Additionally, textures can be used for mission areas, for example:
Code: [Select]
globe:
  textures:
    - id: -1
      deployment: STR_TERROR_MISSION
    - id: -2
      deployment: STR_TERROR_MISSION
      terrain:
        - name: NEWCITY

You saw before that the default "cities" have texture -1. So when a mission takes place, it will spawn a STR_TERROR_MISSION site. You can use this to create your own mission types (eg. TFTD port/island/ship/etc). You can also specify your own terrains, and they will override the deployment terrains. You could use this for example to have european city terrains, asian city terrains, etc.

So, to sum it up:

id: Texture ID, matching the one in the respective globe polygon / mission area.
deployment: Alien deployment to use for this texture if it's used in a mission site (optional).
terrain: List of possible terrains for this texture:
- name: Terrain ID.
- weight: Weight to use for selecting this terrain (optional). Don't have to add up to 100.
- area: Globe area this terrain applies to, in [longitudeMin, longitudeMax, latitudeMin, latitudeMax] format (optional).

The old terrain "textures" and "hemisphere" are obsolete.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: ivandogovich on March 02, 2015, 02:24:59 pm
<snip>
So, to sum it up:

id: Texture ID, matching the one in the respective globe polygon / mission area.

<snip>

So any Texture ID that is -Negative, is a mission texture?  with a -1 being the only default mission in the game as currently designed?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on March 02, 2015, 03:57:50 pm
So any Texture ID that is -Negative, is a mission texture?
It's just a convention, I wanted to avoid conflicts with the globe textures.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Solarius Scorch on March 02, 2015, 04:16:31 pm
Christmas is coming early.

Even though I will cry while learning this. On the other hand, there's good information in this thread, so maybe it won't be so bad.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 02, 2015, 05:02:34 pm
:)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: robin on March 02, 2015, 05:06:02 pm
brb, winning some lottery so I can just mod 24/7.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 02, 2015, 06:06:06 pm
NO WAY!!!! NOOOO WAYYYYY. I already have a mod and ship ready for this I just couldn't spawn missions on water. So no port or island . but now i can. This is cool.

Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: jackstraw2323 on March 02, 2015, 06:14:41 pm
Associating the alien race to the terrain is very interesting. You could have a terror specific version of the race with different weights, or additional units that only get deployed for the terror mission. I suppose you could also combine tftd and ufo, and limit all the Tftd units to water and vice versa.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 02, 2015, 06:22:39 pm
to implement it fully you need to be able to have custom globe textures then poly the water using those textures . right now is probably hard i'd wait until full TFTD support is implemented. but means in latest nightly you can have custom missions which is awesome.  that's a game changer.

the only other problem is limiting functionality of equipment/units in different terrains. this is probably in the works.

I'd hold on a hybrid until full TFTD support of these two is implemented.

but yea great work custom terror missions would be really useful indeed.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Falko on March 02, 2015, 11:58:58 pm
wasnt there a zoomfactor for cities?
ist that not in the new ruleset anymore?
or can we sort the cities into big/medium/small cities and declare on what zoomlevel what marker shows up?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 03, 2015, 12:07:23 am
wasnt there a zoomfactor for cities?
ist that not in the new ruleset anymore?
or can we sort the cities into big/medium/small cities and declare on what zoomlevel what marker shows up?

There is but it only applies to the city labels, not the red markers.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Falko on March 03, 2015, 12:23:29 am
if there is no city entry anymore
we need something like this
Code: [Select]
- [3.125, 3.125, -6.5, -6.5, -1, STR_LAGOS, 3](3 - default zoomvalue) right?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: HotIceHilda on March 03, 2015, 03:27:19 am
While this is great news since there is so many new features that mods can benefit from, the major problem is getting the people making the mod use to the new rules. Better hold onto your butts and hope you know how to overhaul your mods for the upcoming changes.

To think there was so a good handful of upcoming mods underdevelopment before this announcement was made. Those mods better keep trucking.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 03, 2015, 04:22:27 am
nah is for the better. hobbes will have toughest time and he already has his rulset prepared haha cause he knew ahead of time of the changes . so....everyone else's mod is mostly units, maps and weapons and graphic stuff . nobody really changes the cities that much. maybe piratez or MiB might need it . no big deal tho.

having custom terror missions is awesome.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Dioxine on March 03, 2015, 05:24:51 am
No worries for the mods, I was waiting for this update for a looong time and it seems to be actually even better than I hoped for :) Still, the first nightlies after this change are likely to be error-prone, so I'll introduce the changes gradually :)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: hellrazor on March 03, 2015, 12:31:07 pm
nah is for the better. hobbes will have toughest time and he already has his rulset prepared haha cause he knew ahead of time of the changes . so....everyone else's mod is mostly units, maps and weapons and graphic stuff . nobody really changes the cities that much. maybe piratez or MiB might need it . no big deal tho.

having custom terror missions is awesome.

Well every mod which fiddles with Alien missions need also updates... ->  objective: true
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: hellrazor on March 03, 2015, 12:41:22 pm
Also Aliendeployment has some changes. for special missions like terror.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on March 03, 2015, 01:45:07 pm
A brief explanation of X-Com missions

Before explaining the rest of the changes, I think it's time for a primer on X-Com missions, because they probably look confusing as all hell to outsiders, so here's a very very simplified explanation.

Let's take a mission like this:
Code: [Select]
type: STR_ALIEN_RESEARCH
points: 0
raceWeights: ...
  0:
    STR_SECTOID: 70
    STR_SNAKEMAN: 10
    STR_FLOATER: 20
  1:
    ...
waves:
- ufo: STR_SMALL_SCOUT
  count: 1
  trajectory: P0
  timer: 9000
- ufo: STR_MEDIUM_SCOUT
  count: 1
  trajectory: P2
  timer: 7800
- ufo: STR_LARGE_SCOUT
  count: 2
  trajectory: P4
  timer: 9000

What does this all mean? Well, when this mission is first generated, the race is picked based on the current game month. If you're on the first month (0), then there's a 70% chance of sectoids, 20% chance of snakemen and 10% chance of floaters.
Then, the UFO waves begin. Only one UFO runs at once. The first wave consists of 1 Small Scout with trajectory P0 with 9000s between them. What's trajectory P0?

Code: [Select]
id: P0
groundTimer: 3000
waypoints:
- [5, 4, 100]
- [0, 3, 74]
- [0, 1, 28]
- [1, 1, 47]
- [5, 2, 100]
Each waypoint consists of a [zone, altitude, speed]. So first, the Small Scout will spawn in a point in mission zone 5 at altitude 4 at 100% speed. Then it will travel to the next waypoint in mission zone 0, at which point it will switch to altitude 3 and 74% speed. And so on. If the UFO reaches a ground waypoint, it will spend 3000s landed on it before moving on to the next.

So what are these mysterious zones? Well, let's go look at a region:
Code: [Select]
missionZones:
  -
    - [200, 220, -65, -60]
    - [230, 260, -65, -55]
    - [280, 290, -50, -40]
    - [230, 250, -50, -40]
    - [260, 280, -50, -40]
    - [230, 250, -40, -30]
    - [250, 272, -40, -28]
    - [270, 290, -42, -25]
    - [275, 295, -35, -10]
    - [240, 280, -30, -10]
  - ...
Each region has a series of areas [lonMin, lonMax, latMin, latMax]. The first group is zone 0, the next is zone 1, etc. So when a UFO has a waypoint in zone 0, what this means is it'll go to a random point inside one of the zone 0 areas.

And the UFOs carry on their business until the mission is over. So let's move on.

Changes to mission behavior

Up until recently, OpenXcom missions were pretty damn strict. You couldn't really add, remove or mess around with them much, because they had pretty hardcoded behavior. After all, that's how vanilla worked! But of course TFTD went and threw a wrench into that, so now missions are split by objective:

objective:
- 0 = score (default)
- 1 = infiltration
- 2 = alien base
- 3 = mission site (terror etc)
- 4 = retaliation
- 5 = supply

So yes, they're still the same missions as before, this is still X-Com. :P But now you don't need to worry about hardcoded string IDs. Plus now you can have multiple missions of the same type! So when the game needs for example an "infiltration", it'll pick one randomly from the available ones. Why would you wanna do that? I dunno, maybe you want the late-game to be nothing but battleships. You can also add missionWeights in a similar format to raceWeights:
Code: [Select]
missionWeights:
  0: 50
  2: 43
  3: 89
They only apply when deciding from multiple missions of the same type.

There's also these special properties based on the mission objective (see the vanilla missions for more details):
spawnZone: mission zone to use when spawning mission sites / alien bases.
spawnUfo: UFO to spawn for retaliation.
objective: true Marks this wave as the one that carries out the mission objective (for mission site / supply missions).

Odds and ends

New Battle mode now lets you select the terrain for any mission (not just UFO missions).

Extra properties added to alien deployments:
alert: Alert message to use when this mission site is spawned.
briefing: Custom briefing data to use for this mission.
duration: Number of hours the mission site lasts [min, max].
markerName: Custom name for the mission site marker on the globe.
markerIcon: Custom icon for the mission site marker on the globe.

Extra properties added to crafts/UFOs:
marker: Custom icon for the marker on the globe.

I think that's everything, grab the latest nightly if you wanna try it out! Please make sure the vanilla behavior still works as vanilla, and the new features work as advertised.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 03, 2015, 02:22:56 pm
Supsuper, thanks a lot for your work here :D

I've got one question: where/how can you define the text of a new briefing for a mission? (answered by XOps)
And another additional question: can you post the code for Artifact Sites on TFTD? It will be easier to implement such missions if we already have an example of how to do it.

People interested in modding missions might also be interested in checking this page I did a while ago for the wiki explaining them with a little more detail: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Missions_in_Enemy_Unknown_(OpenXcom) (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Alien_Missions_in_Enemy_Unknown_(OpenXcom)).

Meanwhile, I've attached below the new ruleset as a single file (to help modding, not for playing), with the relevant changes to globe, regions, terrains, alienDeployments and alienMissions sections.

Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: volutar on March 03, 2015, 02:51:00 pm
SupSuper, really impressive work. Cheers!  ;)
It's not much left really. Just make "ignore last N terror sites" (which should be also stored), and somehow make artifact site limited number of appearances. BTW I didnt find a way of making dynamic mission chances depending on this mission depletion state.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: XOps on March 03, 2015, 05:41:35 pm
Awesome! At long last! Thanks for the hard work.  :)

So yes, they're still the same missions as before, this is still X-Com. :P But now you don't need to worry about hardcoded string IDs. Plus now you can have multiple missions of the same type! So when the game needs for example an "infiltration", it'll pick one randomly from the available ones. Why would you wanna do that? I dunno, maybe you want the late-game to be nothing but battleships. You can also add missionWeights in a similar format to raceWeights:
Code: [Select]
missionWeights:
  0: 50
  2: 43
  3: 89
They only apply when deciding from multiple missions of the same type.

I can find missionWeights, but I can't find section that sets the weights by month. Is this in the region's section? It has missionWeights listed, but no month designations.


I've got one question: where/how can you define the text of a new briefing for a mission?
It's STR_WHATEVER_BRIEFING
For example, I have a mission deployment in alienDeployments called STR_CODEX_JUNGLE. The briefing is called STR_CODEX_JUNGLE_BRIEFING. The game automatically finds it so you don't have to tell it what the string is. This has actually been around for a while.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 03, 2015, 06:36:33 pm
I can find missionWeights, but I can't find section that sets the weights by month. Is this in the region's section? It has missionWeights listed, but no month designations.

If I'm understand it correctly, then you aren't finding it because there are none defined for vanilla missions. But in case you want to use it, then you add a missionWeights subsection on the relevant mission entry on alienMissions.

Quote
It's STR_WHATEVER_BRIEFING
For example, I have a mission deployment in alienDeployments called STR_CODEX_JUNGLE. The briefing is called STR_CODEX_JUNGLE_BRIEFING. The game automatically finds it so you don't have to tell it what the string is. This has actually been around for a while.

Ah, nice. I had wondered if that was the mechanism. Thanks.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Dioxine on March 03, 2015, 06:43:24 pm
Will it be possible to tweak the "number of missions per month" hardcoded rule?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 03, 2015, 06:47:02 pm
Will it be possible to tweak the "number of missions per month" hardcoded rule?

From what I've seen in the new ruleset, it doesn't seem possible.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on March 03, 2015, 06:55:47 pm
I've got one question: where/how can you define the text of a new briefing for a mission?
It uses the deployment name ID.

I can find missionWeights, but I can't find section that sets the weights by month. Is this in the region's section? It has missionWeights listed, but no month designations.
Vanilla doesn't have per-mission weights, but they are put in the mission itself much like "raceWeights".

To clarify, some missions have special triggers like terror missions (monthly) and retaliations (in response to player). If there are multiple missions possible for this trigger, then the mission's missionWeights are used. Example:
Code: [Select]
alienMissions:
- type: STR_TERROR_EASY
  objective: 3
  missionWeights:
    0: 50
- type: STR_TERROR_MEDIUM
  objective: 3
  missionWeights:
    0: 30
- type: STR_TERROR_HARD
  objective: 3
  missionWeights:
    0: 20
So in the first month onward, there's a 50% chance of STR_TERROR_EASY, 30% chance of STR_TERROR_MEDIUM and 20% chance of STR_TERROR_HARD.

For stuff like the monthly regional mission, the region's missionWeights are used. Example:
Code: [Select]
regions:
  - type: STR_NORTH_AMERICA
    regionWeight: 18
    missionWeights:
      STR_ALIEN_RESEARCH: 14
      STR_ALIEN_HARVEST: 17
      STR_ALIEN_ABDUCTION: 20
      STR_ALIEN_INFILTRATION: 20
      STR_ALIEN_BASE: 20
North America has a 18% chance of being picked for a mission. If it is, it has 14% chance of getting Alien Research, 17% Alien Harvest, 20% Alien Abduction, 20% Alien Infiltration and 20% Alien Base. You'll notice the other missions aren't here since they are triggered separately.

Will it be possible to tweak the "number of missions per month" hardcoded rule?
Depends. There is no hard rule on the number of missions, just what triggers them. Some are simply monthly triggers, others are more complex.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Dioxine on March 03, 2015, 07:11:01 pm
Thanks for claryfying, now more questions :)

1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "terror monthly" seems to be selected from all available "objective: 3" missions. Is that correct? Or is the terror monthly selected from every mission named STR_TERROR_something ?

2. Will it be possible to change the total number of standard regional missions being triggered each month?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 03, 2015, 09:05:07 pm
Thanks for claryfying, now more questions :)

1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "terror monthly" seems to be selected from all available "objective: 3" missions. Is that correct? Or is the terror monthly selected from every mission named STR_TERROR_something ?

Terror Mission is selected from all missions that have an objective 3. In TFTD this should mean that it will choose from either PORT_ATTACK or ISLAND_ATTACK missions.

Just finished upgrading the Terrain Pack to the latest nightly. Here's a little teaser:

(https://www.openxcom.com/content/modimages/TITTRIUB030320150339.png)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on March 04, 2015, 12:11:25 am
Thanks for claryfying, now more questions :)

1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "terror monthly" seems to be selected from all available "objective: 3" missions. Is that correct? Or is the terror monthly selected from every mission named STR_TERROR_something ?
Yes, it uses the objective, string IDs don't matter anymore. I intentionally made up an example to avoid misconceptions like this:

In TFTD this should mean that it will choose from either PORT_ATTACK or ISLAND_ATTACK missions.
In original TFTD every map type is crammed into Alien Terror (remember it's just a UFO reskin). So Port/Island/Cargo Ship/Cruise Ship/Artefact are only differentiated through a wild mix of deployments, mission zones, probabilities and black magic. So I wouldn't recommend following its example. :P
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 04, 2015, 12:26:05 am
Anyone else getting crashes on vanilla (unmodded) terror missions? Sometimes it works but right now I'm getting constant crashes after the equip screen, I get a glimpse of the battlescape, then it crashes. UFO missions work without an issue.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: hellrazor on March 04, 2015, 12:38:15 am
Anyone else getting crashes on vanilla (unmodded) terror missions? Sometimes it works but right now I'm getting constant crashes after the equip screen, I get a glimpse of the battlescape, then it crashes. UFO missions work without an issue.

Yep Hobbes i do i opened Thread: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3424.0.html (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3424.0.html)
and Bug report: https://openxcom.org/bugs/openxcom/issues/889

It's not only Terrormission.
Both Mars Missions are also affected.
Base Defense and Alien Base Assault and all UFO Mission do work.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 04, 2015, 01:13:35 am
Mars missions insta-crash right now
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on March 04, 2015, 02:41:25 am
I'm not seeing any crashes, but I put out some fixes for New Battle which might help.
If you keep experiencing it post a save / reproduction steps.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 04, 2015, 02:46:48 am
with latest nightly works again :)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 04, 2015, 02:55:31 am
I'm not seeing any crashes, but I put out some fixes for New Battle which might help.
If you keep experiencing it post a save / reproduction steps.

Seems to be working again. Btw, thank you a lot for now being able to choose all terrains in Battle Mode :)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: hellrazor on March 04, 2015, 10:48:54 am
Can confirm, everthings working fine now looking for more error.
Thanks for quick fix @ supsuper
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 06, 2015, 06:43:48 pm
I'm having issues with the markers. If I try this:

Code: [Select]
  - type: GlobeMarkers
    width: 3
    height: 3
    subX: 3
    subY: 3
    files:
      9: Resources/UI/Mission_Site.png

The game will crash upon start (globe appears, then it CTD).

And if I try editing the globe_ufo.png then the colors of all the markers are changed. I've attached an example below: the city marker on the left is vanilla, and the city marker on the right is from using a globe_ufo.png file where I had changed only the terror site marker.

 
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 06, 2015, 08:37:26 pm
Another bug. I have this texture assigned to several cities on the terrain pack, so that it uses the PORT_ATTACK alienDeployment during Terror Sites on coastal areas (and it works without a problem):
Code: [Select]
    - id: -2
      deployment: STR_PORT_ATTACK

However, when there's an Alien Retaliation mission and the UFOs are landing on cities, any mission on a UFO landed on a city with texture -1 works fine, butthe game crashes if the UFO has landed on any city with texture -2 after clicking into 'Accept Mission'.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: SupSuper on March 08, 2015, 02:59:58 pm
Can you post a save/ruleset? City textures shouldn't affect landed UFOs...
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Solarius Scorch on March 08, 2015, 04:17:25 pm
I tried making a separate mission STR_MIB_RETALIATION (only for the Men in Black, with their ships and everything), but the information piece I'm missing is how to assign correct alienDeployment for MiB attack (I don't want them use alien gear). Normal STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION triggers STR_BASE_DEFENSE and I couldn't find how this particular deployment is attached to the STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION, or if it's hardcoded.

I would like to make a new deployment for the MiB attack, say STR_BASE_DEFENSE_FROM MIB, and link it to the STR_MIB_RETALIATION, but how do I do that?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 08, 2015, 06:57:02 pm
Can you post a save/ruleset? City textures shouldn't affect landed UFOs...

I think I got what's causing the issue: if the location of a coastal city is set upon a land texture there isn't a problem but if the city is placed upon the ocean texture (the best example are islands) the game can't assign a terrain for the UFO landed there and the battlescape generation crashes.

This issue actually should predate the recent mission/texture changes, I just noticed it because I was trying to get the UFOs landed on cities during Infiltration to use city terrains rather than farm/forest/etc.

This issue might actually affect TFTD, if there are any cities whose location is on land (the opposite of the previous situation described) and a USO lands there for an Alien Infiltration mission, since the game won't be able to assign a sea texture/terrain for tactical combat.

I'm using the Terrain Pack to generate this issue, plus a missions test ruleset to ensure that the 1st mission generated is Alien Infiltration. I've attached below the Mission Test ruleset and a saved game where a UFO has landed on Nuuk (which is placed on land) and sending a Skyranger there will crash the game.

I can actually fix this on my own by editing the coastal cities locations so that they are all located on land. Or simply assign those cities to the ocean regions since there are no Alien Retaliation scheduled for those. I'm curious though if this issue has popped up in TFTD. 
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 08, 2015, 07:59:47 pm
I tried making a separate mission STR_MIB_RETALIATION (only for the Men in Black, with their ships and everything), but the information piece I'm missing is how to assign correct alienDeployment for MiB attack (I don't want them use alien gear). Normal STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION triggers STR_BASE_DEFENSE and I couldn't find how this particular deployment is attached to the STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION, or if it's hardcoded.

I would like to make a new deployment for the MiB attack, say STR_BASE_DEFENSE_FROM MIB, and link it to the STR_MIB_RETALIATION, but how do I do that?

I think this is impossible to achieve because the missions assigned to alien/xcom bases seem still hardcoded. You can get a different alienDeployment for the UFO that is generated on an Alien Retaliation by using the SpawnUFO property, but that only works when you shoot and assault the UFO since there's no way to determine the alienDeployment used on the actual Base Defense

I've been trying to create a separate MJ12_SUPPLY mission for a Base but the game only generates the vanilla ALIEN_SUPPLY mission, even by adding missionWeights. And there's simply no way through the ruleset to assign a MJ12_BASE_ASSAULT deployment in case I try to assault the base.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 08, 2015, 08:17:07 pm
i'm assuming terror missions have been the focus to de-hardcode but base, retaliation and defense are halfway there.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 08, 2015, 08:29:43 pm
i'm assuming terror missions have been the focus to de-hardcode but base, retaliation and defense are halfway there.

Yup. The issue is really the consequent 'missions' that result from ALIEN_BASE (ALIEN_SUPPLY and ALIEN_BASE_ASSAULT) and ALIEN_RETALIATION (BASE_DEFENSE), since it seems impossible to assign different alienDeployments for those missions than the vanilla ones (wasn't needed for TFTD implementation).
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Solarius Scorch on March 08, 2015, 09:03:42 pm
I think this is impossible to achieve because the missions assigned to alien/xcom bases seem still hardcoded. You can get a different alienDeployment for the UFO that is generated on an Alien Retaliation by using the SpawnUFO property, but that only works when you shoot and assault the UFO since there's no way to determine the alienDeployment used on the actual Base Defense

I've been trying to create a separate MJ12_SUPPLY mission for a Base but the game only generates the vanilla ALIEN_SUPPLY mission, even by adding missionWeights. And there's simply no way through the ruleset to assign a MJ12_BASE_ASSAULT deployment in case I try to assault the base.

Ah, so that's what I feared. My attempts to make a proper MiB terror seemed to indicate the same thing.

Hmm, can we at least have more retaliation UFOs? As in, weaker UFOs which succumb to the defences more easily?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 08, 2015, 09:15:11 pm
i think developers are focusing first on TFTD support and second on extra features . the idea is implement TFTD, fix bugs  then add extra features and possibly hybrid game . those features are needed only if you have different factions of aliens but i;m also assuming first thing is to make TFTD data files work as a separate game that is. hybrid will come later and will probably have to be a mod rather than using same data due to palette differences.


so engine works as intended both tftd and ufo get to use their own  data and for both all typs of missions work fine (right now)  by themselves.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 08, 2015, 09:32:12 pm
Ah, so that's what I feared. My attempts to make a proper MiB terror seemed to indicate the same thing.

Hmm, can we at least have more retaliation UFOs? As in, weaker UFOs which succumb to the defences more easily?

Hm. This is something I was going to try today, to create a new alienMission, with the corresponding alienDeployment, to see if the game automatically loads deployments with the same name as the missions, or if it is hardcoded.

You can change the number and type of UFOs of any mission. 

EDIT: Yup, Alien Terror seems pretty much hardcoded as well. I've tried to create a separate alienMission with a #3 objective and everything spawns as they should but I never get the terror site markers or alerts.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Solarius Scorch on March 08, 2015, 10:39:24 pm
Well, I just got an Alien Retaliation mission in Pretoria with Men in Black. Thing is, the Men in Black are not enabled for terror missions at all - they were supposed to have their own terror missions, with separate deployment and such.

Moreover, when I landed on the mission, there was no city at all, just a savannah with no civilians and many MiB carrying plasma guns... :)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 08, 2015, 11:56:02 pm
Well, I just got an Alien Retaliation mission in Pretoria with Men in Black. Thing is, the Men in Black are not enabled for terror missions at all - they were supposed to have their own terror missions, with separate deployment and such.

Moreover, when I landed on the mission, there was no city at all, just a savannah with no civilians and many MiB carrying plasma guns... :)

You aren't clear on if the mission was Retaliation or Terror.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 09, 2015, 12:06:37 am
I'm getting a very weird crash when trying to replicate TFTD's Artifact sites on UFO.

Code: [Select]
  - type: STR_MJ12_OPERATIONS
    points: 50
    objective: 3
    spawnZone: 4 #Mission zone for terror missions
      - ufo: STR_MJ12_OPERATIONS_08
        count: 1
        trajectory: P6
        timer: 9000
        objective: true

Usually the last UFO on a Terror mission has a P7 trajectory (to land on a missionZone 3), but I changed it to P6 (landing on MissionZone 4) since the spawnZone is defined for missionZone 4. I have also the alienDeployment as the following:
Code: [Select]
  - type: STR_MJ12_OPERATIONS_08
    terrains:
      - PORTTFTD
    alert: STR_PORT_ATTACK
    briefing:
      palette: 2
      music: GMENBASE   
    markerName: STR_TERROR_SITE
    duration: [4, 10]

The UFO is generated but once it reaches a missionZone 4 and lands, I get a Visual C++ error message stating:
Assertion failed!
Program: ...
File: Ruleset/RuleRegion.cpp
Line: 204
Expression: 0 && "Invalid zone number"
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Solarius Scorch on March 09, 2015, 02:11:01 am
You aren't clear on if the mission was Retaliation or Terror.

I meant Terror. Sorry, I was a bit drunk AND during a meeting. :P

Anyway, judging from your experiments, it looks like we need either a fix or a better explanation... My bet is on the first option, since this is all new code.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 09, 2015, 03:54:19 am
I meant Terror. Sorry, I was a bit drunk AND during a meeting. :P

Anyway, judging from your experiments, it looks like we need either a fix or a better explanation... My bet is on the first option, since this is all new code.

Ah... sounds like a fun meeting. :D

In any case, it should be possible to have different types of aliens assigned to different types of missions, by adding additional mission entries on alienMissions.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Arthanor on March 09, 2015, 04:27:49 pm
I was wondering if it is possible to create additional types of monthly missions. Currently you get terrors (objective: 3, I think?) picked every month, and than another picked from everything else.

Adding a new monthly mission (bringing the total to 3/month) which would also be picked from a special set (objective: 4? 5?) could allow a "monthly side mission" which involves other factions (Solarius' hybrids, a human sect that worships aliens, maybe even a new type of infiltration where one country falls and then launches raids on others).
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 09, 2015, 05:36:14 pm
I was wondering if it is possible to create additional types of monthly missions. Currently you get terrors (objective: 3, I think?) picked every month, and than another picked from everything else.

Adding a new monthly mission (bringing the total to 3/month) which would also be picked from a special set (objective: 4? 5?) could allow a "monthly side mission" which involves other factions (Solarius' hybrids, a human sect that worships aliens, maybe even a new type of infiltration where one country falls and then launches raids on others).

Unfortunately it still isn't possible to change the frequency and type of the scheduled missions (although it is possible to choose the type of the first alien mission, which is Research).
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Arthanor on March 09, 2015, 05:45:05 pm
Too bad.. maybe in the future.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: volutar on March 11, 2015, 09:27:44 am
Unfortunately these changes aren't helping to implement TFTD sea/artefact mission types either.

+ Island/Port terrors being part of mission zone3 are easily done with -1/-2 types, but I still couldn't find where I can put custom briefing text depending on terrain type.

- Sea terrors and artefact terrors are not related to specific geographic regions per se. Despite they can be initiated by region-related mission type of activity, in fact their coords are taken from the "global" location lists. (In opposite to logic of city/port/island-based terror sites, which are fully region-related).

- Sea terror coord list consists of 48 different unnamed locations, with last 5 USED locations kept in the save (not to repeat same location). Type of terrain - cruize/cargo is chosen randomly, 50/50. I simply failed finding where to put this global location list.

- Artefact terror coord list consists of 36 different unnamed locations, with last 12 locations kept. List is also shared between regions, and have no place in current structure.

- I couldn't find how to make STR_ALIEN_TERROR a kind of an alias, or some META-MISSION type mission with ability to have some inner-distribution, weights through months/waves and references to specific missions. Also there is a need to have ARTEFACT mission spawned only 12 times, and then - ratios of terror missions gotta be changed (artefact is zeroed -> others are filling proportionally).

- Terror types through months:
Code: [Select]
  0,1,2 : 100% port/island attack
  3,4,5 : 40% port/island attack, 60% cruize/cargo ship
  6, ... : 20% port/island attack, 30% cruize/cargo ship, 50% artefact (after 12 artefact missions spawned it becomes 0%)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 11, 2015, 05:42:55 pm
Unfortunately these changes aren't helping to implement TFTD sea/artefact mission types either.

+ Island/Port terrors being part of mission zone3 are easily done with -1/-2 types, but I still couldn't find where I can put custom briefing text depending on terrain type.

Custom briefing text is added automatically by including a String named STR_CUSTOM_MISSION_NAME_BRIEFING: The aliens have attacked blah blah blah

Quote
- Sea terrors and artefact terrors are not related to specific geographic regions per se. Despite they can be initiated by region-related mission type of activity, in fact their coords are taken from the "global" location lists. (In opposite to logic of city/port/island-based terror sites, which are fully region-related).

- Sea terror coord list consists of 48 different unnamed locations, with last 5 USED locations kept in the save (not to repeat same location). Type of terrain - cruize/cargo is chosen randomly, 50/50. I simply failed finding where to put this global location list.

- Artefact terror coord list consists of 36 different unnamed locations, with last 12 locations kept. List is also shared between regions, and have no place in current structure.

It isn't a problem to assign MissionZone locations that actually are outside the Region. I discovered this by accident with the Terrain Pack when I added cities to the Atlantic/Indian/Pacific regions that were actually located in Europe, Asia, etc. The activity graphs will display the mission sites as being in the wrong regions though, although this might happen as well on the original TFTD.

In fact knowing that there are global location lists for Ships/Artifacts makes things easier. I was under the wrong impression that the location of  sites were randomly selected on the ares of MissionZones 1 or 2 or 4.

I can try adding a list of 84 locations to the MissionZone 3 of all regions and set those locations as either texture -3/-4, one being for Ship Attack, the other for Artifact Site.

The issue is to prevent missions from happening again on the same locations.

Quote
- I couldn't find how to make STR_ALIEN_TERROR a kind of an alias, or some META-MISSION type mission with ability to have some inner-distribution, weights through months/waves and references to specific missions. Also there is a need to have ARTEFACT mission spawned only 12 times, and then - ratios of terror missions gotta be changed (artefact is zeroed -> others are filling proportionally).

- Terror types through months:
Code: [Select]
  0,1,2 : 100% port/island attack
  3,4,5 : 40% port/island attack, 60% cruize/cargo ship
  6, ... : 20% port/island attack, 30% cruize/cargo ship, 50% artefact (after 12 artefact missions spawned it becomes 0%)

As SupSuper said, it is possible now to add monthly missionWeights to the entries on alienMissions. The game will use them when selecting between missions with the same objective.

The only issue is having ARTIFACT_SITE only spawned 12 times, although I always thought until now that this was merely 'fluff text', i.e., it was mentioned in the game but had no practical effect. This because you'd have to play for years of game time until you got 12 artifact sites.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: volutar on March 11, 2015, 05:51:24 pm
Hobbes,
It isn't a problem to assign MissionZone locations that actually are outside the Region.
It makes no difference. There should be shared location list for all regions. Shared lists with N last sites being kept not to repeat.
There is no way to make that, if you will clone this list between regions. They will repeat even if there will be "no repeat" in terms of each region. Thus it must be shared, global location list. And actually - two different lists, for sea attacks (with randomly chosen type) and special case - artefacts.
Quote
As SupSuper said, it is possible now to add monthly missionWeights to the entries on alienMissions. The game will use them when selecting between missions with the same objective.
It's irrelevant to what's important to make TFTD (different weights through months, dynamic ARTEFACT mission affecting ratios until all of them are completed).
All your notes perhaps can be used with your mods, but they have no use for TFTD.

To make TFTD possible, this current "mission changes" should be deeply refactored. Since it doesn't allow for any limits, any anti-repeating, any dynamic month-based weights.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 11, 2015, 06:26:54 pm
On yeah, you're absolutely right on your post with the issue of mission limits.

The ideas I was presenting were merely a brainstorm of what it is possible to do for the Terrain Pack, since I had before tried to add Artifact Site type missions to it but failed. I'm thinking of actually start creating a list of global locations and add it to all regions to allow for a different type of Mission Sites.

This to say that, whatever your solution to implement the dynamic mission ratios, I'll be sure to experiment with it :)
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Warboy1982 on March 12, 2015, 02:43:18 am
the limitations on numbers of missions/types etc will come with my planned mission scripting, this is merely the first step towards that.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 12, 2015, 02:54:47 am
what mission scripting?!?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Arthanor on March 12, 2015, 03:57:57 am
Mission scripting uh? Seeing what the map scripts are enabling, I am very much looking forward to that!

Hopefully I can get a "civil unrest" type mission going every month, for Solarius' Hybrids and some alien loving cults. They're not worthy of replacing aliens, but they would add to the atmosphere and be great rookie training.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: XOps on March 12, 2015, 04:50:41 am
I am assuming some of that will be for implementing stuff like destroying the Synomium device?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 12, 2015, 05:06:49 am
I am assuming some of that will be for implementing stuff like destroying the Synomium device?

This should be already implemented since on the original UFO you could win an Alien Base Assault mission by destroying the consoles on the base command center.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 12, 2015, 05:07:20 am
i really really wanna have turn timed missions like you got X number of turns to win or else you lose and cannot re-do it .

identical to any mission debriefing except it adds turns: X if turns is defined otherwise regular style.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: kikimoristan on March 12, 2015, 05:08:25 am
I am assuming some of that will be for implementing stuff like destroying the Synomium device?

I ASSUME if you make a tile flagged with destroy objective and place them in the game on a map in a mission  when you destroy all those tiles you win the mission. It has to be implemented for final mission alien brain.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: XOps on March 12, 2015, 05:15:49 am
This should be already implemented since on the original UFO you could win an Alien Base Assault mission by destroying the consoles on the base command center.

In TFTD, it would give you a message once you destroyed the device and tell the player to make their way towards the exit. I think it also changed the text in the mission complete screen. I may be wrong though. It's been a while since I've played TFTD.

I ASSUME if you make a tile flagged with destroy objective and place them in the game on a map in a mission  when you destroy all those tiles you win the mission. It has to be implemented for final mission alien brain.

That ends the game though, not just the mission. I think it's a different value in the mcd files as well. If I recall correctly, the Synomium device shares an mcd value with the alien command center console.

Edit: Looks like I was wrong about the mcd value. I guess the alien command center is something hardcoded to the game rather than the mcd.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 12, 2015, 07:09:40 pm
In TFTD, it would give you a message once you destroyed the device and tell the player to make their way towards the exit. I think it also changed the text in the mission complete screen. I may be wrong though. It's been a while since I've played TFTD.

Just tested on UFO and you don't get a message once you destroy the Base Command Center. I guess my memory is playing tricks on me again.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Warboy1982 on March 13, 2015, 04:51:13 am
Just tested on UFO and you don't get a message once you destroy the Base Command Center. I guess my memory is playing tricks on me again.

yeah, that was a tftd exclusive thing, much like the notification for auto-recovery of a crashed UFO in which all the aliens were killed during the offscreen explosion.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 26, 2015, 03:00:18 am
Been using the new features in my mods and there's an unexpected result from the changes.

Previously, any terrain assigned to a texture would be overridden by terrains listed on alienDeployments or ufo entries. Or at least I was under the wrong assumption. But with the latest changes this has been reversed: terrains assigned to textures override any terrains listed on those sections.

This happened because Supsuper's rationale was that this change would allow to specify terror site terrains for specific locations such as cities. However, this applies to Geoscape textures as well, which are causing issues with some existing mods. While before I could determine a specific terrain for a UFO mission, regardless of its Geoscape texture, now that isn't possible anymore.

So I'd propose to go back and have terrains listed on alienDeployments or ufos override the ones listed under textures, unlike the present solution. It will still be possible to define specific terrains for terror sites on cities by creating an unique texture, which was the original intention behind the change, and it will allow to customize the terrain for UFOs/Terror Sites through alienDeployment or ufo entries, which was the previous system and allows for more customization.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Dioxine on March 28, 2015, 01:36:13 am
Will it be possible to tie specific terror & base defense missions to specific deployments?
Right now, they're selected at random, afaik, so there is no way to tie a specific race(s) to a specific mission AND deployment.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on March 28, 2015, 02:34:17 am
Will it be possible to tie specific terror & base defense missions to specific deployments?
Right now, they're selected at random, afaik, so there is no way to tie a specific race(s) to a specific mission AND deployment.

I've already stumbled upon this issue also when I tried to make the MJ12 initial mission as an Alien Base. At the moment it isn't possible, in the future it depends if the developers have time and patience.

You can set a alienMission to a specific race, though, so that isn't an issue. The problem is to always get the same alienDeployment for a specific alienMission. 

Btw, Warboy changed the setting I mentioned in my previous post to this thread, so that terrains listed on alienDeployments override the ones assigned to textures. To me that made more sense that the opposite, since it will still possible to assign specific city terrains (asian, paris, etc.) to cities for terror sites but you're not stuck only to the terrains listed on textures.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: jackstraw2323 on May 10, 2015, 04:17:12 am
I haven't seen exact documentation yet, but there must be a way to set the final mission text/graphics after the game is complete. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I assume that TFTD rules will bring this change.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: myk002 on May 10, 2015, 04:38:56 am
you mean the outro cutscene?  check out https://github.com/SupSuper/OpenXcom/pull/1007
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: jackstraw2323 on May 10, 2015, 04:35:07 pm
Great, thank you that's exactly what I was looking for. Looks like some great new options in the works!
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: robin on July 13, 2015, 11:36:41 am
Necromancy!

So I've been reading this and, if I understand correctly, it is impossible to assign a custom alienDeplyment as a mission site/mission base.
To speak in more concrete terms: I have Cult of Sirius in my mod and I'd like them to build temples just like aliens build bases. But now it can't be done; am I correct or am I missing something?

Unless this works:

  - type: STR_CULT_BASE
    points: 40
    objective: STR_TEMPLE <----------- alienDeployment for the temple, thus creating a cult temple and not an alien base.
    spawnZone: 4 #Mission zone for alien bases
    raceWeights:
      0:
          STR_CULT: 100
      1:
          STR_CULT: 100
      3:
          STR_CULT: 100
      5:
          STR_CULT: 100
      7:
          STR_CULT: 100
    waves:
      [ ... cut ... ]
      - ufo: STR_SPACELINER
        count: 1
        trajectory: P6
        timer: 60
        objective: true

Anyone already played around with this and maybe managed to find a trick?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Dioxine on July 13, 2015, 12:52:05 pm
That'd work only with Extended I think.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: robin on July 13, 2015, 02:06:49 pm
With Extended  I guess you have to use this to achieve that:

alienRaces:
  - id: STR_CULT
    [ ...cut... ]
    baseCustomDeploy: STR_TEMPLE            #override alien base default weapon depoly.
    baseCustomMission: STR_TEMPLE            #override alien base construction.

But I need a trick for vanilla OpenXcom.  :P
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Solarius Scorch on July 13, 2015, 02:39:46 pm
Honestly, I'd go with Extended if I were you.

It's not like I'm bashing vanilla X-Com or anything, I just think that your project - a total conversion - is likely to benefit from various additional functions Extended offers. X-Piratez have shown that people will accept a custom exe if it makes sense, and it is a pretty good mass of code, so maybe you could think about it?
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: robin on July 13, 2015, 03:22:13 pm
Honestly, I'd go with Extended if I were you.

It's not like I'm bashing vanilla X-Com or anything, I just think that your project - a total conversion - is likely to benefit from various additional functions Extended offers. X-Piratez have shown that people will accept a custom exe if it makes sense, and it is a pretty good mass of code, so maybe you could think about it?
Oh sure, I could simply use Extended.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: Hobbes on July 13, 2015, 03:33:27 pm
Necromancy!

So I've been reading this and, if I understand correctly, it is impossible to assign a custom alienDeplyment as a mission site/mission base.
To speak in more concrete terms: I have Cult of Sirius in my mod and I'd like them to build temples just like aliens build bases. But now it can't be done; am I correct or am I missing something?

I've already discussed this possibility with Warboy and we'll have to wait until he finishes mission scripting.
Title: Re: Upcoming mission changes
Post by: hellrazor on July 14, 2015, 02:26:40 pm
I've already discussed this possibility with Warboy and we'll have to wait until he finishes mission scripting.

I hope it will come soon.