Messages

1

OpenXcom Extended / Re: implementation of loading a savedgame file in a command line?

« on: June 20, 2024, 05:37:38 am »

ECHO 1. very large UFO - lobsterman
ECHO 2. very large UFO - tasoth
ECHO 3. very large UFO - gilman
ECHO 4. very large UFO - mixed
echo.
ECHO 5. large UFO - lobsterman
ECHO 6. large UFO - tasoth
ECHO 7. large UFO - gilman
ECHO 8. large UFO - mixed
echo.
ECHO 9. large  UFO battleship - lobsterman
ECHO 0. medium UFO battleship - aquatoid
echo.
ECHO A. alien colony
ECHO B. alien activity
ECHO C. shipping routes
ECHO D. terror sites
ECHO E. tleth
echo.
SET VAR=DUMMY
SET /P VAR=INPUT:
IF /I %VAR%==DUMMY GOTO :EOF

IF /I %VAR%==1 (
start "" OpenXcomEx.exe --load "C:\very large UFO - lobsterman.sav"
)


after this i like to build a library as something like this

del /q "W:\XCOM 1 - OpenXCOM Extended\user\xcom2\*.sav"
"very large UFO - lobsterman.EXE" -OVERWRITE -TIMES=MODIFY
OpenXcomEx.exe --continue

a ZIP compressed file "very large UFO - lobsterman.EXE" contains maybe about 10 different saved files from 10 different games

maybe possible to implement of loading saved games further?

i already did this kind of things to my favorite games like
Age of Wonders 1 - collected 300 saved files
Jagged Alliance 2  - collected 500 saved files
Jagged Alliance 2 - Unfinished Business - 150 saved games
red alert 2
i think XCOM 1 - OpenXCOM Extended is a good candidate

2

OpenXcom Extended / Re: implementation of loading a savedgame file in a command line?

« on: June 17, 2024, 11:55:15 am »

>OpenXcomEx.exe --continue
was SO good. thanks. what other command lines are there?
i searched  "XCOM OpenXCOM Extended command lines" for 2 days in websites but i didnt find any

3

OpenXcom Extended / implementation of loading a savedgame file in a command line?

« on: June 17, 2024, 09:13:51 am »

(syntax)
AoW.exe "W:\Age of Wonders 1\Save\1111.acg"
OpenXcomEx.exe "W:\XCOM 1 - OpenXCOM Extended\user\xcom2\1111.sav"

here is an example i used to explain with another game
normally starting AoW.exe takes about 30 seconds to go through
a logo
loading screen
loading menu
loading icon
look for directories for a saved file if you collected many saved files
and needs a labor of maybe 15 clicks and 15 dragging a mouse

but AoW.exe "W:\Age of Wonders 1\Save\1111.acg" bypasses the non essential and loads all in 0.5 sec just by clicking a batch file by one click.

so, is there a way to do this OpenXcomEx.exe "W:\XCOM 1 - OpenXCOM Extended\user\xcom2\1111.sav" by any chance?
if not, would it possible to implement this type of syntax for a command line?

4

OXCE Suggestions NEW / would it be possible to compile one with the original xcom not universal patch?

« on: June 15, 2024, 11:26:34 am »

i played X-COM UFO maybe 5 times due to smearing graphics, by the time i got the patch in 1998, i already moved on to terror from the deep and maybe played 50 times in 1995~1998, after that i couldnt play it anymore, due to scrolling was too fast and dosbox back then was too slow and i had it with no hotkey supports. then moved to jagged alliance 2 for last 25 years.

i decided to check X-COM for a possible remake 3 weeks ago, i learned about openxcom.
i played it and i LOVED it SO MUCH with hotkey supports.

i played openxcom UFO defense, i failed it due to not knowing what i played was all easy difficulty not veteran
but my true play lied in the X-COM 2 terror from the deep.
i found this that openxcom used the universal patched one which i didnt know and never used it before.

i found that a universal patch was NOT a patch and it was more of a MOD
its game play was not even remotely similar in fact, it took the opposite path of the original game play

the original XCOM was all about us players being as offensive
but the universal patch made us players as defense as we could be

the universal patch openxcom would go like these
*all aliens will COME TO YOU even the ones in the vessels
*tanky lobsters are being knocked out like falling leaves asking for being knocked out again and again

*paths of Tentaculats and calcinites and maybe lobsters too are noticeably different from the original
o = going right
x = going left
original  one : oooooxxxxoooooooo was most likely the zigzagging way
universal one : ooooooooooooooooo
by doing so, they changed some kind of game balance further

*dye grenades in the original disperse slowly, it is NOT broken as they said made it out to be
by changing this, they changed the ENTIRE original game play like this
since aliens can NOT see you in the blanket of smoke. so modders made all field aliens converge toward you, and in 2 turns, some of them WILL already reach to your submarine's door. so you players now in trouble with 80 limit item carry. so universal patch removed the 80 item carry limit. PLAYERS need to carry more items for the universal patch, a lot of dye grenades and at least 20 flares.
after 1st dye grenade's power is gone after 10th turn, you use another dye grenade, now the rest of the aliens in the UFO vessel's core places starts to come out and comes to you. YOU DONT EVER NEED TO RAID ALIENS in vessels in universal.
but in the original XCOM, you play offensive
you come to them by dragging all 10 marines to them. aliens in there are SO defensive, there also EXISTS an impossibility for you to win, no amounts of saving and loading games wont cure this.


*and finally universal patch workshop production has about 30% faster duration and less work space needed.
*in a new patch, lobster commanders are NOT elusive, it makes the game end too fast for me. it was probably the worst patch made with ver 2
 in a unpatched version lobster commanders were quite often so elusive to make people think that the game was broken but it was not broken, you just capture lobster commanders a couple more times and WITH ONLY SHOKBOMBS for the whole mission, or commanders die, which added more fun time to play leviathans.


openxcom using universal patch does not and must not represent the original XCOM UFO.
would it be possible for you GOOD modders to compile one with the original X-COM UFO series?
mods are all in good and fun, but a MOD is ONLY MEANINGFUL if the original game play is preserved even in some corner of universe.

5

Open Feedback / Re: openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: June 15, 2024, 09:16:04 am »

i just finished playing terror from the deep x-com  patch version 2.1
there was no difference i found from the one with the unpatched version. even the linked mission doesnt relay the weapons to the final, except you receive all the weapons at the end.


>in DOS original, they maybe rise 0.1 % or less, unless you stand on them
>>Not that I know of. It may be that you remember wrong, I definitely recall camping downed Sectoids and Chryssalids thirty >>years ago. Or perhaps you're using different weapons now.
>>Standing on the body has never made any difference, short of blocking that spot and making them stand up on another tile.

no you havent actually played the original, ones you played must have been the universal patched one disguised as the original, there is no way you would havent known this from the original


>by any chance, has tentaculat's attack range been changed? they seemed to be able to travel 30% longer distance to attack.
>>Tentaculats should be unchanged

Tentaculats and calcinites and maybe lobsters too are noticeably different from the origianal, probably all other aliens were changed too. the reason i found was modders probably straightened out their paths by doing something like this

o = going right
x = going left
original  one : oooooxxxxoooooooo was most likely the zigzagging way
universal one : ooooooooooooooooo
by doing so, they changed some kind of game balance further, but now it is ok for universal patch, if i just consider universal patch is not a patch but a mod.

>dye grenades are totally different in openxcom.
>>Yes, and they were pretty much broken in the original.

no it was NOT broken, please play the original. the original dye served its perfect purpose, dye grenades disperse slowly
by changing this, they changed the ENTIRE original game play like this
let me put it this way, the original XCOM was all about players being offensive
the universal patch made players as defense as they could get

since aliens can not see you in the blanket of smoke. so modders made all field aliens converge toward you, and in 2 turns, some of them WILL already reach your submarine's door. so you players now in trouble with 80 limit item carry. so universal patch removed the 80 item carry limit. PLAYERS need to carry more items for the universal patch, a lot of dye grenades and at least 20 flares.
after 1st dye grenade's power is gone after 10th turn, you use another dye grenade, now rest of the aliens in the UFO vessel's core place starts to come out and comes to you. YOU DONT EVER NEED TO RAID ALIENS in vessels

in the original, aliens who jump from the roof of the UFO vessel to the ground are extremely rare,
but in the universal patch one, they come out of there like boiling water

what is the meaning of original XCOM that was all about players being offensive
you come to them by dragging all 10 marines to them. aliens in there are SO defensive, there EXISTS an impossibility for you to win(no amounts of saving and loading games can do), if you tell me what this impossibility is, i will praise you

and finally universal patch workshop production has about 30% faster duration.

the reason i havent played patched version 2, because TFTD's scrolling was too fast unless i used 386 or pentium 90mhz
even in year 2024 under dosbox, scrolling left and right was too fast but scrolling up and down was too slow and scrolling diagonally was slower than up-down, all these cause weird pain in my already damaged shoulders.


openxcom using universal patch doesnt represent the original xcom ufo, IT IS JUST A MOD.
i would like to post this openxcom extended forum section as a wish that openxcom also consider a original version to be used as well

6

Open Feedback / Re: openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: June 04, 2024, 05:35:11 pm »

about my thoughts on the lobster commander...
more elusive lobster commander could probably be a better gaming. once or twice back in the day, these were what i have done to get it through with the unpatched version

case 1: i detonated a sonic pulser by the leviathan just to see if any explosion or firing a sonic weapon in the air could cause a lobster commander to auto-die at the end then i raided the very large UFO with only shokbombs
case 2: i blew up the very large UFO's side hull at the 3rd layer or the top hull with the disrupter just to make an opening, attacking from top to down was much much easier than the frontal assault, then raided it with shokbombs only
case 3: frontal assault with only shokbombs without using any other weapons whatsoever

i forgot which case to capture the lobster commander now, but it was DONE with shokbombs only
missing a lobster commander might not be a bug that most people have said made out to be, when the lobster was more elusive to me, i had a time to play with he leviathans

i just finished the openxcom and started the openxcom extended, it HAD the hotkey that i wanted the most, the alien bookmark keys were available for all my units who were not in the range, this just made the openxcom obsolete to me. they did it!

7

Open Feedback / Re: openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: June 04, 2024, 06:33:13 am »

this is the patch v2, BUT this readme.txt was NOT in the patch installation. this website's readme explained many things
i can say that i definitely had a mind set of a unpatched version
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Equipment left in the X-COM craft on linked missions is now returned to base if you succeed in the second half of the linked mission.
so i always picked up most disrupter ammos before going to the linked colony mission, and not to overuse the disrupter same place twice
when playing openxcom, i went like, after seeing loads of ammo in the linked mission,
so i didnt have to give my manual labor to collect trashes with me. openxcom was nice. then thinking lobsters gonna start shooting disrupters soon at me, i better move my units to another evac region to protect THESE AMMOS,  was my new behavior, protecting these ammos became my main priority

* Alien molecular control defense stats have been modified.
ok they modified something....

* Proximity grenades now retain their prime from a reload on a tactical game.
i didnt use them enough to notice it

* The 'funding' bug has been fixed so that there are no discrepancies in the X-COM accounts at the end of each month.
i never noticed

* There were rare problems with panicked soldiers dropping weapons in 'mid-water' - this has now been fixed.
i see this one often, it was no big deal

* All craft automatically reload when you buy new ammunition.
i never noticed. i probably checked things manually once in a while

* You now do not require a Deep One corpse in your inventory to research aqua-plastics. However you still need to have researched a Deep One corpse.
capture another one, eventually the game progressed

* One branch of the research tree has been modified. Whereas before you needed ion accelerators, magnetic navigation and a lobsterman navigator to be allowed to research magnetic ion armor you now need to research ion armor, magnetic navigation and ion accelerators.
i never noticed

* The Leviathon troop deployment bug has been fixed.
i never noticed

* A rare bug occurred which could kill live aliens on return to base. This has now been fixed.
just capture another one, this was probably what i would have done, but it could have been a fatal bug, had it happened to the lobster commander
i once went in there with all shokbombs, i finally captured it

* The 'Groundhog day' bug
* The crash bug associated with clicking both mouse buttons has now been fixed.
my elbow hit something to have caused it, a lot of different games HAD this thing, not just x-com. must load the last savedgame
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>dye grenades are totally different in openxcom
>>Yes, and they were pretty much broken in the original...
i thought this way when i 1st played TFTD after UFO defense
it is a dye not a smoke, molecular dispersion is VERY slow in water which is as dense as solid
it was more realistic than practical.
i like the openxcom one better, because i didnt have to wait 5 turns to see the same effect, i often waited many turns when some aliens with disupters were just outside the sub,  it was more like a different but practical rule


>OXC changes some things. No, it deliberately tries to stay as close to the original as possible, while offering a variety of fixes, user options
now i understood, this was because i didnt play the patched version, i had the mind set of the unpatched version, i wont bother anyone with different rules that i may think it might have

once i am done with openxcom, i will try openxcom extended
it reminds me of doxbox and dosbox-x (extended) i think i know how it may go

8

Open Feedback / Re: openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: June 03, 2024, 11:43:39 pm »

>And you're saying that you use the Manta, which is not a transport craft in the original. Are you playing with a mod?
oops, my mistake, i meant hammerhead, no, it was the original floppy version,  i had it patched v2.0 or v2.1 maybe in years 2005~2010, but i havent played the patched version except for 1 or 2 small fight missions from same old savedgames,  my memory lies with v1.0 unpatched version around 1995, Terror from the deep never had a serious game stopping bug.


>in most cases the rest have that enemy on the same number
not true, they are even depended on the angles, much less different locations, getting the same number doesnt happen in my play,
except for the panicked aliens who just walk right into me all the way, even then all my units face different angles

>The 'center on last spotted enemy' idea is not bad, though.
this will save a lot of  screen scrolling back and forth between your units and the aliens.
just press "D" to go back your next unit and press "E" to make a screen jump back to center on the "invisible" alien that your other units cant see, because they are too far.  and make the key "E" toggle if your scout finds 2 or 3 aliens gathered near.  toggling is not that needed,  going to the last spotted enemy is plenty enough, because all aliens are always in the same area,  just make me go back to that screen with aliens quickly without scrolling or any aliens for that matter

>Soldier cycling is done in the same order that they appear on the craft, AFAIK. Can be a bit jumpy once you've spread everyone out.
this is why i use D  (DONE for the current turn)

> so I'm not sure what you're basing the 30% on.
i didnt count the tiles, but just feeling i built from my past experience, ...like "this much distance, i think i am safe, it wont get to me or it will stop in front of me". but with openxcom, they come out of the offscreen or the edge of screen. so i moved away maybe 30% more as i felt seen safe, i couldnt measure it well at 1st,  but save and load the game eventually did. i havent found readme.txt as to what was changed in universal patch. dye grenades are totally different in openxcom.
1st turn 4 tiles affected
2nd turn 4 tiles + 6 tiles affected
3rd turn 4 tiles +  6 tiles  + 13 tiles affected
4th turn ..... goes on like this in original. which is useless, i wont wait for 5 turns for dye to disperse more. so i am still a bit skeptical what was changed in openxcom. so far nothing much or it was maybe just my imagination. it seems that the most jellyfish aliens are not flapping around on some alien buildings anymore, they really come to get you,, which was good.

>Soldier cycling
tab tab tab.... for next unit, next unit....., which is still kind of maybe ok.
but i hope to bookmark a unit with a bound hotkey to find my scout quickly
any strategy games need bookmarks... real time strategy ...tactical strategy.... turn base... all

9

Open Feedback / Re: openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: June 03, 2024, 04:41:25 pm »

>NO hotkeys for move upward and downward
>>scroll wheel to change height and regular movement isn't too bad

it isnt bad for normal players, but the repetitiveness takes a toll on my shoulder
click a unit in manta - move a mouse to click a UP layer icon(PgUp for my hotkey) - UP layer - move a mouse to click the destination - do it 10 times

now i do it this way
you dont need to move a mouse much for this in openxcom.
click - D (my hoykey for DONE for the unit's move) - click - D - 10 times, now all units are out of the manta - wait for the next turn then do - click move up - click move up - D - do it 10 times. in this case, i dont have to MOVE a mouse, i just position a mouse and click on the move up icon.

i hope this to be done like... D - U - U - D - U - U ... do it like 10 times, without mixing with a mouse.
----------------------------
my next hotkey wish is....
i need to be able to bookmark a ONE of my units by pressing CTRL+1 on it, then pressing ALT+1 (or just 1) goes to the bookmarked unit, because X-COM has a mind of its own to select whatever the random unit it likes after the next turn
----------------------------
currently XCOM's 1, 2, 3... number keys are for center on the VISIBLE enemy numbers
this is ok and much better than none but not too ok for XCOM, you CAN'T pick a fight one on one in XCOM. when a scout finds the enemy who is still invisible to your other units, your firing squad NEEDS that INVISIBLE enemy number instead. how about making a hotkey  "E" for center on the enemy you just found which is NOT depended on the VISIBILITY. in this fantastic case, you dont need to change or scroll the screen at all.

believe it or not, i dreamt about these three keys 30 years ago
----------------------------
by any chance, has tentaculat's attack range been changed? they seemed to be able to travel 30% longer distance to attack.

is it ok if i post my hotkey wishes on a different thread, so that XCOM remakers and remasters could see them in some other time?

10

Open Feedback / Re: openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: June 01, 2024, 11:58:04 am »

>"XcomUtil: Always Daytime" "XcomUtil: Always Nighttime"  both were marked yes in UFO, but not in terror from the deep. thanks i fixed it.

before i would like to ask some questions, i would like to praise you for the x-com remake or remastered version
hotkeys were SO SO SO good
buy/sell scroll bar was very good
ammo indications in white were good
skip next turn was SO good
skip intro was good
----------------------------------------------
about OpenXcom - terror from the deep with the veteran difficulty, now i am in the middle of mopping up the rest of the game, MC labs are fully operational,
but i found this along the way
the knocked out aliens are really annoying, they rise up again and again in one to several turns later, and a confirmation kill with the sonic weapons is NOT possible
i have to put 1 or 2 guards around lobstermen

in DOS original, they maybe rise 0.1 % or less, unless you stand on them
in openxcom, they may rise 70%, i didnt have many tentaculats in the missions yet, but i think they rise up too, so was this part  modded?
i am not sure of this one in the control menu, if "alien bleeding" was said to YES, then would this stop the rising behaviors?

are the number of alien colonies limited by any chance in the geoscape in openxcom? i used to have around 30 colonies all over the globe in the original DOS version before MC labs, now in OpenXCOM, all i have  is maybe 6 visible alien colonies... was kind of strange.. but much less grindy
----------------------------------------------
the next one is...
the xcom unit's movement in the control menu was set to max, but still, time wasting for moving 10 units per turn are repetitively slow and bad in my head
is there a way to make them move faster like the original? i can edit or mod a file if you can point me

the next one is my wish...
there seems to be NO hotkeys for move upward and downward when they wear the mag ion armors, i use these commands the most

11

Open Feedback / Re: openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: May 27, 2024, 05:20:08 am »

>otherwise it's the same
then why would all battles be always night missions  if it was the same
i avoided all night missions at the beginning back in the day unless a local terror, because aliens would see maybe 3 times longer distance

ok fine, i played terror from the deep 10 times more than UFO one back in the day
did this also have the reverting back to the beginner difficulty bug?
it couldnt be, as i'd remember, it got more difficult, but i dont totally remember it well now

the reason why i played terror form the deep 10+ more was UFO had too many graphics smearing bugs, was fixed with patches but some smearing were still there at times, even in v1.4 unit's TU grew without a bound and became useless after TU became truncated

i will go play terror from the deep in openxcom, i hope the rules are the same.
but the tactics i used for UFO and Terror from the deep were exactly the same
my tactics were
always have10  flares just in case
equip 3~4 men with all rockets even when TU's are not quite full
get 1 or 2 rocket launcher tanks
4 men with rifles.
bust through all homes and walls to expose aliens from a long distance
rockets aoe can still kill aliens hiding behind rock covers
then i feel good... hahaha! take that, turning it into a parking lot

12

Open Feedback / openxcom was too difficult to play. is there a way to use the original rules?

« on: May 26, 2024, 09:47:03 am »

for veteran difficulty
i noticed aliens were too accurate and too deadly
after the 3rd mission, 45 days later, i couldnt even make a one step out of the skyranger, the mind control was already seriously happening and all missions were always night missions even for a daytime battle
so i concluded that openxcom was a mod, not the remastered one with added hotkeys and with better graphics. but they totally changed the rules.

is there a way to use or change to the original game rules that i am familiar with?
this is unplayable.

about a DOS version XCOM 1 -  UFO Defense - universal patched one which is not an official patch
is this as difficult as openxcom? did they change the rules here too by any chance?

13

Open Feedback / Re: few questions about savedgame location and lingo files and music volume

« on: May 25, 2024, 04:34:04 pm »

>FontBig_jp.png.
i always delete other language packs to save space and the number of files... usually maybe 10 giga bytes and 15000 files per game series. it became a habit of mine. it was no big deal

>portable installation
thanks it worked very well.

with hotkey support, this remake is really really good.
hope to have one more hotkey something like ALT+Q for a quickexit without being prompted

14

Open Feedback / few questions about savedgame location and lingo files and music volume

« on: May 25, 2024, 04:08:19 am »

options i chose
video resolution = 640x480
geoscape = 1/2 display
battlescape = 1/2 display
what does it mean by 1/2, i had a hard time getting the right one, it seemed that 1/2 was the final choice
for other choices i tried, despite of their names, HUD was either too small, or geoscape was stretched, or battlescape is too small like i have to be an ant to see it.
after this post was accepted, i found 1/2 was the best choice with 640x480. i felt ok with the display, but i am not sure about twice of MCGA resolution 320x200 that is 640x400. top screen portion was chopped off.

when i go to options then  game options then folders,
is there a way to change the savedgame location and all others to the installed game directory rather the Windows user account?
if you could show the file i need to modify, that would be great

about these other lingo files like \openxcom\common\Language\FontBig_jp.png... i tried to delete these files, it almost crashed the windows, i had to use task manager to end task, why do i need to keep the files that i dont need?

i compared openxcom music volume with the original DOS version under DOSBOX music volume,
for DOS version under DOSBOX
once in a while, eventful eerie music volume has ok and acceptable loudness
background music volume at geoscape was very low and it was ok with me or any louder, could have been bad

for openxcom
once in a while, eventful eerie music volume has ok and acceptable loudness
but the background music volume at geoscape was a bit louder than the original
did you by any chance MOD and amplify the original background music?