Messages

31

Troubleshooting / Re: Loading mod rulesets

« on: August 23, 2013, 09:40:23 am »

Thanks for looking into this. Tried it and now works fine.

I stumbled across another issue, but I am not sure if it is related. I am building a mod that adds countries and cities to geoscape. It used to work, but now I am getting the following when openxcom loads:
yaml-ccp error: at line 0, column 0: bad conversion

The script is very simplistic. I can post it if it helps, but used to work beforehand.
It just has the categories: "countries:", "regions:", "extraStrings:" and the details to add a country and a city. The very first line in the script is "countries:"

32

Troubleshooting / Re: Loading mod rulesets

« on: August 22, 2013, 10:28:45 pm »

Great! Now they load and stay in options.cfg, but it seems that the extra strings are not read correctly for all the rulesets (potentially more staff). The last mod ruleset in options.cfg seems to load fine, but all previous ones do not, at least for the "extra strings" bit in the ruleset.

wsmithjr has done a bit of investigation in the comments at the main openxcom page.
Thanks for looking into this!

33

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 22, 2013, 10:25:40 pm »

Yes, it seems there is still a problem with loading mod rulesets.
I noticed that the last ruleset you load in options.cfg is fine, while any previous ones do not load properly, at least regarding the string names.
Haven't found a way around it yet.

EDIT: SupSuper fixed this!

34

Troubleshooting / Loading mod rulesets

« on: August 21, 2013, 02:44:24 am »

Was there any change how mods are loaded over the last few nightly builds?
I add them as usually in options.cfg under rulesets, but they no longer load in game. In fact, when I exit openxcom any mod rulesets that I had added are removed from the list in options.cfg. 

Tried all builds with the new version of yaml and have the same problem.

35

Work In Progress / Re: Mind Shield

« on: August 13, 2013, 02:34:06 pm »

I there a list somewhere with the available properties/commands we can use already in rulesets?
It would be great to have such scripting flexibility. That would help for the initial question as well, a mind shield.

I still DM from time to time, but on rather old game systems..!

36

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 10, 2013, 09:21:14 pm »

You might be able to do that. I think if you create a zero cost research that consumes the item you want to use and then put that research as prerequisite for the others it should do it. It has to be zero cost so that it does not show up in the research list.

37

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 10, 2013, 07:33:44 pm »

Yes, normally you need to research the plasma research tree. Were you thinking of still keeping the plasma research, but not getting to use the weapons? Its probably possible by creating fake research/ufopedia entries that are not tied to the weapons.

I am planning to work on the hovertank sprites. I want to redo those and then I'll build a turret for a mass accelerator cannon.

Regarding the lightning I am still trying to think the battlescape map design and then I'll adjust the sprite more if needed. I think that its not really important to make them too different (though I think they already are!), as the only important case to distinguish between crafts, without text, would be if you have them minimised in geoscape. Nonetheless, what kind of revisions would you suggest to make them more dissimilar?

38

IDT Modding Hub / Re: FOXC - Fantasy OpenXcom

« on: August 10, 2013, 07:18:52 pm »

I think warsmith has fixed that in his mod:

dual wielding now properly represented on battlescape

I have not checked how yet.

39

Work In Progress / Re: Mind Shield

« on: August 10, 2013, 07:13:31 pm »

Have you figured of a way to make the shield work in openxcom? I presume the extra protection would be on top of normal armor.
I would really like something like that to give you a chance against chryssalids.
Regarding your question what I do is to load an already existing handobj and just paint on top of it... doesn't always work, but saves me a bit of experimentation.

40

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 09, 2013, 07:44:35 pm »

As suggested, two simple rulesets that will remove plasma weapons from the game:

• NoPlasma.rul: Xcom can no longer research plasma technology. Since we do not understand how to use the weapons their price is reduced to 1/3. Good luck...
• NoPlasmaMass.rul: Same as above, but removes plasma dependencies from mass weapons. Human tech replaces need for plasma, but you will need to use elerium like there is no tomorrow!

Install as standard mods. NoPlasmaMass.rul requires the Mass Accelerator Weapons mod. I guess NoPlasmaMass has to be listed after it in the options.cfg, otherwise the overrides will not work correctly.

And now for something completely different..! I have made a replacement for lightning following the style of firestorm (only base and intercept graphics yet). Opinions? In particular, do you think it is possible to make a map piece that will sort of resemble it? I am not looking for a very close fit, something similar to how the Avenger looks in base and in battlescape (i.e. rather different!). I have not attempted any map modding, so any suggestions or help is welcome!

41

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 09, 2013, 10:55:04 am »

I think it is possible. You would need to script in a ruleset a new item, which you would not be able to find, and add this as a requirement for plasma weapons research. This way it would never show up for research. However, I find the idea scary!

42

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 08, 2013, 11:33:56 am »

There is a zip file attached in the first post (EMace.zip). That one is a single weapon mod.

EDIT:
I was never a big fan of the graphics for Firestorm and Lightning, so...
I made a graphics replacement mod for Firestorm. I have used UFO:EU 2012 Firestorm as a basis
Adds new sprites at basebits, inticon and ufopedia and overides Xcom1Ruleset.rul to point to the new sprites.

Download link in the first post

Enjoy!

43

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 07, 2013, 11:38:22 pm »

Thanks mercy! Spot on moriaty. From the ufopedia entry of the mass accelerator technology in the mod:

"By reverse engineering alien artifacts human technology has made great advances. We have been able to weaponise techonologies that up until now seemed to be well outside our reach. Mass acccelerator weapons shoot ultrasonic dense bursts of baryons to the target, with a combined kinetic and thermal energy that matches the destructive potential of alien plasma techonology. With further research we should be able to derive reliable weapons from early prototypes."

I have shorter descriptions in each weapon entry. I will try to revise the text more along the lines of this discussion.

44

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 07, 2013, 09:21:59 pm »

Plasma is counting on the thermal energy as well (which is kinetic energy, but with rather unorganised paths for the molecules).
Although from the shape of the weapons one might get the impression that magnetic fields are in play, I actually avoid mentioning them in the description for exactly this reason! Assuming sufficiently advanced technology, I would prefer to fire neutral particles, as these are more difficult to deflect. What these might be? I guess anything relatively heavy, like classic atoms/molecules from our periodic table or exotic stuff we do not know yet. It might as well shoot elerium molecules... afterall its x-com!

In principle any projectile with enough kinetic energy and mass can cause massive damage, so that's why I went with something as vague as mass accelerators and dense packets of hadrons/baryons. The relativistic speed I use only for the craft cannon. The idea is that to achieve this you need sufficiently enough energy, which even with elerium you cannot get in a portable weapon (as we all know from school). Note that in this case you need to fire something incredibly small, as the mass is affected at relativistic speeds... and you are using this while in the atmosphere... well any physicist would have jumped out of the window by now, so I guess we can be a bit more vague and loose on the exact science! 

Nonetheless, I don't have a strong preference on the fluff side, so I m open to suggestions!

45

Released Mods / Re: Tyran_nick's mods

« on: August 07, 2013, 07:20:16 pm »

You are right, but unfortunately it seems to be a bit more complicated.. I tried to read a bit on it and it seems that you can get the following basic flavours:

• Rail guns: Accelerate a single projectile. We already have this technology militarised, but its not portable or reliable.
• Gauss guns (or coil guns): The same thing, but different arrangement of magnetic fields. Again this techonology is already militarised, but not to a large scale.
• Particle guns: Not so similar, but same principle. You accelerate positive or negative particles with magnetic fields. These must have some mass to cause kinetic damage. The charge is a different discussion altogether. We use particle guns often in physics, its just that we don't call them "guns".
• Mass guns (cannons or accelerators): Can be any of the above, but often used for projectiles of molecular or smaller scale. Neutral charge particle guns are sometimes called mass.

So, to sum up a mass accelerator can be a gauss gun, but in this case it is not, as in the description it says that these guns shoot dense packets of hadrons baryons. I am sure there are other more detailed taxonomies of mass accelerators.