Messages

706

Troubleshooting / Re: Help with running TFTD

« on: October 30, 2016, 04:00:02 am »

@ivan thanks but I don't have them installed, I have copies of the dos games zipped.

I just figured out how to get it running from the post on ufopaedia, sorry for the trouble. I figured it would probably be in the Options but I missed it at first.

707

Troubleshooting / Re: Alien is hiding in base mission

« on: October 29, 2016, 11:10:45 pm »

My suggestion for the surrender dynamic is to do a couple checks:
* Is it earlier than Turn 30?
* Are there at least 3 conscious aliens left?

If both are untrue then wait until the end of the next turn and permanently Reveal their presence on the map. In fact the entire map could be revealed from that point on too.

Then you know where they are, you can rush your units there, or ship them a blaster bomb and be done with it. Its satisfying to know where they are and then be able to deal with them yourself, even if it means costing you 3-5 more turns because you know the end is near.


Maybe post a popup like this to give it a logical reason:
"Advanced reconnaissance satellites have mapped the area and isolated hostile signatures in your area"


Additionally having a Mind Reader / MC Reader equipped with a soldier somewhere could hasten the delay to Turn 20 and thus give another practical use for having it

(aside from tuning into mindwaves, maybe it also generally detects their presence in the area, if its reading less activity then xcom may have reason to want to confirm with a satellite scan)

708

Suggestions / Executing Aliens on the ground

« on: October 29, 2016, 06:05:24 am »

So you shoot an alien and he just falls down unconscious. Or maybe you used the stun launcher/thermal shok and put him down.

But you've already got a bunch of soldier aliens or deep one terrorists or whatever in your alien containment and you get marginally more points to actually killing certain species.

So you wanna kill the alien instead.
But to do that means you've either got to do one of three things:
* Wait until he wakes up and shoot him again.
* Walk over with a medi-kit and waste a ton of Stimulant on him to wake up up, and then shoot him. May need to do this twice depending on the species.
* Drop a grenade (or two, or three, or five) on him and blow it up.


(in a modded vanilla TFTD game I had this problem alot with Lobstermen because they had good armor and would end up being knocked unconscious alot rather than killed)


Now thats alot of work and resources to just be able to kill the thing. Also some aliens have built in weapons and if they wake up they can immediately start shooting at you on the turn they stand up on their own.

Also if its the last alien, and you're in the process of dispatching the other ones, that could mean getting several of them "captured" rather than dispatched too because the mission ends before you can destroy them.

Blowing up corpses can also destroy the loot too if you dont have time to carry the loot off first.


I want to stand over the body and blow its head off.
"Survivors? There are no survivors" - Davy Jones


Suggestion: If you are standing over or immediately adjacent to an unconscious unit and you direct your unit to Fire on that tile . . . it targets the unit laying there and shoots them instead of the tile if that tile is hit (if a location is favored it would be Under Armor since helmets tend to be the weakest part of most armor systems).

Obviously if there's somebody standing there besides the shooter it should target them instead, but if not it should shoot the guy on the ground.

If there are multiple unconscious units in the same tile, it should pick one at random (and even if you don't mean to execute them, having multiple bodies piled up in a 5x5ft space means logically its hard to miss them anyway).

This should probably extend to Xcom Soldiers too since their morale/mind controlling condition usually doesn't go away if you stun them, which means they could continue going crazy if they woke up within a meaningful amount of time (this being a real life concern, sometimes it may be necessary to put down your own men).

709

Troubleshooting / Re: Help with running TFTD

« on: October 29, 2016, 05:28:41 am »

Thats still confusing.
You're suggesting that the Nightly is capable of being run by itself?
I noticed the .exe is near 10mb which I guess means all those other files could have been packed into it.

Like a good boy I didn't use the installers, I just copied files to a folder.
I removed the v1.0 files but it didnt change anything.

Also in the startup sequence it said it was running git 10-27-2016

Edit:
Actually to +1 over this I renamed the UFO directory just to check if it was looking there, and I ran the TFTD shortcut as before and it said it couldnt load the game because an xcom install wasnt found (would run normally if the UFO directory was named as such)

so it is DEFINITELY not using the -data switch!!!


I have no real interest in running UFO Defense for various reasons.

710

Troubleshooting / Help with running TFTD

« on: October 29, 2016, 04:33:30 am »

I just got OpenXcom 1.0 and added the newest nightly to it (10-27-2016).
I followed the instructions to put the game data in the respective folders (UFO and TFTD).

Started the game and it worked fine, but there was no option to choose to run TFTD instead. So I looked at the readme file and it suggested making a shortcut with -data <folder> to choose the proper place.

But when I ran the new TFTD shortcut all it did was load the standard UFO version (which ran fine as far as choosing the first base).

So... how do I get this to work?

Comp:
2Gb Ram
Windows 7
OpenGL 1.4

711

Troubleshooting / Re: Alien is hiding in base mission

« on: October 28, 2016, 11:55:07 pm »

This is part of the game unfortunately.

That last alien is waiting for your soldiers to let their guard down, and when they least expect it will come up behind them and kill them with their own weapons one, by one, by one. With a butcher knife from the mess hall if necessary. It will start with the janitors, then the researchers will start turning up missing, and then one night the entire soldiers' quarters will get hit with an HE pack.

If you cant find him now, there's no chance youll find him later on either, he'll be in the ductwork at that point. 


The more frustrating bug hunt is in TFTD during the cruise ship terror missions. Because there are no civilians on that upper floor in the 2nd stage and there's only 2 ways to get up there (elevator, which will probably explode), and that one set of stairs just before reaching the engine room.

And there are often aliens up there . . . especially oddly enough Triscenes which shouldn't be able to logically fit in those corridors (maybe the civilians saw those and ran, which is why they're all cleared out of that floor of the ship?).

There's all sorts of cool stuff up there, including a Theater!

And sometimes as many as 4 aliens on that floor.

Now running away from a cruise ship terror mission isnt quite as game breaking as giving up on a base invasion, but getting hit with upwards of -700 points for losing a cruise ship is not healthy to xcom one bit.

712

Released Mods / Re: [FULL MOD] UFO & TFTD Rework (latest update: July 31)

« on: October 28, 2016, 11:30:31 pm »

I think Mediafire is messing up, after a long while I decided to get into openxcom again because Id like to try TFTD with it (last time I played TFTD wasnt supported yet).

Got the TFTD 1.3 mod listed on the first post . . .

However when I decided to get the UFO 1.4 mod for shats and grins Mediafire went into a broken-download loop . . . click on file and it says preparing download, then just basically reloads the page over again without giving me a wait counter or anything. Cannot get the file.

Tried it without my adblocker on too, same story.

713

Tools / Re: tiled mapeditor for xcom [in development]

« on: September 18, 2014, 10:33:58 pm »

Has OpenXcom allowed support for more than 4 floors yet?

You might want to include forward-functionality for that or include that if it has already been established.

714

Resources / Re: image editors / graphics programs

« on: September 18, 2014, 10:30:08 pm »

Reaver you have to use a utility for xcom to extract the images. You can define custom images in the .rul files for the mod, you dont have to repack the images back into those archaic file types.

715

Resources / Re: Palettes for XCOM in GIMP/Paintshop format

« on: September 18, 2014, 10:20:56 pm »

Hey are there any tools for Changing the existing palettes?

Im talking about the battlescape palettes for the game itself.

I dont like the kinds of color ranges and choices that I see on the palette (especially the Reds). Im not talking about changing the palette colors fundamentally, such that the existing images would have to be remapped. Its more of a tweak than a warp.

I expect I could probably use a Hex Editor to copy and paste values from an image palette but its still a job (im guessing the battlescape has a stack of palettes used for varying brightness levels just like Doom 2 had).

716

OpenXcom Extended / Re: OpenXcom Extended

« on: September 15, 2014, 11:26:32 pm »

(multiplies damage to terrain by 0.5)

In truth the way the game originally worked was it had a set of Armor Multipliers in Castes. The ETs, Tanks, Soldiers each had different Castes they belonged to (13 of them) which applied the damage multipliers.

Caste 0 (Unarmored) was used by terrain.

It would be better to just give Armor Multipliers for Terrain in that case. Applicable to all terrain just to get started.


I made a mod once for TFTD which adjusted the armor multipliers for terrain so that different weapons did altered damage to them. For example I lowered it for Gauss and AP so human weapons wouldnt put holes in walls. Raised it for Explosives (for everyone actually) because I lowered explosion damage across the board (to decrease explosion size). Raised it for Sonic so that way sonic shots would almost always melt walls.

Actually I lowered the numbers all over to make it consistent with smaller explosions, but I raised the damage multipliers in many cases so it was still as effective as before.

717

Work In Progress / Re: Needing a few tips for my new Lightning

« on: September 13, 2014, 02:31:22 am »

Ive always liked the idea of a 3 or 4 Story Xcom craft. So sorta like a vertical cylinder (like 4 lightning craft stacked on top). Maybe I ought to build that.

718

Tools / Re: Seeking advice/instructions on my modding project

« on: September 12, 2014, 10:41:53 pm »

Craft weapons have been expanded a bit

What I always usually do, with TFTD, but using xcom 1 equivalents here:

* I set the Laser Cannon and Fusion Ball to have maximum range (65km or however high it will go). So far that it can hit any ufo without risk of retaliation, including battleships.
* High % chance to hit with Laser Cannon (like 80, 90, or even 100).
* Fusion Ball does enough damage to bring down a Battleship in 5 hits (since damage is randomized and 50% is the assumed average that means it does 1200 damage with 100% chance of hitting).

But . . .

* No Aerial Weapons (besides craft cannon) carry more than 20 shots. Including laser.
* Have to manufacture laser cannon ammunition just like in TFTD (and each one takes 15 man-hours to complete).
* Laser Cannon does less damage to compensate for it (160 shots should be required to take down a battleship on average . . . so based on averages that means 40 damage for the laser).

* Fusion Balls should be Expensive on materials.
-- Give them the erroneously switched stats for the HWP Fusion Bomb and increase it. (8 alloys and 5 elerium). My suggestion is 8 Alloys and 15 Elerium per Fusion Bomb. And they should cost alot of time to make too . . . 1200 man-hours I say.

* Fusion Ball reload time should be huge that way you can close in with another weapon and possibly shoot down the ufo before the fusion ball fires its second shot. I suggest an inverse relationship with cautious/aggressive . . . cautious attack is the fastest while aggressive will make it wait the longest (it fires once and you get to chug away with the plasma after that)

* Plasma Cannon should use E-115 for ammunition but it should get like 10 shots per E-115 unit used (I believe this is possible but it causes the game to consider E-115 to be a form of Ammunition and it indents it in the inventory menu). So basically every unit of E-115 is like a Cannon Rounds x10 for the plasma cannon.

* In exchange for the Plasma Cannon only having 20 shots capacity it should have good accuracy too (80 or 90% but not 100). And possibly do more damage but that's debateable (see below). Im partial to 250 damage that way it might even destroy the next to smallest UFO, and give you more reason to use a laser instead.


This increases the necessity to send multiple interceptors after big targets. Even a Terror Ship might be more than a match for a single interceptor because they might not have enough ammunition to take it down by themselves (whereas in vanilla if you had a plasma beam you could probably take out 3 of them in a row).

And it retains the kingship of the Fusion Ball, but it makes sure you pay its toll. And maybe only carry one launcher with you instead of two.

719

Tools / Re: Seeking advice/instructions on my modding project

« on: September 12, 2014, 10:25:37 pm »

How do I make facilities that allow certain facilities to be placed atop them?

I would think you could just create new facilities that did a combination of different things. Like it was a 4 story height map section facilities on the bottom two floors, and additional facilities on the top two floors (thinking TFTD 4 story facilities here).

I dont think that the initial base should necessarily start with these, but since you pretty much only get 1 of each thing at the beginning it would be an excellent way to expand, and a boon for new  bases.

New Facility Suggestions
R&D Labs (2x2 Facility)
Provides: 100 lab space, 100 workshop space, 200 living space.
Construction Time: 34 Days
Cost: $2,350,000
Maintenance: (just add up the maintenance for 4 living quarters, 2 workshops and 2 labs)

So you build just 1 of those and you're pretty much set on R&D for that base. Makes sense just to have all those guys cloistered together.


Armoury (2x2 Facility)
Provides:  250 Storage, 100 living space.
Construction Time: 25 Days
Cost: $750,000
Maintenance: (same as 5 General Stores and 2 Living Quarters)

Here you have the bottom two floors being one giant General Stores area with soldier spawn points. The top two floors have one normal size General Stores in the center, with the periphery area around the center part containing living quarters. There should be no HWP spawn points on any floors except the bottom.


Ultimate Defense (2x2 Facility)
Provides: 5000 Defense power, Grav Shield Effect, 100% chance of hitting
Construction Time: 48 days.
Cost: $6,500,000.
Maintenance: (4 Fusion Defenses + Grav Shield, all multiplied by 1.25)

Combination of Fusion Ball Defenses and Grav Shield, pretty much protects that base from ever being invaded. But at a heavy cost. Still possibly more economical on space and initial price.

(this is one of those things you could build later in the game when you have tens of millions, and you just dont want to be bothered with base defense anymore. Still, balancing this is its extensive construction time, so its not like you can just plop one of these down and have it ready if your bases are getting attacked)


Additionally you can provide passageways on the 3rd floor between each of the facility sections, similar to how in TFTD the multi-level alien bases had connections on other floors. That way you could technically have aliens on other floors, but the idea is having the equivalent of maintenance halls to get around places that might be heavily defended.

I mean on the map sections you can put anything you want in it, but this even keeps it believeable. And as for packing everyone together like sardines, thats life in a nuclear missile silo or submarine too.

720

Programming / Re: Explosion Graphics

« on: September 12, 2014, 06:28:40 am »

In regard to explosion size (blastRadius) ive brought this up too.

The Blast Radius setting should dictate how explosions decrease in strength rather than cut them off at a certain amount.

This way you can put blastRadius: 15 on a hand grenade that does 50 damage and it will spread out to 15 square radius.

The way to do this is as follows. Any time the engine calls for reducing the damage for an explosion based on its distance from source . . . the amount that is reduced is 10 * (Multiplier) per square. Rather than a flat 10 like vanilla.

That multiplier would be ( damage / (blastRadius * 10) ).


Likewise setting the blast radius smaller than usual will still confine the explosion to a smaller area, but it would do it because it is reducing the damage by more than 10 per square from source.

Likewise I think this should also affect the simulated size of the explosion as far as Sprite Spread is concerned (sprite spread treats the damage as if it were times ( (blastRadius * 10) / damage) ). But not necessarily the Density . . . the Density should remain the same.

That way you can get a small explosion that appears to be jam packed with explosion sprites, reflecting how much damage it actually does.