Messages

1

Help / Branching/Converging research trees and manufacturing in research

« on: June 09, 2019, 05:06:56 am »

Long time no see!

Recently had time to dust off the old mods download the new nightly and give 'er a spin... So while I go about trying to parse the state of the current rulesets I have a few questions if you would be so kind as to help speed me along the way.

When I last left off I was working on playing with research trees (here's a good post for where I was at https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5864.msg90468.html#msg90468) and I'm wondering if anyone had any mods or posts I should look at to see what's developed in the meantime.

Second big question is about interrupting alien missions in progress. Particularly Alien Infiltration and Retaliation missions: For Infiltration, has there been any ways added to stop/reverse progress once the first wave is launched? or will each wave keep re-launching till one is successful and the mission progresses to the next wave? For Retaliation, is there any way to deal resolve the mission other than a successful base landing?.. and for that matter are there any other base battle nasty twist options that have been added that I should be aware of?(Just had an idea of a base being liquidated after retaliation with the battle just determining how much can be salvaged as relocating would be the only real way to stop it)

2

Suggestions / Re: Idea for Psi Strength Improvement

« on: April 11, 2015, 09:34:44 pm »

you could always make a suit of armour that incorporates a helmet made of pure tinfoilium?

 

Code: [Select]

...
armors:
  - type: STR_PSI_DEFENCE_UC
    spriteSheet: XCOM_5.PCK
    spriteInv: MAN_5
    corpseBattle:
      - STR_PSI_DEFENCE_CORPSE
    storeItem: STR_PSI_DEFENCE
    stats:
      psiStrength: 50
      psiSkill: -50
    frontArmor: 12
    sideArmor: 8
    rearArmor: 5
    underArmor: 2
    damageModifier:
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.0
      - 1.2
      - 1.6
      - 1.0
    loftempsSet: [ 3 ]
...
extraStrings:
  - type: en-US
    strings:
      STR_PSI_DEFENCE: Tinfoil Hat
      STR_PSI_DEFENCE_UC: TINFOIL HAT
...

  I totally may have already been working on such a thing.

3

Suggestions / Re: Base Defense Mechanics

« on: April 02, 2015, 09:09:21 pm »

Spit-ball Incoming!!

Reading through this I see some ideas I really like, and had a few of my own...

I like the idea of smaller ships being designated as assault craft, this seems the simplest suggestion and goes a long way to making earlier defenses more relevant.

As for the base defenses being able to target UFOs flying by:

Activate a flag that changes the trajectory of the UFO to fly over the base then orbit it; if it finishes that base is detected if not generate crash site.

The defenses should have very different ranges and rates of fire, Missiles(Fusion/conventional) would have long range and low rate of fire, Beams would have high rates of fire but short range... this would also lend to combo options where you fire a few missile to get their attention then when they come close to investigate hitting them with beams.

And if I could drop a completely out there suggestion, I would like base defense to activate a mini game like this



or this



except instead of missiles you are trying to shoot deployment craft and your weapons reflect what base defense facuilities you have

4

Troubleshooting / Re: Ghost Scientists.

« on: March 10, 2015, 06:34:32 pm »

About the nightlies, they have a history of destroying saves. It doesn't happen often but this is another reason to play thru your campaign till completion before updating if you are concerned about losing saves.

5

Work In Progress / Re: custom missions ideas

« on: March 03, 2015, 05:50:21 pm »

Is there a way to add a variable chance to the "nextStage:" command? I don't see a way ATM but in the case of a rout at a terror site it would be neat to have a nextStage: where you try to catch the deployment craft before it gets away.

Clear the Terror Site in under 5 turns 100% chance, diminishing at 10% per turn after, for "We have located a landed alien deployment craft in the area. Kill or incapacitate all aliens in the area to secure the craft"

6

Suggestions / Re: tuUse or tuPrime for grenades

« on: March 01, 2015, 08:57:43 pm »

@NoelBuddy:  What would be the point in timed lights?  Illumination has no effect on the aliens, so this would only be a nuisance for the player.

It would be a tier -1 tech. You start with it available and add traditional electro-flares to the tech tree requiring research.  It was mostly something I've been thinking about for a prequel mod set in the early 20th century where flares would exist but not permanent ones, the ability to set it like priming a grenade was just me trying to think of the easiest way existing mechanics could be used to add it but having it run for a set number of turns like an ink bomb would make more sense now that TFTD mechanics are being worked on.

Well yes classically that's how they work, but some modders see value in making them consumable or changing time requirements to provide alternative strategic elements in mode.

Exactly.

7

Suggestions / Re: Item list

« on: March 01, 2015, 08:50:23 pm »

Seconded! There's certainly a balance to be struck when making things easier for creating different races between ease of implementation and limiting flexibility of new creations. I would say doing something like this to make adding these repetitive lists would be very nice.

If it helps any here's what I've posted on a now dead thread about a similar idea.

7)  This is manipulable depending on how they are discovered, I've done a lot of discovering different ways to make things not work as intended on the subject, along with getting it to tell you all the research options that have just been unlocked in the splash screen(like after Laser Weapons it tells you Laser Pistol is unlocked) they always show up in the list but I had to work thru several iterations where it wouldn't tell you you've unlocked topic X.

Would also like a way to separate the medics/engineers/navigators getOnefree list from the specific aliens.  For example:

Code: [Select]

  - name: STR_SECTOID_MEDIC

    unlocks:      - STR_MEDIC_LIST #Unlocks STR_MEDIC_LIST, but even if you give the STR a cost: 0 or
don't give it a cost you need to spend one scientist day to trigger the get one free, it doesn't go away after you research it#

    getOneFree:       - STR_MEDIC_LIST #Gives you STR_MEDIC_LIST as a completed topic but doesn't trigger the getOnefree and only works once#

 - name: STR_MEDIC_LIST
   dependencies: STR_ALIEN_MEDIC #Making some secondary trigger dependency solves the cost: problem of unlocks: it but it only works once.#
   getOnefree:
      - STR_SNAKEMAN etc...

This would make adding entries for new aliens/UFOs/missions easier as you would only have to add it to one place, that way a sectoid medic will know all the same species as a Gazer medic will know all the same species as a medic from what ever new monstrosity people can come up with, with only one line in each ruleset, rather than having to make sure to have entries adding the new entry to every single appropriate alien.

8

Suggestions / Re: tuUse or tuPrime for grenades

« on: February 25, 2015, 09:03:34 pm »

Was thinking of something else that would require messing with grenade priming: Flares, since the AI doesn't react to light this would only be useful as a tier -1 version of the electro-flare(providing an opportunity for a research requirement for the electro-flare).  My thought is you set the timer, perhaps with a reducing the max you can set it to, and it functions same as an electro-flare until the timer runs out at which point it goes dark. It would require the flare to be tagged as used/not recoverable once primed too.

Alternately I was thinking this might be possible to add using the same functionality as the ink-smoke bomb from TFTD, prime as normal then once it goes off it produces light for a few turns the same way the ink-bombs produce smoke for a few turns.

9

Open Feedback / Re: TFTD Damage or XCom damage?

« on: January 25, 2015, 08:17:12 pm »

Oh, right 101 because zero is an option too.  I'd play with this if it were an option.

10

Open Feedback / Re: TFTD Damage or XCom damage?

« on: January 25, 2015, 07:32:43 pm »

I would actually prefer a 3rd option: double roll with 0-100%... this way you can have 0-200% range, but the distribution is much more realistic (resp. closer to something called normal/Gaussian distribution), with values closer to average having a higher probability.

Just to clarify what you are suggesting do you mean: (POWER * (1d100%))*(1d100%) = damage never mind that one wouldn't work; or DAMAGE = (POWER * 1d100%) + (POWER * 1d100%) or some possibility I'm not thinking of?

11

Offtopic / Re: Alien psionics - how does the game determine whether or not it can attack me?

« on: January 23, 2015, 06:14:59 pm »

Once spotted always spotted.  This is why LoS for Psi attacks is among the default mod options. Warning tho, the LoS option will nerf the aliens pretty severely.

12

Troubleshooting / Re: Positive Monthly Income, but Every Month I lose money.

« on: January 21, 2015, 08:01:22 pm »

That's why total expenditures must be added to base expenditures screen. There is plenty of space and it's really frequent issues for most of players. Not only newbies (summing up after watching each is not fun).

Seconded!

13

Offtopic / Motion Scanner developed IRL functions like XCOM version

« on: January 21, 2015, 12:50:24 am »

Like X-com version detects relative size, level of motion, and distance of object.



The biggest difference is that it's directional not 360 radial detection.

14

Work In Progress / Re: [WIP] Working on a sound pack

« on: January 06, 2015, 06:07:42 pm »

Like the notion!

Plasma firing's also made to be sensical, plasma's superhot ionized gas after all, hence the crackling and burning for my sound, none of the original "PEW").

I always figured plasma guns shot out the superhot ionized gas in some form of magnetic field/bubble that cut through air and smoke etc. until it hit something too dense (people, walls and such).

15

Resources / Re: Altoid aliens

« on: January 06, 2015, 05:58:33 pm »

New Crabman and Probe added, had to cut 2 frames out of the probe to match the silicoid... unless there is an 8 frame animation that I just can't think of ATM. Tried to make a pulsating drooling belcher, but put too much change between frames and it just lookd bad so for now that's unchanged.

Belchers usually cause crash in the very first turn if they are on a map. If only Aerials are involved without terror units everything is fine. I tested it both in-game terrors\crashed terror vessel and in instant action. Problem occured with\without FMP but I need to test if AliensPickUpWeapons may influence them or not.

Hmmmmm.. try running with just this mod, not even any of the default mods, then add in the one you use one at a time and see when the problem shows back up, it could be some weird interaction problem. Also are you running any mods that change the maps or map files?