Messages

1

Work In Progress / Re: Hybrid game

« on: October 19, 2014, 05:50:06 am »

Yeah, at best.
At worst? Well, I'm thinking of the kind of thing you get in nuclear plant meltdowns when the superhot radioactive slag makes contact with the water storage. The reaction tends to be...violent.

2

More Forks / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: October 02, 2014, 02:36:08 am »

The quotes are really welcome. Adds an air of authority and realism to the game.
And lets face it, when the graphics are basic and the mechanics abstract, a tangible atmosphere counts double.

3

More Forks / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: October 01, 2014, 10:36:36 pm »

If you want a little more control over pallette conversion you might try HD Indexing: https://danfessler.com/blog/hd-index-painting-in-photoshop
It's not as complex as it sounds.

Personally though I think your options might be a bit limited due to the nature of the pallette on offer. At a push, though, you might be able to use the above method to force a particular type of dithering pattern. Certain ones might look a bit nicer, if only for the introduction of a pattern over random noise.


Great job on the mod so far though, I love the ribbons in particular. Also, I like the subtlety of the Fallen medal being upside down.....reminds me of the tradition of upside-down flags or missing-man formations.

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Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: September 22, 2014, 06:35:05 pm »

Re armour, I'd go further and say that while it's great that we can have all these different variants, it's getting to the point where it'd really benefit from the armour selection UI being given a full overhaul. If that is even possible, anyway.

5

OpenXcom Extended (OXCE) / Re: OpenXcom Extended

« on: September 16, 2014, 01:50:58 am »

Yep. I read a thing a while ago too (possibly the same thing) saying that the military is starting to lean away from using buildings as cover from small arms due to thermobaric warheads becoming more prolific on the arms market.

They did a study iirc and found that, all things being equal, they'd usually just be better off being shot at individually than putting all their eggs in one basket, so to speak.

Also, for some reason (probably something to do with transmission of the concussive blast) ordinary ballistic armour actually makes such threats MORE dangerous. So ingame that'd be a negative damage modifier I guess, although having armour that makes your more vulnerable to explosives does seem very counterintuitive.

6

More Forks / Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0

« on: September 11, 2014, 08:22:10 pm »

At the moment I am staying away from 'bad' commendations ;p things like "you killed your friends" and "you're the reason everyone is homeless in this town" things would be funny, but would look weird next to hard earned commendations.

If you ever decide to implement this I suppose it'd make sense to get around the tonal dissonance by creating a separate page (assuming you can find space in the UI). Perhaps 'commendations / citations'?

I expect the psi-weenies would have a good collection of demerits for poor discipline in battle / desertion / friendly fire / negligent discharge / conduct unbecoming, etc etc. Not to mention unwarranted destruction of property / loss of civilian life etc etc.

You get enough crap off the council, it'd only be fair to pass that down the chain as in real life. If only we could have them spend the week peeling potatoes or on latrine duty.

7

Work In Progress / Re: Cluster Bombs?

« on: September 11, 2014, 08:13:08 pm »

Perhaps the explosive device could use the shotgun pellets to simulate a Claymore instead?

Should still have an area-effect, but not require explosive damage, right?

8

Released Mods / Re: [HWP] Attack Dog

« on: September 03, 2014, 12:05:49 am »

In theory I'm inclined to agree, although it'd need some balancing in order to not render the actual motion tracker obsolete.

Is it possible to tweak the stats for the tracker itself so as to give it a more limited range, or create a separate item with similar properties?

9

Released Mods / Re: [HWP] Attack Dog

« on: September 02, 2014, 04:16:26 pm »

Heh, found it. Hope he doesnt mind me pimping out his work.



but yeah, i think that illustrates just how cool an xcom doggie could be. Partly because dogs are cool, partly because we have 10,000 years+ of shared history, and partly because it's actually probably somewhat realistic. As realistic as things get in an alien invasion game anyway. :p

I can see dogs being increasingly useful in other game scenarios too, like the pirates mod or something with a more guerilla bent to it.

Any thoughts on how they'd be implemented, re stats and such? Do they gain experience or are they effectively 4-legged tanks in every sense?

10

Released Mods / Re: [HWP] Attack Dog

« on: September 01, 2014, 10:58:15 pm »

If any of you watch Beaglerush doing his Xcom2012 stream on twitch, you'd have seen one of the chat guys (hardcase iirc) post an art piece of an xcom alsatian savaging a sectoid. Worth looking for if it's on deviantart or something.

I just mention this as I expect you'd get a kick from it. Hilarious and awesome. And possibly inspiration for all I know.

11

Suggestions / Re: Mobile bases

« on: August 29, 2014, 04:28:10 pm »

If need be, I suppose you could always maintain the covert aspect by reasoning that mobile bases really just represent a bunch of support staff rocking up to a location (disused warehouse, whatever) in a series of tricked-out vans and trailers, and just claiming it as a temporary base of operations after fitting a few spotlights and scribbling a bunch of plans on the nearest whiteboard. Just like in the movies.

Maybe differentiate it ingame by having it only use very limited facilities, and maybe having no innate defense against alien attack. Or maybe just having a base defense equate to a terror mission, after which the location is lost (or compromised if you prefer) and surviving personnel are shipped back to the nearest 'proper' base.

12

Suggestions / Re: Armoured cilivans?

« on: August 25, 2014, 08:06:53 pm »

I'd accept that.
As is I always treated the old vanilla heavy cannon as a weird 8bit approximation of a 50cal anyway, since the behaviour was somewhere between that and a GL. Problem with the HC was that the expensive firing cost wasnt offset by accuracy, just damage, so it was rarely that useful. A heavy sniper that is somewhat reliable for a single kill per turn if previously set up appropriately, but useless in most other cases, seems totally fair.

13

Released Mods / Re: [FACILITY] Improved Living Quarters - Now With Pictures

« on: August 24, 2014, 11:43:58 pm »

Sorry....two-layer bases?

I didnt realise that was even up for discussion!
Well that's something to look forward to.....I was wondering how we'd actually find the space for these things.

14

Work In Progress / Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing

« on: August 24, 2014, 11:36:06 pm »

If you look at medieval armour or even modern kevlar, there's actually several usable design of 'skirt' or crotch protection (ahem) that allow for varying mobility or protection. Personally I think they all look fairly obstructive but if you want a big tanky suit then limited mobility is usually in keeping with that, so it'd be a good way of communicating it visually. Probably the hardest part is doing them in a way that looks practical but not overly 'ornate', due to the usual association with fantasy armours.

Also 'females of sirius' sounds like some kind of top shelf special interest magazine.

15

Programming / Re: Ufopaedia screens for Armor and Vehicles

« on: August 24, 2014, 11:22:20 pm »

I've been keeping myself busy with other stuff lately but those models were done almost a year ago. I partly stopped because I was reaching the limit of what my computer and sketchup could handle, but if anyone else wants a crack at them then they're freely available on the sketchup warehouse. Should be easy enough to find via a quick search.

I'd be pretty interested to see what happens tbh.