Messages

1

Work In Progress / Re: Falko's Mod Collection-generating rulesets with python

« on: September 22, 2014, 04:23:52 pm »

Is this only me or do the all versions of break2elerium use the same values for time, input and output? I was using the 25% one, but I realised that I was getting too much Elerium back...

2

Released Mods / Re: [OPTION] Less Psi-weak soldiers

« on: August 25, 2014, 10:34:29 pm »

Could anyone think of a possible inclusion of the feature without breaking the immersion?

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Released Mods / Re: [OPTION] Less Psi-weak soldiers

« on: August 25, 2014, 01:17:47 pm »

Yes it is, I'm never doing that... It's time consuming and usually kills you none the less But you get how many missions without laser rifles on average... 1,2 ?

Depends on the research/play style, I usually go for medkits and motion scanners first (and that's why I need my soldiers able to carry more than just a rifle and a grenade - those medkits seem to be damn heavy). Everyone gets one.

SO! Does anyone know would it be possible at all (ruleset-wise that is) to add a different class of purchasable recruits?

4

Released Mods / Re: [OPTION] Less Psi-weak soldiers

« on: August 24, 2014, 04:52:04 pm »

Playing over-cautious in Battlescape is time-consuming, 10 missions (especially early, without HPs, flying suits, psi, laser rifles) take reaaaally long .

As for your Reactions 45+ and Psi Strength 50+ soldier - 160k. At least so my formula would say. I would be more than willing to pay that much for such a soldier instead of wasting my time with rookies with civilian-like stats...

I would have to measure my needs by my money if the mod ever comes to fruition (and that's a good thing for balance!), though.

5

Programming / Re: [Missing feature?] Base Defences - Damage range

« on: August 24, 2014, 04:43:07 pm »

Does the damage sustained during a dogfight carry over to a base defence, though? If someone had a definite answer, that would be a good place to start doing the "less base-raid crew alive" mod .

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Released Mods / Re: [OPTION] Less Psi-weak soldiers

« on: August 24, 2014, 04:36:09 pm »

Back to the actual topic:

I've took a bit of time I didn't have and put down some values and formulas for calculating good soldiers' cost.

It doesn't look good money-wise.

For a soldier with starting stats as follows:

TU	60
STAMINA	70
HEALTH	35
BRAVERY	60
REACTIONS	60
FIRING ACC	70
THROWING ACC	70
STRENGTH	35
PSISTR	85
PSISKILL	0

the player would have to pay around 75945094,51 millions of dollars.

Though for the more reasonable starting stats of:

TU	50
STAMINA	55
HEALTH	25
BRAVERY	50
REACTIONS	50
FIRING ACC	60
THROWING ACC	50
STRENGTH	30
PSISTR	60
PSISKILL	0

the player would have to pay only 18 millions. I could live with that once I started the manufacturing farms running.

The formulas I've devised are a bit hacky (had to do a little trick to avoid dividing by zero), but that's the best I can do without knowing the proper math for random distribution and/or statistics and/or probability.

Attaching the Excel file; no macros included, so if Excel asks about them then the file has been hijacked ;P.


So... how do I go about making a different class of purchasable soldiers with the pre-screening process having to be researched first (and a reasearch and an Ufopaedia entry)?

Once you've seen a muton's head burst into a bloody mist with plasma fire, you don't feel their such a threat anymore.

7

Programming / Re: [Missing feature?] Base Defences - Damage range

« on: August 24, 2014, 03:14:52 pm »

For that matter, what about craft weapon damage?

Craft weapon damage is already randomized.
(50-100% when XCOM shoots at UFO; 0-100% when UFO shoots at XCOM)

I'm not sure if Moriarty meant what Meridian answered to, but maybe this:

What about the damage the Battleship sustained before reaching the base defences? Shouldn't it stack with the base defences if my Avengers were just one shot short of getting it cooked?

And, for that matter, does the UFO damage taken actually carry over between fights with different X-Com craft (supposing the fight was not of the 2+ vs 1 minimise-until-simultaneous type?)?

8

Released Mods / Re: [OPTION] Less Psi-weak soldiers

« on: August 24, 2014, 03:06:42 pm »

I know the soldiers improve with time, thank you for your input. Training a 10 bravery/40FA units is just a long, tedious, repetitive process I would be glad to skip. The same goes for PSI+Laser Pistol gifts for Reaction training. I don't enjoy wasting my time pressing the "next turn" button (and I don't even count the set-up time).

As for the "bad commander" thing - I don't usually lose soldiers because I choose them personally and not-shit-stats. And I play cautiously to the point of OCD.


Mackus, what is the status of your mini-mod? If it does what I would need it to do and if it actually adds a class of soldiers instead of changing the regular ones, I could work with it by just adjusting the values.

And yes, since I'm immediately sacking somewhere between 11/12th and 19/20th of my rookies, a decent soldier for a few millions wouldn't be a bad investment. Time-wise especially, I really don't like to go through the roster, "sack"+enter 20 times each 3 in-game days.

I could always cut down the cost by not having all the desired starting stats for the soldiers, but I like your calculations for the cost (though I think it may have to account for the min-max spread somewhat differently, but I cannot check it at the moment).

9

Released Mods / Re: [OPTION] Less Psi-weak soldiers

« on: August 23, 2014, 01:50:33 pm »

Hello there. I'll start with apologising for reviving the topic...

This is something what I was looking for - I am really, really tired of having to fire 11 of each dozen of troops ordered.

I thought about making a mod like this, but keeping the usual soldier type as it is; just add another item (researched, "Pre-Screened Soldier" with a flavour text something along the "After extensive research, we have come up with a method of pre-screening soldiers so they would be more fit for duty in countering the alien invasion" lines) to the regular buying list (manufacturing seems like a bad idea here), but for a price of, say 10 or 12 regular troops.

Proposed minimum stats would be: more energy than TU's, 40/50 bravery, 30/35 strength, FA over 50/60, reactions over 50/60, and your PSI mod. Could be made into several variants (both in price and in stats) if needed.

Additionally, it could have two variants (regular pre-screen and PSI pre-screen) with the latter involving another research topic (just after discovering psi lab) and a minimal increase in price (say 5-10%).

I myself lack the necessary modding skills, though, but I'd gladly try (I've done some simple rulesets edits) if you (Civilian) were to guide me. I have more free time than I would like to (yay job hunting ).

Keywords to help people using the search feature: filtered pre-screened screened rookies soldiers battle-hardened veterans.

10

Suggestions / Re: [Suggestion] Upgrade-able base facilities

« on: August 23, 2014, 01:28:53 pm »

I thought it might be hard-coded (would be a very a nice option for modders if implemented, though).

What about building over the unupgraded versions of the facilities (without losing the stuff inside/basic capabilities)? I presume it's hard-coded as well...

Who do I talk to about getting (lots of) help with making a fully fledged mod adding upgraded General Stores with its own Ufopaedia entry, base tile and ground-combat tilesets? I'm completely ignorant about modding graphics as of now; I've only done a couple of basic ruleset edits (i.e. statstrings exactly like in XComUtil, etc.).

11

Suggestions / [Suggestion] Upgrade-able base facilities

« on: August 23, 2014, 12:39:20 pm »

Hello everyone! This is my first post here, though I've been playing the Original game on and off for years. I've been tracking OpenXCom for a time as well - then I've forgotten all about it and poof! Magically, it was done and I didn't even feel the wait. It's awesome, by the way.

For the suggestion/question - could we have upgradable base facilities? I got the idea from my constantly-full General Stores and from the fact that adding a third layer to the base missions just for an additional underground level of stores/missiles/whatever seems excessively difficult and impractical (I'm not a programmer, but I know how some fancy requests are making actual developers die a little inside).

What about upgrades, then? Maybe allow building over an existing facility (and if that would prove too pesky, just raze one and install an upgraded version instead)? I thought about rationale behind it and quickly thought of the alien alloys - from the top of my head: "With the discovery of alien alloys, we can now reduce the wasted space in Upgraded General Stores with shelves made of this new material." The stores could therefore hold more stuff (traditional shelves can hold only so many tonnes, right?).

It would be great if the facilities could require special materials - i.e. alloys for the upgraded stores, a bit of Elerium for a Hyperwave decoder, etc.


TL;DR version: could someone kindly enlighten me how possible or impossible upgrading base facilities and requiring special materials for building base facilities would be?