Messages

1

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire

« on: October 13, 2024, 05:32:32 pm »

Are there any plan regarding somewhat comical looking X-com tanks (they basically look somewhat similar to children toys) ? Would it not be possible for X-com tanks to look like MAGMA tanks ?

[Spoiler]

2

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire

« on: October 12, 2024, 04:07:13 pm »

I'd like to expand on that. Jarheads are basically T'leth tech, like Gillmen, except lower tech and outsourced to the surface.

I've been meaning to add more missions and lore here, but had no inspiration. Ideas welcome

Well it is not an easy thing but I will try and think of something.

Warning spoilers below for motivations of aliens, other factions and tleth

Spoiler:

To start with we must first define what are goals of Tleth aliens. As it is present in this mod, it is probably total conqest of earth, eradiction of all opposition, and extermination of mankind which is different from goals of other major factions -
1/etraterrestial aliens - want to probably take control of earth via combination of demonstrations of military superiority and diplomacy as it seems that earth and its population has some value for them and they do not want to see earth destroyed and its population eradicated
2/space nazis - want to probably either directly take control over earth via military means to force changes they desire or (even if defeated) at least force such evolution human military and society , that humans will be able to seize their "destiny" as masters of solar system
3/reptoids - want to enslave humanity and take control over earth
4/cyberweb - probably want to take control over earth as well, but not sure about that with their mad scientistcs vibe.

With goals defined we should check about how Tleth wants to achieve its goal.

To me it seems that they want to achieve it via old fashioned military conquest, but at the start of game in 1997 they are far from being ready for such massive undertaking. So they are biding their time, creating various footsoldiers for their future conquests, using chaos of various cults, factions, other major factions to snatch "valuable genetic material" for their experiments, perform recon of their future opposition on earth and offer support to madmen from Cult of Dgaon, who if succesful would hand entire earth on platter to their alien masters.

Jarhead or biomechanical humanoid body housing human brain is similar in essence to another alien creation - biodrone, which is small mechanical flying saucer housing human/alien brain, but their function is completely different. Biodrone is light assault unit and "guard dog" of various alien installations while jarheads are basically secret agents, whose goal should be to infiltrate important locations, gather intel and assasinate key personel.

If you want Jarheads to be creation of Tleth technology (and not for example secret men in black or syndicate assasins - which in my opinion is a better fit) in missions with Jarhead factory should be at least some cultists technical personal operating such facility - maybe remnants of cult of Dagon, who despite majority of its organistion being destroyed continue to serve their allien masters, supplemented by aquatioids.

Jarhead terror missions should probably be replaced by something similar to reptoid assasination missions as it does not make much sense to deploy jarheads as shock troopers (which they are not), when they are perfect infiltration and assasination agents. Such mission should be covert operation with your agents starting in city mansion, which is surrounded by jarheads with few jarheads already present directly in mansion.

Ultimately threat of Jarheads should be ended via underwater mission, in which you destroy main control center, which controls actions of jarheads globally combined with destruction of tasoth factory, which should force Tleth aliens to end majority of their (current) plans
regarding surface to concetrate on their bare survival.

3

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire

« on: October 11, 2024, 09:01:37 am »

Are there any plans regarding Jarheads? Currently last missions and research are about Jarhead factories, but there are still unanswered questions about who/what was producing Jarheads and for what reason ?

4

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire

« on: September 30, 2024, 08:33:46 pm »

I would say it's pretty extensively modified (I started Bullet Designer's Space Marine base for the 40k mod), but if you still think it's too similar, fair enough.

I mainly mean second floor of both syndicate and Black Lotus base as first floor is mostly fine although for Black Lotus base I would use more oriental textures - similar to one used in Golden academy missions. And remove Large Sonar as parts of rooms for both Black Lotus and Syndicate as thematically they don´t make much sense in their bases.

As on second floor you can still find various rooms from TFTD there. Why not replace them with Japanes/Chinese style quarters, various exercise rooms etc....

5

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire

« on: September 29, 2024, 04:44:47 pm »

First part of game/mod (years 1997. 1998) are probably best parts of game (not that the rest of it is bad). There are only few things missing in this part of game so far:

1.Some unique Black lotus HQ dungeon as it is still using slightly modified TFTD X-com base.
2.Similar information messages for Syndicate, Cyberweb as those you can intercept from Black Lotus, Red Dawn, Exalt, Cult of Dagon /just some flavour text to inform you how they view your progress towards their destruction).
3.Some unique Syndicate dungeon as it is still using slightly modified TFTD X-com base (if I´m mistaken in this since in 3.4 version I´ve not destroyed Syndicate HQ so far, only in versions 2.9, 3.1, 3.3 then I apologise for my mistake).

And thanks for good work.

6

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.1.4

« on: August 14, 2024, 10:36:22 pm »

I really enjoy the mod thus far despite progressing very slowly since I had to focus on expanding and build bases around the globe to increase my chances to get more funding so my research suffered a lot., I managed to build radars and shoot down the alien swarms. preventing them to build a nest/base on the globe.

the only downside is that since research is slow and things unlocks slowly and I already maxed the soldiers stats I am forced to plow though missions that makes it less rewarding and the game bogs down to a chore to deal with.

I suggest the making of a submod halving the research count on all projects so that people who want to play the game for the story and content that the mod has to offer.

I agree, the slowness of research can easily result in game becoming boring due to being forced to attend many missions with fully maxed soldiers, which gain nothing from them.

7

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire

« on: August 12, 2024, 07:50:38 pm »

What I would like to see in next version of game are some penalties for ignoring some important research topics - I´ll explain immediately.

Currently it is possible to get research topics regarding ghost shortly before or after third promotion and I was able to safely ignore it before I had turbolaser pistol researched and manufactured, which allowed me to deal with all ghost enemies with relative ease.

The same issue can be found with underwater and underground research topics, which you can get around third promotion and again I was able to ignore them without any consequence until I had plasma weapons researched (for deling with zombies) and acid weapons researched (for underwater missions).

What I want is for game to penalise me for ignoring such crucial topics with for example some random events which decrease my ratings for ongoing game month (Maybe something about increasing frequencies of minor zombie attacks, or assault of deep see dwellers).  I would still be able to ignore such topics, but there would be now price for that.

8

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.61)

« on: August 12, 2024, 05:44:44 pm »

Not sure if it was your original intention but - vibro knife is insanely powerful. When fully trained, aquanaut can kill basically any kind of enemy (including hellcrabs) with 1-3 well aimed hits with minimal ammount of action points.

9

Help / Re: How to add folders to Ufopaedia

« on: August 01, 2024, 04:48:20 pm »

New backgrounds must be defined as BACK01.SCR-BACK17.SCR in your etrasprites. You can look at each of these "back" in ufopaedia site.

Thanks, but since my knowledge about X-com modding is quite limited, I will need help.

In original X-com terror from the Deep and Ufo Enemy Unknown SCR files named BACK01.SCR to BACK17.SCR are located in Geograph file. Not sure how to open them or do with them anything.

In your Mod XCHR I found BACK01, BACK_undead etc.. as png files in Resources/UI folder - these files are I guess backgrounds but how do you force game to use them ? As checking vars.rul I found only

hiddenMovementBackgrounds:
  - BACK_INTRUDER
  - TAC00.SCR

10

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.3: Mysteries Ancient And New

« on: July 29, 2024, 11:03:07 pm »

Are there any plans for adding garage as base facility you start with instead of hangar (as it makes much more sense to park vans and cars in smaller garage, rather than larger hangars, in which cars look completely ridiculous and waste so much space) ?

11

Help / Re: How to add folders to Ufopaedia

« on: July 29, 2024, 04:29:11 pm »

Folder creating automatically, by listing all "section" present. So if you write new text string in "section:", there will be new folder.

Thanks and sorry for my lack of manners in forgetting to thank you sooner.

By the way, would you know how to change background screen in main menu and options menu ?

12

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.61)

« on: July 28, 2024, 01:12:32 pm »

Another idead of mine is that descriptive technologies (such as finding true origin of Calcinite) which give to player no military or any other advantage should at least reward him with I don´t know extra rating for month it was researched.

While I extremely like idea of being able to sign up peace treaty with Jellymen, I find it strange that there is not even one attempt to do the same thing with either naga or gillmen (which are both earth civilisations). While I guess that any attempt at such thing would be futile with both of them for gillmen due to them being part of alien network linking them to alien ruler and naga because their entire civilisation is based around worship of Alien ruler whom they regard as god, it would be nice to have such attempts present as either events or special researchable tech.

While all alien creatures present in mod are interesting I dinf it strange that we even get explanation about what is Calcinite, there is no such thing for drowned, whichr even after researching both live drowned or autopsy of one remains a mystery - maybe unearthing mystery of drowned could be linked to capturing and interogating naga ruler and explanation for drowned would be that they are simply meat puppets controlled by naga sorcerrors through molecular control ?

13

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.1.4

« on: July 28, 2024, 01:05:00 pm »

One thing to add from me - in this mod you have created one of the coolest fictional craft ever - Vulture in visage and in concept has almost no equal (Skull like aircraft piloted by evil spirit always eager for battle, you can hardly top it). You can maybe add extra negative event (if it is posible) for Vulture craft going out of control (it is after all plane piloted by evil spirit) and shooting down an civilian airplane for - 500 rating.

Another thing is that if player decides to either worhip light or dark should it not be possible to ultimately sue for peace with church which worhips light/dark (with other becoming more agressive as you are now considered of opposing religion) ?

14

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.61)

« on: July 27, 2024, 09:42:55 am »

Not sure if I did something, but despite having both Oct autopsy and live Oct (from Aquatoid medic) researched, OCT_ARMOR article about weak spots of oct never appeared in Ufoapedia.

I think that Ufoapedia of this game could use some reorganisation. As this game has large ammounts of various armors I think that all armors should be moved to armor section.

The same could be said about unique weapons (everything from magnetic weapons to gas cannon, basically everything that is not requested from militaries or companies around the world) for aquanauts you can develop through game, that are still listed under general equipment, while they should have unique section called Advanced aquatic equipment.

15

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.61)

« on: July 26, 2024, 10:54:10 am »

After getting Leviathan craft and playing with it in tactical missions for the first time I realised despite how powerfull craft it is, it is very "bland" in terms of appearance compared to either Triton or Poseidon (which in current version of this mod looks awesome). I know that redisigning CRAFT is definitively not and easy thing to do but Leviathan for it being an ultimate craft deserves something better.

Leviathan in my opinion should be:
1. Longer
2. Have cockpit similar to the one in Triton or Poseidon
3. Have an extra exit directly to the roof of craft
4. Have drive unit present in the back of Craft similar to the one in The FLOUNDER.

And maybe add much more fearsome walking sound for OGRE and CYCLOPS armored suits.