Messages

1

Open Feedback / Re: TFTD Terrain Question

« on: March 24, 2021, 06:12:14 am »

The answer to your question is: yes

The original had some very silly terrain properties that I guess were missed during the quality control over the very short term the game was rushed out after the original.

2

Open Feedback / Re: Researching sold item.. Bug or a feature?

« on: August 01, 2020, 11:42:37 pm »

It's a game, so some hand waving to simplify mechanics is to be expected.

This is purely speculation, but I do like to think that the labs will have collected all the necessary research data they needed before the item was sold. This would be things like photographs, field testimonies and other types of data collected via non-destructive means. Then it's all kept on a few pages in a yellow manila folder in a filing cabinet - as per the movies. The bulk of the research time is working out what it all means.

Also just to go on a brief tangent: I don't think the scientists and mechanics truly spend the amount of hours required to research or build the items they are working on. The actual work is probably only a portion of that, with most of the time spent on laborious administrative tasks, squabbling with other departments for resources and general day-to-day life while working on progressing said project. I'm only bringing this up due to an amusing anecdote I had at work where we had to bring in a few building management contractors and were given a quote of 4 man hours to complete the job. The task: move a small filing cabinet to the other side of the office. The work itself didn't take long, but all the clip on tasks like transportation and organising the workers do add up.

3

Offtopic / Re: Crazy and maddest idea of the mad.. asking Julian Gollop for UFO’s source code..

« on: October 22, 2019, 07:23:30 am »

Has Take-2 ever been approached to ask if a copy of the source code can be released? Whether or not the code is available, at least permission can be sought in the event a copy does surface.

I know the games have already been mapped out quite exhaustively, but I think having access to some of the original code would still be useful for historical preservation and academic interest.

4

Open Feedback / Re: TFTD Base Locations

« on: May 17, 2019, 08:44:16 am »

In TFTD, I assume the bold part would exchange landmass for water. In other words, it's best to get 100% radar coverage over water than worry about any radar coverage over land.

That's it. Land is TFTD's water. Also the concept of nations in TFTD are more the regions of the ocean owned by the various nations, so positioning bases to cover the land belonging to said country won't have the desired effect.

The usual advice applies with where to build. Go where the funding is highest or there is the highest cluster of countries to cover first and start filling out the gaps along the way. The middle of the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, just off the coast of Japan or even south China sea are good places to begin.

5

Suggestions / Re: M.C. civilians ?

« on: February 14, 2019, 11:34:27 am »

This is probably too complex for a simple mod, but I always thought a low tech item like a good old megaphone would do the trick.

Have a soldier 'use' it and issue a command to go to a location or hold position. Then every civilian in a certain radius from the speaker does an intelligence check, perhaps modified by the soldier's rank as some sort of perceived level of authority, and if they succeed they stop panicking and follow the order.

Naturally the any aliens in the area are affected as well after performing a check to see if they understood what was being said. If they succeed they treat the source of the noise as a location to inspect. If not then assume it is the tortured wailing of some earthling and carry on.

You could think of it as a less forceful and non invasive version of the Psi amp used to calm instead of cause distress.

6

Suggestions / Re: Mitigate your losses

« on: January 04, 2019, 09:25:09 am »

This already works with any captured alien equipment that you have carried into the Skyranger. Extending it to civilians would be a nice attention to detail.

If kept simple, I think all that would be needed to achieve this is to add a check to see if the civilian is in the craft or in the field when totalling the mission results.

7

Open Feedback / Re: WHEN DID THE MIND CONTROL FORMULAS CHANGE?

« on: September 20, 2018, 08:45:15 am »

If you are referring to the formula chronicled on the wiki, that is what we have currently have.

The other was an earlier incarnation of it that was worked out through tons of pen and paper tests and what knowledge was available at the time (e.g. the OSG). It has become more accurate as understanding of the inner workings of the game has improved.

OpenXcom, being built from reverse engineering the original game, will have gone straight to the correct formula.

8

Open Feedback / Re: lobsterman vs magna-pack explosive

« on: August 03, 2018, 10:53:58 am »

Magna-Packs can harm Lobstermen. To work the numbers out:

Lobstermen take 30% from High Explosive damage.
Magna-Pack Explosives deal 100HE. This is reduced to 30HE. Damage roll range will therefore be 15 ~ 45HE.
Lobstermen have 90 health.
Lobstermen Under Armour is between 4 ~ 14 depending on rank and difficulty. This gets reduced between each explosion.

Assuming a best case scenario where the RNG consistently rolls between the mid to high range, I would say roughly 3 or 4 Magna Packs?

I am not familiar with the strength levels of the weapons you mention, but Lobstermen take 110% from stun damage. They should work as long as the weapons are strong enough to penetrate the Lobsterman's armour.

9

Open Feedback / Re: grenades in lift schaft

« on: August 03, 2018, 10:01:18 am »

If we are talking about the lifts in general, there is a slight difference. I haven't really looked at the MCD records to verify, but I suspect the way TFTD differs from UFO is that most of the floor tiles used as lifts in TFTD are set up as solid tiles. That is the impression I have always had from them.

Also, in DOS UFO and TFTD, there was a bug that allowed you to throw objects directly up through the tile immediately above you, even through a hard surface like the roof of the Skyranger or Triton.

10

Suggestions / Re: Optional extra buttons

« on: July 25, 2018, 02:22:05 pm »

This thread has got some long dormant gears in my head turning. I am just doing a bit of an idea dump here while it is still fresh in my mind. It might be able to provide a theoretical solution for the extra buttons (or perhaps less buttons) 

While I really like the ability OpenXcom to use a variety of resolutions, I've always been bothered by the fact that the user interface does not scale with the resolution. Fair enough as the original UI graphics were built for the good old 320x200. But you do end up with these really tiny buttons at higher resolutions, and I'm honestly not a fan of any game interface where I have to squint to see what I'm clicking. Just exaggerating a bit here as it is not that bad with the X-Com games.   

I don't know if this will line up with the direction intended for OpenXcom, but the idea I've been entertaining is a sort of custom UI system. It would work in place of but not completely replace the original. That needs to stay especially as a fall-back interface in case things go wrong.

The idea is to have a user interface text file where the user can define their own buttons, information displays, button groupings (TU reserve buttons). Specify how they look ( from the default graphics set or from a user supplied texture file), their dimensions, whether they scale with screen resolution, etc and most importantly link them to the relevant game functions. Then populate the screen with the instances of the buttons and where they appear on screen.

The person designing the interface would have to take care that all necessary functions are displayed.

One important consideration would be to define the button area. The classic user interface gutter along the side or bottom of the screen, or use the entire screen and allow floating buttons and other elements that can be positioned anywhere. Not necessarily at run-time unless you want to throw in grab handles as well (think: Ultima 7 or 8 inventory screens or Planescape Torment's radial menu). Although that might be overdoing it a little.

Something like this would potentially allow for users to build custom UI mod packs for their chosen resolution or device. It would provide an easy way to introduce and try out new interface elements with different ways of presenting information. Compact unit stat displays for example, shorter or vertical bars, or even do something unusual like a radial percentage clock, etc. But I digress.

11

Playthroughs / Re: Strict Rules Runthrough Of UFO: Enemy Unknown (Using OpenXCOM)

« on: July 17, 2018, 08:26:12 am »

You could also have a clipboard dictator for a quatermaster who has an "Alien weapons are too valuable" attitude and refuses to arm the Skyranger with any. Meaning the only time you can use plasma weapons is when you take them off the aliens during battle. I used to do this a lot back in the bad old days of the 80 item limit and it wasn't bad.

12

Fan-Stuff / Re: XCOM Crossovers that'd never work

« on: May 29, 2018, 09:44:26 am »

Even Toho's Godzilla franchise can serve as inspiration, I guess... if we could make a kaiju in X-Com

Thanks to this I started doodling madly on my bus ride home this afternoon. The Overspawn fits into the kaiju theme quote nicely. In a similar vein and in response to an earlier mention of a Mazinger Z crossover, I'm already imaging a giant robot with a Megapol helmet styled head with an open brain cavity that can dock a small X-Com vehicle.

I don't know why, but I can see this totally working in the X-Com Apocalypse setting. 

13

Suggestions / Re: Instant instant grenades option

« on: May 02, 2018, 09:32:42 am »

For what it's worth, X-Com Apocalypse implements both systems in its real-time and  turn-based modes. LMB for timer settings as per usual and RMB for detonate-on-impact.

One solution would be to add another function to the ALT key. Hold it down and whatever time setting you choose defaults to instant. The more labour intensive option would be to have an alternate timer selection menu pop up while ALT is held down.

14

Playthroughs / Re: KIKOSKIA PLAYS OPEN XCOM!!!!

« on: April 11, 2018, 08:33:10 am »

Kiko is popular in a more niche or obscure sense compared to your everyday AAA LPer or streamer that often appear in trending newsfeeds. He just uploads videos because he enjoys making them. He has been so for quite some time now and has developed a fairly solid community of fans. If you do hear about him it will most likely be through a recommendation from a fan or from his circle of LPer friends.

15

Open Feedback / Re: Small radar vs Large? What's the difference?

« on: March 21, 2018, 06:37:28 am »

The radar abilities do stack in the original. Once per facility type. The bug or confusion in the base information screen is that the radar bars only show the facility type count rather than their effectiveness.

One other reason to use a small radar is that its open octagon hallway might also be useful when planning your base layout.