Messages

1

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.1.0

« on: April 21, 2024, 02:43:19 am »

Version 1.1 is up.

That is awesome .. I confirm that rits work properly

- Minor prices balancing.

Im playing now on Beginer difficulity and haw to lowered engineer &scientist  salary to reasonable values  (vars.ruls) :
  costEngineer: 30000
  costScientist: 35000
othervise is playing too frustrating due to lower numbers of  missions and enemies
( capturing prisoners and seeling  helps a lot but in 2021 Aug  30 S + 5 Eng Brings ~300 K $ deficit each month )
With  lab + shielded lab => 30 S the game research flawing quite fine ..

There should be some  reward for  finishing  swarm landed or shoted down UFO
 (dosens of golden jewelry , lot of mana crystals  or srystel orbs ....
 if I compare it to looting pirate ship where  is  lot of cannons , glyps and runewood to sell )

2

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.1.0

« on: April 16, 2024, 05:40:17 pm »

I don't see a reason for having a monetary production cost on something that can only be sold. The only thing the fee does is prevent you from making the stuff if you are already in debt and need money badly.
Otherwise, the effect would be same as if you subtracted the cost from the value.

The idea  of fee is  to be more realistic  (for studding you need something more than just a corpse)  however   pure math says, you can add/substract anything from both sides.

3

Released Mods / STUFFING TROPHY

« on: April 16, 2024, 10:53:32 am »

How for the love of god you have 19m from council? I barely scrap by selling most of the stuff since i cant keep more than 30 scientists in July of 2021 and i just got x weapons

I have same , issue, may be  the earlier release was not so strict.
(huge difference make  a capturing of enemies ...  as much as you can .. you sell them for more and score more points so in the end  you my gain increased funding from countries)

An interesting mechanism could be STUFFING  TROPHY
   - required research of both autopsy  and living specimen
   - 3 types (
        small     animal  - rats, snakes, scorpions, fire fly
        medium animal  - werewolf, minotaur, naga  ..
        huge animals    -  worms, giants , ...
       )
   - manufactured in workshop for small fee ( 500$ - 1000$ ) and mediocre time (time: 200 - 400)
   - sold for 30 000 - 50 000$

4

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.1.0

« on: April 15, 2024, 10:25:03 am »

Hi is it intended, that scientist cost so much ?
 - Hiring, salary, small lab size ?
  (in first one or two years you can hardly afford more than 30 scientist)

There is lot of research  (and especially many autopsies and creature analysis that  give you nothing)
that even if you know what you are researching you spend a months with almost no progress.

 

5

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.1.0

« on: April 08, 2024, 12:36:10 am »

Version 1.0 is up.
Changelog:
- Added new race: elves, with their own items and missions.
- More QOL ufopedia articles;
- Bugfixing and balancing;
- Mod is finally complete, maybe will be some bugfixes if needed.

Great job, so I try to start a new game  ...

6

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.17.1

« on: April 08, 2024, 12:13:08 am »

Valuable source of artifacts in early game is Rifts. They are relative easy and spawn regularly.

I can confirm that in 2nd or 3rd rift got Strong artifact ....
(But you have to  complete second stage begind rift .. RIFT STABILIZATION  research is needed)

7

Released Mods / Suggestion for misison rewards

« on: April 02, 2024, 01:49:09 pm »

In my opinion the Monster haunting and  Swarm-UFO are less attractive than  the other ones.

I suggest to add extra reward for mission completion
   monster haunt - several damaged artifacts (the monsters were controlled by this - bat lately when artifact broke they become wild)   
   dead rise          - few mana crystals  (they powered  the undead)
   Swarm - UFO    - something like seeds of plants (if they land the purpose is to build nest and grow  the plants there)

Other ideas
    Chitin shield  -  better for deflecting physical attack (can be broken)
    Buglings        -  add  some bigger  beetle (like swarm brute ) for later waves .
     

8

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.17.1

« on: March 28, 2024, 05:04:21 pm »

My thoughts about the game ...

FUNDING   
  - the budget is so tense , that during first year you can not afford any grow but forced facilities  (just shielded lab, prison , ..
      Scientist cost fortune ( hiring and salary)  - and the lots of projects (autopsies &  most invader weapons) take huge effort and no benefit.
  - good mission score  gain extra bonus that is  great     
  - there is almost nothing to sold  for reasonable money in the begin  and  I was stuck until  I got some mysterious devices 6Mil each ..
    (may be magic stuff and amulets can be sold for double amount to be much fair)

RESEARCH
   - I suggest to cut down time of simple weapons or autopsy reports with no further dependencies
   - researching some fast aliens could unlock FOAM-GRENADES (reduce TU)

WEAPONS  & GEAR
    - bows are during low throwing stats  hardly used
    - sniper and heavy guns helps a  lot and are essential
    - shields and amulets are awesome

MISSIONS
  - some maps are too COMPLEX (shopping center) and very often clogged with objects 
  - CIVILIANS in every mission  does not have  reason  (it is hard to save them and  can dramatically cut down the score )
  -  lack of variety in ranks (Id prefer if there will be  a strong boss monster and  several weak ones rather than  many same)
  - pirate ships are great
 


 

 

9

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

« on: March 15, 2024, 01:00:41 pm »

for smoother playing I suggest to add small vehicles for Seamaster and Typhoon (in early game drones can be a great help)
CRAFT.rul

For P6M add lines
    vehicles: 1
    maxSmallVehicles: 1
    maxLargeVehicles: 0

For typhoon  add lines
    vehicles: 2
    maxSmallVehicles: 2
    maxLargeVehicles: 0 

As well the stingray with 4 crews can easily handle small USOs just after shoot down and it brings a more fun (especially with limited arsenal)

    soldiers: 4
    pilots: 2
    maxItems: 25

    deployment:
      - [4, 7, 0, 4]
      - [4, 6, 0, 4]
      - [4, 5, 0, 4]
      - [4, 4, 0, 4]

10

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

« on: March 15, 2024, 12:57:40 pm »

Well In my opinion
  Shoggots should be much more bigger
  something like Shaihulud from X-Chronicles

I know that they were used as workers but  according to Lovecraft novels they are huge (so 2x2 model will be more appropriate)

11

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.60)

« on: March 11, 2024, 09:16:16 pm »

If I get that right, Fighter shoots at you at 3x rate in SH compared to the next difficulty. I suppose that's mindboggling. I guess it could be nerfed. But I suppose this all boils down to how difficult SH is intended to be.

I suppose I would vote for nerfing them a bit. Not really to make the early-game HKs easier. But to make it more feasible to beat shielded HKs that appear later. Those are brutal. The only way to deal with those with barracuda/moray are PWT launchers, but you don't necessarily get them in time. So if you run across one, your only hope is to run (if you can) or die.

I usually play on SH or Veteran ,  so HK is not such a problem especially with cannons
IMHO - working with craft armor could help a bit 
   then the damage income would not be just  atack speed * weapon power ,
   but  armored  crafts can withstand a lot of low dmg weapon hit, before being destroyed
   there could be another  item (extra armor) that can be added to hidden weapon slot (that decrease the speed, but increase the armor and resistance vs HK)
 

12

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.59) My extension

« on: January 03, 2024, 01:45:10 am »

HI I tried to  reworked my changes as Extension to Existing mod.
 but unfortunately rules does seem to merge correctly so  I manually merged them and put in rules folder (only changes are zipped there as well]]

What is changed :
  - alien origins is  harder to reach  and the alien bases are hidden and only chance is to detect them by advanced or armed buoy  (if not killed by hunter first)
  - seamaster and typhon  can carry small vehicles
  - all craft has limited capacity of items, that
  - SCORPAENA is more durable, requires ultrandense and is armed with cannon instead torpedo
  - flat increase of fighting powers (barracuda and  moray has only two weapons)
  - Naga's race  is much stronger
  - Calcinite protoform and abbysians have immunity to some damage types
  - hybrid armor is slightly better
  - in order to interrogate high rank alien - autopsy must be researched first and as well some lower ranked specimens
  - alien dungeon entrance redesigned
  - increase way-points  of micro-torpedos to 3 (at higher cost of components for ammunition)
What is new:
  - added new rank in church (archivist) -  than can with some other topic unlock alien language that is crucial for interrogating aliens)
  - includes more USO variants and SAND-MOutain terrain
  - Naga's city has two levels (orignal one is  2nd)
  - three new type of ammunition for shard weapons
  - YACHT - alternate ship for pirate attack in early game

13

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.58)

« on: November 24, 2023, 11:29:41 am »

Looks like not much can be done by modders to randomize alien spawns...
But I have one particular example in mind. In X-COM files, when you assault cult's outpost or something similar, there are 2 possibilities: either most cultists are flocking inside a building, or most cultists are evenly spread out over entire map. I don't know how that was accomplished (may be there are 2 separate missions disguising as 1), but at least such level of variety would be appreciated.

Hi according my experience the spawning can be slightly adjusted by node priorities 
  For each difficulty you can specify how many units will be spawned for each rank [min + randomadd ]  and the  unit spawning starts from highest ones
   So you spawn 10 units  you can
   a)  have 3 + 3 (inside/outside nodes ) with priority 10 (highest)   and 4 + 4 (with lower priority )
      However this will guarantee the first 3 + 3   be always assigned and placed initially on the same positions and 4+4  randomly distributed
   b)  put 5 high priority nodes inside (that will guarantee half units inside)  and  then create 10+ nodes  outside  and terrorist will be distributed randomly to these locations
      this scenario is more acceptable because terrorists inside will move randomly before you reach  them

14

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.58)

« on: November 23, 2023, 11:14:59 am »

Oh, yes. Almost forgot to mention this. This mod (as well as the base game) really needs some improvements with ship terror missions. The significant part of X-COM success is due to randomly generated maps. And in TFTD we have only 2 static ships. Adding to the game more ship maps is actually not very good solution, because, no matter how many static maps are added to the game, they cannot compensate random generation. I don't know how hard it will be (if possible at all) to make alien spawns more random. Static maps by themselves are not particularly big problem. But aliens spawning at the same places over and over again definitely is a problem.

I think that aliens spawn randomly ...
  all is about setting nodes in RMP file  .. there is defined priority and rank  so if you create enough nodes for each rank with same priority,
  then the unit placement will be quite random  ...

 You can try my map for 1st level of naga city thas has fixed skeleton with some block variety ...

 The ships can be enhanced in the same way ..
   1) cut them in blocks  (cinema / pool / restaurant) , (engines), (cabins/storage/ restroom ), (landing zone) , (top deck)
   2) design several (2-4) ship types  [30x50,30x60,30x80] with height 2- 4 (6? - just for high control tower)
         for both categories (CARGO, LINER)
         that uses fixed blocks  [10 x 10, 10 x 20, 10 x 30]
   3) adjust mission generation  that smaller ships are used in the beginning and larger in later stages

The problem with random is  that ship is usually long and thin and you should keep meaningful layout of structures
    however I can imagine and create these 1level design  ships (inspired by reality) :
          - big cargo ship filled with containers with huge control tower and cabins on stern
          - carrier with control tower on side with huge open space inside with some elevators  (may try use typhoon graphics to create some jets )
          - fishing boat with whale  in huge space inside surrounded by bridges, elevators, cranes, and another huge frozen storage  space filled with canes and boxes
          - small ship with only two decks
          - huge ferry 
                - 0 engines,
                - 1,2 wast space with few creates (if only I have some map tiles with cars)
                - 3 restaurant
                - 4 few cabins   entertainment  and bridge
                - 5 small restaurant surrounded by open space
                 



 
         
 

15

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.58)

« on: November 22, 2023, 10:22:32 pm »

And when oxygen runs out you die!
Yet another way to get squad wipe by failing to find last alien!

Very true ..

Instead this "Bad luck highliter"  I suggest to create  fast mission that has crew limit to 8  (accesible only by seamaster or typhoon)
May be add variety for church mission  - hidden fortification in forrest (use tiles from  XCOM-1 or  mayan mod) with  mixed crew of church, carcharodron and tasoth