Messages

1

The X-Com Files / Re: [Submod] Everyone surrender

« on: January 02, 2024, 12:15:34 pm »

It's pretty easy to make:

Code: [Select]

units:
  - type: STR_ALIEN_BRAIN
    canSurrender: true
  - type: STR_DREAMSPRITE_RED
    canSurrender: true
  - type: STR_SKELETON
    canSurrender: true
(...)
Repeat for every unit which doesn't have the "canSurrender: true" flag. And also make the metadata file.

Should the type: be instead override:.  I assume, it's a more correct approach when developing a submod.

2

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: [Suggestion]Psi camouflage

« on: January 01, 2024, 10:57:04 am »

Long-ranged psi vision of advanced xcom psionics(will do anyway) and mental ninjas who can sneak them. Like "Dont allways trust your psi-vision"
Fearimmune makes them COMPLETELY invisible. And i think, immune to psi. This is too powerful.

The downside of fear immunity is inability to recover morale.  This makes this trait much less useful.

3

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: [DONE] [Suggestion] AI option for destroying XCom base facilities

« on: December 15, 2023, 07:36:35 am »

I think it would be tied to the more general "smarter AI" subject, like the AI destroying walls to free themselves or surprise the player... Stuff that has been widely discussed and is still on the table, sort of.

To what extent does Brutal AI solve these problems already?

4

OXCE Support Y-scripts / Re: More ModScript examples

« on: December 07, 2023, 01:12:58 pm »

Yes, this is one option, and then in script (`hitUnit`) manually subtract armor value using your own logic. Probaby better is alter effectiveness  as is not avaiable to scripts right now (unit armor is).

Loops are on my TODO, this is bit tricky because I need made some refactors to make them easy to use and safe (I would prefer that scripts can't hang whole game).

@Yankes,

How should I approach changing the damage type?  I know, I could read the damage type of a clip by checking the damaging_type variable.  However, I do not see a way to alter the damaging_type.

5

The X-Com Files / Re: How to handle laser rifle clips?

« on: December 07, 2023, 05:15:41 am »

Ah, I see, so the issue is why these clips cannot be disassembled? No idea, might be just that Solarius never thought about this, or maybe there's some hidden lore explanation, like MiB batteries being of inferior manufacture (maybe deliberately, alien collaborators are kept on a short leash by their ET overlords? ) and the Elerium gets destroyed during disassembly.
IMO, this is still extra bookkeeping for no appreciable gain except perhaps 'realism'. Keep it to just Elerium, like everything else.

I think, the disasembly of sonic weapons for Zrbite has been also a relatively recent addition.  So, the more likely case here is that the laser clips were not accounted for the purpose of disassembly.

6

Open Feedback / Re: Sectopods - Can't be Psionicly captured?

« on: December 06, 2023, 01:01:50 pm »

This is going way off-topic, but if you wanted "realism", interrogation should be somewhat easier (research cost-wise) when you have obtained psionics and sufficient skill to overcome the aliens. Regardless of whether you captured them psionically or not. Wth psionics you could just make the alien tell all its dirty secrets immediately. No need to torture it or otherwise make it spill the beans. Much faster, I'd imagine. But I don't think the OXCE engine doesn't support this and I doubt this would be a very interesting feature in any case.

This is a nice idea.  While it may not find its way into a game, it offers an insight w.r.t. my original question: whether psionic capture should be eschewed or not.

I think, it could be implemented by having the interrogations performed by engineers, based on the presence of a facility.  Just a thought, by a modder, for other modders.

7

The X-Com Files / Re: Firearms vs. heavy armor

« on: December 06, 2023, 12:50:50 pm »

Interesting. But changing only damage is not quite what I was after. Accuracy, armor penetration, basically all the weapon/ammo variables if possible. Are there hooks for things other than (final?) damage?
Honestly, not sure I like it all that much. Hmm, maybe split it into 'sniper rifles' that only do aimed shots, 'rifles' that do precise snaps, and 'assault rifles' that are less accurate but have autofire and quicker snaps for short-range engagements.

Eh, I kinda miss JA2 v.1.13's 'raise gun' mechanic.

I asked (cf. https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,9293.msg159346.html#msg159346) a question about encoding the damage values for battery-based weapons.  My guess would be that it may perhaps be possible to encode the damage parameters in the weapon definitions, and to have the battery only provide ammunitions count.  If that is so, then a good part of our problem is solved: even if ammunition types are different slightly, if we assume a weapon specialization, then only the weapon's power would need to be adjusted.

However, I'm not sure how to implement an assault rifle that also has a built-in grenade launcher (like e.g. XM29 OICW).  If it were possible to set up various damage parameters for different shots, then the problem may be solved more or less, but I'm not sure if that could in fact be accomplished.

8

The X-Com Files / Re: How to handle laser rifle clips?

« on: December 06, 2023, 12:42:44 pm »

AFAIK, it's deliberate. Alien and alien-derived lasers are powered by Elerium. Or, more accurately, are using Elerium as an energy storage medium.

IMO, making an extra item will do nothing useful, since you still have to disassemble and then manufacture the PLC ammo. And 'realism' would say that 'laser rifle clip parts' are not the same as 'laser cannon clip parts', especially since one is of X-Com manufacture and the other is made by shadowy orgs or perhaps even the aliens themselves. So there'd be another extra step.

One could, of course, make a submod that directly converts Elerium-based clips of one type to another, similar to the armour-manufacturing submods of Piratez.

I think all lasers are powered by elerium-based power sources.  Check out the manufacturing specs for clips of MiB laser weapons at https://xcf.trigramreactor.net/.  They all require elerium to produce.

Given the latter point, why is it not extractable?

The rationale behind "parts" approach would be that the extracted part is a certain substance which is used for energy storage and includes elerium, or was produced with the aid of elerium.

9

Brutal AI / Re: [SOURCEMOD] Brutal-OXCE 7.11.0

« on: December 06, 2023, 12:39:51 pm »

The only issue accuracy-wise is the fact that a powerful weapon cannot shoot through weaker obstacles (like e.g. bushes and wooden walls).  I think that a good sniper should be able to shoot through the bushes just fine, especially with sniper-spotter setup.  What do you think about this?  Would implementing this break too many model assumptions behind the logical setup of tactical battlescape?

10

OXCE Support / Re: Blast radius calculations in OXCE

« on: December 06, 2023, 12:36:53 pm »

Yes, if you set fixed you probably can make explosion on whole map, some XPZ weapons do this.
If it use calculated radius then it caped on 11, check rulesets what case this weapon use.

Thank you for clarifying this.

I'm curious, if it is indeed possible to have a blast that covers the entire map?  Also, is it possible to have the blast go through walls freely?  The scenario I'm thinking about is e.g. a badass mummy matriarch creating an ultra-powerful blast.

11

The X-Com Files / Re: Firearms vs. heavy armor

« on: December 06, 2023, 12:35:17 pm »

Interesting. But changing only damage is not quite what I was after. Accuracy, armor penetration, basically all the weapon/ammo variables if possible. Are there hooks for things other than (final?) damage?

If the scripting in OXCE was implemented in a well-known and well-documented language with a documented API, I think this question would be relatively easy to answer.  What is needed is access to the state of the shot (which is just a result of item configuration), upon which any adjustments to the final damage value could have been made.  Alas, that is not quite the case, and I am very challenged to attempt answering this question.

@Meridian, what state could be accessed in the script for the purposes of shot power adjustment?

Honestly, not sure I like it all that much. Hmm, maybe split it into 'sniper rifles' that only do aimed shots, 'rifles' that do precise snaps, and 'assault rifles' that are less accurate but have autofire and quicker snaps for short-range engagements.

Eh, I kinda miss JA2 v.1.13's 'raise gun' mechanic.

I actually did something like that in my submod for XCF.  I'm currently trying to solve the problem with having a unified set of batteries for these weapons.  I would appreciate some assistance from experienced modders on that.

12

The X-Com Files / How to handle laser rifle clips?

« on: December 06, 2023, 12:31:30 pm »

I have noticed that currently laser rifle clips are set to be disassembled for E-115 like their plasma counterparts.  I wonder, if that is an oversight, or a deliberate design decision.  Ideally, I would like to be able to convert clips (e.g. if I really love portable laser cannon / PLC, and would like to transform all of those Alien Laser Rifle clips into PLC clips).  I think that such conversion should be possible.  Question is, whether it needs to involve going through E-115 and then back, or perhaps the laser clips should be broken down into something like "laser clip components / pieces".  What are your thoughts?

13

Open Feedback / Re: Sectopods - Can't be Psionicly captured?

« on: December 05, 2023, 07:31:06 am »

There is an OXC/OXCE option "allowPsionicCapture". I do not recall how that was in OG XCOM2, that is, does the mission end to an MC capture and if so, do uou get a) nothing, b) corpse, c) live alien. If you disable allowPrionicCapture (I have never played so myself), AFAIK based on the source code it seems the mission just continues even though you captured the last alien (until you no longer capture it and deal with the last one with some other manner). With default OXC(E) TFTD settings you can certainly do MC live captures.

I guess, the end result in the original should have been a corpse.  Otherwise, it would be a viable object.  It's challenging to test ATM, even with dosbox.

Is there a perceived problem with the fact that an alien was under a psi control, and then it is sent on trial, torture, and execution for the sake of information extraction.  That is: Is prior instance of a psi control considered to be an obstacle to subsequent interrogation / research?  Why or why not?

14

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.1: Lights in The Sky

« on: December 05, 2023, 04:52:04 am »

Mines are very much supposed to lurk and surprise you. There can even be mines that are invisible on the minimap (and/or have no floorobj), but thankfully these haven't migrated over from Piratez. Well, except for one little surprise.

Is the "little surprise" a charge that attempts to blow my weapon stash on mansion defense missions?  If so, how could I eliminate it proactively?  The aim is to prevent too much inventory management in/out and to avoid losing expensive weapons (like e.g. psi-amps, medi-kits, very custom rockets).

15

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

« on: December 05, 2023, 04:46:04 am »

I think (played FMP a looong time ago) that they're not bullet sponges, they just have good armour against whatever you're using. So this is what's nowadays referred to as 'skill issue'.

Does FMP have armour entries in the pedia? If so, you could try nabbing one alien through sheer persistence, look at what's it got there and see if you've got something that works against its hide. Edit: Yes, it does. /edit



Edit2: But, yes, FMP does away with the "Heavy Plasma in month 3" progression of the original, and you've actually got to fight the super-advanced aliens with your crappy Earth tech for a while. You've got to do some alien-napping and other research before plasma (or even lasers) open up. On the flipside, the human arsenal is a lot bigger and more varied.

I assume, FMP is already built-in into the XCF.  Is that correct?