Topics

1

Open Feedback / How is a base as target picked?

« on: June 24, 2018, 12:32:52 pm »

I have played some games with OpenXcom, and of course experienced many base attacks. But one thing remains totally unclear: On what grounds is a specific base being picked as a target? The question whether a base attack is generated, is one of shot downs, that I know. And that there's always a random element involved. No shot downs would be the only thing, to prevent base attacks 100%. (Right?) But I had two completely opposite situations, which beg the question, how a base is picked:

One saved game, where I exclusively used Avengers from two bases (all the other bases didn't even have hangars, so cannot be considered as some sort of attacking base). I shot down a lot of UFOs from those two bases and in the beginning had also some attacks. But after some time, not one single base attack was generated any more. I even removed all mind shields from those two bases, but simply nothing happened any more.

Then on the other hand I just had started a new game, where I managed to place many radar bases (only having a hyperwave decoder and a mind shield) around the globe. One in particular got snatched lousy three days after I placed it, so not even the facilities were ready, only the access lift.

So how does it come, that in the one saved game, I don't even get base attacks generated any more, and another, where an almost mint condition base is attacked? What's involved in the selection?

2

Open Feedback / Can zombies be stunned?

« on: March 18, 2018, 02:11:11 pm »

Just had a strange run in with a MCed zombie: Der soldier standing right in front of it was trying to stun it with the vanilla stun rod, 10 times in a row (round and round again), but when MCing the zombie afterwards, it still had no stun bar (the blue over red bar). Can zombies simply not be stunned, of what exactly causes this high amount of resilience against the stun rod? Even Mutons or Mechtoid red suits aren't that resilient.

3

Open Feedback / Increasing psionic strength beyond the point, where the skill is 100?

« on: October 11, 2017, 08:43:48 pm »

I'm not sure, whether I'm doing it wrong but I noticed something: There's that option, that psionic strength can increase, same as skill. However, afaics, the strength doesn't seem to increase any more, once the soldiers skill has already reached 100 or more. So I got soldiers with let's say 100 skill and 95 strength but using them doesn't increase their strength any more. Is this intended behavior?

4

Suggestions / Really Open-Xcom

« on: August 20, 2017, 10:36:28 pm »

With all those graphics mods, sound mods, new units and new maps floating around, I believe there would not be a lot missing to make OpenXcom not rely on non-free contents. So to speak, make it really open as in open source. Maybe a user interface (especially the geoscape and the soldier inventory and such things)) would need a free reimplementation. But I think it'd be doable. I remember the achievement of UFO2000 creators, to have at least a basic version of the game playable, that doesn't require any non free graphics or other resources. Just install it, and you are good to go. So the game was really free. And if you like, you could also copy the original contents to the designated folders, and you had even more maps and units at your disposal. I am wondering: Would it be possible, with not to much effort, to create a really open Xcom version? Or did someone already give it a shot?

5

Offtopic / How many aliens per crash site?

« on: August 08, 2017, 11:13:31 pm »

I wonder, how many aliens are usually deployed at a mission. I thought, at some point, I saw a list or aliens per UFO sorted by game difficulty, somewhere. I just had a look in the Ufopaedia, but without success. Is there some comprehensive list about that topic, somewhere?

6

Suggestions / Aborting Base layout?

« on: February 25, 2017, 04:58:47 pm »

First, I haven't tried that with latest nightlies. So if this problem has already been addressed during the last months, just tell me and I'm going to recompile and be happy with it. ;-)

I just noticed, that one can't abort laying out the base right at the beginning of the game. If one uses the option to layout the base by own preferences, there's no way of aborting. I know, usually there's no reason to abort just at this time, as this means aborting the starting of a new campaign altogether. But I find it useful, anyways. I found that out, when I forgot to set a mod variable (in this case, the mod option »XcomUtil: Starting Improved Base«). I wanted to abort right away, to turn that option on, first. And there's no way to. At least not on Ubuntu in fullscreen mode. In this case, one actually has to do the entire layouting, although it's right for the trashcan. Therefore I'd like to suggest, that even in this very early stage of the game, one should be able to abort the game, somehow (suggestion: ESC or a button to abort and confirmation question), without having to lay out the entire base first.

7

Playthroughs / Really really fast Chryssalid or bug?

« on: March 30, 2016, 03:47:16 pm »

I'm quite positive, that the game states (and always respected) the fact, that enemy units in base attacks will always start from hangars and main access lift. Well, it's the very first round and I got this:

How can that be? It's clearly not in a hangar, not at the main access lift. And the attack has just begun, very first round. Either this fellow was fast enough to run in 0 rounds to this spot (JK) or this is a bug. Anyone else experienced that before? I have version 249101d-dirty (it's a while ago). And as I'm in the middle of an iron man base attack, I can't simply update and reload this one.

8

Playthroughs / Really?!?

« on: March 29, 2016, 06:26:14 pm »

OK, it was on superhuman iron man mode, but anyways: I just had the most f***** up mission ever: February 15 1999, so not even two month gametime played. I just had two bases by this time, one the starting one, the second hasn't even got living quarters, yet... and 11 days to go until then. Base attack by sectoids! 12 men on the base + 1 rocket tank. The tank goes down the very first round without even giving one shot. Four guys MCed and then killed, the rest one after another. By the attackers. I lost everything, so I have a base with one general store, 11 days to go until I can hire men, 10 days until the hangar is ready, no ship, 20 days without any radar, virtually nothing else. This game is down the drain after 45 days of gametime. I'll not continue this shit of a saved game.

But one question bugs me, as it's possibly very important to know for the future. The very last man went down, taking a cyberdisk out. The guy died in the blast. I'm not 100% positive, that this was the last one, of those four f***ers that were there, as far as I could see them. It might have been one last cd or sectoid left. But I thought I'd checked that, as there were 2 cds and one sectoid left, when I had a look into the entire hangar, the last time. I killed 2 cds and one sectoid, but the last one was a little bit poor in the result.

So here's the question: What happens, when literally every unit on the map is dead, when you're on base defense? Who wins? Was I just having a bad run, as there was at least on other unit alive, or is it actually true, that you lose the entire base, even when nothing survives the attack, not even one single enemy unit?

9

Programming / Ironman mode: Statistics instead of deleing the savedgame

« on: February 29, 2016, 05:06:08 pm »

Yeah, my first iron man mode finished. But what a surprise, the savedgame is simply gone, afterwards. I find that quite useless. I'd rather see some statistics, when loading a finished iron man mode game, instead of having nothing at all left. How long played, how many soldiers and soldiers killed, bases destroyed/lost, and so on.

10

Programming / Odd »go to last known position«

« on: February 27, 2016, 02:08:26 pm »

You all know the order for crafts, to got to the last known position of a ufo, when in pursuit of it. It used to be exactly what the description promised, that the craft goes to that position, where the ufo was seen last time. When doing so now with current nightly (249101d), it's not like this any more. It apparently directs the pursuing craft to a place, somewhere else. I presume, it's the position, where the ufo is in fact trying to get, until changing course the next time (usually the point, where it slows down next time). Can someone confirm that behavior? I mean: I don't mind knowing, where exactly they are going, but it's not supposed to be like that, I think.

11

Programming / No way in hell

« on: November 25, 2015, 07:51:21 pm »

Well, I know, last time I opened up a debate about this aspect, it turned warboy a little bit angry. However, I think it still needs some addressing.

It's about hitting apparently impossible targets, while the engine doesn't seem to recognize them as impossible to hit. I created such a situation, shown in the attached image. You can reproduce them like that, but there are many other situations, that act like this one.

If you want to take out the snakeman in the right upper corner of the room with the soldier kneeling in front of the door, you won't hit it from that position, regardless of kneeling or standing and regardless of your accuracy or used non explosive weapon. Even with Accuracy 180+ you won't succeed in hitting the snakeman from the door, unless you use a weapon with splashdamage. There's simply no way in hell, to hit a unit in the right upper corner from the position at the door, inside the room. However, the engine doesn't seem to recognize that and let's you empty every clip you have, unless you realize, that you simply won't hit the target this way.

Last time I had this discussion, I wasn't sure if I just wasn't able to express my thoughts properly or not. But the situation in the picture seems to be quite reliably acting in the way I described above and is easily created. And the result is rather self explanatory. Can someone confirm the disability to hit a unit in this specific constellation? (I'd give you the savedgame, however it's heavily modded, so most players couldn't do a lot with it anyways...)

12

Work In Progress / Reparing armour

« on: November 25, 2015, 07:34:51 pm »

Well, as I'm not a modder (and really don't intend to become one...) this might sound a little bit like begging someone to do it for me, but it's not meant to be like that.

One thing I never truly understood, is this fact about »used« armour: Once a soldier is killed, while wearing an armour, the armour is simply gone. You can't reuse it, repair it or salvage components. It's simply gone. Pretty much everything else can be collected, used or at least be sold. But why not armour of any type?

In reality, nobody would throw such an expensive piece of equipment away, unless it's beyond repair or repairing is to expensive. So I thought, how about making them repairable: A killed soldier will create a left behind defective armour of the worn type of a corpse. It's collected after finishing the battle. One can then use it, as kind of a specially required item for production in the newly created »Repair <armour-type>«. It'd need one defective armour, less money than producing a entirely new one, also smaller amounts of alloys, Elerium and time. But the product would be a brand new armour of the formerly defective type, produced with lesser expenses. Same way one could »upgrade« an energy suit into a flying suit.

What do you think? And: Would that be possible, with the current code base?

13

Released Mods / Terrain Pack: Shrub-blockade

« on: October 22, 2015, 12:26:14 pm »

Well, I mostly like the additional maps of the Terrain Pack. But I really don't understand, what this is supposed to accomplish (look at the picture...). I experienced that already earlier in the game, where I at least had a rocket launcher tank with me. But I think, it's just kind of unnecessary. I can only imagine one situation, where this might come in handy: Chryssalid-mission, where you don't have any flying suits in use. Otherwise, this is just blocking your way out. Which then forces you to throw grenades to get out, which unnecessarily endangers your units, as they have a tendency to drop, where they aren't supposed to.

14

Translations / German Translation Anthropod Mod

« on: September 14, 2015, 05:18:25 pm »

I did some translating for the Anthropod Mod. See attached file.

15

Work In Progress / Anthropod-Spitters

« on: September 14, 2015, 02:27:12 pm »

I just tried the Anthropod-Mod. From the looks of it, quite nice. But I was wondering: Is it intentional, that there are three different kinds of spitter research and three types of corpses, however just one unique research result on the living ones, and none at all for the corpses? I can understand, why there are three types of spitters. But I don't understand, why I still can research the other two types after researching one of them (won't get any further results, anyways). And why I don't get any results on the corpse. No graphics for that ufopaedia entry?