Topics

1

Suggestions / Inspiration for new aliens

« on: March 25, 2016, 09:56:24 pm »

There is an interesting documentary on youtube about development of UFO:EU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7VjbuNEzg

Now, if you stop it at 13:50, you'll see some aliens projects that were considered for the game. Maybe some of them will inspire you for making new species
(I see a Holodrone there, so probably someone already found this. In that case please delete this thread)

2

Work In Progress / psyHoTik's experiments

« on: March 17, 2016, 08:36:29 pm »

Here I will post my useless, lame, noob, unprofessional, untested, unlicensed builds. They are done mostly for fun and testing but maybe (by accident) some of them will be even playable

Experiment 1 - Alien Snipers
The goal was to give the aliens the ability to shoot at revealed targets they don't personally see, just like X-com soldiers do in most cases (you fire at enemy spotted by another soldier). In theory this could make game more challenging and unarmed or weak enemies would still pose a threat as they could relay your position to their buddies. The build actually works and such game may be even considered fun...

...BUT...

...there is a huge side effect. If you meet an alien during your turn and he saw you, then your soldier will be visible to AI during subsequent alien turn, even if you run into a dense smoke, far away from any enemy eyes or kill the spotting alien. This means this soldier will be sniped even if no longer visible to any alien. The problem is that turnsSinceSpotted is updated every "full" turn (X-com+alien). This idea requires it to be updated every half of the turn, like grenade timers. I wonder if this could be done without corrupting too much... Anyway, feel free to test it yourself

Problem solved, now it should work as planned The change, however, effectively halved the alien intelligence parameter as TurnsSinceSpotted is updated twice a turn. Multiplying intelligence by 2 will be required to keep the status quo.

3

Builds & Ports / [HELP] Compiling under Visual Studio 2015

« on: March 14, 2016, 10:09:48 pm »

Hello! Could you please help me with compiling OXC under MVS Community 2015? I've followed this walkthrough, but I'm getting following errors/ warnings:

Code: [Select]

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Warning C4091 'typedef ': ignored on left of '' when no variable is declared (compiling source file Engine\CrossPlatform.cpp) OpenXcom C:\Program Files\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\um\dbghelp.h 3190
Warning C4091 'typedef ': ignored on left of '' when no variable is declared (compiling source file Engine\CrossPlatform.cpp) OpenXcom C:\Program Files\Windows Kits\8.1\Include\um\dbghelp.h 1544
Error LNK1120 1 unresolved externals OpenXcom C:\Users\Tomek\Desktop\OXC\OpenXcom\bin\Win32\Debug\OpenXcom.exe 1
Warning LNK4098 defaultlib 'msvcrt.lib' conflicts with use of other libs; use /NODEFAULTLIB:library OpenXcom C:\Users\Tomek\Desktop\OXC\OpenXcom\src\MSVCRTD.lib(initializers.obj) 1
Warning LNK4217 locally defined symbol _fprintf imported in function _ShowError OpenXcom C:\Users\Tomek\Desktop\OXC\OpenXcom\src\SDLmain.lib(SDL_win32_main.obj) 1
Error LNK2019 unresolved external symbol __imp____iob_func referenced in function _ShowError OpenXcom C:\Users\Tomek\Desktop\OXC\OpenXcom\src\SDLmain.lib(SDL_win32_main.obj) 1

I also get many "Unknown compiler version - please run the configure tests and report the results" messages.

Any suggestions? Please have mercy as this is the first time I compile something for Windows

4

Suggestions / Alien autopsy damage bonus

« on: January 29, 2016, 10:01:21 am »

UFO: Aftermath or Aftershock (or both?) had some interesting idea - performing an autopsy of an alien creature allowed scientists to know its weak spots and train soldiers where to aim to inflict maximum damage. In the terms of gameplay such research resulted in small damage bonus against this particular creature. Do openXcom engine allows such thing? It would make corpses research more useful - right now most of them are only for flavor, often not giving any useful information (not counting bizarre TFTD ideas like Gillmen autopsy required to unlock Thermic Lance). Such bonus may be a reason to give autopsies higher priority.

5

Suggestions / Civilians fighting back

« on: January 28, 2016, 03:21:13 pm »

Hi!

At first I must say I'm no programmer or moder and I don't know anything about game AI and inner mechanics, so please consider this rather an open question than suggestion or request

I always wondered, is it possible to give civilians some simple AI (or just use Alien AI with swapped IFF flags) to let at least some of them to fight Aliens during terror missions? Some Police or Security officers, firing pistols, some low-morale soldiers with rifles and grenades (survivors from military squad sent to contain situation, beaten up before X-com arrived)? Of course they shouldn't be very effective and probably all will be dead at the end of the mission but with some luck they should be able to wound or even kill some of the weaker Aliens.

What do you think?