Topics

1

Released Mods / Vanilla TFTD translation questions

« on: April 18, 2019, 10:42:08 am »

I don't care about this at all to be honest.
Vanilla game also says "ALIENS TERRORIZE Casablanca" and I was never bothered by that; I guess 99% of people aren't.
...
Summary: just keep vanilla strings vanilla

Thank you, Meridian, for clearing this up for me. I think you are right that most people don't get bothered by inconsistent or poorly formatted text strings. The information gets to the user, and the user moves on.

For me, when playing the old vanilla TFTD, these issues always distracted me. Seeing stuff like "ALIENS TERRORIZE Casablanca" makes me wonder why that wasn't corrected. Did the original developers run out of time, budget, or QA? And then of course you have to wonder, what else is wrong with the game. Well, as we now know, there were also bugs in the research tree, etc.

These kinds of things just make the game feel incomplete, and sometimes even sloppy, and I guess the ultimate question raised by this is: Am I getting the experience intended by the game's authors, or I am spending my time on a watered-down/incomplete/rushed version of what they intended? To make an analogy that I am sure Nord would appreciate: Am I going to enjoy my evening by watching the director's cut of the movie The Abyss, or am I going to settle for watching the theatrical release of The Abyss? Bearing in mind that I won't get that time back either way, I would really prefer to enjoy the proper version as the creators intended it.

Anyway, I know I am preaching to the choir here. You guys have certainly shown that you care a great deal about the quality of the game. It was really fun to be a tiny part of that.

Meridian, may I ask you something? Say I go through the vanilla TFTD string files and make my corrections just for myself (not changing any string names, only the text). I then copy this corrected file along with the rest of the vanilla TFTD files into the \TWoTS X.XX\TFTD subdirectory (like we do with every update). Will doing this create any conflicts for me?

2

Open Feedback / Dead soldier weapons are not recovered if mission is successful

« on: January 02, 2018, 08:50:15 pm »

Hello all,

Thanks to everyone who makes this community excellent!! I am constantly impressed by what you all create and how tirelessly you are work to create interesting and thoughtful enhancements for these games.

I hope this is the right place to ask about this. I have always noticed that at the end of a successful mission, I still get warning messages about how I am low on ammo or guns or something needed to fully re-equip my squad.

The line of reasoning for the game's behavior makes sense to me for most cases:

• Mission failed, and everyone dies: all lives and ammo/guns are lost, and so is the craft (or even your base).
• Mission aborted, some recruits escaped: all ammo/guns left on the battlefield are lost, but any corpses, artifacts, live aliens, wounded/stunned recruits on board the ship when aborting are saved/collected.
• Mission successful, no one dies: all (not destroyed) loot/corpses are collected, and any fired-off ammo is subtracted from your stores (I have no idea how this has been implemented for the ammo: is it an exact count? or only half-empty magazines are lost?)
• Mission successful, some recruits died: 'a standard end of mission' screen shows you the loot/corpses/artifacts/live aliens you collected, and anyone not dead is saved. However, all dead recruits guns/ammo which have not been deliberately picked up by another recruit during the mission is lost.

This last scenario is what I would like to discuss. So if we are to believe a clean-up crew sweeps the site after a successful mission (or even if the last recruit(s) does it) and collects all the not-blown-up (not destroyed) artifacts, ammo, and corpses, why won't they also grab any X-com guns/ammo/equipment?

Of course, bodies and guns/ammo that get blown up/blown away shouldn't be available to retrieve, and in fact, I love that about the game. How many times have you thrown a grenade near a stunned recruit (who you thought was dead) only to accidentally finish them off? OOPS! By the way, whoever created the new zzZ icon over stunned bodies is a genius/superhuman.

But for those piles of X-com loot scattered throughout the site (sometimes easily spotted because they are marked with a dead human being), can't we recover those? Perhaps the half-used magazines could be ignored, or a percentage of items could be considered 'lost' because the clean-up crew won't spend hours looking for e.g. a single primed proximity mine (better to let a civilian child find it).

So I guess you understand what I am asking about: why doesn't the 'clean-up crew' collect all (or most) of the remaining X-com equipment after the missions?

I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but I can't tell you how many chemical flares I have picked up off the ground during the last few turns when I know the mission will be a success. It's pathetic, I know. But I have also run out and fetched sonic cannons from nearby dead aliens just before aborting a mission just to try to pay the next meat shield's salary for a few months. Here's to all the X-Com penny pincher's out there! 

I would love to hear people's thoughts about this.

3

Troubleshooting / Please help a rookie install TFTD

« on: September 23, 2017, 08:23:45 pm »

Hello everyone!

I am sorry to have to ask this, but I cannot understand how to install Terror from the Deep. I bought both games on Steam last year, and I successfully installed OpenXcom (UFO) and FMP, but I can't remember what the hell I did. I do recall struggling, and I had to ask for help then, too.

I am quite embarrassed to ask for help with this because I know many of you have taken the time to write out instructions that are clear enough for complete rookies to understand. The problem is: where are those instructions for OpenTFTD, and how can I tell if I am reading the most recent instructions?

It seems like openTFTD isn't as popular as OpenXCOM (UFO), so I wonder if downloading the latest nightly build has anything to do with TFTD, or if all the attention is only focused on OpenXCOM (UFO).

I have been looking all day, and I will keep looking, but if anyone knows where I can find the latest and greatest build for TFTD, I would greatly appreciate some links. Specifically, I am looking for:

• OpenTFTD which has the same interface as OpenXcom
• Reassurance that the most basic patches/bug fixes are dealt with in that first installation (so that Original TFTD would be patched and stable at that point, or if not, what else do I need to do)
• Instructions for how to add individual mods
• Instructions for how to add Full Game mods, like the ones new_civilian or Nord made

Thanks in advance, and again I am grateful for your patience.

4

Troubleshooting / Please help a desperate rookie :'(

« on: June 27, 2016, 05:49:43 am »

Hello everyone,

Long time fan, first time openXcom user here. I just got done installing openxcom UFO defense, but I am having trouble, and I can't tell if I have done it properly. If somebody could offer guidance I would be most grateful!

My end goal: Play OpenXcom UFO Defense with the latest nightly build and including the Final Mod Pack and the music by Lorcan.

What I have done so far:
- Bought the xcom pack on steam (on sale!) and installed it.
- Used the windows installer to get the version 1.0 milestone.
- Downloaded the latest nightly build and copied the original xcom folders (SOUND, GEODATA, etc.) from the steam folder into the nightly build's folder. (already I worry that I am doing something wrong)
- Downloaded FMP and copied all its files into the USER/MODS folder within the nightly build folder.
- Downloaded and copied Lorcan's music into the nightly build's SOUND folder.
- Started the game from the nightly build folder.

The only thing I am confident will work correctly is the music, because I can already hear it working of course. I really have no feedback that I have properly installed the final mod pack, or at least I do not know how to tell so I can be sure.

I tried to start the game by selecting the option to custom build the first base, and that did not work, so I think I have made a huge mess and I don't know what to do.

Questions I have:
- In what order should I be installing each of these components? (original from steam; milestone 1.0; FMP; latest nightly build, Lorcan music)
- Is the 1.0 milestone even relevant if I am gonna play a later nightly build?
- Do I need the additional folders (like Resources, RuleSet, etc) from the 1.0 milestone?
- Has anyone made a youtube video within the past few months that would walk me through this process from start to finish?
- How on earth will I be able to tell if I have successfully installed a stable build of the game which includes the final mod pack?

I feel really embarrassed to be asking these questions here. You guys have created something beautiful and I can tell you have put a lot of effort into the instructions and readme files. I did read them, and I have also found a couple videos (one by Ivan D, and another by J Stank) but I still don't think I am doing things right. Both the videos and the readme file seem to think I am coming to the table with a base set of knowledge that I clearly lack because it is easy for me to get lost. It looks like you guys have been at this for a while, so you are familiar with where things go and which parts to replace when there are updates. I am completely clueless about these things.

I am super excited to play the game itself. At this point that seems like the easy part. But I certainly don't want to go down that long path only to reach a dead end because I screwed up the install.

Thanks for any help or guidance you all are willing to offer. I will check back frequently.