Topics

1

Tools / Dmg roll simulator

« on: March 06, 2022, 08:57:09 pm »

So, akin to the weapon sim, here is a dmg roll simulator.

https://github.com/t3chn0l0g1c/oxceRolls

it takes your parameters and calculates the exact chance how much dmg might be done to the target (updates instantly),
and hitting the button calculates how many shots it takes to kill.
the hit chance is real %, not the 109% max OXCE uses.

(as the number of calculations is up to "number of possibilities" to the power of "depth", you unfortunately cannot calculate that for e.g. depth 1000 in your lifetime...)
the tool recommends a search depth (=number of shots) based on the other parameters.
however that is tuned to a nice 16core machine, so if you have a weaker machine and don't want to wait (seconds to minutes), lower that value.
(multithreaded, but uses all cores but one)

2

OXCE Suggestions DONE / [DONE?][SUGGESTION] Transport weight limit

« on: September 15, 2020, 03:04:51 pm »

Since there was item limit (and we all hated it...), how about weight limit?

Basic idea:
A transport has a weight limit, and it limits how much equipment you can take on a mission, based on item weight.
Advanced I:
Includes personel and armors.
So e.g. if you really wanna give everyone heavy armor, you might have to do without your dozen spare rockets... Or have to cut back on troop size.
Especially for early transports (e.g. xcf helicopter), you can either have your 6 guys with vests and equipment, or just 4 of them in heavy armor...


This might open up more strategic depth for troop composition and loadout, as you cannot just carry everything you might need anymore and just use on site, or if you do, might have to cut back on team size. Gives a lot of balancing options for heavy weapons and their ammo, as well as tanks.
May keep people (like me...) from putting everyone in the heaviest armor they can find, equip minigun for everyone and keep some spare mags, so may lead to a lot more equipment diversity in loadout.


(very optional extension)
Advanced II:
Includes loot weight too. So you cannot transport all contents of the battleship you just raided back if you did not leave some weight reserve...
May include the possibility of having them transported to your base in a matter of days or so, but some items (stunned enemies etc) would have to be taken by your transport or left on mission site.

(there´s so much things to do with weight...)
Advanced III:
Missions may have a transport weight limit. For whatever reason... (no idea how to put that story wise. But modders may find a way...)
E.g. special missions limit you to 120 weight, so you can get 4 guys with guns, or 2 with launchers and some spare missiles... even if the transport could hold more.

3

The X-Com Files / Weapon balance discussions

« on: May 17, 2020, 04:12:15 pm »

We always had those. And there will be more.

So i´ve made it a little easier ^^

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,8229.0.html

4

Tools / Weapon Balance Tool

« on: May 17, 2020, 03:22:26 pm »

I´ve created a simulator for the OXCE weapon accuracy behaviour.
It can draw nice graphs of hit ratio / distance (always 0 -50), as well as dmg/turn over distance.


Repository:
https://github.com/t3chn0l0g1c/oxceShooter

No need to build from source, there´s a pre-packed .jar in there.

It has no gui mode too, so you can just generate the input files and let it run over all weapons and compare yourself.
Needs java installed (openjdk 13 or higher )


Feedback, bug reports and feature requests welcome.

Big thanks to all the modders and engine guys helping me with their time and knowledge, especially Meridian.

5

The X-Com Files / Suggestion: Council Trainings/Challenges

« on: April 16, 2020, 12:14:56 pm »

So periodically Council does some spec ops training/evaluation...
Like storming a house or item retrieval, hostage rescue or other stuff.
Enemies are either real (only stun allowed, casualties give heavy score losses) or targets (via tile script, needs proper weapons to damage it).
Organisations in this kind of profession do that. Pretty much all of them. Either to compare or to train each other.
(E.g. council wants to train their people by watching your tactics or its a normal spec ops tournament)

Gives some Council props (score, land surveys, whatever) and maybe some money.
Settings can be different (1-4 man teams or so), undercover or not, multi stage even, heavy restrictions on equipment.

Alternatively: tank race 
AI only mission, tank goes on a track and shoots at targets, fixed low number of turns then automatic win, score by destroyed targets.

6

Work In Progress / Slime gun [idea]

« on: March 21, 2020, 10:18:41 pm »

so xcf has the canister gun, which fires various fluids.
Idea would be to add a slime ammo, which severely decreases TUs and reactions, like a flashbang. possibly for multiple turns.
It´d be useful for a lot of situations, e.g. catching stuff alive or a certain kind of japanese animated entertainment... 
But how to implement that?

7

OXCE Suggestions Rejected / [Rejected] Game control API (ability to replace the UI)

« on: November 24, 2019, 05:15:30 am »

Rejection reason: this is beyond/outside the scope of OXCE


Now this may be a little bit odd in terms of "normal" game features (and not a small thing either).

But what are the chances we could get an interface (e.g. via websockets or REST) to control the game from player side, but programmatically?
A nice side effect would be the possibility to decouple engine and game UI, not that its needed.
The main reason though is that there would be the possibility for people to write bots to run the game.

IMO there would be several perspectives to it. The most boring one is playing the game and having the bots solve difficult/grinding stuff.
Not the reason for this at all, just mentioning it for the sake of completeness. Also would be a total waste of all the great lore and effort people put in their mods.
The interesting perspectives are "is it possible to write an AI that can beat mod xyz/vanilla" (pretty sure yes, but not for everyone), logically "can i write an AI that is good enough", and just for sake of competition: "can i write an AI that can beat your AI in battlescape/game difficulty".
(If there are good AIs there´s the side effect of wasting a lot of computing power for getting great balance info)

Granted, running AIs is not about game content anymore and especially the lore/settings of the mods is outstanding for most.
On the other hand, there´s probably a lot of coders here thinking about the meta game of "could i beat this with software?".
Yet hooking into OXCE is not that easily done.

Other possible uses:
-Some attention from the AI community, since thats currently a hip topic... (like SC2 got. And just being turn based does not make xcom that much easier...)
-Better ingame AIs. Good AIs are usually hard to write. If the game is partially decoupled and there are some good AIs, they could be used ingame to replace the built in AI, for special difficulty.
(Also it´d be possible to have different AIs, depending on setting, which makes for a great feature addition)

If there are any technical concept/protocol questions I´m sure i can put up an adequate solution, but I´m guessing you engine guys absolutely can do too. 
Obviously if the engine is not yet built for that its a lot of work.

So, is anyone else interested in this?
And is there any slight chance it might happen? 

8

The X-Com Files / Aircraft stuff suggestions

« on: November 09, 2019, 01:19:32 am »

Since ground combat (and many other things) are so huge and well made, lets give aircraft stuff some love too 
It seems there´s not so much tech and items yet.
So here´s some suggestions on what could be done to change that a little bit.
(In case there´s no engine limitation saying nope)
On purpose not suggesting any mechanics overhaul or additional mechanics, just some "easy" stuff.

Currently there are a hand full of missiles of various range and dmg and a few cannons, mostly differing in dmg.
My idea would be to have light/medium/heavy missiles and same for cannons.
Notably light and medium versions fit into hardpoints of heavy too. (and light into medium...)

Missiles have generally better range and on non-short ranges way better accuracy.
(speaking about short range missiles vs short range cannons, not "distance to target in dogfight")
Longer range missiles tend to have less dmg, or very short ammo supply.

For cannons the light/medium/heavy difference is mostly the range and rate of fire.
Also you'd need a very advanced craft to put a heavy cannon on it...
light/medium cannons have higher rate of fire than missiles and on average less damage. medium/heavy have solid damage, but low hit chance.
Medium cannons are about the range of stingray missiles.

There´s room for guided/unguided missiles, maybe psi guided by pilot, smart cannon ammo, anti grav propelled stuff, etc.

The idea is you have a lot of different options, depending on your current tech.
High tech missiles can be very expensive (in terms of alien resources), but you don't have to rely on them completely, unless you wanna take down battleships.
Cannons could be expensive, but ammo probably takes only alloys. (unless you wanna have elerium boosted explosive ammo...)
Small cannons are as most cannons are now, medium cannons a replacement for stuff like stingrays and heavy cannons... well think of artillery on an aircraft.
Good dmg at pretty long range, but may just miss a lot. But cheaper to maintain than missiles that dmg class.

To make any use of the differences, there need to be adequate UFO attack classes of course.
Like low range/high dmg (Fighter), high range low dmg (large scout?) and anything in between.

With these weapon class differences, it´d be easy to have several distinctive different xcom aircrafts, each for a different role.

Now, except "why the F would we need that", any comments? ^^

9

The X-Com Files / How do you contain MC'd soldiers?

« on: November 08, 2019, 07:21:50 pm »

Since your weapons normally beat your armor, someone getting MC'd wreaks havoc in your lines...
What to do against it?
Even if you have proper psi skills, at some point some soldiers will be MC'd and kill several of yours.
Sectoids do this some times, some flying spaghetti monsters who once stormed my base do it constantly and I haven't even encountered ethereals yet...
Usually once someone was targeted and looses morale, i let them drop all their weapons and walk away so they can't harm anyone, but that only works if it takes several turns to MC.
Or let someone stand close so they can melee block the shots.
Is there anything better to do?
If only there was some anti MC measure... like a piece of equipment or drug that reall f****s your soldier up for some time(for balance reasons), but denies MC or makes it very much harder... (or semi-useless, since he´s taken the drug and can't do much anymore)
Or some psi armor, that really restricts the wearer in a lot of ways, but gives psi resistance.
It just seems psi is a front you can't really defend...

10

The X-Com Files / Weapon balance / meta

« on: November 02, 2019, 09:05:46 pm »

So since we got several dozen weapons in game and its about impossible to balance them perfectly right off, here´s a discussion topic about it.
Its not meant for small details (e.g. Shotgun should have 1 less dmg) but rather the meta (what do you expect from a weapon class / technology).

A lot of weapons are probably not meant to be useful and there´s some really strong equipment/tactics, so I´d suggest we collect what you´re primarily using to give data points to Solarius and other players of course.

There´s gonna be a lot of different opinions, so at least try to keep it civil 

I´m using pretty much only minigun type weapons.
BlackOps minigun is imo a bit too strong, since you can fire 3 times/turn and take down 1+ enemies per salvo, even at mid/longer ranges. Or just deal 3x10x30 (or 50) dmg at short range...
Recently upgraded to scatter blaster, its strong but really good balanced. 2 salvos per turn (but 15 instead of 10 shots), so it deals much dmg but you can't kill that many weak units per turn.
Which brings me to the meta point about it.

Most of the time you´re facing weak enemies. Humans, Sectoids, Floaters etc., so its not about how much dmg you deal, but how many enemies a weapon can kill per turn.
Especially if you land right in the middle of them...
And sniping them from long range is rarely needed, since most enemies just suck at long range, you can just fire e.g. a minigun at 5% hit chance, if its 2 soldiers each firing 3x10 bullets, chance is thats gonna be enough... and some bonus kills if anything is standing next to it.
On mid/short ranges sniper rifles may deliver serious dmg too, but very few shots, snap shots could be made cheaper for them.
Or maybe some nice special effects, like HE sniper ammo or such. HEIAP 50cal bullets exist... 
Currently i see not much reason using them, despite the long range appeal.
Min range makes no sense for me.

Blaster carbine completely replaces Blaster rifle, because with that accuracy you`d rarely need aimed shots, but snap/auto are far better for carbine.
(Thats what any of my soldiers too weak for armor+scatter blaster carry)

Can't really say much about SMGs or Shotguns, since after short trial i found no reason using them. Except macro SMG, which is nice late game for weak soldiers.
May be bacause they´re short range weapons, and getting close to enemies is kinda dangerous... >_>
As Solarius put it nicely, Nurgle-Type player... I´m keeping my distance and fire storms of bullets at things. And if there´s things in between or far away things, well... more bullets.

HMGs may be nice, but it seems minigun type weapons deliver comparable dmg/acc with significantly less firing cost.

Well thats all i can think of atm, maybe later more.
Pretty sure many of you made different experiences. Lets hear them 

11

The X-Com Files / Experience / Promotion

« on: September 22, 2019, 05:25:32 am »

had a mission end after 1 shot at bushes (aborted, didn't wanna chase zombies though a jungle with pistols).
yet that one guy who shot a bush got promoted.
read the wiki about experience/promotions, tbh i think thats not really appropriate.
basically i could make my guys throw stuff around for fun and shoot up the whole place (regardless of any enemies) and they get stat increases like mad?
is there a possibility to change it to something less exploitable / more useful?
not gonna exploit that, but damn its tempting... (would be very boring and cheaty to do)

my idea would be a small flat bonus for any mission survived, acc increase on enemy hit, and totally not sure about the others stats... 
(sry if this sounds kinda complainy... just kinda creeped out this loophole exists)

12

The X-Com Files / Final thoughts of a lost campaign

« on: September 21, 2019, 03:45:33 am »

We´re writing the year 2000. Somewhere mid.
Xcom has like 150 mio in the banks and a serious tech problem.
Research tree is at 24%, but there´s so much aliens and tech to research the meager 50 scientists can't keep up with it at all.
Current state is cyber armor, still miniguns and there´s some laser tech.
2 cults are done for. Various cave missions have been ignored, since they cost dozens of tries and still pay a heavy toll on experienced soldiers.
1 alien base and 1 embassy stand, nowhere near being raidable.
daily several ufos spawn, but wtf to do with them? raven sure won't shoot down that many.
there has been a groundhog day with 40h til alien retailation on 2nd base and about 20 tries how to survive it. no chance, its some tentacly psi monsters (apparently weak to lasers), they just psi control about 7 soldiers each turn.
about every ufo type has been recovered, alien prison (2) are full, and research can't keep up.
been ignoring all missions for a month since its just grind anymore, wanted to make up for it next month.
failed to find enough landed UFOs, lost with -2000 in 2nd month...
(about 3rd try by now, restarted 2 times because i kept getting nowhere)

so for many many weeks play time not to go to waste, some lessons learned for next try:
-get a base just for manufacturing
-get a base just for training soldiers (like 8 gyms or so) so i can loose more and keep up with it
-maybe secondary research base
-hope 20mio income covers most of that
-miniguns rock everything, except psi tentacle aliens and sectiod reaction shots
-cave missions still no idea (except the syndicate ones, they are easy)

some feedback on gameplay:
-large storage facility could use a buff in capacity
-gym definately could use a large buff in capacity
-a little more streamlined story advance. its really cool that there´s no actual order of stuff to do, but with the mass of content and no apparent priority its easy to loose a year or 2 without actually going anywhere...
-some proper way to defend soldiers in cave missions. killing stuff is easy. something coming around a corner and killing 4 people is too... (god i hate cave missions... D: though i do like that they exist. just like to have a way not to loose 80%+ crew each time)
-research tree adaption in terms of usage/manufacturing. having plasma weapons in store for a year. understandably without reseach i can't produce ammo or so. but by that time someone should have been able to figure out how to pull the trigger on one of those...
-armor/HP/resistance of stuff on autopsies instead of live ones. makes sense you could get from a dead body how to damage it, without needing a live one
-is it possible to color stuff different in sell screen that is/not already researched?
-maybe less UFOs at that game stage. every day 3-10 is seriously overkill...

but in the end, still an awesome game 
the only thing dreading me is having to start all over and it´ll take so many weeks just to get there again... so time consuming... D:

13

The X-Com Files / Strategic advice - cave missions

« on: September 15, 2019, 01:38:45 am »

so i really struggle with cave missions, no matter what i try.
is there an advisable strategy / loadout that does not lead to heavy losses if you can't keep the enemy at distance?

My current equipment (miniguns all the way) is seriously at a disadvantage there, yet still the best results i have.
Tried going melee, UAC rifles, sonic pistols, CAWS and some others. Basically if stuff gets to close i keep loosing a bunch of veterans. every time. except if its just a few syndicate guys, thats easy as cake 
but the monsters or certain zombie types really get me.
(Armor is heavy tritanium and some cyber atm)

14

The X-Com Files / Specialist training

« on: September 15, 2019, 01:33:38 am »

Nope, its not another thread about introducing soldier classes 
Would it be possible to have multiple different trainings (in the same gym), basically one for each stat?
Well not exactly one for each stat, but more or less role.
E.g. you get a rookie that just really sucks at shooting but has decent melee.
Instead of putting him for some months into a general training, you just put him in melee training to get a usable strength/melee rating and he´s gonna be a brawler...
So still can't shoot for shit, but decent melee attacker in faster time. You can put him in other trainings after that as well, each just once of course.

15

The X-Com Files / Terrain / Maps

« on: August 30, 2019, 08:16:32 pm »

Making maps is probably not that easy, but are any more types/variants planned?
There are already quite a few and the variety is nice, but e.g. raiding the 15th Osiron ship i could do it probably blind, since its always exactly the same...
(or i could just try to script it... sadly no API on openXcom yet for user controlled AI  )

Maybe XCF could borrow some from robins apoc mod (if he doesn't mind), he´s so insanely good with the details...
I´ve seen some apoc-y stuff in XCF already... >_>

EDIT: I´ve just seen some certain lairs... awesome