Messages

1

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.14

« on: October 07, 2023, 12:37:32 pm »

Where do I get a rune workbench?

Can be found on a ship of stronger Invaders.

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OpenXcom Extended / Re: OXCE (OpenXcom Extended) main thread

« on: August 24, 2023, 02:02:56 pm »

How do mods like XPiratez and 40k get their unique monthly reports and loss message (STR_YOU_HAVE_FAILED)?

3

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.6

« on: August 22, 2022, 05:39:12 pm »

- All good things are bottlenecked by strong artifact. I looked in paedia browser where I can find it, and it looked like some very hard encounters. I never captured a commander, and never once saw a nest. And have problems with legionarries even. Maybe there could be an event or somethin to spawn the thing if you don't find it in some reasonable time? Continuing the story, it is november 2021, I got 120 scientists and decided to stop wasting time on giant rats and research the artifact after all. After paedia disappointment, I looked in mod files, in hope of event which I suggested above, and found that artifact could also be found in high-level bases.

It's a possible reward for a rift mission.

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Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.6

« on: July 27, 2022, 10:23:28 pm »

Good news for anyone who would like the mod to have a better English translation. I have been helping Nord with the translation (ver. 0.99.4 got a bunch of my corrections for the earlygame content) and I have finally finished making A TON of improvements to it. Don't know when a new version of the mod comes out so I decided to just post my work here in the meantime. Criticism (preferably any missed mistakes and unnaturally sounding sentences or words) is welcome but no need to bother with midgame (training mages and learning magic) and beyond yet, since I am still working on that.

Installation: download the attached en-US.yml file, put it into the Language directory of the XCHR mod and replace the old file with it. Enjoy.
List of changes: 1) pretty much all of the earlygame and early-midgame content translation should now be correct and all grammar fixed, the content beyond that point have also received some love but there's still much to be done.
2) fixed a minor bug with the Ufopedia descriptions for short and poison short swords.

5

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.6

« on: June 28, 2022, 09:01:46 pm »

Do you have more maps to include?

I'd take a look at some of those towns with sand and metal fences everywhere, especially the one with a multi-story construction with fences instead of walls in the south-east part of the map and black colored trash dumps around the middle of map.
Monster hunts/rifts: those abandoned zones with red brick buildings might have a bit too many places for monsters to hide while your soldiers sweep the town, especially the one with big buildings on the north-west side of the map.
One mission against spies was a big nice-looking city street with multiple big buildings but all enemies ended up hiding in the one in the northwest corner of the map behind my transport. I didn't end up needing to check all other buildings and I found the enemies pretty quick, but the only way to get to them without trying to make holes in the walls was a door facing the end of the map with two one-tile-wide paths leading to it, one much longer than the other.
Those cool-looking jungle temples might be a bit too large for rift clearing with too many small ruins and impassable vegetation. Also, I was on the first one long enough to activate the enemy search mode because I couldn't see that the big pyramid has tiny doorways to its basement and the last giant was stuck there.

[Spoiler]

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Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.6

« on: June 27, 2022, 06:00:18 pm »

Yes. That would accelerate getting into mid- and end-game. I have already played over two years game time, and am still in early game phase (though I suppose I could have entered mid-game already if I had rushed it). *) It could have gone a bit faster with more research and (to lesser degree) more efficient tech to capture essential and tougher live invaders. But it is of course up to the author how long a campaign he wants to create. In contrast, I loved the pacing of TWoTS, but this mod is obviously intended to run much longer.

*) Other alternatives to accelerate the game could be making the traditional weapons, X-rifles etc. more efficient - to make the missions faster as most enemies would be knocked out with 1-2 hits - and/or reducing the amount of rather useless encounters (animal terror missions, rifts, etc.) that after a couple of instances do not really progress the plot.

This mod is similar to something like Xcom Files so it's got tons of research topics that are just fluff or of minor importance. So you don't have to complete many of them to progress the plot or get cool tech.
Making traditional weapons more effective would raise a question why the countries even bothered with the XCom project in this story. Why learn magic or develop better guns when you can just shoot the guy with a sword? Magic shields have elemental weaknesses so some weapons are better suited to wear them down or can straight up ignore them. As for mission types,

Spoiler:

I like rifts, there are higher numbers of enemies but also good rewards if the mission is complete and they give only a small reputation hit so you can ignore them if you don't want to play them.
Animal hunts are more demanding but shorter and also can be ignored.
Cemeteries are short and rare.
Spirit hunts and mad psions are almost like free exp and rep, they are super short. Very rare.
I think one aspect that could be improved would be the maps. I am not a fan of that railway station with a long 2-3 story building across it, for example.

[Spoiler]

7

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.6

« on: June 26, 2022, 05:00:35 pm »

I think there still should be some time limits after which the stronger enemies would start coming, otherwise it's awfully nice of them to just wait for X-Com to get strong enough to deal with them. But they should be higher than the ones in the previous version.

Hmm? I wonder if these are phased properly. You are able to get X-contract likely much earlier than getting psions. It seems you get on the path leading to psionic powers through researching fire mage, rune mage, etc. I have postponed researching them to delay legionaires and more difficult enemies appearing.

But for what it's worth, X sniper rifles are at least very usable with humans. Others I haven't used that much (though rifle could be useful with spare clips).

BTW, I think the first alien base (hive) appeared in October 2021 or so. I don't think there's much chance of dealing with it yet, so I have had to leave it be and grow. Also, there have been some other enemies that seem to be non-defeatible for now (for example the UFOs with stalkers and the other beasts, the other ice thingies behind ice rift).

Spoiler:

If you have built a psi-lab and have a surplus of weak artifacts, you should start researching wizards and rune mages asap if you want to progress, you are super close to getting soldiers with a higher potential and the ability to use magic. Don't know where the red line for the appearance of the temple factions is, but I figure it's higher than just learning what you can from those two. Don't go deep into the runes tree though, to be safe.

What would more money achieve? Let the player hire more scientists?

[Spoiler]

8

Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.5

« on: May 08, 2022, 02:25:55 pm »

I had to skip those spirits, because there was no weapon accessible able to harm them. Now I'm in month 14, have set up a couple of bases - for the lack of anything else to do with the sponsor money - and just had the first landed UFO. ...

Spirits

Spoiler:

can also be hurt by explosives. If you went with the US, normal, OICW M2 AR, and M202 grenades should have all killed it with a direct hit. Damage-type grenades for MILKOR MGL do kinetic damage instead of explosive but that's a bug, I figure.

Yeah, this mod expects you to capture at least some of the enemies for interrogation to make progress, that's why you've found your first UFO so relatively late. Enemy bodies are also useful but I think explosives have a high chance of destroying them. To capture them more reliably you can also use melee.
Melee-range dodging is the same as in Files/Piratez and etc. The idea is that the enemy has a reach to try to interrupt your agent's attacks by grabbing his arms, pushing the gun away or something similar. Your agents can do the same. Give some of your agents sticks and police batons and send them in melee more. It's a melee-heavy mod.

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Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.5

« on: May 01, 2022, 07:55:35 pm »

Balance

I haven't gotten that far myself, but as I understand it, you are trying to take on midgame & lategame enemies with early game/early midgame tech (you get X-rifles in the latter part of the first year) and regular operatives. That's not a balance issue, but the issue of either the RNG/bugs screwing you over or you missing something about the mod mechanics.

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Released Mods / Re: X-Chronicles Release, v.0.99.4

« on: March 21, 2022, 04:28:47 pm »

I certainly don't regret learning about this mod's existence. It's so much fun.