Messages

46

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 0.5.5 alpha: I'll Dissect You!

« on: February 06, 2017, 06:04:43 pm »

Relevant xkcd comic :

47

Suggestions / Re: [Suggestion] Vanilla - Extra Hard

« on: February 03, 2017, 07:04:56 pm »

Loading a game from before the battle is generated (ie.before landing) is considerably less cheaty, because on reloading you will not know things like "there were no aliens in this building, I can ignore it".

48

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 0.5.5 alpha: I'll Dissect You!

« on: February 03, 2017, 06:45:50 pm »

About the building, I think you should open the walls which separate the upper floor from the entrance (glass panels or just waist-high barriers). Gives a nice advantage to whoever is defending.

49

Suggestions / Re: Repetitive missions

« on: February 03, 2017, 04:11:25 pm »

Also, consider that you don't HAVE to play each and every mission. If you reach a point where money is not holding you back, you can simply let UFOs fly (especially smaller ones), or crash them to stop them getting any points, but don't bother assault.
For the endgame stuff, you need specific alien ranks which can only happen on largest ships of some races, so there's little reason to bother with smaller ships and mutons / snakemen.

50

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: February 02, 2017, 10:04:29 pm »

For the record, XCOMUtil had an experimental mod where interrogated aliens gave a flat boost to one of the topics you were researching. ie: if you had a stun launcher project in progress, interrogation of a medic made it advance by 20% or something. The basic numbers were 500% however, so researching a plasma weapon without "help" from captured soldiers would take many months.
I'm not sure it was fully balanced, but I found it pretty intuitive, and it managed to avoid frustration.

51

Suggestions / Re: [Suggestion] Vanilla - Extra Hard

« on: February 02, 2017, 09:56:17 pm »

Oh and I would allow restarting any battle from the beginning if you don't like whats happening.

Sorry but this kinda defeats any changes to 'make the game more challenging'.
If you want to learn playing a difficult UFO game, start by trying to play with no reload. You then learn to use non-ideal units, balance risk / reward, and even the later game is still challenging because you don't have your max-level units.

52

Work In Progress / Re: some implements that are or aren´t !

« on: February 02, 2017, 05:57:18 pm »

1. As ohartenstein23 said, or manufacturing it requires a piece of material that is only given on starting base (can be 5 pieces). In either case, this item should serve as 'corpse' of the wearer of this armor. Be sure to make it non-destroyable, so it's safe from explosions. The player can still lose one if he aborts a mission and the killed armor-wearer is not brought back in escape zone.

53

Work In Progress / Re: Shadoworlds Sprites - Another potential source

« on: February 02, 2017, 03:45:49 pm »

I disagree with that : "If you are really interested", invest a few hours and do the work.
The game is Atari/Amiga/DOS, so I suspect it was a 16-bit game ported to VGA afterwards. I don't know much about Atari, but Amiga means bitplane-based graphics, which are often easy to recognize and rip from the memory dumps.
You may need to create the palette, but from looking at a single screenshot it's quite easy, and in this case we're talking very few colors, 8 max.

Sidequests, can you precise which graphics you think would be nice ? I didn't find many videos, and only saw the player characters' sprites, a similar android, and a 'jackal-head man'.

54

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: February 02, 2017, 03:26:18 pm »

I've caught one, by literally using a med kit to heal it after a stun, but thats a PRETTY extreme length to go for a capture.

I can understand you were surprised, but it's expected from the player... Though creatures vulnerable to fatal wounds will more regularly "faint" even from non-stun damage, and can thus be captured if you finish the mission or heal them before they bleed to death. It's very random, so don't rely on it for precious individuals (commanders), but it regularly provides a prisoner or two.
It's a very frequent "tactic" in mods like XCOM Files or Piratez.

I share your critic about the difficulty of identifying alien (ranks). It's easier in vanilla thanks to an easily researchable item, and I don't think it's a good gameplay element to have postponed it behind a research that the player can't really control.

55

Suggestions / Re: [Suggestion] Vanilla - Extra Hard

« on: February 01, 2017, 08:38:25 pm »

Ah sorry about that, I searched the origin in the forum, and the earliest reference I could found with this name was from Reaper's mod.
The correction is also useful because it may be easier to see the weapon in a near-vanilla context in a mod like Alien Armory Expanded.

56

Suggestions / Re: [Suggestion] Vanilla - Extra Hard

« on: February 01, 2017, 06:41:19 pm »

Have you tried or checked the features of Reaper's Hardmod ? It seems he got a similar goal of making XCOM more army-like. It's (I think) the mod which introduced the plasma caster in aliens' arsenal, a shotgun-like scattering weapon. It's more tactically interesting than the usual plasma, because
- you have to consider enemy's distance (closer = more dangerous)
- it tends to cause more wounds, rather than just miss or one-hit-kills.

57

The X-Com Files / Re: Dossiers wanted!

« on: January 25, 2017, 01:16:37 pm »

Name: Ludmilla Trka

Role: Contactee

Details: Verified abduction survivor with multiple strange implants removed over the course of last seven years. She claims to feel the presence of invaders enslaving others at the start of the second millennium.

Status: Hired.

Don't have a picture in mind.... yet.

OK, I'll try to fit her somehow. But who is her employer? Certainly not X-Com, or we wouldn't have to raid cultist houses to find out about her.

I think a lot of those 'concerned third parties' are independant and rightfully paranoiac (See the trio of 'Lone gunmen' in X-Files). XCOM arresting their enemies earns their trust, so it could be one of :
Status: Occasional informant
Status: Cooperating
Status: Rescued

I had a related idea to introduce a police officer : The capture of a faction member could reveal he is wanted as a witness by a Los Angeles inspector, Hartigan. He is indebted to us for handing the guy to him, and his influence will make XCOM's job easier in his area. Thanks to this witness, he will hopefully get on the track of this invisible killer, who seems to be hunting down gang members for sport...
(Danny Glover's character from Predator 2)

58

The X-Com Files / Supernatural dossiers

« on: January 21, 2017, 04:30:15 am »

I spent a while thinking of supernatural/horrific events which could be linked to the various factions' wrongdoings, and found more than I thought.
This can be helpful to get ideas for dossiers of specific, fictive people linked to these phenomenons :
* as perpetrators
* as subjects
* as investigators, as an isolate case (wrong place, wrong time) or sworn enemy
So far I've found:

Medical/Scientific:
- experiments on human mind power
- mind control (by subliminal messages, hypnosis...)
- surgical implants
- eugenics (ex: Crimson Rivers)
- (strange creatures already have their own missions)
- research on teleportation (and its critical failures: The fly, Doom)
- horror surgery (don't overdo it...)
Mystical:
- factions showing interest in ancient books, alchemy, magical objects, places (Stonehenge, Easter island)
- photographed souls, ghosts
- portents, predictions (Weirdos getting ready to survive an alien invasion, lol)
- curses, people suffering from unknown diseases, spontaneous combustion
- reports of witchcraft or satanism
- possession and mystical trances
- nature acting unnaturally (bees mass movements, Hitchcock's The birds)
- creepy people (ex: children of Village of the Damned, It)
Ufology:
- unidentified objects in the sky
- alien abduction
- archeological evidences, ancient aliens
- suspiciously high-tech stuff that we can't use or understand, it's always unnerving (ex: Demolition man's "three shells" )
- alien infiltrators, dopplegängers

59

The X-Com Files / Re: Dossiers wanted!

« on: January 21, 2017, 03:32:43 am »

It was the most direct inspiration for the Cult of Dagon faction in the first place. I recommend that movie, even to people who don't like horror much.

Cool, I did find the film memorable and surprisingly poetic, something like John Carpenter meets Tim Burton (or Edgar Poe).
But it's *very* graphic at times, not for the weak stomachs.

What about a discreet inside jokes, in one of the early Dagon topics ?
"We don't know what's really taking place there, but it's definitely fishy."

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The X-Com Files / Re: Dossiers wanted!

« on: January 20, 2017, 06:10:23 pm »

I don't know if you want direct references or more vague ones that leave a little to the reader's imagination, but dossiers could reveal the part of a faction in a criminal / paranormal event, or link to a special place.
For example :

Murders in Imboca
Image: one of
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-27zAKIVFTyQ/T77n0Oy2XZI/AAAAAAAAHtM/FqB6Xef_yCU/s1600/Dagon_GROUP3.jpg
https://nekonekomovielitterbox.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/dagon3.jpg?w=1000&h=
https://nekonekomovielitterbox.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/dagon9.jpg?w=427&h=239
https://nekonekomovielitterbox.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/dagon-2001-american-lovecraftian-aquatic-horror/#jp-carousel-25184

"X-Com have found evidence that the cult of Dagon is responsible for the murder of tourists in Imboca, Spain. The four friends sailed their boat into the remote fisher town, and vanished without a trace. The place is linked to older rumors of ritualistic murder, but the town's inhabitants are a close-knit community which doesn't cooperate with authorities. We suspect it may be under total control by the cult of Dagon.
Case status : Closed"
^ This is reference to the spanish movie "Dagon"