Messages

31

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: July 22, 2018, 02:16:41 pm »

Fixed in 099J4 release.

Ah, thanks, since I just downloaded a few days ago I hadn't thought there was a new update already.
I'll install it right away - thanks again.

32

XPiratez / Re: A thread for little questions

« on: July 22, 2018, 02:15:54 pm »

How are you supposed to deal with heavily armored enemies?

I guess I'm still in the somewhat early game (just researched back to school a couple of months ago) and my main base got invaded by a force lead by a guild master. I fired away at him for turns at an end (eventually I resorted to savescumming to see if it was at all possible to defeat him) but zero f*cks were given by him. I tried the laser shotgun thing, the hydra laser, what AP specialized weapons I have such as the CAWS, I tried hurling explosives that leveled the room he was in, I tried firing anti tank rockets at him ... without him being impressed in the slightest fashion.
In the end, I looked in the savefile and saw he has in excess of a hundred armor, and despite also trying supposedly armor damaging stuff such as acid and stuff at him, it didn't seem to budge from it's maximum value.
This must've been rebalanced since I last played the game, since I cannot recall having such huge issues with them guys ... how am I supposed to save my base?

33

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: July 21, 2018, 06:36:19 pm »

Hmm. Forum search didn't return anything, so here goes: Game crashing randomly with the message: "Research STR_MYTH_001 not found". Anything I can do to get past this?

(I think I was researching one of the LokNar Scriptures at the time, but ... well, the game crashed and I hadn't saved for some minutes, so I cannot be sure)

34

XPiratez / Re: Any way to make your gals emit light on night missions?

« on: July 14, 2018, 09:31:58 am »

So, almost two years after the fact I decided to give the mod another whirl. The first battlescape that greets me:


Why oh why? 

Edit: Ahhhhhh, scroll lock. This should be default, but still, now I can play the mod after all. Thanks once again to Meridian. 

35

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: September 19, 2016, 07:05:00 pm »

I get a crash when finishing one of the pink ship missions by either killing or stunning the pilot.

Code: [Select]

[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] A fatal error has occurred: code 0xc0000005
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] SymFromAddr failed: 487
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] SymFromAddr failed: 487
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] SymFromAddr failed: 487
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] SymFromAddr failed: 487
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] SymFromAddr failed: 487
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] SymFromAddr failed: 487
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] StackWalk64 failed: 299
[19-09-2016 18:00:50] [FATAL] Crash dump generated at G:\OpenXcom_XPiratez\user\19-09-2016_18-00-50.dmp
[19-09-2016 18:00:55] [FATAL] OpenXcom has crashed: code 0xc0000005

36

XPiratez / Re: So ... I ran out of stuff to research. What now?

« on: September 04, 2016, 12:27:53 am »

OK. It's really easy to deride my work, so feel free to do it some more But there's nothing more I have to say. Have a good day.

Fair enough. Thanks for bothering to tune in in the first place, and have a good time yourself. 

Also, at this point, you're in a research dead end that wasn't foreseen or planned for. Quit bitching and fix it (add a live megascorpion to your alien containment and consider that it was a bug that got you where you are). Your game is pretty much broken otherwise as the odds of getting the ghoul you need are rrally small.

Lol, I even scanned through the savegame with Notepad++ to see what tech I was missing, why didn't it occur to me to simply edit it, being in plain text and all.
Too used to savegames being hexadecimal without the ability to just insert and remove stuff at my leisure. Since you gave me this suggestion, I'll assume there's no anti-cheating mechanic in place (like a checksum or something) - so thanks for pointing out the obvious, I'll do just that.

Keeping the game going as is and complaining about it repeatedly is pointless (and annoying). Your point has been made way back when Dioxine realized it was possible for players to miss animal poison the way you did. I'm fairly certain there will be alternative ways in a future release to account for that and if not, it's because Dioxine decided not to add them while being aware of your position, so it is unlikely to change from more complaining.

I may have something more to say, but as for this particular topic, I'll concede you are probably spot-on. You just should've prodded me into cheating earlier. 
I'll let the thread rest now, thanks for your assistance too.

37

XPiratez / Re: Any way to make your gals emit light on night missions?

« on: September 03, 2016, 10:44:39 am »

I saw it in your thread Meridian, thanks.
Great stuff.

38

XPiratez / Re: So ... I ran out of stuff to research. What now?

« on: September 03, 2016, 10:41:12 am »

No, I'm still pre school graduation.

As I elaborated before, I managed to miss "Animal Poison", so the only way to get the entire research branch neccessary to get School Graduation (via Poisons & Acids I think it's called) is interrogating a live ghoul. And these are incredibly rare.

Btw., I wonder why Megascorpion Hunts stop appearing, but you still get the worthless Warehouse Wars, Temple Raids and Ratmen Rodeo - not to mention the INCREDIBLY time consuming with almost nothing to show for it Mansion Invasions.

39

XPiratez / Re: Any way to make your gals emit light on night missions?

« on: September 03, 2016, 10:35:00 am »

Once again, could anyone elaborate how to get this into your game?
I'd presume it ends up in the binary - anybody compiled a windows binary he could share?
Or do I have to wait for Merdiian to release his take on things?
Thanks!

Edit: I see Meridian is lightning fast and has already released his version. Kewl. Now I only need to parse whether I want all the other changes from his branch... 

40

XPiratez / Re: So ... I ran out of stuff to research. What now?

« on: September 02, 2016, 06:26:31 pm »

No, that's not what I meant. Yes you will probably research everything IN THE END, but in the meantime, the to-do list would become absurdly long. In the previous statement I merely wrote that research time is absolutely irrelevant tideness-wise, it only makes the game longer.

Ah, ok then, my bad. I will say that I had an absurdly long research list anyhow in the current model and that, again, it'd depend on the implementation, but you made your point.

Basically what you want from me is to completely abandon my model of tech tree and replace it with yours. I really don't care about intuitiveness of research tree, because my goal is exactly opposite. Items with weirdest sets of topics aren't usually mandatory, or only unlock some advanced features. The research tree is supposed to be puzzle; your improvements would completely overturn it.

"My tech tree" is just ideas, and iseas are cheap. Sorry to say, but "your tech tree" (the one currently in the game) doesn't appear to have any idea behind it and looks as if randomly generated.
I asked question about the feasibility of some requirements earlier and they remained unanswered. However., when you say this...

That being said, I'm not saying my model is better. It might well be worse. My goal is to do it differently than the well-treaded and well-explored paths you propose. Do you think it's a failed experiment? Well, it's your right.

... the argument of course ends immediately. After all, what can you say if somebody argues: "But ... but ... but ... I WANT things to be a disjointed incoherent mess!"? 
However, as I also wrote earlier, your mod, your call. In the end, I presume you wouldn't write me (or anyone else) a C&D letter if I tried to make a mod with a different tech progression.

Does it harm replayability? Depends on the player. Such a puzzle tech tree actually makes the Only True Way of research quite impossible, which does add to replayability.

You wrote earlier that, to finish the game, you'll have to research EVERYTHING that can even in the vaguest kind be considered basic. If not even things like Chateau De La Mort are skippable, I'm inclined to take your word for it. Which also means, once I have finished the mod, I have seen everything it has to offer on that front.

Sure, tech cockblocks are annoying, but on the other hand, 'this shit is useless' moments aren't as prevalent, since it is hard to early research something that is still great far into mid- or even endgame.

I can assure you I had many, many 'this shit is useless' moments while playing PirateZ. At least 80% of the weapons and guns aren't worth researching/having/using/buying/whatever.
Some of those are worth a chuckle or trying them out just for fun, or might be worth using in exotic situations that might never present themselves, but many are not even that.
I do like the variety and having tons of stuff to research, but ... as I wrote, it's a disjointed mess, which can be frustrating at times.

As for your gripe of being hated by the RNG gods. From a certain point of view, it's a blessing in disguise; forces you to explore different techs you'd never have researched.

I'm actually one of the kind of players who will research anything they can anyhow, given the chance. I had trouble with live captures, but other than that, I even often delayed projects that looked important to finish up some nooks and crannies. But then - it's the topic of this thread - I ran out of stuff to research. There's no things I could pursue.
Recently, the Humanists have started to make an appearance and there was a little bit of new research, but nothing of note.
I'm hated by the RNG gods because the only thing that could bring progress to my game was a pogrom with a Ghoul. And I haven't had a pogrome in 2 months, they have become RARE.
And if they occur, more often than not it's the Star Gods. It's cool, I have some of them in my prison, yay. But I can't progress in the game because I don't have a Ghoul.
I have enough money in the bank to buy a Church Cardinal, but I have a bunch of those in my prison, too. All I'd need is a Ghoul. MY KINGDOM FOR A GHOUL!

41

XPiratez / Re: Any way to make your gals emit light on night missions?

« on: September 02, 2016, 05:02:26 pm »

This is AMAZING work Stoddard. 

Now, how do I get it into my version of the game? Do I have to compile it myself?

42

XPiratez / Re: So ... I ran out of stuff to research. What now?

« on: September 02, 2016, 04:50:50 pm »

Expensive tech would only force player to tons and tons of missions before ANYTHING gets unlocked. Still he would research everything, since there are no time limits.

It all depends on implementation. As it is now, there's already a TON of often very weird sets of requirements, and the why and when is FAR from intuitive.
For example, already in the dead phase of the game I still find myself stuck in, one of the things I researched was the Rail Driver. I had one lying around in my stores for years, but because the intereconnected techweb wills it, my gals were unable to take it apart to tell what it was, how to use it, how to build ammo for it etc.
If the MAIN techs (A, B and C from my example) were easily accessible with requirements you almost cannot miss, but advanced techs would require a live captured high-ranked enemy, this alone would naturally push you into one path or the other depending on which enemies the RNG spits out in your game.
Have a lot of academy presence? Chances are you'll concentrate on energy weapons, as the best techs require academy provosts.
Many mercenaries? Heavy Guns will be your thing. And so on and so forth, every "faction" would provide access towards perfectioning research in a range of weaponry. But none of this perfercionist research would be mandatory.
In a game with balanced enemy presence, you might find yourself approaching the endgame without having explored either branch in-depth.
Thoroughness would bring it's rewards - many fancy toys to play around with - but none of it would be strictly neccessary, so if the chance to capture high ranking individuals never presents itself - no biggie, none of that stuff is strictly neccessary, not having any of it won't stop your game in it's tracks.
If you still want to linger around obsessively capturing every piece of tech, sure, just don't research the gateway tech and wait for the RNG to bring in another faction.

Does this really sound so bad?

Making lots of tech unmandatory would lead to geometrically-expanding list of unresearched (and never-to-be-researched) topics.

You're contradicting yourself. First you write: If techs were made expensive, players would STILL research everything no matter how long it takes. Because if players are able to, they'll research EVERYTHING.
But then you write: If not everything is strictly mandatory, players will leave stuff unresearched anyway. Because if players are able to, they'll skip EVERYTHING.
Now what?
I think you're right on both accounts, but for different kinds of players.

The mod as it is now FORCES all players to research most everything in each and every game.
And screw those whom the RNG gods don't bless and who find themselves unable to research some of the exotic thingies. (i.e., me in this game).

Sure multiple paths will be nice, they're planned, but fuck son, do you think it's that easy? I'm alone on this job

Did anybody write anything that was proposed has to be finished next week?
If none of it ever makes it into PirateZ, so be it - we're merely having a discussion of things that MAY be worth looking into.
And you're the one making the calls.

I get that most games of this kind have the kind of tech tree you're proposing, rezaf, but this is IMO one more reason to do it in a different way (more akin to civ games).

Yah, I realize that. I can only repeat myself, though - I think PirateZ has far too much content in it to force players into researching EVERY LAST BIT OF IT in each and every game.
It also harms replayability, imo.

43

XPiratez / Re: Any way to make your gals emit light on night missions?

« on: September 01, 2016, 09:35:10 pm »

rezaf, I wonder if you're having an actual graphic problem.
You can hit F12 to create a screenshot.
If the screenshot (when viewed in an image browser) looks brighter than the game screen...

Nah, no such luck. See for yourself.

44

XPiratez / Re: So ... I ran out of stuff to research. What now?

« on: September 01, 2016, 09:26:50 pm »

Dude, would you kindly stop  trying to twist my words around? 

In the context I used it "don't have access to higher tier stuff" merely means you'll only have (realistically) the time do do either A++ or B++ or C++ or ABC (without the pluses), with both A, B, C and the pluses representing costly research projects. Powergamers will inevitably find ways around this, but who cares? Like you, I wouldn't really like excessive gating.
Some mutually exclusive branching would be nice (in the sense of something like siding with one of the factions, for example), but other than that, cost should be the only delimiter.

Also, as of now, tech isn't really expensive.
I'm on my first run with the mod and by no means an expert X-Com player. I only have 16 Brainers. Still, I've not run into an really excessively expensive tech so far. And, with few exceptions far and in between, I haven't researched anything of note in at least half a year now.

45

XPiratez / Re: So ... I ran out of stuff to research. What now?

« on: September 01, 2016, 07:28:51 pm »

Easy Arthanor. 

First of all, I don't think there'll be any changes like this anyway, as I have a feeling Dioxine sees things you way. And that's fine with me.

That said, I wasn't saying: Prevent players from researching x, my idea was just to make research more expensive in a way that forced to specialize (or become a jack of all trades that can use everything, but doesn't have access to the higher tier stuff).

The idea of me advocating keeping players from researching something is a little silly in the context of what this thread is about - an overconvoluted techweb that has many unneccessary and illogical cross-connections currently preventing me from progressing.