Messages

121

Work In Progress / Re: Needing a few tips for my new Lightning

« on: September 15, 2014, 05:53:46 pm »

Cannons will insure that you will always have a crash site.  If you deal excessive damage during the dogfight there is a chance to destroy the UFO in the air producing no crash site. Other than that craft weapon doesn't affect crash sites.

122

Work In Progress / Re: Help needed: assigning missionZones to AlienMissions types

« on: September 12, 2014, 03:08:56 am »

P7 is also used in infiltration missions, it doesn't heave a landed phase, I'd expect perhaps zone 3 there is what calls it to find a city and fly over it but then I'm not sure why it would show up in P8.  I've asked elsewhere about the terror mission trigger and it's tied to the source code not part of the trajectories.

123

Work In Progress / Re: Help needed: assigning missionZones to AlienMissions types

« on: September 11, 2014, 09:06:01 pm »

Okay, I wouldn't want predictable flight paths either, but I'd like to know what I'm referencing if I write a new trajectory plan.  Just to check that I've got it right here's what I've gathered so far:

zone 5: atmospheric entry/exit points

zone 0 - 4: various points in the continent that simulate the random flight plan.

Trajectory P7 seems to be for buzzing a city and P8 seems to make it try and fly by your base but looking at their entries I couldn't figure out why they do that which is key to trying to mess with them and see what I can make.

124

Released Mods / Re: [WEAPON] Daichi Blade

« on: September 11, 2014, 08:49:49 pm »

Thanks!

I always figured the Stun Rod as kind of a tesla coil on a stick, wave it near the target and it'll zap it.

125

Work In Progress / Re: Modding Info - Tutorials request

« on: September 11, 2014, 08:29:51 pm »

Are any of the mods already current particularly instructive about how to achieve goals numeber 2 amd 3 where I can learn from?

Look at the raceweights in the alienDeployments in regards to controlling late game appearances (the Gazer Aliens MOD may be a good example, they don't show up till July)

Also in the deployment are lists of weapons layouts which correspond to item levels which is how the game determines what weapons are used.(There's an alien item levels mod that may be useful as it focuses on this.)

This is invaluable as a reference: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Ruleset_Reference_%28OpenXcom%29

126

Work In Progress / Re: Help needed: assigning missionZones to AlienMissions types

« on: September 11, 2014, 08:13:20 pm »

Question on a similar topic: UFO trajectories are defined by [zone, altitude, speed]  altitude and speed make sense, but I cant' seem to find what the various zone numbers mean.

127

Work In Progress / Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing

« on: September 11, 2014, 07:50:22 pm »

I have noticed that sometimes a MiB spawns without a weapon. But I don't know why and I don't know how to fix it.

This may have to do with the soldiers being in the rank 6 spot in the race list, most races reserve the last two ranks for terror units so if they happen to use another mission deployment there is a chance to get a bunch of unarmed agents wandering around.  I confirmed this behavior by starting a terror battle with them as the opponent, haven't seen this in general gameplay tho.

128

Work In Progress / Re: Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing

« on: September 11, 2014, 07:35:23 pm »

Forgive me if I'm bringing up an idea that's already been discussed, but I was looking at the MIB mod thinking about how I'd like to integrate it into my rulesets/plot line and was thinking there should be missions where you face both MIB and Aliens. 

Towards this purpose I'm putting together a few mission sets that will feature mixed race groups.  First I wanted to put together a set of "fake" sorties which will feature sporadic UFOs which will look like just another wave in a vanilla mission, but if it's brought down there will be MIB there by the time the skyranger arrives. Once I figure out this map making system I'd like to make expanded landing sites for these UFOs to include the MIB craft that responded to the crash.

Also thinking about alien meeting or ambassador missions, but haven't really worked on that idea yet, and am not sure how exactly I'd handle the possibility of them being shot down...

Here's the version 0.01 ruleset for what I'm thinking anyhow, requires basic MIB mod to run.

129

Released Mods / Re: [WEAPON] Daichi Blade

« on: September 11, 2014, 06:44:20 pm »

Could you share some info about how the melee mechanics are working out?  Or point me where I could figure them out myself?  There was another mod posted that gave the aliens varied melee skill levels, and I was wondering is this another approach at solving the same issue or a different set of concerns altogether?

130

Troubleshooting / Re: Possible bug: Stunned the last alien with a rod but no live alien recovered

« on: September 11, 2014, 04:59:51 am »

have the battlescapes bind the rangers for a while - if the battlescape took 10 turns, bind the ranger for 10 hours on the geoscape after the battlescape maybe.

This would be neat, plus it would add the question of "Do I rush them to get this done quick or do I take the time to be methodical?"  I would say each turn should bind the ranger for a minute would be more true to the TU system.  Tho at only a minute it would mostly have an effect on gameplay late in the game when you've multiple UFOs flying around at once.

reflect this with ambient light :-)

Both of these would require a significant change to the engine, so I suppose while asking for one might as well request the other.

131

Programming / Re: Scripted event missions

« on: September 10, 2014, 02:33:24 am »

To this end, is there/could there be a string which initiates a terror site/alien base/base attack scenario if you wanted to make a variant mission set?

132

Tools / Re: How do I fully edit research project dependencies?

« on: September 08, 2014, 11:18:45 pm »

"unlocks:" will make the target topic available, bypasses "dependencies:"
"requires:" will block "unlocks:" until everything in this field is researched
"dependencies:" will keep it unavailable until all dependencies are fulfilled, or it is unlocked(dependencies will not block the "unlocks:" command.)
"getOneFree:" pick something from the listed option and gives it to you as a completed research item w/o regard for any of it's requirements.

So research becomes available once all of it's dependencies are fulfilled, or it is referenced by an unlocks: line(which only works if all requires: have already been met)

133

Troubleshooting / Re: Why did only one of these soldiers take a reaction shot?

« on: September 08, 2014, 10:18:19 pm »

I don't recall ever having more then one alien fire at me in reaction to me doing one (reactionable) action even though it looks like multiple should be able to fire at me and in some cases do if I survive the first shot and then do another movement.

My rookie who just dodged 6 shots reacting from his first step out onto the ramp bravely wasting xeno TUs so the rest of the squad might be able to survive deployment would beg to differ.  Any unit that can take a shot gets a reaction check at it until they all fail or the offending unit goes down.  Each time they shoot tho they burn some TU so there's a fair chance they won't pass the check for a second shot until you burn some more of your TUs and then trigger another reactionable event.

134

Work In Progress / Re: Weapon Rework/Expansion - Version 0.8

« on: September 08, 2014, 09:33:11 pm »

RSSWizard: IIRC the copyright issue was that we can't just take the art work and make a game that uses them without the original game installed.  That's why having a copy of the original game is a fixed requirement for OXcom, but the sprites and style can be reused whole-sale as long as we stick to that requirement...  not to discourage you from making your own creations, those pics are awesome!

135

Suggestions / Re: [SUGGESTION-UNCUT][#051] Alien spotted in the dark

« on: September 05, 2014, 03:08:17 am »

This mostly seems to happen when there are height differences involved(the alien is standing on a roof top, spotter is on the ground)  I always figured it was that the alien's head was poking up over the edge of the roof and could be seen but the ground it is standing on isn't visible from that angle so isn't lit yet.  Highlighting the alien would work, I wouldn't mess with the ground reveal tho. 

I always use the mini-map, the blue dot is easy enough to find.