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Released Mods / Re: [MAPS] (UPDATE v1.4) Hobbes Terrain Mods for OpenXCom
« on: June 16, 2014, 03:05:25 am »
Hello everyone, I'm the Hobbes that designed these maps. 
It was a real nice surprise to see Dawn City included on OpenXcom's video presentation since Luke83 asked me to include my mods on his site a while ago and I had completely forgotten about it until I saw the video. I never actually bothered to create rulesets or use OpenXcom since my interest on the original X-Com has gone to a minimum since the remake came out.
It was even better coming to the forums and finding this post. Thanks a lot to civilian for converting the whole thing to OpenXcom. Seeing all those old terrains (in an easy way to use them other having to copy/paste the entire files!) was really nice
There were several questions asked about the terrains. I'll try my best to answer them.
No, the current file on my site does not have the unrotated versions due to copyright issues. I'd like to have both the unrotated versions and Mad City's versions so I'll look into this but from what I'm understanding from the ruleset files it should be easy.
Generally, no. UFO2000 did not require RMP maps for the AI to use and they also didn't had the limitations regarding the number of map blocks. I did convert a few (Dawn City, Native and Mad City) to be usable for the original game and those can be easily converted and used, and even expanded in some cases since the limit on map blocks seems to be gone on OXC so more maps can be added to both those terrains (but they still require the RMP files, which require some work).
Just the UFO2000 version of Dawn City had over 100 different map blocks, including a 9 level hotel, although many were simply repeats with a few features changed, so that the roads would fit (the UFO2000 version could have several roads being generated, including no exit roads). Adding a few of those to the current version of Dawn City is certainly possible.
As for the rest, I'd love to see Polis, Siberia and Mod Farm, but those will require quite some work since they were never converted to use for the original. The other maps might be possible (Railyard, Slums) but they mix UFO and TFTD terrains which can be a pain.
Area51 was another huge project - around 90 maps on the UFO2000 version, had to be squashed to 18 for the original game. At one point it included an HWP factory building that was 40x40 but that I had to separate that into a different mod. I'd love to get back to it and fix its issues (graphics, etc.) but that is really in the back burner, plus any changes I made to the terrain files will be reflected on your maps, so I'll keep out of it. If you encounter any problems with the terrain files let me know.
Just tried Dawn and I had 0 crashes while walking on the roofs. I checked the MCD files and that's not the problem. I don't know if Luke83 changed anything on the Dawn City MCDs while using them for his own terrain though.
With Port terrain it would help to know the exact tile that causes the crash.
There's a converter that converts the palette on a TFTD terrain to UFO and vice-versa made by Bomb Bloke and available at StrategyCore, IIRC. I never tried it though since i used PCKView to redo the UFO PCK views and directly loading the TFTD separate BMP files into them while I was doing converting the Port terrain.
It was a real nice surprise to see Dawn City included on OpenXcom's video presentation since Luke83 asked me to include my mods on his site a while ago and I had completely forgotten about it until I saw the video. I never actually bothered to create rulesets or use OpenXcom since my interest on the original X-Com has gone to a minimum since the remake came out.
It was even better coming to the forums and finding this post. Thanks a lot to civilian for converting the whole thing to OpenXcom. Seeing all those old terrains (in an easy way to use them other having to copy/paste the entire files!) was really nice
There were several questions asked about the terrains. I'll try my best to answer them.
Does the Mad City also contain the unrotated versions as possible blocks? That would be pretty good for variety, I think
No, the current file on my site does not have the unrotated versions due to copyright issues. I'd like to have both the unrotated versions and Mad City's versions so I'll look into this but from what I'm understanding from the ruleset files it should be easy.
may I use UFO2000 maps with OXP ?
Generally, no. UFO2000 did not require RMP maps for the AI to use and they also didn't had the limitations regarding the number of map blocks. I did convert a few (Dawn City, Native and Mad City) to be usable for the original game and those can be easily converted and used, and even expanded in some cases since the limit on map blocks seems to be gone on OXC so more maps can be added to both those terrains (but they still require the RMP files, which require some work).
Just the UFO2000 version of Dawn City had over 100 different map blocks, including a 9 level hotel, although many were simply repeats with a few features changed, so that the roads would fit (the UFO2000 version could have several roads being generated, including no exit roads). Adding a few of those to the current version of Dawn City is certainly possible.
As for the rest, I'd love to see Polis, Siberia and Mod Farm, but those will require quite some work since they were never converted to use for the original. The other maps might be possible (Railyard, Slums) but they mix UFO and TFTD terrains which can be a pain.
Are the Area51 tilesets ok? I just finished 2 big maps using them and if I have to scrap everything I'm going to kill myself.
Area51 was another huge project - around 90 maps on the UFO2000 version, had to be squashed to 18 for the original game. At one point it included an HWP factory building that was 40x40 but that I had to separate that into a different mod. I'd love to get back to it and fix its issues (graphics, etc.) but that is really in the back burner, plus any changes I made to the terrain files will be reflected on your maps, so I'll keep out of it. If you encounter any problems with the terrain files let me know.
The problem with the Dawn City terrain is that if you step in the roofs of the smaller row houses the game grashes. maybe because of a missing sound entry in the MCDs?
Just tried Dawn and I had 0 crashes while walking on the roofs. I checked the MCD files and that's not the problem. I don't know if Luke83 changed anything on the Dawn City MCDs while using them for his own terrain though.
With Port terrain it would help to know the exact tile that causes the crash.
I added to Tileset:UFO - Terrain a TFTD mission and MapView shows these maps , with the wrong palette, I Known, sigh.
What do you think about convert some TFTD file .PCK by a new version of PCKView with some new function
that search in the UFO palette the color "nearest" than in TFTD surface palette?
There's a converter that converts the palette on a TFTD terrain to UFO and vice-versa made by Bomb Bloke and available at StrategyCore, IIRC. I never tried it though since i used PCKView to redo the UFO PCK views and directly loading the TFTD separate BMP files into them while I was doing converting the Port terrain.
Great addition to OXC!! Took me awhile to learn the map, especially staying away from the factory buildings, because aliens always spawned on the second floor waiting to snipe you.