Messages

481

Work In Progress / Re: [RESEARCH/PROGRESSION] Lasers from Heavy to Pistol

« on: July 26, 2014, 05:45:56 am »

Quite simple reorganisation of research progression of laser weapons. You start with heavy laser and move towards the pistol. It may seem a little odd, but there are reasons why it can work. First reason is that the problem with technology is miniaturisation, so it should be harder to make pistol than tank mounted cannon. Second reason is that Heavy Laser is not that useful and often is ommited by player in favor for plasma weapons. This mod makes it more viable because you can get it much earlier. But since its heavy and slow weapon, it isn't viable as common squad weapon, so it should be quite ballanced.
Also Laser Tank have to be researched now. To counterweight research time needed for this topic you can access the tank sooner than before.

Generaly this slows down the research a little and makes the Heavy laser little more interesting weapon without actually changing it.

I made a Ufopedia entry for Laser weapons topic where I wrote some fluff that explains the progression, I will add some image later. Also I modified entries for Laser weapons to reflect the changes in progression.

There are 3 versions with some diferences:
CannonFirst - Starts with craft Weapon than Heavy and Tank than Rifle than Pistol. (There can be disballance because of the Laser defences that still rely on Laser Canon)
HeavyFirst - Starts with Heavy Laser than Rifle and Tank than Pistol than as Cannon.
TankFirst - Starts with Laser Tank than Heavy than Rifle than Pistol than Cannon.

I didn't thoroughly tested all three versions. Currently I am playing with Cannon First that delays deployment of Rifles the most and so far it seems quite fair. But I am open to all suggestions and feedback.

Also there is one bug - when Laser Tank topic unlocks, it doesnt appear in the "We can now research" window - It may have to do something with the lenght of the string or the "/" in it. I will investigate later.

Brilliant. I was about to go down the same path with my mod, that heavy chemical lasers have to be done first, although there was going to be an oblique reference back to 'The Bureau'.

482

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod Discussion.

« on: July 25, 2014, 01:28:57 am »

Okay, will download that mod and check the overlap between it and my mod.

483

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod Discussion.

« on: July 25, 2014, 01:15:15 am »

That sounds like a good plan. Described like that, all the steps look quite interesting.

I am just about to get to work on a XCom version of the Alien Armoury Expanded (freshly posted it), to expand the craft selection of XCom, and provide conventional and laser equivalent to the new weapons in the Alien Armoury.

It looks like what you propose to do could cover the need for conventional and laser weapons. How do you think your "level 2" pack would interact with the Alien Armoury Expanded? I guess one could just disable the AAE weapons pack and only keep the UFOs, but that would also take away the work done to keep different weapons "active"..

 I haven't even looked at that mod yet, so...

484

Released Mods / Re: [Weapon][Armor]Equal Terms Mod v1.0 for OpenXcom

« on: July 24, 2014, 08:13:59 pm »

This seems to be backed by a lot of reasearch and fine tuning, I'm hoping to try it out as soon as possible.

Triple Kudos!

Cheers. Let me know what you think.  There's going to be a small updates as I find small bugs, but I'm already in planning for a modularized 2.0.

485

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod Discussion.

« on: July 24, 2014, 08:11:46 pm »

Yours is a very interesting mod. The starting weapons of the vanilla game are so disappointing, it is nice to see someone working on improving them. Great work!

I had a look at your plans for version 2.0 and it looks very promising but.. Isn't that too much for a single mod? I can list:

- Alloy Ammo (Already done, but would need to be redone for your mod)
- New alloy armor
- Explosive tweaks
- Laser weapons tweaks
- Plasma weapons tweaks
- Alloy interceptor

Those are 6 different and unrelated topics, except maybe in the overall game balance that you achieve through using all of them. Maybe it would be better to keep Equal Terms as the "starting human weapons" mod, and work on further individual mods that are intended to be used together?

I find reading large rules files for ambitious mods to be difficult. More importantly, it also makes it particularly difficult to use the "compilation" mod with other mods, whereas one could much more easily pick and chose some of yours and others' mods to create the experience they want.

Kind of like how it is better to build many small functions and larger functions that calls upon them, within a larger program. If you build many small mods, you can make a larger mod that is based on the small one while still allowing someone to build something different based on your work.

And it is much easier to share work on multiple mods between multiple contributors than trying to coordinate everything within a single mod

Well, the ideas are supposed to be balanced together, but it does make it harder to extract bits you like.  Maybe I'll break down the 2.0 version to four different add ons under the same theme:

1) Equal Terms - Wolfram Solution: Level 0 - 0.5 gear (Base weapons and armor and improvised alloy gear)
2) Equal Terms - Coherency: Level 1 gear (laser - full run from pistol, mag to sniper and alloy manufactured gear)
3) Equal Terms - Fourth State: Level 2 gear (plasma - full run, power armor)
4) Equal Terms - Retaliation: Alien-only Particle weaponry and elite units

486

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod Discussion.

« on: July 24, 2014, 06:07:06 am »

With the 1.0 version now out, I am looking to branch to a 2.0 version with the following changes and release schedule:

I already have a 2.0 version planned, with the following changes to be done:

Code: [Select]

Future plans:
 ■ projected  + likely  * problematic and complex
Version 1.8  - Oct 2014
 ■ add another step into alloys research tree: Alloy Manufacturing (Dependency: Alloys)
 ■ Alloy research allows for Alloy Reinforced Armor
 ■ add alloy ammo types for powder weapons, adjusting normal ammo's damage down towards standard, and current values will be for the alloy rounds (Requires: Alloy manufacturing + Any autopsy unlocks Alloy rounds)
 ■ adjust explosive damages back down to standard
     ■ create alloy rockets/grenades with higher damages
     ■ create human elerium high explosives and rockets
 ■ add/replace body armors
     ■ Improved Light Armor: P: 24 AP: 65% HE: 75% PL: 95% (Dependency: Alloy manufacturing - Consumes 1 light armor and 2 alloys )
     ■ Improved Tactical Armor P: 28 AP: 55% HE: 60% PL: 90% (Dependency: Alloy manufacturing - Consumes 1 tactical armor and 3 alloys)
     ■ adjust game armors
         ■ Personal Armour (Original Stats P: 50) P: 34 PL: 80% HE: 60% AP: 55%
         ■ Heavy Personal Armor: P: 46 AP:50% PL:75% Requires 6 alloys
         ■ Power Armor (Original Stats P: 100) P: 60 AP: 45% HE: 50% PL: 65% now requires 7 alloys
         ■ Scout Power Armor P: 60 AP: 45% HE: 50% PL: 65%  now requires 6 alloys
         ■ Flying Armor P: 60 AP: 45% HE: 50% PL: 65% requires 7 alloys
     ■ adjust damage resistance and armor for aliens to match new paradigm - More resistance, less armor.
 ■ shift laser weapons to require alloy research (Dependency: Alloy manufacturing)
 ■ shift plasma weapon research to require alien power supply research first (Dependency UFO power Supply + Alloy manufacturing)

Version 1.9:
 ■ Alloy Manufacturing allows for creation of alloy crafted interceptor
 ■ add DMR, SMG and SAW/LMG versions of laser and plasma rifle. Will require the proper technology sniper rifle and rifle both to be researched
     ■ shift laser pistol lose autofire and gain damage
     + change so that Heavy Plasma and Plasma pistols cannot be manufactured by humans.
         + clips for those weapons, along with the DMR, SMG and SAW/LMG versions will be able to be manufactured, along with a new Plasma Magnum to differentiate with alien plasma pistol.
         + X-Com can still use the Plasma Pistol and Heavy Plasma captured and returned from the battlescape, but just can't manufacture them.
- The heavy plasma and plasma pistols will be slightly better than previous versions of this mod
Version 2.0:
Final Version


487

Released Mods / Re: [Weapon][Armor]Equal Terms Mod v1.0 for OpenXcom

« on: July 24, 2014, 06:05:58 am »

Since this is the 1.0 version, I have no new features lined up for this version.  Only bug fixes, small adjustments and maybe new camo patterns are planned for this version

I already have a 2.0 version planned out, with the following changes to be done:

Code: [Select]

Future plans:
 ■ projected  + likely  * problematic and complex
Version 1.8  - Oct 2014
 ■ add another step into alloys research tree: Alloy Manufacturing (Dependency: Alloys)
 ■ Alloy research allows for Alloy Reinforced Armor
 ■ add alloy ammo types for powder weapons, adjusting normal ammo's damage down towards standard, and current values will be for the alloy rounds (Requires: Alloy manufacturing + Any autopsy unlocks Alloy rounds)
 ■ adjust explosive damages back down to standard
     ■ create alloy rockets/grenades with higher damages
     ■ create human elerium high explosives and rockets
 ■ add/replace body armors
     ■ Improved Light Armor: P: 24 AP: 65% HE: 75% PL: 95% (Dependency: Alloy manufacturing - Consumes 1 light armor and 2 alloys )
     ■ Improved Tactical Armor P: 28 AP: 55% HE: 60% PL: 90% (Dependency: Alloy manufacturing - Consumes 1 tactical armor and 3 alloys)
     ■ adjust game armors
         ■ Personal Armour (Original Stats P: 50) P: 34 PL: 80% HE: 60% AP: 55%
         ■ Heavy Personal Armor: P: 46 AP:50% PL:75% Requires 6 alloys
         ■ Power Armor (Original Stats P: 100) P: 60 AP: 45% HE: 50% PL: 65% now requires 7 alloys
         ■ Scout Power Armor P: 60 AP: 45% HE: 50% PL: 65%  now requires 6 alloys
         ■ Flying Armor P: 60 AP: 45% HE: 50% PL: 65% requires 7 alloys
     ■ adjust damage resistance and armor for aliens to match new paradigm - More resistance, less armor.
 ■ shift laser weapons to require alloy research (Dependency: Alloy manufacturing)
 ■ shift plasma weapon research to require alien power supply research first (Dependency UFO power Supply + Alloy manufacturing)

Version 1.9:
 ■ Alloy Manufacturing allows for creation of alloy crafted interceptor
 ■ add DMR, SMG and SAW/LMG versions of laser and plasma rifle. Will require the proper technology sniper rifle and rifle both to be researched
     ■ shift laser pistol lose autofire and gain damage
     + change so that Heavy Plasma and Plasma pistols cannot be manufactured by humans.
         + clips for those weapons, along with the DMR, SMG and SAW/LMG versions will be able to be manufactured, along with a new Plasma Magnum to differentiate with alien plasma pistol.
         + X-Com can still use the Plasma Pistol and Heavy Plasma captured and returned from the battlescape, but just can't manufacture them.
- The heavy plasma and plasma pistols will be slightly better than previous versions of this mod


488

Released Mods / [Weapon][Armor]Equal Terms Mod v1.0 for OpenXcom

« on: July 24, 2014, 05:59:51 am »

--= Equal Terms (1.0) Modification for Open-X-Com =--
By KingMob4313 and Ickschuss. Created for X-Com: Ufo Defense May 2000.
Last updated October 2015.

Please See Version 2.0 for expanded gameplay that applies the Equal Terms concept over all 3 tiers of weaponry!

Current Version: 1.03 [FINAL]

Link to Github files for the mod: https://github.com/KingMob4313/Equal-Terms-Mods/tree/master/v1.0

Installation: unzip the package to your OpenXcom directory and answer yes to the overwrites (if needed).

NOTE: THIS MOD SUPPRESSES THE NORMAL HUMAN WEAPONS FROM BEING AVAILABLE AND ADDS THE NEW VERSIONS TO THE GAME.

Concept:

The purpose of this modification is give players starting weapons with real life equivalents, ie: weapons UN forces would be using against these UFO attacks.  The starting human weapons have been replaced with the following: a 5.7mm machine pistol, a 6.8mm Assault Rifle, a Squad Automatic Weapon, and a .50 calibre Anti-Materiel Sniper rifle. There are also new additions of a pump combat shogun, a 9mm submachine gun, a .454 magnum revolver, a 7.62x51mm designated marksman's rifle, a single shot rocket launcher and an incendiary grenade that can be purchased, like all the human weapons and an alloy shogun to be researched later.

There are also two different armors that can be purchased, based on current armor technology.

This patch also increases some explosive damages and tweaks the other weapon damages, accuracies and fire rates for the other weapons to create some sort of game balance. In general, autofire will be much less accurate than before, making aimed and snap shots much more favourable.

This mod requires the range based accuracy mod from UFOextender enabled for proper balance.

-= Change Summary =-
1) Role Based Weaponry: Weapons now favor the roles they are used in combat. For doing entries on a UFO or building, shoguns, SMG and pistols are much more capable weapons than assault and sniper rifles.  In fact, some weapons are inherently more inaccurate at close ranges than medium ranges. At the same time, many weapons suitable for use in entries lack long range capabilities.

2) Weapon Types: Powder weapons fire the most shots in auto and most snap shots of all the weapon damage types.  Lasers have the best accuracy in autofire, at expense of their accuracy in aimed shots. Plasma weapons do the most damage.

3) Autofire is much less accurate than in the base game.  Each weapon firing mode has it's advantages depending on the weapon's role and type. Making single aimed shots with the SAW or snap shots with the Sniper Rifle are not as efficient as using those weapons as they are intended.

Changelog:
-= Current Version =-
Version 1.03
 - Fixed *nix compatibility issue with file pathing case sensitivity

Contributions:
French translation by Infini

Machine Pistol, Magnum, SMG, Assault Rifle, Small Rocket, Incendiary Grenade, APFSDS Rocket
Yaml Code, Sprites and Sounds: KingMob4313

Shotgun
Sprites: Ryskeliini & Warboy1982
Yaml Code: Ryskeliini, Warboy1982 & KingMob4313

Sniper Rifle
Sprites: Toshiaki2115, Warboy1982 & KingMob4313
Yaml Code: Warboy1982 & KingMob4313
Sounds: KingMob4313

Designated Marksman's Rifle (Marksmans Rifle)
Sprites: Chiko & KingMob4313
Yaml Code & Sounds: KingMob4313

SSRL
Sprites: Ryskeliini & KingMob4313
Yaml Code & Sounds: KingMob4313

Armor:
Sprites: Warboy1982 & Fox105iwsp & KingMob4313
Yaml Code: KingMob4313 & Fox105iwsp

Yaml reorganization: yrizoud (version 0.86)

489

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod for OpenXcom

« on: July 24, 2014, 05:49:05 am »

Version 1.0 is now posted. Thanks for all the help, especially:

Warboy1982, Ryskeliini, Toshiaki2115, Chiko, Fox105iwsp and yrizoud.

Version 1.0 - August 2014
 - fixed issue with list order for incendiary grenade
 - adjusted range based accuracy for LMG autofire
 - changed Avalanche missile description to remove nuclear from description
 - adjusted detection rate for small radar & large radar to 30 and 15 respectively.
     - shortened range of small radar
 - adjusted size of mag for machine pistol down to 18
 - added new graphic and sound for machine pistol
 - fixed issues with cropping in inventory graphics for a few items
 - added full hand view for SMG
 - added full hand view for DMR
 - added full hand view for SAW
 - added new graphics for assault rifle
 - added one shot rocket launcher (AT-4 analog)
 - created modified graphic for small rocket & APFSDS rocket
 - added conventional body armor with 3 different camo types (Jungle, Arctic, Urban)
     - Light Armor P: 16 AP:90%, I:90% HE: 97%
     - Tactical Armor P: 22 AP:80% I:75% HE:90% PL:98%

490

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod for OpenXcom

« on: July 22, 2014, 06:02:24 am »

Working on the armor has been a tedious affair, but 1.0 nears completion.

The 2.0 version is going to be even more work with around 12 more weapons and 4 new armors.

491

Programming / Re: Option for autofire recoil

« on: July 21, 2014, 06:20:16 am »

Actually I feel you're mis-applying Occam's razor in this case. Even the initial proposal has a distinct effect from rolling lower accuracy into auto shot, as it effects the likelihood the shot will hit 2 or 3 times. With a flat accuracy, the shot can potential hit 3 times rather often. If the second and third shots have lower accuracy however, then auto might become a bit less incentivised against high-health aliens. Also, even if it didn't have a gameplay effect, to be honest, it's a cool flavour option.

The point of simulating recoil is not to drop accuracy. You can have any degree of accuracy you want with or without simulating recoil. The point of simulating recoil is essentially that the faster you take shots, the more likely your aim is to be effected by the "kick" of your weapon. (basically, it gives a larger incentive to strategic positioning and aimed shots than currently exists, as opposed to a "bullet spray" strategy) Ideally, simulating recoil should actually make your initial shot in a turn more likely to hit, given the penalty.

Ideally, if you're adding recoil, it should apply to every subsequent shot on the same turn for the same soldier, not just to the second and third shots in an auto burst. Then it becomes a real tactical consequence, and having a soldier rush forward to act as a turret in subsequent turns doesn't work so well.

Thoughts:

Strength differential between the required strength and actual strength should ideally effect the recoil step rather than applying a flat bonus or penalty. Higher-strength soldiers will be able to bullet-spray more effectively that way. This should reinforce existing playstyles- in the early game you're trying to snipe off any aliens you can, in the late game you can sometimes go toe-to-toe with the weaker ones.

Walking shots with lasers resulting in a negative recoil makes sense realistically, but could have funky gameplay results. Worth trying it out.

You've made a better case for it than I had patience to do.  Thank you very much.

Going to definitely set it up so it takes full integer, so modders can use a bonus or penalty.  Gonna make it logical too, instead of this inversion I'm doing in my code of a positive number is a penalty and a negative number is a bonus.

492

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod for OpenXcom

« on: July 14, 2014, 06:01:29 am »

Version 1.0 is nearly completed. 

After that, there will only be bug fixes and I will branch this version after this version for the 2.0 version, since that version will be SIGNIFICANTLY different.

Code: [Select]

Version 1.0 - August 2014
[b]DONE[/b]
 ● added full hand view for SMG
 ● fixed issue with list order for incendiary grenade
 ● adjusted range based accuracy for LMG autofire
 ● changed Avalanche missile description to remove nuclear from description
 ● adjusted detection rate for small radar & large radar to 30 and 15 respectively.
     ● shortened range of small radar
 ● adjusted size of mag for machine pistol down to 18
 ● added new graphic and sound for machine pistol
 ● fixed issues with cropping in inventory graphics for a few items
 ● added full hand view for DMR
 ● added full hand view for SAW
----Below is not done as of Sunday July 13th----
 ● added new graphic for assault rifle
 ● added conventional body armor
     ● Light Armor P: 16 AP:80%, HE: 85%
     ● Tactical Armor P: 22 AP:65% HE:70%
 ● added one shot rocket launcher (AT-4)
 ● created modified graphic for small rocket / APFSDS round
The changes for the 2.0 version won't be done until September and will have changes to the research tree and more.

493

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod for OpenXcom

« on: July 12, 2014, 03:17:10 pm »

Ok, thanks for kind explanation! So other eventual addiction from you will be fine

Though, I will be adjusting down the mag size for the machine pistol on your suggestion. On further review, 24 shots is a bit big. It'll go down to 18

494

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod for OpenXcom

« on: July 12, 2014, 06:22:52 am »

Also I'd little add: I think it does not make quite a difference havin the sniper rifle and a marksman rifle: an original idea may be to replace that marksman thing with an "improved assault rifle" researchable till start. It could be a slightly improved version of the vanilla AR rifle designed from scratch. Or maybe replaced with some other human weapons. My 2 cent's.

Also, since a submachine gun (SMG) is already present, i'd revert the machine pistol to vanilla pistol, but grant it auto shot capabilities, and a fair weakness compared to the magnum .44. And lasrly decrease clip size from 24 to 15.

The DMR fills a different role than the heavier sniper rifle, Just like the machine pistol fills a different role than the submachine gun.  All of these weapons have roles to play.

Machine pistol has a ridiculous cyclic rate and therefore is wildly inaccurate in auto modes, but up close and in the early game, it can drop a ton of hits at close range.

The SMG is slightly weaker than the machine pistol (design choice here) but is incredibly accurate at midrange and costs less TUs for an auto shot than the assault rifle.

The shotgun puts hits all over the place and is rather weak against armor, but can kill multiple targets in one shot and is excellent for close quarters work.

The Assault rifle is the backbone of your squad, good all around.

The Designated Marksman's Rifle allows a squad to have someone mobile but still capable of precision shooting.

The LMG is slightly weaker than the assault rifle (again, design choice) but has an absurd rate of fire and (should) be relatively accurate in burst modes further out than other weapons.

The sniper rifle is heavy and can only be fired accurately when stationary, but does a significant amount of damage and can aim shot across the map if you have spotters.

At least, that's my take on what I am putting together.

495

Work In Progress / Re: Equal Terms Mod for OpenXcom

« on: July 11, 2014, 11:37:46 pm »

PING