Messages

16

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: [Suggestion] Show reason(s) why facility cannot be dismantled

« on: March 10, 2023, 01:30:43 pm »

I suggest the first error message to be a storage space check.

[Spoiler]

17

IDT Modding Hub / Re: Reaver's Harmony Megamod - A Massive X-Com Expansion

« on: March 10, 2023, 12:50:06 pm »

1.1.0 Harder Better Faster Stronger Update

This is a significant patch which strongly affects the progression curve of the aliens. They kept taking too long to get anything done, well not any more! Harder aliens will show up sooner, and elite alien forces will actually show up a lot in the end game before you go to Cydonia! This will also make it easier to obtain the ultimate technology before you go! And of course, the alien hordes will put up more of a fight!

All changes (also available in the metadata file as always):
#  1.1.0:   MAJOR PATCH: 'Harder Better Faster Stronger'
#           Primary focus: Speeds up the progression curve, so the aliens ramp up in difficulty much faster.
#           - New alien types appear sooner.
#           - Elite alien forces appear sooner.
#           - Aliens' destroyers defend critical missions sooner.
#           - Alien equipment progression happens faster.
#           - Elite alien weapons appear sooner.
#           - There are now much fewer non-elite alien forces in the late game.
#     *** ==> It will be easier to access fourth-tier technology before Cydonia, finally!
#           CAUTION: Installing this patch in an existing save may cause the aliens to suddenly jump forward in
#             progression, and one race might fail to build a base. This should not cause any bugs or crashes.
#       * Repositories now yield a bit less items, a lot less money, and WAY less points!
#       * Very Small UFOs now contain fewer aliens on lower difficulties.
#       * Increased Plasma Shotgun accuracy similar to shotgun change in 1.0.9.
#       * Patched some holes in the Mastodon and the Mothership maps. Abductor maps also tweaked slightly.
#       * Fixed bug with Flagship manufacturing costs on difficulties other than Superhuman (Very Hard).
#       * Fixed Snakeman Queen dissection appearing too early.
#       * A few other minor gameplay tweaks.
#       * Minor tweaks to UFOPedia and other in-game text.

- - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - -

Found out about this mod. Looks great to play!

Been playing Twots and Piratez before this one so I probably will get the hang of most of the new mechanics.

Thanks! I hope you are enjoying it!

Picked this up today again. Stumbled on Yeti playing it. Do you intend to integrate the commendations mod in future into this mod?

It is one of the things I would like to include someday, but it is likely to never happen unless someone else builds a working model for me to tweak. The first thing I want to include which might never happen is proper integration with Community Map Project's vanilla expanded geoscape.

Found some people playing your mod on a video website and it made me want to get xcom again to try it out. Will probably have some questions/bug reports etc -- I assume this thread is the proper place for that?
I'm not a very experienced xcom player so forgive me if I misunderstand some features.
1) Bug(?) Psi Lab conflict with barracks training -

Spoiler:

• After building a large barracks I can assign soldiers to 'training' via right clicking the 'rax and/or clicking the 'soldiers' tab
• If I then build a Psi Lab I can no longer assign soldiers to the standard 'training'. Right clicking the PsiLab allows you to assign soldiers to 'psi training'
• Note: If you raze the Psi Lab you can access the standard 'training' again AND all soldiers that were initially set to being trained are still being trained. It seems as if the Psi Lab training conflicts with allowing the user to access the standard training until the Psi Lab is destroyed.

2) I tried using the grenade launcher as it seemed like it would be useful for indirect fire/arcing a grenade over buildings etc.
After trying the launcher a couple times I stopped using it so maybe I am mistaken about it but it seems like normal grenades are superior in every way? A normal grenade can be thrown much further and with more accuracy, the AE gren can be thrown even further. The grenade launcher requires as much TU as priming/throwing a normal 'nade but is extremely inaccurate after a certain range. Am I missing something that makes the gren launcher better than normal throwing grenades?
----
Really enjoying the mod, any questions I have are because I like the mod enough to actually take the time to ask so that I can better understand the mechanics.
Cheers

This place works for reports, but you can get a faster response by pinging me on Discord. My contact details are in the metadata file.
I haven't experienced the training bug, nor seen anyone else have it. I wish I knew what was causing it. Try going to the soldiers menu to get to training, perhaps that route will work instead. If it still is broken, then I recommend mentioning the issue in the openxcom discord because it sounds like a bug with oxce, and not my mod.
The grenade launcher attributes are a work in progress. The goal is for it to be a bit less powerful than a hand grenade, but able to fire snap shots in significantly less time. I may have to boost its accuracy. Feedback like yours is important for improving this mod, so thank you! I have written this down in my notes.

Found a bug on this map. Sectoid couldn't move out of that corner. The chair is blocking his move. Tested it in other wing. Same discovery.

Thank you for the report! I have determined why this bug was occurring and it will be fixed in the next update.
I really should have checked the comments here before I published this update. >.>

My comments so far. I am in August of the second run and it is the invasion season. It has been a beautiful run so far. My earlier experience helped me to avoid some areas and beeline directly for certain areas. I am happy to see that it is much easier to find materials. I am yet to start building my flagship but I look forward to using my spreadsheet again. Delighted with space management. I also found myself enjoying and sometimes preferring night missions due to the PSI and Night armours (not the starter pack).

I am also happy with the mods for recolouring the PSI armour (Redshirt) and the Assassin armour (white looks very lovely). I have no area where I find fault with this mod's gameplay.  I wholeheartedly endorse this mod. One other thing that came to my mind - I played on Experienced level and totally bypassed Alloy Weapons. I did however use a lot of AE grenades.

New learning for me in this run - Celatids can see through smoke and are dangerous, very dangerous.

I am so happy to hear you are enjoying the mod!

18

Open Feedback / Re: Incendiary mod

« on: February 27, 2023, 12:55:32 am »

Hi everybody,
Is there a mod that gives incendiary rounds more direct hit damage? Kind of silly taking a rocket in the face doesn't cause massive damage on impact. Another thing that would make it more realistic is getting caught on fire should cause panic.

My own Harmony mod has exactly this. Take a look. You can easily copy the script right from the entries in items.rul, however it requires OXCE to work.
https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/reavers-harmony-megamod
Sorry for the late response.

19

Offtopic / Re: Ai generated images.

« on: January 31, 2023, 03:40:23 pm »

People are very commonly perceiving these AI image-producers as being far better at these jobs than they really are. Virtually every time that an image is presented as an example of how good AI art is, they offer one which had loads of human intervention in its design process. The ones that the AI spits out and which receive zero correction are generally very messy and full of errors.

Here is an example of an AI-generated image which had a large contribution of work from a human:
https://www.deviantart.com/shad-brooks/art/PALADIN-Stable-Diffusion-AI-conversion-936296172
The human who worked to generate this image has detailed his design process in a YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PszF9Upan8

To demonstrate the quality of AI art without heavy influence from a human, just look at AI art and notice how frequently it is filled with flaws. But I gave stable diffusion a prompt: "a prince fighting a dragon, and the dragon is breathing fire" and of the results given, this was the only one that was even a match to the prompt:
https://imgur.com/a/tRRwuy3
I did not edit the image any further. This was the second prompt offered, as the first one was deemed possibly too difficult for the AI to parse (as none of the offered images were a match). I did not perform any more tweaks to the prompt, or ask for it to generate more attempts. This is what "AI art" actually looks like.

To give an excellent example of why human-made art really stands apart from AI-generated art, I would like to offer an excellent example of high-detail art generated by a human:
https://www.reddit.com/r/drawing/comments/ztbtw9/a_muse_in_the_warzone/
Note the combination of themes in the image and how they make sense together. Note the fine details and how none of them are weirdly proportioned, warped, or shifting into structured unrelated to their position in the image. The hallmarks of AI-generated images are not present here. The evidence of human intervention is all over it. It doesn't look like AI-generated imagery at a glance, and it only looks more human the deeper you peer. And this is just one of many examples I could give.

It's not just that AI fail the Turing test at every turn, but even humans pretending to be AI will usually fail the reverse Turing test as well. The gap is far greater than many grifters pretend.

AI art is not going to make human art obsolete; far to the contrary, AI image generation will expand art production and allow our society to tap into the creativity of artists lacking painting or other "artistic" talents, artists whose art otherwise would have never seen the light of day.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. I would like to end my 94% serious rant with a relevant bit of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I tried but failed to find a concise clip, but in the episode titled 'When the Bough Breaks', a child is offered a tool which enables him to carve wood into any shape he can imagine. In fact within that episode are many bits of wisdom about human brain development and how we can be mentally healthier. Good episode, loosely related to the topic.

20

Help / Re: Is making a mod this easy?

« on: December 17, 2022, 12:21:39 am »

It is both easy and difficult. The difficulty is in dealing with syntax and learning to never make syntax mistakes. But if you can get past that, the essence of modding openxcom is very easy.

21

Released Mods / Re: XBase Terrain Condensed

« on: December 13, 2022, 01:33:20 pm »

Two questions:
1. What tool was in the preview screenshot?
2. If you want to reduce base tiles, and maps need to be remade anyway, why not reduce 12 tiles of laser/plasma/fusionball defenses tiles to 7?
4 common floor quarters overlaid on floor (with the same 4 death tiles overlaid on broken floor too) + 1 for each object. Because the object part is pixel-by-pixel identical across each set, and the 4-part pods under them are identical for plasma and fusionball; for laser close enough, seems an earlier version.

1.) Mapview 1
2.) I hadn't thought of that, good idea.
Perhaps eventually I will make a second version of this which compresses the tile count further.

22

IDT Modding Hub / Re: Reaver's Harmony Megamod - A Massive X-Com Expansion

« on: December 10, 2022, 09:07:52 am »

Thanks! I greatly appreciate it!

23

IDT Modding Hub / Re: Reaver's Harmony Megamod - A Massive X-Com Expansion

« on: December 09, 2022, 07:29:16 am »

Reaver's Harmony 1.0.8 is now out! Most importantly, it adds new alien storage repositories, and rebalances power suit weapons. You should also have a lot more storage space remaining if you have a tendency to save everything, as many of the biggest space hogs have been shrunk down significantly. Other various optimizations and bug fixes:

#  1.0.8:   Buffed Calamity Launcher ammo.
#         - Rebalanced Power Suit Weapon manufacture costs a bit.
#         - Did full balance pass on Calamity Launcher ammo manufacturing, was supposed to be done before 1.0.
#       * Gave the Combat Suite its +10% hit bonus back.
#       * Increased Craft Light Plasma ammo max from 12 to 15.
#       * Buffed AE Missile, Laser, and Plasma Base Defenses.
#       * You can now only build one Grav Shield per base. (This prevents building useless excess!)
#       * Shrunk several UFO components, most notably alloys, deuterium, and most forms of salvage.
#       * New kind of salvage added: alien storage repositories. These are particularly abundant within outposts.
#       * Snakeman Queen scavenge recipe added.
#       * Race weights adjusted: Ethereals should be more common in the late game now.
#       * Psi Adepts now screen better for bravery than Elites do.
#       * Adjusted value of flagship diode components in order to increase the reward for dangerous interceptions.
#       * Heavy Destroyers might be way more common during alien invasion campaign in the late game.
#       * Fixed a bug in which terror sites were not always granting the terror site data cache.
#       * Fixed bug in which Combat and Recon Suite UFOPedia reports would not reveal once you had access to them.
#       * Fixed various minor bugs and balance issues.

Known bug: version displays in-game as 1.0.7.1

24

Suggestions / Re: Make it obvious which tiles are lit at night

« on: November 24, 2022, 10:23:39 pm »

You can use night vision mode to be able to see where your units are.

I have also made a color improvement for vanilla terrain which makes sure that some color is visible as long as it is light enough for your soldiers to see. I have not released it as a standalone mod yet but it is available in Harmony.

25

Brutal AI / Re: How much of a difference does "Aggressive retaliation" make?

« on: November 23, 2022, 06:51:56 pm »

I have not played with this, but the difference is probably less dramatic than it sounds, however depending where your base is placed, it might cause incessant visits. Scouts on retaliation missions have a complex pattern which greatly raises the odds of them getting their tiny sightRange over your base. Also while they are going slow, they are more likely to proc a scan while your base is within sight. A random alien craft flying straight over your base at high speed will more often than not fail to proc a scan at the right time.

But mods can change their sightRange, and (OXCE only) you can also reduce their base detection odds by adding mindPower to the access lift facility (and correctly multiply the mindPower value for Mind Shield accordingly).

Default UFO sightRange is 268. In my mod I have set them to 600. I also set Access Lift mindPower to 2 and Mind Shield mindPower to 4. The end result is that aliens detecting your base is probably more akin to how most people thought it worked in the original game. It's far more predictable and far less dependent upon your base placement as to whether they will detect you immediately or can't detect you at all. With my settings, Aggressive Retaliation would probably make a much more significant but much more stable difference.

But again, I haven't used Aggressive Retaliation.

26

Troubleshooting / Re: babby's first cheat mod. Help

« on: November 23, 2022, 06:24:58 pm »

Using openxcom extended, and x-com files. Unsure if this is more a openxcom extended issue or not. so I made a rule file, put it in its own folder, even got the metadata.yml for it. I said the master was x-com files,   The openxcom wiki https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Rulesets_(OpenXcom) said near the bottom of the page i need to edit the 'options.cfg' file to add an aditional ruleset, which may be easier than what I am doing.  however, there is nothing about any rulesets in the 'options.cfg'   Either way, this is the .rul file.

Code: [Select]

  - name: STR_FREE_POINTS
    cost: 1
    points: 6000000Upon activating that mod in game I get the following error:

Code: [Select]

yaml-cpp: error at line 2, column 9: illegal map valueAny idea what is causing the error?
To clarify in advanced: I am trying to make a ruleset that adds a research to add score so I can salvage my game without loading an earlier save.

Is this code the entire piece of the ruleset entry?
It should look like this:

Code: [Select]

research:
  - name: STR_FREE_POINTS
    cost: 1
    points: 6000000
Error at line 2 column 9 is the colon ( : ) at the end of cost. My best guess: the ruleset accepts an entry starting with "name:" when it has not been placed into a category, but once you try to apply an attribute to that name called "cost", it becomes an invalid entry because uncategorized entries do not have a cost attribute associated with them.

27

Brutal AI / Re: Looking for some advanced strategies and their counters

« on: November 13, 2022, 11:57:01 am »

TACTIC:
When coming around a corner, always face toward where aliens are likely to hide so as to activate mutual surprise and suppress reaction fire.

COUNTER TO TACTIC:
Always have multiple units facing where X-Com can approach, facing in from multiple angles so that they cannot activate mutual surprise on all of them at once.

COUNTER TO COUNTER:
Move in with a durable/armored unit, tank, or expendable unit; throw grenades/proximity mines into where aliens are likely to be camping; barge through the walls; use motion scanner to determine positions; destroy all walls with explosives.

- - -

TACTIC:
Hide your soldiers in smoke.

COUNTER TO TACTIC:
Throw grenades into smoke clouds; fire blindly to where soldiers are likely to be positioned.

COUNTER TO COUNTER:
Put smoke everywhere and use motion scanners; put decoy smoke clouds to waste enemy grenades.

- - -

TACTIC:
Move durable and/or expendable units forward to scout, and keep snipers in the rear with good field of view to attack from outside of vision range.

COUNTER TO TACTIC:
Do the same; or if good sniper positions are limited, fire blindly into them, or stay away from positions which have a line of fire from good sniper nests (such as rooftops).

COUNTER TO COUNTER:
Find more specialized and less predictable sniper positions; use smoke, explosives, and/or terrain destruction to "construct" new sniper nests; use psi wizards instead of snipers who don't need line of fire.

- - -

TACTIC:
Blaster bomb the command/navigation room on the first turn in order to destabilize alien morale.

COUNTER TO TACTIC:
Bury command center in center of ship; use redundant armored walls to make it harder to blast through; have separate command and navigation rooms; distribute command ranks throughout ship; bring units with high bravery.
LOGISTICAL IMPACTS, RESPECTIVELY:
Less efficient ship interior design for normal functions; ship is heavier and more expensive; command delays reduce force responsiveness; lack of dedicated command center reduces control; high bravery units are less intelligent and thus less suitable for many operational tasks.

COUNTER TO COUNTER:
Carefully raid their less efficient ship design; bring more blasters; use a composition which does not rely on blasters; hide and camp the aliens.

ALTERNATIVE COUNTER TO TACTIC:
Take advantage of all of the soldiers who spent their whole turn inside the ship, and bomb the X-Com craft to kill them all.

COUNTER TO ALTERNATIVE COUNTER:
Spread your units out and don't ever leave a ball of them in a predictable location. Best to leave nobody at all inside the craft because it might get bombed first alien turn.

28

IDT Modding Hub / Re: Reaver's Harmony Megamod - A Massive X-Com Expansion

« on: November 13, 2022, 07:02:35 am »

Update 1.0.7 is out! There are no sweeping changes, but a few things have received significant overhauls.
edit: Hotfix 1.0.7.1 has been released on Github. I mistakenly only fixed the AE prox mine. This update also fixes the basic prox mine.
https://github.com/Inventorum-Development-Team/Reaver-Harmony-Megamod/commit/273c1b6d3d2496c8823c2006c3a14b48ac340725
Let me know if you need help installing from github.


NIGHT VISION AND NIGHT OPERATIONS
Nighttime ops armors now provide both more vision as well as better camouflage. Several alien races have had their night vision range reduced. The aliens still see a lot better than your soldiers initially, but the night ops armors are a lot more functional now. You no longer have to be highly skilled just to make them marginally functional. I encourage you all to give these armors a try! Nighttime combat might not be so scary after all!

Tanks also have been given some ability to see through smoke. It can still easily block their vision, but they should be able to spot most enemies before those enemies see the tank. Night ops tanks have an especially strong ability to see through smoke. And in case you weren't aware previously, some alien units are also able to see through smoke. Most of them are about just as blinded by it as your soldiers are, however. Tanks also have had their light radius increased. This will enable them to see further into the darkness, but be careful that it does not highlight your camouflaged soldiers during night ops missions!


NEW STATSTRINGS
Soldiers will now receive tags alongside their names, based on certain attributes. Some of the most important tags:
GOOD TAGS:
 - b or B for breacher, indicates high or very high reactions, respectively
 - r or R for ranger, indicates high or very high time units and stamina, respectively
 - s or S for sniper, indicates high or very high firing accuracy, respectively
 - h or H for heavy, indicates high or very high strength, respectively
WARNING TAGS:
 - ! = this soldier is psionically vulnerable and has poor psi growth potential (low psi strength)
 - C = coward, low bravery and prone to panic, psionic or otherwise
 - k = klutz, low firing accuracy, prone to friendly fire
 - w = weak, low strength, may not be able to carry enough equipment or ideal weaponry

A completely maxed out soldier will display: ψSuper
However, a soldier displaying ψSuper is not necessarily maxed out. It just means that they have a top score in all of the most important attributes!

Here is the full list of tags, which you can also find in the statstrings.rul file inside the mod:
# ! - Psionically vulnerable
# ^/&/* - Good/Great/Excellent psionic potential (only psiborgs can exceed "good")
# γ/β/α/ς - Psionic rank indicator (C, B, A, and S, from lowest to greatest)
# ψ - Psionic Master (ς-Rank psion who's realized their excellent potential)
# Raid - Raider (Breacher/Ranger)
# Wrdn - Warden (Breacher/Sniper)
# Strm - Stormer  (Breacher/Heavy)
# Hntr - Hunter (Ranger/Sniper)
# Tank - Tank (Ranger/Heavy)
# Rckt - Rocketeer (Sniper/Heavy)
# Vet - Veteran (Excelling in 3 classes, this soldier has been through hell and back!)
# Ace - Excels in all 4 classes
# Ace+ - Excels in all 4 classes with some superhuman capabilities
# Super - Excels in all 4 classes to a superhuman extent
# b/B - Breacher (Reactions)
# r/R - Ranger (TUs and Stamina)
# s/S - Sniper (Firing)
# h/H - Heavy (Strength)
# k - Klutz (Low firing accuracy)
# w - Weak (Low strength)
# C - Coward (Low bravery)


The full list of changes, which you can also find in the metadata.yml file inside the mod:

#  1.0.7:   Night operations armors have received a buff to their stealth and night vision.
#           - The buff is strongest on the ones which were previously weak, and negligible on the top ones.
#       * Tanks have had their light radius increased, and are now less blinded by smoke.
#       * The night vision of some alien races has been reduced, but it is still a lot more than your soldiers.
#           - Having longer night vision range than certain alien types is now more achievable than before.
#       * Fixed a bug with proximity grenades acting like regular grenades.
#       * Fixed bug in which security station facility was not properly being destroyed during base defense.
#       * Doors on security stations no longer block turret fire.
#       * You can now build two infirmaries in one base.
#       * Updated Base Facility list order into a more sensible ordering.
#       * New and improved stat strings are now active, thanks to Meatstuff!
#       * Heavy Armor buffed on higher difficulties.
#       * Reduced requirements for unlocking Hyper Wave Decoder research.
#       * Sectoid Armor shows up more gradually, less abruptly.
#       * Weapons now show their optimal range per shot type in the UFOPedia.
#       * Laser Pulse Rifle sprite updated (again).
#       * Added a scope to Plasma Rifle.
#       * Tractor beams shield drain rate doubled.
#       * The lifts which appear on some X-Com spacecraft will now block line of sight and line of fire.
#       * Added several more entries to Research Project Information.
#       * Slightly reduced battlescape size for mediums, larges, and Battleship.
#       * Added space suits for non-power armor when going to Cydonia.
#       * Cydonia has lower gravity, so your soldiers are now stronger on Cydonia.
#       * Improved alien and civilian spawning on vanilla outdoor terrains.
#       * Fixed bug with Snakeman Queen text.
#       * Fixed sound bug at Snakeman Queen's lair.
#       * Made a few tiny balance adjustments involving aircraft research and tanks.
#       * Fixed other minor text, sound, and graphical bugs.

29

Open Feedback / Re: Cool loophole if your general stores are full

« on: November 02, 2022, 09:05:46 am »

I don't think the original game devs playtested storage very much, or even at all really. The numbers are positively ridiculous. If you were to take a 3D render of the comically small representation of the facility itself from the battlescape and fill it with life-size renders of 50 space units of stuff, it would just be scattered across the floor and wouldn't come close to filling it. But if you ignore realism and go by just gameplay alone, the bare-bones starting items already more than fill your initial general stores. The only reason you had a tiny bit of space left over at the start of the game was because the game didn't count space for the items loaded onto the crafts. The remaining space was about big enough to buy extra ammo and smoke grenades, maybe some electro-flares. But you couldn't actually spend your money and buy the stuff you needed until 10 days went by and your second general stores finally finished. And if you're a veteran player, probably your third and fourth as well.

One of the most annoyingly space-draining items is the 1.5 space avalanche missile. To purchase 4 launchers for your 2 interceptors, with enough ammo to load them and have one spare rack, it costs 40 space units. That's 80% of a general stores just to barely load out your interceptors. But it's not like the avalanche missiles take up too much space. Compared to everything else, the space they take up actually makes sense when you consider how big they are. What doesn't make sense is that apparently the entire available space in your stores can fit against one wall.

It would have been completely reasonable if they had moved the decimal point over and shifted the size of each item down an order of magnitude.

30

Open Feedback / Re: Cool loophole if your general stores are full

« on: October 27, 2022, 01:01:27 am »

OXC/OXCE does the check every full hour.
It's just as irritating as every 5 minutes.

And it doesn't help at all... maybe you are an exception... but literally all players I've seen on youtube and twitch get this popup basically all the time. Then they sell just enough stuff to be able to continue (because everyone naturally wants to keep the stuff they fought so hard for), meaning after the next mission or after something is manufactured, they get the popup again. And again, and again, and again...

This feature alone has collectively wasted centuries of our lives.

My heart is broken every time I see players struggling with it.

Can we have a base mod that boosts the General Stores storage capacity to 250 (an actually sensible value)?