Messages

46

Offtopic / Re: ???'s about state of Abandonware and sites like GOG.com

« on: November 10, 2014, 12:36:12 pm »

TaxxiDriver : There is also forum for running older games here: https://www.vogons.org/

Wow.

Whole bunch of information. Very impressive  Thanks a lot! I was always curious about the Openglide stuff so maybe I should check...

(searching)

47

Suggestions / Re: Soldiers to recruit.... elite....

« on: November 10, 2014, 12:29:41 pm »

Warboy1982
That's why I said that this system should be balanced and possibility to hire veteran soldiers should appear not at the beginning of the game.

You can do it very easily by modifying the ruleset. Open Xcom1Ruleset.rul and check here.

Code: [Select]

soldiers:
  - type: XCOM
    minStats:
      tu: 50
      stamina: 40
      health: 25
      bravery: 10
      reactions: 30
      firing: 40
      throwing: 50
      strength: 20
      psiStrength: 0
      psiSkill: 0
      melee: 20
    maxStats:
      tu: 60
      stamina: 70
      health: 40
      bravery: 60
      reactions: 60
      firing: 70
      throwing: 80
      strength: 40
      psiStrength: 100
      psiSkill: 16
      melee: 40
    statCaps:
      tu: 80
      stamina: 100
      health: 60
      bravery: 100
      reactions: 100
      firing: 120
      throwing: 120
      strength: 70
      psiStrength: 100
      psiSkill: 100
      melee: 120

Just lower the maxStats as you wish and now veterans would be a real veteran (no startup veterans). I'm thinking of putting the max reaction to 50 and accuracy to 50 in my next playthrough. This would also lower the variance of the distribution of stats so one would not (or less ) complain about the gambling property of buying soldiers but still maintaining the diversity of soldiers, hopefully 

48

Offtopic / Re: ???'s about state of Abandonware and sites like GOG.com

« on: November 10, 2014, 12:16:50 pm »

Everyone said something worthwhile to think about. Just wanted to add one more thing: in the perspective of economics, the game that has been modified so that it can be run pleasantly in current computer systems is a totally different product compared to the old one which refuses so hard to be run in these days' computers. In my country, there are some decent old games which many old gamers eagers to play again. But since those games do not get a lot of attention worldwide, they don't seem to be revived in current systems, unfortunately. In this point of view, some considerate old gamers rather envy the well organized community such as GOG. I really don't know much about GOG, but just from what they are doing, I think they deserve more love.

49

Offtopic / Re: Longest game ever?

« on: November 10, 2014, 11:59:44 am »

Need to get back into my first OpenXcom game.  I think I'm on UFO 300 if not 600..  Won't stop playing when I can send more soldiers with low stats and low psi ability to their DOOM.

Man, that's sick  I can see the aliens are crying for the hopeless attacks 

I intentionally run my games long. I like the long struggle for dominance. I think clicking a button, killing a final boss and ending the game is a cheap way to win. I'm not satisfied until I've slaughtered THOUSANDS of aliens. I have to feel like I've won my planet back.

I'm looking forward to long games in OpenXcom. The sheer amount of customizability this project has added males my head spin. I can't wait for my weekend to start so I can tinker with it!

I think a lot of modders (moders?) are also trying (and already have done) to lengthen the game and make it more challenging. I'm also with that idea! Due to the whole lots of information so far gamers have gathered up, the vanilla one seems to become too easy for veteran players I'm not veteran but love challenges 

And for the last paragraph, yes so do I

50

Released Mods / Re: [FACILITY] Improved Living Quarters + Large Stores (updated 2.0)

« on: November 08, 2014, 03:33:30 pm »

Those can be found in the XenoOps mod fwiw 

along with a large psi-lab, a corridor and security station and mega hperwave and radar... 

Damn, really? I should have known that earlier...

51

Work In Progress / Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded - v1.02

« on: November 08, 2014, 03:17:34 pm »

Also, turning does not actually trigger reaction fire.  If one turns around to move, that'll definitely get them shot; but turning alone shouldn't cause reaction fire.

I think I mistakenly regarded kneeling as turing around  Thanks for the info.

52

Suggestions / Re: Soldiers to recruit.... elite....

« on: November 08, 2014, 03:09:03 pm »

I only registered here to say - YES WE NEED THIS MOD! ^__^ You see I have a personal problem in games like X-Com. I mean - games with retained crew that can be lost in battle. The problem is that loosing such soldiers usually is very critical for further gameplay. It's not just - oh, this soldier died, it's a shame, well nevermind, I'll replace it with not so good, but still pretty effective one. X-Com is not a Cannon Fodder or Alien Assault. Loosing veteran fighter here is very painful. And if you'll accidentally lose all veteran crew in one battle - it will be disaster. It's definitely one way load game situation. Especially on a higher difficulty settings. So I play X-Com that way - if I'll lose someone, I just loading the game. And must admit that it very extends walkthrough not in a good point of view. Game becomes a pain in the ass pretty soon in this case. So it would be wonderful if OpenXCom would have a mod that allows to buy more experienced soldiers or maybe train them pretty fast for a reasonable amount of money. Though there should some balance so these possibilities couldn't be used at the beginning of the game.

Experience cannot be bought with money. That's even true in real military life. I'm not really into history, but I know a few cases where operations failed or severed a great loss because of an inexperienced commander. This is also true for soldiers. You think it's funny when soldiers panick and go berzerk but actually a lot of soldiers are killed by other inexperienced comrades (literally, or by mistakes of them). Hell, just play close combat series and you'll at least understand what I mean. The fear is the worst enemy, indeed.

I find absolutely nothing wrong about losing a veteran soldier causing a serious trouble. Actually, XCOM is not harsh at all: you can easily get several good soldiers with 50ish reaction and 60ish accuracy after some gamblings and usually that's more than enough. That being said, I sort of agree to the point that since gambling is just too tedious, one should just be able to identify the stats beforehand(not totally, though). But if one just advocates this just because he doesn't want one of his soldiers being killed, the only conclusion I can make is that he is just not good at this game. I don't think it is a valid argument that others can agree on.

Nobody likes one of his operatives being killed. But inevitably someone should die. The word 'strategy' it itself implies that the game cannot be played by a single superhuman soldier, since if then nobody needs a strategy. What players can do is to reduce the possibility that the veteran units (if possible, every units) will be killed. The process of thinking itself brings a lot of fun in this type of game, IMHO.

Don't take this too hard, though. Everyone has his own way of playing games so play it as you wish. I'm just saying that I cannot agree with the logics you're using. Maybe you might be interested in several different LP series in the 'Let's Play OpenXCOM' section: they're quite fun to watch and also gives a lot of useful information 

For the main topic, I think it would critically depend on the combination of mods one is going to use, but in general if it becomes able to identify the stats beforehand, I think the maximum stat cap should be lowered from the current cap. Maybe reaction around 50 and accuracy around 50~60. Requiring more money won't be enough since after certain points nobody won't ever give a look at those inferior soldiers. We can also imagine there is a limited amount of those high-level soldiers and the stack is being refilled every month, but I think it will be quite tough to actually implement it 

53

Work In Progress / Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded - v1.02

« on: November 08, 2014, 02:25:00 pm »

Well, here are some of my modified rulesets heavily based on several different mods (thanks, everyone!) and some relevant information (I'm using the excel file to organize things: just adding things when I have some free time  ). I'm just messing with a lot of different rulesets and testing them so don't expect any quality 

I've modified a lot of different things and trying to rebalance everything as I play the game so I don't think explaing all of them are useful (anyway, what I want is Your mod's development  )

(1) I thought about two different approaches about weapon technology (since anyway I didn't want to throw out the Gauss weapons). First, giving them different traits so that they can be both useful even at later games. Second, setting up a general hierarchy. Actually, both approaches can be fulfilled at the same time. The difference comes from the weight one wants to put between them. I decided to put more weight into the second part, but I find no reason putting more into the first part is not equally viable.

(2) For the justification, well we always can find sound reasons to back up things, you know  I justify every mods when they can bring fun and challenge, simple that is. Technically, as I said before, I'm modifying the whole structure so that everything can go well with each other. For example, I'm going to increase the AP and HE resistance of later aliens so that the effectiveness of standard issues and Gauss weapons will dwindle as time passes by. It is really nothing but an option depending on my previous decision. So if you want to put more emphasis on the diversity of weapons, you might want to also diversify the armor types of aliens so that each weapon can make some voice even later on. Here comes the variety of mods 

(3) For the craft and craft weaopns, I think I need more experience about UFO battles. The hot potato is of course the avalanche. Due to its long range, I really didn't feel any reason to build a more durable craft. I'm going to change it drastically, but now I just need more experience and observations 

Hope it helps.

P.S. The buckshot ammo sometimes works and sometimes not. I guess it might be related with the range as you've said.

54

Work In Progress / Re: Maintenance order change

« on: November 08, 2014, 01:32:39 pm »

I'm really looking forward this change to be ultimately become a part of the official build soon. I'm already being sic'n tired of alternating the Geoscape and the base. I just have to say you've done a wonderful job, really 

Default have to be the vanilla order, by ruleset it could be resort

If it is not difficult, I also think it is a good option. I mean, at first I thought first refuelling was a cool idea, then I imagined what the engineers would say about that:



Commander: Damn, refuel the craft first! Don't you see those ******* UFOs out there?

Engineers: Sir, the craft has been severly damaged. We really canno...

Commander: Holy Crab!!! We anyway have avalanches so they are just cookies floating in the sky! Shut up and prepare the next flight within an hour.

Engineers: But what if the craft malfunctions...

Commander: GOD DAMN no craft ever malfunctions in XCOM! If I see that craft still having a makeup next hour, then your head won't look pretty, GOT THAT?



O' well, anyway my point was that it would be great (if possible) if the order can be rearranged by using simple rulesets since players can have different point of views. I personally think just splitting the mod into two parts so that one can independently choose the order and the immediate launch option is just enough 

55

Work In Progress / Re: [MAPS] YetMoreUFOs!

« on: November 08, 2014, 01:13:36 pm »

Do you have a save from that mission? Because you can enable debug mode (by setting "debug: true" in options.cfg), then in the game press Ctrl + D and the entire map will be revealed.

Thank you very much. The information was very helpful. I confirmed my hypothesis to be true: in fact, there were actually even two of them inside the closed hulls! It's very sad because it would havce been otherwise a very well designed ship.

56

Work In Progress / Re: [MAPS] YetMoreUFOs!

« on: November 08, 2014, 02:42:47 am »

I think I've found a very bad problem: encountered with a large ship and the battle didn't end for more than 100 turns. I've just searched every possible places and concluded that there might be some enemies inside the closed walls and that is the reason why the battle continues forever. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to plasma weapons so couldn't breach the walls and confirm the hypothesis should have got some breaching mods or something.

Also found a faulty wall, just for showing 

57

Work In Progress / Re: [Crafts][Weapons] XCom Armoury Expanded - v1.02

« on: November 07, 2014, 11:17:57 pm »

I do use your craft's mod but modified so that even gauss cannons can be useful. At that time I had an interceptor and an obstructor, and got very lucky so all of 12 avalanche missiles hit the ship  I wasn't expecting that.

I also deliberately extended the overall research time and changed the weapon hierarchy to standard-gauss-de-laser-e-plasma(modified the stats heavily, too...). So I was only holding gauss rifles (60 damage) in February. You can start researching laser weapon after you've got a live engineer and researched gauss weapon. I could have done that but just wanted to test all the weapons, and anyway to research laser rifle I have to research gauss rifle before that. I have to say the gauss weapons look very cool and I'm very satisfied with them  Also I nerfted the cyberdisc's HE resistance to 0.8 (and the remarkable thing I want to mention is that it was still a damn horrible monster, I'm serious).

Yeah, it was a hard mission and 2 scouts and about 4 squads died on the mission (it was the first mission I used the ship so I didn't know the feature of the ship and about half of them died on the first turn, so I just reloaded it  ). Drawing every reaction fires using scouts and using HE packs let me survive the harsh conditions. I think the loot was incredibly profitable (around 4 million?  )

I do like the side door feature but especially on large and very large ships, on superhuman difficulty, due to the increased number of aliens, the cases those were useful were significantly less than the cases those were rather harmful in my experience. Anyway if the front door is the only gate then scout drones or tank can draw some fires so Skyranger was actually more safe, ironically. But I also liked it since I don't have to pay the damn monthly payment, of course! I think I just have to copy the skyranger file and create a new ship that can be similary manufactured and it would be OK 

BTW is automatic door not possible? It would be REALLY REALLY REALLY lovely if those open spaces are replaced with automatic doors...

Oh, I forgot to mention this, but the grenade launcher's buckshot ammo still seems to be a problem for me. I think the previous remedy was only temporary  I think it's just because my laptop is not that good so never mind that, though.

58

Released Mods / Re: [FACILITY] Improved Living Quarters + Large Stores (updated 2.0)

« on: November 07, 2014, 02:46:26 pm »

It's a great mod! I'm enjoying a lot from this  Perhaps large workshops and labs would be also great.

59

Fan-Stuff / Re: You know it is monday when...

« on: November 07, 2014, 02:42:44 pm »

A Reaper got stuck there and took more than 20 taser shots to be stunned.

60

Work In Progress / Re: [MAPS] YetMoreUFOs!

« on: November 07, 2014, 02:31:25 pm »

Just found some strange terrains on which you just fall down. Maybe you already know but just in case All of those terrains were on the same UFO (I think it was a large or a very large ship).









P.S. The ship was one of the hardest one I've yet encountered with....