I've updated the concept with some prettier images (see above), I'm not sure if and when I'll follow this up, I'm still mucking around with integrating a shield unit.
Thank you for your responses, I'll investigate the suggested mods, if OXCE+ should feature L/R variables that'd be great, but it's no worry, tbh I'm just dipping my toes in modding atm, as I've been meaning to for a long time now.
Trying to make a mod that jazzes up the original art-work and adds some new elements that I think might complement the original design. This is all very pie-in-the-sky, I'm probably never going to put in the time for this.
===FAQ
Regarding active file-sharing (have a couple of pm (sorry I'm often logged out)), firstly there's actually not a lot to this all (There is very little existing sprite work (for the battlemap) and some stuff has been lost), secondly I'm not really rushing to release my half-baked stuff into the wild atm. I will maybe chuck some resources here for sharing -TBC-
===Setting 1998, an ocean is speculated to exist on Europa, human cloning is banned, TVs and computers have huge CRT displays, mobile phones and gameboy colors are a thing, internet is slow, technologically things are improving.
It is 1999, Yugoslavia & NATO are in conflict, Congo erupted into one of the bloodiest conflicts the year before, the Second Chechen War has just started (Putin now in power), China is rounding up the Falun Gong (soon for organ harvesting), intelligence services and gangs wage a shadow war (the CIA looking to track down bin Laden for a US embassy bombing).
As humanity focuses on tearing itself apart, it fails to look to stars, but in the stars something has taken notice of us.
(idea monthly history round-ups?? news articles)
===Faction (Concepts)
Wyrm(Snakemen): Serpentine(xcom2-esk), Slugs/Fiends(ufo-esk), Defiler (Chryssalid-esk) Weapons: Slugmen can drop (slugling)eggs on death, Summery: The Serpentine rule over the slug-men slaves, the Defilers are a parasite brought over from their homeworld.
Kratonians(Mutons): Chieftan, Warrior, Beserkers, Thralls (workers), Cyberthrall (floaters), Pit-tooth (Triscene), Waste-Horn (Reaper) Summery: Kratonians killed their own planet, famed galatic merceneries, hunters and gladiators, but many are sworn to the bidding of the Uniter, who is in contract with the Eldritch Red-Seers. Weapons: Auto-Shotguns, Blades,
Tasoth (Gill Man lore combined): Tyrant, Fighter (regular), Spawnling, Spawn & Hatchlings Weapons: Javalins(ranged on land, melee in water)
"Deep-Ones" (now 2x2 Lobster Men not divers): Goliath, Summery: Only fight in the depths, Guard end-game elements
Wielders of the Rousing Light Cult Diver, Cult Submarine (small explorer), Cult Dreamer, Cube Construct (Deep-one Ambassador) Summery: Want to cause the end of everything, the end-times, lead by a burning-bush-esk entity
Red Seers (Ethereals) Eldritch (Ethereal), Children of Faith (power-ranger teens), Chosen Mercs (mix of aliens), Human Thralls (psi-zombies) Summery: Want to stop the end of everything, would prefer to rule earth, may burn it clean, don't want to risk triggering the end times. Maybe less common, to stop escalation into psi-research, also with timed explosives they drop so they're harder to capture alive
Toliet Thoughts:
Spoiler:
Core Changes (less likely) Fatigue/PTSD System (using Mana-System or alternative) would give a reason to rotate people out other than wounds. Amputees & Scars, each soldier starts in a phase like a zombie, on "death" they move to a second phase like the Chrslid only it is a random impaired phase. (very unlikely to bother with this) Once "healed" they come crudely augmented with a prosthetic, they can can be augmented with a simple or advanced augmentation from a running-blade to a robo-foot. Reduced Throw, broadly reduced strength outside of power-armor. Maybe less actionpoints per turn for all, as it can feel silly having units dance around each other, or more reaction fire for everyone? Lower Inventory (Remove most backpacks (You're a rapid-response team, you're not hiking in)) Flying Power Armor replaced with flying Personal Armor (make it a trade off, less economic and more risk based) Base Escape not Defence?? You cannot hope to defend a base forever against an orbiting foe you need to get out of dodge. Alien Deployables (Using new Spawning) Alien weapon that launches scattered proximity mines would make people feel more powerless maybe than straight up killing a target Alien spider-egg-sac like weapon would be terrifying, scattered spawning of tiny spiders. Alien-leech thrower, both explosive and biting Player Deployables (Using new Spawning) Player deployable Turret, a static shooting civilian. Player Hologram deployable, creates target/bait for aliens Player deployable dogs, as civilians to keep from feeling like just another human agent If TFTD expanded content included... No backpack slot, replaced by air-tank "Shallows" missions the default armor allows you to float(fly) in "Depths" missions you are in a weighted suit and movement is restricted. Most enemies float Merge the concept of "Gill Man", "Aquatoid" & "Tasoth". Make a "Lobster Man" less cartoonish. "Deep One" & "Calcinite" replaced by human-traitors and "Sectoids" in suits. You basically can't throw anything underwater
Possible FactionsOLD EDITING
Spoiler:
AETOS (You (XCOM)) the eagle of Zeus, Anti-ExtraTerrestrial-Operation-Service, an orbiting object fell into Area-51 where it was taken for analysis, it was thought to contain a relay to Mars, the probe contained organic material, it was alive, after years of study the probe was asking to be taken to our leaders, it was taken before the UN council, it engaged in a conversation, it demanded surrender, the council refused, the probe relayed the refusal, and sent back a response, and started shooting council members. -Possible Mission defending Council- One year later a barrage of shots hits major urban areas, and observable military targets, the world is thrown into chaos, and in desperation the UN is indefinitely granted total power. A number of probes were also sent, some infiltrate and undermine the earth's economy, others simply carry out assaults. A larger mass approaches earth's orbit
UN Forces (Civilian) [Medium] Note: The targeting of all earth's national militaries triggered a pact you can choose to support (Unlocks; UN Lasers, UN Adv-Alloys, ect, on market). Note 2: Support will leak out into traitor factions such as Advent. Advanced UN Trooper: (Unlocks when you share technology) A trooper in UN cyan, armed with laser rifle and advanced-alloy armor. UN Trooper: A trooper in UN cyan, armed with an assault-rifle and helmet.
Advent Cultists [Low Priority] Cultist Member: Members of the cult of Advent, swamped in brown, symbolising their lowly status. Cultists of Red Cloth: The warriors of the cult, they police the meetings, and occasional inserections. Cultists Speaker in White: The men who claim to have spoken with the Eldritch. (Hat with Eldritch eye) Cultist Martyr: A man in motley with a strapped on IED
Transhumanist Protesters [Lowest Priority] Note: It is bad to shoot down protestors, as they are only guilty of being misled Instigating Protester: Protesters that came for a fight, they have gas-masks and sticks. Emboldened Protester: Protesters caught up in the violence, they chuck stones and throw punches, but little else. Emboldened Protester with sign: Protesters with signage conveying things like; "Love thy Neighbor signs", "Give talk a chance", "Change", etc.
Rage/Spice Dealers [Low Priority]
An addictive hallucinogen (Stella-X/9D/Spore), and the powerful steroid (Rage/Zulu/Amber), appear on markets, rarely concentrated, often cut with conventional drugs... Zulu is thought to be manufactured in West-Africa, it is then shipped to Mexico and distilled with Crystal-Meth to form an amber-crystal... "The Mexican Laboratory" is an underground facility run by gangsters come death cultists of "Santa Muerte"... "The West African Distribution Facility" is run by Shaka, he maintains an army of child-soldiers... The Facility is where the product is taken, they grow crystals on the splines of the living...
The shipments of Spore are equally nefarious and come from Advent, they use human cadavers to feed the psychedelic mushrooms
Thoughts: Zombie like addicts could be featured, drugs could be used to upgrade troops (perm/temp) These drugs could be made synthetically (by xcom), but it's much harder than growing them on human livestock, as the organisms tailor themselves to their host. Some of the drug pushing is made to undermine the economy of earth's resistance, a little like China's opium crisis undermining their efforts at resisting the british.
Mantoid [Medium] Note: A flying xeno baring passing resemblance to a mantis or locust, fairly intelligent if short-lived creature, fairly erratic species by human standards. Mantoid Swarm: A dangerous and ravenous swarm of insects hard to kill without a broader projectile Mantoid: A drone in the middle of its lifespan, it projects a corrosive acid towards its foes Mantoid Carrier: A female Mantoid that will cling to a foe and explode, spawning a Mantoid-Swarm Mantoid Gelded: A rare form of Mantoid less prone the the suicidal urges of other Mantoid, they will often rid themselves of most of their anatomy, but they are still by nature driven towards the preservation of the Mantoid race
Kratonian [Higher] Kratonian Chieftain: A leader of his tribe Kratonian Long-Tusks: Elites of the tribe Kratonian Grunts: Standard Troops Kratonian Thralls: Fallen warriors, often challengers punished with the conversion. Only in this state can a Kratonian control himself enough to fly. Kratonian Bloodluster: Gladiatorial-esk berserkers, affected by a mental-disease the Kratonians sought fit to retain
Deep-Ones [Medium] Notes: I'm thinking a lobsterman would be way way cooler if he was a 4 tile beasty, and that they held the key to the final mission. Deep-One Ancient: Huge monster with an energy-shield, uses shotguns, explosive slugs, and claws Deep-One: Huge monster that uses shotguns, explosive slugs, and claws Red Bio-Drone: An exploding jellyfish Blue Bio-Drone: A mind-controlling jellyfish
Slogutis/Wyrm [Medium] (Snakemen) Notes: Snakemen are a little generic, I'm thinking in my take they'll be depicted as blind, perhaps with bat-like ears, and then that can be tied into them being much weaker to sonic damage. Slogutis Matriarch: Breaths fire, attacks with tail Slogutis Drone: Similar to now but cosmetically different, maybe uses a polearm (ties in with guarding a queen) Slogutis Drone (Fertile): A sneaky variant that on death releases offspring. Slogutis Offspring: A nasty snake-like beast that spills from the corpse of its father.
Geminae [Higher] Notes: I'd like to make them appear smaller than Sectoids, they eat till they throw up an egg-sack, the embryo takes DNA from what they eat. Geminae Ethereal: Geminae that are psionically gifted Geminae Soldier: A Geminae in a light alloy power-suit Geminae Drone: The majority, they use pistols, or light variants of rifles Geminae Egg Sack: Pops on proximity releasing the following... Geminae Hatchling: A smaller, but well developed drone, only armed with its claws
Thanks to everyone that has commented so far, i'll hopefully have something up soon eventually.
Meh, well there's what I managed in 3dsmax, I don't know how much desire there is for it, if someone will use something of the like I might have time to do the hover tanks and flesh out the mesh a bit.
Sure, you've got to clean up after it though. Yeah the it does look a bit cute, maybe squishing it down a bit more flat will make it look more grow-up.
I can't speak for all the values you've posted, but I've been scrolling through the forums a while trying to find something that adds a fatigue system. I think it'll prevent power creep, by "forcing" players to expand their ranks, and it nicely humanizes the troops a tad.
I'm uncertain if moral-debuffs will simulate weariness well, it almost seems that the mental and physical stain on a weary soldier are not the same as a panicking one. So maybe Accuracy/Psychic-Resistance/Time-Units/Etc are better simulators.
Would love to see it regardless though, and I love the idea seeing dying civilians and squad-mates die impacts troops long/longer term
Apologies, misinterpreted the subject , Arthanor has summarized my suggestion pretty well, I saw this and was reminded of how upon a UFOs detection the list of aircraft you can send is not ordered helpfully. I was suggesting that if the aircraft were ordered by distance from said UFO a player could forgo centering on the UFO and etc. As mentioned not relevant to this topic and poorly worded.
What might be really nice following on from this is if the closest interceptors were listed higher in the list, so if a ufo is in England, the craft in Europe are higher than the craft in your first base and craft elsewhere, and vice versa
My big gripe with original xcom is the ufopedia images, and lore, never seemed as cool as I thought it could be, so I'm enjoying re-imagining what units, races and rosters could be in one game. For instance combining floaters and mutons, combining some TFTD units, changing snakemen to have swarming units.
I've been busy with my retail job, but I recently saw a TFTD stream, and since I had some free time I wanted to improve on some of the stuff I made prior. I'm not so sure what I'm doing with this, I tend to get bored doing sprite-sheets and such. I'll put together my concept and go from there. I'm kind of thinking I'd like to mitigate the end game advantage you gain from loot, that renders creating your own equipment silly, and curb the blaster-bomb psionic fest on higher difficulties.
Up to date Drawings...
I'm pretty happy with most of the units drawn, I may revamp some of the weaker looking portraits. Let me know if there's anything you particularly like,
Notes
Spoiler:
I like the idea of the muton's getting a big dinosaur unit from their homeworld.
Ethereals I kind of want to make less hands on and a bit more strange, haven't really settled on how that might look.
Sectoids I like the idea of giving them a limited weapon pool of small-arms, with melee bio-drones, rather than the saucer or sectopod (on normal missions at least).
Chryssalids I like the idea of them being a separate race, with less well armored "nymph" units born from zombie hosts, but I don't know how that'd fit in.
Advent/New-Terran-Allience Is kind of a race I'm toying around with the idea of, but I think a cyberman unit might be cooler.
I kind of like the idea of sonic weapons being like high level shotguns, with stun damage.
Ethereal Flock Ethereal: a tall fragile creature with a large 3rd eye, able to perceive every known light-spectrum, it uses great psi-strength to tackle its foes. Psi-Drone: Used as a hands-free blaster by the ethereals Toiler: A sectoid used for labor unworthy of the ethereals, they are meeker than other sectoids, most loose their will to live without their masters, due to their psionic fallibility, they are not trusted with ranged weapons, instead they use ceremonial-esk melee equipment to swamp hostile forces.
Neo-Terran Aug: Outside of x-com governments and corporations may be tempted by the offer of mercy and progress by the aliens on the basis of their absolute cooperation, it is rumored the bodies of many poor beggars have been torn apart, augmented, and then sealed in these powerful battle-suits.
The Collective Sectoid Conduit: A sectoid caste that provides direction for their cousins, it is only through them that the sectoids collective psionic ability can be channeled at foes. A strange recess indents their skull, Sectoid: A hive of intelligent yet individually stupid drones, the sectoid has only one orifice from which it consumes food, expels waste, and regurgitates its young, this is done asexually when they have over-consumed, it is perhaps no surprise they prefer easy to digest food, and in moderation. These are not perfect clones, rather the offspring feature elements of their parent's diet, human DNA not being uncommon in many. Bio-Drone: Human minds are useful for more than protein paste to the sectoid, their comparative robustness over the sectoid mind means with only a little lobotomization a serviceable general-assistance robot can be made, these small creations possess a spiteful assortment of close-quarters equipment and pack a small explosive device.
Concept Log
Spoiler:
Bunch of recent-ish concepts
Initially I really fancied having some miscellaneous stuff
Redesigned many of the armors, gave them pretty bad names and fiction that I'd want to scrap
I've started a new relatively hard modded campaign, exploding weapons etc, so I suffer a lot of losses. Which leads to a lot personal armor and power-armor having to be made from scratch with new resources.
A lot of X-com is essentially about salvage from wreckage, something that is at odds with our soldiers armor.
I feel that loss of life shouldn't render armor unsalvageable 100% of the time, rather in my opinion the armor should yield either a wreaked or compromised suit, that can be broken down or repaired.
i.e: Personal Armor[repaired] requires (Wreaked PA*2 + Resource/2) |or| (Compromised PA + Resource)
And connected to an extent is general salvage recovery via deconstruction, recovering a percentage of the resources it would otherwise cost to construct said item, for example plasma ammo.
Perhaps there's a mod out there like this, if so please let me know.
Hope you don't mind spam, my thinking would be MAG armour unlocks with more research into something like "advanced power armor", the Disruptor Armor would unlock with the Grav Shield though perhaps not through the spaceship.
o'right was wondering about this for a while now, thought it was a problem on my end, hope it gets resolved was hoping to have a play with the mods and tools.
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Knocked that up for fun if someone wants to use that as a template
, Arthanor has summarized my suggestion pretty well, I saw this and was reminded of how upon a UFOs detection the list of aircraft you can send is not ordered helpfully. I was suggesting that if the aircraft were ordered by distance from said UFO a player could forgo centering on the UFO and etc. As mentioned not relevant to this topic and poorly worded.
