Messages

61

Work In Progress / Re: How to create mods or cover the ufo mods for TFTD?

« on: February 18, 2017, 02:08:18 pm »

a) Check out this reference: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Ruleset_Reference_Nightly_(OpenXcom) - it is big and not always easily understandable, but it contains a list of flags etc. for coding the resources into the game
b) check out some mods to see how other people did it

drages, I haven't made any official mods, but for my own personal use, these two things were big in figuring it out. Just reading through the Wiki ruleset page can give you a lot of ideas on what is possible. And downloading and looking at other people's mods can be very hepful to understand the process and even serve as a template.

PS - I fixed the Ruleset_Reference_Nightly link. Solarius Scorch's link was broken as it missed the final parenthesis.

[Spoiler]

62

Released Mods / Re: MOD: Removing Cruise Ship/Shipping Lane terror mission from TFTD

« on: February 14, 2017, 10:50:09 pm »

You can also move away from the corner and approach it diagonally in order to trigger mutual surprise. I've got a video showing that here:

Spoiler:

I was unable to figure out how to run TFTD in OpenXcom. There doesn't seem to be an option for it, so I'm not sure what else to try.

Thanks for the tip on going around corners.  I had heard of "mutual surprise" but didn't exactly know what it was.

And if you want to play TFTD, you need to go to the Options, Mods, and then at the top where it says "Game Type" you select Terror From The Deep. Then hit "OK."

63

Playthroughs / Re: Fastest Game Over Ever

« on: February 14, 2017, 10:44:16 pm »

UFOs don't get points for "completing missions", mostly.
They get points for the time they are flying around and for time they are landed (2x as much).
Score from landed UFO recovery will easily outweigh a minor score loss due to UFOs flying for a little while longer.

Thanks for the explanation, I guess I didn't fully understand how they got points.

64

Playthroughs / Re: Fastest Game Over Ever

« on: February 14, 2017, 04:59:01 pm »

No, I mean I stop shooting down all UFOs, not just retaliation scouts.

If you don't shoot down normal UFOs, retaliation won't start until October 1999 (on Superhuman).

This doesn't cause issues with the scoring (aliens scoring too many points for completing missions) and funding and/or infiltration from the countries where you aren't shooting down the UFOs?

65

Playthroughs / Re: Perfect Terror Mission!

« on: February 12, 2017, 01:17:42 pm »

What difficulty level? I can't believe a Chryssalid didn't get to any of those civilians.

66

Released Mods / Re: MOD: Removing Cruise Ship/Shipping Lane terror mission from TFTD

« on: February 12, 2017, 01:16:12 pm »

Ah, all right then, that is true. I was going to say, if you really thought the mission was generally not "difficult" then I'd have to ask you the secret to your ways because those are damn hard for me. 

67

Released Mods / Re: MOD: Removing Cruise Ship/Shipping Lane terror mission from TFTD

« on: February 11, 2017, 12:59:08 pm »

If someone could fix all of the map bugs in TFTD, and make sure all of the aliens come out of hiding at whatever turn declares their aggressiveness to the max, then I think these missions would cease to be difficult.

I'm going to disagree on that last part, haha. Even without the hide-and-seek aspect, these are still very difficult missions due to the size and layout of the map (long hallways that the aliens can see down, but you can't), sheer number of aliens and the fact that it's a two part mission.

I have found them very difficult and I think only beaten it once, but so far I've only played it on Superhuman with no armor.

68

Troubleshooting / Re: Unequal LOS - what's going on here?

« on: February 11, 2017, 12:52:20 pm »

2. as far as I know, melee attacks don't trigger reaction-fire in openxcom

I think he means melee attacks that behave as reaction fire. For example, walking up to a Chryssalid to say hi and having it slash you in the face. This wasn't in the original game, but added in OXC. A very nice improvement IMO.

69

Troubleshooting / Re: Aliens pick up weapons?

« on: February 11, 2017, 03:31:40 am »

I can confirm that this feature does actually work, although not consistently at all. I've had at least one mission (TFTD terror mission on a ship) where a Tasoth who had panicked later picked up a weapon (I'll check later to see if I still have the save file). On those huge ship missions there is turn after turn after turn trying to find the last alien so he had plenty of time. Not sure if I've ever seen this work in UFO.

I like you, have tested this trying to give aliens a chance to pick up weapons (leaving one at the feet after he had panicked) and yeah, it doesn't work most of the time. Not sure what the factors are that contribute to it working or not. I can't remember for sure, but I feel like I asked about this once before on the forum and maybe someone told me the aliens will run if they're in sight of an XCOM soldier rather than go for the gun? I can't remember where I asked about this.

Anyway, I also would support this mod being strengthened a bit to make it work more consistently. I agree with the previous posts that a disarmed alien (who doesn't have psi abilities) should go for a gun at all costs because otherwise what else is he going to do?

70

Work In Progress / Re: AI Aggression and Intelligence ranges?

« on: February 09, 2017, 09:25:16 am »

Thanks for the explanation. I always suspected that was the case, but didn't know 100% for sure. Note to self: You can run, but you can't hide.

71

Suggestions / Re: Choosing promotions?

« on: February 09, 2017, 09:23:17 am »

Sounds like rather than the ability to demote soldiers, it would have been more optimal to actually choose promotions at the end of a given mission when they become available (and not let you change them after that). Rather than a post-mission screen with a list of promotions, it'd give you a screen where you could choose to promote a given number of soldiers (based on whatever ranks are available).

But I imagine that would be very complex to code into the game and probably come with it's own set of issues/exploits I'm not considering. Plus, with that method, you'd have to make it an "option" rather than a common feature, because there are many who feel the same as me and wouldn't want to choose their own promotions.

Anyway, I applaud your efforts. Carry on.

72

Suggestions / Re: Choosing promotions?

« on: February 08, 2017, 01:08:18 pm »

This feature has now been removed from OXCE+.
Thanks to all potential future abusers and exploiters and all overly worried and excessively restrictive critics.

As a curious bystander, what happened, why are you removing it? This seemed like a really cool feature even if it's not something I'd use myself since I like promotions to be a surprise.

But I feel like I've heard a lot of other people lamenting that this feature wasn't available. What was the potential abuse/exploitation and why were people critical (especially since there was no reason they had to use it)? This has peaked my interest.

73

Work In Progress / Re: How to trigger a base defense mission?

« on: February 08, 2017, 12:58:20 pm »

Heck no!
In vanilla, I don't shoot down anything except Terror Ships with Chryssalids.

Everything else is much more valuable when landed.

Hmm, interesting. I always thought that was just really beneficial to attack landed supply ships and it was best to shoot everything else down because the aliens score points for "accomplishing their missions" and if you don't shoot them down they'll be more successful in turning countries against you. Also, I didn't think retaliation missions landed anyway (and if you have a hyperwave decoder you know what type of mission the UFO is on)?

74

Work In Progress / Re: How to trigger a base defense mission?

« on: February 08, 2017, 12:28:52 pm »

Of course, if you shoot down everything that searches for your base, they won't find you.... duh.

Well then why do others have them "fairly easily" as you say? Do you not shoot down all detected UFOs that you can?

I don't shoot down the "very large" craft, but they aren't always the ones doing the retaliation searching and even when they do, they often fly right over my base without detecting (as there is only a chance of detection, not a guarantee).

75

Work In Progress / Re: AI Aggression and Intelligence ranges?

« on: February 08, 2017, 10:34:40 am »

If any alien sees one of your units, all of them see it. Their intelligence then determines how fast they forget that. Even with an intelligence of zero, they still can remember for one turn. This means if your whole squad is hiding in the same place and an Ethereal with intelligence 0 successfully mind controls any of your units every turn, they can keep making attempts because they can still see your whole squad. They have to fail for an entire turn to forget your squad.

In practice, I find any intelligence value above 2 is essentially infinite: once you've been seen they always know where you are.

I've always wondered about this. By "remembering" your position, does that mean that all the alien units remember where you WERE or do they know where you ARE? Like if I'm spotted, and move away and hide, is that pointless since they automatically know where I am even if it's far away from where I was spotted?

Based on my experience I assume they remember where you ARE even if you move because there have been times when I thought I'd be successful in running and hiding, but I'm found immediately anyway and it seems unlikely the AI would have just happen to walk to the random corner where I was.