Messages

136

OpenXcom Extended / Re: Meridian's resources and mods for X-PirateZ

« on: November 24, 2016, 11:10:47 pm »

Meridian, I noticed that after a mission, if the live containment facilities are full you get the option to transfer the excess captives to another base, but the same is not true if your stores are full. Perhaps this could be added? I think it would be a useful addition especially in light of the fact that when containment is full you get to transfer captives AND equipment.

137

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: November 24, 2016, 10:37:04 pm »

I have another round of fiddly nitpicks.

- Ghoul Scientist: "The 'Scientist'" should be "The 'Scientists'", "abhorring" should be "abhorrent".
- Imp Demon: "with seemingly" should be "with a seemingly".
- Possessed Sarge: "arguing to be" should be "arguing that to be", "had clearly female" should be "had a clearly female".
- Auto-Ax: "Yet another proof" is fine per se, but the next sentence treats "proof" as an uncountable noun so "Yet more proof" is a better fit.
- Light Craft Weapons: ""and better stock" should be "and you'd better stock".
- #062: "Eyes can deceive you" should be "Your eyes can deceive you".
- Church Warmaiden: "called Maidens" should be "called the Maidens", "of Church's" should be "of the Church's", "Maiden's training" should be "The Maiden's training", "Maids" should be "Maidens", "of all Church's" should be "of all Church" (given space constraints).
- Gnome Tome #*: All commas between "type of gnome" and "who" should be removed.
- Gnome Tome #6: "she choose" should be "she chose".
- Test Flight: "crafts" should be "craft".
- Ancient Log AC06-B5: Felt the need to edit this a little for readability:

      STR_HISTORY_010_UFOPEDIA: "After Earth was flooded with alien artifacts, given to governments by the Star Gods or left after the Majestic 12 were dissolved, a vibrant black market for these goods soon emerged. This was initially a vast, global network of ruthless individuals who knew where to get the alien stuff and how to sell it well. This network was an arena of struggle between several criminal cartels, and the last one standing was known as Osiron. Thus, Osiron became the biggest player on the alien artifact market, both clandestine and legitimate. Then at some point they were approached by the Star Gods themselves, who offered them a deal: Osiron would stop trading psi tech, and the Star Gods would express gratitude with a steady supply of their devices. Moreover, Osiron would hold the exclusive right to develop psionic abilities, as well as manage wild psions by training or eliminating them. Osiron agreed and the Psi Academy was opened.{NEWLINE}Over time Osiron invested more and more in the Psi Academy, which eventually gained so much power that it gradually overgrew Osiron. The Academy by this point was ruled by an order of female Espers who spoke for themselves, while Osiron survived as their subordinate order."

- Catgirl: "Smuggler's" should be "Smugglers'", "scratching-proof" works better as "scratch-proof".
- Swimsuit (Sea): "out all" should be "of all"
- The Solar Governor: "get hold on all the passes" should be "get hold of all of the passes".
- Basic Engineering: "knowledge how" should be "knowledge on how".
- Dark Ones Summary: Suggest rephrasing of "I've ordered butchering of its fresh corpse" as "I had its fresh corpse butchered".
- Marsec Operative: "Trade Guild's military department, the" should be "The Trade Guild's military department,".
- Humongous Raider: "the Raider parties" works better as simply "Raider parties". Also, the last comma is best removed.
- Master's Cane: As "60% = Mastery*0.012" makes no sense, I suspect that should be a +.
- Better Tranquilizers: "given our knowledge" should be "given us knowledge".
- Marsec: "Under Star Gods'" should be "Under the Star Gods'", "an authority" should be "the authority", "protect Guild's" should be "protect the Guild's"
- Zero-G Missions: "the orbit" should be simply "orbit". Suggest rephrasing "there's the least interference with our Cloaking Devices" as "that's where our Cloaking Devices suffer the least interference". Also, this article is too long, the last sentence is not readable.


The following strings are fairly visible when inspecting items with middle-click, but have no translation. Suggest:

      STR_DIRECT_DEPENDENCIES: "Dependencies"
      STR_LEVEL_2_DEPENDENCIES: "Secondary Dependencies"
      STR_LEVEL_3_DEPENDENCIES: "Tertiary Dependencies"
      STR_LEVEL_4_DEPENDENCIES: "Quaternary Dependencies"
      STR_END_OF_SEARCH: ""

- Sniper Armor: It seems inconsistent to refer to negative "encumb" here while everywhere else this concept is treated as positive "carrying capacity". Suggest changing it to "+7 Carrying Capacity".
- Sniper Rifle PS clip manufacturing title is incorrect; it claims 12x5 but each clip only holds 10 rounds.
- It seems odd that the WP mortar shell has a blast radius of only 2 tiles while the WP grenade has a radius of 3.
- There's an issue with the stairway leading to the roof on the mall map tile; the roof extends over the upper-most tile of the stairway.

138

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: November 21, 2016, 09:24:21 pm »

Yeah, I guess. Consistency, I guess, since the paedia makes diligent mention of this everywhere else.

139

XPiratez / Re: Bugs & Crash Reports

« on: November 21, 2016, 08:29:26 pm »

Hey. I've made a list of small issues I've come across so far (all still in the early game so far).

First, the grammar nazi section.
- Angel of Death: typo "ciivilians"
- Crate of Violence: typo "wider area that you'd think"
- Red Codex: "unlock ship's armory", should be "the ship's armory"
- Green Codex: "unlock Hull's medical facility", should be "the Hull"
- Red Revolution: "the evil" should be simply "evil"
- Contact: Smugglers: "the space" should be simply "space"
- Electro-flare: typo "nigh-gem"
- Recruit: Warriors: typo "Standarized"
- Contacts: Ship Junkyard: typo "crafts"
- Hidden Expanse: "worship Deep Ones' gods" should be "the Deep Ones' gods"
- #007: "make a break" should me "take a break"
- #056: typo "TU's"
- #058: pretty mangled overall. Suggest phrasing: "There is nothing shameful about the human body, yet there's a time and a place for everything."
- Bikini (Sea): "offers least" should be "offers the least"
- Eurosyndicate: "neither of which" should be "none of which", alternatively "none of whom".
- California Republic: typo "Allmighty"
- Forgery: "need to figure out yet" should be "have yet to figure out", alternatively "haven't figured out yet".
- Plastasteel Munitions: "Replacing the bullet mantle" should be ""By replacing the bullet mantle".
- Spartan Lieutenant: "without questions" should be "without question"
- Phobos Hits the Charts: There's a full stop at the end that shouldn't be there.
- Chem Grenade: This says "Demolitions: 100%", should that be +100%, as with the pickaxe?
- Ghostgates: "death-like state" should be "a death-like state", "a notion" should be "the notion" and "less so" should be "let alone". Moreover fully the second half of this article is one long, rambling sentence that meanders from one subject to another. and has little coherence. Suggest the following rewrite:

STR_GHOSTGATES_UFOPEDIA: "Rumours say the country is haunted, and if you take a wrong turn, you could find a vampire or worse. Legend has it, just after conquering the Earth, the Star Gods had to curb excess population levels of that time, so they resettled billions of people from the whole Euroasia onto the isolated subcontinent, only to destroy them with a host of nasty plagues, some killing outright, some causing slow agony, some putting people in a death-like state or doing even more bizarre things. While the notion that there could ever be a billion people living on the planet (let alone multiple billions) seems a bit of a stretch, Ghostgates is lush enough to make it plausible. However it also is definitely spooky, with its endless old boneyards and ruins, and its silent, big-eyed inhabitants, living in dozens of disparate counties and towns. Not to mention that the five aristocratic families of old, who have the right to elect the local Patriarch, could well be the vampires of legend judging by their looks and decadence."

Some other assorted things.
- The White Shambler disassembly numbers are wrong. They show 5/12/4 for the live specimen and 3/9/6 for the corpse. The final number is swapped between the two.
- Some grenades, including Willie Pete, Stun Grenade and Frag Grenade appear in the upper corner of a tile instead of the center.
- I think armors with "standard" inventory space, such as the Warrior Armor, should still show 25/25 in the description to avoid confusion. Personal preference.
- There is no "Skill" description for the Hammer, Chainsaw, and grenades-as-weapons items. These use ranged fire modes, but are not based on Firing Accuracy so I think the paedia should mention that.
- Integrated Devices counts as "Them", should probably be "Treasure".
- Ditto with Imp Corpse, Megascorpion Carcass. (Dark One Corpse and Demon Corpse are Treasure).
- Bad Touch benefits from kneeling bonuses. Seems unintentional, though I'm really not sure about that one.
- Suggest rephrasing STR_OK_5_SECONDS to "Aye - 5 secs", because it feels like an omission to leave it as default.
- [Edit] I also found an issue with the Pachyderm map. The starboard support is walkable:

(note also the misaligned Willie Pete in that image)

140

OpenXcom Extended / Re: Meridian's resources and mods for X-PirateZ

« on: November 18, 2016, 11:53:41 am »

Another humble request:
Could we get hotkey in most screens to open the ufopaedia. "u" isn't bound to much on many screens (buy/sell, for example) and it'd be nice sometimes to be able to consult it. The middle click giving a list of item use on the sell screen is great, btw.

Speaking of which, middle click on items in the stores menu (accessed from the base overview) currently does nothing. I think there's an opportunity there also.

141

OpenXcom Extended / Re: Meridian's resources and mods for X-PirateZ

« on: November 17, 2016, 10:10:02 pm »

There is a setting, but it doesn't affect the buttons in the soldiers menu.

142

OpenXcom Extended / Re: Meridian's resources and mods for X-PirateZ

« on: November 17, 2016, 06:47:01 pm »

Hi Meridian,
OXC allows you to re-order soldiers in the craft crew menu by using the mouse wheel on the up/down buttons. OXCE+ adds the same buttons to the main soldiers menu, but the mouse wheel does not work on these. Is it possible to add that functonality?

143

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 0.4.2 alpha: Going Postal

« on: November 07, 2016, 09:44:23 pm »

Just tried this mod for the first time, and I found this:



My man managed to get up there, but he can no longer get out because there's a floor where the stairs should be! Mysterious!
Seriously though I have no idea if this is a known or even already-fixed issue, but I figured I'd report it anyway. Apologies if I'm being redundant.

144

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: November 07, 2016, 03:56:25 pm »

OK, I'll give them a nerf in clip size. The explanation was that the "bullets" are quite small, but maybe they need relatively bigger magazines?

Yeah, I figured that. I was also thinking about maybe nerfing accuracy or power instead, but that just doesn't make much sense. There's no reason why they should be less accurate than early game weapons, and their power is what they're all about.

The problem with X-Com lasers is that they're generally inaccurate. So I'm not sure what can be done without making it more accurate or powerful...

Agreed, really. The lasers are about being mediocre BUT generally better than early game weapons. My gripe is mostly that the nuclear lasers came into play well past their time to shine, but that might have been due to bad luck and/or poor research priorities on my part. Stats wise I think they're probably where they need to be.

Some upgrades are possible, but there are some technical limitations... For example you can't give bigger weapons to Mutons only (you can in OXCE+, which is what I've done). I'll think about it too.

I've been keeping an eye on OXCE, once it's brought up to speed with the nightlies it might be worth looking if some of its features can be used for FMP. Some of the alien races could do with a little more diversity I think - particularly the Chtonites and Waspites don't feel much different than, say, Anthropods or Floaters. We'll see.

145

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: November 06, 2016, 08:47:18 pm »

So during my FMP game, I've made a few tweaks in a submod to fix some perceived issues. My submod currently reads:

Code: [Select]

items:
  - type: STR_LASER_PISTOL_MIB
    accuracyAuto: 38
    accuracySnap: 65
    accuracyAimed: 80
    tuAuto: 25
    tuSnap: 20
    tuAimed: 30
  - type: STR_NUCLEAR_LASER_PISTOL
    accuracyAuto: 38
    accuracySnap: 65
    accuracyAimed: 80
    tuAuto: 25
    tuSnap: 20
    tuAimed: 30
    listOrder: 3480
  - type: STR_GAUSS_PISTOL
    accuracySnap: 55
    accuracyAimed: 80
    tuSnap: 21
    tuAimed: 35
  - type: STR_NUCLEAR_LASER_RIFLE
    listOrder: 3485
  - type: STR_NUCLEAR_HEAVY_LASER
    listOrder: 3492
  - type: STR_SCATTER_LASER
    autoRange: 30
  - type: STR_PHOTON_BLADE
    listOrder: 1910

I made tweaks to the laser pistols and the gauss pistol, because after researching these, they felt pretty useless and a waste of research. Especially the gauss pistol is slower AND less accurate than the magnum, while doing pretty much the same damage as the magnum alloy ammo. This is bad, because to get to the gauss pistol you need to invest a significant amount of time, while the magnum is available from the start. I brought the accuracy and TU cost in line with the magnum, and now it feels like a modest upgrade to the hand cannon type sidearm. Similarly, the tweaks to the laser pistol make it a fair upgrade to the regular pistol. I did not touch the rail pistol, because it does so much more damage than any other sidearm, so worse performance there is fine.

The scatter laser got its auto range upped to 30, to match the minigun. I think this is fair, as it is written up to be a laser version of the minigun, and frankly without this change I would never even consider using it.

I also added/changed the list orders for some items that didn't have one, particularly the nuclear laser weaponry, and moved the photon blade up with the rest of the melee weapons.

Now, I'm still not happy with a few things. First and foremost is the way the rail weaponry unlocks. The entire arsenal becomes instantly available once the master rail weapons tech is unlocked, which is weird because you have to separately research every single other weapon in the game. Yes, they're supposedly improved versions of the gauss weapons, but the nuclear lasers are improved versions of the MiB lasers, and you don't get those free either.

Next, I think the rail weapons are altogether too good. They have pretty much no drawback beyond being AP weapons (which isn't much of a drawback) while dealing absurd amounts of damage. I'm okay with them as top tier weaponry, but I'm thinking perhaps they should be a little less end-all. I'm thinking about lowering the amount of shots per clip. I've never ever had to reload a rail weapon, or indeed any weapon past the starting weaponry. It'd lend a bit of personality to the family, I'd say. Also: lose the auto-shot on the heavy railgun. The heavy class is rather defined by its high-damage, low rate of fire character, and I think an auto-shot doesn't fit the profile.

Moving on, I find that the laser weapons have gotten rather snowed under, compared to older versions of FMP. Moving up from MiB lasers to "proper" lasers is fine, but the nuclear family unlocks pretty late, well past gauss, and by then you don't need it anymore. The gauss family outperforms lasers in every way, and then not long after the railguns one-up the gauss weapons rather badly. This leaves the nuclear lasers nowhere (apart from the scatter laser, which is great).

This is especially true for the poor laser sniper rifle. I want to like it, I really do, but it's just such a bad weapon. It's the least accurate of all sniper rifles, AND it does less damage than even the tactical sniper rifle. The only weapon it outperforms is the basic sniper rifle, which is hardly difficult. I considered buffing it a bit, but... well. In the UFOpaedia it's written up as basically being a slightly souped-up laser rifle, and I suppose that's exactly what it is. Its current stats make sense. Alas.

One more thing I'd like to say about the weapons: it's a bit sad that the variety in weapons the starting arsenal provides is nowhere to be found in the other families. I wouldn't mind seeing improved cousins of the LMG and HMG for example. At least there's the scatter laser to take over from the minigun, and there's a laser shotgun (even though it's kind of crap).

Finally, given the longer game FMP offers, I think Elerium income should be lower. Because I went on so many missions I had Elerium coming out of my ears after a while. Especially the MiB were showering me with the stuff. I'd say reducing the amount per item to 25 would help keep things in check, and for myself I might go as low as 10. That said it would be nice if bases yielded a lot of Elerium, but I don't think there's an easy way to do that.

--- posts merged - Solarius Scorch ---

By the way, there's a small map error on the large storage facility. A wall behind a cabinet is missing.

146

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: October 18, 2016, 08:06:05 pm »

Well, I posted about it on the tracker, we'll see.

147

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: October 17, 2016, 11:55:34 pm »

I updated to the latest nightly today and got an error at the end of a mission. The error has to do with the recent changes regarding "missing mod content". The error:

[17-10-2016_22-47-29]   [FATAL]   A fatal error has occurred: Item STR_WEAPON_UNKNOWN not found
[17-10-2016_22-47-36]   [FATAL]   OpenXcom has crashed: Item STR_WEAPON_UNKNOWN not found

I inspected my save and there are 110 instances of "STR_WEAPON_UNKNOWN" in there, in the kill lists. Now, I don't know if this is a legitimate issue with the mod, or if this is the bleeding edge of OpenXcom itself that's causing the problem, but I figure I'd better bring it up here first, and if the mod's not the problem I can kick it over to the OCX bug tracker. Either way, it seems to be fine if I don't use the latest nightly.

I've attached my save. Just kill the last enemy to finish the mission and the error will pop up.

Edit: Forgot to mention, that save relies on a couple of small mods I made for myself, a custom version of the statstrings and a tweak mod to the FMP. Neither of them are really relevant here, it's just some adjusted numbers.

148

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: October 10, 2016, 01:03:41 am »

Yep, I think you're probably right on the RNG thing. Right after I posted that I got a whole bunch of large UFOs of varying types, heh. Still Sectoids though, but I suppose I'll just soldier on. Thanks anyway!

Apropos, the awards seem to be a little wonky here and there too. For instance, a lot of my people are getting the Taking Names award despite not meeting the criteria (several ranks missing from the list). I looked at the rule for that particular award though, and it seems to be written properly, so maybe this is an issue with the awards system itself. But oh well, I don't mind. I think the awards are great, and I'm not gonna complain if my soldiers get a few more of them.

149

Released Mods / Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

« on: October 09, 2016, 10:31:14 pm »

Hi. I'm playing 1.9.4a on the latest nightly and I'm seeing some weird issues:

Firstly, there seems to be very little variety in alien races. I'm in November 1999 and for months now all I've been seeing is MiB with a smattering of Sectoids from time to time. There were also Floaters and Anthropods early on and even a Reptoid UFO (once), but they disappeared. Now it's just mostly MiB. In 1.5.1 (the previous version I played) I was seeing a lot more races such as Mutons and Ethereals, but I haven't seen those at all so far. Also, all the UFOs I'm seeing are small, nothing bigger than that. The aliens also don't seem to be building bases. I'm really not sure what's going on here. Any advice?

Secondly, it is impossible to capture a MiB Commander. The reason for this is that, apparently, the Commander turns into a Coordinator when he is stunned. Notice the difference between a live and dead version of the exact same enemy:




This has got to be some kind of bug, right? It's not me doing something wrong, is it?