Messages

541

Help / Re: Randomized alien equipment?

« on: November 24, 2019, 11:24:09 am »

If I understand correctly how alienItemLevels: + itemSets: work is that:

(1)
The possible equipment loadout for each alien Rank on the UFO is defined in the alienDeployments: itemSets: section, example:

Code: [Select]

alienDeployments:
  - type: STR_MIB_SMALL_SCOUT
    data:
      - alienRank: 5
        lowQty: 3
        highQty: 6
        dQty: 3
        percentageOutsideUfo: 100
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
    width: 40
    length: 40
    height: 4

(2)
When a UFO mission's battlescape is generated depending how many months have passed ingame since the start of the game the corresponding line in alienItemLevels: is used to select one of 10 random values in a 10 dimensioned array. This value determines which of the itemSets: STR_ITEM_NAME groups is used.
(Or the last line in alienItemLevels: if the number of months past exceeds the number of lines written in the alienItemLevels: section.)

Code: [Select]

alienItemLevels:
  - [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
  - [2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
  - [2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2]

So for example if it was the second month using the above code example there would be a 50% chance of it being either item level 1 or 2.

If item level 1 was selected this would translate into all Rank 5 aliens carrying 1 Plasma Rifle & 2 Clips where as if the UFO generated using item level 2 all Rank 5 aliens would be equipped with 1 Heavy Plasma & 2 Clips.


Am I correct about this or does it randomly assign each alien equipment from an item set belonging to the current item level or lower when they are placed on the battlescape?
(My understanding is they all share the same assigned item level once it has been rolled during mission generation.)

I probably misunderstand the objective, but if your goal is to simply increase the range of possible weapons, why not simply increase the number of item levels? For example, I have 10 in the X-Com Files.

As you are suggesting I agree that expanding the alienItemLevels: + itemSets: to a total of ten would add more variation, example:

Code: [Select]

alienItemLevels:
  - [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

alienDeployments:
  - type: STR_MIB_SMALL_SCOUT
    data:
      - alienRank: 5
        lowQty: 3
        highQty: 6
        dQty: 3
        percentageOutsideUfo: 100
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
          -
            - STR_SMALL_LAUNCHER
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
            - STR_STUN_BOMB
          -
            - STR_BLASTER_LAUNCHER
            - STR_BLASTER_BOMB
            - STR_BLASTER_BOMB
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
          -
            - STR_LASER_RIFLE
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_LASER
          -
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
          -
            - STR_LASER_PISTOL
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
    width: 40
    length: 40
    height: 4
However all aliens of each Rank will share the same equipment when the item level is selected, and if membersRandom: is used to change the alien unit type of that Rank so that the UFO could have a Sectoid or Muton soldier they will still all share the same equipment with only the unit carrying it differing.


If instead of using alienDeployments: itemSets: the units: builtInWeaponSets: variables are used and the Sectoid soldier is assigned to have a Plasma Pistol for item levels 0,1,2 and the Muton soldier is assigned to carry a Plasma Rifle for item level 0 & 1 and a heavy plasma at item level 2, then the Rank 5 itemSets: would not be shared by both the Muton and Sectoid on the same UFO.

Additionally if several versions of each unit are created with different builtInWeaponSets: like below:
Sectoid Soldier (A) With Plasma Pistol
Sectoid Soldier (B) With Plasma Pistol & Grenades
Sectoid Soldier (C) With Plasma Rifle & Grenades
Muton Soldier (A) With Plasma Rifle
Muton Soldier (B) With Heavy Plasma
Muton Soldier (C) With Blaster Bomb Launcher

Then the alienRaces: membersRandom: variables could be used to randomly place different Rank 5 units that each have a different loadout, instead of all Rank 5 units sharing the same loadout on the same UFO.

If I've read the UFOpaedia correctly each time a unit is spawned on the battlescape using membersRandom: it is randomized so there could potentially be several different Rank 5 units on the same map.

(membersRandom)    Alternative to members. Instead of defining just a single unit type per alien rank, you can define any number of unit types here and one will be chosen randomly (each time a new unit is generated). To increase a chance of a certain unit type being selected, you can add it multiple times.

(Question)
Have I misunderstood how "alienDeployments: itemSets:" "units: builtInWeaponSets:" "alienRaces: membersRandom:" function?

542

OXCE Support / Re: (OXCE) SmokeThreshold: not preventing smoke from appearing?

« on: November 23, 2019, 06:57:34 am »

Looking on code I see that smoke can be generated when tile part is destroyed too. and it independent from "smokeable" of weapon.

Thank you that makes a lot of sense.

If a destroyed object also generates smoke then when an explosion occurs the smoke effects will be dynamically greater on a tile slot where a haybale was also destroyed versus one where only the dirt ground was damaged.

The complexity of X-Com continues to impress me.

543

Help / Randomized alien equipment?

« on: November 23, 2019, 06:43:29 am »

I'm trying to make it so that an alien soldier sometimes spawns with weapon (A) and sometimes with weapon (B).

So for example if an alien UFO held the following aliens:
Rank 0 - Commander
Rank 1 - Leader
Rank 2 - Engineer 
Rank 3 - Medic     
Rank 4 - Navigator
Rank 5 - Soldier
Rank 6 - Terrorist 1
Rank 7 - Terrorist 2

And there are 3 "Rank 5" Soldiers deployed, each soldier may be carrying a different weapon.

To achieve this my first thought was to use extraRandomItems: to grant that rank random weapons and leave their rank's itemSets: without weapons so the extraRandomItems: would be the sole source supplying them firearms.

In theory this would work, however only for weapons that do not require ammo as extraRandomItems: appears to only award one item from each list so unless the alien spawns with all possible ammo types their weapon will potentially be unloaded.


My other thought was to expand the number of Ranks so that there were more variants of a specific "Rank" then use lowQty, highQty & extraQty to make that enemy item set randomly appear by giving it a lowQty / highQty value of 0 with an extraQty value of X(Desired max number).

So it would look more like this:
Rank 0 - Commander
Rank 1 - Leader
Rank 2 - Engineer 
Rank 3 - Medic     
Rank 4 - Navigator
Rank 5 - Soldier
Rank 6 - Additional Soldier (A)
Rank 7 - Additional Soldier (B)
Rank 8 - Additional Soldier (C)
Rank 9 - Additional Soldier (D)
Rank 10 - Terrorist 1
Rank 11 - Terrorist 2


However if all of the soldier ranks can spawn lowQTy / highQty of 0 the UFO could be devoid of soldiers, and if I make it so each "Soldier" rank has a minimum value greater than 0 that just assures the deployment of the item set defeating the intended purpose of making it not always present.


I also considered trying to force the alien to spawn with the intended weapons using an attached weapon and the livingWeapon: setting, but my understanding is that would prevent it from accessing its inventory or dropping the weapon if the unit panicked.

The builtInWeaponSets: variable appears to be what I'm looking for as if I'm reading this correctly it will allow a randomization between several pre-defined item sets specifically referenced by that unit itself.

(builtInWeaponSets)    A set of lists of weapons this unit can come pre-equipped with. Game will pick one set "at random" (randomness comes from the current alien tech level definition). These weapons WILL appear in inventory slots (references items).

So if builtInWeaponSets: was used in combination with membersRandom: and the Rank 5 Soldier was configured to spawn either as a Sectoid soldier or a Muton soldier, builtInWeaponSets: could then be used to cause the Sectoid to spawn randomly with a Plasma Pistol or Plasma Rifle where as the Muton could be configured to only spawn with an Alien Launcher or Blaster Bomb. Do I understand this correctly?

(membersRandom)    Alternative to members. Instead of defining just a single unit type per alien rank, you can define any number of unit types here and one will be chosen randomly (each time a new unit is generated). To increase a chance of a certain unit type being selected, you can add it multiple times.

For example using builtInWeaponSets: there would be 3 different units of a Sectoid soldier with the only difference between them being the contents of the builtInWeaponSets: list:
A: Sectoid with Plasma Pistol | Plasma Pistol Clip
B: Sectoid with Plasma Rifle | Plasma Rifle Clip
C: Sectoid with Heavy Plasma  | Heavy Plasma Clip

Then membersRandom: would randomly deploy either A, B or C version of the Sectoid soldier every time a Rank 5 was placed in the UFO. So if a UFO had 4 soldiers in it they could potentially all be Rank 5 soldier but be carrying different equipment.


(Question)
Is this membersRandom: + builtInWeaponSets: the best method for setting up multiple potential loadouts for the same unit in a UFO without other aliens of the same rank sharing that randomized loadout, or is there a different way of doing this?

544

Work In Progress / Re: [WIP] Chronicles

« on: November 23, 2019, 05:28:48 am »

I recoloured the Power Armor from "War of Shadows" by Jackstraw2323 and the Snakeman Commander's Cloak that Duke_Falcon made, and then combined them to create a unit sprite sheet that could be used with Dioxine's wizard.

Not sure if it will be of any use but have fun with it if you desire.


Edit:
By the way, your Dark Tentacle hit animation is excellent.

545

Resources / Re: New Alien for use as player soldier

« on: November 23, 2019, 03:39:01 am »

This slug-ish looking alien reminds me of these guys from the old DOS game Commander Keen:

They do not look very threatening

With those eyes give it an increased visibilityAtDay: / visibilityAtDark: value and equip it with a high distance weapon and I'm sure it will start looking a bit more threatening soon enough.

Thank you for creating this new alien I'm definitely going to make use of it!



I also noticed there was a file called "screen000.jpg" included with lgm.zip which displayed some interesting weapons.

Would you mind also sharing the images for this Heavy Cannon and Machine Gun? If possible I would like to use them as well:

546

The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 1.0: Judgement Day

« on: November 23, 2019, 03:01:19 am »

OK, this is the day. After four years of modding, version 1.0 has been released.

It's a little belated but I just want to say: Congratulations on releasing V1.0 of The X-Com Files!

547

Released Mods / Re: [TFTD][WEAPONS] Expanded Gauss Arsenal

« on: November 09, 2019, 12:24:24 pm »

Is this compatible with TWOTS?

I'm not sure about the compatibility of Expanded Gauss Arsenal with The World of (terrifying) silence, if any items overwrite a TWOTS equivalent it will still most likely be fine. Research and manufacturing paths could cause more of a headache depending on how TWOTS is setup.

I don't think it will cause a serious problem to try running both at the same time, just make sure that The World of (terrifying) silence is setup to load before Expanded Gauss Arsenal in your mod menu so that its changes take priority.

Additionally:
The two links in this thread's first post for the Mod's files appear to be dead, fortunately SupSuper has provided an alternate source for them here:
Old Mod Portal Archive
https://openxcom.org/download/oldmods/ExpandedGaussArsenal1.0_GhTZtYSM.zip
https://openxcom.org/download/oldmods/ExpandedGaussArsenal1.1_3dW1zot9.zip

For the sake of archiving I'll also attach a copy of V1.0 & V1.1 to this post.

548

Resources / Re: Neoworm Sprites dump

« on: November 07, 2019, 05:46:59 pm »

Tried if it would fit X-Com... and it kinda does. 8 rotations, 4 frames of animation + dead sprite. Inventory and Ufopedia will be easy. So another thing to finish later.

Alright I did what I could about correcting the palette for use with X-Com: Enemy Unknown.


Unsplit version: (This will not work in OpenXcom, you need the below split one.)



Split version that should be ready for use: (Use: drawing routine 12)





Considering I started with these corrupted images I don't think it turned out too bad.

Corrupted unsplit version:


Corrupted split version:

549

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: [Suggestion] Night/Day Indicator

« on: November 06, 2019, 10:10:16 am »

I think it is a good idea.

The three places I can think of it being displayed are potentially...


During the landing prompt:


The mission briefing:


The initial equipment phase:




Personally I think it would be best on the Mission Briefing screen. There is enough space at the bottom of the text and a text message potentially would be easier for modding than a displayed image.

If the message assigned to the current light level displayed on the Mission Briefing screen is a modifiable text STR then, if OpenXcom is not running one of the base campaigns, regardless of the mods style each light level could have a different message to suit it.

Judging by the UFOpaedia: Ruleset Reference Nightly's Alien Deployments section there are 16 settings for "shade" with 0 being full daytime and 15 being full nighttime. So there would need to be 16 text strings, example:

Code: [Select]

shadeMessage0: "Light Level 0"
shadeMessage1: "Light Level 1"
shadeMessage2: "Light Level 2"
shadeMessage3: "Light Level 3"
shadeMessage4: "Light Level 4"
shadeMessage5: "Light Level 5"
shadeMessage6: "Light Level 6"
shadeMessage7: "Light Level 7"
shadeMessage8: "Light Level 8"
shadeMessage9: "Light Level 9"
shadeMessage10: "Light Level 10"
shadeMessage11: "Light Level 11"
shadeMessage12: "Light Level 12"
shadeMessage13: "Light Level 13"
shadeMessage14: "Light Level 14"
shadeMessage15: "Light Level 15"
Depending on the flavor of the mod the text could be set to instead read something like:
shadeMessage15: "It is pitch black."


shadeMessage0-15: is kind of messy and static, perhaps instead of individual variables an indexed array could hold all of them like this?

(I'm not sure what the YAML code for this is, so I'll just give an example in pseudocode.)

Code: [Select]

shadeMessage: [ 0,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_0 ]
shadeMessage: [ 1,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_1 ]
shadeMessage: [ 2,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_2 ]
shadeMessage: [ 3,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_3 ]
shadeMessage: [ 4,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_4 ]
shadeMessage: [ 5,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_5 ]
shadeMessage: [ 6,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_6 ]
shadeMessage: [ 7,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_7 ]
shadeMessage: [ 8,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_8 ]
shadeMessage: [ 9,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_9 ]
shadeMessage: [ 10,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_10 ]
shadeMessage: [ 11,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_11 ]
shadeMessage: [ 12,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_12 ]
shadeMessage: [ 13,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_13 ]
shadeMessage: [ 14,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_14 ]
shadeMessage: [ 15,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_15 ]
That could potentially give more flexibility for future dynamic altering of each light levels assigned STR mid game via scripting. As the currently assigned STR to each value of shadeMessage: could be swapped out at some point during the game based on events/research/equipment/etc.

(As I'm not really sure how the code is currently written this is all just speculation.)


Here is an example of what I mean.

It is night, X-Com has not deployed flares/etc pre-mission:

shadeMessage: [ 15,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_15_No_Light ]

It is night, X-Com has deployed flares/etc pre-mission changing the light level in the mission in some way:

shadeMessage: [ 15,STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_15_Light ]


STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_15_No_Light: "It is pitch black"
STR_SHADE_MESSAGE_15_Light: "It is dark but our floodlights are providing limited illumination of the area."



EDIT:
My guess is that another important use for this would be if an alien deployment was overriding the geoscape's light level using minShade: & maxShade: variables the player could be informed of the potentially unexpected situation.

550

Work In Progress / Re: [UNFINISHED][ENEMY] Calcium Man/Oculon

« on: November 05, 2019, 04:08:12 pm »

Just in case Mediafire stops hosting these files I'm attaching them to the forum as a backup.

That Oculon is creepy. best send X-Com to deal with it!

551

OXCE Support / [Answered] (OXCE) SmokeThreshold: not preventing smoke from appearing?

« on: November 04, 2019, 12:43:03 pm »

When the weapon's projectile explodes it still produces smoke from the explosion even though I've set SmokeThreshold: to the high value of 99999.

Am I misunderstanding how SmokeThreshold: operates?

Does it not increase the tier of smoke on the struck tile by the number of times the weapon's impact power can be divided into the SmokeThreshold: value?

SmokeThreshold:    How much damage is needed to create smoke on a tile.

Here is the code I'm working with:

Code: [Select]

  - type: STR_MA_EXAMPLE_WEAPON
    requires:
      - STR_ADVANCED_LASER_WEAPONS
    size: 0.3
    costSell: 61000
    weight: 1
    bigSprite: 602
    floorSprite: 631
    handSprite: 2464
    bulletSprite: 1
    fireSound: 123
    hitSound: 0
    hitAnimation: 0
    power: 10 # Was 75
    damageType: 3
    damageAlter:
      ToHealth: 0.1
      ToWound: 0.1
      RandomWound: false
      ToStun: 0.0
      ToTile: 0.05
      SmokeThreshold: 99999
      FixRadius: 3
    damageBonus:
      flatHundred: 1.0
    accuracyAimed: 84
    tuAimed: 44
    accuracyMultiplier:
      firing: 0.0
      throwing: 1.0
    clipSize: -1
    battleType: 1
    twoHanded: false
    invWidth: 1
    invHeight: 1
    attraction: 9
    arcingShot: true
    confAimed:
      shots: 1
      name: STR_MA_EXAMPLE_SHOT_NAME
      ammoSlot: 0
      arcing: true

552

Help / Re: What is the maximum number of different aliens per-battle?

« on: November 02, 2019, 04:28:11 pm »

200 different aliens at once, wow!
(One more reason to keep extra ammo in the Skyranger.)

I'll keep it in mind that I need a loadout list with a matching length.

Thank you for the information.

553

Suggestions / Re: Xcom Training room

« on: November 02, 2019, 04:17:09 pm »

I believe OpenXcom Extended has the capability you seek using the Base Facilities trainingRooms: variable.

trainingRooms: "Amount of soldier space this facility provides for combat/martial training."

554

OXCE Support / Re: Controlling the speed of an explosion animation set from the X1.PCK.

« on: November 02, 2019, 03:03:14 pm »

Thank you I'll update my copy of OXCE and make use of that feature.

555

Released Mods / Re: [WEAPON] New Weapons Mod

« on: November 02, 2019, 02:50:44 pm »

This is some amazing sprite work, just look at it!



I've attached the mod's .zip file directly to this post just in case the site currently hosting it goes down and access to this is potentially lost forever.