Messages

31

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: [DONE] [Suggestion] Medikit targets

« on: January 02, 2020, 05:44:44 pm »

Did I translate your instructions correctly? 
Sorry if that's not the case!

If I have translated correctly, the soldier heals himself and the other instructions are ignored ('medikitTargetImmune' and 'medikitTargetMatrix').
So if a soldier is unconscious, no one can cure him?

Not quite. medikitTargetSelf is just not a part of medikitTargetMatrix.

1 = friendly on the ground
2 = friendly standing
4 = neutral on the ground
8 = neutral standing
16 = hostile on the ground
32 = hostile standing

If you want a medikit item to be able to do one of these things, you add the number next to what action you wish the medikit to be able to perform to medikitTargetMatrix.

For example, if medikitTargetMatrix was 33, that item would only work on conscious aliens or unconscious X-Com. If it was 12, it would work on conscious and unconscious civilians, but not aliens or X-Com.

So, if all of your medikit items have a medikitTargetMatrix of 42, then you would be unable to use them on unconscious units.

medikitTargetSelf isn't part of this variable, and can be true or false depending on if you want the user to be able to heal himself or not.

medikitTargetImmune allows you to have certain medikit items be usable on units that you normally cannot use medikits on.

32

OXCE Builds & Ports / Re: OXCE v6.3 for Android

« on: December 31, 2019, 05:08:15 pm »

Sorry, we're not exactly Android devs here.

Can you please write why is this needed, what problems does it solve, wtf is storage access framework and how you see it working?

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider I'm not a developer at all, so I can't answer as to necessity, but here's a basic API rundown.

33

OXCE Suggestions DONE / Re: [DONE] Soldiers ignoring hostiles?

« on: December 31, 2019, 02:03:37 pm »

when running (ctrl+move), they don't stop (different from OXC)... this was introduced as a balance improvement (trade speed for not being able to react to surprise quick enough)

It's not hard to circumvent by repeatedly cancelling the move. You just need to right click for every step. The OXC method is honestly just better, because if you thought running was OP, you just wouldn't use it.

34

OXCE Support Y-scripts / Re: Scripting basics

« on: September 28, 2019, 05:05:27 pm »

is checking whether to_health >= currentHealth enough? or are you looking for something more elaborate?

Anything that checks for units not dying from that strike (and properly factors in who ought to be infected) is good enough, thanks. I admit, I'm not the best at this sort of thing, but next time I look at this I'll do that check.

It would probably help if I annotated the giant list of script parameters I have.

Anyways, if all goes well, I'll be coming back to this topic with a nicely debugged mod.

35

Troubleshooting / Re: Go to predicted UFO location

« on: September 28, 2019, 01:20:42 pm »

It doesn't cheat.

But there's a multitude of subtle problems with it, making it basically unusable (without carefully checking what it is doing, which defies its purpose). In OXC.

In OXCE, it's even worse.
(or would be... I just removed it completely)

So implementation then. Gotcha.

36

Troubleshooting / Some Small Spelling Errors

« on: September 28, 2019, 01:16:55 pm »

I found two tiny little errors in the game script.

en-GB's STR_ARMOR_ strings for UFO and TFTD say "ARMOR" when it should be
STR_ARMOR_: "ARMOUR> {0}"
(if this isn't true in OXC, it's an OXCE problem, but it probably is, honestly)

and in OXCE, the soldier appearance selection menu in UFO uses the feminine "blonde" for the male appearance, when it should really be:
STR_AVATAR_NAME_1: "#01 Male, Blond"

Wait, should this be in Suggestions? I've seen bug reports here, and this is kind of like a bug report...

37

Troubleshooting / Re: Go to predicted UFO location

« on: September 28, 2019, 12:46:22 pm »

You are not misunderstanding this feature. It is a bug that has been reported multiple times but turned out to be very hard to reproduce.

Most veteran players even advice against the feature (it has some other drawbacks as well according to them), even to the point that OXCE (a fork focused on more modding options and with Quality of life improvements) decided to remove that functionality.

I'm assuming the downsides aren't just "makes the game easier through use of Actually Sensible Interceptor Pilots" and has more to do with implementation (or the pilot AI needing to cheat by reading the UFO's planned moves). I mean, it feels good to tell your pilots "Don't go where the X-Ray is, follow the damn flight pattern!" but if it doesn't actually help, or it cheats for you...

(yes i prefer 1rn in fire emblem why'd you ask)

38

Troubleshooting / Re: Installing more than 1 copy/version of OpenXcom at the same time.

« on: September 28, 2019, 12:38:24 pm »

If you're installing to a disk with the NTFS filesystem, you can also use symbolic links - this will let you have one version of OXC(E) to update, one unified mod folder, but multiple different settings files.

Or, you could, you know, use batch files to load different settings files with different mods enabled. That might be easier.

39

Troubleshooting / Re: Can't see an enemy that my soldier can see

« on: September 28, 2019, 12:32:00 pm »

In OXCE, you can press Alt and a small arrow will point at the alien.

In addition to this, OXCE (maybe OXC too, I don't bother with that build) also shows revealed enemies in green (the vanilla behaviour of flashing red boxes is retained if the currently active soldier can see the enemy), bleeding allies in blue, and allies with high Stun damage in purple. (Unfortunately, mind-controlled aliens count as allies for this last I checked)

40

Fan-Stuff / Re: XCOM Crossovers that'd never work

« on: September 28, 2019, 10:59:22 am »

Funny how this thread's titled "crossovers that'll never work" and there are some legit ones here. Here's my crack!

Quest for Glory VI: X-traterrestrial Action (look the series never had much consistent subtitling okay?)

How would you mesh a heroic fantasy with a gritty alien invasion simulator? How would you balance character imports and how frankly OP the Magic ability is (especially on the three classes that don't have it by default, and especially on the Paladin) without trivialising the strategic and tactical parts of the game? Hell, half of the wives you could have by the end of Dragon Fire could be considered so OP that they should have Geoscape abilities! As in, instant mission deployment with no ship, full healing in both Geo and Battlescapes, shooting down a battleship with a few clicks or pacifying a Terror Mission so effectively you get free research kind of powerful. Then again, OXCE supports mana now... (but not a full suite of intrinsic abilities that could be used for learned spells - I'm sure you're limited to one special intrinsic weapon without using hand slots)

Anyway, it would probably have Weirdlings and the aliens from Space Quest (being a Sierra game and all) - and knowing their sense of humour, you'd probably need Roger Wilco to save the Earth/Gloriana, having to first figure out how to get him out from wherever he is in space, time, and sequels. And even with the power of X-Com and Devon Aidendale at your command, the final mission would just be defending some VIPs for a set number of turns before Roger manages to press the self-destruct button on the super toilet housing the gaggle of galactic insurance salesmen.

Song of Ice and X-fire.

Seems more like a total conversion than a crossover. Perhaps if those were the enemy factions and you played as X-COM somehow? Put you in mostly the reverse position of your technology being superior to the enemy's (although not enough to be a complete walkover - consider the absolute force of a bullet compared to an arrow or bolt), but you still needing to do research to learn all that magic and how to tame dragons and junk.

41

OXCE Support Y-scripts / Re: Scripting basics

« on: September 27, 2019, 10:26:21 pm »

After spending a fair bit of time reading through the script variables (a slightly out-of-date list, no references to mana, but I don't need it) I've realised that I still can't figure out how to specifically check for a unit being killed by an attack. Perhaps it's my inexperience with reading scripting languages or me rolling a suite of 1s on Spot, but it looks to be a fair bit harder to check for a unit being killed - or surviving, either works - than to check for taking no damage at all. (if eq to_health 0)

Yes, I'm having a crack at making Chryssalids and Tentaculats only zombify when they reduce the human target's HP to 0, not on any successful hit. (Hell, not even them specifically, a generic script that makes zombification work that way in general would be a nice example script) It'd be a nice learning experience for me to be able to make it.

42

Released Mods / Re: Decreased TUs for aliens on your first turn [OXCE]

« on: September 27, 2019, 07:59:34 pm »

1) It's just a game; discussing logic is pointless.
Limiting enemy TUs is not justified in any of these two approaches. Also, it's unXComy.

In that first case, the same gameplay argument can be made for this new approach as the gameplay argument for blocking the enemy from using explosives until turn three. The way X-Com sometimes land with no eye for deployment tactics and all of the aliens have full TUs despite being otherwise scattered and completely unready for the giant dropship are inherently illogical, and would need to be lore explained to not wrankle people.

And, maybe some of us are just fixing for a game that actually subjects the enemy to attrition: note how no rival Trainers in Pokémon ever have HP or PP missing when you start fighting them, even if they logically should.

43

Released Mods / Re: [MAPDATA] [RESEARCH] Alien Reproduction.

« on: September 27, 2019, 07:43:19 pm »

I went and added a metadata file for the modern mod format. Assuming the original mod still works with modern OXC(E), this'll make it easy to use.

44

Offtopic / Re: Footage of real XCom ufo interception.

« on: September 27, 2019, 07:10:51 pm »

Just because the other UAPs weren't ayys, doesn't mean this one wasn't.

Nor does it mean it was. And besides, wouldn't we not really have X-Com unless they were trying to kill us?

45

Offtopic / Re: XCOM Inspired Fantasy Game

« on: September 27, 2019, 05:10:19 pm »

Dude, you are insane in the best way possible.

If only you considered dice rolls...

I'm reminded of Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars actually. A little-known GBA tactical RPG (no grinding, similar to most Fire Emblems) that was an interquel to the fast-paced mecha fighting ZoE 1 and 2. To bridge the gap between it and the other two games, it actually had a feature that let you remove all the RNG from the game in favour of skill-based hits, crits, and dodges. The stats still mattered, though - the difficulty of landing or avoiding hits was based on what the hit chance would have been if you were playing in Luck Mode. There was even a feature that let you increase your damage output by decreasing your accuracy and evasion, letting you blow through overlevelled enemies if you mastered the mechanics of hits and dodges.

If it were up to me, I would personally mix this sort of design with Paper Mario's Action Command system, letting you actively contest the AI/other player to try to land hits and crits, with the advantage being given based on what the odds would have been if it was just random. RNG is great for immersing yourself in the feel of playing as a commander or tactician, but if you want the player to feel as if s/he's controlling an entire party of units, not just ordering them about, less RNG is better for that.

Background Story 1:
The Great King [KingName] the [First, Second, Third] of [Dynasty Name] has hired you and several other warlords to protect the kingdom from increasing monster attacks and investigate their cause.

Background Story 2:
The ruthless tyrant rules this land, taxing poor people to no end. Can you put an end to his rule? Beware of king's still loyal generals.

Background Story 3:
The king of this land has died, leaving no heirs. Now it is up to local warlords to fight for the throne. You're one of these warlords.

If you go with 2 or something similar, I vote for an optional evil campaign. The gaming world is starved for good evil campaigns.