Topics

1

Open Feedback / MOVED: How do i research plasma in the 40k mod

« on: July 02, 2020, 11:40:32 am »

This topic has been moved to 40k.

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=8360.0

2

Help / MOVED: Problem in Compile

« on: April 12, 2020, 12:16:42 am »

This topic has been moved to Programming.

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=8095.0

3

Released Mods / [UFO] Improved Geoscape Icons

« on: November 08, 2018, 05:31:28 am »

As Seen On Extra Life(tm)

I made a cosmetic mod that increases the 3x3 globe icons to 7x7 and differentiates crafts and UFOs. Apparently some people think it's worth sharing, so here you go. It's probably helpful if you're using larger Geoscape scales, or if you're color-blind.

Before and After:


Some design choices:
- The craft icons are outlines so you can see what's underneath them.
- The UFO icons only have different sizes to not give away the exact UFO class.
- The flying/crashed/landed states have different details so they're not distinguished by color alone.

Let me know if these were good or bad choices.

4

Open Feedback / Forum Rules

« on: September 19, 2018, 10:43:50 pm »

We've had these on Discord for a while and it seems to be working well so it's time to bring them here as well:

Welcome to the OpenXcom Forums
Here you can hang out and discuss all things X-COM, old and new, with fans and developers alike. We try to keep it casual and lighthearted, but given the OpenXcom community comes from every corner of the universe, here are some general rules of conduct to make sure everyone has a good time:

• We're all adults here: If not physically, at least mentally. Swearing and mature topics are fine, just keep it civil.
  
• Don't be a jerk: No spamming, harassing, discrimination, drama or any other form of hostile or disruptive behavior. "It's just a joke" or "being edgy" is not an excuse. Remember the internet carries no expression or context cues, so it's easy to be misinterpreted.
  
• No heresy: Don't post any illegal / pornographic content. Discussion is fine, just keep it clean. Keep your warez and lewdz to PMs.
  
• This isn't a job: Everyone's doing this out of their good will and free time. Respect your fellow devs, modders, players and yourself.
  
• Have fun: And don't get abducted.
  

If all else fails, mods/admins have the final word. Don't be afraid to use the Report feature and let us know your concerns, we're all aliens human.

5

Released Mods / New Mod Portal!

« on: September 03, 2018, 01:21:56 am »

https://openxcom.mod.io/

The fine folks at mod.io contacted us regarding our portal issues, and after a bunch of back and forth, we decided it was just what we needed. They're the same people that have been running Mod DB all these years, so, you know, they know their mods. The idea of mod.io is to provide similar capabilities to something like Steam Workshop without the platform restrictions. They even have an open API so you could build your own mod manager around it... wink wink nudge nudge.

Exciting New Features

• Search that actually works!
• Links that go places! Wow!
• Staff that actually answer your bug reports!
• And so much more!

Salty, me? Never

Now before you go rushing to upload every old mod into the new site, I have some suggestions so we take this chance to start with a clean slate and provide the best experience for modders and players alike:

- Don't just upload any random file. Mods should all be playable and use the "2.0 mod format" (self-contained folders with metadata) so player can just extract the ZIPs into their mods folder at will (stuff like Piratez not withstanding), and in the future, have the game do it for them. No point in supporting 1.0 anymore. Yes, I said it.

- Likewise, anything that is of little use to players should probably be left to the forums. That means random resources, helpers, utilities, etc. I'm not sure where tools and forks like OXCE fit into this, let me know what you think.

- Use tags smartly. They're there to help players find the mods they want, not to get you more attention. Your total conversion could be tagged with everything, but a player that's just looking for "Craft" probably isn't interested in it. Likewise, a new item might involve new graphics, audio, research, etc, but the "Equipment" tag should suffice. Again, open to feedback.

Equipment - Battle equipment like weapons, armor, etc.
Craft - Includes crafts and craft weapons.
Base Facility - Includes X-COM bases and facilities.
X-COM Unit - Soldiers, HWPs, etc.
Alien Race - Alien units, crews, UFOs, etc.
Battlescape - Maps, terrains, deployments, etc.
Geoscape - Countries, regions, cities, etc.
R&D - Research, manufacture, Ufopaedia, etc.
Audio - Alternate music and sound effects.
Graphics - Reskins and sprite swaps.
Total Conversion - It's not about X-COM anymore.
Megamod - It's still about X-COM but so big you wouldn't wanna mix with anything else.
Balance - Focus on rebalancing existing stuff (either to make it easier or harder).
?? - Something missing? Let me know.

- Even if your mod is a total conversion, always indicate the Base Game (UFO/TFTD) required to run it, as not everyone may own both games.

- You can use the Homepage field to link to your forum thread.

Now go forth and mod away! You can even write guides, share your wisdom.

6

Tools / Ruleset Validator for VSCode v0.9.11

« on: August 30, 2018, 02:54:16 am »

I made an extension for Visual Studio Code that checks your rulesets for syntax errors so you can catch them as you type instead of having to wait for OpenXcom to crash/spew nonsense/do nothing when you make a typo. It looks like this:



I figured it was more useful to extend a familiar text editor than trying to make an entirely separate tool. If this is worth developing further let me know.

Installation Instructions
1. Install Visual Studio Code if you don't already have it.
2. Install the OpenXcom Ruleset Tools extension and follow the instructions.
3. Just open any .rul file and edit away.

Recommended Usage:
- Use File > Open Folder (or Open With Code in explorer) to open an entire mod at a time, so your workspace is preserved per mod.
- Open the View > Problems window to get a listing of all the errors in the currently open files.
- Use Trim Trailing Whitespace to fix tab errors (this can be done automatically in the Preferences).

What's Visual Studio Code? Isn't that some kind of IDE?
Despite the name, VSCode (for short) is just a fancy text editor in the vein of Notepad++/Sublime/Atom/etc. It's not related to Visual Studio (the IDE) which we use for developing OpenXcom.
It can be extended to be very powerful, but you don't need to be a programmer to use it. I know we've always recommended Notepad++ for YAML, but it's become kinda lackluster over the years.

Why not <insert your favorite editor>?
VSCode is free, cross-platform, and honestly it was the easiest to extend. It already had a powerful YAML extension available so I just had to build on that. If you'd rather port it to <insert your favorite editor> the source is here: https://github.com/OpenXcom/vscode-ruleset

7

Released Mods / Mod translations on Transifex

« on: June 23, 2018, 03:31:13 am »

Some of you might've noticed our Transifex now has an OpenXcom Mods section. Normally translating mods means manually passing your ExtraStrings around translators, combining all the changes and hoping updates don't break anything. This is fine for small mods, but doesn't scale for big stuff.

With Transifex, translators can use a sleek UI to collaborate with one another without messing with text files, and you just need to regularly upload any changes and download the resulting translations. Plus you have the existing OpenXcom translator pool at your disposal!

Rules:

• You need to have an account on Transifex, naturally.
• Your mod needs to use language files instead of ExtraStrings (see the stock xcom1 and xcom2 master mods for an example).
• Your mod should at least be stable enough to be "Released". It doesn't need to be finished, it's just to avoid translators doing work that's gonna be obsolete every update.
• Only works for nightly mods.

Instructions:

• If you're interested, PM me your Transifex username and a link to your mod thread.
• Once you're in, you'll have access to the OpenXcom Mods dashboard. Each mod is represented as a Resource. Just upload your mod as a new Resource with format YML (Rails-compatible) and you're set.
• Check back later, by clicking on your mod Resource you can upload any updates to your mod or download any translations.
• If your mod files are hosted somewhere public (eg. GitHub) they can be auto-updated to Transifex. There's also a CLI if you're a huge nerd and wanna add Transifex to your build process.

8

Released Mods / Old Mod Portal Archive

« on: March 26, 2018, 08:17:37 am »

When the mod portal was facing issues, I feared the worst and ran a web scraper to grab every file I could just in case the worst happened. And well, it did. The result is I managed to collect all the downloads before they were forever lost. Originally I was gonna save this for migrating to the new portal after careful curation, but given the delays on that front and repeated requests for lost mods, I decided to provide them here:

https://openxcom.org/download/oldmods/

This is an archive of all the working downloads on the www.openxcom.com portal as of 10th October 2017. Only files that were publicly available were archived, any files that were deleted by their authors or unavailable due to server issues will still be lost. In case of duplicate filenames, you will have to figure out which one is the "correct version". Checking the Date Modified might help, although it seems old files all had their timestamp wiped in a server move in 2016.

Disclaimer

• This is a last resort for the sake of preservation. Only use these mods if there are no other public versions available.
  
• All files are provided as-is with no support or associated mod page. Any form of documentation or instructions will have to be in the files.
  
• The contents may be broken, corrupt, outdated, or otherwise a non-functional mess, with no guarantee of support from the original authors.
  

Any mod authors that want their old work removed just let me know.

9

Suggestions / Suggestions for the website and community resources

« on: September 08, 2017, 08:38:57 pm »

We get a lot of feedback on OpenXcom the game, but not on everything else surrounding OpenXcom: all the sites and resources set up for the benefit of the community. After all, a game is nothing without its community, so I try to give attention to both in order to keep the game growing and the player experience positive.

However it's become pretty clear they're not doing their job lately. New users often have trouble figuring out where to start and getting into mods, while veterans have to keep working around the same old problems. To help get to the bottom of this, I'm posting this thread to encourage feedback, both problems and solutions. Here's what I've noticed, feel free to share your own.

Website

Nobody views the site. Or if they do, they don't read it. Or if they do read it, they don't understand it. Etc.

For example, new people keep missing that we have a FAQ, or a wiki, or a bug tracker, etc. I don't really know how to fix this without changing the theme or cluttering up the menu. Or maybe it's hopeless.

Forum

Despite the fact that most of the community lives here, the forum has been largely unchanged since the start, so some subforums are incredibly more active than others (I'm looking at you Modding). I think it's time to reorganize the forum structure to meet current needs:

= OpenXcom =

- Open Discussion - Combined "Open Feedback" and "Suggestions" as they're largely the same
- Troubleshooting
- Playthroughs
- Fan-Stuff - Same as "The Rest"
- Contributions - Covers "Development", "Builds & Ports" and any other type of third-party additions. Might need a better name.
- Offtopic - Same as "General Discussion" forum but less ambiguous

= Modding = (time to give it the visibility it deserves)

Work In Progress - Same as "Modding/Experiments"
Released - Same as "Released Mods"
Help - Dedicated place to get help on everything modding
Resources - Separate place for modders looking for sprites etc so they don't get lost with mods
Tools

I'd also like a more colorful sci-fi theme rather than monochrome city, but free themes are awful and I don't wanna make my own.

Mod Site

We're aware the current mod site is, as some have put it, a "dumpster fire". Jo5hua, the creator and host, has not been doing an ideal job keeping the place running but sadly this is outside our control.

However kkmic is currently working on an alternative that will be hosted by us and (hopefully) avoid the current issues, once he's ready to go public he'll post a thread for it.

Wiki

Currently the OpenXcom wiki is very encyclopedic. People have built on what I started, but as a result it's very dry and programmer-centric. Lots of long-winded documentation and references, but no real guides and descriptions for the average player.

The wiki should collect all the documentation the community needs, instead of it being "insider knowledge" passed down from generation to generation. Anything from technical references, how to play and how to install, coverage of big mods, explanations of all the new mechanics and options, step-by-step guides of all things modding, etc. it doesn't just need to be about OpenXcom, it can also cover all the popular mods that are complex enough to warrant some pages of their own. Remember, it's a community wiki, there are no wrong answers, everyone is free to contribute!

However, I realize as I say this a lot of people (me included) can't login or make edits due to technical issues. The wiki is also being hosted by Jo5hua and any attempts to get in touch with him have proven futile.

Social Channels

I know most old farts like me don't care about these fancy shmancy "social networks", but the reality is we have a lot of fans planted various networks and they're not gonna leave just for us. For example, setting up a Discord brought a load of fans that were previously just hiding in the darkness.

Of course, I'm still an old fart and can't afford to follow and post on every single network out there, so mostly I just post automated updates. So if anyone has ideas to better use Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Discord/etc. to their fullest, let me know. The better our social channels are, the more reach OpenXcom has.

Community Interaction

I know our updates are slow and our news boring and my sense of humor probably a bit grating. Still, if anyone, be they a fan, a player, a modder, a youtuber, a streamer, a press member, anyone that ever wants to talk directly to us they are free to. I try to work extra hard to dispel the notion of the "big scary devs" and try to be as transparent and approachable as possible. Toss us an email, PM us on the forums, talk to us on Discord, whatever works.

Is it working though? Often people seem to run around in circles with issues and questions we can address but they run to everyone but us. Is there better we can do? Or am I just that scary?

We also have a lot of non-English fans, most manage to speak some semblance of English, but a lot just contact us in their native language and I have to make do with Google Translate. I've been wondering how big a barrier that is and if it would be valuable to support them more outside the game, either with interpreters, website translations, dedicated non-English forums, etc. Or would that just be more confusing?

10

Released Mods / [MUSIC] UFO: Cydonia's Fall Soundtrack (2016 edition)

« on: October 09, 2016, 05:22:41 pm »

It's getting hard keeping track of all the versions of this soundtrack, so I decided to give it a dedicated mod page: https://www.openxcom.com/mod/ufo-cydonias-fall-soundtrack

Anyways a few months ago lorcán found the original project files for the music, so he had the courtesy of giving us a new lossless version of the soundtrack, as well as various other tweaks and improvements after personally testing it in OpenXcom. So you can consider this the 2016 edition. If you were already using it, I recommend updating it with this new version.

Edit: Can't seem to upload the files to the mod site, so they're mirrored on openxcom.org instead. Hopefully you won't bring down the server.

11

Offtopic / New finnish book about the X-COM series

« on: August 21, 2016, 05:30:04 pm »

https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/60489/hcxmx/X-COM-Tietokonepelien-klassikot-kirja

This book covers the entire X-COM history and has a lot of content and exclusive interviews with official and unofficial developers (including us!). Supposedly. I mean I can't speak the language so if you do, definitely support them, and let us know if they said any mean things about us!

Edit: Friend of mine got some pictures of the OpenXcom section: https://imgur.com/a/3baUU

Games covered: Rebelstar Raiders, Rebelstar, Rebelstar II, Laser Squad, UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-COM: Terror from the Deep, X-COM: Apocalypse, X-COM: Interceptor, X-COM: First Alien Invasion, X-COM: Genesis, X-COM: Alliance, X-COM: Enforcer, The Dreamland Chronicles, Laser Squad Nemesis, Rebelstar: Tactical Command, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, UFO: Aftermatch, UFO: Aftershock, UFO: Afterlight, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2, UFO: Extraterrestrials, Xenonauts, OpenXcom, XcomUtil, Long War, UFO: Alien Invasion.

People interviewed: Daniel Albano, John Broomhall, Martin DeRiso, Dave Ellis, Chris England, Danny Flynn, Martin Gerhardy, Julian Gollop, Stephen Goss, Terry Greer, Stephen Hand, Martin Klíma, Johnny Lumpkin, Tom Nichols, John Reitze, Ade Scotney, Jake Solomon, Scott T. Jones, Stuart Whyte.

12

Translations / East-Asian (CJK) language support is here!

« on: March 23, 2016, 03:14:39 am »

An elephant never forgets...

However, as you can tell, support is still highly experimental. Some CJK fonts are just too old, incomplete or outright buggy! So I'd really appreciate any help in improving the fonts and reporting/fixing issues, so OpenXcom can reach a wider audience than ever!

Credit where credit is due:
- Korean fonts by lesslol: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,2938.0.html
- Japanese/Chinese fonts by Ulgon: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,199.msg45321.html#msg45321

13

Offtopic / Phoenix Point: next new game by Julian Gollop

« on: March 19, 2016, 10:10:36 pm »

Phoenix Point is our new game - turn based tactical combat - world based strategy - https://www.phoenixpoint.info/

@julian_gollop

Mysterious...

14

Work In Progress / We added some extra error logging. You will not believe what happens next!

« on: January 12, 2016, 01:02:03 am »

As we work hard at debugging common problems, we run into a lot of problems coming from third-party sources. As there is no way for a user to tell apart game bugs from mod bugs, and there's no prying them away from their mods, we'd really appreciate it if you helped us keep OpenXcom as stable as it can be. Here's some common issues:

Graphics:
- Use 8-bit PNG (recommended: Photoshop, Aseprite).
- Use vanilla palettes.
- Don't optimize palettes.
- Transparent color must always be palette index 0 (first color).

Maps:
(affects FMP, UFO Redux and any other mods that share these files)

Code: [Select]

ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #0 is outside map boundaries at X:18 Y:18 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #1 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:2 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #2 is outside map boundaries at X:1 Y:17 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #3 is outside map boundaries at X:11 Y:18 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #4 is outside map boundaries at X:9 Y:15 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #8 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:11 Z:2
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #10 is outside map boundaries at X:6 Y:14 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #11 is outside map boundaries at X:16 Y:3 Z:2
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #13 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:2 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #14 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:18 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #17 is outside map boundaries at X:10 Y:17 Z:0
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN19.RMP Node #18 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:9 Z:0
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #0 is outside map boundaries at X:18 Y:18 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #1 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:2 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #2 is outside map boundaries at X:1 Y:17 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #3 is outside map boundaries at X:11 Y:18 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #4 is outside map boundaries at X:9 Y:15 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #8 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:11 Z:2
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #10 is outside map boundaries at X:6 Y:14 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #11 is outside map boundaries at X:16 Y:3 Z:2
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #12 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:2 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #13 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:18 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #16 is outside map boundaries at X:10 Y:17 Z:0
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN24.RMP Node #17 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:9 Z:0
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #0 is outside map boundaries at X:18 Y:18 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #1 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:2 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #2 is outside map boundaries at X:1 Y:17 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #3 is outside map boundaries at X:11 Y:18 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #4 is outside map boundaries at X:9 Y:15 Z:3
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #8 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:11 Z:2
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #10 is outside map boundaries at X:6 Y:14 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #11 is outside map boundaries at X:16 Y:3 Z:2
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #13 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:2 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #14 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:18 Z:1
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #17 is outside map boundaries at X:10 Y:17 Z:0
ROUTES/RAILYARDURBAN21.RMP Node #18 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:9 Z:0
ROUTES/LIGHTNI2.RMP Node #0 is outside map boundaries at X:5 Y:252 Z:251
ROUTES/LIGHTNI2.RMP Node #1 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:5 Z:2
ROUTES/PORTUFO20.RMP Node #30 is outside map boundaries at X:20 Y:11 Z:1
ROUTES/PORTUFO05.RMP Node #7 is outside map boundaries at X:255 Y:5 Z:2
ROUTES/PORTURBAN05.RMP Node #19 is outside map boundaries at X:20 Y:6 Z:3
ROUTES/PORTURBAN08.RMP Node #30 is outside map boundaries at X:20 Y:11 Z:1
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #5 is outside map boundaries at X:16 Y:4 Z:3
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #6 is outside map boundaries at X:13 Y:2 Z:2
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #7 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:0 Z:2
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #8 is outside map boundaries at X:18 Y:4 Z:2
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #9 is outside map boundaries at X:15 Y:8 Z:2
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #10 is outside map boundaries at X:11 Y:1 Z:2
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #11 is outside map boundaries at X:11 Y:6 Z:2
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #12 is outside map boundaries at X:13 Y:3 Z:1
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #13 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:7 Z:3
ROUTES/CULTAFARM02.RMP Node #14 is outside map boundaries at X:12 Y:2 Z:3

Rulesets:
- Make sure all referenced IDs actually exist (except for dummies).
- File paths should match the casing in the ruleset.
- Not everything is modular (in general, only root-level elements with IDs are modular).

Falko's Tools might help, though they might also be out of date: https://falkooxc2.pythonanywhere.com/

15

Offtopic / Lisbon Games Week

« on: November 05, 2015, 01:16:53 am »

Neuralshock told me to post a thread for this so I did. So! I'm going to Lisboa Games Week this Sunday with some friends! It's in Portugal! Exclamation point!

I doubt there's enough portuguese fans for an OpenXcom reunion, but if you're going too and wanna meet up or something just let me know. Just don't be weird about it. Well ok you can be weird about it. Maybe. Posting in portuguese is fine. PMs too.