Messages

16

Open Feedback / Re: questions about stats... and many more

« on: July 23, 2013, 02:19:10 pm »

If you don't mind SPOILERS, https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Experience explains stats pretty well. But it's for vanilla XCOM, and I'm not sure how much of it applies to OpenXCOM.

I based the openxcom experience functionality on that page, so it should apply to openxcom as well, unless things have changed on that page or in openxcom code meanwhile, but I guess that would be only minor differences.

17

Work In Progress / Re: Terror from the Deep support

« on: July 12, 2013, 06:46:57 pm »

back in the days when I said I was going to implement TFTD I made some notes about the bubble trails after bullets. I think it was just observations, I guess I share my notes, you never know if it's helpful.

- double animation speed, 8 frames long, particles gradually fade out each frame (transparency)
- 2x2px and 1x1px white/blueish particles emitted on the bullet trail at more or less random positions, but evenly spread out. (each voxel bullet travels through has 50% change to emit particle?)
- particles rise in voxel space, smaller particles move faster than bigger particles with a bit of randomness in the speed (not all particles of same size move at the same speed)

I don't know if it's correct or not or useful, so use it at own risk :p I was almost about to implement it, I'm sorry I never got that far... I think I got stuck in how to get transparency work. (and how to spell the word correctly :p)

18

Open Feedback / Re: *gasp* It's so beautiful!

« on: July 09, 2013, 06:31:29 pm »

this is what makes it all worthwhile.

Thirded.

19

Work In Progress / Re: Battlescape control panel

« on: June 07, 2013, 09:31:45 pm »

Long time ago, when I was still young and ambitious, I created this "thing"/mockup. In case you need more food for thought

20

Work In Progress / Re: Altering the Research Tree: Bigger, Badder, and More Explosive!

« on: June 02, 2013, 06:26:47 pm »

XCOM: Enemy Unknown got around this by making aliens only drop their weapons intact when captured alive, which made getting "massive" quantities of high-end weapons a lot harder while keeping the danger of the aliens using them.

And as interesting side-effect, you'll have to capture the alien to research the weapon in the first place....

in UnitDieBState::convertUnitToCorpse()
change this line:
   https:// move inventory from unit to the ground for non-large units
   if (size == 0)
to this:
   https:// move inventory from unit to the ground for non-large units
   if (size == 0 && (_unit->getType() == "SOLDIER" || _unit->getStatus() == STATUS_UNCONSCIOUS))

21

Work In Progress / Re: Altering the Research Tree: Bigger, Badder, and More Explosive!

« on: June 02, 2013, 11:58:52 am »

Be ware that nerfing the heavy plasma will make aliens weaker. Making heavy plasma harder to manufacture is also not a solution because at some point a lot of aliens drop heavy plasma. Changing the equipment of aliens make them weaker again.

I think that system of aliens dropping their actual equipment is making balancing harder. You see a lot of games where a unit killed doesn't  drop it actual equipment... it's part of the game balance, the whining of it not being realistic stops once people see how much more interesting the game becomes.

If you take JA2 1.13 for example, they implemented a parameter "loot all", if you turn this off, killed units don't drop all their equipment anymore, sometimes just a clip or nothing at all. This fixes the problem of people ending up with large quantities of high-end weapons, eliminating the choice of weapon.

Perhaps we need such a parameter as well to balance things?

22

Work In Progress / Re: Altering the Research Tree: Bigger, Badder, and More Explosive!

« on: June 01, 2013, 01:03:03 pm »

Welcome to openxcom, about that sitting at a crappy job, sounds like me when I started developing the battlescape for openxcom

I understand your dilemma. At first it sounds fun to add stuff, just "because you can". But if you take a closer look to gameplay and game balance, it becomes harder. Because the game already has been balanced once. And they must have done a good job, because the game was rather... good.

I don't know why you think of adding things that they automatically have to be stronger or more powerful? You can add weapons that fill in gaps. Or alternatives that have other strengths at some points, but are weaker in other points. So there are more options to choose from, depending on your strategy?

23

Suggestions / Re: File system restructure

« on: May 26, 2013, 10:31:12 am »

There's some sort of legality flaw when you're mixing VANILLA games with your alterations. Because of that putting vanilla game into openxcom data, and putting there shaders/language/soldiername/rulesets is not quite acceptable.

C:\Games\Ufo Defense\ - vanilla ufo1 WITHOUT RULESETS AND any non-vanilla stuff (pure clear ufo1 folder)
C:\Games\Terror from the deep\ - vanilla ufo2 -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ - openxcom exe / non vanilla stuff
C:\Games\OpenXCom\Shaders\ - why make multiple copies of same data set??? Shaders aren't subject to mod for particular game versions!!!
C:\Games\OpenXCom\SoldierName\ - same thing -there's no need to clone data
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo1\Rulesets\ - non vanilla custom openxcom data for xcom1
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo1\Language\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo2\Rulesets\ - non vanilla custom openxcom data for xcom2
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo2\Language\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\user\ - config foldier + saves (basically similar rules but not INSERTED into vanilla game folder at all)

And just couple of lines for each game type in options.cfg
like
==========
games:
  xcom1:
    vanilla: C:\Games\Ufo Defense\
    openxcom: \ufo1\
  xcom2:
    vanilla: C:\Games\Terror from the deep\
    openxcom: \ufo2\
============

I was discussing this with Warboy yesterday, and we came to the conclusion that it might even be interesting in some cases to have two language files. One with common strings for example all the strings related to the new options screen. Otherwise if a new option would be added, you need to add it to both ufo1 and ufo2 folder.

Also, there need to be a way to have user mods in either ufo1 or ufo2 folder + user mod strings in a language file. Also, if a user mod adds new strings, will they all be translated in the different languages?

And there is a new folder by now "Resources" where you have the pathfinding orbs now (which is common between all mods), but there can be specific Resources for ufo1 or ufo2 or user mods.

So if I compile that into your structure proposal, I have this:

C:\Games\Ufo Defense\ - vanilla ufo1 WITHOUT RULESETS AND any non-vanilla stuff (pure clear ufo1 folder)
C:\Games\Terror from the deep\ - vanilla ufo2 -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ - openxcom exe / non vanilla stuff
C:\Games\OpenXCom\Shaders\ - why make multiple copies of same data set??? Shaders aren't subject to mod for particular game versions!!!
C:\Games\OpenXCom\SoldierName\ - same thing -there's no need to clone data
C:\Games\OpenXCom\Language\ - common  strings
C:\Games\OpenXCom\Resources\ - common graphics
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo1\Rulesets\ - non vanilla custom openxcom data for xcom1
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo1\Language\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo1\Language\mod\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo1\Resources\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo1\Resources\mod\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo2\Rulesets\ - non vanilla custom openxcom data for xcom2
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo2\Language\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo2\Language\mod\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo2\Resources\ -"-
C:\Games\OpenXCom\ufo2\Resources\mod\ -"-

==========
games:
  xcom1:
    vanilla: C:\Games\Ufo Defense\
    openxcom: \ufo1\
    rulesets:
     - XCom1Ruleset.rul
     - myxcom1mod.rul
  xcom2:
    vanilla: C:\Games\Terror from the deep\
    openxcom: \ufo2\
     - XCom2Ruleset.rul
============

Or is it too complicated? there are probably several ways to structure it...

24

Work In Progress / Re: OpenXcom mods

« on: May 25, 2013, 03:14:06 pm »

Just to to know... is possible to add new maps, instead of replace them

If you redefine a terrain with own maps you want to add, you'll have to repeat the default maps. This way modders can choose to either add maps or replace them. Otherwise it would only be possible to add maps.

For example, if you have created a new farm map (CULTA terrain) named CULTA19, you created a new ruleset:
terrains:
  - name: CULTA
    mapBlocks:
      - name: CULTA19
        width: 10
        length: 10

then the game will only use your map when generating a farm terrain.
To prevent this, you copypaste the terrain with all it's mapBlocks to your own ruleset and append your mapBlock to it.

(another way is to edit the default ruleset, but this is not recommended because you'll need to re-apply your changes everytime the default ruleset changes)

25

Open Feedback / Re: TFTD

« on: May 25, 2013, 12:16:17 pm »

@Daiky, how did you organize TFTD files? Did you put them in the 'data' folder instead of UFO:EU files?

There is no organisation of TFTD files yet. Perhaps SupSuper has something in mind of how to organise it, but I'm just doing some behind the scenes battlescape stuff and I dumped TFTD data into the existing data folder on top of UFO:EU files to do my tests.

26

Suggestions / Re: Pathfinder

« on: May 25, 2013, 11:56:29 am »

funny how a debugging feature for developers only, now has become almost a main feature of openxcom   I want my simple colored floortiles back :p

27

Open Feedback / Re: TFTD

« on: May 24, 2013, 12:48:13 pm »

"openxcom_git_master_2013_05_18_1149.zip - built 2013-05-18 09:53

tomvd, Sat May 18 11:49:37 2013
- Added TFTD BDY graphics loader"

Our aquanauts thank tomvd!

You're welcome, it's a small step, but hey, with a lot of small steps you eventually get there

With the BDY loader I was able to load the icons of the TFTD battlescape, and I'm also already loading TFTD maps, so essentially I'm playing TFTD in openxcom (again, battlescape only, through the quick battle option) and solving issues as I encounter them. First thing is that the buttons on the battlescape are not matching the ones of UFO1, and these button coordinates are all hardcoded. I'll probably need input from SupSuper how we'll handle this, I guess I'll put button coordinates in the ruleset.

Putting the GUI aside I actually also started the ruleset for TFTD, just for battlescape related stuff like the maps etc.

28

Programming / Re: Editing Saved Games

« on: May 22, 2013, 03:45:23 pm »

Great thing we have a wiki, so questions like these can be answered with a link
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Installing_(OpenXcom)#User_Folder

29

Work In Progress / Re: OpenXcom - War

« on: May 22, 2013, 02:28:20 pm »

You're 6 months behind on your own dev branch, if you are now going to merge it, isn't it going to explode?

30

Open Feedback / Re: Better Explosion Timing

« on: May 21, 2013, 10:51:47 pm »

In openxcom battlescape animations, including explosions, play at 10 FPS. so 0.1 sec per frame, or on 100msec timer. No matter your firespeed. So I'm not sure where you get that 0.02 number?

I also have no idea what the original animation speed is, because in my dosbox it runs a lot faster, more like the last explosion. So the 10FPS looks very natural to me.

I checked specially for you The xcom normal explosion sound is 0.5sec long + 0.5sec of reverb. The explosion animation is 8 frames. So at 10FPS the animation is 0.8 sec long, which is perfect