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Messages - psavola

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16
Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.62)
« on: October 11, 2024, 05:34:48 am »
Ok ty, I'm abandoning my last two week run because I can't get sonics and mind worms hit through LoS limiter and then when I tried to do a new game without MC the mods broke so now I can't play at all, not sure what to do.

It will take quite a while to get sonics and that is heavily dependent on RNG. You might need to go the first year or more without them if you don't get a chance to capture a live bio-drone early. You don't really need them in battlescape, because gauss (especially sniper rifles) is good enough, but you'd like to get the applied tech for your crafts.

The MC is easier less RNG-dependent. The easiest early way to get mind worms is to go on the mind worm terror mission with a couple of drones and a couple of aquanauts, who just throw out pre-primed stun grenades on the enemy units on turn 1 and then are probably knocked unconscious. The drones can pick up the stunned mind worms, come back to the craft and abort.

In TFTD vanilla you deal with MC by sacking the agents which have low PST and then recruit and keep only the best PST agents. This will not work in this mod, because the enemy MC is much stronger. You will need to enable MC Shielding transformation on your aquanauts to make them (almost) immune to enemy MC. This will require slowly acquiring alien implants, which you can get from certain missions and very large UFOs. It takes a while. But by the end of the first year or so, you should have been able to build up a pool of 10-15 aquanauts which are MC shielded and can do those missions which would be otherwise be impossible to deal with.

17
The X-Com Files / Re: [submod] X-Com Files: Kozinsky Stat Strings
« on: October 10, 2024, 12:47:57 pm »
Thanks. This is provides quite a bit of granularity once you get to know it. It's a bit of getting used to it as I've used reverse stat strings myself, but feels better already. The limits are designed nicely so that once you see the real letters (like m, t, f -- exception: PSI skill), you know you cannot train the skill anymore through regular means and you can only improve through commendations or such.

18
Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.62)
« on: October 10, 2024, 07:09:33 am »
Are there any research dead end / soft locks  in this mod?

There is no research that I'm aware of that blocks you out of future progress, if that's what you mean.
Obviously there are a lot of things where your progress is locked behind researching X, and sometimes it may be challenging to get X.

19
See: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=5047.msg167120#msg167120

You can't apply transformations to soldiers which are out of the base, e.g. enroute to mission, if you try to do this through "Transformations Overview" screen; shows no eligibility for those soldiers that are out of the base.

If you go to the agent directly and apply it there (see the instructions to reproduce above), you can do it and it results in strangeness (the agent teleports back to the base).

I suppose the same restrictions should apply as in "Transformations Overview" screen.

20
The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« on: October 08, 2024, 07:34:29 am »
Oh, I see it. You can't see the soldier as eligible on "Transformations overview" screen, but you can transform him if you go to the agent directly (I didn't realize it was even possible to do so). This seems like a bug in OXCE, because these should behave the same. I'll post a bug on OXCE board.

21
The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« on: October 07, 2024, 09:42:03 pm »
You should post your save before applying bio-enhancement. This would allow more easily to reproduce and if necessary fix (probably in OXCE).

22
The X-Com Files / Re: Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste
« on: October 07, 2024, 03:44:14 pm »
It is possible to apply the Bioenhancement (and probably other enhancements) on agents which are out on a vehicle. This will teleport the agent back to the base.
Not sure though if this is a bug of X-Com Files bug or of the OXCE engine.

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure that agents that are out of the base don't even show up in the transformations menu. At least I don't ever recall being able to transform them and I think I would have seen this by now. This would also have impact on the missions if you transform an agent while still enroute to a mission (instead of back from the mission).

23
The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire
« on: October 07, 2024, 03:18:17 pm »
I don't quite follow; the Skymarshall indeed requires 50 space, and workshop gives 50 space. And you need at least one hangar, which also provides 5 space.

Manufacturing Skymarshall with one workshop + 1-3 hangar(s) allows you to assign 5, 10 or 15 engineers to the project, which means it will take probably over a month to complete the project. Such manufacturing is essentially a no go.

But that was not my main point; the main point of my comment was that space 50 requirement seemed inconsistent with the other, even bigger crafts, which require less space.

24
OXCE Bugs / Re: Strange delay of control key effectiveness
« on: October 07, 2024, 12:21:29 pm »
Sometimes there is also the following problem which might be related: Going back (for example from the web browser) to the OXCE window via Alt + Tab (cycling through the open windows) sometimes leaves me with an activated Alt key in openXCom, even though the Alt key is not pressed any more.

I've noticed the same thing with Linux (though not sure if it it's ALT or CTRL that gets sometimes triggered when switching windows); this has happened for years now, but I have not found that to be a significant problem, because you can easily get rid of that if it happens.

For what it's worth, I've not noticed significant lagging with keys (except sometimes slugginess with mouse, probably having to do with other processes running on the other screens).

25
OXCE Bugs / Re: Strange delay of control key effectiveness
« on: October 07, 2024, 11:44:23 am »
Which version of libsdl are you using? Are you using native SDL 1.2 or a compat layer where SDL2 tries to imitate SDL 1.2?

The compat layer has multiple (even bigger) issues *), so if you're using that, try using the original SDL 1.2 libraries.

*) See for example https://github.com/libsdl-org/sdl12-compat/issues/338

26
While playing XCF (the most recent github snapshot) with OXCE 7.14.3, I experienced something strange. I had been playing a battle mission (STR_UCITY) for an hour or two and was almost complete (turn about 20 or so), but had to stop for a couple of hours so I saved the game and exited (ironman mode). The timestamp of the save (today 17:22) matches the time I saved and stopped. Now that I reloaded the save, the game brought me to the geoscape (centered on the mission site) as if I had never went on the mission (also no returning craft from the mission).

There must have been some problem with saving, and for some reason OXCE failed to create battleGame entry in the savefile. No returning craft is probably related to this (and would have been created only after the mission was success or failure?). Unfortunately, I no longer remember the exact gametime, so I don't know if the time also rolled back somehow or the game continues from the time mission previously started.

If the game had crashed, the save entry would have been a battlescape save from turn 20 or so (save every 5 turns).

Unfortunately, I doubt there is anything that would give away the problem in the save or help in reproducing the issue. But I'd love to be proven wrong. So I'm attaching the save.

If there could have been something special in openxcom.log, the log has been overwritten when the game was next run with nothing suspicious on it. (I wonder if it would make sense to store multiple versions of openxcom.log, say 5 latest runs, to separate files).

As said I fear nothing can be done about this, but I'm posting this in any case if
a) someone has encountered something similar, and/or
b) by some miracle a bug would be found and this could be prevented from happening in the future.

27
The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire
« on: October 06, 2024, 09:47:46 am »
Until and unless a better solution presents itself, I would suggest adding some jarhead pretenders to the Dagon HQ mission. That would ensure that if you complete the Dagon arch, you will get access to EMP stuff (and eventually Kitsune). My current 3.5 snapshot campaign (August 1998) is currently crippled by the fact that Dagons have not spawned any manors and I have not been able to kill them off because otherwise I would not get EMP or Kitsune.

Speaking of which, apparently manufacturing SKYMARSHALL requires 50 space, SKYRANGER 40 and SKYRAIDER 30. Essentially you require two workshops to build one at a reasonable space. The space required by SKYMARSHALL seems excessive and inconsistent with the fact that even bigger, and later game crafts, IRONFIST and AVENGER, only take 45 space.

Btw. it also seems inconsistent that you can research and produce SHADOW SUITs which have inbuilt Halo projector without Improved Lab, while researching and building independent halo grenades requires Improved Lab. I'd expect that both or neither require Improved Lab.

28
Released Mods / Re: [TFTD] [Expansion] TWoTS+ Release (v.2.62)
« on: October 06, 2024, 09:34:01 am »
It is difficult to shoot down the bombers even if you would detect them, because they are spawned and fly directly to the base, if I recall, at speed ~2400. Your average barracuda or moray probably will not be able to intercept it in time even if you detected it (and most likely you will not). The best defense against them is to build ~3 torpedo defenses, or later a couple of better defenses. Scoring one hit from any defense will take them down.

In later game when you have hyperwave decoder and significantly faster interceptors, you may be able to depend on detecting and shooting them down, but during the first year or so, your best bet is building a couple of defenses.

29
Help / Re: Alien missile strikes is garbage
« on: October 05, 2024, 11:12:12 pm »
No I don't have any defenses, do they prevent this? It's something I don't remember in the original game, maybe it's a World Of Terrifying Silence only thing. I just need a setting to turn whatever it is off, I like how the settings can be changed but I didn't see any options for that.

This is off-topic here and should be extracted to a separate thread or moved to the TWoTS thread.

In TWoTS, defenses have a chance of shooting down the bombers. You have reasonable chance of success if you build 3 torpedo defenses (about 90 % if I recall correctly). If you are not prepared, the bombing runs can be crippling because they usually come in waves (so once the bombing of a base starts, you likely will not have time to build defenses there before the next ones come). If I recall correctly, the bombing runs start in month 6 or so. So I've always tried to build at least two torpedo defenses by May the first year, and reasonably soon for newer bases.

This is one of the gotchas in the mod where you need a bit different strategy than in vanilla.

30
The X-Com Files / Re: The X-Com Files - 3.4: Daggers for Hire
« on: October 02, 2024, 09:58:09 pm »
I added an extra requirement: "X-Com History: X-Com Bureau". This moves the Kitsune forward to solid midgame, as it depends on the Syndicate arc.

Are you sure this is balanced?

How are you supposed to deal with the three syndicate second phase missions (all with 8-16 hour timers) without a fast craft (or at least the secret archives raid)?

Essentially this requires capturing aliens, building up your alloy pool and building a SKY craft. (Which is nice in a sense because currently they're waste of time and alloys. And this also delays the player's access to "camp in the craft" tactics as SKY crafts have open-ended ramp.) But this will also mean dependence on RNG on capturing aliens and alloys. And most importantly, probably multiple months trying to repeat the syndicate phase two missions, because those crafts are only 1/3 or 1/2 the speed of Kitsune and it is unlikely you will reach them in time even with the faster SKY* craft. (And some of those, at least reactor raid, you will definitely want to do at night if you are forced to use an open-ended craft.)

Further, this creates a dependency on Jarhead missions, which are very RNG-prone (your best bet is letting dagons build a tier 2 manor). If the player doesn't realize this, the player could go most of the game without getting Kitsune.

At the very least, I'd increase the syndicate second phase mission timers significantly, and even then I think this would come to be a major PITA for players who don't know the optimal path to getting jarheads.

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