Reaver's Expanded Craft Featuring Fast-Deploy Lightning

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I'm working on a mod that expands your craft options into 16 total craft from 4 categories.

The iconic Interceptor has been nerfed by being split into two craft, one which maintains the old speed and range, and the other which has the impressive toughness and weapons capacity. The Skyranger has also been split into two options: one faster with a smaller capacity and one slower with a larger capacity. Alternate craft include patrol craft which can help you keep track of what the aliens are doing, as well as other interception or transport options.

I wanted to make some of these craft carry 3 weapon mounts, but I couldn't be bothered to learn Openxcom Extended. This makes the Marauder somewhat useless, though it still sports improved hit points (150) and can carry 2 soldiers whereas the Punisher carries only 1 and the Interceptor cannot carry soldiers.

Most of the craft have some capacity for ground combat and I've made a ground map for each one using blocks from the other craft. I do not have any new graphics in this mod, so there's a lot of re-using ship models and it can get a bit confusing if you use multiple ship types that have the same models.

When you research UFO Construction, you will get the research options for both Firestorm and Lightning, so you can research whichever of the two you want more. Researching Firestorm (New Fighter Craft) unlocks Avenger (Ultimate Fighter Craft), while researching Lightning (New Transport Craft) unlocks Vanquisher (Ultimate Transport Craft). Since all four can perform both interceptions and ground missions, you can select one line and skip the other entirely if you like.

The Avenger, Vanquisher, Stalker, Heracles, Starstreak, and Assassin are all able to take you to Cydonia provided you have researched it. The Starstreak only carries one soldier, though, so I don't know why you'd use that one...

The last four ships are unlocked by researching Mind Shield plus various UFO designs. I had intended to make them into mind-shielded craft but without changing alien AI they already ignore your craft anyway, so it wouldn't even make a difference. So the mind-shielded thing exists only in their UFOPedia entries as flavor text.








Starter Craft
Interceptor - weaker and carries only one weapon but maintains the incredible speed and range of the old Interceptor.
Punisher - slower and shorter range but still quite able to catch UFOs in the early game.
Skyranger - faster than old Skyranger, carries 10 soldiers.
Custodian - slower than old Skyranger, but can carry up to 18 soldiers.

Alternate Purchase Craft
Sparrow - fast, long-range patrol craft with wide range radar which can patrol for hours on the far side of the Earth.
Albatross - slow, mobile radar unit that does not have to refuel very often.
Stormstrike - ultra-fast troop transport faster than the Punisher, carries 4 soldiers.
Marauder - slower but more powerful interception craft.

Alien Technology Craft
Firestorm - added capacity for 4 soldiers or 1 tank - Firestorm and Lightning now cost less Elerium to fuel.
Lightning - expanded to carry 16 soldiers or 4 tanks, splays troops out on the ground for rapid deployment.
Avenger - keeps the interception attributes of the old Avenger but carries only 12 soldiers.
Vanquisher - slower and weaker than Avenger but carries the full 26 troop complement.

Alternate Alien Technology Craft
Stalker - patrol craft that can remain in the air for a long time but travels fast, costs far less Elerium to refuel than other craft.
Heracles - behemoth transport that can carry 32 soldiers or 8 tanks, slowest alien tech craft and costs a lot of Elerium for fuel.
Starstreak - super fast craft that can reach 9600 knots, carries 2 weapons but has low hit points (300).
Assassin - midway between Avenger and Vanquisher, carries the old Skyranger troop loadout.



Let me know what you guys think! I'm also open to suggestions and if you want to provide artwork I might put it into the mod. More pictures and a download will become available as I complete the mod.

[Duke_Falcon]

Sounds cool. The Lightning also cool but start with such deployment not always good. I mean if aliens see you they could kill half of your squad as soon as one of your soldiers move. Could it be modified the code let only HWPs deploy on ground while soldiers still spawn on board?

The unit list and their features sounds cool. I will definitely give a try this mod once if I will have ample conditions (time, exe- and nightly-version updates, etc...)

About artwork, here:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,2963.0.html
Whatever you find there acceptable or plausible are free to use.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Sounds cool. The Lightning also cool but start with such deployment not always good. I mean if aliens see you they could kill half of your squad as soon as one of your soldiers move. Could it be modified the code let only HWPs deploy on ground while soldiers still spawn on board?

The code puts the tanks automatically where the soldiers go. In practice I have found this deployment to not be all that dangerous. You have to be careful but I actually experience fewer first turn deaths with this Lightning than with the Skyranger. The trick is to do a good review of the area and alien positions before you make your first move. Figure out who is looking in your direction and likely to respond, and see if you can snipe them first. Some units may be in a position to take reaction fire from only one alien, while others may not want to move until some reaction fire and/or kills have been made. You can use a tank to draw fire, but you must be careful not to draw fire in directions that put soldiers in danger. When you have a full complement of troops splayed out like that, you'll find you generally have lots of options for your first move and that really brings the power into your hands and your own skills rather than leaving it up to near-assured death on first unit exiting the craft--or first three if they are unarmored soldiers.

In short, less-experienced players may find the Skyranger to be safer on lower difficulties, but I find that when playing on Superhuman, the Lightning is a huge boon to soldier survival rate. But don't take my word for it. Try it out for yourself and see what you think!

About artwork, here:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,2963.0.html
Whatever you find there acceptable or plausible are free to use.

Thanks! I like that brown interceptor artwork, I might use that later.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I am nearing initial completion of the mod. I have all of the craft rulesets written and the craft and maps are all tested. Just adding the finishing touches now. For the initial release no new graphics will be added, but I would like to add some in future releases.

Can anyone tell me how I can turn a .gif image into a .spk image, or otherwise use it for a UFOPedia image?



First mission of the game, using a beefed up squad stuffed into the Custodian transport which features multiple craft exits for spreading troops quickly:





Comparing the base radar range with that of the Albatross. It can patrol for over a week before refueling.