Ideas to promote 1.+ cohesion and a universal OpenXcom Overhaul Mod

[darkestaxe]

I forsee a huge increase in the popularity and energy in OpenXcom modding, and in OpenXcom in general, once v0.5 or possibly 0.5.5 comes out. I'd like us to be prepared to take full advantage of that energy and talent.

I would like to see a large portion of the mods getting made into a cohesive overall expansion instead of lots of various upgrades where some work together and some don't. Something that doesn't require trial and error to find a selection of Mods that actually vastly improves the experience.

The Plan:

• Collect a list/database of potentially compatible mods, mod sets, mod plans, proposed features etc that would improve on the existing game while still preserving the original feel and gameplay, as well as enhancements that could easily be turned on and off in an ingame menu or selected at the creation of a new game.
• Document the core changes that will be made and how included mods will need to be modified to fit any new requirements.
• Set up a quality assurance system of some type to determine which mods will actually be used.
• Set up a database of needed assets to fulfill the core changes decided upon, like new textures, sounds or tilesets.
• We will also need modders to go through selected  high quality mods that don't match the new requirements and have become inactive or been left.

Right now I'm mostly just looking for input/ideas/criticism on how we could get all this organized. Putting an overall direction plan together will take time, probably more time then there will take time. I want to be prepared to start making that plan as the early crowd shows up, so that when the 1.0 flood comes we can take full advantage of the energy it brings.

Otherwise we will probably have the same mess as the TESV:Skyrim modding fiasco, and I doubt OpenXcom will have Nexus Mod Manager support.

[darkestaxe]

Actually if SupSuper and the core OpenXcom team were already planning on doing something like this after 1.0 comes out then I don't really see much point in worrying about it.

[luke83]

Well i assume Supsuper already has something in mind since Most of the game can have it statistics changed now through the Rulesets and the addition of Multiply rulests will make Mixing and matching some mods easy but no matter how flexible he makes the system someone will always want something more and eventually some mods wont work with others.

That being said , i  always envisioned the Mod site to not only be a place to download separate pieces,  i always wanted to add sections where people that have created a Special Version of openxcom could upload there variety of the game for others to play without sorcing all the components separately ( just one ZIP file with all the mods needed to run your scenario). Currently Warboy82 is the only one working on a FORK of this project so he is the First one but eventually i would love to see lots of different game ... .Human weapons only game, a game where Plasma tech cant be researched ( as it to hard) , Xponys (https://www.strategycore.co.uk/forums/topic/9847-x-pony-the-new-remake-of-enemy-unknown/)

At this point it still early days , you could help out by making some mods of your own as a thank you to the community for this project.... Just a thought.

[SupSuper]

...but eventually i would love to see lots of different game ... .Human weapons only game, a game where Plasma tech cant be researched...

This can already be accomplished with rulesets.

Anyways the current modding approach is nowhere near final, the final plan is for OpenXcom mods to be able to change rules/resources/strings/UI/etc. and come in simple self-contained packages (like folders or zips) that you can easily manage and use with mod managers like most games.

[luke83]

Suspsuper , is it possible to Lock out a tech knowledge from human but still allow the aliens to have them?

[SupSuper]

Suspsuper , is it possible to Lock out a tech knowledge from human but still allow the aliens to have them?

Sure, you just make it unresearchable. Aliens don't need research.

[moriarty]

hmmm... once the aliens are capable of picking up weapons, will they be able to use human weapons as well? because that doesn't seem right. maybe we need to implement some kind of tech ID for items and weapons so that stuff from one "faction" can't be used by another unless expressly specified? (expecially once we modders include third-party armed forces and the like... or is there already something handling this?)

[darkestaxe]

moriarty
At the moment no.  However there will need to be controls on what aliens can spawn with, used by the geoscape AI, which hasn't been coded yet. Beyond that IDK.