This game rocks

[Chuckebaby]

I hope its okay i Double comment.
I just want to thank the developers of this (OXCE). I was using the original Dos box version and it had its issues.
This version of OXCE, omg.. It was so smooth, fast loading my saves. I honestly can not say enough good things about it.

My next step is trying to use it with terror from the deep. i also have that game on Dos box. I copid my folders over, but im not sure how to open that game from OXCE.
Thanks again.

[The Martian]

My next step is trying to use it with terror from the deep. i also have that game on Dos box. I copid my folders over, but im not sure how to open that game from OXCE.

To toggle between X-COM: UFO Defense and X-COM: Terror From The Deep press the Mod button:


Click the "Base Game" button at the top of the mod menu and select Terror from the Deep:


Click the "OK" button in the lower left side of the screen, OpenXcom will reload:


If you see this screen after the reload then everything should be set to play Terror from the Deep:



You may also be interested in installing this visual mod if you are using OXCE:
Firing Animation for TFTD



(Unless it has already been fixed) there is a bug when playing Terror From the Deep where your Aquanauts will not visually raise their arms to fire two handed weapons.

This mod provides a makeshift solution adding in the missing animation frames without altering the gameplay.

[Chuckebaby]

This mod provides a makeshift solution adding in the missing animation frames without altering the gameplay.

This was just what I needed. I can’t thank you enough.
What an amazing community this is. I am just so impressed with the hard work and love people have for this game here.
Amazing people helping one another, just like you.

By trade I am audio mastering engineer. I master audio for radio, streaming, etc. if there is anything I can do to help out with the audio portion of this game, please let me know. I’d be happy to donate any resources I can.
Very grateful. That is again.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

By trade I am audio mastering engineer. I master audio for radio, streaming, etc. if there is anything I can do to help out with the audio portion of this game, please let me know. I’d be happy to donate any resources I can.
Very grateful. That is again.

I do have an audio question.

I was adding a sound effect to the game but I had to first record one from the game. (The effect I wanted was a vanilla sound plus something extra.) So I recorded the effect direct across the computer, not through the speakers. The quality came through fine, but I couldn't seem to balance the volume in Audacity. Is there an easy way to get the audio volume to match? Whatever I recorded came through at a radically different volume than the original sound effect.

Apologies if I'm a complete noob at this.

[Chuckebaby]

Your best bet would be using a good Loudness meter (LUFS is the EBU standard now a day, but back in the 90's it was unheard of. however that wouldn't really matter much as your just trying to do some basic signal matching.
This LUFS meter is free. The paid version is the industry standard. This one will do fine.
https://youlean.co/youlean-loudness-meter/

[Chuckebaby]

Take some readings, then use the normalize function in Audacity. I'm not really familiar with audacity but it has to do some form of normalizing. I use Wavelab. It's what most mastering engineers use.

You a noob ? LOL.
You are are to coding  what i am to audio. We are all have our specialty.
I'm a noob when it comes to coding :-)

[The Reaver of Darkness]

You a noob ? LOL.
You are are to coding  what i am to audio. We are all have our specialty.
I'm a noob when it comes to coding :-)

Not coding. I am pretty pro at openxcom modding.

Thanks! =)

[Chuckebaby]

Not coding. I am pretty pro at openxcom modding.

Thanks! =)

How did you get good at coding this game ?
I just downloaded a free txt editor. Notepad++ to mess around a bit.
I know coding can be difficult but this game seems like a great place to start learning.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

How did you get good at coding this game ?
I just downloaded a free txt editor. Notepad++ to mess around a bit.
I know coding can be difficult but this game seems like a great place to start learning.

I'm not good at coding the game. That would require knowledge of its programming language.

Editing the ruleset is pretty easy. It's written in YAML, a markup language (fite me, it is) and so is easy to understand with no prior experience. All you have to recognize is that as with anything else in programming, the game is an absolute stickler for syntax. So to get your feet wet, it is best to copy other mods and make tweaks to them. You can also copy ruleset files or text from the ruleset files from the base openxcom game, just make sure you mimic the style that other mods use. As you do this, you will get used to how features work. You will still experience lots of bugs and crashes as you learn, but you can get help either from me (here on the forums or on discord) or in the openxcom discord modding channel.

I've been modding for years. Modding has a very low barrier for entry, but plenty of room to grow. I'm not the best modder in the community but I have come very far and I am the best at some things.

P.S.: Make sure your Notepad++ is set to YAML for anything using the .rul file extension.

[NancyGold]

It's written in YAML, a markup language (fite me, it is) and so is easy to understand with no prior experience. All you have to recognize is that as with anything else in programming, the game is an absolute stickler for syntax. So to get your feet wet, it is best to copy other mods and make tweaks to them.

YAML doesn't look easy to me - it has rather advanced Python-style syntax, compared to JSON. And scripting in general is a bit harder than raw programming, since it implies good intrinsic knowledge of the system being scripted. Almost always the documentation for scripting languages is lacking, and you can't just look at the source code, as you do with C/C++. So successful scripting indeed relies on copy-pasting the working code and experimenting with it. You can also do only as much as the devs have exposed, unless the underlying system has complete introspection (i.e. runs on top of C# runtime, JVM or some Lisp system), because it is notoriously hard to expose parts of the C and, especially, C++ software to scripting - there are special complicated tools for that.

[Chuckebaby]

Thank you very much for your helpful insight.
This forum is really amazing. I’ve only met a small handful of people who have loved this game until I joined this group.
This game is one of those things that I keep returning to as the years go by. It reminds me of being young, it reminds me of playing it with my son (who is 27 now and he had no idea about this OXCE. He is thrilled now. Especially about the mods.

[Chuckebaby]

I do have an audio question.

Reaver I sent you a DM about your awesome mod (Harmony). I am loving it.
As far as audio goes ? Find me on Facebook, friend me and I'll look at your audio files myself and do what I can to fix them.


On a separate note-
I joined this forum just 4 months ago and it is as if I have found a gold mine. The joy this group has brought me is unreal. I can not thank all of you enough for introducing me into this world of mods. I honestly had no idea how many people in this world were just like me (loved this game so much). I am so glad to have found this group. Thank you all.

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Reaver I sent you a DM about your awesome mod (Harmony). I am loving it.
As far as audio goes ? Find me on Facebook, friend me and I'll look at your audio files myself and do what I can to fix them.

Thanks! Glad to hear it!
It's fine, I have a basic understanding of how to use Audacity. I was hoping there would be an easy solution, but if there isn't then I can just do it the hard way. The files in question are already balanced anyway, it was more of a for future reference sort of thing.

[Chuckebaby]

Thanks! Glad to hear it!
It's fine, I have a basic understanding of how to use Audacity. I was hoping there would be an easy solution, but if there isn't then I can just do it the hard way. The files in question are already balanced anyway, it was more of a for future reference sort of thing.

Reaver, a better software for digital audio is Bandlab by Cakewalk. I have been working for Cakewalk since 2009. Designing features, workflow, etc.
The software used to be 499.99 USD only 5 years ago. it's free now.
https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

The loudness meter which i spoke of (LUFS meter) Youlean makes a free version which is basically the industry standard.
https://youlean.co/youlean-loudness-meter/

Any time I can be of any help, let me know.