Author Topic: Equipment idea - Megaphone  (Read 4920 times)

Offline S810_Jr

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Equipment idea - Megaphone
« on: October 15, 2021, 02:13:34 pm »
No idea if this is possible with OXCE but this is my idea.

A 1 handed equipment item.
When activated (or primed like a grenade maybe?) and in hand the solider is visible like they are a light source, because of the loud noise of them talking with it. Then if OXCE allows for it, Civilian AI becomes attracted towards that solider. You know, because the human with the megaphone is shouting "Come over here where we'll protect you from that THING trying to kill you that you are walking towards!". Maybe have it use most of the TUs to do this, so they are highly visible to the enemy and can not simply run away after using it.
If the AI can not be altered in OXCE to be attracted towards the soldier then maybe just a high % chance of you being able to mind control them (and only civilians) so you can run them behind you.

« Last Edit: October 15, 2021, 02:20:47 pm by S810_Jr »

Offline krautbernd

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2021, 04:15:16 pm »
If the AI can not be altered in OXCE to be attracted towards the soldier then maybe just a high % chance of you being able to mind control them (and only civilians) so you can run them behind you.

As far as I can tell neither is possible in OXCE, and you might be better off posting this in the OXCE subforum if you want to propose such a mechanic.

Online Meridian

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2021, 04:16:36 pm »
You can have a psi-amp that works only on civilians... call it a megaphone.

Offline FishyFin

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2021, 07:11:03 pm »
You can have a psi-amp that works only on civilians... call it a megaphone.
We got to make sure they don't become enemy after you mind control them.

I was thinking of battle scanner as well. Just like those in the newer XCOM and XCOM2. Work just like grenade. You throw them away and it turn on the motion scanner screen with where the scanner land at the center. It maybe useful to spot some hidden enemies without getting close to them or light up the place. Maybe you can make it so that we can pick it up and reuse it as many time we want. Also, can we high light spots where scanner detect target? I have to remember where they are in my head all the time.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2021, 07:12:37 pm by FishyFin »

Online Meridian

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2021, 07:17:58 pm »
We got to make sure they don't become enemy after you mind control them.

they don't become enemy

Offline krautbernd

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2021, 09:03:31 pm »
You can have a psi-amp that works only on civilians... call it a megaphone.

Using targetMatrix I take it? I haven't been checking the refernece lately, sorry for posting misleading information.

Online Meridian

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2021, 10:41:42 pm »
Using targetMatrix I take it?

yes

I haven't been checking the refernece lately, sorry for posting misleading information.

no worries

prefixing it with "as far as I can tell" and pointing to the OXCE subforum is good enough in my book... nobody carries the whole ruleset reference in their head (including me)

Offline FishyFin

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2021, 05:39:07 am »
I was thinking about your ideas. So far this is what I got.

The sprites seems doing alright.

I intent to make this a bravery training tool. Also it should work base on your agent's bravery. You know, courage inspire people right?

I also add the Play Dead option. It's basically mean telling civilians to pretend that they are dead, so that the enemies may ignore them. Also useful when you don't want too many of them walking around and doing stupid things. They will simply get stun like they got hit by a knockout grenade. I saw a group of them got hit if they clump together. Stun damage is a fix 35.

A few things to revise:
-Adding a proper sound and animation: I haven't done anything about the sound. We need something like a strong, reassuring radio voice to give a good impression of a hit. Maybe a distorting sound for a miss. Please give me some suggestion or share me the file.
-Rebalance: So far I make every actions about 1/5 of the user's turn. I don't know if it's ok or too OP. The range is 20, which mean you shouldn't be able to use it on someone too far away. I guess maybe I should give the accuracy like Panic > Mind Control > Play Dead, and cost the user some morale so that they won't abuse too much. Another idea is to give the Hold option which is cheaper than than Play Dead. It will cause civilian run out of TUs or stamina so that they won't move for a turn.
-Commendation: Something like the leader/hero of civilian for helping them making the right decision in mist of chaos. And bully for using it to panic too many people.

Also I'm not very experience so if there's anything else I need to improve, please tell.

P/s: After some testing, I haven't seen any increase in bravery. I wonder if the experience training mode work differently than I expect.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2021, 07:46:11 am by FishyFin »

Offline FishyFin

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2021, 03:49:22 am »
The mod is on there. You can check it out:
https://openxcom.mod.io/x-com-files-megaphone

Maybe I should make the vanilla X-Com version of it as well.

Offline Marrik

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #9 on: November 08, 2021, 10:27:17 pm »
This might be a dumb question, but how where do I need to extract the megaphone mod?

Offline FishyFin

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2021, 02:32:04 am »
This might be a dumb question, but how where do I need to extract the megaphone mod?
Just put it in the same folder where you put X-Com Files.
When you start the game. Select Mods on the main menu. Select the base game as X-Com Files. You should have seen Megaphone mod. Change include that mod by change it to YES. Then restart the game.

Offline FireStarTracer

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2021, 07:52:17 pm »
Just started playing this one again (second time trying it) to take a break from X-Piratez (still haven't tried the last few updates because I'm still on 10.7 and don't want to reset just yet) so this little feature was nicely timed.  I'll give it a try and see what happens and if anything comes up I'll drop a note.

And thank you for this little submod!

Offline BlackStaff

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #12 on: November 19, 2021, 04:13:17 pm »
Very interesting mod! Congratulations and thank you!  :)   :)
With a very small modification, it works very well under standard OXCE.

Offline Marrik

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #13 on: November 26, 2021, 01:21:14 pm »
Hey, I had a question about this mod. When I mind control a civilian at night, they always light up as if they had a flashlight, even if they don't have one on them. Is there a way to disable this? It usually results in people getting shot.

Offline BlackStaff

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Re: Equipment idea - Megaphone
« Reply #14 on: November 26, 2021, 01:26:06 pm »
In the same way as when you select one of your soldiers?
I guess it's normal and written in the original code...  :-\