X-Com the game

[al_5437]

[Made this a separate topic - Solarius Scorch]

Hello.
I have thoroughly enjoyed playing the mod.
Has anyone thought about redoing the mod as a stand alone game?  That would be an opportunity to solve all these balance and grinding problems.  Like introducing jagged alliance 2 style combat auto-resolve for monster hunt missions, and xenonauts - style objectives (if you held the UFO center for five turns, you didn't have to hunt one last straggler).

I have spent the weekend implementing geoscape in a game engine, screenshots below.

[AndyFox]

I have spent the weekend implementing geoscape in a game engine, screenshots below.

Yes, the geoscape is impressive, well done!

[Solarius Scorch]

Yes, it looks very nice.

As for "would this make a good standalone game?", I'm not sure... The mod was written specifically as an expansion to X-Com (and reconstruction). If I were hypothetically to make an actual new game, I'd probably do something more different. But who knows!

[al_5437]

Today, I spent time on purchase products view -- with filtering by checkboxes, rather than a drop down.

I am a professional IT developer, been dabbling in game dev for a couple of years, and the game I tried to make has been stalling because I can't come up with a good plot, just not enough creativity.  And as I was procrastinating and playing old games, I thought -- why not fix all these irksome things...

First goal of porting the mod as standalone is quality of life UI fixes, such as aforementioned checkboxes instead of a dropdown, 3d combat view, better squad control, ai control of the squad for the boring missions.

Second -- balance fixes, such as being able to keep multiple cars (but single aircraft) in a hangar, rats and bats occupying half a spot in a vehicle, AI units not taking living quarter space at bases, partially spent weapon ammo clips not disappearing such that one could use trophy weapons.

[Yankes]

I do not think is even feasible to move XComFiles to different engine.
All mod data is tightly liked to OXCE engine:
All maps are in ancient XCom format.
All unit graphic is 8bit and units require very specific draw order.
All configs are very specific to OXC/OXCE

To even consider possibility like that, your engine probably will need copy 30% of OXCE to load mod data to your engine.

Another if you consider fixing any behavior in mod that really on engine then you need fist implement current behavior with all its quirks.
Other wise you will make your game more and more different than original mod.

I personally if you would make break from XCOM behaviors better would collaborate with From the Ashes, where Finnk have more liberal approach to original behaviors than OXCE or OXC. He could even probably consider dropping 320x200 res support and this will make UI all lot better with more space for e.g. buttons.

[al_5437]

Sounds like the answer is no?  Noone is seriously entertaining the idea to move to a new engine?

I was thinking of the x-files mod, and not the whole thing that would support every mod written.
And moving to new engine means completely new graphics and combat engine, with a completely new set of quirks.  The current map format seems to be in binary format -- that's unfortunate, but I am sure that with the code being open source, that can be ported as well.

Today, i have done the base facilities -- as xcom3 style drag and drop.

I personally if you would make break from XCOM behaviors better would collaborate with From the Ashes, where Finnk have more liberal approach to original behaviors than OXCE or OXC. He could even probably consider dropping 320x200 res support and this will make UI all lot better with more space for e.g. buttons.

You have thrown a number of names at me -- who are these people?  More generally, who owns the IP, such as the maps, the images, the text of research projects?

[Solarius Scorch]

You have thrown a number of names at me -- who are these people?  More generally, who owns the IP, such as the maps, the images, the text of research projects?

Finnik's mod From the Ashes (found here) uses a custom fork of OXCE with some very interesting features. But it's still an OXC(E) fork.

[al_5437]

I see.
No, the 'engine' means not getting away with OXCE codebase and not coding in C++.
The above screenshots are from godot 4 (latest alpha).  I had to write the math to calculate the shortest path on a sphere, and to match the click position to the pixel in the texture (to determine the surface point biome).  Speaking of the texture, it is randomly generated, and the country borders will be drawn randomly as well.

The combat will be in 3d, fully destructible environment x-com 3 style.  Etc, etc -- current next milestone is to implement the 'equip craft and crew before mission' process, then I will upload runnable binary - tech demo somewhere.

So question is -- how much of X-Files content can I take and reimplement?  Is there a license?

[Juku121]

Is there a license?

You could read the readme.

So question is -- how much of X-Files content can I take and reimplement?

But be aware that XCF (and indeed the whole OpenXcom project, to a lesser degree) are on rather shaky grounds if anyone actually wants to come after it. Witness the Youtube strikes against people who stream the mod, for an easy example.

The combat will be in 3d, fully destructible environment x-com 3 style.

Given the number of full studios that have failed to get this right, I don't have high expectations. Xenonauts 2 - at least superficially quite similar - has been in perpetual beta for years now.

[Yankes]

I see.
No, the 'engine' means not getting away with OXCE codebase and not coding in C++.
The above screenshots are from godot 4 (latest alpha).  I had to write the math to calculate the shortest path on a sphere, and to match the click position to the pixel in the texture (to determine the surface point biome).  Speaking of the texture, it is randomly generated, and the country borders will be drawn randomly as well.

The combat will be in 3d, fully destructible environment x-com 3 style.  Etc, etc -- current next milestone is to implement the 'equip craft and crew before mission' process, then I will upload runnable binary - tech demo somewhere.

So question is -- how much of X-Files content can I take and reimplement?  Is there a license?

Do you want effective get only lore from mod noting else? Because based on what you say it look more like independent game inspired by XCF than "port" of it.

[al_5437]

Yes, just the lore.
The cults, the monsters, the zombies, the history, the technology, the secret files.

[Juku121]

You will have IP issues with the specific space aliens, TFTD, Apocalypse bits, UAC/Doom. At least. A lot of the soundtrack. Quite a few sprites.

So you need to basically replace two core arcs, a lot of the sounds and artwork, in addition to making an all-new game engine.

Sounds like a full new game to me, minus a good chunk of the writing. We all know the track record of people (multiple people and full studios!) making X-Com clones.

Feel free to prove me wrong. A new old-school X-Com game with full terrain destruction sounds very attractive.

[krautbernd]

Feel free to prove me wrong. A new old-school X-Com game with full terrain destruction sounds very attractive.

Can the battlescape be voxel based? I'd like the battelscape to be voxel-based. Teardown is a pretty impressive demonstration (and a fun game in it's own right, or so I've been told) what you can do with voxels on modern PCs, including destructible environments. I've always dreamed of having an actual 3D-battlescape while preserving the pixelated look, and the underlying engine is basically voxel-based already.

[al_5437]

I am not sure what the advantage of voxel terrain would be.  Terrain -- ground -- can be procedurally generated, but who would be making the buildings, house appliances, walls, etc?  Low poly 3d models can be purchased from synty studios, or made by one of many 3d artists at r/gamedevclassifieds.  Surely xcom3 style destruction is good enough?

You will have IP issues with the specific space aliens, TFTD, Apocalypse bits, UAC/Doom. At least. A lot of the soundtrack. Quite a few sprites.
So you need to basically replace two core arcs, a lot of the sounds and artwork, in addition to making an all-new game engine.

1.  I have had good experience with getting soundtracks from fiver.
2.  For sprites, I plan to get replacement from asset store texture packs (walls) daz studio (humans) or pixel artists from r/gamedevclassifieds (aliens).
3.  Please tell me more, which two core arcs, and who do I get permission from for the rest of the arcs?  Solarius Scorch?


Did some coding today, looks like in order to implement the new equipment view, most of the data model has to be coded first. It is not happening today, and we will see how much work my boss throws at me tomorrow. 
Below is a screenshot on how I envision the new equipment view -- select a craft, select a spot in the craft, then fill the spot with 1. operative 2. armor and equipment.  Everything drag and drop.  No more frantic clicking to change everyone's armor for a different mission.

[Juku121]

I am not sure what the advantage of voxel terrain would be.

Better terrain destruction. But since voxels are far more resource-hungry than polygons, and OpenXcom already tends to struggle with moderately large and especially multi-level maps, it's doubtful it would be a net benefit.

Especially since you'd be essentially writing your own engine (or engine extension) for it, part-time, with another game in the wings, a day job, etc. Probably would end up as some sort of X-Minecraft in the end.

Surely xcom3 style destruction is good enough?

Depends on who you ask. But since most commercial X-Com clones have never gotten even that back, I'd be on board with it.

For sprites, I plan to get replacement from asset store texture packs (walls)

Have you looked at just how many of these there are in XCF?

daz studio (humans)

3D? Ugh.

pixel artists from r/gamedevclassifieds (aliens).

You're intending to pay them? For full sprite collections, including Ufopedia? For at least a couple dozen aliens?

Please tell me more, which two core arcs...

The OG alien arc, and the sequel TFTD arc. Both use (mostly) OG assets, lore and concepts right now, and I imagine the specific designs and names (Sectoids, Mutons, Gillmen, Tasoths, etc) are still copyrighted. Even if not, or not fully, nuCom has been pretty successful and 2K has a lot more money and lawyers than you.

...and who do I get permission from for the rest of the arcs?  Solarius Scorch?

He'd be where you start, yes. But some of his work is building on existing IP to a degree that won't fly in a commercial game (UAC being the most obvious example). You two would need to sit down and examine the whole thing pretty thoroughly.

...fill the spot with 1. operative 2. armor and equipment.  Everything drag and drop.  No more frantic clicking to change everyone's armor for a different mission.

How is drag and drop better? In OXCE, armour can be changed in bulk with right-clicking. Unless you make armour a part of the equipment template, I don't see how you can improve on that. Maybe I'm just dense.