Editing Game Files

[ClaireTheApocalypse]

I'm absolutely loving the mod. It's extremely well made and extremely extensive. However, my only pet peeve would be the events. I like the idea, and they help make the world feel more expansive, but I feel like there are way more events that decrease points than there are events that increase points (Which I can imagine is meant to be a balance thing). But sometimes, I spend an entire month getting swamped by bad events, and have very few missions to go on, and end up with -1000 score simply because the game said "fuck you."

I think I figured out how to change the amount that the points are actually decreased by (the events_XCOMFILES.rul file) but I was wondering if there was a way to change the actual description of the events, since the description includes the number of points that you lose. It seems that the actual text on the screen is drawn separately to the background sprites, and the description of the event is held in descriptions titled things like STR_THEY_SET_US_UP_DESCRIPTION, or STR_AN_INCONVENIENT_TRUTH_DESCRIPTION. However, I cannot for the life of me figure out where to find what this is referencing. Can someone point me in the right direction for where these descriptions are actually stored, or how I might be able to edit them?

(Separately, a thought that I had as I was writing this, does anyone know if the actual points deducted are even hardcoded into the description, or does it print from the value in the events_XCOMFILES.rul file itself? If it does that, then problem solved. Though there are a few typos I'd like to be able to clean up, if anyone does know how to alter the text in-game.)

Also, completely separately, and a long shot I know, but is there a simple way to change the date of the invasion? I like to play really slowly, and might want to try pushing it back to Jan 1, 2000. If that's not possible, is there a way to push the starting date back a year, so I start in 1996, rather than '97?

[Juku121]

The texts are in the language files in '[mod directory]/Language/[language].yml'. en-US.yml is the default.

And, yes, point amounts are added automatically. Nope, I was wrong.

If you have typos, share them in the 'Bugs, crashes, typos & bad taste' thread.


Moving the date has been discussed here. There's a partial submod for that, and it's relatively easy to mildly bothersome depending on what exactly you're after. Both moving back and moving forward are possible, but the question is, what exactly happens during that extra period of time?

[Solarius Scorch]

Hello and welcome!

The truth is, mechanically the events are okay. The thing about X-Com is that your only goal points-wise is to remain above 0. Some mods, like Piratez, use a mechanic where you get extra cash for every point above 0, but XCF does not, because I figured it wouldn't fit the lore of a UN organisation to be financed this way. Negative events (along some other things) make this task a little bit less trivial. (This wasn't a grand plan from the beginning, but simply how the game turned out.)

However, I agree that more positive events would be nice, if only to make things less... bleak. But I need ideas.

[ClaireTheApocalypse]

Okay, thank you! And I have noticed that sometimes even falling below 0 isn't terrible, as I can still gain a net profit despite a negative score. Still, I've been wanting to slow things down a bit and probably set the points from events to about 1/4 of what they all currently are, both positive and negative, so that the events feel more atmospheric and less "RNGesus said you lose/gain points today."

[Solarius Scorch]

Yes, there is some leeway, depending on difficulty.

As for making things more relaxed, I'd be happy to add more positive events. Just need some inspiration...