New to Modding, where should I start?

[ExperimentX]

Hi all, i've played openxcom for years now and after recently taking a few coding classes in college I feel confident enough to try my hand at modding. Is there any sort of guide to learn about how the games code works? And if I wanted to create a total conversion mod of my own, where should I start? Items, the geoscape, research, soldier types or should I start elsewhere?

[Alex_D]

Search for any ruleset (.rul files) of any mod and start learning the "language".
I suggest the base game xcom1, and then XCF to start with as they are well organized in terms of where things are and it's easy to follow.

The vital guide of said language is this forum and this page:
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Ruleset_Reference_Nightly_(OpenXcom).

Also notepad++ (associate rul files to yaml) is a must.

Later you can graduate to other tools.

Bon Voyage!

[Solarius Scorch]

Welcome to the wonderful world of modding!

I would suggest adding small stuff, like a new weapon (graphic resources are plentiful, you can also use something from another mod too). And always, always mind the indentation.

[ExperimentX]

Search for any ruleset (.rul files) of any mod and start learning the "language".
I suggest the base game xcom1, and then XCF to start with as they are well organized in terms of where things are and it's easy to follow.

The vital guide of said language is this forum and this page:
https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Ruleset_Reference_Nightly_(OpenXcom).

Also notepad++ (associate rul files to yaml) is a must.

Later you can graduate to other tools.

Bon Voyage!

Thanks! Are there any programs I should use for base facility spritework? I'll move onto unit spritework later but base spritework seems simple(r) because it doesn't change.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks! Are there any programs I should use for base facility spritework? I'll move onto unit spritework later but base spritework seems simple(r) because it doesn't change.

Anything that maintains the palette will work. Aseprite is very good (and free, if you compile it yourself; otherwise not too expensive), Photoshop will work without problems as well. Irfan View supposedly works, but I haven't tried it myself. GIMP is not recommended, unless you really know how to tame it.

[Alex_D]

Base facilities implies terrain works. MCEdit has a built in palette editor that ought to work for some people's needs.

That tool and others are in:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/board,13.0.html

[ExperimentX]

Base facilities implies terrain works. MCEdit has a built in palette editor that ought to work for some people's needs.

That tool and others are in:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/board,13.0.html

Speaking of terrain files, what do I open them with? If they're meant to be opened that is.

[Solarius Scorch]

Speaking of terrain files, what do I open them with? If they're meant to be opened that is.

As Alex_D mentioned, the program is called MCDEdit, written by Volutar. You can find it here: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=MCDEdit

It's super friendly for a modding tool.