_Raven_'s wishlist

[_Raven_]

I want to draw your attention to some rul files (I hope I'm on the right topic).
So first we will start with optimizing the game and at the end I will add some ideas on what new features should be added to the game.

1) Optimization of files such as extraSprites.rul
You have added a lazy loading feature, the game only loads the necessary sprites (not all at once), can you do the same feature for other files, such as:
- extraSounds.rul
- music.rul
- cutscenes.rul

extraSounds.rul does not suit me because the game takes a very long time to load when I'm add music to this file (5 minutes duration of environmental sounds of the location) and in the terrains.rul file I indicate the id of the music that should play in this particular location (for example gunshot sounds for terror location). Can you optimize these files so that these large audio tracks are loaded not when the game starts, but when the location is loaded (only one ogg file is loaded for the desired location, for example, the terror mission, the sound for the terror location is loaded).
Code:
###terrains:
###  - name: URBAN
###    ambience: 268
###    ambientVolume: 0.5

music.rul and cutscenes.rul also need to be made so that the FLC and OGG files are not loaded all at once, but only those files that are currently needed to launch the cutscene. There is one more problem with these files: when you start a cutscene, they are loaded simultaneously, the FLC file must be loaded first and then the OGG file, since the video lags behind the sound when the light OGG loads faster than the heavy FLC (especially when the mod is compressed in zip in this case the file flc is loaded 5 seconds later than the ogg file, as a result the video lags behind the sound by 5 seconds. I talked about this in more detail in the topic about FLI FLC cutscenes)
Code:
###cutscenes:
###  - type: autopsySectoid
###    videos:
###      - ANIMS/AutopsySectoidAnimation.FLI
###    audioTracks:
###      - AutopsySectoidMusic

2) New game features
Add cutscene function to files:
- research.rul
- manufacture.rul
- facilities.rul
Code:
###research:
###  - name: STR_SECTOID_CORPSE
###    cutscene: autopsySectoid
###    cost: 1
###    points: 0
###    listOrder: 0
As you can see in this example, the cutscene can only be specified in the alienDeployments.rul and research.rul files and only on the project that needs to be studied manually cost: 1 the cutscene does not work on projects that are studied automatically cost: 0 such as STR_SECTOID_AUTOPSY.
You need to make sure that the cutscene works even on those projects that are studied automatically; this is sometimes very inconvenient when the cutscene does not start automatically and to run it you must create an empty project, so that you can then manually set this project for study.
I would also like that cutscenes could be tied not only to study, but also to the construction of base modules and the production of weapons or aircraft. For example, I have a DECODER cutscene. This cutscene shows how the base personnel activate the hyperwave decoder for the first time. Second example, I made a new interceptor and immediately after that a cutscene should start showing this new fighter.

3) Co-op, two-player game mode, online network game
People often tell me that openxcom is boring and if you could play it with friends and still communicate while playing, then it would be much more interesting. I prefer the single player mode, but despite this I came up with a game mode for two players, which I will tell you about now, maybe you will add such a function.
Let's say a certain version of the game is installed on your phone or computer, let's say OXCE v7.9.8 and the same mod is installed on both devices, let's say FMP and on one device one player launches the game and goes to the "game for two" section, the second player too launches the exact same version of the game and selects the “search for running game” column (it is possible to indicate in the search the name of the game with which your friend signed his online game and is waiting for you to connect to him), you have found the desired game session, connected, your devices begin to exchange data via WIFI and one player starts the game and the other player sees on his screen everything that happens on your friend’s screen. So your phones are connected, you have the same versions of the game and the same mod files, you started the game and the game multiplies everything by x2, that is, you can build two bases at once (you and your friend are building two independent bases), you independently develop your base (at the same time, you can constantly communicate with each other and can even transport your weapons to your friend’s base), a UFO arrives (the characteristics of the UFO are also increased by x2, weapon strength and armor), you send your interceptors and together shoot down the UFO, after which you and your friend send each of your cargo planes to the crash site, the location is loaded (the location is also increased x2 times, so that two planes can land on this location, the number of aliens is also doubled x2), you and your friend, or in turn, or it’s better to walk at the same time, each with his own soldiers, you can shoot the alien in the back, who was shooting at your friend’s soldiers and did not allow him to advance further. After the mission, the reward is divided into two bases.
In this way, you can create a game mode for two players who can go through the game together from beginning to end.

[Yankes]

3) Co-op, two-player game mode, online network game

At this point this is outside of scope of OXCE, local playing is possible if someone spend enough time to unhardcoded battle sides
(but not ask me or Meridian to od it)
For online game is near impossible as it would need rewrite of whole game hanging near from scratch to handle network syncing.

Other suggestions are possible, but most cases are in Meridian domain and he need answer if he is interested in implementing it.

[_Raven_]

I read about the limitation of 256 sprites and ways to bypass this limitation (moving alternative destroyed sprites to the end of the file starting from 257), but how is it that the game itself can load double locations of 512 sprites or even from 768 sprites (location + plane + UFO), but it is still impossible to remove the limitation and you have to bypass it in all ways.
Probably the 256 limitation consists of two bytes “FF” in the game code and cannot be translated into the four-byte “FFFF” system, but then how were these restrictions removed from the characteristics of units or the number of engineers on the base (previously it was impossible to hire more than 256 engineers per base , otherwise the bytes are reset to 0 "00" and engineer 257 becomes the first and only engineer on the base), besides, the game no longer works in 32 but in 64 byte mode, is it really possible to remove this restriction from the game and the "Map Editor 2" program? (then there will probably be an advantage in sprites (location + plane + UFO {256 + 256 + 256 = 768} if doubled, you get 1520 sprites in one mission + sprites of units and weapons), but if the game can still load more sprites , then I have an idea how to get around the limitation.

The texture pack consists of several .MCD .PCK .TAB files because one PCK file can contain no more than 65kb of weight, also the MCD file also has a limitation and it cannot store up to 254 texture IDs. I suggest doing the following:
1) MCD
Increase the file capacity to 508 texture IDs (254 sprites + another 254 alternative location destruction sprites;
2)PCK
Increase the file size from 65kb to 650kb or even 999kb so that all sprites fit into one file, including animation sprites and alternative sprites.

Thus, for each location it will be possible to create a texture pack consisting of one file (MCD PCK TAB) + a standard BLANKS file (2 sprites of the ground under the floor and an empty sprite), and use real 254 sprites and not the actual 256, but in fact only 150 or even less (because 2 sprites are already occupied by standard sprites + also alternative sprites of collapsing objects that cannot be taken and moved from all files to the end of the last file).
You probably cannot turn this idea into reality, otherwise you would have done it a long time ago, although there may be an opportunity to do this in the future.

[_Raven_]

I have such a complex proposal, maybe someone will want to turn this idea into reality.
Why not try expanding the size of all the sprites in the game, increasing the resolution of the pictures by 2 times, or at least adding a 16x9 widescreen patch to remove the stripes on the sides of the screen without stretching the image.

Sometimes these limits on the size of small sprites are so straining (base and aviation sprites on the base, weapon sprites, indicator sprites - for example, an armor indicator and other very small sprites), maybe there is a way to enlarge some sprites, for example, enlarge the ufopedia sprites and background sprites (those size 320×200), it will be possible not only to make Ufopedia pictures better, but maybe more text will be included (sometimes there is not enough space to make a normal description of the fighter, besides, you also need to try not to cover the entire picture with letters, scrolling the text will not works in OXCE only works in XCOM2012).

If you could make the fighter sprite larger, or make the globe more beautiful, or at least make some of the sprites larger in size so that there are more pixels in the sprite, then some sprites would look sharper with a higher resolution.

[Juku121]

...scrolling the text will not works in OXCE only works in XCOM2012.

Pedia scrolling absolutely works in OXCE, don't recall the exact date when this became a thing, but it was not too recent.

16x9 widescreen patch to remove the stripes on the sides of the screen without stretching the image.

16x10 master race!

[_Raven_]

Pedia scrolling

I don’t see any scrolling of the text, all the text just goes off the screen, no more description can be added. (OXCE v7.12)

Also widescreen mode, 16:9 with black bars on the sides, “does not maintain proportions”, highly stretched image across the entire screen (I can imagine what it looks like on phones with a 21:9 screen).

I don’t know how to attach an image, nothing works, I select a file, and then what?

[Juku121]

There is no indication that the text can be scrolled, but you can just scroll it and it works. Example attached, I added three paragraphs of 'lorem ipsum' there.

Also, I don't see any distortions (see attachments) when looking at 1920x1080 vs 1920x1200. What are your exact graphics settings?

[yergnoor]

There is no indication that the text can be scrolled, but you can just scroll it and it works. Example attached, I added three paragraphs of 'lorem ipsum' there.

I think he's just using the Android version of OXCE, like me.  I'm not sure exactly how text scrolls in Pedia articles, but there are no on-screen controls for it, and swiping across the screen doesn't do anything.  Most likely you need a mouse wheel, which is not available in this case.  Therefore, you have to look for each such article in the mod files if you want to read it in full.

[_Raven_]

When I turn off the “maintain screen proportions” function, then the screen stretches; when I maintain the proportions, then there are black bars on the sides of the screen.

But I managed to select images, but I can’t attach them to the message, I even tried the following command “[img]1test16x9-.png[\img]”, there is still text but no pictures (during viewing and after publishing the message).

I finally figured out how to attach images, but I didn’t understand how to attach an image not at the end but in the middle, between the text, besides, I blocked the topic for myself and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t create a new message and edit the old one. Here the devil himself will break his leg, it’s good that I already have some experience using these types of forum sites.

[Juku121]

Well, this is working as intended. If your screen isn't 16:10, you're getting either black bars or stretching, no way around it. Well, windowed mode maybe.

I don't know that there's a way to display attachments in the body of the post on this forum. The 'img' tag is more of a hyperlink with a preview than anything.

If you're playing without mouse wheel access, perhaps the pedia articles aren't indeed scrollable. Never been in such a situation myself.

[yergnoor]

If you're playing without mouse wheel access, perhaps the pedia articles aren't indeed scrollable. Never been in such a situation myself.

The creator of OpenXcom for Android, sfalexrog, once made a similar improvement for different lists in the menu.  It is turned on in the settings as “Scrolling lists by holding” (if the name is slightly different, it’s because I’m writing through a machine translator) and allows you to scroll through all lists (soldiers, items for buying and selling, and the like) simply by moving your finger on  screen up or down.  But this improvement was made long before OXCE for Android was developed based on its version.  And of course, long before Uphopedia article scrolling was added.  But I don't think that function is applicable to text in articles.  Most likely you would have to do scrolling by moving your finger across the screen from scratch.

[_Raven_]

Okay, for now my text in Ufopedia will be a standard size of 320×200, then in the future there may appear for all platforms such a “text window” function so that you can specify a small window for text and scroll through it up and down using the slider on the side, as during production products, you can scroll through the list of materials required to create this item.

The world turns out to be such a small place, so here we are already corresponding with you yergnoor (you’re from 4PDA right?)
I also use a translator, I use the “Tab Translate Screen” but I don’t admit it to anyone, although it’s probably clear who is using the translator and who really knows the language. We have lived to an era in which there are no barriers to communication, you can correspond with the whole world and at the same time know only your own language and not know English.

[yergnoor]

I also use a translator, I use the “Tab Translate Screen” but I don’t admit it to anyone, although it’s probably clear who is using the translator and who really knows the language. We have lived to an era in which there are no barriers to communication, you can correspond with the whole world and at the same time know only your own language and not know English.

I prefer to clarify about translation when it matters, as in this situation.  Because I gave the name of the setting, but in fact it may be very different from what was translated from the Russian version of this line by machine.  Just to avoid any misunderstanding.

After all, for many of those on this forum, English is also not their native language, and they may know it to varying degrees.  From complete understanding to reading only through a translator.  One such clarification could save someone the time spent searching for just such a setting.

And yes, I was on the 4pda website, and I remember our communication there.

[_Raven_]

This is how we would do it and everyone would be happy, scrolling text with a slider, instead of the standard command (rect_text) use a window for scrolling text (scroll_text)

Code:
###ufopaedia:
###  - id: STR_SKYRANGER
###    rect_text:
###      x: 180
###      y: 160
###      width: 140
###      height: 60

[_Raven_]

I came up with this psionic SQS function that is similar to regular SQS but works differently.

It would be nice to add a new type of psi-sqs (or better called psiAura or psiShield) only to psionics, so that when a regular soldier shoots at a creature with great psionic power, the psi-sqs will work and the bullets will fly away, but when a psionic soldier in psionic armor , then he ignores psi-sqs and shoots at the target, but when such a soldier is attacked by an ordinary alien, he can deflect the bullets with a psionic shield.

This reminds me of the mod for xcom2012 "Long War" in which Ethereal reflected shots with the help of his powerful psionic aura and I decided to propose adding this function for psionics, so that only psionic creatures could do such tricks with deflecting bullets from the target.

Think about this new mechanic that is similar to SQS but designed for psionics that works at a distance. I think it’s a good idea to add a psionic aura that repels bullets with some probability (the chance of deflecting bullets or penetrating the aura depends on the accuracy and psionic strength of the soldier, as well as on the psionic strength of the enemy). This new mechanic can also be applied as SQS as a separate command to armor (for example - psiAura: true, you can also add an aura power multiplier, which can be used to manually adjust the aura strength).