Is it possible to modify the operation of the Hyper-Wave Decoder?

[yergnoor]

Is it possible to make a mod to limit the functionality of the Hyper-Wave Decoder so that the result of UFO detection depends on the results of the research of X-Com scientists?  Or perhaps such a mod already exists?

 Let me explain.

 In the vanilla game, building a Hyper-Wave Decoder immediately provides complete information about any type of ship, any alien race and any mission they are performing.  And even about previously unseen ships, unknown opponents and yet unknown missions.  Which seems illogical to me, a kind of deception, because for some reason the X-Com scientists conduct these studies, studying aliens and interrogating them, that is, initially they do not even know their names, but at the same time the Decoder shows these names immediately.  The fact that the player already knows everything from playing the game for the hundredth time, or from reading the manual on the Internet, should not affect the knowledge of X-Com members within the game.  Therefore, I would like the names of alien ships, the aliens flying in them and the type of mission they are performing to be issued by the Hyper-Wave Decoder only if the corresponding research topic has already been studied, coinciding with the corresponding name of the ship, the aliens on it or the type of mission  .  The data obtained during the research should help to correctly decipher the signals received by the Decoder.  Otherwise, the message “Unknown” or just a dash will be displayed.  This would encourage the player to explore things that are usually put aside as less important research.

 For the vanilla game, these are the names of the studies associated with the lines that the Hyper-Wave Decoder shows:

 Alien Races: STR_SECTOID, STR_SNAKEMAN, STR_ETHEREAL, STR_MUTON, STR_FLOATER

 Mission types: STR_ALIEN_RESEARCH, STR_ALIEN_HARVEST, STR_ALIEN_ABDUCTION, STR_ALIEN_INFILTRATION, STR_ALIEN_BASE, STR_ALIEN_TERROR, STR_ALIEN_RETALIATION, STR_ALIEN_SUPPLY

 Ship types: STR_SMALL_SCOUT, STR_MEDIUM_SCOUT, STR_LARGE_SCOUT, STR_HARVESTER, STR_ABDUCTOR, STR_TERROR_SHIP, STR_BATTLESHIP, STR_SUPPLY_SHIP

 Therefore, the question is: does such a mod exist, and if it does not exist yet, is it possible in principle, without changing the executable file?  I assume that if possible, then only in OpenXcom Extended, maybe using scripts?

 I apologize if the question has already been raised.  As a non-English speaker, it is difficult for me to formulate the correct query to search the forum.

[Yankes]

Mod like this do not exists like this, at least up to my knowledge, but some of this functionality is possible using y-scripts.
Only drawback is would need some work to set specific tags on all ufos.

[yergnoor]

Judging by the response, this seems quite difficult to do.  And besides, the problem is solved only partially, as I understand, only the display of the UFO type will be limited.  For me, it would be more important to display the type of mission, because it is thanks to knowing for what purpose the aliens are flying that the player can plan responses so well.  Which UFO must be shot down, and which one should be allowed to land and be captured intact.  But at the same time, it is not at all necessary to rush to interrogate prisoners in order to find out about the missions they are performing.

[Yankes]

Its hard in different way, if you want support only one ufo its could be done relative fast, problem is integrate solution for big mod that have lot of ufos and reserchs.

[yergnoor]

I'm understood, thank you.

  Then I'll pose the question differently.   If it is impossible to achieve such a change in the game’s operation in a simple way, all that remains is to ask to add a new parameter to the characteristics of the Hyper-Wave Decoder in OpenXcom Extended itself.   A parameter with three flags - to display ships, the alien race and the mission they are performing.   So that by default everything would work as it did in the vanilla game, but you could change the operation of the Decoder as I described.   Of course, it is not a fact that the proposal will be accepted.   But first I would like to know the opinions of the mod creators, are they interested in something like this?   Only for myself I wouldn’t ask.   It seems to me that such a new product would be suitable for those mods in which the game is deliberately made more difficult.

[Nord]

You can hit that from other side.
As in piratez, you can create two type of alieMissions: same, but one with race called "unknown", and other with "proper alien race name", but requiring special tech to spawn. Same tech must, of course, forbid spawn of first mission.

[yergnoor]

Thanks, interesting approach to the problem.  But I still foresee some problems.  For example, as far as I understand, missions are distributed once a month.  At least that's how UFO works in the original, and it wasn't intended to radically change the game.  What I was thinking about (or rather dreaming about, since I’m not sure if I’ll move on to actually creating a mod, although I’ve already thought about it quite well) is a rebalance, and not a complete conversion.  Then the study of a new race of aliens will lead to a change in missions with them only in the next month, but the study may be completed in the first days of the month, and the Hyper-Wave Decoder will begin to show this race only in a few weeks.  For players, this behavior of the game will look very unnatural.

[Nord]

Yep. Write something like "when we acquire enough statistic, we will distinguish crews of this race from another. Maybe in a month."