The Piratez Mod!

[Dioxine]

FURTHER DEVELOPEMENT/DOWNLOADS MOVED TO:

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1898.0










So it's been merely a few days since I've discovered the OpenXcom, and I was delighted to see the impressive moddability of this project, which, combined with UFO's timeless mechanics... well, I'll better get to the point:

I was watching my friend storming an UFO with Ryskeliini's Magnum in one hand and a Stun Rod in the other, and an idea occured to me: what if I could make a mod which converts UFO into a Pirate-themed game? Before you stop reading, forget wooden ships and think more Rogue Trader And I realized how many elements of the original are already in place and require only minor tweaking to achieve the desired effect...

So, here are the general, rough ideas so far:

- As a poor, but ambitious Privateer you run an aerospace pirate operation from your Secret Hideout.
- Your goal is to, well, get rich! And when rich enough, you might be even able to seize legitimate, political power...
- You have no funding. The only initial way to earn money is to Plunder!
- You hunt and shoot down civilian vessels, rob them blind and preferably take valuable people alive for ransom or entertainment.
- Your activities generate Terror Points, which allow you to earn Protection Funds (ie funding) from the scared countries.
- In time you might want to tackle high-risk military vessels to plunder technology and advance your pirating ways to higher levels.
- Pick your prey sensibly. Your old boat can take a lot of punishment, but it's really slow. Your fighters can hunt couriers and passenger craft, but they won't be able to stand up to warships! Money is tight and vessels are expensive.
- Eventually, the forces hostile to private enterprise are going to raid your facilities. Prepare a bloodbath for them!
- Be wary of Security Conferences in major cities! If you allow the politicians to soothe the public into a false sense of security, your Protection Funds are going to dwindle! Strike fast and hard and show that accidents can happen to anyone!
- Finally, you are not alone - other privateers might establish their own Hideouts on your turf. Show them who's the boss before they hijack Protection Funds that are rightfully yours!

So far, I've made some graphics for inventory screens:



(all of these armors are starting gear, but 2-4 have to be bought and they're expensive)

1. Unarmored
(basic armor set to 20 to provide a real chance of basic weapons to fail to do damage; explosives will be adjusted accordingly)
This default gear offers moral protection at best, but it's weightless and provides +30 Energy and +15 TU boost. 20 armor on all facings.

2. Assassin
Provides only a token increase in protection, but due to advanced electronics it boosts your Firing Accuracy by 5 and Reactions by 15. It also provides a slight Energy and TU boost (+10, +5). The armor increase is decent on the frontal facing, but almost non-existent on other facings.

3. Assault
Slightly better armored and considerably heavier, this armor is equipped with a hoverpack for maximum mobility. It increases your TU's and Energy by 15 both. Improportionally high increase in Bottom armor.

4. Defender
The heaviest and best armored of the lot, but no stat bonuses. Armor is strongest from the front, weakest from the rear and the bottom.

[luke83]

Looks like a interesting concept, cant wait to see something playable

[SupSuper]

Looks interesting, but I'm not sure leaving your belly exposed makes for effective armor design, though it would explain the XCOM mortality rates.

[xracer]

Looks interesting, but I'm not sure leaving your belly exposed makes for effective armor design, though it would explain the XCOM mortality rates.

lol

nice idea, would love to see it done

[moriarty]

this sounds like a really cool concept... I can see a lot of the mechanics of xcom being "repurposed" for this. one new thing that would make this truly interesting would be to have more than one "enemy" faction - I hope this can be implemented somehow. but even with only one enemy faction, this could be truly interesting. go for it! and if you need help with anything, just shout out - I'll try to help

[michal]

Looks interesting, but I'm not sure leaving your belly exposed makes for effective armor design, though it would explain the XCOM mortality rates.

[Dioxine]

Hehehe, nothing like a bare belly to stir people and draw some good-natured flames

This part is of course the silly part, I wanted to learn something about drawing sprites/pixel art and drawing not-fully-clothed women is about the least painful way to do it - I'm drawing a basic sprite for the mod right now, and jeez, 250+ frames is suffering... I'll probably just draw the stationary frames and proceed to develop core mechanics next.

So, on a more serious note - I want to implement factions, or rather fake factions for now - there would be civilians, military, and  privateers, but there will be no real interaction between them; Instead, various factions would fly their own types of vessels with their own types of missions and fighting them would have various effects on the funding score and yield various loot and rewards.

I know that these are some big plans, requiring stuff like new vessels... we'll see what comes out of it. In a few days (or weeks) I should have a working test version with new armors and weapons, and hopefully also some budget-made enemies to fight.

EDIT

In between drawing, I worked on more... appropriate... names and ranks system. Here's a sample:



EDIT

Canada, and others, be scared!

[Solarius Scorch]

This could be the first in a long line of total conversion mods.
Open Space Hulk, anyone?

[Greg956]

Interesting project! I will translate into Russian, when You will upload it.

[Dioxine]

So I've been working on the mod for the past week and the idea is evolving... towards some kind of Mutant Earth adventure, aka Revenge of the Post Humans, or what if X-COM had lost. Here's the first research available:



Other than that, it is just making loads of new stuff and graphics - a couple of screenshots:









The game genuinely plays differently now - battlescape-wise it's basically avoid prolonged firefights, use melee or explosives and get to love the Smoke Grenade. Geoscape-wise it's more like - learn to use cannons, as even a single outfit of allmighty Avalanches is going to ruin your monthly budget :3

[kharille]

Not sure I can find the time to play it, but its certainly a welcome sight!  Maybe someone can do a lets play on youtube!

[Dioxine]

I've spent most of the last night overhauling the "factions" (races), now each has their own new sprites. The first playable version should be ready in a week or two; however, I've ran into a hurdle when trying to add new terror units. In short, they deploy unarmed (in the case of tanks, turretless) and I have no idea how to associate a weapon with a terror unit. Is it even possible through the current ruleset? Can anyone help?

[SupSuper]

I've spent most of the last night overhauling the "factions" (races), now each has their own new sprites. The first playable version should be ready in a week or two; however, I've ran into a hurdle when trying to add new terror units. In short, they deploy unarmed (in the case of tanks, turretless) and I have no idea how to associate a weapon with a terror unit. Is it even possible through the current ruleset? Can anyone help?

Terror units (livingWeapon: true) are assigned the weapon with their name on it (race + _WEAPON).
For example, the unit STR_CHRYSSALID_TERRORIST gets the weapon item CHRYSSALID_WEAPON.

[Ran]

This looks absolutely hilarious!

Keep up the good work, I can't wait to play this mod.
Please show us sprites of your 'enemies' (or rather victims)!
I like the idea that you find out about earth's past during research.

But how do you intend to implement those massive modifications?
I believe this takes a bit more than editing the ruleset - I mean you are basically reversing the game to play the Bad Guys.

What about the original Alien missions and especially Terror Missions?
What will UFOs actually be doing?

[moriarty]

I suppose UFOs are basically turned into transport craft of varying size that are trying to deliver stuff, and you can go and "rob" them.

Terror missions could become some kind of retaliation strikes on friendly "ports" - think "royal navy attacking known pirate hideouts"...

if you break the game's principles down, they are really quite simple, and not at all content-related. give them another name, and they can be anything, really... I love this "piratez"-idea