Men in Black | Cover Alien | Gazer Alien | WIP new thing

[robin]

It's clearly a graphical problem, but I don't know how it's work.
[...]

My 'child' Spitter uses different armor than its 'parent' because it looks different (shell-less). I don't think using the same armor is the cause of the issue, but you can quickly make another armor by duplicating the original one, to test if that's the case.

I didn't have any problem with the Spitter spawning; I also remember making a Reaper spawn a Chryssalid for testing purposes, without issue (was quite some time ago though).
Theoretically, just adding this line:

    spawnUnit: STR_HOLODRONE2_TERRORIST (or whatever you call it)

at the bottom of your parent unit, in the "units" section, should be enough to make the whole thing work (well, you also have to create the child unit of course).

[LeBashar]

I've tested it, but whatever the unit I choose in spawnunit:, nothing work. Even "spawnUnit: STR_HOLODRONE_TERRORIST"

But the spritesheet of holodrone don't count many pictures, and have nothing about the spawn like zombie's or soldier's ones, this can be the problem ?

If I give to the holodrone the armor of zombie, all the rulseset work perfectly.

[Dioxine]

@LeBashar:
To avoid crashes, you need to add spawning animation to any unit that spawns another unit (starts in the same place on the spritesheet as normal death animation, requires as many frames as the deathFrames parametre, analyze STR_SNAKEMAN_ENGINEER entry & COS_2.png in Piratez for reference), like the flesh coming off a Zombie and a Chryssalid coming out frames are a part of Zombie's spritesheet. Otherwise you might try setting deathFrames to 0. Hope it helps

[robin]

@LeBashar:
To avoid crashes, you need to add spawning animation to any unit that spawns another unit (starts in the same place on the spritesheet as normal death animation, requires as many frames as the deathFrames parametre, analyze STR_SNAKEMAN_ENGINEER entry & COS_2.png in Piratez for reference), like the flesh coming off a Zombie and a Chryssalid coming out frames are a part of Zombie's spritesheet. Otherwise you might try setting deathFrames to 0. Hope it helps

This wasn't in the ruleset when I did my spawning things. For example when I made a Chryssalid spawn from a Reaper, it worked  just by adding the "spawnUnit" entry ( then it simply "waited", with the Repaer already dead, for the missing respawn frames, untill the Chryss materialized out of thin air). It could be possible that my Spitter, lacking all this new stuff, makes the OXC nightly versions crash.

[LeBashar]

I've made more tests and the holodrone spawn as robin describe, if I made it from any unit another. There is no animation or picture but it's work. Just for holodrone, it crash.

I have found nothing about "deathframes" in the ruleset reference, how does it work exactly ? with add of deathFrames: 0, game still crash.

[robin]

Is there a limit to the number of enemy units spawnable into a map? (The original game had a limit IIRC, like 36 or something).

[Hobbes]

Is there a limit to the number of enemy units spawnable into a map? (The original game had a limit IIRC, like 36 or something).

The limit on the original game was related to the total number of objects (including XCom and alien units) that could be present in a map, which was limited to 256 entries. I don't know the actual limits for the alien units/objects though, but during base defense missions it was common for the game to spawn aliens without any weapons since they had reached the limit.

In any case, the 256 limit has been removed on OXC since you have no apparent limit on the number of objects you can bring on the Skyranger. One big issue however, is that with the vanilla maps the battlescape may not have enough active spawn points for all the aliens that it is supposed to generate, which it then generates on passive (with spawn set to 0) spawn points. This can also happen in Base Defense missions, and the result is aliens being spawn on Living Quarters or any other place that you thought defended.

[Falko]

One big issue however, is that with the vanilla maps the battlescape may not have enough active spawn points for all the aliens that it is supposed to generate, which it then generates on passive (with spawn set to 0) spawn points. This can also happen in Base Defense missions, and the result is aliens being spawn on Living Quarters or any other place that you thought defended.

<Falko>i thought https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1885.msg31529#msg31529 is not true
<SupSuper>that was true in the original. dunno about openxcom
<Warboy>untrue
<Warboy>the patch fixes the spawn points in bases
<Warboy>there was a "large terror unit" spawn point in the general stores
<Warboy>probably one or two others as well, but it doesn't occur in openxcom

[Hobbes]

<Falko>i thought https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1885.msg31529#msg31529 is not true
<SupSuper>that was true in the original. dunno about openxcom
<Warboy>untrue
<Warboy>the patch fixes the spawn points in bases
<Warboy>there was a "large terror unit" spawn point in the general stores
<Warboy>probably one or two others as well, but it doesn't occur in openxcom

Thanks for clearing this up.

[guille1434]

Hello! I don't know if this is the correct thread to report this, but... I think there is a small glitch in the Men in Black mod... I am playing (and enjoying) a game of OpenX-Com with the FMP mod, and I saw some times when going in a misiion against the MiB, there is a "MiB Demonman" that has a heavy Cannon as armament but no ammo at all for it... may be there is something that can be done to fix this?
Thanks!

[robin]

Hello! I don't know if this is the correct thread to report this, but... I think there is a small glitch in the Men in Black mod... I am playing (and enjoying) a game of OpenX-Com with the FMP mod, and I saw some times when going in a misiion against the MiB, there is a "MiB Demonman" that has a heavy Cannon as armament but no ammo at all for it... may be there is something that can be done to fix this?
Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback.
I have noticed that sometimes a MiB spawns without a weapon. But I don't know why and I don't know how to fix it.

Regarding the heavy cannon ammo, they all seem to be in. I just controlled quickly because I don't have time now. I don't know about FMP tough because I'm not its author.

[Solarius Scorch]

As the FMP developer, I can assure you all MiBs have properly defined equipment when it comes to the Heavy Cannon. Therefore the problem lies elsewhere.

Would you have a save available, or at least tell me what was the MiB craft/mission?

[NoelBuddy]

Forgive me if I'm bringing up an idea that's already been discussed, but I was looking at the MIB mod thinking about how I'd like to integrate it into my rulesets/plot line and was thinking there should be missions where you face both MIB and Aliens. 

Towards this purpose I'm putting together a few mission sets that will feature mixed race groups.  First I wanted to put together a set of "fake" sorties which will feature sporadic UFOs which will look like just another wave in a vanilla mission, but if it's brought down there will be MIB there by the time the skyranger arrives. Once I figure out this map making system I'd like to make expanded landing sites for these UFOs to include the MIB craft that responded to the crash.

Also thinking about alien meeting or ambassador missions, but haven't really worked on that idea yet, and am not sure how exactly I'd handle the possibility of them being shot down...

Here's the version 0.01 ruleset for what I'm thinking anyhow, requires basic MIB mod to run.

[NoelBuddy]

I have noticed that sometimes a MiB spawns without a weapon. But I don't know why and I don't know how to fix it.

This may have to do with the soldiers being in the rank 6 spot in the race list, most races reserve the last two ranks for terror units so if they happen to use another mission deployment there is a chance to get a bunch of unarmed agents wandering around.  I confirmed this behavior by starting a terror battle with them as the opponent, haven't seen this in general gameplay tho.

[guille1434]

As the FMP developer, I can assure you all MiBs have properly defined equipment when it comes to the Heavy Cannon. Therefore the problem lies elsewhere.

Would you have a save available, or at least tell me what was the MiB craft/mission?

Hi Solarius! If I am not mistaken, the MiB craft was a downed MiB Transporter II and the mission was MiB Cover-Up

By the way, just a suggestion: Would you or the modder that made that very nice enemy faction consider implementing a stronger variant of MiB race for the late game? When facing and advanced and fully equipped X-Com squad (with Power or Flying suits, and plasma wepons) they are no match!

Thanks for the attention!