[TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.j - 9 May - Holiday Edition

[Edrick]

Dear Dioxine:
I must say I’m enjoying this mod immensely, far more than the base X-COM game. I have nearly reached the end of the game, and, basing on my experience, I would like to leave some suggestions. I have no idea of X-COM’s code and inner workings, nor on weapon balance or pixel-art, so I’m talking from total and complete ignorance.

-Male models for my hearty crew. I don’t know if this has already been thought about, or not, but I asked. And I could perfectly deal with my manly crew being called Mistresses and Pirate Queens.

- A Laser Tommy Gun (similar to Fallout New Vegas’s Laser RCW). A low-end laser weapon which still boasts a 50-round magazine and fires in 5-round bursts, made from a Tommy Gun and some laser weapons and/or superconductive wire. Al Capone would be proud.

- Again, like in Fallout (2), another low-end self-charging laser weapon: a Solar Scorcher. A pistol dealing laser-based damage, with slightly higher damage than the Self-Charging Laser Pistol, but only works in daylight missions.

- Make the Ol’ Revolver boast a 6-shoot magazine. That extra bullet really bugs me, even knowing that 7-shoots (and more) are not uncommon in real life.

- Incorporate something on the lines of a semiautomatic carbine (maybe a lever-action rifle?), lacking auto-shot, buyable, and to fill the role of a “general issue” weapon early in the game. Unless the early-game fun is in that there is no really standard-issue weapon.

- A P-90, or “Advanced Submachine Gun”. An upgrade from the Spraygun, falling into the “Advanced Firearms” department. Also, that machine pistol from the Men In Black mod.

-  More non-accuracy and non-strength melee weapons, akin to the Ball Bat. I don’t know, cricket bats, golf clubs, wrenches, crowbars, tire irons, spears, a katana (please, make this lsst one true) I’m sure someone else has far better ideas than I do. Perhaps transferring that role to “hand” weapons, like the Shock-a-Fist, and giving it some younger brothers: brass knuckles, spiked knuckles, a boxing glove with stun damage, or a “Power-Fist” thingy, like Fallout.

- A couple younger brothers for the Electro-Whip: leather Whip, nine-tails, metal whip, spiked whip, all boasting a multi-tile range. I don’t know if they should deal “kill” or stun damage, but hey, if Simon Belmont can kill Dracula with a whip, you can do the same with puny pureblood humans.

- Make some “human” enemies use melee weapons. Church Neophytes or Zealots, or Raiders could possibly make use of them.

- To make “Humanists” (aka Nazis) of some use, give Humanist Leaders these shiny swords the Nazi Party gave to their officers? (googling “nazi sword” should show you what I’m referring to) Yer hearty crew would look really flash with one of these, and they could fetch a pretty penny in the black market (if prices for these are so high these days, imagine the spectacular raise of Nazi Sword prices in 586 years.) Also, looting Stielhandgranaten from Humanists, or even their uniforms from their corpses, instead of the useless “Human Booty”.

- A new damage type: Pulse/EMP. Maybe only in the form of grenades or explosives, or also available in new ammo types or entirely new weapons. Useless against anything but Sectopods, Cyberdiscs and other robotic units.

- Rebalancing the UFO detection mechanics. Once one acquires the Hyper-Wave Decoder in the first 2-3 months, things become far too simple. If more base facilities can be added, some other detection system as a step towards HWD could be incorporated. Maybe beginning only with “manual observation” systems (Small Observatory and Large Observatory, with telescopes and swabbies screaming “UFO ahoy!”), buffing up both Radars and HWD costs and making these available only through research (Small Radar takes HWD’s place in the research tree, Large Radar immediately after Small Radar and setting HWD further into the research tree). Or incorporating the Standard Sonar and Wide Array Sonar from TFTD as more expensive and more effective variants of radars, available after some research, and making HWD also more expensive and requiring more lab work. If no new facilities are possible, push the HWD into some dark corner in the research tree and raise its costs.

- Being able to do more thingies with my Gauss Weapons. Gauss HWPs, Gauss base Defences and Gauss Cannon for aircraft from TFTD.

- Incorporating Sonic tech from TFTD. Pistol, Blasta Rifle, Cannon, Pulser, aircraft Oscillator, base Defences, and maybe Disruptor Pulse Launchers and Thermal Shock Launchers. Maybe the Church could use as a unit the Bio-Drones from TFTD, whom they revere as idols, and research on those opens up the whole Sonic research path. Maybe even Bio-Drone corpses can be “looted” and used as HWPs by regenerating the brain using Regeneration Chambers and patching the carcass up with Plastasteel.

- Again from TFTD, melee weapons: Thermal Tazer, Vibro Blade, Thermic Lance, and Heavy Thermic Lance. These also remember me of the incredibly bad-ass Thermic Lance from Fallout: New Vegas.

- A brighter variant of the electro-flare. The Chemical Flare from TFTD sure could fill that role. And I mean the sprite from the TFTD Ufopaedia, not the one from the inventory (which is now used by Combat Drugs).

- Restricting access to the mission in Cydonia, requiring soldiers to wear some kind of life support armour: an astronaut suit (derived from these suits Beastmasters wear, perhaps?) or making the armours from TFTD (Plastic Aqua Armour, Ion Armour, Magnetic Ion Armour) double as astronaut suits. Where to put all this in the research tree is beyond me, through.

- Moar booty. I would like to see something beyond the Silver, Gold and Obsidian Chips. Maybe more types of chips (1,000 or 2,000, to be carried frequently by lowly Raiders, and 10,000 to be commonplace on most enemies). Maybe even finding extra only-for-sell objects in enemy inventories? For example, Church Members could actively carry these “holy” books, “holy” symbols and “holy” artefacts you mention, retrievable and sellable. I imagine Church Cardinals to carry 3x2 sized, antique and valuable versions of the “holy” books. Think of Gutenberg Bibles, or the Codex Sinaiticus, for example.

Now, there are some mods around which look really interesting. I don’t know which problems could you run into, but, if possible, I believe these should make nice additions.

- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/ryskeliinis-guns-n-gadgets-1st-pack. Adding  the Scout Drone, a 1-tile HWP, with no weapons (except maybe self-destruct, or that smoke launcher, though it could be quite broken in gameplay terms) and that Tazer. I see that some of the weapons of that mod are already in Piratez, so I don’t see any problem in adding these two.

- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/combat-knife. This combat knife is a must.

- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/mass-accelerator-weapons. Weapons which outclass even plasma, to see some variety in the endgame? Count me in.

- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/heat-ray-weapons. These middle-tier weapons look quite interesting, maybe to be used by Raiders? Honestly, I have rarely seen a Raider crew carrying anything but laser weapons. Some little variety there?

Well,  I think this is all. I’m off to try Version 0.77. I apologise for my bad Engrish and for the long, long, looooooong post.
Keep up the awesome work, and have a nice day.

[maw3193]

Just checked, no crash for me...

I think your guess might be right - and the solution, probably, is Zombie's patch which amongst other things, fixes vanilla tilesets. Lightning tileset is included in the latest mod package ( /TERRAIN_FIX ), but not the Avenger... Make sure your game is installed as OXcom reccomends it (I obeyed these instructions religiously )

I've tried installing OpenXcom from the installer (based on the steam version, ticked to apply the patches), on a fresh install, nothing but openxcom and Piratez0.77, but I still get crashes when I stand on the Leviathan's roof. I even tried copying the file in TERRAIN_FIX.
Also, the same crash isn't seen when I use flying suits to stand on top of the (unmodded) avenger.

[Dioxine]

Dear Dioxine:
I must say I’m enjoying this mod immensely, far more than the base X-COM game. I have nearly reached the end of the game, and, basing on my experience, I would like to leave some suggestions. I have no idea of X-COM’s code and inner workings, nor on weapon balance or pixel-art, so I’m talking from total and complete ignorance.

I'm really happy to hear that. Making the mod is fun in itself, but hearing that people like it is really nice.

-Male models for my hearty crew. I don’t know if this has already been thought about, or not, but I asked. And I could perfectly deal with my manly crew being called Mistresses and Pirate Queens.

Changing the naming convention is not a problem. Drawing 20+ armor inventory pictures IS. And even if a good fairy with a magic photoshop appeared and drawn them for me, all I could - and probably would - do would be making alternate mod version - preferably males only. Why?
- 8 inventory pictures limit. I'd have get rid of 4 female types to make it both-sexes (no less, no more, because this is tied to gender-sensitive death scream).
- corpses. One armor type supports only a single corpse image - thus either females would leave male corpses (like in vanilla) or vice-versa.
(to all good fairies out there: the offer stands)
Having said that, I will be exploring alternate ways of adding male pirates to the crew...

- A Laser Tommy Gun (similar to Fallout New Vegas’s Laser RCW). A low-end laser weapon which still boasts a 50-round magazine and fires in 5-round bursts, made from a Tommy Gun and some laser weapons and/or superconductive wire. Al Capone would be proud.

Heh heh, the inventory picture of the Tommygun is actually stolen and repainted NV's RCW Good idea, there really isn't any lo-end manufacturable laser weapon, and no real reason to buy Tommy schematics either.

- Again, like in Fallout (2), another low-end self-charging laser weapon: a Solar Scorcher. A pistol dealing laser-based damage, with slightly higher damage than the Self-Charging Laser Pistol, but only works in daylight missions.

Impossible to implement.

- Make the Ol’ Revolver boast a 6-shoot magazine. That extra bullet really bugs me, even knowing that 7-shoots (and more) are not uncommon in real life.

Like you said, 7-chambered revolvers aren't unheard of... I wanted it to have some advantage over the Snubby, however slight. However, fun is of course paramount factor, so if more people vote against 7 chambers, this can be easily changed without causing any balance issues...

- Incorporate something on the lines of a semiautomatic carbine (maybe a lever-action rifle?), lacking auto-shot, buyable, and to fill the role of a “general issue” weapon early in the game. Unless the early-game fun is in that there is no really standard-issue weapon.

Spraygun, AK and Hunting Rifle are your "standard issue" lo-end weapons... Do you think there is too much of a gap between AK (inaccurate, expensive) and Hunting Rifle (low ammo, slow to fire)? Also in my experience, shootouts using starting weapons end badly Also 2: The idea was that it'd be hard to arm your crew in a consistent set of weapons, and encourage more personal/chaotic approach.

- A P-90, or “Advanced Submachine Gun”. An upgrade from the Spraygun, falling into the “Advanced Firearms” department. Also, that machine pistol from the Men In Black mod.

There will be more SMGs in the future, starting with Fallout's .50 cal

-  More non-accuracy and non-strength melee weapons, akin to the Ball Bat. I don’t know, cricket bats, golf clubs, wrenches, crowbars, tire irons, spears, a katana (please, make this lsst one true) I’m sure someone else has far better ideas than I do. Perhaps transferring that role to “hand” weapons, like the Shock-a-Fist, and giving it some younger brothers: brass knuckles, spiked knuckles, a boxing glove with stun damage, or a “Power-Fist” thingy, like Fallout.

- A couple younger brothers for the Electro-Whip: leather Whip, nine-tails, metal whip, spiked whip, all boasting a multi-tile range. I don’t know if they should deal “kill” or stun damage, but hey, if Simon Belmont can kill Dracula with a whip, you can do the same with puny pureblood humans.

I'm not against all that in general, variety is good, I just wanted for every weapon to be useful in its own way. I'll keep your suggestions in mind.

- Make some “human” enemies use melee weapons. Church Neophytes or Zealots, or Raiders could possibly make use of them.

This is planned - when I was making these factions, the support for melee weapons was rather wonky, but now it's not an issue. I warn you though, it's going to be hardcore, with how fast and deadly melee weapons are in general

- To make “Humanists” (aka Nazis) of some use, give Humanist Leaders these shiny swords the Nazi Party gave to their officers? (googling “nazi sword” should show you what I’m referring to) Yer hearty crew would look really flash with one of these, and they could fetch a pretty penny in the black market (if prices for these are so high these days, imagine the spectacular raise of Nazi Sword prices in 586 years.) Also, looting Stielhandgranaten from Humanists, or even their uniforms from their corpses, instead of the useless “Human Booty”.

I'll keep that in mind. Nazis are far from being a fully finished faction.

- A new damage type: Pulse/EMP. Maybe only in the form of grenades or explosives, or also available in new ammo types or entirely new weapons. Useless against anything but Sectopods, Cyberdiscs and other robotic units.

Definitely! And Poison Gas! But new damage types aren't supported... I can only hope they will be supported in the future...

- Rebalancing the UFO detection mechanics. Once one acquires the Hyper-Wave Decoder in the first 2-3 months, things become far too simple. If more base facilities can be added, some other detection system as a step towards HWD could be incorporated. Maybe beginning only with “manual observation” systems (Small Observatory and Large Observatory, with telescopes and swabbies screaming “UFO ahoy!”), buffing up both Radars and HWD costs and making these available only through research (Small Radar takes HWD’s place in the research tree, Large Radar immediately after Small Radar and setting HWD further into the research tree). Or incorporating the Standard Sonar and Wide Array Sonar from TFTD as more expensive and more effective variants of radars, available after some research, and making HWD also more expensive and requiring more lab work. If no new facilities are possible, push the HWD into some dark corner in the research tree and raise its costs.

I can nerf the HWD, but radars are your only hope of survival in this game - you don't have the cash to build more bases, so if radars are nerfed, it's Mutant Pogrom time all the time... which is kinda boring. If interception is too easy, I can rebalance it... And the cash flow is going to be rebalanced too (much less sale value on Gauss/Plasma - once you conquer your first Heavy Gunship, all cash problems vanish).

- Being able to do more thingies with my Gauss Weapons. Gauss HWPs, Gauss base Defences and Gauss Cannon for aircraft from TFTD.

Planned.

- Incorporating Sonic tech from TFTD. Pistol, Blasta Rifle, Cannon, Pulser, aircraft Oscillator, base Defences, and maybe Disruptor Pulse Launchers and Thermal Shock Launchers. Maybe the Church could use as a unit the Bio-Drones from TFTD, whom they revere as idols, and research on those opens up the whole Sonic research path. Maybe even Bio-Drone corpses can be “looted” and used as HWPs by regenerating the brain using Regeneration Chambers and patching the carcass up with Plastasteel.

Good ideas, except for Disruptor, as it's Blaster Launcher by any other name Sonic damage can be implemented as "concussive", ie no-blast HE... I'll add these ideas to my notes.

- Again from TFTD, melee weapons: Thermal Tazer, Vibro Blade, Thermic Lance, and Heavy Thermic Lance. These also remember me of the incredibly bad-ass Thermic Lance from Fallout: New Vegas.

- A brighter variant of the electro-flare. The Chemical Flare from TFTD sure could fill that role. And I mean the sprite from the TFTD Ufopaedia, not the one from the inventory (which is now used by Combat Drugs).

I'll think about that.

- Restricting access to the mission in Cydonia, requiring soldiers to wear some kind of life support armour: an astronaut suit (derived from these suits Beastmasters wear, perhaps?) or making the armours from TFTD (Plastic Aqua Armour, Ion Armour, Magnetic Ion Armour) double as astronaut suits. Where to put all this in the research tree is beyond me, through.

Research tree is my problem, the bigger problem is that Cydonia is just another mission, there is no way to implement life-support requirements... I did what I could, putting a heavy Life Support modules cost on the Avenger.

- Moar booty. I would like to see something beyond the Silver, Gold and Obsidian Chips. Maybe more types of chips (1,000 or 2,000, to be carried frequently by lowly Raiders, and 10,000 to be commonplace on most enemies). Maybe even finding extra only-for-sell objects in enemy inventories? For example, Church Members could actively carry these “holy” books, “holy” symbols and “holy” artefacts you mention, retrievable and sellable. I imagine Church Cardinals to carry 3x2 sized, antique and valuable versions of the “holy” books. Think of Gutenberg Bibles, or the Codex Sinaiticus, for example.

There definitely will be moar booty.

Now, there are some mods around which look really interesting. I don’t know which problems could you run into, but, if possible, I believe these should make nice additions.
- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/ryskeliinis-guns-n-gadgets-1st-pack. Adding  the Scout Drone, a 1-tile HWP, with no weapons (except maybe self-destruct, or that smoke launcher, though it could be quite broken in gameplay terms) and that Tazer. I see that some of the weapons of that mod are already in Piratez, so I don’t see any problem in adding these two.
- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/combat-knife. This combat knife is a must.
- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/mass-accelerator-weapons. Weapons which outclass even plasma, to see some variety in the endgame? Count me in.
- https://www.openxcom.com/mod/heat-ray-weapons. These middle-tier weapons look quite interesting, maybe to be used by Raiders? Honestly, I have rarely seen a Raider crew carrying anything but laser weapons. Some little variety there?

Scout drone? Really? But there will be 1-tile HWPs, rest assured. Combat knife is kinda obsolete since there already is knife in the game. The weapons you've linked are extremely ugly (I mean, mass-accelerator and heat ray, Ryskeliini is top-notch ), but there is more hi-end stuff planned. Raiders normally use firearms, unless it's some of the generic Terror Missions or Gunships - the equipment in Xcom is craft-dependant, not faction-dependant...
As for mods, I definitely recommend using Hobbes' terror terrain and Luke's extra ufos, both add much fun to the game and don't collide with Piratez.

Well,  I think this is all. I’m off to try Version 0.77. I apologise for my bad Engrish and for the long, long, looooooong post.
Keep up the awesome work, and have a nice day.

Thank you, I love feedback. Good day

[ThatDude]

I only have one explanation for this mod... Yaaaaarrrrr!

[zastava128]

Hm, I've just upgraded to 0.77 and I can no longer capture Booty (e.g. Trader's Booty) or Broken/Wrecked Armour. I only get a worthless corpse instead. Is this a bug or has there been some change that I'm not aware of?

The other thing is, I haven't seen the Star Gods for like 5 months. Last time I couldn't capture them either... is there any catch there, or am I supposed to research somethin before I can captue one?

[Dioxine]

What the hell... I thought this bug was finally eradicated. Everything works just fine for me... what OXCom version are you playing?

As for the Star Gods, yes, you need psionics, I mean VooDoo, to be able to capture them.

[Dioxine]

0.78 is up.

[Edrick]

Dear Dioxine:
Thank you very much for answering my previous post, point by point. It makes me feel, you know, in contact, with whomever is making the mod, instead of being an unreachable triple A company.
Well, more stuff. This time, Bootypaedia mistakes and more questions. I’ve indicated mistakes in most entries by writing in caps the correct word that should be there. Oh, and all this is from my experience in V 0.77, as I haven’t had the occasion yet to try 0.78.
-Minigun doesn’t have the period in the last sentence.
-Plasma Blunderbuss doesn’t have the period. Either this, or the description is something of a placeholder (which could possibly be)
-Shoulder Launcher “It sits on A soldier’s shoulder and...”
-Smoke Grenade “... combat situations.  Use with care...” (2 spaces between dot and Use?)
-Bandages, Field Surgery Kit and Finely Distilled Rum say “X HP healed per Wound” but Nano-Surgery kit says “X HP healed per wound” (without capitalising wound).  Plus, X-Grog says “X Health per Wound”. Plus, FSK and NSK don’t say how many healing uses you have.
-VooDoo Rod “Terror: FILLS the mind...”
-Electro-flare “...it is thrown.  This will...” (2 spaces between dot and This?)
-Laboratory “...we have the tools TO invent”...
-Hangar “...by ANY other vessel” / “by other vesselS”
-The Academicians “In practice, they scout mutant comMunities” (the comma is also missing)
-Academy Esper “... like reading PEOPLE’S mind...”
-Traders Security “...paid to protect the cargo and and they will...” (and is repeated)
-Traders Engineer “... in somewhat influenTial positions...”
-Traders Bodyguard “... elite Trader HENCHMEN...”
-Inconsistencies with capitalising “the” in “the Church” (Neophyte entry doesn’t, but Zealot, Beastmaster and Cardinal ones do)
-The Star Gods “...otherwise they’d probably KILL us all...”
-Star God Guardian “...not really a god, just a muscle man...” (at least to me, it feels like it needs a that comma, which isn’t there in the original entry)
-Traders Guildmaster entry is in plural (Traders), but Death or Glory entry refers to him in singular (Trader Guildmaster).
-Base Supply “WHEREVER exists...”
-Mercenary Contract doesn’t capitalise “The mercenaries” or “frigates” (for example, Base Supply does capitalise Frigate)

And, aside from Bootypaedia stuff, there are still some things that bug me:
- Which is the canon explanation not to rip suits of Security Carapace Armor or Powered Armor from alive and captured Securities or Bodyguards? I know I won’t ever get this (it would be broooooooken as hell), that’s why I ask why instead of requesting to implement this feature.
- Tamed Boomosaurus, please? You have done that with Reapers, and it would give Boomers some usefulness aside from selling.
- Something very minor: changing the name of the TAC Suit in the Fence screen to “TAC Suit” instead of being listed as “Personal Armor”.
- In the Prison Cells prisoner list, changing the “Alien” column heading to “Prisoner”, or something like that.
- Some sprite problems. I don’t know if it’s a problem of my display settings, but some of the “Old Fighter Hull” text line is partially out of screen. This also happens with some frames in the ending, and, in the Geoscape, in the “Tear of the Goddess” city in India: the T and the last S are not visible.
- After researching (mainly weapons), when clicking “view reports”, it sometimes takes me to the weapon’s Bootypaedia page, but sometimes doesn’t. This event seems linked to weapons: with some it will always bring the info, with some, it will never.
- Some colour problems. The palette goes funky for a moment sometimes, when exiting an Ironman save, or whenever my ships return to the base with more booty than the total Vault capacity and I’m forced to sell some of it (the Storage Space Exceeded pop-up in the Geoscape)
- When setting up a “New Battle”, the tech level indicator is in the left end of the screen. Does that mean we’re fighting with sticks and stones?
- Commercials. I can accept Humanists and Dark Ones as some kind of Easter Egg or crossover with little in-game plot consistency, but Commercials? No Bootypaedia entry for them as a faction, strange mix of armed and anachronistic Air Sailors with traditional sailor clothing, unarmed humans and Trader Security. What are they, some kind of business working for the Traders? Entrepreneurs who are allowed to travel around the globe? Entrepreneurs who aren't allowed to travel around the globe and are, in practice, smugglers or illegal traders? Is there any good reason not to merge them entirely with the Traders? And, come to think of it, why doesn’t the Academy have “hostesses” as well (or are these the Academicians themselves?)
- Getting enemies to use some weapons otherwise only found in the black market (if they don’t already, I’m just talking from what I’ve seen) Mainly thinking of Raiders, they could make use of the Heavy Machine Gun, the Heavy and Combat Shotguns, Hunting Laser, Grenade Launcher, RPG and Anti-Tank SSRL, Fusion Torch, and Rail Driver (well, maybe not this last one, as it could potentially kill in a single shot a Juggernaut from the front and an Annihilator from the back). Also, Govts could get EuroSyndicate guns.
- Nobody else in the world uses “standard” ships like mah hearty crew do, but instead ALL use UFOs? Even Raiders? Can we get minor factions like Raiders, Commercials or Humanists to use some ships similar (not necessarily identical) to the Pirate ones? (Bonaventura and Skyranger, mainly, as the other ones require research) Also, I think you said you were working on it, but will we one day get lootable craft weapons? And, would it be possible to configure enemy aircraft to use other weapon types (cannons, rockets, missiles) instead of the standard “beam” weapon that varies in range and power from craft to craft?
- Could I request three wishes from the Sprite Fairy? A “minimised” and base sprite for the Drakkar (to differentiate it from the Avenger), a Dog of War base sprite that is symmetrical (if it isn’t, because I have heavy doubts over if it is symmetrical or not: in base, it looks asymmetrical, but closely looking at the sprite in the Piratez folder doesn’t let me distinguish between craft and shadow) and a different Electro-Sword sprite, akin to a lightsaber or a Beamsword from Super Smash Bros Brawl? (I asked for this before, but I’ll make a nuisance of myself by repeating it in hopes of the Fairy reading this)
- The Bonaventura doesn’t look at all like the sprite from the base or the image from the paedia. My ideas are:
1) Adding a cockpit. The Avenger one perhaps looks the most similar to the sprite?
2) Adding a row of tiles between the 2x2 hole and the part where the Bonaventura begins to widen (behind the flight of steps), so it would be 11 tiles long from the exiting ramp to the wall with the black-ish thingy gizmo and correspond with the long and sleek sprite from the base. I am a terrible communicator, so I don’t know if I made myself clear enough. (maybe by adding the cockpit it gains enough length to look more alike the base sprite)
3) Adding wings, fins and thrusters to the rear. Fins and thrusters can be directly ripped from the Skyranger (maybe thrusters need to be one tile shorter?).  The wings, basing on the Skyranger ones and with some sprite work could be made rectangular instead of triangular.
4) Giving the whole hull a good cape of green paint, with red stripes and such. Maybe changing the hull tiles by the Skyranger ones (more sleek and curved) in the first floor and the Small Scout UFO ones for the second floor. That would give the Bonaventura a curvy and dynamic look instead of the blocky one.
Maybe all this sprite-ripping would require giving a 180 spin to the Bonaventura so it points the cockpit at the bottom-left corner of the screen? Plus, this would allow using the Skyranger ramp instead of two flights of stairs.
Alternatively, changing the base sprite or ignoring me and my rants altogether would work marvels.
And, while we’re at it, could I request a sniping position atop the Bonaventura? It would be as simple as adding a flight of stairs somewhere on the second floor and an opening in the ceiling (akin to access to building roofs), or two red lift levels in the tile just before the flights of stairs leading to the second floor.
Again, thank you for reading the whole thing, for answering (I guess you will), sorry for that language I write in that’s similar to English and for the long post.

[Dioxine]

Don't be so hasty with 0.78, there are a few nasty bugs there... I will post a new version that fixes them soon.

Many thanks for your meticulous work on the Pedia, I really appreciate that. Editing large swathes of text is a bitch and people usually take money for this Smoke grenades and electro-flare descriptions are Microprose-made, so these double spaces aren't my fault.

About overflowing text - it's often the matter of resolution. I'm trying to cut descriptions that are too long, but some leftovers are still there. With the Old Fighter hull, I'm still thinking which word can be removed to fit the description.

Hostage armor recovery - once upon a time, kicked out prisoners were leaving their loot behind. Then the OXCom gods spoketh, No more. I can't do anything about it.... well, maaaaybe a workshop 'job' - prisoner goes in, loot goes out - but would you be ok with even more bloated Workshop project list? As in, +30 or so entries? It can be tidied up by adding a new category for this kind of jobs, though, so you could use that neat "select category" button...

Tamed boomosaurus, added to the list.

Laser & Gauss weapons do not send to the Pedia entry, because they also give "advanced weapons rumors" tech; I'll think about circumventing this.

Color issues: can't help it, the game goes haywire sometimes (mainly when discovering new armor); with capacity limits probably the same, sudden palette change (haven't notices as I play with this option disabled)

Commercial: they're just Traders' commercial passenger flights. I'll change their Flag to Traders to make this clear (the ship type & mission is enough info to tell what that craft carries). And Air Sailors, yeah, the Guild just makes them wear such funny uniforms

Weapons: From your list, most are in use - except for HMG (too heavy for most enemies to carry), SSRL (you can't give multiplies of weapons to enemies, so they'd be in a very disadvantageous position), Fusion Torch (AI too stupid to use it), Eurosyndicate (intended to be store-exclusive) and Rail Driver (I'd rather not). All the others you've mentioned can be found on enemies.

"Hostesses": more brands of Academicians are planned, starting with a lo-end flying drone aka easily lootable jetpack. This however requires lot of work, as adding any enemies does.

UFOs, Maps & Ships: This is all very reasonable, but requires huge amounts of work so no promises it'll happen fast. I don't even know how to make new tilesets yet So work on non-standard terrain/ships is currently in the "maximum effect for minimum effort" phase.

Sniping position could be at least easily added, most likely accessible from the cockpit not too make it too easy. Bonaventura might be a great dropship but it can't be perfect in every aspect On the plus side, there will be better access to flying armors soon so you could make it to the roof yourself.

[niculinux]

Hey dioxine thanks for the crossbow (x-bow) but i gave a quick shot to thr 0.78 and there is no bootypedia entry/description for it. or was an oversight of mine? thanjs also for the mortar, vveeerrry useful! 

[Dioxine]

0.79 comes early to hopefully get rid of all these pesky research/corpse recovery/pedia errors. Playtesting shows it should be finally reasonably clean, and the transition to new corpse paradigm is finally complete, with most pirate corpses recoverable for damaged armor. Also, Advanced Power Armor added to make a viable alter to the Revenant or even Brute. Also, force blade aka glowing stick, by popular demand. Enjoy.

[Edrick]

About 0.78, yeah, I tried it and, while the Merc Commando for hire is a great idea, it only works in “New Battle”, but trying to buy one of them sets the amount to “-21474” and doesn’t buy anything (and that “punch” thing for Mercs is kind of illogical. That $255.000 fee doesn’t include even a measly Assault Rifle? And, anyways, if I can spare that much money for a Merc, I can spare some little change for a weapon, e.g. a Hammer) And X-Bow doesn’t have Bootypaedia entry, so I don’t have any idea whether it is a good weapon for mah hearty crew.

About hostage armor recovery: if I understood what you were saying, it sounds like a great idea. Passing hostages through the Workshop nets you their armor “as is”, but you lose the prisoner. This would only be available with “armoured” enemies: Academy and Trader Securities, Humanist Stormtroopers, Govt Enforcers and Elite Soldiers and Trader Bodyguards. The Securities, Stormtrooper  and Govts would net you Security Carapace Armor (the purple “normal” variant, without recolourings or fancy helmets) and only the latter, Human Powered Armor. Perhaps Church Zealots could also fit in there, giving you Church Zealot Armor, or also Govt Elite Soldiers could give you that “Uber Carapace Armor” they wear (which could get a Bootypaedia entry, while we’re at it. By the way, which is the criteria to give an enemy armor a Bootypaedia entry or not?). On the other hand, for example, the robes Academicians wear offer no protection value, so a live Academician can only be sold or researched for info, or the suits Mercenaries wear are custom-tailored for each, so the only way of getting armor from them is killing them and crafting Synthsuits.

The dilemma would be: do I go the easy way and blast the heck out of that Trader Security and, with four corpses, I can make a TAC Suit, or do I try to get him alive and either pass him through the Workshop, getting me a Carapace Armor (superior to TAC Suit), or sell him back to the Traders and save to buy something else, e.g. Defender Armor (superior to Carapace Armor). I don’t know how all that would affect balance (especially crafting Assault Armours and Annihilator Suits). Also, implementing new types of armor would suppose a lot of sprite work.
About easily lootable jetpacks: nice idea! I don’t know how do you exactly plan to implement this, but you could also make the jetpacks from Raider Buzzards lootable as well. Please?

Off to play 0.79.

[niculinux]

hell..i admit i really can't live witout this mod ahahah

Just some hints for the futher 0.80 verison:

1) I obained the magnum in the game, after some research, but it has the same sprite as the snubby revolver, only recolored (blue instead of black). Plus in the equipping screen (when youl load weapons into a craft) the inventory still reads "snubby" instead of magnu :,( sorry but no screenshots avaiable i lost my savegame AAARRRGGHH.)

May I suggest to replace current magnum with Ryskeliinis' one?

Also, the actual ("real") snubby may get replaced by snubnose pistol with stats in the middle between current snubby and the magnum? Of course it should be researched & manufactured to be used

2) A brighter palette for the spraygun:


on some monitors i really can't see it and distinguish from the black background.

3) some minor weapon rebalancing: eg homefront rifle damage 28 to 29 the "eventual" snubnose/whatever 27

4) use real names for weapons, eg homefront rifle-->ak 47,  and spraygun-->us m203 or grease gun, also with some bland reference in the bootypedia entry to real features/history. if there won't be problems.
 (eg. tommy gun))

5) on ancient and  blunt weapons: these may have bot killing and stunnin power such as the ball bat, and the power mace, don't know if the latter already is. Also, ancient weapons should be be buyable (eg tommy gun)

5) I'd go very slow on adding weapons because the more will be added the harder willl be to balance.

edit: also playng on the 3 on 5 difficulty level seems to be a bit of terror attacks. May these be reduced a bit, on that level? Maybe it's just me, I laways sucked at videogames xD.

ok in the end thanks for the advices on the x-bow in the bootypedia  and, as I stated some posts ago, it's ready when it's ready 

[Dioxine]

About 0.78, yeah, I tried it and, while the Merc Commando for hire is a great idea, it only works in “New Battle”, but trying to buy one of them sets the amount to “-21474” and doesn’t buy anything (and that “punch” thing for Mercs is kind of illogical. That $255.000 fee doesn’t include even a measly Assault Rifle? And, anyways, if I can spare that much money for a Merc, I can spare some little change for a weapon, e.g. a Hammer)

Strange, he works perfectly fine for me - I've bought one, fought many battles with his assistance, then had to pay for his funeral when he finally bought a plasma bolt from a Raider Buzzard during base defence...
Regarding the weapon - I had no choice, he *has* to have a fixed weapon to be buyable like this. So it's either a silly fist or unlimited-ammo gun (I don't want special ammo for Mercenaries only - it'd be kinda stupid for a great Mercenary to beg you for ammo)... What's bad - it seems that any equipment you give him is lost after battle. So maybe an unlimited-ammo gun (most likely a Gauss Musket or Boom Gun) is not that bad idea...

X-Bow doesn’t have Bootypaedia entry, so I don’t have any idea whether it is a good weapon for mah hearty crew.

Already fixed, I've needlessly rushed 0.78 and forgot to add it.

About hostage armor recovery: if I understood what you were saying, it sounds like a great idea. Passing hostages through the Workshop nets you their armor “as is”, but you lose the prisoner. This would only be available with “armoured” enemies: Academy and Trader Securities, Humanist Stormtroopers, Govt Enforcers and Elite Soldiers and Trader Bodyguards. The Securities, Stormtrooper  and Govts would net you Security Carapace Armor (the purple “normal” variant, without recolourings or fancy helmets) and only the latter, Human Powered Armor. Perhaps Church Zealots could also fit in there, giving you Church Zealot Armor, or also Govt Elite Soldiers could give you that “Uber Carapace Armor” they wear (which could get a Bootypaedia entry, while we’re at it. By the way, which is the criteria to give an enemy armor a Bootypaedia entry or not?). On the other hand, for example, the robes Academicians wear offer no protection value, so a live Academician can only be sold or researched for info, or the suits Mercenaries wear are custom-tailored for each, so the only way of getting armor from them is killing them and crafting Synthsuits.
The dilemma would be: do I go the easy way and blast the heck out of that Trader Security and, with four corpses, I can make a TAC Suit, or do I try to get him alive and either pass him through the Workshop, getting me a Carapace Armor (superior to TAC Suit), or sell him back to the Traders and save to buy something else, e.g. Defender Armor (superior to Carapace Armor). I don’t know how all that would affect balance (especially crafting Assault Armours and Annihilator Suits). Also, implementing new types of armor would suppose a lot of sprite work.

Yeah, limiting this to armored enemies is probably a good compromise. But you won't be getting ready suits of armor - just more parts than normally (3 or 2, depending on the enemy). No armor used by enemies would fit your crew, except the armor used by the Raiders I guess. However, there will be a personal-armor equivalent (as it is sorely lacking now) available for crafting, as well as Zealot-armor equivalent; getting a ready-to-use armor, no research, is a good idea, but the ratio would be far too beneficial (the improved Tac Suit is going to have a total cost around 8 personal armor parts, and capturing Trader/Academy Security guys isn't hard enough to warrant 8:1 ratio). Alternatively, you could be getting Defender armor out of these security guys, but again... Defender might be simply too good. Damn it, it looks I need to make about 4 more armors for the crew anyways... However, 'processing' a Bodyguard will give you a ready-to-use Kustom Power Armor - these guys are hard to catch.

About bootypedia entries: I try not to clutter it needlessly. All carapace armor has similar stats, so no need for an extra entry. Somer are just a bit better which is in enemy's description (Stormtrooper, Govt Elite Soldier), but generally the same sort of thing. Likewise, Academy light armor doesn't have a separate entry, neither does the fact that Govt Agents and Trader Engineers have some armor too... There has to be a major difference to warrant an entry, like special resistances or radically different armor score.

About easily lootable jetpacks: nice idea! I don’t know how do you exactly plan to implement this, but you could also make the jetpacks from Raider Buzzards lootable as well. Please?

That's already included in 0.79 - you get a damaged jetpack out of a Raider Buzzard or KIA Assault Armor pirate. You don't get a damaged jetpack out of KIA jetpack pirate because omission - it'll be fixed later

[Dioxine]

1) I obained the magnum in the game, after some research, but it has the same sprite as the snubby revolver, only recolored (blue instead of black). Plus in the equipping screen (when youl load weapons into a craft) the inventory still reads "snubby" instead of magnu :,( sorry but no screenshots avaiable i lost my savegame AAARRRGGHH.)

May I suggest to replace current magnum with Ryskeliinis' one?

Recolored my ass:



Also, while Ryskeliini's Magnum is nice, I think mine fits the mod better. And it has a scope

Also, the actual ("real") snubby may get replaced by snubnose pistol with stats in the middle between current snubby and the magnum? Of course it should be researched & manufactured to be used

I like mine better, looks far more deadly, dirty and less off-the-shelf. And Snubby won't be manufacturable, needlessly cluttering the already bloated workshop list with subpar weapons is out of question.

2) A brighter palette for the spraygun:

Noted. It might indeed be a good idea.

3) some minor weapon rebalancing: eg homefront rifle damage 28 to 29 the "eventual" snubnose/whatever 27

What for? Homefront rifle is balanced to Assault Rifle (ie. made to be inferior in most aspects). Snubby is superior, but balanced by lacking availability, magazine capacity, weight-to-damage ratio, autoshot and long-range Aimed shot of the Homefront Rifle.

4) use real names for weapons, eg homefront rifle-->ak 47,  and spraygun-->us m203 or grease gun, also with some bland reference in the bootypedia entry to real features/history. if there won't be problems.
 (eg. tommy gun))

These mutant people of 27th century really don't know the 20th century names of these weapons