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Author Topic: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.j - 9 May - Holiday Edition  (Read 750337 times)

Offline Dioxine

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Thanks for the praise :) See, not only ultimate stuff can be fun - and the Loader was always meant as a weapons platform, not an assault uber-armor (that's Annihilator - but Annihilator won't carry new super-heavy weapons); still, it has enough armor to withstand everything short of heavy weapons, it does certainly shrug off the bullets and human grenades, you just need to understand it cannot be pushed into Hell and expected to survive :)

Although ROF should be higher, I think, (not in a shots per auto sense, but in a projectile speed sense, so unloading whole burst does not take so long) there should be a sweet spot, where you can appreciate the mayhem, SFX does not clip, and burst does not take that long.

Well I can't set your animation speed settings for you, man. It works just fine on my settings, the projectile hits in about .3s and the SFX almost clips but not really:)

On the fence about new interrogation - imo that extra step isnt really needed. Was the old one broken? I thought it worked pretty well. overall it feels needlesly complcated and not fun, despite it being just a single extra step.

It wasn't working, you could just interrogate everyone and research interrogation later, then get everything at once. Seemed really wrong. Plus, it allowed for an extra tier of technology - cannot go straight for the top techs, extra step (and extra capture) is needed - unless of course you don't want to go straight for the top techs, there are alternate venues opened without interrogation. I've always thought getting dat top tech is too easy, this is the first time I have introduced a system that works - ie. which makes the tech progression harder in a creative way (and a better way than having to rely on random chance, like key features from Data Slates in FMP). There's so much stuff in Piratez, making some research harder to reach allows you to enjoy the other stuff longer (and purely emotionally, I simply like 'processing' people :) ). In theory. I don't know, I have to get there yet in my test campaign, see for myself. Now checking how far up I can go without Interrogation, to spot any holes.

Starting with 0.9, there will be another major change - upping base TU's and Stamina of all pirates by 15, and adjusting armor bonuses/penalties accordingly; The unarmored will be at +0/+0. Why? To increase the Energy regen rate, which is equal to STARTING TUs/3; was a bit too low with all these higher TU counts and running, it'll go from 15-21/turn to about 23-26 per turn; also to eliminate the counterintuitive idea that wearing nothing gives you stat boosts. Telling this in advance since it'll render all your old soldiers a bit outdated :)

I'm also thinking about increasing default Smoke damage from 200% to 300% - smoke can't be ignored completely, but still isn't really a threat, and smoke grenades can be used pretty freely. Naturally, you can always wear an armor that gives smoke immunity :)

As for 0.89, I'm working on -
1. another superheavy weapon
2. loadout changes (pictured a new melee weapons, mostly made for Church of Sirius), more logic, more variety, less Desert Eagles which frankly was just TOO attractive while being plentiful.
3. more story/world background stuff
4. Default accurate range of autofire is again increased, this time from 9 to 11 (the autofire option was almost never worth it, this should help, in general but also for dedicated-autofire weapons in particular, like the not-loved SMG)
5. Yet another one early alternate-ammo tech, Electro-Pulse Bullets (they deal laser damage, and are available for the "crap-pistol" and colt .45, for now) to appreciate un-appreciated guns, at least if a player choses so (it's only natural that appreciating all the stuff ISN'T possible during a single campaign, but I'm thinking replay value here)
6. Rebalancing armor, based on already well-established guidelines (tac suit, heavy suit, metal armor as watermarks).
7. Adding new early-research craft type - now you can choose between the Brave Whaler Fighter, and Deliverator Light Transport. There will be a third choice at that point - a Light Fighter, very fast (>5000) but fragile, meant mainly for missile deliveries.

And I hope to also get another minor enemy faction into the game before release (a variation of the Raid mission, with Raiders and that new faction, working name - Militias), and maybe also a non-elite variation of Govt forces (the guys whom you can kill for money but at the price of a negative Score :) with guys like police and factory workers, they will definitely appear in the Resource Extraction mission, for starters.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2015, 07:13:45 pm by Dioxine »

Offline Ridаn

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It wasn't working, you could just interrogate everyone and research interrogation later, then get everything at once. Seemed really wrong. Plus, it allowed for an extra tier of technology - cannot go straight for the top techs, extra step (and extra capture) is needed - unless of course you don't want to go straight for the top techs, there are alternate venues opened without interrogation. I've always thought getting dat top tech is too easy, this is the first time I have introduced a system that works - ie. which makes the tech progression harder in a creative way (and a better way than having to rely on random chance, like key features from Data Slates in FMP). There's so much stuff in Piratez, making some research harder to reach allows you to enjoy the other stuff longer (and purely emotionally, I simply like 'processing' people :) ). In theory. I don't know, I have to get there yet in my test campaign, see for myself. Now checking how far up I can go without Interrogation, to spot any holes.
Got it, I always have gone for Interrogation first, so I just did not notice the problem, it all makes sense now.

Well I can't set your animation speed settings for you, man. It works just fine on my settings, the projectile hits in about .3s and the SFX almost clips but not really:)
Oh right, stupid me :)

I'm also thinking about increasing default Smoke damage from 200% to 300% - smoke can't be ignored completely, but still isn't really a threat, and smoke grenades can be used pretty freely. Naturally, you can always wear an armor that gives smoke immunity :)
As a dirty dance-in-a-smoke abuser I request cheap unarmored gasmask suit, even tearing a inhaler from Pest Control Manager will do :)

2. loadout changes (pictured a new melee weapons, mostly made for Church of Sirius), more logic, more variety, less Desert Eagles which frankly was just TOO attractive while being plentiful.
There is desperate need for more Magnums and Assault SMGs, for a third playthrough I get those topics only from Gun Almanachs, and unlock Handcannons and Smartrifles only after stockpiling a lots of trophy laser/gauss stuff. Handcannon gets outclassed by MAG ammo Deagle, and Smartrifle by Laser Tommy (well, not really but those are pretty close). RNG gods hate me.

Offline Dioxine

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As a dirty dance-in-a-smoke abuser I request cheap unarmored gasmask suit, even tearing a inhaler from Pest Control Manager will do :)
Cheap gasmask suit will have to go with it, naturally - probably available to research from the start. I just need the conception to mature a bit more - I imagine some Stalker-style stuff, gas mask and a camo coat wrapped around the torso. I just need some more ideas as what ELSE this suit could give you, what kind of bonus is untapped in early game but not OP (so the suit won't get instantly obsoleted by Personal Armor). Sadly camo per se isn't available in XCom, but then again, being able to abuse smoke grenades freely is as close as you get :)

There is desperate need for more Magnums and Assault SMGs, for a third playthrough I get those topics only from Gun Almanachs, and unlock Handcannons and Smartrifles only after stockpiling a lots of trophy laser/gauss stuff. Handcannon gets outclassed by MAG ammo Deagle, and Smartrifle by Laser Tommy (well, not really but those are pretty close). RNG gods hate me.

True with the Assault SMG, this weapon is under-represented and fairly, not that good to last past early game. As for Magnums, it's kind of both - they're not as rare as you think (there is one in the Raider ship loadout, which makes somewhat easy to find, as Raiders are usually plentiful), but if the Gods hate you, you won't find any :) Now there should be at least as many Magnums as DE's, preferably a bit more since Magnum, despite being the same power tier, is more of a specialist's weapon. Hmm, I'll also up its Aimed Acc to 95% to make it more attractive.

Offline Ran

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It's good to see you're back, Dioxine!  :)
Haven't been here myself for a while...

Question: would it be possible to implement matching hair colors for the girls with the newest nightly? My apologies if that has already be done, haven't yet had the time to test the latest version.

Offline cjones

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First let me say, glad to have you back diox and with new piratez no less!

Been playing 88.1 for about two days now (12+hrs) and have noticed a map glitch.  It started just under the bonaventura at first but now it appears to be spreading.  I get blacked out null space that my soldiers appear to float over when walking on it.
I have attached a sav in mission with issue as well as cfg file if that helps.

Otherwise, loving the added stuff, my only prob now is keeping track of which prisoners i need to "improve" to get diff research option, i keep kicking myself for breaking a prisoner only to realize i cant research that broken one again and wasting the slave.

The GUI glitching seems to have slowed down, but its prob cuz I am careful not to right click whenever I can.  Also, I dont have the sav anymore, but I had a CTD with no error one a battlescape everytime I equipped a commando rifle on a pirate with loader armor. 

Also, the sav i attached i have only been retaliated against maybe twice, very odd, have the retal weights been changed?

Thanks for all your hard work!

Offline Hobbes

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I simply like 'processing' people :)

Soylent Green is people!!!

Offtopic, but this is what your expression reminds me of.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2015, 08:56:08 pm by Hobbes »

Offline Yankes

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It's good to see you're back, Dioxine!  :)
Haven't been here myself for a while...

Question: would it be possible to implement matching hair colors for the girls with the newest nightly? My apologies if that has already be done, haven't yet had the time to test the latest version.
I already working on it :D
Some results for Dioxine:
Code: [Select]
    spriteFaceGroup: 6
    spriteFaceColor: [96, 96, 96, 96, 160, 160, 163, 163] #M0 F0 M1 F1 M2 F2 M3 F3
    spriteHairGroup: 9
    spriteHairColor: [80, 16, 245, 36, 38, 208, 166, 166] #M0 F0 M1 F1 M2 F2 M3 F3
And screenshots:

Offline Ran

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I made as Soylent Green mod a while ago to make dead Raiders a bit more useful but it's not really fun as long as you can't eat it yourself, meaning use medikit on the soldier carrying it.

Offline kikimoristan

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LOL hahaha sexy raiders

Offline Dioxine

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First let me say, glad to have you back diox and with new piratez no less!

Thanks man!

Been playing 88.1 for about two days now (12+hrs) and have noticed a map glitch.  It started just under the bonaventura at first but now it appears to be spreading.  I get blacked out null space that my soldiers appear to float over when walking on it.
I have attached a sav in mission with issue as well as cfg file if that helps.

Yes I know... I've tried to fix the grass problem inside ships, copied the solution from the Hobbes' updated map pack manually, looks like I broke something...

Otherwise, loving the added stuff, my only prob now is keeping track of which prisoners i need to "improve" to get diff research option, i keep kicking myself for breaking a prisoner only to realize i cant research that broken one again and wasting the slave.

I'm stupid. Naturally you wouldn't know! Bad design! I'll add Pedia articles with Interrogation results so you could always look it up to check if it's already done or not.

Also, the sav i attached i have only been retaliated against maybe twice, very odd, have the retal weights been changed?

Impossible to do such a thing :) The chances of a (successful) alien retaliation depend solely on base placement. Sometimes, I get ganked a few days after first mission. Sometimes a base avoids retaliation for years, despite hundreds of enemy ships trying to find it.

@Yankes:
Wow! That's awesome! Like a birthday present! How many human sacrifices it took to convince Warboy to pull your code? :)
And you've already colored them for me... Not guarantee I'm keeping them 100% like that (still not sure if the dark-skinned beauties should have dark brown, or rather black hair... black, long hair would create problem with some armors, though...) but it does look almost perfect!

Also a humble question: is it/will it/would it be possible for soldier inventory sprite to manage more than 8 .SPKs? I know it's tied to gender/race but it could wrap around or something... ex. race 0 male could randomly choose between M0, M4, M8... (if they exist) :)

@Hobbes, 2 screens (the other one is a question, what was likely my error there? I was adding savannadesert00 and savannadesertmount00)

Offline Ridаn

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Yesterday I got Academy Pogrom mission without any Cyberdiscs, Medics and Engineers.
There was one Esper, two or three drones and rest were Academy Security. Bug or WAD?

I also got two Freighters full of Soylent twice in a row and decided to not bother with a 3rd one, damn those RNG gods.

Offline Dioxine

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Yesterday I got Academy Pogrom mission without any Cyberdiscs, Medics and Engineers.
There was one Esper, two or three drones and rest were Academy Security. Bug or WAD?

As designed. Made little sense they'd send Medics & Engineers, much less lab assistants into an extermination mission :) Same reason the Trader Engineers & G.O.'s were taken off the Pogrom roster a long time ago. The Cyberdiscs should be there, though, it was tested, you simply got lucky (on some terror maps, spawning is much thinner than on others, it also has to do with difficulty, and, yes, the Gods of Random). But there will probably be some more variation in this particular enemy pattern (just 4 enemy types/mission in Piratez seems poor, eh? :) ), as soon as I figure out what kind of specialist the Academy might be missing.

Offline Ridаn

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I think having medics with dart guns on Pogroms made sense, they were looking for mutant specimen and stuff.

Just catched my first Smuggler, it had some problems - a black null space reported earlier.

Offline Dioxine

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I think having medics with dart guns on Pogroms made sense, they were looking for mutant specimen and stuff.

Good point, besides no Medics on Pogroms = Medics harder to find. It has to do with Pogrom (and similar missions) deployment assignments. Right now it is supposed to go like this:
Rank 5: Crap Soldier
Rank 4: Normal Soldier
Rank 3: Heavy
Rank 2: ??? whatever ???
Rank 1: Leader

I have to redesign the deployment then, maybe make Medic Rank 2, but first I need to make or designate special "catcher" units for Nazis, Raiders, Church of Sirius & Traders. Then I will finally make order in these deployments - issue heavy weapons to "Heavy" rank, and issue non-lethal weapons to "Catcher" rank. Also I have to make sure this doesn't collide with warship deployments - Rank 2 is normally an Engineer, and I *do* want to have engineers on warships :) Well there is still rank 6-7 to use...

About the terrain problem, I'll try to tackle it soon.

Offline Yankes

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@Yankes:
Wow! That's awesome! Like a birthday present! How many human sacrifices it took to convince Warboy to pull your code? :)
And you've already colored them for me... Not guarantee I'm keeping them 100% like that (still not sure if the dark-skinned beauties should have dark brown, or rather black hair... black, long hair would create problem with some armors, though...) but it does look almost perfect!

Also a humble question: is it/will it/would it be possible for soldier inventory sprite to manage more than 8 .SPKs? I know it's tied to gender/race but it could wrap around or something... ex. race 0 male could randomly choose between M0, M4, M8... (if they exist) :)
Warboy himself ask for it :D That was required for supporting TFTD aquanauts.
And for colors, you can tweak it a bit, you can choose any colors you want (but you must be remember if you use too dark colors could overflow to next one).

I look some time ago at code generating inventory screens, and if I recall correctly it wasn't big problem to do it. Only problem I see is convincing Warboy or SupSuper that they want that code in master branch :) Probably proper way to do it is add it to my extended version.