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

[Dioxine]

No worries, at least I had to clean up my sprites to better implement this feature, and this was needed anyway

But now it works more or less as intended, as you can see. Also seems I've managed to repair this annoying "black square" map bug. I still need to complete the Pedia entries for interrogated enemy bosses so people would know which one was already interrogated - and I want these entries to be cool and rewarding, plain text just won't do... at least not in every case, I can't be over-generous I've already streamlined the process a bit, ex. Bugbear interrogation was kicked out as it yielded next to nothing.

I'll also try to experiment this repainting code on enemies, this would be a huge advantage if they could be recolored - and randomized! Just by a few lines of code. I like Yankes' code, it's intuitive and super-easy to implement in the ruleset. I want also to add a new faction and perhaps perfect the Pogrom deployments before the next release, but this is a lot of work... making new enemies is always a lot of work.

Btw has anyone already told Warboy that his new MeleeStates need fixing? The next soldier button and r-click door opening stops working after any melee attack, until you shoot or end your turn, or load your game - and also, in this state, the game is prone to crash due to any r-click).

[Hobbes]

But now it works more or less as intended, as you can see. Also seems I've managed to repair this annoying "black square" map bug.

I had a look at the Terrain Pack ruleset, but I couldn't find any problem there since that terrain is a clone of the vanilla ones (I merely made new sprites and reused the vanilla code). I also had a look at your rulesets but nothing seemed obvious to me. What was the issue that was causing those empty mapblocks?

[Dioxine]

A stupid one, really. Forgot to copy & declare 2 new MCD's you've provided in your 3.3. package.

[Dioxine]

Ho-hum. Sprite recoloring is sure fun, but my sprites weren't designed with this kind of functionality in mind... so the results are sketchy. Not sure if it's needed; sure it adds to variety, but also makes visual ident much harder, ex. everyone knows that Academy Medics have blonde hair, and the Raiders wear red... I should probably only add limited skin colour variety... none the less, here's some footage from the ongoing experiments:

[Solarius Scorch]

I'm inclined to agree, hair colour can be considered a kind of uniform (like with Sisters of Battle).

Skin colour, on the other hand, is harder to uniformize.

[Dioxine]

Well, work's done - I did what was possible to add variety without breaking anything. Unsurprisingly, it went best with the Traders...

Now, with Pogroms seriously overhauled, just odds and ends before the 0.89 release that's going to fix a lot of stuff. I think I'm postponing the new faction (codename: Spartans) till 0.9, which leaves me with 4-5 ammo/explosives types to add, 1 craft weapon (a long-range missile, considerably weaker than Stingray but outranging most enemies) and possibly cool pictures for interrogation-stage 2 completions, and maybe some extras before 0.89 can be released. And yeah... at least some testing.

Craft combat is chaos now, since the engine changes that doubled the the timers... Otoh I like how difficult it became to down combat vessels. I need to consider every craft weapon carefully, it was never seriously done up until now (other than some cross-balancing of pirate weapons).

[Ridаn]

Welp, now thats something new, never had it happen before.

And yeah, attacking even escorts and fighters is pretty risky now, after losing couple Nightmares I dont even bother try to shot down gunships - risk/reward ration is quite unfavorable (and crew if well armed, but does not really have anything unique, so all you get is armor parts and diassembly material).

[Solarius Scorch]

Han Solo just had it with these motherf*cking mutants.

[Dioxine]

Well, Retal for Smugglers is turned off. Still, obviously, they've found a way to overrule

2 Nightmares getting smacked by a Gunship? Whoa. I've managed to take down an Escort with 2 Brave Whalers, armed with Stingrays (boy, missiles rule again), but it was anything but painful. Otoh, you have other options - like Kraken, or other tough, previously useless, ships to take the heat. Still, warships are intended to be untouchable until you have a powerful airforce.

[Ridаn]

Got Merchants Crackdown and it is kinda goofy - its full of non-combat personell - there are Hostesses, Air Sailors, construction worker-Engineers, CEOs with Bodyguards and a Guildmaster. No Reapers and PCMs at all.

Before that I got only Goverment and Academy Crackdowns, and they have had only 2-3 military unit types (Agents-Enforcers-EliteSoldiers and Explorer-Security-Cyberdiscs), and no faction commander.

Oh, and that Smugglers Crackdown had two Han Solos and a Public Enemy, playing mind tricks on my dogs, too bad there were no Prison Cells on that base.

[Dioxine]

This is being double-checked, but I guess the possibility of being attacked by a race that's not supposed to attack will always be non-zero. The trader non-combat personnel for example is forbidden from attacking, just like the Smugglers... Govt isn't forbidden from doing so (painful for the score, but logical), they have no faction commander though. For now, at least. I guess I could add some Govt General later, but so far it seemed pointless (the only chance of meeting him would be the very unlikely Govt Crackdown, as they don't fly Cruisers on any mission neither they establish Secret Bases).

Also-
I'm thinking about adding 1-2 Crew capacity to all fighters, mainly for roleplaying purposes. Naturally that means making deployment maps. Is it worth it? The downside would be any fighter bringing up the landing prompt upon downing an enemy craft, plus, this feature might simply be useless...

[Ridаn]

Also-
I'm thinking about adding 1-2 Crew capacity to all fighters, mainly for roleplaying purposes. Naturally that means making deployment maps. Is it worth it? The downside would be any fighter bringing up the landing prompt upon downing an enemy craft, plus, this feature might simply be useless...

Will a fighter with no crew bring up a landing screen too?
It could certainly be a nice feature, but I dont think that ammount of work required is worth it.

So, as I understand it, if I interrupt a non-combat faction activity too much they are hardcoded to retaliate disregarding any prohibitions and will use vanilla-like deployement? May it be because of them using vanilla definitions of alienrace or any race will do it (like for example FMP Hybrids)?

[Solarius Scorch]

Just for clarification, you aren't using the automatic (non-retal) X-Com base finding option, are you?

[Ridаn]

Just for clarification, you aren't using the automatic (non-retal) X-Com base finding option, are you?

It`s the one called Agressive Retaliation from Advanced Options, right?
No, it`s turned off.

edit:
Now I`m getting bombarded with Crackdown missions. I had no idea that having a Factory would compromise security that much (as in - enemies spawn in there!). Wish I knew that before signing that 10million creds bill. May be it should be added to facility description?

[Yankes]

This could be bug, I don't now it is OpenXcom or Dioxine (if he copied to much from hangar maps).