aliens

Author Topic: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.j - 9 May - Holiday Edition  (Read 750041 times)

Offline Arthanor

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2488
  • XCom Armoury Quartermaster
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1140 on: May 01, 2015, 04:30:04 am »
Well, couldn't stop playing and already reached march! This is fun, and so different. Playing against armoured, low damage enemies makes the game very different. No more one shot kills on either side is nice. Except for one landed craft I happened to assault.. dudes looking like peak xcom from tftd, with gauss and magnetic ion armour that can fly outside of water! the gals didn't last long and we quickly went packing without even getting one :( I wish I could have gotten a corpse at least.. need more explosives!!

Two things I noticed:
- Looks like the Guild hostess doesn't have a listOrder. She shows up at the bottom of the list instead of with the other hostages.
- I haven't had a pogrom yet! What's up? Nobody is really complaining about the increased respect for mutants, but it seems weird.

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1141 on: May 01, 2015, 06:15:33 am »
Except for one landed craft I happened to assault.. dudes looking like peak xcom from tftd, with gauss and magnetic ion armour that can fly outside of water! the gals didn't last long and we quickly went packing without even getting one :( I wish I could have gotten a corpse at least.. need more explosives!!

Hehe I wonder what that was! TFTD technology wasn't lost, it got upgraded :)

- I haven't had a pogrom yet! What's up? Nobody is really complaining about the increased respect for mutants, but it seems weird.

Hurr durr... you should have completed at least two! Especially since you have nothing to deal with Pogrom ships yet. Can I haz a save? It is possible the Pogrom missions are started but something is no longer compatible with the recent mission scripting upgrades...

Offline pilot00

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Back in the day it was gameplay not a feature....
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1142 on: May 01, 2015, 12:55:41 pm »


- I haven't had a pogrom yet! What's up? Nobody is really complaining about the increased respect for mutants, but it seems weird.

Aha! And I thought its my imagination or something. I had a terror ship fly with a terror mission in mind (decoder) and once it reached spectral 'poof' desapeared. At first I thought it left. But now that I think on it, I didnt get the UFO dissapears pop up.

EDIT: Theres a save Dioxine. I have already launched an interception to keep up to it in case it moves out of radar. It will "land" on a terror site and then simply dissapear with nothing happening.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2015, 01:05:36 pm by pilot00 »

Offline evialex87

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1143 on: May 01, 2015, 01:08:55 pm »
Dioxine, would you like to increase chance to met Dark Ones, Deep Ones and Bandits? They're barely noticeable.

Offline Talhydras

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1144 on: May 01, 2015, 01:18:17 pm »
Wha? While I may have been able to MC star gods, I never did. While I don't doubt that I benefited MASSIVELY in terms of psi resistance, I've always found psi combat in classic XCom a little cheesy, both as the giver and as the receiver. Making an alien blaster bomb themselves is amusing once, but after that it permanently destroys the sense of tension and obviates practically all other forms of weaponry. I did use it on a few base defenses, but I had a Sectopod present and would have won anyway. Mostly that was to try and capture a Raider Humungous to see what cool stuff that unlocked.

Honestly I sort of think the Dark Ones should be psi immune.

Crap, I forgot to mention an incident that I found fascinating. My first major engagement with the star gods was a pogrom. I rolled out my troops, didn't make a lot of contact, enemy phase I got three troops mind controlled and after that there was nothing left to do but cry a lot. I tried again, and had success with a VERY odd tactic. I ran out just two soldiers - and I had NO idea if they were psi-strong or psi-weak, my voodoo school hadn't gone online at this point. And the Star Gods didn't make psi attacks against anyone in the Thunderhorse. So two soldiers ran across the map, discs-o-death in hand, and went house to house and took out the entire pogrom themselves. While it was a cool moment, I can't help but wonder: is Star God psi-targeting being restricted just like explosive targeting is?

The reason I brought up LW was not to say "LW does this therefore it is obviously the one true path", more that "LW has a large player base that has been able to handle the stress of lose-lose terror missions and trap UFOs". I personally enjoy LW and recommend it to all X-com fans, but that's completely tangential to this thread beyond saying that folks can handle a few missions that don't contain a possibility of total victory.

For the Imperial Probe? Well... considering it looks like a giant mind probe, has an anemic engine, and is unarmed and unarmored, I imagine it is relatively cheap and perhaps a large psionic sensor. Considering the Star Gods hand out cruisers and heavy gunships like party favors to the Factions, they've obviously got a massive industrial base that could support throwing those probes away. My gut says that other Governor-level entities would be using such a device to psionically explore other systems in the Empire for pure entertainment purposes. I'd say it's less "spying on themselves" and more "bored elite members of the stellar empire driving psionic quadcopter". The bootypedia states they're dispatched to survey potential activity sites, so I would expect the Imperial probe to be a precursor to Star God feet touching the Earth. Are they the precursor craft to Messenger landings? I only ever remember Imperial Probes spawning Dark One and Deep One sites. To turn my confusion into a straightforward question: Is it intended behavior that all non-crackdown dark one and deep one activity is spawned by Imperial Probes?

I think the whole idea with the probe, was to use it as an 'excuse' of a ufo to follow up and actually find out the hideouts/bases/whatever it is those factions operate without having to add another base raid mission on the map. The stargods (as far as I progressed) have no presence and installations on earth, they only make rare appereances personally.

The 'problem' with melee, is that it is an answer to early problem. That is the lack of good weapons and ammo. Once you get your operations up and running and secure a supply of good munitions, via varius means ranged combat becomes again a priority. That is not to say that you forgoe melee all together, but if the enemy carries top notch gear, and you try to close the distance without reloads....yeah thats gonna end badly.

Reading Pilot00's comment: Ohhhhhh that makes some sense. It's less that the Dark Ones are operating an Imperial Probe, and more that the Imperial Probe is going to go hover over a Dark One place for sometime? I wonder if their bootypedia entry might be altered to state "The probes themselves are worthless but they may be able to lead us to something the Star Gods consider interesting..."

MAG Assault Pistol vs Eagle: I actually got nowhere near enough Eagles in my campaign to make them a regular sidearm. I think I had four. I did get my first one deliciously early, and appreciated it greatly. I don't at all dispute your point that obsolescence happens in Piratez, merely wanted to say that the invisible hand of RNG precluded your example in my campaign. I'm just arguing for more lategame ammo for pretty weapons like the CAWS and the Autogun and the LACC because I think they're pretty.

Mecha suits
- No X-Sectopods. They will be replaced with 2x2 armor suits WORN by soldiers, and equipped with custom weapons.
Hyperbole Mode: Oooh, HWP Mechasuits sounds totally awesome WAIT NO WHAT

BUT

SECTOPODS NOOOOOO ;_______;

Reasonable response: Welllllllll I'll reserve judgment until I see the mechasuits. I'll miss the Sectopods though. It was amazingly fun to get to use many of the classic X-com terror units in my PirateZ run, and I'll be sad to see my favorite of the lot go. I spent many hours of my youth mind controlling all four sections of a Sectopod in the vain hopes I'd get to keep it, and fielding the X-Sectopod in PirateZ was the first time I've been able to realize the dream.

Offline pilot00

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Back in the day it was gameplay not a feature....
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1145 on: May 01, 2015, 02:38:11 pm »

Reading Pilot00's comment: Ohhhhhh that makes some sense. It's less that the Dark Ones are operating an Imperial Probe, and more that the Imperial Probe is going to go hover over a Dark One place for sometime? I wonder if their bootypedia entry might be altered to state "The probes themselves are worthless but they may be able to lead us to something the Star Gods consider interesting..."

It does already, it tells you that thats exactly what they do with the probe. You just follow it up and find the area the head honchos are spying and take up the oportunity to raid it.

Lore so far is solid, and I like this, because most mods of various games I played had the lore thrown in a trash can. I like the subtle references to events from other X-Com games that did happen in piratez albeit in a different way. Personally I cant wait to see what happened to T'leth in this alternate universe and why the deep ones use the weapons they do. Also I kinda expect a sectoid to pop up somewhere. Cant have X-Com without sectoids.

The only downer if you can call it that, is that so far I have found nothing speaking about X-Com itself. And I think thats a shame. Perhaps there is something that I havent found out. Oh well, I can fantasise that the starting Lab is a leftover of the original X-com base and the girls run on it when they build their hideout or something.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2015, 02:43:53 pm by pilot00 »

Offline Arthanor

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2488
  • XCom Armoury Quartermaster
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1146 on: May 01, 2015, 02:51:15 pm »
Hurr durr... you should have completed at least two! Especially since you have nothing to deal with Pogrom ships yet. Can I haz a save? It is possible the Pogrom missions are started but something is no longer compatible with the recent mission scripting upgrades...

I've seen some activity around.. but no actual pogrom. Here's the save!

Offline Talhydras

  • Squaddie
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1147 on: May 01, 2015, 02:57:55 pm »
It does already, it tells you that thats exactly what they do with the probe. You just follow it up and find the area the head honchos are spying and take up the oportunity to raid it.

Lore so far is solid, and I like this, because most mods of various games I played had the lore thrown in a trash can. I like the subtle references to events from other X-Com games that did happen in piratez albeit in a different way. Personally I cant wait to see what happened to T'leth in this alternate universe and why the deep ones use the weapons they do. Also I kinda expect a sectoid to pop up somewhere. Cant have X-Com without sectoids.

The only downer if you can call it that, is that so far I have found nothing speaking about X-Com itself. And I think thats a shame. Perhaps there is something that I havent found out. Oh well, I can fantasise that the starting Lab is a leftover of the original X-com base and the girls run on it when they build their hideout or something.

From the pedia: "These small flying things are launched by the Empire to survey potential activity sites"

I think a lot of my confusion is coming from my first reading of this sentence. To me it implies that the Probes are meant to survey potential IMPERIAL activity sites, not that the probes survey sites with unaffiliated activity the Empire finds interesting. Sorry to split this hair infinitesimally!

I can definitely confirm that there is some lore in the pedia that concerns the fate of X-Com. T'leth, I dunno about yet. Mysteries abound!

Offline Ridаn

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 269
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1148 on: May 01, 2015, 03:16:49 pm »
"Russian Files" research shed some light on last days of Xcom project, and was(?) a prerequisite to Nuclear Powered Lasers technology.
There is a topic on Sectoids accessible through debug mode too.

Offline pilot00

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Back in the day it was gameplay not a feature....
    • View Profile
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1149 on: May 01, 2015, 04:49:40 pm »
From the pedia: "These small flying things are launched by the Empire to survey potential activity sites"

I think a lot of my confusion is coming from my first reading of this sentence. To me it implies that the Probes are meant to survey potential IMPERIAL activity sites, not that the probes survey sites with unaffiliated activity the Empire finds interesting. Sorry to split this hair infinitesimally!

I can definitely confirm that there is some lore in the pedia that concerns the fate of X-Com. T'leth, I dunno about yet. Mysteries abound!

Potential activity sites, well is potential activity sites. Why should the empire survey their own activity sites?If they had personel there in the first place?

"Russian Files" research shed some light on last days of Xcom project, and was(?) a prerequisite to Nuclear Powered Lasers technology.
There is a topic on Sectoids accessible through debug mode too.

You mean the Eurasian autonomy entry? I think this was a nudge to the fact that the Russians never got infiltrated in the original :D
Anyhow it is good to know there is something, I havent advanced so far into the game yet.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2015, 04:51:22 pm by pilot00 »

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.g - 24 Apr - Crewed fighters
« Reply #1150 on: May 01, 2015, 05:57:21 pm »
Russian Files is an advanced "mystery" topic, it sheds some light on the fate of XCom indeed, and indeed it is needed for Nuclear Lasers (although it is only a single one of many prerequisites). The lab, well, it looks different so it might not be a XCom lab at all, then again it might be with how much time has passed, maybe there should be some research regarding how the lab got there in the first place.

Sectoids aren't in the mod in person, yet, although there already are some pointers in a few places... Same for T'leth, all these Deep Ones must be coming from somewhere, right? These mysteries will be eventually followed upon and solved.

@Tallhydras: my snide remarks about psi str improvement "cheat" weren't aimed specifically at yourself, dude. I'll reiterate it's my fault in the first place for not bothering to check that option out and warn the players about the consequences.

About the probe: if I added the probes to idle Star Gods flybys, it would be the first contact with them for some players, and they could think "it's just an useless craft that can be blown up for a couple of points, following it makes no sense and the Pedia entry is full of crap". The "Flag" info on the Decoder might be misleading, but that's how it works. Real Flag is Star Gods, possibly bored ones, and the "Flag" only says whom they're spying on.

About the lose-lose missions: I just said I don't like the concept too much, personally. If the game is out to kill you, you should at least be given a chance to fall on the field on battle, with your sword in hand, not due to persistently negative score caused by an unlucky string of anally lose-lose missions. Doubly so one has to be careful with Pogroms, as they're the only guaranteed-to-happen missions (well not recently, due to bugs, but I will fix those). So far the only possibility is Govt Crackdown, and it is very unlikely to happen if you don't shoot the govt. Naturally, 2602+ game can become much more nasty since you should be either dead or safely well off by that point.

Oh yeah and @Bandits, Deep Ones & Dark Ones are rare as intended. For the time being.
« Last Edit: May 01, 2015, 06:48:07 pm by Dioxine »

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.h - 1 May - Red Edition
« Reply #1151 on: May 01, 2015, 07:44:28 pm »
Okay fixed version is up. Danger: contains a bit less timid AI, slightly more cavalier in use of explosives. Hence the red edition.

Offline ivandogovich

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2381
  • X-Com Afficionado
    • View Profile
    • Ivan Dogovich Youtube
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.h - 1 May - Red Edition
« Reply #1152 on: May 01, 2015, 07:52:24 pm »
 :'(  I'm such a chicken... I'm scared by the red edition.  :-[

Offline Dioxine

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 5412
  • punk not dead
    • View Profile
    • Nocturnal Productions
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.h - 1 May - Red Edition
« Reply #1153 on: May 01, 2015, 08:03:26 pm »
Nah you're rarely halfways through the map by turn 3, you won't notice much difference. Just don't create grenade magnets, the AI still can't really fire beyond direct LoS :)

Offline ivandogovich

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2381
  • X-Com Afficionado
    • View Profile
    • Ivan Dogovich Youtube
Re: [TOTAL CONVERSION] The Piratez Mod - 0.9.h - 1 May - Red Edition
« Reply #1154 on: May 01, 2015, 08:14:56 pm »
Its landing in the dark in the middle of the map with four enemies staring into the back of the Bonny that freaks me out.   One grenade or RPG and half the crew is toast.  I know why the community wanted the feature back, and I understand why you implemented it... I'm just still scared.   More bloodbaths. Red.  Let the LP run Red.