[COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

[Hexhammer]

Hello people! I had been lurking around here for a while and decided to register as I've got things to say.

First I would like to express my gratitude for the openxcom team for making this whole darn super awesome game work on modern machines! I've been a huge fan of UFO since forever and after my XP tabletop fried, I haven't been able to play the game. Until I found openxcom. Then I want to thank Solarius & co. for FMP, this is magnificent! Its like the old game made perfect with surprises behind every corner. I love the new aliens and weapons and the tech tree is so cool now, I have tried to not spoil too much as I took on playing the FMP without knowing much and I love it. Its like my good old xcom with familiar mechanics, but at the same time, its brand new!

I just started a Veteran playthrough and holy shit what a jump in difficulty from Experienced. Its absolutely brutal, I met Chtonites before Sectoids. It seems that upping the difficulty made the aliens much more aggressive. On experienced it seemed that I had the initiative 99% of the time, but on Vet the aliens just keep on attacking without giving me time to organize my troops. The deployment seems to be the deadliest point of the battle now, with luck the slaughter begins after few turns. Its great!

Then I would like to report a bug I discovered, its not a game breaker, but for some reason the game isn't keeping count of crashed UFO's, every time I've shot down a UFO, it says "Crash site-1". Is there anything I could do to fix this? It doesn't break the game, everything seems to work as usual, its just a nuisance as I like how I can keep count on how many crafts I've shot down. (I'm using the latest version of both openxcom and FMP, the only other mod I have on is high quality sounds.)

And lastly, I have a question about the tech tree, I've had a look at it, but I don't remember much as I want to figure it out myself, but this much I want to spoil, what are the requirements to reseach the hyperwave decoder? It needs several things now, that much I know of. Not much of a problem as I'm making good use of AWACS and stacking radars... But its so nice to have full knowledge of what the aliens are up to. Can't wait to get that far.

On my vet playthrough I'm now in the end of january and I'm already making good progress on alloy ammunition and advanced firearms, I really want that tactical sniper rifle soon. Btw the weapon balance seems perfect! It has made me play very tactical and smart and there's the sense of urgency to get better weaponry asap, also how conventional weapons can keep up with alloy ammo etc., its fantastic! Got to love that minigun, saved my ass so many times.

[Solarius Scorch]

One question does not give me rest: is it normal that MIB and hybrids fly on a chic mansion? Is there any explanation for this? Perhaps it was supposed that these missions (meeting of MIB & Hybrids) should be static, like a convoy of hybrids?

Yes, precisely - it is a technical limitation. Or more precisely, it used to be at the time I made it. Now it can be made more elegantly, I just never got around to remaking it. (I did it for the convoys though.)

Hello people! I had been lurking around here for a while and decided to register as I've got things to say.

Velcome to my kastle. :3

First I would like to express my gratitude for the openxcom team for making this whole darn super awesome game work on modern machines! I've been a huge fan of UFO since forever and after my XP tabletop fried, I haven't been able to play the game. Until I found openxcom. Then I want to thank Solarius & co. for FMP, this is magnificent! Its like the old game made perfect with surprises behind every corner. I love the new aliens and weapons and the tech tree is so cool now, I have tried to not spoil too much as I took on playing the FMP without knowing much and I love it. Its like my good old xcom with familiar mechanics, but at the same time, its brand new!

That's nice to hear! This is pretty much why this mod was made in the first place.

I just started a Veteran playthrough and holy shit what a jump in difficulty from Experienced. Its absolutely brutal, I met Chtonites before Sectoids. It seems that upping the difficulty made the aliens much more aggressive. On experienced it seemed that I had the initiative 99% of the time, but on Vet the aliens just keep on attacking without giving me time to organize my troops. The deployment seems to be the deadliest point of the battle now, with luck the slaughter begins after few turns. Its great!

You mean the Skyranger being a death trap?

Just for clarification, difficulty doesn't affect alien AI directly (as far as I know anyway), but it gives the aliens better stats, which may allow them to do more in a turn.

Then I would like to report a bug I discovered, its not a game breaker, but for some reason the game isn't keeping count of crashed UFO's, every time I've shot down a UFO, it says "Crash site-1". Is there anything I could do to fix this? It doesn't break the game, everything seems to work as usual, its just a nuisance as I like how I can keep count on how many crafts I've shot down. (I'm using the latest version of both openxcom and FMP, the only other mod I have on is high quality sounds.)

That's definitely weird. But it's not something that can be affected by a mod, so it's an issue with the game.

And lastly, I have a question about the tech tree, I've had a look at it, but I don't remember much as I want to figure it out myself, but this much I want to spoil, what are the requirements to reseach the hyperwave decoder? It needs several things now, that much I know of. Not much of a problem as I'm making good use of AWACS and stacking radars... But its so nice to have full knowledge of what the aliens are up to. Can't wait to get that far.

Just a hint then: Alien Optical Processor.

On my vet playthrough I'm now in the end of january and I'm already making good progress on alloy ammunition and advanced firearms, I really want that tactical sniper rifle soon. Btw the weapon balance seems perfect! It has made me play very tactical and smart and there's the sense of urgency to get better weaponry asap, also how conventional weapons can keep up with alloy ammo etc., its fantastic! Got to love that minigun, saved my ass so many times.

I hope you'll have an interesting, challenging, fun campaign!

[Hexhammer]

Velcome to my kastle. :3

That's nice to hear! This is pretty much why this mod was made in the first place.

Its great! You have added so many things I have silently wished for while playing the original.

I have to say it out loud that oh boy do I love the miniguns! I'm yet to try the HMG as my soldiers aren't up the task of hauling the thing around the battlefield just yet. But to have a heavy machine gun of some kind as a support weapon is awesome! I now have at least one as a backup along with one or two grenade launchers, rocket launcher guy and two dedicated snipers. The front guys rarely have to shoot at all unless they get close and personal with the bugs. 

You mean the Skyranger being a death trap?

Just for clarification, difficulty doesn't affect alien AI directly (as far as I know anyway), but it gives the aliens better stats, which may allow them to do more in a turn.

Exactly. I do the deplyoment usually quite carefully, smoke grenade --> scouts/dogs/tank out ---> if safe enough, out with the first squad. I think it might be a combination of (bad)luck and aliens having higher reaction stat on veteran. I rarely wait the first turn btw. But it seems that openxcom has this part so well done, many missions start as if aliens are staging an ambush as if they know to wait for my men to arrive. This is one of the small things that have always made UFO awesome game, the "dumb" AI some times seems so smart... All it needs it just luck with alien placement and the type of map and deployement can be total hell to do even with all the tactics that usually make it easy.

That's definitely weird. But it's not something that can be affected by a mod, so it's an issue with the game.

Just a hint then: Alien Optical Processor.
I hope you'll have an interesting, challenging, fun campaign!

Yea, I thought so right after posting, the mod doesn't touch the mechanic of keeping count of things at all... I have never seen this happen before and I wonder if something happened with the save game? On my other games this hasn't happened. It doesn't seem to affect the game at all, only that every shot down UFO read "crash site-1".

Alien optical processor... Hmmm, I wonder if there's an alien engineer around who might know something about it. Or perhaps I can extract one from some place. My base is stuffed with weird alien tech nobody seems to know damn thing about, I guess I'll hoard more and present the eggheads in R&D with all that alien crap. 

Thank you sir, I'll definitely post an after action report when its done.

EDIT:
I installed X-com Files too and had a quick look at it. I'm thinking of completing at least one campaign with FMP first and then see what horrors await my agents who can't hit the broad side of the barn. I'm in for getting my ass handed to me.

EDIT2:
I just loaded my last savegame and it seems that the crash site count started working, I shot down a scout and it now says "crash site-2" even though it would really need to be five or six or something. I have no clue how this happened, I've never seen this before. It must be something about openxcom itself.

[Hexhammer]

Holy shit what an introduction to the Men in black. On my previous game, they showed up with scoutships, or was it a MiB Stealth bomber or what which showed up the most. Now I got a landed very large UFO in Brazil... I was expecting either Sectoids or Anthropods which have been showing up the most. Little did I know that it was a MiB terror site.

What a battle! My losses weren't too bad, a cannon HWP, three dead, one wounded. Those MiB laser tank things are a real pain in the ass to deal with. The first one I just shot with everything I had as all the heavier firepower was elsewhere. Killed one of my own in the process but that rocket was essential as there were about four soldiers in the open and the HWP was just in front of them. Then there were two more in the edge of the map, luckily blocked by houses and some fence.

It took three high explosive packs, two rockets and insane hail of bullets to wreck the fuckers. I love it how tough those things are! Its forcing me to to play tactical and smart as they slice unarmoured people like butter.

One thing I don't like too much so far is that I have to blindly capture aliens, I have no clue when I'm able to research the mindprobe.

[Docent]

Those MiB laser tank things are a real pain in the ass to deal with.

I think the next six months they will be the main headache for you
According to my feelings, MIBs appear too often and in the presence of their tanks they are much stronger than other enemies appearing at this time.  Please write your impressions later. I am doing a submod, I want to understand if this needs to be adjusted or not.

[Hexhammer]

I think the next six months they will be the main headache for you
According to my feelings, MIBs appear too often and in the presence of their tanks they are much stronger than other enemies appearing at this time.  Please write your impressions later. I am doing a submod, I want to understand if this needs to be adjusted or not.

Lets see what the gods of randomness will have in store for me. I just had my second base defense, just days after sending bunch of rookies there, the base is in Australia and Sectoids attacked out of nowhere. I didn't even have a single HWP there and took kind of aggressive stance, the grey bastards had four or five cyberdiscs with them.  It took nine lives, three rockets and several downright suicidal close assaults to deal with them.

Cyberdiscs are tough as heck, but I think the MiB tank takes even more punishment. Same tactics work though, HE + large rockets + everything there is to fire at them. Actually I think one went down with shotguns loaded with alloy scatter ammo after one or two HE packs.

Hey, will MiB do base assaults? I don't think I've seen all missions they do, so far downed small crafts, one terror site and once I got the secret base type of thing in siberia. Funny how the place was so perfect for that one. Btw, I really enjoy the variety of different landscapes and I think so far I have been just scratching the surface.  In my last game I had a lot of MiB activity, on the current one, only the one terror mission so far so at the moment definitely not too often. I didn't mind them earlier either, gives kind of change of pace to the run-off-the-mill alien missions.

What kind of submod are you working on?

[Docent]

Ok, keep in touch.
Nothing revolutionary, just a little more content (basically, drones, after all, we live in 2019, and not in 1999 and something else), much more orderliness and a bit more balance (our sectopod has 100TU, and the enemy's 64 ... is not very fair). And more research Main principle: do no harm, I follow this carefully. I create the perfect game for myself. But, of course, I will share it.

[Hexhammer]

Geoscape drones?

Our sectopod? I didn't remember there's that kind of thing coming up, I'm yet to see how it works... I haven't spoiled too much of the FMP techtree so far, I noticed something about XCOM cyberdisc. But sectopod... That's one heck of a HWP to take on a mission.

Solarius Scorch, you there? I have a question regarding the added alien races, I've so far had the questionable pleasure to meet chtonite, anthropod(my favourite newcomer so far, something about them gives me the creeps.), chaser and men in black... I know there's a nasty thing called gazer and what was it, a waspite? But that's not all of them, right? How many new alien species I can expect to kick my ass? I don't want to spoil the endgame too much, but just how many are there?

And I dread to think what is the terror weapon of mutons now... It must be something way worse than Celatid or Silacoid.

[Docent]

Geoscape drones?

No, Battlescape. But there are ideas about a couple of geoscape drones, how about SR-72?

Our sectopod? I didn't remember there's that kind of thing coming up, I'm yet to see how it works... I haven't spoiled too much of the FMP techtree so far, I noticed something about XCOM cyberdisc. But sectopod... That's one heck of a HWP to take on a mission.

Sorry for the spoiler

[Solarius Scorch]

I have a question regarding the added alien races, I've so far had the questionable pleasure to meet chtonite, anthropod(my favourite newcomer so far, something about them gives me the creeps.), chaser and men in black... I know there's a nasty thing called gazer and what was it, a waspite? But that's not all of them, right? How many new alien species I can expect to kick my ass? I don't want to spoil the endgame too much, but just how many are there?

I think you got all of them. Of course, each race is accompanied by their own terror unit.

And I dread to think what is the terror weapon of mutons now... It must be something way worse than Celatid or Silacoid.

Yes.

[Hexhammer]

No, Battlescape. But there are ideas about a couple of geoscape drones, how about SR-72?

Sorry for the spoiler

What kind of drone you're thinking about? Something that flies and shoots I guess? Or an airborne scout drone?

And heck yea I could think of a geoscape drone, that would be neat. It would be specially cool if somebody came up with 1x1 hangar for those... Perhaps something fast but squishy with one weapon pod or something. But there's so many choices for interceptors already. How to make it fit in there? On the other hand, more freedom of choice is never bad in my opinion.

No problem about spoiler really, that's just one more cool thing to look onto.... I'm guessing it takes quite a lot of research to get as sectopod is supposed to be end game top tier thing.

I think you got all of them. Of course, each race is accompanied by their own terror unit.

Oh yea and wasn't there some special varieties of mutons and ethereals too? And I read a mention about some super secret ufo with special stuff on it? Damn this is so so awesome! I knew it, you wouldn't team mutons up with anything nice and rosy anyway. Btw, fantastic work on balancing the starting races with celatid and silacoid. I think its a perfect fit and those darned celatids melt rookies like its nobody's business.

I just played some neat missions again. Second MiB terror site, the map was quite similar of the first one, this one also in Brazil. For some reason they just love to terrorize South America. This time I knew how to deal with their tanks on my flank, yep, they did it again and survived without casualties. Both tanks ended up wrecked by HE pack + assist from two grenade launchers and airborne snipers with HE ammo. I got a lucky damage roll on both as it was much less pain in the ass this time.

Then I had a Sectoid terror site on that island just east of Sri Lanka, the name escapes me... That had the crazy mapset with tall buildings, some of which were kind of derelict. I didn't give a damn about the civvies and played it slow, I had to deal with five cyberdiscs. And they are so effin tough nuts to crack! But  bullet + grenade spam and close assaults did it. I managed that mission also without casualties, my rocket HWP was nearly knocked out, but survived with just four hitpoints. I noticed the tactical sniper rifle with HE ammo does a good job on helping punch cyberdiscs out. I guess this is due to all four corners taking splash damage? Anyway, those things are a royal pain in the ass.

I'm thinking about disabling the LOS rule for psionics. I don't know how to deal with it as with it on its quite rare to get a psi attack as I tend to play rather slow, but without it, any psi alien mission would be a death fest. So far its not much of a problem as I think the FMP has near perfect difficulty balance even without the over the top psionics. I wonder if there will ever be a better middleground for this?

[Duke_Falcon]

Is there any special pre-requisites for the Alien data slate? I recovered one from an alien base but it not appears among the available research topics. I captured many living aliens from all ranks and I already have even Cydonia or Bust researched.
I had no living Ethereals, Cerebreals so far.

I use the FMP 2.1

[The Martian]

Is there any special pre-requisites for the Alien data slate?

Spoiler:

I think you need "Alien Codes" & "Alien Electronics" research.

[Hexhammer]

Solarius, what the hell have you done with Snakemen? I wonder where the Chrysalids are now.... F***ing dinosaurs who spit incendiary rockets in autofire? 

Seriously! I was so surprised, first time I met these goddamn lizards, I made them eat laser, rockets and HE packs. Thankfully they go down quite easily. I didn't even bother to try shooting at them with bullets. One of my best snipers did a hell of a close assault, took out two of them in one blast and got some shrapnel on her face in the process.

If this is what snakemen have as their terror weapon, what the heck has been done with chrysalids? No no, do not spoil it, I want to be surprised instead. Hmmhmm... Are they their own race or do they accompany some newcomers now, I wonder.

I had my first meet up with mutons last night. I hate them with a vengeance. They are impervious to bullets as usual, but what the heck is that grey looking one, just a new skin for certain rank? At least those were just scouts and not terrorships or anything with terror units.

[Solarius Scorch]

Relax, Chryssalids are still there... Only sometimes they're substituted by Salamandrons.