[COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

[arrakis69ct]

It's a nice idea, though I'm not sure how it could be done. Maybe make the final mission a 3-level mission, the first one being on the Moon?

This misión give a special item. With this item you research and unlock  the final mission

Enviado desde mi ECOO E04 mediante Tapatalk

[Solarius Scorch]

This misión give a special item. With this item you research and unlock  the final mission

Yeah, but we'd have to disable this mission afterwards, so that it's not done twice.

And the more important thing, I don't really know how to code this - I suppose cloning the Mars mission setup should work (except it being the final mission of course).

[myk002]

It would be much more feasible to make the final mission a three-parter (for the reasons you described -- there is no current way to have a non-cydonia one-time mission.)

[NuclearStudent]

For me, the fusion torch isn't actually cutting through UFO walls. It murders sectoids and floaters just fine, but UFO walls don't take any damage. Neither interior nor exterior walls seem to melt at all.

[new_civilian]

^IIRC It has a certain chance to melt through the hulls, but does not all the time.

FWIW, I was bored and played around with the different XCom tools and came up with this.... It is not a full mod, just something I toyed around with, but after a while I realized that it actually could be worth uploading, so here you go... 

Spoiler:

A replacement for the default FMP Skymarshal for those who like to test something new.

It's basically a re-skinned XCom TFTD Triton craft with some layout changes. It is longer (has room for 30 people), can transport 5 HWPs, has a huge door on each side, and has some small invisible light-emitters at the tip of the wings and at the nose for night missions (press "L" to toggle the in-game "soldier" lights to see it better). The soldiers at the doors are even deployed with their faces towards the doors so you don't need to bother with turning them around at the start.

As I saw in a "Let's play" video by meridian some people (hi meridian) are bothered with the 3D tiles around the upper doors, which realistically prevent you from shooting through the craft, so I simply avoided those tiles for this mod. Now you can shoot/walk/throw/pogo/dance/run/fly/glide/slide/party/camp/woosh/smirgle/flarb/etc. directly at the wall of the craft on both sides. It actually is no problem at all, as those tiles are not visible anyway due to the different style of the new craft. They are necessary on the original Skymarshal, though and thus have to remain there.

Those people who complained about "missing" ramps and landing gears of the original Skymarshal: THIS NEW plane has 4 hover-engines on the roof (apart from the two main-engines in the wings which are monitored by the two devices inside, in case you wonder) and lands directly on its belly-hover-area, it is a VTOL craft with alien-alloy-reinforced belly-section. Now, finally, ramps and landing gears are a thing of the past. Forever! Rest in Peace! Good Bye! Sayonara! Auf Wiedersehen! Begone! Au Revoir! Yippee-yay!

Side-note: In original XCom (and OpenXCom as it uses the original tile-sets) the ramps are bugged, try e.g. shooting with an HWP in auto-fire mode when on the uppermost tile of the ramp: Only one shot is fired. Try walking a Sectopod along those ramps: It suddenly emits the float sound and floats/falls down! And even worse: The time-units required for those three ramp-tiles are NOT the same for those tiles themselves, which confuses the game even more. And in some versions of the game the aliens can shoot through the ramps. The AI path-finding on the ramps is also flawed as the units usually simply jump/drive/float down right away to avoid the TU costs.... Do I need to say more? No? Thank you! I knew you would agree.
No wonder they went for the easier and stable solution in TFTD.

I did not, by default, include any Base-hangar icons this time. The last ones I made were greeted too harshly, lol. However I threw some into this zip that you can rename and use.... Use them at your own risk, I will not pay for headaches and or broken glasses.
 
I also fixed the see-through-hole in the original TFTD-Triton tile-set in this mod. Not sure if anybody would ever discover that, but better fixed than not.

Installation:

Copy the Triton Folder into your Mods folder, activate it in the game options and make sure it is loaded AFTER the FinalModPack, done.
Do not switch to the new craft when on a tactical mission as it will maybe cause problems. Wait for your troops to return then swap crafts.

Feel free to use these files in any way you see fit. Original Terrain and map files are from TFTD.
new_civilian 2015

p.s. I thought about renaming the Craft Skyfisher as a reference to the underwater-warfare in TFTD, but didn't. You can easily change that by editing the rul-file in a text-editor (use e.g. Notepad++ in YAML mode. It's freeware.)

[Solarius Scorch]

Interesting. I'll have to decide between this, the original and another design I'm trying...

[Random Commander]

Little-known fact: I actually came up with the name "SkyMarshall" way back when people were complaining about the name "Alloy SkyRanger" being too long.

A better name for this I think would be SkyHarpoon.

[yrizoud]

One reservation I have on reusing TFTD assets (in FMP or elsewhere) is that when TFTD gets playable in OpenXcom, all these elements will look oddly familiar, almost out-of-place in TFTD.

[Solarius Scorch]

Little-known fact: I actually came up with the name "SkyMarshall" way back when people were complaining about the name "Alloy SkyRanger" being too long.

Aaaaand thank you for this.

A better name for this I think would be SkyHarpoon.

Maybe, but the name stuck already, so...

One reservation I have on reusing TFTD assets (in FMP or elsewhere) is that when TFTD gets playable in OpenXcom, all these elements will look oddly familiar, almost out-of-place in TFTD.

I fully agree. Still waiting for someone to make new sprites.

[SIMON BAILIE]

Really like the look of the Skyfish, especially the interior and the amount of troops/tanks capacity is excellent. Was wondering if it can be used as a stand alone mod for use in any playthrough not just FMP. I assume that what I'm asking would involve some tweaking to the .rul file as it is based on the Skymarshall from FMP, namely research, manufacture etc.

crafts:
  - type: STR_ALLOY_SKYRANGER
    requires:
      - STR_IMPROVED_SKYRANGER

[Random Commander]

Maybe, but the name stuck already, so...

I'm saying the "SkyFisher" should be "SkyHarpoon." The SkyMarshall is good as it is

[trinibwoy]

Random feedback/commentary:

The skymarshall is fine as is. Lorewise i understand what solar was trying to do (xcom hobbling together alien metal scraps on an old skyranger to try to make a slightly more efficient and sturdy troop carrier.) Even its layout forces a change in tactics- which IMO, adds to the experience of the game.
 
The skyranger is indeed a coffin with wings and soldiers routinely get slaughtered trying to secure that little exit area (a brutal but essential part of the game as i imagine securing any "hot" area should be).

The skymarshall just changes those dynamics, as does the Ironfist(if i recall the name correctly).
Every new transport brings with it a unique opportunity to change playstyles. It leaves us with the choice to use what suits us best. For me, I prefer long war type games so i tinkered with the fmp ruleset a bit to ensure that my game runs for at least 1.5 years before i can even think about smelling Cydonia.
That being said, every time i unlock a new transport, my tactics shift to maximising the opportunities presented by the new transport(i dont stick to any one jet because of the way "i like to play")
Adding to the list of transports however would stretch the game even further (not that i mind at all ). However how will such a plane with huge carrying capacity be balanced? Make it very tough but slow?
Anyway, i look forward to seeing what progress is made.  Till then, i'll be shooting sectoids

[yrizoud]

soldiers routinely get slaughtered trying to secure that little exit area (a brutal but essential part of the game as i imagine securing any "hot" area should be).

IMO, it's mostly a challenge  of gameplay balance:
- If troops start too far from aliens, player systematically spends several minutes of game time just moving, with 1% chance of actually meeting an alien in the first turns.
- If troops start too close, tactic is severely hampered by how the soldiers are packed in the carrier and block each other. Player has to spam smoke and stall until the aliens fall one by one, it takes many turns until the last soldier can actually exit the transport. Aircraft with door is very unfair for aliens, aircraft without is very unfair for player.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks for the input Trinibwoy. I wonder what changes you made? I thought going to Cydonia in under 1,5 years is already pretty tough in FMP, so I'm curious. (Or maybe I just can't play.)

Aircraft with door is very unfair for aliens, aircraft without is very unfair for player.

Very true. But the aliens at least can defend inside the UFO, which gives them some compensation.

[trinibwoy]

Thanks for the input Trinibwoy. I wonder what changes you made? I thought going to Cydonia in under 1,5 years is already pretty tough in FMP, so I'm curious. (Or maybe I just can't play.)

I wouldnt say that. I'm just a very aggressive player. I tend to spam magnums and stun rods early on and this affords me lots of captures. Who doesnt fall with the first couple zaps gets shot.
The past couple games i played left me with quite a number of sectoid, snakeman and floater navs engineers and leaders. Researching those unlocked the majority of techs for me pretty early on.
By december, i was poised to nuke mars.

To compensate for my aggressiveness(and feeling like i missed loads of content) i just tinkered with the deployment data-delaying certain alien appearances, and the little spreadsheet thingie that determines item levels- ensuring that the bigger weapons will more likely come into play a lil later in the war as things escalate. Finally i just lowered the amount of available engineers on any given mission/ship to reduce the likelyhood of me accumulating a hoard of researchable goons- making the game more interesting for me.
Again, im not trying to interfere with your flow in any way, its simply small changes to accomodate my preferences. This Mod adds so much that its hard to not want to interfere sometimes