[COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)

[mumble]

Gotta say this mod is interesting!

I haven't beaten vanilla xcom yet  but this mod, as well as the older, imo SUPERIOR mechanics is refreshing! I found the new xcom, and this mod, and man is it great.

This said, I have a few things to point out

1 : compatibility with other vanilla openxcom mods seems odd, particularly gun melee (it works, but does not apply to the NEW guns...which would be handy, and make aliens with no ammo a threat still) and alien bleeding. Alien bleeding works, but it seems like it should be disabled for gazers, reason being, it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to capture one with bleeding on, as stun does not work well on them and any attacks big enough to be worth using, cause fatal wounds. I've caught one, by literally using a med kit to heal it after a stun, but thats a PRETTY extreme length to go for a capture. I also think with how sturdy they are, perhaps bleeding just shouldn't be a factor. This also goes for any other extremely hard shelled beasts out there, as normal stuns don't work without extra damage, and extra damage does wounds...which...makes capturing nearly impossible.

2: Research seems a bit odd... I get it prioritizes capturing new aliens, but between the different classes to capture, and them all having stuff to learn from, and stun weapons being much less effective, it seems like a pain in the neck sometimes to do that. It would be nice if there was perhaps, more chances of data slates which also gave research, but was also much less reliable than studying a live alien, as I'm stuck at research around November of the first year, and my stats show I've captured HALF of all aliens I've encountered... maybe I'm not going in far enough, but its a thought. I'm also on my first year so what do I know? its just obnoxious trying to capture say, a sectoid medic, when 1, I cannot identify it, and 2, can't really check as to which alien classes I've researched already, as far as I know. This is made worse by "rare" encounters, like MIB, or hybrids or others... I only have MIB agents researched, as all others are incredibly hard to capture alive. Its also a bit odd how say, I know how to create a laser rifle, but my scientists cannot figure out how to make a laser shotgun, without getting this info from the aliens themselves... I guess maybe alternatives to capturing, be it very slow research, or whathaveyou, would be incredibly handy

3: gun classes could use some love. I honestly loved the SMG, but once you get lasers, you can never use them again effectively. Would be nice to get a laser variant of it to use, as the smg was a sweet weapon, but is quickly useless due to low damage, and kinetic damage type, making it barely tickle stuff like gazers. And honestly, a bigger "machine gun" variant might be interesting too... Infact, its pretty disappointing that you get all tons of varying kinetic weapons, but so few options for lasers... What about a laser magnum pistol? or smg? just a thought... But I understand there may not be art assets for this, or that it would take time to do. Though honestly, even pallet swaps would be neat.

Sorry if I'm ignorant of the presence of features, or information, I realize I haven't beaten this, but its just my input so far. I'm admit-ably a noob to the old xcom, so sorry if I'm completely missing anything.

[yrizoud]

I've caught one, by literally using a med kit to heal it after a stun, but thats a PRETTY extreme length to go for a capture.

I can understand you were surprised, but it's expected from the player... Though creatures vulnerable to fatal wounds will more regularly "faint" even from non-stun damage, and can thus be captured if you finish the mission or heal them before they bleed to death. It's very random, so don't rely on it for precious individuals (commanders), but it regularly provides a prisoner or two.
It's a very frequent "tactic" in mods like XCOM Files or Piratez.

I share your critic about the difficulty of identifying alien (ranks). It's easier in vanilla thanks to an easily researchable item, and I don't think it's a good gameplay element to have postponed it behind a research that the player can't really control.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks for the input. Regarding the alien ranks, I took some steps to make them more easily identifiable, but in some cases it's not really possible - Sectoids don't wear clothes.

[mumble]

@yrizoud : I understand what you are trying to say with bleeding, except that gazers in particular, are waaaay tougher than anything else I've ever encountered. I actually turned off bleeding JUST for them, which is honestly a bit irritating, as I really LIKED bleeding otherwise, but them with bleeding was just impossible to capture. Its kind of annoying : on one hand I love it, because a floater bleeding to death has saved my ass before, but on the other hand, gazers, and to a MUCH lesser extent, alien commanders are beefy enough where you need a bit more damage.

Kinda makes me wonder if advanced fire arms could make a big, beefed up version of the tazer, firing a small harpoon, firing far more volts, but having only 2 shots, and being a full sized weapon, heh... Big, big tazer, with a higher stun, harder to aim and shoot, but stuns like a baseball bat to the face, and a slight boost to range.... kinda like a compromise between the stun-rod and the dart rifle (dart rifle is nice, but does jack against armor)

Kinda reminds me of the heavy machine gun actually, its stats look amazing, until you realize you literally cannot use it for almost anyone, unless you either work them out for several missions, or get power armor. Would be nice if explicit automatics had a "burst" function for this reason, like a halfway between auto and snap. As much as I like things like miniguns, they are far less flexible than rifles or pistols because of this...but I suppose its part of the balance??

@scorch well, I did just start using the mind probe, which helps, but the mind probe is something which needs research too...

....I think the biggest thing would be multi branch research, so your research does BETTER if you get an alien, but is not completely stopped if you don't capture them. I DO like how capturing them is more important, just not to the point where if I fail to capture x race z rank, part of the research tree is locked out.

Perhaps you could keep original research, but with maybe 5x - 10x delay in research compared to interrogations, and a note upon researching alien biology, that interrogations are better? This way its clearly better to capture, but your scientists don't just sit around with their thumbs up their butts if you can't capture anything... Because is aggravating to have 2 labs, and 100 scientists, and nothing to do, and have to sack half the work force.

[Solarius Scorch]

An electric harpoon is an idea I had too, but I think vanilla OXC can't support its mechanics. I'll probably add it to X-Com Files, which uses OXCE+.

Machine guns are highly specialized, yes, but I can't see any way to make them more practical without making them OP. Either you can use them or you have to do without.

Your ideas regarding research are sound, but I don't think I can make them work with this game. I'll keep them in mind, though.

[yrizoud]

For the record, XCOMUtil had an experimental mod where interrogated aliens gave a flat boost to one of the topics you were researching. ie: if you had a stun launcher project in progress, interrogation of a medic made it advance by 20% or something. The basic numbers were 500% however, so researching a plasma weapon without "help" from captured soldiers would take many months.
I'm not sure it was fully balanced, but I found it pretty intuitive, and it managed to avoid frustration.

[Solarius Scorch]

For the record, XCOMUtil had an experimental mod where interrogated aliens gave a flat boost to one of the topics you were researching.

Yeah, I remember that feature, it was really cool. I'd love seeing this in OXC, preferably with some options to tweak.

[jackts]

Never had problems installing a mod before. Can't get this pack to appear in the in game options menu.

Tried the Milestone, tried the latest nightly, reinstalled Openxcom, reinstalled UFO defense. Cannot get it to appear.
Everything else works fine and the mod pack is happily sitting in my mods folder of my Openxcom folder in my documents.

Any common issues that cause this? This pack not work past a certain build? I remember the main page saying it works past a certain 2015 build.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this but I can't find anywhere else, I've tried every guide and tutorial which all just translate to "Put in mods folder". I've been fiddling for two hours at this point.

[ohartenstein23]

Here's a video that goes over the installation of the latest nightly, which you need for this mod, and the installation of the mod itself.  I'd suggest deleting all of the openxcom files you have right now and try IvanDogovich's instructions.

[jackts]

A complete reinstall, making sure to clear all openxcom files on my C drive, sorted it.
I deleted the obvious stuff last time but there was some stuff hiding in my app data after the uninstall.
I also made sure to add and check the mod this time before touching the openxcom options and config, but that's probably irrelevant.

IvanDogovich's video was one of the videos I troubleshooted with, but considering his instructions are literally:
-Run the install.exe
-Extract the pack to the mods folder
I doubt I got it wrong before checking it.

My best guess is that the problem was not cleaning up properly after the milestone uninstall.

Thanks for your help.

[Iron Sights]

@   jackts

I'm currently having the same issue with the Final Mod Pack.
I started a topic about it but have yet to receive any usable solutions.

I have reinstalled both the original xcom from steam and also Open Xcom but it dosent show in my mods list either.

[jackts]

@   jackts

I'm currently having the same issue with the Final Mod Pack.
I started a topic about it but have yet to receive any usable solutions.

I have reinstalled both the original xcom from steam and also Open Xcom but it dosent show in my mods list either.

I'm not sure what exactly solved it for me but I can give you the steps I took:

-Uninstall Xcom and Openxcom, search your C: drive (or wherever you installed) for "openxcom" and delete anything you find. Make sure you delete the openxcom files in your appdata folder. If you haven't done so already reveal the appdata folder (google this if needed) it's hidden by default. Skip anything it won't let you delete.

-Install the latest nightly of openxcom with the install executable. When it asks for the install location, place it in "my documents".

-Launch the game to the main menu then close it.

-Extract the mod pack folder to the "mods" folder in the openxcom folder in my documents.

-Launch the game. If it worked it will be at the very bottom of the list of mods in the game settings.

The only differences between this and every other install I tried.
- Installing openxcom to My Documents.
- Clearing all the appdata folders.
- Adding the mod before fiddling with any settings or config stuff.

Good luck

[moisesjsn]

I really love this mod by the way thank you for the hard work you put into this. It really makes the game even more fun than it was. 

[endersblade]

I just fired this mod up after a long hiatus from OXC.  I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but here are some of the issues I ran across:

Sectoids - they stopped appearing before I could ever capture one alive.
In three games, Veteran, Superhuman and Superhuman, I have never once ran across a Chrysalid or Celatid.
The spacing between alien types showing up seems really quick at the start (like I mentioned, Sectoids disapear fast), and then insanely slow at the end, which I love the slowness, but the researching doesn't keep up. In all three games, I got the research and gear necessary to complete the game before I ever even researched anything psi-related.  I  never saw an Ethereal until I went to Mars.  In one game I researched some medics to uncover various other alien species that I never actually ran across in any game.
Interceptor research is spaced out weird.  You get the updated interceptor from alloy research fairly soon, but then you don't get anything for quite a while.  And then you get upgrades so quickly that they will be outdated before you even finish crafting them.
Some of the craft just felt like fluff, and nothing I would actually use.  The one really fast interceptor with only one weapon slot I never found a use for.
I could research the blaster bomb, but never got the research for the launcher.  I dug in the files and saw it requires psi research.  This doesn't make any sense at all, they are not mind guided.
Along the same vein, I researched the small bomb and ellerium bomb long before I ever got to research the small bomb launcher.
MiB don't seem to...go anywhere.  After the first research, it mentions you should capture a Commander to find out more.  I managed to get one, TWO, in fact, but it didn't do anything for me.
I'm trying really hard to find a use for any weapon that isn't a sniper rifle.  I equip all of my high accuracy units with them, burn as many TUs as I can to move them to the tops of buildings or other high places, and then just basically reaction fire the entire map, or shoot anything that comes out of hiding.  Flying armor just makes this even more silly.
Similarly, Shotguns are absolutely amazing for clearing large ships and bases.  Being able to point-blank all those pellets into an alien, really clears things out quickly.
I had an overabundance of Ellerium.  Even taking into account Plasma Weapons now require it to charge, in my last game when I left for Cydonia I had a combined total of about 3k among my bases.
In an older version of this mod, the MiB were ridiculously hard.  I loved it.  In this version, by the time I run across them I have decent armor and they are still shooting at me with conventional weapons.  Same with Hybrids.  I never once had an MiB related mission that I even took damage on, much less lost a unit.
Electronics are freaking impossible to find.  Cyberdiscs seemed to have gone the way of the dodo about mid game, and I never saw Sectopods until Cydonia.  I never checked to see if I could make them, but they were in great need when I had none and no way to get more.


What type of damage do Gauss Weapons deal?  Are they just another form of Laser weaponry?
Something I think would be amazing, make Rail weapons the endgame for XCOM.  Leave plasma to the aliens.  Those weapons are just boss.
The primary advantage to laser weapons in the OG was the lack of a clip.  Giving them clips really gimps their usefulness.

My first two games, I played with your mod completely unedited.  Third game I tweaked some numbers, as far as armor and weapons go, so that I could keep using certain weapons and armor longer.  I didn't touch anything major, and nothing that gave me a clear advantage.  Sorry for the long post.  I do love this mod, I refuse to play OXC without it, but it has some issues.

[moisesjsn]

I agree with Enders talk of sectoids disappearing, It is true, in some games i play i see a sectoid ship in the first two months, and than i see completely different  things like anthropods  or chtionites. But i think that is just based on bad luck, because i have also had games where sectoids are common for the first year and chtonites are rare. The MIB i finally saw after 3 games.  But that is just the nature of having so many aliens, it is random.  The electronics i do agree with, have yet to find one after many many missions, even fully intact landing ships.

I just came here honestly to ask, has extendend inventory been tried with this mod? is it compatible? it says it may cause awkward alien behavior so i did not try it.