aliens

Author Topic: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)  (Read 1841782 times)

Offline pulsusego

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2580 on: April 25, 2017, 09:14:55 pm »
0.o

I'm surprised, I was rooting around so much through FMP because I thought something in it was the source of the issue, but that's actually great to know! Now I've got some idea of what to do to fix things. Thanks a bunch!!

If I manage to fix it I'll report back, in case anyone else ever has a similar error. Cheers!

--- posts merged ---

Yep! Figured it out. Damn I wasted a good three or four hours and all it took was someone to point out my installation. Figured out it was definitely my install of FMP causing the problem and, for curiosity's sake, went through to find the file. I don't wan to bother going further into it now that I can actually play (yay!), but turns out I messed something up in my alienRaces_FMP.rul file. I don't explicitly remember editing it any, but I did have all of the rulesets open in np++ when I was initially screwing around with a few things (making rifles less garbo, less variation in soldier stats, just little personal preference things). $10 says I accidentally tabbed to it and pressed a key, or deleted a line, or something like that. The downfall of 'save all files' I guess. Whoops :3

Anywho, thanks a bunch! I appreciate your checking on the save for me! (:
« Last Edit: April 25, 2017, 10:13:17 pm by Solarius Scorch »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2581 on: April 25, 2017, 10:14:38 pm »
Glad you managed to work it out. :)

Such are the troubles of children who tend to take toys apart... But they often grow up to be engineers, or in this case modders. ;)

Offline drages

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2582 on: June 03, 2017, 12:44:56 am »
Hey

I wanted to play this mod and i started it. It was awesome with so many researches and choices to use. It was wonderful.

I played at 3. diff with some save scumming. So i hit all the UFO's and terror sites.

BUT, at 3. month, i got 2 bases which covers America and Europa with west asia.. but the number of ufos was so few.. i mean 1-2 missions at 3. and 4. month. I made 3. base at 4. month. Even i assault a battleship at 1. month, i only see a small and a large mission at whole 3. and 4. month. My monthly point was -300 at 3. month but still + money gain.. at 4. month, i get -700 point but still + monthly gain but i lost the game suddenly even i did not lost any country or anything..

What is the problem here? What did i wrong?

Thx!

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2583 on: June 03, 2017, 11:42:31 am »
Hard to say, but it was probably a Men in Black base. These guys are dangerous.

If you check the graphs, you'll see where a spike of alien activity occurs. Check that area for enemies.

Offline drages

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2584 on: June 03, 2017, 12:17:15 pm »
Hard to say, but it was probably a Men in Black base. These guys are dangerous.

If you check the graphs, you'll see where a spike of alien activity occurs. Check that area for enemies.

Yeah I done a mib mission. But should I find it's base? I mean as I said the mission numbers where extremely low. And it looks harsh to lose the game to just a unfound base.

Offline ohartenstein23

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2585 on: June 03, 2017, 05:22:56 pm »
MiB base is technically a UFO that just lands for a really long time, so it's actually a bigger score hit than an alien base. Use the activity graphs and craft radars to your advantage!

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2586 on: June 03, 2017, 07:47:17 pm »
Yeah, I'd happily make it less dangerous, but I can't.

...At least now there is a reason to check these graphs. (I never used them in vanilla.)

Offline drages

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2587 on: June 03, 2017, 08:57:08 pm »
I looked for another possible mission with my crafts and saw another MIB mission. After i done it, i passed that month. So i continue to play now.

Just, as a very old X-Com player and Xenonauts Modder, i think i can share my thoughts about this awesome mod.

1. New aliens, alien weapons, alien ufos, just all about the enemies are totally great!

2. The new weapon arsenal is great too but at some point they fail to deliver their main purposes. I am a huge fan of heavy burst weapons like miniguns and heavy hitter snipers. I checked most of them at this mod. But as a result, i stuck with assault rifle types. Why?

  - Heavy burst weapons are mostly useless because most of the enemies dies with normal rifle bullets mostly. If there is an enemy with resistance, you can't kill it even with tons of bullets anyway. Like big terror units are resisted against AP damage and most of them survive against Alloy rifle bullets of 8-10. So it means a good 3 burst of rifle burst from assault rifle. So if u got a big minigun or HMG, you will overkill an enemy or won't hurt him at all because of heavy resistance or much worst accuracy of this weapons compared to assault rifles. Assault rifle damage is just well balanced and that weapon gives you the time for any manuever too. If i want to clean a bunch of enemies standing at one room (only saw it at MIB missions) i would use explosives rather then an area-burst weapon because even i overkill them, i won't able to get items because the aliens will die anyway and the inventory will be lost. I used them much at Xenonauts modding, because that game got a suppression mechanic. But at this game, there is nothing like that. I would love to have them with much better acc at least, so i can be sure that the enemies will be killed at the huge TU i used to fire them.

  - As tactical burst weapons, i used assault rifles unit auto-cannon and then laser rifle. They are just best against all other types.. better then shotguns even short range, better then heavy weapons because of more shoot per turn with better acc, better then snipers because of the move-free TU use, better then pistol because i don't see any reason to use pistols at all, better then cannon/launchers because of the maps with tons of obstacles already on the way. %90 of the maps i played are way crowded with obstacles. There is nearly no place to put your snipers, heavy shooters, cannon users to position. Every time, my rifle soldiers cleaned the target before those other guys take position and shoot. Even i position them, the aliens mostly go for out of LOS. Ufo maps are little with no long range fight needed and terror missions are full of building type objects. So all aliens are at rooms or very tight places. Even you can take position and fire with weapons which needs tons of TU, there is no time to run.

  - Heavy weapons got a balancing problem about the damage output and shoot per turn. For example a heavy laser with 75 damage. I got laser rifles with 50 damage which can fire about 7 shots per turn. Heavy weapon's damage is very low with it's very bad acc. Heavy and snipers are one shot- one kill weapons. Heavies are low range, low acc but if hits, the enemy should feel it. Snipers are high range, high acc, slower, lower then heavy damage but still can kill a random enemy. A heavy laser with this TU and acc should have at least 125 damage maybe more.. if u make range lower it could go to 150.. and much lower ammo per clip btw..

  - Snipers got a huge problem because of the map layouts as i said. Tactical sniper is totally useless. I respect the concept but still it should have lower TU for fire and much more damage to consider to use at least with alloy bullets.

  - Shotguns are crazy slow.. I use always stun rather then shotgun when i am at shotgun range of an enemy.

3. Stun is very weak. I mean the dart weapons got huge penalties, every thing is ultra low. So rather then trying shooting a random alien with 2-3 dart rifle users from med range, i prefer to sneak slowly and go for melee stun. There is no stun explosives or AOE stun weapons like cannon bullets or grenade launcher grenades.

4. The crafts are very nice but weapons are limited. I would like to see much more variations of missile type long range craft weapons. Alloy cannons are useless and i prefer avanlanche to even laser cannons. Most of the big ufos are landing anyway so i only shoot down the little ones mostly. But some upgraded missiles for early to mid game is a must.. Raven is good for early game but it needs weapons.

5. Tanks are left alone too. I would like to see alloy versions of them.

6. Dogs need love too. Genetic or cybernetic dogs or weredogs needed for fast patrol/sudden attack unit types. I really like dogs and they have a good tactical point to use.

This could be a totally awesome mod for people who likes the default game soul but as i mentioned, it needs some touches at some points (Raven mods got many thinks to fill that places) and some balances for tactical approaches. Sry for bad english and i hope you don't get offended from my critics.

Thank you!

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2588 on: June 03, 2017, 09:04:57 pm »
Many thanks for the detailed review.

To most of these points I can respond: try X-Com Files, which are essentially FMP 2.0. Many of your ideas are more or less addressed there, or at least I'm striving to do something similar.

I'm still trying to improve the FMP too, but I think the vanilla mechanics are just too constricting to get much further.

Offline drages

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2589 on: June 03, 2017, 09:49:19 pm »
Many thanks for the detailed review.

To most of these points I can respond: try X-Com Files, which are essentially FMP 2.0. Many of your ideas are more or less addressed there, or at least I'm striving to do something similar.

I'm still trying to improve the FMP too, but I think the vanilla mechanics are just too constricting to get much further.

I just don't want to leave vanilla atmosphere, just want to have new things. I read some posts about X-Com files and it looks something different.

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2590 on: June 03, 2017, 09:51:24 pm »
I just don't want to leave vanilla atmosphere, just want to have new things. I read some posts about X-Com files and it looks something different.

Yes, it is different in the sense it's not as much about aliens; aliens are just the top enemy. But in terms of game balance, mechanics etc., it is a straight continuation of the FMP, making use of additional options provided by OXCE+.

Offline drages

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2591 on: June 03, 2017, 10:57:26 pm »
Yes, it is different in the sense it's not as much about aliens; aliens are just the top enemy. But in terms of game balance, mechanics etc., it is a straight continuation of the FMP, making use of additional options provided by OXCE+.

I see. Just after a limit, adding something more and more with even good will and tactical plans, does not work as intended. I mean, the default game got "pistol" but you want to have 3 types of pistols, but at the end, the difference becomes just so little at the game world, just it does not worth for the effort and it becomes a shore rather then an edition. You try to use different point of view but again, the game world can't make it fit into itself. At the end, if you don't role play, you just go for the best option and even at an ultimate balance, there will be always best options and those will be %5-10 what you created. After years of calculation and excel sheets, you see that sooner or later, and start to not bother with it so much.

I hope you continue to update this mod too because all of the other mods are way different then vanilla. Maybe i can work on this too to add what i see missing.. as i said, some craft weapons and tanks and some rebalancing could make this mod perfect.

Offline limathompson

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2592 on: June 09, 2017, 03:27:36 am »
First, I want to say thank you for this amazing compilation. Second, I want to report what I believe is a bug. I'm not sure if this showed up after or before I did the research for the MiB Psi Ops (bottom line). Or maybe it has nothing to do with the research, I don't know. Sorry.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2017, 03:29:10 am by limathompson »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2593 on: June 09, 2017, 07:00:23 pm »
Yes, the Psi Ops corpse name is missing... Thanks for letting me know.

Offline drages

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Re: [COMPILATION] Final Mod Pack (FMP)
« Reply #2594 on: June 12, 2017, 01:56:34 pm »
Hey solarius

I played the mod much more and I want to share my new thoughts.

I liked the all enemy types much more. They are very good and balanced and way cool. New colors and armors of the races are awesome. MiB is very nice and when I go for first terror mission with sectobots and laser tanks it was a great mission to play. There is so many types of enemies, it's hard to find them in short term. So some races disappear for long time periods at later. I did not see at reptilian at late. Mutton are unique too.

There is something lacking at stun weapons. Ranged stun weapons are very weak so you need to go melee mostly. But getting and Armour for melee fight is hard too. Ellerim mace got a big problem about stunning because even with tons of hits u can't stun a mutton or ethereal. Stun stick is still better option. I don't know what is the problem.

At research chain, there is a huge randomization. You need to get very important researches from mostly engineer and leaders. But if you are unlucky u get only crap ones. I am at very late game but I still did not get alien electronics and without it I can't create many essential researches. I can't even craft advanced rocket launcher. Same goes to explosives, I get the fusion explosives so late that I stuck with high explosives for decades. This randomization needs a balance. You can give some essential research to navigators and medics. You can erase lame old ufo infos from engineer. This is a serious point.

All of the negative reviews I done about weapon types are gone when I get nuclear lasers and rail weapons. Scatter laser is well balanced minigun, so I thing early hmgs should need a accuracy buff to be useful. Same for heavy weapons and snipers, they need to be a bit faster and more dps.

Rail guns are the coolest weapons I ever see. They are very useful. Lasers are nice but they could get a buff when fusion weapons researched. Now there is fusion weapons research but it does not give anything new.

MiB is cool as I said but they did not add anything new to the tech tree as I see. So they are a bit useless. I think they can be linked some important research.

At terror missions, the numbers of terror units are as much as normal units. It's good to have much terror units as they are created for it but still normal units should be a bit more. At MiB terror mission I killed about 6 tank and about same numbers of humans.

As result, it's the best mod with vanilla feel. I liked it so much. The only problem is the ultra random research. Sometimes you get a important research very early or a basic research very late. This is the only problem I see at this mod.

Please consider this with a patch. Even u stop to work on this mod, this one deserves a final touch too.

Thx very much.

Not. Yeah some battleships got big map problems here and there.