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Author Topic: Alien mission/alien deployment questions  (Read 6217 times)

Offline Svanh

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Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« on: October 04, 2013, 10:31:32 am »
How are mission entries linked to deployment entries? I am trying to make a version of the terror mission with mostly terror units and I've made mission and deployment entries for it.

When trying to play it in the "new battle" mode openxcom just crashes.

Here are the entries I've made:
Code: [Select]
  - type: STR_DESTRUCTION_MISSION
    data:
      - alienRank: 1
        lowQty: 1
        highQty: 1
        dQty: 0
        percentageOutsideUfo: 0
        itemSets:
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_PISTOL_CLIP
          -
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
            - STR_PLASMA_RIFLE_CLIP
          -
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
            - STR_ALIEN_GRENADE
            - STR_HEAVY_PLASMA_CLIP
      - alienRank: 6
        lowQty: 5
        highQty: 15
        dQty: 7
        percentageOutsideUfo: 0
        itemSets:
          -
            []
          -
            []
          -
            []
      - alienRank: 7
        lowQty: 5
        highQty: 15
        dQty: 7
        percentageOutsideUfo: 10
        itemSets:
          -
            []
          -
            []
          -
            []
    width: 50
    length: 50
    height: 4
    civilians: 16
    roadTypeOdds: [50, 25]

Code: [Select]
  - type: STR_DESTRUCTION_MISSION
    points: 15
    raceWeights:
      0:
          STR_SECTOID: 30
          STR_FLOATER: 70
      1:
          STR_SECTOID: 40
          STR_FLOATER: 40
          STR_SNAKEMAN: 20
      3:
          STR_SECTOID: 20
          STR_SNAKEMAN: 60
          STR_FLOATER: 20
      5:
          STR_SECTOID: 10
          STR_SNAKEMAN: 20
          STR_ETHEREAL: 40
          STR_MUTON: 20
          STR_FLOATER: 10
      7:
          STR_SNAKEMAN: 100
    waves:
      - ufo: STR_TERROR_SHIP
        count: 1
        trajectory: P7
        timer: 3000

What am I doing wrong?

Offline SupSuper

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Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2013, 08:12:23 pm »
You're not doing anything wrong, the New Battle screen just isn't designed for custom missions. :-[ We'll take a look at this.

Offline Svanh

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Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2013, 01:04:43 pm »
I had another look at missions. The failure the first time may have been because I was defining the deployment from the Terror Mission deployment. I defined a UFO and a deployment using the same name and the mission was playable from the New Battle screen with the correct distribution of enemies.

Another explanation for the previous problem was that I was on 0.9 stable at the time and also wondering why extraStrings and extraSprites kept failing.   :)

Offline SupSuper

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Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2013, 04:59:31 pm »
Yeah UFOs would work fine. The problem is the Battlescape Generator currently uses the mission name to figure out if it's a terror mission, an alien mission, etc. So if you make a mission type it doesn't know, it'll assume it's a UFO and crash.

For now if you wanna make a modded mission you'll just have to keep the original mission name.

Offline Svanh

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Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2013, 01:03:12 am »
Thanks for the explanation and the help.

Offline Svanh

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Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2013, 03:05:34 pm »
I've had a bit of a look at alien deployments and nextStage doesn't work for anything that isn't Cydonia. If OpenXCom updates how deployments work in the future I'd suggest adding previousStage, missionType and missionSubtype (0 - UFO, 1 - Base assault, 2 - Terror mission, 3 - Base defense, 4 - Multipart, 5 - Cydonia etc.) tags.

How deployments work currently:

  • You must define a UFO of the same name.
  • You must define alien ranks, weapon sets, spawn numbers (For aliens to show up)
  • You may define the number of civilians present
  • You may define (constant) terrain and light levels or exclude those tags to receive that information from the geoscape
  • You must define map dimensions
  • nextStage doesn't work for non-Cydonia missions
For your custom deployment/ufo to appear ingame you must:
  • Define an alien mission featuring it as a wave
  • Give that mission a weighting in at least one geoscape region
« Last Edit: June 20, 2014, 02:05:44 am by SupSuper »

Offline Hobbes

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Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2014, 04:50:44 am »
I've had a bit of a look at alien deployments and nextStage doesn't work for anything that isn't Cydonia. If OpenXCom updates how deployments work in the future I'd suggest adding previousStage, missionType and missionSubtype (0 - UFO, 1 - Base assault, 2 - Terror mission, 3 - Base defense, 4 - Multipart, 5 - Cydonia etc.) tags.

How deployments work currently:

  • You must define a UFO of the same name.
  • You must define alien ranks, weapon sets, spawn numbers (For aliens to show up)
  • You may define the number of civilians present
  • You may define (constant) terrain and light levels or exclude those tags to receive that information from the geoscape
  • You must define map dimensions
  • nextStage doesn't work for non-Cydonia missions

For your custom deployment/ufo to appear ingame you must:
  • Define an alien mission featuring it as a wave
  • Give that mission a weighting in at least one geoscape region

OK, sorry for the thread necromancy but I was looking exactly for this type of info. Too bad it isn't possible to add missions using the Terror Site deployment where the UFO drops off the crew and goes away. Or even the multipart missions :(
« Last Edit: June 20, 2014, 02:05:33 am by SupSuper »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2014, 10:18:12 pm »
    OK, sorry for the thread necromancy but I was looking exactly for this type of info. Too bad it isn't possible to add missions using the Terror Site deployment where the UFO drops off the crew and goes away. Or even the multipart missions :([/list]

    Considering OpenTFTD is coming up, I'm pretty sure it'll be resolved soon. :)

    Offline Hobbes

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    Re: Alien mission/alien deployment questions
    « Reply #8 on: June 19, 2014, 10:26:50 pm »
    Considering OpenTFTD is coming up, I'm pretty sure it'll be resolved soon. :)

    I actually managed to find a solution for what I want after looking into the MiB mod ruleset and talking to robin. There's still a ton of work involved, specially with terrain design but should be able to add an experimental new mission soon.
    « Last Edit: June 20, 2014, 02:05:07 am by SupSuper »