Few ideas and questions

[NeoWorm]

I spent about 20 hours during weekend playing open xcom and it effectively reignited my passion for both Xcom and modding. So I found some of my 10+ years old notes with A LOT of crazy ideas for XCom mods. And I was quite surprised that not all of them are rubish. Now I am writting down some more elaborate file with stuff that could be done and may expand XCom further than adding few thousands recolors of laser rifle.

And I have some ideas that I dont know if they are possible now. So few questions to ignite discusion:

Is it possible to implement something like an invisibility? Idea is to make a stealth alien race, to give some use for the motion detectors and later researchable stealth technology with invisibility armor for soldiers.

We have 2x2 aliens/HWPs, is it possible to make even diferent sizes? Like 1x1x2 alien or 3x3 behemoth.

Is it possible to make buffs? Medikit have function that restores morale and health, but is it possible to buff some stat over the max?

If some of these ideas can be done and someone will help me with coding I can make all necessary graphics. In the meanwhile I am experimenting with battlescape sprites and I may have some new alien done later this week. XCom have a lot less sprites than standart DooM monsters.

[Aldorn]

...further than adding few thousands recolors of laser rifle.
...

It's not the best art of your post 

Anyway your idea of stealth alien is interesting, as for behemoth terrorist

Regarding buff, I heard it is possible to mod some armors with bonuses, so capability is not so far

[darkestaxe]

Is it possible to implement something like an invisibility? Idea is to make a stealth alien race, to give some use for the motion detectors and later researchable stealth technology with invisibility armor for soldiers.

Someone would have to code it, and as far as I know there's no such functionality in the current engine.

Disable the other sides ability to spot the unit and it shouldn't be drawn for them either. Of course you also have to add a stat that controls stealthing to the applicable armor, and a stat that controls whether it's on or not, and add a way to toggle it in the UI, and those stats need to be accessible in the code that updates a units visibility, and for performance reasons the new code needs to be out of the way when updating terrain visibility (which it should already be).

We have 2x2 aliens/HWPs, is it possible to make even diferent sizes? Like 1x1x2 alien or 3x3 behemoth.

In theory ya, but someone would have to code it, and from what I gathered just coding the 2x2 was tricky enough. For the 3x3 ask Warboy, he was messing with that stuff a while back.

The 1x2 is going to create the most problems, because if it turns it's no longer standing on the same tiles. You shouldn't need a background in C++ to see the problems that will raise, or to dream up some possible solutions.

If you really want to have a tiger (I'm guessing) in OXC you probably want to start with a pen and paper and make a list of possible cases on one side and possible solutions on the other side, and a numbered graph to visualize what your working with.

For example: CASES: From 270° To 225° | ACTIONS: all tiles pathable | place head in 6 and tail in 7 6&7 unpathable but 4&9 pathable | use 8 TUs and move head to 4 tail to 9 Is it possible to make buffs? Medikit have function that restores morale and health, but is it possible to buff some stat over the max? If you open up a save file and set your current TUs to 10 thousand bajillions huge number, you'll have a lot of TUs for that turn and they will reset the following turn. you'd have to code it (again) but it should work. If you want these buffs to persist after the current turn, that would be more difficult. If some of these ideas can be done and someone will help me with coding I can make all necessary graphics. In the meanwhile I am experimenting with battlescape sprites and I may have some new alien done later this week. XCom have a lot less sprites than standart DooM monsters. You should probably talk to who-evers doing the pirate mod. They've obviously been fucking with the code and they might be interested in some of the stuff your doing.

[Warboy1982]

Is it possible to implement something like an invisibility? Idea is to make a stealth alien race, to give some use for the motion detectors and later researchable stealth technology with invisibility armor for soldiers.

technically. you could (for example) give an alien blank sprites for "standing" and a shimmering outline while walking, and a fully visible dying animation and corpse. you'd have to give it a built in weapon or you'd see a floating rifle moving about as well.
your units will still spot the alien as tho they were completely visible, however.

We have 2x2 aliens/HWPs, is it possible to make even diferent sizes? Like 1x1x2 alien or 3x3 behemoth.

not really, no, a 3x3 might be possible in some respect, but i wouldn't count on it. there's definitely no draw routine for it.

Is it possible to make buffs? Medikit have function that restores morale and health, but is it possible to buff some stat over the max?

armor can buff you, but not items

[Falko]

1x2 alian should be easy
just make a 2x2 alien where you draw the sprite accordingly
set the loftempsetin a way that you can only hit the alien in the visible part
the walking turning could look somewhat strange but thats just a guess

[NeoWorm]

Well, 2 out of 3 ideas are out right away and last one would be tricky at best. I tought that this would be the case, yet I had to ask.

technically. you could (for example) give an alien blank sprites for "standing" and a shimmering outline while walking, and a fully visible dying animation and corpse. you'd have to give it a built in weapon or you'd see a floating rifle moving about as well.
your units will still spot the alien as tho they were completely visible, however.

Yeah, visually its not a problem, but it's quite worthless if it doesn't work.

Disable the other sides ability to spot the unit and it shouldn't be drawn for them either. Of course you also have to add a stat that controls stealthing to the applicable armor, and a stat that controls whether it's on or not, and add a way to toggle it in the UI, and those stats need to be accessible in the code that updates a units visibility, and for performance reasons the new code needs to be out of the way when updating terrain visibility (which it should already be).

Well, I woudn't try to introduce new stats, I was thinking more about changing the visibility range for invisible units. So far the visibility range should be 20 for aliens and Xcom soldiers in daylight and 9 for xcom soldiers at night. So for invisible, or rather stealth units it could be 10 and 5 respectively. You can still spot them before they are eating your face, but you can also sneak upon aliens without them noticing.

not really, no, a 3x3 might be possible in some respect, but i wouldn't count on it. there's definitely no draw routine for it.

I imagine that the AI controling the unit would be bigger problem. What about a stationary unit of this size? Or, a collection of stationary units that make up unit of 3x3 size that are always spawned in a precise pattern to form that behemoth?

The 1x2 is going to create the most problems, because if it turns it's no longer standing on the same tiles. You shouldn't need a background in C++ to see the problems that will raise, or to dream up some possible solutions.

I meant 1x1x2 as a 2 unit high enemy, not a rectangular alien. Rectangular enemies are pain everywhere so I dont even try to suggest that.

If you open up a save file and set your current TUs to 10 thousand bajillions huge number, you'll have a lot of TUs for that turn and they will reset the following turn.

you'd have to code it (again) but it should work. If you want these buffs to persist after the current turn, that would be more difficult.

Does other stats fix themselves too? I imagine that the stats that regenerate from turn to turn like TU, Stamina and Morale do and others could be a problem. But one turn buff is good enough, one can work with that. Now to think of a method to apply the buff. I will have to look at how the medikit works in code.

[Dioxine]

I vigorously deny any involvement with the code. I'm a modder, not a coder