Mod Compatability

[SenniTrebor]

I intend to impliment the following mods and I am wondering if there will be any compatability problems or known bugs.

Aliens:
cover_alien_2.1_OpenXcomMOD
gazer_alien_1.4_OpenXcomMOD
RecycledAlienCollection_1.0
Armour:
armored_vest_1.3_OpenXcomMOD
Jump Armor_1.3
Craft:
FirestormRestyle
LukesextraUFOs
Retaliator
thunderstorm_v2
XCOM_Raven(v1)
Sound and misc:
Reproduction
XCOMEU Sound mod
Weapons:
Alien Armoury Expanded_1.3.3
alloy_ammo
Chikos Laser Weapons New Graphics
CustomGrenades
DartRifle_1.4
EqualTermsMod_v0.8
GaussMod_1.3
GrenadeLauncher
Heavy Laser Rebalance
Laser Rifle Recolor
Minigun_1.7
PlasmaBeamMod
Quick-Draw Hip Slot
railgun_v2
Scoutdrone
Shotgun
small_rocket_small_1.0_OpenXcomMOD
SniperRifle
Stun Grenade

I have avoided any mods that have a suggestion of "bugginess", or incompleteness.

Game setup:
Display Resolution 1280 x 720; Mode Windowed; Filter Quilez; Option Letterboxed; Scales 1/2 Display.

Advanced options
General: Autosave; Max info screens; FPS limit 60.
Geoscape: Custom initial base; Allow building queue; Recovered item limit; Live alien sale; real global lighting; Psi evaluation; Airborne transfers; TFTD manufacture; Field promotions.
Battlescape: Ufo Extender accuracy; Inventory Stats; Enhanced soldier sprites; Instant grenades; Save pre-primed grenades; Explosion height 2; Aoto-end battle; Smooth bullet camera; Allow psi-capture; Override LOF; TFTD damage; Alien bleeding.

In game mods:
Aliens Pick Up Weapons;  XcomUtil HE damage; Improved Ground Tanks and Heavy Laser; Pistol Auto Shot (?) Statstrings (seemingly you can configure this, but I have no idea how).

Any suggestions or comments about the above would be most welcome!

[Solarius Scorch]

At first glance, I don't think there would be conflicts. (There is no guarantee attached to this statement.)

I think the most problematic is my own Alien Armoury Expanded, since it contains the alienDeployments section and will fight with any other mod with this section - most notably, Men in Black. You need to modify any mod with alienDeployments so that it has four weapon choices per enemy instead of three (I made such a version of the Men in Black mod if you want it, it's in the mod thread).

As for the options, some choices would be different for me, but I won't be forcing my choices upon you. And I especially like that you used UFO Extender accuracy, it makes the game harder but more balanced.

[SenniTrebor]

You need to modify any mod with alienDeployments so that it has four weapon choices per enemy instead of three (I made such a version of the Men in Black mod if you want it, it's in the mod thread).

Thank you for your kind advice, but I don't know how to do the above as I am a complete noob to modding. I struggle with the installations as it is. Luckily I am not using MiB so that's not a problem. Is the any way that I can report incompatabilities as I find them, ie how. Now in retirement I have the time to pursue this.

[Solarius Scorch]

Thank you for your kind advice, but I don't know how to do the above as I am a complete noob to modding. I struggle with the installations as it is. Luckily I am not using MiB so that's not a problem. Is the any way that I can report incompatabilities as I find them, ie how. Now in retirement I have the time to pursue this.

I think it's the best place for such reports, after all it is titled so. Please do report if anything goes wrong, this would be really useful.

And don't worry about that alienDeployment flag, I was merely giving some background; you're not expected to fix it yourself.

(And the Men in Black are actually quite fun. )

[yrizoud]

EqualTerms redefines (replaces) all the weapons of the original game, it's going to be a problem with a lot of mods that rely on the original pistol, rifle, rocket launcher, heavy laser, etc.
You can expect unwanted behavior together with:
- alloy_ammo,
- heavy laser rebalance
- small_rocket_small
- Chikos Laser Weapons New Graphics
- Laser Rifle Recolor
(Even when things seem to work, if EqualTerms is loaded last it may cancel some of those mods' changes)

[SenniTrebor]

I think it's the best place for such reports, after all it is titled so. Please do report if anything goes wrong, this would be really useful.

And don't worry about that alienDeployment flag, I was merely giving some background; you're not expected to fix it yourself.

(And the Men in Black are actually quite fun. )

Might use MiB when I've the got the other mods working. For ease,I'm unzip into a seperate folder the copying into the appropriate folder. My first was "Cover Alien - OpenXcom MOD - by robin". I noticed in the readme he says to "unzip inside: OpnXcom\data\". I realised that he meant "unzip inside: OpenXcom\data\", but this might throw other noobs like my self of balance. I thought that reporting little things like this might be useful. I hope I'm not being pedantic. I noticed the same in" Gazer Alien - OpenXcom MOD - by robin".
When installing (or is it "adding" for mods?) Recycled Alien Collection mod, 1.0 I noticed that the readme gave slightly different instructions, but I just copied the resource and ruleset folders to the OpenXcom\data folder and it worked fine. Again I apologise for the pedantry.
As did armored_vest_1.3_OpenXcomMOD.
But with Jump Armor_1.3 I had to find the options.cfg (I've used XP for ages and feel a certain lack of comfort with 7). Why did this have to be done, as the other mods didn't need it? I was tempted to just do as before, but noob terror washed over me, and I just followed the instructions. But surely just saying YES under mods would have done the same thing. So why the extra instruction?
FirestormRestyle had no readme, so I just copied and mearged as before.
 LukesextraUFOs had a more informative readme. Kudos from this noob.
Retaliator also had no readme, but no problem as or Antipodean cousins are wont to say.
XCOM_Raven(v1) was straight forward.

thunderstorm_v2 had jpgs attached which I hoped were unnessesary.
"Installation:
Extract to your data folder (.\OpenXcom\Data)

and add the following line to your config.cfg.

- Thunder"
Did he mean the options.cfg. because that failed. Then I noticed that a new folder called Rulesets had appeared. So I moved the contents to ruleset and that seemed to work.

XCOMEU Sound mod had no readme. only a vague suggestion to overwrite the sound file in the mods area. THIS WAS SO UNCLEAR THAT I DECIDED NOT TO USE THIS MOD.

Alien Armoury Expanded mod 1.3.3:
"Move the folders named "AlienArmouryExpanded" and "AlienArmouryExpandedUFOs" to the "Resources" folder ". I just copied and merged the resources folders. Seemed simpler I thought, but that didn't work. So I just did as I was told. But what to do about the maps and routes folders. Taking a wild guess I moved the contents of each to same game folder. As for the part about Alternative sprites I have no idea how to do that, so I left them alone.

alloy_ammo also came without a readme. So I just copied both into the ruleset folder and lo and behold I had a choice of which to activate. I suspect there would be a problem if I tried to activate both, but no readme so who knows.

Chikos Laser Weapons New Graphics suggested the long methods, just dropped the resource and rulset folders into the data folder and voila enabling via options.
Dart Rifle mod 1.4 again straightforward. I think it would be easier if the standard instruction was to drop the resource and rulset folders into the data folder and enable through options. That sort of standardisation would be neat.
EqualTermsMod_v0.8, the  same.all these unnecessary text files unzipped into the OXCOM folder just seems untidy. Of source when I has programming in assembly back in the 70s bytes of space had to be considered so I'm probably just showing my age.
GaussMod_1.3 lovely readme. Why can't they all be like that.
GrenadeLauncher nice and straightforward.
Heavy Laser Rebalance no readme.
Laser Rifle Recolor same. Will this conflict with Chikos Laser Weapons New Graphics. I would have thought so if both enabled.
Minigun_1.7 good readme. Can't wait to use this. I occurs to me that an earlier version of OXCOM may had needed the options.cfg to be manually altered. That would explain the frequent references to it.
PlasmaBeamMod no readme.
Quick-Draw Hip Slot nice readme.
railgun_v2 straightforward readme.
Scoutdrone nice readme.
Shotgun no readm.
small_rocket_small_1.0_OpenXcomMOD  straightforward readme.
SniperRifle straightforward readme.
Stun Grenade no readme.

And its now 04.20 and I need to go to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
small_rocket_small_1.0_OpenXcomMOD nice readme.

[SenniTrebor]

EqualTerms redefines (replaces) all the weapons of the original game, it's going to be a problem with a lot of mods that rely on the original pistol, rifle, rocket launcher, heavy laser, etc.
You can expect unwanted behavior together with:
- alloy_ammo,
- heavy laser rebalance
- small_rocket_small
- Chikos Laser Weapons New Graphics
- Laser Rifle Recolor
(Even when things seem to work, if EqualTerms is loaded last it may cancel some of those mods' changes)

How do I change the load order, I'm assuming via the options.cfg. And what about miniguns, shotgun mods etc. Thanks for the advice

[yrizoud]

You're not forced to edit the file manually: in the option screen for MODs, they are listed alphabetically, but the game remembers in which order you activated them, so you can un-check and re-recheck a mod to load it last (ie it gets the last word).

I recommend to forget alien ammo entirely, because it's supposed to modify the starting weapons, and EqualTerms removes them all. For the others I listed, be sure to load them after EqualTerms, so that EqualTerms does not cancel some of their changes.

[SenniTrebor]

I recommend to forget alien ammo entirely, because it's supposed to modify the starting weapons, and EqualTerms removes them all. For the others I listed, be sure to load them after EqualTerms, so that EqualTerms does not cancel some of their changes.

By alien ammo do you mean alloy ammo or is this a different mod or contained within another.

[yrizoud]

Yes it's the one (it involves "alien alloys")

[SenniTrebor]

OK, I have disable:
- alloy_ammo,
- heavy laser rebalance
- small_rocket_small
- Chikos Laser Weapons New Graphics
- Laser Rifle Recolor

Then I enable the following in this order (without leaving the game just entered and exited the options screen):
Alien Armoury Expanded_1.3.3
EqualTermsMod_v0.8
CustomGrenades (which I had forgotten to add)
DartRifle_1.4
GaussMod_1.3
GrenadeLauncher
Minigun_1.7
PlasmaBeamMod
Quick-Draw Hip Slot
railgun_v2
Scoutdrone
Shotgun
SniperRifle (custom)
Stun Grenade
Tank (from Scoutdrone mod)

I then enabled XcomUtil's improved base to be able to have acess to these more quickly.

I'll post re: how this goes.

[SenniTrebor]

Yes it's the one (it involves "alien alloys")

Thanks for the info.
Actually I'm quite impressed with the ideas in "Sir, the arms dealer has arrived." Especially the taser. But I have the dart gun for now.

[SenniTrebor]

Initial problems:
I've use some snipping tools to take screen shots of the initial purchase list and some mod weapons seem to be missing.
I have forgotten how to insert on image (sleep apnea) so I have just attached the jpgs. Sorry for any inconvience.
Firstly the purchase list does not reflect all weapons in the ufopedia.
missing weaons are:
Machine pistol
Assault rifle (and i've reached my attachment limit, great)
Continued in next post

[yrizoud]

I suspect that when you try purchase a "pistol", "rifle", "heavy cannon" and "auto cannon", you will actually get the version modified by EqualTerms : a machine pistol, an assault rifle, etc.

[SenniTrebor]

Continued.
I have two Sniper rifles in the ufopedia.
the first works ok (see jpgs below) so far I have not been into battle.
sniper rifle 2 seems to use the HC modded, the problem is that it uses HC AP ammo and will not allow HE to be loaded. Haven't bought IN.
Next the SAW, didn't have any initial ammo for this other than AP so don't know yet how this will work.
Note I'm posting as I play the game, so please forgive my less than complete reporting.
I am wondering if ammo bought after the gamestart differs for these weapons.
Grenade launcher works fine. (remember i'm still in geoscape).
As do both the miniguns.
No sign of custom grenades either.
Next Post will describe how the works in battle with the first ufo.
As an aside how does one upload a video. I have FRAPS.

Actually just read your post yrizoud, so have added a rifle and pistol to my loadout. And guess what you were right.
Confusingly, they are still named pistol and rifle in the purchase/recruit menu.
The HC and AC ammo may case problems in battle. Also can't figure out what happened to custom grenades. I have stun grenades enabled. Possibly having both enabled at once causes a conflict. (I just remembered that custom grenades is a stun grenade with different research requirements from stun grenade. Confused? I certainly am.